Life in OUR America, Volume 5, the Livyjr Files Options

[Snuffysmith]

1,400 Miles Across Generations

By Chuck Raasch
August 18, 2006


WASHINGTON — It started as a well-planned college tour with a sleepy 17-year-old. It ended with a determined quest for a Jimi Hendrix CD. And that, fellow boomers, is the difference between our generation and that of our Generation Y children.

Four days, four universities, four states and 1,400 miles later, several conclusions became obvious. Not that any 17-year-old boy is typical these days — indeed, that's the point. More than anything, theirs is the a la carte generation. For American kids born after 1980, multiple choice is existence.

The things their parents were raised on — benevolent father figures on TV, the early struggles over gender roles, a few dominant channels of entertainment — are distant history. Girls and boys are as likely to be best friends as girlfriend and boyfriend. Father Knows Best has morphed into Homer Simpson. The idea of three network TV channels with Walter Cronkite as the dominant anchor of news is laughable. And a lot of that rebellious rock-and-roll that drove our parents crazy is tame and hokey to our kids.

If you doubt that, listen to rap on commercial radio while driving through the back roads of southern Virginia. After that, Hendrix sounds like Pat Boone.

At 17, my biggest worries had been about the draft. Boys a couple of years older were in Vietnam and the war had dragged beyond understanding. The draft wound down my senior year in high school and officially ended 45 days after my 18th birthday. Then, I could not envision any 18-year-old volunteering during a war.

But 18-year-olds are signing up for Iraq, Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terrorism. In North Carolina, news came that 21-year-old Marine Enrique Henry Sanchez of Garner, N.C., had died in Iraq. His grandmother told The Associated Press that the boy had so much wanted to be a Marine he had lost 150 pounds by dieting and running with an 80-pound backpack. Stories like that make you realize that commitment and sacrifice are the province of no generation, not even the "Greatest Generation" made famous in the World War II nostalgia literature.

Some call those born after 1980 the 9/11 generation. Sept. 11 is a fixture but not a fixation. It has been a fact of childhood that terrorists threaten civilization, and may always, but that life goes on.

The 9/11 generation is both traditional and iconoclastic. Talking heads often depict it as selfish and disengaged, often symbolized by the empty pursuits of Paris Hilton. In fact, according to social scientists, Generation Y has a respect for community and authority that makes it more akin to the 18-year-olds on the beaches of Normandy than the Y Generation's baby boomer parents

"This generation, the baby boomlet, is a very odd generation," said Rachel Kleinfeld, 30, the founding director of the Truman National Security Project, a Democrat think tank. "They are much more sexually conservative than the generation before them. They are much more religious than the generation before them. They are very community oriented. Their numbers on community orientation are like those of the greatest generation, the World War II generation. They are extremely loving of their parents. Many of them call their parents their best friends. And they are also very respecting of authority, but not all types of authority."

For instance, the 9/11 generation respects the military but not the traditional news media or government institutions. If you were born after 1980, you are likely to gather your impressions of the world as much through MySpace as any front page.

"The spin is absolutely mistrusted by this generation," Kleinfeld told a recent gathering of the Democratic Leadership Council. "And they need a politics of conviction."

Maybe that's why there were certain things, surprising things, upon which my son and I agreed over those 1,400 miles. We listened to my CD's and agreed the music of my generation was idealistic beyond reason. We listened to rap and agreed the music of his generation is fatalistic, but that doesn't mean the generation is. Most of all, there is much we can learn from one another.

Which brings us back to Hendrix. My two boys' iPods contain rap, rock and roll, oldies and country. They personalize the best of what they like most, and today Hendrix has become hot among teenagers because of his guitar-playing gifts. When I was 17, Hendrix was an expression of rebellion; today, he is a musical bridge between generations.

Just outside the University of Virginia, we found a store with a best of Hendrix CD. Its final cut is the "Star-Spangled Banner."

Contact GNS Political Writer Chuck Raasch at craasch@gns.gannett.com.

[Livyjr]

Sorry ...

But I do not listen to rap ...

At all ...

Period ....

Period ....

Thanks .....

But no ....

[Livyjr]

"1,400 Miles Across Generations"

By Chuck Raasch
August 18, 2006
 
WASHINGTON —
 
"This generation, the baby boomlet, is a very odd generation," said Rachel Kleinfeld, 30, the founding director of the Truman National Security Project, a Democrat think tank.

"They are much more sexually conservative than the generation before them."

"They are much more religious than the generation before them."

"They are very community oriented."

"Their numbers on community orientation are like those of the greatest generation, the World War II generation."

"They are extremely loving of their parents."

A big murder trial up here in Albany, New York just finished up ....

The person was convicted of murdering his father, a lawyer, and law clerk .....

With an axe ....

And like Lizzy Borden before him .....

He gave his mother a few whacks too ....

Although he did not end up killing her .....

This kid that did this is in college ....

Or was, anyway .....

Nice home ....

A nice yellow Jeep he had to drive .....

A strange case people up here say ....

But whoever does know .....

Maybe this kid with the axe liked rap .....

Or maybe rock-and-roll .....

Or maybe he was just tone-deaf .....

And didn't care .....

Strange ....

Personally ....

I am glad that trial is over .....

So I don't have to have it staring me in the face everyday .....

Making me wonder ....

About what it is ...

With this particular generation ...

That has them so violent up here .....

That the son of a lawyer kills him with an axe .....

And the son of a Congressman up here ....

And the son of the State University Chancellor .....

Both were arrested for stomping people in fights .....

With their jackboots ....

Like they were common goons ....

So ...

It's nice to hear .....

That somewhere out there ...

This Rachel Kleinfeld, 30, the founding director of the Truman National Security Project, a Democrat think .....

Was able to find some nice kids ....

That's cause for hope ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

I was in the United States Army getting ready to go to Viet Nam .....

When I first heard Jimi Hendrix ....

And the rebellion was already there .....

Ahead of him ....

Coming on like a tidal wave .....

But that was in 1968 .....

And by the time this GNS Political Writer .....

Was getting out of high school .....

All of that by then ....

Was long gone .....

And the times ...

They were tame once again ....

And so ...

Jimi Hendrix .....

Was a reflection of the times that he was in ...

Not at all a cause of them ...

And so .....

In the United States Army at that time .....

Blacks and whites were getting it on with each other .....

In brawls .....

Right on Army bases .....

With entrenching tools .....

Which were handy weapons ...

Since everyone had been issued one .....

As part of our gear .....

And so ....

If you wanted to get to VEET NAM back then .....

To get yourself killed over there .....

Doing something that you just loved to do .....

You had to first survive training over here .....

Keeping your head ....

From being split open ...

By the pick on an entrenching tool .....

In a race riot .....

On an Army base ...

Right here in OUR own America .....

And so .....

Violence is ....

As violence does ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

Neoconservatism: It's the new fringe.

"Bush says Israel defeated Hezbollah" 
 
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:06 p.m., Monday, August 14, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, just hours after a cease-fire took hold Monday, said Hezbollah guerillas had suffered a sound defeat at the hands of Israel in their monthlong Mideast war.
 
"There's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon," Bush said, referring to plans for the Lebanese government, backed by an international force, to reassert control in the area that has been dominated by Hezbollah fighters.

The president spoke at the State Department after conferring with his national security team, first at the Pentagon and then at State.

He was flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Hezbollah attacked Israel, Hezbollah started the crisis, and Hezbollah suffered a defeat in this crisis," the president said.

In the Mideast, there were competing claims about who came out on top in the war.

And speaking of armies ....

And who won the war ....

"Israeli troops criticize army, equipment"

By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:45 p.m., Friday, August 18, 2006

METULLA, Israel -- Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Lebanon say the army was slow to rescue wounded comrades and suffered from a lack of supplies so dire that they had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas.

"We fought for nothing."

"We cleared houses that will be reoccupied in no time," said Ilia Marshak, a 22-year-old infantryman who spent a week in Lebanon.

Marshak said his unit was hindered by a lack of information, poor training and untested equipment.

In one instance, Israeli troops occupying two houses inadvertently fired at each other because of poor communication between their commanders.

"We almost killed each other," he said.

"We shot like blind people."

"... We shot sheep and goats."

In a nation mythologized for decisive military victories over Arab foes, the stalemate after a 34-day war in Lebanon has surprised many.

The war was widely seen in Israel as a just response to a July 12 cross-border attack in which Hezbollah gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two.

But the wartime solidarity crumbled after Israel agreed to pull its army from south Lebanon without crushing Hezbollah or rescuing the captured soldiers.

A total of 118 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting, and the army was often caught off guard by a well-trained guerrilla force backed by Iran and Syria that used sophisticated weapons and tactics.

Soldiers, for instance, complained that Hezbollah fighters sometimes disguised themselves in Israeli uniforms.

