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The most relevant portion of the article was cut out. This is the

Posted By: article in essense. Scuse (lol) on 2008-09-07
In Reply to: Here is an article that will blow your mind. - I just came across it.

Attendees of Bilderberg include central bankers, defense experts, mass media press barons, government ministers, prime ministers, royalty, international financiers and political leaders from Europe and North America.

Some of the Western world's leading financiers and foreign policy strategists attend Bilderberg. Donald Rumsfeld is an active Bilderberger, as is Peter Sutherland from Ireland, a former European Union commissioner and chairman of Goldman Sachs and of British Petroleum. Rumsfeld and Sutherland served together in 2000 on the board of the Swedish/Swiss engineering company ABB. Former U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary and former World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz is also a member. The group's current chairman is Etienne Davignon, the Belgian businessman and politician.


[edit] Mainstream Criticism
Critics claim the Bilderberg Group promotes the careers of politicians whose views are representative of the interests of multinational corporations, at the expense of democracy.[8] Journalists who have been invited to attend the Bilderberg Conference as observers have discounted these claims, calling the conference "not much different from a seminar or a conference organized by an upscale NGO"[9] with "nothing different except for the influence of the participants."[10]


[edit] Conspiracy Theories
The group's secrecy and its connections to power elites encourages speculation and mistrust by such groups or individuals who believe that the group is part of a conspiracy to create a New World Order. This is further encouraged by the frequent use of the term 'New World Order' by its members when referring to their ultimate goal of world integration. The group is frequently accused of secretive and nefarious world plots by groups such as the John Birch Society.[11] This thinking has progressively found acceptance within both elements of the populist movement and fringe politics. [12] According to investigative journalist Chip Berlet, the prominent origins of Bilderberger conspiracy theories can be traced to activist Phyllis Schlafly. [13]

Radio host Alex Jones claims the group intends to dissolve the sovereignty of the United States and other countries into a supra-national structure similar to the European Union. This accusation is also linked with theories asking for a merger of Canada with United States, hoping Canadian influence will be calming to American society and foreign policy.

From "The Hunt for Red Menace:" "The views on intractable godless communism expressed by [Fred] Schwarz were central themes in three other bestselling books which were used to mobilize support for the 1964 Goldwater campaign. The best known was Phyllis Schlafly's A Choice, Not an Echo which suggested a conspiracy theory in which the Republican Party was secretly controlled by elitist intellectuals dominated by members of the Bilderberger group, whose policies would pave the way for global communist conquest. Schlafly's husband Fred had been a lecturer at Schwartz's local Christian anti-communism Crusade conferences." [14]

Jonathan Duffy, writing in BBC News Online Magazine states "In the void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around the group that alleges the fate of the world is largely decided by Bilderberg."[15]

Denis Healey, a Bilderberg founder and former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, decries such theories. He was quoted by BBC News as saying "There's absolutely nothing in it. We never sought to reach a consensus on the big issues at Bilderberg. It's simply a place for discussion."[15]

Some popular media references to the group are in Fredrick Forsyth's novel "The Icon" where the group decides to undermine a nationalist Russian leader loosely modeled on Vladimir Putin (among others).In the movie Nixon by director Oliver Stone, Nixon, played by Anthony Hopkins blames "the cabal" for his defeat, Vietnam war and other things, as the edited portion of the Nixon tapes.

Bilderberg has been accused of having kingmaker power as prominent politicians are seen to attend the group before being elected while their political rivals do not attend. [16]


