Bush staff wanted bomb-detect cash moved
Posted By: Liberal on 2006-08-13
In Reply to:
(Almost five years after 9/11, just how committed is Bush to keeping Americans safe?)
Bush staff wanted bomb-detect cash moved
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press WriterFri Aug 11, 5:56 PM ET
While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology.
Congressional leaders rejected the idea, the latest in a series of steps by the Homeland Security Department that has left lawmakers and some of the department's own experts questioning the commitment to create better anti-terror technologies.
Homeland Security's research arm, called the Sciences & Technology Directorate, is a rudderless ship without a clear way to get back on course, Republican and Democratic senators on the Appropriations Committee declared recently.
The committee is extremely disappointed with the manner in which S&T is being managed within the Department of Homeland Security, the panel wrote June 29 in a bipartisan report accompanying the agency's 2007 budget.
Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., who joined Republicans to block the administration's recent diversion of explosives detection money, said research and development is crucial to thwarting future attacks and there is bipartisan agreement that Homeland Security has fallen short.
They clearly have been given lots of resources that they haven't been using, Sabo said.
Homeland Security said Friday its research arm has just gotten a new leader, former Navy research chief Rear Adm. Jay Cohen, and there is strong optimism for developing new detection technologies in the future.
I don't have any criticisms of anyone, said Kip Hawley, the assistant secretary for transportation security. I have great hope for the future. There is tremendous intensity on this issue among the senior management of this department to make this area a strength.
Lawmakers and recently retired Homeland Security officials say they are concerned the department's research and development effort is bogged down by bureaucracy, lack of strategic planning and failure to use money wisely.
The department failed to spend $200 million in research and development money from past years, forcing lawmakers to rescind the money this summer.
The administration also was slow to start testing a new liquid explosives detector that the Japanese government provided to the United States earlier this year.
The British plot to blow up as many as 10 American airlines on trans-Atlantic flights was to involve liquid explosives.
Hawley said Homeland Security now is going to test the detector in six American airports. It is very promising technology and we are extremely interested in it to help us operationally in the next several years, he said.
Japan has been using the liquid explosive detectors in its Narita International Airport in Tokyo and demonstrated the technology to U.S. officials at a conference in January, the Japanese Embassy in Washington said.
Homeland Security is spending a total of $732 million this year on various explosives deterrents and has tested several commercial liquid explosive detectors over the past few years but hasn't been satisfied enough with the results to deploy them.
Hawley said current liquid detectors that can scan only individual containers aren't suitable for wide deployment because they would bring security check lines to a crawl.
For more than four years, officials inside Homeland Security also have debated whether to deploy smaller trace explosive detectors — already in most American airports — to foreign airports to help stop any bomb chemicals or devices from making it onto U.S.-destined flights.
A 2002 Homeland report recommended immediate deployment of the trace units to key European airports, highlighting their low cost, $40,000 per unit, and their detection capabilities. The report said one such unit was able, 25 days later, to detect explosives residue inside the airplane where convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid was foiled in his attack in December 2001.
A 2005 report to Congress similarly urged that the trace detectors be used more aggressively, and strongly warned the continuing failure to distribute such detectors to foreign airports may be an invitation to terrorist to ply their trade, using techniques that they have already used on a number of occasions.
Tony Fainberg, who formerly oversaw Homeland Security's explosive and radiation detection research with the national labs, said he strongly urged deployment of the detectors overseas but was rebuffed.
It is not that expensive, said Fainberg, who retired recently. There was no resistance from any country that I was aware of, and yet we didn't deploy it.
Fainberg said research efforts were often frustrated inside Homeland Security by bureaucratic games, a lack of strategic goals and months-long delays in distributing money Congress had already approved.
There has not been a focused and coherent strategic plan for defining what we need ... and then matching the research and development plans to that overall strategy, he said.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (news, bio, voting record) of Oregon, a senior Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, said he urged the administration three years ago to buy electron scanners, like the ones used at London's airport to detect plastics that might be hidden beneath passenger clothes.
It's been an ongoing frustration about their resistance to purchase off-the-shelf, state-of-the-art equipment that can meet these threats, he said.
The administration's most recent budget request also mystified lawmakers. It asked to take $6 million from Homeland S&T's 2006 budget that was supposed to be used to develop explosives detection technology and instead divert it to cover a budget shortfall in the Federal Protective Service, which provides security around government buildings.
Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the top two lawmakers for Senate homeland appropriations, rejected the idea shortly after it arrived late last month, Senate leadership officials said.
Their House counterparts, Reps. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and Sabo, likewise rejected the request in recent days, Appropriations Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Brost said. Homeland said Friday it won't divert the money.
___
Associated Press writer Leslie Miller contributed to this story.
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Bush Chief Of Staff To Obama...Put On Your Jacket
On Wednesday night former Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card told "Inside Edition" that he's not pleased with President Obama's lax Oval Office appearance. (Obama has instituted an even more relaxed weekend dress code.) According to the Inside Edition website:
"There should be a dress code of respect," Card tells INSIDE EDITION. "I wish that he would wear a suit coat and tie."
Card is the first member of the Bush administration to bash Obama, and he's going after him for forgoing a coat and tie.
"The Oval Office symbolizes...the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I'm going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it's appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President."
Card continued, "I don't criticize Obama for his appearance, I do expect him to send the message that people who are going to be in the Oval Office should treat the office with the respect that it has earned over history."
MSNBC dissected the dress code controversy on Thursday morning, and pointed to a similar fashion "faux pas" by President Clinton while in office:
Video
Unfortunately for Card, the New York Times dredged up this picture:
It seems the former Chief of Staff is as wrong as he is bitter.
Link
Abramoff Attended staff-level meetings at Bush White House
White House Silent on Abramoff Meetings
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2006
(AP) The White House is refusing to reveal details of tainted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's visits with President Bush's staff.
Abramoff had a few staff-level meetings at the Bush White House, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday. But he would not say with whom Abramoff met, which interests he was representing or how he got access to the White House.
Since Abramoff pleaded guilty two weeks ago to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion charges in an influence-peddling scandal, McClellan has told reporters he was checking into Abramoff's meetings. I'm making sure that I have a thorough report back to you on that, he said in his press briefing Jan. 5. And I'll get that to you, hopefully very soon.
McClellan said Tuesday that he checked on it at reporters' requests, but wouldn't discuss the private staff-level meetings. We are not going to engage in a fishing expedition, he said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, along with three other Democratic senators, wrote Bush a letter Tuesday asking for an accounting of Abramoff's personal contacts with Bush administration officials and acts that may have been undertaken at his request. The American people need to be assured that the White House is not for sale, they wrote.
McClellan has said Abramoff attended three Hanukkah receptions at the White House, but corrected himself Tuesday to say there were only two _ in 2001 and 2002.
McClellan said Bush does not know Abramoff personally, although it's possible the two met at the holiday receptions.
Abramoff was one of Bush's top fundraisers, having brought in at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney '04 re-election campaign and earning the honorary title pioneer. The campaign took $6,000 of the contributions _ which came directly from Abramoff, his wife and one of the Indian tribes he represented _ and donated it to the American Heart Association. But the campaign has not returned the rest of the money Abramoff raised.
They wanted Bush to do that and he said no because
it would lower the value of our dollar.
What do you mean? I thought that was what Bush wanted to do.
nm
It was BUSH and MCCAIN who wanted to
not the dems, check your facts
If Bush wanted to lead s/m
I think a nice black tie BBQ would have satisfied protocol. Beer goes real well with BBQ and it doesn't cost $300 a bottle. Maybe Bush is still clinging to "the economy is fundamentally sound." Maybe he'd like to tell that to my single parent neighbor who was laid off from her manufacturing job yesterday after 15 years because they're moving the plant to MEXICO.
Actually, Bush SAID he wanted to close Gitmo...(sm)
but he rejected every proposal for closing it and DID nothing about it, claiming it would be too difficult. A president saying that something is too difficult isn't exactly reassuring BTW. Meanwhile, he made use of it, which completely contradicted his supposed intentions of closing it. You also really can't complain about other countries not wanting to take prisoners into their countries when we weren't willing to take them either, and they are OUR prisoners. I think actions speak louder than words.
Bush wanted borders secured, congress did not.
I know Gov. Napolitano wanted to secure Arizona borders years ago. She was Attorney General back then and US attorney. She went to congress and fought for border control several times, but was ignored by Clinton. Finally Bush came into office and he signed (article below) Border Fence Act.
