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

[Livyjr]

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8992

May 15, 2006

"Fascism: Are We There Yet?"

by Justin Raimondo

I suppose executive orders could be used to lock up political dissidents without charges or a trial …

Of course they can, Snuf .....

Since as far back as August 22, 2001, at least .....

Which is what we have been talking about for over a year now .....

Over in the JUDICIARY section of this forum .....

In a thread entitled "Bush-appointee in Northern District of New York deals right to dissent a death blow" .....

Why don't we hear about this in our local news?

http://commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/...php/t24721.html

The EXCECUTIVE simply "contracts" with a CORPORATION .....

And when the EXECUTIVE wants to "GET RID" of somebody ....

The EXECUTIVE simply has the CORPORATION issue an "arrest order" for the person ....

On trumped-up "psychiatric" grounds .....

Which directs the "STATE'S" POLICE to go out and "capture" this person ....

For transport to a "political re-conditioning" facility operated by the CORPORATION ....

And then ...

They are simply gone .....

Which is really the old Soviet-model ...

For dealing with dissidents ...

Simply have the "STATE" declare them to be mentally ill and dangerous .....

And then ...

They are gone ...

No muss ...

No fuss ...

No civil rights BULL**** to have to worry about ....

Since these people so branded have no civil rights ....

And so ....

Justin should get out more, perhaps .....

Find out what is really going on here in OUR America ...

Instead of just speculating ....

Because while he is speculating about what might happen .....

It is long since a reality ...

Albeit unknown to him, apparently ....

And so ....

This post has been edited by Livyjr: May 15 2006, 07:57 AM

[Livyjr]

And up from some subterranean lair ....

Where they have been keeping him hidden away from view ....

Comes Karl Rove ...

And Karl just might be on to something here ....

But then ...

Karl is .....

THE ARCHITECT .....

And so ....

He would be ....

Wouldn't he?

"Rove blames Iraq war for low Bush numbers"

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:16 p.m., Monday, May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove blamed the war in Iraq on Monday for dragging down President Bush's job approval ratings in public opinion polls.

"People like this president," Rove said.

"They're just sour right now on the war."

Rove said that Bush's likeability ratings are far higher than his approval ratings.

"There is a disconnect" because of the Iraq conflict, Rove told the American Enterprise Institute.

"I think the war looms over everything."

"There's no doubt about it," Rove said during a question-and-answer session after a speech on the economy at the conservative think tank.

Rove, who is deputy White House chief of staff and Bush's top political adviser, brushed aside a question on his own role in the federal CIA-leak investigation, saying he would not go beyond statements by his attorney.

"Nice try," Rove told the questioner.

On the economy, Rove credited the president's fiscal policies, particularly a series of first-term tax cuts, for a recovery that has gone on since late 2001.

"The reality is, the tax cuts have helped make the U.S. economy the strongest in the world," Rove said.

He said the president in his address to the nation Monday night would propose "a comprehensive solution" on immigration, including tougher border enforcement.

Asked about criticism from some conservatives for his proposal for a guest worker program, Rove said, "This is about getting the right policy, and the politics will take care of themselves."

"I mean, we've seen this about four or five times before in American politics, and it's always seemed to work its way out politically, and I'm confident this will as well," Rove said.

"You'll hear the president talk tonight about steps that we're going to take to increase our security along the border immediately and to deal with the other part of it, which is we will not be able to secure the border unless we have a temporary worker program," Rove said.

The presidential adviser, widely credited with securing Bush's win in 2000 and re-election in 2004, was questioned about public opinion polls that show the president's plunging approval ratings.

A recent AP-Ipsos poll showed Bush approval at 33 percent.

Other national polls put it around 30 percent.

"Well, you know, it's interesting, because consumer confidence is relatively high."

"In fact, it is much higher than the average of the last 40 years," said Rove, who argued that typically should lead to a gain of congressional seats for Republicans in November's midterm elections.

"Their personal circumstances are good."

"They're feeling good about where they are."

"They don't like gas prices."

"Who likes having to pay more at the pump?"

"But they do feel that overall the economy is good for them, that the prospects for their family in the near term and for the future are good," Rove said of Americans.

"They're worried about the long haul."

"They've heard about the problems with Social Security."

"They're worried about globalization."

"But they're confident about where they are right now and where they find themselves," he added.

Rove accused the news media of being too fixated on polls.

"I love this mania which has swept through American media today which substitutes polls for coverage of substance," he said.

"There's, I'm sure, going to be a special Betty Ford addiction for those that are addicted to regular poll numbers, but you'll work your way through it," he said, referring to the former first lady's clinic for treating substance abuse.

Despite low approval ratings, "I'm sanguine," Rove said.

"I know our own polls."

He said that Bush's likeability, his personal approval ratings, were in the 60s in some polls.

"Job approval is lower."

"And what that says to me is that people like him, they respect him, he's somebody they feel a connection with, but they're just sour right now on the war."

"And that's the way it's going to be."

Rove spent about half an hour taking questions from the audience, including some from reporters.

end quotes

I don't like this president, Karl ....

Never have .....

I have never liked his partisanship ....

The lies .....

The HACK-O-CRACY ....

And you know something, Karl ...

I don't think too much of you, either .....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

"Rove blames Iraq war for low Bush numbers" 
 
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:16 p.m., Monday, May 15, 2006

The presidential adviser, widely credited with securing Bush's win in 2000 and re-election in 2004, was questioned about public opinion polls that show the president's plunging approval ratings.

A recent AP-Ipsos poll showed Bush approval at 33 percent.

Other national polls put it around 30 percent.

"Well, you know, it's interesting, because consumer confidence is relatively high."

"In fact, it is much higher than the average of the last 40 years," said Rove, who argued that typically should lead to a gain of congressional seats for Republicans in November's midterm elections.

"Their personal circumstances are good."

"They're feeling good about where they are."

"They don't like gas prices."

"Who likes having to pay more at the pump?"

"But they do feel that overall the economy is good for them, that the prospects for their family in the near term and for the future are good," Rove said of Americans.

"They're worried about the long haul."

"They've heard about the problems with Social Security."

"They're worried about globalization."

"But they're confident about where they are right now and where they find themselves," he added.

Better put that pipe away, Karl ....

And quit smoking that stuff ...

Cause it seems to have your brain all whacked out here .....

And so .....

"Singing the blues as economy hums - Despite above-average gains, poll finds 64% feel things are getting worse"

By KEVIN G. HALL, Knight-Ridder
First published: Monday, May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy is strong these days when measured by macro-statistics, but sluggish wage growth, rising gasoline prices and interest rates, and the gloomy background music from the Iraq war are overshadowing the good economic news in the minds of most Americans.

To be sure, corporations are raking in strong profits, which are driving the stock market near its all-time high.

Unemployment remains near historic lows.

Even a slump in home sales hasn't significantly slowed consumer spending.

But when pollster Gallup recently surveyed Americans, 64 percent said the economy was getting worse.

Only 33 percent described it as good, 40 percent as fair and 23 percent as poor.

And that survey was taken March 13-16, before gasoline prices leaped more than 30 cents a gallon to a national average of $2.92.

"When we talk about consumer confidence, or rating the economy, we're talking attitudes here."

"And if they're down on a lot of things in America, they'll be down on that, too," said Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll.

Pollsters, he said, "are picking up decade-long lows" for citizen views about the White House and Congress, fueled by the unpopular war in Iraq, among other downers.

These views cloud feelings about the economy.

Experts agree that U.S. economic growth is above historic norms.

In late April, the Commerce Department reported a sizzling first-quarter annual growth rate of 4.8 percent in the nation's gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy.

And at 4.7 percent, unemployment hovers near all-time lows.

The Dow Jones blue-chip stock average closed Tuesday at 11,639.77, nearing its all-time high of 11,722 set Jan. 14, 2000.

That's lifted millions of U.S. workers' 401(k) retirement holdings.

So why aren't Americans celebrating?

"It's not showing up in their paychecks the way you'd expect," said Jared Bernstein, chief economist for the liberal Economy Policy Institute in Washington.

"The gap between the economy from 40,000 feet and on the ground level just seems to get wider with every new report."

