Republicans Have a Narrow Definition of Life

Honest Politician Locks His Income Tax Returns

in IRS Safe

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un never imagined they would have such a useful tool in the White House

Trump Trumpets His Innocence, Yet Acts Guilty

Trump Upset About the Democratic Plot to Oust Him

Republicans Support Guns Over Human Life

Republican Value NRA Money More Than Life

Republicans Repeat Tax Cut Big Lie

Voodoo economics entails huge welfare payments to corporations and the already rich, in the disproved notion that their generosity will eventually benefit middle class Americans.

When the rich have more money, they will hire more workers -- and the result will be increased tax revenues that pay for the tax cuts.

Ronald Reagan proved it doesn't work.

George W. Bush proved it doesn't work.

Now Donald Trump is repeating the same lie and pretending it will work for him.

 

Mitch McConnell in 2005: 'The President Alone Nominates Judges'

"The Constitution of the United States is at stake. Article II, Section 2 clearly provides that the president, and the president alone, nominates judges. The Senate is empowered to give advice and consent. But my Democratic colleagues want to change the rules. They want to reinterpret the Constitution to require a super-majority for confirmation. In effect, they would take away the power to nominate from the president and grant it to a minority of 41 senators." -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in 2005, defending the absolute right of a sitting president to nominate judges.

This followed Democratic and Republican opposition to President George W. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers, who served as his White House counsel.


CNN
.

A Few of Donald Trump's Greatest Hits


Trump Air, like a presidential term, lasted four years. Then it went bankrupt.

Trump Casinos filed for bankruptcy for the fourth time in 2014.

Trump launched mortgage company in 2006.Housing market collapsed. Company folded in 18 months.

In 2013, the NY Attorney General sued Trump and Trump University for $40 million for allegedly defrauding students. Some students of the "University" are suing Trump, as well.
Trump University lawsuit

Trump campaign insults NH voters' intelligence

By JOSEPH W. McQUAID, Publisher, Manchester Union Leader
December 27, 2015

Donald Trump is due in New Hampshire this evening. He will attract a large crowd. The crowds, the media coverage, and the polls have led him and some pundits to believe that he will win the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

That is an insult to the intelligence of Republican voters. Beginning right here in New Hampshire on Feb. 9, a great majority of them will disabuse him of that notion.

Much of the news media are lavishly covering Trump, not just because he’s good for ratings, but because he’s good for Hillary Clinton. They very much want Trump to be the Republican nominee so that Ms. Hillary can move back into the White House.

Trump can certainly be an entertaining character. He toys with TV journalists and dismisses critics with name-calling that drives the Politically Correct crowd insane. But his public descent into bathroom humor and verbal bullying has been painful, and educational, to watch.

According to Trump: John McCain accepted years of torture by the North Vietnamese but is not Trump’s type of “war hero.” Not that Trump ever served in the military. Carly Fiorina, meanwhile, doesn’t have the “face” Trump would want in the White House; and a reporter who questions a Trump falsehood is to be mimicked and mocked for his physical disability.

Trump has shown himself to be a crude blowhard with no clear political philosophy and no deeper understanding of the important and serious role of President of the United States than one of the goons he lets rough up protesters in his crowds.

He reminds us of the grownup bully “Biff” in the “Back to the Future” movie series. Lo and behold, the screenwriter says that he based Biff on Trump. On Feb. 9, we trust New Hampshire Republicans will send “Biff Trump” back to somewhere — anywhere but on the road to the most important elective office in the United States at a most crucial time for this nation.

Manchester Union Leader

Sarah Palin Supports Abstinence Education 

Daughter Bristol Pays the Price

Sarah Palin has put her estate in Scottsdale, Arizona, up for sale while welcoming the birth of a new granddaughter, as daughter Bristol became a single mother for the second time.


The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has been in the news lately as a defender/advocate for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, with Trump hinting that Palin is potential cabinet material.

