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A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
The postings in question are allegedly fake news items titled “Nation’s 2nd Largest Railroad Poised To Reduce Train Crews” and “Re: United Underground” that one that starts “The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on setting price floors in a case involving a labor union and railroads”. The posts in question have been removed [Edit: they have now been restored.].
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
Update: Since the Califonia subpoena was not valid, and on advice from counsel, we refused to disclose the private information. We expect that BNSF will likely produce a valid subpoena in the future, possibly with a motion to compell from the court, at which time we intend to file a motion to quash.
A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
The postings in question are allegedly fake news items titled “Nation’s 2nd Largest Railroad Poised To Reduce Train Crews” and “Re: United Underground” that one that starts “The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on setting price floors in a case involving a labor union and railroads”. The posts in question have been removed [Edit: they have now been restored.].
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
Update: Since the Califonia subpoena was not valid, and on advice from counsel, we refused to disclose the private information. We expect that BNSF will likely produce a valid subpoena in the future, possibly with a motion to compell from the court, at which time we intend to file a motion to quash.
A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
The postings in question are allegedly fake news items titled “Nation’s 2nd Largest Railroad Poised To Reduce Train Crews” and “Re: United Underground” that one that starts “The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on setting price floors in a case involving a labor union and railroads”. The posts in question have been removed [Edit: they have now been restored.].
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
Update: Since the Califonia subpoena was not valid, and on advice from counsel, we refused to disclose the private information. We expect that BNSF will likely produce a valid subpoena in the future, possibly with a motion to compell from the court, at which time we intend to file a motion to quash.
A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
The postings in question are allegedly fake news items titled “Nation’s 2nd Largest Railroad Poised To Reduce Train Crews” and “Re: United Underground” that one that starts “The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on setting price floors in a case involving a labor union and railroads”. The posts in question have been removed [Edit: they have now been restored.].
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
Update: Since the Califonia subpoena was not valid, and on advice from counsel, we refused to disclose the private information. We expect that BNSF will likely produce a valid subpoena in the future, possibly with a motion to compell from the court, at which time we intend to file a motion to quash.
A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
The postings in question are allegedly fake news items titled “Nation’s 2nd Largest Railroad Poised To Reduce Train Crews” and “Re: United Underground” that one that starts “The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on setting price floors in a case involving a labor union and railroads”. The posts in question have been removed [Edit: they have now been restored.].
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
Update: Since the Califonia subpoena was not valid, and on advice from counsel, we refused to disclose the private information. We expect that BNSF will likely produce a valid subpoena in the future, possibly with a motion to compell from the court, at which time we intend to file a motion to quash.
A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
The postings in question are allegedly fake news items titled “Nation’s 2nd Largest Railroad Poised To Reduce Train Crews” and “Re: United Underground” that one that starts “The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on setting price floors in a case involving a labor union and railroads”. The posts in question have been removed [Edit: they have now been restored.].
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
Update: Since the Califonia subpoena was not valid, and on advice from counsel, we refused to disclose the private information. We expect that BNSF will likely produce a valid subpoena in the future, possibly with a motion to compell from the court, at which time we intend to file a motion to quash.
Buffett's Berkshire increases stake in Burlington
Berkshire Hathaway now owns 14.8 percent, or 52.13 million shares of railroad company Burlington Northern.
August 27 2007: 7:18 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the Warren Buffett investment conglomerate, bought more than 10 million shares of railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. since Thursday, increasing its stake to 14.8 percent, according to regulatory filings.
The company bought 4.32 million shares Thursday, 2.44 million shares Friday and 3.32 million shares Monday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The purchases bring Berkshire's (Charts, Fortune 500) stake in Burlington Northern (Charts, Fortune 500) to a total of 52.13 million shares.
Burlington Northern's stock was gaining more than 2 percent in after-hours trading on the New York Stock Exchange Monday.
It has nothing to hide but will not stand idly by while some pipsqueek besmirches its good name. Justice will be served and the leakers punished. Meanwhile, get back to work, chumps.
Reports are pretty sketchy just now but both the BNSF and CPRS mainlines are out. It sounds pretty bad down there and Winona reported 17 inches in 24 hours (!!!????). Wait and see I guess. http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=168635
There's one just north of me that shakes like a leaf when the trains go over it and an engineer I know was making a fuss about it. The matter ended with some goons at his house and a stern warning to cease and desist or else. The local media showed absolutely no interest and the enginner's neighbors made out like he was the bad guy for bringing up the matter. Nobody really much cares about railroads and if someday there is a wreck? Well it's probably only railroad workers who will get hurt and nobody cares about those "overpayed underworked" Ricky Lee Gates. The engineer ended up fired on an unrelated matter.
It is too bad that the forum was put to rest. More porno ads that ruined the site. It is too bad that the site couldn't continue with good rail discussion and address rail issues. This site, UURR, is nothing but the daily news, which can be read in any newspaper.
In Search Of History - The Plot To Overthrow FDR (History Channel)
by Study History or Repeat It
*****
A Must-See Slice of Overlooked History, August 19, 2006
By Martin Shackelford (Saginaw, MI USA) -
Almost no one realizes there was a planned corporate coup to take over the government during the New Deal years. This little-known episode during the Depression is vividly recounted in this fine documentary.
Corporations and Wall St. in Bed with Fascists using Veterans Organizations to
by take over the US
CHAPTER 10
FDR; Man on the White Horse
In the last few weeks of the committee's official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country. There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient....
This committee received evidence from Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler (retired), twice decorated by the Congress of the United States . . . your committee was able to verify all the pertinent statements made by General Butler....
John W. McCormack, Chairman, Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, February 15, 1935.
Just before Christmas 1934, news of a bizarre plot to install a dictator in the White House surfaced in Washington and New York, and the story—one of unparalleled significance—was promptly smothered by Congress and the establishment press.1
On November 21, 1934 The New York Times printed the first portion of the Butler story as told to the House Un-American Activities Committee, giving it front-page treatment and an intriguing lead paragraph:
A plot of Wall Street interests to overthrow President Roosevelt and establish a fascist dictatorship, backed by a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers and others, was charged by Major Gen. Smedley D. Butler, retired Marine Corps officer. . . .
The New York Times report added that General Butler, ". . . had told friends . . . that General Hugh S. Johnson, former NRA administrator, was scheduled for the role of dictator, and J.P. Morgan & Co. as well as Murphy & Co. were behind the plot."
After this promising opening, The New York Times reporting gradually faded away and finally disappeared. Fortunately, enough information has since surfaced to demonstrate that the Butler Affair or the Plot to Seize the White House is an integral part of our story of FDR and Wall Street.
EXCERPTED From PROBE March-April 1999, (pp. 8 -12) an article by Barbara LaMonica: The Attempted Coup against FDR
"The media gave little or scant coverage to the committee's final report. The Luce Press, which always led the charge in attacking Roosevelt and bolstering Fascism, ran a story called "A Plot Without Plotters" which sought to discredit Col Butler. He was called a "hothead". Other evidence of Butler's unsavory character, according to Luce, was that he had once given a speech in which he criticized Mussolini. His advocacy of the penniless Bonus Veterans Army was transformed into haranguing. The committee chairmen fared no better under Luce's pen. They were accused of only seeking publicity (despite their having sought to suppress the most explosive parts of their discoveries). The New York Times showed an astonishing lack of interest. Reference to the alleged coup was relegated to two paragraphs at the bottom of page five. However, not every newspaper discounted the plot. The independent Philadelphia Record ran a cartoon showing big business pointing to a soapbox Communist as the threat, while General Butler marches in with evidence revealing armed Fascists hiding beneath a banker's coat. References to the alleged conspiracy disappeared from the press. Nevertheless, individual reporters did attempt to pursue the story. Paul Comley French of the Philadelphia Record and investigative journalist John Spivak went to the Justice Department. They asked why no one implicated was ever questioned; and since MacGuire had perjured himself, did they intend to file criminal prosecution? The Justice Department indicated it had no plans to carry matters any further at the moment. MacGuire, the only man who could have testified against the rest, died soon after of complications from pneumonia. His physician claimed his death was partly due to the stress of the charges made by Butler. Grayson M.-P. Murphy, the Morgan banker and treasurer of the American Liberty League, died soon after."
After all the cover-up by deletion and omission for the committee's report and the continuation of the efforts of the press to deny and make light of the coup, it can be no surprise that the effects of the Fascist power centers and the schemes of the Fascists still haunt the American Political landscape.
U.S. to Expand
Domestic Use
Of Spy Satellites
By ROBERT BLOCK
August 15, 2007; Page A1
The U.S.'s top intelligence official has greatly expanded the range of federal and local authorities who can get access to information from the nation's vast network of spy satellites in the U.S.
The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement.
Until now, only a handful of federal civilian agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, have had access to the most basic spy-satellite imagery, and only for the purpose of scientific and environmental study.
According to officials, one of the department's first objectives will be to use the network to enhance border security, determine how best to secure critical infrastructure and help emergency responders after natural disasters. Sometime next year, officials will examine how the satellites can aid federal and local law-enforcement agencies, covering both criminal and civil law. The department is still working on determining how it will engage law enforcement officials and what kind of support it will give them.
Welcome to the Jungle: US Military Psychological Operations and You
by Sentient World Simulation
Welcome to the Jungle: US Military Psychological Operations and You
"...the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other."- Benjamin Franklin, 1787
They say that if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water it will immediately jump out, but that if you raise the pot's heat gradually, the frog won't react.
Note: Originally published: August 12, 2007
Read full article: 'Welcome to the Jungle: US Military Psychological Operations and You'
Under the Radar: Ten Warning Signs for Today
Ten warning signs ignored at your own peril…
1. Protest war, lose your property?
On July 17th, The White House quietly announced an Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq." Among other developments, it gives Bush the power to "block" the property of people in the US found to "pose a significant risk of committing" an act of violence which might undermine "political reform in Iraq."
The terms "significant threat" and "act of violence" are unclear. If you attend a demonstration against Bush's definition of "political reform in Iraq" would that count? How about writing an angry letter to the editor?
The vague language also includes outlawing "the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order." What if you donate to an anti-war group which, outside of your knowledge, has been blacklisted by the government? Does that mean that your property can be "blocked"?
Similar to the Patriot Act, the potential implications are staggering.
2. Market meltdown
Economic fallout from the subprime mortgage market collapse has extended further, with prominent investment company Bear Stearns admitting last week that two of its hedge funds, once estimated at $1.6 billion, are now of "very little value."
Meanwhile, the prestigious Bank for International Settlements released a statement warning that the global economy could be facing a Great Depression, and that the dollar in particular "remains vulnerable to a sudden loss of private sector confidence."
Fasten your seatbelts.
