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

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer blames Bush for gas prices - Candidate for governor says he's investigating oil companies" 
 
Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006

ALBANY -- Democrat Eliot Spitzer on Monday said he's investigating whether oil producers are price-gouging and blamed Republican President Bush for rising prices at the pump.

Also Monday, Republican attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro said the state should be investigating whether oil companies are colluding to inflate profits.

"When you have competing companies that are engaging in the raising of prices in lock step with each other, you have to question whether or not this is coincidence or price-fixing," said Pirro, former Westchester County district attorney.

GO FOR IT, JEANINE ....

If nothing else ...

It gets your name in the newspaper ...

And so ...

That is all it is about in American politics today, isn't it?

Exposure ....

Without any substance to back it up ...

And so ....

May 23, 2006

"Gas Prices Legitimate, Study Says"

By STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON, May 22 — Despite suspicions among consumers about rapidly rising gasoline prices and record oil industry profits, a federal investigation concluded Monday that the jump at the pump over the last year had not been the result of unlawful price manipulation.

The Federal Trade Commission said the sharp increase in fuel costs was attributable to market forces — namely big drops in supply and production and runs on inventories after major damage to refineries, ports and pipelines.

In a report that Congress ordered last year after hurricanes struck the nation's refining hub on the Gulf Coast, the commission found no evidence of price collusion or improper reductions of inventory or supplies to increase company profits.

"The evidence collected in this investigation indicated that firms behaved competitively," the commission said.

Since the report did not find an industry villain, it was not likely to quell voter anger over the high gas prices.

That is likely to add political pressure on Congress to take steps to lower prices or reduce the earnings of some oil companies.

It could also provide some impetus for legislation, already adopted by the House, to outlaw price gouging and impose high penalties for violations.

The commission said it found 15 examples of pricing by refineries, wholesale companies and retailers that technically fit the definition of "price gouging."

(It defined gouging as a price increase in the month after the hurricanes that was not attributable to the additional costs caused by weather-related damage.)

But it said that in nearly all of those instances, there was probably not gouging because of regional or local trends that justified the higher prices.

"Some price gouging by individual retailers did occur to a limited extent," the report said.

"Local or regional market trends, however, seemed to explain the price increases in all but one case."

"Exceptionally high prices on the part of individual retailers generally were very short-lived."

The report did not identify the retailer involved in the one case.

While the agency had been expected to reach the conclusions that it formally announced on Monday, senior commission officials said they expected the agency would come under criticism when the five commissioners appear before the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

Industry executives applauded the commission's findings.

"This investigation, like so many others conducted at the federal and state level, appears to vindicate the refining industry's actions post-Katrina, as well in the other areas that were the subject of the study," said Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.

"We hope that Congress and the public will take full notice of its findings."

But Democrats in Congress, who have been the biggest critics of the commission for the way it monitors the industry, challenged the report's conclusions.

"The F.T.C. white paper on gas price gouging is a whitewash," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon.

"They find substantial numbers of refiners engaged in anticompetitive practices."

"They don't like the remedy Congress is proposing, namely a law on price gouging."

"But they just walk away from responsibility and don't propose a remedy themselves."

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, also criticized the commission.

"It just defies belief that they didn't find price gouging because there is simply no price competition," he said.

Mr. Schumer said that the Senate "could do a lot if it had the backbone."

"We could issue subpoenas, we could call in the executives, we could get to the bottom of this," he said.

"The problem is that the Senate leadership believes, as the president does, that what's good for big oil is good for America."

The report, which in recent weeks has been cited by President Bush in response to questions about high gas prices, had been widely expected to exonerate oil producers, in part because it is difficult to define market manipulation and price gouging.

One commissioner, Jon Leibowitz, observed in a concurring opinion that price gouging "is the obscenity of antitrust law: difficult to define in theory but easily recognized at the pump."

Moreover, the industry suffered substantial damage last summer that proved to be highly disruptive, and previous reports by the agency over the years about the pricing habits of the oil industry had reached similar conclusions.

The hurricanes knocked out about a third of the nation's crude oil production, and in the days after Katrina alone, gas prices jumped an average of about 50 cents a gallon in some cities.

Just as the prices began to drop, a second hurricane, Rita, caused further significant damage to the region, and in its aftermath, prices increased by another 35 cents a gallon.

"In light of the amount of crude oil production and refining capacity knocked out by Katrina and Rita, the sizes of the posthurricane price increases were approximately what would be predicted by the standard supply and demand paradigm that presumes a market is performing competitively," the report said.

"Evidence gathered during our investigation indicated that the conduct of firms in response to the supply shocks caused by the hurricanes was consistent with competition."

Still, as lawmakers come under increasing pressure from voters, senior officials at the commission said in recent days that they were bracing for criticism.

Congress has been considering legislation to ease the burden on consumers or lower the profits of the oil industry.

Last week, the House of Representatives approved a measure to renegotiate more than 1,000 leases for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to revoke billions of dollars in government incentives to oil and gas producers.

Lawmakers say they will consider energy legislation after they return from the Memorial Day recess in June.

Gas prices have declined slightly in the last week, by 2 cents, to an average of $2.93, and could continue to drop in coming weeks, said Trilby Lundberg, an analyst who conducts surveys of gas stations around the nation.

[Livyjr]

GO FOR IT, JEANINE ....

If nothing else ...

It gets your name in the newspaper ...

And so ...

That is all it is about in American politics today, isn't it?

Exposure ....

Without any substance to back it up ...

And so ....

And speaking of exposure ....

Without any substance, at all ....

We have ....

"Pataki supports Pirro in race - Former Westchester County district attorney only GOP candidate for attorney general"

By MARK JOHNSON, Associated Press
First published: Saturday, May 27, 2006

ALBANY -- Republican Gov. George Pataki endorsed former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro for attorney general on Friday.

"Jeanine Pirro is an experienced prosecutor who has the intellect, skills, and toughness to be a great attorney general for the people of New York state," Pataki said in a statement issued by his press office while he is on a three-day trip to Iowa.

Pataki previously endorsed Pirro's run for U.S. Senate, a campaign she abandoned in December after having trouble raising money and generating interest.

Pirro, who served as district attorney from 1994 through 2005, is the only Republican seeking the nomination to replace Democrat Eliot Spitzer, who is running for governor.

"I am gratified to have the governor's endorsement," Pirro said in a prepared statement.

Democrats noted the endorsement would draw little notice coming on a Friday before a long holiday weekend and just days before the state GOP convention in Garden City.

The Democratic nomination is being sought by Andrew Cuomo, the former federal housing chairman; Mark Green, who narrowly lost the 2001 New York City mayor's race; Charlie King, a former housing official in the Clinton administration; Denise O'Donnell, a former U.S. attorney from Buffalo, and Sean Patrick Maloney, a former aide to President Clinton.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found that in head-to-head matchups, Cuomo beat Pirro 49 to 33 percent while Green beat Pirro 46 to 33 percent.

[Livyjr]

And pardon me here ...

But I have never seen such BULL **** come from down there in Washington, D.C. ....

As is coming from that place, right now ....

And so ...

"White House invokes privilege in spy cases"

By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:45 p.m., Saturday, May 27, 2006

NEW YORK -- The Bush administration has asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss a pair of lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying litigating them would jeopardize state secrets.

In papers filed late Friday, Justice Department lawyers said it would be impossible to defend the legality of the spying program without disclosing classified information that could be of value to suspected terrorists.

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte invoked the state secrets privilege on behalf of the administration, writing that disclosure of such information would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security.

The administration laid out some of its supporting arguments in classified memos that were filed under seal.

The government's motion, widely anticipated, involves two cases challenging an NSA program that allows investigators to eavesdrop on Americans who communicate with people outside the country suspected of terrorist ties.

In New York, the Center for Constitutional Rights has asked a judge to stop the program, saying it was an abuse of presidential power.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed a similar lawsuit in Detroit.

For decades, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been required to seek court approval before using electronic surveillance on Americans.

That was not done by the NSA in the program at issue, but President Bush has said the eavesdropping was made legal by a congressional resolution passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Shayana Kadidal, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, called the administration's motion "undemocratic."

Ample safeguards could be put in place to allow the case to continue without disclosing classified information, he said.

The center has also argued that the court already has enough information to decide whether the program was legal.

"The Bush administration is trying to crush a very strong case against domestic spying without any evidence or argument," Kadidal said in a written statement.

"Can the president tell the courts which cases they can rule on?"

"If so, the courts will never be able to hold the president accountable for breaking the law."

Justice Department attorneys said in their legal brief that the legality of the president's actions could only be properly judged by understanding "the specific threat facing the nation and the particular actions taken by the president to meet that threat."

"That understanding is not possible without revealing to the very adversaries we are trying to defeat what we know about them and how we are proceeding to stop them," they wrote.

[Livyjr]

And pardon me here ...

But I have never seen such BULL **** come from down there in Washington, D.C. ....

As is coming from that place, right now ....

And so ...

And so ....

For Memorial Day ...

Let's have a brief IRAQINAM RETROSPECTIVE in here ...

And so ...

And as we say out in the country ...

Maybe you'd better wear your hip boots ...

Because this boy Bush can really sling some **** ....

And pile it deep ....

And so ....

"Bush likens war on terrorism to Cold War"

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 2:05 p.m., Saturday, May 27, 2006

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- President Bush, likening the war against Islamic radicals to the Cold War threat of communism, told U.S. Military Academy graduates on Saturday that America's safety depends on an aggressive push for democracy, especially in the Middle East.

The president took a subtle jab at Syria and the nuclear ambitions of Iran.

He chided previous U.S. administrations, saying that decades of excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make America safer.

"This is only the beginning," Bush said.

"The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation."

Bush delivered his 35-minute foreign policy address to 861 cadets, all clad in crisp white slacks and gray jackets.

Overcast skies threatened rain but did not dampen the graduates' enthusiasm for the president's tough talk against terrorism.

"The war began on my watch, but it's going to end on your watch," Bush told the cadets.

"By standing with democratic reforms across a troubled region, we will extend freedom to millions who have not known it and lay the foundation for peace for generations to come."

Bush compared his moment in presidential history to that of President Truman's.

"As President Truman put it towards the end of his presidency, 'When history says that my term of office saw the beginning of the Cold War, it will also say that in those eight years we set the course that can win it.'"

"His leadership paved the way for subsequent presidents from both political parties -- men like Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan -- to confront and eventually defeat the Soviet threat," Bush said.

"Today, at the start of a new century, we are again engaged in a war unlike any our nation has fought before, and like Americans in Truman's day, we are laying the foundations for victory."

Truman told the class of 1952 at West Point that the quest for global peace depended on the active and vigorous work to bring about freedom and justice across the world.

"That same principle continues to guide us in today's war on terror," Bush told the class of 2006, the first to enter the academy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Bush recounted his strategy for fighting terrorism, saying that the U.S. continues to view anyone who harbors a terrorist equally guilty of being a terrorist.

