And then ....

Of course .....

THERE IS .....

IRAQINAMISTAN .....

Where major combat operations are now over .....

And Saddam is starving to death .....

And DE-MOCKERY is in the air ......

And George has brought peace .....

To that land ....

So finally .....

Our troops .....

Can come back home ....

NOT!

"Bush, Maliki to consider adding troops in Baghdad"

By Steve Holland

Mon Jul 24, 1:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will consider adding more U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and other ways to counter surging violence when they meet at the White House on Tuesday.

Bush and Maliki will consider new approaches to quelling the bloodshed in and around the capital after Maliki's security plan for the region proved a disastrous failure.

"One of the first challenges, obviously, is to go ahead and find an effective way to secure Baghdad," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.

Senior Bush administration officials said one option to was to move more U.S. and Iraqi troops into Baghdad from different parts of the country.

"The situation in Baghdad is one that if there starts to be improvement in that city, that will have positive reverberations throughout the country," one official said.

Bush is under political pressure to show progress in Iraq, clearing the way for a reduction in U.S. troops by the end of the year, as his Republicans face elections in November with their control of the U.S. Congress at stake.[/size]

"Iraq is still the prism which every American voter looks through when thinking about politics," said Republican strategist Scott Reed.

He said although voters were also worried about high U.S. gas prices and illegal immigration, "Iraq is still front and center."

Bush and Maliki were also expected to discuss the Iraqi leader's strong condemnation of Israel's attacks in Lebanon, one of the only issues that has united Iraq's warring factions.

U.S. officials characterize his sharp criticism, which differs from the U.S. approach, as a sign of a healthy democracy.

CIVIL WAR

While the Bush administration insists civil war has not broken out in Iraq, Democrats disagree.

"There is a civil war in Iraq..."

"In the last two months more than 6,000 Iraqis have been killed."

"It is averaging more than a hundred a day being killed in Iraq."

"We need to make sure there is a debate on this," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

Bush is fighting to maintain Americans' support for the troops, keep up troop morale and urge patience from a public weary of the three-year-old conflict.

He visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Monday to attend a ceremony for three wounded U.S. military service personnel to become American citizens.

"I want our troops to understand that not only does the country support them but we'll win."

"It's in our national interest that we win."

"And we will," Bush told recently returned military service personnel in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday.

Maliki's emergence to power prompted Bush to make a surprise visit to Baghdad June 13 and, along with the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, spawned hopes among Americans that things were changing for the better.

But with Sunni-Shiite violence claiming hundreds of lives in the weeks since, analysts see Iraq getting worse with violence among Shiite groups rising as well as Shiite-versus-Sunni bloodshed.

Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the violence "soft ethnic cleansing" and said that violence was spreading beyond Baghdad to other cities.

"These trends strongly argue that the Iraqi government and U.S. are now losing, not winning," he said.

"They are scarcely based on firm data, however, and they scarcely mean the struggle is lost."

"What they do mean is that the Maliki government must act far more quickly and decisively."

(Additional reporting by Patricia Wilson)

end quotes

"It's in our national interest that we win?"

Win what, George?

Win what?

What on earth ....

Is it .....

That you think .....

We can win?

And when are you going to tell someone?

So that somebody other than you ...

Has the slightest idea .....

Of what you are talking about .....

IF YOU EVEN KNOW ....

And so .....

And then ...

There is this too ....

From the HACKOCRACY .....

Of PRESIDENT FOR LIFE ....

George W. Bush ....

"US blamed abroad for WTO collapse"

By Doug Palmer

21 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration faced blame from U.S. trading partners on Monday for the collapse of world trade negotiations, but won praise at home for holding firm in the talks.

European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson accused the United States of "stone-walling" by refusing to offer deeper cuts in U.S. trade-distorting domestic farm subsidies, which now total about $20 billion annually.

"Surely the richest and strongest nation in the world, with the highest standards of living, can afford to give as well as take," Mandelson said.

Brazil, India and Japan joined in the criticism after a weekend G6 meeting in Geneva failed to resolve long-standing differences over how far to cut farm subsidies and tariffs.

Australia also took part in the weekend talks.

The impasse, after nearly five years of negotiation, prompted a decision to "suspend" the talks, increasing the chance a final deal will never be reached.

The negotiations, officially known as the Doha Development Agenda, were launched in late 2001 with the goal of helping poor countries prosper from trade.

U.S. officials said other countries were not offering deep enough farm tariff cuts to persuade Congress, which has the final say in the United States over trade deals, to significantly cut farm subsidies.

"The stuff on the table at Doha would never have been approved by Congress," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Senior U.S. lawmakers reinforced that view, saying they were not interested in a deal that fails to significantly open global markets.

"The United States is willing to change its domestic agriculture policies, but American farmers demand equal access to markets on the world stage," House of Representatives Majority Leader John Boehner said in a statement.

Washington contends that the biggest benefit of a new world trade deal would come from cutting tariffs that block developing-country exports, as well as its own.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab has accused the EU and others of "pocketing" an offer the United States made last year to reduce farm subsidies and pushing for deeper U.S. cuts without offering significant new market access in return.

"Ambassador Schwab was right to hold firm and accept nothing less than real concessions."

"I commend her for her resolve," said Sen. Max Baucus, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, expressing the view of many lawmakers.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, said he hoped the setback on Monday would force Brussels to rethink its position.

Leading U.S. business groups also praised Schwab's tough stance, but said they hoped the talks could be revived.

Schwab told reporters by phone from Geneva the United States was prepared to offer deeper farm subsidy cuts, but withheld that offer when it become apparent others were unwilling to move.

The United States will explore ways to "resuscitate" the world trade talks in meetings with other trading partners in the coming weeks and months, she said.

At the same time, it's unlikely a deal can be completed and submitted to Congress before U.S. trade promotion authority expires in mid-2007, Schwab said.

And winging our way through the uncharted realms of CYBERSPACE .....

Back to the CORRUPT REPUBLICAN EMPIRE of New York .....

"Spitzer-Suozzi gap will be up for debate - With clear favorite in poll, Democrats meet tonight in race for governor"

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

First published: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

ALBANY -- Political debates are not always must-see TV. But given the dramatically different needs of the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates, tonight's first -- and perhaps only -- live pre-primary matchup could be worth watching.

A Siena College poll Monday showed Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi 69 points behind the front-runner, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, among likely Democratic primary voters with just seven weeks left in the race.

He needs a big debate win to even start to catch up with Spitzer.

Suozzi has to capitalize on his charm, political strategists agreed, walking the line between pointed criticism and over-the-top attacks that make him look desperate.

Spitzer, on the other hand, needs to maintain his carefully cultivated air of inevitability by sticking to broad themes and avoiding any show of his storied anger.

Spitzer can come off as stiff, and tends to lapse into legalese.

But his enormous lead relieves him of the need to dazzle, strategists said, and even leaves room for error.

"In order for this to be useful to Suozzi, Spitzer either has to make a gaffe, or Suozzi has to hit him very hard to make news," said consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who is working for Democratic attorney general candidate Mark Green.

"Spitzer, on the other hand, all he has to do is keep being Eliot Spitzer."

Suozzi's campaign has called the debate "the opening night of the campaign," insisting it kicks off a period when voters will start paying attention enough to hear the county executive's message that he's more qualified to be governor.

Up until now, Suozzi, who has done one television ad at a cost of $3 million, hasn't had much success in getting his message of "I can do it because I've done it" across.

In the Siena poll, 56 percent of the 410 Democrats questioned didn't know if they had a favorable view of Suozzi, or had no opinion.

The rest were evenly split, with 22 percent saying they viewed him favorably, and 22 percent saying they did not.

Spitzer, by contrast, has spent $10.1 million on TV ads.

His campaign said he's paid up to keep airing ads through the end of July, and he has $16.3 million on hand, compared with Suozzi's $2.8 million.

His favorable rating is a whopping 82 percent.

Spitzer's lead widened slightly over the past three months, according to the poll, from 75-12 against Suozzi in May to 78-9 this month, with 13 percent of Democrats undecided.

"In this David and Goliath scenario, Suozzi is going to need a lot more than a slingshot over the next seven weeks to knock out Spitzer and win the primary," said Joe Caruso, director of polling for the Siena Research Institute.

Political observers have been speculating on what kind of attacks Suozzi will launch at Spitzer tonight and wondering if he'll recycle some accusations on live TV.

Chief among Suozzi's recent issues has been Spitzer's role on the board of his family's charitable trust, which is overseen by the attorney general's office.

Suozzi insists this presents a conflict of interest and has requested a state Ethics Commission opinion.

He also has attacked Spitzer's decision not to take action against the Oneida Nation's Turning Stone Casino in Verona, whose state compact has been invalidated in court.

Spitzer aides insist he doesn't have the authority to shut down Turning Stone, which would result in the loss of some 4,000 jobs.

Suozzi campaign manager Paul Rivera said the county executive intends to highlight the differences between himself and Spitzer and poke holes in the attorney general's image as the white knight reformer who battled Wall Street fat cats on behalf of small investors.

"There's a mythology built around Eliot, and we need to show he's not who he says he is," Rivera said.

No matter what bombs Suozzi throws, Norman Adler, a political consultant who has worked for candidates from both major parties, said he was hard-pressed to imagine any scenario in which Suozzi alters the course of the race in a single night.

"Let's say for the sake of argument that it was actually a terrific debate and Suozzi did really wonderfully," Adler said.

"The distance between the two candidates is too great to be overcome with one debate."

"I don't know what kind of a haymaker he lands on Eliot to knock him down, much less knock him out."'

Regardless of what comes his way this evening, Spitzer will "represent himself the way he has throughout the race," said Spitzer campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson.

"You can expect thoughtful answers that show a knowledge of the issues," Anderson said.

Given Suozzi's underdog status and need for free media, he is seeking more debates, but the attorney general has yet to agree.

Both Democrats and the Republican gubernatorial candidate, John Faso, are scheduled to participate in a televised event June 30, but the candidates won't all be in the same room.

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

On television

Tonight's debate will be aired live from 7 to 8 p.m. on Capital News 9 in the Capital Region, NY1 and NY1 Noticias in New York City and News 12 on Long Island. The candidates will have 90 seconds to respond to each question and 60 seconds for a rebuttal.

And speaking of people with NO CREDIBILITY, whatsoever .....

As well as people who are more ...

A part of the problem ...

Than they ever will be ...

A part ....

Of any real solutions ....

HEEERE'S "CON-JOB CONNIE" RICE ...

Who is chock full of beans ....

If "CON-JOB" hadn't helped lie OUR way into IRAQINAMISTAN .....

Well, who knows ...

BUT SHE DID ....

And so ....

"Rice Outlines Proposal to Deploy Force In Lebanon - Plan for Buffer Zone on Border Greeted Skeptically in Beirut"

By Robin Wright and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 25, 2006; Page A01

BEIRUT, July 24 -- On an unannounced trip to ravaged Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice outlined a plan Monday to deploy an international force, possibly led by NATO, in a buffer zone just inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days, after which it would expand its mission to help the Lebanese army regain control of the south, Lebanese and U.S. officials said.

The force would also help train the army, which according to U.S. officials now has neither the will nor the means to disarm Hezbollah, Lebanon's last private militia.

But Rice's plan to end the conflict, prop up the Lebanese government and weaken Hezbollah was greeted with skepticism by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, as well as Lebanon's top elected Shiite official and other leaders.

Siniora and the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, a Shiite with close ties to Hezbollah, warned that Hezbollah was unlikely to accept any foreign military presence in its traditional stronghold in heavily Shiite southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has already rejected calls to disarm.

Rice released her proposal, the first major U.S. diplomatic move since the crisis began, as Israeli tanks and troops pushed about a half-mile farther inside south Lebanon on Monday.

They met stiff resistance from entrenched Hezbollah fighters around the town of Bint Jbeil, which is roughly two miles inside the border.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah fired 80 rockets into northern Israel, wounding more than 20 civilians, two of them seriously, according to Israeli military officials.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and 14 others were wounded in the fighting.

Israeli military officials said they are attempting to secure a roughly 15-square-mile region that they describe as a center of Hezbollah operations.

Hezbollah has killed 24 Israeli soldiers and 17 civilians since the crisis broke out 13 days ago.

More than 60 soldiers have been wounded.

The Israeli air force said it struck about 70 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon Monday.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 384 Lebanese, the vast majority of them civilians, during the crisis, the Associated Press reported.

The news service also reported that the United Nations said four U.N. peacekeepers were wounded Monday, one of them seriously, in south Lebanon.

[Early Tuesday, the Associated Press reported, an Israeli missile struck a house in the southern Lebanon town of Nabatiyeh, killing seven people and wounding one, hospital and security officials said.]

In Beirut, U.S. officials said that Siniora promised to look more fully at Rice's plan and explore it with others in his government, chosen in elections last year.

"He was receptive to our ideas."

"He gave us enough to keep going."

"There were no show-stoppers," said a U.S. official traveling with Rice.

"We came away convinced that Siniora and the U.S. are on the same page, working toward the same ends."

But U.S. officials also conceded that Lebanon's weak government also faces its own heavy lifting.

After flying in by military helicopter from Cyprus, Rice praised Siniora for his "courage and steadfastness."

On the first leg of her diplomatic effort, Rice focused heavily on humanitarian issues.

She announced that the U.S. government is pledging $30 million in aid as part of a new international drive to raise $150 million for Lebanon.

The U.S. aid will come largely in the form of goods, including 100,000 medical kits, 20,000 blankets and 2,000 plastic sheets that the U.S. military will begin delivering Tuesday.

But Siniora pressed Rice for an immediate cease-fire.

The United States is coming under growing Arab and European pressure because of the humanitarian crisis, with about 750,000 displaced people in Lebanon, a country of 4 million people.

The sequence of next steps is also becoming an issue, U.S. officials said.

Arab demands have focused on first achieving an immediate cease-fire, before considering other measures such as arrangements to disarm Hezbollah and release two Israeli soldiers taken captive by Hezbollah on July 12 in an incident that sparked the crisis.

The Bush administration has backed Israel's campaign to cripple the Shiite militia, which has fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel, and the United States and Israel are demanding the immediate release of the Israeli soldiers.

Rice told Berri that she was "deeply concerned" about the Lebanese and "what they are enduring."

President Bush had personally asked her to make Lebanon the first stop of her Middle East mission, she said.

But she also told Berri, whose mainstream Shiite Amal party has worked politically with Hezbollah, that "the situation on the border cannot return to what it was before July 12."

After her five-hour visit under heavy guard through a Beirut that was suddenly quiet, Rice flew back to Cyprus, then on to Israel, where she had a working dinner with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

On the battlefield, Israeli soldiers, encountering a seasoned Hezbollah guerrilla force, say they have killed dozens of gunmen fighting with guided anti-tank missiles, mortars and small arms from houses, tunnels and bunkers in the past few days.

"They're in the forests and inside hiding places in town."

"They hide in holes in the ground," said Lt. Shahar Mintz, 20, who serves in a tank battalion operating inside Lebanon.

"They have so many places to hide from the airstrikes, so we have to send in the infantry."

"It can be dangerous."

Mintz spoke from Avivim, an Israeli farming community a half-mile from the hilltop Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras, where Israel's ground operation has focused in recent days.

Busloads of soldiers mustered in the mostly abandoned town, painting their faces green and black before walking into Lebanon.

Columns of four to five tanks waited to be sent across the border.

At least a dozen ambulances awaited the wounded.

Israeli unmanned drone aircraft buzzed overhead, and a steady pounding of air and artillery strikes sounded throughout the day, leaving Maroun al-Ras shrouded in a brown-gray fog of smoke and dust.

On Israel's second front, the Gaza Strip, where the governing Hamas movement's military wing and two smaller armed groups continue holding an Israeli soldier captured in a June 25 raid on an army post just outside Gaza, at least six Palestinians died in Israeli artillery strikes near the town of Beit Lahiya.

Palestinian hospital officials said the dead included a 50-year-old woman, her 11-year-old grandson and a 4-year-old girl.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said 20 rockets were launched from Gaza in the last two days, including eight on Monday from the area that Israeli forces were targeting.

In the incident that killed the girl, the spokeswoman said Israeli forces were not aiming at residential buildings "but one of our shells misfired, and it hit closer to the civilian population than it was aimed."

The military was also investigating the crash of an Apache Longbow helicopter in Israel's northern Galilee region that had been flying support operations for troops on the edge of Bint Jbeil.

Israeli military officials said two crew members died in the crash.

While leaving open the possibility the helicopter could have been damaged by Hezbollah ground fire, Israeli military officials said it was more likely that a technical malfunction caused the crash, the second by a U.S.-made Apache here in the past week.

"This battle against Hezbollah is going to last," Avi Dichter, Israel's public security minister, told a small group of reporters in Jerusalem.

"We're not in any hurry."

But Dichter also acknowledged that the military operation would likely make way for diplomacy in the coming days.

"The target is not to dismantle totally Hezbollah from its missiles capability -- that's not the mission," Dichter said.

"But we know that we, Israel, by our means, and the guidelines we gave to the [military], can't drive Hezbollah from its means of warfare."

Lebanese medics spoke about a weekend incident that highlighted what they said was Israel's indiscriminant targeting in the south.

On Saturday, Israeli forces struck two ambulances outside the town of Qana, injuring six Red Cross volunteer medics as well as the three wounded passengers they were carrying, Red Cross medics said.

The ambulances were flashing blue lights and had illuminated the Red Cross flag, the medics said.

"I fell down," said Qassem Shalaan, 28, one of the wounded medics, who was standing about three feet from the first ambulance when it was struck.

"I opened my eyes to make sure I could still see, then I checked my body and I was okay."

He had three stitches below his lip and cuts on his leg.

His eardrums were bruised.

As the medics in the other ambulance called for help, a second missile hit it less than a minute later, wounding the three other medics, they said.

The medics, all wearing flak jackets and helmets, kept working despite their injuries.

They took the wounded -- a 14-year-old boy, his father and his grandmother -- into a nearby home.

There, in the basement, they used their shirts as bandages amid shelling that lasted throughout their two-hour wait for help.

"I'll speak for myself, but I feel like I have no cover even as a Red Cross worker," Shalaan said from his hospital bed.

By evening, Sami Yazbak, head of the Red Cross in Tyre, said he had received an Israeli apology and an assurance they would not be attacked again.

Shaalan returned to the Red Cross office, a small, six-room compound a short way from the Mediterranean coast.

He had taken off his bandages before seeing his mother so as not to worry her.

Wilson reported from Jerusalem. Correspondents Anthony Shadid in Tyre, Edward Cody in Beirut, Jonathan Finer in Avivim and John Ward Anderson in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

And getting back to the Tom Suozzi/Eliot Spitzer blow-out that is scheduled for tonight ......

Or more correctly .....

What takes place after .....

With regard to Tom Suozzi, anyway .....

Because who cares about Eliot Spitzer ....

Who is just too soft ...

On government corruption .....

For my taste, anyway ....

Here is this ....

Just in "off the wire" .....

And so ....

"Suozzi, the day after"

July 25, 2006 at 3:40 pm by Jay Jochnowitz, State Editor, Albany, New York Times Union

Fresh from tonight’s debate against Eliot Spitzer, Tom Suozzi plans to be in Albany for a town meeting Wednesday.

Suozzi’s campaign has booked space in the Holiday Inn Express at 1442 Western Avenue for the 7 p.m. event.

No word on how many people the room will fit, but the campaign says the event is open to the public and will feature “everyday voters asking whatever they want to ask.”

end quotes

Now .....

That is "grass-roots" politics ....

The way it should be ...

With face-to-face confrontation .....

BY REAL PEOPLE .....

Not a bunch of ringers .....

Like George W. Bush ....

Has at his so-called "town meetings" .....

Where only pre-selected friendly faces can go ....

And so ....

This morning ....

On the radio news .....

They were talking about Queens, New York .....

And the power being out .....

And I heard some woman say, "This is not some third-world country, this is New York ...."

And all I could think ...

Was ......

How wrong she was .....

New York IS ......

A THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY NOW .....

Thanks to all the looters ...

And slackers .....

And dead political wood .....

That OUR government is chock full of up here .....

Like some third-world Hellhole ....

And it has been heading there ...

For awhile .....

And now ...

THE CHICKENS ....

ARE COMING HOME ....

TO ROOST ....

And so ....

"Lights still out and anger boils - Lawmakers, Spitzer fault utility with more than 10,000 in dark in Queens"

By COLLEEN LONG and SARA KUGLER, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

NEW YORK -- More than 10,000 people in Queens entered their second week without electricity Monday, a major improvement from the 100,000 affected at height of the blackout but not enough to quell the anger over the outages.

Con Edison said that about 3,000 customers remained without electricity as of Monday evening.

A customer can represent anything from a single-family home to an entire apartment building, roughly translated to four individuals per customer.

Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said that Con Edison "failed to heed the warnings from an earlier blackout and that the Public Service Commission's oversight of the utility has been wholly inadequate."

He cited a 2000 report he wrote examining the effects of a 1999 blackout in Manhattan, and urged Con Edison to develop tests for detecting vulnerable equipment, and improve crisis communication with customers once power was restored.

State Sen. John Sabini, a Queens Democrat, said he has been getting several calls from residents begging him to help them get generators, or to help turn the power on.

"You get the feeling that some of these neighborhoods are considered an 'oh, by the way,' " he said.

"This neighborhood is an 'oh, by the way' with the blackout."

Sparks flew at City Hall on Monday between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and three lawmakers who are outraged that he is defending Con Edison's handling of the week-long outage.

The lawmakers -- two Queens councilmen and a state assemblyman -- were invited to stand with the mayor as he gave a blackout update in his briefing room.