The same week the robust GDP numbers came out, the government also reported that worker compensation -- pay and benefits -- rose in the year's first quarter at an annual rate of only 2.4 percent, the slowest rate in seven years.

That figure, Bernstein said, suggests workers' wages aren't keeping pace with wage gains during past economic expansions, or even with inflation, which rose by 3.4 percent over the year ending in March as measured by the consumer price index.

"The problem is you have faster growing prices colliding with nominal wage growth that has been pretty unimpressive," he said.

A closer look at the composition of the work force helps explain why many Americans aren't cheering all the strong economic news in the headlines.

The Labor Department said in 2004 that 51.6 percent of all workers are concentrated in five job categories with mean-average hourly wages of $15.50 per hour or less.

The national mean-average wage was $18.

These are the people most likely to suffer from rising gasoline prices and credit rates.

In fact, two government measures of workers' pay -- median weekly earnings and a broader index that adds benefits such as health insurance to compensation -- grew more slowly than inflation over the past 12 months, and two other wage indexes surpassed inflation only slightly.

That suggests that many workers' income is either losing ground or barely holding even.

The chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, Edward Lazear, acknowledged on May 2 that wage growth has lagged, but he said it would soon follow economic growth.

"As the expansion progresses, wages tend to catch up to productivity growth, and eventually the growth rate of wages exceeds that of productivity."

"... We are moving into that phase," Lazear told the Hudson Institute, a conservative policy-research center.

Productivity measures a worker's output per hour.

For the past decade, it's outpaced historic norms.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that hourly wages are up 3.8 percent over the past 12 months, supporting Lazear's view that a turn is coming.

The bureau also said average weekly earnings are up by 4.1 percent.

The Bush administration, deflecting criticism about sluggish wage growth, is talking up the economy's rebound in job creation, after years of a "jobless recovery," with 32 consecutive months of job growth and 2.5 million net new jobs over the past year.

But there were 143.7 million active workers on payrolls in April, and most of their wages have grown more slowly in recent years than they did during past business cycles.

Martin Regalia, chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said he thinks the economy will slow in the second half of this year.

Third-quarter growth numbers will be released shortly before November's congressional elections.

If they show a significant slowdown, as Regalia and most mainstream economists expect, that could turn voters against the governing Republican Party.

"How do you spin that politically?" Regalia asked.

"It's been hard to sell this economy to the general public while it's been very good."

"How are we going to sell it when it is just good?"

[Livyjr]

George W. Bush and a secret service agent are taking a stroll when they come upon a little girl carrying a basket with a blanket over it.

Curious, Bush asks the girl, "What's in the basket?"

She replies, "New baby kittens," and she opens the basket to show him.

"How nice," says Bush.

"What kind are they?"

The little girl says, "Republicans."

Bush smiles, pats the little girl on the head and continues on.

Three weeks later, Bush is taking another stroll, this time with Karl Rove.

They see the little girl again with the same basket.

Bush says, "Watch this, Karl, it's really cute."

They approach the little girl.

He greets the little girl and says "How are the kittens doing?" and she says, "Fine."

Then, smirking, he nudges Rove with his elbow and asks the little girl, "And can you tell us what kind of kittens they are?"

She replies, "Democrats."

Abashed, Bush says, "But three weeks ago you said they were Republicans!"

"I know," she says.

"But now their eyes are open ..."

[Livyjr]

And then ....

There is the weather .....

"Rains pummel New England - States of emergency in New Hampshire, Massachusetts"

By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press
First published: Monday, May 15, 2006

CONCORD, N.H. -- Torrential rain forced hundreds of people from their homes in parts of New England on Sunday as water flowed over dams and washed out roads.

The governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts declared states of emergency, activating the National Guard to help communities respond to the storm.

Maine's governor also declared a state of emergency for one county.

"It's a very serious situation," said New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, adding that forecasters were predicting 12 to 15 inches of rain by the end of the storm in parts of southern New Hampshire.

"It continues to change and the situation continues to worsen."

A dam in Milton, N.H., was in danger of failing, which could send a 10-foot wall of water downstream, the National Weather Service said in a bulletin.

People downstream were being evacuated in the town.

The state Office of Emergency Management said at least a dozen dams were being closely watched.

In Massachusetts, cars were pulled from flooded streets in downtown Peabody, about 20 miles north of Boston, and about 300 people were evacuated from an apartment complex for seniors.

About 150 residents in Melrose, Mass., had to leave their homes after sewage lines were overwhelmed, backing up into houses, said Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Some parts of New Hampshire had seen 7 inches of rain by midday Sunday and forecasters said up to 5 more inches might come during the day.

About 100 residents were evacuated from their homes in Wakefield, N.H., because of concerns about two dams in the area.

Officials also reported a railroad culvert and embankment washed out in Milton, with train tracks suspended in midair.

And the local emergency management office in Hooksett said the town essentially was closed because so many roads were flooded.

[Livyjr]

And then ....

There is America's Dick .....

"Cheney remains linked to CIA leak case - Prosecutor files notes suggesting aide acted at vice president's behest"

By PETE YOST, Associated Press
First published: Monday, May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The prosecutor in the CIA leak case said more than six months ago that he was not alleging any criminal acts by Vice President Dick Cheney regarding the leak of agency operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Today, the prosecutor is leaving the door open to the possibility that the vice president's now-indicted former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, was acting at his boss' behest when Libby allegedly leaked information about Plame to media.

A new court filing presents handwritten notes by Cheney.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is using them to assert that the vice president and Libby, working together, were focusing much attention on Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a Bush administration critic.

Cheney's notes ask whether Plame had sent Wilson on a "junket" to Africa.

Plame's supposed role in her husband's trip to Africa allegedly was later leaked to the media by both Libby and by presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Cheney's notes on the margins of Wilson's opinion column in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, reflect "the contemporaneous reaction of the vice president," Fitzgerald said in the court filing late Friday.

Wilson's column "is relevant to establishing some of the facts that were viewed as important by the defendant's immediate superior, including whether Mr. Wilson's wife had 'sent him on a junket,' " the court papers say.

Cheney's notes "support the proposition that publication of the Wilson op-ed acutely focused the attention of the vice president and the defendant -- his chief of staff -- on Mr. Wilson, on the assertions made in his article, and on responding to those assertions," according to the filing.

In the column, Wilson recounted how he had been sent by the CIA in 2002 to Niger to assess intelligence that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from the African country.

His conclusion: It was highly doubtful that such a deal existed.

[Livyjr]

And getting away from the stench of politics for a moment ....

"Long-ago eyes on skies"

Los Angeles Times
First published: Monday, May 15, 2006

Archaeologists working high in the Peruvian Andes have discovered the oldest celestial observatory in the Americas -- a 4,200-year-old structure marking the summer and winter solstices that is as old as the stone pillars of Stonehenge.

The observatory was built on the top of a 33-foot-high pyramid with precise alignments and sight lines that provide an astronomical calendar for agriculture, archaeologist Robert Benfer of the University of Missouri said.

The people who built the observatory -- three millenniums before the emergence of the Incas -- are a mystery, but they achieved a level of art and science that archaeologists say they did not know existed in the region until at least 800 years later.

Among the most impressive finds was a massive clay sculpture -- an ancient version of the modern frowning "sad face" icon -- flanked by two animals.

The disk marked the position of the winter solstice.

[Livyjr]

But these days ....

You can never get far enough away ....

For very long ....

And so ....

"Army Reserve bars officers' departures - Policy revealed during litigation over practice similar to stop-loss"

Washington Post
First published: Friday, May 12, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Army Reserve, taxed by recruiting shortfalls and war-zone duty, has adopted a policy barring officers from leaving the service if their field is undermanned or they have not been deployed to Iraq, to Afghanistan or for homeland defense missions.

The reserve has used the unpublicized policy, first adopted in 2004 and strengthened in a May 2005 memo signed by Lt. Gen. James Helmly, its commander, to disapprove the resignations of at least 400 reserve officers, according to Army figures.

"I don't think during a time of war you would want to let people go when you have a shortage of people," Army Reserve spokesman Steve Stromvall said when asked to comment on the memo, which surfaced during litigation over the policy.

