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

[Livyjr]

And speaking of that old devil, "TEXAS TOMMY", himself, what is going on here with him?

Could it be that his POWER is going to finally be challenged after all these years?

Let's look and see:

Politics - U. S. Congress

"Democrats Weigh 2006 Challenge to DeLay"

1 hour, 16 minutes ago

By WENDY BENJAMINSON, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON - Democrats, who often ignored Rep. Tom DeLay's Republican-leaning district, see a political opening in 2006 now that the House Majority leader faces ethics questions and dismay over his intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

Democratic activists in the suburban Houston district have been composing a wish list of possible candidates as the embattled DeLay answers questions about his record.

In past elections, the Republican who won his House seat in 1984 has coasted to victory, often with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Last November he won by 55-41 percent.

This week, a Houston Chronicle poll in the district found that 49 percent said they would vote for someone else.

That number has sparked the most interest in a Democratic primary in the district in years.

"Now that DeLay is being pushed ever closer to the political brink, everyone is realizing that any of these challengers on his worst day might be better than DeLay on his best day," said longtime Democratic strategist Kelly Fero.

Not so, said Shannon Flaherty, a spokeswoman for DeLay, who dismissed suggestions that the Republican is vulnerable on his home turf in 2006.

"While he never takes an election for granted, he consistently outperforms his opponents because the voters know when it comes to the issues they care about ... Tom DeLay delivers for the people of the 22nd District," Flaherty said.

Among the potential Democratic challengers:

_Richard Morrison, a lawyer from Sugar Land, Texas, captured 41 percent of the vote with only $630,000 against DeLay's $2.9 million in last November's election.

Morrison is favored by local Democratic activists who believe he deserves their loyalty for his strong showing.

_Houston City Councilman Gordon Quan, a Chinese-American immigration lawyer, could capitalize on the district's growing Asian and South Asian population.

_Former Rep. Nick Lampson, whose district was redrawn to favor the GOP and covered areas that DeLay now represents, including the NASA area and Galveston.

Lampson said he has been approached by several people but hasn't decided whether to run.

A nascent effort to draft former Rep. Chris Bell fizzled when Bell responded to e-mailers that he preferred to focus on his gubernatorial ambitions.

The House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times last year, and new questions have been raised in recent weeks about his overseas travel.

Three DeLay associates are under indictment on state charges in Austin in connection with an effort to redraw the state's congressional districts.

DeLay has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with violating any law.

The public also has questioned the role of Congress, led by DeLay, in trying to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted.

The courts consistently opposed the effort for the brain-damaged woman, who died last week.

"He's vulnerable, and he brought it on himself," Lampson said.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which recruits and helps House candidates, has talked to Morrison and Quan about the race.

Until Morrison's campaign in 2004, DeLay faced nominal Democratic nominees, usually local activists without much organization, and one or two third-party candidates.

"Absolutely, we're paying more attention than before," said DCCC spokesman Bill Burton.

"We're looking at it really hard."

Morrison, who initially offered to step aside out of party loyalty if Quan wanted to run, said he has changed his mind.

"I'm not going to be scared to spill Democratic blood," Morrison said.

"I'm a victim of my own success."

"Last time, the wisdom was, don't do it, he (DeLay) will stomp you into the ground."

"... And now it's a race."

[Livyjr]

And as a public health professional, on the environmental health side of that equation, I find this next story interesting for its predictability, which is to say that I'm surprised that it is considered "news", here in OUR America!

To me, it is simply "our future" finally catching up to us after a whole lot of years of outright negligence by the public health field, here in OUR America, and to be truthful, I'm surprised that anyone at all out there over the age of 25 or so, is surprised at any of this, what is happening in OUR world today vis-a-vis the pathogens and micro-organisms that are out there predating on us, because we are such an abundant and easy food source for them to predate upon!

Micro-organisms, after all, ARE the sabre-tooth tigers of the 21st Century, or didn't you know that?

Top Stories - Los Angeles Times

"Perilous Bug Is Creeping Onto the Streets"

Thu Apr 7, 7:55 AM ET

By Charles Piller Times Staff Writer

Drug-resistant staph infections, once largely confined to hospitals, are far more common in the general population than previously thought, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study examined more than 1,600 cases of the infection caused by a strain of Staphylococcus aureus in Baltimore, Atlanta and Minnesota.

Nearly one-fourth of those patients required hospitalization.

In recent years, the potentially deadly infection has been detected in jail inmates, sexually active gay men and professional athletes.

The latest study, conducted by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several other institutions, confirmed that the organism was now circulating widely in the general population.

The CDC research found that children younger than 2 were at higher risk, which could be because children get more cuts and scrapes.

Blacks in Atlanta were found to be at higher risk than whites, the researchers found.

"There was a remarkable association of a large number of cases, all caused by this drug- resistant strain," said Dr. Henry F. Chambers, a staph expert at San Francisco General Hospital who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

Common staph is present on the skin or in the nostrils of about one in three people, typically without causing illness.

In previous research, the drug-resistant strain was found to cause painful skin lesions that resembled infected spider bites, a deadly lung disease known as necrotizing pneumonia, and toxic-shock syndrome — a type of blood poisoning that can be fatal.

But doctors outside of hospitals typically don't look for drug-resistant staph, and therefore don't order lab tests to verify the strain.

Instead, they routinely prescribe ineffective antibiotics, sometimes leading to more severe illnesses and even deaths.

In a separate article in the journal, researchers reported that they have linked drug-resistant staph infections to a rare, often-deadly disease known as necrotizing fasciitis, or more commonly, "flesh eating" syndrome.

"Necrotizing fasciitis is a terrible disease, but before now, Staph aureus was never the cause," said Dr. Robert Daum, a pediatrics professor at the University of Chicago and one of the first physicians to notice wider circulation of drug-resistant staph.

"Antibiotic resistance and virulence are converging," he said.

"It's really disturbing."

Researchers reported 14 Los Angeles cases of necrotizing fasciitis — a fast-spreading infection that kills skin, connective tissue and muscle.

The 14 patients were treated at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in 2003 and 2004, but had contracted the disease before being admitted to the hospital.

All survived, though several required reconstructive surgery.

The disease typically kills one-third of its victims.

Most of the patients had risk factors for necrotizing fasciitis, including a history of injected drug use or hepatitis C.

But in an unsettling finding, four victims had no apparent vulnerability.

The few antibiotics that kill the resistant staph strain are costly, and likely to wane in potency over time, said Dr. Loren G. Miller, a researcher at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, and lead author of the study.

"The problem is we are not developing new antibiotics as fast as we used to because there are very few monetary incentives for pharmaceutical companies to do that," Miller said.

"The bugs are about two steps ahead of us."

[Livyjr]

And speaking of that old devil, "TEXAS TOMMY", himself, what is going on here with him?

Could it be that his POWER is going to finally be challenged after all these years?

Let's look and see:

Politics - U. S. Congress

"Democrats Weigh 2006 Challenge to DeLay"

By WENDY BENJAMINSON, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON - Democrats, who often ignored Rep. Tom DeLay's Republican-leaning district, see a political opening in 2006 now that the House Majority leader faces ethics questions and dismay over his intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

"Last time, the wisdom was, don't do it, he (DeLay) will stomp you into the ground."

"... And now it's a race."

"Mr. DeLay's pique - He goes too far in threatening retribution against judges in the Terri Schiavo case"

Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Wednesday, April 6, 2005

By now, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay ought to be a distant figure, having slinked out of the sight of a prosecutor back home in Texas who may yet indict him, and Republican colleagues who should be roundly embarrassed by him.

But no.

Mr. DeLay is as visible as ever and as obnoxious as ever.

Last week he was threatening the federal judges who had so carefully followed the law in upholding the wishes of Terri Schiavo, as expressed by her husband, Michael Schiavo, not to be kept alive through artificial means.

