Saturday, August 04, 2007

Senate Approves Temporary Spy Bill

At first glance I became very angry that the Democrats would cave into administration pressure regarding updates to the FISA law. As I read further it became clear this is just a temporary measure as details are hammered out on a permanent bill.
The bill "will give our intelligence professionals the essential tools they need to protect our nation," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. "It is urgent that this legislation become law as quickly as possible."

Senate Democrats reluctantly voted for a plan largely crafted by the White House after Bush promised to veto a stricter proposal that would have required a court review to begin within 10 days.

The Senate bill gives Bush the expanded eavesdropping authority for six months. The temporary powers give Congress time to hammer out a more comprehensive plan instead of rushing approval for a permanent bill in the waning hours before lawmakers begin their monthlong break.

The Senate vote was 60-28. Both parties had agreed to require 60 votes for passage.
We must keep up the pressure to ensure any permanent bill does not weaken civil liberties for US citizens. The Bush administration can not be trusted and must be carefully monitored.

If you give up liberties for security you will wind up with neither.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Diebold Voting Machines Vulnerable to Virus Attack

It is time to outlaw these machines.
Diebold Election Systems Inc. voting machines are not secure enough to guarantee a trustworthy election, and an attacker with access to a single machine could disrupt or change the outcome of an election using viruses, according to a review of Diebold's source code.

"The software contains serious design flaws that have led directly to specific vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to affect election outcomes," read the University of California at Berkeley report, commissioned by the California Secretary of State as part of a two-month "top-to-bottom" review of electronic voting systems certified for use in California.
paper ballots are the only way to guarantee the integrity of our elections. Without that we can never know if the vote tally is correct. We must call upon our elected officials to decertify these machines. Our democracy depends on free and fair elections.

If You Are Not Outraged You Are Not Paying Attention

10th largest Mortgage Lender To Close

The housing market collapse claimed another company and 7000 jobs today as American Home Mortgage closed most operations effective today.
In a statement, American Home on Thursday night confirmed earlier reports that it was ceasing most operations. The company said its employee base will be reduced to about 750 workers, down from the 7,409 it reported at the end of last year. The terminations are effective Friday.

American Home originated $59 billion in loans last year, and mostly to people with better credit than risky subprime borrowers. About half of those mortgages were adjustable-rate loans, whose defining feature is an interest rate that can be adjusted upward.
This is just the latest in a string of closings and another Accredited Home Lenders is also close to bankruptcy. This situation is not going away and the pain this will cause the middle and lower classes is just beginning.

Senate Backs Expansion of Children's Health Insurance Program

The Senate passed legislation Thursday to add 3 million lower-income children to a popular health insurance program in bipartisan defiance of President Bush's threatened veto.
The 68-31 vote, one day after the House passed a more ambitious and expensive version over bitter Republican opposition, handed Democrats a solid achievement to trumpet as they leave Washington for a summer break.

It also gave Democrats, who secured a veto-proof margin, a chance to draw a stark distinction between their priorities and Bush's on an issue that resonates with voters.

"For the life of me, I can't understand why the president would want to veto this legislation," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the Finance Committee chairman. "It's moderate, it's bipartisan, it helps low-income kids. ... It's just the right thing to do for the country."

Bush has proposed spending $5 billion to extend the program. He says the Senate's $35 billion expansion would balloon the decade-old program beyond its original mission of covering children of working-poor parents and would move more people toward government-run health care.
The President wants unlimited funds for a worthless and damaging war but threatens to veto health care for children. What else do you need to know?

Chiquita Supported Terrrorism

I was contacted by Immigration Orange which is a blog that focuses on Immigration issues. Immigrant Orange focuses on migration countries and the inequality that forces people to leave their homes and loved ones for the hope of a better life in the United States. For many this journey is a matter of life and death.

Each country has its own set of problems that force its poor citizens to cross our borders illegally. I do not condone illegal immigration but I also do not blame the immigrant. I blame the home country where corruption and inequities have made daily life unbearable. There will never be an end to the problem of illegal immigrants within the United States until our government tries to understand why they come and takes diplomatic steps to change the economic policies of our southern neighbors. It must also tackle the massive corruption that is so pervasive in these countries. The problem is how do you tackle corruption there when it is also rampant right here.