As for Obama, well he picked Gov. Napolitano to be in his office.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6388548
Jailing Kids for Cash
Tuesday 17 February 2009
by: Amy Goodman, Truthdig.com
 Hillary Transue was sentenced to three months in juvenile detention. Transue made a web page mocking her assistant principal. (Photo: Niko J. Kallianiotis / The New York Times)
As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them jailed, by two corrupt judges who received kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities that benefited. The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks while imprisoning children who often had no access to a lawyer. The case offers an extraordinary glimpse into the shameful private prison industry that is flourishing in the United States.
Take the story of Jamie Quinn. When she was 14 years old, she was imprisoned for almost a year. Jamie, now 18, described the incident that led to her incarceration:
"I got into an argument with one of my friends. And all that happened was just a basic fight. She slapped me in the face, and I did the same thing back. There [were] no marks, no witnesses, nothing. It was just her word against my word."
Jamie was placed in one of the two controversial facilities, PA Child Care, then bounced around to several other locations. The 11-month imprisonment had a devastating impact on her. She told me: "People looked at me different when I came out, thought I was a bad person, because I was gone for so long. My family started splitting up ... because I was away and got locked up. I'm still struggling in school, because the schooling system in facilities like these places [are] just horrible."
She began cutting herself, blaming medication that she was forced to take: "I was never depressed, I was never put on meds before. I went there, and they just started putting meds on me, and I didn't even know what they were. They said if I didn't take them, I wasn't following my program." She was hospitalized three times.
Jamie Quinn is just one of thousands that these two corrupt judges locked up. The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center got involved when Hillary Transue was sent away for three months for posting a Web site parodying the assistant principal at her school. Hillary clearly marked the Web page as a joke. The assistant principal didn't find it funny, apparently, and Hillary faced the notoriously harsh Judge Ciavarella.
As Bob Schwartz of the Juvenile Law Center told me: "Hillary had, unknown to her, signed a paper, her mother had signed a paper, giving up her right to a lawyer. That made the 90-second hearing that she had in front of Judge Ciavarella pretty much of a kangaroo court." The JLC found that in half of the juvenile cases in Luzerne County, defendants had waived their right to an attorney. Judge Ciavarella repeatedly ignored recommendations for leniency from both prosecutors and probation officers. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard the JLC's case, then the FBI began an investigation, which resulted in the two judges entering guilty-plea agreements last week for tax evasion and wire fraud.
They are expected to serve seven years in federal prison. Two separate class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the imprisoned children.
This scandal involves just one county in the U.S., and one relatively small private prison company. According to The Sentencing Project, "the United States is the world's leader in incarceration with 2.1 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails—a 500 percent increase over the past thirty years." The Wall Street Journal reports that "[p]rison companies are preparing for a wave of new business as the economic downturn makes it increasingly difficult for federal and state government officials to build and operate their own jails." For-profit prison companies like the Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut) are positioned for increased profits. It is still not clear what impact the just-signed stimulus bill will have on the private prison industry (for example, the bill contains $800 million for prison construction, yet billions for school construction were cut out).
Congress is considering legislation to improve juvenile justice policy, legislation the American Civil Liberties Union says is "built on the clear evidence that community-based programs can be far more successful at preventing youth crime than the discredited policies of excessive incarceration."
Our children need education and opportunity, not incarceration. Let the kids of Luzerne County imprisoned for profit by corrupt judges teach us a lesson. As young Jamie Quinn said of her 11-month imprisonment, "It just makes me really question other authority figures and people that we're supposed to look up to and trust."
You're right - look elsewhere! I paid cash for my car
the current recession. (Also a nice used car.) I test-drove the car, talked them into letting me 'vet' it at my own mechanic, and when it passed, I showed up at the dealership with a cashier's check for $1.5K less than their 'bottom line'. I told them it was all I had. (It was the truth). The salesman went and talked to the manager, came back, and said 'You've got a deal.' (Also asked me 'where did you learn to buy cars?) I also talked them into a free extended warranty, radiator flushing and new coolant.
:D
Bullhockey, illegals are paid in cash, there is NO tax being taken out. nm
x
Everyone and their mother withdraws their cash from the bank.
dd
Who should be bomb next?