As Ms. Schiavo died last week, freed at last from the center of a political rumble, most of Mr. DeLay's allies were wise enough and decent enough to tone down the rhetoric a bit.

Not the man known as The Hammer, though.

The following words from Mr. DeLay are just offensive and revealing enough to be committed to memory:

"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change."

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today."

Get it, everyone?

Now, Mr. DeLay is by no means the only person in Washington or in American politics who brings what once was the art of political oratory to such offensive extremes.

That much is all too common -- on the political right, with Mr. DeLay and company, but on the left as well.

But political speech is almost always protected speech.

The lasting problem with what Mr. DeLay had to say is that it may well exceed the seemingly limitless boundaries of free speech.

Threatening judges is a crime, remember.

Democrats have been quick to take note of that, of course, as they condemn Mr. DeLay.

But what about the Republicans?

Silence is nonetheless revealing.

So what if Mr. DeLay has been admonished three times by the House Ethics Committee for such heavy-handed political tactics as trying to pressure a House member to support a Medicare prescription drug law in exchange for helping the man's son in a congressional primary election?

And who cares if Mr. DeLay is still under investigation for allegations that he improperly funneled contributions from a political action committee to the Republican National Committee?

Or that three of his aides have been indicted in the matter?

Most Republicans will stand by Mr. DeLay for this reason above all: His hard-line agenda is their agenda.

His willingness to upend the rule of law and inject his own views into the issue of the treatment of Ms. Schiavo is reflective of their own thinking.

In that narrow, rigid world, Mr. DeLay can say whatever he wants.

Everyone else should at least be forewarned.

[Livyjr]

"Mr. DeLay's pique - He goes too far in threatening retribution against judges in the Terri Schiavo case" 

Albany, New York Times Union 
First published: Wednesday, April 6, 2005

By now, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay ought to be a distant figure, having slinked out of the sight of a prosecutor back home in Texas who may yet indict him, and Republican colleagues who should be roundly embarrassed by him.

But no.

Mr. DeLay is as visible as ever and as obnoxious as ever.

"Party on edge gets warning from within"

First published: Thursday, April 7, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Before, Republicans just scared other people.

Now, they're starting to scare themselves.

When Dick Cheney tells you you've gone too far, you know you're way over the edge.

Last week, the vice president told The New York Post's editorial board that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should not have jumped ugly on the judges who refused to order that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube be reinserted.

He said he would "have problems" with the DeLay plan to get revenge on the judges:

"I don't think that's appropriate."

Usually, the White House loves bullies.

It embraces John Bolton, nominated as U.N. ambassador, even though, as The New York Times reports today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is reviewing allegations that Bolton misused intelligence and bullied subordinates to help buttress WMD hokum when he was at the State Department.

But there's some skittishness in the party leadership about the Passion of the Tom, the fiery battle of the born-again Texan to show that he's being persecuted on ethics by a vast left-wing conspiracy.

Some Republicans are wondering whether they need to pull a Trent Lott on Tom DeLay before he turns into Newt Gingrich, who led his party to the promised land but then had to be discarded when he became the petulant "definer" and "arouser" of civilization.

Do they want DeLay careering around in Queeg style as they go into 2006?

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joined Cheney in rejecting DeLay's call to punish and possibly impeach judges -- who are already an endangered species these days, with so much violence leveled against them.

"I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," Frist said.

"I respect that."

Of course, Frist and the White House still want to pack the federal courts with right-wing judges, but they don't want it to look as if they're doing it because Tom DeLay told them to or because of unhappiness at the Schiavo case.

No matter how much Democrats may be caviling over the House Republicans' attempts to squelch the Ethics Committee before it goes after DeLay (the former exterminator who pushed to impeach Bill Clinton), privately they're rooting for DeLay to thrive.

They're hoping to do in 2006 what the Republicans did in 1994, when Gingrich and his acolytes used Democratic arrogance and ethical lapses to seize the House.

DeLay is seeking sanctuary in Rome at the Pope's funeral, and he will hang on to the bitter end.

He got thunderous applause from his House colleagues on Wednesday morning, showing once more that DeLay has a strong hold on the loyalty of those who have benefited from the largesse of his fat-cat friends and from his shrewdness in keeping them in the majority.

"I think a lot of members think he's taking arrows for all of us," Rep. Roy Blunt told the press Wednesday, backing up DeLay's martyr complex.

DeLay lashed out at the latest article questioning his ethics, calling it "just another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me."

Philip Shenon reported in The New York Times that DeLay's wife and daughter have been paid more than half a million dollars since 2001 by the DeLay political action and campaign committees.

Republican family values.

The political action committee said in a statement that the DeLay family members provided valuable services:

"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps with personnel decisions."

Political wives are renowned for injecting themselves into the middle of their husbands' office politics at no charge; a lot of members would pay them to go away.

The Washington Post also splashed DeLay on the front page with an article about a third DeLay trip under scrutiny: a six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by DeLay was "underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements."

All the divisions that President Bush was able to bridge in 2004 are now bursting forth as different wings of his party joust.

John Danforth, the former Republican senator and U.N. ambassador, wrote an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times last week saying that, on issues from stem cell research to Terri Schiavo, his party "has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement."

When the Rev. Danforth, an Episcopal minister who prayed with Clarence Thomas when he was under attack by Anita Hill, says the party has gone too far, it's way over the edge.

[Livyjr]

"Party on edge gets warning from within" 

First published: Thursday, April 7, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Before, Republicans just scared other people.

Now, they're starting to scare themselves.

When Dick Cheney tells you you've gone too far, you know you're way over the edge.

Last week, the vice president told The New York Post's editorial board that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should not have jumped ugly on the judges who refused to order that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube be reinserted.

He said he would "have problems" with the DeLay plan to get revenge on the judges:

"I don't think that's appropriate."

Usually, the White House loves bullies.

It embraces John Bolton, nominated as U.N. ambassador, even though, as The New York Times reports today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is reviewing allegations that Bolton misused intelligence and bullied subordinates to help buttress WMD hokum when he was at the State Department.

But there's some skittishness in the party leadership about the Passion of the Tom, the fiery battle of the born-again Texan to show that he's being persecuted on ethics by a vast left-wing conspiracy.

Some Republicans are wondering whether they need to pull a Trent Lott on Tom DeLay before he turns into Newt Gingrich, who led his party to the promised land but then had to be discarded when he became the petulant "definer" and "arouser" of civilization.

Do they want DeLay careering around in Queeg style as they go into 2006?

"A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny - 1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests"

By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.

DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization.

But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.

Lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, second from left, reportedly met with Rep. Tom DeLay in Moscow.

He is pictured with Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Naftasib's Marina Nevskaya, Alexander Koulakovsky and Dr. Robert Spiro. (Gregg Hilton -- American Foreign Policy Council)

It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.

The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office.

During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.

DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say.

One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.

House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say.

House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.

In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources.

Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.

Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own.

Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.

"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it."

Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.

Questions on Three Trips

The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.

Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company.

A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.

DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself.

"This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.

The three foreign trips at issue share common elements.

The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip.

The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.

Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip.

Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.

Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips.

In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.

Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip.

Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.

Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998.

Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.

In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress.

House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.

Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period.

For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.

A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process.

DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said.

They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.

Meetings in Moscow

The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists.

Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.

The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees.

Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations.

Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.

"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.

She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips.

Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.

In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort.

Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June.

A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.

A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved.

Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."

During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.

Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.

Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings."

"Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."

Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it.

Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.

But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea.

That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.

Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege."

But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."

This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added:

"I didn't see anything wrong there."

"All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out."

Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."

Who Financed Travel?

The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip?

A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said.

Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian --named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.

A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997."

Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.

In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.

Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.

In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."

Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo.

But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."

She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants.

Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky.

DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.

During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.

"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip.

But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."

David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies.

"Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.

A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib.

The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."

The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives.

A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib.

The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.

The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant.

The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs.

The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers.