He received loud applause, muffled only by the cadets' white gloves, when he told of his doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, attacking enemies abroad before they can attack U.S. soil.

The greatest danger America faces is the threat from terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction, Bush said.

"If our enemies succeed in acquiring such weapons, they will not hesitate to use them, which means they would pose a threat to America as great as the Soviet Union," he said.

"Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than complete victory."

Bush flew to New York from the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland, where he is spending the Memorial Day weekend.

One of Bush's guests at Camp David was former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a longtime Bush friend and possible replacement for Treasury Secretary John Snow, who has signaled his desire to step down when the White House finds a replacement.

[Livyjr]

And as we say out in the country ...

Maybe you'd better wear your hip boots ...

Because this boy Bush can really sling some **** ....

And pile it deep ....

And so ....

"Bush likens war on terrorism to Cold War" 
 
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 2:05 p.m., Saturday, May 27, 2006

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- President Bush, likening the war against Islamic radicals to the Cold War threat of communism, told U.S. Military Academy graduates on Saturday that America's safety depends on an aggressive push for democracy, especially in the Middle East.

He chided previous U.S. administrations, saying that decades of excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make America safer.

And of course ....

When George W. Bush was down there at West Point, chiding previous U.S. administrations, saying that decades of excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make America safer to loud applause from the CORPS OF CADETS, muffled only by the cadets' white gloves .....

Who he really was chiding ...

WAS HIS OWN FATHER ...

The thin-lipped patrician .....

With no sand ....

No grit ....

No real back-bone, at all ........

The "WIMP FACTOR" member of the family ....

Named George H.W. Bush ....

And so .....

That is quite a statement ...

By young George W. Bush ....

When you come right on down to it ...

And so ...

What it comes down to ...

When you look at it head on ...

Is that the boy knows something ...

Or so he says, anyway ...

That his daddy sure didn't ...

And so .....

But me ...

Well .....

I'm from the country ...

Where BULL **** is used as fertilizer ....

And not "BRAIN FOOD" ...

Like it is down there in Washington, D.C. ....

Where they are awash in the stuff ....

Being prime producers of it ....

Them politicians that they got down there ...

And so .....

WHERE DID GEORGE W. BUSH LEARN ALL OF THIS **** THAT HE WAS SPOUTING TO THE WEST POINT CLASS OF 2006?

DID HE LEARN ALL THIS **** FROM A STUDY OF WHAT ALL THESE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS DID WRONG, PERHAPS?

In which case ...

One would think that young George was surrounded by capable teachers ....

Starting with his own pap, of course ...

The BUSH WITH NO SAND ...

As compared to his boy ...

THE BUSH WITH A LOT OF SAND ...

But unfortunately ....

NO BRAINS ...

And so ....

WHAT ABOUT RICHARD BRUCE CHENEY ....

Who now goes about calling himself just plain DICK .....

In chiding these previous administrations ...

To the lusty cheers of the WEST POINT CORPS OF CADETS .....

WAS GEORGE W. BUSH CHIDING DICK CHENEY?

And rightfully so ....

Since Dick Cheney was the Secretary of Defense for the WIMPY BUSH ....

And so ....

Clearly was a part of that particular administration ...

And so ....

IT WAS PROBABLY GOOD FOR GEORGE W. BUSH TO CHIDE HIM ....

And what about Colin Powell ....

Colin Powell is as much a part of the administration of George H. W. Bush, the STONELESS THIN-LIPPED BUSH ....

As Richard Bruce Cheney ....

And so ...

DID GEORGE W. BUSH LEARN ALL THIS **** HE WAS SPEWING TO THE WEST POINT CLASS OF 2006 FROM COLIN POWELL?

Or maybe it was Donald Rumsfeld who taught young George all this stuff that he knows today about the Middle East ....

Because if anyone in OUR America can be associated with these prior administrations that George W. Bush was chiding ...

To the cheers of the WEST POINT CORPS OF CADETS ....

It clearly would be Donald Rumsfeld ....

George W. Bush's own Secretary of Defense ....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

"A Justice uproar over Jefferson feud - Gonzales purportedly threatened to quit over evidence dispute"

New York Times
First published: Saturday, May 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday.

Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said.

Gonzales and McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress.

The potential showdown was averted Thursday when President Bush ordered the data sealed for 45 days to give Congress and the Justice Department a chance to work out a deal.

The evidence was seized by FBI agents during a Saturday night search on May 20 of the Capitol office of Rep. William J. Jefferson, D-La.

The search set off protest by House leaders in both parties, citing constitutional concerns.

According to The Associated Press, House leaders acknowledged Friday that FBI agents with a court-issued warrant can legally search a congressman's office, but they said they want more specific procedures established.

Tensions were high because some officials at the Justice Department and the FBI view the protest from Congress, led by Speaker Dennis Hastert and House Republicans, largely as a proxy fight for battles that are likely to come over criminal investigations into other Republican members of Congress.

Separate investigations into the activities of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Randy Cunningham, the former congressman from California, have placed a number of other Republicans under scrutiny; in the Cunningham case, federal authorities have asked informally to interview nine former staff members of the House Appropriations and intelligence committees, an inquiry that could lead to a broader investigation of the panels.

[Livyjr]

And as the November 2006 elections begin to loom larger on the horizon ....

"Turns of fortune - Democrats have the advantage over a divided GOP as the state election season starts"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, May 28, 2006

ALBANY -- Democrats and Republicans will hold their state nominating conventions at opposite ends of New York this week, but the events might as well be on different planets.

Marist College pollster Lee Miringoff summed it up best:

"Basically, it's an uphill fight for the GOP, and the Democrats wish Election Day were tomorrow."

The Democrats have the party enrollment edge, and they're facing off against a state Republican Party whose trump card is a lame-duck governor with his approval rating at an all-career low.

The state GOP can't look to the national Republican Party for help, either.

President Bush's approval numbers are even lower in New York than Gov. George Pataki's.

So as Democrats prepare to crown two nationally known candidates to lead their ticket -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who's seeking re-election, and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the gubernatorial front-runner -- they're indulging in dreams of a clean sweep come November.

If that happens, it will be the first time in modern political history that one party controls every statewide office in New York, observers said.

The Democrats will kick off their convention in Buffalo Monday night with a celebration at a downtown baseball stadium -- complete with fireworks -- for Spitzer and his running mate, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, D-Harlem.

The atmosphere will likely be a lot less festive when the Republican convention gets under way Wednesday in Nassau County.

The normally primary-averse GOP is facing two internal battles at the top of its ticket.

The splits have occurred along ideological lines and threaten the political partnership between the Republican and Conservative parties.

Pataki threw the GOP into turmoil when he decided not to seek a fourth term and instead focus on a potential White House run in 2008.

A Siena Research Institute poll last week showed 61 percent of likely GOP primary voters still haven't decided which of two gubernatorial candidates they prefer.

Fifty-six percent believe the next governor will be a Democrat, and only 55 percent said Republicans will win at least one statewide office this fall.

In the governor's race, some Republicans favor former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso of Kinderhook, who is conservative on social issues and has been endorsed by the state Conservative Party.

No Republican candidate for statewide office has won without the support of the Conservatives since 1974.

Faso's critics favor the more moderate former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, who is trying to become only the second man in history to be governor of two states.

(The first was Sam Houston, of Tennessee and Texas).

State Republican Chairman Stephen Minarik supports Weld.

Pataki is widely seen as privately preferring Weld, too.

But the governor has not made a public endorsement.

The clash between moderate and conservative Republicans is playing out in the U.S. Senate race as well.

Former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, who opposes abortion rights and gay marriage, has been endorsed by the state Conservative Party to take on Clinton.

He's being challenged by Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, a pro-choice Manhattan resident who worked in national security under three Republican presidents.

Some see shades of 1994, when the GOP was fighting over the best candidate to take on Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo, in the current Republican upheaval.

Heading into the convention that year, party leaders were divided between the conservative Herb London and the more moderate Pataki, then a little-known state senator.

Ironically, an election confrontation between London and Pataki was avoided when Faso, then a candidate for state comptroller, stepped aside to let London run for that office instead.

Pataki handily defeated former state GOP Chairman Richard Rosenbaum in September and overcame the odds to oust Cuomo in the general election.

But the circumstances this time around are quite different.

Instead of trying to topple an unpopular governor who had been in office 12 years, the Republicans are now poised to battle a well-known, well-funded Democrat in a state that has more enrolled Democrats than it did in 1994.

And, for the first time since Democratic Gov. Hugh Carey decided not to seek a third term in 1982, the governor's race is wide open.

The bottom line?

The Republicans are in the unenviable position of being the victims of voter fatigue.

Democrats in Buffalo

New York Democrats, noted for their infighting and bruising primaries, are unusually unified behind the top of their ticket.

"We've learned that when we're disciplined we do better," said state Democratic Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell Jr.

"Maybe we've been out long enough now that we can taste victory, and we're not going to do anything to snatch defeat from victory's jaws."

Yet the Buffalo convention won't be completely devoid of competition and controversy.

A primary in the attorney general's race is a possibility.

Five candidates are competing for their party's nod.

Former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who angered Democrats in 2002 by challenging their favored candidate for governor and then quitting the race one week before the primary, is the front-runner in county committee support, opinion polls and campaign cash.

Former New York City public advocate Mark Green, who's running a distant second to Cuomo, recently told Democrats he is about 5 percentage points shy of the 25 percent committee vote threshold to get on the ballot.

Former U.S. Attorney Denise O'Donnell, the only woman and only upstater in the attorney general's race, has picked up some support from county organizations in recent weeks.

But their efforts may be too late.

Party leaders say it appears Cuomo has more than 50 percent of the weighted state committee vote, which would make him the Democratic designee and leave room for only one other candidate on the ballot.

Cuomo's challengers have asked party leaders to change the 25 percent rule to allow all five attorney general candidates on the ballot, but they have refused.

Spitzer has declined to intervene.

Charlie King, a Rockland County attorney who ran two unsuccessful lieutenant governor campaigns (once as Cuomo's running mate), called the 25 percent rule "undemocratic."

It's easier for candidates to get onto the ballot in Mississippi than in New York, he said.

"The right to vote that we fought for in the civil rights movement in the '60s means nothing if you don't have the right to choose among qualified candidates," King said.

He vowed to petition his way onto the ballot.

Another long-shot candidate, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who's mounting a primary challenge to Spitzer, will provide a voice of Democratic dissent.

Suozzi isn't going to the convention because he doesn't have the 25 percent of the state committee vote necessary to both speak to the delegates and land a spot on the ballot.

He vows to collect the signatures of 15,000 enrolled Democrats statewide to get on the ballot.

Suozzi, however, is holding a rally not far away from the convention hall in downtown Buffalo Tuesday -- the day Spitzer is scheduled to become his party's designee.

