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

[Livyjr]

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 .........

Will Eliot Spitzer, despite the fact that he is presently serving as New York State Attorney General, say or do anything for political purposes to fuel his own political ambitions at the cost of the Integrity of the New York State Department of Law, which Department he is the HEAD ATTORNEY of?

And if the HEAD ATTORNEY of the New York State Department of Law is alleged to be OUT THERE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL playing fast and loose with the facts and the truth, WHAT ABOUT THE EXAMPLE THIS ALLEGED CONDUCT would have on the attorneys working under him, there at the New York State Department of Law?

Stay tuned!

"Debate surfaces after King's exit - Attorney general says next SUNY chancellor should be an academic"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
First published: Friday, April 8, 2005

ALBANY -- Robert King, a politician turned chancellor of the State University of New York, cemented the political favor of key constituencies in his five years in office.

Now, just days after he resigned, critics say the politics yielded only stagnation at SUNY and higher costs for students.

They are calling for a change in the way the nation's largest public university system is run.

Joining them is the front-runner for next year's race for governor.

"The chancellor of the SUNY system should be an academic who understands how to build the system into the pre-eminent public university system in the nation," state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said.

"If you compare SUNY to the California system, or some of the other state states (such as) North Carolina, we do not generate as many jobs, as many patents."

"We do not keep as many graduates here, we do not have campuses ranked in the top tier in their particular fields of expertise as we should," Spitzer said.

"I think we should be the best."

"And given the amount of money we're spending, and given how important a role SUNY had and should have in our economic development, we're not accomplishing what we should."

SUNY spokesman David Henahan disagreed.

SUNY is 14th nationally in patents among public and private universities, Henahan said, and the major measures of success -- enrollment, minority enrollment, philanthropy, the quality of incoming students -- are all at record levels.

"This sounds more like political campaigning, rather than any real attempt to understand how great SUNY is," Henahan said.

end quotes

And here, I have to agree with the SUNY spokesperson!

And if there was any validity whatsoever to what Spitzer was saying here, why didn't we hear it a whole lot earlier than now?

Why has Spitzer been silent for so long, if he has so much alleged "evidence" to support his "contentions", above here, OR CAN'T THEY BE SUPPORTED?

Are they distortions, Eliot, those statements you are making above here for obvious political purposes unrelated to your duties as New York State Attorney General?

Or are they outright fabrications, perhaps, to gull the ignorant, and fool the blind?

Aren't you directly responsible to the PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK to keep alleged incompetence and alleged wrong-doing OUT OF our SUNY system management?

SO?

Que pasa, Eliot?

[Livyjr]

And so go the days of OUR lives, in here, and out "there", as well, in the "non-virtual" world that we all inhabit from time to time, when we are not in here being "virtual", I suppose.

I'm up here in the north, and the days are finally getting nice, which is to say warm, and so, a lot of people are getting outside to do the necessaries, if they are going to have a garden, or whatever, and I know that I am spending as much time as possible outside, just because the air smells so sweet in the spring, and that alone makes it great to be alive to experience that.

The birds are singing as well, and I notice that they are already involved in setting up "housekeeping" for another season, building their nests, and getting ready to raise the next generation of birds, and so, life goes on.

And us with it!

Whither shall that be?

Whoever really knows!

SO!

Stay tuned, and maybe we'll find out, as it happens!

Life, in OUR America!

[jeffmoskin]

jeffmoskin, call home!

Jeffmoskin to earth - come in, please.

[Livyjr]

Jeffmoskin to earth - come in, please.

Well, jeffmoskin, you sure have been missed, and that's a fact!

Your etherial presence back here is welcomed!

[Livyjr]

And it is good to have jeffmoskin back, with his own occasional wit and wisdom in here, which tends to open up the viewpoints available in here for your viewing consideration, and/or pleasure!

jeffmoskin represents what could be called a western suburban viewpoint of a person born and educated in the cosmopolitan eastern city of New York, while I am and remain a "rural" person, and so, in many ways, while jeffmoskin and I should be "point/counter-point" on issues, more often that not, we are actually quite close, and yet we are coasts apart, and our life-styles are likely day and night as well, as winter up here totally dominates me, and what I am able to do, while jeffmoskin lives in relatively sunny climes, and GOD bless jeffmoskin for that!

jeffmoskin is someone who comes across to me as "indomitable", and I am heartened by that, actually, as jeffmoskin is some few years older than I , and so is an example to me that one can survive further and further into one's life with spirit not only intact, but raised on a daily basis, as well.

Me, I think we need those kinds of examples in our lives, and so, we should be thankful when there is someone older about, who is full of spirit, and who, to our own value systems, is using that energy in what we think is a positive, productive way, the highest of which is to cause others to think, in my estimation, anyway, and that is a function that jeffmoskin serves in here very well, as does Mr. A.B., and that is to keep this thread what I will call "honest", or representative of a central viewpoint that is always arrived at through application of logic to facts and evidence, as opposed to appeal to prejudices and emotions!

Thanks to jeffmoskin and Mr. A.B., and all of you others who stop by here, for a glimpse from time to time at Life in OUR America, this thread has survived to carry over into a second volume, and that is something that causes me to ever strive for a "quality", or "level" of discussion that will have jeffmoskin coming back from time to time, to keep us appraised of his own views on matters of importance to us all, here in OUR America, OR ARE THEY, REALLY?

And without the east coast-west coast views existing side-by-side in here, we will never know, will we!

So!

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!

AND ....

Stay tuned for further discussion on life in OUR America!

Live, late-braking, from all points on the compass, from all places in the world!

AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, to boot!

And in technicolor, so ....

How about that!

Can your television boast the same?

[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.

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.

Are the REPUBLICANS really going through a MELT-DOWN, here in OUR America?

Is NATURE stepping in here, on OUR behalf, to re-balance the scales, returning integrity and sanity TO US in equal measure to their opposites as are embodied in the person of TEXAS TOMMY Delay and HIS?

Stay tuned!

News follows, right now, on that particular matter:

News

"Answer ethics questions, Santorum tells DeLay - Majority leader's travel, campaign finances at issue""

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:44 p.m. ET April 10, 2005

WASHINGTON - The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to answer questions about his ethics and “let the people then judge for themselves.”

Sen. Rick Santorum’s comments seem to reflect the nervousness among congressional Republicans about the fallout from the increased scrutiny into DeLay’s way of doing business.

One of DeLay’s GOP colleagues in the House called him an “absolute embarrassment” and doubled DeLay would last as majority leader.

DeLay, R-Texas, has been dogged in recent months by reports of possible ethics violations.

There have been questions about his overseas travel, campaign payments to family members and his connections to lobbyists who are under investigation.

“I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves,” said Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

“But from everything I’ve heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he’s done was according to the law,” Santorum told ABC’s “This Week.”

“Now you may not like some of the things he’s done,” Santorum said.

“That’s for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve that kind of behavior or not.”

DeLay’s spokesman, Dan Allen, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the congressman “looks forward to the opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee chairman and ranking member to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that’s being launched at him by House Democrats and their liberal allies.”

The majority leader was admonished three times last year by that committee.

The committee has been in limbo since March, when its five Democrats balked at adopting Republican-developed rules.

At a town hall meeting Saturday in Greenwich, Conn., GOP Rep. Christopher Shays told constituents that he did not think DeLay “is going to survive.”

'An absolute embarrassment'

Shays, a moderate who has irked Republicans by bucking party leaders on some prominent issues, described DeLay “as an absolute embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party,” according to the account Sunday in The Advocate of Stamford.