She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.

Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.

"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs.

"I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm.

Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."

"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said.

"I did not know who either of them really were."

Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement:

"Chelsea was our only client."

"Naftasib was not our client."

"We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's."

Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."

Abramoff left Preston Gates at the end of 2000.

Staff writer Susan Schmidt, research editor Lucy Shackelford, and researchers Alice Crites and Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"Mr. DeLay's pique - He goes too far in threatening retribution against judges in the Terri Schiavo case" 

Albany, New York Times Union 
First published: Wednesday, April 6, 2005

By now, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay ought to be a distant figure, having slinked out of the sight of a prosecutor back home in Texas who may yet indict him, and Republican colleagues who should be roundly embarrassed by him.

But no.

Mr. DeLay is as visible as ever and as obnoxious as ever.

Most Republicans will stand by Mr. DeLay for this reason above all:

His hard-line agenda is their agenda.

His willingness to upend the rule of law and inject his own views into the issue of the treatment of Ms. Schiavo is reflective of their own thinking.

In that narrow, rigid world, Mr. DeLay can say whatever he wants.

Everyone else should at least be forewarned.

Top Stories - Knight Ridder Newspapers

"Judiciary has 'run amok', DeLay says"

Thu Apr 7, 8:09 PM ET

By James Kuhnhenn, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, stepped up his attack on federal judges Thursday, telling a gathering of religious conservatives that the judiciary has "run amok" and demanding that Congress assert authority over the courts.

His remarks, delivered by videotape, broadened the criticism he voiced last week after the death of Terri Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged woman in Florida, after judges refused to order her feeding tube reinserted.

DeLay's address came as he strives to shore up his base amid a storm over his ethics.

Liberal groups have launched ads attacking his connections to lobbyists and former associates now under investigation.

Prominent news reports have raised questions about his use of campaign cash, and last year the House ethics committee rebuked him three times in one week.

Many lawmakers think DeLay can weather the storm as long as he's perceived as a leader of the conservative movement.

"The judiciary branch of our government has overstepped its authority on countless occasions, overturning and in some cases just ignoring the legitimate will of the people," DeLay said.

"But I also believe the executive and legislative branches have neglected the proper checks and balances on this behavior ... Our next step, whatever it is, must be more than rhetoric."

Criticism of the courts by religious conservatives has mounted since the Schiavo case.

At issue is extraordinary legislation that Congress passed and President Bush signed late last month that ordered federal courts to review the case, in which Schiavo's husband and parents disputed what her wishes would be.

A federal judge in Florida refused to overturn a state court's decision and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

After Schiavo died last week, DeLay said federal judges "thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

Congress could inject itself into the judiciary by simply calling on judges to testify before Congress, a move that could be interpreted as intimidation.

It also could intervene more dramatically, by initiating impeachment procedures, passing legislation limiting judges' terms in office or redefining the jurisdiction of federal courts in certain types of cases.

Intervention by the Congress, however, does not sit well with some conservatives.

John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College and a former Republican congressional aide, said:

"A lot of conservatives may strongly disapprove of what the courts are doing but don't think it's proper to punish judges for the decisions."

"They regard that as a breach of separation of powers."

Even Congress' attempt to influence the Schiavo case prompted a strong rebuke by one of the judges deciding the matter.

Circuit Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., appointed to the court by President Bush's father, said, "Congress chose to overstep constitutional boundaries into the province of the judiciary."

"Such an act cannot be countenanced."

Republican lawmakers too are splintered over whether to take on the judicial branch of government.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., distanced himself from DeLay, saying he thought the judges in the Schiavo case had given her case a "fair and independent look."

"I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," Frist added.

DeLay had been scheduled as the keynote speaker before the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, but sent in taped remarks because the conference conflicted with his trip to Rome for Pope John Paul II's funeral.

"Our judiciary has banned prayer in schools and evicted Christmas displays from town halls," DeLay said.

He complained that judges were ignoring legislatures and "following the dictates of foreign opinion," a reference to a recent Supreme Court decision on the death penalty.

"These are not the examples of a mature society, but of a judiciary run amok," DeLay said.

His stand-in at the conference was Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, a DeLay ally who chairs a courts subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee.

"Judges continue to substitute their own political views for the law, and we must push back," Smith said.

Asked whether he would take steps to retaliate against judges in the Schiavo case, Smith said:

"I would certainly be a part of any effort that Tom DeLay was."

"If that's the direction that the leaders want to go, I would be happy to go that direction as well."

[Livyjr]

Well, here is where we are, isn't it?

I mean right above here, with these couple of stories on Fannie Mae, and the GUMMINT, and well, yes, us too, BECAUSE ....

Fannie is out there doing up the town ....

ON OUR CREDIT CARD!

"Strutting that stuff" for the boys on Wall Street, and they love it, BECAUSE ....

Because of those "lines of credit" that are TAPPED right into OUR national treasury, which leaves us on the hook for whatever!

When I think of Fannie Mae, of course, I have to think in the same breath about George W. Bush's "PLAN" to divert OUR social security money over into WALL STREET, and the Fannie Mae's of that world, and, of course, what WOULD happen to that money if and when the WALL STREET LOOTERS got their "filthy-to-me" hands on it, and as luck would have it, I happened to run into a friend today who is in that type of business, of investments, and so, I asked him what would happen if Fannie tanked, to those who had invested in that stock.

"Well, that is simple", he said.

"They would lose their money, just as was the case with Enron!"

And so, we chatted about that for a while, and my perspective on the matter of the ANTINOMIAN PRIME Bush Co.'s plan to turn more of OUR money over to these thieves and looters out there that support him and HIS in the REPUBLICAN PARTY remains as HARD as it was before.

Which is to say, I am dead set against it!

WALL STREET is a place, as far as I am concerned, where gamblers go, to do whatever it is that gamblers do, and god bless them for that, BUT NOT ME!

My old-fashioned conservative philosophy is that if you want to have money in your pocket, LEAVE IT THERE!

Conversely, if you want to get rich quick, be born a Rockefeller, and if you weren't, well, get over it, and go on with your life!

BUT .....

I'm not in charge, and those who are, like "TEXAS TOMMY" Delay, well, they just seem to have the "JONES" for more and more money, and so ......

And so, we have a problem in OUR America today that is based upon probably thirty years worth or so, now, of nothing but lies that has reached a proportion of where the GUMMINT can no longer have the truth be told, as it will cause the biggest financial crash in this country's history, and it also cannot let the lies continue, as that too will cause the biggest financial crash in this nation's history, AND .....

Is there a third  option?

"Hill Takes a Back Seat on Social Security - Administration, Republican National Committee Lead Drive to Add Private Accounts"

By Mike Allen and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A04

The e-mail to her constituents had billed the gathering as a "town hall meeting on Social Security," but the purported host -- Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) -- was sitting by herself in the fourth row of a darkened theater of a prep school in Charlotte.

Standing in the cone of a spotlight over the podium last week was a White House official who had flown in just for the evening.

It was Keith Hennessey, deputy director of the National Economic Council, who was using colorful graphs and bullet points to make the case that President Bush's plan to add individual accounts to Social Security would not hurt current retirees.

When Myrick got her precious 30 seconds on the 11 o'clock news that night, she was much more vague.

She simply said that Congress is anxious to take on the problem and that she would take ideas back to Washington.

Stung by a spate of rowdy, critic-packed town hall meetings about Social Security over the Presidents' Day break in February, Republicans shied away from such open forums during the two-week Easter recess.

Instead, they stuck mainly to workshops in which administration officials did most of the talking and lawmakers stepped up to answer a few questions after lengthy presentations from Bush appointees.

The lawmakers' reluctance to take center stage is emblematic of the back seat that members of Congress have chosen to take in the debate over Social Security.

With the year one-fourth over, lawmakers have so far served largely as bystanders in a campaign for a retirement-system restructuring that is being driven by the White House, the Treasury Department and the Republican National Committee -- along with business allies that have spent more than $10 million on the effort.

