The VIOLENT WORLD of George W. Bush EXPLODES ......

Right before OUR eyes .....

And there sit Dick Cheney and George W. Bush ...

Fingers working feverishly on the calculator keys ...

Totting up the day's profits ...

On arms sales to these DICTATORSHIPS that America sponsors .....

Because if you sell arms ...

And then incite the violence that brings out the people who are then to be shot on sight ....

Then you have the DICTATORS hooked for the bullets and stuff ...

That they have to buy from America ...

To replace the ones they used killing off their citzenry the last time ....

Which means that they have to come back to Dick and George to buy some more ....

Which Dick and George like ...

Because by selling all these bullets ...

They boost the MURRIKAN 'CON-O-MY ......

And so ...

Good politics ...

All the way around ...

And so .....

It is a way to fight chronic unemployment .....

Some people have a permanent job as a DICTATOR ...

Some have permanent jobs ....

Working for the DICTATORS .....

Killing and maiming the freedom-loving people who don't like the DICTATOR ....

And some people have the permanent jobs ...

Of getting killed and maimed ...

And so ...

According to BUSH-I-O-NOMICS .....

A win-win situation for all .....

And here is some more money for America's "INDUSTRIAL SECTOR" being made right now ....

"Activist: Police fire on Nepal protesters"

Associated Press
Last updated: 6:25 a.m., Tuesday, April 11, 2006

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Police fired on pro-democracy protesters Tuesday in Katmandu, injuring at least 12 people, a human rights activist said.

It was not clear if the police fired rubber bullets or live ammunition.

Details were scarce, but the clash came in the Gangabu neighborhood on the edge of Katmandu when protesters marched toward a line of police from an area not covered by the city's strict curfew rules.

When the protesters didn't retreat, the police opened fire, said Poshraj Adhikari, of the rights group INSEC-Nepal.

Jagat Basnet, a local resident reached by telephone, said police had fired several rounds at the protesters.

"I saw one running man get hit and collapse," Basnet said.

Adhikari said the army was beginning to move into the neighborhood to take control of the situation.

And from Katmandu ....

Which apparently was a cool place for the Beatles to hang out ...

When I was younger .....

And George W. Bush had not yet come into power ...

Here in OUR America .....

We return to OUR America ....

To this .....

In a state where its Attorney General, the VERY, VERY HONORABLE INDEED Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer ......

Has just scored a real big COUP in the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals on New York City ....

Successfully defending a practice in the State of New York ...

That is specifically designed ...

To remove any professional witnesses ...

Who might be a threat to continuing GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION in the State of New York ....

By having a STATE DOCTOR declare them to be mentally ill and dangerous ....

So that they can then be incarcerated by the STATE ....

In a GULAG ...

Where their minds will be altered ...

So that they won't be out there warning people about all the *** that they are drinking in their water .....

Because warning people about all that **** is just bad for the BID-NESS BOTTOM LINE ....

And so .....

"Big EL" Spitzer is a HERO up here in the State of New York ...

To those who are the POLLUTERS .....

Because he just TOOK DOWN a qualified PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEER in the State of New York who was looking too closely at these groundwater contamination problems BEING FOSTERED BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK ...

And its corrupt State Health Department ...

And New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ..

Both of which are "Big EL's" clients .....

And so ....

The results of "Big EL's" successful efforts .....

Are as follows ....

"Wells full of who-knows-what - Many who have a private water supply know little about its quality"

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Craig Richard realized he was buying a house across from a junkyard.

Until a fence was erected, it was about all he could see from his front window.

What he didn't know was that years earlier, state officials discovered the toxic gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) spreading from the site into groundwater beneath Richard's neighborhood -- just outside Hudson Falls, beyond the reach of municipal water.

"If I would have known about that,'' Richard said of the state-monitored spill, "I probably would have tested my well.''

Then, two years ago, a stream of runoff laced with gasoline and antifreeze flowed past Richard's house and heightened his concern.

Since that incident, the state has continued to detect MTBE in nearby test wells, though none yet in the drinking well at Richard's home.

Richard, 38, says he feels more abandoned than lucky.

A tool sharpener of modest means, he spends $400 a year on bottled water rather than risk the health of his wife and 3-year-old daughter.

He is not alone.

Roughly 1.3 million New York citizens drink water from private wells they know little about and almost never test for water quality.

That is about 7 percent of all New York state residents receiving minimal or no screening of the water they drink.

No one in government even knows for sure the location of thousands of private wells statewide -- a substantial blind spot in the state's ability to warn people of underground water pollution.

The danger extends well beyond MTBE, a gasoline additive that dissolves in water and lingers underground.

The state mandates stringent testing for dozens of contaminants in larger public water supplies, but no standards exist for private water sources.

Only in recent years have state health and environmental officials begun to work together to cross-reference computer data on the locations of public water supplies and petroleum spills.

For private wells, little data exists so far.

Private wells and safety

Protection for private wells has for decades depended on a hodgepodge of local laws that vary greatly among New York's 62 counties.

As a 1998 study by the state Department of Health put it:

"Private wells lack the protection many public drinking water supplies enjoy.''

"You get a water main break in the city, they say boil your water,'' said Richard, of Kingsbury.

"Then they say, `You have a private well?'"

"Drink whatever you want.'''

It is a serious problem that some say begins with a basic misconception.

"Somehow we've gotten this sense that people who are on private wells are living in pristine areas,'' said Paul Pontoro, chief of the water resources office for the Suffolk County Department of Health.

The reality is quite often the opposite.

Pontoro declined to comment on MTBE specifically because Suffolk County is suing the chemical's makers.

But he leaves little doubt that despite his office's efforts to help Suffolk's roughly 200,000 people who drink from private wells, their safety remains a wild card.

"The reality of it is that every time you open up a newspaper nationally, you're seeing some problem come up with private wells,'' he said.

"Nationally, there has been no commitment whatsoever to regulate them.''

Most experts agree private well water isn't tested enough, even for basic contaminants, such as bacteria.

Regardless, some counties, frustrated with the lack of state guidance, have taken the lead in requiring testing and local well registration.

"People have said to me they just assumed that their water was fine -- that if it's in their well and nobody's said anything to them that the water is potable,'' said Rockland County Legislator Ellen Jaffee, who fought for a local testing law.

Jaffee, a Democrat, modeled the Rockland law after New Jersey's standards.

New Jersey's law, which in 2001 became the first of its kind, requires most private wells be tested for a series of contaminants, including volatile organic compounds such as MTBE, before closing a sale of the property.

The seller has to share the results with both the state and the prospective buyer, similar to a termite inspection.

If contamination is found, local health authorities can warn other private well owners nearby.

"It's a kind of a right-to-know requirement of the quality of your drinking water,'' said Fred Mumford, a spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.

New Jersey estimates its required battery of tests costs between $550 and $600.

Preliminary reports show that about 8 percent of nearly 5,200 New Jersey wells tested violated state standards for some sort of state regulated contamination.

The state's standard for MTBE is 70 parts per billion, seven times greater than New York's.

A similar statewide law introduced here by Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli (D-Great Neck) has languished at the Capitol for more than a year.

To pass Rockland County's law, Jaffee said, she and her supporters had to overcome two executive vetoes and opposition from the real estate industry, which is now challenging the law in court on technical grounds, arguing, in part, the county cannot force responsibilities on state-regulated real estate agents.

Early reports indicate that as many as one-third of the first 60 wells tested have been contaminated at some level with some contaminant, including MTBE, she said.

In Dutchess County, where significant groundwater contamination has made well testing an emotional issue for citizens, the board of health acted last year to institute mandatory testing for private wells every six years before the county legislature acted on it.

That law will take effect July 1.

Cracks in the system

Only as recently as 2000 have well-drillers in New York been required to tell state environmental officials where they're drilling new wells -- vital information when the state Department of Environmental Conservation responds to spills and assesses who might be at risk.

Rockland, like Albany County and several others, has required some form of well registration since 1989.

However, despite that passage of time, only about 1,000 of an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 wells in Rockland are accounted for, said Daniel Miller, head of the county health department's water supply bureau.

Success in warning people their private water supply might be in jeopardy depends on the cooperation of multiple state and local agencies, and more than a little legwork -- what one county health official calls a "windshield tour'' of the neighborhood.

"We don't have a database with all well locations,'' Miller said.

"Really, the only way to do it effectively is by door-to-door survey.''

With thousands of spills statewide and incomplete information about private wells nearby, inevitably, some have fallen through the cracks as environmental and health officials try to triage which spills threaten the most people and thus require the most immediate and aggressive attention.

Interviews with local health officials around the state show that standard procedures for notifying the public vary from place to place.

Many say they have good working relationships with state agencies, combining the state's resources with the county's local knowledge to identify who is drinking from private wells.

Lacking comprehensive data, in some cases they simply compare tax maps to water bills, working backward to determine what properties don't appear to be connected.

While studying MTBE in private wells near gas stations in the late 1990s, the state Department of Health used census data to target its research on areas with a low percentage of households connected to public water.

The first test looked at 40 Capital Region wells near gas stations, of which 20 percent had detectable levels of MTBE.

Only one, at 61 parts per billion, exceeded current state standards.

A year later, the study was expanded to the southern part of the state, where MTBE was mixed into gasoline in much higher concentrations.

There, detectable MTBE was found in 38 percent of the 34 wells tested, generally at higher levels.

Based on the MTBE guidelines at the time, the studies concluded the wells tested "pose no apparent public health hazard,'' though residents of one home, the authors noted, were found to be exposed to as much as 61 parts per billion for an "undetermined period of time'' less than 20 years.

The state lowered its toxic threshold for MTBE to 10 ppb after that study.

Figuring out where to test is a decision typically made based on what was spilled, how it usually behaves and how groundwater usually moves.

"If you have a place where there is no county health department some of these wells do fall through the cracks,'' said Dale Rowe, Columbia County's environmental health director.

Rowe, who's worked closely with state agencies for four decades, said their field workers are dedicated but often understaffed and at the mercy of policies set several levels above them.

"I've been here 40 years, I know who's got (private water),'' he said.

"We protect public health, but (state officials) seem to be more interested -- not all of them, but the administration -- in generating fees for the state of New York.''

Twenty-one counties don't have local environmental health divisions devoted to water quality at all.

The regional districts of the state Department of Health handle those services for them.

Public health officials almost universally agree that everyone with a private well should test at least annually for bacteria, which can be present almost anywhere and can sicken and kill more quickly than MTBE or other toxic chemicals.

Many people only test their wells for bacteria when banks require it before approving a mortgage on their home.

"Cancer is a horrendously scary thing,'' said said Andy Barber, a hydrogeochemist with engineering firm Barton & Loguidice.

"Is (MTBE) a health hazard?"

"No doubt about it."

"But if you have your own on-site water system, there are others, too.''

Deciding how broadly to test depends on the historic uses of nearby land and the history of contamination in the area.

Part of the problem is that there is no one test that will detect every possible contaminant, Barber said.

Buying tests to cover every pollutant costs hundreds of dollars.

"You have to know what you're looking for,'' he said.

"When you send a sample into the laboratory, you have to say I want to look for MTBE in this water.''

The high cost of switching

In East Fishkill, Dutchess County, Dennis Callinan lives 300 yards from a neighbor who worked at home cleaning semiconductor chip trays for IBM.

Cleaning chemicals leached into the earth, groundwater and Callinan's well.

The main chemical that has tainted water in this semirural Dutchess County community is trichloroethylene, a colorless liquid used to clean metal parts.

TCE, found across New York, is a likely carcinogen, with a host of other suspected health impacts.

The federal government has set a maximum level in drinking water of 5 parts per billion, half of New York's limit for MTBE.

For at least 20 years, the Callinan family drank TCE at a level way above that, as high as 50 parts per billion.

They had their well tested a few times, but authorities only recommended they look for bacteria.

Those tests came back clean.

"We have two sons with kidney problems,'' said Callinan, who is convinced the TCE has hurt his family.

"My wife has serious kidney and liver problems."

"I am very bitter.''

As is typical with environmental threats to public health, no direct evidence ties TCE to illness in Callinan's family.

Some counties, like Chemung on the Southern Tier, have local laws that force homes and businesses to connect to public water if they are within a certain distance of water mains.

"The logic there is that there's a lot of testing that goes on daily in public water supplies,'' said Thomas Kump, director of environmental health there.

"The logic is to not have these people be potentially at risk.''

For some, the cost of connecting to municipal water, often in the thousands of dollars, is a deterrent or an outright barrier to safer water.

DEC has in the past offered to connect people for free or ordered spillers to bear the cost, but some property owners refuse, unwilling to pay recurring water bills when they think they can get water more cheaply from their own wells -- water that was fine, they say, until someone else ruined it.

Richard of Hudson Falls is eager to connect, but there is no municipal water on his street.

"A thousand dollars for peace of mind,'' he said.

"It's nothing.''

Town Supervisor James Lindsay said the town has been trying to get grant money to extend about 2,000 feet of pipe to serve the neighborhood.

"I don't think I'd want to be drinking the water because you never know what's going to be in it,'' said Lindsay, adding that the site has had problems under several tenants for 25 years.

The irony, Lindsay said, is that because recent tests have come back clean, the project has been given a low priority among others eligible for grants.

Admitting that it's a gruesome desire, the best thing that could happen, Lindsay said, would be for wells to start testing positive with high levels of contamination.

"Because then we could go to the state and we'd be laying water pipe tomorrow.''

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com. Staff writer Matt Pacenza contributed to this report.

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

"Realtors: Home Sales, Prices to Cool" Tue Apr 11, 2:01 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The housing market will likely level out in 2006, as sales of existing and new homes are expected to cool in the coming quarters, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Existing home sales are expected to fall 6 percent to 6.65 million in 2006, compared with 7.08 million in 2005, the NAR said Tuesday.

Demand for new homes is expected to fall off as well, with sales forecast to fall 10.9 percent, to 1.14 million this year, compared with a record 1.28 million last year.

But based on those projections for 2006, both the new home and existing home sectors would see their third-best year, following the booming markets of 2005 and 2004, the trade group said.

Prices for new and existing homes are also expected to slow from their previous rate of growth, while still maintaining steady rates of increase over the course of the year.

The median price for existing homes should climb 6.4 percent in 2006 to $221,700, while new home prices are forecast to increase at a lower rate of 2.3 percent this year to $242,700.

"Although housing inventories have been improving, the balance is still a bit more favorable for sellers and annual appreciation remains in double-digit (percentage) territory," NAR President Thomas M. Stevens said.

"Even so, the market is in a process of normalization — appreciation will return to normal single-digit patterns."

NAR's projections included assumptions of gross domestic product growth of 3.7 percent in 2006, and an average unemployment rate of 4.8 percent over the year.

"Economic growth and job creation are providing a favorable backdrop for the housing market, but rising interest rates have an offsetting effect," David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, said.

Lereah expects the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to rise to 6.9 percent by the end of the year.

And from the economy ...

Here in OUR America ...

Which is based upon the export of DEATH AND DESTRUCTION around this world of OURS ....

We once again wing our way back over to Katmandu ...

In Nepal .....

Where George W. Bush is helping America's economy to grow some more .....

By providing arms to the DICTATOR over there ...

So that he can kill his subjects .....

So OUR GNP can grow .....

Which will keep our housing market robust ....

And so .....

"Nepal Protests Grow Increasingly Violent"

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 17 minutes ago

KATMANDU, Nepal - The taxi driver wheeled around at the sight of hundreds of men closing in on him, his getaway marred by a rock thrown through the back window — the mob's retribution for daring to work instead of protesting the rule of Nepal's king.

"We will smash all the window's in the royal place," declared the rock thrower, Gopal Moktan, smiling triumphantly on Tuesday morning as he and thousands of others gathered on the edge of Katmandu for a sixth day of protests to demand that King Gyanendra restore democracy.

The small scene in many ways is the story these days of Nepal.

Daily demonstrations are looking more like a mass uprising, yet one that without clear leadership is growing increasingly angry — and violent — in the face of a bloody crackdown by security forces.

Tuesday saw more violence as scores were injured in Katmandu, where demonstrators taking shelter in narrow alleys in the Gangabu neighborhood threw stones at police — who in turn charged the protesters with batons, firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Brian Cobb, an American doctor who set up a small clinic to treat those injured in the protests, said police had stormed his makeshift operation and attacked his patients.

As the protest wound down in the late afternoon, at least six police officers could be seen beating a person on the roof of a four-story brick building, kicking and belting the victim with batons.

At least two people were also injured in the resort town of Pokhara when police fired rubber bullets at protesters.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal said in statement Tuesday that security forces were "using excessive force against demonstrators," noting that peaceful protests have been violently broken up and people faced "severe" beatings even after violent demonstrations have been brought under control.

Despite the assaults, the demonstrations have, for the first time since Gyanendra seized power 14 months ago, brought thousands of workers, professionals and business people into the streets alongside students and political activists.

The Kathmandu Post newspaper on Tuesday even called the protests a "janandolan," or "people's movement" in Nepali.

"The level of defiance is unprecedented — it never happened before, even in 1990," said Yubaraj Ghimire, editor of the respected Samay weekly, referring to the last mass democracy movement, which forced the late King Birendra to yield much of his authority 16 years ago.

Gyanendra says he seized back power 14 months ago to stamp out political corruption and quell a communist insurgency that has killed nearly 13,000 people in the past decade.

The move was at first welcomed by many of Nepal's 27 million people.

But a worsening insurgency and collapsing economy have fueled the discontent so visible in recent days as protests have gripped the country's major cities and far-flung towns.

A bloody crackdown by security forces has clearly exacerbated the situation.

Three protesters have been killed, hundreds injured and more than 1,000 people jailed, including some of the top leaders of the seven-party opposition alliance, which is organizing the protests and an indefinite nationwide strike.

Curfews have been in effect in Katmandu and two other cities since Saturday.

Ghimire said that because of the harsh crackdown, protesters are retaliating with violence.

"A visible leader could have a mollifying effect," he said.

But no singular figure to rally around has emerged.

Most of the leaders of the seven-party alliance are either imprisoned or underground, and all belong to an older political class largely viewed as squabbling and corrupt by many Nepalese, especially the younger ones.

The result is "young people at times reacting to violence the only way they know how — with violence," said Dhruba Adhikary of the independent Nepal Press Institute.

That was clear in Gangabu, where witnesses said thousands of protesters, most of them young people, were spoiling for a fight even before police arrived shortly after noon Tuesday.

"These youths are futureless, they have no fear," said Mani Ranjit, a 58-year-old engineer who was watching as the protest geared up.

One of the young people, K.C. Dawadi, 25, said he was a student leader and declared, "violence is not our answer."

All around him, young men shouted about killing the king, even though the opposition says it's willing to accept a constitutional monarchy.