Both Suozzi and Spitzer plan post-convention tours of the state -- Spitzer in a bus and Suozzi in what he calls the "Fix Albany Repair Van."

Before the convention ends Wednesday, it's possible Clinton will suffer some fallout for her support of the Iraq War and her refusal to call for the immediate withdrawal of American troops.

Jonathan Tasini, a labor activist, is riding his bicycle from New York City to Buffalo and collecting signatures on a petition asking the state Democratic Party to adopt a resolution to end the Iraq War.

He plans to deliver the signatures to the convention Tuesday.

Tasini, aware of the quixotic nature of his candidacy and Clinton's support among delegates, is also mounting a petition drive to get his name on the September primary ballot.

Republicans on Long Island

The state GOP may be careening toward two primaries that each pit a moderate against a conservative, but party Chairman Stephen Minarik refuses to accept the notion that this election is an ideological battle.

However, he does concede that New York's Republican Party is in "a transition period," from having an incumbent governor to "we don't know what."

"It's a change in direction, and maybe even in the composition of the party," Minarik said.

"We're moving from one period to another, and I don't know what the next period will be."

In some ways, the upcoming GOP convention will be a referendum on Minarik himself.

The Monroe County Republican chairman supports Weld for governor, although he is backing Spencer, a conservative, against the more moderate McFarland.

Minarik has said Faso can't win the general election, yet he has failed to generate overwhelming support for Weld among the county chairs, some of whom say they feel like the former Massachusetts governor was forced on them.

Onondaga County GOP Chairman Bob Smith, a Faso supporter who has been mentioned as a potential successor to Minarik, feels that if the party is in danger of losing the governor's office, then it should at least take a principled stand.

"The race isn't over, and I'm not one for throwing it in," Smith said.

"But I'm so sick and tired of trying to decide what Democrat-like candidate we're going to run."

"At some point, if we're not going to win the race, we have to start re-establishing our identity; it's critical."

If Weld doesn't win more than 50 percent of the weighted convention vote to become the party's designated candidate, Minarik's chairmanship, which officially ends in September 2007, might not survive, Smith said.

Former U.S. Senate candidate Ed Cox and former state Secretary of State Randy Daniels, who quit the governor's race in April, have also been mentioned as potential new chairmen.

Faso has picked up support from several large, key counties, including Westchester and Suffolk, as well as from upstate counties whose GOP chairs used to support Weld.

A key unanswered question is whether Nassau County GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello, who controls the largest portion of the state committee vote (10.45 percent), will endorse a candidate.

So far he is uncommitted, although he is an ally of state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, who has publicly pledged to help Faso get 25 percent of the committee vote to get on the ballot.

Bruno, though, prefers to forgo a primary altogether by forming a Weld/Faso ticket.

Both Weld and Faso have rejected that idea, but Minarik is still trying to convince them.

Faso has tapped his own running mate, Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef.

Weld hasn't yet chosen a No. 2.

Faso also got a boost when he picked up the endorsement of the state Conservative Party.

Conservative Chairman Mike Long said he made the unusual decision to schedule his party's convention before the GOP gathered in Long Island in part to dispel rumors Faso wasn't committed to the race for the long haul.

Long hopes the Conservative and Republican parties will be able to agree on a ticket for November and their long-standing political partnership will continue.

"We're a minor party, and we're smaller than they are," Long said.

"But I also understand that John Faso has the best chance of energizing both the Republican and Conservative parties."

"It is my desire to come together."

Elizabeth Benjamin can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at ebenjamin@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Bush likens war on terrorism to Cold War" 
 
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 2:05 p.m., Saturday, May 27, 2006

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- President Bush, likening the war against Islamic radicals to the Cold War threat of communism, told U.S. Military Academy graduates on Saturday that America's safety depends on an aggressive push for democracy, especially in the Middle East.

He chided previous U.S. administrations, saying that decades of excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make America safer.

"This is only the beginning," Bush said.

"The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation."

Old George W. Bush is always ready ...

To give himself a hearty slap on the back ...

And to give himself a rousing cheer .....

For things that have not yet happened ...

Like major combat operations in IRAQINAM being over ....

And for things that might never be ....

Like a true democracy in IRAQINAM ....

Instead of one ...

Imposed by George W. Bush ...

At the point of a bayonet ....

Accompanied by the wanton killing of Iraqi women and children .....

By George W. Bush's IMPERIAL ARMY OF LIBERATION ...

Must be all those years of having been a cheerleader .....

Down there at Yale ....

Old George W. just can't shake the habit, it seems ...

Of cheering for himself .....

Whatever the occasion ...

And whatever the reality might really be ...

Versus the BULL **** that George is cheering about ....

And so ....

"Iraqi PM fails to name new officials"

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:46 a.m., Sunday, May 28, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki once again failed to reach agreement Sunday on naming a new defense and interior minister as parliament reconvened after a four-day break.

Naming strong but neutral ministers is considered crucial for any plan to restore security and stability to strife-torn Iraq.

Rampant violence claimed three lives and injured 21 people just after dawn when a pair of bombs ripped through central Baghdad.

The bombs, designed to kill the maximum number of people, were planted next to each other and were detonated in succession in Baghdad's Tahariyat Square, police 1st Lt. Thaeir Mahmoud said.

Many of the injured were gawkers who had rushed to the scene of the fist explosion.

The head of the provincial council in Diyala, a mixed but tense province north of Baghdad, escaped an assassination attempt that killed one of his bodyguards and injured six others.

Ibrahim Bajlan was uninjured when a car bomb detonated next to his convoy in the Imam Weis area, 44 miles north of the provincial capital Baqouba.

The fresh violence came amid rising fears in the Iraqi capital that extremists seeking to force Baghdad residents to follow strict Islamic practices were now targeting men in shorts, liquor stores and even barbers.

Gunmen in recent months have even killed people drinking beer along the banks of the Tigris river.

Last week, gunmen in Baghdad stopped a car carrying a Sunni Arab tennis coach and two of his Shiite players, asked them to step out and then shot them.

Extremists have been distributing leaflets warning people in the mostly Sunni neighborhoods of Saidiyah and Ghazaliyah not to wear shorts, police said.

The U.S. military has said the bodies regularly turn up of people killed in sectarian attacks, by death squads and criminal violence -- including 33 last week in Baghdad province.

U.S. military officials consider it one of their biggest problems in the Baghdad area.

An Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were shot to death last week in Baghdad because they were wearing shorts.

There was no word on the fate of the two missing crew members of a U.S. Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter which crashed Saturday in volatile western Anbar province.

Hostile fire was not suspected as the cause of the crash, the U.S. military said.

Iraq's fractious political, ethnic and sectarian parties again failed to reach agreement on who will run the interior and defense ministries, despite a promise by al-Maliki to do so within a few days of his Cabinet being sworn in just over a week ago.

"They will not be named today," Shiite deputy Baha al-Araji said.

"We hope within three days."

There had been hopes that al-Maliki would swear in the two new ministers when the 275-member parliament convened Sunday after the Iraq weekend.

The Shiite-dominated interior ministry has been promised to that community, while Sunni Arabs are to get the defense ministry.

It is hoped the balance will enable al-Maliki to move ahead with a plan to take over security around Iraq over the next 18 months and also attract army recruits among Sunni Arabs, who make up the core of the insurgency .

The list however, has been whittled down to two candidates for the interior ministry and three for defense.

During what appeared to be a stormy closed-door session, deputies argued over a demand by the Shiite and Kurdish coalitions to curb the power of Sunni Arab parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani.

They demand that he be obliged by parliamentary regulation to consult his Shiite and Kurdish deputy speakers before taking any decisions.

The demand, staunchly opposed by Sunnis, was an indication the struggle for more power and authorities among Iraq's factions.

The speaker has little authority.

"We have not reached agreement," said Salim Abdullah, a deputy with the main Sunni Arab Accordance Front said before the start of a second closed-door session.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry said Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki delivered a list of charges against Saddam Hussein.

It provided no details, including when the charges would be submitted, but Iran has in the past said it wants to put Saddam on trial for crimes from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, including the alleged use of chemical weapons.

The trial of Saddam and seven co-defendants was to resume Monday on charges they ordered the killing of 148 Shiites for allegedly taking part in a botched 1982 assassination attempt against the former Iraqi leader.

------

Associated Press writers Kim Gamel and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this story from Baghdad.

[Livyjr]

Old George W. Bush is always ready ...

To give himself a hearty slap on the back ...

And to give himself a rousing cheer .....

For things that have not yet happened ...

Like major combat operations in IRAQINAM being over ....

And for things that might never be ....

Like a true democracy in IRAQINAM ....

Instead of one ...

Imposed by George W. Bush ...

At the point of a bayonet ....

Accompanied by the wanton killing of Iraqi women and children .....

By George W. Bush's IMPERIAL ARMY OF LIBERATION ...

Must be all those years of having been a cheerleader .....

Down there at Yale ....

Old George W. just can't shake the habit, it seems ...

Of cheering for himself .....

Whatever the occasion ...

And whatever the reality might really be ...

Versus the BULL **** that George is cheering about ....

And so ....

"Official sees security handover in Iraq"

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press
Last updated: 8:06 p.m., Saturday, May 27, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- American-led coalition forces could begin transferring security control over some Iraqi provinces to civilian authorities and police by autumn, a senior U.S. military official said Saturday.

But the capital Baghdad will not be handed over before the end of the year, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that Iraqi security forces will start assuming full responsibility for some provinces and cities next month, beginning a process leading to the eventual withdrawal of all coalition forces.

The U.S. military official estimated that provisional control could be handed over to local governors in the relatively peaceful provinces of Najaf, Karbala and Babil by the fall.

But he said Baghdad would probably be transferred by the end of the year.

Al-Maliki said last week during a visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that "responsibility for much of Iraq's territorial security" would be transferred to Iraqi control by December -- with Iraqi forces taking control of all 18 provinces within 18 months.

The prime minister said two of Iraq's most violent provinces, Baghdad and Anbar, would be the last where coalition forces maintain control.

Handing over control of provinces does not necessarily mean the Americans would pull out entirely.

Instead, the U.S. official said it means the provincial governor would have control, and Iraqi civilian police would be the first to respond.

U.S.-led coalition forces would only nominally intervene following a request from Iraqi officials.

He stressed that such a handover should not be equated with withdrawal or a timetable for the departure of foreign forces, but was part of an established plan to gradually give control to Iraqi security services "as conditions allow."

That would fit in with the overall strategy so far.

American and international forces hand over security control for specific regions and redeploy to larger bases -- where they can act in a support or reserve role.

A final future stage would involve the drawdown of troops from those bases.

President Bush and Blair refused on Thursday to set a timetable for withdrawal of their troops, although British officials have said most coalition forces could be withdrawn by 2010.

