The next president will inherit a record budget deficit of $482 billion, according to a new Bush administration estimate released Monday.
The administration said the deficit was being driven to an all-time high by the sagging economy and the stimulus payments being made to 130 million households in an effort to keep the country from falling into a deep recession.
But the numbers could go even higher if the economy performs worse than the White House predicts.
Also you need to remember that this deficit DOES NOT include the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which are handled as supplemental expenses and are not included in the numbers.
This administration has destroyed the economic security for the next generation. We will soon see the baby boomers retiring without the pensions that their parents enjoyed. We will see a huge jump in the elderly living in poverty but the rich will have grown even richer. When will the American people wake up and understand that the middle class has become the working poor with a credit line and with credit so hard to come by soon they will just be the working poor. War, lies, poverty and corruption will be the words that define the Bush administration and we as a country will be paying the price for the next generation.
A new poll suggests that President Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president.
"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.
"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon [22 percent and 24 percent, respectively], but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland said. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67 percent disapproval in January 1952."
He still has a 28% approval rating which absolutely stuns me. Who are these 28%. The only one I seem to know is that bottled blond bimbo Elisabeth Hasselbeck of "The View". She supports this war because its not her family dying in it. Her husband is a third string quarterback who could stay home and watch the kids while she enlists. People like her make me sick but its people like her that support this moron.
John McCain is just more of the same so if you think you didn't like the original wait to see what new found hells a McCain presidency would bring.
President Bush and his administration have single handedly ruined this great nation by destroying its finances, its reputation and its standing in the world. He should have a 100% disapproval rating but he still has time to get to that point. He is without a doubt the worst, most unqualified Presdient in United States history. January 2009 can not come soon enough but only time will tell if its coming too late.
Hey Scalia try telling that to the families of all those who are dead as a result of this Bush Presidency. Imagine if it was your child killed in a war based on lies started by a moronic asshole that didn't even win the election. I bet you would think very differently but hey your kids would never be there. People like you make me sick.
President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
The previous record of 67% was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.
Bush's rating has worsened amid "collapsing optimism about the economy," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies presidential approval. Record gas prices and a wave of home foreclosures have fueled voter angst.
Bush also holds the record for the other extreme: the highest approval rating of any president in Gallup's history. In September 2001, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Bush's approval spiked to 90%. In another record, the percentage of Americans who say the invasion of Iraq was a mistake reached a new high, 63%, in the latest poll.
Are the 28% who approve of this moron actually living in this country? Anyone with a brain understand that this is not just a failed presidency it is a worldwide disaster that has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands or people. The lack of oversight has led to the financial meltdown we are currently experiencing. The country needs to have a national holiday celebrating the end of this reign of terror and idiocy.
I for one can't wait for this fool to go back to his fake ranch so we can recover from his fake presidency.
Company With Ties To Daddy Bush Defaults on Margin Calls
The Bush family has failed Savings and Loans under their belt, they have risen our national debt to astounding numbers and now a company with strong ties to Daddy Bush is defaulting on margin calls.
A bond fund managed by private equity firm Carlyle Group, revealed on Thursday that it has received a note of default after failing to meet several payment demands.
Shares of Carlyle Capital Corp. Ltd. plummeted more than 50% on the news that it had missed four out of seven margin calls totaling around $37 million on Wednesday. A margin call is a payment to guarantee a much larger debt or investment.
Carlyle Capital said one creditor has issued a default notice and it expects to receive a second such notice, adding to market worries about forced liquidations of residential mortgage-backed securities.
Carlyle Capital's difficulties will have "no material impact on the Carlyle Group or its funds," Christopher Ullman, a spokesman for Washington-based Carlyle Group, said. Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private-equity firms with $76 billion under management, manages 55 funds in 21 countries.
As of last month, Carlyle Capital had a $21.7 billion investment portfolio of AAA-rated floating-rate capped U.S. mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Yields on some of those securities have plunged to their lowest levels in two decades after credit markets dried up.
Carlyle Capital Chief Executive John Stomber attempted to play down the situation, saying the past few days had created a market environment that did not fairly value the fund's assets.
"Unfortunately, this disconnect has created instability and variability in our repo financing arrangements," Stomber said in a statement. "Management is actively working with the company's repo counter-parties to develop more stable financing terms."
But the stock, which listed on the Euronext Amsterdam in July, dropped 58% to $5, giving the company a market capitalization of $255.4 million.
The fund originally sold shares at $19 each.
The company said that seven banks that help finance its portfolio of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae securities through short-term repurchase agreements, known as repos, had asked for an additional $37 million on Wednesday to keep funding in place.
It met the requirements of three of those, who it said had indicated "a willingness to work with the company during these tumultuous times."
It gave no detail on the banks in question or which one had issued the default notice.
Carlyle Capital as recently as Monday had reassured investors on its funding lines, saying it had $2.4 billion in undrawn repo lines and that it had increased a credit facility provided by the parent by 50%, to $150 million.
Do you think the ties to the Bush family will get media attention? I doubt it.
Inflation truly hit home in 2007 with food prices rising 4.9 percent, the most since 1990, as energy costs for farmers surged and the production of crops, livestock and dairy products failed to keep pace with increased global demand.
Dairy prices gained the most of all foods last year, with milk surging 19.3 percent, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Fruits and vegetables increased 5.9 percent and cereal and baked-goods prices rose 5.4 percent. Bread prices jumped 10.5 percent, according to the report.
Companies including Kellogg Co. and General Mills Inc., the largest U.S. cereal-producers, boosted prices as the cost of commodities such as wheat reached record highs.
"If they're going to pay more for food, people offset that by being more frugal users of food and looking at other parts of their spending where they feel they can cut back," said Michael Walden, an economics professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "Likely that would be entertainment, electronics, higher-end clothing, vacations."
and why are food costs rising so quickly?
One of the driving forces for higher food prices was the rising cost of fuel. Farmers and ranchers, along with transport companies, felt the same pinch that many consumers did in 2007 as energy prices, which include gasoline and diesel fuel, rose 17.4 percent.
We attacked an oil rich nation for what most beleive was the oil, yet the vast majority of American people have reaped no gain from this endless and destructive war.
The American people have been screwed and not even kissed while the Bush cronies have laughed all the way to the bank over the bodies of the dead soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Are you finally fed up enough? You elected this murderous moron, not once but twice and this is the result. His father was a poor President, this one is the worst in American history.
President Bush said Tuesday that he is watching very carefully to see if the struggling U.S. economy needs a short-term boost from the federal government.
"We're listening to different ideas about what may or may not need to happen," he said. "We'll work through this. We'll work through this period of time."
He wouldn't comment on any specific ideas he is considering, such as tax cuts aimed at lessening the chance of a recession. "We'll look at all different options."
