Iraq is Big Money for Al-Qaida

Funds to further terrorist activities by al-Qaida are coming from Iraq. This is just the latest proof that the war in Iraq has emboldened al-Qaida and made us less safe all around the world.

In one of the most troubling trends, U.S. officials said al-Qaida's command base in Pakistan increasingly is being funded by cash from Iraq, where the terrorist network's operatives are raising substantial sums from donations to the insurgency as well as kidnappings of wealthy Iraqis and other criminal activity.

The influx of money has bolstered al-Qaida's leadership ranks at a time when the core command is regrouping. The trend also signals a reversal in the traditional flow of al-Qaida funds, with the leadership surviving to a large extent on money from its most profitable franchise, rather than distributing funds from headquarters to distant cells.

Al-Qaida's efforts were aided, intelligence officials said, by Pakistan's withdrawal in September of tens of thousands of troops from tribal areas along the Afghanistan border where bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding.

Pakistan, is our ally in name only and continues to be a safe haven for terrorists. If the Government of Pakistan falls it will quickly become the most dangerous nation on earth. The war in Iraq has misplaced our priorities and inflamed the next generation of Muslim men. Al-Qaida will have no trouble recruiting the next generation of terrorists. The Iraq War is a disaster on more levels than we can possibly imagine. We are left with no good options in Iraq. The daily bloodshed breeds the next generation of terrorists and pushes Iraq deeper into civil war. This is what happens when you choose war.

7 Soldiers Killed in Iraq

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.

Food Safety Oversight Changes Are Proposed

Lawmakers are pushing to put all food safety concerns under one federal agency

"I believe the food safety system is broken. It's collapsing," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, told CNN "We're unable to protect the public health. We're unable to protect public confidence in the food supply."

DeLauro has introduced the Food Safety Act of 2007, which would create a Food Safety Administration responsible for ensuring the security of the food supply from all forms of contamination.

Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Chuck Schumer, D-New York, introduced a companion bill in the Senate.

The call for this legislation is the result of a few high profile food poising incidents, the most recent which led to the death of thousand of dogs and cats when they ate tainted pet food. The FDA is currently operating with fewer inspectors and a budget shortfall at a time when more and more of our food is being imported without any oversight. A single agency to handle this sounds like a solid plan. In the age of homeland security, how can we be cutting inspections? Shouldnt the safety of our food supply have as high a priority as the safety of our airplanes? Will we wait for a major incident before we close the gaping loopholes in our system? Corporate lobbyists will be doing their best to stop any legislation that could interfere with their profits. It is up to the people of the U.S. to demand safe food at any costs.

The Fight On Immigration

The fight on Immigration Reform is about to get very intense in Washington. With the Senate and the President agreeing on a framework for the bill that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, expect the fireworks to erupt. This is about the only issue that the President and the Democratic controlled Senate can agree on. Is it the right framework to start the debate?

Many are opposed to what they see as amnesty for those already here. In some ways I agree that you do not reward unlawful behavior but as a practical issue you simply can not detain and deport 12 million people. Those that are so adamant against amnesty often come off looking like bigots and do not present any reasonable solution to the problem.

One thing is certain, if companies stopped hiring illegal immigrants they would leave. That needs to be a main priority of any pending legislation. How hard could it be to check a social security number against the statistics for that number? What about companies that pay the workers "off the books" and thereby avoid all payroll taxes? This issue is about so much more than just amnesty. It is about illegal workers driving down the wages of all people in similar types of employment, but whose fault is that? Is it really the illegal immigrant or the employer that is looking to increase profit?

Banks are lending to illegal immigrants using tax identification numbers which are easy to procure directly from the IRS. Am I the only one who is shocked when I meet an illegal immigrant driving a new car purchased with a loan that they received from the local bank? I think most Americans would be shocked how easy we have made it for people to live illegally within the United Sates. What we really need to ask is who makes money from these policies. In the end American businesses want cheap labor and until we can lessen the influence of corporate donations on our political system, this will never change. We need to turn our anger against these very companies who are destroying the middle class. They make some believe that the Mexican day laborer we see mowing the neighbors lawn is a greater threat to our standard of living then the company hiring high tech workers from India at 70% of the wage they would need to pay the average American in the same job.

We all need to take a step back and realize the problem is not only illegal immigration but the immigration statutes as a whole. We have so much more to fear from our jobs being outsourced then from the poor illegal immigrant picking up your dinner dishes at the local restaurant.

Comprehensive reform is needed, but we must do it with compassion. We must engage the other countries in the region who need basic economic reform. We must make the companies that hire illegal immigrants subject to criminal prosecution and huge civil penalties. Those that are so against a path to citizenship should not patronize businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

We should all use reason and compassion in this debate and try to remember that the vast majority of those here illegally want the same things out of life that you do. They want to give their children a better life than they had. Who can argue with that?

Giuliani Is Wrong

Rudy Giuliani got into a heated argument with Ron Paul during the Republican debate for President when Mr. Paul suggested that it was United States policies that caused the attack of 911. Giuliani who has made a fortune off of 911 and who offers nothing else as a qualification for his candidacy, struck back with the usual talking points of them hating us for our freedom. This argument is so tired and easily dispelled that its a wonder anyone still invokes it. Why not Canada, Sweden, Italy or any number of other countries that enjoy the same freedoms as we do? This is the simplistic argument for those too dumb to research the real reasons or too ideologically predisposed to explore any other possibilities. I am in no way saying that the attack of 911 was warranted but to believe in such a simplistic view of the reason for the attack makes the likelihood of another even greater. How can we fight what we won't even try to understand. Understanding does not mean condone or accept but until we know the reasons why people are willing to die in order to hurt us, this will never stop. We will live in a perpetual state of war. Rudy Giuliani is worth millions as a result of his image after 911.

Mr. Giuliani should put his money where his mouth is and donate half of his net worth acquired since 911. There are 40,000 sick first responders from 911 who could use just a portion of the millions he has earned as a result of this horrible incident. Many of those sick fault Giuliani for allowing them to work in unsafe conditions. There are others that feel he knew the dangers and did nothing. He is considered a security expert when it was his decision to place the NYC emergency command center in the World Trade Center Complex which was bombed previously in 1993. It is time for the 911 halo to be removed from his head. It has no place there.

In this clip he blames Democrats for 911. He really is disgusting!!! Without 911, he would be just be the former unpopular mayor of NYC.

Gonzales Must Go

After watching this testimony from Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, it is obvious that Alberto Gonzales lied in his Senate testimony. This should be required viewing for all Americans. We all need to wake up and realize that we are living through the most corrupt administration in our nations history.

High Gas Prices Have Not Curtailed Driving

With gas prices over $3.00 per gallon, most experts expected to see a decline in the amount of driving being done by motorists. That decline has not materialized.

The rising price of gasoline has certainly increased the amount of complaining from drivers paying $3 a gallon or more to fill up their cars, but it so far has done little to curtail how much people are driving.

That's the message from government statistics showing that demand for gasoline is only just starting to level off even as refinery outages and tight supplies have sent pump prices soaring by 43 percent since the end of January.

It is hard to see where motorists can make changes to their habits that would allow them to limit their driving. Driving to work is a necessity for most as the public transportation systems do not have a large enough reach to make them a viable alternative. With more and more people living further away from the employment centers due to the high cost of housing, options become limited. Adjustments to spending are more likely to take place as a result of the high cost of gasoline. I believe we are reaching a perfect storm in our economy. With the housing market crumbling and energy inflation running rampant, the only place to go is down. It is time for a windfall profits tax to be placed on the oil companies who are raping the consumers and laughing all the way to the bank.

Housing: Still searching for a bottom

Applications for new building permits plummeted to the lowest level since 1996.

Housing starts rose to an annual rate of 1.53 million in April, according to the Census Bureau report, from the revised 1.49 million pace in March. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a slip to a 1.48 million pace in April.