3. Escalating US military operations in Pakistan
Following 911, the Bush administration propped up Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf as a key ally in the "war on terror," spending billions of dollars on Pakistan's military while ignoring Musharraf's support for the Taliban. Those days might be over. Just last week, the White House announced US military forces could be deployed to strike "actionable targets" in the country - with or without Musharraf's permission.
The Bush administration threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" in 2001 if it didn't deal with the Taliban, but Musharraf has so far been able to convince the US that if his administration falls, then Pakistan will be ruled by Islamists. As a former CIA officer recently told National Public Radio, "I've heard Gen. Musharraf ... tell American presidents that if you don't support me, the next person will be the 'bearded ones'."
But Musharraf faces growing domestic opposition for his strong-arm tactics, and while last week's brutal storming of the Lal Masjid Mosque in Islamabad may have won bonus points in Washington, it only served to further alienate the Pakistani people.
In other words, US military action in Pakistan will most likely destabilize the Musharraf government, and may in fact push Pakistan's nuclear arsenal into the hands of a government of "bearded ones."
4. Loose nukes
It was recently reported that the US had quietly removed 130 of its nuclear warheads from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. That still leaves over 350 US warheads across Europe, but the question remains: what happened to the Ramstein nukes? The Pentagon and German Defense Ministry aren't talking, and it can't necessarily be assumed that the warheads have been destroyed. Shuffled to some different country with less stringent weapons controls or hidden away for use in future conflicts perhaps - who knows.
Meanwhile, in late June, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to fund by $66 million the production of even more nuclear warheads.
5. VP Arnie?
Schwarzenegger visited his hometown of Graz, Austria in late June, ostensibly to attend the birthday party of a friend. The warm welcome he received was quite a change from two years ago, when tensions flared with town elders over his position on the death penalty and failure to stop an execution in California. The war of words escalated until Schwarzenegger requested that Graz remove his name from a local sports stadium, and in a move reminiscent of high school crushes, he returned a ring which city officials had given him.
This time around, however, Schwarzenegger was conciliatory and local politicians clamored for photo ops - effectively sweeping bad blood under the carpet. How convenient, and how necessary, for Schwarzenegger and any ambitions he may have for 2008.
6. Cutting off Iraq's water supply
For years, the Turkish government has tried to get international funding to build a dam across the Tigris River. The potential impact on villagers and the environment has stalled the project, and both Iraq and Syria have expressed concern that the proposed Ilisu dam could give Turkey power over their water supply.
European entities considering funding the project have received strong public pressure to back out, and if they do, China appears only too happy to step in and help build the dam.
Meanwhile, an estimated 250,000 Turkish troops are amassed near Northern Iraq and just this week, the Prime Minister of Turkey threatened to invade the country.
Long story short, Turkey and China are increasingly likely to assume a major role in both Iraq and Syria. Doesn't bode well for the Bush's administration's plans.
7. GPS losing its way
The US monopoly over satellite navigation systems appears to be drawing to a close. The Global Positioning System (GPS) has enabled civilians to find their destinations and the military to coordinate troop movements and detect nuclear detonations, but the US system will soon face international competition. Global Navigation Satellite Systems are being developed by Europe, China and India while a Russian system may be operational as early as 2009 - another challenge to US hegemony on the international stage.
8. New Russian arms race?
This month, Russia pulled out of the Treaty for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, established in 1990 to reduce the number of conventional weapons (such as tanks and combat aircraft) in Europe. Russia's move signals the latest salvo in a power struggle between European leaders and Russian President Putin, who is dead set against the establishment of new US military bases and anti-missile systems in eastern Europe and central Asia. But if Russia is not convinced to rejoin the arms Treaty, then by the end of the year it can establish weapons arsenals without NATO inspections and Putin may begin pulling out of other international arms agreements, as Bush has done. Could be the start of a new global arms race.
9. Murdoch's megalomania
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has his sights on Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, among others, and owner of stock market indicators such as the Dow Jones industrial average. Murdoch's News Corp already controls an outrageous number of newspapers, magazines, TV networks, cable channels and film studios across the world and as Business Week observed in 2004, Murdoch "is not shy about using his media outlets to pursue agendas, whether they're politically conservative causes or his own business interests."
For example, the UK's Guardian pointed out that every single one of Murdoch's 175 newspapers across the globe parroted his pro-war views before the invasion of Iraq.
News Corp offered $5 billion for Dow Jones, the board of directors gave its approval and as early as next week a final decision will be reached. If successful, Murdoch's power in the US will expand even further.
10. "Bring it on" Iran
The Senate recently voted 97-0 in favor of hawk Joe Lieberman's Amendment effectively blaming Iran for complicity in the death of American soldiers; it's worth noting that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sided with Lieberman on the vote. Meanwhile, a third US aircraft carrier is on its way towards Iran and the UK's Guardian quoted a "well-placed Washington source" as saying "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."
So the drumbeat of impending doom continues, along with warnings of upcoming false flag events - a new Gulf of Tonkin or 911 - timed before Congress votes on Defense Appropriations in September.
A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
The postings in question are allegedly fake news items titled “Nation’s 2nd Largest Railroad Poised To Reduce Train Crews” and “Re: United Underground” that one that starts “The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on setting price floors in a case involving a labor union and railroads”. The posts in question have been removed.
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
They'r Phishing. Looking for the real threats to their rising Fascist State
by G. O. Rwell
People arrested for posting "Impeach" signs on public property. Groups fined for posting signs promoting a march on Washington. Gonzo given power to expedite executions. Dumbya giving himself power to declare you a threat and take your property. Power to spy on and disappear you. It's a beautiful brave new world.
Futhey elected president of the new, powerful transportation division of SMART
by Justice is served. It's time to kick BLE ass!
Futhey elected president
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Malcolm B. (Mike) Futhey Jr. was elected president of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Futhey was elected on the first ballot Monday, Aug. 13 at UTU's 10th quadrennial convention here at the Westin Diplomat Resort.
Futhey received 291 votes; David Hakey received 191 votes and John W. Babler received 78 votes. There are 560 delegates voting, representing UTU locals.
Also, Monday, delegates sustained a decision of the UTU Executive Board denying appeals of former general chairpersons and full-time vice general chairpersons on Canadian National in Canada who had been suspended from office by the UTU Board of Directors through resolutions dated Feb. 19 and March 21.
Still to be elected at the convention are assistant president, general secretary and treasurer, national legislative director, International vice presidents, alternates, members of the executive board and board of appeals, and a combined Canadian vice president/legislative director.
All those elected, except the new general secretary & treasurer, will take office -- or begin another term -- Jan. 1. The new GS&T will take office effective Sept. 1, to coincide with the retirement of current GS&T Dan Johnson. International President Paul Thompson and Assistant President Rick Marceau previously announced they will retire on Dec. 31.
Jan. 1 is the date the UTU’s ratified merger with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, creating the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers takes effect.
Created within SMART will be a new transportation division, and the International officers elected this week will head that division. SMWIA General President Mike Sullivan will be general president of SMART.
UTU delegates last year ratified recommendations of a UTU Blue Ribbon Committee to eliminate four International vice president positions and combine the slots in Canada of two vice presidents and the Canadian legislative director into a single position of vice president/legislative director. The result will streamline the UTU International and significantly reduce its costs of operation.
The Blue Ribbon Committee observed that while the number of active dues-paying members has declined over time, there has not been a similar decrease in the number of full-time International officers.
In 1974, there was one full-time International officer for every 5,492 active dues-paying members; but, today, there is one International officer for every 3,406 active dues-paying members. In Canada, there are three full-time International officers for 3,192 members.
The Blue Ribbon Committee recommended elimination of eight full-time International officer positions (six by abolishment and two by attrition), which would create a ratio of one full-time International officer for every 5,677 active dues-paying members.
Thus, on Dec. 31, four U.S. International vice president positions and two of three International officer positions in Canada will be abolished; and, after Jan. 1, two more U.S. vice president positions will be abolished through attrition.
Under the ratified recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee, any U.S. vice president position vacancies that occur for any reason before Dec. 31 (for example, the incumbent vice president was elected to a higher office, or the incumbent retired) will attrite (up to a total of four by Dec. 31).
Futhey elected president of the new, powerful transportation division of SMART
by Justice is served. It's time to kick BLE ass!
Futhey elected president
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Malcolm B. (Mike) Futhey Jr. was elected president of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Futhey was elected on the first ballot Monday, Aug. 13 at UTU's 10th quadrennial convention here at the Westin Diplomat Resort.
Futhey received 291 votes; David Hakey received 191 votes and John W. Babler received 78 votes. There are 560 delegates voting, representing UTU locals.
Also, Monday, delegates sustained a decision of the UTU Executive Board denying appeals of former general chairpersons and full-time vice general chairpersons on Canadian National in Canada who had been suspended from office by the UTU Board of Directors through resolutions dated Feb. 19 and March 21.
Still to be elected at the convention are assistant president, general secretary and treasurer, national legislative director, International vice presidents, alternates, members of the executive board and board of appeals, and a combined Canadian vice president/legislative director.
All those elected, except the new general secretary & treasurer, will take office -- or begin another term -- Jan. 1. The new GS&T will take office effective Sept. 1, to coincide with the retirement of current GS&T Dan Johnson. International President Paul Thompson and Assistant President Rick Marceau previously announced they will retire on Dec. 31.
Jan. 1 is the date the UTU’s ratified merger with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, creating the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers takes effect.
Created within SMART will be a new transportation division, and the International officers elected this week will head that division. SMWIA General President Mike Sullivan will be general president of SMART.
UTU delegates last year ratified recommendations of a UTU Blue Ribbon Committee to eliminate four International vice president positions and combine the slots in Canada of two vice presidents and the Canadian legislative director into a single position of vice president/legislative director. The result will streamline the UTU International and significantly reduce its costs of operation.
The Blue Ribbon Committee observed that while the number of active dues-paying members has declined over time, there has not been a similar decrease in the number of full-time International officers.
In 1974, there was one full-time International officer for every 5,492 active dues-paying members; but, today, there is one International officer for every 3,406 active dues-paying members. In Canada, there are three full-time International officers for 3,192 members.
The Blue Ribbon Committee recommended elimination of eight full-time International officer positions (six by abolishment and two by attrition), which would create a ratio of one full-time International officer for every 5,677 active dues-paying members.
Thus, on Dec. 31, four U.S. International vice president positions and two of three International officer positions in Canada will be abolished; and, after Jan. 1, two more U.S. vice president positions will be abolished through attrition.
Under the ratified recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee, any U.S. vice president position vacancies that occur for any reason before Dec. 31 (for example, the incumbent vice president was elected to a higher office, or the incumbent retired) will attrite (up to a total of four by Dec. 31).
Futhey elected president of the new, powerful transportation division of SMART
by Justice is served. It's time to kick BLE ass!
Futhey elected president
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Malcolm B. (Mike) Futhey Jr. was elected president of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Futhey was elected on the first ballot Monday, Aug. 13 at UTU's 10th quadrennial convention here at the Westin Diplomat Resort.