Check thsi out..I hope it works, if not check out Crooks and Liars website and watch it there. People are asked which country we should bomb next and they actually name other countries!! And their knowledge of geography is frightening. If I was asked..what country should be bomb and invade next I would say NONE, LEAVE THE WORLD ALONE! Amazing.
Who would you bomb next?
CNNN (not US) asks people On the Streets of America who they would bomb next.
Video-Wmp Bittorrent-WMP
Video-QT- Bittorrent-QT
who said it is staff?
I saw that one week was for 7th and 8th graders that were hosted for a black history month affair, then one night was congressman, etc. (I think they were they ones that did the conga line; I don't think anywhere I have read did it say that it was for staffers.
Your very first sentence, "Trying to bomb...
... a grassroots political force into extinction will be about as effective and trying to bomb Iraq into democracy," reminds me very much of a quote by Michael Corleone in Godfather II, where they're in Cuba trying to "do business" while in the midst of unrest and rebellion of the people.
Michael Corleone: I saw a strange thing today. Some rebels were being arrested. One of them pulled the pin on a grenade. He took himself and the captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren't.
Hyman Roth: What does that tell you?
Michael Corleone: It means they could win.
Although Israel has very sophisticated American-made weapons, maybe, as above, that won't be enough. 
On HC and other staff appointees...
I will reserve comment momentarily on the "increasing number of former Clinton staff," to see if you have further comment on my OP. To some extent, I share your concern about HC, but my feelings about her are pretty mixed. Her behavior during the primary was predictably brutal and I am sure she still has her own political aspirations for the future. SOS position would be a definite feather in her cap toward that end IF she meets the expectations as laid out during Obama's campaign in terms of troop withdrawal from Iraq, a more surgical focus on the Afghanistan/Pakistan front, A 2-state solution in the Palestine/Israel conflict and more open diplomacy overall.
Should she "go rogue" on Obama in this regard, she would be doing herself more harm than good. The SOS serves at the behest of the president and what the president giveth, the president can taketh away. Case in point, Colin Powell. In terms of Obama's strategy, I truly believe Obama the fox is in charge of that decision. As a senator. HC has the potential to affect policy on a much BROADER range than she does has SOS. In any case, there seems to be a log-jam of sorts over the vetting of HC in terms of conflict of interests with Bill's financial dealings, so this is still in the wait and see mode.
Again, will reserve comment on the staff picks to see what you have to say after reading the OP. On the economy, I want a little bit of both. I think it would be wise for Obama to select people who are innovative and open to new approaches and even sweeping systemic reforms. I agree with your observations about the current cronies. So far, there is not much to say about this since the only economy-related selection so far has been Orszag, who did serve on the Council of Economic Advisors under Clinton during years that were not exactly disastrous in that respect. In fact, a balance budget was achieved then and in that respect, he probably tried to err on the safe side with this pick.
I think you may be selling Obama a bit short on the cabinet/administration relationship. It is not a foregone conclusion that the cabinet runs the leader. I believe Obama's style will be more or less the "iron fist in the velvet glove." That too remains to be seen. You may want to consider that even former CLINTON people may be interested in propelling themselves into the future world and shaking these types of perceptions. I also do believe there is plenty of room for those fresh faces that we both would like to see step forward, but it is not difficult for me to understand his focus on experience and name recognition in these top key posts. HC has some of the former and much of the latter. If she is not as experienced as some of the other potential picks, it could just be that she would be less independent in this capacity and, by necessity, would have to look to her boss for guidance.
When he was WH Chief of Staff...
he said he knew nothing about ML servicing old Billy boy under the desk....right under his nose. Just think how he'll run the CIA! He's either a fool or a look the other way kinda guy, take your pick!
Obama staff will say cu l8r 2 IM
In W.H., Obama staff will say cu l8r 2 im
By: Ben Smith
January 17, 2009 09:16 PM EST
Barack Obama may get to keep his Blackberry, but David Axelrod is losing his IM.
The lawyers broke the bad news to Obama aides at a briefing Friday morning convened by incoming Deputy White House Counsel Cassandra Butts: Not only are they leaving the modern world to enter a White House where some of the clunky desktop computers still run Windows 2000 but—worst of all—they'll be forced to surrender a form of communication staffers have relied on for the last two years to communicate with each other, outside allies, and the press.