[Livyjr]

"Turns of fortune - Democrats have the advantage over a divided GOP as the state election season starts" 
 
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, May 28, 2006

ALBANY -- Democrats and Republicans will hold their state nominating conventions at opposite ends of New York this week, but the events might as well be on different planets.

Marist College pollster Lee Miringoff summed it up best:

"Basically, it's an uphill fight for the GOP, and the Democrats wish Election Day were tomorrow."
 
The Democrats have the party enrollment edge, and they're facing off against a state Republican Party whose trump card is a lame-duck governor with his approval rating at an all-career low.

The state GOP can't look to the national Republican Party for help, either.

President Bush's approval numbers are even lower in New York than Gov. George Pataki's.

"Republican Senate still endures"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, May 28, 2006

If the presumed state Democratic ticket of Eliot Spitzer for governor and David Paterson for lieutenant governor were a dog, it would be a puppy with two heads and no tail to wag.

Both are strong, if not competing, personalities and it is a little surprising how independent David Paterson appears to be.

The Senate minority leader has his own campaign offices that don't even mention Spitzer on the marquee, and he's taken a position on a key issue like the death penalty that is the opposite of Spitzer's.

Paterson is against it.

Word is, this is not proving to be an easy marriage.

There are stresses.

How that manifests itself, if at all, will be one of the many curiosities to look for during the intensely political week ahead, with state conventions in Buffalo for the Democrats and Long Island for the Republicans.

The featured event in the two-day GOP fandango is the expected mud wrestle between William Weld and John Faso to decide who gets to lose to Spitzer-Paterson in November.

The mud will surely fly in Garden City, and stick as much to the handlers and supporters of the two as to the candidates themselves.

Not so far behind the scenes, Governor Pataki has been cuddling up to Weld while Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno is seemingly inclined toward bolstering Faso.

Upstater Faso appears to have the momentum going in.

Although the convention is about endorsing a total ticket, Bruno's main focus and intense preoccupation remains keeping a Republican Senate majority.

A contrast to what we're seeing from David Paterson.

Paterson may give the best sound bite of any state legislator.

He is funny, articulate and as bright as they come.

But the knock on him from his own conference members is that he has not been a particularly effective leader in mobilizing resources to unseat vulnerable majority members.

And, that Patterson's considerable talents have been conspicuously recentered toward self-promotion and advancing his own agenda.

Regardless of how valid those criticisms might be, just how realistic is it for the Democrats to achieve their anticipated "historic inevitability" and take the Senate majority this year?

After all, 47 percent of New Yorkers are enrolled Democrats, and only 27 percent are Republicans.

Both of our U.S. senators are Democrats, and both our congressional delegation and state Assembly are heavily Democratic, roughly reflecting those enrollment proportions.

Yet the state Senate is controlled 35 to 27 by Republicans, and it has been ruled by a Republican majority continuously since 1939.

That's a national record.

Now, up to 1958, there were more enrolled Republicans in this state than Democrats, so early on, it figured.

But since then, enrollments have gone dramatically the other way.

So how do the Republicans do it?

By drawing themselves very favorable redistricting lines after each census.

By carefully selecting candidates tailored to each district.

Ultimately, every election is one against one.

Also, by sending the pork back to those districts and campaigning like maniacs.

And when it comes to fiendish campaigning and mustering party discipline, nobody is better at it than Joe Bruno.

So at this juncture, the chances of the Republicans losing the Senate appear slim to none.

"Historic inevitability" will have to wait for another election cycle or two, when the Democrats get their own focus back and want it badly enough.

Fred LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at flebrun@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

And checking in ....

On things in IRAQINAM ....

Before we close out for the evening in here ....

We have ....

"Sunni Arab tribal chief murdered in Iraq"

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:55 p.m., Sunday, May 28, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A tribal chief who challenged Iraq's most feared terrorist and sent fighters to help U.S. troops battle al-Qaida in western Iraq died in a hail of bullets Sunday -- the latest victim of an apparent insurgent campaign against Sunni Arabs who work with Americans.

The prime minister, meanwhile, was frustrated again in trying to fill key security posts, and his spokesman hinted at a deadline if the impasse continued.

Nouri al-Maliki is trying to get Shiite and Sunni politicians to agree on candidates who are independent and not tied to sectarian militias.

Shootings and bombings killed nine people and wounded 35 across the country Sunday, and the bodies of at least 10 more people were found in Baghdad, possible victims of the sectarian bloodshed tearing at Iraq.

The most significant killing involved Sheik Osama al-Jadaan, who was ambushed by gunmen as he was being driven in Baghdad's Mansour district, a predominantly Sunni Arab area.

Al-Jadaan's driver and one of his bodyguards also were killed, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.

Al-Jadaan was a leader of the Karabila tribe, which has thousands of members in Anbar province, an insurgent hotbed stretching from west of Baghdad to the Syrian border.

He had announced an agreement with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to help security forces track down al-Qaida members and foreign fighters.

U.S. troops also raised a scout force from al-Jadaan's followers known as the "Desert Protectors" to help find insurgents living under the protection of a rival tribe in Qaim and a cluster of nearby towns in Anbar.

U.S. officials described the area as a staging ground for smuggling weapons, ammunition and fighters into Iraq.

Al-Jadaan claimed in March that his people had captured hundreds of foreign fighters and handed them over to authorities.

He also issued a warning to al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is blamed for many of the country's worst terror bombings.

"Under my leadership and that of our brothers in other tribes, we are getting close to the shelter of this terrorist," al-Jadaan said.

"We will capture him soon."

The drive, dubbed Operation Tribal Chivalry, was designed to secure Iraq's borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to prevent foreign fighters from sneaking in.

Anti-American sentiments have been strong in Anbar since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, which was dominated by the Sunni Arab minority.

But relations between Anbar locals and foreign fighters soured when the outsiders started killing Iraqis suspected of having links to the Americans or even those holding government jobs.

The rift worsened with a wave of assassinations and bombings that killed dozens of Anbar residents after tribal and religious leaders, former army officers and ordinary Iraqis met with U.S. officers to discuss what could be done to speed the withdrawal of the U.S.-led military coalition.

A suicide bombing Jan. 5 aimed at a line of police recruits in the Anbar city of Ramadi killed at least 58 people, including U.S. soldiers.

Stunned city residents turned on al-Qaida, and al-Jadaan announced his agreement with Iraq's government to help with security.

U.S. officials hope Iraqis will be able to take on more security duties soon, allowing American forces to begin pulling out.

But a week after al-Maliki's unity government took office, Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and secular parties are struggling to agree on who should run the crucial interior and defense ministries, which control the various Iraqi security forces.

The continued impasse dashed hopes that al-Maliki, a member of Iraq's Shiite majority, could swear in the two new ministers when the 275-member parliament convened Sunday after a four-day recess.

Al-Maliki's spokesman, Yassin Majid, said if negotiations took much longer, the prime minister would ask the political blocs to present three names for each ministry so he could decide.

"There is no deadline for that, but it could happen this week," Majid said.

Hassan al-Sineid, a Shiite legislator who belongs to al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said that step might come by Wednesday.

Sunni Arab lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq emphasized the importance of finding neutral parties to fill the posts.

"It is very important that the persons who take over should be independent and bold figures" who will resist pressure from their own political blocs, he said.

The Shiite-dominated interior ministry, which controls the police forces, has been promised to that community.

Sunni Arabs are to get the defense ministry, overseeing the army.

It is hoped the balance will enable al-Maliki to move ahead with a plan for Iraqis to take on all security duties over the next 18 months.

He wants to try to attract army recruits from among the Sunni Arab minority, which provides the core of the insurgency.

The sectarian divisions have proved a daunting problem for Iraq's politicians.

In an indication of the problem, legislators apparently held a stormy closed-door session Sunday arguing over parliament's Sunni Arab speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani.

The Shiite and Kurdish coalitions want parliamentary rules changed to require al-Mashhadani to consult with his Shiite and Kurdish deputy speakers before making any decisions, even though his post has little real power.

Sunnis staunchly opposed the demand.

[Livyjr]

"Bush likens war on terrorism to Cold War" 
 
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 2:05 p.m., Saturday, May 27, 2006

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- "This is only the beginning," Bush said.

"The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation."

I think "THE MESSAGE" .....

From George W. Bush ...

The erstwhile PRINCE OF PEACE ...

Sent down ....

By a loving god ...

According to George's sycophants ....

And press poodles ....

To be the shepard of all peoples ...

And all races ...

And all nationalities ...

And all nations ...

Even those of the dogs and cats ....

Down here in this earth of ours ....

I think his MESSAGE ....

This BUSHONIAN PROMISE OF LIBERTY ....

Has even reached Kabul ....

And so ....

"Riot erupts after Kabul traffic accident"

By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:56 a.m., Monday, May 29, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A deadly traffic accident involving U.S. troops sparked a riot in the Afghan capital on Monday, with U.S. and Afghan security forces firing on protesters, police and witnesses said.

At least four people were killed.

Hundreds of protesters marched on palace of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai in the city center after the incident, shouting "Death to Karzai! Death to America!"

Gunfire was also heard near the U.S. Embassy.

The staff was moved to a secure location within the heavily fortified compound, said Chris Harris, an embassy spokesman.

Rioters broke into shops and stole household items, and an AP reporter said he saw several demonstrators pull a foreign man from a vehicle and beat him.

The man escaped and ran to a line of police, who fired shots over the heads of the demonstrators.

Afghan troops deployed around Kabul, and two tanks of NATO peacekeepers drove at high speed through the city center.

Rioters smashed police guard boxes and set fire to police cars.

Witnesses said the incident began when a convoy of at least three U.S. Humvees came into the city from the outskirts and hit several civilian cars in rush-hour traffic jam.

"The American convoy hit all the vehicles which were in their way."

"They didn't care about the civilians at all," said Mohammad Wali, 21, a shopkeeper.

Three people were killed and 16 wounded in the crash, said Sher Shah Usafi, a Kabul police chief.

U.S. forces then fired on the crowd, killing one person and wounding two, he said.

A commander with the city's traffic police who was at the scene said he also saw U.S. forces firing on protesters.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, confirmed U.S. troops were involved in the accident but said the military had "no indication that U.S. forces fired any shots."

He said an investigation was continuing.

Associated Press TV footage showed hundreds of angry young men hurling rocks at what appeared to be three U.S. military trucks and three Humvees as they sped from the area after the crash, their windscreens cracked by the stones.

A center-mounted machine gun on one of the Humvees was seen firing into the air over the crowd as the vehicle sped away.

The video footage also showed an Afghan man apparently hurt in the riots lying on the ground, being comforted by others around him.

An AP reporter at the scene said he saw about 10 Afghan police firing into a crowd of about 50 demonstrators, and that U.S. troops had already left the area.

The protesters scattered when the firing erupted, but later regrouped.

Two helicopters belonging to a NATO-led peacekeeping force hovered over the area.

Phones in Kabul were only working sporadically.

