BlingBling

The system is broken. It needs to be fixed. Elected officials should be charged with major felonies when they break the rules. People think shoplifting or bank robbery is bad. These fools are stealing billions of dollars that belong to the American People. They should be held accountable for their crimes.

Reuters has reported that President Bush "plans a renewed push to rein in the costs of entitlement programs after the elections." Specifically, Bush wants to overhaul Social Security by adding private accounts. But this effort is nothing more than a last-minute political gambit to motivate Bush's conservative base. Americans overwhelmingly rejected the administration's previous efforts to dismantle the program, and Bush has made no indication that he is willing to take a different approach this time. Under the plan Bush proposed in April 2005, benefits would be cut for everyone but "the bottom 30 percent of earners, or those who make less than about $20,000 currently." Bush tried to sell his plan to Americans by saying that the Social Security program is facing a "crisis." But according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Social Security will be able to pay all benefits through 2052. Even after this date, the CBO found, the program will be able to pay a higher benefit than that received by current retirees. Additionally, the first ten years of Bush's plan would cost approximately $2 trillion. According to an early October AP-Ipsos poll, Social Security ranked below the situation in Iraq, terrorism, the economy, and health care in voters' priorities.

I think everyone has noticed that Senator Allen has no political strategy and boy is it starting to hurt bad. His fellow Senator from Virginia is advocating a major policy change. But, George just waffles. When you Senator Allen use the word "adapt" regarding Iraq, he is just parroting the recently introduced Ken-Mehlman/White-House euphemism for "stay the course": "adapt and win". Allen is the product of the republican "tell me what To think today" program. ************************************************ Republican Sen. George Allen called for "changes in tactics" in how the U.S. is fighting the Iraq war on Friday as he continued to face questions about his morphing position on the war. "The situation there is one that needs adjustments, that needs changes in tactics. We need to adapt to the situation on the ground," Allen said at a campaign event Friday morning with GOP leaders of the state legislature. Even so, Allen, whom polls show to be in a tight Senate race with Democratic candidate Jim Webb, has yet to reject or criticize the hard line on Iraq that he had touted for months and that President Bush repeated Thursday at an Allen fundraiser. Allen and Webb appeared separately later Friday in Hampton at a forum of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where each signed up for lifetime membership. Allen used the event to try to put behind him allegations that he has been insensitive to racial concerns, recounting efforts to provide money for historically black colleges and universities, as well as his trip to Selma, Ala., with Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., to honor the bloody civil rights march there 40 years ago. Once regarded only as a warm-up race for a presumed 2008 Allen presidential bid, the race became competitive in August after Allen singled out a man of Indian descent before a mostly white crowd at a rally and called him "macaca," which can be considered a racial slur. Webb couched the coming election as "a choice between those who have power and those who will stand up to power." Webb has been a critic of the war since 2002, before the U.S.-led invasion, when he wrote that it would mire the United States in a bloody and protracted quagmire and destabilize the oil-rich region. He cited the war, in part, for his decision to leave the GOP. He was asked no questions about Iraq at the Friday event. Allen began shifting his public position on the unpopular war two weeks ago after fellow Virginia Sen. John Warner, a five-term moderate and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, returned from an Iraq visit saying the war was "drifting sideways," with Iraq's fledgling government unable to disarm its deadly sectarian militias. Allen continued to hedge his views on the war at the NAACP event. "Progress in Iraq has not been sufficiently fast as far as I'm concerned," Allen said. But he added, "to leave Iraq a safe haven for terrorists is not an acceptable risk." On Friday, Allen began televising a new ad in which John Warner says, "George and I stand for a safe and strong America." Even in conservative Virginia, polls show lagging support for the war. A recent Washington Post poll of 1,004 likely Virginia voters showed that 44 percent believed the war worth fighting considering its costs to the U.S., and 54 percent said it was not worth fighting. But Allen won't stiff-arm the president, who on Thursday raised an estimated $600,000 for him in a paid media campaign that is costing both sides well over $1 million a week in television time alone. "I think the point of the matter we ought to take into consideration is the risk here, the risk facing our country, how we need to improve, how we need to adapt, how the Iraqi people have to stand up for their own sovereignty and control their own destiny," Allen said Friday. A Washington Post poll released Sunday showed Allen favored by 49 percent of voters surveyed last week, while Webb had 47 percent support. The results were within the poll's margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. ************************************** http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VIR...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

King George's definition of Freedom - social or de-facto status of specific persons, usually captives or prisoners who are considered as property for the purpose of providing labor and services for the owner or state without the right to refuse, leave or gain compensation beyond room and board and clothing.

