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The Official Web Site of the The U.S. Presidential Transition

Posted By: Obama VA MT on 2008-11-08
In Reply to:

FYI.

http://change.gov/

Knowledge is power.



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According to the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 -

there is an office for the President Elect that the government pays for.  You can read the information on the link provided to see what all is paid for - but it seems quite apparent to me that there is an office of the president elect and has been for quite some time - nothing new.  Obama may have given it an official title that nobody has used openly before, but it has been established for at least 45 years.


 


http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentType=GSA_BASIC&contentId=24780


The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 -
this authorizes the General Services Administration to certify even before the December electoral college volte who the apparent winner of the president elect is.
There is web site for the transition
http://change.gov/
Questions censored on transition site...
For full story: http://www.politico.com/blogs/.....ml?showall







Quote:
President-elect Barack Obama's Transition today launched "Open for Questions," a Digg-style feature allowing citizens to submit questions, and to vote on one another's questions, bringing favored inquiries to the top of the list.

It was suggested when it launched that the tool would bring uncomfortable questions to the fore, but the results so far are the opposite: Obama's supporters appear to be using -- and abusing -- a tool allowing them to "flag" questions as "inappropriate" to remove all questions mentioning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from the main pages of Obama's website.

A transition team in a time of crisis
permanent selections and appointmens of staff and cabinet members. The economic advisor team should at least confer a sense of confidence, which it most definitely did. You probably should be giving ANY president elect more than 3 days before passing judgment on him...after all, he has not even been sworn in, for heaven's sake.
Looks like it's official..............sm

What we have all been thinking for months has finally been confirmed by "the experts."  We are officially in a recession and have been for the past year.  Why did it take them so long to finally figure it out? 


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97652641&ft=1&f=1001


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27999557/


http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/economy/nber-fell-recession-year/


http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN02ELLSNA20081201?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews


Okay it's now official -
Your comment definitely has me thinking more vegan now.
I think it's official.....gay is the new black (sm)
It amazes me that we can take such a huge step as we did in the general election and yet at the same time take away someone else's rights.  I hope this goes to the supreme court.
You put up THIS site or the site you said to check out
Unless you are the administrator which I highly doubt you didn't put up THIS site.
Who looks more presidential?
Calmly and confidently address subjects of vital interest to the nation and runs against his presidential opponent or a robot who stands by silently picking his nails and clinging to the skirt tails of his VP instant reply mouthpiece, taking queues from her as to when to wave to the audience, all the while never uttering one sound on one policy?
Google has an official explaining for it.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/googlebombing-failure.html
Former Reagan official: Is another 9/11 is in the works?

(There is NOTHING this administration could do that would surprise me. )












March 16, 2006


Is Another 9/11 in the Works?


by Paul Craig Roberts


If you were President George W. Bush with all available US troops tied down by the Iraqi resistance, and you were unable to control Iraq or political developments in the country, would you also start a war with Iran?


Yes, you would.


Bush’s determination to spread Middle East conflict by striking at Iran does not make sense.


First of all, Bush lacks the troops to do the job. If the US military cannot successfully occupy Iraq, there is no way that the US can occupy Iran, a country approximately three times the size in area and population.


Second, Iran can respond to a conventional air attack with missiles targeted on American ships and bases, and on oil facilities located throughout the Middle East.


Third, Iran has human assets, including the Shi'ite majority population in Iraq, that it can activate to cause chaos throughout the Middle East.


Fourth, polls of US troops in Iraq indicate that a vast majority do not believe in their mission and wish to be withdrawn. Unlike the yellow ribbon folks at home, the troops are unlikely to be enthusiastic about being trapped in an Iranian quagmire in addition to the Iraqi quagmire.


Fifth, Bush’s polls are down to 34 percent, with a majority of Americans believing that Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a mistake.


If you were being whipped in one fight, would you start a second fight with a bigger and stronger person?


That’s what Bush is doing.


Opinion polls indicate that the Bush regime has succeeded in its plan to make Americans fear Iran as the greatest threat America faces.


The Bush regime has created a major dispute with Iran over that country’s nuclear energy program and then blocked every effort to bring the dispute to a peaceful end.


In order to gain a pretext for attacking Iran, the Bush regime is using bribery and coercion in its effort to have Iran referred to the UN Security Council for sanctions.


In recent statements President Bush and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld blamed Iran for the Iraqi resistance, claiming that the roadside bombs used by the resistance are being supplied by Iran.