Unfortunately United States firms help to destabilize countries to our south by not providing fair wages or decent working conditions. The North American Free Trade Agreement's only winners are the corporations. Citizens in both Mexico and the United States have not benefited. Manufacturing jobs that were once the backbone of the American Middle Class are now low wage jobs in Mexico under awful working conditions that have contributed to ever growing corporate profits and ever growing human misery.

Chiquita Brands International took this even further and funded terrorist activities within Colombia. I was stunned when I read this article.
Colombia's attorney general said Tuesday that his office would try to seek the extradition of eight executives from Chiquita Brands International, the Ohio banana company that last week admitted to paying $1.7 million to right-wing death squads that have killed thousands in this country's long civil conflict.

In a deal with the Justice Department, Chiquita last week agreed to plead guilty to doing business with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a coalition of paramilitary groups whose members have massacred peasants and murdered leftist activists for years. In agreeing to pay a $25 million fine, the company characterized the payments as extortion that helped protect banana workers in the northwest Uraba region near the border with Panama.
On its face those claims are bad but when you know the rest of the story you realize that the company didn't just pay extortion they helped arm this very group of killers.
Iguaran said that among the issues the attorney general's office is investigating in the Chiquita case is the November 2001 unloading of Central American assault rifles and ammunition at the Caribbean dock operated by the firm's Colombian subsidiary, Banadex. The smuggling operation was detailed in a 2003 report by the Organization of American States.

The Justice Department did not deal with the smuggling operation in its plea deal. Chiquita admitted making payments to the paramilitaries from 1997 to 2004, which Iguaran said violated Colombian law. On Sept. 10, 2001, the State Department declared the AUC, as the paramilitary coalition is known, an international terrorist group, making it a violation of U.S. law for a U.S. company to conduct business with the organization.

"This was a criminal relationship," Iguaran said. "Money and arms and, in exchange, the bloody pacification of Uraba."
According to the most recent article on this subject there were high level meetings between attorneys for Chiquita and then Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff.
On April 24, 2003, a board member of Chiquita International Brands disclosed to a top official at the Justice Department that the king of the banana trade was evidently breaking the nation's anti-terrorism laws.

Roderick M. Hills, who had sought the meeting with former law firm colleague Michael Chertoff, explained that Chiquita was paying "protection money" to a Colombian paramilitary group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations. Hills said he knew that such payments were illegal, according to sources and court records, but said that he needed Chertoff's advice.

Chiquita, Hills said, would have to pull out of the country if it could not continue to pay the violent right-wing group to secure its Colombian banana plantations. Chertoff, then assistant attorney general and now secretary of homeland security, affirmed that the payments were illegal but said to wait for more feedback, according to five sources familiar with the meeting.

Justice officials have acknowledged in court papers that an official at the meeting said they understood Chiquita's situation was "complicated," and three of the sources identified that official as Chertoff. They said he promised to get back to the company after conferring with national security advisers and the State Department about the larger ramifications for U.S. interests if the corporate giant pulled out overnight.
After reading this, my question was why the Justice Department went so easy on Chiquita and did not include the smuggling of arms to terrorists but instead just focused on doing business with this group. Could the answer to that question be found in the political donations of Chiquita Executives? Carl Lindner, the former chairman was a Bush pioneer in 2004 which means he raised over $200,000.00 and Cyrus Friedheim, the former CEO, has donated extensively to Republican causes. Check out Open Secrets and see for yourself.

Do you think that the situation would have been called "complicated" if the one paying the money was Muslim and the one receiving it was either Hamas or Hezbollah? It is incidents such as these that take away any credibility our country has on terrorism issues. We do nothing about Saudi Arabia which funds terrorism worldwide and more specifically funds the Sunni insurgents within Iraq. We do nothing while Pakistan harbors al-Qaeda and in the end we will do very little to Chiquita who helped arm a violent terrorist group within Colombia.

Chiquita claims they paid this to protect their workers but I think we all know they paid to protect their profits.

Job Growth Weaker

Employers added fewer jobs to payrolls in July while the unemployment rate rose unexpectedly, according to the government's latest reading on the labor market.
There was a net increase of 92,000 jobs in the month, down from 126,000 added in June, a reading that was revised lower in the latest report. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a 135,000 gain in July.

