Bush won't rule out nuclear strike on Iran By Edmund Blair
President Bush refused on Tuesday to rule out nuclear strikes against Iran if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's atomic ambitions.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060418/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc
===
Senate Hearings on Bush, Now
Should Republicans on the Hill take the high road and save themselves come November?
By Carl Bernstein
There was understandable reluctance in the Congress to begin a serious investigation of the Nixon presidency. Then there came a time when it was unavoidable. That time in the Bush presidency has arrived.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12776.htm
===
President Bush Now Caught In The Tangled Web He Spun
By Bill Gallagher
President George W. Bush's character is diseased. Serial lies spew from his forked tongue as the result of a damaged mind and personality that will not permit him to face the truth. He lies about leaks and leaks about lies.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12783.htm
Full Version: Life in OUR America, Volume 5
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
"OK, OK ....."
"Let's break it up here ...."
"Everybody just go back to your homes ..."
"Get back down in your basements ..."
"Keep your faces averted ..."
"There IS NO GLOBAL WARMING!"
"Any attempts by responsible scientists to say that there is such a thing are just lies ..."
"Lies intended to make George W. Boosh look bad, at a time when America is in a war for its very existence ..."
A nation of 294 MILLION people who are about to be overrun and destroyed by twenty or thirty nomads riding on camels ....
Who everybody knows ...
Can spit some really nasty stuff in your eye ...
At twenty paces ...
And so ....
"Climate change cause for concern, disclaimer - NASA scientist at center of controversy speaks at Albany Law School"
By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Wednesday, April 19, 2006
ALBANY -- In the midst of a gripping presentation at Albany Law School about the implications of a rapidly warming planet, James Hansen, NASA's chief climate change scientist stopped, and muttered "Oh."
"Everything that I'm saying today is my personal opinion," said Hansen, who created a major stir in December when he revealed that White House officials were trying to keep him from talking frankly about global warming.
"If there are policy implications to what I say," Hansen continued, as many of the nearly 200 people in the audience laughed, "I'll let those speak for themselves."
Hansen was greeted as a folk hero Tuesday as he kicked off the symposium on "Catastrophic Climate Change" for researchers, law professors and others discussing ways to address global warming.
More than a dozen panelists talked about the impact of climate change and legal strategies to address them.
But the star of the show was Hansen, 63, a physicist who directs the Manhattan-based NASA Institute for Space Studies, which specializes in climate modeling.
The institute runs complex computer programs that predict what will happen as increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, warm the atmosphere.
After Hansen gave a speech in December about the dire need for more efficient fuel standards for cars and trucks, NASA's public affairs staff warned him he needed to submit all his speeches and papers for review.
Other researchers from agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey reported they, too, had been warned to be careful how they wrote and spoke about climate change.
One USGS hydrologist even told The Washington Post that a press release about a study he did on how warming might affect the nation's water supply was edited to remove the phrases "global warming" and "climate change."
The Bush administration was widely accused of muzzling science.
In response, new guidelines were issued, which Hansen said are reasonable:
He has to let his audiences know, as he did Tuesday, that there's a distinction between his opinion and NASA policy.
"I don't feel any constraints," Hansen said Tuesday in an interview after his remarks.
Hansen was one of the first researchers to warn about global warming.
He co-wrote a 1981 article in the journal Science that predicted a warming of "almost unprecedented magnitude" for the 21st century.
The science behind those predictions has since become much stronger, and scientists have advanced beyond debating whether or how the earth is warming.
Speakers on Tuesday made clear the scope of the impacts that are already visible -- and staggering.
Glaciers and polar ice are melting, leaving parts of the Arctic without ice for the first time on record.
The permanent ice cap is 40 percent smaller today: a loss equivalent to an area equal to Texas, California and Maryland combined.
Those changes are threatening 184 Alaskan villages, where natives are battling collapsing earth, massive storms and widespread erosion.
A morning panel at the law school looked at one strategy Inuit people have employed to fight back.
Last year, they petitioned the Organization of American States, accusing the U.S. government of violating their human rights by not reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
At least one community is planning to move, and many others are threatened.
It will cost an estimated $100-$400 million to move just one, according to Donald Goldberg, an attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law.
"I doubt the Inuit, all together, have enough money to move one village," he said.
Matt Pacenza can be reached at 454-5533 or by e-mail at mpacenza@timesunion.com.
"Let's break it up here ...."
"Everybody just go back to your homes ..."
"Get back down in your basements ..."
"Keep your faces averted ..."
"There IS NO GLOBAL WARMING!"
"Any attempts by responsible scientists to say that there is such a thing are just lies ..."
"Lies intended to make George W. Boosh look bad, at a time when America is in a war for its very existence ..."
A nation of 294 MILLION people who are about to be overrun and destroyed by twenty or thirty nomads riding on camels ....
Who everybody knows ...
Can spit some really nasty stuff in your eye ...
At twenty paces ...
And so ....
"Climate change cause for concern, disclaimer - NASA scientist at center of controversy speaks at Albany Law School"
By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Wednesday, April 19, 2006
ALBANY -- In the midst of a gripping presentation at Albany Law School about the implications of a rapidly warming planet, James Hansen, NASA's chief climate change scientist stopped, and muttered "Oh."
"Everything that I'm saying today is my personal opinion," said Hansen, who created a major stir in December when he revealed that White House officials were trying to keep him from talking frankly about global warming.
"If there are policy implications to what I say," Hansen continued, as many of the nearly 200 people in the audience laughed, "I'll let those speak for themselves."
Hansen was greeted as a folk hero Tuesday as he kicked off the symposium on "Catastrophic Climate Change" for researchers, law professors and others discussing ways to address global warming.
More than a dozen panelists talked about the impact of climate change and legal strategies to address them.
But the star of the show was Hansen, 63, a physicist who directs the Manhattan-based NASA Institute for Space Studies, which specializes in climate modeling.
The institute runs complex computer programs that predict what will happen as increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, warm the atmosphere.
After Hansen gave a speech in December about the dire need for more efficient fuel standards for cars and trucks, NASA's public affairs staff warned him he needed to submit all his speeches and papers for review.
Other researchers from agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey reported they, too, had been warned to be careful how they wrote and spoke about climate change.
One USGS hydrologist even told The Washington Post that a press release about a study he did on how warming might affect the nation's water supply was edited to remove the phrases "global warming" and "climate change."
The Bush administration was widely accused of muzzling science.
In response, new guidelines were issued, which Hansen said are reasonable:
He has to let his audiences know, as he did Tuesday, that there's a distinction between his opinion and NASA policy.
"I don't feel any constraints," Hansen said Tuesday in an interview after his remarks.
Hansen was one of the first researchers to warn about global warming.
He co-wrote a 1981 article in the journal Science that predicted a warming of "almost unprecedented magnitude" for the 21st century.
The science behind those predictions has since become much stronger, and scientists have advanced beyond debating whether or how the earth is warming.
Speakers on Tuesday made clear the scope of the impacts that are already visible -- and staggering.
Glaciers and polar ice are melting, leaving parts of the Arctic without ice for the first time on record.
The permanent ice cap is 40 percent smaller today: a loss equivalent to an area equal to Texas, California and Maryland combined.
Those changes are threatening 184 Alaskan villages, where natives are battling collapsing earth, massive storms and widespread erosion.
A morning panel at the law school looked at one strategy Inuit people have employed to fight back.
Last year, they petitioned the Organization of American States, accusing the U.S. government of violating their human rights by not reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
At least one community is planning to move, and many others are threatened.
It will cost an estimated $100-$400 million to move just one, according to Donald Goldberg, an attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law.
"I doubt the Inuit, all together, have enough money to move one village," he said.
Matt Pacenza can be reached at 454-5533 or by e-mail at mpacenza@timesunion.com.
Wow .....
Hey, everybody ...
Look at this will you ....
Looks like we won't have Scottie McClellan to kick around in here anymore ....
And so ...
"McClellan Out as White House Press Secretary - Karl Rove Gives Up Policy Oversight to Focus on 2006 Elections"
By Fred Barbash, Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 19, 2006; 12:42 PM
Karl Rove, the president's most influential adviser and a dominant force in the Bush administration since its beginning, surrendered key policy responsibilities today while press secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation.
Both moves were part of the makeover promised earlier this week by a White House seeking to reverse sagging public opinion ratings.
After serving almost three years as White House press secretary, Scott McClellan announced his resignation on April 19, 2006.
"I have given it my all sir...," McClellan told President Bush during an appearance at the White House.
Rove will remain deputy chief of staff to President Bush, but he will drop his portfolio as policy coordinator -- a job he assumed a year ago -- and once again concentrate his focus on broader strategy and politics as the 2006 mid-term elections approach, the White House announced.
The Bush administration's standing in the polls has plummeted to new lows in recent weeks as the war in Iraq has dragged on with little visible progress toward the formation of a new government in Baghdad.
The Republican Party's standing has suffered as well, according to polling, at the worst possible time.
With elections just seven months away, Republicans are being buffeted by ethics scandals and general dissatisfaction with the incumbent party's capacity to govern.
Much of the pressure for a shakeup has come from congressional Republicans.
The moves followed a declaration Monday by Joshua B. Bolten, the new chief of staff, that any administration official considering leaving should do so sooner rather than later.
Further change is expected shortly with most attention focused on replacing Treasury Secretary John W. Snow.
Bolten will replace Rove with Joel Kaplan, a trusted aide from the Office of Management and Budget, which Bolten headed until a few days ago.
Bush yesterday announced Rob Portman's nomination as OMB chief.
Joseph W Hagin, the other deputy chief of staff, also turns over his policy management duties to Kaplan but remains deputy for operations.
"Karl will continue to serve as the deputy chief of staff and senior adviser," said deputy White House press secretary Ken Lisaius.
"What's going to happen is Joel will come in to manage the daily policy process and that will leave Karl more time to focus on truly strategic planning at a critical time for the presidency."
McClellan is the most visible face of the White House after the president himself since he presides over the increasingly contentious daily briefings that have become common fare not only on C-SPAN but on the late night humor shows.
Since the perjury indictment of vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the briefings have featured many more angry questions from some reporters who feel they were misled by McClellan on White House involvement in a series of leaks on pre-war evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
McClellan's resignation was not unexpected.
Bush stood next to McClellan, a long time Texas associate, as the resignation was announced on the White House South Lawn just before the president left for a trip to Alabama.
"I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity," the president said.
"It's going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted it."
"One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days."
McClellan told Bush: "I have given it my all, sir, and I have given you my all, sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary."
No replacement has been named yet for McClellan.
Earlier today, Bush returned to the vexing situation in Iraq, saying he was concerned about a dangerous "vacuum" there.
He prodded once again Iraq's political leadership to put a "government in place" soon.
"We fully recognize that the Iraqis must step up and form a unity government, so that those who went to the polls to vote recognize that a government will be in place to respond to their needs."
". . . "We also recognize that vacuums in the political process create opportunity for malfeasance and harm," he said.
Bush commented after meeting with four governors who recently returned from a trip to Iraq.
The governors included Jeb Bush, Republican of Florida and the president's brother; Tom Vilsack, Democrat of Iowa; Mitch Daniels, Republican of Indiana and former director of the White House budget office; and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia.
Four months of haggling among Iraqi politicians have now passed since the country went to the polls to choose elected representatives, who were, in turn, supposed to choose a government.
The 275-member assembly had been scheduled to meet Monday but agreed to a delay so that Shiites could resolve the continuing dispute over who will be prime minister.
Staff writer Bill Brubaker contributed to this story .
Most of what is wrong with this pathetic BUSHCO operation ....
Can be traced directly to Karl Rove ....
In my estimation ...
And Scottie "BOY" McClellan ....
While perhaps a nice, polite person ...
HAS NO CREDIBILITY .....
And so ....
Hey, everybody ...
Look at this will you ....
Looks like we won't have Scottie McClellan to kick around in here anymore ....
And so ...
"McClellan Out as White House Press Secretary - Karl Rove Gives Up Policy Oversight to Focus on 2006 Elections"
By Fred Barbash, Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 19, 2006; 12:42 PM
Karl Rove, the president's most influential adviser and a dominant force in the Bush administration since its beginning, surrendered key policy responsibilities today while press secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation.
Both moves were part of the makeover promised earlier this week by a White House seeking to reverse sagging public opinion ratings.
After serving almost three years as White House press secretary, Scott McClellan announced his resignation on April 19, 2006.
"I have given it my all sir...," McClellan told President Bush during an appearance at the White House.
Rove will remain deputy chief of staff to President Bush, but he will drop his portfolio as policy coordinator -- a job he assumed a year ago -- and once again concentrate his focus on broader strategy and politics as the 2006 mid-term elections approach, the White House announced.
The Bush administration's standing in the polls has plummeted to new lows in recent weeks as the war in Iraq has dragged on with little visible progress toward the formation of a new government in Baghdad.
The Republican Party's standing has suffered as well, according to polling, at the worst possible time.
With elections just seven months away, Republicans are being buffeted by ethics scandals and general dissatisfaction with the incumbent party's capacity to govern.
Much of the pressure for a shakeup has come from congressional Republicans.
The moves followed a declaration Monday by Joshua B. Bolten, the new chief of staff, that any administration official considering leaving should do so sooner rather than later.
Further change is expected shortly with most attention focused on replacing Treasury Secretary John W. Snow.
Bolten will replace Rove with Joel Kaplan, a trusted aide from the Office of Management and Budget, which Bolten headed until a few days ago.
Bush yesterday announced Rob Portman's nomination as OMB chief.
Joseph W Hagin, the other deputy chief of staff, also turns over his policy management duties to Kaplan but remains deputy for operations.
"Karl will continue to serve as the deputy chief of staff and senior adviser," said deputy White House press secretary Ken Lisaius.
"What's going to happen is Joel will come in to manage the daily policy process and that will leave Karl more time to focus on truly strategic planning at a critical time for the presidency."
McClellan is the most visible face of the White House after the president himself since he presides over the increasingly contentious daily briefings that have become common fare not only on C-SPAN but on the late night humor shows.
Since the perjury indictment of vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the briefings have featured many more angry questions from some reporters who feel they were misled by McClellan on White House involvement in a series of leaks on pre-war evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
McClellan's resignation was not unexpected.
Bush stood next to McClellan, a long time Texas associate, as the resignation was announced on the White House South Lawn just before the president left for a trip to Alabama.
"I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity," the president said.
"It's going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted it."
"One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days."
McClellan told Bush: "I have given it my all, sir, and I have given you my all, sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary."
No replacement has been named yet for McClellan.
Earlier today, Bush returned to the vexing situation in Iraq, saying he was concerned about a dangerous "vacuum" there.
He prodded once again Iraq's political leadership to put a "government in place" soon.
"We fully recognize that the Iraqis must step up and form a unity government, so that those who went to the polls to vote recognize that a government will be in place to respond to their needs."
". . . "We also recognize that vacuums in the political process create opportunity for malfeasance and harm," he said.
Bush commented after meeting with four governors who recently returned from a trip to Iraq.
The governors included Jeb Bush, Republican of Florida and the president's brother; Tom Vilsack, Democrat of Iowa; Mitch Daniels, Republican of Indiana and former director of the White House budget office; and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia.
Four months of haggling among Iraqi politicians have now passed since the country went to the polls to choose elected representatives, who were, in turn, supposed to choose a government.
The 275-member assembly had been scheduled to meet Monday but agreed to a delay so that Shiites could resolve the continuing dispute over who will be prime minister.
Staff writer Bill Brubaker contributed to this story .
Most of what is wrong with this pathetic BUSHCO operation ....
Can be traced directly to Karl Rove ....
In my estimation ...
And Scottie "BOY" McClellan ....
While perhaps a nice, polite person ...
HAS NO CREDIBILITY .....
And so ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 19 2006, 05:09 PM)
"McClellan Out as White House Press Secretary - Karl Rove Gives Up Policy Oversight to Focus on 2006 Elections"
By Fred Barbash, Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 19, 2006; 12:42 PM
The Bush administration's standing in the polls has plummeted to new lows in recent weeks as the war in Iraq has dragged on with little visible progress toward the formation of a new government in Baghdad.
The Republican Party's standing has suffered as well, according to polling, at the worst possible time.
With elections just seven months away, Republicans are being buffeted by ethics scandals and general dissatisfaction with the incumbent party's capacity to govern.
Further change is expected shortly with most attention focused on replacing Treasury Secretary John W. Snow.
By Fred Barbash, Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 19, 2006; 12:42 PM
The Bush administration's standing in the polls has plummeted to new lows in recent weeks as the war in Iraq has dragged on with little visible progress toward the formation of a new government in Baghdad.
The Republican Party's standing has suffered as well, according to polling, at the worst possible time.
With elections just seven months away, Republicans are being buffeted by ethics scandals and general dissatisfaction with the incumbent party's capacity to govern.
Further change is expected shortly with most attention focused on replacing Treasury Secretary John W. Snow.
And while we are on the subject of the economy up here where I am taking a real nose dive ....
As people simply stop driving ....
As I have .....
So they no longer stop at the bogger market further down the road for anything ....
Because they are conserving gas .....
And it can be gotten closer to home ...
If necessary ...
And so ...
Everything up here from the heydays of driving long distances to get to some mall .....
Maybe is going to make some readjustment ....
And so .....
It'll be interesting to see if the housing market begins to collapse first .....
As it did back in 1974 .....
When people could no longer afford to live out in the country ...
And make the payments for subdivision living .....
With the cost of the commute ...
Added on ...
And things were much cheaper then ...
And so ....
Run them oil prices right on up, there, boys .....
And let's just see what happens ....
This ...
To me ...
Is like a game of Russian Roulette ....
And America has allowed these oil companies ....
To put the gun to its head ...
And so ....
How did that Harrison Beaudain fellow in the movies say it?
"Stupid is as stupid does?"
Or was that Forrest Gump, now that I think on it?
Something like that, anyway ....
And so ....
"Oil Prices Settle Above $72 a Barrel"
By BRAD FOSS, AP Business Writer
2 hours, 9 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Oil prices leapt above $72 a barrel Wednesday, settling at a record high for the third straight day after a government report showed shrinking U.S. gasoline supplies and traders focused on nuclear tensions between Iran and the international community.
Supply constraints in Iraq, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico are also pushing oil prices higher, and analysts are predicting more pain at the pump for motorists, who so far appear to be only lightly tapping the brakes on demand.
Light sweet crude for May delivery climbed as high as $72.40 a barrel, before settling at $72.17 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an increase of 82 cents from the previous day.
The contract had risen as high as $71.60 on Tuesday.
Oil futures contracts through July 2009 are now trading above $70 a barrel.
"In effect, the market is saying this is going to be with us for a while," said A.G. Edwards & Sons commodity analyst Bill O'Grady.
In its weekly report, the U.S. Energy Department said the nation's supply of gasoline shrank by 5.4 million barrels last week to 202.5 million barrels, or 4.6 percent below year ago levels.
Gasoline inventories typically decrease this time of year as refiners shut down their plants to perform maintenance ahead of the summer driving season.
And oil traders typically point to the decreases as reason for concern about summertime supplies, a routine that, more often than not, sends futures prices higher.
That said, there is additional worry about summer gasoline supplies because of the prospect of tight supplies of ethanol, which is needed in increasing amounts as refiners phase out their use of methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, which has been found to contaminate drinking water.
Oil analyst John Kilduff of Fimat USA in New York said there would be a "painful runup" in gasoline prices as summer approaches, and he said oil prices could rise as high as $80 a barrel by the end of June.
Purchased today, crude for June delivery costs $74 a barrel.
QUOTE(Snuffysmith @ Apr 18 2006, 07:09 PM)
"President Bush Now Caught In The Tangled Web He Spun"
By Bill Gallagher
By Bill Gallagher
The sad truth is, however ...
That George W. Bush ...
Is caught in nothing at all ...
Nor is Dick Cheney ...
Since that pair is UNACCOUNTABLE for the mess that they have made of things .....
Out there in the world ...
As a result ...
Of their short-sightedness ......
And gross ignorance .....
And incompetence ...
And yes ....
Their lies .......
Who is really caught hard ....
Right by the ***s ....
In this tangled web that George W. Bush has spun ...
IS OUR AMERICA ......
And the sooner that it realizes this .....
The sooner it can begin to extricate itself .....
And so .....
This is why I disagree with this strategy put forth by John Kerry in a letter to myself that is posted just above here .....
Where John Kerry is asking people ....
To endorse a course of action ....
Setting a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq .....
That is unrealistic ...
And thus .....
Will never fly ...
And so ...
It is foolish to expend energy on losing causes ...
And that would be one ...
Because it is DEVISIVE .....
It would push away the very people who are needed at this time in a uniform coalition .....
That can get America back on track ...
And that is the disaffected Republicans, themselves .....
Who will view setting an arbitrary withdrawal date as detrimental to OUR America's interests ...
And as a veteran myself, I must say ...
That I agree with them on this issue ...
And so ...
Please, Senator Kerry ....
Consider the end result of what your present course of action might be ...
And so ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 19 2006, 03:54 PM)
Who will view setting an arbitrary withdrawal date as detrimental to OUR America's interests ...
And as a veteran myself, I must say ...
That I agree with them on this issue ...
And so ...
Please, Senator Kerry ....
Consider the end result of what your present course of action might be ...
And so ....
And as a veteran myself, I must say ...
That I agree with them on this issue ...
And so ...
Please, Senator Kerry ....
Consider the end result of what your present course of action might be ...
And so ....
General Livyjr: As a combat veteran who knows the dread of death, the terror of the unknown, the fear of accidentally mowing down innocents - - -
What is YOUR plan for Iraqniam?
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Apr 19 2006, 06:35 PM)
General Livyjr: As a combat veteran who knows the dread of death, the terror of the unknown, the fear of accidentally mowing down innocents - - -
What is YOUR plan for Iraqinam?
What is YOUR plan for Iraqinam?
Well, jeffmoskin ...
Quite personally .....
As a combat veteran ...
Who never really desired to breathe the "rare air" that generals get to breathe .....
But chose to be a grunt, instead ....
The "tip of the spear" ...
Rather than the ham hands that push the spear forward ...
In the case of this present incumbent ...
I ....
Quite frankly ...
See us "***ed" in IRAQINAM ..........
Which is a technical term that grunts use .....
When they know that they are in the **** .....
Because some fool of a general ...
Or incompetent Commander-in-Chief .....
Got them there ...
And that they are going to die as a result ...
And so ...
My admission .....
Like Custer's likely would have been ...
Had he been interviewed .....
Just before becoming a pin cushion ....
Is that ...
"Wah, wah, wah, I don't have a plan ...."
Just a lot of thoughts swirling around right now ...
Based upon a knowledge of history ....
And observations of reality as they continue to filter out of IRAQINAM ...
And so .....
And let me tell you, jeffmoskin ...
That I consider you a serious person in here ...
And so ...
I consider your question to be an important one ...
And I am glad that you have asked it ...
BECAUSE AMERICA REALLY NEEDS PEOPLE LIKE YOU RIGHT NOW ...
Asking these questions ...
Much more than it needs a bunch more lies from some politician .....
And so .....
I am an infantryman by nature ...
Which means that I do not believe is just expending ordinance needlessly .....
As I believe this John Kerry measure under consideration to be ....
And so .....
There is a difference between believing an approach is the wrong one ...
As I believe the present one proposed by John Kerry to be ....
And not knowing ...
AS OF THAT MOMENT ....
What the RIGHT ONE might be ...
Especially now that we are so far in to the QUAGMIRE ...
And there are many factors now at play ....
And so ...
Live ...
Late-breaking, as always ...
And developments as they happen .....
And what else can I say right now ...
But that I AM NOT THE FOOL WHO CAUSED THIS MESS ....
NOR DID I ELECT THE FOOL ...
NOR DID I EVER ENCOURAGE THE FOOL ...
OR ACCEPT THAT THE FOOL WAS EVER IN CONTROL OF WHAT HE WAS GOING TO UNLEASH .....
And so .....
And speaking of "developments" .....
This just in ....
"Off the wire" ....
And so ....
"Al-Jaafari clears way for his replacement"
Associated Press
Last updated: 7:16 a.m., Thursday, April 20, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari cleared the way Thursday for Shiite leaders to withdraw his nomination for a second term, a step that could break a months-long standoff that is blocking the formation of a new government.