But building permits, which are often seen as a measure of builder's confidence in the market, sank to an annual rate of 1.43 million in April from a revised 1.57 million in March. It was the lowest reading since June 1997. Economists had forecast a dip to 1.52 million.

As housing goes, so goes the economy. There is a real danger that the housing slump will cause people to pull back on spending and lead the economy into recession. Much of the continued economic expansion was the result of higher home prices and the feeling of wealth that accompanied those high prices. With two thirds of the economy being consumer spending, if that spending slows considerably so will the economy.

Comments From Gay Rights Groups on The Death of Reverend Falwell

Statement by Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign:

“Reverend Falwell’s death today causes my thoughts to turn toward the members of our community who have at great personal sacrifice contended with the Reverend’s work and teachings. As I remember Reverend Falwell’s life, I also remember all of the families of people who have died of AIDS,” said Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign. “Reverend Falwell’s legacy is not about the tenets of Jesus’ ministry such as healing the sick and standing with the disenfranchised but about shunning and ridiculing those who have suffered and died of AIDS and their families. Many faith leaders today are moving away from his divisive approach and toward the compassion and inclusiveness that Jesus modeled every day of his ministry.”

Statement by Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

“The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.”

From Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out:

"It is with great regret that Rev. Jerry Falwell never moderated his position on homosexuality." said Truth Wins Out's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "While our hearts go out to his family. we can't help but to reflect on his life and think about all of the families he's torn apart and teenagers that committed suicide because he made them feel inferior. He never missed an opportunity to kick our better angels to the curb and capitalize on our lesser demons to advance his career."

Falwell began as a segregationist preacher that opposed interracial marriage. As with his opposition to homosexuality. he used the Bible to justify his prejudice and discrimination. In 1958. Falwell gave a sermon on segregation. stating that. "The true Negro does not want integration...He realizes his potential is far better among his own race... It will destroy our race eventually... In one northern city. a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife...It boils down to whether we are going to take God's Word as final."

In the late 1970's. Falwell founded the Moral Majority. an organization that laid the groundwork for the modern Religious Right. When AIDS hit the gay community. Falwell remarked. "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals."

In 1998. Falwell embraced the ex-gay ministries and touted a cure for homosexuals. He teamed up with Michael Johnston. an HIV+ ex-gay leader. In 2003. Johnston was treated in a sex addiction facility in Kentucky after he allegedly had unprotected sex with men he met online.

After the September 11. 2001 attacks. Falwell said on the 700 Club. "I really believe that the pagans. and the abortionists. and the feminists. and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle. the ACLU. People For the American Way. all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen."

"Unfortunately. the anti-gay infrastructure built by Falwell survives him." stated Besen. "With the founding of Liberty University and his legal arm. the Liberty Counsel. his legacy of intolerance will continue for quite some time."

Jerry Falwell Dead

Televangelist Jerry Falwell has been pronounced dead after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University.

Ron Godwin, the executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University, said Falwell was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but "he has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive."

To get a good feeling for who this man was I would recommend you read this from AMERICAblog.

Home Prices Still Dropping

The housing market continued its slump in all areas of the country.

Many economists feel the housing market has not seen the bottom. Will the problems in the housing sector push the economy into recession?

Youth Crime Rising

Violent crime has risen for a second consecutive year due in large part to increased violence amongst teenagers.

FBI data from last fall show violent crimes, including murders and robberies, rose by 3.7 percent nationwide during the first six months of 2006. Those findings came on top of a 2.2 percent crime hike in 2005 — the first increase since 2001.

I know in my own city that gang violence is exploding and the police seem unsure of exactly how to combat it.

That a growing number of offenders appear to be younger, and their crimes more violent, and that laws in some states provide few, if any, tough penalties on juvenile offenders.

Many youths have little parental oversight and are too easily influenced by gang membership and glamorized violence in popular culture.

Loosely organized gangs present the biggest concern for law enforcement officials because they are hard to investigate and their members often commit random acts of crime out of self-protection.

Offenses committed by people using firearms pose a major threat not only to communities, but also to police. So-called “straw purchases,” where gun owners buy their firearms through a go-between is an area of concern.

With nearly half of inner city students not graduating and high rates of inner city unemployment, this is not unexpected. We must do everything necessary to reverse this dangerous trend.

Gingrich May Enter Presidential Race

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may enter the Presidential race.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday there is a very good chance he'll get into the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, but he won't decide until after September.

"I think right now that it is a great possibility," Gingrich said. "I don't want to get into all this stuff. I want to focus on what we have to do to make America successful."

Gingrich is widely credited with engineering a Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 with his Contract For America. He is beloved by Conservatives even though his personal life has been anything but conservative. He recently admitted to an extra-marital affair during the time he was pushing for impeachment of President Clinton, for lying about an extra-marital affair.

He made this confession during an interview with Dr. James Dobson of the Christian Conservative Group, Focus On the Family. Mr. Gingrich has been married three times. His first marriage ended with him serving divorce papers on his wife while she was hospitalized with cancer. He now believes that his personal life should not play a part in any run for President. If Christian Conservatives flock to this man then nothing that they stand for is real. Newt Gingrich is everything that is wrong with politics today.

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.

Bill Talking About Hillary

I decided to post this because I want this site to be a clearing house for all the candidates and their campaigns. This is not an endorsement of Hillary Clinton. I will remain neutral through the primaries and will post as much information on each candidate as possible. I will also try to come up with a list of questions that I would like each candidate to answer so that we can come to a knowledgeable decision as to which one would be best to lead our country and restore the middle class.

Senator McConnell: If Iraqi Government Asks Up to Leave We will Leave

Senator McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, said during a CNN interview that if the Iraqi Government asked the U.S. to leave that we would leave.

BLITZER: And if they're not going to do what they need to do, what happens then?

MCCONNELL: Well, the Iraqi government is a huge disappointment. Republicans overwhelmingly feel disappointed about the Iraqi government. I read just this week that a significant number of the Iraqi parliament want to vote to ask us to leave.

I want to assure you, Wolf, if they vote to ask us to leave, we'll be glad to comply with their request.

I hate to be the first to tell Senator McConnell but a majority of the Iraqi Parliament did vote for us to leave. The vote may have been non-binding but it did show that the Iraqi Government now believes that the U.S. presence in their country is helping to fuel the violence. If Mr. McConnell is being truthful then he needs to immediately call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. It is time to get regional cooperation to end the violence which means negotiating with Syria and Iran who have a vested interest in seeing that the war does not become a regional conflict. There are no good options left in Iraq and its time to come home.

George W. Bush's "Monica Problem"

Monica Goodling, a former Justice Department Official, could become the Bush Administrations biggest nightmare as her role in the United States Attorney firings is probed. She has been given limited immunity to testify which means she will not be prosecuted as long as she is truthful.

Once you read this story it becomes very obvious that the two things missing from the Justice Department were justice and impartiality. The department became a place where loyalty to President Bush took precedent over experience.

Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers.

“You have a Monica problem,” Ms. Ashton was told, according to several Justice Department officials. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, “She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted.”

Exactly what does being a Democrat have to do with your ability to administer justice? How can anyone respect or trust this Justice Department when it is obvious that guilt or innocence meant less than political affiliation, competence worth less than loyalty to President Bush. How unqualified people became so important in this administration is as much the story as the firings of the prosecutors. The attorneys that were not fired could become as large a part of the investigation as those that were. What exactly did they need to do to keep their jobs? A complete investigation needs to be done and those responsible, such as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, need to be removed from office. His lack of memory should be reason enough to be removed. In the weeks ahead the "Monica Problem" will grow. Will those that called for President Clinton to be impeached for his "Monica Problem" be as steadfast with the current administration? The corruption in this administration stinks worse than the NJ Turnpike at rush hour. Its time to end the stink and restore truth and justice to the Justice Department.