The Los Angeles Times first disclosed that the Palins’ digs in the desert are on the market for $2.5 million. The home is 8,000 square feet with six bedrooms, six-and-a-half bathrooms, a six-car garage and high ceilings with chandeliers.  Out back are four acres with a pool, a spa, a sports court, a fire pit plus a synthetic lawn.

Palin cashed in on fame.  She quit in mid-term as governor of Alaska, and in the following year took in an estimated $23 million as book author, Fox News personality and in-demand, six-figure speaker.   She used a limited liability corporation to purchase the Scottsdale home in 2011, then in foreclosure, for $1.65 million.

The fame has faded, although Palin has flirted with two presidential runs.  Fox News did not renew Palin’s contract when it came up in July, and she pulled the plug on the pay-to-view “Sarah Palin Channel” due to low viewership. 

Seattle Post Intelligencer Blog

Donald Who Will Face Down World Leaders Lost to a School Board

L.A. Times

In at least one huge deal in L.A., Trump got schooled

 

Long before his run for president and his reality TV career as the ruthless boss, Trump fought an ugly decade-long battle over a Los Angeles landmark.

It's not an exploit he's bragging about on the campaign trail. The prize was the Ambassador Hotel. A legendary Hollywood celebrity hangout and the site of the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, it had endured a long downward spiral before closing in 1989.

The Board of Education already had its eye on the property for a badly needed high school when a Trump syndicate swooped it up for $64 million in 1989 and announced plans to erect a 125-story office tower.
The school board countered with a 7-0 vote to take the property from Trump via eminent domain.
Usually that would start a process in which the parties and their appraisers, or a court, would settle on a price. But not when one of the parties was Trump.

His team launched a fierce lobbying campaign to block a $50-million state allocation to help the district buy the property. Goldberg, then the president of the school board, took on the notoriously tough negotiator.

Roused by Goldberg, protesters outside the Ambassador chanted "Dump Trump" and carried signs saying, "Public need over private greed."

In January 1991, he and his partners decided to take the nearly $48-million deposit the school board offered as part of its eminent domain condemnation suit.

In doing so, Trump Wilshire Associates, in effect, conceded the district's right to take the property.

Two and a half years later, as the eminent domain suit was set to go to trial, the school board abruptly dropped its bid to buy the land. The recession had driven the property's value down to $50 million, and Horton saw no reason to pay the previously estimated value of $74 million.

Barbara Res, executive vice president for Trump Wilshire Associates,  accused the district of duplicity, saying it reneged on a promise to pay $82 million for the entire 23.5-acre site "because they said politically it wasn't a good idea." Horton discounted that, saying the offer was only "a potential deal that we didn't accept, because we couldn't figure out a way to pay for it." Early in 1994 a judge sided with the district. Soon Trump, whose share was reported to be 20%, left the partnership with no signature building and little, if any, cash.

 

Trump Economic Strategy: Bankruptcy

Donald Trump -- or companies that bear his name - have declared bankruptcy four times.

Trump has built an American empire from Las Vegas to New York with towering hotels and sparkling casinos. Forbes estimates he's worth $2.7 billion. But not all of Trump's business ventures have been constant money-makers. In 1991, 1992, 2004, and again in 2009, Trump branded companies or properties have sought Chapter 11 protection. 

"I've used the laws of this country to pare debt. ... We'll have the company. We'll throw it into a chapter. We'll negotiate with the banks. We'll make a fantastic deal. You know, it's like on 'The Apprentice.' It's not personal. It's just business," Trump told ABC's George Stephanopoulos last Thursday.

A business declaring bankruptcy is nothing new in corporate America, where bankruptcy is often sugar-coated as "restructuring debt." But it might seem alarming to everyday Americans who can't get a bank to restructure their home loans. If you want to get Donald Trump hot under the collar, accuse him of declaring bankruptcy.

Doug Heller, the executive director of Consumer Watchdog, said Trump is the "most egregious, almost comical example" of the disparity between what the average American faces when going through bankruptcy and the "ease with which the very rich can move in and out of bankruptcy."

