COMMENTARY BY R.L. WING .....

Lao Tze believed that people are inherently good-hearted, and that to maintain this state they require personal freedom, intellectual independence, and, most important, a life that is free from interference from above.

When the organizational strutures in which people live and work become oppressive, then people will no longer fear death as they reach for freedom.

In the Taoist view, to kill a human being - within the law or outside of it - is an unnatural act that ultimately tears apart the fabric of society.

Lao Tze's analogy in this passage, however, encompasses the damage that leaders will suffer when they exercise authority that does not reside either in themselves or in the organization.

Any laws, restrictions, or punishments that inhibit the natural growth and independent development of the human mind will destroy both the organization and its leaders.

To give the Iraqi people ....

Alleged confidence in what is alleged to be .....

Their government .....

It is necessary .....

For OUR government .....

To protect those people .....

Since the government .....

That they are supposed to have confidence in .....

To protect them ....

CAN'T PROTECT THEM .....

And so ....

"Forces to target 4 'hotspots' in Baghdad"

By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:46 p.m., Saturday, August 12, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The new push by U.S. and Iraqi forces to reverse a rising tide of violence in Baghdad will target four violent "hotspots" in the city, the American general in charge of the plan said Saturday.

Those parts of the city have experienced frequent kidnappings, suicide bombings and revenge killings by Shiites and Sunnis.

Maj. Gen. James Thurman, commander of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, said the renewed push for stability began Aug. 7 in the Dora area of southwestern Baghdad, a notoriously violent part of the city.

He said sweeps of Dora neighborhoods had captured 179 people thus far and killed 25 "terrorists."

The other three targeted districts are Mansour and the Ghazaliyah-Shula areas of western Baghdad and the Azamiyah area in the northeast, he said, adding that the goal is to quell the violence and restore ordinary Iraqis' confidence in their government's ability to provide security and basic services.

"I'm confident, based on what I'm seeing right now, that we've got a positive trend here happening," Thurman said in an interview after joining Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a question-and-answer session with several dozen soldiers, sailors and airmen at Camp Liberty.

"We've got four major hotspots where we've had a lot of sectarian killings," Thurman said.

"And we've got a plan that will zero in on reducing the number of murders, kidnappings, assassinations and car bombs."

Pace, who arrived Saturday from Washington, met with Thurman and other senior American commanders and addressed the troops at Camp Liberty to thank them for their service.

A few of the soldiers in his audience were with the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade, whose one-year tour of duty in Iraq was extended by four months recently in order to add another 3,500 soldiers to Thurman's force in the capital.

Thurman said he has received another 2,000 extra troops from other units.

Thurman said he now has 32,444 U.S. troops in Baghdad and areas south of the capital, as well as 32,554 Iraqi forces.

Of the U.S. total, about 13,500 are in Baghdad proper, he said.

As recently as a month ago, U.S. officials thought they were going to be able to reduce U.S. troop levels this fall, but Thurman said the rise in strife between different religious groups "had us worried" and prompted him to ask his superiors for more combat power "so we could quell this and once and for all get rid of the people that are causing the problems here."

Thus, the 172nd Stryker Brigade was moved into Baghdad from northern Iraq.

In his remarks to troops at Thurman's headquarters, Pace disclosed that the plan earlier this summer was to reduce the total number of U.S. combat brigades this fall to 12 from the 14 that were operating at the time.

Instead a brigade that had been held in reserve in Kuwait was brought into Iraq and the 172nd was retained even as its replacement -- a brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division -- arrived.

Nonetheless, Pace told reporters traveling with him enroute to Baghdad that he would not rule out U.S. troop reductions this fall.

Pace stopped short of predicting that conditions would improve enough to allow a U.S. troop reduction before year's end, but he said he would be consulting with top commanders this weekend on the outlook for a turnaround in the violence among different religious groups and the need for U.S. troops.

"It's important to always have troop levels on the table" as a subject for discussion, he said.

"We thought as recently as a month or so ago that we were going to be able to come down" in the numbers.

"What changed was the increase in sectarian violence," he added.

Nonetheless, Pace said it was possible that the sect-on-sect violence could be tamped down quickly.

"Their leaders simply could decide to stop it" by telling their people to stop killing each other, he said.

"There is still the potential to reduce the number of troops," he said, although he would not say how soon he thought this could happen.

Earlier this year U.S. officials were hoping to reduce troop levels to 100,000 or less by December, with more significant cuts following in 2007.

The Joint Chiefs chairman, on only his second trip to Iraq this year, also said that Pentagon officials are beginning to think about who might replace Casey, who has been the top commander in Iraq since July 2004.

Pace said Casey would stay for about another six months.

"Certainly you start thinking now" about who should succeed Casey, Pace said.

He offered no names but praised Casey's performance, noting: "He will not be easily replaced."

end quotes

Looking at these numbers above here .....

Of the ratio .....

Of American troops ....

To Iraqi troops ....

Around Baghdad ....

It looks like ....

For every Iraqi troop ....

There is a corresponding American troop ....

To prop up that Iraqi troop ....

And carry that Iraqi troop ....

And maybe keep the Iraqi ....

From running away ....

And so .....

I guess somehow .....

The Iraqi people ....

Are going to get some confidence ....

In their own government out of that .....

Although how that is going to be ....

Remains a mystery to me ....

But then ....

I am not a REPUBLICAN ....

Nor am I a BUSHCO ....

And so ....

I am not "tapped in".....

To how their logic is supposed to be working here ....

With this "math" .....

Which makes it look like .....

The IRAQI government .....

Is just about worthless ...

When it comes ...

To providing basic services ......

And security ...

For what are supposed to be .....

Their own people .....

And so .....

These REPUBLICANS .....

And BUSHCOS ....

Are just too inscrutable for me, here .....

How us doing all the work .....

That the Iraqi government can't do .....

Gives the Iraqi people ....

Confidence ....

In their government ...

Rather than in OUR government ....

Which is doing the Iraqi government's work for it ....

That it is not capable of doing ...

And so ....

And here is a story that we all have been waiting for .....

After the United States Supreme Court ....

Has held ...

Based on evidence provided to it ....

By George W. Bush's own lawyers ....

That George W. Bush .....

VIOLATED OUR OWN WAR CRIMES STATUTES .....

George is going to wipe that slate clean ....

BY HAVING HIS REPUBLICANS ....

PASS A LAW ....

SAYING IT NEVER HAPPENED THAT WAY ....

AT ALL ....

THAT WAS ALL JUST A GREAT BIG LIE ....

COOKED UP ...

BY THE LIBERALS ....

ON THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT ....

TO MAKE GEORGE W. BUSH LOOK BAD ...

IN AN ELECTION YEAR ....

And so ...

"Retroactive war crime protection drafted"

By PETE YOST, Associated Press
Last updated: 9:25 p.m., Thursday, August 10, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

The move by the administration is the latest effort to deal with treatment of those taken into custody in the war on terror.

At issue are interrogations carried out by the CIA, and the degree to which harsh tactics such as water-boarding were authorized by administration officials.

A separate law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, applies to the military.

The Washington Post first reported on the War Crimes Act amendments Wednesday.

One section of the draft would outlaw torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, but it does not contain prohibitions from Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions against "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."

A copy of the section of the draft was obtained by The Associated Press.

The White House, without elaboration, said in a statement that the bill "will apply to any conduct by any U.S. personnel, whether committed before or after the law is enacted."

Two attorneys said that the draft is in the revision stage but that the administration seems intent on pushing forward the draft's major points in Congress after Labor Day.

The two attorneys spoke on condition of anonymity because their sources did not authorize them to release the information.

"I think what this bill can do is in effect immunize past crimes."

"That's why it's so dangerous," said a third attorney, Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

Fidell said the initiative is "not just protection of political appointees, but also CIA personnel who led interrogations."

Interrogation practices "follow from policies that were formed at the highest levels of the administration," said a fourth attorney, Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely.

"The administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes Act."

The Bush administration contends Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions includes a number of vague terms that are susceptible to different interpretations.

Extreme interrogation practices have been a flash point for criticism of the administration.

When interrogators engage in waterboarding, prisoners are strapped to a plank and dunked in water until nearly drowning.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Congress "is aware of the dilemma we face, how to make sure the CIA and others are not unfairly prosecuted."

He said that at the same time, Congress "will not allow political appointees to waive the law."

Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA's executive director, said that "President Bush is looking to limit the War Crimes Act through legislation" now that the Supreme Court has embraced Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions."

In June, the court ruled that Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates Article 3.

end quotes

WHAT A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES .....

THESE BUSHCOS ARE .....

THE "LAW-AND ORDER" BUNCH ....

They call themselves .....

Which is a great big crock of **** ....

Which is apparent .....

To all the candid world now .....

And so .....

RETROACTIVE PROTECTION ...

FROM WAR CRIMES .....

FOR THE BUSHCOS ....

LET'S HAVE IT BE .....

A NATIONAL PRIORITY ....

FOR ALL AMERICANS TO EMBRACE ....

SO WE CAN ALL BE HYPOCRITES, TOO ....

TELLING ALL THE WORLD ....

WITH ONE SIDE OF OUR MOUTH ....

THAT, YES ...

AMERICA IS A NATION OF LAWS .....

BUT WITH THE OTHER ...

THAT ALL THOSE LAWS REALLY DO .....

IS IMMUNIZE ....

THOSE IN THIS NATION ....

WHO COMMIT WAR CRIMES ...

IN GEORGE W. BUSH'S ......

WAR OF TERROR .....

ON THOSE ...

WHO THOUGHTS ...

HE DON'T LIKE ....

And so ....

And here we go, once again ....

Elections are coming up this fall ...

The REPUBLICANS ...

Are in trouble .....

What with their CULTURE OF CORRUPTION ....

Down there in BABYLON .....

And their ineptness ....

And the mess they have made out of Iraq .....

And so .....

THE REFRAIN BEGINS .....

ALL OVER AGAIN ....

BECAUSE THE REPUBLICANS REALLY DON'T HAVE ....

ANYTHING ELSE ....

TO HANG THEIR HATS ON ...

OTHER THAN ...

YET ANOTHER ATTEMPT ...

BY THEM ...

TO DISTRACT US .....

FROM THEIR CULTURE OF CORRUPTION ....

AND INEPTNESS ....

AND THE MESS THEY HAVE MADE OUT OF IRAQ ....

BY SCARING US ...

OUT OF OUR WITS ....

AS THEY RUN AROUND SCREAMING ....

AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS ....

TAY-RISTS COMING ......

TAY-RISTS COMING .....

TAY-RISTS COMING .....

TAY-RISTS COMING ......

WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE MURDERED IN OUR SLEEP ....

RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN .....

ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON ....

DA YADA DA YADA DA YADA, et cetera, ad infinitum ....

2004's REPUBLICAN REFRAIN REPRISED .....

ALL OVER AGAIN .....

UNTIL NOVEMBER COMES ONCE AGAIN ...

And with it, the Congressional elections ....

AND IT CAN'T GET HERE ...

SOON ENOUGH FOR ME .....

WHO AM SICK TO DEATH .....

OF HEARING TAY-RAH, TAY-RAH, TAY-RAH .....

Which sounds just like ...

"THE WOLF IS COMING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE SKY IS FALLING, THE WOLF IS COMING, THE SKY IS FALLING" .....

And so ....

"Both Parties Claim Edge as Terror Is Reinforced as a Campaign Topic"

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 11, 2006; Page A12

Democrats and Republicans alike rushed to invoke yesterday's terrorist scare in Britain in congressional campaigns, underscoring how a series of national-security-related developments are refocusing and sharpening the political debate three months before the midterm elections.

Campaigning in Connecticut, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who lost Tuesday's Democratic primary and is now running as an independent, said the antiwar views of primary winner Ned Lamont would be "taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England."

Rep. Mark Kennedy, the Republican Senate candidate in Minnesota, used the alleged plot as a campaign wedge only hours after it was disclosed.

"The arrests this morning in Great Britain make it clear that now, more than ever, this is an ongoing battle and we need leaders in Washington who remain committed to doing what is right instead of what may be seen as politically advantageous," he said.

To amplify the point, Kennedy endorsed Lieberman over the GOP candidate in the race, Alan Schlesinger.

President Bush offered a similar line, in more understated language, while in Green Bay, Wis., to campaign for a Republican candidate.

"This country is safer than it was prior to 9/11," Bush said with Air Force One behind him.

"We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American people."

"But obviously we're still not completely safe, because there are people that still plot and people who want to harm us for what we believe in."

In what was an apparent reference to this year's controversies over the administration's surveillance programs, Bush told reporters:

"It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America."

"And that is why we have given our officials the tools they need to protect our people."

The alleged plot -- with its parallels to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- was the latest in a series of events reshaping the campaign in unpredictable ways.

In the past five weeks, Israel went to war with Hezbollah, Bush's top generals warned that Iraq is closer than ever to civil war and Lamont ousted Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary.

The events have emboldened Democrats to challenge Bush more forcefully on national security issues, especially Iraq.

"This latest plot demonstrates the need for the Bush administration and the Congress to change course in Iraq and ensure that we are taking all the steps necessary to protect Americans at home and across the world," said Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

At the same time, the events have clarified the Republican strategy to make terrorism and the war the backdrop for the battle for Congress.

Both sides argue that they have the edge in this fight.

"It brings all those realities home and brings back some of the memories of 9/11 that got us into the war on terrorism in the first place," said Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (N.Y.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Unlike in the 2004 election, when Republicans clearly benefited from the terrorism issue and a general sense of insecurity among many voters, the politics are muddled this year.

The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, conducted last week, found Democrats with an eight-point edge when people were asked which party they trusted more to handle terrorism issues.

"I can't help but admit that I had a small knot in my stomach this morning," said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman.

"It was eerily familiar."

"But upon reflection, we are in a fundamentally different place in 2006 than we were in 2002 and 2004."

"For two or three generations, Republicans have, in the main, had a very substantial advantage on national security."

"The reality is, they have squandered that advantage in the sands of Iraq."

In the Post poll, 47 percent approved of Bush's handling of the terrorism issue, a 10-point drop from a similar stage two years ago.

But Republican strategists say the polling misses the political significance of the new focus on terrorism and war.

Conservatives are generally unhappy with the party over issues such as immigration and federal spending, but they care more about security matters than any other group, and their motivation to vote Republican may now resurface.

The arrests came as Bush was on a working vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.

Aides said he had been kept informed about the developments in recent days and was briefed at the ranch last weekend.

He spoke with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a secure videoconference on Sunday, a conversation that the White House at the time described as being about the Middle East, and again Wednesday.

Bush was not aware that the British were about to seize the suspects until Wednesday, White House officials said.

That same day, when Vice President Cheney attacked Democrats after Lamont's victory for being weak on national security, he knew about the British investigation but not that arrests were imminent, the officials said.

Peter H. Wehner, the White House director of strategic initiatives, distributed an e-mail to allies and reporters calling the alleged London plot a "clarifying moment" that should be, as he put it in the subject line, "a reminder of the stakes in this struggle."

He argued that it underscores the fallacy of Democratic attacks on Bush's leadership in the fight against terrorism.

A few hours earlier, the Republican National Committee e-mailed a fundraising letter -- signed by former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani -- that read:

"Only with the financial commitment of patriotic Americans like you can the RNC provide the candidate assistance, campaign programs, registration drives and voter outreach that are absolutely essential for electing Republicans across the nation."

RNC spokesman Brian Jones said that it was mistakenly sent by a low-level staffer and that the RNC regrets the timing.

Baker reported from Green Bay. Staff writer Dan Balz and assistant polling director Claudia Deane contributed to this report.

end quotes

Great Britain is a foreign country .....

With its own sovereignty .....

And its own problems ....

WHICH ARE NOT OURS .....

SINCE WE ARE AMERICANS ...

AND NOT SUBJECTS OF GREAT BRITAIN ....

AND OBVIOUSLY ...

THIS ALLEGED TAY-RAH "SCARE" .....

WAS JUST A SIMPLE POLICE MATTER ...

OVER THERE ...

IN GREAT BRITAIN .....

WHICH THEIR POLICE HANDLED ...

WITH NO TROUBLE AT ALL ...

AS A ROUTINE POLICE MATTER ....

AS THEY ARE PAID TO DO ...

A ROUTINE POLICE MATTER .....

MADE EASY FOR THEM ...

BY THE INDISPUTABLE FACT .....

THAT THESE TAY-RISTS .....

ARE SOME OF THE STUPIDEST PEOPLE .....

ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH ...

WHICH IS WHY .....

IT WAS SO EASY ....

FOR THE BRITISH POLICE ....

TO CATCH THIS CROWD OF THEM OVER THERE ....

IN GREAT BRITAIN .....

WHICH IS NOT AMERICA ...

And so ...

How a routine police matter ...

In Great Britain ....

Which is a foreign country .....

Has any bearing at all ...

ON OUR CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS .....

Is also a mystery to me .....

SINCE WE ARE NOT BRITISH SUBJECTS OVER HERE ....

NOR ARE WE LACKING ...

OUR OWN COMPETENT POLICE FORCE ....

HERE IN OUR OWN COUNTRY ...

DESPITE ALL THIS WHINING, CRYING BLATHER .....

FROM THE WHINING, CRYING CORRUPT REPUBLICANS ....

THAT OUR AMERICA ....

SUPPOSEDLY THE STRONGEST NATION ....

ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH .....

IS IN IMMINENT DANGER ...

OF BEING OVERRUN .....

AND TAKEN OVER ....

LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL ....

BY THIS PACK OF CLOWNS ....

THE BRITISH POLICE JUST ARRESTED ...

AS A ROUTINE POLICE MATTER ...

OVER THERE IN GREAT BRITAIN ....

AND HOW THE WHITE HOUSE ....

IS GIVING GEORGE W. BUSH ....

ANY CREDIT AT ALL ....

FOR HOW THE BRITISH POLICE ...

DO THEIR JOB ...

OVER THERE IN GREAT BRITAIN .....

WHICH IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY ....

THAT GEORGE W. BUSH DON'T OWN ...

OR CONTROL ....

DESPITE ANY STRAY THOUGHTS ....

THAT THE REPUBLICANS MIGHT HAVE ABOUT THAT REALITY ....

IS ANOTHER MYSTERY TO ME ....

ESPECIALLY SINCE GEORGE W. BUSH DIDN'T HAVE DOODLY-SQUAT TO DO WITH THESE ARRESTS ....

OVER THERE IN GREAT BRITAIN ....

WHICH IS NOT AMERICA .....

And so ....

"Cities, States Aren't Waiting For U.S. Action on Climate"

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 11, 2006; Page A01

With Washington lawmakers deadlocked on how best to curb global warming, state and local officials across the country are adopting ambitious policies and forming international alliances aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

The initiatives, which include demands that utilities generate some of their energy using renewable sources and mandates for a reduction in emissions from motor vehicles, have emboldened clean-air advocates who hope they will form the basis for broader national action.

But in the meantime, some businesses say the local and state actions are creating a patchwork of regulations that they must contend with.

This flurry of action is part of a growing movement among state and local leaders who have given up hope that Congress and the administration will tackle major issues, and are launching their own initiatives on immigration, stem cell research and energy policy.

Last week alone, former president Bill Clinton launched an effort with 22 of the world's largest cities to cut their emissions, while California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ® and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they will explore trading carbon dioxide pollution credits across the Atlantic.

Recently, 22 states and the District of Columbia have set standards demanding that utilities generate a specific amount of energy -- in some cases, as high as 33 percent -- from renewable sources by 2020.

And 11 states have set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

California also has passed legislation mandating that automakers reduce their vehicles' carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent by 2016, and 10 other states have committed to adopt the same standards if the law survives a court challenge.

In addition, as many as 10 states in the Northeast are working to establish state-by-state ceilings for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and allow industries such as power plants to trade pollution credits for carbon emissions while cutting greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent by 2019.

California, Oregon and Washington are negotiating a similar pact.

Some local officials said they are pushing ahead with plans because the Bush administration, which has promoted cleaner technology but opposes mandatory curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, has failed to adequately address the problem.

"Like most mayors, I'm disappointed the federal government has not taken more of a lead on this issue, but so be it."

"We're moving forward," said Albuquerque Mayor Martin J. Chavez, who is expanding public transportation in his city and has persuaded some other U.S. mayors to pledge to make their cities' buildings carbon-neutral by 2030, meaning their net carbon dioxide emissions would be zero.

But some experts say there is a political imperative at work, as well.

Tim Profeta, who worked for Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) before leaving last year to direct Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, said local politicians feel greater pressure to address the threat of rising sea levels and other climate-related conditions.

"State and local governments are less removed from their constituents, so they're more responsive to voters' concerns," said Profeta, who sits on North Carolina's climate-change commission and has met with British officials on the subject.

"Climate change is on people's minds, and they're asking for action."

North Carolina state Sen. Charles W. Albertson (D) said he is not "completely convinced" that human activity is causing global warming, but he pushed for the climate-change commission because he worries that environmental changes are threatening his coastal constituents' homes and livelihoods.

"What if it's taking place and we're not doing anything about it?" he asked.

Bush's top environmental adviser, James L. Connaughton, said the president welcomes state and local initiatives because they complement the administration's approach to global warming.

"They're pursuing a portfolio of policies, not a one-size-fits-all policy," Connaughton said in an interview Aug. 4, adding that the United States is also focused on voluntary pacts such as China's pledge to improve its power production efficiency 20 percent by 2010.

"At the end of the day, what matters is performance, and we're all making about the same rate of progress."

Some state officials and environmentalists said their efforts will soon surpass anything Bush has done to combat climate change.

Richard Cowart, who has advised officials on both coasts on carbon-trading systems as a director of the Vermont-based Regulatory Assistance Project, said that together, the two proposed trading systems "represent one of the largest efforts to rein in carbon emissions in the world."