It is obvious that Bush intends to attack Iran and that he will use every means to bring war about.


Yet, Bush has no conventional means of waging war with Iran. His bloodthirsty neoconservatives have prepared plans for nuking Iran. However, an unprovoked nuclear attack on Iran would leave the US, already regarded as a pariah nation, totally isolated.


Readers, whose thinking runs ahead of that of most of us, tell me that another 9/11 event will prepare the ground for a nuclear attack on Iran. Some readers say that Bush, or Israel as in Israel’s highly provocative attack on the Jericho jail and kidnapping of prisoners with American complicity, will provoke a second attack on the US. Others say that Bush or the neoconservatives working with some black ops group will orchestrate the attack.


One of the more extraordinary suggestions is that a low yield, perhaps tactical, nuclear weapon will be exploded some distance out from a US port. Death and destruction will be minimized, but fear and hysteria will be maximized. Americans will be told that the ship bearing the weapon was discovered and intercepted just in time, thanks to Bush’s illegal spying program, and that Iran is to blame. A more powerful wave of fear and outrage will again bind the American people to Bush, and the US media will not report the rest of the world’s doubts of the explanation.


Reads like a Michael Crichton plot, doesn’t it?


Fantasy? Let’s hope so.


 


 


It's now official. McCain conceding...sm
My congrats also, even though it was not my choice.


I just saw the first headline.....President Obama.


It's his night to celebrate.
It's official. HC has accepted SOS appointment.

Completed vetting process.  I think BC had to agree to withdraw from "day-to-day" involvement in his foundation to avoid conflict of interest. 


HOORAY! It's official! I feel like the US just

I propose that from here out, we all quit with the bellyachin' and become part of the solution, instead of continuing to be part of the problem.



Presidential race

Please do not tell any of the following their lives are not DIRECTLY affected by the President:


1.  The teachers and students who spend most of their time preparing for NCLB  standardized testing while falling behind in basic life skills. This affects EVERY student and EVERY teacher in EVERY public school in the United States.


2.  The soldiers who have been to Iraq,as well as their survivors. Their mission was to destroy nonexistent WMDs.


3.  The millions of people who cannot afford health insurance or oil to heat their homes. Of course our president does believe  "profits" are a good thing; unfortunately they are for corporate America.


I am not advising who to vote for; obviously it is a personal choice. But anyone who says no one person can make a difference, good or bad, is naive.


 


 


Presidential candidates

I think MTs should run the country!!!


Well he's already got his own presidential seal.
He's going to have to use it somewhere, lol.
I think that a presidential inauguration should be serious...
not an excuse to drink a lot in bars. I actually find it tacky. Watch the serious event in our nation's capital and celebrate if you want, but go home to party like a rockstar. Personally, I think it shows a huge amount of disrespect.
So...you are FOR anyone asking a Presidential candidate...
a question be subject to a law enforcement background check and the findings made public? Bye bye civil rights. Unreal.
The Presidential Pooch

Ok........ I'll say at least Michelle Obama said we'd like to "rescue" a dog. But now we've got the AKC involved in 2 Poodles, who are in a Poodle Rescue. I guess Id prefer that, but would prefer going to an actual kill-shelter and adopting, which is what I think Michelle meant in the first place.


Though......... What do you guys think of the hype of having a "Dog" in the White House. It's almost like it's the "designer" thing.


I remember Bill Clinton going and getting "Buddy".... It started with just Socks the cat didn't it?


I mean, all the love to them, for liking dogs and stuff, god knows I'm an animal lover.


But..... Seems weird. Now that I'm president and in the White House, you can have a dog. Not before, but Now you can.


I dont know.


=========================


President-elect Barack Obama has promised his two daughters a new puppy, sparking widespread speculation over the breed of the First Dog-to-be. 
Cristina Corbin


FOXNews.com


Thursday, November 06, 2008
 
To the lucky pup poised to become the next First Dog: Mind your manners.


Barney, President Bush's usually docile Scottish Terrier, once nipped at a White House intern -- now a FOXNews.com reporter -- when she accidentally dug a fingernail into the pooch while holding him.


Bill Clinton's cat, Socks, routinely hissed at the First Dog, Buddy. And Teddy Roosevelt's pit bull once famously ripped the pants of the French ambassador.