At least 10 reserve officers have sued the Army, saying they should be allowed to get out because they have finished their mandatory eight years of service.

Blocking reserve officers' resignations is one of several steps the Army has undertaken in recent years to keep soldiers beyond their original terms of service, as today's wars place unprecedented demands on the all-volunteer force.

Under another practice, known as "stop-loss," thousands of active-duty Army and reserve soldiers have been temporarily prevented from leaving the military, either because their skills were needed or because their units were going overseas.

As of January, more than 13,000 soldiers were being kept under stop-loss, a policy criticized by some as a "backdoor draft," which the Army says it seeks to end.

Sunnis rescued from militia

U.S. and Iraqi forces rescued seven Sunni Arab men seized by suspected Shiite militiamen near Baghdad, part of a campaign to suppress sectarian death squads responsible for hundreds of deaths this year.

More than 30 people were taken into custody, Iraqi police told The Associated Press.

Some of the suspects told police they belong to the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Elsewhere, three U.S. soldiers were killed when roadside bombs hit two U.S. Army convoys southwest of Baghdad, the military said.

It was also announced that a U.S. soldier died Tuesday from non-combat related wounds.

Their deaths raised to at least 2,430 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

2007 homecoming forecast

Rep. John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran, says American troops will be brought home from Iraq by 2007.

Either President Bush will bow to public opinion or Democrats will have won control of the House of Representatives and increased pressure on the White House, Murtha, D-Pa., said to the Associated Press Thursday.

Murtha, 73, a retired Marine colonel, shocked Washington in November when he said the war could not be won and it was time for troops to come home.

[Livyjr]

"Rove blames Iraq war for low Bush numbers" 
 
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:16 p.m., Monday, May 15, 2006

The presidential adviser, widely credited with securing Bush's win in 2000 and re-election in 2004, was questioned about public opinion polls that show the president's plunging approval ratings.

A recent AP-Ipsos poll showed Bush approval at 33 percent.

Other national polls put it around 30 percent.

"Well, you know, it's interesting, because consumer confidence is relatively high."

"In fact, it is much higher than the average of the last 40 years," said Rove, who argued that typically should lead to a gain of congressional seats for Republicans in November's midterm elections.

"Their personal circumstances are good."

"They're feeling good about where they are."

"They don't like gas prices."

"Who likes having to pay more at the pump?"

"But they do feel that overall the economy is good for them, that the prospects for their family in the near term and for the future are good," Rove said of Americans.

Actually, Karl .....

Every time I have to buy something ....

And the price of it keeps rising ...

From what it was the last time ....

While quality goes down ....

I feel like I'm really getting screwed by this economy of yours ....

But what the hey, Karl ....

Mid-term elections are in November ....

And so ....

"Drivers shift their gears in response to gas hikes - Prices inspire many in the Capital Region to change their ways"

By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer, Albany, new York Times Union

First published: Monday, May 15, 2006

Bob Wishnoff is the kind of guy who likes fast cars.

But when the price of a gallon of gasoline soared 60 cents this spring to $3, the Albany man decided he wanted a car that burned less fuel.

Last month, he traded his BMW Z-4 roadster for a MINI Cooper, picking up about 13 miles per gallon in the process.

"I decided to save some gas, be a little environmentally conscious and save a little money," Wishnoff said.

Many drivers across the Capital Region report they are taking modest steps to save gas -- sharing rides, minimizing unnecessary errands and adjusting vacation plans.

But more than a few, like Wishnoff, are considering changing the cars they drive.

It's behavior that's been predicted by economists who study how drivers across the world react to increases in fuel prices.

They have found that people make small changes at first.

But in the long run, if prices stay high, they'll take dramatic steps: getting a new car or even giving up driving altogether.

The phenomenon is of interest to those who want to see a sharp reduction in the use of gasoline and other fuel -- to curb global warming, reduce air pollution and help the United States reduce its dependence on energy from the Middle East.

Those achievements will be closer if many people do what Christine Hanson of Clifton Park is on the verge of doing.

She and her husband want to trade in their SUV for a hybrid sedan.

"Why not do something, not only for the environment but to put a little extra money in my pocket?" she asked.

"I don't foresee gas prices going down."

Consumers do need to know prices will stay high before they'll take big steps, experts say.

Lately, they've been up and down.

Gas prices shot up to $3.41 a gallon immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last year, but then dropped to $2.30 within three months.

"What's very important is to achieve a degree of stability in price," said Therese Langer of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

How do you keep prices stable?

Government could ensure gas remained at at least $3 a gallon by boosting taxes when the prices goes down.

But most experts have thought that any elected official who proposed such a policy would be committing political suicide.

Langer isn't so sure.

"The public seems to be quite a bit ahead of the politicians," she said.

"A couple polls show that people are at the point of accepting the notion that a gas tax would be palatable if it could guarantee some kind of stability."

How people respond to a change in price depends on how badly they need something.

If a ticket to the River Rats suddenly cost $200, the Times Union Center -- er, Pepsi Arena -- would almost certainly be empty for their next game.

But it's hard for people to stop buying gas: they can't just suddenly quit their jobs, or move to a new place right near school.

And even if they want to drive a car that gets better gas, most people only get a new car every few years -- or even less frequently.

Economists actually have a formula that predicts what they call the "elasticity of demand," or how people behave when prices go up.

For gas, in the short term, studies show people reduce their consumption by roughly one-tenth as much as the percent increase.

So if gas goes up 50 percent, for example, people only cut their gas usage by 5 percent -- at least in the short term.

Interviews with area residents show that people are reducing their gas use slightly.

They're trying to consolidate their errands -- going to the doctor, the grocery store and the mall in a single trip.

They're doing their best to travel with family members or friends on outings, rather than taking separate cars.

Sara Blake of Albany has figured out how to walk to some work meetings -- across the Hudson River.

She works at a branch office of the state Office of Children and Family Services in downtown Albany.

At least twice a week, she has meetings in Rensselaer.

Driving took about half an hour, by the time she got her car and found parking across the river.

So now she ambles across a pedestrian walkway on the Dunn Memorial Bridge.

It's a lonely walk.

"For the most part I'm the only person on the bridge," she said.

Some even report that $3 gas has them thinking twice about working -- because of the cost of getting to work.

Tom Wargo of Middleburgh works in the winter as a ski instructor.

In the summer, he often finds seasonal jobs, such as a tour guide.

Maybe not this year.

"I have to think twice about taking a job where I have to drive any amount," he said.

Most people can't change where they work, but they can change where they go for fun.

No one knows yet if $3 gas will cut short summer vacations.

Jay Buhr's family has actually decided to drive to visit his family in Missouri -- because expensive gas has driven airfares out of their reach.

It used to cost $800 or $900 for the Glenmont family of four to fly to St. Louis.

This year, it would be about $1,400.

"It'll obviously take some more time," Buhr said.

"But it will only be about $100 in gas for one way."

"We have a Honda Civic."

"That helps."

The price hike for gas also applies to other fuels, like home heating oil.

Debby Fellows of Porter Corners has recently decided that she and her family will switch exclusively to burning wood.

A back injury has disabled her.

Her partner has a good job with General Electric, but after he pays taxes and child support, they have relatively little money left.

Buying oil was a major burden this past winter.

"We're not adjusting," she said.

"We're really suffering."

So they'll harvest wood for heat from their land, so their little cash will remain for the true essentials.

"If I have to make a choice between heat and eat, it's going to be eat," she said.

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

Some of the feedback used is this article came from you, our readers, in the form of responses sent to the Times Union Reader Network.

It's your turn.

Go to http://timesunion.com to sign up.

[Livyjr]

May 15, 2006
 
"Fascism: Are We There Yet? - The surveillance state and the dangers of 'data-mining'"

by Justin Raimondo

The lies keep coming.

During the run-up to war with Iraq, we were told this administration knew for sure that Saddam had "weapons of mass destruction," and not only that, but knew exactly where they were.

When no WMD turned up after the invasion, the Bushies came up with a bushel of excuses and denied ever saying that in the first place.

