This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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...Now Winfrey has squared off against Coburn, who has blocked S. 1738, the Combating Child Exploitation Act. Winfrey asked her viewers Monday to call and write the Senate to demand their support for the legislation, sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden (Del.). Winfrey, herself a victim of sexual abuse, has asked viewers to sign and send a letter posted on her website calling for action on the bill. Winfrey’s show is the top recipient of campaign advertisements after the leading news programs. Coburn initially blocked it because it would have authorized nearly a billion dollars over eight years to fund a law enforcement crackdown on child exploitation. Coburn has insisted that new government programs be offset with spending cuts, a budget-saving device Biden’s bill lacked....
20 months ago: In this Tuesday, Jan. 2 2007 file photo, U.S. talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, second left, and students are seen during the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, South Africa. A dormitory matron at Oprah Winfrey's school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa has been suspended amid allegations of serious misconduct, The Star newspaper reported Friday Oct. 19, 2007. South Africa's Child Protection Services have been notified and U.S. and South African private detectives have been engaged to investigate the allegations, the newspaper quoted the school's CEO John Samuel as saying.
Gays in the military (click here) : “To protect our servicemen and women and ensure that America’s Armed Forces remain the best in the world, we affirm the timelessness of those values, the benefits of traditional military culture, and the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service.”
Basically, he and Bush agree on the subject. They deregulated the financial district of the USA Infrastruture and then complained because it reacted to deregulation with complete abandon.
That facilitated Goldman-Sachs (click here) a clear field to be the Wall Street Carpetbagger. Let's see, GS can afford to appear to 'take a hit' on any given day, they have eliminated Bear-Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merril-Lynch is nearly there, then comes AIG, and with a little distance to destruction comes Morgan-Stanley. Did I get that right?
Crashing the USA economy did many things, it loosened available monies for those prepared to exploit others' losses and misfortune, it demised any and all infrastruture causing a rush in housing and freeing up prime real estate otherwise unaffordable.
McCain may as well have called Wall Street 'Drunk' no different than Bush. He blames deregulation failures on greed.
Like.
No kidding.
What I want to know is that once Goldman-Sachs has the corner on the financial markets, will the SEC step in to investigate? Or maybe they'll just get 'a pass' on surviving the day. What do you think?
How 'Bout a Free Movie? ...from Michael Moore (click here) Friends, As you may have heard, I've decided to make my new film, "Slacker Uprising," available for free to everyone in the United States and Canada. It is the first time ever that a major feature-length film is debuting as a free download on the internet -- legally. I am doing this for two reasons: 1. Next year it will be 20 years since my first film, "Roger & Me," so I'd like to give those of you who've supported my work over the years a thank you gift in the form of a brand new movie; and 2. I hope the release and wide distribution of this new movie will help to bring out millions of young and new voters on November 4th. "Slacker Uprising" takes place in the wake of "Fahrenheit 9/11," during the run-up to the 2004 election, as I traveled for 42 days across America, visiting 62 cities in a failed attempt to remove George W. Bush from office. My goal was to help turn out a record number of young voters and others who had never voted before. (That part was a success. Young adults voted in greater numbers than in any election since 18-year-olds were given the right to vote. And the youth vote was the only age group that John Kerry won.) ...
Vijay Vyas holds a photograph of his late son Atul Vyas, 20, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008, in Simi Valley, Calif., who died in a commuter train crash on Friday. Federal investigators worked Sunday to unravel what caused the collision of a train with a freight locomotive that killed at least 25 people, urging caution as a transit company blamed its own engineer for the horrific accident. (AP Photo/Ric Francis) There is no sense to place technology on any rail services today, unless, the USA doesn't care about the potential of rebuilding. They need to be replaced with a national project to build "High Speed Magnetic Rail (click here)." With the replacement of the current passenger train infrastructure there will be new technology that will not only create a booming economy for some time, but, also provide a level of safety the USA has yet to enjoy. Sometimes a nation's lessons are learned the hardway.