An Iraqi Mothers Torment

With Mother's Day in the United States tomorrow, I thought it was important to post this blog from Iraq about an Iraqi Mothers Torment.

When life becomes a dreadful nightmare you have nothing to hope but to wake up. How can I wake up when a reminder pops up out of the news, personal life and even more; from any person I meet every day or perhaps every hour.

The taxi driver that I am going to tell you about is an example.

Few weeks ago I was leaving my home town city Fallujah heading to Baghdad. I was saying to my self:

“Better or worse at least I can see something different”

It was a disparate attempt to convince my self that it will be a better life when I go back to work after a day off (usually I do have these arguments with my self.. crazy..eh.. whatever”.

Back to the man, the short version of his story is:

He has three sons… the elder one is Akram and two other kids.

Akram was killed with other civilians in one of the car bombs in Fallujah.

The second son went to his secondary school and never came back.

The third son, he is 16 years old, lost one of his eyes as he was buying something to his family from a mini-market not far away from his house and a passing by military convoy were targeted by a road side bomb and shrapnel injured the kid in the eye.

The real tragedy is the mother… he says she keep thinking when ever the door knocks especially after sunset that her missing son is coming back… she heard from someone that kidnappers usually release the hostages at night. The driver had to inform all his neighbors not to knock the door after sunset, his wife health deteriorate after she run to the main door and she finds out it is not her beloved missing son.

He was asking for help to treat his son eye… bitterly I couldn’t find any humanitarian organization that can help him… or maybe I didn’t search enough as I don’t have that much time to spare…

These men are amazing… how brave and patient they are… yet they give me the example and the will to continue living…

Violence In Pakistan Threatens Musharraf Government

Violence in Pakistan claimed 28 lives after Pro-government gunmen and those opposed to military rule clashed in Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan.

A political crisis threatening President Gen. Pervez Musharraf exploded into violence Saturday when clashes between pro-government gunmen and the opposition killed at least 28 people and thwarted a major rally against military rule.

The violence in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, was the worst in a two-month crisis shaking the government under Musharraf, a vital U.S. ally who provoked the turmoil by ousting the head of the Supreme Court on March 9.

We constantly talk about Iran and their desire to gain nuclear weapons but Pakistan already has them. It is a country whose citizens support Al-Qaeda in large numbers and supported the Taliban in Afghanistan. If the current Dictator in Pakistan is toppled it will immediately become the most dangerous country on earth.

Gas Prices At Record Highs

With gas prices close to $4.00 per gallon in some parts of the United States, the amount of disposable income for families is down and anxiety up.

Sixty percent of employees confirmed that the price of gas has significantly reduced the amount of money they have to spend on other things, while 45 percent reported the need to pay off debts more slowly or not at all. Finally, 26 percent indicated that the cost of gas has necessitated going without basics such as heat or air conditioning, or even cutting back on food purchases, over the past few months.

With oil companies reaping record profits while still enjoying tax subsidies, it is unconscionable that people are deciding between food and gasoline. Why exactly are prices rising so quickly? They say that refinery capacity is down causing the price spike but Hillary Clinton has called for an investigation.

"We need to investigate whether we need stronger inspections or other processes in place to ensure that refiners, number one, are leveling with us when they talk about refineries being down, and number two, that they invest adequately in maintaining and improving their facilities to avoid this in the first place," Senator Clinton said. "I think that the series of factors that go into this problem really deserve attention because ultimately the oil companies are making more money than they have ever made before. They are not reinvesting it the way they need to in refinery capacity, modernizing refineries and improving their processes. That means that they don't use those profits to keep our gas supply as affordable and regulated as possible and I'd like to know why."

The American public is being screwed by big oil. It's time the American people fight back. We must demand our tax dollars are used to create alternate sources of energy not wage war. Our dependence on foreign oil is the most pressing national security issue we face yet we seem to do nothing to end it. How much per gallon will it take for real citizen action?

Edwards New Campaign

John Edwards was the first to admit it was a mistake to vote for the Iraq War. He is also the only one who seems to be talking about the substantive issues facing America's Middle Class. He puts policy behind the rhetoric. I have not decided who I will support for the primaries but his actions are a welcome change from the normal political spin we see all too often. I applaud him for what I see is a real sincerity. I hope to grow the site enough so that the readers of this site can have a real influence on the 2008 election. With knowledge comes power.

General Batiste - Protect America, Not George Bush

Rudy Giuliani Tells The Truth

Today in an appearance before Houston Baptist University, Rudy Giuliani reaffirmed his pro-choice stance as well as his support for civil unions for gay couples and some forms of gun control.

At an appearance at Houston Baptist University, Mr. Giuliani said that he favors abortion rights, certain restrictions on gun ownership and gay rights — he is for civil unions, he said, although not for marriage between people of the same sex.

During last week’s debate among Republicans vying for their party’s 2008 presidential nomination, the former New York City mayor was criticized for his halting and apparently contradictory responses to questions about his views on abortion rights. Critics have said that he is trying to run from a record that is much more liberal than the views of the Republican Party’s core voters on the issue.

I give him credit for saying what he truly believes, unfortunately the base of the Republican Party will run from him in droves. The theocratic elements of the party, which is a large percentage of its primary voters, will not be able to see past these positions.

He said that while his views might put him at odds with many in his own party, he said he did not believe many of them would base their votes on a single issue.

Has he been to a Republican convention? Where exactly does he see this moderate element coming from? The Republican Party has been taken over by a bunch of theocrats who only support those that run in lock step with them. Rudy's days of being the front runner are numbered. I'm sorry Rudy you are simply not crazy enough for them but it was a good shot.

Inflation Is Moderating

Wholesale prices minus food and energy remained steady in April.

As long as you don't eat or drive you are fine. Nicole Richie must be excited about this report but the rest of us know that every time you go to the gas station the price is up. Reports like this make me laugh.

Chicken From China?

Thousand of pets are dead as a result of poor standards by China. They deliberaltely allowed melamine, which is a runoff from coal, into products used in pet food. Now China wants to send us chicken.

In China, some farmers try to maximize the output from their small plots by flooding produce with unapproved pesticides, pumping livestock with antibiotics banned in the United States, and using human feces as fertilizer to boost soil productivity. But the questionable practices don't end there: Chicken pens are frequently suspended over ponds where seafood is raised, recycling chicken waste as a food source for seafood, according to a leading food safety expert who served as a federal adviser to the Food and Drug Administration.

China's suspect agricultural practices could soon affect American consumers. Federal authorities are working on a proposal to allow chickens raised, slaughtered, and cooked in China to be sold here, and under current regulations, store labels do not have to indicate the meat's origin.

Why would this even be considered? What American companies stand to make a huge profit feeding us bad chicken? Eat up!!!

Retail Sales Weak in April

Retailers, including Wal-Mart, posted weak sales in April. The results were worse than forecast and show the pressures on middle and lower class Americans. With gas prices rising daily and a housing market on the verge of collapse, consumers stopped spending.

Consumers are feeling pressured by higher gasoline prices and a sluggish housing market, particularly low and middle income consumers," said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics LLC, a research company in Swampscott, Mass.

Analysts had already expected last month to be weak after an early Easter motivated many consumers to do their holiday shopping in March, siphoning away part of April's business. But sales were much softer than expected, raising concerns that retailers will also see disappointing results in the months ahead.

With a negative savings rate and consumer debt at an all time high, most families simply do not have the ability to keep spending at their present rate. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the economy and if that spending keeps slowing there is a very real chance that the U.S. economy will slip into recession.

Giuliani to Admit His Pro Choice Stance

With revelations this week of his contributions to Planned Parenthood, Rudy Giuliani has decided to campaign as a pro-choice Republican.

After months of conflicting signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite the potential for bad consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday.