In response to questions about Con Ed and its CEO, Kevin Burke, Bloomberg said, "They have been open, they have been responsive, they've been working well with the city, they've accepted our help every time -- we can't ask for anything else."

As he spoke, the three lawmakers -- who are calling for Burke's resignation and criminal investigations into the company's response -- shifted uncomfortably and rolled their eyes.

They and other critics of Con Ed say the company has not been forthcoming about the extent of the damage and has been slow to address the problems that left thousands without power for days.

Council members Eric Gioia and Peter Vallone Jr. said afterward that they nearly walked out, and Assemblyman Michael Gianaris said Bloomberg has his "head in the sand."

end quotes

Of course ......

There is Eliot Spitzer ....

Coming on the scene .....

Now ....

To get his picture .....

In the news ....

Because that is Eliot's style .....

SHOW-BOATING ...

But no real substance .....

When it comes ...

To cleaning up .....

The CORRUPT ....

DYSFUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT ....

That we are stuck with up here ...

ALONG WITH ....

ELIOT SPITZER ....

AS THAT CORRUPT, DYSFUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT'S

TOP LAWYER ....

OR IS THAT CONSIGLIERE ....

And so ....

STRONGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD?

Uh ......

Yeah .....

Okay, Karl .......

If you say so .....

HEY, EVERYBODY .....

And all you college grads ......

DID YOU HEAR WHAT KARL ROVE JUST SAID?

I THINK .....

IT'S BECAUSE .....

OF GEORGE W. BUSH'S TAX CUTS .....

THAT'S WHAT KARL ROVE SAYS, ANYWAY .....

And .....

Well .....

Come on here, folks ...

LET US FACE FACTS ....

KARL ROVE ....

IS ...

THE ARCHITECT .....

And so ....

HE WOULD KNOW ....

"Diplomas don't mean dollars - Workers with bachelor's degrees suffer first prolonged slump in wages in 30 years"

By MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE, Los Angeles Times
First published: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Wage stagnation, long the bane of blue-collar workers, is now hitting people with bachelor's degrees for the first time in 30 years.

Earnings for workers with four-year degrees fell 5.2 percent between 2000 and 2004 when adjusted for inflation, according to White House economists.

It is a setback for these workers, and it may explain why surveys show that many Americans think President Bush has not been a good manager of the economy.

Not since the 1970s have workers with bachelor's degrees seen a prolonged slump in wages.

These workers did well during the last period of growth, with average wages rising 12 percent from 1995 to 2000, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

Although earning a bachelor's degree is still worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in lifetime earnings, on average, the recent wage slump has affected a substantial part of the work force.

About 30 million Americans ages 20 to 59 have a four-year degree and no advanced degree, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

White House economists did not lay out wage trends for people with master's and other advanced degrees.

But other studies have found that wages for those workers were flat between 2000 and 2004, when adjusted for inflation, while confirming the decline for people with undergraduate degrees.

When wages for people with bachelor's degrees declined in the 1970s, the cause was a flood of baby boomers entering the job market.

This time, economists say, much of the blame goes to trends familiar to workers with less education.

Offshoring, which has shifted manufacturing and call-center jobs to Mexico and India, is increasingly affecting the white-collar sectors of engineering and software design.

Companies have continued their long effort to replace salaried positions with low-paid, nonsalaried jobs, including part-time and freelance positions without benefits.

Those positions make up nearly half of the 6.5 million jobs created since 2001, said Paul Harrington, a labor economist at Northeastern University in Boston.

Harrington looked at the growth of salaried jobs during the past five economic recoveries and found that they increased an average of 11.5 percent, compared with 2.5 percent during the current recovery.

"There's clear deterioration in the college labor market," he said.

Alan Guarino, chief executive of Cornell International, an international staffing firm, sees a similar change in his own work as an employment recruiter.

About 15 percent of workers with four-year college degrees are working at "gray collar" jobs below their skill level, such as in retail, because they cannot find better-paying jobs.

Before 2001, the figure was about 10 percent.

"A very significant percentage of the jobs we are creating are contingent jobs," not salaried positions, Guarino said.

Concerns might seem unusual, given that gross domestic product has averaged a solid 3.8 percent growth in the past three years, including a 5.6 percent spurt in the first quarter of 2006.

Unemployment remains at a low 4.6 percent.

In an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released in July, 60 percent of respondents said they disapproved of how Bush was handling the economy.

"The administration is saying the only reason people are not sharing in the recovery is they don't have the right skills," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.

But if college graduates are not doing well, Mishel asked, "what does that say?"

Bush's advisers say graduates are earning less because their ranks are swelling, and they face tougher competition for better-paying jobs.

But they see good news in the fact that productivity is increasing and that, eventually, wages will follow, as they have in the past.

"Whether or not new college graduates are making more than they were five years ago, we do know the same people will be making more five years from now," said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius.

Not all college graduates are faring poorly.

Starting pay is up for business administration, marketing and accounting majors, but down for humanities majors, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Compared with 2005, starting salaries for accounting majors rose 5.5 percent this year, while those for English majors declined 4.1 percent.

However, some experts say wage stagnation could become a permanent fixture for the bulk of four-year degree holders.

Harvard University economist Richard Freeman, in his 1976 book "The Overeducated American," detailed the previous erosion of graduates' wages.

Today, he believes that college-educated workers will continue to see their wages erode, due to the global labor market.

Moreover, the pressure will intensify as China, India and other offshoring hubs develop their own glut of graduates.

China alone expects the number of college graduates to increase by 22 percent this year, with 4.13 million job candidates entering a domestic market with only 1.66 million jobs available, according to a Chinese government report released in May.

Still, a college education can be a ticket to higher-paying jobs.

College graduates earned an average $51,206 last year, while high school graduates earned $27,915, according to Census Bureau figures.

Those with no high school diploma earned $18,734.

end quotes

I think that one problem .....

That we have here ....

In OUR America .....

Is that we are stuck ....

With a man ....

THAT DON'T KNOW ....

WHAT COUNTRY IT IS ....

THAT HE IS PRESIDENT OF .....

NOR DOES HE SEEM TO KNOW ....

JUST WHAT IT IS .....

THAT A REAL PRESIDENT NEEDS TO DO ....

TO KEEP HIS OWN PEOPLE ...

STRONG .....

INSTEAD OF HARING AROUND .....

OUT THERE IN THE WORLD ....

LIKE A COMPLETE FOOL ....

BREAKING THINGS ..

WASTING MONEY ....

AND DOING NOT MUCH ELSE .....

And so ....

"Iraqi leader clashing with U.S. on key issues"

New York Times
First published: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- When Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki visits the White House today for the first time, he is expected to make requests that clash sharply with President Bush's foreign policy, Iraqi officials say, signaling a widening gap between the Iraqis and the Americans.

The requests will include asking Bush to allow U.S.-led troops in Iraq to be tried under Iraqi law, and for Bush to call for a halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanon, according to several sources.

Al-Maliki is also expected to demand more autonomy for Iraqi forces, though he will not ask for a quick withdrawal of the foreign troops, the officials say.

Sectarian violence has soared despite the presence of the Americans, and recent cases where American troops have been accused of killing civilians or raping Iraqi women have infuriated the public.

Al-Maliki and other top Shiite leaders also want to maintain strong ties to Iran, whose influence is rising across the Middle East, officials say.

Al-Maliki, who was installed in late May, presides over a relatively weak government, divided among Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish blocs that oppose each other on important issues.

To forge unity and win the confidence of the Iraqis, officials say, he has to take some stands that conflict with those of the White House, while still relying on the U.S. military to ward off the Sunni-led insurgency.

Bush administration officials said they viewed al-Maliki's public breaks with U.S. policy positions as proof that he is his own man leading his own government.

A U.S. general told The Associated Press Monday that U.S. troops are stepping up operations in the Baghdad area to combat death squads.

Two more U.S. soldiers were killed Monday, the military said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted 19 operations last week targeting death squads, U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters.

All but two were in Baghdad, he said.

Many of the death squads are believed to be associated with either Sunni or Shiite armed groups, targeting members of the rival sect as part of a struggle for power between the country's two major religious communities.

Many Iraqis have said they believe they are operated by Shiite militias and Sunni extremist groups, some of which have ties to political parties.

The U.S. and Iraq are moving thousands of troops into Baghdad in what the White House suggests is an acknowledgment that the six-week U.S.-Iraqi security offensive is not working, despite earlier optimism expressed.

"It's pretty clear that there's an attempt in Baghdad to create as much chaos and havoc as possible."

"And it's important to make sure that we address this," White House press secretary Tony Snow said on Monday.

end quotes

Life .....

In OUR America .....

In this day ...

And age .....

Of one of the STUPIDEST PRESIDENTS .....

This .....

Or any other country .....

For that matter ...

Has ever had ....

And so ...

Which leads us to ....

"Some Democrats say will shun Maliki speech"

By Vicki Allen

2 hours, 38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional Democrats voiced alarm on Tuesday over Iraq's denunciation of Israel in the Middle East conflict, and some said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's upcoming address to Congress should be canceled unless he apologizes.

A group of House of Representatives Democrats was circulating a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert urging the Illinois Republican to secure an apology from Maliki or cancel the address on Wednesday to a joint meeting of Congress.

A number of Senate and House Democrats said they planned to protest Maliki's speech by not attending, or were waiting first to hear if he apologized.

Ron Bonjean, Hastert's spokesman, said there was no intention of canceling Maliki's speech, and he accused Democrats of "political gamesmanship during an election year."

Iraq's U.S.-backed government on Saturday denounced Israel's raids on Lebanon and Gaza.

Maliki last week called for "the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression."

Senate Democratic leaders in a letter asked Maliki to clarify his remarks before addressing Congress.

They said his failure to condemn Hizbollah's "aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raise serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East."

With more than 2,500 U.S. service members killed in the Iraq conflict, more than 18,000 wounded and more than $300 billion in U.S. tax dollars spent, the Senate Democrats said, "Americans deserve to know whether Iraq is an ally in these fights."

In the House, about 20 Democrats signed the letter to Hastert saying Maliki's speech should be canceled unless he apologizes, citing mounting evidence "that the Iraqi leadership's goals are not in the best interest of the United States, nor the Middle East."

Rep. Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat, said Congress "should not supply a platform for supporters of Hizbollah."

Rep. Joseph Crowley, also of New York, said allowing Maliki "to address a joint session of Congress after he has condemned Israel, our best ally and the only true democracy in the Middle East, sends the wrong message."

end quotes

NO ....

They have it wrong ....

I know ....

BECAUSE ....

I heard George W. Bush say ...

That IRAQ ....

Was a TRUE DEMOCRACY .....

BECAUSE ....

HE MADE IT THAT WAY ....

And so ....

And as America deals death ....

And destruction ....

To the rest of the world ....

As a key part ....

Of George W. Bush's ....

"FOREIGN POLICY" .....

A euphemism .....

For genocide ....

The earth ....

Is giving us back some ....

It seems ....

Just to keep the score even ....

And so ....

"Death toll climbs in U.S. heat wave"

By SAMANTHA YOUNG, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Scorching heat pushed California's electricity supply to the brink Monday as authorities investigated at least 29 possible heat-related deaths in the state, most in the Central Valley.

An eighth day of intense heat pushed electricity usage to a peak of 50,270 megawatts -- a record for California but still short of the 52,000 megawatts experts had predicted for the day.

"It appears we have ridden out this mammoth peak demand without any problems," said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's power grid.

Hoping to avoid involuntary rolling blackouts in California, ISO declared a "Stage 2" emergency, which calls for businesses to reduce their power usage in exchange for lower rates.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also directed state agencies to reduce electricity use by 25 percent by turning off unnecessary equipment; he urged local and municipal governments and universities to do the same.

The reductions appeared to work.

By 5 p.m. ISO officials said the threat of rolling blackouts had passed.

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in California on Sunday because of heavy electricity use and high temperatures that caused transformers and other equipment to overheat.

Officials said the equipment was under stress.

Some 50,000 customers in northern California still were without electricity.

About 20,000 Los Angeles customers also remained without electricity.

Meanwhile, utilities in the St. Louis area labored to restore power to hundreds of thousands whose electricity was knocked out by storms and equipment failures last week.

Four deaths in that region region were attributed to the storms or to the heat.

And starting out in here this morning ...

With some ....

Ancient words of advice .....

For George W. Bush .....

PRESIDENT FOR LIFE ....

OF THE WORLD ...

And America, too .....

"The less ...."

"A leader ...."

"Says ..."

"And does ..."

"The happier ..."

"His people ..."

"The more ..."

"A leader ..."

"STRUTS ..."

"AND BRAGS ..."

"The SORRIER ....."

"His people ...."

- Lao Tze, Tao Te Ching

Commentary by R. L. Wing

Severe controls and regulations characterize a detailed and exacting administration.

Such an administration conceives of an ideal subject AND THEN ATTEMPTS TO REGULATE THE PEOPLE INTO THIS IDEAL.

Since HUMAN NATURE invariably resists REPRESSION, resentment and discontent begin to grow within the organization (NATION/WORLD).

AS THE ADMINISTRATION PUSHES, THE RESISTANCE OF THE PEOPLE GROWS EVEN STRONGER.

Evolved Leaders (and this clearly excludes George W. Bush, who is a CONSERVATIVE, hopelessly stuck in time and space, like a fly in amber, forever reacting to the effects he has caused by his ignorance) UNDERSTAND the actions of polarity in nature, and therefore, they avoid such extremes.

They know that misfortune and good fortune do not respond to direct control, and that excessive regulations toward "good" and "order" will surely cause a counter-reaction.

INSTEAD, THEY USE THEIR INTELLIGENCE TO SHAPE THE WORLD WITHOUT DIRECT CONFRONTATION OR EXCESSIVE STRATEGY OR CONTROL.

Stable, subtle and sincere, they CULTIVATE THEMSELVES and become models for their subjects.

And as to ...

THE GREAT DEBATE ...

Last night ....

Between .....

New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer .....

And Tom Suozzi ....

I would have to say .....

That UNDERDOG Suozzi .....

Emerged as .....

THE CLEAR WINNER!

And it really came down to .....

One simple issue .....

Two men ....

Spitzer ....

And Suozzi ....

Both took an OATH OF OFFICE ....

To uphold the CONSTITUTIONS ....

Of the State of New York ...

And the United States .....

AND ONLY ONE OF THEM ....

TOM SUOZZI .....

HAS LIVED UP TO THAT OATH ....

And so ....

"Spitzer, Suozzi spar in spirited debate - Democratic candidates for governor trade barbs, charges, accusations"

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

First published: Wednesday, July 26, 2006

NEW YORK CITY -- Long-shot gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi and front-runner Eliot Spitzer exchanged verbal blows in the first Democratic primary debate Tuesday, as accusations flew of subterfuge, spin, and, in at least one case, lies.

Suozzi, trailing Spitzer by double digits in both fund-raising and polls, declared victory after the hourlong debate.

The Nassau County executive claimed he had forced Spitzer, the state attorney general, to discuss specifics on issues he had been avoiding, such as funding a court-mandated increase in public education aid.

"I won the debate," Suozzi said after the event at Pace University sponsored by NY1 News, a Manhattan-based cable station.

"We should be doing more of them."

Baruch College political science professor Douglas Muzzio said it was more of a draw, agreeing that Suozzi landed a few blows.

But, Muzzio noted, Spitzer acquitted himself well enough to deflect any lasting damage.

Primary day is just seven weeks away.

"Suozzi won because he was on the same stage with Spitzer, and in many ways appeared as Spitzer's equal, which has not been not been reflected in the polls," Muzzio said.

"But Spitzer did nothing to diminish his front-runner status."

Spitzer, in typical front-runner style, did not speak to the media after the debate.

The tension between the candidates was palpable.

They traded barbs and tried to one-up each other with pointed asides.

Spitzer often grinned tightly; Suozzi was deadly serious.

NY1 anchor Dominic Carter, the moderator, had to interrupt to get the candidates back on track several times.

Spitzer hit Suozzi on a signature issue, accusing him of relying on property tax increases to balance budgets as county executive and in his earlier job as Glen Cove mayor.

He also cited Suozzi's unpopular proposal to charge people to travel on the Long Island Expressway during times of heavy traffic.

Suozzi called Spitzer's tax increase allegations "just false."

He insisted Nassau County is the only county in the state not to raise property taxes since 2003.

Suozzi tried to highlight the differences between himself as government manager, and Spitzer, a prosecutor who has won praise for lawsuits against Wall Street and other corporate concerns.

One clear difference was Spitzer's support of the death penalty for terrorists and cop-killers.

Suozzi opposes it in all cases, and insisted Spitzer has narrowed his stance -- which Spitzer denied.

Suozzi continued to try to paint Spitzer as too much of an Albany insider to be able to truly reform state government.

Spitzer noted he created a public integrity unit, investigated public authorities and called for their complete overhaul.

"We're all entitled to our own opinions," Spitzer said.

"We're not entitled to our own facts."

Suozzi criticized Spitzer, who as attorney general is charged with representing the state's interests in court, for not using outside counsel on cases in which he does not agree with the state's position.

Spitzer responded that he is "constitutionally obligated" to represent the state, and said he does not feel that saddling taxpayers with outside counsel bills is responsible, although his office has done that in cases when the governor and the Legislature are at odds.

Suozzi also noted that the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case, in which courts found the state failed to adequately fund poverty stricken, urban school districts, was handled by outside counsel under Spitzer's predecessor, Republican Dennis Vacco.

Spitzer had state lawyers handle the case after he took office in 1999.

In a lightning round of questions, during which the candidates were allowed only yes or no answers, Spitzer said he is not interested in being president, while Suozzi admitted he'd like to occupy the White House.

Suozzi later said any politician who denies presidential dreams "is lying."

Both admitted they've driven over the speed limit and smoked marijuana, which Suozzi supports legalizing for medical use.

Spitzer does not.

Spitzer said private schools are better than public schools; Suozzi disagreed.

Suozzi wavered on whether he would be able to institute universal health care if elected, and reluctantly answered "no."

Spitzer said "yes."

After the debate, Suozzi alleged Spitzer lost his temper backstage before the event over Suozzi's attempt to take his notes on stage.

Suozzi said Spitzer, whose anger has been an issue in the past, was "hostile," accused Suozzi of breaking the rules -- which included no "visual aids, props and charts" -- and threatened to walk out.

NY1 Political Director Bob Hardt said only that a notebook was removed after "one candidate" complained about it.

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

Of course ....

Tom Suozzi ....

And New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer ......

Are like night ....

And day ....

When it comes to a choice between them ....

Tom Suozzi is like polenta .....

Solid ....

Nourishing .....

But plain ....

While "Big EL" Spitzer .....

Is Charlotte Russe .....

All puffed up and pretty .....

BUT NO REAL SUBSTANCE UNDERNEATH .....

THE GLITTER MAN ...

As he is known up here .....

And so .....

"Kentucky horse set donates $265,000 to Spitzer -
Bluegrass State breeders, operators support Democrat"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, July 26, 2006

ALBANY -- Gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer's campaign collected more than $265,000 from Kentucky horse breeding interests in recent weeks, including some with top horses racing in Saratoga Springs this summer.

The contributions come as some bidders on the New York thoroughbred racing franchise complain that Kentucky horse breeders have become a growing influence on race operations at the state's Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga Springs tracks.

The funds, including $20,000 from Mary Lou Whitney and husband John Hedrickson, stemmed from a fundraiser hosted by Tracy Farmer and his wife, Carol, at their Shadow Lawn Farm in Midway, Ky.

Farmer said about 75 people attended the June 19 event, including Spitzer, many horse breeders and some outside the industry.

Farmer, who was chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party in the early '90s, was among several Kentucky horse owners at the event who either rent or own homes in Saratoga Springs and race their horses in New York.

He said he was approached by supporters of Spitzer, a Democrat, to raise funds in horse country.

"We believe in him as a candidate and we believe in the horse industry," Farmer said.

"We're trying to get him elected as governor."

"Any decisions he makes as governor would be helpful to the horse industry in general."

He said he purposely did not invite anyone tied to the 16 prospective bidders on the franchise to run races in New York.

The Farmers gave $58,051 -- $50,000 from Tracy Farmer and $8,051 from Carol Farmer.

Other horse owners invited also gave $50,000, including Angela Levy Beck, Bill Casner, and B. Wayne Hughes.

Contributing $10,000 were former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones, also a big owner, R.D. Hubbard, a racetrack and casino operator, and his wife Joan.

Jeff Perlee, head of Empire Racing Associates, one of the possible bidders on the state racing franchise, said many people concerned about racing back Spitzer.

He complained of the influence over state racing operations from Kentucky breeders, saying they have a great deal of sway over the New York Racing Association.

Spitzer campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson said the candidate went to Kentucky to discuss the importance of the viability of the New York horse industry.

The event demonstrated "the breadth and depth of his support," she said, because Republicans and Democrats gave.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

NEW YORK STATE OATH OF OFFICE

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of ______________________, according to the best of my ability.

And from that ....

We go ...

To this .....

"US gasoline seen near $3 for rest of summer"

By Tom Doggett

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. drivers should expect to pay around $3 a gallon coast to coast for gasoline through the rest of the summer, the government's top energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday.

The federal Energy Information Administration said it expects "gasoline prices to remain in the vicinity of $3.00 per gallon for much of the rest of the summer, with any significant price declines not likely to occur before September (after the Labor Day holiday) when demand typically drops sharply."

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline increased 1.4 cents over the last week to $3 a gallon, up 71 cents from a year ago and the second highest pump price ever, the EIA said.

The agency said it was not sure if gasoline prices during one or more of the remaining weeks this summer will pass the record $3.07 a gallon hit last September after Hurricane Katrina disrupted petroleum supplies.

