DemLog

Sadist-in-Chief Goes to Virginia Tech

2007-04-18T13:11:00.000-05:00

If it were not a given that Bush’s handlers would rush him down to Virginia Tech as soon as the political opportunity arose, one could ask if it were appropriate that he, or any other politician, be there at all. The blood had not even dried on the walls and there he was. No way was the White House going to let the first few days be a time for Virginia Tech to look inward for friend to friend support and some self reflection.

It gets worse. Bush is a man with personality disorders; not unlike a good many of the people around him and who voted for him. His are just …out there. The one on display yesterday was his abundance of sadism. Get’s a truckload from his mom. A bit more than 24 hours after the murders, he stands before traumatized youth and brings up images of what happened. “Students woke up, and they grabbed their backpacks and they headed for class. And soon the day took a dark turn, with students and faculty barricading themselves in classrooms and dormitories -- confused, terrified, and deeply worried. …It's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering. Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they're gone -- and they leave behind grieving families, and grieving classmates, and a grieving nation. “

He probably did not write all these “condolences", but the sadism reflected in the words uttered is pure Bush. Those who conspired with him saw another opportunity to spread fear among the weak and uncritical among us. Bush adds his own twist. These are awful people.

Wm. Spier
NYC
4/19/07

Niger Document--Etiology in 1990's

2007-03-09T10:42:00.000-06:00

If Silvio Berlusconi gave Bush the Niger documents in October 2001, Bush had to be ecstatic. They still had to be vetted though. The CIA trashed them and Cheney asked the guy at the beginning of the whole thing to convene a meeting with the intent to legitimize them. That guy was Michael Ledeen--Iran Contra bagman, fluent speaker of Italian, close associate of fascist elements in SISMI and the Italian defense ministry.

Ledeen, who I knew well at Washington University in the 70's wrote creepy biographies of Italian fascist of the 1920's. Ledeen is close to the Likudniks, Harold Rhode, Doug Feith and the convicted spies within the Department of Defense.

Wilson was sent to Niger by the CIA to validate that the documents were bogus--not investigate their veracity. These documents were created well before 9/11. Why.

This is where it gets really ugly for politicians who inductively follow the etiology of the forgeries. It involves the right wing in Israel and their belief that the best way to get to Iran (the enemy) was through Baghdad. Ledeen, Rhodes, et. al are close to the Likud right wing.

Congress should haul in Ledeen first, then the others including Berlusconi, Pollari, Martine as well as convicted felons: Weisman and Rosen.

This cabal goes way back into the 1990's and it involves treason.

William Spier

Brooklyn, NY

March 9, 2007 8:20 AM

Libby, Niger and Treason

2007-03-07T14:11:00.000-06:00

Now, with Lewis “Scooter” Libby convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to federal investigators, the origins of the U.S. attack on Iraq is finally getting a bit of play in the dunces’ news outlets—the networks. The cloud over the office of the vice President that Fitzgerald referred to in his trial summation is: making public the name of a covert intelligence agent (illegal if Cheney did it, and he did) and the outright lying to the American public on the evidence that ginned up frenzy for an attack on Iraq.

The why of all this hideous history is on the mind of at least several million of the American citizenry. So why is the Congress dodging the questions? Not all are stained from the black dye that was the vote to allow attack under low barrier conditions. (You’re not going to get any noise out of Hillary Clinton.) But, why have not hearings started on the matter? Perhaps, this conviction of Libby will embolden those who can convene the hearings.

There is a good short article on Libby, Cheney and the Niger “affair” by David Lindorff in today’s Commondreams.org. Although, I among many, have followed the damaging actions of traitors like Michael Ledeen (Iran-Contra bagman), Harold Rhodes and felon Larry Franklin for years, the big question a hearing will zero in on is this: If Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi brought the forged Niger document s to the White House in October 2001 and they were trashed by the CIA, how come Bush used those 16 words in his 2003 State of the Union Address? Certainly, if these documents were the juice he needed to attack Iraq, he would have read them when Berlusconi gave them to him in October. HE KNEW THEY WERE PHONEY THEN.

Meanwhile, Cheney was working with his gang to give the forgeries real life. Hence, the meeting in Rome was convened in December, 2001 where Ledeen, Franklin, fascists in the Italian government et al. hatched plan re-routing the forgeries through Britain for legitimization. (What did Blair know ?)

Bush had to know that this was in process and had to silence CIA Director Tenent in order to use the Niger forgeries. They got to him. Cheney, who was the facilitator and nerve center of all this, got pissy after he read Joe Wilson's op-ed in the NY Times.

Bush knew everything all along. But first, the Congress must subpoena Ledeen, Rhodes, Libby, Franklin, Tenent and Cheney. They have got to do it soon before Libby is pardoned. He has to be squeezed by the congress in public.

William Spier, Ph.D.

Brooklyn, NY

3:00 P.M.

Other links:

Why, Really, Did The United States Attack Iraq: Short History Part I.

2007-02-15T10:12:00.000-06:00

By: William D. Spier, Ph.D.

Cabal

It is well known that the loudest noise promoting a U.S. attack on Iraq grew from a group of Likudniks at the American Enterprise Institute in the 1990’s. Led by Richard Perle, this group, which included: Douglas Feith, David Wurmser, his wife Meyrev Wurmser, Jonathan Torop, James Colbert, and Robert Lowenberg—authored the “infamous” paper “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.” The paper had four principal points: 1) the then Labor government had to be stopped from trading land for peace as was supported by the Clinton Administration; and Zionism re-established as the bedrock of Israeli policy 2) direct or proxy military confrontation with Syria in the effort t to roll back it regional influence—especially in Lebanon. 3) The removal of Saddam Hussein from power as part of an effort to further weaken Syria (and left unsaid, a pro Western Iraq regime that could mitigate Iranian regional influence. 4) Israel must free itself from dependence on United States Aid—economic and military- so it could freely pursue a Zionist agenda with regard to containing Palestinians. One of the authors of this manifesto, David Wurmser, authored a book in 1999 titled: Tyranny’s Ally: America’s Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein (AEI Press—no less). In a nutshell, Wurmser argued that sanctions against Hussein were a failure and Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction. For this book, it seems Wurmser had extensive bull sessions with Michael Ledeen, well know Likudnik with fascist sympathies—and bagman during the Iran Contra affair, Perle, James Woolsey, Harold Rhodes, and Ahmed Chalabi. Douglas Feith was in the mix too.

These Likudniks and their Israeli crew boss, Benjamin Netanyahu, worked hard in the 1990’s to transform Israel from a country willing to negotiate with Palestinians and its neighbors to a garrison military state by 2000. Lethal and evil forces were about to converge in the Pentagon when the fratboy Texas governor was appointed president of the United States. From 1996 to 2000, David Wurmser seems to be the public mouthpiece for an attack on Iraq. Bush’s selection of Cheney to be veep opens the door for the likes of these guys to influence policy. With the appointment of Rumsfeld as defense secretary, the Likudniks are ensconced deep in the Pentagon.

Hussein was a dead man.

Next: The Project For a New American Century

House Debate on Iraq: What is Really Being Said by Republicans

2007-02-14T08:29:00.000-06:00

By: William D. Spier, Ph.D

Republican leaders, and I assume with help from the White House, circulated “debate points” which yesterday ad nauseam spilled from congressional mouths like so many rotten teeth. No doubt the most repulsive “debate point” is the one that vomits out racist attacks on Muslims, or, psst….brown skinned Arabs. The debate term used was radical Islamists. Fittingly, Ii was the center point of the spew from the Republican Southern congressional delegation. Deep in the heart of the South racism took its ugly turn toward the next 150 years during Reconstruction. It played well on the disenfranchised and illiterate white man, who is not so much illiterate today as just plain ignorant of reasons he cannot get a piece of the American Dream. All of which brings me to this…

Barack Obama. The way I see it is that the spew from the mouths of these hideous men is paving the way for a direct assault on Barack Obama over the next year. If he is on the ticket and able to pull some of the middle class white vote away from the Republican nominee, the South might experience a sea change in the composition of its congressional delegation; and some of these hideous men will be out of a job. These guys remind me of the worst loudmouths I encountered at college fraternities: stupid and without any grace. Once gone, it will be very difficult to resurrect this type.

For now though, these guys are saying that if we don’t war now against the radical Islamists, they will attack us on our own soil. It will not be a big leap to overlay this racism on an Obama campaign for the presidency. Can you trust this man, Barack Hussein Obama?

The other debate points circulated were played out the last few years: not supporting the troops; we will be “staying the course” if we do not escalate the “war”; freedom and democracy for the Iraqis and al Qaeda will destabilize the region. Meanwhile, not one of them said that our troops are getting mauled by Saudi supported Sunnis.

I expect more of the sludge today.

Other links:

SOTU: Bend Over Suckers

2007-01-24T15:32:00.000-06:00

Read the little stuff. Forget the convoluted health insurance scheme; it’ll never fly once folks realize it’s about taking another step toward cutting your employer loose from contributing to your healthcare. Don’t forget that this thug and his class came to power to loot the treasury and jettison taxes on the richest Americans. No lie; that was their goal. The dumb klutz the dumb klutzes elected was to be a diversion while industrial guys offloaded our jobs to slaves in China; investment bankers made money off our a huge national debt; and media barons consolidated the airways and became the house organ for the GOP. Forget the GOP Congress; to these interests, they were just a bunch of hicks who could be bought. True enough.

And forget the chatter about Iraq. We are getting out of there and congressional players like Hagel, Murtha, Biden and Levin are working closely with the generals Bush dissed to come up with a withdrawal plan. The Libby trial will help keep traitor Cheney in the news though. But, he had to be licking his lips when Bush mentioned strategic oil reserves.

The remainder of the speech was B.S. Doubling the oil reserves? The world is awash in oil; there ain’t no shortage—just OPEC and Exxon, RD, and Chevron. Since the Democratic Congress wants to cut huge subsidies to big oil, don’t worry, they will get the money anyhow: We will slurp all their surpluses with our tax dollars. Real cash, not crappy paper we sell the Party slave masters in China. Cool, big oil will get $billions directly from the treasury and create a short (or medium term) term shortage of the petrol at the pump. Bend over suckers.

The Real Stuff

When Bush finally got to immigration reform, he said he wanted to “give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers.” Hold on partner; how ya’ gonna do that without violating the Constitution’s prohibition of the state keeping tabs on all its citizens?

Remember the talk of a national identity card back in 2003 and 2004? The work behind the scenes continues even if the issue was besmirched then. Yes Virginia, there is an American version of the Stasse, KGB, Securitatae, being organized right now, and Bush wants you to know that. Money is flowing out of the government now to corporate sources like Choice Point to come up with ways for “readers” to pick up on data circuits embedded at birth. Everything about you, everything will be there for a fascist government to use. The technology is there and is cheap.

Put this together with Alberto Gonzales’s declaration that habeas corpus is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution and their ideology and designs come into focus: they want a totalitarian state for the benefit of big corporations.

No unions, no labor costs, no agitators, no freedom.

William D. Spier, Ph.D
Brooklyn
1/24/07

The Truth About The Bush Administration is Finally out.

2007-01-21T02:27:00.000-06:00

None Of our present problems are George Bush's fault. The cause of all
our problems from health care to Iraq are the fault of a rubber stamp
ordered by Vice President Cheney. He ordered that all documents
entering the Whitehouse had to be stamped with this particular rubber
stamp, for neo-conservative security purposes, before delivery to the
President.

The substance of the message embedded on the rubber stamp was
customized to keep Bush happy and pliable.

When the stamp was used to stamp a document the result was a bright red
ink warning that read "BURN BEFORE READING."

President Bush is, and always has been, allowed one book of matches a day.

Terry
Lone_Star_Democrats-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Other links:

It's messier than you think

2007-01-12T14:35:00.000-06:00

Yesterday’s skewering of Condi Rice was long overdue but short on real hard questions. Excepting Senator Boxer, who confronted Rice with the administration’s string of lies, no one asked the most important question: Why does the United States need a military air base north of Baghdad in Balad almost as large as Kennedy? As I said in my blog below --“The Big Issue Left Out of the First 100 Hours”, the silence from the press and Congress on this staging area for air attacks on Iran is nothing less than duplicitous. I listened to the hearings and no one went further than asking if attacking Iran was being planned. Of course it is “on the table”.

But the whole mess is a lot more messy than neocon dreams of attacking Iran and making it hell for Hezbollah—this era’s enemy of Israel.

All the inherent contradictions in Bush’s speech Wednesday were obvious and the Senators picked up on them. What if the Iraq “government” cannot muster the unity to bring order to the chaos? Do we cut and run? In just about all of Bush’s public speeches, he refers to the goal of an Iraq sovereign state and a democratic Iraq. But he could care less about this. It is all a smokescreen that allows the military time to establish huge military bases in Iraq. And here is where it gets messier: the real enemy, Saudi Princes, hauled Cheney's fat ass over to Riyadh in December and told the jerk that under no circumstances do we withdraw from Iraq.

There you have it. Bush has delusions, AIPAC and the neocon Likudniks want to neutralize Iran’s boogey men buddies Hezbollah; and the Saudis, the hyperdrive Sunnis, dread a Shiite takeover of the oil in Iraq. With Shiites in control of Iraqi and Iranian oil, there goes their OPEC control and all its attendant perks.

One final thing on the lunatic Likudniks (Ledeen and all the other armchair Napoleons): Having to deal with the chaos in Baghdad is merely an interregnum in their grand plan to use the military to threaten Iran and give Israel support if they decide to send bombers over Iran. Do you think that 18 year old grunt from Henrietta, Oklahoma knows the real reason he is headed to death or maiming?

Cost of this war of choice is 400 billion. To all those who voted for Bush: thanks a lot suckers. Now your children and grandchildren will never climb out of the dismal existence you’ve gifted them. Unless you happen to work for Goldman Sachs or Exxon.

The Big Issue Left Out of the First 100 Hours

2007-01-05T08:42:00.000-06:00

The one issue left off the Democratic congressional first 100 days agenda is the one that could change the world for decades and lead the U.S. into chaos: news all over the Israeli press that the U.S. will attack Iran by air this year. Pushed by Bibi Netanyahu and New York and Washing based Likudniks, the Bush administration’s militant right wing—headed by Cheney’s team including fascist advisor Michael Ledeen are ready to attack. The thoroughly befuddled Bush already has the 7^th fleet off the coast of Iran.

Don’t think for one moment that the proposed augmentation of U.S. forces in Iraq is aimed at securing Baghdad. For us, that fight is over and we lost. The permanent air bases north of Baghdad will require fortification on the ground if we strike Iran and new forces will end up closer to that place than downtown Baghdad. Bush has shown us to be delusional and committed to Apocalytpic Revelation. With the corporate takeover of Iraq plan shattered, all that is left for Bush are his delusions and he has been convinced by Cheney and the Likudniks that Iran is the reason for the failure of the corporate takeover.

An attack on Iran would inflame the entire Middle East and Muslim world; just what Netanyahu and the Israeli rightwing want. Where is the benefit for the United States? Hezbollah and al Qaeda will be unleashed as this act of war justifies true international terrorism. The United States will be hit big , and often.

This insanity has been in the news for a few years. The Likudnik nuts in and around the Pentagon funnel their insane crap through Cheney to Bush. This is well known. However, for the corporate press, the alarm bells really started to ring in 2006 (see Washington Post: “U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran?” The military was broken and the generals needed the public to know why.

And, Israel has made it clear that it has the bomb and will use it. (See Justin Raimondo “Israel Not alone’")

If mere mortals, such as myself, can follow these developments on the Net, certainly Democrats like Carl Levin should soon begin to ask questions about Iran and Bush regime intentions. Here is a place to start: Haul in the civilian Napoleons in the Pentagon and ask about the purpose of the permanent bases and the troop escalation; and, bring Rice before Congress and ask straight out if Bush intends to strike Iran without congressional consultation. Let her do the lying for them.

A Democrat Congress will make a huge error if it thinks that anything else is more important to the majority electorate than the lies, violence and waste that is the Iraq incursion. The corporate media just cannot blackout all the news of this national nightmare. If the average guy paid closer attention to Middle East developments like the saber rattling over Iran, the alarm bells would reverberate throughout this nation. Excluding the delusional folk who believe that Jesus is coming soon --(Anyone want odds; I’ll book)—Americans would be clamoring for impeachment and trial ASASP—that is if they were not so lazy about finding out the truth.

James Bown: In Tribute

2006-12-26T16:16:00.000-06:00

James Joseph Brown, Jr. (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006)

An artist of unsurpassed brilliance, James Brown died on Christmas day. As we live our lives tangled in nothing but the reckless deceit of public power and cupidity, let us remember that the greatest among us rose up from the worst conditions to mark our souls with a fire of creativity. No artist of the 20th century meant more to the real soul of our nation then our godfather, James Joseph Brown, Jr.

Not My President

2006-12-19T09:03:00.000-06:00

By: Pachacutec

Let me say this slowly. It's something I've never said before.

Bush is unfit for office. He's not my president.

Now, I've called him nuts, crazy, dangerous, said he should be censured over warrantless wiretapping, and so on. I've said he's paranoid and craven and callow and cowardly. I've said his 2000 election was undemocratic and probably illegitimate, in some fashion. Selected, then elected. And even with all that, I still mentally sustained a degree of deference to him, in some corner of my mind, as President of the United States.

I've never called for impeachment and I'm still not. I'm not raving or slamming my fingers down on my keyboard. I'm feeling very calm. I'm not trying to be funny, snarky, witty or anything else. I'm just grappling with the incredible hubris. . . words fail. "Irresponsibility" is too thin. What's the word? How does one characterize the absolute contempt this man has for human life, for the expressed will of the American people, who have completely repudiated his failed occupation of Iraq, now that he's indulging his fantasies of an escalation?

I think a lot of people in the mythical middle who thought he was basically a good guy who's been stubborn and wrong are coming to the realization that he's dangerous, almost to an inhuman degree. He's pissed all over the Baker-Hamilton charade which, for all its flaws, still helped cement the notion in the popular mind that to continue is to fail. And his response is to go in exactly the opposite direction all the world, including the American public, wants him to go? I knew he would do it; I'm not saying I was surprised. But the blunt reality of it staggers.

I know we all know this stuff, and I can't account for why this is hitting me the way it's hitting me now, for as long as I've been hammering at this worst president ever. But it is.

When Bill Clinton took office, there were right wingers who, from day one, never conferred to him in their minds any shred of legitimacy, and they set about trying to take him down. They almost succeeded. They said, right after his election, "He's not my president," words we really hadn't heard said with such conviction among wide portions of the population since Lincoln was elected in 1860. But even after Bush was installed by the Supreme Court, Democrats mostly put it behind them. And after 9/11, the whole country rallied to Bush's side.

Now I'm making that statement: Bush is not my president. I'm done. Enough. Call it Bush derangement syndrome all you want, wingnuts, your guy is a criminal failure whose intransigent unwillingness to admit he's been wrong has killed thousands of people, and now he wants to kill thousands more.

I'm not arguing for impeachment, not because I don't think he's been criminal, or even because he doesn't deserve it. I believe he does. But I want the Democrats during these next two years to begin to change things, pass some good legislation. They can't pursue impeachment and do all that stuff at once. Our home, our world, is on fire. Put out the fire first. We don't have time to impeach this horrible man.

I do want vigorous investigations, and I'm a real Waxman kind of guy. Leahy, Dorgan, Conyers, the whole gang. More, more, more. Why? Because we need to educate the public and find out just how much damage has been done to the Constitution so we can set about putting things right again. Here's a test for you history buffs: of all the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, how many has Bush basically perpetrated through his administration? I don't have an answer, but if anyone wants to send me a study of some kind, a real one, just email me. I'll make it public and give you credit.

I'm not happy saying that the president of the United States is illegitimate, based on his performance and contempt for the will of the governed and the Constitution he swore to uphold. It gives me no pleasure. But I think this is a notion we all need to comprehend: he's unfit to be president. If you agree with me, say it out loud: he's not my president.

Everything he stands for is unAmerican. It just so happens that the modern Republican Party stands right with him. He's their product. The party of the South has done it again: it's tried to destroy America.

Americans can't let that happen. Preventing that from happening, and turning it all around, begins by coming to grips with some basic, unwelcome, disturbing facts. This is not a liberal conclusion, or a partisan one. It's an American one.

Not My President.

Falling into Madness, The Shadow Government, and Some Other Thoughts

2006-12-07T11:28:00.000-06:00

One would have to agree with Russ Feingold that the substance of the ISG (Iraq Study Group) report misses the point. Iraq was the probably the most damaging foreign adventure in United States History and we have got to set a timetable to get out now. Neither group leader, Jim Baker, nor the other members of the group,” who are all Washington insiders, can say what really needs to be done. Get out now and save lives; and talk to Iran, the only democracy in the region. Baker and old man Bush are really Saudis, so the idea that anyone will air the awful realities of that cesspool is out of the question. And Israel? It has been taken over by extremists supported in the U.S. by a vicious lobby of Likudniks like Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen. Let us not forget that everyone of those in this group to a one supported this war. So don't expect them to recommend that we get the hell out now. It's gonna get worse.