Military experts and commentators have criticized the army for relying too heavily on air power and delaying the start of ground action for too long.

They say the army underestimated Hezbollah, and that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert set an unrealistic goal by pledging to destroy the guerrilla group.

This week, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz appointed a former army chief to investigate the military's handling of the war.

Some of the harshest criticism has come from reservists, who form the backbone of the army.

Israeli men do three years of mandatory service beginning at age 18, but continue to do reserve duty several weeks a year into their 40s.

Israeli newspapers quoted disgruntled reservists as saying they had no provisions in Lebanon, were sent into battle with outdated or faulty equipment and insufficient supplies, and received little or no training.

"I personally haven't thrown a grenade in 15 years, and I thought I'd get a chance to do so before going north," an unidentified reservist in an elite infantry brigade was quoted as telling the Maariv daily.

Israel's largest paper, Yediot Ahronot, quoted one soldier as saying thirsty troops threw chlorine tablets into filthy water in sheep and cow troughs.

Another said his unit took canteens from dead guerrillas.

"When you're thirsty and have to keep fighting, you don't think a lot, and there is no time to feel disgusted," the unidentified soldier was quoted as saying.

The newspaper said helicopters were hindered from delivering food supplies or carrying out rescue operations because commanders feared the aircraft would be shot down.

In some cases, soldiers bled to death because they were not rescued in time, Yediot Ahronot said.

The Israeli military said it was aware of the complaints, had tried to address them in the course of the fighting and was still looking into them.

It had no comment on specific complaints.

Comrades of the two soldiers captured by Hezbollah sent a petition to the prime minister Thursday accusing the government of abandoning the men.

"We went to reserve duty with the certainty that all of Israel's citizens, and the Israeli government, believe in the same value that every combatant learns from his first day in basic training -- you don't leave friends behind," the soldiers wrote.

"This is a moral low point."

"The Israeli government has abandoned two IDF (Israeli Defense Force) combatants that it sent on a mission."

The petition was being circulated Friday; it was unclear how many soldiers had signed it.

While such sentiments aren't shared by all soldiers, even some senior commanders acknowledge the army came up short in Lebanon.

When soldier Gil Ovadia returned home, his commander made no mention of victory in an address to their battalion.

Instead, the commander told them the war was over, said they did a good job, and advised that they be prepared to come back soon and fight again.

"We'll be back in Lebanon in a few months, maybe years," Ovadia said.

end quotes

If George W. Bush .....

Would act as a president of the United States of America .....

Instead of as a cheerleader for Isreal ....

And if he would take some time ....

To get his facts straight ....

Before running his mouth ....

And speaking drivel ....

On the world stage .....

Which everyone but him knows is drivel ...

Such as Isreal beat Hezbollah in this most recent war ....

Maybe people would respect him more ....

But he has been doing this same mindless crap now ...

Since he got into office ....

Blustering like a mindless fool ...

And causing more and more misfortune for the world .....

With his mouth ....

To the point ...

Of where up here ...

No one wants to even hear his name spoken ....

And if they do ...

They make warding signs with their fingers .....

As if the devil himself were near ....

And so ....

If these Isrealis .....

Are going to try and make Hezbollah wear women's underwear .....

The way George W. Bush ...

Made the Iraqis wear women's underwear .....

Maybe they ought to bring a lunch with them next time ....

And some water as well ....

Because it sure sounds like they might need one ...

Next time around ....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

And speaking of attacks ....

Here comes George .....

"Bush blasts court ruling on surveillance"

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:17 p.m., Friday, August 18, 2006

CAMP DAVID, Md. -- President Bush on Friday criticized a federal court ruling that said his warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional, declaring that opponents "do not understand the nature of the world in which we live."

"I strongly disagree with that decision, strongly disagree," Bush said, striking his finger on a podium to underscore his point.

"That's why I instructed the Justice Department to appeal immediately, and I believe our appeals will be upheld."

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit on Thursday was the first to find the National Security Agency surveillance program unconstitutional.

The program involves monitoring international phone calls and e-mails to and from the United States involving people with suspected ties to terrorists.

"If al-Qaida is calling in to the United States, we want to know why they're calling," Bush said.

Critics say the surveillance program skirts the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court warrants for domestic eavesdropping.

The administration has argued that obtaining warrants from a secret court set up under FISA is a time-consuming process unsuited for the government's fast-moving war on terror.

The judge said the government, in defending the program, appeared to be saying the president had the "inherent power" to violate laws of Congress.

"It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control," Taylor wrote in a 43-page opinion.

"... There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution."

"So all 'inherent powers' must derive from that Constitution."

On other issues, Bush said it would take the world time to view the war between Israel and Hezbollah as a loss for the Islamic militant group.

"The first reaction, of course, of Hezbollah and its supporters is, declare victory," Bush said.

"I guess I would have done the same thing if I were them, but sometimes it takes people a while to come to the sober realization of what forces create stability and which don't."

"Hezbollah is a force of instability."

Bush also expressed some disappointment with France's contribution to an expanded peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

France had been expected to make a significant new contribution that would form the backbone of the expanded force.

But French President Jacques Chirac disappointed the United Nations and other countries by announcing France would contribute just 200 combat engineers to its current 200-member contingent in Lebanon.

"France has said they will send some troops," the president said.

"We hope they'll send more."

Members of Bush's economic team stood alongside the president as he spoke under bright sunshine at the Camp David helipad.

Among attendees were Vice President Dick Cheney, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, National Economic Council Director Allan Hubbard and White House budget chief Rob Portman.

The meeting came at a time when only 37 percent of Americans support Bush's handling of the economy, according to AP-Ipsos polling in early August.

It's also just weeks before congressional midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans continue to control the House and the Senate.

Bush declared the economy solid and strong because of tax cuts his administration pushed through Congress.

He rattled off a series of economic indicators, including the nation's 4.8 percent jobless rate in July and 4 percent annual economic growth rate through the first half of the year.

But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took issue with Bush's upbeat comments on the economy, saying, "President Bush may think the economy is moving forward, but many hard working Americans are stuck living paycheck to paycheck."

"Under President Bush and the Republican Congress, the economic situation for too many Americans is going in the wrong direction," said the California Democrat.

Since Bush took office, she said, "real median family income has dropped by $1,700 while families are paying $3,200 more in household costs."

Bush did not mention that the July unemployment rate had inched up from 4.6 percent in June, reflecting a slowdown in job creation that reflects weaker economic growth.

And while the gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 5.6 percent in the first quarter, it slowed to just 2.5 percent in the April-June quarter.

On Friday, a University of Michigan survey showed consumer confidence fell sharply in early August to the lowest level in 10 months as Americans were rattled by new terrorism concerns and gasoline prices above $3 per gallon.

Bush did not mention the jump in gasoline prices, although he did discuss the need to invest in new energy technologies.

Paulson, speaking to reporters later, said the team spent much time talking about long-term challenges such as changing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in view of the pending retirement of 78 million baby boomers.

"We think it is quite possible to come up with a fix that is quite doable," Paulson said of reforming the government programs.

"The question is whether we can get the support of Congress to get something done."

------

AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

end quotes

George W. Bush of all people, telling us, the American people, that opponents "do not understand the nature of the world in which we live" ......

Is quite insulting, actually ....

George W. Bush ...

VIOLATING ....

OUR LAWS ...

AND OUR CONSTITUTION ....

And then having the gall .....

To tell us ....

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE .....

That we are stupid ...

And uniformed .....

Because we won't let him do this .....

TO US, THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA ....

Well ....

What I say ...

Is that George W. Bush ....

Was wrong to try ...

And so .....

Shame on him ....

For trying .....

AND NOT US ....

FOR HAVING HIM STOPPED ....

But it is typical mindless George .....

TO CALL US IGNORANT .....

When he is at fault ....

Caught out breaking OUR LAWS ....

And so .....

George was never really one of us ....

Having lived his life ...

So far above us ....

That he doesn't even know what OUR values are .....

Nor does he really care .....

And so ....

It is George who is quite a bit out of touch ....

With the world that we all must live in every day .....

And it is George W. Bush .....

Who is stuck in Lotus-Eater Land somewhere ......

Where life is quite a bit different than it is here, obviously .....

And each time that George W. Bush insults OUR intelligence, again ....

His own stature as an alleged leader OF A FREE PEOPLE ....

Is just diminshed further and further ....

To the point of where he has no credibility now ....

And he is heading over into negative numbers in that score column ...

And so ...

[Livyjr]

May 03, 2005

Lyrics to the song Bright Eyes played on Leno

"When The President Talks To God"

When the president talks to God ..

Are the conversations brief or long?

Does he ask to rape our women's' rights ...

And send poor farm kids off to die?