"For both August and September, an increased likelihood of hurricanes, particularly this season, is another major uncertainty that can dramatically affect gasoline prices, especially if the hurricanes are powerful and hit the major oil producing and refining centers along the Gulf Coast," the EIA said in its weekly review of the oil market.

The agency pointed out that, when adjusted for inflation, gasoline prices are still far below the monthly average of about $3.20 a gallon posted in March 1981.

"Moreover, because today's car and light truck fleet has significantly better average fuel economy than the vehicles that were in use 25 years ago, the current average real fuel cost per mile of travel today remains significantly below its 1981 level," the EIA said.

High pump prices have not cut that much into Americans' driving habits.

In a separate report on Wednesday, the EIA said U.S. gasoline demand averaged 9.6 million barrels a day over the last four weeks, up 1.8 percent from the same period last year.

The strong demand helped lower gasoline inventories by 3.2 million barrels last week to 211 million, near the middle of the average range for fuel stocks at this time of year.

end quotes

I'm not using more gas, me .....

In fact .....

I'm hardly driving at all now ......

**** the oil companies .....

And Dick Cheney, too .....

And then ...

Well ....

There is this, too .....

How about that American economy, will you ......

The strongest one in the world, I heard someone say ......

And they must know, of course ...

Elsewise ......

Why would they say such a thing?

"Housing market slowdown rippling across the economy"

By Mark Trumbull, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Wed Jul 26, 4:00 AM ET

BOSTON - A nationwide housing boom gave the current economic expansion its biggest boost.

Now, a housing dip is raising the prospect of a slower economy ahead.

After another monthly dip in June, sales of previously owned homes have fallen in all four major regions of the United States from a year ago, with nationwide sales volume down 9 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors.

Home prices have flattened, up just 1 percent from a year ago, when housing activity peaked.

And in some metro areas, such as here in Boston, home prices have fallen on average over the past year.

These trends are rippling into the broader economy.

Home builders, among the most impressive contributors to gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years, are scaling back their plans.

And millions of consumers face indirect effects: With interest rates rising even as home prices stall, fewer people can borrow on home equity as a source of free cash.

Many others – those with adjustable-rate loans – are now being hit by a jump in their mortgage payments.

The question is how far housing's slowdown will go, and how fast.

So far, the impact on the overall economy has been, in the words of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, "orderly."

Economists generally expect that it will remain that way, although some high- flying real estate markets may face a harder fall.

"We don't think it's going to be a disaster."

"It's just going to be bad," says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.

Although a housing bust has often been a precursor of recession in the past, "it hasn't been recently."

What this housing downturn could do is slow the pace of economic growth significantly.

Economists at Merrill Lynch, for example, reckon that the dive in homebuilding alone could subtract a percentage point from overall gross domestic product in the third quarter, tugging GDP growth down to perhaps 2.5 percent, annualized, for that quarter.

And recession is a real possibility, in the view of Merrill Lynch's David Rosenberg.

After the past 10 peaks in new-home starts by builders, an economy-wide slump has followed seven times.

Housing starts, like home sales, peaked last summer.

The effects of a housing downturn are both direct and indirect.

Residential construction has become a larger force in the economy, rising from about 4.5 percent of GDP to 5.5 percent since 1990.

But in the months ahead, builders won't be hammering out much of an addition to GDP.

Last week, the National Association of Home Builders index of contractors' sentiment fell to a 14-year low point.

The indirect effects stem from consumers, whose spending represents two-thirds of GDP.

In recent years, rising home prices and low interest rates have allowed them to extract billions of dollars in cash.

Now that gusher is fizzling out.

"Households are beginning to feel the full impact of higher borrowing costs, a softening housing market, and high gasoline prices," Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at the consulting firm Global Insight in Lexington, Mass., wrote in a report this month.

If a construction slowdown represents a cut of nearly 1 percent from GDP growth, the impact from a slowdown in home-equity extraction could be almost as large, some economists say.

Fixed-rate mortgage rates have jumped more than a full percentage point during the past year, as the threat of inflation has loomed larger and the Federal Reserve has raised the short-term interest rates it sets.

"The higher the Fed raises interest rates, the worse the problem gets," says Mr. Wyss at Standard & Poor's.

"The rising level of home prices has been a big boost for consumers."

But the American economy has behaved in an increasingly resilient fashion in recent years, weathering setbacks such as hurricanes, terrorist attacks, and soaring energy prices.

Many forecasters say that the housing slowdown will be offset, in consumer pocketbooks, by rising pay in the year ahead.

Americans showed some of their renowned economic resilience Tuesday, as a major index of consumer confidence rose slightly for the month, rather than edging down as analysts had predicted.

A generally optimistic view of the job market was a key factor.

Consumers saying jobs are "plentiful" increased to 28.6 percent from 28 percent, while those claiming jobs are "hard to get" remained virtually unchanged at 19.9 percent, reported the Conference Board, a business research group in New York that conducts the monthly survey.

The full extent of the housing slowdown will unfold slowly, and in ways that are often unique to individual markets, economists say.

Often a down cycle involves two or three years of flat or falling prices, followed by a slow recovery.

Prices in the Midwest and South have fallen slightly during those twelve months, while the West has held flat and the Northeast notched 7-percent gains.

But Northeastern cities such as New York remain vulnerable, along with other cities in California and Florida where prices had been soaring at double-digit rates.

"Price reduced!" advertisements increasingly beckon customers in Boston, where median prices fell 1.5 percent over the year ending April 30.

Nationwide, the inventory of homes for sale is up 39 percent – leaving a 7-month supply of homes on the market.

That could leave plenty of time for home buyers to shop around.

In the mornings ....

When I get up ....

I usually catch the morning news ....

Which up here, where I am ....

Comes in from FOX FAIR AND BALANCED YOU DECIDE ....

As carried on CLEARCHANNELS WORLD-WIDE ......

And this morning ....

The woman announcer ....

On FOX .....

In very breathy tones .....

Which indicate extreme displeasure with what is to follow ....

Denounced Howard Dean ...

Because he had the temerity ...

In FOX's view anyway ...

To actually insult a WORLD LEADER ....

By calling the BIG BOSS of IRAQINAMISTAN .....

An ANTI-SEMITE .....

Because the BIG BOSS of IRAQINAMISTAN .....

Denounced Isreal ....

For invading Lebanon ....

And to drive that nail home ...

FOX's extreme displeasure with Howard Dean, that is .....

FOX then put on Newt Gingrich .....

And Newt got his mouth up to hypersonic speed pretty quick ....

As Newt can do, of course ......

Since he is a REPUBLICAN .....

And hence ......

Has been fitted out with a bionic hypersonic mouth .....

Such as REPUBLICANS are, here in OUR America .....

And this is what Newt said ...

In response ..

To Howard Dean ....

Calling the boss of IRAQINAMISTAN .....

An ANTI-SEMITE .....

Newt said that Howard Dean wanted to keep Saddam Hussein in power in IRAQINAMISTAN ......

And if it was up to Howard Dean ...

Saddam Hussein would still be paying families in IRAQINAMISTAN .....

$25,000 .....

To provide him ....

With suicide bombers .....

To go to Isreal .....

To blow up people over there .....

And I had to wonder to myself .....

About just how weird this is all getting .....

OVER HERE .....

SOUNDS LIKE FOX FAIR AND BALANCED .....

IS BECOMING UNHINGED .....

ASSUMING THEY WERE EVER HINGED .....

IN THE FIRST PLACE .....

SOUNDS LIKE NEWT GINGRICH IS UNHINGED HIMSELF ...

But hey ....

He always was, anyway .....

And so .....

Newt's a CONSERVATIVE .....

And they don't like to change .....

For anything ....

Period ...

And so ....

And while we are on the subject ....

Of living ....

In the past ....

As the CONSERVATIVES do ....

Here in OUR America ....

Let's take a look ....

At some local history ....

Of a time back when ....

A different day ....

And age ....

IN OUR AMERICA ...

And so ....

Fire guts 19th-century hotel - Bennett House in West Albany was a stopover for cattlemen, cowboys"

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST and KEN THURMAN, Staff writers, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, July 27, 2006

COLONIE -- A fast-moving fire swept Wednesday through the upper floors of an apartment building that once housed the Bennett House, a 19th-century watering hole for western cattlemen in town to sell their livestock in the rail yards, according to a local historian.

The fire at 2 Exchange St. in West Albany, one of the town's most densely packed sections, broke out around 3 p.m. and badly gutted the building, sending a cloud of acrid black and yellow smoke into the air, visible as far away as Sand Creek Middle School.

Authorities reported no serious injuries, but several volunteer firefighters were treated for minor burns and heat exhaustion, said Dan Sullivan, chief of the West Albany Fire Department.

As many as seven people might have been home at the time of the fire, according to one witness.

"It's sad to see this historic building destroyed."

"It's the last example of the Golden Age when Albany was the Abilene of the East."

"Cowboys brought the cattle by railroad to exchange them for gold and silver ... thus the name Exchange Street," said Dick Barrett, a local railroad historian and director of the Mohawk & Hudson chapter of National Railway Historical Society.

In minutes Wednesday, the old Bennett, which had been divided into six units, bowed to flames that rushed through its antiquated wood-frame construction, Sullivan said.

The blaze appears to have started in the rear of the third floor, but the cause was not immediately clear.

Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene Wednesday evening, but Sullivan said there was no reason to believe the fire was suspicious.

"Thank God some of those windows were open," said Brian Stone, who lives across Exchange Street from the building and was sitting on his front porch when the fire broke out.

Stone said he ran to warn the people inside but couldn't open a locked side door, so he began screaming for them to get out.

"Not even a minute went by and the top of the roof was on fire -- and that's when I knew everybody had to get out," Stone said.

Sullivan ordered firefighters who were attacking the blaze from inside out of the building twice when the roof threatened to collapse and the narrow interior stairways made it difficult to get water to the upper floors.

A window air conditioner also crashed as a "flaming mass" from a third-floor window, authorities said.

It took firefighters from across the town about 2 hours to control the blaze.

Ten of the town's 12 departments were either on the scene or on stand-by.

"There were firemen everywhere," the chief said.

CDTA brought in several air-conditioned buses to help the volunteers cool off while they were watched over by Colonie EMS.

It was not immediately clear how many people were living in the building, but authorities said the American Red Cross was helping them.

The bar on the first floor had been vacant for several years, neighbors said.

In the old days, Barrett said the cattle were brought in on the New York Central Railroad, founded by industrialist and former Albany Mayor Erastus Corning.

The hotel was conveniently located not far from the railhead and stock yards where the cattle were sold to local slaughterhouses.

He estimated the hotel at Exchange and Sumpter streets dates to the 1870s or 1880s.

Barrett described the Bennett House as a "stopover for cowboys who had come east" and he noted that it also housed a first-floor bar that was frequented by visiting cattlemen.

A number of bars have occupied the first floor since, including the Exchange Street Cafe.

Bob Dames, who grew up on Exchange Street, watched the blaze consume the building that he said was reputed to have been a brothel for men who worked in the West Albany rail yards.

Dames said the stairways inside were so narrow it was almost impossible to carry a couch through them.

Nearly 100 years ago, the hotel was damaged by another fire.

A Times Union article, dated Wednesday, Oct. 9, 1907, told of the blaze and of how the city of Albany sent in three pieces of equipment to battle the inferno, which began around 5 in the morning in the attic.

"Albany Firemen Save Bennett House," the headline read.

"The means of fighting fire in this neighborhood is very meagre (sic) and it was sure destruction if help was not obtained from Albany," the article continued.

"Walking in there was like walking into an 1800s saloon," Dames said.

Staff writer Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@ timesunion.com.

end quotes

And the railroads ....

Well ...

They don't really run here, no more .....

Not like back then, anyway .....

And so ....

The only cowboy ....

In Albany, New York these days ....

If George W. Bush ....

Or Dick Cheney isn't in town .....

Would be George Pataki ....

And he ain't worth much ....

As a cowboy ...

Or as a governor, for that matter .....

And so ...

And speaking about Dick Cheney ....

And PROTECTING ....

HIS FRIENDS ....

HIS BUDDIES ....

Who are ....

THE LOOTERS ...

THE GOUGERS ....

THE TAKERS ....

Here ...

In OUR America ....

WHO WILL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH ...

EVEN IF THEY HAVE EVERYTHING ....

And so .....

"Exxon Mobil 2Q profit hits more than $10B"

By STEVE QUINN, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:47 p.m., Thursday, July 27, 2006

DALLAS -- Soaring energy prices catapulted Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, to a second-quarter profit of more than $10 billion, and they promise to ignite industrywide growth -- and public outrage -- all year.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC came close to matching Exxon Mobil Corp.'s 36 percent quarterly earnings boost on Thursday, posting net income of $7.3 billion, an increase of 40 percent from the year before.

The oil and gas industry's prolific profits come as motorists in the U.S. pay an average of $3-a-gallon at the pump and as Washington lawmakers consider opening to drilling areas of the Gulf of Mexico currently off-limits -- both of which have generated political backlash.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said Thursday that American consumers have been "tipped upside down and have (had) their savings shaken out of their pockets at the gas pump."

Across the globe, energy-intensive businesses such as shippers and chemical manufacturers are feeling the pinch from higher prices, while oil exporting nations in the Middle East and beyond are experiencing rapid economic growth.

Crude-oil prices are hovering near $75 a barrel, and analysts do not foresee a sharp drop anytime soon given the world's rising appetite for fuel and supply threats that pump fear into the market.

"We continue to see demand growth year over year," Henry Hubble, Exxon's vice president of investor relations, told analysts.

"We're selling everything we can make."

Other oil companies reported big numbers for the quarter this week as well.

BP PLC reported its quarterly profit rose 30 percent to $7.3 billion and ConocoPhillips said its earnings rose 65 percent to $5.18 billion.

Chevron Corp. will round the field of five majors when it reports its second-quarter performance Friday.

These five were expected to earn an estimated $33.6 billion, or a 32 percent boost, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Already the first four have reported earning $30.16 billion.

And if prices stay at these levels, look for more record-breaking profits soon, said Fadel Gheit, analyst for Oppenheimer & Co.

"The rising tide lifts all boats," Gheit said.

"Unless there is a price collapse of oil, you will see the second half of the year best its first half."

Exxon Mobil said earnings amounted to $1.72 per share in the April-June quarter compared with a profit of $7.64 billion, or $1.20 per share, a year ago.

The results topped Wall Street expectations but came in behind Exxon Mobil's record profit of $10.71 billion set in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the company to earn $1.64 per share.

Revenue rose to $99.03 billion from $88.57 billion in the prior-year quarter.

That was short of Exxon Mobil's record third-quarter revenue of $100.72 billion -- which also stands as record revenue generated by any U.S. public company in a quarter.

Its shares fell 13 cents to close at $66.47 on the New York Stock Exchange after reaching an all-time high of $67.65 earlier in the session.

Exxon Mobil said it spent $4.9 billion on capital and exploration projects during the quarter, up 8 percent from a year ago, while distributing $7.9 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases.

Congress has been urging the big oil companies to put more of their profits toward boosting the supply of energy for consumers.

And this week the Senate sought to help out the industry by working on an election-year bill that would open a large area of the central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

By a vote of 86-12 the Senate agreed Wednesday to proceed with the legislation that opponents fear could clear the way to lifting a federal drilling moratorium that has protected 85 percent of the country's Outer Continental Shelf from New England to Alaska for a quarter century.

Hubble told analysts that Exxon will boost capital spending from the previously stated $19 billion by another $1 billion this year, though one-third of that increase is tied to rising costs for labor and equipment.

"That's a big midyear jump," said Bruce Lanni, analyst with A.G. Edwards.

Exxon Mobil's production has increased 6 percent from a year ago and 9 percent if the impact of divestments are excluded.

"For a company of this size to report that sort of production, that growth is quite remarkable," said Tina Vital, equity analyst for Standard & Poor's.

Exxon Mobil watched all parts of its business grow.

By segment, exploration and production earnings rose sharply to $7.13 billion, up $2.23 billion from the second quarter of last year, a reflection of higher crude and natural gas prices.

The company's refining and marketing segment reported a $264 million earnings increase to $2.48 billion, the result of soaring fuel prices, which offset reduced output at its refineries and, as a result, fewer gallons of gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel being sold.

The company said its average sale price for crude oil in the U.S. during the quarter was $63.84 a barrel, compared to $45.85 a year earlier.

Internationally, however, Exxon said the average sale price for oil was $65.12 compared to $47.55 a year ago.

Natural gas prices were slightly lower in the U.S. and around the world.

------

Associated Press Writer Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed to this report.

And then ....

Well ....

There is George W. Bush's ....

MASSIVE COCK-UP .....

Over there in IRAQINAMISTAN ....

Where George ....

NOW HAS NO SOLUTIONS ....

BECAUSE HE WENT IN ....

LIKE A REAL DAMN WORLD-CLASS FOOL ....

WITH NO PLANS ....

AND NO IDEA ....

AT ALL ....

WHAT HE WAS GETTING THIS COUNTRY INVOLVED IN .....

AND LIKE A FOOL ....

THE COUNTRY WENT RIGHT ALONG WITH GEORGE ....

AND NOW?

Well ....

The chickens are coming home to roost .....

And so ....

"Our Eyes Are Open. Now What? - What options does the U.S. have left?"

TIME Magazine, Mar. 27, 2006

A few weeks before the war in iraq began three years ago, I checked in with an Israeli friend, an intelligence expert who in 1991 had uncannily laid out for me the course of the first Gulf War on the night before it happened.

"It'll be easier than 1991 this time," he said.

"A three or four-week campaign."

"But I have a question: You're not actually thinking of occupying that country, are you?"

I asked if he had an alternative.

"You decapitate the government—Saddam, his family and friends, the Special Republican Guard—but leave the rest of the army intact, and then find yourself a nice Mubarak," he said, referring to Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak.

As I've traveled through the region since the war began, I have heard the same sentiments from high-ranking government officials in Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia: only a strong Sunni general could tame Iraq.

But what about the rightful claims of the Shi'ite majority?

"Oh, the Shi'ites usually go along," I was told in Saudi Arabia.

"They're simple country people."

There was a breathtaking cynicism to all this.

There was also utter disbelief that President George W. Bush actually thought he could bring democracy to a medieval society in which the strongest social units were tribes.

Saddam was dangerously excessive, the neighbors agreed, but so were the Iraqi people--"the most violent in the neighborhood," a Jordanian told me.

It went without saying that the Shi'ites usually endured unspeakable brutalities before they agreed to "go along."

But this was realism, Middle East style.

Three years into this awful adventure, the question is, What is realism, American style?

The U.S. effort in Iraq has been a deadly combination of utopian fantasy and near criminal incompetence.

The absence of thoughtful military preparation—the Bush Administration's unwillingness to acknowledge the threat of a guerrilla insurgency—is laid out in greater detail than ever before in a new book, Cobra II, by General Bernard Trainor and Michael Gordon.

It remains a mystery why Donald Rumsfeld, the architect of this disaster, has been allowed to continue as Secretary of Defense.

There is some good news in Iraq today, says Andrew Krepinevich, a leading counterinsurgency expert:

"After the recent wave of sectarian violence, all parties--even many of the Sunnis—realize they need us to keep the peace."

"The bad news is we still don't have a real campaign plan for doing that."

What would a realistic American policy look like now?

There are three possibilities, none of them attractive: a top-down political solution, a bottom-up security solution and a staged retreat.

Krepinevich and Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution support the bottom-up "oil stain" strategy.

This is a classic counterinsurgency plan, in which U.S. forces would refrain from whack-a-mole search-and-destroy sweeps, like the overhyped helicopter assault north of Baghdad last week, and instead concentrate on providing a strong local police presence and economic development in the 14 out of 18 Iraqi provinces that are relatively stable.

If progress can be achieved in those areas, the argument goes, the "oil stain" of stability might spread through the rest of the country.

The problem is, this strategy will require far more troops and time—five years, at least—than most Americans seem prepared to support.

"We may have passed the tipping point," Pollack admits.

"We may no longer have the credibility with the Iraqis, or the American public, to make this succeed."

"But the only alternative is an ethnic bloodbath."

The top-down political solution is to impose with force a power-sharing deal, perhaps including a partition into Kurdish, Shi'ite and Sunni provinces.

In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, military historian Stephen Biddle argues that Iraq's internal strife is not a "Maoist people's war" like Vietnam's was: it is a communal civil war, and the Bush policy of rapidly building an Iraqi army "throws gasoline on the fire ..."

"Sunnis perceive the 'national' army as a Shi'ite-Kurdish militia on steroids."

Pollack agrees: "We have about 50 Iraqi battalions capable of fighting now, but not one of them is blended ethnically."

Biddle argues that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's efforts to broker a deal need to be strengthened by U.S. threats "to manipulate the military balance of power"—in other words, to support one of the ethnic factions, as the British colonial empire used to do.

It is true that an Iraqi solution is impossible without a grand political bargain (including a formula for distributing oil revenues), but the idea that the U.S. can manipulate such an outcome—by force, no less—seems fanciful at best.

The third potential course is retreat, which Bush will never countenance—but which is no longer unthinkable, given the evaporation of public support for the war.

Retreat would leave anarchy in Iraq and quite possibly lead to a regional war of Sunnis against Shi'ites.

The President won't admit it, but on the third anniversary of his war, the only plausible reason for remaining in Iraq is to prevent an even greater catastrophe.

That is realism, American style.

And while we are on the subject ...

Of the damn fool Bush ....

And the trouble ....

That he has got ....

OUR America in ...

With his grandiose PIE-IN-THE-SKY fantasy .....

About him ....

Being ....

The BRINGER ....

OF LIGHT ....

To the heathenish ....

Souls ....

Of IRAQINAMISTAN ....

And the whole wide world, as well ....

