BERLIN - Petra the swan has a new home and so does her beloved swan-shaped paddleboat. In 2006, Petra, a black swan, became so attached to the boat — shaped like an outsized white swan — that she refused to leave its side at a lake near a zoo in the German city of Muenster.
Petra and her paddleboat were taken to the zoo.
Zoo officials finally parted bird and boat last week after Petra settled down with a real white swan and the boat was returned to the lake. But the romance was short-lived. The zoo says that, on Saturday, her new beau flew off and sought out the company of other black swans.
A zoo statement says that Petra "appears to feel lonely" and is swimming around in an agitated state. The solution? On Friday, she will be taken back to the nearby lake and her faithful paddleboat.
ZAHAMM, Iraq — The graves of more than 50 people thought killed by al Qaeda in Iraq during their two-year reign of terror in Diyala province’s “bread basket” region have been found in a pomegranate orchard in a village near the town of Himbus.
Excavations at the site began last week and were expected to continue after troops of the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment were tipped to the location by a man who claimed to have escaped from al Qaeda’s “jail” there last summer.
Only about a third of the untended orchard, located off a road leading from the village to Himbus, about three miles north, has been searched so far.
Two nearby orchards thought to be burial grounds also have to be looked at, raising the prospect that the Zahamm farms could collectively rank as one of the largest al Qaeda killing fields found in Iraq.
Himbus and the villages nearby are northeast of the major town of Muqdadiya, north of Baghdad.
In 2006, al Qaeda in Iraq declared Diyala province the center of its Islamic State of Iraq caliphate. The Himbus area, with its fruit orchards providing cover from aircraft, became a major weapons storage area and training center. And it ruled with an iron fist.
“When they first came into the area, they said they were mujahideen fighting the occupation forces. But later they started forcing people to give them money and forcing them from their homes. People who worked for the Iraq Army or the Iraqi Police were punished,” said Sheik Abbas Hussein Khalaf, the leader of nearby Taiyah village.
“They imposed their rules: no music, no smoking, the woman had to wear the veil, and there were no wedding celebrations allowed. No one was allowed out after 5 p.m.
“Some people were shot in front of the people in the street, others were kidnapped, killed and put in the mass graves.”
One of them was a cousin, he said, the brother of the man who had escaped and told U.S. troops about the graves.
Mass executions, once associated with Saddam Hussein’s regime, became a tool of terror used by al Qaeda as it took over vast swaths of Iraq following the 2003 U.S. invasion.
With tens of thousands of Sunni fighters joining the year-old U.S. troop surge, al Qaeda fighters have been forced out of former strongholds, giving locals security needed to report horrors like this mass grave discovered here.
Elsewhere in Iraq yesterday, Shi’ite-against-Shi’ite fighting that dominated news reports for the past week eased when cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters off the streets nationwide, the Associated Press reported from Baghdad.
The Iraqi government quickly welcomed Sheik al-Sadr’s apparent move to resolve a widening conflict, sparked Tuesday by Iraqi government operations against his backers in the oil-rich southern city of Basra.
Instead of fighting, followers handed out sweets in Baghdad’s main Mahdi Army militia stronghold of Sadr City, which was named after Sheik al-Sadr’s late father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, the AP reported.
Before Sheik al-Sadr’s statement, dozens of Shi’ite gunmen yesterday stormed a government TV facility in central Basra, forcing Iraqi troops guarding the building to flee and setting armored vehicles on fire, according to the AP.
In contrast to much of Iraq, which is divided into Sunni and Shi’ite areas, Diyala province northeast of Baghdad is said to reflect the mixed ethnic makeup of the entire country.
As a result, it has suffered some of worst — and least reported — violence in five years since the U.S.-led invasion.
Surging U.S. troops did not arrive in northern Diyala until January, a year after President Bush first announced the troop buildup.
“Smell that?” a U.S. soldier asked as he entered the grove with Sheik Khalaf and an American reporter on an exploratory visit. No one answered. The gagging stench of rotting flesh was unmistakable.
The first shallow grave found by soldiers and the sheik contained the remains of a man dead for some time. There was no flesh on the bones. The severed head, wrapped in a traditional headdress, was at the body’s feet.
“I will contact the muktars [leaders] in the other villages,” Sheik Khalaf said. “I’ll tell them what we found.”
Twenty-eight graves were found the next day by the sheik and a handful of village volunteers. Their contents were left in place for later disinterment. On Thursday, with a U.S. military escort, more than 100 volunteers from 10 villages near Himbus descended on the orchard with shovels and white bedsheets from which to make shrouds.
After just a few minutes of digging, the loud talk among the men who had broken into groups became low murmurs. The only other sounds heard were shovels digging into earth, the sounds of people vomiting from the stench that spread like a greasy cloud, and quiet discussions on how best to extricate the remains.
Most of those unearthed had not been decapitated. They had been bound and shot in the back of the head. The cords that bound their wrists were still there. Many skulls still had blindfolds over the eye sockets.
It was difficult to tell how long a body had been in the ground. Some lacked all flesh; others were still decomposing. One man in a police uniform may have died just before U.S. forces pushed into the area nearly three months ago. His facial features were still distinct, locked in a grimace.
Two hours of digging disinterred the original 29 bodies and at least eight more. At least 14 more were discovered and excavated Saturday during two hours of digging by 40 volunteers.
“When you find [al Qaeda] kill them. Kill them all,” said Kareemhiya Marzi al-Shumari, an elderly woman from the village of Haruniya.
Mrs. al-Shumari said her son Mohammed Jaber, 42, was taken away by al Qaeda in July after he repeatedly refused to join them.
As men dug she went from excavation site to excavation site, slapping her face in grief, crying loudly and lifting her hands skyward.
Several other women were with her, and picked up pieces of paper scattered in the orchard in the hope of finding something, anything that would give a clue if their loved ones would be found beneath the dry earth.
The orchard, one volunteer said, had belonged to a Shi’ite farmer. Al Qaeda requisitioned it by killing him and driving his family away.
“They’re beat. Just look at their faces,” Capt. Vince Morris, who had helped organize the search and was present to document the finds, said of the volunteers. “I don’t think they’ll do this much longer today.”
Digging is expected to continue for weeks. It’s spring in Iraq and time to clean the fields. And the discarded clothing found nearby — including children’s clothing — held the promise of more horror to come.
...Consider the question of whether minors should be required to get parental consent – or at least notify their parents – before having abortion.
The first version of Obama’s questionnaire responds with a simple “No.”
The amended version, though, answers less stridently: “Depends on how young – possibly for extremely young teens, i.e. 12 or 13 year olds.”
During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion– positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he’s projected during his presidential campaign.
The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.
Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire.
They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who “unintentionally mischaracterize(d) his position.”
But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago non-profit group that issued it. And it found that Obama – the day after sitting for the interview – filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes adding to one answer.
The two questionnaires, provided to Politico with assistance from political sources opposed to Obama’s presidential campaign, were later supplied directly from the group, Independent Voters of Illinois – Independent Precinct Organization. Obama and his then-campaign manager, who Obama’s campaign asserts filled out the questionnaires, were familiar with the group, its members and positions, since both were active in it before his 1996 state Senate run.
Through an aide, Obama, who won the group’s endorsement as well as the statehouse seat, did not dispute that the handwriting was his. But he contended it doesn’t prove he completed, approved – or even read – the latter questionnaire.
“Sen. Obama didn’t fill out these state Senate questionnaires – a staffer did – and there are several answers that didn't reflect his views then or now,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama’s campaign, in an emailed statement. “He may have jotted some notes on the front page of the questionnaire at the meeting, but that doesn't change the fact that some answers didn't reflect his views. His eleven years in public office do.”
But the questionnaires provide fodder to question Obama’s ideological consistency and electability. Those questions are central to efforts by Obama’s presidential rival Hillary Clinton to woo the superdelegates whose votes represent her best chance to wrest the Democratic nomination from Obama.
Taken together – and combined with later policy pronouncements – the two 1996 questionnaires paint a picture of an inexperienced Obama still trying to feel his way around major political issues and less constrained by the nuance that now frames his positions on sensitive issues.
Consider the question of whether minors should be required to get parental consent – or at least notify their parents – before having abortion.
The first version of Obama’s questionnaire responds with a simple “No.”
The amended version, though, answers less stridently: “Depends on how young – possibly for extremely young teens, i.e. 12 or 13 year olds.”
By 2004, when his campaign filled out a similar questionnaire for the IVI–IPO during his campaign for U.S. Senate, the answer to a similar question contained still more nuance, but also more precision. “I would oppose any legislation that does not include a bypass provision for minors who have been victims of, or have reason to fear, physical or sexual abuse,” he wrote.
The evolution continued at least through late last year, when his campaign filled out a questionnaire for a non-partisan reproductive health group that answered a similar question with even more nuance.
“As a parent, Obama believes that young women, if they become pregnant, should talk to their parents before considering an abortion. But he realizes not all girls can turn to their mother or father in times of trouble, and in those instances, we should want these girls to seek the advice of trusted adults - an aunt, a grandmother, a pastor,” his campaign wrote to RH Reality Check.
“Unfortunately, instead of encouraging pregnant teens to seek the advice of adults, most parental consent bills that come before Congress or state legislatures criminalize adults who attempt to help a young woman in need and lack judicial bypass and other provisions that would permit exceptions in compelling cases.”
Both versions of the 1996 questionnaires provide answers his presidential campaign disavows to questions about whether Obama supports capital punishment and state legislation to “ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.”
He responded simply “No” and “Yes,” respectively, to those questions on both questionnaires.
But a fact sheet provided by his campaign flatly denies Obama ever held those views, asserting he “consistently supported the death penalty for certain crimes, but backed a moratorium until problems were fixed.” And it points out that as a state senator, he led an effort to reform Illinois’ death penalty laws.
On guns, the fact sheet says he “has consistently supported common sense gun control, as well as the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”
After Politico’s story on the first questionnaire, Clinton aides seized on the handgun-ban answer in particular, which a campaign press release asserted called into question Obama’s electability.
That was a curious argument to make in a Democratic primary. But Republicans will certainly seek to make it in the general election if Obama is the Democratic standard-bearer against the presumptive GOP nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
It could also provide ammunition for a line of attack quietly peddled for some time by Republicans. They allege Obama has a penchant for blaming his staff for gaffes ranging from missing a union event in New Hampshire to circulating opposition research highlighting the Clintons’ ties to India and Indian-Americans to underestimating the amount of cash bundled for his campaigns by his former fundraiser, indicted businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko.
And the questionnaires play into storylines pushed by both Republicans and Clinton suggesting Obama has altered his views to appeal to differing audiences.
That suggestion is galling to many members of IVI-IPO, some of whom have relationships with Obama that date back nearly 15 years. The group had endorsed Obama in every race he’d run – including his failed long-shot 2000 primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) – until now.
The group’s 37-member board of directors, meeting last year soon after Obama distanced himself from the first questionnaire, stalemated in its vote over an endorsement in the Democratic presidential primary. Forty percent supported Obama, 40 percent sided with Clinton and 20 percent voted for other candidates or not to endorse.
“One big issue was: Does he or does he not believe the stuff he told us in 1996?” said Aviva Patt, who has been involved with IVI-IPO since 1990 and is now the group’s treasurer. She volunteered for Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign, but voted to endorse the since-aborted presidential campaign of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and professed disappointment over Obama’s retreat from ownership of the questionnaire.
“I always believed those to be his views,” she said, adding some members of the board argued Obama’s 1996 answers were “what he really believes in and he’s tailoring it now to make himself more palatable as a nationwide candidate.”
It’s more benign than that, contended fellow board member Lois Dobry, who voted to endorse Obama last year and hosted the 1996 interview session at her home.
That “was a long time ago,” she said. “And anybody who hasn’t refined their ideas over that period of time … is not anybody I’m interested in,” she said. Dobry asserted Obama’s views have evolved mostly at the margins and that he’s still the same person she met in the 1990s.
“He always was right from the start very, very clear on where he was coming from on most issues,” she said, “and he certainly wasn’t letting anybody else decide that for him.”
Dobry, Patt and current IVI-IPO state chairman David K. Igasaki, a Clinton supporter, agreed Obama likely didn’t write every word of his campaign’s 1996 answers. But they all dismissed as unbelievable his presidential campaign’s assertion that Obama never saw or signed off on the state Senate questionnaires.
Campaigns are routinely bombarded with all manner of questionnaires from advocacy groups of every stripe, so it’s not uncommon to have staffers fill them out in candidates’ names. But usually there’s some process by which the answers are vetted to insure consistency with the candidates’ views.
And there were plenty of reasons to believe that occurred in the case of Obama’s 1996 IVI-IPO questionnaire.
The group was very influential in Obama’s South Side district. It also was a leader on government reform issues, which Obama has made a centerpiece of his political persona.
He and his campaign manager, Carol Harwell, both were active with IVI-IPO prior to his candidacy, and had once helped interview candidates seeking the group’s endorsement, according to Igasaki.
Dobry called Harwell “an extremely experienced person, also someone highly familiar with IVI. And she would know perfectly well that the candidate would have to answer questions based on these answers and to suddenly have the candidate discover that somebody else had written answers that they were in no way in agreement with would be pretty embarrassing, right?”
Harwell, a veteran Democratic operative who got her start working for the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in the 1980s and now works for Cook County Clerk David Orr, last year told Politico she filled out the first questionnaire.
But she did not return several telephone messages asking about the second questionnaire and the handwritten notes on it.
They appear under a question asking candidates to “list all endorsements you have received so far.” In typed text that matches that of the rest of the answers, both of Obama’s questionnaires list four local Democratic organizations and two aldermen. But the latter questionnaire adds to that with hand-written notes listing another 10 endorsements, including an Illinois seniors group, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Sierra Club, IBEW and unions representing nurses and firefighters.
Igasaki said Obama was shoo-in for the IVI-IPO endorsement, but that it was important to have a strong showing because “our chapter basically was his field operation. … Those people were already working for him and it was important for him to identify with us.”
Patt, though, conceded the inevitability of the group’s endorsement could have led Harwell to be “less than 100 percent careful” in filling out the questionnaire “because it probably didn’t matter that much at the time. It’s only in the context that it’s now found that has much greater importance than anyone could have imagined it would back in 1996.”
other news anti-war songs fall flat “Yo George,” sneers Tori Amos, outrage flowing from her lyrics. “Is this just the madness of King George?”
“Yo George,” follows the next verse. “Well you have the whole nation on all fours.”
Amos’ bitter indictment of President Bush in “Yo George” is a clear sign of the times.
But so is the fact that, if you are not part of the songwriter-pianist’s loyal cadre of fans, you probably have never heard the song.
An unpopular president, an unpopular war, a restless young generation eager for change — all the elements of a mass protest culture would seem to be present in this election year.
OK, seriously, there were more cheers than boos for President Bush. I don't understand why everyone keeps saying he got booed out of the game. And after his first pitch, it was all cheers!
Anyways I bet all the morons who booed him are ugly. Kthxbi.
"Love never loses it way home"... Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin found.
Isn't this heartbreaking? I've been following this story for a while now... I still held out some hope that maybe they'd find him alive. Matt Maupin is a true hero and will never be forgotten.
Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin's mother took a call from President Bush tonight extending his condolences after the Army identified the missing soldier's remains in Iraq.
Bush has met several times with the Maupins during the past four years and pledged to them that everything would be done to find out what had happened to their son after he was captured by insurgents on April 9, 2004.
Carolyn Maupin took the President's call on a cell phone at 9:45 p.m. behind the Yellow Ribbon Support Center in Batavia.
Carolyn Maupin's friend, June Izzi Bailey, said she was told the White House had just found out about the DNA match and called the family as quickly as possible.
Maupin's parents were notified earlier Sunday when a three-star general visited them and gave them the news, they said.
"Matt is coming home. He's completed his mission," his father, Keith Maupin, said.
Maupin was a 20-year-old specialist when he was captured on April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy was ambushed west of Baghdad. He had been driving a supply truck.
Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape a week later showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.
That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the victim's head and not the actual shooting.
The Glen Este High School graduate was the only U.S. military member still listed as missing-captured in Iraq.
Keith Maupin said that at about 1 p.m. Sunday, he and Matt's mother were visited by Major General David Huntoon Jr., the Army staff director, who said DNA tests had confirmed that remains found earlier in the week in Iraq were those of their son.
Keith Maupin said that in that conversation and in subsequent conversations with Army officers, the family was given no more information about the circumstances through which the remains were found.
"We don't know where, just somewhere in Iraq. They found a shirt similar to what he (Matt) was wearing," Keith Maupin said. "They had DNA and confirmed it was Matt.
“We’re still just waiting for more information,” he said.
Lt. Lee Packnett, an Army public affairs officer in Washington, confirmed that the Maupins were notified Sunday that their son's remains had been identified. Packnett said an official statement about the identification would be released Monday
Maupin thanked the thousands of people who supported the family during their four-year ordeal and wore yellow ribbons or displayed them on their homes, cars and businesses, hoping someday for Matt's return.
He also thanked the military for not giving up the search for his son. The Maupins lobbied hard for the Army to continue listing their son as missing-captured, fearing that another designation would undermine efforts to find him.
"We want to thank all the guys who searched for Matt," he said.
Matt Maupin graduated from Glen Este in 2001 and attended the University of Cincinnati for a year before joining the Army Reserves.
Remembering her son as an easy-spirited young man who went with the flow, Carolyn Maupin said she’d learned a simple lesson from her loss: “Enjoy each day you have.”
"It's going to be very difficult," she said. "If you stay by our side and support us, that would be great."
Flags will be placed at half-staff Monday at all county buildings, said Clermont County Commissioner Bob Proud. He called Matt Mauplin “our native son, an American hero and an inspiration to all of us.”
Former Congressman Rob Portman, who represented Matt’s home district in Batavia, lobbied for the Maupin family, checking in with the defense officials daily to make sure they were doing all they could to bring the young soldier home.
Even as Matt’s parents came to grips with their own grief, Portman said, they were working to make sure their son did not die in vain.
“My heart goes out to the family,” Portman said Sunday night. “I’m just so impressed with how they’ve channeled their loss. They’ve been so focused on how to make sure their loss and their sacrifice helps others.”
“I think (Carolyn) always had hope that he would come home,” said Linda Bloom, a former West Clermont Local School Board member and longtime bus driver who now works with Carolyn Maupin. “I think we all did. Everybody had that hope in the back of their heads. We just didn’t want to see him come home, not like this.”
Bloom said her fellow workers plan to rally around the Maupins and step in when the family is ready for help or comfort.
“Carolyn knows that she’s in our prayers, and we’ll be there for whatever she wants us to do,” Bloom said
Dan Simmons, the athletic director at Glen Este, remembered Maupin Sunday as a quiet but hardworking backup player on the school's football team.
“Matt was a selfless kid on the football field,” Simmons said. “He did whatever the coaches told him. He wasn't a starter, but he made the other kids play harder.”
Keith Maupin recalled telling his son to do the best he could in every aspect of life.
Win, lose or draw, we’re gonna get something to eat,” Keith Maupin said he would tell Matt.
At a press conference Sunday afternoon, he ended that phrase, saying, “And that’s what we’re going to do.”
al-Sadr surrenders; Islam overtakes Roman Catholicism
Remember the heavy Shiite-on-Shiite battle in Basra? Well it seems that al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army, has surrendered for amnesty. I don't believe anyone should believe this fool, but I guess we'll just see what goes on from here.
The offer is contained in a nine-point statement issued by his headquarters in Najaf.
Al-Sadr is demanding that the government issue a general amnesty and release all detainees. The statement said he also “disavows” anyone who carries weapons and targets government institutions, charities and political party offices.
Update: Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Iraqi state TV in an interview that the decision is “positive and responsive.”
(AP)
Reuters Update:
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered those loyal to him and his Mahdi Army end all presence on the streets in Basra and cities across Iraq, saying that whoever carries arms against Iraqi forces is not one of his followers. The Iraqi government lauded al-Sadr’s orders, saying “This is a positive statement,” according to Reuters.
Just In From Agencie Frog Presse:
Iraq’s radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday ordered his fighters off the streets, paving the way for an end to clashes with security forces that have killed hundreds of people.
“We want the Iraqi people to stop this bloodshed and maintain Iraq’s independence and stability,” Sadr said in a statement with his seal released by his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf.
“For that we have decided to withdraw from the streets of Basra and all other provinces.”
Sadr’s latest call came after six days of fighting between Shiite fighters and Iraqi forces in the southern port city of Basra, Baghdad and several other Shiite regions that have killed at least 270 people.
He said he took the decision as it was his “legitimate responsibility to stop the bleeding of Iraqis, to maintain the reputation of Iraqi people, the unity of land and people, to prepare for its independence and liberation from the dark forces and to quell the fire of division by the occupier and its followers.”
The clashes erupted on Tuesday when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched an assault on Shiite militiamen in neighbourhoods of Basra controlled by the Mahdi Army, the most powerful Shiite militia in the violence-ravaged country.
Sadr’s call came after negotiations in Najaf that began on Saturday between representatives of his movement and the Iraqi authorities.
The Iraqi capital and Basra both remained under curfew on Sunday although there was a lull in the fighting, according to residents of affected neighbourhoods.
Maliki had given a 72-hour deadline to Shiite fighters in Basra to disarm after launching an offensive against them last Tuesday but the call was ignored by the militia.
“Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the (US) occupation,” Haider al-Jabari of the Sadr movement’s political bureau told AFP on Saturday.
The same day, Maliki vowed to press on with his assault in Basra, saying the militiamen were “worse than Al-Qaeda.”
“Unfortunately we were talking about Al-Qaeda but there are some among us who are worse than Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is killing innocents, Al-Qaeda is destroying establishments and they (Shiite gunmen) also,” he said.
Basra, Iraq’s crucial oil hub, is the focus of a turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shiite factions — the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party.
The stand-off there has spread to other Shiite areas of Iraq, including the sprawling Shiite neighbourhood of Baghdad’s Sadr City, the bastion of Sadr loyalists.
Pedestrians and vehicles stayed off the streets of the Iraqi capital for a third straight day of curfew, while Basra was relatively calm, residents said.
They however added that two neighbourhoods of Basra had been bombed during night by US or British jets. The two militaries did not immediately confirm the assaults.
US warplanes had carried out air strikes in the city on Friday and Saturday in which several people were killed, Iraqi and US officials said.
On Sunday, the US military acknowledged that its ground troops had started participating in the Basra assault.
A team of American special forces joined the battle in Basra, combining with Iraqi troops in an operation that killed 22 militants on Saturday, the military said.
The joint operation was in a known “criminal stronghold” in western Basra, a US military statement said.
US and British forces have said they have been giving air support to operations since Tuesday.
British troops have deployed outside their base on the edge of Basra in support of the Iraqi operations, British military spokesman Major Tom Holloway said on Sunday.
“There are no plans for our troops to enter the city. We are providing other forms of support,” he told AFP.
This includes air support and surveillance as well as logistical back-up including refuelling helicopters and supplying ammunition and medical supplies.
Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican’s newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world’s population and Catholics 17.4 percent.
“For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us,” Formenti told Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006.
He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world’s population — or about 2 billion people.
The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.
Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world’s population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates.
He said the data on Muslim populations had been compiled by individual countries and then released by the United Nations, adding the Vatican could only vouch for its own statistics...
IDIOT. And, as PatDollard.com pointed out, word on Obama's intentions (concerning America's defense) need to get out. Because this guy... is just friggin' scary. Post this video on your blog, or send it around when you have some free time.
...I'm told Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."
Does everyone hate President Bush? You'll be surprised. ...Most striking to me is that 56% of respondents approve of the President personally. This seems remarkable in view of the endless, savage attacks that have been launched on Bush by the Left and repeated, often uncritically, in the mainstream media.
Beyond that, a number of President Bush's policies are popular: reauthorizing the Protect America Act (70%), a budget that is lower than proposed by Democrats and that contains no tax increases (65%), the recently-enacted stimulus package (64%), the surge in Iraq (52%), and others. In addition, 73% agree with the proposition that the Bush administration went on the offensive against terrorists, and 65% say that it has kept Americans safe from terrorist attacks.
AP:Obama aligns foreign policy with GOP My rant: This guy wants to return to America's "traditional foreign policy efforts"! As if! Obama's so far to the left of Fidel Castro that it's impossible to imagine him as the next President of the US of A. Plus, he's too much of a messiah to the hippies and we all know how much the hippies hate the US military and the idea of an American victory in the War on Terror. He, as CiC, can never win a war.
GREENSBURG, Pa. - Sen. Barack Obama said Friday he would return the country to the more "traditional" foreign policy efforts of past presidents, such as George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
At a town hall event at a local high school gymnasium, Obama praised George H.W. Bush — father of the president — for the way he handled the Persian Gulf War: with a large coalition and carefully defined objectives.
Obama began a six-day bus tour through Pennsylvania, the largest remaining primary prize in the contest with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Sen. John McCain is the Republican nominee-in-waiting.
"The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush's father, of John F. Kennedy, of, in some ways, Ronald Reagan, and it is George Bush that's been naive and it's people like John McCain and, unfortunately, some Democrats that have facilitated him acting in these naive ways that have caused us so much damage in our reputation around the world," he said.
Obama faced criticism in January from Clinton and then-challenger John Edwards for saying Reagan had changed the trajectory of American politics — and that Republicans had been the party of ideas for the last decade or more.
In one of the more heated moments of the Democratic debates, Clinton challenged him directly on the topic, saying those GOP ideas were "bad for America, and I was fighting against those ideas."
In his speech Friday night, the Illinois senator charged that Clinton, for all her criticism of the current President Bush, has too often gone along with his decisions.
"I do think that Sen. Clinton would understand that George Bush's policies have failed, but in many ways she has been captive to the same politics that led her to vote for authorizing the war in Iraq," he said. "Since 9/11 the conventional wisdom has been that you've got to look tough on foreign policy by voting and acting like the Republicans, and I disagree with that."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama "represents an absolute departure" from Reagan and other presidents "whose strength in the face of an outspoken and determined enemy won the greater peace for a generation."
...Bruno called the report proof that Spitzer lied to the public and was obsessed with a "political hit job" on him. "The scandal was a blatant abuse of government power," he said.
ALBANY, N.Y. - A prosecutor said Friday that former Gov. Eliot Spitzer may have lied when he told investigators he wasn't deeply involved in a plot that used a Republican rival's travel records in an effort to embarrass him. He added that Spitzer could have been indicted had he not resigned in disgrace in a prostitution scandal.
Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares said in a report that Spitzer's former communications director, Darren Dopp, recounted conversations and e-mails that indicated Spitzer directly ordered him in a profanity-laced exchange to give a reporter records regarding Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno's use of state aircraft on days he attended Republican fundraisers.
Dopp was provided immunity for his testimony in Soares' second investigation of the 2007 scandal. Dopp had faced a possible perjury charge because a statement released by the Spitzer administration about the scandal differed from his own testimony, but Soares found Friday that he did not commit perjury.
