Life in OUR America, Volume 6, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

"Unions struggle with auto industry cuts"

By JAMES HANNAH, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 12 minutes ago

ANDERSON, Ind. - Fastened to the wall of a florist shop a block from where thousands of autoworkers once toiled is a black foil balloon splashed with musical notes and the words "Good Luck."

This central Indiana city — once pulsing with 22,000 auto jobs and a dozen auto plants — is hoping for some.

The last auto manufacturing job will disappear in July, ending a love affair between the city and the auto industry after nearly 100 years.

Recruiting new businesses and diversifying the economy represent Anderson's future.

"It's going to be long and slow on the recovery here," said Troy Davis, owner of the Flower Hut.

"It's better than it was."

"Five years ago, everybody was hemorrhaging."

Struggles of the U.S. auto industry have accelerated a drop in American union membership that is helping transform communities such as Anderson across the Midwest.

As foreign automakers eat away at the market share of their U.S. counterparts, unionized plants run by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG and their former parts operations have closed or downsized and some jobs have moved overseas.

Union membership in manufacturing has fallen 1.3 percentage points to 11.7 percent, the first time statistics have shown it at a lower rate than among the national work force.

Membership in the UAW fell below 600,000 in 2005, from a peak of 1.5 million in the late 1970s.

"The auto market is getting beat up," said Jim Clark, president of the International Union of Electronics Workers/Communications Workers of America.

The union represents most workers at auto-parts supplier Delphi Corp., which is reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.

"It's the loss of jobs that creates the loss (of members)."

Alice Sanders, 50, took a buyout from Delphi in October after 10 years and received $140,000 in separation pay.

She had no pension or health benefits, and eventually got a union job at Behr Thermal Products in Dayton at $10.90 an hour.

"It's going to be a lot harder," Sanders said.

"The unions aren't what they — they can't do what they used to do."

"If you're a regular worker with union backing, I don't feel it's any different (than being nonunion)."

Clark said he believes the future will be better for unions.

Among the trends — more cooperative union-management relations.

"They recognize that if either one of them kicks a hole in the bottom of the boat, everybody drowns," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

UAW leaders in Toledo agreed three years ago to allow auto parts suppliers to take over work once done by union workers who built Jeep Wranglers.

The deal saved about 800 jobs.

"Those were jobs that would have gone to Mexico," said UAW Ohio President Lloyd Mahaffey.

"We have to work together to save the pie."

Ford spokesman Marcy Evans said the UAW has worked closely with the company over the past 18 months and helped forge agreements on buyouts, health care and plant efficiencies that have saved the company money.

GM spokesman Dan Flores said the unions have been working hard with management to make GM more competitive, but more needs to be done to structure the company for long-term profitability.

"Despite all we've done together, we're still not generating positive cash flow in our North American auto business," he said.

Communities have tried to change with the auto industry.

Kenosha, Wis., was rocked in 1988 when Chrysler closed a plant there, snuffing out 5,000 jobs.

City officials scrambled to diversify, luring smaller companies with the promise of low-cost power, reasonable land prices and proximity to Chicago.

About 10,000 jobs have been added since the plant closed.

In the Flint, Mich., area, GM employed 82,000 workers in the late 1970s.

Today, there are about 12,000 GM and Delphi jobs.

The city is focusing on repairing roads, reducing crime and eliminating blight in hopes of attracting new business.

In the past four years, the city's budget has gone from a $28 million deficit to an $8.9 million surplus.

"We are on the rebound," said Mayor Donald Williamson.

In Anderson, there are bleak stretches of vacant land where bustling factories once stood.

But shopping centers and restaurants crowd each other on the city's east side, and businesses proudly hang blue-and-white banners trumpeting the Super Bowl football champion Indianapolis Colts.

Officials have been working to replace the lost auto jobs — conducting overseas trade missions, upgrading roads, creating a new business park and installing a fiber-optic system that can be used by data-intensive companies.

Mayor Kevin Smith points to 300 new jobs that will come with a Nestle plant to open next year.

And he notes that from May 2005 to May 2006, 500 more jobs were created in the community than were lost, the first time job gains have outstripped losses in 10 years.

When times were booming in the auto industry, workers packed the Lemon Drop Restaurant, a diner that features a courtesy basket of lemon-drop candies next to the cash register and a model train that circles overhead on a track affixed to the wall.

Today, the lunch crowd is much more modest, although still enough for the business to keep going with hopes of better times.

"I don't think there is going to be a quick fix," said owner Bill Pitts.

"But we're getting the groundwork laid for it."

Said Smith, the mayor: "You can't see the future by looking in the rearview mirror."
___

On the Net:

UAW: http://www.uaw.org/

IUE: http://www.iue-cwa.org/

[Livyjr]

"U.S. documentary shows everyday abuse of Abu Ghraib"

By Christine Kearney

Sun Mar 25, 8:36 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Abu Ghraib prison is notorious for images that surfaced in 2003 showing horrific abuses of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers, but a new documentary aims to highlight the plight facing many innocent Iraqis by depicting the humdrum misery there.

U.S. filmmaker Michael Tucker won critical acclaim for his documentary "Gunner Palace," about American soldiers taking up residence in Saddam Hussein's former palace.

Now his film "The Prisoner, or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair," made with his wife Petra Epperlein, tells the story of Yunis Khatayer Abbas, an Iraqi journalist captured by American soldiers in 2003.

In the film, Abbas recalls the humiliation of his interrogation, which led to him being told he was suspected of plotting to assassinate British Prime Minister Tony Blair, before being sent to Abu Ghraib.

But the film does not focus on any of the graphic images or depictions of abuses that made the prison an international scandal.

And that is exactly the point, Tucker told Reuters in an interview.

"People are so jaded with basic human suffering that unless it is sensational, they don't respond to it," he said.

'TREATED LIKE ANIMALS'

The interrogations innocent Iraqis like Abbas suffer every day deserve as much attention as the now infamous photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib, Tucker said.

"We can't forget these are civilian people being treated like animals," he said.

Benjamin Thompson, a former Army specialist also featured in the film after he befriended Abbas while stationed at Abu Ghraib, told Reuters that "the scandal basically diverted everyone's attention away from anything that wasn't in those photographs."

"It was like no matter what happened there as long as we didn't stack people and make pyramids (of them) we were doing a great job," said Thompson, who returned from Iraq to Ohio two years ago and went back to civilian life.

"In reality what was taking place was a dehumanizing policy of lack of care, medical attention, food and basic operational security," he said.

Tucker says his film aims to put human faces on Iraqis like Abbas, who he believes were misunderstood by Americans.

"I don't think that we have really ever had someone in film that the average person can connect with and really see the war in human terms," said Tucker, noting Abbas's sense of humor.

In one scene, the Iraqi recalled laughing when eventually being told by American interrogators he was being held captive over suspicions he plotted to attack Blair.

"What he was charged with was so absurd," said Tucker, who uses footage of Abbas being captured by soldiers after he accompanied them on the raid.

"It just shows how poorly the intelligence system works."

Tucker said he hoped politicians will come up with better solutions and security for Iraq and take a simple message from his film:

"They need to start caring about the human consequences of this war."

[Livyjr]

"Quake rocks Japan, kills 1, injures 170"

By SHIZUO KANBAYASHI, Associated Press Writer

34 minutes ago

KANAZAWA, Japan - A powerful earthquake struck central Japan on Sunday, killing at least one person and injuring 170 others as it toppled buildings, triggered landslides and generated a small tsunami along the coast.

The quake was followed throughout the day by aftershocks.

The magnitude-6.9 quake struck at 9:42 a.m. off the north coast of Ishikawa, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

The agency issued a tsunami warning urging people near the sea to move to higher land.

A small tsunami measuring 6 inches hit the shore 36 minutes later, the agency said.

The morning quake toppled buildings, triggered landslides, cut power, interfered with phone service, broke water mains and snarled public transportation.

At least one person was killed and 170 others were hurt along the country's Sea of Japan coast, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Television footage of the quake showed buildings shaking violently for about 30 seconds.

Other shots showed collapsed buildings and shops with shattered windows, streets cluttered with roof tiles and roads with cracked pavement.

"We felt violent shaking."

"My colleagues say the insides of their houses are a mess, with everything smashed on the floor," Wataru Matsumoto, deputy mayor of the town of Anamizu, near the epicenter, told NHK.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki confirmed the death of a 52-year-old woman.