In his election victory speech Tuesday night, President-elect Barack Obama promised his two daughters that they'd be moving into the White House with a new puppy. Now the dogosphere is engaged in widespread speculation over the breed of the presidential pooch-to-be.


Or pooches-to-be. The American Kennel Club hopes that the pet will turn out to be a pair of 6-week-old toy poodles, rescued by Flora's Pet Project/Poodle Rescue in Connecticut. First lady-to-be Michelle Obama said in an interview last month that the family was interested in adopting a rescue dog after the election.


The puppies were transported to the AKC's New York offices, where they were to be photographed professionally Thursday in the hopes of catching the Obama family's attention.


"The dogs were in an unfortunate situation and were not being cared for properly," said Marianne Smith, a spokeswoman for the rescue agency. Smith said the puppies were "voluntarily surrendered," but declined to give further details.


In an online presidential dog poll conducted by the AKC in August, the poodle breed was the top dog among 42,000 respondents. Other contenders were the soft-coated Wheaten Terrier and Bichon Frise.


In a Communispace.com survey of 308 people taken after the election, 25 percent of those polled predicted the Obamas will get a golden retriever; 15 percent said a "pound dog," and 14 percent said a Jack Russell terrier.


Promoting her poodles, AKC spokeswoman Lisa Peterson said: "We hope the Obamas consider the survey results.... This poodle is a breed that doesn't always get the respect it deserves, but it is truly an ideal family pet."


"The poodle is a highly versatile breed," she said. "It's extremely intelligent and easily trained. This dog is going to visit many places, and so you want it to have good manners."


One of the Obamas' daughters suffers from allergies, so poodles -- which do not shed -- would be an ideal choice, Peterson said. The breed's obedient temperament and intelligence also make it a perfect candidate, she said.


In a letter to Obama in September, the AKC offered its assistance in choosing the White House dog and urged the Illinois senator to consider the toy poodle if he were elected. The AKC said it didn't send a letter to John McCain, because the Arizona senator already has 24 pets, including four dogs.


From 1960-1982, the poodle was the number one breed in America. Winston Churchill, Grover Cleveland and Richard Nixon all reportedly owned one.


Past White House breeds include George H. W. Bush's Springer Spaniel "Millie," Ronald Reagan's King Charles Cavalier Spaniel "Rex" and Caroline Kennedy's Welsh Terrier "Charlie." President Clinton's dog "Buddy" was a chocolate lab.


PICTURE BELOW:


A pair of six-week-old Toy Poodle puppies rescued by Flora's Pet Project/Poodle Rescue Connecticut visited the American Kennel Club offices in New York Thursday to be photographed in hopes of catching the attention of the Obama family.


 


Obama refuses to present an official
!1
Obama has never shown his official certificate.
nm
It's official!!! Obama has just sold this country

G-20 summit is now living proof that Obama has kissed everyone's butts and sold this county down the river.........  Now, all European socialists will make ALL regulatory rules for ALL U.S. firms................ 


 


Thanks to all the Obama lovers and fools out there who thought he was your savior!!    You better really have a savior because you're gonna need it now!!! 


SORRY..... YOU CAN'T BLAME BUSH FOR THIS ONE!!  OBAMA SWAGGERED HIS WAY THROUGH THIS ONE AND THERE WAS NO BUSH IN SIGHT!!!


 


 


I have the answer to our presidential woes...
It is time for some real serious thinking now.....Take your time with the following report and see if you don't agree!!!

Here we are already discussing the future President of the United States in the Year 2008.  Well, I have my own candidate; and I'm sure that once you know who I'm voting for, you will also agree.

For those of you who would like another choice for President, I have the best solution:  It is probably time we have a woman as President . My choice, and I hope yours as well, is a very special lady who has all the answers to our problems.

PLEASE give it a thought when you have a moment...   

  
MAXINE FOR PRESIDENT!
               
    
 Very eloquently put...........don't you think?

Maxine on "Driver Safety"  "I can't use the cell phone in the car. I have to keep my hands free for making gestures. ".......

Maxine on "Housework"   "I do my housework in the nude. It gives me an incentive to clean the mirrors as quickly as possible."

Maxine on "Lawn Care"  "The key to a nice-looking lawn is a good mower. I recommend one who is muscular and shirtless."

Maxine on "The Perfect Man"   "All I'm looking for is a guy who'll do what I want, when I want, for as long as I want, and then go away. Or wait nearby, like a Dust Buster, charged up and ready when needed."