The administration used great fanfare to announce a "60 Stops in 60 Days" tour at the beginning of March.

Bush's aides far exceeded that target, holding 108 events in the first 30 days, which ended Friday.

Of those, 52 were town hall meetings with members of Congress such as Myrick.

The guest hosts have included Vice President Cheney, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez.

Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols even flew to Bellevue, Wash., to give a speech for freshman Rep. David G. Reichert (R-Wash.).

Progress for America, a private group that is allied with the White House and has spent about $9 million on the campaign, is sponsoring traffic reports in 25 cities so that commuters will continually hear its messages.

"There's a crisis in Social Security -- and it's coming sooner than you think," says one script.

Nevertheless, polls do not show momentum, Democrats remain united against key elements of Bush's plan, and Republicans have yet to unite around a specific solution.

Bush, speaking in West Virginia yesterday, appeared to be growing irked that Capitol Hill has not responded to his calls to sit down and negotiate a Social Security package.

"Now is the time for people in Congress to stop playing politics with the issue and come to the table with how they think it ought to be fixed," he said.

For the day, Bush abandoned his usual format of rehearsed panel discussions and spoke at a podium at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.

He also visited the nearby Bureau of Public Debt to make the symbolic point that Social Security is not a trust fund with money set aside for recipients, but a pay-as-you-go system facing huge shortfalls in the future.

GOP lawmakers contend they are making progress but acknowledge that it is slow.

"My view now is that if we don't happen to get this done in 2005 . . . this will be a political issue in 2006 -- talking about the problem," said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who will be responsible for lining up votes for a Social Security bill.

"We're learning to talk about this; the president's driving the issue."

"I think we're a long way from out on this particular deal."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) pronounced the effort so far a failure and said the message has been "too complex and Washington-centered."

He said Bush and the Hill need to start over with "a narrowly focused, very directed, very specific campaign" aimed at people under 40.

"I recommend they take a deep breath, step back, launch a new campaign in which the urgency is the fact that every day that you fail to pass it, every young person in America loses the interest for the rest of their lifetime on that day's savings," Gingrich said.

"It's going to take them at least a year to dig out of this and get to a point where they have something that's passable."

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he knows of no defections from the Democrats' united stand against Bush's plan to divert payroll taxes from Social Security.

He said that, although his members are free agents, they have concluded that "the best thing to do for the caucus, them individually and the country is just to hang together."

He said Democrats are willing to work with Republicans on some type of individual account that would be added to Social Security, but he noted that the Senate is "running out of time to do much" this year.

Despite signs that the Social-Security train is stalled, the campaign by the administration and its private-sector allies is escalating, and liberals and Democrats are matching or even surpassing it.

Two labor-backed groups created to fight Bush's plan announced this week that they plan to raise as much as $35 million for television advertising and grass-roots organizing, on top of the more than $15 million that has been spent by AARP on print, television and radio advertising since Jan. 4.

Today, the Treasury Department is holding "Social Security Radio Day" at its headquarters from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with Cabinet members and other presidential appointees lining up to chat with talk-show hosts such as West Virginia's Hoppy Kercheval and Seattle's Kirby Wilbur.

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman started a contest --"National March Madness: Preserve Social Security Champion," complete with a spinning basketball on the Web -- to encourage college students to collect signatures for the party's Social Security petition.

Lawmakers said they plan to step up their activities.

The two parties held a formal debate in the Senate last night, the Senate Finance Committee plans hearings in the coming weeks, and House Republicans are meeting today to pare down their Social Security message points.

Baker reported from West Virginia.

[Livyjr]

"Hill Takes a Back Seat on Social Security - Administration, Republican National Committee Lead Drive to Add Private Accounts"

By Mike Allen and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A04

The e-mail to her constituents had billed the gathering as a "town hall meeting on Social Security," but the purported host -- Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) -- was sitting by herself in the fourth row of a darkened theater of a prep school in Charlotte.

Standing in the cone of a spotlight over the podium last week was a White House official who had flown in just for the evening.

It was Keith Hennessey, deputy director of the National Economic Council, who was using colorful graphs and bullet points to make the case that President Bush's plan to add individual accounts to Social Security would not hurt current retirees.

When Myrick got her precious 30 seconds on the 11 o'clock news that night, she was much more vague.

She simply said that Congress is anxious to take on the problem and that she would take ideas back to Washington.

Stung by a spate of rowdy, critic-packed town hall meetings about Social Security over the Presidents' Day break in February, Republicans shied away from such open forums during the two-week Easter recess.

Instead, they stuck mainly to workshops in which administration officials did most of the talking and lawmakers stepped up to answer a few questions after lengthy presentations from Bush appointees.

The lawmakers' reluctance to take center stage is emblematic of the back seat that members of Congress have chosen to take in the debate over Social Security.

With the year one-fourth over, lawmakers have so far served largely as bystanders in a campaign for a retirement-system restructuring that is being driven by the White House, the Treasury Department and the Republican National Committee -- along with business allies that have spent more than $10 million on the effort.

As I continue to ponder life in OUR America from my perspective as a now-older person, here in OUR America, I find this following statement from this above article on Social Security to be quite ILLUMINATING, actually:

It was Keith Hennessey, deputy director of the National Economic Council, who was using colorful graphs and bullet points to make the case that President Bush's plan to add individual accounts to Social Security would not hurt current retirees.

end quotes

George W. Bush's "PLAN" won't HURT us older folks, here in OUR America, so, GO HOME!

"WE WON'T HURT YOU, YOU ARE NOT OUR INTENDED VICTIMS HERE, YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN ARE, SO IF YOU ARE SMART, YOU WILL TAKE OUR DEAL, FOR YOU, BECAUSE YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING AT ALL, TO SAVE THEM!"

At least that is what I hear the Fabulous Bush Co.'s saying here, to me, and what I am saying in return is "NO DEAL"!

I'm not stepping aside and acting irresponsibly by selling out the generations coming after I am gone to the Bush Co.'s and their $10 MILLION BUSINESS ALLIES, just so I can "get a bone" from the Bush Co. crowd, and I am frankly surprised that they think any of us OLDER AMERICANS will "TAKE THE DEAL"!

SO?

I wonder how many actually will, sell out the younger generations, that is, IF THEY ARE TOLD TO DO SO, by their LEADERSHIP!

Any guesses?

[Livyjr]

As a permanently disabled person with rocket-grenade fragments lodged in my neck, near my spine, from combat wounds suffered in Viet Nam in 1969, I have now had many, many years to ponder this thing called "life", and the concept of "being alive", as was debated in the Terry Schiavo case, and FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, if that had been me, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A RELIEF to have had that feeding tube finally pulled out of me, so that I could then leave this shattered body, and finally get some peace in my life, and I am very serious about that.

And so, when someone sent me this "LIVING WILL" form over the internet, I thought it a good idea to share the "FORMAT" of it with all of you out there in OUR America, and in the candid world as well, just in case George W. Bush and "TEXAS TOMMY" Delay should invade and conquer your country too, before you are dead, and so try to have you too hooked up to some obscene machine that will keep you artificially "alive" until every last cent your family has ever had has been sucked from their pockets, to feed the Bush Co.'s and theirs.

"LIVING WILL FORM"

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, DO NOT wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a scotch, it should be presumed that I won't do so ever again.

When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery.

It is my wish that these A******S mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who AREN'T in a permanent coma and who nonetheless may be in need of nourishment.

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case.

I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency in 2008, it is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me.

I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and/or crusade on my behalf.

They should mind their own damn business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living hell.

[Livyjr]

"WE WON'T HURT YOU, YOU ARE NOT OUR INTENDED VICTIMS HERE, YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN ARE, SO IF YOU ARE SMART, YOU WILL TAKE OUR DEAL, FOR YOU, BECAUSE YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING AT ALL, TO SAVE THEM!"