And Dan Becker, global warming director for the Sierra Club, said auto manufacturers will cut emissions now that states representing a third of the country's market are preparing to regulate carbon dioxide.

"Obviously, what we're trying to do is reach a tipping point," Becker said.

"We're probably close to where the car companies will have to cry 'uncle.' "

The automakers are suing to block California's law, however, and the Bush administration may block it on the grounds that it amounts to usurping the federal government's right to set national fuel economy standards.

Margo Thorning, senior vice president of the American Council for Capital Formation, said this array of state regulations could harm the U.S. economy.

"I don't think it's terribly helpful to have the industry wondering what are the car standards in California vis-a-vis the standards in Arizona," said Thorning, whose think tank is funded in part by Exxon Mobil Corp.

"It adds a lot of uncertainty and slows the kind of investment we'd like to see in the U.S."

These overlapping carbon dioxide regulations may force the administration's hand.

Robert E. Busch, PSEG Services Corp. president, said during a Washington panel discussion in February that "you sort of don't blame" environmentalists for pursuing state caps on carbon dioxide, but added, "The answer to this problem is not 50 different approaches to greenhouse gases in the United States."

"That makes no sense at all."

And Richard J. Osborne, vice president of public and regulatory policy at Duke Energy Corp., told a Duke University audience in September that his utility backed federal legislation on climate change because the "patchwork of state actions" might produce "state-by-state chaos."

Clinton, who is establishing an international consortium so cities from Cairo to Los Angeles can bargain for energy-efficient products and trade policy ideas, said state and local experiments could eventually form the basis for federal action on climate change.

"What we need to do is get more case studies," Clinton said in an interview last week, adding that while voters care more about global warming now than when he was president, as for candidates, "unfortunately, it's not one of those issues where if you don't do something about it, you'll get beat."

Some federal officials are participating in the emerging carbon-trading economy: Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) has registered his farm's hardwood trees on the Chicago Climate Exchange, calculating that the 3,440 tons of carbon dioxide absorbed by the trees will trade for more than $15,000.

Matt Petersen, president of the advocacy group Global Green USA, said that over the past decade, he has found state and local officials to be more open to imposing energy efficiency standards on commercial buildings and to renewable-energy tax credits.

Global Green is advising West Hollywood officials on drafting green building standards for new private construction and is lobbying the Louisiana government to give developers an incentive to rebuild New Orleans in an energy-efficient way.

"We had to do a lot of work and hand-holding early on," Petersen said.

"The people who asked the toughest questions are now the biggest advocates."

end quotes

Well .....

There is one thing ....

That George W. Bush .....

And his REPUBLICANS .....

HAVE GIVEN TO US .....

HERE IN OUR AMERICA ...

THAT IS NOT IN DISPUTE .....

AND THAT IS A WORTHLESS FEDERAL GOVERMENT .....

INCAPABLE .....

OF PROVIDING US ....

WITH EITHER BASIC SERVICES ....

IN A TIME OF CRISIS .....

OR SECURITY ...

And so ...

WHOEVER SAID ....

THAT GEORGE W. BUSH ....

HAS DONE NOTHING GOOD ....

FOR OUR AMERICA .....

SINCE GEORGE CAME INTO OFFICE ...

WHAT SEEMS LIKE EONS AGO ....

SEEMS TO HAVE THE "RIGHT" OF THE MATTER ....

WHICH IS SOMETHING TO CONSIDER ....

WHAT WITH CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS ....

COMING UP IN NOVEMBER ....

And so ....

"Who's Guilty of 'Petty Partisanship'?"

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, August 11, 2006; Page A19

Oh my goodness, as Don Rumsfeld might say.

Support for the Iraq war hits a record low, and all the president's hit men decide that it's time to smear their opponents as defeatists who give aid and comfort to the enemy.

Of course they didn't mention the poll on Iraq released by CNN on Wednesday.

As a basis for their guilt-by-association campaign, they used the fact that Democratic voters in Tuesday's Connecticut primary favored antiwar businessman Ned Lamont over Sen. Joe Lieberman.

The gentlemen who have gotten us into a mess in Iraq prefer not to explain how they'll fix things.

They would rather use national security for partisan purposes, and they were all out there on Wednesday, spewing incendiary talking points.

Hey, they may not have sent enough troops to win a war, but they sure know how to win midterm elections.

In a telephone call with journalists, Vice President Cheney came close to suggesting that there is a new political blog out there called "al-Qaeda for Ned."

His words have not received nearly the attention they deserve.

Mourning the fact that Democrats would "purge a man like Joe Lieberman" -- that word "purge" has a nice Stalinist ring, doesn't it? -- our vice president went on to say this:

"The thing that's partly disturbing about it is the fact that, [from] the standpoint of our adversaries, if you will, in this conflict, and the al-Qaeda types, they clearly are betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task."

The rejection of Lieberman made Cheney wonder if "the dominant view of the Democratic Party" is "the basic, fundamental notion that somehow we can retreat behind our oceans and not be actively engaged in this conflict and be safe here at home."

Wow!

I bet the 145,000 free citizens of Connecticut who voted for Lamont will be shocked to learn that they were really sending signals of "retreat" to "al-Qaeda types."

Then there was Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, handpicked by President Bush and Karl Rove.

Speaking in Cleveland, Mehlman couldn't resist starting with a little old-fashioned redbaiting.

He explained Ronald Reagan's defection from the Democratic Party this way:

"He saw the beginning of the end, as a party that had vowed to fight communism became a party that set itself against those who fought communism."

Ah, yes, the party of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale was nothing but a bunch of anti-anti-communists.

From there it was an easy leap to saying a Democratic Party -- cleverly renamed the "Defeat-ocrat Party" by the RNC chairman -- "that once stood for strength now stands for retreat and defeat."

Translation: Anyone who dares question our botched approach is in favor of surrender.

Finally, from Tony Snow, the White House official who speaks for the president, came this analysis of the Connecticut result:

"It's a defining moment for the Democratic Party, whose national leaders now have made it clear that if you disagree with the extreme left in their party they're going to come after you."

This statement is rooted in a lie -- or, to be polite, fiction.

As Adam Nagourney noted in the New York Times yesterday:

"In fact, the vast majority of Democratic Party leaders supported Mr. Lieberman in the primary and did not endorse Mr. Lamont until after the results were in."

On Time.com, Perry Bacon Jr. noted that Lieberman had the support of "almost the entire Democratic establishment."

And if being against the Iraq war makes you "extreme left," then the administration has succeeded in pushing 60 percent of Americans into that camp.

That's the proportion opposed to the war in the new CNN poll.

When he announced he was running as an independent, Lieberman issued a ringing condemnation of "petty partisanship and angry vitriol."

He denounced those who offered "insults instead of ideas" and said the purpose of politics is "to lift up, not to tear down."

True, and there could hardly be any more offensive examples of petty partisanship than the vitriolic screeds issued by Cheney, Mehlman and Snow -- coming, as they did, just a day before we learned of a new terrorist plot against us.

We'll never achieve authentic bipartisanship until a crowd that has clung to power by dividing us into bitter camps gets the rebuke it deserves.

In the meantime, Lieberman might usefully send a copy of his speech to his friends in the White House.

They divide us at our peril.

postchat@aol.com

"U.S. troops among nearly 50 dead in Iraq"

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:56 p.m., Saturday, August 12, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Police found a dozen bodies trapped in a grate in the Tigris River, and a roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers on a foot patrol south of Baghdad Saturday as nearly 50 violent deaths were reported across Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki banned a Kurdish extremist party from operating in Baghdad in a move seen largely as a gesture to Turkey, which had threatened to send troops across the border to destroy the group's bases in northern Iraq.

Also Saturday, a state commission said nearly 30 top officials of the past two governments have been ordered to appear in court to answer allegations of corruption.

They include former ministers of defense, labor and electricity, the commission said.

The 12 bodies were found in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, at one of a series of metal grates fixed in the river to block debris, Mamoun al-Rubaie of the Kut city morgue said.

All were men between 35 and 45 years old and had been bound, blindfolded and shot in the head or chest, al-Rubaie said.

They appeared to have been the victims of sectarian death squads that operate in the religiously mixed communities in the Baghdad area.

Police also found 15 other bullet-riddled bodies of men who had been handcuffed and blindfolded in six neighborhoods throughout the Baghdad area, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said.

Another 21 people were killed Saturday, mostly in Baghdad but also in Hillah, Mosul and Basra.

The roiling violence, especially between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Baghdad area, has alarmed U.S. commanders, prompting them to order nearly 12,000 more American and Iraqi soldiers into the capital.

The United States currently has about 32,400 troops in Baghdad and areas south of the capital -- of which about 13,500 are in the city proper, Maj. Gen. James Thurman said Saturday.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have said the reinforcements will focus on about four neighborhoods where Sunni residents do not trust the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces.

Nevertheless, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would not rule out significant U.S. troop reductions this year.

Pace, who arrived in Baghdad on Saturday, said such a decision would depend on improvements in the security situation and would come after consultations with U.S. commanders in Iraq.

As part of the renewed security crackdown, the U.S. military Saturday said that 60 men had been rounded up the day before at a funeral in the southern Arab Jabour neighborhood, a mostly Sunni district.

The 60 were believed to include members of an al-Qaida-affiliated cell that "specializes in bomb making" and carried out car bomb attacks in the capital, a U.S. statement said.

Women and children at the funeral were separated from the men and the arrests were made without incident, the statement said without giving any details.

"The group has been reported to be planning and conducting training for future attacks," it said.

"Multiple forms of credible intelligence led the assault force to the location, later determined to be a funeral gathering, where the suspects were detained."

Late Saturday, Iraqi state television announced that 16 "terrorists" had been arrested for allegedly exploding a dozen car bombs in Baghdad and plotting to assassinate relatives of the prime minister in his hometown near Karbala.

The independent Commission for Public Integrity said the corruption allegations had been filed against 39 top officials in the governments of former prime ministers Ayad Allawi and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, according to the commission's spokesman, Ali Shabbout.

Shabbout said the officials include ex-Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan and former Labor Minister Laila Abdul Latif, both of whom served in the Allawi government, and Abdul Muhsin Shalash, the electricity minister under al-Jaafari.

Some have fled the country, but Abdul Latif was released on bail, Shabbout said.

In a brief statement, the government said al-Maliki had banned the Kurdistan Workers Party, a rebel group fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey, from operating in Baghdad.

Al-Maliki told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the order during a telephone conversation Saturday, the statement said.

It was unclear whether the order would have significant effect on the party, known by its acronym PKK, which is not known to have a major operation in Baghdad.

The party has been fighting Turkish forces since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The PKK operates clandestine bases in the Kurdish-self ruled provinces of northern Iraq, where central government authority is limited.

Last month, Erdogan said Turkey was moving forward with plans to send troops into northern Iraq to attack PKK bases but was holding talks with the United States and Iraq in an attempt to defuse tensions.

In an interview with the New York Times published Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Iran was encouraging Shiite militias to step up attacks on U.S. forces in retaliation for the Israeli assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Shiite Hezbollah is backed by Iran.

Privately, some senior U.S. officials are skeptical the Iranian government is doing more than providing money to select Shiite groups.

Others insist Iran is providing weapons and training to some Shiite factions.

------

Associated Press writers Robert Burns, Qais al-Bashir, Vijay Joshi, Bushra Juhi, Sameer Yacoub, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report in Baghdad.

And as George W. Bush ....

And the ULTRA-RIGHT-WING CONSERVATIVE DICK CHENEY .....

ATTEMPT ...

BY FORCE OF ARMS .....

AND BRUTE STRENGTH .....

AND LET US FACE IT ....

JUST PLAIN BRUTISHNESS ....

IN THE CASE OF CHENEY ....

TO SPREAD ...

THEIR REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CORRUPTION ...

TO EVERY CORNER OF OUR GLOBE ....

We have .....

"Health minister: 7 Iraqi guards arrested"

By QAIS AL-BASHIR, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:15 a.m., Sunday, August 13, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's health minister, who is aligned to a powerful Shiite militia, claimed Sunday that U.S. forces arrested seven of his personal guards in a surprise pre-dawn raid on his office.

The reason for the alleged arrests was unclear.

Health minister Ali al-Shemari said the soldiers arrived at 3 a.m. Sunday, broke open doors inside the building leading to his office and hauled away the seven men, who were posted there as night guards.

There was no U.S. statement on the claim.

However, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said Iraqi forces with U.S. advisers searched the ministry after a tip from an Iraqi citizen and took five people into custody for questioning.

"There was no legal warrant, there was no prior warning to the ministry, there was no reason to arrest them."

"It is a provocation," said al-Shemari, a Shiite aligned to the anti-U.S. radical cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who heads Iraq's biggest Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army.

"We demand that the government and the prime minister put an end to the American military operations," he told The Associated Press.

He said it appeared the seven men were arrested on false accusations made by unknown people.

He did not elaborate.

The health minister was involved in a controversy when a senior health official from Diyala province, a Sunni, disappeared along with his secretary and two guards soon after a meeting with the minister in his office on June 12.

Sunnis claimed Dr. Ali al-Mahdawi, a member of the Sunni-based Iraqi Islamic Party, was kidnapped by Shiite militiamen, possibly the Mahdi Army.

The minister, however, denied the allegations, saying he had interviewed al-Mahdawi for a more senior job, and that the official had left the building after the meeting.

The Mahdi Army, which is modeled along Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, has emerged as a key force in the majority Shiite community.

It launched two uprisings against the U.S. military in 2004 but adopted a low-profile on the advice of the Shiite clergy.

However, Sunni Arabs believe the militia is responsible for kidnapping and killing thousands of Sunnis since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine.

Members of the militia also clashed with U.S. troops last month when they raided an al-Sadr stronghold in Baghdad.

end quotes

I'll tell you something, al-Shemari .....

That if you are looking for things ....

Like "LEGAL WARRANTS" .....

Or "DUE PROCESS OF LAW" .....

Out of this BUSHCO CROWD .....

Who have taken over your country .....

You are just plain flat "P***ING UP A ROPE" .....

As we say over here .....

BECAUSE THE ONLY LAW ...

THAT GEORGE W. BUSH KNOWS .....

COMES STRAIGHT FROM HIS GUT ....

AND IF YOU ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS CLOACA .....

AS MOST OF US ARE OVER HERE, AS WELL ....

WELL .....

And so ....

And since we are on the subject .....

Of the DOMINATION ....

Of the whole-wide world ....

By "GOD'S OWN PARTY" .....

As well as the ruminations .....

Of what goes on .....

Inside of George W. Bush's "GUT" .....

Where his primary thinking is done .....

Before it comes down ...

Like pigeon droppings .....

To land on our heads ....

Let's see what one of his PRIME WATER CARRIERS ......

The one named Pataki .....

From the CORRUPT REPUBLICAN EMPIRE .....

Of New York is up to these days .....

Besides fertilizing fields .....

All across OUR America .....

With his own output ....

ON BEHALF OF "GOD'S OWN PARTY" .....

And so ....

"Pataki campaigns on GOP strengths - Governor visits Iowa, says Republicans must return to basic themes"

By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press
First published: Sunday, August 13, 2006

ANKENY, Iowa -- Republicans can avert a disastrous midterm election this fall by returning to basic conservative themes that set them apart from Democrats, New York Gov. George Pataki said Saturday.

"There will be a lot of change between now and November," Pataki said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I understand that it will be a tough year, but we have to get back to focusing on what Republicans stand for."

Pataki was visiting Iowa, where he campaigned and raised money for legislative candidates and tested the waters for a possible bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

As he courted local activists, Pataki sought to counter what many see as his biggest weakness -- the perception that he's a northeastern moderate in a state where the Republican Party is distinctly conservative.

Meeting with hard-core GOP activists, Pataki's theme was anything but moderate, and he said revelations of a foiled terror plot in Britain this week underscore just how quickly the political climate can change.

"National security matters are foremost right now given the events of this week, but we also have to have a strong domestic agenda and I'm confident we can go into November with one," Pataki said.

Most polls in recent months have contained sour news for Republicans, with most voters saying they are unhappy with the war in Iraq and President Bush.

That's led to speculation that Democrats could grab control of Congress, a shift that would greatly complicate Bush's last two years as president.

While Republicans must offer a broader agenda, Pataki said national security will be a major issue in the election, and he said Republicans have a clear edge on that issue.

"We just saw two days ago the fact that terrorists are still out there actively plotting and trying to kill thousands of people and attack us again," Pataki said.

"I think the American people know that the Republicans have a better approach to protecting us."

Pataki's latest visit to Iowa also was an effort to hone a political organization he's beginning to build in the state.

Former Gov. Terry Branstad introduced him, and touted his rural New York roots.

"Even though he's the governor of New York, he's a farm kid," Branstad said.

end quotes

Up here, where I am ...

On Sunday mornings .....

There is a "political discussion" show .....

On the one radio station that I care to listen to .....

And the subject this morning ...

Or one of them, anyway ...

Since there are many .....

Was the REPUBLICAN effort ......

To make POLITICAL HAY ...

Out of what was really a routine police matter .....

Over there in Great Britain .....

Especially here in New York State .....

Where George W. Bush .....

Is about as popular ....

As a child molester .....

At a family picnic .....

And the consensus was .....

THAT BETWEEN NOW ...

AND NOVEMBER ...

WE ARE GOING TO BE ...

HAVING ALLEGED "TAY-RAH ATTACKS" .....

JAMMED RIGHT DOWN OUR THROATS .....

ONE AFTER THE OTHER, NOW ....

BY THE REPUBLICANS ....

AS THEY STRUGGLE .....

TO DISTRACT US .....

FROM THE FACT .....

OF THEIR CULTURE OF CORRUPTION ....

AND THEIR INABILITY .....

TO PROVIDE FOR US ...

BASIC SERVICES ....

IN A TIME OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY ....

SUCH AS HURRICANE KATRINA ....

AND TO PROVIDE FOR US ....

A SENSE OF NATIONAL SECURITY ....

SINCE 9-11 HAPPENED ....

ON THEIR WATCH ....

AND THEY ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN ....

FOR WHATEVER REASONS ....

And so ...

HERE IS PATAKI .....

THE BUSH "WATER CARRIER" .....

JUMPING RIGHT ON THAT THEME ...

JUST LIKE CLOCKWORK ...

ACCORDING TO THE REPUBLICAN SCRIPT ....

FOR SCARING THE BEJEEPERS OUT OF US .....

BETWEEN NOW .....

AND NOVEMBER ....

SO THAT THEY CAN TRY AND RETAIN COTROL OF CONGRESS .....

WHICH KEEPS THEIR CULTURE OF CORRUPTION THEN FUNCTIONING ....

AS IT HAS SINCE THE YEAR 2000 .....

WHEN GEORGE W. BUSH .....

CAME INTO POWER ...

HERE IN OUR AMERICA ....

AND BROUGHT THAT CULTURE OF CORRUPTION ...

ALONG WITH HIM ...

AS HIS "FAITHFUL COMPANION" .....

HIS "SIGNIFICANT OTHER" ....

HERE IN OUR AMERICA ....

AND IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, AS WELL .....

And so .....

"The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about.": Noam Chomsky

=
"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.": Howard Zinn, historian and author

=
Four sorrows ... are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative effect guarantees that the U.S. will cease to resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787.

First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a spreading reliance on nuclear weapons among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut.

Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co- equal 'executive branch' of overnment into a military junta.

Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.

Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.": Chalmers Johnson, Sorrows of Empire

Not even.

Who wrote this piece of sh*t?

Tasini is an "old-fashioned DEMOCRAT", more interested in public service than in private enrichment.

He has been a political organizer most of his adult life.

New York would be very well served by elecing him.

Oh, he could use a few million bucks.

Doctor Dean, calling Doctor Dean.

You are wanted in emergency. We have a patient needing blood. It is urgent.

Email from Dr. Justin Frank:
Something I wrote about George and Joe and Reggie (of Archie comics) might interest you.

Best,
Justin

We don’t choose our parents. We do choose who represents us in government (when there are no Diebold machines).

Too often our representatives forget who they work for and in stead begin to treat constituents as children, as protectees rather than as thoughtful concerned citizens who chose to elect them.

Soon these representatives decide what information to give their “employers” (us), for a variety of reasons. And when information is withheld, informed political participation becomes impossible. A deeper effect of withheld information is that the voting populace becomes infantilized both in the perception of elected officials and eventually in their own sense of how impotent they feel when trying to get answers or even to be heard. Many develop the need to be told what to do and think.

We have been treated like children by a child President. Information has been withheld from us as it is from him. Our reality and experience – death and destruction of beloved families in Iraq, the disappearance of an entire city on our own now-eroded soil, astronomical gasoline prices, shamefully grand disparity between corporate heads and their employees, negligence in so many areas of social welfare and health – is not only uncontained; it is unrecognized. As of August 8 the USAT reported that Congress is cutting funds necessary to treat veterans of Iraq who suffered head injuries. Those acts leave one speechless.

At the same time, we the children remind our faux parent-leaders that we can think - that when presented with opportunities to think we can do so. And Lamont beat Lieberman. And the stupid Kansas educators who prefer superstition to thought were beaten.

Patriotism had become patronization. No more was questioning authority seen as a responsibility and virtue – it had become, rather, akin to adolescent rebellion and talking back to parents.

And a central adolescent characteristic is contempt for the “other” – be they parents, authority figures, the press, or citizens in general. Who gets treated this way depends on the adolescent’s particular vertex. The other is stupid, beneath contempt. Parents and teachers got no respect, as Rodney Dangerfield used to say. That attitude is the psychological core of reactionary populism described so clearly by my namesake Thomas Frank. Rebellious hatred of authority becomes a caricature of itself, and devolves into slavish devotion to any anti-authority authoritarian.