Oh, but don't worry – their real motive for going to war was to export "democracy" to Iraq – which, as anyone can see, is happening – so none of that matters anyway.

As to "exporting" democracy to IRAQINAM .....

I came across these words attributed to Colin Powell .....

During BIG BUSH's war ....

Back in 1991 ....

To put the sybaritic EMIR of Kuwait back on his throne ....

When BIG BUSH'S "COALITION" ......

Included Syria .....

As one of BIG BUSH'S allies ....

This being before "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice, of course ....

And SMALL BUSH .....

And his AXIS OF EVIL .....

These words come from a time ...

When Colin still had some integrity .....

Which, in my opinion, he later squandered ....

When he joined up with SMALL BUSH ....

As a civilian .....

To help him and "CON-JOB CONNIE" and Francis Frago Townsend ....

Peddle the profusion of lies ....

That have us presently mired in the QUAGMIRE OF IRAQINAM ....

Where SMALL BUSH ....

Don't know if it is night or day ....

These words ....

Or perhaps "sentiments" would be the better choice ....

Attributed to Colin Powell ....

Came from that time in his life ...

When he was still serving in "uniform" ......

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ....

Before he shed the uniform ....

And what it stood for .....

To become a BUSHCO ....

In the HACK-O-CRACY .....

Of the American king .....

GEORGE THE VERY SMALL ....

This is from page 452 ...

Of the book CRUSADE .....

By Rick Atkinson .....

A staff reporter for the Washington Post ...

Who wrote the Post's lead stories .....

During BIG BUSH'S WAR ....

And so ....

Powell's voice had been among the loudest arguing for limited - and military expedient - war aims.

He wanted no part of a war that required an extended American occupation or a protracted hunt for Saddam.

HE RIDICULED SUGGESTIONS THAT THE U.S. ARMY PRESS ON TO BAGHDAD TO IMPOSE DEMOCRACY ON IRAQ, AS IF "LOTS OF LITTLE JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRATS WOULD HAVE POPPED UP TO RUN FOR OFFICE."

Since early August (1990), he had argued that it ran counter to American interests to eviscerate Iraq and leave a power vacuum that strengthened Iranian or Syrian influence in the Middle East.

[Livyjr]

Ah, yes ....

The BUSHCOS ....

Before they were for invading Iraq ....

To remove Saddam Hussein from power .....

So as to allow them to impose democracy on the people of Iraq ....

Despite any thoughts that the people of Iraq may have had about it ....

The BUSHCOS were against it .....

Invading Iraq, I mean ....

To remove Saddam from power ....

So as to allow them to impose democracy on the people of Iraq ....

But what the hey .....

These BUSHCOS are the FLIP-FLOPPERS PAR EXCELLANCE, here in OUR America ....

And that is a fact ....

But enough about the BUSHCOS ....

For the moment ....

And Eliot Spitzer, too ....

What's doing with all this rain?

It's getting wet up here ....

"Rain swallows New England - After record downpour, flooding routs thousands"

By KATIE ZEZIMA, New York Times
First published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006

BOSTON -- After days of record rainfall, rivers in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have spilled over their banks, causing thousands of residents to flee their homes and brace for what could be the region's worst flooding in 70 years.

Storms have dumped more than a foot of rain throughout the region since Friday, with at least another inch expected by this morning.

According to The Associated Press, the National Weather Service predicted that rain totals could hit 15 inches in some places.

No deaths were reported, but the Coast Guard was searching for two people who were seen floating down the Merrimack River in Amesbury, Mass., on Monday afternoon after a floating bridge broke free of its moorings.

On Monday, as the rains continued, residents were evacuated and floated through towns in canoes; cars were submerged up to their roofs; major roadways, including Route 1 in Massachusetts, were closed; sewage systems were failing; and residents tried to come to grips with flood damage that, despite four days of rain, seemed to come out of nowhere.

In Massachusetts, tens of thousands of gallons of sewage were spewing into the Merrimack River after the city of Haverhill's main sewage line broke and the city of Lawrence's sewage treatment facility flooded.

Lowell's drinking water plant is in danger of shutting down.

"We're under siege -- water is coming out everywhere," said Frederick Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which provides water and sewer services to 43 municipalities.

"This is overwhelming."

"No system in the country is designed to handle this kind of rain."

"I don't think anybody anywhere expected what hit us," said Yetta Chin of Kennebunk, Maine, whose three-bedroom ranch was destroyed by the flooding Mousam River on Sunday night.

Chin, her husband, Stephen, and their three children were ordered to evacuate at 2:30 on Sunday morning, when the water in the backyard was chest-high, she said in a phone interview.

The family does not have flood insurance, she said.

"It's a nightmare," she said.

Schools in the region closed on Monday, and some were to remain closed today.

St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., an Episcopal boarding school, suffered extensive damage after the Turkey River spilled its banks.

"This is certainly the worst flooding we've had in our history," the rector, Bill Matthews, said of the 150-year-old school.

The Merrimack River in Massachusetts crested on Monday afternoon at 6 feet above flood level and is expected to stay that high until Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

A number of its tributaries in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including the Spicket River in Methuen, Mass., and the Shawsheen River in Billerica, Mass., were beyond flood stage and had not yet crested.

Officials were particularly concerned about a weak dam on the Spicket River.

If it fails, downtown Methuen could flood.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch declared a disaster in eight of the state's 10 counties, and called out more than 400 National Guard troops to assist with evacuations and to guard the more than 600 roads that have closed.

"You can go to a town in any of those eight counties and find flood damage," Lynch said.

The governors of all three states plan to ask for federal disaster declarations, officials said.

The first part of the storm system, which hit the area late last week, was fed by tropical moisture that came up from the Gulf of Mexico and sat off the shoreline.

The second wave came from a system stuck in the Ohio River Valley.

The two essentially set up a conveyer belt of moisture that will not be gone until Wednesday, meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass., said.

Catherine McKinnon awoke Monday in Lowell, Mass. to find the swollen Merrimack River raging just inches below her bedroom window.

"I didn't even have to lift my head off the pillow to see the water," she told The Boston Globe, weeping just hours before she was evacuated from her riverfront apartment.

"It's usually 20 feet away."

The flood's ferocity Monday became apparent to Linda Comeau of the U.S. Geological Survey as she watched her floating radar unit ripped apart by the swirling waters of the Merrimack.

Ray Brouck, 78, of Methuen, who lived through the Great Flood of 1936, said Monday's flooding was nearly as dramatic.

"Except that great flood, I've never seen anything this bad," he said Monday.

[Livyjr]

May 15, 2006 

"Fascism: Are We There Yet? - The surveillance state and the dangers of 'data-mining'"
 
by Justin Raimondo

When it came out that the U.S. government was intercepting and listening to all overseas calls, the president himself stepped up to the plate and declared that they weren't spying on domestic calls – and now we learn that the biggest database in the world is being compiled by the National Security Agency (NSA) in which a record of every phone call made in the U.S. since 2001 is kept.

Not all is necessarily as it appears to be .....

" Verizon: NSA Didn't Ask Us for Records"

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

41 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday joined fellow phone company BellSouth Corp. in denying key points of a USA Today story that said the companies had provided records of millions of phone calls to the government.

Verizon has not provided customer call data to the National Security Agency, nor had it been asked to do so, the company said in an e-mailed statement.

The statement came a day after BellSouth Corp. made a similar denial.

"One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers' domestic calls," the statement read.

The denials leave open the possibility that the NSA directed its requests to long-distance companies, or that call data was collected by other means.

Long-distance calls placed by BellSouth and Verizon subscribers can traverse the networks of other carriers who collect a variety of information for billing purposes.

A story in USA Today last Thursday said Verizon, AT&T Inc. and BellSouth had complied with an NSA request for tens of millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks.

The report sparked a national debate on federal surveillance tactics.

The newspaper story cited anonymous sources "with direct knowledge of the arrangement."

"Sources told us that BellSouth and Verizon records are included in the database," USA Today spokesman Steve Anderson said.

"We're confident in our coverage of the phone database story," Anderson added, "but we won't summarily dismiss BellSouth's and Verizon's denials without taking a closer look."

An attorney for the former chief executive of Qwest Communications International Inc., on Friday lent support to USA Today's story.

