No more lies - Time to "Stop the War"

The Harris Poll. Nov. 8-13, 2005. N=1,011 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
.

"Do you favor keeping a large number of U.S. troops in Iraq until there is a stable government there OR bringing most of our troops home in the next year?"


Wait for Stable Government - - - 35%
Bring Home In Next Year - - - - - 63%
Unsure - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3%

Protest Reassembles in Crawford
Opponents of War in Iraq Plan to Remain Near Bush Ranch

By Rosalind S. Helderman

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 26, 2005; Page A05

CRAWFORD, Tex., Nov. 25 -- Cindy Sheehan has returned to the dusty town of Crawford, where she was transformed from a grieving mother into a symbol of the movement against the Iraq war. ...

"Are you confident that Iraq will be successful in developing a stable and reasonably democratic government?"

Yes - - 32%
No - - 61%
Unsure - 7%

Santa Rosa lawmaker heralded movement to withdraw troops
By Jim Puzzanghera

Mercury News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Long before the issue of withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq exploded in Congress earlier this month, a Bay Area congresswoman had been leading a sometimes lonely fight to bring the troops home.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Santa Rosa, was the first to introduce legislation calling for withdrawal, on Jan. 26, making the 68-year-old grandmother the unofficial matriarch of the movement in Congress. ...

"Do you believe the insurgents in Iraq are being contained by security forces or are they getting the upper hand?"

.
Being Contained - - - - 41%
Getting Upper Hand - - 44%
Unsure - - - - - - - - - - 14%

Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake

By Alicia Mundy

Seattle Times Washington bureau

...

...Dicks says the Pentagon should begin a phased withdrawal and leave some troops to help maintain order and train a new Iraq army. "We've got to be very concerned that Iraq comes out of this whole," he said.

But he added, "We can't take forever."

Some people say it takes eight to nine years to control an insurgency, Dicks said.

"I don't think the American people will give eight to nine years, and I sure as heck won't."

Can we be a "SuperPower" if our economy sucks rocks?

... I noticed this story

U.S. to cut Canada lumber tariffs

MATTHEW DALY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Commerce Department said Tuesday it will comply with a NAFTA panel's order to drastically cut U.S. duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber.U.S. officials said they disagree with the rationale behind the ruling but respect the panel's authority. Canada supplies about one-third of the U.S. market for softwood, which is easily sawed pine, spruce and other wood used in homebuilding. ...

And, I couldn't help but wonder why the Busheviks would suddenly start honoring international agreements. A little pondering brought me to the conclusions that it's an effort to off-set rising mortage rates and keep the 'Housing Market' from going (excuse the expression) teets-up... and dragging the rest of the economy with it.

As housing market cools off, so does employment growth

By DANIEL GROSS The New York Times

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2005

There's a growing consensus that the housing market is cooling off. This month, Toll Brothers, the luxury home builder, warned that sales of McMansions were falling, and its highflying stock fell to earth. Last Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that housing starts, a reliable gauge of present activity, fell 5.6 percent in October from year-ago levels, while building permits, a reliable gauge of future activity, fell 6.7 percent. ...

... If the frothy regional markets go flat or if prices simply stop rising at the rates of recent years, there will surely be wide-ranging economic effects on consumer spending and on jobs. "Housing and the job markets are joined at the hip," Mr. Zandi said. "And if housing cools, so too will hiring and the job market more broadly, particularly in the more juiced-up housing markets."

If housing prices are flat in 2006 and residential investment falls 5 percent, there could be a direct loss of a few hundred thousand jobs related to real estate, Mr. Hatzius said. And the indirect effects will certainly be larger, Mr. Zandi said: "Housing is going to go from being a key contributor to the job engine to being a significant drag on job growth." ...

The biggest sectors of our economy are the "Housing Market" and "Consumer Spending". Consumer spending has remained high because House prices have been inflating, allowing people to keep 'refinancing' their homes to fuel their consumer spending... House prices stop inflating, consumer spending drops off.

McGovern

i really loved Dick's comment, an excerpt from the new movie "One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern"
DICK GREGORY: Nixon was good for black folk, because he scared white folk.

hear/read Amy Goodman interview with George McGovern at Democracy Now

Mark Morford

George W. Bush Gives Me Hope The astonishing collapse of the Bumbling One surely means healthy change is imminent, right?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, November 18, 2005 now part of stylesheet -->

Here's the good news: It really can't get much worse.
We cannot afford any more wars. The environment has been sold to the bone. The national spirit has been beaten like an Alaskan baby seal and the GOP has worked our last nerve, passed through the karmic blood-brain barrier, reached saturation to the point where even moderate Repubs and gobs of intelligent Christians are finally saying, Oh my God, what have we done, and how did it all go so wrong, and how much Prozac and wine and praying to a very disappointed Jesus will it take to fix it?
full article
Mark's archive

dicked again.....

it never stops....they steal from us to steal from us...jez!!!!!!

