Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Republicans are Stuck to Bush - See RNC Memo Link

Posted By: Democrat on 2006-03-29
In Reply to:

Republicans are Stuck to Bush

In a memo to RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, GOP pollster Jan van Lohuizen argues that it's dangerous for Republican congressional candidates to distance themselves from President Bush.

President Bush drives our image and will do so until we have real national front-runners for the '08 nomination. Attacking the President is counter productive for all Republicans, not just the candidates launching the attacks. If he drops, we all drop.



LINK/URL: RNC memo link


Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

Bush memo instructs officials: "Say I had honor and dignity."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this! "Honor" and "dignity" are NOT words that would come to mind to describe Bush.


What is INCREDIBLE to me is that Bush's "memoir," "A Charge to Keep" is referenced here. The original ghostwriter (and long-time Bush family friend) for that memoir was fired and his reputation tarnished (in usual Bush fashion) because Bush talked TOO much during his interviews with the writer, including how he wanted to invade Iraq back in 1999 -- 2 years before 9/11. I've posted that link on here before, but here it is again:


http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050620/why_george_went_to_war.php


For Bush's staff, upbeat talking points on his tenure


Administration officials get a memo from the White House suggesting what to say about the last eight years: President Bush upheld 'the honor and the dignity of his office,' for one.


By Peter Nicholas
December 9, 2008


Reporting from Washington -- In case any Bush administration officials have trouble summing up the boss' record, the White House is providing a few helpful suggestions.

A two-page memo that has been sent to Cabinet members and other high-ranking officials offers a guide for discussing Bush's eight-year tenure during their public speeches.


Titled "Speech Topper on the Bush Record," the talking points state that Bush "kept the American people safe" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lifted the economy after 2001 through tax cuts, curbed AIDS in Africa and maintained "the honor and the dignity of his office."

The document presents the Bush record as an unalloyed success.

It mentions none of the episodes that detractors say have marred his presidency: the collapse of the housing market and major financial services companies, the flawed intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war, the federal response to Hurricane Katrina or the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.


In a section on the economy, speakers are invited to say that Bush cut taxes after 2001, setting the stage for years of job growth.

As for the current economic crisis, the memo says that Bush "responded with bold measures to prevent an economic meltdown."

The document is otherwise silent on the recession, which claimed 533,000 jobs in November, the highest number in 34 years.

A copy of the memo was obtained by The Times' Washington bureau. A spokesman for Bush said Monday that the White House routinely sends out suggestions to officials and allies on ways to talk about the administration's record.
"What we have in mind with these documents is we feel the president's many accomplishments haven't been given the attention they deserve and in some cases have been purposely ignored," said Carlton Carroll, a White House spokesman.

No one is required to recite the talking points laid out by the White House, Carroll said.

The memo closes with a reference to Bush's 1999 memoir, "A Charge to Keep":

"Above all, George W. Bush promised to uphold the honor and the dignity of his office. And through all the challenges and trials of his time in office, that is a charge that our president has kept."

One accomplishment cited is passage of the No Child Left Behind law, Bush's attempt to improve education. "He promised to raise standards and accountability in public schools -- and delivered the No Child Left Behind Act," the talking points read.

On the presidential campaign trail this year, Democratic candidates found that any criticism of No Child Left Behind was a surefire applause line.

President-elect Barack Obama promised to revamp the program, contending that it elevated test-taking at the expense of a well-rounded education.

Nicholas is a writer in our Washington bureau.

peter.nicholas@latimes.com


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-bush9-2008dec09,0,4145069.story


 


Bush Bashed by Republicans

Bush Bashed by Republicans

At the same conference Karl Rove's comments were leaked, President Bush was bashed for two full days, according to participant Robert Novak. He was taken to task on his handling of stem cell research, population control, the Iraq war and, especially, Hurricane Katrina. The critics were no left-wing bloggers. They were rich, mainly Republican and presumably Bush voters in the last two presidential elections.

Though the conference sessions were off-the-record, Novak says the admonition says nothing about personal conversations outside the sessions. Nor do I feel inhibited in quoting myself. Even if I am violating the spirit of secrecy rules, revealing criticism of Bush by this elite group, and the paucity of defense for him, is valuable in reflecting the president's parlous political condition.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire says a Bush adviser frets about increased 'cutting and running' by Republican candidates through the 2006 elections.
Even the republicans blame BUSH, where have u been? nm
n
I felt this way about Republicans under Bush. sm
I am a small government conservative and liberty lover and it knocked me out of that paradigm. Other than Ron Paul, I will not be voting for anymore Republicans or Democrats. The whole system has been taken over by socialists, Dem and Republican. They are going to put our children, grandchildren, and generations after us in debt.

The most insane piece of pork in that bill is Nancy Pelosi's 35 million dollar mouse.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/12/earmark-less-bill-gives-pelosis-mouse-cookie/
Republicans split with Bush on ports...sm
Republicans Split With Bush on Ports

White House Vows to Brief Lawmakers On Deal With Firm Run by Arab State

By Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 23, 2006; Page A01

Faced with an unprecedented Republican revolt over national security, the White House disclosed yesterday that President Bush was unaware of a Middle Eastern company's planned takeover of operations at six U.S. seaports until recent days and promised to brief members of Congress more fully on the pending deal.