He said the Denver company had been approached by the government, but had denied the request for phone records because it appeared to violate privacy law.

Qwest is a regional phone company with a substantial long-distance business.

It was not clear if the government's request applied only to Qwest's long-distance business.

Verizon's statement suggested that USA Today may have erred in not drawing a distinction between long-distance and local telephone calls.

"Phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls," Verizon said.

Tuesday's denial did not apply to MCI, the long-distance carrier Verizon acquired in January.

In an earlier statement, Verizon said it is in the process of ensuring that its policies are put in place in the former MCI business.

Three smaller phone companies, with mainly local business, contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday also denied being approached by the NSA.

Representatives at Alltel Corp., Citizens Communications Co. and CenturyTel Inc. all said they had no knowledge of NSA requests to their companies.

The denials by Verizon and BellSouth leave AT&T as the sole company named in the USA Today article that hasn't denied involvement.

On Thursday, San Antonio-based AT&T said it had "an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare," but said would only assist as allowed within the law.

AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said Tuesday the company had no further comment.

AT&T Inc. was formed last year when regional phone company SBC Communications Inc. bought AT&T Corp., the long-distance and corporate carrier, and adopted its name.

BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T are facing a number of lawsuits by customers who allege violations of their privacy.

On Monday, a Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission said the FCC should investigate whether the companies violated federal communications law.
____

AP Business Writer Harry Weber in Atlanta contributed to this story.

[Livyjr]

And here is a "blast" from the past, alright ....

"1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill still a threat: study"

By Deborah Zabarenko

Tue May 16, 1:05 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oil spilled 17 years ago by the tanker Exxon Valdez still threatens wildlife around Alaska's Prince William Sound, scientists reported on Tuesday, a finding that could add $100 million to cleanup costs for Exxon Mobil Corp.

ExxonMobil has already paid $900 million to help recovery from the 1989 spill, the worst in U.S. history.

But the state of Alaska and the U.S. government could ask for up to $100 million more if they can show there is substantial, continuing environmental damage caused by the spill, and that the damage could not have been anticipated when a settlement with Exxon was signed in 1991.

A study by researchers at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Juneau, Alaska, indicates about six miles of shoreline around Prince William Sound is still affected by the spill, with 100 tons (101.6 tonnes) of oil remaining in the area.

Mark Boudreaux, a spokesman for ExxonMobil, questioned the study's findings, and noted the oil company had previously responded to this research, which was based on field work done in 2003.

Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999.

"We disagree with their conclusions," Boudreaux said by telephone from Irving, Texas.

"We've done 350 peer-reviewed studies of Prince William Sound, and those studies conclude that Prince William Sound has recovered, it's healthy and it's thriving."

The study, which is to appear in the June 15 print edition of the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology, said oil from the Exxon Valdez remains on shorelines of Prince William Sound.

SEA OTTERS AND OIL

Some is on the surface and has weathered to a hardened, "asphalt pavement" state, while some is hidden under the surface in the inter-tidal area of local beaches, research chemist Jeffrey Short said in a telephone interview.

"The subsurface oil is typically liquid, smelly oil," Short said.

"It looks like crude oil."

Sea otters and sea ducks -- both species that forage for food along the tide line -- are most likely to be affected by this, he said:

"There's a clear link for ongoing exposure for animals that disturb sediments while they forage for prey."

Sea otters dig pits at high tide when the inter-tidal zone is covered with water, then they dive down and disturb the sediments as they look for clams.

If they encountered spilled oil in the process, they would probably get it on their fur and likely ingest some of the oil as they groomed themselves -- an essential habit for otters, which rely on their fur for warmth.

"Our study suggests that they would eat some of this stuff several times a year," said Short, one of five authors of the study.

He said little is known about any toxic effects to mammals which ingest oil, but circumstantial evidence implicates oil exposure as a possible cause of the lack of recovery of sea otter populations in the most heavily oiled parts of Prince William Sound.

ExxonMobil's Boudreaux noted the research was being released about two weeks before a June 2 deadline for Alaska and the federal government to seek additional payments from ExxonMobil in a provision that allows this part of the 1991 settlement to be reopened.

ExxonMobil has 90 days to evaluate any request; the provision expires September 1.

Neither the United States nor the Alaska government has ever invoked this provision in any past settlement of environmental damage.

[Livyjr]

And then ....

There is this, of course ....

Where it now looks like George W. Bush never was Kenny "BOY" Lay's best buddy, after all ......

But was really out to get him, instead ....

For something or other, anyway ....

That the defense says was all trumped up ...

And so ....

"Defense: Gov't Manufactured Enron Case"

By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 36 minutes ago

HOUSTON - The government bore down on Enron Corp. as it would the Mafia, intimidating top lieutenants into pointing fingers at their bosses because someone had to pay for crimes that preceded the company's stunning collapse, the lawyer for former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling said Tuesday.

"This was all manufactured after the fact," Daniel Petrocelli declared in an impassioned plea for jurors to acquit his client of all 28 fraud and conspiracy counts against him.

"Because it's Enron."

"After all, somebody has to pay."

"It's Enron."

In a searing closing argument, Petrocelli sought to drive home the defense theme that neither Skilling nor Enron founder Kenneth Lay perpetuated an overarching fraud at the company because none existed.

But prosecutors, unable to dig up tangible proof, found mouthpieces in a string of ex-Enron executives "robbed of their free will," who pleaded guilty to crimes they didn't commit, Petrocelli said.

He said fear of lengthy prison terms and expensive legal battles drove those witnesses to say whatever the government wanted them to in testimony against Lay and Skilling.

"That's how they take down Mob kingpins," Petrocelli said.

Lay lawyer Bruce Collins, the first of several attorneys on his legal team to address jurors, said his client has accepted "full responsibility" for Enron's failure —but Lay committed no crimes.

Collins said another judge presiding over numerous Enron-related lawsuits in another courtroom will decide whether Lay is liable for losses suffered by investors after the company sought bankruptcy protection in December 2001.

The current jury's job is to decide if he is guilty of the crimes alleged by the government.

"Today you decide if Ken Lay is locked in a cage for the rest of his life."

"Today you decide if Ken Lay is a criminal."

"Today you decide if Ken Lay committed any crimes," he said.

Tuesday's lengthy closing arguments were the last opportunities for the defendants' lawyers to address the eight-woman, four-man panel.

Prosecutors who made their closing arguments on Monday get one more chance in a rebuttal argument on Wednesday.

Then, jurors will begin deliberations in the case that began Jan. 30.

The trial is the premier case to emerge from the government's 4 1/2 year investigation into Enron's collapse in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

More than $60 billion in market value, almost $2.1 billion in pension plans and 5,600 jobs were lost by the time the energy trading company started bankruptcy proceedings.

The government alleges Lay and Skilling repeatedly lied to investors and employees, touting Enron's financial health when they knew accounting trickery hid failing ventures.

Speaking softly, Petrocelli started by telling jurors that he has "had Jeff's life in my hands" for two years since the ex-CEO was indicted.

On Wednesday, "his fate's in your hands."

"Look into his eyes."

"Look into his soul."

"See if you see a criminal."

"See if you see a man with criminal intent," Petrocelli said.

Jurors listened intently, but most didn't laugh when Petrocelli made lighter comments.

A female juror repeatedly looked at Skilling's three children — a daughter and two sons aged 22, 19 and 15.

The daughter, seated near her mother and Skilling's first wife, Sue Lowe, at times sniffled and dabbed tears.

Petrocelli conceded on Tuesday that Skilling, during his six-month tenure as Enron CEO in 2001, made many mistakes, and said Skilling was far better at building the company in the years before that than he was at running it.

But mistakes are not crimes, the lawyer said.

But Petrocelli's closing argument mostly attacked the way the government handled the Enron case.

He turned a prosecutor's suggestion that the case was about "lies and choices" back onto the government itself.

Petrocelli accused federal prosecutors bent on winning convictions of criminalizing innocent comments, honest mistakes and normal business practices.

"They had their eye on the prize."

"The prize was Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay, and that's why we're here," Petrocelli said.

"Documents don't lie."