NHK said she was crushed by a falling stone lantern.

"We are doing our best to rescue the victims," he said.

"We are also doing our best to assess the extent of the damage."

The quake knocked down at least 39 homes in Ishikawa and damaged another 143, the FDMA said.

Most of the injuries and damage were concentrated in the city of Wajima, it added, about 193 miles northwest of Tokyo.

Takeshi Hachimine, seismology and tsunami section chief at the Meteorological Agency, said the affected area was not considered earthquake-prone.

The last major quake to cause casualties there was in 1933, when three people died.

"After the powerful earthquake, aftershocks will continue," Hachimine said.

Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries.

The last major quake to hit the capital, Tokyo, killed some 142,000 people in 1923, and experts say the capital has a 90 percent chance of suffering a major quake in the next 50 years.

In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit northern Japan, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes.

It was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2 quake killed 6,433 people in the western city of Kobe.

Powerful quakes in 1703, 1782, 1812 and 1855 also caused vast damage in the capital.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter of Sunday's quake was 225 miles northwest of Tokyo.

The USGS measured its magnitude at 6.7.
___

Associated Press writers Hans Greimel, Carl Freire and Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this story.

[Livyjr]

"GOP support for attorney general erodes"

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Republican support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales eroded Sunday as three key senators sharply questioned his truthfulness and a Democrat joined the list of lawmakers who want him to resign over the firing of eight federal prosecutors.

"We have to have an attorney general who is candid and truthful."

"And if we find out he's not been candid and truthful, that's a very compelling reason for him not to stay on," said Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department.

Specter, R-Pa., said he would wait until Gonzales' scheduled April 17 testimony to the committee on the dismissals before deciding whether he could continue to support the attorney general.

He called it a "make or break" appearance.

To Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Gonzales "does have a credibility problem."

"... We govern with one currency, and that's trust."

"And that trust is all important."

"And when you lose or debase that currency, then you can't govern."

"And I think he's going to have some difficulties."

Hagel cited changing stories from the Justice Department about the circumstances for firing the eight U.S. attorneys.

"I don't know if he got bad advice or if he was not involved in the day-to-day management."

"I don't know what the problem is, but he's got a problem."

"You cannot have the nation's chief law enforcement officer with a cloud hanging over his credibility," Hagel said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Gonzales has been "wounded" by the firings.

"He has said some things that just don't add up," said Graham, who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Additionally, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called for Gonzales to step down over his conflicting statements on how involved he was in the dismissals last fall.

Democrats contend the prosecutors' firings were politically motivated.

Feinstein, whose state lost two U.S. attorneys in the purge — in San Diego and San Francisco — joined a growing number of Democrats and Republicans in calling for Gonzales' ouster.

She said she now believes Gonzales has not told the truth about the firings.

"I believe he should step down," said Feinstein, also on the committee.

"And I don't like saying this."

"This is not my natural personality at all."

"But I think the nation is not well served by this."

"I think we need to get at the bottom of why these resignations were made, who ordered them, and what the strategy was."

Gonzales has said he participated in no discussions and saw no memos about plans to carry out the firings on Dec. 7 that Democrats contend were politically motivated.

His schedule, however, shows he attended at least one hourlong meeting, on Nov. 27, where he approved a detailed plan to execute the prosecutors' firings.

The White House has stood by Gonzales, saying the documents do not conflict with Gonzales' earlier statements.

"The president continues to have confidence in the attorney general," a spokesman said Saturday.

Gonzales maintains the firings were proper, but also has said he relied heavily on his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, to plan the prosecutors targeted for dismissal.

Sampson, who resigned under fire March 12, is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the dismissals.

The committee chairman, Sen. Sen. Patrick Leahy, said he is concerned the Bush administration is trying to make Sampson "the fall guy."

"And yet we find so many e-mails that contradict what the attorney general has said, contradict what the deputy attorney general has said, contradict what the White House has said."

"Mr. Sampson's right in the middle of it," said Leahy, D-Vt.

"We're going to ask him under oath."

"... I want him to say exactly what happened."

Leahy's committee also has authorized subpoenas for presidential political adviser Karl Rove and other top White House staff linked to the firings in more than 3,000 e-mails, calendar pages, memos and other documents the Justice Department has released.

President Bush has offered to grant a limited number of lawmakers private interviews with the aides with no transcript and without swearing them in — which senators from both parties have rejected.

A House Judiciary subcommittee also has authorized subpoenas in the matter.

Specter appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," Feinstein spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Hagel was on "This Week" on ABC while Leahy and Graham appeared on "Face the Nation" on CBS.

[Livyjr]

"Cheney: House is undermining the troops"

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:33 a.m., Sunday, March 25, 2007

MANALAPAN, Fla. -- Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accused the Democrat-led House of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger.

"They're not supporting the troops."

"They're undermining them," Cheney told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the oceanside Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Fla., about 60 miles north of Miami.

"5 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq bombings"

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:23 p.m., Sunday, March 25, 2007

BAGHDAD -- With U.S. attack helicopters buzzing overhead, gunmen and Iraqi security forces clashed Sunday in a Sunni area in central Baghdad, and police said at least two people were killed in fighting in the neighborhood's narrow streets and alleys.

Roadside bombings, meanwhile, killed five U.S. soldiers, including four in a single strike in a volatile province northeast of the capital.

The fighting in Baghdad started about 1:30 p.m. when gunmen attacked Iraqi army positions in the Fadhil neighborhood, on the east side of the Tigris River, police said.

The U.S. military said it had no immediate reports about the fighting in Baghdad, but later Sunday announced that four Americans had been killed when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in Diyala province.

A roadside bomb also killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others during a route clearance mission in northwestern Baghdad.

An Iraqi army colonel from the brigade in charge of the Baghdad neighborhood where the fighting took place said the gunmen were firing at army checkpoints and patrols from rooftops and the soldiers returned fire, calling for U.S. assistance when the fighting became fierce.

He said the situation had calmed by late afternoon but sporadic clashes continued.

"The soldiers raided some houses believed to be used by the gunmen today."

"Several suspects were arrested and they are being interrogated," the colonel said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The military sealed off all roads leading to the area, causing traffic jams, according to witnesses and police.

Stores closed their doors as the streets emptied of people fleeing the fighting.

"The gunmen were shooting at every moving object."

"The streets were deserted and all shops closed," said Ghaith Jassim, the 37-year-old owner of a textile store in the area.

"These frequent clashes have affected our work."

"We cannot earn our living."

"People and traders are afraid of coming to our area."

Jassim said the arrival of U.S. troops in the area briefly stopped the clashes but the fighting resumed when the Americans left.

Iraqi police said two civilians were killed and two policemen and two civilians were wounded.

Fadhil, one of Baghdad's oldest and poorest areas, is ridden with Sunni insurgents and common criminals and its narrow streets and alleys have been the site of frequent clashes.

A helicopter owned by the private security company Blackwater USA crashed in heavy gunfire in the area on Jan. 23, killing four civilian contractors.

A fifth contractor in a second helicopter died of gunshot wounds.

The clashes broke out a day after at least 74 people were killed or found dead in Iraq -- 47 in suicide bombings -- one of the deadliest days since a U.S.-Iraqi security sweep began in Baghdad on Feb. 14.

Suspected Shiite militants attacked a Sunni mosque on Sunday in apparent retaliation for one of those attacks -- a suicide truck bombing against a Shiite mosque that killed 11 people in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad.

The explosion on Sunday blew a hole in the roof of the mosque's minaret but caused no injuries.

On March 14, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William C. Caldwell expressed optimism about the Baghdad security plan, but urged patience and cautioned that "high-profile" car bombings, which rose to a high of 77 in February, could "start the whole cycle of violence again."

The number of execution-style killings in the capital has declined since the operation started on Feb. 14 -- a development officials say is due to an agreement keeping Shiite militias off the street, and Sunday's attack in Haswa highlighted concerns that militia factions are angry about being sidelined while the bombings continue.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State in Iraq, an insurgent umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, purportedly claimed responsibility for three suicide bombings Saturday near the Anbar province city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, saying in an Internet statement that 45 policemen were killed and 48 were wounded.

The statement could not be independently verified, and police said only six people had been killed, including five policemen, and 19 other people wounded.

One of the attackers hit a checkpoint, while another targeted a police station but was forced to detonate his explosives beforehand after guards opened fire on him, Col. Tariq Yousif al-Dulaimi said, adding that all the casualties were from those two explosions.

