Blogs Are The New Town Hall Meetings Of The 21st Century In America

When Gallup polled Democratic voters this month on the party's 2008 hopefuls, it didn't even offer Russ Feingold as a choice.

But in one corner of the Democratic universe - the readers of liberal Web logs - the Wisconsin senator has emerged as a political favorite.

In an online poll last month on the nation's most widely read liberal blog (DailyKos.com), Feingold led the Democratic presidential field.

"He definitely is the most popular Democrat among the 'netroots,' " said liberal blogger Chris Bowers, referring to activists in the party who engage in online politics.

Bowers' blog (MyDD.com) did its own online poll in early February, and Feingold led that as well.

Blogs and different online media are new, exceptional ways to communicate and receive feedback in a fast, unfiltered manner. In many respects these blogs are the new town hall meetings of the 21st century in America.
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Senator Russ Feingold

I plan to travel across the country, listen to others, speak out on important issues and advance a progressive reform agenda.

The challenges far too many Americans face every day did not go away with the past election. I will continue to give voice to those who believe we must work to provide health care for all Americans, protect and create jobs, ensure fiscal responsibility, and fight terrorism while also protecting our freedoms.

In both so-called red and blue states, people have a voice that needs to be heard. People in every state want a dialogue that moves beyond the electoral partisan politics and ideology that divides us.

That is why I intend to help begin a dialogue about how we move forward as a country united by the values we share and the challenges we face together.

Senator Russ Feingold

Feingold won big after voting against the Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts, and having cast the lone vote in the Senate against the Patriot Act"
~ Chicago Tribune

"In fact it was at the Rockingham County event that he got something no other potential presidential candidate - Republican or Democrat - has received: a lengthy standing ovation just in the middle of his introduction."
~ PoliticsNH.com

"One of the most independent members of Congress"
~ Capital Times

Dubai Expected to Ask for Review of Port Deal.

After two days of behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Bush administration and Congress, the Dubai company seeking to manage terminals at six American ports is expected to announce by Monday a deal inviting the government to conduct a broad new review of security concerns, senior administration officials and a company adviser say.

If an agreement is completed, the state-owned company, Dubai Ports World, will "voluntarily" ask the Bush administration to pursue the lengthier, deeper investigation that Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been demanding since controversy over the transaction erupted at the beginning of the week.

The White House plans to portray the action as the company's own decision, giving administration officials a face-saving way of backing away from President Bush's repeated declarations in recent days that there is no security risk in having the port terminals operated by a company controlled by the emir of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates.
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Take a look at United Arab Emirates
President Bush asserts that we cannot refuse to allow the United Arab Emirates government controlled company to operate our ports, because we allow a British based company to currently control port operations.

Let's compare the two countries.
The UAE was one of three countries in the world that recognized the Taliban. The UAE has acted as a transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Libya. The FBI confirms that money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking systems. The Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating with efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden's bank accounts following the 9/11 attacks.
Harvard returned a $2.5 million gift from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Nahayan, the leader of the UAE, because of the activities of the Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-up -- a think tank that among other things asserts that the Holocaust was caused by Zionists and not Nazis and the 9/11 attacks were carried out by the United States military.
The British, on the other hand, have been, and continue to be our greatest ally in the war on terrorism. It boggles the mind that our president cannot see the differences between these two countries. Maybe there is more here than meets the eye. I hope the Congress will continue to dig deeper into this ongoing story. I know I will.
JOHN CAMP...

Following the spirit of the law isn't enough.
There is too much 'let's move on' coming from the Bush administration.

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Rice Leaves United Arab Emirates

There was no indication that Rice's reception in Abu Dhabi was any different from her meetings in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which both snubbed her call to isolate Hamas.

Washington wants Arab nations to isolate the radical Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, but her message fell on deaf ears on stops in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which both reiterated their support for the Palestinian movement.

The Arab media have been calling for Rice to explain how the United States can push elections that brought Hamas to power, and then try to isolate the group, and Arab leaders in Egypt and Saudi Arabia refused to cut off aid to a future Hamas-led government.

United Arab Emirates...

Dubai...

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not just NO -- but HELL NO.

In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO -- but HELL NO.

Bush's reputation as the Great Protector who will do anything -- anything! -- to keep us safe, even if it means torturing, spying, and trashing the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions, is his one remaining political asset. And putting six of our major ports under the control of the United Arab Emirates threatens to undermine this rep in an irreparable way.