From Axelrod, the chief campaign strategist, down to junior staffers in the press office, Obama's campaign relied heavily on software many of them began using in high school—AOL Instant Message and Google Chat. Instant messaging, though little mentioned, is—perhaps as much as email—deeply woven into contemporary politics and media, whose fabric is the constant, quick, gossipy transmission of spin and information. But a calculus that's perhaps one part security, one part law, and two parts politics, has long barred instant messaging from the White House.
"They just told us flat out we couldn't IM in the White House," groused one senior staffer Friday.
"It sucks. It's really going to slow us down," complained another, saying that lawyers had warned that, along with Instant Messaging, White House software will restrict users to a range of sites roughly "like your average grade school."
The clunky technology is standard issue for government offices, but the bar on instant messaging is particular to the White House. Legal and security experts say it is dictated by the fear of embarrassment if IMs were to be disclosed. The Presidential Records Act requires White House documents to become public five years after a president leaves office, and most lawyers think it would apply to any instant messages discussing government business.
"People have to be conscious that when you put something on paper you think it through," said former Clinton White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum. With IM, he said, "you think you're talking but you're really writing."
The Bush Administration has been rebuked by federal courts for the apparent destruction of emails sent by political aides on non-governmental accounts, and Obama's aides are intensely aware that any instant messages written must be preserved, and will become part of the permanent record, which may not be desirable.
"They're going to realize, once you go inside the bubble, it becomes much more difficult to maintain contact with the outside world," said Reginald Brown, a former associate White House counsel for President Bush. "IMng encourages a kind of casualness in conversation that will be the bane of the lawyers down the line. The reality is that if you want to engage in the equivalent of IMing, you have to pick up the phone."
Brown noted that, along with entering the permanent record after the presidency, the IMs could become public sooner in response to Congressional subpoenas or lawsuits.
"These lawyers - [incoming White House Counsel] Greg Craig in particular—come out of a law firm environment and knows how onerous e-discovery has been for clients," he said.
Instant messaging—like email—also brings security concerns, though Beryl Howell, an lawyer who specializes in cyber-security, said it would be "feasible" to encrypt IM and block potential avenues for viruses.
Others called the policy a reasonable, and perhaps even helpful, way to avoid public embarrassment—and even to inspire more sober thinking.
Hillary Clinton's former chief strategist, Howard Wolfson - who exchanged pleasantries with Axelrod on IM even in the heat of the primaries - emailed that the ban is "probably a blessing. Less distractions."
The instant message ban is just part of a maze Obama's lawyers are preparing to enter, as the 1978 record act faces up to contemporary technology. Lawyers believe, for instance, that any government-related content Obama's aides put on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter will be covered by the act and must be preserved.
And the difficulty of Obama having email isn't just that he will have to be careful about what he writes; any message, however embarrassing, that
is written to him must be preserved.
Many veterans of the Bush White House—who have been accused of channeling compromising political conversations to outside email accounts, which they deny—say they've found it intensely frustrating.
"Did you all think the White House just didn't know that Facebook at Twitter existed?" asked Almacy, blaming the lawyers for the archaic feel of White House web operations.
A current Bush aide said the law didn't contemplate the shift of hallway conversations to instant message and email.
"Do you really want every one of those hallway conversations preserved for the official record?"
But the controversy over the Bush emails, and Obama's promise of transparency, make it unlikely that the new president and Congress will pass legislation lowering the veil of secrecy over new technologies. So for now, Obamas aides will have to cope with telephones and email alone, a shift that will afflict Axelrod—whose habit of using punctuation and complete sentences in his IMs amuses young staffers—as much as any.
Asked by email about the impending technological downgrade, he emailed: "I will reply to this by registered mail."
"I don't' think it was necessarily a national security issue—I think it had mostly to do with the records act," said David Almacy, the former Bush White House Internet Director, who noted that to keep IM, a White House would probably have to "work with an external contractor to preserve all that communication in real time."
Obama's lawyers told staff Friday they'd be reviewing current White House information security policy, and the IM ban drew mixed reviews from outside experts, with some saying that could cast the staff into some of the same isolation that Obama, by insisting on keeping his Blackberry, is seeking to avoid.
"Does there really need to be a trade off here? The net effect is that the president and all of his top staff are going to be put into a bubble," said Tom Blanton, the director of the National Security Archvie. "There should be ways for the President's staff to take advantage of the latest IM technology—otherwise they're living in the hothouse, and strange plants grow in hothouses."