Maxine on "Technology Revolution"  "My idea of rebooting is kicking somebody in the butt twice."

Maxine on "Aging"  "Take every birthday with a grain of salt. This works much better if the salt accompanies a Margarita."


It is hard to believe, isn't it....even in a Presidential election...
only about half of the people vote. I, like you, don't know why anyone would not want to exercise their right to vote.
Huckabee? Not presidential material

Here is Novak's recent article on him.  Creepy.  Reminds me a little of a wolf in sheep's clothing.  I think it is important to get the opinions of those people in the districts politicians serve.  Those opinions on Huckabee are not very good.


The False Conservative


by Robert Novak


Posted: 11/26/2007


Who would respond to criticism from the Club for Growth by calling the conservative, free-market campaign organization the "Club for Greed"? That sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards, all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder comes from Mike Huckabee, who has broken out of the pack of second-tier Republican presidential candidates to become a serious contender -- definitely in Iowa and perhaps nationally.

Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist, big-government advocate of a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to expose the former governor of Arkansas as a false conservative because he seemed an underfunded, unknown nuisance candidate. Now that he has pulled even with Mitt Romney for the Iowa caucuses with the possibility of more progress, the beleaguered Republican Party has a frightening problem on its hands.

The rise of evangelical Christians as the motive force that blasted the GOP out of minority status during the past generation always contained an inherent danger if these new Republican acolytes supported not merely a conventional conservative but one of their own. That has happened now with Huckabee, a former Baptist minister educated at Ouachita Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The danger is a serious contender for the nomination who passes the litmus test of social conservatives on abortion, gay marriage and gun control but is far removed from the conservative-libertarian model of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.


There is no doubt about Huckabee's record during a decade in Little Rock as governor. He was regarded by fellow Republican governors as a compulsive tax increaser and spender. He increased the Arkansas tax burden by 47 percent, boosting the levies on gasoline and cigarettes. When he decided to lose 100 pounds and pressed his new lifestyle on the American people, he was far from a Goldwater-Reagan libertarian.

As a presidential candidate, Huckabee has sought to counteract his reputation as a taxer by pressing for replacement of the income tax with a sales tax and has more recently signed the no-tax-increase pledge of Americans for Tax Reform. But Huckabee simply does not fit in normal boundaries of economic conservatism, as when he criticized President Bush's veto of a Democratic expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Calling global warming a "moral issue" mandating "a biblical duty" to prevent climate change, he has endorsed the cap-and-trade system that is anathema to the free market.

Huckabee clearly departs from the mainstream of the conservative movement in his confusion of "growth" with "greed." Such ad hominem attacks are part of his intuitive response to criticism from the Club for Growth and the libertarian Cato Institute for his record as governor. On Fox News Sunday Nov. 18, he called the "tactics" of the Club for Growth "some of the most despicable in politics today. It's why I love to call them the Club for Greed because they won't tell you who gave their money." In fact, all contributors to the organization's political action committee (which produces campaign ads) are publicly revealed, as are most donors financing issue ads.

Quin Hillyer, a former Arkansas journalist writing in the conservative American Spectator, called Huckabee "a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak." Huckabee's retort was to attack Hillyer's journalistic procedures, fitting a mean-spirited image when he responds to conservative criticism.

Nevertheless, he is getting remarkably warm reviews in the news media as the most humorous, entertaining and interesting GOP presidential hopeful. Contrary to descriptions by old associates, he is now called "jovial" or "good-natured." Any Republican who does not sound much like a Republican is bound to benefit from friendly media support, as Sen. John McCain did in 2000 but not today with his return to being more like a conventional Republican.

An uncompromising foe of abortion can never enjoy full media backing. But Mike Huckabee is getting enough favorable buzz that, when combined with his evangelical base, it makes real conservatives shudder.


it is not very presidential appearing and to me is just weird
she allowed herself to be drawn into that, what else would she do - I mean, she is too wishy-washy for my trust, goes in too many different directions, too scattered, haphazard...these are my opinions about her capabilities as a president, not a personal attack.

not to mention, if the black man did this he would have been gone from candidacy a long time ago.
And you actually think continuing the presidential campaign...
is more important than solving this problem? He has said before that he puts country first and if it costs him an election, so be it. That is integrity. Staying on the campaign trail instead of actually working to fix the problem...sounds a whole lot more chickenesque to me.
hero does not equal presidential - nm
x
I agree especially since Ensign had presidential

Analysis: Ensign affair a shock GOP didn't need





Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe

Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe




By R. Jeffrey Smith and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 20, 2005; Page A01



The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington.


