WestTexasBliss

G20

2009-04-03T04:07:00.003-05:00

Who are the G20?
The G20 is a group of twenty finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 of the world’s most wealthy economies and the European Union. These economies cover 80% of world trade and the countries themselves contain two thirds of the world’s population.

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“Capitalism isn’t in crisis, capitalism IS crisis!”

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If enough people take to the streets, the chasm that divides society will be illuminated

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Statement 3
“The current economic crisis has made capitalism more transparent then ever before. Finally the illusions are being stripped away. House prices may have tumbled but houses still stand tall, the price of food may have risen dramatically but the fields and hedge rows are still full of wonderful edible plants! We may no longer be able to afford ‘luxuries’ but today love and companionship is more real than ever.

We have been forced to unplug ourselves and have found that there is a whole world waiting for us. It’s time to kick capitalism whilst it’s down. The illusions they put before us have kept us working jobs we hate for too long, separated us from those that we love and are destroying the planet we rely upon to survive.

Let’s smash the final illusion. Let’s tell them they don’t control our lives anymore!”

Not One Red Cent.

2009-03-18T04:09:00.001-05:00

Geithner, are you out of your f*****g mind? You’re going to give AIG another $30 billion, b******t!!!
I want every red cent of tax payers’ money for bonuses paid back before you even think about giving out any more bailout.
If this is the best Liddy can do, send him packing and the rest of the executives that are getting these big bonuses.
I here Chine is looking for executives.
“We as a Congress are not defenseless.” So, Congress, when are you going to do something, beside talk talk talk?

Bloomberg:
Geithner Vows to Recoup AIG Bonuses as Lawmakers Express Fury

Geithner, who has come under fire from Congress over the AIG payments, said in a letter to lawmakers last night the government will recover the money by requiring it be repaid from company operations and deducting the amount from the next $30 billion in aid being provided to the insurer.

Millions lost their jobs; it’s an outrage that the people who somewhat caused this problem are now paying themselves bonuses.

New York-based AIG paid $165 million in executive bonuses after taking taxpayer-funded bailouts totaling $173 billion. AIG also budgeted $57 million in “retention” pay for employees who will be dismissed, according to a March 2 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the Treasury from the operations of the company the amount of retention rewards just paid,” Geithner wrote. “In addition, we will deduct from the $30 billion in assistance an amount equal to the amount of those payments.”

The political heat generated by AIG bonuses indicates declining public and congressional support for shoring up beleaguered financial institutions with government funds, and may make it tougher for President Barack Obama’s administration to win approval for future bailouts.

Most appallingly, while millions of Americans struggle through this economy, those who have received the largest measure of taxpayer assistance from the Treasury Department have shown no restraint.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a speech on the Senate floor that he, Reid and other lawmakers sent a letter to AIG’s Liddy asking executives to return the bonuses to their “rightful owners.” He said if the money isn’t refunded, Congress will pass laws to “tax these bonuses at a very high rate.”

Quoting out of context, read the full story: Click Here

Scolding the Bonus Babies

2009-03-17T02:12:00.000-05:00

AIG, the insurance giant at the core of the financial meltdown, struck again over the weekend, disclosing that it would use some of its $170 billion in federal bailout money to reward its employees with $165 million in bonuses. And Obama was left looking like a pitiful giant as his aides explained that there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop the obscene payouts -- even though the government owns 80 percent of AIG.
But if the president wants to keep ahead of the public fury, he'll need to do more than share the concerns; he'll need to act on them. Now it's time to deliver.
Well said. He is the president for crying out loud, we the tax payers own most of AIG, if not the whole corpse. We have the power; he has the power if he has the balls to execute it. Nothing less than nationalizing, firing the oh-so-very "Talented" and breaking up the company will suffice. Do you have the balls Obama?
AIG needs to die. They are 13 trillion dollars in debt from credit default swaps; they have acknowledged paying 80 billion of that debt... We simply cannot afford to bring them back to life... the bankers, the insurers, the stockholders, the board of directors have to- must- lose their shirts and shuffle away in disgrace.
They are not talented, there f-students on a drinking binge.

I Have A Hankerin' For Some Chinese!

2009-02-23T08:58:00.002-06:00

Accused financier curried influence in Washington

Robert Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of an $8 billion fraud, has been tracked down in Virginia, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

Political Donations

Stanford also spread more than $7 million in political donations across Washington in recent years on lobbying and campaign contributions.
A political action committee formed by Stanford and his wife donated almost $1 million; the rest was doled out via the Stanford Financial Group's political action committee, the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics said in research released Thursday.
"Robert Allen Stanford now has two things in common with embattled investment manager Bernard Madoff: Both have been accused of defrauding their investors, and both have given significant funds to politicians," the group said.

See the list of Stanford's beneficiaries

EscapetheMatrix, wrote
I think we need to implement more Chinese style justice on corrupt b******* like this. The Chinese have executed executives who have committed fraud. Remember the tainted drug and milk scandals in China just recently? China has the balls to simply eliminate s*** like this from the gene pool. I have a hankerin' for some Chinese!!!

Narcissism

2008-04-10T18:29:00.002-05:00

Narcissism
Excessive self-admiration and self-centeredness
In psychiatry, a personality disorder characterized by the patient's overestimation of his or her own appearance and abilities and an excessive need for admiration. In psychoanalytic theory, emphasis is placed on the element of self-directed sexual desire in the condition.

Narcissism describes the character trait of self love, based on self-image or ego.

Coping with a narcissist
Often, people have difficulty in coping with a narcissist, particularly if the narcissist is a colleague or a family member. Usually the best way to cope with a narcissist is to avoid too much contact with him/her, but this is not possible when the narcissist is a colleague or family member, in which case the following strategies have sometimes been suggested.

Never tell the narcissist that you disagree with him or her (particularly if you think the narcissist is lying) and try to avoid contradicting the narcissist.
Take steps to protect your self esteem since a narcissist can damage the self esteem of the people that he/she has frequent contact with.

Narcissus
There are two derivations of the name. One is that of the youth of Greek mythology called Narcissus, who, in at least one of many variations of the tale, became so obsessed with his own reflection as he kneeled and gazed into a pool of water that he fell into the water and drowned. The legend continues that the Narcissus plant first sprang from where he died. The other derivation is that the plant is named after its narcotic properties (narkoa, to numb in Greek).

Narcissism
Typical traits of a narcissist
The following traits are commonly found in narcissists:

Health Care

2007-10-27T08:14:00.000-05:00

Health Care System:
I know what we need to do. We need a health care system, something like Canada has. The only way to get this is to tell the politicians that they are going to be on the same health care plan we the people have. No exceptions! Give them 90 days to fix the health care system. If they don’t get it fixed in 90 days all their past, present and future benefits Freeze and a 10% cut in pay after the 90 days. To me, they are not Democrats or Republicans, they are corrupt politicians. I bet if we give this problem to an independent think tank they can get this fixed.

Social Security:
I know what we need to do. We need a Social Security system that works. The only way to get this is to tell the politicians that they are going to be on the same Social Security plan we the people have. No exceptions! Give them 90 days to fix the Social Security system. If they don’t get it fixed in 90 days all their past, present and future benefits Freeze and a 10% cut in pay after the 90 days. To me, they are not Democrats or Republicans, they are corrupt politicians. I bet if we give this problem to an independent think tank they can get this fixed.

Education;
The same with Education. 90 days or we give it to an independent think tank.

Immigration;
The same with Immigration. 90 days or we give it to an independent think tank.

Where do we get the money to pay the independent think tanks? From the corrupt politicians. Fine them. Take a way their benefits. Fire them.

Can you see you and your child in a doctor’s office waiting to see the doctor and H. Clinton and her kid sitting next to you waiting to see the doctor?

If the politicians don’t fix are problem we can make it their problem to.

Don't Waver When The Moment Comes.

2007-10-13T07:09:00.000-05:00

Don't Waver When The Moment Comes.

Suddenly cool Al Gore looks like a good choice.

Al Gore could become the only man to win an Oscar, a Nobel Prize and his party's presidential nomination.

He already has collected an Oscar for his global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." (Actually, that's two Oscars, if you count best song.) He's Won the Nobel Peace Prize.

We hope he goes for it.

Gore has said repeatedly that he's happy doing what he's doing, while not irrevocably ruling out a run. Friends and former aides are hedging bets.

The first President Bush mocked him as "ozone man." Now, corporations seek his counsel on global warming.

"An Inconvenient Truth" has made environmental activism - and Gore, in all his woodenness - cool again. Thousands flock to his lectures on campuses. Rock stars go gaga over him.

But more important, international leaders, who turned against America when Bush scoffed at treaties and rejected diplomacy, respect and admire Gore.

However much he has achieved in the past seven years, President Gore could achieve what citizen Gore cannot. So bide your time, Al Gore, as Bobby Kennedy did in 68. But don't waver when the moment comes.

United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

2007-08-28T03:27:00.000-05:00

Don’t let the door hit you in the anus on your way OUT!
J#&@K ANUS

United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces his resignation, after several controversies over his actions.

Document is publicly viewable

'Scooter' Libby Rewarded For Keeping Silent.

2007-07-04T08:16:00.000-05:00

With his decision to commute the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, President Bush again demonstrated that he considers his administration to be above the law.

Lie to cover up misdeeds and you will be protected is the message sent to those in the administration. And the president's action tells the American people that there are different sets of laws and punishments for the politically powerful and the common person.

Those are terrible messages to send on the week the nation celebrates its Declaration of Independence from a tyrannical king, also named George.

The day cannot come soon enough when the nation gains its independence from this George as well.

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Bush Assaults Rule of Law to Save Libby

2007-07-03T07:13:00.000-05:00

It is tempting to view the commutation of prison time for Lewis Libby, the disgraced White House aide convicted of lying and obstructing justice, as another instance of craven hypocrisy by President Bush. As a candidate in 1999, Bush assured voters, "I don't believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own," unless "new facts" arose or the trial was "unfair" -- a standard which the Libby case clearly fails.

Or perhaps the commutation will serve as a disturbing reminder of how the administration regularly lies with impunity in Washington. President Bush famously promised, in serious tones at a televised White House meeting, to both fire and punish anyone involved in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Instead, he retained all the senior officials embroiled in the scandal, even after their roles were exposed in trial testimony and news reports, with no visible consequences. Now the President is using his clemency power to protect the one official convicted on related crimes. In his surreal statement about that choice, Bush volunteered his belief that "if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable."

But it would be wrong to criticize Bush's decision as one more hypocritical or deceitful maneuver, because it is actually far more profound.

The commutation of the 30-month prison sentence for Lewis Libby, the highest-ranking White House official convicted of a felony since Iran-Contra, fits into a larger, systemic assault on American rule of law by the Bush Administration.

In fact, Libby's special treatment is a microcosm of current U.S. policy. Libby is basically receiving a post-conviction protection that the Bush Administration now routinely extends to many potential criminals in the U.S. government. The administration successfully pushed legislation last year granting immunity to officials who might someday be prosecuted for war crimes or torture. It is a policy that embodies the administration's distinctly un-American view that powerful government officials should operate above the law.

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As Americans gather for July 4th celebrations, talk will likely turn to two convicted criminals who embody Bush's approach to the rule of law: Lewis Libby and Paris Hilton. So powerful and rich, they can live above the law, and they make no apologies for it. Americans overwhelmingly opposed a pardon for Libby, and initial polling suggests they oppose the commutation. The question for politicians is not whether they agree with the public on this fundamental matter of law and order, but what are they going to do about it?