"Under the American bankruptcy laws, if you end up in bankruptcy because you're struggling with divorce or medical payments or a sudden change of income, it's a disaster. If you fail miserably with huge dollars involved then you just need some accountants to rework your books," Heller said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-filed-bankruptcy-times/story?id=13419250

Trump Defends Putin

Trump on Putin's crackdown on journalists: 'it’s never been proven'

Donald Trump on Sunday defended Russian president Vladimir Putin’s record on press freedom, challenging journalists to provide him with evidence that the Kremlin has ever sponsored efforts to murder reporters.

The Republican frontrunner also vowed again to work closely with Russia, if elected president. Trump was praised this week by Putin, who described the billionaire businessman as a “very colourful, talented person”.

Putin’s words fuelled attacks by Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination. But Trump, whose lead in the polls has grown after a series of inflammatory Islamophobic slurs, called the Russian president’s remarks a “great honour” and described Putin as “a man highly respected within his own country and beyond”.

Trump was called out on the platitudes during an interview with MSNBC on Friday. Asked to condemn the Kremlin’s alleged involvement in the assassination of reporters, he responded: “Our country does plenty of killing also.”

 In a heated interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Trump said: “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has.” According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 36 journalists have been murdered since 1993, often in direct retaliation for their work. In only four cases was anyone convicted.

If Only the CEOs of the Big Banks That Wrecked the U.S. Economy in 2008 Got This Treatment

Former Massey Energy Chief Executive Don Blankenship was found guilty in federal court on Thursday of conspiring to violate safety standards at the Upper Big Branch mine, the site of a 2010 blast that killed 29 people.

Relatives of those killed and prosecutors hailed the decision as sending a message on mine safety in coal-rich West Virginia even though the jury found Blankenship not guilty of making false statements and of securities fraud.

 One of Blankenship's lawyers, Bill Taylor, told reporters the defense team was disappointed by the misdemeanor conviction but doubted Blankenship would serve any time in prison.

Sentencing was set for March 23 in U.S. District Court. Blankenship, 65, faces a maximum $250,000 fine and up to a year in prison.

 U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin told reporters he was not disappointed with the verdict. "It brings justice that is long overdue," he said. The jury had deliberated more than two weeks and had twice told Judge Irene Berger it was deadlocked. Blankenship's lawyers did not present a single witness.

Angry Smoker Shoots Waitress Who Told Him Not to Smoke

Johnny Max Mount is accused of shooting and killing a waitress who told him not to smoke inside.

A Mississippi man allegedly shot and killed a Waffle House employee after she wouldn’t let him smoke inside the building.

A waitress in a Biloxi Waffle House asked Johnny Mount, 45, to snuff out his cig but he refused and instead pulled out a handgun and shot the woman a little after 1 a.m. on Friday.

Police arrested Mount at the scene. He had the 9mm pistol concealed beneath his shirt, cops said.

Palin Owes Taxes on Meal Money

from the Anchorage Daily News
By LISA DEMER

Gov. Sarah Palin must pay income taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money she received while living at her Wasilla home, under a new determination by state officials. The Washington Post published a story in mid-September that said she had charged the state almost $17,000 for meals and incidentals while staying in her own home.

Palin billed the state for 312 nights spent in her Wasilla home during her first 19 months in office, according to the Washington Post. She received $60 a day tax free, money intended to cover meals and incidentals, while traveling on state business, her travel forms show.

Is the GOP's shooting star flaming out?

Thanks, I couldn't have done it without your help.

A Day In The Life Of Sarah Palin

Palin’s pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced David Brickner, director of Jews for Jesus, on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on Sarah Palin's church’s website.

Brickner described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.

"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."

MAKE MONEY AT HOME!

Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home

Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel

By James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick, Washington Post

ANCHORAGE, Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post.

She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more than 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem.

Palin: Iraq War and Pipeline -- God's Will

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.

Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.

And she can do all this while speaking in tongues.

Spitzer Resigns Over 4,000 Iraq War Dead

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer took full responsibility for the more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and announced he would resign.

Spitzer barely held back tears as he told reporters, "By lying about weapons of mass destruction that don't exist, I have violated any sense of right or wrong."