[edit] Meetings
1954 (May 29-31) at the Hotel DE Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands
1955 (March 18-20) at the Hotellerie Du Bas-Breau in Barbizon, France
1955 (September 23-25) at the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany
1956 (May 11-13) at the Hotel Store Kro in Fredensborg, Denmark
1957 (February 15-17) at the King and Prince Hotel in St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA
1957 (October 4-6) at the Grand Hotel Palazzo della Fonte in Fiuggi, Italy
1958 (September 13-15) at the The Palace Hotel in Buxton, United Kingdom
1959 (September 18-20) at the Ēinar Hotel in Yežilköy, Istanbul, Turkey
1960 (May 28-29) at the Palace Hotel in Bürgenstock, Nidwalden, Switzerland
1961 (April 21-23) at the Manoir St. Castin in Lac-Beauport, Quebec, Quebec, Canada
1962 (May 18-20) at the Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden
1963 (May 29-31) in Cannes, France
1964 (March 20-22) in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
1965 (April 2-4) at the Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, Italy
1966 (March 25-27) at the Nassauer Hof Hotel Wiesbaden in Wiesbaden, West Germany
1967 (March 31-April 2) in Cambridge, United Kingdom
1968 (April 26-28) in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
1969 (May 9-11) at the Hotel Marienlyst in Helsingųr, Denmark
1970 (April 17-19) at the Grand Hotel Quellenhof in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
1971 (April 23-25) at the Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, Vermont, USA
1972 (April 21-23) at the LA Reserve di Knokke-Heist in Knokke, Belgium
1973 (May 11-13) at the Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden
1974 (April 19-21) at the Hotel Mont d'Arbois in Megeve, France
1975 (April 22-24) at the Golden Dolphin Hotel in Ēežme, Żzmir, Turkey
1976 no conference. The 1976 Bilderberg conference was planned for April at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia, USA. Due to the ongoing Lockheed scandal involving Prince Bernhard at the time, it had to be cancelled.
1977 (April 22-24) at the Paramount Imperial Hotel in Torquay, United Kingdom
1978 (April 21-23) at the Chauncey Conference Center in Princeton, New Jersey, United States
1979 (April 27-29) at the Grand Hotel Sauerhof in Baden bei Wien, Austria
1980 (April 18-20) at the Dorint Sofitel Quellenhof Aachen in Aachen, West Germany
1981 (May 15-17) at the Palace Hotel in Bürgenstock, Nidwalden, Switzerland
1982 (May 14-16) at the Rica Park Hotel Sandefjord in Sandefjord, Norway
1983 (May 13-15) at the Chāteau Montebello in Montebello, Quebec, Canada[17]
1984 (May 11-13) at the Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden
1985 (May 10-12) at the Doral Arrowwood Hotel in Rye Brook, New York, United States
1986 (April 25-27) at the Gleneagles Hotel in Gleneagles, Auchterarder, United Kingdom
1987 (April 24-26) at the Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, Italy
1988 (June 3-5) at the Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol in Telfs-Buchen, Austria
1989 (May 12-14) at the Gran Hotel de La Toja in Isla de La Toja, Spain
1990 (May 11-13) at the Harrison Conference Center in Glen Cove, New York, United States
1991 (June 6-9) at the Steigenberger Badischer Hof Hotel, Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe in Bühl (Baden) in Baden-Baden, Germany
1992 (May 21-24) at the Royal Club Evian Hotel, Ermitage Hotel in Évian-les-Bains, France
1993 (April 22-25) at the Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel in Vouliagmeni, Greece
1994 (June 2-5) at the Kalastajatorppa Hotel in Helsinki, Finland
1995 (June 8-11) at the Palace Hotel in Bürgenstock, Nidwalden, Switzerland
1996 (May 30-June 2) at the CIBC Leadership Centre aka The Kingbridge Centre in King City, Canada
1997 (June 12-15) at the Pine Isle resort in Lake Lanier, Georgia, United States
1998 (May 14-17) at the Turnberry Hotel in Turnberry, United Kingdom
1999 (June 3-6) at the Caesar Park Hotel Penha Longa in Sintra, Portugal
2000 (June 1-4) at the Chateau Du Lac Hotel in Genval, Brussels, Belgium
2001 (May 24-27) at the Hotel Stenungsbaden in Stenungsund, Sweden
2002 (May 30-June 2) at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia, United States
2003 (May 15-18) at the Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles, France
2004 (June 3-6) at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees in Stresa, Italy
2005 (May 5-8) at the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Überfahrt in Rottach-Egern, Germany[18]
2006 (June 8-11) at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada[19] See picture of meeting location at time of meeting.
2007 (May 31 - June 3) at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel,[2] in Žižli, Istanbul, Turkey.[20]
2008 (June 5-8) at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia, United States[3]
[4]


[edit] See also
Trilateral Commission



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Link to photo and accompanying portion of article

The photo didn't come through, but the link is below.  Also, as you can see from the way the article begins, there was no "liberal" involved in the word "spooked."  That was pure Republican (if there is such a thing.)


http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/pitw/2009/06/republican_staffer_e-mails_oba.php


From the beginning of the article: 



The picture you're looking at on the right was allegedly sent from Sherri Goforth, research analyst executive assistant for Sen. Diane Black, on May 28 via e-mail, under the headline "Historical Keepsake Photo." "We've never seen President Obama in person, but we're pretty sure those pair of spooked white eyes against a black background don't quite do him justice. In fact, one could argue that forwarding an e-mail like this to 20 of your friends makes you look like an out-and-out bigot."


"... forwarding an e-mail like this to 20 of your friends makes you look like an out-and-out bigot."  Yeah.  Wink, wink.


I believe they lose a portion of their
social security. I agree that it is unfortunate and absurd that senior citizens are treated as they are. As far as her obit, that was the family. Could be they did not agree with the situation or had a problem with him. At least he was mentioned although it must have hurt him deeply. Long-time same sex partners are usually not mentioned at all.
I agree, it is not everyone, it is actually just a small portion (sm)
of people who are showing their racist bents..the problem is that some of them are angry and dangerous. And I know there are many races in our country but this particular "battle" is between white and black... and it goes both ways.
Geeezzzzz.....methinks you need to trot to some other portion of the globe....
since America is soooo disappointing to you. And you are so far left I bet you get a nosebleed if you listen to anyone but Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews....LOL. As to Sean Hannity...I know who he is, but I don't watch him much. I don't watch TV period much. If Mr. Hannity agrees with what I am saying, perhaps I need to watch him more often. Thanks for the tip.

Thank you so much for the snobbish, elitist, "I am so much more intelligent and informed that you are" condescending prattle, to use your words, globetrotter. If only you were as smart as you think you are. I wish I was as smart as you THINK you are. Thank you so much for the laugh. I needed one today.

Original thought? You seem incapable of one. Your posts read like any left wing blog/mag you care to pick up. As you stated regurgitated, rehashed, nothing new, same old elitist condescending delusions of grandeur crud.

Geezzz again. I did not say anything about immigrant children not being able get along with...as you prefer to call them..."Anglo" children. If they immigrate legally and learn the language they can communicate just fine. You said it yourself...they WILL learn. So why not step down off your high horse and not WORRY yourself as to whether "Anglo" children learn Spanish...worry about whether the "immigrant" children learn English.

You know....what you SHOULD be saying is you have multicultural AMERICANS in your midst. I just don't get you at all globetrotter. Why do you insist on keeping legal immigrants separate from you? Why don't you see Americans instead of Cuban, Jamacian, Pureto Rican, Costa Rican, Honduran, Guatemalan, El Salvadoran, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, Pakistani, Indian, Afgani, Iranian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Israeli, Egyptian, Turkish, Russian, Greek, Bosnian, Somali, Kenyan, Sudanese, Ethiopian, South African, Angolan and Nigerian presence in your midst. If they want to immigrate to America, they must have a reason. They should assimilate to our culture, not we to theirs, and there is nothing WRONG with that. Every one of those people chose to leave their own countries for whatever reason to come to this one. Helloo..things must not be so wonderful there??