Document is publicly viewable

Silencing Scooter

Bush Asserts Executive Privilege

2007-06-29T16:30:00.000-05:00

President Bush, in a constitutional showdown with Congress, claimed executive privilege Thursday and rejected demands for White House documents and testimony about the firing of U.S. attorneys.
His decision was denounced as ``Nixonian stonewalling'' by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bush rejected subpoenas for documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor. The White House made clear neither one would testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas.

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Voinovich, Lugar call on Bush to plan Iraq withdrawal

2007-06-27T21:44:00.000-05:00

In an ominous sign of wavering GOP support for the White House's Iraq strategy, two more Republican senators have called on President Bush to begin planning the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Ohio Sen. George Voinovich sent a letter to the president today, stressing the need for a "comprehensive plan for our country's gradual military disengagement from Iraq."
And Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the widely respected former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Monday evening went to the floor of the Senate to call on the president "to downsize the U.S. military's role in Iraq."
"Our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond," Lugar said in an anguished address that expressed deep reservations about the president's policy as well as disappointment with the highly partisan debate over the war in Washington.

Document is publicly viewable

Former Interior Official Gets Prison

2007-06-27T21:36:00.000-05:00

A federal judge chastised the Interior Department's former No. 2 official and doubled his proposed prison term to 10 months Tuesday for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and making excuses about it in court.
J. Steven Griles was the department's deputy secretary and is the highest administration official sentenced in the probe. He pleaded guilty to obstructing a congressional investigation, but on Tuesday his lawyers tried to deflect blame for his faulty testimony.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle was not pleased.
"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," she told Griles before doubling the five-month prison term he and prosecutors had agreed on.
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Dick Cheney, YOUR FIRED!

2007-06-23T06:30:00.000-05:00

Cheney has been instrumental in eroding privacy rights for all Americans -- except himself.

Dick Cheney's refusal to comply with a presidential order regulating the handling of classified information might be scary were it not so ludicrous.

Cheney's rejection of mandatory inspections required of all federal offices to make sure they are properly protecting top secret documents defies basic standards of good government and common sense. And his argument that he needn't comply because his office isn't part of the executive branch is specious. Moreover, after clashing with the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office, which conducts the routine inspections, Cheney's vindictive staff reportedly tried to abolish the unit. That's like trying to disband the Internal Revenue Service for demanding a tax audit. Has the veep taken leave of his senses?

READ THE FULL STORY:

My Response:
Cheney, who do think you are? You don’t work for big oil, (or do you) you work for me, YOUR FIRED!

S.J.RES.14

2007-06-12T06:48:00.000-05:00

A joint resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people.

Thank you Democrats, Republicans and Independent for voting YES on S.J.RES.14, Good Job.

Not Voting, Obama, and you want to be President? You can’t do your job now.

Not Voting – 7

Biden (D-DE)
Brownback (R-KS)
Coburn (R-OK)
Dodd (D-CT)
Johnson (D-SD)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)

Republicans voting yes on S.J.RES.14, Coleman, Collins, Hagel, Smith, Snowe, Specter, Sununu and Sanders.
Thank You

YEAs ---53

Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Hagel (R-NE)

Smith (R-OR)

Snowe (R-ME)

Specter (R-PA)

Sununu (R-NH)
Sanders (I-VT)

~
Independent voting No, Lieberman
Lieberman, you are not an Independent, you are a Republican. Find another job.

NAYs ---38

Lieberman (ID-CT)

READ THE FULL STORY

Republican With Abramoff Ties To Plead Guilty

2007-06-08T05:38:00.000-05:00

A Republican activist will plead guilty to obstructing Congress in the influence-peddling scandal centered around former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, her
lawyer said on Wednesday.
Italia Federici also will plead guilty to tax evasion at a court hearing on Friday, lawyer Jonathan Rosen said.
Federici had close ties to senior Interior Department officials as head of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, or CREA, a nonprofit
group founded by former Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
According to criminal charges filed by the government, Federici in 2001 introduced Abramoff to her sometime boyfriend, ex-Deputy Interior Secretary
Steven Griles.

This document is published on the web.

Violent Crime Up For Second Year

2007-06-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

The number of violent crimes in the United States rose for a second straight year in 2006, marking the first sustained increase in homicides, robberies and other serious offenses since the early 1990s, according to an FBI report to be released Monday.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Report will show an increase of about 1.3 percent in violent offenses last year, including a 6 percent rise in robberies and a slight rise in homicides, according to law enforcement officials, who described key findings in advance of the report's release. That follows an increase of 2.3 percent in 2005, which was the first significant increase in violent crime in 15 years.

Fire, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales

The Internet

2007-05-31T18:32:00.000-05:00

The Internet has the potential to revitalize the role played by the people in our constitutional framework. It has extremely low entry barriers for individuals. It is the most interactive medium in history and the one with the greatest potential for connecting individuals to one another and to a universe of knowledge. It's a platform for pursuing the truth, and the decentralized creation and distribution of ideas, in the same way that markets are a decentralized mechanism for the creation and distribution of goods and services. It's a platform, in other words, for reason. But the Internet must be developed and protected, in the same way we develop and protect markets—through the establishment of fair rules of engagement and the exercise of the rule of law. The same ferocity that our Founders devoted to protect the freedom and independence of the press is now appropriate for our defense of the freedom of the Internet. The stakes are the same: the survival of our Republic. We must ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all citizens without any limitation on the ability of individuals to choose the content they wish regardless of the Internet service provider they use to connect to the Web. We cannot take this future for granted. We must be prepared to fight for it, because of the threat of corporate consolidation and control over the Internet marketplace of ideas.

The danger arises because there is, in most markets, a very small number of broadband network operators. These operators have the structural capacity to determine the way in which information is transmitted over the Internet and the speed with which it is delivered. And the present Internet network operators—principally large telephone and cable companies—have an economic incentive to extend their control over the physical infrastructure of the network to leverage control of Internet content. If they went about it in the wrong way, these companies could institute changes that have the effect of limiting the free flow of information over the Internet in a number of troubling ways.

The democratization of knowledge by the print medium brought the Enlightenment. Now, broadband interconnection is supporting decentralized processes that reinvigorate democracy. We can see it happening before our eyes: As a society, we are getting smarter. Networked democracy is taking hold. You can feel it. We the people—as Lincoln put it, "even we here"—are collectively still the key to the survival of America's democracy.

~ Al Gore: The Assault on Reason

Edited by WestTexasBliss

Al Gore - The Assault on Reason (Full Speech)

Hispanic Groups Reconsider Their Support for Gonzales

2007-05-31T15:34:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, major Hispanic groups broke with other civil rights organizations and supported Alberto R. Gonzales's nomination for attorney general, primarily because he would become the highest-ranking Latino ever in a presidential Cabinet.
"I have to say we were in error when we supported him to begin with," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Gonzales, Wilkes said, has not aggressively pursued hate crimes and cases of police profiling of Hispanics. "We hoped for better. Instead it looks like he's done the bidding of the White House."
Janet Murguia, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic rights group, called Gonzales "a follower, not a leader." In the Hispanic community, she said, "people are conflicted. They are excited that a Latino had a chance to serve as the attorney general." But, she added, "I think we've been disappointed with his record so far."

Read The Full Story

Poster Boys for Bad Politics

2007-05-21T01:25:00.000-05:00

Alberto Gonzales and Paul Wolfowitz could be poster boys for what's wrong with politics today cronyism, incompetence and a brazen lack of accountability that has voters craving change.

Gonzales is the Texas pal of President Bush who led the Justice Department into political and legal trouble, then blamed subordinates and a bad memory. Wolfowitz is the unyielding conservative who underestimated the difficulty of bringing Iraq to heel, and was rewarded with a job at the World Bank that he quickly jeopardized with an ethical lapse.

Their heads may finally roll, but the public wants more than the dismissal of two failed leaders. People want an entirely new brand of leadership in Washington -- and they currently don't see it in either major party.

"Does anybody run anything any more? Does anybody hold anybody accountable for anything?" asked Republican consultant Joe Gaylord. He is one of a growing number of Democratic and Republican officials in Washington worried about the health of their parties because of a bipartisan failure of leadership. "It's a mystery to me as to why someone hasn't come down with a two-by-four and said,

'Get this crap fixed.'"

Document is publicly viewable:

Gonzales Pressured Ashcroft on Program, Comey Says

2007-05-16T07:07:00.000-05:00

Gonzales holds the rule of law ``in minimum low regard,''

Alberto Gonzales pressured then- Attorney General John Ashcroft while he was hospitalized in 2004 to recertify a classified program whose legality was questioned by the Justice Department, the agency's former No. 2 official told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified that he and other Justice Department officials planned to resign after the visit to Ashcroft's hospital bed by Gonzales, then White House counsel, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Comey was acting attorney general because of Ashcroft's illness. He wouldn't specify the program at issue, though panel members said it apparently was secret wiretapping of suspected terrorists.
``I was concerned that this was an effort to do an end-run around the acting attorney general and to get a very sick man to approve something'' that the Justice Department had concluded ``was unable to be certified as to its legality,'' Comey told the Senate panel in Washington. Comey said Vice President Dick Cheney also had told him he disagreed with the department's stance.
Comey was called before the committee today to testify about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys that have led to calls for Gonzales's resignation by Democrats and some Republicans. President George W. Bush has continued to support his attorney general.

Document is publicly viewable at:

Vietnam Vets Share Iraq War Views

2007-05-07T03:07:00.000-05:00

For many, the fight between Congress and the president over whether to withdraw troops from Iraq is theoretical.

But the veterans of the nation's last unpopular war follow the debate closely with a strong sense of déjà vu. Vietnam veterans have always been controversial for their willingness to speak out candidly about their own military service, and the state's veterans are no different.

The Republic asked seven Arizona Vietnam vets for their reactions to the legislation that President Bush vetoed last week. They stressed their support for the men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan and they questioned the intent of the war - just as they had questioned the war they fought more than 30 years ago

But they differed on whether to pull out the troops, harking back to memories of their own arguably unwinnable mission of the 1960s and '70s.

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Former lawmakers plead not guilty

2007-05-06T04:56:00.000-05:00

Two former Republican lawmakers pleaded NOT guilty Friday to charges of bribery, extortion and wire or mail fraud. Pete Kott of Eagle River -- a former House Speaker -- and former Representative Bruce Weyhrauch (WHY'-rock) of Juneau were arrested and arraigned Friday.
They are accused of accepting bribes and the promise of future work to benefit an oil services company, which was NOT named. They are accused of assisting the unnamed company during discussions last year of the petroleum profits tax. The combined trial was set for July 9th in Anchorage. They face up to 55 years in prison and a million-dollar fine if convicted of all charges.
Both were to be released on 20,000-dollars bail.
Kott is accused of accepting nearly nine-thousand dollars in payments, more than 2,700 dollars in campaign polling expenses and a future contract as a lobbyist in exchange for his support of a new tax structure and of helping to get a contract signed for a natural gas pipeline.
The production tax passed but the contract for the pipeline negotiated by former Governor Frank Murkowski and BP PLC, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil was never approved. Weyhrauch is charged with helping advance the oil service company's cause in exchange for the promise of future legal work for the company.
FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez says the arrests stemmed from an investigation that led federal agents last summer to raid the offices of at least six lawmakers, including Kott and Weyhrauch. Kott served in the state House for seven terms, starting in 1992. He lost his bid for re-election to Anna Fairclough in the August primary. Weyhrauch -- a Juneau attorney -- was first elected in 2002. He served two terms and did not run for re-election in November.