Cheney Sidesteps Travel Disclosure Rules
Unlike the rest of the White House, Cheney refuses to make his outside travel public

WASHINGTON, November 16, 2005 — Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff have been unilaterally exempting themselves from long-standing travel disclosure rules followed by the rest of the executive branch, including the Office of the President, the Center for Public Integrity has discovered.

Cheney's office also appears to have stuck taxpayers with untold millions in travel costs rather than accepting trip sponsors' funds that the rules would require to be disclosed.
full article

yikes!!!

US Congress moves to cut delays in death sentences
Thursday, November 17, 2005--
Web posted at: 11/17/2005 2:19:28Source ::: Reuters

WASHINGTON: Republicans in the US Congress said yesterday they were moving ahead with legislation that would speed up executions in the United States by limiting the ability of those sentenced to death to appeal to federal courts.
Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter said he intended to bring the so-called "Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005" to a vote today in the Judiciary Committee which he chairs. A similar bill is also moving forward in the House of Representatives and could clear the committee stage soon.
full article

Riverbend

what a concept....an Iraqi's opinion on Iraq

............Americans constantly tell me, “What do you think will happen if we pull out of Iraq- those same radicals you fear will take over.” The reality is that most Iraqis don’t like fundamentalists and only want stability- most Iraqis wouldn’t stand for an Iran-influenced Iraq. The American military presence is working hand in hand with Badir, etc. because only together with Iran can they suppress anti-occupation Iraqis all over the country. If and when the Americans leave, their Puppets and militias will have to pack up and return to wherever they came from because without American protection and guidance they don’t stand a chance.

We literally laugh when we hear the much subdued threats American politicians make towards Iran. The US can no longer afford to threaten Iran because they know that should the followers of Sadr, Iranian cleric Sistani and Badir’s Brigade people rise up against the Americans, they’d have to be out of Iraq within a month. Iran can do what it wants- enrich uranium? Of course! If Tehran declared tomorrow that it was currently in negotiations for a nuclear bomb, Bush would have to don his fake pilot suit again, gush enthusiastically about the War on Terror and then threaten Syria some more.

Congratulations Americans- not only are the hardliner Iranian clerics running the show in Iran- they are also running the show in Iraq. This shift of power should have been obvious to the world when My-Loyalty-to-the-Highest-Bidder-Chalabi sold his allegiance to Iran last year. American and British sons and daughters and husbands and wives are dying so that this coming December, Iraqis can go out and vote for Iran influenced clerics to knock us back a good four hundred years.

What happened to the dream of a democratic Iraq?

Iraq has been the land of dreams for everyone except Iraqis- the Persian dream of a Shia controlled Islamic state modeled upon Iran and inclusive of the holy shrines in Najaf, the pan-Arab nationalist dream of a united Arab region with Iraq acting as its protective eastern border, the American dream of controlling the region by installing permanent bases and a Puppet government in one of its wealthiest countries, the Kurdish dream of an independent Kurdish state financed by the oil wealth in Kirkuk…

The Puppets the Americans empowered are advocates of every dream except the Iraqi one: The dream of Iraqi Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen… the dream of a united, stable, prosperous Iraq which has, over the last two years, gone up in the smoke of car bombs, military raids and a foreign occupation.
complete post Sunday, November 06, 2005

Republicans to investigate... Republicans!

The American people don't like people who expose our secret agents

WASHINGTON - The recent indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide has struck a nerve with the American public. Four in five, 79 percent, said the indictment of former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and other charges is important to the nation, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Pew noted that in September 1998, 65 percent said President Clinton's lies under oath were important.

In an attempt to change the subject and thinking they can smear Democrats, Frist & Delay want to investigate who told about CIA secret prisons... They're NOT interested in the secret prisons or what goes on inside.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday called for a congressional leak investigation into who told the news media about previously undisclosed U.S. interrogation centers abroad.

"If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," Frist and Hastert said in a letter. ...

Nancy Pelosi says 'good' lets really get into abuses of classified information.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in reaction to news reports that Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Frist have called for a congressional investigation into who leaked to The Washington Post the existence of secret U.S. prisons abroad:

"If Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Frist are finally ready to join Democrats' demands for an investigation of possible abuses of classified information, they must direct the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to investigate all aspects of that issue. That includes the possible manipulation of pre-war intelligence on Iraq, and the disclosure for political purposes of classified information involving the identity of the CIA officer. There is plenty to investigate about the Bush Administrations' use and misuse of intelligence; the American people deserve the truth."