George Bush is the adolescent in chief. And he treats those not in his peer group, his gang, as dunderheads worthy of contempt. He can say anything he wants to justify his behavior. He feels so superior that he is free to change his story at the drop of a hat or whenever his explanation for being caught with a six-pack (or no WMDs or levees) is challenged. That is how he’s dealt with the press.

Lieberman was too much like Bush in this regard – puffed up and isolated and out of touch. And until the last week he fought like the Bush/Rove organization, using TV ads impugning .Lamont's fitness to hold office (he is independently wealthy and therefore out of touch) rather than facing the substance of his challenge. Interestingly, it has just been disclosed that Rove has been in contact with Lieberman.

Transparency is the name of the game. But it’s not a game. Just ask families of the dead in Iraq – families too poor and marginal to have any voice or political clout. As of August 8 the USAT reported that Congress is cutting funds necessary to treat veterans of Iraq who suffered head injuries. Those acts leave one speechless. Their voice, now represented by Cindy Sheehan, is disgracefully dismissed by those in power.

Bush and his gang remind me of Reggie Mantle, the 17 year-old wise guy from the Archie comic strip. Reggie is the ultimate wise guy, always looking to pull a fast one on anyone he can find to victimize. He will be the first to tell you how handsome and cool he is, and that he is a great athlete. None of these things is true, though he is not bad looking. But his arrogance and self-involvement keep him from getting many dates – his 64 year-old clone lost in CT, while the most prominent Reggie ended up marrying his local librarian who never had a date herself? Most girls soon pick up on “what a louse he is.” He is continually pulling pranks which drive everyone else crazy – whether grabbing Chancellor Merkel or running as an independent.

Jokes about “sore Loserman” are re-emerging. We have to remember that the unconscious prevails at the oddest moments – especially when we become our nemesis. This is what I feared when writing the book, that I would become like Bush – jumping to conclusions, seeing the world in simple terms, blaming people. I think Lieberman has become like Ralph Nader – a crank who puts himself above the needs of our nation, let alone those of his Democratic values. He runs on a platform of self-righteous arrogance, something long ago eschewed by the subtle Karl Rove – the link between the two Reggies called George and Joe.

Tasini is simply an unknown quantity, here in New York State, jeffmoskin ....

For whatever reasons that may be ....

But that is changing rapidly ....

Now that Lamont has beaten "SLAMMIN' JOE" Lieberman ....

Just next door ....

In Connecticut ....

And so ....

The problem with Tasini ....

Is that he is not all FLASH ...

And PIZZAZ .....

Like the real PLAYERS up here ....

The Eliot Spitzer's ....

And MS. Hillary, herself ....

Who Tasini could potentially romp ....

If they get to debating this issue ....

Of George W. Bush's WAR GONE REALLY WRONG ...

More publicly ...

Here in the State of New York ....

Where George W. Bush ....

Is about as popular ....

As a mangy, chicken-killing dog .....

Hanging around a chicken farm ....

Because MS. Hillary is not all that popular ....

Here in upstate New York .....

Largely because she comes across as a cold, crass, calculating person .....

Out for herself .....

And get out of her way ....

She's comin' through ....

And she'll go right over the top of you ....

If you don't scramble out of her way ....

And so ....

As to Dr. Dean ....

And the mainstream Democrats giving money to Tasini ....

So that he could whip MS. Hillary .....

And take her spot on the ballot .....

That could happen, I suppose ...

The money part of it, anyway ....

From the Democrats ........

But pigs might have wings ....

First ....

And fly like eagles ....

Before that happens ....

Because MS. Hillary has clout in the Democratic Party .....

And outside of you knowing him ....

Tasini is largely unheard of .....

Here in New York State .....

And so ...

And thanks for speaking up on this, jeffmoskin ....

I wouldn't mind seeing MS. Hillary gone ....

From the United States Senate ....

And if Tasini can do it ....

Beat her in a primary ....

And get himself on the ballot ....

Well ...

Whoever does know ....

But having someone who believes in public service ....

For the sake of serving the public ....

Serving in OUR United States Senate .....

Is preferable .....

To being stuck with someone ....

Like MS. Hillary ...

Who is in there ...

Serving herself ....

And so ....

And this morning ...

On the Legislative Gazette radio show .....

Here in New York State ....

Which can be picked up "on-line" .....

Between 6:00 A.M. and about 6:50 A.M. EST .....

Sunday mornings ....

By going to http://www.wbkk.org .....

And clicking on "listen live" ....

They had on Dr. Alan Chartock .....

Who is a political scientist up this way ....

And he was asking the directer of Siena Research .....

Why they were not including Tasini's name .....

On their recent poll ....

For statewide office ....

And what that guy said .....

Was that it already takes a lot of time ....

To do those polls over the phone ....

And since nobody knows who Tasini is ....

They just leave his name off ....

For the sake of keeping their polling questions ....

Within a certain time frame ...

And so .....

Being largely unknown ....

At least in politics up here ....

Almost guarantees .....

That you will remain unknown ....

If you don't have the cash ....

To buy name recognition with ....

And someone like Tasini ....

Who is not in it ...

"FOR HIS POCKET" .....

And is not rich ....

Like Eliot Spitzer ....

Isn't likely to have the cash .....

That will give him some FLASH ....

Like Eliot Spitzer has ....

And so ....

I am a Viet Nam combat veteran .....

Who was wounded in the head .....

Twice .....

And so .....

I have had some experience .....

Being a disabled veteran over here ....

In perfect America .....

With a head injury ......

From combat .....

The jeers that gains one ...

The mockery ....

Perfect people pointing at their own heads .....

And making little circles ....

With their fingers ....

As if a head wound made you into an imbecile ....

When pointing you out to others .....

Like them ...

Perfect in every way ....

Because they never went themselves ....

And so ...

I have to say ...

That if you can avoid the experience .....

Of getting a head wound in combat ....

Well ....

You should certainly consider it ...

Because the experience itself ...

And especially the part of it that would require dealing with the useless VA Hospital system ....

Once you have your head wound ....

Isn't really all that much to crow about .....

And I can't see ....

Where there is much ....

To recommend it ....

To anyone else ....

And so .....

If you have a head wound ....

From combat ....

And you are coming back to here with it ....

Well ....

Good luck ....

Because the United States government isn't going to give a damn about you ....

Not because you have a head wound, anyway ....

From my experience of it ......

As one who has two ....

And since there is no real cure ....

For a head wound ...

Once you have one ....

Outside of dying of it ....

And getting yourself gone ....

The Congress is going to pretend that there is ....

A cure, I mean ...

By setting aside funds .....

As if there were .....

And so ....

It's too easy over here ...

For them to toss disabled veterans .....

With head wounds ....

Into the ****-can .....

Because perfect American people ......

Are queasy about people with head wounds .....

And they would rather just see them gone ....

And the Congress knows that ...

Because it feels that way itself ....

Being perfect in every way ...

As it is ....

Since it is the AMERICAN CONGRESS ....

Which is THE CONGRESS of a nation, perfect in every way ....

Except for those with head wounds ....

Hanging around over here ....

Waiting to die ....

To end their misery ....

Who nobody sees ....

Because they are hidden away ....

Out of sight ....

Out of mind ...

Let them suffer on their own ...

We're much too busy with other things of more importance than them ....

And so ....

It's a thing of cost/benefit analysis ....

Disabled veterans ....

With head wounds .....

Just aren't worth ....

Putting any money into ....

Because you don't get nothing back for it ....

They are disabled for life ....

Whether you spend a dime on them ....

Or not ....

And nothing is really going to change that equation ....

At least in our lifetimes ....

And so ...

And speaking of "SLAMMIN' JOE" Lieberman .....

And his SOUL-MATE, Dick "I-AM-INDEED-A-THUG-AND-PROUD-OF-IT" Cheney ....

And ATTACKS .....

On Lamont ....

Who beat "SLAMMIN' JOE" ......

By Lieberman and Cheney ....

In tandem ....

Or in thrall to each other, perhaps ....

We have .....

"Lamont: Lieberman sounded like Cheney"

By ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:56 p.m., Sunday, August 13, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont, the anti-war candidate who toppled Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary, says he was surprised by Lieberman and Vice President Dick Cheney's claims that his victory could embolden terrorists.

"My God, here we have a terrorist threat against hearth and home and the very first thing that comes out of their mind is how can we turn this to partisan advantage."

"I find that offensive," Lamont said in an interview Sunday with The Associated Press.

After British officials disclosed they had thwarted a terrorist airline bombing plot on Thursday, Lieberman warned that Lamont's call for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq would be "taken as a tremendous victory" by terrorists.

Cheney suggested Wednesday that Lamont's victory might encourage "the al-Qaida types" who want to "break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task."

Lamont said Lieberman's swipe at his candidacy "sounded an awful lot" like Cheney.

"It surprised me," he said.

"It seemed almost orchestrated."

"It's sort of demeaning to the people of Connecticut."

"... I thought the senator and the vice president were both wrong to use that attack (strategy) on the voters of Connecticut."

The Lieberman camp Sunday brushed aside Lamont's comments.

"All Lieberman did was point out an important difference between his approach to national security and Ned Lamont's, which is what campaigns are all about," said Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein.

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said Lamont was the one seeking to score political points with the terror war.

"Sounds like he's the one playing politics at a time the president is trying to build national unity and cooperation in fighting a determined and murderous enemy -- an enemy whose tactics and hatred we got to glimpse again last week, an enemy that continues to plot in the shadows and to probe weaknesses," McBride said.

Lamont's upset victory last week, fueled in part by liberal bloggers, was viewed by many as a referendum on Iraq and President Bush's handling of the war.

The debate has placed his candidacy in the national spotlight.

Lamont, who was in Washington for appearances on two Sunday TV news talk shows, is reaching out to the Democratic Party establishment for help in what is expected to be a bruising general election fight against Lieberman.

Many top Democrats, including national party chairman Howard Dean and leading senators, have abandoned Lieberman, the party's 2000 vice presidential nominee.

They have lined up behind Lamont in the general election, a three-way fight that also includes Republican Alan Schlesinger.

Some Democrats are urging Lieberman to drop his independent bid to clear a path for Lamont.

"It would be better for the Democratic Party, it would be better for the people of Connecticut, it would be better for the country" if Lieberman got out of the race, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said on ABC's "This Week."

Lamont said he had no idea whether Lieberman might reconsider his candidacy.

"It's not helpful," he said of the possibility Lieberman could play the role of the spoiler.

Lamont also said he doubted that Republicans would find a stronger candidate than Schlesinger, who trails far behind both Lamont and Lieberman in recent polls.

"My hunch is they're not going to do that," Lamont said.

Lamont's previous political experience was serving in local offices such as selectman in Greenwich, Conn.

He said he had no plans to tailor his campaign message in the fall race to appeal to independents or moderates in both parties.

"I'm not changing my message one iota now," Lamont said.

"It is a message that resonates."

"It's not just Democrats who think that we need real change in Washington, D.C."

Lamont, 52, is a great-grandson of the former chairman of JP Morgan & Co.

He has estimated that he's worth $90 million to $300 million.

In 1984 he founded a company that wires college campuses for cable television.

Lamont spent about $4 million of his own money in the primary.

He said he doubted he would have to provide a similar-sized cash infusion for the general election, but he vowed to remain competitive in terms of fundraising.

"We're not going to be badly outspent," said Lamont.

Lieberman has about $2 million in campaign funds for the fall race after spending roughly $5 million during the primary, according to campaign spokesman Gerstein.

"We will raise enough to win," Gerstein said.

------

On the Net:

Ned Lamont: http://www.nedlamont.com/

Joe Lieberman: http://www.joe2006.com/

Alan Schlesinger: http://www.schlesinger2006.com/

end quotes

Dick Cheney .....

As a real ULTRA-RIGHT-WING CONSERVATIVE .....

Seems to be operating from the level of his brain stem right now ....

Or maybe his reptilian brain .....

But no higher than that .....

Locked into "FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT" SYNDROME as he seems to be .....

Dick just can't see going forward .....

To him .....

There is only doing what we are doing now .....

Which is nothing more .....

Than thrashing around .....

And running amuck ....

Like a snake ....

That just had its head crushed .....

By a semi-trailer ....

OR GOING BACK ...

To what we were doing before .....

We started acting like a snake ....

That just had its head crsuhed ....

By a semi-trailer .....

And so .....

Being driven by his reptilian brain ....

All Dick Cheney knows right now is ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK SPIT VENOM, ATTACK, SPIT MORE VENOM, ATTACK AGAIN .... .....

And "SLAMMIN' JOE" Lieberman seems to have the same disease as Cheney does .....

Which is making them both ...

Foam at the mouth ...

Like rabid dogs ....

And gibber ...

Like a pair of idiots ....

And so ...

Livyjr, I am truly sorry you got wounded in that awful war in that awful place that another AWFUL TAIXHAN said he would never send American boys to.

I saw a photo a few days ago of the commander in theif, jogging with a veteran.

Only the veteran was jogging on steel legs.

Made me weep.

Franklin was right: "There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace."

I applaud that veteran with the steel legs, but I'm sorry he doesn't realize that he is being used by the Bushman for a photo op. I know it was the vet's dream come true - but I wonder how he must feel about the experience after the fact. If Bush can run with a vet, the least he could do is attend a funeral.

Liv - I'm sorry about the head wounds. I didn't know. Justin Frank is a friend of mine. He wrote Bush On The Couch. I am appalled with the Congress ratcheting back veterans benefits. Absolute appalled. It is beyond sinful. Its downright evil.
The Snuff

In here, Snuf ....

I am of course nothing but aether .....

Since in here ....

We are but virtual .....

And so ....

In here .....

I have no head wounds ....

Not having a head .....

In here .....

To be wounded in ...

In the first place ....

And so ....

And in my own experience of it ...

There is much in life that is evil ...

And the point of the exercise .....

So far as I can see it anyway ....

While we are down here on earth, anyway ....

IS TO NOT BECOME A PART OF IT ....

Between the time we get here ....

And the time that we leave ....

And so ....

All else is simply happenstance ....

And I do alright with my head wounds ....

Since the other alternative is to be miserable and in pain all the time ....

And so long as I stay away from the VA Hospital ....

And its doctors .....

And perfect people ....

Who point at their own heads ....

And make little circles with their fingers ....

As if a head wound received in combat .....

Made you into into an imbecile .....

Or an idiot of some kind ....

When pointing me out to other perfect people ....

Who never went to combat ....

And so ....

Missed out ...

On what is an excellent opportunity ....

To get their own heads ...

Blown right off their shoulders ....

As was mine ....

I do alright for myself ...

And so ....

How is it?

A bit of moderation in life goes far?

Works for me, anyway ....

And so ....

"The vet's dream come true ..."

Powerful words, Snuf ....

Powerful words .....

And what an empty dream that just might be ...

Tomarrow ...

And tomarrow ...

And tomarrow .....

But what the hey .....

This is America ....

And what you do with your life ...

After your legs have been blown off ...

In a damn fool war ......

Based on a pack of lies .....

Is your own business ....

Just as it ought to be ....

In a LAND OF LIBERTY ....

And so .....

Today ....

At 4:00 P.M. ....

I turned on CLEAR CHANNELS WORLDWIDE .....

To hear what the weather was going to be tonight and tomarrow ....

According to their STORM TEAM DOPPLER people, anyway ....

And the first thing that I heard ....

When the radio came on ....

Was Sean Hannity ....

Making a pitch ....

For something called a Temperpedic mattress ....

Which apparently is what he sleeps on .....

To make him the way he is ....

And what he was saying .....

And it made sense ......

When you heard it ....

Was that EVERY AMERICAN DESERVED A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP .....

And all I could think of, was "By God, I bet that is what this is really all about" .....

Sean Hannity's CONSERVATIVE AGENDA, I mean .....

It's about giving every American ....

And not just some ...

But every American ....

The chance ....

For a good night's sleep ....

And for that ....

Why ...

We need free enterprise .....

And these extremist Muslims .....

Well ....

They are against our way of life .....

Which has to mean .....

That they are against every American getting a good night's sleep .....

Which has them square up against Sean Hannity and Temperpedic Mattresses ....

These extremist Muslims .....

Are against us getting a good night's sleep here in OUR America ....

Which is why they are getting George W. Bush and Isreal all upset ...

So that George W. Bush and Isreal will get us all upset in turn ....

And then we won't be able to sleep on our present mattress ....

At which time ....

We will hear the soft, crooning voice .....

Of Sean Hannity .....

Coming out of our radios .....

And what he will be saying ....

Because I heard him today .....

Is that, yes, all of this **** going on in the world .....

Bothers him too ...

Probably more than most ...

Because he has a radio show ...

And he has to talk about this stuff ...

EVERY DAY, TOO ....

Which means that he gets no rest .....

Whereas most of America just has to listen ...

Which is a passive activity ....

Not requiring .....

The massive amounts of energy .....

That he has to put out ......

Talking on and on like he does ....

But despite that ....

Despite the massive amounts of energy that he has to expend ....

And despite the TAY-RIST'S best efforts .....

To disrupt Sean Hannity's sleep .....

Sean Hannity is just too smart for them .....

Being the CONSERVATIVE TALK SHOW HOST that he is ....

Here in OUR America ...

He has this Temerpedic Mattress to sleep on .....

And he sleeps like a baby .....

Despite the threat of some TAY-RIST gonna murder him in his sleep .....

And if we just call this toll-free number .....

We can order a Temperpedic Mattress off of him ....

And he won't nail us too bad on his commission .....

Because we're all Americans after all .....

And we have to hang together .....

And when this Temperpedic Mattress comes .....

And now ....

We are sleeping better than our neighbors ....

Who don't have one .....

Just tell them to call Sean .....

And he will get them hooked up with one .....

And then they will be sleeping better .....

And so .....

You figure there are three hundred million people in America ......

Sleeping say, two or three per bed ....

That's still a hundred million mattresses ....

And so .....

I don't exactly know what Sean Hannity's cut is .....

But you know, a famous guy like him .....

It's probably ten percent per mattress sold .....

Or something like that anyway .....

So if this Sean Hannity peddles enough mattresses ......

He's going to be a rich man .....

Here in OUR America .....

And so .....

No wonder this wave of TAY-RAH has been going on for so long now ......

Sean Hannity still has millions of mattresses to sell .....

Here in OUR America ....

And he is going to stay the course .....

Until he achieves total victory .....

On that score .....

And when the going gets tough ....

Sean Hannity don't cut and run .....

He don't switch brands .....

Just because someone wants a Sealey Posturepedic instead ....

And is willing to debate him on that score .....

No .....

Sean just denounces them ...

And their brand ....

As being weak on TAY-RIZM ....

Because they are against the TEMPERPEDIC MATTRESS .....

And the promise it holds out .....

Of a good night's sleep .....

For every American .....

And not just some .....

Like the YUPPIES who buy Sealy Posturepedics .....

And then drink lattes on them ....

While watching nature specials .....

On their wide-screen TV's .....

About the rape of the rain forests ....

By American corporations .....

That Sean Hannity is for .....

And so ....

Oh, by the way ....

Some rain tonight, perhaps ....

Clearing tomarrow ....

And so .....

And then ....

When Sean Hannity got done pitching Temperpedic Mattresses ......

As the cure for what ails America .....

Next .....

On came FOX FAIR AND BALANCED YOU DECIDE .....

And what they had on ....

Was George W. Bush .....

Growling like he always does .....

And he was speaking like he is the President of Isreal ....

Like Isreal is his country .....

And how Hezbollah invaded Isreal .....

And made war on it ....

And tried to stamp out Isreal's democracy .....

But Hezbollah lost to George W. Bush and Isreal .....

And so .....

It reminded me .....

Of one of these guys .....

Who is married to different women .....

In different cities ...

With families all over the place ....

All at the same time ...

George W. Bush ....

Being the president .....

Of America ....

And Isreal ....

And Iraq ...

And Afghanistan ....

All at the same time ....

And so .....

What a man that George W. Bush must be .....

To handle a plate-full like that ....

Without spilling .....

No gravy .....

Or beans ....

And so ....

And speaking of George .....

Why .....

Here he is .....

Running his mouth as always .....

Fomenting more trouble .....

For the innocent people of the world ....

Who he cares nothing at all about killing ....

And destroying their property .....

And possessions ....

As though he were GOD ....

And these life-and-death decisions ....

Were his to make ....

And so ....

"Bush says Israel defeated Hezbollah"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:06 p.m., Monday, August 14, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, just hours after a cease-fire took hold Monday, said Hezbollah guerillas had suffered a sound defeat at the hands of Israel in their monthlong Mideast war.

"There's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon," Bush said, referring to plans for the Lebanese government, backed by an international force, to reassert control in the area that has been dominated by Hezbollah fighters.

The president also said the war was part of a broader struggle between freedom and terror, and he blamed Iran and Syria for fomenting the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

"We can only imagine how much more dangerous this conflict would be if Iran had the nuclear weapon it seeks," the president said.

Bush said Iran and Syria were the primary sponsors of Hezbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers, igniting the battle with Israel.

More than 900 people were killed in the fighting, and there was massive destruction in southern Lebanon.

Bush said the "responsibility for this suffering lies with Hezbollah."

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

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

Bush said the U.N. cease-fire resolution was "an important step forward that will help bring an end to the violence."

"We certainly hope the cease-fire holds," he said.

"Lebanon can't be a strong democracy when there is a state within a state and that's Hezbollah."

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

"The reason why is, this is because there's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon, and that's going to be a Lebanese force with a robust international force to help them seize control of the country."

"It will take time for people to see the truth, that Hezbollah hides behind innocent civilians," Bush said.

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

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the war had shifted the strategic balance in the region and eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah, restoring Lebanon's sovereignty in the south.

But Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said his guerrillas achieved a "strategic, historic victory" against Israel.