I am sure you would like to leave Kruschev out of this...a little to close to the truth for you. As for doing their homework...I would suggest you do some yourself my dear. We are a country of immigrants...those who came legally, Irish, French, English, German, Dutch, Swede and too many others to count. And do they carry swiss flags, german flags, Irish flags, the Union Jack, and demonstrate on the streets? No....because they became Americans. THIS became their country. Yes, they kept their customs, their heritage, just as I have kept mine...Cherokee, Choctaw, Irish, Swede...I am proud of that heritage as well. But I am an American, globetrotter. This is my country. And that is the unity we are losing in the name of YOUR multiculturalism. You want us to be Cubans, Ethiopians, yada yada. I want us to be Americans. And I don't see a problem with that. You can still have all your art, your music, your restaurants, yada yada...we had those things before immigrants decided to change this to something besides the United States of America. And the fact that you are right on board with them speaks volumes. Won't say volumes of what.

Cute, globetrotter...the nazi-tinged nationalism...talk about weird. Good grief. Get a grip...lol.

And methinks you might need to see a therapist about this hate you have on for Sean Hannity...LOL. Looks he has pushed every one of your buttons and the buttons of those who share your viewpoint and who you mimic...so, I would say, point to Mr. Hannity. Game, set, match. lol. Too funny.


How is this relevant? sm
So everyone knows he is an alcoholic.  Yes, he is. And what is your point?  I swear I don't know.  Ted Kennedy is an alcoholic.  So what? 
How is this relevant?...nm
nm
I believe it is relevant....I don't want someone with zero...
integrity in the white house either. John McCain's temper or the lack thereof has never resulted in bad decisions. It is ridiculous to assume because he got angry and said the F word disqualifies him. YOu might as well disqualify the entire Armed Forces.

He is not as dangerous as Barack Obama who knows absolutely nothing about foreign policy...who wants to sit down and chat with terrorist nations...and would be crippled without Joe Biden.

No thanks.
That's not even relevant...(nm)
x
I hardly think it's relevant to ...(sm)

go back 60 years in history.  Times were different then, the mind set was different, so it is not possible to have any kind of logical comparrison.  However, if he were still around now doing that, then yes, he would be a war criminal.


The amazing thing is that you guys sound just like the extreme jihadists to me.  All you want to do is destroy others and spread your religion.  And for what reasons?  Fear and revenge.  You like to talk about being religious, just like the jihadists, but when it comes to something like revenge or torture, you put that religion aside --that same religion you would have everyone else believe is your life -- and you take your revenge and put it in a box with a bright pink bow to sell it.  That is what I call a blight on humanity.


Why I am relevant...very simple!
This is the liberal board and I am a liberal.  You are not.  You and your playmates enjoy degrading the liberal posters on this board.  It gets really tiresome.  You and your bully friends need to find a different group to pick on, as it obviously brings you very much perverted pleasure as you CANNOT seem to stop and you REFUSE to quit bashing the posters on this board even when asked to by the moderator multiple times.
Who are you and do you have anything relevant to add to the posts?
If not, I suggest you HaHaHa yourself somewhere else.
the reason that I think it is relevant--
and I am sure that you will attack me for this--is that I seem to hear a lot of people saying that Obama is going to do this and that for them (money issues, etc.). So, I am afraid that if everyone puts their faith in him, our freedoms are going to slip away. More gun control, more government power over our money and our health care, etc. Eventually, we will become vulnerable. If you disagree, that is fine. It was just food for thought.
what is for you a relevant source?...nm
nm
So there has to be a discussion of posts for it to be relevant?
what a stupid, anonymous comment
Would these amendments be relevant for states that - for example - sm
have passed laws allowing medical marijuana use, but the Federal laws are still being used to prosecute patients?
What you say is true, but if relevant evidence is denied sm
or falsified, an objective approach is impossible. This is what the family members faced. They had to force Bush to form that commission to investigate. Coulter is now attacking them for that. They had a list of 400 questions, and got no answers. I agree with you on the wacky theories. I became interested in doing some research on the issue after hearing things around the area I live - Colorado Springs. This is the neocon capital of the United States, and home to Norad and Space Command, Ft. Carson, USAFA, Peterson AFB, Falcon AFB. They live and breathe Bush & military. At first, I thought they were only rumors. Norman Mineta's testimony to the 911 Commission confirmed them to be true. The second question I had was about WTC building 7. This building only had small fires and was not hit by an airplane. It came straight down like the other 2 into a nice neat pile. The owner of the building Silverstein said they made a decision to pull it. This is a demolition term for demolishing the building. Well, this is something that takes careful planning weeks in advance, not several hours. I am also hearing bizarre stories from troops returning from Irag and their family members. Mineta's testimony was shown on C-Span and here is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfdOwt2v3Y&search=mineta

I never saw the movie The Siege. Not a Bruce Willis fan. Anything with Matt McConaughey in it, I have seen.

Each brown place in the link takes you to a different article that supports this article...nm
x
So does someone's comment at the end of the article, discredit the whole article??
Unbelievable. 
Well, I don't know about this article...
I don't really have the time to sit and read it, but I will tell you that the ACLU has its tentacles ALL OVER the Democratic party, and they do some pretty repulsive things.  You might want to inform yourself of some of the stuff they defend.  Like the NAMBLA website that tells gay pedophiles how to seduce young boys.  They defend NAMBLA's right to that website, specifically with the court case filed by the Connecticut 10-year-old who was raped and murdered by some sicko who read that website and carried out his dastardly deed.  They've gone around the bend these days.  They used to be reasonable years ago, doing some good things.  But not anymore.
NYT article

This whole Rove thing is not about outing anyone, it is about the uranium and Wilson finding no evidence that Saddam was trying to buy it.  Great article.  Link is below.