More damaging than the Viet Nam incursion which saw over 55,000 combat deaths, this Iraq blunder now threatens to send an entire oil rich region into chaos. Except for pockets of astounding unawareness of the long term effects on our economy and world status in states like Alabama and Texas, voters generally expressed revulsion over events of the past six years and worry about the future.

Me, I am not sure Bush can last out his term. I spent enough of my Ph.D. years studying social psychology and mass psychoanalysis to recognize a person who is delusional and narcissistic. These wonderful character traits, passed from his vile mother, reveal themselves in sadism—another one of Mr. Bush’s personality attributes. Was his father’s breakdown in Florida this week really about son Jeb’s dead end future, or the pain of seeing his son, the president, descend into madness and wreak international political havoc? Probably both. It was pathetic. There may come a time soon when Jr. –and others--will realize that he cannot function in this office. Today, he evoked the 9/11 thing again. That is why….

....this week, MAYBE saw a defacto political coup and with it more national nightmare. Bush has been taken down and possible take out as generalissimo by Jim Baker (Carlisle Group and Saudi Jim) as the window dressing of Sandra Day O’Connor, Charles Robb, Ed Meese stood by to lend him credibility. Meese? Credible? Incredulous. Condie Rice has been sent shoe shopping at Ferragamo in Dubai and Stephen Hadley could have leaked his memo upon orders from Jim Baker. The yes men of Jr.'s administration will fade into background like so many Chicano cooks in the kitchen. The human junk that makes up the right wing we saw day after day over the corporate airwaves have already retreated into their swamps like like the Heritage Foundation and AEI.

But on the other hand, Jr. is the president and he could rebel against his father's presence in the room and ignore Baker and enjoy another Oedipal struggle.

The problem with all this—besides the fact that there is an unelected shadow government in formation and a very volatile and troubled president in the Oval Office—is that while we spend our last wealth on the fiasco, we sit by an watch President Putin forge an independent political path for Russia without our input and alliance; and China must be mollified or it will pull the debt plug and go Euro. (By the way, Putin probably had nothing to do with the London Polnium murder. This was a mob hit meant to discredit him. If you read any of the late Litvinenko’s anti-Putin writings, you would think him as mad as Bush. Just like us, Putin’s enemies are big crime figures like Berezovsky).

So as Bush descends further and further into his own cerebral chaos, no one is left to converse effectively with emerging powers. Baker is an oil man; so don’t expect foreign policy to deviate much here.

The only things the Democrats can do over the next two years is try to air the corruption that surrounds the Bush administration, reverse the huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and make legislation that stops the flow of jobs out of this country. Baker will converse with idiots like Joe Biden on foreign policy because Biden is pissed out. But he really will not let tough Democrats like Feingold into the foreign policy assessment mix. McCain? Maybe.

If you are one of those people who frets over abortion, gay marriage or any other of the basically meaningless “moral decay” issues, or is an unswerving Republican flag waver, you might be the lucky one. If these are your preeminent national issues, being so unaware of the actual decay that surrounds you is a blessing. Of course, if you experience an economic reversal, like your job going to China, and you have to beg for a handout—good luck. There are no more Medicaid beds for your aging mother, and dimishing student aid support for that second kid getting ready for college. My advice: Send the kid to Iraq so he can later get college support through the VA. You can learn in college even with one arm and one leg.

William Spier
New York City

Other links:

On Kerry's Statement and the Republican Interpretation.

2006-10-31T23:04:00.000-06:00

What I found interesting about Kerry's statement is that I had a completely different conclusion. I believed he was warning young people in school that if things kept going downward in Iraq under the Bush administration and a Republican Congress there would have to be a draft.

The only way to stay clear of the draft and combat in Iraq is to stay in school as long as you can.

Terry D. Barhorst

Other links:

The Manipulation Of Our Children

2006-10-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

I’ve been witnessing a couple things lately that really bother me. The worst is the advertising of prescription drugs on television that takes place during time periods and programs that children would be prone to watch.

On Saturday the fourteenth of October between 12PM and 2PM, KNVA in
Austin broadcasted "KiKi's Delivery Service." This is a movie that
would draw many children to the television screen. Like most programs on commercial television there were many segments of commercials inserted in the movie.

One of the growing drug problems in Texas and throughout the country is the abuse of prescription drugs by children. These prescription drugs are attained by pilfering legal drugs that their parents purchase by prescription or obtaining them on the streets.

Children between 5 and 15 have been bombarded by television
commercials aimed at drugs like crack, cocaine, and marihuana. These commercials are more commonly called "public service messages." The only difference between these "public service messages" and other commercials is that the commercials on crack, cocaine, and marihuana drugs are negative toward a product or behavior.

"KiKi's Delivery Service," a children's program was broadcasted on a day and at a time when there was the greatest chance of a large
audience of children. The commercials inserted in the movie were very positive about their advertised products and behaviors. Ambien, a prescribed drug for sleeping, was one of those advertised.

Adults prescribed the drug Ambien by their doctor are warned by word, by labels, and by information sheets that Ambien can cause side effects and addiction. This is especially true if Ambien is taken in any way other than the way it was prescribed by the physician.

The warnings and information about Ambien given on the commercials
are not targeted or designed for understanding by children.
However, the Ambien commercials are very seductive to children who
may have some problems with sleeping or stress.

Like other products or behaviors that may harm children, drug
commercials should be limited to time slots and programs outside the normal viewing time slots and programs allocated for children.

The next situation that I have to bring up is the usage of actual students and schoolrooms I have seen in political commercials by incumbents. These schoolrooms and children appear to be meant to show these goverment officials are for education and children.

On the other hand, I have yet to see such usage of children or school rooms or buildings--paid for by public moneys—in use as persuaders in political commercials by challengers in those races. I only know of one actual denial of usage of the exterior of a school building for a political commercial backdrop by school authorities. This took place when the Texas Democratic candidate for Governor was told to stop filming in the area in front of a school and was asked to move the filming across the street.

I would like to know if the “Ins” in other states might have the be might be involved in the same kind of situations.

That children are being used as political-pointer backgrounds really bothers me. Especially when these same incumbents ignore the peddling of prescription drugs to this same age group.

If this is a national thing, I would really like to know. I would want to start some kind of grass roots group to get both kinds of manipulations of our children halted.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
slotdb@yahoo.com
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats yahoo group.

Other links:

AP: Arabic-speaking US diplomat calls Bush Iraq policy stupid & arrogant

2006-10-22T06:46:00.000-05:00

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 36 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Alberto Fernandez, right, a senior U.S. diplomat said the United States had shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq but was now ready to talk with any group except Al-Qaida in Iraq to facilitate national reconciliation.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television aired late Saturday, Fernandez, who is director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department, offered an unusually candid assessment of America's war in Iraq.

"We tried to do our best but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," he said.

"We are open to dialogue because we all know that, at the end of the day, the solution to the hell and the killings in Iraq is linked to an effective Iraqi national reconciliation," he said, speaking in Arabic from Washington. "The Iraqi government is convinced of this."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, in Moscow with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, later said that Fernandez disputes the description of his comments.

"What he says is, that is not an accurate reflection of what he said," McCormack said. Asked whether the Bush administration believes that history will show a record of arrogance or stupidity in Iraq, McCormack replied "No."

A senior Bush administration official questioned whether the remarks had been translated correctly. "Those comments obviously don't reflect our position," said the official, who asked not to be identified because a transcript had not been available for review.

Full Yahoo News story. This same story run on MSNBC-Newsweek.

Newsweek story of Aug. 28, 2006 on Fernandez's history of candor.

Biographical information on Mr. Fernandez from CSID.

If You Read This and Don't Vote....Move To Alabama

2006-10-20T12:04:00.000-05:00

After Pat’s Birthday

By Kevin Tillman

Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.
Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.
Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.
Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.
Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.
Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.
Somehow torture is tolerated.
Somehow lying is tolerated.
Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.
Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.
Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.
Somehow this is tolerated.
Somehow nobody is accountable for this.
In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.

Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman

Other links:

What really bothers me.

2006-10-14T16:45:00.000-05:00

You know what really bothers me about the story on the 14 year old girl being questioned about her MySpace posting? Well, it's the fact that she took down the posting in July and the Secret service took at least 2 months to get on the job and even then their intelligence was probably faulty.

The very fact that they had information and a picture that no longer existed on the internet and nothing in the way of verification that it was serious or not, after two months, makes their actions even more ludicris. If it had been a 30 year old Al Queda operative posting as a 14 year old girl, Bush would probably have been attacked by now.

I suppose, now, they will get a letter of commendation from Bush for defending the country--because Bush believes he is the country. Orwell is probably giggling his head off somewhere in the heaven where author who are also prophets go.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Other links:

Secret Service Agents Question 14 Year Old About Myspace Page

2006-10-14T16:34:00.000-05:00

October 14, 2006 9:45 a.m. EST

Nicole King - All Headline News Staff Writer
Sacramento, CA (AHN) -

An eighth grader was pulled out of her middle school biology class and questioned by Secret Service agents Wednesday. Now her parents are saying the agents went too far.

Julia Wilson, 14, was pulled out of class after federal agents placed her on a checklist. Upset about the Iraq war, Wilson had posted a picture of President Bush on her Myspace page and wrote the words "Kill Bush" across the top with a dagger stabbing his hand.

Wilson replaced the page when she learned threats to the President are federal offenses. But agents had already seen the page. She was questioned for 15 minutes by the agents. Her parents say they should have been there. Wilson said the agents' questions led her to tears.

Her mother said an agent showed up at the family's home and spoke to her, but promised to return once her daughter was home. The school's assistant principal said he was given the impression her mother knew she would be questioned at school.

Legally, parents don't have to be present. Julia Wilson said the officers told her she could be sent to juvenile hall for making the threat. She says now, she's going to organize a student protest against the Iraq war.

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We have to have a new direction.

2006-10-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

For more than a decade the national and state Republican parties have been walking a fine line between right wing religionists and what might be simply called big money. They have been using the money given them by the puppeteers of big money, such as Mr. Abramoff, and the solid show-up voters who follow the right wing religionist demagogues, to win elections. Nationally, they have been hiding their venality behind a smoke screen of fear of terrorists and a manipulated war. In the states they have skewed and manipulated programs with excellent titles and little substance.

It has been published again and again that those in power, are removing money from programs that help children receive adequate medical care. This is especially true here in Texas.

This same Republican regime wants to give Texas land to foreign “big money.” They have already stated they will use eminent domain to remove Texas families who have farmed and ranched on that Texas land for generations. Even those who once called themselves Republican and now claim the title of independent have condemned this act.

Texas Governor, Rick Perry has stated that no one has come up with anything better. That is a lie. Regular and high speed rail has been brought up again and again to be ignored by the Republican power structure. The gasoline, oil, and highway contractors for building, using, and maintaining toll ways would not be needed if electric rail became a reality.

The fine line that the Republicans walk and their excellent titles on bills and statutes both nationally and here in Texas have gutted a poorly working educational system, but have offered no new way of educating children in the basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. They only offer more and more standardized testing. In Austin, more than a million dollars was paid out to buy standardized tests labeled “Benchmark Tests” in order to ready our children for the TAKS standardized tests. Whole days, that add up to weeks, are lost to the education of our children so that standardized tests may be given to prepare for standardized tests.

The Republicans have been winning elections with their big money mentors and right wing religionists. All the while, our whole country is losing the promise of generations past, present, and future. Even the Republicans are suffering on their own petard. Our Texas Governor constantly states that the Republican legislature and he have made it possible for property owners to pay, on average, two thousand dollars less property tax. At the same time the Republican elected to Comptroller of Texas states says it is fifty-two dollars less property tax. Try to explain the math in those statements. These are the same Republicans who want to guide our children’s education.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

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Paradox

2006-10-06T16:57:00.000-05:00

This year's election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

The above paragraph is the second paragraph of the Republican "Contract with America" signed and launched by them six weeks before the 1994 elections. It only took them twelve years to far surpass every negative action they declared abominations of the Democratic party.

God does work in mysterious ways.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

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Stick The Squealing Pigs We Must

2006-10-06T10:14:00.000-05:00

In case you did not hear one Democrat’s response to a feckless attack on his character: yesterday, Rep. Harold Ford (D,TN), was accused of visiting a Playboy party during the last Super bowl. His response:

“I'm not going to take a lecture on morality from a party that took hush money from a child predator.”

Well said. Lucky guy.

Then there is David Brooks, Republican apologist and hack columnist for the NY Times. He said Republican leaders miss the point on the Foley scandal. The problem is a "culture of expressive individualism" represented by The Vagina Monologues. Morality comes down to degrees of restraint. What a jerk. One would think that if you have a set of values that make up a moral worldview, there isn’t much wiggle room. I guess Brooks would say that you don’t clobber a sexual predator, you just manage the behavior.

Hastert took the blame for the mess; but he implied he took it off the shoulders of George Soros, who he said was the real culprit. But Hastert is the big guy and he will have no trouble vacuuming up this small matter. Bush’s response: Denny is a good guy who will do a heckuva job. Boehner is out playing golf.

Hey, the more the rightwing squeals, the more the Democrats should stick the needles in. Republicans and Bush protesteth that this is not a partisan matter. That is bull. This is a Republican matter. They, and only they covered up sordid behavior that could end up with Foley taking a vacation at tax payer’s expense. No one is getting their stories straight. They all panicked before Rove could get to them. It is sort of like straitening out a twisted and bent toy slinky. You just cannot do it.

The nation has much bigger issues than this and its citizenry knows it. But the Foley scandal is additive stuff for the corporate media which has crossed the Rubicon with this one. There are only four weeks before the mid-terms. Iraq and global warming may get worse in that period. But as Yoda would say: “Stick the squealing pigs we must.”

William Spier, Ph.D.
New York City 10/06

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A House Ethics Investigation? Perhaps

2006-10-05T13:27:00.000-05:00

Republican leaders announced that the moribund House Ethics Committee would investigate the Foley scandal. While they are at it, why don’t they add Abramoff, the Hastert land deal, forced abortions in the Northern Marianas and many other House corruption issues to the agenda?

Only kidding. Most Republicans on the Committee could care less about predatory behavior of any kind. It is said that Hastert will also ask the Ethics Committee to consider new rules so that anyone making inappropriate contact with pages be disciplined. In the case of staff, they would be fired; lawmakers would be subject to expulsion, the official said. Whew. I now feel it is safe to allow my 13 year old son on a camping trip with a Republican House member. I cannot wait to tune in CSPAN to their hearings. They could bring in Pat Buchanan, Tony Perkins, and “Take a shower with your son” Dobson to blame the gays for it all. Maybe we will see that Lewinsky dress again. Lieberman will model it for the committee. The hearings will, though, leave an interesting paper trail. I have a feeling the Republicans will not be able to hold the truth back: Hastert, Reynolds and Shimkus allowed Foley to pursue his predatory practices over a protracted period.

We Democrats needed this political gift from Mr. Foley to have a chance to get to the coveted prize of subpoena power. But 25 young Americans died in Iraq this week and the interest on the national debt was revised up 20% for next year. What will be left after the Bush years is nothing short of an American tragedy and gravesites.

I have always been a tolerant person. But if I hear one more brain dead self-declared "conservative" or pious evangelical rant about gay marriage and abortion when this nation is teetering on fascism and bankruptcy, I will vomit on them. Meanwhile, they could do me a favor on November 7: stay home. The battle to save a 225 year old republic of free men, free choice, and the rights of individuals will be fought and preserved by an informed citizenry very soon. You are not in that cohort.

William Spier, Ph.D.
New York City October 5

DemLog

Rightwing Sludge Weighing in on Foley

2006-10-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

Dobson’s extreme rightwing Family Research Council and Rush Limbaugh are weighing in on the Foley scandal. Limbaugh suggests that Foley was set up by a page. He said he was not mounting a defense of Foley, just voicing his belief that Foley was the victim of a sting. This reprehensible scum sees nothing wrong with predatory practices by an alleged child sex offender.

Tony Perkins of Dobson's Family Research Counsel said nothing about the offenses committed by Foley; but he felt that Hastert did not reveal anything he knew because he did not want to be considered a “gay basher”. Since when did Dobson, Perkins et al. care that gay bashing is a negative? They have built their fortunes on bigotry. But hey, these guys must have a conscience after all: They don’t want to appear bigoted even if it means a 52 year old sexual predator keeps cover and free from prosecution. Hey Tony, explain this when the rapture comes.

Time for another shower.

William Spier
New York City Oct3

DemLog

Dennis Hastert--As Corrupt as it Gets

2006-10-02T11:52:00.000-05:00

Dennis Hastert, congressional Jabba-The-Hut, is out to cover his fat ass. And this guy is so fat and dirty it will take an entire year’s output of a Chinese fabric mill to cover it. (Please great one, do not make it transparent silk!)

I think there are more sexual predators in Republican right wing ranks than Rep. Foley. I have an itchy feeling that the head of Focus On The Family thug is going to stay quiet on this one. For the life of me, I cannot understand why these guys like Foley are always the ones ranting about gay marriage and sin. I mean, if I were a sexual predator, I would live like Dracula; in the coffin by day and on the road at night. Why are they so self destructive? I don’t know about you, but I am going to keep my 13 year old son away from anyone who smiles like a Republican. I have good reason to….

If you think that Hastert, Boehner, and Frist care the least about protecting underage youth from their congressional buddies, think again. Hastert knew damn well that Foley was one of those (probably rare) gay men who is a true freak and pervert. But in his capacity to cover his fat ass, and that of fascist Republican congressional leadership, he has asked A.G. Gonzales to investigate the henhouse. Gonzales? Forget it. He will participate in the cover-up.

Here's the deal. Hastert’s letter to Gonzales did not ask the A.G. to investigate who knew what and when. What and when does not just mean knowledge of Foley e-mails. It means who knew that Foley was gay and what aberrant ways did he exhibit over the years? Hastert wants Justice to investigate who “read the e-mails” and made the stuff public. By limiting the investigation to this, Hastert avoids culpability. The leak again is the issue, not the perverted behavior of Foley, nor the cover-up by Hastert and his buddies over time. Talk about corruption.

Again, the idea is to get the media to support the cover-up by promoting the bull that Hastert et al. want to get to the truth.

Dennis Hastert knew that Foley was a sexual predator and did nothing about it. That is the issue.

I am going to shower now.

William Spier, Ph.D.
New York City
DemLog

A Texas Declaration of Health.

2006-10-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

“When a government has ceased to protect the lives,” is the very first phrase in the Texas Declaration of Independence. The Republican majority in the legislature and Rick Perry have forgotten this phrase and the deep meanings it has for those who deem themselves Texan.

A government for and by Texans must see to protecting the lives of all Texas children by providing decent and affordable health care for all Texas Children.

A government for and by Texans must see to protecting the lives of all Texans with reasonably priced health insurance for all Texans.

A government for and by Texans must see to protecting the lives of all Texans by the acceptance and funding of all life saving medical procedures and research.

A government for and by Texans must see to protecting the lives of all Texans because any single life lost or maimed can destroy the quality of life for many other Texans.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Other links:

The Immigrants aren't the problem

2006-09-30T15:00:00.000-05:00

Surprised I said that?

I've got a good reason.

As Long as a person can receive a great deal more money for their labor in any location than the one in which they currently reside they are going to move toward the money.

I'm fed up with the "stop the immigrants" political rhetoric. If there weren't jobs, they wouldn't cross borders. I don't care about the "needed stoop labor," moaning, of many of our business sectors, as long as the jobs are there people wanting a better life are going to get around any wall or patrol.

Let's take advantage of this immutable truth I've stated above. Have the government issue licenses to businesses and even private citizens who wish to hire illegal immigrants without having to pay social security or have any later stigma attached to their act.

Each license would have a monthly fee of $100 per illegal employee (quite reasonable.) The license would clearly state that the holder employer must withhold income tax from the employees paycheck and forward that money to the IRS monthly using the License number.

Most importantly, not having a license for each employee must carry large fines and possible criminal action. This must be stated on each license as well as being on the law books.

To put a topper on this, the INS people on the border should be issued Digital Cameras and digital fingerprint pads. All aliens stopped at the border should be photographed with the classic front and side mug shots. All of the above should go into a national database. Those licensed by employers and registered will be noted in the database and no illegal entry noted on their database record. No person seeking illegal entrance and stopped twice at the border should ever be allowed citizenship in the United States. Those beyond the two chances should be placed in detention and databased as a recurring illegal. Any employer hiring such a person shall pay a fine of $1000 for each day of employment. All employers must register their licensed workers in the database.

Anyone have a better idea?

Any Texas Gubernatorial candidates want to pick this up?

Is there anyone out there that isn't cowtowing to those who make large profits on cheap labor?