This deal is a nonstarter and a no-brainer. A Harriet Miers debacle to the hundredth- power. Next thing you know, the president will be assuring us that he knows what's in the heart of Dubai Ports World, Inc.

But instead of pulling back from the deal and hurriedly looking for the port operations equivalent of Sam Alito, the president stomped his feet, held his breath, and stuck out his veto.

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Dubai Harbored Hijackers? Big Deal, Bush Says

I wonder what the president feels like these days as 9/11, the default card used to start wars and squelch dissent, is being played against him?

Plunder Medicare for the drug industry? Done. Give away oil royalties to the energy industry? Done. Let the oil industry write the energy bill in secret? Done. Enrich insurance companies with Health Savings Accounts? Check. Appoint a lawyer to oversee disaster relief and homeland security when there are experts in the field who've devoted their professional lives to the subject? Oh, why not?

Bush says global trade and the feelings of an ally trump all else, and that's that. He's promising to veto any bill that would reverse the decision, which would be the first such veto by a president who has let the Treasury be overrun by sinfully profligate spending.

Bush adviser Karl Rove said a while back that Republicans have a post 9/11 view of the world and that Democrats have a pre- 911 view that is profoundly and consistently wrong. He might have to extend and revise those remarks. Dividing us that way isn't going to work anymore.

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How Many Bloggers Does It Take To Change A LightBulb?

174 Bloggers

O YES, I Am Paying Attention.

The Bush Budget's Hidden Gold: Dynamic Scoring Comes to the Treasury
By William W. Beach

All of the press commentary on President George W. Bush's 2007 budget proposal has paid virtually no attention to one of its most significant initiatives. And it is no wonder: how could a move to improve the way the government analyzes tax policy compete with cutting outdated programs, making the United States more competitive, and winning the global war on terrorism?

This little-noted initiative, however, may be historically important. Buried deep in the President's proposals for the Department of the Treasury is a plan to create a Dynamic Analysis Division within the Treasury's Office of Tax Analysis. This division would advise the President and other key policymakers on how proposed changes to U.S. tax policy would affect economic activity. Inside the Beltway, this type of analysis is called "dynamic scoring." Outside the Beltway, this is called "economics."
Read The Full Story…

O yes, I am paying attention.

This article is so much bullshit, I don’t believe it. This is some more of that think tank crap. You want to cut programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Student Loans, Education, Transportation, Agriculture, etc. What about the corruption in Washington? If the corruption in Washington was cleaned up we could save trillions. So don’t try and tell me that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Student Loans, Education, Transportation, Agriculture are the problems. You are the problem, you lying neo-con gangster corrupt politicians. We need to deal with you first! You want to analyze something Mr. Beach, analyze the corruption in Washington then we will talk about Dynamic Scoring!

Who will feel budget's impact?

Bush Wednesday signs bill with $39 billion in cuts. His 2007 budget would point to more cuts ahead.

With President Bush's signature Wednesday, Medicaid recipients can expect higher copayments and deductibles. College students may face higher interest rates on student loans, as lenders are squeezed. Work requirements for women on welfare are likely to be tightened. Federal aid to states for child-support enforcement will be curtailed.
All told, the US government will save $39 billion over the next five years under the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005. The legislation is the first in a decade to rein in the growth of entitlement programs. And, along with a plan for $70 billion in tax cuts moving through Congress, it provides the backdrop to a fierce debate over government priorities with the unveiling this week of Mr. Bush's budget proposal for fiscal year 2007.
Read The Full Story…

So Much For Ethics Reform

Ethics reform, seemingly on a fast-track in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, has slowed to a crawl in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The rush to revise ethics laws in the wake of the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal has turned into more of a saunter.

A month ago, Republican leaders in Congress called legislation on the topic their first priority, and promised quick action on a measure that would alter the rules governing the interaction between lawmakers and lobbyists.

Comments:

Why is this news? Isn't this just another dog bites man story?

The depths of corruption in Washington knows not nor will know the bottom until "We The People" show'em where it is. Only then will we know where the bottom was.

How about we form another Commission...no wait..a "blue-ribboned" Commission... to ask them when they're gonna stop playing us for the fools we seem to be.


The ONLY needed reform in politics is, . . . "Don't lie, cheat and steal." What are so difficult and time consuming about the basic truth leading to good ethics?