Former Supervisor Extols Fired Prosecutors

2007-05-04T13:57:00.000-05:00

Praise Undermines Case for Dismissals

A former deputy attorney general lavished praise yesterday on most of the eight U.S. attorneys who were fired after he left the job, testifying that only one of them had serious performance problems.

James B. Comey, the Justice Department's second in command from 2003 until August 2005, also told a House Judiciary subcommittee that although he was the "direct supervisor" of all U.S attorneys, he was never informed about an effort by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his aides to remove a large group of prosecutors that began in early 2005.

"My experience with the U.S. attorneys just listed was very positive," Comey said, referring to six of the former prosecutors who testified in Congress in March. He added that the reasons given for their firings "have not been consistent with my experience" and that "I had very positive encounters with these folks."

The testimony from Comey, a highly regarded former prosecutor who is now general counsel for Lockheed Martin, further undermines assertions by Gonzales and his aides that dissatisfaction with the prosecutors' work led to their dismissals. It also underscores the extent to which the firings, which originated in the White House, were handled outside the normal chain of command at Justice.

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Justice Department looking into prosecutor hirings

2007-05-03T03:20:00.000-05:00

Accusations that an aide considered party politics raise more concerns of partisan practices at the agency.
The Justice Department said Wednesday that it had launched an internal probe into whether a chief figure in the U.S. attorneys affair had violated policy — and possibly federal law — by injecting party politics into the selection of career prosecutors.
The investigation of Monica M. Goodling, once the Justice Department's White House liaison, widens the probe into allegations of partisan hiring and firing at the agency and complicates the Bush administration's efforts to weather the scandal.
Goodling has become a focus of congressional investigators because she played a central role in identifying eight U.S. attorneys who were fired last year. The latest disclosure that she also was involved in the hiring of assistant U.S. attorneys shed new light on her clout at the Justice Department and raised more questions about how the agency has operated under Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.
"This is a troubling assertion that, if true, suggests politics infected the most basic operations at the Justice Department," said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "This only underscores our commitment to hear directly from Ms. Goodling about her role in this process, and at the Justice Department, to establish who should be held accountable."

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Senator subpoenas Rove's e-mails in attorney firings case

2007-05-03T03:10:00.000-05:00

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman issued a subpoena Wednesday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in an attempt to get e-mails that President Bush's top political adviser sent regarding last year's firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
Gonzales will have to appear before the committee if the Department of Justice does not respond to the subpoena for Karl Rove's e-mails by May 15.
Justice Department Spokesman Dean Boyd said the department had received the subpoena and was reviewing it. (Read the subpoena, PDF:
"The Justice Department has already turned over more than 6,000 pages of documents and e-mails to House and Senate committees and voluntarily provided Congress with hours of interviews of several senior Justice Department officials," Boyd said. "Furthermore, the attorney general last month provided six hours of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee."
In a letter to Gonzales, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said he had asked Gonzales twice for the e-mails -- once at an April 19 hearing where the attorney general testified about the dismissals and again in an April 25 letter to the Cabinet member.
Rove's attorney said publicly that the e-mails -- many of which were reported to be "lost" -- had been turned over to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, according to Leahy.
Fitzgerald was using them in his investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, Rove's lawyer said. That probe led to the conviction of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney.

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One Prosecutor Gets an Exemption, Another Gets Fired

2007-05-02T02:28:00.000-05:00

Residency Clause Adds Fuel To Dispute Over U.S. Attorneys

One Prosecutor Gets an Exemption, Another Gets Fired
On Nov. 10, 2005, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sent a letter to a federal judge in Montana, assuring him that the U.S. attorney there, William W. Mercer, was not violating federal law by spending most of his time in Washington as a senior Justice Department official.
That same day, Mercer had a GOP Senate staffer insert into a bill a provision that would change the rules so that federal prosecutors could live outside their districts to serve in other jobs, according to documents and interviews
Congress passed the provision several months later as part of the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill, retroactively benefiting Mercer and a handful of other senior Justice officials who pull double duty as U.S. attorneys and headquarters officials. Justice officials say the measure was a necessary clarification to ensure that prosecutors could fill temporary postings in Washington, Iraq and elsewhere, and that it also applies to assistant U.S. attorneys.
But the episode, which received little notice at the time, provides another example in which Gonzales's statements appear to conflict with simultaneous actions by his aides in connection with U.S. attorney policies. Lawmakers investigating the department's handling of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys have repeatedly accused Gonzales of being less than truthful about the roles played by himself and the White House.

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Gonzales Should Step Down

2007-04-22T05:07:00.000-05:00

Administration Officials Say Gonzales Should Step Down

Several administration officials and the House Republican Conference chairman said Friday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should step down, following the harsh response to his Senate testimony on last year's firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Gonzales for hours Thursday about the dismissals.
The attorney general has been roundly criticized for his handling of the shakeup and for the shifting explanations Justice Department officials have given for the changes.
Gonzales said more than 60 times that he "couldn't recall" certain incidents. His former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, used that explanation 122 times during his testimony weeks ago.
Detractors say the Justice Department has not been straightforward about the reasons the attorneys were dismissed. The controversy has led to allegations of political interference with pending investigations.

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Senators Aim Stiff Criticism At Gonzales

2007-04-20T17:25:00.000-05:00

Unsparing lawmakers question the attorney general's credibility as he minimizes his role in prosecutors' firings.
Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, told by President Bush to repair relations with Congress over his handling of the U.S. attorneys affair, instead suffered new and withering criticism from senators of both parties Thursday, including questions about his judgment, candor and fitness to serve.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in what one lawmaker called a "reconfirmation hearing," Gonzales apologized for what he described as a flawed process in which a group of young political appointees at the Justice Department led a review that resulted in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

But his credibility took a fresh hit when he tried to downplay his involvement in the dismissals even as documents and testimony from top aides in recent weeks have shown that he played a central role. His inability to recall basic facts at the hearing — he answered "I don't recall" more than 50 times — also often baffled and bewildered lawmakers.

"Your characterization of your participation is significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the ranking Republican on the committee.

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DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK

2007-04-12T16:41:00.000-05:00

Senate panel seeks missing White House records A U.S. congressional panel investigating the firing of eight federal prosecutors authorized subpoenas on Thursday for e-mails the White House has declared may be missing.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, challenged the White House assertion, saying, "It's not a question of e-mails being lost, it's e-mails they don't want to retrieve."

The White House said on Wednesday some of its staff, including President George W. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and several of his deputies, wrote e-mail messages on official business on Republican Party accounts, and some may have wrongly been deleted.

It also said some of the e-mails may have dealt with the firing of eight of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys last year, seven of them on December 7.

The administration insists that while the dismissals were poorly handled, they were justified and that prosecutors serve at the pleasure of a president. Critics charge that the dismissals appear to have been politically motivated.

Openly questioning if the White House wants the American people to learn "the truth about these matters," Leahy argued e-mails cannot be eliminated on a federal computer system. "These things stay forever," he said.

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Senators Press Gonzales For More Documents

2007-04-11T05:26:00.000-05:00

They think there is more to learn about the firings of eight federal prosecutors last year.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicating they think there is more to learn about the firings of eight federal prosecutors last year, asked Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales on Monday to turn over additional documents on the terminations and threatened to issue subpoenas if the materials were not forthcoming.

Specifically, the four senators want the internal rankings that the Justice Department made of all 93 U.S. attorneys over the years, as well as employment charts that Monica M. Goodling, a top aide to Gonzales, provided to Justice officials as they decided which prosecutors to fire.

The senators have also asked for the department's ratings of all 93 prosecutors in December, when seven of the eight were fired, including explanations why officials decided that certain prosecutors "might be on his or her way out" and why others were allowed to remain.

Three Democrats on the committee — Chairman Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles E. Schumer of New York — and the panel's top Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, asked that the documents be turned over by Wednesday so committee investigators could review them before Gonzales' scheduled testimony next Tuesday.

"We hope subpoenas will not be necessary to compel cooperation with the committee's investigation," the senators said in their letter to Gonzales.

The Justice Department had no immediate response.

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Gingrich Joins Call For Gonzales To Step Down

2007-04-09T19:48:00.000-05:00

The former speaker is the latest Republican to break ranks with the administration, which still stands behind the attorney general.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday urged Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales to resign, saying the "self-created mess" over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year had hampered his ability to do his job.

"I cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration," Gingrich said on "Fox News Sunday." "They're going to be involved in endless hearings, which is going to take up an immense amount of time and effort.

"I think the country, in fact, would be much better served to have a new team at the Justice Department, across the board," he said.

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Gonzales Aide Quits Over US Attorneys Flap

2007-04-09T03:54:00.000-05:00

A third US justice department official has resigned amid a mounting controversy over the firing of eight federal prosecutors, increasing pressure on Alberto Gonzales, the embattled US attorney-general.

Monica Goodling, the latest official to quit, was senior counsel to Mr. Gonzales and the main liaison between the department of justice and the White House, making her a key target of Democratic lawmakers seeking to prove the sackings were politically motivated.

The resignation came two weeks after Ms Goodling told Congress she would not testify about her role in the firings, asserting her constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

Her departure leaves Mr. Gonzales, a close ally and confidant of President George W. Bush, looking increasingly exposed, as he prepares to testify to Congress about the controversy in less than two weeks.

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Power Shift Puts Bush Team on Defense

2007-03-19T02:43:00.000-05:00

For six years, President Bush weathered controversies over warrantless wiretaps, abuse at Abu Ghraib prison and the government's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina with the help of a Republican Congress that wasn't eager to probe too deeply.

But less than three months into a Congress controlled by Democrats, top administration officials are being subpoenaed to testify, grilled before multiple committees or fired to contain the damage from recent scandals. Even Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is fighting to save his job.

To Democrats, it's a sign that checks and balances have returned after six years of one-party rule in the nation's capital.

"We have decided to turn the Congress from an accountability-free zone into a place where we hold the executive branch, the Congress and the federal government accountable," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who's leading the party's re-election efforts.

The shift in power has made it impossible for the White House to control a series of scandals in recent weeks, from the mistreatment of injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the controversial firings of eight federal prosecutors.

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Bush Administration Takes Six Blows In A Row

2007-03-13T18:56:00.000-05:00

During a 24-hour news cycle last week there were these major stories:

01. Six of the eight recently fired United States Attorneys told Congressional committees that they believed they lost their jobs because they wouldn't play partisan politics in their handling of high profile political corruption cases. Some also claimed they'd been threatened by the Justice Department not to go public with their complaints.

02. Nine American servicemen were killed in action Iraq.

03. More than 100 Iraqi Shiites making a religious pilgrimage were killed by suicide bombers. At least 200 were injured.

04. Seriously wounded soldiers told Congress about the neglect, bad housing and bureaucratic nightmares they suffered as outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington while two top army generals accepted responsibility and apologized to the soldiers and their families.

05. According to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll, six in 10 Americans want Congress to set a time table to withdraw all American troops from Iraq by the end of 2008.