Shiite lawmakers planned to meet Saturday to decide whether to replace al-Jaafari, who faced fierce opposition from Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties.
"The alliance is leaning toward changing (the nomination)."
"The majority opinion is in favor of this," said Bassem Sharif, a lawmaker in the seven-party Shiite coalition.
The move represents the first sign that al-Jaafari has abandoned his quest to keep the prime minister's post, only a day after he had repeated his steadfast refusal to step down.
The United States had put strong pressure on the Shiites to resolve the standoff quickly so they could form a government able to stabilize Iraq amid increasing sectarian violence.
The dramatic announcement was made shortly before a planned session of the Iraqi parliament to try to jump-start formation of a new government.
The Shiites asked that the session be postponed until Saturday or Sunday, after they resolve the issue of al-Jaafari's nomination, said Shiite official Ridha Jawad Taqi.
But the deputy parliament speaker, Aref Tayfour, told reporters the session would be held Thursday, though it would likely be brief.
"It is almost certain that it will adjourn and be held at the beginning of the next week, most probably Sunday," he said.
This just in ....
"Off the wire" ....
And so ....
"Al-Jaafari clears way for his replacement"
Associated Press
Last updated: 7:16 a.m., Thursday, April 20, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Embattled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari cleared the way Thursday for Shiite leaders to withdraw his nomination for a second term, a step that could break a months-long standoff that is blocking the formation of a new government.
Shiite lawmakers planned to meet Saturday to decide whether to replace al-Jaafari, who faced fierce opposition from Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties.
"The alliance is leaning toward changing (the nomination)."
"The majority opinion is in favor of this," said Bassem Sharif, a lawmaker in the seven-party Shiite coalition.
The move represents the first sign that al-Jaafari has abandoned his quest to keep the prime minister's post, only a day after he had repeated his steadfast refusal to step down.
The United States had put strong pressure on the Shiites to resolve the standoff quickly so they could form a government able to stabilize Iraq amid increasing sectarian violence.
The dramatic announcement was made shortly before a planned session of the Iraqi parliament to try to jump-start formation of a new government.
The Shiites asked that the session be postponed until Saturday or Sunday, after they resolve the issue of al-Jaafari's nomination, said Shiite official Ridha Jawad Taqi.
But the deputy parliament speaker, Aref Tayfour, told reporters the session would be held Thursday, though it would likely be brief.
"It is almost certain that it will adjourn and be held at the beginning of the next week, most probably Sunday," he said.
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Apr 19 2006, 04:35 PM)
What is YOUR plan for Iraqniam?
I think BushCo's plan is to stay in Iraqnam until about 2050 when the oil runs out. To make that possible, they have constructed 14 "enduring bases." each one larger than any other foreign base. Each base can accomodate over 10,000 personnel, and have Stateside features like Pizza Hut and Burger King.
If they would only stop driving patrols, and stay inside the green zone, they could eliminate all deaths from IEDs.
I wonder why they are not smart enough to figure this out.
Don't think for a moment that things are going to change in the Bush White House., just because rearranging the deck chairs is going on:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2141786,00.html
Analysis: Rove still at heart of Bush team after shake-up
Tom Baldwin, Washington Correspondent of The Times, explains the latest moves in the White House shake-up and why they are so badly needed
"Karl Rove has not been sidelined or demoted. He quite clearly remains absolutely at the heart of the Bush Administration as the most trusted and influential adviser to the President.
"What appears to have happened is that he has returned to the role he has traditionally played with Mr Bush, rather than the aggrandized role he was given after the 2004 election. Essentially, he will be less involved in overseeing policy and more involved in what he is really good at, which is directing the general political strategy of the administration.
"He may now be taking a slightly lower profile. This may be politically convenient, as Mr Rove is potentially in some trouble after he was named as a subject of the Fitzgerald investigation (a special prosecutor who is investigating the alleged leak of a CIA agent's name by the White House).
"The change in Mr Rove's role is also designed to fit in with the larger shake-up going on at the White House. It is part of the fine-tuning involved in the five-year service of the Administration, where some parts - like Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary - are being discarded, and others are being polished up.
"Mr McClellan's departure is not unexpected. He has become a living symbol of the problems that this administration has been having in communicating its message. He has been an extraordinarily ham-fisted, wooden, apologetic, disaster-area of a spokesman. He sits there, just taking body blow after body blow, sweating and getting pink in the face.
"There will be further changes. Most people think that John Snow, the Treasury Secretary, will be among those to go.
"It is all about trying to reinvigorate an Administration which is looking tired, if not actually dead. They have two and a half years to go, but they look exhausted, politically and physically. They have lost their touch and their political antennae.
"They can't see trouble coming, and it hits them smack in the face. They can't get up off the floor. They used to just keep winning, but now they have been on a very long losing streak, from Hurricane Katrina to the Dubai ports deal, via corruption among Republicans in Congress and the "Scooter" Libby affair. It is looking very, very shaky.
"This is what politicians do when they are having a bad time - they reshuffle their team."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2141786,00.html
Analysis: Rove still at heart of Bush team after shake-up
Tom Baldwin, Washington Correspondent of The Times, explains the latest moves in the White House shake-up and why they are so badly needed
"Karl Rove has not been sidelined or demoted. He quite clearly remains absolutely at the heart of the Bush Administration as the most trusted and influential adviser to the President.
"What appears to have happened is that he has returned to the role he has traditionally played with Mr Bush, rather than the aggrandized role he was given after the 2004 election. Essentially, he will be less involved in overseeing policy and more involved in what he is really good at, which is directing the general political strategy of the administration.
"He may now be taking a slightly lower profile. This may be politically convenient, as Mr Rove is potentially in some trouble after he was named as a subject of the Fitzgerald investigation (a special prosecutor who is investigating the alleged leak of a CIA agent's name by the White House).
"The change in Mr Rove's role is also designed to fit in with the larger shake-up going on at the White House. It is part of the fine-tuning involved in the five-year service of the Administration, where some parts - like Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary - are being discarded, and others are being polished up.
"Mr McClellan's departure is not unexpected. He has become a living symbol of the problems that this administration has been having in communicating its message. He has been an extraordinarily ham-fisted, wooden, apologetic, disaster-area of a spokesman. He sits there, just taking body blow after body blow, sweating and getting pink in the face.
"There will be further changes. Most people think that John Snow, the Treasury Secretary, will be among those to go.
"It is all about trying to reinvigorate an Administration which is looking tired, if not actually dead. They have two and a half years to go, but they look exhausted, politically and physically. They have lost their touch and their political antennae.
"They can't see trouble coming, and it hits them smack in the face. They can't get up off the floor. They used to just keep winning, but now they have been on a very long losing streak, from Hurricane Katrina to the Dubai ports deal, via corruption among Republicans in Congress and the "Scooter" Libby affair. It is looking very, very shaky.
"This is what politicians do when they are having a bad time - they reshuffle their team."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/print?id=1864733
Republicans Say They're Happy About Rove
Karl Rove Will Now Focus on Elections Instead of Policy
April 20, 2006 — - Bush adviser Karl Rove's duties have changed.
His day-to-day control over domestic policy issues have been handed over to another deputy chief of staff , but his friends say that his legendary influence remains.
Republican strategist Mary Matalin said she wouldn't characterize it as Rove's duties being reduced or lessened.
"I'd say it's a reassignment," she said. "Karl has been and will be the MVP. We need him back on the pitcher's mound. This is a critical midterm election. Karl made history in the last midterm election, and we need him again."
"If we lose control of either chamber, it will be nothing but chaos for the final two years of the presidency," she said.
Mark McKinnon, a media consultant who was an adviser on Bush's presidential campaigns, agreed with Matalin.
"Karl has more bandwidth than anybody on the planet, but there's only so much that he can do and now adding the responsibility of the midterm elections he had to give up something," McKinnon said.
Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh applauded the move.
"That's probably a net positive in terms of trying to secure Republican success at the polls this November," Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday.
The Rove move was a surprise, and a way for the new White House chief of staff to make a very public statement that big changes were ahead. In his years crafting the political career of President Bush, Rove and his power has never been checked -- until now.
Insiders say the move is not just window dressing. They say that Rove's role in the CIA leak investigation may have also triggered the move, and that Rove has not proven as adept at the nuts and bolts of policy as he is at political strategy, citing the failure of Social Security reform and the lack of a compelling domestic policy agenda.
Matalin says, however, that Rove is not taking the fall for these political problems because the president has not been failing politically.
"There will be Social Security reform, and it will be remembered that this president stepped up to the plate to reform not only this, but Medicare," Matalin said. "And we also have a good economy, and we're making progress on the global war on terror."
Rove's change in responsibility is still bound to be a disappointment to him. Years ago, he was frustrated at being known only as a political wizard.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
Republicans Say They're Happy About Rove
Karl Rove Will Now Focus on Elections Instead of Policy
April 20, 2006 — - Bush adviser Karl Rove's duties have changed.
His day-to-day control over domestic policy issues have been handed over to another deputy chief of staff , but his friends say that his legendary influence remains.
Republican strategist Mary Matalin said she wouldn't characterize it as Rove's duties being reduced or lessened.
"I'd say it's a reassignment," she said. "Karl has been and will be the MVP. We need him back on the pitcher's mound. This is a critical midterm election. Karl made history in the last midterm election, and we need him again."
"If we lose control of either chamber, it will be nothing but chaos for the final two years of the presidency," she said.
Mark McKinnon, a media consultant who was an adviser on Bush's presidential campaigns, agreed with Matalin.
"Karl has more bandwidth than anybody on the planet, but there's only so much that he can do and now adding the responsibility of the midterm elections he had to give up something," McKinnon said.
Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh applauded the move.
"That's probably a net positive in terms of trying to secure Republican success at the polls this November," Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday.
The Rove move was a surprise, and a way for the new White House chief of staff to make a very public statement that big changes were ahead. In his years crafting the political career of President Bush, Rove and his power has never been checked -- until now.
Insiders say the move is not just window dressing. They say that Rove's role in the CIA leak investigation may have also triggered the move, and that Rove has not proven as adept at the nuts and bolts of policy as he is at political strategy, citing the failure of Social Security reform and the lack of a compelling domestic policy agenda.
Matalin says, however, that Rove is not taking the fall for these political problems because the president has not been failing politically.
"There will be Social Security reform, and it will be remembered that this president stepped up to the plate to reform not only this, but Medicare," Matalin said. "And we also have a good economy, and we're making progress on the global war on terror."
Rove's change in responsibility is still bound to be a disappointment to him. Years ago, he was frustrated at being known only as a political wizard.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Apr 20 2006, 08:06 AM)
I think BushCo's plan is to stay in Iraqnam until about 2050 when the oil runs out.
To make that possible, they have constructed 14 "enduring bases," each one larger than any other foreign base.
Each base can accomodate over 10,000 personnel, and have Stateside features like Pizza Hut and Burger King.
If they would only stop driving patrols, and stay inside the green zone, they could eliminate all deaths from IEDs.
I wonder why they are not smart enough to figure this out.
To make that possible, they have constructed 14 "enduring bases," each one larger than any other foreign base.
Each base can accomodate over 10,000 personnel, and have Stateside features like Pizza Hut and Burger King.
If they would only stop driving patrols, and stay inside the green zone, they could eliminate all deaths from IEDs.
I wonder why they are not smart enough to figure this out.
And here is a part of the reason why I am not in agreement with John Kerry's plan to call for an immediate withdrawal of our troops from IRAQINAM .....
And that is because NONE OF US here in OUR OWN COUNTRY have the slightest idea of why we still have troops in IRAQINAM .....
Or what their real mission is ...
And as far as I am concerned ...
OUR United States Senate should be DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILTY from George W. Bush on that question ...
But since OUR United States Senate is already complicit in this fiasco .....
It is unlikely that any demands from the American people at this time are going to produce any tangible results ....
And so ...
My thought is that since the Congressional elections are to be held later this year ....
That the Congressional elections really should serve as a plebiscite on the question of IRAQINAM ....
Because if America leaves the REPUBLICANS in charge of OUR CONGRESS ...
There will be no change forthcoming ...
And so ....
Why waste wind right now on demanding anything from George W. Bush ...
Who has no control over the situation in IRAQINAM anymore ...
Since he never knew what he was doing over there ...
Right from the get-go ...
And so .....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 20 2006, 04:02 PM)
Why waste wind right now on demanding anything from George W. Bush ...
Who has no control over the situation in IRAQINAM anymore ...
Since he never knew what he was doing over there ...
Right from the get-go ...
And so .....
Who has no control over the situation in IRAQINAM anymore ...
Since he never knew what he was doing over there ...
Right from the get-go ...
And so .....
Au contraire.
I think that PNAC spelled it all out in 1992: With the demise of the USSR, America should go for world domination. That means control of all the oil within reach. That means dollar hegemony. That means perpetual war to support the MIC Ike warned us about. Only now it's the Military Industrial FINANCIAL Complex.
Don't forget, America has now become a "service economy". We make deals. The stuff is made in China, and the call centers are in India.
Oil is the new gold standard. Control the oil. Make everyone pay with dollars. Block the dreaded Euro.
No, Livyjr, I think the cabal in power knew EXACTLY what they were doing by attacking Iraqniam. Of course, they didn't listen to any professional soldiers, but even if they had, we would still be there.
We will always be there.
Until the oil is gone.
x
And don't forget the oil in Iran:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp...6&Cat=4&Num=018
Bush pushes for next generation of nuclear weapons
MERCURY, Nev. ( USA TODAY) — If the Bush administration succeeds in its determined but little-noticed push to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, this sun-baked desert flatland 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas could once again reverberate with the ground-shaking thumps of nuclear explosions that used to be common here.
The nuclear-weapons test areas are now a wasteland that is home mostly to lizards and coyotes. Throughout the Nevada Test Site, the ground is strewn with mangled buildings and pockmarked with craters, the ghostly evidence of the 928 nuclear tests the government conducted here from 1951 to 1992.
A concrete tower designed to hold the bomb for what would have been the 929th test still looms over the desert floor.
But "Icecap," the test of a bomb 10 times the size of the one that devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, was halted when the first President Bush placed a moratorium on U.S. nuclear tests in October 1992. The voluntary test ban came two years after Russia stopped its nuclear tests.
In the 11 years since, the United States has worked to halt the spread of nuclear weapons around the world and has often touted its own self-imposed restraint as a model for other nations.
But the Bush administration has now taken a decidedly different approach, one that has touched off a passionate debate in Washington. Last year the White House released, to little publicity, the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review. That policy paper embraces the use of nuclear weapons in a first strike and on the battlefield; it also says a return to nuclear testing may soon be necessary. It was coupled with a request for $70 million to study and develop new types of nuclear weapons and to shorten the time it would take to test them.
Last November, months before the invasion of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld casually told reporters during a flight to Chile that military strategists were examining ways to neutralize Iraq's chemical and biological weapons. Among options studied were bunker-busting bombs that might have nuclear payloads.
Bunker-busters are heavy, missile-like bombs with hardened noses that penetrate the ground before exploding. No nuclear bunker-busters were employed in Iraq, although their use was considered there and in Afghanistan.
But the matter-of-fact way in which Rumsfeld suggested their possible role was a rare public sign of a growing effort by the administration to end the decade-long ban on developing and testing new nuclear bombs.
The main reason offered by the Pentagon is that "rogue" nations such as North Korea, Iran and Libya have gone deep, building elaborate bunkers hundreds of feet underground where their leaders and weapons could ride out an attack by the biggest conventional weapons U.S. forces could throw at them. U.S. officials also theorize that the vaporizing blast of a nuclear bomb might be the only way to safely destroy an enemy's chemical or biological weapons.
The Pentagon says developing new nuclear weapons makes sense in a dangerous world. "Without having the ability to hold those targets at risk, we essentially provide sanctuary," J.D. Crouch, an assistant secretary of Defense, told reporters earlier this year.
But others argue that moving toward a new generation of nuclear weapons, instead of improving conventional and non-nuclear ways to attack deep targets or chemical weapons sites, is fraught with danger. "They are opening the door to a new era of a global nuclear arms competition," says Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C.
"As we try to turn the tide of nuclear proliferation, the last thing we should suggest is that nuclear weapons have a role in the battlefield, and these weapons are battlefield weapons. This is a serious step in the wrong direction."
Kimball and others say research would eventually lead to testing. If Congress approves the White House requests, the first live tests of any new nuclear weapon could come as early as 2005. Since 1992, weapons have been tested only in non-nuclear experiments 963 feet below the ground at the test site and in computer simulations here and in labs. Congress has mostly gone along with the new approach and has green-lighted most of the Bush administration proposals. This spring, the House of Representatives and the Senate agreed to spend $15.5 million to develop a nuclear bunker-buster called the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator."
They also agreed to spend money to make changes to the Nevada Test Site, shortening to as little as 18-24 months the time it would take to resume nuclear tests. (It would take 24-36 months now.)
Congress is hung up on just one element of the Bush plan: a ban on researching and developing a nuclear bomb with a payload of 5 kilotons or less. (A kiloton is equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT.) The Senate voted to end the ban, while the House voted to keep it; the two sides are expected to settle their differences in a House-Senate conference committee by August.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp...6&Cat=4&Num=018
Bush pushes for next generation of nuclear weapons
MERCURY, Nev. ( USA TODAY) — If the Bush administration succeeds in its determined but little-noticed push to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, this sun-baked desert flatland 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas could once again reverberate with the ground-shaking thumps of nuclear explosions that used to be common here.
The nuclear-weapons test areas are now a wasteland that is home mostly to lizards and coyotes. Throughout the Nevada Test Site, the ground is strewn with mangled buildings and pockmarked with craters, the ghostly evidence of the 928 nuclear tests the government conducted here from 1951 to 1992.
A concrete tower designed to hold the bomb for what would have been the 929th test still looms over the desert floor.
But "Icecap," the test of a bomb 10 times the size of the one that devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, was halted when the first President Bush placed a moratorium on U.S. nuclear tests in October 1992. The voluntary test ban came two years after Russia stopped its nuclear tests.
In the 11 years since, the United States has worked to halt the spread of nuclear weapons around the world and has often touted its own self-imposed restraint as a model for other nations.
But the Bush administration has now taken a decidedly different approach, one that has touched off a passionate debate in Washington. Last year the White House released, to little publicity, the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review. That policy paper embraces the use of nuclear weapons in a first strike and on the battlefield; it also says a return to nuclear testing may soon be necessary. It was coupled with a request for $70 million to study and develop new types of nuclear weapons and to shorten the time it would take to test them.
Last November, months before the invasion of Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld casually told reporters during a flight to Chile that military strategists were examining ways to neutralize Iraq's chemical and biological weapons. Among options studied were bunker-busting bombs that might have nuclear payloads.
Bunker-busters are heavy, missile-like bombs with hardened noses that penetrate the ground before exploding. No nuclear bunker-busters were employed in Iraq, although their use was considered there and in Afghanistan.
But the matter-of-fact way in which Rumsfeld suggested their possible role was a rare public sign of a growing effort by the administration to end the decade-long ban on developing and testing new nuclear bombs.
The main reason offered by the Pentagon is that "rogue" nations such as North Korea, Iran and Libya have gone deep, building elaborate bunkers hundreds of feet underground where their leaders and weapons could ride out an attack by the biggest conventional weapons U.S. forces could throw at them. U.S. officials also theorize that the vaporizing blast of a nuclear bomb might be the only way to safely destroy an enemy's chemical or biological weapons.
The Pentagon says developing new nuclear weapons makes sense in a dangerous world. "Without having the ability to hold those targets at risk, we essentially provide sanctuary," J.D. Crouch, an assistant secretary of Defense, told reporters earlier this year.
But others argue that moving toward a new generation of nuclear weapons, instead of improving conventional and non-nuclear ways to attack deep targets or chemical weapons sites, is fraught with danger. "They are opening the door to a new era of a global nuclear arms competition," says Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C.
"As we try to turn the tide of nuclear proliferation, the last thing we should suggest is that nuclear weapons have a role in the battlefield, and these weapons are battlefield weapons. This is a serious step in the wrong direction."
Kimball and others say research would eventually lead to testing. If Congress approves the White House requests, the first live tests of any new nuclear weapon could come as early as 2005. Since 1992, weapons have been tested only in non-nuclear experiments 963 feet below the ground at the test site and in computer simulations here and in labs. Congress has mostly gone along with the new approach and has green-lighted most of the Bush administration proposals. This spring, the House of Representatives and the Senate agreed to spend $15.5 million to develop a nuclear bunker-buster called the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator."
They also agreed to spend money to make changes to the Nevada Test Site, shortening to as little as 18-24 months the time it would take to resume nuclear tests. (It would take 24-36 months now.)
Congress is hung up on just one element of the Bush plan: a ban on researching and developing a nuclear bomb with a payload of 5 kilotons or less. (A kiloton is equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT.) The Senate voted to end the ban, while the House voted to keep it; the two sides are expected to settle their differences in a House-Senate conference committee by August.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12390631/site/newsweek/
'Compassionate Colonialism'
As Iraq fractures along multiple religious and ethnic lines, only one force seems to be holding it together: American involvement. So what might this future look like?
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Michael Hirsh
Newsweek
Updated: 2:13 p.m. ET April 19, 2006
April 19, 2006 - When most Americans look at Iraq, they see a frightening faraway chaos, howling on the horizon like a desert dust storm. But U.S. Army Spc. Rocio Lucero has been in the eye of the storm, and she knows its nature as well as anyone. As we sit in an Iraqi police station in the Bab al Sheikh district of Baghdad, she looks around and notes casually, without a smidgeon of nostalgia, that this dingy office was her home for a year. From the beginning of the invasion in March 2003 until March of the following year, her military police unit was based here 24-7, ducking mortars and regularly taking fire.
Now her platoon comes here to check on things every few days. Their mission has been narrowed to backing up Iraqi police patrols that drive out in front, 100 yards ahead, while trying to persuade the locals that their own government, not Washington, now supplies their guns and uniforms. The insurgents and the Shiite death squads still grip many neighborhoods, but in between bombings and shootings, the throngs on Palestine Street—a main boulevard through Baghdad—continue to crowd into well-stocked shops that are open late into the evening. It's a far cry from Lucero's early days, when there were no police at all. "It's coming along," she says.
Yes, America's remaking of Iraq is a mess. But it's a mess with a slight forward motion; nothing about it is pretty or safe. To get to the Bab al Sheikh police station—this little patch of order surrounded by concrete chicanes—our convoy wends a crooked path through several "hot" zones, nerves on hair-trigger alert. At one point Staff Sgt. Ruben Diaz, looking to me very much like a fearless lion tamer entering a cage full of man-killers, gets out and leads the convoy on foot through a large Iraqi crowd. This is Diaz's fourth overseas deployment, beginning with Kosovo. When we get back to the Green Zone the veneer of courage-under-fire gives way to hoots of relief. Another day, another reprieve from death or maiming. "Whoooo!" Diaz shouts. "It's like Russian roulette, every day." As we pass through the well-lit checkpoint, Lucero says, "The lights of hope.”
What's clear to me after two weeks here is that despite some success at handing off matters to the Iraqis, progress is so frustratingly slow that we Americans may never be able to leave. The new Iraq is growing up around our presence and is as dependent as a child. Nothing illustrates this better than the endless bickering over the new Iraqi government. This is what the Americans and British have been calling for, agitating for, and banking all their hopes on. If only the Iraqis would "get governing," President Bush said recently, then the U.S. withdrawal timetable and hopes for a Mideast model could still be borne out.
Yet the more the parliamentary stalemate drags on—and make no mistake, even if a new prime minister is announced soon, the haggling will continue over myriad cabinet posts—the more it becomes clear the center may not hold in Iraq without a long-term American presence. Not necessarily the 140,000 troops we have now, but at least a core force that's left behind. Why? Because the centrifugal forces that are tearing the country apart are moving faster than our laggard efforts to keep up. On the ground here, you can feel this society fissuring every day, as you watch the Americans desperately try to paper over the cracks. And what the American people need to understand is that there is really only one dominant cohering force left in the country: the American presence.