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Other links:

Remarks on the Senate Floor of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Military Commissions Act

2006-09-29T14:00:00.000-05:00

9/28/2006 Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton September 28, 2006
Mr. President, the Senate is currently debating a bill on how we treat detainees in our custody and, more broadly, on how we treat the principles on which our nation was founded.
The implications are far reaching for our national security interests abroad; the rights of Americans at home; our reputation in the world; and the safety of our troops.
The threat posed by the evil and nihilistic movement that has spawned terrorist networks is real and gravely serious. We must do all we can to defeat the enemy with all the tools in our arsenal and every resource at our disposal. All of us -- every one of us -- is dedicated to deterring and defeating this enemy.
The challenge before us on this bill, in the final days of session before the November election, is to find a solution that serves our national security interests. I fear, however, that there are those who place a strategy for winning elections ahead of a smart strategy for winning the war on terrorism.
Democrats and Republicans alike believe that terrorists must be caught, captured, sentenced, punished. I believe there can be no mercy for those who perpetrated 9/11 and other crimes against humanity. But in the process of accomplishing what I believe is essential for our security we must hold on to our values and set an example we can point to with pride, not shame. Those captured are going nowhere -- they are imprisoned now -- so we should follow the duty given us by the Supreme Court and carefully craft the right piece of legislation to try and punish them. The president acted without authority and it is our duty now to be careful in handing this president just the right amount of authority to get the job done.
Mr. President, During the Revolutionary War, between the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which set our founding ideals to paper, and the writing of our Constitution, which fortified those ideals under the rule of law, our values -- our beliefs as Americans -- were already being tested.
We were at war and victory was hardly assured, in fact the situation was closer to the opposite. New York City and Long Island had been captured. General George Washington and the Continental Army retreated across New Jersey to Pennsylvania, suffering tremendous casualties and a body blow to the cause of American Independence.
It was at this time, among these soldiers at this moment of defeat and despair, that Thomas Paine would write, "These are the times that try men's souls." Soon afterward, Washington lead his soldiers across the Delaware River and onto victory in the Battle of Trenton. There he captured nearly 1000 foreign mercenaries and he faced a crucial choice.
How would General Washington treat these prisoners? The British had already committed atrocities against Americans, including torture. As David Hackett Fischer describes in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Washington's Crossing, thousands of American prisoners of war were "treated with extreme cruelty by British captors." There are accounts of injured soldiers who surrendered being murdered instead of quartered, countless Americans dying in prison hulks in New York harbor, starvation and other acts of inhumanity perpetrated against Americans confined to churches in New York City.
You can imagine, the light of our ideals shone dimly in those early dark days, years from an end to the conflict, years before our improbable triumph and the birth of our democracy. General Washington was not that far from where the Continental Congress had met and signed the Declaration of Independence. But it is easy to imagine how far that must have seemed. General Washington announced a decision unique in human history, sending the following order for handling prisoners:
Treat them with humanity, and Let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British army in their Treatment of our unfortunate brethren.
Therefore, George Washington, our commander-in-chief before he was our President, laid down the indelible marker of our nation's values even as we were struggling as a nation -- and his courageous act reminds us that America was born out of faith in certain basic principles. In fact, it is these principles that made and still make our country exceptional and allow us to serve as an example. We are not bound together as a nation by bloodlines. We are not bound by ancient history; our nation is a new nation. Above all, we are bound by our values.
Now these values -- George Washington's values, the values of our founding -- are at stake. We are debating far-reaching legislation that would fundamentally alter our nation's conduct in the world and the rights of Americans here at home. And we are debating it too hastily in a debate too steeped in electoral politics.
The Senate, under the authority of the Republican Majority and with the blessing and encouragement of the Bush-Cheney Administration, is doing a great disservice to our history, our principles, our citizens, and our soldiers. The deliberative process is being broken under the pressure of partisanship and the policy that results is a travesty.
Fellow Senators, the process for drafting this legislation to correct the administration's missteps has not befitted the "world's greatest deliberative body." Legitimate, serious concerns raised by our senior military and intelligence community have been marginalized, difficult issues glossed over, and debates we should have had have been shut off in order to pass a misconceived bill before Senators return home to campaign for re-election.
For the safety of our soldiers and the reputation of our nation, it is far more important to take the time to do the job right than to do it quickly and badly. There is no reason other than partisanship for not continuing deliberation to find a solution that works to achieve a true consensus based on American values.
In the last several days, this bill has undergone countless changes -- all for the worse -- and differs significantly from the compromise brokered between the Bush Administration and a few Senate Republicans last week.
Fellow Senators, we all know we are holding this hugely important debate against the backdrop of November's elections. There are some in this body more focused on holding on to their jobs than doing their jobs right. Some in this chamber plan to use our honest and serious concerns for protecting our country and our troops as a political wedge issue to divide us for electoral gain.
How can we in the Senate find a proper answer and reach a consensus when any matter that does not serve the Majority's partisan advantage is mocked as weakness, and any real concern for our troops and values dismissed demagogically as coddling the enemy?
This broken process and its blatant politics will cost our nation dearly. It allows a discredited policy ruled by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional to largely continue and to be made worse.
We must stand for the rule of law before the world, especially when we are under stress and under threat. We must show that we uphold our most profound values. The rule of law cannot be compromised.
Our Supreme Court in its Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision ruled that the Bush Administration's previous military commission system had failed to follow the Constitution and the law in its treatment of detainees. The question before us is whether this Congress will follow the decision of the Supreme Court and create a better system that withstands judicial examination -- or attempt to confound that decision, a strategy destined to fail again.
The bill before us allows the admission into evidence of statements derived through cruel, inhuman and degrading interrogation. That sets a dangerous precedent that will endanger our own men and women in uniform overseas.
Will our enemies be less likely to surrender? Will informants be less likely to come forward? Will our soldiers be more likely to face torture if captured? Will the information we obtain be less reliable? These are the questions we should be asking. And based on what we know about warfare from listening to those who have fought for our country, the answers do not support this bill.
As Lieutenant John F. Kimmons, the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence said, "No good intelligence is going to come from abusive interrogation practices."
Allowing coercive treatment and torturous actions toward prisoners not only violates the fundamental rule of law and the institutions of justice, not only will it fail to bear fruit in intelligence gathering, but it promotes radicalization. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, the architect of many of the attacks on our country and throughout Europe and the world, has said, over and over, that torture helps the cause of extremism -- watering the seeds of jihad.
M. President, I would like to submit for the Record letters and statements from former military leaders, 9/11 Families, the religious community, retired judges, legal scholars and law professors, all of whom have registered serious concerns with this bill and its provisions.
The bill also makes significant changes to the War Crimes Act. As it is now written, the War Crimes Act makes it a federal crime for any soldier or national of the United States to violate, among other things, Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions in an armed conflict not of an international character. The administration has voiced concern that Common Article 3 -- which prohibits "cruel treatment or torture," "outrages against human dignity," and "humiliating and degrading treatment" -- sets out an intolerably vague standard on which to base criminal liability, and may expose CIA agents to jail sentences for rough interrogation tactics used in questioning detainees.
But the current bill's changes to the War Crimes Act have done little to clarify the rules for our interrogators.
This bill undermines the Geneva Conventions by allowing the President to issue Executive Orders to redefine what are permissible interrogation techniques. Have we fallen so low as to debate how much torture we are willing to stomach? By allowing this Administration to further stretch the definition of what is and is not torture, we lower our moral standards to those whom we despise, undermine the values of our flag wherever it flies, put our troops in danger, and jeopardize our moral strength in a conflict that cannot be won simply with military might.
Once again, there are those who are willing to stay a course that is not working, giving the Bush-Cheney Administration a blank check -- a blank check to torture, to create secret courts using secret evidence, to detain people, including Americans, to be free of judicial oversight and accountability, to put our troops in greater danger.
The bill has several other flaws as well.
This bill would not only deny detainees habeas corpus rights -- a process that would allow them to challenge the very validity of their confinement -- it would also deny these rights to lawful immigrants living in the United States. If enacted, this law would give license to this Administration to pick people up off the streets of the United States and hold them indefinitely without charges and without legal recourse.
At the very least, this is worth a debate on the merits, not on the politics. This is worth putting aside our differences -- it's too important.
Our values are central. Our national security interests in the world are vital. And nothing should be of greater concern to those of us in this chamber than the young men and women who are, right now, wearing our nation's uniform, serving in dangerous territory.
After all, our standing, our morality, our beliefs are tested in this chamber and their impact and their consequences are tested under fire, they are tested when American lives are on the line, they are tested when our strength and ideals are questioned by our friends and by our enemies.
When our soldiers face an enemy, when our soldiers are in danger, that is when our decisions in this chamber will be felt. Will that enemy surrender? Or will he continue to fight, with fear for how he might be treated and with hate directed not at us, but at the patriot wearing our uniform whose life is on the line?
When our nation seeks to lead the world in service to our interests and our values, will we still be able to lead by example?
Our values, our history, our interests, and our military and intelligence experts all point to one answer.
Let's pass a bill that's been honestly and openly debated, not hastily cobbled together.
Let's pass a bill that unites us, not divides us.
Let's pass a bill that strengthens our moral standing in the world, that declares clearly that we will not retreat from our values before the terrorists. We will not give up who we are. We will not be shaken by fear and intimidation. We will not give one inch to the evil and nihilistic extremists who have set their sights on our way of life.
Vladimir Bukovsky, who spent nearly 12 years in Soviet prisons, labor camps, and psychiatric hospitals for nonviolent human rights activities had this to say: "If Vice President Cheney is right, that some ‘cruel, inhumane, or degrading' treatment of captives is a necessary tool for winning the war on terrorism, then the war is lost already."
Before George Washington crossed the Delaware, before he could achieve that long-needed victory, before the tide would turn, before he ordered that prisoners be treated humanely, he ordered that his soldiers read Thomas Paine's writing. He ordered that they read about the ideals for which they would fight, the principles at stake, the importance of this American project.
Now we find ourselves at a moment when we feel threatened, when the world seems to have grown more dangerous, when our nation needs to ready itself for a long and difficult struggle against a new and dangerous enemy that means us great harm.
Just as Washington faced a hard choice, so do we. It's up to us to decide how we wage this struggle and not up to the fear fostered by terrorists. We decide.
This is a moment where we need to remind ourselves of the confidence and bravery of George Washington. We cannot, we must not, subvert our ideals -- we can and must use them to win.

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Republicans heal rift, but deal on detainees falls short

2006-09-25T12:43:00.001-05:00

Mon Sep 25, 7:07 AM ET

The skids are greased in Congress this week to rush through a deal on how terror suspects should be interrogated and prosecuted.

Republicans were quick to embrace the deal over the past four days as a way to patch up an awkward rift between the White House and three GOP senators. And most Democrats, fearful of being painted as soft on terrorism, are expected to go along.

While the lawmakers would be elated to get this messy issue behind them before they go home to campaign for re-election, it's worth being wary of a quick fix for an intricate issue that defines the nation's values and how the world sees us.

Can America devise a system to extract valuable information from suspected terrorists without engaging in torture or endangering U.S. troops who become prisoners? Can the nation detain those who would do us harm while giving the falsely accused the right to challenge their detentions?
Those are difficult questions, and last week's ballyhooed "compromise" does not provide all the right answers, particularly in two key areas:

•Judicial review. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the deal is that it would bar detainees - including minor players and even those who maintain they are innocent bystanders - from challenging their detentions in court. Known as habeas corpus, that's a prisoner's right to have an independent judge review whether he is being held without justification.

•Interrogations. The deal would legitimize what President Bush has called "alternative" forms of interrogation by the CIA, but which others have defined as tantamount to torture.

Click here for entire article.

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Terry's Comment: I hope someone in Washington has sense enough to realize that the Bush administration could use the same law to place those they may term domestic terrorists into concentration camps and use "alternative" forms of interrogation for political purposes. It's quite evident that the Bush administration believes that anyone against the Iraq war or their policies is a travelling companion to terrorists.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

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Short and Sharp

2006-09-22T15:28:00.000-05:00

There are two things that the government statisticians do not take into account when they check for inflation: Energy and Food prices.

There is one thing they Federal Bank uses to curb inflation: Interest Rates.

There are three things which damage the living standards of the middle and lower income classes: Energy prices, Food prices, and high Interest Rates.

To the normal person, the economy is how far your paycheck will go to take care of your family with no caveats.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

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Why are we allowing the free world to be destroyed right in front of us?

2006-09-20T17:27:00.000-05:00

I have just read several articles on the the arctic and the Greenland ice sheet, and , how "Global Warming" has accelerated the melting of thousands of years of compiled ice in the last 5 years. I also read as much of S. 3886--AKA the "Bill Frist’s “Terrorist Tracking, Identification, and Prosecution Act of 2006,” (S. 3886) would combine the Cheney-Specter Bill to allow warrantless spying on Americans with military tribunals legislation that would gut the Geneva Conventions and allow secret evidence to be used to convict detainees held in Guantanamo."

While all the time denying truth and guilt while accusing those who protest, the Republican regime of Bush, Rumfeld, and Rove have managed to ignore global warming--even with overwhelming proof available. To whittle away at A Bill of Rights that is part of keeping our country a free nation with free people. To go to war on a pretext that they were too ignorant, too determined to go to war, or just too ignorant to have a double reality check. While at the same time turning the Congress into an unthinking rubber stamp of Executive branch mechinations.

If you wonder how historical tyrants weren't stopped by the citizens of their country before starting military conflagrations and ousting a complete loss of personal control of freedom and life for those very citizens, you have many of the steps staring you right in the face at this moment.

However, you do have a weapon to bring these steps tumbling down. The weapon was given us by our Forefathers. It is the ballot box and the votes cast and placed in it.

Vote as many Republicans as you can out of office this year. If you don't, when you are looking back at your own history, you, yourself and those of the next generation will be wondering why you did nothing while the destroyers took over.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

Assailing the words of Bush

2006-09-19T13:26:00.000-05:00

Addressing Iraqis specifically in his Umited Nations speech, Bush said, "We will not abandon you in your struggle to build a free nation."
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The statement above is another example of Bush putting a spin on words that benefit his needs and not necessarily the truth or the needs of our nation or any other.

By commonly accepted denotation Iraq was a "free nation" before Bush manipulated its invasion and occupation. As an example, Lebanon was not, and, is not a free nation because areas of the country are occupied by troops of other countries.

Only if we had brought about the downfall of Saddam Hussein and then withdrawn from Iraq could could Iraq be called a free nation. In fact, at this point in time, the indigenous insurgents could be called the fighters for a "free nation" against an occupying force.

The real goal should be that Iraq becomes a nation of free people who are choosing their own destiny by their own actions--not necessarily a destiny chosen by Bush.

Democracy is only a word that signifies a set of protocals.

Free People is phrase that signifies a set of human beings who choose their own set of protocols and have the freedom to live in their free nation by those protocols without outside interference or what they precieve as a tyrannical government.

Were I writing the speech I would have written, "We will not abandon our support for the Iraqi people to become a free people within a free nation, for, even though our military presence serves to protect, in its very presence there is a paradox that denies the right of choice to a free people. Therefore we will withdraw from Iraq within the next month. However, if we are called by the people of Iraq or if foreign powers or terrorists show to the world they are interfering in the actions of a free people by words and deeds, we will return."

Of course Bush could never bring himself to read such a paragraph as the one above.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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Brown Shirts Spawn in North Dakota—and at a place nearest you

2006-09-18T16:56:00.000-05:00

You tell me why parents who want the best for their children would send them to a brown shirt indoctrination camp like one called: Jesus Camp. I live in NYC and am baffled by what seems to be a cadre of children being brainwashed by really sick adults in North Dakota.

While writing a piece about Dick Chaney, I stopped for a moment today to scan the blogs: left, right and center. At Crooks and Liars I was informed that some kids genuflect in front of a cardboard George Bush at Jeeeeesuz Camp. Folks, it only took a bunch of drunk Munich beer hall thugs to ignite a firestorm. The stuff in this documentary is truly scary.

Follow the Crooks and Liars link to a short ABC story ( on this camp for a glimpse at fringe Christian indoctrination of children—into a life of despair and violence. There is enough in this short ABC piece to come to the conclusion that an off-the-beaten-path church organization might be a nation-threatening spawn. Not that this North Dakota “Children of the Damned” will bring violence to a block nearest me; I live in NYC. They will probably bomb federal buildings and Planned Parenthood clinics nearby in the Upper Midwest.

But, we in NYC may not be immune. As it happens, some west coast evangelical organization has sent me a neighbor. This neighbor has been charged with opening a few of the organization’s churches here. That is their prerogative. (It costs a lot of dough to do that. Who’s footing the bill—your neighbors who have no health insurance?). He’s a friendly guy, this neighbor; and he has a wife who is always smiling. But her three little girls never do. They are like Pitiful Pearl dolls in three different sizes. For nothing, you cannot get these kids to smile and respond to anything you say; and the mother always seems to be at hand. Is she protecting them from what she perceives as moral pollutants: Brooklynites? This weirdness isn’t normal to a New Yawker. We have visions of something really oppressive going on in their home. My kid should be the grinless one: Hewas birthed by a Romanian mother we call “The Last Party Boss”. Even with this bloodline back to Dracula, he has always talked and laughed with everyone who talks to him.

I really feel sorry for my neighbor's little girls.

Anti-democratic movements have flourished under Bush, a petty frat boy whose family had dubious past associations with Nazis. Their followers are told by opportunistic ministers and pastors, and paid organizers, that Bush is on a holy mission to fight the abortionists and Islamic whatevers. Bush is really on one personal and delusional quest, and a real one for the oil patch et al.

I think this neighbor guy of mine is one of those fringe church organizers. He seems very normal though, and intelligent. (Of course, I don’t talk politics with him. He’s not one of us.) Actually, we really don’t need any more churches in Brooklyn; we already have more than any other city in the world. I mean, this is a city where the Catholic Churches sit next to O’Hara’s pub so that parishioners don’t have far to walk from where they slept Saturday night.

Hey, do you have a few of those un-democratic movements growing in your community? Finally, here's words from the Jeeeesuz Camp leader:

Pastor Fisher: I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places.

William Spier
New York City
9/17/06

Texas Toll Roads Causing Political Showdown

2006-09-18T16:02:00.000-05:00

Jack FinkReporting
(CBS 11 News) DALLAS

Toll roads are causing a political showdown between Governor Rick Perry and Dallas County Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield. The two leaders are butting heads over the Governor’s plan to build new toll roads to relieve traffic congestion.“This Governor and his administration, including TxDOT, has a policy which is raping people who use tolls,” said Mayfield. He feels that Perry wants to build too many toll roads instead of looking for alternatives.The Governor would have none of it. “If Mr. Mayfield does not want to drive on a toll road, there will still be alternates that are free for him and people who want to travel that way,” said Perry.Last month, critics protested the opening of State Highway 121, which will begin operating as a toll road after November’s elections.Mayfield said that he supports the toll roads planned by the North Texas Tollway Commission because the agency will ensure that the tolls stay as low as possible. He said that the Governor’s policy of having private firms build and operate the new toll roads, including State Highway 121, Highway 161 and the new Loop 9 in Dallas County, means drivers will face higher tolls to help the company earn a profit.The Governor says that the state doesn’t have enough money to build new roads and maintain the existing ones. “The bottom line is, we need to have infrastructure in this state, built today if we’re going to see the continued economic growth in the state of Texas,” Perry said. “I think we’re doing it thoughtfully. I think we’re doing it the right way.”Mayfield, a Republican who is supporting independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn’s bid for governor, disagrees.“We’ve got an election coming up, and if the current Governor loses, and I sure dab-gum hope he does, than this can be changed,” Matfield said.For now, Commissioner John Wiley Price says that the State is in the driver’s seat, and that there is little Dallas County can do to stop toll roads. Both Mayfield and County Judge Margaret Keliher disagree, saying there is still time to fight.

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Terry's comment: Just goes to show, the Republicans don't even accept what Perry is doing to the People of Texas.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

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Bush wants 'clarity' on interrogations

2006-09-15T14:41:00.000-05:00

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
14 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Facing a GOP revolt in the Senate,President Bush urged Congress on Friday to join in backing legislation to spell out strategies for interrogating and trying terror suspects, saying "the enemy wants to attack us again."

"Time is running out," Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference. "Congress needs to act wisely and promptly."

Bush denied the U.S. might lose the moral high ground in the war on terror in the eyes of world opinion, as former Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested.

Click here to read entire article.

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For a self-proclaimed Christian who is leading this country into what he states is the third awakening, George Bush, claiming he is the "picked by God for the Presidency," is not a follower of one of the paramount tenents of God.

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 7:12

Has Bush forgotten the Golden Rule or just disgarded it along with ethics and a constistancy in the telling of truth?

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats.