06. And, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and a national security aide to President George W. Bush, was found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice in the case of the leak of the identity of a CIA operative in the summer of 2003.

Any one of these stories would have been bad news for the Bush White House. As a group they represent a devastating political "perfect storm" because they paint a vivid picture of corruption, neglect and incompetence even while things continue to go badly in a war that a significant majority of Americans no longer supports and wants to end. It was enough to make the White House spokesman want to hide from the press, which Tony Snow tried to do by taking the day off. But neither he nor his boss can hide from the reality that Bush administration policies have created at home and abroad – a reality that seems about as bad as it can be but promises to get worse.

March 11, 2007

Edited By WestTexasBliss

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Fall Guy

2007-03-07T04:00:00.000-06:00

Jury finds Libby guilty on 4 of 5 counts in case of unmasking of CIA operative

I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted Tuesday of lying to FBI agents and grand jurors who were investigating the unmasking of a CIA operative amid a burning dispute over the war in Iraq.

The jurors rejected Libby's claims of memory lapses as they convicted him of obstruction of justice, giving false statements to the FBI and perjuring himself, charges embodied in four of the five counts of the indictment. The jury acquitted him on an additional count of making false statements to the FBI.

The verdict brought to a dramatic conclusion what has been among the most politically charged criminal trials in the capital since the Iran-contra affair in the 1980s and the Watergate prosecutions of the 1970s. The trial involved some of the most powerful figures in the White House and in Washington journalism.

A juror who met afterward with reporters, Denis Collins, said there was some sympathy on the jury for Libby. Indeed, several jurors agreed with defense lawyers that Libby was in effect a "fall guy" for more senior members of the administration.

During the trial, Wells tried to show that his client was being made a scapegoat to protect Rove, who was considered vital to Bush's re-election campaign in 2004.

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Vietnam War: Gore and Bush.

2007-03-04T09:31:00.000-06:00

Vietnam War: Gore
Although opposed to the Vietnam War, on August 7, 1969, Gore enlisted in the United States Army in order to participate in the war. After basic training at Fort Dix, Gore was assigned as a military journalist writing for The Army Flier, the base newspaper at Fort Rucker. With seven months remaining in his enlistment, he was shipped to Vietnam, arriving January 2, 1971. He served for four months with the 20th Engineer Brigade in Bien Hoa and for another month at the Army Engineer Command in Long Binh. As his unit was standing down, he applied for and received a non-essential personnel discharge two months early in order to attend divinity school at Vanderbilt University.

The chronology of Gore's military service is:

August 1969: Enlisted at the Newark, New Jersey recruiting office.

August to October 1969: Eight weeks of basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Late October 1969 to December 1970: writer for the Army Flier newspaper at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

January 2, 1971 to May 22, 1971: field reporter in Vietnam, part of the 20th Engineer Brigade, stationed primarily at Bien Hoa Air Base northeast of Saigon.

May 24, 1971: Given an honorable discharge, after his early discharge request was granted. Gore opposed the Vietnam War, but chose to volunteer anyway though he could have avoided serving in Vietnam in a number of ways. A friend of the Gore family reserved a spot for him in the National Guard, which he turned down. Gore has stated that his sense of civic duty compelled him to serve.

Vietnam War: Bush
In May 1968, at the height of the ongoing Vietnam War, Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard. After training, he was assigned to duty in Houston, flying Convair F-102s out of Ellington Air Force Base. Critics have alleged that Bush was favorably treated during his time of service due to his father's political standing, and that he was irregular in attendance. Bush took a transfer to the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972 to work on a Republican senate campaign, and in 1974 he obtained permission to end his six-year service obligation six months early to attend Harvard Business School, receiving an honorable discharge.

There are a number of accounts of substance abuse and otherwise disorderly conduct by Bush from this time. Bush has admitted to drinking "too much" in those years and described this period of his life as his "nomadic" period of "irresponsible youth". On September 4, 1976, at the age of 30, Bush was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol near his family's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He pleaded guilty, was fined $150, and had his driver's license suspended until 1978 in Maine.

Former Aide to Ex-Congressman Ney Pleads Guilty in Abramoff Case

2007-02-27T15:38:00.000-06:00

A former chief of staff to then-Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) pleaded guilty yesterday to corruption charges stemming from accepting gifts, gambling chips and trips -- including an expense-paid junket to Scotland with his boss -- from former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a foreign businessman.
The plea agreement by William Heaton revealed for the first time that Ney kept some of his ill-gotten gains -- $5,000 in British pounds -- in a safe in his congressional office. Heaton, who worked for Ney from 2001 until last year, admitted that he helped the congressman stash the money and periodically opened the safe at Ney's request so he could get to the cash, prosecutors said.
Ney, who resigned last year, pleaded guilty and was sentenced last month to 30 months in prison.

Washington Post

The Decline of Public Discourse

2007-02-24T01:47:00.000-06:00

Freedom of speech is not what it may seem. Recently, the Public Discourse in this country has been stunted and manipulated in order to advance political agendas.

Cronny
Student Journalism
March 16, 2006

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Published on February 24, 2007

In the News Today, Friday, January 19, 2007

2007-01-19T17:15:00.000-06:00

110th U.S. Congress
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Senate OKs ethics, lobbying reforms
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APPROVAL FULFILLS DEMOCRATS' PROMISE OF RAPID ACTION
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The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed sweeping changes to ethics and lobbying rules, overcoming bipartisan reluctance to ban many of the favors that lobbyists do for lawmakers and to illuminate the shadowy legislative practice of earmarking money for special projects.
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Interpreting the results of the Nov. 7 election as a reaction to corruption scandals when Congress was under Republican control, the Senate has joined the House in adopting broad new rules that go beyond the proposals Republicans introduced last year, or the ones that Democrats campaigned on.
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The measure passed around 9 p.m. by a vote of 96-2.
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Wednesday, Senate Republicans nearly derailed the bill in a dispute over when the Democrats would agree to vote on a Republican proposal, a version of the line-item veto.
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Like the new House rules, the Senate proposal would bar members from accepting gifts, meals or trips from lobbyists or the organizations that employ them. It would end senators' use of borrowed corporate jets at discount rates. It would prohibit departing senators from negotiating with prospective new employers until after their successors had been elected and would restrict them from directly or indirectly lobbying the Senate for two years.
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Also like the House rules, the Senate measure would require disclosure of the sponsors, the purpose and the cost of earmarks, the pet projects that lawmakers have been able to tuck anonymously into complicated spending bills.
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Senate Democrats also have incorporated into the bill a provision to require for the first time that lobbyists disclose the most valuable favors they do for lawmakers: holding campaign fundraisers, soliciting campaign contributions and bundling checks from clients and friends.
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In the House on Thursday, as the new Democratic majority celebrated the completion of its populist 100-hour agenda, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, unveiled the party's next legislative target: an ambitious plan to wean the United States from foreign oil and slow global warming.
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Pelosi said Thursday that she intends to create a panel to help craft the party's environmental agenda and has asked committee chairmen with jurisdiction over the issue to pass legislation ``to truly declare our energy independence'' by July 4.
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The announcement came as Democrats completed their 100-hour agenda with passage of a bill that would repeal oil industry tax breaks and put the estimated $14 billion in revenue over 10 years toward research on energy conservation and alternative fuels.
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The legislation was the last of six bills the Democrats have plowed through the House in two weeks, including measures to increase the minimum wage, expand stem-cell research, implement Sept. 11 commission recommendations, authorize Medicare negotiations for lower drug prices and cut interest rates on student loans.
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Although House Democrats backed the 100-hour agenda almost unanimously, cracks in the caucus might appear as Democrats turn to energy, health care and immigration, among other issues.
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The bill to repeal oil industry tax breaks was approved by a 264-123 vote, but that and the other 100-hour measures still are far from becoming law.
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President Bush has threatened to veto the stem-cell legislation, which would expand funding for research using embryonic stem cells, and the Medicare legislation. Though Democrats also control the Senate, by a 51-49 majority, Republicans can use the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome, to kill House-passed bills.
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Mercury News Wire Services
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109th U.S. Congress
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Republican Ney sentenced to a former Republican congressman linked to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for corruption.
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Bob Ney's sentence was longer than the prosecution had recommended, the judge said, because the former lawmaker had violated the public trust.
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He will be on probation for two years after his term. He must pay a $6,000 (£3,000) fine and undergo counselling.
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Ney had pleaded guilty to trading political favours for money and gifts.
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He also admitted conspiracy and making false statements.
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On Friday, he apologised to his family, friends and former constituents.
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He reiterated his dependence on alcohol, saying he had battled "the demons of addiction".
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First prosecution
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Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said his alcoholism was no excuse.
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She barred him from drinking alcohol during his probation and ordered him to follow an alcohol rehabilitation programme while he serves his sentence in federal prison.
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Ney is the first lawmaker to be prosecuted in connection with the Abramoff scandal, which helped the Democrats seize control of Congress in November.
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He resigned his seat in Congress days before the elections.
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Before the Abramoff scandal erupted, Ney was perhaps best known internationally for his role in renaming French fries "freedom fries" in the Congressional cafeteria due to US anger at Paris's refusal to support the invasion of Iraq.
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BBC News

Democrats' Delicate Strategy

2007-01-12T02:07:00.000-06:00

Majority Democrats face a delicate mission in their first foreign policy clash with President Bush, determined to force an end to the Iraq war but eager to support the troops who are doing the fighting. No strangers to political combat, Republicans don't intend to make it easy on them.
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"What they really want is to cut off funding for the troops," Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Thursday.
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It was a claim that Democrats rebutted in advance.
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"The Congress and the American people will continue to support them and provide them with every resource they need," the top four Democrats in Congress pledged Wednesday night as they attacked President Bush's plans to deploy an additional 21,500 troops.
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"Our military forces deserve a policy commensurate with the sacrifices they have been asked to make. Regrettably, the president has not provided that tonight," added Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as Reps. Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
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For the first time since the war began, Democrats have public opinion on their side _ and know it for sure.
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The midterm elections that swept Republicans from power in both the House and Senate demonstrated that, and comments by one-time Republican supporters of the president's war policy confirm it daily.
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Other Republicans are following.

READ THE FULL STORY

Think Tanks.

2007-01-11T06:01:00.000-06:00

Bush's New Plan Not All New.

There's Clearly "A Been-There, Done-That" Feel To Bush's New Plan.

Think Tanks.

"They don't think; they justify."

President Bush needs to be 'Plutoed'.

2007-01-09T07:06:00.000-06:00

President Bush is not the President to be making plans to stabilize Iraq.

To many mistakes.

To many lies.

President Bush needs to be 'Plutoed'.

(If you have been "plutoed" you have been demoted or devalued, just as happened to the former planet Pluto when its status was downgraded).

By WestTexasBliss

Some of the best comments I have read.

2007-01-07T15:13:00.000-06:00

Some of the best comments I have read in a long time, from one of the worst headlines I have ever red.

Read some of my favorite comments, click on link below.