We need to adjust our expectations accordingly. After a four-month political vacuum, what we're seeing is no longer just "sectarian war"—the catchword of the day—between Shiites and Sunnis, with the Kurds sitting it out for the moment. The new emerging issue (it's always something) is tensions within the sects, among Shiite groups and Sunni groups, or intra-sectarian war. Hence the badly misnamed United Iraqi Alliance, the group of Shiite parties that won nearly half the votes in last December's election, has been at each other's throats for months, unable to agree on a prime minister. The Sunni community too is engaged in vicious infighting (and in some cases actual firefights) over support for the insurgency. The different government ministries are devolving into mini-fiefdoms, each protected by its own mysterious Facilities Protection Service, a guard force that the Americans intended to be about 4,000 in number but has mushroomed on its own to an estimated 150,000.
Arab commentators typically raise fears of the "Lebanonization" of Iraq, or prolonged civil war. But that's not quite what is happening here. The difference is that Lebanon, like Bosnia, was a small space, and each group fought over the same tract of land. Iraq has a large space into which there's plenty of room for separation (except for Baghdad itself, which could in fact come to resemble Beirut). What may be a bigger fear than Lebanonization—groups fighting for the same space—is atomization, a breakdown to the warlord and fief level. "You could have Iraq 1914," says a U.S. military analyst, referring to the old Mesopotamia that was organized around three major cities, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, before the British created Iraq out of whole cloth in the aftermath of World War I. "But you could also have Somalia in the 1990s." The danger in other words is that Iraq's devolution into "regionalization" doesn't stop there but keeps on going, breaking up slowly like fractured glass.
The logical conclusion is that Iraq may no longer be able to exist, as Iraq, without the glue of American involvement—in politics, in security, in Iraq's very sense of national identity. This is especially true considering that any new unity government is virtually doomed to be weak. The prime ministerial candidate, a compromise choice, is certain to be hamstrung as well by the vested interests that chose him. Only if he were a charismatic figure with extraordinary persuasive powers could he transcend that fate. But no one currently in the running for the job fits that description.
So perhaps this isn't going to be a model of democracy after all. Instead it's more likely to be—if it works out—a model for post-colonial imperialism. It's a new kind of colonialism, in other words, one that dare not speak its name. But let's give it one anyway: "compassionate colonialism." Perhaps this is the inevitable evolution of Bush's world view from a stay-at-home "compassionate conservative"—which is how he began his presidency—to a change-the-world neocon convert.
How does compassionate colonialism work? First, you create an Iraqi army that will never be able to stand on its own (the postwar Japan and Germany model)—an army as addicted to U.S. logistical support and know-how as any junkie on heroin. Washington just recently awarded humvees to the Iraqi Army as its "heavy armor." But forget about tanks ("[The Iraqis] shoot at everything and anything," says a frustrated Sgt. Diaz). American helicopters and planes rule the skies here, and that's not going to change for many years. Then, you insist on a friendly government, while letting the Iraqis think it is they who are deciding to be friendly (though this "good will" is driven by the always hovering threat of a withdrawal of support). And finally, you give your companies an inside track on long-term oil contracts—again by noting that their presence in Iraq guarantees U.S. support—without actually expropriating the oil.
It is an interesting, but too little noted, fact that Iraq's borders were always defined by oil—today more than ever. (Some geologists now say the biggest potential fields may not lie in the oil-producing south and north but in the Sunni middle). After World War I, the British, French and Russians were all scrambling to grab the land where the stuff was thought to exist. Kurdistan, especially, was on the verge of being granted independence by the British after World War I. But as historian William R. Polk writes in his fine 2005 primer, "Understanding Iraq," "What would ultimately decide the fate of Kurdistan had little to do with Kurds; it would be decided by the fact that a huge deposit of oil was known to exist in what might have become a separate Kurdish state." As a result, the British at the last minute simply lumped Kurdistan into British-controlled Iraq. "Oil made Kurdistan Iraqi," Polk writes. And oil, while it was not the reason for this latest war (or perhaps only a small part of the reason), may end up being the reason we too decide to stay and force Iraq to remain Iraq. That's OK with me, I guess, as long as it's OK with Spc. Lucero and Staff Sgt. Diaz and the others who are putting their lives on the line for this cause.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc. | Subscribe to Newsweek
'Compassionate Colonialism'
As Iraq fractures along multiple religious and ethnic lines, only one force seems to be holding it together: American involvement. So what might this future look like?
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Michael Hirsh
Newsweek
Updated: 2:13 p.m. ET April 19, 2006
April 19, 2006 - When most Americans look at Iraq, they see a frightening faraway chaos, howling on the horizon like a desert dust storm. But U.S. Army Spc. Rocio Lucero has been in the eye of the storm, and she knows its nature as well as anyone. As we sit in an Iraqi police station in the Bab al Sheikh district of Baghdad, she looks around and notes casually, without a smidgeon of nostalgia, that this dingy office was her home for a year. From the beginning of the invasion in March 2003 until March of the following year, her military police unit was based here 24-7, ducking mortars and regularly taking fire.
Now her platoon comes here to check on things every few days. Their mission has been narrowed to backing up Iraqi police patrols that drive out in front, 100 yards ahead, while trying to persuade the locals that their own government, not Washington, now supplies their guns and uniforms. The insurgents and the Shiite death squads still grip many neighborhoods, but in between bombings and shootings, the throngs on Palestine Street—a main boulevard through Baghdad—continue to crowd into well-stocked shops that are open late into the evening. It's a far cry from Lucero's early days, when there were no police at all. "It's coming along," she says.
Yes, America's remaking of Iraq is a mess. But it's a mess with a slight forward motion; nothing about it is pretty or safe. To get to the Bab al Sheikh police station—this little patch of order surrounded by concrete chicanes—our convoy wends a crooked path through several "hot" zones, nerves on hair-trigger alert. At one point Staff Sgt. Ruben Diaz, looking to me very much like a fearless lion tamer entering a cage full of man-killers, gets out and leads the convoy on foot through a large Iraqi crowd. This is Diaz's fourth overseas deployment, beginning with Kosovo. When we get back to the Green Zone the veneer of courage-under-fire gives way to hoots of relief. Another day, another reprieve from death or maiming. "Whoooo!" Diaz shouts. "It's like Russian roulette, every day." As we pass through the well-lit checkpoint, Lucero says, "The lights of hope.”
What's clear to me after two weeks here is that despite some success at handing off matters to the Iraqis, progress is so frustratingly slow that we Americans may never be able to leave. The new Iraq is growing up around our presence and is as dependent as a child. Nothing illustrates this better than the endless bickering over the new Iraqi government. This is what the Americans and British have been calling for, agitating for, and banking all their hopes on. If only the Iraqis would "get governing," President Bush said recently, then the U.S. withdrawal timetable and hopes for a Mideast model could still be borne out.
Yet the more the parliamentary stalemate drags on—and make no mistake, even if a new prime minister is announced soon, the haggling will continue over myriad cabinet posts—the more it becomes clear the center may not hold in Iraq without a long-term American presence. Not necessarily the 140,000 troops we have now, but at least a core force that's left behind. Why? Because the centrifugal forces that are tearing the country apart are moving faster than our laggard efforts to keep up. On the ground here, you can feel this society fissuring every day, as you watch the Americans desperately try to paper over the cracks. And what the American people need to understand is that there is really only one dominant cohering force left in the country: the American presence.
We need to adjust our expectations accordingly. After a four-month political vacuum, what we're seeing is no longer just "sectarian war"—the catchword of the day—between Shiites and Sunnis, with the Kurds sitting it out for the moment. The new emerging issue (it's always something) is tensions within the sects, among Shiite groups and Sunni groups, or intra-sectarian war. Hence the badly misnamed United Iraqi Alliance, the group of Shiite parties that won nearly half the votes in last December's election, has been at each other's throats for months, unable to agree on a prime minister. The Sunni community too is engaged in vicious infighting (and in some cases actual firefights) over support for the insurgency. The different government ministries are devolving into mini-fiefdoms, each protected by its own mysterious Facilities Protection Service, a guard force that the Americans intended to be about 4,000 in number but has mushroomed on its own to an estimated 150,000.
Arab commentators typically raise fears of the "Lebanonization" of Iraq, or prolonged civil war. But that's not quite what is happening here. The difference is that Lebanon, like Bosnia, was a small space, and each group fought over the same tract of land. Iraq has a large space into which there's plenty of room for separation (except for Baghdad itself, which could in fact come to resemble Beirut). What may be a bigger fear than Lebanonization—groups fighting for the same space—is atomization, a breakdown to the warlord and fief level. "You could have Iraq 1914," says a U.S. military analyst, referring to the old Mesopotamia that was organized around three major cities, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, before the British created Iraq out of whole cloth in the aftermath of World War I. "But you could also have Somalia in the 1990s." The danger in other words is that Iraq's devolution into "regionalization" doesn't stop there but keeps on going, breaking up slowly like fractured glass.
The logical conclusion is that Iraq may no longer be able to exist, as Iraq, without the glue of American involvement—in politics, in security, in Iraq's very sense of national identity. This is especially true considering that any new unity government is virtually doomed to be weak. The prime ministerial candidate, a compromise choice, is certain to be hamstrung as well by the vested interests that chose him. Only if he were a charismatic figure with extraordinary persuasive powers could he transcend that fate. But no one currently in the running for the job fits that description.
So perhaps this isn't going to be a model of democracy after all. Instead it's more likely to be—if it works out—a model for post-colonial imperialism. It's a new kind of colonialism, in other words, one that dare not speak its name. But let's give it one anyway: "compassionate colonialism." Perhaps this is the inevitable evolution of Bush's world view from a stay-at-home "compassionate conservative"—which is how he began his presidency—to a change-the-world neocon convert.
How does compassionate colonialism work? First, you create an Iraqi army that will never be able to stand on its own (the postwar Japan and Germany model)—an army as addicted to U.S. logistical support and know-how as any junkie on heroin. Washington just recently awarded humvees to the Iraqi Army as its "heavy armor." But forget about tanks ("[The Iraqis] shoot at everything and anything," says a frustrated Sgt. Diaz). American helicopters and planes rule the skies here, and that's not going to change for many years. Then, you insist on a friendly government, while letting the Iraqis think it is they who are deciding to be friendly (though this "good will" is driven by the always hovering threat of a withdrawal of support). And finally, you give your companies an inside track on long-term oil contracts—again by noting that their presence in Iraq guarantees U.S. support—without actually expropriating the oil.
It is an interesting, but too little noted, fact that Iraq's borders were always defined by oil—today more than ever. (Some geologists now say the biggest potential fields may not lie in the oil-producing south and north but in the Sunni middle). After World War I, the British, French and Russians were all scrambling to grab the land where the stuff was thought to exist. Kurdistan, especially, was on the verge of being granted independence by the British after World War I. But as historian William R. Polk writes in his fine 2005 primer, "Understanding Iraq," "What would ultimately decide the fate of Kurdistan had little to do with Kurds; it would be decided by the fact that a huge deposit of oil was known to exist in what might have become a separate Kurdish state." As a result, the British at the last minute simply lumped Kurdistan into British-controlled Iraq. "Oil made Kurdistan Iraqi," Polk writes. And oil, while it was not the reason for this latest war (or perhaps only a small part of the reason), may end up being the reason we too decide to stay and force Iraq to remain Iraq. That's OK with me, I guess, as long as it's OK with Spc. Lucero and Staff Sgt. Diaz and the others who are putting their lives on the line for this cause.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc. | Subscribe to Newsweek
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Apr 20 2006, 06:53 PM)
Oil is the new gold standard.
Control the oil.
Make everyone pay with dollars.
Block the dreaded Euro.
No, Livyjr, I think the cabal in power knew EXACTLY what they were doing by attacking Iraqinam.
Of course, they didn't listen to any professional soldiers, but even if they had, we would still be there.
We will always be there.
Until the oil is gone.
Control the oil.
Make everyone pay with dollars.
Block the dreaded Euro.
No, Livyjr, I think the cabal in power knew EXACTLY what they were doing by attacking Iraqinam.
Of course, they didn't listen to any professional soldiers, but even if they had, we would still be there.
We will always be there.
Until the oil is gone.
As you have said ...
Some time ago now, jeffmoskin ....
In one of our earliest "conversations" in here .....
There is a game that children play ...
And it is called "KING ON THE MOUNTAIN" .....
And as you said back then .....
Or alluded to, anyway .....
The GOAL of that game ...
Is to pull down someone ...
So that you can rise up to their place instead of them ...
And so ...
A metaphor for life ...
AMONG ADULTS ....
When you yourself grow up to become one ...
And so ....
That is the DARWINIAN view of things that is taught over here ...
And people suck that DARWINISM up .....
AS THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE ...
At least in this present-day version of what America has become ...
Where we have people with MBA's .....
Masters of Business Adminstration .....
Calling themselves MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE .....
Because they have learned how to "FIDDLE" AND "COOK" THE BOOKS ....
Of these CORPORATIONS that now control the WORLD .....
As their personal TOY ....
And so ....
They see life as a continual food chain .....
And they see the goal of life ...
As rising to the top of the food chain ....
And so ....
They do ...
And they have ....
And that is what has gotten us into IRAQINAM ....
Just as you have said ...
But me, jeffmoskin .....
I am possessed of a ROGUE CONSCIOUSNESS ....
At least as far as what are called MY FELLOW AMERICANS are concerned ...
Because of my own experiences in the mud and jungles of Viet Nam ....
Where the soft and weak and ignorant of America now lie .....
Their blood enriching the jungle soil .....
And their names .....
And lives ...
Long since forgotten ....
By those who sent them there ..
FOR THE SAKE OF PROFITS ...
Just as GREAT BRITAIN sent OPIUM into China .....
TO ENRICH ITSELF ....
At the meager cost of a few Chinese lives ....
And so ....
The wheel turns ....
And nothing really new comes up as it does ...
Just a lot of old **** revitalized in a new wrapper ....
And so ...
I see this DARWINISTIC FOOD CHAIN CRAP as a bunch of BULL ****, quite frankly ....
And so ...
I live my own life accordingly ....
In relative simplicity .....
And so ...
And you and I have been down here on this earth of OURS for sufficiently long now, jeffmoskin .....
To have seen some things ...
And to have heard some things ...
And to have considered some things ...
And so ...
You and I are capable of musing in here ...
And while your musings go in one direction ...
Mine sometimes go in another ....
And so ....
Here indeed is a case in hand .....
Where I knew about this invasion of IRAQINAM ....
Way back in 1980 or so ...
When it was first being openly discussed .....
As a matter of necessity ....
For the survival of those in America .....
WHO ARE THE ACQUISITORS .....
And so ...
I started preparing myself ...
Way back then ..
For what was to come ...
Which is now ...
And so .....
The INVASION of IRAQINAM which was already being planned back in 1980 has now come to pass ....
And the **** has hit the fan ...
And now ...
As **** does when hitting a moving fan ...
It is flying back out in all directions ...
Sullying all and sundry ...
With its stink .....
And foulness ....
At least to us country folk ....
Simpletons that we are ....
And so .....
WE ARE NOT MOVING "OUT OF SOMETHING" .....
So much as we are moving into something entirely different .....
And so .....
In 1969 .....
I was in Viet Nam ...
And I saw what a lawless place really did look like ....
And I personally was able to survive in that .....
Although I did not like it .....
And so .....
I know how to survive .....
Which is what life up here in the cold country is going to consist of, more and more ...
Notwithstanding all this EURO stuff .....
And twaddle about the IRANIAN BOURSE .....
And all of that .....
Which is really ...
At this point ....
Like focusing in on the behavior of bilge rats .....
On board the Titanic ....
In the final fateful moments ....
Between the time the iceberg was struck ....
And the ship finally went down ....
With some rats still on board, perhaps ...
And the others?
WHO really knows .....
When I was young .....
In a lot of ways ....
Gasoline and oil were novelties .....
And we did not really need them to survive ....
And so we did .....
Then ....
Later on ....
In the sixties .....
We let oil and gasoline come further into our lives ...
And life became soft, as a result ....
And easy, by comparison ....
To what it had been before ....
And all supposedly was right with the world ....
EXCEPT ....
As you and I both know ...
It was not at all ....
BECAUSE ....
For us to have this soft, easy life over here .....
Most of the other people in the world had to endure hardships ....
Which was supposed to be their lot in life ...
Suffering ....
Misery ....
Insecurity ....
BECAUSE .....
Well, let us be frank .....
As AMERICA was with me back then .....
These people are not Americans .....
They are lesser human beings than the American human beings ....
And so ....
GOD ...
The GOD WHO ONLY LOVES AMERICA .....
Invented DuPont ....
And through DuPont ....
GOD INVENTED NAPALM ....
And NAPALM fried these lesser human beings into CRISPY CRITTERS ...
And the fatness of America grew by leaps and bounds as a result ....
And if you excluded most of the rest of the world at that time ....
Well ...
Some people considered that GOD's natural order ....
And so it was .....
BUT WAS IT, REALLY?
The nagging question, eh?
But not for CONSERVATIVES ...
Just women-men LIBRAWLS .....
And so ....
And here ...
I think of the Vietnamese ....
Who had their way of life and country torn to pieces .....
By GREEDY, AVARICIOUS AMERICA ....
Because of OIL .....
And so ....
Anyone back then with a lick of sense should have been able to look ahead to where we are right now ....
And to have seen this all coming ....
And so ....
To me, jeffmoskin ....
In addition to KING ON THE MOUNTAIN ...
There is another children's game called musical chairs .....
Which maybe has been banned ...
Or outlawed .....
Here in OUR America ...
Because it teaches you to think about FUTURE CONSEQUENCES of PRESENT ACTIONS .....
And so ....
In a consumer-oriented society .....
Where you are supposed to be just like a pig with its snout in the slop in the trough .....
Slurping away ...
While being fattened up for a feast on someone else's table .....
Thinking about the future consequences there ....
At least for the pigs ...
Is verbotten .....
And so ...
But notwithstanding ....
In musical chairs ...
While the music is distracting you from the reality of what is happening around you ...
The chairs are being removed ....
And so ...
If you are in the crowd when the music stops ..
You likely will find your own *** hitting the floor quite hard when you try and sit down ....
And there will be a pile on top of you as well .....
And so .....
Don't get involved in musical chairs ....
Is my thought .....
Especially when these self-proclaimed MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE ....
People like George W. Bush .....
And Dick Cheney ....
And "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice ....
And Donald Rumsfeld are playing the game .....
And yet ...
THAT IS EXACTLY WHERE AVARICE AND CONSUMING GREED in this place that now calls itself America has gotten itself to ...
A great big game of musical chairs ....
And so ....
Us country folk have turned OUR BACKS on that America ...
Because it is not something that we recognize anymore as OURS ....
And so .....
Whether Karl Rove is in charge of this or that .....
Or whether George W. Bush can tie his shoes or not ....
Let alone manage the affairs of what is now laughingly called a SUPERPOWER ....
Becomes more and more immaterial to us on a daily basis now .....
Because while the SLIDE may not yet be happening where you are ...
It has long since begun up here ....
And so ....
To us ...
Anyone up here who believes that tomarrow ....
Life will go back to being what it was the day before ....
When you could be fat and happy ....
With no thoughts for the rest of the world around you .....
Are simply fools .....
And so .....
We are accepting that in our old age ....
We are going to be back living like the peasants did at the time of this nation's birth ....
And like I lived when I was a child ...
And so .....
My thoughts, anyway ....
This fine morning up here ....
And so ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 20 2006, 06:02 PM)
And so ....
Why waste wind right now on demanding anything from George W. Bush ...
Who has no control over the situation in IRAQINAM anymore ...
Since he never knew what he was doing over there ...
Right from the get-go ...
And so .....
Why waste wind right now on demanding anything from George W. Bush ...
Who has no control over the situation in IRAQINAM anymore ...
Since he never knew what he was doing over there ...
Right from the get-go ...
And so .....
And here, jeffmoskin ....
We have apples and oranges .....
Of course, this SYNDICATE that runs George W. Bush as their own private race horse knew WHAT they wanted when they had George invade IRAQINAM .........
WITH OUR MILITARY ....
USING OUR NATIONAL TREASURY ....
To finance ...
And further their BID-NESS plans .....
That has never been in dispute ...
My point ....
Is that George W. Bush ....
Like the fool George Armstrong Custer before him ...
Who had all those Indians right where he wanted them .....
For a brief moment in time ....
NOW HAS ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL ....
Over the outcome of his actions ....
Just as Custer had no control ...
Over all those Indians ....
And all those arrows ....
ONCE HE DID THEM THE FAVOR OF WALKING RIGHT ON IN ....
To the other end of the trajectory of those flying piercing projectiles .....
And just as we had no control over the DANCE OF DEATH in Viet Nam .....
Since the DANCE is always in REAL TIME ....
Which means that you are always learning about it ....
As it is happening ....
As the bullets shred your flesh ....
As the explosives blow you to flinders .....
And so .....
To look back to 2003 ....
And to say that George W. Bush was in control of anything ....
Even at that point in time ....
Is an exercise in futility ....
Because while any fool can get into trouble .....
Generally ...
And here Custer ...
And Xerxes ....
And Adolph Hitler ....
All come to mind ...
Along with George the INCREDIBLE BUSH .....
Fools generally can't find their way back to home again, afterwards .....
And so .....
When Custer went after all those Indians ....
HE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING ....
And maybe even why ...
BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT COUNTS ....
Because he really had no idea what all those Indians were going to do ...
And so ...
He and his men all died .....
Which to me is a real American story ....
To heed in this present day and age ....
Of cowboys in charge of America ...
And the world ...
And so .....
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Apr 20 2006, 06:53 PM)
Control the oil.
Make everyone pay with dollars.
Make everyone pay with dollars.
Except you can never do that ...
Make people pay ....
And that is where this scheme is going to blow up in the faces of all these CORPORATE FAT ***ES .....
We're not paying anymore ....
And we don't have to ...
And many are no longer able to afford to, even right now .....
Because oil has become the new gold ....
And when you are starving ...
Or freezing ....
What the HELL use is gold to you?
It is heavy ...
It is cold ...
It is lifeless ....
Ir does nothing to nourish one ....
It is too soft to be of much use around the place ....
And we don't need the glitter ....
Since we already have the blue of the sky around us for color ....
And so ...
Gold maybe has value in a city somewhere ....
But that don't mean nothing to us ...
And so ....
The game will indeed go on for some longer ...
But it is not our game ...
And so .....
Gas up here has jumped up to about $3.20 a gallon for 89-octane .....
That's $.30 cents in a week ......
That's $.30 cents in a week ......
And from gas ....
To environmental issues ....
"Red flag raised for region's fire danger - Residents in more than 20 counties warned against open burning as dry, gusty weather accelerates risk"
Staff and wire reports, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Thursday, April 20, 2006
The recent spell of dry weather and wind gusts led the National Weather Service in Albany to issue a critical fire warning Wednesday, the area's first in at least five years.
The warning remains in effect until Friday.
The service raises the red flag alert when conditions are dry, wind gusts exceed 25 mph and the relative humidity drops below 30 percent.
"We call it a potential critical fire danger stage," said Hugh Johnson, meteorologist with the weather service.
"We extremely discourage any outside burning during a red flag."
Meteorologist Ray O'Keefe said the risk is expected to subside throughout the next two days as winds die down.
The weekend forecast is for rainfall continuing into early next week.
Forecasters warned that dry, windy conditions over much of eastern New York will increase the risk from outdoor fires for several days.
Residents are asked not to conduct any open burning within the next few days.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation warned that campfires and brush fires may quickly get out of control.
Once the grass starts to get greener and the trees grow their leaves, said O'Keefe, the fire risk will decrease significantly.
The red flag warnings were issued for the following counties: Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Washington, Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Ulster.
In the Capital Region, a brush fire smoldered for two hours across the road from the Hess fuel tank farm at the Port of Rensselaer.
The fire was first reported about 11:30 a.m. in grasses and low brush between the sprawling Hess terminal and the Amtrak railroad tracks adjacent Route 9J.
"We got some rough terrain back in there but it wasn't a big fire, it is just labor-intensive to put out all the hot spots," said Rensselaer Fire Chief Jay Corcoran.
Amtrak train service was halted for a short time.
The fire was officially declared out at 1:30 p.m.
Its cause was not known.
In Westerlo, two brush fires, including one on Woodstock Road that consumed more than four acres, required three fire companies.
Moments after firefighters had finished with that brush fire, another broke out along Sherwood Road.
That one was quickly extinguished.
In Wilton, four fire companies helped to battle a large blaze along Northern Pine Road near Ballard Road.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
To environmental issues ....