"People do."

"So you create evidence."

Petrocelli also beseeched jurors not to broker any deals during deliberations, such as finding Skilling guilty of some counts and acquitting him of others.

All other allegations of fraud, insider trading and making false statements to auditors stem from the single conspiracy count, and it's all or nothing, the attorney said.

"Do you have any hesitation at all about him?"

"If you do, you must acquit him."

"Don't negotiate with his life."

"Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty — 28 times," Petrocelli urged.

Skilling faces 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors related to his activities from 1999 to August 2001.

Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy stemming mostly from the period after he resumed as CEO upon Skilling's departure.

On Thursday, Lay will be on trial again — before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, but without a jury — in a case related to his personal banking.

In that case, the government contends he obtained $75 million in loans from three banks from 1999 through 2001 and reneged on agreements not to use the money to carry or buy margin stock.

He is charged with one count of bank fraud and three counts of making false statements to banks in the case.

Lake plans to issue his verdict in the banking case, which is expected to last several days, after jurors in the larger conspiracy case render theirs.
____

AP National Writer Erin McClam contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

These words come from a time ...

When Colin still had some integrity .....

Which, in my opinion, he later squandered ....

When he joined up with SMALL BUSH ....

As a civilian .....

To help him and "CON-JOB CONNIE" and Francis Frago Townsend ....

Peddle the profusion of lies ....

That have us presently mired in the QUAGMIRE OF IRAQINAM ....

Where SMALL BUSH ....

Don't know if it is night or day ....

These words ....

Or perhaps "sentiments" would be the better choice ....

Attributed to Colin Powell ....

Came from that time in his life ...

When he was still serving in "uniform" ......

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ....

Before he shed the uniform ....

And what it stood for .....

To become a BUSHCO ....

In the HACK-O-CRACY .....

Of the American king .....

GEORGE THE VERY SMALL ....

Who really is not much at all ...

At least when it comes to protecting the national security of OUR America ....

This is from page 452 ...

Of the book CRUSADE .....

By Rick Atkinson .....

A staff reporter for the Washington Post ...

Who wrote the Post's lead stories .....

During BIG BUSH'S WAR ....

And so ....

Powell's voice had been among the loudest arguing for limited -  and military expedient - war aims.

He wanted no part of a war that required an extended American occupation or a protracted hunt for Saddam.

HE RIDICULED SUGGESTIONS THAT THE U.S. ARMY PRESS ON TO BAGHDAD TO IMPOSE DEMOCRACY ON IRAQ, AS IF "LOTS OF LITTLE JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRATS WOULD HAVE POPPED UP TO RUN FOR OFFICE."

Since early August (1990), he had argued that it ran counter to American interests to eviscerate Iraq and leave a power vacuum that strengthened Iranian or Syrian influence in the Middle East.

And as it is a "slow news" day right now ....

And since I find it directly relevant to the various discussions and "currents" that are swirling around in here ....

Vis-a-vis the WAR IN IRAQINAM .....

Which we are bound to hear much more about ...

In these months leading up to the November 2006 CONGRESSIONAL elections ...

Where the Republican strategy is to make us think the Democrats are "weak" when it comes to "national security" ....

Whatever on earth that term might actually mean ....

I want to once again return to Rick Atkinson's book CRUSADE .....

Which was about BIG BUSH'S WAR against Saddam Hussein back in 1991 .....

Where we find at page 488 .....

Some relevant AMERICAN HISTORY, as follows .....

In the three months since the war had ended (March of 1991), peace had taken an ugly turn.

George Bush (BIG BUSH, father of George W.), in mid-February (1991) had urged the Iraqis "to take matters into their own hands to force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside."

But the anticipated coup by Saddam's vanquished army failed to materialize.

Instead, bloody rebellions erupted in the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, where the people were FOOLISH ENOUGH to take Bush's counsel.

THE STRENGTH OF THE INSURRECTIONS IMPERILED NOT ONLY SADDAM BUT ALSO THE IRAQI OFFICER CORPS - PREDOMINATELY SUNNI MUSLIMS ALIGNED WITH THE RULING BA'ATHIST PARTY - WHO RALLIED TO SADDAM, THOUGH MORE FOR SELF-PRESERVATION THAN THROUGH LOYALTY.

Here the Americans and their allies made several miscalculations more significant than the question of whether the cease-fire should have been delayed another day or two.

Fearful of a Shi'ite victory that would strengthen pro-Iranian Muslim fundamentalists in the Persian Gulf, WASHINGTON FAILED TO RECOGNIZE that most Iraqi Shi'ites were a different faction from those in Tehran.

NEITHER BEHOLDEN TO AN IRANIAN AYATOLLAH NOR INCLINED TO POLITICAL SEPARATISM, THEY ASPIRED CHIEFLY TO RIGHTFUL REPRESENTATION IN BAGHDAD, WHICH HAD LONG FAVORED THE COUNTRY'S SUNNI MINORITY.

Saudi moderates like Prince Bandar, the ambassador in Washington, recognized this distinction but failed to convince the White House (BIG BUSH) that the Shi'ites were worthy of support.

Bandar soon regretted not passing a sharper warning to Tehran - through the Syrians - to keep a discrete distance as the insurrection unfolded; consequently, Iran's overt support further galvanized the Iraqi army to unite around Saddam and reinforced the impression that Shi'ite rebels were Iranian stooges fighting to create another Islamic republic.

THE SIMPLEST COURSE FOR WASHINGTON WAS TO DO NOTHING.

To be continued .....

[Livyjr]

"Rove blames Iraq war for low Bush numbers" 
 
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:16 p.m., Monday, May 15, 2006

On the economy, Rove credited the president's fiscal policies, particularly a series of first-term tax cuts, for a recovery that has gone on since late 2001.

"The reality is, the tax cuts have helped make the U.S. economy the strongest in the world," Rove said.

Ahhh ....

How do you say "HICCUP", Karl?

"Dow plummets 214, Nasdaq declines 33"

By CHRISTOPHER WANG, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:35 p.m., Wednesday, May 17, 2006

NEW YORK -- Wall Street skidded lower Wednesday after an upswing in consumer prices intensified investors' fears that the Federal Reserve will extend its nearly two-year string of interest rate increases.

The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its biggest one-day loss in three years, and the Nasdaq composite index turned negative for 2006.

Investors were spooked by a Labor Department report that its consumer price index swelled 0.6 percent in April, topping forecasts of 0.5 percent.

But core CPI -- without food and energy -- also gained 0.3 percent, ahead of estimates and adding to worries that soaring oil prices have begun to lift prices elsewhere.

The inflation data dragged bonds lower and overshadowed solid earnings from Hewlett-Packard Co. and cooling oil prices.

Wall Street has been extremely anxious about economic news after the Fed last week said more rate hikes could be needed to battle inflationary pressures from record commodities prices.

"The CPI data really kicked the market in the teeth today," said Ken Tower, chief market strategist for Schwab's CyberTrader.

"So the question now really is where can we find some support?"

As the Dow came within 80 points of its best-ever close of 11,722.98 last week, many analysts felt the market was overbought and would soon see a correction.

But Tower said stocks are now oversold after several days of steep losses, suggesting that investors may start looking for positive signs to spur buying.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow sank 214.28, or 1.88 percent, to 11,205.61, a one-month low.

The Dow slid as much as 245.51 points earlier and logged its biggest single-session slide since falling 307 points on March 24, 2003.

Broader stock indicators declined.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 21.76, or 1.68 percent, to 1,270.32, its lowest since finishing at 1,262.86 on Feb. 13; the Nasdaq fell 33.33, or 1.5 percent, to 2,195.80, showing a loss for the first time in 2006.

Declining issues led advancers by nearly 5 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume of 2.1 billion shares topped the 1.7 billion shares that changed hands Tuesday.

The prospect of higher interest rates hurt bonds, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note surging to 5.16 percent from 5.1 percent late Tuesday.

Last Friday, bond yields reached a four-year high of 5.19 percent.

While Wednesday's retreat reflected Wall Street's ongoing nervousness about interest rates, investors may have gotten ahead of themselves before last week's Fed meeting.