The only thing this idiot seems to understand is tax cuts. With some luck this asshole will run the national deficit up to $10 trillion dollars and collapse the entire financial system of the country before he leaves office. The legacy of failure continues.
President George W. Bush's diplomatic passport will acquire a slew of new country stamps during his final year in office as he tries to rebuild the U.S.'s international standing and create a foreign-policy legacy beyond Iraq.
The president plans trips to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, which would make 2008 his busiest year abroad. While his major domestic initiatives may get stalled by a Democratic majority in Congress and the gridlock caused by election-year politics, he still has an opportunity to exert his influence overseas.
``When it comes to foreign policy, he's not a lame duck; he can do a lot,'' said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as director of policy planning at the State Department until June 2003.
Bush, 61, came into the White House promising a humble foreign policy and eschewing nation-building and foreign entanglements. That changed after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he adopted a style supporters hail as visionary and critics call cowboy diplomacy.
While the president will strive to strengthen alliances, it won't come at the expense of continuing to prosecute the war on terror, said Jim Jeffrey, the deputy White House national security adviser.
``We want to be well-perceived in the world,'' Jeffrey said in an interview. ``But more importantly, we want to formulate policies that will protect the American people.''
This moron thinks anyone will take him seriously? He is one of the most hated men in the world today. Who would listen to a word that comes out of his lying mouth? If he really wants to repair our imagine in the world he should retire and go read "My Pet Goat" for the remainder of his miserable life. That is a better outcome than the hundreds of thousands that are dead as a result of his lies.
Bush as a diplomat is like Amy Winehouse as a drug counselor.
President Bush worked to reassure Americans on Monday about the economy but said "there's definitely some storm clouds and concern" because of the nation's credit crunch and mortgage problems.
"But the underpinning is good," Bush told business and community leaders at a gathering of Rotary Club members.
"We've had a pretty good economic run," the president said in a speech intended to show he is aware of the public's edgy mood these days. Consumer confidence has eroded as turmoil in the housing and credit market have battered the economy.
Bush tried to position himself as an advocate for working families by taking aim at his favorite target: the Democratic Congress.
"The Congress cannot take economic vitality for granted," Bush said.
"The most negative thing Congress can do in the face of economic uncertainty is to raise taxes on the American people," Bush said.
The one trick pony of tax breaks is all this fool has. It is his economic policies that have pushed our national debt to over $9 trillion dollars and forced the federal reserve into a juggling act to keep us out of a severe recession.
He neglected to tell this crowd that lower interest rates and a falling dollar are a prescription for disaster. How can you finance your debt and ask those that finance it to accept so little return if not a loss on their money. That is the economic legacy of this moron. The chickens are about to come to roost and its going to get very ugly.
President Bush vetoed legislation Wednesday that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children, his second slap-down of a bipartisan effort in Congress to dramatically increase funding for the popular program.
In a statement notifying Congress of his decision, Bush said the bill was unacceptable because — like the first one — it allows adults into the program, would cover people in families with incomes above the U.S. median and raises taxes.
"This bill does not put poor children first, and it moves our country's health care system in the wrong direction," Bush's statement said. "Ultimately, our nation's goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage, not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage."
There is always enough money for war and tax cuts but expanded childrens health programs are unaffordable. Has this fool ever priced health care? A family of four making $75,000 and living in NY could not afford private health care.
This man makes me sick to my stomach. January 2009 can not come soon enough.
Democratic lawmakers and staffers privately say they're closing in on a broad budget deal that would give President Bush as much as $70 billion in new war funding.
The deal would lack a key provision Democrats had attached to previous funding bills calling for most U.S. troops to come home from Iraq by the end of 2008, which would be a significant legislative victory for Bush.
Democrats admit such a move would be highly controversial within their own party. Coming just weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, vowed the White House would not get another dollar in war money this year, it would further antagonize the liberal base of the party, which has become frustrated with the congressional leadership's failure to push back on Bush's Iraq policy.
I don't understand why the Democrats constantly cave into this fool. His approval rating is 28% while the Democratically controlled Congress is even less. Don't they realize it is so low because they are seen as useless wimps.
It is time for a third party in this country. One that represents the good of the middle and lower classes. It is really sad to say that the best party for the future of this country right now is the Democrats. What does that say for the Republicans and the political process in this country when our best hope is a party of scared fools who can't stand up to the most unpopular and worthless President we have had in our history?
Bush finally talks to Musharraf.For four days after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan, President Bush refused to directly contact Musharraf. Reuters reports that Bush has finally made the call:
U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he had spoken to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and urged him to both hold elections and give up his military post.
"My message was that we believe strongly in elections and that you ought to have elections soon and you need to take off your uniform. You can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time," Bush said at a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "I had a very frank discussion with him," Bush said.
Its nice that this fool finally got involved in the Pakistan crisis. I thought he would wait until the nukes were firmly in Osama's hands. Worst President Ever.
The nation has spent $415 billion in Iraq and another $190 billion since 2001 fighting the "war on terror," which includes the fighting in Afghanistan, according to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, Congress' nonpartisan research arm.
That number could grow substantially. The CBO estimated in August that the total could hit $1 trillion by 2013 and that's if nearly two-thirds of the 210,000 troops now deployed are brought home.
On Wednesday, CBO Director Peter Orszag is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill and is expected to say that those numbers have been revised higher.
In addition, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said recently that a long-term "Korea-like" presence in Iraq could end up costing $2.5 trillion, or enough to cover half the estimated shortfall in Social Security due to retiring baby boomers.
Remember this war when they tell us that they need to cut social security benefits. Instead of caring for our own citizens we wasted trillions of dollars on war and countless lives to satisfy this vindictive and stupid President. If you still support this man then you are truly stupid.
George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has dropped to 25% as nearly seven in ten Americans say the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. This matches the lowest approval rating for Bush recorded by the American Research Group.
Among all Americans, 25% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 67% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 23% approve and 67% disapprove.
Among Americans registered to vote, 26% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 67% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 25% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 67% disapprove.
Approval among Republicans has dropped back to 67%. In September, 80% of Republicans approved of the way Bush was handling his job. In August, 66% of Republicans approved of the way Bush was handling his job.
The results presented here are based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews conducted among a nationwide random sample of adults 18 years and older. The interviews were completed October 18 through 21, 2007. The theoretical margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split.
Overall, 25% of Americans say that they approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president, 67% disapprove, and 8% are undecided.
Who are the 25% who still agree with this moronic fool? You have to wonder about their sanity or their intellect. Republican still support this fool by large numbers. What does that tell you about Republicans? Is it simply not admintting that you made a mistake or do they really feel everything is going so well? I would love to have a conversation with someone that supports this fool and see if I can understand what they are so supportive of.
President Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation expanding a children's health insurance program by $35 billion over five years.
Bush quietly exercised the veto at 10 a.m. before leaving the White House for a trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to discuss the federal budget and taxes.
Congress sent the legislation expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, to the White House on Tuesday.
"It is our hope and the will of the American people that the president will sign the bill into law on behalf of the future. It is right for no less than 10 million reasons -- our children," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement.
The Senate voted 67-29 Thursday to expand the program. Bush has said it's a step toward universal coverage, which he opposes on philosophical grounds.
The program would double -- from 4 million to 8 million -- the number of children covered.
Eighteen Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting to expand the program from its annual budget of $5 billion to $12 billion for the next five years.
The additional costs were to be largely paid for by additional taxes on cigarettes unlike the endless war which is borrowed funds and will have to be paid for by the same children he just refused health care.
President Bush is the worst President in United States history. 2009 can not come soon enough. Lets hope there is something left to salvage. The only silver lining is that George W. Bush is driving the Republican Party off the cliff.
Gates was scheduled to testify later before a Senate committee on the request, which was 42.3 billion dollars greater than the administration's estimate when it presented its 2008 budget request in February.
"This additional 42.3 billion dollars puts us at just under 190 billion dollars for the global war on terror supplemental request for 2008 -- 189.3 billion dollars," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary.
Democrats clearly believe they have a winning issue with the State Children's Health Insurance Program legislation, so they're pulling out all the props. Yesterday, children were brought to press conferences around Washington. On the heels of a resounding 265-159 approval in the House last night, it was the Senate's chance to turn up the heat on President Bush, who has threatened to veto the $35 billion increase in children's health insurance funding.
This is an example of the President's priorities. There is always enough money for war but never enough to help the citizens of the country who will pay for the war for a generation.
The $189 billion requested is not part of the national deficit. It is done as a supplemental spending bill and is not included in yearly fiscal deficit numbers. When you hear the deficit has fallen remember that not everything is counted. The math is dishonest as is everything associated with this administration.
The American people need to stand up and demand an end to this war and the fiscal ruination that is being slowly perpetrated. Until we fully understand the strangehold of the military industrial complex on our government, we will forever be involved in military conflicts that enrich the few at the expense of many.
President Bush again called Democrats "irresponsible" on Saturday for pushing an expansion he opposes to a children's health insurance program.
"Democrats in Congress have decided to pass a bill they know will be vetoed," Bush said of the measure that draws significant bipartisan support, repeating in his weekly radio address an accusation he made earlier in the week. "Members of Congress are risking health coverage for poor children purely to make a political point."
In the Democrat's response, also broadcast Saturday, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell turned the tables on the president, saying that if Bush doesn't sign the bill, 15 states will have no funding left for the program by the end of the month.
At issue is the Children's Health Insurance Program, a state-federal program that subsidizes health coverage for low-income people, mostly children, in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private coverage. It expires Sept. 30.
This President is an immoral fool. Health care for poor and lower income children is bad but no bid contracts for Halliburton and Blackwater are neccessary. Where is his outrage when it is proven that Halliburton has overcharged the American taxpayer? Where is his outrage that $9 billion dollars is missing in Iraq? Where is his outrage that after billions have been spent on reconstruction that cholera is now in Baghdad as a result of unclean water? Where is his outrage that after billions of dollars in contracts, they still have nearly no electricity in most parts of Iraq? Where is his outrage after his close friend Ray L. Hunt sealed a deal for Iraqi Oil.
President Bush is the WORST damn President in our history. His corruption knows no bounds. I dare him to veto this bill and tell the nations poor children that they mean nothing to him. He is no better than the corrupt despots he rails against and in some ways he is worse. January 2009 can not come soon enough for the American people and for the rest of the world who see this fool for what he is - an incompetent corrupt sociopath.
President Bush, defending an unpopular war, ordered gradual reductions in U.S. forces in Iraq on Thursday night and said, "The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home."
Yet, Bush firmly rejected calls to end the war, insisting that Iraq will still need military, economic and political support from Washington after his presidency ends.
Bush said that 5,700 U.S. forces would be home by Christmas and that four brigades _ for a total of at least 21,500 troops _ would return by July, along with an undetermined number of support forces. Now at its highest level of the war, the U.S. troop strength stands at 168,000.
"The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is: return on success," the president said, trying to summon the nation's resolve once again to help Iraq "defeat those who threaten its future and also threaten ours."
Basically what he said is that we will eventually get to pre-surge troop levels but we will maintain a 130,000 troop force until at least he leaves office. It is time for the American people to say enough is enough and that not one more American life is worth being lost in this disaster.
There has been no measurable progress in Iraq no matter what General Petraeus,"the ass-kissing little chickenshit" tell us. Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command(Centcom) needs to be called before Congress to give his sworn testimony.
His version of the situation on the ground is much different than General Petraeus who may have designs on the Presidency of the United States. Just what we need, someone else using the troops as props for political reasons.
General Petraeus today made a stunning admission, conceding "I don't know" if the course of action recommended in Iraq makes America safer:
WARNER: I hope in the recesses of your heart that you know that strategy will continue the casualties, stress on our forces, stress on military families, stress on all Americans. Are you able to say at this time, if we continue what you have laid before the Congress, this strategy, that if you continue, you are making America safer?
PETRAEUS: Sir, I believe that this is indeed the best course of action to achieve our objections in Iraq.
WARNER: Does that make America safer?
PETRAEUS: Sir, I don't know actually. I have not sat down and sorted out in my own mind. What I have focused on and been riveted on is how to accomplish the mission of the Multinational Force in Iraq.
This exchange verifies the argument VoteVets.org has been making, that General Petraeus' job is not to take those things into account, and therefore the President is hiding behind General Petraeus.
Let me explain.
General Petraeus was given an order -- find a military solution for Iraq where there is none, and without concern for troop overextension or the larger war on terror. General Petraeus followed his orders, giving the president what he wanted to hear, and now the president will hide behind that to justify his failure as a commander in chief.
General Petraeus has a very limited area of concern -- the US military in Iraq -- and his testimony today reflected that.
When one looks at the grander scale, past just the military in Iraq, the picture is dismal, and becoming a critical danger. From the Government Accountability Office report to Congressional Research Service report to the report by General Jones, it is clear that there has been no political reconciliation overall in Iraq or increased security, despite our military's strongest efforts.
From Admiral Fallon to Admiral Mullen, those above General Petraeus in the chain of command are telling the president that this war is hurting our military and our global security. The president has chosen to ignore all of this, in favor of a report based on a false premise with faulty findings, signed by a General with a very limited scope of concern. Call it denial, or call it stubbornness, or whatever you want; it all boils down to the same thing -- this president still refuses to listen to those he needs to listen to, in favor of those who tell him what he wants to hear.