"U.S. may send 5,000 more troops to Baghdad"

By PAULINE JELINEK and RYAN LENZ, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:46 p.m., Thursday, July 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Military commanders in Iraq are developing a plan to move as many as 5,000 U.S. troops with armored vehicles and tanks into the country's capital in an effort to quell escalating violence, defense officials said Thursday.

As part of the plan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday extended the tours of some 3,500 members of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

It was scheduled to be leaving now, but instead, most of its 3,900 troops will serve for up to four more months.

It was unclear whether the Stryker troops, who are in northern Iraq, would be among those going to Baghdad.

Under the plan to bolster security in Baghdad, U.S. troops would be teamed with Iraqi police and army units and make virtually every operation in the city a joint effort, one military official said.

Another said movement of some troops into Baghdad had already begun.

All flights out for soldiers currently at the end of their deployment were canceled as of Tuesday, as commanders wrestled with the plan and how to supply troops needed for it, a third official said.[/size]

All spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan had not been finalized and discussions were private.

President Bush broadly outlined a plan to increase U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad during Tuesday's visit to Washington by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

But little detail was provided.

Officials said it would involve shifting some U.S. forces to the capital from other locations in the country.

There were about 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq on Thursday, and about 30,000 were in Baghdad prior to the new plan.

Assembling more troops and armor in Baghdad is aimed at calming violence that has only increased in the capital since mid-June, when al-Maliki launched the city's biggest security crackdown since the U.S.-led invasion.

As part of the new plan, about four companies of military police, or about 400 soldiers, are moving to Baghdad, and the remainder of a reserve force that had been in Kuwait -- equaling about another 400 troops -- has also gone into Iraq, officials said earlier this week.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to give details of the plan, saying the top commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, "is working through a very tough problem" on how to manage the security crackdown with the new resources planned.

Defense experts inside and outside the Pentagon worry that diverting U.S. troops to Baghdad could weaken their ability in other parts of the country.

And they say the plan reverses an earlier effort to make Americans less visible and put Iraqi forces out front in the fight.

Others argued that Baghdad is the central problem at the moment and that Iraqis in the capital will feel safer with the heavier armored presence.

British Ambassador to Iraq William Patey said Wednesday that the security problem was made worse because Iraqis have lost confidence in the police and that evidence suggests some members of the police are linked to Shiite militias and Sunni insurgent groups.

Asked if bringing tanks and armor back to Baghdad would run counter to plans for reducing the visibility of U.S. forces, one military official said:

"There is definitely a fine line between overwhelming amounts of combat power versus enough to make you feel safe.

"I don't think we're talking a tank on every street corner," the official said.

The 172nd uses the lighter, faster Stryker troop-carrying vehicle and includes about 4,400 troops.

At least 200 have returned to Alaska; others were in Kuwait awaiting transportation home.

It wasn't clear Thursday how many members of the unit remained in Iraq.

Rumsfeld has extended tours of duty before in the war, including several times last fall when U.S. forces were increased to deal with violence at the time of the Iraqi elections.

The move to bolster Baghdad security comes amid growing concern about the course of the 3-year-old war among U.S. lawmakers and the American public.

Military commanders had hoped troop levels could be reduced this year.

------

Associated Press writer Ryan Lenz contributed to this story from Baghdad and AP writer Lolita C. Baldor from Washington.

On the Net:

Operation Iraqi Freedom: http://www.mnf-iraq.com/

end quotes

The "little detail" .....

That PRESIDENT-FOR-LIFE George W. Bush ....

Always provides us with .....

IS ALL THAT HE IS CAPABLE OF ....

WHICH IS NOT MUCH AT ALL .....

Him being the fool that he is .....

Not knowing ....

If he is afoot ....

Or horseback ....

And so ....

And here is something that those of us who live up here in the CORRUPT REPUBLICAN EMPIRE of New York ...

Have to be concerned about ...

What with our CORRUPT New York State Department of Environmental Conservation .....

ENCOURAGING POLLUTERS ....

TO POLLUTE OUR GROUNDWATER ....

WHILE OUR CORRUPT ....

NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ...

TURNS ITS BACK ...

And don't see nothing ....

As a result .....

AND OUR ATTORNEY GENERAL-ON-THE-MAKE .....

PROTECTS THE LOT OF THEM ....

And so ....

"Common pollutant eyed in cancer study"

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

3 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Growing scientific evidence suggests the most widespread industrial contaminant in drinking water — a solvent used in adhesives, paint and spot removers — can cause cancer in people.

The National Academy of Sciences reported Thursday that a lot more is known about the cancer risks and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene than there was five years ago when the Environmental Protection Agency took steps to regulate it more strictly.

"Armed with the results from the NAS review, EPA will aggressively move forward" on a new risk assessment of TCE, spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said Thursday.

"EPA will determine whether or not to address the drinking water standard once the risk assessment is complete."

TCE, which is also widely used to remove grease from metal parts in airplanes and to clean fuel lines at missile sites, is known to cause cancer in some laboratory animals.

EPA was blocked from elevating its assessment of the chemical's risks in people by the Defense Department, Energy Department and NASA, all of which have sites polluted with it.

TCE is a colorless liquid that evaporates at room temperatures and has a somewhat sweet odor and taste.

It is one of the most common pollutants found in the air, soil and water at U.S. military bases.

Until the mid-1970s, it also was used as a surgical anesthetic.

It also has been found at about 60 percent of the nation's worst contaminated sites in the Superfund cleanup program, the academy said.

Its 379-page report recommends that EPA revise its assessment of TCE's risks using "currently available data" so no more time is wasted.

That's a step that could lead to stricter regulations.

EPA currently requires limiting TCE to no more than 5 parts per billion parts of drinking water.

A stricter regulation could, in turn, force the government to require more thorough cleanups at military and other sites.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., said the report should prompt the government to move faster in cleaning up TCE contamination like that found in his home state and nationally.

"It is no longer acceptable for the government and local polluters to claim that health risks associated with TCE are simply scientific theory when we know that they are compelling scientific fact," said Hinchey, who is on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the environment.

A committee of academy experts said "a large body of epidemiologic data is available" on TCE showing the chemical is a possible cause of kidney cancer, reproductive and developmental damage, impaired neurological function and autoimmune disease.

"The committee found that the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001," the report said.

"Hundreds of waste sites are contaminated with trichloroethylene, and it is well documented that individuals in many communities are exposed to the chemical, with associated health risks."

In 2001, EPA issued a draft document saying the risks of TCE causing cancer in humans were higher than previously thought.

But that pronouncement was dropped after other federal agencies accused EPA of inflating the risks.

To mediate the issue, the Bush administration asked the academy to study the issue.
___

On the Net:

National Academies: http://www.nationalacademies.org

"Dean calls Iraqi PM an 'anti-Semite'"

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press
Last updated: 10:46 p.m., Wednesday, July 26, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an "anti-Semite" for failing to denounce Hezbollah for its attacks against Israel.

Al-Maliki has condemned Israel's offensive, prompting several Democrats to boycott his address to a joint meeting of Congress and others to criticize him.

Dean's comments were the strongest to date.

"The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite," the Democratic leader told a gathering of business leaders in Florida.

"We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah."

On Tuesday, leading Senate Democrats said in a sharply worded letter that Al-Maliki's "failure to condemn Hezbollah's aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raises serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East."

The Republican National Committee rejected Dean's criticism of Al-Maliki, saying, "It is incredibly troubling that Howard Dean would seek to score cheap political points by attacking the democratically elected prime minister of Iraq."

On Capitol Hill, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said: "I dismiss Howard Dean."

"Really, he's a disappointment, even to Democrats."

"I don't care to deal with that."

Dean also used the Florida appearance to criticize President Bush, calling him "the most divisive president probably in our history" as he complained that Republican policies of deceit and finger-pointing are tearing the country apart.

"He's always talking about those people."

"It's always somebody else's fault."

"It's the gays' fault."

"It's the immigrants' fault."

"It's the liberals' fault."

"It's the Democrats' fault."

"It's Hollywood people," Dean said.

"Americans are sick of that."

"Even if you win elections doing that, you drag down our country."

Dean spoke to about 240 business leaders in Palm Beach County at a gathering of the Democratic Professionals Forum.

It is part of a nationwide grassroots campaign to get voters involved in politics on a local level ahead of the November elections.

Republicans welcomed Dean's appearance in Florida, criticizing him for the same divisiveness he accused Republicans of creating.

"Howard Dean's divisive rhetoric has done nothing more than drive the Democrat Party further to the extreme left of the political spectrum," said Carole Jean Jordan, head of the Republican Party of Florida.

------

Associated Press Writer Anne Plummer Flaherty in Washington contributed to this report.

"Spitzer contender keeps on running - Suozzi campaigns for a face-to-face rematch of debate, heads to Albany"

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

First published: Thursday, July 27, 2006

ALBANY -- Tom Suozzi sought Wednesday to gain traction from what might be the lone Democratic gubernatorial primary debate, hoping to close the yawning gap between himself and front-runner Eliot Spitzer.

Suozzi said he expects his poll numbers to climb as a result of Tuesday's debate in New York City, and expressed frustration that Spitzer has so far refused to agree to a repeat of their first face-to-face televised meeting.

Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, called Spitzer, the state attorney general, a "hypocrite" for his reluctance, noting Spitzer spoke in favor of daily debates during his past campaigns.

"If he doesn't want to debate, then people can judge him based upon that fact," Suozzi said.

"I wouldn't want to debate if I was him either, because he lost, and he doesn't want to lose again."

Spitzer campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson said the attorney general has agreed to a debate on Aug. 30, in which Republican gubernatorial candidate John Faso is also scheduled to participate.

But Suozzi said that event isn't a real debate because the candidates won't be in the same room.

They'll be in different cities, participating via camera.

Rather than focusing on policy issues that arose during the debate, Suozzi's campaign chose Wednesday to highlight a heated exchange between him and Spitzer that the county executive alleged occurred backstage before the event.

Suozzi insisted Spitzer had been "hostile" and threatened to walk out unless Suozzi wasn't allowed to use notes on stage.

The two campaigns then fought over what the rules of the debate had been and whether everyone had been properly informed of them.

On Wednesday, Suozzi accused Spitzer of having a "temper tantrum" at the debate, and questioned his ability to handle a large-scale crisis.

Spitzer's campaign accused Suozzi of using this issue to deflect attention from the fact that he didn't deliver the "knock-out punch" his campaign badly needed.

Suozzi is scheduled to release a "debate book" at an Albany news conference this morning.

He would not say Wednesday whether the book is what he tried to have on stage with him Tuesday night.

Also Wednesday, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a group that sued the state to increase aid to poor, New York City school districts, said Suozzi's figure of $2.5 billion too low to resolve the case and praised Spitzer's pledge to spend from $4 billion to $6 billion.

The case has repeatedly been decided in CFE's favor, but is on appeal before the state's highest court.

The group's executive director, Geri Palast, said Suozzi's number displayed a "shocking level of ignorance" of the long-running case.

But Suozzi called his plan "realistic," and noted he was the first to propose a CFE settlement figure while Spitzer only gave a specific number after being pressed at Tuesday's debate.

The degree to which Suozzi needs to play catch-up was on display at a town hall meeting he held Wednesday night at the Holiday Inn on Western Avenue.

It was a friendly crowd of about 31 people.

Marlon Anderson, 29, of Albany, praised Suozzi, but then asked whether he'll support his opponent if he loses the September primary.

"I'll decide that at the end," Suozzi said.

"But I'll probably support the Democratic candidate."

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

Ever since ...

I got back to here ...

From Viet Nam .....

Wherever "here" actually is ...

Since I got "here" by plane ....

I have wondered .....

If this place ...

Isn't just ...

Some huge ...

Open-air insane asylum .....

Without walls ....

Or keepers ....

And right now ...

Today .....

That feeling ...

Is stronger than ever .....

As the world blows up .....

Around us .....

Or "slow-cooks" .....

In the case ...

Of California .....

Where the people ...

Are entitled ...

Because it is the "GOLDEN STATE" .....

To everything ...

On earth ...

That there is ....

And so .....

"'Faceless enemy' sinks morale - Soldiers grow frustrated, begin questioning war as fighting in Iraq drags on"

By JOSHUA PARTLOW, Washington Post
First published: Friday, July 28, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour.

But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off the bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and give his answer.

"Think of what you hate most about your job."

"Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120 heat," he said.

"Then ask how morale is."

Frustrated?

"You have no idea," he said.

As President Bush plans to deploy more troops in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success hard to find.

Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi army and police to take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services for Iraqi civilians.

But some soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division -- interviewed over four days on base and on patrols -- say they have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the violence and their reason for fighting.

The battalion of more than 750 people arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers have been killed and 21 wounded.

"It sucks."

"Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up, that's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University.

"You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."

"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader.

"We were excited, but then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take."

"Like me, personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II."

"I want to fight an enemy."

"And this, out here," he said, motioning around the scorched sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, toward the trash-strewn streets of Baghdad outside, "there is no enemy, it's a faceless enemy."

"He's out there, but he's hiding."

"We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno, Nev.

"But I don't think we're trained enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out here."

"It's frustrating, but we are definitely a help to these people," he said.

"I'm out here with the guys that I know so well, and I couldn't picture myself being anywhere else."

After a five-hour patrol on Saturday through southern Baghdad neighborhoods, soldiers from the 1st Platoon sat on wooden benches in an enclosed porch outside their barracks.

Faces flushed and dirty from grit and a beating sun, they smoked cigarettes and tossed them at a rusted can that said "Butts."

The commanders in Baghdad and the Pentagon are "looking at the big picture all the time, but for us, we don't see no big picture, it's just always another bomb out here," said Spec. Joshua Steffey, 24, of Asheville, N.C.

The company's commanding officer, Capt. Douglas A. DiCenzo of Plymouth, N.H., and his gunner, Spec. Robert E. Blair of Ocala, Fla., were killed by a roadside bomb in May.

Steffey said he wished "somebody would explain to us, 'Hey, this is what we're working for.' "

With a stream of expletives, he said he could not care less "if Iraq's free" or "if they're a democracy."

"The first time somebody you know dies, the first thing you ask yourself is, 'Well, what did he die for?' "

"At this point, it seems like the war on drugs in America," added Spec. David Fulcher, 22, a medic from Lynchburg, Va., who sat alongside Steffey.

"It's like this never-ending battle, like, we find one IED, if we do find it before it hits us, so what?"

"You know it's just like if the cops make a big bust, next week the next higher-up puts more back out there."

"My personal opinion, I don't speak for the rest of anybody, I just speak for me personally, I think civil war is going to happen regardless," Steffey said.

"Maybe this country needs it: One side has to win."

"Be it Sunni, be it Shiite, one side has to win."

"It's apparent, these people have made it obvious they can't live in unity."

end quotes

WELL ....

IT'S NOT LIKE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE .....

DIDN'T KNOW ...

IT WAS GOING TO BE THIS WAY ....

BUT THEN ...

THEY WENT AHEAD ....

AND DID IT, ANYWAY .....

And so .......

And speaking about the WAR ON DRUGS .....

Somebody .....

Ought to check out ...

This al-Maliki dude .....

From IRAQINAMISTAN .....

See what he smoking .....

In that pipe of his .....

Because his TOUCH WITH REALITY ....

Seems as far gone ...

As that of the WORLD-CLASS FOOL Bush ....

Who is his champion ....

Along with the REPUBLICAN PARTY, of course ....

And so ....

"Iraqi leader urges Americans to hold firm in war on terror"

By RICK KLEIN and SUSAN MILLIGAN, Boston Globe
First published: Thursday, July 27, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq Wednesday asked a skeptical American public to continue to stand with Iraq, casting his country as the "front line" in the global battle against terrorism as he pleaded with Congress to send more money to help reconstruction efforts.

Appearing before a joint session of Congress that many Democrats -- including Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. boycotted to protest al-Maliki's position on Israel, the prime minister lavished praise on U.S. troops and lawmakers for their efforts to oust Saddam Hussein.

But he cautioned his American allies about leaving Iraq before terrorist threats are stamped out.

"Do not think that this is an Iraqi problem," al-Maliki said through a translator.

"This terrorist front is a threat to every free country in the world and their citizens."

"... Iraq is the battle that will determine the war."

Al-Maliki also asked for more assistance, saying that much of the $300 billion the United States has spent on Iraq has had to be used for security rather than crucial reconstruction projects.

An anti-war protester disrupted the speech at one point with heckles -- "The Iraqis want the troops to leave!"

"Bring them home now!" -- and was carried out of the chamber by Capitol police officers.

The prime minister gave his address at a time of waning public support for the war and heightened criticism from members of Congress, some of whom blasted al-Maliki this week for failing to condemn the radical group Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, told members of Congress Wednesday that Iraq would join several other Arab League nations in condemning Hezbollah's attacks on Israel, in an attempt to defuse a political distraction created after al-Maliki blamed the recent conflict on Israel.

While al-Maliki was courting U.S. support, in Baghdad Saddam Hussein, looking thinner but healthy despite a nearly three-week hunger strike, said that he had been forced to attend his own trial.

He also said that that he preferred to be shot, not hanged, if found guilty of war crimes.

On yet another violent day in Iraq, with more than 20 people killed or found dead in Baghdad, Saddam offered what could be one of his final doses of public defiance.

According to The New York Times, he praised insurgents attacking Americans.

He denounced the court as illegitimate.

He rejected the charge that he and his seven co-defendants had ordered the execution of 148 men and boys in Dujail after a supposed assassination attempt in 1982.

Also, Saddam said that if convicted and sentenced to death, he deserved to die by firing squad because "Saddam Hussein is a military commander and should be shot by bullets."

A U.S. official close to the court said Saddam was being tried as a civilian and would not be given the option of a firing squad.

Under the law governing the case, the official said, Saddam faces death by hanging if found guilty and the conviction holds up on appeal.

In another development in Washington, two Pentagon officials said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was likely to delay the departure of 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. soldiers who are scheduled to rotate out of Iraq in coming weeks.

end quotes

HEY!

al-Maliki .......

DON'T YOU KNOW?

THE WAR ON TAY-RAH ...

IS JUST A BUNCH OF BULL ****

AND YOU ...

ARE JUST A DUPE ....

IN THAT FARCE ...

WITHOUT ANY MORE CREDIBILITY .....

THAN GEORGE W. BUSH HAS .....

WHICH IS ZERO .....

And so .....

The WAR ON TAY-RAH .....

What a load of HORSE ****, that is, alright ....

The next time ...

This America .....

Decides to experiment again ....

To see what it is like ....

To have the WORLD'S STUPIDEST MAN ....

As its "leader" .....

I hope .....

That I am long since dead ....

And in my grave ...

So I don't have to ...

Read about it ...

Or think about it ....

Every day of my life ...

And so .....

"Detainee abuse charges feared"

By R. JEFFREY SMITH, Washington Post
First published: Friday, July 28, 2006

WASHINGTON -- An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism war new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996.

That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.

Following a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions apply to the treatment of such detainees, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about the need for such "protections," according to a source.

Gonzales apparently told the lawmakers that a shield was needed for actions taken by U.S. personnel under a 2002 presidential order, which the Supreme Court declared illegal, and under Justice Department legal opinions that have been withdrawn under fire, the source said.

A spokeswoman for Gonzales, Tasia Scolinos, declined to comment.

The Justice Department's top legal adviser, Steven Bradbury, separately testified two weeks ago that Congress must give new "definition and certainty" to captors' risk of prosecution for coercive interrogations that fall short of outright torture.

Language in the administration's draft, which Bradbury helped prepare with civilian officials at the Defense Department, seeks to protect U.S. personnel by ruling out detainee lawsuits to enforce Geneva protections and by incorporating language making U.S. enforcement of the War Crimes Act subject to U.S. -- not foreign -- understandings of what the Conventions require.

The aim, Justice Department lawyers say, is also to take advantage of U.S. legal precedents that limit sanctions to conduct that "shocks the conscience."

This phrase allows some consideration by courts of the context in which abusive treatment occurs, such as an urgent need for information, the lawyers say -- even though the Geneva prohibitions are absolute.

The Supreme Court, in contrast, has said that foreign interpretations of international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions should at least be considered by U.S. courts.

Some human rights groups oppose undermining the reach of the War Crimes Act, arguing that it deters government misconduct.

They say that any step back from the Geneva Conventions could provoke mistreatment of captured U.S. military personnel.

"The military has lived with" the Geneva Conventions provisions "for 50 years and applied them to every conflict, even against irregular forces."

"Why are we suddenly afraid now about the vagueness of its terms?" asked Tom Malinowski of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch.

end quotes

IF .....

This really were ...

A NATION ...

OF LAWS ....

INSTEAD OF ....

A NATION ...

OF LIES ...

AS AN EXAMPLE ...

TO THE REST OF THE WORLD ....

OF WHAT WE WILL NOT TOLERATE, OVER HERE ...

THESE OFFICIALS ....

CONNECTED TO ..

THESE WAR CRIMES ...

WOULD ALREADY HAVE BEEN PROSECUTED ...

AND HELD UP ...

BEFORE ALL THE CANDID WORLD ...

AS EXAMPLES ....

And so ......

BUT WE ARE NOT A NATION OF LAWS .....

NOT SINCE 2000, ANYWAY ......

AND IF THERE WERE TO BE A PROSECUTION ....

FOR WAR CRIMES ...

HERE IN OUR AMERICA .....

IT WOULD HAVE TO INCLUDE .....

PRESIDENT-FOR-LIFE ...

GEORGE W. BUSH ....

WHO WAS FOUND ...

BY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT ...

TO HAVE VIOLATED ...

THAT VERY LAW ...

BY HIS DIRECTIVES ...

FOR WHICH HE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED .....

RIGHT EXACTLY NOW ....