At least that is what I hear the Fabulous Bush Co.'s saying here, to me, and what I am saying in return is "NO DEAL"!

I'm not stepping aside and acting irresponsibly by selling out the generations coming after I am gone to the Bush Co.'s and their $10 MILLION BUSINESS ALLIES, just so I can "get a bone" from the Bush Co. crowd, and I am frankly surprised that they think any of us OLDER AMERICANS will "TAKE THE DEAL"!

SO?

I wonder how many actually will, sell out the younger generations, that is, IF THEY ARE TOLD TO DO SO, by their LEADERSHIP!

Any guesses?

And perhaps that "answer" can be found in the following, from a friend on the internet:

While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning.

She asked, "Does the sun rise in the North?"

When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, (and has for sometime), she shook her head and said, "Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff."

She also votes!

I used to work in technical support for a 24x7 call center.

One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open.

I told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?"

Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."

He also votes!

So my colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard one of the admin. assistants talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the shore.

She drove down in a convertible, with the top down, but "didn't think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving."

She also votes!

My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car.

It's designed to cut through a seatbelt if she gets trapped.

She keeps it in the trunk.

My sister also votes!

My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%.

Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases.

The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount.

He also votes!

I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain.

My friend said, "Wouldn't the chain rip out every time she turned her head?"

I explained that a person's nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned.

My friend also votes!

end quotes

Hhhhmmm!

No wonder both George W. Bush and "TEXAS TOMMY" Delay are in such positions of authority that they are in, in OUR America today!

I knew somebody had to vote for them, and I knew it wasn't me, and so .....

And ....

Hmmmm.

About this "sun rising" thing, here .....

[Livyjr]

Way back in 1777, before any of us were born, so far as I know, anyway, "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, or "Jackie Brag", as he was affectionately known by the American colonists of the time up here in what is now New York State, where I am now sitting, 'ole "Jackie Brag" came "south" out of Canada, on what could be called an "epic journey" in and of itself, considering the terrain he had to come across, on his "journey" to split the then-American colonies, and so, "win" the war against the "American rabble" for HIS King, that being George III of England, or "Fat George", as American history knows him today.

And just a literal hand-ful of miles short of his objective of what is now Albany, New York, 'ole "Jackie Brag" and his 8,000-some strong British army ran into "some trouble" at a place called "Stillwaters-of-the-Hudson", near present day Bemis Heights in modern-day New York State, and for "Jackie Brag" and his army, that was the END OF THEIR ROAD!

For us, the modern-day Americans who are in here on this site talking about LIBERTY, that battle was in many ways, OUR BEGINNING, for that loss there at what is improperly called Saratoga turned the tide for the formerly unbeatable British, and out of their loss was born OUR freedom today, and OUR REPUBLIC of America, as well!

And so, I include this following story in here on that battlefield, for whatever it is worth to us today, here in OUR America, as we ponder in here where we actually are in terms of OUR present-day LIBERTIES, and where we might be going tomarrow, under this despotic George II that WE have in power over us in OUR America of today:

"Battlefield park aims for feel of history - Management plan calls for new ways to link various historic sites"

By KENNETH C. CROWE II, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, April 8, 2005

STILLWATER -- From re-establishing the historic views atop Bemis Heights to emphasizing the importance of Victory Woods in the nearby village of Victory, the plans for the Saratoga National Historical Park envision giving visitors the feel of the battlefield in 1777.

Linking the various sites associated with the two Battles of Saratoga on Sept. 19 and Oct. 7, 1777, and the surrender of the British Army on Oct. 17, 1777, in Schuylerville is the challenge the National Park Service staff at the battlefield faces.

The park's new general management plan provides the blue print for doing that.

"We're trying to broaden the park."

"We would like to see something that ties the sites together," said Park Superintendent Frank Dean.

"We're trying to get Victory Woods opened up for the first time."

"The viewshed (at tour stop 3 at Bemis Heights) is essentially from 230 years ago."

"That's something we would like to see stay," Dean said.

The park service is aware that development pressures are strong in Saratoga County with open land being gobbled up as builders push east from the Northway toward the park.

Unlike other parks such as Gettysburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia, Saratoga is not overwhelmed by development.

The "Turning Point of the American Revolution" maintains the essential landscape and feel that existed in 1777.

"Development happens."

"I'm happy you don't see any change at all here," Dean said.

"This park is in good shape."

"It's a real treasure we should try to protect."

The obstacle the park has is uniting its sites at the battlefield in Stillwater, Victory Woods and the Saratoga Monument in Victory and the General Philip Schuyler House in Schuylerville.

The battlefield is about 10 miles south of the sites in Victory and Schuylerville.

"The concept for the plan focuses on improving the visitor's understanding of the events that led to the 1777 British surrender by providing a more complete and logical depiction of these events," the document states.

"For a comprehensive understanding of the military events, visitors will follow a tour sequence that unfolds in a logical fashion and that follows the progression of the battles, siege and surrender from Bemis Heights to Old Saratoga," the document continues.

The management plan for the park calls for spending $18.54 million to $22.66 million over 20 years to update the park and hiring an additional 18.5 people.

The park employs 20 people currently year-round and expands to 27 during the summer months.

The park's visitors center is undergoing redevelopment to make better use of the facilities in telling the story of the battles.

The battlefield guide handed out to visitors will be rewritten and redesigned to add to the story that visitors come in search of when they arrive.

The park service also is committed to working with the local governments to tell the region's story.

A visitors center planned in Schuylerville has the support of the park service, which will work with its neighbors, Dean said.

"We can't do it all alone."

"We have to work with other partners."

"The result is we're working more closely with the community," Dean said.

The major move this year is opening Victory Woods to the public.

This is where the British Army was entrenched after its retreat from the battlefield.

Surrounded by the American Army, the British held out until they surrendered at what is now Fort Hardy Park in Schuylerville.

"It's a great site."

"We want to get it opened," Dean said.

Using $600,000 obtained by U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, the park service will build trails and put up signs to tell the story of the days before the surrender.

It will take two years to complete this project.

The park service also is working with the state Department of Transportation to secure acreage behind the Schuyler House on Route 4.

DOT has a garage there.

The site has been identified as having historic significance as part of the Schuyler estate.

Dean said if a new site just north of Schuylerville can be acquired for the garage, the current site would be added to the national park.

Kenneth C. Crowe II can be reached at 581-8438 or by e-mail at kcrowe@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

When I read QUOTES like this one above from this Tracey Schmitt of the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, wherein she implies that George W. Bush is an unpopular president BECAUSE he is alleged by her to be tackling "TOUGH ISSUES", LIKE PROMOTING THE SPREAD OF DEMOCRACY, I can only wonder at how STUPID the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE really thinks we are!

George W. Bush is not "UNPOPULAR" with me because he is tackling any hard or tough issues that I can see, especially PROMOTING THE SPREAD OF REAL DEMOCRACY; RATHER, he is very unpopular with me because he seems totally devoid of integrity, and intelligence, and that is a very dangerous combination in a leader, is my thought, especially of a nation like America!

And as an older American, I don't like being talked to as though I were some kind of a DUNCE by this REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE spokesgirl, who by her words INSINUATES that I and people like me who do not consider George W. Bush very highly as a leader ARE SOMEHOW UN-AMERICAN, and against real DEMOCRACY, to boot!

"Bush indifferent over falling poll numbers"

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:07 p.m., Friday, April 8, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The public's dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress is growing, with ratings dropping amid record high gas prices, war in Iraq, the Social Security debate and the emotional Terri Schiavo case.

The Republican president's job approval is at 44 percent, with 54 percent disapproving.

Only 37 percent have a favorable opinion of the work being done by Congress, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Bush's job approval was at 49 percent in January, the same month in which he was sworn in for a second term, while Congress' was at 41 percent.

The president was asked Friday about his falling ratings in some polls, and he claimed indifference.