Repeated attempts to get through to the city's hospitals to get the latest casualty toll from the unrest were unsuccessful.

State television cut transmission of a live broadcast of parliament when one angry lawmaker interrupted the proceedings to protest the incident.

"I have seen the incident."

"... I come from that area and I have to tell you," Taj Mohammed Mujahid shouted before the house speaker ruled him out of order and the screen went black.

Transmission resumed minutes later and parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni called for calm.

"We call on the people to be tolerant because there is the risk this could be exploited by our enemies," he said, referring to Taliban rebels who are waging a fierce insurgency in the country's southern and eastern regions.

He said the Cabinet was discussing the matter.

Afghans often complain about what they call the aggressive driving tactics of the U.S. military.

Convoys often pass through crowded areas at high speeds and sometimes disregard road rules.

The U.S. military says such tactics are necessary to protect the troops from attack.

------

Associated Press correspondents Amir Shah, Daniel Cooney and Edward Harris contributed to this report.

end quotes

Ah, yes ...

Each day ...

"THE MESSAGE" reaches more and more ...

Hearts and minds .....

All across the world .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

Ad infinitum .....

[Livyjr]

And so ....

For Memorial Day ...

Let's have a brief IRAQINAM RETROSPECTIVE in here ...

And as we say out in the country ...

Maybe you'd better wear your hip boots ...

Because this boy Bush can really sling some **** ....

And pile it deep ....

And so ....

"Bush likens war on terrorism to Cold War" 
 
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 2:05 p.m., Saturday, May 27, 2006

"The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation."

Old George W. Bush is always ready ...

To give himself a hearty slap on the back ...

And to give himself a rousing cheer .....

For things that have not yet happened ...

Like major combat operations in IRAQINAM being over ....

And for things that might never be ....

Like a true democracy in IRAQINAM ....

Instead of one ...

Imposed by George W. Bush ...

At the point of a bayonet ....

Accompanied by the wanton killing of Iraqi women and children .....

By George W. Bush's IMPERIAL ARMY OF LIBERATION ...

Must be all those years of having been a cheerleader .....

Down there at Yale ....

Old George W. just can't shake the habit, it seems ...

Of cheering for himself .....

Whatever the occasion ...

And whatever the reality might really be ...

Versus the BULL **** that George is cheering about ....

And so ....

Ah, yes ...

"THE MESSAGE" .....

"Iraq poised to become main Iranian ally"

By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:22 a.m., Monday, May 29, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran -- To Iran's west lies a natural ally and perhaps its most potent weapon in the international fray over its nuclear program.

While Iran and Iraq were arch enemies during the rule of Saddam Hussein, all signs point to an increasingly robust relationship now that Shiites have achieved a dominant role in the Iraqi leadership.

It's a bond that has yet to reach its potential -- in large part because the U.S.-led invasion is responsible for Iraqi Shiites being at the top of the political heap for the first time in modern history.

Iraqi Shiites are not looking the gift horse in the mouth.

But Iran and Iraq share a Shiite Muslim majority and deep cultural and historic ties, and Tehran's influence over its neighbor is growing.

Iran will likely try to use Iraq as a battleground if the United States punishes Tehran economically or militarily, analysts say.

Many key positions in the Iraqi government now are occupied by men who took refuge in Iran to avoid oppression by the Saddam's former Sunni Muslim-dominated Baathist regime.

Iraq's powerful militias, meanwhile, have strong ties to Iran and have deeply infiltrated Iraqi security forces.

They can be expected to side with Iran if the West should attack, said Paul Ingram of the British American Security Information Council.

"Iran has ties with Iraq which have not been mobilized as they could have been," Ingram said.

"The militias based in Iraq received much of their training from Iran and they have not taken any instructions yet."

The Mahdi Army, loyal to firebrand anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and the Badr Brigade, the military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, both have significant links to Iran.

The latter group is led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the turbaned pro-Iranian cleric who headed the Shiite ticket that won Iraq's national elections in January.

If Iran is attacked, "Iraqi Shiites will not take this lightly."

"They will not sit and watch," said Diaa Rashwan, a Cairo-based analyst.

Iran's reach in Iraq goes well beyond the links to the powerful armed groups.

After the U.S.-led invasion three years ago, the Iranian government quickly dispatched medical, humanitarian and religious assistance, especially to the predominantly Shiite cities in southern Iraq.

Iran now is waiting for its investment in Iraq to accrue interest.

"Iran has a clear strategic depth in Iraq and there is an alliance between Iran and the upcoming Iraqi powers," said Iranian political analyst Mashallah Shamsolvaezin.

"Iran hasn't utilized that option yet and it's a card that will be very influential."

But Iraqi Shiites, dependent on American military power to keep their country from spiraling into chaos, are in no hurry to confront the United States over Iran.

"The Shiite political class in Iraq believes that if they generally cooperate with the U.S. and Britain, eventually they will withdraw and leave the Shiites in power," asked Juan Cole, a Middle East political analyst at the University of Michigan.

"So far things have worked out wonderfully."

"Why rock the boat?"

Still, Iran got a boost last week when Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Tehran had the right to peaceful nuclear research -- a stance that ran counter to U.S. efforts to force Iran to stop all nuclear activities amid fears it is seeking to develop atomic weapons.

Zebari's comments came during a visit by his Iranian counterpart, the second high-level visit by an Iranian delegation since Saddam was ousted in April 2003.

The United States has acknowledged Iran's influence in Iraq, publicly calling for talks between Iranian officials and Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington's ambassador to Baghdad.

The Iranians, after initially warming to the possibility, have now declined, claiming the U.S. wants to expand the discussions beyond the mutual interest in Iraq to include the nuclear dispute.

The talks would be the most public bilateral exchanges between the United States and Iran since soon after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

With Tehran's Taliban enemy no longer ruling Afghanistan to the east and with Saddam gone in the west, Iran is seeking to assert its regional muscle and wants the international community to accept that role -- including the right to develop its nuclear program for what it says are peaceful purposes.

Iran has serious concerns over the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and also looks to the Persian Gulf with unease because of the vast American military presence there.

Iran views the Gulf as its sphere of influence and sees the American military presence as both a potential military threat and an attempt to control the region's vast oil resources.

Compounding the nuclear dispute with Iran is the U.S. memory of the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the subsequent crisis after Iranians took over the American Embassy and held hostages there for 444 days.

Both issues have left the West eager to contain Iranian influence.

[Livyjr]

I think "THE MESSAGE"  .....

From George W. Bush ...

The erstwhile PRINCE OF PEACE ...

Sent down  ....

By a loving god ...

According to George's sycophants ....

And press poodles ....

To be the shepard of all peoples ...

And all races ...

And all nationalities ...

And all nations ...

Even those of the dogs and cats ....

Down here in this earth of ours ....

I think his MESSAGE ....

This BUSHONIAN PROMISE OF LIBERTY ....

Has even reached Kabul ....

And so ....

"Riot erupts after Kabul traffic accident" 
 
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:56 a.m., Monday, May 29, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A deadly traffic accident involving U.S. troops sparked a riot in the Afghan capital on Monday, with U.S. and Afghan security forces firing on protesters, police and witnesses said.

At least four people were killed.
 
end quotes

Ah, yes ...

Each day ...

"THE MESSAGE" reaches more and more ...

Hearts and minds .....

All across the world .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

"AMERICA IS A THUG" .....

Ad infinitum .....

"Gen. Pace: Wait for probe of Iraq deaths"

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press
Last updated: 1:35 p.m., Monday, May 29, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday "it would be premature for me to judge" the outcome of a Pentagon investigation into the killing of as many as a dozen Iraqi civilians by Marines.

But at the same time, Marine Gen. Peter Pace said he believes its critically important to make the point that if certain service members are responsible for an atrocity there, they "have not performed their duty the way that 99.9 percent of their fellow Marines have."

Interviewed on CBS's "The Early Show" as the nation observed Memorial Day honoring men and women lost in war, Pace pledged that "we'll get to the bottom of the investigation and take the appropriate action."

Pace's interview came a day after Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Marine war veteran and prominent critic of Iraq policy, said the incident could undermine U.S. efforts there more than the Abu Ghraib prison scandal did.

Murtha, D-Pa., also charged that the shootings last November at Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents, were covered up.

"Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" Murtha said Sunday on "This Week" on ABC.

"We don't know how far it goes."

"It goes right up the chain of command."

A bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine.

Marines then shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into two homes and shot other people, according to Murtha, who has been briefed by officials.

Iraqis who identified themselves as survivors of the killings described Marines shooting to death 19 people in three homes, among them a 77-year-old man in a wheelchair and a 4-year-old boy in one home and five children, ages 3 to 14, in another home, The New York Times reported Monday.

Those interviewed for the New York Times story said the men killed in the taxi were four students and the driver, all between the ages of 18 and 25.

In one of the homes, according to the people interviewed for the story, Marines forced all the women to leave and then killed the four brothers they had detained.

One of the Marines in Haditha that day, Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones of Hanford, Calif., told the Los Angeles Times that he took photos and carried out bodies as part of a cleanup crew dispatched to the homes after the shootings.

He said he did not witness their deaths.

"They ranged from little babies to adult males and females."

"I'll never be able to get that out of my head."

"I can still smell the blood."

"This left something in my head and heart," Briones, 21, told the Los Angeles Times for a story published Monday.

Murtha said Sunday that high-level reports he received indicated that no one fired upon the Marines or that there was any military action against the U.S. forces after the initial explosion.

Yet the deaths were not seriously investigated until March because an early probe was stifled within days of the incident, he said.

Said Pace on Monday:

"This investigation is ongoing."

"It would be premature for me to judge the outcome."

Asked how such a thing could have happened, he replied, "Fortunately, it does not happen very frequently, so there's no way to say historically why something like this might have happened."

"We'll find out."

Pace's predecessor, retired Gen. Richard Myers, told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he had "no idea" what happened but that there "has been and there is an ongoing, thorough investigation."

Murtha repeated his view that the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily and needs political solutions, which he said were damaged by such incidents involving the U.S.

"This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people," he said.

"And we're set back every time something like this happens."

"This is worse than Abu Ghraib."

The U.S. effort to win over Iraqis and others in the Arab world by fostering a democratic government was severely damaged when it was revealed that U.S. military personnel had abused and humiliated people held at Abu Ghraib, a prison outside of Baghdad.

The incident at Haditha has sparked two investigations -- one into the deadly encounter itself and another into whether Marines sought to cover up what actually occurred and, in doing so, lied about having killed civilians without justification.

A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told The Associated Press on Friday that evidence gathered so far strongly indicated that the Haditha killings were unjustified.

Early this year, a videotape of the aftermath of the incident, showing the bodies of women and children, was obtained by Time magazine and Arab television stations.

The military then undertook another investigation.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into the shootings is not expected to be completed earlier than in June.

Whether violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including murder, would be pursued would be determined by a senior Marine commander in Iraq.

