http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/sto...1745563,00.html

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The new definition of military valour - saying no to politicians

The lesson of Iraq is that allied top brass have a duty to dig their heels in when they recognise a fiasco in the making

Max Hastings
Monday April 3, 2006
The Guardian


Francis Fukuyama's Iraq recantation has received keen attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Like many US conservatives, he now distances himself from what has been done in the neocons' name by the Bush administration. Of course, we welcome every sinner that repenteth, but the people who seem most deserving of respect are those clever Americans who got it right in the first place. Most of my US military acquaintances opposed the invasion. They did not doubt the coalition's ability to defeat Saddam's army swiftly and topple his regime. It was uncertainty about what would follow that rang warning bells. They identified from the outset precisely the difficulties that Messrs Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz contemptuously dismissed.

In October 2002, when it became evident that Bush was determined to invade Iraq, the US Army War College's strategic studies institute undertook a study of a prospective occupation. Some bright soldiers and diplomats got together with two military academics, Dr Conrad Crane and Dr Andrew Terrill. The fruits of their labours were published in February 2003, before the first shot was fired.
Re-reading the study today, it seems stunningly prescient. First, it highlighted previous failures to address the problems of occupation, notably after the 1991 Gulf war. A senior commander on the ground, it said, "could get no useful staff support to assess and plan for post-conflict issues like hospital beds, prisoners and refugees, complaining later that he was handed 'a dripping bag of manure' that no one else wanted".

In 2003, the study predicted, after a brief initial honeymoon "suspicion of US motives will increase ... A force initially viewed as liberators can rapidly be relegated to the status of invaders ... Regionally, the occupation will be viewed with great scepticism, which may only be overcome by the population's rapid progress towards a secure and prosperous way of life ... The establishment of democracy or even some sort of rough pluralism in Iraq ... will be a staggering challenge". It warned that exile groups, the focus of Pentagon hopes, did not possess the domestic support to form a credible Iraqi interim administration.

Crane and Terrill forecast the alienation of Sunnis dispossessed of power, and the difficulties of reconciling a society riven by religious and tribal divides. They anticipated an insurgency, and highlighted the importance of training US soldiers in the specialised skills of low-intensity combat against guerrillas in the midst of a civilian population.

They identified suicide-bombing as the insurgents' likely tactic of choice, noting that Israel had been able to stem this threat only by building its security wall, not an option in Iraq: "All Arabs ... are now learning stunning lessons about the effectiveness of suicide bombers."

They cautioned against disbanding the Iraqi army after winning the war: "To tear apart the army ... could lead to the destruction of one of the only forces for unity within the society ... [It] also raises the possibility that demobilised soldiers could affiliate with ethnic or tribal militias."

Crane and Terrill summarised their conclusions thus: "To be successful, an occupation ... requires much detailed inter-agency planning, many forces, multi-year military commitment, and a national commitment to nation-building. Recent American experiences with post-conflict operations have generally featured poor planning, problems with relevant military-force structure, and difficulties with a handover from military to civilian responsibility."

They forecast the need for strong engineer and civil affairs back-up for combat units, and suggested that US forces would face "possible severe security difficulties ... The administration of an Iraqi occupation will be complicated by deep religious, ethnic and tribal differences, which dominate Iraqi society. US forces may have to manage and adjudicate conflicts among Iraqis that they can barely comprehend".

"An exit strategy will require the establishment of political stability, which will be difficult to achieve given Iraq's fragmented population, weak political institutions and propensity for rule by violence."

There is today much criticism of American and British intelligence about Iraq before the invasion. We know that both the CIA and the Secret Intelligence Service got it wrong about weapons of mass destruction. Yet allied commanders had access to a mass of shrewd analysis, of which the Crane-Terrill study, from a respected US army institution, is only the most striking example. All such material was tossed aside, of course, because it did not fit the administration's agenda.

Intelligence and predictive analysis can never be more useful than the political and service chiefs to whom they are submitted. In Afghanistan today, almost all the smart diplomats, soldiers, journalists and intelligence-gatherers agree that Nato plans to deploy a few thousand troops to support reconstruction amount to gesture strategy of the worst sort. The policy survives only because it represents the highest common factor of Nato nations' willingness to act, a pitiful political figleaf rather than a coherent military operation.

Perhaps the most important lesson of Iraq and Afghanistan is that senior soldiers on both sides of the Atlantic should be braver about saying no. Armed forces are the servants of democratic governments. But their commanders should recognise a constitutional duty to dig in their heels when invited by politicians to undertake operations they perceive as militarily unsound. This the 2003 Iraq invasion emphatically was, because of the US government's refusal meaningfully to address "phase IV" occupation planning.

Cobra II, the new book by Michael Gordon and General Bernard Trainor, which was serialised in this newspaper, makes plain that much of America's military leadership was uncomfortable with the operation, and thought the terms set by defence secretary Rumsfeld quite unrealistic. Yet the doubters stifled their feelings, and the dissenters were sidelined. There was enough ambitious, heedless top brass in the mould of General Tommy Franks to do the business.

Britain's service chiefs would have endorsed every word of the Crane-Terrill pamphlet about the requirements for occupation strategy, and were in no doubt that their American partners had done little or nothing towards fulfilling them. British commanders went ahead with doing their part anyway. They perceived this as their duty, just as they are now presiding over the token British deployment in Afghanistan, though almost no one in uniform thinks its objectives attainable with the forces available.

The Blair government ruthlessly stifles expressions of dissent within the Ministry of Defence. Yet the only way to avoid more foreign fiascos is to have an informed, ongoing public debate about what our armed forces are or are not doing. We have learned the painful consequence of dependence for enlightenment on Alastair Campbell and his "mate" John Scarlett.

Iraq has demonstrated what happens when governments are allowed to defy informed opinion and pursue ideologically driven adventures. There will come a time when the west has vital reasons to stage another armed intervention somewhere in the world. When it does, we need to feel confident that the chiefs of staff on both sides of the Atlantic will speak their minds if they are invited by government to execute a policy that they judge ill-conceived.

We ourselves, as citizens, must know enough to exploit our democratic institutions to prevent another such fiasco as Iraq. Any US soldier or civilian who read the Crane-Terrill report back in 2003 should have recognised that refusal to heed its wise strictures promised disaster, and indeed delivered it.

· Max Hastings is the author of Armageddon: the Battle for Germany 1944-1945

FDR had been a great admirer of Ho Chi Minh. In 1944, FDR assured Ho that he would personally tell deGaulle that the era of French Colonial Rule in Indochina was OVER. And deGaulle owed him bigtime. Ho would be able to rule a united Vietnam after WWII was over.

Death got in the way. ANd because FDR thought Truman to be as dumb as a post, he never briefed him on anything. So when Truman was sworn in, not only did he know nothing about the Manhattan Project; he also knew nothing about the post-war promise to rid Indochina of French Colonial Rule.

Sad.

Good to see you back, jeffmoskin .....

When you are gone for long periods of time .....

We train our spy satellites on the coyote population out there ...

To see if one of them looks like he might have been eating something a bit more substantial than a poodle .....

And so .....

On this particular scan ....

We caught one that looked a little too well-fed ...

And so .....

But here you are ...

Back safe and sound ....

And so .....

And while we are on the subject of California .....

And coyotes eating poodles ....

Let's drop in and see ....

What is happening to George W. Bush's "best buddy" ......

Kenny "BOY" Lay .....

Of ENRON fame ....

"Hey, Kenny Boy, what's the haps, eh?"

"Heard anything from George lately?"

"You don't say!"

"How about that, will you now!"

"Lay, Skilling Lawyers Launch Their Defense"

By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer

Mon Apr 3, 1:36 PM ET

HOUSTON - Lawyers for former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling launched their case Monday with the two men's former assistant, who said she believed a key prosecution witness lied about his involvement in company-related crimes.

As they did during the first 2 1/2 months of the fraud and conspiracy trial of the two former chief executives, defense lawyers sought to erode prosecution testimony with their first witnesses.

Joannie Williamson served as an assistant at various times to Skilling, Lay and former investor relations chief Mark Koenig, a key prosecution witness.

Koenig pleaded guilty in August 2004 to aiding and abetting securities fraud and testified for the prosecution that he lied to investors about Enron's finances.

During more than seven days in the witness chair in February, he denied claims that he had told Williamson he pleaded guilty to a crime he didn't commit.

The defense teams maintain that most ex-Enron executives who admitted to crimes did so out of fear of prosecution and in hopes of receiving lenient punishments rather than because they broke the law.

Williamson said Koenig, whom she described as a close family friend as well as a former boss, called her the day he pleaded guilty.

"I said, 'You're not guilty,' and he said, 'I know that, but in order for this to work, everyone needs to believe that I am.'"

She added she did not believe he was guilty, even though Koenig told jurors in February, "I pled guilty because I am guilty."

Williamson said yes when prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler asked if she thought Koenig lied during his testimony, which implicated Lay and Skilling in a string of falsehoods.

"Did he tell you he was pressured?" Ruemmler asked.

"No, he did not," Williamson replied.

Skilling lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said Monday that Skilling could testify as early as Wednesday afternoon, depending on how long the first few defense witnesses take on the stand.

Lay's testimony will come later.

Lay's lead lawyer, Michael Ramsey, was absent from the trial Monday, undergoing outpatient tests on a stent he had inserted in his chest on March 24.

Lay spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said the attorney will have "an invasive procedure" Tuesday during which doctors can evaluate the stent.

"We are hopeful that he will be back at the trial soon," Kimberly said.

The trial will continue despite Ramsey's medical condition.

Other defense witnesses who testified Monday included:

_Scott Stoness, a former analyst for Enron's retail energy unit, Enron Energy Services.

He was called to counter prosecution testimony from former unit Chief Executive David Delainey, who told jurors that in March 2001 he reluctantly agreed to a Skilling-approved plan to move part of the failing retail unit into a larger profitable division to hide $200 million in losses.

Stoness said Enron didn't know until May whether it would have such losses, and they reached $170 million.

_Diann Huddleson, another former EES analyst.

Skilling's legal team called her to show that EES wasn't in disarray as Delainey and other government witnesses have said.

She said she persistently chased California utilities to pay Enron for energy deliveries during that state's power crisis of 2000-2001 despite testimony from a former in-house accountant about a drawerful of uncashed checks for amounts that Enron's books claimed had been collected.

The defense also sought to counter prosecution testimony that Enron wrongly raided reserves to pad earnings by showing through Huddelson that the company had another purpose for those funds.

Huddelson noted Enron had reserves of up to $400 million to cover any losses from California utilities that failed to pay their bills.

The government contends that Skilling and Lay repeatedly lied to investors and employees about Enron's strength when they knew the energy trading company was struggling with weak ventures and massive losses.

The defendants say no fraud occurred at Enron other than that committed by a few executives who skimmed millions from secret side deals.

They say bad publicity and lost market confidence drove what was once the country's seventh-largest company into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001.

Prosecutors rested their case last week.

Skilling faces 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors, while Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake approved prosecutors' request to drop three counts against Skilling and one count against Lay to streamline their case.

end quotes

The defense teams maintain that most ex-Enron executives who admitted to crimes did so out of fear of prosecution and in hopes of receiving lenient punishments rather than because they broke the law?

Now ...

Wouldn't that be slighty irrational?

HOPING to receive a lenient punishment .....

For something you know you did not do?

If you know you didn't do something ...

Then why would you hope for a lenient punishment?

Why wouldn't you accept no punishment at all as the only viable outcome .....

For not having violated the law?

These lawyers sound like a dim-witted pack of fools ...

If you ask me ...

Making cock-a-mamie statements like that one ....

And so ...

And then ....

The weather ....

"Severe storms kill 27 in south, Midwest"

By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:25 p.m., Monday, April 3, 2006

NEWBERN, Tenn. -- Tornadoes shredded homes to their foundations, hail tore holes in the rooftops and high winds toppled even freight cars as a line of violent storms cut zigzagging paths of destruction that killed at least 27 people across the nation's midsection.

The worst damage from Sunday night's storms occurred along a 25-mile swath of rural western Tennessee, where 23 of the deaths occurred and state troopers using dogs searched for more victims amid the rubble of brick buildings and toppled trailers.

"Most of the houses, you can't count."

"They're just gone," said Roy Childress, who was part of a church relief crew that was delivering food and water to survivors Monday.

The dead included an infant and the grandparents who had been babysitting him.

A young couple and their two sons, ages 5 and 3, were also killed, their bodies found 800 yards from their house.

"It basically took my life away."

"I don't really care if I see daylight tomorrow," said Larry Taylor, the boys' grandfather and the only funeral director in rural Bradford.

He was planning to bury the family in two separate caskets, with each child alongside one of his parents.

"I'd give everything I had for that not to have happened," he said through tears.

"Those little boys were my life."

Severe storms also struck parts of Iowa, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.

Strong winds were blamed for at least three deaths in Missouri.

A clothing store collapsed in southern Illinois, killing one man.

In Arkansas, Logan Hawley tried to escape by driving with a group of other people to a tornado shelter.

"We couldn't see anything," Hawley said.

"It was just brown in front of us."

The car crashed at an intersection, so the six people inside had no choice but to sit terrified as the tornado passed.

"I just closed by eyes and hoped it was a dream," he said.

The brunt of the storms, some packing softball-sized hail, blasted an area between the small town of Newbern, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, to Bradford.

Twenty-three people were killed, including an infant and the grandparents who had been babysitting him.

A family of four was also killed.

Officials estimated 1,200 buildings were damaged in Gibson County, where eight people were killed and 17 others hospitalized in critical condition, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Gov. Phil Bredesen asked President Bush to declare Dyer and Gibson counties federal disaster areas.

"Our first priority is helping those impacted to get back on their feet quickly and to bring back a sense of normalcy at a time when they need it most," said Bredesen, who planned to visit the area Tuesday.

The Tennessee Valley Authority estimated that more than 15,000 customers were without power at midday Monday.

The storms developed after a cold front approaching from the West slammed into a mass of warm, humid air, said Memphis meteorologist Jody Aaron.

A tornado in Dyer County apparently had winds of 158 to 206 mph.

The weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it had preliminary reports of 63 tornadoes.

About a half-dozen tornadoes struck Arkansas and one destroyed nearly half the town of Marmaduke, according to a fire department official.

Authorities cordoned off the town after a gas line ruptured, and three people remained unaccounted for Monday.

"Almost every single structure in Marmaduke has minor to moderate damage but almost 50 percent of it is totally destroyed," acting fire commander Chris Franks said.

Much of the town also was damaged by a tornado in 1997.

Brick shells were all that remained at some houses, while corrugated metal used as roofing stood draped around several trees.

The storm rolled railroad cars onto their sides, several feet away from the nearest track.

Hail 4 inches in diameter slammed right through the roof of one mobile home in Arkansas, weather service meteorologist Newton Skiles said.

About 30 miles from Newbern, a tornado caused extensive damage to the southeast Missouri city of Caruthersville, although Mayor Diane Sayre said there were no known deaths in the city of 6,700.

In southern Illinois, a man died when a clothing store collapsed in the St. Louis suburb of Fairview Heights.

An off-duty police officer survived for nearly an hour in the store's debris before he was pulled to safety.

"I'm so blessed," Doug Young said Monday from his hospital bed in Belleville, where he had a bruised chest and 10 stitches in a knee.

"I was thankful to God that he delivered my prayers."

In downtown Indianapolis, tornado-force winds shattered dozens of windows in an high-rise office building.

The storm hit just after thousands of people had left a free outdoor concert by John Mellencamp held as part of the NCAA men's Final Four basketball tournament.

------

On the Net:

Storm Prediction Center: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/

In keeping with the BushCo doctrine of survival of the fittest, I AM BACK.

The coyote is not.

Injustices of the West Against The Arab World

Lecture By Robert Fisk

Fisk is more determined than ever to prosecute a case against the injustices of the west against the Arab and Muslim world. Agree with him or not, his presentations are suffused with passionate belief in change for the better. This talk was recorded recently in Sydney, as part of the Sydney Ideas 2006 public lecture series organised by the University of
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12611.htm

===
America's war on the web

By Neil Mackay
Investigations editor

IMAGINE a world where wars are fought over the internet; where TV broadcasts and newspaper reports are designed by the military to confuse the population; and where a foreign armed power can shut down your computer, phone, radio or TV at will.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12609.htm

===
Government in secret talks about strike against Iran

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent

It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is "inevitable" if Teheran's leaders fail to comply with United Nations demands to freeze their uranium enrichment programme.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12603.htm

[quote=Livyjr,Apr 2 2006, 01:49 PM]
I am an older American myself ...

Or at least I believe I am, since I don't know exactly what age you must be to qualify as one .....

In any event ...

I was born at the close of WWII .....

Which war a lot of young people in OUR America today ....

Know absolutely nothing about .....


Power!

That is what this forum gives us here in America!

Power.

For the first time in my life, at least, I am able to stand up in a public forum, without having a one minute or three minute time limit imposed upon me, and state my own piece about our America, and where it might be going, and why.

For the first time in my life, I am able to stand up in a public forum that is not owned and controlled by the political "powers that be", and I am able to exercise my First Amendment right to speak out on what I consider to be matters of public importance in America, regardless of how uncomfortable that might make the political "powers that be" feel.

In fact, with this forum, this might be the very first time that we have had real true democracy here in our Republic of America!

SO!

How about that?


Back in those days when I was a tad younger, we used to call it Power to the People! Hasn't changed. And God forbid it ever will. But today's youngins are still clueless.

And then there are the Republicans:

How the GOP Became God's Own Party

By Kevin Phillips

Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12617.htm

That's it, jeffmoskin .....

SHOCK AND AWE, BABY!

Hosta La Vista, coyotes .....

PRE-EMPT THE HELL OUT OF THEM, jeffmoskin .....

They are nothing but mangy curs ...

Likely TAY-RISTS ....

Or at least ....

They are providing material support for TAY-RISTS ....

If you listen to Rush Limbaugh tell the story anyway ....

Oh, those coyotes are up to no good at all out there in California ....

And that is something that the GEORGE W. BUSH WHITE HOUSE JUST WILL NOT TOLERATE ....

Very subversive ...

Always going around with a smile on their faces ....

Something definitely wrong with that alright ....

All that smiling ....

As if they know something ...

That George W. Bush does not ....

Always plotting something or other, but no one ever can quite tell what that is ...

BECAUSE .....

Unlike this Al Q. Aida guy ...

THE COYOTES KNOW GEORGE W. BUSH IS LISTENING IN ...

And so ...

They are very circumspect indeed with the use of cell phones to communicate with each other ...

Preferring instead to rely upon the more primitive mode of simply howling back and forth to each other in some kind of code that as of yet ...

George W. Bush has been unable to break ...

Because there are too many polysyballic words in it ....

As opposed to the monosyballic kind ...

Which are still causing poor dim-witted George so much consternation ....

Words like NU-Q-LAR .....

Or is it NU-Q-LEE-ARE?

And so ....

Good morning, Snuf .....

And thanks for bring that thought into here this morning ...

For it is something that has been floating around in my mind lately ...

This BID-NESS of GOD wanting George W. Bush to RULE IN GOD's NAME down here on this earth of OURS ...