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Bush has Epiphany

2006-09-14T14:32:00.000-05:00

Quoting Digby—quoting Bush, A lot of people in America see this as a confrontation between good and evil, including me," Bush said during a 1 1/2 -hour Oval Office conversation on cultural changes and a battle with terrorists that he sees lasting decades. "There was a stark change between the culture of the '50s and the '60s -- boom -- and I think there's change happening here," he added. "It seems to me that there's a Third Awakening."

Faith? Third Awakening of religious devotion? Folks, with the looting of the national treasury by wealthy corporate-affiliated Americans; the squandering of what was left; the Chinese holding most of the mortgages on our houses; civil liberties curtailed; the decline of American influence in the world; extreme U.S. violence on Iraq; not to mention no money for Medicaid nursing beds, no health insurance for millions, no new schools, falling wages and a standard of living tumbling like lava down a volcano-- in the words of Lou Reed, “you’re going to need a busload of faith to get by.”

I don’t know about all the evil knowing and newly awakened faithful; but I for one believe that I’ve seen the evil and it us. I came to this epiphany without a religious awakening.

William Spier
New York City 9/15/06

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Ex-Texas Gov. Ann Richards dies

2006-09-13T23:55:00.000-05:00

By KELLEY SHANNON, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago

AUSTIN, Texas - Former Gov. Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer, a family spokeswoman said. She was 73.

She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman said. Richards was found to have esophageal cancer in March and underwent chemotherapy treatments.

The silver-haired, silver-tongued Richards said she entered politics to help others — especially women and minorities who were often ignored by Texas' male-dominated establishment.

"I did not want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really clean house.' I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, 'She opened government to everyone,'" Richards said shortly before leaving office in January 1995.

She was governor for one term, losing her re-election bid to Republican George W. Bush.

Her four adult children spent Wednesday with her, said family spokeswoman Cathy Bonner, a longtime family friend.

"They're a strong group of people but they're broken-hearted, of course," Bonner said.

Her family said as governor she was most proud of two actions that probably cost her re-election. She vetoed legislation that would allow people to carry concealed handguns, automatic weapons and so-called "cop-killer bullets."

She also vetoed a bill that critics said would have allowed the destruction of the Edwards Aquifer, a major underground water system that now serves 1.7 million in people in south central Texas, including the city of San Antonio.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry described Richards as "the epitome of Texas politics: a figure larger than life who had a gift for captivating the public with her great wit."

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk said that with Richards' death, "We've lost a little bit of that mystique and that wonderfulness that so captivates the rest of this country about Texas."

She grabbed the national spotlight with her keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention when she was the Texas state treasurer. Richards won cheers from delegates when she reminded them that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, "only backwards and in high heels."

Richards sealed her partisan reputation with a blast at George H. Bush, a fellow Texan who was vice president at the time: "Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

Four years later, she was chairwoman of the Democratic convention that nominated
Bill for president.

Richards rose to the governorship with a come-from-behind victory over millionaire cowboy Clayton Williams in 1990. She cracked a half-century male grip on the governor's mansion and celebrated by holding up a T-shirt that showed the state Capitol and read: "A woman's place is in the dome."

In four years as governor, Richards championed what she called the "New Texas," appointing more women and more minorities to state posts than any of her predecessors.

She appointed the first black University of Texas regent; the first crime victim to join the state Criminal Justice Board; the first disabled person to serve on the human services board; and the first teacher to lead the State Board of Education. Under Richards, the fabled Texas Rangers pinned stars on their first black and female officers.

She polished Texas' image, courted movie producers, championed the North American Free Trade Agreement, oversaw an expansion of the state prison system, and presided over rising student achievement scores and plunging dropout rates.

She took time out to celebrate her 60th birthday by earning her motorcycle driver's license.

Throughout her years in office, her personal popularity remained high. One poll put it at more than 60 percent the year she lost to Bush.

"I may have lost the race," Richards said after the defeat. "But I don't think I lost the good feelings that people have about me in this state. That's tremendously reassuring to me."

Richards went on to give speeches, work as a commentator for CNN and serve as a senior adviser in the New York office of Public Strategies Inc., an Austin-based consulting firm.

In her last 10 years, Richards worked for many social causes and helped develop the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, scheduled to open in Austin in 2007.

"She had a political instinct," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison R-Texas. "I wrote her a note when I heard about her cancer and she wrote me back a wonderful letter. She was upbeat and positive and I think she was going to go out with guns blazing. She's a person that never stopped enjoying whatever there was in life that she could enjoy."

Born in Lakeview, Texas, in 1933, Richards grew up near Waco, married civil rights lawyer David Richards and spent her early adulthood volunteering in campaigns and raising four children. She often said the hardest job she ever had was as a public school teacher at Fulmore Junior High School in Austin.

Richards served on the Travis County Commissioners Court in Austin for six years before jumping to a bigger arena in 1982. Her election as state treasurer made her the first woman elected statewide in nearly 50 years.

But politics took a toll. It helped break up her marriage. And public life forced her to be remarkably candid about her 1980 treatment for alcoholism.

"I had seen the very bottom of life," she once recalled. "I was so afraid I wouldn't be funny anymore. I just knew that I would lose my zaniness and my sense of humor. But I didn't. Recovery turned out to be a wonderful thing."

The 1990 election was rough. Her Democratic primary opponent, then-Attorney General Jim Mattox, accused her of using illegal drugs. Williams, an oilman, banker and rancher, spent millions of his own money on the race she narrowly won.

After her unsuccessful re-election campaign against Bush, Richards said she never missed being in public office.

Asked once what she might have done differently had she known she was going to be a one-term governor, Richards grinned.
"Oh, I would probably have raised more hell."

Survivors include her children, Cecile Richards, Daniel Richards, Clark Richards and Ellen Richards; their spouses; and eight grandchildren.

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Dems criticize NSA over talking points

2006-09-13T16:23:00.000-05:00

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 12, 9:02 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Democrats want the National Security Agency to stick to snooping, not politicking.
The spy agency recently sent the Senate Intelligence Committee a list of approved talking points about its warrantless eavesdropping program. But the panel's seven Democrats bridled, saying in a letter to the agency's director that the document was riddled with "subjective statements that appear intended to advance a particular policy view and present certain facts in the best possible light."
They are accusing the agency of inappropriately engaging in policy debate. Intelligence agencies are supposed to stay out of politics.

The Democrats also say the Bush administration is failing to keep its promise to give the committee all the information it needs to oversee the terrorism surveillance program.

Responding to a growing public debate about government surveillance of international communications, members of Congress asked the NSA what they could say publicly without running afoul of secrecy laws. In July, the agency suggested comments, including:

_"I have personally met the dedicated men and women of the NSA. The country owes them an enormous debt of gratitude for their superb efforts to keep us all secure."

_"I can say that the program must continue. It has detected plots that could have resulted in death or injury to Americans both at home and abroad."

_"It is being run in a highly disciplined way that takes great pains to protect U.S. privacy rights. There is strict oversight in place, both at the NSA and outside, now including the full congressional intelligence committees."

The letter and the NSA's talking points were obtained by The Associated Press.

Lawmakers have been trying to pin down details about the eavesdropping program, including the number of terrorists who have been identified or potential attacks that have been averted.
"I find it outrageous that the administration is encouraging senators to say that the NSA program has been effective in detecting plots in the U.S. and saving lives, while refusing to provide the committee with sufficient evidence to back up that claim," West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the intelligence panel's top Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday.

The seven senators said they haven't been given documents and other basic information, despite an administration promise in May to give the committee complete access. At the time, the White House was trying to secure Senate approval of Gen. Michael Hayden's nomination to be
CIA director. Hayden headed the NSA in 2001 and has been one of the eavesdropping program's chief defenders.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, President Bush ordered the NSA to monitor communications potentially related to al-Qaida between people in the U.S. and overseas. He bypassed normal requirements for court approval of such eavesdropping, and the program came under harsh criticism after it was disclosed in December.

The NSA defended the talking points, which were approved by its director, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander.
"The talking points were intended to be informative and supportive of all the members of our oversight committees in the House and the Senate," said NSA spokesman Don Weber. "They were provided as suggestions as to what could be said in an unclassified forum."

Jim Hensler, the Senate Intelligence Committee's Republican staff director, said members often ask for talking points about highly sensitive programs in the news. He called them an "important mechanism for protecting classified information."

"In this instance, several members of the committee requested the help of the National Security Agency," Hensler said. "As is always the case, members are free to use or not use any part of the NSA's suggested talking points."

William Nolte, a recently retired intelligence veteran who served as the NSA's chief of legislative affairs, said some of the talking points provide "perfectly appropriate" judgments. The NSA, he noted, should provide Congress with technical advice on potential legislative changes.
Yet, "I can understand why the Congress would get annoyed at what it sees as being lectured at on doing its job," said Nolte, a professor at the University of Maryland. Mixing that with substantive legislative issues "may have not been a good thing to do."

In the letter to the NSA, the senators said they were troubled by one statement that argued "current law is not agile enough to handle the threat posed by sophisticated international terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaida."

With Congress engaged in a debate over whether to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the future of the warrantless surveillance program, "we believe that it is inappropriate for the NSA to insert itself into this policy debate," the Democrats wrote.

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Texas court to reconsider DeLay charge

2006-09-13T15:12:00.000-05:00

By APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 13, 11:14 AM ET

AUSTIN, Texas - The state's highest criminal appeals court said Wednesday it would consider reinstating a conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

A Travis County grand jury indicted DeLay and two political consultants last year on charges stemming from Republican fundraising during the 2002 legislative races.

A state district court judge later threw out one of two conspiracy charges. Prosecutors asked the appeals court to reinstate the dropped charge, and the court said Wednesday that it would consider that request.

Judge Pat Priest said he would proceed with DeLay's trial when the appeals process has ended.

DeLay stepped down as majority leader after the charges were filed and announced his resignation from Congress a few months later. He and other Texas Republicans have accused prosecutor Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, of conducting a political vendetta.

"It's just another bump in the road," DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said Wednesday. "I thought they would just refuse to get involved but at the same time, I'm not really shocked by it."
Earle did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.

Both sides will be given time to file their arguments with the Court of Criminal Appeals, which will then set a date for oral arguments. A ruling is not likely to come before next year, said Ed Marty, general counsel to the court.

Prosecutors accuse DeLay and the two consultants of violating state law by funneling $190,000 in illegal corporate money to the Republican National Committee,which then donated the same amount to Texas candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can't be directly used for political campaigns.

DeLay and the consultants, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, say the transaction was legal.
The dispute over the dismissed charge centers on whether the conspiracy statute applied to the state's election code in 2002. DeLay was accused of conspiring to violate the election code, but his attorneys say that transaction was not illegal at the time. DeGuerin says the dropped charge accuses DeLay of conspiring to violate the election code as it stood in 2003.

The other conspiracy count DeLay faces accuses him of conspiring to launder money.

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Terry's Comment: I do wish DeLay would cop a plea by telling all and on everybody involved. There probably would not be enough Republicans left in the House races to hold any kind of majority or even a good sized minority.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats.

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Paper Tiger

2006-09-11T10:43:00.000-05:00

Many years ago I heard the term "Paper Tiger " used to describe the United States of America by a very large country that did and does hold a belligerent stance toward our country on many occasions. Now, there a some very small countries, who, by their rhetoric and actions, believe America is a paper tiger.

The Bush administration is proving it by their track record of fumbling throughout the Iraq occupation. The top officials have constantly reenforced the denigrating term by making statements already proven false and shuffling our military assets around like a kindergarten student trying to figure out how to build a tower of blocks that will stand in place when a weight is placed upon the structure.

Recently a ship sailing from North Korea and on its way to Syria was stopped in Cyprus and found to carry military supplies for shooting down aircraft (Click for cite.) The very fact that this ship and its cargo existed to be found out and stopped in Cyprus proves just how unimpressed the two countries are of the "Paper Tigers" that now control the government of our country.

The only place that the Bush administration and its legislative minions who control the Congress of our country are making tough and violent inroads, successfully, is in slowly taking away the rights of Americans. In point-of-fact, this is the only area in which the Bush administration tactics appear to have any success. They are bringing our country closer and closer to the closed and totalitarian enviroments of the worst of the terrorist supporting countries while bleeding away the strength and lives of our armed forces.

Trry D. Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats.

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Where Are They?

2006-09-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

The Bush administration, and, all its peripheral officials, are putting forth a message anywhere they can get a group together or some free broadcasting time. As if reading from a script they state that the United States has not been attacked since 9/11. Then, they passionately go on to say that many conspiracies to do damage to our country have been thwarted by the diligence of those who work under their leadership.

At that moment, I want to scream out an advertizing phrase that became popular over a decade ago-- "Where's the beef?"

England publically arrests and investigates herds of terrorist conspirators. The Bush administration trots out four they've kept in black prisons and quite possibly tortured.

Where are the public investigations, captures, and trials in this country? They have been few and far between.

Is the Bush administration implying that there are no active terrorist groups in the United States? I would not bet my life on that implication.

However, there is no true oversight from the Republican dominated congress. The Bush administration can make these tinsel statements without any official investigation into them. Why would a Republican want to investigate the veracity of any position or statement that might garner votes in the oncoming election.

If the English "Bobbies" can haul in twenty terrorist suspects in public and start through lawful procedures publicly, why can't the Bush Administration? In my opinion they are spending more of their time investigating and snooping around the public at large, as well as whittling at the Bill of Rights, than they are pursuing terrorists.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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Issues Column: America Came Together after 9/11

2006-09-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

Barbara Ann Radnofsky candidate for the US Senate
Houston, Texas

September 8, 2006 Honoring the anniversary of 9/11 Americans stood in line to donate blood, long after they were told no more blood could be stored. And they still stood in line. Americans wanted to give, they wanted to give of themselves. Everyone wanted to help. We still stand ready and willing to be called upon to help.

Americans are ready to serve their nation in this time of crisis and turmoil. Americans stand ready to help with implementation of a national energy policy that will free us of foreign oil dependence. We stand ready to step forward for our country’s safety and security.

Our government must recommit to our military and veterans' needs, including protective equipment on the battlefield and medical care when our soldiers return. These common sense steps will strengthen our ability to recruit and rebuild our military, and will enhance our military’s effectiveness as a deterrent.

We must honor our commitment to first responders, emergency personnel, and health care providers, and we must build a health care system able to respond to natural disasters as well as man-made attacks. The existence of such a health care system will deter bio-terror, reduce loss of life in a disaster or attack, and build a stronger, healthier America.

America came together after 9-11, and we can do it again.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Seth Davidson
Campaign Manager
email: http://us.f814.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=seth@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-6256

Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Katie Floyd
Communications Director
email: http://us.f814.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=katie.floyd@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-9391
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Report: Texas failing in higher education affordability

2006-09-07T20:53:00.000-05:00

08:56 AM CDT on Thursday, September 7, 2006
Associated Press
HOUSTON - Sending a student to a public university costs low- to middle-income families in Texas almost half of their annual earnings, according to a report released Thursday.
Also Online
Full report (highereducation.org)
The nonprofit, nonpartisan National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education gave the Lone Star State an "F" for higher education affordability. The state also received low grades for its college enrollment numbers and degree completion rates.

"Texas' underperformance in educating its young population could limit the state's access to a competitive work force and weaken its economy over time," the report card concluded.
For state legislators and education leaders, the report echoes what they already know.

"It's a very real threat to the state," said Ray Grasshoff, spokesman for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which advises the Legislature. Without an educated work force, the state will see personal incomes and quality of life drop, and demand on social services jump, he said.

Other findings of the report include:
-- 14 percent of students complete a certificate or degree; Texas' higher education graduation rate is lower than those of the Czech Republic and Hungary
-- a third of high school students are likely to enroll in college by age 19, an improvement for Texas but still low when compared to other states
-- adult whites are more than twice as likely to have a bachelor's degree than nonwhites; this is one of the widest gaps in the country
-- 36 percent of young adult whites are enrolled in higher education, versus 26 percent of nonwhites

"The good news," Grasshoff said, "is that it's not a secret and we're out there doing some things."
The state, for example, created the Texas Grant program for needy students who take college preparation courses in high school. However, Texas doesn't have enough money to award every student who qualifies, so this year, it started accepting private donations to the fund, Grasshoff said.
Texas has made progress in enrolling more students in colleges and universities, but it hasn't made much progress in the numbers of Hispanics, the largest minority group in the state, Grasshoff added. "That's a very big concern across the state."

Democratic Sen. Royce West, who serves on the state Legislature's higher education subcommittee, said he was very disappointed in Texas' performance.
"What it comes down to is whether we're going to prioritize higher education, not just in words but also in our deeds," said West, of Dallas.

The state hasn't kept its promises to make college more affordable. hasn't aligned its high school and college curriculums and hasn't figured out why students are dropping out, he added.
As the population changes, higher education has to change with it, West said. If minorities aren't represented in universities' leadership it will be difficult to understand the perspectives and meet the challenges of minority groups, he said.

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Terry's Comment: Most everybody knows about this situation, but the Republicans that control most all the state offices are too busy lauding their education programs for our youngsters to take any time to check out actual facts of how things are going in Texas education.

I just discovered another thing our Republican Legistlature and Governor piled on us while patting themselves on the back. CBS 42 found out a convicted sexual predator was not allowed to register with the Hutto Police Department. It seems the legistlature wrote, and, the governor okayed, a law that convicted sexual predators who move here to Texas from another state do not have to register.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Modertor: Lone_Star_Democrats

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September 6 1972 -- Islamic Terrorism

2006-09-06T00:55:00.000-05:00

I just want to make the point that terrorism by Islamic groups is nothing new. Nixon was already embroiled in Vietnam and did little about the Black September group in 1972, though messages were intercepted that American airplanes were to be blown up.

Terrorism can never be destroyed or completely defeated because it isn't a place, or a nation, it is individuals and small radical groups that decide they are going to hurt the huge entities with which they disagree.

Please read the document to the left of my words. It was written exactly 34 years before I decided to write this small essay.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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U.S. & Coalition Deaths In Iraq

2006-09-05T22:40:00.000-05:00

There have been 2,883 coalition deaths, 2,654 Americans, two Australians, 117 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 31 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, four Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of September 5, 2006, according to a CNN count.

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Extended Brigade Suffers Casualty

2006-09-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Tue Sep 5, 5:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Army brigade whose year-long tour of duty in Iraq was extended by the Pentagon last month just as the soldiers were beginning to return home has suffered its first death since taking on the extra duty.

The Pentagon on Tuesday announced the death of Staff Sgt. Eugene H.E. Alex, 32, of Bay City, Mich. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade, from Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

Click here to read the rest of article.
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Terry's Comment: The Republicans can now truthfully say that military personnel sent to Iraq are not being sent to a Vietnam type war. In Vietnam, if you made three-sixty-five alive you were on your way back to the world.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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Former soldiers begin anti-Bush demonstration in Washington

2006-09-05T20:59:00.000-05:00

Former soldiers begin anti-Bush demonstration in Washington Tue Sep 5, 3:06 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former soldiers and parents of Americans fighting in Iraq opened anti-war, anti-Bush "Camp Democracy" in the heart of Washington, a demonstration planned to last several weeks.

After spending early August near President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, and the end of the month at his family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, the protesters set up camp in the US capital between the Congress building and the White House.

Started by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, "Camp Democracy" will welcome pacifists, Democratic lawmakers, union leaders, environmentalists, feminists and those fighting for immigrants' rights.

Five tents will be open until at least September 21 for panels, protests and press conferences.

Click here to read entire article.
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Terry's Comment: Every day it's deja Vu for folks 50 and over. It seems like Americans like to pitch tents in Washington D.C. when they're trying to get a war stopped where Americans' deaths accomplish little and our troops are looked on more as occupiers than liberators.

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CAMPAIGN WATCH

2006-09-02T19:31:00.000-05:00

Bell: Anti-abortion law won't fly

Democratic candidate for governor Chris Bell said Friday that he would veto proposed attempts to pre-emptively outlaw abortion in Texas in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

A Houston-area candidate for the state Senate has promised to propose a so-called trigger law during the next legislative session.

"I would veto that," Bell told The Associated Press. "I think the majority of Texans are still pro-choice. I don't think they're pro-abortion, but they understand that there are instances where that very painful choice is going to have to be made."

Bell is facing Republican Gov. Rick Perry, independents Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, and Libertarian James Werner.

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Colorado GOP clash lingers

2006-09-01T21:41:00.000-05:00

By JENNIFER TALHELM, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 1, 4:44 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Republican infighting persists in Colorado more than three weeks after an ugly primary, raising Democrats' hopes in a district that should be a GOP slam-dunk.

Backed by religious conservatives, state Sen. Doug Lamborn won the crowded Aug. 8 primary for an open House seat in the Colorado Springs area. Republican Rep. Joel Hefley (news, bio, voting record), a lawmaker with a penchant for unpredictability, has decided to retire after 10 terms.

