More on Barney Frank...he is SO dirty in this economic mess....

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however, it is the HOMEOWNERS responsibility to READ YOUR CONTRACT. Geesh people, the lenders did loan to those they knew couldn't pay, but the people who bought a $300,000 home making $50,000 cannot be excused, they too bear responsibility. Anyone facing foreclosure now who gets bailed out should never be allowed to own another home without 20% or more CASH downpayment. We make our mortgage payment on time every month, add extra to the principal, have never been late, have never taken out a HELOC or a second mortgage and yet we are expected to help those out who probably shouldn't have bought a home in the first place.

Barney Frank (D) is the one who several years ago pushed the mortgage lenders to lend to EVERYONE so all could have homes. Read the Boston Globe Op-Ed piece by Jeff Jacoby for a good explanation.

Barney Frank wants less govt and state rights when it comes to drugs.... but he wants "regulation" and "more enforcement" when it comes to everything else that takes away MY rights...... what a joke!

Report: Untreated water at U.S. base in Iraq
Halliburton denies contamination of supply to American soliders, civilians

WASHINGTON - Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water last year and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton, couldn�t get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews and internal company documents.

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, disputes the allegations about water problems at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi, even though they were made by its own employees and documented in company e-mails.

�We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated,� said a July 15, 2005, memo written by William Granger, the official for Halliburton�s KBR subsidiary who was in charge of water quality in Iraq and Kuwait.

�The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River,� Granger wrote in one of several documents. The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations Monday.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who will chair the session, held a number of similar inquiries last year on contracting abuses in Iraq. He said Democrats were acting on their own because they had not been able to persuade Republican committee chairmen to investigate.

The company�s former water treatment expert at Camp Junction City said that he discovered the problem last March, a statement confirmed by his e-mail the day after he tested the water.

Bottled water used only for drinking
While bottled water was available for drinking, the contaminated water was used for virtually everything else, including handwashing, laundry, bathing and making coffee, said water expert Ben Carter of Cedar City, Utah.

Another former Halliburton employee who worked at the base, Ken May of Louisville, said there were numerous instances of diarrhea and stomach cramps � problems he also suffered.

A spokeswoman for Halliburton said its own inspection found neither contaminated water nor medical evidence to substantiate reports of illnesses at the base. The company now operates its own water treatment plant there, spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said.

A military medical unit that visited Camp Ramadi in mid-April found nothing out of the ordinary in terms of water quality, said Marine Corps Maj. Tim Keefe, a military spokesman. Water-quality testing records from May 23 show the water within normal parameters, he said.

�The allegations appear not to have merit,� Keefe said.

Halliburton has contracts to provide a number of services to U.S. forces in Iraq and was responsible for the water quality at the base in Ramadi.

Year-long exposure?
Granger�s July 15 memo said the exposure had gone on for �possibly a year� and added, �I am not sure if any attempt to notify the exposed population was ever made.�

The first memo on the problem � written by Carter to Halliburton officials on March 24, 2005 � was an �incident report� from tests Carter performed the previous day.

�It is my opinion that the water source is without question contaminated with numerous micro-organisms, including Coliform bacteria,� Carter wrote. �There is little doubt that raw sewage is routinely dumped upstream of intake much less than the required 2 mile distance.

�Therefore, it is my conclusion that chlorination of our water tanks while certainly beneficial is not sufficient protection from parasitic exposure.�

Carter said he resigned in early April after Halliburton officials did not take any action to inform the camp population.

The water expert said he told company officials at the base that they would have to notify the military. �They told me it was none of my concern and to keep my mouth shut,� he said.

�They brushed it under the carpet�
On at least one occasion, Carter said, he spoke to the chief military surgeon at the base, asking him whether he was aware of stomach problems afflicting people. He said the surgeon told him he would look into it.

�They brushed it under the carpet,� Carter said. �I told everyone, �Don�t take showers, use bottled water.�

A July 14, 2005, memo showed that Halliburton�s public relations department knew of the problem.

�I don�t want to turn it into a big issue right now,� staff member Jennifer Dellinger wrote in the memo, �but if we end up getting some media calls I want to make sure we have all the facts so we are ready to respond.�

Halliburton�s performance in Iraq has been criticized in a number of military audits, and congressional Democrats have contended that the Bush administration has favored the company with noncompetitive contracts.

I was cheering that Bill is BACK! I've been fit to be tied over his lingering lethargy for the last period of months, and have written to complain, too.

There's a lot more on the web about Barney Frank and how filthy he is (in more ways than 1) this whole thing. He should've been put in jail along with Chris Dodd and Palsen, etc. Barney Frank's former lover worked for this outfit before they split many years ago. I've read so much on it that I don't recall which place I read it, but obviously you won't find any of this investigative stuff on the driveby channels. Even FNC doesn't put some stuff out there, which ticks me off. But I find it, anyway between the conservative blogs, sites, talk radio, etc. And these sources can be easily checked, so the libs can throw all the hissy fits they want. If they honestly think it's okay to give literally ANY party a free pass just b/c it has your letter or preference behind it, that's just nuts! I'm dying to clean out the RINOs in "my" party. They don't belong there.