"Red flag raised for region's fire danger - Residents in more than 20 counties warned against open burning as dry, gusty weather accelerates risk"
Staff and wire reports, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Thursday, April 20, 2006
The recent spell of dry weather and wind gusts led the National Weather Service in Albany to issue a critical fire warning Wednesday, the area's first in at least five years.
The warning remains in effect until Friday.
The service raises the red flag alert when conditions are dry, wind gusts exceed 25 mph and the relative humidity drops below 30 percent.
"We call it a potential critical fire danger stage," said Hugh Johnson, meteorologist with the weather service.
"We extremely discourage any outside burning during a red flag."
Meteorologist Ray O'Keefe said the risk is expected to subside throughout the next two days as winds die down.
The weekend forecast is for rainfall continuing into early next week.
Forecasters warned that dry, windy conditions over much of eastern New York will increase the risk from outdoor fires for several days.
Residents are asked not to conduct any open burning within the next few days.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation warned that campfires and brush fires may quickly get out of control.
Once the grass starts to get greener and the trees grow their leaves, said O'Keefe, the fire risk will decrease significantly.
The red flag warnings were issued for the following counties: Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, Columbia, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Washington, Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Ulster.
In the Capital Region, a brush fire smoldered for two hours across the road from the Hess fuel tank farm at the Port of Rensselaer.
The fire was first reported about 11:30 a.m. in grasses and low brush between the sprawling Hess terminal and the Amtrak railroad tracks adjacent Route 9J.
"We got some rough terrain back in there but it wasn't a big fire, it is just labor-intensive to put out all the hot spots," said Rensselaer Fire Chief Jay Corcoran.
Amtrak train service was halted for a short time.
The fire was officially declared out at 1:30 p.m.
Its cause was not known.
In Westerlo, two brush fires, including one on Woodstock Road that consumed more than four acres, required three fire companies.
Moments after firefighters had finished with that brush fire, another broke out along Sherwood Road.
That one was quickly extinguished.
In Wilton, four fire companies helped to battle a large blaze along Northern Pine Road near Ballard Road.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
And some more environmental news ...
Last year ....
Up here ....
The caterpillers did a real number on the trees ....
Eating the leaves back to nothing ....
And where I am ....
You indeed could hear them chewing .....
What an eerie sound it was .....
"Expect a few million over for dinner - Soon, record numbers of hungry caterpillars will start munching on the trees in your yard and elsewhere"
By COLIN McDONALD, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, April 17, 2006
In about four weeks, record numbers of caterpillars in the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley will spring to life from eggs.
They will strip trees bare of leaves and cover everything underneath the branches with sticky goo.
On quiet nights, it might even be possible to hear them chewing.
The evidence of the coming blight: thousands of gypsy moth and eastern tent caterpillar egg masses already stuck on trees, lawn furniture and the sides of houses.
The only question: whether human efforts and the caterpillars' predators will be able to put a crimp in the critters' population boom.
However futile it may be, experts say the best time to act is now.
"I think it's a little early to say, but it's looking like we are headed towards some major defoliation," said Paul Weston, a researcher at Cornell who specializes in ornamental trees and shrubs.
During May and June for the last two years, both the Albany Cooperative Extension Office in Voorheesville and local tree service companies have been inundated with calls from homeowners concerned about their trees.
This year, the population is expected to be even bigger.
Weston said variables affecting the population cycles of gypsy moths and tent caterpillars are not completely understood.
But the numbers of both species are peaking at the same time.
Last year, phone calls about the infestation seemed to come in from all parts of Rensselaer County, Clifton Park and from Voorheesville, said Sue Pezzola, an educator at the extension, who spent much of her time last spring fielding the calls.
"Because we are expecting the population to grow, it will be interesting to see if it spreads out," she said.
No place is assured safety.
Even the extension office is not safe.
The eggs are on the pin oaks lining the driveway and the crab apples along the parking lot and under the picnic benches in the middle of the garden.
For Charles Schmitt, the nursery specialist at the extension office, there is little that can be done.
On the towering oaks, the lower globes can be scraped off.
But many of the clusters are up high and out of reach.
Even if all the branches could be scraped clean, more caterpillars would just move in, carried via the wind and their silken threads.
Spraying the trees would be too expensive and may only temporarily help the tree.
The tent caterpillars already have hatched on crab apples, timing their release with the first leaf buds.
He could spray and trim the most infested branches, but again caterpillars would move in from surrounding trees.
While it's unsightly, the trees won't die if they lose their leaves and will have most of the summer to store up energy for the winter.
Still, he will go out and scrape away with his Swiss Army knife.
Each egg mass is home to several hundred eggs, and in a matter of minutes he can gather thousands of them, crush them between his fingers or put them in the garbage.
"At least it makes you feel better," he said.
Colin McDonald can be reached at 454-5441 or by e-mail at cmcdonald@timesunion.com.
Yard defense tips
What you can do to protect your trees:
Now, before the caterpillars hatch: Scrape the egg masses off the trees and into bags or a container with mild detergent.
Put them in the garbage.
After the caterpillars hatch: The biological insecticide bacillus thuringiensis (BT) is a bacterial spray harmless to humans, pets and plants.
The spray is applied to the leaves of the trees and then eaten by the caterpillars.
Once ingested, the bacteria shuts down the caterpilllars' digestive tracts and they starve to death.
Eastern tent caterpillars make silk tents that they sleep in at night.
If removed at night or early in the morning, the silken bundles will contain hundreds of caterpillars.
Mature gypsy moth caterpillars crawl down the trunk of trees in the daytime to escape the sun and will hide under burlap sacks tied to the trunk of a tree.
Once gathered under the burlap, the caterpillars can be removed and killed.
The alternative: Let the caterpillars be.
Eastern tent caterpillars are a native species and part of the natural cycle.
Gypsy moths have been in the North America for more than 130 years after being introduced via a failed silkworm breeding experiment and have become established across the state.
Most trees will not die because of an infestation and will be able to grow new leaves in July, after the caterpillars become moths, lay their eggs and die.
More information: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/privland/forprot/ health/ caterpillar/index.html or call the Albany county master gardener hot line line at 765-3500 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
You can also send an e-mail to albanymastergardener@cornell.edu
Source: DEC Web site, Albany Cooperative Extension Office
Last year ....
Up here ....
The caterpillers did a real number on the trees ....
Eating the leaves back to nothing ....
And where I am ....
You indeed could hear them chewing .....
What an eerie sound it was .....
"Expect a few million over for dinner - Soon, record numbers of hungry caterpillars will start munching on the trees in your yard and elsewhere"
By COLIN McDONALD, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, April 17, 2006
In about four weeks, record numbers of caterpillars in the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley will spring to life from eggs.
They will strip trees bare of leaves and cover everything underneath the branches with sticky goo.
On quiet nights, it might even be possible to hear them chewing.
The evidence of the coming blight: thousands of gypsy moth and eastern tent caterpillar egg masses already stuck on trees, lawn furniture and the sides of houses.
The only question: whether human efforts and the caterpillars' predators will be able to put a crimp in the critters' population boom.
However futile it may be, experts say the best time to act is now.
"I think it's a little early to say, but it's looking like we are headed towards some major defoliation," said Paul Weston, a researcher at Cornell who specializes in ornamental trees and shrubs.
During May and June for the last two years, both the Albany Cooperative Extension Office in Voorheesville and local tree service companies have been inundated with calls from homeowners concerned about their trees.
This year, the population is expected to be even bigger.
Weston said variables affecting the population cycles of gypsy moths and tent caterpillars are not completely understood.
But the numbers of both species are peaking at the same time.
Last year, phone calls about the infestation seemed to come in from all parts of Rensselaer County, Clifton Park and from Voorheesville, said Sue Pezzola, an educator at the extension, who spent much of her time last spring fielding the calls.
"Because we are expecting the population to grow, it will be interesting to see if it spreads out," she said.
No place is assured safety.
Even the extension office is not safe.
The eggs are on the pin oaks lining the driveway and the crab apples along the parking lot and under the picnic benches in the middle of the garden.
For Charles Schmitt, the nursery specialist at the extension office, there is little that can be done.
On the towering oaks, the lower globes can be scraped off.
But many of the clusters are up high and out of reach.
Even if all the branches could be scraped clean, more caterpillars would just move in, carried via the wind and their silken threads.
Spraying the trees would be too expensive and may only temporarily help the tree.
The tent caterpillars already have hatched on crab apples, timing their release with the first leaf buds.
He could spray and trim the most infested branches, but again caterpillars would move in from surrounding trees.
While it's unsightly, the trees won't die if they lose their leaves and will have most of the summer to store up energy for the winter.
Still, he will go out and scrape away with his Swiss Army knife.
Each egg mass is home to several hundred eggs, and in a matter of minutes he can gather thousands of them, crush them between his fingers or put them in the garbage.
"At least it makes you feel better," he said.
Colin McDonald can be reached at 454-5441 or by e-mail at cmcdonald@timesunion.com.
Yard defense tips
What you can do to protect your trees:
Now, before the caterpillars hatch: Scrape the egg masses off the trees and into bags or a container with mild detergent.
Put them in the garbage.
After the caterpillars hatch: The biological insecticide bacillus thuringiensis (BT) is a bacterial spray harmless to humans, pets and plants.
The spray is applied to the leaves of the trees and then eaten by the caterpillars.
Once ingested, the bacteria shuts down the caterpilllars' digestive tracts and they starve to death.
Eastern tent caterpillars make silk tents that they sleep in at night.
If removed at night or early in the morning, the silken bundles will contain hundreds of caterpillars.
Mature gypsy moth caterpillars crawl down the trunk of trees in the daytime to escape the sun and will hide under burlap sacks tied to the trunk of a tree.
Once gathered under the burlap, the caterpillars can be removed and killed.
The alternative: Let the caterpillars be.
Eastern tent caterpillars are a native species and part of the natural cycle.
Gypsy moths have been in the North America for more than 130 years after being introduced via a failed silkworm breeding experiment and have become established across the state.
Most trees will not die because of an infestation and will be able to grow new leaves in July, after the caterpillars become moths, lay their eggs and die.
More information: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/privland/forprot/ health/ caterpillar/index.html or call the Albany county master gardener hot line line at 765-3500 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
You can also send an e-mail to albanymastergardener@cornell.edu
Source: DEC Web site, Albany Cooperative Extension Office
And then ....
Of course ....
There are the REPUBLICANS ....
The PARTY OF GOD ....
Here ....
In OUR America ....
At least ....
According to them it is ....
And so ....
"Conservatives pre-empting GOP - Early convention puts party in place to oppose Republican Weld"
By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
First published: Wednesday, April 12, 2006
ALBANY -- The head of New York's Conservative Party threw a monkey wrench Tuesday into state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik's plan to make former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld governor of his native New York.
Michael Long said the Conservative Party will pre-empt the Republican Party by holding its state convention to choose nominees for governor and U.S. Senate before the GOP meets.
The move could have dramatic consequences because Long and Minarik disagree about who should run for governor.
No Republican running statewide in New York has won without Conservative Party backing since 1974.
Long said the convention's selection for governor would "overwhelmingly" be former state Assembly Republican Minority Leader John Faso while the U.S. Senate choice to take on Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would be former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer.
Spencer is being challenged by former Reagan-era Pentagon official Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland and a tax attorney from Sullivan County, William Brenner, for the GOP Senate nomination.
While Minarik also favors Spencer, the GOP leader supports Weld for governor.
The Conservative Party's selection of Faso could aid him in his bid to obtain the 25 percent of the weighted vote at the GOP convention he needs to force Weld into a September primary.
Failing that, Faso would have to collect the signatures of at least 15,000 Republicans statewide to force a GOP primary.
Faso, who narrowly lost the state comptroller's race in 2002, said he was pleased with Long's decision.
Weld campaign spokeswoman Andrea Tantaros said, "Every party chairman has the right to pick the date for his or her convention."
Long said the Conservative Party would convene on May 23 in New York City.
The GOP convention is May 31-June 1 on Long Island.
"He's the chairman, he can do what he wants to do," Minarik said.
Of course ....
There are the REPUBLICANS ....
The PARTY OF GOD ....
Here ....
In OUR America ....
At least ....
According to them it is ....
And so ....
"Conservatives pre-empting GOP - Early convention puts party in place to oppose Republican Weld"
By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
First published: Wednesday, April 12, 2006
ALBANY -- The head of New York's Conservative Party threw a monkey wrench Tuesday into state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik's plan to make former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld governor of his native New York.
Michael Long said the Conservative Party will pre-empt the Republican Party by holding its state convention to choose nominees for governor and U.S. Senate before the GOP meets.
The move could have dramatic consequences because Long and Minarik disagree about who should run for governor.
No Republican running statewide in New York has won without Conservative Party backing since 1974.
Long said the convention's selection for governor would "overwhelmingly" be former state Assembly Republican Minority Leader John Faso while the U.S. Senate choice to take on Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would be former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer.
Spencer is being challenged by former Reagan-era Pentagon official Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland and a tax attorney from Sullivan County, William Brenner, for the GOP Senate nomination.
While Minarik also favors Spencer, the GOP leader supports Weld for governor.
The Conservative Party's selection of Faso could aid him in his bid to obtain the 25 percent of the weighted vote at the GOP convention he needs to force Weld into a September primary.
Failing that, Faso would have to collect the signatures of at least 15,000 Republicans statewide to force a GOP primary.
Faso, who narrowly lost the state comptroller's race in 2002, said he was pleased with Long's decision.
Weld campaign spokeswoman Andrea Tantaros said, "Every party chairman has the right to pick the date for his or her convention."
Long said the Conservative Party would convene on May 23 in New York City.
The GOP convention is May 31-June 1 on Long Island.
"He's the chairman, he can do what he wants to do," Minarik said.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 21 2006, 05:24 PM)
And then ....
Of course ....
There are the REPUBLICANS ....
The PARTY OF GOD ....
Here ....
In OUR America ....
At least ....
According to them it is ....
And so ....
Of course ....
There are the REPUBLICANS ....
The PARTY OF GOD ....
Here ....
In OUR America ....
At least ....
According to them it is ....
And so ....
"Poll: GOP faces image problem - Survey of state voters finds many don't know who's running against Clinton"
By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, April 18, 2006
ALBANY -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's potential Republican challengers continue to battle anonymity in their race for this year's GOP Senate nomination, with more than 60 percent of Republican voters not sure who to support, a statewide poll reported Monday.
Among Republican voters surveyed by Siena College's Research Institute, Reagan-era Pentagon official Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland was favored by 20 percent, while former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer was the choice of 18 percent.
Sixty-three percent of GOP voters said they didn't know whom to support.
When asked whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of each, 79 percent of GOP voters said they didn't know enough about the two to have an opinion.
The telephone poll of 413 likely Republican primary voters was conducted from March 29 to April 3 and has a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
The new Siena poll did not have a matchup between the incumbent Democrat and her potential Republican rivals, although previous Siena polls and other independent surveys have found the former first lady with large leads in such races.
The anonymity factor was also evident for Republicans seeking to run for governor of New York this year with GOP incumbent George Pataki having decided not to seek a fourth term.
He is eyeing a 2008 run for president.
Seventy-eight percent of GOP voters said they didn't know enough about former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, running now in his native New York, to form a favorable or unfavorable opinion about him.
Seventy-five percent of GOP voters said that about former state Assembly Minority Leader John Faso even though he narrowly lost a race for state comptroller in 2002.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 21 2006, 05:29 PM)
"Poll: GOP faces image problem - Survey of state voters finds many don't know who's running against Clinton"
By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The anonymity factor was also evident for Republicans seeking to run for governor of New York this year with GOP incumbent George Pataki having decided not to seek a fourth term.
He is eyeing a 2008 run for president.
By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, April 18, 2006
The anonymity factor was also evident for Republicans seeking to run for governor of New York this year with GOP incumbent George Pataki having decided not to seek a fourth term.
He is eyeing a 2008 run for president.
And speaking of Pataki ....
And his bid to be the next president of the United States of America ....
Because it has a lot more money in its treasury than New York State does ...
Or did anyway ....
"Pataki's federal PAC fund adds up"
By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press
First published: Wednesday, April 19, 2006
ALBANY -- Gov. George Pataki, a potential contender for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, has picked up the pace of fundraising for his federal political action committee, according to public records out Tuesday.
Documents with the Federal Election Commission show Pataki's 21st Century Freedom PAC-Federal raised $500,922 during the first three months of 2006.
Fundraising for that PAC was stepped up after the governor's announcement in July that he would not seek a fourth, four-year term as governor this year.
In the last half of 2005, the PAC raised $260,000.
It raised just $71,000 in the first half of last year.
While money from the federal PAC cannot be used for a direct Pataki presidential campaign, it can be used before such a campaign committee is created to pay for travel around the country, campaign aides and to support federal candidates.
According to the federal report, Pataki's PAC has about $647,000 on hand as of March 31.
The most recent PAC filing shows Pataki has used funds to pay for campaign consultants in Iowa, site of the caucuses that begin the presidential nominating process, and in New Hampshire, where the first presidential primary is traditionally staged.
Pataki has visited Iowa and New Hampshire in recent months.
The latest filing includes a $320 payment to cover a Jan. 7 stay at a hotel in Clive, Iowa.
And here is that Fukuyama dude ....
The NEW CON one that was one of the BUSHCO PRIME's greatest supporters .....
When the PRIME made his catestrophically successful invasion of IRAQINAM ....
He's one of the NEW CONS who have bailed out on the George .....
And the other NEW CONS, as well .....
I wonder why ....
So ...
Let's see what he has to say about ....
Being a TRAITER to the BUSHCO CAUSE, like he is ....
And all ....
And so ....
"Under attack - War's facts change way of thinking"
By FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
First published: Sunday, April 16, 2006
Seven weeks ago, I published my case against the Iraq war.
I wrote that although I had originally advocated military intervention in Iraq, and had even signed a letter to that effect shortly after the 9/11 attacks, I had since changed my mind.
But apparently this kind of honest acknowledgment is verboten.
In the weeks since my book came out, I've been challenged, attacked and vilified from both ends of the ideological spectrum.
From the right, columnist Charles Krauthammer has accused me of being an opportunistic traitor to the neoconservative cause -- and a coward to boot.
From the left, I've been told that I have "blood on my hands" for having initially favored toppling Saddam Hussein and that my "apology" won't be accepted.
In our ever-more-polarized political debate, it appears that it is now wrong to ever change your mind, even if empirical evidence from the real world suggests you ought to.
I find this a strange and disturbing conclusion.
For the record, I did change my mind, but in the year preceding the war -- not after the invasion.
In 2002, I told the London Times that "the use of military power to push (Iraqi democracy) forward is a big roll of the dice."
"We may not win on this one."
On the first anniversary of 9/11, I argued in The Washington Post that we should invade Iraq only with approval from the U.N. Security Council, and in December of that year, I wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal warning that the project of democratizing Iraq and the Mideast might come to look like empire and that it violated the conservative principle of prudence.
But when my political shift occurred is not important: Even if it had come a year or two later, it would still not have represented a cowardly retreat or an apologia, but a realistic, intellectually honest willingness to face the new facts of the situation.
In my view, no one should be required to apologize for having supported intervention in Iraq before the war.
There were important competing moral goods on both sides of the argument, something that many on the left still refuse to recognize.
The United Nations in 1999 declared that all nations have a positive "duty to protect, promote and implement" human rights, arguing in effect that the world's powerful countries are complicit in human rights abuses if they don't use their power to correct injustices.
The debate over the war shouldn't have been whether it was morally right to topple Hussein (which it clearly was), but whether it was prudent to do so given the possible costs and potential consequences of intervention and whether it was legitimate for the United States to invade in the unilateral way that it did.
It was perfectly honorable to agonize over the wisdom of the war, and in many ways admirable that people on the left, such as Christopher Hitchens, George Packer, Michael Ignatieff and Jacob Weisberg, supported intervention.
That position was much easier to defend in early 2003, however, before we found absolutely no stocks of chemical or biological weapons and no evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program.
(I know that many on the left believe that the prewar estimates about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were all a deliberate fraud by the Bush administration, but if so, it was one in which the U.N. weapons inspectors and French intelligence were also complicit.)
It was also easier to support the war before we knew the full dimensions of the vicious insurgency that would emerge and the ease with which the insurgents could disrupt the building of a democratic state.
But in the years since then, it is the right that has failed to come to terms with these uncomfortable facts.
The failure to find weapons and to make a quick transition to a stable democracy --as well as the prisoner abuse and the inevitable bad press that emerges from any prolonged occupation -- have done enormous damage to America's credibility and standing in the world.
These intangible costs have to be added to the balance sheet together with the huge direct human and monetary costs of the war.\
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently admitted that the United States made numerous tactical errors in Iraq, but she insisted that the basic strategic decision to go to war was still as valid as ever because we foreclosed once and for all the possibility that Iraq would break out of sanctions and restart its weapons programs.
But we now know a lot that throws that fundamental strategic rationale into question.
The Iraq Survey Group and the U.S. military have released hundreds of pages of documents on Iraq's prewar weapons programs showing that, at times, Saddam believed he possessed biological weapons that didn't exist and that, at other times, he led his most senior commanders to believe he had weapons capabilities that he knew were entirely fictitious.
His government was so corrupt, incompetent and compartmentalized that it is far from certain that he would have succeeded in building a nuclear program even if sanctions had been lifted.
Nor is it clear that a breakdown of the sanctions regime was inevitable, given an energized United States and the very different political climate that existed after 9/11.
The logic of my prewar shift on invading Iraq has now been doubly confirmed.
I believe that the neoconservative movement, with which I was associated, has become indelibly associated with a failed policy, and that unilateralism and coercive regime change cannot be the basis for an effective American foreign policy.
I changed my mind as part of a necessary adjustment to reality.
What has infuriated many people is President Bush's unwillingness to admit that he made any mistakes whatsoever in the whole Iraq adventure.
On the other hand, critics who assert that they knew with certainty before the war that it would be a disaster are, for the most part, speaking with a retrospective wisdom to which they are not entitled.
Many people have noted the ever-increasing polarization of American politics, reflected in news channels and talk shows that cater to narrowly ideological audiences, and in a House of Representatives that has redistricted itself into homogeneous constituencies in which few members have to appeal to voters with diverse opinions.
This polarization has been vastly amplified by Iraq: Much of the left now considers the war not a tragic policy mistake but a deliberate criminal conspiracy, and the right attacks the patriotism of those who question the war.
This kind of polarization affects a range of other complex issues as well: You can't be a good Republican if you think there may be something to global warming, or a good Democrat if you support school choice or private Social Security accounts.
Political debate has become a spectator sport in which people root for their team and cheer when it scores points, without asking whether they chose the right side.
Instead of trying to defend sharply polarized positions taken more than three years ago, it would be far better if people could actually take aboard new information and think about how their earlier commitments, honestly undertaken, actually jibe with reality -- even if this does on occasion require changing your mind.
Fukuyama is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of "America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power and the Neoconservative Legacy."
This article first appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
The NEW CON one that was one of the BUSHCO PRIME's greatest supporters .....
When the PRIME made his catestrophically successful invasion of IRAQINAM ....
He's one of the NEW CONS who have bailed out on the George .....
And the other NEW CONS, as well .....
I wonder why ....
So ...
Let's see what he has to say about ....
Being a TRAITER to the BUSHCO CAUSE, like he is ....
And all ....
And so ....
"Under attack - War's facts change way of thinking"
By FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
First published: Sunday, April 16, 2006
Seven weeks ago, I published my case against the Iraq war.
I wrote that although I had originally advocated military intervention in Iraq, and had even signed a letter to that effect shortly after the 9/11 attacks, I had since changed my mind.
But apparently this kind of honest acknowledgment is verboten.
In the weeks since my book came out, I've been challenged, attacked and vilified from both ends of the ideological spectrum.
From the right, columnist Charles Krauthammer has accused me of being an opportunistic traitor to the neoconservative cause -- and a coward to boot.
From the left, I've been told that I have "blood on my hands" for having initially favored toppling Saddam Hussein and that my "apology" won't be accepted.
In our ever-more-polarized political debate, it appears that it is now wrong to ever change your mind, even if empirical evidence from the real world suggests you ought to.
I find this a strange and disturbing conclusion.
For the record, I did change my mind, but in the year preceding the war -- not after the invasion.
In 2002, I told the London Times that "the use of military power to push (Iraqi democracy) forward is a big roll of the dice."
"We may not win on this one."