The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.







src=http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/largerPhoto/images/enlarge_tab.gif
Procurement
Procurement chief David H. Safavian was connected to probe of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Melina Mara/twp - Twp)













It also contends that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area. Abramoff is the person identified as Lobbyist A in a 13-page affidavit unsealed in court, according to sources knowledgeable about the probe.


Until his resignation on the day the criminal complaint against him was signed, Safavian was the top administrator at the federal procurement office in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he set purchasing policy for the entire government.


The arrest occurred at his home in Alexandria. A man who answered the phone there yesterday hung up when a reporter asked to speak to Safavian.


Abramoff was indicted by federal prosecutors in Miami last month on unrelated charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. He remains the linchpin of an 18-month probe by a federal task force that includes the Internal Revenue Service, the Interior Department and the Justice Department's fraud and public integrity units. His lawyer did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.


Abramoff's allegedly improper dealings with Indian tribes -- which netted him and an associate at least $82 million in fees -- prompted the federal probe. But investigators have found that his documents and e-mails contain a trove of information about his aggressive efforts to seek favors for clients from members of Congress and senior bureaucrats.


Accompanying Safavian and Abramoff on the 2002 trip to Scotland, for example, were Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Administration Committee, lobbyist and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and Neil Volz, a lobbyist with Abramoff at the Washington office of Greenburg Traurig.


Like Abramoff, Safavian is a veteran Washington player. He is a former lobbying partner of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and previously worked with Abramoff at another firm. Both he and Abramoff have represented gambling clients and Indian tribes with gambling interests.


At the time of the golf trip, Safavian was chief of staff at the General Services Administration, where ethics rules flatly prohibited the receipt of a gift from any person seeking an official action by the agency. When Safavian asked GSA ethics officers for permission to go on the trip, he assured them in writing that Abramoff has no business before GSA, according to the affidavit signed by FBI special agent Jeffrey A. Reising.


Reising alleged, however, that Abramoff had by then already secretly enlisted Safavian in an effort to buy 40 acres of land that GSA managed in Silver Spring for use as the campus of a Hebrew school Abramoff founded. Safavian also allegedly tried to help Abramoff lease space for Abramoff's clients in an old post office building downtown.


On July 22, 2002, Abramoff sent Safavian an e-mail with a proposed draft letter that at least two members of Congress could send to GSA supporting the lease, according to the affidavit. Does this work, or do you want it to be longer? Abramoff asked.


Three days later, Safavian forwarded Abramoff an e-mail describing how an employee at OMB was resisting Abramoff's plan to lease space at the post office. I suspect we'll end up having to bring some Hill pressure to bear on OMB, Safavian messaged Abramoff.


On the same day Safavian discussed the golf trip with the ethics office, he sent an e-mail to Abramoff from his home computer, advising him how to lay out a case for this lease. Abramoff subsequently wrote in an e-mail to his wife and two officials of the school that Safavian had shown him a map of the property at his GSA office but had cautioned that Abramoff should not visit again given my high profile politically.


Safavian nonetheless arranged a meeting for Abramoff's wife and business partner with officials at GSA on the day before he departed for Scotland aboard Abramoff's chartered jet. The trip cost more than $120,000 and was paid for mostly by a charity founded and run by Abramoff, the Capital Athletic Foundation.


When Safavian was questioned by The Washington Post about the trip in January, he said he paid his share of the expenses and took unpaid leave. The trip was exclusively personal; I did no business there. . . . Jack is an old friend of mine, Safavian said.


But the complaint alleges that Safavian lied about his contacts with Abramoff on three occasions after his initial false pledge to the GSA ethics officer. The first was during a 2003 investigation by GSA's inspector general, who was responding to an anonymous tipster's hotline complaint; the second was in a March 17, 2005, letter to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; and the third was during an FBI interview on May 26, 2005.


Obama has NEVER released his official birth cert.
nm
He is an elected official which leaves him open for publicity -
They do not have to have his permission to run his pictures.
Media's Presidential Bias and Decline....sm

Michael Malone is a fourth generation journalist who works for abc.

This column is five pages long, but well worth the time spent reading it.

He talks about the present media bias and how he believes it came to be. Very, very enlightening.