He hopes to de-emphasize the results in early primary states, such as Iowa and South Carolina, where his pro choice stance will have a very negative impact and instead focus on the mega primaries of Feb 5, 2008. He is hoping that the large, more moderate states like NY, NJ, Florida and California can propel him to the nomination.

The shift in emphasis comes as the Giuliani campaign has struggled to deal with the fallout from the first Republican presidential candidate debate, in which he gave halting and apparently contradictory responses to questions about his support for abortion rights.

Mr. Giuliani’s aides were concerned both because the responses opened him up to a new round of criticism from abortion critics, who have never been happy with the prospect of a Republican presidential candidate who supports abortion rights, while threatening to undercut his image as a tough-talking iconoclast who does not equivocate on tough issues.

The campaign’s approach would be a sharp departure from the traditional route to the Republican nomination in the last 20 years, in which Republicans have highlighted their antiabortion views.

Will he also reverse his stance on gay rights? While he was Mayor he was a strong supporter of the Gay Community and actually lived with a Gay couple after his second marriage ended. Somehow I doubt he will go that far and instead will throw his gay friends under the bus.

Women Under Attack: The Talibanization of Iraq

Iraq was once one of the most progressive countries in the Middle East for women. Since the invasion of Iraq, fundamentalism has grown and women are subjected to Taliban like restrictions and violence.

"The violence during Saddam's time was ... committed by the government, Saddam's family, people in power. Now the violence is ... being committed by everyone around you," says Salbi, who founded the group Women for Women International in 1993. That organization now operates in nine countries, including Iraq, to help women survivors of war and civil strife rebuild their lives.

But today, most of her friends have left the country. Women for Women International keeps its locations secret and takes all sorts of security precautions. Salbi herself stopped traveling back to her homeland two years ago. "At first I was able to say I knew 10, 20 women who had been assassinated," she says. "Now, I've lost count. ... They are pharmacists, professors, reporters, activists ..."

Our war of choice has left the women of Iraq vulnerable to violence, afraid to leave their homes and subject to harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Does this sound like liberation to you? This war has destroyed a country and its people, leaving them vulnerable to daily violence, high unemployment and a lack of basic services. Does that sound like freedom to you?

Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation

Yesterday for the first time a majority of the Iraqi parliament voted to end the occupation of Iraq. That news was ignored by the U.S. media.

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

During last weeks Republican Debate Tommy Thompson said:

Number one, I believe the al-Maliki government should be required to vote as to whether or not they want America in their country.

If they vote yes, it gives us a legitimacy for being there. If they vote no, we should get out.

This vote was yesterday but so far no Republican lawmakers have called for our exit as a result of this vote of the Iraqi Parliament. Most Iraqis feel the reason we are in Iraq is for the oil. If we refuse to leave when they have voted to end the occupation, everyone will believe this was a war for oil. The Iraqis have spoken, it is time to come home.

The Surge Will Last into 2008

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.

Older Americans Filing Bankruptcy In Higher Numbers

The fastest growth in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filing is among those 55 and older. Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows for the liquidation of assets to pay creditors as opposed to Chapter 13 filing which allows debtors to pay off debts over time.

Researchers John Golmant and Tom Urlich conclude that rising healthcare costs and mortgage debt are key factors.

Golmant and Urlich expect increased bankruptcy filing rates for older Americans to continue, based on the reduced income retirees face coupled with rising healthcare costs, according to the report.

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy, agrees with the report's conclusions but notes the study ends at 2002 and the figures since then "have gotten worse."

This study points out the economic problems facing those later in life when there are less options available to solve the problem. The new bankruptcy laws, which were written by the credit card companies, make it much harder to just dispose of your debts and start over. It is time for both national health care and revisions to the bankruptcy laws. Do we want a nation of bankrupt seniors? Is this what we want for our parents in their golden years? Is this the reward for a lifetime of hard work? With the housing bubble about to burst and a possible recession in our future, these numbers will only grow.

Agriculture Secretary: Melamine in Human Food Is OK

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said that animals that ate melamine tainted feed are safe for human consumption.

Consumers face little risk from eating pork, chicken and eggs from farm animals that ate feed mixed with pet food scraps contaminated by an industrial chemical, government scientists said Monday.

Mixing in material contaminated at low levels diluted it such that humans who eat the animals won’t be harmed, the scientists said.

“We literally found that the dilution is so minute, in fact in some cases you can’t even test and find melamine any more in that product,” Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in Chicago, speaking to the Organic Trade Association.

Can we believe what they are saying? Do they have enough scientific data on melamine in humans to make this declaration definitively? The situation with the pet food recall has put a spotlight on extreme deficiencies within the Food and Drug Administration. Will corporate lobbying keep reforms from being enacted? It will take an outcry from the American public to thwart efforts by corporate lobbyists to keep the status quo.

Understanding the Sub Prime Mortgage Crisis

Many people have heard of the subprime mortgage crisis but have no idea exactly what that entails or how it impacts the middle and lower classes. In summary subprime mortgages are made to those with weak credit who might not otherwise qualify for the mortgage they are seeking. The reason for the crisis and the unfolding explosion of foreclosures is that these loans were often given without verification of income or assets and usually at higher interest rates.

With the explosion of home prices in many areas of the country, many families wanted to experience the American dream of home ownership. As the prices skyrocketed but wages remained flat, more and more people simply did not qualify for traditional mortgage loans. They instead turned to these so called subprime mortgage programs. Many families were allowed to secure mortgages with 100% financing and without income verification. A family making $50,000.00 per year could now get 100% financing on a $400,000 loan. Most families felt they could swing the payments and if not they would sell at a huge profit since home values were rising so quickly. Then the bottom fell out. As more and more of these type of loans went into foreclosure, the housing market slowed and values dropped. This left many families with homes worth less than the loan.

How exactly did this all happen? Some of it was fraud on the part of the lender and some on naivete on the part of the borrower. Mortgage originators are normally paid based on the size of the loan but can increase their commissions with either more origination fees (points) or higher interest rates. Many borrowers were simply not savvy enough to understand the specifics of what they were signing. The fallout from the subprime mortgage collapse will be felt throughout the economy as more and more homes go into foreclosure and buyers become skittish to purchase homes during the current downturn.

Read the NY Times article from today on this subject.

Mother's Day For Peace

Middle-Class Life Under Bush: Less Affordable and Less Secure

Some sobering statistics from the Bush years:

Health care Costs up 80% since 2000
Gas Prices have doubled since 2000
College Education Costs are up 44% since 2000
Housing Affordability has hit a 15 year low
Median Household Income has Declined $1273.00 from 2000
Worst Job Creation record Since Herbert Hoover
3 Million Manufacturing Jobs Lost since 2000
Unemployment has increased 7.1 percent and long-term joblessness has nearly doubled.
The Gap Between Rich and Poor has Grown
The Poverty Rate has grown 12% since 2000
Budget Surplus of 236 Billion turned into huge deficits
National Debt Increased three trillion dollars since 2000
Trade deficit has doubled since 2000
Additional 1.1 trillion more debt to foreign nations since 2000

If this is what they call success I would hate to see what they call failure.
Read the rest of the statistics, and the research to back them up, from the Democratic Policy Committee here.

Tax Abatements for the Rich

There is a new building going up in the Chelsea Section of Manhattan. Chelsea is one of Manhattan's best neighborhoods and is home to a large Gay population. This is not an up and coming neighborhood. It is an extremely desirable neighborhood and has seen prices climb to exorbitant levels. A recently investigated a new building being built called the Chelsea Stratus.

A one bedroom apartment which is around 900 sq.ft. has an asking price of over 1 million dollars. The property tax on your condo is less than $100.00 per month tax abated for 10 years. The actual monthly taxes on this condominium without tax abatement would be $2000.00. The loss in tax revenue for one year is over $4.5 million dollars and $45 million over the life of the tax abatement. I pay double in taxes on my co-operative apartment in Yonkers, NY which is a suburb of NYC. My apartment, although very nice, is nothing compared to the elegance of the Chelsea Stratus. Is there anyone else that has a real problem with this? I can understand tax abatement in areas needing gentrification but to abate taxes in one of the finest neighborhoods in Manhattan seems insane.