Why are people constantly falling into entrapments of UNPURE NONSENSE? It is costing EVERYONE their life, money, time, and future.

We are beginning to think others who speak from far away lands are correct when they extend their farewells to America!

For America of the “FREE” no longer dwells. All that is visible remaining is UNPURE IDIOCY!

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A Portrait Of Who They Were.

Between March 20, 2003 and May 6, 2004, 759 US troops died in Iraq. This is the longest, fiercest, sustained combat Americans have seen in a generation.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of four soldiers supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died on April 24, in Taji, Iraq, when mortar rounds hit their camp. The four soldiers were assigned to the Army National Guard's 39th Support Battalion, 39th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Hazen, Ark. Killed were:

Capt. Arthur L. Felder, 36, of Louisville, Ark.

Chief Warrant Officer Patrick W. Kordsmeier, 49, of North Little Rock, Ark.

Staff Sgt. Billy J. Orton, 41, of Humnoke, Ark.

Staff Sgt. Stacey C. Brandon, 35, of Hazen, Ark.

At least 433 children have lost a parent and 284 spouses have lost a partner in Iraq.
The bottom gets cut out because of low educational levels, lower mental aptitude scores, poor health, or criminal records. The top pretty much excludes itself.

Of all 535 members of the US House and Senate today, only half a dozen have children in the military (and just one of those is in Iraq).

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Win Without War

Sleeping Giant.

Top NASA Scientist Says He's Being Silenced on Global Warming

Claims Backlash Is Part of Bush Administration Effort to Downplay Climate Change
A top government scientist is speaking out about what he says is an effort to keep him quiet about global warming.
NASA's chief climate scientist James Hansen says the space agency's backlash is part of a Bush administration effort aimed at those trying to sound the alarm on climate

change.
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Greenland ice swells ocean rise...

Sea levels likely to rise much faster than was predicted...

Guide to climate change...

Give Bush A Brain...

Can The GOP Clean Up Its Mess In Washington?

With corruption indictments flying and more expected, suddenly everyone's a good government crusader -- even GOP Congressional leaders who about five minutes ago -- it seems -- were practically celebrating their big money embrace of K Street and the Washington lobbyist cash machine. Congress and the GOP need a stem to stern clean-up.


Read The Full Story...

CREW
JackintheHouse

Ethics Challenge

Ethics of the New Testament

At Last The Conservatives Stand Up To Be Counted.

Conservatism, the arched eyebrow in a room full of ideas, questions power.

It's taken awhile, a little more than five years to be precise, but we may be witnessing the return of a respected and important political ideology in this town: conservatism. And its apparent ride back onto the political scene comes not a moment too soon.
Last week, when the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Democrats asked a lot of combative questions, as one might expect. But the real news was that some of the senators on the right side of the dais wondered aloud about whether the Bush administration's warrant less wiretapping program went too far in the way of expanding executive power.

Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina called some of the legal justifications the Bush administration used for the program (like its assertion that it didn't need Congress's or the judiciary's OK) "dangerous." Over in the House, Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico, is calling for an investigation.

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Republicans Criticize Rice Over Bush Mideast Policy

Republican senators criticized the Bush administration Wednesday over its policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian territories, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first testimony on Capitol Hill in months exposed her to a tough grilling from some members of her own party

"I don't see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better. I think things are getting worse. I think they're getting worse in Iraq. I think they're getting worse in Iran," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., told Rice as she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rice also had a tense exchange with moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., over the pace of progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace and the implications of the Hamas victory in Palestinian legislative elections last month.

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Why Budget Critics Are Out In Force.

President Bush's new federal budget has received a much tougher reception than his earlier ones did. Much of the press, and many fiscal conservatives, are hammering it hard.
"Federal spending has grown twice as fast under President Bush as under President Clinton," notes Brian Riedl, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy group in Washington

When the White House released the budget last Monday, Mr. Riedl stayed up until 3 a.m. to get out a 12-page outline of the numbers. He noted that federal spending has increased by 33 percent since 2001, from $1,863 billion to $2,472 billion. And inflation-adjusted federal spending last year neared $22,000 per household, the highest level since World War II.

The press was taking more seriously what Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), told this reporter in 2002 about the 2003 budget: "This administration stretches and spins the truth further than either party in the past 30 years."