Bush, taking questions from reporters on a variety of topics, said the United States still believes that al-Qaida was behind last week's disrupted plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners from Britain.

"It sure looks like it."

"... It looks like the kind of thing al-Qaida would do," he said.

But he said the United States has not made a definite conclusion about the sponsorship of the plan.

Asked if there might be any U.S.-based participants, Bush said, "Any time we get a hint that there might be a terror cell in the United States, we move on it."

While Bush praised the Mideast cease-fire, he said Israel would have the right to defend itself if it were attacked by Hezbollah.

"We don't advise Israel on its military options," the president said.

"As far as I'm concerned, if somebody shoots at an Israeli soldier ... Israel has a right to defend herself."

"They have the right to suppress that kind of fire."

Bush rejected criticism that the United States was slow to support a cease-fire and allowed the violence to continue.

"You know it's going to be a painful process," the president said.

"Diplomacy can be a painful process."

He said that if a resolution had been reached quickly without addressing the root causes, then "everybody would have felt better for a quick period of time."

"Then the violence would have erupted again."

end quotes

And the violence will erupt again .....

It always does ....

And George W. Bush coddling Isreal .....

And praising it ....

For the wanton destruction that it rained down on the innocent people of Lebanon ....

Making Lebanon burn ...

While George W. Bush ....

Just fiddled around ....

Coddling Isreal ....

While spitting in the faces .....

Of the people of Lebanon ....

Who were being killed wholesale by Isreal ....

Isn't going to do doodly-squat .....

For the peace process over there .....

Which is as much a bunch of BULL **** .....

As is this WAR OF TERROR ....

That George W. Bush is visiting on .....

Women and children in the Middle East ....

As he searches ....

In vain, so far ....

For his TOTAL VICTORY ....

Because George don't cut and run .....

Not when there are still some women and children left to kill ...

Oh, no .....

George W. Bush .....

Stays the course ....

And so ....

Don't expect no peace over there, anytime soon ....

Is my thought on the matter .....

Because George W. Bush don't want peace ....

He wants TOTAL VICTORY .....

Which means more people have yet to die ....

For George to achieve his goal .....

OF TOTAL VICTORY ....

OVER ALL THE WORLD .....

And all of its peoples .....

And so ....

Especially if you are an American soldier .....

Destined to spend .....

The rest of your natural life .....

Fighting for George W. Bush .....

And PEACE .....

In war-torn IRAQINAMISTAN ....

Which is a real mess these days ....

Thanks to George ....

And his inability ....

To get done ....

What needs to be done over there ....

If OUR troops ....

Will ever have a hope ....

Of seeing their homes ....

And their families .....

In their lifetimes ....

While George searches ....

In vain ....

For his TOTAL VICTORY .....

Over something, anyway ....

If only he knew what it was ....

And so ....

"Army recalling 300 troops to Iraq"

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:56 p.m., Monday, August 14, 2006

WASHINGTON -- About 300 Alaska-based soldiers sent home from Iraq just before their unit's deployment was extended last month must now go back, the Army said Monday, setting up a wrenching departure for troops and families who thought their service there was finished.

The soldiers -- all from the 172nd Stryker Brigade -- are among the 380 troops who had gotten home to Fort Wainwright when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered the unit to serve four more months.

The remaining 80 will not have to return to Iraq.

Army officials have sent a team of personnel and pay experts to Alaska to help sort out all of the soldiers' vacations, school enrollments and other plans torn apart by the decision to return them to Iraq.

The unit is now being stationed in Baghdad, one of the most violent parts of the country.

Lt. Col. Wayne Shanks, a service spokesman, said the Army fully realizes the hardships triggered by the move and is "bending over backward to accommodate" the families.

The bulk of the 172nd Brigade was still in Iraq when Rumsfeld extended their deployment as part of a plan to quell the escalating violence in Baghdad.

Overall, the brigade has about 3,900 troops.

Another 300 soldiers from the unit had left Iraq and gotten to Kuwait, and were about to board flights home when they were called back.

Before Monday's announcement, the troops who had already returned home to Alaska had been told that decisions on their fates would be made on a case-by-case basis.

Army officials said they don't recall another time during the three-year-long Iraq war when the Pentagon so quickly recalled soldiers who had served a year on the battlefront and gotten home.

Other units have had their deployments extended anywhere from a week or two to a few months.

The 300 soldiers recalled from Alaska on Monday got to spend between three and five weeks at home, and will head back to Iraq in the next two weeks.

Most of the brigade is expected to leave Iraq by the end of the year, although Army spokesman Paul Boyce said Monday there are no assurances the unit's stay will not be extended again.

A second extension, however, would be very rare.

For some, the return to Iraq may mean they will miss the holidays or much-anticipated vacations.

For others, it means rescheduling military or civilian college classes, or postponing long-planned moves out of state or to different Army units.

Soldiers who serve more than 365 days on the warfront will receive $1,000 more per month -- $800 for incentive pay and $200 for additional hazardous duty pay.

Last week eight Army officials went to Alaska to meet with the soldiers and their families to work out scheduling conflicts and other problems brought on by the sudden change.

Hotlines also have been set up to assist family members.

About 50 of the approximately 80 soldiers who do not have to return to Iraq were the advance team that headed back to Alaska early to prepare for the unit's return.

They will stay in Alaska and plan for the unit's eventual return late this year.

The other 30, said Boyce, were allowed to stay in Alaska based largely on their individual duties and needs of the brigade.

Sectarian violence has rocked Baghdad, bringing it to what some believe is the brink of civil war.

In response, U.S. and Iraqi military leaders have shifted thousands of troops into Baghdad, targeting four critical regions wracked by attacks between Sunni insurgents and Shiite extremists.

The new offensive has driven the number of U.S. troops in Iraq up to 135,000 --reversing a trend of declining personnel levels that had begun earlier this year.

And, the increased level dampens hopes of a significant withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of the year, just as members of Congress returned to their home districts to voters growing increasingly weary of the war.

Rumsfeld must approve any deployment that is longer than a year on the ground in Iraq.

------

On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil

And speaking about not getting done ....

What needs to be done ....

Over there in IRAQINAMISTAN .....

Where OUR American troops ....

Are destined to stay forever .....

Because George W. Bush don't cut-and-run .....

We have .....

What George W. Bush calls .....

"STAYING THE COURSE" .....

As he ....

AND THE REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS ....

Have set it out to be ....

And so ....

"Iraq has worst fuel shortage since '03"

By RAWYA RAGEH, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:35 p.m., Sunday, August 13, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Under a scorching sun, Baghdad taxi driver Sameer Abdul Razzaq wraps a wet towel around his head and waits for gasoline in a line stretching a mile.

"I've been here since 6 a.m.," he said Sunday.

"If I'm lucky, I'll get to the end of the line by sunset."

I actually think I might end up spending the night here."

This is the capital of what should be one of the world's great oil producers, but corruption and insurgent attacks have Iraqis mired in their worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein was ousted, with black market gasoline costing as much as $4 a gallon.

The official price is $1 a gallon, but the fuel is often unavailable, forcing most Iraqi drivers to shell out the higher price to streetside vendors or wait in long lines at gas stations.

The shortage affects other petroleum products too.

A cylinder of cooking gas costs about $18 on the black market -- double the price a few months ago.

All that causes ripple effects that compound problems facing an Iraqi public weary of bloodshed, sectarian strife, the presence of U.S.-led forces and the government's inability to restore peace.

Taxi drivers have quadrupled their fares.

Higher delivery costs for food and other essentials are passed on to consumers -- many already living on the margin.

"We're going to switch to a small kerosene stove instead," housewife Amaal Ahmed Jabbar said after paying premium prices for cooking fuel.

The irony is especially bitter in a country that sits atop the world's third-largest proven petroleum reserves.

Iraq's estimated 115 billion barrels are exceeded in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries only by Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Iraq has been plagued by periodic fuel shortages since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

But the current crisis comes amid higher demand for fuel to power generators and air-condition homes and offices, with summer temperatures topping 115 degrees.

The shortage is so bad that even a gas station inside the Green Zone, home of major Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy, ran out of fuel Sunday afternoon.

The government blames the problem on insurgent attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure, which snarl the distribution system.

"I realize that people are really suffering from the lack of energy and electricity," President Jalal Talabani said Sunday.

"But this is not the fault of the government ... terrorists have blown up many power stations as well as the pipeline" that delivers crude oil from the northern fields around Kirkuk to the main refinery in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

The Beiji facility had a prewar capacity to refine 2 million to 2.25 million gallons of gasoline a day.

It is now producing less than 260,000 gallons of gasoline a day, Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said, citing electricity shortages and threats to refinery operators as the main sources of the problem.

Last week, the main oil storage facility in Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, had to shut down after workers received death threats.

More than 250 Oil Ministry officials, workers and security guards have been killed since the collapse of the previous regime, according to the ministry.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that 315 major attacks have struck pipelines, electricity plants and other energy infrastructure between April 2003 and June.

The attacks have left the country struggling to restore oil production to prewar levels of about 2.5 million to 3 million barrels a day.

As of May, production stood at about 1.9 million barrels a day, U.S. officials said.

The International Relations and Security Network, a Swiss group that promotes exchanges of information among security professionals, also blamed widespread corruption within the Oil Ministry.

Last year, 450 Oil Ministry employees were fired for illegally selling oil and petroleum products.

In an April report, the Oil Ministry's inspector general Ali al-Alaak estimated about $4 billion worth of petroleum products were smuggled out of Iraq last year, including gasoline and crude oil siphoned from pipelines.

All that has added to the deep sense of pessimism among Iraqis.

"The ministers are busy with one thing only, and that is touring the world as we wallow here in the Middle Ages," said lawyer Ahmed Mohammed Ali, 55.

"Everyday I take a container to the gas station to get some fuel to run my generator."

"It takes me up to five hours and sometimes all I get is humiliation by the security personnel in charge of the station."

Last month, Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani predicted that Iraq's oil production would double over the next four years to 4 million barrels a day -- a forecast that some petroleum experts thought was overly optimistic.

Hassan al-Jubouri, who runs a ceramics workshop, says he's going broke.

"My workshop is closed because I cannot run the generator," he said.

"My family is without a source of living due to this shortage."

------

Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.

end quotes

I'm amazed .....

That anyone here in America .....

Thinks ....

That the man ....

Who could not take care of one city .....

Here in OUR America .....

During a hurricane .....

Can do anything ....

For anything bigger .....

Like a country .....

Like Iraq ....

Or a country ....

Like OUR America ....

Which is betting ....

That the man ...

Who could not even protect one city ....

Is the man ...

To trust OUR whole national security to ....

And so ....

Take a real good look at the mess in Iraq right now .....

And that is OUR future that you are looking at .....

If you leave the REPUBLICANS in power in the CONGRESS ....

SINCE THIS IS THEIR MESS YOU ARE LOOKING AT ....

A MESS .....

THAT STEMS FROM THEIR INEPTNESS .....

AND THEIR INABILITY .....

TO GET THE JOB DONE ....

AND DONE RIGHT ....

ON TIME ....

UNDER BUDGET ....

WHICH IS NOT ....

THE CORRUPT REPUBLICAN WAY ....

AT ALL ....

And so .....

And as George W. Bush .....

Climbs up ....

Onto an old stump ....

And rears way back .....

And yells out .....

In as loud a voice as he can ....

"BRING IT ON" ......

To Hezbollah ....

While thumping his chest ....

With both fists ....

Like a gorilla .....

"Hezbollah claims win as cease-fire holds"

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:27 p.m., Monday, August 14, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Tens of thousands of Lebanese jammed bomb-cratered roads Monday as they returned to still-smoldering scenes of destruction after a tenuous cease-fire ended 34 days of vicious combat between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lines of cars -- some loaded with mattresses and luggage -- snaked slowly around huge holes in the roads and ruined bridges.

Hezbollah fighters hugged each other and celebratory gunfire and fireworks erupted in Beirut when the Islamic militant group's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah claimed a "strategic, historic victory."

Israeli Prime Ehud Olmert also claimed success, saying the offensive eliminated the "state within a state" run by Hezbollah group and restored Lebanon's sovereignty in the south.

In northern Israel, residents emerged from bomb shelters, hopeful that the barrage of nearly 4,000 Hezbollah rockets that had rained down on towns and villages since July 12 had ended -- for now.

Stores shuttered for weeks reopened and some people returned to the beaches in Haifa, which suffered most from guerrilla attacks.

President Bush said Monday that Hezbollah guerillas suffered a defeat at the hands of Israel and he blamed the guerrilla group for the devastation.

"There's going to be a new power in the south of Lebanon," he said.

The conflict left nearly 950 people dead -- 791 in Lebanon and 155 on the Israeli side, according to official counts.

The truce that took effect at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) largely held through its first day, although six Hezbollah fighters were killed in skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah that illustrated the fragility of the cease-fire.

The odds of a durable end to the fighting depended on the quick deployment of the Lebanese army and an international force into the 18-mile-deep band of south Lebanon between the Litani River and the Israeli frontier.

A United Nations force that now has 2,000 peacekeepers in south Lebanon is to grow to 15,000 troops, and Lebanon's army is to send in a 15,000-man contingent.

Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias Murr said Lebanese forces would be ready to deploy north of the Litani River this week, but that was unlikely to satisfy Israel, which wants a force along the border to rein in Hezbollah.

Murr also said the current U.N. peacekeeping force would assume positions vacated by Israel before handing them over to the Lebanese army, and he expected international troops to begin arriving within the next 10 days.

The French commander of the current U.N. force known as UNIFIL, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, told The Associated Press that additional troops were needed quickly because the stability of the cease-fire was fragile.

The region is "not safe from a provocation, or a stray act, that could undermine everything," he said.

France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, have signaled willingness to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force, but consultations are needed on the force's makeup and mandate.

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Italy's troops could be ready within two weeks.

In Jerusalem, officials said Israeli troops would begin pulling out as soon as the Lebanese and international troops start deploying to the area.

But it appeared Israeli forces were staying put for now.

Some exhausted soldiers left early Monday and were being replaced by fresh troops.

While Israel claimed to have flooded south Lebanon with 30,000 soldiers in its final offensive, an AP reporter who drove Monday from Tyre to the Israeli border and through several destroyed villages along the frontier saw only one Israeli tank.

Humanitarian groups sent convoys of food, water and medical supplies into the south, but the clogged roads slowed the effort.

U.N. officials said 24 U.N. trucks took more than five hours to reach the port of Tyre from Sidon, a trip that normally takes 45 minutes.

Israel urged Lebanese to stay out of the conflict zone in south Lebanon, saying it was still dangerous because Israeli and Hezbollah fighters were in the area.

"Of course, the army would not open fire on civilians in the area," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman.

The rush to return home came despite a standoff that threatened to keep the cease-fire from taking root.

Israel threatened to retaliate against any attacks, while Nasrallah said the militia would consider Israeli troops legitimate targets until they leave.

But Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that aside from the isolated skirmishes that killed six Hezbollah fighters, the cease-fire was holding and could have implications for future relations with Israel's neighbors.

Both sides appeared under strict orders to avoid confrontation.

The slain militants "were very close, they were armed, and they posed a danger to the troops," Dallal said.

"We're going to shoot anybody who poses an imminent threat to the troops."

The mayor of the largely Christian town of Marjayoun said Israeli forces pulled out Monday after blowing up part of the Lebanese army barracks in the city.

Israel occupied the town Thursday.

Hezbollah was believed to have suffered heavy casualties -- it reported only 68 fighters killed, but Israel said the number was closer to 400.

Olmert claimed his army largely destroyed the Hezbollah arsenal.

But the guerrilla organization emerged from the conflict with far broader support in Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world than it had going into the fight, meaning it will be harder for the Lebanese government to enforce international demands for Hezbollah's disarmament.

Now was not the time to debate the disarmament of his guerrilla fighters, Nasrallah asserted as he claimed victory after his forces stood toe-to-toe against Israel's vaunted military, able to fire rockets to the very end and blunt attempts by an overwhelming Israeli ground force to wipe out guerrilla positions.

"The Lebanese army and international troops are incapable of protecting Lebanon," he said, sitting in front of Lebanese and Hezbollah flags.

But Nasrallah said he was open to dialogue about Hezbollah's weapons at the appropriate time.

He also credited his group's weapons with proving to Israel that "war with Lebanon will not be a picnic."

"It will be very costly."

The militant Shiite Muslim group, sponsored by Iran and Syria, claimed to have killed vast numbers of opponents.

The Israelis said they lost 118 in combat.

For the first time in more than a month the skies above Lebanon were free of attacking Israeli jets and drones.

Artillery fell silent and Hezbollah halted its massive rocket bombardment, which saw the guerrillas strike deeper into Israel than ever before using what Israel said were Iranian-made Khaibar-1 rockets.

The civilian toll was enormous -- 692 in Lebanon and 39 in Israel -- and damage to Lebanese infrastructure was sure to run into billions of dollars.

Whole towns and villages in the south were largely flattened, especially along the border with Israel and a broad swath of the Hezbollah dominated suburbs in south Beirut.

Bridges and roads throughout the country were destroyed and the Beirut airport remained closed.

Israel said it would continue its blockade of Lebanese ports but was no longer threatening to shoot any car that moved on the roads south of the Litani.

Jamila Marina screamed and collapsed when she saw her destroyed home in Yaroun, a mainly Christian village a few miles south of hard-hit Bint Jbail.

"Why did this happen."

"What have we done to deserve this!" she yelled.

Rosetta Ajaka, also just returned, found her badly damaged home had been used as a Hezbollah outpost.

A rocket launcher still sat in the front garden.

The political fallout was significant.

The unity that has governed Israeli politics was expected to quickly fracture.

Three Knesset members were ejected from the parliament during an Olmert speech Monday for heckling and several others had called for a commission of inquiry into the offensive.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora faced the threat of a government collapse as well, given the task of disarming Hezbollah fighters.

The group has two Cabinet ministers and 14 votes in Parliament and could easily undo government unanimity when a vote is taken on the Hezbollah disarmament issue -- as is demanded by the international community.

The dangers for Lebanese civilians were great as well.

At least one child was killed and 15 people were wounded by ordnance that exploded as they returned to their homes in south Lebanon, security officials said.

Many of those filtering back in looked dazed, unable to recognize their neighborhoods.

"I just want to find my house," said Ahmad Maana, an old man who wandered back on foot after spending more than a week hiding in the nearby hills.

Hezbollah fighters -- rarely seen in earlier visits to southern villages -- also appeared more openly.

Two young men in khakis were spotted carrying semiautomatic rifles, and others talked into two-way radios.

A few carloads of young men screeched into Kafra and jumped out of their cars, kissing waiting comrades on each cheek.

end quotes

"BRING IT ON", eh, George ......

I think maybe they are going to "see you" ......

And then ...

Raise you ten ....

Which means US ....

Thanks to you ...

And your mouth ...

From which the world's misery now stems ....

And so ......

Stay your course, George ....

And pretty soon .....

All the world .....

Will be ....

As big a mess ....

As is IRAQ ....

And the Middle East .....

Thanks to you .....

And so ....

Terrell Arnold sent this to me. It just made me very angry. I wish Ricks, who wrote FIASCO would have gone after this as well as the other military blunders in Iraq.


http://www.rense.com/general71/cctro.htm


Ameriraq - The New
Colonial Frontier
By Terrell E. Arnold
6-3-6

The United States is now building a striking diplomatic complex on the bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad. It is more than a mere replacement for the traditionally modest US Embassy in that city. When finished, it will cost more than a billion dollars and consist of 104 acres of grounds, offices, living quarters, eating places, athletic clubs and community facilities. Reminiscent of 19th century "international settlements" such as in Shanghai, China, the new "Embassy" will be a completely self-contained enclave, the largest and most elaborate the United States will have anywhere in the world. The plot of ground reportedly was ceded to the United States for this purpose, although it is not clear whether the US paid for the site. Under normal diplomatic protocols, that means the entire facility will be US territory, self-powered, self-watered, self-sanitized, surrounded by high walls and blast-deflecting berms, protected by American security personnel, and subject only to US laws. Only selected Iraqis will ever see the inside of it.

This diplomatic mission, when operating, could be the leading edge of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's "transformational diplomacy". Her stated goal is to change the United States role in the world. As reported in the Washington Post, that means "not just accepting the world as it is, but trying to change it."

Virtually every American government has had such an idea planted somewhere in its agenda. But changing the world has never been the central goal of diplomacy. That egoistic motif is hard to resist, but the driving truth up to now has been that no government has had enough qualified people to seriously tackle transforming another society, let alone transformation of the whole outside world.

The central purpose of diplomacy perforce has been to conduct civil relations with other governments, regardless of who they are or represent, on matters of mutual interest. Getting other governments and societies to accept American goals, objectives and political or economic systems and approaches is a different kettle of fish. The hardest part of transformational diplomacy is getting a government you like, even out of a successful process of meddling in somebody else's affairs. The Hamas victory in Palestine virtually says it all.

The model for this diplomacy is an Embassy that will be big enough in size and complex enough in staffing to meddle in all the internal affairs of Iraq as well as those of all surrounding regions. How does this immodest pending facility compare with US diplomatic missions in the major capitals of the world? For comparison purposes, Iraq is a country of 437,072 square kilometers that contains roughly 25 million people. When last we had an Embassy in Iraq, before Gulf War I, the entire American staff did not exceed 25 or 30 people.

By comparison, in Brazil, a country of 8.5 million square kilometers, three major cities and a population of 188 million, the US has less than 70 key Americans and total American staff of less than 250 people in three major diplomatic and consular posts plus smaller ones. Sao Paulo State, for example, consists of 247,898 square kilometers, containing 33 million people, with 18 million of them living in the City of Sao Paulo. US Consulate General Sao Paulo has 35-40 people to conduct relations with the Brazilians and support the largest US business community in Latin America. Closer to Iraq, in Egypt, the US has 250 or so people to conduct relations with the most important country of the region that consists of over 1 million square kilometers and 80 million people, and controls one of the world's main waterways, the Suez Canal.