This says it all folks. http://www.nysun.com/pics/31062_1.php Before every paragraph, at the top and bottom of every page and every attachment, are reminders as obvious as neon lights saying everything in the memo is secret and classified. Taken together, all those warnings - I counted 17 - are hard to forget. Under the law, Armitage has no leeway to presume something is not classified "if he reason to believe" otherwise. His leaks are textbook violations of the Espionage Act . Under 18 United States Code Sec. 793(d): Looks like the Republicans have no problem reaching over to destroy our freedom. Looks like the Republican have no problems profiting from it either. Can I get an AMEN!!!

Looks like more trouble for the Republican party to me.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) collected $700,000 on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years. Reid had failed to disclose to Congress an earlier transaction "in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company." Reid countered that, although the title to the land had passed to a joint venture, he maintained continual ownership over the property. Nevertheless, Reid immediately apologized for the oversight lapse and amended his 2001 disclosure forms and asked the Senate Ethics Committee to clarify the matter. Other lawmakers took a different approach. Weldon, for example, has blamed Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington Executive Director Melanie Sloan, former National Security Advisor Samuel Berger, and former CIA officer Mary McCarthy for his current ethical troubles. He believes the FBI's investigation is "revenge for his criticisms." Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who last week pled guilty in the Abramoff investigation, has blamed his legal troubles on the Justice Department, the media, and liberal groups. Another Republican goes down.

In a 2005 federal highway bill, House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IL) net worth went from approximately $300,000 to at least $6.2 million. After acquiring land in 2002, Hastert inserted $207 million into the 2005 highway bill for construction of the Prairie Parkway Corridor, a highway that "had neither the support of the public nor the Illinois Department of Transportation," but was just over a mile from the property owned by Hastert's trust. Once the bill passed, Hastert sold his property at "a profit equal to 500 percent of his original investment," notes Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Scott Lilly and American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar Norman Ornstein. The Speaker used his official position to profit at the expense of American taxpayers. Media Matters reports that CNN has devoted 50 times as much coverage to Reid's case as to Hastert's. Time magazine has yet to mention the Hastert land scandal, but devoted three paragraphs in an Oct. 13 article to the assertion that Reid has "found himself embroiled in a real estate scandal.

I am sure that was what the Klan thought about Civil Rights.

King George" Bush just overturned 800 years of settled law by signing the Millitary Commissions Act. The right of Habeas Corpus was first obtained in 13th century England when King John signed the Magna Carta with a sword at his throat. He made so much use of torture and detention without trial that no English king was ever named John again! Now 800 years later, Habeas Corpus as well as the US Constitution are in flames. With one stroke of his pen, "King George" has undone 800 years of history by legalizing detention without trial and almost unlimited torture. I am just praying for the Democrats to take over Congress and get rid of this scumbag.

These are some dark times.... OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20511 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ODNI News Release No. 19-06 October 16, 2006 Statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on the North Korea Nuclear Test "Analysis of air samples collected on October 11, 2006 detected radioactive debris which confirms that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P'unggye on October 9, 2006. The explosion yield was less than a kiloton." A P'unggye-ri is located at coordinates 41.1361N, 129.1567E, several miles south of the location of the seismic disturbance at 41.294N, 129.094E reported by USGS. There is another city by the same name some distance to the north. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=41...267448&t=k&om=1 http://www.dni.gov/announcements/20061016_release.pdf

