Bush Stays the Course As 2,826 U.S. Soldiers Die

101 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq during October--the worst U.S. monthly death toll since the unprovoked war began. While there may not be any WMDs in Iraq, there are Halliburton contracts worth more than $10 billion.

A report by the inspector general's office overseeing Iraq spending found that at least 55 percent, or $163 million, of $296 million in total costs rung up by Halliburton unit KBR went to expenses such as back-office support, transportation and security. That percentage was significantly higher than it was on work by other firms in Iraq, and experts said it is far above what is typically found on a government contract. KBR is reimbursed for its costs and then receives a percentage for profit on top, an arrangement that critics contend has given the firm an incentive to run up its bills.

That must be some consolation to President Bush and Vice President Cheney, as the U.S. death toll three and one half years after MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! rises to 2,826.
President Bush won't ever agree to remove U.S. troops from Iraq. When the WMD pretext was shown to be a sham, he switched our reason for being there to creating democracy in Iraq. When Iraqis wrote their constitution and had parliamentary elections, Bush said we couldn't leave until all the "terrorists" who wanted U.S. troops out were "defeated." This is, of course, impossible, since they are Iraqis who (1) live there and (2) want us out of their country as badly as the Minutemen wanted to oust the British a few years back.

The November 7 elections will be a referendum on the GOP bait-and-switch policy that's cost the U.S. taxpayer more than $300 billion, money that could have been spent at home on useful projects, as well as the hideous death toll for U.S., coalition forces and Iraqi soldiers and civilians.

No Bush Left Behind

Bush's family profits from 'No Child Left Behind' act

By Walter F. Roche Jr., Los Angeles Times

A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act.

With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and other backers, Neil Bush's company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally.

At least 13 U.S. school districts have used federal funds available through the president's signature education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, to buy Ignite's portable learning centers at $3,800 apiece.

Corruption Creeps Into the White House

(AP) A key aide to presidential political strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday in the wake of a U.S. congressional report that listed hundreds of contacts between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House.

Susan Ralston, special assistant to President George W. Bush, submitted a resignation letter to him less than five weeks before the Nov. 7 elections.

Critics have pointed to Ralston as evidence that Rove — and thus Bush — are possibly closer to Abramoff than the White House has acknowledged. Ralston was Abramoff's administrative assistant at his lobbying firm and, after Bush took office, assumed the same post with Rove.

The Neys Have It

Ohio GOP Congressman Admits Guilt In Congressional Corruption Probe

(AP) Rep. Bob Ney has abandoned months of defiant denials and agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges in the congressional corruption probe spawned by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.


Ney, R-Ohio, will plead guilty to two counts: conspiracy and making false statements. Each charge carries a five-year mandatory penalty, but if Ney goes along with all requirements of the plea, the government has agreed to recommend to the court a sentence of 27 months.

Ney became the first lawmaker to admit wrongdoing in the election-year investigation.

Real President Helps Children

GOP Snacks on Children;
Democrats Help Kids to Healthier Snacks
While Bush, Rove, Hastert and other Republican leaders work overtime to cover up their congressional page sexual harassment scandal, Bill Clinton has done something that will actually help children.

(AP) - Snacks sold in U.S. schools will have to cut the fat, sugar and salt under the latest crackdown on junk food won by former President Clinton.

Five months after a similar agreement targeting the sale of carbonated soft drinks in schools, Mr. Clinton and the American Heart Association announced a deal Friday with several major food companies to make school snacks healthier — the latest assault on the nation's childhood obesity epidemic.

The agreement with Kraft Foods Inc., Mars Inc., Campbell Soup Co., Groupe Danone SA and PepsiCo Inc. sets guidelines for fat, sugar, sodium and calories for snack foods sold in school vending machines, stores and snack bars.

Bush Again Flouts Law

President asserts power to edit privacy reports

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department’s reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists.

In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints.

But Bush, in a signing statement attached to the agency’s 2007 spending bill, said he will interpret that section “in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch.”

Privacy advocate Marc Rotenberg said Bush is trying to subvert lawmakers’ ability to accurately monitor activities of the executive branch of government.

“The Homeland Security Department has been setting up watch lists to determine who gets on planes, who gets government jobs, who gets employed,” said Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

GOP Family Values

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We're All on the Same Page

ABC News reports three more former congressional pages have come forward with gruesome details of Republican family values, as practiced by disgraced Congressman Mark Foley and covered up by House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

"I was seventeen years old and just returned to [my home state] when Foley began to e-mail me, asking if I had ever seen my page roommates naked and how big their penises were," said the page in the 2002 class.

The former page also said Foley told him that if he happened to be in Washington, D.C., he could stay at Foley's home if he "would engage in oral sex" with Foley.

The second page says Foley actually visited the old page dorm and offered rides to events in his BMW.

"His e-mails developed into sexually explicit conversations, and he asked me for photographs of my erect penis," the former page said.

The third page, a graduate of the 1998 page class, said Foley's instant messages began while he was a senior in high school.

"Foley would say he was sitting in his boxers and ask what I was wearing," the page said.

"It became more weird, and I stopped responding," the page said.

All three pages described similar instant message and e-mail patterns, with remarkably similar escalations of provocative questions.

"He didn't want to talk about politics," the page said. "He wanted to talk about sex or my penis," the page said.

George Will on Foley Cover-Up

The modern twist to the fall of Foley -- public protector and private predator of children -- is the warp speed with which it moved from exposé to therapy: Foley, who has entered alcohol rehab, says he takes "responsibility" for what he has become as a result of abusive priests and demon rum.

Having so quickly exhausted the Oprah approach, the Foley story moved on to who knew what, and when. That drove Speaker Dennis Hastert to the un-Oprah broadcasting couch on which Republicans recline when getting in touch with their feelings. To Rush Limbaugh's 20 million receptive listeners, Hastert, referring to Republicans as "we," said:

"We have a story to tell, and the Democrats have -- in my view have -- put this thing forward to try to block us from telling the story. They're trying to put us on defense."

It is difficult to read that as other than an accusation: He seems to be not just confessing a coverup but also complaining that the coverup was undone by bad manners. Were it not for Democrats' unsportsmanlike conduct in putting "this thing" forward, it would not be known and would not be disrupting Republicans' storytelling.