Why such an elaborate concept for the US Embassy in a country of 25 million people? According to initial reports nearly 700 official Americans plus their families will live in the new compound. Those people will represent a dozen or more US agencies, including State, Treasury, the FBI, Homeland Security, Interior, Energy, Defense, Transportation, Commerce, CIA, DEA, and Agriculture for starters. These organizations will not be limited to the conduct of ordinary bilateral relations. State, for example, is now busily seeking recruits to help Iraq rebuild the infrastructure that largely has been destroyed by US/Coalition bombings and ground warfare. Agriculture, for example, could be charged with seeing that the Iraqis live up to part of L. Paul Bremer's final dictate to plant only US certified seed, meaning stop using local and traditional varieties of grain and other foodstuff.

Energy no doubt will plan to play a big hand in the development of Iraq's remaining undeveloped oil resources. The new Constitution, jammed down Iraqi throats by Bremer on departure, requires that any new wells to be drilled will not be developed by Iraq but by outside (read American) oil companies. Whether Iraq will get an OPEC-like share of revenues from those wells is not clear, but the odds are against it if US companies develop the fields. A weak and internally divided Iraqi government has little chance of negotiating a favorable deal on this, so the lion's share of any new Iraqi oil revenues is likely to go abroad.

Iraqis have not been asked to lead much, if any, of the American-sponsored enterprises. Ever since the occupation began, Iraqis have complained that US and Middle Eastern contractors have been brought in to do work the Iraqis could do and, in their own interest, should do. The new US Embassy itself is being built by a Kuwaiti prime contractor with Kuwaiti and mainly Asian labor, the alleged reason being to avoid having Iraqis know too much about how the compound is designed and protected--the obvious assumption being that outsiders either will not remember or will not blab.

The more striking, and from the Iraqi perspective more offensive assumption behind not using Iraqis to work on the new Embassy is that the Iraqi people will always be so opposed to the Americans that any Iraqi knowledge of how the new Embassy is put together could be dangerous to American health. Thus, a "we-they" psychology that now drives the US and Coalition force behavior in Iraq is being designed into the future layout of the American presence. A colony of American officials and families inside a totally protected compound will only reinforce such psychology. With this as format, the future of US/Iraqi relations looks bleak indeed.

The next big question mark concerns Defense. No doubt, DOD will have a large Defense Attaché cadre in the new Embassy, but the bigger issue concerns military bases. Early on after the invasion it was reported that Defense was building four permanent bases in Iraq, and that still seems to be the magic number. With complete candor, the US team in Iraq could admit that instead of rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure destroyed mainly by aerial bombardment, the US is putting the energy and the money into those four bases and the new Embassy. Little work in the meantime has been done to restore basic infrastructure such as power, water and sanitation systems. Softly enough to escape notice, Bush has recently backhandedly admitted plans for bases by asking Congress for funding--over and above the annual budget, the costs of war-fighting, and the new Embassy construction. This may look like mafia bookkeeping to some, because money originally appropriated to rebuild Iraq appears to have been devoted to American bases and operations.

One of those bases was reported early in 2003 to have been planned for the site of ancient Babylon. The site was actually occupied, but archaeologists complained about the damage to this site caused by paving over parts of it with asphalt, using artifact laden materials from the site to fill sandbags, contaminating the site with sand and gravel from outside, as well as bulldozing other areas. However, in light of massive objections from the archaeological community, the US handed the site back to Iraq in early 2004.

Each of four proposed bases, with two mile runways and associated operations, maintenance, living and recreational facilities, a miniature of hometown USA--each a military counterpart of the Embassy in size, or larger-- will mean that Iraq will host by far the largest official American presence outside the United States. But the missions of those bases will be Middle East regional, starting with four large US military facilities looking down the throat of Iran. Iraq, de facto, will become the center of a new American empire. Supplying those bases and maintaining their in-place as well as enroute support networks will become the most demanding operational missions of the US military.

Getting to that point requires that the US-led Coalition squelch the Iraqi insurgency. Few, if any resources will be free for other missions until that is accomplished. Keeping the Iraqi insurgency from reigniting at some future point becomes a vital priority. The first key to success on that is avoiding the emergence of any charismatic new leadership. In turn, the key is to eliminate or frighten into exile any well-educated and well-motivated individuals who might assume future leadership positions. That also is the key to assuring that the matter of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction never arises again. Reported assassinations of scores of Iraqi academics and intellectuals indicate that the process of dumbing down Iraq is well under way.

What will emerge from this process, if all goes as apparently planned, is a docile Iraqi population under an innocuous Iraqi leadership that does the bidding of its American sponsors. That, in fact, is the only profile of a future Iraqi society that is compatible with an American presence on the scale contemplated by the giant new Embassy and four sprawling military bases. The predictable future model is an Iraq subservient to American dictates: Ameriraq.

**********

The writer is the author of the recently published work, A World Less Safe, now available on Amazon, and he is a regular columnist on rense.com. He is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer of the US Department of State whose immediate pre-retirement positions were as Deputy Director of the State Office of Counterterrorism, and as Chairman of the Department of International Studies of the National War College. He will welcome comment at wecanstopit@charter.net.

Fear is a mind-killer, Snuf .....

And anger is a wet blanket ....

Thrown over the fire ....

Of clear thinking ....

It just smokes things up quite a bit ....

And stings the eyes ....

And makes you cough ...

And the fire goes out ...

And your coffee water never boils, as a result ....

And that gets you real mad ...

So that you kick the embers all over the place ....

And one of them goes down your boot ....

And gets to burning your foot ....

Which gets you to yowling pretty good ....

And hopping around on one foot ....

And it just goes downhill from there .....

IF ALL OF THE MILITARY BLUNDERS ASSOCIATED .....

WITH THIS REPUBLICAN INVASION AND SUBSEQUENT OCCUPATION OF IRAQ .....

Were to be put down on paper .....

You and I together .....

Wouldn't have enough lifetime left to us .....

To read them all ...

And so ....

Consider that the mess in Mogadishu chronicled .....

In the book Blackhawk Down .....

Took place really in a mere matter of days ....

And that took a whole book to tell that tale ....

And then consider .....

That this Iraq FISACO .....

Is like a whole continuing series of stupid mistakes and monumental blunders .....

That makes the SHEER STUPIDITY ....

Chronicled in Blackhawk Down .....

Look like pure military genius in comparison ....

Day after day after day after day of it ......

Well .....

You begin to get the picture .....

And so .....

Well ....

You have to give FOX NEWS FAIR AND BALANCED YOU DECIDE some credit for persistence, anyway .....

In keeping the BUSHCO PROPAGANDA flowing .....

Which is what FOX NEWS FAIR AND BALANCED YOU DECIDE is in existence for ....

This morning .....

They had on once again ....

George W. Bush ....

Growling away .....

Just like he was hour after hour yesterday ....

In his capacity as a SPOKESPERSON .....

AND APOLOGIST ....

For Isreal ....

About how it was Hezbollah this ...

And Hezbollah that .....

And Hezbollah some othet thing, as well ...

And Isreal is good .....

And Isreal is innocent ...

And Isreal has a right to kill anybody that it wants to kill ...

But no one else has a right to defend themselves from being killed by Isreal ....

Or George W. Bush .....

Or Tony Blair .....

Over there in Great Britain ....

AND ISREAL WON THE WAR .....

AND OF COURSE .....

HEZBOLLAH LOST .....

While FOX NEWS FAIR AND BALANCED YOU DECIDE .....

Is one of the best ORGANS OF PROPAGANDA .....

That the BUSHCOS have .....

It is very clear .....

That George W. Bush .....

IS AN EVEN BETTER PROPAGANDIST .....

FOR HIS MASTERS IN ISREAL .....

And so ....

"No clear winner in 34-day conflict - Hezbollah is likely to face criticism for starting war, Israel is diminished by its failure to crush militants"

By STEVEN GUTKIN and KATHY GANNON, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

JERUSALEM -- The war in Lebanon has badly bruised the Israeli government and boosted Hezbollah's standing in the Arab world.

But Israel says it has made some gains -- the Lebanese army, backed by international troops, is to take control of south Lebanon.

And Hezbollah, despite its public confidence, also is likely to face criticism from scores of Lebanese civilians who lost everything in the attacks.

A cease-fire that took effect Monday seeks to end the 34-day conflict that was fought to a virtual draw.

Developments on the ground will determine the war's ultimate winners and losers -- whether Hezbollah will be pushed back from Israel's border and eventually disarmed, whether Israel will be able to prevent Iran and Syria from funneling weapons to Lebanese guerrillas, whether Islamic radicals everywhere will be propped up by Hezbollah's successes.

For now, neither side can truly declare victory.

Hezbollah's ability to withstand more than a month of Israel's punishing assaults while firing an uninterrupted stream of more than 4,000 rockets has given its fighters heroic status on Arab and Muslim streets.

But having joined the Lebanese government, the guerrillas are likely to pay a steep political price for provoking Israel's wrath.

On July 12, they captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a daring cross-border raid, sparking a war that killed more than 790 Lebanese and left much of that country in shambles.

And even if Israel achieves its goal of pushing Hezbollah away from its border, it, too, has suffered great losses, with 155 dead and hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee their homes or seek refuge in bomb shelters.

Israel failed to achieve its original goal of destroying Hezbollah or the group's fearsome array of Iranian- and Syrian-provided rockets.

Israeli critics are warning that Israel's deterrence may have suffered a life-threatening blow, giving archenemy Iran an opening to pursue its stated goal of destroying Israel.

"A couple thousand Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters kept Israel at bay for over a month," said Chuck Freilich, Israel's former deputy national security adviser who is now a senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Government.

"This now shows that irregular forces with Iranian support can be effective against a large and sophisticated conventional army."

In a speech Monday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the cease-fire deal had eliminated Hezbollah's "state within a state" in Lebanon, and restored the Lebanese government's sovereignty in the south.

That's no small achievement for Israel, which has been trying in vain for six years -- ever since it withdrew from south Lebanon following an 18-year occupation -- to get Lebanon to implement a U.N. resolution calling for the central government to take control of the whole country.

During his speech, however, Olmert acknowledged "deficiencies" in the way the war was conducted, and promised to "do better" in the next war.

His government is coming under intense criticism for failing to break Hezbollah or secure the release of the two kidnapped soldiers -- and for holding off on a massive land invasion that many believed was necessary to win the war.

That invasion finally came last weekend in the war's 11th hour, when the U.N. Security Council was about to approve a cease-fire.

The U.N. resolution sets the stage for 15,000 Lebanese troops and 15,000 foreign troops to be deployed in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah declared that his guerrillas achieved a "strategic, historic victory" over Israel.

But President Bush said Hezbollah was defeated.

The President cast the fighting as part of a wider struggle "between freedom and terrorism."

Bush made clear that he blames Hezbollah and its patrons, Iran and Syria, for igniting the conflict.

"We recognize that the responsibility for this lies with Hezbollah," Bush said.

"Responsibility lies also with Hezbollah's state sponsors, Iran and Syria."

Bush warned Tehran to stop backing militias in Lebanon and in Iraq, where U.S. officials have long accused Iran of feeding the sectarian violence.

"In both these countries, Iran is backing armed groups in the hope of stopping democracy from taking hold," Bush said.

"The message of this administration is clear."

"America will stay on the offensive against al-Qaida."

"Iran must stop its support for terror, and the leaders of these armed groups must make a choice."

"If they want to participate in the political life of their countries, they must disarm."

end quotes

Outside of having no credibility left to him ....

And outside of not seeming to really have much of a grasp of history .....

Or reality ...

Or human nature ....

I guess you could say ....

That in some arcane ....

And undecipherable way ......

That George W. Bush .....

Is doing a real good job .....

As president of OUR America ....

Although I really have no idea what that could be ....

Because outside of making OUR America ....

And all of us ....

Look like real stupid THUGS ....

As if we all were really REPUBLICANS ...

And firmly in his fold .....

Which I sure am not .....

I can't see where George W. Bush has done ....

Even one thing .....

That makes OUR America .....

More secure for the future .....

Which seems real bleak ....

And getting bleaker by the moment ....

Each time that George W. Bush ....

Opens his mouth ....

And pours yet more gasoline ....

On an already burning fire .....

IN OUR WORLD ...

That he wants to turn into a real conflagration ....

And so ...

Give credit where credit is due ....

Is my thought for this morning ....

And so ...

And speaking about "GOD'S OWN PARTY" .....

Down here on this earth of OURS .....

And cause for hope in the future ....

"For GOP, Bad Gets Worse in Northeast - Incumbents Shy From Party and President"

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 14, 2006; Page A01

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. -- When it comes to President Bush and the Republican Congress, Rep. Jim Gerlach says voters in his suburban Philadelphia district are in a "sour mood."

That's why when it comes to his reelection, the two-term incumbent says "the name of the game" is to convince those same voters that he can be independent of his own party.

He has turned his standard line about Bush -- "When I think he's wrong, I let him know" -- into a virtual campaign slogan, repeated in interviews and TV ads.

"It is a combination of things, from the war in Iraq to gas prices to what they are experiencing in their local areas," Gerlach said of the surly electorate whose decision he will know on Nov. 7.

The Iraq war and Bush's low approval ratings have created trouble for Republicans in all regions.

But nowhere is the GOP brand more scuffed than in the Northeast, where this year's circumstances are combining with long-term trends to endanger numerous incumbents.

Sounding very much like Gerlach, state Sen. Raymond Meier, a Republican running for an open seat in Upstate New York, observed:

"People around here are anxious and concerned not just about the national state of affairs, but also their personal state of affairs."

"As a Republican candidate, the challenge is to show you have even a clue about what their lives are like."

Also sounding very much like Gerlach is Rep. Rob Simmons.

His eastern Connecticut seat is the most Democratic-leaning district in the country still held by a Republican.

"My friend calls me Salmon Simmons . . . because I am always swimming upstream" against a Democratic current, he said.

Last week's defeat of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut moderate who has supported the Iraq war, in the Democratic primary gave Republicans a vivid look at some of the same angry currents likely to buffet them this fall.

A Washington-Post ABC News poll this month found Bush's approval rating at 28 percent in the Northeast -- 12 points below his national average.

The Republican Congress fared no better.

Republican losses in the region could echo well beyond the 2006 campaign.

Because much of the region is tilting Democratic, history suggests Republicans would find it hard to recapture seats once lost.

That is why GOP operatives in Washington are alarmed not just about Gerlach's predicament, but about that of two congressional neighbors in suburban Philadelphia: Reps. Michael G. Fitzpatrick and Curt Weldon, both in tough districts.

In Connecticut, Republican Reps. Nancy L. Johnson and Christopher Shays -- like Simmons -- are in highly competitive contests.

And several New York Republicans are facing their most difficult reelection fights ever.

One reason Republicans understand the risk is that they were beneficiaries of a strikingly similar regional upheaval a decade ago.

Before the 1994 elections, when Republicans won control of the House for the first time in 40 years, Democrats held dozens of Southern districts in which the electorate had been gradually growing more conservative.

That year, Republicans picked up 20 of those Southern seats, including several held by Democratic incumbents who -- like Northeast Republicans today -- tried to distance themselves from an unpopular White House and Congress controlled by their party.

Many of those Southern seats are afterthoughts in elections today because the districts are so solidly Republican.

Simmons, who plays up his connections to organized labor, a traditionally Democratic interest, said a similar purge of Northeast Republicans would only exacerbate the polarized Washington environment.

"For every one of us [moderates] who loses, the Congress becomes more partisan," he said.

GOP moderates have long felt marginalized by the conservative-dominated House Republican Conference.

Late last year, however, Republican leaders realized they needed to soften some of their proposals or risk losing Northeastern seats.

They reluctantly added money to the 2006 budget for job training and other programs pushed by the most liberal Republicans in Congress.

They held a vote to expand stem cell research, a popular idea among moderates that was vetoed by Bush.

Last month, Republican leaders passed a $2.10 increase to the minimum wage, a powerful political issue in the struggling industrial towns.

It was defeated in the Senate because it was linked to a cut in estate taxes.

"Our Republican conference needs to do more to put forward an agenda on health care, education and the environment," Gerlach said.

"Those are important issues in the suburbs."

Here in Pennsylvania's 6th District, Democratic candidate Lois Murphy is a case study in how her party is trying to make campaigns about an unpopular Bush and Congress.

On Tuesday, she traveled to the banks of Schuylkill River to rail against the "Bush energy bill," which she blamed for high gas costs and a dirtier environment.

Standing on a boat landing at a recent campaign event, she planted her shoe in a gob of melted gum.

But she quickly went on to stick Gerlach with something the candidate's internal polls suggest is worse -- alleging the incumbent "has been a reliable vote for the Bush administration . . . and not stood up for the 6th District."

C. Ray Kalbach, 81, lifelong district resident, is receptive to the appeal.

"My total commitment is to unelect all incumbents, period," said Kalbach, a self-described independent.

He said he is fed up with Gerlach and "words spoken in one manner and actions done in another."

The district is a microcosm of other suburban areas in the region, a mixture of wealthy, GOP-leaning communities in West Chester and middle-income, working-class families in places such as Reading.

Like many of the areas surrounding Philadelphia, it has been trending Democratic in recent elections, serving as the political base for Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D), the favorite to win reelection this year.

Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, won the district by three percentage points.

This the second time Gerlach is facing Murphy, a lawyer and mother of two children, and a skilled campaigner.

In 2004, Gerlach beat her by about 6,400 votes (51 percent to 49 percent).

Both candidates have raised about $2 million, plan to raise at least $1 million more, and are going for the jugular in campaign speeches and television ads.

Murphy's issue conflicts with Gerlach are somewhat amorphous, apparently by design.

She would repeal some of Bush's tax cuts, including those for people earning $200,000 or more, but support others.

Murphy slams Gerlach for "utterly failing" to stand up to Bush on the Iraq war, but she said her only policy difference is that she would force the president to come up with a "plan for success."

Pressed, she said Democrats "start from maybe worse than a blank slate" when it comes to having a national security plan.

"Voters do not feel that they have that definition."

She calls herself a moderate, more a "Rendell Democrat than a Pelosi Democrat" -- drawing a bit of distance from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a liberal.

"Political conversation has become so polarized, so emotional," said Susan Bolton, a computer professional in the district.

"When people liken Bush to Hitler, I see a lot of similarities myself."

Bolton has stopped discussing the race here with Republican friends and said she will definitely turn out to vote for Murphy.

Others are unfazed.

"It is the lesser of two evils," said Jerry Cobb, a Republican retiree who has lived in the district for 45 years.

"I am not a Gerlach man, but I will probably vote for him" because of -- not in spite of -- his ties to Bush.

"They are having a good old time bashing George Bush," but it won't work on him, he said.

Most voters interviewed in the area seemed unaware of the race -- or uninterested.

The Gerlach campaign calls the Democratic candidate "liberal Lois" and warns she will raise taxes if elected.

Amy Bonitatibus, who took a leave from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's office to assist Murphy, said the charge, while not true, "resonates" with many voters here.

Gerlach, who served in the state House and Senate before winning his seat in 2002, has said the two biggest issues are gas prices and immigration -- two areas in which he highlights differences with Bush.

Still, for Democrats to pick up the 15 seats needed to take control of the House, they may need the discontent to spread beyond the suburbs and into the conservative towns and rural communities of Upstate New York.

Meier, 53, is struggling to hold a seat that has gone Republican for a half-century.

New York's 24th is not the kind of suburban, well-to-do country that is causing problems for the GOP elsewhere.

It is more like the industrial Midwest, where once-vibrant cities bleed jobs, population and money as the economy moves away from factory dominance.

Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert, an influential moderate Republican who chairs the Science Committee, has represented the district since 1982.

Several times, he beat back conservative primary challenges by convincing voters that his ability to win funding for pet projects -- such as turning Griffiss Air Force Base into a technology center -- was more important than such social issues as his support of abortion rights.

In a normal environment, Boehlert's decision to retire this year might open the door for a more conservative Republican, such as Meier, to lock down the district, where Democrats have 40,000 fewer registered voters.

But Meier said there is nothing normal about 2006:

"It's a challenging year as a Republican."

In a break with the GOP election-year strategy, Meier said he is largely avoiding wedge issues such as same-sex marriage that party leaders are promoting in Washington and playing up his ability to compromise and create jobs.

"People here are not ideologues," Meier said.

Michael A. Arcuri, 47, is the district attorney from Utica, the district's largest city in a county that accounts for about 30 percent of its voters.

Handsome and articulate, Arcuri is running a campaign seemingly focused on one thing: tethering Meier to an unpopular Bush and Republican Party establishment.

"He is one of the extremists," said Arcuri, between sips of coffee at a Friendly's restaurant.

To emphasize this point, Arcuri is running as a "Boehlert Democrat," highlighting how he shares the retiring GOP congressman's views on abortion, stem cells, tax cuts and energy policies, which are not coincidentally different than Bush's.

"There is a huge difference between Boehlert and Meier," Arcuri said.

Reba L. Taylor, a former Democrat who serves as the Republican mayor of Dryden, said there is widespread frustration with Republicans in the area.

"They have been a complacent, ruling party too long," she said.

"A lot of them have not been touchable for a long time."

But Taylor said she is sticking with Meier because she believes he is the best person to help win funding and assistance for her town and the district.

Said Boehlert: "It will be more of a challenge than in the past, but it won't be insurmountable."

Up here ....

Where I am ....

The DEMOCRATS are seen as being unorganized .....

And perhaps inept ....

While the REPUBLICANS ....

Are definitely organized .....

AS A DANGEROUS PACK OF THUGS ....

