J's Cafe Nette

Archive for July, 2007

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman had an interview with The Hill and discussed some of the problems facing this Congress, especially as it pertains to the war in Iraq.

Lieberman is a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and says we should also keep our eyes on Iran.

It seems Independence has set him free to vote his conscience and not a party.

Ever since Connecticut Democrats refused to back him for a fourth term in Congress, Joe Lieberman has been burnishing his independent credentials in the narrowly divided Senate while becoming increasingly critical of the Democratic Party on the war in Iraq.

Lieberman, the Democrats’ 2000 vice presidential nominee, insists he is not actively considering joining the Republican Party. But he is keeping that possibility wide open as his disenchantment grows with Democratic leaders. The main sticking points are their attempts to end the war in Iraq and their hesitation to take a harder line against Iran.

“I think either [Democrats] are, in my opinion, respectfully, naïve in thinking we can somehow defeat this enemy with talk, or they’re simply hesitant to use American power, including military power,” Lieberman said in a wide-ranging interview with The Hill.

“There is a very strong group within the party that I think doesn’t take the threat of Islamist terrorism seriously enough.”

Lieberman says he is annoyed by the mudslinging on Capitol Hill and Democrats’ unwillingness to work with President Bush. But his critics say he has contributed to that polarization by his rhetoric and refusal to compel Bush to find a new way forward in Iraq.

As Lieberman sees it, however, the Democratic Party has slipped away from its “most important and successful times” of the middle of last century, where it was tough on Communism and progressive on domestic policy.

“I fear that some people take this position also because anything President Bush is for, they’ll be against, and that’s wrong,” said Lieberman, a staunch advocate of the war. “There’s a great tradition in our history of partisanship generally receding when it comes to foreign policy. But for the moment we’ve lost that.”

I know many Democrats feel he is a turncoat because he chose to defend his Senate seat from Ned Lamont as an Independent and won the general election.

As one lady in pink put it:

“He used to have a heart and soul, and he used to care about people,” said Leslie Angeline, an activist with the anti-war group Code Pink, who held a 24-day hunger strike until she could meet with Lieberman about his position on Iran.
Angeline is facing an unlawful entry charge after she refused to leave Lieberman’s office during her strike.

To which I would say he’s the same man now he was two years ago. I felt he betrayed his principles when he ran for Vice President, but one has to do what the top of the ticket wants one to do in that situation.

He was once called the “conscience of the Senate” and is no way a flaming conservative, despite the fact the Democratic party actually kicked him out and he didn’t leave voluntarily.

The voters in his state knew they had a good senator and had the good sense to keep him in office.

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Can tou beleive this guy? Self-preservation is a strong instinct.

Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, whose home back in Alaska was raided by federal investigators Monday in a wide-ranging corruption investigation, has threatened to place a hold on the Democratic-drafted ethics legislation just passed by the House and expected on the Senate floor by week’s end.

The senator told a closed session of fellow Republicans today, including Vice President Dick Cheney, that he was upset that the measure would interfere with his travel to and from Alaska – and vowed to block it.

Story

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Tell me this isn’t crazy. Sounds like they’re doing the American peoples work. Yeah Right!
Well, I guess you could say they learned from the best.

House Democratic leaders are intent on sidetracking bipartisan attempts to change course in Iraq at least until fall, officials said Tuesday, rather than allow nervous Republicans to vote for legislation that lacks a troop withdrawal deadline.

Several lawmakers and aides said the goal was to deny members of the GOP rank and file a chance to proclaim their independence from President Bush by voting for a limited measure - after months of backing his policy in an increasingly unpopular war.

Story

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I guess the Democrats aren’t wasting any time.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., appears to have flip flopped on his pledge to sign federal legislation replacing all federal taxes with a 23 percent sales tax, according to an unedited FairTax.org video reviewed by ABC News.

“He has not taken this pledge,” Thompson spokesperson Linda Rozett told ABC News.

The Thompson camp’s denial appears to be contradicted, however, by an unedited FairTax.org video in which Thompson is asked, “Senator, if the House and Senate pass the ‘Fair Tax’ bill do you feel right now that you would sign it?”

Thompson replies to the question by saying, “Yeah, absolutely.”