"Some of them were going up the other day," he responded as he flew back from Rome on Air Force One.

"You can find them going up and you can find them going down."

"You can pretty much find out what you want in polls is my point."

Asked about Bush's decline with the public, Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio pointed to uphill efforts to change Social Security, the Schiavo case and "economic jitters" heightened by rising oil prices.

Republicans in Congress and the president moved quickly during the Easter recess to approve legislation intended to prolong the life of Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died after her feeding tube was disconnected.

Democrats, whose public standing is pretty close to the Republicans these days, are pondering how to capitalize on the general dissatisfaction among the American people toward Washington.

"I think the Democrats have to be clearer about offering alternatives, not just the critique," said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.

"People already know what the problems are, they want to know the solutions."

Thomas Johnston, a Democratic retiree from Mooresville, N.C., often doesn't agree with the positions taken by national Democrats.

But he thinks being overly cautious hurts them.

"I think they're trying to ride the fence and that doesn't work," Johnston said.

"Say what you believe and stick with it."

The number supporting Bush's handling of some domestic issues dipped between March and April, to 42 percent for the economy and 38 percent for issues such as education and health care, according to the poll conducted for The Associated Press by Ipsos-Public Affairs.

Support for the president's approach to his top domestic priority, Social Security, remained at 36 percent, while 58 percent oppose it.

"The public hasn't bought into the idea of private accounts and the necessity of them," said Charles Franklin, a political scientist who studies public opinion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Republicans argue that young adults are supposed to benefit the most from Bush's Social Security proposal, but a majority of that group, 54 percent, opposes the president on that issue.

Denise Brown, a 41-year-old Republican from Prattville, Ala., is among those Bush has yet to convince.

"I'm not sold on it," she said.

"Maybe there haven't been any alternatives put out there."

"Something definitely needs to be done, but there are probably other ways to do it that may be better."

While Democrats firmly disapprove of Bush's job performance and independents lean toward disapproval, Republicans remain firmly behind him.

"I don't know that the exit strategy in Iraq is completely thought out."

"And I don't know that all the Social Security options have been explored," said Scott Lindsey, a Republican who lives around Memphis, Tenn.

"But I think President Bush is doing a good job."

The president's poll standing has been in the mid-40s to low-50s for the past two years, said Matthew Dowd, who was a strategist and pollster for Bush in the 2004 presidential campaign.

During the first three months of the year, Congress has spent much of its time discussing the budget and Social Security, and passing legislation toughening laws on bankruptcy.

Congress interrupted its Easter break last month to pass the legislation on Schiavo.

"This is a pretty sour spring," said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion analyst at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

"People are not very impressed by what Bush is doing or by what Congress is doing -- Democrats or Republicans."

The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,001 adults was taken April 4-6 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

------

On the Net:

Ipsos-Public Affairs -- http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com

[Livyjr]

And as a public health professional, on the environmental health side of that equation, I find this next story interesting for its predictability, which is to say that I'm surprised that it is considered "news", here in OUR America!

To me, it is simply "our future" finally catching up to us after a whole lot of years of outright negligence by the public health field, here in OUR America, and to be truthful, I'm surprised that anyone at all out there over the age of 25 or so, is surprised at any of this, what is happening in OUR world today vis-a-vis the pathogens and micro-organisms that are out there predating on us, because we are such an abundant and easy food source for them to predate upon!

Micro-organisms, after all, ARE the sabre-tooth tigers of the 21st Century, or didn't you know that?

Top Stories - Los Angeles Times

"Perilous Bug Is Creeping Onto the Streets"

Thu Apr 7, 7:55 AM ET   

By Charles Piller Times Staff Writer

Drug-resistant staph infections, once largely confined to hospitals, are far more common in the general population than previously thought, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The latest study, conducted by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several other institutions, confirmed that the organism was now circulating widely in the general population.

In previous research, the drug-resistant strain was found to cause painful skin lesions that resembled infected spider bites, a deadly lung disease known as necrotizing pneumonia, and toxic-shock syndrome — a type of blood poisoning that can be fatal.

But doctors outside of hospitals typically don't look for drug-resistant staph, and therefore don't order lab tests to verify the strain.

Instead, they routinely prescribe ineffective antibiotics, sometimes leading to more severe illnesses and even deaths.

In a separate article in the journal, researchers reported that they have linked drug-resistant staph infections to a rare, often-deadly disease known as necrotizing fasciitis, or more commonly, "flesh eating" syndrome.

"Necrotizing fasciitis is a terrible disease, but before now, Staph aureus was never the cause," said Dr. Robert Daum, a pediatrics professor at the University of Chicago and one of the first physicians to notice wider circulation of drug-resistant staph.

"Antibiotic resistance and virulence are converging," he said.

"It's really disturbing."

"Deaths drive call for cure - Ex-lieutenant governor leads group urging cleaner practices at hospitals to fight germs"

By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, April 8, 2005

ALBANY -- Pat Moore's 28-year-old son, Brad, went into an Orange County hospital with a head injury after he was mugged nearly three years ago.

Three weeks later, he died.

The culprit was not his head wound but an infection from staphylococcus aureus, a common bacteria that can be deadly if it enters the body at a vulnerable point -- like near the incision doctors made when they inserted a tube to help Brad Moore breathe.

His mother cried Thursday as she talked about the infection that claimed her son's life, during a news conference held to encourage hospitals to disclose how many of their patients become ill or die because of bacterial infections caught while in their care.

"I don't want to see another mother lose her child," she said.

Joining her was former Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, a health policy researcher who recently formed the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths.

The committee is pushing the state's hospitals to improve their hygiene to save lives.

Two million Americans get infections in hospitals each year, and about 103,000 die, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of particular concern is MRSA, strains of staphylococcus aureus that have proved to be resistant to nearly all antibiotic treatments.

There is no mystery as to how to combat hospital infections from regular staph or from MRSA, according to RID.

Improving staff hand-washing, systematically disinfecting furniture and equipment, and requiring doctors and nurses to wear disposable aprons can cut rates substantially.

McCaughey pointed to hospitals that have experienced rapid improvements.

The Latter Day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City cut its infection rate in half by focusing on pre-surgical hygiene, while Bloomfield Hospital in England established policies that cut the infection rate in its orthopedic unit by two-thirds in just one year.

Bloomfield urged hand-washing and equipment cleaning, banned nurses from wearing jewelry, began using disposable aprons, forbade visitors from sitting on beds, and tested patients for bacteria several days before surgery so they could use special soap to kill the germs before patients entered the hospital.

The best way to push New York's hospitals to take those steps, according to the committee, is to publish infection rates at each hospital.

That would help consumers decide where to go for surgery and would shame the lowest-performing hospitals into cleaning up their act.

That report-card approach works, McCaughey said, pointing to the experience of coronary bypass surgery death rates, first released by the state in 1991.

As they became public, hospitals scrambled to boost survival rates.

"And New York became the state with the lowest mortality rates in the nation," she said.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried agrees.

"Public disclosure will encourage hospitals to do more to control infections," said the Manhattan Democrat, who chairs the Assembly Health Committee.

Gottfried plans to revise a bill he had previously introduced so that it focuses more specifically on mandating infection rates.

Several other bills in the state Legislature would mandate hospital reporting, as Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Illinois did recently.

The involvement of McCaughey, a vibrant and outspoken woman who ruffled feathers while in Albany during Gov. George Pataki's first term, gives those bills hope, said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

"The fact that she is focused on this will probably raise these issues up for discussion, " Horner said.

Hospital trade associations say that while the group's mission is noble, it ignores the work that hospitals are already doing.

Many hospitals are participating in a six-year, state-funded project organized by the Iroquois Healthcare Association that is intended to cut MRSA rates.

"Hand-washing is critical," said Carole Van Antwerpen, Iroquois' infection control project director.