A half hour later, Dawadi was out in front of the unruly protest, hurling stones as police wielding batons and shields moved in.

Nestled between China and India in the Himalayas, Nepal was once known as a medieval Shangri-La.

To this day, Nepal attracts hippies in search of eastern spirituality and climbers looking to scale its towering peaks, such as Mt. Everest, even as it's become a link in a chain of unstable countries encircling India.

Communist rebels are backing Nepal's opposition protests, and the government alleges rebels have infiltrated the demonstrations to instigate violence — a charge denied by the opposition.

On Tuesday, authorities authorized security forces to search houses in Katmandu for militants.

And from Nepal ....

Where that king dude is telling everyone that he had to become a dictator because of corruption .....

We return to OUR America ...

Where it would seem ....

That we have corruption ...

Because of OUR DICTATOR ....

And his CORRUPT POLITICAL FACTION .....

And so ....

"E-mails show Abramoff's donation leverage"

By JOHN SOLOMON and SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:15 p.m., Tuesday, April 11, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A Republican Party official and Jack Abramoff's lobbying team bluntly discussed using large political donations as a way to pressure lawmakers into securing federal money for a tribal client, according to e-mails gathered by prosecutors.

The e-mails detail how Abramoff's team worked to leverage assistance from the White House, Congress and the GOP to get a reluctant federal agency and a single Republican congressional aide to stop blocking school construction money for the Saginaw Chippewa tribe.

The e-mails were obtained by The Associated Press.

Abramoff's team ultimately prevailed when the congressional aide was overruled, several lawmakers pressured an Interior Department agency and Congress itself set aside the money for the tribe.

Lawmakers who helped got thousands of dollars in fresh donations from Abramoff's team.

Federal bribery law prohibits public officials from taking actions because of gifts or political donations and bars lobbyists from demanding government action in exchange for donations.

Abramoff's team repeatedly discussed donations as the reason Republican leaders should intervene for the Saginaw, the e-mails show.

"The tribes that want this (not just ours) are the only guys who take care of the Rs," Abramoff deputy Todd Boulanger wrote in a June 19, 2002, e-mail to Abramoff and his lobbying team, using "Rs" as shorthand for Republicans.

"We're going to seriously reconsider our priorities in the current lists I'm drafting right now if our friends don't weigh in with some juice."

"If leadership isn't going to cash in a chit for (easily) our most important project, then they are out of luck from here on out," he wrote, referring to political donation lists.

The e-mails have become evidence in a federal corruption probe into whether lawmakers, congressional aides and administration officials helped Abramoff's clients in exchange for gifts and donations.

A former federal prosecutor who specialized in fundraising cases said the e-mails are "circumstantial evidence that the money may have a relationship to certain legislative action" and would be useful in criminal prosecution if bolstered by other evidence.

"It memorializes what a lot of people suspect: that money buys access," said Charles La Bella, who oversaw a 1990s investigation into Clinton-era fundraising.

"Politicians, because of the way the system is set up, need money."

"And money is used as a carrot and a stick by lobbyists to encourage or discourage legislative action."

Abramoff's spokesman, Andrew Blum, declined comment Tuesday on the e-mails.

Abramoff's lobbying began when the Interior Department initially opposed giving the Saginaw -- a wealthy tribe with a casino -- federal school construction aid.

Abramoff's team turned to Congress, getting Michigan Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow to persuade their party's leaders to request the money in a spending bill.

Democrats controlled the Senate in 2002.

Abramoff then turned to Republicans, including Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana, to overcome the administration's objections and secure $3 million specifically for the Saginaw when the GOP regained control of the Senate the next year.

The plan hit a snag in summer 2002 when a single GOP House appropriations staffer, Joel Kaplan, objected.

An angry Abramoff team frantically reached Republican leaders.

A staffer for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Jonathan Poe, suggested Abramoff's team compile a list of tribal donations, comparing Republicans with Democrats, to help make the case for lawmakers to overrule Kaplan, the e-mails state.

Poe's "suggestion for me was to have a list of money contributed by tribes broken down r to d so that I can make the cleanest argument that we are about to let the Senate Democrats take credit for the biggest ask of the year by the most Republican-leaning tribes," Abramoff lobbying associate Neil Volz wrote.

Abramoff's team obliged, creating a tally that showed his tribal clients overwhelmingly donated to Republicans -- $225,000 compared with $79,000 for Democrats.

Poe declined to be interviewed for comment.

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said he didn't know if the NRCC ultimately helped but that NRCC staff routinely suggest strategy for lobbyists and others.

"We talk to groups and people all the time and recommend strategy."

"We do that with campaigns."

"It's part of what we do," Forti said.

The Abramoff team's pressure came the same day the NRCC, the GOP's fundraising arm for Republican House candidates, held its major fundraising dinner with President Bush.

The Saginaw were a dinner sponsor, donating $50,000.

Kaplan's resistance drew the ire of Abramoff's team.

"The bottom line is that a staffer received several letters from appropriators, Native American Caucus co-chairs and others supporting a project that costs the federal government ZERO dollars and he is refusing to put it in the bill because it's 'his account,'" Boulanger wrote.

Kaplan, who worked at the White House budget office before becoming an aide on the House Interior appropriations committee, did not return repeated phone calls to his office seeking comment.

He currently works for a private firm.

Abramoff's team devised a multi-pronged strategy.

Tony Rudy, an Abramoff colleague who was a former top aide to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, reached out to his old boss' office.

Rudy recently pleaded guilty in the corruption probe and is assisting prosecutors.

"I just came out of a meeting with DeLay's folks."

"Joel ain't budging," Rudy wrote, referring to Kaplan.

Abramoff was copied on each of the e-mail exchanges, at one point affirming the strategy.

"This is brilliant," Abramoff wrote.

Abramoff's team persisted, calling the White House intergovernmental affairs office that often deals with Congress.

"Just talked to White House intergovernmental."

"I'm pretty sure they will weigh in."

"Just trying to figure out if they should call Joel or some other player in this drama," Abramoff associate Kevin Ring wrote.

Several people familiar with the lobbying effort said the possibility of White House help became moot when congressional leaders intervened.

In early 2003, Kaplan's new boss, House subcommittee chairman Charles Taylor, R-N.C., ended any problems in the House when he signed onto the Saginaw money.

Burns' office took up the fight in the Senate.

Both oversaw subcommittees that controlled Interior's budget, and the two lawmakers wrote a letter in May 2003 in an effort to overcome resistance inside Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was arguing the Saginaw shouldn't qualify for the school program.

"It is our belief the Saginaw Chippewa tribal school in question clearly falls within" the school construction program, Burns and Taylor wrote, sharply criticizing the BIA.

"We hope our collective response has cleared up any unnecessary confusion."

The blunt letter has caught federal investigators' interest because it referenced correspondence that had been drafted inside Interior but never delivered.

Federal agents are investigating whether an Interior official leaked the draft to Abramoff's team so it could be used by the lawmakers to pressure the department.

In addition, both Burns and Taylor got campaign money around the time of their help.

A month before the letter, Abramoff's firm threw Taylor a fundraiser on April 11, 2003, that scored thousands of dollars in donations for the lawmaker's campaign, including $2,000 from Abramoff and $1,000 from the Saginaw.

The tribe donated $3,000 more to Taylor a month after the letter.

Burns, likewise, got fresh donations.

Several weeks before the letter, Burns collected $1,000 from the Saginaw and $5,000 from another Abramoff tribe.

The month after the letter, the Saginaw delivered $4,000 in donations to Burns.

Taylor's office did not respond to several calls seeking comment.

The lawmaker had his own interest in the school construction program.

The year after the Saginaw money, Taylor arranged for the Cherokee tribe in his home state to get similar money.

In a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee, Burns' lawyer confirmed the senator's staff met with Abramoff's lobbying team about the Saginaw but insisted any "suggestion that funding for this project resulted from Mr. Abramoff's influence is not accurate."

And from REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION ...

Here in OUR America ....

We wing our way over to IRAQINAM .....

To the REPUBLICAN COCK-UP ....

Over there .....

As the BUSHCOS spin around in this world of OURS .....

Way in over their incompetent heads ...

And totally out of control, to boot .....

Of what they have wrought ...

In this world of OURS ....

With their pig-headed arrogance .....

Coupled with a complete lack of ability ....

And a lack of touch with reality ....

And so ....

"U.S. reports 5 more troops killed in Iraq"

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:56 p.m., Tuesday, April 11, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Bitter rivalry between two powerful clans for leadership of Iraq's Shiite Muslims snarled efforts Tuesday to agree on the next prime minister, the key issue that is blocking a national unity government.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported the deaths of five more soldiers, including three killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing north of the capital.

The latest casualties raised the U.S. death toll so far this month to at least 31 -- the same for all of March, according to an Associated Press count.

Neither side showed any sign of compromise over Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving negotiations deadlocked four months after elections for a new parliament that the Bush administration hopes can improve stability and lessen the need for U.S. troops.

Violence took at least 23 lives Tuesday.

A car bombing killed five people, and three others died when a bomb exploded on a minibus, both attacks in Shiite areas of the capital, police said.

Police also found the bodies of 24 people -- apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

Most of the bodies were found in Baghdad but it was unclear when they died, police said.

Sunni Arabs and Kurds, whom the Shiites need as coalition partners in parliament, blame al-Jaafari, a Shiite, for the rise in sectarian violence bloodying Iraq.

They are demanding that he be replaced before they agree to join a new government.

Al-Jaafari has repeatedly refused to step aside.

And his Dawa party and his key backer, radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, remained firm in their support for him during a meeting of the seven factions in the Shiite alliance Tuesday.

Behind the scenes, al-Jaafari's bid to remain prime minister is opposed by the biggest Shiite party, which is led by a member of a family that has competed for decades with al-Sadr's clan to lead Shiites.

Shiite negotiators planned to meet again Wednesday, but officials said there was no hint an agreement was near.

Al-Jaafari barely won nomination during a vote in February among Shiite lawmakers, who are the largest bloc in parliament.

Shiite officials said his supporters fear removing him would bolster the position of the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI.

SCIRI is led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose family has long been a rival of al-Sadr's clan for leadership of the Shiite community, which is an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million people.

Al-Sadr was credited with engineering al-Jaafari's nomination victory in February, which he won by a single vote over al-Hakim's candidate, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

Al-Jaafari's supporters want assurances that if the prime minister steps aside, he will not be replaced by Abdul-Mahdi or someone else from al-Hakim's party, Shiite officials said.

"There are long-running tensions between SCIRI and the Sadrists," said Khalid al-Attiyah, an independent Shiite politician.

"There have been problems between them before."

"This generates a state of mutual mistrust."

The rivalry between al-Hakim's family and the al-Sadr clan goes back decades, when they began competing for power in Najaf, the seat of the Shiite religious leadership.

Both families claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad and have produced distinguished figures.

Imam Musa al-Sadr was the most important Shiite figure in Lebanon until he disappeared on a trip to Libya in 1978.

Muqtada al-Sadr's father, aunt and uncle were killed by Saddam Hussein's agents.

Al-Hakim lost more than 70 family members during the former regime.

Al-Hakim's older brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, fled to Iran and led the Iraqi Shiite opposition to Saddam from there.

He returned to Iraq after Saddam's fall but was killed in a huge truck bombing in Najaf in August.

Since then, militias linked to the two families have competed for leadership in the cities and towns of the Shiite heartland south of Baghdad.

Last summer, a fist fight in Najaf between followers and opponents of al-Sadr triggered battles throughout southern Iraq between the cleric's supporters and followers of al-Hakim's party.

Four Cabinet members and 20 parliament members linked to al-Sadr walked off the job until al-Jaafari intervened.

In reporting the bombing that killed three U.S. soldiers Tuesday, the U.S. military also announced the deaths of two other Americans in combat Sunday.

One suffered fatal wounds in Anbar province west of Baghdad and the other was killed by a roadside bomb near Balad, the military said.

At least 2,359 U.S. military personnel have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes seven civilians employed by the U.S. military.

------

Associated Press reporter Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.

And as a Viet Nam veteran .....

All I can say ....

Is that this BUSHCO COCK-UP over there on IRAQINAM .....

Where we are blowing money on all these local political rivalries over there ...

That the BUSHCOS knew nothing about ...

Just like they did not know that they were going to encounter sand ...

And lots of it ...

When they invaded a place out in the desert ...

Like parts of IRAQINAM is .....

Make the Viet Nam fiasco seem well-run by comparison ....

And so ....

"3 Marines in fatal Iraq raid reassigned"

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:36 p.m., Monday, April 10, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Three Marines have been relieved of their commands in connection with problems during their deployment to Iraq, including their battalion's actions during a firefight that left 15 Iraqi civilians dead.

No charges have been filed against the three officers, who were reassigned to new duties within the division because of a "lack of confidence in their leadership abilities," said Lt. Lawton King, spokesman for the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton in California.

King would not comment on the officers' specific connection to the firefight, which occurred in the western town of Haditha and is being probed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

"There was no one justification for the move," said King.

"In fact many considerations factored into the decision to relieve the commanders ...."

"It stems from their performance during the entire deployment."

The officers are Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment; Capt. James S. Kimber, commanding officer of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and Capt. Lucas M. McConnell, commanding officer of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding officer of the 1st Marine Division, made the decision to reassign the officers.

The action is separate from the criminal probe, and King said it is too early to tell if the officers will be charged.

About a dozen 3rd Battalion Marines are being investigated for war crimes in connection with the November 2005 incident to determine if they violated the rules of military engagement.

A videotape taken by an Iraqi shows the aftermath of the alleged attack by U.S. troops on civilians in Haditha: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.

The video, obtained by Time Magazine, was broadcast a day after Haditha residents told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

------

On the Net:

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

Camp Pendleton: http://www.pendleton.usmc.mil/

No ...

IRAQINAM sure is not another Viet Nam .....

IT IS AN EVEN BIGGER SCREW-UP THAN THAT ONE WAS ....

And so ...

Thought for the day:

Quotable
Either war is obsolete, or men are.
– R. Buckminster Fuller

Good morning, Snuffysmith .....

And of course ....

You are "exposing" yourself as other than a fool in here ...

By quoting from Fuller ...

And in fact ...

By so quoting ...

You are now probably on a LIST OF THE REAL ENEMIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE .....

Because you are exposing intellectual tendencies here in your ability to actually quote from something that makes sense ....

In a world where the PRONOUNCEMENTS of the WASHINGTON WHITE HOUSE are nothing but gibberish ...

That makes no rational sense ..

At all .....

And I believe that the Washington WHITE HOUSE has since modified this statement to read as follows:

War cannot be made obsolete .....

As it is what the continued growth of the MURRIKAN CON-O-MY depends on ....

So SUBJECTS of NATION STATES must be made obsolete instead ....

Elsewise ...

Who is there left to kill?

– George W. Bush and the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, by example, if not exactly in words, circa 2006 .....

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

And al-Jaafari .....

And the ROSEWOOD BOX ....

And the "CREDIBILITY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS" ....

As America taught that lesson to Ngo Dinh Diem in the failed Viet Nam experiment .....

Which the FABULOUS FLYING IGNORANT BUSHCOS have resuscitated in IRAQINAM ...

Because they have no knowledge of what happened in Viet Nam ...

In that failed experiement there ...

Because they ran the other way back then ...

George W. Bush ..

And Dick "THE MOUTH RUNNETH OVER" Cheney ....

So they could hide ...

Until the shooting was over ...

FOR THE GOOD OF OUR NATIONAL SECURITY, of course ...

And not because they were really craven back then ....

And so ....

"Acting Speaker to Convene Iraqi Parliament"

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

56 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The acting parliament speaker said Wednesday he will convene the Iraqi legislature next week to push forward the formation of a new government stalled over the issue of who will serve as prime minister.

Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni Arab, told a press conference he decided to convene the assembly because "it's my duty to the Iraqi people in order to preserve the credibility of the democratic process."

Pachachi added that Shiite politicians told him they hope to have the deadlock over the nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari resolved in time for the session.

Parliament was elected Dec. 15 but has held only one session because of the dispute over the prime minister.

As the biggest bloc in parliament, the Shiites have the right to nominate the head of government.

But Sunni and Kurdish parties oppose the Shiite choice of al-Jaafari for another term and the Shiites have not agreed whether to replace him.

That has stalled formation of a unity government which the United States believes is necessary to halt the country's slide toward anarchy.

But Pachachi, a former foreign minister, said he was hopeful for a breakthrough on the prime minister issue.

"There are indications that cause us to be optimistic that an agreement will be reached on all the sticking points regarding forming a national unity government," he said.

Under the constitution, parliament must elect a national president, who in turn designates the nominee of the biggest bloc to form a new government.

The prime minister-designate then has 30 days to name a Cabinet, which must be approved by parliament.

The Shiites hold 130 of the 275 seats, not enough to govern or win approval for their nominee without the support of other parties, including the Sunnis and Kurds.

Shiite politicians conferred again Wednesday over the al-Jaafari issue and were to meet again in the evening.

"The consultations have come a long way and there are reasons for us to believe that from now until April 17, some of the problems could be resolved," Pachachi said.

"The important thing is that the Iraqi people want to see the parliament and the democratic political institutions start their work."

end quotes

Say hello to the BOX, al-Jaafari ....

And good-bye to the world ....

And keep your earflaps firmly down .....

And watch your temples at all times ....

And so ...

And if anyone out there is interested in purchasing the social security number of one of George W. Bush's generals ......

Here's a dude who just might have what the doctor ordered ....

And we are supposed to believe that this BUSHCO REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE CROWD can protect OUR NATIONAL SECURITY?

"Afghan Shops Searched for Stolen Files"

By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer

28 minutes ago

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - A shopkeeper outside the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Afghanistan was selling computer memory drives Wednesday containing seemingly sensitive military data stolen from inside the base — including the Social Security numbers of four American generals.

This shopkeeper was apparently not the only merchant in local bazaars trying to get some cash in exchange for hardware and software containing such files.

The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe for the source of the embarrassing security breach, which has led to disks with the personal letters and biographies of soldiers and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training going on sale for $20 to $50.

Five military investigators, surrounded by heavily armed plainclothes U.S. soldiers, searched many of the two-dozen rundown shops outside the sprawling base.

Asked if any disks had been found, one soldier, who declined to give his name, said:

"We are looking."

"That's all I can say."

The shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears he may be arrested, said he was not interested in the data stored on the memory sticks and was selling them for the value of the hardware.

"They were all stolen from offices inside the base by the Afghans working there," he said.

"I get them all the time."

About 2,000 Afghans are employed as cleaners, office staff and laborers at the Bagram base.

Though they are searched coming in and out of the base, the flash drives are the size of a finger and can easily be concealed on a body.

The shopkeeper showed an Associated Press reporter a bag of about 15 and allowed them to be reviewed on a laptop computer.