The man elected by a 69% landslide in 2006 said no one could, in good conscience, continue to hold office after causing "so many needless deaths and diverting half a trillion dollars of our national treasure."

Spitzer said he would spend the rest of his life making his transgressions up to his family and the voters who placed their trust in him. He added that he also hoped to clear brush as a pennance.

$3 Trillion Iraq War

Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has written "The Three Trillion Dollar War," a book with chilling details of how we've spent our treasure on an unprovoked war now longer-running than our involvement in World War II.

Stiglitz, who served for four years on Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and another three as chief economist at the World Bank, puts the cost of the Iraq war in context by detailing what one of these three trillions could have paid for:

• 8 million housing units or
• 15 million public school teachers or
• healthcare for 530 million children for a year or
• scholarships to university for 43 million students

Three trillion could have fixed America's social security problem for half a century. America, says Stiglitz, is currently spending $5bn a year in Africa, and worrying about being outflanked by China there: "Five billion is roughly 10 days' fighting, so you get a new metric of thinking about everything."

$16bn The amount the US spends on the monthly running costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - on top of regular defense spending

$138 The amount paid by every US household every month towards the current operating costs of the war

$19.3bn The amount Halliburton has received in single-source contracts for work in Iraq

How Republicans Spend Your Tax Dollars

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — President Bush vetoed a $150.7 billion spending measure that would have funded education, health care and job training programs, saying it contained money for too many of the special projects known as earmarks. But he signed a $459 billion bill to increase the Pentagon’s nonwar funding.

Iraq General Calls War Unwinnable

Iraq War Is `Nightmare' With No End

By Demian McLean, Bloomberg News

Retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who led U.S. forces in Iraq, criticized American leaders for placing partisan gain at home above victory abroad and consigning America to a "nightmare with no end in sight."

The Bush Agenda Is Working

These two sentences on the front page of the Wall Street Journal sum up the success our underestimated president has had during his two terms.


The richest Americans' share of national income hit a postwar record. The top 1% earned 21.2% of all income in 2005; the bottom 50% made 12.8%.

Iraq Death Toll Accelerates

When President Bush vetoed a bi-partisan bill in June to fund stem cell research, he said fetuses (even those about to be thrown in the trash) represent human life, which is sacred, and cannot be used to further science.

However, when fetuses grow up, they make fine cannon fodder for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

3,987 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
3,949
3,931
3,849
3,760
3,753
3,739
3,706
3,689
3,613
3,586
3,496

Zero WMD

Does it Matter?

DOES it matter?—losing your legs?...
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.
Does it matter?—losing your sight?...
There’s such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.
Do they matter?—those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won’t say that you’re mad;
For they’ll know you’ve fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit. --Siegfried Sassoon, 1918

Iraq Report Card: Failing Grades

New Report On Iraq Finds Baghdad Hasn't Met 11 Of Its 18 Political And Security Benchmarks

(AP) Violence in Iraq remains high, fewer Iraqi security forces are capable of acting independently, and the Baghdad legislature has failed to reach major political agreements needed to curb sectarian violence, says a report released Tuesday.

The study by the Government Accountability Office is a blunt assessment that challenges President Bush's findings on the war as he prepares to announce plans for the U.S. military campaign, which has cost the lives of more than 3,700 U.S. troops since it began in 2003.

Bremer Points Out Latest Bush Lie on Iraq

Envoy’s Letters Counter Bush on Dismantling of Iraq Army
By Edmond Andrews, New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — A previously undisclosed exchange of letters shows that President Bush was told in advance by his top Iraq envoy in May 2003 of a plan to “dissolve Saddam’s military and intelligence structures,” a plan that the envoy, L. Paul Bremer, said referred to dismantling the Iraqi Army.

Mr. Bremer provided the letters to The New York Times on Monday after reading that Mr. Bush was quoted in a new book as saying that American policy had been “to keep the army intact” but that it “didn’t happen.”