"If Dopp's testimony is credited," Soares' report states, "then former Governor Spitzer's answers were not truthful. Accordingly, we intended to present these conflicting accounts to a grand jury."
But Spitzer's resignation this month, after he was implicated in an investigation of a prostitution ring, made it impossible to file a charge against him because it meant he was no longer a public employee, the report said.
Spitzer, like Soares a Democrat, never testified under oath in the travel-records scandal. Instead, he was bound by a statute that required public officials to answer questions truthfully or face a charge of obstructing justice.
A spokeswoman for Spitzer declined to comment Friday.
Bruno called the report proof that Spitzer lied to the public and was obsessed with a "political hit job" on him. "The scandal was a blatant abuse of government power," he said.
Publicly, Spitzer has said he had only cursory knowledge of the reporter's request for travel records and that his aides were overzealous. Spitzer apologized to Bruno for the aides' behavior.
In his testimony last year to Soares, Spitzer flatly denied that he directed the gathering of any documents concerning Bruno's flights and didn't order the release of any documents to the news media.
The report, however paints a picture of the former Democratic governor as "spitting mad" at Bruno. Dopp's testimony claims that Spitzer not only timed the release of the records for political advantage, but reviewed them personally at least twice and repeatedly called Dopp at home to check on progress of the news stories about the documents.
In September, Soares issued a report saying no one in the Spitzer administration acted improperly and that there was no evidence of a plot to discredit Bruno. Two aides argued they were following orders to fulfill media requests seeking records. Spitzer disciplined them both.
But Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found two top Spitzer aides misused state police to compile records of Bruno's use of state aircraft.
Soares revisited the case after a statement provided for him by Spitzer administration lawyers seemed to conflict with Dopp's testimony to the state Public Integrity Commission, which is also investigating. Dopp was questioned by Soares during the second investigation.
Friday's report said that at first, in May 2007, Spitzer just wanted to "monitor the situation" after Dopp said a reporter asked for Bruno's flight records. But in June, when Bruno was blocking Spitzer's initiatives in the Legislature, top Spitzer aides discussed providing the flight records to "the feds" after they read in the newspaper that Bruno was being investigated by the FBI for business dealings.
Dopp said that on June 25 or June 26, governor's Secretary Rich Baum told him, "Eliot wants you to release the records."
Dopp said he went into Spitzer's office to make sure. "According to Dopp, the governor replied, `Yeah, do it,'" the Soares report said.
"Dopp asked Spitzer: `Are you sure?'" noting Bruno would be angry.
Dopp said Spitzer then used vulgarities to describe Bruno and ordered Dopp to "shove it up his (expletive) with a red-hot poker."
"He was drinking a cup of coffee," Dopp told investigators, "as he was saying it, he was like spitting a little bit. He was spitting mad."
The report stated: "When asked whether he considered the governor telling him to release the records was a directive, Dopp stated that, `You couldn't mistake that based upon the words that were used.'"
The travel-records story ran in the Albany Times Union. Spitzer later suspended Dopp and transferred the other aide involved, William Howard, out of the executive chamber. Dopp would eventually leave the governor's office, after serving Spitzer for eight years as attorney general and a year as governor. Dopp had been an Associated Press reporter from 1985 to 1987.
The scandal led to gridlock in Albany and eroded Spitzer's once record-high popularity, which was shattered when the prostitution scandal broke this month. Some testimony and records still haven't been released, protected by Spitzer's executive privilege.
..."I think the government can't win this battle without interference of Americans or British," he said. "I think the aid or assistance is on the way." In his view, the Iraqi military needed air coverage and help with logistics and intelligence.
BAGHDAD, March 27 -- U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.
Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.
The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets. The Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite rival of Maliki, appeared to have taken the brunt of the attacks; fighting spread to many southern cities and parts of Baghdad.
As President Bush told an Ohio audience that Iraq was returning to "normalcy," administration officials in Washington held meetings to assess what appeared to be a rapidly deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.
Maliki decided to launch the offensive without consulting his U.S. allies, according to administration officials. With little U.S. presence in the south, and British forces in Basra confined to an air base outside the city, one administration official said that "we can't quite decipher" what is going on. It's a question, he said, of "who's got the best conspiracy" theory about why Maliki decided to act now.
In Basra, three rival Shiite groups have been trying to position themselves, sometimes through force of arms, to dominate recently approved provincial elections.
The U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said that they believe Iran has provided assistance in the past to all three groups -- the Mahdi Army; the Badr Organization of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite party; and forces loyal to the Fadhila Party, which holds the Basra governor's seat. But the officials see the current conflict as a purely internal Iraqi dispute.
Some officials have concluded that Maliki himself is firing "the first salvo in upcoming elections," the administration official said.
"His dog in that fight is that he is basically allied with the Badr Corps" against forces loyal to Sadr, the official said. "It's not a pretty picture."
Elements of Sadr's militia have fought fiercely, including rocketing the Green Zone, the huge fortified compound in Baghdad where the U.S. Embassy, Iraqi government offices and international agencies are located.
Starting about 5:25 p.m., the Post reporter heard the launch of 14 rockets, which Mahdi Army officers in the area said were aimed at the Green Zone. U.S. officials reported that 12 rounds hit the zone in that time frame, including six that fell inside the embassy compound. An American civilian contractor was killed in a residential area of the embassy compound, while another death was reported in the zone's U.N. compound.
Several Mahdi Army commanders said they had been fighting U.S. forces for the past three days in Sadr City, engaging Humvees as well as the Strykers. By their account, an Iraqi special forces unit had entered Sadr City from another direction, backed by Americans, but otherwise the fighting had not been with Iraqis.
"If there were no Americans, there would be no fighting," said Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, 38, a senior Mahdi Army member.
In August, Sadr ordered his militia to observe a cease-fire, a move widely credited with helping to reduce violence across Iraq. In recent days, Sadr officials have said the cease-fire remains in force. But in practice, his fighters and Iraqi and U.S. forces are waging full-scale war in places. Further fighting with his men could slow U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.
American commanders said in recent days that their units were taking only a backup role in the offensive and that Iraqi forces were growing strong enough to shoulder the country's security needs.
Maj. Mark Cheadle, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he could not make an accurate assessment of what the Post reporter saw without knowing the precise location. He underlined that U.S. troops were playing a backup role in the offensive but that on a battlefield that is "360 degrees," it might seem at times that they were out front. If an Iraqi unit was about to be overwhelmed by an enemy, "of course we are going to assist."
On Thursday, thousands of followers of Sadr turned out for a peaceful demonstration in Baghdad. Iraqi television channels carried crowd scenes in which people carried a coffin draped in flags and decorated with a portrait of Maliki. They denounced him as a "new dictator" and chanted: "Maliki keep your hands off. People do not want you."
Gunmen wearing police commando uniforms stormed the Baghdad home of a well-known member of Maliki's government, Tahseen al-Sheikhli, and took him hostage, according to the Information Ministry. Sheikhli is a chief spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, in charge of building public support for government efforts to quell violence in the city.
As fighting continued in Basra, saboteurs blew up one of the city's main oil pipelines. Gunmen opened fire on the city's police chief, wounding him and killing three of his bodyguards.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammad, director of military operations at Iraq's Defense Ministry, said the Basra operation would continue until security forces captured the outlaws or wiped them out. He said the Iraqi military planned to seal and search every neighborhood to capture suspected criminals and confiscate weapons.
But an adviser to Iraqi security forces, who had predicted that the fight in Basra would take 10 days, said it could go on much longer. He also said Iraqi forces were calling on U.S. and British forces for help. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
"I think the government can't win this battle without interference of Americans or British," he said. "I think the aid or assistance is on the way." In his view, the Iraqi military needed air coverage and help with logistics and intelligence.
The fighters "are opening many, many fronts against the army," he said. The adviser said the militia's weapons, some of them made in Iran, are more powerful than those of the Iraqi army.
So far, casualties in Basra on all sides have totaled about 400 killed and 300 wounded, he said.
Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said Iraqi security forces were "consolidating their current positions" and preparing for the next stage of the offensive. They were cordoning off areas and trying to gain control of the city "bite-size chunk by bite-size chunk."
Residents in Basra said they observed Mahdi Army militiamen gathering in their neighborhood stronghold of Jumhuriyah, assembling men and weapons while dodging gunfire from Iraqi army snipers at intersections.
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - A judge known for creative sentencing has ordered three Spanish-speaking men to learn English or go to jail.
The men, who faced prison for criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, can remain on parole if they learn to read and write English, earn their GEDs and get full-time jobs, Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said.
The men, Luis Reyes, Ricardo Dominguez and Rafael Guzman-Mateo, plus a fourth defendant, Kelvin Reyes-Rosario, all needed translators when they pleaded guilty Tuesday.
"Do you think we are going to supply you with a translator all of your life?" the judge asked them.
The four, ranging in age from 17 to 22, were in a group that police said accosted two men on a street in May. The two said they were asked if they had marijuana, told to empty their pockets, struck on the head, threatened with a gun and told to stay off the block.
Attorneys for the men said they were studying the legality of the ruling and had not decided whether to appeal. One of the attorneys, Ferris Webby, suggested that the ruling was good for his client, Guzman-Mateo.
"My client is happy," Webby said. "I think it's going to help him."
The judge sentenced the four men to jail terms of four to 24 months. But he gave the three men, who already had served at least four months, immediate parole. Reyes-Rosario remains imprisoned on an unrelated drug charge.
Olszewski ordered the three to return with their parole officers in a year and take an English test. "If they don't pass, they're going in for the 24 (months)," he said.
Olszewski is known for outside-the-box sentencing.
He has ordered young defendants who are school dropouts to finish school. He often orders defendants to get full-time employment. But he also has his staff coordinate with an employment agency to help them find the jobs.
ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - President Bush says he “strongly supports” Croatian membership in NATO, but has declined to say if the former Yugoslav country will be invited to join the alliance at a summit next week. In an interview with the state-run Croatian television broadcast Thursday, Bush said the decision will be made by all NATO members.
Bush has said that Croatia is in a “very good position” to be invited to join. Membership in NATO and European Union are among the country’s priorities.
Bush spoke in Washington before his trip next week to Ukraine, a NATO summit in Romania and Croatia.
In comments focusing on the Balkans, the president also said that recognizing Kosovo’s independence was “best” for the troubled region and expressed hopes that Serbia will in the end help its former province to succeed.
Bush said he supported supervised independence for Kosovo “because I think it’s best for the region and I think it’s most likely to lead to peace.”
“My hope is that the Serbian government will see that the Serbs in Kosovo are treated with respect, that their rights as a minority are respected and that it will eventually help Kosovo succeed as opposed to trying to hinder their success,” Bush said.
Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence Feb. 17, triggering fierce protests from Serbia and its ally, Russia. The U.S. was among the first countries to recognize Kosovo as an independent state; more than 30 other countries have followed suit, including European powers like Britain, France and Germany.
Serbia insists the rights of Serbs living in Kosovo would be endangered in the majority ethnic Albanian state. Serbs in northern Kosovo have been protesting almost daily against its independence since it was declared.
Omg this is so... weird! Hahaha weird and funny! Bush Girl is more awesome than Obama Girl!
lol! Anyway listen to the rap part... it's the funniest! "Democrat is just another word for stinky ho... I'll never vetoe you, my little W... Waterboarding detainees, smackin' Hillary!"
Earlier reports have indicated that the battle that has broken out with the Mahdi Army for the last two days was an operation that Al Sadr was tacitly okay with, and was sitting on the sidelines. The reports that I’m getting from a variety of high-placed military and other sources in Bahdad and elsewhere are indicating otherwise. A decision was made a long time ago that Al Sadr would not be allowed to run a shadow government in Iraq, and the problem was further complicated by the fact that it became increasingly unclear as to which Shiite factions were true followers of Al Sadr and follwing his ceasefire, and which were really just extensions of Irans’ Revolutionary Guard. Completely frustrated with trying to wade through this very byzantine and very violent mess, Maliki and Petraeus mutually decided to launch an offensive against ALL meaningful Shiite gangs ( so-callled militias ) in Iraq and neutralize them once and for all. The great hope is that the big fat cowardly Al Sadr will sneak back in from Iran, and the cooalition forces will kill him. He does not know it, very few do, but the coalition has a price on Al Sadr’s head. They feel he must be relegted to the garbage dump of history, and the great battle has now begun. Developing…
WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution.
Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at the behest of Saddam's regime. Iraqi intelligence officials allegedly paid for the trip through an intermediary and rewarded Al-Hanooti with 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.
The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. None was charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.
"Obviously, we didn't know it at the time," McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare said Wednesday. "The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That's the only reason we went."
Both McDermott and Thompson are popular among liberal voters in their reliably Democratic districts for their anti-war views. Bonior is no longer in Congress.
Thompson released a statement Wednesday saying the trip was approved by the State Department.
"Obviously, had there been any question at all regarding the sponsor of the trip or the funding, I would not have participated," he said.
During the trip, the lawmakers expressed skepticism about the Bush administration's claims that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Though such weapons ultimately were never found, the lawmakers drew criticism for their trip at the time.
Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, then the second-ranking Senate Republican, said the Democrats "sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government." Seattle-area conservatives dubbed McDermott "Baghdad Jim" for the Iraq trip.
Al-Hanooti was arrested Tuesday night while returning to the U.S. from the Middle East, where he was looking for a job, his attorney, James Thomas, said. Al-Hanooti pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, illegally purchasing Iraqi oil and lying to authorities. He was being held on $100,000 bail.
Between 1999 and 2006, he worked on and off as a public relations coordinator for Life for Relief and Development, a charity formed after the first Gulf War to fund humanitarian work in Iraq. FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force agents raided the charity's headquarters in 2006 but charged nobody and allowed the agency to continue operating.
McDermott identified that charity as the group financing the Iraq trip. In House disclosure forms, he put the cost at $5,510. Thompson also understood the charity to be financing the trip, spokeswoman Anne Warden said.
Prosecutors said Al-Hanooti was responsible for monitoring Congress for the Iraqi Intelligence Service. From 1999 to 2002, he allegedly provided Saddam's government with a list of U.S. lawmakers he believed favored lifting economic sanctions against Iraq.
Thomas said Al-Hanooti would "vigorously defend" himself against the charges but he could not discuss the specifics of the case since he had seen none of the evidence.
Hey I'm a total newbie when it comes to nerd stuff sooooo... my video kind of sucks. BUT whatever, I'm pretty proud of it. It's a compilation of GWB photos, set to Frank Sinatra's music ("My Way"). I think My Way is a great song, even if it's ancient, and describes GWB's presidency very well.
My Way
And now, the end is near; And so I face the final curtain. My friend, Ill say it clear, Ill state my case, of which Im certain.
Ive lived a life thats full. Ive traveled each and evry highway; And more, much more than this, I did it my way.
Regrets, Ive had a few; But then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption.
I planned each charted course; Each careful step along the byway, But more, much more than this, I did it my way.
Yes, there were times, Im sure you knew When I bit off more than I could chew. But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall; And did it my way.
Ive loved, Ive laughed and cried. Ive had my fill; my share of losing. And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing.
To think I did all that; And may I say - not in a shy way, No, oh no not me, I did it my way.
For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught. To say the things he truly feels; And not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows - And did it my way!
Perhaps the Democrats should listen to the Cassandras forecasting disaster. According to Rasmussen, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have begun to melt down in the crucible of an increasingly nasty primary fight. McCain leads Hillary by seven and Obama by nine, well outside the margin of error:
Looking ahead to the General Election in November, John McCain continues to lead both potential Democratic opponents.McCain leads Barack Obama 50% to 41% and Hillary Clinton 49% to 42% (see recent daily results). New polling shows McCain narrowly behind both Democrats in Nevada while McCain has a solid lead over both in North Carolina. March has been a good month for John McCain. But, a Rasmussen Reports video notes that a good month of March doesn’t get you to the White House, that requires a good day in November. ….
On Monday, McCain is viewed favorably by 55% of voters nationwide and unfavorably by 42%. Obama’s reviews are 46% favorable and 52% unfavorable. For Clinton, those numbers are 42% favorable, 55% unfavorable[.]
The daily tracking polls show both candidates dropping back in McCain’s rear-view mirror. A week ago, McCain led both by six; two weeks ago, only one point separated McCain from either — and Hillary led. McCain has grasped the momentum and steadfastly refused to get between the two Democrats in order to maintain it, and to maintain a much more Presidential mien than either of his prospective opponents.
The favorability ratings make clear the Democratic meltdown. Hillary has spent practically the entire campaign with negative favoribility, but her current -13 appears to be a record. Obama, though, had gotten used to positive favorability, but in March he has gone into the red. He’s currently at a -6, and his 52% unfavorable rating is as high as that number has ever been.
Clearly, the negative campaigning from both Democrats has proven remarkably effective …. for McCain.
CBS tells us the true story behind Clinton's "dramatic" trip to Bosnia. Now if only the mainstream media had enough guts to be as tough on Obama as they are on Republicans and now, the Clintons, then things would be a lil bit more fair.
SILVERDALE, Wash. — An 18-year-old Port Orchard man has been forbidden from visiting the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale after he harassed two off-duty Marines.
A Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy was summoned to the mall on Friday afternoon after security guards called and said the camouflage-clad man had been calling the two Marines “baby killers.”
The man was escorted to a bus stop near the mall.
When interviewed by the deputy, the man said he had been talking to the two Marines when he became agitated that they didn’t know the history of the “Washington State Volunteer Militia.” The man said he was a member of the militia. [Loopy!!!!] (AP)
If you want a new pair of shoes that are both funky and inexpensive, you can always check out Chinese Laundry. I really like the retro vibe of their Breannie shoes. I'm not too sure if it suits my style, but I'm sick and tired of my boring shoe collection (it mostly consists of boots, animal prints, and metallics) and I wouldn't mind acquiring something different this time. I love the somewhat eye-popping print because it can jazz-up a really boring outfit! Also, put on this magic pair and people at the mall will be staring at your feet instead of the gigantic new pimple on your forehead! A great new tool to divert attention from all things ugly! Breannie at Chinese Laundry (Also comes in black!)
BAGHDAD – Coalition forces killed 17 terrorists and detained 30 suspected terrorists during operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq in central and northern parts of the country Saturday and today.
Coalition forces conducted an operation Saturday near the Hamrin Mountains, targeting weapons facilitators and associates of AQI leadership. Intelligence reports led the assault force to the targeted suspect’s location, where five individuals failed to comply with Coalition forces’ instructions or heed warnings. Perceiving hostile intent, Coalition forces engaged the armed men with small arms fire, killing them. Secondary explosions from a vehicle following the initial engagement indicated explosives or weapons were inside.
Coalition forces killed 12 terrorists today during an operation east of Baqouba, targeting members of a suicide bombing network. The ground force was attacked with small arms fire as they approached the target building. Responding to the hostile threat, Coalition forces engaged five armed men, killing them. The ground force ordered the occupants to come out of the building. Some complied, but others remained inside. Coalition forces entered the building and were fired upon by several armed men. Seven more terrorists were killed in the engagement, and Coalition forces detained five suspects on the scene. Assault weapons, ammunition, grenades and military-style assault vests discovered on site were safely destroyed. Six of the terrorists killed had shaved their bodies, which is consistent with final preparation for suicide operations.
Coalition forces continued to target the terrorist bombing network in southwest Baghdad this morning, capturing a suspected bombing facilitator, who allegedly specializes in the distribution of homemade explosives. After he identified himself as the targeted suspect, the man led Coalition forces to four other wanted individuals, who were also detained.
In Mosul today, Coalition forces conducted a precision operation in which they captured an alleged terrorist leader suspected of carrying out attacks against Iraqi and Coalition forces. In a nearby operation, the ground force detained three suspected terrorists while targeting associates of AQI senior leaders.
Coalition forces captured an alleged associate of AQI senior leaders and three other suspected terrorists this morning in Tikrit. On two occasions during the operation, vehicles sped toward the security perimeter. After using visual signals, Coalition forces fired a warning shot. In one incident, the vehicle turned around and left; the other vehicle stopped, and the driver ran away. There were no injuries reported in either incident.
Two coordinated operations today in the Tigris River Valley targeted AQI’s propaganda network. Northwest of Tikrit, Coalition forces detained six suspected terrorists, and west of Samarra, six additional suspects were detained.
“Though Iraqi and Coalition forces have captured and killed a substantial number of terrorists in operations like these, al-Qaeda in Iraq is still lethal, and a tough fight remains ahead,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. “We are committed to this fight and to improving public safety and security for all Iraqis.”
Odd headline, isn’t it? I mean, they’ve been “approaching” 4,000 since, oh, 3,900 was reached…why put this out now? And why not wait for 4,000?
My guess is that the good news is coming out of Iraq all too rapidly these days and that public opinion in the US is turning towards continued support for the long-haul…and that, of course, will damage Democratic prospects in 2008. So, change the subject - use dead American servicemember’s as a prop in a leftwing morality play, courtesy of the supposedly unbiased MSM.
Of course, the loss of life is a sad thing - but the problem with concentrating on numbers like that is that it fails to put into context just what they died for. Its not like they were killed in a traffic accident just on their way home from work, now is it? Here is some of what they’ve been doing lately:
Plenty to write about - and plenty which is interesting, newsworthy and likely to generate readership/viewership. Why write about the number of dead rather than write about the actual war? Can anyone find a headline from, say, June of 1944 which says that “US Deaths in Europe Approach 200,000″, rather than talking about what the troops were doing?
The Sensual Amber line from Bath & Body Works is really good. They've got the best body cream since Estee Lauder's Beautiful. It's a whole lot cheaper too, so that's another plus! Be warned though, the whole collection is addictive: I find myself slabbing on several pounds of Sensual Amber hand cream every hour or so. lol! The scent is not too strong so you needn't worry about turning off anyone, a problem that many women find with various designer perfumes (remember those harsh scents only grandma would wear?). Anyway, according to the website, the fragrance base notes are as follows: Amber, Creamy Sandalwood, Vanilla, Patchouli, Praline, Musk Captive. Doesn't that sound mouthwatering? The mid-notes consist of floral scents while the top-notes are made up entirely of fruity scents. A seriously delicious mix. Their Black Raspberry Vanilla collection also looks good. Heck, I think anything "drenched with vanilla cream" is good. If you haven't figured it out, I'm completely in love with all things vanilla- whether it comes in the form of ice cream or body cream! Which reminds me, you should also check out The Body Shop's vanilla perfume oil, it's really yummy!
Oil prices fall to $100.14 a barrel on Saudi plans to boost supply
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil fell nearly $2 to around $100 a barrel on Monday, extending last week's deep losses as funds sought to lock in first-quarter profits and Saudi Arabia reassured consumers of its plans to boost supply.
U.S. light crude for May delivery fell $1.70 to $100.14 a barrel in Globex electronic trading by 12:18 a.m. EDT. Prices dropped by almost $9, about 8 percent, last week as investors fled the commodities complex on fears that gains had been overdone, giving a lift to the beleaguered dollar in the process.
London Brent crude fell $1.46 cents to $98.92.
"I think there's still a lot of profit taking in the market and that is pushing down oil prices. The U.S. dollar is also bouncing back from major currencies, so that's adding to the downward pressure," said Tetsu Emori, a Tokyo-based fund manager at Astmax Co Ltd.
"The market could also be reacting to comments from Saudi Arabia."
Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it was working to expand its oil production and refinery capacity in order to maintain world economic growth, reaffirming its vow to invest tens of billions of dollars in new wells and infrastructure.
"The kingdom will work with OPEC countries, other producers and consuming countries towards oil market stability and to avoid the effects of harmful speculation," the Supreme Council of Petroleum and Mineral Affairs said in a statement following a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
Washington has said it wants Saudi Arabia to help raise OPEC production to ease prices, but the producers' cartel has resisted pumping more crude due to fears of weakening demand.
DOWN SHARPLY
A tumbling U.S. dollar and geopolitics in the Middle East have helped fuel the recent oil rally, which also saw other commodities hit a series of record highs since the start of the year as investors fled stock markets and took refuge in dollar-denominated assets.
But oil has fallen sharply from its lifetime high of $111.80 on March 17, as nervous investors, worried about the outlook of the global economy, cash in on recent record prices.
And the dollar continued its uptrend versus the euro, up 0.5 percent to $1.5360 from late Asian trading on Friday, rising further from a record low of $1.5905 struck on electronic trading platform EBS last week.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Saturday petroleum prices will range between $80 and $110 per barrel for the rest of 2008.
The reopening of Mexico's oil ports on Friday also weighed on prices. The government said Coatzacoalcos and Dos Bocas had opened on Friday after a two-day closure due to bad weather.
With prices falling at the start of last week, speculators quickly cut their long positions to reduce leverage in portfolios and raise cash to meet margin calls stemming from turmoil in global capital markets, traders said.
Speculators' net crude long positions fell to 86,352 in the week ended March 18, data from the commodity Futures Trading Commission released Friday showed, down from 113,307 the previous week, which was the highest net long position since an all-time high of 127,291 hit on July 31.
“The lynching was national news. The RNN, the Roman News Network, was reporting it and NPR, National Publican Radio had it on the radio. The Jerusalem Post and the Palestine Times all wanted exclusives, they searched out the young ministers, showed up unannounced at their houses, tried to talk with their families, called up their friends, wanted to get a quote on how do you feel about the lynching?” he continued.
ANYWAY, President Bush still rules- he's fifteen different shades of cool and everyone else is just jealous. :P The teddy bear is pretty cute, too!
p.s. I shouldn't laugh, but... this is seriously funny!!! lol!
Gosh, I've been so cranky lately. My friend says it's 'cause of my newfound diet (I'm trying to survive Atkins' Two-Week Induction Meal Plan!), but what's a girl to do! I don't want to be fat, but at the same time I don't want to be a huge grouch either! Maybe I should go for that Skinny Bitch diet, which is suppose to do wonders for my grumpy state-of-mind, but I don't think I can live on just veggies alone. Besides, it's a propaganda-diet created by bitter vegans (allegedly!), and Veganism, though noble, is a lifestyle I can't adapt to. It's too pure and weird and I love my meat and python boots. Whatever.
The sharp drop in suicide bombings in Iraq is partly due to the decline in foreign al Qaeda volunteers coming into Iraq. The recruiting, mostly in Saudi Arabia and North Africa, preys on the unique social conditions in those areas. Namely, high birth rates and high unemployment. This produces a lot of younger sons who are unemployed, unmarried and face a dim future. So the al Qaeda recruiter, often working out of a local mosque, makes a free trip to Iraq, ending in a glorious death for the cause, sound like a solution. But over the last year, the number of such volunteers has declined from 120 a month, to about 40. The main reason for this is bad news, and some survivors, coming back from Iraq. Not many of these losers make it back, but the word gets on to the Internet, and this has caused quite a commotion on pro-terrorist web sites and message boards. There’s also been a sharp drop in pro-terrorist combat videos coming out of Iraq. This is largely due to the death or capture of the people responsible for getting those videos onto the Internet.