Does God suggest an oil hike ...

When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God ...

Are the consonants all hard or soft?

Is he resolute all down the line?

Is every issue black or white?

Does what God say ever change his mind ...

When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God ...

Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?

Agree which convicts should be killed?

Where prisons should be built and filled?

Which voter fraud must be concealed ...

When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God ...

I wonder which one plays the better cop ...

We should find some jobs ...

The ghetto's broke ...

No, they're lazy, George, I say we don't ..

Just give 'em more liquor stores and dirty coke ..

That's what God recommends ..

When the president talks to God ...

Do they drink near beer and go play golf ...

While they pick which countries to invade ...

Which Muslim souls still can be saved?

I guess god just calls a spade a spade ...

When the president talks to God ...

When the president talks to God ...

Does he ever think that maybe he's not?

That that voice is just inside his head ...

When he kneels next to the presidential bed ...

Does he ever smell his own bull**** ...

When the president talks to God?

I doubt it ...

I doubt it ...

http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/archives/2...s_to_the_s.html

[jeffmoskin]

May 03, 2005
When the president talks to God ..

Are the conversations brief or long?

The resident has never said he talked to God. He said that God talked to him.

[Livyjr]

The resident has never said he talked to God.

He said that God talked to him.

Of course God talks to him ....

George W. Bush is the leader of the free world ...

And God sure is not ....

And so .....

And besides that ...

George W. Bush is the decider ......

And again ...

God sure is not ....

Which kind of puts God in the "second seat" .....

In that relationship ....

As I see it ....

And so ...

George listens ...

While God beseeches ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

And while George W. Bush is debating whether to hear God out ...

On what God's plans for the planet might be ...

Versus the plans that George has for it ....

Which involve a lot of exploitation .....

And destruction ....

And not much else .....

Perhaps the planet has decided .....

To tell George W. Bush .....

THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD .....

As well as being THE DECIDER ....

To go to hell ....

Or Connaught ....

Or mayber Moreton Bay, Austrailia ....

It don't matter ....

To the earth, anyway ....

And so ...

"Seas turning to primeval soup - Industrialization gives the most primitive life in the ocean an edge"

By KENNETH R. WEISS, Los Angeles Times
First published: Friday, August 18, 2006

MORETON BAY, Australia -- The fireweed began each spring as tufts of hairy growth and spread across the seafloor fast enough to cover a football field in an hour.

When fishermen touched it, their skin broke out in searing welts.

Their lips blistered and peeled.

Their eyes burned and swelled shut.

Water that splashed from their nets spread the inflammation to their legs and torsos.

"It comes up like little boils," said Randolph Van Dyk, a fisherman whose powerful legs are pocked with scars.

"At nighttime, you can feel them burning."

"I tried everything to get rid of them."

"Nothing worked."

At first, authorities dismissed their complaints -- until a bucket of the hairy weed made it to the University of Queensland's marine botany lab.

Samples placed in a drying oven gave off fumes so strong that professors and students ran out of the building and into the street, choking and coughing.

Scientist Judith O'Neil put a tiny sample under a microscope and peered at the long black filaments.

Consulting a botanical reference, she identified the weed as a strain of cyanobacteria, an ancestor of modern-day bacteria and algae that flourished 2.7 billion years ago.

O'Neil, a biological oceanographer, was familiar with these ancient life forms, but had never seen this particular kind before.

What was it doing in Moreton Bay?

Why was it so toxic?

Why was it growing so fast?

The venomous weed, known to scientists as "Lyngbya majuscula," has appeared in at least a dozen other places around the globe.

It is one of many symptoms of a virulent pox on the world's oceans.

In many places -- the atolls of the Pacific, the shrimp beds of the Eastern Seaboard, the fjords of Norway -- some of the most advanced forms of ocean life are struggling to survive while the most primitive are thriving and spreading.

Fish, corals and marine mammals are dying while algae, bacteria and jellyfish are growing unchecked.

Where this pattern is most pronounced, scientists evoke a scenario of evolution running in reverse, returning to the primeval seas of hundreds of millions of years ago.

Jeremy B.C. Jackson, a marine ecologist and paleontologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, says we are witnessing "the rise of slime."

For many years, it was assumed that the oceans were too vast for humanity to damage in any lasting way.

Even in modern times, when oil spills, chemical discharges and other industrial accidents heightened awareness of man's capacity to injure sea life, the damage was often regarded as temporary.

But over time, the accumulation of environmental pressures has altered the basic chemistry of the seas.

Industrial society is overdosing the oceans with basic nutrients -- the nitrogen, carbon, iron and phosphorous compounds that curl out of smokestacks and tailpipes, wash into the sea from fertilized lawns and cropland, seep out of septic tanks and gush from sewer pipes.

These pollutants feed excessive growth of harmful algae and bacteria.

At the same time, overfishing and destruction of wetlands have diminished the competing sea life and natural buffers that once held the microbes and weeds in check.

The oceans are also sucking up excessive carbon dioxide like a sponge.

Evidence is surfacing around the globe.

Off the coast of Sweden each summer, blooms of cyanobacteria turn the Baltic Sea into a stinking, yellow-brown slush that locals call "rhubarb soup."

Dead fish bob in the surf.

On the southern coast of the Hawaiian island of Maui, high tide leaves piles of green-brown algae that smell so foul condominium owners have hired a tractor driver to scrape them off the beach every morning.

On Florida's Gulf Coast, residents complain that harmful algae blooms have become bigger, more frequent and longer-lasting.

Toxins from these red tides have killed hundreds of sea mammals and caused emergency rooms to fill up with coastal residents suffering respiratory distress.

Organisms such as the fireweed that torments the fishermen of Moreton Bay have been around for aeons.

They emerged from the primordial ooze and came to dominate ancient oceans that were mostly lifeless.

Over time, higher forms of life gained supremacy.

Jackson, 63, who has spent a good part of his professional life underwater, uses a homespun analogy to illustrate what is happening.

The world's 6 billion inhabitants, he says, have failed to follow a homeowner's rule of thumb: Be careful what you dump in the swimming pool, and make sure the filter is working.

"We're pushing the oceans back to the dawn of evolution," Jackson said, "a half-billion years ago when the oceans were ruled by jellyfish and bacteria."

At the same time, as industrial activity pumps massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment, more of the gas is being absorbed by the oceans.

As a result, seawater is becoming more acidic, threatening a variety of sea creatures.

The greenhouse gas, best known for accumulating in the atmosphere and heating the planet, is entering the ocean at a rate of nearly 1 million tons per hour -- 10 times the natural rate.

Scientists report that the seas are more acidic today than they have been in at least 650,000 years.

At the current rate of increase, ocean acidity is expected, by the end of this century, to be 2 times what it was before the Industrial Revolution began 200 years ago.

Such a change would devastate many species of fish and other animals that have thrived in chemically stable seawater for millions of years.

Less likely to be harmed are algae, sea grasses and other primitive forms of life that are already proliferating at the expense of fish, marine mammals and corals.

In a matter of decades, the world's remaining coral reefs could be too brittle to withstand pounding waves.

Shells could become too fragile to protect their occupants.

By the end of the century, much of the polar ocean is expected to be as acidified as the water that wrought such damage on the pteropods aboard the Discoverer.

Some marine biologists predict that altered acid levels will disrupt fisheries by melting away the bottom rungs of the food chain -- tiny planktonic plants and animals that provide the basic nutrition for all living things in the sea.

end quotes

And okay .....

Okay ....

Just disregard all of this .....

I am told to say ....

By the CLUB OF REPUBLICAN LAWYERS ......

None of this above is true .....

Not at all ....

It's just LIBERAL SCARE TACTICS .....

Intended to make George W. Bush bad .....

So the Democrats ....

Can sieze control of the United States Congress this November .....

So as to be able to turn over America to al-Qaida .....

Lock, stock and barrel .....

Along with all our freedoms .....

And liberties .....

And well ...

Everything ....

Before we have achieved ....

Total victory .....

In Iraq ....

And Afghanistan ....

And Mexico too ....

And everywhere else as well ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

And while we are on the subject of TOTAL VICTORY .....

Over something, anyway .....

Which is TOP SECRET, of course ....

So that we can't tell al-Qaida .....

Or Hezbollah ....

NATIONAL SECRETS .....

That only George W. bush ....

And God ...

Can know ....

We have ....

And so ....

"Bush: Iraq War keystone in terror fight"

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 18 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday that his administration's determination to remain in Iraq and its efforts to end violence in Lebanon are key to protecting the U.S. from future terrorist attacks.

Democrats countered that Americans will be safer if the nation begins a phased pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq.

"It is no coincidence that two nations that are building free societies in the heart of the Middle East — Lebanon and Iraq — are also the scenes of the most violent terrorist activity," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"We will defeat the terrorists by strengthening young democracies across the broader Middle East."