The unemployment rate was 4.6 percent, up from 4.5 percent in June. Economists had forecast the rate would remain unchanged.
The economy needs to add 150,000 jobs per month to keep up with increasing demand. The unemployment numbers do not include those who have stopped looking for work or those who are under employed (part time workers needing full time jobs).

During the Bush Presidency the average monthly job growth is far below the 150,000 benchmark yet they keep telling us how good the economy is doing. I believe this is a part of the perfect storm economically I have talked about for months. The one that will lead the US economy into recession and sweep a Democrat into the White House in 2008. the collapse of the housing market which is happening right now will only exasperate the problem.

Bad economic policies that favor the wealthy eventually come home to roost unfortunately it is the lower amd middle classes that will suffer.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Hillary Hits Back At Cheney

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday accused Vice President Dick Cheney of falsely portraying her attempt to get Iraq planning information out of the Pentagon.
The Democratic presidential front-runner has been hammering at the Bush administration for two weeks since a top Pentagon aide refused to tell her whether or how the military was planning for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

In a letter to the vice president, she accused Cheney of offering "inaccuracies" in opposing her request.

She used even tougher language in an appeal sent to supporters of her presidential bid: "I couldn't care less what Dick Cheney says about me. But when he plays politics with the lives of our troops, you had better be sure I'm going to respond. And I know that you want to respond too."
Hillary Clinton did not ask for specific military plans, she simply asked if plans were being readied for troop withdrawal. That is a more than legitimate question and one that should have been asked a long time ago. The Pentagon chose to question her patriotism.

That is the motus operandi for these freaks. It is always the first response to criticism of their policies. It is good to see a Democrat hitting back hard at this rubbish. True support for our troops includes not sending them to a needless war and when it is necessary to send them you must have a real plan for both victory and withdrawal. The Iraq War has been a disaster since day one, probably because it was the wrong war at the wrong time.

Dick Cheney was a draft dodger and him questioning anyone about their patriotism when he said he had other things to do during Vietnam is hypocrisy at its highest level. The puppet master Cheney is a soulless monster clearly out of touch with reality.

Bush Blames The Democrats

President Bush just blamed the Democrats for the bridge collapse in his press conference. Is this fool kidding me? The Democrats have been in power for eight months. They knew there was structural problems with the bridge for some time. The Minnesota legislature passed a bill providing a $.05 per gallan tax to provide for the roads. That bill was vetoed by the REPUBLICAN Governor Pawlenty.

George W. Bush is a national disgrace!!!!

Crumbling Infrastructure

Yesterday I posted an entry about the total cost of this war being above $1,000,000,000,000.00 ($1 trillion). I said, "The next time you see crumbling infrastructure within the United States you need to remember that" and then within hours I heard of the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis.

Until we know the exact cause of the collapse anything said is speculation but it does not take a genius to realize that war is costly and that other programs will suffer as a result. President Bush chose to lower taxes at a time of war. A war he chose, not a war born out of necessity. No President in history had lowered taxes at a time of war and actually no one has been able to find any leader in the history of mankind that did this either.

Next time we go to the voting booth we need to remember that we need to hire the best man or woman for the job. We don't need to love that person but we need to feel confidant that we have chosen someone who has the intellect to lead. The American people hate taxes yet want safe roads, good schools, a strong military, safe food and many other services supplied by government. These things do not come for free. We need to demand that our tax dollars are spent on worthwhile projects. Have you ever heard the President threaten to veto a war funding bill? Why is there unending funds for war but no funds for highways and crumbling schools?

The events in Minneapolis are a huge tragedy, and after the shock and sorrow have diminished, we need to ask these important questions and demand answers.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Bush Likely to Prevent Aides' Testimony

Executive privilege strikes again. Impeachment is the only answer to force out the truth. This administration says it has nothing to hide but it is trying to hide everything.
President Bush is expected to claim executive privilege to prevent two more White House aides from testifying before Congress about the firings of federal prosecutors.

Thursday is the deadline for Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, to provide testimony and documents related to the firings, under a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Also subpoenaed was White House political aide J. Scott Jennings. The Justice Department included both men on e-mails about the firings and the administration's response to the congressional investigation.