 


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/opinion/17rich.html?incamp=article_popular


article
Why Bush Can't Answer Cindy
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Thursday 18 August 2005

    Cindy Sheehan is still waiting for Bush to answer her question: What noble cause did my son die for? Her protest started as a small gathering 13 days ago. It has mushroomed into a demonstration of hundreds in Crawford and tens of thousands more at 1,627 solidarity vigils throughout the country.

    Why didn't Bush simply invite Cindy in for tea when she arrived in Crawford? In a brief, personal meeting with Cindy, Bush could have defused a situation that has become a profound embarrassment for him, and could derail his political agenda.

    Bush didn't talk with Cindy because he can't answer her question. There is no answer to Cindy's question. There is no noble cause that Cindy's son died fighting for. And Bush knows it.

    The goals of this war are not hard to find. They were laid out in Paul Wolfowitz's draft Pentagon Defense Planning Guidance in 1992, and again in the neoconservative manifesto - The Project for a New American Century's Rebuilding America's Defenses - in September 2000.

    Long before 9/11, the neocons proclaimed that the United States should exercise its role as the world's only superpower by ensuring access to the massive Middle East petroleum reserves. To accomplish this goal, the US would need to invade Iraq and establish permanent military bases there.

    If Bush were to give an honest answer to Cindy Sheehan's question, it would be that her son died to help his country spread US hegemony throughout the Middle East.

    But that answer, while true, does not sound very noble. It would not satisfy Cindy Sheehan, nor would it satisfy the vast majority of the American people. So, for the past several years, Bush and his minions have concocted an ever-changing story line.

    First, it was weapons-of-mass-destruction and the mushroom cloud. In spite of the weapons inspectors' admonitions that Iraq had no such weapons, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice, and Bolton lied about chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Bush even included the smoking gun claim in his state of the union address: that Iraq sought to purchase uranium from Niger. It was a lie, because people like Ambassador Joe Wilson, who traveled to Niger to investigate the allegation, had reported back to Cheney that it never happened.

    The Security Council didn't think Iraq was a threat to international peace and security. In spite of Bush's badgering and threats, the Council held firm and refused to sanction a war on Iraq. The UN weapons inspectors asked for more time to conduct their inspections. But Bush was impatient.

    He thumbed his nose at the United Nations and invaded anyway. After the "coalition forces" took over Iraq, they combed the country for the prohibited weapons. But they were nowhere to be found.

    Faced with the need to explain to the American people why our sons and daughters were dying in Iraq, Bush changed the subject to saving the Iraqis from Saddam's torture chambers.

    Then the grotesque photographs emerged from Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad. They contained images of US military personnel torturing Iraqis. Bush stopped talking about Saddam's torture.

    Most recently, Bush's excuse has been "bringing democracy to the Iraqi people." On June 28, 2004, he ceremoniously hailed the "transfer of sovereignty" back to the Iraqi people. (See Giving Iraqis What is Rightly Theirs). Yet 138,000 US troops remained in Iraq to protect US "interests."

    And Iraq's economy is still controlled by laws put in place before the "transfer of sovereignty." The US maintains a stranglehold on foreign access to Iraqi oil, private ownership of Iraq's resources, and control over the reconstruction of this decimated country.

    For months, Bush hyped the August 15, 2005 deadline for Iraqis to agree on a new constitution. But as the deadline came and went, the contradictions between the Shias, Sunnis and Kurds over federalism came into sharp focus. The Bush administration admitted that "we will have some form of Islamic republic," according to Sunday's Washington Post.

    So much for Bush's promise of a democratic Iraq.

    The constitutional negotiations are far removed from the lives of most Iraqis. When journalist Robert Fisk asked an Iraqi friend about the constitution, he replied, "Sure, it's important. But my family lives in fear of kidnapping, I'm too afraid to tell my father I work for journalists, and we only have one hour in six of electricity and we can't even keep our food from going bad in the fridge. Federalism? You can't eat federalism and you can't use it to fuel your car and it doesn't make my fridge work."

    Fisk reports that 1,100 civilian bodies were brought into the Baghdad morgue in July. The medical journal The Lancet concluded in October 2004 that at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians had died in the first 18 months after Bush invaded Iraq.

    Unfortunately, the picture in Iraq is not a pretty one.

    Bush knows that if he talked to Cindy Sheehan, she would demand that he withdraw from Iraq now.

    But Bush has no intention of ever pulling out of Iraq. The US is building the largest CIA station in the world in Baghdad. And Halliburton is busily constructing 14 permanent US military bases in Iraq.

    George Bush knows that he cannot answer Cindy Sheehan's question. There is no noble cause for his war on Iraq.





    Marjorie Cohn, a contributing editor to t r u t h o u t, is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.
article
My mom, not Cindy Sheehan, is Bush’s biggest problem


Thursday, August 25, 2005

By John Yewell/City Editor

With Cindy Sheehan gone home to take care of her stroke-stricken mom, President Bush can enjoy the last week of his Texas vacation free of the distraction of her encampment outside his ranch. But a grieving liberal mom whose son died in Iraq demanding an audience may not be Bush’s biggest problem.

His biggest problem may be my mom.

My mother is a lifelong Republican. She got it from her father, a yellow-dog Republican if ever there was one. As unofficial GOP godfather of Fillmore, Calif., he collected absentee ballots every election for his large family and marked them himself. No sense in taking chances that someone might vote for a Democrat.