Train-Safety Technology Could Take Years to Deploy Nationwide (click here) By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY, ANDY PASZTOR , ALEX ROTH and PETER SANDERS Federal regulators and railroad officials said a nationwide deployment of technology that could prevent accidents like last week's deadly Metrolink crash in California would cost over $2 billion and could take years because of technological challenges. Government and industry leaders on Monday cited a host of cost concerns and technical challenges preventing widespread adoption of "positive train control," or PTC, technology designed to prevent collisions by automatically slowing or stopping trains if engineers speed through stop signals. On Friday, a Metrolink commuter train that wasn't PTC-equipped crashed into a Union Pacific freight train in the Chatsworth suburb of Los Angeles, killing 25 people. Investigators are focusing on the commuter train's engineer and whether he missed a red stop signal. Shortly after the crash, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said the agency was at fault because the engineer had failed to heed a red-warning signal. On Monday, Ms. Tyrrell resigned and Metrolink distanced itself from her remarks by calling them "premature." The agency declined to comment directly on her departure....
September 15, 2008 13:11 EDT CHICAGO (AP) -- Hurricane Ike is being blamed for a weekend of devastation in nine states.
The storm and its remnants are responsible for 32 deaths and power outages from Texas to Illinois, on to Ohio, Kentucky and New York.
Nearly one and a half million homes and businesses have no electricity today. Flooding touched off by a half foot or more of rain is reported in parts of Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. As many as 5,000 people are being evacuated from Munster, Indiana, where the town manager says they've "never had flooding like this."
Farmers fear all the rain could wreck what may already be shaky corn and soybean crops.
Willie Dryefor National Geographic News September 15, 2008 Hurricane Ike will be entered into the record books for the severe damage it inflicted in and around Galveston, Texas, experts say. "This one's going to be famous for a long time, if for no other reason than it hit Texas, which hadn't gotten a strike by a damaging hurricane in 25 years," said Jeff Masters, director of Weather Underground, a private commercial forecasting service....
Ike pushes U.S. retail gasoline price -gov't (click title of entry, thank you)
...The EIA said the national average price for regular, self-service gasoline surged to $3.84 in the week ended Monday, Sept. 15, from $3.65 the previous week. Hurricane Ike was the second hurricane to slam into the Gulf Coast in recent weeks, shutting 99.9 percent of Gulf of Mexico's oil output. According to a Reuters survey 16 refineries were closed Monday, representing 24.6 percent of U.S. capacity. Despite Hurricane Ike, crude oil prices closed below $100 for the first time since March on Monday. Lower crude prices did not offer Americans much relief at the pump, however, with the average price of gasoline $1.05 higher than a year ago....
Republicans opposed to 'Big Government,' except in Alaska (click here) In 2001, Alaska's gross state product was $28.6 billion, with 19.5% accounted for by the public sector, the 2nd-highest percent among the states (after Hawaii), and well above the state average of 12%. Both mining and government contributed about $5.6 billion to gross state product in 2001, but for mining this represented a 19% decrease from 1997 and for government a 10.8% increase over the same period. Public utilities and transportation contributed $4.6 billion, up 15% from 1997. Both general services, contributing $3.96 billion, and the finance, insurance and real estate sector, contributing $3.2 billion, increased about 29% 1997 to 2001. Other important sectors included retail trade, at $1.9 billion (up 12% from 1997) and construction, at $1.4 billion (up 24% from 1997). The manufacturing sector contributed $1.06 billion, down 5% from 1997.
Hello everyone there in Delta ! Governor Palin came to visit Alaska National Guard soldiers here in Kuwait today. She had a town hall like meeting with all the soldiers. It was very nice to ask the governor straight forward questions and get straight forward answers that haven't been washed through 3 or 4 people to only get half the truth ! I myself have been confused with Delta politics and the proposed borough. I liked the answers that I recieved ! I gave Sarah Palin my personal thanks for vetoing un-needed spending in Delta Junction. It was a great time today haveing access to our state leadership directly ! Only about 3 months to go ! Cant wait to get home ! SGT Sherman Stebbins, HHC 3-297th Inf. Alaska National Guard
GREENSBURG, Pa., March 25 (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she made a mistake when she claimed she had come under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 while she was first lady....(click here)
Palin's aides admit she did not visit Iraq (click here) Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent September 15, 2008 BARACK Obama's presidential campaign has seized on reports that Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin never made it into Iraq last year, despite her campaign staff previously saying she travelled there. Attempting to mount a counter-attack in the face of falling polls, the Obama campaign is jumping on a series of claims from Republican presidential candidate John McCain and labelling them as "outright lies" to try to regain a better footing in the race for the White House. Senator McCain has been on the front foot since his surprise selection of Ms Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five and the charismatic Governor of Alaska, to be his running mate....