On the first anniversary of 9/11, I argued in The Washington Post that we should invade Iraq only with approval from the U.N. Security Council, and in December of that year, I wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal warning that the project of democratizing Iraq and the Mideast might come to look like empire and that it violated the conservative principle of prudence.
But when my political shift occurred is not important: Even if it had come a year or two later, it would still not have represented a cowardly retreat or an apologia, but a realistic, intellectually honest willingness to face the new facts of the situation.
In my view, no one should be required to apologize for having supported intervention in Iraq before the war.
There were important competing moral goods on both sides of the argument, something that many on the left still refuse to recognize.
The United Nations in 1999 declared that all nations have a positive "duty to protect, promote and implement" human rights, arguing in effect that the world's powerful countries are complicit in human rights abuses if they don't use their power to correct injustices.
The debate over the war shouldn't have been whether it was morally right to topple Hussein (which it clearly was), but whether it was prudent to do so given the possible costs and potential consequences of intervention and whether it was legitimate for the United States to invade in the unilateral way that it did.
It was perfectly honorable to agonize over the wisdom of the war, and in many ways admirable that people on the left, such as Christopher Hitchens, George Packer, Michael Ignatieff and Jacob Weisberg, supported intervention.
That position was much easier to defend in early 2003, however, before we found absolutely no stocks of chemical or biological weapons and no evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program.
(I know that many on the left believe that the prewar estimates about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were all a deliberate fraud by the Bush administration, but if so, it was one in which the U.N. weapons inspectors and French intelligence were also complicit.)
It was also easier to support the war before we knew the full dimensions of the vicious insurgency that would emerge and the ease with which the insurgents could disrupt the building of a democratic state.
But in the years since then, it is the right that has failed to come to terms with these uncomfortable facts.
The failure to find weapons and to make a quick transition to a stable democracy --as well as the prisoner abuse and the inevitable bad press that emerges from any prolonged occupation -- have done enormous damage to America's credibility and standing in the world.
These intangible costs have to be added to the balance sheet together with the huge direct human and monetary costs of the war.\
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently admitted that the United States made numerous tactical errors in Iraq, but she insisted that the basic strategic decision to go to war was still as valid as ever because we foreclosed once and for all the possibility that Iraq would break out of sanctions and restart its weapons programs.
But we now know a lot that throws that fundamental strategic rationale into question.
The Iraq Survey Group and the U.S. military have released hundreds of pages of documents on Iraq's prewar weapons programs showing that, at times, Saddam believed he possessed biological weapons that didn't exist and that, at other times, he led his most senior commanders to believe he had weapons capabilities that he knew were entirely fictitious.
His government was so corrupt, incompetent and compartmentalized that it is far from certain that he would have succeeded in building a nuclear program even if sanctions had been lifted.
Nor is it clear that a breakdown of the sanctions regime was inevitable, given an energized United States and the very different political climate that existed after 9/11.
The logic of my prewar shift on invading Iraq has now been doubly confirmed.
I believe that the neoconservative movement, with which I was associated, has become indelibly associated with a failed policy, and that unilateralism and coercive regime change cannot be the basis for an effective American foreign policy.
I changed my mind as part of a necessary adjustment to reality.
What has infuriated many people is President Bush's unwillingness to admit that he made any mistakes whatsoever in the whole Iraq adventure.
On the other hand, critics who assert that they knew with certainty before the war that it would be a disaster are, for the most part, speaking with a retrospective wisdom to which they are not entitled.
Many people have noted the ever-increasing polarization of American politics, reflected in news channels and talk shows that cater to narrowly ideological audiences, and in a House of Representatives that has redistricted itself into homogeneous constituencies in which few members have to appeal to voters with diverse opinions.
This polarization has been vastly amplified by Iraq: Much of the left now considers the war not a tragic policy mistake but a deliberate criminal conspiracy, and the right attacks the patriotism of those who question the war.
This kind of polarization affects a range of other complex issues as well: You can't be a good Republican if you think there may be something to global warming, or a good Democrat if you support school choice or private Social Security accounts.
Political debate has become a spectator sport in which people root for their team and cheer when it scores points, without asking whether they chose the right side.
Instead of trying to defend sharply polarized positions taken more than three years ago, it would be far better if people could actually take aboard new information and think about how their earlier commitments, honestly undertaken, actually jibe with reality -- even if this does on occasion require changing your mind.
Fukuyama is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of "America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power and the Neoconservative Legacy."
This article first appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
And here is another backer of the REPUBLICANS ....
Who seems to have some problems with them ...
And so ....
I wonder if they will consider him a TRAITER as well ....
"The day GOP's downfall began"
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, April 16, 2006
WASHINGTON -- If Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives in November, April 5 should be remembered as the day they demonstrated that they earned defeat.
Traducing the Constitution and disgracing conservatism, they used their power for their only remaining purpose -- to cling to power.
Their vote to restrict freedom of speech came just as the GOP's conservative base is coming to the conclusion that House Republicans are not worth working for in October or venturing out to vote for in November.
The "problem" Republicans addressed is that in 2004 Democrats were more successful than Republicans in using what are known as 527 organizations -- advocacy groups named after the tax code provision governing them.
In 2002, McCain-Feingold banned large "soft money" contributions for parties -- money for issue-advocacy and organizational activities, not for candidates.
In 2004, to the surprise of no sensible person and most McCain-Feingold supporters, much of the money -- especially huge contributions from rich liberals --was diverted to 527s.
So on April 5, House Republicans, easily shedding what little remains of their ballast of belief in freedom and limited government, voted to severely limit the amounts that can be given to 527s.
Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., explained, sort of.
He said he voted against McCain-Feingold because "dictating who could give how much to whom" violated the First Amendment, but now he favors dictating to 527 contributors because McCain-Feingold is not violating the First Amendment enough: It is not "working as it was intended."
That is, it is not sufficiently restricting the money financing political advocacy.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., said that restricting 527s would combat "nauseating ugliness, negativity and hyperpartisanship."
Oh, so that is what the First Amendment means: Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech unless speech annoys politicians.
Improving the tone of politics, leveling the playing field, fulfilling the intent of McCain-Feingold -- the reasons for expanding the restrictions on political advocacy multiply.
McCain-Feingold restrictions on the amount, timing and content of political speech were ratified by the Supreme Court, which embraces this perverse idea: Because elected officials are experts about politics, they deserve vast deference when they write rules governing speech about, and campaigns against, elected officials.
When the court gave its imprimatur to McCain-Feingold's premise that big government should have big power to regulate speech about itself -- it guaranteed that what happened April 5 will happen incessantly:
The First Amendment is now permanently in play, its protections to be truncated whenever congressional majorities envision short-term partisan advantages.
The Washington Post, exemplifying the media's hostility to speech rights other than their own, eagerly anticipates the next fiddling.
As it crouches behind its media exemption from the restrictions it favors for rival sources of political speech, the Post eggs on the speech regulators and hopes for "future legislation" if money diverted from 527s flows, as surely it will, into other political uses.
And so the regulatory regime metastasizes, nibbling away at what McCain-Feingold enthusiasts evidently consider the ultimate "loophole" -- the First Amendment.
Fortunately, the measure the House passed on April 5 will not become law this year.
Not because Republican senators are too principled to pass it, or because Democrats have a truly principled opposition to it, but because Senate Democrats will have 41 votes, enough to block action on it.
The Democrats, who favored McCain-Feingold and now are as cynical as Republicans about defending free speech only when it serves their competitive interests, will someday win control of Congress.
Then they can wrap their anti-constitutionalism in the Republicans' April 5 rhetoric.
They can say:
"In 2006, you Republicans said that because Democrats have done better than Republicans with 527s, the 527s should be restricted in order to 'level the playing field.'"
"Now we will level the playing field by restoring the 'fairness doctrine' to broadcasting, thereby eliminating conservatives' unfair domination of talk radio."
The 211 Republicans who voted for big government regulation of speech will have no principled objection.
How many principled Republicans remain?
Only 18.
The following, who voted against restricting 527s:
Roscoe Bartlett (Maryland), Chris Chocola (Indiana), Jeff Flake (Arizona), Vito Fossella (New York), Trent Franks (Arizona), Scott Garrett (New Jersey), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Ernest Istook (Oklahoma), Walter Jones (North Carolina), Steve King (Iowa), Connie Mack (Florida), Cathy McMorris (Washington), Randy Neugebauer (Texas), Ron Paul (Texas), Mike Pence (Indiana), John Shadegg (Arizona) and Lynn Westmoreland (Georgia).
On this remnant of libertarian, limited-government conservatism, a future House majority can be built.
The current majority forfeited its raison d'etre on April 5.
George Will's e-mail address is georgewill@washpost.com.
Who seems to have some problems with them ...
And so ....
I wonder if they will consider him a TRAITER as well ....
"The day GOP's downfall began"
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, April 16, 2006
WASHINGTON -- If Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives in November, April 5 should be remembered as the day they demonstrated that they earned defeat.
Traducing the Constitution and disgracing conservatism, they used their power for their only remaining purpose -- to cling to power.
Their vote to restrict freedom of speech came just as the GOP's conservative base is coming to the conclusion that House Republicans are not worth working for in October or venturing out to vote for in November.
The "problem" Republicans addressed is that in 2004 Democrats were more successful than Republicans in using what are known as 527 organizations -- advocacy groups named after the tax code provision governing them.
In 2002, McCain-Feingold banned large "soft money" contributions for parties -- money for issue-advocacy and organizational activities, not for candidates.
In 2004, to the surprise of no sensible person and most McCain-Feingold supporters, much of the money -- especially huge contributions from rich liberals --was diverted to 527s.
So on April 5, House Republicans, easily shedding what little remains of their ballast of belief in freedom and limited government, voted to severely limit the amounts that can be given to 527s.
Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., explained, sort of.
He said he voted against McCain-Feingold because "dictating who could give how much to whom" violated the First Amendment, but now he favors dictating to 527 contributors because McCain-Feingold is not violating the First Amendment enough: It is not "working as it was intended."
That is, it is not sufficiently restricting the money financing political advocacy.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., said that restricting 527s would combat "nauseating ugliness, negativity and hyperpartisanship."
Oh, so that is what the First Amendment means: Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech unless speech annoys politicians.
Improving the tone of politics, leveling the playing field, fulfilling the intent of McCain-Feingold -- the reasons for expanding the restrictions on political advocacy multiply.
McCain-Feingold restrictions on the amount, timing and content of political speech were ratified by the Supreme Court, which embraces this perverse idea: Because elected officials are experts about politics, they deserve vast deference when they write rules governing speech about, and campaigns against, elected officials.
When the court gave its imprimatur to McCain-Feingold's premise that big government should have big power to regulate speech about itself -- it guaranteed that what happened April 5 will happen incessantly:
The First Amendment is now permanently in play, its protections to be truncated whenever congressional majorities envision short-term partisan advantages.
The Washington Post, exemplifying the media's hostility to speech rights other than their own, eagerly anticipates the next fiddling.
As it crouches behind its media exemption from the restrictions it favors for rival sources of political speech, the Post eggs on the speech regulators and hopes for "future legislation" if money diverted from 527s flows, as surely it will, into other political uses.
And so the regulatory regime metastasizes, nibbling away at what McCain-Feingold enthusiasts evidently consider the ultimate "loophole" -- the First Amendment.
Fortunately, the measure the House passed on April 5 will not become law this year.
Not because Republican senators are too principled to pass it, or because Democrats have a truly principled opposition to it, but because Senate Democrats will have 41 votes, enough to block action on it.
The Democrats, who favored McCain-Feingold and now are as cynical as Republicans about defending free speech only when it serves their competitive interests, will someday win control of Congress.
Then they can wrap their anti-constitutionalism in the Republicans' April 5 rhetoric.
They can say:
"In 2006, you Republicans said that because Democrats have done better than Republicans with 527s, the 527s should be restricted in order to 'level the playing field.'"
"Now we will level the playing field by restoring the 'fairness doctrine' to broadcasting, thereby eliminating conservatives' unfair domination of talk radio."
The 211 Republicans who voted for big government regulation of speech will have no principled objection.
How many principled Republicans remain?
Only 18.
The following, who voted against restricting 527s:
Roscoe Bartlett (Maryland), Chris Chocola (Indiana), Jeff Flake (Arizona), Vito Fossella (New York), Trent Franks (Arizona), Scott Garrett (New Jersey), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Ernest Istook (Oklahoma), Walter Jones (North Carolina), Steve King (Iowa), Connie Mack (Florida), Cathy McMorris (Washington), Randy Neugebauer (Texas), Ron Paul (Texas), Mike Pence (Indiana), John Shadegg (Arizona) and Lynn Westmoreland (Georgia).
On this remnant of libertarian, limited-government conservatism, a future House majority can be built.
The current majority forfeited its raison d'etre on April 5.
George Will's e-mail address is georgewill@washpost.com.
I'm The Decider: I am the Egg Head: (Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo)
http://decider.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
===
John W. Dean: If Past Is Prologue
George Bush Is Becoming An Increasingly Dangerous President
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20060421.html
===
The Worst President in History? :
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush
http://tinyurl.com/s7lkm
http://decider.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
===
John W. Dean: If Past Is Prologue
George Bush Is Becoming An Increasingly Dangerous President
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20060421.html
===
The Worst President in History? :
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush
http://tinyurl.com/s7lkm
QUOTE(Snuffysmith @ Apr 21 2006, 09:50 PM)
The Worst President in History?
I would go for that, myself ....
And here is something else that I must agree with .....
As a combat veteran myself ....
Who wishes that AMERICA had gotten off its *** to end the Viet Nam war ....
A lot sooner than it did .....
So that all those innocents over there ....
Would not have had to die ...
For the good ...
Of the economy ....
Of a nation ....
That did not give one damn ...
For them ....
"Kerry: Opposing Iraq war is patriotic"
By MARK PRATT, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:06 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2006
BOSTON -- Those who disagree with the Bush administration's policies in Iraq face the same scornful charges that they are unpatriotic as Sen. John Kerry did 35 years ago when he spoke out against the Vietnam War, the Massachusetts Democrat said Saturday.
"I have come here today to reaffirm that it was right to dissent in 1971 from a war that was wrong."
"And to affirm that it is both a right and an obligation for Americans today to disagree with a president who is wrong, a policy that is wrong, and a war in Iraq that weakens the nation," Kerry said to a standing ovation Saturday at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall.
Kerry's speech came 35 years to the day after he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to call for an end to the Vietnam war.
"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Kerry said in 1971, a line that helped propel the decorated Navy combat veteran and Yale graduate onto the national stage.
The same question applies today as Americans wrestle with the mounting death toll in Iraq, Kerry said, speaking before about 500 supporters who punctuated his speech at least 20 times with ovations.
"Lives have been lost to bad decisions," Kerry said.
"Not decisions that could have gone either way, but decisions that constitute basic negligence and incompetence."
"And lives continue to be lost because of stubbornness and pride."
Kerry also blasted those who question the motivation of retired generals who have recently called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"That is cheap and shameful," he said.
"How dare those who never wore the uniform in battle attack those who wore it all their lives."
A few scattered chants of "run" and "2008" were heard both before and after the speech.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, has not announced whether he would run in 2008.
In response to Kerry's speech Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee denied the party questioned anyone's patriotism.
"While we have never questioned Democrats' patriotism, we do question John Kerry's motives, considering his eagerness to engage in political theatrics as he ponders a presidential run," Tracey Schmitt said.
Kerry reiterated his position that American troops should be withdrawn by the end of the year, saying that Iraqi politicians only respond to deadlines.
Kerry said while Iraq is different from Vietnam, there are some critical parallels.
"We are in the same place as we were when I came home from Vietnam and spoke out against the civilian leaders who were willing to sacrifice America's best in the interest of political self-preservation," he said.
end quotes
And there is something else I must agree with, as well ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 22 2006, 05:54 PM)
"Kerry: Opposing Iraq war is patriotic"
By MARK PRATT, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:06 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2006
BOSTON -- Those who disagree with the Bush administration's policies in Iraq face the same scornful charges that they are unpatriotic as Sen. John Kerry did 35 years ago when he spoke out against the Vietnam War, the Massachusetts Democrat said Saturday.
Kerry also blasted those who question the motivation of retired generals who have recently called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"That is cheap and shameful," he said.
"How dare those who never wore the uniform in battle attack those who wore it all their lives."
By MARK PRATT, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:06 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2006
BOSTON -- Those who disagree with the Bush administration's policies in Iraq face the same scornful charges that they are unpatriotic as Sen. John Kerry did 35 years ago when he spoke out against the Vietnam War, the Massachusetts Democrat said Saturday.
Kerry also blasted those who question the motivation of retired generals who have recently called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"That is cheap and shameful," he said.
"How dare those who never wore the uniform in battle attack those who wore it all their lives."
And here is one more thing ....
That is worthy ....
Of consideration ....
And so ....
"Sen. Clinton wants anti-Rumsfeld generals to testify"
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:36 p.m., Friday, April 21, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in Friday on the growing effort to oust Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying the generals who have recently called for his removal should testify before the Senate.
Clinton, D-N.Y., who walks a political tightrope within her own party on the issue of the Iraq war, did not call for Rumsfeld to go, saying instead it is more important to find out what did or did not go wrong in planning the war.
The Senate Armed Services Committee should hear from "these retired generals, as well as retired generals with differing views and administration officials," Clinton said in a letter to committee chairman John Warner.
The senator, who sits on the committee and also is a member of a military transformation advisory group, argued such a hearing "can help ensure we learn from past experiences and better shape future operations."
Clinton's position on the Iraq war could greatly complicate a bid for the White House in 2008.
The senator is up for re-election in New York this year and insists she is not thinking about 2008.
But some in her party have criticized her for voting for the war and not doing more now to bring the troops home quickly.
At times, she has angrily criticized the decisions made in executing the war, but she has steered clear of calls coming from other Democrats to immediately end the entire operation.
She insists it is President Bush's choice if Rumsfeld stays or goes.
"Regardless of who is serving as Secretary of Defense, public comments by several former senior officers involved in the planning or implementation of our presence in Iraq raise troubling questions about that process," said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.
Some generals have criticized Rumsfeld for what they say is an arrogant management style.
"The current secretary of defense is dismissive, contemptuous and arrogant," retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste said earlier this week.
"Many of us have worked for far tougher and more aggressive men, but those leaders understood leadership, the value of teamwork, and that respect is a two-way street."
As a result of those and other complaints, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has called for a Senate vote of confidence on Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld and the administration have acknowledged the criticism but say it doesn't change anything.
"There are always differences of opinion," Rumsfeld said.
"That's a healthy thing in this country."
"We ought to respect it and get about our business."
Bush issued a more forceful rebuke to critics, saying:
"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."
"And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 22 2006, 06:02 PM)
"Sen. Clinton wants anti-Rumsfeld generals to testify"
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:36 p.m., Friday, April 21, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in Friday on the growing effort to oust Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying the generals who have recently called for his removal should testify before the Senate.
Bush issued a more forceful rebuke to critics, saying:
"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."
"And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:36 p.m., Friday, April 21, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed in Friday on the growing effort to oust Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying the generals who have recently called for his removal should testify before the Senate.
Bush issued a more forceful rebuke to critics, saying:
"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."
"And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."
And what is a REBUKE from George W. Bush worth, I wonder ...
$.02?
$.03478?
Maybe a nickel?
NO ....
Not the nickel, anyway .....
As that would devalue the nickel .....
And as to George W. Bush deciding what's best for anything?
That act is real old now ...
Because George don't have the wits to know what is best for anything ...
Let alone a once free and democratic nation like America ....
He just don't have the competence for it ...
Or the vision ....
And so ....
George W. Bush is nothing but a has-been ....
Who we ...
And the world ...
Are stuck with ...
For two more years ....
And so ....
Up here ....
In the cold country ...
Where life is simple ...
And the people relatively unsophisticated .....
As people in big cities go ....
We call the first war against Saddam Hussein "Big Bush's War" .....
To distinguish it from the war we have now ...
Which people call "The Boy's War" ......
Like in "You know, Big Bush's boy, that Bush" .....
And so .....
Because we live in the hinterlands of civilization ....
In a state with a corrupt government ...
In a nation with an incompetent one ....
Where people are still somewhat responsible for their own actions ....
Excepting those who can hire a professional liar, or lawyer, as they call them mouthpieces in the city .....
To cover over for them being not responsible ....
And because we have to live seasonally ...
Putting in seeds at the right time in the spring ....
So that at the necessary time during the summer and fall ...
There is food to eat ...
Well ...
I think that gives us attention spans somewhat longer than the American NATIONAL AVERAGE of .8395627 nano-seconds .....
And so ...
Up here ...
We can actually remember back to BIG BUSH'S WAR .....
Where the same players as are playing now ...
Or were ....
In the case of Colin Powell ....
Who squandered his own reputation ....
And credibility ...
To be a BUSHCO ....
DID NOT INVADE IRAQINAM ....
To replace Saddam Hussein ...
BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T .....
And then ...
After they couldn't ...
In BIG BUSH'S WAR .....
They came back ...
And said they could ...
In the BOY'S WAR ....
And so ...
TALK ABOUT FLIP-FLOPS .....
This crowd of BUSHCOS is the biggest FLIP-FLOPPING PACK of them all ...
And so ....
FIRST ....
They said they couldn't do it ...
And then ...
They said they could ....
And so ...
No wonder we are in a QUAGMIRE over there in IRAQINAM ....
WITH FLIP-FLOPPING REPUBLICANS IN CHARGE .....
Like a fish in a frying pan ...
They have flop-flopped us out of there ...
And into the fire ...
And so ....
VOTE REPUBLICAN, eh .....
If you love misery ...
And corruption ...
And incompetence ...
And a lot of lies ...
Because the REPUBLICANS are the PARTY OF THE SLICK LAWYERS ....
And so ....
In the cold country ...
Where life is simple ...
And the people relatively unsophisticated .....
As people in big cities go ....
We call the first war against Saddam Hussein "Big Bush's War" .....
To distinguish it from the war we have now ...
Which people call "The Boy's War" ......
Like in "You know, Big Bush's boy, that Bush" .....
And so .....
Because we live in the hinterlands of civilization ....
In a state with a corrupt government ...
In a nation with an incompetent one ....
Where people are still somewhat responsible for their own actions ....
Excepting those who can hire a professional liar, or lawyer, as they call them mouthpieces in the city .....
To cover over for them being not responsible ....
And because we have to live seasonally ...
Putting in seeds at the right time in the spring ....
So that at the necessary time during the summer and fall ...
There is food to eat ...
Well ...
I think that gives us attention spans somewhat longer than the American NATIONAL AVERAGE of .8395627 nano-seconds .....
And so ...
Up here ...
We can actually remember back to BIG BUSH'S WAR .....
Where the same players as are playing now ...
Or were ....
In the case of Colin Powell ....
Who squandered his own reputation ....
And credibility ...
To be a BUSHCO ....
DID NOT INVADE IRAQINAM ....
To replace Saddam Hussein ...
BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T .....
And then ...
After they couldn't ...
In BIG BUSH'S WAR .....
They came back ...
And said they could ...
In the BOY'S WAR ....
And so ...
TALK ABOUT FLIP-FLOPS .....
This crowd of BUSHCOS is the biggest FLIP-FLOPPING PACK of them all ...
And so ....
FIRST ....
They said they couldn't do it ...
And then ...
They said they could ....
And so ...
No wonder we are in a QUAGMIRE over there in IRAQINAM ....
WITH FLIP-FLOPPING REPUBLICANS IN CHARGE .....
Like a fish in a frying pan ...
They have flop-flopped us out of there ...
And into the fire ...
And so ....
VOTE REPUBLICAN, eh .....
If you love misery ...
And corruption ...
And incompetence ...
And a lot of lies ...
Because the REPUBLICANS are the PARTY OF THE SLICK LAWYERS ....
And so ....
And speaking of the price for this REPUBLICAN FLIP-FLOPPING .....
Over there in IRAQINAM .....
Where first ...
They couldn't invade Iraq to replace Saddam Hussein ...
In BIG BUSH's WAR .....
Because they know the task was beyond them ....
And then they could ......
In THE BOY'S WAR ....
Because they forgot everything that they thought they knew the moment before ...
When it was BIG BUSH's turn ...
Before it was THE BOY's turn ....
And so ...
We have ....
As usual ....
More violence ..
And more deaths ...
And so ...
Another day in the life of the world after George W. Bush came on the scene ....