So when my mother called me the other day and told me she was considering registering as a Democrat, I was, well, stunned. Somewhere in a cemetery plot near Fillmore a body is spinning.

For the last year or more my mother has been gradually expressing ever greater exasperation with President Bush, the war, and the religious right. “Have you heard about this James Dobson guy?” she asked me on the phone, referring to the head of Focus on the Family. “If they overturn Roe vs. Wade, that’ll be it for me,” she said.

Then she mentioned Cindy Sheehan.

For all the efforts to discredit Ms. Sheehan, what she accomplished in drawing attention to the human cost of the war, if my mother’s opinion is any indication, crossed party lines. There’s a Mom Faction in American politics, and while it isn’t a monolithic Third Rail, it’s at least and second-and-a-half rail. When their children are dying on a battlefield of choice, you touch it at your peril.

My mother has her fingers on the pulse, and scalps, of many such women. She’s a hairdresser with a clientele that has been coming to her regularly for decades. Now grandmothers, these women were moms during Vietnam, in which over 50,000 American sons and daughters died. They worried then about their kids’ safety, now they’re worried about grandkids - theirs or someone else’s. Most are pretty mainstream, most Republican, and most, my mother tells me, pretty much fed up with George Bush.

There is other evidence of trouble on the Republican horizon. According to the latest compilation of state polls produced 10 days ago by surveyusa.com, of the 31 states Bush won in 2004, he now enjoys plurality job approval in only 10. This includes a 60 to 37 percent disapproval rate in the key state of Ohio, and a 53 to 44 disapproval rate in Florida.

A recent assessment from the influential and scrupulously nonpartisan Cook Political Report reads: “Opposition to and skepticism about the war in Iraq has reached its highest level, boosted by increased American casualties, a lack of political progress inside the country and growing signs of an imminent civil war. Given the centrality of the Iraq War to the Bush presidency and re-election, a cave-in of support for the president on the war would be devastating to his second-term credibility and influence.”

If Republicans are wondering where Cook is finding this “cave-in of support,” they could start looking in worse places than my mother’s one-chair salon, where Cindy Sheehan found sympathetic ears.

According to various reports, Bush and his team concluded that granting Sheehan an audience would only have encouraged other malcontents to demand similar attention from the president. Whatever the rationale, the decision alienated the clientele of Natalie’s Beauty Shoppe.

In the end my mother decided against changing her registration. Any criticism she might have of Bush, she decided, would be more credible if she stayed in the party, a sophisticated conclusion I admire and applaud.

Although Democrats can’t count on being the automatic beneficiaries of such dissatisfaction, Bush’s refusal to acknowledge fault, his “because I’m the Daddy and I say so” attitude, doesn’t work for a lot of women anymore. Women resent being patronized, and that’s how many view the president’s treatment of Cindy Sheehan.

The next election may be 14 months away, but when my mom and a lot of others like her walk into their voting booths, they may well be reflecting on their children and their choices, and which party is less likely to put either in harm’s way.

John Yewell is the city editor of the Hollister Free Lance. He can be reached at jyewell@freelancenews.com.


It's the name of an article. Hello??? nm

thanks for the article!
Thank you for this article..its not too long for me to read, as others have suggested (the mentality of many in America and our downfall, if you ask me..dont want to spend the time to research, read, decide with their own mind..too much paper work to sift throught, oh please!)..as I care about what is going to happen to America and frankly the world..Bush has opened a Pandoras box and heaven help us all for the future..I dont get scared much about anything in life but what Bush has done sure concerns me to the max..Took an ant hill and created a mountain of monsters..
Here's another article
Clinton Claimed Authority to Order No-Warrant Searches
Does anyone remember that?


In a little-remembered debate from 1994, the Clinton administration argued that the president has inherent authority to order physical searches — including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens — for foreign intelligence purposes without any warrant or permission from any outside body. Even after the administration ultimately agreed with Congress's decision to place the authority to pre-approve such searches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, President Clinton still maintained that he had sufficient authority to order such searches on his own.















  
The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994, and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General.


It is important to understand, Gorelick continued, that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities.


Executive Order 12333, signed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, provides for such warrantless searches directed against a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.


Reporting the day after Gorelick's testimony, the Washington Post's headline — on page A-19 — read, Administration Backing No-Warrant Spy Searches. The story began, The Clinton administration, in a little-noticed facet of the debate on intelligence reforms, is seeking congressional authorization for U.S. spies to continue conducting clandestine searches at foreign embassies in Washington and other cities without a federal court order. The administration's quiet lobbying effort is aimed at modifying draft legislation that would require U.S. counterintelligence officials to get a court order before secretly snooping inside the homes or workplaces of suspected foreign agents or foreign powers.


In her testimony, Gorelick made clear that the president believed he had the power to order warrantless searches for the purpose of gathering intelligence, even if there was no reason to believe that the search might uncover evidence of a crime. Intelligence is often long range, its exact targets are more difficult to identify, and its focus is less precise, Gorelick said. Information gathering for policy making and prevention, rather than prosecution, are its primary focus.


The debate over warrantless searches came up after the case of CIA spy Aldrich Ames. Authorities had searched Ames's house without a warrant, and the Justice Department feared that Ames's lawyers would challenge the search in court. Meanwhile, Congress began discussing a measure under which the authorization for break-ins would be handled like the authorization for wiretaps, that is, by the FISA court. In her testimony, Gorelick signaled that the administration would go along a congressional decision to place such searches under the court — if, as she testified, it does not restrict the president's ability to collect foreign intelligence necessary for the national security. In the end, Congress placed the searches under the FISA court, but the Clinton administration did not back down from its contention that the president had the authority to act when necessary.