By WestTexasBliss

2007-01-05T08:20:00.000-06:00

I saw on TV the other day the Republicans crying about how the 110th Congress is not willing to work in a bipartisan way. This is a lie! The Republicans are already trying to put a spin on the 110th Congress, but they are not going to get away with it. You can see Karl Rove’s finger prints all over it. The Republicans think we Americans are nothing but a bunch of couch potatoes and all they have to do is lie to us and they think they can get away with it. No more! The 110th Congress will do more in one hundred hours then the 109th Congress did in its full term. The 110th Congress is willing to work in a bipartisan way with the Republicans. The Republicans should thank god the Democrats are willing to work in a bipartisan way with them. After what the Republicans did to the Democrats in the 109th Congress. I would not give the Republicans the time of day!

WestTexasBliss

110th U.S. Congress, First 100 Hours

2007-01-04T05:58:00.000-06:00

Democrats Set To Take Over, Vowing To Run Clean Congress.

Democrats prepared to take control of both houses of Congress on Thursday after spending most of the last dozen years in the minority, with plans to quickly raise the minimum wage and toughen lobbying rules.

The Democratic takeover arrives with congressional leaders and President Bush stressing bipartisanship -- but with indications emerging of the partisan fights to come.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, is slated to become the new speaker of the House -- the first woman to hold that post -- and Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is scheduled to take over as Senate majority leader.

New members of Congress will also take their oaths in ceremonies on Thursday.

Exit polls showed that rising discontent over the war in Iraq and a spate of corruption scandals helped drive voters in November to hand Democrats control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994.

And a national poll released this week showed Democrats have strong support for nearly all the measures they want to pass in their first days in charge.

Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters that Democrats would move quickly on rules changes.

"On Thursday and Friday, we're going to adopt rules that will change the way the people's house operates to ensure its integrity, to ensure its openness and to ensure its transparency," Hoyer said Wednesday.

Tighter restrictions on spending earmarks, lobbying, gifts and travel will be proposed, Democratic House leaders said.

A $2.10 hourly increase in the minimum wage is among six bills Democrats pledged to advance in their first 100 hours of making new laws next week, after members are seated and committees are organized.

The minimum wage was last increased in 1997. Democrats want to raise it to $7.25, in steps over two years, a proposal that has drawn conditional support from President Bush.

But they may face a tougher hurdle in efforts to repeal Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. In the only veto of his presidency to date, Bush killed a similar bill that passed with bipartisan support last year -- and White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday that the president's position has not changed.

Other bills Democrats want to move in their 100 legislative hours would roll back tax breaks for the oil industry and redirect the revenue to alternative energy research; implement the homeland security recommendations of the 9/11 commission; cut interest rates for student loans; and allow administrators of the Medicare prescription drug program to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for discount prices.

The schedule for the 100 legislative hours stretches from Tuesday through January 18, five days ahead of Bush's State of the Union address.

Bush: Avoid 'stalemate'.

In a statement in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Bush urged Congress to make the tax cuts passed during his administration permanent and grant him line-item veto power, which would allow the president to cut specific spending from a bill without killing the entire measure.

And in an opinion piece published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Bush wrote that Democrats now have a responsibility to avoid creating a "stalemate" by passing bills "that are simply political statements."

"If a different approach is taken, the next two years can be fruitful ones for our nation," Bush wrote.

The Supreme Court killed a previous law giving the president line-item veto power in 1998, and Hoyer said he opposes renewing it.
Reid defended the Democrats' legislative agenda.

"There is nothing political about finding a policy to end the war in Iraq, raising the minimum wage, achieving energy independence or helping kids afford college," Reid told The Associated Press.

House Republicans, now facing life in the minority for the first time since 1994, complained that the Democrats are cutting them out of setting House rules. They urged Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to adopt the same "minority bill of rights" that Democrats had urged in 2004.

Though Republicans rejected that call at the time, Rep. Adam Putnam, a Florida Republican, said Democrats promised Americans "a new way of doing business" during last year's campaigns.

Republicans want guarantees that they will be able to offer substitute legislation and amendments to bills as they move through the chamber. Hoyer said Democrats would adopt such rules after their 100-hour package passes.

The revived talk of a minority bill of rights, said Rep. Louise Slaughter, shows Republicans are "terrified we're going to treat them the way they treated us."

"But we will not. We're going to treat them much better," said Slaughter, a New York Democrat and the incoming Rules Committee chairwoman.

Democrats also promise to beef up oversight of the Bush administration.

The new head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, is already butting heads with the Justice Department over documents relating to the interrogation of suspected terrorists. And the incoming chairmen of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees have already announced plans to hold hearings on the war in Iraq.

Party leaders got a dramatic show of pressure from anti-war protesters Wednesday, as peace activist Cindy Sheehan and others interrupted Hoyer's news conference with chants of "De-escalate, investigate, troops home now."

Poll finds strong support.

Hoyer said he believes the Democrats' first six bills "are overwhelmingly supported by the American people." The poll conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp. found strong support for five of the six.

"We see the first 100 hours as a mandate from the American people," Hoyer said. "We told the American public, 'If you elect us, this is what we will do immediately.'"
Eighty-seven percent of those polled said they want to allow Medicare, the federal health insurance program for seniors, to negotiate for lower drug prices. Only 12 percent opposed the idea.

An increase in the minimum wage drew 85 percent support. And 84 percent supported cutting student loan interest rates.

Implementing the 9/11 commission's recommendations had the support of 64 percent of those polled. Sixty-two percent favored funding embryonic stem-cell research. But the public was split 49-49 on the wisdom of cutting tax breaks for oil companies.

The CNN poll found 75 percent support for a crackdown on lobbyists' influence. And 79 percent said they would favor establishing an independent panel to enforce ethics rules.
In addition, 77 percent said they want to see "significant changes" to U.S. policy in Iraq.

Pollsters interviewed 1,019 American adults on December 15-17. The survey has a sampling error of 4.5 percentage points.
CNN - POSTED: 4:34 a.m. EST, January 4, 2007

2006-12-27T05:23:00.000-06:00

This Is President Bush's War

Democrats will soon get a say on Iraq

Congress' new leaders aim to thwart Bush's call for a troop increase. Hearings are planned.

"I hope the president and his people will listen," Biden said.

Biden, who was elected to the Senate during the Vietnam War and who is planning a 2008 presidential run, has been among the most outspoken critics of Bush's Iraq policies; he called any increase in troops "the absolute wrong strategy."

A new tone in Washington

As recently as last year, when John P. Murtha called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, many in the party agonized over whether that position would permanently tar Democrats as weak. But as discontent with the war has grown, sapping Bush's popularity, Democratic lawmakers have become increasingly outspoken. And senior party leaders now appear to be uniting behind the call for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces, a position that was bolstered by the release this month of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's report.

"Democrats and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have both laid down a roadmap for the president to begin the withdrawal of American troops from the civil war in Iraq," incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last week. "It is now up to the president to follow that course."

Bush has met with the new Democratic leaders but thus far has shown little inclination to accept their counsel on the war.

Rather than talk of reducing the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the White House has focused in the weeks since the release of the Iraq Study Group report on a temporary increase in troops that proponents say will help control the growing sectarian violence. Senior congressional Democrats, including Biden, have attacked that plan, arguing that beginning a phased withdrawal is the best way to force Iraqis to take responsibility for halting the violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

As he outlined his scheduled hearings in a Tuesday conference call with the media, Biden expressed hope that by airing more viewpoints on Iraq, congressional leaders, particularly Republicans, could persuade the president to reconsider the idea of deploying more soldiers.

"If we can, out of those hearings, generate some bipartisan consensus in the Senate, then he may very well listen to some of … my Republican colleagues who, I believe, share my great concern," Biden said.

Only 12% of Americans back a troop increase, compared with 52% who prefer a timetable for withdrawal, a recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found.

And House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton last week promised a series of oversight hearings aimed at uncovering and correcting abuses in the war effort.

The flood of congressional hearings next month will probably shed unfavorable light on the way the Bush administration has prosecuted the war in Iraq.

But Biden acknowledged that, short of cutting off funding, Congress has limited ability to compel the White House to dramatically change course.

Though Congress has in the past used its power over the budget to challenge the foreign policies of presidents — including cutting funding to the government of South Vietnam in the mid-'70s — thus far no leading Democrat has called for withholding money for military operations in Iraq.

"We should not exaggerate the ability of the United States Foreign Relations Committee or the Congress to get a president to act in a manner in which the Congress thinks is more rational or more appropriate," Biden said Tuesday. "There's nothing the United States Congress can do by a piece of legislation to alter the conduct of a war that a president decides to pursue.

"This is President Bush's war," he said.

Read The Full Story, By Noam N. Levey...

"Conservatism, like Christianity, has not failed. Neither has ever been tried, especially by this administration."

Interior, Pentagon Faulted In Audits

2006-12-25T19:55:00.000-06:00

Interior, Pentagon Faulted In Audits

Effort to Speed Defense Contracts Wasted Millions

The Defense Department paid two procurement operations at the Department of the Interior to arrange for Pentagon purchases totaling $1.7 billion that resulted in excessive fees and tens of millions of dollars in waste, documents show.

Defense turned to Interior, which manages federal lands and resources, in an effort to speed up its contracting. Interior is one of several government agencies allowed to manage contracts for other agencies in exchange for a fee.

But the arrangement between Interior and Defense "routinely violated rules designed to protect U.S. Government interests," according to draft audit documents obtained by The Washington Post.

More than half of the contracts examined were awarded without competition or without checks to determine that the prices were reasonable, according to the audits by the inspectors general for Defense (DOD) and Interior (DOI). Ninety-two percent of the work reviewed was awarded without verifying that the contractors' cost estimates were accurate; 96 percent was inadequately monitored.

READ THE FULL STORY…

2006-12-19T18:21:00.000-06:00

Cheney to Be Defense Witness in CIA Case

Vice President Cheney will be called to testify in the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of his former chief of staff, which is scheduled to begin next month, a lawyer for the defense announced today.

The attorney representing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told a judge today that the defense plans to call the vice president to help rebut charges that his most trusted aide had a criminal motive to mislead agents and a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity. Libby's trial on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators is slated to start Jan. 16.

Washington Post

2006-12-18T05:20:00.000-06:00

Changing Course In Iraq

Democrats won control of Congress in last month's midterm elections in part because of public dissatisfaction with Bush's handling of the war. More than half of Americans want to set a schedule to withdraw all troops.

Start with democracy, a word conspicuously deemphasized by Baker and co-chair Lee Hamilton in their Iraq Study Group report. They want Rice to talk with Iran and with Syria, which is busy undermining democracy in Lebanon. They speak more broadly for the burgeoning Washington consensus that the promotion of democracy in the Middle East was a dangerous pipe dream best abandoned before any more damage is done.

Iraqi troops, they are insufficient, incompetent, and many of them (are) corrupted.

Harry Reid, whose party campaigned in the November congressional elections on changing course in Iraq, said he would be open only to a short-term increase.

The American people will not allow this war to go on as it has. It simply is a war that will not be won militarily.

Sen. Jack Reed, said that if it were a short-term increase, "won't our adversaries simply adjust their tactics, wait us out and wait until we reduce again? So I think you'd have to ask very serious questions about the utility of this."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, said, "I respect Harry Reid on it, but that's not where I am."

Kennedy, like Reed a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said there would be widespread opposition by members of his committee if Bush proposed a troop increase.

Ex-secretary of state says U.S. is losing and a temporary troop boost won't help.

Former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell says the United States is losing the war in Iraq and victory, as traditionally defined by the Bush administration, is "not in the cards."