He also says banks should be encouraged to write down mortgages. As for the $700B package, they got a terrible job loss number the same day and that it should soon start working. This fund would start buying into the banks soon. He was very upset that the first $250B was given away and $125B went into buying large banks and $125B went into buying into small banks.

Keynesianism??? What's that? Sounds like a new language to me. It's one of the words he uses.

I certainly don't think there should be another stimulus package. The first one didn't work. How can the second one be any better?

instead of talk radio or Gore's electrice bill. I am referring to Libby's trial,

Well....he was convicted of perjury and if he in fact did lie under oath to the grand jury, he should go to jail. That being said...why not pardon him? Clinton was cited for exactly the same things...lying under oath (perjury) before a grand jury and obstruction of justice. He is free as a bird, finished his term as President, making money hand over fist....yes, for that reason alone I think Libby should be pardoned to level the playing field again. If liberals were happy that Clinton walked, they should not scream bloody murder if Bush does pardon Libby. Because it is the very same thing and would expose the hypocrisy BIG time. But, that has never stopped them before, has it?

I am having a hard time finding much usable information about this. What I can find are various blogs that lean hard right or hard left and not much fact. I saw where it was stated that they were fired for cause, citing one refused to file death penalty cases, one refused to file immigration cases, yada yada. But I did not really find anything compelling and not in a blog that compelled me to fall either way on this. I don't see any reason to think they were not fired for cause...don't see anything in writing to convince me either.

If you are talking about the firing of David Iglesias, I am not much buying it that the administration fired him because of something he did or did not do back during the presidential election. I can't find any evidence to prove that. It is of concern to me that Iglesias held that information all this time, and now that he has been fired brings it forward. He said himself, or at least was quoted as saying, he had no proof that his firing was related to that. It sounds like sour grapes for being fired to me. Typical, human reaction to being fired. But because it is a political position, the sour grapes are made public.

the unnecessary and ever rising numbers of dead - everywhere, 40 towns in Vermont calling for impeachment (of course this won't go anywhere but the gesture is telling),

Nothing much to say about this. Wars kill people. Most of the Iraqi deaths are at the hands of other Arabs. You can blame that on America if you wish. I choose not to. More Iraqis are coming forward and fingering the bad guys, and that is what it is going to take. We have had a lot of successes. Of course, you have to watch Fox to see them. CNN studiously ignores such things as it does not fit their agenda. As do the networks. I hope you are not going to suggest that Fox has a soundstage where they fake the reports.

a pardon for Libby (and does he have to admit guilt to be pardoned which he has not done), the fact that Libby was the attorney to the much maligned Marc Rich who was pardoned by Clinton, which was also much maligned. Was Scooter as evil as Clinton for having defended him in his dealings with Iran and his tax evasion as Clinton was for pardoning him ?? If all this was just about infighting between the FBI and the administration and George Tenet, then why did Libby lie at all; wouldn't be important enough to lie about, IMHO. Throwing it out there.

This whole thing smacks of getting back, to me. More interesting to me than Scooter and Marc, is Fitzgerald and Comey. Fitzgerald and Comey were both prosecutors working on the Marc Rich case. Obviously they were not happy when they were on the eve of an indictment when Rich ran (wonder who leaked to him that the indictment was imminent) and were even more UNhappy when Clinton pardoned him. And who should be now prosecuting Scooter? And who did most of the investigation? Why, that would be Fitzgerald and Mr. Comey. Which is why I think they went for Scooter's throat and did not indict the man who REALLY leaked the information, Richard Armitage. Payback in politics is hael, my friend!!

I will have to admit though that I don't know that much about that aspect of it. I do know there is some controversy surrounding the whole Hezbullah vs Hamas and Lebanon vs Gaza. I obviously have some catching up to do on that one...LOL.

I do think, however, that Hamas kind of got a bad rap because they couldn't keep up with the demands for food, housing, etc, and particularly the distribution of aid....? However, I also think that it's kind of hard to keep that flow of aid going when Israel is attacking incoming ships that carry that aid. With that and the constant bombardment from Isreal in a military sense on the ground, I think it kind of put them on shaky ground to begin with.

I think in the end the success of whoever wins will be very dependent upon us being able to control Israel.

It may seem that he's acting a little early, but given the economic state of this country, I don't think that's such a bad thing.

the stock market is tanking again. It's down to -212. I have never seen the INDP as low as today at 7154. I think part of it is because they talked about nationalizing CitiGroup and Bank of America.

the economy. Cooporations starting to lay off and anticipate many more lay offs next year, affecting local and state governments, police, fire and rescue operations due to a fall in tax revenues, precipitating more foreclosures. Wow, all frowning faces and gloom and doom. I really think we are on a runaway train into the second great depression, something we have no idea about other than stories from our parents and grandparents. Very scary. I think that we MTs are pretty secure in our jobs but so many people's jobs are at risk.

To top it all off, the treasury department has decided to not use our tax bailout money they way they promised, rather are taking a different tactic without telling any of us or congress. I sure hope they know what they are doing because I sure don't understand it.