Futhey received 291 votes; David Hakey received 191 votes and John W. Babler received 78 votes. There are 560 delegates voting, representing UTU locals.
Also, Monday, delegates sustained a decision of the UTU Executive Board denying appeals of former general chairpersons and full-time vice general chairpersons on Canadian National in Canada who had been suspended from office by the UTU Board of Directors through resolutions dated Feb. 19 and March 21.
Still to be elected at the convention are assistant president, general secretary and treasurer, national legislative director, International vice presidents, alternates, members of the executive board and board of appeals, and a combined Canadian vice president/legislative director.
All those elected, except the new general secretary & treasurer, will take office -- or begin another term -- Jan. 1. The new GS&T will take office effective Sept. 1, to coincide with the retirement of current GS&T Dan Johnson. International President Paul Thompson and Assistant President Rick Marceau previously announced they will retire on Dec. 31.
Jan. 1 is the date the UTU’s ratified merger with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, creating the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers takes effect.
Created within SMART will be a new transportation division, and the International officers elected this week will head that division. SMWIA General President Mike Sullivan will be general president of SMART.
UTU delegates last year ratified recommendations of a UTU Blue Ribbon Committee to eliminate four International vice president positions and combine the slots in Canada of two vice presidents and the Canadian legislative director into a single position of vice president/legislative director. The result will streamline the UTU International and significantly reduce its costs of operation.
The Blue Ribbon Committee observed that while the number of active dues-paying members has declined over time, there has not been a similar decrease in the number of full-time International officers.
In 1974, there was one full-time International officer for every 5,492 active dues-paying members; but, today, there is one International officer for every 3,406 active dues-paying members. In Canada, there are three full-time International officers for 3,192 members.
The Blue Ribbon Committee recommended elimination of eight full-time International officer positions (six by abolishment and two by attrition), which would create a ratio of one full-time International officer for every 5,677 active dues-paying members.
Thus, on Dec. 31, four U.S. International vice president positions and two of three International officer positions in Canada will be abolished; and, after Jan. 1, two more U.S. vice president positions will be abolished through attrition.
Under the ratified recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee, any U.S. vice president position vacancies that occur for any reason before Dec. 31 (for example, the incumbent vice president was elected to a higher office, or the incumbent retired) will attrite (up to a total of four by Dec. 31).
Futhey elected president of the new, powerful transportation division of SMART
by Justice is served. It's time to kick BLE ass!
Futhey elected president
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Malcolm B. (Mike) Futhey Jr. was elected president of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Futhey was elected on the first ballot Monday, Aug. 13 at UTU's 10th quadrennial convention here at the Westin Diplomat Resort.
Futhey received 291 votes; David Hakey received 191 votes and John W. Babler received 78 votes. There are 560 delegates voting, representing UTU locals.
Also, Monday, delegates sustained a decision of the UTU Executive Board denying appeals of former general chairpersons and full-time vice general chairpersons on Canadian National in Canada who had been suspended from office by the UTU Board of Directors through resolutions dated Feb. 19 and March 21.
Still to be elected at the convention are assistant president, general secretary and treasurer, national legislative director, International vice presidents, alternates, members of the executive board and board of appeals, and a combined Canadian vice president/legislative director.
All those elected, except the new general secretary & treasurer, will take office -- or begin another term -- Jan. 1. The new GS&T will take office effective Sept. 1, to coincide with the retirement of current GS&T Dan Johnson. International President Paul Thompson and Assistant President Rick Marceau previously announced they will retire on Dec. 31.
Jan. 1 is the date the UTU’s ratified merger with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, creating the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Workers takes effect.
Created within SMART will be a new transportation division, and the International officers elected this week will head that division. SMWIA General President Mike Sullivan will be general president of SMART.
UTU delegates last year ratified recommendations of a UTU Blue Ribbon Committee to eliminate four International vice president positions and combine the slots in Canada of two vice presidents and the Canadian legislative director into a single position of vice president/legislative director. The result will streamline the UTU International and significantly reduce its costs of operation.
The Blue Ribbon Committee observed that while the number of active dues-paying members has declined over time, there has not been a similar decrease in the number of full-time International officers.
In 1974, there was one full-time International officer for every 5,492 active dues-paying members; but, today, there is one International officer for every 3,406 active dues-paying members. In Canada, there are three full-time International officers for 3,192 members.
The Blue Ribbon Committee recommended elimination of eight full-time International officer positions (six by abolishment and two by attrition), which would create a ratio of one full-time International officer for every 5,677 active dues-paying members.
Thus, on Dec. 31, four U.S. International vice president positions and two of three International officer positions in Canada will be abolished; and, after Jan. 1, two more U.S. vice president positions will be abolished through attrition.
Under the ratified recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee, any U.S. vice president position vacancies that occur for any reason before Dec. 31 (for example, the incumbent vice president was elected to a higher office, or the incumbent retired) will attrite (up to a total of four by Dec. 31).
A subpoena has been issued directing Network54 Corp., your forum owner’s Internet Application Service Provider of this forum, to disclose any information we have regarding an anonymous poster of two specific messages. BNSF Railway Company (“BNSF”) has filed the subpoena in accordance with a Petition to Investigate Claims in the District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. Network54 refused to accept jurisdiction of the subpoena, and the subpoena was re-filed in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed
Information about the anonymous poster has not yet been disclosed. You can challenge the subpoena in Court. California has liberal ANTI-SLAPP laws that may also pertain to you. You may wish to find your own lawyer to help you evaluate your position and options. We have provided some resources below to help.
The attorneys for the railway requested the removal of the posts in mid July. The original subpoena was sent on July 17, and can be found here: 07_13_07_Subpoena.pdf, 07_13_07_DWQ.pdf , and 07_13_07_Notice.pdf. A newer and expanded subpoena as issued in California on July 31 will be posted once we have scanned it. The subpoena is returnable on and therefore must be challenged by August 14. See it here: BNSF_CA.pdf
We have requested that BNSF withhold from any action for 30 days in order for Network54 to provide notice, but they have not as of yet agreed to any extension, and we are thus preparing to file a motion to quash behalf (actually, Public Citizen is filing the motion for us). We believe the longer notice period is needed since we do not have contact information for the poster and hope to have the message visible long enough such that the poster will hopefully visit this forum and thus be notified with ample time to exercise their rights.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy state that we may disclose such information at our sole discretion. We are not giving up that provision, but we respect the rights of anonymous posters on our service, and are trying to do so with whatever means we have at our disposal. However, he applicant is determined, our options are narrowing, and it is now the posters responsibility to fight for their privacy.
Update: Since the Califonia subpoena was not valid, and on advice from counsel, we refused to disclose the private information. We expect that BNSF will likely produce a valid subpoena in the future, possibly with a motion to compell from the court, at which time we intend to file a motion to quash.
This message has been edited by network54 on Aug 15, 2007 11:50 AM This message has been edited by network54 on Aug 13, 2007 11:40 PM This message has been edited by network54 on Aug 13, 2007 1:43 PM
YOU'RE NOT THE PAPER BOY. YOUR A LIBERAL BLOGBOY POSING AS SOMETHING ELSE.
by YOU CAN'T FOOL SMART PEOPLE LIKE ME.
YOUR ATTEMPT AT SARCASTIC OBFUSCATION ISN'T EVEN AMUSING. IT JUST SHOWS THE DEPTHS OF YOUR MINDLESS DEPRAVITY. WHY DON'T YOU CEASE AND DESIST AND BE A MAN. GO READ A BOOK.
UURR WHICH WAS CREATED BY ME IN AN ACT OF TRULY ORIGINAL THINKING IS THE PLACE WHERE EVERYONE MUST THINK FOR THEMSELVES JUST LIKE ME. BUT TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH, EVEN IF YOU THINK JUST LIKE ME, I'LL SUDDENLY START THINKING DIFFERENT SO THAT YOU WON'T BE THINKING LIKE ME. YOU CAN'T WIN. YOU'RE FUCKED.
HAHAHA! EVEN IF YOU SUBMIT AND GIVE UP YOU CAN'T FIND PEACE. I'LL ALWAYS BE MORE
by ORIGINAL THINKING THAN YOU
EVEN IF YOU STOP THINKING AND POSTING. YOU WILL ALWAYS KNOW THAT I AM HERE THINKING ORIGINALLY WHILE YOU ARE NOT. FACE IT, YOU'RE A LOSER UNDERACHIEVER.
YOU CAN'T EVEN READ ENOUGH BOOKS TO CATCH UP WITH ME.
Federal Agents Searching People at Indianapolis Bus Stops
by Air Marshals Patting Civilians Down
Federal Agents Searching People at Indianapolis Bus Stops: Air Marshals Patting Civilians Down
Thu Aug 02, 2007 at 10:25:34 PM PDT
Welcome to another creeping slide towards the big brother state. On August 2, 2007 over two dozen agents of the TSA setup two checkpoints at bus stops in Indianapolis Indiana and searched passengers who wanted to ride on city buses. Federal agents, including Air Marshals were present and patted people down, looked in bags, and performed "behavior" tests for the stated purpose of finding weapons and people who were a threat to public safety.
Before you think I am joking, let me refer to both the Indianapolis Star report TSA checks IndyGo bus passengers as well as posted first person reports of what happened yesterday and why it effects us all.
UPDATE: Thanks to DailyKos readers, this has been found to be a part of an 18 month old Federal Operation, read more below!
Seriously. We need background checks, biometric IDs, loyalty oaths sworn by all Rails
by Concerned Citizen
If they're handling deadly commodities, then it's only a matter of time before some islamofascists or terrorist loving librels hire on and attack us. Also, give railroad dicks the police power they need. Shoot first and ask questions later. It's the patriotic thing to do.
PLACE RAIL CHILDREN IN CUSTODY WHILE THE JERKS ARE ON DUTY
by Anonymous
THEY PROBABLY DON'T CARE ABOUT THEIR KIDS BUT IT MIGHT BE WORTH TRYING. MAKE THEM DO SOMETHING FOR THE RAILROADS WHILE THEY'RE WAITING FOR DADDY TO COME HOME.
Court says Fox "News" can knowingly LIE and force their "reporters" to LIE too
by Worse than OPINION
In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH - ONE OF THE PILLARS OF THE EMPIRE
by Anonymous
The Ministry of Truth — Minitrue, in Newspeak — was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party:
The cloud of dust above the Mississippi that rose after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Wednesday evening has dissipated. But there are other dark clouds still hanging over Minneapolis and Minnesota.
By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune
The cloud of dust above the Mississippi that rose after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Wednesday evening has dissipated. But there are other dark clouds still hanging over Minneapolis and Minnesota.
The fear of falling is a primal one, along with the fear of being trapped or of drowning.