Who have closed the courts to us ...

Taken away OUR Constitutional right to a jury ....

To hear OUR grievances .....

Against OUR government ...

Given license ....

To BID-NESS .....

To poison OUR water ....

And pollute OUR air ....

WHILE EXPECTING US ....

To bear the cost ....

Of providing BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ....

IN CORPORATE WELFARE .....

TO BID-NESS ....

While OUR own standard of living ....

PLUMMETS .....

And the REPUBLICANS ....

Don't ask us ...

IF WE LIKE THIS .....

THEY TELL US ....

THAT WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO .....

AND IF YOU DISSENT ....

RIGHT HERE WHERE I AM ....

IN AN INTELLIGENT MANNER .....

THE REPUBLICANS .....

WILL HAVE YOU SUMMARILY DECLARED ....

BY ONE OF THEIR CORPORATE DOCTORS ....

AS BEING MENTALLY ILL AND DANGEROUS ....

AND A NEW YORK STATE POLICE SWAT TEAM ....

WILL BE DISPATCHED .....

BY THE REPUBLICANS .....

TO TAKE YOU INTO CUSTODY ...

FOR TRANSPORT ...

TO A CORPORATE SECURE MENTAL INSTITUTION .....

WHERE YOU WILL DISAPPEAR ....

JUST LIKE THIS WAS THE SOVIET UNION UP HERE ....

AS DESCRIBED BY ....

ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN .....

IN HIS BOOK, THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO .....

And we are supposed to accept this ...

As OUR fate up here?

That these THUG REPUBLICANS can do this to us ....

At their leisure .....

AND AGAINST OUR WILL?

HERE IN OUR OWN COUNTRY?

Well .....

And so .....

And speaking about the REPUBLICANS ....

And how they look at people .....

Not like them ....

In a very derogatory manner ....

Which is why ...

We are much better off ....

Without them ....

In OUR United States Congress ....

And so ....

"Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology - Name Insults Webb Volunteer"

By Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Page A01

RICHMOND, Aug. 14 -- Virginia Sen. George Allen ® apologized Monday for what his opponent's campaign said were demeaning and insensitive comments the senator made to a 20-year-old volunteer of Indian descent.

At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb "macaca."

During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was "going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas" and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in the crowd.

"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is."

"He's with my opponent."

"He's following us around everywhere."

"And it's just great," Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh.

After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here."

"Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

Allen then began talking about the "war on terror."

Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa.

In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.

"The kid has a name," Webb communications director Kristian Denny Todd said of Sidarth, a Virginia native who was born in Fairfax County.

"This is trying to demean him, to minimize him as a person."

Todd added that the use of macaca, whatever it means, and the reference welcoming Sidarth to America were clearly intended to make him uncomfortable.

Reached Monday evening, Allen said that the word had no derogatory meaning for him and that he was sorry.

"I would never want to demean him as an individual."

"I do apologize if he's offended by that."

"That was no way the point."

Asked what macaca means, Allen said: "I don't know what it means."

He said the word sounds similar to "mohawk," a term that his campaign staff had nicknamed Sidarth because of his haircut.

Sidarth said his hairstyle is a mullet -- tight on top, long in the back.

Allen said that by the comment welcoming him to America, he meant: "Just to the real world."

"Get outside the Beltway and get to the real world."

But the apology, which came hours after Allen's campaign manager dismissed the issue with an expletive and insisted the senator has "nothing to apologize for," did little to mollify Webb's campaign or Sidarth, who said he suspects Allen singled him out because his was the only nonwhite face among about 100 Republican supporters.

"I think he was doing it because he could, and I was the only person of color there, and it was useful for him in inciting his audience," said Sidarth, who videotaped the event for the Webb campaign.

"I was annoyed he would use my race in a political context."

Told of Allen's apology, Todd added, "I hope Allen realizes that Virginians come in all colors."

Allen is running for a second term in the Senate while planning a possible presidential bid in 2008.

Webb, a Vietnam war hero and former Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, is working to derail those plans with an underfunded campaign based principally on Webb's early opposition to the war in Iraq.

Virginia Commonwealth University politics professor Robert Holsworth called Allen's comments a gaffe that probably wouldn't change the Senate race but could hurt his presidential ambitions.

"This doesn't turn the race around at all," Holsworth said.

"But for a guy running for president, this is likely to be regularly aired this year and maybe beyond."

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), who represents southwest Virginia, said the Webb campaign is just "grabbing for stuff" to gain traction against Allen.

Griffith said he doubts anyone at the rally even picked up on Allen's use of the word macaca.

"Not many people in southwest Virginia would think it is derogatory," Griffith said.

"I didn't have a clue what it meant, and I doubt Allen did, either."

Sidarth, who is entering his fourth year at the University of Virginia and is an active Democrat, had been assigned to trail Allen with a video camera to document his travels and speeches for Webb, a common campaign tactic.

Steve Mukherjee, a spokesman for the Washington chapter of the Association of Indians in America, said Allen's comments were "hurtful," and he chided the senator for not being more sensitive.

"The world is so volatile and so delicate," Mukherjee said.

"You have to be careful what you say and how you say it."

"The U.S. is no longer black and white."

Asked what macaca means, Mukherjee said: "What it means, I don't know."

"But it's going to cause him some grief."

It's not the first time Allen has confronted charges of insensitivity to race or ethnicity from minority leaders and longtime political opponents.

Before he ran for governor in 1993, Allen was criticized for keeping a Confederate flag in a cabin near his Charlottesville home, part of a collection of flags, he has said.

He stirred controversy as governor by issuing a proclamation noting the South's celebration of Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery.

This year, the New Republic magazine published a photo of Allen wearing a Confederate flag on his lapel during high school.

"It wasn't a racial statement; it was a statement about his rebellious nature," said John Reid, Allen's communications director.

Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams also went on the offensive, accusing Webb of mailing an anti-Semitic flier during his primary this year that contained a caricature of Webb's Jewish opponent.

Todd said Wadhams is trying to change the subject.

"The flier was never meant to be anti-Semitic," she said.

"That was a charge levied by our opponent at the time to drive voters away from Jim Webb, much like Allen's trying to do today."

"Wal-Mart posts 1st profit fall in decade"

By MARCUS KABEL, AP Business Writer

27 minutes ago

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted its first profit decline in a decade Tuesday as the world's largest retailer paid a hefty price for closing its loss-making German stores while high energy prices hit its sales and costs at home.

Chief Executive Lee Scott said sales were disappointing at Wal-Mart's U.S. stores, its largest division.

Customers were making fewer shopping trips to save gas, while Wal-Mart's own bills for fuel and utilities were up, he said.

"In the United States, customers tell us they are most concerned about gas prices," Scott said in a prerecorded message.

"This has been consistent every month this quarter."

Results were still in line with expectations and the company reiterated its guidance for the year.

But analysts questioned whether a third-quarter forecast on the low end of expectations meant the company could meet its target for the year.

Wal-Mart's stock fell 73 cents, or 1.6 percent to $44.37 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company forecast third-quarter earnings between 59 cents and 63 cents per share, compared with the average analyst estimate of 63 cents.

It reiterated a full-year forecast of $2.88 to $2.95 per share, while analysts were predicting $2.92 per share.

"The quality of the quarter itself is kind of moderate."

"It does not look nearly as good as what we've seen from some of their peers as far as earnings and sales growth," said David Heupel, a portfolio manager for Minneapolis-based Thrivent Investment Management, with $67.5 billion in assets.

The large-cap growth fund within Thrivent that Heupel manages sold its Wal-Mart shares this year.

Heupel said the tepid third-quarter forecast meant Wal-Mart will have to do very well in the fourth quarter — the holiday season that is traditionally the strongest period for retailers — to make the full-year target.

"What they're up against at this point is not only a hard place in the economy for their consumers but also the fact that they just can't grow at the same rates as in the past," said Patricia Edwards, a portfolio manager and retail analyst at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich in Seattle, which manages $8.2 billion in assets and holds 51,000 Wal-Mart shares.

For the quarter ended July 31, Wal-Mart posted net income of $2.08 billion, or 50 cents per share, down from $2.81 billion, or 67 cents per share, a year ago.

That includes an $863 million charge for the sale of its German stores to Metro AG.

The last time Wal-Mart saw quarterly profit fall was in 1996.

Wal-Mart pulled out of Germany in July and South Korea two months earlier after racking up losses there.

It said it would focus resources on expanding in more profitable markets like China and Latin America.

Excluding the German and South Korean operations, the sales of which are both pending, Wal-Mart's income from continuing operations grew 5 percent to $2.98 billion, or 72 cents per share, from $2.85 billion, or 68 cents per share, a year ago.

Retail analyst Don Gher from Coldstream Capital Management in Bellevue, Wash., which manages about $1 billion in assets including Wal-Mart shares, said Wal-Mart was in a remodeling squeeze right now that may pay off in the future with improved sales.

Wal-Mart is remodeling about 1,800 U.S. stores to make them more attractive.

Gher said that program is increasing expenses at the same time as it disrupts sales in those stores.

Wal-Mart said it expects to finish 1,200 of those projects by the end of the third quarter before taking a break over the holiday shopping season and finishing the rest next year.

In the meantime, sales are slowing.

Sales at stores open at least a year — a key retail measure — were up 1.5 percent at Wal-Mart U.S. stores in the second quarter, compared to 3.8 percent in the first quarter and 3.6 percent a year ago.

Rival Target last week said its sales at stores open at least a year rose 4.6 percent for the quarter.

Wal-Mart's domestic profit margins are also under pressure from factors including higher transportation costs and more sales of lower-margin products, Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe said.

Food sales grew faster than general merchandise, he said.

That pressured margins because groceries are less profitable than items like apparel, home furnishings or electronics.

From what we can see of it up here, anyway ......

What is called the "economy" .....

Of the United States .....

Is dependent upon "BIG BOX" stores .....

Here, in America .....

Selling all kinds .....

Of cheap plastic junk .....

Which is made in foreign places like Sri Lanka .....

And Mynmar ....

And India ....

And China ....

To people in America .....

Who up here ....

Where I am ....

Have to drive for some distance ...

To get to these "BIG BOX" stores .....

In order to be able to buy all this cheap plastic junk ....

Week after week after week after week .....

To keep these "BIG BOX" stores in coin .....

So that their SHAREHOLDERS can get rich .....

And be idle .....

Which is the AMERICAN DREAM come true .....

Not having to work at all ....

And being able to gamble ....

And drink booze ....

In an air-conditioned casino, someplace ......

Because others who have to work ....

Are making your way for you ...

By buying all this cheap plastic junk .....

At these "BIG BOX" stores .....

Which are dependent upon people having cheap transportation .....

Which isn't cheap, anymore .....

And so .....

To fuel this demand for cheap plastic junk .....

Here in OUR America .....

Places like China .....

Have put into place ....

These facilities .....

Which can turn out cheap plastic junk .....

By the GAZILLIONS .....

Which facilities .....

Of course ...

Have their own energy consumption needs .....

So that the more cheap plastic junk they turn out ...

The more fuel ...

To run them ...

Must be diverted ...

From here ...

Where it was once cheap ...

To there ...

Which makes it more expensive here, of course ...

And then ...

There is the cost .....

Of shipping ....

All that cheap plastic junk ....

From China and India and Sri Lanka and Mynmar .....

To these "BIG BOX" stores over here ....

Where people can no longer afford to get to .....

Because fuel to get there now costs so much .....

And in the meantime .....

Places like China ....

And India ....

And Sri Lanka ....

And Mynmar .....

Are keeping on keeping on .....

Producing GAZILLIONS of cheap plastic junk .....

To ship over to here .....

As if nothing had changed ....

As if we all still had money over here ...

As if ...

As if ......

As if ....

"China economy should expand 10.4 percent"

By JOE McDONALD, AP Business Writer

Tue Aug 15, 6:03 PM ET

BEIJING - China's sizzling economy is slowing but should still expand by 10.4 percent this year, the World Bank said Tuesday, as newly released statistics suggested measures to prevent runaway growth might be taking effect.

The World Bank's growth forecast, included in a quarterly report on China's economy, was a sharp increase from its earlier projection of 9.5 percent.

It came after the government reported that second-quarter growth hit 11.3 percent, the highest rate in a decade.

China's exports for the year are expected to soar by 20.8 percent, while imports rise by 18.4 percent, the bank said.

It said that should lead to a current account surplus — the broadest measure of trade — of $220 billion, up 36 percent from 2005.

"The economy is likely to slow down somewhat in the second half of 2006 ... resulting in growth of 10.4 percent for the year as a whole," the bank's report said.

It said growth in 2007 should be a slower but a still-robust 9.3 percent.

China's mounting trade surpluses have fueled tensions with Washington and others, while Beijing is trying to rein in a boom in construction and bank lending that it says could ignite a financial crisis.

China has resisted demands to sharply raise the value of its currency, the yuan, which could slow export growth by making Chinese goods more expensive.

Critics say the yuan is kept artificially weak, giving Chinese exporters an unfair price advantage.

Planners have tried to encourage more domestic consumption by expanding public holidays to promote tourism and boosting home ownership in order to reduce China's reliance on exports, but so far with little success.

Regulators have raised interest rates, tightened bank credit and imposed curbs on real estate investment in an effort to rein in what they say is excessive spending on factories and other assets.

Statistics released Tuesday suggested those measures might be taking effect.

The growth rate for China's industrial output slowed in July to 16.7 percent compared with the year-earlier period, lower than the 19 percent expected by economists and below June's 19.5 percent rate, the government said.

Also in July, foreign direct investment fell 5.5 percent from the same month of 2005 to $4.3 billion, the Commerce Ministry reported.

That brought total foreign investment for the first seven months of the year to $32.7 billion, down 1.2 percent from the same period of 2005, the ministry said.

The World Bank said the government might wait to see whether its controls can slow growth before deciding whether to impose new measures, though it cautioned that "financial risks remain, especially in real estate."

"The authorities may decide to await further evidence of the effectiveness of recent measures before deploying more expenditure-reducing measures," the bank's report said.

To me .....

Who is an observer .....

It is like watching a slow-motion train wreck ......

Here in OUR America .....

These last so many years .....

I don't know about anywhere else .....

Here in OUR America ....

Because I am not there .....

And the news sure don't tell the story .....

But up here ...

We are definitely sliding backwards .....

Into chaos .....

And anarchy ....

And we are not moving forward at all .....

And I am not at all sure .....

That this is going to change ...

In what is left of my lifetime ...

And so ...

Violence has become the way of life up here ....

Along with idleness .....

Nobody working ....

Everybody gambling .....

And killing each other .....

On a daily basis it seems .....

Right down there all around REPUBLICAN George Pataki's fortress bunker complex ......

On the top of State Street hill in Albany, New York .....

Which is why you find George Pataki gone out of state so much up here .....

He's got the good sense to know a sinking ship .....

From a sound one .....

Especially when he is the captain .....

And so ....

Good-bye, George Pataki .....

He's gone off ....

After greener pastures ....

And safer, saner streets ....

Than those surrounding his own bunker complex ....

On the top of State Street hill ....

In Albany, New York .....

And so ....

It's really disgusting .....

If one were to consult one's emotions about it .....

How much lives have degenerated up here ....

With idleness ...

And profligacy .....

And gambling ....

And having a good time .....

Being promoted .....

By the State of New York ...

As the way to be ...

Get rich quick ...

A dollar and a dream .....

While hard work is scorned ....

And mocked .....

As something .....

That only poor people have to do ...

And so ....

But when the **** is in the fan ...

And is coming back out again ....

All over the place ....

Emotional .....

Is the last thing ....

You can afford to be .....

And so .....

And being in a mood for public service announcements .....

Here in OUR America ....

We have ....

Dear Livyjr,

We say America needs candidates who take strong positions and have the courage of their convictions.

We've got them.

We're searching for leaders who understand that we can't change George Bush and Don Rumsfeld's aimless course in Iraq if we don't stand up in this fall's campaign and demand change.

These leaders are standing right in front of us.

So now the question is: Can Ned Lamont, Daniel Akaka, and Bob Menendez count on us to act right now and pull them through to victory?

Support Strong Leaders Who Aren't Afraid to Tell the Truth About Iraq!

Each of these strong leaders has forcefully spoken out in favor of a clear timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Despite the "warnings" coming from consultants, political pundits and naysayers in Washington, each of these candidates is making the mess in Iraq a central issue in their campaigns for the Senate.

They aren't afraid to talk about why the war is wrong and what must be done to change course and start doing what is best for our troops and our country.

And they aren't afraid to stand up for a better way that will bring our heroes home and put Iraq in Iraqis' hands.

It's time to reward their courage.

In Connecticut, Ned Lamont has caused a national stir by successfully challenging the Bush position on Iraq that ignores the utter failure of the President's policy and calls for a deeply misplaced reliance on a dangerous course of action.

In the Senate, Ned Lamont will go head to head with Don Rumsfeld, and our troops will benefit from Lamont's leadership.

He knows that patriotism isn't reserved for those who defend a President's position; patriotism is doing what's right for our troops and our country.

My friend Dan Akaka (D-HI) has been a powerful voice of opposition to dangerous policies, as one of 13 votes in favor of the Kerry-Feingold amendment calling on the Bush administration to withdraw all U.S. combat troops by the middle of 2007.

My colleague Bob Menendez (D-NJ) proudly supported that amendment, as well.

In fact, the day after we voted, he put his money where his vote was, putting an ad on TV saying it was time to start bringing our troops home.

His vote was that important to him.

Ned, Dan, and Bob have been attacked mercilessly for acting with such conviction and are locked in close must-win races.

It's time to support candidates who are willing to tell the truth: that George W. Bush's policies have failed to make America safe and that it is time to change course in the war in Iraq.

Helping win victories for Democratic candidates who have acted with clarity on the war in Iraq is the best way to bring George W. Bush's miserable failure to an end.

But, we can't fool ourselves.

None of these candidates will coast to victory -- not in the face of the brutal, unprincipled assaults on their character and patriotism that are the stock in trade of the Bush-Cheney-Rove political machine.

If we want these Democrats to win, we've got to throw our support behind them.

We have to use the last few months of this campaign to pull them through to victory -- and to drive from office politicians who continue to support the President's miserable failure in Iraq.

If we want to reward their courage, we've got to commit ourselves to pulling them through to victory.

I know how urgently you want to turn America around -- not only on Iraq, but on a wide range of crucial issues.

I'm telling you this: there is no better way to challenge the harmful policies of the Bush administration than to throw our support behind these three candidates.

They're telling the truth on the campaign trail -- that America is on the wrong course in Iraq, that it's time to withdraw our troops and leave Iraq's future in the hands of the Iraqi people, and that, behind all the Bush bluster and bombast, all you can find is a string of misjudgments, deceits, and failures that have seriously imperiled our national security.

I urge you to help elect candidates who will join me in telling those truths every day on the floor of the United States Senate -- never yielding until we turn America around and bring our troops home from Iraq.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

end quotes

And he is right ...

After all these years ...

All George W. Bush has been able to give us ...

Seemingly across the board ...

And especially in Iraq .....

Is one great big mess ...

WHICH IS PATHETIC ....

For what once was a great country ....

This America of OURS ....

Which George W. Bush is running right into the ground .....

And I am really surprised ....

That there is even one person in this country .....

Who would think this mess in Iraq .....

Is something to be proud of ....

As an American accomplishment .....

When it seems like something up from Hell itself, instead ......

But what the hey .....

This is a democracy they say ...

With freedom of thought ...

And freedom of conscience ....

And freedom of expression ....

And so ....

And while we are on the subject of politics in this country running right on down the hill .....

And into the sewer ....

Here's Eliot Spitzer .....

AND DIRTY MONEY ....

In his hand ....

And what a surprise that is now ....

Yeah, right ....

"Oh, gee, I'm sorry, you got caught, and now I have to give you your money back, so I can look good ..."

"Spitzer returns $50,000 donation to indicted billionaire"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:27 p.m., Wednesday, August 16, 2006

ALBANY -- Eliot Spitzer has returned a $50,000 contribution to a billionaire recently indicted on a prostitution charge and another $50,000 from a businessman fellow Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton once called the "biggest polluter in America."

Sending back such big checks is becoming more commonplace on the American political landscape, experts in campaign fundraising said.

On Wednesday, Republican-Conservative candidate for governor John Faso called on Spitzer, a Democrat, to return the $50,000 from financier Jeffrey Epstein, the New York billionaire who faces a prostitution charge in Florida.

Spitzer campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson said it was already returned and state elections records verify that.

Spitzer's campaign this spring also returned $50,000 from Ira Rennert, a Manhattan based millionaire businessman, Anderson said.

Because of an oversight, she said that return hasn't yet been recorded in state Board of Elections records, but she said it should be recorded in the next required filing, due before the Sept. 12 primary.

"When you are fortunate enough to have such wide support and a very successful multimillion dollar fundraising effort, then it's not unusual that a small amount will occasionally slip through the vetting process," Anderson said.

She notes Spitzer has also voluntarily returned hundreds of thousands of dollars more because of he won't take contributions from those who are a subject of his investigations as attorney general.

"When a situation or mistake is brought to our attention, we respond immediately and the contribution is returned," she said.

Faso's campaign did not immediately return a call seeking information on whether it had returned any contributions.

Paul S. Herrnson, professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, said such returns are happening more often.

"Popular candidates who have a high likelihood of winning are going to attract many contributions, some of them very large, just because they are expected to win," he said.

"However, the state law requires the filing and disclosure of campaign contributions and when a candidate discovers they received a contribution that is tainted in some way, they are wise to return it," Herrnson said.

"In those cases, the candidate is wise to say, `Someone gave me this contribution, I received it, but when I put two and two together I decided I didn't want it ... and the voters come first,' because indeed they do," he said.