Powell, who resigned after George W. Bush's first term, also says he doesn't think a short-term surge of U.S. troops to try to stabilize Baghdad would work.

The surge option is said to be gaining favour in the White House as the U.S. president prepares to announce a new course in Iraq to the American people early in the new year.

Powell, in an interview on the CBS program Face the Nation, agreed with Baker and Hamilton that the situation in Iraq was "grave and deteriorating".

"If it's grave and deteriorating and we're not winning, we are losing," Powell said in his most extensive analysis of the war since he left office.

He said the U.S. should turn its attention to bolstering Iraq's government and training its security forces and police. Powell said Americans should start the "baton toss" to Iraqis by mid-2007, making the Iraqis responsible for their own security and well-being and starting the draw-down of U.S. troops.

"I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work," Powell said.

He said not only would it not improve the situation on the ground, the U.S. would pay for it further down the road because there would be no troops available to replace those sent in as part of the surge.

"There really are no additional troops," he said. "All we would be doing is keeping some of the troops who were there longer and escalating or accelerating the arrival of other troops."

Powell said "if victory means you have gotten rid of every insurgent, you have peace throughout the country, I don't see that in the cards.

"What we are going to have to do is try to bring a sense of order and security to the country, even if there continues to be low-level violence and insurgency."

Powell has maintained a low profile since his departure from the Bush cabinet, but has weighed in at critical points during the debate over the war.

Powell, who had counselled caution about a unilateral move on Iraq and often clashed with Donald Rumsfeld's defence department.

General Says Army Will Need to Grow

2006-12-15T06:46:00.000-06:00

General Says Army Will Need to Grow

Iraq and Afghanistan Are Straining the Force, Chief of Staff Warns
Warning that the active-duty Army "will break" under the strain of today's war-zone rotations, the nation's top Army general yesterday called for expanding the force by 7,000 or more soldiers a year and lifting Pentagon restrictions on involuntary call-ups of Army National Guard and Army Reserve troops.
Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, issued his most dire assessment yet of the toll of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the nation's main ground force. At one point, he banged his hand on a House committee-room table, saying the continuation of today's Pentagon policies is "not right."

READ THE FULL STORY...

I am banging my hand on the table, saying this is “not right”.

The Iraqi (not a war any longer) occupation.

“GET OUT”

Issues...You Want issues…

House to Vote on Senate's Offshore Drilling Plan

2006-12-05T02:43:00.000-06:00

[House Democratic leaders have decided not to take a position on the bill in order to avoid having to choose between different constituencies within the party's own ranks. Environmental groups oppose the drilling measure; the Sierra Club issued a statement saying that "it's time for Congress to stop appeasing Big Oil" and that "drilling is a bad deal for Americans."]

[House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opposes offshore drilling and is concerned about the loss of federal royalties, said spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. But Pelosi will not try to rally the Democratic caucus against the Senate bill.]

[Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said, "As the Republican Party prepares to relinquish control of the House and Senate, they are attempting a last-minute giveaway of public lands as an early Christmas present to the big oil companies."]

Read the full story…
By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writers
~
Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of you spineless (lacking in willpower, courage, or strength of character) Democrats going to do something right? If you oppose this bill, do something about it. Voters oppose it. Big oil companies indorse it.

Sounds to me like big oil companies money found its way into the Democratic Party.

Nancy Pelosi will not try to rally the Democratic caucus against the offshore drilling bill, but she will rally the Democratic caucus for John Murtha.

She needs to find a different job!

Read more… WestTexasBliss

~~~

House Postpones Offshore Drilling Bill

~
House leaders pulled an offshore drilling measure off the calendar today, an apparent signal that the bill did not have the two-thirds majority of votes needed for it to be adopted.
Foes of offshore drilling hoped that today's move spelled the end of efforts to get the bill passed. "Let's hope this is the end of Congress' fling with Big Oil and that we can make a fresh start to achieving true energy security with the new year and the new Congress," Athan Manuel of the Sierra Club said in a statement.

By Steven Mufson

US Patriot

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY, OR WHAT?

2006-12-04T10:08:00.000-06:00

Hillary Clinton Actively Considers 2008 Bid For Presidency

We Don't Know When She'll Make Decision

Hillary Rodham Clinton., has begun active consideration of a 2008 run for president and has personally asked some fellow top New York Democrats for their support in the event she goes ahead with such a campaign, a top adviser said Sunday.
"As Senator Clinton said, she was going to begin actively considering a presidential run after the election. That process has begun," said Howard Wolfson.
"She is reaching out to her colleagues in the New York delegation and asking for their advice and counsel, and their support if she decides to make a run," the Clinton adviser told The Associated Press. Wolfson said he did not know when she might make a decision.

WNBC

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY, OR WHAT?

Bill Clinton got $12 million for his memoirs. Hillary got $8 million for hers. That's $20 million for memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.

If these three ladies were running for President, who would you vote for?

The "do-nothing" 109th U.S. Congress

2006-12-03T17:28:00.000-06:00

Ridiculed as the "do-nothing" 109th U.S. Congress, the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on Monday begin a brief session to wrap up whatever work they can, install a new defense secretary and approve money to prevent a shutdown of government services.

The Republican-led Congress will meet only for about another week before drawing to a close -- as lawmakers prepare for the new 110th Congress set to convene on Jan. 4 under Democratic control.

Having been blown out in the Nov. 7 elections, Republican lawmakers are getting ready to hand over to Democrats some major unfinished business, led by what to do about the increasingly unpopular Iraq war.

Republicans are also leaving unfinished long-term government funding legislation, and appear unlikely to decide whether to extend popular tax credits that expired at the end of 2005.

But before turning out the lights, the Senate seems certain to confirm President George W. Bush's choice of Robert Gates as defense secretary.

Gates, a former CIA director, enjoys strong support on Capitol Hill to succeed Donald Rumsfeld, who was fired on Nov. 8, one day after the congressional elections.

House Democrats plan a forum Tuesday to hear from high-profile critics of the Iraq war. The following day, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group submits its recommendations to the White House and Congress on how to salvage the situation.

After the new Democratic-led Congress is seated, lawmakers will be asked by Bush to approve more money for the Iraq war, which could top a staggering $100 billion.

Democrats won control of the House and Senate largely because of public discontent with the Iraq war as well as with this Congress, which critics branded as "do-nothing."

This Congress will also end having failed to enact some of Bush's top priorities, including sweeping reform of U.S. immigration laws and the Social Security retirement program.

Legislation to authorize a warrantless domestic spying program implemented by Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks has also been stalled amid constitutional concerns.

The top priority for this "lame-duck" session of Congress will be to avert a federal government shutdown.

'FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE'

Congress has failed to pass nine of the 11 annual bills that fund government activities in the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Farm subsidies, education, health and law enforcement are among the programs without full-year funding.

To avert government shutdowns, two temporary spending bills have already been enacted. The latest expires on Friday and Congress is expected to pass a third stopgap funding bill that would keep U.S. agencies running through Feb. 15.

Early next year, Democrats will try to finish the work. But in the meantime, some programs could suffer as the stopgap bills mostly hold spending to last year's level.

Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said that "will absolutely hurt." With growing numbers of Iraq war veterans, he said the backlog of claims for medical, pension and education benefits has swelled to more than 800,000, compared to about 773,000 last year.

A senior administration official said he was still hopeful Congress might approve this year's veterans-spending bill before leaving town, which he said would bring an increase of more than 12 percent in funds for veterans medical care.

Also on the economic front, Republican leaders were still trying to decide whether to renew a series of expired tax breaks, including child and college tuition deductions.

If they do, the tax provisions might be coupled with a U.S.-Vietnam trade deal and possibly other trade measures.

A House ethics panel is poised to release a report on its investigation into former Rep. Mark Foley's sexually explicit electronic messages to teenage interns and what fellow Republicans knew about the matter.

~
By Richard Cowan

GOP Fundraiser Gets 18 Years in Prison

2006-11-21T19:24:00.000-06:00

A GOP fundraiser who embezzled from a state investment in rare coins was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison in a scandal that helped bring down Ohio's ruling Republican Party on Election Day.

By JOHN SEEWER

Ex-Daley Aide Sentenced To Prison

2006-11-21T05:34:00.000-06:00

Read this news story below. This is why corruption runs ramp-pit in are government. You do the crime you don’t do the time; you get your hands slapped. The first thing these convicted elected officials (gangsters) pack when they are going to so call federal prison is their golf clubs, its like a vacation for them. Corrupt elected officials who commit crimes when in office need to go to a state prison and put in with the general population and stripped of all government benefits’ and after they do the maximum sent-tins they need to be kicked out of the USA for the rest of their life and if a government elected official commits a crime in war time they need to be put in front of a firing squad. And if big corporations and lobbyist or who ever are involved in the crime they get the same sentence. Just before a president leaves office he pardons convicted government officials. No more!

The President is doing a lot of cuts in benefits’ for Americans, so why not have cuts in his benefits’?

Ex-Daley aide sentenced to prison

Tribune staff report

Published November 20, 2006, 5:23 PM CST

Mayor Richard Daley's former patronage chief was sentenced today to 46 months in federal prison for his role in a hiring fraud scheme at City Hall. He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.Robert Sorich showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge David H. Coar delivered a tongue-lashing.The offense is corruption — corruption with a capital C,'' Coar said. "For people to owe their jobs to political advancement rather than performance on the job stinks."I don't give a hoot whether this has been going on for 200 years," the judge said. "It still stinks.''As Coar handed down Sorich's sentence, the former City Hall insider stood stiff-lipped while his wife and mother broke down behind him.Sorich could have received as much as 57 months in prison, but Coar gave him the lowest end of the sentencing range.Prior to the reading of his sentence, Sorich said, "I just want to stand before the court and my family and friends and let them know I am not a broken man."He did not apologize or otherwise accept responsibility for the crimes a federal jury found he committed.Sorich and three other former city officials were convicted in July in a trial that highlighted the inner workings of the mayor's political machine.Prosecutors say Daley aides rigged hiring for thousands of city jobs and promotions in favor of political loyalists. The scheme allegedly was designed to enhance Daley's political power.Lawyers for Sorich and his three co-defendants in the trial have argued that the requested sentences are unduly harsh.They have noted that city workers convicted of taking bribes received relatively short sentences.Sorich and Timothy McCarthy, his former aide in the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, were each convicted on two counts of mail fraud.Former Streets and Sanitation official Patrick Slattery was convicted of one count of mail fraud, while John Sullivan, a former Streets and Sanitation managing deputy commissioner, was found guilty of one count of lying to federal agents about political hiring.Today, Slattery was sentenced to 27 months in prison, while Sullivan was given two months in custody and two months of home confinement.

Tribune

It's high time for politicians to be paying attention.

2006-11-17T08:06:00.000-06:00

Nancy Pelosi, you just don’t get it do you. Neither did the Republicans and look what happen to them.

I want government transparency and accountability!

I am fad up with the corruption in Washington.

Get corporations out of Washington.

FIRING ALL members of Congress (regardless of party) who are corrupt,
~

Nancy Pelosi Wants Total Crap

2006-11-17T06:53:00.000-06:00

House Speaker Pelosi's choice for Majority Leader, Draft Loving John Murtha, has this to say about the anti-corruption bill being pushed by Madame Speaker:

Even though I think its total crap, I’ll vote for it and pass it because that’s what Nancy wants.

I think he's brain-damaged but that gives Murtha too much credit. He's just corrupt.

Pelosi’s Endorsement of Murtha. Total Crap

2006-11-17T05:54:00.000-06:00

Nancy Pelosi was chosen by acclamation to become speaker of the House. Ninety minutes later, she experienced her first smack down.

Pelosi had only herself to blame for this briefest of honeymoons. Just five days after the Democrats' election victory, she shattered party unity Sunday by urging House Democrats to reject her longtime deputy, Steny Hoyer, in favor of antiwar firebrand Jack Murtha, who proceeded to brand House ethics reforms "total crap."

Yesterday, rank-and-file Democrats told Pelosi her endorsement was total crap: They overwhelmingly chose Hoyer to be majority leader.

Hoyer supporter Maxine Waters was holding forth on the impact of Pelosi's letter Sunday endorsing Murtha. "People just said 'I wonder why' and kept on moving and voted for Mr. Hoyer." It's true: Hoyer wound up with about as many votes as he forecast before Pelosi's endorsement of Murtha.

For Pelosi, who led Democrats back to a majority in the House after 12 years, yesterday should have been a coronation for the first woman to be speaker. Instead, her party had plunged into fratricide, and cable news was running nonstop clips of Murtha talking with FBI agents posing as sheiks in the Abscam sting.

Was this a great moment for Democrats, or "total crap"? "The latter," Pelosi spokeswoman Jennifer Crider had to admit as she surveyed the melee outside the caucus room.

Jack Abramoff Controversy

2006-11-16T07:06:00.000-06:00

Jack Abramoff Controversy

~
Abramoff Heading To Prison, Prosecutors Want Him To Roll On More Politicians

~
Dorgan Tangled in Abramoff Web

~
Dorgan has the North Dakota press wrapped around his finger. In a small state like North Dakota, Dorgan, Conrad et cetera are really important people who can really cause problems if the locals do Kiss their Bu**s.

~
No brainer. Will be interesting to see how this unfolds. If the Dem’s are even halfway serious about ethics reform all this will come out. If not, then it remains politics as usual.

No surprise there.

~
READ THE FULL STORY

Questions Surround Speaker Pelosi's Choice For House Majority Leader

2006-11-15T21:26:00.000-06:00

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Democratic-leaning watchdog group, accused Pelosi of compromising her ethical standards by endorsing Murtha.

Murtha has fought charges for years of using his senior status on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee to award favors to campaign contributors. He voted against a Democratic package of ethics reforms earlier this year

CBS News reporter Allison Davis

Representative Hoyer's supporters are reviving accounts of Murtha's less-than-decisive rejection of a bribe in the 1980 Abscam FBI sting operation. More recently, Murtha has battled allegations that he may have accepted favors from defense contractors.

Most immediately, Murtha's opposition to ethics reform, including past brushes with ethics issues, open Pelosi to charges that she hasn't heard voters on the importance of cleaning up the culture of corruption in Washington.

"Future House Speaker Pelosi's endorsement of Representative Murtha, one of the most unethical members of Congress, shows that she may have prioritized ethics reform merely to win votes, with no real commitment to changing the culture of corruption," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a group that took a lead in criticizing former GOP majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas over corruption charges.

By Gail Russell Chaddock

Who Killed The Electric Car ?

2006-11-14T07:58:00.000-06:00

Who Killed The Electric Car ?

Make a difference right now. Take Action!

First, Ethics Reform

2006-11-13T09:22:00.000-06:00

The 'culture of corruption' helped Democrats win. Now they need to fix the mess!

ONE OF THE loudest messages from Tuesday's elections was disgust with the way Washington does business. In exit polls, 42 percent of voters said corruption and scandals in government were extremely important in their decisions -- a greater share than for the war in Iraq, terrorism or the economy. House Democrats have vowed to quickly adopt new ethics rules; their package is good but could be improved. Senate Democrats, who, after yesterday's gracious concession by Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), will control the chamber, say they too have heard the voters' demand for change.

~
Read The Full Story: Washington Post

~
[My Reply: “Good, but not good enough”.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The GOP lost control of Capitol Hill for a number of reasons, the war (the televised pictures of growing casualties were hard to shake off) and the scandals involving Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley (all of which were broken by news organizations). At times it seemed journalists and administration officials were offering two different versions of reality. But in the end the polls accurately forecast the thumping to come.
~
Now the question is whether a press corps that has been openly at odds with the president will hold the newly empowered Democrats to the same tough standards.
Read The Full Story:
By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post

Lame-duck Congress Has Busy Agenda

2006-11-13T08:42:00.000-06:00

The Democrats won the midterm elections, but time has not run out on the Republican majority in Congress

~
Find-lee! "The Do Nothing Congress", wants to do something?
~
Joseph Lieberman, Said:
Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, elected as an independent, said Sunday on "Meet the Press" on NBC that he wanted Congress to take up the lobbying and ethics changes that died before the election.
Carul Hulse, New York Times
Read The Full Story:
~
Nancy Pelosi Said:
Nancy Pelosi has previously said a Democratic-led Congress will not be a rubber stamp for the White House. Nancy Pelosi, said she hoped there would be cooperation with congressional investigations -- part of the checks-and-balances system built into the Constitution. Nancy Pelosi also has said that in the first 100 hours of her speakership she will push for action implementing all 9/11 Commission recommendations on national security, raising the minimum wage to $7.25, eliminating corporate subsidies for oil companies, allowing the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices, imposing new restrictions on lobbyists, cutting interest rates on college loans and supporting embryonic stem-cell research.
CNN's John King, Dana Bash and Ed Henry
Read The Full Story:

Cuckoo Science

2006-11-10T04:42:00.000-06:00

Sometimes on RealClimate we discuss important scientific uncertainties, and sometimes we try and clarify some subtle point or context, but at other times, we have a little fun in pointing out some of the absurdities that occasionally pass for serious 'science' on the web and in the media. These pieces look scientific to the layperson (they have equations! references to 19th Century physicists!), but like cuckoo eggs in a nest, they are only designed to look real enough to fool onlookers and crowd out the real science. A cursory glance from anyone knowledgeable is usually enough to see that concepts are being mangled, logic is being thrown to the winds, and completely unjustified conclusions are being drawn - but the tricks being used are sometimes a little subtle.
Two pieces that have recently drawn some attention fit this mould exactly. One by Christopher Monckton (a viscount, no less, with obviously too much time on his hands) which comes complete with supplementary 'calculations' using his own 'M' model of climate, and one on JunkScience.com ('What Watt is what'). Junk Science is a front end for Steve Milloy, long time tobacco, drug and oil industry lobbyist, and who has been a reliable source for these 'cuckoo science' pieces for years. Curiously enough, both pieces use some of the same sleight-of-hand to fool the unwary (coincidence?).

But never fear, RealClimate is here!

Cuckoo Science

RealClimate

Christopher Monckton

JunkScience

Global Warming

2006-11-08T04:07:00.000-06:00

An analogy I like to use is that of the Titanic. If you see an iceberg up ahead, do you convene your engineers to debate the effects of ice hitting a ship or do you have the engine room throw the engines in reverse and turn the ship as hard as it will go?

The way we're handling our planet is akin to a captain saying "Convene the engineers to debate about the ice, but I'm going to plow through that iceberg anyway. After all, this ship is unsinkable and turning would waste precious time and coal."
Comment by Yartrebo

Re: Yartrebo, The iceberg has already been struck. We did not see it in time. It is now probably a good idea to get a damage control report, and see if we are taking on water. If in fact we are, we need those engineers to decide if 1) all the compartments will flood and we will sink (no lifeboats!) 2) only one compartment will flood, the ship will list a little, but we can make it back to port, 3) the ship is leaking but the bilge pump capacity is large enough to continue on to our destination without many problems, or 4)we need to go down there and try to fix the leak, or we will surely sink.

“How much CO2 emission is too much”?
RealClimate: http://www.realclimate.org/
November 06, 2006