Unwittingly, General Petraeus just confirmed all of that in the exchange above, today.
I guess you did manage to force him to move to more comfortable quarters where they even have recording equipment. Mr Bush you are a failure on every single level. I doubt you could find your own ass with both your hands. You are a frat boy moron who has ruined this nation. 2009 can not come soon enough. Lets hope there is something left to salvage.
On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again.
Nor was the intelligence included in the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which stated categorically that Iraq possessed WMD. No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq. The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD.
On April 23, 2006, CBS's "60 Minutes" interviewed Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA chief of clandestine operations for Europe, who disclosed that the agency had received documentary intelligence from Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister, that Saddam did not have WMD. "We continued to validate him the whole way through," said Drumheller. "The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy."
If this is true then President Bush should be impeached immediately and brought up on charges as a war criminal. This is the proverbial smoking gun that proves this war was all a big lie. How does he sleep at night with all the blood on his hands? My guess is that he sleeps soundly because the death and destruction are meaningless to him. We impeached President Clinton for a consensual affair and yet this President is given a pass as the number of dead grows daily. His lies have cost over 3700 of our soldiers their lives and possibly hundreds of thousands of Iraqis their lives.
Can someone explain to me how George W. Bush is any different than Saddam Hussein?
In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bush drew parallels to U.S. experience in Asia, saying steadfastness against critics of U.S. policy in Japan and Korea in the post-war years led to blossoming democracies and thriving economies in both countries.
"The advance of freedom in these lands should give us confidence that the hard work we are doing in the Middle East can have the same results we have seen in Asia — if we show the same perseverance and sense of purpose," he said.
This is the latest attempt for the United States to keep up the game of whack a mole that we are playing in Iraq. This is also an attempt to focus the blame for loss of the war on the next President. The President is willing to sacrifice the lives of our soldiers to escape the ultimate blame for the disaster that is Iraq. That alone should be grounds for his impeachment.
In his interview with Rush Limbaugh this afternoon, Karl Rove claimed that the people criticizing Bush are “sort of elite, effete snobs who can’t hold a candle to this guy. What they don’t like about him is that he is common sense, that he is Middle America.” Limbaugh suggest that Bush critics are frustrated the the President “outsmarts ‘em.” Rove argued Bush is far more intelligent than people give him credit for, and is “one of the best-read people I’ve ever met” whose “passion is history.”
Hey Karl, if his passion was history wouldn't he have known the difference between Sunnis and Shiites? Wouldn't he have realized that Iraq would become this generations Vietnam?
People criticizing Bush are elitist snobs? Wow the 98% of the African-American population who don't care for President Bush have finally made it according to "Turd Blossom". President Bush is Middle America? I didn't realize that middle America all had millionaire parents who could buy them the Presidency. The only part of middle America that he represents is the group that does not believe in Evolution, has never travelled outside the country and is waiting for the rapture.
Bush was wearing an Air National Guard flight jacket, blue jeans with a chewing tobacco tin in his pocket and cowboy boots and exuding “more charisma than any human being should be allowed to have at that age,” Rove recalled.
Karl Rove was willing to do anything to get this man elected and the entire country is paying for his unrequited love.
The Bush administration will do anything it can to avoid telling the American people the truth about Iraq. First we learned that the anticipated report due out in September will not be written by General Petraeus but by the White House. What that says is that the report will be a political one and have no basis in truth. You can be guaranteed that the report will talk glowingly of the success of the surge while ignoring the daily bombings, political turmoil and lack of reconstruction.
Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.
White House officials did not deny making the proposal in informal talks with Congress, but they said yesterday that they will not shield the commanding general in Iraq and the senior U.S. diplomat there from public congressional testimony required by the war-funding legislation President Bush signed in May. "The administration plans to follow the requirements of the legislation," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in response to questions yesterday.
I really do not think the country can wait until 1/20/09 to get rid of these incompetent criminals.
Four suicide bombers struck nearly simultaneously at communities of a small Kurdish sect in northwestern Iraq late Tuesday, killing at least 175 people and wounding 200 more, Iraqi military and local officials said.
The death toll was the highest in a concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City. And it was most vicious attack yet against the Yazidis, an ancient religious community in the region whose members are considered infidels by some Muslims.
The bombings came as extremists staged other bold attacks: leveling a key bridge outside Baghdad and abducting five officials from an Oil Ministry compound in the capital in a raid using gunmen dressed as security officers. Nine U.S. soldiers also were reported killed, including five in a helicopter crash.
The amount of death and destruction in Iraq is staggering and to think we chose this war. Idiot boy had a score to settle and our dead soldiers and the scores of dead Iraqis are collateral damage from his vendetta.
The United States has opened Pandora's Box in Iraq and it doesn't appear that box will be shut anytime soon. We poured the gasoline and lit the match and destroyed our standing in the world in the process. Unfortunately even if the U.S. was to end the occupation the civil strife would continue. Again I must reiterate that elections have consequences and electing this worthless fool as President will have reverberations long after he has left office and gone back to his ranch to ride his bike.
Ok lets examine this headline more closely. Cheney wants to bomb Iran but doesn't have the same desires for Saudi Arabia who funds the Sunni insurgents within Iraq. I think it is time to realize that this administration is filled with a bunch of war mongering lunatics who are getting richer and richer with each dropped bomb.
President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues.
At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.
Again where is any discussion of attacking Saudi Arabia which also was the country of 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11. The same Saudi Arabia that is a dictatorial regime that oppresses its people daily. That talk will never come since the Bush family and the House of Saud that runs Saudi Arabia are as thick as thieves. Iran, that is another case.
Lets look at our history in Iran. It was the CIA that helped topple Mossadegh when he nationalized the Iranian oil industry. It was the United States that propped up the dictatorship of the Shah and it was that support of the Shah that led to the Islamic Revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power. We have only ourselves to blame for the current problems with Iran. Did we learn anything from our mistakes? Apparently not if we are going to repeat history yet again.
A war with Iran would be devasting to our economy, would inflame the Muslim world even further but I am sure would enrich Mr. Cheney through no bid contracts for Halliburton. Mr. Bush is a mental midget who is easily manipulated by Dick Cheney. I do not hold out much hope of avoiding a war with Iran unless we begin impeachment proceedings aginst this criminal administration. 2008 may be too late.
"Obviously anybody who loses their home is somebody with whom we must show an enormous empathy," Bush said. Asked whether he would champion a government bailout, Bush responded: "If you mean direct grants to homeowners, the answer would be `No, I don't support that.'"