... And then! Trent Lott says 'Republicans done it'!!

CNN's Ed Henry: "Trent Lott stunned reporters by declaring that this subject was actualy discussed at a Senate Republican luncheon, Republican senators only, last tuesday the day before the story ran in the Washington Post. Lott noted that Vice President Cheney was also in the room for that discussion and Lott said point blank "a lot of it came out of that room last tuesday, pointing to the room where the lunch was held in the capitol." He added of senators "we can't keep our mouths shut." He added about the vice president, "He was up here last wek and talked up here in that room right there in a roomful of nothing but senators and every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper." He said he believes when all is said and done it may wind up as an ethics investigation of a Republican senator, maybe a Republican staffer as well. Senator Frist's office not commenting on this development. The Washington Post not commenting either."

Watch for record breaking back-peddling as the Republicans try to un-screw themselves.

brace yourself effie

here it comes again.
I just heard an interview Thom Hartmann did with Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans united for separation of church and state. He warned that the Delay crowd would be putting forward legislation to allow tax-exempt status to churches that endorse candidates within the next few months. No other charitable organizations would be receiving this status. And that doesn’t even go to the issue of how important it is for both( government and religion) to be separate. It is vital for both to thrive. Just hoping we can be out ahead on this disastrous proposal. These people are power hungry, morally bankrupt thugs. and that's the nicest thing i can think of to say about them...........

kick em' when they're down

this whole demonizing of the "other" got into full swing in the reagan years with the welfare queens and their caddies.....in a recent conversation with a lock-step republican loyalist "they" were referred to as if, well, everyone knows who we are talking about. the right wing hate mongers have provided a megaphone to get this message out and they have done their job. so now, as they borrow from future generations and steal, they have planted in many people's minds where to look for the blame. wake up sheeple, they are stealing all our treasure!

.............If the budget cuts passed by the US senate on Thursday are anything to go by, the whole thing will end in tears. Republicans - disgracefully - targeted most of the cuts on the elderly and the poor through restructuring (ie cutting) some Medicare and Medicaid programmes. Worst of all, part of the cuts originally aimed (creditably) at cutting America's ludicrously high agriculture subsidies was amended so the brunt would be taken by chopping $844m from food stamps for the poor rather than from farm subsidies. Meanwhile, Republicans are hoping to pass yet more tax cuts for the wealthy. An administration that can tackle a serious budget problem in this way deserves all that may be coming to it.

more.......
.......Race and gender discrimination may not be the most screwed-up thing about welfare deform, but it is one of the few areas in which legal rights exist. These rights give us some handles and could give us a legitimate opening into the welfare reauthorization debate. We could initiate actions to put race and gender discrimination on the welfare reform radar screen, demand and win resolution to key individual cases, and secure new regulations from state welfare agencies and federal agencies responsible for civil rights enforcement. After all, if work is going to be the "solution" to all that is wrong with welfare, then the work arena has to operate fairly.

the coming generational wars

or so they bush crime family would have us believe......as they borrow and spend/steal, they are charging our children and their children and then pitting us against them. how much longer will Americans stand by and watch them transfer our wealth to the haves and have-mores.(they make no bones about calling them "their base" )

The perfect economic storm
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Froma Harrop / Syndicated columnist
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America should prepare for a big fat war between the generations. It's going to be ugly. On one side is the baby-boom generation, which retires and claims a ton of government benefits. On the other are younger workers, forced to fund those benefits plus pay the bills their elders left them.
When the war comes, the Federal Reserve chairman will have to be general. That person will likely be Bush nominee Ben Bernanke. The question is, for which side will he fight?

Huffington Post bloggers index

great list!

Harry

watch Harry give em' hell

David Sirota on Harry's stand..........the timeline published in 2004 is meticulously sourced....beautiful!!!!!

...........The questions - still unanswered nearly 3 years after the war started - can be found in an article my former Center for American Progress colleague Christy Harvey and I wrote back in 2004 called "They Knew." It was an article that took forever to write because it meticulously and chronologically detailed how the Bush administration was selling the country a false bill of goods when it came to Iraq - and how they clearly KNEW they were selling America a false bill of goods. There's been many attempts to deflect attention from this core fact by conservatives - they want the public to believe that the Bush administration may have gotten the facts wrong about Iraq, but that the Bush administration didn't actually KNOW it was getting its facts wrong. But as the article shows, the cold, hard evidence shows that THEY KNEW.
full article