A New York Times editorial, for instance, calls the 2007 budget "fiction masquerading as fact." The Boston Globe, carried a column headlined, "The deficit deceit." Even The Wall Street Journal noted, "Bush's Deficit Math Sidesteps Some Big Outlays."

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Fiscal conservatism is not a political philosophy, and more a tradition of prudence in government spending and debt. Edmund Burke, in his 'Reflections on the Revolution in France', articulated its principles:

It is to the property of the citizen, and not to the demands of the creditor of the state, that the first and original faith of civil society is pledged. The claim of the citizen is prior in time, paramount in title, superior in equity. The fortunes of individuals, whether possessed by acquisition or by descent or in virtue of a participation in the goods of some community, were no part of the creditor's security, expressed or implied...The public, whether represented by a monarch or by a senate, can pledge nothing but the public estate; and it can have no public estate except in what it derives from a just and proportioned imposition upon the citizens at large.

In other words, a government doesn't have the right to run up large debts and then throw the burden on the taxpayer; the taxpayers' right not to be taxed oppressively takes precedence even over paying back debts a government may have imprudently undertaken.

What’s going on?

American cities still lack the resources to prevent a catastrophic terrorist attack. And Washington sends $110 million in farm subsidies to an Arkansas co-op named Riceland Foods.

Many troops risking their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq lack the necessary equipment to protect themselves, such as body and vehicle armor. And several members of Congress vote themselves farm subsidies as much as 119 times larger than what the typical farmer receives.

Millions of overtaxed Americans live paycheck to paycheck. And Washington doles out these tax dollars to David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, basketball star Scottie Pippen and former Enron CEO Ken Lay.

This year, Washington will spend more on corporate welfare than on homeland security.

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Cheney May Have Broken The Law

Dean puts spotlight on Cheney

On Monday, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Vice President Dick Cheney should resign if he ordered Libby to give classified information to reporters to defend the case for war in Iraq.

"If Vice President Cheney has, in fact, ordered the leaking of political information -- of intelligence information -- that means he has to step aside," Dean told CNN. "We don't know if it's true, but he has been accused of it. If it's true, he has to step aside."

A day earlier, Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said on Fox News Sunday that leaking intelligence information to make political arguments would be "inappropriate."

He added that Fitzgerald ought to "look closely" at the behavior of "whoever the superiors are" who allegedly authorized a leak.

Sen. George Allen, a Virginia Republican, said on the same program, "I don't think anybody should be releasing classified information, period."

The letter does not name who the superiors are. But Dean said Monday, "You only have one superior if you're the chief of staff, and that's the vice president."

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Cheney may have broken law

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that Vice President Cheney should resign if he ordered a top aide to leak classified information to the media to defend the invasion of Iraq.

On CNN's "American Morning" program, Dean repeated calls he first made Sunday, saying Cheney may have broken the law if he ordered his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to share secret information with reporters in 2003.

"If Vice President Cheney has, in fact, ordered the leaking of political information -- of intelligence information, that means he has to step aside," Dean said on CNN. "We don't know if it's true, but he has been accused of it. If it's true, he has to step aside."

On Sunday, Democratic and Republican senators said Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald should investigate Cheney and others in the CIA leak probe if they authorized Libby to give secret information to reporters.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, called the leak of intelligence information "inappropriate" if it is true, and said, "I think he Fitzgerald has to look closely at their behavior."

Sen. George Allen, R-Virginia, said a full investigation is necessary. "I don't think anybody should be releasing classified information, period, whether in the Congress, executive branch or some underling in some bureaucracy," said Allen, who appeared with Reed on "Fox News Sunday."

According to published reports last week, Libby told a federal grand jury that he disclosed in July 2003 the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq.

Fitzgerald said in the documents it was his understanding that "Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors."

The White House has refused to comment on the case.

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You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down- up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order- or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
~ By Ronald Reagan

Photo Shows Bush, Abramoff At Meeting.

Photo shows Bush, Abramoff at meeting
Authenticity of picture confirmed, but level of interaction unclear
Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff accompanied a Native American tribal chief he was trying to sign as a client to a White House meeting attended by President Bush, a newly published picture shows and a Bush spokesman confirmed Sunday.