In November, Shays protested a party rule change that would allow DeLay to retain his leadership position even if he was indicted in an ongoing Texas campaign finance investigation.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week that the controversy was distracting DeLay from dealing with more pressing problems before Congress.

Santorum, however, said DeLay is “very effective in leading the House” and that “to date, has not been compromised.”

A senior Democratic senator, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, had this advice for the Republicans who control both the House and Senate:

“Be careful about how closely you embrace Mr. DeLay.”

Dodd cited the new rules for the ethics committee that House Republicans rammed through in the wake of DeLay’s difficulties.

Those rules require a bipartisan vote before an investigation can be launched.

DeLay’s office also helped mount a counterattack last fall against Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., who was the ethics committee chairman when it came down against DeLay.

“Unfortunately, in his particular case, there’s a process that he’s tried to change so they could actually reach a determination as to whether or not he’s innocent or guilty of the things he’s been charged with,” Dodd said.

“But this is not going to go away.”

DeLay “becomes the poster child for a lot of the things the Democrats think are wrong about Republican leadership."

"As long as he’s there, he’s going to become a pretty good target,” Dodd said on ABC.

DeLay, who took center stage in passing legislation designed to keep alive Terri Schiavo, also has found that President Bush and congressional colleagues are distancing themselves from his comments, after her death, about the judges involved in her case.

“The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior,” DeLay said, raising the prospect of impeaching members of a separate and independent branch of government.

Later, he complained of “an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president.”

Bush, declining to endorse DeLay’s comments, said Friday that he supports “an independent judiciary.”

He added, “I believe in proper checks and balances.”

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said last week that the judges “handled it in a fair and independent way,” although he had hoped for a different result.

Democrats have said DeLay’s remarks were tantamount to inciting violence against judges.

[Livyjr]

Are the REPUBLICANS really going through a MELT-DOWN, here in OUR America?

Is NATURE stepping in here, on OUR behalf, to re-balance the scales, returning integrity and sanity TO US in equal measure to their opposites as are embodied in the person of TEXAS TOMMY Delay and HIS?

Stay tuned!

News follows, right now, on that particular matter:

News 

"Answer ethics questions, Santorum tells DeLay - Majority leader's travel, campaign finances at issue""

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:44 p.m. ET April 10, 2005

WASHINGTON - The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to answer questions about his ethics and “let the people then judge for themselves.”

Sen. Rick Santorum’s comments seem to reflect the nervousness among congressional Republicans about the fallout from the increased scrutiny into DeLay’s way of doing business.

One of DeLay’s GOP colleagues in the House called him an “absolute embarrassment” and doubled DeLay would last as majority leader.

At a town hall meeting Saturday in Greenwich, Conn., GOP Rep. Christopher Shays told constituents that he did not think DeLay “is going to survive.”

'An absolute embarrassment'

Shays, a moderate who has irked Republicans by bucking party leaders on some prominent issues, described DeLay “as an absolute embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party,” according to the account Sunday in The Advocate of Stamford.

In November, Shays protested a party rule change that would allow DeLay to retain his leadership position even if he was indicted in an ongoing Texas campaign finance investigation.

And here is a possible "ray of hope" for sanity returning to the HALLS of OUR Congress, where we have a REPUBLICAN actually speaking out in public against this RAMPANT creeping crawling TOMMY-ism that threatens to overun and engulf all of OUR public institutions, here in OUR America, and render them corrupt, at a touch:

Politics - U. S. Congress

"Shays: DeLay Should Quit As House Leader"

26 minutes ago

By LOU KESTEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Private GOP tensions over Tom DeLay's ethics controversy spilled into public Sunday, as a Senate leader called on DeLay to explain his actions and one House Republican demanded the majority leader's resignation.

"Tom's conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election," Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., told The Associated Press in an interview, calling for DeLay to step down as majority leader.

DeLay, R-Texas, who was admonished by the House ethics committee last year, has been dogged in recent months by new reports about his overseas travel funded by special interests, campaign payments to family members and connections to a lobbyist who is under criminal investigation.

A moderate Republican from Connecticut who has battled with his party's leadership on a number of issues, Shays said efforts by the House GOP members to change ethics rules to protect DeLay only make the party look bad.

"My party is going to have to decide whether we are going to continue to make excuses for Tom to the detriment of Republicans seeking election," Shays said.

DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen, told AP that the congressman "looks forward to the opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee chairman and ranking member to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that's being launched at him by House Democrats and their liberal allies."

Responding specifically to Shays' remarks later, Allen added that DeLay's "effective leadership has helped to build and maintain the Republican majority in the House and that's exactly why liberal groups funded by George Soros have set their sights on him."

The majority leader was admonished three times last year by that committee.

The committee has been in limbo since March, when its five Democrats balked at adopting Republican-developed rules.

Associated Press Writers Lolita C. Baldor and Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

And speaking of the spectre of rampant creeping crawling tommy-ISM that theatens to engulf this nation of ours, we have:

Top Stories - Chicago Tribune

"The business of influence in Washington"

Sun Apr 10, 9:40 AM ET

By Michael Tackett Tribune senior correspondent

Say this for him, Charles Jarvis doesn't think small.

Jarvis is chairman of the United Seniors Association, an organization he markets as the small but scrappy conservative alternative to the venerable AARP.

Brash and blunt, Jarvis has taken on a high profile in the capital this year--on television, in print and on the Internet--as he savages AARP for its opposition to President Bush's plan for private accounts within Social Security.

But the story of his fight with the nation's best-known seniors group is hardly one of David versus Goliath.

The group is also known as USA Next and is funded primarily with millions of dollars from pharmaceutical and energy companies, among others.

Like hundreds of tax-exempt organizations on the political left and right that flourish in Washington, USA Next is not required to disclose its donors or contractors.

And the money involved is sizable, $28 million in 2004, according to Jarvis' estimates.

Records obtained by Public Citizen show that PhRMA, the trade association for major U.S. drug companies, has in past years been a large donor, along with drug giant Pfizer Inc.

USA Next's powerful connections, however, extend beyond contributors.

In fiscal year 2003, other records show, USA Next mistakenly filed with the IRS a list of its top five contractors.

The top contractor for that tax year, earning more than $1.3 million, was a firm whose founder is also a principal in another firm with strong ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

And United Seniors has packed its board with prominent Republican consultants over the years.

Board members include Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist under investigation by the Justice Department and Congress who also has links to DeLay.

An examination of USA Next based on its tax filings, other records, government investigative reports and interviews provides a window to how Washington's vast and largely unregulated influence industry works.

Special interests can use groups like USA Next as proxies to wage public campaigns with which they would not want to be directly associated.

USA Next also has launched issue campaigns in congressional races across the country, stopping short of literally backing a candidate but leaving no doubt about which candidate it supports.

In IRS filings, United Seniors says its mission is "public awareness" and "public advocacy" and that it distributes "millions of copies of newsletters to senior citizens that will directly affect their lives."

It is clear that the group is doing much more, though there is almost never a straight line between a donation by an interested party to a lobbyist or group and a specific legislative act.

United Seniors, the name by which USA Next is formally incorporated in Virginia, was started in 1991 by Richard Viguerie, a longtime conservative and direct-mail specialist.

Like United Seniors, groups from local PTAs to the National Rifle Association enjoy tax-preferred status under section 501©(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.

They are loosely regulated, and the Internal Revenue Service does limited monitoring of them.

In its first 10 years, United Seniors was a modest force at most, taking in $8 million to $11 million and spending nearly 50 percent of contributions on fundraising.

It relied heavily on direct-mail solicitation of members and whatever larger donations it could attract, and it operated for most of its existence at a deficit.

Jarvis took USA Next to a different level when he assumed control in 2001.