One day after threatening to veto any attempt by Congress to scuttle the controversial $6.8 billion deal, Bush sounded a more conciliatory tone by saying lawmakers should have been given more details about a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates purchasing some terminal operations in Baltimore and five other U.S. cities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/22/AR2006022201609.html?referrer=email


Republicans Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, Boehner all
This is supposedly a "bipartisan" initiative. Keynesianism is a fairly popular school of economic theory among academics, fairly obscure to Main Street. Doubtful it will do much in terms of jump-starting the economic freeze and it is absurd to think that "stunts" will instill confidence in the economy on Wall Street, Main Street or in banking institutions. The long haul is what we all are in for, no matter who wins in November.
I would like a link to the story about Laura Bush. SM
Verifiable and trustworthy.  Because I think this is spurious and a horrible thing to post without validity.  I personally know no one who ever mentioned Chelsea Clinton.  The article about the NYT investigating Roberts' adoption is interesting in that Democrat wrote it would be blamed on the leftists. Yes, I can see how she would say that seeing things as you have posted here.  Be careful what you put in writing. 
Bush is trying to pardon himself - link included
If this is not enough to get you going I don't know what is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RwoFcLgxA0


LOL, stuck to or stuck WITH??


Memo for the President
Memo for the President
    By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
    t r u t h o u t | Statement

    Wednesday 24 August 2005

    Memorandum for: The President

    From: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

    Subject: Recommendation: Try a Circle of "Wise Women"

    By way of re-introduction, we begin with a brief reminder of the analyses we provided you before the attack on Iraq. On the afternoon of February 5, 2003, following Colin Powell's speech before the UN Security Council that morning, we sent you our critique of his attempt to make the case for war. (You may recall that we gave him an "A" for assembling and listing the charges against Iraq and a "C-" for providing context and perspective.) Unlike Powell, we made no claim that our analysis was "irrefutable/undeniable." We did point out, though, that what he said fell far short of justification for war. We closed with these words: "We are convinced that you would be well served if you widened the discussion beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic."

    To jog your memory further, the thrust of our next two pre-war memoranda can be gleaned from their titles: "Cooking Intelligence for War" (March 12) and "Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth: A Problem" (March 18). When the war started, we reasoned at first that you might had been oblivious to our cautions. However, last spring's disclosures in the "Downing Street Memo" containing the official minutes of Tony Blair's briefing on July 23, 2002 - and the particularly the bald acknowledgement that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of war on Iraq - show that the White House was well aware of how the intelligence was being cooked. We write you now in the hope that the sour results of the recipe - the current bedlam in Iraq - will incline you to seek and ponder wider opinion this time around.

    A Still Narrower Circle

    With the departure of Colin Powell, your circle of advisers has shrunk rather than widened. The amateur architects of the Iraq war, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, seem still to have your ear. At a similar stage of the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson woke up to the fact that he had been poorly served by his principal advisers and quickly appointed an informal group of "wise men" to provide fresh insight and advice. It turned out to be one of the smartest things Johnson did. He was brought to realize that the US could not prevail in Vietnam; that he was finished politically; and that the US needed to move to negotiations with the Vietnamese "insurgents."

    It is clear to those of us who witnessed at first hand the gross miscalculations on Vietnam that a similar juncture has now been reached on Iraq. We are astonished at the advice you have been getting - the vice president's recent assurance that the Iraqi resistance is "in its last throes," for example. (Shades of his assurances that US forces would be welcomed as "liberators" in Iraq.) And Secretary Rumsfeld's unreassuring reminders that "some things are unknowable" and the familiar bromide that "time will tell" are wearing thin. By now it is probably becoming clear to you that you need outside counsel.

    The good news is that some help is on its way. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has taken the initiative to schedule a hearing on September 15, where knowledgeable specialists on various aspects of the situation in Iraq will present their views. Unfortunately, it appears that this opportunity to learn will fall short of the extremely informative bipartisan hearings led by Sen. William Fullbright on Vietnam. The refusal thus far of the House Republican leadership to make a suitable conference room available suggests that the Woolsey hearing, like the one led by Congressman John Conyers on June 16, will lack the kind of bipartisan support so necessary if one is to deal sensibly with the Iraq problem.

    Meanwhile, we respectfully suggest that you could profit from the insights of the informal group of "wise women" right there in Crawford. You could hardly do better than to ride your bike down to Camp Casey. There you will find Gold Star mothers, Iraq (and Vietnam) war veterans, and others eager to share reality-based perspectives of the kind you are unlikely to hear from your small circle of yes-men and the yes-woman in Washington, none of whom have had direct experience of war. As you know, Cindy Sheehan has been waiting to get on your calendar. She is now back in Crawford and has resumed her Lazarus-at-the-Gate vigil in front of your ranch. We strongly suggest that you take time out from your vacation to meet with her and the other Gold Star mothers when you get back to Crawford later this week. This would be a useful way for you to acquire insight into the many shades of gray between the blacks and whites of Iraq, and to become more sensitized to the indignities that so often confound and infuriate the mothers, fathers, wives, and other relatives of soldiers killed and wounded there.