Only four contained data.

The rest did not work or were blank.

News of the breach was first reported by the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

The paper said its reporter saw files containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, names of corrupt Afghan officials and descriptions of American defenses.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said the military "has ordered an investigation into allegations that sensitive military items are being sold in local bazaars.

"Coalition officials regularly survey bazaars across Afghanistan for the presence of contraband materials, but thus far have not uncovered sensitive or classified items," he said.

U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry has ordered a review of policies and procedures relating to the accountability of computer hardware and software, Cody said.

The shops around Bagram sprung up when U.S. forces took over the base in 2001 after ousting the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

They sell a range of military equipment, much of which has been stolen from the base, according to several shopkeepers — all of whom declined to give their names for fear of repercussions.

One shopkeeper wanted $20 for a used U.S. soldier's uniform and said he could get more.

Other items apparently were stolen from a duty-free store on the base, including range-finding binoculars and handheld global positioning systems — items that could be useful to Taliban rebels, who have stepped up their insurgency in the past year.

The computer files seen by the AP ranged from the very personal, such as a soldier's letter to the wife of a dead comrade, to confidential personnel information.

Social Security numbers were listed next to the names of hundreds of soldiers, including Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, who left Afghanistan in February after serving for a year as the coalition's operational commander.

One document listed the names of 20 members of a platoon who had undergone "the required Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) training and chamber exercise."

It did not elaborate.

Another listed the names of 16 soldiers and the types of weapons they had been trained on.

There were biographies of six soldiers, including a sergeant who had served in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two of the drives contained several photographs, one showing a group of about 40 soldiers posing at a base, while others had troops inside a helicopter.

A 502-page manual on how to operate a CH-47 Chinook chopper, a mainstay of the 18,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan, was also there, including photos and diagrams.

Many of the other goods on sale in the stores still had stickers indicating the price at the military store.

The Afghan shops were selling them for about 25 percent less.

In one store, two Afghans with long flowing black beards were haggling over the price of compasses.

Nearby, two young boys were trying to sell cartons of fresh yogurt.

One, who gave his name as Nazar, said a friend had stolen them from the military mess hall.

And from Afghanistan .....

Where the social security numbers of George W. Bush's TOP GENERALS are for sale .....

We wing our way back to the wasteland George W. Bush is busily creating over there in IRAQINAM .....

To see what has transpired .....

With al-Jaafari .....

Who just might end up being ....

The next Ngo Dinh Diem .....

Of the alleged civilized world ....

That George W. Bush purports to be the HEAD of .....

As the LEADER of the alleged FREE WORLD .....

And so ....

What it looks like to date in this on-going saga .....

Of ineptness .....

And incompetence ....

On a scale not seen on this earth of OURS .....

For quite some years now ....

Is that before the ink on the much-touted IRAQINAMI Constitution is even dry ....

The BUSHCOS and their BRITISH LAPDOGS ......

Are already tossing it right out the window .....

Just as the BUSHCOS have tossed OUR OWN right out the window as well ....

And so ....

With CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT as the issue .....

The IRAQINAMIS logically ask .....

"Shiites ask: Why convene Iraq parliament?"

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press
Last updated: 9:15 a.m., Thursday, April 13, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A top Shiite lawmaker said Thursday that names of selections for top posts in the new Iraqi government must be agreed upon before parliament can convene next week, casting doubt on whether the legislature will meet as announced.

The next session was called for Monday to push past a long-standing political stalemate over who should be the country's next prime minister.

But members of the dominant Shiite alliance questioned the purpose of holding the meeting without first designating all top posts.

"If we don't agree on the key posts, then why should we go to parliament?" Shiite lawmaker Khudayer al-Khuzai asked Thursday.

The move indicated that the Shiites don't want to be steamrolled into an assembly meeting until they've internally resolved the issue of the prime minister nomination.

The alliance has so far stood behind its candidate, current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, but cracks in support have begun to show.

Sunnis and Kurds have refused to accept the nominee.

Pressure was on the Shiites to pick a new candidate ahead of next week's assembly meeting, called by acting parliament speaker Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni Arab, on Wednesday to break the deadlock.

Demanding that all the top government positions be determined first, however, puts pressure on the Sunnis and Kurds, whose leaders will be up for such posts.

Al-Khuzai said Shiite politicians were asking for representatives of each political bloc to meet Sunday to discuss names for the key positions, which include the president, the parliament speaker and deputies, among others.

If names can be agreed upon Sunday, then Shiite leaders will attend the Monday meeting, he said.

Iraqi voters chose the 275-member assembly on Dec. 15, but the legislature met briefly only once last month.

The lack of political progress has frustrated Iraqis, especially as steady violence -- much of it sectarian -- continues to claim hundreds of lives and threatens to push the country into a large-scale civil war.

Politicians echoed the discontent, chastising the top leaders' failure to reach agreement.

"There are some political blocs who'd rather just be in power than provide security to the people," Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni politician, told a news conference.

"We demand the political entities speed up the formation of the national government and stop the bloodshed in Iraq."

Al-Mutlaq, who is head of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, said the Shiite alliance should stop insisting on al-Jaafari and choose another candidate with broader support.

The Sunni leader threatened to abandon the political process if the conflict wasn't resolved soon.

The lack of political stability has helped fuel the chaos in the streets, where bombings, kidnappings and drive-by shootings are daily occurrences.

Sectarian tensions have been running high since the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra, which prompted retaliatory killings and more mosque attacks.

In Baghdad, attacks targeting government employees also appeared to be on the rise.

On Thursday, a Foreign Ministry worker was kidnapped and a Health Ministry laborer wounded in a shooting that killed her driver.

A Housing Ministry employee was also wounded in a drive-by shooting, police said.

The attacks came a day after three government employees were killed in the capital.

"These are well-known tactics adopted by the insurgents when they are unable to send car bombs to the capital," police Lt. Col. Ali Rashid said.

"They resort to small, separate attacks on unarmed government employees in order to keep people frightened."

In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed a policeman who was driving his sons to school.

One of the sons was also killed and the other seriously wounded, police said.

In southern Iraq, the body of a barber kidnapped four days earlier was found in the city of Basra, police said.

A car bomb threat in the city of Tikrit north of Baghdad prompted a curfew, which was imposed Thursday morning until further notice, police said.

Late Wednesday, two Iraqi contractors who supply the army with food were killed by gunmen who stopped their car about 30 miles south of the city of Kirkuk.

Also in Kirkuk, gunmen kidnapped the young daughter of an oil company employee.

South of the city, a doctor who heads the health center in Daqouq was also abducted, police said.

------

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

end quotes

"There are some political blocs who'd rather just be in power than provide security to the people," Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni politician, told a news conference .........

HHHHmmmmm .....

Is this guy talking about the REPUBLICANS here in OUR own America?

Sure does sound it to me ...

And I would say ......

That this guy sounds like he is right on the money, here ....

And so ......

"American Troops Step Up Patrols in Baghdad"

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 2 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops have stepped up patrols in Baghdad by 45 percent since the spike in sectarian violence, a U.S. general said Thursday, raising questions about the capabilities of Iraqi forces]/u].

[u]A car bomb killed least 15 people in a Shiite area of the capital.

At least 21 other people, including an American soldier and seven members of a Sunni family, were killed Thursday.

With sectarian violence on the rise in Baghdad, the U.S. command boosted the number of armed patrols in the capital from 12,000 in February to 20,000 since the beginning of March, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters.

Tit-for-tat killings between Shiites and Sunnis soared after the Feb. 22 bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.

Violence was worse in religiously mixed areas of Baghdad, forcing the Americans to return to neighborhoods such as Shula that had been turned over to the Iraqis.

That casts doubt on the capability of Iraqi forces to deal with sectarian violence, despite assurances from American officials that the new army and police forces were gaining steadily in professional skills.

The renewed American presence has not been enough to stop the carnage.

The car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in Shula packed with shoppers buying food for their evening meals, police said.

At least 15 people were killed and 22 were wounded.

Last week, a car bomb injured 13 people in the same neighborhood.

A roadside bomb Thursday killed a U.S. soldier southwest of Baghdad, the military said.

The U.S. command also reported that a Marine died Wednesday of wounds suffered in hostile action near Baghdad.

More American troops were killed in the first two weeks of April — 37 — than in the entire month of March, when 31 died, according to an Associated Press count.

At least 2,366 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in 2003, according to AP.

Elsewhere, gunmen stormed the house of a Sunni family in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, and killed seven people — a father, five of his sons and another relative, police said.

A navy officer and his friend were killed by drive-by shooters while walking downtown in the largely Shiite city.

In Baghdad, Mahmoud al-Hashimi, whose brother heads Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political party, was slain along with a companion Thursday as they drove through a mostly Shiite area, the Iraqi Islamic Party said.

Tariq al-Hashimi is among the key players in negotiations over a new national unity government, which have stalled over the issue of who will be the next prime minister.

The Shiites, the biggest bloc in the 275-member parliament, have nominated Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for a second term.

But Sunni and Kurdish parties, whom the Shiites need as coalition partners, have rejected al-Jaafari and called on the Shiites to name a new candidate.

Al-Jaafari's supporters within the seven-party Shiite alliance have refused to replace him, and other groups within the bloc fear that trying to force him out will shatter the Shiite political movement.

Parliament speaker Adnan Pachachi has called for parliament to convene Monday to try to resolve the crisis, but Shiite politicians are reluctant to attend until a deal has been struck on the premiership and other top government posts that require parliamentary approval.

Khudayer al-Khuzai, who supports al-Jaafari, proposed that leaders of major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties meet Sunday to try to reach consensus on candidates for top jobs.

"If we don't agree on the key posts, then why should we go to parliament?" al-Khuzai asked Thursday.

Voters chose the 275-member assembly on Dec. 15, but the legislature met briefly only once last month.

The lack of progress has frustrated Iraqis, especially as steady violence — much of it sectarian — continues to claim hundreds of lives and threatens to push the country into a large-scale civil war.

Politicians echoed the discontent, chastising the top leaders' failure to agree.

"There are some political blocs who'd rather just be in power than provide security to the people," Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq told reporters.

"We demand the political entities speed up the formation of the national government and stop the bloodshed in Iraq."

Separately, the U.S. military said four suicide — instead of the two initially reported — were behind last week's deadly attack on a Shiite mosque that killed at least 85 worshippers in northern Baghdad.

The U.S. military said three male bombers made it inside the mosque complex in Buratha, and one believed to be a woman was just outside the entrance.

Lynch blamed the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads al-Qaida in Iraq.

"His signature are these suicide attacks," Lynch said.

"We know he's using those attacks to enflame sectarian violence."

In other violence Thursday, according to police:

• Police in Basra found the bodies of two men who had just been kidnapped — an engineer and a translator working with British troops in the area.

Another abducted engineer was still missing.

• A Foreign Ministry worker was kidnapped and a Health Ministry laborer was wounded in a shooting that killed her driver.

A Housing Ministry employee also was wounded in a drive-by shooting.

• Gunmen killed a policeman who was driving his sons to school in Mosul.

One of the sons also was killed and the other seriously wounded.

• Four other people were killed in random shootings in the Baghdad area and central Iraq.
___

Associated Press Writers Vanessa Arrington, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Up where I am ...

There are blacktoppers driving around trying to drum up some business .....

And there don't seem to be much, apprently .....

People aren't spending money ....

Because everything costs too much ....

And you can't afford the gas to get there, anyway ....

And so ....

"Builders expect a slower pace - Developers say rising interest rates and shrinking availability of land likely to end years of all-out work"

By KEVIN HARLIN, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, April 12, 2006

In another sure sign of spring, hard-hatted workers are hoisting plywood, insulation and siding at construction sites around the region.

Home builders say that at this unofficial start of the spring construction season, they're as busy as they've ever been.

But that pace probably won't hold.

With interest rates ticking upward and developable lots becoming more scarce, many home builders said they are prospecting more than they have in the past for business.

And fewer projects are in the hopper waiting for them when they are done with their current houses.

"I think it's just a matter of timing: We caught up," said Joe Backowski of Shetlertherm Builders LLC in Cohoes.

"Everybody was going flat out for the past few years now."

And the mild winter helped.

The National Association of Home Builders said a relatively warm January spurred a 16 percent jump in home starts nationwide that month.

But the pace slowed in February, and the association said permits -- less weather-sensitive than housing starts -- also dipped.

The trade group predicts a 7 percent drop in new housing construction in 2006 from last year's highs.

"The underlying market fundamentals remain solid," David Pressly, president of the association, said in a prepared statement.

"Job and income growth are moving ahead at healthy levels."

Interest rates have been climbing, but the average rate on a 30-year mortgage last week was still a relatively low 6.43 percent, according to national mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

"I'm talking to fewer people, but I'm still busy," said Ted Cillis, owner of Ted Cillis Builders LLC in Latham.

And other signals are mixed.

Research firm McGraw Hill Cos., said the value of contracts signed in the region for houses and apartments climbed 8 percent to $48.2 million during the first two months of the year versus 2005.

Overall construction contracts, including large offices, hotels and industrial buildings, climbed almost 268 percent, to $59.2 million in the same span.

The numbers are the most current numbers available.

But because of a relatively small sample size, McGraw Hill's monthly reports can show wild swings.

No one is expecting any numbers that wild this year.

Overall, it's a little quieter this year, said Mark Marshall, marketing director for Robert Marini Builders Inc. in Colonie.

"But I wouldn't say it's anything near a slowdown."

"The market has been reeled in more than it was."

"It was gangbusters for so long."

Kevin Harlin can be reached at 454-5442 or by e-mail at kharlin@timesunion.com.

The ECONOMY ....

This morning ....

On the radio news up here ....

They had on a local New York State legislator ....

Who was telling all of us ....

As if we were complete simpletons ourselves .....

That the cost of gasoline in the State of New York ...

Is not only way too high to maintain the former levels of "activity" by human beings that sustain what is called the ECONOMY here in OUR America ...

But that there is something suspicious as hell .....

In the way gas can go up $.25 per gallon overnight ...

When we have been having relatively good weather .....

And no other economic factors can be seen ....

Which would cause such an overnight increase ...

OUTSIDE OF PROFITEERING, of course ...

Which is not only legal, here in OUR America ...

But desired, as well ...

Since it is by trickle-down from the PROFITEERS ...

That we shall all find our own level of employment ...

As maids ...

And servants....

And field hands ....

To the PROFITEERS ....

And so ....

"Will May bring a gas price peak?"

Associated Press
First published: Wednesday, April 12, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Gasoline prices are surging again with summer on the horizon, but a new federal forecast estimates they may be peaking in May.

Guy Caruso, head of the Energy Department's statistical agency, said Tuesday that prices at the pump, which averaged $2.68 a gallon last week nationwide, are likely to increase 10 to 15 cents a gallon in the coming weeks, peak in May and drop off in late summer.

He said the national average can mask local price spikes.

The Energy Department said it expects the price of regular to average $2.62 a gallon, 25 cents more than last summer, over the April-September driving period.

But prices around the country already are above that.

"We assume normal weather," added Caruso, head of the Energy Information Administration.

If a hurricane or a refinery outage causes supply problems, or if crude oil takes a major jump, prices will be higher yet.

But Caruso said motorists are not expected to cut back on their summer driving -- a view mirrored by AAA, formerly the American Automobile Association.

In fact, motorists are expected to use 1.5 percent more gasoline than last summer.

Gas prices last week were 40 percent higher than the same week a year ago and are likely rise further as higher crude oil and wholesale gasoline costs move through the system, said Caruso.

Refiners have been shifting away from the additive MTBE -- which causes drinking water contamination -- resulting in a greater demand for corn-based ethanol.

That's pushing up prices "a few pennies," Caruso said.

The refiners have said they will stop using MTBE on May 5 when the federal requirement for a clean-air oxygenate is lifted as part of an energy law enacted last summer.

And then ...

There are the BUSHCOS, of course .....

YADA, YADA, YADA, ad infinitum .....

And then ...

As if those YADAS were not already too much ...

We have yet some more .....

And so .....

YADA, YADA, YADA .....

"Bush aide slams report - Washington Post article cites conflict between President's statements and reports from Iraq on purported weapons labs"

By JOWARRICK, Washington Post
First published: Thursday, April 13, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Facing new questions about claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the Bush administration Wednesday denounced a Washington Post report that questioned the handling of postwar intelligence on alleged Iraqi bioweapons labs.

A White House spokesman acknowledged that President Bush's assertions about the suspected labs were in error but said this was due to flawed intelligence work rather than an effort to mislead.

Bush press secretary Scott McClellan criticized the article as "reckless" for what he said was an "impression" that Bush had knowingly misled the American public about the two Iraqi trailers seized by U.S. and Kurdish fighters weeks after the Iraqi invasion began.

On May 29, 2003, Bush described the trailers in a television interview as "biological laboratories" and said, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The Post reported Wednesday that a Pentagon-appointed team of technical experts had strongly rejected the weapons claim in a field report sent to the Defense Intelligence Agency on May 27, 2003.

That report, and an authoritative, 122-page final report by the same team three weeks later, concluded that the trailers were not biological weapons labs.

Both reports were classified and never released.

The team's findings were ultimately supported by the Iraqi Survey Group, which led the official search for banned weapons, in a report to Congress in September 2004, about 15 months later.

Whether White House officials were alerted to the technical team's finding is unclear, The Post reported.

In any case, senior administration and intelligence officials continued for months afterward to cite the trailers as evidence that Iraq had been producing weapons of mass destruction -- the chief claim used to justify the U.S.-led invasion.

While, the Post did not say that Bush knew what he was saying was false, ABC News did during a report on "Good Morning America," according to The Associated Press.

McClellan demanded an apology and an on-air retraction.

ABC News said later in a clarification on its Web site that Charles Gibson had erred.

McClellan said he had received an apology.

McClellan dismissed the Post news article as "rehashing an old issue," saying Bush has repeatedly acknowledged "the intelligence was wrong."

The spokesman said Bush's comments on the trailers reflected the dominant view within the intelligence community at the time.

"The White House is not the intelligence-gathering agency," he said.

McClellan indicated he did not know when, or if, the White House was briefed on the technical team's report.

And he declined to respond when asked if the technical team's report would be declassified and released.

But prominent Democrats demanded Wednesday that the report be immediately released.

"Given that the President has been willing to declassify information for his own political purposes, he should declassify this report so the American people can know if they were misled," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said in a prepared statement.

"Was this incompetence, meaning that he did not know something that he clearly should have known, or is this an instance of dishonesty where information was misused or withheld to support a political agenda?"

The White House sought to further rebut the Post article with a series of "Setting the Record Straight" statements e-mailed to reporters.

In the statements, the White House does not deny the existence of the technical team's report, but portrays it as a preliminary finding, contrasting that report with a public "white paper" put out by the CIA on May 28, 2003.