~~~~~~~~~~~~
“We’ are doomed”

Issues...You Want issues?

2006-10-19T07:18:00.000-05:00

Political Junkie

Issues...You Want issues?

The biggest issue, for me, would be government transparency and accountability. If we, as the voters, cannot trust our elected officials, democracy has failed. We need to rid ourselves of corrupt politicians.

I have seen corruption ruin my state's reputation and, with America's reputation already at risk, we cannot afford to sit and watch our country fall into the perils of corruption.

Global warming. The National Academy of Sciences, among other people, said that growing heat waves are a result of climate change. Crops are dying of thirst in the Midwest. 40% of the polar ice cap is gone.

And this is just the beginning. Sorry to sound so doom-dayish ... believe me, I'm sick of it.

The bottom line is that it's high time for politicians to be paying attention, and I think that some of them finally are, because more and more people are deeply concerned about this problem.

Immigration, i.e., illegal aliens, is top-of-mind. Enforce the borders, no amnesty. Be a nation of laws, enforced laws.

Also, the ballooning deficit and out-of-control spending.

Iraq.

Issues...You Want issues?

Karl rove told us last year what the election was going to be about. We're not going to be allowed to have a discussion about anything except naked FEAR.

There is nothing they won't do to win. It's going to be a sickening spectacle. I don't know if I have the stomach to stay around for it.

Issues...You Want issues?

In the past few years we have had:
01. Destructive foreign policy
02. Destructive environmental policy
03. Destructive attacks on our constitution and civil rights
04. Destructive congress that is controlled by lobbyists and big corporate money
05. A do-nothing congress that just sits back and lets it all happen.

So what is my biggest issue?
FIRING ALL Members of Congress (regardless of party) who sat by and did nothing. They do not represent what is in the public's best interests, so why should we continue their employment?

I hope this election is a HUGE wake-up call for our government. The American People are their bosses, not special interests and big corporate money. We want our country back.

To restore checks and balances. If Congress did any kind of oversight of the executive branch, we probably would not have gone into Iraq and be facing the chaos of the Middle East.
01. Leadership for a viable energy policy.
02. National health care policy for all Americans.
03. Leadership to reevaluate trade agreements that not only are destroying the American middle class, but are enslaving people of other countries, making corporations pay their fair share.
04. Leadership for campaign finance reform, get corporations out of the voting process.
05. The Iraqi (not a war any longer) occupation.
06. Incompetence in Congress & the executive.

People will want a President who does more than speak of "family values",religious faith and morality but demonstrates them by living them. People will want a person unlikely to be tempted by corporate greed and political corruption. Integrity will emerge as a necessary requirem

Placing the competency issue front and center is a no-brainer given the last six years of a President whose intelligence and competency were judged absent by many Americans.

Sadly, while the issues that will get the most press will be the inane ones that provide warm comfort to the President's conservative base, the real issue that seems to pervade most of the postings is lack of credibility in the standing government in general, and in the chief executive in particular.

Too many people feel they have been misled or manipulated too often and immediately view this through a cynical prism.

Leadership that has the respect of the populace must be a priority.

I mean, really, Karl Rove did come out and say this a year ago. They have no shame, they admit to manipulation. They have published numerous talking points, position papers and treatises that all discuss how to frame the issue, how to talk about it, how to constantly remind people of 9/11, how to push people's buttons, how to scare them. Do you think bush's photo op with the fireman and the bullhorn was spontaneous? Do you think anything they do is?

It's all calculated to do one thing--frighten you. And it has worked. The question is, are we smart enough to see through it? Or are we going to let our fear alllow us to be manipulated--again?