Media's Presidential Bias and Decline
Columnist Michael Malone Looks at Slanted Election Coverage and the Reasons Why






http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=6099188&page=1
Interesting -- no elected official goes through a security clearance process ...

This is the most interesting statement from this article: 


FSM: Considering this situation we find ourselves in today, do you think presidential candidates should be vetted more before they are allowed even to run for their party's nomination?
 
BR: Well that's very difficult to say how you would do that - no elected official - senator or congressman or the vice president or president - goes through a security clearance process. The very election process itself is considered vetting.


It's official. Rahm Emanuel star of democratic party
accepts position of the O's chief of staff. 
Well, it's official my day is shot. Obama was inaugerated AND I'm getting crappy dictation!
I just can't win today! 
Michelle Obama's Official White House Portrait
See below.
Executive power survey by presidential candidates.

In case you haven't seen this article, I am posting the link:


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/22/candidates_on_executive_power_a_full_spectrum/?page=2


This is very enlightening for those who want to know their candidates thoughts about executive power.


Summation of today's presidential press conference

Here is NPR's write up of today's press conference by the president for those who would like a quick run down.  I just listened to it.  Made me nauseous.


WASHINGTON December 4, 2007, 1:04 p.m. ET · President Bush said Tuesday that the international community should continue to pressure Iran on its nuclear programs, asserting Tehran remains dangerous despite a new intelligence conclusion that it halted its development of a nuclear bomb four years ago.


"I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program, they halted the program," Bush said. "The reason why it's a warning signal is they could restart it."


Bush spoke one day after a new national intelligence estimate found that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003, largely because of international scrutiny and pressure. That finding is in stark contrast to the comparable intelligence estimate of just two years ago, when U.S. intelligence agencies believed Tehran was determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability and was continuing its weapons development program.


It is also stood in marked contrast to Bush's rhetoric on Iran. At his last news conference on Oct. 17, for instance, he said that people "interested in avoiding World War III" should be working to prevent Iran from having the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon.


Bush said Tuesday that he only learned of the new intelligence assessment last week. But he portrayed it as valuable ammunition against Tehran, not as a reason to lessen diplomatic pressure.


"To me, the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) provides an opportunity for us to rally the international community — to continue to rally the community — to pressure the Iranian regime to suspend its program," the president said. "What's to say they couldn't start another covert nuclear weapons program."


He also asserted that the report means "nothing's changed," focusing on the previous existence of a weapons program and not addressing the discrepancy between his rhetoric and the disclosure that weapons program has been frozen for four years.


Bush said he is not troubled about his standing, about perhaps facing a credibility gap with the American people. "No, I'm feeling pretty spirited — pretty good about life," Bush said.


"I have said Iran is dangerous, and the NIE doesn't do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world."


Bush said the report's finding would not prompt him to take a U.S. military option against Tehran off the table.


"The best diplomacy — effective diplomacy — is one in which all options are on the table," he said.


The president also said that the world would agree with his message that Iran shouldn't be let off the hook yet.


In fact, Europeans said the new information strengthens their argument for negotiations with Tehran, but they also said that sanctions are still an option to compel Iran to be fully transparent about its nuclear program. European officials insisted that the international community should not walk away from years of talks with an often defiant Tehran that is openly enriching uranium for uncertain ends. The report said Iran could still build a nuclear bomb by 2010-2015.


In Kabul, Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reinforced the U.S. position that the new U.S. intelligence assessment shows that Tehran remains a possible threat. He said it shows that Iran has had a nuclear weapons program and that as long as the country continues with its uranium enrichment activities, Iran could always renew its weapons program.


The U.S. intelligence assessment "validated the administration's strategy of bringing diplomatic and economic efforts to bear on Iran," Gates said Tuesday, speaking at a news conference with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.


Bush called the news conference, his first in nearly seven weeks, to intensify pressure on lawmakers amid disputes over spending and the Iraq war. Taking advantage of his veto power and the largest bully pulpit in town, Bush regularly scolds Congress as a way to stay relevant and frame the debate as his presidency winds down.


Democrats counter that Bush is more interested in making statements than genuinely trying to negotiate some common ground with them.


Specifically, Bush again on Tuesday challenged Congress to send him overdue spending bills; to approve his latest war funding bill without conditions; to pass a temporary to fix to the alternative minimum tax so millions of taxpayers don't get hit with tax increases; and to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.