Most hospitals have waterless antibacterial soaps available at dispensers at each room door, which weren't there just a couple of years ago.

The hospitals joining the Iroquois effort -- including Albany Memorial, Ellis, Samaritan, Saratoga, St. Clare's and St. Mary's -- began putting the program's recommendations in place on March 1.

"We're doing a tremendous amount already," said Kathleen Ciccone, vice president for quality and research for the Healthcare Association of New York State.

Ciccone said that while the association backs a hospital report card for infections, it is difficult to publish data that can be compared between hospitals, so that a hospital wouldn't be penalized for treating patients with conditions like AIDS that leave them vulnerable.

"It's not that people are hiding data," Ciccone said.

"It's that it is simply not available in a form that would be useful today."

A state Department of Health spokesman called its infection surveillance system one of the strongest in the nation and said the department is reviewing legislative proposals that would make infection information public.

McCaughey is skeptical about the practices that hospitals claim are already in place, pointing out that more intensive measures in nations like Denmark and Holland have nearly eliminated MRSA infections while U.S. rates continue to climb.

McCaughey, who gained public attention in 1994 when she was writing for the Manhattan Institute in criticism of the Clinton administration's health care proposals, said she decided to found her committee after looking at childhood photos of Brad Moore at his mother's Orange County home.

"Enough with the research," McCaughey said she thought at the time.

"I've got to do something about this."

McCaughey is angriest at hospital officials who told her that "it's hard to change the culture in the hospital" when she urged them to make cleanliness and hygiene priorities.

"Do you know what's really hard?" she asked.

"Talking to a mother who just buried a 28-year-old son for no good reason."

Matt Pacenza can be reached at 454-5533 or by e-mail at mpacenza@timesunion.com.

[Abu Beacon]

And perhaps that "answer" can be found in the following, from a friend on the internet:

While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. 

She asked, "Does the sun rise in the North?"

When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, (and has for sometime), she shook her head and said, "Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff."

She also votes!

I used to work in technical support for a 24x7 call center.

One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open.

I told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?"

Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."

He also votes!

So my colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard one of the admin. assistants talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the shore.

She drove down in a convertible, with the top down, but "didn't think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving."

She also votes!

My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car.

It's designed to cut through a seatbelt if she gets trapped.

She keeps it in the trunk.

My sister also votes!

My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%.

Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases.

The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount.

He also votes!

I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain.

My friend said, "Wouldn't the chain rip out every time she turned her head?"

I explained that a person's nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned.

My friend also votes!

end quotes

Hhhhmmm!

No wonder both George W. Bush and "TEXAS TOMMY" Delay are in such positions of authority that they are in, in OUR America today!

I knew somebody had to vote for them, and I knew it wasn't me, and so .....

And ....

Hmmmm.

About this "sun rising" thing, here .....

Boy oh Boy -----

Reading that this morning gets my day off to a great start.

Everybody needs a good laugh early in the day.

It sort of sets the tone for the rest of the day.

The sad part is that there are so many people just like the ones in the stories.

A.B.

[Livyjr]

Boy oh Boy -----

Reading that this morning gets my day off to a great start.

Everybody needs a good laugh early in the day.

A.B.

Good morning, Mr. A.B.!

Yes, we do need laughs in life, regardless of what age we are, and so .....

By the way, have you seen our friend jeffmoskin in your travels.

His wit is missed in here these days, and I trust all is well with him out there in sunny KAH-lee-faw-nia!

[Livyjr]

"Bush indifferent over falling poll numbers" 
 
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:07 p.m., Friday, April 8, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The public's dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress is growing, with ratings dropping amid record high gas prices, war in Iraq, the Social Security debate and the emotional Terri Schiavo case.
 
The Republican president's job approval is at 44 percent, with 54 percent disapproving.

Only 37 percent have a favorable opinion of the work being done by Congress, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Bush's job approval was at 49 percent in January, the same month in which he was sworn in for a second term, while Congress' was at 41 percent.

The president was asked Friday about his falling ratings in some polls, and he claimed indifference.

"Some of them were going up the other day," he responded as he flew back from Rome on Air Force One.

"You can find them going up and you can find them going down."

"You can pretty much find out what you want in polls is my point."

Well, I guess you can, at that!

How about this one, then, George?

Middle East - AP

"Thousands Protest on Baghdad Anniversary"

24 minutes ago

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Tens of thousands of Shiites marked the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad with a protest against the American military presence at the square where Iraqis and U.S. troops toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein two years ago.

The protesters back Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric whose militia led uprisings against U.S. troops last year, and their large numbers reflected frustration both with the U.S. government and anger toward the Sunni Arab-led insurgency.

"This huge gathering shows that the Iraqi people have the strength and faith to protect their country and liberate it from the occupiers," said Ahmed Abed, a 26-year-old who sells spare car parts.

U.S. officials, who are slowly handing security to Iraqi forces, have refused to set a timetable for withdrawal, saying the troops will stay until Iraqi forces are able to secure the country.

The protesters filled Firdos Square and spilled onto nearby avenues, waving Iraqi flags.

Mimicking the famous images of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis pulling down a statue of Saddam as Baghdad fell, protesters toppled effigies of President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Saddam — all dressed like Iraqi prisoners in red jumpsuits.

Other effigies of Bush and Saddam were burned.

"Force the occupation to leave from our country," one banner read in English.

The Shiite protesters also called for the now-jailed Saddam to face justice, and they held up framed photos of al-Sadr's father, a prominent cleric executed by Saddam.

Mahdi Army militiamen searched people entering the demonstration area as Iraqi policemen stood to the side.

Al-Sadr officials said the cleric did not attend the protest because of security concerns.

He has largely stayed close to his home in the holy city of Najaf since a U.S.-led assault on his militia in the city in August 2004.

Al-Sadr has wide support among impoverished and young Shiites but overall fewer followers than Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in the country.

Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, and thousands killed by Iraqi forces under Saddam.

Demonstrators swung from a statue said to represent freedom and constructed on the pedestal where Saddam's statue once stood.

They also acted out examples of prison abuse widely reported after photos were released showing U.S. soldiers piling naked inmates in a pyramid at Abu Ghraib prison.

Robed and turbaned Shiite clerics were seen among the crowd.

No violence was reported, although late Friday a senior al-Sadr official who had arrived from Karbala to take part in the protest was gunned down in the New Baghdad neighborhood.

Fadhil al-Shawky died in the attack on his car.

Two others were wounded.

U.S. and Iraqi security forces kept a close eye on the march, with U.S. soldiers standing behind blast walls topped with barbed wire and armed soldiers watching from rooftops.

The protest was held in the shadow of the Sheraton and Palestine hotels, both of which have been home to foreign journalists and contractors.

Al-Sadr had stayed out of the limelight since leading failed uprisings last year in the southern city of Najaf and in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.

But he has stepped up criticism of the United States in recent weeks, mainly by organizing Saturday's protest, which fell far short of the 1 million people he hoped would assemble.

Officials organized the demonstration with the Iraqi Interior Ministry's promise of protection.

A group of protesters and police spent all night securing the square.

Roads in central Baghdad were closed to traffic as streets filled with people.

Sunni Muslim clerics also called on their followers to protest on the two year anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, but officials in the influential Association of Muslim Scholars refused to say Saturday where or when the protests would take place.

Iraq's Sunni minority was dominant under Saddam and is believed to make up the backbone of the country's insurgency.

Jalil al-Shemari, a senior al-Sadr official, said the Sunnis would not be joining in the Shiite rally at Firdos Square.

During his Friday morning sermon in the capital, the head of an influential Sunni group accused coalition forces of "killing the Iraqi people daily."

"We demand that the occupation troops withdraw from Iraq."

"We don't want them to do it immediately, but we want them to set a timetable for their withdrawal," said Sheik Harith al-Dahri, whose Association of Muslim Scholars is believed to have ties to Iraq's insurgents.