Minneapolis suffered a perfect storm of nightmares Wednesday evening, as anyone who couldn't sleep last night can tell you. Including the parents who clench their jaws and tighten their hands on the wheel every time they drive a carload of strapped-in kids across a steep chasm or a rushing river. Don't panic, you tell yourself. The people in charge of this know what they are doing. They make sure that the bridges stay standing. And if there were a problem, they would tell us. Wouldn't they?
What if they didn't?
The death bridge was "structurally deficient," we now learn, and had a rating of just 50 percent, the threshold for replacement. But no one appears to have erred on the side of public safety. The errors were all the other way.
Would you drive your kids or let your spouse drive over a bridge that had a sign saying, "CAUTION: Fifty-Percent Bridge Ahead"?
No, you wouldn't. But there wasn't any warning on the Half Chance Bridge. There was nothing that told you that you might be sitting in your over-heated car, bumper to bumper, on a hot summer day, thinking of dinner with your wife or of going to see the Twins game or taking your kids for a walk to Dairy Queen later when, in a rumble and a roar, the world you knew would pancake into the river.
There isn't any bigger metaphor for a society in trouble than a bridge falling, its concrete lanes pointing brokenly at the sky, its crumpled cars pointing down at the deep waters where people disappeared.
Only this isn't a metaphor.
The focus at the moment is on the lives lost and injured and the heroic efforts of rescuers and first-responders - good Samaritans and uniformed public servants. Minnesotans can be proud of themselves, and of their emergency workers who answered the call. But when you have a tragedy on this scale, it isn't just concrete and steel that has failed us.
So far, we are told that it wasn't terrorists or tornados that brought the bridge down. But those assurances are not reassuring.
They are troubling.
If it wasn't an act of God or the hand of hate, and it proves not to be just a lousy accident - a girder mistakenly cut, a train that hit a support - then we are left to conclude that it was worse than any of those things, because it was more mundane and more insidious: This death and destruction was the result of incompetence or indifference.
In a word, it was avoidable.
That means it should never have happened. And that means that public anger will follow our sorrow as sure as night descended on the missing.
For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, it would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government.
I'm not just pointing fingers at Pawlenty. The outrage here is not partisan. It is general.
Both political parties have tried to govern on the cheap, and both have dithered and dallied and spent public wealth on stadiums while scrimping on the basics.
How ironic is it that tonight's scheduled groundbreaking for a new Twins ballpark has been postponed? Even the stadium barkers realize it is in poor taste to celebrate the spending of half a billion on ballparks when your bridges are falling down. Perhaps this is a sign of shame. If so, it is welcome. Shame is overdue.
At the federal level, the parsimony is worse, and so is the negligence. A trillion spent in Iraq, while schools crumble, there aren't enough cops on the street and bridges decay while our leaders cross their fingers and ignore the rising chances of disaster.
And now, one has fallen, to our great sorrow, and people died losing a gamble they didn't even know they had taken. They believed someone was guarding the bridge.
Kinda like the FBI rushing to judgement in the Wellstone murder
by before they could even start an investigation
Actually, despite Repug anti-tax Gov. Pawlenty's assurance that the bridge had "passed all it's recent exams with no major problems", it turns out that in 2005 engineers rated the bridge as "structurally deficient" and that it would possibly need to be replaced, not just repaired. He still thinks it's more important to cut taxes for the rich than to invest in America.
Some have been warning US that the biggest problem we face is the country's crumbling infrastructure which needs $1.6 billion of attention. Too bad we're pouring that money into the Middle East and war-profiteers' pockets.
Of course it's more important to give Paris Hilton a tax cut than to take care of America's business. Oh, she's been disinherited. That's Repugs for ya.
US Infrastructure failure DIRECT result of GOP policies
by Anonymous
First of all my thoughts and prayers are with those who have been effected in any way by the disaster yesterday in Minnesota. We are learning (from number of diaries here, one on the rec. list) that the bridge failure yesterday may well have been from the bridge being "structurally deficient."
The tragedy yesterday, sadly, is not isolated, and if our nation does not soon address the worn out, aging infrastructure system across our land, this bridge failure is going to repeat itself over, and over and over. Why is this? Why have we ignored the safety of our roads, of our bridges, of our buildings? Because the GOP is more concerned with cutting taxes then making sure our nation is safe.
It looks like the Minneapolis bridge collapse tragedy might be the canary in the coal mine, which is a scary thought indeed. An annual inventory of the state of all U.S. bridges, compiled by Better Roads magazine, a highway contractor industry publication (surprise!), shows that nearly 146,000 bridges in our country are "structurally deficient" (SD) or "functionally obsolete" (FO), representing nearly 25% of all Interstate, state, city, county and township bridges. Folks, we are in deep doo-doo here.
AN EXCELLENT ANALYSIS FROM A SELF PROCLAIMED "WHEN I WAS MANAGER AT BURGER KING" GUY!
by HE MUST BE SMART, HE'S ON A BLOG? MEOW!
TYPICAL OF THE EXPERTISE YOU FIND ON AMERICAS BLOGS. FROM BURGER KING MANAGER TO CIVIL ENGINEERING EXPERT AND TERRORISM ANALYST. NO WONDER THE UURR'S BLOG MONGER'S ARE SO WELL INFORMED!
NOW YOU'VE DONE IT. THE UURR HAS MADE ELTON JOHN MAD AND NOW HE'S GONNA CLOSE THE INTERNUT
by I THOUGHT LIBERALS DISLIKED CENSORSHIP?
UNLESS THEY CONTROL IT.....................
Why we must close the net
By SIR ELTON JOHN
August 01, 2007
POP legend Sir Elton John wants the internet CLOSED DOWN.
Never one to keep his opinions to himself, the Rocket Man has waded into cyberspace with all guns blazing.
He claims it is destroying good music, saying: “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff.
“Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.
“It’s just a means to an end.
“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet.
“I mean, get out there — communicate.
“Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.
“Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging.
“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.
“There’s too much technology available.
“I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.”
Multi-millionaire Elton, who turned 60 earlier this year, has admitted in the past that he is a bit behind the times. The Grammy award-winner was once quoted as saying: “I am the biggest technophobe of all time.
“I don’t have a mobile phone or an iPod or anything.
“I am such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano.”
Sales of Elton’s last album The Captain & The Kid were disappointing — it barely shifted 100,000 copies. And in the past Sir Elt has opposed illegal downloading of his music from the net.
But the flamboyant singer has embraced the web in other ways.
The 60th birthday concert Sir Elton played to a 20,000-strong crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden was streamed live over the internet.
The singer also announced earlier this year that his entire back catalogue of albums would be made available for digital download.
The internet has played a huge role in kick-starting the careers of some of Britain’s best new talent.
Sandi Thom shot to fame after broadcasting webcam concerts from her London basement flat, while both the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen acknowledge the part played by the web in their success.
But Elton also complained about the quality of music being released.
He said: “In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic.
“Now you’re lucky to find ten albums a year of that quality.
“And there are more albums released each week now than there were then.”
I guess that’s what Sir Elt would call a net loss . .
Obama Gets Tough
Speech seen as extension of battle with Clinton over national security
By Liz Halloran
Posted 8/1/07
Oh, it's on.
If there was any thought that recent sparring between leading Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over foreign policy would dissipate, Obama's speech this morning on his plan to fight terrorism put that question permanently to rest.
In what his campaign billed as a major address, covering ground from Iraq and Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay and homeland security, Obama tough-talked his way through a terrorism-fighting strategy—including the potential use of military strikes on terrorists in Pakistan—that he said would make the United States safer and mend its tattered reputation overseas.
And, without mentioning her name, he stuck it to Clinton for her Senate vote to authorize the Iraq war ("Congress became coauthor of a catastrophic war") and her statement during last week's CNN/YouTube debate, where the dust-up started, that if elected she would not meet with leaders of countries such as North Korea and Iran during her first year in office. (During the debate, Obama said unequivocally he would meet with such leaders.)
The Illinois senator today refrained from referring to Clinton as "Bush-Cheney lite," as he did after the debate, in an effort to link her with policies of the past—his campaign mantra, after all, is "turn the page." But he did say this: "It's time to turn the page on Washington's conventional wisdom that agreement must be reached before you meet, that talking to other countries is some kind of reward, and that presidents can only meet with people who will tell them what they want to hear." And then he quoted President John Kennedy, saying, "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."
Not talking, Obama said, "does not work."
(Apparently the brief we're-all-Democrats-and-there's-more-than-one-way-to-practice-diplomacy comments Monday by Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council gathering failed to resonate with the Obama campaign.)
Today's speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which aides say was scheduled well before the YouTube debate, came as a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News national presidential preference poll shows Clinton widening her lead over Obama, 43 percent to 22 percent. Clinton was at 39 percent in a similar June poll; Obama was at 25 percent. The poll also showed that those surveyed favored both Clinton and Obama over former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the current GOP presidential front-runner. Clinton's aides say the New York senator believes she is winning the national security debate and that the recent back-and-forth with Obama has only helped position her for the general election.
But Obama made it clear today that he is not willing to cede the tough leader mantle to Clinton. He advocated pulling troops out of Iraq, redeploying brigades to the "right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan," and making U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional. "Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters, and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan," he said.
Obama said he will not hesitate to use military force to "take out terrorists." In Pakistan, he said, "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans.... If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and [Pakistani] President Musharraf won't act, we will."
And, if elected, he said, he would authorize $5 billion over three years to develop an "international intelligence and law enforcement infrastructure to take down terrorist networks" across the world.
Throughout his speech, Obama evoked the image of a foreign child looking up as a U.S. helicopter passed overhead. "America must show—through deeds as well as words—that we stand with those who seek a better life," he said. "That child looking up at the helicopter must see America and feel hope."
THE LIBERALS HERE HAVE NO INTREST OR ABILITY IN ATTEMPTING A DEBATE TO DEFEND THEIR MISGUIDED LOGIC. THEY HAVE SURRENDERED IN MAKING AN EFFORT TO EXERCISE SOME INDEPENDENT THINKING, COMMON SENSE AND INTELLIGENT DISCOURSE.
NO DOUBT THEY WILL SLEEP WELL TONIGHT, THEIR IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR HAS EARNED THEM THE THRONE OF TOTAL PUSSIFICATION!
US Can't Account For Nearly 200,000 Weapons Issued To Iraq Security Forces
by Repug Incompetence in Action
Americans lose track of 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces
BAGHDAD: The US government cannot account for 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to an investigation carried out by the Government Accountability Office. According to the July 31 report, the military "cannot fully account for about 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armor and 115,000 helmets reported as issued to Iraqi forces."
The weapons disappeared from records between June 2004 and September 2005, as the military struggled to re-build the disbanded Iraqi forces from scratch.