The board was stocked with influential Republican lobbyists and consultants with strong ties to the GOP congressional leadership and the White House.

A former aide to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) who also served in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Jarvis was well-positioned for his organization to benefit from Republican control in Washington.

He changed the business model, relying almost exclusively on deep-pocketed donors with big stakes in legislation.

From a financial perspective, the result was outstanding.

In fiscal year 2003, the group raised more than $25 million and spent only $770,000 on fundraising.

In fiscal year 2001, records show, PhRMA gave United Seniors $1.5 million, 100 times the amount it had given the previous year.

Pfizer gave $25,000 in each of those two years.

PhRMA does not dispute the accuracy of the records.

In the next two years, just as Congress and the White House worked out details for a prescription drug benefit for Medicare, United Seniors received $24.8 million from a single source, records show.

A redacted copy of the tax filing obscures the name of the donor, other than the first letter, "P," in 2003.

A $20.1 million donation was reported in 2002 from a single source, but that donor's name is completely blacked out.

Asked whether PhRMA was the donor, Ken Johnson, a spokesman for the trade group, said, "I'm not confirming it or denying it."

For his part, Jarvis simply said:

"It is up to our donors whether they want to reveal gifts."

They don't.

Now the group has clawed its way into the Social Security debate with AARP as the primary adversary.

To make its case, Jarvis has adopted the scorching tactics of negative campaign advertising and employed some of the best practitioners of political dark arts to do it.

His group has benefited from donations and consultant work from operatives and donors associated with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

"I'm trying to kill, destroy the bad public policy of AARP," Jarvis said.

AARP, the best-known and most influential organization for Americans over 50, takes in more than $770 million a year.

"The AARP is an army," Jarvis said.

"We are more like Special Forces."

United Seniors has shown lethal capacity.

But its most notorious effort--an ad that showed two photos, one of two men kissing and the other of a soldier, with the not-so-subtle message that AARP supported the gay couple and not the soldier--may also be one that costs it dearly.

The couple in the photo recently sued USA Next and a subcontractor for $25 million, alleging defamation.

Jarvis said his only regret is that his subcontractor didn't get a proper commercial release of the couple's photo.

And PhRMA, prodded by a strongly worded letter from Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is openly gay, condemned the ad as well.

"PhRMA and its member companies are absolutely opposed to discrimination and appeals to prejudice based on sexual orientation," Johnson, the spokesman said.

Organizations like USA Next often operate as part of a loosely connected web of interests among Congress, the executive branch, special interests and organizations set up to tap into the capital's financial honey pot.

Despite highly publicized efforts at campaign finance reform, the unelected permanent class of lobbyists, consultants and strategists nearly always seems to find an outlet for money designed to buy results.

Many media appearances

If getting attention is a marker of success, Jarvis has flourished, with dozens of media appearances, from "The Today Show" to "The O'Reilly Factor," where he has framed the us-against-them debate with AARP.

The opportunity for a high-profile fight came with AARP's opposition to private accounts for Social Security, the centerpiece of Bush's plan to overhaul the nation's best-known entitlement program.

The rapid rise of the fortunes of United Seniors no doubt is the result of a confluence of events, perhaps the most important of which was the election of Bush.

United Seniors' philosophy hews closely to that of the Republican Party, and those industries that are contributing to the group also have major policy considerations before the administration and Congress.

For Jarvis, it is a convenient convergence.

"I'm very aggressively pro-free-market solutions," he said in an interview at the group's office just off Capitol Hill.

"I am very aggressively finding people who agreed with our rock 'n' roll free-market approach."

Jarvis has grand ambitions for USA Next.

Like other conservative or liberal tax organizations, the group is part of a semipermanent structure in the capital that clearly influences national policy.

And it does so with the sanction of the tax code.

"It's one of those historical accidents," said Marion Fremont-Smith, an expert on tax-exempt organizations who teaches at Harvard University.

"Most of these organizations have been protected by congressmen so there is very little push to do anything about them," she said.

"For the run of the mill [groups], they have not been threats in terms of money or power."

"They work on local issues like the local civic association."

"But this is something entirely new, and it came about probably through the campaign reform legislation, which led people to search for another way."

"And usually when you get something like that and get big money coming in, Congress will take another look."

Jarvis said United Seniors initially brought him in as a consultant.

His pitch: United Seniors needed to broaden its appeal, become a multigenerational organization.

He said he went into a meeting with the board of directors in December 2000 and came away with a job that pays him more than $270,000 a year.

He had solid Washington credentials.

In addition to his government experience, he worked in the D.C. governmental affairs office of Waste Management.

Then he worked for the conservative evangelical media empire of James Dobson's Focus on the Family.

Members of the board of United Seniors, most of them anyway, came away impressed.

"After Bush was elected, there were several key things we needed to be leaders in," Jarvis said.

The group branched out into tax cuts, energy and health savings accounts, and it took on a far more aggressive posture supporting private accounts in Social Security.

Among those board members who hired Jarvis was Abramoff, the lobbyist under investigation for his multimillion-dollar contract with several Indian tribes, an inquiry that also involves his relationship with DeLay.

Though Abramoff's time on the board coincides with the explosive growth in revenue for United Seniors, Jarvis said he barely knows Abramoff and that Abramoff played little role in the organization's success.

A spokesman for Abramoff's law firm said "he performed all duties expected of him as a board member" and did not "facilitate funding" for United Seniors or "issue consulting agreements to any of his clients or business associates."

"He was leaving the board when I came over," Jarvis said.

(Their tenure overlapped by nearly 18 months, records indicate.)

"To be honest, he was not active."

Jarvis said the sudden success of the organization is attributable to his own business practices.

"I said to everybody, `I want us to create a model of excellence that everyone in the private sector and the non-profit sector can see as the best financial management in the country, the best marketing, the best customer relations.'"

During his first three years, the organization operated at a deficit.

In 2004, Jarvis said the organization would report that it is in the black and has taken in more than $28 million.

"We focus on people who have networks, and networks of networks," he said.

That network includes people who also do business for USA Next.

Typically, a 501©(4) organization doesn't have to disclose whom it pays as contractors.

But in the form United Seniors inadvertently filed in 2003, it listed the five top contractors.

Listed first was Advocacy Technologies, a Washington company that was paid $1.3 million for media placements.

Michael Mihalke, founder of Advocacy Technologies, declined to reveal his clients.

Mihalke is also listed as a principal in the strategic communications firm Alexander Strategy Group, whose lead partner is Edwin Buckham, a former DeLay chief of staff who is also connected with Abramoff.

In an e-mail, Mihalke said that "neither ASG, nor any of its principals or employees, has ever had any ownership interest in Advocacy Technologies."

Buckham could not be reached.

The Alexander group also lists PhRMA as a client on its Web site.

Only general disclosures

Federal tax law requires organizations like United Seniors to only generally detail how they spend their money.

In 2002 and 2003, the group said it spent more than $20 million annually on TV and radio advertising.

Many of those ads aired in congressional districts with highly competitive races, including contests in Illinois.

United Seniors spent more than $100,000 on issue ads in the suburban race between Democrat Melissa Bean and then-incumbent Republican congressman Phil Crane.

While the ads did not specifically endorse Crane, who lost, they were strongly positive toward Crane's position on issues.

During the 1990s, the United Seniors Association weighed in on seniors issues, especially possible "raids" on the Medicare and Social Security trust funds.

"We worked on Social Security issues, seniors issues from a conservative perspective," said Craig Shirley, a consultant who was on the board of directors and left after Jarvis asked him to do some contract work for the group.

Shirley said the board hired Jarvis because he seemed to have a plan to make it "bigger, more aggressive."