A third bombing also occurred about 100 yards away from an Iraqi-staffed checkpoint, but only the attacker was killed, he said.

The deadliest attack on Saturday destroyed a police station in Baghdad, killing 20 people -- half policemen and several others inmates at a jail in the two-story building.

The bomber bypassed tight security to get within 25 yards of the station by blending in with other trucks coming and going as part of a construction project, detonating his explosives after reaching the main gate, police said.

A suicide bomber also killed 10 people in a market area in Tal Afar, northwest of Baghdad.

The bombings came on the heels of other high-profile attacks last week, including a suicide bombing on Friday that wounded Iraq's Sunni deputy prime minister and killed nine other people and a rocket strike that landed near a news conference being held by the U.N. secretary-general in Baghdad.

An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the deputy prime minister, Salam al-Zubaie, had been wounded by shrapnel in his face, stomach and chest but his condition was improving.

The Islamic State in Iraq also claimed responsibility for that attack.

"The doctors say that his situation will improve within the two coming days to the degree that he will be able to speak," the aide said, declining to be identified because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the situation.

The aide also said al-Zubaie was being kept under tight security in the U.S.-run hospital in the heavily fortified Green Zone, and "even his relatives are not allowed to enter the hospital."

The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced that troops had found 470 anti-tank mines Saturday in the Shiite militia Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City after getting a tip from an Iraqi citizen.

Another large weapons cache with roadside bomb-making material was found and 31 suspected insurgents were detained Friday in Diyarah 30 miles south of Baghdad, the military said in a separate statement.

------

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"Analysis: Envoy leaves a struggling Iraq"

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:13 p.m., Saturday, March 24, 2007

BAGHDAD -- On his first day as U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad said al-Qaida in Iraq and Sunni insurgents wanted to start a civil war.

He leaves his post after 21 months as U.S. and Iraqi forces fight to keep that fear from becoming reality in Baghdad.

The Afghan-born Khalilzad -- a Sunni and therefore suspect among many of the Shiites who dominate Iraq's post-Saddam power structure -- shouldered his mission here on June 21, 2005, saying he was "horrified by the daily suffering of the Iraqi people."

"The terrorists attack ordinary people, teachers, doctors, newly trained police and others who are assisting the people of Iraq."

On a farewell swing late last week -- he chose Iraq's largely peaceful and increasingly prosperous Kurdish region -- Khalilzad said he regretted leaving an Iraq mired in violence.

"I have been very saddened and concerned that the level of violence has been as high, sectarian violence in particular has been a grave threat," said the 56-year-old envoy, who has been nominated by President Bush as the next U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

Khalilzad's heritage, his early days in the cauldron of Afghanistan, sharpened his skills as a Middle East dealmaker.

But even he found the complexities of post-Saddam Iraq an occasionally impenetrable maze and deeply hostile to policies he was charged with implementing.

When Khalilzad arrived in Baghdad from his native Afghanistan, where he had been the top U.S. diplomat, the U.S. military death toll in Iraq stood at 1,324.

The figure has since risen to at least 3,234.

Iraqi deaths in the same period are a matter of debate, but since al-Qaida bombed one of the most important Shiite shrines in Iraq 13 months ago, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and whole neighborhoods have undergone sectarian cleansing.

The bombing caused the once-relatively quiescent Shiite community to rise up in a campaign of revenge.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq said 34,452 Iraqis died last year alone.

In the meantime, the U.S. military, with the promise from Bush of about 30,000 more American troops by June, is engaged with Iraqi security forces in a third attempt in less than a year to extinguish the sectarian war in Baghdad and the center of the country.

U.S. military and sectarian deaths have fallen since the crackdown began Feb. 14, though the number of Iraqis killed in the capital is gradually creeping upward again.

Khalilzad's diplomacy was a moving force in that decline, in the short term, by persuading Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Mailiki to pressure one of his key political backers into pulling Shiite militia fighters, the Mahdi Army, off the streets of the capital.

Sunni and al-Qaida fighters have pulled off several spectacular bombings.

The numbers are down slightly from pre-crackdown days, but the insurgents are still pulling off high-profile attacks.

On Thursday, a Katyusha rocket slammed into the Green Zone about 50 yards from where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was holding a press conference with al-Maliki.

There were no serious casualties but videotape of Ban, ducking and looking frightened by the explosion, dominated television screens.

A day later, an insurgent suicide bomber got within feet of one of Iraq's two deputy prime ministers, Salam al-Zubaie, wounding the top Sunni official seriously and killing nine others during Friday prayers at the private mosque attached to his home.

While Khalilzad was able to persuade al-Maliki to give American forces a free hand in the security operation and to keep the Mahdi Army largely out of sight, the U.S. envoy has had a difficult relationship with the Iraqi leader.

At one point last year, al-Maliki declared that while he was a friend of the United States, "I am not America's man in Iraq."

Al-Maliki also has promised his government will ensure passage of an oil law, a measure with overriding importance for the Bush administration; take action to ensure national reconciliation; set a date for local elections, and make progress on constitutional amendments.

So far all those measures have languished.

Al-Maliki aides have said the prime minister has been notified by "people in the U.S. Embassy" that the United States would withdraw backing for his government if the benchmarks are not met by June 30.

The Bush administration says there has been no threat, but if a tough message was delivered, it most certainly came from Khalilzad.

Khalilzad's mission was a true high-wire act, certainly one of the most challenging for a U.S. diplomat in recent history.

And reflecting those difficulties, Iraqis gave him mixed marks.

For example, Ali al-Alaq, a senior lawmaker from al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said Khalilzad was biased in favor of fellow Sunnis:

"We hope the new ambassador will be more evenhanded with all Iraq's sects."

But Barham Salah, one of two deputy prime ministers and a Kurd, whose people have benefited greatly from the American presence, saw it otherwise:

"At times, he seemed to care for the success of the new Iraq more than some Iraqi leaders did and he leaves with the admiration of Iraqis, even those he disagreed with."

------

Hurst is AP bureau chief in Iraq and has reported on the war since 2003.

[Livyjr]

"GI killed by roadside bomb in Iraq"

Associated Press

Last updated: 5:52 a.m., Saturday, March 24, 2007

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. soldier on a foot patrol was killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the military said Saturday.

The Multinational Division -- Baghdad soldier died after the blast, which occurred Friday while the soldier was conducting a dismounted combat patrol in support of a joint U.S.-Iraqi security operation aimed at quelling sectarian violence in the capital, according to a statement.

The soldier's identity was not released pending notification of relatives.

The military did not provide more details about the attack but said members of the soldier's unit have detained 16 suspected insurgents in the past week.

At least 3,233 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

[Livyjr]

Shades of the Viet Nam war times, all over again ....

"NYPD defends monitoring - Records reveal vastness of intelligence gathering before GOP convention"

By JIM DWYER, New York Times

First published: Sunday, March 25, 2007

For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.

From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show.

They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department's Intelligence Division.

Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms.

From these operations, run by the department's "RNC Intelligence Squad," the police identified a handful of groups and individuals who expressed interest in creating havoc during the convention, as well as some who used Web sites to urge or predict violence.

But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files.

In hundreds of reports stamped "NYPD Secret," the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.

These included members of street theater companies, church groups and anti-war organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies.

Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.

In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities.

Police records indicate that in addition to sharing information with other police departments, New York undercover officers were active themselves in at least 15 places outside New York -- including California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montreal, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C. -- and in Europe.

The operation was mounted in 2003 after the Police Department, invoking the fresh horrors of the World Trade Center attack and the prospect of future terrorism, won greater authority from a federal judge to investigate political organizations for criminal activity.

Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, confirmed that the operation had been wide-ranging, and said it had been an essential part of the preparations for the huge crowds that came to the city during the convention.

Under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, undercover surveillance of political groups is generally legal, but the police in New York -- like those in many other big cities -- have operated under special limits as a result of class-action lawsuits filed over police monitoring of civil rights and anti-war groups during the 1960s.

The limits in New York are known as the Handschu guidelines, after the lead plaintiff, Barbara Handschu.

"All our activities were legal and were subject in advance to Handschu review," Browne said.

The police must have "some indication of unlawful activity on the part of the individual or organization to be investigated," U.S. District Court Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. said in a ruling last month.

Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represents seven of the 1,806 people arrested during the convention, said the Police Department stepped beyond the law in its covert surveillance program.