Because that is what GOD specifically created George W. Bush to do ...

And be .....

A world ruler .....

And because GOD wanted George to be a RULER ...

Instead of a thinking man ...

Or a working man ...

God was able to save quite a bit on the "construction costs", so to speak ...

Especially with respect to a "central processing unit", or "BRAIN" .....

And associated "memory" ......

All of which were apparently deleted from George ...

To save money of course .....

So that at the end of the quarter .....

Like ENRON ...

GOD could post an operating surplus ....

To keep the investors happy ....

And so ....

And speaking of the PARTY OF GOD, here in OUR America .....

Which is the REPUBLICAN PARTY ...

And none other .....

Here is some good news for the few honest folks here in OUR America who still remain .....

NO MORE TOMMY ......

At least in Washington, D.C. .....

And that should make you breathe a bit easier down there, Snuf .....

A bit less "WHIFF OF STINK" in the air .....

And so ....

"DeLay to Announce Resignation From House"

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom Delay intends to resign from Congress within weeks, closing out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.

DeLay is scheduled to appear on Fox News Channel Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. ET.

Republican officials said Monday night they expect the Texan to quit his seat later this spring.

He was first elected in 1984, and conceded he faced a difficult race for re-election.

"He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year.

But Democrats said the developments marked more than the end to one man's career in Congress.

"Tom DeLay's decision to leave Congress is just the latest piece of evidence that the Republican Party is a party in disarray, a party out of ideas and out of energy," said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

A formal announcement of DeLay's plans was expected Tuesday at a news conference in Houston.

In a video statement made available to television news networks late Monday, DeLay blamed "liberal Democrats" for making his re-election campaign largely a negative one.

"I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign," DeLay said.

"The voters of the 22nd district of Texas deserve a campaign about the vital national issues that they care most about and that affect their lives every day and not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me."

DeLay is under indictment in Texas as part of an investigation into the allegedly illegal use of funds for state legislative races.

Separately, the Texan's ties with lobbyist Jack Abramoff caused him to formally surrender his post as majority leader in January, within days after the lobbyist entered into a plea bargain as part of a federal congressional corruption probe.

More recently, former DeLay aide Tony Rudy said he had conspired with Abramoff and others to corrupt public officials, and he promised to help the broad federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that already has resulted in three convictions.

Neither Rudy, Abramoff nor anyone else connected with the investigation has publicly accused DeLay of breaking the law, but Rudy confessed that he had taken actions while working in the majority leader's office that were illegal.

DeLay has consistently denied all wrongdoing, and he capped a triumph in a contested GOP primary earlier this year with a vow to win re-election.

In an interview Monday with The Galveston County Daily News in Texas, DeLay said his change of mind was based partly on a poll taken after the March Republican primary that showed him only narrowly ahead of Democrat Nick Lampson.

"Even though I thought I could win, it was a little too risky," the paper quoted him as saying.

In a separate interview with Time Magazine, DeLay says he plans to make his Virginia condominium his primary residence, a step that will disqualify him from the ballot in Texas and permit GOP officials there to field a replacement candidate.

It was not clear Monday night whether Texas Gov. Rick Perry would call a special election to fill out the unexpired portion of DeLay's term, or whether the seat would remain vacant until it is filled in November.

Either way, DeLay's concern about the potential loss of a Houston-area seat long in Republican hands reflected a deeper worry among GOP strategists.

After a dozen years in the majority, they face a strong challenge from Democrats this fall, at a time when President Bush's public support is sagging, and when the Abramoff scandal has helped send congressional approval ratings tumbling.

Until scandal sent him to the sidelines, DeLay had held leadership posts since the Republicans won control of the House in a 1994 landslide.

At first, he had to muscle his way to the table, defeating then-Speaker Newt Gingrich's handpicked candidate to become whip.

But DeLay quickly established himself as a forceful presence — earning a nickname as "The Hammer" — and he easily became majority leader when the spot opened up.

He sat at the nexus of legislation, lobbying, political campaigns and money.

And while he was a conservative, he raised millions of dollars for the campaigns of fellow House Republicans regardless of their ideology, earning their gratitude in the process.

He supported tax cuts, limits on abortions, looser government regulation of business and other items on the conservative agenda, and he rarely backed down.

DeLay was the driving force behind President Clinton's impeachment in 1999, weeks after Republicans lost seats at the polls in a campaign in which they tried to make an issue of Clinton's personal behavior.

His trademark aggressiveness helped trigger his downfall, when he led a drive to redraw Texas' congressional district boundaries to increase the number of seats in GOP hands.

The gambit succeeded, but DeLay was soon caught up in an investigation involving the use of corporate funds in the campaigns of legislators who had participated in the redistricting.

He attacked prosecutor Ronnie Earle as an "unabashed partisan zealot," and said numerous times he hoped to clear himself of the charges quickly and renew his claim to the majority leader's office.

The trial has yet to begin.

end quotes

"He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year?

Well, John boy .....

That is a LOAD OF PURE BULL ****, straight up from Texas ...

And you know it ....

Tommy DeLay DID NOT SERVE OUR NATION ...

Tommy served himself ...

And the REPUBLICAN PARTY ...

And that is that ...

And what is this crap we always here from the REPUBLICANS about HONOR ....

Or INTEGRITY ....

When a REPUBLICAN has been indicted or convicted of crimes?

IS AN INDICTMENT FOR CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR THE REPUBLICAN STANDARD FOR WHAT HONOR AND INTEGRITY SHOULD BE TO A REAL REPUBLICAN?

IF YOU BELIEVE CRIMINAL CONDUCT IS THE MEASURE OF HONOR AND INTEGRITY IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT .....

And many do, here in OUR America .....

THEN YOUR CHOICE IS VERY SIMPLE ....

YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN ....

And so ...

YOU CAN SIMPLY VOTE A STRAIGHT TICKET ...

Without the necessity of having to think about what you are doing ....

Which also makes you a good REPUBLICAN ...

The "not thinking" part ...

Which is what the REPUBLICANS want ...

Not only here in OUR America ...

But in the world as well ....

And so .....

As for the rest of us ....

Well ....

And while we are on the subject of REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION ...

And GROSS INCOMPETENCE .....

Let's take a jump over to IRAQINAM ....

Where the REPUBLICANS are instilling this TRAIT OF THEIRS into the IRAQINAMIS .....

Who George W. Bush and "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice and their sycophants Blair and Straw ......

Wish us to believe .....

Are ready to defend their nation ....

Against something anyway ...

So long as that defense does not require them to have to shoot a gun .....

Perhaps George and Rumsfeld should consider arming these guys they are training over there with rocks to throw .....

It sounds like that would be a lot safer for all involved ....

"Many Iraqi Soldiers Wounded by Own Guns"

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer

Mon Apr 3, 1:38 PM ET

BIDIMNAH, Iraq - The two bloodied, wincing Iraqi soldiers — bandages wrapped around their legs — hobbled onto the waiting ambulance, wounded during a house-to-house search near this farming town.

The culprit was a common one: not insurgents, but gunfire from fellow soldiers.

U.S. trainers who mentor Iraqi troops say a lack of gun safety, or what they call "muzzle discipline," has led to many injuries and deaths across the country.

And while the Americans say it is slowly getting better, it remains a major problem for a U.S. military trying to train more than 200,000 Iraqis to defeat the insurgency.

"When we first got here, it was a little scary," said Army Capt. Steven Fischer, a trainer from Washington, Pa.

"We have to correct it."

"It's something that's got to be better."

In the Bidimnah case in late January, insurgents first fired on Iraqi and U.S. troops patrolling the rural area about 50 miles west of Baghdad.

That prompted more than a minute of wild, continuous gunfire from the Iraqi troops.

The two Iraqi soldiers were wounded while the militants escaped unharmed.

Other examples are rife and often startling:

• In December in the town of Adhaim north of Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier stepped out of a vehicle with his safety lever turned off and accidentally shot himself point-blank in the chest.

Minutes later, as a U.S. helicopter carried the dying man away, an Associated Press reporter saw a frustrated American soldier storm up and lecture another Iraqi soldier, who also did not have his safety on.

• During a large-scale operation last summer in Baghdad, an antsy Iraqi soldier took aim at what he thought was an insurgent, prompting several other Iraqi soldiers to drill hundreds of rounds into an empty home.

No one was injured.

Iraq had a million-man army under Saddam Hussein, but soldiers who served in the old army said they were given only a few bullets a year — apparently a way to prevent coups.

That practice left Iraqi troops untrained in the most basic of soldiering skills.

Iraq now has tens of thousands of rookie soldiers who only recently learned how to use a weapon.

And misfires have led to dozens of military deaths.

Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, distributed a letter in October saying more than 75 coalition troops had been killed by misfires.

He did not specify if the victims were Iraqis, Americans or others, and he also did not say who the shooters were.

"The failure to properly clear weapons and maintain muzzle awareness led to these unnecessary losses," Casey wrote in the letter, which was posted at bases across Iraq and viewed by an AP reporter.

Warning signs also are posted at U.S. bases across Iraq, such as one at Camp Ar Ramadi that instructs U.S. soldiers to be alert to the threat.

"Recently there have been several negligent discharges that have resulted in non-battle injuries to our personnel," read the sign.

"Hold our partnered Iraqi forces to these same standards," it warns, after listing safety rules.

The problem is hardly unique to Iraq: armies across Africa and the Third World are notorious for their lack of safety procedures.

But the problem is particularly acute in Iraq, where thousands with automatic weapons are on alert for insurgents.

Roadside bomb blasts that target Iraqi patrols are often followed by aimless gunfire from the Iraqis, usually useless since most attackers hide before they detonate bombs.

And Iraqi soldiers sometimes clear traffic from roads by firing into the air.

In comparison, U.S. soldiers pride themselves on gun discipline, stressing the preservation of ammunition until a target is identified.

U.S. misfires can lead to demotions or serious reprimands.

U.S. trainers say Iraqi safety procedures have improved, but only after constant reminders.

"They've gotten better."

"It's gotten so they know they need PID (positive identification) to shoot," said Army Sgt. Joseph Neary of Altoona, Pa.

Trainers drill Iraqi soldiers to keep their weapons on safe and pointed downward.

"We've pounded it into their heads," Neary said.

But many American trainers have stories to tell.

"It's kind of scary to see a PKC gunner doing a 360 (degree-turn) in a turret and painting his name in the air," Neary said.

Cultural issues also exacerbate the problem.

Many Iraqi soldiers swagger with their guns and neglect to use safety levers as a sign of manliness.

In western Iraq, Col. Daniel Newell, who heads a team of Marine trainers there, estimates his Iraqi trainees suffer about one accidental shooting a week, but stresses they have improved.

Safety problems are also rampant among thousands of armed Iraqi civilians who increasingly carry personal weapons as civil strife has spread.

Iraqi laws allow civilians one AK-47 rifle and a full magazine per household.

In January, Sheik Fewaz al-Jerba, a member of the Iraqi parliament, was shot in the leg — by his own bodyguard.

And in December, after a soccer match between Iraq and Syria, bursts of celebratory gunfire briefly put U.S. troops on alert — and demonstrated that the tradition, common across the Mideast, is still part of Iraqi life.

The same thing occurred after Iraqi troops successfully completed a mission in the Syrian border city of Husaybah in February.

After he realized the gunfire wasn't hostile, one Marine could only mutter:

"I'll strangle them if they do that again."

end quotes

Many Iraqi soldiers swagger with their guns and neglect to use safety levers as a sign of manliness.

SO .....

Slowly ...

Ever so slowly ...

The truth filters out here .....

As to why George W. Bush ....

And the REPUBLICAN PARTY ...

"GOD's OWN PARTY", of course ....

Wanted to invade IRAQINAM ....

Like Hitler invaded the Sudatenland ....

All those years ago ...

And it is because they apparently feel ....

Based on this propensity that many Iraqi soldiers have to swagger around with their guns and neglect to use safety levers as a sign of manliness ....

That this is the famed BIBLICAL LOST TRIBE of TEXAS REPUBLICANS that REPUBLICAN RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS have been searching the earth for ...

And so ...

A HOME-COMING of sorts .....

For all of these cowboys ....

And so ...

As for the rest of us ...

The NON-REPUBLICANS out here in the world ...

This looks like it is going to be one long war ....

Run by a pack of fools ....

With another pack of bigger, more incompetent fools taking orders from the ruling pack of fools ...

And so .....

A lot of the time ....

When I am posting these various news items in here .....

I refrain from expressing myself ...

Because this thread is really not about me ......

Or my thoughts ...

It is about the "FLOW" of life, not only directly here in OUR America ...

But also in the world ...

As it affects or impacts us ...

Here in OUR America ....

Which is where I just happen to reside ...

As a human being on this earth of OURS .....

And so ...

America is what I am concerned with ...

And so .....

But every now and then .....

I do put in my own two cents worth ....

And so .....

I define myself as well ....

And so be that ...

Since that to me is a real part of what this FORUM is all about .....

COMMON GROUND ......

And can it even exist?

Which is something that I do wonder about .....

Because that is a part of who I am, I suppose ...

And because that is also a part of how I was brought up .....

To consider things like that ....

For what I believe to be the "good of society" .....

As "cornpone" as that might sound ...

In this day and age of fast talkers .....

And glib politicians ....

And cheap plastic crap ....

To keep the "CONSUMERS" of America happy ...

For the next ten seconds anyway ....

And so ...

With that said ....

Back to it ....

With "SMILING TOMMY" DeLay ....

And REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION in Washington, D.C. .....

Which the pundits apparently believe ....

Will survive handily ...

Even though Tommy is not there to nurse it along ....

And so ....

"DeLay's fall won't end corruption issue"

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

1 hour, 52 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. Tom DeLay's fall from power amid a widening scandal robs Democrats of "Exhibit A" in their allegations of Republican corruption, but analysts said on Tuesday it was unlikely to put the issue behind Republicans before November's elections.

With control of Congress at stake in November, DeLay said he was dropping his bid for re-election so the party would have a better shot at keeping the Texan's Republican-leaning seat in the southern suburbs of Houston.

"I think I could have won the seat, but it would have been nasty."

"It would have cost a fortune to do it," DeLay told Fox News.

He said left-wing groups had made his race against Democratic challenger Nick Lampson a rallying point.

The former House Republican leader, indicted in Texas on campaign finance charges, also plans to resign from Congress.

The move came after his former deputy chief of staff last week became the second DeLay aide to plead guilty to corruption charges in a probe of disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Republicans hoped the resignation of DeLay, who has denied any wrongdoing, would also help them get past a series of scandals.

Those include the indictment of top vice presidential aide Lewis Libby in a probe into the leaking of a CIA operative's identity, and the guilty plea of Rep. Randy Cunningham in a bribery case.

But analysts said the move would do little to help Republicans escape the corruption issue as they fight to keep Democrats from capturing the 15 seats needed to regain control of the House of Representatives.

"The Republicans are whistling past the graveyard," said Cal Jillson, a political analyst at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"Democrats are going to prop DeLay up in his chair and keep him alive for voters."

"They are going to play the Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff card until November."

Democrats said there were many other opportunities to make a case about Republican corruption and abuse of power.

"DeLay may be gone, but nothing has changed," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic House campaign committee.

He cited the Congress' failure to pass ethics and lobbying reforms.

Democratic consultant Jenny Backus said DeLay's departure robbed Republican conservatives of a leader and weakened an image of discipline and competency House Republicans had honed under DeLay.

"If DeLay is indicted it will be a huge blow to Republicans whether he is in Congress or sitting in Virginia," she said.

DeLay survived a primary last month by winning 62 percent of the vote against three little known Republican challengers, but faced a much tougher test in November against Lampson.

"This is probably the worst day of his campaign because he knows that any Republican who replaces me on the ballot will win this seat," DeLay said of Lampson, a former congressman whose battle with DeLay would have been one of the most expensive and closely watched House fights in the country.

DeLay's district gave President George W. Bush 64 percent of the vote in the 2004 White House race, but DeLay won in 2004 with only 55 percent.

DeLay's retirement "gives us a much better opportunity to win this seat," House Republican campaign committee spokesman Carl Forti said.

"He did what was best for the party and stepped aside."

Lampson's campaign manager, Mike Malaise, said the Democrat already had raised nearly $2.5 million and was in good shape to take on any Republican entrant.

"A lot of the folks who are saying that Republicans are in better shape in this race with DeLay out of it are the same people who were saying two days ago that Tom DeLay couldn't be beaten," Malaise said.

And from "Smiling TOMMY" the REPUBLICAN ....

We take a jump over to Iran ...

Where they seem to be saying to the BUSHCO PRIME ...

"BRING IT ON, CHUMP, WE'RE WAITING ...."

SO ...

Will America's George do it?

Will he "CUSTER" his way into Iran next ...

The way he "HITLERED" himself into IRAQINAM .....

Or will the boy finally get some sense in his head ...

So that next time ...

Before he leaps like a damn fool right into the fire ....

Totally missing the frying pan in the process ...

Might he learn to look, instead?

Stay tuned and see ...

"Iran Says It Can Handle Any Invasion"

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 33 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran - A top Iranian military official said Tuesday the country can now defend itself against any invasion originating from outside the region — a clear reference to the United States — as it tested a second new radar-avoiding missile.

The new surface-to-sea missile is equipped with remote-control and searching systems, state-run television reported.

It said the new missile, called Kowsar after the name of a river in paradise, was a medium-range weapon that Iran had the capability to mass-produce.

It also asserted that the Kowsar's guidance system could not be scrambled, and it had been designed to sink ships.

Shortly after the test, the chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, warned that Iran was now able to "confront any extra-regional invasion," referring to the United States without mentioning it by name.

"The missile command of the Guards' naval force ... via positioning various types of surface-to-sea missiles, is able, while defending the coastlines and islands, to confront any extra-territorial invasion," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Safavi as saying.

Safavi also called for foreign forces to leave the region.

The U.S. 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, from where it patrols the Gulf.

"Iran wants durable peace in the Persian Gulf and it can't be achieved without foreign forces and those which invaded Iraq leaving (the region)," IRNA quoted Safavi as saying.

On Friday, the country tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads.

Iran also has tested what it calls two new torpedoes.

The second torpedo, unveiled Monday, was tested in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Gulf that is a vital corridor for oil supplies.

That seemed to be a clear warning to the United States that Iran believes it has the capability to disable oil tankers moving through the Gulf.

The Revolutionary Guards, the elite branch of Iran's military, have been holding their maneuvers — code-named the "Great Prophet" — since Friday, touting what they call domestically built technological advances in their armed forces.

But some military analysts in Moscow said it appears the high-speed torpedoes likely were Russian-built weapons that may have been acquired from China or the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.

Others have questioned just how radar-evading the missiles are.

Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of Israel, for example — meaning that perhaps the new weapons can avoid Iran's radar but not more advanced types.

The United States said Monday — after the second torpedo test — that while Iran may have made "some strides" in its military, it likely is exaggerating its capabilities.

"We know that the Iranians are always trying to improve their weapons system by both foreign and indigenous measures," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington.

"It's possible that they are increasing their capability and making strides in radar-absorbing materials and technology."