Abramoff's presence at the meeting came to light after Time magazine and the New York Times published a picture of the president with Kickapoo Tribal Chairman Raul Garza. Bush chief political strategist Karl Rove is in the foreground, and the lobbyist is dimly visible in the background.

Photo…

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Libby Says 'Superiors' Authorized Leaks.

Cheney's former aide told a jury that classified information he gave to journalists was OKd.

Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has told a federal grand jury that his "superiors" authorized him to leak highly sensitive intelligence to journalists, including a New York Times reporter he allegedly tipped off to the name of an undercover CIA operative.

The revelation is contained in a Jan. 23 letter from Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald to lawyers for Libby, who was indicted in late October in connection with the leak of the operative's name. In the letter, Fitzgerald recounts testimony in which Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff admitted circulating portions of the National Intelligence Estimate to reporters in June and July 2003.

"It is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the National Intelligence Estimate to the press by his superiors," Fitzgerald wrote.

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CIA leak case, White House takes flak over Katrina

Washington's inadequate response to the catastrophic flooding unleashed by hurricane Katrina came under renewed scrutiny yesterday with the disclosure that top aides to President George W. Bush were told the levees had been breached the day the storm hit.

In a separate blow to the administration, Lewis (Scooter) Libby has reportedly told a grand jury that his former boss, Vice-President Dick Cheney, gave him the go-ahead to leak classified information on Iraq's weapons-of-mass-destruction capabilities.

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Ex-CIA official: Bush Administration Misused Iraq Intelligence.

The Bush administration disregarded the expertise of the intelligence community, politicized the intelligence process and used unrepresentative data in making the case for war, a former CIA senior analyst alleged.

In an article published on Friday in the journal Foreign Affairs, Paul R. Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, called the relationship between U.S. intelligence and policymaking "broken."

"In the wake of the Iraq war, it has become clear that official intelligence analysis was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made," Pillar wrote.

Pillar, now on the faculty of Georgetown University's Security Studies Program, called for experienced intelligence officers to lead nonpartisan oversight of U.S. intelligence efforts as well as inquiries at the request of members of Congress.

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Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks

A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed last month that he plans to introduce evidence that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003.
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Yes Your Majesty.

Did you see Alberto Gonzales testifying? What a coward, you could almost see Bush pulling the strings. All these dam Republicans are good at is bobbing and weaving around questions. It looked like a cupal of times Gonzales was about ready to stand up and holler, “The Bird Flu Is Coming, The Bird Flu Is Coming”.

Did you see Senator Russ Feingold tare into Alberto Gonzales? He really ruffled some feathers. Looks like Feingold is cutting a path to the Whitehouse. I can see it now Russ Feingold verses Condoleezza Rice. So far my dine is on Feingold. Rice’s into the Neo-cons more then I like. But you know she will have to protect her oil stock she got for being a good little girl. What Rice needs to do is go shoos shopping.

What do you think of John Boehner, What a jerk! If this is the best the Republicans can do to clean up Washington I have one thing to say. BYE BYE!

Breaking Ranks

Breaking with the White House, Rep. Heather Wilson, R-New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, says the time has come for a "complete review" of President Bush's eavesdropping program, her spokesman said Wednesday.

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P.S.

Can you explain to me why we have not captured or killed the tallest man in Afghanistan?

Bush Needs To Be Tarred And Feathered And Run Out Of Town.

Who will feel budget's impact?

Bush Wednesday signs bill with $39 billion in cuts. His 2007 budget would point to more cuts ahead.

Titan your belts College Students, Women on Welfare, Transportation, Agriculture, (This one really pisses me off) Medicare, Medicaid recipients, Low- and Middle-Income Americans, Disabled, Social Security, Food Program, Housing for Low-Income Elderly, Housing for Low-Income People With Disabilities and Child Care and Development Block Grant.

The Rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

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O-Boy Some More Bullshit Coming Out Of Washington.

New House GOP Leader Favors Trips, Openness
Travel financed by special interests can educate politicians, John Boehner says, but voters need to know 'how this relationship works.'

New House Majority Leader John A. Boehner, who himself has been criticized for cozying up to Washington lobbyists, said Sunday that the public should know more about how lawmakers interacted with the lobbying industry, but he also stressed that politicians should not automatically stop taking trips paid for by special-interest groups.

O-Boy some more bullshit coming out of Washington, we know how it works the lobbyist pay and you play and we pay the price.

Tom Delay, John Boehner what is the difference?