And really mucked things up ...
BIG TIME ..
Because that boy brought a Texas-sized STUPID with him ...
When he came to the White House in Washington, D.C. ...
And so ....
"3 GIs Killed by Roadside Bomb in Baghdad"
By The Associated Press
1 minute ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
That brought the number of American troops killed in the Iraqi capital area over the weekend to eight.
The latest deaths occurred about 11:30 a.m., the command, without giving further details.
Five Americans soldiers died Saturday in bombings in the southern area of the capital.
All eight were assigned to the Army's Multinational Brigade-Baghdad which is responsible for security in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
Three explosions just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone also killed seven Iraqi civilians and wounded eight Sunday, a U.S. official said.
The explosions, heard across the city, came a day after Iraq's parliament met inside the Green Zone to elect top government officials in a breakthrough in a long political standoff.
Iraqi police said earlier that three mortar rounds landed inside the zone, but the U.S. official said the explosions occurred just outside.
The blasts near Iraq's Defense Ministry, which is just inside the zone, and were caused by mortars or rockets, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the attacks happened outside the Green Zone where the U.S. Embassy is located.
Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi, an Interior Ministry official, gave a lower casualty count, saying six Iraqis were killed and three wounded.
The casualty toll could not immediately be verified independently.
Three of the wounded were Defense Ministry employees, an official at the ministry said on condition of anonymity because the ministry planned to issue a statement later.
Police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said it was hard to identify the dead because the powerful blasts and shrapnel severed their limbs and destroyed their identification cards.
Iraqi police said the three explosions were among 11 mortar rounds fired in central Baghdad at about 8 a.m.
No one was hurt in the other eight blasts, which fell on the east side of the Tigris River near Iraq's Interior Ministry and the Shaab sports stadium, said police Lt. Bilal Ali.
A building housing a municipal swimming pool was damaged.
On Saturday, the parliament elected a president, two vice presidents, a parliament speaker and two deputies.
The breakthrough gave Jawad al-Maliki, the prime minister-designate, 30 days to choose a Cabinet including Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians.
Over there in IRAQINAM .....
Where first ...
They couldn't invade Iraq to replace Saddam Hussein ...
In BIG BUSH's WAR .....
Because they know the task was beyond them ....
And then they could ......
In THE BOY'S WAR ....
Because they forgot everything that they thought they knew the moment before ...
When it was BIG BUSH's turn ...
Before it was THE BOY's turn ....
And so ...
We have ....
As usual ....
More violence ..
And more deaths ...
And so ...
Another day in the life of the world after George W. Bush came on the scene ....
And really mucked things up ...
BIG TIME ..
Because that boy brought a Texas-sized STUPID with him ...
When he came to the White House in Washington, D.C. ...
And so ....
"3 GIs Killed by Roadside Bomb in Baghdad"
By The Associated Press
1 minute ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.
That brought the number of American troops killed in the Iraqi capital area over the weekend to eight.
The latest deaths occurred about 11:30 a.m., the command, without giving further details.
Five Americans soldiers died Saturday in bombings in the southern area of the capital.
All eight were assigned to the Army's Multinational Brigade-Baghdad which is responsible for security in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
Three explosions just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone also killed seven Iraqi civilians and wounded eight Sunday, a U.S. official said.
The explosions, heard across the city, came a day after Iraq's parliament met inside the Green Zone to elect top government officials in a breakthrough in a long political standoff.
Iraqi police said earlier that three mortar rounds landed inside the zone, but the U.S. official said the explosions occurred just outside.
The blasts near Iraq's Defense Ministry, which is just inside the zone, and were caused by mortars or rockets, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the attacks happened outside the Green Zone where the U.S. Embassy is located.
Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi, an Interior Ministry official, gave a lower casualty count, saying six Iraqis were killed and three wounded.
The casualty toll could not immediately be verified independently.
Three of the wounded were Defense Ministry employees, an official at the ministry said on condition of anonymity because the ministry planned to issue a statement later.
Police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said it was hard to identify the dead because the powerful blasts and shrapnel severed their limbs and destroyed their identification cards.
Iraqi police said the three explosions were among 11 mortar rounds fired in central Baghdad at about 8 a.m.
No one was hurt in the other eight blasts, which fell on the east side of the Tigris River near Iraq's Interior Ministry and the Shaab sports stadium, said police Lt. Bilal Ali.
A building housing a municipal swimming pool was damaged.
On Saturday, the parliament elected a president, two vice presidents, a parliament speaker and two deputies.
The breakthrough gave Jawad al-Maliki, the prime minister-designate, 30 days to choose a Cabinet including Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians.
And then ...
There is what people up here call ...
THE BOY'S OTHER WAR ....
Or maybe it really should be ONE OF THE BOY'S OTHER WARS .....
Because no one is really sure ...
Of how many he has going ...
At any given time ...
And so ....
How does that old adage go ...
If you can't handle one war ....
Get involved in five or six ....
Or something like that, anyway ....
"Fighting escalates in southern Afghanistan"
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:55 a.m., Sunday, April 23, 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan security forces surrounded Taliban fighters hiding in a village in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, launching a gunbattle that killed at least three militants and a police officer.
Elsewhere in the region, Taliban militants attacked an Afghan construction company working for coalition forces, killing a security guard.
The fighting came as visiting British Defense Secretary John Reid said coalition troops must maintain their offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida militants to prevent their return to power.
"The greatest danger of all for the people of Afghanistan and the people of the United Kingdom would be if Afghanistan ever again came under the rule of a Taliban regime prepared to protect al-Qaida or terrorist groups," Reid told reporters in the capital, Kabul.
Afghan police and soldiers fought Taliban militants in the volatile Gelan district of southern Ghazni province about 75 miles southwest of Kabul, said provincial Gov. Haji Sher Alam.
Three Taliban fighters and a policeman were killed, he told The Associated Press.
The attack on the construction company occurred on the Uruzgan-Kandahar highway near a southern Kandahar village where four Canadian soldiers were killed in a suspected Taliban roadside bombing a day earlier.
A group of heavily armed militants waged a two-hour attack against the headquarters of the Thavazoo company in Shah Wali Kot district, about 25 miles north of Kandahar city, said Haji Mohammed Youssef, the company's director.
One guard was killed and two were wounded before the remaining security personnel fled, Youssef said.
The Taliban fighters then entered the compound, burned 14 trucks and bulldozers and stole equipment before escaping.
Youssef said coalition forces gave him a contract to build a 25-mile stretch of road.
"Coalition forces are giving us money to help rebuild our country, but the enemies of Afghanistan don't want us to succeed," he told The AP.
On Saturday, U.S. and Afghan soldiers arrested 16 Taliban members in two raids in the southern Zabul province, which neighbors Kandahar, local Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmattalluh Roufi said Sunday.
"The Americans are questioning them now to see if they are important Taliban members or not," Roufi told the AP.
It was unclear if the arrests or the Taliban attack on the construction company were linked to the killing of the four Canadian soldiers, the deadliest attack on that nation's troops since they deployed here in 2002.
Militants have stepped up attacks against coalition and Afghan forces, particularly across southern Afghanistan, in a bid to derail reconstruction efforts four years after a U.S.-led military force toppled the Taliban regime for harboring Osama bin Laden.
Rising violence is a growing concern for nations contributing troops to a force operating here under a NATO mandate.
The force is to rise from its current 10,000 soldiers to about 21,000 by November as it gradually assumes command of all international troops in Afghanistan.
Some 6,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers have started deploying in remote tribal-dominated southern region.
Britain's deployment coincides with its taking control of the NATO mission in May for three years.
------
Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.
There is what people up here call ...
THE BOY'S OTHER WAR ....
Or maybe it really should be ONE OF THE BOY'S OTHER WARS .....
Because no one is really sure ...
Of how many he has going ...
At any given time ...
And so ....
How does that old adage go ...
If you can't handle one war ....
Get involved in five or six ....
Or something like that, anyway ....
"Fighting escalates in southern Afghanistan"
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:55 a.m., Sunday, April 23, 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Afghan security forces surrounded Taliban fighters hiding in a village in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, launching a gunbattle that killed at least three militants and a police officer.
Elsewhere in the region, Taliban militants attacked an Afghan construction company working for coalition forces, killing a security guard.
The fighting came as visiting British Defense Secretary John Reid said coalition troops must maintain their offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida militants to prevent their return to power.
"The greatest danger of all for the people of Afghanistan and the people of the United Kingdom would be if Afghanistan ever again came under the rule of a Taliban regime prepared to protect al-Qaida or terrorist groups," Reid told reporters in the capital, Kabul.
Afghan police and soldiers fought Taliban militants in the volatile Gelan district of southern Ghazni province about 75 miles southwest of Kabul, said provincial Gov. Haji Sher Alam.
Three Taliban fighters and a policeman were killed, he told The Associated Press.
The attack on the construction company occurred on the Uruzgan-Kandahar highway near a southern Kandahar village where four Canadian soldiers were killed in a suspected Taliban roadside bombing a day earlier.
A group of heavily armed militants waged a two-hour attack against the headquarters of the Thavazoo company in Shah Wali Kot district, about 25 miles north of Kandahar city, said Haji Mohammed Youssef, the company's director.
One guard was killed and two were wounded before the remaining security personnel fled, Youssef said.
The Taliban fighters then entered the compound, burned 14 trucks and bulldozers and stole equipment before escaping.
Youssef said coalition forces gave him a contract to build a 25-mile stretch of road.
"Coalition forces are giving us money to help rebuild our country, but the enemies of Afghanistan don't want us to succeed," he told The AP.
On Saturday, U.S. and Afghan soldiers arrested 16 Taliban members in two raids in the southern Zabul province, which neighbors Kandahar, local Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmattalluh Roufi said Sunday.
"The Americans are questioning them now to see if they are important Taliban members or not," Roufi told the AP.
It was unclear if the arrests or the Taliban attack on the construction company were linked to the killing of the four Canadian soldiers, the deadliest attack on that nation's troops since they deployed here in 2002.
Militants have stepped up attacks against coalition and Afghan forces, particularly across southern Afghanistan, in a bid to derail reconstruction efforts four years after a U.S.-led military force toppled the Taliban regime for harboring Osama bin Laden.
Rising violence is a growing concern for nations contributing troops to a force operating here under a NATO mandate.
The force is to rise from its current 10,000 soldiers to about 21,000 by November as it gradually assumes command of all international troops in Afghanistan.
Some 6,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers have started deploying in remote tribal-dominated southern region.
Britain's deployment coincides with its taking control of the NATO mission in May for three years.
------
Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 23 2006, 05:58 AM)
And what is a REBUKE from George W. Bush worth, I wonder ...
$.02?
$.03478?
Maybe a nickel?
NO ....
Not the nickel, anyway .....
As that would devalue the nickel .....
And as to George W. Bush deciding what's best for anything?
That act is real old now ...
Because George don't have the wits to know what is best for anything ...
Let alone a once free and democratic nation like America ....
He just don't have the competence for it ...
Or the vision ....
And so ....
George W. Bush is nothing but a has-been ....
Who we ...
And the world ...
Are stuck with ...
For two more years ....
And so ....
$.02?
$.03478?
Maybe a nickel?
NO ....
Not the nickel, anyway .....
As that would devalue the nickel .....
And as to George W. Bush deciding what's best for anything?
That act is real old now ...
Because George don't have the wits to know what is best for anything ...
Let alone a once free and democratic nation like America ....
He just don't have the competence for it ...
Or the vision ....
And so ....
George W. Bush is nothing but a has-been ....
Who we ...
And the world ...
Are stuck with ...
For two more years ....
And so ....
"Report: Ex-CIA official blasts White House"
Associated Press
Last updated: 9:55 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The former chief of the CIA's European operation is accusing the White House of ignoring the spy agency's doubts that Iraq had a budding nuclear program or weapons of mass destruction as the U.S. prepared for war.
"The policy was set."
"The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy," Tyler Drumheller told CBS' "60 Minutes" for an interview to be broadcast Sunday night.
The network released excerpts ahead of the airing.
The White House has denied that intelligence, while flawed, was exaggerated or manipulated in the months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Drumheller, who retired last year, said the White House ignored crucial information from a high and credible source who claimed that there were no active programs for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"60 Minutes" identified the source as Iraq's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, with whom U.S. spies had made a deal.
CIA Director George Tenet delivered the information to President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other high-ranking officials in September 2002, according to Drumheller.
A few days later the administration said it was no longer interested.
Drumheller said he was told about the exchange that followed:
"And we said, 'Well, what about the intel?'"
"And they said, 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore.'"
"This is about regime change.'"
CIA spokesman Tom Crispell said Saturday that Drumheller's remarks do not reflect the views of the agency.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 23 2006, 06:44 AM)
"Report: Ex-CIA official blasts White House"
Associated Press
Last updated: 9:55 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The former chief of the CIA's European operation is accusing the White House of ignoring the spy agency's doubts that Iraq had a budding nuclear program or weapons of mass destruction as the U.S. prepared for war.
"And they said, 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore.'"
"This is about regime change.'"
Associated Press
Last updated: 9:55 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The former chief of the CIA's European operation is accusing the White House of ignoring the spy agency's doubts that Iraq had a budding nuclear program or weapons of mass destruction as the U.S. prepared for war.
"And they said, 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore.'"
"This is about regime change.'"
In November of this year ...
It is time ...
For REGIME CHANGE ...
Here in OUR America ...
And as this following story goes to show ...
Where George W. Bush is finally admitting ...
And conceding ...
That he needs IRAQINAMIS ....
To keep America safe ...
Because he ...
And the rest of the BUSHCOS are incapable of doing it ....
Keeping America safe, from anything ....
IT IS DEFINITELY TIME FOR REGIME CHANGE HERE IN OUR AMERICA .....
And so ...
"Bush: Iraqis to shoulder security burden"
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press
Last updated: 10:05 p.m., Saturday, April 22, 2006
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- President Bush said Saturday that the new political leadership in Iraq will shoulder the burden for securing the country, but he did not commit to a drawdown of American forces that now are playing the lead role.
"There's going to be more tough fighting ahead in Iraq and there'll be more days of sacrifice and struggle," Bush said.
"Yet, the enemies of freedom have suffered a real blow today, and we've taken a great stride on the march to victory.
"This historic achievement by determined Iraqis will make America more secure," he said.
Bush spoke hours after Iraq's president designated Jawad al-Maliki to form the new government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called him a patriot and "somebody with whom we can work," even if he disagrees with the United States on certain issues.
The administration's quick and high-profile response to the weekend's political events in Iraq reflected the high stakes the situation poses for Bush.
The administration sees the establishment of a permanent government in Iraq as an important step toward stabilizing the country and allowing for the drawdown of U.S. forces there.
"Formation of a new Iraqi government is an opportunity for America to open a new chapter in our partnership with the Iraqi people," Bush said.
"The United States and our coalition partners will work with the new Iraqi government to reassess our tactics, adjust our methods and strengthen our mutual efforts to achieve victory in this central front in the war on terror."
Squabbling among Iraq's political factions more than four months after national elections in December had weakened public approval in the U.S. for the war and fed the rising sectarian violence.
Bush's approval rating is at the lowest point of his presidency, and the daily tide of bad news from Iraq -- beheadings and suicide bombings, attacks on U.S. soldiers -- is a chief reason.
Five U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday, including four whose vehicle hit a roadside bomb during a patrol in south Baghdad, the military said.
Nearly 2,400 members of the U.S. military have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Bush did not discuss al-Maliki directly in a brief statement to reporters after his helicopter landed in West Sacramento during a four-day trip through California.
He said the agreement that led to al-Maliki's selection represented compromise, consensus and the will of the Iraqi people.
Unlike the transitional and interim governments that came before, he said the new leadership will "have the popular mandate to address Iraq's toughest long-term challenges."
"The new government has a responsibility to deploy the growing strength of the Iraqi security forces to defeat the terrorists and insurgents and establish control over the militias," Bush said.
"These are major challenges and the new Iraqi government will not face them alone."
"America is helping Iraq's young democracy move forward."
Al-Maliki, a consensus nominee for prime minister, opposed both Saddam Hussein and the invasion that toppled the dictator.
Shiite politicians chose al-Maliki to replace their previous nominee, interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a polarizing figure whom the United States opposed behind the scenes.
Al-Maliki has strong ties to al-Jaafari, and the support of the political group led by firebrand anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Maliki has 30 days to present his Cabinet to parliament for approval.
"He's thought to be a strong figure, someone who is capable of getting things done," Rice said.
"He's also thought to be someone who is very much an Iraqi patriot -- very, very concerned about Iraq and Iraq's sovereignty."
Bush called Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, to discuss the developments in Iraq.
The president also offered condolences about the four Canadian soldiers killed Saturday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
----
AP Diplomatic Writer Anne Gearan contributed to this story from Washington.
And one of the many beauties of this internet forum to me ....
An older American who lives out in the country ...
In a rural area ....
And so ....
Would largely be shut right out of the DIALOGUE here in OUR America ....
BUT FOR THIS FORUM ....
As a result ....
Is that by being linked to a multitude of other internet resources .....
As this forum is ....
Specifically ....
Other search engines .....
This FORUM allows a common American like me ...
To be a part of something ...
That is unprecedented here in OUR America ...
Which is to me ...
A final true ENFRANCHISING ....
OF US ....
The common people here in OUR America ...
Those of us who do not wish to have to join some faction ...
To have OUR voices heard ....
Or to have some FACTION doing our thinking for us ....
Or making our decisions for us .....
Or monopolizing the DIALOGUE, here in OUR America ....
Shutting us out, as a result ....
Of the debate ..
Over the direction OUR NATION .....
OUR REPUBLIC ....
Will take in the future ....
If we are not one of their CARD-CARRYING MEMBERS ...
Where ENFRANCHISEMENT is taken to mean:
"investiture with privileges OR CAPACITIES OF FREEDOM, or municipal or POLITICAL LIBERTY ...."
And so ....
An older American who lives out in the country ...
In a rural area ....
And so ....
Would largely be shut right out of the DIALOGUE here in OUR America ....
BUT FOR THIS FORUM ....
As a result ....
Is that by being linked to a multitude of other internet resources .....
As this forum is ....
Specifically ....
Other search engines .....
This FORUM allows a common American like me ...
To be a part of something ...
That is unprecedented here in OUR America ...
Which is to me ...
A final true ENFRANCHISING ....
OF US ....
The common people here in OUR America ...
Those of us who do not wish to have to join some faction ...
To have OUR voices heard ....
Or to have some FACTION doing our thinking for us ....
Or making our decisions for us .....
Or monopolizing the DIALOGUE, here in OUR America ....
Shutting us out, as a result ....
Of the debate ..
Over the direction OUR NATION .....
OUR REPUBLIC ....
Will take in the future ....
If we are not one of their CARD-CARRYING MEMBERS ...
Where ENFRANCHISEMENT is taken to mean:
"investiture with privileges OR CAPACITIES OF FREEDOM, or municipal or POLITICAL LIBERTY ...."
And so ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 21 2006, 05:55 PM)
And here is that Fukuyama dude ....
The NEW CON one that was one of the BUSHCO PRIME's greatest supporters .....
When the PRIME made his catestrophically successful invasion of IRAQINAM ....
He's one of the NEW CONS who have bailed out on the George .....
And the other NEW CONS, as well .....
I wonder why ....
So ...
Let's see what he has to say about ....
Being a TRAITER to the BUSHCO CAUSE, like he is ....
And all ....
And so ....
"Under attack - War's facts change way of thinking"
By FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
First published: Sunday, April 16, 2006
I believe ....
That the neoconservative movement ....
With which I was associated ....
Has become indelibly associated .....
With a failed policy .....
And that unilateralism and coercive regime change ....
Cannot be the basis .....
For an effective American foreign policy.
Fukuyama is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of "America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power and the Neoconservative Legacy."
The NEW CON one that was one of the BUSHCO PRIME's greatest supporters .....
When the PRIME made his catestrophically successful invasion of IRAQINAM ....
He's one of the NEW CONS who have bailed out on the George .....
And the other NEW CONS, as well .....
I wonder why ....
So ...
Let's see what he has to say about ....
Being a TRAITER to the BUSHCO CAUSE, like he is ....
And all ....
And so ....
"Under attack - War's facts change way of thinking"
By FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
First published: Sunday, April 16, 2006
I believe ....
That the neoconservative movement ....
With which I was associated ....
Has become indelibly associated .....
With a failed policy .....
And that unilateralism and coercive regime change ....
Cannot be the basis .....
For an effective American foreign policy.
Fukuyama is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of "America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power and the Neoconservative Legacy."
And speaking of the linked power of this internet forum ....
And the FAILED POLICIES ....
Of this NEW CON CROWD ....
That have got America .....
In a QUAGMIRE ....
Over there in IRAQINAM .....
Thanks to the ignorance and naivete ....
Of the NEW CONS ...
Of whom ...
"CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice ...
Is a LEADING ONE ....
And the BEGINNINGS ...
Of the CON JOB ...
By the NEW CONS ...
That sucked this Francis Fukuyama ...
Right on in .....
With its siren song ...
OF LIES ....
We have ....
"Stanford Provost Calls It Quits - Rice to seek job in international affairs, business"
Bill Workman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 9, 1998
STANFORD -- Stanford University Provost Condoleezza Rice, a national security adviser in the Bush administration, will leave the university's No. 2 academic post in June.
Rice, 44, said in an interview yesterday that she will pursue a career in the corporate world that will enable her to return to a prominent role in international affairs.
One possibility being whispered in political circles is that Rice will advise Texas Governor George W. Bush in his expected run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000.
"I decided it was time to step down,'' said Rice, who advised trustees of her decision yesterday.
After more than five years as Stanford's chief budget officer, she said she felt a need to return to "my passion'' for international politics.
Rice is one of the nation's top- ranking black women in higher education and an expert on the former Soviet Union and international security policy.
She will take a leave of absence from the Stanford faculty, where she has been a political science professor since 1981.
A political source said Rice's pending departure is rumored to be a prelude to her joining the campaign staff of Bush as his foreign affairs adviser.
Rice last worked in the White House for Bush's father.
Rice did not rule out that possibility in an interview at her campus office.
She acknowledged that she had talked about foreign affairs with the Texas governor when both were vacationing this year in Kennebunkport, Maine, where the Bush family makes its summer home.
But, she said, "there was nothing formal.''
Rice described herself as a moderate Republican like the governor, "one of those all-over-the-map Republicans that drive people crazy.''
Rice said she had no immediate plans but had been discussing a number of possible opportunities with friends in corporate and business circles.
Rice is already a trustee on the boards of several major corporations, including Chevron and Transamerica.
Stanford President Gerhard Casper, who appointed Rice to the provost's office in 1993, said in a prepared statement:
"Condi is the best collaborator I have ever had."
". . . Together we have tackled everything from undergraduate education reform to teaching and research at Stanford.''
Casper remarked at the ease with which the two worked together, "given our seeming cultural differences'' as a "black woman from segregated Birmingham, Alabama, and a white man from war-torn Hamburg, Germany.''
Rice praised Casper and said she had been discussing her possible departure as provost with him for more than a year, trying to determine when would be the best time to leave.
Almost from the moment she was named provost, Rice had been viewed as a future university president.
She disclosed yesterday that she had been asked by several schools to be a candidate for their top job, including chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley when that post opened up last year.
However, after turning down so many offers, she decided she no longer wanted to be in an administrative post in higher education and worried that she might be falling behind in her field of international politics.
"You have to make the judgment of how long you can stay out of your field before you become a dinosaur in it,'' she said, smiling.
"I know right now I want to be someplace where I can be involved in practical issues and political reform.''
Citing the collapse of the Asian and Russian economies in recent months, Rice, who speaks Russian, said that the threat of "retreat from globalization is real'' unless troubled emerging nations can attract sufficient investment to ensure long-term economic growth.
"I think the private sector is kind of unrecognized, unappreciated actor in international politics,'' she said.
Rice worked in the White House from 1989 to 1991 as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Soviet affairs for the National Security Council.
She accompanied President George Bush to the three U.S.-Soviet summits and helped guide the political reform of the new Polish democracy.
Michael Armacost of the Brookings Institution, who served as undersecretary of state in the Reagan administration, said Rice has a "tremendous reputation'' as an expert on Russia and one of the top Republican foreign policy advisers.
Among her accomplishments, he said, was the key role she played in the negotiations with the then-Soviet Union leading to the reunification of Germany.