The reason for this post is to highlight the inequalities of our current tax system. The Bush tax cuts went to the highest earning Americans at the expense of our national budget and social programs to help the poor. How can we as a society sit back and allow these inequities? It is time for Americans to vote based on the economic class they find themselves in, not the economic class they hope to become.

National Guard Equipment Not in Kansas But In Iraq

The Governors of many states have been voicing their concerns that states would not have the tools necessary to respond to natural disasters due to national Guard equipment being sent to Iraq. Those fears became reality over the weekend as a huge tornado devastated a Kansas town.

"We’re missing about half of our trucks from the National Guard units,” Sebelius said. “Clearly trucks to haul this debris away would be enormously helpful. We are missing flatbeds. We are missing Humvees, which are used to get people to safety and security and to haul equipment around. We are missing a number of our well-trained National Guard personnel. The equipment that we continue to harp on that has been sent overseas when our troops are deployed and not restored at the same level could be enormously helpful.”

With tornado and hurricane season upon us, can we really afford to be so badly prepared at home?

Read the rest of this article here.

Giuliani The Choice Of Gay Republicans

It appears that Rudy Giuliani is the choice of Gay Republicans in the crowded Republican field for President. The problem I have is that the Republican Party makes bashing Gays a major part of their platform and some gays still support them. How can you openly support a party that does everything it can to limit your rights?

David Keeton, a small-business owner in Dallas, and his partner, Rob Schlein, said they supported Giuliani because of his record as New York mayor and his response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"I'm an American first, then a Republican second, and gay falls in third or fourth," said Keeton, who wore a Ronald Reagan pin on his lapel.

People like Mr. Keeton make me sick. How can you be so stupid as to say being gay is third. Will your being Gay ever change? Being Gay is an innate part of who you are. Is your relationship worth less than a heterosexuals? Why are willing to give up your self respect to be part of a party that at its core does not want you? I believe Gay Republicans are like the battered women who can't seem to break free from their abuser. What makes it worse is the financial support that they also provide.

Both said they recently met former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at a fundraiser and had their picture taken with him. They were offended when Romney told the crowd that he opposed gay marriage and civil unions.

"We're part of the Republican Party, but he just alienated people who had paid $1,500 for a table," Keeton said.

Mr. Keeton, you stupid fool, they all oppose gay marriage and civil unions and you just gave them $1,500.00 to advance their prejudicial views. Nice going moron.

Poisoned Medicine Courtesy of China

This is a very long article but worth the investment of time. I did not realize it was this easy to poison our medication. China was responsible for the poisoned pet food and now it seems that Chinese companies have been responsible for counterfeit medications that have killed people all over the globe. China has almost no regulations governing either pet food or pharmaceutical manufacturing. Congress needs to act to limit supplies from China until proper regulations are in effect. The problem is that China owns nearly 1 trillion dollars of our national debt. How can we force China to do anything when they finance our national debt?

20 Million Chickens Held Out Of The Food Chain

The FDA has required that 20 million chickens be held from the food chain pending additional investigations into melamine tainted feed that was possibly fed to the chickens. The FDA will try to determine whether or not the chickens pose a threat to human health. Hogs that may have eaten tainted pet food are also being held from the human food chain.

Investigators found last week that about 5 percent of feed used at some smaller chicken production operations came from pet food tainted with the chemical melamine, Williams said. Larger manufacturers, because they usually use special feed for the chickens they raise or contract for raising, are unlikely to have exposed their animals to large amounts of the tainted pet products, he said.

The FDA needs full funding to insure that our food products are healthy. In the age of terrorism it is unconscionable that less than 1% of all foreign food products are inspected. The rate for food manufacturing plants within the United States is not much better. Additional resources for the Food and Drug Administration are needed immediately to keep our food supply safe.

Iraqi Doctors Denied Diplomas

Iraqi doctors are not being given diplomas or medical transcripts to keep them from fleeing the war torn country. This was the same tactic used by Saddam Hussein as he tried to build his medical infrastructure.

Iraq is hemorrhaging doctors as violence racks the nation. To stem the flow, the Iraqi government has recently taken a cue from Saddam Hussein: Medical schools are once again forbidden to issue diplomas and transcripts to new graduates.

Hussein built a fine medical system in part by withholding doctors' passports and diplomas. Although physicians can work in Iraq with a letter from a medical school verifying their graduation, they say they need certificates and transcripts to work abroad.

Doesn't it sound like freedom is on the march? How can this administration still try to peddle the same talking points that things are better in Iraq. For who are they better?

It is a common refrain among war-weary Iraqis that things were better before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Electricity in Baghdad was more reliable; sectarian hostility was rare; Iraq was safe -- except for the many victims of Hussein's tyranny

The Iraqi's considered themselves better under a brutal dictator. Any American that can not understand that and realize that this war was one of the most colossal foreign policy mistakes in our history is delusional.

Read the rest of this article here.

Bush Approval at 28%

In the lowest approval rating for a President in a generation, George W. Bush has hit a 28% approval rating in the latest Newsweek poll. The last President to hit this mark was Jimmy Carter in 1979. This has cast a long shadow over the Republican Presidential hopefuls who all lose head to head to every major Democratic candidate for President.

It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ’08.

This new poll is exactly what I have been talking about when I say that there is a nearly perfect storm brewing that could kill any Republican chances of regaining either house of Congress or holding onto the Presidency. With a sinking economy and a very unpopular and costly war, the American electorate will be looking for someone to blame. Who better than the party that is responsible. My only real question is who are the 28% and what does George W. Bush need to do to lose them?

NRA Says Don't Ban Guns To Terror Suspects

I thought I had heard it all but then this news came out today. The NRA is requesting that the Bush Administration withdraw its support for a bill that would make terror suspects unable to purchase weapons. Yes that is right, terror suspects can't fly but they can legally purchase guns.

The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms. Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., "would allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere 'suspicions' of a terrorist threat."

Is the NRA insane? Under there warped version of the second amendment, Osama Bin Laden would be entitled to purchase a gun, since he has not been convicted of anything and remains just a suspect.

"Right now law enforcement carefully monitors all firearms sales to those on the terror watch list," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. "Injecting the attorney general into the process just politicizes it."

Are they kidding me? With the assault weapons ban no longer in existence terror suspects could purchase a few AK-47's with the blessing of the NRA. Insane!!

Op-Ed About Commander Guy

Read this op-ed from Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post.

U.S. Jobs Growth Sluggish In April

In another sign that the economy is slowing the U.S. job growth rate softened in April.

U.S. jobs growth slowed in April to 88,000 with 12% fewer added jobs than economists had forecast, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5%, the Labor Department said Friday.

The one thing to remember is that 150,000 new jobs per month are needed to keep up with new people entering the market. I am not an economist but I have said for some time that the housing market will lead the U.S. into recession by early 2008. That is actually the Republican Party's worst nightmare. With an unpopular war, a bad economy and deficits as far as the eye can see, it could be a long election season for the GOP. This will be a difficult year for the middle class with negative savings rates,not seen since the Great Depression,and energy prices exploding. It will be hard for the average family to keep their heads above water.

Read the rest of this article here.

Former Fake Reporter Now Spokesman For Christian Bible Group

Jeff Gannon, the disgraced former White House reporter who was also a male prostitute, is now the spokesman for the International Bible Reading Association.

Former White House correspondent Jeff Gannon, also know as James Dale Guckert, has a new gig these days, according to a Washington Post report. The one-time reporter for the one-time conservative news site GOPUSA.com has now become a spokesman for a Christian bible group.