Hard to believe the White House is still using Windows 2000!
Conservative Sites for Non-Bomb-Throwers
I'm posting this again, since it got lost in the shuffle.
I realize I'll get bomb-throwers, but I could care less. I will probably just ignore it. These people are literally drunk on Kool-Aid!There are other forums for overall conservative thinkers. If you go to activitypit.com, it's for RedEye fans (like me). The show itself is very funny in my opinion. Of course, they do have some libs on there, but they don't behave anywhere near like these people. I've become very good friends with a couple people from there. I found out one of them lives in the same city as me. Talk about a small world! Here are a couple links from RedEye's Activity Pit:
There are many more. Here are a few off the top of my head:
townhall.com
heritage.org
pajamastv.com
newsbusters.org
tammybruce.com
nationalreview.com
hotair.com
michellemalkin.com
newt.org
Of course, let us not forget:
rushlimbaugh.com
marklevinshow.com
hannity.com
anncoulter.com
lauraingraham.com
Another thing many don't know is that The History Channel is owned/run by libs, so watch with caution. I personally prefer War Stories with Oliver North on FNC. Tammy Bruce was formerly president (or whatever they call it) of NOW, but not now. She has a very interesting story to tell about their ways of doing business. I wonder if any libs will look into this. And imagine this, a conservative lesbian!
So enjoy, you few conservatives!
Here are some others: breitbart.com, http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/, townhall.com,
The other friend, who lives in a very liberal state, was thrilled that she and her husband met ONE conservative couple.
Conservative Sites for Non-Bomb-Throwers
I'm posting this again, since it got lost in the shuffle.
I realize I'll get bomb-throwers, but I could care less. I will probably just ignore it. These people are literally drunk on Kool-Aid!There are other forums for overall conservative thinkers. If you go to activitypit.com, it's for RedEye fans (like me). The show itself is very funny in my opinion. Of course, they do have some libs on there, but they don't behave anywhere near like these people. I've become very good friends with a couple people from there. I found out one of them lives in the same city as me. Talk about a small world! Here are a couple links from RedEye's Activity Pit:
There are many more. Here are a few off the top of my head:
townhall.com
heritage.org
pajamastv.com
newsbusters.org
tammybruce.com
nationalreview.com
hotair.com
michellemalkin.com
newt.org
Of course, let us not forget:
rushlimbaugh.com
marklevinshow.com
hannity.com
anncoulter.com
lauraingraham.com
Another thing many don't know is that The History Channel is owned/run by libs, so watch with caution. I personally prefer War Stories with Oliver North on FNC. Tammy Bruce was formerly president (or whatever they call it) of NOW, but not now. She has a very interesting story to tell about their ways of doing business. I wonder if any libs will look into this. And imagine this, a conservative lesbian!
So enjoy, you few conservatives!
Here are some others: breitbart.com, http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/, townhall.com,
The other friend, who lives in a very liberal state, was thrilled that she and her husband met ONE conservative couple.
If Netanyahu continues to bomb Gaza,
then Obama has to do some action, words are not enough anymore regarding this conflict.
Most probably Obama, as he is a wise guy, he will curtail US' financial and weapon support to Israel.
Obama will not start the bombing and he will not torture.
Chief of Staff or Enforcer?...
Here are a few thing I've found just after a short search about Mr. Emanuel:
Mr. Emanuel, who received training in ballet as a boy, has shown no lightness of step in his political career: would-be enemies are advised to heed the story of a pollster who wronged him and promptly received a large, decomposing fish in the mail.
The intense, eventually successful campaign took a serious toll on him. Colleagues reported that amid a discussion over a celebratory dinner about which political figures had earned the new president's enmity, Mr. Emanuel became so enraged that he grabbed a steak knife, stood up and began reciting a list of names, plunging the knife into the table and shouting "Dead! Dead! Dead!" after each one.
Reflecting on his own foul-mouthed, attack-dog style, Mr. Emanuel has said: "I wake up some mornings hating me too." Commentators have suggested that Mr. Obama, who ran a lofty campaign based on national unity and bipartisanship, has recognized the need to employ a tough enforcer to push through his policies.
You would prefer he not have staff on day 1? Or have a plan of action? sm
He has done nothing that previous Presidents-elect have not done in the days between election and inauguration.