He acknowledged that "the way forward will be difficult."

But, the president said, "America's security depends on liberty's advance in this troubled region."

Democrats chose Joe Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral who is challenging Republican Rep. Curt Weldon in a competitive race outside Philadelphia, to deliver their party's response to the president.

Sestak argued for "a new direction for America's security."

He said it is time for the U.S. mission in Iraq to end.

"We must begin a phased redeployment of our forces so that we are prepared to face the security challenges we have worldwide," he said.

The nation's safety looms as a major issue in the midterm elections Nov. 7, particularly after last week's news of a foiled plot in Britain to blow up jetliners over the Atlantic.

Both Republicans and Democrats are maneuvering for the political advantage in an election in which control of Congress is at stake.

Democrats have been accusing the Bush administration of trying to ignite fear among Americans and gain political points by claiming they alone can keep them safe.

Republicans argue that Democrats are weak on national security.

With American deaths in Iraq over 2,600, the U.S. public growing more weary of the war, and even some troops frustrated with the pace of progress, Democrats have been increasingly vocal about what they say is the lack of a plan for success in Iraq and the need for a timetable for bringing U.S. forces home.

Sestak said ending the U.S. presence in Iraq would free up money and energy to concentrate on other dangers, such as nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran and bolstering homeland security protections.

Two days of spending in Iraq would pay for screening all air cargo on passenger planes, while five days of Iraq costs would fund the screening of all cargo coming into the nation's ports, he said.

"We are fostering a culture of dependence in Iraq," Sestak said.

"Iraqi leaders must be responsible for their own country."

"They must make the difficult political compromises that will stop the civil war and bring about stability."

"Completing our mission in Iraq will also make America safer everywhere."

Bush argued that his approach is working.

"We will defeat the terrorists and expand freedom across the world, we'll protect the American homeland and work tirelessly to prevent attacks on our country," he said.

"The terrorists remain determined to destroy innocent life on a massive scale, and we must be equally determined to stop them."

end quotes

IF THAT MESS IN IRAQ ....

IS YOUR KEYSTONE, GEORGE ...

I SURE WOULD NOT BE BRAGGING ON IT ...

IN PUBLIC, ANYWAY ....

I WOULD BE HANGING MY HEAD IN SHAME ...

IF THAT MESS WERE ATTRIBUTABLE TO ME ....

LIKE IT IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO YOU ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

"Bush: Iraq War keystone in terror fight"

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday that his administration's determination to remain in Iraq and its efforts to end violence in Lebanon are key to protecting the U.S. from future terrorist attacks.

"It is no coincidence that two nations that are building free societies in the heart of the Middle East — Lebanon and Iraq — are also the scenes of the most violent terrorist activity," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"We will defeat the terrorists by strengthening young democracies across the broader Middle East."

He acknowledged that "the way forward will be difficult."

But, the president said, "America's security depends on liberty's advance in this troubled region."

SOOOOooooooo .....

HHHHHhhhmmmmm ......

Okay, George ......

Who exactly is it ...

That is threatening DEMOCRACY in Lebanon?

With terror tactics?

"Lebanon gives warning after Israeli raid"

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 4 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon Saturday, sparking a fierce clash with militants that killed one Israeli.

Lebanon called the raid a "flagrant violation" of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire, while Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms shipments from Iran and Syria.

Witnesses said Israeli missiles also destroyed a bridge during the raid in what would be the first such airstrike since the cease-fire took effect Monday, ending 34 days of warfare between the two sides.

The fighting did not appear to be escalating, but it highlighted the fragility of the truce as the United Nations pleaded for nations to contribute to an international peacekeeping force due to patrol southern Lebanon.

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr threatened to halt the army's deployment in south Lebanon if the United Nations does not take up the issue of the raid.

A stop to the deployment would deeply damage efforts to move in the U.N. force to strengthen the cease-fire.

"If there are no clear answers forthcoming on this issue, I might be forced to recommend to the Cabinet early next week the halt of the army deployment in the south," Murr told reporters after a meeting with U.N. representatives.

In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev defended the raid as a response to "a violation of the cease-fire."

"The U.N. Security Council resolution on Lebanon is very explicit: It says that Hezbollah cannot use the cease-fire to rearm, to receive more missiles and more rockets from Syria and Iran."

"That was happening, and Israel acted to prevent that from happening," he said.

Regev indicated Israel could conduct further raids until Lebanese and international troops take up positions to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its arsenal — a goal that the U.N. resolution sets as part of a long-term end to the conflict but does not immediately require.

"If the Syrians and Iran continue to arm Hezbollah in violation of the resolution, Israel is entitled to act to defend the principle of the arms embargo," Regev said.

"Once the Lebanese army and the international forces are active ... then such Israeli activity will become superfluous."

The first small contingent of reinforcements for the peacekeeping force — 49 French soldiers — landed Saturday in inflatable dinghies at the southern Lebanese coastal town of Naqoura, with 200 more expected next week.

But Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown said more countries need to step forward to fill out a vanguard of 3,500 soldiers that the U.N. wants on the ground by Aug. 28 to help ensure the truce holds.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called Saturday's commando raid a "flagrant violation" of the cease-fire, and said he would take the issue up with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Murr said the raid could spark Hezbollah retaliation, which in turn could lead to Israeli reprisals.

He suggested Israel might be trying to provoke a response, so it could have an excuse to attack the Lebanese army.

"We will not send the army to be prey in an Israeli trap," he said.

Under the cease-fire terms, Israel has said it will conduct defensive operations if its troops are threatened.

But the raid took place far from positions of Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Such a bold operation suggested Israel was going after a major target — perhaps to rescue two Israeli soldiers snatched by Hezbollah on July 12, or to try to capture a senior guerrilla official to trade for the soldiers.

Hezbollah has said it wants to exchange the two soldiers for Arab prisoners, but the cease-fire resolution demands Hezbollah unconditionally release the soldiers.

The Israeli commandos were dropped by helicopter on a hill outside the village of Boudai west of Baalbek and apparently were seeking a guerrilla target in a nearby school, Lebanese security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information to the media.

Local media said Sheik Mohammed Yazbeck, a senior Hezbollah official in the Bekaa Valley and a member of the group's Shura council, may have been the target.

Yazbeck is a native of Boudai.

Hezbollah TV said the guerrillas foiled the raid.

Israel said the force completed its mission, with one officer killed and two soldiers wounded.

Lebanese security officials said three guerrillas were killed and three were wounded.

A Hezbollah spokesman said none of his fighters died.

Hezbollah officials at the scene said the Israeli commandos brought two vehicles with them that they used to drive into Boudai.

They identified themselves as the Lebanese army when intercepted by Hezbollah fighters in a field, but the guerrillas grew suspicious and gunfire erupted, according to the officials.

Israeli helicopters fired missiles as the commandos withdrew and flew out of the area an hour later, they said.

Witnesses saw bandages and syringes at the landing site outside Boudai, about 10 miles west of Baalbek and 15 miles west of the Syrian border.

A bridge was destroyed about 500 yards from the area in what witnesses said was an Israeli airstrike.

The ancient town of Baalbek is the birthplace of the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah.

The area in the eastern Bekaa Valley, 60 miles north of the Israeli border, is a major guerrilla stronghold.

On Aug. 2, Israeli commandos targeted the Iranian-funded, Hezbollah-run Dar al-Hikma Hospital in Baalbek, killing 16 people, according to Lebanese police.

Israel said that the building was a Hezbollah base, not a hospital, and that its soldiers captured five guerrilla fighters and killed 10 more before withdrawing.

Under the cease-fire, some 15,000 Lebanese soldiers are to move into the south, backed by the beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force, as Israeli forces withdraw.

Once there, the troops are to enforce the cease-fire.

Lebanon has said Hezbollah will not be allowed to show its weapons in public, but has not said whether it will try the more controversial step of disarming the guerrillas.

The Lebanese army has deployed more than 1,500 soldiers in three sectors that Israeli forces have left, and the U.N. force — currently numbering 2,000 — has set up checkpoints and started patrolling the areas.

So far, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Italy, France and Finland have promised troops.

In an effort to encourage more countries to sign on, Annan said the peacekeeping force would not "wage war" on Israel, Lebanon or Hezbollah militants, addressing a key concern of many countries.

Turkey's government said this week that during the Lebanon war it forced Syria-bound Iranian planes to land and be searched for rockets and other military equipment.

The newspaper Hurriyet reported that two Iranian planes were forced to land at Diyarbakir airport on July 27 and Aug. 8 but that no military equipment was found.

Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Murat Ozcelik said those were not the only planes forced to land.