AS AN EXAMPLE ...

TO ALL THE CANDID WORLD ...

THAT NO AMERICAN ...

INCLUDING THE HIGH ...

AND MIGHTY ...

BUSH HIMSELF .....

IS ABOVE THE LAW ...

And so .....

And here is another of those stories .....

Well ...

Let's look at it .....

Rush Limbaugh .....

And Dick Cheney ...

And Karl Rove .....

Well ...

They would say ...

That it was just .....

Some liberal hysteria ...

And hype .....

And so ...

Me?

I don't have any trouble ....

Finding it believable .....

Based on my own experiences ...

With the CHURCH ...

OF SCIENCE ...

Here in OUR America ....

And so .....

"Utilities paying global warming skeptic"

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

Thu Jul 27, 2:39 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Coal-burning utilities are passing the hat for one of the few remaining scientists skeptical of the global warming harm caused by industries that burn fossil fuels.

Pat Michaels — Virginia's state climatologist, a University of Virginia professor and senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute — told Western business leaders last year that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research.

So last week, a Colorado utility organized a collection campaign to help him out, raising at least $150,000 in donations and pledges.

The Intermountain Rural Electric Association of Sedalia, Colo., gave Michaels $100,000 and started the fund-raising drive, said Stanley Lewandowski, IREA's general manager.

He said one company planned to give $50,000 and a third plans to give Michaels money next year.

"We cannot allow the discussion to be monopolized by the alarmists," Lewandowski wrote in a July 17 letter to 50 other utilities.

He also called on other electric cooperatives to launch a counterattack on "alarmist" scientists and specifically Al Gore's movie 'An Inconvenient Truth'."

Michaels and Lewandowski are open about the money and see no problem with it.

Some top scientists and environmental advocates call it a clear conflict of interest.

Others view it as the type of lobbying that goes along with many divisive issues.

"These people are just spitting into the wind," said John Holdren, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"The fact is that the drumbeat of science and people's perspectives are in line that the climate is changing."

Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a Washington advocacy group, said:

"This is a classic case of industry buying science to back up its anti-environmental agenda."

Donald Kennedy, an environmental scientist who is former president of Stanford University and current editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Science, said skeptics such as Michaels are lobbyists more than researchers.

"I don't think it's unethical any more than most lobbying is unethical," he said.

He said donations to skeptics amounts to "trying to get a political message across."

Michaels is best known for his newspaper opinion columns and books, including "Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians and the Media."

However, he also writes research articles published in scientific journals.

In 1998, Michaels blasted NASA scientist James Hansen, accusing the godfather of global warming science of being way off on his key 1988 prediction of warming over the next 10 years.

But Hansen and other scientists said Michaels misrepresented the facts by cherry-picking the worst (and least likely) of three possible outcomes Hansen presented to Congress.

The temperature rise that Hansen said was most likely to happen back then was actually slightly lower than what has occurred.

Michaels has been quoted by major newspapers more than 150 times in the past two years, according to a Lexis-Nexis database search.

He and Lewandowski told The Associated Press that their side of global warming isn't getting out and that the donations resulted from a speech Michaels gave to the Western Business Roundtable last fall.

Michaels said the money will help pay his staff.

Holdren, a Harvard environmental science and technology professor, said skeptics such as Michaels "have had attention all out of proportion to the merits of their arguments."

"Last I heard, anybody can ask a scientific question," said Michaels, who holds a Ph.D. in ecological climatology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

"It is a very spirited discussion that requires technical response and expertise."

Other scientific fields, such as medicine, are more careful about potential conflicts of interests than the energy, environmental and chemical fields, where it doesn't raise much of an eyebrow, said Penn State University bioethicist Arthur Caplan.

Earlier this month, the Journal of the American Medical Association announced a crackdown on researchers who do not disclose drug company ties related to their research.

Yet days later, the journal's editor said she had been misled because the authors of a new study had not revealed industry money they got that posed a conflict.

Three top climate scientists said they don't accept money from private groups.

The same goes for the Web site realclimate.org, which has long criticized Michaels.

"We don't get any money; we do this in our free time," said Realclimate.org contributor Stefan Rahmstorf, an ocean physics scientist at Potsdam University in Germany.

Lewandowski, who said he believes global warming is real just not as big a problem as scientists claim, acknowledged this is a special interest issue.

He said the bigger concern is his 130,000 customers, who want to keep rates low, so coal-dependent utilities need to prevent any taxes or programs that penalize fossil fuel use.

He said his effort is more aimed at stopping carbon dioxide emission taxes and limits from Congress, something he believes won't happen during the Bush administration.
___

On the net:

• Pat Michaels' Cato Institute Web site: http://www.cato.org/people/michaels.html

• Intermountain Rural Electric Association: http://www.intermountain-rea.com/

And from the CORRUPT REPUBLICAN EMPIRE of New York ......

Where no REPUBLICAN .....

Thinks any worse ...

Of another REPUBLICAN .....

Regardless .....

Of what laws or whatever ...

That other Republican ,.....

Has violated .....

"Velella helps dish out state aid - Disgraced former senator from the Bronx turns up at one last dinner where 'member items' were distributed"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, July 28, 2006

ALBANY -- Even 26 months after he resigned his post amid a bribery investigation targeting him and his father, former Sen. Guy Velella got to help dole out state funds Wednesday night that he secured for Bronx organizations.

Velella showed up with about 50 people at a restaurant near Yankee Stadium to a round of applause to finish off a steady stream of member-item funding for his former district.

He assisted the North Bronx Westchester Neighborhood Restoration Association, a group directed by his appointees for years.

It received about $20 million over its 25-year life from Velella's member item funds -- part of the $200 million a year carved up secretly by the Assembly, Senate and governor's office for pet projects.

The use of the funds has become a controversial issue among reform groups this election year.

Gubernatorial candidates have been calling for opening up the process.

On Wednesday, Velella showed up as a guest of the association, said John Reehill, executive director of the Velella-backed organization.

The ex-senator got up and addressed the crowd as grants were awarded by the association.

He received cheers from recipients of state funds backed by the money he secured for the organization before he was forced out of office.

Reehill said he is closing down the group because Velella isn't in Albany anymore to get what had become a $950,000-a-year member item for the association.

He said the group's office furnishings and equipment, worth perhaps $1,000, likely will be given to another community group after an independent auditor completes the books for a state report.

A residual amount from the 2004 grant, about $90,000, was available to mete out to community groups as part of Wednesday's "fond farewell" dinner paid for by the organization, Reehill said.

He said the dinner bill was paid with non-state funds.

About 50 representatives of groups that have provided community services in Velella's former district through grants from the North Bronx organization attended.

The final awards went to many of them -- particularly Little League clubs that got about $2,500 each and some other organizations that provide services to youth and senior citizens, Reehill said.

"It was emotional for him, because of the level of appreciation extended to him by these organizations."

"It was quite moving," said Reehill, a retired school superintendent.

Velella, who could not be reached, has said he is proud of the services provided through the organization and that he never received any money from it.

His current career is unclear, although one friend believed he was working in the private sector.

He has also been doing some volunteer counseling of addicts and ex-convicts through a program directed by the Rev. Peter Young, another major recipient of member item funds.

Sen. Jeff Klein, a Democrat who now represents the district, said Velella's North Bronx association served as an arm of Velella's political machine and was a waste of money.

Klein said he is directly funding many of the organizations that received grants through the neighborhood organization.

"I can't criticize the groups he gave money," said Klein.

"They are all groups that provide a service to my senate district."

"But I don't understand how he still has a role."

"I don't have dinners."

The secretive ways that the Legislature and governor decide on uses for member items has caused some politicians to demand change.

Gubernatorial candidates for governor say they would demand greater disclosure or reform, but would not eliminate member items.

Democrats Eliot Spitzer and Thomas Suozzi and Republican John Faso said they would insist that member items be individually and transparently listed in the state budget, which good government groups have suggested.

Faso goes a step further, saying he would end the practice by legislative leaders and the governor to assign uses for member items under a memorandum of understanding.

Suozzi goes the furthest, saying he would veto legislative member items until a nonpartisan redistricting program is passed.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

Changing the process

Republican and Democratic gubernatorial contenders weigh in on member items:

''For too long taxpayers have been kept in the dark about how legislators acquire and distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in discretionary funds."

"It is time for full disclosure of how this money is spent and who is benefiting."

"I propose requiring that member items not be funded with debt, eliminating secretive memorandums of understanding for member item funds, and requiring that all budget appropriations be itemized and made available to public.''

-- John Faso, Republican

''There is some money attributed to member items that go to good projects."

"... We will build those allocations into the budget process."

"They should not be doled out like pieces of candy.''

-- Eliot Spitzer, Democrat

''I would insist that member items be individually and transparently listed, including which members have requested which items."

"Otherwise, I would veto the block appropriation."

"Also I would veto all legislative member items from either house until they pass new, fair and non-partisan redistricting laws.''

-- Thomas Suozzi, Democrat

And jumping right into the midst of things, here, this morning .....

Where I just heard .....

The BOBBLE-HEADED TWINS ......

Bush ....

And his look-alike, Blair .....

BLAMING .....

ALL .....

THE WORLD'S PRESENT TROUBLES .....

On Hezbollah .....

WHICH MEANS, of course ......

THAT THE BOBBLE-HEADS ......

BUSH ...

And BLAIR .....

WHO SEEMED JOINED .....

AT THE HIP .....

ARE INNOCENT ...

Of everything .....

Which is really how it should be, after all .....

Since GOD invented GREAT BRITAIN .....

TO BE ...

A BEACON OF HOPE ...

FOR ALL BELEAGUERED .....

PEOPLES ....

OF THE WORLD .....

INCLUDING AMERICANS .....

WHO HAVE BEEN BROUGHT BACK TO THE FOLD .....

OF GREAT BRITAIN .....

BY GEORGE W. BUSH .....

AND GOD ......

PUT GEORGE W. BUSH .....

DOWN HERE ....

TO RE-UNIFY US .....

WITH THE "HOMELAND" .....

OF GREAT BRITAIN ....

ACROSS THE SEA .....

And so .....

IN DEFENSE .....

OF QUEEN ....

AND COUNTRY .....

We have ....

"3 Marines killed in action in western Iraq"

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer

56 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen attacked two Sunni mosques early Saturday in the Iraqi capital, while the U.S. command said three U.S. Marines died in action in western Iraq.

Also Saturday, the western regional commander of the Iraqi Border Protection Force, Brig. Gen. Jawad Hadi al-Selawi, was killed in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

Men in two cars sprayed gunfire at the Muhammad Rassulluallah mosque in western Baghdad shortly after midnight, shattering its windows and damaging its walls, police said.

One guard was injured.

An hour later, gunmen stormed into the nearby Ashra al-Mubashara mosque, but fled when Iraqi police arrived, officials said.

Sectarian violence has escalated in Iraq in recent months, with Sunni radicals — including members of al-Qaida — and Shiite militias staging tit-for-tat killings.

Thousands from both sects have fled the country, according to Iraqi officials.

The Marines died Thursday in Anbar, the western province that is a focal point of the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

A U.S. statement said they were attached to the Army's 1st Armored Division, which operates in Ramadi, but gave no further details.

Their deaths brought the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,573, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes seven military civilians.

In Baghdad, six day laborers were wounded when a bomb exploded downtown in Tayaran Square, where the workers had gathered to wait for jobs.

Three policemen were also wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in northern Baghdad, police said.

The attacks came a day after the head of the biggest Shiite party called for a greater security role for Iraqis in the country in place of Americans.

The remarks by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim run counter to U.S. plans to put more American soldiers on the streets of Baghdad to try to curb the surge in sectarian violence.

The U.S. plan calls for moving up to 5,000 additional American troops with armored vehicles and tanks into the capital.

Some critics believe the move will undermine confidence among Iraqi forces and expose more U.S. soldiers to attacks by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

Al-Hakim, the former commander of the feared Badr Brigade militia, has long complained the Americans have interfered with Iraqi forces' efforts to crack down on Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists.

He said the surging violence was due to "being lax in hunting down terrorists and upholding the wrong policies in dealing with them."

Al-Hakim said Sunni extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists were to blame for the violence.

However, he also endorsed the government's pledge to disband militias, including those affiliated with Shiite politicians.

Members of al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq have been suspicious of U.S. and Iraqi government peace overtures to Sunni insurgents and have privately complained that top Sunni politicians have intervened to free detainees in Baghdad.

Al-Hakim's speech marked the third anniversary of the death of his elder brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, who was killed by an al-Qaida-linked car bomb attack in Najaf.

Also Friday, another top Shiite politician, Hadi al-Amiri, said there were rumors of a plot to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and replace it with a secular "government of national salvation."

He did not elaborate.

"We don't call it a national salvation government, we call it a military coup," said al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Brigade militia.

"We'll prevent that because that means canceling the constitution and the results of the elections and entering a dark tunnel, which is something we will never allow."

end quotes

"We'll prevent that because that means canceling the constitution and the results of the elections and entering a dark tunnel, which is something we will never allow?"

I'll tell you what, slick .....

From my own perspective .....

As an American citizen .....

Over here ...

In OUR America .....

Who is watching ....

This continuously unfolding FIASCO .....

Over there in IRAQINAMISTAN ....

YOU FOOLS ....

HAVE BEEN .....

IN A DARK TUNNEL ....

FOR A FEW THOUSAND YEARS NOW ...

AND YOU'RE GETTING DEEPER ...

INTO IT ...

BY YOUR CONTINUED STUPIDITY ...

AND BARBARITY .....

OVER THERE ...

WHICH IS NOT THE WAY OUT ...

AT ALL ...

And so .....

What we ought to do .....

WITH OUR AMERICAN TAX MONEY ....

IS BUILD A BIG FENCE .....

RIGHT AROUND THE PLACE ....

AND ARM THEM ALL OVER THERE .....

WITH ENOUGH GUNS ...

AND EXPLOSIVES ....

TO ASSURE ...

THE REST OF THE WORLD ....

THAT THESE IRAQINAMISTANIS .....

WILL BLOW THEMSELVES ...

ALL OF THEM TOGETHER ...

ALL OF THEM AT ONCE .....

RIGHT TO HELL ...

AND FINALLY HAVE DONE WITH IT ...

FOR ONCE ...

AND FOR ALL ....

SO THAT WE DON'T HAVE TO KEEP READING ABOUT THEM ...

AND HEARING ABOUT THEM ...

AND ALL OF GEORGE W. BUSH'S EXCUSES ....

FOR WHY ...

IT IS ...

THE WAY IT IS ....

TO THE EXCLUSION ....

OF ALL ELSE ....

And so ....

I'm serious in that, too ....

It's time ....

To tell ...

The IRAQI people ....

To go to hell ...

Or wherever ...

It don't matter ....

The choice is theirs .....

And it is none ...

OF OUR AFFAIR ...

What they do .....

With ...

Or to .....

Themselves ...

And their women ....

And children ....

And so ....

These people over there in IRAQINAM ....

Have no values .....

That I share .....

And this is not an American war .....

We are back .....

To being ....

A part ....

Of the British EMPIRE here .....

HANDED OVER ....

ON A SILVER PLATTER ....

BY GEORGE W. BUSH ....

WHO MORE AND MORE ...

HAS ME WONDERING ...

IF HE ISN'T ....

THE MODERN ....

BENDICT ARNOLD ....

HERE IN OUR AMERICA .....

TURNING US ....

OVER TO THE BRITISH .....

LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL .....

LIKE BENEDICT ARNOLD .....

TURNED OVER ...

THE PLANS ....

TO WEST POINT ...

And so .....

Here we now are ....

IN IRAQINAMISTAN ...

Trying to enforce .....

WITH OUR TROOPS ....

AND OUR TREASURY ......

Some kind of British COLONIAL INTERESTS ....

Over there in Iraq ....

Where we have no business being .....

SINCE THERE IS NOTHING ....

IN IRAQ ....

THAT IS WORTH ....

OUR TROOPS ....

DYING FOR .....

Or spending another cent ....

Of OUR tax money on ....

IT'S TIME TO PULL ....

THE PLUG ....

GET OUR TROOPS OUT ....

LEAVE THE FESTERING ****-HOLE ....

BEHIND US ....

SAY GOOD-BYE ....

And so .....

"U.S. to move 3,700 troops to Baghdad"

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:46 p.m., Saturday, July 29, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. military said Saturday that it is moving about 3,700 troops with fast, light-armored vehicles into Baghdad to try to quell violence in the capital.

More American soldiers are expected to follow, military officials said.

The 172nd Stryker Brigade, which had been due to leave Iraq after a year's assignment, will be sent from the north to Baghdad, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said.

The Alaska-based 172nd uses a new, eight-wheeled armored vehicle and has had several specialized units attached, including military police and Navy and Air Force troops.

"This will place our most experienced unit with our most mobile and agile systems in support of our main effort," Casey said.

"With the rest of the elements of the plan, this gives us a potentially decisive capability to affect security in Baghdad."

President Bush said this week that he had decided to bolster American forces in Baghdad to try to stem the tide of Sunni-Shiite violence -- now seen as a greater threat to Iraq than the Sunni-led insurgency.

The Stryker brigade, currently based in Mosul, is expected to begin moving its headquarters to Baghdad soon.

A U.S. military official said more troops are expected to follow the brigade to Baghdad.

The official, who requested anonymity because the plans are not public, refused to say how many would be coming or from where.

Officials have said the U.S. plan calls for moving up to 5,000 additional American troops with armored vehicles and tanks into the capital.

Some critics believe the move will undermine confidence among Iraqi forces and expose more U.S. soldiers to attacks by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

The U.S. command said three U.S. Marines died Thursday in Anbar, the western province that is a focal point of the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

A U.S. statement said they were attached to the Army's 1st Armored Division, which operates in Ramadi, but gave no further details.

Their deaths brought the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,573, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes seven military civilians.

The head of Iraq's biggest Shiite party called Friday for a greater security role for Iraqis instead of Americans.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the former commander of the feared Badr Brigade militia, has long complained the Americans have interfered with Iraqi forces' efforts to crack down on Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists.

Members of al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq have been suspicious of U.S. and Iraqi government peace overtures to Sunni insurgents and have privately complained that top Sunni politicians have intervened to free detainees in Baghdad.

Coalition forces in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, made the latest in a series of moves against radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, attempting to arrest one of its senior leaders.

Seven militia members were injured, but the man the raid had targeted escaped, Iraqi police said.

Last week, U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell described Baghdad as a "must-win" not only for al-Maliki's government "but for al-Qaida in Iraq," which the Americans blame for fanning sectarian hatred.

On Friday, a top Shiite politician allied with al-Maliki said Iraqis -- and not Americans -- should be given responsibility for security and called for an end to "interference in their work" -- an apparent reference to U.S. efforts to curb abuses by the Shiite-led police.

In the Shiite town of Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, Mayor Hussein Mohammed al-Ghurabi, said Saturday that more than 500 armed Sunnis had gathered in a nearby village and were firing on his town daily.

Tens of thousands of people have abandoned their homes in religiously mixed neighborhoods, either fleeing abroad or to areas where their sect dominates.

They include members of country's elite -- physicians, professors and other professionals.

The Iraqi soccer federation said the country's national coach, Akram Ahmed Salman, had resigned after receiving a death threat and fled with his family to the relative safety of the Kurdish-ruled north.

The chairman of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and dozens of other sports officials were abducted during a meeting this month in Baghdad and most remain missing.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, renewed calls Saturday for their release.

In a bid to curb the violence, U.S. troops have been cracking down on Shiite and Sunni extremist groups in Baghdad and in cities on major transport routes leading to the capital.

U.S. and Iraqi troops detained 25 men suspected of a July 17 attack on a market in Mahmoudiya, the U.S. military said.

About 50 people were killed in the attack -- mostly Shiites.

American troops clashed Saturday with gunmen of the Mahdi Army militia, loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

Seven militiamen were wounded but a local militia leader sought by the Americans escaped, police said.

In other violence:

-- The U.S. command said three U.S. Marines were killed Thursday in western Iraq.

-- A Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al-Qaida in Iraq was killed in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

-- Gunmen assassinated the western regional commander of the Iraqi Border Protection Force, Brig. Gen. Jawad Hadi al-Selawi, in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

----

Associated Press correspondent Qais al-Bashir contributed to this report from Baghdad.

Bush and Blair ....

Bush and Blair ....

Bush and Blair .....

Over and over and over again ....

That is what I hear .....

On the radio ....

George W. Bush AND Tony Blair said YADA, YADA et cetera, on and on, ad infinitum .......

And when I hear that .....

Over and over and over and over .....

I have this image ...

Of the very dapper Tony Blair .....

All spiffed up ....

In Guchi tassle loafers ....

And Savile Row ....

Impeccable, what, what ....

And on ....

The little finger ....

Of his left hand ....

He has a little face painted .....

On the pad ...

Of his little finger ....

And on the tip ....

Of his little finger ....

There is a little cowboy hat .....

And the little finger ....

Is wearing a vest ....

And some of those sheepwool chaps ....

Like Gabby Hayes ....

Or somebody back then ...

Maybe one of three stooges used to wear .....

And when Tony Blair .....

Wants to talk to George W. Bush ....

He stares .....

His little finger ....

Right in the eye .....

And has at it ....

Because that .....

IS GEORGE .....

The face ...

On Tony Blair's .....

Little finger ....

And not much else ....

And so ....

Of course .....

Tony does have some sway ...

With the queen ....

And so .....

For being compliant ....

And for bringing us .....

Back to the EMPIRE .....

Submissive, of course .....

As is proper ...

For subjects .....

Of a queen ....

Perhaps .....

George will get himself ....

A baronetcy ....

And maybe ....

He will become ...

A KNIGHT ...

OF THE GARTER .....

And so .....

If so ....