To learn about Jeff Gannon please click here. Read all the articles posted by John Aravosis at AMERICABlog. John deserves a ton of credit for helping to expose this hypocrite. Being gay myself, it is very hard to watch someone who is gay help to destroy a community he is part of.

I still haven't stopped laughing at this latest revelation. I guess this isn't too far off from his escort job. They both require longs stretches on your knees.

Tommy Thompson - It's OK TO Fire The Gays

It seems every election cycle that the Republicans, in order to please the far right elements that control the party, will use gay bashing as a campaign tactic. In last night's debate Tommy Thompson, the former Governor of Wisconsin, said that it was OK to fire gays if the employer had a moral issue with homosexuality.

Watch the video here.

Gov. Thompson is it OK to fire Muslims, Jews, African Americans or catholics if you are Evangelical Christian? We all know that our current laws prohibit that but is OK to fire Gays and Lesbians in over 30 states in this country. Gov. Thompson you are a bigoted, small minded fool and the very reason why the Employment Non Discrimination Act needs to be passed. The 2008 campaign is here. Let the gay bashing begin.

Defining Success in Iraq Is Now "An Acceptable Level Of Violence"

As the war in Iraq rages on, with seemingly no end in sight, the bar to measure success has been continuously lowered. Now being successful in Iraq according to President Bush is just less violence.

"Either we'll succeed, or we won't succeed," he said. "And the definition of success as I described is sectarian violence down. Success is not no violence."

OK so let me get this straight, the President is saying that we will spend 1 trillion dollars to turn Baghdad into Iraq's Darfur region. I don't know about you but I want my money back.

The president then compared Iraq to the United States, saying that there were parts of the US with "a certain level of violence," but that "people feel comfortable about living their daily lives" in those areas. That level of violence, said Bush, is what the US is aiming to achieve in Iraq.

Does this mean that the car bombs need to stop entirely or is a car bomb or two a day acceptable? Does it matter that before the start of the war that Baghdad had no history of car bombs? I guess car bombs don't really matter anyway since dying as a result of them will leave you off of the casualty lists.

What is happening is a slow but deliberate erosion of expectations so that a victory can be claimed when no such victory was achieved. What this war has accomplished is the destruction of a country, 3000 dead soldiers, 25000 wounded soldiers and estimates of as many as 655,000 dead civilians. This is what George W. Bush calls success.

Diplomats Returning From Iraq With PTSD

State Department employees serving in Iraq are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder just like soldiers. These employees, who seldom leave the fortified green zone, hear daily gun fire and frequent mortar and rocket fire.

U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with the same debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.

Imagine what is happening to the children of Iraq who are seeing bloodshed and violence on a daily basis. Our troops who make it out alive and physically uninjured will come home mental casualties of this war. The administration chose to cut Veterans Benefits which will be even more needed by our returning soldiers. How can anyone believe them when they constantly insist they support the troops yet cut the very funding necessary to help the troops? The cost of this war will be over 1 trillion dollars and a generation of mentally damaged troops. What a disgrace!!

Read the rest of this article here.

FDA Unable To Keep Food Safe

As a matter of national security our food supply must be monitored and protected but it is not due to dangerously low staffing at the Food and Drug Administration

Last year, inspectors sampled just 20,662 shipments out of more than 8.9 million that arrived at American ports. China, which in one decade has become the third-largest exporter of food, by value, to the United States, sent 199,000 shipments, of which less than 2 percent were sampled, said former officials with the agency.

"The public thinks the food supply is much more protected than it is," said William Hubbard, a former associate commissioner who left in 2005. "If people really knew how weak the FDA program is, they would be shocked."

With inspection rates this low it would be nearly certain that a terrorist attack aimed at our food supply would be successful. This time it was your pets that died. Unfortunately the next time it could be your children. How safe do you feel now? Actions have consequences and the War in Iraq has left us more vulnerable at home.

Millions Have Eaten Chicken Fed Tainted Food

Once it was revealed that the pet food poisoning was the result of a chemical put into the food to artificially raise the protein level, I was sure that this product must have some how been ingested by humans. CNN is now reporting that this is the case.

People have eaten millions of chickens that were given feed tainted with recalled pet food, federal officials said Tuesday, though they said the threat to human health is minimal.

The announcement came after an investigation of chicken farms in Indiana found that 38 of the facilities had given contaminated feed to poultry raised for human consumption, and that 2.5 million to 3 million people ate them.

The officials added that they expect to discover that chickens on possibly hundreds of farms in other states were also given tainted feed.

The United States spends more than all other nations combined on our defense yet we could not keep our pets from dying due to tainted food. This shows how vulnerable we are to unconventional attacks and the need to re-examine our national security priorities.

Read the rest of this article here.

Personal Savings Rate Numbers cause For Concern

The United States personal savings rate was a negative 1% for the first quarter of 2007. Middle and lower class Americans are finding it necessary to take from their savings to finance their daily lives.

"The amount of money Americans save as a percentage of their income has been declining for almost two years, and the March figures clearly demonstrate that we're not making any headway," Jeff Seely said. "A recent ShareBuilder survey found that over half of America does not have a financial game plan for their future. In fact, one in four Americans have no savings at all according to the latest retirement confidence survey from EBRI*. Combined with the negative savings rate, this lack of planning for the future could have severe consequences for the average American's retirement security."

I think the savings rate shows how under stress the middle and lower classes are in the United States today. With home prices, property taxes and medical care at record price levels and stagnant wages how can the average person save?

As recently as the 1980s, Americans' savings rate was stable at around 10 percent. In 2005, it sunk below zero. This marks the eighth consecutive quarter during which the U.S. personal savings rate was negative. The only other time in U.S. history when the savings rate has been this low for such a sustained period of time was during the Great Depression.

This is a dangerous trend that could lead the United States economy into recession when there is little to no more savings available for the average American family.

Read the rest of this article here.

U.S Losing Its Middle Class Neighborhoods

While doing some research for the site I came across an article in the Washington Post from June 2006. It dealt with the decline of middle class neighborhoods throughout the nation. It reaffirmed what I had seen in my own neighborhood.

Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself.

In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released Thursday. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.

With the loss of middle class neighborhoods comes the loss of good schools and loss of security. I have seen my own neighborhood at a crossroads with the south side of the neighborhood becoming more and more violent and the north side seeing huge price hikes that is pricing out the middle class. I would assume that this trend is everywhere. This forces people to spend more than they can actually afford to live in a good neighborhood. I am sure that is one of the reasons why saving for retirement is so poor in this country.

The sub prime mortgage disaster will force many people, who spent more than they could actually afford, back into the neighborhoods they so desperately wanted to leave. In the end, the market determines the price and with so many foreclosures and an unsustainably priced market a perfect storm is gathering for the housing market. Will this storm bring the prices down to an affordable level or will the middle class be even further weakened?

Read the rest of this article here.

You Can't Veto the Truth

Enough is Enough. It is time to end this war one way or another.

Pet Deaths May Finally Bring About More Screening

The Food and Drug Administration released an updated alert concerning the recent pet food contamination. The alert is quick to point out a much greater death count from the contaminated food as well as adding additional products to the recall.

As of April 26, 2007, FDA had received over 17,000 consumer complaints relating to this outbreak, and those complaints included reports of approximately 1950 deaths of cats and 2200 deaths of dogs.

This is what happens when you examine less than 1% of all food products coming into the country from foreign sources. With China having no environmental or safety standards, this was to be expected. Today's Washington Post examines this issue in detail:

Despite a temporary post-Sept. 11, 2001, staff increase inspired by fears of terrorist attacks on food, the number of FDA employees working on port inspections has returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels -- part of a gradual shriveling of the agency's food safety division relative to its burgeoning pharmaceutical branch.

How can this administration claim to be fighting terrorism when one of the greatest vulnerabilities has to be the food supply and it is not protected.