This is crazy!

We need to clean up Washington with an Independent Ethics Commission.

Breaking Ranks

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (US Army, retired) was the chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. He became known as a mouthpiece of Powell, in that he would verbalize what the Secretary of State would or could not say. A former director of the Marine Corps War College, he retired from government service in January 2005 at the same time as Powell. During an October 19, 2005 speech at the New America Foundation, he gave stinging criticism of the administration of George W. Bush, including such lines as

I would say that we have courted disaster, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita and I could go on back, we haven’t done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence.
During the Vietnam War, Wilkerson served as an OH-6A scout helicopter pilot.

Read More About Lawrence Wilkerson

Cindy Sheehan Receives Police Apology

Representative Lynn Woolsey reiterated on Thursday her defense of Cindy Sheehan, two days after the grieved mother turned anti-war activist was arrested for peacefully protesting the US occupation of Iraq.

Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, was arrested on Tuesday when she was to attend President George W. Bush's State of the Union address at the invitation of congresswoman Woosley

Capitol Hill Police said her detention was because she was wearing a T-shirt that read: "2245 killed. How many more?” alluding to the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq.

Woosley, who had invited Sheehan to take a seat in the visitors gallery, stressed that Sheehan did not violate any Senate rule by exercising her freedom of speech, even though it was against the President.

She lost her son to this disastrous war. Now she has at least the right to dissent.

The brave California mother has vowed not to rest until the White House and the Pentagon order the return home of the US occupation troops.

Can you believe this? They apologized because they handcuffed her. This woman has more guts then all you lying gangster politicians put together. You lying gangster politician cowards, instead of apologizing to her, you try to start roomers and lies about her.

Not One More Mother's Child.

The courageous mission of Cindy Sheehan to hold Bush accountable for lying America into war. Cindy Sheehan is the real deal, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who summoned the courage that most Democrats in the Senate seem still to turn their backs on. Of course, Rove and his right wing echo chamber did their typical character assassination machete routine on Cindy, even though most of them are chickenhawks who dishonor our military dead. They were successful in making Sheehan appear as some sort of radical activist, when she's as American as apple pie.

Read The Full Story...

The Costs of War, A Mother's View…

State of the Union: 9/11 Beat the Clock.

Don't Be Fooled. See The Forest Not The Tree.

You're reading a lot about a corruption scandal in Washington. Some people are trying to tell you that "everybody does it" and that both parties are involved and that whenever you try to take the money out of politics it finds another way in. These are smokescreens designed to make you think this is not as bad as it sounds. These are smokescreens designed to make you think there is nothing you can do about things like that, that you have no power, and that you should just let the politicians take care of these things for you.

Don't be fooled. See the forest, not the trees. This corruption scandal is about people breaking existing laws. This is about Republican Congressmen and White House officials indicted for illegally taking bribes. They took payments in exchange for abusing their power, providing favors to cronies, and for using their power to block investigations and oversight.

Just like with New Orleans and FEMA, this is just one more example of Republicans in Congress not doing their job. This is what always happens when so-called "conservatives" gain power, because Republicans do not believe that people can work together and help each other so they do not believe in government and law. Instead they believe in a dog-eat-dog, everyone on-their-own and out-for-themselves society where the strongest survive and it doesn't matter what happens to everyone else. So whenever conservatives gain power they abuse it and use it to get money for themselves and their friends. Just look at what has happened to pensions, health insurance and wages since the conservatives took office -- everything is going the wrong way. The rich are getting vastly richer and the corporations don't have to follow any rules, while the rest of us are getting squeezed harder and harder.

Government can work, laws can work and society can work for all of us, but only when everybody plays by the rules, and the system's checks and balances are enforced. Government is supposed to be about "us" working together for the betterment of everybody - don't ever let Republicans tell you that government is a "them."

Progressives believe that the ideals of community and democracy CAN work -- that people CAN work together to help each other out -- that businesses CAN make money while following the rules, serving their customers and bettering the community as a whole.

SEEING THE FOREST
By Dave Johnson

No matter who Republicans elect, it's easy to show they're supporting more of the same part of the same pay-to-play system that's made Washington the mess that it is right now.

Testimony of Common Cause President Chellie Pingree before the House Committee on Government Reform
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Cleaning Up Washington with an Independent Ethics Commission.

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Ethics of the New Testament…