Byron York--NRO


article
October 13, 2006


Book Says Bush Aides Dismissed Christian Allies




WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — A former deputy director of the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is charging that many members of the Bush administration privately dismiss its conservative Christian allies as “boorish” and “nuts.”


The former deputy director, David Kuo, an evangelical Christian conservative, makes the accusations in a newly published memoir, “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction” (Free Press), about his frustration with what he described as the meager support and political exploitation of the program.


“National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’ ” Mr. Kuo writes.


In an interview, Mr. Kuo’s former boss, James Towey, now president of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., said he had never encountered such cynicism or condescension in the White House, and he disputed many of the assertions in Mr. Kuo’s account.


Still, Mr. Kuo’s statements, first reported Wednesday evening on the cable channel MSNBC, come at an awkward time for Republicans in the midst of a midterm election campaign in which polls show little enthusiasm among the party’s conservative Christian base.


While many conservative Christians considered President Bush “a brother in Christ,” Mr. Kuo writes, “for most of the rest of the White House staff, evangelical leaders were people to be tolerated, not people who were truly welcomed.”


The political affairs office headed by Karl Rove was especially “eye-rolling,” Mr. Kuo’s book says. It says staff members in that office “knew ‘the nuts’ were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness.”


Without naming names, the book says staff members complained that politically involved Christians were “annoying,” “tiresome” or “boorish.”


Eryn Witcher, a spokeswoman for the White House, said that the administration would not comment without reading the book but that the faith-based program was “near and dear to the president’s heart.”


Suevon Lee contributed reporting.










width=1
There is an article on
the Common Dreams website that is pretty much a transcript of what was said, on all sides; you can read it and decide for yourself whether or not it was biased. I think it was pretty fair; they included both sides of the argument.
Article.
Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention



By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press WriterWed Sep 3, 11:48 PM ET



Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.


Some examples:


PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."


THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."


PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."


THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.


PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."


THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.


Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.


He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.


MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.


THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.


MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.


THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.


FORMER Arkansas GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."


THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.


FORMER Massachusetts GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."


THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

___

Associated Press Writer Jim Drinkard in Washington


this article did nothing to

allay any of my doubts about SP.  If she were an 18-year-od college student, this would be a flattering piece.  As a VP candidate, shallow, uninformed, asking polite questions, flashing some gam.  No thanks. If you think she is qualified -- let the press ask her some questions!!!  If not, put her in a wet T shirt poster and be done with it.


 


 


 


according to this article...

okay, in going to the site you posted, and going to the subheading of what you'll pay in taxes, with Obama, I will pay $1118 less and with McCain only $325 less -


Now for me, that is a no brainer!  Of course if I am worried about the economy in general, and my household in particular, I would have to choose Obama!


Article XIV

In your other post above, you wrote: This country has laws to protect people from being murdered, from having their lives taken from them by another person.


Those "people" are called "citizens" under the Constitution, and the "phrase" you refer to that defines citizens is found under article XIV reads as follows:


Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.


 


As you can see, the words fetus, embryo, or twinkle in my daddy's eye are NOT included in the definition.  One must be born first in order to be a citizen and receive protective services.


 


IMHO, when life begins is mostly a matter of philosophical and/or religious belief and not something to be legislated.


an article

What does this say for our future?  If what this writer is saying is true (or evenly remotely a little bit true) looks like a lot of hard times ahead.  What I found of particular interest is the paragraph that talks about unemployment (the last 3 lines are in all caps).  What would happen to this country if unemployment reaches 30-40 percent?  Would we be able to survive?  Are there any plans in the future that Obama had promised during his campaign that will turn things around.  He had a lot of plans/ideas during his campaign, but now all I hear him keep saying is "it's going to get worse" or "it's really bad", but not hearing of any of those plans.


Also, I didn't realize that there were so many people receiving welfare and food handouts in this country (11 million?).  There shouldn't be any reason for this.  Not well Wall Street execs, politicians, etc. are still flying on luxury private planes and certain politicians are staying in $9 million dollar ocean front homes.


I'm just wondering if people who read this are following along and believe a lot in this article may come true or could happen what are you doing to prepare? 


Anyway...just an interesting article.


http://caps.fool.com/blogs/viewpost.aspx?bpid=122176&t=01000619699519786208


 


An article

 


http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/10/08/will-msm-report-obama-membership-socialist-new-party


 


 


Article

http://stoosviews.blogivists.com/2008/10/30/obamaniacs-and-the-cult-of-obama-they-are-coming-for-your-kool-aid/


 


 


An article -

Here's what really stands out in this article - "Obama, on the other hand, is seeking to duplicate the failures of the president he is replacing, only on a far greater scale."


http://www.wmicentral.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2264&dept_id=581907&newsid=20224719&PAG=461&rfi=9


 


 


Another article

Okay, I'm outta here for the night.  Here's another read.


http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/11/13/the-terrible-danger-of-a-personality-cult/


 


no article

just wanted to break the string.


 


According to Article 20......... sm
Obama became POTUS at noon, regardless of whether he was sworn in yet or not. I believe this article was enacted to cover situations exactly like this one where the timetable may be a little behind and to prevent confusion over who is POTUS in the event something should happen during the inauguration that would require the POTUS's attention, such as a terrorist attack or acts of war, etc.
Article

Posted below is an article.  Please read.  No it is not gossip or made up, it is real and it is disgusting.  Obama has done nothing about this and will not.


Racism of the Congressional Black Caucus
President's spokesman cites 'membership policies' as explanation


 


Posted: January 26, 2009
10:16 pm Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily


At least three times racism has raised its head in the new administration of President Obama, and now his chief spokesman has cited "membership policies" as an explanation for the all-whites-are-banned practice of the Congressional Black Caucus.


Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs responded to the question from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, following the conclusion of today's press briefing at the White House.


"To your knowledge has the president ever disagreed with the expressed hope that children 'could live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character' as made by Dr. King," Kinsolving asked.


"Has he ever … ," Gibbs asked. "Disagreed," Kinsolving finished.


"Not that I know of, no. I think he believes that's the goal of this country," Gibbs said.


Kinsolving continued, "Since the members of Congress who have applied to join the Congressional Black Caucus have been turned down because, as the black caucus' William Lacey Clay put it, 'they are white and the caucus is black,' my question: Does the president hope the caucus will stop this racial discrimination?"


"I will certainly look into. … I don't know what … prompted Mr. Clay," Gibbs said.


"There have been three of them who have applied and they've been turned down because they are not black, and that is the policy of the Congressional Black Caucus, and if you can ask the president, I would be delighted to hear," Kinsolving said.


"I think the first thing to do is ask members of … ," Gibbs aid.


"I have. I have," Kinsolving confirmed.


"… what their membership policies are," Gibbs said.


As WND reported, U.S. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., was refused permission to join the organization because of his race.


Kinsolving recently documented in his WND column how Anh ("Joseph") Cao, the Vietnamese-American Republican from Louisiana who defeated the re-election bid of New Orleans Democrat William Jefferson, expressed an interest in joining because the district he represents is predominantly black.


Also, in 2007, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., who is white, pledged to apply for membership during his election campaign to represent his constituents, who were 60 percent black. It was reported that although the bylaws of the caucus do not make race a prerequisite for membership, former and current members of the caucus agreed that the group should remain "exclusively black."


Kinsolving reported Clay said, "Mr. Cohen asked for admission, and he got his answer. He's white and the caucus is black. It's time to move on. We have racial policies to pursue and we are pursuing them, as Mr. Cohen has learned. It's an unwritten rule. It's understood."


Kinsolving said Clay later issued an official statement from his office: "Quite simply, Rep. Cohen will have to accept what the rest of the country will have to accept – there has been an unofficial congressional white caucus for over 200 years, and now it's our turn to say who can join the 'the club.' He does not, and cannot, meet the membership criteria, unless he can change his skin color. Primarily, we are concerned with the needs and concerns of the black population, and we will not allow white America to infringe on those objectives."


Charges of racism arose after posting of a video showing top Obama economic adviser Robert Reich saying he wanted to make sure economic stimulus money didn't go to just "white male construction workers."


Also as WND reported, Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile admitted she swiped Obama's complimentary blanket from his inauguration ceremony and then joked it was not a criminal offense because, "We have a black president ... this was free."


Also, outrage erupted over the inauguration benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery, the 87-year-old civil rights pioneer, for asking God to help mankind work for a day when "white would embrace what is right."


Obama, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus while on Capitol Hill, reacted to the benediction with a smile.


Wow! What an article!!! THANK YOU!!!(nmj)
.
Article
Read this interesting article on Pledging Allegiance and wanted to pass it on.

http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/10/pledge-of-allegiance.html


What I took from the article
I read it and understood it to say that when you pledge allegiance you are supporting the country. You are pledging your allegiance to the ideals of the US. Therefore, you are pledging to the constitution, not an individual leader (especially since that leader could be the next Hitler, Mussolini or Castro - no, I'm not talking about Obama, I'm talking about any past, present or future president.

Nowhere in the pledge does it say to pledge yourself to a person or a religion.

In the article he says..

"But even after learning of all of the deceit and murder committed by our government, I still have strong positive feelings for the United States. My forefathers fought and died for liberty. My ancestors struggled to deliver a nation ruled by laws and justice, instead of by the whims of men. My people gave their blood, sweat and tears to throw off the yoke of the British monarchy and to defeat the ambitions of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito in World War II."

Another good point I read from the article was a message "to the good and honorable people in the military" - they have sworn an oath to protect and defend the US from all enemies foreign "and domestic". They need to remember that they have sworn their allegiance to the ideals of the constitutional form of government which our ancestors fought so hard and in some cases made the ultimate sacrifice - to defend.

I copied a lot of the info above from the article just because if I was saying it myself, this is how I would word it. It's just a very simple message that makes a lot of sense to me.

Swear your allegiance to defend the Constitution and everything good our country stands for. Protect our country from all enemies whether they are foreign or here on our own land. This is what our forefathers fought for to make a safe place for us, and what our founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the Declaration. But don't swear your allegiance to a specific person or a religion/ religious figure head. You can be an athiest or believe in a different religious figure-heads other than God, and still support the United States and all it stands for.

Anyway...that's what I took away from the article.
Another article
I found this article. Know your busy with work and stuff, but just wanted to pass it on. My understanding is this lady and others are trying to get it so that nobody can have a garden in their own yard anymore.

I have to do more reading up on it, but a link you might want to read whenever you have time. Not too too long.

I just say, if they start taking our rights away to have our own gardens what is next. I could be wrong about it, but everything I'm reading that is my understanding of the bill they are trying to pass.

http://shepardpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/03/hr-875-would-essentially-outlaw-family.html


And this article says different
The article states -

"It was an awkward moment when the normally touchy-feely Michelle put her arm around the Queen. Shocked, the Queen raised her arm, lightly patted Michelle on the back, then quickly dropped her arm in a clear sign to Michelle to remove her arm, which Michelle did."

http://sandrarose.com/2009/04/02/michelle-obama-breaks-protocol-by-touching-the-queen/
Here's the article

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/republican-senator-seeks-to-outlaw-tobacco-2009-06-05.html


If they are worried about teenagers smoking, then make it illegal just like booze. I know they have the soft law now, but it really doesn't work too well (just like the booze but at least it may help). Then when they turn 21, it would be their decision, not the government.