Ware: Surge Is Undermining ‘The Very Government That America Created’
by Anonymous
Last night, during his interview with Larry King, Vice President Cheney claimed that “the reports I’m hearing, from people whose views I respect, indicate that the Petraeus plan is in fact producing results.”
On Anderson Cooper’s show later in the evening, CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware, who spoke live on a night scope camera while embedded with troops responded to “the vice president’s evaluation” of progress in Iraq, calling it “sleight of hand.” “Yeah, sectarian violence is down, but let’s have a look at that,” said Ware. “More than two million people have fled this country. 50,000 are still fleeing every month, according to the United Nations. So there’s less people to be killed. And those who stay, increasingly are in ethnically-cleansed neighborhoods. They’ve been segregated.”
“There is still no sense of unity. And without America to act as the big baby sitter, this thing is not going to last.” Watch it:
Go figure: From the White House comes the news that self-styled anti-terrorism crusader George Bush wants to sell $20 billion in high-tech military equipment to Saudi Arabia, the source of most of the financing, and 15 of the 19 hijackers, for the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. The justification can’t be that this is yet another boondoggle for the military-industrial complex—the big winner in the war on terror—so we are told instead that the Sunni-dominated Saudi kingdom needs this weaponry to withstand a future challenge from those dastardly Shiite fellows in Iran.
Retired Lt. Colonel offers to lead Chicken Hawk squad
by Will our UURR Chickenhawks Step Up Now?
Although I retired from the Army in 1983 and will be 69 in 4 days, I am heeding President Bush’s call to join the surge and fight "evil" in Iraq. I have good skills. In Vietnam I fought in the middle of a civil war, was ambushed, had friends killed by IEDs and was on the receiving end of rocket and mortar attacks numerous times.
Because I am overage, and need a waiver to return to active duty, I will appeal directly to President Bush with this letter.
Dear Mr. President,
You have convinced me that if we fight terrorism in Iraq long enough we will win militarily. I know we are shorthanded because you are calling up an additional 12,000 National Guard troops this summer. So I am prepared to return to active duty immediately. Given my prior service and age, I have several requests I hope you will see fit to grant.
While I retired as a lieutenant colonel, I want to return as a sergeant so I can lead a squad in combat. I also want to stay not for a year, but until we achieve victory. I should live long enough. My Dad, a WWII vet, died at 88.
I want my squad to consist of personnel committed to the war. Your neoconservative co-conspirators, who supported the war with Iraq as early as 1992, will undoubtedly enthusiastically volunteer to join me. Pugnacious Bill Kristol, who called for attacking Iran to free the British sailors, will be my point man on patrol. Dick Cheney, a deadeye with a lifetime of hunting experience, will be my sniper. Doug Feith, who prepared the "intelligence" which got us into the war when he was head of the Office of Special Plans will, of course, be in charge of intelligence. John Bolton, a superb diplomat, will be responsible for liaison with the Iraqis and remaining members of the "Coalition of the Willing". Paul Wolfowitz, architect of the Bush Doctrine which resulted in the Iraq invasion, will be in charge of mission operations to insure that financial support for our efforts is siphoned off to Halliburton. Scooter Libby, a fixer for Vice President Cheney, will maintain our equipment (if you pardon him so he can enlist). Entrepreneurial Richard Perle will be our quartermaster. I’m sure he will keep us well provisioned. And last, but not least, I want Fred Kagan, who, lacking military experience and knowledge of the Middle East, nonetheless devised the surge, our key to success in Iraq. He will be the machine gunner in the open turret of our lightly armored Humvee.
We don’t ask for special treatment, only that which you afford all soldiers and Marines. Pre-deployment training will be abbreviated. We won’t be trained in insurgent tactics until we arrive. Our equipment will come from the squad we replace. (I’d rather not use hand-me-downs in combat, but it is more important to fund Halliburton rather than using funds to procure equipment for the troops.) As Secretary Rumsfeld said, "You go to war with the equipment you have."
In Iraq, we’ll serve on convoy duty, to participate in the IED and ambush "experience" first hand. We will go on nightly raids where we knock down doors and take the men away. Doug Feith will interrogate them according to rules you and Alberto devised. Then we will be assigned to work in Sadr City with Iraqi police of unknown allegiance. Living with them should be quite interesting as we are exposed to death and dismemberment from rocket and mortar attacks, the occasional sniper, IEDs, and suicide bombers, not to mention the hostile Shiite populace.
We will undoubtedly suffer casualties, even men killed in action. I only ask that the dead be buried in Arlington Memorial Cemetery with full military honors, presided over by you, our Commander-in-Chief. I am sure our wounded will receive excellent treatment at the VA. Please hire additional VA administrative personnel, so we don’t have to wait for 18 months before receiving our benefits as at present. And please expand the definition of PTSD so we all qualify. It really doesn’t take too many IEDs, rocket attacks and views of the carnage when the bad guys blow up schools and markets for us to return home with serious issues which need to be resolved.
In conclusion, I am sure that sometime in the next 10 to 15 years you will be extremely proud when those of us who survive return home to report to you "Mission Accomplished."
Analysis says war could cost $1 trillion
Budget office sees effect on taxpayers for decade
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | August 1, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The war in Iraq could ultimately cost well over a trillion dollars -- at least double what has already been spent -- including the long-term costs of replacing damaged equipment, caring for wounded troops, and aiding the Iraqi government, according to a new government analysis.
Blow To Maliki: Main Sunni Bloc Quits Iraq Government
by Surging to Victory - Feel the Draft?
Sunni bloc quits Iraq govt, 73 dead in bombings
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The main Sunni Arab political bloc quit the Iraqi government on Wednesday in a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's shaky coalition as suicide bombers killed more than 70 people in three attacks across Baghdad.
"No Amount Of Troops And No Amount Of Time Will Make Much Of A Difference" In Iraq"
by Anonymous
Bush's Joint Chiefs Nominee: "No Amount Of Troops And No Amount Of Time Will Make Much Of A Difference" In Iraq"
Joint Chiefs Nominee Notes Toll on Military, Need to Plan for Iraq Drawdown
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 1, 2007; Page A02
Adm. Michael G. Mullen, President Bush's nominee to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel yesterday that the war in Iraq is taking a heavy toll on the U.S. military, warning that American forces are "not unbreakable" and stressing the need to "plan for an eventual drawdown" of troops.
Two Years Later, Cheney Admits He Was Wrong To Say Insurgency Was In Its "Last Throes"
by Anonymous
Two Years Later, Cheney Admits He Was Wrong To Say Insurgency Was In Its "Last Throes"
July 31 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said he was wrong two years ago when he declared that the Iraq insurgency was in its ``last throes.''
``It turned out to be incorrect,'' Cheney said in an interview with CNN's Larry King, the same interviewer to whom he made the statement in May 2005. ``The insurgency turned out to be more robust.''
Cheney's comment was a rare turnabout for the vice president, who has repeatedly touted military and political progress in Iraq even as violence in the country increased. One year ago, following a speech in Washington, Cheney was asked if he still believed the insurgency was in its final throes, and he responded by saying ``I do.''
Putting U.S. Troop Casualty Statistics In Perspective
by Anonymous
REPORT: Putting U.S. Troop Casualty Statistics In Perspective
At least 73 U.S. troops are reported to have died in Iraq this past month. The numbers are a decline from the all-time highs of 108, 131, and 117 from the previous three months.
Media reports herald the statistics as encouraging and as demonstrating “steady progress” in Iraq. Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said that the lower death toll was a “positive sign.”
According to icasualties.org, at least 3,653 U.S. troops have died in the 53 months that the war has been going on — a per monthly rate of nearly 69 U.S. troop casualties. Thus, the current month’s total still exceeds the average monthly casualty rate of the entire war.
Moreover, 73 is also greater than the average monthly casualty rate of each of the first four years of the war. A look at the monthly U.S. casualty rates over each of these years:
YEAR --- CASUALTY RATE
2003 ----- 48.6 per month
2004 ----- 70.8 per month
2005 ----- 70.5 per month
2006 ----- 68.5 per month
2007 ----- 92.9 per month
Statistics compiled from icasualties.org
The AP notes that “the daily average for U.S. troop deaths in July was at least 2.35 — higher than the daily average of 2.25 last year, and remarkably consistent with average daily casualties in 2005, at 2.32, and 2004, at 2.33.”
While U.S. troop casualties have fallen, reports indicate Iraqi deaths are rising again in Baghdad to pre-surge levels.
U.S. checking possibility of pumping oil from northern Iraq to Haifa, via Jordan
By Amiram Cohen
The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.
Aliso Viejo, Calif. Steve, thank you for reporting on this. I am an active-duty Marine Officer. I have done one tour in Ramadi. The private security contractors make me and my friends sick. Without getting into a philosophical discussion, I do believe that killing in the name of profit is murder (as a Marine I do understand that some think any form of killing in murder — I however do not). Profit and war are two things that never should coexist.
he U.S. military said Tuesday that a Marine was killed in fighting west of the capital, bringing the American death toll for July to at least 73 — still the lowest in eight months.
GINGRICH CALLS DETROIT A DISASTER, DRAWS IRE, YET LOCALS CAN'T FACTUALLY DISPUTE COMMENTS!
by THIS HOME TO LIBERALS, UNIONISTS, A DISASTER?
HARD TO BELIEVE THIS SHINING EXAMPLE OF EFFECTIVE LIBERALISM IN ACTION IS A DISASTER? HOW COULD THE UNIONS AND LIBERALS OF DETROIT LET THEIR CITY GO DOWN THE TOILET? THEY CARE SO MUCH MORE THAN MEAR HUMANS. MUST BE THE GOVERNMENTS FAULT! IF ONLY AMERICA HAD GIVEN EVEN MORE TAX MONEY TO THIS CITY, THEY COULD HAVE BEEN TREMENDOUS! A TREMENDOUS DISASTER! WHEN ASKED, NO ONE HAD ANY SUBSTANTIVE FACTS TO REFUTE GINGRICH, OR WORSE,NO COMMENT! ANOTHER LIBERAL SURRENDER!
Gingrich calls Detroit a disaster, draws ire
Jennifer Mrozowski and Tony Gonzalez / The Detroit News
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich drew strong criticism from Detroit city leaders and school officials Monday after calling the city a "disaster" in a national network TV interview on Sunday.
Gingrich blasted the city of Detroit, Detroit Public Schools, the United Auto Workers and Michigan's unemployment rate during an interview on Fox News Sunday in which he talked about how he would transform Washington.
A spokesman for Gingrich, an undeclared Republican presidential candidate who has been ramping up his public appearances, singled out Detroit and its schools because they're the "best worst-case example" of bureaucracy and "a union structure that doesn't work."
"We should basically, fundamentally replace the Detroit school system with a series of experiments to see if they'll work," Gingrich said in the interview.
Rick Tyler, Gingrich's spokesman, said Monday that unions are to blame for many of the city's and state's woes, including the inability of the Big Three automakers to be competitive and the school system's struggle to reform itself. Gingrich also cited Detroit's massive population losses.