About 99 percent of imported foods are simply acknowledged by computer and waved ashore.

This time it was the animals that died but next time it could be me or you.

Read the rest of this article here.

Outfoxed

After posting the Bill Moyers special regarding the media. I did not think the real impact of that special could be felt until everyone watched "Outfoxed". Until everyone in the United States understands what Fox News is peddling and how this is a true threat to national security, we will have no chance of changing course.

Watch Outfoxed

Media Failure Before the Iraq War

I just watched the Bill Moyers program on PBS about the run up to the war in Iraq and how our media did not ask any hard questions. I am posting the link to this program. Everyone should take an hour and watch this. One of the main reasons I started this site was because of the collapse of our media. Gone are the days of investigative reporting. We are now subjected to infotainment and not news. Until we can bring our media back to the days of old we will continue to be given half truths and propaganda. A free, independent and non corporate media are needed if we are ever going to reverse this dangerous trend.

Watch Buying The War

Rush Limbaugh is A Racist Fool

Why is there a double standard regarding Rush Limbaugh? This is a man who advocated stricter drug laws while sending his maid out with a cigar box full of cash to score some "Hillybilly Heroin". Now this video has surfaced showing racist parodies. Imus was fired for less than this. Why is this man still on the air? The answer is very simple, money. When the advertisers leave, this drug addled gas bag will finally be retired. If Rush really believes that blacks can not speak proper English then he should vocally support higher education funding to solve the problem. This is disgusting on so many levels.

Malaki Purging Forces that Combat Militias

It would appear that the government of Prime Minister Malaki is responsible for the removal of officers heavily involved in trying to control the militias in Iraq.

A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom had apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.

Since March 1, at least 16 army and national police commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to resign; at least nine of them are Sunnis, according to U.S. military documents shown to The Washington Post.

While some of these officers were legitimately fired most seem to have been removed because they were fighting the Mahdi Army, the Shiite led militia which is connected to sectarian violence and the current administration in Iraq.

"Their only crimes or offenses were they were successful" against the Mahdi Army, a powerful Shiite militia, said Brig. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard, commanding general of the Iraq Assistance Group, which works with Iraqi security forces. "I'm tired of seeing good Iraqi officers having to look over their shoulders when they're trying to do the right thing."

How can we be supporting a government that seems to be complicit in the sectarian violence gripping Iraq? Have we decided that we will support the Shiite's in the Iraqi civil war? By supporting the Shiite's are we not supporting the Government of Iran which we claim is a threat to both regional security and U.S. security?

Read the rest of this article here.

Poison Filler In Animal Feed Is An Open Secret in China

Melamine, which is created from coal, is routinely added to animal feed to artificially raise the levels of protein.

For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”

I am at a loss to understand why as a country we can not manufacture our own pet food. Profit has taken the place of everything. Does anyone really believe that this substance did not make it into the human food chain?

They have fewer people inspecting product at the ports than ever before,” says Caroline Smith DeWaal, the director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. “Until China gets programs in place to verify the safety of their products, they need to be inspected by U.S. inspectors. This open-door policy on food ingredients is an open invitation for an attack on the food supply, either intentional or unintentional.”

In the age of terrorism how can we allow our imports to not be inspected and protected just to save the profit margins of large multi-national corporation? This is exactly what the Democrats were talking about when they said less than 1% of containers coming into our ports are inspected. It is time to put our security over profits. How can anyone take the Republicans seriously on Homeland Security when it was there policies that allowed an almost 100% open border policy at our ports?

Read the rest of this article here.

George Tenet on 60 Minutes

In a widely anticipated interview with 60 Minutes, George Tenet, the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, discussed his tenure at the CIA, 9/11 and the so called "slam dunk" comment. Tenet seemed combative, defensive and apologetic. Tomorrow his book "At The Center Of The Storm" hits bookstores. This book is sure to add even more fuel to the fire that Vice President Cheney had an unusually big role in the decision to go to war with Iraq. George Tenet became the scapegoat for a failed policy that chose war in Iraq even though he knew that Iraq had no part in the attacks of September 11. This interview should be seen by everyone.

George Tenet Interview Part 1
George Tenet Interview Part 2

Iraq Rebuilding Projects are Crumbling

In a sign of more tax dollars being wasted in Iraq it is now certain that rebuilding projects called successful are now crumbling.

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections — were no longer working properly.

The inspections ranged geographically from northern to southern Iraq and covered projects as varied as a maternity hospital, barracks for an Iraqi special forces unit and a power station for Baghdad International Airport.

At the airport, crucially important for the functioning of the country, inspectors found that while $11.8 million had been spent on new electrical generators, $8.6 million worth were no longer functioning.

How can we hope to stop an insurgency when the Iraqi people can not see any progress? All they see is waste and fraud and a country still crumbling. There is still less clean water and electricity than before the invasion. Everyday life for the normal Iraqi is nearly unlivable. Until real progress is achieved no amount of troops or tax money will solve this problem. When will the American people realize that so much of the two billion dollars we spend a week in Iraq is wasted and when will they say enough is enough?

Tolerance Is Controversial

In Indiana a teacher has been disciplined after allowing an article in the school newspaper which asked for tolerance for homosexuals. She was disciplined because all controversial articles need to be cleared through the principal.

The agreement she signed includes a written reprimand that says she neglected her duties as a teacher and was insubordinate in refusing to obey school officials' orders.

Sorrell said she is "very proud" of Megan Chase, the student who wrote the editorial calling for tolerance and acceptance of gays, and the Tomahawk's other writers and editors. But she said she could not financially afford to fight the school district over her discipline.

After reading this article I became extremely angry. Since when is tolerance controversial? Are we still living in America when a teacher who advocates tolerance for all is disciplined? I would guess that if the article was about how homosexuality was against the bible she would have been given a salary raise. This is disgusting on every level. When will our so called Christian nation finally realize that Christianity on its most basic level is tolerance and love. The American Taliban strikes again.

Tell Us The Mission

Please go to Tell Us The Mission

Car Bombs Don't Count

In order to lie to the people of the United States about sectarian violence in Iraq, the casualty totals do not include those killed or injured in car bombings.

U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more U.S. troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts cited in reviews of the surge of additional U.S. forces.

President Bush explained why in a television interview on Tuesday: "If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory," he told TV interviewer Charlie Rose.

When you know your policy has failed you lie to make it appear that it is working.

"Since the administration keeps saying that failure is not an option, they are redefining success in a way that suits them," said James Denselow, an Iraq specialist at London-based Chatham House, a foreign policy think tank.

This administration does not know how to tell the truth. This war is lost and it is time to admit that and make the necessary adjustments to get our troops home.

Read the rest of this article here.

Economic Growth at a 4 Year Low

It was reported by the Commerce Department that economic growth slowed to a crawl in the first three months of 2007. The GDP for that period was 1.3% following a 2.5% growth rate in the last quarter of 2006. I have posted before that I believe the collapse of the housing market will lead to a recession. This data does nothing to change my mind.

Economic growth slowed to a near crawl of 1.3 percent in the first three months of 2007, the worst performance in four years. The main culprit: the housing slump.

The fresh reading on gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, was even weaker than the 2.5 percent growth rate logged in the final three months of last year. The new figures underscored just how much momentum the economy has been losing as it copes with the strain of the troubled housing market, which has made some businesses more cautious in their spending.

Even though the economy slowed in the first quarter, inflation picked up — a development that will complicate the Fed’s work.

Read the rest of this article here.

Giuliani No Longer Supports Civil Unions

In a complete reversal of his stated position on civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, Rudy Giuliani said he does not support a law recently passed in New Hampshire allowing such unions

" Mayor Giuliani believes marriage is between one man and one woman. Domestic partnerships are the appropriate way to ensure that people are treated fairly," the Giuliani campaign said in a written response to a question from the Sun. "In this specific case the law states same sex civil unions are the equivalent of marriage and recognizes same sex unions from outside states. This goes too far and Mayor Giuliani does not support it."