“Fred Thompson may have spoken without thinking. But the tape is accurate,” said FairTax.org spokesman Ken Hoagland.

The Democratic National Committee seized on the all-but-announced candidate’s apparent contradiction with his own staff, questioning whether the actor turned politician is qualified for the role of commander-in-chief.

“Fumbling Fred Thompson’s flip flop on the ‘Fair Tax’ issue shows once again that his presidential campaign is just not ready for prime-time,” said DNC spokeswoman Amaya Smith. “Next time Thompson should make sure that he’s on the same script as his advisors before changing his position on an issue.”

Story

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Michael Yon has another of his fine dispatches up telling of what’s going on in Baqubah.

Right now Michael is in Singapore getting some much-needed rest.

In the first of two parts he tells of some of the things going on in Baqubah. The first quote is something from the Al Qaeda Islamic State. Propaganda. Michael quotes their statement and in the brackets and bold tells the truth as he witnessed it:

“The strongest kinds of explosives are awaiting them on the streets and in the allies(sic). [This was true: we lost a soldier to an IED. But our guys caught most of the bombs, in many cases when local Iraqis pointed them out. Others that remain hidden will be neutralized by our engineer and EOD teams in a thorough, methodical process that will continue until the city is cleared.] Snipers of the Islamic State of Iraq are going ahead hunting down dozens of soldiers. They are in control of the high-rise buildings [They were until our guys killed them], and ambushes and traps are awaiting them everywhere. [This was true: there were ambushes and traps everywhere. But our guys killed them, ran them off, or foiled the ambushes in nearly ever case. We did lose one Stryker and one Bradley.] The American Army, in spite of its numbers and equipment, could not penetrate the region except for a couple of minutes to film so as to sell the photographs to the lying media. [The penetration was persistent and pervasive and eventually complete, something captured on film by dozens of reporters who finally embedded for the initial days of the operation. A minor point: the military’s own photographs and videos are always available free of charge to media agencies.] It is during those few minutes that a great number of airplanes were downed. [Completely false.] We are announcing this good news to the nation as the soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq are basking in their victory in all parts of this and the rest of the provinces [It would be dangerous for al Qaeda to celebrate here in Baqubah, or in Anbar, or up in Mosul, or down in Basra, or in Sadr City. In fact, they are running out of places to peek out from, let alone bask in.], while the Crusaders will not escape this fierce battle but with slit throats and a defeat, the likes of which has never been witnessed.” [There are many American soldiers on FOB Warhorse in Baqubah. They’ve extended their invitation for al Qaeda to come visit.]
4-2 SBCT Daily Intsum

Al Qaeda is using the lack of food as a weapon against the civilians in this area, figuring if they are hungry they will re-join them.

Michael Yon tells how the food was obtained by Americans and Iraqis: Read the rest of this entry »

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What is going on? Seems like even the Republicans are giving more money to Democrats.

July 31 (Bloomberg) — Lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm that’s home to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and Bush administration official Jay Lefkowitz, have given more to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign than to all of the top Republican candidates combined.
Kirkland, based in Chicago, is one of several corporate law firms that traditionally backed Republicans where lawyers are turning to Democratic candidates. Lawyers say the change is largely due to disenchantment with the Republican Party’s social policies and the war in Iraq.

“The Iraq war has a very significant pull on people, but it’s not just limited to that,” said Kirk Radke, a New York partner at Kirkland who is fundraising for Clinton. “There’s the need for a better posture within the international community.”

Large U.S. firms such as Jones Day and Sidley Austin, which donated more to President George W. Bush in 2000 than to Democratic candidate Al Gore, are giving thousands more to Democratic hopefuls than Republicans. Top Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds are also giving more to Democrats.

Clinton, a New York senator, and Barack Obama, an Illinois senator, are benefiting the most from the largest law firms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, a nonprofit organization that tracks political contributions. Five of Clinton’s 10 largest donor groups are from law firms.

`Conventional Wisdom’

“Firms want to be on the good side of who they think is going to be the incumbent, whether or not that person is good for business,” said Bruce MacEwen, a nonpartisan New York legal consultant. “The conventional wisdom is that the Democrats are going to win the White House.”