But "the Iranians have also been known to boast and exaggerate their statements about greater technical and tactical capabilities," he said.

It has not been possible to verify Iran's claims for the new armaments.

But the country has made clear it aims to send a message of strength to the United States amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran give up uranium enrichment, a crucial part of the nuclear process.

Washington is pressing for sanctions if Tehran continues its refusal to do so, though U.S. officials have not ruled out military action as an eventual option, insisting they will not allow Iran to gain a nuclear arsenal.

In Russia, a Kremlin-allied lawmaker on Tuesday criticized the recent torpedo and missile tests as a counterproductive show of might at a time when it should be trying to allay fears that it is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

"It is clear that Iran is demonstrating its muscle in order to forestall any discussions of a possible operation using force against Iran," Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, was quoted as saying according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

On Tuesday, state-run television also said the elite Revolutionary Guards had tested what it called a "super-modern flying boat" capable of evading radar.

TV showed a brief clip of the boat's launch.

"Due to its advanced design, no radar at sea or in the air can detect it."

"It can lift out of the water," the television said.

It said the boat was "all Iranian-made and can launch missiles with precise targeting while moving."

The television showed the boat, looking like an aircraft, taking off from the sea and flying low over the surface of the water.

It said the craft can fly with a speed of 100 nautical miles per hour.

Iran said the torpedo tests were conducted Sunday and Monday.

The torpedo — called a "Hoot," or "whale" — is able to move at 223 mph, too fast for any enemy ship to elude.

Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo.

Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.

One who would guide a leader of men ...

In the uses of life ....

Will warn him against the use of arms for conquest ....

Weapons often turn upon the wielder ....

An army's harvest .....

Is a waste of thorns .....

- Lao Tze, Tao Te Ching

Ngo Dinh Diem .....

Got led out of the presidential palace in Saigon, Viet Nam ...

After he proved to be useless to American "interests" ....

And was put into an armored personnel carrier ...

Where, as I recall ...

He ended up with a bullet in his head ....

So as to render him VERY USELESS INDEED ....

And over there in IRAQINAM .....

This al-Jaafari dude is looking at the same fate ...

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

Life through the eyes of a man who is going to be found, faceup on top of a trash heap over there somewhere in IRAQINAM ...

Which thanks to the incompetent George W. Bush ....

Has a plethora of such trash heaps now ....

There al-Jaafari will be ....

Dead eyes open and staring ....

A neat round ring of powder burn on his forehead ....

Surrounding the great big hole ...

Where the bullet entered to blow his brains right out the back of what was once his head .....

And al-Jaafari must be the very first to know that ...

As he and "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice do their TANGO OF DECEIT AND ULTIMATE DEATH ...

For all to see ....

Out there on the world stage ...

Where "CON-JOB CONNIE" is not only asking ....

Or telling al-Jaafari actually .....

To "lose a lot of face" .....

But likely ..

Most of the head as well .....

And right now ...

It appears that al-Jaafari is not going to go to his death that willingly ...

And so ....

What will "CON-JOB" and the FABULOUS FLYING BUSHCOS do next?

Has al-Jaafari been given the "BOX" yet, I wonder?

The rosewood box with the inlaid cover that contains the pistol and bullet that al-Jaafari is supposed to pump into his own head ...

For the good of IRAQINAM and George W. Bush and the REPUBLICAN PARTY OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD AS WELL ....

The DOMINANT PARTY ....

And I wonder what the Las Vegas morning line odds are on al-Jafaari lasting another day ...

Or week ...

With his latest announcement ...

That he won't step down ....

"Iraqi PM Rejects Call to Step Aside"

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

30 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in an interview with a British newspaper published Wednesday that he was refusing to abandon his bid for a second term to break the deadlock over a new government, and some Iraqi leaders said parliament may have to decide his future.

However, Shiite officials said they are reluctant to dump the issue on parliament until there is a comprehensive deal among all ethnic- and religious-based parties, including an agreement on who will be the new president.

That indicated little or no progress has been made in resolving the standoff over the new government since Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw flew to Baghdad last weekend and insisted that Iraqis agree on a new leadership quickly.

U.S. officials believe a broad-based government of Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds offers the only hope for reversing Iraq's slide into anarchy.

Without such a government, the Americans cannot begin withdrawing their troops.

Talks on a new unity government stalled after Sunni Arab and Kurdish officials said they would not accept al-Jaafari, who won the nomination of the dominant Shiite bloc in balloting among Shiite lawmakers last February.

Al-Jaafari told the British newspaper The Guardian that he was rejecting calls to give up the nomination of his Shiite bloc "to protect democracy in Iraq."

"There is a decision that was reached by a democratic mechanism and I stand with it," he told the newspaper.

"We have to respect our Iraqi people."

Al-Jaafari added that the Iraqi people "will react if they see the rules of democracy being disobeyed."

"Everyone should stick to democratic mechanisms no matter whether they disagree with the person."

During an interview Tuesday with the British Broadcasting Corp., Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi said he met with al-Jaafari the day before and urged him to give up the nomination to break the logjam.

But Abdul-Mahdi said al-Jaafari refused, insisting he wanted to take his case to parliament, which must approve the new prime minister and his Cabinet by a majority vote.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd and an al-Jaafari opponent, referred to the parliamentary option in an interview published Wednesday by the Saudi daily Al Madina.

"Consultations are taking place quickly," Talabani said.

"We hope they will not take much longer than this, and if the (Shiites) stick by their stand on nominating Ibrahim al-Jaafari, then we will resort to parliament."

However, it was unclear how parliament could legally resolve the standoff.

The constitution states that the president must nominate the candidate of the largest bloc — the Shiites.

The prime minister-designate then presents his Cabinet to parliament for approval by a majority of all 275 members.

Under the constitution, however, parliament must first elect a new president and two vice presidents by two-thirds vote.

With Talabani's term also ending, it is unclear whether he would have the authority to appoint a prime minister, and the Shiites could block his re-election.

Because of those legal uncertainties, several Shiite officials said they were reluctant to take the issue to parliament.

One described the current standoff as a crisis and said "nobody sees a way out."

They all spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

With the political process stalled, the violence was continuing.

Two car bombs exploded Wednesday in northern and eastern Baghdad.

One woman was killed and four people were injured in a car bombing in a religiously mixed area of eastern Baghdad, police said.

Thirteen people were injured in the other car bombing in the Shiite area of Shulah in the north of the city.

Two Sunnis — a professor and an ambulance driver — were killed Wednesday in the mostly Shiite southern city of Basra, police said.

In Baghdad, police said they found the bodies of two men dumped in separate areas of the city late Tuesday.

Police also found a body — handcuffed, blindfolded and shot — early Wednesday in Iskandiriyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, according to police Capt. Muthana Khalid.

Elsewhere, U.S. and Iraqi troops freed three Iraqi kidnapping victims in the northern city of Tikrit, U.S. officials said.

Also Wednesday, U.S. and Iraqi troops raided several buildings in Youssifiyah southwest of Baghdad, killing one insurgent and capturing nine others, the U.S. command said.

The raid occurred three days after a U.S. Apache attack helicopter was shot down near Youssifiyah, killing the two crew members.
__

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

end quotes

A day in the life ...

Of OUR world ...

In the day and age of BUSH THE INCOMPETENT BUFFOON .....

And so .....

And speaking of BUFFOONS ....

And incompetence ....

And a lack of integrity in government that is being forced upon HONEST AMERICA by the Bush REGIME ...

And the CORRUPT REPUBLICAN PARTY OF NOT ONLY ALL OF AMERICA ...

BUT THE WORLD AND UNIVERSE AND GALAXY AS WELL ....

We have yet another BUSHCO HERO to salute in here this morning ...

And so ....

When the BUSHCOS are in town ...

Keep your children locked up for their own safety ...

And so ....

"Homeland Deputy Arrested in Seduction Case"

By MICHELLE SPITZER, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 2 minutes ago

MIAMI - The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was charged with using a computer to seduce a child after authorities said he struck up sexual conversations with an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, who is the fourth-ranking official in the department's public affairs office, was expected to be placed on administrative leave Wednesday.

Authorities said they arrested Doyle on Tuesday at his Silver Spring, Md., home as he was online with the "girl."

The undercover detective had called Doyle at work and said she got a Web camera, as he had asked her to do, and wanted to test it out, said Carrie Rodgers, Polk County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

"He said he would get on the computer when he got home from work so we knew he would be on," Rodgers said.

"When (police) went to his door, he was on the computer in the middle of a conversation with the girl."

Doyle found the teenager's profile online and began having sexually explicit conversations with her on the Internet on March 14, the sheriff's office said in a statement.

He sent the girl pornographic movie clips, as well as non-sexual photos of himself, officials said.

One of the photos, released by the sheriff's office, shows Doyle in what appears to be DHS headquarters.

He is wearing a Homeland Security pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says " TSA."

The Transportation Security Administration is part of the Homeland Security Department.

During online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, who he worked for and offered his office and government-issued cell phone numbers, the sheriff's office said.

On several occasions, Doyle instructed her to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her, investigators said.

He was booked into the Montgomery County Detention Center, where he was waiting to be extradited to Florida, the sheriff's office said.

Doyle also faces a charge of transmission of harmful material to a minor.

There was no immediate response to messages left on Doyle's government-issued cell phone and his e-mail, and he could not be reached by phone at the jail for comment.

Homeland Security press secretary Russ Knocke in Washington said he could not comment on the details of the investigation.

"We take these allegations very seriously, and we will cooperate fully with this ongoing investigation," Knocke said.

end quotes

If you are for this kind of conduct by high-ranking government officials in the "IF IT FEELS GOOD, JUST GO AHEAD AND DO IT AND LAWS TO THE CONTRARY BE DAMNED" REGIME of REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE George W. Bush .....

Vote REPUBLICAN in the November 2006 CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS to keep these REPUBLICANS and their brand of perversion in power here in OUR America ....

And for you ...

Life will be simple indeed ...

And we have rising water ...

SO ...

It must be spring ...

Somewhere, anyway ...

And so ....

"Rivers Near Cresting Threaten Minn. Town"

By GREGG AAMOT, Associated Press Writer

48 minutes ago

HENDRUM, Minn. - The Red River and Wild Rice River crept toward flood crests Wednesday near this small northwest Minnesota town, but a stout earthen dike kept the community mostly dry, allowing flood-fighters to focus on sandbagging around farmhouses.

Workers pumped away water that seeped through the levee forming a square around Hendrum, one of many towns that beefed up flood protection after the disastrous flood of 1997.

"We are still sitting pretty dry in town," said Mike Smart, who serves as both police chief and flood coordinator in the town of about 315 people.

Melting snow and heavy rain pushed the Red River quickly above its banks this spring, causing anxiety all along the river that serves as the state line between Minnesota and North Dakota.

Hendrum sits in a precarious spot in the broad valley, sandwiched between the Red River a mile to the west and the Wild Rice River a mile to the east.

The Red River had been rising steadily at Fargo, N.D., but the National Weather Service said it had crested and by Wednesday morning was just over 37.1 feet; flood stage is 18 feet.

It was expected to start slowly receding later in the day, but meteorologists said it would not drop below 30 feet until next week.

It's still too early to "pass the champagne and cigars," said Fargo's public works director, Dennis Walaker.

He said it would take at least six days before the city reaches a comfort level.

Cass County's emergency manager Dave Rogness estimated flood damage to roads and bridges in the county surrounding Fargo could total more than $1 million.

Downstream from Fargo, in Grand Forks, the Red was expected to crest Wednesday afternoon at 47.7 feet — about 20 above flood stage, but not above the city's levee protection level.

Showers were forecast in the southern fringe of the Red River basin that could prolong the high water river levels but weren't expected to cause new problems, said Lynn Kennedy, a hydrometeorological technician with the National Weather Service.

At Hendrum, the Wild Rice River was at 32.32 feet early Wednesday and is expected to crest at 33.4 feet Thursday afternoon.

The town's levee, which was raised 3 feet after the 1997 flood, protects to 36.8 feet.

Some 16,000 sandbags were stockpiled in the middle of town, though they were being used primarily to protect farmhouses.

On Tuesday, Jon Grothe and friends stacked sandbags onto a dike protecting his farmhouse from the rising water.

Nearly a decade ago, his house, sheds and corn bins were all inundated by the flood.

"I heard about (possible flooding) Saturday, then spent Sunday trying to digest whether that was realistic or not," he said.

"Then I decided it was silly not to take this seriously."

And now that we are older, Snuf ....

It is POWER BACK AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE AGAIN ....

And so ....

A WASTE OF THORNS, INDEED ....

"Duty's call costs a livelihood - After guardsman's return from Iraq, his businesses are gone and his home is at risk"

By ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, April 6, 2006

COLONIE -- When National Guardsman Tim Schultz headed to Fort Drum in May 2004 to train for a tour of duty in Iraq, he knew he would be in for some hard times: long hours, danger and separation from his wife and two children.

He didn't know he would lose his business.

But when the owner of McCabe's Automotive on Route 9 in Latham returned from Iraq late last year, he found he owed too much money to continue.

For reasons hard to pin down, revenue had dropped in his absence and bills had piled up.

Now, Schultz has liquidated the auto repair business and another company he owned.

He plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and expects to lose his Wynantskill home.

"I don't have any regrets of deployment, even though I came back to what I came back to," said Schultz, 41.

"But this is my life."

"It's tough to let it go."

While the federal government protects National Guard or Reserve members who leave their jobs for the call of duty, it seems there is little to protect the business owner.

The U.S. Small Business Administration offers disaster loans for businesses that lose money due to an employee being activated -- and in fact Schultz received a $142,000 loan.

But it wasn't enough to stave off disaster.

"I think the government does not do enough to help veteran small-business owners," said Mathew Tully, an attorney at the Colonie law firm Tully Rinckey & Associates PLLC.

Tully, a National Guardsman who represents reservists who suffer job discrimination upon their return, found his own law firm suffered after he served a six-month stint in Iraq last year.

The firm later got a $172,000 SBA loan to pay for lost business, but it was hard to recoup the accounts that went elsewhere in his absence.

"If it was not for family, friends and a great law partner, I probably would be in the exact situation as Mr. Schultz," Tully said Wednesday.

"My deployment was catastrophic to my law firm."

In the five years since the SBA has applied the disaster loan program to reservists, it has given out 254 business loans nationwide for a total of $23 million, the agency said.

Schultz, a Troy native, served in the Army for four years until 1986.

When he left, he joined the National Guard.

In April 2002, he bought the Latham business from the McCabe family for $98,000.

He also ran a landscaping firm called Schultz Enterprises.

When Schultz took over, the repair business included three technicians and a bookkeeper/manager who also ran the landscaping firm.

When Schultz left for Fort Drum to train for military intelligence, the repair business was bringing in as much as $40,000 a month.

It didn't last long.

Schultz didn't leave for Iraq for another nine months, but by the fall of 2004 it was clear revenue had dropped off considerably.

The garage then dropped to three full-time employees; it would later go to two, including one technician who also had to answer phones and deal with customers.

It's hard to say what was wrong.

Schultz said he thinks customers might have stopped coming when they learned he was leaving.

Probably the lack of his presence -- he regularly worked 70-hour weeks -- had an impact on production.

"It was a difficult thing to go through, worrying about Tim every single day, and then wanting to keep the business open," said Debra Schultz, his wife, who helped run the garage despite having almost no knowledge of cars.

"I know how well it had been doing."

"I wish I knew what happened."

Schultz received the SBA loan in October 2004, putting up his house as collateral.

In Iraq, he was stationed at a base in Tikrit, crunching numbers for 16 hours a day, and had no time to think about home.

It was only when he returned in November last year that he realized how bad things had gotten: $67,000 in monthly expenses, three months behind in rent and little money coming in.

"There was no light at the end of the tunnel," Schultz said.

Dan O'Connell, the SBA representative in Albany, said the agency would not go after Schultz's house unless the bank that holds his original mortgage was threatening to foreclose first.

"I think his situation is horrible," O'Connell said.

"It would seem to me he shouldn't be penalized."

"We should do whatever we can to ease his path."

O'Connell said the SBA would likely sign a compromise agreement with Schultz to allow him to pay off only part of the loan.

But Schultz said he'd rather give up his house than sign an agreement that would leave him facing a lien for years.

Schultz said he plans to look for new opportunities; his wife is considering returning to nursing, her original career.

At the same time, Schultz said he wishes there were more programs that could have helped his business survive.

"I've learned a valuable lesson," he said.

"But I don't hold any grudge."

Ah, yes ...

The ECONOMY ....

"Second homes 40% of market"

By Noelle Knox, USA TODAY

Wed Apr 5, 7:05 AM ET

Americans snapping up second homes - as investments or vacation properties - accounted for four out of every 10 sales of existing homes last year, a record that helped drive the real estate market to new highs, according to a report being released today by the National Association of Realtors.

Nearly 28% of homes bought last year were for investment purposes, and an additional 12% were vacation homes, the figures show.

Most of the buyers were baby boomers in their top earning years, looking toward retirement and hoping to build wealth or find a more desirable place to live.

"Baby boomers are such a powerful economic force," said Dave Jenks, co-author of The Millionaire Real Estate Investor.

"They're using their wealth to go buy second homes."

The typical investment buyer last year was 49 years old with annual income of $81,400.

He or she paid $183,500 for the median-priced investment home, up 24% from 2004.

"Real estate, over the past five years, has outperformed virtually every other investment vehicle," said Ron Peltier, president and chief executive of HomeServices of America, the country's second-largest residential brokerage firm.

"A lot of people have just speculated in real estate."

The trend really started after 1997, when Congress changed the tax code, allowing most homeowners to duck capital gains taxes when they sold their homes.

The exemption is $500,000 for married couples, $250,000 for singles, if it was their primary residence for two of the past five years.

Under the old system, the only way to avoid the tax was to "roll" the gains into another home of equal or greater value.

Americans bought bigger and costlier homes.

But now, they can downsize and use the equity built up in their homes to buy second homes.

"That's what spurred all this on in the beginning," says David Lereah, the NAR's chief economist.

"It's like all the stars are aligned."

"The tax situations helped, but at the same time, baby boomers were entering their peak earning years."

"That's why we just boomed in second homes."

He thinks the trend crested in 2005.

With rising interest rates, tighter lending standards and slower price appreciation, Lereah expects second-home sales to drop this year to 30% of all existing-home sales, and maybe into the 20% range.

"What's going to be leaving the market right now are the speculative investors who came into the market and were trying to flip homes," he said.

"They were buying one, two, three or four properties at a time, and that was distorting the numbers."

Sales of vacation homes, though, are expected to stay strong for years, because the youngest baby boomers are only 42 this year.

The typical vacation home buyer last year was 52 years old, earning $82,800 a year, and purchased a property that was about 200 miles from the primary residence.

The median price was $204,100, up 7.4%.

More than three-fourths of the buyers had no interest in renting their property.

About 20% said it would one day be their retirement home.

Joe Klein and his wife bought their first vacation home last year on Lake Wabedo in Minnesota, three hours from their primary residence.

He says he might like to retire there but might have to persuade his wife.

"It's something that we could hand down to the kids," says Klein, 42, a program manager for a medical company.

"But secondly, I see it as an investment."