He will have made out better ....

In his deal ....

Than Benedict Arnold .....

Did in his own ....

And so .....

That would be the advantage ....

George holds ......

Having that MBA .....

And the BID-NESS PROWESS it gives him .....

Which Benedict Arnold didn't have .....

And so .....

NOW HEAR THIS .....

NOW HEAR THIS .....

MAJOR COMBAT OPERATIONS IN IRAQ ARE NOW OVER ......

And if you believed that BULL **** ......

Back when George was spewing it .....

While prancing .....

And strutting .....

On the deck .....

Of that aircraft carrier ....

As if ...

He flew ....

Even one combat mission ....

In his life .....

Instead of running away ....

Then you have probably ....

Also ....

Bought a bridge or two ...

Already .....

In your lifetime .....

And so .....

"Violence forcing more U.S. troops in Iraq"

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:15 p.m., Friday, July 28, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's decision to increase U.S. forces in Iraq will push troop levels there to roughly 135,000, dashing Bush administration hopes of dropping the figure by tens of thousands by the fall congressional campaigns.

As of Friday, there were 16 Army and Marine brigades in Iraq, two more than the number several months ago.

Total troops there had already reached 132,000 and will climb in the coming weeks because of a decision to delay the scheduled return home this month of an Alaskan Army brigade.

The decision came in response to the escalating violence in Baghdad, and the new troop levels could remain for much of the next year.

"You're going to see that spike, that is a sustained spike, for a while, and you're going to still have force rotations that take place," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

He added that the increases could push totals above 135,000 when brigades overlap as they are moving in and out of the country.

"What you're seeing is a flexible and adaptable force, based on those changing dynamic conditions that are now being addressed by the application of additional Iraqi and U.S. forces," he said.

The increase comes as members of Congress are preparing to return to their home districts and push into their re-election campaigns -- and it robs them of the ability to tell an increasingly impatient public that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will substantially drop by the end of the year.

"It is deeply troubling to me that after more than three years, the Bush administration appears no closer to having a plan for turning over full responsibility for security to the Iraqi government, which is where it must reside if Iraq is to be a fully sovereign country," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

But Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said, "It's not a point of disappointment or bad news."

"It's factual that the troops are needed."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has been steadfast in his insistence that troop levels will be adjusted according to conditions on the ground.

Still, officials, including military commanders and lawmakers, had hoped to see the numbers drop to about 100,000 by year's end.

Earlier this year, there were suggestions that the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, would make recommendations to Rumsfeld in the spring that could begin showing a decrease in American troops.

But a Tuesday announcement mapping out five more Army and Marine brigades scheduled to go to Iraq later this year signaled that any decrease is highly unlikely.

"This is somewhat disappointing, but I don't think it's a case of the administration or General Casey breaking faith with anyone," said Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who is now executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

"The next six months are critical."

"... There are a number of things that are coming together and if you need to have troops on hand to tilt odds in your favor, that's what you do."

He said that over the next six months officials will get a better understanding of whether the Iraqi government will be strong enough to pull the country together, and whether the Iraqi military will be able to stand on its own.

On the political front, he said the president will need to better lay out a roadmap for success in Iraq so that Americans can make more sense of the war and a plausible way ahead.

Others, however, argue that increasing the military presence in Iraq will make matters worse, not better.

"Keeping more troops there is internally consistent with the administration's view on how to win the war -- they think our troop presence is helping and that more troops will help to calm the situation," said Winslow Wheeler, a military analyst with the Center for Defense Information think tank.

But, he said, more insurgency experts are arguing that adding troops will only fuel the violence.

Rumsfeld on Thursday extended the tours of some 3,500 members of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Wainwright in Alaska.

The unit, which has been serving in northern Iraq, was scheduled to be leaving now, but instead the troops will stay for up to four more months and many may go to Baghdad.

An Iraq commander of another unit, speaking from Baghdad to Pentagon reporters, said Friday that soldiers' morale is good.

He said while none want to hear that their time in Iraq has been extended, they understand the importance of the mission.

"A year is a long time over here, and none of us look forward to staying here," said Army Col. John Tully, commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

"But we're soldiers and we do what we're told."

------

On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil
end quote

And what you're being told to do .....

Is to die ...

For nothing .....

In that ****-hole called Iraq .....

And OUR troops with you .....

FOR NOTHING ...

BUT GEORGE W. BUSH'S MASSIVE EGO .....

And so ...

BROKEN PROMISES ....

EMPTY DREAMS .....

WASTED LIVES ....

JUST A BUNCH ....

OF CHEAP POLITICIAN'S LIES ....

ALL THOSE DEATHS .....

ALL THAT DESTRUCTION .....

ALL FOR NOTHING ....

GEORGE W. BUSH'S LEGACY .....

TO THE PEOPLE ....

OF IRAQ .....

AND AMERICA ....

AND THE WORLD ....

And so .......

IF YOU WANT SOME MORE ...

VOTE REPUBLICAN THIS FALL .....

AND YOU WILL BE SURE .....

TO GET ....

A DOSE MORE .....

And so ....

Speaking of FAILURE .....

Which should be George W. Bush's ....

Middle name ....

Instead of WRONG ....

We have .....

Some more ....

Of the old .....

BUSH-**** .....

And so ....

"Iraq hospital touted by Laura Bush delayed"

By RAWYA RAGEH, Associated Press
Last updated: 8:36 p.m., Friday, July 28, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Construction of a children's hospital supported by first lady Laura Bush has been put on hold after it fell behind schedule and went over budget, one of dozens of halted or delayed U.S. health projects, Iraqi health officials said Friday.

The high-tech, two-story children's hospital in Basra was intended to provide state-of-the-art care in Iraq's second-largest city.

The first lady and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke highly of the project.

But U.S. officials dropped contractor Bechtel Corp. from the project after it missed deadlines and ran up big cost overruns, Dr. Chasib Latif Ali, executive director of the Health Ministry, told The Associated Press.

Bechtel Corp. blamed the problem on Iraq's security crisis.

"Helping the children of Iraq continues to be important to Mrs. Bush," said Susan Whitson, spokeswoman for Laura Bush.

An audit of the Basra hospital released late Friday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction faulted the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was running the project, for failing to identify the increased hospital costs earlier.

Ali said the Basra hospital was just one example of health projects that the U.S. had promised but failed to deliver.

"The Americans have made a lot of promises to us, but not even 10 percent of them have materialized," Ali said.

He said that, of nearly 180 medical facilities promised by the U.S., contracts were awarded for 142.

Only six have been completed and turned over to the Iraqis and those "are not even fully complete."

"This comes as a sharp contrast to the Japanese," Ali said.

"They have promised and delivered 13 hospitals around the country, including three cutting-edge cancer centers."

"The Japanese have been very faithful to us, unfortunately, the Americans aren't like that."

Bechtel, which holds major contracts for reconstruction work in Iraq, was put in charge of the project in 2004, with an initial budget of $50 million.

The facility was expected to be completed by Sept. 2006, "but now the money has ran out and the project has been postponed indefinitely," Ali said.

Bechtel hired a Jordanian subcontractor, which in turn hired its own Iraqi subcontractor, he said.

"Prolonging the chain of command this way only exhausted the financial resources available for the project," Ali said.

Bechtel spokesman Drew Slaton said the company's involvement in the hospital project will end Aug. 31 because costs had soared well beyond a $50 million cap.

He said Bechtel faced substantial expenses, particularly for security, as violence in Basra escalated.

In May, Bechtel projected total costs, including security expenses, would range from $75 million to $97 million.

Iraqi officials said the hospital project needs an extra $72 million to be completed.

The audit, which began in April, said that under the current management, the actual costs of the project would be almost $170 million.

"Oversight and management of the Basra Children's Hospital project schedule and cost has been hampered by the lack of effective program management and oversight by the Department of State and USAID," the audit said.

In a response, Joseph Saloom, the director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, said USAID is working on new reporting systems.

Efforts to contact Baghdad-based officials of USAID were unsuccessful.

Slaton said Bechtel learned the government planned to suspend the project early this month.

He said street violence sometimes kept workers from reporting to the construction site for days at a time.

Workers were dragged into the street and shot in one incident, prompting Bechtel's concrete supplier to quit the job.

Before being told to shut down, Bechtel had projected a July 2007 completion date.

Now, the company said it has serious doubts whether anyone will be able to finish the job.

"We would like to see it completed, but we don't think it's practical under the current security conditions," Slaton said.

Ali said not a single Western engineer was on site in Basra.

"They were all Iraqis," he said.

"Besides, the people of Basra wanted that project so bad, no one would have harmed the people working on it."

A Health Ministry spokesman in Basra, Kadhim Radi Hassan, said a hike in the price of construction materials imported from Kuwait helped drive up costs.

Ali said the United States will be shifting $22 million from the oil sector reconstruction fund to cover with the shortfall, while Project HOPE will try to raise $30 million in hopes of finishing the hospital by the end of 2007.

The government will be asking other donor countries to chip in, Hassan said.

--------

Associated Press writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

end quotes

And it was not "THE AMERICANS" who failed you ...

BECAUSE WE HAD NO SAY IN THIS TRAVESTY .....

LIKE YOU ...

IT WAS FORCED ...

ON US .....

BY THE AMERICAN ....

WHO HOLDS THE BLAME ....

FOR THIS ENTIRE MESS ....

AND HIS NAME ...

IS GEORGE W. BUSH ....

AND SO ....

BLAME HIM ...

AND IF HE IS NOT ENOUGH ....

THERE IS ALSO .....

THE REPUBLICAN-LED ....

UNITED STATES CONGRESS ....

WHO ARE AS MUCH TO BLAME ....

FOR THIS MESS ...

AS IS GEORGE W. BUSH ....

SINCE THEY GAVE HIM ...

THE CARTE BLANCHE ....

HE NEEDED ....

TO MAKE THE MESS WITH ...

And so .....

And as George W. Bush continues .....

In his mad quest ......

To destroy the earth .....

THE EARTH ...

STRIKES BACK .....

With an INSURRECTION .....

Of its own ...

Against an America .....

GONE ROGUE ....

And so ....

"Dakotas at 'epicenter' of U.S. drought"

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:35 p.m., Saturday, July 29, 2006

STEELE, N.D. -- Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas this dry summer will never end up as pasta, bread or beer.

What is left of the stifled crops has been salvaged to feed livestock struggling on pastures where hot winds blow clouds of dirt from dried-out ponds.

Some ranchers have been forced to sell their entire herds, and others are either moving their cattle to greener pastures or buying more already-costly feed.

Hundreds of acres of grasslands have been blackened by fires sparked by lightning or farm equipment.

"These 100-degree days for weeks steady have been burning everything up," said Steele Mayor Walter Johnson, who added that he'd prefer 2 feet of snow over this weather.

Farm ponds and other small bodies of water have dried out from the heat, leaving the residual alkali dust to be whipped up by the wind.

The blowing, dirt-and-salt mixture is a phenomenon that hasn't been seen in south central North Dakota since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Johnson said.

More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said.

"It's the epicenter," he said.

"It's just like a wasteland in north central South Dakota."

Conditions aren't much better a little farther north.

Paul Smokov and his wife, Betty, raise several hundred cattle on their 1,750-acre ranch north of Steele, a town of about 760 people.

North Dakota's all-time high temperature was set here in July 1936, at 121.

Smokov, now 81, remembers that time and believes conditions this summer probably are worse.

"I could see this coming in May," Smokov said of the parched pastures and wilted crops.

"That's the time the good Lord gives us our general rains."

"But we never got them this year."

Brad Rippey, a federal Agriculture Department meteorologist in Washington, said this year's drought is continuing one that started in the late 1990s.

"The 1999 to 2006 drought ranks only behind the 1930s and the 1950s."

"It's the third-worst drought on record -- period," Rippey said.

Svoboda was reluctant to say how bad the current drought might eventually be.

"We'll have to wait to see how it plays out -- but it's definitely bad," he said.

"And the drought seems to not be going anywhere soon."

Herman Schumacher, who owns Herreid Livestock Auction in north central South Dakota, said his company is handling more sales than ever because of the drought.

In May, June and July last year, his company sold 3,800 cattle.

During the same months this year, more than 27,000 cattle have been sold, he said.

"I've been in the barn here for 25 years and I can't even compare this year to any other year," Schumacher said.

He said about 50 ranchers have run cows through his auction this year.

"Some of them just trimmed off their herds, but about a third of them were complete dispersions -- they'll never be back," he said.

"This county is looking rough -- these 100-degree days are just killing us," said Gwen Payne, a North Dakota State University extension agent in Kidder County, where Steele is located.

The Agriculture Department says North Dakota last year led the nation in production of 15 different commodity classes, including spring wheat, durum wheat, barley, oats, canola, pinto beans, dry edible peas, lentils, flaxseed, sunflower and honey.

North Dakota State University professor and researcher Larry Leistritz said it's too early to tell what effect this year's drought will have on commodity prices.

Flour prices already have gone up and may rise more because of the effect of drought on wheat.

"There will be somewhat higher grain prices, no doubt about it," Leistritz said.

"With livestock, the short-term effect may mean depressed meat prices, with a larger number of animals being sent to slaughter."

"But in the longer run it may prolong the period of relatively high meat prices."

Eventually, more than farmers could suffer.

"Agriculture is not only the biggest industry in the state, it's just about the only industry," Leistritz said.

"Communities live or die with the fortunes of agriculture."

Susie White, who runs the Lone Steer motel and restaurant in Steele, along Interstate 94, said even out-of-state travelers notice the drought.

"Even I never paid attention to the crops around here."

"But I notice them now because they're not there," she said.

"We're all wondering how we're going to stay alive this winter if the farmers don't make any money this summer," she said.

------

On the Net:

National Drought Mitigation Center: http://drought.unl.edu/

end quotes

It is said .....

That at the time ....

Of this nation's founding ....

That DIVINE PROVIDENCE .....

Had its hand .....

In that .....

And now .....

That America ....

Has become a DESTROYER .....

Of the earth ....

And its peoples .....

In the name of wantoness .....

AND UNBRIDALED GREED .....

DIVINE PROVIDENCE ....

APPEARS READY .....

TO CRUSH THIS NATION ...

LIKE A DISEASED BUG ....

And so .....

Will it happen?

Have to stay tuned ....

And see ...

BUT IF YOU WANT ...

TO PUSH .....

YOUR LUCK ....

VOTE FOR MORE ....

REPUBLICAN GREED .....

HERE IN OUR AMERICA ....

COME NOVEMBER ....

And see what happens ....

And so ...

And then .....

There is POLITICS .....

Up here .....

In George Pataki's ....

CORRUPT REPUBLICAN EMPIRE ....

Of New York ....

Where POLITICS .....

Is considered ......

A blood-sport .....

And so .....

"Politics rears grisly horse head - Councilwoman says harassment started in last fall's campaign season"

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press
First published: Saturday, July 29, 2006

WAWAYANDA -- While a friend visited Ed Soro, offering his support and even to lend his shotguns, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer's office phoned Gail Soro, who said she was starting to feel more in balance again, two days after the couple found a horse's head in their swimming pool.

A councilwoman in the Orange County town of Waywayanda, her case has drawn attention from the FBI as well as State Police, who immediately started an investigation.

"It was horrible."

"My pool was filled with blood," she told Schumer's staffer.

The grisly discovery Tuesday echoed the popular 1972 film "The Godfather" in which a racehorse's head was placed by mobsters in a businessman's bed.

"It's definitely politically motivated," Gail Soro said, dismissing the suggestion that it might have been a prank.

She said harassment started during last fall's campaign season.

It included things put in her mailbox and last month a sex toy was stuck to her vehicle's windshield outside Town Hall during a meeting.

The 61-year-old grandmother is the only woman and sole Democrat on the council.

She acknowledges being vocal when she disagrees and ruffling some feathers.

Town Supervisor John Razzano, a Republican, doesn't see the incident as political.

He says town officials work well together, and it may have resulted from Soro's approach.

While it may have started in politics, Ed Soro said at some point it also became personal.

"A number of things have been done to my wife."

"It's never face to face."

"They're sneaking around at night," Soro said.

The rural township about an hour's drive northwest of New York City is facing development pressure and going through rezoning.

"I'm not happy with some of the plans for the large development that will impact not for the benefit to all the people in this town," said Gail Soro.

"Moral tone shrouds unjust acts"

By RANDALL BALMER
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Saturday, July 29, 2006

As an evangelical Christian, as someone who numbers himself among the followers of Jesus, my politics point toward the left, a posture that places me squarely at odds with evangelicals aligned with the religious right.

I find their unflinching allegiance to the Bush administration and its position on a range of issues -- from the environment to the prosecution of the war in Iraq -- inimical to the Scriptures that we evangelicals claim as our guide.

The Bible contains something like 2,000 references to the poor, and Jesus spoke repeatedly about a believer's responsibility to those he called "the least of these."

I've yet to understand how those teachings square with tax cuts for the affluent or the persistent refusal to raise the minimum wage.

Jesus made it a habit to hang around with the cultural outcasts of his day, and the apostle Paul insisted in Christ there is no preference among nationalities and no distinction between the sexes.

How are the teachings of the New Testament consistent with those who would deny rights to anyone -- or immigrants or Muslims or women or gays?

Jesus, to take another example, expressed concern for the tiniest sparrow, yet the religious right, as evidenced by a 1999 document called the Cornwall Declaration and by their silence on global warming, prefers to sacrifice the natural world on the altar of free enterprise.

Wouldn't it be logical to assume that those who claim to believe in intelligent design would seek to protect the intelligent designer's handiwork?

I am not among that minority of Christians who believe that the use of military force is never justified.

The Allied resistance to Adolph Hitler in World War II, for instance, provides an example of a just war.

But is the war in Iraq morally justifiable?

For centuries, Christians have asked certain questions to determine whether or not armed conflict is justified:

Is it a defensive war?

Is military action undertaken as a last resort, after all other options have been exhausted?

Is the armed response proportional to the provocation?

Have measures been taken to protect civilians, now perishing at a rate of more than 100 a day?

I've yet to be persuaded that the war in Iraq meets any of these criteria.

I suspect that when Jesus asked us to love our enemies, he probably didn't mean that we should torture or kill them.

In the course of writing "Thy Kingdom Come," I contacted eight religious right groups with a straightforward query.

Please send me, I asked, a copy of your organization's position on the use of torture.

Now, remember that these are groups with detailed position papers on everything from stem-cell research to same-sex marriage (both of which they oppose).

Only two organizations -- the Family Research Council and Institute of Religion and Democracy -- responded to my inquiry.

Both of them supported the Bush administration's policies on torture against those it has designated "enemy combatants."

These are people who profess to be pro-life, who claim to be able to hear a "fetal scream."

Yet they have turned a deaf ear to the cries of those who are being tortured in the name of our government.

What about social issues, especially abortion and homosexuality?

Here I find a curious inconsistency among many who claim the Scriptures as the basis for their beliefs.

The Bible says a great deal about acting with justice and caring for the poor, but comparatively little about homosexuality and virtually nothing about abortion (we could quibble over a couple of verses).

Yet the religious right has fashioned its entire "family values" agenda in opposition to homosexuality and abortion, advocating positions that would seriously compromise personal liberties.

(I happen to believe that the surest way to curtail abortion is to change the moral climate surrounding the issue. I have no interest in making abortion illegal; I would like to make it unthinkable.)

I follow a man who called his followers to be peacemakers and who suggested that the meek would inherit the earth.

This Man of Sorrows endured torture at the hands of his political enemies.

He also condemned the hypocrites: those who were always pointing out the faults of others while failing to recognize their own shortcomings.

I won't be marching anytime soon in the ranks of the religious right.

Randall Balmer, professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, is the author of "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament" (Basic Books). He was recently ordained a transitional deacon in the Episcopal Church.

Tsk. Tsk, Livyjr.

Holding Bush accountable for what he says is just like blaming Charlie McCarthy
for what Egar Bergen says. At least what he used to say when he was still alive.
Actually, if Charlie McCarthy had been allowed to speak up for himself, I think he would have made more sense.

A.B.

They all speak with forked tongues!


Iran Is Bush's Target in Lebanon

WASHINGTON - America and Tehran are battling for influence in the
Mideast, with Israel and Hezbollah doing the fighting. It's a
"proxy war," a U.S. official says. By Doyle McManus.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e6B...Io30G2B0HkCK0EL

More Yada Yada Yada

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politi...icle1202887.ece

Just hot air? Bush and Blair refuse to call for ceasefire
By Colin Brown and Francis Elliott in Washington
Published: 29 July 2006
Tony Blair and George Bush defied the growing anger across the world yesterday by seeking a UN resolution that fell far short of a ceasefire to end the killing of Lebanese civilians.

Speaking after talks at the White House, Mr Bush announced that on Monday the UN Security Council will discuss the creation of a multinational force to patrol a buffer zone on the southern Lebanon border. Mr Bush said the US would be tabling a UN Security Council resolution next week to seek an end to hostilities "as soon as possible" but it failed to meet the demands for a ceasefire in an open letter in The Independent yesterday, signed by 42 leading figures in the arts, business and politics.

Heightening fears that the war in Lebanon is being used as a proxy war between the US and Iran, Mr Blair said Iran would be mistaken if it thought the war was an opportunity to step up its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. " They risk increasing confrontation," he said.

Cabinet ministers warned that Mr Blair's refusal to stand up to Mr Bush would hasten his own exit from power. "This whole episode is very damaging for Tony," said one cabinet source. "They can cobble together a resolution but it won't be a solution to the violence. Tony thinks there is an arc of Islamic extremists like the Fascists in the Second World War. But this war is acting as a recruitment sergeant for the extremists." The source was dismissive about Mr Blair's attempts to influence the President. "The only special relationship the US has is with Israel. This is all driven by internal US politics. I don't know why Tony hasn't told Bush we have internal political pressures too."