Finally the President is starting to admit the truth. Protecting the oil is a key factor. ********************************************* Q Senator Warner says Iraq appears to be drifting sideways, and James Baker says a change in strategy may be needed. Are you willing to acknowledge that a change may be needed? THE PRESIDENT: Steve, we're constantly changing tactics to achieve a strategic goal. Our strategic goal is a country which can defend itself, sustain itself, and govern itself. The strategic goal is to help this young democracy succeed in a world in which extremists are trying to intimidate rational people in order to topple moderate governments and to extend a caliphate. The stakes couldn't be any higher, as I said earlier, in the world in which we live. There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives. And they want us to leave, and they want us to -- and they want to topple government. They want to extend an ideological caliphate that is -- has no concept of liberty inherent in their beliefs. They want to control oil resources, and they want to plot and plan and attack us again. That's their objectives. And so -- and our strategic objective is to prevent them from doing that. And we're constantly changing tactics to achieve that objective. And I appreciate Senator Warner going over there and taking a look. I want you to notice what he did say is, if the plan is now not working -- the plan that's in place isn't working, America needs to adjust. I completely agree. That's what I talk to General Casey about. I said, General, the Baghdad security plan is in its early implementation. I support you strongly, but if you come into this office and say we need to do something differently, I support you. If you need more troops, I support you. If you're going to devise a new strategy, we're with you, because I trust General Casey to make the judgments necessary to put the tactics in place to help us achieve an objective. And I appreciate Jimmy Baker willingness to -- he and Lee Hamilton are putting this -- have got a group they put together that I think was Congressman Wolf's suggestion -- or passing the law. We supported the idea. I think it's good to have some of our elder statesmen -- I hate to call Baker an elder statesmen -- but to go over there and take a look, and to come back and make recommendations. Somebody said he said, well, you know, cut-and-run isn't working. That's not our policy. Our policy is to help this country succeed, because I understand the stakes. I'm going to repeat them one more time. As a matter of fact, I'm going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes about what life is like in the Middle East. It is conceivable that there will be a world in which radical forms, extreme forms of religion fight each other for influence in the Middle East, in which they've got the capacity to use oil as an economic weapon. And when you throw in the mix a nuclear weapon in the hands of a sworn enemy of the United States, you begin to see an environment that would cause some later on in history to look back and say, how come they couldn't see the problem? What happened to them in the year 2006? Why weren't they able to see the problems now and deal with them before it came too late, Steve? And so Iraq is an important part of dealing with this problem. And my vow to the American people is I understand the stakes, and I understand what it would mean for us to leave before the job is done. And I look forward to listening how -- what Jimmy Baker and Lee Hamilton say about how to get the job -- I appreciate them working on this issue because I think they understand what I know, and the stakes are high. And the stakes are high when it comes to developing a Palestinian state so that Israel can live at peace. And the stakes are high when it comes to making sure the young democracy of Lebanon is able to fend off the extremists and radicals that want to crater that democracy. This is the real challenge of the 21st century. I like to tell people we're in an ideological struggle. And it's a struggle between extremists and radicals and people of moderation who want to simply live a peaceful life. And the calling of this country and in this century is whether or not we will help the forces of moderation prevail. That's the fundamental question facing the United States of America -- beyond my presidency. And you can tell I made my choice. And I made my choice because the most solemn duty of the American President and government is to protect this country from harm.