In other news, #2 al-Q leader urges Jihadists to attack Israel and America. Nothing new here, right? According to Breitbart, Ayman al-Zawahri wants his minions "to strike Jewish and American targets in revenge for Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this month." Whatever. Does anyone still listen to this guy anymore? al-Qaeda is losing wherever there are American soldiers. They should just give up and turn themselves in... to the authorities at Gitmo Bay!
Reuters: Muslim baptized by pope says life in danger A Muslim author and critic of Islamic fundamentalism who was baptized a Catholic by Pope Benedict said on Sunday Islam is "physiologically violent" and he is now in great danger because of his conversion.
"I realize what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith," said Magdi Allam.
In a surprise move on Saturday night, the pope baptized the 55-year-old, Egyptian-born Allam at an Easter eve service in St Peter's Basilica that was broadcast around the world...
From PatDollard: Surge Architect: Don’t Cut Troop Levels Till 2009 Frederick Kagan, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, tells U.S. News that, barring major developments, he sees little reason to reduce force levels in Iraq below presurge levels until early 2009.
“I can see no reason to expect that we will be able to evaluate the levels of force appropriate in Iraq until the new president comes into office,” says Kagan, one of the chief architects of the current surge strategy in Iraq. The last of the surge troops leaves Iraq in July. As the latter part of 2008 approaches, Kagan adds, there are Iraqi provincial elections, U.S. presidential elections, and the Islamic religious month of Ramadan, in the past a time of increased violence in the country. “If troops only get out in July, how can you even make evaluations before October?” he asks...
TMZ: Hudgens Recipe for Success: Ignore Fans Who needs fans when you got money to burn?! Vanessa Hudgens was out shopping in Beverly Hills yesterday, and ignored tons of tween fans that waited and literally screamed bloody murder for her, wanting an autograph and picture...
HotAir: A Century in Iraq, if it works right: Obama adviser Yesterday I noted the accusation of McCarthyism against Bill Clinton by Barack Obama military adviser Gen. Tony McPeak. The former Air Force Chief of Staff has a history of interesting statements, including a couple at the beginning of the war both McPeak and Obama oppose. In an interview with the Oregonian, posted here but confirmed by me through its purchase from the archives, McPeak essentially makes the exact same argument that John McCain makes about staying in Iraq — and which Obama ridicules...
Absolutely stunning! I don't care if this layered dress looks too deconstructed- I adore it! Sure, at first glance, it may seem like the kind of dress that looks best hanging off the bony shoulders of some size 0 girl (tip: curvy women need to show off their curves in a Leger bandage dress!), but I believe that if you want it, you should get it; And when you have it, you should work it! It's all about the attitude. Besides, I can already imagine one of the curvy Kardashian sisters wearing this and looking damn good in it! Marc Jacobs Collection Layered Button-Down Dress, 100% Silk, at E-Luxury
AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - It's four in the morning and the convoy is staged and ready to roll. Today's run has 70 vehicles — 50 trucks loaded with food, water and supplies and 20 military escorts, guns mounted and turrets manned.
When it hits the road, the convoy will sprawl six miles long.
The course ahead is a 70-mile stretch of desert highway through the oasis hamlet of Baghdadi and out to Haditha Dam, where the Euphrates River meets Lake Qadisiya.
The dam, on the outskirts of a dusty city by the same name of about 78,000, is Iraq's second-largest source of hydroelectricity, and the U.S. Marines' Combat Logistics Battalion 4 — CLB 4 — has been protecting its lifelines for the past seven months.
Supply routes vary, but today's will be primarily along Bronze, which is a relief to everyone. Bronze is smoother, and in the back of the Marines' new armored vehicle, the much-delayed MRAP, that means a lot less bouncing around.
More important, Bronze is calm.
Though they discover caches every few weeks, the battalion, which deployed to Iraq last summer from the Japanese island of Okinawa, has only been "hit" on three convoys.
In one, an improvised explosive device was run over by the first vehicle, a mineroller. The mineroller, which looks something like a thresher, was demolished. Though the driver was unhurt, the gunner in the next vehicle took a burst of shrapnel to his face and throat.
But he was back out on a convoy the next day.
To date, no one in the battalion has been killed by IEDs. The only death on a convoy since CLB 4 got here was a combat photographer who was shooting a fuel tanker that had careered off the road in an accident. It exploded, and the photographer was enveloped in the flames.
"Routine" is how people describe the convoys now.
And "quiet."
Anbar province, which stretches to the Saudi Arabian, Jordanian and Syrian borders west of Baghdad, had been the heart of the Sunni insurgency and a bastion of al-Qaida in Iraq. But Sunni tribal leaders who were fighting the Americans began in late 2006 to turn on al-Qaida, fed up with its brutality and austere brand of Islam.
Now the province is one of the safest in Iraq. The troops' mission is to keep it that way.
"We must be doing something right," said Cpl. Colbert Rianda, of Chico, Calif. "You can see the change."
___
Just getting out of al-Asad, a sprawling airfield built by Saddam Hussein's regime and now known as "Camp Cupcake," seems to take forever.
Lying at the bottom of a canyon and surrounded by a whole lot of nothing, al-Asad Air Base is big enough to support 20,000 troops. It currently holds about 15,000 — including thousands of private contractors, from ponytailed KBR truck drivers to Pakistani cooks to a contingent of Ugandans who handle the on-base security.
Al-Asad is big enough to have its own bus system. It has a Burger King, a Pizza Hut, and round-the-clock Internet access. The base store sells Tic Tacs, souvenir T-shirts, iPods.
To the Marines, who take a sort of masochistic pride in roughing it, the extras are almost embarrassing.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway even singled out al-Asad last summer, warning his Marines not to get soft.
"Marines are getting used to living at fixed bases and with more comforts of life than we really need," he said in a speech at the Naval War College in June. "Marines must guard against complacency and the expectation that tomorrow's fight be marked by equally hospitable operating bases."
Even so, life on Camp Cupcake is hardly cushy.
"Out here, we're working 12 hours a day, seven days a week," Sgt. Jason Smith, of Altoona, Pa., said after loading a helicopter for a run to a combat outpost that the truck convoys can't reach. "We don't get any time off except those 12 hours."
He said off hours are spent sleeping. Or playing games online. Or keeping fit.
There isn't much else to do.
Unless they have good reason to — like convoy duty — the troops don't go outside the wire.
___
CLB 4 has set something of a precedent.
The battalion was one of the first to be deployed, in full, from Okinawa. It was established specifically to support the fight in Iraq, and its deployment here underscores the extent to which Iraq has become a long-term draw on the U.S. troops' positioning worldwide.
Though the U.S. has about 50,000 troops in Japan with a mandate to secure Washington's prime Pacific ally, those troops are now being called on to fight 5,000 miles away. Along with the Marines in Anbar, Air Force fighters have been deployed from northern Japan to Iraq's Balad Air Base. U.S. troops from Japan serve in Afghanistan too.
But CLB 4's mission is almost complete.
Unlike their Army counterparts, who frequently stay for a year or longer, the Marines come for relatively short stints. For CLB 4, it was seven months.
It has been a concentrated deployment.
Their vehicles have put in 13,173 mission miles — about twice around the moon — escorted 2,297 trucks, provided a million gallons of fuel and 2 million gallons of water throughout Anbar.
At the sandbagged battalion headquarters, officers are preparing for departure, writing up merit citations and doing the spadework to get all the 900 Marines back to their home stations.
Their building was a shambles when they arrived, with wires stripped from walls that are now covered in a fresh — albeit dust-covered — coat of paint.
"We are definitely leaving this place better than it was when we came," said 1st Lt. Alex Derichemont, CLB 4's adjutant officer.
"The change has been dramatic, even just during the time that we have been here." he said. "It's not bullets flying through the air every day. A lot of the time out here, it's just another day at the office."
___
A normal day at the office means different things to different people, however.
After a brief stop in a dirt-covered parking lot just short of Haditha Dam, today's convoy splits in half and the vehicles that are needed continue on to Combat Outpost Ellis, another couple of hours beyond in a sparsely populated expanse of desert.
Once there, forklift operators swing into action to unload food and other supplies while the drivers and their military escorts gather for lunch.
Surrounded by concrete blast walls and ringed by barbed wire, the chow hall is little more than a shack, dark and drafty.
Around noon, Marines drift in, boots and faces dusty, rifles slung over shoulders. There's no question that these guys are roughing it.
With the wind kicking up outside and whistling through the walls, they line up solemnly in front of the one functioning microwave with their plates of frozen pizza, calzones and Pop Tarts.
If you smoke a particular brand of cigarette, you have to be fast. When the supplies come in, it's first come, first served.
For these troops, going outside the wire is common.
Often with smiling Iraqi children in tow, the Marines frequently patrol the area and liaise with local officials. Their mission is both keep the peace and build up the local infrastructure so that the U.S. can ease out of the region without creating an implosion.
The work is moving ahead, but is far from complete. Signs outside the chow hall remind the troops that the sooner a reliable local justice system is established, the better.
But for 1st Lt. Nicolas Martinez, of Dallas, life is still viewed through the lens of the IEDs.
"You can tell that there are bomb cells," he said. "It's like an artist, you can tell his work. What we see is a very basic, simple kind of IED. There hasn't been much of an evolution."
He adds, however, that he has been seeing them a lot less.
___
Back on the road, Martinez is getting antsy. As the convoy's senior officer, he has to get it back to base, and luck is starting to work against him.
The sun is low in the sky, and al-Asad is another hour away. Visibility is dropping and the air is turning red, a bad omen.
Convoys can't run during Red Air. If the approaching dust storm catches us, and the helicopters back at al-Asad are grounded, meaning they cannot provide air cover, we may have to turn back and overnight at the dam.
It gets worse.
An Army convoy suddenly appears to take a wrong turn and pulls in front of our lead truck, making all our vehicles slow down sharply. There is confusion — and a collective rush of adrenalin. Did they just mess up for some reason, or are they creating a cordon? Was a cache of bombs found along the road?
In the back of the MRAP, the radio operator furiously tries to get answers.
Then the Army vehicles turn off the road again, vanishing into a cloud of dust.
We cautiously push on.
Martinez notes that one of the most important innovations the Marines have seen over the past few months is a "share the road" policy.
He points out the window.
A string of beat-up civilian sedans is in the oncoming lane, most with their lights on, many with their emergency lights blinking as well. Some pull over as we pass. Others barrel right on by.
Some drivers wave.
"Before, we would have gone right down the middle of the road," Martinez said. "Now, Iraqis are on the road with us. They are considered friendly until proven otherwise. It's a big change of thinking on our part." ___
Col. Brent Spahn, CLB 4's commanding officer, is paid to take a big-picture view of things.
There has been a lot of talk lately about the Awakening Councils, Sunni groups that have begun a collaboration aimed at driving out al-Qaida and other insurgents. Their efforts have made a big difference in places like Ramadi and Falluja.
Awakening Councils are not all the rage here — most of the Marines have never heard the term — but Anbar has seen a similar progression, with violence diminishing as local cooperation increases.
Spahn said the Marines have used the lull to bolster their efforts to train Iraqis, through small "transition teams," to take more control.
He noted that one corner of the al-Asad base is now used by a small contingent of Iraqi soldiers, who run their own camp. It's still controversial — some of the Americans here complain that it poses a security threat and say the Iraqis tend to fire their weapons in an undisciplined manner — but it would have been unthinkable in the relatively recent past.
Even so, Iraq remains a fluid place.
As he prepares to pull his battalion out, Spahn says he has a sense of accomplishment.
"We are working toward a common goal," he said, flanked by U.S. and Marine Corps flags at his al-Asad office. "I'm optimistic. Very optimistic. The insurgents are on the run. It is very hard for them operate here."
But the mission isn't over — this battalion will be replaced.
And how long do the Marines need to remain? One year? Two?
With the U.S. presidential election looming, no one here wants to step out on that limb.
Still, Spahn is emphatic that the Marines are not here to stay.
"The long-term goal is that we do scale back, and that as we do scale out the Iraqis fill in the voids that we're creating," he said. "We will eventually get out."
So everyone knows about Diane von Furstenberg's famous wrap dresses (every girl/woman has at least one in her closet!)... now, we have the "Wrap Bag". It's not the most glamorous bag on the face of the earth, for sure, but it's quite unique and I have a feeling it will grow on me. According to Bagsnob, it is made of Italian leather and comes in different colors. You can also adjust the straps to accommodate your daily needs. I think that's the best part about this bag- it's pretty enough and it's practical. And it'll only cost ya $700 (Large). Not bad. Diane von Furstenberg Leather wrap bag with detachable coin purse at Net-A-Porter
WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain's ethics entanglement with a wealthy banker ultimately convicted of swindling investors was such a disturbing, formative experience in his political career that he compares the scandal in some ways to the five years he was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"I faced in Vietnam, at times, very real threats to life and limb," McCain told The Associated Press. "But while my sense of honor was tested in prison, it was not questioned. During the Keating inquiry, it was, and I regretted that very much."
In his early days as a freshman senator, McCain was known for accepting contributions from Charles Keating Jr., flying to the banker's home in the Bahamas on company planes and taking up Keating's cause with U.S. financial regulators as they investigated him.
The Keating Five was the derisive name given McCain and four Democratic senators who were defendants in a congressional ethics investigation of their connections to Keating. McCain is the only one still in the Senate. They were accused of trying to intimidate regulators on behalf of Keating, a real estate developer in Arizona and owner of Lincoln Savings and Loan based in Irvine, Calif.
Keating and his associates raised $1.3 million combined for the campaigns and political causes of all five. McCain's campaigns received $112,000.
The investigation ended in early 1991 with a rebuke that McCain "exercised poor judgment in intervening with the regulators." But the Senate ethics committee also determined McCain's actions "were not improper nor attended with gross negligence."
McCain has claimed the Keating scandal sensitized him even to the appearance of potential conflicts of interest. But in recent weeks, McCain has defended himself anew over another instance in which he intervened with federal regulators on behalf of a prominent campaign contributor — years ago but after the Keating rebuke. Again, McCain denies acting improperly.
McCain wrote two letters in late 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Florida-based Paxson Communications. He urged quick consideration of a proposal to buy a television station license in Pittsburgh, although he did not ask the FCC commissioners to approve the proposal. At the time, one FCC commissioner's formal nomination was pending before McCain's Senate committee, and the FCC chairman complained that McCain's letters were improper.
McCain wrote the letters after receiving more than $20,000 in contributions from the company's executives and lobbyists. Chief executive Lowell W. "Bud" Paxson also lent McCain his company's jet at least four times during 1999 for campaign travel.
In the Keating investigation, the committee said more than one year had passed — a "decent interval" — between the last contributions Keating raised for McCain and the two 1987 meetings he attended with banking regulators. McCain later paid $112,000 — the amount Keating raised for him — to the U.S. Treasury.
None of the five senators was punished by the Senate. The harshest rebuke went to Alan Cranston, D-Calif., who accepted $1 million in contributions tied to Keating. The ethics committee said Cranston "engaged in an impermissible pattern of conduct in which fundraising and official activities were substantially linked." Cranston died in December 2000.
The ethics committee said McCain took no further action on Keating's behalf after regulators dropped a bombshell during a meeting with the senators: They intended to recommend a criminal investigation of Keating and his savings and loan.
"The appearance of wrongdoing, fair or unfair, can be potentially as injurious as actual wrongdoing," McCain told the AP, reflecting on what he said were his lessons from the scandal. "Also, when questions are raised about your integrity or for that matter anything involving your public career, even, for example, a controversial position on the issues, it is best not to hide from the media or public."
Now famously accessible to reporters as a presidential candidate, McCain conducted a poisonous newspaper interview nearly 20 years ago with his hometown Arizona Republic. Flashing his quick temper, he insulted, cursed and hung up on reporters questioning him about his ties to Keating. He said he now recognizes it was the worst way to respond.
"Taking all the questions and making your arguments is the only way you can prevent an unfair or injurious public perception becoming fixed," McCain said.
Former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., a Republican on the ethics panel who investigated McCain, said McCain's political comeback and his personal rehabilitation from his time as a POW were his biggest personal obstacles.
"What happened in Vietnam and the Keating Five, those two were life altering," Rudman said in an interview. "He would not put a losing campaign in the same box. But not wallowing in self pity and doing something positive, that is absolutely John McCain."
Republican Trent Lott of Mississippi, the former Senate majority leader, said McCain's political revival after the investigation was no accident.
"He was so upset at the charges and the impact, he felt an extra need to deal with the kind of things that led to the situation he found himself in," Lott said in an interview. "You can go away disillusioned and angry and just leave, or you can go back to work and try to compensate for it. And that's what John has been about in the years since. He just went back to work. He bent over backwards to be extra careful about ethics."
Keating went to prison for more than four years after a federal fraud conviction. The conviction was reversed on appeal after he argued that jurors improperly had knowledge of a prior state conviction on related charges. He was to be retried in federal court but instead pleaded guilty to four federal fraud counts. Keating admitted he siphoned nearly $1 million from his S&L's insolvent parent company. He was sentenced to time he already had served.
After prison, Keating moved to his daughter's home in the wealthy Phoenix enclave of Paradise Valley. In 2006, he quietly began work as a business consultant in Phoenix. A spokesman for Keating, reached at his office, said Keating did not want to discuss the banking scandal or McCain's presidential campaign.
Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan sold worthless, high-risk junk bonds. Many of the 23,000 investors were elderly customers who didn't realize their investments were not federally insured. Many were left destitute while Keating maintained a lavish lifestyle. Keating also participated in the risky investments that led to the collapse of S&L's across the country.
The U.S. government seized Lincoln in 1989, sticking taxpayers with a bailout cost of $2.8 billion. Many other thrifts collapsed, with taxpayers footing nearly $124 billion of the $152.9 billion bailout cost, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Depositors and politicians searched for culprits and turned up the five senators.
Keating sought a quid pro quo from the five. He wanted government regulators, who were investigating Lincoln, off his back. And he demanded reversal of a new rule limiting an S&L's direct investment in risky ventures to 10 percent of assets.
The banker's attitude was summed up the day a reporter asked whether his political donations to the senators encouraged their intervention.
"I want to say in the most forceful way I can, I certainly hope so," Keating replied.
But McCain had an additional image problem beyond the intervention and his acceptance of Keating's cash. The two former Navy pilots had become good friends, until the day Keating decided McCain wasn't doing enough for him and called the Arizona senator a wimp. Keating had flown McCain and his family on several occasions to his home in the Bahamas and other locations.
When his company tried to take tax deductions for the trips, the IRS raised questions. McCain, who said he mistakenly thought his wife had reimbursed the cost, paid back more than $13,000 — years after the trips and after the senator knew of Keating's problems with the government.
McCain, in his book "Worth the Fighting For," lamented that the senators "were now a two-word shorthand for the entire savings and loan debacle and the rotten way American political campaigns are financed."
He also wrote: "My popularity in Arizona was in free fall. ... I expected a rough, and quite possibly unsuccessful re-election campaign in 1992. To the extent I was known nationally anymore, it was as one of the crooked senators who had bankrupted the thrift industry."
McCain was re-elected in 1992 with 56 percent of the vote.
...Ahmad said he would like to return to Iraq, but only "as a Marine." He has no family there, he said, but "I have the greatest, biggest family in America. I have the USMC."
During his nearly four years as a translator for U.S. forces in Iraq, Saman Kareem Ahmad was known for his bravery and hard work. "Sam put his life on the line with, and for, Coalition Forces on a daily basis," wrote Marine Capt. Trent A. Gibson.
Gibson's letter was part of a thick file of support -- including commendations from the secretary of the Navy and from then-Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus -- that helped Ahmad migrate to the United States in 2006, among an initial group of 50 Iraqi and Afghan translators admitted under a special visa program.
Last month, however, the U.S. government turned down Ahmad's application for permanent residence, known as a green card. His offense: Ahmad had once been part of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which U.S. immigration officials deemed an "undesignated terrorist organization" for having sought to overthrow former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Ahmad, a Kurd, once served in the KDP's military force, which is part of the new Iraqi army. A U.S. ally, the KDP is now part of the elected government of the Kurdish region and holds seats in the Iraqi parliament. After consulting public Web sites, however, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services determined that KDP forces "conducted full-scale armed attacks and helped incite rebellions against Hussein's regime, most notably during the Iran-Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Ahmad's association with a group that had attempted to overthrow a government -- even as an ally in U.S.-led wars against Hussein -- rendered him "inadmissible," the agency concluded in a three-page letter dated Feb. 26.
In an interview Friday at Quantico Marine Corps Base, where he teaches Arabic language and culture to Marines deploying to Iraq, Ahmad's voice quavered, and his usually precise English failed him. "I am shamed," he said. He has put off his plans to marry a seamstress who tailors Marine uniforms. "I don't want my family live in America; they feel ashamed I'm with a terrorist group. I want them to be proud for what I did for the United States Marine Corps," said Ahmad, 38.
"After I receive this letter, it's been three weeks, since then my whole life turns upside down. You might hear from the lawyer, they're not going to revoke your [visa], but how can you guarantee this? . . . I'm expecting, they stop the process of green card, tomorrow they're going to tell you to get out."
A nearly identical denial was sent the same day to another Iraqi Kurdish translator living in this country, according to Thomas Ragland, a lawyer with Maggio and Kattar, the Washington law firm representing both men in court challenges to the denials. The second translator, who worked with U.S. intelligence and Special Forces in Iraq starting several years before the U.S. invasion, declined to discuss his case out of fear for his family in Iraq.
Petraeus, now the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said in an e-mail that he did not recall Ahmad personally but that KDP forces had performed valuable security services for the 101st Airborne Division he led in the northern city of Mosul in 2003. He said he had never heard of any U.S. agency labeling the KDP as terrorists.
Many of the thousands of Iraqis who have served as linguists for U.S. forces have been threatened in Iraq. Ahmad left the country after he was branded a "collaborator" from mosque pulpits in Anbar province and posters calling for his death began appearing there.
Under congressional pressure to allow such translators into the United States, the Bush administration in 2006 authorized 50 visas for them annually. That number was increased to 500 in fiscal 2008, and the quota will revert to 50 a year in fiscal 2009. In announcing the program, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) emphasized that it allows translators "to gain admission to the United States, apply for permanent residency and eventually acquire U.S. citizenship."
According to Petraeus's command, 648 of the 5,300 Iraqi translators now working for U.S. forces in Iraq had special-visa applications pending as of December. Petraeus has assigned legal officers to facilitate their petitions, helping gather the documents, signatures and military affidavits required, and said he has signed many letters urging individual approvals. The program's Special Immigrant Visa allows only entry into the United States, however, and immigrants are advised to petition for permanent residence upon arrival.
Retired Marine Capt. Jason P. Schauble, who returned from Iraq in 2004 after being wounded, is Ahmad's official sponsor. In a letter he appended last week to Ahmad's immigration file, Schauble condemned whatever "faceless bureaucracy" rejected the application. "I don't know what a foreigner has to do that is greater than what Saman Ahmad has done in service to his American allies," Schauble wrote.
USCIS spokesman Peter Vietti said regulations prevent him from commenting on any specific case, adding that denials can be appealed only in court. After inquires about Ahmad from The Washington Post, he said, "I can tell you the matter is being looked into."
The second youngest of five children, Ahmad was away at college when Saddam Hussein, striking at rebellious Kurds, launched a chemical gas attack against Ahmad's home town, Halabja, in 1988. The infamous assault, in which more than 5,000 died, was often cited by the Bush administration as part of its justification for invading Iraq. It left Ahmad without a single living relative, as he has recounted to Americans many times over the past six years.
After graduation from Salahadeen University in Irbil, Ahmad was conscripted into Hussein's army, served his time and then held various jobs. He turned to smuggling and spent a period in jail, then fled to Turkey. He worked as a hotel dishwasher in Istanbul. When he decided to return home in December 2001, he turned himself in to Turkish police as an illegal immigrant and was deported.
At the time, KDP forces were fighting both Hussein and a rival Kurdish party. Ahmad joined the KDP militia. "I don't have any resources, I don't own a penny. I want to eat," he recalled. In his area of Kurdistan at the time, "even you cannot clean up street if you do not become part of that group."
By early 2003, U.S. Special Forces in the region were working to unify the Kurds as allies in the invasion of Iraq. Ahmad, the only English-speaker in his KDP unit, became a translator and liaison. After Petraeus's arrival in Mosul, Ahmad's offer to work full time for the Americans was turned down on grounds it would anger his KDP commander, he said.
He deserted the KDP military and decided to try his luck at U.S. headquarters in Baghdad, taking with him the commendation for his "outstanding service and dedication to the 101st" signed by Petraeus on Sept. 11, 2003.
In Baghdad, Ahmad became a Marine translator and was sent to Anbar. In an affidavit, Gibson -- now a major -- said Ahmad was the first translator in Iraq to wear a Marine uniform, body armor and helmet, and "the first one to be entrusted with a weapon." Ahmad accompanied Gibson's Kilo Company on more than 200 patrols over seven months in violent areas of western Iraq. "I simply could not have accomplished my mission without Sam's tireless and unconditional efforts," Gibson wrote.
But threats against Ahmad's life by anti-coalition forces led the Marines to decide to get him out of Iraq. Schauble shepherded his visa application and met him at John F. Kennedy International Airport on arrival.
A USCIS "Fact Sheet" on special translator visas notes that applicants must be "otherwise admissible to the United States for permanent residence," so Ahmad and Schauble foresaw little problem in his obtaining a green card. To buttress his case, Ahmad successfully applied for political asylum once he reached the United States.
In 2006, he began applying for permanent residence -- submitting the same documents that had won him a visa and asylum -- and finished the process last August.
In the meantime, he continued working for the Marines at the Quantico-based Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning, established in 2005 when the corps realized that its lack of knowledge and understanding of Iraq was undermining its mission.
Ahmad spends much of his time being flown by Marines to training bases around the country to provide rudimentary Arabic and cultural pointers. The maximum language training is 40 hours, which he said is too little. "But at least you can teach him to say a tactical word, how to survive," how not to shoot "a guy who didn't stop" at a checkpoint. Those on their second or third tours have more complicated queries, he said. "They say: okay, we're going to go there and it's Ramadan time, what is 'no'? What is 'do this -- don't do this'? What do I tell my Marines?"
According to Human Rights First, a nonprofit that handles similar immigration cases, groups such as the KDP do not appear on U.S. government lists of designated terrorists. Instead, determinations of "undesignated terrorist organizations" are made, case by case, by the USCIS, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Using definitions in the Immigration and Nationality Act, the USA Patriot Act and other legislation adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it is up to USCIS officials to research an applicant's background and make a decision. According to Ahmad's denial letter, the information in his case was obtained from the Web site of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a DHS-funded nonprofit group.