The campaign was bitter. Groups backing Lamborn targeted his chief rival, Jeff Crank, a favorite of the business community and a former aide to Hefley. One mailer from the Colorado Christian Coalition accused Crank of "public support for members and efforts of the homosexual agenda."

Nearly a month later, the hard feelings linger, with Lamborn's opponents trying to draft Hefley to run as a write-in candidate.

Click here to read entire article.

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Terry's comment
The Right wing Republicans trot out their sleaze factor again.

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Hutchison not planning on September debate

2006-09-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

By SUZANNE GAMBOA

Associated Press Advertisement

WASHINGTON — The room is booked and the invitations sent for a debate among the competitors for a Texas seat in the U.S. Senate. But the incumbent, Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, has not RSVPed.

The Dallas Women Lawyers Association invited Hutchison and her challengers to a Sept. 29 debate, hoping to piggyback on a newspaper editorial board meeting that would bring all three candidates to Dallas that day.

But so far only Hutchison's challengers, Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston attorney, and Libertarian Scott Jameson, a Plano real estate agent, have said they'll be there.

Hutchison has said she would debate this fall. But as the front-runner and incumbent seeking a third six-year term, she has the flexibility to pick the time and place.

Campaign press secretary James Bernsen said Hutchison hasn't committed to the debate because the Senate will be in session. "We have to keep that day free for the session," said Bernsen, adding that the editorial board meeting had not been scheduled.

Congress returns from its August break Sept. 8 and is expected to meet through the last week of September.

House and Senate members usually leave Washington and return to their districts on Thursdays. The debate is on a Friday.

But occasionally, the House and Senate will stay through the end of the week or work through a weekend to finish up last-minute business.

Possible issues the Senate could address are defense and homeland security appropriations, terrorism prosecutions, surveillance programs, port security and the appointments of a couple of circuit judges.

Hutchison still is working to get approval of a compromise Dallas and Fort Worth reached on the Wright Amendment, a law that restricts long-haul flights out of Dallas Love Field. She also has sponsored an immigration bill, although little is expected to happen on immigration before the elections.

Since winning the Democratic primary, Radnofsky has goaded Hutchison to a faceoff on the issues.

"She's afraid, flat out, she's afraid," Radnofsky said today.

Radnofsky was recruited by the University of Houston's debate program when she was 15 and competed on the national debate circuit during college, her campaign office said.

Rachel Montes, the Dallas Women Lawyers Association president, said the group has tried several times to schedule the debate but has run into scheduling conflicts, mostly with Hutchison.

She said the group is waiting to hear from Hutchison.

"We wanted to create an opportunity for the voters to be able to hear all of the candidates," Montes said.

On the Web

Dallas Women Lawyers Association:

http://www.dallaswomenlawyers.org

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Pentagon moves toward monitoring media

2006-09-01T14:59:00.000-05:00

Terry's comment: The first thing a totalitarian Government does is monitor and attempt to control the press. Then the totalitarian Government uses ridicule and denunciation. If this does not work to their advantage they move to in the final stages. The totalitarian Government takes away all freedom of speech and the press using force.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats
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MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Business Writer
Thu Aug 31, 10:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media.

Proposals, due Sept. 6, ask companies to show how they'll "provide continuous monitoring and near-real time reporting of Iraqi, pan-Arabic, international, and U.S. media," according to the solicitation issued last week.

Contractors also will be evaluated on how they will provide analytical reports and customized briefings to the military, "including, but not limited to tone (positive, neutral, negative) and scope of media coverage."

Click here to read the whole article.

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Democrats accuse Rumsfeld of political smear

2006-08-31T11:24:00.000-05:00

By Will Dunham
Wed Aug 30, 7:31 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats accused Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday of a political smear after he assailed critics of U.S. policy in Iraq and the war on terrorism in a speech recalling those who favored appeasing the Nazis before World War Two.

"If Mr. Rumsfeld is so concerned with comparisons to World War Two, he should explain why our troops have now been fighting in Iraq longer than it took our forces to defeat the Nazis in Europe," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) of California, House of Representatives Democratic Leader.

"Desperate to divert attention from his many failures as Defense Secretary, Rumsfeld is resorting to tactics that would make Joe McCarthy proud," added Rep. Pete Stark of California, referring to the disgraced Republican senator who with scant evidence accused many Americans of being Communists or sympathizers in the 1950s.

Click here to read enttire article.
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Terry's Comment:
If you apply Rumsfeld's logic to the years before World War two, the United States would presumably have stopped Hitler by invading Hungary.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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Taxpayers Pay For Bush's Campaign Travel

2006-08-31T07:54:00.000-05:00

President Bush steps off of Air Force One after arriving Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006 in Waco, Texas. Bush will spend the night at his nearby Crawford, Texas ranch. (AP Photo/Duane A. Laverty)

By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press Writer | August 30, 2006

WASHINGTON --Bankrolled almost entirely by taxpayers, President Bush is roaming far and wide on Air Force One to help Republicans retain control of Congress and capture statehouse contests in high-stakes midterm elections.

In 15 months, including back-to-back fundraisers Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark., and Nashville, Tenn., Bush has collected $166 million for the campaign accounts of 27 Republican candidates, the national GOP and its state counterparts across the country, according to the Republican National Committee.

High-dollar Washington galas headlined by the fundraiser-in-chief brought in a big share of the total. The president also has scooped up campaign cash in 36 cities, travels that have taken him as near as McLean, Va., in the Washington suburbs and as far as Medina, Wash., 2,800 miles to the west. On Thursday, Bush adds yet another locale to the list: Salt Lake City.

All this to-and-fro presidential politicking is only expected to increase as November draws closer. And it is the taxpayers, not the campaigns or political parties, who foot most of the travel bill.

Click here to read entire article.

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The Cost In Coalition Lives For Bush's Iraq War

2006-08-29T14:21:00.000-05:00

There have been 2,860 coalition deaths, 2,633 Americans, two Australians, 115 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 31 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, four Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of August 29, 2006, according to a CNN count.

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From: "Hillary Rodham Clinton"

2006-08-29T14:10:00.000-05:00

Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:49:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Hillary Rodham Clinton"
To: slotdb@yahoo.com
Subject: Remembering Katrina

Dear Terry,

It's been one year since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, leaving unprecedented devastation in its wake. The nation watched with horror as floodwaters filled the streets of New Orleans. We saw residents breaking through to their roofs to get to safety and crowding into the Superdome just to survive.

And we wondered how we could leave so many people up on those rooftops, wading through toxic water, and waiting in their homes to die. How could we have failed them so completely?

I remember traveling to Texas with my husband soon after the storm to visit with many of those who were evacuated. As I listened to their stories, the pain in their eyes was unmistakable. These were our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans -- and our government failed them.

A year later, the results are still unacceptable. Contracts for rebuilding are going out to big corporations with ties to the administration while the people who live in the Gulf Coast are being shut out of opportunities. We saw people evicted from hotels and clamoring for housing while 10,000 trailers sat unused at an Arkansas airport. FEMA has already wasted $1.4 billion, with much of the money it spends still not getting to those who need it most.

Our government needs to step up and do a better job.

Katrina must be more than a tragedy -- it must be a call to justice. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." As we remember Katrina a year later, we must remind all Americans that justice matters, equality matters, the truth matters, and every single American life matters.

We need to build a better nation from the destruction left in Katrina's wake, one where we no longer leave our fellow citizens behind, not only when disaster strikes but from the everyday tragedies of poverty and injustice, from a lack of opportunity and the absence of hope.

We have much to do -- you and I -- to make sure those in power do what needs to be done. Let us make sure that there is hope, that there is a future out of the destruction. No one should ever be left out or left behind, so let us remember on this fateful anniversary and help build a better nation for every American.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

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What would Lyndon do?

2006-08-28T16:09:00.000-05:00

Houston, Texas

August 28, 2006 Radnofsky salutes President Johnson

On the birthday of President Lyndon B. Johnson, we should ask, "What would this great schoolteacher, congressman, and senator from the state of Texas say today?"
He would teach the importance and describe the long-term impact of successful, shoestring-budget programs reducing poverty, providing educational opportunities, and enhancing healthcare for the people of Texas.

Would President Johnson have approved of the theft of private property to support a corrupt series of tolled highways benefiting only private industry and consuming water in quantities our drought-ridden state can never afford?

Would he tolerate the strangulation of college loan programs while his state suffered the number one dropout rate in the nation?

Would he countenance the privatization of Social Security, and twisting Medicare for our seniors into a giveaway for drug companies?

No. He would not.

He would emphasize the importance of health care, economic security, and attention to domestic wellbeing as the necesssary base for fighting terror organizations and taking our place among nations.

He would say that it is only with a working healthcare system and the completion of Medicare as originally envsioned that the country can respond to natural and manmade disasters, thus deterring bioterrorism and other destructive acts perpetrated on us by our enemies.

He would say that only through elimination of our dependence on foreign energy and foreign capital, and elimination of our $500 billlion debt to China that we can free ourselves from a country our president and congress have asked to handle our national security negotiations with North Korea. We cannot be weak and submissive as China manipulates its currency and dumps steel on our markets while the U.S. stands by helplessly.

Happy birthday Mr. President. Your leadership and patriotism are sorely missed.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Texas

Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Seth Davidson
Campaign Manager
email: seth@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-6256 Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Katie Floyd
Communications Director
email: katie.floyd@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-9391

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John Courage Knows What He Sees

2006-08-27T13:19:00.000-05:00

Democrats hold ranch pep rally

By Jessica Sanders
The Herald-Zeitung

Published August 27, 2006

John Courage, Democratic candidate for Texas’ U.S. District 21 representative, said politics are a little like a fairy tale sometimes.

“I feel like Dorothy in Oz — (President) Bush needs a brain, (Vice President Dick) Cheney needs a heart and Washington needs Courage,” he said to resounding applause.

Party faithful gathered at the Canyon Lake Ranch, 1610 FM 484, to support this year’s Democratic candidates and discuss changes they hope to see at the state and local level.

Courage said, if he ousts Republican incumbent Lamar Smith, he will work to simplify Medicare, improve environmental policies and encourage alternative energy sources such as wind power. He said he also looks forward to the day when Democrats will be better represented in Congress.

Maria Luisa Alvarado, Democratic candidate for Texas lieutenant governor against Republican incumbent David Dewhurst, said both parties will have a fair chance to be heard if she is elected, as she has no personal allegiances with either party.

“I think that voters and legislators are tired of all the games, that you have to know people to get things done,” she said. “I have no allegiances except to the people — I would come in with a clean slate.”

Kathi Thomas, a candidate for the Texas Senate’s District 25, said she also would bring a fresh perspective to Austin.

“I’m a ticked-off mom,” said Thomas, a former teacher who is competing against Republican incumbent Jeff Wentworth. “I would like to bring more funding to vocational education and get teachers involved in education reform. They know a lot more than legislators think.”

Thomas said that many ideas, such as preserving natural resources, improving education and making insurance more accessible, are universal goals for everyone in government.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who is challenging Republican incumbent Kay Bailey Hutchison for U.S. Senate, agreed that many Republicans are beginning to move toward the Democratic way of thinking in areas such as health care and international trade.

For example, she said, people from both parties agree that the United States has become dependent on the Middle East for fuel and on China because of outsourcing.

“What we need is a minimum wage that keeps workers here in good spirit,” she said. “We need to remember that the money they spend is worth just as much as the money millionaires keep in the bank.”

Hank Gilbert, a candidate for Texas agricultural commissioner, said Texas also needs to refocus on domestic products instead of imported foods. He is also against the Trans-Texas Corridor.

“I want to stimulate the Texas agriculture agency through programs that get the young people back into agriculture,” he said. “My opponent (Republican Todd Staples) is using this post as a stepping stone. My only goal is to represent and encourage Texas agriculture.”

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Just for a good laugh--we all need one.

2006-08-25T17:58:00.000-05:00

Subject: Camping in Iraq to prove a point.

George Bush and Senator McCain went camping in the Iraqi desert surrounded by American trained Iraqi police and American trained Iraqi Soldiers. After they got their tent all set up, both men fell sound asleep, having been assured by Rumsfeldt, before leaving Washington, that the Iraqi Troops were almost as good as American Troops and police.

Some hours later, McCain woke up Bush and said, "Mr. President., please wake up." Then McCain looked toward the sky and continued, "What do you see?"

Bush replied, "Why, I see millions of stars. It's almost as good as bein' back home on the ranch in Crawford."

"What does that tell you?" asked McCain.

Bush cogitates and ponders for a minute then says, "Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the morning. Theologically, the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Now ain't that just somethin'? And them damn Liberal Democrats think I ain't got it all up here." He taps the side of his head and grins as he asks McCain, "What's it tell you?"

McCain immediately responded "You are dumber then buffalo shit, George. Somebody stole the tent!

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Iraq looting portends handover trouble

2006-08-25T16:44:00.000-05:00

By HAIDAR HANI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 12 minutes ago

AMARAH, Iraq - Iraqis looted a military base vacated by British troops and stripped it of virtually everything removable on Friday, an indication of possible future trouble for U.S.-led coalition forces hoping to hand over security gradually to the Iraqi government.

Men, some with their faces covered, ripped corrugated metal from roofs, carried off metal pipes and backed trucks into building entrances to load them with wooden planks. Many also took away doors and window frames from Camp Abu Naji.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

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Now, What's that all the Republicans are talking about? About how the Iraqi army and police have made so much progress?

BUT, isn't this the same kind of looting that took place right after the "coalition" forces took the surrender of the Iraqi army and dispersed it.

Something of a paradox here.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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Radnofsky to Hutchison: Its a federal issue

2006-08-25T16:27:00.000-05:00

Houston, Texas
August 25, 2006

Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate Barbara Ann Radnofsky responded today to her opponents claims about immigration being a local issue.

When my opponent said through her spokesman that immigration enforcement was a local issue, I strenuously disagreed. We need to recognize that immigration is a federal not a local issue."

Sen. Hutchison believes that we should deal with immigration by shifting costs and enforcement onto local government. Her first wacky proposal took volunteer peace officers with no coordination or border patrol training, and would have had them serve as border patrol, depriving communities of their law enforcement with no compensation. Communities, clergy, and individuals all protested the harms of the bill, which she defended by emphasizing that, since it was voluntary, no one need comply. This must be one of the few times in history that a legislator has proposed a solution to a problem and then defended its flaws by saying, in essence, just kidding.

In a senate floor speech on October 5, Sen. Hutchison explained her philosophy on immigration as a local issue: Enforcing the laws of our country should not be confined to federal authorities when the illegal behavior specifically impacts the state and local communities.i This philosophy would turn every federal issue into a local obligation, and Hutchisons camp took it even farther by saying that immigration enforcement becomes a local obligation even when dealing with priority sites involving national security."ii

My opponents dangerous, unworkable, and radical approach to immigration has been followed up by underfunding the states immigration efforts, strapping Texas overburdened taxpayers, law enforcement, and communities even as her proposals saddle them with limitless enforcement responsibilities. Sen. Hutchison failed to secure a fair share of enforcement and incarceration dollars for Texas, with its long border and the nations worst problem with illegal immigration, garnering only a fraction of the $405 million in State Criminal Alien assistance payments despite the states overwhelming need."iii

I continue to emphasize that we need to stop targeting legal trade and instead target drugs, security, and illegal trade. We need a valid system of workplace enforcement laws, and greater federal funding and responsibilities for immigration. My opponent wants none of these things, and she lacks the ability to put her latest wacky self-deportation idea into a bill and test it in the legislative process. She is mindful that her own party doesnt support this unworkable proposal and that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff distanced himself from self-deportation by refusing to endorse it.iv

See Radnofskys issues chart on her website for details on proposal, positions, and her opponents record on immigration.

i. Congressional Record, October 5, 2005, S 1823
ii. Brownsville Herald, December 18, 2005. This story quoted spokesman Chris Paulitz speaking for Hutchison, dismissing work site enforcement, even at the priority locations involving national security, as not the issue, and when asked about the estimated 11 million undocumented people already in the country, Paulitz said work site enforcement was a local issue.
iii. Dallas Morning News, November 27, 2005r
iv. August 25, 2006, World Net Daily

Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Seth Davidson
Campaign Manager
email: seth@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-6256 Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Katie Floyd
Communications Director
email: katie.floyd@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-9391
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Hmmm, everyone should read my previous message on the subject.
Ms. Radnofsky got a good start, but doesn't take it quite far enough.

Hutcheson, of course, will go along with whatever big business tells her. That means status Quo and let the cheap labor alone except for some good sound and video shots of a few dozen illegals getting shuffled back across the border.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrat

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Immigration and Rhetoric

2006-08-25T11:14:00.000-05:00

The Immigrants aren't the problem.

Surprised I said that?

I've got a good reason.

As Long as a person can receive a great deal more money for their labor in any location than the one in which they currently reside they are going to move toward the money.

I'm fed up with the "stop the immigrants" political rhetoric. If there weren't jobs, they wouldn't cross borders. I don't care about the "needed stoop labor" moaning of many of our business sectors. As long as the jobs are there, people wanting a better life are going to get around any wall or patrol.

Let's take advantage of the immutable truth I've stated above. Have the government issue licenses to businesses and even private citizens who wish to hire illegal immigrants without having to pay social security or have any later stigma attached to their act.

Each license would have a monthly fee of $100 per illegal employee (quite reasonable.) The license would clearly state that the holder employer must withhold income tax from the employees paycheck and forward that money to the IRS, monthly, using the License number.

Most importantly, not having a license for each employee must carry large fines and possible criminal action. This must be stated on each license as well as being on the law books.

Anyone have a better idea?

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

p>
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Texas Judge Renews Criticism In Case of Missing Silicosis X-Rays

2006-08-24T15:38:00.000-05:00

August 24, 2006 Edition > Section: National

By JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the New York Sun
August 24, 2006

A federal judge assigned to oversee litigation regarding a lung disease, silicosis, is again criticizing the attorney general of Texas for seizing thousands of X-rays that are key to the cases.

"The Office of the Texas Attorney General's disregard of this court's orders may demonstrate an unfamiliarity with the United States Constitution," Judge Janis Jack of Corpus Christi wrote in an order dated Tuesday. "The Texas Attorney General had no authority, even if sanctioned by a Texas state court, to remove documents … without the permission of this court."

The clash between Judge Jack and the Texas prosecutor, Greg Abbott, was first reported by The New York Sun.

On June 23, armed investigators from Mr. Abbott's office used a county grand jury subpoena to seize thousands of X-rays and other records gathered by Judge Jack from silicosis lawsuits across the country. Judge Jack said many of the suits were fraudulently "manufactured" by attorneys and a small group of physicians.

Mr. Abbott's office claims it returned all the records after learning of Judge Jack's ire, but a court-ordered tally determined that 152 X-rays were missing. The manager of the company storing the records for the court found them in some disarray after the seizure, the Corpus Christi Times reported yesterday.

Judge Jack ordered Mr. Abbott to identify the staff members responsible for the seizure and to provide a full accounting of who had access to the records while they were out of the court's control.

A spokesman for Mr. Abbott, Jerry Strickland, said detailed affidavits about the handling of the records were already filed and that there were indications that records were of missing even before the Texas officials became involved. "Every document obtained by this office was returned," the spokesman said.

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I do wonder why this news story got more play in New York than it has in Texas.

Money Maybe?

Or, who is getting the money?

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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Chris Bell on Fighting the Trans Texas Corridor

2006-08-24T13:20:00.000-05:00

In 2001, state Comptroller Carole Strayhorn officially recommended that Texas “build more toll roads” all across the state. In 2003, Rick Perry took her up on that recommendation when he rammed through the bill creating the Trans Texas Corridor, a $184 billion land grab that will go down as one of the largest boondoggles in our state’s history. The toll road plan recommended by Strayhorn and passed by Perry will destroy almost 1.5 million acres of prime farmland and will strip Texas landowners of over 150 square miles of privately owned property. All so that Rick Perry could hand out billions of dollars in sweetheart deals to some of his biggest campaign contributors.

I think it’s time we applied something as radical as common sense to this debacle.

Common sense tells us that awarding billion-dollar contracts to major contributors and revolving-door lobbyists just flat out smells. Common sense tells us that it doesn’t pay to pave over millions of acres of some of the world’s richest agricultural land. And common decency tells us that it’s just plan wrong for the government to seize hundreds of square miles of private land and give it to a foreign corporation looking to make a profit on the backs of Texas commuters.