"We inspect Iranian planes upon any suspicion that they may be carrying any weapons," he said, but declined to give details.

end quotes

We are told .....

Here in OUR America ....

That in some undefined way ....

Isreal is one of OUR greatest allies .....

In something, anyway .....

Although I have never really been able to figure that out myself ....

What it is exactly ....

That America is supposed to be allied with Isreal in doing ....

Here in OUR America .....

IT IS OUR BASIC RIGHT ....

As citizens ....

TO HAVE SEPARATION ....

OF CHURCH AND STATE ....

But not so in Isreal ....

There ...

The CHURCH ...

Is the STATE ....

And so .....

Discrimination against other religions .....

Is STATE POLICY in Isreal .....

Whereas over here .....

At least before George W. Bush came into power .....

We were supposed to have a Constitutional guarantee ....

Of LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE ....

Where we are supposedly free ....

To view God ....

As we will ....

Or not ....

Without interference in that relationship ....

FROM THE "STATE" ...

Unlike Isreal ....

Where the "STATE" ....

Is simply an extension ....

Of the CHURCH .....

And its STATE RELIGION ....

Which breeds intolerance ....

And so ...

We have a Constitution ....

And even Iraq has a Constitution ...

But Isreal does not ...

And so ....

To me ...

Isreal is like the CHURCH OF ENGLAND was ....

Over here ....

Before we gained OUR independence from Great Britain ....

And finally were able to throw off the yoke .....

Of Great Britain's state-sponsored church ....

WHICH WAS FOREIGN TO US ....

And now ...

Here we are ....

YOKED UP ....

To another foreign church ....

That we don't all belong to ....

Or believe in ....

But are being forced to have to support ....

Regardless ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

Neoconservatism: It's the new fringe.

"Bush: Iraq War keystone in terror fight"

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - "We will defeat the terrorists by strengthening young democracies across the broader Middle East."

He acknowledged that "the way forward will be difficult."

But, the president said, "America's security depends on liberty's advance in this troubled region."

end quotes

IF THAT MESS IN IRAQ ....

IS YOUR KEYSTONE, GEORGE ...

I SURE WOULD NOT BE BRAGGING ON IT ...

IN PUBLIC, ANYWAY ....

I WOULD BE HANGING MY HEAD IN SHAME ...

IF THAT MESS WERE ATTRIBUTABLE TO ME ....

LIKE IT IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO YOU ....

And so ...

And as George W. Bush "ADVANCES LIBERTY" .....

Over there in Iraq .....

This is what George's so-called "ADVANCE OF LIBERTY" looks like .....

From over here ....

Which is just more of the lawlessness ....

And blatant disregard ....

For basic human rights ....

That George has been giving the candid world ....

All along ....

And so ....

"Evidence at issue in Haditha inquiry"

By DAVID S. CLOUD, New York Times
First published: Friday, August 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which U.S. Marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.

The investigation found that an official company logbook of the unit involved had been tampered with and that an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings was not given to investigators until Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking commander in Iraq, intervened, the officials said.

Those findings, contained in a long report that was completed last month but not made public, go beyond what has been previously reported about the case.

It has been known that Marines who carried out the killings made false statements to investigators and that senior officers were criticized for not being more aggressive in investigating the case, in which most or all of the Iraqis who were killed were civilians.

But this is the first time details about possible concealment or destruction of evidence have been disclosed.

The report's findings have been sent to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is investigating members of the unit involved in the killings, as well higher-ranking officers in the 2nd Marine Division.

No charges have been brought yet.

The report, based on an investigation by Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell of the Army, does not directly accuse Marines of attempting a cover-up, but it does describe several suspicious incidents, according to the Defense Department officials.

It says that the logbook, which was meant to be a daily record of major incidents the Marines' company encountered, had all the pages missing for Nov. 19, the day of the killings, and that the those portions had not been found, the officials said.

No conclusions are drawn about who may have tampered with the log.

But the report says that Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the leader of the squad involved in the killings, was on duty at the unit's operations center, where the logbook was kept, shortly after the killings occurred, the officials said.

Investigators also were initially told by Marine officers that videotape taken by the drone was not available, one of the officials said.

The officials added that the Marines produced the videotape only after Bargewell had completed his inquiry and they had been asked again to produce it by Chiarelli.

Bombs rock Baghdad

Car bombs killed 10 people in Baghdad on Thursday as violence persisted in the capital despite the U.S.-led security crackdown.

Two more American soldiers were killed in combat, the U.S. command said.

According to The Associated Press, the two American fatalities included one soldier killed Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near a foot patrol south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The other was a soldier from the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division who died Wednesday of wounds suffered in Anbar province, stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency west of Baghdad.

Marine charged

In San Diego, a Marine officer, 2nd Lt. Nathan P. Phan, was charged Wednesday with assaulting three civilians in the Iraqi town of Hamdania April 10.

Phan, 26, denies the charges, said defense attorney David Sheldon.

end quotes

Like Commander-IN-Chief ....

Like subordinates ...

[Livyjr]

And as George W. Bush ....

"ADVANCES LIBERTY" ....

Over there in Iraq .....

This is what it looks like ....

To them ....

"For Iraq civilians, July's toll deadliest"

By EDWARD WONG and DAMIEN CAVE, New York Times
First published: Wednesday, August 16, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- July appears to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians, according to figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue.

An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures.

The total number of civilian deaths that month, 3,438, is a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly double the toll of January.

The numbers provide the most definitive evidence yet that the Baghdad security plan started by Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki on June 14 has not quelled the violence.

The plan relied on setting up more Iraqi-run checkpoints to stymie insurgent movement.

The Baghdad morgue reported receiving 1,855 bodies in July, more than half of the total deaths recorded in the country.

The morgue tally for July was an 18 percent increase over June.

The U.S. military in recent weeks has been especially eager to prove that Baghdad can be tamed if American troops are added to the streets and take a more active role -- in effect, a repudiation of earlier efforts to turn over security more quickly to Iraqis.

The American command has added nearly 4,000 American soldiers to Baghdad by extending the tour of a combat brigade.

Under a new security plan aimed at overhauling al-Maliki's efforts, some of the city's most violent southern and western areas are now virtually occupied block-to-block by American and Iraqi forces.

When the tally for civilian deaths in July is added to the Iraqi government numbers for earlier months obtained by the United Nations, the total indicates that at least 17,776 Iraqi civilians died violently in the first seven months of this year, or an average of 2,539 per month.

The health ministry did not provide figures for people wounded by attacks in Baghdad but said that at least 3,597 Iraqis were injured outside the city in July, a 25 percent increase over June.

According to The Los Angeles Times, President Bush flatly told Middle East experts at a private meeting this week that a three-way division of Iraq would only worsen sectarian violence in the country and is "really not an option" for solving the country's problems.

Rejecting a policy alternative that has been gaining support in the U.S. and abroad, Bush told the experts that dividing the country would be "like pouring oil on fire," recounted Eric M. Davis, a Rutgers University professor and one of the experts who met with Bush Monday at the Pentagon.

Bush also made clear in the private meeting that he was concerned about the lack of progress in Iraq and frustrated that the new Iraqi government -- and the Iraqi people -- had not shown greater public support for the American mission, participants in the meeting said Tuesday.

Bombs, battles claim lives

A suicide bombing in the north and street battles hundreds of miles away in a Shiite holy city in the south claimed 16 lives Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

Nine people died in the suicide attack outside the regional party headquarters of Iraq's president in the northern city of Mosul; seven were killed in the fighting between Iraqi forces and followers of an anti-American cleric in Karbala.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, the U.S. military said car bombs triggered deadly explosions in a Shiite neighborhood Sunday, contradicting its report the blasts were caused by an accidental gas leak.

The suicide driver detonated his vehicle at the Mosul office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party of President Jalal Talabani, killing five civilians and four security guards.

Forty-one people were wounded by the blast.

In Karbala, a Shiite holy city 270 miles south of Mosul, gunbattles broke out after police raided the office of Mahmoud al-Hassani, a Shiite cleric known for anti-American and anti-Iranian views.

Al-Hassani's followers attacked police stations and checkpoints.

end quotes

If George W. Bush .....

ADVANCES LIBERTY ....

Over there in Iraq .....

Long enough .....

There won't be any Iraqis left ....

To need any of it, any more .....

And so ....

THEN ...

WE WILL FINALLY HAVE ACHIEVED .....

TOTAL VICTORY ...

At least over there ....

So that will be one less war that we will be involved in ...

While George W. Bush .....

Is ADVANCING LIBERTY ......

Elsewhere on the globe ....

Where there is also oil to steal ....

To keep America's economy .....

KICKING RIGHT ALONG ....