In B-school, they always said Fear was the most affective strategy next to sex.

I guess GWB actually was awake in one of his classes.

Fear works. Big time--you can track it. It directly affects the primitive lizard brain, the limbic system. It works on us unconciously, even when our higher, reasoning brain is not aware of it.

Every dictator, every tyrant, has used it effectively throughout history to maintain control of populations.

Karl Rove is a great student of Machiavelli and Goebbels. He speaks admiringly of them often when he talks privately to 'conservative' foundations and such. It isn't Bush. He just does what Rove and Cheney tell him to.

Washington Post

Global Warming

2006-10-13T03:56:00.000-05:00

Renewable Energy With Green House Gas

Marital Bliss

2006-10-01T09:56:00.000-05:00

They Both Take The Blame - For Marital Bliss

As a psychotherapist, I teach people to take responsibility for their own actions, but not for the actions of others. As a husband, though, I find that married life often goes more smoothly with a slight modification of this principle. Fortunately, my wife and I are in agreement on this, and as a result, we rarely squabble over life's foibles and frustrations. Basically, we each take the blame when there is no blame to take. Here's how it works: Let's say my wife has been preparing a big dinner and then manages to knock the entire pot of beef stew all over the kitchen floor. As soon as I hear her anguished yowl, I put my hand on her shoulder and say, "Honey, I take full responsibility for this." It's nonsense, of course, but it's helpful nonsense. We laugh, begin the cleanup, and order takeout. Sometimes, my wife will anticipate our little ritual and launch a preemptive salvo. "You must have hidden my reading glasses!" she'll say with mock annoyance.

"It's true," I reply. "I take full responsibility for this unconscionable theft."

On some level, my upbringing probably prepared me for this role since, in my family, feeling a little guilty about something was not at all uncommon. And who knows? Maybe I did hide those glasses and then repressed the whole thing. Freud would not have a problem with this, so why should I?

This mutual arrangement works out well for me, too. If, while driving with my wife, I happen to miss that critical exit, I can safely sputter, "It's all your fault! You were distracting me."

And I can count on my wife replying cheerfully, "I take full responsibility. It must have been those darn distraction rays I was beaming into your brain."

For Nancy and me, it's all an elaborate game. But I believe our willingness to take the blame - even when blameless - has its roots in an ancient ethical tradition. In the Jewish faith, shaming or humiliating another person - especially in public - is considered a mortal sin. Indeed, rabbis teach us to go out of our way to avoid such a thing.

One story relates how Rabbi Judah, while lecturing, became annoyed by the strong odor of garlic in the room. "Let the one who ate the garlic go out!" he intoned harshly. Another distinguished sage, Rabbi Chiya, immediately stood up and walked out. It later emerged that Rabbi Chiya had left simply to avoid embarrassing the real garlic-eating culprit, a student of lower status who would have been crushed by Rabbi Judah's rebuke.

"A person should always be soft like a reed and not hard like a cedar," the Talmud also tells us. Yet how many marriages are wrecked by the obdurate insistence of one spouse or the other that he or she is right? Why not bend a bit in the wind of discord, even when you are not at fault?

A little creative boundary-blurring, combined with a sense of humor, can help couples surmount their everyday predicaments. Or, as that great rabbinical sage, Milton Berle, once put it, "A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong."

By Ronald Pies

Earth Headed for Warmest Temps in a Million Years

2006-09-27T17:52:00.000-05:00

Earth Headed for Warmest Temps in a Million Years

Scientists Also Rebuke Popular Author Michael Crichton

In about 45 years, temperatures on Earth will be hotter than at anytime during the past one million years, says the U.S. government's top climatologist in a new report released today.

According to the report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the planet is just two degrees shy of an average temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit, which is what they believe the temperature was about a million years ago.

NASA's James Hansen, along with colleagues from the University of California and Columbia University, are for the first time, marking a calendar signaling the approach of temperatures that humans have never experienced.

"Humans are now in control of the Earth's climate, for better or worse," Hansen tells ABC News.

Based on a "business as usual" scenario in which greenhouse gasses continue to rise unabated, Hansen says we'll break the million-year-old record in about 45 years. But he stresses we can't wait that long to cut greenhouse gas pollution, because of the decades it takes for the climate system to respond to changes.

"We need to get started now," he says. "We can't wait another decade or two to take this seriously."

Those 2 degrees the scientists are talking about may not sound like much, but what that change means is that by mid-century, the world will experience even more record heat waves, wildfires, more intense storms and flooding.

In other parts of the world, the increase may worsen drought conditions as more mountain glaciers and snow packs vanish, no longer sending water to the valleys below.

And in a highly unusual move for a scientific paper, the authors devote eight paragraphs to systematically deconstructing the assertions of a prominent science fiction novelist. In the non-fiction sections of his 2004 book "State of Fear," best-selling author Michael Crichton wrote that Hansen's climate change calculations were "wrong by 300 percent."

Hansen says Crichton misrepresented his scientific work and, adds the scientist, has done so in testimony before Congress and in a meeting with President Bush — even though he is not a climate expert.

"He is propagating false information to the public," Hansen says.

Crichton, through a publicist, declined ABC News' request for an interview.

By CLAYTON SANDELL and BILL BLAKEMORE

Ohio Rep. Files Guilty Plea In Abramoff Scandal

2006-09-16T10:38:00.000-05:00

U.S. Rep. Bob Ney will plead guilty to federal criminal charges he made false statements and conspired to commit fraud and violate federal lobbying laws in the congressional corruption probe spawned by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Ney, R-Ohio, had defiantly denied the charges for months. Now he faces up to 10 years in prison. The Justice Department said prosecutors will recommend that he serve 27 months based on federal sentencing guidelines. Ney became the first lawmaker to admit wrongdoing in the election-year investigation.

Ney agreed to plead guilty to making false statements and conspiracy to commit "wire and mail fraud," make false statements and violate post-employment restrictions for former congressional staff members.

Ney faces up to ten years in prison, but the Justice Department said prosecutors will recommend he serve 27 months based on federal sentencing guidelines.

Ney signed the plea agreement Wednesday, but it was not approved by the Justice Department or filed in court until Friday.

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Don’t forget to take your golf clubs with you Anus Hole.

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Images By

Novak vs. Armitage

2006-09-15T03:18:00.000-05:00

Novak vs. Armitage:

Bull, I’ve got a bridge in Florida I want talk to you about.

The Sin of Silence

2006-08-20T06:23:00.000-05:00

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

~ Abraham Lincoln

France Honors American Soldiers

2006-08-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

Located on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach, the World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France honors American soldiers who died in Europe during World War II. Shown here is the grave marker of Jimmie W. Monteith, a United States Army officer who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions and sacrifice of life on D-Day.

Photo credit: Nilington - Read the Full Story at Wikipedia

Beat Swords into Plowshares

2006-08-11T12:33:00.000-05:00

When I was 8 years old a hornet's nest began to take shape in the back of our yard. I went out and watched with a combination of fascination and fear as it grew day by day.

Finally, unable to stand the suspense, I took a big brick and threw it at the nest, breaking off the bottom half and sending the hornets into a swarming frenzy. I ran away as fast as I could as the angry bees swirled behind.

When I think of the relationship of the United States to the Middle Eastern Muslim countries, my experience as an 8-year-old comes to mind. "Why do they hate us?" Americans ask. Well, we've thrown a brick at their hive.

Forget the rhetoric about World War III. Choose the rhetoric of the Middle Eastern prophet Isaiah: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

Frank O'Hara is vice president of Planning Decisions in Hallowell.

By Frank O'Hara

READ THE FULL STORY...

FAIR VERSUS FREE

2006-08-04T11:02:00.000-05:00

The Federal Communications Commission seeks to enforce a "fairness doctrine" on radio and TV stations. We suffered numerous "fair trade" laws, until they were declared unenforceable. One businessman vies with another in proclaiming his faith in competition — provided that it is "fair."

Yet, scrutinize word for word the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and you will not find the word "fair." The First Amendment does not protect the "fair" exercise of religion, but the "free" exercise thereof; it does not restrain Congress from abridging the "fairness" of speech or of the press, but the "freedom" of speech or of the press.

The modern tendency to substitute "fair" for "free" reveals how far we have moved from the initial conception of the Founding Fathers. They viewed government as policeman and umpire. They sought to establish a framework within which individuals could pursue their own objectives in their own way, separately or through voluntary cooperation, provided only that they did not interfere with the freedom of others to do likewise.

The modern conception is very different. Government has become Big Brother. Its function has become to protect the citizen, not merely from his fellows, but from himself, whether he wants to be protected or not. Government is not simply an umpire but an active participant, entering into every nook and cranny of social and economic activity. All this, in order to promote the high-minded goals of "fairness," "justice," "equality."

Does this not constitute progress? A move toward a more humane society? Quite the contrary. When "fairness" replaces "freedom," all our liberties are in danger. In Walden, Thoreau says: "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life." That is the way I feel when I hear my "servants" in Washington assuring me of the "fairness" of their edicts.

There is no objective standard of "fairness." "Fairness" is strictly in the eye of the beholder. If speech must be fair, then it cannot also be free; someone must decide what is fair. A radio station is not free to transmit unfair speech — as judged by the bureaucrats at the Federal Communications Commission. If the printed press were subject to a comparable "fairness doctrine," it would have to be controlled by a government bureau and our vaunted free press would soon become a historical curiosity.

What is true for speech — where the conflict is perhaps clearest — is equally true for every other area. To a producer or seller, a "fair" price is a high price. To the buyer or consumer, a "fair" price is a low price. How is the conflict to be adjudicated? By competition in a free market? Or by government bureaucrats in a "fair" market?

Businessmen who sing the glories of free enterprise and then demand "fair" competition are enemies, not friends, of free markets. To them, "fair" competition is a euphemism for a price-fixing agreement. They are exemplifying Adam Smith's remark that "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." For consumers, the more "unfair" the competition, the better. That assures lowest prices and highest quality.

Is then the search for "fairness" all a mistake? Not at all. There is a real role for fairness, but that role is in constructing general rules and adjudicating disputes about the rules, not in determining the outcome of our separate activities. That is the sense in which we speak of a "fair" game and "fair" umpire. If we applied the present doctrine of "fairness" to a football game, the referee would be required after each play to move the ball backward or forward enough to make sure that the game ended in a draw!

Our Founding Fathers designed a fair Constitution to protect human freedom. In Thomas Jefferson's ringing phrases from the Declaration of Independence, "Governments are instituted among Men ... to secure ... certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

Milton Friedman, the winner of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, is the author of Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose . This piece originally appeared in the July 4, 1977 issue of Newsweek and was reprinted in Bright Promises, Dismal Performances: An Economist's Protest, a collection of his articles. Copyright 1983 by Thomas Horton and Daughters, 26662 South New Town Drive, Sun Lakes, AZ 85224.

By Milton Friedman

FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

The Lovell Sisters

2006-07-29T05:02:00.000-05:00

The Lovell Sisters

In concert at the City Auditorium Saturday, September 16th at 7:30 pm Proceeds benefit the Children's Advocacy Center of Tom Green County, San Angelo, Texas

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Children's Advocacy Center of San Angelo, Texas

FAIR USE NOTICE

2005-09-23T09:06:00.000-05:00

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.