Both Mr Bush and Mr Blair refused to discuss a ceasefire. Mr Blair was expected to claim their talks were a breakthrough but their commitment to a peace plan was in danger of being dismissed by their critics as window dressing and hot air last night.

Mr Bush offered the prospect of reconstruction of the ravaged areas of Lebanon to rehouse the thousands of refugees. But their plans failed to live up to the Downing Street spin operation in advance of their meeting at the White House which suggested there could be a call for a ceasefire next week.

Mr Blair said the war was a "complete tragedy" but said it offered an "opportunity" to force Hizbollah to abandon its campaign against Israel. He said he wanted to see "a cessation of hostilities as quickly as possible" but he refused to condemn Israel for the indiscriminate bombing. He said: "The conditions have got to be in place for it to happen. This can only work if Hizbollah are prepared to allow it to work." He claimed the violence was "part of a bigger picture" in the Middle East of reactionary groups trying to stop progress towards democracy. "There should be no doubt at all that it will be a temporary respite unless we put in place the longer-term framework, " he said.

Mr Bush described the conflict as "the calling of the 21st century" . The resolution would set out the framework for a "cessation of hostilities on an urgent basis" and the deployment of the mutlinational force, he said. "Our goal is to achieve a lasting peace that requires the free democratic and independent Lebanese government be in power to exercise full authority over its territory."

Opening their joint press conference, Mr Bush made a joking reference to his overheard remarks to the Prime Minister at the G8 conference when a microphone was left on and he said: "Yo Blair." "You share with me your perspective and you let me know when the microphone is on ..."

Mr Blair's aides outlined a proposed agreement that would see a UN stabilisation force police a buffer zone within Lebanon's southern border. The UN would also call for the withdrawal of Iranian and Syrian personnel, and the "progressive disarmament" of Hizbollah if the draft resolution is agreed.

But Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, said: "It is simply hot air. Despite the previous spin we have heard in recent days, their position is exactly the same; they are still endorsing continuing Israeli aggression against Lebanon. There is a huge amount of anger around the country about that."

Mr Blair's spokesman was dismissive of calls for a ceasefire without an agreement on a new force as "just so much wind". Instead, said the spokesman, Mr Blair wants to step up the pace of diplomatic efforts. " We want to increase the pace of diplomacy in identifying the steps necessary to bring about a ceasefire on both sides," he said. "I believe what we should be working towards is a resolution as early as possible next week. We believe others are roughly in the same ballpark."

The British-backed draft resolution is designed to enable the Lebanese government to fulfil UN resolution 1559 that calls for the removal of all militias from its border with Israel, he said. "It would give a mandate to a new, UN-backed multinational force." Downing Street does not rule out the possibility that a Nato force could be deployed, so long as it has UN blessing.

A French suggestion that the security zone should straddle the border with Israel was rejected. In return for the withdrawal of Hizbollah from Lebanon and its sponsors, the UN would commit to a renewed attempt to secure the two-state road map to peace. It was clear, however, that many questions about the composition, size, mandate and timing of deployments are unresolved.

Downing Street again made clear it was unlikely that any peacekeeping force including US or British troops would be deployed, leaving Mr Blair to urge more speedy action from the sidelines.

The Labour MP Phyllis Starkey ­ a former Foreign Office aide ­ said Mr Blair had a "far too rosy view" of the Israeli tactics. "I believe that the Prime Minister does not take a strong enough line with them in telling them when they are going against international law," she said.

Blair apologises for Preswick flight

By Ben Russell

* Tony Blair was offered a "one line" apology from President Bush over the United States' use of a British airport as a transit for weapons shipments to Israel.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said President Bush had limited his apology to the US failure to observe the proper procedures for using Prestwick airport near Glasgow as a stopover for an Israel-bound plane carrying laser-guided bombs.

"It was just a one line. As part of the introduction, the President said sorry there was a problem," the spokesman said.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, said Britain should " say no" to any transfers, after it emerged this week that the US asked for permission for more flights to stop in Britain over the coming weeks. The Foreign Office said permission would be granted if the US observed correct procedures.

Tony Blair and George Bush defied the growing anger across the world yesterday by seeking a UN resolution that fell far short of a ceasefire to end the killing of Lebanese civilians.

Speaking after talks at the White House, Mr Bush announced that on Monday the UN Security Council will discuss the creation of a multinational force to patrol a buffer zone on the southern Lebanon border. Mr Bush said the US would be tabling a UN Security Council resolution next week to seek an end to hostilities "as soon as possible" but it failed to meet the demands for a ceasefire in an open letter in The Independent yesterday, signed by 42 leading figures in the arts, business and politics.

Heightening fears that the war in Lebanon is being used as a proxy war between the US and Iran, Mr Blair said Iran would be mistaken if it thought the war was an opportunity to step up its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. " They risk increasing confrontation," he said.

Cabinet ministers warned that Mr Blair's refusal to stand up to Mr Bush would hasten his own exit from power. "This whole episode is very damaging for Tony," said one cabinet source. "They can cobble together a resolution but it won't be a solution to the violence. Tony thinks there is an arc of Islamic extremists like the Fascists in the Second World War. But this war is acting as a recruitment sergeant for the extremists." The source was dismissive about Mr Blair's attempts to influence the President. "The only special relationship the US has is with Israel. This is all driven by internal US politics. I don't know why Tony hasn't told Bush we have internal political pressures too."

Both Mr Bush and Mr Blair refused to discuss a ceasefire. Mr Blair was expected to claim their talks were a breakthrough but their commitment to a peace plan was in danger of being dismissed by their critics as window dressing and hot air last night.

Mr Bush offered the prospect of reconstruction of the ravaged areas of Lebanon to rehouse the thousands of refugees. But their plans failed to live up to the Downing Street spin operation in advance of their meeting at the White House which suggested there could be a call for a ceasefire next week.

Mr Blair said the war was a "complete tragedy" but said it offered an "opportunity" to force Hizbollah to abandon its campaign against Israel. He said he wanted to see "a cessation of hostilities as quickly as possible" but he refused to condemn Israel for the indiscriminate bombing. He said: "The conditions have got to be in place for it to happen. This can only work if Hizbollah are prepared to allow it to work." He claimed the violence was "part of a bigger picture" in the Middle East of reactionary groups trying to stop progress towards democracy. "There should be no doubt at all that it will be a temporary respite unless we put in place the longer-term framework, " he said.

Mr Bush described the conflict as "the calling of the 21st century" . The resolution would set out the framework for a "cessation of hostilities on an urgent basis" and the deployment of the mutlinational force, he said. "Our goal is to achieve a lasting peace that requires the free democratic and independent Lebanese government be in power to exercise full authority over its territory."

Opening their joint press conference, Mr Bush made a joking reference to his overheard remarks to the Prime Minister at the G8 conference when a microphone was left on and he said: "Yo Blair." "You share with me your perspective and you let me know when the microphone is on ..."
Mr Blair's aides outlined a proposed agreement that would see a UN stabilisation force police a buffer zone within Lebanon's southern border. The UN would also call for the withdrawal of Iranian and Syrian personnel, and the "progressive disarmament" of Hizbollah if the draft resolution is agreed.

But Andrew Murray, chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, said: "It is simply hot air. Despite the previous spin we have heard in recent days, their position is exactly the same; they are still endorsing continuing Israeli aggression against Lebanon. There is a huge amount of anger around the country about that."

Mr Blair's spokesman was dismissive of calls for a ceasefire without an agreement on a new force as "just so much wind". Instead, said the spokesman, Mr Blair wants to step up the pace of diplomatic efforts. " We want to increase the pace of diplomacy in identifying the steps necessary to bring about a ceasefire on both sides," he said. "I believe what we should be working towards is a resolution as early as possible next week. We believe others are roughly in the same ballpark."

The British-backed draft resolution is designed to enable the Lebanese government to fulfil UN resolution 1559 that calls for the removal of all militias from its border with Israel, he said. "It would give a mandate to a new, UN-backed multinational force." Downing Street does not rule out the possibility that a Nato force could be deployed, so long as it has UN blessing.

A French suggestion that the security zone should straddle the border with Israel was rejected. In return for the withdrawal of Hizbollah from Lebanon and its sponsors, the UN would commit to a renewed attempt to secure the two-state road map to peace. It was clear, however, that many questions about the composition, size, mandate and timing of deployments are unresolved.

Downing Street again made clear it was unlikely that any peacekeeping force including US or British troops would be deployed, leaving Mr Blair to urge more speedy action from the sidelines.

The Labour MP Phyllis Starkey ­ a former Foreign Office aide ­ said Mr Blair had a "far too rosy view" of the Israeli tactics. "I believe that the Prime Minister does not take a strong enough line with them in telling them when they are going against international law," she said.

Blair apologises for Preswick flight

By Ben Russell

* Tony Blair was offered a "one line" apology from President Bush over the United States' use of a British airport as a transit for weapons shipments to Israel.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said President Bush had limited his apology to the US failure to observe the proper procedures for using Prestwick airport near Glasgow as a stopover for an Israel-bound plane carrying laser-guided bombs.

"It was just a one line. As part of the introduction, the President said sorry there was a problem," the spokesman said.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, said Britain should " say no" to any transfers, after it emerged this week that the US asked for permission for more flights to stop in Britain over the coming weeks. The Foreign Office said permission would be granted if the US observed correct procedures.

As always, Mr. A.B. .....

You have nailed it ....

Dead on .....

We are in trouble ......

In this country .....

In the same way .....

That a ship .....

With no rudder .....

And no anchor .....

Is in trouble ....

On a windward shore .....

With high cliffs ....

No beach ....

And a bad storm brewing .....

A lot like the Spanish Armada .....

In its last moments .....

Off the west coast of Ireland .....

Just before the storm struck ....

And so .....

What we lack the most .....

When we need one in this country .....

Is a real leader ....

Someone more ....

Than just a ventriloquist's dummy .....

With Dick Cheney's hand .....

Up its back ......

Or a little face .....

Painted on Tony Blair's little finger ......

And so .....

About all the substance .....

There is to George W. Bush .....

Is that ventriloquist's dummy .....

Which has nothing in it .....

But somebody else's arm ....

And hand .....

Or that little bit of pigment .....

Along with ....

The tiny cowboy hat .....

On Tony Blair's little finger .....

Take away the little finger ....

And outside of a cowboy hat .....

On a little pile of something .....

Well .....

It will amaze me .....

For the rest of my days .....

What this country must have been thinking .....

When it scoured around ....

Way down deep .....

In the political barrel .....

To dredge up this George W. Bush .....

As its president ......

When almost anything else .....

Including a fence post ....

A dead dog ....

And box of rocks .....

Would have been a better choice .....

Assuming they were born here .....

And thus were eligible .....

For that high office .....

And so .....

This is what got me to going stratospheric, here, Snuf .....

And by the way, it is nice to see both you and Mr. A.B. in here .....

You're both missed .....

As is jeffmoskin .....

Who might have melted by now .....

With all of that heat out there ....

But hopefully not .....

I was listening to these two BUFFOONS .....

And what they are doing ....

Is moving peoples lives ....

ALL OVER THE PLACE .....

In other countries ...

Where neither of them have a drop of power ...

Or authority .....

OTHER THAN WHAT THEY HAVE USURPED ....

OR ARROGATED TO THEMSELVES .....

WITH NO LAWFUL BASIS .....

FOR HAVING DONE SO .....

OTHER THAN ....

MIGHT MAKES RIGHT ....

AND HERE I SPECIFICALLY MEAN LEBANON .....

I wonder ...

At what must run through these two DANGEROUS CLOWN'S minds ......

When they believe .....

That they have this right ...

This innate power .....

TO MANIPULATE .....

AND DESTROY .....

THE LIVES ....

AND PROPERTY .....

OF INNOCENT PEOPLE ....

OVER THERE .....

ESPECIALLY .....

IN THE LIGHT ....

OF THE REAL MESS .....

THAT THE PUPPET BUSH .....

AND HIS MASTER BLAIR .....

HAVE MADE ....

OVER THERE IN IRAQ .....

THE TOWERING ARROGANCE .....

OF THIS PAIR OF TYRANTS .....

IS INCREDIBLE TO SEE ...

FROM A DISTANCE .....

AND FOR THE INNOCENT PEOPLE OF LEBANON .....

WHO TONY BLAIR .....

AND GEORGE W. BUSH .....

ARE WILLING TO SACRIFICE .....

THAT TOWERING ARROGANCE .....

IS VERY DEADLY .....

WHEN VIEWED CLOSE UP ....

GEORGE W. BUSH .....

AND TONY BLAIR .....

NOW HAVE THIS POWER ....

BETWEEN THEM ....

TO DECIDE ....

WHO GETS TO DIE .....

IN THIS WORLD OF OURS ....

AS WELL AS WHO GETS TO KILL THEM .....

And so .....

Fifty years or more after WWII .....

We now don't have .....

Just one monster ....

As the world did back then .....

We have a pair of them .....

Named BUSH BOBBSEY .....

AND BLAIR BOBBSEY .....

And so .....

As an American ......

Who was born ....

And lives .....

Not far ....

From the Saratoga Battlefield .....

In the State of New York .....

Where our forefathers .....

SECURED OUR DEMOCRACY .....

AND LIBERTY ....

AS FREE PEOPLE ......

From England .....

BY FIGHTING THEM .....

TO THEIR DEATH .....

FOR IT .....

I wonder .....

Who Tony Blair .....

Thinks he is fooling ......

When he tries to come across .....

As anything other than .....

THE RAJ!

As Disreali .....

Is said ....

To have said ....

To Queen Victoria .....

"England has no permanent friends, nor permanent enemies, just permanent interests" ......

AND THOSE INTERESTS ......

ARE NOT OURS .....

We are not a part of the British EMPIRE .....

Anymore .....

We are a sovereign nation .....

ON OUR OWN ...

Independent from England ......

And so .....

WE SHOULD HEED ....

THE WORDS ....

OF DISREALI .....

TO QUEEN VICTORIA .....

And wonder .....

What George W. Bush .....

Is up to .....

TYING OUR AMERICA .....

TO ENGLAND'S COAT TAILS ......

IN THE MIDDLE EAST .....

WHICH ENGLAND .....

PROBABLY MORE THAN ANY OTHER NATION .....

ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH OF OURS ....

HAS DONE ...

ITS LEVEL BEST ...

TO MAKE A MESS OF .....

AND HERE ...

I MEAN IRAQ ....

BACK IN THE COLONIAL DAYS .....

WHICH TONY BLAIR ....

SEEMS INTENT .....

ON BRINGING BACK ...

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, WHAT, WHAT .....

IT'S A MOCKERY .....

TO HEAR .....

TONY BLAIR .....

OF ENGLAND .....

TALK ABOUT DEMOCRACY ....

WHEN IT IS THE ONE NATION .....

ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH OF OURS .....

THAT KNOWS DOODLEY-SQUAT ......

ABOUT DEMOCRACY .....

OUTSIDE OF WHAT WE TAUGHT THEM .....

ABOUT IT ....

AT SARATOGA .....

WHERE FREE MEN ....

AND WOMEN ...

BEAT THE ENGLISH TYRANT KING'S .....

REDCOATS ....

AND HESSIAN MERCENARIES .....

I find it openly mocking ....

To hear Tony Blair talk about democracy .....

As if England .....

With its own history .....

Of being a WORLD-CLASS THUG .....

What with the opium trade .....

And the slave trade ....

Both of which ....

Subjugated people ....

As the ENGLISH subjugated .....

OUR America .....

And India ...

And China .....

AND ....

AND ....

On and on and on .....

WERE SOME KIND OF CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY .....

AS OPPOSED TO THE ENEMY OF IT .....

WHO WE .....

AND OTHER NATIONS .....

HAD TO FIGHT AGAINST ....

TO BE FREE ...

AND NOT SLAVES .....

OR SUBJECTS ....

OF ...

OR TO .....

THE ENGLISH CROWN .....

WHICH IS WHO TONY BLAIR REPRESENTS .....

AND NOT DEMOCRACY, AT ALL ......

WHO REALLY SHOULD BE ISOLATED HERE .....

AND BLOCKADED .....

IS TONY BLAIR .....

AND ENGLAND ....

BECAUSE ....

THEY ARE NO FRIEND .....

TO DEMOCRACY .....

THAT I CAN FIND ...

IN A SEARCH OF HISTORY ....

INCLUDING THEIR OWN ....

And so .....

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/20...east/index.html


Domino diplomacy
Condi Rice and Co. are using the conflict in Lebanon as a proxy war with Iran that will somehow rescue the U.S. from failure in Iraq.

By Sidney Blumenthal

July 27, 2006 | Once again the Bush administration is floating on a wave of euphoria. Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon has liberated anew the utopian strain of neoconservatism that had been traduced by the Iraqi sectarian civil war. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has propelled herself forward as chief cheerleader. "What we're seeing here," she said, "are the birth pangs of a new Middle East." At every press conference she repeats the phrase "a new Middle East" as though its incantation were magical. Her jaunt to the region is intended to lend the appearance of diplomacy in order to forestall it.

In Rome Wednesday, a proposal by European and Arab nations for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon was scuttled by U.S. opposition. As explained to me by several senior State Department officials, Rice is entranced by a new "domino" theory: Israel's attacks will demolish Hezbollah; the Lebanese will blame Hezbollah and destroy its influence; and the backlash will extend to the Palestinians' Hamas, which will collapse. From the administration's point of view, the Israel-Lebanon conflict is a proxy war with Iran (and Syria) that will inexplicably help turn around Iraq. "We will prevail," Rice says nearly as often as she refers to a "new Middle East."

The Bush administration has traditionally engaged in promiscuous threat conflation -- al-Qaida with Saddam Hussein, North Korea and Iran in "the axis of evil," and now inferentially the Shiite Hezbollah with the Sunni Iraqi insurgency. By asserting "we" before "will prevail" Rice is engaging in national-interest conflation. According to the Rice doctrine, the United States has now deserted its historical role as ultimate guarantor of Israel's security by acting as the honest broker among all parties. Rather than emphasize the paramount importance of Lebanese sovereignty, presumably a matter of concern to an administration that had made a nation's sovereignty Exhibit A in the spread of democracy in a "new Middle East," Rice has downplayed or ignored it in favor of an uncritical endorsement of Israel's offensive against Hezbollah, which has destroyed much of Lebanon's infrastructure, made refugees of about 20 percent of the Lebanese, and treated the Lebanese government as a contemptible irrelevance. Rice's trip was calculated to interpose the influence of the United States to prevent a cease-fire and to give Israel at least another week of unimpeded military action.

To the Bush administration the conflagration has appeared as a deus ex machina to rescue it from the Iraq quagmire. That this is patently absurd does not dawn on those who remain in thrall to the same pattern of thought that imagined the invaders of Iraq would be greeted with flowers in the streets of Baghdad. Denial is the basis of repetition. New and irrefutable revelations of the administration's disastrous consequences are brushed off like lint.

This week has also seen the publication of "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq," by Thomas E. Ricks, the military correspondent of the Washington Post, a book devastating in its factual deconstruction. The Iraqi invasion, he writes, was "based on perhaps the worst war plan in American history." The policy making at the Pentagon was a "black hole," with the Army adamantly opposed to "the optimism," and resistance by the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to disinformation linking Iraq to Sept. 11 dismissed. ("How the hell did a war on Iraq become part of the war on terrorism?" demanded one officer summarizing the general reaction of the Joint Chiefs' staff.) Orders that "smacked of politicized military leadership" suppressed internal debate; commanders who raised questions were cashiered. After the absence of a plan for postwar Iraq, blunder upon blunder fostered the insurgency. These errors combined with "ignorance of long-held precepts of counter-insurgency warfare," leading to a "descent into abuse" and torture.

In one of its unintentionally ironic curiosities, the Bush White House has created an Office of Lessons Learned, complete with director and deputies. But the thinking that made possible the catastrophe in Iraq is not a subject of this office. Instead the delusional mind-set went underground only to surface through the crack of the current crisis. There have been no lessons learned about the blowback from Iraq -- about Iraq's condemnation of Israel and its sympathy for Hezbollah -- or about the United States' unwillingness to deal with the Palestinian Authority that made inevitable the rise of Hamas, or about the counterproductive repudiation of direct contact with Syria and Iran.

Indeed, Rice's "new Middle East" doctrine is one in which the United States is distrusted and even hated by traditional Arab allies, and the U.S. ability to restrain Israel while negotiating on behalf of its security has been relinquished and diminished. Since Rice became secretary of state she has been in search of what she has called "transformational diplomacy." At last, she has discovered the transformation by abandoning the diplomacy

And speaking about a REAL LOAD .....

Of HOT AIR .....

AND FAILURE ....

HEEERE'S "CON-JOB CONNIE" RICE .....

WHO IS MUCH MORE ...

THE CAUSE .....

OF PROBLEMS .....

IN THE WORLD ...

THAN SHE WILL EVER BE .....

THE SOLUTION TO THEM ....

BECAUSE SHE HAS NO CREDIBILITY .....

HAVING WILLINGLY SQUANDERED IT .....

SO AS TO GET US .....

INTO THIS QUAGMIRE .....

GEORGE W. BUSH ....

AND HIS REPUBLICAN PARTY ....

HAVE GOT US INTO ....

OVER THERE IN IRAQ ....

And so ....

WHO CAN BE SURPRISED AT THIS?

"Stymied in Mideast, Rice to head home"

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press
Last updated: 12:46 p.m., Sunday, July 30, 2006

JERUSALEM -- Stymied in her diplomatic mission and rocked by an Israeli bombing gone awry, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice consulted Israelis in a tense atmosphere Sunday and planned to head home Monday.

Rice had hoped to leave the region after concrete progress on ending the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.