Catching candidates taking money from contributors that would be publicly embarrassing is easier since the 1990s in most states -- including New York -- that post campaign finance records on the Internet (http://www.elections.state.ny.us).

"That enabled candidates, their opponent and the media to more rapidly scrutinize the data," Herrnson said, noting scandals involving Washington lobbyist and influence peddler Jack Abramoff, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Ohio Rep. Bob Ney.

"The public is going to be more skeptical and candidates need to be more watchful," Herrnson said.

On Wednesday, Faso, who is well behind Spitzer in the polls and financing, said it is bad enough that Spitzer accepts campaign contributions from labor unions and others who Faso said "want to raise taxes."

"But it's quite another to take money from somebody accused of soliciting prostitution."

In July, Epstein, 53, was released on $3,000 bond after he was charged with soliciting prostitution at his Florida mansion.

His lawyer, Jack Goldberger, said Epstein "would never knowingly break the law."

The money manager is alleged to have solicited sex three or more times between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31 of last year, according to an indictment unsealed this week.

In 2000, when Clinton was running for her first term in the U.S. Senate, she called on her first opponent, Republican Rudolph Giuliani, to return a $100,000 donation from Rennert's company, Renco Group, to the Washington-based Giuliani Victory Committee.

Rennert, owner of The Magnesium Corp. of America, was sued by the Department of Justice for allegedly mishandling hazardous waste.

The company disputes the claims.

Spitzer's campaign had $14 million still in the campaign fund according to a filing this month.

Faso faces no primary so didn't have to file financial records this month.

As of July, he had $1.4 million left.

Spitzer also has a 70-percentage point lead in the polls.

------

On the Net:

http://www.johnfaso2006.com

http://www.spitzer2006.com

http://www.tomsuozzi.com

http://www.malachyforgovernor.com

Just before REPUBLICAN Virginian George Allen started talking to his supporters about George W. Bush's WAR OF TERROR the other day .....

He carefully gathered up the attention of his followers ......

And he directed it .....

At a person not like them .....

Who George Allen called "MACACA" .....

"Hey, everybody, you see MACACA over there ...."

"MACACA isn't like us ..."

"MACACA is different ....."

"AND THAT IS WHY WE SO DESPERATELY NEED THIS WAR OF TERROR ..."

"Before MACACA ...."

"And his kind ...."

"Take over America and kick us good white REPUBLICANS out ..."

And since it was just a political speech .....

It wasn't really derogatory .....

Towards this person's race ...

It was ....

Well ....

Just REPUBLICAN politics ....

That's all ...

And so ...

It's how a REPUBLICAN ....

Normally talks to someone ....

Not like them ...

Which is most of us ....

And so ....

"Allen on Damage Control After Remarks to Webb Aide"

By Michael D. Shear and Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 16, 2006; Page A01

RICHMOND, Aug. 15 -- Sen. George Allen on Tuesday sought to contain the political damage from remarks he made to a Fairfax County man that dredged up charges of racial insensitivity -- allegations that have dogged him for years as governor, senator and now presidential hopeful.

Despite a quick apology Monday, criticism poured in about Allen's use of the word "Macaca" to address a volunteer for the campaign of his Democratic opponent, James Webb, and also about another Allen comment, "Welcome to America."

Democrats, left-wing bloggers and civil rights groups called him "insensitive" and "racist," while some conservatives called him "foolish" and "mean."

The question was fiercely debated all day: Was "Macaca," which literally means a genus of monkey, a deliberate racist epithet or a weird ad-libbed word with no meaning?

And what was Allen trying to say by singling out the young man of Indian descent?

Allen's defenders rushed to his side, saying the comments, though careless, do not reflect what is inside the senator's heart.

Sudhakar Shenoy, an Indian business executive from Fairfax who has known Allen for years, said he "has been an incredible friend to Indians" and is not a racist.

"I'd stake everything I have that George is not that kind of a guy," Shenoy said.

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Allen (R-Va.) said his remarks Friday to S.R. Sidarth, who at the time was videotaping an Allen campaign event on Webb's behalf, "have been greatly misunderstood by members of the media."

He said Monday that "Macaca" was a play on "Mohawk," a nickname given to Sidarth by the Allen campaign because of his hairstyle.

In Tuesday's statement, Allen said he "made up a nickname for the cameraman, which was in no way intended to be racially derogatory."

"Any insinuations to the contrary are completely false."

The comments were made at a campaign stop in the southwestern Virginia town of Breaks, where Allen spoke to about 100 supporters.

Moments after greeting the crowd, Allen repeatedly pointed at Sidarth, called him "Macaca, or whatever his name is" and went on to say, "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia," as the crowd laughed.

With the video of Allen's remarks available around the globe via Youtube.com and other Web sites, the Virginia controversy became one of the most blogged-about topics on the Internet, according to the Technorati Web site, which tracks entries on 51.3 million blogs.

That thrust Sidarth, 20, a volunteer working as the Democratic eyes and ears on Allen's campaign, into the national spotlight.

He was interviewed Tuesday by several major newspapers and appeared on CNN and other television networks.

Meanwhile, Allen's past -- which includes a youthful admiration of the Confederate flag and an office that once displayed a noose -- lurched back into the public spotlight during the Republican's senatorial battle against Webb, a Navy secretary during the Reagan administration.

During the past two years, as Allen has flirted with the idea of running for president in 2008, he has introduced symbolic anti-lynching legislation in the Senate and promised to lead the charge for an official apology for slavery.

Political pundits who follow Allen closely said the new comments threaten that well-planned effort.

"There are very few issues in American politics that are more sensitive than race."

"Senator Allen has just plunked himself down in the middle of it," said Geoffrey D. Garin, a leading Democratic pollster.

"Allen's comments take him back to a place he was trying to escape from."

Avoiding the subjects of race and Allen's history was proving unlikely in the short term as the odd story of the senator's comments bounced around the nation's capital.

Sanjay Puri, the leader of the nation's largest Indian political action committee and a longtime Allen supporter, said he will lead a delegation of Indian business executives and community leaders to meet with Allen on Wednesday to express dismay.

"The comments are very insensitive."

"That's what we want to find out: How can we continue working with him?" Puri said.

"The senator has had a very good relationship with our community."

"I was pretty surprised -- you can say shocked."

Mark Potok, director of the intelligence project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala., said it was "simply impossible to believe" that Allen did not intend the comments as a racial insult.

"To me, it looks like yet another case of a politician pandering to the worst instincts in an all-white crowd," Potok said.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who during his campaign last year was dogged by young GOP operatives with video cameras -- usually called trackers -- chided Allen.

"It's insensitive," Kaine said.

"Campaigns are tough."

"But George has been in campaigns."

"He knows there's trackers."

"It's just a fact of life."

"You should just do your thing and not single them out."

Big-time campaigns often assign trackers to shadow their opponents, hoping to catch the candidate making a gaffe or shifting the message to accommodate different audiences.

Virginia Republicans have tracked Webb this year.

Often, videos can end up in campaign commercials.

That was the job of Sidarth, a University of Virginia senior who attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County.

His father, Shekar Narasimhan, is a mortgage banker who has contributed more than $35,000 to Democratic causes in the past decade, according to a review of state and federal campaign finance reports.

Sidarth joined Webb's effort this summer, initially working as a field organizer.

Last week, when Allen kicked off his statewide "listening tour," Sidarth was asked to trail Allen, he said.

Driving his 1996 Volvo, he followed Allen from Charlottesville to Richmond to the Northern Neck.

He said he was "shocked" when Allen began talking about him.

"I didn't believe that he had gone to using race in the political arena," he said.

Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review, wrote on the magazine's Web site Tuesday that he did not think Allen was "trying to speak a coded racist language."

But Lowry said Allen showed he "has a mean streak."

end quotes

I don't think George Allen was speaking a "coded" racist language at all ....

There wasn't anything coded there .....

Just racist .....

But that is just George Allen .....

And you have to take him as he is .....

Which is as a good choice to leave behind ....

And so ...

Run Hillary .....

Run ....

The REPUBLICANS are out to get you, Hillary .....

Run, run, run .....

And it sounds like this REPUBLICAN Spencer .....

Is confusing Hillary Clinton .....

With George W. Bush .....

Who has his own ties to Osama bin Laden ....

And who is definitely playing politics ....

With OUR national security .....

In what is a a desperate move ....

On his part ....

To keep his REPUBLICANS in power ....

Along with their CULTURE OF CORRUPTION ....

Here in OUR America ....

And so ....

"Aide defends Clinton record - GOP primary candidate for U.S. Senate runs TV ad saying former first lady is soft on terrorism"

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press
First published: Wednesday, August 16, 2006

NEW YORK -- An adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday decried a television advertisement by a Republican challenger that links the New York Democrat to terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The ad, produced by the Senate campaign of former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, accuses Clinton of opposing national security programs, including the USA Patriot Act and a secret National Security Agency wiretapping program, that may have helped thwart a suspected terror attack aboard U.S.-bound flights from London last week.

The ad also suggests Clinton is "playing politics with national security."

Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson deemed the ad factually inaccurate and said, "Mr. Spencer's history of making wild-eyed angry falsehoods like these are among the many reasons why no one takes him or his campaign seriously."

Spencer spokesman Rob Ryan defended the ad Tuesday:

"It's about the failure of Senator Clinton to take proper action to defend the state in a time of war."

Ryan said the ad would air on cable stations around New York City for "the foreseeable future."

He declined to say how much the campaign would spend to run the ad.

Clinton, considered a potential presidential candidate in 2008, voted for the Patriot Act, which vastly expanded the federal government's ability to track terror suspects, in 2001.

Last year, she was part of a Democrat-led filibuster that forced Republicans to accept curbs on the government's power to investigate suspects.

Once those modifications were made, most Senate Democrats, including Clinton, voted to renew expiring sections of the Patriot Act.

Clinton has also criticized the NSA's program of domestic wiretapping without warrants from judges.

But in a speech last June, she said any president should have the latest technology to track terrorists within laws that provide for oversight by judges.

Spencer is competing with former Reagan-era Pentagon official Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland for the GOP nomination to challenge the heavily favored Clinton.

The primary is Sept. 12.

end quotes

Up here .....

In the State of New York ....

You can tell a REPUBLICAN ....

From a DEMOCRAT .....

By where they have their "RUN, HILLARY" bumper sticker on their car .....

The Democrats have it on the back bumper ....

While the REPUBLICANS prefer to have it on their front bumper .....

And so ....

And I live in the State of New York .....

And have all my life ....

And I don't see where New York State is at war with anything .....

Outside of REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION ....

AND THAT WAR WE ARE LOSING, ALRIGHT ...

BECAUSE REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION IS JUST TOO STRONG FOR US .....

TOO POWERFUL ....

And so ....

But outside of that .....

No problems that I am aware of ......

And God help the TAY-RISTS if they try to come upstate .....

To get after the good old boys ...

Because the good old boys shoot back ...

And they don't miss ....

Being squirrel hunters them .....

And the squirrel has a smallish eye to hit .....

Much less so than a TAY-RIST'S, anyway .....

Which kind of puts the TAY-RIST'S eye, right in the danger zone .....

If one of them good old boys .....

Gets it in his mind .....

To shoot one out ....

And so .....

And as we edge ever closer to November ....

And the Congressional elections ....

Which will determine ....

In large part .....

Whether we continue this SLIDE downward .....

That George W. Bush ....

And his REPUBLICAN PARTY have set this nation of OURS on ....

Or whether we, as a nation ....

Will finally reject, out of hand .....

The INEPTNESS ....

And INCOMPETENCE ....

Of this pathetic president's administration .....

And the REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CORRUPTION ....

That pervades not only BABYLON down there in Washington, D.C. .....

But the nation, as well .....

AND FINALLY CHANGE COURSE ...

Getting this nation of OURS .....

Back on a safer, saner course .....

Than has been set for it ...

Over these last so many years ....

BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY .....

For its own purposes ....

Which are not OURS .....

Nor are they for the benefit of OUR America ....

As a whole ....

And so ....

"Gillibrand ad hits Sweeney on war, Bush - Clinton spot offers testimonials, doesn't mention Iraq, a subject on which she's been criticized"

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

First published: Thursday, August 17, 2006

ALBANY -- Seeking to capitalize on a growing national anti-war sentiment, Democratic congressional candidate Kirsten Gillibrand released a television ad Wednesday saying she disagrees with President Bush's claim that the United States is making progress in Iraq.

In the ad, which began airing districtwide Tuesday, Gillibrand says America has the best troops in the world, but needs a real change and a new direction in Iraq.

Gillibrand's opponent in the 20th congressional district, U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, has supported the war.

Gillibrand has tried to highlight Sweeney's ties to Bush, but the congressman is touting his independence in campaign ads.

Sweeney has sought to distance himself on policy from the President, whose approval rating is sinking, on issues like the recent homeland security funding cuts to New York.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., also released a TV ad Wednesday -- the first of her re-election campaign.

The spot features testimonials from New Yorkers, some of whom say they were skeptical when she first ran in 2000, but now believe she has done a good job as the state's junior senator.

Clinton is considered a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but the ad does not address national issues or Iraq.

Clinton has been criticized for her initial support of the war and subsequent refusal to call for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

She faces a primary challenge from anti-war Democrat Jonathan Tasini, who is neither well-known, nor well-funded.

The senator has maintained a large lead over Tasini in public opinion polls.

Former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer and Reagan-era Pentagon official Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, will meet in a Republican primary to face Clinton in November.

end quotes

The "NEW" direction that we need in Iraq .....

Is one that takes us "NOT FURTHER IN" .....

As George W. Bush is doing .....

But rather ......

One that turns us around .....

And heads us towards the "EXIT DOOR" .....

Getting OUR troops out of that pit over there .....

Into which George W. Bush has them descending .....

Ever further into the chaos .....

Of George W. Bush's OWN MAKING .....

A chaos that is now fueled by our presence .....

And may be ended by our absence .....

Although that now too is highly questionable .....

And so ....

The problem, of course .....

For America .....

And OUR military .....

Is that now .....

George W. Bush has so de-stabilized the region over there .....

That we are essentially stuck in quicksand .....

With no real way to disengage OUR troops .....

And so .....

George W. Bush ...

May well go down in history .....

As the first American president .....

To lose a whole army .....

In a lost cause ....

That he started ....

And was unable to end ...

And this election ...

Even if the REPUBLICANS lose .....

May be too late ...

To prevent that debacle from occurring .....

Since we are so far in, now ....

That getting back out intact ....

May well nigh be impossible ....

And so .....

And with respect to where we as a nation now are .....

With this up-coming Congressional election that now faces us .....

With all of these politicians ....

Most of whom have never been to war ...

And so ...

Know nothing of war .....

And the psychology of those who are having war jammed down their throats .....

By George W. Bush ...

And "CON-JOB CONNIE" (KILLER) Rice .....

And Dick Cheney .....

And Donald "GASBAG" Rumsfeld ....

Dithering about whether we need a "new direction" in Iraq .....

And whether or not George W. Bush might still be sane ...

Or if George W. Bush was ever sane in the first place .....

And whether OUR America was plumb out of its collective mind .....

When it put an incompetent like George W. Bush .....

In charge of this nation ....

And its military ....

And its national security .....

Which George W. Bush has turned into a term of derision .....

Since under him ...

We don't have any ....

With OUR Army being broken .....

And stuck in a deep pit of quicksand ....

By him .....

And "GASBAG" Rumsfeld ....

Over there in Iraq ....

We have ....

Hobson's choice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In colloquial English, a Hobson's choice is an apparently free choice that is really no choice at all.

The first written reference to the source of the phrase is in Joseph Addison's paper, The Spectator (14 October 1712).

It also appears in Thomas Ward's poem England's Reformation, written in 1688, but not published until after his death.

Ward writes:

Where to elect there is but one, 'tis Hobson's choice -- take that or none.

The phrase originates from Thomas Hobson (1544–1630), who lived in Cambridge, England.

Hobson was a stable manager renting out horses to travelers; the site of his stables is now part of St. Catharine's College.

After customers began requesting particular horses again and again, Hobson realized certain horses were being overworked.

He decided to begin a rotation system, placing the well-rested horses near the stable door, and refused to let out any horse except in its proper turn.

He offered customers the choice of taking the horse in the stall nearest the door or taking none at all.

Hobson's choice is somewhat different from a Catch-22 situation, where both (or all) choices available contradict each other.

Henry Ford was said to have sold the Ford Model T with the famous Hobson's choice of "Any color so long as it's black".

(In reality, the Model T was available in a modest palette of colors, but the rapid production required quick-drying paint, which at the time was available in only one color—black.)

Modern usage

Hobson's choice is often used not to mean a false illusion of choice, but simply a choice between two undesirable options.

The difference between this and the original meaning of Hobson's choice is subtle, so the confusion is perhaps understandable.

(Indeed, if the horse in the stall nearest the door is in poor shape, the traditional usage of Hobson's choice becomes the more common use, since having an unhealthy horse and having no horse at all are both undesirable.)

This usage is disputed, as a choice between two options, neither of which is acceptable, is called a dilemma.

A modern phrase that more accurately fits Thomas Ward's poem would be the phrase "Take it or leave it".

While another common phrase that could be said to generalize Ward’s point is "Beggars can't be choosers".

On occasion, writers alternately use the term "Hobbesian choice" instead of "Hobson's choice", evidently not confusing philosopher Thomas Hobbes for Thomas Hobson, but referring to a specific Hobson's choice offered by Hobbes.

The philosopher's famous choice is of an armed robber and "your money or your life" with the serious claim that the person making the choice is fully free.

In politics

Some suggest that voting in a two-party system, like that of the United States, is Hobson's choice.

They believe that two candidates typically have far more similarities than dissimilarities, and that in fact the two-party system gives the candidates an incentive to be as similar as possible, in order to appeal to as many centrist or "swing" voters as possible.

In law

Then-Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist used the term in his dissenting opinion in City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey, (1978), 437 U.S. 617, and in citing a lower court ruling in his majority opinion in Upjohn Co. v. United States, (1981), 449 U.S. 383.

Justice White, in the case of Chadha and the INS v. The House of Representatives, 462 U.S. 919 (1983), used the term in his dissent.

In using it, he was arguing that denying the House of Representatives the power to place veto provisions over the administrative agencies responsible for enacting the laws passed, would leave the House with the Hobson's choice of either refraining from delegating the necessary authority, or abdicating its law-making function to the executive branch and independent agencies.

The Maryland Court of Appeals used the term and explained its origins as applied to a jury's decision making ability when a prosecutor's unwillingness to pursue a lesser-included offense (e.g. second-degree murder or manslaughter), requiring a jury to convict a defendant of the greater crime (e.g. first-degree murder) or nothing at all.

See Hook v. State, 315 Md. 25, 28 (1989).

In media

The New American, published by the John Birch Society, used the term "Hobson's Choice" to describe mainstream media outlets that purport to offer a range of choices to viewers/readers, while in reality doling out the same homogenized propaganda.

Americans have more than one TV channel and more than one newspaper.

Yet they all seem to parrot the same Establishment line.

The media mavens kindly present "conservative" and "liberal" solutions to the problems of the day.

But often genuine solutions are either not mentioned or viewed as outside the "mainstream".

—The New American, Feb. 10, 2003, v19 (both quotes)

Although the editors of The New American use the term in a way that implies fraud or deceit as an essential element in a Hobson's choice, it is in fact true that this particular instance of a Hobson's choice could be argued to entail such tricks.

The lead character of Early Edition received tomorrow's newspaper today and would try to avert disasters reported therein.

He was named Gary Hobson as a nod to the choice.

In the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, the most successful stable-owner in the city-state of Ankh-Morpork is named Hobson.

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson%27s_choice

LEBENSRAUM:

Territory believed especially by Nazis to be necessary for national existence or economic self-sufficiency .....

Space required for life, growth or activity .....

In their own quest ....

For LEBENSRAUM ....

For the oil companies .....

Who dominate American foreign policy today ....

At the expense of the people of OUR America ....

Who these oil companies are free to gouge ....

And profit off of .....

Thanks to George W. Bush ...

And Dick Cheney ....

And the REPUBLICAN PARTY ....

Is IRAQ ....

The "STALINGRAD" .....

Of George W. Bush ....

And Dick Cheney ....

And "CON-JOB CONNIE" (Killer) Rice ....

And Donald "GASBAG" Rumsfeld .....

And the REPUBLICAN PARTY?

Something to ponder, anyway .....

As we look to the future .....

Here in OUR America .....

Which really belongs to the oil companies .....

And the REPUBLICAN PARTY ...

Despite some empty words .....

On a worthless piece of paper ...

Entitled the "UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION" .....

And so ....

Dear Livyjr,

People who live in white houses shouldn't throw stones.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove should know better, but it's no surprise they don't.

For almost five years now, every time they've got their backs to the wall politically, they play "the fear card."

The latest example: Dick Cheney claiming that Democratic candidates who dare to challenge the Bush White House on Iraq are "emboldening terrorists."

What's worse, and startling, is that in Connecticut Joe Lieberman is now echoing their intolerable rhetoric attacking the Democratic Senate nominee.

It won't work.

We won't let it work.

In Connecticut, New Jersey and Hawaii, this cynical Bush-Cheney strategy is running aground because our stand-up candidates are exposing the failed policies, botched strategies, and mind-boggling incompetence of the Bush White House that have squandered America's treasure, kept Osama Bin Laden on the loose, and cost the lives and limbs of our brave young people.

If the Bush administration could plan and execute the war on terror as well as it executes its shameless pre-election fear-mongering, we'd all be a lot safer.

That's what strong, principled Senate candidates like Ned Lamont, Bob Menendez, and Dan Akaka are making clear to voters in three of America's closest, high-stakes Senate contests.

Our candidates are refusing to buckle or bend in the face of withering attacks by shameless politicians.

I urge you to stand with these candidates now.