Many traders were betting that the central bank would pause its two-year streak of rate hikes, and catapulted the major indexes to fresh multiyear highs.

The Fed boosted rates to 5 percent and left flexibility to pause its rate tightening.

However, the Fed cautioned that soaring oil and gold prices pose a threat to inflation and could warrant higher interest rates to stifle demand and keep prices from escalating.

The CPI report and Tuesday's producer price index reading reinforced that warning.

Gregory Miller, SunTrust Banks' chief economist, said the market was still largely split on whether the Fed will increase the key short-term lending rate by another quarter percentage point when policymakers meet on June 29.

"It won't surprise me if this is when they decide to start the pause and allow data to accumulate," Miller said.

"I suspect what they'll find is energy prices will stop trending higher, and the slower growth numbers will accumulate."

The U.S. dollar continued losing ground to the Japanese yen and weighed on the market's mood, CyberTrader's Tower said.

The dollar's retreat could propel inflation since more of the U.S. currency will be needed to purchase foreign-made goods.

"The dollar has depreciated quite sharply since the Fed started talking about stopping its rate hikes," Tower said.

"It's not so much that the dollar is depreciating -- it's the speed of the depreciation that is worrying the currency market."

"The dollar is down 6 percent in one month, which is a lot."

Crude futures dipped on data showing U.S. gasoline reserves grew for a third week in a row.

A barrel of light crude dropped 84 cents to settle at $68.69 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

HP was the Dow's sole winner after saying improved sales boosted its profit by 51 percent last quarter.

The company also announced plans to consolidate its global data centers in an effort to trim $1 billion of expenses.

HP climbed $1.05 to $32.16.

Applied Materials Inc. fell 92 cents to $16.93 despite posting a sharp rise in quarterly earnings, handily beating Wall Street expectations.

The chipmaker also forecast results ahead of current estimates.

Xstrata PLC offered to pay $14.5 billion for the 80.2 percent of Canadian mining company Falconbridge Ltd. it doesn't already own, topping Inco Ltd.'s $17.7 billion advance.

The $47.19-per-share bid sent Falconbridge shares up $1.16 to $49.94.

Honda Motor Co. plans to build a new U.S. plant -- its sixth in North America -- as part of $1.18 billion expansion to meet surging demand for its cars.

Honda slipped 83 cents to $34.25.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies tumbled 11.62, or 1.58 percent, to 725.85.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average added 0.92 percent.

Britain's FTSE 100 lost 2.92 percent, Germany's DAX index sank 3.4 percent and France's CAC-40 was lower by 3.18 percent.

------

On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

[Livyjr]

Okay .....

Now ...

Getting back to matters or real importance here in OUR America .....

That being George W. Bush's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR on whomever he likes to inflict terror on, that week, anyway ....

Without looking either to the right ...

Or the left, here ....

What we now all know ...

From this Kyle "DUSTY" Foggo CIA incident ....

Is that somewhere over there in Europe .....

Whether OLD EUROPE ....

Or NEW EUROPE ....

We can't yet tell ...

BECAUSE IT IS A (HUSH) SECRET ....

But anyway ....

Somewhere in Europe ....

We have a SECRET AMERICAN FACILITY .....

That is responsible for ....

Providing BOTTLED WATER ....

To CIA AGENTS ....

In what George W. Bush has declared to be war zones .....

And so .....

This "DUSTY" dude ....

Was in charge of providing this bottled water ...

To these CIA agents ...

For which he got a medal .....

From George W. Bush, apparently ....

Since by providing this bottled water to these CIA agents ....

This Foggo dude .....

Was considered by George W. Bush .....

To be a real hero of the REPUBLIC ...

And so he was, I guess, anyway ...

Since he did get the medal ...

And so ....

Who can argue with any of that ...

Which is not my point, anyway ....

What has got me real curious here .....

Is exactly how CLANDESTINE .....

Are these CIA spooks out there in the field .....

When they are walking around .....

In these foreign war zones ....

Drinking imported bottled water .....

That was somehow infiltrated to them ....

By Kyle "DUSTY" Foggo .....

From this SECRET AMERICAN FACILITY somewhere in either OLD or NEW Europe .....

Wouldn't that be a kind of "give-away", I wonder .....

All these alleged undercover CIA spooks wandering around in foreign lands that George W. Bush has declared to be war zones .....

Wearing their little sunglasses ...

And sipping their bottles of bottled water?

And I wonder how "DUSTY" Foggo was infiltrating this bottled water into these war zones ...

From this SECRET AMERICAN FACILITY somewhere in either OLD or NEW Europe ....

So that the bad guys ...

Would not know ...

That the ones showing up at some distribution point ...

In one of these war zones ...

To pick up their resupply of American bottled water ....

Were really American CIA agents ....

Supposedly in some kind of disguise ...

That would have them blend in with the indiginous population ....

If the indiginous population ....

Also drank that same brand of American bottled water ....

And so ...

"Rove blames Iraq war for low Bush numbers" 
 
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:16 p.m., Monday, May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove blamed the war in Iraq on Monday for dragging down President Bush's job approval ratings in public opinion polls.

"People like this president," Rove said.

"They're just sour right now on the war."

end quotes

I don't like this president, Karl ....

Never have .....

I have never liked his partisanship ....

The lies .....

The HACK-O-CRACY ....

And you know something, Karl ...

I don't think too much of you, either .....

And so ...

Say "HACK-O-CRACY", Karl ......

Look in the mirror this morning ....

And say the word "HACK-O-CRACY" ......

And when you do ......

Look around in there, Karl .....

Inside the mirror ...

And see what you see ...

Staring right back at you ....

And then, Karl ....

You just might have a clue ...

As to what more and more Americans are seeing ....

When they look at you .....

And so .....

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: May 17, 2006

President Bush has slipped in one recent poll to a 29 percent approval rating.

Frankly, I can't believe that.

Those polls can't possibly be accurate.

I mean, really, ask yourself:

How could there still be 29 percent of the people who approve of this presidency?

Talking World Affairs

Personally, I think the president can reshuffle his cabinet all he wants, but his poll ratings are not going to substantially recover — ever.

Americans are slow to judgment about a president, very slow.

And in times of war, in particular, they are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But I think a lot of Americans in recent months have simply lost confidence in this administration's competence and honesty.

What has eaten away most at the support for this administration, I believe, has been the fact that time and time again, it has put politics and ideology ahead of the interests of the United States, and I think a lot of people are just sick of it.

I know I sure am.

To me, the most baffling thing about the Bush presidency is this:

If you had worked for so long to be president, wouldn't you want to staff your administration with the very best people you could find, especially in national security and especially in the area of intelligence, which has been the source of so much controversy — from 9/11 to Iraq?

Wouldn't that be your instinct?

Well, not only did the president put the C.I.A. in the hands of a complete partisan hack named Porter Goss, but he then allowed Mr. Goss to appoint as the No. 3 man at the agency — the C.I.A.'s executive director — Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, whose previous position was chief of the C.I.A.'s logistics office in Germany, which provides its Middle East stations with supplies.

Mr. Foggo has spent almost his entire undistinguished C.I.A. career in midlevel administrative jobs.

He ingratiated himself with Mr. Goss during his days as a congressman by funneling inside dope about the C.I.A. under George Tenet to Mr. Goss, Newsweek reported.

When Mr. Goss was tapped by the president to head the C.I.A., he plucked Mr. Foggo from obscurity to handle day-to-day operations at the agency, where he immediately made his mark by purging the C.I.A. of veteran spies and managers deemed unfriendly to the White House.

I feel safer already.

Mr. Foggo resigned, along with Mr. Goss, after the C.I.A.'s chief internal watchdog opened an investigation to determine whether Mr. Foggo had helped steer a contract, apparently involving bottled water, to a company run by his old friend Brent Wilkes, a defense contractor who has been identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case involving the corrupt San Diego congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who is now in prison.

Mr. Foggo is not an expert on Iran or Iraq or Russia, but rather on Perrier, Poland Spring and Fiji water.

That is the guy the Bush team chose as its chief operating officer at the C.I.A.

Is there no job in this administration that is too important to be handed over to a political hack?

No.