White House Counsel Fred Fielding has consistently said that top presidential aides _ present and past _ are immune from subpoenas and has declared the documents sought off-limits under executive privilege.
The White house has offered a compromise and that is testimony in private, not on the record and not under oath. This is the most corrupt administration in our nations history. It is time that the people force the Democrats to grow some balls and force this issue. Impeachment seems to be the only remedy available to them at this point. I believe the American people would support impeachment if they understood just part of the illegal acts of this administration.

We must show the people of the world that our democracy is strong and that the rule of law applies to everyone. Impeachment would accomplish that goal. Please add your name to this petition and lets get the impeachment ball rolling.

Iraq War Could Cost 1 Trillion Dollars

What do US taxpayers have to show for the one trillion dollar cost?
The war in Iraq could ultimately cost well over a trillion dollars -- at least double what has already been spent -- including the long-term costs of replacing damaged equipment, caring for wounded troops, and aiding the Iraqi government, according to a new government analysis.

The United States has already allocated more than $500 billion on the day-to-day combat operations of what are now 190,000 troops and a variety of reconstruction efforts.

In a report to lawmakers yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that even under the rosiest scenario -- an immediate and substantial reduction of troops -- American taxpayers will feel the financial consequences of the war for at least a decade.
Nothing has been accomplished except to fuel more worldwide terrorism and grow our budget deficit. The next time you see crumbling infrastructure within the United States you need to remember that.

This war has been a disaster on every conceivable level. This report just points out the financial ramifications. Electing morons has consequences and we will be feeling those consequences for a generation.

Is This What They Call Success in Iraq?

The main Sunni Arab political bloc quit the Iraqi government on Wednesday in a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's shaky coalition as suicide bombers killed more than 70 people in three attacks across Baghdad.
The resignation move pushed the government into a new crisis undermining its efforts to reconcile Iraqis and end sectarian strife.

Fifty of Wednesday's dead were killed when a suicide bomber in a fuel truck packed with explosives targeted motorists at a petrol station.

The Sunni Accordance Front left Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition over his failure to meet a list of about a dozen demands, including a greater say in security matters.

"The government was still ... closing the door on reforms which are needed to save Iraq," Accordance Front spokesman Rafei Issawi told a news conference, adding the government should have met its demands or "at least admit its failure".

Issawi said Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie and five ministers would resign on Wednesday.

The Sunni Front's 44 members will remain in the 275-seat parliament. Its withdrawal will have little practical effect on the 15-month-old government, which is virtually paralysed by infighting but needs only a simple majority to keep functioning.
The surge was supposed to curb sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq yet the civilian death toll has surged by one third in July AFTER the full surge was in place.

Look for the blame to be placed on General Petraeus when the surge fails. Last night Vice President Cheney appeared with Larry King and called the surge "The Petraeus Plan". Look for this to continue. We must remember that General Petraeus did not develop this plan but agreed to try to make it successful. The plan goes against his own counterinsurgency manual which called for much greater troop levels to quell violence during an insurgency.

The American people finally understand that this is Bush's War and no matter what it is called or who they try to blame, that fact will never change.

July Job Cuts Rise 15% From Year Ago

Job cuts announced by U.S. employers increased 15 percent in July from a year earlier, led by a surge at transportation companies as fuel costs rose, a survey released today by a placement firm showed.
Announced job cuts rose to 42,897 last month, from a six- year low of 37,178 in July 2006, Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said today. The figures aren't adjusted for seasonal effects, so economists prefer to focus on year-over-year changes instead of monthly figures.

So far this year, the pace of announced job reductions is 8 percent less than a year earlier, a sign demand for workers remains resilient, the report said. Government figures this week may show employers added enough workers in July to hold the jobless rate near a six-year low, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.
The housing market will surely add to the jobless numbers as cuts in construction and other trades associated with home building will surely grow as the housing decline continues. The other area of concern is the financial service area if a protracted downturn in the stock market takes hold.

Any significant jump in the unemployment numbers will have a bad psychological impact on consumers who are responsible for two thirds of the economy. We could be looking at the start of the perfect storm that brings our economy into recession and insures a Democratic presidential victory in 2008.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Rudy Is Such An Asshole

I am so tired of hearing this worthless blowhard spout his nonsense. Today we got to hear his words of wisdom on healthcare, global warming and illegal immigration.
"The American way is not single-payer, government-controlled anything," Giuliani said. "That’s a European way of doing something. That’s a, frankly, a Socialist way of doing something."