Or Dick Cheney's anyway ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

"'Shock and awe' failed in Lebanon, too"

By TRUDY RUBIN
First published: Saturday, August 19, 2006

Condoleezza Rice has rescued Israel from the depths of the Hezbollah trap into which it was heading, egged on by some in the Bush administration.

Israel apparently believed a massive "shock-and-awe" bombing campaign that smashed Lebanon's civilian infrastructure as well as Hezbollah targets would destroy the guerrillas and turn the Lebanese public against them.

The White House gave this strategy the green light.

A new piece by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker alleges that Vice President Cheney saw the bombing in Lebanon as a trial run for a possible U.S. strike on Hezbollah's patrons in Iran.

But shock and awe did not destroy Hezbollah.

The terrorist/political group emerged stronger in the region and at home, where the bombing generated fury toward Israel even among Lebanese who detest Hezbollah.

(Things would have been even worse had Israel continued its ground invasion; Israeli troops would have become mired in another Lebanon occupation guaranteed to chew them up.)

There's still a chance that Hezbollah's power in Lebanon will be diminished as a result of this conflict.

But this would require the White House -- and Israel -- to grasp the truth that Rice belatedly forced on the administration: You can't defeat terrorist groups with one knockout blow.

Reliance on shock-and-awe or massive military strikes to defeat terrorists is a loser.

Their defeat requires a more sophisticated strategy, linking force to diplomacy, better intelligence-gathering and support for Arab moderates.

Three decades after Vietnam, five years after 9/11 and three years into the wretched Iraq war, you'd think the administration would have learned that fighting terrorism is a long slog unaffected by righteous rhetoric.

After all, the British terror cell that planned to blow up airliners was bested by strong police work and the ability to infiltrate the group.

Hasn't anyone at the White House noticed that the U.S. Army is changing its doctrine on guerrilla warfare?

Instead of all-out military assault, the new doctrine calls for waging a political battle for "hearts and minds" while exercising military restraint so as not to drive civilians into the arms of the terrorists.

One key army text is "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" by Lt. Col. John Nagl, which focuses on counterinsurgency lessons from the 1950s war in Malaya and from the Vietnam War.

The title phrase was used by Lawrence of Arabia in describing the messy and time-consuming nature of defeating insurgents.

Nagl focuses on the ability of armies to learn from mistakes and adapt their strategy and tactics -- skills in which he finds U.S. forces lacking.

He shows how the British in Malaya were nimble enough to defeat a communist insurgency, while the U.S. military in Vietnam clung to a failing doctrine of force.

Sadly, the Pentagon had not absorbed such insights before invading Iraq.

Nagl himself says he learned a lot more during a one-year tour in Iraq.

His ideas, if applied back in mid-2003, might have checked the growth of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq and prevented Sunni Islamists from provoking a civil war with Iraqi Shiites.

It may be too late for the Army's new doctrine to stop Iraq from falling apart.

Had the White House paid any attention to its own Army's doctrine, it would have given Israel very different advice on how to confront Hezbollah.

It would have stressed the need for Israel to pursue a political as well as a military strategy.

Lebanon's government, while weak, was the poster child for President Bush's campaign to advance democracy in the region.

Its gutsy Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, and several of its political parties, want a democratic state, and might have faced Hezbollah down had Bush and Israel given them some backing.

Sources in Prime Minister Saniora's party tell me that, had Israel confined a strong air and ground attack to the south, Hezbollah's base, his government would have pressured Hezbollah to pull back from the border and disarm.

They would have needed help from Israel: a pledge to settle territorial disputes with them, and the return of Lebanese prisoners to them, not Hezbollah -- in exchange for two kidnapped Israeli soldiers.

Indeed, Saniora got Hezbollah's agreement to pull back from Lebanon's south weeks ago.

But the White House ignored Saniora in seeking a knockout blow against the guerrillas.

It backed a continued Israeli bombing campaign that destroyed Lebanese infrastructure and undercut Saniora while failing to destroy Hezbollah.

Now the Lebanese economy is destroyed, its government broke; Hezbollah has pledged to rebuild 15,000 bombed apartments in Shiite suburbs.

The cease-fire agreement finally negotiated at the United Nations calls for Hezbollah to disarm and pull back from the south, to be replaced by the Lebanese army and an international force.

If the cease-fire is to survive, Israel and the United States must belatedly strengthen Saniora's hand.

This will be far more difficult to do, now that Hezbollah is proclaiming its "victory."

But it is the best, slim hope for curbing Hezbollah after the mistakes of recent weeks.

It's past time to make "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" required reading at the White House.

Trudy Rubin writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her e-mail address is trubin@phillynews.com.

end quotes

The trouble with CONSERVATIVES ....

Always is ....

That they are very limited in their views ....

As they spend gobs of effort ....

Trying to keep things as they were ....

With them in eternal power ...

And everybody else subservient to them ....

As if that were at all possible .....

To make people do ....

And so .....

George W. Bush ...

Trying to beat democracy ....

Into the Middle East ....

With a club ....

Is just about as futile ....

As trying to beat kindness ....

Into a dog .....

With a club .....

But a CONSERVATIVE won't cut-and-run ....

No matter how many times that dog bites them ...

Each time that it is hit ....

A CONSERVATIVE ...

Can be guaranteed ....

To stay the course .....

Beating and beating and beating on that dog ....

Until it is too dead ...

To bite anymore ....

At which point ...

TOTAL VICTORY will have been achieved ....

At least as a TRUE CONSERVATIVE tallies it up to be ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

Neoconservatism: It's the new fringe.

"Judge nixes warrantless surveillance"

By SARAH KARUSH, Associated Press Writer

DETROIT - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

"Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter.

"It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.

"Bush blasts court ruling on surveillance" 
 
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:17 p.m., Friday, August 18, 2006

CAMP DAVID, Md. -- The judge said the government, in defending the program, appeared to be saying the president had the "inherent power" to violate laws of Congress.

"It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control," Taylor wrote in a 43-page opinion.

"... There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution."

"So all 'inherent powers' must derive from that Constitution."

"Bush blasts court ruling on surveillance" 
 
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:17 p.m., Friday, August 18, 2006

CAMP DAVID, Md. -- "I strongly disagree with that decision, strongly disagree," Bush said, striking his finger on a podium to underscore his point.

And as the FRINGE ....

Er ...

BASE ....

Come out in mindless support ....

For the KINGSHIP ....

Of George W. Bush, THE MAGIFICENT ....

Here in OUR America ...

We have ....

From their collective minds ....

As follows ....

FROM REDSTATE

The NSA Decision: Judging Without Facts or Law
Like A Parody of Bad Judging, But With Potentially Tragic Consequences.

By Crank

Posted in Featured Stories | National Security

Today, at the instigation of the ACLU, CAIR, Greenpeace, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a number of individual plaintiffs (including, most dishearteningly, Christopher Hitchens), Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan - a Jimmy Carter appointee - issued a permanent injunction halting the use of the NSA's Al Qaeda surveillance program that was disclosed to the public by the New York Times in December.

Judge Taylor's opinion reads like a parody of bad judicial reasoning.

The self-appointed legal solons of the Left will have to work long and hard to compose the straight face to dress up this opinion as anything but a travesty of the judicial process.

In the meantime, Judge Taylor's decision unambiguously does two things: it reinforces the importance of appointing good conservative judges, and it demonstrates the damage already done to our security by the Times's unauthorized disclosure of the NSA program.

http://www.redstate.com/stories/featured_s..._judging_with...

FROM THE POLITICAL PIT BULL

Judge Rules NSA Wiretapping Of Enemies In "the War On Terror of this administration" Unconstitutional

By Greg Tinti on August 18, 2006 at 12:36 AM

Not being a lawyer myself, I figured fisking Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's opinion while pretending to know legalese might be a waste of your time.

Luckily, there are plenty of smart legal minds in blogosphere that have already weighed-in and put their thoughts together.

But if you're only going to read one post about Judge Taylor's decision, I'd suggest Dan McLaughlin's.

And while McLaughlin points out numerous problems in Judge Taylor's opinion, there are two things--from a layman's perspective anyway--that are particularly troublesome.

The first is that Judge Taylor seemingly rejects the notion that we are involved in any conflict whatsoever, dismissively referring to it as "the War on Terror of this administration" (Or, as Andrew Sullivan might say, the "alleged" War on Terror).

This alone seems like proof that Judge Taylor has an extraordinary bias towards the policies of current government which, as a matter of practicality, happens to also be the Defedant in this case.

http://www.thepoliticalpitbull.com/2006/08...etapping_of.php

FROM BOOKWORM ROOM

I knew without reading it that Anna Diggs-Taylor’s decision striking down the surveillance program would be a poorly written, poorly reasoned, legally and factually unsupported bit of garbage.

Did I know this because I’m intimately familiar with the legal issues involved?

No.

Because I know all (or even any) of the facts?