The dismantling of the Iraqi Army in the aftermath of the American invasion is now widely regarded as a mistake that stoked rebellion among hundreds of thousands of former Iraqi soldiers and made it more difficult to reduce sectarian bloodshed and attacks by insurgents. In releasing the letters, Mr. Bremer said he wanted to refute the suggestion in Mr. Bush’s comment that Mr. Bremer had acted to disband the army without the knowledge and concurrence of the White House.

UK General Slams Rumsfeld

The general who headed the British army during the invasion of Iraq said the approach taken by Donald Rumsfeld, the then US defence secretary, was "intellectually bankrupt", describing his claim that US forces "don't do nation-building" as "nonsensical".

General Sir Mike Jackson said Mr Rumsfeld was "one of those most responsible for the current situation in Iraq".

Crucially, the general writes, he refused to deploy enough troops to maintain law and order after the collapse of Saddam's regime, and discarded detailed plans for the post-conflict administration of Iraq that had been drawn up by the US State Department.

"All the planning carried out by the State Department went to waste." For Mr Rumsfeld and his neo-conservative supporters "it was an ideological article of faith that the coalition forces would be accepted as a liberating army."

Weapons of Destruction Missing in Iraq

Oops!
Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing
GAO Estimates 30% of Arms Are Unaccounted For
By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post

The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

Bring 'Em On Anniversary

Bush Sets Libby Free,
Celebrates 4 Years of Success in Iraq

July 2, 2007

Days before Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, was to begin serving a two and a half year jail term, President Bush took the only possible action open to a Republican law-and-order hypocrite. He set him free. Libby's only crime, after all, had been lying under oath to protect his boss from any involvement in leaking the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press.

Perjury is not as heinous a crime now as it was in 1998, when the GOP majority in Congress impeached President Clinton for lying under oath.

Bush's ignoble action comes one day before he quietly marks one of his more macho moments: urging Iraqis opposed to the U.S. occupation of their country to just try to attack U.S. soldiers.

July 3, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Challenging militants who attack U.S. forces in Iraq, President Bush said Wednesday they would be dealt with harshly, and declared, "Bring 'em on."

For the second day in a row, Bush vowed that attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq will not shake his administration's resolve to stay in that country until a strong and stable democratic government takes root.

"Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice," Bush said. "There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on."

When Bush made his Bring 'Em On taunt, 254 U.S. soldiers had died in Iraq.

On the fourth anniversary of his unfortunate remark, the U.S. death toll was 3,584.

Fly Osama

Osama bin Laden May Have Chartered Saudi Flight Out of U.S. after 9/11

Washington, D.C.-- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released new documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) related to the “expeditious departure” of Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, from the United States following the 9/11 attacks. According to one of the formerly confidential documents, dated 9/21/2001, terrorist Osama bin Laden may have chartered one of the Saudi flights.

The document states: “ON 9/19/01, A 727 PLANE LEFT LAX, RYAN FLT #441 TO ORLANDO, FL W/ETA (estimated time of arrival) OF 4-5PM. THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN…THE LA FBI SEARCHED THE PLANE [REDACTED] LUGGAGE, OF WHICH NOTHING UNUSUAL WAS FOUND.” The plane was allowed to depart the United States after making four stops to pick up passengers, ultimately landing in Paris where all passengers disembarked on 9/20/01, according to the document.

Overall, the FBI’s most recent document production includes details of the six flights between 9/14 and 9/24 that evacuated Saudi royals and bin Laden family members.

U.S. Keeps WMD Team Spinning Wheels

U.N. Team Still Looking for Iraq's Arsenal

Though Work Is Seen as Irrelevant, Security Council Can't Agree to End It

By Colum Lynch, Washington Post

UNITED NATIONS -- More than four years after the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations is spending millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money to continue the hunt for Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Every weekday, at a secure commercial office building on Manhattan's East Side, a team of 20 U.N. experts on chemical and biological weapons pores over satellite images of former Iraqi weapons sites. But the inspectors' primary mission -- ridding Hussein's regime of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons -- has become irrelevant since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the Iraqi leader and discovered that his government had destroyed its most lethal weapons shortly after the 1991 Gulf War.