But her work was hampered severely by Israel's missile strike early Sunday that killed more than 50 people, including many children.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the diplomatic situation, said Rice would work from Washington to complete a U.N. Security Council resolution to end the crisis.

A draft resolution circulating Saturday among council members would call for an immediate halt to fighting and seek a wide new buffer zone in south Lebanon monitored by international forces and the Lebanese army.

Israel's attack, which killed scores of civilians while they sleep, led Rice to canceled an expected visit to Beirut for a meeting Sunday with Lebanese Prime Minister Faud Saniora.

Rice said she called Saniora to postpone; angry Lebanese officials said it was their government that called off the meeting.

The chief U.S. diplomat told reporters after the attack that she planned to stay in Jerusalem, where she said she had work to do to end the fighting.

A White House spokesman, Blair Jones, said the U.S. was urging Israel "to exercise the utmost care so as to avoid any civilian casualties."

"This tragic incident shows why this is so critical."

The State Department's third-ranking official reaffirmed the admistration's position that Israel has the right to defend itself.

"Israel was attacked two weeks ago."

"It was Hezbollah who started this and crossed the blue-line," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said from Washington.

In Jerusalem, the U.S. official said Rice planned an evening meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and that she had been talking with President Bush, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other world leaders.

"We are also pushing for an urgent end to the current hostilities, but the views of the parties on how to achieve this are different," Rice said.

Olmert expressed "great sorrow" for the airstrikes but blamed Hezbollah guerrillas for using the area to launch rockets at Israel.

The U.S. official said Rice would have stopped in Beirut, but the bombing dramatically altered the situation.

The official said U.S. diplomats would be in touch with Lebanese officials by phone or through the U.S. ambassador to Beirut.

Rice reiterated U.S. concerns about the loss of civilian life in the fighting.

Hundreds, mostly Lebanese civilians, have died in the three weeks since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel.

The action provoked Israel's largest military campaign against Lebanon in 24 years.

"We all recognize this kind of warfare is extremely difficult," said Rice, noting it comes in areas where civilians live.

"It unfortunately has awful consequences sometimes."

"We want a cease-fire as soon as possible," said Rice, during one of her strongest statements yet on the need to end the conflict.

end quotes

TAKE "CON-JOB CONNIE" RICE .....

AND CHAIN HER .....

BY HER ANKLE .....

RIGHT WHERE ISREAL .....

IS DROPPING ITS BOMBS .....

AND GIVE THAT ***** .....

A TASTE ....

OF WHAT THOSE PEOPLE ...

OVER THERE ARE GOING THROUGH .....

AND SHE'LL HAVE THAT BOMBING STOPPED ....

IN AN INSTANT ....

OR SHE'LL GET BLOWN TO HELL .....

WHICH MIGHT NOT BE .....

THE WORST ALTERNATIVE .....

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED ....

FOR THE GOOD OF THE WORLD ....

And so .....

"US urges restraint after Qana"

By Caren Bohan

1 hour, 11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States urged Israel on Sunday to take more care to avoid civilian casualties in Lebanon after an air strike killed at least 60 people, but still resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was working to arrange the conditions for a "sustainable" halt to the violence as soon as possible.

"This is a horrible event, a terrible event, and we certainly want to make it clear that not only do we feel sorrow for what happened, but determination that it really is important to end the conditions that led to that," Snow told a group of reporters by telephone.

President George W. Bush is under pressure from Arab leaders as well as many in Europe who want an immediate ceasefire.

Despite Sunday's events, he still insists on a resolution that aims to end Hizbollah's military control of southern Lebanon, officials said.

Snow repeated that "Israel does have a right to defend itself" but said it should show restraint and remember that in the end it will need to have positive relations with Lebanon and work for a two-state solution for the Palestinians.

Bush was informed of the Qana attack at 6:40 a.m. EDT (10:40 GMT) by national security adviser Stephen Hadley and discussed it on the telephone with Rice and Hadley.

Snow said Bush wanted to push ahead this week toward a U.N. Security Council resolution that would set conditions for a ceasefire and establish a multinational force.

The Security Council met in emergency session on Sunday with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging the body to condemn the Qana attack and call for an immediate end to hostilities.

Despite growing calls around the world for an immediate ceasefire, the United States has insisted for days that hostilities should only be halted on a basis that will last.

It backs Israeli demands for the Lebanese army, bolstered by an international force, to deploy to the south of the country currently controlled by Hizbollah which has used the territory to rain rockets down on towns in northern Israel.

Images of destruction and mass civilian casualties in Lebanon are fueling anti-American fury throughout the entire Arab world and may force Israel to end its offensive sooner than it would like, without achieving its strategic goal of inflicting massive damage on Hizbollah.

Bush has insisted that a ceasefire package must include steps to compel Hizbollah to stop attacking Israel while putting pressure on Syria and Iran to stop arming Hizbollah with rockets and other weapons. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland)

YADA, YADA, YADA, MARINES DEAD, YADA, YADA, YADA .......

On and on and on and on and on .....

MORE VIOLENCE .....

MORE VIOLENCE ....

MORE VIOLENCE ....

Where are George W. Bush ...

AND PEACEKEEPER "CON-JOB CONNIE" RICE .....

When the WORLD .....

Needs ....

Their tender loving care?

"4 Marines die as Iraq violence continues"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:35 p.m., Sunday, July 30, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Four U.S. Marines were killed in a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, and pressure mounted in parliament Sunday to replace the interior minister because of the security crisis in the capital.

Also Sunday, a U.S. F-16 jet dropped two precision-guided bombs on a building near Baghdad used by militants affiliated with a group believed responsible a mortar-and-rocket attack in Baghdad's mostly Shiite district of Karradah last week that killed at least 31 people, U.S. officials said.

Two militants and a child were killed in the airstrike, and four suspects were arrested, the United States said.

American officials expressed regret about the child's death and said "terrorists continue to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence."

"We do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties during these operations," U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said.

"We deeply regret the loss of an innocent life while eliminating a group responsible for targeting so many other innocent Iraqis.

"We believe that countless more Iraqis would have been at risk had we not taken immediate action to eliminate this terrorist cell when we discovered their exact location."

U.S. officials did not specify where the airstrike took place, but it appeared to have been in the area around Youssifiyah that has long been a stronghold of al-Qaida and other extremist groups.

The Marines, from Regimental Combat Team 7, died Saturday in Anbar province, the heavily Sunni Arab region west of Baghdad that includes such flashpoints as Ramadi and Haditha, a U.S. statement said without further details.

So far this month, 44 U.S. service members have died in Iraq -- including 10 in Anbar province during the past week.

That underscores the threat to U.S. troops from Sunni insurgents, despite the attention paid to recent sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Baghdad.

The U.S. command is moving 3,700 troops from Mosul to Baghdad to cope with the crisis in the capital, raising concern that violence could flare up again in that northern city as American forces scale back.

With violence on the rise, several key Iraqi parliament members are pressing to replace Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, who is responsible for police and paramilitary commandos at the forefront of the fight against extremists in the capital.

"Some changes will take place in Cabinet during the coming days," said Hassan al-Suneid, a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party.

"There is talk among the Cabinet, the (Shiite) alliance and parliament about changing the interior minister because he is unqualified."

Bassem Sharif, a lawmaker from the Shiite party Fadhila, confirmed there were moves underway to demand changes in the Cabinet, including the Interior Ministry.

"The structure of the Interior Ministry is not right -- unmarked cars, no checkpoints formed yet ..."

"So far they have done nothing," Sharif said.

"There are only excuses."

Al-Bolani, a Shiite, was chosen for the sensitive post after protracted negotiations among the various religious and ethnic parties within the national unity government.

The interior and defense posts were not filled until June 8 -- nearly three weeks after the rest of the Cabinet.

Al-Maliki told reporters the government was preparing a "comprehensive reform plan" for both the interior and defense ministries, but he did not mention replacing any ministers.

The Interior Ministry, which controls the police, and the Defense Ministry, which manages the army, are the two most important and sensitive Cabinet posts.

In an attempt to mollify the two major sects, the Defense Ministry post went to a Sunni while the Interior Ministry was given to a Shiite.

But the Americans demanded the jobs go to people without ties to avowedly sectarian parties -- a tall order in a country where politics is organized along sectarian and ethnic lines.

The U.S. demand was aimed at pacifying Sunni Arabs, who accused the Interior Ministry of widespread abuses against civilians when the post was held by Bayan Jabr, a key member of the biggest Shiite party.

After the parties failed to agree on a choice, al-Bolani, 46, got the job despite no background in security or high-level administration.

He was an engineer with the Iraqi air force until 1999.

In a speech to parliament, the embattled minister acknowledged that "disloyal and corrupt elements" had infiltrated the police and government and were "not performing their duties in a proper manner."

"We will not allow any act of violence and sectarianism inside the ministry," he told parliament.

"Our country faces a big confrontation and challenges."

"We will fight kidnapping, terrorism and killing."

"We will dismiss those who do not respect the law."

As part of a crackdown on corruption, the United States said Iraqi forces arrested an Iraqi police colonel in Wasit province, southeast of Baghdad, on Sunday because of his alleged involvement "in numerous illegal and insurgent activities."

Also Sunday, al-Maliki warned television stations against broadcasting footage that could undermine stability and fan sectarian hatred.

A statement by the prime minister's office cited news reports that "capitalize on the footage of victims of terrorist attacks."

The prime minister called on media outlets to "respect the dignity of human beings and not to fall in the trap set up by terrorist groups, who want to petrify the Iraqi people."

There has been an increase in biased reporting by Shiite and Sunni television stations that focus on the suffering of their communities -- often with little mention of the other.

------

Associated Press reporters Qais al-Bashir, Bushra Juhi and Rawya Rageh contributed to this report.

GROSS STUPIDITY ....

AND INCOMPETENCE ...

AND GREED ....

AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL .....

AND UP HERE ....

IN REPUBLICAN GEORGE PATAKI'S ....

CORRUPT EMPIRE ...

OF NEW YORK .....

WE HAVE ....

WHAT ELSE .....

CORRUPTION ....

AT THE STATE ....

AND LOCAL LEVEL ....

BUT HEY .....

THAT IS ....

THE REPUBLICAN VERSION ....

OF DEMOCRACY ....

IN ACTION ...

And so .....

HEEERE'S JOE BRUNO .....

WHO IS CORRUPTION'S ....

OWN CHAMPION UP HERE ....

Being "in it" .....

For his pocket .....

As he is ....

And so ....

"Bruno flight at issue in probe - Businessman, a member of panel trying to win state racing franchise, tries to block state subpoena"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, July 30, 2006

ALBANY -- A Capital Region businessman who leads a group trying to win the state franchise on racing paid for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's flight to a thoroughbred gathering in New York City last year, according to court documents.

Jared Abbruzzese "is paying for the senator's portion of the flight'' reads a notation on the "tripsheet'' of the Dec. 1, 2005 flight from Schenectady County Airport, according to an exhibit from Abbruzzese's lawsuit against the state.

Abbruzzese is trying to quash a subpoena for letters between him and Bruno, R-Brunswick.

The Temporary State Commission on Lobbying is investigating Abbruzzese to see whether he should have registered as a lobbyist and if he provided illegal gifts to public officials, according to records in Abbruzzese's case against the commission.

He lodged the case July 5 after failing to get the lobbying commission to withdraw a subpoena.

On Friday, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office, representing the commission, filed documents with state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Teresi exposing the confidential probe and some of its findings.

The documents say that Bruno and some of his top aides used several aircraft housed at Richmor Aviation in Glenville for trips within and outside the state.

Abbruzzese has planes chartered by Richmor at Schenectady County Airport.

Abbruzzese, of Loudonville, is a leader of the recently formed Empire Racing Associates.

Empire is one of 15 prospective bidders who notified the state of its interest to bid on a 20-year franchise for the rights to run racing at the Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga Springs thoroughbred tracks.

The Legislature and governor will decide the winning bidder following the bidding process now under way.

Abbruzzese also was a member of the board of the former Friends of New York Racing, a research and lobbying organization that provided several reports for the Legislature, including a list of proposed new laws aimed at improving the horse racing industry and making the franchise more valuable.

The group picked up catering costs at a Lexington, Ky., fundraiser for the New York Senate Republican Campaign Committee.

Bruno and aides boarded a plane based at Richmor to get to the Blue Grass State last October for the event.

Abbruzzese apparently arranged for the aircraft, according to the court records.

Friends also donated $16,000 to the Senate GOP committee last year and this year combined.

The lobbying commission investigation learned about the Kentucky trip by Bruno and others in its probe of a Dec. 1, 2005 one-way flight that Bruno and aides Steve Boggess, Edward Lurie and Kenneth Riddett took to New York City.

Bruno had wanted to used a state helicopter but it was unavailable.

Abbruzzese made his Falcon 20 available for the trip, according to the court records, but the pilot was unavailable.

Another Richmor plane was used to take the senator to LaGuardia Airport that morning and Abbruzzese picked up the tab, the Richmor records said.

Depositions by Richmor staff failed to show who paid the cost, however.

Bruno's spokesman, John McArdle said Bruno's campaign committee pays for all such flights.

Campaign records show the political committee paid $4,100 for the Dec. 1 flight, perhaps less than half the cost of a round trip flight, Richmor officials have said.

Abbruzzese, who has declined interviews, "is not a lobbyist, nor ... do any of the requested documents deal with lobbying activities,'' his lawyer, Brandon Tully said in court papers.

In his motion to kill the subpoena, he told Teresi that public agencies are "prohibited from conducting a wide, sweeping and general fishing expedition in the hope of discovering some illegality.''

In his response papers, Assistant Attorney General James B. McGowan says:

"Mr. Abbruzzese cannot be the sole arbiter of whether he has offered inappropriate gifts.''

The commission investigators learned, as a result of questioning Smith and gaining some of his correspondences, that Abbruzzese was considered a "close friend'' of Bruno and helped arrange a meeting with the senator.

He "touted his relationship with Bruno and Friends of New York Racing relied on it to garner access to other public officials,'' said David Grandeau, executive director of the lobbying commission, in an affidavit.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

I'm a believer, me .....

That if one wants to be an example .....

Of something ....

Whatever ......

To anyone else .....

Then one should really strive ......

To be that thing first .....

Whatever it may be .....

BEFORE THE FACT .....

And that applies to NATIONS ....

Just as it does .....

To individuals .....

And so ....

IF ......

AMERICA .....

IS GOING TO HOLD ITSELF ......

OUT .....

TO ALL OF THESE OTHER NATIONS .....

OF THE WORLD ....

AND PEOPLES .....

AS A LAND .....

OF TRUTH ....

AND JUSTICE .....

THOSE THINGS ....

SHOULD REALLY BE HERE .....

FIRST .....

THEY SHOULD BE REAL .....

NOT SMOKE .....

AND MIRRORS ......

IT SHOULDN'T JUST BE .....

A LOAD ....

OF EMPTY WORDS ....

OUT OF THE HEAD .....

OF GEORGE W. BUSH ....

AND "CON-JOB CONNIE" RICE .....

WHICH IS JUST RANK HYPOCRISY .....

Which is there ...

For all to see .....

AS IS THE CASE RIGHT NOW ....

BECAUSE IN THE END .....

EVEN SIMPLE PEOPLE ....

ARE NOT ....

TOTAL FOOLS ....

AND CAN TELL ....

A LIE ....

FROM THE TRUTH ....

BECAUSE LIES .....

STAND OUT ....

LIKE A SORE THUMB ....

WHEN THE ACTIONS ....

OF THOSE SPEWING THEM ....

ARE OBSERVED ....

OVER TIME .....

And so .....

"UAlbany professor warns of Mideast fallout - Teacher just back from region says war damages U.S. image among Arabs"

By KEN THURMAN, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, July 31, 2006

ALBANY -- Anti-American sentiment is growing in neutral Arab states because of this country's failure to demand an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, according to a UAlbany professor just back from the Middle East.

Helen Desfosses, an associate professor of public administration and policy, and Africana studies, said Sunday she is not optimistic about the prospects for peace in a war that in three weeks has claimed hundreds of civilian lives.

And the pressure for the United States to do something to stop the bloodshed on both sides is building in the wake of an Israeli airstrike over the weekend that killed more than three dozen Lebanese children, she said.

"When you walk into every restaurant or corner store the TV is on and everyone is talking about the war ..."

"Over here we've reduced the war to page 4 but to them it's like watching 9/11."

"The potential for destabilization of the Middle East is extremely high," said Desfosses, who last week returned to the United States after spending 12 days in Jordan and Morocco.

She said she arrived in Jordan only two days before the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon began.

Desfosses, a former president of the Albany Common Council, is an authority and published author on national and international policy issues.

She said she was overseas doing consulting work with the parliaments of the countries she visited as part of a legislative strengthening project with the State University of New York's Center for International Development.

Desfosses, who spent several days in Jordan, said that country has historically been a "neutral" country and has had good relations with the United States.

But with the conflict in Lebanon dragging on without U.S. intervention, leaders in Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are feeling pressure from their Muslim constituents to take a stand that is more critical of Israel and its strongest supporter -- the United States, she said.

"Those who had denounced Hezbollah are now critical of the U.S. ... are now making anti-American statements and distancing themselves from the U.S.," Desfosses said.

On Sunday, President Bush, responding to the deaths of Lebanese civilians in an Israeli bombing, urged diplomats to work toward a "sustainable peace" in the region.

But he has resisted calls for an unconditional halt to the fighting, saying that would allow the Hezbollah fighters who sparked the conflict to continue attacking Israel.

The deaths also forced Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel a trip to Beirut and to cut short her mission to the region.

The fighting was sparked when Hezbollah militants staged a cross-border attack July 12 and captured two Israeli soldiers.

Hezbollah has claimed credit for or been linked to scores of attacks on Israelis and Americans since its founding in 1982.

Israel was targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers in the area used to fire hundreds of missiles at northern Israel.

Desfosses, critical of violence on both sides, said it's important to note that as the war wears on it has the potential to unite Muslims all over the world.

"The Muslim world is broader than the Middle East and one of the problems is that this war can become a source of grievance for Muslims, whether Arabs or not," Desfosses said, noting that "it's becoming very hard to distinguish religion from politics."

"I am not optimistic about a settlement as of yet, because the only country powerful enough to bring everyone to table is the U.S., and we have not proven yet that we're willing to do that," Desfosses said.

News service contributed to this report. Ken Thurman can be reached at 454-5638 or by e-mail at kthurman@timesunion.com.

"Iraq's vice president criticizes Israel"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 33 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's vice president on Monday accused Israel of carrying out "massacres" in Lebanon, the strongest criticism yet of the Jewish state by a top official of the U.S-backed Iraqi government.

Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, singled out Sunday's Israeli airstrike that killed at least 56 Lebanese, mostly women and children, in the village of Qana.

The deadliest attack in nearly three weeks of fighting has triggered an international uproar.

"What happened in Qana is a repetition to these crimes that happened to our nation decades ago."

"It's time for this nation to stand up and stop this aggression and all forms of aggression that could affect any of its parts," Abdul-Mahdi said.

"These horrible massacres carried out by the Israeli aggression, incites in us the spirit of brotherhood and solidarity," he said in a speech attended by Iraq's president, the prime minister and other top government officials.

The comments were harsher than the criticism leveled by Iraq's president and the deputy prime minister on Sunday.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, another Shiite, had also condemned Israel's offensive before traveling to Washington last week, provoking criticism from U.S. lawmakers.

Several Democrats boycotted his speech to Congress on Wednesday and Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean called the Iraqi leader an "anti-semite."

On Sunday, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, demanded an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, warning that "Islamic nations will not forgive the entities that hinder a cease-fire," al-Sistani said, in a clear reference to the United States.

The latest remarks by Abdul-Mahdi and Sistani are likely to heighten Iraqi public anger against the United States and create political problems for the Iraqi government, which depends on the Americans for its security and survival.

Abdul-Mahdi made the comments during a memorial at the headquarters of the influential Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, marking the third anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim.

Al-Hakim, a revered cleric, died in an al-Qaida-linked car bomb attack in Najaf in 2003, and has since been considered a symbol of martyrdom.

President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, also addressed the gathering, expressing "sympathy and support to our brothers in Lebanon against the Israeli aggression."

"We support them in getting rid of the effects of this aggression and imposing their sovereignty," Talabani said.

Anger over the Israeli offensive has united Shiites and Sunnis at a time of sectarian divisions here that has triggered a series of attacks and reprisal killings.

On Monday, about 200 people demonstrated in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, waving Lebanese and Iraqi flags.

"Allah, Allah, grant victory to Hassan Nasrullah," the demonstrators, including women and children, shouted, referring to Hezbollah leader.

end quotes

Well .....

America .....

This America .....

Wanted .....

TO TRY .....

HAVING .....

THE BIGGEST FOOL .....

ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH .....

FOR ITS LEADER .....

INSREAD OF SOMEONE ...

WHO COULD REALLY LEAD .....

AND THAT BIG FOOL .....

WANTED A WAR .....

AND THIS AMERICA ....

WENT ALONG WITH THE FOOL .....

AND SO .....

STUPID IS .....

AS STUPID DOES ....

AND HERE WE ARE .....

HEADING TOWARDS .....

THE CENTER ....

OF DOWNTOWN STUPIDVILLE ....

WHICH IS CENTERED ....

RIGHT ON THE HEART ....

OF WASHINGTON, D.C. ....

WHERE ONE CAN FIND .....

WHAT IS LIKELY TO BE ....

THE BIGGEST PACK .....

OF REAL IGNORANT ....

YET EXTREMELY ARROGANT ....

FOOLS ...

THE WORLD HAS SEEN ....

SINCE THE DAYS ....

OF CALIGULA .....

IN ROME ....

And so ...