She came to Stanford after earning a bachelor's degree and doctorate from the University of Denver and a master's degree from Notre Dame University.
An avid sports fan, Rice has frequently told acquaintances one job she would not mind having would be National Football League commissioner.
"I've had season tickets to Stanford Cardinal football since I came here in 1981,'' she boasted.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 23 2006, 05:07 PM)
And speaking of the linked power of this internet forum ....
And the FAILED POLICIES ....
Of this NEW CON CROWD ....
That have got America .....
In a QUAGMIRE ....
Over there in IRAQINAM .....
Thanks to the ignorance and naivete ....
Of the NEW CONS ...
Of whom ...
"CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice ...
Is a LEADING ONE ....
And the BEGINNINGS ...
Of the CON JOB ...
By the NEW CONS ...
That sucked this Francis Fukuyama ...
Right on in .....
With its siren song ...
OF LIES ....
We have ....
"Stanford Provost Calls It Quits - Rice to seek job in international affairs, business"
Bill Workman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 9, 1998
STANFORD -- Stanford University Provost Condoleezza Rice, a national security adviser in the Bush administration, will leave the university's No. 2 academic post in June.
Rice, 44, said in an interview yesterday that she will pursue a career in the corporate world that will enable her to return to a prominent role in international affairs.
One possibility being whispered in political circles is that Rice will advise Texas Governor George W. Bush in his expected run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000.
After more than five years as Stanford's chief budget officer, she said she felt a need to return to "my passion'' for international politics.
An avid sports fan, Rice has frequently told acquaintances one job she would not mind having would be National Football League commissioner.
"I've had season tickets to Stanford Cardinal football since I came here in 1981,'' she boasted.
And the FAILED POLICIES ....
Of this NEW CON CROWD ....
That have got America .....
In a QUAGMIRE ....
Over there in IRAQINAM .....
Thanks to the ignorance and naivete ....
Of the NEW CONS ...
Of whom ...
"CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice ...
Is a LEADING ONE ....
And the BEGINNINGS ...
Of the CON JOB ...
By the NEW CONS ...
That sucked this Francis Fukuyama ...
Right on in .....
With its siren song ...
OF LIES ....
We have ....
"Stanford Provost Calls It Quits - Rice to seek job in international affairs, business"
Bill Workman, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 9, 1998
STANFORD -- Stanford University Provost Condoleezza Rice, a national security adviser in the Bush administration, will leave the university's No. 2 academic post in June.
Rice, 44, said in an interview yesterday that she will pursue a career in the corporate world that will enable her to return to a prominent role in international affairs.
One possibility being whispered in political circles is that Rice will advise Texas Governor George W. Bush in his expected run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000.
After more than five years as Stanford's chief budget officer, she said she felt a need to return to "my passion'' for international politics.
An avid sports fan, Rice has frequently told acquaintances one job she would not mind having would be National Football League commissioner.
"I've had season tickets to Stanford Cardinal football since I came here in 1981,'' she boasted.
And as the fruits .....
Of Connie's CON JOB ....
Continue to ....
Ripen on the vine ....
"3 U.S. troops, 27 Iraqis killed in Iraq"
By LEE KEATH, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:05 p.m., Sunday, April 23, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents killed three American soldiers in the Baghdad area Sunday and fired mortars near the Defense Ministry in a spree of violence that killed at least 27 Iraqis as politicians began work on forming a new government.
The largest Sunni Arab party raised new allegations of sectarian killings -- one of the most urgent issues facing the new Iraqi leadership.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the next government must decommission sectarian militias and integrate them into the national armed forces, warning that the armed groups represent the "infrastructure for civil war."
Sunday's deaths raised to eight the number of U.S. troops killed the past two days.
At least 61 American service members have died in April, putting it on track to pass January -- with 62 -- as the deadliest month this year.
It represents a jump over March, which with 31 deaths was the lowest monthly toll for the Americans since February 2004.
The three solders were killed Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of capital, the U.S. command said.
Twenty-seven Iraqis also died in other violence Sunday, including seven killed when three mortars hit just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad, not far from Iraq's Defense Ministry.
Police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said it was hard to identify the seven dead because the powerful blasts and shrapnel severed their limbs and destroyed their identification cards.
At least eight other mortars or rockets exploded at about the same time on the other side of the Tigris River in central Baghdad, without causing injuries, police said.
In the evening, another mortar hit a home in southern Baghdad, killing a man and wounding two of his relatives.
Drive-by shootings in a nearby district gunned down a schoolteacher outside her home and a car mechanic in his shop.
The violence underlined the challenge as prime minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki began on Sunday the tough task of assembling a Cabinet out of Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, has 30 days to do it, but the parties are under enormous pressure -- from Americans and even Shiite religious leaders -- to move quickly without the often intractable haggling over ministries.
The United States is hoping the new government will unify Iraq's bitterly divided factions behind a program aimed at reining in both the Sunni-led insurgency and the Shiite-Sunni killings that escalated during months without a stable government.
Khalilzad, a key player in tortuous political negotiations since Iraq's Dec. 15 elections, repeated his call for the quick creation of a Cabinet of "competent" ministers -- implying those chosen for their skills and not sectarian or political ties.
He also issued a strong warning Sunday against militias, calling them "a serious challenge to stability in Iraq to building a successful country based on rule of law."
"There is a need for a decommissioning, demobilization and reintegration plan for these unauthorized military formations," he told a press conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in the northern city of Irbil.
He also issued a strong warning Sunday against militias, calling them "a serious challenge to stability in Iraq to building a successful country based on rule of law."
"There is a need for a decommissioning, demobilization and reintegration plan for these unauthorized military formations," he told a news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in the northern city of Irbil.
Sunni Arabs say Shiite militias have infiltrated the Interior Ministry -- controlled by the biggest Shiite party -- and used death squads to kill Sunnis.
Sectarian violence has flared since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
But the killings have gone both ways.
Police said the bodies of six Shiites were found Sunday in the mainly Sunni district of Azamiyah in Baghdad, their hands and legs bound and their bodies showing signs of torture.
Two more -- their identities unknown -- were found in a mixed district south of Baghdad.
The head of the Azamiyah district council, Sheik Hassan Sabri Salman, said relatives on Sunday identified the bodies of 14 Sunnis kidnapped last week.
The bodies, he said, were handcuffed with signs of torture.
Police did not confirm the deaths.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the main Sunni faction in parliament and a likely participant in the next Cabinet, warned of "the repercussions of sectarian cleansing."
It urged the new government to stop "the criminal gangs" involved in the killings.
Control of the Interior Ministry will be a key question.
The Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq -- which currently holds it -- appeared to be under pressure to give it up.
SCIRI ran the feared Badr Brigade militia during Saddam Hussein's rule but insists the group has given up their arms, a claim many Sunnis reject.
One name touted for the post was Qassim Dawoud, an independent Shiite legislator who held a security positions in the administration of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and is not connected to militias.
But uprooting militia power will be difficult for any government.
Al-Maliki has vowed to implement a law that would integrate them into the security forces, but there is little guarantee that the forces -- once in the army or police -- would then drop their loyalty to their former sectarian commanders.
Hadi al-Ameri, the head of the Badr Organization, the party that touts itself as the political successor of the Badr Brigade and is a member of the Shiite alliance in parliament, insisted his group is willing to cooperate with the incorporating of militias.
"We have said in the past that those who carry weapons want to join the armed forces and we are still prepared," he told the Arab news network Al-Jazeera.
The Sunni parties have said they can work with al-Maliki, but he must overcome a reputation as a hard-line Shiite partisan.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 21 2006, 04:48 PM)
Gas up here has jumped up to about $3.20 a gallon for 89-octane .....
That's $.30 cents in a week ......
That's $.30 cents in a week ......
CLEAR CHANNELS WORLD WIDE had Senator Chuck Schumer on this morning ....
And he has gas up to FOUR DOLLARS a gallon .....
Likely by Memorial Day .....
"Gas up 24 cents to $2.91 over 2 weeks"
Associated Press
Last updated: 7:25 p.m., Sunday, April 23, 2006
CAMARILLO, Calif. -- Retail gas prices across the country jumped an average of nearly a quarter per gallon in the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.
Self-serve regular averaged $2.91 a gallon, up from $2.67 two weeks ago, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the nationwide Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations.
Also Sunday, OPEC President Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru predicted that oil prices would fall from their current high of just over $75 a barrel to stabilize in the "upper fifties to lower sixties."
Crude-oil prices hit a new record Friday, fueled by concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions and tight U.S. gasoline supplies.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries president said the solution to high prices lies in a calmer international environment and boosting refining capacity -- not increasing output which would only clog the market.
"If we do the right things by lowering international tensions, oil prices will definitely stabilize," said OPEC President Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru said in Doha, Qatar.
In the Lundberg Survey, mid-grade hit $3 a gallon, up from $2.76, while premium climbed to an average of $3.10, from $2.86 two weeks ago.
The survey covered the period from April 7 through April 21.
Among the stations surveyed, the lowest average price in the country for regular unleaded was in Boise, Idaho, at $2.54 a gallon.
Drivers in San Diego were paying the most for gas, at an average of $3.12 a gallon for regular.
------
On the Net:
Lundberg Survey: http://www.lundbergsurvey.com
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 15 2006, 06:46 AM)
"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 ....
Eh, "Big EL" ....
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 ......
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 ....
Eh, "Big EL" ....
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 ......
"Suozzi who? CSEA heavily backs Spitzer for governor"
BY LAUREN WEBER
NEWSDAY ALBANY BUREAU
April 21, 2006
ALBANY - Attorney General Eliot Spitzer received another boost yesterday when the CSEA, the 265,000-member state civil service employees' union, endorsed his bid for governor.
Nassau County Executive and gubernatorial hopeful Thomas Suozzi received only "low-single-digit" support in a poll of 2,000 union members, versus about 70 percent for Spitzer, said CSEA president Danny Donohue.
"We have a track record with [Suozzi] and we think he's a great county executive."
"But very honestly, our members overwhelmingly supported Eliot in this situation," Donohue said.
As for the other party, "many of our members didn't even know who the Republican candidates were."
Suozzi's popularity among civil service employees may have been bruised when he announced a plan this month to reduce the state work force by 10 percent through attrition if elected governor.
Spitzer hasn't offered a platform on increasing or reducing the state payroll.
At a CSEA meeting here yesterday, he said additional people are needed in areas such as mental health, children's services and environmental inspections.
But he stopped short of endorsing increases in state employment.
"You don't hire because you just want to hire," he said.
"You hire where there's a need."
While Spitzer racks up endorsements from prominent civic and labor groups, Suozzi has failed to attract many high-profile supporters.
His campaign brushes off Spitzer's endorsements, saying Suozzi is more interested in drumming up grassroots support.
"Eliot is focused on cozying up to interest groups and running up political debts in exchange for support," Suozzi campaign manager Kim Devlin said in a statement.
"Tom Suozzi is focused on fixing Albany."
And then ....
There is this ...
Which can't be true, of course .....
Because a WHITE HOUSE LAWYER ....
Said there was no global warming ....
And so .....
"Global warming a real threat to all living things"
By BRUCE STUTZ
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, April 23, 2006
Each day from now until the summer solstice (June 21), daylight will linger a bit longer and the sun will cross a little higher in the sky -- a sure sign that despite the lingering chill in the air, spring is upon us.
About this time last year, I was in the early stages of a very ambitious project.
The first part of my mission was to see our country in one of its most glorious moments; the spring season.
As spring is so often a symbolic time for positive transformation, I also aspired to document the natural changes that occur, the cultural meanings of spring throughout history and, last, what a rapidly warming climate means for this cherished season.
Having undergone heart surgery during the preceding winter, I found that more than ever I was ready to experience the life and energy that we all feel this time of year.
During my journey, however, I was troubled by many of the things I found along the way.
I noticed that changes in the seasonal patterns of spring, instead of bringing traditional joy and lightheartedness, aroused concern among farmers, gardeners and scientists.
Beginning on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, I traveled north, all the way to the Alaskan Arctic, chasing spring's flowering and observing both the large and small changes that we look forward to each year.
Throughout my journey, I discovered that visible differences in the onset of spring have occurred within my own lifetime.
In fact, due to global warming, spring across the Northern Hemisphere arrives a week or more earlier than it did 30 years ago, a phenomenon starting to be known as "season creep."
A common misconception is that changes due to a warming planet are something of concern not to us but to our great-grandchildren.
True, the altered spring is a concern for future generations, but the impact of global warming on our planet is here now, from the subtle signs of flowers blooming earlier to the more serious problems of weather that brings drought, fires and reduced snowpacks.
On my way across the country I noticed that many states and communities were having their own problems that come along with a mild winter and an earlier spring.
In Oregon, forest managers were concerned that warming temperatures would bring insect infestations that could devastate the trees and leave the forests vulnerable to fire.
In the Rocky Mountains, I tested out my new heart and climbed 12,000 feet to where scientists were measuring the snowpack.
It was much diminished, meaning there would be less water for the Colorado River and thus, less of the crucial water supply for the states downstream.
All over the northern part of the country, ice events were canceled and businesses suffered due to the warm weather.
Shorter winter, earlier spring, lingering summer -- the seasonal paradigms are changing.
We can take our coats off earlier and wait longer before we pull them out of storage.
We can move up the dates of the cherry blossom and lilac festivals, abandon our ice fishing rituals and tournaments.
But there are much more serious issues at hand.
Plants and animals may not adapt fast enough to survive.
And as I traveled farther north, I learned more about the problems global warming poses for humans, too.
At last, I made it to my final destination: the Alaskan Arctic, where the 24-hour solstice sun circles the sky.
Here I saw melting glaciers and evidence of the shrinking sea ice.
Natives showed me their houses beginning to collapse, as the permafrost melted away beneath them, and told me of polar bears coming onshore for food because they have fewer places on the ice where they can hunt.
I saw the land and the people being threatened by a fast-warming Arctic.
Spring remains a season that brings about real and spiritual renewal.
Even those of us who have little connection to the natural world during the rest of the year still feel the energy of spring.
But because of accelerating global warming, the things we once considered timeless are not as unchanging as we thought.
In a warming America, is it possible that when winter comes, can spring be too close behind?
Changes are occurring now, and impacting plants, animals, and our lives.
It's time to take action before the natural joys and beauties of spring become a thing of the past.
Bruce Stutz is a Brooklyn science writer, former editor-in-chief of Natural History magazine and author of the book "Chasing Spring, an American Journey through a Changing Season." His e-mail address is brucestutz@earthlink.net.
There is this ...
Which can't be true, of course .....
Because a WHITE HOUSE LAWYER ....
Said there was no global warming ....
And so .....
"Global warming a real threat to all living things"
By BRUCE STUTZ
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, April 23, 2006
Each day from now until the summer solstice (June 21), daylight will linger a bit longer and the sun will cross a little higher in the sky -- a sure sign that despite the lingering chill in the air, spring is upon us.
About this time last year, I was in the early stages of a very ambitious project.
The first part of my mission was to see our country in one of its most glorious moments; the spring season.
As spring is so often a symbolic time for positive transformation, I also aspired to document the natural changes that occur, the cultural meanings of spring throughout history and, last, what a rapidly warming climate means for this cherished season.
Having undergone heart surgery during the preceding winter, I found that more than ever I was ready to experience the life and energy that we all feel this time of year.
During my journey, however, I was troubled by many of the things I found along the way.
I noticed that changes in the seasonal patterns of spring, instead of bringing traditional joy and lightheartedness, aroused concern among farmers, gardeners and scientists.
Beginning on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, I traveled north, all the way to the Alaskan Arctic, chasing spring's flowering and observing both the large and small changes that we look forward to each year.
Throughout my journey, I discovered that visible differences in the onset of spring have occurred within my own lifetime.
In fact, due to global warming, spring across the Northern Hemisphere arrives a week or more earlier than it did 30 years ago, a phenomenon starting to be known as "season creep."
A common misconception is that changes due to a warming planet are something of concern not to us but to our great-grandchildren.
True, the altered spring is a concern for future generations, but the impact of global warming on our planet is here now, from the subtle signs of flowers blooming earlier to the more serious problems of weather that brings drought, fires and reduced snowpacks.
On my way across the country I noticed that many states and communities were having their own problems that come along with a mild winter and an earlier spring.
In Oregon, forest managers were concerned that warming temperatures would bring insect infestations that could devastate the trees and leave the forests vulnerable to fire.
In the Rocky Mountains, I tested out my new heart and climbed 12,000 feet to where scientists were measuring the snowpack.
It was much diminished, meaning there would be less water for the Colorado River and thus, less of the crucial water supply for the states downstream.
All over the northern part of the country, ice events were canceled and businesses suffered due to the warm weather.
Shorter winter, earlier spring, lingering summer -- the seasonal paradigms are changing.
We can take our coats off earlier and wait longer before we pull them out of storage.
We can move up the dates of the cherry blossom and lilac festivals, abandon our ice fishing rituals and tournaments.
But there are much more serious issues at hand.
Plants and animals may not adapt fast enough to survive.
And as I traveled farther north, I learned more about the problems global warming poses for humans, too.
At last, I made it to my final destination: the Alaskan Arctic, where the 24-hour solstice sun circles the sky.
Here I saw melting glaciers and evidence of the shrinking sea ice.
Natives showed me their houses beginning to collapse, as the permafrost melted away beneath them, and told me of polar bears coming onshore for food because they have fewer places on the ice where they can hunt.
I saw the land and the people being threatened by a fast-warming Arctic.
Spring remains a season that brings about real and spiritual renewal.
Even those of us who have little connection to the natural world during the rest of the year still feel the energy of spring.
But because of accelerating global warming, the things we once considered timeless are not as unchanging as we thought.
In a warming America, is it possible that when winter comes, can spring be too close behind?
Changes are occurring now, and impacting plants, animals, and our lives.
It's time to take action before the natural joys and beauties of spring become a thing of the past.
Bruce Stutz is a Brooklyn science writer, former editor-in-chief of Natural History magazine and author of the book "Chasing Spring, an American Journey through a Changing Season." His e-mail address is brucestutz@earthlink.net.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 23 2006, 05:55 PM)
"Suozzi who? CSEA heavily backs Spitzer for governor"
BY LAUREN WEBER
NEWSDAY ALBANY BUREAU
April 21, 2006
"Eliot is focused on cozying up to interest groups and running up political debts in exchange for support," Suozzi campaign manager Kim Devlin said in a statement.
"Tom Suozzi is focused on fixing Albany."
BY LAUREN WEBER
NEWSDAY ALBANY BUREAU
April 21, 2006
"Eliot is focused on cozying up to interest groups and running up political debts in exchange for support," Suozzi campaign manager Kim Devlin said in a statement.
"Tom Suozzi is focused on fixing Albany."
Up here ....
Out in the country where I am ....
A "big city" boy like New York State Attorney General Eliot "I'm so vain, but I deserve to be" Spitzer .....
Is a type of politician ...
That is known as ....
A "DANCER" ....
Which means that "Old Oncle Eliot" ...
As the country folks call him .....
Is dancing around ...
All over the place ...
In his efforts ...
To load up his pockets ...
Er, his campaign coffers ...
With a lot of GEETUS ...
And MOOLAH ....
So Old Oncle Eliot can get himself elected Governor ...
Because that is where the BIG MONEY is ...
And Old Oncle Eliot knows that better than most ...
SO ....
As can be expected ...
At least up here in the decidedly corrupt EMPIRE of New York ...
Old Oncle Eliot is using his position as New York State Attorney General ...
The state's alleged top law enforcement guy ...
To win him some support ...
And if Old Oncle Eliot has to "look the other way" at times ...
Or to "turn the blind eye" ....
Well ...
Let's face it folks ...
Up here ...
In a state that likes people to know it is corrupt ....
And "real easy" ....
People have come to expect that who holds the governor's chair ....
Is not above a little larceny ...
And so ...
Contenders like Old Oncle Eliot ...
Well ...
They have to give the "people" what the "people" want ...
And so ...
"The news, before it happens"
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, April 24, 2006
An upstate issue
Two top Democrats seeking statewide office may need to leave downstate more or bolster their research staffs.
The two don't seem to be informed about an issue important in upstate New York about which Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has taken some very public criticism.
To wit: Spitzer has declined to act against the Oneida Indian Nation of New York for operating Turning Stone Casino on property the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 13 months ago is nonsovereign, taxable land.
Spitzer, the state's top prosecutor, has said he doesn't have jurisdiction to take action, even though Gov. Pataki's top lawyer wrote about the "illegal" and potentially "criminal activity" at the central New York gambling hall.
Asked about Spitzer's handling of Indian affairs issues three weeks ago by the Times Union, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who is vying with Spitzer for the Democratic nomination for governor, appeared to be hearing about the topic for the first time.
Suozzi, who has focused his attacks on Spitzer's Medicaid fraud investigations, took notes on the Indian law matter and said he'd look into it.
He hasn't said another word about the issue since.
Democrat Andrew Cuomo, who polls say is the front-runner in the race for attorney general, gave a speech two weeks ago in which he declared, "Laws are only as good as enforcement."
He said the AG's role is to make sure laws are honored in New York.
Asked what he would do about Turning Stone, he seemed to be searching for words.
"I would like to hear the facts from Eliot, the attorney general's office," he said.
"Until the final disposition of a case is made, I'm sure he wouldn't act."
"Upon final disposition of a case, I'm sure he would act."
"In this particular case I don't know the facts."
Contributors: Capitol bureau reporter James M. Odato and State Editor Jay Jochnowitz. Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@timesunion.com.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 15 2006, 06:46 AM)
"Oh, Eliot, You're JUST So Vain"
With apologies to Carly Simon
Old Oncle Eliot ....
You sly dog, you .....
Look at you ....
You walked into the party ....
Like you were walking into the Governor's Chambers ....
In the capital ....
In Albany, New York ....
Your hat, of course ....
Strategically dipped below one eye ...
Just as your political consultants told you it should be ....
Your scarf it was apricot ....
A "power color" .....
If there is one ....
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 .....
Don't you .....
You foxy devil, you ....
With apologies to Carly Simon
Old Oncle Eliot ....
You sly dog, you .....
Look at you ....
You walked into the party ....
Like you were walking into the Governor's Chambers ....
In the capital ....
In Albany, New York ....
Your hat, of course ....
Strategically dipped below one eye ...
Just as your political consultants told you it should be ....
Your scarf it was apricot ....
A "power color" .....
If there is one ....
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 .....
Don't you .....
You foxy devil, you ....
Let's see here ...
By my calculations ...
That storm named Katrina has now been over for .....
Well, let's see ...
Math isn't my strong suit, so ...
Well ...
Anyway ...
If I remember ...
And when you are older ...
Remembering is always a questionable activity ...
BUT ...
Hasn't Katrina been over for quite a while now?
And haven't we been getting gouged on gas, now ....
For quite a while?
BUT ...
There is a state election up here this fall ...
And "Old Oncle Eliot" Spitzer wants to win that election ...
SO ...
He fiddles with his schedule as New York State Attorney General ...
Which he can do ...
Because he is ...
And so ...
Out of that ...
From that fiddling ....
"Old Oncle Eliot" can get his name in the newspapers .....
This year ...
Instead of last year ....
Closer to the November elections ....
And he can look like a real hero ..
To those with short attention spans ...
Who might not really remember that there was a hurricane named Katrina ...
And so ....
"Good press" is where you make it, right, "Big EL"?
And so ....
"Spitzer accuses stations of gas price gouging - Schaghticoke Mobil is one of three outlets sued over alleged post-Katrina hikes"
By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
First published: Monday, April 24, 2006
ALBANY -- A Rensselaer County gas station is one of three stations in the state accused of adding up to $13 to the cost of a typical fill-up immediately after Hurricane Katrina.
State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is suing a Mobil station in Schaghticoke, the Penn-Can Truck Stop Mobil station in Central Square, Oswego County, and My Service Station in New Rochelle, Westchester County.
The stations were notified of the civil lawsuits beginning Friday.
If found liable, the stations could face penalties based on excess profits.
The Mobil station in Schaghticoke is run by Wever Petroleum of 100 S. Hudson St. in Mechanicville, said Paul Larrabee, a spokesman for Spitzer's office.
A call left with the company's after-hours answering service was not returned late Sunday.
According to the Mobil Web site, Wever Petroleum operates the Village Car Wash at 166 Main St.