"The police have no authority to spy on lawful political activity, and this wide-ranging NYPD program was wrong and illegal," Dunn said.

[Livyjr]

Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms.

FROM THE WEB-EDITION OF THE HEARST CORPORATION-OWNED ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION, CONCERNING THE TIMES UNION BLOG SITE, IN ALBANY, NEW YORK ....

Comment by LuLu — March 24, 2007 @ 8:52 am:

First, point of fact on “free speech” - there is no “right to free speech” on a privately owned and run blog.

Comment by John Galt — March 24, 2007 @ 3:44 pm:

JOHN GALT REPLIES: We country folks find it interesting, revealing and perhaps slightly Freudian that someone, anyone for that matter, would come into “here”, in what is a very public setting, open to the “public at large”, without a membership fee being charged, in CYBERSPACE, which is certainly not “owned” by the Hearst Corporation, despite any illusions of grandeur it might have just because it owns a fancy office building down in NYC, to inform us that we do not have “freedom of speech” in here, because this BLOG is “privately owned and run” ….

To which we come back and say, “BY WHOM?”

WHO REALLY DOES “RUN” THIS BLOG?

And for what purposes, if it is in fact, “PRIVATELY OWNED” ….

Is this really another FBI “sting” going on in here, perhaps, along the lines of Chairman Mao’s very successful “LET A HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOOM, LET A HUNDRED SCHOOLS CONTEND” campaign that was used so successfully to locate and identify “subversive dissident elements” in Chinese society at that time, so that they could be eliminated?

Invite people to come into what is in reality a “PRIVATELY OWNED AND RUN” BLOG, and further invite them to open up their hearts and minds as to how they really feel about things, and then, those that are disloyal to George W. Bush can be identified and eliminated by one pack of thugs and goons in the name of “national security”, while a second group disloyal to “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer and the NYS Business Council can be similarly identified, and then removed from society for good, by having them incarcerated in NYS Business Council member Northeast Health’s secure mental facility right over there across Hudson’s River, in Republican-controlled Troy, New York …

Is that the point that we are supposed to take away here by this comment that in here, we do not really have “freedom of speech”?

What a statement that really does make about this TU newspaper BLOG, if it is indeed true ….

WHAT IT PROCLAIMS TO ALL THE CANDID WORLD IS THAT THIS BLOG IS NOT REALLY FAIR, NOR BALANCED, NOR HONEST, BY DESIGN …

Is that really the point?

Because if it is, then the candid world should know about it ….

So that nobody out there is at all misled about what is really going on in here, whatever that may be, in a BLOG that is not public, but instead, is “privately owned and run” …

And so …

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4157#comments

[Livyjr]

"Giuliani's closet full of skeletons - Episodes from the past could be revived to haunt presidential campaign"

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press

First published: Sunday, March 25, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Plenty of people and politicians have skeletons in their closets.

In the case of presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, that closet is a walk-in.

The former Republican mayor of New York City won widespread praise for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it is largely that collective memory that accounts for his current popularity in polls and makes him the early front-runner for his party's nomination.

Yet as most New Yorkers could tell you, there are plenty of episodes in Giuliani's past that could come back to haunt him -- scenes that played like a booming, angry opera.

"Rudy is a tough guy."

"Nobody has ever said he was Mr. Congeniality."

"It's not always pretty to look at, but he got the job done," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who backed Sen. John McCain in 2000 but now supports Giuliani.

So far, most of the major players in Giuliani's past public sagas have stayed silent, and that silence may be worth far more to him than any endorsement.

Skeleton No. 1 is his last police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, once nominated by President Bush to head the Homeland Security Department.

Kerik's close association with Giuliani became radioactive when Kerik pleaded guilty last June to a misdemeanor of accepting a gift from a company seeking city work.

Kerik acknowledged accepting $165,000 in renovations on his Bronx apartment from a company attempting to land city contracts.

But he never explicitly admitted that his efforts on behalf of the company were tied to the work on his home.

Kerik is still under investigation, and any further criminal matter surrounding him will only draw more attention to the relationship with the former mayor.

Skeleton No. 2 is Giuliani's first police commissioner, William Bratton, now the police chief in Los Angeles.

Working for Giuliani, Bratton began the police reforms in New York that led to historic crime reductions and helped turn tawdry Times Square into a Disney-certified tourist destination.

Bratton's forced departure from New York in 1996 began a debate that goes on even now: Does the credit Giuliani that claims for the crime reduction really belong to Bratton?

Skeleton No. 3 is Giuliani's first wife, Regina Peruggi.

They married in 1968; Giuliani had the marriage annulled in 1982, on the grounds they were second cousins once removed.

Skeleton No. 4 is Donna Hanover, his second wife.

Their painfully public separation at the end of Giuliani's time as mayor seriously damaged his image, but has become overshadowed by his performance in the last months of 2001.

Each of the four, through their aides, declined to comment.

Giuliani's son, a college student, recently acknowledged that he is essentially estranged from his father and has "a little problem" with his father's current wife -- his stepmother.

Judith Giuliani also revealed that contrary to years of published reports, Giuliani is her third, not her second husband.

[Livyjr]

And as the MOUTHRUNNER CHENEY castigates the American Congress for setting deadlines for troop removal from IRAQINAM, it looks like the BUSHCOS are doing the exact same thing, but HYPOCRISY is the COIN OF THE REALM with the FABULOUS, FLYING BUSHCOS ....

And so ....

"Khalilzad: U.S. patience 'running out'"

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:03 a.m., Monday, March 26, 2007

BAGHDAD -- The departing U.S. ambassador said on Monday that he believes Iraq is heading in the right direction but cautioned that Iraqi leaders must understand that U.S. voters are increasingly impatient with the war.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leaving his post after 21 months that had seen a massive increase in violence in Baghdad overall, declared in a news conference that insurgent and militia attacks had decreased by 25 percent in the six weeks since the start of U.S.-Iraqi security plan on Feb. 14.

"I know that we are an impatient people, and I constantly signal to the Iraqi leaders that our patience, or the patience of the American people, is running out," said the Afghan-born Khalilzad, who has been nominated by President Bush as American ambassador to the United Nations.

Khalilzad's cautiously optimistic assessment on security coincided with the eruption of sectarian violence in a string of mixed Sunni-Shiite towns south of the capital Monday and over the weekend.

In Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, authorities slapped an indefinite curfew after two people were killed and two others were wounded in sectarian clashes sparked by an attack Monday on a Sunni mosque by suspected Shiite militants, police said.

Iraqi and U.S. forces sealed off the area where the mosque is located, but clashes erupted elsewhere in the town.

The mosque was slightly damaged by rocket-propelled grenades fired by the assailants.

In Mahaweel, a mainly Shiite town 35 miles south of Baghdad, a bomb planted near a Sunni mosque went off Monday morning, damaging the building but causing no casualties, police said.

The targeting of the mosques came one day after suspected Shiite militants attacked a Sunni mosque in Haswa, a town near both Iskandariyah and Mahaweel.

The attack was in apparent retaliation for a suicide truck bombing against a Shiite mosque that killed 11 people on Saturday, also in Haswa.

Aides to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have said that Washington has signaled that he must make progress on a series of benchmark legislative and political measures by June 30 or face a withdrawal of American support for his government.

The United States has denied making the threat but Khalilzad was clear Monday that al-Maliki was under heavy U.S. pressure to move rapidly on several issues, especially a law that would provide a fair distribution of Iraqi oil wealth among all ethnic and sectarian groups, a measure that is especially important to the White House.

He also said the Iraqis need to act on political and sectarian reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites, and on amending the constitution to make it more palatable to the Sunnis.

Despite repeated promises of quick action from the Iraqis and heavy pressure from the Americans, those measures still await action in parliament.

Khalilzad also said U.S. contacts with Sunni insurgents were ongoing and he noted progress in splitting some Sunni tribes away from the insurgency and from al-Qaida in Iraq in particular.

"There is a lot more that needs to be done," Khalilzad told the news conference.

In scattered violence Monday across Iraq, gunmen in two cars fatally shot an off-duty police officer walking near his home in the northern city of Mosul, according to Brig. Mohammed al-Wagaa, director of police operations in Ninveh province of which Mosul is the capital.

In Baghdad, one person was killed and three were wounded when three mortar shells hit a neighborhood in the mainly Sunni Dora district, according to police.

In the southeastern district of Zafaraniyah, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol went off at 10:55 am, killing a police officer and wounding three, including a police captain, police said.