Too bad these homeowners aren't corporations. If they were they would be given tax breaks. I don't know what more Americans need to hear from this imbecile. Our infrastructure is crumbling, the middle class is being decimated and corporate taxes as a portion of Gross Domestic Product is one of the lowest in history.
Why is it OK for a corporation to dump your pension but its not OK for the government to help its citizens in distress? Wake up America. Corporations are running our government and the results of that fact are destroying our nation.
We were told that in order to judge the success of the surge we would need to wait until all troops were in place. That happened last month and there has been no let up in the violence or political upheaval. The only surge has been in the deaths of our soldiers.
Four more U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the military said on Tuesday, raising the U.S. death toll for the first six days of the month to 21 as thousands of troops battle militants in intense summer heat.
Off the battlefield, Iraq's crumbling national unity government was in crisis after five secularist ministers said they would boycott cabinet meetings until Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki addressed demands they first gave him in February.
The move means that 17 ministers, nearly half the cabinet, have now quit or are boycotting government meetings. The main Sunni Arab bloc pulled out last week and ministers loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr withdrew in April.
Those responsible for this war need to be held accountable. You can bet that come Septmeber, when no progress can be shown, that the administration will throw General Petraeus under the bus and blame him for the lack of progress.
When will the American people have had enough of this daily death and destruction and demand an end to our involvement in Iraq but how can we just leave a country that we destroyed? We have been put into a no win situation and have brought the Iraqi people with us. This is by far the greatest foreign policy disaster in our nations history and we have President Bush to thank for it. This is his war and his mess but we will all be paying for it for the next generation. How about we send him a bill when he leaves office like they send our troops?
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?
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.
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.
A news commentary show that actually talks back to President Bush when he lies or says something stupid. This is what needs to be on the nightly news. Brilliant!!!
Thom Hartmann began his program on Thursday by reading from a new Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.
He then introduced old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts -- a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan who has recently become known for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq War -- by quoting the "strong words" which open Roberts' latest column: "Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."
"I don't actually think they're very strong," said Roberts of his words. "I get a lot of flak that they're understated and the situation is worse than I say. ... When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order] ... there's no check to it. It doesn't have to be ratified by Congress. The people who bear the brunt of these dictatorial police state actions have no recourse to the judiciary. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule. ... The American people don't really understand the danger that they face."
Roberts said that because of Bush's unpopularity, the Republicans face a total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why "the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush's follies or the war, because they expect his unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next year's election."
However, Roberts emphasized, "the problem with this reasoning is that it assumes that Cheney and Rove and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts, or it assumes that they are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his fling." Roberts believes instead that Cheney and Rove intend to use a renewal of the War on Terror to rally the American people around the Republican Party. "Something's in the works," he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a police state are already in place.
"The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican propagandists ... are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events," Roberts continued. "Chertoff has predicted them. ... The National Intelligence Estimate is saying that al Qaeda has regrouped. ... You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda's not going to do it, it's going to be orchestrated. ... The Republicans are praying for another 9/11."
Hartmann asked what we as the people can do if impeachment isn't about to happen. "If enough people were suspicious and alert, it would be harder for the administration to get away with it," Roberts replied. However, he added, "I don't think these wake-up calls are likely to be effective," pointing out the dominance of the mainstream media.
"Americans think their danger is terrorists," said Roberts. "They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that."
Roberts pointed out that it's old-line Republicans like himself, former Reagan associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein, and Pat Buchanan who are the diehards in warning of the danger. "It's so obvious to people like us who have long been associated in the corridors of power," he said. "There's no belief in the people or anything like that. They have agendas. The people are in the way. The Constitution is in the way. ... Americans need to comprehend and look at how ruthless Cheney is. ... A person like that would do anything."
Roberts final suggestion was that, in the absence of a massive popular outcry, "the only constraints on what's going to happen will come from the federal bureaucracy and perhaps the military. They may have had enough. They may not go along with it."
Listen to the complete audio of the interview here.
According to a new American Research Group poll, just 25% of Americans approve of the way President Bush is handling his job as president and 71% disapprove. These are record lows for the survey.
When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 23% approve and 73% disapprove.
My question is who makes up the 25% and what planet do they live on? It is nice to see the sleeping giant finally waking up to the realization that we are living through the most corrupt and inept administration in our history.
The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals.
What this order is saying is that the President by just exerting executive privilege can stop any official from testifying and the Congress will have no legal recourse.
We have officially entered the reign of King George. It is time for the impeachment and removal of this very dangerous man from the Presidency. He believes he and his cronies are above the law. When will the American people finally udnerstand exactly what is happening and march in the streets for the removal of this cancer on the Presidency?
The al-Qaeda terrorist network has been regenerating its ability to carry out attacks on US soil by finding refuge in a remote region of Pakistan, a US intelligence report released Tuesday said.
Al-Qaeda's top operatives and leadership have found safe-haven in Pakistan's frontier areas near the border with Afghanistan, a region referred to as the Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where the government exercises little control, the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) said.
Am I the only one that remembers when President Bush said any country that harbors terrorists will be dealt with by the United States? Instead he attacked Iraq, a country that did not harbor terrorists. You will hear people point to Saddam Hussein's payments to the families of suicide bombers as proof of his involvement with terrorists. The goverment of Saudi Arabia does exactly the same thing and 14 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 were Saudi yet no military action was taken on the Saudi government. This is exactly the same thing that is happening with Pakistan while we continue the drumbeat for war with Iran.
When will the American people finally realize that our citizens are being used as pawns in a very dangerous game. If premptive war is fine for Iraq then why haven't they used the military to attack the training camps now flourishing in Pakistan? Possibly no money can be made by attacking Pakistan since they are not known for their oil reserves and Saudi Arabian military purchases are already enriching American firms with ties to the Bush administration. The empty rhetoric of the Bush administration has left America more vulnerable to terrorism but has enriched his cronies. That simple fact alone should be grounds for impeachment.
It's hard to know what to think these days about U.S. security, what with attempted car bombings at Britain's airports, terrorist threat assessments rising in the United States, nonspecific warnings of a possible terrorist attack this summer and President Bush finally facing a serious policy showdown on Iraq.
Americans should be miffed when U.S. counterterrorism officials say al-Qaida is revived and reinvigorated and Iraq has made little to no progress toward its own independence and security - and when Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says he has "a gut feeling" that the U.S. will be attacked this summer. Nothing specific, nothing factual, nothing credible, mind you, Chertoff says. Just his uneasy gut.
Attentive Americans have figured out since Sept. 11, 2001, and the Homeland Security Advisory System of colors was introduced that it always seemed the threat level was raised whenever some otherwise unfavorable administration news was occurring. What color is gut?