Even at Jones Day, the 2,167-lawyer firm that represents the Republican National Committee, attorneys have given 3 1/2 times as much to the three Democratic frontrunners, including $131,333 to Obama. The Cleveland-based firm’s lawyers donated more than twice as much to Bush than to Gore in 2000 and slightly more to Bush in 2004.

Overall, lawyers in and out of large firms have given $18.27 million to Democrats Clinton, Obama and John Edwards, compared with $5.75 million to Republicans Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina and a trial lawyer, leads the pack, backed mainly by attorneys who sue on behalf of shareholders and individuals.

The donations of big firm lawyers mirror those of the largest Wall Street investment bankers who have also backed Democrats this year. Employees at the top 10 Wall Street investment banks gave more than $1.4 million to Democrats and a little more than $900,000 to Republicans, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

`Hometown Favoritism’

Republicans such as Lefkowitz say part of the imbalance is due to the lack of a clear frontrunner among the GOP candidates.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm now on the Democratic side,” said Lefkowitz, who is serving as Bush’s special envoy for human rights in North Korea. “There’s a healthy race between Clinton and Obama and that’s exciting a lot of people. In firms that have big offices in cities like New York and Chicago, you’re going to see some hometown favoritism.”

Kirkland, whose clients include Boeing Co. and Apple Inc., has given $194,601 to the top three Democrats compared with $84,750 to Giuliani, McCain and Romney. Lawyers at the firm gave 28 percent more to Bush than Gore in 2000 and 34 percent more to Bush than to Democratic candidate John Kerry in 2004.
Law Firm Donations

Read the rest of this entry »

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In a land where human life has no meaning the Taliban has executed a second South Korean, who had gone into Afghanistan as part of a church group to help the people of Afghanistan. The Taliban has promised to kill more if their deadlines for concessions are not met.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AP) — Police discovered the body of a second South Korean hostage in central Afghanistan, and the Taliban threatened Tuesday to kill more captives if their demands were not met by a new deadline.

South Korea pleaded with the international community to set aside the normal practice of refusing to cave into hostage-takers’ demands, urging a peaceful resolution to the standoff. Relatives of some of the 21 remaining hostages appealed for U.S. help in freeing their loved ones.

South Korea ”is well aware of how the international community deals with these kinds of abduction cases,” said a statement from the president’s office. ”But it also believes that it would be worthwhile to use flexibility in the cause of saving the precious lives of those still in captivity and is appealing (to) the international community to do so.”

The comments came after Afghan officials found the body of Shim Sung-min, 29, a former information technology worker who was volunteering with the South Korean church group on an aid mission to Afghanistan.

He was killed Monday after two deadlines given by the Taliban demanding the release of insurgent prisoners passed with no action. Last week, the church group’s leader, Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was fatally shot in unclear circumstances.

They were killed for being Christian volunteers in a country that has a segment of its population that wants no help for their people. They especially want no help from Christians.

These people truly died for Jesus. May their families find peace knowing their loved ones are now reaping the rewards they earned on earth.

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Ahmed Belbacha, an inmate at Guantanamo from Algeria, would rather stay at Gitmo in solitary confinement than return to his native country where the authorities or Islamists will torture or kill him.

An inmate of Guantanamo Bay who spends 22 hours each day in an isolation cell is fighting for the right to stay in the notorious internment camp.

Ahmed Belbacha fears that he will be tortured or killed if the United States goes ahead with plans to return him to his native Algeria.

The Times has learnt that Mr Belbacha, who lived in Britain for three years, has filed an emergency motion at the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC asking for his transfer out of Guantanamo to be halted. He was cleared for release from Camp Delta in February and his lawyers believe that his return to Algerian custody is imminent.

Mr Belbacha says that if he returns to Algeria, he faces the threat of torture by security services and murder by Islamist terrorists.

Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel with the human rights lawyers Reprieve and Mr Belbacha’s lawyer, has asked the US courts to block any transfer. “Ahmed is being held in camp six, the harshest part of Guantanamo,” he said. “His cell is all steel, there are no windows, he is not allowed to communicate with other prisoners and he gets just two hours exercise each day in a metal cage.