The Trans Texas Corridor is a case study in corruption and cronyism, and one of my first acts as governor would be slamming the brakes on the whole plan and dragging it back into the public light. This deal would never hold up in the light of day. This is corruption you could see from space. Rick Perry just can’t justify giving billion dollar sweetheart deals to his largest contributors. And Carole Strayhorn can pound the podium as loudly as she wants, but she can’t change the fact that it was her staunch and vocal support of toll roads that helped put this ball in motion in the first place. Our leaders have sold us out to the highest bidder, and we need new leaders in Austin if we want to get serious about ending the culture of corruption and cleaning up the Capitol.
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Posted by Terry D. Barhorst
Moderator Lone_Star_Democrats

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Radnofsky Responds to Opponent's Immigration Tour

2006-08-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

Houston, Texas
August 24, 2006
Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Texas, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, responded to her opponent’s immigration tour to the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Radnofsky: “My proposals for immigration reform are serious and workable and are described in detail on my issues chart at www.radnofsky.com. My opponent’s latest ‘self-deportation’ plan is unworkable and unrealistic. Illegal immigrants in this country will not self-deport simply because Sen. Hutchison asks them to. Her wacky partial-fencing proposal has been criticized by head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, who labeled fencing, ‘phenomenally expensive’ and noted in a Dec. 2, 2005 AP story that ‘it wouldn't be particularly effective.’ Her idea for a border wall with holes in it was called a waste of money by her hometown newspaper, the Dallas Morning News.

“Chertoff pointedly noted that this visit to Texas did not mean he endorses my opponent’s plan, and he was dismissive of her round-em-up strategy in 2005, saying ‘The cost of identifying all those people and sending them back would be stupendous. It would be billions and billions of dollars.’”

Radnofsky continued: “We must develop a comprehensive strategy that encourages rather than discourages legal trade between Mexico and Texas, recognizing the harms created by short-sighted trade agreements. NAFTA and CAFTA have attracted millions of illegal immigrants into this country. The U.S. has lost 3 million jobs in manufacturing alone since NAFTA’s passage—one in 6 jobs in that sector. NAFTA supporters claimed that the deal would create a $9 billion trade surplus with Mexico within two years. However the US actually built a $15 billion trade deficit with Mexico in that time period—a figure that has more than doubled in ensuing years."

“Integrated homeland security must train and equip first responders to manage the consequences of disasters and attack, and adopt health care reforms to deter bio-terror attacks, strengthen public health systems and require cooperation and communication between federal/state/local entities and the private sector. Piecemeal, poorly planned, grandstanding wacky proposals like those offered by my opponent do nothing to promote security or progress.”

Radnofsky’s proposals and positions on immigration are detailed on the campaign issues chart on the web site, www.radnofsky.com.

References:Associated Press, December 2, 2005
Fox News, November 28, 2005

Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Seth Davidson
Campaign Manager
email: seth@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-6256
Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Katie Floyd
Communications Director
email: katie.floyd@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-9391

Other links:

Lawmaker wants limits on contributions waived

2006-08-23T15:48:00.000-05:00

By SUZANNE GAMBOAAssociated Press

-->
WASHINGTON — A Texas congressman wants limits on campaign contributions waived for some of his donors now that his district was declared unconstitutional and his primary voided.
U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, is seeking his eighth term in a competitive Nov. 7 special election that already has drawn two Democratic challengers. His re-election in District 23 became less certain in June when the Supreme Court ruled the 2003 Legislature violated Hispanics' voting rights when it redrew his district.

Donors can give a maximum $2,100 per election and some of had already reached that limit. But Bonilla says tallies should be restarted as though the donors who've given the maximum had never given him any money. The Federal Election Commission scheduled a meeting Aug. 29 to consider his question.

Click Here for entire Article.

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Terry's Comment: Bonilla's Republican donors have already given him a War chest far larger than his Democratic opponents have. I do wonder if these donors are aware of the fact that Bonilla might be building himself a retirement cache to use after he loses.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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Bush seeks better health care cost info

2006-08-22T17:34:00.000-05:00

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 22, 11:49 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Customers shop around when they buy an airline ticket or a new car, so why not when they need a hip replacement or treatment for a sore throat? An executive order being signed Tuesday by President Bush is designed to help people make more informed decisions about doctors and hospitals.

Click her to read whole article.

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Somebody needs to clue Bush into reality again. Those that don't have Insurance can hardly afford ANY health care. Those lucky enough to have Insurance are limited to the insurance companys' pet doctors and Hospitals.

So, what's the point?

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

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$46 million in dedicated funds held up

2006-08-22T07:52:00.000-05:00

By R.A. DYER
STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU
AUSTIN — An additional $46 million in dedicated hunting and fishing fees has been withheld from the cash-strapped Texas parks system by state lawmakers, despite pleas from an agency facing scores of layoffs, deteriorating facilities and the proposed sale of 400 acres of parkland near Fort Worth, top park officials said Monday.

Lawmakers and Gov. Rick Perry have already come under fire for withholding funds generated from the sale of specialty conservation license plates and for capping a sporting goods tax dedicated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Parks and wildlife officials say the $46 million can’t be spent directly on parks but only on game wardens, law enforcement and other activities related to wildlife preservation. Agency officials have requested much of the unappropriated money from legislative budget writers, but so far the requests have gone unheeded.

“We have asked for a little extra help,” said Gene McCarty, deputy executive director of the agency. “We have a lot of vehicles that need to be replaced. . . . I have a real obligation to keep my people in decent equipment to respond to needs.”

The latest revelations come after recent Star-Telegram findings that park facilities are closed and operations have been curtailed throughout the 600,000-acre system — all the result of financial neglect by Texas lawmakers.

The unspent $46 million is part of a state fund that includes revenue from hunting and fishing licenses, boat registration fees and federal taxes on hunting and fishing gear. About $90 million from state sources flows into the fund each year, plus millions more from federal sources.

The Legislature has used some of that money to help shore up the agency’s $155 million annual budget. However, lawmakers also have held part of it back each year in an apparent accounting maneuver to help balance the state’s overall budget — leaving the $46 million balance.

An official with the Texas comptroller’s office said the practice is common in state government.

A top legislative budget writer recently told the Star-Telegram that the practice probably will continue. “We will be looking at all of these dedicated accounts next session,” said state Rep. Jim Pitts, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.

Meanwhile, the stewardship of public lands continued to roil the Texas governor’s race Monday, with Democratic challenger Chris Bell calling for Perry to take money from a special business fund he controls and use it on parks.

Bell also accused the Republican governor and the Legislature of playing a “shell game” by not appropriating the unused parks and wildlife funds.

“It’s our money and not using it for the stated purpose is fraud,” Bell said. “Sportsmen are some of the best conservationists that Texas has, and they gladly pay that money because they think it goes to fund game wardens and hunting and fishing areas.”

But a spokesman for Perry said the governor also opposes diverting dedicated funds. “He believes that if the Legislature is going to have a dedicated fund for a special purpose, then the money should go to that purpose or the tax should go away,” said spokesman Robert Black.

Black also rejected the call by Bell to redirect money from the governor’s business fund, known as the Texas Enterprise Fund, to use on parks. Perry has spent millions from the fund to lure businesses to Texas.

Black said Perry wants to find extra money for parks when the Legislature convenes in January, but not from the Enterprise Fund. “It sounds like Chris Bell wants to cut off his nose to spite his face — he wants to sacrifice job creation for parks,” said Black.

Bell also criticized Perry for the proposed sale of 400 acres of parkland at Eagle Mountain Lake near Fort Worth. Bell called for a moratorium on the sale or privatization of all parkland at least until the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Perry authorized the Eagle Mountain sale in a letter from his office Dec. 19. As a condition, Perry’s budget director said that all proceeds must go back to the parks department and that the agency must maintain mineral rights.

But Bell said that given the track record of Perry and the Legislature, he doesn’t put much faith in that pledge. “Where’s the guarantee?” asked Bell.

A spokeswoman for the governor said Perry consented to the Eagle Mountain Lake sale only after the property went unused for several years. When asked whether the governor still supports it, she said the decision is now up to Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson.

But spokeswoman Kathy Walt also said “the governor is interested in hearing all the options from the local community, from the parks commission . . . and that ultimately a decision that is in the best interest of the state and the community that uses the parks land in that area is reached.”

A spokesman for Patterson said the agency may still find a buyer for all or part of the Fort Worth property, although the transaction has been put on hold temporarily at the request of Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Joseph Fitzsimons, who has asked for a 120-day delay.

Fitzsimons said he requested the postponement to work out a possible deal to preserve the Eagle Mountain Lake property as a park.
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Well,
Hairy Perry is at it again. It the old Republican Hoorah for profits and to Hell with the Texas people.

Chris Bell appears to be the only candidate with enough gumption to confront Perry and the Republican dominated Legistlature on this issue.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats.

Other links:

A quick correction of G.W.BUSH

2006-08-21T20:03:00.000-05:00

In his usual addled way, Bush got it wrong again today.

I Quote Mr. Bush: "The Iraq war is "straining the psyche of our country" but leaving now would be a disaster."

In truth, the invasion of Iraq was the disaster.

What people throughout the grief ridden country of Iraq and our own are experiencing now is the aftermath of that ignorant rush to military action. The Psyche--meaning soul or spirit--of our country is being placed in jeopardy by an administration that holds Power and Profit in much higher regard than any need for soul or spirit.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

Other links:

Perry's road revolution could take electoral toll

2006-08-21T12:37:00.000-05:00

Governor emphasis on tollways, private road-builders has generated urban and rural unrest
By Ben WearAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFSunday, August 20, 2006

An earlier version of this story contained an error. Go to our Corrections page for a full explanation.
Rick Perry's political problem with transportation, to the extent that he has one, may be that he's trying to douse a fire in 2006 that won't ignite for another 10 to 20 years.

Duane A. LavertyWACO TRIBUNE HERALD
(enlarge photo)
Gubernatorial rival Carole Keeton Strayhorn, speaking last month in Waco at a public hearing on Trans-Texas Corridor-35, doesn't mince words on the issue: 'I will not as governor support a toll road.'

Rodolfo GonzalezAMERICAN-STATESMAN
As governor, Rick Perry is shifting how Texas pays for new roads: not with taxes but with tolls and private road operators. 'If someone has a better idea . . . please lay out that plan,' he says.
His critics say, no, the problem is that Perry wants to charge us for the water.

What isn't in dispute is that the Republican governor and his appointees over the past six years have turned Texas transportation on its head, moving the state from financing public roads solely with taxes to a system that would be heavily dependent on tolls and private road operators.
What has this revolution in transportation policy earned Perry, who faces re-election this fall? Well, precious few plaudits from the general public, although the business community and the road construction industry have been solidly in his corner.

His policies have birthed several grass-roots groups committed to snuffing out Perry's toll plans and, while they're at it, his political career. The nascent Trans-Texas Corridor twin to Interstate 35, and the prospect that thousands of acres would have to be purchased to build it, have taken an undetermined chunk out of Perry's natural base of support in agricultural Texas.
And the Perry transportation agenda has handed his three principal challengers a hefty political club to wield as they campaign for his job.

"That's why you don't see a lot of big changes in public policy, because they are risky," said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the California-based Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank. "It may be that the general public isn't yet persuaded that this is a crisis. In day-to-day, average-person political terms, traffic congestion may not be bad enough yet."
Perry, with his famously well-coiffed look and perfectly tailored suits, surely doesn't look the part of a revolutionary, and he rejects that characterization. But he acknowledges that transportation is the area where he made the most "wide-sweeping" changes.

Perry declared the gasoline tax a lame duck, dismissing talk of raising it. Perry and his allies decreed that all new road projects would be evaluated for tolls. They contemplated slapping tolls on existing roads, then backed off after a public outcry.

Perry in early 2002 outlined what seemed to be a pie-in-the-sky plan for 4,000 miles of rural toll roads called the Trans-Texas Corridor. After hearing people scoff for more than two years, Perry introduced some Spaniards who said they'd spend $7.2 billion on the first 300-mile piece, including a $1.2 billion payment to the state. And Perry's Department of Transportation declared Texas "open for business," inviting private companies — foreign or domestic — to privately finance and operate the next generation of Texas expressways and railroads.

Read the complete article at: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/20transgov.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=52

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Terry's Comment: If everyone hasn't figured it out already, the above is another representative article on the Republican Party stance and their "P over P" heritage. "P over P" = Profit over People.

Terry D Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

Other links:

Zachry Complains to Radnofsky Campaign

2006-08-20T15:44:00.002-05:00

Houston, Texas
August 20, 2006

Zachry Construction Complains to Radnofsky Campaign Vicky Waddy, spokeswoman for Zachry Construction, the highway construction giant whose family members and political action committee constitute one of Sen. Hutchison's largest contributors, complained to Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Barbara Ann Radnofsky over Radnofsky's coverage of the company in press releases concerning the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Radnofsky's campaign manager Seth Davidson explained: "Zachry Construction called and was extremely upset. They demanded to know 'What is the purpose of using the Zachry name in your campaign release? And, what is the reference to Rockwall--we don't even have any projects in Rockwall right now.'"

Radnofsky, returning from three days in Rockwall, where she and other citizens turned out in force for the last Trans-Texas Corridor public hearing, responded to Zachry:
"Zachry Construction Company received $987,436,908 from TxDOT in contracts, ranking second in money contracts awarded between January, 2001 and December, 2004. The Zachry family and the Zachry PAC donated massively to my opponent, who voted for tolling projects in the federal highway bill and who has spoken publicly about wanting to build the Trans-Texas Corridor. She's wrong. We don't need this corrupt, wasteful, highway tolling project. We need a modern transportation policy for Texas and a free highway system.

"Sen. Hutchison should return the many thousands of dollars she has received during this election cycle from Zachry-related interests, and the even larger amounts she received from other entities standing to benefit from the Trans-Texas Corridor."
The Radnofsky releases were sent in connection with the Rockwall hearing on the Trans-Texas Corridor, a 50-year plus project that creates eight massive toll roads cutting swaths throughout Texas, in large part by taking private land from citizens, by privatizing the core of the state's transportation system, and by tolling drivers to pay for the $183.5 billion project.
Radnofsky continued: "The concession contract I discussed in Rockwall, sections five and six of the Highway 130 project, for example, greatly favors the Cintra-Zachry team, which will receive the lion's share of profits. The negotiators for this contract quite literally gave away the farm--only it wasn't theirs to give.

"Texans cannot afford these corrupt concession contracts, negotiated in secret and planned across Texas on a scale that boggles the imagination, taking private property and taxing Texans with tolls for roads that will be obsolete by the time they are completed."
Zachry Construction's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families rank #7 in donations to the Hutchison campaign, having given $25,600 during this election cycle. (Source: OpenSecrets.org).

The campaign press releases triggering Zachry's reaction are available at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ddvwwxbab.0.arsbhpbab.zuw9dpbab.27247&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radnofsky.com.
Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Seth Davidson
Campaign Manager
email: http://us.f814.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=seth@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-6256

Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
Katie Floyd
Communications Director
email: http://us.f814.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=katie.floyd@radnofsky.com
phone: 713-858-9391

Posted By Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

Other links:

Friedman Says Willie Nelson Should Lead State Energy Efforts

2006-08-20T15:44:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: 8/18/2006 4:36:09 FORT WORTH, Texas

(AP) - Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman on Friday reiterated his top pick to implement his energy plan that emphasizes renewable sources: Willie Nelson. Friedman said the country singer/songwriter and benefactor of biodiesel was a natural choice to lead a state energy department or commission, which he wants to create. He also said Nelson "would never have his hand in Texas' pocket." "My plan is to appoint the best people I can find, get out of the way and let them work ... people whose only agenda is to do the right thing for the people of Texas," Friedman told the Fort Worth Rotary Club. "... I really believe that musicians can better run this state than politicians." A Texas biodiesel supplier partnered with Nelson to develop the BioWillie brand of the clean-burning fuel for truckers. It is made from used vegetable oils or soybeans and is blended with diesel, and does not require modification to diesel engines. Nelson is on the board of directors of Dallas-based Earth Biofuels, which produces biodiesel and is the exclusive distributor of Nelson's signature brand of biodiesel. Nelson did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday. Friedman, who unveiled his energy plan Thursday, said he plans to have 35,000 school buses running on biodiesel fuel, as well as his own vehicle. He said as it catches on, some 7 percent or 8 percent of Texans will be trying biodiesel, resulting in lower prices at gas stations because of supply and demand. "What you're going to see is Texas finally leading the way instead of following behind all the time, being first in something besides executions, toll roads and property taxes," he said. The other gubernatorial candidates running Nov. 7 are Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Democrat Chris Bell, independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the state comptroller, and Libertarian James Werner. Friedman said Perry, Bell and Strayhorn have a combined 89 years of political experience among them. "I think politics is the only field in which the more experience you have, the worse you get," Friedman told the crowd of about 300, which roared with laughter throughout his speech. "So I think it's time we had a non-politician as governor."

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And just think about this....This Kinky person may steal enough votes to allow the Republicans to keep the Governor's Mansion.

Terry D. Barhorst
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats

Other links:

Trans-Texas Corridor firm hires ex-Perry aide

2006-08-20T15:44:00.000-05:00

The real reason we're getting toll roads all over Texas is slowly begining to sneak out from behind the Republican closet doors.

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Moderator: Lone_Star_Democrats
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Associated Press
DALLAS — Republican Gov. Rick Perry's former liaison to the Legislature is working once again for the Spanish company that won the rights to develop the state's $7 billion Trans-Texas Corridor toll road project.
Lobbyist Dan Shelley worked for the firm as a consultant just before he went to the governor's office, a connection first revealed in 2004.
State officials denied any connection between that circumstance and the decision, three months later, to award Cintra-Zachry the huge highway contract. Now Shelley has left the governor's office, and he and his daughter have large contracts to lobby for the road builder, The Dallas Morning News reported today.
This week, Shelley had planned to take four state lawmakers on a four-day, all-expense-paid trip to Canada. But the trip was abruptly postponed by the state transportation department after the newspaper asked questions about it.
A call to Shelley seeking comment was returned by Rossanna Salazar, an Austin spokeswoman for Madrid-based Cintra, who said Shelley's contract with the company prohibits him from discussing his work with news reporters. Salazar confirmed that Shelley was helping to arrange the fact-finding trip to visit a Cintra toll road near Toronto.
"Dan Shelley was going to cover those costs" for the lawmakers' expenses, Salazar said. "He would have had to publicly report those costs to the Texas Ethics Commission."
Texas law does not restrict former gubernatorial staffers from lobbying, but Perry has instituted his own rule for former high-level staffers. They can lobby the Legislature and state agencies but are banned from lobbying the governor's office for a year, or until the end of the first legislative session after they've left, whichever is longer.
"Governor Perry has the strongest ethics policy that any Texas governor has ever had," said Kathy Walt, Perry's spokeswoman.
The Canadian trip was to include a visit to Cintra's state-of-the-art Highway 407 Electronic Toll Road. Interviews with Ontario government officials also were scheduled.
Among the lawmakers included were Rep. Mike Krusee, the Round Rock Republican who heads the House Transportation Committee, and three members of the Senate committee that writes the state budget: Democrats Royce West of Dallas and John Whitmire of Houston, along with Republican Kim Brimer of Fort Worth.
Several top employees of the Texas Department of Transportation also were to go on the trip, but the agency was to pay their way. Transportation department officials said they postponed the trip because a more pressing duty arose.
Though the payment of trip expenses for legislators by Cintra would have been legal, companies stand to gain by having lawmakers' undivided attention for several days, said Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen of Texas, a watchdog group. Lawmakers should use their campaign funds for such expenses, Smith said.
"That's preferable from taking money from corporations that stand to make billions in the continuation of this Trans-Texas Corridor project," he said.
Shelley resigned his state job in September and struck a lobbying deal with Cintra worth between $50,000 and $100,000 to work from March through the end of this year. His daughter and lobbying partner, Jennifer Shelley-Rodriguez, will earn between $25,000 and $50,000 from the company over the same period, state records show.
The Trans-Texas Corridor is Perry's vision for a statewide network of toll roads, rail lines and utility lines to improve transportation for the next 50 years. Cintra-Zachry won the development rights in 2004 to the first corridor section, which will parallel Interstate 35.
The corridor has become an issue in the governor's race, as independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn has tried to capitalize on opposition from landowners and others to the project.
When Shelley worked for Cintra before, he never registered as a lobbyist. Instead, he worked nine months as an unregulated "consultant" trying to generate business for the company in Texas.
At the time, the governor's office said Shelley was never paid by the company, because his fees were to be based on any deals closed. They said that when he left the firm before the contract was complete, he gave up the right to such fees.
The director of Texans for Public Justice, a group that tracks money in politics, said the Shelley case demonstrates that the policy and the law both need tightening to prevent "the revolving lobby door."

Other links:

WaPo: Novak outs Rove & CIA spokesman for outing Plame - July 12

2006-07-12T03:27:00.000-05:00

In a column to be issued later day, syndicated columnist Bob Novak has finally spoken publicly that it was White House senior advisor Karl Rove and former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow who confirmed for him, at his request, information about CIA operative Valerie Plame, the Washington Post reports today. Novak said he also told Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about another senior administration official who originally provided him with the information about Plame, and whose identity he says he cannot reveal even now.

Source: Washington Post.

Latest DemLog post: http://demlog.blogspot.com/.

Ken Lay Dead of "Heart Attack"

2006-07-05T10:50:00.000-05:00

Terry's Comments:

Isn't this death convenient? If this was a movie we would all know why Mr. Lay expired, but this is real life. In real life people don't die just because they might be negotiating silence for a "get out of jail" card. . . Do they!