    Names and Faces

    Here are the names, ages, and hometowns of the eight soldiers, including Casey Sheehan, killed in the ambush in Sadr City, Baghdad on April 4, 2004:

    Specialist Robert R. Arsiaga, 25, San Antonio, Texas
    Specialist Ahmed A. Cason, 24, McCalla, Alabama
    Sergeant Yihjyh L. Chen, 31, Saipan, Marianas
    Specialist Israel Garza, 25, Lubbock, Texas
    Specialist Stephen D. Hiller, 25, Opelika, Alabama
    Corporal Forest J. Jostes, 22, Albion, Illinois
    Sergeant Michael W. Mitchell, 25, Porterville, California
    Specialist Casey A. Sheehan, 24, Vacaville, California

    Mike Mitchell's father, Bill, has been camped out for two weeks with Cindy Sheehan and others a short bike ride from your place. They have a lot of questions - big and small. You are aware of the big ones: In what sense were the deaths of Casey, Mike Mitchell and the others "worth it?" In what sense is the continued occupation of Iraq a "noble cause?" No doubt you have been given talking points on those. But the time has passed for sound bites and rhetoric. We are suggesting something much more real - and private.

    Questions

    There are less ambitious - one might call them more tactical - questions that are also accompanied by a lot of pain and frustration. Those eight fine soldiers were killed by forces loyal to the fiercely anti-American Muqtada al-Sadr, the young Shia cleric with a militant following, particularly in Baghdad's impoverished suburbs. The ambush was part of a violent uprising resulting from US Ambassador Paul Bremer's decision to close down Al Hawza, al-Sadr's newspaper, on March 28, 2004.

    And not only that. A senior aide of al-Sadr was arrested by US forces on April 3. The following day al-Sadr ordered his followers to "terrorize" occupation forces and this sparked the deadly street battles, including the ambush. Also on April 4, Bremer branded al-Sadr an "outlaw" and coalition spokesman Dan Senior said coalition forces planned to arrest him as well. In sum, before one can begin to understand the grief of Cindy, Bill, and the relatives of the other six soldiers killed, you need to know - as they do - what else was going on April 4, 2004.

    You may wish to come prepared to answer specific questions like the following:

    1. Closing down newspapers and arresting key opposition figures seem a strange way to foster democracy. Please explain. And how could Ambassador Bremer possibly have thought that al-Sadr would simply acquiesce?

    2. Muqtada al-Sadr seems to have landed on his feet. At this point, he and other Shiite clerics appear on the verge of imposing an Islamic state with Shariah law and a very close relationship with Iran. With this kind of prospect, can you feel the frustration of Gold Star mothers when the extremist ultimately responsible for their sons' deaths assumes a leadership role in the new Iraq? Can you understand their strong wish to prevent the sacrifice of still more of our children for such dubious purpose?

    Perhaps you will have good answers to these and other such questions. Good answers or no, we believe a quiet, respectful session with the wise women and perhaps others at your doorstep would give you valuable new insights into the ironic conundrums and human dimensions of the war in Iraq.

    A member of our Steering Committee, Ann Wright, has been on site at Camp Casey from the outset and would be happy to facilitate such a session. A veteran Army colonel (and also a senior Foreign Service officer until she resigned in protest over the attack on Iraq), Ann has been keeping Camps Casey I and II running in a good-neighborly, orderly way. She is well known to your Secret Service agents, who can lead you to her. We strongly urge you not to miss this opportunity.

    /s/
    Gene Betit, Arlington, Virginia
    Sibel Edmonds, Alexandria, Virginia
    Larry Johnson, Bethesda, Maryland
    David MacMichael, Linden, Virginia
    Ray McGovern, Arlington, Virginia
    Coleen Rowley, Apple Valley, Minnesota
    Ann Wright, Honolulu, Hawaii

    Steering Group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity


Oh, you didn't get the memo? O, of course!
nm
Newest memo..(sm)

I'm sure there will be many more to come. 


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/30395296#30395296


In other words, they knew it was torture, they knew it was illegal and were warned that it was illegal, but went on with their plans anyway.


 


Here are a few facts from the memo.
According to the "memo" (cue sinister dun-duN-DUN music)

"A single "application" of water may not last for more than 40 seconds, with the duration of an "application" measured from the moment when water - of whatever quantity - is first poured onto the cloth until the moment the cloth is removed from the subject's face."

And there was, indeed, a doctor and a psychologist present at the interrogations to (as you so aptly put it) "rescue" the prisoners.

I'm not sure why you would just "assume" that "some are really drowned." Perhaps you know something the rest of us don't. Please share.

Did you even read what you stuck out
You put the article out there, it was read and I simply pointed out the person writing it is very biased. He/she obviously does have a bone to pick with whites, but as usual, when someone refuses to actually read what was written, I said nothing about having a problem with whites being a minority. You seem to be the only one obsessed with that view. Having Hispanic presence in this country does not "disturb" me, even though you seem to, as you didn't say it didn't bother you; you said it didn't "particularly" disturb you, meaning it obviously does in some way. Anyhow, you seem to be caught up in thinking illegals mean only Hispanics. Illegals are coming over from a lot of places, many many are criminals. Do you think 8000 (thousand) violent gangs in LA alone from foreign illegals is a good thing? Eight THOUSAND in one city alone multiplied by thousands more in the border states spells BIG trouble. You need to get off the "white" bandwagon and stand up for the sovereignty of your country. I'm assuming you are legal.
Regardless, it's still there, stuck on our shoes...

Goodness I meant memo!

too much transcribing today!


2003 Rockefeller Memo

  


    The 2003 Rockefeller Memo:

Politicize the war, run down the country, sink Bush


Memo to My Critics on the Left: Get Over It.......sm.............