The legislation contains waiver provisions -- by the secretary of state for foreign petitioners, and the secretary of homeland security for those who, like Ahmad, are already in this country. But there is no path for a denied individual to apply for a waiver.
In a velvet box in his desk drawer at Quantico, Ahmad keeps two medals he received for his service in Iraq -- the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal and the War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. Above his computer, he has a snapshot of President Bush. He was a guest at the White House last year when Bush presented a posthumous Medal of Honor to a Marine for actions in an Anbar mission in which Ahmad participated.
Ahmad remains in this country under his special visa and asylum status, but neither one has the permanence of a green card. Under U.S. law, those granted asylum can be sent back to their country if the secretary of state determines that it is at peace and that the danger to the person has subsided.
Ahmad said he would like to return to Iraq, but only "as a Marine." He has no family there, he said, but "I have the greatest, biggest family in America. I have the USMC."
By Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 22, 2008
...The work is often futile. Volunteer Naomi Plakins, 59, a medical malpractice lawyer, said one woman on the phone barked: "This is GOP country." Slam.
DOYLESTOWN, PA. -- After knocking on doors at a half-dozen houses, Mardi Harrison, a campaign volunteer for Barack Obama, finally found someone to listen to her pitch.
Anyone who wants to vote for Obama in Pennsylvania's primary must be registered as a Democrat, she explained to the woman who answered the doorbell. Did the independent voter at this address want to sign up?
The woman laughed and made it obvious that no one there had any use for Obama. "Yeah, you have the wrong house!" she said. And she shut the door.
Obama trails Hillary Rodham Clinton by a large margin in Pennsylvania, site of the next Democratic presidential contest. The state has a large number of the older and blue-collar voters who tend to back Clinton. Even this month's most favorable poll for Obama shows her leading by 11 percentage points. One poll has her ahead by 26.
For Obama to win the April 22 election, or even to keep the race close, he needs to pull off an extraordinary feat: identifying sympathetic independent and Republican voters, and persuading them to register as Democrats. The registration deadline is Monday.
With time running out, the Obama campaign is engaged in a house-by-house appeal.
While Harrison and other volunteers often get a cool reception, there are some signs of progress. Statewide, the number of Pennsylvanians switching affiliation to the Democratic Party has boomed, with 57,651 signing up this year through March 14.
There is no way of knowing whether these voters are jumping to the Democratic Party to vote for Obama, but his campaign hopes that is the case. If turnout for the primary is 50%, as some analysts expect, these new converts would account for about 3% of the total vote -- and presumably a larger share of Obama's tally.
And the trend has accelerated. More than 22,000 registered as Democrats during the week of March 10, compared with 7,223 in the entire month of January.
"I've never seen numbers like this in one week," said Leslie Amorós, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State.
For Clinton, Pennsylvania is a must-win. With 158 delegates, the state is the largest of the 10 that have not yet voted. After nearly three months of primaries and caucuses, Clinton trails Obama by about 120 delegates.
An impressive victory in Pennsylvania would narrow that deficit while buttressing Clinton's claim that Obama is a flawed candidate who cannot close the deal with Democratic voters. It would also help make her case that she is better positioned to win the important swing states in November.
Those arguments might resonate with the superdelegates -- the party officials and insiders whose votes ultimately are expected to decide the nomination.
If she loses Pennsylvania," said Joe Trippi, an advisor to former Democratic candidate John Edwards, "I don't think there are many people left who carry water for her who'll think she has much of a shot."
About 200 Clinton campaign aides who arrived earlier this month have been deployed throughout Pennsylvania. A handwritten sign on a wall at Clinton's Philadelphia office reads: "Phone All Day, All the Time."
(Neither campaign will reveal the full number of staff members in the state.)
Last week, Clinton volunteers called voters from campaign-issued cellphones, as land lines had yet to be hooked up. Amid some scattered successes, there was one volunteer stopped to tell others about the voter who said, "I am pro-life and I wish you would tell Hillary: If you kill babies you don't have a country."
One of the New York senator's most potent assets is her husband. As president in the 1990s, Bill Clinton spent considerable time in Philadelphia and made durable allies. The mayor at the time, Edward G. Rendell, had a strong rapport with him. And Rendell is now well positioned to help the campaign as a second-term governor.
But as he visits the city, the former president is finding a changed political landscape. Black leaders once loyal to the Clinton family are defecting to Obama. Census figures show Philadelphia to be 46% African American. When Bill Clinton spoke to the city's Democratic ward leaders March 7, the reception was chillier than he was used to.
State Sen. Anthony H. Williams told the former president in the closed-door session that he was concerned about racially tinged comments Clinton made in South Carolina. During that contest, the former president likened Obama to a failed black presidential candidate from another era, Jesse Jackson. Williams told Clinton that he did not want politicians to send children a message that "caps their dreams."
The former president became visibly annoyed and said that the media had misconstrued what he had said, according to Williams and others who were there.
The Obama campaign is following a blueprint that looks similar to one employed by Rendell in his 2002 faceoff with Bob Casey in the Democratic primary for governor. Rendell won by running up huge margins in Philadelphia and suburban counties in the same media market.
Some Pennsylvania political experts are skeptical that the same plan will work for Obama. A more realistic goal, they said, would be a loss of 5 or 6 percentage points, keeping Clinton from running off with a large cache of delegates.
"I don't think that Obama can roll up the same types of numbers that Ed did in the city and especially the suburbs," said Larry Ceisler, a Democratic political consultant. "Ed had been a fixture in this media market for 16 years. Obama is not going to come up with those types of numbers in the Philadelphia suburbs."
The Illinois senator hopes to beat such expectations by expanding the pool of Democratic voters.
One night recently, some Obama volunteers in Doylestown set about making calls to find people willing to sign Democratic registration forms. A script provided by the campaign said that if voters were undecided, the callers should note that "Sen. Clinton has said there's a choice in this race. And she's right. It's a choice between a politics that offers more of the same divisions, or a new politics of common purpose."
The work is often futile. Volunteer Naomi Plakins, 59, a medical malpractice lawyer, said one woman on the phone barked: "This is GOP country." Slam.
But every once in a while there was a small success. After finishing one call, Plakins threw up her arms and squealed: "Yes! He wants the form!"
Reuters: McCain's pastor a sharp contrast to Obama's
HOUSTON (Reuters) - John McCain's Phoenix pastor, Dan Yeary, is a folksy patriotic Southern Baptist who opposes abortion and believes homosexuality to be a biblical sin, but says Christians have an obligation to love such sinners.
That puts Yeary, who heads the church attended for the past 15 years by the Republican presidential candidate firmly in the U.S. Southern Baptist mainstream, and in line with the Republican Party.
He offers a sharp contrast to Democratic contender Barack Obama's former preacher Jeremiah Wright, who has stirred controversy with his fiery comments on race and America.
Obama had been seen by some analysts as having an edge over McCain on issues of faith because of his adult conversion experience and his ease in talking about his faith. But his own preacher has proven a political liability.
In a country where religion and politics often mix, 25 percent of American adults count themselves as evangelical Christians, giving them huge influence as the country heads to the November 4 presidential election to succeed President George W. Bush.
McCain draws some support from this group but many conservative Christians are uneasy with him because of his support for stem-cell research and his past criticism of leaders in the movement.
Yeary, pastor for the 7,000-member North Phoenix Baptist Church, professes little interest in politics and prefers to focus on preaching and spiritual guidance. But McCain's affiliation with Yeary will do him no harm in wooing support from the key Republican base of evangelical Christians.
"John and I are friends, he has called on me to minister to the family in times of challenge and difficulty," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
McCain, a former prisoner-of-war in Vietnam, was raised in the Episcopal Church but has been attending Yeary's church for about 15 years. Yeary declined to comment on McCain's reluctance to finally undergo a baptism ceremony, a key ritual of the faith.
"John and I are having continual dialogue about his spiritual pursuits," Yeary said.
In an interview last year with InsideCatholic.com, an on-line Catholic forum devoted to issues of faith, McCain said he liked Yeary's "message of reconciliation and redemption which I'm a great believer in."
"And so I began attending North Phoenix Baptist church and I'm grateful for the spiritual advice and counsel that I continue to get from Pastor Dan Yeary."
McCain, like his pastor, is staunchly opposed to abortion rights but Yeary said the pair had never discussed the issue.
"Have we talked about abortion? No," Yeary said. "I believe that abortion is wrong and I believe that it is a very, very poor choice ... I believe it should be outlawed."
The 69-year-old Yeary adheres to the Southern Baptist belief that gay marriage and homosexual relations go against Biblical scripture, hot-button issues for many in the United States.
"The Bible is pretty clear about it, in my opinion it specifically calls it a sin. I also am a sinner and you are a sinner. ... Did Jesus Christ love homosexuals? I'm sure he did," Yeary said.
PRESERVE FRIENDSHIP
Obama's preacher by contrast sparked howls of protest for his angry sermons over what he called racist America, charging that the September 11 attacks were retribution for U.S. foreign policy and claiming Washington was the source of the AIDS virus.
Wright was Obama's pastor in Chicago for two decades but the Illinois senator, locked in a tight battle with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, distanced himself from Wright in a widely hailed speech addressing race issues earlier this week.
Obama would be the first black U.S. president.
"In the United States, the sacred cow is the concept of the nation -- someone who is a religious minister can say almost anything they want and not get into trouble in the political realm unless they go after the nation," said David Domke, a professor of communication at the University of Washington.
Yeary was sympathetic as a fellow pastor and said while he did not agree with Wright's comments, all preachers eventually got caught in the trap of their own exuberance.
"All preachers have a tendency to overstate because our passion is so intense. But I thought Obama did a fine job in response. He preserved his friendship with his pastor while disagreeing with him," Yeary said.
"I'm sure John McCain would probably say the same thing about me if he were asked 'So, do you agree with everything your pastor says?"' he added with a laugh.
SAN DIEGO - A San Diego-based Marine major was reunited on Saturday with one of his closest war buddies — a 2-year-old dog named Nubs.
Nubs greeted Maj. Brian Dennis at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station when the fighter pilot returned from Iraq.
It was the first time the two were together since Dennis' family and close friends helped raise $3,500 to fly the dog to San Diego about a month ago. Nubs wasn't allowed to stay on base in Iraq.
Dennis, 36, of St. Pete Beach, Fla., had spotted the mongrel dog while on patrol in Anbar province and later nursed the animal back to health after finding him stabbed with a screwdriver.
He named the dog Nubs after learning someone cut the ears off believing it would make the dog more aggressive and alert.
I've always loved Roberto Cavalli. His gowns and cocktail dresses, along with his serpent jewelry line, are the most fabulous creations I've ever seen. You just can't go wrong with Cavalli! This floor length jersey gown is another jaw-dropping Cavalli creation. It's a simple, yet sexy, gown and I love how the serpent clasp is made to stand out. Roberto Cavalli floor length jersey gown at Net-A-Porter
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has launched an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against voters who maliciously switched parties for the March 4 presidential primary.
Elections workers will look for evidence that voters lied when they signed affidavits pledging allegiance to their new party. And at least one board member, Sandy McNair, a Democrat, wants the county prosecutor to review the findings.
But it remained unclear Wednesday whether the four-member board will agree to pursue prosecution. A 2-2 vote would mean that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, would have to break the tie.
The investigation comes 10 days after The Plain Dealer reported that more than 16,000 Cuyahoga County Republicans changed parties before voting March 4.
After the election, some local Republicans admitted they changed parties only to influence which Democrat would face presumed Republican nominee John McCain in November. One voter scribbled the following addendum to his pledge as a new Democrat: “For one day only.”[LOL!! Awesome!!]
Such an admission amounts to voter fraud, said McNair, who pushed for the investigation.
“I’m looking for evidence,” McNair said. “I’m not interested in a witch hunt. But I am interested in holding people accountable, whether they’re Democrat or Republican.”
Lying on the signed statement is a fifth-degree felony, punishable by six to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. [As in blah, blah, blah...]
Board members expect a report on the county’s crossover voters on March 31. The board has the power to issue subpoenas, forcing voters to testify about their intent on election day, McNair said.
Board Chairman Jeff Hastings said the board would have to vote on whether to issue subpoenas.
McNair and the board’s other Democrat, Inajo Davis Chappell, both favor issuing subpoenas. The board’s two Republicans, however, weren’t yet on board with the idea.
Board member Rob Frost, who also serves as the county GOP chairman, had urged Republicans not to change parties for malicious reasons. On Wednesday, he said he hopes the findings from an investigation will be used to prevent similar problems in future elections.
“I haven’t seen anything that gives rise, in my mind, to a criminal investigation,” Frost said.
Hastings said the investigation’s results on March 31 will determine his preferred course of action.
Patrick Gallaway, Brunner’s spokesman, said the board hasn’t contacted her about prosecuting crossover voters.
From PatDollard.Com Video: “Tony Snow Will Die A Painful Death!” Huffington Confronted
I love it when Fox producers pop out of nowhere and confront controversial people. Especially evil ones like Arianna Huffington, the face of The Huffington Post. Click here to see the video.
WASHINGTON - President Bush says he has no doubts about launching the unpopular war in Iraq despite the "high cost in lives and treasure," arguing that retreat now would embolden Iran and provide al-Qaida with money for weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States.
Bush is to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on Wednesday with a speech at the Pentagon. Excerpts of his address were released Tuesday night by the White House.
At least 3,990 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003. It has cost taxpayers about $500 billion and estimates of the final tab run far higher. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglizt and Harvard University public finance expert Linda Bilmes have estimated the eventual cost at $3 trillion when all the expenses, including long-term care for veterans, are calculated.
Democrats offered a different view from Bush's.
"On this grim milestone, it is worth remembering how we got into this situation, and thinking about how best we can get out," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. "The tasks that remain in Iraq — to bring an end to sectarian conflict, to devise a way to share political power, and to create a functioning government that is capable of providing for the needs of the Iraqi people are tasks that only the Iraqis can complete."
In his remarks, Bush repeated his oft-stated determination to prosecute the war into the unforeseen future.
"The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable, yet some in Washington still call for retreat," the president said. "War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much. In recent months, we have heard exaggerated estimates of the costs of this war.
"No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq," Bush said.
Bush has successfully defied efforts by the Democratic-led Congress to force troop withdrawals or set deadlines for pullouts. It is widely believed he will endorse a recommendation from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, for no additional troop reductions, beyond those already planned, until at least September.
The U.S. now has about 158,000 troops in Iraq. That number is expected to drop to 140,000 by summer in drawdowns meant to erase all but about 8,000 troops from last year's buildup.
"If we were to allow our enemies to prevail in Iraq, the violence that is now declining would accelerate and Iraq could descend into chaos," Bush said. "Al-Qaida would regain its lost sanctuaries and establish new ones fomenting violence and terror that could spread beyond Iraq's borders, with serious consequences to the world economy.
"Out of such chaos in Iraq, the terrorist movement could emerge emboldened with new recruits ... new resources ... and an even greater determination to dominate the region and harm America," Bush said in his remarks. "An emboldened al-Qaida with access to Iraq's oil resources could pursue its ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free nations. Iran could be emboldened as well with a renewed determination to develop nuclear weapons and impose its brand of hegemony across the broader Middle East. And our enemies would see an American failure in Iraq as evidence of weakness and lack of resolve."
Looking back, Bush said, "Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting ... whether the fight is worth winning ... and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me: Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision and this is a fight America can and must win."
Bush said the past five years have brought "moments of triumph and moments of tragedy," from free elections in Iraq to acts of brutality and violence.
"The terrorists who murder the innocent in the streets of Baghdad want to murder the innocent in the streets of American cities. Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home," Bush said.
Bush said anew that the war was faltering a little more than a year ago, prompting him in January 2007 to order a big troop buildup known as the "surge."
"The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around; it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror," he said.
"In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated ," the president said.
"The challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremists' defeat. We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast — the terrorists and extremists step in ... fill the vacuum, establish safe havens and use them to spread chaos and carnage."
Awww, I'm gonna miss this guy! He's a great president.
OMG, this is such a cute dress!!!! Now that I'm done ranting about Obama and his pastor, I can focus all my attention on this dress! The dramatic sunset pattern is really eye-catching. It reminds me of Grand Duchess Olga's watercolor paintings, which is no small praise.
I love the scoop neckline; It adds a little spice to an otherwise conservative dress. I also love the neat pleats along the neckline- without it the dress would look a little too boring. I also think the straight silhouette is the perfect outline, or shape, for this kind of pattern. It just hangs from your shoulders and lets the colors unfold.
Hussein Obama is trying his best to save what's left of his reputation. He's now masquerading as a die-hard lover of all things America (well perhaps his brand of patriotism is kooky or as CNN would say, "different"!), even giving the "big speech" in front of eight American flags. How ironic, considering this is the same guy who refused to wear an American flag pin in memory of 9/11, and whose pastor for twenty long years is famous for encouraging African-Americans to chant God DAMN America instead of God BLESS America... Anyway, Drudge has the full text of Obama's speech. Read the whole thing if you still believe in what this guy has to say. (Sorry if I'm a little pissed, but after hearing the crazy rantings of Rev. Wright, Obama's mentor and pastor, I can't help but think of him as a hypocrite and a phony!)
By the by, he still refuses to distance himself from Rev. Wright, the world's most famous anti-American pastor. Or whatever.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. [Did he just, uh, throw his own grandmother under the bus?]
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Does anyone still buy his crap? For a while, he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Sure, I didn't like it one bit when he criticized George Bush, but now I'm completely turned off by him. He comes off as a manipulative guy... But he can't even answer tough questions without falling apart. He gives great speeches, I'll give him that, but he doesn't do well in debates and ambush interviews. What does that say 'bout him? His readiness to be Commander-in-Chief?
more links Tammy Bruce: Obama's Speech The folks at Hot Air are saying the audience was Democrat Super Delegates. The applause was sporadic and weak, strongest when Obama noted his opposition to the war, and certainly no standing ovation...
Politico: Obama heard controversial comments Contrary to his earlier suggestion, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) acknowledged in his speech Tuesday that he had heard “controversial” remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright...
The name may not ring a bell but if you’re a blog reader you’ve heard of him. So valorous were his actions that even a media not inclined to celebrate the heroism of U.S. troops noticed his death when it happened. What kind of man are we talking about here? He won the Silver Star for pulling a comrade to safety in May 2006; four months later he was on a roof in Ramadi with three other SEALs when an insurgent tossed a grenade up. It bounced off his chest and dropped to the floor in front of them. “He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it,” said one of the three. His family will be at the White House on April 8 to receive the recognition due.
Rest in peace, hero!!! And thank you for defending our freedoms.
Isn't this absolutely stunning? This handmade laptop case comes in purple, as you can see, and it is made out of croc leather. There is also enough room and pockets inside for you to stuff all your office things in, and the handles are long enough to let you carry it over your shoulder instead of lugging it around all day with your tired hands. If purple is not your favorite color, the bag also comes in ascot pink (a fancy term for baby pink I guess!) and it is made out of jewel calf. It has a smooth surface and looks more simple. If you're not into girly colors, the bag also comes in black, white and brown, but they are not as glamorous or as pretentious (depends on how you look at it!) as the purple croc leather bag. It costs around three hundred bucks which is, without a doubt, a lot of money... but hey! Keep it in your must-have list anyway in case you win the lottery someday. There's also the Aspinal Bijou Organizer- also made out of purple croc leather -to match this divine laptop bag!
This is another Aspinal bag that I like. It's called the Aspinal Mayfair Bag and it became an instant classic in the mid-1950s when Grace Kelly (Princess Grace!) carried one on her wedding day. You can also count the Queen of England as one of its famous fans... I guess that's the reason why there's something so royal about this tote!
There's nothing revolutionary about this bag -it's actually very simple if you compare it to one of Marc Jacobs' crazy (lamea$$) creations. But it's the timelessness of it that appeals to bag-crazy females such as myself.
The Mayfair bag comes in other colors, such as black, brown, purple, grey and red, but it's the blue one that stands out. I just love how intense it looks on patent croc calf leather. Hmmm... the grey one doesn't look so bad either...
Ok, I am so going to make this mine! Haha! I love it. I can just grunge-up my hair and look fashionably messed-up... like Kate Moss! Phillip Lim's oversized sweater dress at e-luxury.com
BAGHDAD (AFP) - The explosive vest has become the weapon of choice for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, with most jihadists nowadays wearing the lethal garment and the number of suicide attacks rising, the US military said Sunday.
"There has been an increase over time in the use of suicide vest bombers," US military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.
"Late in 2007 there were about eight or 10 a month; in the month of February, there were 18. There is an increase," he said.
Military operations by Iraqi and US forces had put the jihadists to flight, leaving them less capable of carrying out car and roadside bombings.
"We are also seeing that average Al-Qaeda fighters are wearing suicide vests and before they are captured they are often blowing themselves up," Smith told reporters.
"That is something we have not seen earlier. We used to see just the most senior leadership of Al-Qaeda wearing suicide vests."
The US military in Iraq had also tracked an increase in requests by Al-Qaeda leaders for foreign fighters to become human bombs, Smith said.
"They believe that a suicide bomber wearing a vest can become a useful tool for them to take part in the violence, so we expect them to try to increase the numbers of foreign fighters coming into the country for that purpose."
However, he added, measures by countries such as Saudi Arabia and Syria to stop foreign fighters slipping across the border into Iraq has reduced the number of available recruits.
Whereas a year ago around 100 foreign fighters a month were sneaking into Iraq, this number had been reduced to 40 to 50 a month, Smith said.
He said interrogation of 48 jihadists captured in the past four months had revealed a profile of a typical foreign fighter entering Iraq.
"He is a single male with an average age of 22," Smith said. "Most of these terrorists have had no military experience. They were primarily engaged in low wage occupations. They were taxi drivers and construction workers.
"Their families are lower and lower-middle income classes. Most of the terrorists are from large families. Most of these young men wanted to make an impression but paradoxically did not tell their families they were going off to Iraq to fight for Al-Qaeda for fear of disapproval," the spokesman said.
"They were lonely, impressionable young men who wanted to find recognition and substance. Al-Qaeda recruiters were trained to prey upon such people."
The recruiter begins by engaging in "seemingly harmless conversation about Islam ... before then beginning to bring up the twisted interpretation of Islam," Smith said.
"Often they are approached by a recruiter at a local mosque ... or at the workplace. The process of indoctrination begins. They are shown heavily edited videos of Americans supposedly abusing Iraqis."
According to Smith, most of the captured jihadists said they had flown to Damascus airport then went overland to Iraq through the assistance of a facilitator.
Once in Iraq, he claimed, they quickly became disillusioned.
"Al-Qaeda Iraqi members were deeply suspicious of the foreign fighters -- they look down on the imported terrorists and treat them very harshly," he said.
"They told us they were lured here with the promise they would be killing Americans but they were disappointed. Most of the violence that they saw was directed at the Iraqi people.
"They felt misled. Eventually they felt discouraged and just wanted to go home. But their cell (leaders) had taken their passports and all their money. They felt trapped and hopeless. They were heavily pressured to become suicide bombers.
"They told us they were relieved to be captured. Some of them cried tears of relief during the initial interrogation."
More pictures of crazy anti-American liberals here.
WASHINGTON - A loose coalition of liberal and labor organizations expects to spend about $150 million this fall to push its causes and help Democrats win the White House and strengthen their grip on Congress. Participants include the two main labor coalitions — the AFL-CIO and Change to Win — as well as MoveOn.org and voter mobilization groups for minorities and young people. Organizers were announcing the effort Tuesday during conference sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future.
Liberal and labor strategists say an animated Democratic electorate and a dispirited Republican base have created a political environment tailor-made to advance their agenda.
"In '04 the right mobilized its base and its resources," Bob Borosage, a co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, said in an interview. "Liberals mobilized, although we were still building at the time. Well, we've continued to build and expand and gotten more enthusiastic and more mobilized and their coalition has collapsed."
While the commitment of money is sizable, the amount spent by Democratic-leaning groups is likely to grow after Democrats choose a presidential nominee and large donors turn their attention to mobilizing a fall campaign. An independent fundraising group, the Fund for America, plans to raise $100 million to help Democrats win in the fall, primarily to finance advertising in support of the Democratic presidential candidate or against Republican John McCain, the GOP nominee-in-waiting.
"Assuming we get a nominee sometime, you'll see a very large amount of money pouring into that," Borosage said.
The various organizations will have different functions, some of them restricted by law because they are not organized as political groups.
The housing advocacy group ACORN, for instance, is a nonprofit that cannot advocate for a candidate. Instead, it plans to spend $35 million to run a voter registration drive aimed at low-income minorities and to promote its "working families agenda," according to its political director, Zach Polett.
MoveOn.org Political Action, on the other hand, plans to spend $30 million on the presidential race and in key House and Senate races. The group, which is supporting Democrat Barack Obama, is already soliciting entries for an advertising contest and plans to select a winner before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary.
Other participants are Rock the Vote, Women Voices-Women Vote and the National Council of La Raza.
The AFL-CIO plans to spend more than $53 million on outreach to union voters and wants especially to target McCain, hoping that a weakened top of the Republican ticket will hurt Republicans in Senate and gubernatorial races.
Individual unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, a coalition of seven unions representing about 6 million workers, also are expected to spend about $300 million on politics overall this year, from mobilizing members to candidate contributions to independent expenditures in specific races, according to officials.
"This will be the biggest labor effort in history," said Greg Tarpinian, executive director of Change to Win. "This will dwarf anything we have seen in the past."
While the groups cannot coordinate with candidates, they can coordinate with each other — a change from 2004 when top Democratic donors relied on newly formed groups to influence the presidential election.
Then, liberals had America Coming Together and the Media Fund and conservatives had Progress for America and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that operated as special political entities to help presidential candidates. This year, the Federal Election commission, in separate cases, fined several of them for violations of campaign finance laws.
That, together with a desire to have longer-lasting influence on politics, has prompted the creation of new coalitions of already established groups.
"The progressive infrastructure was really evolving in '04," said Ilyse Hogue, campaign director for MoveOn.org Political Action. "Now what we've got is not only really good establishment roles, but also the kind of relationships and trust and confidence in each other that comes from working together in the trenches."
But there will be new groups making their cases, too. The Fund for America, with a goal of raising $100 million, was set up last year by John Podesta, a former chief of staff for President Clinton; Anna Burger, the secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union; and Rob McKay, a California philanthropist. Among its donors are multimillionaire financier George Soros, who gave it $2.5 million last year, and the SEIU, which also contributed $2.5 million last year, according to Fund for America's IRS records.
The fund has helped finance another new nonprofit group, the Campaign to Defend America, which already has run anti-McCain ads.
I cannot speak directly to the dreams of 9-year-old boys since I have never been one and my own son is only 6. But my daughter is 9 and shares a class with boys, and this combination of age and proximity makes her a reliable informant as to the proclivities, dreams and general goofiness of this age.