Jesse Jackson gets bomb threats over Imus case...sm
Jesse Jackson gets bomb threats over Imus case
April 15, 2007
BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter/ dnewbart@suntimes.com
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been hit with a series of bomb threats since leading a charge to get shock jock Don Imus fired.
Jackson said he fielded a call Saturday morning urging him to watch his back and warning him to stay away from Rainbow/PUSH headquarters on the South Side.
Friday, a Jackson staffer took a call from someone who claimed to have planted a bomb at the headquarters at 50th and Drexel. The building was evacuated about 12:30 p.m., and police swept the building with bomb-sniffing dogs. Nothing was found.
Jackson said he has received 10 to 12 threats starting Wednesday or Thursday. The calls have gone to his office, his home and his cell phone. Although he hasn't fielded most of the calls, he said he believes there are different people behind them.
A police spokeswoman said an investigation is ongoing.
In New York, meanwhile, WCBSTV.com reported the Rev. Al Sharpton has also received death threats after criticizing Imus.
Imus was fired from his radio show for calling members of the Rutgers women's basketball team nappy-headed hos.
Like that'll happen. Trying to bomb a grassroots political force
into extinction will be about as effective and trying to bomb Iraq into democracy.
Thanks to their last fiasco when they tried this in Lebanon, Hezbollah has an 80+% approval rating among Lebanese factions (13 points higher than O) and its support among Lebanese Sunni Sunni, Christians and Druze soared in 2006. Their demonstrations attracted hundreds of thousands of protestors, especially in the aftermath of Israel's failed massacre, when protests against PM Siniora sent his approval ratings into a deep-6.
Hezbollah was given veto power in the parliment via the Doha Agreement in 2008 and under its newly formed National Unity Government, Hezbollah gained the Labor Minister's appointment and holds 11 out of 30 seats, or slightly over one-third alongside Greek Orthodox and Catholics, Maronites, Armenians, Shia, Sunni and Druz.
So you see, instead of giving Hezbollah the boot, Israel legitimized their standing the Lebanese government.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html
http://www.mideastmonitor.org/issues/0609/0609_6.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006%E2%80%932008_Lebanese_political_protests
http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/UnityGovernmentEN.htm
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/hezbollah.html?breadcrumb=%2F
Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff disturbs you how?
could you please expand on your concept of the Chicago political machine? I must have missed those posts in the past.
The President's Chief of Staff is basically an administrative coordinator who oversees the white house staff. He manages the president's schedule, Under his supervision are his own deputy, White House Counsel and the White House Press Secretary. Sounds like an executive butler to me. He has experience as a political staffer and advisor, a successful campaign director and fundraiser on both the state and national levels. Senior advisor to Bill Clinton on political affairs, policy and strategy. Returned to the House of representatives from the 5th district in Illinois 4 times. He must be doing something right.
Though he had expressed his interest in staying in the House and possibly aspiring to Speaker of the House, he has now decided to leave the legislative branch and become part of the executive branch. He seems to be imminently qualified for the job and does not have any direct legislative powers. Please tell us what it is you find so foreboding about the appointment of this White House butler guy.
I moved to GA from FL
4 years ago, met me a GA boy and now I'm here to stay lol. He took me out one night to a friends house where they were grilling "hamburgers" and "sausage". I had already told him before that I would never eat deer meat, and that it was gross (of course I never had tried it! I'm just picky!) Well after my second hamburger and a piece of sausage, I told his friend that it was awesome and what did he put in it? The answer?
Deer meat.
Been hooked ever since :)
It's great in chili and spaggetti too!
Please review the Iraq Liberation Act and the speech given by clinton in 1988 explaining why he bomb
Operation Desert Fox. Bush, nor conservatives, were the first to call for regime change in Iraq. Clinton signed in a LAW calling for just that. I posted the act below. Both sides have called for regime change, only one side made it a law...that would be yours. Can we move on to another subject now?
I was actually moved to pity him
Most likely, as McCain said about Obama, he is a "good man, a family man." I think he has run a campaign that could be described as win at any cost, no matter what lie or deceit has to be used. The black fellow who stood up and said, "please sir, I'm begging you" right before the little old lady, is anyone so dumb that they didn't recognize that man was planted? Many, many people can't see past the end of their nose.