Rewind to 2004: Ooops! No WMD

Kay: No evidence Iraq stockpiled WMDs

January 26, 2004

(CNN) -- Two days after resigning as the Bush administration's top weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay said that his group found no evidence Iraq had stockpiled unconventional weapons before the U.S.-led invasion in March.

"My summary view, based on what I've seen, is we're very unlikely to find large stockpiles of weapons. I don't think they exist."

Bush Ignored Pre-War Intelligence

A lot of folks die.
At lasts the war ends.
The world is made safe
For Dick Cheney's friends.
-Calvin Trillin

Analysts Warned of Iraq Chaos

By Walter Pincus and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and "probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups" in the Muslim world.

The intelligence assessments, made in January 2003 and widely circulated within the Bush administration before the war, said that establishing democracy in Iraq would be "a long, difficult and probably turbulent challenge." The assessments noted that Iraqi political culture was "largely bereft of the social underpinnings" to support democratic development.

The report was released the same day President Bush signed a $120 billion war funding bill from Congress that includes benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

In a statement attached to yesterday's 229-page report, the Senate intelligence committee's chairman, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), and three other Democratic panel members said: "The most chilling and prescient warning from the intelligence community prior to the war was that the American invasion would bring about instability in Iraq that would be exploited by Iran and al Qaeda terrorists."

Time to Pull the Plug on Iraq

Q. Why did the Democratic majority in Congress delete troop withdrawal language from the bill funding Bush's war?
A. They'd rather win the White House in 2008 than end the war now.

Poll: 76% Say War's Going Badly
Record Number In Survey Say Getting Involved In Iraq Was Mistake

(CBS) As President Bush and Congress hammer out an Iraq war funding bill, a CBS News/New York Times poll shows the number of Americans who say the war is going badly has reached a new high of 76%, rising 10 percent this month to 76 percent.

Even a majority of Republicans, 52 percent, now say the war is going at least somewhat badly – a 16-point increase from the middle of April.

Cheneys Pose with Little Bastard

This was the day when Monica Goodling testified before Congress that her former boss, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is a liar. Like many others, this was a day when more U.S. soldiers died in Vice President Dick Cheney's WMD-free war. Somehow, Cheney and wife Lynne found time in their busy schedule this day to pose for a photo op with their latest grandchild.

The Cheneys' daughter Mary delivered an 8-pound, 6-ounce baby boy on Wednesday, the first child for her and her female partner of 15 years, Heather Poe. In keeping with hypocritical right-wing family values, Dick Cheney vowed that he will fight to the death to see that this grandchild has only one legal parent.

GOP Lacks Foresight

Memorial honoring fallen soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan runs out of room

By Frank Davies, San Jose Mercury News

WASHINGTON - Congress already has run out of space on a memorial created last year to honor all of the U.S. service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a grim sign of the times, the "Wall of the Fallen," set up by House Republican leaders in June, is almost full. The mounting death toll from Iraq has forced U.S. House staffers to study how to reconfigure the display in the lobby of the Rayburn Building - the largest office building for members of Congress - to squeeze in more names.

According to the Defense Department, 3,736 U.S. service members died in the two wars by the end of April. New names are added to the display every few months, but none have been added since November. The last name listed is Lance Cpl. Luke Holler, 21-year-old Marine reservist from Bulverde, Texas, killed by an explosive device on Nov. 2.

In the current format, there is space for about 130 more names, but 506 Americans have died since mid-November. In April, 104 Americans were killed in the war's sixth-deadliest month.

Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan said it was difficult to plan how much blank space to leave in a display listing fatalities while a war is going on. When he walked by the wall recently, Ehlers said he realized: "Boy, we could have a problem. More space is needed."

Mission Accomplished Plus 4

Four Years After This

3,415
3,394
U.S. Soldiers Killed

Zero
WMD


Bodies piling up with no WMD and no end in sight

Tillman & Lynch: Lies from the Warmongers

Would you buy a used war from this man?