The CIA paper described the trailers as the "strongest evidence to date that Iraq was hiding a biological warfare program."

The White House provided a "link" to a CIA Internet site where the white paper is still posted, nearly 18 months after its conclusions were refuted by the Iraqi Survey Group.

The White House statement also cites the 2005 Robb-Silberman commission report on intelligence failures related to Iraqi weapons.

That report criticizes the intelligence agencies for "bureaucratic resistance to admitting error" as evidence showed Iraqi weapons claims to be unfounded.

end quotes

"The White House is not the intelligence-gathering agency ....."

Says WHITE HOUSE SPOKESBOY Scottie McClellan ....

And boy o boy ...

Is he ever correct ...

When you run his words through a COMPUTERIZED BUSH-SPEAK TRANSLATOR ....

Where you find that what the SPOKESBOY is really saying ...

Is that under George W. Bush ..

The WHITE HOUSE is definitely not a place ....

Here in OUR America ...

Where INTELLIGENCE either gathers ...

Or resides ...

And so ....

I thought that since I was going to be away for the next couple of days, I would leave you with some selected articles on the state of Iran and the world from a culling of all that is out there and with some help from my friends at the USC School of Diplomacy (See Jeffmoskin - I haven't totally abandoned California and its refreshing to get a West Coast take on the scheme of things than DC saturated wires)

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

THE INEVITABILITY OF CONFLICT CAN BECOME ONE OF ITS MAIN CAUSES.

--Joseph S. Nye Jr., Fear of Chinese Guns: Best Defense Is Not to Offer Any Offense (San Francisco Chronicle, April 9)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...ING9JI4LOQ1.DTL

US COMMITTED TO DIPLOMACY ON IRAN - WYNDHAM HARTLEY (BUSINESS DAY, SA, APRIL 11): Cape Town US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes yesterday insisted that the US wanted a diplomatic resolution to the increasingly heated row with Iran over its nuclear capability.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/nati...x?ID=BD4A184353

IRAN, NOW EDITORIAL (NATIONAL REVIEW): We should massively increase our pro-democracy broadcasts into Iran, both by funding U.S.-based Farsi satellite-TV networks and by exercising a modicum of intelligence in our Voice of America programming. VOA officials act like they're running the Columbia School of Journalism, but "balance" should count for a lot less than inspiring the Iranians to rouse themselves against tyranny and explaining to them the value of what we have over against what they don't have. We should also send them the message -- through both broadcasts and the utterances of our diplomatic establishment -- that Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons will only isolate them and entrench the mullahs they so despise.
http://www.nationalreview.com/editorial/ed...00604130746.asp

EU'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY DISASTER - HOSSEIN DERAKHSHAN (EDITOR: MYSELF -- A WEBLOG ON IRAN, TECHNOLOGY AND POP CULTURE, APRIL 12): Iran's public diplomacy's success in selling its dangerous nuclear plans to even moderates in Iran means that the EU has really failed. The EU failed to get their message to Iranian people that they are not against Iran's producing nuclear energy.
http://hoder.com/weblog/archives/015169.shtml

PRESIDENT WARNS OPPOSITION AGAINST ANTI-IRAN PROPAGANDA (IRNA, IRAN, APRIL 12): President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday said that if the hostile groups further continue their propaganda and psychological war against Iran the nation will hate them forever and they can never expect to have mutual relations.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0...26839150213.htm

TEHRAN EXPANDS PUBLIC OUTREACH - ILAN BERMAN (IRAN DEMOCRACY MONITOR, NO. 7, APRIL 12): Iran's state-controlled broadcasting sector is branching out in a different direction. Ezzattolah Zarghami, the head of Iran's official Voice of the Islamic Republic and Vision of the Islamic Republic radio and television stations, has revealed that government plans are underway for the establishment of a new public diplomacy vehicle: an English-language news station.
http://www.afpc.org/idm/idm7.shtml (SCROLL DOWN LINK FOR ITEM)

PREVENTING TURKEY'S POPULAR SLIDE AWAY FROM THE WEST - SONER CAGAPTAY (POLICYWATCH #1093, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY): Through high-level meetings, the best way of getting opinions across to the Turkish elite, and through public diplomacy, Washington should tell Turks that Turkey belongs to the West and that the United States and Turkey share secular democratic values and an interest in fighting terrorism. In terms of public diplomacy efforts, eliminating the Voice of America?s Turkish services, as proposed in the 2007 budget, would be dangerous at a time when al-Jazeera has plans to start a Turkish broadcast.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2458
VIA
http://eccentricstar.typepad.com/

STATE DEPARTMENT LOSES KOREA EXPERTS - BY SEUNG-RYUN KIM (DONGA, SOUTH KOREA, APRIL 14): James Foster, the incumbent Korean Office director at the State department, is expected to be replaced. Foster might be recorded as the first diplomat to open his home to Korean correspondents. Since February 2005, he has invited Korean correspondents in Washington to dinner in small groups. Three or four diplomats at the DOS Korean Office also attended the dinner meetings. The meetings were for putting into practice ?public diplomacy, which has particularly been emphasized by the Bush administration.
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?...d=2006041405418

KREMLIN TAKES STEPS TO POLISH RUSSIA'S IMAGE ABROAD: TACTIC COMES AMID US CRITICISM AS G8 SUMMIT NEARS - TOM PARFITT (BOSTON GLOBE APRIL 11): President Putin has faced calls in recent weeks to ratchet up public diplomacy to improve Russia's international standing. Some elites in Moscow are worried the set-piece meeting of Group of Eight leaders in St. Petersburg in July could be a public relations disaster if the United States keeps up what is perceived here as an ''information war" on Russia. Igor Panarin, a professor from the foreign ministry's diplomatic academy, says: ''There is so much ignorance about Russia in the US: we need to appoint at least a deputy foreign minister to coordinate our own public diplomacy drive."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/ar...s_image_abroad/

RUMSFELD: THE MEDIA WAR ON TERROR - MARK THOMA (ECONOMIST'S VIEW, APRIL 9): We are getting beaten on the media playing field, losing the battle "for the hearts and minds of [Muslims] not because of our capabilities, but because of our actions.
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economis...eld_we_nee.html

SOFTENED TONE OF JIHAD PROPAGANDA CONVEYS THE SAME BITTER MESSAGE - COLIN FREEMAN (TELEGRAPH.CO.UK, APRIL 8): Major Mike Motley: "My fear is that some of the people here do believe in conspiracy theories," he said. "Both US and Iraqi forces are extremely vulnerable to insurgent propaganda."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../ixnewstop.html

ON THE GROUND, IT'S A CIVIL WAR: THE DEBATE OVER WHAT TO CALL IRAQ'S WAR IS LOST ON MANY IRAQIS AS SHADOWY SHIITE MILITIAS AND SUNNI INSURGENTS WAGE THEIR DEADLY CONFLICT - AAMER MADHANI (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, APRIL 14)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...ack=1&cset=true

DOWN A DANGEROUS ROAD: LIKE LEBANON IN THE '70S, IRAQ MAY BE DESCENDING INTO CIVIL WAR. WORSE, IT THREATENS TO TAKE THE REGION WITH IT - DAVID HIRST (LOS ANGELES TIMES, APRIL 14)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...omment-opinions

OFFICIALS CONFIDENT ABOUT DATA ON IRAN: ARMS ASSESSMENTS CALLED FAR BETTER THAN THOSE ON IRAQ - SIOBHAN GORMAN (BALTIMORE SUN, APRIL 14)
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationwor...-home-headlines

NO MILITARY SOLUTION - WILLIAM D. HARTUNG (BALTIMORE SUN, APRIL 14): Iran will be unlikely to compromise on its nuclear program while it is being threatened with destruction. Those administration officials who see bombing Iran as a prelude to regime change should step back and make room for pragmatic anti-nuclear diplomacy.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/o...-oped-headlines

IRAN: THE LOGIC OF DETERRENCE - CHRISTOPHER LAYNE (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE): Tehran's quest for nuclear weapons is a rational response to a real threat, which makes diplomacy a more prudent option than regime change.
http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_04_10/cover.html

IN CASE IRAN NEEDS A SQUEEZE - MONITOR'S VIEW (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, APRIL 14): Sanctions have long been a tool of diplomacy to avoid war. And Iran has shown it will talk seriously under economic duress. The UN and the West don't have an easy choice.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0414/p08s01-comv.html

WHERE DO WE MEDDLE NEXT A HALF-CENTURY OF PROTECTING OUR INTERESTS - MICHAEL KINSLEY (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 14): So we marched in and got rid of the Taliban. Then we marched into Iraq and got rid of Saddam Hussein. Now we're -- well, we haven't figured out what, but we're hopping mad and gonna do something, dammit, about Iran.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6041301664.html

BUSH'S BLUSTER: WHAT GOOD ARE U.S. THREATS AGAINST IRAN WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD HAS LOST ITS TRUST IN OUR GOVERNMENT? - JOE CONASON (SALON)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/04/14/iran/

WHAT'S GOING ON IN IRAN?: SYNERGISM OF THE NEO-CONS - KAMRAN MATIN (COUNTERPUNCH): The Iranian people have to pursue their own independent struggle for freedom and social justice independently and in spite of the western imperialism's agenda for regime-change in Iran.
http://www.counterpunch.org/matin04132006.html

IF YOU LIKED THE IRAQ WAR, YOU'LL LOVE THE IRAN WAR - CENK UYGUR (HUFFINGTON POST, APRIL 14): If you thought things were bad now, wait till Iran retaliates against our air strikes by bombing Israel. When Israel strikes back, the whole Middle East will have to get sucked into the war. And then the fun really starts.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/i...ar_b_19097.html

AFTER DIPLOMACY FAILS: THINK IMAGINATIVELY ABOUT IRAN - MARK HELPRIN (WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 13): Our problem in Iraq has been delusion and lack of foresight. Iran is bigger and more powerful. What a pity it would be either to do nothing or once again to lurch forward with neither strategy nor thought.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6041201659.html

UNACCEPTABLE?: IS THE AMERICA OF 2006 MORE WILLING TO THWART THE UNACCEPTABLE THAN THE FRANCE OF 1936? - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD): It is not moral progress to put off serious planning for military action to a later date, probably in less favorable circumstances, when the Iranian regime has been further emboldened, our friends in the region more disheartened, and allies more confused by years of fruitless diplomacy than they would be by greater clarity and resolution now.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/095mzmiq.asp

TO BOMB, OR NOT TO BOMB: THAT IS THE IRAN QUESTION - REUEL MARC GERECHT (WEEKLY STANDARD): What we are dealing with in the Islamic Republic's ruling revolutionary elite is a politer, more refined, more cautious, vastly more mendacious version of bin Ladenism. It is best that such men not have nukes, and that we do everything in our power, including preventive military strikes, to stop this from happening.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/100mmysk.asp

THE FATEFUL HOUR HAS ARRIVED - CAROLINE GLICK (JERUSALEM POST, APRIL 13): The battle to prevent the world's most dangerous regime, Iran, from attaining the most dangerous weapons known to man has begun. The moment has arrived for President George W. Bush to make clear if he is, in the final analysis, the leader of the free world or its undertaker.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

TARGET: IRAN -- YES, THERE IS A FEASIBLE MILITARY OPTION AGAINST THE MULLAHS' NUCLEAR PROGRAM - THOMAS MCINERNEY (WEEKLY STANDARD)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/101dorxa.asp

NUCLEAR HOSTAGE CRISIS - MICHAEL RUBIN (WALL STREET JOURNAL, APRIL 14): The cost of any military strike on Iran would be high, although not as high as the cost of the Islamic Republic gaining nuclear weapons.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1144979986...in_commentaries
PAID SUBSCRIPTION

NEOCONS TURN UP HEAT FOR IRAN ATTACK - JIM LOBE (ANTIWAR.COM)
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=8852

DEMOCRACY IN THE ARAB WORLD, A U.S. GOAL, FALTERS - HASSAN M. FATTAH (NEW YORK TIMES, APRIL 10)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/world/mi...0democracy.html

MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

PEOPLE CAN QUESTION MY JUDGMENT OR HIS JUDGMENT, BUT THEY SHOULD NEVER QUESTION THE DEDICATION, THE PATRIOTISM AND THE WORK ETHIC OF SECRETARY RUMSFELD.

--Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; cited in Associated Press, Analysis: Criticism Mounts vs. Rumsfeld (New York Times, April 14)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Rumsfeld-Generals.html

A MILITARY COUP IN THIS COUNTRY RIGHT NOW WOULD PROBABLY HAVE A MODERATING INFLUENCE.

--Commentator Fred Kaplan, The Revolt Against Rumsfeld: The Officer Corps Is Getting Restless (Slate)
http://www.slate.com/id/2139777/

More news next week. The Snuff wishing all a very Happy Easter.

Enjoy the day, Snuf ....

And safe travels ......

As to the Iranians .....

And their knowledge of us ......

When I was in the Army in 1968 ....

Before going to Viet Nam ....

I was down at an Army base in Texas .....

A primary flight school ....

For helicopter training ....

And the place seemed to be crawling with Iranian flight school candidates .....

All officers from the Iranian Army ....

Who we were supposed to salute, of course ....

And after ....

When I had returned to here ......

And was "rehabilitating" myself ....

I was at an east coast engineering school ....

And there were Iranian, or as one adamant Iranian person said, Persian students there ....

These being people from Iran ...

Who were going back to Iran ...

And so ...

Truthfully .....

I wonder what all this fuss is about .....

And as to the Iranian people knowing about the U.S. ......

It would seem that they would have to know about it ....

To be able to get over to here to study engineering ...

And so .....

And speaking of Iran ....

" Iran issues stark military warning to United States"

Fri Apr 14, 4:12 PM ET

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.

"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.

"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable."

" I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.

The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development.

Last weekend US news reports said President George W. Bush's administration was refining plans for preventive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.

"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance."

"For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."

Iran announced this week it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, despite a UN Security Council demand for the sensitive work to be halted by April 28.

The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead -- something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire.

At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions.

And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance."

"She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action.

"We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.

On Thursday, Rice said that faced with Iran's intransigence, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations."

"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, after Iran also dismissed a personal appeal from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand.

In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear."

Although the United States has been prodding the council to take a tough stand against the Islamic republic, including possible sanctions, it has run into opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.

Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are to meet in Moscow Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

In seeking to deter international action, Iran has been playing up its oil wealth, its military might in strategic Gulf waters and its influence across the region -- such as in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

At the Tehran conference, Iran continued to thumb its nose at the United States and Israel.

"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat," Ahmadinejad told the gathering of regime officials, visiting Palestinian militant leaders and foreign sympathizers.

"Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being eliminated," said Ahmadinejad, whose regime does not recognise Israel and who drew international condemnation last year when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Unfazed by his critics, the hardliner went on to repeat his controversial stance on the Holocaust.

"If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and Holocaust being faced by the Palestinians," said the president, who had previously dismissed as a "myth" the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies during World War II.

"I tell the governments who support Zionism to ... let the migrants (Jews) return to their countries of origin."

"If you think you owe them something, give them some of your land," he said.

Iran's turbaned supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also accused the United States of seeking to place the entire region under Israeli control.

"The plots by the American government against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon aimed at governing the Middle East with the control of the Zionist regime will not succeed," Khamenei said.

There was no immediate reaction from Washington, but French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy severely condemned Ahmadinejad for his latest remarks on Israel.

"As I have had occasion to do before, when the Iranian president made similar statements, I condemn these inacceptable remarks in the strongest possible terms," Douste-Blazy said in a statement.

"Israel's right to exist and the reality of the Holocaust should not be disputed," he added.

And speaking of George W. Bush's QUAGMIRE .....

Over there in IRAQINAM .....

Where George just don't know ....

Whether he is afoot .....

Or horseback ......

And his SECRETARY OF WAR Rumsfeld .....

Can't tell one end of a horse .....

From the other end ....

And so .....

A QUAGMIRE it is .....

For George, anyway ......

Since he is the one foolish enough to have leaped ....

Before he even knew where he was standing ....

And so ...

George lied ....

And now ...

Americans are dying .....

Because of those lies ....

And so ....

"2 Marines Killed, 22 Hurt in Western Iraq"

24 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S. Marines were killed and 22 were wounded, two of them critically, in fighting in western Iraq, the U.S. command announced Saturday.

Two of the wounded were in critical condition.

A U.S. statement said the casualties occurred Thursday as a result of "enemy action" in Anbar province, but did not give a specific location or provide details of the fighting.

It said one Marine, assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, died "at the scene of the attack."

Another Marine, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died at a medical facility in Taqqadum, the statement added.

Eight wounded Marines, all assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, were evacuated by air to a medical facility in Balad.

Two were listed in critical condition and six were reported as stable, the statement said.

Ten wounded Marines from Regimental Combat Team 5 were evacuated to a medical facility at Camp Fallujah.

Four were held for observation and the others were treated and returned to duty, the statement said.

Four other Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 received minor wounds, according to the statement.

Names of the dead and wounded were withheld pending notification of their families.

"If you have a lawyer for your BAGMAN ...."

"It's a DISBURSEMENT, not a BRIBE ..."

- Just some "political advice" that one hears up here in the environs of Albany, New York ...

The capital of the State of New York .....

Where everything is for sale ...

Starting with the law, itself ....

And the "regulatory agencies" .....

But not everybody gets to "buy some" ...

Cash and BAGMEN are required ...

If you don't want your DISBURSEMENTS ....

To be mistaken for mere crass bribes ....

And so .......

"Oh, Eliot, You're JUST So Vain"

With apologies to Carly Simon

Oh, Eliot ....

You foxy devil, you .....

You walked into the party ....

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

In the capital ....

In Albany, New York ....

Your hat strategically dipped below one eye ...

Your scarf it was apricot ....

You had one eye in the mirror ....

On yourself, of course .....

And the other ...

On all the LOBBYISTS in the room ....

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

As you watched yourself gavotte ....

From lobbyist to lobbyist ...

Collecting your due, of course ...

And all the girls dreamed .....

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

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

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

Oh, Eliot ......

You're just so vain ....

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

Oh "Big EL" .....

You're just so vain ....

You're out there hiring people ....

To write pretty songs about you .....

Aren't you?

Aren't you?

You had New York State .....

Several years ago .....

When we were still quite naive .....

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

Made such a pretty pair ....

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

Outside the protection of law ....

While your GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDACY .....

Stuffed its pockets .....

With money ...

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

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

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

Like HONESTY ...

And INTEGRITY ....

And FORTHRIGHTNESS .....

And Eliot ....

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

Was me .....

So Eliot ....

I had some dreams ....

Or so I thought ....

They were clouds in my coffee .....

Clouds in my coffee and ....

NO ...

Actually .....

It was GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION, instead .....