No.

Because I’ve been following developments in this case with incredible care and knew we had to win, and that a loss could only be because of fallacious reasoning?

No.

I knew that the decision was a bad bit of work the moment I read that Diggs-Taylor was a Carter appointee and a die-hard liberal.

http://www.wordpress.com/tag/anti-war

FROM TOWN HALL.COM

Friday, August 18, 2006

Any Vote For Any Democrat Is A Vote Against Victory And A Vote For Vulnerability

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 5:50 PM

Not a single Democrat of any stature or visibility has stepped forward to criticize much less reject the opinion from Judge Anna Diggs Taylor declaring NSA surveillance of our enemies contacting their operatives inside our country to be unconstitutional.

Their collective silence has grown more and more revealing as the chorus of legal commentary mocking the absurd opinion has grown throughout the day.

The Democrats cannot be seen to say anything against the opinion because of Kosputin and his minions.

The party of Lamont is unhinged, and Judge Taylor's opinion is now a new icon of the movement.

It is clear that the Democrats are invested in her conclusion and her reasoning, a position on national security that will bind the party if it reaches a majority in either the House or the Senate, and paralyze at least some of the intelligence collection activities already underway.

We have to assume that their zeal for ignorance will extend to every presidential directive not explicitly backed by Congressional mandate, and thus an understanding of the Article II war powers more circumscribed than ever in our history.

Expect a major retreat in the war on Islamic fascism across many fronts if the Dems frenzy their way to a majority in either body, and hearings upon hearings.

The Church Committee will look like child's play compared to a John Conyers or Patrick Leahy-led assault on the conduct of the war, a conduct that has prevented attacks on the homeland from abroad since 9/11.

Thus it is simply true: Any vote for any Democrat is a vote against victory and a vote for vulnerability.

http://www.townhall.com/blogs/nailyale

FROM TAILRANK

NSA Decision: Lots Of Emotion, Little Reasoning

captainsquartersblog.com

The ruling yesterday to forbid the President to continue his warrantless surveillance of international communications involving one party within the US seems likely to find resistance in the appellate court, not so much for its conclusion but for its emotional and mostly weightless reasoning.

The Washington Post notes that legal scholars found themselves underwhelmed by the legal justifications of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, and after reading the decision myself a couple of times, I'm glad to see that my reaction matched theirs:

http://www.tailrank.com/posts/.../NSA_Deci...ittle_Reasoning

[Livyjr]

USA Today

"Wiretap ruling affirms that presidents aren't monarchs"

Updated 8/17/2006 8:39 PM

For the past five years, the Bush administration has operated as if the horrific events of 9/11 not only changed fundamental aspects of national security and public safety, but also changed the very nature of government.

President Bush has unilaterally declared what parts of new laws he wishes to enforce.

He has created military tribunals unauthorized by Congress.

And, perhaps most ominously, he has authorized eavesdropping on phone calls to and from the USA without court orders.

Bush has done these things by simply asserting that the powers of the presidency enumerated in Article II of the Constitution — particularly the clause making him the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy" — are much more sweeping than previously imagined.

In short, he has acted like a king.

Fortunately, the courts have begun to rein in his royal ambitions.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the military tribunals.

And on Thursday, federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor struck down the warrantless surveillance program, finding it to be a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments and the principle of separation of powers.

"There are no hereditary Kings in America," she wrote.

The ruling by Taylor, who was appointed by President Carter, is far from the final word.

The wiretapping program will continue while the administration appeals.

It is not hard to see other courts ruling differently by saying that the plaintiffs, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, should not have been given standing to bring the case because they could not show they were harmed by the eavesdropping.

But the ruling does undermine Bush's main argument — that the program is constitutional because the administration says it is constitutional.

Taylor gives little credence to this argument, as one might expect from a representative of the judicial branch, the place where questions of constitutionality are properly resolved.

Since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was adopted in 1978, presidents have had an effective and constitutional way to speedy court approval for surveillance.

FISA even allows for retroactive approval in urgent investigations.

If this law is overly restrictive or somehow unequal to the task of combating today's global terror threat, the president can and should go to Congress to make the case for new legislation.

Given the mood of the country and the continuing threat exemplified by the alleged airline bombing plot in Britain last week, Congress would surely make addressing the problem a priority.

By ignoring the law, and making specious arguments that powers contained in Article II make the president virtually unaccountable to either the courts or Congress, the president shows contempt for the other branches and exposes his determination to concentrate power within his own — with no particular gain for the war on terrorism.

Much has changed since terrorists rammed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

But one thing that has not is that America is a constitutional democracy with checks and balances.

A ruling such as Thursday's is a useful and forceful affirmation of that.

Posted 8/17/2006 8:34 PM ET

[Livyjr]

But of course ...

George W. Bush ...

Really is a king ...

Or an emporer ....

Regardless of what some federal judge appointed by Jimmy Carter might have to say about it .....

Since Jimmy Carter is a Democrat .....

And everybody knows ....

That the Democrats ....

Want to CUT-AND-RUN ....

Over there in IRAQINAM ....

Before we achieve TOTAL VICTORY ....

And the Democrats want to win the November Congressional elections ....

So that they can surrender OUR America to al-Qaida ....

While the CONSERVATIVES ...

Want to stay the course ....

And achieve TOTAL VICTORY ....

Over something, anyway ...

By making ARAB men wear women's underwear ....

Which is some kind of CONSERVATIVE SECRET WEAPON .....

In George W. Bush's WAR OF TERROR ....

And so ...

"Military calling out-of-uniform troops"

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:06 p.m., Saturday, August 19, 2006

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq -- Spc. Chris Carlson had been out of the U.S. Army for two years and was working at Costco in California when he received notice that he was being called back into service.

The 24-year-old is one of thousands of soldiers and Marines who have been deployed to Iraq under a policy that allows military leaders to recall troops who have left the service but still have time left on their contract.

"I thought it was crazy," said Carlson, who has found himself protecting convoys on Iraq's dangerous roads as part of a New Jersey National Guard unit.

"Never in a million years did I think they would call me back."

Although troops are allowed to leave active duty after a few years of service, they generally still have time left on their contract with the military that is known as "inactive ready reserve" status, or IRR.

During that time, they have to let their service know their current address, but they don't train, draw a paycheck or associate in any other way with the military.

But with active duty units already completing multiple tours in Iraq, the Pentagon has employed the rarely used tactic of calling people back from IRR status, a policy sometimes referred to as a "backdoor draft."

According to the U.S. Army Reserve, approximately 14,000 soldiers on IRR status have been called to active duty since March 2003 and about 7,300 have been deployed to Iraq.

The Marine Corps has mobilized 4,717 Marines who were classified as inactive ready reserve since Sept. 11, and 1,094 have been deployed to Iraq, according to the Marine Forces Reserve.

The 1st Squadron of the 167th Cavalry RSTA, which is based in Lincoln, Neb. and oversees the New Jersey guard unit here in Iraq, has about 40 IRR soldiers within its ranks of roughly 1,000 soldiers, and officers in the squadron say the troops have merged into the unit without any problems.

Jason Mulligan, 28, of Ridgefield, Conn., left the army back in 2002 after two years in the infantry.

He was working as a painting contractor while studying wildlife conservation when he received his letter last fall alerting him that he'd been mobilized.

The letter was followed up by another warning to Mulligan that if he didn't comply, the government would prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law.

"My family and my fiancee were telling me 'Don't' report."

"'Don't show up,' said Mulligan, who also serves with a New Jersey National Guard unit as a gunner on a Humvee helping patrol the territory around Camp Anaconda, a base about 50 miles north of Baghdad.

"And I thought, 'Well I got that nasty letter saying they were going to put me in jail if I don't show up.'"

Anthony Breaux, 24, from La Place, La., said he had a feeling that eventually he would be recalled to service after hearing of so many other soldiers who were pulled from IRR status.

Breaux, who left active duty in September 2002, said he knew it was part of the bargain when he joined the army.

"Well, I signed up."

"I signed the papers."

"So you know what?"

"I got to do what I got to do," Breaux said, before getting ready for a reconnaissance patrol around Camp Anaconda.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute, said part of the reason that the military has called up so many people who were on reserve status is that certain skill sets such as military police or civil affairs were concentrated in the reserves after the Cold War ended.

But he said the sheer numbers of IRR soldiers being mobilized also are a sign that the military doesn't have enough people to fight this war, now in its fourth year.

"It seems clear in retrospect that the active-duty force wasn't big enough to sustain a 'long war' against global terrorism, and also lacked the proper mix of skills to wage that war with maximum effectiveness," Thompson said.

That thought is echoed by many of the IRR soldiers.

Mulligan said the military's reliance on IRR soldiers shows how "desperate" the services are for troops.