Memo to My Critics on the Left: Get Over It

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Mike Baker


This past week the PWB mailroom, which does extra duty as the foosball arena and beer locker, has been inundated with letters from our readers who reside on the left side of the teeter-totter. It appears that our recent columns on the new administration have irritated some who think we are fixating on President-elect Obama. Many, in language unprintable and at times not entirely well spelt, seem to think that the PWB is being churlish, harbors a grudge over the election results and should, in the words of one fellow, “… get over it.”

Frankly, I think these surly members of the liberal world have missed the nuanced approach we try to take here. If you’ll flip through the PWB archives held at the National Library of Congress, you’ll see that I didn’t have a dog in this hunt. Neither side blew my skirt up and once again there wasn’t a viable third-party candidate.

However, while I didn’t vote for him, I’m actually rooting for Obama and his administration to do well. A successful, efficient and well managed government is what we should all want. But wishing them well and hoping for the best doesn’t require us to not disagree or to not express differences.

After all, the PWB was established back in the spring of 1927 with one overriding purpose … to raise our hand or ask “huh?” anytime the crap-o-meter goes off. And if memory serves me correct, the left side of the liberal bench took eight years to “get over” Bush. During that time, if I’m not mistaken, there was constant criticism, whining and churlishness. So telling me I’m being churlish four weeks after the election does seem a bit hypocritical.


It is interesting to note that the nastiest mail we receive, on a regular basis, is from what I suppose we could call “hardcore liberals”. Look, you won, congratulations. Now tone down the rhetoric, not to mention the unimaginative really foul language, and, in the words of one of your own, “get over it.” Enjoy the moment. Soon you’ll be wondering how the administration ended up governing from the center.

The center. As in, the middle ground. That appears to be where the new administration is headed based on recent pronouncements and some of the cabinet selections. This selection process is our best opportunity to date to get a look at Obama’s management style. After all, the campaign season didn’t exactly give us a detailed picture of the man.

Someday I’d like to get to the point where the candidates have to announce their cabinet selections before the election. Not only does it give you better insight into who would be running your government, it says a lot about the presidential candidates.

I know some on the far right who were fully expecting to see folks like Charles Schumer, Barney Frank and Keith Olberman appointed to cabinet positions in the new administration. There were dire predictions of the government taking a hard left turn, maybe with AL Franken as Information Minister and Chris Matthews as Director of Media Compliance.

Given those expectations, surely conservative Republicans, while not being happy, can at least admit that the likes of Robert Gates, James Jones and even Hillary Clinton are solid, pragmatic individuals. While Gates' selection is likely more about providing cover and won’t be a long-term pick, it’s better than yanking him out and installing new leadership during a critical time.

In the political world, it’s much better to keep him around. If Iraq and/or Afghanistan worsens, Gates can always be tossed overboard as the party faithful scream “he’s a Bush guy, it’s all their fault.” They might even throw in a Palin joke while they’re at it. Keeping a sacrificial scapegoat on hand is just good strategy.

All in all, I was feeling pretty safe and sound with the national security selections. Right up until Eric Holder got the nod for Attorney General. By all accounts smart and certainly experienced, the concern is over his ability to be a realist rather than an idealist when dealing with some of the very tough issues affecting our national security.

Hopefully he’ll find the center when dealing with interrogation questions, intelligence collection matters, Guantanamo and the like. After all, it’s easy to take the high road when you’re not the person responsible for making the decisions. Sometimes the high road looks less attractive, not to mention less secure, once you get the full picture.

And we’re waiting to hear who might be named to run the Central Intelligence Agency, currently under the steady leadership of Michael Hayden. Here’s a thought… keep Hayden. If he doesn’t want to stay on, how about we select someone based on criteria other than “are they acceptable to CIA bashing liberals?”

Recently there was talk of naming John Brennan, a former senior agency officer, a smart and good man. That possibility was derailed when some liberal critics of the CIA cried that Brennan was connected to the agency’s detention and interrogation efforts. What a load of crap.

He, like everyone else at the agency, is against torture. Apparently his transgression was stating the obvious: that enhanced interrogation techniques can be effective and important in select cases. For this, the liberals deemed him unsuitable.

According to the logic used by these critics, anyone at the CIA during the past several years shouldn’t be considered for the director’s role. Did I already say what a load of crap? We’ve discussed this issue before, and it’s a topic that inevitably makes me smash the glass on the emergency bourbon cabinet.

Liberals frame the argument in a clever way … essentially saying that anything other than talking to a detainee is torture. They claim there are no enhanced techniques (such as stress positions, temperature variations, sleep disruption) … it’s either chatting or its torture. Now, that’s a fine debating technique if you’re in a debate on a leafy campus surrounded by lofty thoughts of world peace, unicorns and fuzzy warm puppies.

Unfortunately, the real world is a crappier place and sometimes involves violent jihadists and terrorists who would like to blow up as many innocent men, women and children as possible. If you think this is just a typical Republican scare tactic, review last week’s events in Mumbai. And that’s after Obama won the election. Apparently the terrorists involved in that attack didn’t get the memo that we can all get along now.

The point being, in carefully selected cases, there are times when the allowable interrogation techniques of the Army Field Manual aren’t going to get the job done. That doesn’t mean the next stop on the express is torture. Despite the carefully framed argument of the left, we don’t torture.

Between chatting and torture lies a small window of opportunity for enhanced interrogation techniques. They aren’t used often -- you’d be surprised how infrequently they have been used in the past -- but you better have them in your tool bag.