You forgot the question's from the press *********************************************** Q Thank you, Mr. President. Democrats say that North Korea's reported test shows that your policy has been a failure, that you got bogged down in Iraq where there were no weapons of mass destruction while North Korea was moving ahead with a bomb. Is your administration to blame for letting North Korea get this far? THE PRESIDENT: North Korea has been trying to acquire bombs and weapons for a long period of time, long before I came into office. And it's a threat that we've got to take seriously, and we do, of course. In 1994, the government -- our government -- entered into a bilateral arrangement with the North Koreans that worked to make sure that they don't have the capacity to develop a bomb, and North Korea agreed that there would be no program whatsoever toward the development of a weapon. And yet, we came into office and discovered that they were developing a program, unbeknownst to the folks with whom they signed the agreement, the United States government. And we confronted them with that evidence and they admitted it was true, and then left the agreement that they had signed with the U.S. government. And my point -- and then I -- as I mentioned in my opening statement, we, once again, had North Korea at the table -- this time with other parties at the table -- and they agreed once again, through this statement as a result of the six-party talks, to verifiably show that they weren't advancing a nuclear weapons program. And they chose again to leave. And my point to you is that it's the intransigence of the North Korean leader that speaks volumes about the process. It is his unwillingness to choose a way forward for his country -- a better way forward for his country. It is his decisions. And what's changed since then is that we now have other parties at the table who have made it clear to North Korea that they share the same goals of the United States, which is a nuclear weapons-free peninsula. Obviously, I'm listening very carefully to this debate. I can remember the time when it was said that the Bush administration goes it alone too often in the world, which I always thought was a bogus claim to begin with. And now all of a sudden people are saying, the Bush administration ought to be going alone with North Korea. But it didn't work in the past is my point. The strategy did not work. I learned a lesson from that and decided that the best way to convince Kim Jong-il to change his mind on a nuclear weapons program is to have others send the same message. And so, in my phone calls that I recently made right after the test, I lamented the fact that he had tested to Hu Jintao, and also lamented the fact that Hu Jintao had publicly asked him not to test. I talked to the South Korean President, and I said, it ought to be clear to us now that we must continue to work together to make it abundantly clear to the leader in North Korea that there's a better way forward. When he walks away from agreement, he's not just walking away from a table with the United States as the only participant; he's walking away from a table that others are sitting at. And my point to you is, in order to solve this diplomatically, the United States and our partners must have a strong diplomatic hand, and you have a better diplomatic hand with others sending the message than you do when you're alone. And so, obviously, I made the decision that the bilateral negotiations wouldn't work, and the reason I made that decision is because they didn't. And we'll continue to work to come up with a diplomatic solution in North Korea. This is a serious issue. But I want to remind our fellow citizens that the North Korea issue was serious for years. And I also remind our citizens that we want to make sure that we solve this problem diplomatically. We've got to give every effort to do so. But in my discussions with our partners, I reassured them that the security agreements we have with them will be enforced if need be, and that's in particular to South Korea and Japan.

North Korea set off a global panic when it announced it had successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. China, one of North Korea's closest supporters, called the test a "flagrant and brazen" violation of international opinion. Mohammed El Baradei, head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was a "clear setback to international commitments to move toward nuclear disarmament." President Bush reported that he had spoken with leaders from China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan, all of whom had agreed that the North Koreans' actions "unacceptable and deserve an immediate response." This irresponsible act should not have come as a surprise. Intelligence released last week pointed to a likely nuclear test and in July, North Korea defied the international community and test-fired seven ballistic missiles. North Korea's rapid nuclear build-up can be traced back to the beginning of the Bush administration, when President Bush abandoned successful diplomatic initiatives put in place by the Clinton administration and ramped up his hardline rhetoric. "North Korea's apparent nuclear test last night may well be regarded as a failure of the Bush administration's nuclear nonproliferation policy," reported the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler. North Korea now possesses enough weapons-grade plutonium for as many as 13 nuclear weapons. But during the Clinton administration, the regime separated zero plutonium. It's time to return to bilateral talks. By virtually every measure, Bush's North Korea policy has been a failure. Diplomatic efforts have broken down and North Korea has resumed plutonium production. When Bush took office, North Korea had produced enough plutonium under President George H.W. Bush for 1-2 nuclear weapons. Today, the country possesses material for 4-13 nuclear weapons. If North Korea unloads another batch of fuel, it may have enough nuclear material for 8 to 17 nuclear bombs by 2008.

Charles, did you know that students and parents who take out new loans to pay for college will pay considerably higher interest rates. Also, college graduates who don't consolidate and lock in their rates will be subject to a rate hike. This drastic change will affect millions of Americans. In 2005 alone, seven million students took out federal college loans to pay the increasingly high cost of college tuition, which has increased an average of 40 percent for four-year public colleges under the Bush Administration. In February of this year, the Republican-controlled Congress voted to eliminate $12.7 billion in student aid — the largest cut to federal financial aid in history. 216 Republicans voted for the cuts, while 200 Democrats voted against them. Not a single Democrat voted to cut student aid. Washington Republicans have slashed student aid programs, not for deficit reduction as Republicans have claimed, but to finance additional tax cuts for special interests and the wealthy, leaving trillions of dollars of debt for future generations to pay off. Democrats have an alternative plan that eases the burden on America’s working families by cutting up to $5,600 in interest costs on loans while fully funding student aid programs like the Pell Grant and Perkins Loans. College Democrats of America President Grant Woodard issued the following statement: "The Republican Party has once again demonstrated how out of touch it is with real American values. Providing all young people with the opportunity to attend college is crucial to the future of this great country. Today's students are tomorrow's doctors, lawyers, and politicians and they deserve leaders who make it easier, not harder, to pay for their education."