"If single-payer systems are cracking all over the world, why would we do it in America. Michael Moore wants to take you to Cuba for your health care. Anyone want to sign up? I didn’t think so. Maybe the Democrats will sign up."
What is Giuliani's health plan? He wants to give tax breaks, like the tax break will somehow make the family of four earning $30,000.00 able to afford the $1,000.00 monthly premium. He had other pearls of wisdom dripping from his worthless mouth.
He said he can solve global warming in five to 15 years and would end illegal immigration in a year and a half to three years. “I give ourselves 18 month to three years to accomplish it,” he said.
I am sure that Al Gore must be burning up the phone lines to Rudy to get his secret to solving one of the great issues facing the world and in just 5 -15 years. When can we expect to see Rudy outline his plan for illegal immigration on Lou Dobbs Tonight?

Rudy is a hack who has made his fortune as a result of 9/11. It is the lowest form of blood money. Rudy will say anything to get elected President. His own children find him questionable.

Michael Moore posted this video in response to the Giuliani comments:



Dow Jones to Be Purchased By Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch who owns News Corp, the parent company of Fox News, has won his bid to purchase the Dow Jones Company.
Dow Jones & Co. Inc.'s controlling Bancroft family "has accepted" News Corp.'s $5 billion offer to buy the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, an executive of a Dow Jones unit said Tuesday.

"The Bancroft family has accepted," John Prestbo, editor and executive director of Dow Jones Indexes, told reporters on Tuesday in Chicago. "Dow Jones will be part of News Corp" he said.
This is disastrous news for our country. Will the Wall St. Journal become as much of a propaganda arm of the Republican party as Fox News? The Wall St. Journal is the most prestigious daily business publication in our nation. Will the editorial content be subject to right wing propaganda? I expect it will become as "fair and balanced" as Fox News. It is time to put legislation in place that stops one company from owning so much of our media. This is indeed very troubling news.

Shortfalls in Retirement Savings Are Significant

The Center for Retirement Research (CRR) estimates that 36 percent of high-income households - those with a median income of $117,000 - won't be able to live as well in retirement as they do today. Among middle-income households, 40 percent are at risk of having to downsize, while 53 percent of low-income households are likely to fall short.
In a report released Tuesday, CRR notes that only 20 percent of those who were between ages 51 and 61 in 1992 were at risk of falling short of money in retirement. Today, 32 percent are.

Why the increase? Munnell points to the shift from traditional pension plans to 401(k)s. Plus, she notes, people are living longer, and Medicare and taxes will take a bigger slice out of Social Security checks.

In another report released Tuesday, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute showed that while 401(k) balances have increased, they are still low. For example, among long-tenured employees in their 50s who make between $60,000 and $80,000 a year, their median 401(k) balance in 2006 was just under $164,000.

But a 51-year old who makes $80,000 but only has $164,000 in savings would need to put away 23 percent of his salary - or close to $19,000 a year - if he wanted to retire at 65, according to savings guidelines from Ibbotson Associates. That would give him enough money, in combination with his Social Security benefits, to live on 80 percent of his pre-retirement income minus his annual 401(k) contribution.
This report is not a surprise. With so few people now being covered by pension plans this was to be expected. People simply do not have the available funds to put more money into 401(k) plans. I believe this situation will get even worse in the coming decades when even less people will be participants in traditional pension plans.

This is an interesting article and should be read completely.

Democrats Look To Impeach Gonzales

After repeatedly lying under outh to Congress, the Democrats are looking to impeach Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Congressman Jay Inslee will introduce tomorrow a resolution calling for impeachment of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, according to a statement from his office. Inslee, a former prosecutor in Selah, has lined up other former prosecutors in Congress to join as co-sponsors. As of this afternoon he had five co-sponsors.
Finally some real action on Mr. Gonzales. He has lied with impunity from his confirmation hearing forward. How can we have a Justice Department run by a liar?