April 25--A sharply divided House brushed aside a veto threat Wednesday and passed legislation that would order President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by Oct. 1.


Pat Tillman turned down a $3.6 million NFL contract with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army, along with his brother Kevin, several months after the 9/11 attacks. After taking part in the invasion of Iraq, the brothers were redeployed to Afghanistan. Pat Tillman was killed accidentally in April 2004 by fire from his own unit. The Army lied to his family about the cause of his death. The Bush adminisration quickly moved to cover up the details--and still hasn't told the public the truth.

His outraged brother Kevin, appearing before the House Oversight Committee, accused leaders of "exploiting Pat's death" with "deliberate, calculated lies" that suppressed how other Rangers accidentally killed Tillman in a 2004 "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan. "This wasn't a misstep or error in judgment," said Kevin Tillman, who was speaking in public for the first time about his brother's death and how news about it was handled by the military. The Army and others, he said, "attempted to hijack his virtue and his legacy." The tale "inspired countless Americans, as intended," said Kevin Tillman, also a former Ranger. "There was one small problem with this narrative, however: It was utter fiction...intended to deceive not only the family but more importantly the American public."

The panel also heard from Jessica Lynch, the 19-year-old Army supply clerk captured during the first month of the Iraq war and then rescued by U.S. forces. Lynch testified Tuesday that the Pentagon's account, depicting her as a "G.I. Jane" emptying her rifle at Iraqi soldiers before her capture, was pure fabrication.

Lynch said she has been battling "misinformation and hype" since she returned from Iraq, badly injured, to discover a media depiction of her as "the little girl Rambo from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting. It was not true."

NNE in Iraq

The 24-hour coverage of the shooting spree at Virginia Tech might give you the impression that this is the worst thing to recently happen in the world. Although the massacre of 32 people is painful, pointless and heartrending, it is not nearly as bad as a typical day in Baghdad. NNE is the newsroom phrase applied to deaths far from home: Not Nearly Enough to warrant special attention.

Car bombs kill at least 172 in Baghdad

By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD -- Five car bombs exploded in and around Iraq's capital Wednesday, killing at least 172 people and injuring more than 220 in the deadliest day since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a much-publicized security crackdown two months ago.

The deadliest attack killed 140 people in Baghdad's Sadriya district, which was still recovering from a February car bombing that killed at least 130 people in a busy marketplace. The attacks could be a setback for U.S. and Iraqi security forces, which on Feb. 13 announced an aggressive plan to deploy thousands of additional personnel in and around Baghdad.

Bush Going Downhill Fast

Paging Rosemary Woods

Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal features an 18 1/2 minute gap in a crucial secretly-made White House tape recording. Nixon aides tried to pin the wiped out conversation on a "transcription error" by his secretary of 20 years, Rose Mary Woods. Evidence showed that eight separate erasures were made to the pivotal tape. Congressional investigations intothe Watergate break-in and cover-up created a crescendo of public disapproval that resulted in GOP leaders forcing Nixon out the door--the first person ever to resign the presidency.

Now, Bush has his own version of the Rosemary Woods incident: the dog ate my email.

Officials' e-mail may be missing, White House says

By Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- The White House said today that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators.

The e-mails were considered potentially critical evidence in congressional inquiries launched by Democrats into the role partisan politics may have played in such policy decisions as the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The White House said an effort was underway to see whether the messages could be recovered from the computer system, which was operated and paid for by the Republican National Committee as part of an effort to separate political communications from those dealing with official business.

If that's not bad enough, even the generals don't want to run Bush's wars.

3 Generals Spurn the Position of War 'Czar'

Bush Seeks Overseer For Iraq, Afghanistan

By Peter Baker and Thomas Ricks, Washington Post

The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration's difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job.

Attorney General: I Am Not a Crook

You know Bush is in trouble when he starts using the passive voice. "Mistakes were made" is his lame response after being caught red-handed in the firing last December of 8 federal prosecutors for purely political reasons. On the bright side, while Attorney General Alberto Gonzales shuffles in the spotlight, denying he did anything wrong, voter attention is momentarily drawn away from the death of 3,394 U.S. soldiers in the pointless war in Iraq.