"Detroit is routinely pointed out as one of the worst public school systems in the entire country," Tyler said. "It provides the best example of why we need transformational change in bureaucratic systems that don't work."
A UAW spokesman would not comment, and Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office did not immediately return calls. Detroit Federation of Teachers President Virginia Cantrell said Gingrich should focus on his own city and state and "leave Detroit alone."
Meanwhile, city leaders point to a renaissance in Detroit, including the most housing starts since the city was first built. They also say the new Detroit Public Schools superintendent, who started July 1, needs to be given a chance to overhaul the troubled schools.
"I do believe we need to work together to transform the way we deliver educational services," said Detroit school board President Jimmy Womack.
"But we are the governing body. I'm not suggesting other entities should attempt to govern the district."
Womack was referring to statements Gingrich made that the DPS school board and Detroit City Council should be challenged to reform DPS. Gingrich also said Granholm, lawmakers and union leaders must work to save Michigan from collapse.
Womack and other Detroit Public Schools' officials vigorously disputed Gingrich's comments about the school system's graduation rate, which he said was 22 percent, a statistic recently released by Education Week magazine. According to the Michigan Department of Education, Detroit Public Schools has a graduation rate of 67.2 percent, though a 2005 Detroit News analysis put that number at 48 percent.
Monica Conyers, the council's president pro tem, acknowledged that Detroit Public Schools' graduation rate is too low, but she doubted Gingrich knows much about the true graduation rate in the school system or the city's progress.
"Detroit is on an upswing," she said. "I would invite Newt Gingrich to come here." Conyers said she would give Gingrich a personal tour of the city.
"I wish people who haven't been here would refrain from attacking us," she said.
Matt Allen, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's spokesman, also touted Detroit's renaissance. But he reiterated comments by the mayor that city's public school system is not performing at the optimal level, necessitating other educational options citywide.
Other Detroiters agreed with Gingrich, at least about the school system needing transformation.
"The kids are so bad they want them out of those schools so they pass them anyway," said Ulysses Parks, a 27-year-old DPS dropout. Like most of his close friends, Parks dropped out, but he later got his GED.
Ida Byrd-Hill, a mother of two DPS students who has operated a specialty school for the district, said improving the district will be a challenge.
"This school system has problems, but it's not the system alone," Byrd-Hill said. "The whole region has responsibility."
She said she's confident the new school superintendent, Connie Calloway, will make a difference. Calloway could not be reached for comment.
POPULARITY OF CONGRESS HIT A NEW HIGH IN LOW, 14%. ABOUT THE SAME NUMBER OF LIBERALS WHO
by THINK FIGHTING THE TERRORISTS ISNT IMPORTANT
Congress’ popularity takes dive
Public growing weary of disputes with Bush.
Published Saturday, July 14, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - Too much bickering and not enough legislating.
That, in just a few words, explains why public approval of Congress’ job performance has fallen 11 points since May, to 24 percent, its lowest level in a year, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll finds.
That’s lower than for President George W. Bush, who isn’t exactly "Mr. Popularity," either.
Hear the people:
"I disapprove of all the fighting that they do all the time. ... They’re not making George Bush do anything. They’re not doing anything themselves," added Tammy Lambirth, a Democrat and data researcher from San Antonio.
"They’re not addressing the issues that are worth addressing," Steve Wofford, a moderate Republican and software consultant from Scottsdale, Ariz., said of Congress.
"They’ve abandoned all the social issues. They don’t want to deal with universal health care. They don’t want to deal with the problems in our education system. It just goes on and on," lamented Rod Butler, a Democrat from Redondo Beach, Calif., who teaches music at a university.
The 24 percent approval rating for Congress matched its previous low. That came in June 2006, five months before Democrats won control of the House and Senate because of public discontent with the job Republicans were doing.
Just two months ago, 35 percent approved of Congress’ productivity.
Poll respondents from both political parties said they’re tired of the bickering between Congress and the White House, and they want the two branches of government to work together on such issues as education, health care and the Iraq war.
The latest fight involves Bush’s refusal to hand over documents and let former White House aides answer questions from the Democratic-controlled Congress about the firing of U.S. attorneys. The dispute could end up in federal court.
"They don’t approve of anything he does," Theresa Holsten, an unemployed Republican from Lawton, Okla., said of Congress. "He can’t do anything right, according to what some people say. It irritates the living daylights out of me."
While the public’s approval of Congress has dropped 11 points since May, the percentage of Democrats who are turning up their noses at Congress nearly doubled. Among Republicans, though, not so much.
Approval among Democrats fell 21 points, down from 48 percent in May to 27 percent. It remained low among Republicans, at 20 percent, and has not significantly changed in the past two months.
Republican pollster Whit Ayres noted that three-fourths of the country is unhappy with how things are going. "The longer the Democrats are in control of Congress and people remain dissatisfied with the direction of the country, the more responsibility the people place at the Democrats’ feet," he said.
Democrats won control of Congress on the strength of their promise to end the Iraq war, which a majority of the public no longer supports. But Democrats so far have failed to keep that promise. Bush vetoed one spending bill that included a deadline for ending the war, and Democrats don’t have the votes to override him.
An increase in the federal minimum wage became law, but much of the Democratic agenda has cleared the House only to become bottled up in the Senate, where the party has a much narrower working majority.
Democrats must be mindful of the public’s satisfaction with Congress’ productivity, especially as the party campaigns to win back the White House in elections next year, political science Professor Kenneth Sherrill said. "If you manage to persuade a very large number of voters, including an increasing percentage of people who associate with your own party, that you’re not capable of governing, you’re in real trouble," Sherrill said.
Bush has been taking heat over the Iraq war, his decision to spare a former top vice presidential aide from going to prison and his desire for an overhaul of immigration laws. His job approval rating in the AP-Ipsos survey was 33 percent, virtually unchanged from last month.
IRAN DISMISSES REPORTS OF SYRIAN ARMS DEAL. NOT THAT IRANIANS ARE TO BE BELIEVED, BUT THIS
by WOULD BE BAD NEWS FOR AMERICAS LIBERALS
Iran: No Secret Arms Deal With Syria
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dismisses Media Reports of Secret Arms Deal With Syria
By NASSER KARIMI
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman on Sunday dismissed as a "media game" recent reports of a secret arms deal with Syria allegedly made in return for an agreement that Damascus would not hold peace talks with Israel.
Mohammad Ali Hosseini refused to provide confirmation of the deal and questioned how the media would know about it if it was confidential.
"This is a media game," said Hosseini during his weekly news briefing. "It is not confirmed."
The Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday that Iran would provide $1 billion to Syria for advanced weapons procurement and would assist the country with nuclear research and the development of chemical weapons, with the understanding that Damascus would not negotiate peace with Israel.
The deal was allegedly signed Thursday when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Syria, said the newspaper. Israeli media later rebroadcast the report.
Both Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have publicly called for renewed peace talks recently, but have clashed over the specifics.
Assad has demanded a guarantee that Israel would pull out of all of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured from Syria in the 1967 war. He has also demanded a mediator or "honest broker" for the talks. Olmert has refused to commit in advance to a full withdrawal and has indicated a preference for direct talks.
Syria is Iran's closest Arab ally. The two countries have had close relations since 1980 when Syria sided with Persian Iran against Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Both countries face U.S. accusations of fueling violence in Iraq and supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group, which Washington labels a terrorist organization. They are also accused of supporting militant anti-Israeli Palestinian groups, like Hamas.
It all comes down to "librels" and "neocons" with you politicals don't it?
by anonymous
Assholes! Here's a nightmare for namby pamby libs and dittoheaded dingdongs alike-McCain and Powell running on an independant ticket. Would serve you all right!
ANOTHER IDIOTIC , MOOT SCENARIO. POWELL SAID HE WOULD NEVER RUN BECAUSE HIS WIFE SAID NO
by AND THE MCCAIN MUTUNY WILL NEVER BE ELECTED
MCCAIN DAYS AS A CANDIDATE ARE FINALLY OVER. HIS "MAVERICK WAYS" THAT MADE HIM POPULAR WITH THE LIBERAL MEDIA, AT LAST DID HIM IN.
POWELL, ARE YOU KIDDING? HE WANT'S THE ATTENTION, BUT HE WILL NEVER RUN FOR ANY POLITICAL OFFICE EVER! HIW WIFE WANT'S NO PART OF THE POLITICAL PROCESS.
BUT THANKS FOR PLAYING "WHAT WAS HE THINKING?" YOUR RANT WAS DULY NOTED.
Because the above dittohead knows that it only will take one man and the dittohead hold on power is gone forever. If the people of the US are sick to death of namby pamby liberals they are sicker yet of those corrupt Neocon bunglers.
RUSSIA TO SELL $1 BILLION WORTH OF WAR PLANES TO IRAN! THIS SHOULD MAKE THE LIBERALS HAPPY
by BECAUSE IT MAKES THE TERRORISTS HAPPY!
Russia To Sell $1 Billion Worth Of Warplanes To Iran
July 31, 2007 1:45 p.m. EST
Windsor Genova - AHN
London, United Kingdom (AHN) - Iran and Russia may sign a $1 billion arms deal that will deliver warplanes and aerial refueling tankers to the Islamic state, the London-based IranMania website reported on Tuesday.
IranMania said the deal will supply Iran with 250 Su-30 fighters, advanced and versatile two-seater warplanes that have a maximum flying range of 3,000 kilometers. The deal will also include the supply of aerial refueling tankers that will increase the flight range of Su-30 to 8,000 kilometers.
The aircrafts, which are to be delivered at the end of the year, will reportedly make Iran's air force at par with Israel's.
Russia has been Iran's key arms supplier. The reported deal follows the U.S. announcement on Monday of arms deals worth $63 billion for its Middle East allies.
The bulk of the U.S. arms deals, $30 billion, will go to Israel over a 10-year period. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states will get $20 billion worth of military supplies over 10 years.
Jul 31 11:48 AM US/Eastern
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Associated Press Writer
View larger image
BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military said Tuesday that a Marine was killed in fighting west of the capital, pushing the American death toll for July to at least 73, the lowest in eight months.
An Apache helicopter also went down Tuesday after coming under fire in a predominantly Shiite area in eastern Baghdad, but both crew members were safely evacuated, the military said.
President Bush's nominee to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meanwhile, acknowledged that slow progress in Iraq is hurting America's credibility and emboldening Iran's regional ambitions.
While steady progress has been made on the military front, Iraq's political factions have made only limited headway in achieving reconciliation, said Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, who has been nominated to replace U.S. Gen. Peter Pace as the nation's top military officer.
Iraq's parliament shrugged off U.S. criticism and adjourned for a month, as key lawmakers declared there was no point waiting any longer for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to deliver Washington-demanded benchmark legislation for their vote.