Is it coincidence that with Republican senators jumping off Bush's floundering Iraq ship - like bullfrogs off a hot tin roof - the specter of a bigger, meaner al-Qaida is being raised and terrorist-attack guts are being checked? Perhaps.
But maybe from the people's perspective - those 70 percent or so of Americans who now want the United States out of Iraq - the timing is the perfect storm. The convergence is amazing for those who want to spin the news right back at an administration that:
Has obsessed over Iraq, which posed no threat to the United States when it was invaded.
Has ignored al-Qaida's growth and resurgence in Pakistan and, perhaps, parts of Afghanistan.
Hasn't a clue where Osama bin Laden is.
Continues to represent the civil war in Iraq as a terrorist threat to the United States.
Insists in the face of the brutal realities on the ground, and in its own reports and assessments, that the United States and/or the Iraqis are making progress.
One of the blunt realities of this week's al-Qaida threat assessment, which found the terrorist group "considerably operationally stronger" and "regrouped to an extend not seen since 2001," should be that Bush's policies not only permitted this to happen by waging an unnecessary and all-consumptive war in Iraq, but it also created a grand opportunity for al-Qaida to do battlefield training during our four-year occupation of Iraq.
Given that U.S. forces have been largely pinned down in the bloody Iraq occupation and civil war for the past four years, should it surprise anyone in Washington, Peoria or Albuquerque that al-Qaida has regrouped and grown stronger in its historic stomping grounds of Pakistan and Afghanistan?
Is it also coincidence that almost nobody is talking about persistent homeland vulnerabilities here, including U.S. ports, power plants, refineries, depots and other vital elements of infrastructure?
Would it really shock any American if Chertoff's gut proved right? After four years in Iraq, does it appear we have terrorism on the ropes? How many Americans believe Bush when he says, for what must be the hundredth time, that we are making progress in Iraq and we can "win." And would we know it if it happened?
Do Americans feel any safer approaching the sixth anniversary of 9/11, given the dismal performance of Homeland Security during and after Hurricane Katrina? Not to mention, of course, that two years after that gruesome tragedy, the inexcusable reality remains that much of New Orleans and the Katrina-afflicted Gulf Coast look like they belong in Iraq, not the American South.
And what of the governors who say our National Guard and Reserve units are understaffed and ill-equipped and, worse, not here to respond to domestic emergencies or natural disasters?
Americans deserve honest assessments of terrorist threats, as well as our vulnerabilities to them, and Congress must evaluate them honestly and stringently.
But more importantly, Americans deserve action from a government that has failed to focus its power, resources and precious people on the real security problems at home and abroad.
This administration's policies have completely missed the mark on all fronts.
The Senate, including the Republican minority, should be leading this nation, in the gross absence of sensible leadership from a president and commander-in-chief who continues to fail us miserably.
It is not about accepting failure in Iraq anymore. It is about recognizing and changing the policies that have utterly failed our soldiers, failed the people of Iraq and continue to fail the American people.
President Bush attempted to convince the nation that Saddam Hussein had WMD as justification for invading Iraq in 2003. In Oct. 2002, for example, he stated, “If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?”
But today on the progressive radio program The Cappy McGarr Show, host Cappy McGarr reveals through a conversation with former Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle that in private, Bush’s real motivation was a personal vendetta:
Of all the reasons used to justify this awful war, the one that stunned me the most…and will shock you…was the one I heard from a close friend of mine former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Senator Daschle was Majority Leader at the time.
The Senate and The House Leadership were meeting with President Bush for a weekly breakfast back then, and as our country was leading up to the Iraq war. … Bush got to talking about why we needed this war, and here’s what he said to Senator Daschle “We need to get Saddam Hussein…that Mother _______ tried to take out my Dad.”
People have been saying that this was the reason for the war for some time. I could not believe that his advisers would allow our country to be taken into a war to satisfy a personal vendetta. Then all you need to do is remember that the Project For a New American Century wanted this war back in the 90's during the Clinton Administration. President Clinton had the good sense to reject this policy. When George W. Bush was elected they realized that they had someone of limited intellect that could be persuaded to start this war. They knew just what buttons to push. The result is a Middle East in turmoil, staggering loss of life and a generation of debt. Electing a fool has consequences.
The public has long since lost patience with the Iraq War. By and large Americans realize it is an untenable situation whose cost in lives and dollars is simply no longer worth it. This fact has been expressed in the low approval ratings for the Democratic Congress which was elected to end this disastrous war. What is happening now points to an extremely smart political plan to bring as many Republicans as possible over to the Democratic position to begin the pullout of our troops.
When the President vetoed the war spending plan the war was funded through March 07 but the bill that the President finally signed only funded the war through September. With every passing day the news from Iraq worsens and the Republican revolt, especially from those up for re-election in 2008, grows.
The two senators are considered the GOP's foremost national security experts. Warner was the longtime chairman of the Armed Services Committee until stepping down last year, while Lugar is the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.
The legislation also draws heavily from existing GOP-backed proposals, increasing the chances of attracting support.
It would require Bush to submit by Oct. 16 a plan to "transition U.S. combat forces from policing the civil strife or sectarian violence in Iraq" to a narrow set of missions: protecting Iraqi borders, targeting terrorists, protecting U.S. assets and training Iraqi forces.
The bill suggests the plan be ready for implementation by next year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid balked at the proposal because it would not require Bush to implement the strategy. He said he prefers legislation the Senate will vote on next week that would order combat troops to be out of Iraq by next spring.
Any legislation that does not require a withdrawal is just window dressing to provide cover for scared Republican lawmakers. It is time to cut off the funds for this war and tell Mr. Bush that playtime is over. He lost the game and now needs to be sent to his room to read "My Pet Goat" and ponder his ranking as the worst President in American history.
This animation puts the Iraq War in perspective through humor whose intention is not to make you laugh but to make you angry and sad and it does that brilliantly. How can we as Americans feel good about our country as the images of a destroyed Iraq and its people roll forward on this animation? My guess is that a large majority of Americans will not and will take stock of exactly what has been done in our name by these lunatics currently running our government.
Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table in the windowless Roosevelt Room of the White House.
For more than an hour, they listened to President Bush give what one panel member called a "Churchillian" vision of "victory" in Iraq and defend the country's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. "A constitutional order is emerging," he said.
Later that morning, around the same conference table, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden painted a starkly different picture for members of the study group. Hayden said "the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible," adding that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around," according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants.
"The government is unable to govern," Hayden concluded. "We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function."
Later in the interview, he qualified the statement somewhat: "A government that can govern, sustain and defend itself is not achievable," he said, "in the short term."