Sununu Says Bush Should Fire Attorney General In Wake Of Controversial DOJ Ousters

Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' dismissal, hours after President Bush expressed confidence in his embattled Cabinet officer.

Gonzales has been fending off Democratic demands for his firing in the wake of disclosures surrounding the ousters of eight U.S. attorneys — dismissals Democrats have characterized as a politically motivated purge.

Support from many Republicans had been muted, but there was no outright GOP call for his dismissal until now.

"I think the president should replace him," Sununu said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the attorney general should be fired."

Bush, at a news conference in Mexico, told reporters when asked about the controversy: "Mistakes were made. And I'm frankly not happy about them."

Some of the dismissed prosecutors complained at hearings last week that lawmakers tried to influence political corruption investigations. Several also said there had been Justice Department attempts to intimidate them.

E-mails between the Justice Department and the White House, released Tuesday, contradicted the administration's earlier contention that Bush's aides had only limited involvement in the firings.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted Wednesday that Gonzales would soon be out.

"I think he is gone. I don't think he'll last long," Reid said in an interview with Nevada reporters. Asked how long, Reid responded: "Days."

Crooks Fire Investigators

Subpoenas Likely for Justice Officials in Prosecutor Firings

By Eric Eggen and Paul Kane, Washington Post

Senate Democrats said yesterday they are preparing to subpoena five senior Justice Department officials as part of a widening probe into whether eight U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons.

The fallout from the investigation into why the prosecutors were dismissed continued yesterday. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) hired a top defense attorney to handle a related probe by the Senate ethics committee, which is investigating allegations that he pressured a New Mexico prosecutor to bring indictments against a Democrat just before the November elections.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote today to authorize subpoenas for Justice officials, including Michael A. Battle, who carried out the firings, and Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

Justice Admits U.S. Attorney Was Forced Out

By Eric Rich, Washington Post

The Justice Department acknowledged yesterday that Thomas M. DiBiagio, the Maryland U.S. attorney who stepped down early in 2005, was forced from office and did not, as he said at the time, decide on his own to leave for personal reasons.

The Bush administration has said the eight prosecutors were told to leave, all but one for performance-related reasons. However, Democrats and others have suggested evermore pointedly that politics was behind many of the dismissals.

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from The New Republic

Revenge Of The U.S. Attorneys

Hearings Confirm Political Motivation Behind Firing Of U.S. Attorneys

by Barron YoungSmith

Unlike some insta-scandals of recent years (Mark Foley, macaca), the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last December, like a good coffee, has been a slow-brew crisis. At first, the victims went quietly. But then we began to learn tidbits about their ouster: GOP officials had repeatedly called to threaten Thomas DiBagio from Maryland if he didn't back off an investigation of the Republican governor's friends; Senator Pete Domenici called the Justice Department four times over the past year and a half to complain about David Inglesias, who was not investigating a Democratic corruption scandal fast enough for his liking.

from The Wall Street Journal
The 2008 election could be the worst in 30 years to be the Republican candidate, a WSJ/NBC News poll shows.

Cheney Kills American Soldier

Terrorists Practicing for Tet Offensive Blow Up Base During Cheney Visit

Veep's Pacemaker Get a Workout

One U.S. soldier was killed February 27 when terrorists targeted the U.S. Bagram airbase in Afghanistan being visited by Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney's deadly decision to travel outside D.C. comes at the conclusion of the Lewis Libby trial. A jury in Washington is deliberating the fate of Cheney's former honcho, who got caught up in Bush-Cheney efforts to smear former ambassador Joseph Wilson after he publicly debunked pre-war lies by the administration.

The truck bomb that exploded near the entrance to the base killed a South Korean soldier, a U.S. contractor and up to 20 Afghans.

It's the closest that Cheney, who fought hard to get five draft deferments during the Vietnam war, has ever come to experiencing combat.