"He's a creative, talented guy."

"I had known him for a long time."

"His references were outstanding."

Not everyone was thrilled.

Tony Fabrizio, a GOP pollster and former board member, said, "I wasn't particularly enamored with the individual they had come up with."

"I thought he would take the organization in a different direction . . . no hard feelings."

----------

mtackett@tribune.com

[Livyjr]

And this was overheard on the internet, about why we have an oil shortage in this nation, today:

A lot of folks can't understand

how we came to have

an oil shortage here in our country.

~~~

Well, there's a very simple answer.

~~~

Nobody bothered to check the oil.

~~~

We just didn't know we were getting low.

~~~

The reason for that is purely geographical.

~~~

Our OIL is located in

~~~

Alaska

~~~

California

~~~

Oklahoma

and

TEXAS

~~~

~~~

Our

DIPSTICKS

are located in

Washington DC

[jeffmoskin]

Our

DIPSTICKS

are located in

Washington DC

With an emphasis on the


DIP

[Livyjr]

Well, jeffmoskin!

Hello!

Long time no see, here!

You had us worried, you know!

We were searching around GITMO and abu Ghraib to see if maybe Donald's "HARD BOYS" had caught you, and were torturing you into silence, while they took their sick pleasure from you, and when we couldn't find you in either of those places, we thought that maybe some of "CON JOB" Connie Rice's THUGS might have caught up with you instead, wrestling you to the ground, while making sure to muzzle you, lest some bewildered South Korean hear your pleas for aid and assistance in having your own right to free speech equal to that of a REPUBLICAN, or one of their many "FAT CAT" financial supporters, through one of "TWO-GUN TEXAS TOMMY" Delay's various and sundry PAC's!

But once again, jeffmoskin, you have proved yourself superior to the forces of the creeping crawling RED TIDE of RAMPANT TOMMY-ISM that are trying to take over and corrupt every possible thing there is to corrupt, here in OUR AMERICA, and in the candid world as well, and you still endure, in both wit and spirit, for which the founders and sponsors of this thread, and all their families and friends, and well, truth be told, all the candid world, as well, are eternally grateful!

SO!

Let's hear it, America, and the candid world, too!

SALUTE, and WELL DONE, jeffmoskin!

[Livyjr]

And returning to other matters of importance, here in OUR America, now that we know our west-coast expositor, jeffmoskin, is safe and sound, and has not been eaten by a coyote, or errant mountain lion looking for an easy meal rampaging on the streets of sunny Los Angeles, KAH-lee-FAWN-ia (editor's note: PARDON the east-coast accent, here, I'm still trying to master the tricky vowels, here), let's take a look at what is going on in the "Windy City" of Chicago, Illinois, while George W. Bush is transporting BILLIONS of OUR tax dollars over to HIS client/puppet state of Iraq, to turn it into an earthly paradise, and hunting camp, for Dick Cheney, and HIS:

U.S. National - AP

"Budget Gap Threatens Chicago Transit"

Mon Apr 11, 3:20 AM ET

By MIKE COLIAS, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - They're as ubiquitous here as skyscrapers and hot dog joints: the elevated trains that screech and rumble along century-old tracks through downtown and the city's far-flung neighborhoods, taking workers to their jobs and tourists to Wrigley Field.

But a $55 million budget gap has turned the Chicago Transit Authority's fabled "L" system and its fleet of 2,000 buses into an "endangered species," the authority claims.

Officials at the nation's second-largest transit system say they will have to eliminate routes, raise fares or both unless the Legislature provides more money.

In signs and recorded announcements on trains and buses, they are urging their 1.5 million daily riders to "Prevent service cuts."

"Voice your support."

Across the nation, big-city transit agencies have been facing similar challenges. Systems in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have recently raised fares, cut service or sought more state funding as budget deficits have grown.

One reason is that sales tax revenues — which help fund many systems, including Chicago's — have dwindled in recent years as the economy slowed, according to Rose Sheridan, spokeswoman for the American Public Transportation Association.

And states are less willing to earmark more money for public transit as they face their own budget problems. Illinois' projected deficit for 2006 exceeds $1 billion.

Without more public funding, many transit agencies have few options but to increase fares or cut services, said Alan Horowitz, a transportation engineer and urban planner at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"A lot of people think these transit agencies are bloated, but as a whole they are used to doing a lot with very little," he said.

One of the city's proposals is to increase fares from $1.75 to $2.50, which would make its 1.5 million daily riders pay the highest base fare of any large transit system in the nation.

Other proposals would end overnight train service, stranding people like night shift janitor Otis Kensey, who leaves his shift at a manufacturer north of Chicago just in time to catch a 1:06 a.m. train to his South Side home.

"If they cut off the Red Line at 1 a.m., I'm stuck," Kensey said.

At a transit board hearing last week, dozens of upset riders said authority executives should cut their own pay or find ways to trim administrative costs rather than hitting the riders with service cuts and higher fares.

The board is scheduled to adopt a worst-case plan at its meeting Wednesday.

Its apocalyptic warnings might not stir much sympathy in the state capital, though.

"The CTA can't just turn to Springfield and say, 'Find us X amount of dollars or we're going to make draconian cuts,'" said Republican state Rep. Brent Hassert, who represents the Chicago suburb of Romeoville.

Lawmakers in other states have responded differently.

Pennsylvania legislators recently voted to divert $68 million in federal highway money to fund cash-strapped transit systems in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

New York's state budget funnels more sales tax dollars to subways and buses.

Chicago Transit Authority Chairwoman Carole Brown says Chicago gets shortchanged by a funding formula that divides sales tax revenue among it and the suburban rail and bus systems.

As suburban populations have boomed, the authority's share of the region's transit tax dollars has dropped from 71 percent in 1980 to 59 percent last year.

Adding to its troubles, the agency is taking heat for a series of missteps in planning the largest capital project in its history: a $530 million upgrade of the Brown Line, a heavily traveled route connecting the city's downtown "Loop" business district to the Northwest Side.

Transit officials in January said they would have to close some stations along the line for a year or more during construction, backtracking on a promise to leave them open.

Businesses and community groups have criticized the reversal, while some transit planners and civic leaders are questioning the project's merits altogether.

Others have said the authority should borrow from its capital budget to help fill its operating shortfall.

Brown calls that bad fiscal policy.

She says the suggestion to scrap the upgrade of the 100-year-old line is symptomatic of the shortsighted view of mass-transit spending nationally.

"Transit agencies all around the country are faced with these same issues," Brown said.

"The problem is simple."

"It's a lack of investment in public transit."
___

On the Net:

Chicago Transit: http://www.transitchicago.com

American Public Transportation Association: http://www.apta.com

end quotes

SO!

Maybe when the Bush Co. is done making his client/puppet state of Iraq into a "heaven on earth" for Dick Cheney, he'll wake up (fat chance, that, actually) and remember that he is really the president of America, and NOT the GRAND POOBAH and LORD PROTECTOR of Mesopotamia, and maybe he'll do some re-building here, too!

BUT .....

In the meantime, we have to be broken as a nation, too, and so .....

Learn to walk, folks, for it is OUR future, thanks to George W. Bush, and HIS, who get to "ride in style", AT OUR EXPENSE!

[Abu Beacon]

Maybe when the Bush Co. is done making his client/puppet state of Iraq into a "heaven on earth" for Dick Cheney, he'll wake up (fat chance, that, actually) and remember that he is really the president of America, and NOT the [b][color=red]GRAND POOBAH and LORD PROTECTOR of Mesopotamia, and maybe he'll do some re-building here, too!

BUT .....