Two civilians also were injured.

[Livyjr]

Aides to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have said that Washington has signaled that he must make progress on a series of benchmark legislative and political measures by June 30 or face a withdrawal of American support for his government.

The United States has denied making the threat but Khalilzad was clear Monday that al-Maliki was under heavy U.S. pressure to move rapidly on several issues, especially a law that would provide a fair distribution of Iraqi oil wealth among all ethnic and sectarian groups, a measure that is especially important to the White House.

VOTE YES FOR IMPEACHMENT ....

TOSS THAT TEXAN OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE, RIGHT ON HIS EAR .....

AND SEND HIM BACK "TO THE RANCH", IN DISGRACE ....

AND GOOD RIDDANCE ....

And it seems that this REPUBLICAN Trent Lott does not read the news ....

Probably it is too much hard work for him to do ....

And IGNORANCE of what is going on in the world never seems to be a bar to holding high office here in OUR America ....

After all, look where it got George W. Bush ....

And so ....

"Senator: Some see impeachment as option"

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press

Last updated: 11:02 p.m., Sunday, March 25, 2007

WASHINGTON -- With his go-it-alone approach on Iraq, President Bush is flouting Congress and the public, so angering lawmakers that some consider impeachment an option over his war policy, a senator from Bush's own party said Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Senate's No. 2 Republican leader harshly criticized House Democrats for setting an "artificial date" for withdrawing troops from Iraq and said he believes Republicans have enough votes to prevent passage of a similar bill in the Senate.

"We need to put that kind of decision in the hands of our commanders who are there on the ground with the men and women," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.

"For Congress to impose an artificial date of any kind is totally irresponsible."

GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush's impeachment.

But he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

"Any president who says, I don't care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed -- if a president really believes that, then there are -- what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that," said Hagel, who is considering a 2008 presidential run.

The Senate planned to begin debate Monday on a war spending bill that would set a nonbinding goal of March 31, 2008, for the removal of combat troops.

That comes after the House narrowly passed a bill Friday that would pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year but would require that combat troops come home from Iraq before September 2008 -- or earlier if the Iraqi government did not meet certain requirements.

On Sunday, Hagel said he was bothered by Bush's apparent disregard of congressional sentiment on Iraq, such as his decision to send additional troops.

He said lawmakers now stood ready to stand up to the president when necessary.

In the April edition of Esquire magazine, Hagel described Bush as someone who doesn't believe he's accountable to anyone.

"He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true."

"You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment."

"I don't know."

"It depends on how this goes," Hagel told the magazine.

In his weekly address Saturday, Bush accused Democrats of partisanship in the House vote and said it would cut the number of troops below a level that U.S. military commanders say they need.

Vice President Dick Cheney also accused Democrats of undermining U.S. troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face of danger.

"We clearly a situation where the president has lost the confidence of the American people in his war effort," Hagel said.

"It is now time, going into the fifth year of that effort, for the Congress to step forward and be part of setting some boundaries and some conditions as to our involvement."

"This is not a monarchy," he added, referring to the possibility that some lawmakers may seek impeachment.

"There are ways to deal with it."

"And I would hope the president understands that."

Lott said setting withdrawal dates is a futile and potentially dangerous exercise because Bush has made clear he will veto any such legislation.

"There are members in the Senate in both parties that are not comfortable with how things have gone in Iraq," Lott said.

"But they understand that artificial timetables, even as goals, are a problem."

"...We will try to take out the arbitrary dates."

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the Senate bill seeks to heed the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group by setting a goal of withdrawing some troops while leaving others behind to train the Iraqi army for border patrol and other missions.

"That, combined with a very aggressive, diplomatic effort in the region is what we're going to need to have," he said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she believed that setting a timetable was appropriate but declined to predict whether it would garner enough Senate votes to pass.

"People of this country have spoken overwhelmingly."

"It's been constant now," Feinstein said.

"They want us out."

"It is time for the Senate to weigh in."

"I hope we will have the votes."

Hagel spoke on ABC's "This Week," Feinstein and Lott appeared on "Fox News Sunday," and Nelson was on CNN's "Late Edition."

[Livyjr]

FROM THE WEB-EDITION OF THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION ....

Comment by topo gigio — March 25, 2007 @ 10:23 pm:

On another matter…lying seems to be the modus operandi for the Bush administration.

Libby lied (and got convicted), Gonzales lied (and hopefully will soon be fired), the administration lied about Tillman to get some mileage out of the football connection, they lied about WMD’s, Rice lied about a lot of things IMHO, Cheney has been lying since the day he was born, Rumsfeld was so arrogant that he even believed his own lies, Bush is either lying or most likely is incredibly stupid as he tells us to just give it a little more time in Iraq for things to “work”.

Actually, lying to the American people has been the way of our government for quite a while now (Nixon lied, Clinton lied though about non-governmental stuff, Ollie North lied).

It certainly is a sad state of affairs that this is what the U.S. has come to represent — a pack of liars.

Cheery, huh?

Comment by John Galt — March 26, 2007 @ 8:51 am:

topo gigio, if one goes back and reads Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen, an authoritive little work about the 1787 federal Constitutional Convention, one actually finds your sentiments echoed in there, by the delegates to the federal Constitutional Convention, many of whom were classically-educated, and so, had extensive knowledge of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, and the Greek states which existed before Rome ...

And there was much argument, or debate, among those delegates, as to how to “get around” exactly what you are talking about, and their conclusion was that there really is no solution to what is in reality, HUMAN NATURE, or perhaps, human impulses, when people are confronted by POWER, and GREED ....

And in his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emporer, also discusses this topic of lying among people in positions of power, at length ....

And it still comes back to CHOICE, FREE WILL, and the inner strength of character of the individual ...

Which is why freedom of speech and freedom of the press was deemed to be so important here in the “UNITED STATES” of America ....

This America that we are the inheriters of rose out of flames, death and destruction, and as any rational combat veteran, if that is not an oxymoron, can tell you, there just has to be a better way ....

And what came out of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, as an alternative, was OPPROBRIUM ....

POINT THE FINGER AT THEM, PULL DOWN THEIR PANTS IN PUBLIC, EMBARRASS THE BE-JAYSUS OUT OF THEM ....

And that is about it, which really brings us right into this present moment, and why an OPEN, UNCENSORED BLOG like this is so important to us common citizens out here in the countryside, where, because of isolation, our voices are never heard ....

America was created as an experiment, NOT A GUARANTEE, if one recalls Ben Franklin’s words on the subject, anyway, and that experiment fails when we all don’t give a damn, anymore, because everybody is lying, in the media, in the government, everywhere ...

Yes, indeed, it can be, AND IS, for us older folks, anyway, VERY DEPRESSING ....

But then, it always has been, and our own history right here in this area tells us that it has been worse, much worse, and yet, we still have prevailed to get through those times, which many of us lived through, and still recall, JE ME SOUVIENS, as the Quebecquois might say ....

And so ....

Us older countryfolks out here were taught way back when that OUR Declaration of Independence was really an OPEN LETTER TO THE CANDID WORLD, telling that CANDID WORLD that this is where we are right now, and this is why it is unsatisfactory to a “civilized people”, so this is where we are going, and that was back in 1776 .....

And this is now 2007, and to us, this BLOG, and others, still serve as OPEN LETTERS TO THE CANDID WORLD, in the same spirit that the original Declaration of Independence was .....

And we older folks out here are using that opportunity to tell the CANDID WORLD where it is that we have gotten to, in the intervening period of time, WHICH IS ALWAYS A MATTER OF PERCEPTION AND OPINION, and what is perceived to be good about it, as well as what is perceived to be wrong, or just plain bad ...

And so ....

Does that type of “venting” to the CANDID WORLD really solve anything?

Whoever does really know, topo gigio, but at least back in 1776, it did get a ball rolling, sort of, anyway,and here we still are, today ....

And so .....

As combat veterans, we were taught to attack right into the heart of that which was attacking you, and by God, or god, some of us got to be pretty good at that .......

And the sharpest weapons that there ever will be, sharper than the finest sword, ARE WORDS, topo gigio .....

And we are not at all afraid to use them in that fashion, if need be .....

Nor are you, from what I can see, anyway .....

And in an intelligent manner, which is an example to all of us, out here in the countrysside, anyway, since us older folks are into “intelligence” and “candor” as a more sure way to survive life than lying is, since lying to yourself in the fall that you have enough firewood to last a long, cold winter is not going to get you far, if in fact, all you have is a little pile of kindling wood ....