Because when we help them win, the cynical tactics of the Bush-Cheney-Rove political machine will lose their power.

There's only one way we can win.

We've got to help our candidates give back as good as they get.

We'll meet every shameless attack with more energy, every distorting ad with more passion, and every ugly appeal to fear with more determination.

And 82 days from now, we'll celebrate the election of standup Democrats all across America.

We'll teach them, once and for all, that people who live in white houses shouldn't throw stones.

Let's get it done.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

Boy ....

Are these ever historical times that we are living in right now ....

Here in OUR America .....

Times like I haven't seen in quite a while .....

Not since the days of Millhouse "Tricky Dick" Nixxon .....

And Spiro "Spiggy" Agnew ......

And disgraced Attorney General John Mitchell ....

And their crooked and unlawful REPUBLICAN ways .....

Which Dick Cheney has been doing his darndest .....

To re-institute .....

Here in OUR America .....

With young George W. Bush ....

As "Tricky Dick's" present-day doppleganger ....

And the VEET NAM WAR times .....

In some respects, anyway .....

While in others .....

We are seeing things that I never thought that I would see .....

Not in my lifetime, anyway .....

And here ....

I am talking about seeing OUR America .....

Invading a poor, broken-down Middle Eastern country .....

Where it is now pinned down .....

WORSE THAN IT WAS IN THE VEET NAM DEBACLE .....

And a whole lot quicker, to boot ....

And we have "CON-JOB CONNIE" (Killer) Rice ....

And George W. Bush .....

Out there on the world stage ....

For all to see ...

And they are apparently acting out ....

Some kind of "PSYCHO DRAMA" it seems .....

Where "CON-JOB CONNIE" .....

Appears to be acting out the part of Queen Xenobia of Syria .....

While George W. Bush .....

Is King David of the Isrealites ........

Or perhaps "CON-JOB CONNIE" .........

Is really the new Pontius Pilate ....

While George W. Bush is Tiberius Caesar ....

And so ....

As for me .....

I think the cover of my Book of Revelations ....

Just opened ...

All on its own .....

And so .....

"Judge nixes warrantless surveillance"

By SARAH KARUSH, Associated Press Writer

9 minutes ago

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

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

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

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

The Justice Department appealed the ruling and issued a statement calling the program "an essential tool for the intelligence community in the war on terror."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Bush administration "couldn't disagree more with this ruling."

"United States intelligence officials have confirmed that the program has helped stop terrorist attacks and saved American lives," he said.

"The program is carefully administered and only targets international phone calls coming into or out of the United States where one of the parties on the call is a suspected al-Qaida or affiliated terrorist."

The ruling won't take immediate effect so Taylor can hear a Justice request for a stay pending its appeal.

A hearing on the motion was set for Sept. 7, Snow said.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs.

They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, monitoring phone calls and e-mails between people in the U.S. and people in other countries when a link to terrorism is suspected.

The government argued that the program is well within the president's authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.

The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush administration already had publicly revealed enough information about the program for Taylor to rule.

"At its core, today's ruling addresses the abuse of presidential power and reaffirms the system of checks and balances that's necessary to our democracy," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero told reporters after the ruling.

He called the opinion "another nail in the coffin in the Bush administration's legal strategy in the war on terror."

While siding with the ACLU on the surveillance issue, Taylor dismissed a separate claim by the group over NSA data-mining of phone records.

She said not enough had been publicly revealed about that program to support the claim and further litigation would jeopardize state secrets.

The lawsuit alleged that the NSA "uses artificial intelligence aids to search for keywords and analyze patterns in millions of communications at any given time."

Multiple lawsuits have been filed related to data-mining against phone companies, accusing them of improperly turning over records to the NSA.

However, the data-mining was only a small part of the Detroit suit, said Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director and the lead attorney on the case.

Beeson predicted the government would appeal the wiretapping ruling and request that the order to halt the program be postponed while the case makes its way through the system.

She said the ACLU had not yet decided whether it would oppose such a postponement.

And speaking of history .....

Here's "SLAMMIN'JOE" Lieberman .....

Trying to make some ....

And showing all the candid world .....

At the same time .....

Why they call him "SLAMMIN' JOE, WITH THE GET-UP AND GO" .....

And so ....

Go for it, "SLAMMIN' JOE" .....

"The numbers are adding up for Lieberman"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, August 16, 2006

History says that Connecticut's Joe Lieberman has little chance to retain his U.S. Senate seat as an independent, but simple math suggests otherwise.

That's because no U.S. senator has ever successfully done what Lieberman is attempting -- winning re-election after losing the support of his own party.

However, the basic arithmetic of this specific race says his chances are quite good.

The keys to Lieberman making history are twofold:

Keeping most of the Democrats who voted for him in his losing primary effort in his column come November -- and exit polling data show he may well be able to do just that.

Hoping the Republicans don't replace their currently weak candidate with a stronger one.

Lieberman, a three-term incumbent and the Democrats' 2000 vice-presidential nominee, lost the party nomination last week to Ned Lamont, a previously unknown anti-war activist.

Lieberman, ignoring the pleas of party elders, is running as an independent in November.

He faces formidable obstacles.

Lamont inherits the Democratic organizational structure, field operation and support from most, but not all, Democratic officeholders.

And history says Lieberman can't win.

Ken Rudin, National Public Radio's political editor, did the research and found that 24 Senate incumbents have been defeated in party primaries in the last half-century.

Only Republican Jacob Javits of New York then opted to run as an independent.

Like Lieberman, Javits was a well-regarded moderate, but he lost badly in November.

However, history has its limitations since comparisons are by their nature inexact.

About 280,000 people voted in the Democratic primary that Lamont won.

That is about 15 percent of the state's registered voters -- as a group, presumably those are the most likely to agree with Lamont's anti-war, anti-George W. Bush themed campaign.

That leaves an additional 85 percent of the electorate who can vote in November.

However, turnout being what it is, many of those Democrats who did not vote in the primary, plus a large number of independents and Republicans, are unlikely to vote in November either.

But still, the pool of November voters will be at least four or five times larger than the group that voted in last week's primary.

Lamont, despite all the sound and fury, only won the group most likely to go his way -- Democratic primary voters -- by 4 percentage points, or 10,000 votes.

It is important to remember that more than 20,000 independents switched their registration to Democratic in the weeks before the primary to vote in it.

The betting is that the vast majority of them were anti-war folks backing Lamont.

Therefore, the most likely independents for Ned are already included in the primary Lamont vote.

The remaining independent pool is more likely to like Lieberman than might ordinarily be the case.

Lieberman needs to keep most of those who voted for him in the primary in his camp, and a CBS News primary exit poll is reason for optimism.

Three-in-four Lieberman primary voters said they would support him in a November three-way race with Lamont and Republican Alan Schlesinger.

An additional 16 percent said they were not sure.

Meanwhile, Schlesinger is the key.

Earlier polls have him running in the very low double digits in a three-way.

That's because Lieberman's support of the President's war policy and general philosophy also make him attractive to GOP voters.

And the White House has reportedly told Lieberman it will do what it can to help, which presumably means ensuring no other Republican replaces Schlesinger on the ballot.

In that case, it isn't hard to see how Lieberman could outpoll Lamont by more than 12,000 votes among the 800,000 to 1,000,000 who will vote in November but didn't take part in the primary.

Think of Connecticut's much-ballyhooed Senate race as a face-off between history and math.

Those who ignore the lessons of history may be doomed to repeat them, but analysts who can't add and subtract generally have much more serious problems.

Peter A. Brown is assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute and a former columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. His e-mail address is peter.brown@quinnipiac.edu.

"War crimes? So what? - The Bush administration is out to narrow the scope of the Geneva Conventions"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

There was little in the way of objection a decade ago when Congress passed a law making it a crime to violate the Geneva Conventions, a series of international treaties providing protections for, among others, prisoners and casualties of war and dating as far back as 140 years.

The War Crimes Act of 1996, expanded in 1997, allows for the prosecution of anyone suspected of what are known as outrages upon the personal dignity of a prisoner.

That would cover acts of deliberate humiliation that nonetheless fell short of the legal definition of torture.

The objections come only now, from a presidential administration that routinely defies meddlesome laws and regards the Geneva Conventions as obsolete in a time of worldwide war against terrorism.

The Bush administration, The Washington Post has reported, wants Congress to make parts of the War Crimes Act moot.

If the administration prevails, political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel no longer could be prosecuted for humiliating or degrading war prisoners.

The White House wouldn't dare, at least not yet, try to make it impossible to prosecute such crimes as murder, rape and taking hostages as violations of the Geneva Conventions.

But this escalation of a war within a war, especially its aggressive disregard for the Geneva Conventions, would seemingly limit prosecution for, say, stripping prisoners, putting them on dog leashes or forcing them to wear women's underwear.

So much, then, for the proper resolution of the next Abu Ghraib.

The Supreme Court's ruling in June that it was illegal not to extend the Geneva Conventions to prisoners in the battle against al-Qaida creates a sense of urgency in the administration's quest to spare certain targets from possible prosecution.

Current military personnel, fortunately, can be prosecuted for assaults on the dignity of prisoners by military courts.

It's not as though there have been misguided prosecutions under the War Crimes Act.

In fact, there haven't been any prosecutions at all.

Still, there was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales complaining at a Senate hearing earlier this month about the potentially broad reach of the law's prohibition against "outrages upon personal dignity."

He went on to say that "if left undefined, this provision will create an unacceptable degree of uncertainty for those who fight to defend us from terrorist attack."

But why?

What sort of abuse of prisoners does Mr. Gonzales think is necessary to stop terrorism?

What the country needs is fewer people who think like Mr. Gonzales and more who think like Retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, the Navy's top uniformed lawyer from 1997 to 2000 and now dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire.

His warning?

"Don't trust the motives of any lawyer who changes a statutory provision that is short, clear, and to the point, and replaces it with something that is much longer, more complicated, and includes exceptions within exceptions."

"Anti-war platform no lonely frontier"

By ROSA BROOKS
First published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

What do you have to do to get a little peace and quiet around here?

It used to be possible to adopt an anti-war platform and be left entirely alone by most mainstream Americans.

Sure, you'd be sneered at by the media, ostracized by the major political parties and, from time to time, your in-laws would accuse you of living on the radical fringe.

But at least it was quiet out there on the fringe.

That's the whole point of fringes, right?

They're not supposed to be too populated.

The anti-war fringe used to be sort of like the frontier: nothing but virgin territory, big sky and social misfits.

Yep, in those days, you could stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and shout, "Hey, the whole war in Iraq thing, it's a huge mistake!"

And no matter how loud you were shouting, it would be a big empty space all around you as senators and representatives scurried to avoid anti-war contamination.

But lately the anti-war fringe has been getting awfully crowded.

First there were the MoveOn.org types -- rowdy, tech-savvy youngsters who sent too many e-mails and sometimes even showed up on your doorstep.

By 2004, blogs opposed to the war in Iraq had started to multiply like bunnies:

Suddenly you couldn't take a step in the blogosphere without tripping over them.

Then somebody started giving the anti-war bloggers money and letting them publish books on real paper and inviting them to grown-up conferences.

By the end of 2005, John Kerry as well as a battalion of retired generals were repudiating the war in Iraq.

Today, the anti-war fringe is starting to resemble California during the Gold Rush of 1849.

When gold was discovered in 1848, California had a non-native population of 14,000 and technically belonged to Mexico.

By the end of 1849, the lure of gold had brought the non-native population up to a boisterous 100,000 -- and California had been formally absorbed into the United States.

Similarly, when the war in Iraq began in 2003, only about one-quarter of Americans disapproved of President Bush's Iraq policies.

But by this month, the trend had reversed, with 60 percent of Americans telling CNN pollsters that they oppose the war and savvy politicians rushing to stake out an anti-war claim before it's too late.

(To paraphrase Kerry, who knows a thing or two about this, who wants to be the last politician to go down for failing to admit the war in Iraq was a mistake?)

Opposing the war in Iraq isn't fringe anymore -- it has become part of what defines ordinary Americans.

You wouldn't know it, though, from listening to the pundits.

As far as many in the "mainstream" media are concerned, people who oppose the war in Iraq are still oddball extremists.

Take the reaction to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont's successful effort to oust incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman in last week's Connecticut primary.

Lieberman spent the last five years cozying up to the President, defending the administration's foreign policies more vigorously than many Republicans.

Given the widespread public opposition to the Iraq war, Lamont's victory was hardly a shocker -- yet the media persist in furthering Lieberman's fantasy that he lost only because "the Democratic Party ... has been taken over by people who are not from the mainstream of America."

In May, columnist Jonathan Chait worried that Lieberman's opponents were "left-wing activists ... exactly the sorts of fanatics who tore the party apart in the late 1960s and early 1970s."

Jonah Goldberg, in his post-mortem column last week on the outcome, comes to a similar conclusion:

"The Democratic Party is, simply, a McGovernite party."

" ... But ... that is not necessarily where the voters are."

In the New York Daily News, Michael Goodwin doesn't bother with subtlety, calling Lieberman's defeat a win for "the wackadoo wing of the party."

No, fellas.

What happened was just that the whole democracy thing worked just the way it's supposed to, for once.

A majority of citizens oppose the war in Iraq, so they went to the polls and voted for the guy who shares their views, instead of the guy who doesn't.

Lieberman's defeat only illustrates what most Americans already know:

Mainstream Americans are tired of watching young Americans come home in coffins from an unnecessary war, tired of reckless foreign policies that have increased rather than decreased the threat of terrorism and really, really tired of incumbents who still don't get it.

But with anti-war views now as ubiquitous as cellphones on Main Street U.S.A., where can you go if you just want a little solitude?

For those of you who just can't stand being mainstream, here's a thought: Maybe it's time to go visit the neocons. It looks like they're getting a little bit lonely out there.

Neoconservatism: It's the new fringe.

Rosa Brooks is an associate professor at the University of Virginia. She wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times.

"Democracy can produce disastrous consequences"

By JONATHAN V. LAST
First published: Sunday, August 13, 2006

Of the many deaths already reaped by the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, perhaps the quietest befell the hopeful policy outlook expressed in President Bush's second inaugural address.

"It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture," the President said. " ...

"And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own."

This multicultural truism is no longer reassuring.

Democracy is a powerful force that often is an engine for liberalism.

As Natan Sharansky argues in "The Case for Democracy," democratic societies are mostly peaceful and, in relation to other systems of government, have a good track record in avoiding wars of belligerence.

But with all due respect to Bush and Sharansky, democracy is not a universal solvent.

Not all democracies are created equal.

The customs and traditions of a society matter as much as its mode of government.

It may be true that all people yearn for freedom, but history shows that some people yearn for the freedom to go forth and kill their neighbors.

Until a few weeks ago, Lebanon was regarded as one of the successes of the Bush doctrine.

Even in June 2005, there was trouble on the horizon, when the Lebanese held their free elections: The terrorist group Hezbollah won 14 seats in the 128-member parliament.

More worrisome, Hezbollah fared best where turnout was highest.

At the time, all that could be hoped was that democracy might reshape Hezbollah.

Now it is clear that, having hijacked Lebanon's foreign policy, Hezbollah has reshaped Lebanese democracy.

In an instructive essay in a recent New Republic, Annia Ciezadlo writes, "I live in a mixed Beirut neighborhood, not heavily Shia or even exclusively Muslim."

But when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah spoke on TV announcing a Hezbollah attack on Israeli ships, she heard from all around the neighborhood "a surround-sound rustle of cheers and applause."

"Outside, caravans of cars rolled through the abandoned streets, and the drivers honked their horns."

It will come as little surprise if Hezbollah gains strength in the next election.

Throughout the Middle East, elections have produced gains for Islamists, whose vision of democracy is at least a challenge for and perhaps antithetical to liberalism, tolerance or peace.

In the Palestinian territories, the terrorist group Hamas swept to power last January.

It, too, shows no signs of having been subdued by the burdens of democratic responsibility.

In June 2005, 17 million Iranians cast their ballots for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who has declared that "Israel must be wiped off the map."

Some Middle East elections have been less catastrophic, but no more hopeful.

In February 2005, Saudi Arabia held mostly symbolic municipal elections.

Nonetheless, as the Middle East Forum's Daniel Pipes observed, these "proved a boon for the Islamist candidates."

In Egypt, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood has been gaining support for decades.

In Egypt's most recent (and highly imperfect) election, the brotherhood led all opposition groups, winning 88 parliamentary seats -- up from 17 seats in 2000.

Should Hosni Mubarak lose power, Egypt could become an Islamist state.

Even Turkey and Kuwait, two of the great hopes for Middle Eastern liberalism and toleration, have had problems.

Turkish voters elected Tayyip Erdogan's religious AKP party in 2002, which might be the beginning of a shift away from secular society.

And Kuwait's Islamists have been gaining in popularity since the end of the Gulf War.

Kuwait's most recent election, on June 29, was the first in which women were allowed to vote; when the ballots were tallied, the Islamist party further increased its base in the National Assembly.

As Abdul Razak Shuyji, one of Kuwait's Islamic fundamentalist leaders, boasted to The Washington Post three years ago, "Whenever there is true democracy, the Islamists will prevail."

Even the Iraqi elections, which America gallantly labored to bring about, gave a 41 percent plurality to the Dawa party and its partner, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Part of their platform is that all laws must flow from Islam.

This theocratic precept has proven problematic in the past.

Writing in the National Interest (and in their book "Electing to Fight"), professors Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder note that "unfettered electoral politics often gives rise to nationalism and violence at home and abroad."

There is a whole list of democracies that have turned to war: In 1995, Bosnia fought Serbia after nationalist parties won elections.

Peru and Ecuador, two other young democracies, went to war in the Amazon.

In other words, democracy isn't bulletproof.

Instances of disastrous democracy extend back to ancient times.

Athens voted to attack Syracuse in 415 B.C.

It was a grinding, terrible defeat that spelled the beginning of the end for Athens in the Peloponnesian War.

And, to leap to the 20th century, let's remember that the Germans voted the Nazi Party into power; we all know how that turned out.

(I'm drawing no parallel between contemporary political movements and Nazism --simply giving one more instance of free popular elections, meaning democracy, getting the wrong answer.)

Surveying the problems of democracy in the Middle East, Mansfield and Snyder speculate that "although democratization in the Islamic world might contribute to peace in the very long run, Islamic public opinion in the short run is generally hostile to the United States, ambivalent about terrorism and unwilling to renounce the use of force to regain disputed territories."

"... Per capita incomes, literacy rates and citizen skills in most Muslim Middle Eastern states are below the levels normally needed to sustain democracy."

Certainly, the benefits of democracy should not be minimized.

Witness the transformation of Eastern Europe and much of South and Central America.

But after Hamas came to power, President Bush quipped that "when you give people the vote, you give people a chance to express themselves at the polls -- and if they're unhappy with the status quo, they'll let you know."

"That's the great thing about democracy, it provides a look into society."

The experience of the last few weeks suggests that the President may be more right than he knows.

Jonathan V. Last writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer. His e-mail address is jlast@phillynews.com.

"HUH?"

"You mean that makes a difference?"

"Uh, gee, I don't think I ever really knew that ..."

"Golly ..."

"How come Dick Cheney never tells me these things?"

- George W. Bush, circa 2006

"Bush to meet with economic team"

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:06 a.m., Friday, August 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- High energy prices, a slowing economy and upcoming congressional elections frame President Bush's annual meeting with his top economic advisers, held this year in a cooler clime.

Instead of gathering at his Texas ranch, where the temperature is topping 100, the president and his advisers are meeting Friday at the wooded Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.

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

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

"Every year the president takes time in August to meet with his economic team for an in-depth discussion about the economy and how we can be sure that the administration's policies are on track to keep the economy strong and growing," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Thursday evening.

Perino said they will discuss the macroeconomic picture and job growth, financial markets, tax policy, the budget and current and future spending on government entitlement programs.

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

Cheney recently predicted that the Republicans would prevail in the midterm elections partly because the U.S. economy is "kicking along in very good shape."

Democrats, on the other hand, argue that Bush's economic plan has left wages flat and gas and health care costs high.

They also blame Republicans for a failed attempt to raise the minimum wage by insisting that it be coupled with cutting taxes on multimillion-dollar estates.

"Despite the president's rosy rhetoric and campaign slogans, the American people know the Bush economy doesn't work for them, as they've endured stagnating wages, skyrocketing health care costs and record-high gas prices," said Stacie Paxton, press secretary for the Democratic National Committee.

There has been recent good news on the inflation front.

A surge in energy prices pushed the Consumer Price Index higher in July, but other prices were more restrained.

That raised hopes on Wall Street that interest rates won't be rising.

Also, wholesale prices were up just 0.1 percent in July and, excluding food and energy, actually fell by 0.3 percent.

Other economic reports give evidence that the economy is slowing.

The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production rose by 0.4 percent in July -- just half the June gain, as manufacturing output slowed dramatically.

And the Commerce Department said new home construction dropped by 2.5 percent in July, the fifth decline in the past six months.

end quotes

Perhaps it is ...

That wholesale prices .....

EXCLUDING FOOD AND ENERGY ....

Stayed flat ...

Because (1) .....

How many American people out of ten are out there in the first place "buying anything wholesale" ......

And (2) ....

After being financially broken buying food and energy .....

Who has a dime left over for anything else?

Maybe wholesale prices .....

Are staying flat ....

Because they have risen ...

As high as they can go ...

In an economy ...

Where most people don't have money ...

And only a few rich do ....

Which means that the rich had better get busy buying up .....

All this this cheap plastic crap .....

That poor people can no longer afford ...

If the American economy .....

Is going to keep "KICKING ALONG IN VERY GOOD SHAPE" .....

As Dick Cheney, the "OILMAN'S OILMAN" says it is ....

And so ...