In his excellent book on the Iraq war, "The Assassins' Gate," George Packer tells the story of how some of the State Department's best Iraq experts were barred from going to Iraq immediately after the invasion — when they were needed most — because that didn't pass Dick Cheney's or Don Rumsfeld's ideology tests.

And that is the core of the matter: the Bush team believes in loyalty over expertise.

When ideology always trumps reality, loyalty always trumps expertise.

Yes, Mr. Bush has seen the error of his ways and has sacked the Goss crew, but we just wasted a year and saw a number of experienced C.I.A. people quit the agency in disgust.

It's comical to think of this administration hoping to get a popularity lift from shaking up the president's cabinet, considering the fact that it has kept its cabinet secretaries so out of sight — even the good ones, and there are good ones — so the president will always dominate the landscape.

When you centralize power the way Mr. Bush did, you alone get stuck with all the responsibility when things go bad.

And that is what is happening now.

The idea that the president's poll numbers would go up if he replaced his Treasury secretary is ludicrous.

Replacing him would be like replacing one ghost with another.

I understand that loyalty is important, but what good is it to have loyal crew members when the ship is sinking?

So they can sing your praises on the way down to the ocean floor?

I just don't understand how a president whose whole legacy depends on getting national security and intelligence right would have tolerated anything but the very best in those areas.

What in the world was he thinking?

[Livyjr]

SSSSSSsssssshhhhhh, Snuffysmith .........

It's a secret .......

I don't think we're supposed to know ....

And I'm pretty sure nobody else can know, either ...

Unless you are an administration official authorized to leak ...

Or a press poodle authorized to take the leak ...

And report on it ...

As if it were news ...

Rather than BLATANT POLITICAL PROPAGANDA ......

And so ....

By all means, Snuffysmith ....

Don't say a word about it .....

And don't even imply to anyone that I might know something .....

Or that I might have spoken on the phone to someone ...

About something .....

Or even anything ...

Which I didn't ...

Because I'm too scared to use the phone .....

Because in OUR America ...

The only ones who use the telephones ...

Are the TAY-RISTS .....

And so ...

It wasn't me that said a word ....

Just in case the NSA and that weird general think I might have said a word ...

Which I really didn't ...

I didn't say nothing to nobody ...

And that is a fact ....

And so .....

But, hey, Snuf ...

Do me a real favor ...

And keep that a secret, too ...

Don't tell anyone that it wasn't me who was talking on the telephone ....

Because these days ....

Not talking on the telephone ....

Might be just as suspicious and UN-AMERICAN an activity ....

As talking on the telephone is ....

And so ....

You just never know .....

When the knock is going to come on the door ...

In the middle of the night .....

Because you either might have done something ...

Or maybe you didn't really do nothing at all ....

Which is also suspicious ...

And UN-AMERICAN .....

IF George W. Bush decides that it is ....

Which then causes him .....

To send out the PARANOIA POLICE .....

With their guns ....

To take us away ....

Because we thought that the TRUTH was really just POLITICAL PROPAGANDA ....

Or maybe ...

Just plain, old, garden-variety BULL **** .....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

And, of course ....

In a nation like the present-day America ....

Overwhelmed and stifled as it is by PARANOIA .....

Which has certainly struck deep into the heart of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE ....

A nation where everything is a secret .....

And where nobody is ever "authorized" to say anything .....

Even in response to a question about where the public restrooms might be located .....

This following is a SECRET, too ...

So, please ...

Don't tell anyone that I might know something about it ...

Because I sure don't want to get in trouble, me .....

And so .....

If somebody does ask you where you heard this .....

Just mumble .....

And turn ....

And walk away, rapidly .....

And maybe you'll be safe ...

But then again .....

Well ...

You just never know, anymore, these days ....

And so ....

"Power vacuum in Iraq already exists"

By H.D.S. GREENWAY
First published: Thursday, May 18, 2006

With the war in Iraq well into its fourth year with no end in sight, exit strategies are springing up in the gardens of op-ed pages like peonies in May.

Sen. John Kerry, quoting generals that the war cannot be won militarily, wrote last month in The New York Times that Iraqi politicians should be told that they had until May 15 to "put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military."

If Iraqi politicians comply, Kerry argued, American combat forces should be out of Iraq by year's end.

"Only troops essential to finishing the job of training Iraqi forces should remain."

"For this transition to work," Kerry said, there needed to be a "Dayton Accords-like summit" to knock heads together, the way Richard Holbrooke did to end the war in Bosnia.

In the meantime, American troops would be redeployed to "garrisoned status," sallying forth only on special ops against al-Qaida.

This month, Sen. Joseph Biden and Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, also referred to Dayton in their op-ed for the Times, saying that it kept Bosnia whole by "paradoxically, dividing it into ethnic federations, even allowing Muslims, Croats and Serbs to retain separate armies."

As in Bosnia, each Iraqi ethno-religious group should be allowed "room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests," Biden and Gelb argued.

The Shiite south, the Sunni center, and the Kurdish north would run their own affairs, with the oil-poor Sunnis being compensated "to make their region viable."

The rights of women and minorities would be respected and protected "by increasing American aid to Iraq but tying it to those rights."

Under the Biden-Gelb plan, troops would be out by 2008, leaving a "small but effective residual force to combat terrorists and keep the neighbors honest."

Also in The Times, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said breaking Iraq along ethnic and religious lines would bring only further disaster.

The populations are too intermixed, he said.

Dividing the country would mean dividing the army, which would strengthen the militias, "all of which would lead to more violence ..."

"And, of course, there is no way to divide Iraq that will not set off fights over control of oil."

Neighbors would jump in to support factions friendly to them, and religious extremism would flourish, according to Cordesman.

The division of Iraq would "convey the message that America has been defeated and abandoned a nation and a people," Cordesman wrote.

Having broken Iraq, the United States has a responsibility for its people and cannot leave a "power vacuum in an already dangerous region."

It has become clear that the Bush administration is looking for a way out of what has become the worst U.S. foreign policy mistake in living memory.

Biden and Gelb are probably right when they say Bush has no clear strategy, and hopes only to hang on until he can pass the whole mess off to the next president.

The critiques of Kerry, Biden, Gelb and Cordesman are constructive and thoughtful, but are they still relevant?

I fear the failures of the past three years have lost us the ability to dictate to Iraqis how to organize their society and their governments, or to tell them how they should proportion power among their regions.

I fear that, in that sense, Iraq is already all but lost to us.

The United States is not going to be able to control the course of events in Iraq.

Whether there will be accommodation or civil war is no longer up to us.

Cordesman may be right when he says that having broken Iraq, we have a responsibility, but wrong when he says we cannot leave a power vacuum.

The power vacuum is already in place.

We cannot fill it, and Iraq is pounding down the road toward a failed state -- a state in which jihadis now train for service in Afghanistan, and Americans, more and more, stay in their fortified and isolated bases.

It may be irresponsible to leave Iraq in the lurch, but one day I fear we will do just that because the irresponsibility of how and why we went in will be the determining factor, and the bankruptcy of policy will make the burdens of Iraq no longer sustainable at home -- a "barren outcome" to occupying a "bitterly hostile land," as President Bush's father foresaw so clearly 15 years ago.

H.D.S. Greenway writes for The Boston Globe.

end quotes

Iraq is "lost" to us?

How exactly is that?

WHEN IT WAS NEVER "OURS" TO BEGIN WITH?

Talk about ARROGANCE .....

And GROSS STUPIDITY .....

And HUBRIS .....

This present-day version of somebody's America sure does take the cake ...

And so ...

[Livyjr]

There's something happening here .....

But what it is ......

Ain't exactly clear .....

There's a man with a gun, over there ....

And his name is George W. Bush ....

But outside of that ...

It's kind of hard to figure .....

Because outside of raving .....

And spouting some kind of really dense dialect of GIBBERISH .....

That continues to elude me .....

I can't fathom ....

What George is raving about ...

And I sure am not going to try and get any closer .....

To try and find out ...

Because in my experience .....

Raving lunatics with guns in their hands are the most dangerous thing there is on the face of this earth ...

And so ....

If you want to know where I went ...

Look the other way .....

And so .....