In the meantime, we have to be broken as a nation, too, and so .....

Learn to walk, folks, for it is OUR future, thanks to George W. Bush, and HIS, who get to "ride in style", AT OUR EXPENSE!

Using my fingers to count, I have figured out that I have lived through 21 different presidential administrations.

There haven't been 21 different presidents because, obviously, some of these
" chief executives " have managed to keep their job for a second term.

But, 21 administrations is still quite a few.

In all of these, ( some of them I was too young to take note of what was happening, of course ) there were ups and downs, good times and bad, criticisms and approval, just the regular ebb and flow of life and of politics here in OUR AMERICA.

I have been trying to figure out what seems to be so different in Our America these days. To be exact, ever since 911.

I know, now, that, at least to me, it is not because of any deep worries of terrorism, or of being afraid to be out in crowds or anything like that.

What is different to me is the constant uneasy feeling I have about what our federal government is going to do next.

That is true. I do have a feeling that never leaves me that George Bush and Co. is going to pull off something that will bring America down a little lower.

I may not be personally involved or personally hurt by this but my country will be.

Never before have I felt that someone in Washington, with the full knowledge and permission of the president is going to create yet another crisis.

And I wonder, if the day comes when our country may be down, is there going to be any country in the world with the desire AND the ability to give us a helping hand?

Yes, I do wonder about that.

A.B.

[Livyjr]

Using my fingers to count, I have figured out that I have lived through 21 different presidential administrations.

I have been trying to figure out what seems to be so different in Our America these days.

To be exact, ever since 911.

I know, now, that, at least to me, it is not because of any deep worries of terrorism, or of being afraid to be out in crowds or anything like that.

What is different to me is the constant uneasy feeling I have about what our federal government is going to do next.

That is true.

I do have a feeling that never leaves me that George Bush and Co. is going to pull off something that will bring America down a little lower.

I may not be personally involved or personally hurt by this but my country will be.

Never before have I felt that someone in Washington, with the full knowledge and permission of the president is going to create yet another crisis.

And I wonder, if the day comes when our country may be down, is there going to be any country in the world with the desire AND the ability to give us a helping hand?

Yes, I do wonder about that.

A.B.

I just made a post, Mr. A.B., over in the JUDICIAL thread that I am working on, on the subject of JUDICIAL ACTIVISM, here in OUR America, and what it really looks like, "in the flesh", so to speak, and my example was JUDICIAL LANGUAGE from a Federal District Court Judge down there in Houston, Texas, in 2003, that makes it plain as day that what is alleged to be OUR government is in fact a great big liar!

Yes, a liar, right on up into its highest reaches!

And that is not my opinion, that is a FEDERAL ACTIVIST JUDGE'S OPINION, and so, it is no wonder that George W. Bush and TWO-GUN TEXAS TOMMY Delay HATE JUDICIAL ACTIVIST JUDGES SO, because these kinds of judges expose the truth that underlies what you are saying, right above here, about this "uneasiness" that you have about this present ADMINISTRATION of ours, which is the worst that I have ever experienced in my life as an American, which, while not as long as yours, still has within it direct experience of presidents on back to Dwight David Eisenhower, who still serves as a kind of example of quiet leadership to me, and standing up against injustice, as well.

To me, George W. Bush is exactly opposite to Eisenhower in that one regard - George W. Bush just seems to be the CHAMPION of injustice, to me, and that is quite disturbing, actually, since injustice is the father and mother both of tyranny and despotism, and we do not need either of those, here in OUR America.

Not by a long shot, and yet, that is all George W. Bush has to offer us!

HIS WAY or the HIGHWAY!

And his way to me is the road to HELL, and so, life is interesting, is it not, here in OUR America, these days?

SO, folks, stay tuned!

AND ....

IF you want to read more about the subject of JUDICIAL ACTIVISM here in OUR America, and what it might mean to you, well, then, just cruise on over to the JUDICIAL part of the Forum, and read what Federal Court Judge Lynn N. Hughes had to say about OUR government lying through its teeth in a Federal Criminal trial down there in George W. Bush's HOME STATE of TEXAS!

Makes for quite interesting reading, indeed!

And it is very educational, to boot.

And when you read that decision, you'll know why George W. Bush and TWO-GUN TEXAS TOMMY are literally foaming at the mouth in rage over ACTIVIST JUDGES, here in OUR America!

[Livyjr]

IF you want to read more about the subject of JUDICIAL ACTIVISM here in OUR America, and what it might mean to you, well, then, just cruise on over to the JUDICIAL part of the Forum, and read what Federal Court Judge Lynn N. Hughes had to say about OUR government lying through its teeth in a Federal Criminal trial down there in George W. Bush's HOME STATE of TEXAS!

Makes for quite interesting reading, indeed!

And it is very educational, to boot.

And when you read that decision, you'll know why George W. Bush and TWO-GUN TEXAS TOMMY are literally foaming at the mouth in rage over ACTIVIST JUDGES, here in OUR America!

And here, America, and the world as well, I am just now returning from the JUDICIAL FORUM, where I have been updating my thread over there on a perceived attack, or assault, more likely, on OUR right to dissent in the County of Rensselaer in the State of New York.

My latest series of posts over there have to deal with a very public message that was released by the President of the County of Albany, State of New York Bar Association in March of 2003, where the President of the Albany County Bar Association stated that in Albany County, State of New York, the home of the State's government, lawyers there "don't deal in fairness, we deal in legal results, without regard to ethics."

As I think on those words, in the direct context of where I live in OUR America, which is here, where those words were spoken, and where those words have a very dramatic impact on my life as an American citizen, this through this complete and total lack of ethics the Albany County Bar Association President was advertising, very openly and publicly, in March of 2003, that translates in reality to everything being corrupt, which is something that I have been actively involved in fighting as a citizen, since I returned to here from Viet Nam in 1970, I realize just how false everything here in this part of OUR America has become in that space of time since I did return here, from Viet Nam!

The lawyers do their BID-NESS, OPENLY and PUBLICLY, without regard to ethics, here where I am in OUR America, and they openly crow about that, in front of us, in OUR own town meetings, in OUR own town halls!

"You can't stop us!"

"You don't like what we're doing file an Article 78!"

Knowing that we can't!

SO!

Knowing that we won't, because we have been deprived of OUR expert witness by a blatantly illegal "device" called a PSYCHIATRIC TAKE-DOWN, where the state simply has one of its doctors file a psychiatric arrest warrant to remove the expert witness to a secure mental health facility, if the expert witness attempts to give testimony of corruption in a court of law in the state of New York.

And that story can now be told, thanks to the miracle of this internet, and this FORUM, itself, which is heaven-sent, to me!

And thank you, America, and the candid world, for listening, to this old man, out here in this world of OURS, alone!

[Livyjr]

And here, America, and the world as well, I am just now returning from the JUDICIAL FORUM, where I have been updating my thread over there on a perceived attack, or assault, more likely, on OUR right to dissent in the County of Rensselaer in the State of New York.

My latest series of posts over there have to deal with a very public message that was released by the President of the County of Albany, State of New York Bar Association in March of 2003, where the President of the Albany County Bar Association stated that in Albany County, State of New York, the home of the State's government, lawyers there "don't deal in fairness, we deal in legal results, without regard to ethics."

As I think on those words, in the direct context of where I live in OUR America, which is here, where those words were spoken, and where those words have a very dramatic impact on my life as an American citizen, this through this complete and total lack of ethics the Albany County Bar Association President was advertising, very openly and publicly, in March of 2003, that translates in reality to everything being corrupt, which is something that I have been actively involved in fighting as a citizen, since I returned to here from Viet Nam in 1970, I realize just how false everything here in this part of OUR America has become in that space of time since I did return here, from Viet Nam!