The NCIS also is conducting a criminal investigation into another incident, the death of an Iraqi civilian on April 26, involving Marines in Hamandiyah, west of Baghdad.

[Livyjr]

And now ...

Once again ...

For something completely different ....

We have ....

"A new view of a storied location - Platform offers vantage point to see cave made famous by author"

By KATE PERRY, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, May 29, 2006

SOUTH GLENS FALLS -- After five years of planning and construction, the Cooper's Cave viewing platform is open to the public.

The gate blocking the pedestrian bridge to the platform was unlocked at 8 a.m. Saturday and people trickled in throughout the day, checking out one of the area's most famous spots.

The cave, a narrow limestone opening in the Hudson River gorge, is the famed hiding place of sisters Cora and Alice Munro in the James Fenimore Cooper novel "The Last of the Mohicans."

The site is located underneath the bridge that connects the village of South Glens Falls to the city of Glens Falls.

The viewing platform and pedestrian bridge were completed in November 2004, said South Glens Falls Mayor Robert Phinney, but the village had to wait for land easements to be approved before the site could be open to the public.

Christopher and Jennifer McDonald, a couple from Key West, Fla., driving up the East Coast on their honeymoon, went looking for the site after locals told them that it opened Saturday.

Staring out over the limestone ledge under which the cave is located, Christopher McDonald said the rock formations were unlike anything he'd ever seen before.

The couple had seen the 1992 film "The Last of the Mohicans," based on Cooper's book, which starred Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe, and were interested in seeing what the real cave looked like.

"To see what was actually being talked about makes it easier to relate," Christopher McDonald said.

"To see what they were actually talking about adds clarity."

Visitors get to the platform across a footbridge constructed of synthetic materials made to look like wooden planks.

Once across, they can read placards about the different bridges that spanned the Hudson there, the characters in the book and other aspects of the spot.

From the platform, visitors look down toward the river through metal bars to see the cave.

While McDonald said it gave him perspective, Angel Garcia and his daughter Nikki Garcia were disappointed.

"Usually when you visit a cave, you can go into it."

"This is it?" Garcia asked, looking around at the platform.

"This is isn't much to see."

The Queens man and his family were vacationing in Lake George and found out about the site on a brochure.

Nikki Garcia, 22, expected to see the rushing waterfall from the movie, she said, not a hydroelectric plant spewing water into the river.

Phinney said the platform is as close as tourists will ever get to the cave.

"For years there was a spiral staircase that went down into Coopers' Cave and people loved to go down and see it," Phinney said.

"But the state discontinued that because of liability."

Still, he's confident that the Cooper's Cave tourist area will attract visitors from all over.

Since the platform and bridge were completed in November 2004, 10 tour groups have come to check out the site with special permission.

The site is part of a larger $186,000 project, Phinney said, which will include the paving of all the roads and the parking lot leading to the platform and the addition of sidewalks when it is completed later this fall.

A walkway will also be installed heading south from the Cooper's Cave site, along the Betar Byway to the South Glens Falls Historic Park.

A picnic area will be added to the park.

Kate Perry can be reached at 454-5420 or by e-mail at kperry@timesunion.com.

What: Cooper's Cave

Where: South side of Route 9 bridge over the Hudson River between Glens Falls and South Glens Falls

Hours: 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend

Admission: Free

Directions: I-87 north to Exit 17N, go north on Route 9, bear left onto Main Street in South Glens Falls.

Turn left at the light just before the bridge. Parking lot is on the right.

Info: http://www.sgfny.com/ and click on Cooper's Cave

[Livyjr]

And politics .....

Along with the congressional seats up for grabs this November .....

So too is the office of governor of the State of New York ...

Where New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer right now is the man to beat .....

"Big EL", as he is lovingly known up here, has got all kinds of LOBBYISTS standing by him, to keep his pockets pumped up with money ...

Because "Big EL" is just a real nice guy ...

And so ...

"Big EL" is going to be tough to beat ...

BUT ...

"Big EL" is kind of weak when it comes to the subject of cleaning up government corruption in the State of New York ...

And in fact, based on a big win that "Big EL" scored in the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals a bit ago, "Big EL" is emerging as a real CHAMPION of corrupt government in the State of New York ...

And that has politicians and lobbyists alike flocking to his standard .....

And so ...

It is going to be up to the people of the state to decide ......

WHICH WAY WILL WE GO?

And so .....

"Suozzi in for primary challenge - County executive makes official a run against Spitzer in governor race" 
 
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, February 26, 2006

GLEN COVE -- Casting himself as a political outsider, a reformer and a risk taker, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi on Saturday formally launched a primary challenge to the Democratic front-runner for governor, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Most Democratic leaders and unions support Spitzer.

Suozzi has tried to turn that to his advantage, saying he'll be better able to change state government because he's beholden to no one.

Suozzi didn't mention Spitzer by name, but he was clearly aiming at the attorney general when he said:

"Unlike my opponent, I don't owe anything to the establishment."

The Spitzer camp dispatched a team of surrogates to bash Suozzi, including several Democratic Party county chairs and the heads of the Working Families Party and Citizen Action of New York -- both groups have endorsed Spitzer.

Democratic leaders, recognizing Gov. George Pataki's decision not to seek a fourth term has provided them with an opportunity to take back the governor's mansion after 12 years, fear a contentious primary and tried without success to dissuade Suozzi from running.

"Defying Spitzer juggernaut, Suozzi soldiers on"

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press
Last updated: 11:36 a.m., Monday, May 29, 2006

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- When Eliot Spitzer arrives here Tuesday to claim the endorsement of the state Democratic convention, it will be just one stop on what has so far been a glide path to the party's nomination for governor.

But for his primary opponent, Tom Suozzi, the Buffalo gathering will be just the latest repudiation in his effort to transform the Spitzer coronation into something resembling a real race.

Three months after announcing his underdog candidacy, Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, remains little more than a speed bump beneath the Spitzer juggernaut.

Recent polls show Suozzi with about 12 percent support among Democratic voters, a number that has barely budged despite a rigorous schedule of campaign appearances and a substantial statewide television ad buy in March.

A dynamic speaker with a thorough command of public policy, Suozzi so far has simply been unable to shake up the dynamics of the race.

But it hasn't been for lack of trying.

He has laid out detailed plans to reduce property taxes, bolster the upstate economy and combat Medicaid fraud, and has challenged Spitzer to do the same.

But Spitzer, the state attorney general who leads Suozzi by as much as 60 percent in some polls, has steadfastly refused to engage.

Suozzi has also called for twice-monthly debates, but Spitzer has so far agreed to just one, in late July.

That prompted Suozzi to engage in a bit of campaign theatrics, traveling to Fort Ticonderoga earlier this month to debate the proverbial empty chair.

A self-described political outsider, Suozzi has tried to paint Spitzer as a hidebound creature of Albany who'd be unable to stare down the Capitol's power brokers.

To that end, Suozzi has even called on the state's top lawmakers -- Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican Senate President Joe Bruno -- to resign, a move Silver dismissed as the rantings of a "desperate candidate."

Recently, Suozzi's own reformer credentials have been challenged by allegations by a former aide who said he did political work for Suozzi while on the Nassau County payroll.

And last week, amid an uproar from commuters and editorial boards, Suozzi sought to backtrack on a proposal to charge motorists an extra fee to drive on congested highways during peak hours.

The experience has proved a frustrating challenge for Suozzi, who, with almost no statewide name recognition and no real base outside Nassau County, must somehow persuade a majority of Democratic voters to come his way.

"I'm getting crushed," Suozzi conceded in a recent interview, while insisting he will stay in the race through the Sept. 12 primary.

To hear him tell it, the campaign has gone much as he had expected when he made the audacious decision to challenge Spitzer, whose high-profile investigations of corporate corruption have made him a towering figure in New York and nationally.

"I'm running against someone who has become very well known over the last five years or so, and who people think has done a lot of good things," Suozzi said.

"My job is to become better known."

To do that, Suozzi needs to finance a statewide television ad campaign to boost his profile in the weeks before the primary.

In January, he reported about $5 million in the bank, but his March ad buy depleted much of that.

Spitzer reported $19 million on hand in January.

Much of Suozzi's money came from friends and associates of Ken Langone, the billionaire founder of Home Depot whom Spitzer sued as part of the compensation controversy involving former New York Stock Exchange chief executive Richard A. Grasso.

Langone was one of several anti-Spitzer business leaders who'd been expected to contribute generously to Suozzi's campaign.

Candidates aren't required to file another financial disclosure until July 15, and Suozzi refuses to discuss the state of his fundraising until then.

At the heart of Suozzi's message are his credentials as a manager and zeal for government reform.

In 2002, with a $105 million bailout from Albany, he engineering a near-miraculous turnaround in Nassau County, which had been labeled the nation's "worst run" county in a Syracuse University study.

His 2004 "Fix Albany" campaign, which demanded greater accountability from state government, helped force legislators to enact several reforms and helped defeat two incumbent lawmakers.

The lingering fallout of that effort, on top of his campaign to topple Spitzer, has left Suozzi with few friends among establishment Democrats.

And while Suozzi touts that as an asset, many observers believe it could wound him if he runs for another office in the future.

But former state Democratic Party chairman John Marino, a Spitzer supporter, said doesn't foresee that as a serious problem.

"You make enemies in this business, but attractive candidates like Tom Suozzi have the ability to come back," Marino said.

"No one is rooting for Tom to be destroyed by this race."

"He's a good guy, and has a great record."

Barred from party rules from addressing the Democratic convention since he has not won the support of 25 percent of the delegates, Suozzi will instead host a rally outside the gathering, ostensibly to draw attention to his outsider status.

His campaign must now secure 15,000 valid signatures to place his name on the ballot.

For his part, Suozzi says that if he loses, he will complete his term as county executive and return to private life.

He says he has no political plans beyond his current, excruciating quest.

"I'm running to help make life better for ordinary New Yorkers," Suozzi said.

"If I win, it'll be great."

"And if I lose, it'll be really, really bad."

http://www.tomsuozzi.com

end quotes

For those of us who live upstate ...

It will be really, really bad ...

If Eliot Spitzer ...

WHO IS SOFT ON GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION ....

Wins ...

And so .....

This post has been edited by Livyjr: May 29 2006, 04:15 PM

[Livyjr]

Today is supposed to be Memorial Day ....

Or so they say, anyway ....

And as a disabled combat veteran ...

It was my habit to march on Memorial Day ....

In my suit and tie ....

And usually I would carry the folded American flag ....

As I marched with my veterans' group ....

But not this year ....

No marching for me this year ...

For a lot of reasons, I suppose ...

Including the cost of gas ....

Which has become a luxury item for me, anyway ....

But chiefly ...

I would say ...

That I did not march this year ....

Because George W. Bush has put such a stink on the American flag ....

That I did not want it touching my hand ....

Or coming anywhere near me today ....