And so .....

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4164#comments

[Livyjr]

"Gonzales aide to invoke Fifth Amendment"

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

36 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Monica Goodling, a senior Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said the lawyer, John Dowd.

"One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby," he said, a reference to the recent conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff in the CIA leak case.

The White House, meanwhile, continued to stand by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales despite new calls over the weekend for his resignation and documents that indicate he may have been more involved in the dismissals than he has previously acknowledged.

Democrats have accused the Justice Department and the White House of purging the prosecutors for political reasons.

The Bush administration maintains the firings were not improper because U.S. attorneys are political appointees.

Goodling was Gonzales' senior counsel and White House liaison until she took a leave of absence earlier this month.

She was subpoenaed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee along with several of Gonzales' other top aides.

There have been questions about whether Goodling and others misinformed Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty about the firings just before he testified before the Senate committee in February.

Dowd said that since then a senior Justice Department official had privately told a member of the Senate committee that he was misled by Goodling and others before testifying.

Gonzales' truthfulness about the firings of seven prosecutors on Dec. 7 and another one months earlier also have been questioned.

On March 13 at a news conference, Gonzales denied that he participated in discussions or saw any documents about the firings, despite documents that show he attended a Nov. 27 meeting with senior aides on the topic, where he approved a detailed plan to carry out the dismissals.

Goodling was one of five senior Justice Department aides who met with Gonzales for that Nov. 27 discussion.

Department documents released Friday to Capitol Hill show she attended multiple meetings about the dismissals for months.

She also was among aides who on Feb. 5 helped Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty prepare his testimony for a Senate hearing the next day — during which he may have given Congress incomplete or otherwise misleading information about the circumstances of the firings.

Additionally, Goodling was involved in an April 6, 2006, phone call between the Justice Department and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who had complained to the Bush administration and the president about David Iglesias, then the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque.

Domenici wanted Iglesias to push more aggressively on a corruption probe against Democrats before the 2006 elections.

The Justice Department appeared surprised Monday to hear of Goodling's decision on testifying.

Earlier Monday, addressing rumors that department aides would refuse to testify, Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said:

"That is incorrect."

Addressing the anticipated testimony of McNulty and Associate Deputy Attorney General Will Moschella — the two who recently appeared, respectively, in Senate and House hearings — Scolinos said the two men "are voluntarily making themselves available to the Hill and plan to fully answer all questions posed to them."

Scolinos had no immediate comment about Goodling's testimony.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that Gonzales "might be accused of being imprecise in what he was saying," but maintained that the attorney general was not closely involved in the firings.

"I understand the concern."

"I understand that people might think that there are inconsistencies," Perino said.

"But as I read it, I think that he has been consistent."

The White House is placing the onus on Gonzales to explain his actions to lawmakers, but he is not scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee until April 17 — three weeks away.

Speaking to reporters in Orlando, Fla., Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said whether or not Gonzales was fully engaged, "he has lost all credibility with me."

Nelson on Sunday joined the ranks of lawmakers in both parties calling for Gonzales to resign.

"Unless he has a good explanation for not only what he knew and when he knew it but also for the ineptitude of the department ... he is a goner," Nelson said of Gonzales.

"I think there might be enough Republicans who are calling for his resignation, even before he takes the witness stand."

The Senate committee's senior Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, on Sunday said documents including a Nov. 27 calendar entry that placed the attorney general at a Justice Department meeting to discuss the dismissals "appear to contradict" Gonzales' earlier statements.

But his Nov. 27 schedule, included in a batch of memos sent to Capitol Hill late Friday, showed he attended an hour-long meeting at which, aides said, he approved a detailed plan for executing the purge.

Since the release of that calendar entry on Friday, Justice aides have said Gonzales meant he was not involved in selecting the prosecutors when he said he didn't participate in discussions about their firings.
___

Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes Jordan contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

March 26, 2007, 5:30 pm

"Blogtalk: Under Surveillance"

By The Empire Zone

This report from Jim Dwyer over the weekend has stirred up the blogosphere:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

City Councilman Oliver Koppell, a former state attorney general:

“It is necessary, unfortunately, for us to know what people are doing who engage in vigorous advocacy, let’s put it that way, because vigorous advocacy can turn into violent acts.” [The Politcker]

March 27th, 2007 6:27 am:

“Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let a Hundred Schools Contend” was Chairman Mao’s method of rooting out those in Chinese society who did not like him, or agree with his policies, and everytime I enter a BLOG such as this to express an opinion, well, anymore, I must wonder ….

Could this be another “sting”?

And for the record, “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer has already received approval from the 2d Circuit Court of Appeals in NYC in December of 2005 to use INVOLUNTARY PSYCHIATRIC COMMITMENT as a weapon against those in NYS who would challenge his “policies”, so the police state is among us already, folks …

That approval stems from an incident in Joe Bruno’s Rensselaer County on 8-22-01 where a licensed professional engineer investigating professional misconduct and fraudulent submittals to the local health department ended up being BRANDED as, and incarcerated as an alleged dangerous mental patient in the secure mental facility of the Stratton VA Hospital in Albany based upon commitment paperwork signed off on by a political doctor in Troy, NY who had never even laid eyes on this engineer before ordering him committed …

Needless to say, that engineer is now gone, and for “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer, “peace”, of a sorts, anyway, now reigns in his land, since with the snap of his well-manicured fingers, he can now make the dissident of his choice simply disappear, as that engineer did, with no fuss being made about it by anyone, and especially the courts, which has had a very chilling effect on those of us up here who consider voicing our opinions in public, especially when those opinions are backed up by solid evidence, as was the case with this engineer who disappeared, lest we too go that route ….

And so ….

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0.../#comment-59831

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

#6. March 27th, 2007 2:50 pm

problem - police ’spied’

solution - do a better job with secrecy

— Posted by dougk

#7. March 27th, 2007 6:27 pm

A point which seems to be getting completely overlooked here is the fact that within the State of New York, our right to freedom of speech is guaranteed to us, not by the United States Constitution, but by section 8 of the BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR NYS Constitution, wherein is stated:

“We The People of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our Freedom, in order to secure its blessings, DO ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION.

§ 8. Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.”

Now, it appears that what the NYPD has done in the case of this secret spying on us is to have made a unilateral decision on its own that WE, THE PEOPLE of the State of New York cannot actually “freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects” ….

To the contrary, and this is buttressed by these following comments of this G. Ollie Koppel, there are “certain unknowable to us” areas where we are really prohibited to speak, or write, or publish, because:

“It is necessary, unfortunately, for us to know what people are doing who engage in vigorous advocacy, let’s put it that way, because vigorous advocacy can turn into violent acts.”

Now, in the light of § 9(1) of the BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR NYS Constitution, which follows, this is interesting language, indeed:

9(1) No law shall be passed abridging the rights of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government, or any department thereof ….

Now, as any lawyer will tell you, when petitioning the government or any department thereof for redress of grievance, one is expected to zealously advocate for one’s position, and in fact, lawyers are required to zealously defend their client’s rights ….

And so ….

This G. Ollie Koppel and the NYPD seem to be taking a set of garden shears to OUR BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR NYS Constitution for reasons known only to them, as OUR “BIG BROTHER”, or “OVERLORD” ….

Which would seem to be taking them afoul of section 1 of OUR BILL OF RIGHTS, which states in clear and unequivocal language that a hot-shot lawyer like G. Ollie Koppel should be able to understand, since it was written for the common person in NYS:

Section 1. No member of this state shall be disfranchised, or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land, or the judgment of his or her peers ….

And this is not all some mumbo-jumbo that I am reciting here, as can be readily determined from these words from our own NYS Court of Appeals in 1996, in Ricky Brown et al. v. State of New York, 89 NY2d 172:

“Constitutions assign rights to individuals and impose duties on the government to regulate the government’s actions to protect them.”

“It is the failure to fulfill a stated constitutional duty which may support a claim for damages in a constitutional tort action.”

“The underlying rationale for the decision, in simplest terms, is that constitutional guarantees are worthy of protection on their own terms without being linked to some common-law or statutory tort, and that the courts have the obligation to enforce these rights by ensuring that each individual receives an adequate remedy for violation of a constitutional duty.”