"Maybe it says something for maybe the way the military is treating the people that are over here, because they're just not wanting to stay on," said Mulligan.

Some of the IRR soldiers, such as Carlson, still will have time on their military contracts when they return from this deployment, meaning they could possibly be called back another time.

But others will end their IRR status around the same time their deployment in Iraq ends next spring or will have so little time left that they would not be deployed again.

Spc. Mark Wiles, 27, of Phoenix, said his 6 1/2 years of active duty and the time he'll have served on this deployment mean that his reserve status will be over when the unit gets home.

The only way that the military could keep him is if they extended the unit's stay in Iraq.

"Those of us who are IRR are seriously hoping they don't do that," Wiles said.

end quotes

The nice thing about being a CONSERVATIVE .....

Is that it is easy to be one ...

You don't have to think ....

You don't have to read nothing ...

You don't even have to know anything to be one ...

And the other ones will welcome you into their ranks because of that ....

And you don't have to worry about having an opinion of your own ...

All you have to do ....

Is have the COLLECTIVE OPINION OF THE MOMENT ....

As your own ....

And you don't have to be troubled by LIBERTY ...

Because you surrender yours at the door ....

TO THE KING OF AMERICA ....

Who knows just how much LIBERTY anyone in OUR America should have .....

At any given moment in time ...

And so ...

[Livyjr]

The nice thing about being a CONSERVATIVE .....

Is that it is easy to be one ...

You don't have to think ....

You don't have to read nothing ...

You don't even have to know anything to be one ...

And the other ones will welcome you into their ranks because of that ....

And you don't have to worry about having an opinion of your own ...

All you have to do ....

Is have the COLLECTIVE OPINION OF THE MOMENT ....

As your own ....

And you don't have to be troubled by LIBERTY ...

Because you surrender yours at the door ....

TO THE KING OF AMERICA ....

Who knows just how much LIBERTY anyone in OUR America should have .....

At any given moment in time ...

And so ...

And speaking of Democrats who can't wait to surrender OUR America to al-Qaida ....

So that they will make her the first female president of OUR America in return ....

"How low can you go? - Republican Senate candidate John Spencer has taken to associating Hillary Clinton and Osama bin Laden"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, August 18, 2006

We're not supposed to be in the business of advising political candidates.

Only in the case of John Spencer and his torturously uphill campaign for the U.S. Senate seat held by Hillary Rodham Clinton, we can't resist.

Mr. Spencer, bite your tongue.

Stop embarrassing yourself.

New York's 3.2 million enrolled Republicans are entitled to have a serious candidate on the party's ticket this fall.

How can any candidate expect to be taken seriously, at least by anyone beyond like-minded zealots, when he puts an ad on TV that tries to make a connection between Mrs. Clinton and Osama bin Laden?

This is even worse than last week's debacle of a debate with his Republican rival, Kathleen Troia McFarland.

The finished product is so offensive that it's tempting to overlook how faulty Mr. Spencer's reasoning is in coming to such a conclusion.

Try to follow along.

"Senator Hillary Clinton opposed the Patriot Act and the NSA program that helped stop another 9/11."

"She'd leave us vulnerable," the ad's narrator says.

Say what?

Oh, and with images of newspaper headlines about a now-foiled terrorist plot against U.S.-bound passenger flights on the screen, bin Laden's photo pops up next to Mrs. Clinton's.

How wrong could one man be?

Mrs. Clinton has actually supported the Patriot Act and its enormous expansion of government powers, at the expense of civil liberties, in the fight against terrorism.

She voted for the original law, which was rushed into passage after the Sept. 11 attacks.

She voted for it again last year, too, after insisting upon some modest restrictions on the government's otherwise increased powers to investigate potential terrorism suspects.

It is true that Mrs. Clinton has been quite critical of the Bush administration using the National Security Agency to engage in domestic spying without warrants from judges.

She's hardly alone.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that wiretaps without warrants are unconstitutional.

Earlier this summer, though, Mrs. Clinton spoke out in favor of giving any president the available technology to legally keep tabs on potential terrorists.

She's a moderate, in other words, and quite a politically deft one.

It's not that Mrs. Clinton has no positions on national security issues, as Mr. Spencer charges in a fundraising letter he sent out this week.

They're simply more nuanced positions than his.

And that's apparently very frustrating for Mr. Spencer -- to the point where he'll ambush not only his opponent but the truth as well.

It would be so much easier to run against Mrs. Clinton if she were genuinely as far to the left as Mr. Spencer is to the right.

"I'm John Spencer, and I approved this message because I won't play politics with our security," his ad concludes.

Mr. Spencer, how can you say that with a straight face.

[Livyjr]

"Iraq's 'year of transition' a cruel failure"

By MARIE COCCO, Washington Post
First published: Friday, August 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- With due respect to T.S. Eliot, August is a cruel, cruel month.

In this August as the summer withers, optimism dies that in the eighth month of the third year since the American invasion of Iraq we will begin to see the hopeful "year of transition" that the U.S. Senate has called for overwhelmingly.

It was a lopsided, yet forgettable vote.

After all, the "year of transition in Iraq" has thus far been a year of transition to more violence and death, to fresh evidence of the fragility of the new Iraqi government, to grim accounts of the security crisis by U.S. generals.

This year of transition has meant a transition to more -- not fewer -- American troops in Baghdad, with homeward-bound soldiers literally called back to the war zone while they were en route out of it.

The Baghdad morgue and Iraq's health ministry report a record number of killings last month, with 3,438 civilians having turned up dead -- about double the toll in January, according to The New York Times.

Before the newest count, the United Nations already had estimated that Iraqi civilian deaths were running at more than 100 a day.

The U.N. said the count was necessarily low, due to the difficulties of record-keeping in a war zone and tallying deaths outside Baghdad.

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni distrusted by rival Kurdish and Shiite politicians, is openly toying with relinquishing his post -- a rumination that drew acrimony even from his fellow Sunnis.

The Iraqi government, formation of which was heralded by President Bush last spring as a "milestone," a "turning point" and a "watershed event," is perilously ineffectual.

"What has been clear is that the new government is very weak."

"It cannot really extend its writ anywhere," says Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director of the nonpartisan International Crisis Group.

"The government is not doing any governing."

"It's not providing services to anyone."

"The place is really adrift."

This was neither the hope nor the political calculation behind the Senate vote last November.

Under pressure to respond to the Iraq crisis with something other than endorsement of the administration's incompetence, Republican leaders offered their own, tepid version of a response to public dissatisfaction with the war.

Their resolution called for 2006 to be "a year of transition" to "full Iraqi sovereignty, with Iraqi security forces taking the lead for the security of a free and sovereign Iraq" and creating conditions for the "phased redeployment" of U.S. forces.

Among those supporting the lofty language were Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner of Virginia, Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.

The 79-19 vote in favor was bipartisan.

But now a sober Warner, questioning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top generals earlier this month, dares to ask if the original congressional resolution that authorized the President to invade Iraq still applies now that U.S. troops appear to be caught in the drift toward civil war.

"What is the mission of the United States today ... if that situation erupts into a civil war?"

"What is the mission of our forces?"

The question gets to the truth of where we are in Iraq -- caught with no immediate or obvious way out.

The Bush administration seems incapable of seeing reality and is disdainful, always, of diplomacy.

Yet Hiltermann and others warn that a full-blown civil war in Iraq could not be contained within its existing borders, and would instead engulf the whole region -- with Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other states instigating strife, or threatened by it.

One way to head this off is with a regional peace summit of all parties whose fate is tied to Iraq's.

It is the sort of talkfest Bush abhors; he must be forced to it.

For Republican senators weary of Bush's unrestrained militarism, of the President's petulant refusal to talk with foreign leaders he finds objectionable, of the crushing burden the Iraq war has placed on the armed forces, of the unconscionable sums spent on a war with unclear purpose, it is past time to show they are leaders and not just politicians.

However many seats Democrats win in the House and Senate elections this fall, there will be no new plan for Iraq without the Republicans.

Anyone can pass a resolution.

It takes courage to resolve a crisis.

Marie Cocco's e-mail address is mariecocco@washpost.com.

end quotes

"The government is not doing any governing."

"It's not providing services to anyone."

"The place is really adrift."

WOW ....

George W. Bush's government over there in IRAQINAM .....

Sounds just like his government over here .....

And so ...

At least you cannot say ....

That George W. Bush is inconsistent ....

And he will stay the course ....

Until he has destroyed both nations ....

With his incredible incompetence ....

And his belligerence ....

And his lack of a grasp on reality ....

And lucidity ...

And so ....

TO KEEP THAT LOSING STREAK GOING ...

VOTE REPUBLICAN THIS FALL ....

And you will help George W. Bush ...

Achieve that TOTAL VICTORY ...

And so ...