As I think on those I knew from Viet Nam ....

Who got their chance ....

To DIE FOR THE BIG LIE, back then ...

And I also did not march today ...

Because George W. Bush ...

Has put such a stink on being an American soldier ....

That today ...

I wanted no part in being remembered as one ....

Nor did I feel inclined to heed George W. Bush's PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE ....

That I have to honor his veterans ...

Of his wars of aggression ....

And perversion ......

And beastiality ......

And so ....

George says its either his way ...

Or the highway ...

And me ..

Well ....

To HELL with George ....

I took the highway ...

And just stayed home ...

And so ....

"Bush gets more bad news from Iraq"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:15 p.m., Monday, May 29, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Just when President Bush was trying to accentuate the positive in Iraq and declare a new beginning in the war on terror, a rash of bad news comes from multiple fronts in the global struggle.

New details are emerging in the killings of two dozen Iraqi civilians at the hands of Marines.

Anti-American protesters are staging riots in Afghanistan after a U.S. military convoy rammed into several civilian cars.

And a reported 75 military detainees at Guantanamo Bay are on a hunger strike to protest their continued imprisonment without charges.

Add the trouble to the continuing daily violence in Iraq -- at least 40 were killed in a series of bombings Monday, including two from a CBS News crew -- and Bush could be in danger of losing even more support for his mission.

Bush has tried to keep the nation behind him with repeated talk about the importance of defeating the terrorists abroad so they cannot attack the United States again.

He has expressed confidence that the U.S. will prevail and spread democracy.

And he has acknowledged costly mistakes along the way.

In the past week, Bush has spoken about a new chapter in the nation's relationship with Iraq since a new government has taken control.

But that hasn't kept the violence and unrest out of the headlines every day, and some in the White House have been arguing that he needs to do more to push back.

His public relations blitzes on the war have helped build support in the past, according to public opinion polls taken before and after his campaigns.

At a press conference last week, Bush said the war has featured personal mistakes -- specifically his "tough talk" about capturing Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" and challenging U.S. foes to "bring it on."

And he said the worst mistake the country has made in Iraq was the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

"We've been paying for that for a long period of time," Bush said.

He has not yet commented publicly on an incident in Iraq that Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Marine war veteran and prominent critic of Iraq policy, has contended could undermine U.S. efforts there even more than Abu Ghraib did.

Murtha, D-Pa., has spoken critically about reports that Marines killed two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, last November in Haditha, a city western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents.

The congressman also believes that the deaths were initially covered up by the military.

The killings came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine.

Marines then shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into homes and shot other people, according to Murtha, who has been briefed by officials.

The Pentagon is investigating the deaths in Haditha, along with the events in Afghanistan that sparked rioting there Monday.

Witnesses said the incident began when a convoy of at least three U.S. Humvees came into the city from the outskirts, then rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars.

There were disputes about the number of deaths, but at least one person died.

The crash sparked a riot by dozens of stone-throwing Afghans who shouted "Down with America."

Witnesses said U.S. forces then fired on the crowd, and the violence escalated.

Hundreds of Afghan army troops and NATO peacekeepers in tanks were deployed around the city, as chanting protesters marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings.

The military also is dealing with defiant prisoners at Guantanamo Bay who are trying to draw attention to the fact that some have been held for up to 4 1/2 years without charges and with little contact with the outside world.

The U.S. military holds about 460 men at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

Human rights groups say many innocent people have been swept up in the Bush administration's war on terrorism and sent to the prison at the Cuban base in Guantanamo Bay, with no end in sight to their incarceration.

Only 10 of the detainees have been charged with crimes.

Their military trials, the first held by the United States since the World War II era, are set to begin within months.

The Supreme Court, however, is expected to rule in June on whether Bush overstepped his authority by ordering war-crimes trials for some of those held at Guantanamo Bay.

------

EDITOR'S NOTE: Nedra Pickler covers the White House for The Associated Press.

------

On the Net:

The White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

[Livyjr]

"Oh, Eliot, You're JUST So Vain" 
     
With apologies to Carly Simon

Oh, Eliot ....

You foxy devil, you .....   

You walked into the party ....

Like you were walking into the Governor's Chambers ....

In the capital ....

In Albany, New York ....

Your hat strategically dipped below one eye ...

Your scarf it was apricot ....

You had one eye in the mirror ....

On yourself, of course .....

And the other ...

On all the LOBBYISTS in the room ....

And the little bags of money in their hands ....

As you watched yourself gavotte ....

From lobbyist to lobbyist ...

Collecting your due, of course ...

And all the girls dreamed .....

As they do when in the company of powerful politicians like you ....

That they'd be your "partner" .....

They'd be your partner, and....

Oh, Eliot ......

You're just so vain ....

You KNOW this song is about you .....

Oh "Big EL" .....

You're just so vain ....

You're out there hiring people ....

To write pretty songs about you .....

Aren't you?

Aren't you?

You had New York State .....

Several years ago .....

When we were still quite naive .....

Well you said that you and New York State ....

Made such a pretty pair ....

And that you would never leave us stranded .....

Outside the protection of law ....

While your GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDACY .....

Stuffed its pockets .....

With money ...

From those who would have it be so .....

But like all politicans in the end, Eliot ....

You gave away the things we loved .....

Like HONESTY ...

And INTEGRITY ....

And FORTHRIGHTNESS .....

And Eliot ....

One of those "things" you gave away ....

Was me .....

So Eliot ....

I had some dreams ....

Or so I thought ....

They were clouds in my coffee .....

Clouds in my coffee and ....

NO ...

Actually .....

It was GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION, instead .....

And no dream at all ...

Thanks to YOU, Big EL ....

And Eliot ....

You're just so vain .....

You know this song is about you .....

You're just so vain .....

You have your "press poodles" out there ....

Writing all sorts of pretty songs about you ....

Don't you, Eliot ....

Yes, you do .....

Well I hear you went up to Saratoga ......

To "get" some votes .....

And your horse naturally won .....

Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink ....

Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia .....

To see the total eclipse of the sun .....

As well as to see what kind of CONTRIBUTIONS and DISBURSEMENTS there might be up there ....

While you were at it ....

Well, Eliot ...

Smart politician that you are ....

You're where you should be .....

All of the time .....

Thanks to a good appointments secretary .....

And campaign committee .....

And when you're not .....

You're with .....

Some underworld spy .....

Plotting some further political strategy ...

That will put you in the New York State Governor's Mansion .....

In 2006 ....

Or the wife of a close friend .....

With lots of money ....

Wife of a close friend, and....

Ready to make a fat contribution ...

To your cause ....

Because ...

Eliot ....

You're just so vain .....

Which people actually like in their politicans today .....

That you just know this song is about you .....

You're just so vain .....

Thinking you could even be president of America one day ..

The SPITZER PRESIDENCY ....

You already have your lackeys writing that song  about you .....

Don't you?

Don't you?

And so ......

And the SPITZER JUGGERNAUGHT rolls on ....

"Spitzer's dreams are coming true - On eve of all-but-certain nomination for governor, he gets a boat ride that was denied 40 years ago"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, May 30, 2006

BUFFALO -- On the eve of his anointment by fellow Democrats as their standard-bearer this fall, gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer fulfilled a childhood dream and also picked a fight with the Pataki administration.

The state attorney general arrived Monday afternoon in Buffalo, where Democrats are poised to make him their designated candidate for governor today at the party's state convention.

Spitzer kicked off the first leg of his statewide convention bus tour by traveling from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to Niagara Falls, where he rode the Maid of the Mist -- the iconic boat that brings visitors to the foot of the falls to be drenched by its spray.

Before the ride -- an experience Spitzer said he was denied when he first visited the falls with his parents as a little boy because he didn't meet the boat's height requirement -- the attorney general sat for several television interviews in the airport parking lot.

During one interview, Spitzer took a shot at the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which has been charged with rebuilding ground zero -- the signature project of the outgoing Pataki administration.

Spitzer called the LMDC "an abject failure" for its lack of progress since Sept. 11, and compared it to an "Enron-style debacle."

"I don't know where they have been, what they've been doing, or what they've been up to," Spitzer said, adding that the LMDC's failings are due to "a complete lack of leadership."

Spitzer has been critical of the LMDC before, but these comments went further than his previous statements, according to a campaign aide.

David Catalfamo, communications director for Gov. George Pataki, interpreted Spitzer's words as an attack on former LMDC board Chairman John Whitehead, a former Wall Street executive and U.S. Navy veteran with whom Spitzer has a contentious history.

"On the day our nation set aside to honor our heroes, Eliot Spitzer continued his ill-conceived personal vendetta against John Whitehead," Catalfamo said.

"A petulant vendetta based in trying to silence the very freedom of expression that John Whitehead fought to preserve on the beaches of Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Normandy."

Whitehead, who stepped down from his LMDC post earlier this month, wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal last winter in which he accused Spitzer of threatening him by telephone eight months earlier.

Whitehead, who said he took notes on the conversation but did not tape it, claims Spitzer told him:

"I will be coming after you."

"You will pay the price," for publicly criticizing Spitzer's investigation of a Whitehead ally, insurance magnate Maurice Greenberg.

Spitzer has repeatedly denied making that statement to Whitehead, which Republicans seized on as an example that the attorney general does not have the disposition to be governor.

Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat mounting a long-shot primary challenge to Spitzer, also criticized the attorney general for "blaming the LMDC for the problems at ground zero" without suggesting solutions of his own.

Suozzi said this is indicative of Spitzer's style of politics, which, the county executive said, "could best be described as 'attack first, offer ideas later -- much later.' "

Spitzer campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson said the attorney general's comments were not necessarily targeted at any one person, but "about a systematic failure that can only be solved by leadership from the top."

By contrast, Spitzer's Niagara Falls visit was controversy-free and full of photo ops.

Joined by his wife, Silda Wall; 12-year-old daughter, Jenna; as well as his mother and father and his running mate, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, Spitzer donned a rain jacket, traded his black leather dress shoes for worn Nikes and eagerly boarded the Maid of the Mist.

Later, his wet hair sticking to his balding pate, Spitzer, 46, proclaimed the ride "awesome," adding:

"I waited 40 years to go on that trip."

His mother, Anne Spitzer, confirmed her son had been very upset by the missed boat trip all those years ago.

"He cried and cried," she said.

Spitzer, who traded his usual suit and tie for an open-necked red golf shirt, khakis and a blue blazer, appeared relaxed.

He joked with reporters who followed his every move Monday and professed not to be nervous about the acceptance speech he's slated to deliver today.

Even the sparse turnout at a rally held adjacent to the falls did not appear to jar Spitzer, who gave a consolidated version of a stump speech that focuses on reform and returning hope, jobs and energy to New York, as confused tourists looked on.

"We're tired of hearing people say it can't be done," Spitzer said.

"There's nothing worse than defeatism."

"There's nothing worse than people who say: It can't be changed, our day has come and gone."