“If the remedy is not forthcoming from the political branches of government, then the courts must provide it by recognizing a damage remedy against the violators much the same as the courts earlier recognized and developed equitable remedies to enjoin unconstitutional actions.”

“Implicit in this reasoning is the premise that the Constitution is a source of positive law, not merely a set of limitations on government.”

“The damage remedy has been recognized historically as the appropriate remedy for the invasion of personal interests in liberty, indeed, damage remedies already exist for similar violations of the Federal Constitution.”

“Those created by Congress and the Supreme Court, however, fail to reach State action though it is on the local level that most law enforcement functions are performed and the greatest danger of official misconduct exists.”

“By recognizing a narrow remedy for violations of sections 11 and 12 of article I of the State Constitution, we provide appropriate protection against official misconduct at the State level.”

Indeed, as this case with G. Ollie Koppel and the NYPD and this secret spying is clearly demonstrating to the candid world, it is on the local level in the State of New York, specifically in NYC, thanks to this G. Ollie Koppel and the NYPD, that the greatest danger of official misconduct exists with respect to OUR Constitutional rights in NYS as defined by the BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR NYS Constitution ….

And so ….

It is interesting that anyone would actually come out in public and advocate for those who would so willingly toss the BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR NY Constitution right in the trash barrel, but we have it in writing just above here, in comment #6 …

And so …

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0.../#comment-59831

[Livyjr]

"Strong hurricanes to hit U.S. Gulf in 07: AccuWeather"

By Janet McGurty

Tue Mar 27, 1:24 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Gulf Coast, which is still rebuilding almost two years after Hurricane Katrina, faces a renewed threat of powerful storms this year, private forecaster AccuWeather said on Tuesday.

After a quiet hurricane season last year, Florida and other Gulf Coast states likely will be hit with fewer storms than during the active 2005 season, which spawned the massive hurricanes Katrina and Rita, AccuWeather said.

But the storms forecast for the region will pack a punch.

"We will not get anywhere near the amount of storms that we did in 2005, but the intensity of the storms we do get will be of major concern," Joe Bastardi, chief hurricane forecaster for AccuWeather.com, said in a statement.

British forecasting group Tropical Storm Risk this month also predicted an active storm season.

It forecast four "intense" hurricanes during the 2007 season, which runs from June through November.

The predictions spell trouble for areas still recuperating from a chain of hurricanes that slammed the Gulf Coast in 2005.

"The entire region -- including New Orleans and other areas that are still rebuilding after Katrina -- is susceptible to storms," Bastardi said.

Katrina killed about 1,500 people along the Gulf Coast in 2005, displaced tens of thousands more and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Bastardi also said that storms forecast to hit this year could once again disrupt oil and natural gas operations along the Gulf Coast, driving up energy prices for consumers.

"This year's stronger storms are likely to be the kind of disruption that will be felt in wallets and pocketbooks," he said.

U.S. gasoline prices reached a record high of $3.057 per gallon after Katrina, which caused oil refineries to shut down and companies to evacuate workers from oil and gas producing rigs in the Gulf.

After Hurricane Rita hit the region a month after Katrina, as much as 14 percent of U.S. refinery capacity was shut and about 80 percent of crude oil and 66 percent of natural gas production were down for months.

Bastardi also predicted the U.S. Northeast would likely be a target for strong storms for the next 10 years.

"Last year, the Northeast may have dodged a bullet but, unfortunately, you can only be lucky for so long."

"We are in a pattern similar to that of the late 1930s through the 1940s, when the Northeast was hit by two major storms," he said.

The relative calm of last year's hurricane season, which forecasters had mistakenly predicted would be busy, came on the heels of a record 28 storms and 15 hurricanes in 2005 and only a slightly less furious season in 2004.

Bastardi said that, despite the milder 2006 season, the trend was toward strong hurricanes and tropical storms.

"We are living in a time of climatic hardship," Bastardi said.

"We're in a cycle where weather extremes are more the norm and not the exception."

[Livyjr]

"Attacks throughout Iraq kill at least 65"

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

51 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Two nearly simultaneous truck bombs — including one detonated by remote control — ripped through markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens, police said, as violence surged outside the Iraqi capital.

A mortar attack in the Sunni-dominated Dora neighborhood of Baghdad killed four people, including two children, a woman and a man — the second deadly mortar attack on the enclave in three days.

A suicide car bomber exploded his payload near Ramadi, killing 10 people, and two other attackers detonated explosives-laden cars in Baqouba, killing three policemen.

The attacks in Tal Afar, the second in four days, occurred about five minutes apart at popular markets in the northern and central parts of the city, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad.

At least 48 people were killed and 103 wounded, police Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri said.

One of the trucks was detonated by remote control while people gathered to buy the flour it was carrying in the central Shiite neighborhood of Muhyou, a local policeman said.

The other truck was loaded with vegetables and parked near a wholesale market, not far from a primary school that was closed for the day.

Jaafar Akram, a teacher who saw that explosion, said he helped the police and other civilians carry the wounded to vehicles taking them to the hospital.

"I instantly saw smoke then I heard the blast," Akram said, adding that body parts were thrown on the ground and the walls and vegetables were scattered in pools of blood.

"Thanks be to God the blast didn't occur during rush hour at the school," he said.

"That reduced the disaster."

On Saturday, a man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up outside a pastry shop in the central market area in the predominantly Shiite Turkomen city, killing at least 10 people and wounding three.

Tal Afar, about 90 miles east of the Syrian border, is a mainly Turkomen city with about 60 percent of its residents adhering to Shiite Islam and 40 percent Sunnis.

It has suffered frequent insurgent attacks despite a March 20, 2006, declaration by President Bush that the city was an example of Iraq's improving security.

Among the largest attacks were a suicide car bombing on Oct. 7, 2006, that targeted a police checkpoint and killed 14 people, and a Sept. 18, 2006, suicide bombing that killed 20 and wounded 17.

A car bomb also obliterated a tent crowded with mourners for the funeral of a Kurdish official on May 1, 2005, killing 25 people, and 30 were killed when a suicide attacker set off explosives hidden beneath his clothing outside an army recruiting center on Oct. 11, 2005.

Tal Afar was an insurgent stronghold until U.S. and Iraqi troops drove them out in a September 2006 operation and constructed huge sand barriers around the city to limit access.

Bush cited that operation, in which insurgents melted away into the countryside rather than fight, as an example that gave him "confidence in our strategy."

Tuesday's vehicle bombings and an eruption of sectarian clashes south of Baghdad underscored concerns that militants have fled the capital in response to a U.S.-led security crackdown, bringing violence with them to the hinterlands.

The suicide car bomber near Ramadi struck a district northeast of the provincial capital that was not patrolled by the military, police Col. Tarik Yousif said.

Another suicide car bomber struck a police patrol in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding four other people, police said.

Police also opened fire on a suicide car bomber as he drove toward a checkpoint near a cemetery in the center of the capital at about 5:40 p.m., but he was able to detonate his explosives killing one policeman and seriously wounding three other people, police said.

The U.S. military said a Marine was killed Saturday during combat in Anbar province west of Baghdad but gave no details.

Separately, Kirkuk police 1st. Lt. Marewan Salih said two elderly Chaldean Catholic nuns were stabbed multiple times by intruders who raided their home Monday night near Kirkuk's Cathedral of the Virgin in Kirkuk.

They lived alone and there was no sign of a robbery, Salih said.

Margaret Naoum, 79, was stabbed seven times as she stood in the garden just outside the sisters' home.

The attackers then found Fawzeiyah Naoum, 85, lying on the sofa inside, recovering from eye surgery last week.

She was stabbed three times.

Chaldean Catholics are an ancient Eastern rite now united with Roman Catholicism.

Adherents live mainly in Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq and most speak a dialect of Turkish.

In politics, a plan by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani to introduce legislation to allow former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling party — including those in the feared security and paramilitary forces — resume jobs in the government or receive pensions met with criticism.

The commission currently carrying out the government's so-called "de-Baathfication" policy said the draft law ignored victims of the former regime in a highly critical statement, indicating the draft law could face trouble in parliament.

"This draft turns a blind eye to the feelings of millions of the victims of Baath Party and pays no heed to their emotions and rights."

"This will not lead to reconciliation," the statement said.

Long demanded by the U.S. to appease Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, the measure would set a three-month challenge period after which ex-Baath party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions during Saddam's reign.

The draft law, which excludes former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes, also would grant state pensions to many Baathists, even if they were denied posts in the government or military.