"Congress still has a lot to do," Bush said. "It doesn't have very much time to do it."


On another matter, Bush was asked about a rape victim in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to prison and 200 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her — a violation of the kingdom's strict segregation of the sexes. Saudi Arabia has faced enormous international criticism about the sentencing.


"My first thoughts were these," Bush said. "What happens if this happens to my daughter? How would I react? And I would have been — I'd of been very emotional, of course. I'd have been angry at those who committed the crime. And I'd be angry at a state that didn't support the victim."


Bush, however, said he has not made his views known directly to Saudi King Abdullah, an ally. But he added: "He knows our position loud and clear."


The president said the U.S. economy is strong, though he acknowledged that the housing crisis has become a "headwind." He said administration officials are working on the issue, but he is wary of bailing out lenders. "We shouldn't say, 'OK, you made a lousy loan so we're going to go ahead and subsidize you.' "


Asked about the 2008 election, Bush steered himself back out of commenting on politics. "I practiced some punditry in the past — I'm not going to any further."


On other issues, Bush said:


—"The Venezuelan people rejected one-man rule" when they rejected a constitutional provision that would have enabled Hugo Chavez to remain in power for life and drive changes throughout Venezuelan society. "They voted for democracy."


—He talked by telephone Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and briefed him on the new Iran intelligence estimate. Bush also said he told Putin that "we were sincere in our expressions of concern" about irregularities in the voting that produced a sweeping parliamentary victory for Putin's party.


—He has "cordial relations" with Democratic leaders of Congress despite the sharp words between the White House and Capitol Hill. He blamed Democrats for the lack of compromises, saying, "In order for us to be able to reach accord, they got to come with one voice, one position."


Provide a link to the document with that title. None of the official copies I've seen use the wor
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Palin is the most unqualified and inexperienced vice-presidential candidate in history sm
http://newsblaze.com/story/20081027173636reye.nb/topstory.html


meaning=history repeats...the PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE will be tested...no matter which one wins...nm
=)
This sort of thing is not subject to Presidential trickery of that sort. nm
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This site.
When I said this site, I meant the site to the link I originally put up not the LIBERAL board.  Of course I am not the administrator.  Geeze get a life, you dissect and pick apart anything that is posted here.
On that particular web site, yes, I would

 sign what they asked me to sign which was a thank you to Harry Taylor for saying what so many of us feel and have felt for the last 5-1/2 years. I am willing to sign any petition that decries this administration and its horrendous policies. I know all about Not In Our Name but thanks for your article. 


I was proud that I stood up for what I believed during in the 70s and that I continue to walk my talk to this day.  Being arrested just proved that I was willing to do whatever it took to be heard and I would do it again today. I have the courage of my convictions and I am proud of that.


You question my causes...what does that mean?? You don't like the organizations I support and you just felt the need to share that with me...


Also, the state of our union is beyond party politics; we are so far beyond  differences in ideologies; I am not following any party line in saying that I would sign a petition. I am following my conscience and my gut and history, not the Democratic party.


 


I was just on her site. There is nothing there about it. sm
I think most of us are waiting to hear from Bruce himself. I don't trust any of the other sources.
I came across this site while

looking for more information on this whole situation.


http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52545


I have never seen nor heard of this web site  but it explains a little more about what happened. It is confusing. The assistant DA said it violates the 4th amendment to shoot someone you don't know, don't know what he is doing, is unarmed and running away. At first I thought, well that makes sense; that's the law but then it doesn't make sense because this was not a case on Law and Order with cops making mistakes carrying out the arrest of American citizens, no matter how despicable their crimes. This was the border patrol doing their jobs, umm, patrolling the border and the person in question is not an American citizen. I am not, as you may suspect, as hard on the immigrants as some are. I don't know what the answer is. This country is not big enough for everyone to live here, yet when I see starving, poverty-beyond-belief kids living in the sewer systems in Brazil and Mexico and being killed periodically by the police because they (the police) have no answers either. It is almost like euthanizing pets at the humane shelter. They just don't know what else to do, the kids are starving, learning how to survive on the street which means more and more crime...its heartbreaking to me anyway. But that has nothing to do with this. I think these guys got a raw deal, not sure why but 12 and 11 years is way out of line. 


Site
I just copied and pasted it and it came right up.
Take a look at this site.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html


It shows the amount of money in a 20-year period and BO has gotten a helluva lot more money in a 4 year period than McCain has in 20 years.