Its obvious this is STILL another distraction from 'the reality' of Americans faced with a profound recession brought on by purposeful Republican mismanagement.
"...The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Sarah's oldest son, Track, was addicted to the power drug OxyContin for nearly the past two years, snorting it, eating it, smoking it and even injecting it. And as Track, 19, heads to Iraq as part of the U.S. armed forces, Sarah and her husband Todd were powerless to stop his wild antics, detailed in the new issue of The ENQUIRER, which goes on sale today...."
Seems very obvious to me McCain and Palin are attempting to obstruct justice by trying to interfer with an investigation.
"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as "Troopergate". "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."
The question seems to be why Mr. Montegan couldn't gain the cooperation of his collegues. It wasn't that he was the issue so much as those he requested cooperation from. If Governor Palin wanted cooperation after it was known Mr. Montegan requested same on her behalf, it would seem as those others had nothing to report OR had no confidence in the request by the Governor. It was her responsiblity to bring those that were not in compliance with the request into compliance with her Public Safety Commissioner. By the way, has the information she requested been forthcoming now? And what exactly was the vital information? An investigation seems in order, Palin and McCain have something to hide? Like baseless allogations of Mr. Monegan? Some people can handle power and some can't.
The intrigue thickens when one realizes, her former Brother-In-Law wouldn't have a chance for custody and/or visitation if he was unemployed and unable to support his children.
I would think the Governor would bend over backward to help find a more suitable job for the father of her nephews/neices, after all the State Trooper had done so well for so long, but, faltered over time while dealing with a failing marriage. As a rule, good marriages don't fail overnight, there is usually a progression to the event that destroys the marriage.
I find the priorities all along the way involved with this episode questionable and suspect.
How are the kids doing anyway and do they see their Dad and how do they feel about him? I think its called 'joint custody,' right?
I find this all very odd. No real cohesive understanding of 'family' or 'valued employee' with a former Brother-In-Law and father to her sister's children. Hm. These are more of the Christian values that also brought the nation a pregnant 17 year old. It doesn't give me that 'Bush Feel Good Feeling.'
And about the misunderstanding of 'The Bush Doctrine.' I don't know? Lots of missing pieces and misplaced priorities every place. She was pretty slick in that interview. Let's see, "? The Bush Doctrine ?"
"So, Charlie, what aspect of the Bush Doctrine are you implying means anything to Americans that love me?"
Slick, the chick is slick.
See, if she bats her eyes the right way and leans a little into a posture of vulnerability, maybe Charlie would 'give her a hint.'
Right, Charlie?
Nope.
Charlie didn't take the bate and he knew he wasn't taking the bate. It took two other questions before he finally had to 'inspire' the correct response by leading her in the right direction. Amazing.
Palin: E-mails explain 'Troopergate' firing (click here) By GENE JOHNSON – 4 hours ago ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Lawyers for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have released e-mails detailing what they say is the real reason she dismissed Walt Monegan, the public safety commissioner whose firing prompted the "Troopergate" controversy. In a papers filed Monday, the lawyers wrote that Monegan was fired for opposing Palin's budget priorities. They cited e-mails in which top Palin staffers expressed concern with his approach. They also cited an e-mail Monegan sent his colleagues encouraging them to communicate better with Palin. Lawmakers are investigating whether Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, fired Monegan because he refused to dismiss an Alaska state trooper going through a child-custody dispute with her sister.
And this is just nonsense. This investigation started long before Palin was nominated for Veep, but, it keeps up the focus on Palin over the next couple of months while casting the character of 'victim' over her.
Palin won't meet with Monegan investigator (click here) by Jason MooreContributing reports from The Associated PressMonday, Sept. 15, 2008 McCain campaign questions motives in Monegan inquiry ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A McCain-Palin spokesman says Alaska's governor won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner. McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation. The campaign attacked the independent investigation into the termination of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on the basis that it was politically biased.