I'm voting for LOU DOBBS for president. Seems he's about the only one these days who tells it like it is and fries both candidates.
The moderators moved it here from
at the request of other posters. Perhaps you should ask them your question.
Oh pleeeease. I bet you they were moved
Why were there 200 Russians in Iraq. What where they doing and what were they there for? They left before we bombed them. Do not forget. We just did not go over to Iraq and started bombing like Obama did with Pakistan. We gave ample warning to that country; just in time for Iraq to move the weapons.
Link please. It was moved to the top because U thought ...
it important to do so, so please move the link for this to the top too so we may see where the rebuttal '"facts" are verified. Though, it is obvious that most of this is editorian/rhetoric/whatever you want to call it.
To that end, I am so tired of the he said this, she said that. They ALL say one thing but mean another. They and their teams are all spinners. It is always a mystery because you never know what you are going to get when they get in there, especially since they are not the ones calling all the shots - there is congress too.
wow, glad I moved from Maryland
:-)
I heard they moved to Texas already. nm
dopeypeople
I am glad Beck moved to Fox.
nm
I just moved it up my list on NetFlix myself yesterday.
I should get it today or tomorrow so I can watch it when I hopefully have some down time over the holiday. I can't wait to see it. Love the NetFlix!
She was born in Idaho, but her family moved....
to Alaska when she was an infant. She was raised in Alaska.
wow when it's moved everything is erased!! maybe that's a good thing? Lol
but I still think this is the right place :)
That's why Osamabama moved to Chicago insteady of staying in NY.
nm
Moved hubby's 6 weeks ago. Mine only last week. (nm)
What's Ron calling himself today? Libertarian? Republican? Or has he moved on to something else
and, puh-leeze, LewRockwell.com as a source of anything but lunatic fringe "news"? LOL
After reading Huckabee's pronouncement I was moved to religious zeal.....
I found myself saying "Good God!" and "Jesus Christ!"
I never said I wanted the
government to take care of everything and everybody. I want the government to be responsible to its citizens. They work for us. Expecting elderly retirees to get a job or go to college is ridiculous. These people deserve better. I am not complaining about my life. I am reiterating to you what I see here in the Sunshine State. It is all about money all the time. Many people I know will be able to regroup and hold their lives together but I don't understand why the collapse of the middle class is just all right with you. That is my point. No need to go into the pull yourself up by your bootstraps argument. We will never see eye to eye on that. This is about our country being in debt out the wazoo, borrowing money from China to fight a war no one wants in Iraq and middle class people being downsized into poverty. It is not about being lazy or having choices. It is about the sad sorry state of our union.
Yep, just like the DNC wanted you to...
to move the cLintons on their way out. The DNC did not want Hillary from the get-go, and the media helped them accomplish it. And here you are rewarding them by electing the perps. LOL. sigh. Poor Hillary...pilloried by her own.
Thank you - that was all I wanted to know (sm)
sad how many people don't know the answer and just want to dismiss it without even knowing though.
Just wanted to add
I in no way mean to indicate that everyone receiving any type of public aid spends the whole day watching soaps and eating bon bons. Just that a large portion of them (at least in my area) do just that and have lived off it for years as opposed to using it as a temporary crutch while they try to get back on their feet.
Yep, I know....just wanted to be sure all...
of the information was out there and that what Bush did is vastly different than what Obama is proposing. And apparently it is working because they are lining up for the ice cream and defending him right down the line...lol.
Just wanted to say.................. sm
Merry Christmas!
That's not what I wanted to see.
DH has been talking about moving there for a couple years. He loves Canada.
I hate the cold. Think I'm going to show this to him? Nah. 
I just wanted to say thanks.
This is the first time that a discussion on same sex marriage has been a good discussion without personal attacks, etc. Thanks for sharing your point of view with me.
I wanted to, but DH said no.
We have 50 tomato plants in containers, 25 pepper plants (green, hot, hotter, and hotter then he!!), 10 potato plant containers (x6 cuttings in each), and 10 containers of cukes. The only thing we planted in the ground was beans, onions, and radishes. All doing fantastic. Already have a hot pepper and some tomatoes and this weather sucks this year, only 60 damp, dreary, rainy all week...again. Surprised the plants are doing so well.
We also have about 5 tomato plants coming up in the ground from last year.
I was wondering how your garden was doing. Thanks for letting me know.
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