And no dream at all ...

Thanks to YOU, Big EL ....

And Eliot ....

You're just so vain .....

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

You're just so vain .....

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

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

Don't you, Eliot ....

Yes, you do .....

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

To "get" some votes .....

And your horse naturally won .....

Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink ....

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

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

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

While you were at it ....

Well, Eliot ...

Smart politician that you are ....

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

All of the time .....

Thanks to a good appointments secretary .....

And campaign committee .....

And when you're not .....

You're with .....

Some underworld spy .....

Plotting some further political strategy ...

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

In 2006 ....

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

With lots of money ....

Wife of a close friend, and....

Ready to make a fat contribution ...

To your cause ....

Because ...

Eliot ....

You're just so vain .....

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

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

You're just so vain .....

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

The SPITZER PRESIDENCY ....

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

Don't you?

Don't you?

And so ......

And here ...

I have a little extra time ...

So ....

I'm getting a chance to do some catching up here ...

With this ...

This following news item about the BUSHCOS using PROPAGANDA .....

ON US ......

WE, the PEOPLE of OUR America ...

George W. Bush ....

The Commander-in-Chief of OUR military ...

Is using OUR TAX MONEY ...

To have OUR United States military ...

LIE TO US ....

Through a PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN ....

That is supposed to have us believing ...

That George W. Bush's HEAD ENEMY over there in IRAQINAM ...

This Abu Zabu Binkowie ......

Or whoever that guy really is ....

Is really like, what ...

Maybe two or three hundred feet tall ......

With a head full of writhing snakes ....

Instead of hair .....

And I don't know how many stone the British say he weighs, whatever his name really is ......

But I have him at ten or twenty thousand pounds now .....

And so ...

Whatever number of stones that really is ....

What we have, America ....

IS A REAL JUGGERNAUGHT of a fellow, when you come right down to it .....

And George W. Bush ...

Well ...

Let's face it .....

He's just a normal sized man ...

And so ...

It's no wonder this Binkowie is kicking George's *** .....

I mean ...

A guy that big ....

What would you think of him ...

If he couldn't?

Whatever his name really is .....

Which is what this PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN is all about ...

As I understand it ...

So that people like me ...

Bumpkins out in the country here .....

You know ....

Country folk ....

We will know who all of George W. Bush's enemies really are ...

By proper name .....

So that at night ...

Little children all over OUR America ...

Before they go to sleep ...

Can spend an hour or two on their knees ...

Beseeching GOD ...

To save George W. Bush .....

From this enemy ...

By name, of course ...

Properly pronounced ...

As well ....

So there is no possibility of an "Achilles Heel" type of thing ...

Where some child mis-pronounces the name of one of George W. Bush's enemies ...

So that George gets protected from an overcharge from a Pakistani taxi-driver .....

Instead of some real mean father-raping TAY-RIST out there plotting somewhere ....

And so ....

A key part of this PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN .....

I guess, anyway ...

Is to teach us how to spell their names ....

As I understand it ....

From the yokel's perspective ...

Being one, after all ....

And so .....

Apparently, George W. Bush is upset ...

Because HE HAS ENEMIES ...

And don't nobody in OUR America even know who they are ...

Let alone how to spell their names ...

And so, America .....

Get ready for a MEDIA BLITZ .....

To let us all know ...

Just how powerful and important George W. Bush's enemies really are ...

As compared to the enemies of any other WORLD LEADER .....

And so ....

Which sounds like a real stupid idea ....

All the way around .....

When you think logically and rationally about it ....

But then ...

What the hey ....

As they say .....

This is BushWORLD .....

Which is a real BIZARRO-kind of world ...

When you come right down to it ...

And so .....

"U.S. military seeking to vilify al-Zarqawi -
Propaganda campaign tries to magnify Jordanian's role and tie him to 9/11 attacks"

By THOMAS E. RICKS, Washington Post
First published: Monday, April 10, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program.

The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners.

U.S. authorities claim some success with the effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked al-Zarqawi loyalists.

For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize al-Zarqawi's role in the insurgency.

The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.

Some senior intelligence officers believe al-Zarqawi's role might have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist.

Although al-Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues, said at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.

In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."

The military's propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the U.S. media.

One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war.

Other developments

Shiite lawmakers met on Sunday, the third anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces, in the first formal step to break the deadlock over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to their choice for a prime minister to head the next government.

The meeting produced no breakthroughs, The Associated Press reported.

At least 15 people were killed Sunday, including eight suspected insurgents shot by American soldiers in a pre-dawn raid north of the capital.

Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, the Marine Corps officer who was the military's top operations officer before the invasion of Iraq, expressed regret, in an essay published Sunday in Time magazine, that he did not more energetically question those who had ordered the nation to war and called for replacing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The New York Times reported.

These ones calling for Donald Rumsfeld to resign .....

Because they think he is incompetent ...

I wonder what they will think ...

When they hear this PROPAGANDA that has this Simbuuku fellow .....

Who is Donald Rumsfeld's HEAD ENEMY over there in IRAQINAM .....

When they hear he masses some thirty or forty thousand stone ...

And is 750 feet tall .....

With a huge eye in the middle of his forehead ....

And a nasty big club .....

I bet they won't think Donald Rumsfeld is a complete idiot after hearing all of that ....

I mean ...

Well ...

Donald Rumsfeld is smaller than George W. Bush ....

And Donald is not a TEXAN ...

And he is pretty old ...

And so ...

Put Donald Rumsfeld up against a guy like this Simboookoo ....

And what would you expect ...

The small old guy to beat the younger great big guy?

I mean ...

Get real, here, America ...

Donald Rumsfeld is a fool ..

And it is time for him to go ....

"Old soldiers ask chief to fade away - Another retired general adds to call for defense secretary's resignation"

By DAVID S. CLOUD and ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times
First published: Friday, April 14, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The widening circle of retired generals who have stepped forward to call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation is shaping up as an unusual outcry that could pose a significant challenge to Rumsfeld's leadership, current and former generals said Thursday.

Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., who led troops on the ground in Iraq as recently as 2004 as the commander of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, on Thursday became the fifth retired senior general in recent days to call publicly for Rumsfeld's ouster.

"We need to continue to fight the global war on terror and keep it off our shores," Swannack said in a telephone interview.

"But I do not believe Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person to fight that war based on his absolute failures in managing the war against Saddam in Iraq."

Another former Army commander in Iraq, Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who led the 1st Infantry Division, publicly broke ranks with Rumsfeld on Wednesday.

Rumsfeld long ago became a magnet for political attacks.

But the current uproar is significant because the criticism is coming from generals who were involved in the invasion and occupation of Iraq under the defense secretary's leadership.

The White House has dismissed the criticism, saying it merely reflects tensions over the war in Iraq.

"The President believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history," the White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Thursday.

Among the five senior retired generals who have called for Rumsfeld's ouster, some have emphasized that they still believe it was right for the United States to invade Iraq.

But a common thread in their complaints has been an assertion that Rumsfeld and his aides too often inserted themselves unnecessarily into military decision-making, often disregarding advice from military commanders.

The outcry also appears based in part on a coalescing of concern about the toll that the war is taking on American armed forces, with little sign, three years after the invasion, that U.S. troops will be able to withdraw in large numbers anytime soon.

On Baghdad patrol

U.S. troops have sharply increased patrols in Baghdad since the spike in sectarian violence, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said Thursday, raising questions about the capabilities of Iraqi forces. ''

Also, a car bomb killed least 15 people in a Shiite area of the capital.

At least 21 other people, including an American soldier and seven members of a Sunni family, were killed Thursday.

Sunnis targeted

According to The Los Angeles Times, Sunni Arab political leaders said that nearly 90 Sunnis had been reported abducted or killed over the past two days by groups with possible ties to the nation's Shiite Muslim-led Interior Ministry forces.

In one incident, as many as 25 men just released from detention were allegedly whisked away by gunmen in SUVs.

Terrorist killed

The U.S. military said U.S. and Iraqi troops last month killed a wanted terrorist with ties to Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida figures.

Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, also known as Abu Umar al Kurdi, was killed March 27 in a raid near Abu Ghraib on the western edge of Baghdad, a U.S. statement said.

"Rumsfeld criticism grows - Retired general who led 1st Infantry Division says "fresh start" needed"

By THOMAS E. RICKS, Washington Post
First published: Thursday, April 13, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The retired commander of key forces in Iraq called Wednesday for Donald Rumsfeld to step down, joining several other former top military commanders who have harshly criticized the secretary of defense's authoritarian style for making the military's job more difficult.

"I think we need a fresh start" at the top of the Pentagon, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-05, said in an interview.

"We need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them."

"And that leadership needs to understand teamwork."

Batiste noted that many of his peers feel the same way.

"It speaks volumes that guys like me are speaking out from retirement about the leadership climate in the Department of Defense," he said in another interview earlier Wednesday on CNN.

Batiste's comments resonate especially within the Army because it is widely known there that he was offered a promotion to three-star rank to return to Iraq and be the No. 2 U.S. military officer there, but declined because he no longer wished to serve under Rumsfeld.

Also, before going to Iraq, he worked at the highest level of the Pentagon, serving as the senior military assistant to Paul Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense.

Batiste said that he believes the administration's handling of the Iraq war has violated fundamental military principles, such as unity of command and unity of effort.

In other interviews, Batiste has said that he thinks that the violation of another military principle of ensuring there is an adequate number of forces helped create the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal by putting too much responsibility on incompetent officers and undertrained troops.

His comments follow similar recent high-profile attacks on Rumsfeld by three other retired flag officers -- Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold; Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, and Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni.

Violence continues

More than 40 Iraqis died Wednesday, including at least 22 in a car bombing near a Shiite mosque northeast of Baghdad.

Also, three U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombings two south of Baghdad and a third on patrol east of the capital, the U.S. military said.

The military also reported that an American soldier from the 101st Airborne Division died Monday from a "non-battle injury" near Tal Afar in northern Iraq.

At least 2,362 U.S. personnel, including seven civilians working for the military, have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Other developments

No. 2 al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised insurgents in Iraq, particularly Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and called on all Muslims to support them in a video posted Thursday on the Internet.

Silva Shahakian, the newly crowned Miss Iraq beauty queen, has gone into hiding, fearing she will be targeted by Islamic militants who reportedly threatened to kill other women who participated in a Baghdad pageant last week.

I think ....

That in a past life ...

Well ...

Whoever does really know ...

But perhaps ...

Just perhaps ...

Donald Rumsfeld ...

Rode a tank ...

In the general's rank ...

And so ....

He has those memories of the glories of the BLITZKREIG .....

Rolling over those Polish horse cavalry ....

On the dash to the Sudetenland ....

And beyond, of course ....

And so ...

Over there in IRAQINAM .....

The DONALD is trying to do it all over again ....

Relive the glory ....

One last fling, so to speak ....

Rule the whole world ...

Be a GOD in your lifetime ....

And of course ...

Here is what you would expect from George ...

Because let's face it ....

Who really wants to replace Rumsfeld the INCOMPETENT ....

To take over ...

A failed war .....

That Rumsfeld has BOTCHED UP so bad ......

Nobody now knows ...

When OUR troops ..

May ever see home ...

Again ....

"Rumsfeld wins Bush praise - Support comes amid calls from retired generals for defense chief to quit"

By CRAIG GORDON, Newsday
First published: Saturday, April 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush was forced to offer an extraordinary vote of confidence for his embattled defense chief Friday, hoping the high-profile atta-boy will squelch a revolt by former generals who say Donald Rumsfeld must go.

"Secretary Rumsfeld's energetic and steady leadership is exactly what is needed at this critical period," Bush said in a statement after speaking with Rumsfeld.

"He has my full support and deepest appreciation."

Bush made clear he's keeping his Pentagon chief in place despite growing criticism by a parade of ex-military brass, with two Iraq war generals this week adding their dissent.

The generals blame Rumsfeld for foul-ups that have left Iraq riven by sectarian violence and say his arrogant approach to war planning shut out dissenting voices and substituted ideology for sound military advice.

The President's statement was followed hours later by supportive comments from Gen. Richard B. Myers, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Tommy R. Franks, the retired commander of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Both appeared on cable news shows to criticize former colleagues for publicly questioning the civilian leadership while the nation remains at war.

Rumsfeld also rejected calls for his departure from what he called a handful of ex-commanders out of hundreds in the U.S. military.

"If every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to Bush after the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal but Bush refused.

Now, most analysts take Bush at his word that he won't dump Rumsfeld anytime soon -- mainly because to do so would be to acknowledge critics who say Bush bungled Iraq.

In defending Rumsfeld, The New York Times reported, Bush seemed to have been asserting his standing as commander in chief, sending a signal to the generals that criticism of the defense secretary is the equivalent of criticism of his own stewardship of the war.

2 Marines killed

Two U.S. Marines were killed and 22 wounded -- two of them critically -- in fighting in western Iraq, the U.S. military said Saturday.

According to The Associated Press, a U.S. statement said the casualties were suffered Thursday as a result of "enemy action" in Anbar province but gave no specific location or details of the fighting.

One Marine was killed "at the scene of the attack," the statement said.

Another Marine died at a medical facility in Taqqadum.

Eight of the wounded were flown to the main U.S. hospital in Balad.

Two were listed in critical condition and six were reported as stable.

Meanwhile, dozens of Iraqi police remained missing and nine were dead after insurgents ambushed their convoy Thursday evening as they left a U.S. base at Taji where they had picked up new vehicles, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

end quotes

Criticism of defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld IS the equivalent of criticism of George W. Bush's own incompetent stewardship of the war in IRAQINAM ......

And maybe that is just starting to dawn on George .....

After all these years have passed now ...

Since that day so long ago now ....

When George very mistakenly told us that in IRAQINAM .....

Major combat operations were over ...

When in fact ...

And this totally unknown to George ....

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF .....

They had only just begun ....

And so ....

And as a Viet Nam veteran ...

Here is a name ....

That I remember .....

Quite well .....

And so ....

"Kalashnikov, still selling weapons at 86"

40 minutes ago

MOSCOW (AFP) - His name has entered the languages of the planet and his most famous creation has sold 100 million copies but at 86 Mikhail Kalashnikov, father of the assault rifle that bears his name, is still a busy man.

He travels, he sells, and in the face of criticism he sings the praises of the weapon he created.

Blue eyes, grey hair, sprightly, he lives in the Urals town of Izhevsk and arrived Saturday in Moscow to hit back at criticism in the US press of the sale of 100,000 Kalashnikovs to Venezuela.

"It isn't the first time they have tried to sneer at Russian weapons," he said in response to an article on April 10 in the conservative Washington Times which claimed that Caracas had suspended the contract because Moscow was supplying old weapons.

In any case, he said, the rifle named after him "is extremely simply made for a poorly educated soldier."

"During the Vietnam war US soldiers used to abandon their M-16s and take the Kalashnikovs of the Vietnamese troops they had killed."

"Every day in Baghdad the Americans use my weapons because theirs don't work very well there."

Kalshnikov is an advisor to Rosoboronexport, Russian's main arms export company, and is soon to visit Cuba "for the first time in my life" to have a look at the arms factory opened there during the Soviet era.

He is one of the most internationally known Russians and both before and after the communist era honours were heaped on him.

But his invention has brought him little by way of cash.

Russia may have exported weapons worth more than five billion dollars last year but fights a campaign, so far without much success, to have its rights to the Kalashnikov recognized.

Nine out of every 10 sold worldwide are counterfeits, said Vladimir Grodetsky, director general of the factory at Izhmach in the Urals where the original article is made.

In the Soviet era licenses were issued to some 20 friendly states, among them Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Libya, Iran and North Korea, but according to Grodetsky "none of these licenses is valid any more according to the norms of international law on the defence of intellectual property."

Talks "drag on and meantime they continue to manufacture and bid for contracts" at prices lower than those of the Russian producer, according to Dmitry Shugayev of Rosoboronexport.

Kalashnikov's history mirrors that of the Soviet Union.

He was born in November 1919 in a small village in Siberia.

His father was regarded as a kulak, a rich peasant, and deported in 1930 when Mikhail was 11.

He fought in World War II and was wounded in 1941.

He was evacuated to the rear and began designing the assault rifle that in 1947 became the AK-47.

Automatic weapons had been banned for the Red Army shortly before World War II by the deputy defence minister and in the climate of fear imposed by Stalin nobody dared challenge the ban, Kalashnikov wrote in his memoirs.

The prohibition went some way to explaining the defeat of the Red Army in Finland and its huge losses during the German offensive in 1941.

Today he regrets that the gun that bears his name is so often used in inter-ethnic conflicts.

"I created it to defend my country."

I was told that the AK-47 could be dropped in a mud puddle and still work fine, whereas the M-16 would jam.

Any truth to this?

I also heard about 5 years ago that Kalashnikov was trying to license his NAME!

He wanted to have a line of rolex-like watches, swiss army-like knives, and even a clothing line.

Tommy Hilfiger, keep your temples covered.

And then ...

There is the PATAKI STING .....

"Terror sting tapes sought - Lawyer for Yassin Aref asks for release of any calls as Sept. 6 trial date set for mosque leader and Mohammed Hossain"

By BRENDAN LYONS, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, April 15, 2006

ALBANY -- An attorney for an Albany mosque leader has asked the government to turn over any tape recordings of calls that his client allegedly made to a Syrian phone number the Justice Department claims was used to gather intelligence for Osama bin Laden.

Terence L. Kindlon, who is the attorney for Yassin Aref, a Kurdish refugee and the jailed spiritual leader of a Central Avenue mosque, is challenging the Justice Department's assertions that Aref aided terrorists when he called the Syrian number between 1999 and 2001.

"Yassin Aref assures me that those 13 calls, which the government is apparently claiming connect him to a terrorist organization, Ansar al Islam ... (were) personal in nature and do not in any way connect him to any alleged terrorist activity," Kindlon wrote in a letter this week to U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy.

The request, which is intended to force the government to disclose whether it secretly recorded Aref's telephone calls, was filed as McAvoy set a September trial date for Aref and another mosque member, Mohammed Hossain, who were indicted two years ago in connection with an FBI counterterrorism sting.

"The court has set a trial date of Sept. 6 and the government looks forward to putting on its proof," said Assistant U.S. Attorney William Pericak.

But pending challenges by defense attorneys, who are seeking access to classified government records involving their clients, could delay the start of the trial several months.

Last month, the defense attorneys asked the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan to intervene.

Their formal request seeks to undo the Justice Department's efforts to keep secret whether the National Security Agency eavesdropped on the e-mails or telephone calls of Aref and Hossain and whether the spying may have triggered the sting investigation.

It was the first challenge of the controversial NSA program in a federal appeals court, but it's not certain the circuit court will agree to hear the case.