Here’s hoping the choice for CIA director, as well as for director of national intelligence, reflects the pragmatic, center-leaning approach taken with nominees such as Gates, Jones and Clinton. These positions are critical to our national security. Play politics with other positions if you want … I’m OK with a far-left secretary of transportation.

But fill the CIA and DNI slots with strong persons who have relevant experience in the world of intelligence and operations.

And frankly, if you don’t agree with me, get over it.

As always, we look forward to your comments, thoughts and insight. Send your emails to peoplesweeklybrief@hotmail.com

Till next week, stay safe.



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,461686,00.html
Aah, don't get stuck on color here.... Terrorists
they have been home grown right here in this country.....Ayers, Dohrn, just to name a couple. You know, Obama's pals that his supporters keep hearing the news media they get their info from tell everyone how he hasn't had any dealings with these two or the corrupt white multi-millionnaire realtor he has many associations with AND bought his 1.6 million dollar home from at a STEAL!

His name is Muslim. You want to pretend it's not? Now, that alone is not the issue...his Islamic relationship with terrorists in terrorist countries is the problem, of which you want to ignore. His Islamic teachings is also an issue, of which you also choose to ignore. His own family members say he is Muslim through and through. They say he is NOT a Christian, but of course, you know more than they I'm sure.


Is Cheney your president? Why are you stuck
xx
downing street memo investigation





Republican Congressman Breaks Ranks, Joins Demand for Documents on Downing Street Memos






Related stories: antiwar




src=http://www.politicalaffairs.net/images/1x1.gif 8-24-05, 10:58 am

Congressman Jim Leach (R, Iowa) has informed Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D, California) that he will co-sponsor her Resolution of Inquiry into Bush Administration communications with the U.K. about Iraq at the time of the Downing Street Memos.  Leach is the first Republican member of Congress to publicly support a demand for an inquiry into the Bush Administration's pre-war claims.  The 131 congress members who have signed Congressman John Conyers' letter to the President about the Downing Street Memo are all Democrats.  The 11 Senators who have asked the Senate Intelligence Committee to do the investigation it committed to in February 2004 but never did are all Democrats.
 
The Resolution, H. Res. 375, is a privileged resolution which must be brought to a vote in the House International Relations Committee by September 16th, or Lee is permitted to demand a vote of the full House.  Fifty-two Democrats, including Lee, have co-sponsored the Resolution.  Leach is the first Republican to join them, and he is a member of the International Relations Committee..
 
The International Relations Committee has 27 Republican members and 23 Democratic members.  Thus far 10 of the Democrats have co-sponsored the Resolution.  If the other 13 vote for it as well, then along with Leach, one more Republican vote will be needed for a tie, or two more for passage.
 
Leach has questioned Bush's war policies for years and was one of five Republicans in May to vote for Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey's amendment requiring an exit strategy.  Another of those five, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, also serves on the International Relations Committee. 
 
Congressman Leach has broken the silence of the Republican Party on the Downing Street Minutes, said John Bonifaz, Co-Founder of the After Downing Street Coalition.  His willingness to co-sponsor Congresswoman Barbara Lee's Resolution of Inquiry is bound to make the White House nervous.  It is not possible for the President to paint this demand for documents as coming solely from his opponents.  This is a demand for the truth.  Did the president deliberately deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq?  We as a people -- from Crawford to Des Moines to Washington, DC, regardless of our political persuasion, deserve to know the answer to that basic question.
 
Congress returns to Washington from its summer break on September 6, said David Swanson, Co-Founder of the After Downing Street Coalition.  The first 10 days will test the Democrats' ability to stand together and challenge the Bush Administration, as well as Republicans' willingness to break ranks on an issue where public opinion has diverged widely from White House policy.
 
The text of the Resolution, H. Res. 375, a list of current co-sponsors, and what you can do to help: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/902

From AfterDowningStreet.org


Memo to Hillary: Road Trip!

Memo to Hillary: Road trip to that place between King City and Coalingo


Dear Hillary:


I know you've been real busy with sniper fire and 3:00 a.m. phone calls, etc., but have you ever seen that commercial for AT&T internet service, where the guy says he's on the road between "King City and Coalingo" (sp?) (There are several commercials out there for this product, and the theme for them is people's "moments.")


In the one I'm referring to, there's a guy is standing near a big field with a bunch of cows, explaining how his service lets him do business anywhere, and after he's through explaining how it works and how his bid was the first one in, he gets a text message and says, "It looks like I got the account."


An old man appears and says, "Congratulations on your moment."


Hillary, PLEASE drive yourself have your chauffeur drive you (with or without your cell phone) to that field "between King City and Coalingo" and take a L-O-N-G walk through that field. (Be sure to fill up have one of your servants fill your gas tank first.) Pet a cow or two. Resist the urge to whip out that gun yer granddaddy taught you how to shoot if you become hungry for a filet mignon; maybe you could make a have your maid make a PBJ before your departure (you know, the kind of food that more and more of us hard-working white people are forced to rely on in today's economy). Along the way, don't be afraid to step into the very thing that comprises your soul. Take a deep breath (lots of them). Try to place yourself into Barack Obama's shoes (sans cow dung) and explore WHY it is that YOU believe you must control everything -- even when you're the loser. Why is it that YOU think YOU get to dictate the terms of everything, even if you don't have the right to do so?