He has thumbed his nose at the law and Congress for too long. Letting him keep his job sends the message that lying to Congress will be tolerated. Maybe this impeachment resolution will finally force Mr. Gonzales to resign.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Brazilian Immigrants Heading Home

Illegal immigration is one of the major issues facing our nation. How we solve that issue is one of the pressing problems of our times. I have always felt that any solution must include economic fairness back in the home countries of the immigrants. This article shows the growing trend of Brazilian immigrants heading home.

Why are they heading home? It is not one simple answer but a large part of it is the growing economy back in Brazil that has left the value of the dollar lower and the monies made in the United States worth less back home. They have decided that it is not worth leaving their families and risking deportation in order to work in the United States.

If we want to have the same effect on Mexican immigrants we must force the government of Mexico to institute policies that will result in greater economic fairness. As long as the money being earned in the United States will feed their families back home we have no hope of solving this problem. They will find a way into the country if it means the survival of their family.

I think this report shows that we can solve this problem and that we can solve it humanely. Border security coupled with economic fairness back in the home countries will being to reap benefits. Brazil has seen an economic rebirth and it is this rebirth that is the fueling the return of these immigrants. No one wants to leave their families for the uncertainty of life as an illegal immigrant within the United States. It is for most the last resort. Lets follow the example from Brazil and pressure Mexico to enact real reforms.

Humanitarian Crisis In Iraq Grows

The war in Iraq has prompted a humanitarian crisis for millions of Iraqis who've fled their homes or lack access to food and water, groups including the U.K.'s Oxfam charity said in a report.
Four million Iraqis are in ``dire need'' of food, said Oxfam and a panel of non-governmental organizations working in Iraq. More than 2 million have been displaced inside Iraq, some before the fall of Saddam Hussein, and another 2 million have fled to neighboring countries, creating the world's ``fastest-growing refugee crisis,'' the groups said.

``The terrible violence in Iraq has masked the ongoing humanitarian crisis,'' Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International, said today in a statement on Oxfam's Web site. Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq jointly published their report today on their Web sites.
I often hear people say that the Iraqi people do not show any gratitude for freeing them from Saddam Hussein. The fact is that a vast majority of Iraqis were better off under Saddam Hussein.

Four million people are in dire need of food. That is nearly 17% of the pre-war population. In order to completely understand the severity of that number you need only think of it in terms of the population of the United States. It would be the equivalent of 51 million people in the United States being desperately hungry.

Two million people displaced within the country and two million have fled would be the same as the entire population of the state of NY having no place to live or the entire state of NY having fled to Canada or Mexico. Can you understand now why they hate us so much?

Sunday, July 29, 2007

California Voting Machines Are Hackable

State-sanctioned teams of computer hackers were able to break through the security of virtually every model of California's voting machines and change results or take control of some of the systems' electronic functions, according to a University of California study released Friday.
The researchers "were able to bypass physical and software security in every machine they tested,'' said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who authorized the "top to bottom review" of every voting system certified by the state.
I am sure the results would be the same in every other state if similar tests were conducted. It is time to outlaw the use of these machines. A paper trail would help but I do no think it solves the entire problem. A paper ballot is the best hope of an honest election.

Bhutto Warns of Islamist Revolt in Pakistan

Exiled former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto warned of a looming Islamist revolution mounted from the country's madrassas, in a German magazine interview to be published on Monday.
Bhutto said she was planning her return to Pakistan this year to help stabilise the country in the face of the extremist threat.

"The Red Mosque was just a warm-up for what will happen if the religious schools are not disarmed," Bhutto said.

She added that Islamist extremist leaders were plotting an overthrow of President Pervez Musharraf's government and had converted madrassas in Pakistani cities into military headquarters with well-stocked arsenals.
Ask yourself one simple question, where does the funding for these madrassas come from? You only need to look to Saudi Arabia for the answer.

Lets examine once again our foreign policy. We have decided to arm Saudi Arabia, the same Saudi Arabia that has funded the Sunni insurgents within Iraq, financed the madrassas in Pakistan and was the country of origin of 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11. We have decided that Osama Bin Laden is no longer worth the effort of trying to catch. We have let the northwest regions of Pakistan be fertile training group for future generations of al-Qaeda and we invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and turned it into a quagmire that has become a recruitment tool for radical Islam. Do you still feel safer?