Bush buoyed his economy to insure his re-election at the expense of the American Dream. The minimaly productive years of his presidency should not have occurred. If the USA economy wasn't 'toyed' with for a faux sense of economy, the 'mess' that exists today would never have happened.
Crashing the USA economy was a way of Republican restructuring, hoping the entire time the government infrastructure would tumble with it, including Social Security (Remember the alarm by Bush after the 2004 elections, does the American electorate want the same surprise by McCain?) and removing much of the need for federal taxes with it.
We have witnessed the gross deterioration of 'long lived fiscal' infrastructure of the USA including institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; while 'insiders' to the administration maneuvered 'for the kill.'
Where is the conscience of Americans to disavow the reality that is before them in some kind of 'game of chance' that Republicans are putting forward as a solution to the nation's problems?
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar fell on Friday, posting its worst one-day decline against the euro in six months, as weak economic data and uncertainty over the future of troubled investment bank Lehman Brothers prompted investors to lock in recent steep gains. Worries about Washington Mutual Inc , the largest U.S. savings and loan institution, also added to selling pressure on the dollar after the bank projected further write-downs, Lehman shares tumbled to a near 14-year low on worries it might fail to find a buyer because the U.S. government was reluctant to provide financial support. The U.S. retail sales and producer price reports also weighed on the greenback as they revived expectations for another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve this year....
By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent Last Updated: 8:31pm BST 14/09/2008 Global investment bank Lehman Brothers is teetering on the verge of collapse after Barclays pulled out of an 11th-hour rescue.
The departure of Barclays left US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spearheading desperate last-ditch attempts to put in place some form of a workable rescue package. Traders fear that the collapse of Lehman would send shockwaves around the world and spark a global sell-off of shares. Lehman which employs 4,000 staff in London and 24,00 around the world, could be placed into liquidation as soon as Monday. The bank would be the single largest casualty of the current credit crisis and its collapse one of the biggest failures in Wall Street history...
NATO-izing the Old Soviet States for the sake of confronting Russia only creates scenarios of war while placing these countries center stage to destruction. There is nothing so threatening in this world that it can't be resolved with diplomacy. The exception to that is the threat of unresolved terrorist networks.
...In a statement, the Kremlin said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev talked with his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko, and underscored concern over 'a whole range of problems in bilateral relations.' Resolving them, the statement said, would require 'careful and constructive' work by experts from both countries 'without politicising existing disagreements. 'After these issues have been resolved, concrete timeframes for top-level meetings can be discussed,' the Kremlin statement said....
There was a time when Russia was strategically involved with the USA war against al Qaeda. That all changed when the plans to defeat bin Laden turned into a war for Saddam's oil.
The 'struggle' so much of Europe and Asia are engaged in to maintain sovereignty and with it peace is directly related to the divisive measures by Bush/Cheney. If they had 'stayed in the fight' in Afghanistan without diverting the USA military into Iraq; Europe, the former Soviet States and Russia itself would not be at odds. We would have defeated al Qaeda and the attacks into Madrid, London, Jordan and Algiers would never have happened. To place into perspective 'the permission' given to war without end by McCain's backing of Bush Policy is to realize how much of a failure McCain actually is and how much of a continued failure he will be.
Monday, 17 September, 2001, 16:44 GMT 17:44 UK Russia finds 'Chechen link' to Bin Laden (click here) The Russian internal security service says it has found a computer compact disc in Chechnya which contains instructions for piloting Boeing aircraft similar to those hijacked for the attacks in the United States last week. The chief spokesman of the Federal Security Service Alexander Zdanovich told Russian media that the computer CD also contained technical descriptions of Boeing 737 aeroplanes. He said it was found during a raid on a group which had contacts with Osama bin Laden - the man named by the United States as the main suspect in the attacks. Correspondents say Moscow has been trying for some time to convince Washington that Chechen rebels are linked to the Saudi-born dissident. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Bush/Cheney and now McCain don't seek resolve to war through strong alliances that provide support for in roads to peace. They continually confront other country's sovereignty as a means to conquer and exploit natural resources of that country. In the case of Russia, its natural resources are the focus to any tensions that exist between the USA, Europe and Former Soviet States.