And speaking of that sense of the "falseness" of things, here in OUR America, anymore, due to what I think is a break-down of ethics at the highest levels of OUR society, this following story is part of what stirs that "reaction", and reaction it is, "stimulus" received from the "environment", and so "reaction", which then registers on the mind as an "event", for further study!

Business - AP

"LexisNexis: Files May Have Been Breached"

24 minutes ago

By JANE WARDELL, AP Business Writer

LONDON - Criminals may have breached computer files containing the personal information of 310,000 people, a tenfold increase over a previous estimate of how much data was stolen from information broker LexisNexis, the company's parent said Tuesday.

Last month, London-based publisher and data broker Reed Elsevier Group PLC said criminals may have accessed personal details of 32,000 people via a breach of its recently acquired Seisint unit, part of Dayton, Ohio-based LexisNexis.

LexisNexis is a Reed subsidiary.

Reed said it identified 59 instances since January 2003 in which identifying information such as Social Security numbers or driver's license numbers may have been fraudulently acquired on thousands of people.

Information accessed included names, addresses, Social Security and driver license numbers, but not credit history, medical records or financial information, the company said.

Reed spokesman Patrick Kerr said that the first batch of breaches was uncovered by Reed during a review and integration of Seisint's systems shortly after it purchased the Boca Raton, Fla.-based unit for $775 million in August.

Seisint provides data for Matrix, a crime and terrorism database funded by the U.S. government, which has raised concerns among civil liberties groups.

The Matrix database was not involved in the breach, the company has said.

Seisint's databases store millions of personal records including individuals' addresses and Social Security numbers.

Customers include police and legal professionals and public and private sector organizations.

The company said the 59 identified instances of fraudulently obtained information — 57 at Seisint and two in other LexisNexis units — are largely related to the improper use of IDs and passwords belonging to legitimate customers.

It stressed that neither LexisNexis nor the Seisint technology infrastructure was breached by hackers.

Kerr said the company has since ensured that the system is watertight by improving login systems and security checks.

He said only 2 percent of the 32,000 people it notified about the possible theft of their personal information in March have contacted LexisNexis to accept its offer of free credit reports and credit monitoring, and none has so far advised LexisNexis that they have experienced any form of identity theft.

However, LexisNexis Chief Executive Kurt Sanford said Tuesday that of the 32,000 who were notified, law enforcement officials have identified 10 who investigators believe may have been victims of identity theft.

He said it is unclear whether those possible thefts are related to the breach at LexisNexis.

Investigators said only three of those people appeared to have been the victims of financial fraud, Sanford said.

The breach is being investigated by the FBI's cyber-crime squad in Cincinnati.

FBI spokesman Mike Brooks would say only that the agency is pursuing leads.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who has introduced legislation designed to increase protections of consumer data, said LexisNexis turned a blind eye to customer protection.

But Sanford said LexisNexis had initiated the review and notified potential victims.

"We're going to fix this," he said.

"The congressman's statement overreaches and mischaracterizes the situation."

Reed Elsevier played down the effect of the breach on its profits, reaffirming its target of higher earnings and at least 5 percent growth in revenues excluding acquisitions.

The breach at Seisint is the second of its kind at a major information provider in recent months.

Rival data broker ChoicePoint Inc. announced last month that the personal information of 145,000 Americans may have been compromised in a breach in which thieves posing as small business customers gained access to its database.

In the ChoicePoint scam, at least 750 people were defrauded, authorities say.

The case fueled consumer advocates' calls for federal oversight of the loosely regulated data-brokering business, and Capitol Hill hearings on the topic were held last month and are continuing this week.

Reed Elsevier specializes in the education, legal and science sectors, publishing more than 10,000 journals, books and compact discs, as well as almost 3,000 Web sites and portals.

It also organizes 430 trade exhibitions.

The LexisNexis division specializes in legal and business information.

[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.

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."

Yesterday morning, or sometime yesterday, anyway, while listening to the radio news, I heard the voice of what was purported to be Donald Rumsfeld, "COSMIC DONALD" of abu Ghraib fame, tell all the candid world listening at that time that the United States has no "EXIT STRATEGY" for Iraq.

Now, I don't know again why exactly that qualifies as "news", as this admission by "COSMIC DONALD" is really something that most Americans have known for about two years now, since the Bush Co.'s started "rattling" their SABRES in the first place, without a further thought in their alleged empty heads as to what a SABRE really was, and what "rattling" one around in plain view as they were doing really meant in the world at large, BUT ANYWAY ...

Now the admission has been made in public, and so, let's see where we are in Iraq, as of this time, or actually, as of yesterday, close of business, and let's start here with the "HORSE'S MOUTH", himself, "COSMIC DONALD" Rumsfeld, coming to us, mostly live, I guess you would say, from the "HEART" of Dick Cheney's NEW EMPIRE of Iraq:

International News

"Rumsfeld makes surprise visit to Baghdad - Defense secretary warns against political ‘turbulence’"

Muhannad Fala'ah / Getty Images

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari speaks to the media during a press conference with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday in Baghdad, Iraq.

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:44 a.m. ET April 12, 2005

BAGHDAD - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on another quick visit to Iraq, pressed the country's new leaders Tuesday to avoid delays in developing a constitutional government and defeating the insurgency.

"Anything that would delay that or disrupt that as a result of turbulence or incompetence or corruption in government would be unfortunate," Rumsfeld said before he began a round of talks with Iraqi leaders.

The newly designated prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told reporters after meeting Rumsfeld at his official residence that he realized the risk of setbacks in the political process.

Prime minister acknowledges ‘challenges’

"I don't deny there are challenges, but I am sure we are going to form very good ministries," he said in English.

He predicted that the government bureaucracy would be staffed by "good technocrats" from a variety of backgrounds.

Rumsfeld met separately with Interim President Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish former rebel leader.

Leaders of Iraq's persistent insurgency also made a statement Tuesday, ambushing a convoy carrying Iraq’s deputy interior minister.

Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Tariq al-Baldawi escaped unhurt after gunmen in two cars opened fire on his convoy in Baghdad’s western Adel neighborhood, but a bodyguard was killed and al-Baldawi’s son and two other people were wounded, an official in the ministry said.

In other violence, five Iraqi civilians were killed and four others wounded in a suicide bombing in Mosul, and seven Iraqis — two of them police officers — were wounded in attacks in Kirkuk.

In a joint appearance before reporters after their meeting, Rumsfeld and Talabani struggled to make themselves understood to a mixed Iraqi-American press corps.

At one point Talabani translated for Rumsfeld as the defense secretary fielded a question from an Iraqi speaking in Arabic.

After hearing Talabani's version of the question, Rumsfeld accused the reporter of phrasing it inaccurately, and the garbled exchange ended abruptly as another Iraqi posed another question.

Speaking in English, Talabani said he had assured Rumsfeld that Iraq's interim leaders will work together.

Cabinet selection nearing conclusion

"We are planning to have the (permanent) government as soon as possible, but you know this is the beginning of democratization in Iraq," Talabani said, adding that he expects the government to complete its selection of Cabinet ministers before the end of this week.

The next major goal is to have a new constitution written by August and ratified by a national vote in October.

Rumsfeld also held a closed meeting with Gen. George Casey and Lt. Gen. John Vines, the top two American commanders in Iraq.

In a brief interview with reporters later, Casey said he was encouraged that the long and difficult process of training and equipping Iraqi security forces was gaining ground.

"We're getting better and more efficient at it," he said.

The Iraqis, in turn, have gained a new measure of confidence since the Jan. 30 elections.