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the final three-hour session Monday without a quorum present and declared lawmakers would not reconvene until Sept. 4. That date is just 11 days before the top two U.S. officials in Iraq—Ambassador Ryan Crocker and military commander Gen. David Petraeus—must report to Congress on American progress in taming violence and organizing conditions for sectarian reconciliation.
The recess, coupled with al-Maliki's failure to get the key draft laws before legislators, may nourish growing opposition to the war among U.S. lawmakers, who could refuse to fund it.
Critics have questioned how Iraqi legislators could take a summer break while U.S. forces are fighting and dying to create conditions under which important laws could be passed in the service of ending sectarian political divisions and bloodshed. But in leaving parliament, many lawmakers blamed al-Maliki, saying he had failed to send them any legislation to consider.
"Even if we sit next month, there's no guarantee that important business will be done," said Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish legislator. The parliament already had extended its session by a month, having initially planned a recess for July and August.
Separately, officials said the Kurdish chief of staff of Iraq's armed forces, Gen. Babaker B. Shawkat Zebari, had submitted his resignation to al-Maliki on Sunday but that the Iraqi leader rejected it.
Prominent Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said Zebari had been frustrated by what he believed was excessive interference by the Shiite prime minister and the Sunni Arab defense minister.
Zebari could not be reached for comment, and it was not immediately clear whether he had agreed to stay on. His action, however, adds to the troubles of the embattled al-Maliki, who also holds the position of armed forces' commander in chief.
Also Monday, a U.S. Marine was killed while conducting combat operations in the vast Anbar province west of Baghdad, the military said.
The attack raised to at least 73 the number of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq in July, the lowest number since November 2006, when at least 70 U.S. deaths were reported. The monthly toll topped 100 in April, May and June.
In all, at least 3,652 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.
The No. 2 commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, expressed cautious optimism last week about the downturn. He said casualties had increased as U.S. forces expanded operations into militant strongholds as part of a five-month-old security crackdown aimed at clamping off violence in Baghdad, but were going down as Americans gained control of the areas.
"It's an initial positive sign, but I would argue we need a bit more time to make an assessment whether it's a true trend," he said then.
An unmanned U.S. drone also crashed late Monday while landing at an air base north of Baghdad, but it did not appear to be from hostile activity, the military said separately.
The U.S. has an estimated two dozen or more unmanned MQ-1 Predators doing surveillance over Iraq. They have become mainstays of the U.S. war effort, offering round-the-clock airborne "eyes" watching over road convoys, tracking nighttime insurgent movements via infrared sensors, and occasionally unleashing one of their two Hellfire missiles on a target.
CHRIS WALLACE CLEANS FEINGOLDS CLOCK AS HE ADMITS DEMS HAVE NO EVIDENCE GONZALEZ DID
by ANYTHING WRONG! ANOTHER LIBERAL SURRENDER
FEINGOLD AKNOWLEDGES GONZALEZ WITCH HUNT, AS THERE IS NO SMOKING GUN! THEN FEINGOLD ADMITS DEMOCRATS ONLY WIN IS MINIUM WAGE INCREASE! TOTAL SURRENDER ONCE AGAIN BY A LIBERAL
Chris Wallace says, "Senator, according to this morning's New York Times, Alberto Gonzales may actually have been right. The dispute may have been over -- it's very technical -- the computer searches of databases not the interception of phone calls. But in any point it's a very technical issue we're discussing here. Does this really rise to the level of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the attorney general for perjury?"
FEINGOLD: You bet it does. This is technical, and it is classified, but there's really nothing more important than not having the attorney general of the United States tell false statements to Congress about these programs and about what's going on. Now, the truth is that the attorney general, in my view, has at least lied to Congress and may have committed perjury. And I think we need to have somebody who is able to look at both the classified and non-classified material in a way that he can actually determine whether or not criminal charges have to be pursued.
Chris Wallace then says, "Senator, wouldn't the American people rather see Congress do something about lowering drug prices, about energy policy, about student loans, all part of the Democrat agenda that you haven't passed so far rather than engage in this political theater?"
FEINGOLD: That's just not true. We have passed a major energy bill in the Senate. We have passed major legislation on student lowers and higher education.
FEINGOLD: Well, the fact is a minimum wage increase got through Congress.
WALLACE : "Can you point to a single smoking gun, any hard evidence that the White House has done anything legal?"
FEINGOLD: I think clearly with regard to the NSA surveillance program --
WALLACE: No, I'm talking about the US attorneys, sir.
FEINGOLD: I believe they probably have. I can't give you anything definitive on that, but I do believe there's been terrible misconduct and misleading approaches here.
WALLACE: But I think the question is, "Is this really going anywhere?" Is this substantive oversight, or is this political theater? I mean, the point is, on the US attorneys which we're talking about, six-, seven-month investigation, 8500 pages of documents, 14 witnesses, and you say yourself as a member of the Senate judiciary, you haven't found any hard evidence that the White House has broken the law.
FEINGOLD: Well, I happen to think they probably did break the law here --
WALLACE: But do you have any evidence?
FEINGOLD: -- over until we -- well, that's why we're asking for people like Karl Rove and others to come down and testify so we can actually examine the evidence.
A WAR WE JUST MIGHT WIN! NOW THE LIBERAL NEW YORK TIMES IS ABOUT TO SURRENDER TO THE IDEA
by OF VICTORY! MORE BAD NEWS FOR LIBERALS
A War We Just Might Win
By MICHAEL E. O’HANLON and KENNETH M. POLLACK
Washington
VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.
After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.
Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.
Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.
In Ramadi, for example, we talked with an outstanding Marine captain whose company was living in harmony in a complex with a (largely Sunni) Iraqi police company and a (largely Shiite) Iraqi Army unit. He and his men had built an Arab-style living room, where he met with the local Sunni sheiks — all formerly allies of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups — who were now competing to secure his friendship.
In Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood, which has seen some of the worst sectarian combat, we walked a street slowly coming back to life with stores and shoppers. The Sunni residents were unhappy with the nearby police checkpoint, where Shiite officers reportedly abused them, but they seemed genuinely happy with the American soldiers and a mostly Kurdish Iraqi Army company patrolling the street. The local Sunni militia even had agreed to confine itself to its compound once the Americans and Iraqi units arrived.
We traveled to the northern cities of Tal Afar and Mosul. This is an ethnically rich area, with large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. American troop levels in both cities now number only in the hundreds because the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate. Reliable police officers man the checkpoints in the cities, while Iraqi Army troops cover the countryside. A local mayor told us his greatest fear was an overly rapid American departure from Iraq. All across the country, the dependability of Iraqi security forces over the long term remains a major question mark.
But for now, things look much better than before. American advisers told us that many of the corrupt and sectarian Iraqi commanders who once infested the force have been removed. The American high command assesses that more than three-quarters of the Iraqi Army battalion commanders in Baghdad are now reliable partners (at least for as long as American forces remain in Iraq).
In addition, far more Iraqi units are well integrated in terms of ethnicity and religion. The Iraqi Army’s highly effective Third Infantry Division started out as overwhelmingly Kurdish in 2005. Today, it is 45 percent Shiite, 28 percent Kurdish, and 27 percent Sunni Arab.
In the past, few Iraqi units could do more than provide a few “jundis” (soldiers) to put a thin Iraqi face on largely American operations. Today, in only a few sectors did we find American commanders complaining that their Iraqi formations were useless — something that was the rule, not the exception, on a previous trip to Iraq in late 2005.
The additional American military formations brought in as part of the surge, General Petraeus’s determination to hold areas until they are truly secure before redeploying units, and the increasing competence of the Iraqis has had another critical effect: no more whack-a-mole, with insurgents popping back up after the Americans leave.
In war, sometimes it’s important to pick the right adversary, and in Iraq we seem to have done so. A major factor in the sudden change in American fortunes has been the outpouring of popular animus against Al Qaeda and other Salafist groups, as well as (to a lesser extent) against Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.
These groups have tried to impose Shariah law, brutalized average Iraqis to keep them in line, killed important local leaders and seized young women to marry off to their loyalists. The result has been that in the last six months Iraqis have begun to turn on the extremists and turn to the Americans for security and help. The most important and best-known example of this is in Anbar Province, which in less than six months has gone from the worst part of Iraq to the best (outside the Kurdish areas). Today the Sunni sheiks there are close to crippling Al Qaeda and its Salafist allies. Just a few months ago, American marines were fighting for every yard of Ramadi; last week we strolled down its streets without body armor.
Another surprise was how well the coalition’s new Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams are working. Wherever we found a fully staffed team, we also found local Iraqi leaders and businessmen cooperating with it to revive the local economy and build new political structures. Although much more needs to be done to create jobs, a new emphasis on microloans and small-scale projects was having some success where the previous aid programs often built white elephants.
In some places where we have failed to provide the civilian manpower to fill out the reconstruction teams, the surge has still allowed the military to fashion its own advisory groups from battalion, brigade and division staffs. We talked to dozens of military officers who before the war had known little about governance or business but were now ably immersing themselves in projects to provide the average Iraqi with a decent life.
Outside Baghdad, one of the biggest factors in the progress so far has been the efforts to decentralize power to the provinces and local governments. But more must be done. For example, the Iraqi National Police, which are controlled by the Interior Ministry, remain mostly a disaster. In response, many towns and neighborhoods are standing up local police forces, which generally prove more effective, less corrupt and less sectarian. The coalition has to force the warlords in Baghdad to allow the creation of neutral security forces beyond their control.
In the end, the situation in Iraq remains grave. In particular, we still face huge hurdles on the political front. Iraqi politicians of all stripes continue to dawdle and maneuver for position against one another when major steps towards reconciliation — or at least accommodation — are needed. This cannot continue indefinitely. Otherwise, once we begin to downsize, important communities may not feel committed to the status quo, and Iraqi security forces may splinter along ethnic and religious lines.
How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008.
Michael E. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Kenneth M. Pollack is the director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.
Jul 31 12:17 PM US/Eastern
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Consumer confidence hit a six-year high in July, a widely watched gauge of sentiment showed on Tuesday, as Americans shrugged off falling home prices to focus on a healthy jobs market, instead.
The New York-based Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index, rebounded to 112.6, its highest level since August 2001 when it recorded a 114.0 reading. That compared to a revised 105.3 in June. The July 24 cutoff for the preliminary survey of 5,000 U.S. households was before last week's stock market tumble, however.
"An improvement in business conditions and the job market has lifted consumers' spirits in July," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "Looking ahead, consumers are more upbeat about short-term economic prospects, mainly the result of a decline in the number of pessimists, not an increase in the number of optimists. This rebound in confidence suggests economic activity may gather a little momentum in the coming months."
The Present Situation index, which measures how shoppers feel now about economic conditions, increased to 139.2 from 129.9 in June. That was the highest level since August 2001's 144.5 reading. The Expectations Index, which measures shoppers' outlook for the next six months, rose to 94.8 from 88.8.