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Enron founder Kenneth Lay dies at 64 AP - 19 minutes ago
HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay, who was convicted of helping perpetuate one of the most sprawling business frauds in U.S. history, has died. He was 64. Nicknamed "Kenny Boy" by President Bush, Lay led Enron's meteoric rise from a staid natural gas pipeline company formed by a 1985 merger to an energy and trading conglomerate that reached No. 7 on the Fortune 500 in 2000 and claimed $101 billion in annual revenues.

Enron founder Kenneth Lay dies CNN via Yahoo! News
Looking Back at the Fall of Enron - The Enron Verdict at NPR
Ken Lay: Fallen Hero - Q&A: Enron Case at BBC Slideshow Discuss
Off the Wires
Enron founder Ken Lay dead of heart attack Reuters - 13 minutes ago
Enron founder Kenneth Lay dies at 64 AP - 19 minutes ago
Former Enron chief Ken Lay dead AFP - 1 hour, 1 minute ago
Enron's Ken Lay has died at age 64 AP - 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
UK business chiefs protest at bankers' extradition Reuters - Wed Jul 5, 7:42 AM ET
» More Off the Wires
News Stories
Enron's Ken Lay Dies at The Street.com - Wed, Jul 05, 2006
Enron founder Ken Lay dies of heart attack: report at CTV.ca - Wed, Jul 05, 2006
Enron's Ken Lay dies: 'His heart simply gave out' at Houston Chronicle - Wed, Jul 05, 2006
U.S. wants $183 million from Lay, Skilling at Houston Chronicle - Wed, Jul 05, 2006
Enron's Ken Lay dies after heart attack at Houston Chronicle - Wed, Jul 05, 2006
» More News Stories
Feature Articles
All's Well at the Other Enron at Fortune via Yahoo! Finance - Wed, Jul 05, 2006
A Woman Of Conviction at The Washington Post (reg. req'd) - Sat, Jun 10, 2006
Business schools emphasizing ethics at Philadelphia Inquirer (reg req'd) - Fri, May 26, 2006
Once a Friend and Ally, Now a Distant Memory at The Washington Post (reg. req'd) - Fri, May 26, 2006
White-Collar Crime's New Milestone at The Washington Post (reg. req'd) - Fri, May 26, 2006
From the Ex-Employees: Revenge, Shock, Sadness at The Washington Post (reg. req'd) - Fri, May 26, 2006
» More Feature Articles
Opinion & Editorials
Convicted Enron execs should be begging for mercy at USATODAY.com - Thu, Jun 01, 2006
A satisfyingly decisive end to the trial at Philadelphia Inquirer (reg req'd) - Fri, May 26, 2006
After Enron, Corporate Wrongdoing Still Thrives Ben Stein via Yahoo! Finance - Fri, May 26, 2006
Convictions Drive Home the Point Again at The Washington Post (reg. req'd) - Fri, May 26, 2006
Not Just Bad Apples at The Washington Post (reg. req'd) - Fri, May 26, 2006
Crooked, Guilty At Enron's Top at Detroit Free Press - Fri, May 26, 2006
» More Opinion & Editorials
Photos Enron
Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay reads a brief statement before he asserted his Fifth Amendment right and refused to testify before Congress Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2002, in a ...
Related Web Sites
Enron - company site. Includes a FAQ on the bankruptcy filing, pre-scandal milestones, and press releases.
FindLaw Investigations: Enron - makes available the text of legal documents including the Powers Report, shareholder/employee lawsuits, congressional inquiries, and financial and SEC filings.
Smartest Guys in the Room - companion web site to the documentary that examines the fall of Enron, and white-collar greed.
Powers Report - full text of the Enron's internal investigation into its practices and corporate controls. In pdf format, from the Houston Chronicle.
The Enron Fraud - site from law firm Milberg Weiss, representing shareholders in a class action suit against certain Enron officers, directors, and auditors.
Bush-Lay Correspondence - fascimiles of letters between the two men, obtained via a Freedom of Information request filed with the Texas state archives. From The Smoking Gun.

What's next in the Enron case?
AP - A law professor discusses verdict and what is likely to happen next to Lay and Skilling.

White Collars, Prison Blues
ABC News - Enron execs Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling face jail time with fraud convictions.

Enron: Anatomy of a Scandal
AP - A look back at the scandal that rocked corporate America.

Media Matters for America.

Air America's Randi Rhodes

2006-06-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

MESSAGE FROM RANDI 06.16.2006
Joan Jett stopped by Randi's studio on Monday, 6/12I can't breathe!Once again our troops are exploited as a photo-ops and political tools while they die in the streets of Iraq over-deployed, under-equipped and bereft of leadership and a clear understanding of their mission.Hint: The mission is to NEVER leave.House Republicans have taken Karl Rove's talking points and turned them into a 10-hour political stunt. A stupid non-binding resolution stating that corporate war rocks and meaningful debate sucks. This is a game to Republicans...just a game. The House Majority Leader's memo says it all. Sick.And all this is happening while Bush’s new boyfriend, Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, shows how much he loves the American occupation by proposing an amnesty plan for prisoners that will likely include pardons for Iraqis that only attacked/killed US troops...this while our troops are still there! Vote like your nation's survival depends on it...because it does. Click here to register.

Thanks for listening.

Love ALLways,Randi

Other links:

Delay And Friend, Confederate, Heir?

2006-06-12T12:29:00.000-05:00

AP - Fri Jun 9, 1:52 PM ET
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas., calls on Rep. Tom Delay, R-Tex., on Capitol Hill Friday, June 9, 2006, on DeLay's last day as a member of Congress. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Terry's comment:

Now isn't this picture all cutesy and chummy. I do wonder if Delay is passing off his Texas Baton to Ms. Granger?

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.
Other links:

Are they going to make money off our "war" dead?

2006-06-10T12:51:00.000-05:00

Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition By Richard Cowan Sat Jun 10, 6:51 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said on Friday.
The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to President George W. Bush for signing into law.
As originally passed by the House of Representatives, the Pentagon would have been prohibited from spending any of the funds for entering into a military basing rights agreement with Iraq.
A similar amendment passed by the Senate said the Pentagon could not use the next round of war funding to "establish permanent United States military bases in Iraq, or to exercise United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq."
The Bush administration has said it does not want to place any artificial timelines on a U.S. presence in Iraq and that it wants to begin withdrawing troops when Iraqi security forces are better able to protect the country. But it has not ruled out permanent bases in Iraq.
While the Pentagon does not necessarily plan to use any of the emergency funds to establish a permanent military presence in Iraq, congressional Democrats wanted Congress to be on record against such a long-term military arrangement.
Doing so, they argued, could help overcome Middle East fears that the United States intended to control the region militarily, at least in part to oversee foreign oil reserves.
"The perception that the U.S. intends to occupy Iraq indefinitely is fueling the insurgency and making our troops more vulnerable," said Rep. Barbara Lee (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat who won House approval of her amendment on permanent bases.
"The House and Senate went on record opposing permanent bases, but now the Republicans are trying to sneak them back in the middle of the night," Lee said.
Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, authored the Senate language.
Senate aides said Republican staffers removed the provisions from the bills before House and Senate negotiators convened this week in a late-night work session to write a compromise spending bill.
Wisconsin Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, tried to reinsert the language, but it was opposed by Rep. Jim Kolbe (news, bio, voting record), the Arizona Republican responsible for foreign affairs portions of the spending bill.
Next week, the House is scheduled to have a wide-ranging debate about the Iraq war at which time Democrats are likely to raise this issue again.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Terry's Take:

Big Oil and Bush are trying for permanent control of Mid-East Oil. There is no other reason for removing the "no permenent bases" provision from the bill. The Republicans and the administration haven't even bothered to give their usual rationalizations.

I don't understand how people can accept having there sons and daughters in our Armed Services die or be maimed so those that got, can get more. Iraq is not a war for democracy and freedom, it is a war of aquisition.

Other links:

Historical Options

2006-06-03T17:47:00.000-05:00

When I was young the automobile companies would regularly shut down, retool, and then build their new models. When I was in my middle-age the government would bail out automobile companies with multi-million dollar loans.

Now I am old.

If our American automobile companies were given multi-million dollar loans they could shut down for a couple months, engineer and retool to manufacture plug-in Hybrids with 100 mile per gallon battery setups. I’d take a guess that they would be able to sell them to American consumers for twelve to fifteen thousand dollars and make a reasonable profit.

They—Bush and Big Oil--won’t let it happen.

A candidate with enough guts to make it a plank in their run for office might lose some oil money contributions, but they would absolutely get a lot of votes because of that plank.

Why not?

Terry D. Barhorst Sr

Other links:

DH: Abi-Demian shutting down by June 14

2006-05-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

The Abi-Demian served as Taylor County Democrats' online newsletter from Sept. 2004 through the July 2, 2005, picnic. This blog, DemLog, began in March 2005 and continues to publicize Taylor County Democrats' activities and world, national, state and local news.

The party/clubs' able leadership have decided to continue the party's online presence with www.taylorcountydemocrats.com, under the webmastership of Mike Cable (mikecable@gmail.com) and not continue the Abi-Demian.

Thus by the time that the Abi-Demian's current contract expires on June 15, I plan to shut it down, and not pay to continue its hosting online.

Those interested in archived stories on the Abi-Demian (http://www.abi-demian.info/page5.html) have until then to retrieve them.

D. W. Haigler, Jr.
email: Judge@Haigler.Info
cell: 325 829-5959

AP: Iraqi athletes killed for wearing shorts

2006-05-28T04:24:00.000-05:00

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer -- 58 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were shot to death this week in Baghdad because they were wearing shorts, authorities said Saturday, reporting the latest in a series of recent attacks attributed to Islamic extremists.

In the shooting, gunmen stopped a car carrying the Sunni Arab coach and two Shiite players, asked them to step out and then shot them, said Manham Kubba secretary-general of the Iraqi Tennis Union.

Extremists had distributed leaflets warning people in the mostly Sunni neighborhoods of Saidiyah and Ghazaliyah warning people not to wear shorts, police said.

"Wearing shorts by youth are prohibited because it violates the principals of Islamic religion when showing forbidden parts of the body. Also women should wear the veil," the leaflets said.

No one claimed responsibility for the slayings, which come amid worries that Islamic extremism is spreading in the war-torn country.

Sunni cleric Eid al-Zoubayi denounced the attack.

"Islamic religion is an easy religion and it allows wearing sport shorts as long as they don't show the forbidden parts of the body, so the acts that are targeting the sport are criminal," he said.

Full AP-Yahoo News story. M.C.: I sleep better at night knowing we're exporting Christianity and capitalism to Iraq, even though we have to force them to see the error of their ways and even though thousands of American military are dying to protect freedom in this manner.

Alternet: The Burial of the 9/11 Story that Got Away

2006-05-26T07:48:00.000-05:00

By Rory O’Connor, AlterNet
Posted on May 25, 2006, Printed on May 26, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/36651/

Last week, William Scott Malone and I broke the story of how a still anonymous, senior White House official leaked top-secret NSA intelligence in 2001 to then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller. The intelligence indicated that Al Qaeda was planning a major attack on the United States. But the “The 9/11 Story That Got Away” never made it into the paper.

It never made it to the attention of top Times executive Bill Keller either. Keller, now executive editor of the paper, was managing editor in July 2001. But he was kept in the dark when Miller’s “impeccable” source first revealed details of highly classified signals intelligence (SIGINT) concerning an impending Al Qaeda attack, perhaps to be visited on the continental United States. The NSA had been listening in on a conversation between two members of Osama bin Laden’s terror network. One was overheard saying to the other, “Don’t worry, we’re planning something so big now that the U.S. will have to respond.”

Asked to comment on our revelation, Times man Keller emailed a statement that said in part, “I heard nothing about this from Judy or Steve (Stephen Engelberg, Miller’s editor) at the time.”

Keller went on to note, “Obviously it would have been satisfying to have ‘predicted’ the 9/11 attacks -- just as it was satisfying that we identified Al Qaeda as an important threat before 9/11, in the Pulitzer-winning series Judy heavily reported and Steve edited.”

As Miller explained in our exclusive interview, she was initially “floored” by the information from her source, and thought the story had “major Page One potential.” But after meeting with Engelberg, she agreed with his assessment that the story lacked sufficient detail. “I realized that I didn’t have the whole story,” she told us. “As Steve put it to me, ‘You have a great first and second paragraph. What’s your third?”’

Keller concluded by seeming to damn Miller - a controversial figure who remains at the center of the ongoing perjury and obstruction of justice case involving former top White House official I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby - with faint praise: “What Steve had in hand that day in July was a promising lead from an excited reporter,” Keller noted, “Not, or not yet, a story. It was the kind of tip that good investigative reporters build on, not something you throw into the paper in all its vagueness.”

Did Keller mean to imply that Miller is not a “good investigative reporter?” After all, as Keller noted, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Al Qaeda. But Miller and Keller certainly clashed in the weeks following Miller’s release after spending 85 days in jail before finally disclosing that Scooter Libby was her anonymous source in the Valerie Plame affair -- another story Miller never wrote for the Times. In the aftermath of the Libby revelation, Miller was pilloried, Pulitzer and all, in the pages of the Times, and finally forced to leave.

Whatever Keller may have meant to suggest in all his vagueness, by her own admission Miller didn’t do much to build on the tip she received about the impending Al Qaeda attack. “I realized that this information was enormously sensitive, and that it was going to be difficult to get more,” she told us. “But that my source undoubtedly knew more. So I promised to Steve that I would go back and try to get more. And I did…try.”
But whoever knew about the ‘who’ and the ‘where’ was not willing to tell Miller more at that time -- although she says she later “was told that, ‘The bad guys were in Yemen on this conversation.’”

That bit of information never made it to Times higher-ups such as Keller either, and Miller soon moved on. “Washington being Washington, and the CT [counter-terrorism] world being the CT world, I was soon off pursuing other things.”

Read the rest HERE.

JP Comments:

White House officials in July 2001 KNEW there was an impending major attack by al Queda, yet King George did nothing whatsoever to stop it.

Feel safer knowing that?

Texas Lawyer: Commission on Judicial Conduct Admonishes Justice Hecht

2006-05-23T22:27:00.000-05:00

By John Council -- Texas Lawyer -- Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has issued a public admonition to Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, below left, regarding comments he made to the press last year in support of the nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last fall Hecht estimated that he gave 120 interviews to the press about Miers' qualifications for the bench -- including information about her religious beliefs and views on abortion -- after her Oct. 3, 2005, nomination came under attack from conservative groups. [See "Texas Attorneys Support Dallas Native's High Court Nomination," Texas Lawyer, Oct. 10, 2005, page 1.]

At that time, Hecht jokingly said to Texas Lawyer that he had been acting as a "PR office for the White House" and had been filling in gaps about Miers' background to the press, countering some conservatives' skepticism about her qualifications -- statements that were referenced in the commission's admonition. [See the commission's admonition.]

On Oct. 27, 2005, Miers withdrew her name from consideration to become a high court justice.

In its May 10 admonition, released today, the commission found that Hecht's actions constituted "persistent and willful violations" of two canons of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct. Canon 2b states that "a judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others." And Canon 5(2) states that "a judge or judicial candidate shall not authorize the public use of his or her name endorsing another candidate for any public office, except that either may indicate support for a political party."

"The commission concludes from the facts and evidence presented that Justice Hecht allowed his name and title to be used by the press and the White House in support of his close friend Harriet Miers, a nominee for the office of United States Supreme Court justice."

In a statement, Hecht says he disagrees with the commission's admonition and he plans to challenge it.

"I believe that my statements on matters of national public interest did not offend canons of judicial ethics and were fully protected by the First Amendment as core speech," Hecht says. "As best I can determine, the Commission's action is unprecedented despite many judges, over the years, providing factual information and endorsements to the judiciary committee and the public concerning nominees to the federal bench."

Full Texas Lawyer article.

AP: FBI oversteps in congressional office search - May 23

2006-05-23T08:23:00.000-05:00

By MARY DALRYMPLE, Associated Press Writer -- Tuesday, 3:37 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The FBI's weekend search of the House office of Rep. William Jefferson, right, a Louisiana Democrat under investigation for bribery may have overstepped Constitutional boundaries, House leaders said as the congressman under investigation pledged to stay in office.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said the Justice Department had never before crossed a line that separates Congress from the executive branch by searching a congressional office while investigating a member of Congress.

The search warrant was issued by a federal district judge in suburban Virginia, based on an affidavit from FBI investigators outlining some of the evidence that have accumulated in the case, including video tape of the congressman accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant, who agreed to have her conversations with the congressman taped.

Agents later found all but $10,000 of the cash in marked bills hidden in a freezer in one of the congressman's homes, according to the affidavit.

His homes in New Orleans and the Washington area were searched by FBI agents last August.

"Nothing I have learned in the last 48 hours leads me to believe that there was any necessity to change the precedent established over those 219 years," Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said in a statement Monday.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said congressional independence from the executive branch protects Americans from abuses of power. "Justice Department investigations must be conducted in accordance with Constitutional protections and historical precedent," she said.

Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), whose office was searched over the weekend in connection with allegations of bribery, called the weekend search of his office an "outrageous intrusion."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, asked about the search, said he understands the concerns raised about FBI agents raiding a congressional office.

"I will admit that these were unusual steps that were taken in response to an unusual set of circumstances," Gonzales said.

Full AP-Yahoo News story. M.C.: Maybe they should search the Prairie Chapel Ranch for drug paraphernalia or other illegal acts.

On Immigration - An Obvious Thought

2006-05-20T12:05:00.000-05:00

In listening to all the political mechinations of both parties, on Immigration, I have yet to hear a suggestion that another of today's ubiquitous data bases be developed. Every person caught crossing the border illegally or caught in the U.S. illegally should have all personal details, finger prints, and a photo placed into this illegal immigration data base.

No person in the illegal immigration data base may ever become a United States Citizen. They can come in, work, or whatever, until they're caught and sent back out of the country. However, under no circumstance may they become a citizen.

Terry D. Barhorst

Other links:

Clara S. Haigler, 1924-2006

2006-05-19T05:51:00.000-05:00

Columbia, S.C. -- Clara S. Haigler, 81, a retired cosmetologist, left, died Thursday. Family visitation is Saturday evening at Shives Funeral Home at 5202 Colonial Drive, Columbia, South Carolina 29203. Funeral Services are at St. Andrews Lutheran Church, Columbia, on Sunday afternoon.

Mattie Clara Shipley was born Nov. 15, 1924, in N. Charleston, S.C., the daughter of the late Charles Guy Shipley and Mattie Clara Robinson Shipley. She was the widow of Dr. David J. Haigler.

Mrs. Haigler is survived by her four children, David, formerly of Abilene, and his wife Becky, Stephen, of Anderson, S.C., and his wife Dawn, Michael, of Columbia, and Diane, of Beaufort, S.C.; her five grandchildren, Justin, of Euless, Tx, Kimberly, of Anderson, S.C., Whitney, of Greenville, S.C., Kiersten, of Houston, Tx, and Brantly, of Anderson; one brother, Guy Fred Shipley, of Lees Summit, Mo; one brother in law, Billy Haigler, of Grafton, Va., and his wife Kitty; one sister in law, Helen Shipley, of Trenton, Fla.; two great-granddaughters; and 14 nieces and nephews.

Three siblings predeceased her, brother Welton Shipley, brother Victor Shipley, and sister Ouida S. Owens.

Information is available at info@shivesfuneralhome.com, at 803-754-6290 or at http://www.shivesfuneralhome.com/home4.asp?fhid=17938.

D. W. Haigler, Jr.
email: Judge@Haigler.Info
cell: 325 829-5959
.

Tom Friedman’s Flexible Deadlines

2006-05-17T19:40:00.000-05:00

Iraq’s ‘decisive’ six months have lasted two and a half years

5/16/06

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Tom Friedman is considered by many of his media colleagues to be one of the wisest observers of international affairs. “You have a global brain, my friend,” MSNBC host Chris Matthews once told Friedman (4/21/05). “You’re amazing. You amaze me every time you write a book.”

Such praise is not uncommon. Friedman’s appeal seems to rest on his ability to discuss complex issues in the simplest possible terms. On a recent episode of MSNBC’s Hardball (5/11/06), for example, Friedman boiled down the intricacies of the Iraq situation into a make-or-break deadline: “Well, I think that we’re going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we’re going to have to just let this play out.”

That confident prediction would seem a lot more insightful, however, if Friedman hadn’t been making essentially the same forecast almost since the beginning of the Iraq War. A review of Friedman’s punditry reveals a long series of similar do-or-die dates that never seem to get any closer.