If the goverment of Iraq is unable to govern what are our soldiers fighting to save? Wasn't the reason for the surge to prop up the government? You can prop up a corpse but it is and will always be a corpse. After this report the question becomes if we knew the situation was already lost why did the Bush administration decide to use a surge strategy? The answer is either a President so out of touch with reality that he simply refuses to accept what is right in front of his face or it was a political calculation to not have to admit defeat publicly. My guess is that this was a political calculation and that the additional dead soldiers were acceptable collateral damage in an attempt to salvage the legacy of President Bush.
I realize this is a completely cynical view but with what we have seen over the past seven years it is obvious that these people will do anything and say anything to further their political agenda. A report like this should make people realize that this is a dangerous administration and impeachment proceedings may be the only way to stop them from committing further damage to our nation.
The White House on Tuesday declined to rule out the possibility of an eventual pardon for former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. But spokesman Tony Snow said, for now, President Bush is satisfied with his decision to commute Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence.
"He thought any jail time was excessive. He did not see fit to have Scooter Libby taken to jail," Snow said.
Snow said that even with Bush's decision, Libby remains with a felony conviction on his record, two years' probation, a $250,000 fine and probable loss of his legal career. "This is hardly a slap on the wrist," Snow said.
Are we to believe that somehow life for Mr. Libby will be difficult? Will he have the same problem finding new employment as many other felons? He will most likely be given a nice cushy job by one of the other felons in this administration.
Yesterday President Bush crapped all over the American public and told them to enjoy the smell. It is time to bring these felons to justice and remove them from office. How exactly are we supposed to explain to the children of our nation that crime is wrong? Should we just be honest and tell them that this is the act of a desperate President to cover his lying ass? When will the President be commuting the sentences of those accused of using drugs sitting in prison for years on end?
My Grandafather used to say "The Fish stinks from the Head" and the head of our governement stinks worse than the NJ Turnpike on a hot summer day.
Earlier Monday, a federal appeals court unanimously ruled that Libby could not delay his sentence.
The charges relate to the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
Libby was only weeks away from surrendering to a prison.
Bush was under great pressure by Libby allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
In a written statement issued hours after that ruling, Bush called the sentence "excessive."
I think it is now time to call for the impeachment and removal of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. We now know that the rule of law means nothing to these people. They will stop at nothing to further their agenda and believe they are above the law. I remember when candidate Bush said he would "restore honor and dignity to the White House". Nothing could have been further from the truth.
His action today told the American people that there is one set of rules for the common people and another set for the elite. He is no better than the thug dictators he rails against. This is the most criminal administration in our nations history. It really is time to remove them from power.
In the space of a single short week, Bush was hit with more Republican defections on Iraq, more bad news from the battlefield, more subpoenas from a hostile Congress, a new assault on his signature education plan and embarrassing disclosures about his vice president.
He also found himself in a fight over executive privilege that begs comparisons to Richard Nixon's legal battles during the Watergate scandal.
"It's the incredible shrinking presidency. He's lost battles in the courts. He's lost battles in Iraq. He's lost battles on Capitol Hill," said Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University.
"His bank account is empty and there's nowhere to go for more. I think his presidency is essentially over."
Light proposed a headline to sum up the week: "The president loses his legacy."
The President will always have his legacy of a failed war based on lies that killed hundreds of thousands of people. That legacy will remain forever as will the horrible taste in most Americans mouths of a Presidency that will rank as the worst in American history.
"The president has decided to assert executive privilege and therefore the White House will not be making any production in response to these subpoenas for documents," White House Counsel Fred Fielding wrote in a letter to Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont and Representative John Conyers of Michigan, chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.
The White House resistance is likely to touch off a constitutional showdown over Congress's ability to investigate the firing of prosecutors and the president's ability to obtain frank counsel from advisers.
"The principles at stake here are of the utmost importance," Fielding said in the letter to lawmakers. "Presidents must be able to depend upon their advisers and other executive branch officials speaking candidly and without inhibition while deliberating and working to advise the president."
I thought Dick Cheney was not part of the executive branch? Lets all watch watch while the Republicans, who insisted Bill Clinton testify about a private affair, rally around this decision by the President. This is a criminal administration and needs to be held accountable.
Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, were the Justice Department and the National Security Council.
The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal disputes within the administration over the legality of the program.
"Our attempts to obtain information through testimony of administration witnesses have been met with a consistent pattern of evasion and misdirection," Leahy said in his cover letters for the subpoenas. "There is no legitimate argument for withholding the requested materials from this committee."
Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply.
"We're aware of the committee's action and will respond appropriately," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
This is a huge issue and will generate a constitutional crisis. The White House will not answer these subpoenas as they have operated as if they are above the law. Could this be the first piece of a puzzle whose ending is impeachment? What about Dick Cheney, will he claim executive privilege after saying he was not part of the executive branch of government?
This is what oversight looks like. The free ride is over for this criminal administration.
In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President Bush’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.
The war in Iraq continues to drag Bush down. A record 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush has done handling Iraq. Despite “the surge” in U.S. forces into Baghdad and Iraq’s western Anbar province, a record-low 23 percent of Americans approve of the president’s actions in Iraq, down 5 points since the end of March.
But the White House cannot pin his rating on the war alone. Bush scores record or near record lows on every major issue: from the economy (34 percent approve, 60 percent disapprove) to health care (28 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove) to immigration (23 percent approve, 63 percent disapprove). And—in the worst news, perhaps, for the crowded field of Republicans hoping to succeed Bush in 2008—50 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of terrorism and homeland security. Only 43 percent approve, on an issue that has been the GOP’s trump card in national elections since 9/11.
The most stunning statistic in this poll is that two thirds of Republicans still approve of this fool. What world are they living in?
The Bush administration may have committed ``extensive'' violations of a law requiring that certain records be preserved, said the committee's Democratic chairman, adding that the panel will deepen its probe into the use of political e-mail accounts.
The committee's interim report said the number of White House officials who had RNC e-mail accounts, and the number of messages they sent and received, were more extensive than previously realized. The administration has said that about 50 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts during Bush's presidency. But the House committee found at least 88.
This report cites "excessive" violations of law. Why has a special prosecutor not been called for? Why are the rules so different for this administration? Do you remember when candidate George W. Bush promised to restore honor and dignity to the White House?
This is the most corrupt administration in my lifetime and I was alive for Nixon. This President needs to be impeached and removed from office. I know that the likelihood of that is remote but impeachment, which is just an indictment, is more than possible in the Democratic controlled House of Representatives.
Shouldn't we demand impeachment if for no other reason than to show the world that the rule of law is important to the citizens of the United States and that no one is exempt?