You have repeatedly said you're "in it to win it." You didn't win it. Now pretend to have some grace and/or just some personal decency and do NOT try to strong-arm the person who DID win it. There are a lot of women who would be good Vice Presidential candidates, all of whom believe in and would be loyal to President Obama, none of them potential orphan-makers.


Take a good, long look at those cows, Hillary. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two about "moments." Hopefully, you'll even learn a thing or two about yourself.


Edited by Moderator for aggressive and strange language.


Uh oh, I didn't get the memo that he was God! Thanks for clarifying that...have some more O juice
//
Doesn't matter.....she stuck her nose out first
xx
Grow your own. It's stuck in your little poor me world...nm

And again, they fall silent.....stuck her foot in
xx
You're stuck on pub thing aren't you.... not
prefer to think for myself unlike you who obviously needs someone to do it for ya. I don't care for government, let alone more of it.
If John McCain had stuck to his guns and been...sm
able to run as himself instead of being remolded by the right wing of his party, he probably would have sailed over the finish line. He killed any chance of winning the election when he gave control away.
You're stuck on names instead of facts
@
They'd never make fun of killing W....cuz then we would be stuck with CHENEY!!!!!

NM


Yeah, Iraq didn't attack us. There was a memo. nm
x
Good grief! Taxpayers get stuck with the bill...

and Franklin Raines gets a over a million per year in "retirement..."


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/28/national/main663502.shtml


 


It's like trying to discuss Dante's Inferno with someone stuck in My Little Red Reader. nm
nm
Note that the democratic talking points memo of the week must contain sm
stuff about utilities, cuz I sure see it on here a lot.  I guess it was okay when Saddam was in power cuz people could flush their toilets and drown out the screams of those being tortured and raped.
GOP alert memo states intent to bust the union

With 3 million jobs hanging in the balance.


Countdown has obtained a memo entitled "Action Alert - Auto Bailout," and sent Wednesday at 9:12am, to Senate Republicans. The names of the sender(s) and recipient(s) have been redacted in the copy Countdown obtained. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was circulated among Senate Republicans. The brief memo outlines internal political strategy on the bailout, including the view that defeating the bailout represents a "first shot against organized labor." Senate Republicans blocked passage of the bailout late Thursday night, over its insistence on an immediate union pay cut. See the entire memo after the jump.


Subject: Action Alert -- Auto Bailout


Today at noon, Senators Ensign, Shelby, Coburn and DeMint will hold a press conference in the Senate Radio/TV Gallery.  They would appreciate our support through messaging and attending the press conference, if possible.  The message they want us to deliver is:


1.       This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election.  This is a precursor to card check and other items.  Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.


2.       This rush to judgment is the same thing that happened with the TARP.  Members did not have an opportunity to read or digest the legislation and therefore could not understand the consequences of it.  We should not rush to pass this because Detroit says the sky is falling.


The sooner you can have press releases and documents like this in the hands of members and the press, the better.  Please contact me if you need additional information.  Again, the hardest thing for the democrats to do is get 60 votes.  If we can hold the Republicans, we can beat this.


http://thenewshole.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/12/12/1713569.aspx


Not to mention her ritzy hotel bills she stuck the state with.nm

x


post the link only, not the whole article and the link. See rules for posting.
x
What the Republicans Don't Want You to See.

Stephen Crockett posted this twice (at least) on the Conservative Board, in response to an old quote of his being used out of context and distorted by the usual suspects there.  Each time he posted it, it was deleted from the board.  It's certainly easy to understand why they don't want anyone to see this. 


Please read quickly.  They think they should control our board, as well as their own, so it probably won't last very long here, either.


African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List


Published by Greg Palast June 16th, 2006 in Articles
Massacre of the Buffalo Soldiers
by Greg Palast
As reported for Democracy Now!


Palast, who first reported this story for BBC Television Newsnight (UK) and
Democracy Now! (USA), is author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed
Madhouse.


The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.


A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority
precincts.  Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by
Republican operatives to a non-party website.


One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.


*******
For Greg Palast’’s discussion with broadcaster Amy Goodman on the Black soldier purge of 2004, go to
http://gregpalast.com/armedmadhouse/palastDN6-14-06.mp3


*******


Here’’s how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, Do not forward, to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as undeliverable.


The lists of soldiers of undeliverable letters were transmitted from state headquarters, in this case Florida, to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters’’ registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballots being counted.


One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. Jacksonville is third largest naval installation in the US, best known as home of the Blue Angels fighting squandron.


[See this scrub sheet at http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=160156893&context=set-72157594155273706&size=o


Our team contacted the homes of several on the caging list, such as Randall Prausa, a serviceman, whose wife said he had been ordered overseas.


A soldier returning home in time to vote in November 2004 could also be challenged on the basis of the returned envelope. Soldiers challenged would be
required to vote by provisional ballot.


Over one million provisional ballots cast in the 2004 race were never counted; over half a million absentee ballots were also rejected. The extraordinary rise in the number of rejected ballots was the result of the widespread
multi-state voter challenge campaign by the Republican Party. The operation, of which the purge of Black soldiers was a small part, was the first mass challenge to voting America had seen in two decades.


The BBC obtained several dozen confidential emails sent by the Republican’’s national Research Director and Deputy Communications chief, Tim Griffin to GOP
Florida campaign chairman Brett Doster and other party leaders. Attached were spreadsheets marked, Caging.xls. Each of these contained several hundred
to a few thousand voters and their addresses.