In 2000, Sen. John McCain told reporters, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live." The Senator may have had a bad experience in Vietnam prison camp. But, this statement should make Republicans think about electing this man. But, also in 2000 on the flip Sen. John McCain Criticized George Bush For Not Speaking Out About Bob Jones' Racist Beliefs When He Addressed the School. "If I'd have been invited to go to Bob Jones University, sure, I'd have gone! And I'd have told them, 'Get out of the 16th century and into the 21st century. What you're doing is racist and cruel!' Instead -- instead, Governor Bush went there and never said a word. I would never, ever do such a thing." McCain was referring to the school's strict ban on interracial dating. I have made many white jokes in the past. So, I have no right to say anything either way about the man.

Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., Case No. 04cv2688, was the first direct challenge brought in United States federal courts against a public school district that required the presentation of "Intelligent Design" as an alternative to evolution as an "explanation of the origin of life". The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and that the school board policy thus violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Eleven parents of students in Dover, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg, sued the Dover Area School District over a statement that the school board required to be read aloud in ninth-grade science classes when evolution was taught. The plaintiffs were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) and Pepper Hamilton LLP. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) acted as consultants for the plaintiffs. The defendants were represented by the Thomas More Law Center. The Foundation for Thought and Ethics, publisher of a textbook advocating intelligent design titled Of Pandas and People, tried to join the lawsuit as a defendant but was denied. The suit was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania seeking injunctive relief. Since it sought an equitable remedy there was no right to a jury trial; the Seventh Amendment did not apply. It was tried in a bench trial from September 26, 2005 to November 4, 2005 before Judge John E. Jones III. On December 20, 2005 Judge Jones issued his 139-page findings of fact and decision, ruling that the Dover mandate was unconstitutional, and barred intelligent design from being taught in public school science classrooms. The eight Dover school board members who voted for the intelligent design requirement were all defeated in a November 8, 2005 election by challengers who opposed the teaching of intelligent design in a science class, and the current school board president stated that the board does not intend to appeal the ruling.

For once I agree with you Human. I believe that people with disabilities have the same problems that blacks like myself face everyday. Unless you are one, you can not understand what we go through. I am a little better researching than Luke. So I will look as well.

You crack me up!. Its funny how people in your own party agreed to having it released. I wonder why? Republicans are trying to cover it up. The administration is selectively declassifying portions of the report to muddy the waters and the right-wing propaganda machine is in damage-control mode. There's even a second briefing that they still refuse to discuss. So as the Republican congress tried to skip town, our Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, went on the offense. She and her Democratic colleagues offered a motion to send the House into secret session to go over the full report in detail to get to the bottom of it. But the Republicans wouldn't let it happen. Their "no" votes are the starkest admission yet that they just don't want to know what's really happening on the ground in Iraq, in Afghanistan, or anywhere else. Leader Pelosi said that enough is enough -- and that when Democrats take back the House we will hold this administration accountable for making us less safe.

Yesterday, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, called for the declassification of the recently-disclosed National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which concluded "the Iraq war has fueled the growth of Islamic extremism and terror groups." Declassification is not without precedent. In July 2004, the CIA declassified portions of the October 2002 NIE that laid out the case for Iraq's purported weapons of destruction program. In a letter addressed to the Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, Rockefeller asked for declassification -- "to the fullest extent possible" -- of the key judgments of the April 2006 NIE. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, seconded the call. “I think the administration should declassify this document so the American people can see the material for themselves and come to their own conclusions,” he said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board offers the same advice: "So here's our suggestion for President Bush: Declassify the entire NIE." The report's conclusions, the consensus findings of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, reach the same judgment made by terrorism experts across the political spectrum, according to a Center for American Progress/Foreign Policy Magazine survey. Asked whether the Iraq war was having a negative impact on national security, 87 percent of the experts agreed.

Where is Jason Linkins name as the blogger?

I heard Popeye got sick.

Thank ya for a fine speech masta cracka.

Here is a little fuel for your thoughts. I don't know why I do not post on these boards more.

I do not think so Human. You show us no winning strategy. Just Republican scare tactics. Here is the a vision from John Kerrry, the Senator who should have been our President.