Military cannons boomed a 21-gun-salute in his honor. Thousands jammed Scanderbeg Square in downtown Tirana, wearing Uncle Sam top hats in the sweltering sun, hoping to glimpse the presidential motorcade. The superlatives flowed so freely that Mr. Bush looked a tad sheepish when Prime Minister Sali Berisha proclaimed him “the greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times.”
Obviously they don't get many important visitors if this is the best one they have gotten. They need to remember that it was Clinton that helped the Albanian population of Kosovo. The Republicans could have cared less, after all there was no oil in Kosovo. When I read this I threw up a little in my own mouth.
Wasn't the surge of troops supposed to quell the sectarian violence? According to this report the exact opposite is happening.
The number of civilians killed in Iraq jumped to nearly 2,000 in May, the highest monthly toll since the start of a U.S.-backed security crackdown in February, according to figures released on Saturday.
Militants blew up a strategic bridge that links Baghdad to the northern cities of Kirkuk and Arbil, and a mortar barrage on the Sunni enclave of Fadhil in mainly Shi'ite eastern Baghdad, killed 10 people and wounded 30, police said.
In Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Masoud Barzani, president of Kurdistan, urged Turkey not to send troops into the region to crush Kurdish separatist rebels believed to be hiding there.
OK so lets examine this a bit further. Not only is the sectarian violence growing in Iraq but now Turkey is threatening military action to stop the Kurdish rebels. The Kurdish region was the one glimmer of success in Iraq. That success was started years ago because of the nearly autonomous government of the Kurdish region. The northern no fly zone in place to keep Saddam Hussein in check (which by the way was working)enabled them to grow and prosper. Turkey has said repeatedly that they will not allow a Kurdish state in their backyard from which the Kurdish rebels can plan and execute terrorist attacks. Didn't anyone in the Bush administration give any thought at all to the consequences of this war? It certainly appears they did not. This region could soon spiral out of control and we will only need to look to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for the cause.
That is the title of an article in Time Magazine. My question is not why this article was written but the timing of the release of this classified information.
President Bush declassified portions of a 2005 intelligence assessment Tuesday that alleges that Osama bin Laden authorized allies in Iraq to plan operations both in and outside of that country targeting the U.S. The President very quickly put it to political use against the Democrats. On Wednesday, speaking at a commencement address to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., he said: "The question for our elected leaders is: Do we comprehend the danger of an al-Qaeda victory in Iraq, and will we do what it takes to stop them? However difficult the fight in Iraq has become, we must win it. Al-Qaeda is public enemy number one for Iraq's young democracy, and al-Qaeda is public enemy number one for America, as well. And that is why we must support our troops, we must support the Iraqi government, and we must defeat al-Qaeda in Iraq."
The reasons for the declassification are very transparent, its to try to increase support for the Iraq War. The problem with this strategy is that Al-Qaeda had no presence in Iraq before our invasion. The hell that is Iraq is the result of our invasion and no amount of declassified information will change that. There are no good options left in Iraq. They are in a civil war that is escalating and our presence is only making matters worse. It is time for this war to end.
Military Pay Increase Opposed By Bush Administration
The White house is trying to kill the Democratic plan to increase military pay 3.5% next year. The White House wants only 3%.
In a letter from the White House Office of Management and Budget to congressional committees overseeing the military, OMB director Rob Portman said Wednesday that the administration "strongly opposes" a Democratic plan to bump up military salaries by 3.5 percent instead of Bush's request for a 3 percent jump.
"The cost of increasing the FY 2008 military pay raise by an additional 0.5 percent is $265 million in FY 2008 and $7.3 billion" if similar raises are enacted over the next five years, Portman's office said in a six-page memo outlining concerns about the defense spending bill that was approved by the House early Friday and will be taken up by the Senate this week
Let me get this straight. The President professes to support the troops yet begrudges them a 2.5% additional pay raise over 5 years then what he proposed. This pay raise could be paid for with three weeks worth of expenditures from the Iraq War. I have an idea, how about we cancel the billions in oil company subsidies and use that to pay for this increase. The military is in Iraq fighting for their interests anyway. It only seems fair. Do you still believe that this President supports the troops? These people are disgusting with no redeeming qualities.
Party officials said Monday the next war spending bill most likely will fund military operations and not demand a time line to bring troops home, although it will contain other restrictions on Bush's Iraq policies.
I can understand the desire to make sure that the troops in the field are funded but the prior bill funded them completely. It was President Bush who vetoed that bill and put the safety of the troops at risk. Giving the President what he wants will do nothing to help end this disaster. The Democrats were put in control of both houses of Congress to get us out of this war. They need to stand firm and understand the American people are with them. If they roll over and play dead, to a President with the lowest approval ratings in a generation, they will cease to be relevant.
Seven American soldiers and a translator were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad and a city south of the capital, the U.S. military announced Sunday.
Six of the Americans — and the translator — died Saturday in a bombing in western Baghdad, the military said.
A soldier from the 13th Sustainment Command was killed and two were wounded when a blast struck their vehicle Saturday near Diwaniyah, a mostly Shiite city 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad, the command said.
The names of the victims were mot announced until their families can be notified.
When will this madness end? The only surge I see is the surge in the number of our soldiers killed and maimed. When is President Bush going to accept the fact that peace is not coming to Iraq? His actions have plunged Iraq into a civil war and 140,000 U.S. troops are not enough to stop it.
General Eaton: If Pres. Bush Won't Listen, Congress Must
Retired Major General Paul Eaton takes to the airwaves to say that the President doesn’t listen to his commanders on the ground. General Eaton should know whether the President really listens to his commanders on the ground, or not. General Eaton recently retired from the US Army after more than 33 years service. This is the second ad by a retired General against the Iraq War. Watch the first advertisement here.
The surge will last well into 2008 according to Commanders in Iraq who said it is unlikely they will know if the surge is working until later in 2007.
"The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for U.S. military operations in Iraq. The new requirement of up to 15-month tours for active-duty soldiers will allow the troop increase to last until spring, said Odierno, who favors keeping experienced forces in place for now.
A surge that is not working is the Republicans worst nightmare. As the U.S. death toll mounts and no visible signs of progress are achieved, the people of the United States will grow even more weary of a war that most are now against. This is Bush's War and the American electorate will take out their frustrations with this failed policy on the party they hold responsible. The problem for Republican lawmakers will be when to throw in the towel and denounce the war. Since a majority of Republicans still support the war, they risk alienating members of their own party but since most Americans are strongly against the war walking the tight rope gets more and more politically dangerous. Members of the Senate who must run state wide have the most to lose and will most likely be the first to jump ship. This will be a very interesting summer, unfortunately these political games are costing lives. The war is lost, the American people know that and said that in the mid term elections of 2006. It is time that President Bush acknowledges this failure and brings our troops home.