If the NSA program triggered the sting, both Kindlon and Hossain's attorney, Kevin Luibrand, said they hope to have the indictment against their clients thrown out on the grounds it was the "poisonous fruit" of an unlawful wiretap.

But aside from the fight for that information in the appellate court, Kindlon's request this week is geared toward forcing the court to again address the NSA issue.

This time, Kindlon argues that any tape recordings should be disclosed because they could potentially exonerate his client in terms of any connections to terrorist figures.

His request was based on classified documents unsealed on March 21 that the Justice Department said show that Aref was linked to terrorist figures because he called a phone number linked to al-Qaida.

There was no information outlining what was discussed in the calls, though, and most of the FBI report was blacked out before being released.

The report claims an informant told the FBI that during October 2001 he was approached by someone soliciting intelligence about "flight training schools, access to airports in (redacted)" and information about "how close the individual could get to an aircraft."

The informant said he was instructed that any information could be distributed to "brothers" through two phone numbers in Damascus, Syria.

The report does not say anything about Aref.

But one of the numbers that the FBI believes was linked to terrorism was called repeatedly by Aref from his Albany home, according to federal authorities.

Kindlon said the information is meaningless because the number was at the headquarters for Islamic Movement for Kurdistan, a political organization which had an office in Damascus where Aref had worked after fleeing Iraq.

Aref called IMK because he had made many friends there, Kindlon added.

Aref and Hossain were arrested in August 2004 and accused of taking part in a plot to sell missile launchers to terrorists.

So far, defense attorneys in this and other terror-related cases have been thwarted in their attempts to learn whether the NSA program was used against their clients.

U.S. government officials have refused to publicly disclose the controversial program's use in any specific case.

The NSA's surveillance program has relied on a secret directive President Bush issued more than three years ago, after the Sept. 11 attacks.

It allowed the agency to circumvent court-authorized wiretaps as it eavesdropped on phone calls and e-mails exchanged between U.S. residents and people abroad.

The Bush administration has defended the practice, contending it was a matter of national security, and legal, to sift through thousands of phone calls and e-mails without a warrant or court order.

In January, The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, first reported that the NSA spying program may have prompted the FBI to zero in on Aref and Hossain.

Federal authorities have acknowledged Aref, a Kurdish refugee and religious scholar, was the "ultimate target" of their investigation, although they have not said why.

Aref has admitted he met people who the U.S. government has labeled terrorist figures, but he has denied being involved with their causes.

Officials have not made any similar charges against Hossain.

Hossain is free on bond while Aref remains jailed without bond pending trial.

Brendan Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at blyons@timesunion.com.

During the monsoon in Viet Nam ....

Where it would rain 24 hours a day ...

For days on end .....

Viet Nam WAS a mud puddle ...

And so ....

And when it was not wet ....

It was dry and dusty ....

And for the M-16 ...

That was just as bad ....

I would have preferred .....

An AK-47 myself ....

To the M-16 that I carried ....

In a firefight .....

Where noise counts as much as anything else ...

I could hear the sounds of the AK-47's over my own M-16 .....

And that can tweak your mind a little .....

If you are prone to getting upset or carried away by small things like that .....

Too much technology on the battlefield ....

Like the M-16 ....

Which is a fancy Mattel toy, in essence .....

Is really a detriment ...

And so .....

But that is just a grunt talking .....

I never was a major general myself .....

Nor a secretary of defense ....

And so ....

It is an ancient thought ....

Which many men have taught ....

That he who over-reaches .....

AND TRIES TO LIVE BY FORCE ....

Shall die thereby, of course ....

And ....

Is what my own heart teaches .....

- Lao Tze, Tao Te Ching, written some 2500 years ago .....

"Coalition Probes Afghan 'Friendly Fire'"

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 4 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan - Military officials are probing two clashes in which Afghan civilians and police may have been killed by U.S.-led coalition forces, authorities said Monday.

The U.S. military has begun an inquiry into Saturday's deaths of seven Afghan civilians after American forces using aircraft and artillery battled militants in a house and a cave complex in Afghanistan's Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.

The Canadian-led military in the southern Kandahar province also said it was investigating whether "friendly fire" was responsible for casualties sustained by Afghan police during fierce fighting there Friday against Taliban forces.

Afghan authorities said 41 Taliban militants and six Afghan police were killed during the fighting in Sangisar, a former Taliban stronghold near Kandahar city.

It was the bloodiest battle in a surge in rebel attacks that threatens the government's shaky grip on the country more than four years after the fall of the Taliban.

The government has previously complained about heavy-handed tactics by U.S.-led forces, and the swift announcement of probes into the deaths appears to reflect greater openness on the part of the coalition, which says its forces go to extreme lengths to avoid innocent casualties.

Saturday's clash in Kunar province came during an ongoing operation involving 2,500 Afghan and coalition forces to flush out Taliban-led militants, one of the biggest offensives since the Taliban's ouster for hosting Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. military said about eight to 10 militants opened fire on U.S. forces, who returned fire and called in support from warplanes and artillery.

It said several Taliban forces were killed and others took shelter in a house and nearby cave where civilians were living.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Matt Hackathorn said they stopped firing once they realized civilians were in the area.

After the firefight ended, local village elders said seven people had been killed and three wounded.

"Whether our direct fire was responsible (for the casualties) or close-air support or if the victims were caught in the crossfire we just don't know right now," he said.

"We are profoundly sorry about the loss of life."

Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, coalition commander, has ordered an investigation.

On the Pakistani side of the border, troops deployed to block any Taliban militants fleeing the Kunar offensive into Pakistan, a Pakistani army official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Coalition forces have also opened an investigation into Friday's battle near Sangisar, where up to 60 Taliban members had been hiding.

Afghan soldiers and police, backed by Canadian forces and coalition gunships, attacked the rebels after learning that they were planning to raid Kandahar city.

A coalition statement said that during the fighting, Afghan police "reported casualties, some possibly caused by friendly forces."

"We are investigating the incident and we will work jointly with the government of Afghanistan to determine the events that took place during this fight," said Canadian Brig. Gen. David Fraser.

Separately, Authorities have banned unregistered motorcycles in the central Afghan province of Ghazni because Taliban militants use bikes to carry out bombings and shootings.

Gunmen on motorcycles killed a former governor last month.

Police said militants have also been using motorcycles when planting roadside bombs or in suicide attacks.

Taliban militants responded by warning villagers against going to the capital of the province, about 75 miles southwest of the capital Kabul, said Ali Ahmed, director of the province's criminal department.
___

Associated Press writers Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

And while we are on the subject of REPUBLICAN VALUES in here this morning ....

Which is to say ....

CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION and INORDINATE GREED here in OUR America .....

And PRICE-GOUGING ...

And PROFITEERING .....

And pure LUST, of course ....

All of which caused the REPUBLICANS .....

Under the execrable leadership of the incompetent George W. Bush .....

To invade Afghanistan ...

And IRAQINAM .....

Because such invasions ....

And more especially ...

The following OCCUPATIONS of those countrys as REPUBLICAN satellites .....

Puts a LOT OF MONEY into the pockets of those who comprise the REPUBLICAN PARTY .....

We have ....

"Ex-Exxon CEO's Massive Pension Draws Fire"

By STEVE QUINN, AP Business Writer

Sun Apr 16, 9:20 AM ET

DALLAS - A $69.7 million compensation package and $98 million pension payout to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s former chief executive and chairman Lee R. Raymond has some shareholders and economists asking, "how much is enough?"

"Some folks will ask the question, 'Is this more evidence of big oil taking an enormous windfall and retaining all the riches?'" said Mel Fugate, assistant professor for Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.

The Irving company has drawn criticism from politicians and economists for becoming the most profitable company in history — at consumers' expense, they say.

Exxon benefited from high oil and natural gas prices and solid demand for refined products en route to earning $36 billion last year.

The company has defended its profits, saying that other industries have larger profit margins but oil companies' bottom lines stand out because they operate on a much larger scale.

Recent news of Raymond's payout and pension is stoking embers Fugate said had been starting to die out.

But with gasoline prices again reaching $3 a gallon at the pump in some areas and big oil companies about to report first-quarter earnings in coming weeks, expect more fallout, economists say.

On Wednesday, Exxon reported executive compensation in a regulatory filing that showed Raymond receiving $48.5 million in salary, bonuses, incentive payments and stock awards.

His compensation package also included $21.2 million from exercising stock options, which the company stopped awarding in 2001.

His $98 million pension payout reflects 43 years of service.

But he would have received nearly $17 million less had he retired just last year, according to the company's 2005 proxy statement.

In this year's proxy statement, Exxon defended the package by saying it rewards Raymond's "outstanding leadership of the business, continued strengthening of our worldwide competitive position, and continuing progress toward achieving long-range strategic goals."

Raymond had been CEO since 1993 before stepping down at the end of last year.

Exxon added that Raymond's compensation is "appropriately positioned relative to CEOs of U.S.-based, integrated oil companies and other major U.S.-based corporations, particluarly in view of the long-term performance of the company and the substantial experience and expertise that Mr. Raymond has brought to the job."

Last year, Chevron Corp. Chairman and CEO David O'Reilly received a $1.55 million salary, $3.5 million bonus and $3.57 million in long-term compensation.

He did not exercise any options, but owns options valued at just over $34 million, including exercisable options worth $28 million, according to Chevron's proxy.

Fugate, who specializes in executive compensation and management, said Exxon is sending a "very, very bad signal" by allowing Raymond to select the lump-sum payout.

"They are in very, very rich times, so on one hand they say, 'we can afford it,' but on the other hand they are taking an awful lot of heat because they've made too much at the expense of consumers."

"I'm surprised they are not being asked to justify that."

They will be at the company's shareholders meeting in Dallas on May 31.

Several shareholders have placed resolutions on the agenda that, if passed, would put the clamps on some executive pay.

Shareholder Emil Rossi, author of one of the resolutions, says that although he's done well as a longtime owner of Exxon stock, he believes the executives are keeping too much for themselves.

"(Raymond) took over a good company," said Rossi, of Boonville, Calif.

"He didn't bring it out from being a bad company, so his pay is clean out of reason."

"It's not because of his smartness."

Twice since November, big oil executives, including Raymond before his retirement, sat in Senate hearings defending their profits and deflecting accusations of gouging.

end quotes

Of course, old Billy Frist and Tommy DeLay can see where these oil boys are coming from ....

I mean ...

Well ...

Let's be forthright here ....

It is a lot of work to be a multi-millionaire .....

And so .....

They should get a lot more money than those of us who are not multi-millionaires ....

Because we have simpler lives ...

And so ...

We don't need all that extra money .....

And so ...

And then ....

There is this ....

"Justices to Discuss 'Adverse' Work Changes"

By TONI LOCY, Associated Press Writer

13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - U.S. businesses are confronting how to maintain control in an office after an employee complains of sex or race discrimination without drawing a more damning charge of retaliation.

Retaliation claims have risen dramatically, and the Supreme Court considers Monday what legal standard should be used to evaluate the seriousness of changes in employment made by supervisors who may be angry over an employee's discrimination complaint.

A decision by the court could affect the balance of power in government and private workplaces nationwide.

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. wants justices to overturn a decision by the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that found that suspending a female forklift operator for 37 days without pay and transferring her to a more physically demanding job were "materially adverse" changes in her employment.

Businesses warn they will be hamstrung if justices side with workers and create a "superprotected class" of employees who can't be disciplined or transferred once they file a discrimination complaint.

Lawyers for the railroad predicted that a ruling in favor of forklift operator Sheila White could lead to more lawsuits.

From 1992 to 2004, they said, employees filed nearly twice as many complaints with the government alleging retaliation by employers, making it the fastest-growing category of complaints in job discrimination-related cases.

Labor unions and women's groups disagree.

In friend-of-the-court filings, the groups said businesses must not be allowed to use seemingly innocuous schedule changes or transfers to send not-so-subtle messages to pressure workers "to remain silent rather than rock the boat."

White, the only woman working at a railroad yard in Memphis, Tenn., complained that her foreman was sexually harassing her and that other workers disparaged her by saying a rail yard was no place for a woman.

A company investigation led to the foreman's suspension and enrollment in sensitivity classes.

But the railroad also transferred White to work as a regular track worker, a more physically difficult job than operating a forklift.

After she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, White was suspended without pay for 37 days around the Christmas holidays in 1997.

The railroad eventually rescinded its decision — clearing her of insubordination charges — and compensated her for back pay.

A jury hearing her lawsuit rejected the discrimination charge but found in her favor on the retaliation claim, awarding her $43,000.

"What happened to (White) in this case is emblematic of a continuing widespread problem of sex discrimination against women, particularly in nontraditional settings, and of the nearly limitless methods some employers use to punish and deter employees from seeking to enforce their ... rights," The National Women's Law Center said in a court filing.

But the Equal Employment Advisory Council, a nationwide association of employers, said in a filing that businesses must keep order in workplaces, often by suspending disruptive workers.

If White wins, the council said, employers will face "a Hobson's choice" of allowing disruptions in the workplace or suspending workers pending investigations at the risk of a lawsuit for retaliation.

The case is Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway v. White, 05-259.
___

On the Net:

Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov

And here ...

We have some breaking news from ...

BUSHCO CENTRAL ....

I wonder if this guy is thinking of getting rid of George and Dick and Rumsfeld and "CON-JOB CONNIE" in this much-needed CLEAN OUT and SHAKE-UP of this most incompetent REGIME to rule on the face of this earth of OURS ....

Perhaps ever ....

"Bush's new chief of staff signals shake-up"

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:17 p.m., Monday, April 17, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's new chief of staff said Monday it was time to "refresh and re-energize the team," and he told senior White House aides who might be thinking about quitting this year to go ahead and leave now.

Taking charge in a time of crisis, with Bush's poll ratings at their lowest point ever and Republicans anxious about the November elections, Bolten laid down his pointed directive at his first meeting with top presidential aides.

He did not ask for anyone's resignation, and none of the senior aides stepped forward to say they would go, White House press secretary Scott McClellan reported later.

But Bolten has Bush's full authority to make changes to the president's staff, and McClellan said he would expect announcements soon.

One of the first jobs to be filled is that of budget director -- the position that Bolten left to become chief of staff.

The job of domestic policy adviser at the White House is open as well.

Further changes are clearly on the horizon, and Bolten gave top aides the option of leaving first.

"He wanted to make sure he had the team in place that is going to be here for a minimum of the remainder of the year," McClellan said.

"And he said if people are thinking about leaving, that now is the time to come to such a decision."

Bolten told the staff that he was assuming his new job at a challenging time when the United States was engaged in a war on terrorism.

With U.S. casualties rising in Iraq, Bush faces sagging public support, Republican angst about the midterm election and struggles with a Congress that has been resistant to some of his top priorities.

"Josh talked about how this is a time to refresh and re-energize the team and for all of us to renew our commitment as we go forward," McClellan said.

Republicans outside the White House say they expect changes in Bush's lobbying staff and perhaps in the communications office, as well as in the Cabinet.

McClellan said Bolten's invitation was specifically for the White House staff, but that the president will "be looking to Josh for his advice and counsel" when it comes to possible changes in the broader administration.

To quell speculation about Donald Rumsfeld, Bush issued a strong statement of support for the embattled Pentagon chief last Friday.

On Monday, Bolten was on hand as Bush toured Europa Stone Distributors in Sterling, Va., to promote his tax plans with another Cabinet member who is the focus of shake-up rumors -- Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Bush did not say anything publicly about Snow's future, but waved the secretary to his side during the photo op so they would be in pictures together.

Bolten already has had closed door meetings with some top presidential advisers and plans more, McClellan said.

"There are a number of people that have served this president for a long period of time, and so you have to balance change with continuity," McClellan said.

Bolten also was examining the numerous meetings that consume hours of staff time at the White House.

Staffers often complain that they are tied up in meetings throughout the day that keep them from doing other work.

"Any time you have a new chief of staff coming in, you can expect that there will be some changes in some of the structure and personnel and other issues," McClellan said.

Bolten is only Bush's second chief of staff.

Andy Card left Friday after serving Bush for more than five years.

McClellan would not comment on his own future at the White House.

"I never speculate about personnel measures," McClellan said, repeating his standard reply to questions about staff changes with a smile.

------

On the Net:

http://www.whitehouse.gov

And speaking of George's misbegotten "WAR OF TERROR" in IRAQINAM .....

Where George thought he could beat democracy into the IRAQINAMIS ....

With a club ...

Comprised of ......

Bayonets ....

Bullets ....

And tanks ....

Because "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice told him that is how it was done ....

We have .....

What looks like a combat operation .....

Against George ....

Who has to be the most execrable COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF of military forces ....

On the face of this earth ....

In the last four or five thousand years ....

Which is why George is getting attacked in IRAQINAM .....

Where he now has America pinned down ...

And without tactics ...

Or a strategy .....

To extricate OUR troops with ....

To their detriment ...

And OURS ...

As a nation ...

As well ....

Put a stupid man into high office ...

And then ...

Don't be surprised ...

When the holder of that high office ..

Begins to do real stupid things ...

Like invading another soveriegn nation ....

Thousands of miles away ...

Across an ocean ....

AS A PUBLICITY STUNT ....

To win re-election ...

To a second term as American president ....

To beat his father's ....

Dismal one-term record ....

And so ....

"U.S. Marines Repel Coordinated Assault"

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer

57 minutes ago

RAMADI, Iraq - U.S. troops repelled an attack Monday by Sunni Arab insurgents who used suicide car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in a coordinated assault against this city's main government building and two U.S. observation posts.

The fighting in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, provided fresh evidence that the insurgency is thriving in Sunni Arab-dominated areas despite last month's decline in U.S. deaths.

In Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces fought an hours-long gunbattle with about 50 insurgents in the Sunni Arab district of Azamiyah, the U.S. military said.

Five insurgents were killed and two Iraqi troops were wounded, the U.S. said.

There were no reports of U.S. casualties in the 90-minute attack in Ramadi, the second in the past 10 days against the government headquarters for Anbar.

The latest attack began when two suicide car bombers sped toward the government building, known here as Government Center, using a road closed to civilian traffic, Marine Capt. Andrew Del Gaudio said.

U.S. Marines fired flares to warn the vehicles to stop.

When they refused, the Americans opened fire with .50 caliber machine guns from the building's sandbagged rooftop.

The vehicles turned and sped away but exploded on a main road, sending a huge fireball into the sky and triggering a shock wave that damaged the U.S. post, Del Gaudio said.

As part of the assault, other insurgents fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at Marine positions at the roof of the Government Center, which includes the office of the Anbar governor, and at another observation post, Del Gaudio said.

A U.S. Army tank fired a 120 mm shell at a small white mosque where about 15 insurgents were shooting at the Government Center, Del Gaudio said.

The round damaged part of the minaret and the firing ceased, he said.