"Iraqi security forces are operating more aggressively" against the insurgents, Casey said.

Rumsfeld also gave a pep talk to a few hundred soldiers at Camp Liberty, headquarters of the 3rd Infantry Division.

He also pinned Bronze Star medals and Purple Heart awards on several soldiers and participated in a mass re-enlistment ceremony for about 100 soldiers gathered in a mess hall.

‘A critically important role’

"The role you're playing is a critically important role in the global war on terrorism" he told them.

Rumsfeld arrived in the Iraqi capital before sunrise aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo plane for his second visit in three months.

It was his ninth visit since the war began in March 2003.

The frequency of his visits in recent months reflected a desire to push the political and military momentum that Rumsfeld believes has been growing since the Jan. 30 elections for a national assembly.

En route from Washington, Rumsfeld told reporters he would press the new Iraqi leadership to avoid delays on either the political or security front at a time when U.S. troops are still being killed or wounded and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are being invested in rebuilding the country.

"It's important that the new government be attentive to the competence of the people in the ministries and that they avoid unnecessary turbulence," Rumsfeld said.

Some in the Bush administration are concerned that factional maneuvering during the formation of the transitional government could undermine the counterinsurgency effort that is a key to eventually pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq.

[Livyjr]

Yesterday morning, or sometime yesterday, anyway, while listening to the radio news, I heard the voice of what was purported to be Donald Rumsfeld, "COSMIC DONALD" of abu Ghraib fame, tell all the candid world listening at that time that the United States has no "EXIT STRATEGY" for Iraq.

International News

"Rumsfeld makes surprise visit to Baghdad - Defense secretary warns against political ‘turbulence’"

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:44 a.m. ET April 12, 2005

BAGHDAD - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, on another quick visit to Iraq, pressed the country's new leaders Tuesday to avoid delays in developing a constitutional government and defeating the insurgency.

"Anything that would delay that or disrupt that as a result of turbulence or incompetence or corruption in government would be unfortunate," Rumsfeld said before he began a round of talks with Iraqi leaders.

En route from Washington, Rumsfeld told reporters he would press the new Iraqi leadership to avoid delays on either the political or security front at a time when U.S. troops are still being killed or wounded and billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are being invested in rebuilding the country.

Some in the Bush administration are concerned that factional maneuvering during the formation of the transitional government could undermine the counterinsurgency effort that is a key to eventually pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq.

And for a second view of "COSMIC DONALD'S" admission that the Bush Co.'s have no EXIT STRATEGY to get OUR troops out of Iraq, let's go here:

International News

"Iraqis get an earful from Rumsfeld - Defense chief tells officials to speed up formation of government"

Sasa Kralj / AP

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld speaks during a press conference with Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani after their meeting in Salahedin, near Irbil, Iraq on Tuesday. Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq Tuesday, urging the country's new leaders to stay on track in forming a new government.

By Charles Sabine, Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 1:17 p.m. ET April 12, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.

NBC News’ Charles Sabine reports from Baghdad on the message Rumsfeld brought to Iraqi leaders, mainly stressing the need to quickly establish a new government.

What was Secretary Rumsfeld’s main message?

Rumsfeld’s message was made extremely loudly and clearly in his indomitable style when he told the interim Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari about Washington’s frustration with the fact that 10 weeks after the historic elections here in Iraq, the government has still yet to be formed.

The defense secretary made the Iraqi officials fully aware of his belief that this delay is having damaging effects on Iraq’s future.

It not only undermines the faith of the Iraqi people in democracy.

But, every day the formation of the government is delayed is yet another day that U.S. troops are going to have to remain in this country.

In addition, the power vacuum only feeds the insurgency that is making the daily lives of regular Iraqis so miserable.

There were numerous vivid illustrations that the insurgency is still alive on Tuesday.

As Rumsfeld was meeting with both Iraqi politicians and later with U.S. military commanders there was an incident in Mosul, to the north of Baghdad, where five civilians were killed after a car bomb attack on a U.S. convoy there.

With violence continuing, how was Rumsfeld’s message regarding political expediency and need to be vigilant against corruption taken?

The defense secretary was assured by the fledgling political leaders that they are doing everything that they can to move this process along.

The Iraqis say that they understand the concerns of the Washington administration.

They also said that they do not intend to put off the creation of a constitution here until the middle of August.

Although, they do have a legal window of opportunity that would allow them a delay of six months, they understand the message from Rumsfeld and the U.S. administration is that they should not use that six-month delay.

They say that they will be doing everything they can in the coming days to create the government so that they can put the constitution into place.

Do the Iraqis have a timeline for when they plan to have the government in place?

The Iraqis have said that they will have a government in place within two weeks.

The key issues that are still outstanding are the defense and oil ministries.

They say that they will have those two powerful ministers appointed within the next 10 to 14 days.

By that time the government should be fully in place and it can start working on the constitution.

Did Rumsfeld hear of any positive developments?

The Iraqis also pointed out that they believe that there are successes now to be reported from coalition troops — the Iraqi and U.S. forces — and that it is not all bad news here.

This is the same message that Rumsfeld got from American military commanders.

There is now a growing belief among the coalition forces that they are turning the tide against the insurgency and making more effective arrests.

There was an example of that on Tuesday.

Security forces announced that they captured a former senior Baath member and colleague of Saddam Hussein’s who is believed to be an active supporter of the terrorism that has been de-stabilizing the rebuilding and security of Iraq.

They arrested a man named Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud al-Mashadani who was the leader of the military bureau in Baghdad during the Saddam regime.

He was apparently apprehended by security forces in an operation in a farmhouse northeast of Baghdad.

This is just the latest in a series of proactive sweeps by coalition forces, both American and Iraqi, and successes that they believe are showing that they are now starting to win this battle.

But, there is clearly a long way to go.

Rumsfeld has made comments that he intends to continue to reduce U.S. troop numbers in Iraq, as well as reduce the length of tours for soldiers.

What has been the response from troops on the ground?

That was another key positive point for Secretary Rumsfeld today — the issue of reducing troops numbers.

On the plane over to Iraq, he told reporters that he did not intend to have U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely.

He said that plans are now being considered to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq from its current level of approximately 140,000.

The U.S. soldiers that we have spoken have also been particularly encouraged by the news that in addition to reducing troop numbers, the length of their tours may also be reduced from the current period of about one year, down to six months.

Many of the troops we have spoken to say that a reduction in the length of tours would provide a real morale boast, particularly since many say they reach a point of burnout around six months into their tours, especially in the difficult summer months.

Charles Sabine is an NBC News' Correspondent on assignment in Baghdad.

end quotes

Ah, yes, the "light at the end of the tunnel" theory!

I remember it well from my own days as an infantryman in Viet Nam!

"We have them insurgents right where we want them, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel, because of that!'

Except it was really just another muzzle flash, signifying "INCOMING" coming at us, since the insurgents really had us where they wanted us, which was pinned down by incompetent leadership in Washington, D.C., in yet another "war on TAY-RAH" that the fools down there inhabiting that pestilential place just did not understand, in their OVERWEANING ARROGANCE at their own alleged POWER, down here on this earth of OURS.

And here I must wonder at what kinds of threats "COSMIC DONALD" made to these Iraqis to have them "speed up" the process over there, for the Bush Co.'s, who have no ideas whatsoever, themselves, on seemingly much of anything, except where the money is, anyway, and how to get that money diverted over to their pockets, er, PAC's, and the pockets of their "FAT CAT" supporters and friends in the Security BID-NESS, among others!

Is "COSMIC DONALD" going to have these Iraqis stripped down, made naked, and piled in a pyramid if they don't "perform" as the Bush Co.'s want?