Other marches were held across the country to demand that the United States set a timetable for its withdrawal.

In the central city of Ramadi, thousands of protestors demonstrated in the al-Sufayaa neighborhood and at Anbar University, demanding that U.S.-led coalition forces set a withdrawal date.

Also Saturday, in the troubled northern city of Mosul, a car bomb detonated near a police patrol, killing at least two policemen and injuring 13 civilians, Dr. Baha al-Deen al-Bakry of the Jumhouri hospital said.

Brig. Gen. Watheq Ali, deputy police chief of the Nineveh province, said the blast was an assassination attempt against him, although he was unhurt.

He said a suicide car bomber rammed a car into the rear vehicle in his seven-car police convoy as it was stopped at a traffic light.
_____

Associated Press reporters Qasim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer Yacoub contributed to this report from Baghdad.

[Abu Beacon]

Good morning, Mr. A.B.!

Yes, we do need laughs in life, regardless of what age we are, and so .....

By the way, have you seen our friend jeffmoskin in your travels.

His wit is missed in here these days, and I trust all is well with him out there in sunny KAH-lee-faw-nia!

I have been wondering about jeffmoskin.

It seems as though he has left the house.

Hopefully, he has not been ill and will be returning soon.

We need his crisp and accurate remarks.


A.B.

[Livyjr]

I have been wondering about jeffmoskin.

It seems as though he has left the house.

A.B.

jeffmoskin, call home!

[Livyjr]

Top Stories - Knight Ridder Newspapers

"Judiciary has 'run amok', DeLay says"

Thu Apr 7, 8:09 PM ET 

By James Kuhnhenn, Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, stepped up his attack on federal judges Thursday, telling a gathering of religious conservatives that the judiciary has "run amok" and demanding that Congress assert authority over the courts.

Asked whether he would take steps to retaliate against judges in the Schiavo case, Smith said:

"I would certainly be a part of any effort that Tom DeLay was."

"If that's the direction that the leaders want to go, I would be happy to go that direction as well."

AND THERE, America, right up there in this little "view window" right above me here, IS THE ISSUE that is presently under discussion over in my other thread "BUSH CONSERVATIVE DEALS DEATH-BLOW TO RIGHT TO DISSENT IN NEW YORK STATE", in the JUDICIAL part of the Forum, which has to do with what I am calling a "DEATH BLOW" struck to MY rights as citizen of the State of New York under Sections 1 and 9 of the New York State Constitution "peaceably to assemble and petition the government, or any department thereof", by a newly-appointed BUSH CONSERVATIVE JUDGE in the Northern District of New York, in accordance with this alleged BUSH/Delay-ISM above here, which IDEOLOGY holds that federal judges are the exclusive "property" of the REPUBLICAN PARTY, and so are in reality nothing more than REPUBLICAN MOUTHPIECES, and therefore, ARE NOT JUDGES AT ALL, since they are already biased by being REPUBLICAN MOUTHPIECES!

In that thread, Mr. A.B. raised an important question about a "piece" of the puzzle in that matter which was also posted here, in Volume I of Life in OUR America, and so, what I want to do is post in here as well my response to Mr. A.B. in that thread, as the "question", and "response" are directly relevant in here, where we talk about similar issues in the context of LIFE in OUR America, where OUR America is on the world stage, and EACH OF US therefore has a "ROLE" to play in that on-going DRAMA, that this "broader content" thread covers, which is "current events" in OUR America, and OUR world, that affect the health and well-being of OUR REPUBLIC of America on a day-to-day basis!

This post in response to Mr. A.B.'s QUESTION in the JUDICIAL FORUM is especially relevant in here BECAUSE .....

Eliot Spitzer is alleged to be running for GOVERNOR of the State of New York, RIGHT EXACTLY NOW, while we are having this discussion in here about Eliot Spitzer and HIS CAMPAIGN to take the Office of New York State Governor AWAY FROM REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT GEORGE PATAKI, and while allegedly actively campaigning FOR THAT OFFICE, Eliot Spitzer is also alleged to be MAKING DEALS in connection with that campaigning, that allegedly interfere with, and compromise, his duties as ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK!

AND SO .........

Thank you for the question, Mr. A.B.!

And thanks for serving as my "INTERROGATOR", in here, as well!

That's a very important "citizen advocacy role" that has to be played, AND PLAYED WELL, in getting these type of "citizen" matters clearly out in the open, for all to plainly see, and you are doing it admirably, and concisely, and that is the most beneficial element of all, here, the "non-involved" layperson's point-of-view that you are now playing here in this role of questioner that you have so capably taken on here.

SIMPLY STATED:

This "post" Mr. A.B. refers to above here from the "MODERATORS" IS a COPY of a post that I received from the Moderators of the NOW-DEFUNCT John Kerry site, JUST PRIOR TO the Democratic National Convention, TELLING ME THAT MY PLEA TO THE JOHN KERRY FORUM, to keep Eliot Spitzer OFF THE PODIUM, at the then-upcoming Democratic National Convention, HAD BEEN HEARD, loud and clear, BY JOHN KERRY, and was therefore being taken quite seriously!

AND THEN .......

Eliot Spitzer never got to speak at the Democratic National Convention!

And so ......

I can live with that, for now, to be truthful!

It is a form of justice to me, and it was immediate, AND OBVIOUS, as well, which is as it should be with JUSTICE, for it to actually be justice, and so!

TO ME ...

John Kerry was true to a fellow veteran, while Eliot Spitzer was treating the same one as a piece of human garbage!

SO!

To ME:

JOHN KERRY IS A HERO!

Eliot Spitzer?

I honestly don't want my mother to even think that I would know of such words, and so, I will say no more on that!

[Livyjr]

This post in response to Mr. A.B.'s QUESTION in the JUDICIAL FORUM is especially relevant in here BECAUSE .....

Eliot Spitzer is alleged to be running for GOVERNOR of the State of New York, RIGHT EXACTLY NOW, while we are having this discussion in here about Eliot Spitzer and HIS CAMPAIGN to take the Office of New York State Governor AWAY FROM REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT GEORGE PATAKI, and while allegedly actively campaigning FOR THAT OFFICE, Eliot Spitzer is also alleged to be MAKING DEALS in connection with that campaigning, that allegedly interfere with, and compromise, his duties as ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK!

AND SO .........

Thank you for the question, Mr. A.B.!

"Spitzer campaign calls AIG ad link a mistake - Critics question attorney general's political motives; spokesman blames use on a "low-level" employee"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
First published: Friday, April 8, 2005

ALBANY -- State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has taken down a "sponsored link" to his gubernatorial campaign committee that popped up when users of the Google search engine typed in "AIG."

The initials are an acronym for the American International Group, an insurance giant that Spitzer has been investigating.

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp said Thursday that the placement of the paid ad for the campaign committee was "a mistake" and that it had been up for only one day.

"It was inappropriate to be done for AIG, which is an ongoing matter," Dopp said.

"As soon as Mr. Spitzer found out about it, he had it corrected."

"The guy who did it is a low-level guy , a wonderful computer geek who just didn't know what he was doing," Dopp added.

The sponsored link was removed late Wednesday afternoon after Dopp received a call about it from a New York Post reporter.

State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik jumped on the issue, saying Thursday that it "raises some serious questions about the ethics of Eliot Spitzer."

"What are his motives for investigating these companies?"

"Is it to stuff his campaign coffers, and promote his political aspirations?" Minarik said in a statement to The Associated Press.

"The so-called 'Crusader of the Year' has some serious explaining to do."

"Google the words 'shameless self-promotion' and do you come up with the name Eliot Spitzer?" Minarik said.

Independent polls have shown Spitzer with a big lead over Republican Gov. George Pataki in a possible matchup for the office in 2006.

Pataki has not said whether he will seek a fourth term.

Spitzer has gained an international reputation for his investigations of America's financial institutions, including Wall Street investment houses, mutual fund managers and the insurance industry.