The reconciliation measure is seen as an effort to short-circuit expected criticism of Iraq's government at an Arab League summit this week.

Al-Maliki is said to fear rising support among U.S.-allied Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for an Iraqi national unity government led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a favorite of Washington.

[Livyjr]

"Mueller defends need for expanded powers"

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - FBI Director Robert Mueller struggled Tuesday to convince skeptical senators that — despite recent abuses — the FBI should retain Patriot Act authority to gather telephone, e-mail and financial records without a judge's approval.

"The statute did not cause the errors."

"The FBI's implementation did," the FBI chief told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., served notice:

"We're going to be re-examining the broad authorities we granted the FBI in the Patriot Act."

House Judiciary committee members delivered a similar message last week.

The Senate panel's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, went further: "The question arises as to whether any director can handle this job and whether the bureau itself can handle the job."

Grim-faced and sometimes even looking pained, Mueller testified at the panel's second hearing into a Justice Department inspector general's report this month that revealed abuses in the FBI's use of documents called national security letters to gather data.

Reviewing headquarters files and four of 56 FBI field offices, Inspector General Glenn Fine found 48 violations of law or presidential directives during 2003-2005.

He estimates there may be up to 3,000 unidentified or unreported violations throughout the FBI.

Mueller said he had instituted procedures for issuing these letters.

"What I did not do and should have done is put in a compliance program to be sure those procedures were followed," he added.

He is now devising a compliance program and has ordered an audit to determine the extent of the problem and to see if any agents should be disciplined.

"We are committed to demonstrating to the committee, the Congress and the American people that we will correct the deficiencies," Mueller said.

"I still have very serious qualms," Leahy replied.

Mueller called the letters "an indispensable tool for our conduct of terrorism investigations" and began listing cases in which the letters were useful, including a plot against the Brooklyn Bridge.

Interrupting, Leahy said the panel could discuss individual plots later, including "how serious a plot it was to take down the Brooklyn Bridge."

Government court documents acknowledged that defendant Iyman Faris, now serving 20 years in the case, advised al-Qaida the plot would be futile.

Citing the national security letters and recent inspector general criticism of FBI reporting of terrorist cases and of weapons and laptops lost, Specter said, "Every time we turn around there is another enormous failure by the bureau."

Specter said the committee should seriously consider establishing a separate domestic intelligence agency like Britain's MI-5.

"There's another headline virtually on a daily basis," Specter said, citing a Washington Post report Tuesday that agents submitted inaccurate data to a court that issues warrants for foreign intelligence surveillance.

Mueller said he had reduced such inaccuracies since learning of the problem in 2005 but noted that warrant applications are long and contain thousands of facts.

"I'm not impressed with your assertion that there are thousands of facts," Specter said.

"That's your job."

"You asked for these powers; we gave you them."

"If these applications are wrong, you're subjecting people to an invasion of privacy that ought not to be issued."

Mueller argued against some committee Democrats' suggestions to inject judicial approval into the national security letter process or to limit how far agents can roam beyond actual suspects in seeking records.

But under questioning by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Mueller indicated he might trade the letters for administrative subpoenas, like those used in some drug and tax cases without prior approval of a judge.

Mueller said it would be simpler to train agents to use administrative subpoenas than national security letters, which are governed by six different laws.

He added that administrative subpoenas can be challenged in court by the recipient and — unlike national security letters — enforced in court by the government.

Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Orrin Hatch of Utah opposed altering the law to curb FBI authority.

"You've acknowledged the problems and pledged to fix them," Hatch said.

"That's what Congress and the American people need."

The committee plans to hear April 17 from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, now struggling to keep his job amid criticism of the FBI abuses and the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

National security letters, first authorized in 1986, can be used to acquire e-mail, telephone and travel records and financial information, like credit and bank transactions.

In 2001, the Patriot Act eliminated any requirement that the records belong to someone under suspicion.

Now an innocent person's records can be obtained if FBI field agents consider them relevant to an ongoing terrorism or spying investigation.
___

On the Net:

Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov

[Livyjr]

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

March 27th, 2007 6:27 pm

A point which seems to be getting completely overlooked here is the fact that within the State of New York, our right to freedom of speech is guaranteed to us, not by the United States Constitution, but by section 8 of the BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR NYS Constitution, wherein is stated:

“We The People of the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for our Freedom, in order to secure its blessings, DO ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION.

§ 8. Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.”

Now, it appears that what the NYPD has done in the case of this secret spying on us is to have made a unilateral decision on its own that WE, THE PEOPLE of the State of New York cannot actually “freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects” ….

To the contrary, and this is buttressed by these following comments of this G. Ollie Koppel, there are “certain unknowable to us” areas where we are really prohibited to speak, or write, or publish, because:

“It is necessary, unfortunately, for us to know what people are doing who engage in vigorous advocacy, let’s put it that way, because vigorous advocacy can turn into violent acts.”

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0.../#comment-59831

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

8. March 27th, 2007 11:50 pm

speak freely, openly and loudly; just don’t get your nose bent out of shape when people, including the NYPD listen, if you don’t want folks to listen, whisper behind closed doors.

— Posted by dougk

10. March 28th, 2007 6:44 am

“If you don’t want folks to listen, whisper behind closed doors ….”

There it is, America …

THE SLOGAN FOR OUR TIMES, which should be posted on large billboards from one end of this state to the other …

And you read it first in the pages of the NY TIMES, although not as a policy the NY TIMES endorses, which has the editors of NY POST bent so far out of shape, the wags up here say they now look like fancy pretzels!

And it is true, this SLOGAN FOR OUR TIMES …

As was the case in Communist China when the madman Mao ruled, and also in Russia when Beria’s goons were everywhere, “LISTENING IN” on what people were saying to determine who next to “remove from society” to keep a dictator in power, people in upstate NY DO WHISPER BEHIND CLOSED DOORS in fear when they are talking about CORRUPT GOVERNMENT up here, because of what happened to that engineer, where before, when there was law, and contitutional rights in NYS, these same people would have been putting their words in writing in the form of an Article 78 lawsuit against these same CORRUPT public officials, and then pursuant to section 6 of the BILL OF RIGHTS of the NYS Constitution, these same citizens who are now in hiding, whispering in fear behind closed doors, would have been bringing the results of these Article 78’s before a grand jury for further action ….

And with that said, it is worth taking a look at that specific constitutional language in the BILL OF RIGHTS of OUR NYS Constitution:

§ 6. No person shall be subject to be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense; nor shall he or she be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself or herself, providing, that any public officer who, upon being called before a grand jury to testify concerning the conduct of his or her present office or of any public office held by him or her within five years prior to such grand jury call to testify, or the performance of his or her official duties in any such present or prior offices, refuses to sign a waiver of immunity against subsequent criminal prosecution, or to answer any relevant question concerning such matters before such grand jury, shall by virtue of such refusal, be disqualified from holding any other public office or public employment for a period of five years from the date of such refusal to sign a waiver of immunity against subsequent prosecution, or to answer any relevant question concerning such matters before such grand jury, and shall be removed from his or her present office by the appropriate authority or shall forfeit his or her present office at the suit of the attorney-general.

The power of grand juries to inquire into the wilful misconduct in office of public officers, and to find indictments or to direct the filing of informations in connection with such inquiries, shall never be suspended or impaired by law.

THE POWER OF GRAND JURIES IN NYS TO INQUIRE INTO THE WILFUL MISCONDUCT IN OFFICE OF PUBLIC OFFICERS IN NYS SHALL NEVER BE SUSPENDED ...

EXCEPT …

IT HAS BEEN ….

THROUGH FEAR …

BY “STEAMROLLER” SPITZER and the NYS POLICE STATE ….

Because where there are no witnesses, well, hey, you do the math ….

And at least one person is cheering for that right here in the pages of the NY TIMES ….

And his cheers are being echoed by a whole host of corrupt public officials in NYS who never need fear being hauled before a grand jury themselves, BECAUSE RETALIATION AGAINST POTENTIAL WITNESSES AGAINST THEM IS THEIR WEAPON, against us, as this case with the engineer is evidence of, and so long as the maws of the GULAGS beckon, to us, if we dare speak above a whisper, down in our basements, as if we were Russians, or Chinese, or ordinary Germans in the time of Hitler, these corrupt politicians will be safe ….

Which is what POLICE STATES generally exist for, to protect POWER, and not people …

And so …

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...lance/#comments