"If we had to, we could sell it to help pay for their college."

Is AMERICA'S SCOOTER accusing America's GEORGE of acting in a lawless, reckless manner with respect to the alleged intentional leaking of the CIA agent's name to the press?

Let's look and see ....

"Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak"

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors that President Bush authorized a leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.

The filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald also describes Cheney involvement in I. Lewis Libby's communications with the press.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

But it points to Cheney as one of the originators of the idea that Plame could be used to discredit her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson.

Before his indictment, Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on prewar intelligence on Iraq and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say.

According to the documents, the authorization led to the July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

In that meeting, Libby made reference to the fact that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.

According to Fitzgerald's court filing, Cheney, in conversation with Libby, raised the question of whether a CIA-sponsored trip by Wilson "was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife."

The disclosure in documents filed Wednesday means that the president and the vice president put Libby in play as a secret provider of information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday the White House would have no comment on the ongoing investigation.

At a congressional hearing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the president has the "inherent authority to decide who should have classified information."

Libby is asking for voluminous amounts of classified information from the government in order to defend himself against five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame affair.

He is accused of making false statements about how he learned of Plame's CIA employment and what he told reporters about it.

Bush's political foes jumped on the revelation about Libby's testimony.

"The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put the interests of his political party ahead of America's security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "The more we hear, the more it is clear this goes way beyond Scooter Libby."

"At the very least, President Bush and Vice President Cheney should fully inform the American people of any role in allowing classified information to be leaked."

Libby's testimony indicates both the president and the vice president authorized leaks.

Bush and Cheney both have long said they abhor that practice, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations to hunt down leakers.

The most recent instance is the administration's launching of a probe into who disclosed to The New York Times the existence of the warrantless domestic surveillance program.

The authorization involving intelligence information came as the Bush administration faced mounting criticism about its failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main reason the president and his aides had given for going to war.

Libby's participation in a critical conversation with Miller on July 8, 2003 "occurred only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the National Intelligence Estimate," the papers by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stated.

The filing did not specify the "certain information."

"Defendant testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller — getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval — were unique in his recollection," the papers added.

Plame's husband, a former U.S. ambassador, said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.

After Wilson publicly attacked the administration on Iraq on July 6, 2003, "Vice President Cheney, defendant's immediate superior, expressed concerns to defendant regarding whether Mr. Wilson's trip was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife," the papers said.

After a 2002 CIA-sponsored trip to Africa, Wilson said he had concluded that Iraq did not have an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger.

Libby spoke to Miller on July 8, 2003, and Fitzgerald's filing identifies Cheney as being instrumental in having Libby speak again four days later to Miller as well as to Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper regarding Wilson.

In all three conversations, Libby told the reporters about Wilson's wife, both Miller and Cooper have testified.

Her CIA status was publicly disclosed by conservative columnist Robert Novak eight days after her husband accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.

Libby says he needs extensive classified files from the government to demonstrate that Plame's CIA connection was a peripheral matter that he never focused on, and that the role of Wilson's wife was a small piece in a building public controversy over the failure to find WMD in Iraq.

Fitzgerald said in the new court filing that Libby's requests for information go too far and the prosecutor cited Libby's own statements to investigators in an attempt to limit the amount of information the government must turn over to Cheney's former chief of staff for his criminal defense.

The court filing was first disclosed by The New York Sun.

And we start out in here today with what I call ....

"Hope for the future of OUR America ....."

A hope that good sense and rationality will return to the fore ...

Here in OUR America .....

After apparently being beaten back into the shadows .....

By the FORCES OF RIGID DOGMA AND IDEOLOGY AND IRRATIONALITY .....

That propelled the OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET "HEZEKIAH George W. Bush" .....

Into the White House .....

Here in OUR America ....

Where that one man alone ....

Has made a bigger mess out of OUR America ....

In just a short amount of time ...

Than any other man ....

In the history of this nation ...

Has been able to ....

From the time that this nation was born ....

Until now, today ....

HAS AMERICA FINALLY BEGUN TO WAKE UP ...

AND COME TO ITS SENSES ...

ASSUMING IT STILL HAS ANY?

Which this following article would seem to indicate it has .....

"Bush, GOP Approval Ratings Hit New Lows"

By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

2 hours, 18 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush's approval ratings hit a series of new lows in an AP-Ipsos poll that also shows Republicans surrendering their advantage on national security — grim election-year news for a party struggling to stay in power.

Democratic leaders predicted they will seize control of one or both chambers of Congress in November.

Republicans said they feared the worst unless the political landscape quickly changes.

"These numbers are scary."

" We've lost every advantage we've ever had," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said.

"The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan."

"The bad news is they may not need one."

There is more at stake than the careers of GOP lawmakers.

A Democratic-led Congress could bury the last vestiges of Bush's legislative agenda and subject the administration to high-profile investigations of the Iraq war, the CIA leak case, warrantless eavesdropping and other matters.

In the past two congressional elections, Republicans gained seats on the strength of Bush's popularity and a perception among voters that the GOP was stronger on national security than Democrats.

Those advantages are gone, according to a survey of 1,003 adults conducted this week for The Associated Press by Ipsos, an international polling firm.

• Just 36 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, his lowest-ever rating in AP-Ipsos polling.

By contrast, the president's job approval rating was 47 percent among likely voters just before Election Day 2004 and a whopping 64 percent among registered voters in October 2002.

• Only 40 percent of the public approves of Bush's performance on foreign policy and the war on terror, another low-water mark for his presidency.

That's down 9 points from a year ago.

Just before the 2002 election, 64 percent of registered voters backed Bush on terror and foreign policy.

• Just 35 percent of the public approves of Bush's handling of Iraq, his lowest in AP-Ipsos polling.

"He's in over his head," said Diane Heller, 65, a Pleasant Valley, N.Y., real estate broker and independent voter.

As bad as Bush's numbers may be, Congress' are worse.

Just 30 percent of the public approves of the GOP-led Congress' job performance, and Republicans seem to be shouldering the blame.

By a 49-33 margin, the public favors Democrats over Republicans when asked which party should control Congress.

That 16-point Democratic advantage is the largest the party has enjoyed in AP-Ipsos polling.

On an issue the GOP has dominated for decades, Republicans are now locked in a tie with Democrats — 41 percent each — on the question of which party people trust to protect the country.

Democrats made their biggest national security gains among young men, according to the AP-Ipsos poll, which had a 3 percentage point margin of error.

The public gives Democrats a slight edge on what party would best handle Iraq, a reversal from Election Day 2004.

"We're in an exceptionally challenging electoral environment," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a former GOP strategist.

"We start off on a battlefield today that is tilted in their direction, and that's when you have to use the advantages you have."

Those include the presidential "bully pulpit" and the "structural, tactical advantages" built into the system, Cole said.

One of those advantages is a political map that is gerrymandered to put House incumbents in relatively safe districts, meaning Democrats have relatively few opportunities to pick up the 15 seats they need to gain control.

In the Senate, the Democrats need to pick up six seats.

"I think we will win the Congress," Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said, breaking the unwritten rule against raising expectations.

"Everything is moving in our direction."

"If it keeps moving in our direction, it's very reasonable to say there will be a Democratic Senate and House," said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Strategists in both parties say it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances for Democrats to seize control of Congress.

First, the elections would need to be nationalized.

Democrats hope to do that with a burgeoning ethics scandal focused on relationships between GOP lobbyists and lawmakers.

Secondly, the public would need to be in a throw-the-bums-out mood.

It's unclear whether that is the case, but 69 percent of Americans believes the nation is headed in the wrong direction — the largest percentage during the Bush presidency and up 13 points from a year ago.

Third, staunch GOP voters would need to stay home.

Nobody can predict whether that will happen, but a growing number of Republicans disagree with their leaders in Washington about immigration, federal spending and other issues.

Bush's approval rating is down 12 points among Republicans since a year ago.

Six-in-10 Republicans said they disapproved of the GOP-led Congress.

"I'd just as soon they shut (Congress) down for a few years," said Robert Hirsch, 72, a Republican-leaning voter in Chicago.

"All they do is keep passing laws and figuring out ways to spend our money."
___

Trevor Tompson, manager of news surveys for The Associated Press, and AP writer Will Lester contributed to this report.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=11311

Another Surreal Day in the Age of Bush

“We are all born mad. Some remain so.” - Samuel Beckett
Major league baseball is as American as apple pie. For the first time in the history of the storied Cincinnati Reds’ franchise, a sitting president, George W. Bush, threw out the “ceremonial” opening day pitch, on April 3, 2006. Comedian Jay Leno said on the “Tonight” show that evening, that the presidential toss at the National League game against the Chicago Cubs, like Bush’s politics, went off to the “far right.” Instead of walking to the pitcher’s mound by himself to toss the ball back to the catcher, Bush jaunted out with a number of returning Iraqi War veterans by his side. By using them for cover, he avoided the strong possibility of being booed by the crowd. Isn’t the swaggering cowboy from Crawford, TX, a clever buck-oh?

On the same day, April 3rd, nine more brave Americans died in Iraq-one for every inning that Bush was at that ball game. This brought the total of military dead in the unjust, immoral and illegal conflict to 2343. (1) Since the Liar-in-Chief, Bush uttered his infamous “mission accomplished” statement, on May 1, 2003, 2206 more American soldiers have been killed. (2) The latest U.S. war casualties made it to p. 12 A of the “Baltimore Sun. Its front page was reserved for perky Katie Couric, a news reader for NBC TV’s “Today” program. Reportedly, she will soon sign a contract for a $17 million-a-year gig with CBS to “read” the evening news. Her main claim of note to date as a journalist, (I’m not making this up), is that her own (yuk) colonoscopy was televised! She has also been a rabid cheerleader for the Iraqi War. The air-headed Couric, like Barbara Walters, signifies what is wrong with TV broadcast journalism. There is simply too much emphasis on its entertainment aspect and not enough on the hard news that the people need to hear.

How terribly absurd, too, all of this is. Bush is out enjoying himself at a professional baseball game, while the blood stained war he chose to start, based on a pack of rotten lies, continues to claim American and Iraqi lives and hundreds of billions of tax dollars to boot, with no end in sight. (3) Now, the U.S. troops’ mission in Iraq is not to find those phantom WMD, but to create “a stable government,” while a vicious civil war is also raging in that beleaguered land. In addition, “67 journalists and 24 media workers have been killed on duty in Iraq since March 2003.” (4) Nevertheless, it’s Couric, a pseudo-journalist, who reaps the monetary rewards in her profession. She will do so, too, from the safety of her plush Manhattan office. In my opinion, Couric wouldn’t make a pimple on the great Walter Cronkite’s you-know-what.

Meanwhile, the 9/11-related federal show trial of an obviously very sick, and deeply troubled man, Zacarias Moussaoui, continues in Alexandria, VA. What a spectacle this has been. It reads like a play by Samuel Beckett. The jury returned a verdict, on April 3rd, saying Moussaoui is eligible for execution. He screamed at prosecutors, ”You’ll never get my blood. God curse your souls!” At the next stage of the trial, the jury will have to decide if the defendant should be executed. According to the Feds, he was one of the 9/11 coconspirators, but arrested prior to that tragic day. Lucky for the government, Moussaoui, who some believe is suffering from schizophrenia, pleaded guilty to the charges. This trial has been a bungled farce from round one.

If the prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty, that 9/11 happened the way the White House said that it did, this criminal case may have collapsed on its face. (5) As it is now, it hangs on a very thin legal thread that asserts that “but for” Moussaoui’s lies to FBI investigators, 9/11 could have been prevented. Testimony produced, however, by the government itself at the trial contradicts that dubious theory by showing the FBI ignored “ample warnings” about 9/11 from its own agents in the field. Counsel for the defense should have called Secretary of State, Condi Rice, to testify. She knew, when she was acting in the capacity of Bush’s National Security Advisor, more about potential hijacking of airplanes, prior to 9/11, and their use for terrorist purposes, then anybody else in the Bush-Cheney Gang. The grossly incompetent Rice ignored reliable warnings of such a distinct possibility, (6) and, many other higher ups in the FBI, the Secret Service, and the CIA, did so as well. (7)

On another offbeat front, one of the leading GOP War Hawks in the Congress, Rep. Tom DeLay, announced that he will not be seeking reelection. Like that crook, ex-Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA), DeLay was another phony law & order type. He had dumped the draconian USA Patriot law on the American people, without a public hearing. DeLay was aided and abetted in that foul deed by bogus Democrats, such as Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT).

DeLay has been feeding at the public trough for 11 terms on Capitol Hill. He is presently under indictment in Texas for laundering campaign funds. His former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, recently copped a plea to federal conspiracy and corruption charges arising out of a lucrative scheme he was running right out of DeLay’s congressional office. Rudy, like DeLay, has close ties to the confessed felon, lobbyist and wheeler-dealer, the cunning Jack Abramoff. When Bush was advised of DeLay’s resignation, he told another bald faced lie. He said, the Republican Party would continue to succeed because, “We’re the party of ideas.” (8) Sure, it is a party of ideas all right, like what: a preempted U.S. attack on Iran? More tax cuts for the superrich? Adding another multibillion dollar subsidy for “Big Oil?” How about ignoring more warnings about global warming and/or that another Katrina-like hurricane could strike the Gulf Coast in late 06?

Finally, Bush’s visit to the Ohio town of Cincinnati wasn’t any help to the home team Reds. They were hammered by the Cubs by a score of 16-7. As for April 3, 2006, It was just another one of those surreal days in the Age of Bush.

Notes:

1. http://antiwar.com/casualties/ 2. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/ 3. Video, “George Bush is a Liar,” at: http://homepage.mac.com/bhughes2/iMovieTheater138.html 4. Trudy Rubin’s “Journalists Do Dangerous Job in Unstable Iraq,” 04/04/06, Baltimore Sun. 5. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848. This video gives an alternate view of 9/11-America’s second “Pearl Harbor,” which you will never see on the “CBS’s Evening News with Katie Couric.” Were we set up by the Wire Pullers? If so, how did they do it? Here’s another site which is raising a lot of 9/11 related questions: http://www.911proof.com/index.html. For me, the “Five Dancing Israelis” is one of the mysteries of 9/11. It has continued to intrigue. For background on that episode, see, http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/fiveisraelis.html. It was “Bawa Wawa” Walters, herself, who “whitewashed” that important, and relevant, story. Why? Who was she shilling for? Check out: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j062402.html 6. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...0020516-13.html 7. http://www.buzzflash.com/perspectives/911bush.html 8. “DeLay to Resign from Congress,” Washington Post, 04/04/06.

© William Hughes 2006.

William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘’No’ to the War Party” (IUniverse, Inc.). He can be reached at liamhughes@comcast.net.



By : William Hughes
April Thursday 6th 2006

The AGE OF BUSH, indeed ....

"White House faces barrage of leak queries"

By PETE YOST, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:26 p.m., Friday, April 7, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The White House faced a barrage of questions Friday over the timing of President Bush's decision to declassify intelligence that was then leaked to the press by Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

In a tense briefing, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked repeatedly to explain his statement from three years ago that portions of a prewar intelligence document on Iraq were declassified on July 18, 2003.

Ten days earlier, Cheney's top aide had leaked snippets of intelligence from the document to New York Times reporter Judith Miller in order to rebut allegations by Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, the aide has told prosecutors according to documents revealed this week.

I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, said he had passed the information to Miller after being told to do so by Cheney, who advised Libby that Bush had authorized it, stated a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

McClellan told reporters on July 18, 2003, that the material being released on Iraq "was officially declassified today."

On Friday, McClellan interpreted his own words to mean that's when the material was "officially released."

Asked when it was declassified, McClellan refused to answer, saying that the matter was part of Fitzgerald's ongoing CIA leak probe that has resulted in Libby's indictment.

Libby faces charges of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Valerie Plame affair.

He is accused of making false statements about how he learned of her CIA employment and what he told reporters about her.

The declassification issue marks the second time in the CIA leak probe that the White House's previous public statements have been called into question.

After checking with Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove, McClellan said in 2003 that neither aide was involved in the leak of the CIA identity of Wilson's wife.

Rove remains under investigation in the leak probe.

Administration critics said the president's actions were a misuse of the declassification process.

Bush's "selective declassification of highly sensitive intelligence for political purposes is wrong," said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi said a presidential executive order requires a uniform system for classifying, declassifying, and safeguarding national security information and asked, "Why didn't President Bush follow this protocol before authorizing the selective leak of highly sensitive intelligence?"

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., called for a House Intelligence Committee investigation and for the president to explain in person to Congress.

Last year, a commission appointed by Bush to look into the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq cautioned against leaks for political purposes.

"Policymakers who leak intelligence to the press in order to gain political advantage ... may do so without fully appreciating the potential harm that can result to sources and methods," the commission said.

It said the intelligence community should consider implementing "a widespread, modern-day equivalent of the `Loose Lips Sink Ships' campaign to educate individuals about their legal obligations and possible penalties to safeguard intelligence information."

On Friday, McClellan said there's a difference between providing declassified information when it's in the public interest, and leaking classified information that could jeopardize national security.

"Now, there are Democrats out there that fail to recognize that distinction or refuse to recognize that distinction," said McClellan.

"They are simply engaging in crass politics."

The intelligence Libby was authorized to leak to Miller stated that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium.

Administration officials said in the run-up to the war they were concerned about Iraq building a nuclear weapon.

------

Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.

And coming right hard on the heels of Scottie "BOY" McClellan in here tonight ....

Is the INCOMPETENT Secretary of WAR of the United States of America and Saddam Hussein's good buddy, Donald "THE GASMAN" Rumsfeld .....

"Lawyer says Rumsfeld 'messed up' Guantanamo trials"

By Jane Sutton

2 hours, 29 minutes ago

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his appointees set rules that violate President George W. Bush's order to hold fair trials for prisoners charged with terrorism in the Guantanamo tribunals, a military defense lawyer said on Friday.

"We can't help it that the secretary of defense and his delegees (sic) have messed this thing up, but they have," military lawyer Army Maj. Tom Fleener told the presiding officer at one of the hearings.

"If the rules don't provide for a full and fair trial, then they violate the president's order."

Fleener was trying to persuade the presiding officer, Col. Peter Brownback, to let a Yemeni defendant act as his own attorney on charges of conspiring to attack civilians and destroy property.

Tribunal rules set by the Pentagon require the defendants to have U.S. military lawyers who are authorized to see secret evidence that the accused may not be allowed to view.

Pentagon officials have refused to allow self-representation, which Fleener called a fundamental right in nearly every court on Earth.

Fleener was appointed to defend Ali Hamza al Bahlul, an acknowledged al Qaeda member charged with conspiring to commit terrorism by acting as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and making al Qaeda recruiting videos.

Bahlul refuses to cooperate with any lawyer appointed by the U.S. military.

He asked to act as his own attorney or to have a Yemeni lawyer, and declared a boycott when the request was denied during an earlier hearing.

He did not attend his hearing on Friday at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Fleener said Bahlul cannot get a fair trial unless the rules change.

"As the world looks at this system, it's going to have no legitimacy whatsoever," he said.

TRIBUNALS CRITICIZED

Two other defendants have also asked to act as their own attorneys.

The prosecution agrees they should have that right, said the chief prosecutor, Col. Moe Davis.

"Give him the opportunity."

"If he screws it up, then he had his opportunity," Davis said of Bahlul.

Bush created the tribunals to try foreign terrorist suspects after the September 11 attacks, and directed Rumsfeld and his delegates to draft rules that ensure full and fair trials while protecting national security.

The chief prosecutor said those requirements had been met and described some of the angry courtroom complaints from defense attorneys as theatrical performances.

"The presiding officers have bent over backwards to protect the accused," Davis said.

Military defense lawyers and human rights groups have called the tribunals fundamentally unfair and stacked to ensure convictions.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to their legitimacy last month and is expected to rule by the end of June on whether the trials can proceed.

Defense lawyers say other Pentagon rules violate Bush's order, including one that gives only the presiding officer the right to act essentially as judge, rather than all the tribunal members sharing that role.

Ten of the 490 Guantanamo detainees have been charged by the tribunals and would face life in prison if convicted.

Four had pretrial hearings this week, including 19-year-old Canadian Omar Khadr, who is accused of murdering a U.S. soldier by throwing a grenade at him in Afghanistan.

Khadr threatened on Wednesday to boycott the tribunal to protest his move from group housing to a solo cell where it was more difficult to meet with his lawyers.

His attorneys said on Friday they had received assurances from prison camp officials that the move was not punitive.

They said Khadr agreed to participate in future proceedings.

And this following story was accompanied by a photograph of HEZEKAIH George W. Bush doing an imitation of Alfred E. Nuemann .....

With a painting of George Washington looking over his left shoulder ...

And George Washington has a very perplexed look on his face .....

Apparently wondering exactly who or what HEZEKAIH George is supposed to be ....

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET ....

Or madman ...

Or what ....

"Bush, GOP struggle for public approval"

By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:37 p.m., Friday, April 7, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has hit new lows in public opinion for his handling of Iraq and the war on terror and for his overall job performance.

Polling also shows the Republican Party surrendering its advantage on national security.

The AP-Ipsos survey is loaded with grim election-year news for a party struggling to stay in power.

Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction -- the largest percentage during the Bush presidency and up 13 points from a year ago.

"These numbers are scary."

"We've lost every advantage we've ever had," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said.

"The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan."

"The bad news is they may not need one."

Democratic leaders predicted they will seize control of one or both chambers of Congress in November.

Republicans said they feared the worst unless the political landscape quickly changes.

There is more at stake than the careers of GOP lawmakers.

A Democratic-led Congress could bury the last vestiges of Bush's legislative agenda and subject the administration to high-profile investigations of the Iraq war, the CIA leak case, warrantless eavesdropping and other matters.

In the past two congressional elections, Republicans gained seats on the strength of Bush's popularity and a perception among voters that the GOP was stronger on national security than Democrats.

Those advantages are gone, according to a survey of 1,003 adults conducted this week for The Associated Press by Ipsos, an international polling firm.

On an issue the GOP has dominated for decades, Republicans are now locked in a tie with Democrats -- 41 percent each -- on the question of which party people trust to protect the country.

Democrats made their biggest national security gains among young men, according to the AP-Ipsos poll, which had a 3 percentage point margin of error.

The public gives Democrats a slight edge on what party would best handle Iraq, a reversal from Election Day 2004.

As for Bush's ratings:

--Just 36 percent of the public approves of his job performance, his lowest-ever rating in AP-Ipsos polling.

By contrast, the president's job approval rating was 47 percent among likely voters just before Election Day 2004 and a whopping 64 percent among registered voters in October 2002.

--Only 40 percent of the public approves of Bush's performance on foreign policy and the war on terror, another low-water mark for his presidency.

That's down 9 points from a year ago.

Just before the 2002 election, 64 percent of registered voters backed Bush on terror and foreign policy.

--Just 35 percent of the public approves of Bush's handling of Iraq, his lowest in AP-Ipsos polling.

"He's in over his head," said Diane Heller, 65, a Pleasant Valley, N.Y., real estate broker and independent voter.

Some past presidents' job approval ratings have dropped lower than Bush's.

Harry Truman in 1952, Richard Nixon in 1974, Jimmy Carter in 1979 and the first George Bush in 1992 saw their ratings fall to the mid- to high 20s, according to Gallup polling.

Many have sunk as low as this president.

Bill Clinton was at 39 percent in the late summer of 1994 -- before midterm elections that were disastrous for Democrats.

Ronald Reagan was at 35 percent in January 1983 before rebuilding his support.

Lyndon Johnson was at 36 percent in March 1968, just before announcing he would not run for re-election during the Vietnam War.

As bad as Bush's numbers may be, Congress' are worse.

Just 30 percent of the public approves of the GOP-led Congress' job performance, and Republicans seem to be shouldering the blame.

By a 49-33 margin, the public favors Democrats over Republicans when asked which party should control Congress.

That 16-point Democratic advantage is the largest the party has enjoyed in AP-Ipsos polling.

"I think we will win the Congress," Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said, breaking the unwritten rule against raising expectations.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., head of the House Republican campaign committee, said Bush's woes won't hurt GOP candidates.

"When we get to the ballot this year, there's not going to be President Bush on the ballot, and there's not going to be in my view, 'Do you want to vote with the Republicans or Democrats?'"

"It's going to be, 'How do you feel about your member of Congress?'"

"And if our members are doing their work and our candidates are connecting with the issues of those districts, they're going to do fine," Reynolds said.

Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate for control, no easy task in the best of circumstances.

The Democratic strategy is to nationalize the elections around a throw-the-bums-out theme keyed to a burgeoning ethics scandal focused on relationships between GOP lobbyists and lawmakers.

Democrats also need hordes of GOP voters to stay home on Election Day out of frustration.

Nobody can predict whether that will happen, but a growing number of Republicans disagree with their leaders in Washington about immigration, federal spending and other issues.

Bush's approval rating is down 12 points among Republicans since a year ago.

Six in 10 Republicans said they disapproved of the GOP-led Congress.

------

Trevor Tompson, manager of news surveys for The Associated Press, and AP writer Will Lester contributed to this report.

Gas up here is edging on to $3.00 a gallon right now ....

And the summer driving season is far away ...

At least up here .....

"$3 a gallon could soon be a bargain - Experts fear rise in gas prices as driving season, hurricane season near"

By KEVIN G. HALL, Knight-Ridder
First published: Saturday, April 8, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Gasoline prices have reached $3 a gallon in some parts of the nation, and crude oil is hovering close to last summer's record high.

With peak summer-driving season and hurricane season approaching, experts fear that today's high prices might look like a bargain later this year.

There are many culprits -- including us, American consumers.

Despite higher prices for crude oil and gasoline, U.S. demand for fuel continues to grow.

It was up by more than a full percentage point in March and is expected to climb still more when the peak driving season begins in May.

That will keep gas prices between $2.50 and $3 a gallon -- if there are no major disruptions in supply, experts said.

"We may look back at the day fondly when we paid $3 a gallon," said Phil Flynn, a vice president and energy expert at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

Gasoline prices have been rising again after dropping from last summer's record of $3.05 on average for a gallon of regular unleaded.

AAA said Friday the price now stood at $2.60, 27 cents higher than a month ago and 35 cents higher than April 2005.

Crude oil prices flirted with $69 a barrel this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange, approaching the all-time high of $70.85 last Aug. 30 immediately after Hurricane Katrina.

What moved prices this week was a report by the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, that showed a larger-than-expected draw-down of U.S. gasoline stocks.

That spooked energy traders because it suggested either that refiners can't keep pace with the demand for gas or companies -- fearing shortages -- are hoarding.

Some price increase this time of year is expected as refiners partially shut down and retool to switch from winter formulas for gasoline to summer formulas to meet evaporation standards.

But an unusual confluence of events is driving the large difference between last year's price and this year's.

Chief among them is environmental concern over a common additive known as methyl tertiary butyl ether.

Some states -- most notably California, New York and Connecticut -- have banned MTBE because it contaminates groundwater, and on May 5 the federal government no longer will require refined gasoline to contain at least 2 percent by weight of additives such as MTBE.

Many refiners, unable to sell in some states and fearing future environmental claims in others, are no longer putting MTBE in their gasoline, which could reduce the volume of the nation's fuel supply by about 1.6 percent, a large amount in a tight market.

Last summer's hurricanes remain a problem.

Refineries operated by Murphy Oil and ConocoPhillips in Louisiana and British Petroleum's refinery at Texas City, Texas, are still inoperable or only partly running.

Together the three refineries accounted for almost 4.5 percent of the nation's refining capacity, said Robert Slaughter, the president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.

Crude oil production also still lags in the Gulf of Mexico; 87 platforms that previously produced 340,000 barrels a day still aren't operating, the Interior Department reported this week.

Fear is pushing up prices, too.

The new storm season begins June 1.

With researchers at Colorado State University this month forecasting nine hurricanes for 2006, at least five of them intense, oil traders are stockpiling for the worst.

They also are bidding up prices on worries of political turmoil in several oil-producing countries -- Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela.

It all adds up to a volatile market.

end quotes

What it adds up to for me ...

Is one more extravagence that I don't need in my life ..

SO ...

All you oil speculators ...

GO POUND SAND ....

"U.S. Envoy's Car Pelted in Venezuela"

By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer

Fri Apr 7, 6:59 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela - Supporters of President Hugo Chavez threw eggs and fruit at the U.S. ambassador's car Friday and motorcyclists chased his convoy for miles, at times pounding on the vehicles.

The U.S. State Department swiftly accused Caracas city officials of complicity.

Venezuelan Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez was summoned to the State Department in Washington and told that Venezuela was in violation of an international convention that requires host countries to ensure the safety of foreign diplomats, department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Brian Penn, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, said Venezuelan police escorts did not intervene as a car carrying Ambassador William Brownfield was pounded and pelted.

No one was hurt.

"We're being attacked by groups of motorcyclists while we're traveling in an embassy car," Penn told The Associated Press by cell phone shortly before the motorcycles stopped chasing the four-car convoy.

"It's a very violent demonstration by a small group of people who appear to be organized by the mayor's office," Penn said.

The Caracas mayor's office, however, denied any involvement.

"No official authorized by the mayor's office participated," said Luis Martinez, a spokesman for Mayor Juan Barreto.

Brownfield has faced protests at recent appearances.

Chavez has repeatedly accused Washington of conspiring to overthrow him, an accusation U.S. officials have denied.

The U.S. Embassy has asked the Venezuelan government to improve security for the ambassador, saying it's legally bound to do so, Penn said.

He said the protest began when Brownfield visited a baseball stadium in southern Caracas to hand out bats and other donated equipment to a youth league.

During the event, a Chavez supporter who wore an identification badge of the pro-Chavez mayor's office walked up and said the people in the area wanted Brownfield to leave, Penn said.

He stayed and finished the event, by which time a protest by a few dozen people had formed outside, chanting "Go home! Go home!"

Penn said the barrage of tomatoes, eggs and other items began when the convoy pulled out and drove through an adjacent market.

He said National Guard troops were on hand and pushed the crowd back as the cars passed through.

"Our car is stained all over," Penn said.

"They were pounding on the cars, including pounding on the ambassador's car while they were driving."

"There was no one stopping them."

He said the motorcyclists chased the convoy for three or four miles.

"The motorcyclists were throwing things at us for at least 10 minutes, and the police did nothing," Penn said.

"It was serious."

end quotes

Oh, quit your incessent whining, will you .....

Start treating people better ...

And maybe in return ...

You will get some respect ...

Keep putting your fists and bayonets in people's faces, however ....

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sh...campaign/withus

And first ....

Some background ....

The Kashmir Telegraph, March 2004, Vol 3, No 10

P E R S P E C T I V E

"Nepal & Bush Administration: Into thin air"

Conn Hallinan

Tucked into the upper stories of the Himalayas, Nepal hardly seems ground zero for the Bush administration's next crusade against “terrorism,” but an aggressive American ambassador, a strategic locale, and a flood of U.S. weaponry threatens to turn the tiny country of 25 million into a counter-insurgency bloodbath.

More than 8,000 Nepalese have died since a civil war broke out in 1996, and the death rate has sharply increased with the arrival of almost 8,400 American M-16 submachine guns, accompanied by U.S. advisers, high-tech night fighting equipment, and British helicopters.

For most Americans, Nepal, birthplace of the Buddha and home to Everest, the world's high mountain, is a charming tourist haven.

For the native Nepalese, 42% of whom, according to the World Bank, live below the poverty line, Nepal is a land enchained by caste, riven with ethnic rivalries, and dominated by a feudal landlord class.

The central protagonists in the current war are King Gyanendra, who abolished an elected parliament last year, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPNM), which is leading a rural insurrection, and a group of five political parties that found themselves out in the cold when the monarchy took over.

The Bush administration has concluded that the civil war threatens to make Nepal a “failed state” and a haven for international terrorists, leading it to place the CPNM on the State Department's “Watch List,” along with organizations like al Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf, and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, Michael E. Malinowski, compares CPNM leader, Baburam Bhattarai, to Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.

Malinowski, whose track record includes service in Afghanistan and Pakistan, advocates an all-out military offensive aimed at the insurgency, and recently told the New York Times that the CPNM, “literally have to be bent back to the table.”

But it was the Nepalese government's attempt to crush rural unrest that sparked the civil war in the first place, and virtually no one thinks there is a military solution to the insurrection.

“The government forces, under the present policies, could win a couple of battles here and there,” writes analyst Romeet Kaul Watt in The Kashmir Images, “but will never win the war.”

Roots of War

The present war finds it roots in both the ongoing poverty of a nation that is 85% rural, and the failure of the government to institute land reform measures following the restoration of representative government in 1990.

King Mahendra, father of the present King, dismissed an elective government in 1960.

He ruled until his death in 1972, when his son, King Birendra, took over, and eventually restored democracy.

But when conditions did not improve in rural areas, peasants began agitating against onerous rents.

The government responded by sending the military into the countryside--Operation Romeo and Operation Kilo Sera II--that did little more than radicalize poor farmers and recruit members for the CPNM.

The war, like most civil wars, has been brutal.

While most of the civilian deaths are attributed to government forces, Amnesty International accuses both sides of “unlawful criminal deaths.”

The CPNM has assassinated government supporters and police, and occasionally bombed Kathmandu.

The government has “disappeared” opponents, razed villages, and executed CPNM members and their supporters.

Over the past two years the Royal Nepal Army has beefed itself up to 72,000, but it isn't large enough to win a war against the CPNM's 4,000 core members and 15,000 or so militia supporters.

In any case, most of the Army is concentrated near the capital, Kathmandu.

However, with the recent influx of U.S. M-16s, Belgium FAL submachine guns, and British helicopters, the army has grown more aggressive, and death rates have climbed.

A government massacre of 19 villagers set off the latest round of fighting.

In the first month following the collapse of a seven-month cease-fire, civilian deaths tripled.

According to the Nepal human rights group, Informal Sector Service Centre, 800 of the 1,100 deaths since the end of the cease fire have been inflicted by government forces.

A major culprit in the escalating death rate is the appearance of modern assault rifles, the real “Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

Since 1990, more than five million people have died in wars around the globe, upwards of 90% of them from AK-47s, M-16s, FALs, German G3s, and Israeli Uzis.

According the Red Cross, more than 60% of civilian casualties are caused by submachine guns, and the United Nations Development Program estimates that small arms kill 300,000 people a year.

Modern assault rifles are far more deadly than the previous generations of weapons because they combine rapid-fire power with high velocity ammunition.

The combination of “Rounds Per Minute” (RPM)--the AK-47 delivers 600 RPMs, the M-16 up to 950 RPMs--and the enormous speed of the bullets, is a deadly one.

Fatalities from wounds have skyrocketed, particularly in places where medical care is primitive.

At $13.3 billion a year, the U.S. is the number one arms dealer in the world, far ahead of the Russians ($5 billion) and the French ($1 billion).

The bulk of that--$8.6 billion--goes to developing countries like Nepal.

Small, Savage Wars

Besides killing and wounding civilians, these small but savage wars inflict enormous indirect damage.

Studies on Cambodian and Bosnian refugees by Richard F. Mollica, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, found that more than two-thirds suffered from clinical depression and almost 40% from Post Traumatic Stress Disorders.

But efforts to curb the small arms trade have met with stiff resistance.

A recent proposal by Canada to ban the sale of small arms to “non-state actors” was derailed by the Americans, who have used such forces as an extension of foreign policy in places like Afghanistan and Central America.

Our ally in this war hardly fits the alleged aim of promoting democracy the Bush administration talks so much about.

One of King Gyanendra's first acts was to dismiss the elected government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Dueba for alleged “incompetence.”

Kathmandu has been the focus of demands for democracy and the reinstatement of parliament ever since, including one demonstration that drew 8,000 in late December.

The Nepalese daily, Rajdhani, reported Jan. 25 that the five political parties had thrown their support behind a growing student movement demanding a republic.

According to Rajdhani, “The parties decided to support protests of women, labourers, farmers, intellectuals, and different professional organizations as well.”

Krishna Sitaula, central committee member of the Nepal Congress Party, warned that the attempt by the King to impose an autocracy would backfire and hinted that the insurrection in the countryside and the protests in the cities might have common ground.

“Right now, the country is moving towards a republic,” he said, adding, “Maoists will give up violence and join us in the movement.”

Whether the CPNM would actually do that remains unclear.

The U.S. has once again aligned itself with absolutism in its war on “terror,” a war that is not only costing Nepalese lives, but has wrecked the economy and tanked the lucrative tourist trade.

For the second year in a row, the Nepalese economy shrank.

It is also heating up an area of the world with explosive potential.

Nepal borders both India and China (Tibet).

Both generally support the royalist forces, but neither is too happy about the growing U.S. involvement.

According to the Asia Times, last summer Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwai Sibal warned against “outside assistance” to Nepal, and the Indian press is grumbling about the U.S. ignoring a 1950 Friendship agreement--one that greatly favored India--between New Delhi and Kathmandu.

Publicly India and China have soft-pedaled their opposition to U.S. intervention, but if the war expands, it could spill over into both countries.

Tibet is restless under Beijing 's rule, and northern India has a number of long-standing separatist movements.

According to the New York Times, the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) is exploring ways to add another $14 million in “insurgency relevant” aid to the $17 million in current U.S. military aid.

AID was one of the main funnels for the U.S. government's support for the South Vietnamese regime.

While it seems a stretch to compare Vietnam to Nepal, replace “terrorism” with “Communism,” and the parallels are disturbingly similar.

In his book “In Retrospect,” former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara admitted that the U.S. was “wrong, terribly wrong,” about Vietnam.

He recently told Doug Saunders of the Globe & Mail (Canada) pretty much the same thing about the U.S. in Iraq:

“It's just wrong what we're doing."

"It's morally wrong, it's politically wrong, it's economically wrong.”

One can only hope that 30 years from now we don't read similar words about U.S. intervention in Nepal.

Conn Hallinan is the provost at the University of California at Santa Cruz and a political analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus

And from that background ....

We zoom forward to today ....

Where this BU-shite toady over there in Nepal is turning into one more George W. Bush "ABSOLUTIST NIGHTMARE" out there in OUR world .......

Bent on crushing democracy .....

And thinking people .....

With the support of GEORGE ...

And OUR UNITED STATES TREASURY ....

So as to have the UNITARY EXECUTIVE rule forever .....

A la George W. Bush ....

And the REPUBLICAN PARTY OF THE WORLD ....

According to whims ....

And not laws ...

Nor constitutions ..

But by force of arms alone ...

Thanks to the bloodthirsty and avaricious BUSHCOS ....

Who have made VIOLENCE one of OUR America's PRIME EXPORTS ...

And as a result, according to America's GEORGE ....

HIS ECONOMY IS BOOMING ....

SO ...

So what if some people in the world have to die ...

American investors are getting richer as a result ...

And that is going to TRICKLE DOWN to us some day ...

Or maybe to our children ...

Or maybe to their grandchildren ...

And so ...

In the meantime ....

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld are doing quite alright, thank you very much ....

Selling death and destruction ...

And so ...

All is right with THEIR WORLD .....

And so ....

BUSH-o-cracy is coming ......

BUSH-o-cracy is coming .....

RUN LIKE HELL ...

GET YOUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN UNDER COVER ...

BEFORE THE BUSH-O-CRATS TORTURE AND KILL THEM ...

And so ....

Here is one of GEORGE's acolytes in action right now ....

"Nepal King Orders Protesters Shot on Sight"

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA, Associated Press Writer

52 minutes ago

KATMANDU, Nepal - Protesters demanding a return to democracy postponed a rally that had been expected to draw thousands on Saturday, after the king imposed an all-day curfew and ordered violators shot on sight.

One person was killed and at least two wounded when security forces fired at demonstrators in Pokhara, a resort town 125 miles west of the capital, Katmandu, said Gangadhar Baral, who was among those wounded.

"We were protesting and some of us were throwing stones at the soldiers."

"Suddenly, the soldiers fired shots at us."

"One of my friends was killed instantly," Baral said.

He spoke from the town's main hospital.

Khadga Prasad Oli, deputy leader of the Communist Party of Nepal, called the curfew "unnecessary, illegal and illogical" and said the protesters would try to hold the rally on Sunday.

Seven main political parties organized the rally as the high point of a four-day general strike that has shut down Katmandu, where King Gyanendra's refusal to give up absolute rule has led to growing unrest.

Protesters clashed with police in Katmandu and surrounding areas on Thursday and Friday.

Hundreds of people were arrested and dozens were injured.

The protesters have the backing of communist rebels, who are separately fighting against the king's rule and formed a loose alliance with the political parties in December.

Gyanendra dismissed the prime minister in February last year, saying he needed full powers to check the communist insurgency, which has killed some 13,000 people since 1996.

The rebels bombed government buildings and attacked a jail in the southwestern town of Taulihawa on Friday night, freeing 104 prisoners, officials said.

Insurgents also attacked security bases in the nearby town of Butwal.

Officials said the curfew was in response to information that the rebels would try to infiltrate the rallies and wage terror attacks against government targets.

Streets quickly emptied as the curfew began at 10 a.m. Saturday, except for soldiers patrolling the streets in vans, pickup trucks and armored cars.

Tourists were cooped up inside hotels and allowed to travel only if they were going to or from the airport.

The curfew was to continue until 9 p.m. Saturday in Katmandu and two suburbs, the government announced on state-run Radio Nepal.

Violators would be shot, it said.

"We strongly oppose this," said Oli, whose party is not linked to the rebels.

Authorities have cracked down forcefully on the protests.

On Friday, police used batons and tear gas to beat back hundreds of demonstrators in Katmandu, many of whom who were throwing rocks.

A post office in Katmandu was set on fire Friday, and students at the capital's Tribhuwan University ransacked the dean's office and briefly held several officers hostage.

The students were joined by workers, professionals and business owners, in what the opposition said was a sign of building momentum against the king.

Protest organizers said the curfew order and other restrictions, for example on cell phone use, show the government is nervous.

"It proves that we have been able to startle the government."

"We have not decided how we are going to respond to the curfew order but we will not be deterred by the government using these means to try quash our movement for democracy," Subash Nemwang, another communist party member.

Of the more than 750 people arrested the past three days, 115 were sent to prison under a tough public safety law that allows authorities to jail people without charge for 90 days, Home Minister Kamal Thapa said.

"The government is using minimum force to control the situation," Thapa told reporters.

The rebels have promised not to carry out attacks in Katmandu during the strike, but have stepped up attacks elsewhere.

Gyanendra called for calm in a speech live Friday on national radio and television.

"Let us all pledge today to devote time for establishing permanent peace," he said.

"It is the need of today to establish permanent peace."

The remarks were the king's first public comments on the daily protests and the escalating violence.
___

Associated Press writer Neelesh Misra contributed to this story.

And speaking of OUR America's ABSOLUTIST UNITARY EXECUTIVE .....

Who is bound by no laws whatsoever ...

Nor constitutions ....

Nor anything, actually ...

But continued PROFITS for his pack of GREEDY PROFITEERS .....

Who, you know ...

Well ...

Let's be honest here, folks ...

I mean ...

Well ...

You know ...

It is "dog-eat-dog" out there .....

So you can't really fault the BUSHCOS for shooting first, can you ...

I mean ...

Well, if not them ...

Likely it just would have been someone else ...

And so ...

Better the GREEDY PROFITEERS that you know ....

Than some other crowd from somewhere else .....

And so ....

"Data leak called legal - White House says Bush release of information was in public interest; timing raises questions"

By MICHAEL KRANISH, Boston Globe
First published: Saturday, April 8, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The White House, facing a barrage of questions about President Bush's authorization to leak a CIA intelligence report to a New York Times reporter in 2003, sought to defuse the matter Friday by saying the release was legal and in the public interest.

But White House officials did not deny that Bush approved the leak 10 days before the classified report was made public.

Democrats, meanwhile, stepped up their criticism, saying the selective leak proved their long-held belief that Bush had cherry-picked intelligence to justify the war.

Some renewed calls for a congressional investigation into whether the President knowingly misled the public about Iraq's capability to use weapons of mass destruction.

In court papers filed earlier this week, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was quoted as saying that Bush gave him approval in early July 2003 to leak key findings from a classified CIA report called the National Intelligence Estimate.

The report said Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and was seeking nuclear weapons.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan, whose office had refused to comment on the matter for a day, found himself at the center of the questions of whether Bush had followed accepted procedures in declassifying the report.

At a July 18, 2003, news briefing -- at least 10 days after Bush had authorized the leak -- McClellan announced that the report was "just, as of today, officially declassified."

Asked by reporters Friday about the discrepancy, McClellan said he would "have to go back and look at the specific comments, but I'm not changing anything that was said previously."

He added that he believed he had been referring to when it was "declassified for the public."

McClellan then sought to turn the tables on Democrats, saying the opposition party was wrong to equate Bush's approval of the leak with past instances of government officials releasing classified information that harms national security.

"Declassifying information and providing it to the public when it is in the public interest is one thing," McClellan said, "but leaking classified information that could compromise our national security is something that is very serious."

"And there is a distinction."

"Now, there are Democrats out there that fail to recognize that distinction, or refuse to recognize that distinction."

"They are simply engaging in crass politics."

"Let's make clear what the distinction is."

McClellan said Bush still "believes the leaking of classified information is a very serious matter."

But Democrats said Bush was violating his own admonition against leaking.

"For years, President Bush has denied knowing about conversations between his top aides and Washington reporters, conversations where his aides -- like Scooter Libby -- sought to justify the war in Iraq and discredit the White House's critics by leaking national security secrets," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement.

"He must tell the American people whether the Bush Oval Office is the place where the buck stops or the leaks start."

Some observers said Bush's authorization of the leak proves allegations that a group of top administration officials came up with a plan to leak only intelligence that buttressed their case for war, and not the expressions of doubt.

The Libby case stemmed from administration efforts to discredit a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Joseph C. Wilson, who had written in a New York Times Op-Ed article on July 6, 2003, that Bush's assertion that Iraq had obtained nuclear material from Africa was baseless.

In an effort to undermine Wilson's assertion, Bush within two days authorized the release of the Iraq intelligence information to Judith Miller, who then was a reporter for The New York Times.

Libby met with Miller on July 8, 2003, and discussed the information, but the court papers provide no indication that he told Miller about footnotes in the report in which the State Department said it was "highly dubious" about the contention that Iraq obtained nuclear material from Niger.

At around the same time, Libby and other White House officials were discussing with reporters the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA official -- information that was disclosed in a Robert Novak column on July 14, 2003.

Four days later, with questions swirling about whether prewar intelligence justified the decision to invade Iraq, the White House released the National Intelligence Estimate, including the doubts raised by the State Department.

"We always want to share facts with the American people," McClellan said on that day, explaining the release of the report.

"And this information was just, as of today, officially declassified, and it was an opportunity to share with them some information that showed the clear and compelling case that we had for confronting the threat that Saddam Hussein posed."

Libby has been indicted on charges of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters about the identity of Valerie Plame.

He is not charged with leaking classified information, but those leaks have become a central focus of the case.

end quotes

The MOUNTAIN OF LIES from the BUSHCOS continues to grow and grow and grow and grow .....

With Scottie "BOY" McClellan doing what he does best .....

Fertilizing forty acre fields in a matter of minutes ...

With just the output of his mouth alone .....

And so ....

Give that boy a cigar ...

And vote REPUBLICAN ...

And the lies and corruption will continue ...

And all will be right with the world as a result ..

Because the rest of us will be dead .....

And so .....

Does anyone still remember a world before IRAQINAM?

"Official: Iraq in 'Undeclared Civil War'"

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 28 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb killed six people Saturday near a Shiite shrine south of Baghdad, and the death toll from the deadliest attack of the year rose to nearly 90.

A senior official warned Iraq was in an "undeclared civil war" that can be curbed only by a strong government and greater powers for security services.

With sectarian tensions rising, U.S. Marines on Saturday beat back the largest attack in weeks by Sunni Arab insurgents in the western city of Ramadi — another sign of the crisis facing this country three years after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces.

The car bomb exploded at a small shrine in the Euphrates River town of Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad.

Police said most of the six dead and 14 wounded were Shiite pilgrims visiting the shrine.

Fears of more attacks are running high in Shiite areas following the Thursday car bombing that killed 10 in the Shiite holy city of Najaf and the suicide attack the following day against a Shiite mosque in Baghdad — the deadliest attack in Iraq this year.

The attacks on houses of worship have stoked tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, especially after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an act that triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.

Despite the violence, U.S. officials have discounted talk of civil war.

However, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday that an "undeclared civil war" had already been raging for more than a year.

"Is there a civil war?"

"Yes, there is an undeclared civil war that has been there for a year or more," Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal told The Associated Press.

"All these bodies that are discovered in Baghdad, the slaughter of pilgrims heading to holy sites, the explosions, the destruction, the attacks against the mosques are all part of this."

Kamal said the country would still be spared from all-out sectarian war "if a strong government is formed, if the security forces are given wide powers and if they are able to defeat the terrorists."

"Then we might be able to overcome this crisis," he said.

The death toll from the Friday bombing of the Buratha mosque in north Baghdad rose to 85 because some of the wounded died, Dr. Riyadh Abdul Ameer of the Health Ministry said.

Officials said the death toll could rise because of severe injuries among the 156 people wounded in the attack by suicide bombers, including one dressed as a woman.

Also Saturday, Sunni insurgents launched their strongest attack in six weeks against the Anbar provincial government headquarters in Ramadi, 75 miles west of Baghdad. '

There were no U.S. casualties, Marines said.

A U.S. Air Force F-18 fighter bombed insurgent positions, unleashing thunderous explosions that shook the city.

U.S. Marines guarding the government headquarters fought back with anti-tank rockets, machine guns and small arms fire.

Sporadic shooting occurred around the government building after sunset, and an Iraqi soldier was killed Saturday in a separate fight in Ramadi, U.S. officials said.

Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in a clash with insurgents in Fallujah, about 30 miles east of Ramadi, police said.

The U.S. military reported Saturday that a U.S. Marine died from wounds suffered in hostile action the day before in Anbar province but gave no further details.

The New York Times reported in its online edition Saturday that an internal staff report by the U.S. Embassy and the military command rated overall stability of six of Iraq's 18 provinces "serious" and one "critical."

The report was dated Jan. 31, the Times said.

The newspaper said provinces where overall stability was rated "serious" included Baghdad and oil-rich Basra, where Shiite militias wield considerable influence.

Anbar province, which includes Ramadi and Fallujah, was rated "critical," the newspaper said.

"This report should be seen in the broader context of development in Iraq as it relates to the economy, governance and security," Dan Speckhard, the U.S. reconstruction chief for Iraq, said in a statement.

He said significant progress was being made in economic development and local governance after "decades of mismanagement" by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Efforts to form a strong, broadbased government including Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds have stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite candidate to lead the next administration.

Opponents accuse al-Jaafari of failing to stem sectarian violence.

However, al-Jaafari has refused to step aside, and his Shiite coalition has been reluctant to reconsider his nomination for fear of splintering their ranks.

Shiite officials were to meet, possibly as soon as Sunday, to discuss the stalemate at the urging of the country's top Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Al-Jaafari's allies suggested the meeting would be to affirm the prime minister's nomination, which he won by a single vote during balloting last February among Shiite lawmakers who won seats in parliament in the December elections.

"So far, we still have one candidate ... and that is Dr. Ibrahim al-Jaafari," Jawad al-Maliki, a key member of the prime minister's Dawa party said.

"If there is an opinion to be discussed within the alliance, then it must be discussed through ... democratic means."

Al-Maliki said he understood that al-Sistani wanted the alliance to resolve the crisis "but I did not hear a call" for al-Jaafari to step down.

But he added that "anything is possible."

Khalid al-Attiyah, an independent member of the Shiite alliance, said several options were under discussion, including replacing al-Jaafari with Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who lost the February vote.

But al-Attiyah said al-Jaafari's party would oppose that.

Abdul-Mahdi is a member of the largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Other proposals include naming another candidate from Dawa or someone not affiliated with either of the two big Shiite parties, al-Attiyah said.

In other developments Saturday:

• Police found four headless bodies showing signs of torture that were dumped on a farm about 20 miles north of Baghdad.

• A mortar round hit a house near the Education Ministry in central Baghdad, killing two men, police said.

_Gunmen killed a Shiite cigarette vendor and police found the body of a man killed by a roadside bomb near a highway.
___

Associated Press correspondents Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Todd Pitman in Ramadi contributed to this report.

And the weather ...

And it is early, yet ...

Barely into April ...

And the hot weather that is yet to come ...

And the violence that the warm air can be a source of ......

"Crews Seek Survivors After Deadly Storms"

By JOHN GEROME, Associated Press Writer

43 minutes ago

GALLATIN, Tenn. - Emergency teams spray-painted damaged houses with "X" signs Saturday after checking them for bodies or survivors and crews moved in dump trucks to haul away the wreckage piled up by tornadoes blamed for 12 deaths.

Bystanders were warned not to smoke because of leaking gas while police patrolled to ensure there was no looting.

Tornadoes were spotted in about 10 Tennessee counties on Friday, the second wave of deadly storms to hit the state in less than a week, weather officials said.

The worst damage appeared to be in Gallatin and other suburbs northeast of Nashville.

Steve Hurt and eight other people survived by taking shelter in a fireproof room with concrete walls at Lee Electric Supply Co. in Gallatin.

"You could hear people yelling and screaming outside and the debris hitting the walls," said Hurt, who said one of his co-workers was killed.

One of the tornadoes that hit the area chewed up a path 150 to 200 yards wide and at least 10 miles long, estimated Jimmy Templeton of the Sumner County Sheriff's Department.

Nearly 170 homes and eight businesses in Gallatin and Sumner County were damaged or destroyed, said Sonny Briggance, rescue chief for the county's emergency management agency.

Several multimillion-dollar homes were pulverized in one subdivision.

"I'm amazed we didn't have more fatalities," Briggance said.

"Although the number is high, we are still very lucky."

Gallatin resident Dora Freeze said her best friend, Crystal Graves, died not long after she got home from work.

"When I stand here and look at it all, I just can't believe it," Freeze said.

Seven people were killed in Sumner County and three were killed in Warren County, about 65 miles southeast of Nashville.

Two more people died during the night in a Gallatin hospital, state Emergency Management Agency spokesman Randy Harris said Saturday.

Hospitals admitted at least 60 people with storm-related injuries.

Harris said a preliminary count showed that 700 to 900 homes in Sumner County and another 500 to 700 in Warren County were damaged or destroyed.

The National Guard was helping both areas with the cleanup.

Gov. Phil Bredesen toured the destruction Saturday.

Most people rummaging through the rubble in Gallatin hunted for photographs and other keepsakes; a few looked for pets.

Diesel smoke filled the air as work crews used heavy equipment to clear paths through the debris.

Clumps of yellow insulation hung from trees like Spanish moss, and the sound of helicopters, chain saws and trucks created a loud, steady rumble.

Last weekend, thunderstorms spinning out dozens of tornadoes killed 24 people in western Tennessee and four others in Missouri and Illinois.

Nashville Electrical Service reported hundreds of electrical lines down and power outages affecting up to 16,000 customers, mostly in Goodlettsville.

The number of customers blacked out was down to 1,100 Saturday, but some people might have to wait a week for their service to be restored, NES spokeswoman Laurie Parker said.

Later Friday and early Saturday, another line of severe thunderstorms rolled through Alabama and Georgia.

Homes and businesses were damaged in the Atlanta suburbs, but the National Weather Service had not confirmed whether the area was hit by tornadoes.

"Several businesses are totally destroyed."

"Trees literally are sitting inside of houses," Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said.

Several people were injured in Alabama, two by falling trees, but no deaths were reported, officials said Saturday.

A store was destroyed in Ohatchee, near Anniston, and homes and apartments were damaged in the Birmingham area.

Storms also pounded southern West Virginia, blacking out more than 16,000 customers, utilities said.
___

Associated Press Writer Kristin M. Hall contributed to this report.

Man can do all he wants to the environment ...

And the environment don't much care ....

And much of what man does to the environment ....

Simply comes back to make life for man much harder ....

Or it comes back to kill him ...

And so ....

And once again ..

Another day dawns ....

Cold and clear ...

At least up here where I am right now in OUR America ...

A land that is being ravaged by MOTHER NATURE .....

I would say ..

IN RETALIATION FOR AMERICA RAVISHING HER FIRST ....

But since there is no definitive proof that such a thing as NATURE even exists in the first place ...

Well ...

Suffice to say that if you ask a WHITE HOUSE LAWYER ...

About any of my commentary in here on anything at all ....

Including the contents of all of these news items that I post in here on a daily basis ...

They will tell you that I am plumb full of **** ....

And so ....

But that don't confront me none .....

Since the "truth will out" eventually .....

And so .....

This following just came into me from the internet ...

And while I cannot and will not vouch for its authenticity .....

At the same time ...

It sure does seem plausible ...

BUT AS ALWAYS ...

You must be the judge for yourself ....

And so ....

Without further ado ....

From the internet ....

"George W. Bush said he was sick of people accusing him of lying us into war..."