Economists closely monitor confidence since consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity.
The report on consumer confidence was encouraging and may help alleviate investor concerns about consumer spending amid a softening housing market that shows no sign of improvement. There have been also worries that high gasoline prices will continue to eat into consumers' ability to spend for other things. While prices at the pump have declined recently, they are still higher than a year ago and are expected to tick up after the Labor Day weekend.
"It is encouraging in light of high energy prices, volatility of the stock market and the weak housing market that consumers didn't flinch," said Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C. "My general sense is that the economy is finding its footing."
On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's reported that its home prices index fell for a fifth consecutive month in May, marking the gauge's steepest drop in about 16 years.
Last week, the Commerce Department said that sales of single-family homes fell 6.6 percent in June, the fifth decline in the last six months and the largest drop since January. The National Association of Realtors reported last week that sales of existing homes fell by 3.8 percent in June to the slowest level in nearly five years.
Concern about the housing market and jitters about the lending environment led to a stock market tumble late last week, though the market clawed back some territory this week as investors focused on the good news such as strong earnings reports. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 2.63, or 0.18 percent, at 1,476.54 in trading Tuesday.
The Commerce Department allayed some inflation fears Tuesday when it reported that year-over-year core personal consumption expenditures increased 1.9 percent. That rate is within the Federal Reserve's comfort zone.
Investors seemed to ignore Tuesday's report from the Commerce Department that personal spending rose 0.1 percent, its slowest pace in nine months.
A healthy outlook for jobs has been helping consumers. The Labor Department is expected to show an increase in 135,000 jobs in July when it reports monthly figures on Friday. The unemployment rate is projected to be steady at 4.5 percent.
In the Conference Board report, consumers were more upbeat about the job market than the prior month. Those saying that jobs are "hard to get" declined to 18.4 percent from 20.5 percent. Those claiming jobs are "plentiful" improved to 30.5 percent from 27.6 percent in June.
The six-month outlook for the labor market continued to be mixed. Consumers expecting more jobs in the months ahead was unchanged at 14.1 percent, while those anticipating fewer jobs decreased to 15.1 percent from 17.0 percent. The proportion of consumers expecting their incomes to increase in the months ahead declined to 18.8 percent from 19.4 percent in June.
POSITIVE REPORT BY PETRAEUS COULD SPLIT HOUSE DEMOCRATS ON WAR
by HALF WANT DEFEAT, HALF WANT TO SURRENDER!
Clyburn: Positive Report by Petraeus Could Split House Democrats on War
By Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer and Washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, July 30, 2007; 6:26 PM
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.
Clyburn, in an interview with the washingtonpost.com video program PostTalk, said Democrats might be wise to wait for the Petraeus report, scheduled to be delivered in September, before charting next steps in their year-long struggle with President Bush over the direction of U.S. strategy.
Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.
"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us," Clyburn said. "We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report."
Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be "a real big problem for us."
Clyburn's comments came as House and Senate Democrats try to figure out their next steps in the legislative battle. Clyburn said he could foresee a circumstance in which House Democrats approve a measure without a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces, which has been the consistent goal of the party throughout the months-long debate. But he said he could just as easily see Democrats continue to include a timetable.
Clyburn also address the reasons behind declining approval ratings for Congress, which spiked earlier in the year when Democrats took over the House and Senate. The most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed just 37 percent approving of the performance of Congress.
"Remember right after the election it went very high on approval,?" he said. "Then all of a sudden people saw that we were not yielding the kind of result that they wanted to yield."
He said most Americans still do not know some of the domestic legislation that has been approved. Fewer understand that, despite Democratic majorities in both houses, that it takes 60 votes to pass anything legislation in the Senate.
Clyburn noted that while overall approval ratings of Congress are low, people still rate Democrats higher than Republicans. "People feel good about the Democratic Party, they just don't feel real good about the Congress itself."
The Defeat Agenda Is A Trap For Democrats
Jul 30 2007 12:00AM http://sayanythingblog.com/index.php
The Brookings Institution, not known for its conservative leanings, had several of its players hit the ball out the park yesterday in two articles: 'Political Cover For Whom?' by Peter W. Rodman and 'A War We Just Might Win' by Michael E. O'Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack.
Rodman first tells us that because things have vastly improved in Iraq, it makes it much harder for the anti-war types to end the war in a way that does not make the Democrats own the inevitable defeat that follows:
The huge strategic stakes in the Middle East argue for resisting calls for any U.S. withdrawal not warranted by conditions in Iraq. The irony is that whoever is elected president next year from whichever party will come to understand this better than anyone.
Well, is a withdrawal warranted by conditions in Iraq? Not according to fellow Brookings wonks O'Hanlon and Pollack. Breaking out of their previous deep pessimisms regarding Mesopotamia, the two see real changes for the better and greatly improved morale for our troops due to the effectiveness of our efforts.
None of this is good news for the Democrats who profit politically from the Iraq 'quagmire'. Bush, savaged by the left for invading Iraq, is not letting them saddle a defeat on him as well. If the Democrats want defeat, they have to ante up - which they have wisely refused to do. Much better to drag out the 'quagmire' while it hurts Bush politically than to actually, you know, end the war. Bush is, after all, the true enemy
DEMOCRATS DESPERATE TO SURRENDER BEFORE AMERICA CAN WIN. OF COURSE, THE DEMOCRATS ARE
by THE PARTY OF GLOOM, DOOM AND DESPAIR!
Dems Desperate to Surrender Before We Can Win
The American Daily
By Doug Patton (07/30/07)
It is hard to comprehend the fact that there are people in the United States Congress who are so addicted to power they actually want America to lose the war in Iraq in order to obtain it. Yet that is exactly what is happening with Democrats running the show. They couch their cowardice in high-minded lies about supporting the troops but not the mission, but the truth is much less complicated. They cannot stand the idea that "George Bush's war," as Hillary Clinton likes to call it, might actually succeed.
As former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday, “The left wing of the Democratic Party is deeply opposed to American victory and deeply committed to American defeat.”
Gingrich’s statements of late have been bold, blunt and controversial, much as one might expect from someone looking for an opportunity to jump into the Republican race for president. This interview was no exception. He compared the Democrats’ betrayal of our allies in Iraq to their abandonment of the South Vietnamese.
“In 1975, when there were no Americans left in Vietnam,” Gingrich said, “the left wing of the Democratic Party killed the government of South Vietnam, cut off all of its ammunition, and sent a signal to the world that the United States had abandoned its allies. What I would say to any Democrat who wants America to leave is quite simple. Millions of Iraqis have sided with the United States. They are known in their neighborhoods. They are known in their cities. If we abandon them, they are going to be massacred.”
And so are we, if we surrender.
Appeasement is not a virtue among our Islamist enemies. It is a sign of weakness. The stupidity of thinking that defeat is the solution to our dilemma in Iraq is, at best, ill-advised, and at worst, irrational. It is a signal to our enemies around the world that, a mere generation after our embarrassing retreat from Southeast Asia, we are still unable or unwilling to keep our commitments to our friends. Is there a clear-thinking American who can’t see that this is an engraved invitation to the Islamist fanatics of the world to prey upon our obvious weaknesses?
General David Patraeus has been assigned the unenviable task of making the troop surge work in Iraq, and early indications are that he is beginning to have some success. Violence against American troops is down in Baghdad. As Gingrich points out, millions of Iraqis have put themselves on the line to support our efforts. With our help, they might just win this war and have a democratic society of their own.
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., one of the left’s most reliable appeasers, appeared on the same program as Gingrich. Feingold told interviewer Chris Wallace, “I do not buy the notion that the surge is working. I do not buy the notion that somehow Petraeus is going to be able to tell us that things are moving in the right direction. And in fact, he’ll come back in September and he’s going to say, ‘Let’s wait until the end of the year.’”
Feingold and most other Democrats are so bent on losing before we can win, they don’t even want to wait for Patraeus’ report in September. They are desperate to surrender.
Gingrich put it best: “We are faced with evil opponents. Those opponents need to be defeated. And if General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker come back in September and say, ‘We actually can win this thing,’ I want to understand the rationale that says, ‘No, we don’t want to let America win. Let’s legislate defeat for the United States.’”
That is the real agenda of the Democrats — surrender before we can win.
IRAN OPPOSES ARMS DEAL WITH THE SAUDIS! ONCE AGAIN THE LIBERALS
by AND THE TERRORISTS SHARE A COMMON CAUSE
NOT ONLY THAT, NOW THE IRANIANS SHARE A PROCLIVITY TO BACK TRACK ON THEIR STATEMENTS JUST LIKE THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS! NOW IRAN SAYS THE ARMS SALE IS NOT IMPORTANT? WONDER WHY THEY SURRENDERED? THE TERRORISTS AND THE LIBERALS ARE MORE ALIKE EVERY DAY..........
ISNA - Tehran
Service: Foreign Policy
TEHRAN, July 31 (ISNA)-Iran's parliament national security council and foreign policy chief stated that Iran did not consider the new weapon deal between the U.S. and Arab states "important".
"The multibillion-dollar military sales package for Arab states and Israel is not a new issue and is in line with the U.S. policy to enforce the Israeli military after its defeat in the summer 2006 war against Lebanon," said Aladdin Broujerdi.
"What is also obvious is that the U.S is trying to ruin relations between the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council and the Islamic Republic of Iran," he added.
"Another reason is that the U.S. is trying to inject some new contract to its weapon industry and companies."
"The White House through transforming the region into a tinderbox is only trying to scare these countries and say that it is Iran that generates insecurity and instability in the region, while it is obvious and all know that it is the U.S. which is behind all regional crises."
"I also believe that the U.S. should understand that modern weaponry can do nothing against the will of nations. This was proved in Iraq, in Lebanon and in the 8 year imposed war which was the greatest international attack against a nation."
The new sales to Arab countries, notably Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states, will be balanced with a more than 25 percent increase in military aid to Israel over the next 10 years, enabling the Zionist regime to keep its qualitative military edge over neighbors with which it has no peace deal.
The weapons package will exceed $20 billion - possibly for just the Saudi portion and additional money for other countries in the region - and has not yet been fully developed. The package will include weapons Saudi Arabia will need over the next decade in four categories:
-Missile defense and early warning systems;
-Ships and other maritime needs to help the Saudis build the capability of their eastern fleet;
-Weapons and equipment to deal with unconventional threats, including terrorism, and to help protect their infrastructure;
-Counter-proliferation weaponry.
Specifics of the sales to Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf nations like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, will be determined in the coming weeks, according to Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, Washington's third-ranking diplomat.
In addition, Israel will receive a total of $30 billion in U.S. military assistance, up from about $24 billion, while Egypt, which along with Jordan has made peace with Israel, will get $13 billion as part of the broader package.