I'll skip the burping and go straight to the dreams.
It is my understanding that a 9-year-old focused on a particular wish or dream turns his attention to that wish with full force. It enters the heart and the imagination and occupies all corners of being, so that an exasperated parent might say, "Could we change the subject now," only to find there is no other subject, just as there is no adequate explanation for why this dream has overtaken the child now.
So Debbie Coleman cannot say why, exactly, her son, Ethan, decided he wanted to be a soldier.
Correction: an Army soldier.
She knows only that it began as one might suspect: with video games and toy soldiers. I picture here the little plastic men my brother and I played with, the poor fellows who flew helmeted head over firmly planted feet through the air, only to die by firecracker.
But what for Ethan began at 7 years old with toy soldiers led to camouflage- style clothing and sheets, to voracious reading of all things Army and computer printouts of vehicles, which he learned to identify.
And this dream, unlike his pro football player fantasy, did not pass.
Ethan woke up one morning with a swollen face. Allergies, his mom thought. It went down by midmorning and all was normal until the next morning and then the next and finally, one morning he woke up with lips so swollen it was as if he had been in a fight.
It took a while to figure out what was wrong. Between the blood tests and Debbie's Internet searches - she has since become a licensed practical nurse - they discover he has a kidney disease. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. It means it he'll be on blood pressure and cholesterol meds for the rest of his life. It means a strict diet. It means one day he might need a kidney transplant. It means, to his dismay, six teaspoons of fish liver oil a day.
Ethan is a sick kid, though you wouldn't know it to look at him. His diagnosis brings, one December day, a lady from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants the wishes it can to those children with life-threatening illnesses.
They cannot take away his kidney disease, which is Ethan's first desire. But what about a vacation trip, a chance to meet someone famous, a big-screen TV?
We are, however, talking of one 9-year-old and his very particular wish:
He would like an Army base to relocate into his backyard.
Not gonna happen, mom says.
Maybe you could meet the Kansas City Chiefs, she counters.
"But Army, Army, Army," Debbie tells me. "It all kept coming back to the Army, and you know as much about why as I do. We have no military in our family."
There's Disney World, the Make-A- Wish lady says. Half the Make-a-Wish kids choose Disney World. Or Hawaii.
Look, his mom says, I will even fly on a plane if you want to go to Disney World. And mom is terrified of flying.
Not even Mickey Mouse sways him.
The Army pulled out all the stops on this one. Maj. Cort Hunt, commander of the local Military Entrance Processing Station, put the offer out to Make-A- Wish late last year, not sure anyone would take it. Hunt has arranged for Ethan to go through the same drill as any other recruit today. They plan to test him and his buddy, Jake Smith, fingerprint them, hand them uniforms and swear them in.
And so this is how Ethan Moyer, a fourth-grader from Emporia, Kan., finds himself in Denver Sunday night, in a fancy conference room with an Army recruiter and glass pitchers of ice water and a bunch of people hanging on to his every word because no Make- A-Wish kid picks being a soldier.
We forget what it is like to be 9 years old and building cities out of cardboard boxes and positioning soldiers as lookouts in a battle in which there are no countries and no politicians, where nothing is permanent and the only truth is that there will always be good guys and bad.
So, Ethan does what you'd expect a 9-year-old with everyone looking at him to do:
Freezes.
His "recruiter," Sgt. 1st Class Nancy Alessandri, manages to get out of him that he likes to play Army video games and play basketball and that he wouldn't mind an Army job that would let him be a bomber on a tank.
"I'm told you like Special Forces," she says. "What do you like?"
"That you get to sneak up on people."
Of course.
During a break, I take him out into the hall and we sit on the floor and he tells me how he sets up his cardboard cities and his tanks and we talk about how far soldiers can fly and how many men a tank can take out. Then I tell him they might ask him to do push-ups today and ask him if he's ready.
Push-ups, smush-ups.
"I do push-ups every morning," Ethan says. "I can do 15. And I can do 20 sit-ups."
He drops in a plank and pulls off a stunner of a push-up. Then he sits backs on his knees and grins, a 9-year-old boy on the edge of a dream.
I know Christina Aguilera is crazy but I just can't resist her music! All of her albums are great even if 70% of her songs sound... well, dirrty. My favorite Xtina song has got to be Candyman. It's pretty raunchy but the beat is good and her vocals are outstanding! You can check out her WWII/military-themed music video here.
The recent Hillary Clinton campaign advertisement asking who Americans want answering the phone in the White House when a crisis erupts at 3 a.m. has sparked a national debate about which candidate would best handle such a phone call. But while the ad was designed to boost the Clinton candidacy, likely voters nationwide say they would feel more secure having Republican John McCain answering the call of a crisis, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.
Given the choice between Clinton and McCain, 55% preferred McCain while 37% would want Clinton to answer the phone, while 9% said they were unsure.
If there is a crisis in the world and the telephone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, who would you feel more secure answering that phone Hillary Clinton or John McCain?
Hillary Clinton
37%
John McCain
55%
Not sure
9%
Between McCain and Obama, 56% favored McCain while 35% preferred Obama, with 10% saying they couldnt make up their mind on the question.
The ad, which first ran in Texas in the days leading up to the March 4 primary election there, was designed to boost Clinton’s claim that she is more experienced than Obama, a familiar Clinton campaign theme this year. McCain is considered strong on national defense.
If there is a crisis in the world and the telephone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, who would you feel more secure answering that phone John McCain or Barack Obama?
John McCain
56%
Barack Obama
35%
Not sure
10%
McCain, who calls himself a conservative, makes big inroads across ideological lines on the question, the survey shows, as 25% of the very liberal and 32% of mainline liberals prefer he answer the phone instead of Clinton, and 23% of the very liberal and 35% of mainline liberals prefer him over Obama. Just 15% of conservatives prefer Clinton take the call, and 16% of conservatives would rather have Obama taking a crisis phone call instead of McCain.
The telephone poll using live operators from Zogby’s call center in Upstate New York included 1,004 likely voters nationwide and was conducted March 13-14, 2008. It carries a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points. Totals in charts may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
The survey shows that among all voters Democrats, Republicans, and independents there is a near-equal preference for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to answer a crisis phone call as President. When given the choice between them, 37% preferred Clinton, while 36% preferred Obama. Another 27% of all voters said they were unsure.
But among just Democrats, Clinton is preferred by 48%, compared to 38% of Democrats who said they would rather have Obama answer the phone. Among just Democrats, 14% said they were unsure.
If there is a crisis in the world and the telephone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, who would you feel more secure answering that phone Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?
Hillary Clinton
37%
Barack Obama
36%
Not sure
27%
Among all voters regardless of partisan affiliation, in the race between Obama and Clinton, Obama is favored by a wide 49% to 32% margin among the very liberal, while mainline liberals favored Clinton by a 50% to 38% edge. Among moderates, Clintons edge is 44% to 34%, while conservatives preferred Obama, 39% to 36% for Clinton, with the rest of conservatives declining to make a choice.
And among all voters, women favored Clinton over Obama by a 42% to 34% margin, with 24% unsure. Men favored Obama, 38% to 32%, with 30% undecided.
Obama claims he was completely unaware that the Reverend Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ targeted “white” America.
Contrary to Senator Barack Obama’s claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.
Senator Obama has sought to separate himself from his pastor’s incendiary remarks, issuing a statement Friday rejecting them as “inflammatory and appalling” but failing to renounce Wright himself for his venomous and paranoid denunciations of America.
In his press release, Obama claimed, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity [United Church of Christ] or heard him utter in private conversation.”
Appearing on cable news shows this past weekend, Obama claimed when he saw recent videos that have Wright making such comments as “God damn America,” he was “shocked.” Obama implied that the reverend had not used such derogatory language in any of the church services Obama attended over the past two decades.
If Obama’s claims are true that he was completely unaware that Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ has targeted “white” America and Israel, he would have been one of the few people in Chicago to be so uninformed. Wright’s reputation for spewing hate is well known.
In fact, Obama was present in the South Side Chicago church on July 22 last year when Jim Davis, a freelance correspondent for Newsmax, attended services along with Obama.
In his sermon that day, Wright tore into America, referring to the “United States of White America” and lacing his sermon with expletives as Obama listened. Hearing Wright’s attacks on his own country, Obama had the opportunity to walk out, but Davis said the senator sat in his pew and nodded in agreement.
Addressing the Iraq war, Wright thundered, “Young African-American men” were “dying for nothing.” The “illegal war,” he shouted, was “based on Bush’s lies” and is being “fought for oil money.”
Obama’s most famous celebrity backer, Oprah Winfrey began attending Wright’s church in 1984. Last year, Newsmax magazine reported that Winfrey abruptly stopped attending years ago, and suggested that she did so to distance herself from Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric. She soon found herself a target of Wright, who excoriated her for having broken with “traditional faith.”
The Reverend Wright’s anti-white theology that Senator Obama expressed surprise over is evident on the church’s website. The site says the congregation subscribes to what it calls the Black Value System, which is described as a disavowal of “our racist competitive society” and the pursuit of “middle-classness.” That is defined as a way for American society to “snare” blacks rather than “killing them off directly” or “placing them in concentration camps,” just as the country structures “an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.”
“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01,” Wright wrote in the church-affiliated magazine Trumpet four years after the attacks. “White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”
The Relationship Unravels
Senator Obama now is attempting to minimize his long and close relationship with the controversial minister.
On Friday, John McCain’s campaign distributed a Wall Street Journal op-ed “Obama and the Minister” written under my byline based on my reporting for Newsmax going back to early January of this year.
The op-ed included details of a sermon Wright gave at Howard University blaming America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs, shamelessly supporting Israel, and creating a racist society that would never elect a black man as president.
Obama’s campaign quickly responded to the Wall Street Journal op-ed, posting a statement on the Huffington Post. In his statement, Obama acknowledged that some of Wright’s statements have been “inflammatory and appalling.”
Saying he strongly condemns Wright’s comments, Obama continued, “I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.” [emphasis added]
Again, Obama moved to narrowly distance himself from specific comments Wright had made, while still praising his minister in recent interviews for leading him to Jesus and preaching a “social gospel.”
Obama went on to claim that he first learned about Wright’s controversial statements when he began his presidential campaign. But this assertion conflicts with the fact that just before Obama’s nationally televised campaign kickoff rally on Feb. 10, 2007, the candidate disinvited Wright from giving the public invocation. At the time, Wright explained: “When [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli” to visit Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, “a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.”
According to Wright, Obama then told him, “'You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we’ve decided is that it’s best for you not to be out there in public.'” Still, Obama and his family prayed privately with Wright just before the presidential announcement.
Apparently Obama never foresaw Wright’s sermons making national television or becoming a sensation on YouTube. But lending graphic detail to the saga, ABC News and other networks began running a 2003 sermon in which Wright said, “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people ... God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”
Obama has described Wright as a sounding board and mentor. Wright is one of the first people Obama thanked after his election to the Senate in 2004. Obama consulted Wright before deciding to run for president. The title of Obama’s bestseller “The Audacity of Hope” comes from one of Wright’s sermons. Obama’s “Yes We Can!” slogan is one of Wright’s exhortations.
Apologists for Wright have said that what he says is normal in black churches, and many blacks claim such preaching cannot be understood by whites.
“If you’re black, it’s hard to say what you truly think and not upset white people,” the New York Times quoted James Cone as saying. Cone is a professor at Union Theological Seminary and the father of what is known as black liberation theology.
But Juan Williams, a Fox News commentator and author of “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America,” tells Newsmax that Wright’s sermons reflect “the victim mindset that is so self-defeating in the black community and one that is played on by weak black leadership that chooses to have black people identified as victims rather than inspiring them as people who have overcome. In posing as victims, they say the most prejudiced and vicious things, not only about whites but about America. They call it theology. In fact, it’s nothing but bigotry.”
In failing to condemn Wright himself and claiming that he was unaware of the preacher’s hate-filled speech, Obama is continuing a longstanding pattern.
Obama often refers to Wright as being "like an old uncle, who sometimes says things I don't agree with." Wright is not Obama’s “uncle” — a person born into a blood relationship — but a man he has cultivated for decades as a close friend, mentor and adviser.
After Newsmax broke the story on Jan. 14 that Wright’s church gave an award to Louis Farrakhan in December for lifetime achievement, Obama again sought to denounce his minister’s action without criticizing Wright himself.
Like Wright, Farrakhan has repeatedly made hate-filled statements targeting Jews (calling Judaism a “gutter religion”), whites, and America. He has called whites “blue-eyed devils” and the “anti-Christ.” He has described Jews as “bloodsuckers” who control the government, the media, and some black organizations.
After the Newsmax story, Obama issued a statement purportedly addressing the issue.
"I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan," Obama said.
Again, Obama was careful not to condemn Farrakhan himself or Wright who had spoken adoringly of Farrakhan and put their church behind the award to the controversial Nation of Islam leader.
“When Minister Farrakhan speaks, black America listens,” Trumpet quoted Wright as saying. “His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening. He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest.”
Obama adroitly said, “I assume that Trumpet magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.”
In fact, Trumpet is published by Wright’s church using the church’s offices. Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor.
Having gotten away with sidestepping Wright’s adoring comments about Farrakhan, Obama told Jewish leaders flatly in Cleveland on Jan. 24 that the award was because of Farrakhan’s work with ex-offenders. To date, no news outlet has pointed out that Obama’s claim is false.
Obama went on to explain away Wright’s anti-Zionist statements as being rooted in his anger over the Jewish state’s support for South Africa under its previous policy of apartheid. As with his claim that the award to Farrakhan was made because of his work with ex-offenders, Obama made that up. Wright’s statements denouncing Israel have not been qualified in any way.
On Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes on Friday, Obama said he would have quit the church if he had “repeatedly” been present when Wright made inflammatory statements. He was not asked why he did not quit the church when it gave an award to Farrakhan.
Having considered Wright a friend and mentor for two decades, Obama now often mentions that his pastor recently retired. Wright suggested to the New York Times last year that he and Obama might have to do something of a distancing act in the run up to the election.
"If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me," Wright was quoted by The New York Times. "I said it to Barack personally, and he said, ‘Yeah, that might have to happen.'"
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com.
The poll comes at the fifth anniversary of the invasion and about a year after the change in American tactics now called the “surge” began:
Fifty-five percent of Iraqis say things in their own lives are going well, well up from 39 percent as recently as August. More, 62 percent, rate local security positively, up 19 points. And the number who expect conditions nationally to improve in the year ahead has doubled, to 46 percent in this new national poll by ABC News, the BBC, ARD German TV and the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Without directly crediting the surge in U.S. forces, fewer report security as the main problem in their own lives – 25 percent, nearly half its peak last spring. Forty-six percent say local security has improved in the past six months, nearly double last summer’s level.
The number of Iraqis who feel entirely unsafe in their own area has dropped by two-thirds, to 10 percent. And with Sunni Arab buy-in, U.S.-funded Awakening Councils, created to provide local security, are more popular than the Iraqi government itself.
Even more striking is the halt in worsening views. In August, Iraqis by 61-11 percent said security in the country had gotten worse, not better, in the previous six months. Today, by 36-26 percent, more say security has improved. The new positive margin is not large. But the 35-point drop in views that security is worsening is the single largest change in this poll.
Problems still remain. The Shi’ites and the Kurds have the most optimism, as the BBC points out in its reporting on the survey. By 62% and 73%, respectively, they are happy with their lives. In contrast, only 33% of Sunnis say that. They have still not been engaged enough by the Baghdad government, although improvements have been made. While that remains the case, the potential for violence and dissension will be significant.
However, as ABC notes, Baghdad and Anbar have driven most of the improvement in polling since August. That shows some significant movement among the Sunnis, even if the numbers remain troubling low. For instance, 71% of the Anbar respondents rated security as good, an amazing number considering the common wisdom in 2006 of Anbar as “lost”. In Baghdad, where violence remains a problem, the number has risen to 43% — still an improvement, but a reflection of more work needing to be done in the capital.
Economics have also improved rapidly. In Baghdad and Anbar especially, Iraqis feel much more confident. A twenty-point jump since last August has a majority rating their household finances positively. Interestingly, the greatest jump came from one of the poorest sectors in Iraq, Sadr City in Baghdad. As personal economics continue to improve, one can expect less support for destabilizing violence. Vast majorities still complain — legitimately — about the delivery of utility services, but with violence declining, the US and Iraq can now focus on these larger-scale projects.
Even the hostility to the US has begun to fade. A large plurality, 49%, now believe the US was right to invade, up 15 points since last August and the highest such result since 2004. The number who believe attacks on American troops are acceptable dropped 15 points, but remains at 42%. While a large majority dislike having foreign troops in their country, only 38% want an immediate withdrawal of American forces — maybe less than what one might find in the US. As many as 80% want the US to remain engaged in Iraq for other purposes, such as fighting terrorists, especially al-Qaeda, military training, and keeping Iran and Turkey at bay.
When General David Petraeus reports to Congress this month, he can show this to its members and remind them of his previous testimony of improvement. Will Hillary Clinton apologize now for calling him a liar?
WASHINGTON - Hoping to prod Barack Obama into appearing on its show, "Fox News Sunday" launched the "Obama Watch," a weekly update on the number of days the Democratic presidential candidate has failed to appear on the program.
Host Chris Wallace said Sunday that Obama promised him in March 2006 that he would come on the show, but the Illinois senator has since demurred.
Since then, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been a guest twice and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the likely Republican nominee for president, has shown up a half dozen times.
"Many of you have sent us e-mails asking why the senator won't come on 'Fox News Sunday' and face tough questioning," Wallace said toward the end of the hourlong broadcast. "It has now been 730 days, 13 hours, 53 minutes and nine — no, 10 seconds and counting since Obama agreed to be a guest on 'Fox News Sunday.'"
"Tune in next week for the latest," he said.
Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment on a possible appearance by Obama on "Fox News Sunday," but noted that the senator did an interview with Fox News Channel as recently as last Friday.
The dictionary defines the word as an "offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride." Obama may not be offensive or overbearing, but he can be a bit too cocky for his own good.
The freshman senator told reporters in July that he would overcome Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in the polls because "to know me is to love me."
A few months later, he said, "Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there."
True, there's a certain amount of tongue-in-cheekiness to such remarks — almost as if Obama doesn't want to take his adoring crowds and political ascent too seriously. He was surely kidding when he told supporters in January that by the time he was done speaking "a light will shine down from somewhere."
"It will light upon you," he continued. "You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, I have to vote for Barack. I have to do it."
But both Obama and his wife, Michelle, ooze a sense of entitlement...
Women may be at risk of mental health breakdowns if they have abortions, a medical royal college has warned. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says women should not be allowed to have an abortion until they are counselled on the possible risk to their mental health.
This overturns the consensus that has stood for decades that the risk to mental health of continuing with an unwanted pregnancy outweighs the risks of living with the possible regrets of having an abortion.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends updating abortion information leaflets to include details of the risks of depression. “Consent cannot be informed without the provision of adequate and appropriate information,” it says.
Several studies, including research published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in 2006, concluded that abortion in young women might be associated with risks of mental health problems.
The controversy intensified earlier this year when an inquest in Cornwall heard that a talented artist hanged herself because she was overcome with grief after aborting her twins. Emma Beck, 30, left a note saying: “Living is hell for me. I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum. I want to be with my babies; they need me, no one else does.”
More hate-mongering from Obama's mentor. This is really shocking... I cannot understand how Obama can stand by this man. I understand that he has a deep affection for Rev. Wright, being somewhat of an uncle figure to him and all, but Rev. Wright's message of hate has greatly diminished Obama's credibility. So much for "Hope&Change".
Gosh, I don't ever want to drink again. Eeew. So I went to a party and I ended up with glasses of apple-flavoured vodka and I got sick the next day. Seriously, it's so gross being sick. I usually don't drink a lot when I'm out because I like being able to take care of myself when I get home... like I need to remove my make-up before I go to bed so I don't get any pimples and all that stuff, right? And it's really hard to do that when you're about to pass out. Anywayyyy, I saw Obama's interview on AC 360 and omg, he totally sucked. A lot of people make fun of Bush's interviews and all that, but gee, GWB is a better speaker than Obama! At least President Bush knows what he's talking about and he's very passionate about his beliefs, while Obama doesn't seem to know what he's talking about and what he stands for. He just kind of mumbled through the 360 interview like a robot running out of power... or something. Anyway you can see a clip of it here.
WASHINGTON — Colombia's military recently had one of its finest moments: the killing of a senior leader of FARC, a resilient guerrilla group that had never lost a member of its top leadership in combat.
At the same time, U.S. officials and military analysts say, Venezuela fumbled an effort to rush troops and tanks to the border with Colombia in response to the deadly March 1 attack, on a FARC camp in Ecuador .
The Colombian raid triggered a short-lived crisis. But military experts say it also showed the contrasting security philosophies of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez and Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe .
Colombia , with U.S. help, has assembled a nimble infantry-based and intelligence-reliant counterinsurgency force capable of striking at guerrilla units and leaders deep in the jungle.
The Venezuelans have done just the opposite: They've spurned all contacts with the U.S. military and instead opted mostly for big-ticket purchases of Russian fighters, attack helicopters and submarines while forming, training and arming reserve and militia units loyal to Chavez.
The result is that Venezuela's military is impressive on paper but also in many ways a paper tiger, according to defense experts, shaped more to preserve Chavez's grip on power than to fight an effective war.
Colombia , said John Cope , with the Institute for National Strategic Studies of the National Defense University , has become "an extremely good professional force," while the Venezuelan army is "trying to figure out the ins and outs of an approach to a military organization that puts a high emphasis on civic action and humanitarian issues— which means they're probably not spending an awful lot of time training."
The contrast of the two militaries is more than an academic exercise. Few analysts believe that Chavez, a fiery critic of U.S. policies, will provoke a war against Uribe, a stalwart Washington ally.
Rather, the concern is that someone could light a match in the still-combustible environment.
"I think the real concern is not that Chavez intends to provoke a war, although that can't be ruled out, but that there's more of a possibility that, with all the rhetoric he's using, that some bright young lieutenant colonel will decide to take action on his own and cause a skirmish that could escalate," said a senior U.S. intelligence official, who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity.
Observers on both sides of the border are busy updating the facts and figures on the two forces.
In sheer manpower, Colombia has an edge. Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment places the Colombian armed forces, not including Colombia's sizable police force, at 263,000, more than double Venezuela's 115,000.
Colombia's forces are modeled on the U.S. military, with seven army divisions, three naval units and eight air commands being coordinated by five geographically based U.S.-style joint commands. According to Jane's, the idea is to ensure closer cooperation between the different branches of the military.
In a process that began before Uribe took office in 2002, the Colombian military has shifted its focus on counterinsurgency and counter-drug-trafficking, putting together helicopter-based and other highly mobile battalions and special-forces units.
Many of the units have been trained by the 500 or so U.S. advisers in the country with part of the estimated $600 million in military aid that Washington provides annually to Colombia .
Colombian and U.S. officers also maintain a Joint Intelligence Center in the southern base of Tres Esquina , which gathers information from communications intercepts and images from U.S. spy planes, listening stations and satellites, according to Jane's.
True to its counterinsurgency strategy and its partly mountainous, partly jungle terrain, Colombia has no combat tanks.
In contrast, Chavez has severed all military ties with the United States , which in turn has stopped selling him weapons and replacement parts.
Chavez has promoted the concept of asymmetric warfare, essentially preparing reserves and militias for a guerrilla war against an invader, presumably U.S. troops. Observers say he could end up creating a militia force of some 300,000.
But his regular armed forces are regarded as logistically challenged, and U.S. officials believe the army struggled to move its tank units toward the Colombian border after Chavez gave the order on March 2 . Venezuela has nearly 200 French AMX-30, AMX-13 and British Scorpion 90 tanks.
Half of the army's six divisions are based in the western half of the country, closest to the border with Colombia .
There are also doubts about the military's equipment maintenance. A foreign military officer who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of his job said the gun-sights on some of the tanks had been rendered inoperable by attempts to service them without help from foreign technicians.
"It's all image," said Cope, who added that Chavez seems more interested in reorganizing the military so that it's less of a threat to him. The military briefly forced Chavez from office in 2002.
The growing militia units can quickly mobilize to defend his government should the regular military turn against him, Cope said, and Chavez has pulled together the better-trained units from all branches under one "operational strategic command."
Venezuela has a big edge over Colombia in the air. It has purchased 10 Russian-made Mi-35 "flying tank" attack helicopters that can carry eight soldiers and have both anti-tank and air-to-air capacity.
Right after ordering the 10 battalions to the Colombian border, Chavez also threatened Uribe with "sending over the Sukhois"— advanced Russian fighter-bombers that make the Colombians' aged French Mirages and Israeli Kfirs look puny.
Colombia recently acquired 15 155mm cannon from Spain to offset a perceived Venezuelan artillery advantage. And in February, it spent $200 million to purchase 24 newer Kfir C10 fighters.
Colombia's Cessna A-37B Dragonflies and Brazilian Super Tucano turboprops, which bombed the camp in Ecuador with lethal accuracy, could be blasted out of the sky by the two dozen Sukhois-30s purchased by Chavez, but Venezuela's pilots are still reported to be training to fly them.
COLOMBIA
Strengths:
-- Large armed force of 263,000.
-- U.S.-supplied helicopters such as Black Hawks provide counterinsurgency mobility.
-- Brazilian Super Tucano turboprop planes provide lethal and accurate firepower.
-- Quickly responds to intelligence tips.
-- U.S.-style "joint commands" integrate army, air force, navy and national police.
Weaknesses:
-- Aging air force of Mirages and Kfirs.
-- No tanks.
-- Some units seen as only adequately trained; human-rights questions remain.
VENEZUELA
Strengths:
-- Firepower provided by Russian-supplied weaponry, including 24 Sukhoi-30, 10 Mi-35 helicopter gunships and 100,000 AK-103s assault rifles.
-- 189 AMX-30, AMX-13 and Scorpion 90 tanks.
-- Artillery firepower with 155mm and 105mm howitzers.
-- Addition of modern Russian submarines in 2009.
Weaknesses:
-- No combat experience.
-- Logistical problems.
-- Mission to support "Bolivarian revolution" distracts from training, demoralizes ranks.
This man is shameful! Truly shameful! He has no love for America at all; He is filled with too much hate and anger to see the tender side of America; America, the very nation that provides billions of dollars of aid to the poor in Africa and elsewhere in the world; the very nation that unselfishly sends her own sons and daughters to war so they can protect our freedoms...
America is a noble country!
I'm surprised that Obama still refuses to distance himself from this loon... Remember the saying, " Tell me who you hang around with and I will tell you whom you are"? Obama, you truly are naive!
Barack Obama today faced potential damage to his campaign after television networks aired footage of his pastor's sermons likening the Democratic frontrunner to Jesus and declaring: "God damn America."