"Today he met with a gentleman from the CIA to administer a lie detector test to settle the matter once and for all."

"The agent explained the test to Bush."

"He told him that he would ask a series of questions."

"He told Bush that when he told the truth the light would turn green, and if he told a lie, then the light would turn red."

"After explaining that to him, the agent asked Bush if he understood, and Bush said, 'Yes'."

"The light turned red."

And since we are on the subject of WHITE HOUSE lawyers ....

And lies by the gross that have been told to us by this Bush REGIME .....

Since before 2000 ....

In all likelihood .....

We have what looks like a little bush-league liar realizing his own inadequacies ....

And thus ....

Leaving the task of telling the REAL BIG WHOPPERS ....

To a real MAJOR LEAGUE EXPERT at the TRADE ....

And so ....

EXPERTISE IS ...

As EXPERTISE DOES ...

And so ....

"Lawyer: Bush left leak details to Cheney"

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:26 a.m., Sunday, April 9, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, be the one to disseminate the information, an attorney knowledgeable about the case said Saturday.

Bush merely instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details to him, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House.

The vice president chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide, the lawyer said.

It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place.

The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified document that detailed the intelligence community's conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The new information about Bush and Cheney's roles came as the president's aides have scrambled to defuse the political fallout from a court filing Wednesday by the prosecutors in the complex, ongoing investigation into whether the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame was disclosed to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic.

Wilson had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the weapons threat in Iraq.

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in the filing that Libby testified before a grand jury that he was authorized by Bush, through Cheney, to leak information from the intelligence estimate.

Libby faces trial, likely in January, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury and investigators about what he told reporters about Plame.

Fitzgerald did not say in the filing that Cheney authorized Libby to leak Plame's identity, and Bush is not accused of doing anything illegal.

Fitzgerald's aim with the filing was to counter Libby's defense that he innocently forgot about conversations he may have had with reporters about Plame by showing that the White House's concern about the war criticism was so consuming it would be difficult to forget.

But by suggesting that the leak of Plame's name may have been set in motion by the president, however indirectly, the documents reverberated much more broadly.

Democrats unleashed a storm of criticism against Bush, saying he appeared to have misused the declassification process for political gain.

On Friday, the White House argued there is an important different between disclosing sensitive information to further a public debate and leaking classified information that compromises national security.

But the attorney said Saturday the president's instructions were not as specific as it might seem from both Fitzgerald's description of Libby's testimony and news accounts of it.

Because Bush declassified the intelligence document, the White House does not view Libby's conversations about it as a leak.

But that determination is difficult to make without knowing precisely when Bush decided to declassify the information.

Libby passed the information about the document to New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003.

It was 10 days later, on July 18, when the same portions of the document that Libby discussed with Miller were released publicly.

And where is OUR America today with respect to all these lies that have been told to us by the BUSHCOS for all these years since they have come into ABSOLUTE POWER here in OUR America?

Well ...

Let's take a look and see ....

Keeping in mind that OUR America has been split on this issue since before the 2004 presidential elections .....

When a slight majority of those in OUR America ....

Felt that they would rather have LIES and CORRUPTION continue as OPERATIVE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT POLICY ...

Here in OUR America .....

Than the integrity and truthfulness and forthrightness that those of us in the NON-POLITICALLY ALIGNED MINORITY were aiming at ...

And so .....

"Poll: Immigration, Wars Trouble Americans"

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Rising anxiety has pushed immigration close to the economy in the public's view of the most important problems facing this country, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Those issues ranked slightly behind war in Iraq and elsewhere.

Immigration's rise in the latest survey about the nation's top problems suggests the public is keeping close watch on the immigration debate in Congress and reaction around the country.

Efforts in the Senate to pass sweeping immigration legislation faltered Friday, leaving in doubt the prospects for passage of a measure that offered the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.

When people were asked this past week to name the top national problem that came to mind, 13 percent said immigration — four times the number who said that in January.

Roughly the same number, 14 percent of those polled, named the economy, according to the poll of 500 adults conducted April 3-5.

The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

More than 11 million illegal immigrants are believed to be in this country now, with thousands more coming in all the time.

About 1.2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended last year along the nation's southwest border with Mexico, according to immigration officials.

As immigration concerns have grown, economic worries have dipped.

Only 14 percent now say the economy and related issues are their top concern, compared with 24 percent in October.

About one in five, 19 percent, said they view war as the nation's top problem.

And speaking of the 2004 presidential elections .....

Here is John Kerry with a post mortem ...

And I myself disagree with him on one thing .....

And that is that his CAMPAIGN botched up big time ...

By not responding to those "SWOOFTIES" .....

Or "SWUFTIES" .....

Or whatever it was that that crowd really was ...

The ones that said they were Swift Boat veterans ...

When one guy with a big beer gut on him that I saw in one of those photographs of the alleged Swift Boat veterans .....

Was wearing a jungle fatigue shirt with a MACV shoulder patch on it ...

MACV being the ARMY REMF's who hung out around Saigon ...

Living the fat, soft life ....

Far from the jungles where the real fighting and dying was taking place .....

And so .......

Veracity not being a MEDIA STRONG SUIT .....

I guess he would do alright for them as much as anyone would ...

And so ....

Anyway, Senator Kerry ...

To me, a Viet Nam combat veteran myself ...

You made yourself look exceptionally weak by remaining quiet while those "SWOOFTIES" ran off their mouths ...

And cowardly as well ....

At a time in OUR nation's history when PERCEIVED qualities such as weak and cowardly were not really in vogue in OUR America .....

And so .....

If it was me ...

I would have been right outside the door of their next meeting ....

Before they got there ...

And as they came in ...

In front of all the media in the world ...

I would be looking each of them in the face ...

And challenging them ...

Right there in front of the TV cameras ....

To prove that they were even in Viet Nam ...

Let alone in combat .....

And to especially prove that they had been anywhere near where I was in Viet Nam ...

And so ...

I WOULD HAVE TURNED THE TIDE ...

Right then and there ...

And so ....

"Kerry: Taking federal money a mistake"

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:55 p.m., Sunday, April 9, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Was it his campaign's slow response to the swift boat advertisements or the remark that he voted for Iraq war money before he voted against it that John Kerry regrets most from his failed bid for the White House?

Neither, according to Kerry's reflection Sunday on what he considered his biggest mistake when trying to wrest the presidency from George W. Bush in 2004.

"I think the biggest mistake was probably not going outside the federal financing so we could have controlled our own message," the Massachusetts senator said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The Kerry campaign opted to accept federal money -- and federal spending limits and other rules -- after he won the Democratic nomination.

The nominating convention in Boston occurred more than a month before the GOP renominated Bush, forcing Kerry to begin spending under federal rules much earlier than Bush.

"We had a 13-week general election, they had an eight-week general election."

"We had the same pot of money."

"We had to harbor our resources in a different way and we didn't have the same freedom," Kerry said.

"I think the most important thing would have been to spend more money, if we could have, on the advertising and responding to some of the attacks," he said.

As for other missteps, Kerry said:

"I made some mistakes."

"I know what they are, and I take responsibility for them."

Some political observers believe the Kerry campaign should have acted more quickly in countering an anti-Kerry group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that attacked his Vietnam War record.

The Bush campaign criticized Kerry relentlessly for his remark about voting for and then against an $87 billion bill for the military and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The GOP used Kerry's own words to support the contention that he flip-flopped on issues.

As for a run in 2008, Kerry said Sunday he would make a decision by the end of the year.

And speaking of the WAR MONGERS here in OUR America .....

"U.S. seeks to dampen talk of Iran strike"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:56 p.m., Sunday, April 9, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The White House on Sunday sought to dampen the idea of a U.S. military strike on Iran, saying the United States is conducting "normal defense and intelligence planning" as President Bush seeks a diplomatic solution to Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Administration officials -- from President Bush on down -- have left open the possibility of a military response if Iran does not end its nuclear ambitions.

Several reports published Sunday said the administration was studying options for military strikes; one account raised the possibility of using nuclear bombs against Iran's underground nuclear sites.

Britain's foreign secretary called the idea of a nuclear strike "completely nuts".

Dan Bartlett, counselor to Bush, cautioned against reading too much into administration planning.

"The president's priority is to find a diplomatic solution to a problem the entire world recognizes," Bartlett told The Associated Press on Sunday.

"And those who are drawing broad, definitive conclusions based on normal defense and intelligence planning, are ill-informed and are not knowledgeable of the administration's thinking on Iran."

Experts say a military strike on Iran would be risky and complicated.

U.S. forces already are preoccupied with Iraq and Afghanistan, and an attack against Iran could inflame U.S. problems in the Muslim world.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., said Britain would not launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran and he was as "certain as he could be" that neither would the U.S.

He said he has a high suspicion that Iran is developing a civil nuclear capability which in turn could be used for nuclear weapons, but there is "no smoking gun" to prove it and justify military action.

"I understand people's frustration with the diplomatic process," Straw said.

"It takes a long time and is quite a subtle process."

"The reason why we're opposed to military action is because it's an infinitely worse option and there's no justification for it."

The U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program.

But Iran has so far refused to halt its nuclear activity, saying the small-scale enrichment project was strictly for research and not for development of nuclear weapons.

Bush has said Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States of any other country in the world.

And while he has stressed that diplomacy is always preferable, he has defended his administration's strike-first policy against terrorists and other enemies.

"The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel," the president said last month in Cleveland.

"That's a threat, a serious threat."

"It's a threat to world peace; it's a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance."

"I made it clear, I'll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally."

Vice President Dick Cheney told the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC last month, "The United States is keeping all options on the table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime."

"And we join other nations in sending that regime a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed in an April 1 interview with British television channel ITV that the United States is committed to diplomacy to solve the issue.

"However," she added, "the president of the United States doesn't take his options off the table."

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros said Sunday that the president and State Department are working with other nations "to address diplomatically the troublesome activities of the Iranian government."

"And the U.S. military never comments on contingency planning."

Stephen Cimbala, a Pennsylvania State University professor who studies U.S. foreign policy, said it would be no surprise that the Pentagon has contingency plans for strike on Iran.

But he the administration's hint of military strikes is more of a show to Iran and the public than a feasible option.

"If you look at the military options, all of them are unattractive," Cimbala said.

"Either because they weren't work or because they have side effects where the cure is worse than the disease."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., criticized the administration for using "shoot from the hip, cowboy diplomacy" during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."

He said the president should be doing more to get sanctions against Iran.

He said even though the military option must be left open, "it's a terrible option fundamentally, and they know it and everybody else knows it."

------

On the Net:

http://www.whitehouse.gov

And the Iranians answer back ...

As is their right ...

In a free and democratic world ..

Such as George W. Bush proposes .....

Should exist ....

Here on this earth of OURS ...

As if George were the one in charge of such things as LIBERTY ...

And who gets to have it ...

And who don't .....

And so ....

"Iran accuses US of 'psychological war'"

By Parisa Hafezi

Sun Apr 9, 6:16 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Sunday brushed aside what it called a U.S. "psychological war" against its nuclear programme after a published report described Pentagon planning for possible military strikes against Iranian atomic facilities.

A report by influential investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine, citing unnamed current and former officials, said Washington has stepped up plans for possible attacks on Iranian facilities to curb its atomic work.

The article said the United States was considering using tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Iran's underground uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz, south of Tehran.

"This is a psychological war launched by Americans because they feel angry and desperate regarding Iran's nuclear dossier," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

"We will stand by our right to nuclear technology."

"It is our red line."

"We are ready to deal with any possible scenario."

"Iran is not afraid of threatening language," he added.

The United Nations has called on Iran to halt uranium enrichment, which the West believes Iran is pursuing to acquire technology to make a nuclear bomb.

Iran has rejected the demand and insists it only wants to make fuel for civilian uses.

Iran's decision in January to resume enrichment prompted Britain, France and Germany to break off 2-1/2 years of EU talks with Tehran and back a U.S. demand to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which can impose sanctions.

Asefi said Iran was ready to continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei would visit Iran by Friday to discuss Iran's cooperation with the IAEA.

"We have always had good cooperation with the IAEA and we will continue to do so," he said.

ElBaradei is expected to provide a report to the Council on Iran's nuclear programme entitled "the process of Iranian compliance" at the end of this month.

ElBaradei has said he has found no proof of a weapons programme in Iran but at the same time has said he cannot give the Islamic Republic a clean bill of health.

An IAEA official has said earlier that ElBaradei would travel to Iran on Tuesday or Wednesday for a day of meetings in Tehran to try to win more cooperation from Tehran.

And while the Iranians are answering back to America's George .....

And disrespecting him in the process ....

It looks like Venezuela is doing the same ...

And so .....

"Chavez threatens to expel U.S. ambassador"

By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:17 p.m., Sunday, April 9, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. ambassador was "provoking the Venezuelan people" and threatened Sunday to expel the American diplomat, whose convoy was chased by pro-government protesters.

"I'm going to throw you out of Venezuela if you continue provoking the Venezuelan people," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech addressed to U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield.

Venezuela's acting foreign minister on Saturday condemned the crowd of protesters for pelting Brownfield's car with eggs and tomatoes, but suggested that Brownfield is partially responsible for failing to advise authorities of his travel plans in order to avert such problems.

Chavez's more incendiary comments came after Washington warned of "severe diplomatic consequence" if a similar incident repeats itself.

"If the Washington government takes some measure against Venezuela motivated by provocations, you will be responsible, you will have to leave here, sir."

"I will declare you persona non grata in Venezuela," Chavez responded Sunday.

Chavez accused Washington of seeking to escalate tensions and "looking for another incident."

Chavez said Brownfield was partially responsible for the incident for failing to advise the local mayor's office or the foreign ministry of his travel plans.

The U.S. embassy in Caracas had no immediate response to the president's comments.

Brownfield had visited a ballpark in Caracas' Catia slums, a Chavez stronghold, to donate baseball equipment to a youth league.

The response to his visit Friday was the third time in three weeks that Brownfield has been met by protests.

Earlier, demonstrators burned tires and torched an American flag.

The State Department said the incident Friday "clearly was condoned by the local government," with local officials handing out snacks to perpetrators at the stadium.

U.S. officials accused police of doing nothing, saying a single city police car stayed well behind the convoy while motorcyclists pounded and kicked the ambassador's car.

The Caracas mayor's office denied involvement,

Chavez says the United States of plotting against him, an accusation American officials deny.

The United States, however, has said Chavez is stifling democracy.

And as George W. Bush continues to make death and destruction America's NUMBER ONE EXPORT .....

Since we don't manufacture anything else over here ....

We have from one of his CLIENT STATES as follows .....

"Nepal opposition, rebels vow more action"

By NEELESH MISRA, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:16 p.m., Sunday, April 9, 2006

KATMANDU, Nepal -- The crisis in this Himalayan nation deepened Sunday as angry crowds demanding the restoration of democracy took to the streets across Nepal in defiance of a daytime curfew, throwing stones at security forces and burning government offices.

With King Gyanendra and his swelling opposition both refusing to back down, the situation appeared to be reaching its most volatile point since he seized absolute power more than a year ago.

The well-armed communist insurgency has allied itself with the political opposition, which vowed Sunday to continue demonstrations indefinitely.

The government warned of harsher measures in response.

Security forces have killed three protesters, including one in Sunday's gunfire, and thrown more than 800 in jail during four days of demonstrations that for the first time brought thousands of workers, professionals and business people into the streets alongside students and political activists.

"Even the parties didn't expect such a massive public participation across the country," said Lok Raj Baral, executive chairman of the Nepal Centre for Contemporary Studies and a retired diplomat.

Across the country and throughout the day, Nepalis protested in defiance of a daylight curfew and official orders to shoot violators on sight.

There were protests in at least four different parts of the capital, Katmandu.

Some demonstrators threw stones at police before being forced back by tear gas.

The private Kantipur television station broadcast footage of police shooting rubber-coated bullets, hitting at least one protester.

The station also showed protesters burning cars in Katmandu and looting city council buildings in a suburb.

The protests, part of a four-day nationwide strike, were to end Sunday but instead the king's opponents announced that they would continue, with no end in sight.

The Maoist rebels' were supporting a strike by the political opposition for the first time, although the two sides struck an alliance late last year.

The rebels' leader, Prachanda, on Sunday announced a nationwide campaign to include defying curfew orders, blockading highways, breaking royal statues and punishing all those who pay taxes.

The demonstrations will be "long-drawn."

"I can't say how this will end," said Ram Sharan Mahat of the country's largest party, the Nepali Congress, one of seven parties that have banded together to oppose Gyanendra.

"The king must restore democracy," he said.

Saturday was the 16th anniversary of the introduction of democracy in Nepal, which came about after dozens of pro-democracy demonstrators were shot by police, prompting a surge of anti-royal sentiment and forcing the late King Birendra to yield much of his authority.

Gyanendra abruptly ended the democratic experiment last year when he reclaimed absolute power from other parts of the government, arguing he needed to bring order to a chaotic and corrupt political scene and end a communist insurgency that has killed nearly 13,000 people in the past decade.

Many Nepalis at first welcomed the king's move.

But the insurgency has only worsened and the economy has faltered.

The latest death came in the town of Banepa, just east of Katmandu, when security forces fired on protesters hurling stones and shouting slogans, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

A day earlier, two demonstrators were shot and killed in separate incidents by security forces that were also being pelted with stones.

"The government has no support base ... so the use of force is its last resort," said Baral, the Nepal expert and retired diplomat.

"But force has not been able to scare the protesters."

More than 2,000 people rallied in the southern town of Bharatpur, about 90 miles southwest of Katmandu, angered by the shooting of a demonstrator there by security forces a day earlier.

The government on Sunday said it was cracking down on the protests because communist militants had fired on security forces from among the crowds, despite the rebels' pledge not to launch attacks in the capital during the opposition strike.

Four known Maoists were among the 800 people arrested, and they had told authorities that militants had infiltrated the protests and planned to carry out attacks, Home Minister Kamal Thapa told reporters.

The government's crackdown on the opposition has prompted condemnations from the United States, Japan, the European Union and neighboring India, all of which have been critical of the king's seizure of power.

------

Associated Press reporter Binaj Gurubacharya contributed to this report.

And finally .....

"Specter: CIA leak roles must be explained"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:25 p.m., Sunday, April 9, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should speak publicly about their involvement in the CIA leak case so people can understand what happened, a leading Republican senator said Sunday.

"We ought to get to the bottom of it so it can be evaluated, again, by the American people," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In a federal court filing last week, the prosecutor in the case said Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, testified before a grand jury that he was authorized by Bush, through Cheney, to leak information from a classified document that detailed intelligence agencies' conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

A lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Saturday that Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Libby be the one to disseminate the information.

"I think that it is necessary for the president and vice president to tell the American people exactly what happened," Specter told "Fox News Sunday."

"I do say that there's been enough of a showing here with what's been filed of record in court that the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people ... about exactly what he did," Specter said.

Libby faces trial, likely in January, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury and investigators about what he told reporters about CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald did not say in the filing that Cheney authorized Libby to leak Plame's identity, and Bush is not accused of doing anything illegal.

"The president may be entirely in the clear, and it may turn out that he had the authority to make the disclosures which were made," Specter said.