“The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time.”
(New York Times, 11/30/03)

“What I absolutely don’t understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of—I know a lot of these guys—reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it’s over. I don’t get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what’s the rush? Can we let this play out, please?”
(NPR’s Fresh Air, 6/3/04)

“What we’re gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war.”
(CBS’s Face the Nation, 10/3/04)

“Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won’t be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile.”
(New York Times, 11/28/04)

“I think we’re in the end game now…. I think we’re in a six-month window here where it’s going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election—that’s my own feeling— let alone the presidential one.”
(NBC’s Meet the Press, 9/25/05)

“Maybe the cynical Europeans were right. Maybe this neighborhood is just beyond transformation. That will become clear in the next few months as we see just what kind of minority the Sunnis in Iraq intend to be. If they come around, a decent outcome in Iraq is still possible, and we should stay to help build it. If they won’t, then we are wasting our time.”
(New York Times, 9/28/05)

“We’ve teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it’s going to come together.”
(CBS’s Face the Nation, 12/18/05)

“We’re at the beginning of I think the decisive I would say six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election—you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it.”
(PBS’s Charlie Rose Show, 12/20/05)

“The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it—and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful.”
(New York Times, 12/21/05)

“I think that we’re going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool’s errand.”
(Oprah Winfrey Show, 1/23/06)

“I think we’re in the end game there, in the next three to six months, Bob. We’ve got for the first time an Iraqi government elected on the basis of an Iraqi constitution. Either they’re going to produce the kind of inclusive consensual government that we aspire to in the near term, in which case America will stick with it, or they’re not, in which case I think the bottom’s going to fall out.”
(CBS, 1/31/06)

“I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq.”
(NBC’s Today, 3/2/06)

“Can Iraqis get this government together? If they do, I think the American public will continue to want to support the effort there to try to produce a decent, stable Iraq. But if they don’t, then I think the bottom is going to fall out of public support here for the whole Iraq endeavor. So one way or another, I think we’re in the end game in the sense it’s going to be decided in the next weeks or months whether there’s an Iraq there worth investing in. And that is something only Iraqis can tell us.”
(CNN, 4/23/06)

“Well, I think that we’re going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we’re going to have to just let this play out.”
(MSNBC’s Hardball, 5/11/06)

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2884

Another of Terry's Outré quickies.

2006-05-17T17:20:00.000-05:00

From the information I have looked at, we could hire all of the elderly population of this country living below the poverty line, $100 a day, if we didn't send the guard to the Mexican border or train more border patrol officers. There would be enough eligible seniors to link arms along the entire border. We could take the trailers sitting empty since Katrina and use them to shelter the seniors when they aren't on "standing patrol."

Terry D. Barhorst Sr.

Other links:

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

2006-05-15T13:20:00.000-05:00

May 15, 2006 10:33 AM
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.
“It’s time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,” the source told us in an in-person conversation.
ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.
Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.
One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.
Our reports on the CIA’s secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to have upset CIA officials.

People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.
Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.
The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.
A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide valuable clues for leak investigators.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/federal_source_.html

JP Sez:
The Police State is here, NOW!

The Spies Who Shag Us

2006-05-12T21:20:00.000-05:00

The Times and USA Today have Missed the Bigger Story -- Again

by Greg Palast

I know your shocked -- SHOCKED! -- that George Bush is listening in on all your phone calls. Without a warrant. That’s nothing. And it’s not news.

This is: the snooping into your phone bill is just the snout of the pig of a strange, lucrative link-up between the Administration’s Homeland Security spy network and private companies operating beyond the reach of the laws meant to protect us from our government. You can call it the privatization of the FBI -- though it is better described as the creation of a private KGB.

The leader in the field of what is called “data mining,” is a company, formed , called, “ChoicePoint, Inc,” which has sucked up over a billion dollars in national security contracts.

Worried about Dick Cheney listening in Sunday on your call to Mom? That ain’t nothing. You should be more concerned that they are linking this info to your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration. Five years ago, I discovered that ChoicePoint had already gathered 16 billion data files on Americans -- and I know they’ve expanded their ops at an explosive rate.

They are paid to keep an eye on you -- because the FBI can’t. For the government to collect this stuff is against the law unless you’re suspected of a crime. (The law in question is the Constitution.) But ChoicePoint can collect if for “commercial” purchases -- and under the Bush Administration’s suspect reading of the Patriot Act -- our domestic spying apparatchiks can then BUY the info from ChoicePoint.

Who ARE these guys selling George Bush a piece of you?

ChoicePoint’s board has more Republicans than a Palm Beach country club. It was funded, and its board stocked, by such Republican sugar daddies as billionaires Bernie Marcus and Ken Langone -- even after Langone was charged by the Securities Exchange Commission with abuse of inside information.

HERE is the rest.

Cosmic Justice, Perhaps?

2006-05-12T13:57:00.000-05:00

Stalker Rap vs. Bubba Prober

By JOE McGURK

May 12, 2006 -- The former prosecutor who negotiated the deal that kept President Bill Clinton from being indicted in the probe of his sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky has been charged with stalking an ex-girlfriend, a law enforcement official said.

Robert Ray surrendered to cops last night after Manhattan resident Tracy Loughlin, 40, filed a complaint.
"She tried to end it four months ago, but he kept calling her, sending her e-mails and showing up at places he knew she would be," the official said.
Ray, 46, was charged with fourth-degree stalking, given a desk-appearance ticket and freed.
Loughlin, a shapely redhead who works in magazine promotions, was in the news in January 2005 when she jumped into the East River to save her dog, Cho.
A group of concerned strangers then pitched in to help haul both to safety.
Ray succeeded Independent Counsel Ken Starr in the probe of the Clintons' failed Whitewater real estate investment. President Clinton also had faced possible perjury and obstruction of justice charges over his affair with Lewinsky.
Ray is now in private practice and lives in Long Branch, N.J.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/63642.htm

NSA Has Massive Database Of Americans’ Phone Calls

2006-05-11T11:14:00.000-05:00

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren’t suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

“It’s the largest database ever assembled in the world,” said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA’s activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency’s goal is “to create a database of every call ever made” within the nation’s borders, this person added.
For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

Read it all HERE.

DH: Dems elect Pettit new county chair Wednesday

2006-05-10T05:34:00.000-05:00

Abilene, May 10 -- Taylor County Democrats were set to elect a new county chair at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at party headquarters at 453 Pine Street in Abilene, outgoing chair Dave Haigler said.

Taylor County Democratic Club President Roger Spier, M.D., announced an interview committee composed of Allen Glenn, Stan Treanor, Bill Dulin, John Pettit and Dr. Spier himself.

"I appreciate the work of the committee," Dr. Spier said. "They have interviewed some quality candidates, and the candidate to emerge from the nominating process is John Pettit (shown below right helping with the party road cleanup project). John is a dedicated, articulate Democrat who is well informed on events and issues."

The Election Code and Democratic Party rules provide that the party County Executive Committee elect a new county chair and precinct chairs when there are vacancies.

"John Pettit has been there for us," outgoing chair Dave Haigler said. "He's been there when we did our road cleanup. He has not let an injured back stop him. He's been involved in the Book Club. He's been there when we supported the peace protest with Cindy Sheehan in Crawford last summer. He's served on committees. He has been nominated to serve on the State Resolutions Committee at the party state convention in June. I have every confidence in John," Haigler continued.

Haigler (shown at left at an Everman Park rally) has served as county chair since March 15, 2004, when former chair Bobby Clark resigned early, and into the 2008 term, which began May 1, 2006. He is resigning to become a federal administrative law judge, effective May 14, assigned to the Dallas Region of the Social Security Office of Hearings & Appeals. He will be attending 3 weeks of training in Shreveport beginning May 15, then 4 weeks of training in Baltimore.

"Becky & I will miss our good friends in Abilene," Haigler said. "And it's been fun being county chair. But being an ALJ is something I've wanted for 12 years and this is an opportunity not to be missed. As we leave Abilene tomorrow, it's good to know that the party is in good hands," Haigler continued.

"I am excited about becoming county chair," Pettit said. "My wife Kaye wants me to do it, and my friends have encouraged me to do it."

Current members of the Democratic County Executive Committee are Haigler as county chair, and precinct chairs Lara Carlin, Stan Treanor, Carroll Chapman, Peggy McConnell, Sharon Norman (secretary), Allen Glenn, Maria Velasquez, Alice M. Spier, Robin Burrow, David Dillman, David Crymes, Lois Rockefeller, and Royse L. Kerr. In addition, Anna Vedro serves as the party treasurer.

Contact: Dave Haigler, Abilene, Texas
email through 5/10: LawMed@Haigler.Clearwire.net
after May 10: Dave@Haigler.Info
325 677-4343 - office

325 829-5959 - cell

NYT: Frist postures over losing vote to cap malpractice awards at $250K

2006-05-09T06:22:00.000-05:00

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG -- NY Times, Published: May 9, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday once again rebuffed a Republican effort to limit jury awards in medical malpractice cases, taking the issue -- a high priority for both President Bush and the Majority Leader, Senator Bill Frist, below right, -- off the agenda for this year.

In back-to-back votes, Republicans fell far short of the 60 senators necessary to proceed on two malpractice-related measures. The first would have capped jury awards in all lawsuits against doctors and health care institutions; the second would have applied caps only to cases involving obstetricians, who have been especially hard-hit by malpractice rates.

Three Republicans -- Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Michael D. Crapo of Wyoming and Richard C. Shelby of Alabama -- joined with Democrats in blocking the measures from consideration. It was the fourth time in the past three years that Republicans had tried, and failed, to bring medical malpractice legislation to a vote in the Senate.

"Health care dollars should be spent on patients, and not on lawyers who are abusing the system," Mr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon, said in introducing the bills.

Mr. Frist's Democratic counterpart, Minority Leader Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, left, branded the effort "a waste of the Senate's time."

Mr. Frist and other supporters of revamping malpractice law, including the American Medical Association, have argued for years that rising insurance rates, fueled by skyrocketing jury awards, are driving doctors out of business and compromising patient care.

The Senate gallery was filled with white-coated health professionals who joined Republicans at an afternoon news conference and then watched Monday's votes.

The bills would have limited payments by individual doctors to $250,000 in malpractice cases and capped payments by health care institutions at $250,000. In cases that involved more than one institution, the total maximum jury award would have been $750,000.

Opponents of the measures, including Democrats and the association representing plaintiff's lawyers, said the bills would strip patients of their right to seek redress in court. They cited studies attributing the increase in malpractice rates to insurance company practices, not lawsuits.

"The explanation for these premium spikes can be found not in legislative halls or courtrooms, but in the boardrooms," said one Democratic opponent, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, below right, of Massachusetts.

In a sense, the votes had more to do with politics than policy. Mr. Frist knew going into the debate that the measures were likely to be blocked but wanted to put Democrats on record before the midterm elections in November. After the votes, he issued a news release headlined "Frist Denounces Democrat Obstruction of Medical Liability Reform."

Source: NY Times.

USN&WR: Local intelligence officials spy on citizens

2006-05-09T04:54:00.000-05:00

U.S. News & World Report has identified nearly a dozen cases in which city and county police, in the name of homeland security, have surveilled or harassed animal-rights and antiwar protesters, union activists, and even library patrons surfing the Web. Unlike with Washington's warrantless domestic surveillance program, little attention has been focused on the role of state and local authorities in the war on terrorism. A U.S. News inquiry found that federal officials have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into once discredited state and local police intelligence operations. Millions more have gone into building up regional law enforcement databases to unprecedented levels. In dozens of interviews, officials across the nation have stressed that the enhanced intelligence work is vital to the nation's security, but even its biggest boosters worry about a lack of training and standards. "This is going to be the challenge," says Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, "to ensure that while getting bin Laden we don't transgress over the law. We've been burned so badly in the past--we can't do that again."

Full US News & World Report feature.

AP: Iran president blasts US policy in letter to Bush - May 9

2006-05-09T04:51:00.000-05:00

By NICK WADHAMS and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers -- Monday, 27 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it made no progress toward resolving questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."

Rice's comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made only an oblique reference to Iran's nuclear intentions. It asked why "any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime."

Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.

"Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger?" the letter said. "And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever-increasing global hatred of the American government?

Iran's top nuclear negotiator called the surprise letter a new "diplomatic opening" between the two countries, but Rice said it failed to resolve the dispute over the Iranian nuclear program -- the focus of intense U.N. Security Council debate this week. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush had been briefed on the letter, which the White House received Monday through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

"There's nothing in here that would suggest that we're on any different course than we were before we got the letter," Rice said.

Even though the letter hardly touched on nuclear issues, officials said it appeared timed with a push by the United States, Britain, France and Germany for a Security Council vote to restrain the Islamic regime's nuclear ambitions. Both China and Russia are opposed to leveling sanctions against Iran and the letter could provide them support.

The United States is concerned that Iran's program is a cover for making nuclear weapons, while Iran contends it has the right to process uranium as fuel in nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

In the letter, Ahmadinejad says that people around the world have lost faith in international institutions and questions whether the Bush administration has covered up some evidence surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks.

Liberalism and Western-style democracy "have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity," said the letter, obtained late Monday by The Associated Press. "Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems."

The Iranian government spokesman who disclosed the communication did not mention the nuclear standoff and said the missive spoke to the larger U.S.-Iranian conflict. Gholam-Hossein Elham said the letter proposed "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world."

Yet the document makes no concrete proposals and does not suggest new talks. Instead, Ahmadinejad suggests that Bush should look inward, saying there was an increasing hatred worldwide of the United States, and that history shows how "repressive and cruel governments do not survive."

"How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people's houses destroyed over their heads? Are you pleased with the current condition of the world? Do you think present policies can continue?"

In Turkey, Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said the Iranians were looking for a positive response but would be patient.

"Perhaps it could lead to a new diplomatic opening. It needs to be given some time," Larijani said in a television interview.

Ahmadinejad travels Tuesday to Indonesia, which has expressed support for nuclear energy development but opposition to nuclear weapons.

Full AP-Yahoo News story.

Posted by Dave Haigler, Abilene, Texas. Note from Dave: This may well be my last post here, as I am becoming a judge on May 14 and judges are not permitted to participate in political organizations. Best wishes to you all. You may write me at 3575 Beltline Rd. #343, Irving, Tx 75062, or fax 888 221-0362.
email through 5/10: LawMed@Haigler.Clearwire.net.
after May 10: Judge@Haigler.Info.

http://demlog.blogspot.com.

AP: US Claims to Bars Use of Torture in Interrogations - May 8

2006-05-08T22:51:00.000-05:00

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer -- Monday, May 8, 9:58 PM ET

GENEVA - The U.S. government told a U.N. watchdog Monday that all American officials — including intelligence agents — are barred from using torture in interrogating terror suspects and other prisoners, according to John Bellinger III, right, head of the US-Delegation and Legal Adviser of the U.S. State Department.

American officials acknowledged, however, that there had been past mistreatment of detainees, and members of the U.N. panel expressed concern about how the United States defines torture as well as the U.S. delegation's refusal to give details about interrogation techniques used by the CIA.

Full AP-Yahoo News story.

MMfA: Krauthammer likens CIA officers, who tell the truth about administration policy, to Islamic terrorists

2006-05-08T22:10:00.000-05:00

Says Goss was "trying to deal with the jihadists inside" the CIA

During the "All-Star Panel" segment of the May 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, nationally syndicated [rightwing] columnist Charles Krauthammer, left, said that former CIA director Porter Goss, who had resigned earlier that day, had been "trying to deal with the jihadists inside the agency." Krauthammer explained that the CIA "jihadists" are "the people who consider themselves the loyal opposition, which really is the role of Congress, but who oppose administration policy, had been leaking, and had been trying to undermine and obstruct administration initiatives."

Full Media Matters for America story.

AP: Blair says nuking Iran absurd

2006-05-08T09:06:00.000-05:00

Associated Press, Monday, 1 hour, 1 minute ago

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair, at right with his wife Cherie, says that any consideration of a nuclear attack against Iran would be "absolutely absurd," and said the issue had no bearing on his decision to demote his foreign secretary.

Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, had described alleged U.S. contingency plans for a tactical nuclear strike against Iran as "completely nuts."

Blair previously had avoided any condemnation of the idea and defended the right of President Bush to hold all options in reserve in the showdown over Iran's nuclear program.

Some analysts believed that differences over Iran led to Blair's decision on Friday to move Straw to the less-exalted position of leader of the House of Commons.

Asked at a news conference whether he shared Straw's view of any thought of a nuclear strike, Blair said: "I don't know anybody who has even talked or contemplated the prospect of a nuclear strike in Iran and that would be absolutely absurd, which may be a different way of saying what you have just quoted to me.

"But it (Straw's reassignment) has got nothing to do with that. Look, in the end I'm afraid as prime minister you do reshuffle your Cabinet from time to time."

Full AP-Yahoo News story.

AP: Bush ignores objections, bulls ahead on general's nomination for CIA

2006-05-08T06:51:00.000-05:00

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer -- Monday, 7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, left, will be named as the next chief of the CIA, President Bush's national security adviser said Monday, and the White House began battling back against criticism that a military officer would lead the civilian spy agency.

"Mike Hayden is the president's nominee to be the director of the CIA," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on NBC's "Today" show. "The president believes he is the right person at the right time in the right job, when the Senate confirms him, and we certainly hope it will and will do so promptly."

Recognizing concerns about military leadership of the CIA, a civilian agency, the White House plans to move aside the agency's No. 2 official, Vice Admiral Albert Calland III, who took over as deputy director less than a year ago. Other personnel changes also are likely, a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the changes are not ready to announce.

Hadley made the rounds of morning television shows to defend Hayden's selection. "This is a man who has broad experience in the intelligence business," he said.

He said flatly on NBC that Hayden was the choice, although for the most part Hadley talked in terms of defending Hayden as if the nomination already had been announced.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said it was not unprecedented for a military officer to run the CIA and that Hayden would be the fifth CIA chief in uniform. "He has been viewed as a non-comformist and an independent thinker," Bartlett said.

"This is really nothing new ... so there's precedent for it," Hadley said on CBS's "The Early Show." "We don't see any reason to break the precedent. ... The question is not military versus civilian. The question is the best person to do the job."

Asked to what extent a Hayden nomination would get caught up in the controversy over domestic spying by the National Security Agency, Hadley replied, that "any nominee to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency would be asked to answer these questions, and who better to answer these questions than Michael Hayden, who has been overseeing this process and is very conversant with it."

Nevertheless, Hayden's elevation to the CIA helm was running into criticism from members of Congress who voiced concern that a military officer would lead the civilian spy agency.

"I do believe he's the wrong person, the wrong place, at the wrong time," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said on "Fox News Sunday." "We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this time."

Hoekstra said having a general in charge of the CIA could create the impression among agents around the world that the agency is under Pentagon control, at a time when the Defense Department and CIA have "ongoing tensions."

If Hayden were nominated and confirmed, military officers would run all the major spy agencies, from the ultra-secret National Security Agency to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Hoekstra's sentiment was echoed by Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, who said Hayden's military background would be a "major problem," and several Democrats who made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows. Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., said Hayden could leave agents with the impression that the CIA has been "just gobbled up by the Defense Department."

Some lawmakers, like Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) of California, suggested that he might think about resigning his military post if he were going to head the CIA. But Hoekstra and Chambliss were among those who said that wouldn't solve the problem.

"Just resigning commission and moving on, putting on a striped suit, a pinstriped suit versus an Air Force uniform, I don't think makes much difference," Chambliss said on ABC's "This Week."

Talk of Hayden's possible nomination has reignited the debate over the Bush's administration's domestic surveillance program, which Hayden used to oversee as the former head of the National Security Agency.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he would use a Hayden nomination to raise questions about the legality of the program and did not rule out holding it up until he gets answers. "I'm not going to draw any lines in the sand until I see how the facts evolve," Specter said on Fox.

Full AP-Yahoo News story.

RNZ: Iraq arrests general over death squads - minister

2006-05-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

08 May 2006 -- Reuters, New Zealand

BAGHDAD: Iraq's interior minister said his police had arrested a general in the ministry on suspicion of involvement in kidnaps and death squads.

Bayan Jabor, left, who is fighting to keep his job in a new government in the face of criticism that he has tolerated Shi'ite militias inside his ministry, made the announcement in an interview on Al Jazeera television.

"We have arrested an officer, a major general . . . along with 17 people who kidnapped citizens and in some cases killed them. He is now in jail and under investigation," he said.

"We also found a terror group in the 16th brigade that carries out killings of citizens," he added.

It was not clear when the arrest was made or whether the case was related to arrests of army and police officers announced previously in the last few weeks.

Jabor's Shi'ite Islamist Alliance bloc is pushing for him to keep his post in a new national unity government being formed under Alliance Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki, negotiators say.

But minority Sunni Arabs enraged by sectarian killings, some conducted by men in uniform, are demanding Jabor's resignation.

The US ambassador, a key player in the negotiations, has made no secret of the fact that Washington would prefer a new face to lead the ministry.

Source: Reuters, New Zealand. Second source: Toronto Globe & Mail.