I wonder if Rudy called the gay couple that he lived with after his second wife discovered his affair, with his now third wife, and told them that he was against any legal rights for them? Why do people who show no respect for marriage in any way seem so determined to tell me that my relationship is wrong? The one difference between myself and Rudy is that I have never cheated on anyone that have been in a relationship with. Is there anyone in the Republican field that can say that? These people make me sick. Rudy is a worthless panderer who has now insured that even if he won the nomination, he will lose New York.

Read the rest of this article here.

Bush Approval At An All Time Low

Those approving of the job done by President Bush has slid to its lowest level since his inauguration

President Bush's approval rating slipped to new lows in the most recent Harris Interactive survey, but he's not alone: For the first time since the series began, all of the political figures and institutions included in the survey have negative performance ratings.

Of the 1,001 American adults polled online April 20-23, only 28% had a positive view of Mr. Bush's job performance, down from 32% in February and from a high of 88% in the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The current rating is his weakest showing since his inauguration.

My question is who are these 28%? The results for Congress were not much better. This poll shows that most Americans are completely disillusioned with our political system.

Poll Results here.

Justices Raise Doubts on Campaign Finance

It would appear that the Supreme Court is ready to open loopholes in the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Law:

At issue is a major provision of the five-year-old law that bars corporations and labor unions from paying for advertisements that mention the name of a candidate for federal office and that are broadcast 60 days before an election or 30 days before a primary. By a 5-to-4 vote in December 2003, the court held that the provision, on its face, passed First Amendment muster.

Since 2003 the court has taken a decidedly conservative turn. Campaign Finance reform remains one of the greatest challenges facing the middle class. How can we reasonably expect our elected officials to represent all of their constituents when only a small percentage has the financial ability to donate. Our campaigns have become all about money. If we as the Middle Class do not force a change, we will cease to exist. The time to stand up and demand change in the way we finance campaigns is long overdo.

Read the rest of this article here.

NY Post Rewrites Story To Make It Appear Worse For Dems

Anyone that lives in New York knows that the NY Post is a worthless rag. Rewriting a story to make a political point while not acknowledging that the story has been changed is on a level with the National Enquirer. What a surprise that this paper and Fox News are owned by the same company. So much for fair and balanced reporting.

Giuliani Says a Democratic President Will Lead to Terrorism

Rudy Giuliani who made the decision to place the NYC Emergency Response Center in the World Trade Complex after it was attacked in 1993 has said that a Democratic Presidential victory will lead to another terrorist attack.

Democratic presidential candidates on Wednesday rebuked Republican rival Rudy Giuliani for suggesting that the United States could face another major terrorist attack if a Democrat is elected in 2008. The former New York mayor did not back down.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said Giuliani, who was in office on Sept. 11, 2001, should not be making the terrorist threat into “the punchline of another political attack.”

Giuliani stood by his comments Wednesday, saying Democrats don't understand the threat posed by terrorists.

“They do not seem to get the fact that there are people, terrorists in this world, really dangerous people that want to come here and kill us,” Giuliani said on “The Sean Hannity Show,” according to a transcript distributed by his campaign. “They want to take us back to not being as alert which to me will just extend this war much, much longer.”

Did Rudy forget that it was a Republican President that was in office on September 11, 2001? Did he forget that Osama Bin Laden is still free? Did he forget that those responsible for the 1993 bombing are all in jail as a result of action by the Clinton Administration? Rudy is taking a play out of Rove's book but this time it will not work. The Bush Administration has been a disaster on every level and Rudy can't lick their boots quickly enough.

Read the rest of this article here.

Still Support This Surge?

President Bush said when the Iraqi's stand up then the U.S. will stand down. All the surge has done is increase the U.S. military dead in Iraq.

A devastating suicide car bombing on Monday killed nine American soldiers and wounded 20 others near a patrol base in Diyala Province, the military announced early today.

It was one of the most lethal suicide bomb attacks on American troops in Iraq. Another occurred on Dec. 21, 2004, when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest walked into a mess tent on an American base in Mosul and detonated his charge, killing 14 United States soldiers.

Today on CNN Rep. John Murtha said "I think the surge has failed. I think there was no possibility that it was going to work."

How much longer will the American people stand by, nearly silent to the growing carnage in Iraq? When will they finally and unequivocally tell the President enough is enough?

Read the rest of this article here.

Sales Of Existing Homes Plunge

I have been telling friends for quite some time that the current housing market was way too overpriced and that eventually the bottom will fall out. It seems the bottom keeps getting lower.

The National Association of Realtors said today that sales of existing homes, which account for about 80 percent of all home sales, fell 8.4 percent in March. That was the steepest decline since 1989.

At the same time, prices also dropped. The median price of an existing single-family home decreased 0.9 percent last month, to $215,300, compared with a year earlier.

With the sub prime mortgage disaster still unfolding and home prices at historically unaffordable prices, this was bound to happen. Just how long this slump will last and what effect it will have on the broader economy is still unknown. I believe the housing market is just the first in what will be many dominoes falling that will lead the U.S. into a recession by late this year or early next year. This is the nightmare scenario that Republicans have been dreading. Middle Class wages have been stagnant for years while home prices have climbed beyond their reach. This is the perfect storm created by years of foolish policies that benefit those at the upper levels of the economic scale.

Read the rest of this article here.

Rove has Argument Over Global Warming

The White House correspondents dinner turned a bit combative when Laurie David, the producer of "An Inconvenient Truth" and singer Sheryl Crow met Karl Rove.

As Ms. Crow and Ms. David described it on the Huffington Post Web site on Sunday, when Mr. Rove turned toward his table, Ms. Crow touched his arm and “Karl swung around and spat, ‘Don’t touch me.’ ”

Both sides agreed that Ms. Crow told him, “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us,” to which Mr. Rove responded, “I don’t work for you, I work for the American people.” Ms. Crow and Ms. David wrote that Ms. Crow shot back, “We are the American people.”

In their Web posting, Ms. Crow and Ms. David described Mr. Rove as responding with “anger flaring,” and as having “exploded with even more venom” as the argument continued.

“She came over to insult me,” Mr. Rove said Saturday night, “and she succeeded.”

This is fun stuff.

Infant Mortality Grows In The South

Are cuts in welfare and Medicaid responsible for a leap in the rate of infant mortality in the South? No one is sure but the trends are alarming as the infant mortality rate skyrocketed in Mississippi.

To the shock of Mississippi officials, who in 2004 had seen the infant mortality rate — defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live births — fall to 9.7, the rate jumped sharply in 2005, to 11.4. The national average in 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9. Smaller rises also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw rises in 2004 and have not yet reported on 2005.

Most striking, here and throughout the country, is the large racial disparity. In Mississippi, infant deaths among blacks rose to 17 per thousand births in 2005 from 14.2 per thousand in 2004, while those among whites rose to 6.6 per thousand from 6.1. (The national average in 2003 was 5.7 for whites and 14.0 for blacks.)

The Republicans constantly talk about being a culture of life yet every day we see results of their policies whether it is the War in Iraq, the lack of Gun Control or the cutting of social programs that lead to more and more death. I think it is time that they stop using the term "A Culture of Life". It is false advertising at the highest level.

Gore campaign team assembles in secret

Is former Vice President Gore assembling a campaign staff? According to this article it would appear he is:

Friends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House.

But, aware that he may step into the wide open race for the White House, former strategists are sounding out a shadow team that could run his campaign at short notice. In approaching former campaign staff, including political strategists and communications officials, they are making clear they are not acting on formal instructions from Mr Gore, 59, but have not been asked to stop.

I would welcome his entry into the race. I believe he would be nearly unbeatable.