If Afghanistan and the defeat of al Qaeda had remained the focus of the War of September 11th, Russia would not have withdrawn from alliance with the USA and sensitive to any appearance of a threat to its sovereignty that resulted in the invasion into Georgia.
To realize where we are going with a McCain victory is to realize the folly in believing he is capable of leadership into peace. John McCain is another Bush, he leads into war, not into peace.
We need Russia. We need peace with Russia. Placing Missile Shields at its borders only escalates the 'positioning' for war for both countries. Its "W"rong and more than just an exercise in futility and preparedness. Russia has not been this aggressive in its global relationships for decades and this time it isn't about spreading Communism, its about protecting Russia sovereignty.
We aren't treating our allies right, no matter whom they are. Placing Europe in harms way to confront a 'guarded Russia' is not the act of an ally, its the act of a threat.
I want my country back. And I want its allies back as well. Those allies include Russia. The only enemy this world has to confront is al Qaeda. There are no other enemies, except, greed and a declining USA economy. Americans have to stop deluding their realities. Life is serious, it's not star studded and McCain is not capable of being the President the USA needs.
Posted on September 14, 2008 ...The incidents and others nationwide prompted federal hearings this week. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., led a hearing Tuesday questioning two Department of Justice officials on the agency's level of preparedness for the Nov. 4 general election. In minority-majority districts such as Baltimore and Prince George's County, citizens waited in lines that were "three to five times long" compared to other districts due to "inadequate" resources, Cardin said....
Jackson 08/26/08
Hosemann disturbed by voter fraud in Wilkinson County (click here) Posted:Aug 26, 2008 04:47 PM EDT Updated:Sep 3, 2008 10:17 AM EDT By Jon Kalahar The state of Mississippi is expecting a record voter turnout this November. Mississippians will choose a new president, elect senators and congressmen as well as supreme court justices.
But a report on one county's special elections this summer may have you questioning the sanctity of the voting process here in the state....
The Oil Infrastructure of the USA has always been vulnerable to storms, not to mention contributing to the increase of a dangerous troposphere. To contine on this path is the "W"rong direction for the country. John McCain has no viable strategies for the USA !
Texan Economists rape the USA of resources. It is all they know how to do, while outsourcing jobs to allow greater profits by companies. The rant by the Republicans is that the USA economy will expand with greater company profits, therefore, decrease their tax burden even more.
It was never an answer for the American people and it continues to be a 'problematic' form of economic strategy. Texan economists have no clear strategy for an America with a viable Middle Class, only one that rides the shirt-tales of what is still exploitable through government deregulation.
We already had eight years of a failed Texan Economist, when will everyone realize the Republicans have no answers, so much as 'Star Quality' to social conservative pizzazz. The difference between Republicans and Democrats is completely obvious; Democrats live with reality while Republicans dance all around it.
...Mr. Gramm, a Texas Republican, is one of the top recipients of Enron largess in the Senate. And he is a demon for deregulation. In December 2000 Mr. Gramm was one of the ringleaders who engineered the stealthlike approval of a bill that exempted energy commodity trading from government regulation and public disclosure. It was a gift tied with a bright ribbon for Enron....
Ike Shutters 20% of U.S. Refining Capacity; Reserves Released (click here) By Jordan Burke and Aaron Clark Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Almost 20 percent of the U.S.'s oil refining capacity was shut after Hurricane Ike slammed into the Gulf Coast, limiting fuel deliveries and prompting the Department of Energy to release 309,000 barrels from its strategic reserves....
Letter: Economic adviser has ruinous approach (click here) John McCain's old chum, Phil Gramm, former U.S. senator from Texas, now a Swiss bank executive, co-chairs McCain's presidential campaign and advises him on matters of economics. Gramm appears to be a shoo-in for secretary of the Treasury if McCain is elected president.In the 1990s, Gramm, then chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, routinely underfunded the Securities and Exchange Commission. As the SEC's workload increased 80 percent, SEC's staff was allowed an increase of just 20 percent. In 1999, Gramm got a bill passed that tore down the regulatory walls between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies and security firms, resulting in merger mania.Gramm pulled off his cleverest move for his friends in the financial services industry (who donated millions to him over his 24-year congressional career) in mid-December 2000. Into a $384 billion omnibus spending bill, Gramm slipped a measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. It contained a provision - lobbied by Enron - that exempted energy trading from regulatory oversight. That allowed Enron to trash the California electricity market and cost consumers billions before it collapsed....