But, he added, "it was not the right way to go about it because we ought not to have leaks in government."

The investigation is looking into whether Plame's identify was disclosed to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic.

Wilson had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who ran against Bush for president in 2004, said it was wrong for Bush to declassify information selectively "in order to buttress phony arguments to go to war " and to attack people politically.

"This was not a declassification in order to really educate America."

"This was a declassification in order to mislead America," Kerry said on "Meet the Press" on NBC.

"I think it's a disgrace."

Wilson said Sunday that Bush and Cheney should release transcripts of their interviews with Fitzgerald.

"It seems to me that first and foremost, the White House needs to come clean on this matter," Wilson said on ABC's "This Week."

"My own view of this is that the White House owes the American people and particularly our service people who have been sent into war, an apology for having misrepresented the facts."

The lawyer knowledgeable about the case said Bush instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details about disseminating the intelligence to him.

The lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House, said Cheney chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide.

"I don't think there's any evidence that the president told the vice president to go leak information to the press," said Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz.

Kyl said on CNN's "Late Edition" that a better way for the administration to have tried to counter Wilson's claims in a New York Times op-ed would have been to "have all of the press be given" the declassified intelligence material.

It is not known when the conversation between Bush and Cheney took place. '

The White House has declined to provide the date when the president used his authority to declassify the portions of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate.

"There has to be a detailed explanation as to precisely what Vice President Cheney did, what the president said to him and an explanation by the president as to what he said," Specter said.

end quotes

I'll say ....

Well said, Senator Spector .....

Well said, indeed ....

And while jeffmoskin is out there in what was once sunny California .....

Which has since been transformed into the same type of gloomy place that the REPUBLICANS are trying to install by force of arms all over the world .....

I am actually sitting in a patch of intense sunlight myself up here in the cold country ...

Which New York State Attorney General and GUBERNATORIAL HOPEFUL Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer is telling all the world ...

''Looks like APPALACHIA" .....

And so it does ...

Thanks in large part to him ...

And the "POLICIES" that he is imposing on the people of upstate New York ...

So that he can have his pockets stuffed ...

By those who are making upstate New York into APPALACHIA ...

So that in their own gated communities .....

They can live like kings .....

With "Big EL's" ARM OF PROTECTION wrapped firmly around their shoulders .....

And so .....

But enough about "Big EL" Spitzer ....

What is going on in OUR America today .....

Besides cold and wet weather out there where jeffmoskin is .....

In the LAND OF AH-nold the REPUBLICAN .....

And almost as always .....

To find out what is happening here in OUR America ...

We must wing our way over to America's NEWEST STATE of IRAQINAM .....

To find all of that out .....

"Iraqi troops start rolling out in Ramadi"

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 3:52 a.m., Monday, April 10, 2006

RAMADI, Iraq -- The troops didn't go far, the mission didn't last long and the neighborhood wasn't the most dangerous in town.

But when Iraqi army troops moved out on a recent patrol in central Ramadi, they took a crucial step forward, rolling out in their own armored Humvees for the first time.

Until now, this unit has mostly patrolled their small, relatively quiet slice of downtown on foot, leaving the worst parts of the turbulent city center to better-equipped U.S. troops.

American commanders want Iraqi units to operate independently in the more dangerous downtown areas of Ramadi, about 75 miles west of Baghdad.

But they lack equipment -- especially proper transport. '

Though they have their own trucks, they rely heavily on U.S. forces to move around.

In recent weeks, that's begun to change.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry has begun distributing armored Humvees to Iraqi units that look nearly identical to their tan-colored U.S. counterparts.

The Iraqi vehicles are equipped with bulletproof glass and radios, painted outside with the Iraqi flag and chocolate chip camouflage markings.

"This is a huge step," said Marine 2nd Lt. Ryan Hub, who accompanied Iraqi troops on a foot patrol Friday while the Humvees provided back-up.

Tracing a finger along a satellite map of central Ramadi, Hub circled a roughly one-square-mile area near the Marine base which the Iraqis patrol.

He then pointed to other Marine-controlled zones he hoped Iraqis troops would soon patrol in Humvees.

"It means we can extend their battle space," said the 25-year-old from Sumter, S.C.

On Tuesday, the Humvees proved useful as Iraqi forces evacuated a soldier shot in the leg, said Lt. Col. Steve Neary, who commands the Marine's 3rd Battalion, 8th Regiment.

Previously, such tasks would have been carried out by the U.S. military.

On Friday, an Iraqi 2nd lieutenant named Ahmed was in the first Humvee of a four-vehicle convoy leaving a U.S. Marine base.

Marine commanders asked that his full name not be used for fear he could be targeted by insurgents.

Taking a drag off a cigarette a few blocks on, Ahmed was startled to see two of his own vehicles -- they had taken a wrong turn -- coming in the opposite direction.

"Follow me!" he yelled into the radio.

"Follow me!"

Soon, all four Humvees were circling the block in unison, passing rusted-out cars, blown-out apartment blocks and children raising their fists in the air to show support.

Unlike other joint missions, only the Iraqis were radioing their minute-by-minute progress back to base.

Ahmed's role was to provide back-up support for the foot patrol, which swept the apartment complex with several Marines in tow.

Ahmed said if need be, his Humvees could evacuate casualties, or open fire with heavy machine guns.

Such support has traditionally been the job of the U.S. military.

Marines weren't taking chances Friday, though, and had a separate supporting patrol that halted traffic so the Iraqi convoy could move unhindered.

The Iraqis didn't go far.

The base's barbed-wire-topped wall was often visible as the Humvees repeatedly circled past it.

Following the Marines' advice, the Iraqi gunners kept their heads down in their turrets to avoid snipers. '

Less than two hours later, Ahmed was back on base.

"It's baby steps," said Marine Capt. Carlos Barela, commander of Lima Company.

"They're nervous, but that's good."

"If they weren't, they'd be careless."

It was a quiet first trip out, though it might not have been.

Insurgents, apparently, had been watching.

A Marine in a watchtower spotted a man planting a roadside bomb one street over from where the Iraqi Humvees had been circling.

Ahmed praised the newly arrived vehicles, but expressed a deep concern for lack of other equipment.

Although his men had uniforms, kneepads, and aging Kalashnikov rifles, they have no mortars, sniper rifles or rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Capt. Jabar, an Iraqi commander who directed Ahmed's movements from base, agreed.

"The insurgents are better armed than us," Jabar said.

"The Humvees will help."

"And we can still fight them, but we depend on the Americans for everything" -- medics, logistics, firepower, air support.

Jabar said his 90-man company had only two sets of night-vision goggles.

Another Iraqi commander, who made similar complaints about equipment at an army recruiting drive in Ramadi last week, said his unit had to share armored vests to go on patrols.

Barela said American commanders were aware of the complaints -- and Iraqi soldiers' concerns over pay -- but ultimately, those were issues for the Iraqi Defense Ministry to overcome.

"We could solve all their problems for them, but if we do it all, that's going to make them dependent," said Barela, 35, of Albuquerque, N.M.

"We're standing up a military from scratch."

"There's going to be growing pains."

A lot more training will be needed before Iraqi forces can stand on their own.

In central Ramadi, for example, only Marines are going out on night patrols.

The U.S. command in Baghdad says the Iraqi army numbers about 111,000 troops, and is expected to reach full strength of 130,000 next year.

But they are struggling to retain those who've already joined up.

Some quit because of the hazards of duty, others because of low pay.

Iraqi troops deployed here get one week of vacation after every three-week stint.

"Every month, two, three, five members of each company don't come back," Jabar said.

"At this rate, our companies will be reduced to single platoons."

Boy ...

Those IRAQINAMI soldiers have quite a good deal going over there .....

"Ah, hey, Captain ......"

"I have been fighting for three weeks now ...."

"I'm kind of tuckered ..."

"I'm going to take a week off ..."

"See you when I get back ..."

"Don't take no wooden nickels while I'm gone ..."

And so ....

In the meantime ...

Let's go see what George W. Bush's buddy Berlusconi is doing over there in Italy ....

After having done nothing at all about the death of that Calipari dude ...

Who caught a good one right in the head .....

From an American bullet .....

Because he was an enemy of George W. Bush ....

"Italy's Berlusconi Fights to Stay in Power"

By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 44 minutes ago

ROME - Italians returned to the polls Monday for a final day of voting to deliver a verdict on conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul who failed to jump-start a flat economy as the nation's longest-serving premier since World War II.

Trying to oust the flamboyant Berlusconi from the premier's office was Romano Prodi, an economics professor and former European Union chief who defeated him for the premiership in 1996.

Polls were not allowed to be published in the two weeks before the vote, but earlier surveys gave a slight edge to Prodi.

After 14 hours of voting on Sunday, two-thirds of Italy's 47 million eligible voters had cast ballots, the Interior Ministry said.

Surveys had shown that much of the electorate was unenthusiastic about the race.

Linda Mille, a doctor, said Sunday that she voted for the center-left to boot Berlusconi out of power:

"I don't think there can be anyone worse than Berlusconi."

In Rome, 79-year-old Antonio Recine said he voted for the right, brushing off economic concerns.

"All told, it doesn't seem to me like we're starving here," he said.

A staunch U.S. ally, Berlusconi, 69, founded a business empire that expanded to include Italy's main private TV networks, the Milan soccer team, as well as publishing, advertising and insurance interests.

He was battling to capture his third premiership with a center-right bloc — an often squabbling coalition of his Forza Italia party, the former neo-fascist National Alliance, pro-Vatican forces and the anti-immigrant Northern League.

Prodi, 66, was making his comeback bid with a potentially unwieldy coalition of moderate Christian Democrats, Greens, liberals, former Communists and Communists.

One potential issue — Iraq — was largely deflated before the campaign began, when Berlusconi announced that Italy's troops there would be withdrawn by year's end.

Berlusconi, who won the premiership in 1994 and 2001, had strongly supported President Bush despite fierce opposition among Italians against the war.

Prodi has said he would bring the troops home as soon as possible, security conditions permitting.

The ailing economy was at center stage, although neither candidate offered any bold ideas for its revival.

Berlusconi promised to abolish a homeowner's property tax.

Prodi said he would revive an inheritance tax abolished by Berlusconi, but only for the richest.

He also promised to cut payroll taxes to try to spur hiring.

Critics contended that Berlusconi, instead of helping the economy, used his comfortable majority in Parliament to push through laws to protect his business interests and to help him in his years of judicial woes.

Berlusconi contends the laws benefit all Italians and that he has been the victim of left-leaning prosecutors.

Berlusconi depicted Prodi as a front-man for Communists in a campaign to damage Italian democracy.

Italians were voting under a proportional system, thanks to a law pushed through by Berlusconi's government to increase the chances that his smaller allies would win seats in Parliament.

Hours before the polls opened Sunday, three gasoline bombs were hurled at a polling station in the northeastern town of Vittorio Veneto, and fliers found at the scene denounced both coalitions, police said.

No one was hurt.

___

Associated Press writer Ariel David contributed to this report.

Holy Millhouse "Tricky Dick" Nixxon, Batman ...

It looks like we got .....

DIRTY TRICKS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE ....

All over again .....

"Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House"

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 40 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New Hampshire were involved.

The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did not make them part of their case.

Democrats plan to ask a federal judge Tuesday to order GOP and White House officials to answer questions about the phone jamming in a civil lawsuit alleging voter fraud.

Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

Besides the conviction of Tobin, the Republicans' New England regional director, prosecutors negotiated two plea bargains: one with a New Hampshire Republican Party official and another with the owner of a telemarketing firm involved in the scheme.

The owner of the subcontractor firm whose employees made the hang-up calls is under indictment.

The phone records show that most calls to the White House were from Tobin, who became President Bush's presidential campaign chairman for the New England region in 2004.

Other calls from New Hampshire senatorial campaign offices to the White House could have been made by a number of people.

A GOP campaign consultant in 2002, Jayne Millerick, made a 17-minute call to the White House on Election Day, but said in an interview she did not recall the subject.

Millerick, who later became the New Hampshire GOP chairwoman, said in an interview she did not learn of the jamming until after the election.

A Democratic analysis of phone records introduced at Tobin's criminal trial show he made 115 outgoing calls — mostly to the same number in the White House political affairs office — between Sept. 17 and Nov. 22, 2002.

Two dozen of the calls were made from 9:28 a.m. the day before the election through 2:17 a.m. the night after the voting.

There also were other calls between Republican officials during the period that the scheme was hatched and canceled.

Prosecutors did not need the White House calls to convict Tobin and negotiate the two guilty pleas.

Whatever the reason for not using the White House records, prosecutors "tried a very narrow case," said Paul Twomey, who represented the Democratic Party in the criminal and civil cases.

The Justice Department did not say why the White House records were not used.

The Democrats said in their civil case motion that they were entitled to know the purpose of the calls to government offices "at the time of the planning and implementation of the phone-jamming conspiracy ... and the timing of the phone calls made by Mr. Tobin on Election Day."

While national Republican officials have said they deplore such operations, the Republican National Committee said it paid for Tobin's defense because he is a longtime supporter and told officials he had committed no crime.

By Nov. 4, 2002, the Monday before the election, an Idaho firm was hired to make the hang-up calls.

The Republican state chairman at the time, John Dowd, said in an interview he learned of the scheme that day and tried to stop it.

Dowd, who blamed an aide for devising the scheme without his knowledge, contended that the jamming began on Election Day despite his efforts.

A police report confirmed the Manchester Professional Fire Fighters Association reported the hang-up calls began about 7:15 a.m. and continued for about two hours.

The association was offering rides to the polls.

Virtually all the calls to the White House went to the same number, which currently rings inside the political affairs office.

In 2002, White House political affairs was led by now-RNC chairman Ken Mehlman.

The White House declined to say which staffer was assigned that phone number in 2002.

"As policy, we don't discuss ongoing legal proceedings within the courts," White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said.

Robert Kelner, a Washington lawyer representing the Republican National Committee in the civil litigation, said there was no connection between the phone jamming operation and the calls to the White House and party officials.

"On Election Day, as anybody involved in politics knows, there's a tremendous volume of calls between political operatives in the field and political operatives in Washington," Kelner said.

"If all you're pointing out is calls between Republican National Committee regional political officials and the White House political office on Election Day, you're pointing out nothing that hasn't been true on every Election Day," he said.

Dirty Tricks from the White House .....

Means the REPUBLICANS are in power ....

And so ...

That is what we older people here in OUR America with experience of prior times ...

And Millhouse "Tricky Dick" Nixxon in particular ......

Have come to expect of REPUBLICANS .....

And so ....

They just seem to have a more THUGGISH manner to them ...

The REPUBLICANS ....

And so ...

You seem to get this low stuff more often from them ...

And so ....

But enough about the REPUBLICANS ...

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

As well .....

The MAN who is turning upstate New York into APPALACHIA .....

With HIS DEFENSE of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's complete disregard for the HOME RULE PROVISIONS of the New York State CONSTITUTION ....

When it comes to siting extractive mining operations ....

In residential areas ....

Of upstate New York ....

Eliot gets his name in the newspapers enough ...

Without him cramming his way over into here as well ...

And so ....

Let's see what the IRAQINAMIS are up to here ...

With respect to this al-Jaafari character ...

The one who won't quit ...

Despite pressure from "CON JOB CONNIE" Rice .....

On him to do so ....

"Iraq Sunnis Reaffirm Opposition to PM"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 15 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite politicians failed Monday to persuade Sunni Arabs and Kurds to soften their opposition to a second term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving the Shiites with little choice but to replace him if they want to break the deadlock on a new government.

But al-Jaafari's supporters within the Shiite alliance showed no sign of backing down.

Representatives of the seven parties within the alliance planned to meet Tuesday to discuss the standoff, which has blocked formation of a government of national unity.

"For the alliance to make a change, it needs to have the support of five of the seven blocs within it," said Salam al-Maliki, an al-Jaafari supporter.

"This is impossible to secure."

Names mentioned as possible alternate nominees of the alliance include Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who lost the nomination to al-Jaafari by a single vote; deputy parliament speaker Hussain al-Shahristani, an independent; and Ali al-Adeeb and Jawad al-Maliki, members of the prime minister's party.

However, none of the alternatives was believed to have broad support among enough alliance factions to be guaranteed quick approval.

The Shiites, the largest bloc in parliament, are under strong pressure from the United States, Britain and their own clerical leadership to end the standoff with the Sunnis and Kurds, whom the Shiites need as partners in a new government.

"Forming a unity government is critical to defeating the terrorists and securing the peace," President Bush said Monday.

"The terrorists and insurgents thrive in a political vacuum."

"And the delay in forming a government is creating a vacuum that the terrorists and insurgents are working to exploit."

The U.S. military reported the deaths of three more American troops, all of them a result of hostile action in Anbar province, a Sunni-dominated province west of Baghdad.

At least 11 Iraqis were killed Monday, police said.

In addition, five bodies were found Monday, four in Baghdad and one south of the capital, but it was unclear when they died, police said.

Iraq's constitution states that the largest bloc in parliament gets first crack at the prime ministership, subject to majority approval in the legislature.

The Shiites, who comprise the majority in the country, won 130 of the 275 seats in December, making them the biggest faction but without enough strength to govern without partners.

Al-Jaafari, who won the nomination for another term during a vote February among Shiite lawmakers, has refused to step aside.

Shiite leaders fear that forcing him out will fragment their alliance.

A three-member Shiite committee met Monday with Sunni politicians, who insisted they would never accept al-Jaafari.

The Sunnis urged the Shiites to present another candidate, said Naseer al-Ani of the Iraqi Islamic Party.

"We don't know when they will get back to us," al-Ani said.

Kurdish leaders delivered that same message during a meeting with the Shiites late Sunday.

Sunnis and Kurds blame al-Jaafari for the rise in sectarian tensions and for a high-handed leadership style since he assumed office last year.

The debate over al-Jaafari has been further complicated because of divisions within the Shiite alliance.

His strongest support comes from radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose emergence as a key political figure has alarmed both U.S. officials and other Shiite leaders.

Some Shiite officials suggested al-Jaafari's Dawa party might be willing to abandon him if the replacement comes from its own ranks.

But the main Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, is quietly promoting its own candidate, Abdul-Mahdi.

U.S. officials have been pressing Iraqi politicians to resolve the impasse and move quickly to form a national unity government to halt the country's slide toward chaos, including suicide attacks and car bombings targeting civilians — most of them Shiites.

In a statement Monday, a U.S. military spokesman said more than 90 percent of the suicide attacks in Iraq are carried out by terrorists and foreign fighters recruited, trained and equipped by al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida in Iraq "are real threats to the citizens, security and stability of Iraq and we continue to conduct aggressive operations to eliminate the threat they pose not only to Iraq, but also to the rest of the region," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said in a statement.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the U.S. military was conducting a propaganda campaign to "magnify the role" of al-Zarqawi to turn Iraqis against him and to link the war in Iraq to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

According to the newspaper, some U.S. military intelligence officials believe the campaign has overstated al-Zarqawi's importance within the Iraqi insurgency.

Meanwhile, American troops killed a woman they said was an insurgent in a raid near Balad, north of Baghdad.

Police also reported the incident, describing the woman as a farmer's wife.