A check of the demographics of the addresses on the caging lists, as the GOP leaders called them indicated that most were in African-American majority zip codes.


Ion Sanco, the non-partisan elections supervisor of Leon County (Tallahassee) when shown the lists by this reporter said: The only thing I can think of - African American voters listed like this - these might be individuals that
will be challenged if they attempted to vote on Election Day.


These GOP caging lists were obtained by the same BBC team that first exposed the wrongful purge of African-American felon voters in 2000 by then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Eliminating the voting rights of those voters —— 94,000 were targeted —— likely caused Al Gore’’s defeat in that race.


The Republican National Committee in Washington refused our several requests to respond to the BBC discovery. However, in Tallahassee, the Florida Bush
campaign’’s spokespeople offered several explanations for the list.


Joseph Agostini, speaking for the GOP, suggested the lists were of potential donors to the Bush campaign. Oddly, the supposed donor list included residents of the Sulzbacher Center a shelter for homeless families.


Another spokesperson for the Bush campaign, Mindy Tucker Fletcher, ultimately changed the official response, acknowledging that these were voters, we mailed to, where the letter came back - bad addresses.


The party has refused to say why it would mark soldiers as having bad addresses subject to challenge when they had been assigned abroad.


The apparent challenge campaign was not inexpensive. The GOP mailed the letters first class, at a total cost likely exceeding millions of dollars, so that the addresses would be returned to cage workers.


This is not a challenge list, insisted the Republican spokesmistress. However, she modified that assertion by adding, That’’s not what it’’s set up to be.


Setting up such a challenge list would be a crime under federal law. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws mass challenges of voters where race is a factor in choosing the targeted group.


While the party insisted the lists were not created for the purpose to challenge Black voters, the GOP ultimately offered no other explanation for the mailings. However, Tucker Fletcher asserted Republicans could still employ the list to deny ballots to those they considered suspect voters. When asked if Republicans would use the list to block voters, Tucker Fletcher replied, Where it’’s stated in the law, yeah.


It is not possible at this time to determine how many on the potential blacklist were ultimately challenged and lost their vote. Soldiers sending in their ballot from abroad would not know their vote was lost because of a
challenge.


__________________________________


For the full story of caging lists and voter purges of 2004, plus the documents, read Greg Palast’’s New York Times bestseller, ARMED MADHOUSE: Who’’s Afraid of Osama Wolf?, Armed Madhouse: Who’’s Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal ‘‘08, No Child’’s Behind Left and other
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War.


http://www.gregpalast.com/massacre-of-the-buffalo-soldiers


what about republicans?
As John Dean recently said I'm still a Goldwater conservative. Today, that places me left of center
What is says is that I and many others, Republicans,
Independents, Progressives, Green Party are sick of having these insane **wars that cannot be won** wars that have no **definition or reason** foisted upon us. You think that winning, whatever that is, is worth whatever it takes including more American and Iraqi lives. We did not leave Viet Nam because of the left and we sure as heck won't be leaving Iraq because of the left. The **American people** the majority (even on Fox news) are dissatisfied with Iraq, the lies and the incompetence. The same was true for Viet Nam. They would take the hill, then lose the hill, then take the hill, then lose the hill, never knowing what having the hill was all about but a whole slew of people would be dead at the end of it. Incompetence, arrogance and ignorance. That is what got us into both these wars. Some times you just have to suck it up and move on, cut your losses and get out. We, the liberals, did not start this nor is it our fault that it will end the way it will and it will end and it won't be pretty.  We do not belong there. We cannot win anything. There are those who will hold on till the bitter end and even then will refuse to give up. Years after Viet Nam you guys are still fighting that war, er, conflict.  When the state I grew up in, Indiana, is voting Democratic, you know the gig is up. Although Hoosiers vote for Democrats on a local basis, I cannot remember a time the state did not send all of its electoral votes to the Republican party and Indiana is usually the first state to be called for the Republican side, but not today. As much as you would like to malign the left and blame us if we do leave Iraq before you think it is time to, for the first time in a long time, you are in the minority. Middle class middle America, Indiana, is voting Democratic. That is huge. Many of them on exit polls cited the corruption in Congress as a second reason they were not voting Republican.
But the same can be said for many republicans.
To decide you will never vote democrat again based on the actions and words of a few radical examples on an internet message board for medical transcriptionists is hardly objective. I can think of extreme examples of republicans, too, but I do not judge all republicans based on those examples. There are plenty of republicans who support Bush just because he's republican. No difference.
Republicans
amen sister!
Sorry. IMO it is the republicans that are...sm
constantly comparing Palin to Obama and we wish you would stop, and so does he and has said so several times. I am willing to compare Obama to McCain and Palin to Biden, no problem. You call the dems extremists, look in the mirror.
what does that have to do with republicans? nm
nm
Well...what the Republicans DID NOT...
do for me was cripple the economy. THANK YOU, REPUBLICANS. What they did not do was raise my taxes. THANK YOU, REPUBLICANS. They are right now trying to keep Democrats from a huge wasteful expansion of welfare programs when we are in grave economic straits getting worse by the day...THANK YOU REPUBLICANS. And just for the record...I am a registered Independent.