Lt. Col. Stephen M. Neary, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, said it was the fourth time in the past 3 1/2 weeks that insurgents had used the mosque to fire on the government building.

The total number of insurgent casualties was unknown.

But Lt. Carlos Goetz said Marines killed at least three insurgents firing mortar rounds toward the Government Center.

In Baghdad, fighting erupted in Azamiyah before dawn when an Iraqi army patrol came under fire, a U.S. statement said.

Four hours later, gunmen attacked a U.S.-Iraqi checkpoint in the area, prompting the command to send American and Iraqi reinforcements.

The U.S. statement said clashes continued until early afternoon.

The attack in Ramadi was the biggest since April 8, when insurgents besieged the Government Center until U.S. jets blasted several buildings used by gunmen to fire on the Marines.

U.S. officials had been encouraged by what they described as a relative lull in Anbar, suggesting it was a result of weariness among ordinary Sunni Arabs who were turning against al-Qaida-led insurgent groups.

Last week, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters in Baghdad that insurgent attacks in Anbar were down to an average of 18 a day — compared to a daily average of 27 last October.

At the same time, U.S. deaths for March numbered 31 — the lowest monthly figure since February 2004.

However, U.S. deaths have been rising this month.

Of the 47 American service members reported killed in Iraq so far in April, at least 28 have died in Anbar.

Anbar was largely spared the wave of sectarian violence that has swept much of Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra — largely because the province is overwhelmingly Sunni.

Most of the sectarian violence has occurred in Baghdad and other religiously mixed areas.

A Shiite cleric was killed Monday night in southwest Baghdad during a drive-by shooting, police said.

In order to quell sectarian unrest, U.S. officials have been urging the Iraqis to speed up formation of a national unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

The process has stalled because of Sunni and Kurdish objections to the Shiite candidate to head the new government, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Prospects for a quick end to the stalemate were in doubt Tuesday as al-Jaafari's Dawa party pledged to support him for another term as long as he wants the job.

Al-Jaafari has refused to give up the nomination, which he won in a Shiite caucus last February.

Parliament had been set to meet Monday to try to break the deadlock, but the session was postponed after Shiite politicians gave assurances they could reach a decision on al-Jaafari themselves without a bruising parliamentary fight.

One option floated called for replacing al-Jaafari with another candidate from Dawa, one of the seven parties in the Shiite alliance.

But Ali al-Adeeb, a top Dawa official whose name has been mentioned as a possible replacement, said Monday that the party would not put forward a new candidate unless al-Jaafari decided to step aside, suggesting further delays.

"Dawa cannot present any candidate unless al-Jaafari decides to step aside," al-Adeeb told The Associated Press.

"So far his position has not changed."

Shiite officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive, said some Dawa figures were willing to see al-Jaafari go in favor of either al-Adeeb or Jawad al-Maliki.

But the party resented outside pressure from Shiites representing other parties as well as from the Americans and British.

The Shiites won 130 of the 275 parliament seats — not enough to govern without the Sunnis and Kurds.

Those groups oppose al-Jaafari, saying he has failed to stop the recent surge in sectarian bloodshed, and neither side has enough votes to force a decision.

Another 17 bodies of people believed victims of sectarian reprisal killings were found Monday, including one in Basra and the rest in Baghdad.

They included the body of Taha al-Mutlaq, brother of leading Sunni Arab politician Saleh al-Mutlaq, who was found in a Shiite area of west Baghdad.
___

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

U.S. policymakers and world leaders discuss their efforts to build a worldwide coalition to fight terrorism, and the necessity of convincing the Muslim world that this was not a fight against Islam.

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

"Interests pony up for GOP"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, April 17, 2006

Donald Trump's oceanside spread in Florida was the place to be a few weeks ago, at least for Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and representatives of gambling interests who gathered for a campaign fundraiser.

The Feb. 24 crowd paid $3,000 a couple and $2,000 a person.

Bruno's office wouldn't say how much was raised for the state Senate GOP war chest.

The guests included many New Yorkers with some kind of interest in the franchise to run races at the Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga tracks, or in building casinos in the Catskills.

The host and honorary chairman, Trump, has publicly criticized the state for trying to open Indian casinos just a short drive from his New Jersey gambling emporiums.

Among those at Trump's Mar-A-Lago were Jared Abbruzzese, a Loudonville businessman who is an investor and board member of Empire Racing Associates, which upset the New York Racing Association recently by partnering with horsemen's associations on a plan to bid on the racing franchise.

Abbruzzese is a big donor to national and statewide Republican campaigns.

Also there: Long Islander and NYRA Trustee Chester Broman and his wife; Dennis Brida, executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Association, who has been supportive of the Empire group; Jerry Bilinski, formerly of head of the New York Racing & Wagering Board; lobbyist John Cordo, who represents Churchill Downs, and whose firm lobbies for the St. Regis Mohawks; Albany lobbyist James Crane, who with Dennis Vacco represents Delaware North and Empire Racing.

And: Jeff Perlee, the new executive director of Empire Racing; Friends of New York Racing's president, Tim Smith; Tim Rooney and Robert Galterio, the heads of Yonkers Raceway, which is building a video lottery terminal casino; David Cornstein, chairman of New York City OTB; Republican donor Earle Mack; and Saratoga socialite Marylou Whitney.

Interestingly, Sen. Bill Larkin, head of the Senate Racing & Wagering Committee, was in town, too.

Democratic bigwig Terry McAuliffe popped in at the Trump fundraiser, saying he was in Palm Beach helping Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton raise cash nearby.

Contributors: State Editor Jay Jochnowitz, Capitol bureau reporter James M. Odato.

Got a tip?

Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@timesunion.com.

For more Capitol Confidential items on-line, visit blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/

"Modern industries are handling the forces of nature on a stupendous scale ..."

"Woe to the people who trust these powers to the hands of fools ..."

Words of then-Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Major John Wesley Powell in an August 1889 article entitled "The Lesson of Conemaugh" in North American Review on the disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania caused by the rupture of the South Fork Dam on Memorial Day in 1889 .......

Or any powers.

Like the power to make WAR.

"An illigitimate war, started by an illigitimate President" - bumpersticker wisdom

What a mouthfull you have just spoken here, jeffmoskin ...

And in so few words ...

What can be said for a nation, any nation ......

That rejects wisdom ....

And instead puts the biggest fool that it can find ...

Into the most important position in that nation's government ....

Because the fool has a short name ....

Only four letters ....

And one syllable ....

Which is apparently all that those who put the fool into power can remember ....

Or comprehend ....

And so ....

And how about this?

Didn't somebody else out there with a real short name in only one syllable ....

Who deems himself to be the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD ....

Do something just like this?

Except that guy can get away with it ...

Because he is not only the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD ....

But GRAND POOBAH ...

And HIGH POTENTATE ....

Of the SUN, MOON and STARS ....

As well ....

"Director pleads guilty in wiretap case"

By LINDA DEUTSCH, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:25 a.m., Tuesday, April 18, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- A somber "Die Hard" director John McTiernan stood before a federal judge and said he made "knowingly false" statements to an FBI agent about Anthony Pellicano, the celebrity private eye he admitted hiring to wiretap a business associate.

McTiernan, who pleaded guilty Monday to making false statements, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced July 31.

He is the highest-profile figure yet to plead guilty in the investigation of Pellicano, who is accused of bugging phones and bribing police to get information on celebrities and others.

Pellicano has pleaded not guilty.

Asked by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer on Monday if the statements he made to the FBI agent were false, McTiernan replied:

"They were knowingly false, your honor."

McTiernan, director of "The Thomas Crown Affair," "The Last Action Hero" and other films, sketched out a scenario that began with a phone call to his home on Feb. 13 from a person identifying himself as an FBI agent.

He said he told the agent the only time he used Pellicano's services was in his divorce.

"He asked me if I had hired him in any other area, and I said, `No, I didn't,'" McTiernan told the judge.

Actually, McTiernan added, "I had hired Anthony Pellicano to wiretap Charles Roven in the summer of 2000."

"... But I never received a report or specific information."

Roven worked with McTiernan on the 2002 box-office flop "Rollerball."

Roven was a credited producer and McTiernan directed and produced the film.

McTiernan said he paid Pellicano $50,000 for the illegal wiretap, and in the end, "I paid him off and fired him."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Saunders asked the judge to seal the plea agreement documents, and he refused to answer questions outside court about whether the government had agreed to make a recommendation for leniency in sentencing.

Fischer allowed McTiernan to remain free on bond until sentencing.

The speed with which McTiernan entered his guilty plea came as a surprise after an arraignment earlier in the day in which his attorney told another judge there was a plea agreement.

No details were announced and another hearing was scheduled for next week.

But McTiernan's lawyers sought a speedy resolution, and Fischer, who is presiding over other Pellicano-related cases, agreed to take the case.

Allegations against Pellicano, 62, include tapping the phone of actor Sylvester Stallone and having police run the names of comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon through a government database.

end quotes

Ah, yes ....

America ....

Where nothing is free ....

And EVERYTHING is for sale ....

Starting right at the very top ...

And working its way down from there ....

To the very bottom of the heap ....

Which then takes us right on back to the top ....

And so .....

And then ...

There is this ....

Oil is rapidly becoming a LUXURY ITEM up here where I am ....

Which means that more and more people are going to be "SHUT OUT" of the marketplace for that LUXURY ITEM .....

Which is going to have some real interesting implications ...

For this nebulous imaginary thing called the "economy" .....

Which is based upon this LUXURY ITEM ....

Being universally available .....

To all alike ...

At an inexpensive cost ....

Which it no longer is ...

OR EVER WILL BE AGAIN ....

And so ...

Apparently ....

There is a belief among the fools who tout the economy ....

That regardless of what something like oil costs ...

People will still somehow have all of this money from God alone knows where to pay for it ....

And so ....

Let the fools drive the cost of a barrel of oil up to the point of where only an OIL SHEIK can afford to buy some ...

Or the BLOATED HEAD of a GREEDY PROFITEERING AMERICAN CORPORATION ....

And let's all see what happens to this thing called the "economy" then .....

And so ...

"Oil prices climb to new intraday high"

By JANE WARDELL, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:46 a.m., Tuesday, April 18, 2006

LONDON -- Oil prices hit a new intraday high of $70.88 a barrel Tuesday amid international tension over Iran's nuclear program and worries about supply disruptions in Nigeria.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery surpassed the previous record of $70.85 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, before easing back to $70.75.

That's up 35 cents from Monday, when the contract settled at $70.40 a barrel, a record close.

In London, Brent crude for June delivery at the ICE Futures exchange also hit an all-time high of $72.20 a barrel, before easing back to $71.51 -- a 5 cent increase on Monday's close.

"We have broken new ground today," said Victor Shum, energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

"The market sentiment is bullish, with yesterday's record closing, momentum has been built up to cause a wave of buying."

The previous intraday high was set Aug. 30, when Hurricane Katrina lashed at the U.S. Gulf Coast and wreaked havoc on the region's oil industry.

Analysts said oil prices were likely to climb further as long as geopolitical risks in Iran and Nigeria posed threats to supply at a time when global demand remains strong and supplies remain tight.

Crude oil production is only barely keeping up with rising global demand, leaving a slim margin for error if there is a prolonged supply interruption, experts say.

Traders are anxious that U.S.-led efforts to stop Iran, OPEC's second-largest member, from pursuing a suspected nuclear weapons program would lead to a disruption in Persian Gulf supplies.

ABN Amro broker Lee Fader said the trigger for the latest rally was "heightened fear about military action" against Iran.

"If somehow this got resolved diplomatically that would definitely take a few dollars off," Fader said.

And in Nigeria, militant attacks have led to the stoppage of more than 25 percent of the country's crude oil production.

Also underpinning a sustained oil price rise is booming demand for oil in emerging economies such as China and India at a time when supplies are becoming tighter and the expectation of strong demand for gasoline over summer in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer.

"The market sentiment now is much more nervous," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo.

"Things haven't changed so much but as we approach the summer driving season we'll need more crude to make gasoline and we know also that U.S. gasoline production has its limitations because of the tight refining capacity."

U.S. gasoline inventories are expected to have slipped below the psychologically important 200-million-barrel mark in the week to April 14, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of 10 analysts.

The data will be released Wednesday.

Gasoline futures Tuesday fell 0.6 cent to 2.1725 a gallon while heating oil prices gained 0.6 cent to $2.0223 a gallon.

Natural gas futures rose 6.2 cents to $7.639 per 1,000 cubic feet.

And while we are on that subject ....

Of HUGE SUV's becoming extinct .....

Along with fat-*** bloated oil executives ....

Of the GREEDY, REPUBLICAN-PROTECTED PROFITEERING OIL COMPANIES ....

Who will only be able to sell their products to themselves ....

Or to the PERSIAN GULF OIL SHEIKS that they bought it from ....

In the first place ....

We have ....

What looks like a story about their forebears ....

Especially the part about hunting in packs ...

And so ....

The "wheel of time" turns ...

And so ....

"Details revealed about huge dinosaurs"

By MALCOLM RITTER, Associated Press
Last updated: 10:57 p.m., Monday, April 17, 2006

NEW YORK -- Scientists are learning more about what appears to be one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs known, a two-legged beast whose bones were found several years ago in the fossil-rich Patagonia region of Argentina.

One expert called the discovery the first substantial evidence of group living by large meat-eaters other than tyrannosaurs like T. rex.

The creature, which apparently measured more than 40 feet long, is called Mapusaurus roseae.

The discovery of Mapusaurus included bones from at least seven to nine of the beasts, suggesting the previously unknown animal may have lived and hunted in groups.

That hunting strategy might have allowed it to attack even bigger beasts, huge plant-eating dinosaurs.

The find was reported in 2000 by The Associated Press.

It is described in the latest issue of the journal Geodiversitas by paleontologists Rodolfo Coria of the Carmen Funes Museum in Plaza Huincul, Argentina, and Philip Currie of the University of Alberta in Canada.

They oversaw the excavation of the dinosaur's remains about 15 miles south of Plaza Huincul from 1997 to 2001.

Mapusaurus is estimated to have lived about 100 million years ago.

Currie, in an e-mail, said it's hard to say how long the biggest specimen was because no complete skeleton was found.

He estimated it may have measured about 41 feet from the snout to the tip of the tail.

It may have been about a foot longer than Giganotosaurus, also found in Patagonia, but without a complete skeleton "you will never know," he wrote.

The Field Museum in Chicago says its T. rex skeleton, Sue, is 42 feet long.

Thomas Holtz Jr., a University of Maryland dinosaur expert, said that Mapusaurus clearly joins Giganotosaurus, T. rex and a huge African beast called Spinosaurus as among the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs.

But he said it's impossible to know exactly how they rank in overall size.

The fossil record is too fragmentary, and unlikely to capture the biggest individual of each species, he said.

Spinosaurus was probably the longest species, but length is a poor indicator of overall size because tails can be shorter or longer without affecting a creature's weight very much, he said.

Still, Spinosaurus was probably the biggest in overall bulk as well, he said.

Coria noted the dig showed evidence of social behavior in Mapusaurus.

The excavation found hundreds of bones from several Mapusaurus individuals but none from any other creature.

That suggests the animals were together before they died, Coria said.

Perhaps they hunted in packs, though there is no direct evidence for that, he said in an e-mail.

Currie, in a statement from his university, speculated that pack hunting may have allowed Mapusaurus to prey on the biggest known dinosaur, Argentinosaurus, a 125-foot-long plant-eater.

Holtz called the finding the first substantive evidence of group living by giant two-legged carnivores other than tyrannosaurs.

It's not clear whether the animals cooperated in hunting, as wolves or lions do, or simply mobbed their prey or just gathered around after one of them made a kill, he said.

"Mapusaurus" comes from the word for "Earth" in the language of the Mapuche tribe of western Patagonia, while "roseae" refers both to the rose-colored rock that yielded the specimens and to the name of a sponsor of the excavations.

And since we are on the subject of LOOTERS and PROFITEERS in here this morning ....

Let's wing our way up to the corrupt REPUBLICAN-controlled EMPIRE of New York ....

Where the LOOTERS are not only having a field day ....

But are protected by .....

You know what .....

GUMMINT SECRECY .....

While they go about LOOTING OUR treasury ....

For their pockets ....

And so ....

"Secrecy cloaks budget pork - Pact among state finance officials keeps confidential how $200 million of discretionary funds will be spent"

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

First published: Sunday, April 16, 2006

ALBANY -- When the finance czars of the Senate, Assembly and Gov. George Pataki's budget division divvy up $200 million for pet projects each year, they sign a confidentiality pact barring them from telling the public how the money is going to be spent, according to a document obtained by the Times Union.

The arrangement wraps a shroud of secrecy around a process of choosing who will get taxpayer money from the Legislature's so-called "member item'' account --discretionary spending privately arranged to suit politicians.

This pork barrel plan is established with a "Memorandum of Understanding,'' a copy of which was obtained by the newspaper last week for member items in 2005.

Last year's "Memorandum of Understanding'' specifies $85 million for each chamber and $30 million for the governor.

It also reveals that the parties agree to share ideas for spending the funds only among themselves.

"Each party will treat information regarding any proposed project as confidential and will not share it with any individual or entity,'' says the agreement public officials have signed for years.

Mum is the word "except that it may be shared on a confidential basis with the agency or authority proposed to administer the project,'' the document says.

John F. Cape, Pataki's budget director; Mary Louise Mallick, secretary of the Senate Finance Committee; and Dean A. Fuleihan, secretary of the Assembly Ways & Means Committee, signed the May 3, 2005, document.

Down the road, taxpayers may find out how that year's member-item pot -- formally known as the Community Projects Fund -- is going to be used.

Typically, that happens when a member of the Legislature or the governor conducts a ribbon-cutting, issues a news release or gives a speech.

Legislative leaders say they come up with their priority projects from members who submit wish lists to the Democrats who lead the Assembly and the Republicans who lead the Senate.

The governor uses his own staff to come up with projects.

The projects, government reform advocates say, range from worthy to suspect.

The secrecy, they say, is galling.

"It's indefensible,'' said Blair Horner, lobbyist for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a government watchdog organization.

"It's the people's money."

"They should know how it's spent."

"They find out after the fact, but that's hardly the transparency the public should expect and deserves.''

Assemblyman Robert Reilly, D-Cohoes, said he is upset Fuleihan is signing a privacy deal in the name of the Assembly.

"To have a staff member, in this case Dean, sign something of that nature on my behalf I think is wrong and something I'm absolutely opposed to,'' said Reilly.

"I'm the elected official."

"I should know about this and the public should know about this.''

Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said he believes the confidentiality only lasts during a five-day period that the three parties are negotiating projects.

However, the MOU lists no expiration date for the secrecy pact, and it is unclear whether the other parties have the same interpretation.

"This is just a matter of finalizing projects,'' Carrier said.