In the sermons, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who presided over Obama's marriage and provided the title of his book "Audacity of Hope," condemns what he describes as a systemic effort to keep black people in poverty.
The strong language and the accusations of racism could prove embarrassing to Obama, who has based his candidacy on a message of unity. In his sermons Wright reportedly refers to America as being under the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and describes black Republicans as sell-outs.
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America'. No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon which was reviewed by ABC television.
"God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
Obama has been a member of the congregation of Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ in south side of Chicago for nearly 20 years, and he drew the title of his book from one of his pastor's sermons.
The pastor's sermons are available for sale at the church and both ABC and Fox News reviewed the addresses.
In January, Wright spoke from the pulpit in praise of Obama's leadership and comparing him to Jesus's struggles under the Romans, according to Fox television. "Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people," Wright said. "Hillary would never know that."
He went on: "Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person."
Wright also took issue with the idea that Bill Clinton had been a friend to African Americans. "Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain't! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty."
On the Sunday immediately following 9/11, Wright described the attacks as retribution for the bombing of Hiroshima, America's policy in the Middle East and apartheid era South Africa. Obama has told reporters he was not in church on that Sunday.
However, it is the inversion of the line "God Bless America" that may expose Obama to the greatest criticism. Last month, his wife, Michelle, was criticised by rightwing blogs and indirectly by the Republicans' presumptive nominee, John McCain, for saying she had not been proud of being an American for most of her adult life.
Wright retired from the church last month. Obama has defended his pastor in the past, most notably after it emerged that a church magazine had honoured the Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan.
In a meeting with Jewish leaders in Cleveland earlier this month, Obama compared Wright to an "old uncle" who said disagreeable things. He went on to add: "I suspect there are some of the people in this room who have heard relatives say some things that they don't agree with, including, on occasion, directed at African Americans."
His campaign told ABC that Obama did not think of his pastor in political terms.
"Senator Obama does not think of the pastor of his church in political terms. Like a member of his family, there are things he says with which Senator Obama deeply disagrees. But now that he is retired, that doesn't detract from Senator Obama's affection for Reverend Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done," campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, told ABC in a statement.
However, the latest focus on Wright comes at a potentially volatile stage of the campaign with a hiatus of several weeks before the next primary in Pennsylvania on April 22.
The lull between major contests has led to a series of rows between the Clinton and Obama campaigns over race and gender. Last week, Samantha Power, a foreign policy adviser to Obama, was forced to resign after calling Clinton a "monster". This week, Geraldine Ferraro, who was the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate in 1984, was forced to stand down after claiming Obama would not be leading the race if he weren't black.
Nor are such culture wars exclusive to the Democratic race. McCain has come under pressure to repudiate a televangelist supporter, the Reverend Rod Parsley. Parsley, who is from Ohio, has spoken of a clash of civilisations between Islam and Christianity.
NASHVILLE — President Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom was a God-given right and “every human being bears the image of our maker.”
In a 42-minute speech to the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Mr. Bush called upon European allies to step up their efforts in Afghanistan, and conceded that recent security gains in Iraq “are tenuous, they’re reversible and they’re fragile.” Still, he insisted his troop buildup there is succeeding.
“The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency,” Mr. Bush said, to a standing ovation. “It is the right decision at this point in my presidency, and it will forever be the right decision.”
The speech, coming a week before the fifth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, is the first of three talks on terrorism and war policy that Mr. Bush will give before next month’s Congressional testimony by the top American military commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and the senior diplomat there, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.
General Petraeus is widely expected to recommend a temporary pause in troop withdrawals from Iraq, although at least one senior administration official said the president envisions further reductions this year. With the nation’s attention turned to the race to succeed Mr. Bush, White House aides say the speeches are a way for the president to frame the Iraq discussion, taking it back from the presidential candidates and Democrats on Capitol Hill.
“It’s a way of resetting a little bit,” said one senior White House official. “There was a lot of talk about the surge, and then when the surge worked, it was like, ‘O.K., it worked,’ and then ’08 heated up and people sort of moved on. People need to be reminded of who we’re up against and what the stakes are.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Bush cast the stakes in stark terms, repeatedly invoking his desire to spread freedom and democracy, the central themes of his foreign policy. Those themes are hardly new to American presidents. Woodrow Wilson talked about making the world safe for democracy, while Ronald Reagan warned that “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
But Mr. Bush, most experts agree, has taken the American freedom agenda to an entirely new level, by trying to foster democracy in nations that have not known it before, like Iraq and Afghanistan. Some historians have called it folly, and Mr. Bush conceded in an interview with conservative commentators last year that his critics believe he is “hopelessly idealistic.”
Still, he renewed his case on Tuesday, predicting that liberty will soon be on the march in the region.
“The effects of a free Iraq and a free Afghanistan will reach beyond the borders of those two countries,” Mr. Bush said. “It will show others what’s possible. And we undertake this work because we believe that every human being bears the image of our maker. That’s why we’re doing this. No one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave.”
Mr. Bush’s faith is well known; he credits his acceptance of Jesus with turning his life around by helping him to quit drinking at age 40. His beliefs have colored his policy decisions on matters ranging from abortion to embryonic stem-cell research to fighting malaria and AIDS in Africa.
Christian conservatives are an important component of Mr. Bush’s political base, and the broadcasters greeted him so enthusiastically on Tuesday that he laughed and called them “kind of a rambunctious crowd.”
The last time he last time he talked to the religious broadcasters, in 2003, he focused on his faith-based initiative.
On Tuesday, he opened with a nod to the Rev. Billy Graham, who is recovering from surgery at his home in North Carolina. Mr. Bush said the preacher “brought the gospel to millions, and many years ago he helped me change my life.”
He went on to praise the broadcasters for “standing up for our values, including the right to life,” and pledged to veto any legislation that would reinstitute the so-called “fairness doctrine,” which required broadcasters to give air time to opposing views.
Mr. Bush often talks about his belief in “the universality of freedom,” as he did last year to a conference of political dissidents in Prague. But rarely has the president mixed the language of faith and God so closely with talk of war and terrorism, as he did Tuesday at the Opryland hotel here.
Calling freedom a “precious gift,” Mr. Bush said: “The liberty we value is not ours alone. Freedom is not America’s gift to the world; it is God’s gift to all humanity.” His words were punctuated by shouts of “Amen.”
President Bush is a genuine Christian. He lives his faith and does not use it as some sort of PR tool to win elections! (e.g. Hussein Obama and the Clintons)
"It seems that House leaders are more interested in investigating our intelligence professionals than in giving them the tools they need to protect us. Congress should stop playing politics with the past and focus on helping us prevent terrorist attacks in the future... The American people understand the stakes in this struggle. They want their children to be safe from terror. Congress has done little in the three weeks since the last recess, and they should not leave for their Easter recess without getting the Senate bill to my desk."
Ohmahgawd. This silk dress is soo... well I was about to say "purdy", but bloody scorpions aren't exactly... well, purdy. But still!! There's something awesome about this dress even if it reminds me of a tent. Maybe it's the bold scorpion print or the elasticized belt, or maybe it's the flawless silk fabric... whatever it may be, this Thomas Wylde dress, at least at first glance, is undeniably striking.
A huge shopping bag is placed on the statue of late rock legend Freddie Mercury, outside central London's Dominion Theatre, Thursday March 13, 2008. The statue decorating the theatre which plays host to the Queen-Ben Elton musical 'We Will Rock You', will sport a giant sized shopping bag to deliver a message against the use of plastic bags. Britons were up in arms on Thursday about the imposition of 'sin taxes' that will increase the cost of alcohol, cigarettes, gas-guzzling cars and, potentially, plastic bags. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) [It's so effin' SILLY!!!! Am I the only one who thinks this whole lets-save-the-world campaign is getting ridiculous?! Like, seriously?!]
LONDON - Many Britons were resigning themselves to more puritanical lifestyles Thursday as they faced the prospect of "sin taxes" that will increase the cost of alcohol, cigarettes, gas-guzzling cars and, potentially, plastic bags.
"Don't Drink or Drive" trumpeted the Sun newspaper after Treasury chief Alistair Darling unveiled the measures on Wednesday in the government's annual spending plan.
The Labour Party government is hoping that hiking taxes on booze will help curb Britain's binge-drinking culture.
But breakfast talk radio was abuzz with callers lamenting the potential death of Britain's pub scene, with the tax hike coming less than a year after the government imposed a smoking ban in all public buildings.
"They put more on alcohol because they think there's going to be binge-drinking, but it won't stop. It just stops people going in pubs," said Sarah Thomas, 33, a teacher trainer smoking a rolled tobacco cigarette outside The Goose pub in central London.
From this weekend, alcohol duties will rise by 6 percent above inflation — meaning an extra 8 cents for a pint of beer, which already costs about $6 in an average London pub.
They will go up around 26 cents for a bottle of wine and a whopping $1.10 a bottle for spirits such as whisky.
The duties will then rise by another 2 percent above inflation in each of the next four years, reversing a trend in previous budgets to keep increases low for most alcohol products. Duties on spirits were frozen for the past 10 years to boost British spirit makers' competitiveness, accounting for the large jump this year.
A packet of cigarettes, already a steep $11.20, will rise by 22 cents.
The first budget under Prime Minister Gordon Brown also planned to reward ecologically minded voters by imposing higher taxes on heavier polluting cars from 2010.
The increases — to be charged at the point of sale and in higher road taxes — mean that many family cars, along with gas-guzzling vehicles and sports cars will come with larger price tags and be more expensive to drive.
George Osborne, the opposition Conservative Party spokesman said the plans would unfairly target hardworking families who need large vehicles like SUVs.
"Labour's economic incompetence means a rising cost of living for the very people they said they would help," said Osborne.
The government will also begin imposing a charge on single-use plastic bags next year — a measure already in place in Ireland — if supermarkets and other stores don't make "sufficient progress" to voluntarily reduce their use by the end of this year.
The government said money raised by a plastic bag levy would go to environmental charities, while that from alcohol and cigarette taxes would help fund a $2 billion package to tackle child poverty.
But Steve Thompson, 39, an air conditioning engineer enjoying a lunch break with a cigarette and a half-pint of beer outside the Melton Mowbray pub in central London, wasn't buying the government's social plan.
"They know that people who are addicted can't quit smoking but they still tax it and get their revenue for it," said Thompson. "They're crooks. They waste taxpayers' money terribly."
Rob Hayward, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, said the government was "shooting itself in the foot" because it would lose revenue if pubs are forced to close.
"The government is punishing all beer drinkers rather than tackling the minority of drunken hooligans," Hayward said.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association said that as British costs rises faster than in continental Europe, more people will simply go abroad for the cheaper prices, particularly on wine. The new charges will tax wine at nearly $3 a bottle — the highest in the European Union and well above the 4 cents charged in France.
With Britons already facing rising prices for food and other basic amid the gloom caused by the global credit crunch, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association said the new taxes were a form of punishment.
"It is bizarre at a time when the economy is slowing, prices are rising and many families are feeling the pinch, that the government should choose to add to their burden by making the simple pleasure of a glass of wine or spirits considerably more expensive," said the association's chief executive Jeremy Beadles.
Other news: Congress endorses post-Bush tax hikes Both houses of Congress endorsed the idea of tax increases for millions of Americans Thursday as Democrats pressed ahead with budget plans that would allow some or all of President Bush's reductions to die after he leaves office...
New York Gov. Spitzer resigns but more woes likely It's a stunning change of fortune for Spitzer, who in his previous post as the state's chief prosecutor aggressively pursued wrongdoing on Wall Street. His disgrace was cheered by some financial power brokers who resented what they considered his heavy-handed and self-righteous ways...
American public support for the military effort in Iraq has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006, a development that promises to reshape the political landscape.
According to late February polling conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 53 percent of Americans — a slim majority — now believe “the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals” in Iraq. That figure is up from 42 percent in September 2007.
The percentage of those who believe the war in Iraq is going “very well” or “fairly well” is also up, from 30 percent in February 2007 to 48 percent today.
The situation in Iraq remains fluid, of course. A surge in violence or in troop deaths could lead to rapid fluctuations in public opinion. But as the war nears its fifth year, the steady upturn in the public mood stands to alter the dynamics of races up and down the ballot.
The repercussions will be most acutely felt in the presidential contest. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton remain committed to a staggered pullout, while Republican John McCain holds steadfast in his support for the Bush administration’s military surge.
In recent years, election results have tracked perceptions about the progress of the war in Iraq. The Democratic wave in the 2006 congressional elections correlated to a low point in the public’s view of the war. The resurgence of McCain’s candidacy also tracks the decrease in U.S. fatalities in Iraq. Monthly troop deaths have dropped by about two-thirds since the summer of 2007, according to Department of Defense records.
Democrats’ resolute support for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces may soon position them at odds with independent voters, in particular, a constituency they need to retake the White House.
Half of self-identified independents polled now believe the United States should “keep troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized,” according to polling data assembled by Pew at Politico’s request.
Senior foreign policy aides to Clinton and Obama said, in interviews, that their candidates have no intention of reconsidering their pledges to withdraw troops from Iraq, despite the waning of public opposition.
As recently as Tuesday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Clinton reiterated her pledge to “end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home.” She added, as she has for months, that she would “carefully and responsibly” start the withdrawal of those troops within 60 days of taking office.
“There is no military solution,” Clinton is prone to say, a sentiment echoed by Obama. Obama has also proposed an end date for “removing all combat brigades” from Iraq.
The uptick in public support is a promising sign for Republican candidates who have been bludgeoned over the Bush administration’s war policies. But no candidate stands to gain more than McCain.
“How could Democrats possibly hand McCain a better issue than to let him run on his record of advocating a robust U.S. presence in Iraq with all the positive battlefield news that is filtering out of that country?” asked Michael O’Hanlon, a national security adviser at the Brookings Institution who has been at the center of the Iraq debate since the war’s outset.
“Thinking about where we were at the time of the congressional elections, it’s ironic that the Iraq issue could actually be the one that most favors the Republican and most other issues — including most foreign policy issues — could most favor the Democrats,” O’Hanlon added. “Yet Democrats keep wanting to fight the Iraq debate.”
The positions taken by Obama and Clinton reflect the majority sentiment in their party: seven in 10 Democrats continue to believe the war in Iraq is going poorly. Only about a quarter of Democrats support maintaining troop levels until “the situation has stabilized,” according to Pew polling data.
Views of the war in Iraq have long varied depending upon party affiliation, unlike during the Vietnam War. Although even Democratic discontent has ebbed for the first time in more than a year — 29 percent now support keeping troops in, an increase of eight percentage points since last summer — foreign policy advisors to both candidates dispute the idea that Democrats are in the unenviable position of disagreeing with the majority of Americans over whether the war in Iraq can succeed.
“We have seen at great cost here that the surge has resulted in a reduction of violence. That’s indisputable,” said a top Obama foreign policy adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But we have not seen any of the political progress that will be necessary to have that long-term stability.
“[Obama] believes the best way to induce change is to have this strategic redeployment,” the adviser added.
While Democrats increasingly constitute the bulk of voters who support the withdrawal of troops, the public shift of opinion overall has been dramatic. As many voters now believe that the war is going “well” as “not well” — 48 percent each, according to Pew.
Pew also found that 49 percent favor bringing the troops home as soon as possible while 47 percent say the troops should stay in until the situation stabilizes — statistical parity between the two positions. Late February polling conducted by CBS News has also shown that the public view of the war is better than at any point since August 2006. CBS recently found that 43 percent of the country believes the war is going “well” — less than Pew found but still double the level of last June.
Democrats remain in step with the public mood on the question of the decision to go to war. Pew and CBS have found that a majority of Americans, including independents, continue to believe that the choice to wage war with Iraq was “wrong” — a figure that has held for years.
McCain is betting, however, that the public will view the war through a forward-looking lens. For months, he has argued that Democrats intend to “retreat” in Iraq and ensure failure.
The public may soon come to view that as “a correct narrative,” said O’Hanlon, a Democrat whose views on the war have made him the bête noire of many in the antiwar liberal base.
Perhaps as a result of the uptick in support for the war or his own military record, McCain is well-positioned to retake the party’s traditional advantage on national security issues.
Almost half of registered voters now believe it is “very likely” that McCain would be an “effective commander in chief,” according to CBS polling. Less than one-quarter said the same of Obama and Clinton. In addition, CBS found that a clear majority of Americans were “confident” that McCain could “handle an international crisis” — 56 percent said so for McCain, 47 percent for Obama and only 39 percent for Clinton.
The McCain campaign has signaled plans to continue highlighting his differences with Democrats over Iraq policy. Meanwhile, Democrats plan to continue to frame McCain as a central player in the president’s Iraq policy who is likely to continue in the same direction.
“Sen. McCain is clearly going to try to depict the Democrat, whoever it is, as cut and run,” the Clinton advisor said. “And Sen. Clinton, or whoever is the Democratic nominee, is clearly going to try to depict Sen. McCain as one who would stay there for centuries.”
For the time being, however, McCain can claim that roughly half of the public does not support a troop withdrawal — a first since the 2008 presidential race began.
OMG, this is so cute! I seriously love Topshop to death, they've got the cutest minis, dresses and casual tops ever. Check out the hot jacket below! Match it up with either a skinny or a bootcut jean and you're good to go!
She left a broken home on the Jersey Shore at 17 and came to New York City to work the nightclubs as a rhythm and blues singer. Now, at 22, she is the unwitting, and as yet unseen, star of the seamy drama that is the downfall of Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York.
Kristen, described in a federal affidavit as having a Feb. 13 rendezvous with Mr. Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the last few days in her ninth-floor rental in an upscale apartment building in the Flatiron district. On Monday, she made a brief appearance in federal court as a witness in the case against four people charged with operating the prostitution ring, Emperor’s Club V.I.P. In a series of telephone interviews on Tuesday night, she said she had slept very little over the past week due to the stress from the case.
“I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” the woman said as she told the tiniest tidbits of her story. Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, she spoke softly and with good humor as she added with significant understatement: “This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated.”
She has not been charged. The lawyer appointed to represent her, Don D. Buchwald, told a magistrate judge in court on Monday that she had been subpoenaed to testify in a grand jury investigation. Asked to swear that she had accurately filled out and signed a court financial affidavit, she responded affirmatively.
A person with knowledge of the Emperor’s Club operation confirmed that the woman interviewed by The New York Times was the woman identified as Kristen in the affidavit. Mr. Buchwald confirmed various details of Ms. Dupre’s background but would not discuss the contents of the affidavit.
Ms. Dupre said on the telephone Tuesday night that she was worried about how she would pay her rent since the man she was living with “walked out on me” after she discovered he had fathered two children. She said she was considering working at a friend’s restaurant or, once her apartment lease expires, moving back in with her family in New Jersey “to relax.”
She did not say when she had started working for Emperor’s Club, or how often she had liaisons arranged through the ring. Asked when she met Governor Spitzer and how many times they had seen each other, Ms. Dupre said she had no comment.
On her MySpace page, Ms. Dupre writes of her “odyssey to New York from New Jersey through North Carolina, Miami, D.C., Virginia and Austin, Texas;” public records show that she lived in Belmar, N.J., in 2001, and in North Carolina in 2003. She owns a company, created in 2005, called Pasche New York, which her lawyer said was an entertainment business designed to further her singing career.
Music is her first love, and on the MySpace page, Ms. Dupre mentions Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, Christina Aguilera and Lauryn Hill among a long list of influences, including her brother, Kyle. (She also lists Madonna, Mary J. Blige and Amy Winehouse as her top MySpace friends.) In the interview, she said she saw the Rolling Stones perform at Radio City Music Hall on their last tour after a friend gave her two of tickets. “They were amazing,” she said.
On MySpace, it says: “I am all about my music and my music is all about me. It flows from what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen and how I feel.”
She left “a broken family” at age 17, having been abused, according to the MySpace page, and has used drugs, “been broke and homeless.”
“Learned what it was like to have everything and lose it, again and again,” she wrote. “Learned what it was like to wake up one day and have the people you care about most gone.
“But I made it,” she continues. “I’m still here and I love who I am. If I never went through the hard times, I would not be able to appreciate the good ones. Cliché, yes, but I know it’s true.”
Carolyn Capalbo, 46, Ms. Dupre’s mother, said that she attended Wall High School in Belmar until her sophomore year, when she moved to North Carolina. “She was a young kid with typical teenage rebellion issues, but we are extremely close now,” Ms. Capalbo said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
In 2006, Ms. Dupre changed her legal name, according to records in Monmouth County Superior Court, from Ashley R. Youmans to Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro, taking her step-father’s surname, since she regarded him as as “the only father I have known.” But in the interview, she referred to herself as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, which is how she is known on MySpace.
On the Web page is a recording of what she describes as her latest track, “What We Want,” an amateurish, hip-hop inflected rhythm and blues tune that asks, “Can you handle me, boy?” and uses some dated slang, calling someone her “boo.”
“I know what you want, you got what I want,” she sings in the chorus. “I know what you need. Can you handle me?”
Her MySpace biography says that she started singing professionally after a musician she was living with heard her singing Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” in the shower and burst into the bathroom with his lead guitarist. She says that she toured and recorded with them, then moved to Manhattan in 2004 and “spent the first two years getting to know the music scene, networking in clubs and connecting with the industry.
“Now it’s all about my music, it’s all about expressing me.”
In the affidavit, the woman known by the Emperors Club as Kristen is described as “an American, petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, and 105 pounds.” She apparently was booked at about $1,000-an-hour, placing her in the middle of the seven-diamond scale by which Emperors prostitutes commanded up to $4,300 an hour.
Ms. Capalbo said that she was “shell-shocked” when her daughter called mid-last week and told her she had been working as an escort and was now in trouble with the law. She said she was not sure Ms. Dupre realized who Mr. Spitzer was when he was her client.
“She is a very bright girl who can handle someone like the governor,” Ms. Capalbo said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “But she also is a 22-year-old not a 32-year-old or a 42-year-old and she obviously got involved in something much larger than her.”
It's too bad she turned to prostitution and all that sad stuff... girl can sing! (Her original track sort of sucks though!)
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hollywood action star Chuck Norris, known for his martial arts prowess and tough-guy image, has become a cult figure among the U.S. military in Iraq and an unlikely hero for some in Iraq's security forces.
A small cardboard shrine is dedicated to Norris at a U.S. military helicopter hub in Baghdad, and comments lauding the manliness and virility of the actor have been left on toilet walls across Iraq and even in neighboring Kuwait, soldiers say.
"The fastest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist," reads one message at the shrine, which consists of a signed photo of the actor surrounded by similar statements.
"Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter," reads one and "Chuck Norris divides by zero," reads another.
Known as Chuck Norris "facts", the claims have already become an Internet phenomenon, and scores are featured on www.chucknorrisfacts.com, including "Superman wears Chuck Norris pyjamas", and "There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Chuck Norris lives in Oklahoma".
The actor has visited Iraq several times and was made an honorary Marine last year. Some 20 U.S. military personnel and support staff spoken to by Reuters could recite at least one Norris "fact", despite many having not visited the Web site.
U.S. troops in Iraq say his support for them and Norris' invincible image has made him their idol and insist the exaggerated and satirical claims are not meant to mock him.
"The jokes all add to his legend. They're not derogatory. He's an icon," said Sergeant Joe Lindsay at a base in Falluja in Iraq's Western Anbar province, which Norris has visited.
AN IRAQI NORRIS
Bearded and muscled, Norris shot to fame fighting kung fu legend Bruce Lee in the 1972 film The Way of the Dragon, and later films show him devastating groups of men with one kick.
"Norris visited Iraq when violence was its worst and other celebrities were skittish. He's one of the guys," U.S. military public affairs officer Specialist Mark Braden said in Baghdad.
"The Marines love him. He's like a mythical legend," Staff Sergeant Amy Forsythe in Falluja said.
Soldiers cited many reasons for his appeal. Some appreciated his films and fighting ability -- Norris is a martial arts guru, and many of his films have military themes.
Others said the masculine and plainly dressed actor was an antidote to the preening and moisturized metrosexual male.
Some praised his Christian and political values. The actor recently endorsed Republican Party presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, though in the spirit of the Norris "facts", Marines argued it was Huckabee who endorsed Norris.
"He's helped us a lot. The appeal is also his martial arts, and sheer physical presence ... I don't think I go a day without hearing a Norris joke," said Corporal Ricardo Jones in Falluja.
Norris' appeal is not restricted to U.S. troops either. At an Iraqi police graduation ceremony in Falluja, graduates called out for their "Chuck Norris" to pose with them for photos.
"Truthfully, I didn't know who he was. I asked the Americans, and they said he was a great fighter, and that's why they named me after him. They showed me a video, and it's true, he's a great fighter" said police trainer Mohammed Rasheed.
With his handle-bar moustache, Rasheed has a vague resemblance to Norris.
Another police trainer said Chuck Norris was a role model for the police in Falluja, which until 2007 was an al Qaeda stronghold and the scene of fierce battles with security forces.
"I've seen his videos, he's a hero. He saves the city, he protects women and children and he fights crime wherever it is. We should all be like Chuck Norris," Khaled Hussein said.
OMG, this is probably the sweetest-looking ring ever! Imagine a small bundle of multi-colored flowers made of 18k yellow gold resting on your pretty little finger? Sure, it'll cost you a couple thousand bucks, but like all pretty things (and other such shallow desires), the artificial joy it brings is priceless!
You can get Dior's Diorette ring at E-Luxury for a whopping $5,550! Uhm, yay?
***
Here is Lauren Conrad's new collection - Bella, which is just as overpriced and uninspired as her previous collections. Bleh.
Not to be a biatch, but I don't see myself dishing out a hundred dollars or more for a simple jersey/cotton dress. Pfft.
WASHINGTON - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday joined Republican presidential candidate John McCain and a small band of GOP senators in making a run this week against the billions of dollars in home-state pet projects Congress funds each year.
Obama, locked in a head-to-head battle with Clinton for the Democratic nomination, was the first to declare through a spokesman Monday that he would support a one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks when it comes up for a vote later this week. Clinton followed shortly afterward through a spokesman.
The poobahs of pork in both parties as well as their Senate leaders suddenly found themselves on the spot after stalwartly defending lawmakers' practice of steering federal dollars to their home states.
Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi had signaled privately to fellow Democrats that she supports an election-year break from earmarks as she follows the lead of House GOP leader John Boehner.
Obama joined with other lawmakers last year to obtain almost $100 million worth of earmarks for Illinois. Clinton worked with others to win $342 million in pet projects for New York and Pelosi obtained $94 million for California.
"We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project," Obama said in a statement. "We can no longer accept an earmarks process that has become so complicated to navigate that a municipality or non-profit group has to hire high-priced D.C. lobbyists to do it."
McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, has fought — and lost — many battles over earmarks before, but his new status has longtime rivals in his own party rethinking their positions.
The moves by Clinton and Obama have also put Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats in a quandary. Reid issued a statement early Monday reiterating his support for Congress' right to direct money back home for roads and other projects.