No matter which way one looks at it, John McCain has 'sold out' to partisan politics in order to win an election while placing the country 'at risk' for national security issues.
l. His energy and transportation strategy is not what the country needs nor can afford (What good is drilling for oil now do anyone with $5.00 per gallon pump prices and NO drilling offshore of the USA will not bring down gas pump prices.)
2. His approach to foreign affairs is a chronic lead up to war.
3. His Vice Presidential choice places the USA 'at risk' on every venue. She has relied on building an economy in any of her capacities through exploitive government spending and overriding sound environmental and conservation policies.
4. There is no strategy to turn the USA economy around, no protections for American workers and no incentives for investment in the USA infrastructure.
5. His advisors reflect 'inside the Beltway' in larger measure than any other Republican candidate in the former field.
6. He has no right to attempt 'Flash-in-the-Pan' politics to entice the electorate with celebrity tactics and place our country at further risk of war, increased pollution due to continued carbon dioxide emissions, declining economic infrastructure (If the USA continues with its aggressive attitude toward continuous war, it will become more and more isolated into economic failure. The world is not going to put up with more irresponsible Neocon rantings and war chants. It just won't.) due to globlal ridicule of the USA War posture.
7. An America devoid of good healthcare infrastructure with a 'health care strategy' that will demise what is left of employer benefits and superior health policies that ordinary Americans will never be able to afford or have available again.
8. More deregulation of government and more tax cuts with escalating national debt.
THE CAMPAIGN RHETORIC of McCain is something we have all heard before, but, he cannot deliver an American 'healed' and 'prepared.'
9. A continued tragically poor educational system with declining college enrollment.
10. No withdrawal strategy for Iraq.
11. No plan to destroy al Qaeda.
12. No means to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.
13. No methodology for nuclear disarmament.
14. No productive strategy to ascertain the causes for the confrontation by Georgia of Russia.
15. No method of securing global peace without nuclear exchange with Russia and China.
Vladimir Putin, Gates and McCain. Russia is NOT our enemy, although McCain finds it politically convenient to maintain that posture.
McCain's advisers are a troubling group (click title to entry, thank you) September 2, 2008 Al Gore is an honorable man. He cares about environmental issues. George Bush is not an honorable man. He started a war based on lies. John Kerry is an honorable man. He was upset after a firefight killed civilians and concluded that the Vietnam war was unjustified. Dick Cheyney is not an honorable man. He supported the Iraq War and gave no-bid contracts to buddies. John McCain was an honorable man. He acted valiantly in five years' imprisonment in North Vietnam and championed campaign finance reform, opposed torture, and helped immigration reform. But in his quest for president, he sold his soul to the devil. He has 100 lobbyists on his staff. Charlie Black was a hired gun for repressive African regimes. Randy Scheunemann pushed the invasion of Iraq. Wayne Berman's client was a predatory mortgage company. Meg Whitman pushed for permanent tax cuts for the rich and and Phil Gramm pushed for deregulating Wall Street scammers. If you approve of McCain's staffers, he is your man. If you value U.S. economic security and justice for working Americans, vote for Obama or minor party candidates. John R. Zachmann
Iowa Poll: Obama opens double-digit lead (click here) September 13, 2008 Democrat Barack Obama has established a double-digit lead over Republican John McCain in Iowa as the presidential race in this Midwestern battleground enters its critical fall stretch, according to The Des Moines Register's latest Iowa Poll.The poll, taken in the wake of the parties' national conventions, shows Obama favored by 52 percent of Iowa likely voters, compared to 40 percent for McCain.
Hillary Clinton to campaign for Lunsford Senator to visit state on Sept. 20
...Lunsford's campaign announced yesterday that Clinton, of New York, would attend campaign events on Sept. 20 in Lexington and Pikeville. The nature of the events is still unclear. Cary Stemle, a spokesman for the campaign, said he didn't know if the events are rallies, fundraisers or both. But Lunsford, a Louisville businessman, is clearly hoping that the Clinton family's ability to get votes in Kentucky will transfer to him on Nov. 4 when he tries to oust Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell....