Stay tuned!

We shall soon find out!

[Livyjr]

And for a second view of "COSMIC DONALD'S" admission that the Bush Co.'s have no EXIT STRATEGY to get OUR troops out of Iraq, let's go here:

International News

"Iraqis get an earful from Rumsfeld - Defense chief tells officials to speed up formation of government"

By Charles Sabine, Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 1:17 p.m. ET April 12, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.

NBC News’ Charles Sabine reports from Baghdad on the message Rumsfeld brought to Iraqi leaders, mainly stressing the need to quickly establish a new government.

What was Secretary Rumsfeld’s main message?

Rumsfeld’s message was made extremely loudly and clearly in his indomitable style when he told the interim Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari about Washington’s frustration with the fact that 10 weeks after the historic elections here in Iraq, the government has still yet to be formed.

end quotes

And here I must wonder at what kinds of threats "COSMIC DONALD" made to these Iraqis to have them "speed up" the process over there, for the Bush Co.'s, who have no ideas whatsoever, themselves, on seemingly much of anything, except where the money is, anyway, and how to get that money diverted over to their pockets, er, PAC's, and the pockets of their "FAT CAT" supporters and friends in the Security BID-NESS, among others!

Is "COSMIC DONALD" going to have these Iraqis stripped down, made naked, and piled in a pyramid if they don't "perform" as the Bush Co.'s want?

Stay tuned!

We shall soon find out!

And what about the Iraqis, themselves?

How do they view all this "POSTURING" by the fabulous Bush Co.'s?

Let's look and see:

Middle East - AP

"Iraqis Increase Calls for U.S. to Leave"

12 April 2005

By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis are increasingly calling on U.S. forces to leave their troubled nation, emboldened by a newly elected parliament and the growing presence of their blue-uniformed police forces — even though the new Iraqi leaders say it's too early to talk about a U.S. pullout.

The calls gained momentum when Shiite and Sunni religious clerics called for protests to mark the two-year anniversary of Baghdad's fall, prompting four days of demonstrations across the country.

Tens of thousands of mostly Shiite protesters, largely followers of militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, filled central Baghdad's streets Saturday, holding the largest anti-American protest since the invasion.

Demonstrations have continued, all echoing the same demand:

It's time for U.S. troops to leave.

Still, some Iraqis say it's too early for the Americans to leave because Iraqi forces aren't ready for the daily attacks that have killed thousands in the past two years of the insurgency.

"If the Americans leave Iraq now, the political forces will fight each other in order to get power and the victims will be the Iraqi people," said Rashid Abass, a 61-year-old waiter.

Even the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, which has been accused of ties to insurgents, has called for a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal, not an immediate exit.

But the protests reflect a growing impatience with American troops, viewed here both as protectors and antagonizers.

Insurgents fueling the conflict direct their rage at U.S. troops and Iraqis seen as cooperating with them.

That, in part, has delayed any talk of a pullout, with U.S. leaders saying they will only leave when the Iraqi government asks them to go.

On Sunday, protesters shouted anti-American slogans in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of the capital.

A day later, a similar demonstration was held in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

On Tuesday, in the troubled city of Samarra, tribal, city and religious leaders gathered along with students in the shadow of a spiral minaret, throwing rocks at U.S. tanks and shouting for the Americans to leave.

"The Iraqis will fight until they force (the Americans) to leave and let us live in peace and security," Hassan Neama, 33, said Tuesday in Baghdad.

"They are the source of all of Iraq's problems."

"We consider the Americans our enemy, not our savior from the Saddam Hussein regime."

Some Iraqis argue the country is ready to take care of itself — after the Jan. 30 elections, the first free vote in 50 years, and last week's naming of an interim prime minister, Shiite Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

"The American troops should leave our country because there is an elected government in Iraq now."

"If they stay longer, things won't get any better," said Abdul Rahman Hatam, a 21-year-old cook in Baghdad.

"We, as Arabs, don't accept any foreigner controlling our country."

Iraq's new leaders, however, have cautioned against a pullout, saying they need more time to train Iraqi police and soldiers whose ranks are growing each day.

The country is also still at least eight months away from electing a permanent government.

New lawmakers must first write a permanent constitution by Aug. 15, and the document must be approved during a referendum in October.

In an interview with CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday, new interim President Jalal Talabani said he didn't agree with the protests, arguing that U.S. forces were needed in Iraq until the country can rebuild its security forces — something he said could take two years.

In a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld didn't address the topic of a U.S. withdrawal.

But he called on the country's new leaders to avoid delays in drafting a permanent constitution and building a strong police and army — a reminder the United States doesn't plan to stay forever.

"Anything that would delay that or disrupt that as a result of turbulence or incompetence or corruption in government would be unfortunate," Rumsfeld said.

President Bush has refused to set a timetable for withdrawal — even though more than a dozen countries have already pulled out of Iraq and several more are considering leaving the U.S.-led coalition.

Speaking to soldiers Tuesday at Fort Hood, Texas, Bush said U.S. troops would come home only once Iraqis are able to control their country.

"Iraqis want to be led by their own countrymen," Bush said.

"We'll help them achieve that objective."

"And then our troops can come home with the honor they deserve."

On Tuesday, Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said his country — the United States' fourth-largest coalition partner — wants to leave the country in the first few weeks of 2006, after the U.N. mandate on the multinational force in Iraq expires.

[Livyjr]

I live out in the country, myself, so that when I'm not "in here", I am generally outside, breathing country air, and hearing country silence, and generally, just enjoying life, or trying to, anyway, which is an exercise in positive thinking, at all times, for me, anyway, who suffered a wound to the back of the head in March of 1989 that has left me in a disabled state, all these years later, as I near 60 years of age!

I have a creek that flows through where I am, and I have been by that water since I was 3 years old!

I go down by that water, and stand there, and listen to it flow, all the different sounds that it makes on its journey to the sea, down past New York City, and then brushing up against the Cliffs of Mohr, in Ireland, across the wide Atlantic!

That same water!

From that one small creek!

Sometimes, I take the digital movie camera and film the flow of the water, the currents, the ripples, and when you watch it back, through a VCR, on television, the patterns are incredible to watch!

Water "co-operates" with itself in order to be able to flow downhill, and when you watch it flow, especially magnified by the camera, you can see that "co-operation" as it happens; water approaches an "obstacle", say a rock sticking up through the water's surface, and before it gets there, the water "splits" and simply flows around the "obstacle", paying it no heed whatsoever, as it flows to the sea!

It's interesting that this particular water actually rises not far from me, and so, I am seeing this water on its way to the sea, AT THE PLACE OF ITS OWN ORIGINS, and after all these years, that somehow remains a very spiritual thing for me, to be down by this water, watching it flow!

This water comes from what are called a series of "Rosary Bead" ponds, which are a series of seeps and springs in a chain of ponds just over beyond me that create the creek!

Where the creek flows by me, it is down in a quite rocky gorge, and it is flowing NORTH!

Just to the west, as the crow flies, anyway, is the Hudson River, where this water flowing north, by me, is heading, AND .....

The Hudson is flowing south!

In fact, just to get about seven or so miles to the west from where it rises, my creek goes all over the place, literally, flowing north from its source so that it can flow south to the sea!

SO!

Talk about determination!

Or wanderlust, maybe!

Whatever, for me, there is a lot of power that comes to me from that water, and on days such as we have been having up here, lately, where we are under the influence of a dry air mass sitting up in Canada, to the north, again, from where I am, we have had incredibly clear blue skies to the north, that are a cobalt blue in color.

What days to be alive!

But then, everyday is, and so ....