McCain is among only six members of the Senate who don't ask for pet projects. Obama does, though his requests are generally modest when compared to more senior senators like Illinois colleague Dick Durbin, a fellow Democrat.
South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint, a first-term McCain ally in the fight against pork, is the main sponsor of a one-year ban on earmarks, the term lawmakers use for the pet projects they slip into must-pass legislation.
A vote is coming this week as the Senate debates its annual budget plan. McCain is expected to give a floor speech to rally Republicans behind the idea and to make time in his busy campaign schedule to cast a rare vote.
"The jig's up on earmarks," DeMint said Monday. "McCain not only supports the moratorium but he's going to veto any bill that comes to him with earmarks in it. And so, any Republican at this point should say, 'It's time for us to take a time out.'"
Old-school senior Republicans such as former Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran of Mississippi have long teamed with Democrats to block moves by McCain to cut earmarks, typically by margins of 2-to-1 or so.
Now, with Obama and Clinton endorsing the idea and Pelosi poised to go along with demands by House Republicans to call a temporary halt to earmarking, momentum is clearly on the side of anti-earmark reformers.
"This should be a no-brainer for Republicans. It shows you how dysfunctional some of these folks are that this is not a complete layup," said former GOP Rep. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
"If they let this fail, and then Nancy Pelosi gets out and gets to the right of the Republicans on earmarks, then they can just forget about being the majority party for well into the future," Toomey said.
That doesn't mean there won't be resistance from old timers who believe Congress should stoutly defend their power of the purse.
"Sounds like a bad idea to me," said Cochran. "I don't think that's very wise, to give up a constitutional responsibility that is given to Congress."
Members of both parties in the Senate will gather separately behind closed doors Tuesday to decide whether to embrace McCain's — and now Obama's and Clinton's — latest quest to curb their appetites for earmarks.
Pelosi also has many stalwart defenders of earmarks in her party, particularly among freshmen who this year received a disproportionate share of them to tout to voters in what, for many will be tough re-election campaigns.
But she's helped by the fact that no one expects many spending bills to pass before Election Day anyway, so accepting a temporary ban isn't much of a sacrifice
Still, it's difficult to overestimate Congress' addiction to earmarks, which has only grown as more and more have been larded out. Almost $15 billion in pet projects were disclosed this year, but that is still below what Republicans devoted to them in 2006, the last year they ran Congress.
Actually, a ban on earmarks is not new for Democrats. They imposed a moratorium on them for the 2007 fiscal year that ended last Oct. 1 in finishing up spending bills left over by Republicans.
Later, they imposed new earmark disclosure rules and made cutbacks when passing the appropriations bills for the current year.
That did nothing to curb criticism from the White House and GOP conservatives.
Many Republicans, especially in the House, say their party has lost its way on federal spending and earmarks. They argue that's a major reason Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006. Now, in their uphill struggle to win control back, Republicans see voters' disgust with earmarks as a potent campaign issue.
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush said on Monday he had agreed the United States would help modernize the Polish military as part of a U.S. plan to base components of a global missile defense shield in Poland.
Bush’s announcement, after White House talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, appeared to mark a major step toward meeting Poland’s demand that Washington boost military aid in exchange for allowing the basing of 10 missile interceptors in Poland.
The two leaders hailed their meeting as a success but made clear that no final deal had been reached on the anti-missile system, something U.S. and Polish officials have said could still take months more.
“The United States recognizes the need for Polish forces to be modernized,” Bush told reporters. He said “before my watch is over” — he leaves office in January 2009 — U.S. experts would have assessed those needs.
Bush again played down Moscow’s concerns about the missile shield, saying, “This system is not aimed at Russia. I will continue to work with President (Vladimir) Putin and give him those assurances as well.”
The Bush administration wants to put the interceptor base in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of a global system it says is meant to protect the United States and allies from long-range ballistic missiles from “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea.
Russia has insisted, however, that the shield could pose a threat to its security, and Putin has warned that Moscow will target its missiles at the system if it is deployed in Eastern Europe, Russia’s former sphere of influence.
The United States and the Czech Republic are close to finalizing an agreement, but the Polish government has taken a tougher stance in negotiations and many details remain to hammered out.
Tusk, sitting with Bush in the Oval Office after Monday’s talks, said Poland was ready to cooperate on missile defense as part of an overall security effort that would include upgrading Polish forces.
“All these issues come in the same package,” he told reporters. He deemed it a “breakthrough” that Bush and the U.S. government now “understand quite clearly our expectations.”
*** Bush rocks! He's the only one who's doing something about the Iranian/North Korean threat. Europe better thank him for this!
NEW YORK - Gov. Eliot Spitzer's political career teetered on the brink of collapse Monday after the corruption-fighting politician once known as "Mr. Clean" was accused of paying for a romp with a high-priced call girl.
The Democrat faced immediate calls to step down after a news conference in which a glassy-eyed Spitzer, his shellshocked wife at his side, apologized to his family and the people of New York.
"I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself," said the 48-year-old father of three teenage girls. "I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family."
He did not discuss his political future and ignored shouted questions about whether he would resign. And he gave no details of what he was apologizing for.
But Spitzer was clearly examining his legal options; a spokesman said the governor had retained the Manhattan law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, one of the nation's biggest.
Spitzer was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet in a Washington hotel room the night before Valentine's Day with a prostitute from a call-girl business known as the Emperors Club VIP, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still going on.
The governor has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case.
But an affidavit based on the wiretap told of a man identified as "Client 9" — Spitzer, according to the law enforcement official — paying $4,300 in cash, some of it credit for future trysts, some of it for sex with a "petite, pretty brunette, 5-feet-5 inches, and 105 pounds," named Kristen.
The scandal came 16 months after Spitzer stormed into the governor's office with a historic margin of victory, vowing to root out corruption in New York government in the same way that he took on Wall Street executives with a vengeance while state attorney general.
But his first year in office was marred by turmoil, and the latest scandal raised questions about whether he would make it through the week.
"He has to step down. No one will stand with him," said Rep. Peter King, a Republican congressman from Long Island. "I never try to take advantage or gloat over a personal tragedy. However, this is different. This is a guy who is so self-righteous, and so unforgiving."
Democratic Assemblyman John McEneny said: "I don't think anyone remembers anything like this — the fact that the governor has a reputation as a reformer and there is a certain assumption as attorney general that you're Caesar's wife. It's a different element than if you were an accountant."
Democratic Lt. Gov. David Paterson would become New York's first black governor if Spitzer were to resign.
The allegations were outlined in papers filed in federal court in New York.
A defendant in the case, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, told a prostitute identified only as Kristen that she should take a train from New York to Washington for an encounter with Client 9 on the night of Feb. 13, according to the complaint. The defendant confirmed that the client would be "paying for everything — train tickets, cab fare from the hotel and back, mini bar or room service, travel time and hotel."
The prostitute met the client in Room 871 at about 10 p.m., according to the complaint. When discussing how the payments would be arranged, Client 9 told Lewis: "Yup, same as in the past, no question about it" — suggesting Client 9 had done this before.
According to court papers, an Emperors Club agent was told by the prostitute that her evening with Client 9 went well. The agent said she had been told that the client "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe ... very basic things," according to the papers, but Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that ... I'd be, like, listen dude, you really want the sex?"
The next day, Spitzer testified before a congressional subcommittee about regulations on the bond industry.
The ring arranged sex between wealthy men and more than 50 prostitutes in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami, London and Paris, prosecutors said. Four people accused of helping to operate the ring were arrested last week.
The club's Web site displays photos of scantily clad women with their faces hidden. It also shows hourly rates, with prices set according to each woman's ratings, which range from one to seven diamonds. The highest-ranked prostitutes cost $5,500 an hour, prosecutors said.
"I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong," Spitzer said at the news conference. "I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, whom I promised better."
The case began as a financial investigation by Internal Revenue Service agents, and at some point was referred to the public corruption unit of the U.S. Attorney's office, authorities said. It was not clear from the authorities whether Spitzer was a target of the investigation from the start, or whether agents came his across his name by accident.
Prosecutors compiled statements from a confidential source and an undercover officer and examined more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages and more than 6,000 e-mails, as well as bank, travel and hotel records.
The four people arrested were charged with violating the Mann Act, a 1910 federal law against crossing state lines for purposes of prostitution.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, noted that prostitution customers are often not charged, and said charges against Spitzer might be unlikely.
"Especially if he resigns, he may just be left alone. It may be that the public is satisfied by his resignation as governor," Tobias said.
Spitzer clashed with Wall Street executives throughout his two terms as attorney general. Among other things, he uncovered crooked practices and self-dealing in the stock brokerage and insurance industries and in corporate board rooms, and went after former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso over his $187.5 million compensation package, calling it unreasonable.
He soon became known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year," and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness." The square-jawed graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law was sometimes mentioned as a potential candidate for president.
His campaign slogan during his run for governor was "Day One Everything Changes." But his term as governor has been fraught with problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear his main Republican nemesis.
Spitzer had been expected to testify in front of a state commission he had created to answer for his role in the scandal, in which his aides were accused of using the state police to compile travel records to embarrass Senate GOP leader Joseph Bruno.
His cases as attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and tourism involving prostitutes. In 2004, he took part in an investigation of an escort service in New York City that resulted in the arrest of 18 people on charges of promoting prostitution and related charges.
A construction worker places an American flag on the concrete survivors staircase at the World Trade Center site on Sunday, March 9, 2008 in New York. The 37-step staircase survived Sept. 11 and remains the only above ground remnant of the trade center complex. It will be moved temporarily within the site and eventually will become part of the Sept 11 memorial. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
NEW YORK - As a survivor, Tom Canavan felt he had to witness the removal of the last sizable remnant of the World Trade Center: the staircase that served as an escape route for him and many others.
Canavan joined a smattering of survivors and a group of city officials Sunday at ground zero to watch workers plant an American flag on the staircase. Then they waited until a crane hoisted the 65-ton structure and carefully placed it on a flatbed.
The staircase was moved 200 feet to a temporary location near the northwest corner of the site. It will become part of the World Trade Center memorial and museum, which is scheduled to open on the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks.
"In many senses, we're all survivors of 9/11 — this city, this country," said Joe Daniels, president of the foundation that is building the memorial. "And the staircase is a really potent symbol of that."
The 37 steps that once connected the plaza outside the twin towers to the street below are the only aboveground remnant of the trade center complex.
For Canavan, seeing the staircase again summoned memories of fleeing down the steps after tunneling out of debris when the World Trade Center's south tower collapsed.
"Time seemed to move very fast," he said. "It took me about 20 minutes to tunnel out, just digging. I had no fingernails left when I got to the top."
Preservationists and survivors argued for years that the staircase remain undisturbed to honor the memory of Sept. 11.
But state officials announced in 2006 that they would demolish all but one or two slabs of the staircase to make way for a new office tower, undeterred by a preservation group that named the steps one of the nation's most endangered historic places.
The site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had said that the 22-foot staircase could not be taken off the trade center site because it was too tall for traffic lights and overhead poles and possibly too heavy for bridges.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration worked out a compromise last year to separate the stairs from their concrete base and install them at the Sept. 11 memorial.
Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., said moving the stairs was a good compromise.
"We were presented with what was really a false choice, which is to say either you get rid of that remnant and you allow rebuilding to go forward or you keep the remnant and the memory and you stop rebuilding," Schick said. "And we said that's a false construct... You can honor memory, you can honor the day, you can honor survival, yet respect and understand the need for rebuilding to go forward."
I'm not into canary yellow, but this dress is to die for! It's by Kim Kardashian's favorite designer, Herve Leger. I think bandage dresses are sexy especially when it's worn by a curvy woman; After all, its sole purpose is to show-off your hard-earned hour-glass figure! The Marilyn Monroe body is finally making a huge comeback and the dreaded heroin-chic look is out- So feel free to stuff yourself with sloppy fries and double cheeseburgers! Anyway, according to Bagsnob.Com, this dress can hold everything in because of its many hidden panels. For that reason alone, this dress has gone five notches up my must-have list! I seriously gotta have it!
Anyway I changed the top graphic on my page. Got bored and manipulated a few images using Photoshop. Yes, I'm a total rookie when it comes to nerdy stuff, but I'm working on becoming a full-fledge computer nerd someday!! Anyway check out the original images from a Vogue France photoshoot -they're breathtaking.
Bush serenades Washington journalists; Gives Helen a kiss!
This is the first of all press reports, and a full Swamp there's-got-to-be-a-morning-after account from the supposedly "off-the-record," rollicking annual dinner of the Gridiron Club - President George W. Bush's last hurrah - in which the president, donning a tan cowboy hat with white-tie tuxedo, serenaded the full establishment press and governmental hierarchy of Washington on Saturday night with an off-tune but spot-on Texas-waltz rendition of "The Brown, Brown Grass of Home."
"Yes, you're all going to miss me, the way you used to quiz me," Bush sang, "but soon I'll touch the brown, brown grass of home."
Not only the president, but also most of his Cabinet and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff turned out for a dinner that ran well over four hours and featured Bush's fellow Texan, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, predicting this is going to be a great year for the Republicans, and why wouldn't it be - they "started outreach many, many months ago, in the airport men's room."
Barack Obama was not here - Gridiron President Carl Leubsdorf joked that he was too busy "memorizing Gov. Deval Patrick's inaugural address." But Sen. John Kerry and wife Teresa were. Bush sat at the head table, and Karl Rove, private citizen, sat near the stage on the other side of the hall.
They made a lot of fun of the presidential campaign underway.
"The race today features a senator from New York who was born in Illinois," said newswoman Judy Woodruff, introducing the star guests filling a ballroom of Washington's Renaissance Hotel, "and a senator from Illinois who was born in a manger."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry was introduced, and so was Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.
"Each would bring important balance to a McCain ticket," said Al Hunt, Woodruff's husband. "They are Republicans."
Karl Rove, the only guy in the room who was introduced without any explainer for who he is or what his title is or was, quietly passed out cigarette lighters for his big moment tonight - but the lighters remained in the pockets of friends for the "architect's" torch song..
After a spirited introduction in the finest tradition of John Philip Sousa by the Marine Band's best and several "ringer" singers with military rank, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer addressed the hall.
"I'm Dick Gephardt without the charisma," Hoyer said.
Standing in for Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), hospitalized with the flu., Hoyer said Hunt and Woodruff had begged and pleaded with him to stand in.
"If things don't go well tonight," he said, "don't blame me, blame the author of my speech, Deval Patrick."
Hoyer hailed the tax rebate checks that the government promises in May.
"We're gonna send people $600 checks," he said, "which is higher than Barack's maximum donation, and lower than Hillary's minimum."
And where are we gonna get the money?
"China."
Superdelegates like him are like other people, he insisted.
"Except we can fly and steal, and subvert the will of the people."
Hoyer closed with a joke about one campaign ad he never wants to hear:
"It's 3 am, there's a phone ringing in the White House. There's a world crisis. But nobody can answer it, cause they are stuck at the Gridiron Dinner."
This was largely an amateur event, but the military singer portraying McCain was a true ringer. "Born in the Fourth Estate,'' he sang. "Behold the monster you created."
Then came one of several show-stoppers, a shimmying female Marine ringer singing:
"The only one who could ever reach me was a Huckabee preacher man."
Or the big fat imitator of Gov. Perry of Texas worrying about his reelection and singing, "Don't you come home Kay Bailey."
"It's hard to be a Republican, when W's name is mud,'' sang a black-suited singer. "God save the GOP."
"We do a similar thing in Texas, but we use livestock, and the winners get belt buckles," said Sen. Hutchinson, (R-Tex.) "The president and I have a lot in common. We're both from Texas. We both were cheerleaders, and we both woke up in sorority houses."
"The French have five-week vacations, and the president has a new trophy wife," she said. "Fred Thompson ran for president in the wrong country.
"They say the office of president ages a man," she said, with a word for McCain. "Why not elect the one who has a head start?"
"We are looking forward to the Republican convention," she said. "Why isn't it going to be great? We started outreach many, many months ago, in the airport men's room."
But the closer and show-stopper of all: The president of the United States, in his cowboy-hatted last appearance at a Gridiron Club dinner:
"W's final Gridiron," sang the chorus of press and ringers. "We had a singe-ing, that's our job."
Out walked the president wearing a cowboy hat and singing on stage in an off-tune rendition of the "Brown, Brown Grass of Home."
"Little Crawford looked the same, as I stepped down from that plane," the president sang. "And here came Barney, breath sweet as honey....
"I spend my days clearing brush. I clear my head of all the fuss you made of Harriet and Brownie."
Forget the monologues, this was Bush in white tie and tan cowboy hat singing, "Soon I'll touch the brown, brown grass of home.
"Yes, you're all going to miss me, the way you used to quiz me," Bush sang, "but soon I'll touch the brown, brown grass of home."
"You have just witnessed the final performance of Bush and the Busharoos," he said, introducing the military ringers who had backed him up.
"Let me give you a simple truth that I believe wholeheartedly - you can't have a true democracy without a free press," he said, ending on a serious note while admitting: "Sometimes you get on my nerves...
"Let me thank you for the work you do, and God bless."
In the club's traditional closing, with the singing of Auld Lang Syne by performers and audience alike, Bush grabbed hands and rocked with one of his harshest critics in the press, the veteran wire service reporter and columnist Helen Thomas -- and he gave her a kiss.
CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan - A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.
Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.
After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.
"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown told The Associated Press on Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.
Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.
"We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag," Brown said.
She started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded soldiers had scrambled out.
"I assessed the patients to see how bad they were. We tried to move them to a safer location because we were still receiving incoming fire," Brown said.
Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front-line combat roles — in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than previous conflicts.
Four Army nurses in World War II were the first women to receive the Silver Star, though three nurses serving in World War I were awarded the medal posthumously last year, according to the Army's Web site.
Brown, of the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, said ammunition going off inside the burning Humvee was sending shrapnel in all directions. She said they were sitting in a dangerous spot.
"So we dragged them for 100 or 200 meters, got them away from the Humvee a little bit," she said. "I was in a kind of a robot-mode, did not think about much but getting the guys taken care of."
For Brown, who knew all five wounded soldiers, it became a race to get them all to a safer location. Eventually, they moved the wounded some 500 yards away and treated them on site before putting them on a helicopter for evacuation.
"I did not really have time to be scared," Brown said. "Running back to the vehicle, I was nervous (since) I did not know how badly the guys were injured. That was scary."
The military said Brown's "bravery, unselfish actions and medical aid rendered under fire saved the lives of her comrades and represents the finest traditions of heroism in combat."
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, of Nashville, Tenn., received the Silver Star in 2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.
Short black dress by Jovani. Isn't it hot? I love the huge ribbon detail- it reminds me of Dior's golden days way back in the 1940s.
Foley + Corinna Shirred Corset dress. Match it up with silver sandals and you're good to go! I seriously love this dress, even if it's pretty plain. There's something about its simplicity that is quite striking...
Michael Walzer of the New Republic, in an article titled "Mercenary Impulse", dispels some of the nonsense surrounding Blackwater and discusses possibilities for the private security contractor.
Though Walzer is critical of Blackwater in many ways, he makes several common sense observations. To those who argue that the North Carolina-based company is waging a private war, Mr. Walzer answers that "Blackwater's employees, of course, are not fighting a private war--Iraq is an American war." Against the charges that private security contractors are accountable to no one, the New Republic contributing editor points out that "a voluntary code of conduct has been accepted by many of the security companies operating in Iraq." Finally, Mr. Walzer is aware of the unrecognized cost being borne by Blackwater and other contractors: "The US government keeps no record of the security guards who have died or been wounded."
With regards to the literature surrounding Blackwater, Mr. Walzer has this to say:
Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is informative but written as if readers already know the argument and so it is necessary only to present Blackwater's history in appropriately indignant tones. Then there is Gerald Schumacher's A Bloody Business: America's War Zone Contractors and the Occupation of Iraq, which defends the contractors but also considers in detail the criticism directed against them. (This happens shamefully often these days: political correctness on the left, intellectual engagement on the right.)
Mr. Walzer understands that private security contractors are sometimes able to perform jobs that others are not. He explains,
Speaking at a conference of arms merchants and war contractors in Amman, Jordan, in March 2006, Blackwater vice chairman J. Cofer Black offered to stop the killing in Darfur. "We've war-gamed this with professionals," he said. "We can do this." Back in the United States, another Blackwater official, Chris Taylor, reiterated the offer.
Since neither the United Nations nor NATO has any intention of deploying a military force that would actually be capable of stopping the Darfur genocide, should we send in mercenaries? Scahill quotes Max Boot, the leading neoconservative writer on military affairs, arguing forcefully that there is nothing else to do. Allowing private contractors to secure Darfur "is deemed unacceptable by the moral giants who run the United Nations," Boot writes. "They claim that it is objectionable to employ--sniff--mercenaries. More objectionable, it seems, than passing empty resolutions, sending ineffectual peace-keeping forces and letting genocide continue."
Some of us might prefer something like the International Brigade that fought in Spain over a force of Blackwater mercenaries. But the International Brigade was also a private militia... never under the control of the Spanish republic.... Whatever Blackwater's motives, I won't join the "moral giants" who would rather do nothing at all than send mercenaries to Darfur.
President Bush stands up for pro-democracy victims
Bush pushes democracy for Cuba The world may be silent when it comes to the sufferings of the Cuban people, but George W. Bush- President of the United States and leader of the free world -will always stand up for them.
President Bush meets with Miguel Sigler Amaza, a former Cuban political prisoner and founder Movimiento Independiente Opcion Alternativa (Independent Movement for an Alternative Option), as his wife Josefa Lopez Pena, his wife and founding member of Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) look on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Friday, March 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON - President Bush chastised most other countries Friday for "a sad and curious pattern" of doing little to speak out against human rights and political abuses in Cuba.
"Unfortunately, the list of countries supporting the Cuban people is far too short and the democracies absent from that list are far too notable," Bush said at the White House.
The "small band of brave nations" speaking out for freedom in Cuba include, Bush said, his own administration as well as nations that were in the Communist bloc but are now democratic such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
"The United States has not been silent, nor will we be silent," he said. "When a new day finally dawns for Cubans, they will remember the few brave nations that stood with them, and the many that did not."
Bush spoke after meeting in the Oval Office with former prisoner Miguel Sigler Amaya and his wife, Josefa Lopez Pena.
Five years ago this month, in what Bush called "a tragic moment in the history of Cuba," Amaya was among scores arrested for offenses against the regime. He was released in 2006 and ordered to leave the country with his wife. But 55 of the 75 pro-democracy activists arrested in that 2003 crackdown remain in prison for their participation in peaceful activities, including Amaya's brothers, Ariel and Guida Sigler Amaya.
"For Miguel and Josefa, the horrors of life in Cuba are behind them, but millions of others are still trapped in the tropical gulag," Bush said. "Yet most of the world says nothing."
The president said the global community has largely remained silent in recent months, even as dozens of young Cubans wearing "change" bracelets were arrested, as Cuban authorities raided a Catholic church to spray parishioners with tear gas and drag them away. Last weekend, activists distributing copies of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights were pushed and beaten.
"That same week, Cuba signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," Bush said. "The international community applauded Cuba for signing a piece of paper — but on the abuses that same week, much of the world was silent."
The Cuban government, which often takes several days to respond to criticisms from Washington — if it responds as all — had no immediate comment Friday on the Bush speech.
Bush has renewed his focus on Cuba since Fidel Castro officially stepped down last month after decades ruling the island. Fidel's brother, Raul, took over as president in the ailing leader's place. He had been provisional president since his brother, who led the nation for nearly a half-century, underwent emergency surgery in July 2006.
But Bush said any speculation that the leadership shift would affect U.S. policy toward Cuba "is exactly backward."
"So far, all Cuba has done is replace one dictator with another," the president said. "This is the same system, the same faces, and the same policies that led Cuba to its miseries in the first place."
The only way for relations to improve between Cuba and the United States, he said, is for the government there to pave the way for free and fair elections, release all political prisoners and respect human rights "in word and deed."
"What needs to change is not the United States; what needs to change is Cuba," the president said. "Cuba's government must begin a process as peaceful democratic change."
For years, lawmakers of both parties have been trying to chip away at the United States' Cold War-era trade, travel and home visit restrictions aimed at undermining a hostile government just 90 miles from U.S. shores. They argue that last month's change in leadership provides the opportunity to lift the embargo.
The Bush administration, however, has been adamant that a new Castro in power doesn't mean a new Cuba.
March 7 (Bloomberg) -- As he competed for the Republican presidential nomination in more than 20 states last month, John McCain also made time to tape a memorial tribute to David Ifshin.
Ifshin, who died in 1996, had traveled to Hanoi in 1970 to denounce the Vietnam War in a broadcast that was piped into McCain's prisoner-of-war cell. In later years, the two men reconciled, and just days before a Feb. 19 commemoration of Ifshin's life at Syracuse University, McCain's videotape arrived without fanfare, said Ifshin's widow, Gail.
``It just brought tears to my eyes,'' she said.
Little known beyond his family and small circle of friends, McCain has a softer, compassionate side that co-exists with his temper. Those who have seen him in private moments and in personal relationships say the Arizona senator has demonstrated extraordinary kindness, bringing to the political realm a human dimension often obscured by the heat of the moment.
Critics have questioned McCain's temperament, including his suitability to be commander-in-chief, since his first run for the presidency in 2000. In January, Republican Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi told the Boston Globe that ``the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hot-headed. He loses his temper and he worries me.''
Taming His Temper
McCain, 71, has acknowledged his temper, saying he ``works all the time'' at taming it. ``Every time I lose my temper, I've regretted it,'' he said in a 1998 interview.
McCain's eruptions are legendary among his fellow Republicans in the collegial Senate. During last summer's immigration debate, he directed the F-word at Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
McCain controls his anger ``most of the time,'' said former Republican Senator Bill Cohen of Maine, who served as defense secretary under President Bill Clinton and was best man at McCain's second wedding.
Mark Udall, a Democratic Colorado congressman, has seen the other side of the McCain personality. McCain was one of the few people to regularly visit his father, former Arizona Representative Morris K. Udall, as he lay dying in a hospital.
Mentor and Friend
When McCain arrived in the House in 1983, Morris Udall, a liberal Democrat, became his mentor and friend. By the late l990s, the senior Arizona congressman was incapacitated by Parkinson's disease and bedridden at a veterans' hospital.
``John continued to visit my dad when he had almost literally no visitors except us family members,'' Mark Udall said. ``He was basically unable to communicate verbally and was semi-conscious.'' Week after week, McCain sat reading to Udall and telling him about doings on Capitol Hill.
Udall's daughter, Ann Udall, head of the Lee Institute, a nonprofit community organization in Charlotte, North Carolina, later persuaded McCain to change his mind and support fetal- tissue research that could lead to a cure for Parkinson's.
``John was very thoughtful and very reflective on the issue,'' she said.