By Meredith Buel Washington 08 September 2008 The United States has pulled out of an agreement with Russia for civilian nuclear cooperation. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has details from Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement that President Bush is notifying Congress he is rescinding a request for consideration of the nuclear cooperation deal with Moscow.The nuclear agreement, which would have required U.S. congressional approval, was signed earlier this year in Moscow and was designed to allow U.S. and Russian companies to become partners in joint ventures involving the nuclear industry. Analysts say business generated by the agreement could have been worth billions of dollars. In the statement read by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, Rice says U.S. nonproliferation goals contained in the agreement remain valid, but the timing is not appropriate for such an accord....
McCain is "W"rong on National Defense and Defense of European Allies.
Russia pulls forces from port city (click here) 13 hours ago A Georgian official said Russian forces have left the Black Sea port city of Poti. Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili says Russian troops have withdrawn completely from the two posts they maintained on the outskirts of Poti. Russia has maintained two dozen posts in Georgia beyond separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia following last month's war over South Ossetia. The presence in Poti has been particularly galling for Georgia because it is hundreds of miles from where most of the fighting occurred. Russia promised last week to withdraw from Poti by this coming Monday. Russia is to withdraw all its forces from Georgian territory outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia next month.
...."The Russians were right; we're wrong," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said this week at a hearing of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. "The Georgians started it; the Russians ended it," he said. Rohrabacher claimed that unidentified intelligence sources had assured him that Georgia started the fighting that began Aug. 7 when Georgia's military tried to re-establish control over its breakaway, pro-Russian province of South Ossetia....
Russia has accused the EU of signing a deal with Georgia on the deployment of ceasefire monitors that contradicts one agreed hours earlier with Moscow. Russia's foreign minister said it would not permit EU monitors in South Ossetia or Abkhazia but that the deal signed by the EU with Georgia allowed this. Georgia's breakaway regions have been recognised as independent by Russia. The EU said it was not discussed with Moscow whether the observers could go into the separatist breakaway regions....
Georgia's attack on the breakaway region of South Ossetia was unnecessary and unprovoked and was encouraged by the United States, Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, said in an interview yesterday. "For Russia, August 8 was like September 11 for the United States," he told a group of foreign journalists and academics. "I would like to see major lessons from it for the world." He made clear that the lessons, as Russia sees them, are that the post-cold war "illusion" that a world with one super power is a safe and predictable place is now over. The 42-year-old president said George Bush had phoned him shortly after he had ordered Russian forces to drive the Georgians back. "'You're a young president with a liberal background. Why do you need this?' Medvedev quoted Bush as saying. "I told him we had no choice," he said. The Russian president's interview followed a day after a similar interview with the prime minister, Vladimir Putin. He seemed to be talking from the same script, though there were important differences between the two. The president was more blunt about his Georgian counterpart, Mikheil Saakashvili, calling him "burdened with a host of pathologies" and alleging he often appeared in public under the influence of drugs. "Russia had to recognise South Ossetia as an independent state - a move widely criticised in the west - because otherwise Georgia might attack again....
It appears that the Bush leadership has not resulted in stronger allies, so much as vulnerable one. Expect the same from McCain.
Dresses are displayed in a shop window in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. Today's Syria, at least on the surface, is starkly different from the bland socialist country it was few years ago. But as it transforms itself economically, many are wondering whether the country can break with its hard line, rigid reputation as it emerges from the shadows of its past and change politically, too, at the same pace. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)
Country comes in 10th among 19 states in mena regionDaily Star staff
Saturday, September 13, 2008
BEIRUT: The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation ranked Lebanon in 99th place among 181 countries worldwide and 10th among 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region in terms of Ease of Doing Business in 2009, as reported by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group. Lebanon also ranked in 26th place among 35 upper-middle income countries and came in 98th place globally in the 2008 survey. The index is a composite of 10 sub-indices of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure. Globally, Lebanon ranked behind Dominican Republic and Yemen and came before Zambia and Jordan, while it ranked ahead of Seychelles and Croatia and behind Belarus and Palau among upper-middle income countries. Lebanon ranked in 98th place globally on the Starting a Business sub-index, up 38 places from 2008, and in 10th place in the MENA region. This category reflects the challenges to launch a business in a country....