"... To anybody who says it can't be done, I say, 'You are not a true New Yorker at heart."

"True New Yorkers at heart never give up.' "

Spitzer got a more enthusiastic reception at the day's final rally at Dunn Tire Park, a downtown Buffalo baseball stadium, which was packed with hundreds of supporters, convention delegates and not a few lobbyists who had made the trip from Albany.

[Livyjr]

Today is supposed to be Memorial Day ....

Or so they say, anyway ....

And as a disabled combat veteran ...

It was my habit to march on Memorial Day ....

In my suit and tie ....

And usually I would carry the folded American flag ....

As I marched with my veterans' group ....

But not this year ....

No marching for me this year ...

For a lot of reasons, I suppose ...

Including the cost of gas ....

Which has become a luxury item for me, anyway ....

But chiefly ...

I would say ...

That I did not march this year ....

Because George W. Bush has put such a stink on the American flag ....

That I did not want it touching my hand ....

Or coming anywhere near me today ....

As I think on those I knew from Viet Nam ....

Who got their chance ....

To DIE FOR THE BIG LIE, back then ...

And I also did not march today ...

Because George W. Bush ...

Has put such a stink on being an American soldier ....

That today ...

I wanted no part in being remembered as one ....

Nor did I feel inclined to heed George W. Bush's PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE ....

That I have to honor his veterans ...

Of his wars of aggression ....

And perversion ......

And beastiality ......

And so ....

George says its either his way ...

Or the highway ...

And me ..

Well ....

To HELL with George ....

I took the highway ...

And just stayed home ...

And so ...

What kind of a nation ....

Makes such a loser ....

As George W. Bush ....

Its leader?

"Parents: Iraqi deaths traumatized Marines"

By JUSTIN M. NORTON, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:45 a.m., Tuesday, May 30, 2006

HANFORD, Calif. -- Family members of two Marines say their sons were ordered to photograph and clean up corpses of unarmed Iraqi civilians that members of their unit are suspected of killing, and they have been traumatized ever since.

In separate interviews with The Associated Press on Monday, the parents of Lance Cpl. Andrew Wright, 20, and Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones, 21, said their sons told them the events of last November remain seared in their memories.

Wright and Briones were members of a Marine unit based at Camp Pendleton that was sent into the western Iraqi city of Haditha to help remove the bodies of as many as two dozen Iraqis, including women and children, who were shot.

While there, the two were ordered to photograph the scene with personal cameras they happened to be carrying the day of the attack, the families said.

Briones' mother, Susie, said her son told her he saw the bodies of 23 dead Iraqis that day.

"It was horrific."

"It was a terrible scene," Susie Briones said in a tearful interview at her home in California's San Joaquin Valley.

Navy investigators confiscated Briones' camera, his mother said.

Wright's parents, Patty and Frederick Wright of Novato, declined to comment on what might have happened to the photos their son took but said he turned over all of his information to the Navy.

"He is the Forrest Gump of the military," Frederick Wright said.

"He ended up in the spotlight through no fault of his own."

Ryan Briones told the Los Angeles Times that Navy investigators had interrogated him twice in Iraq and they wanted to know whether bodies had been tampered with.

He turned over his digital camera but did not know what happened to it after that.

Susie Briones called the Nov. 19 incident a "massacre" and said the military had done little to help her son, who goes by his middle name, deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I know Ryan is going through some major trauma right now," said Susie Briones, 40, an academic adviser at a community college.

"It was very traumatic for all of the soldiers involved with this thing."

The details of what happened in Haditha are still murky.

What is known is that a bomb rocked a military convoy and left one Marine dead.

Marines then shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into two homes and shot other people, according to Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and decorated war veteran who has been briefed by military officials.

The incident has sparked two investigations -- one into the deadly encounter itself and another into whether it was the subject of a cover-up.

The Marine Corps had initially attributed 15 civilian deaths to the car bombing and a firefight with insurgents, eight of whom the Marines reported had been killed.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday on CBS's "The Early Show" that "it would be premature for me to judge" the situation.

But, he added, if certain service members are responsible for an atrocity, they "have not performed their duty the way that 99.9 percent of their fellow Marines have."

Briones' best friend, Lance Cpl. Miguel "T.J." Terrazas, had been killed the day of the attack by the roadside bomb, his mother said.

Briones was still grieving when he was sent in to clean up the bodies of the Iraqi civilians.

"He had to carry that little girl's body," she said, "and her head was blown off and her brain splattered on his boots."

The Wrights declined to say whether their son witnessed the killings or what he thought of the allegations against other members of his unit.

Wright and Briones are both recipients of the Purple Heart, given to soldiers wounded in battle.

Wright was injured during an assault on Fallujah in January 2005.

He voluntarily rejoined his unit at Camp Pendleton the next month.

Briones was on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

He received a Purple Heart during his first tour.

On Monday, both Marines were back at Camp Pendleton, near Oceanside, where base officials said several members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division were being confined during the investigations.

Lt. Lawton King, a Camp Pendleton spokesman, declined to comment Monday.

Sgt. Ian Moore, who was relaxing on the base Monday, said he and other Marines in the battalion were waiting to hear results from the investigations.

"A lot of these things are being played out in the court of public opinion and it's unfair on the Marines," said Moore, who spent time in Haditha on his previous tour in Iraq.

------

Associated Press writers Thomas Watkins in Camp Pendleton and Juliana Barbassa in Novato contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

What kind of a nation ....

Makes such a loser ....

As George W. Bush ....

Its leader?

"Pentagon Contradicts General on Iraq Occupation Force's Size"

By Eric Schmitt, New York Times

February 28, 2003

In a contentious exchange over the costs of war with Iraq, the Pentagon's second-ranking official today disparaged a top Army general's assessment of the number of troops needed to secure postwar Iraq.

House Democrats then accused the Pentagon official, Paul D. Wolfowitz, of concealing internal administration estimates on the cost of fighting and rebuilding the country.

Mr. Wolfowitz, with Dov S. Zakheim, the Pentagon comptroller, at his side, tried to mollify the Democratic lawmakers, promising to fill them in eventually on the administration's internal cost estimates.

"There will be an appropriate moment," he said, when the Pentagon would provide Congress with cost ranges.

"We're not in a position to do that right now."

At a Pentagon news conference with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Mr. Rumsfeld echoed his deputy's comments.

Neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor Mr. Wolfowitz mentioned General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, by name.

But both men were clearly irritated at the general's suggestion that a postwar Iraq might require many more forces than the 100,000 American troops and the tens of thousands of allied forces that are also expected to join a reconstruction effort.

"The idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces I think is far off the mark," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

In his testimony, Mr. Wolfowitz ticked off several reasons why he believed a much smaller coalition peacekeeping force than General Shinseki envisioned would be sufficient to police and rebuild postwar Iraq.

He said there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq, as there was in Bosnia or Kosovo.

He said Iraqi civilians would welcome an American-led liberation force that "stayed as long as necessary but left as soon as possible," but would oppose a long-term occupation force.

And he said that nations that oppose war with Iraq would likely sign up to help rebuild it.

"I would expect that even countries like France will have a strong interest in assisting Iraq in reconstruction," Mr. Wolfowitz said.

He added that many Iraqi expatriates would likely return home to help.

In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, many nations agreed in advance of hostilities to help pay for a conflict that eventually cost about $61 billion.

Mr. Wolfowitz said that this time around the administration was dealing with "countries that are quite frightened of their own shadows" in assembling a coalition to force President Saddam Hussein to disarm.

Enlisting countries to help to pay for this war and its aftermath would take more time, he said.

"I expect we will get a lot of mitigation, but it will be easier after the fact than before the fact," Mr. Wolfowitz said.

Mr. Wolfowitz spent much of the hearing knocking down published estimates of the costs of war and rebuilding, saying the upper range of $95 billion was too high, and that the estimates were almost meaningless because of the variables.

Moreover, he said such estimates, and speculation that postwar reconstruction costs could climb even higher, ignored the fact that Iraq is a wealthy country, with annual oil exports worth $15 billion to $20 billion.

"To assume we're going to pay for it all is just wrong," he said.

At the Pentagon, Mr. Rumsfeld said the factors influencing cost estimates made even ranges imperfect.

Asked whether he would release such ranges to permit a useful public debate on the subject, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "I've already decided that."

"It's not useful."

"Oil shortages hit Iraq with onset of summer heat"

by Kamal Taha

Sun May 28, 7:48 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - As Iraq's brutal summer heat sends temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), a dire shortage of petroleum products is damaging the economy and cutting electricity supplies in Baghdad to new lows.

The shortage is due to a host of reasons, including rivalries among political parties in the south, but an interior ministry spokesman said the security situation was a major cause.

"In addition to attacks on pipelines, trucks carrying petroleum products are in the sights of the rebels."

"Some gas stations had to close after their drivers refused to go pick up gasoline and other products stored in the dangerous areas around Baghdad," said Assem Jihad.

The capital has some 160 gas stations, of which half are privately run, and long lines of motorists stretch in front of those still selling gasoline.

"The daily consumption of gasoline reaches 20 million liters (five million gallons) for the country, of which six to seven million is for Baghdad," where six million people live, said Jihad.

"And supply is well below demand."

Sabotage of the oil infrastructure is also ongoing, aggravating the situation, he added, noting there had been two attacks in the past week on pipelines to the north and south of the capital.

"Two units of the Baiji refinery were closed last week and this cut production," said Jihad, who also reported a fire in the offshore terminal of Khor al-Amaya in the Gulf.

"Certain countries have stopped providing Iraq with petroleum products," he said, without elaborating, after the government halved the six billion dollars allocated to pay for imports.

An oil ministry official, however, singled out the actions of "an internal party that is trying to hinder the improvement of the supply situation".

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, was alluding to the Shiite party Fadhila, which holds 15 seats in parliament and forms part of the dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance.

But it angrily walked out of talks on forming a new government after it failed to secure the oil ministry.

The party reportedly is interfering with oil supplies heading north to Baghdad, while threatening a strike action, and demanding a cut of export royalties.

Fadhila is powerful in the southern port city of Basra which dominates the drilling and export of the vast majority of Iraq's oil resources.

The party has publicly denied putting pressure of the oil ministry, which is now headed by Shiite independent Hussein Shahristani, despite reports from the southern oil-rich provinces to the contrary.

Electricity production has been affected as well by the oil shortages.

Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Baghdad residents have always suffered from a lack of electricity, with some neighborhoods receiving power only one hour out of five.

As a result, gasoline-consuming generators are a common sight throughout the city, sometimes powering whole blocks.

With soaring temperatures sending residents scurrying to air conditioners, power consumption has risen steeply.

Many of those waiting in the long gas lines carry jerry cans for their generators rather than their cars.

The shortage is only exacerbating the hardships of the Iraqi capital's residents and increasing their criticism of the government which was only sworn in a week earlier.