Kool-aid....good grief. If it comes out of the Great O's mouth people just buy it, hook line and sinker. He doesn't have to explain anything. Hey, we are going to spend a trillion more dollars and help all those poor people, especially the ones who don't even PAY taxes. Bless their hearts. And WHO is paying for this...oh well, that would be you and me. What happened to the middle class tax cuts? Oh well, we can't do that...we are in a recession. But let's spend a trillion on even more programs. Why not??

Do you really not get ANY of that? Just asking.
Because the REPUBLICANS
Obama has tried to engage the Republicans, but as you can see by this board, there is no way they will ever cooperate. No matter what Obama does or says will never be good enough for them.

Just a microcosm of the real world. Republicans need to learn to get along and stop trying to set themselves up for office in 2012. Their posturing is hurting the American people.
Many Republicans were against the ...
bailouts. I sure was and am. Keep in mind that many Americans ARE Republicans. It is certainly not the goal of Republicans to see the country fail. My family and many other families are military families that are more than willing to fight for this country. Nobody laughs about this mess, guaranteed.
I think the republicans have been more ga-ga over...
putting more earmarks in bills coming across Congress. Did you see that over 40% of the earmarks in this omnibus bill are from republicans? I was so excited after almost every one of them voted no on the other bill because of earmarks, but I guess I shouldn't have expected that to last long. These are politicians we're talking about - one side is just as bad as the other.
Bush aides challenge Biden's boasts of Bush slapdowns.
Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.

Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.

"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration.
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.

"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'"

That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.

"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"

Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden.

"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."

Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.

Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush.

"I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.

Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."

"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."

Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."

A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.

This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."

Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."

Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.

"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."

But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."

Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.

"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."

Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."

"If you want to know where AL Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."

But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.

"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."
Bush aides challenge Biden's boasts of Bush slapdowns.
Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.

Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.

"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration.
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.

"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'"

That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.

"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"

Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden.

"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."

Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.

Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush.

"I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.

Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."

"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."

Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."

A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.

This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."

Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."

Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.

"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."

But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."

Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.

"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."

Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."

"If you want to know where AL Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."

But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.

"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."
Bush aides challenge Biden's boasts of Bush slapdowns.
Aides to former President George W. Bush are challenging the veracity of Vice President Joe Biden's claim this week of having privately castigated Bush, who does not remember the incident or an earlier episode in which Biden claims to have similarly rebuked Bush.

Biden spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify the dates of his boss's purported Oval Office scoldings of Bush. Nor would he provide witnesses or notes to corroborate the episodes.

"The vice president stands by his remarks," Carney told FOX News without elaboration.
Those remarks include a shot that Biden took at Bush on Tuesday.

"I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office," Biden told CNN, "'Well, Joe,' he said, 'I'm a leader.' And I said: 'Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.'"

That exchange never took place, according to numerous Bush aides who also dispute a similar assertion by Biden in 2004, when the former senator from Delaware told scores of Democratic colleagues that he had challenged Bush's moral certitude about the Iraq war during a private meeting in the Oval Office. Two years later, Biden repeated his story about dressing down the president.

"When I speak to the president - and I have had plenty of opportunity to be with the president, at least prior to the last election, a lot of hours alone with him. I mean, meaning me and his staff," Biden said on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in April 2006. "And the president will say things to me, and I'll literally turn to the president, say: 'Mr. President, how can you say that, knowing you don't know the facts?' And he'll look at me and he'll say - my word - he'll look at me and he'll say: 'My instincts.' He said: 'I have good instincts.' I said: 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough.'"

Bush aides now dispute the veracity of both assertions by Biden.

"I never recall Biden saying any of that," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said after reviewing detailed notes of Bush's White House meetings with Biden, which include numerous direct quotes from Biden. "I find it odd that he said he met with him alone all the time. I don't think that's true."

Fleischer said that whenever Bush met with Sen. Biden, the meeting also included a congressional counterpart so as to not "antagonize" the House.

Karl Rove, former White House political adviser, also was skeptical of Biden's claim to have spent "a lot of hours alone" with Bush.

"I remember checking on such a Biden exaggeration while at the White House and no one witnessed the meeting and his comments in remotely the same way," Rove said.

Candida P. Wolff, Bush's White House liaison to Capitol Hill, said the only meetings she remembered between Bush and Biden also included other lawmakers. She said such meetings were held in the Cabinet Room or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not the Oval Office, and certainly did not last for "hours."

"The president would never sit through two hours of Joe Biden," Wolff said. "I don't ever remember Biden being in the Oval. He was such a blowhard on all that stuff - there wasn't a reason to bring him in."

Andy Card, former White House chief of staff, reviewed the two Biden claims and said: "This does not ring true to me. I doubt that it happened."

A spokesman for Bush declined comment, although a person close to the former president said Bush does not remember either episode.

This is not the first time the veracity of Biden's assertions has been challenged. In 1988, he dropped out of the presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock. The Washington Post also cited "the senator's boastful exaggerations of his academic record."

Last year, liberal Slate magazine recalled that "Biden's misdeeds encompassed numerous self-aggrandizing thefts, misstatements, and exaggerations that seemed to point to a serious character defect."

Also last year, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.

"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube in July. "Number one, you take all the troops out -- you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."

But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed."

Biden went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said.

"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head."

Seven weeks after claiming to have been "shot at" in Iraq, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones -- this time on "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down."

"If you want to know where AL Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are."

But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February 2008. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Sens. Chuck Hagel and John Kerry.

"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine."