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

[anderson_perry]

ok, i feel better now

i was just having a blond moment, they happen from time to time

thanks guys

- perry

This post has been edited by anderson_perry: Apr 25 2005, 04:15 PM

[jeffmoskin]

ok, i feel better now

i was just having a blond moment, they happen from time to time

thanks guys

- perry

phew

[Livyjr]

A pretty good "investment," wouldn't you say?

What I really think is that while George W. Bush is out there sending BILLIONS of OUR tax dollars over to Iraq to line pockets over there, that where I live in OUR America is going right to hell!

SO?

What country is it that George W. Bush is really the president of?

"Housing agencies' troubles mount - Crumbling and vacant buildings, debts plague group founded in 1982 to provide affordable homes"

By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Saturday, April 23, 2005

ALBANY -- O.D. Pearson keeps a tidy house.

That's why he is so bothered by the landlord next door, a not-for-profit group that is the city's largest private owner of apartments for the poor.

Taking a break one afternoon this week after repainting his front steps, the 65-year-old Pearson looked with disgust at the two vacant, decrepit row houses marred by peeling yellow paint and boarded-up windows.

"They've been that way for 15 years."

"They had pigeons in there, cats going in and out, people breaking in, all of that," said Pearson, who bought his two-story home at 352 Livingston Ave in 1967.

He moved to Colonie in 1981 and rents out the property.

"My tenants were always complaining about it."

"I called and called them to do something about this," Pearson said of the building's owner.

"Finally, last year, they boarded up all the broken windows and took off the front stairs."

"I don't understand why they just don't tear it down."

In addition to troubling Pearson, the crumbling row houses symbolize the foundering condition of their owner, St. Joseph's Housing Corp.

Founded in 1982 with the mission of making affordable places for people to live, St. Joseph's grew quickly, using millions in public subsidies to buy and repair dozens of homes in Arbor Hill and West Hill.

It now owns more than 70 buildings containing 191 apartments.

But between 2000 and 2003, St. Joseph's lost more than a half-million dollars and now faces a mounting pile of mortgages, property taxes and other unpaid bills, financial records show.

A red flag came last summer when city officials removed a mother and four children from an apartment on Clinton Avenue that had a broken toilet, a rotting bathroom floor and no hot water.

St. Joseph's -- which routinely spends $1 million a year -- is now threatened with foreclosure by the city unless it immediately makes critical repairs and catches up on overdue city loans on almost two dozen buildings.

A dozen properties are so bad that the city has declared them uninhabitable.

One such wreck is a 132-year-old row house at 397 Clinton Ave., directly across from the new State Employees Federal Credit Union branch, which the city recruited in 2003 as part of efforts to help revitalize Arbor Hill.

Piles of moldy clothes and trash now litter the front of the boarded-up building.

A snapped-off maple tree lay on the ground near the front porch.

City Building and Codes Director Nicholas DiLello said another 27 buildings have been cited for more than 260 violations, ranging from broken toilets and exposed electrical wiring to faulty smoke alarms and inadequate heat.

The city has taken St. Joseph's to court for not fixing violations 35 times since last summer, said Deputy Fire Chief Robert Forezzi.

More than $4,500 in fines were imposed, although Forezzi couldn't say if they were paid.

Because so many of its apartments are falling apart, many people don't want to rent from St. Joseph's.

About half of its apartments are vacant, meaning less rent is coming in at the same time cash is needed for repairs.

"This has been going on for a long period," said Rose Brayboy, acting executive director at St. Joseph's since March 2004.

"This didn't happen in the last one, two or three years."

"Management here just didn't do what it was supposed to do."

"Years and years of that took its toll."

The same month Brayboy was hired, St. Joseph's founder and longtime board president, Peter Phelan, left in a leadership shake-up.

Last fall, the city padlocked his apartment because of squalid conditions.

This month, Latham-based Sunrise Management & Consulting was hired to review the problems, manage properties and help devise a rescue plan.

"I'm confident that we can turn things around," Brayboy said Friday.

She has a lot to fix.

Delinquent property taxes total almost $120,000, some as far back as 2001, according to county records.

Last year, St. Joseph's failed to pay property insurance premiums and lost a $4,000 judgment in state Supreme Court.

That led Albany County sheriff's deputies to seize cash from a St. Joseph's account at the State Employees Federal Credit Union.

On Tuesday, the city Community Development Agency issued an ultimatum:

Repair dozens of building code violations on 14 apartments in 30 days or the city would demand immediate repayment of more than $400,000 in loans that St. Joseph's used to buy the buildings.

The city also is insisting that six delinquent loans be repaid, some of which are eight months overdue.

Failure to pay or make the repairs could lead to eviction, the city warned.

"Over the years, they let things get away from them," said Community Development Director Joseph Montana.

He said the city learned only recently that St. Joseph's wasn't paying off several of its loans.

But financial records show a troubled past.

Unpaid bills nearly tripled to $288,000 from 2000 to 2003, the most current year for which financial records are available.

Debts such as unpaid rents also doubled to nearly $90,000.

During that same time, money spent on maintenance and repairs fell by nearly half, from $180,000 to $98,000 by 2003.

Brayboy said the corporation will need outside help to turn things around.

"We need to have a capital campaign."

"I hope people will rally around St. Joseph's," she said.

"Whatever was done here in the past, let those people account for that."

Brian Nearing can be reached at 454-5094 or by e-mail at bnearing@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

What I really think is that while George W. Bush is out there sending BILLIONS of OUR tax dollars over to Iraq to line pockets over there, that where I live in OUR America is going right to hell!

SO?

What country is it that George W. Bush is really the president of?

"Housing agencies' troubles mount - Crumbling and vacant buildings, debts plague group founded in 1982 to provide affordable homes" 
 
By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Saturday, April 23, 2005

ALBANY -- O.D. Pearson keeps a tidy house.

That's why he is so bothered by the landlord next door, a not-for-profit group that is the city's largest private owner of apartments for the poor.

Taking a break one afternoon this week after repainting his front steps, the 65-year-old Pearson looked with disgust at the two vacant, decrepit row houses marred by peeling yellow paint and boarded-up windows.

"They've been that way for 15 years."

"They had pigeons in there, cats going in and out, people breaking in, all of that," said Pearson, who bought his two-story home at 352 Livingston Ave in 1967.

He moved to Colonie in 1981 and rents out the property.

"My tenants were always complaining about it."

"I called and called them to do something about this," Pearson said of the building's owner.

"Finally, last year, they boarded up all the broken windows and took off the front stairs."

"I don't understand why they just don't tear it down."

In addition to troubling Pearson, the crumbling row houses symbolize the foundering condition of their owner, St. Joseph's Housing Corp.

Founded in 1982 with the mission of making affordable places for people to live, St. Joseph's grew quickly, using millions in public subsidies to buy and repair dozens of homes in Arbor Hill and West Hill.

It now owns more than 70 buildings containing 191 apartments.

But between 2000 and 2003, St. Joseph's lost more than a half-million dollars and now faces a mounting pile of mortgages, property taxes and other unpaid bills, financial records show.

A red flag came last summer when city officials removed a mother and four children from an apartment on Clinton Avenue that had a broken toilet, a rotting bathroom floor and no hot water.

St. Joseph's -- which routinely spends $1 million a year -- is now threatened with foreclosure by the city unless it immediately makes critical repairs and catches up on overdue city loans on almost two dozen buildings.

A dozen properties are so bad that the city has declared them uninhabitable.

And while things are going to hell up here in his capital city, where is BUSH ALLY George Pataki these days?

"Pataki aides spotted in Iowa - Des Moines paper says governor may be eyeing '08 presidential run"

By MICHAEL COOPER, New York Times
First published: Saturday, April 23, 2005

ALBANY -- As the guessing game about Gov. George Pataki's political future continues in New York, The Des Moines Register reported this week about "sightings this week of Pataki political aides in Iowa, the starting gate for the 2008 presidential race.

The paper said the aides had been seen "sniffing around Des Moines and the Iowa Capitol on a not-quite-covert mission to establish contact with influential Republicans" and suggested that they could be laying groundwork for a run in the Iowa caucuses.

"They didn't mention the caucuses at all," one Iowa Republican who met with the aides said in an interview.

"They just wanted to say hello."

"In Iowa, we get a lot of that."

Pataki is expected to announce his plans before New York's legislative session ends in June, and maybe earlier.

His advisers say that he has not yet made up his mind, but many lobbyists, lawmakers, political operatives and Pataki associates in Albany say they do not expect him to seek a fourth term as governor.

For many months, Pataki has appeared to flirt with a run for national office.

Some of his supporters say privately that they think a run for president would be farfetched, given the Republican Party's move rightward and Pataki's slipping poll numbers at home.

But others say that his political skills and his prodigious ability to raise money would make him a contender in 2008.

Fueling some of the speculation were campaign-finance reports filed this week by the governor's Virginia-based political action committee, the 21st Century Freedom PAC, showing that he is increasingly relying on a large national public affairs firm, the DCI Group, for political advice.

Its chairman, Tom Synhorst, helped Sen. Bob Dole win the Iowa caucuses in 1988, and one of its founders, Tim Hyde, led the Iowa Republican Party in the early 1980s.

The governor used the firm during his re-election campaign in 2002.

Adam Stoll, who managed the 2002 campaign, went on to open the firm's New York City office after the election and worked there for more than a year before leaving to work in finance.

Walter Breakell, who was the research director for the campaign and later an adviser to the governor, now runs the DCI Group's office in New York.

According to filings with the state, the DCI Group, which advertises an array of services, has also lobbied the state and the governor on behalf of General Motors and the GTECH Corp., which makes computerized gambling systems.

An adviser to Pataki said the firm helped the governor choose candidates to campaign with in the rest of the nation.

end quotes

And of course, there is no conflict of interest for Pataki to be giving money to this same DCI Group firm that is lobbying him on behalf of these other clients!

This Pataki and "TWO-GUN TEXAS TOMMY" Delay would make quite a pair, campaigning together!

Peas in a pod, OUR George from up here, and TEXAS' Tommy, from down there!

Peas in a pod, a matched set of them at that!

[Livyjr]

Hhhhmmmm.

March 10, 2005!

Anyone ever hear anything more about this?

NO?

Me, neither!

Anyone surprised?

No, me, neither!

Europe - AP

"Italy's Berlusconi Forms New Government"

ROME - Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi formed a new government on Saturday, presenting a list of ministers to Italy's president.

With his reconstituted government, the Italian media magnate hopes to improve his sagging popularity and remain in power until the next election, due in mid-2006.

end quotes

Isn't it something how much can disappear from our minds with the simple passage of time.

A blessing perhaps, especially for politicians!

I heard on the radio news this morning that the United States (surprise, surprise) is prepared to issue a report that basically lays all the blame for this Italian guy, this Calipari, getting shot in Iraq, right on his shoulders!

It was the Italian guy's fault, as I said quite a few weeks ago, now, and no American is to blame for anything!

Hell, with a shot like that, right in the guy's temple, the shooter is a hero!

And what is this Berlusconi going to do about it?

My prediction is nothing at all!

If he is smart, like everyone else on this earth, he will just keep his mouth closed, right up tight!

Speaking out can be downright hazardous to your health, when George W. Bush is in town, or "CON JOB" Connie, for that matter, and make no mistake about it.

Right, Calipari?

[Livyjr]

I heard on the radio news this morning that the United States (surprise, surprise) is prepared to issue a report that basically lays all the blame for this Italian guy, this Calipari, getting shot in Iraq, right on his shoulders!

It was the Italian guy's fault, as I said quite a few weeks ago, now, and no American is to blame for anything!

Hell, with a shot like that, right in the guy's temple, the shooter is a hero!

And what is this Berlusconi going to do about it?

I saw a friend today, and we were talking about this exoneration of ourselves in this Calipari shooting, and the interesting thing is that this person, a Viet Nam vet like myself who knows people fighting in Iraq, right now, had seen photographs of Calipari with the fatal hole in his head that were taken by American soldiers on the scene!

I don't think anything happens in combat in Iraq that is not already all around the world in a flash, a moment after, and so it was with this Calipari with the hole in his head!

A trophy shot!

A photograph of the kill!

Flashed right here to OUR America in a heartbeat, almost as it happened!

The power of digital technology!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, on the one hand, and on the other, give us instant confirmation that this Calipari won't be negotiationg with no more people that George W. Bush don't want nobody talking to, and especially the Italians!

Except, it was an Italian!

Good old Calipari "done the dirty" one more time too many, and so, the boy got popped!

The military internet story goes that Calipari had given the TAY-RISTS some $8 MILLION and the TAY-RISTS were going to kill Americans with that money, and well, you know, if you have been there, [sounds of light whistling, sounds of weapon discharging, GOOD NIGHT!]!

And what are the Italians going to do about it?

Stop sending us silk suits?

That's the chatter, anyway, as I hear it!

Back to you, America!

[Livyjr]

Good old Calipari "done the dirty" one more time too many, and so, the boy got popped!

The military internet story goes that Calipari had given the TAY-RISTS some $8 MILLION and the TAY-RISTS were going to kill Americans with that money, and well, you know, if you have been there, [sounds of light whistling, sounds of weapon discharging, GOOD NIGHT!]!

And what are the Italians going to do about it?

Stop sending us silk suits?

That's the chatter, anyway, as I hear it!

Back to you, America!

And that sure is the chatter as I hear it.

Two old men standing there, me and my friend, and we just shake our heads at what is going on in the world around us, and the load of absolute HORSE**** that we're supposed to swallow down everyday, in order to be "GOOD AMERICANS" according to the warped and twist playbook of the REPUBLICAN PARTY, here in OUR America, or maybe, hopefully, as this next story hints, anyway, it is not really the whole Republican Party, after all, that is pushing this "BUSH AGENDA", but just some small but powerful group of fanatics who took it over from within for awhile!

Top Stories - Los Angeles Times

"Clashes Growing Between Bush and GOP Moderates"

Tue Apr 26, 7:55 AM ET

By Ronald Brownstein Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Conflicts are multiplying between congressional Republican moderates and the White House as President Bush pursues his aggressively conservative second-term agenda.

The unexpected resistance to Bush's nomination of John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador from several Senate Republicans marks the latest, and potentially most intense, clash.

But battles over Social Security, Bush's budget proposal and ending the filibuster for judicial nominations also are raising tensions inside the party.

The divisions do not appear as pronounced as the ideological divides among Democrats during Bill Clinton's presidency.

But GOP moderates, especially in the Senate, seem more willing to challenge the administration than during Bush's first term, which was characterized by historic levels of party unity.

"A lot of the moderates were willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt prior to the election, but now that he's no longer going to be on the ballot, they are putting their own interest somewhat before the White House's," said Marshall Wittmann, a former GOP Senate aide who is an official at the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist party group.

A senior White House official said the recent discord reflected the issues Bush was pushing, rather than diminishing presidential clout.

"I wouldn't look at it as 'It's every man for himself' because the president has just been reelected."

"I just think it's a different issue environment and these are tougher issues," said the official, who requested anonymity.

"It's not hard for a Republican to support a tax cut."

"But we are getting into issues that are tougher."

Bush and GOP leaders could pressure enough moderates to prevail on most key issues.

During the president's first term, the moderates often seemed to speak loudly and carry a small stick, voting for key administration proposals, such as tax cuts, after raising early objections.

Also, Bush's sky-high job approval ratings among rank-and-file Republicans and his record of helping the GOP gain congressional seats in 2002 and 2004 encourage party discipline.

"Those are very powerful hooks that will keep the Republican caucus more together than apart," said GOP pollster Bill McInturff.

Yet more turbulence within the party was the last thing most Republicans expected after they expanded their House and Senate majorities in last year's election.

The signs of insurrection have reached a point where some conservatives believe the White House must confront the dissenting voices more forcefully — especially as some Republicans' doubts about Bolton threaten the administration with its first defeat on a top-tier executive branch appointment.

"If the moderates take down Bolton … then you are really starting to get into threatening the party's ability to govern," said Jeff Bell, a veteran conservative strategist.

"I think Bush has to call the moderates' bluff in some way."

Similarly, conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt predicted dire consequences for the GOP if Republican defectors thwarted the expected effort by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to ban the filibuster for judicial nominations.

"Fundraising for the National Republican Senatorial Committee will crater, and the majority so recently and dearly won could well vanish in a matter of 18 months," Hewitt said on his Web log last week.

To many observers, the second-term disputes within the GOP appear noteworthy largely in contrast to the party's unity during Bush's first term.

GOP House and Senate members managed a much higher degree of cohesion in their voting records than during the presidencies of Republicans George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan or Richard M. Nixon.

The Republicans also were much less likely to break with the president than congressional Democrats during Clinton's first term.

"By the standards of the Democrats … [the divide among the Republicans] is still pretty modest, but pretty modest means it is still probably a little different than in the first term," McInturff said.

Even now, the level of defection on most issues remains small.

Republicans this year voted almost unanimously to pass bills that limited class-action lawsuits and made it tougher for consumers to declare bankruptcy, both conservative priorities.

But because Senate Democrats are holding together more effectively than during Bush's first term, even small numbers of GOP defections can sink party priorities, said Michael Franc, vice president for government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.

"The strength of the moderate Republicans derives in no small part from the unity of Senate Democrats," Franc said.

For instance, seven Senate Republicans joined with Democrats last month to block the administration's plan to seek major reductions in the growth of spending for Medicaid.

Continued resistance from GOP moderates to large reductions in federal entitlement programs could keep House and Senate negotiators from reaching agreement on a new federal budget, according to Republican sources following the talks.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have indicated they would oppose any attempt to ban the filibuster for judicial nominations.

Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) seems almost certain to join them.

And enough other GOP senators remain uncommitted to leave the outcome in doubt if the issue comes to a vote.

Last week, objections from Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) forced Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) to postpone a vote on Bolton's nomination until next month.

Chafee and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) also have questioned the choice.

With all committee Democrats planning to oppose Bolton, a defection by even one Republican would doom his confirmation.

Opposition from moderate Republicans is adding to the administration's challenge as it confronts unified Democratic resistance to Bush's plan to carve out private investment accounts from Social Security.

Since all Senate Finance Committee Democrats are likely to vote against the idea, it would die in committee if just Snowe, a committee member, holds in her opposition.

Defections by moderates also produced a series of close calls for Bush during recent Senate votes on his budget.

Seven Republicans broke from his proposal to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but the plan narrowly survived when it attracted support from three Democrats.

In the House, Republican leaders passed Bush's budget only after promising skeptical moderates a vote later this year on legislation to loosen the restrictions the president imposed in 2001 on embryonic stem cell research.

Presidents usually find it tougher to herd their party during a second term.

"There is a certain degree of 'lame-duck-itis' that sets in," said Wittmann, who was an aide to McCain before joining the Democratic Leadership Council.

But on several fronts — such as restructuring Social Security, limiting federal spending and nominating the unwavering conservative Bolton for the U.N. — Bush is pushing moderates to the limits of their political and philosophical comfort levels.

Antonia Ferrier, Snowe's communications director, expressed a common sentiment among GOP moderates when she said, "The senator will try to support the president when she can, but there are times when she has to do what is in the best interest of her state."

[Livyjr]

And that sure is the chatter as I hear it.

Two old men standing there, me and my friend, and we just shake our heads at what is going on in the world around us, and the load of absolute HORSE**** that we're supposed to swallow down everyday, in order to be "GOOD AMERICANS" according to the warped and twist playbook of the REPUBLICAN PARTY, here in OUR America, or maybe, hopefully, as this next story hints, anyway, it is not really the whole Republican Party, after all, that is pushing this "BUSH AGENDA", but just some small but powerful group of fanatics who took it over from within for awhile!

Top Stories - Los Angeles Times

"Clashes Growing Between Bush and GOP Moderates"

Tue Apr 26, 7:55 AM ET 

By Ronald Brownstein Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Conflicts are multiplying between congressional Republican moderates and the White House as President Bush pursues his aggressively conservative second-term agenda.

Yet more turbulence within the party was the last thing most Republicans expected after they expanded their House and Senate majorities in last year's election.

The signs of insurrection have reached a point where some conservatives believe the White House must confront the dissenting voices more forcefully — especially as some Republicans' doubts about Bolton threaten the administration with its first defeat on a top-tier executive branch appointment.

"The signs of insurrection have reached a point where some conservatives believe the White House must confront the dissenting voices more forcefully — "

Boy, I know something about that, myself, and you know what, we are talking about it over in "ISSUES FOR OUR TIMES"!

Succinctly stated, IN THE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN VIEW, when there is dissent to PARTY DICTATES, it will be crushed!

Crushed!

Just like that!

And it is real!

Just ask John McCain!

He knows!

And so do we, those who finally speak out over there in "ISSUES FOR OUR TIMES"!

We who in mute witness stood, stand silent no more!

Read about it!

"Bush Appointee in Northern District of New York Deals Right To Dissent A Death-Blow!"

[Livyjr]

A MAN OR WOMAN WHO CANNOT IN GOOD FAITH AND CONSCIENCE UPHOLD THE AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, INCLUDING THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, AND ITS DUAL REQUIREMENTS OF SUBSTANTIVE AND PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS OF LAW, FOR ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS REGARDLESS OF CLASS, SHOULD NOT BE A FEDERAL COURT JUDGE IN OUR AMERICA!

NO COMPROMISE, MR. REID!

http://www.congress.org to let him know!

[Livyjr]

"The signs of insurrection have reached a point where some conservatives believe the White House must confront the dissenting voices more forcefully — "

Boy, I know something about that, myself, and you know what, we are talking about it over in "ISSUES FOR OUR TIMES"!

Succinctly stated, IN THE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN VIEW, when there is dissent to PARTY DICTATES, it will be crushed!

Crushed!

Just like that!

And it is real!

Just ask John McCain!

He knows!

And so do we, those who finally speak out over there in "ISSUES FOR OUR TIMES"!

We who in mute witness stood, stand silent no more!

Read about it!

"Bush Appointee in Northern District of New York Deals Right To Dissent A Death-Blow!"

A MAN OR WOMAN WHO CANNOT IN GOOD FAITH AND CONSCIENCE UPHOLD THE AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, INCLUDING THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, AND ITS DUAL REQUIREMENTS OF SUBSTANTIVE AND PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS OF LAW, FOR ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS REGARDLESS OF CLASS, SHOULD NOT BE A FEDERAL COURT JUDGE IN OUR AMERICA!

NO COMPROMISE, MR. REID!

http://www.congress.org to let him know!

"DeAngelis aide inquiry is delayed - Lawmakers agree to postpone probe of job arrangement while suit against DA is resolved"

By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, April 26, 2005

TROY -- Rensselaer County officials will not investigate a decision by District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis to allow her confidential assistant to collect a full-time salary while going to college during work hours until related litigation has been settled.

Democratic lawmakers sought an immediate inquiry into the deal that allowed eight-year employee Katrin Ellis to be paid $61,500 a year while she attended courses at The Sage Colleges.

On April 15, Hoosick Falls legislator James Monahan asked fellow Public Safety and Judiciary Committee members to call a meeting to determine if Ellis received special favors at taxpayers' expense.

In a response obtained by the Times Union on Monday, Republican legislators Thomas Walsh Sr. and Peter Durkee, both of Troy, said it is in the best interests of taxpayers to wait.

When the legal case is resolved, an appropriate and thorough review then could begin, "if still desired," they said.

Republicans comprise the majority of the 18-member Rensselaer County Legislature.

DeAngelis is also a Republican.

"Nothing precludes both from going on at the same time," Monahan said after checking with a lawyer.

"Litigation could take years to complete, and important evidence could be lost or destroyed."

"Waiting years could render any investigation meaningless."

DeAngelis is being sued by former prosecutor Jennifer Sober, who said she was fired in November in part because she raised ethical questions about the job arrangement.

Ellis, who has three young children, has taken day and night classes full time for 16 months at the college across the street from the County Courthouse, where she works.

DeAngelis said Ellis used mornings, lunch breaks, nights and weekends to complete work duties.

However, current and former employees in the 35-person office said such responsibilities routinely went undone because Ellis was never there.

Ellis has submitted her resignation, effective May 6, saying she wants to spend more time with her children.

She has denied any wrongdoing.

The niece of former county Republican Chairman James Walsh, Ellis was hired by former District Attorney Ken Bruno in 1997 at a salary of $26,000.

end quotes

"Waiting years could render any investigation meaningless."

Of course it will!

That's the game!

That's why nobody is ever guilty of anything, are they, or at least if they are a Republican!

[Livyjr]

And that sure is the chatter as I hear it.

Two old men standing there, me and my friend, and we just shake our heads at what is going on in the world around us, and the load of absolute HORSE**** that we're supposed to swallow down everyday, in order to be "GOOD AMERICANS" according to the warped and twist playbook of the REPUBLICAN PARTY, here in OUR America, or maybe, hopefully, as this next story hints, anyway, it is not really the whole Republican Party, after all, that is pushing this "BUSH AGENDA", but just some small but powerful group of fanatics who took it over from within for awhile!

Top Stories - Los Angeles Times

"Clashes Growing Between Bush and GOP Moderates"

Tue Apr 26, 7:55 AM ET 

By Ronald Brownstein Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Conflicts are multiplying between congressional Republican moderates and the White House as President Bush pursues his aggressively conservative second-term agenda.

"Residents deride Bush plan - Congressman also urged to speak out on issue of Social Security changes"

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, April 26, 2005

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Their congressman may be silent on the issue, but more than 125 Capital Region residents held their own town hall meeting on Social Security Monday, saying they want to keep the program as it is.

A local branch of In This Together, a national grass-roots campaign that opposes privatization of Social Security, has hounded U.S. Congressman John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, for so far refusing to take a stand on President Bush's proposed changes, which would include the creation of private accounts.

On Monday, after challenging Sweeney to attend, the coalition of largely liberal groups held a pro-Social Security rally in the Saratoga Springs Public Library without him.

An empty chair was intended to symbolize Sweeney's absence, and speaker after speaker testified on a tape to be sent to Sweeney.

Speakers described what the federal retirement and disabilities program meant for them.

"It made the difference between getting by and not getting by."

"It is a check I could not do without as I move into my 80s," Betty Gallagher of Wilton said.

Social Security keeps people out of poverty, Geneva Conway said.

"If my money had been tied up in the stock market, I'd probably be at the corner of State and Pearl Street with a patch over one of my eyes," Conway said.

Young people felt the urgency, too.

Kameron Spaulding, a high school junior, told the crowd that members of his generation aren't being offered pensions or retirement plans, which makes the issue of Social Security that much more vital.

Social Security should be fixed by revoking the President's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, supporters said, and by raising its taxable income above $90,000.

They said President Bush's proposed changes would decrease benefits and increase the federal debt over time.

Sweeney has taken no formal position on Bush's plan because no specific legislation has been introduced, spokeswoman Melissa Carlson said.

Sweeney is organizing a local forum on the issue with all sides of the debate, and the public will have a chance to ask questions in a thorough and deliberate manner, Carlson said.

In This Together does not represent the congressman's entire district, she added.

"Their rhetoric really bothers me because they are trying to tell him how to do his job," Carlson said.

Panel speaker Trudi Renwick of Saratoga Springs said Social Security can continue paying full benefits past 2040.

That doesn't constitute a crisis, Jay Sullivan of Mechanicville said.

"Paul Revere didn't ride around Boston saying, 'The British are coming, the British are coming' in 37 years," Sullivan said.

[Livyjr]

"DeAngelis aide inquiry is delayed - Lawmakers agree to postpone probe of job arrangement while suit against DA is resolved" 
 
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, April 26, 2005

TROY -- Rensselaer County officials will not investigate a decision by District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis to allow her confidential assistant to collect a full-time salary while going to college during work hours until related litigation has been settled.

Democratic lawmakers sought an immediate inquiry into the deal that allowed eight-year employee Katrin Ellis to be paid $61,500 a year while she attended courses at The Sage Colleges.

The niece of former county Republican Chairman James Walsh, Ellis was hired by former District Attorney Ken Bruno in 1997 at a salary of $26,000.

"Officials anxious to see funding"

By DANIELLE T. FURFARO, Staff writerAlnany, New York Times Union
First published: Wednesday, April 20, 2005

NORTH GREENBUSH -- Members of the town Democratic Committee are demanding to know what has become of a promise by state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno to provide nearly $4 million for town projects, including a water tower.

"Last year, the Town Board majority was jumping through hoops to give away taxable land within its boundaries in exchange for $4 million in state taxpayer dollars to be used for various projects in North Greenbush," said Democratic Chairman Daniel Ashley.

"Those projects included a water tower, which the Town Board was forced to bond because the money never materialized."

In August of last year, on the same night that the board voted to cede a 47-acre parcel of land to the city of Rensselaer, Republican town Supervisor Paul Tazbir announced that Bruno had promised state aid for a $2.5 million water tower and a $1 million public safety building, and more than $100,000 for equipment for the Defreestville Fire Department.

On Tuesday, Republican town Councilman Robert Ashe said the money is still on its way.

"We are very confident that the senator is working to fulfill our request," said Ashe.

"The budget had to be worked out, and now that it is all worked out, some attention can be given to this."

But Bruno's office denies that a specific amount of funding was ever promised to the town of North Greenbush.

"We are still waiting for information on the water tower project."

"When we receive it, we will work with the town to see how we can be helpful," said Bruno spokesman Mark Hansen.

"No specific dollar amount was ever committed."

In December, the town voted to bond for the water tower project.

Officials are hoping the tower will open the town up to storing water and selling it to a number of municipalities, including Sand Lake and Poestenkill.

[Morambar in TX]

You play Eisenhower for a fool, and he was not!

Ah, but there's there and there's there my friend. I don't discount your experiences, or the value of statements you make based on them. But a snippet to illustrate what I meant from the reference of which I spoke:

"March 3, 1955 Went to see Sam Rayburn [former House Speaker whose office AND CHAIR were specificly claimed by the Newt when he got the job.] Expected to be there fifteen minutes but stayed an hour. Sam told how he had gone to see Eisenhower with ten Democrats and ten Republicans and found himself in the room alone with Eisenhower."

"'I told him what I told Harry Truman when he first became President,' said Sam. 'Truman was in my office and had just started to take a drink when he got word to come to the White House immediately. He knew and I knew, though we didn't say so -- Roosevelt had died. Later I went to see Truman and told him: "Now you ain't gonna be Harry to me anymore. You are Mr. President. But as an old friend who has known you a long time I'm gonna give you some advice. You ain't as big a man as some people think you are."'"

"'To this Truman replied: "I sure ain't."'"

"'When I told this to Eisenhower he leaned back and roared.'"

"'Then I told Truman he was going to have two great problems. One with the people around him who find themselves in a high position close to the President for the first time in their lives. They will be afraid to let anyone else get near you, and they will be afraid of superior minds. They won't want to argue with people. They will surround you and, if you are not awfully careful, make you their prisoner.'"

"'The second thing you have got to worry about is the big-business sycophant. Now the fellow from Missouri who is a friend of yours will come to town and will find himself with an hour on his hands and will call up and ask for an appointment; he'll find you booked weeks in advance and will take the Baltimore and Ohio back to St. Louis. He won't hang around.'"

"'But the big-business boys will wait for you. They will make it their job to wait. They will be like the king who waited in the street to see the Pope and couldn't p--s until he saw him. They will hang around Washington until they finally see you, and if you are not careful you are gonna get too much advice from them. And their advice isn't gonna be like the fellows from Missouri.'"

"'Well, I told this to Truman and I told it to Eisenhower,' Rayburn concluded. "Truman made some mistakes along this line, but Eisenhower didn't even understand what I was talking about.'"

"'Sid Richardson called me up the other day from Texas,' Sam continued. 'Sid is a Democrat though he voted for Eisenhower, and I asked him, "What does Eisenhower mean by saying I am irresponsible? When I put through the Reciprocal Trade Treaty on that motion to recommit I was a statesman. When I push the twenty-dollar tax reduction to give the little fellow a break I am irresponsible."'"

"'"The trouble with Eisenhower is, said Sid, "that he probably didn't even know you put the Reciprocal Trade Treaty through. He doesn't know what's happening. He never reads the papers."'"
* * *
"Sam also talked at length about commissions.

"'I was in on the borning of every one of these Commissions except the Interstate Commeerce Commission. I wrote the law that passed the Federal Communications Commission. I wrote the law that passed the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and I was in Congress when we planned the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Power Commission. And I wrote the law for the Civil Aeronautics Board.'"

"'The people don't know that these commissions are an arm of Congress. [Hopefully we do now after all the garbage with the FCC.] They do what we don't have time to do. Yet Eisenhower has taken over and even appoints his friends [Similar to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, son of the former Secy. of State.]'"

"'This fellow Hoover helped him do it. This fellow Hoover is the worst curse that has come to government in years.'"

"'You can take a bad law and make it work if you have good adminstrators. But if you have a good law and appoint bad administrators, you just about kill the law [as with the FCC and SEC, et al.] They haven't changed one of these commissions by law. They haven't amended a thing but they have appointed the worst commissioners this country has seen.'"

"'Take this man McConnaughey [FCC Chairman, 1954-57.] He wasn't even honest enough to admit he worked for telephone companies [today of course this is the rule rather than the exception.] His appointment is going to cost the taxpayers millions. Even if he does his best to be honest he can't be unprejudiced.'"
* * *
"'Some of us tried to tell Ike he should run as a Democrat, in which case he would have had men around him to tell him how to run things. But the people around him now don't want him to know.'" (Drew Pearson Diaries, 1949-1959, pp. 339-341.)

Despite the fact that Eisenhowers claim to fame derives largely from the execution of battle plans created by the masterful General Marshall (whom Ike abandoned when he was attacked by McCarthy) I'm not prepared to say he was a fool. He merely wanted a title without the responsibility, and the people who recrutied him were more than happy to handle the latter.

You were there, but I doubt you received apologetic phone calls from a young Senator Kennedy informing you that, on the advice of his Bishop, he was withdrawing his support for you, or reflected on the implications of such a statement for policy decisions made by the Senator.

The Diaries merely confirmed with significant authority what I'd long suspected: that Ike did a lot of things while President, but run the country wasn't one of them; nonetheless, SOMEONE DID. The verdict of history is that an unscrupulous President is well advised to ACT like Nixon but LOOK like Ike (see Reagan Administration.)

This post has been edited by Morambar in TX: Apr 27 2005, 03:26 AM

[Livyjr]

Ah, but there's there and there's there my friend. 

I don't discount your experiences, or the value of statements you make based on them. 

But a snippet to illustrate what I meant from the reference of which I spoke:

Despite the fact that Eisenhowers claim to fame derives largely from the execution of battle plans created by the masterful General Marshall (whom Ike abandoned when he was attacked by McCarthy) I'm not prepared to say he was a fool. 

He merely wanted a title without the responsibility, and the people who recruited him were more than happy to handle the latter. 

Ah, Morambar!

Now, you are using your intellect in a manner more in fitting with the general tone and tenor of Life in OUR America, which is in part, what lessons can we learn from the past, which some of us, like Mr. A.B., especially, were there to experience for ourselves, or as jeffmoskin and I would say, WHAT LESSONS HAVE WE FAILED TO LEARN, especially about bad leadership!

I myself was alive when Ike was president, and while I won't say he was necessarily a good president, since like the existence of the Illuminati, "good" in a president is hard to either prove or disprove, I actually felt somewhat "comfortable" under Ike, as anyone who was there during those years will tell you that they were sometimes tension-filled, and so, getting a sense of comfort from a man who was in there as president wasn't a bad thing at all!

Today, all I get from George W. Bush is a continual sense of foreboding, and anxiety!

But back to Ike!

I think one real thing in here that we old timers share, myself, at almost sixty, then jeffmoskin and finally, Mr. A.B., who was actually in WWII and so can speak about those times with as much authority as anyone else can; is perhaps a "sense of wonderment" about this thing called "leadership", and what people in America at any given time look for in a leader!

As for me, having been a combat soldier, a "dog of war", what I don't want in someone imposed on me as an alleged "leader" is overt stupidity, and outside of that, I really don't look for much at all, because when I was young in America, we were trained to be self-sufficient, and so this thing of going out and looking for someone to "lead" me just was never on my list of things to do, and still is not.

SO, Morambar, as a younger person, who came into a much different America than I did, well, you have to take that "generational" thing into consideration when considering at least my own comments in here, which are, well, mine!

I have a good friend who was in the United States Army all through WWII, as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, and he and I have talked about Ike quite a bit, and yes, Ike was a bit of a puffed-up man, and he did rely on others for actual war planning, BUT ....

In the sense of understanding war, and in that sense alone, Ike was not totally ignorant, especially about Viet Nam, when Dien Bien Phu was going on.

Much remains classified about OUR plans during that siege, but there was a fear that we would be sucked in, and that was a real fear.

Think on this for a moment!

Dien Bien Phu happened AFTER the Chinese had came across the border into Korea, when McArthur, the American "Caesar" before this present American "caesar", pushed to close to the Chinese border in Korea, and so, people over here, and Ike would be one of them, unless he was totally brain-dead, knew there were problems over in that part of the world that could be a slippery slope.

Dien Bien Phu happened at a time when there was not the mass distraction that there is now, and so, I think that event was more in the foreground then, than it might be today, but in any event, Dien Bien Phu was a real turning point in Viet Nam, and I would say that our involvement there, militarily, can be traced directly to the French loss at Dien Bien Phu!

As to your "greater" argument on how good, or not good, Ike was as a president, there, I will not argue, as I can't, and so, I will consider your information from Sam Rayburn and Drew Pearson as "solid ground" that has to be considered in evaluating those years, and whatever impact, positive or negative, those years might have had on us today!

A point, Morambar, is that each of us in here is unique, yourself, myself, jeffmoskin, Mr. A.B., who is the oldest of us, amy, and perry, and everyone else who might come through the door, and so, we all have unique outlooks, rather than a lock on the "exclusive truth", and so we discuss and debate, perhaps, and your post above is directly in that spirit, and so I welcome it in here, because of that!

What anyone, including myself, "takes" from it is akin to a thirsty horse standing in the middle of a river and just looking around!

There is water there, if you would only deign to drink it.

And that is a point that you must consider, Morambar, for the rest of your life, as us oldsters in here do, as well, that in life, perhaps most people don't care to hear a word you have to say, you being the rhetorical "you", of course, and not you personally, and so, you must always guard against not saying anything at all because no one is listening.

That then takes the water out of the river where the thristy horse is standing!

I guess what I am trying to say, Morambar, is welcome, and continue to endeavor to persevere, and if it don't get you no farther forward than you have already gotten in life, at least it won't put you back, and sometimes, that is about as good as it is going to get, that day, anyway!

[Livyjr]

The Diaries merely confirmed with significant authority what I'd long suspected: that Ike did a lot of things while President, but run the country wasn't one of them; nonetheless, SOMEONE DID. 

The verdict of history is that an unscrupulous President is well advised to ACT like Nixon but LOOK like Ike.

And here, Morambar, you are "dead on", with respect to the American "political bible" of today:

Be a chamelion!

That way, nobody will ever know quite what you are, and they certainly likely won't guess what you are about, if you are a politician!

But as the man once said; some man, I think it was, although a woman could have said it too, it's not a secret after all; AS THE MAN ONCE SAID, while America seems able to turn out and produce a huge volume of fools per minute, whose apparent purpose in life is to be like sheep, and so get "sheared", NOT EVERYBODY IN AMERICA IS A FOOL!

Right, TEXAS TOMMY?

Politics - U. S. Congress

"GOP Weighing New Concessions on Ethics"

Wed Apr 27, 2:31 AM ET

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - In a standoff shadowed by Rep. Tom DeLay's troubles, House Republican leaders are considering concessions to Democrats that would get the House ethics committee functioning again.

But first they must convince rank-and-file members that retreating from Republican-passed investigative procedures is a good idea.

Republican leaders were expected to discuss changes with their members Wednesday, four months after the GOP shunned bipartisanship to approve the new rules.

Speaker Dennis Hastert has said in recent days he would not rule out changing the rules and a GOP aide, speaking Tuesday on condition of anonymity, said he believes the speaker and other party leaders have concluded the GOP must act to end the stalemate.

While some Republicans may be unhappy with any retreat, they are enduring heightened attacks by Democrats who contend the new rules were written to protect Majority Leader DeLay, R-Texas, from further investigations.

The leader was admonished by the committee last year on three separate matters involving his conduct.

Since then, new questions have been raised about whether a lobbyist — now under federal investigation — paid for some of DeLay's foreign trips in violation of House rules.

DeLay has maintained they were properly paid for by trip sponsors.

Democrats have made clear they won't allow the evenly divided committee to conduct business, including investigations of lawmakers, until the rule changes are reversed and a bipartisan task force writes new procedures.

The chairman of the House ethics committee, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., offered concessions to Democrats last week, including an investigation of DeLay.

Democrats rejected the offer, insisting they wanted the rules overhauled first.

The ethics committee is one of the few places minority Democrats can assert power in the House because it is divided between five Republicans and five Democrats.

The Democrats have refused to provide a sixth vote to allow the committee to operate.

DeLay received a boost from President Bush on Tuesday.

The president gave the Texas Republican a ride on Air Force One back to Washington after the lawmaker appeared with Bush at a Social Security event in Galveston.

The White House denied that DeLay's appearance with Bush was a way for the president to give the House leader a political boost.

"I appreciate the leadership of Congressman Tom DeLay in working on important issues that matter to the country," Bush said before he spoke on the need to revamp Social Security.

The ethics chairman, Hastings, has concluded that his Republican colleagues must allow another vote on the rules passed in January if they have any hope of allowing the committee to function, according to a senior aide who said he wasn't authorized to be quoted by name on GOP discussions.

The aide said "Hastings and Hastert are working to find a solution."

The rules change that upset Democrats the most would require a majority vote to launch an investigation or to prevent automatic dismissal of a case.

For example, the rule would require at least one Republican vote to investigate DeLay.

The GOP aide said that Republicans would continue to defend their changes as necessary to provide more fairness to members under investigation.

Likewise, they would keep asserting the changes had nothing to do with DeLay.

Rather, the argument would be that it's more important to place the ethics committee back in operation than to insist on rules that keep it deadlocked.

[Livyjr]

I mean, really.

Who gives a damn?

Well, that's a pretty good question that jeffmoskin has tossed out to us here, is what I think, anyway!

Who, in fact, does give a damn?

It's a conundrum, alright, but let's see, well, there's Mr. A.B., who I am pretty sure of, and well, yes, there is jeffmoskin, from what I hear anyway and well, let's see .....

World - Reuters

"Several Dead as Urban Warfare Rages Over Togo Poll"

1 hour, 3 minutes ago

By Silvia Aloisi and John Zodzi

LOME (Reuters) - Security forces in Togo fought pitched battles with machete-wielding youths on Wednesday in violence which has killed at least 20 people and caused over 1,000 to flee since the late ruler's son won a disputed poll.

As police and protesters clashed in dirt backstreets of the seaside capital Lome, the losing opposition candidate declared himself president, and called on his supporters to remain mobilized, warning they might have to sacrifice their lives.

"At the moment we've counted nine dead, eight nationals of Niger who were beaten up and burned alive ... and one policeman who was killed with machete blows," acting Interior Minister Katari Foli-Bazi told reporters after touring the capital.

Urban warfare erupted in Lome minutes after officials said on Tuesday that Faure Gnassingbe, son of Gnassingbe Eyadema who ruled the former French colony for nearly four decades until he died in February, had won Sunday's presidential election.

Some 1,200 people have fled to neighboring Benin and Ghana since violence broke out in several towns following the poll results, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said.

"We are hoping that this is not the first sign of a major influx, that calm will be restored and people will return," the UNHCR Africa bureau director, David Lambo, said in a statement.

Relative calm returned late in the day to the main opposition suburb of Be, where security forces had earlier fired rubber bullets at youths dug in behind blazing barricades, though tear gas canisters were still being fired sporadically.

Two doctors at Lome's main hospital said they had heard of about 50 killed, while reports from other staff, aid workers and residents added up to at least 10 dead.

Opposition leaders said 12 of their supporters had been killed.

More than 100 people were wounded, many by gunfire, hospital and aid workers said.

"Armed men and militias are going into courtyards and shooting at people," one doctor, who did not want to be named, said, adding some of the casualties had been shot in the back.

OPPOSITION "PRESIDENT"

Residents in the town of Aneho, some 28 miles east of Lome, said people started fleeing to Benin after youths attacked local government buildings and set cars on fire.

"The security forces retaliated and several people were injured by bullets and people were also killed," the owner of a private radio station in Aneho said by telephone.

Scores of people -- some on foot with their belongings on their heads and others crammed into cars -- could be seen heading along the main road from Lome to Benin.

France's foreign ministry said several French nationals and other foreigners had been victims of violence and vandalism.

Togo spun into chaos when Eyadema died after 38 years in power and army leaders named Gnassingbe to replace him, saying they feared a dangerous political vacuum.

He eventually stepped down under fierce international pressure and called elections.

Sunday's poll was effectively a referendum on nearly four decades of repressive rule by Eyadema, who led a 1963 coup, declared himself president four years later, and eventually became Africa's longest-serving leader.

On Wednesday the main opposition candidate, Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, declared himself president. Akitani-Bob won 38.19 percent of Sunday's vote against Gnassingbe's 60.22 percent.

"We must fight with our lives if necessary ... to force the one who believes he has a divine right over our people to listen to reason," he told reporters.

Gnassingbe, a business-minded 39-year-old, has offered to form a unity government but opposition leaders have rejected that, saying they cannot work with a fraudulent president.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said democratic leaders must abide by the laws of the land.

(Additional reporting by Alain Amontchi, Emmanuel Braun, and Tom Ashby in Lagos)

end quotes

In all honesty, when I read this statement above here about these people in Togo going to fight with their lives to force this "ONE" who believes he has a divine right over their people to listen to reason, I had to wonder, ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT GEORGE W. BUSH?

Is Togo going to war against George W. Bush because they can't work with a fraudulent president?

Is that what I am hearing here?

WOW!

[Livyjr]

FROM THE BEGINNING:

Good day all!

What is history?

History is what we are doing in here right now, and what we are doing each and every minute of our collective days.

That is history!

We are history!

In Livy's day, 59 BC to 17 AD, simple people in Rome and Italy, for that matter, did not get to write history, and even come into the record by name.

The lives of the common man and woman of that era are largely lost to us two thousand years later in 2004.

Not so with us today, however, at least as long as these computer forums continue to exist, and a record continues to be made of the days of our passing, here in our America.

But here is where I want to start anyway, with this initial posting, right after the history of Livy, of an article concerning George W. Bush, and what he is now promising us, the American people, for the next four years!

Will any of it happen?

Will any of us ever see one word of what he says come true?

Who knows?

We'll just have to keep coming back to our daily lives here in America day after day to find out, because while history is what we are doing right now in America, that only hints at what is to come; it does not tell us for certain what will transpire.

Only the passage to time can do that, tell us where we have been!

The Diaries merely confirmed with significant authority what I'd long suspected: that Ike did a lot of things while President, but run the country wasn't one of them; nonetheless, SOMEONE DID. 

The verdict of history is that an unscrupulous President is well advised to ACT like Nixon but LOOK like Ike!

You know, Morambar, of course, that the job of American president is really whatever the incumbent makes of it, and Ike certainly was no exception, there, just as George W. Bush is no exception, right now today!

And that really brings us to one of the core issues in here, which is one of "WHAT IS AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT", anyway?

Myself, jeffmoskin, and Mr. A.B. all lived though a moment in time, however brief, when America had no president, and what ever really did happen as a result of that, that anyone knows about, anyway?

Certainly, I know my thoughts on that day, and likely, jeffmoskin and Mr. A.B. do as well, but I would doubt any of our thoughts were the same!

And how were OUR lives changed by the fact that for a moment in time, America had no president?

And here, of course, I am talking about the day Kennedy died!

What happened in those moments when America had no president?

Did time end?

Did the Martians invade and carry us all off without our being able to defend ourselves against them, because we had no president?

Or did nothing at all happen?

I was there, and I know what I saw!

And I didn't see anything change, or crumble, or doing anything at all, to be truthful, BECAUSE ......

While America might have a president, that president is never America, merely its executive officer, and that is something that I think we as a nation need to take stock of, once again, which is this question of why we bother to have a president!

We don't need one for anything, when it comes down to that, because when Kennedy died, we didn't have one, and nothing happened!

The bureaucracy exists to keep the engine moving and that is that!

And on the day Kennedy died, it did exactly that, without missing a beat, that I could discern, anyway!

No lights flickered!

The earth did not tremble!

Nothing!

The chief executive is really just a figurehead, and always more or less was, and Eisenhower knew that from all his long years in OUR militray, which is both a meritocracy, or I found it to be, anyway, and a very efficient bureaucracy, to boot.

As Commander of all of OUR forces in Europe in WWII, all Eisenhower really had to do was play golf!

His subordinates, including Marshall, existed, as I did a generation later, to know their jobs and to do their jobs, whether there was an Ike or not, and that they did, as I did, as well!

If George W. Bush were to simply start playing golf now, and never go back to Washington, again, nor make public appearances, why, it would be the best thing I think he could do for this nation, like Ike!

And Morambar, to me, the one important thing that I think Ike did for America was to not tolerate discrimination, and therefore to not promote it, but fight it instead!

I was there, Morambar, and if Ike did nothing else, I thought with just that one thing, that stand against discrimination, Ike did what every American president should do, set the tone and tenor of what he, the man, was going to stand for, and hence, the nation, as well!

We could do well in OUR America, in my opinion, anyway, to have that kind of leadership back in OUR White House, in place of this far cry that we have in there today, who certainly is no Ike when it comes to any kind of stand against discrimination!

In fact with regard to discrimination, as I perceive it from my perspective as a disabled person who is on the receiving end of discrimination, and the abject cruelty that usually accompanies it, George W. Bush is a promoter of it, in exact opposite contrast to what I recall of Ike's stand on that same subject!

In fact, if Ike were around today, I have to wonder if he wouldn't up and quit the Republican Party as I did for its real "behind-the-hype" stance on discrimination in OUR America!

[jeffmoskin]

\
"If my money had been tied up in the stock market, I'd probably be at the corner of State and Pearl Street with a patch over one of my eyes," Conway said.\

Damn!

I had my eye on that corner for MYSELF!

Looks like there is competition everywhere in Bushworld.

Every man for himself.

Every bankrupt for himself.

[Livyjr]

Damn!

I had my eye on that corner for MYSELF!

Looks like there is competition everywhere in Bushworld.

Every man for himself.

Every bankrupt for himself.

See!

The old adage is right!

"He who hesitates is lost!"

Or is it really, "the early bird gets the worm?"

Or "DON'T BET ON GEORGE W. BUSH FOR SECURITY IN YOUR FUTURE"?

Hhhhmmmm?

[Livyjr]

"Defense Contractors Report Strong Earnings"

By Christian Plumb, Reuters Financial

1 hour, 25 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. defense contractors reported strong quarterly earnings on Thursday as the Pentagon put billions into high tech military equipment and services.

Earnings soared 76 percent at Northrop Grumman Corp., 30 percent at Raytheon Co. and 22 percent at Goodrich .

All three aerospace and defense companies beat analysts earnings forecasts, and they raised their earnings outlooks for the rest of the year.

After the news, shares of aircraft part maker Goodrich rose 6.4 percent, while Northrop Grumman stock was up 1.6 percent and Raytheon's shares were 1.9 percent higher.

"Everybody's coming in like gangbusters," said Paul Nisbet, an analyst with independent research firm JSA Research.

"They were all well above expectations, and there is certainly every indication of increased guidance for the year on all three."

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., which reported earnings this week, also beat forecasts and raised guidance for the rest of the year.

However, results from No. 2 defense contractor General Dynamics were seen as being weak.

Demand from the Pentagon as well as the Department of Homeland Security also boosted results at Titan Corp. which provides intelligence and translation services.

Titan said on Thursday its earnings rose sixfold, sending its shares 2.9 percent higher.

Contractors are reaping rewards of a surge in defense spending from a little over $300 billion before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States to about $500 billion now, Nisbet said.

'NETWORKED'

"On the military side we've had a strong defense budget for four years ... and it takes a long time for that to get into the bottom line of these companies," Nisbet said.

"We're now beginning to see the impact of these increases."

He added that the Iraq war has created demand for about $8 billion a year in weapons replacement and repairs.

However, President Bush's latest proposed budget aims to reduce funding for aircraft, missile defense and shipbuilding programs.

"We've been saying for quite some time that defense spending is probably going to slow."

"The question is what rate does it slow to," said Nick Fothergill, an analyst at Banc of America.

He said spending on weapons programs could slow to 3 to 4 percent from 7 percent.

"Procurement and R&D will slow down a bit but at least it will still be growing," Fothergill said.

Several contractors are also seeing strong demand for information technology and communications products as the Pentagon tries to build a more "networked" military.

"Sometimes we think of ourselves as a shipbuilder, as an airplane company, but if you stand back and you look at our revenues ... we're driven by information technology, systems integration and electronics," Northrop Chief Executive Ronald Sugar said in a conference call on Thursday.

Increased spending would probably be focused on the U.S. Army to the detriment of the Navy and Air Force, Fothergill said.

He added that General Dynamics and United Defense Industries Inc. -- being taken over by BAE Systems Plc -- would be the prime beneficiaries of such a shift.

Companies in the civilian aircraft market such as Raytheon and Goodrich also benefited from strong demand, both as airlines upgraded old planes and passenger jet makers Boeing Co. and Airbus ramped up production, Nisbet said.