My only vice is smoking and a drink once in a while. Both these items are getting too expensive but I've been smoking over 40 years and trying to quit 6 times in the past has never worked for me and I'm tired of trying. LET ME ALONE!!!!


LA Times Article

Great article in opinion section of LA Times (you can get it online).  Dated 06/24/2005, "Hustling on K Street" by Jonathan Chait, concerning Bush paying back the lobbyists and big business.


Reps. John Conyers and Maxine Waters are trying to get a meeting going in Congress tomorrow with Republicans joining in this time to debate and discuss the Downing Street Memos.  Dont know if it will be covered on C-Span, sure hope so.


Oh boy.... I glanced at the article...
I was not responding directly to that article, and stated so.  I was only commenting on the crime of molestation.  Doesn't matter whether it was a priest. a gay child molester, or Bozo the clown.  My POINT WAS that the ACLU defends the likes of NAMBLA and that bothers me and SHOULD bother you.  Can we get off the original article.  I diverted a bit, and said that up front, but you seem to be on a single track and can't go along with it.  Loosen up, conversations sometimes drift.  That's the beauty of a human conversation.
article tells it like it is
Yes I am sure that is why this article was written, to bring the whole republican party down.  It is about false information on buying uranium, Mr. Wilson and his wife are being used to try to undermine the real story, the lies that got us into Iraq.  I do not care if a person is republican or democrat, when there is a question of lies that got us into war, it deserves being investigated.  Thankfully, the prosecutor is republican, that way if some are found guilty, it cannot be twisted into a partisan decision.
good article

Why No Tea and Sympathy?








Published: August 10, 2005


WASHINGTON


W. can't get no satisfaction on Iraq.


There's an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch, demanding to see a president who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed.



Skip to next paragraph
 
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Forum: Maureen Dowd's Columns



A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now think that going to war was a mistake and that the war has made the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism. So fighting them there means it's more likely we'll have to fight them here?


Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that sophisticated bombs were streaming over the border from Iran to Iraq.


And the Rolling Stones have taken a rare break from sex odes to record an antiwar song called "Sweet Neo Con," chiding Condi Rice and Mr. Bush. "You call yourself a Christian; I call you a hypocrite," Mick Jagger sings.


The N.F.L. put out a press release on Monday announcing that it's teaming up with the Stones and ABC to promote "Monday Night Football." The flag-waving N.F.L. could still back out if there's pressure, but the mood seems to have shifted since Madonna chickened out of showing an antiwar music video in 2003. The White House used to be able to tamp down criticism by saying it hurt our troops, but more people are asking the White House to explain how it plans to stop our troops from getting hurt.


Cindy Sheehan, a 48-year-old Californian with a knack for P.R., says she will camp out in the dusty heat near the ranch until she gets to tell Mr. Bush face to face that he must pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in a Sadr City ambush last year.


The president met with her family two months after Casey's death. Capturing W.'s awkwardness in traversing the line between somber and joking, and his love of generic labels, Ms. Sheehan said that W. had referred to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting, and given her the sense that he did not know who her son was.


The Bush team tried to discredit "Mom" by pointing reporters to an old article in which she sounded kinder to W. If only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could out him. But even if they send out a squad of Swift Boat Moms for Truth, there will be a countering Falluja Moms for Truth.


It's amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr. Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out, or invite her in for a cup of tea. But W., who has spent nearly 20 percent of his presidency at his ranch, is burrowed into his five-week vacation and two-hour daily workouts. He may be in great shape, but Iraq sure isn't.


It's hard to think of another president who lived in such meta-insulation. His rigidly controlled environment allows no chance encounters with anyone who disagrees. He never has to defend himself to anyone, and that is cognitively injurious. He's a populist who never meets people - an ordinary guy who clears brush, and brush is the only thing he talks to. Mr. Bush hails Texas as a place where he can return to his roots. But is he mixing it up there with anyone besides Vulcans, Pioneers and Rangers?


W.'s idea of consolation was to dispatch Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, to talk to Ms. Sheehan, underscoring the inhumane humanitarianism of his foreign policy. Mr. Hadley is just a suit, one of the hard-line Unsweet Neo Cons who helped hype America into this war.


It's getting harder for the president to hide from the human consequences of his actions and to control human sentiment about the war by pulling a curtain over the 1,835 troops killed in Iraq; the more than 13,000 wounded, many shorn of limbs; and the number of slain Iraqi civilians - perhaps 25,000, or perhaps double or triple that. More people with impeccable credentials are coming forward to serve as a countervailing moral authority to challenge Mr. Bush.


Paul Hackett, a Marine major who served in Iraq and criticized the president on his conduct of the war, narrowly lost last week when he ran for Congress as a Democrat in a Republican stronghold in Cincinnati. Newt Gingrich warned that the race should "serve as a wake-up call to Republicans" about 2006.


Selectively humane, Mr. Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized.


But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute


Good article..nm
nm
This article sure hit home.

I remember feeling the very same way that Ted Rall felt, thinking the very same things, and realizing that if I'm no genius and can figure this out, why can't Bush? 


And I agree that the last paragraph IS good!!!  But all they do is talk.  None of them have the guts to go anywhere near the Sunni Triangle.  They're nothing but hot air, which is good for them, because they're going to need all the hot air they can get.


I can't wait until, say, February.  If you think it's tough now just filling the car tank, what's it going to be like for those with oil heating?  I wonder how easy it is to constantly chant the mantra "I love Bush" (or whatever they've been programmed to chant) when your teeth are chattering from the freezing cold.  And I wonder how many, once they regain the consciousness they lost while opening their heating bills, will still think Bush is so great.