"It's ridiculous to say we are depriving people information."

"It's only for five days."

"It's an internal situation."

"We make everything available ... once we have a budget in place and these projects are moving forward.''

Yet, asked for the list of projects of the Assembly, Senate and governor, now that the confidentiality agreement has apparently lapsed, according to the Assembly's interpretation, Carrier was unable to supply the information on Thursday and Friday.

Spokesmen for Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno would not discuss the matter or did not return calls.

Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Division of the Budget, had no explanation for the confidentiality time frame or how it is honored.

He said member-item data are available upon request and subject to the state's Freedom of Information Law.

"DOB routinely distributes them to members of the media and other citizens who request these documents,'' he said.

However, learning how member-item money is spent is not so simple.

In January, Pataki pitched budget reform legislation that would require the information be electronically available on state Web pages.

But no sponsor in the Assembly or Senate has taken up the cause.

Some people familiar with the privacy pact say it was inserted into the standard member-item MOU several years ago and no one has bothered to rewrite terms that took a lot of effort to create.

The reason for the secrecy deal, they say, is because of distrust among the parties.

One party did not want its project disclosed -- and the credit for it stolen -- by one of the other parties.

The distrust may stem from a case in which Charles Gargano, chairman of Empire State Development Corp., which Pataki controls, announced a project sponsored by Silver, some sources said.

Another reason for the secrecy, legislative sources say, is because of competition and envy among potential recipients and members over funds.

The use of the pork pot has long been an Albany debate, criticized sharply by fiscal conservatives and questioned by budget watchdogs.

It came under the spotlight in recent months after Senate Democrats blasted legislative leaders for constructing a budget full of "slush funds.''

Silver and Bruno would not spell out how the $200 million from the member-item pot, as well as hundreds of millions in other lump sum economic development pools, would be used.

Silver responded that he refuses to itemize because he needs to protect Assembly programs from being targeted by Pataki's veto ax.

Pataki, a Republican, disproportionately attacked Assembly Democrats' items in 1998 during a veto spree, and spared items for his traditional allies in the Senate, Silver says.

Pataki denies the assertion, saying he weighed the affordability and need.

Assembly members stress their items frequently pay for things that should be funded in the budget such as aid for the arts, charities and legal services for the poor.

When asked about the matter recently, Bruno bristled and said people can file a Freedom of Information Law request for details from the budget division.

People who do so got long lists without details on which lawmakers were responsible for which projects, and no explanation for the proposed expenditure.

Member-item funding will become even more prominent during the ongoing budget fight.

If lawmakers want the money this year, they will be forced to override Pataki's veto of the entire $200 million pot, as well as $150 million in other unspecified lump sums that were to be dispensed at Bruno's and Silver's discretion.

"This is such a game,'' said E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center, a conservative think tank.

"It's time this game came to an end.''

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, suggests an open process in which each member's requests are discussed publicly, and evaluated and ranked by an independent, nonpartisan panel of people from 10 regions of the state.

The panel's recommendations could then be discussed in a public hearing.

The Legislature would set the member item list openly with the goal of getting the best value for the dollar, he said.

"I want to take this process from politics to piety,'' Tedisco said.

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

And ......

Here is a man who would be the NEXT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT ....

And it appears ...

That his "pocket" .....

Has done quite well for itself ....

During his tenure as REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR up here in the corrupt REPUBLICAN-controlled EMPIRE of New York ...

And so ...

I would guess that that would qualify him ...

To be a REPUBLICAN candidate for PRESIDENT ....

And so ....

"He'll go out in the money - Pataki's wealth has grown steadily during his 12 years running the state, trail of tax returns shows"

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

First published: Tuesday, April 18, 2006

ALBANY -- During his tenure as governor of New York, George Pataki has become a wealthy man.

When he first ran for statewide office in 1994, Pataki and his wife, Libby, were land rich but cash poor.

That year, Pataki reported earning $105,652 as a state senator and attorney.

Libby Pataki wasn't working.

She listed her occupation on tax documents as "housewife."

The couple reported losses on three in-state rental properties, as well as his family's Westchester County farm.

As soon as Pataki took office in January 1995, his family's fortunes began to change.

His income jumped by about $100,000 that first year, and continued to climb fairly steadily.

Last year, the governor and the first lady earned $889,123, and their adjusted gross income was $775,169, according to their 2005 tax returns, which were made public Monday.

It was the Patakis' most lucrative year to date -- far better than their last best year, 2004, when they pulled in $528,023.

The increase in the Patakis' income was largely due to the sale last year of an out-of-state rental property they owned for 17 months and stayed in for only two nights.

The Patakis bought the 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom house in North Palm Beach, Fla. for $360,000 in May 2004 and sold it for $675,000 last October.

The sale was handled by Chip Lubeck, a Florida real estate agent.

The buyer was Peter Clarke, of Fairfax Station, Va., who has never met the Patakis and has no ties to New York, according to the governor's spokesman David Catalfamo.

"It was an arm's length transaction," Catalfamo said, adding that the Patakis "got lucky, they bought into a hot market."

Clarke, an investment executive with the Wachovia financial services giant, called himself "the sucker who bought the house" in an interview Monday with The Associated Press.

He said the property was "definitely not worth it," but he bought it because it is close to both the ocean and the Intercoastal Waterway.

The Patakis paid $162,949 in federal taxes, $49,753 in state taxes and $31,633 in property taxes.

They gave $6,636 to charity, including $4,871 in used clothes and household goods, which they donated to the Salvation Army and Albany's Capital City Rescue Mission.

Pataki, 60, earned more than his wife in 2005 for the first time since 2003.

His state salary was $178,749.

He brought in $144,210 for making 10 paid speeches: in Las Vegas; Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Los Angeles, Ca.; Montreal; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; and Miami.

The groups he addressed included The New Majority, a California Republican group, the University of Southern California Law School, and the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

All the groups were vetted by the state Ethics Commission and none have business with the state, according to Catalfamo.

Libby Pataki, 55, who listed her profession as "marketing consultant/advisor," was paid $80,000 by Ron Lauder, one of the governor's longtime financial backers.

Lauder has had the first lady on the payroll since 1995.

She also earned $70,000 from the Wheelchair Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose officials founded VSP Books, which published the children's book, "Madison In New York," which Libby Pataki co-wrote with a former aide.

Catalfamo said the foundation is "wrapping up operations" and the first lady no longer works there.

She was paid $97,500 by the foundation in 2002 and 2003 for consulting services.

Libby Pataki was paid $55,000 by FFD Trust II, which was established in 2003 when marketing giant Cendant Corp. took over time-share condo seller Fairfield Resorts.

Her job is to attend bimonthly meetings and help make decisions about the properties.

Libby Pataki has been on the trust's payroll since its inception.

The first lady made two paid speeches in 2005 -- both in California -- for which she earned $17,000.

She spoke to the Orange County Conference of Women and Inland Energy, located in Newport Beach.

The Patakis still own quite a bit of property, including their main residence in Garrison, Putnam County; land in Salem, Washington County; the governor's childhood home in Peekskill, Westchester County; and a 377-acre farm in Essex County, which they bought for $1.2 million several years ago.

In addition, Libby Pataki is an investor in two real estate trusts -- Old Blue LLC and Ling Randolph Building LLC -- with Richard Hayden, a longtime friend of the governor's (the two roomed together at Yale University).

She earned $8,016 in 2005 from Old Blue, which owns property in an Atlanta office complex, and $6,453 from Ling Randolph, which owns an office building in Albuquerque, NM.

Many times ...

I have posted letters from Senator John Kerry to myself in here ...

Letters that I think people should consider ...

As I do myself ...

And many times ...

What Senator Kerry is looking for ....

Is a show of support ...

For this idea ...

Or that .....

And I applaud that effort ....

Because to me ...

That is democracy in action ....

And so ....

But this following letter that John Kerry asked me to consider signing off on .....

I have not yet done ...

BECAUSE ....

Right now ...

In my own mind ...

I do not believe that it is a sound approch to what has become a very serious problem here in OUR America ...

That being this IRAQINAM debacle that George W. Bush and the REPUBLICAN PARTY have so foolishly gotten us embroiled in ....

And so .....

Having been asked to sign off on this letter several times ...

And having hesitated each time .....

Because I personally don't agree ...

Still ...

I am going to post this request letter in here ...

So that others can consider it as well ....

And so .....

While I may not agree with this particular approach .....

That is no excuse to stifle this letter ....

And so ....

Dear Livyjr,

One general after another demanding Rumsfeld's resignation.

More citizens every day joining in support of our May 15 deadline for Iraqi leaders to stop their squabbling and form a government.

In these and many other ways, because of citizens like you, the wheel is slowly, but surely, turning on the question of Iraq.

Over the next ten days, we're going to give it another huge push.

But, before I tell you more, please take a moment right now to sign in support of the Kerry Iraq plan:

Sign our Out of Iraq in 2006 petition now.

It's time for Iraq's leaders to seize the opportunity for democracy in Iraq that our troops are sacrificing every day to create.

If Iraq's leaders can't move past their infighting and endless delays to form a new government by May 15, we should immediately withdraw all of our troops.

If they meet the May 15 deadline, we'll bring America's combat troops home by the end of the year and put the future of democracy in Iraq where it belongs -- in the hands of the Iraqi people.

The clarity and precision of our plan stand in sharp contrast to the aimless approach of the architects of this war -- Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

All across America, people are strongly dissenting from the Bush administration's "stay for as long as it takes" policy -- and, just as important, standing up to the administration's attempts to vilify and question the patriotism of those who dare to speak out.

Decades ago I stood up to the Nixon administration and spoke out for a change of course in Vietnam.

Four days from now, I will be delivering a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall on the critically important topic of war and dissent.

It's time to remind America that, when a stubborn president has America headed profoundly in the wrong direction, only citizen action can change our country's course.

The fight is just beginning.

I recognize the importance of the United States Senate as an institution that can help change America's course.

And I know that we can't force George W. Bush to confront reality in Iraq until we force the Senate to do the same.

Sign our Out of Iraq in 2006 petition now.

I will be acting in the Senate to bring change beginning when the current congressional recess ends on Monday.

And I will be needing your help to move the Senate to action.

Working together, we can make the next 10 days an important turning point on Iraq -- and we can build momentum as our May 15 deadline approaches.

You can help right now in three important ways.

First, sign the Out of Iraq in 2006 petition.

Second, forward this email to as many people as possible.

And third, pay special attention to your email over the next 10 days.

Events could move quickly -- and you may need to act in a matter of hours.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. Some of America's most respected retired generals have called on Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

We've long ago demanded the Secretary of Defense's resignation.

Clearly, if President Bush acted with the decisiveness this moment demands, America could have a new Secretary of Defense in place by our May 15 deadline.

And that would add much-needed impetus to the drive to successfully end America's military engagement in Iraq.

Out of Iraq in 2006

I support John Kerry’s Senate resolution for a timely withdrawal from Iraq.

I believe that American combat troops should come home from Iraq in 2006 - not the distant future as President Bush does.

Furthermore, I believe we must set a May 15th deadline for the Iraqis to form an effective unity government.

And, if the Iraqi politicians choose to ignore that deadline, then I believe things will only get worse and we will have no choice but to withdraw immediately.

We want democracy in Iraq, but it’s now the job of Iraqis to build it.

Our troops have performed gallantly and heroically.

The best way to keep faith with them is to set deadlines for bringing our troops home and getting Iraq on its own two feet.

That’s the only way to give their sacrifice its best chance of resulting in success.

Signed,

Your name here

And with that said ....

We go ...

Back to the economy .....

Which just might start to tank in a hurry up here where I am ....

Where the weather gets cold ....

And you have to drive everywhere you go ...

Just to get the smallest thing ....

And so ...

Interesting times ahead, as I see it ...

And so ...

"Many Ask Where Housing Market Will End Up"

By ADRIAN SAINZ, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 19 minutes ago

MIAMI - Al Fernandez moved from Tampa to Miami two years ago, and acquaintances kept telling him to take advantage of the booming housing market before prices became too high.

But he held off until recently, uneasy about a "frenzy" in the market, where prices were rising too quickly.

He decided to temporarily rent an apartment until the market cooled and he could research his purchase — likely a condo in the $400,000 range.

"It was just so crazy, the housing market then."

"People were saying, `Get in on this condo because in three months it's going to go up $100,000,'" Fernandez said.

"I've been looking for the last year."

"I really wanted to take my time."

"I wanted the ability not to be stressed out and rushed into anything."

Fernandez is becoming a buyer while the market slows down, a trend reflected by Freddie Mac's prediction that total home sales this year will be down by about 7 percent from 2005's record levels.

Many experts believe that the market will level off but remain steady, reaching what the National Association of Realtors calls a "high plateau" as speculators leave the market and interest rates remain reasonable for buyers.

Statistically, the leveling off of the housing market is apparent.

Sales of existing homes rose in February by 5.2 percent from the previous month, but that came after five months of decline and was still 0.3 percent below a year ago, according to the realtor's association's most recent figures.

In new home sales, the U.S. Commerce Department reported construction dropped by 7.8 percent in March, the fourth decline in the past six months.

The national median existing home price for all housing types was $209,000 in February, up 10.6 percent from $189,000 in February 2005, but down from a high of $220,000 in August, the realtors' association reported.

In a conference call announcing first quarter earnings, Lennar Corp. president and chief executive Stuart Miller acknowledged the Miami-based homebuilder had seen some softening in the new home market in pockets of the West, including Tucson, Ariz., but had seen steady sales in Florida and the Carolinas.

"Even the currently cooling housing conditions will give us an opportunity to perform well into 2007," Miller said.

"We've already seen some recovery in the traffic patterns in our major markets."

Dave Denslow, a University of Florida economist, said data from the spring and summer months will likely give a better estimation of the housing market, but said he doubts that the much-discussed "housing bubble" will burst.

"People traditionally move in the spring and summer," Denslow said.

"The market is simply thinner in the winter ..."

"If in the spring, if you see data with housing still selling slowly, then you can say (the boom) is over."

Some observers point out several unknowns, such as a possible rise in interest rates, which would offset other factors that would help builders in places such as Florida, where hundreds of thousand of people move each year.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.49 percent for the week ending April 13.

That was up from 6.43 percent last week and the highest since mid-July of 2002.

"Demand will weaken despite the demographics if interest rates go up enough," Denslow said.

Albert Saiz, an assistant real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said that prospective buyers could think twice should interest rates rise.

He also noted that the influence of speculators "flipping" homes for a quick profit may be declining, as they leave the market because of the perceived slowdown and fear over interest rates.

"I do have a sense that speculators are very, very mindful of the general economic situation, and they may actually be contributing somewhat to that sort of deceleration in the market," Saiz said.

"It's the best thing that could happen to us because we were competing with the lunatic fringe," said Brian Street of Boca Developers, a luxury condo builder.

"We would like to compete with the rationale of the marketplace, not the frenzy of the marketplace."

Another potential problem is the rising cost of necessary construction materials such as concrete and steel, and a lack of labor to work on homes.

Some Miami-area contractors have lamented that what once cost $90 per square foot to build now costs $130, and the pool of project superintendents is lacking and expensive.

A higher cost of building homes and condos means higher prices for buyers.

Charles Kibert, a construction professor at the University of Florida, says nations such as China have such a demand for concrete and steel that it's taking supplies from American builders and making materials more expensive and less accessible.

Damage from the past two active hurricane seasons also have drained supplies, and Kibert pointed out that the reconstruction of New Orleans will require massive amounts of building materials.

And then there's a shortage of workers, a major problem for builders.

"It's hard for them to find not only enough people, but competent people," Kibert said.

"Companies are having a hard time shifting gears to cope with the twin horns of this dilemma."

When analyzing the housing market, it's hard to ignore Florida, one of the hottest areas in terms of demand and growing supply.

Last year, Florida saw the second-highest percent increase in house prices at 26.83 percent, behind only Arizona (34.9 percent) and way ahead of the national average of 12.95 percent, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

Florida's weather, relatively cheap land, lack of a state income tax and its scenic coasts are attractive to buyers.

Mike Hughes, vice president of Downing-Frye Realty in Naples, said those factors led the agency to a record year of about $3.2 billion in sales in southwest Florida last year.

But this year's projections are near $2 billion, still a healthy number, but clearly not as lucrative as 2005.

He says the smart buyers are taking a more cautious approach.

"I see a number of buyers I feel will still buy this year," Hughes said.

"They're kind of waiting to see."

"It could work against them if interest rates go up."

And here is a real "blast from the past", alright .....

"Report: Chernobyl Toll May Top 90,000"

By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer

Tue Apr 18, 11:50 AM ET

KIEV, Ukraine - Greenpeace said Tuesday in a new report that more than 90,000 people were likely to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, countering a United Nations report that predicted the death toll would be around 4,000.

The differing conclusions underline the contentious uncertainty that remains about the health effects of the world's worst nuclear accident as its 20th anniversary approaches.

A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over much of Europe.

The fallout was particularly severe in northern reaches of Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus.

Areas immediately around the now-inoperative plant remain off limits, but people in other areas that received significant fallout are anxious about their health.

A report by the Chernobyl Forum — a group comprising the International Atomic Energy Agency and several other U.N. groups — last year said only 56 deaths thus far could be connected to Chernobyl and about 4,000 deaths total would ultimately be linked to the accident.

But Greenpeace, in a report citing data from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, harshly disagreed and suggested the Chernobyl Forum report was deliberately misleading.

"It is appalling that the IAEA is whitewashing the impacts of the most serious nuclear accident in human history," Ivan Blokov of the environmental group's Russia office said in a statement.

"Denying the real implications is not only insulting to the thousands of victims but it also leads to dangerous recommendations and the relocation of people in contaminated areas."

The Chernobyl Forum report had suggested that many of the health problems and complaints in the regions around Chernobyl were connected with unhealthy lifestyles, including heavy drinking and smoking, and with a culture of victimization.

Greenpeace countered that statistics from Belarus indicate there will be 270,000 cases of cancer attributable to Chernobyl radiation throughout the region and that 93,000 of those are likely to be fatal.

Greenpeace also cited a report by the Center for Independent Environmental Assessment of the Russian Academy of Sciences that found a sharply increased mortality in western Russia over the past 15 years, suggesting the rise was due to Chernobyl radiation.

"On the basis of demographic data, during the last 15 years, 60,000 people have died additionally in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident and estimates of the total death toll for Ukraine and Belarus could be another 140,000," Greenpeace's international office said in a statement.

The report also finds that "radiation from the disaster has had a devastating effect on survivors" other than cancer cases — "damaging immune and endocrine systems, leading to accelerated aging, cardiovascular and blood illnesses, psychological illnesses, chromosome aberrations and an increase of deformities in fetuses and children."
___

On the Net:

Greenpeace International: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/

Chernobyl Forum:

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/consequences.html