Spitzer said the stations increased their pump prices by 25 percent to 72 percent for gas already in their holding facilities.
He said the Schaghticoke station increased its price by 90 cents per gallon; the Westchester station raised its by 32 cents; and the Oswego station's rose by 19 cents per gallon.
My Service Station owner/manager Danny Chianciulli denied price gouging.
He said he only raised prices when his supplier raised its prices.
His attorney, Adam Peska, said the oil companies and wholesalers were gouging, not the smaller retailers.
Peska said Friday he hadn't been served with a lawsuit, but had received a subpoena from Spitzer.
He said his client had to "increases prices considerably" to cover the cost of his next delivery and lost money in the days following Katrina.
State law prohibits the sale of "vital consumer goods" at an "unconscionably excessive price during natural disasters," according to Larrabee.
The owner of the Oswego station didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuits announced this week follow Spitzer's action in December in which 15 gas stations statewide, including three controlled by oil companies, were fined $63,000 for marking up prices 25 percent or more immediately after the Hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast in late August.
Spitzer said the post-Katrina price jumps were the largest in history for gasoline.
"We continue to believe that the state needs a clearer and stronger statute to deter price gouging," Spitzer said.
Two key state lawmakers said they wanted to address price gouging.
Sen. Charles Fuschillo suggested raising fines and the Long Island Republican said he will work with Spitzer on a new measure.
Democratic Assemblyman Paul Tonko of Montgomery County has sponsored an anti-gouging bill that Spitzer recommended and which Fuschillo supports.
Tonko said the measure would help the attorney general's office "prosecute unscrupulous individuals or businesses who take advantage of consumers during supply disruptions, emergencies and natural catastrophes."
And my God ....
Enough about Eliot Spitzer .....
That is all we hear about up here, of course ....
"Old Oncle Eliot is in charge, you can all go back to your homes now, folks ...."
And so people do .....
Those who either like or need to be herded, anyway ......
And outside of corruption ...
And "Old Oncle Eliot" Spitzer .....
Well, when you live out in the wilds like we yokels do up here ...
In the very hinterlands of civilization ...
Here in OUR America ....
What else is there to talk about?
Other than the weather, I guess ....
And so ....
"Sunday rainfall sets a record - Two-day soaking that wiped out year's deficit prompts flood warnings"
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, April 24, 2006
ALBANY -- This weekend's storm washed away the region's year-to-date rainfall deficit while dumping a record amount of rain at Albany International Airport Sunday, weather officials said.
The 1.54 inches of rain that fell at the airport between midnight and 10 p.m. Sunday was the most for the date since 1.02 inches fell in 1977, said Bob Kilpatrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany.
But that was only half the storm, which had been rolling through since about 8 a.m. Saturday, leaving behind an additional 1.09 inches before officials even started counting for Sunday.
The end result, said Kilpatrick, was enough liquid precipitation to end a year-to-date deficit that has been partly responsible for the elevated fire risk in recent weeks.
Typically, Albany has received 10.6 inches of liquid precipitation by this time.
This weekend's storm put Albany at about 11.6, Kilpatrick said.
Outlying regions got hit even harder, with Gloversville receiving as much as three inches of rain, with more in areas farther north and west, he said.
The rainfall prompted flood warnings for the Canajoharie Creek in Montgomery County and the upper Sacandaga River in Hamilton County above Great Sacandaga Lake, Kilpatrick said.
Despite the warnings, no serious problems were reported, even in areas that typically flood, like low-lying areas of Schenectady.
The Saratoga County sheriff's office reported a small part of Greens Corner Road near the intersection of Mechanic Street in Galway was closed due to flooding.
There was other minor flooding that did not cause street closures.
Both the levels of the Canajoharie Creek and the Sacandaga were subsiding by late Sunday.
Kilpatrick said the quarter-inch of rain expected today is not likely to cause more flooding.
Enough about Eliot Spitzer .....
That is all we hear about up here, of course ....
"Old Oncle Eliot is in charge, you can all go back to your homes now, folks ...."
And so people do .....
Those who either like or need to be herded, anyway ......
And outside of corruption ...
And "Old Oncle Eliot" Spitzer .....
Well, when you live out in the wilds like we yokels do up here ...
In the very hinterlands of civilization ...
Here in OUR America ....
What else is there to talk about?
Other than the weather, I guess ....
And so ....
"Sunday rainfall sets a record - Two-day soaking that wiped out year's deficit prompts flood warnings"
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, April 24, 2006
ALBANY -- This weekend's storm washed away the region's year-to-date rainfall deficit while dumping a record amount of rain at Albany International Airport Sunday, weather officials said.
The 1.54 inches of rain that fell at the airport between midnight and 10 p.m. Sunday was the most for the date since 1.02 inches fell in 1977, said Bob Kilpatrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany.
But that was only half the storm, which had been rolling through since about 8 a.m. Saturday, leaving behind an additional 1.09 inches before officials even started counting for Sunday.
The end result, said Kilpatrick, was enough liquid precipitation to end a year-to-date deficit that has been partly responsible for the elevated fire risk in recent weeks.
Typically, Albany has received 10.6 inches of liquid precipitation by this time.
This weekend's storm put Albany at about 11.6, Kilpatrick said.
Outlying regions got hit even harder, with Gloversville receiving as much as three inches of rain, with more in areas farther north and west, he said.
The rainfall prompted flood warnings for the Canajoharie Creek in Montgomery County and the upper Sacandaga River in Hamilton County above Great Sacandaga Lake, Kilpatrick said.
Despite the warnings, no serious problems were reported, even in areas that typically flood, like low-lying areas of Schenectady.
The Saratoga County sheriff's office reported a small part of Greens Corner Road near the intersection of Mechanic Street in Galway was closed due to flooding.
There was other minor flooding that did not cause street closures.
Both the levels of the Canajoharie Creek and the Sacandaga were subsiding by late Sunday.
Kilpatrick said the quarter-inch of rain expected today is not likely to cause more flooding.
And speaking of American history .....
Which people are not really taught much about up here ...
Because it makes them nervous, I guess .....
And queasy ....
All that violence .....
People don't like all that violence ...
And people also don't like knowing that we were really quite poor as a nation back then ....
No real shopping malls of any account, back then ....
No cable TV with 37,564.349820 channels to select from ....
And so ...
If you don't tell them it happened ...
They will be happy ...
And so ...
Happy people make the BEST CONSUMERS .....
Because happy people like to spend a lot of money ...
Because it makes them feel happy ...
And so ...
Suppressing history ...
Is good for the AMERICAN 'CON-O-MY .....
And the American 'CON-O-MY ...
Is good for NATIONAL SECURITY ...
Because then ...
We get to send all of OUR money to all of these other real scary countries out there in the world ....
So that they send us cheap plastic crap ...
And vastly overpriced cheap shirts ....
And socks .....
And things ....
Instead of bullets ....
And bayonets ...
Like America's George the FANATICAL BUSH ...
Is sending to IRAQINAM ....
Because all those IRAQINAMIS understand ...
IS BRUTE FORCE ....
According to the BUSHCO DOCTRINE ...
As developed in BIG BUSH's adminstration ....
The father of the boy who is in there now ....
And so ....
"Washington's encampment worthy of Thruway sign"
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, April 24, 2006
Q: Why are there so few large brown historical site signs on the Thruway below Kingston?
In particular, why isn't there one near Newburgh, where the Thruway actually passes through George Washington's final encampment of the Revolutionary War?
-- Ray Houghton, Bethlehem
A: The specific spot you have identified is known as the New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site, and it is, indeed, a significant location in the nation's Revolutionary War history.
Gen. George Washington moved his army to New Windsor, which is near West Point, in October 1782.
There, 7,000 people, including 500 women and children, erected nearly 600 log huts to establish a military enclave called a cantonment, according to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
The cantonment and several other historic sites in this area of the Hudson Valley are close to the Thruway.
If a request were submitted by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, it seems likely that a brown sign would get a green light from the Thruway Authority.
"That's not our property," said Thruway spokesman Patrick Noonan, but "if they want to put together something on their end with a large brown sign, we'd be happy to work with them in getting that established."
In addition, stewards of the encampment could consider securing a spot on one of the Thruway's standard blue "attractions" signs, which feature the logos of restaurants, hotels, gas stations and tourist attractions to be reached via an upcoming exit.
"If it meets the program requirements," Noonan said, "there currently is space on the motherboard."
"Motorists approaching Interchange 17 (Newburgh) would then see a sign in each direction indicating that Washington's encampment is located off the interchange."
Your timing on this question is good.
The state is preparing a November opening for the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor at the cantonment site in Vails Gate.
The hall, which will honor veterans wounded or killed in battle, may draw many more visitors who probably would appreciate some signs to help them find the way.
Which people are not really taught much about up here ...
Because it makes them nervous, I guess .....
And queasy ....
All that violence .....
People don't like all that violence ...
And people also don't like knowing that we were really quite poor as a nation back then ....
No real shopping malls of any account, back then ....
No cable TV with 37,564.349820 channels to select from ....
And so ...
If you don't tell them it happened ...
They will be happy ...
And so ...
Happy people make the BEST CONSUMERS .....
Because happy people like to spend a lot of money ...
Because it makes them feel happy ...
And so ...
Suppressing history ...
Is good for the AMERICAN 'CON-O-MY .....
And the American 'CON-O-MY ...
Is good for NATIONAL SECURITY ...
Because then ...
We get to send all of OUR money to all of these other real scary countries out there in the world ....
So that they send us cheap plastic crap ...
And vastly overpriced cheap shirts ....
And socks .....
And things ....
Instead of bullets ....
And bayonets ...
Like America's George the FANATICAL BUSH ...
Is sending to IRAQINAM ....
Because all those IRAQINAMIS understand ...
IS BRUTE FORCE ....
According to the BUSHCO DOCTRINE ...
As developed in BIG BUSH's adminstration ....
The father of the boy who is in there now ....
And so ....
"Washington's encampment worthy of Thruway sign"
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, April 24, 2006
Q: Why are there so few large brown historical site signs on the Thruway below Kingston?
In particular, why isn't there one near Newburgh, where the Thruway actually passes through George Washington's final encampment of the Revolutionary War?
-- Ray Houghton, Bethlehem
A: The specific spot you have identified is known as the New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site, and it is, indeed, a significant location in the nation's Revolutionary War history.
Gen. George Washington moved his army to New Windsor, which is near West Point, in October 1782.
There, 7,000 people, including 500 women and children, erected nearly 600 log huts to establish a military enclave called a cantonment, according to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
The cantonment and several other historic sites in this area of the Hudson Valley are close to the Thruway.
If a request were submitted by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, it seems likely that a brown sign would get a green light from the Thruway Authority.
"That's not our property," said Thruway spokesman Patrick Noonan, but "if they want to put together something on their end with a large brown sign, we'd be happy to work with them in getting that established."
In addition, stewards of the encampment could consider securing a spot on one of the Thruway's standard blue "attractions" signs, which feature the logos of restaurants, hotels, gas stations and tourist attractions to be reached via an upcoming exit.
"If it meets the program requirements," Noonan said, "there currently is space on the motherboard."
"Motorists approaching Interchange 17 (Newburgh) would then see a sign in each direction indicating that Washington's encampment is located off the interchange."
Your timing on this question is good.
The state is preparing a November opening for the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor at the cantonment site in Vails Gate.
The hall, which will honor veterans wounded or killed in battle, may draw many more visitors who probably would appreciate some signs to help them find the way.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 23 2006, 05:35 PM)
CLEAR CHANNELS WORLD WIDE had Senator Chuck Schumer on this morning ....
And he has gas up to FOUR DOLLARS a gallon .....
Likely by Memorial Day .....
"Gas up 24 cents to $2.91 over 2 weeks"
Associated Press
Last updated: 7:25 p.m., Sunday, April 23, 2006
CAMARILLO, Calif. -- Retail gas prices across the country jumped an average of nearly a quarter per gallon in the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.
Self-serve regular averaged $2.91 a gallon, up from $2.67 two weeks ago, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the nationwide Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations.
And he has gas up to FOUR DOLLARS a gallon .....
Likely by Memorial Day .....
"Gas up 24 cents to $2.91 over 2 weeks"
Associated Press
Last updated: 7:25 p.m., Sunday, April 23, 2006
CAMARILLO, Calif. -- Retail gas prices across the country jumped an average of nearly a quarter per gallon in the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.
Self-serve regular averaged $2.91 a gallon, up from $2.67 two weeks ago, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the nationwide Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations.
This morning, on FOX NEWS FAIR AND BALANCED, YOU DECIDE, as broadcast on CLEARCHANNELS WORLD WIDE ....
They had on George W. Bush ...
And I am not at all sure what they had George on there for ...
But I think it had to do with high gas prices ...
And GOUGING ....
And PROFITEERING ....
By the oil companies ....
Although I am not sure ...
That George knew or understood the question being posed to him ....
Since he don't have to worry how much gas costs ...
And to him ...
PROFITEERING is just how them big, old boys down there in Texico do BID-NESS ....
And likely ...
He is one of the prime ones responsible for it being so high ...
Since he is the guy who has caused the instability in the world ....
That has disrupted supplies ...
And so .....
"It's up and up at the pump - As average price for regular gas nears $3.06 in region, some call for state to lift or cap taxes to help offset rise"
By LARRY RULISON, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Gas prices in the Capital Region that topped $3 per gallon over the weekend are showing no signs of slowing down as the summer driving season approaches.
The average price of regular unleaded increased 46 cents in the past month to nearly $3.06 Monday morning, according to AAA.
Now the auto club is calling on the state to suspend its 4 percent sales tax on gasoline.
"The state should not profit while drivers struggle to pay rising pump prices," Tammy Melo, a spokeswoman for AAA Hudson Valley, said Monday.
Drivers in the Capital Region are bracing for prices of regular unleaded to eclipse the local high of $3.39 per gallon set last September after Hurricane Katrina disrupted supplies.
"I think it will get there and go over," said Ray Oddy, 59, of East Greenbush, who was filling up his car Monday afternoon at the Hess station on the Columbia Turnpike.
He expects the pain to continue all the way through the Fourth of July.
Prices are rising so quickly that even gas station owners are feeling uncomfortable.
Hakan Camlica, who owns the US Mart gas station on Route 9W in Glenmont, had to raise his price for a gallon of regular unleaded by 6 cents in just two days.
Camlica's loyal base of customers has come to expect relatively cheap gas, so it's very difficult for him to raise prices when the cost from his distributor is rising with each new shipment.
On Monday afternoon, Camlica was charging $3.07 per gallon for regular.
At a Mobil station across the street, the price was $3.09.
Still, Camlica had been charging just $3.01 Saturday morning.
With each credit card transaction at his pumps costing him a dime, Camlica, like other independent gas station owners, is barely breaking even.
And he's heard that gas could reach $4 by Memorial Day -- which would further erode Camlica's position as a low-price supplier.
"I'm always trying to do my best," he said.
Meanwhile, AAA Hudson Valley and AAA Northway are launching a petition drive to support their call for the Legislature to suspend the state's sales tax on gasoline.
The American Petroleum Institute has estimated that New York state taxes and fees add more than 44 cents to the cost of a gallon of gasoline.
Melo, the AAA Hudson Valley spokeswoman, said the club already expects the cost of summer vacations to rise more than 5 percent this year.
With gas prices soaring, those two forces could hurt summer tourism and the local economy.
Melo says gas prices are expected to rise through the Memorial Day weekend.
She said they typically drop off after that, but if turmoil in the Middle East and elsewhere continues to fester, and if there is another busy hurricane season, prices could continue to rise.
Assemblyman Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, who chairs the Assembly's energy committee, said suspending or capping the sales tax on gas is not a simple solution to combating high prices and called the plan "disingenuous."
He says gas prices are too volatile to know if consumers would actually see any savings.
Tonko said there were no calls for this type of tax relief while the Legislature was putting together its tax relief package during the state budget process, and he questioned whether people would want gas tax relief at the expense of property tax relief.
"What tax cut do you suggest that we reduce?" he said.
Instead, he says other measures, such as a new anti-gouging law he is sponsoring at the recommendation of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, could be more effective at keeping prices in check.
Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 15 2006, 06:46 AM)
"Oh, Eliot, You're JUST So Vain"
With apologies to Carly Simon
Oh, Eliot ....
You old dog, you .....
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 .....
With apologies to Carly Simon
Oh, Eliot ....
You old dog, you .....
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 .....
ADIRONDACK EXPLORER
"Spitzer v. Dirty Air - Crusade against utilities that cause acid rain is threatened by Bush policies"
By Paul Grondahl and Phil Brown
Explorer Writers
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is an unlikely protector of the Adirondack Mountains.
His roots are in Manhattan, and he’s more comfortable in a tailored suit and black dress shoes than in Gore-Tex and hiking boots.
Sure, he went canoe camping on Follensby Clear Pond last summer with his wife and three daughters.
Sure, he enjoyed it.
But he still called the office on his cell phone.
“I’m not going to pretend he’s a great outdoorsman."
"He’s really a city guy,” said Marc Violette, Spitzer’s spokesman.
http://www.adirondackexplorer.com/ansr.htm
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 15 2006, 06:46 AM)
"Oh, Eliot, You're JUST So Vain"
With apologies to Carly Simon
And Eliot ....
You're just so vain .....
You know this song is about you .....
Yes, of course, you do ...
Since all the songs are about you, these days ....
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 some GEETUS, too ....
And your horse naturally won .....
Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink ....
Eh, "Big EL" ......
With apologies to Carly Simon
And Eliot ....
You're just so vain .....
You know this song is about you .....
Yes, of course, you do ...
Since all the songs are about you, these days ....
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 some GEETUS, too ....
And your horse naturally won .....
Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink ....
Eh, "Big EL" ......
"Spitzer fires up the party faithful - Hundreds of Democrats pay to hear, pose with candidate for governor in Saratoga Springs"
By KENNETH C. CROWE II, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Saratoga County Democrats don't glimpse victory often, but Monday night they lined up to be photographed with Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
They were grabbing hold of the gubernatorial win they're expecting Spitzer to deliver in November.
"I love him."
"He's so heroic," said Donna Palmer of Clifton Park, who pushed into the line to get her picture snapped with the front-running Spitzer.
In a county where Republicans dominate at every level and the Democrats hold only about 21 elected positions, 422 Democrats paid $65 each to hear Spitzer and his running mate, state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, speak at the Gideon Putnam Hotel.
Spitzer called on his fellow Democrats to remember they are the progressive party, the inheritors of traditions started by Republican governor and later president Theodore Roosevelt and the Democrats' own governors Al Smith, a presidential candidate, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms as president.
Spitzer pointed to his legal battles as attorney general with Wall Street firms and President Bush's administration.
"Nobody is so powerful that he or she is above the reach of the law," Spitzer said.
"Nobody is so powerless they are beneath the protection of the law."
That belief and the battles with Wall Street are what brought Palmer to the county fundraiser.
"I admire him so much," she said.
The county Democrats promised to deliver votes to Spitzer and Paterson.
"Sixty percent" is what the ticket will win when the ballots are counted, predicted Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner John Franck, the campaign's county co-coordinator with Jaye Kucyznski.
Republicans outnumber Democrats by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1 in the county.
"There's so much excitement," County Democratic Chairman Larry Bulman said.
The energy brought more candidates besides the top of the ticket.
Kirsten Gillibrand, who is challenging U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, worked the room, moving from table to table.
Brian Premo of Brunswick said he will run against state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
"I'm definitely going."
"I'm going to be doing the formal announcement in the near future," said Premo, whose picture was taken with Spitzer.
Bruno's staff was champing to fire at Premo, anticipating he would announce Monday night.
Bruno also hasn't announced a re-election campaign officially.
"He's a pretender with no experience."
"He has absolutely no interest in serving the public as he seeks to raise his name recognition," said Kris Thompson, a Bruno spokesman.
Preston Jenkins Jr. of South Glens Falls spoke about his campaign to become Saratoga County treasurer.
Samuel Pitcheralle of Mechanicville, the deputy county treasurer, is expected to be the Republican candidate.
Several Democrats interested in challenging state Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, attended.
Those candidates include Jeff Sharp, Brian Cechnicki, Tom O'Clair and Gary McCarthy.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 15 2006, 06:46 AM)
"Oh, Eliot, You're JUST So Vain"
With apologies to Carly Simon
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?
And, of course, you are ....
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 ....
With apologies to Carly Simon
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?
And, of course, you are ....
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 ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Apr 25 2006, 06:05 AM)
"Spitzer fires up the party faithful - Hundreds of Democrats pay to hear, pose with candidate for governor in Saratoga Springs"
By KENNETH C. CROWE II, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Saratoga County Democrats don't glimpse victory often, but Monday night they lined up to be photographed with Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
"I love him."
"He's so heroic," .....
Said Donna Palmer of Clifton Park, who pushed into the line to get her picture snapped with the front-running Spitzer.
"Nobody is so powerful that he or she is above the reach of the law," Spitzer said.
"Nobody is so powerless they are beneath the protection of the law."
By KENNETH C. CROWE II, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Saratoga County Democrats don't glimpse victory often, but Monday night they lined up to be photographed with Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
"I love him."
"He's so heroic," .....
Said Donna Palmer of Clifton Park, who pushed into the line to get her picture snapped with the front-running Spitzer.
"Nobody is so powerful that he or she is above the reach of the law," Spitzer said.
"Nobody is so powerless they are beneath the protection of the law."
And by way of reply .....
From WE, THE PEOPLE of Rensselaer County .........
In the State of New York .....
Where Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer is clearly "DA MAN" .....
As originally posted in ....
http://commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/...php/t24721.html
We have ....
And this is catchy CAMPAIGN RHETORIC by New York State Attorney General and GUBERNATORIAL HOPEFUL Eliot Spitzer, right above here, of course .....
Which the Albany, New York Times Union editorial staff will never question ....
But as the record above here clearly demonstrates ....
IT IS PATENTLY FALSE .....
Because ...
Jeffrey Pelletier of Poestenkill, New York is VERY CLEARLY so powerful that he is above the reach of the law .....
Not only in the State of New York .....
Where Eliot Spitzer clearly is "THE POWER" .....
But in the federal Northern District of New York, as well .....
Where Spitzer flexed his muscles ...
And exercised his CLOUT ...
On behalf of Jeffrey Pelletier .....
Who is clearly so powerful ...
Thanks to Eliot Spitzer ....
That he is and remains above the reach of the law ...
In the State of New York ...
And the federal Northern District of New York ....
As is alleged New York State Veterans' Counselor and "political operative" William "BUCK" Shea ....
Who was Eliot Spitzer's CLIENT in this above matter ...
Who made patently false statements to the VA Police ....
And allegedly ...
The Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York ....
On Pelletier's behalf ....
As well as the New York State Police .....
Who are also "clients" of Eliot Spitzer .....
In the 8/22/01 combined Rensselaer County/State of New York effort to have PLAINTIFF locked away and "TREATED" by "Dr. Adrian" in the Northeast Health, Inc. "GULAG", or "political re-conditioning facility" in Troy, New York as an alleged dangerous "mental patient" ......
So as to DESTROY his mind, forever ....
Make him "cross-eyed" and drooling a lot ....
WITH ELIOT SPITZER'S BLESSINGS ....
And thus, to render him totally incapable .....
Of ever being an expert witness ...
Against corrupt practices ...
In the State of New York ...
Involving administrative agencies in the State of New York ...
Like the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ....
The New York State Department of Health ....
And the Office of Professional Discipline ...
Of the New York State Department of Education ....
Which "agency" upheld the position taken by REPUBLICAN Rensselaer County Personnel Director Felix "Iron Felix" Pugliese above here on March 13, 1989 ....
That in the State of New York ...
New York State licensed professional engineers serving THE PUBLIC in the capacity of associate public health engineers in county health departments in the State of New York .....
ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ENGAGE IN "INDEPENDENT THINKING" .....
But instead ...
MUST DO WHAT THE "POLITICAL BOSSES" WANT DONE ....
Even if it constitutes PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT ....
And misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance .....
And so ....
And just as clearly .....
PLAINTIFF herein .....
And us along with him ....
ARE SO POWERLESS .....
That WE, THE PEOPLE are beneath the protection of the law .....
Not only in the State of New York ...
But in the federal Northern District of New York, as well .....
And so .....
Some "truth in advertising" here ...
Even if in the State of New York ...
The truth is no longer in vogue ...
Thanks in large part to the ambitious and self-serving New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer .....
And so .....
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