Matt James, Morris Udall's chief of staff, remembered McCain's reply after he thanked him for visiting his boss. Prisoner of War
``I know what it's like to be a prisoner,'' James said he was told by McCain, who was detained in North Vietnam for five- and-a-half years.
McCain becomes most passionate when describing the treatment of wounded veterans. His mother said she saw that passion two years ago when he entered her hospital room in tears.
``I thought it was about me,'' said Roberta McCain, who was being treated for a hip injury.
Instead, she said her son had just come from the room of a of a Naval Academy graduate whose legs had been blown off in Iraq and was on his death bed.
Hours later, McCain told Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine about the encounter.
``He was moved to tears even then -- on the Senate floor,'' Collins said. ``This is a man who's been through the unspeakable, but it has not hardened him to the trials and tribulations of others.'' Mutual Apologies
Ifshin saw those qualities in McCain after the two men apologized to one another in 1986 -- Ifshin for his actions in Vietnam and McCain for having attacked Ifshin in a 1984 speech.
Ifshin served as general counsel to Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and worked as a lobbyist. He and McCain later teamed up to establish the Institute for Democracy in Vietnam, which promotes human rights.
After Ifshin became ill, McCain visited him at his Maryland home.
``We just sat in the living room and had a long conversation,'' Gail Ifshin said. ``It meant a lot.''
McCain delivered a eulogy at Ifshin's funeral, saying his friend had taught him ``the futility of looking back in anger.''
McCain's willingness to ``let bygones be bygones'' may stem from a ``sense of urgency about accomplishing things because of the life he had been granted again,'' Mark Udall said.
Gail Ifshin said that more than a decade after her husband's death, McCain remains ``kind and attentive'' to her and her three grown children, she said.
``His level of sensitivity and caring, the ability to see beyond his own world -- it's emblematic of the man I've come to know,'' she said.
“I just want to serve my country” “The judge said she didn’t support the Iraq war for any reason why we’re over there,” said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.
“She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.’ She said she didn’t want him to fight in it.”
L.A. Daily News:
SIMI VALLEY - Shawn Sage long dreamed of joining the military, and watching “Full Metal Jacket” last year really sold him on becoming a Marine.
But last fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed the foster teen’s hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus.
In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children’s Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn’t approve of the Iraq war, didn’t trust recruiters and didn’t support the military.
“The judge said she didn’t support the Iraq war for any reason why we’re over there,” said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.
“She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.’ She said she didn’t want him to fight in it.”
Sage, 17, said he begged for Mackel’s permission.
“Foster children shouldn’t be denied (an) ability to enlist in the service just because they’re foster kids,” he said. “Foster kids shouldn’t have to go to court to gain approval to serve one’s country.”
Mackel, a juvenile dependency commissioner at the Children’s Court in Monterey Park, declined through a clerk to speak about any court case or comments she may have made in court.
Transcripts of juvenile court hearings require a special release from a judge.
Court officials said a transcript of the Sage hearing, if released, would not be available for a week or more. After Sage submitted a winning entry to the lawmaker’s Write a Bill Challenge, Assemblyman Cameron Smyth introduced legislation last month that would allow foster teens to enlist in the service without express permission from a judge.
Instead, AB2238 would allow foster children 17 or older to sign up with the consent of a foster parent or social worker.
“Here is one impressive young man who somehow made it through the challenge of the foster system, had a clear sense of a career path and was denied that opportunity by a judge basically because of her personal bias,” said Smyth, R-Santa Clarita, who will honor Sage today at a Royal High assembly.
“I find that to be a horrific abuse of her power.”
It was Oct. 12 when Medrano, in crisp dress blues, appeared with Sage before the commissioner to petition for his early enlistment.
The USMC Delayed Entry Program, like those in other services, allows high school seniors to enlist in the service up to a year before starting boot camp.
Recruiters encourage students to hone their study skills, learn to eat right and become fit enough to don a uniform.
By “DEPing in,” students can enlist at 17, get their high school diploma, then lock in a military job such as Force Recon - or scout snipers. They also qualify for a signing bonus.
“We just gave out the last one for recon today to another kid for $10,000,” USMC Master Sgt. Edgar Carpenter of the Marine Recruiting Office in Simi Valley said Wednesday.
“The Delayed Entry Program supports everything a parent would try to do: We make them stay out of trouble; get them in physical condition; and get them indoctrinated into the Marine Corps culture.”
Only Mackel - and it appears a court bailiff as well - objected to the program, despite pleas from Sage and Medrano.
“I tried. I said, `Please.’ I begged. He tried, he said, `Please’ and begged,” Sage said. “But she refused.”
Mackel said she denied delayed enlistment to an eager Navy recruit as well, Medrano said.
She expressed concern that recruiters treat recruits “like another warm body,” he said. “She said, `All you care about is your numbers.”‘
At this point, the 10-year Marine said the court bailiff raised his hand and addressed the young Sage.
“My son’s in the Army,” he said. “He did the Delayed Entry Program. They don’t care about you. They’re just there for the numbers.
“I said, `No, I’m not them,” Medrano said. “I care about Shawn (and) about every single person I put into the Marine Corps. I follow them. I take care of my kids. I treat them like my Marines.
“It just felt like, wow. I even told Shawn, I said, `Dude, it feels like we’ve been burned at the stake at the Salem witch trial.’ She just had some kind of animosity toward military personnel.”
Early this year, Berkeley city officials drew national fire for calling Marine Corps recruiters “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” while granting free parking for anti-war protesters. Lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington pushed bills to deny millions in funds to city coffers.
Sage, who lives in Simi Valley but is originally from Florida, was abandoned by both parents when he was 2 and now lives in a foster home with his brother.
He had wanted to join the military ever since he’d met a service rep at school at age 7 - first the Air Force, then the Navy, finally the Marines.
His foster parents, as well as his social worker, supported his decision to enlist early. Despite being denied, he still shows up for USMC physical training.
“Did they ever kick my butt,” he said proudly. “They still do.”
When he graduates and turns 18 in June, it’ll be all Semper Fi, bonus or no signing bonus, whether he’s allowed early deployment or not.
As winner of Smyth’s “there oughta be a law” contest, he will be flown to Sacramento to testify before the Assembly.
“I didn’t do it for the signing bonus, because I’m a motivated kid,” he said. “I am hoping to join the military before I graduate. I want to serve my country.”
NEW YORK - Times Square returned to business as usual Friday as police investigating the explosion at a military recruiting center looked at dozens of security videotapes, hoping to identify the bicycle-riding bomber.
Among the videos was one showing a hooded cyclist pedaling toward an area where a bicycle was found ditched in the trash, and another with someone walking away from the same spot, police said.
Investigators suspect the bike — a 10-speed in good condition — may have been used by the bomber in the attack just before dawn Thursday on a landmark military recruiting station. Police released a photo of the blue bicycle on Friday, along with a picture from the video of the cyclist.
There were no injuries or serious damage from the bombing, which mirrored two previous small explosions at consulates in Manhattan.
"We're in the process now of identifying those cameras, downloading them," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CNN on Friday. "We've got a lot of cooperation from the businesses in the area, and we're doing the normal investigative steps that you would expect in a case like this."
Authorities said there was no connection between the blast and a letter sent to as many as 100 members of Congress bearing the words "Happy New Year, We Did It."
Officials said the lengthy anti-war letters — sent to congressional offices with photos of a man standing in front of the recruiting office before it was damaged — contained no threats.
Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said agents questioned a Hollywood man about the letters to Congress and searched his home and concluded "there is no evidence linking the letters, which contained no threat, to the bombing."
A law enforcement official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation of the bombing was continuing, called the timing of the letters an "incredibly unbelievable coincidence" and said no charges were expected in connection with them.
Given the security process for Capitol mail, the letters probably were sent well ahead of the attack. One law enforcement official said the "We Did It" referred to Democrats taking control of Congress in 2006.
The bomb, contained in a metal ammunition box, produced a sudden flash and billowing cloud of white smoke, and prompted a full-scale emergency response.
At Times Square on Friday, there were tourists snapping pictures, pedestrians bustling about — and a sense of firm resolve among the military people who were guarding the damaged recruiting station in the middle of a traffic island near the city's famed Theater District.
"The barricades were up around the whole island and they were still asking about joining," said Staff Sgt. Ruben Vila.
Jessica Lindsey, 30, of Pensacola, Fla., paused for pictures with friends in front of the recruiting station during their shopping expedition and birthday celebration.
"We were nervous about coming here and staying across the street," but hotel workers assured them everything was fine, she said.
The blast bears striking similarities to the two consulate explosions.
In October, two small explosive devices were tossed over a fence at the Mexican consulate, shattering some windows. Police said they believed someone on a bicycle threw the devices.
At the time, police said they were investigating whether it was connected to a nearly identical bombing at the British consulate on May 5, 2005. No one was arrested in either attack.
Those bombings involved dummy hand grenades packed with black powder as an explosive, Kelly said. He said investigators were working to determine whether similar powder was used in the Times Square blast, but he noted that the explosive used Thursday was carried in an ammunition box, rather than a grenade.
Interesting article: US troops buy own gear for safety, style
FORT BENNING, Ga. - Commando Military Supply on Victory Drive here is about as different from a musty Army surplus store as you can imagine.
More REI than M.A.S.H., Commando is regularly jam-packed with deploying grunts and sergeants, poking around for custom gear including $200 flashlights, $150 Oakley protective sunglasses, $180 Thinsulate boots, and $20 thermal socks.
"When you're comfortable and you know where all your gear is, it makes you a better fighter," says Lt. Tucker Knie, an Army Ranger perusing custom ammo pouches and techno-fiber socks. "You don't want to be rummaging around in your pocket during a firefight."
The traditional Army credo is that it's guts that win the glory — not fancy long-johns or Oakley sunglasses. But that old-school thinking is wicking away like perspiration through Gore-Tex as US soldiers today go beyond military-issue battle dress uniforms in favor of top-of-the-line gear to help them get home in one piece — and look sharp, too.
One reason, critics say, is that military procurement, especially of life-saving equipment, is still too slow. Quietly, however, the Pentagon — with the Army leading the charge — has begun bypassing rigid procurement rules, loosening uniformity requirements, and even spearheading technical innovations in gear, ranging from flame-retardant shirts to low-infrared signature zippers.
"The idea now is, 'If it helps Joe do the mission, let him have it — as long as it's not hot pink,' " says Army veteran Logan Coffey, founder of Tactical Tailor, a custom-maker of packs and pouches in Lakewood, Wash. "It's a giant change" in the military mind-set, he says in a phone interview.
Since 9/11, the market for tactical war gear has expanded from nearly nonexistent to nearly $150 million in sales each year, which includes sales directly to soldiers as well as to the Pentagon, according to industry sources.
CIA operatives, domestic SWAT teams, and Border Patrol agents are also rounding out their gear at bazaars like Commando.
To some critics, the sight of soldiers buying their own battle gear symbolizes a divide between frontline grunts and rear echelon procurement officers who may never have seen battle. Rep. Gene Taylor (D) of Mississippi told the House Armed Services Committee last week that supplies such as body armor and uparmored Humvees "[have] taken entirely too long" to get to frontline troops.
In some cases, charity groups have stepped in to help. Operation Helmet, founded by Bob Meaders of Montgomery, Texas, shipped special helmet liners to soldiers to replace what many soldiers said were poorly designed helmet pads issued by the Army and the Marines. Just as Operation Helmet thought its work was done late last year, more requests came in from troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The Army is planning a $20 billion future combat system, and they can't provide boots that don't wear out," says Roger Charles, editor of DefenseWatch, an investigative website that advocates on behalf of frontline soldiers. "There's no priority for taking care of relatively mundane items where most people would think, 'Gosh, that's so simple. Why don't they have the best boots, the best uniforms, the best helmets, and the best flak jackets?' "
But through new and rejuvenated efforts like Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier, the Soldier Battle Lab here at Fort Benning, and Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., the Army has quickened the supply chain, sometimes against daunting odds, experts say.
For example, PEO Soldier's Rapid Fielding Initiative recently turned around an order for special mountain boots for units in Afghanistan in a month's time. "The Army has never been able to field such updated equipment so quickly before," says Lt. Col. John Lemondes, head of Clothing and Individual Equipment at Fort Belvoir, Va. "We really are moving at the speed of lighting with respect to equipping the war effort."
And at Ft. Lewis, Wash., one unit commander is putting an array of new protective glasses to the test this month. The unit will use discretionary funds to buy the glasses the soldiers prefer.
Moreover, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service reports that sales of tactical gear to units have climbed from $60 million in 2005 to $90 million in 2007. At the same time, there's evidence that soldiers are spending less of their own money on gear: One study found that two years ago, marines were spending $400 of their own money on extra gear; last year, they spent an average of only $100.
"The military is now doing a pretty good job of outfitting the war fighters with what they need, and a lot of it comes from effort and real caring," says Drumm McNaughton, a Navy veteran and management consultant who has written about the struggles of military procurement.
Because little enhancements can make a big difference, soldiers often choose to pick up their own "dirty packs" to augment the issued gear, especially as many feel flush from combat bonuses.
"What's 100 bucks for a flashlight if it's going to work during an attack, and help you fend off a knife fight?" says a Commando clerk, who didn't want to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak by the store manager.
But many soldiers don't blame the Army. One lieutenant shopping at Commando says standard issue gear is usually good enough. His one complaint: the clunky Army cap, which has a thick bill that can't be formed baseball-style. "They need to change it," he says. "It makes you look like a dork."
Even in life and death situations, fashion means something on the battlefield, soldiers say. "The Army does issue everyone glasses, but the young soldier wants to look cool, fashionable. He wants to look sexy," says Mr. Coffey.
The sales growth in custom tactical gear is partly made possible by manufacturing advances that allow companies to make profit on small batch orders. But for war fighters, a perk to the hard slog is being allowed to put their own spin on the Army look.
"One of the basic tensions is that in the Army there's pressure for a strong collective identity ... to develop this feeling of belongingness and camaraderie," says Frederic Brunel, a marketing professor at Boston University. "At the same time, there is a basic human need to pull away from that ... [to] retain some sense of self-identity that is separate from the group identity."
NEW YORK (AP) - Police have cordoned off a section of New York City’s Times Square to investigate what witnesses describe as a small explosion. Subways into the area where also shut down.
Members of the police department’s bomb squad and fire officials gathered early Thursday outside a military recruiting station with a large hole in the front window. Police could not confirm that an explosive device was set off in the area, one of the most famous locations in the world.
Local television stations said subway trains were being prevented from entering the Times Square station during the investigation, and police cars and tape blocked the streets.
WASHINGTON — For all the success that Democratic presidential candidates have had in raising money — taking in a combined total of over $500 million in the current race — the Republicans are beating them in one crucial area of fund-raising: the money being raised by the parties themselves.
The Democratic National Committee ended 2007 nearly flat broke, with cash of $2.9 million and debts of $2.2 million. Since then it has raised some money, paid down debt and managed to put $3.7 million in its piggy bank. This compares, however, with $25 million that the Republican National Committee has in cash on hand, after having raised $97 million since the beginning of 2007.
And with Senator John McCain now the presumptive Republican nominee, party officials started plotting with his campaign this week on deploying those resources against the well-financed Democratic candidacies of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
Already, President Bush, who spoke at 29 Republican fund-raisers and is credited with raising $63.5 million last year, is lined up for more R.N.C. fund-raising in the weeks ahead. This money is likely to provide the financial muscle for Mr. McCain to continue his attacks on both Democratic candidates.
“The Republican National Committee’s strength is an important indicator,” said Alex Conant, the R.N.C. spokesman. “The D.N.C. has had trouble raising money, and the R.N.C. is well-positioned to help our nominee financially. It is our mission to get McCain elected president, and that is our focus. Fund-raising is a priority.”
Such party money can play a vital role in presidential campaigns because candidates are barred from using money they raise for the general election until they are nominated at the conventions. So the party money is often used before then — as well as after — to finance advertisements, direct mail and, ultimately, get-out-the-vote efforts.
Democrats say their limited party fund-raising is a result of several factors, including the competition for dollars from the presidential candidates and the party’s Congressional fund-raising committees. And they also say the D.N.C. is hamstrung by its inability to raise money in any serious way without a presidential nominee to rally around.
Since the beginning of 2007, the Democrats have raised $60.5 million, and have spent most of it. Not only does the D.N.C. have far less cash on hand than does the R.N.C., but in this election cycle the R.N.C. has also outraised the D.N.C. by $37 million.
Party officials maintain that the D.N.C. is cash poor partly by design, reflecting a strategy by Howard Dean, the party’s chairman, to invest in building a party infrastructure rather than amassing a huge war chest.
Since he became chairman after the 2004 election, Mr. Dean has begun what he called the 50-state strategy, opening offices and hiring staff members in every state, even ones that are traditional Republican strongholds. He has also invested in a huge voter database — one that is designed to rival the Republican Party’s sophisticated voter file — that he hopes will pay off this year and allow Democratic candidates to find likely voters and make specific pitches to them.
How the costly 50-state strategy — and the cash shortfall that it has created — play out over the coming election will be a referendum on the tenure of Mr. Dean, who has had a prickly relationship with many of the party’s top officials. Under Mr. Dean’s tenure, D.N.C. fund-raising has steadily climbed, along with its expenses. So far, Mr. Dean has spent $170 million since the last presidential election to turn his vision for the party into a reality, with nearly $60 million of that raised in the last year alone.
“He’s doing the job of the party chairman in a very different way,” said Elaine C. Kamarck, a D.N.C. member and lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
“And people don’t like that,” added Ms. Kamarck, who wrote a paper “Howard Dean’s Fifty-State Strategy and the 2006 Midterm Elections.”
Democratic officials say they believe that once a nominee is in place, donors will switch from supporting the candidates to supporting the party. In 2004, for instance, the D.N.C. raised $344 million, most of it coming in after it was clear that Senator John Kerry would be the nominee.
“The D.N.C. has tremendous fund-raising capacity this year,” said Don Fowler, a former chairman of the committee, who supports Mr. Dean’s strategy. “The mood of the country, the satisfaction with our candidates and the optimism about our party suggest that we can raise the money for 2008. We don’t need to have as much money in the bank under these circumstances.”
But already, the Republicans are preparing to put their resources to use on behalf of Mr. McCain. Not only did the candidate visit the R.N.C. headquarters on Wednesday, but Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, sat down this week with Robert M. Duncan, the party chairman, to review resources that will be available to the McCain campaign, including research, communications staff and positions that the McCain campaign can now help fill.
“We’ve been preparing for the last several months,” Mr. Duncan said Wednesday. “We’ve been raising the money. We’ve been doing the research that’s necessary. We’ve been writing the victory plans that have been necessary to win the electoral votes. We’ve been putting the staff together. And all of that is available to Senator McCain, as our presumptive nominee, as of today.”
On Wednesday, the R.N.C. sent out its first fund-raising appeal on behalf of Mr. McCain, asking donors for up to $1,000 apiece because he “will unify our party around our core conservative principles.”
By contrast to the R.N.C. and its fund-raising success, the D.N.C., by many accounts, needed to be shaken up when Mr. Dean took over. For years, it had tapped a small group of wealthy donors and poured money every two or four years into battleground states, while ignoring the rest of the nation as unwinnable. There was little infrastructure aside from the party’s office in Washington.
In many ways, the D.N.C. is now taking a page from the Republican playbook. Over the years, the R.N.C. spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a nationwide party organization and creating its much-celebrated “Voter Vault,” a sophisticated database that can spew out detailed information on Republican voters and get them to the polls.
“When Dean became chairman, a lot of people did hand-wringing on why we didn’t win in 2004,” said Tom McMahon, the D.N.C.’s executive director. “A lot of state chairmen wanted to know why they were written off. We had laid out a battle plan that had written off half the country. We needed to build a foundation.”
To that end, the D.N.C. hired 180 local organizers and opened offices in 50 states. It set up training classes for organizers. It poured money into statehouse races, with the idea that state legislatures are the key to Congressional redistricting. To close the gap with tech-savvy Republicans, it spent $10 million to develop “VoteBuilder,” a databank with the names of every registered voter in the United States.
“The 50-state strategy is creating tangible results, ” said Lawrence Gates, chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, which now gets $140,000 a year from the D.N.C. to hire five local organizers. Mr. Gates said that half this traditionally Republican state’s Congressional delegation and half of the state’s elected officers are now Democrats — “and we are poised for more.”
But that has been a costly strategy, with the party left in the red at the end of last year. Democrats are hopeful that when the party selects a nominee the party’s coffers will be refilled.
Joe Trippi, a Dean campaign strategist in 2004, predicted that “as soon as Clinton or Obama get nominated, you will see the money flow to the D.N.C. and it will outraise the R.N.C. by a large margin.”
And Democrats see other signs of hope, since under Mr. Dean, off-election-year fund-raising has been going up — while it has been going down at the R.N.C. In 2007 alone, the D.N.C. raised $55 million, which was $10 million above its 2003 total. The R.N.C. raised $22 million less in 2007 than it did in 2003, a situation that is expected to improve now that the party has its nominee.
Leaders of the Democratic Party will be watching to see if Mr. Dean’s strategy pays off.
“There is no question that Democrats would like the D.N.C. to be in a better financial position vis-à-vis the R.N.C.,” said Alixandria Lapp, former campaign director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “He started a bottoms-up, state-party-focus and has been consistent in fulfilling that promise. So it is not a huge surprise that many in Washington are not fans.”
I saw this vid on Pat Dollard's site... OMG, so funny!! Now here's another reason why I love good ol' GWB- he's a riot!! Now imagine a President Hussein or a President Hitlery doin' that... I bet ya can't because those two are just too lame and too fake to pull off something like this.
I don't believe Socialists/Commies are very fun people... they're always so miserable and depressed! Just take a look at the FARC rebels, or think back to the gloomy days of the Old Soviet Union: Everything about them, about their past, is very negative- heck, even the Russians of today hardly crack a smile. And y'know, I can't stand it when people have such a gloomy outlook on life, or have such confound bitterness for the world: The world is still a very beautiful place; Each day it gives birth to new miracles, new lives, new journeys. It's one of the reasons why I think God totally rocks.
Despite his superstitions, John McCain likes to describe himself as "the luckiest man you will ever meet." Most of the time, he is speaking of the past - the fire he narrowly escaped on the U.S.S. Forrestal in 1967 or the the five years of torture and confinement he survived in Hanoi. But that luck continues to this day. His victories Tuesday in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont sealed for him both the Republican nomination and one of the most remarkable runs in modern political history.
So it was not much of a surprise Tuesday night when McCain clarified his position on destiny before hundreds of supporters in Dallas. "I have never believed I was destined be President," he said at one point, between the cheers. "I don't believe anyone is pre-destined to lead America."
Still there is no denying the good fortune that has helped McCain secure the nomination. Just two months ago, the Arizona senator was still a distant long-shot, operating a barebones campaign on a bank loan with a dilapidated staff of mostly unpaid advisors. Then almost everything broke his way: Mike Huckabee won Iowa, crippling the powerhouse campaign of Mitt Romney. Rudy Giuliani abandoned New Hampshire, allowing his moderate supporters to shift to McCain. Fred Thompson stayed in the race until South Carolina, bleeding enough votes away from Huckabee to allow McCain to win that key state. Even Huckabee seemed to cooperate, devoting crucial days to a foolhardy effort in Michigan and swearing off any negative attacks on McCain before he bowed out of the race Tuesday night.
And luck continues to break his way for now. As McCain celebrated wrapping up the nomination, the Democratic results painted a different picture of a divided party with more fireworks expected to come. In interviews Tuesday, Republican operatives described the increasingly nasty infighting between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as a godsend. "Here McCain is getting another lucky break," says Scott Reed, a Republican consultant who managed Bob Dole's 1996 campaign. "What Hillary has been saying in Texas is music to our ears."
Specifically, Clinton ran an attack ad in Texas, showing a young girl sleeping and a White House phone ringing at 3 a.m., that suggested Obama is not ready to take on the job of commander-in-chief. This is exactly the message that McCain will no doubt hammer over and over again in the months to come, especially if Obama is his opponent. "All we have to do," said Reed, "is run her ad and put a tag at the end, 'Paid for by the Republican National Committee.'"
McCain's supporters also hope that the Democratic fight dampens some of the party's enthusiasm. If Clinton wins the nomination, she is now almost certain to leave a bad taste among many Obama supporters, since she will likely do it without a majority of the pledged delegates. If Obama wins, Republicans hope that Clinton's negative attacks dent his image as an inspirational figure who can transcend the politics of old. "He is not as good under pressure as he is when he has 15,000 screaming partisans around him," explained Dick Wadhams, the GOP chairman in Colorado, which is expected to be a competitive state in November. "Get him away from his adoring crowds and this guy is very vulnerable."
For more than a year, Democrats have enjoyed a considerable enthusiasm advantage over Republicans by almost any measure, including turnout and fundraising. Even the percentage of Americans who identify themselves with the Republicans has fallen to 39%, according to Gallup, compared to 52% who identify with the Democrats. The McCain campaign is aware of the challenge. "We understand that we have got to get the base enthusiastic," explained Charlie Black, a lobbyist and senior advisor to the McCain campaign. But Black says he is not worried about the crowds. "Some of the biggest rallies in political history were for George McGovern," Black said of the anti-war Democratic candidate in 1972, who lost 49 states to Richard Nixon.
Black was projecting the optimism of a campaign that is riding a remarkable two-month wave of good fortune. But eight months remain between now and the election, and that is a lot of time, even for a man like McCain, who seems to attract good fortune. As McCain put it himself on Tuesday night, "Nothing, nothing, nothing is inevitable in America." He knows well that the door of chance swings both ways. Indeed, midway through his victory speech Tuesday, McCain's teleprompter failed.
Bush Doctrine has changed hearts and minds I kid you not!
It is impossible not to infer that the Bush Doctrine and the commitment of the men and women in uniform has facilitated this shift. Far from “creating more terrorists” as the failed cliché goes, the war has helped to nurture an appreciation for liberty among Iraqi youth. A 24-year-old Iraqi college student is quoted as saying she loved Osama bin Laden at the time of 9/11. Now, after seeing the efforts of religious leaders to curtail her daily freedoms, she rejects extremism entirely. While George Bush’s critics can make no useful connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq, this young woman has no problem doing so.
Ms. Tavernise rolls out another shocker with the admission that Saddam Hussien was not the simple secular player that the war’s detractors had always claimed:
Saddam Hussein encouraged religion in Iraqi society in his later years, building Sunni mosques and injecting more religion into the public school curriculum, but always made sure it served his authoritarian needs.
Well, what do you know? Someone should tell Senator Carl Levin, who in 2005 described Saddam’s regime as “intensely secular.”
This Times piece represents a tectonic shift in the Iraq War and in the larger ideological struggle. From this date on, the War cannot be talked about in quite the same way. Those opposed to it can no longer snicker so easily when rec