“He says his cell in Guantanamo is like a grave and that although it sounds crazy he would rather stay in those conditions than go back to Algeria. The fact is that he is really, really scared about what might happen to him in Algeria.”

I guess Gitmo isn’t as bad as some other places.

Story.

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It’s official now. The Iraqi Parliament has adjourned until Sept. 4 without passing legislation that would address the benchmarks Congress has set for us to keep our troops in their country.

I’ve been reading for several days they’ve been having a problem with even getting a quorum of 100 people present and yesterday the Speaker called the recess without a quorum present.

They are set to come back just 11 days before Gen. Petraeus is to give his report to Congress, and it might have gone over a bit better with some members if the parliament had worked and tried to pass legislation dealing with the political problems in that country.

Iraq’s parliament yesterday shrugged off U.S. criticism and adjourned for a month, as key lawmakers declared there is no point waiting any longer for the prime minister to deliver Washington-demanded benchmark legislation for their vote.

Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the final three-hour session without a quorum present and declared lawmakers will not reconvene until Sept. 4.

That date is just 11 days before the top U.S. military and political officials in Iraq must report to Congress on U.S. progress in taming violence and organizing conditions for sectarian reconciliation.

The recess, coupled with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s failure to get the key draft laws before legislators, may nourish growing opposition to the war among U.S. lawmakers, who could refuse to continue to fund it.

Critics questioned how Iraqi legislators can take a summer break while U.S. forces are fighting and dying to create conditions under which important laws could be passed toward ending sectarian political divisions and bloodshed.

But in leaving parliament, many lawmakers blamed Mr. al-Maliki.

“Even if we sit next month, there’s no guarantee that important business will be done,” said Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish legislator. The parliament extended its session by a month, having initially planned a recess for July and August.

I guess it’s not much different from our Congress, now that I think of it. They haven’t done anything either and are preparing to take the month of August off.

It must be written in stone somewhere that taking legislative holidays is a right earned by being elected to make your country better.

Of course, with all the griping that’s been coming out of our Congress this year about the Iraq war I can’t really blame the Iraqis for leaving in the heat of summer with air conditioning probably being sporadic at best. They know what Congress intends to do even if they pass all the bills our Congress wants them to pass.

It’s too bad our troops have to work in all that heat, but I don’t hear them complaining.

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Thanks to the Washington Post, far from a Republican newspaper, there is a list. Go read.

Here’s a sample:

Party Voting Totals
92.7% Democratic (233 members)

84.2% Republican (202 members)

88.7% All Members (435 members)

100% – Charlie Norwood (R-GA) DEAD as of Feb. 07
100% – Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
99.7% – Nita Lowey (D-NY)
99.4% – Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA)
99.1% – Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
98.9% – Xavier Bacerra (D-CA)
98.7% – Diana DeGetter (D-CO)
98.6% – Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
98.6% – Hilda Solis (D-CA)
98.6% – Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)
98.6% – Al Wynn (D-MD)

This is not the complete list so go read it all.

Hat Tip: Captain Ed <):)

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It is becoming clear that we have very few honest politicians left in Washington. These power and money hungry individuals have themselves so entrenched in their part time jobs as legislators that it seems the only way to remove some of them is through investigations by the FBI, IRS and local authorities.

While I believe all are innocent until proven guilty this story from Fox News once again shows there is at least the appearance of corruption in Congress.

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents searched the home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens on Monday.

Stevens, who was formerly chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is the latest lawmaker reportedly under investigation for exchanging federal contracts for bribes, illegal gratuities and unreported gifts. The Stevens probe relates to dealings with VECO Corp., Alaska’s largest oil-field engineering firm. VECO has several federal contracts to provide logistics support for arctic research.

Perhaps what we should demand is that anyone desiring to run for office lay open all of their financial dealings once a year beginning with their entrance in to any race, local, state or federal. Show the public, on line or otherwise where your interests truly lie. I am not asking for just a tax return, all transactions which could give the appearance of impropriety or show complete honesty would be required.

Then write into law that anyone, no matter the position found in violation of the laws not only of the office they serve, but those of the United States, will be immediately removed and a special election (not an appointment by a Governor) will ensue.

I know, this is just a pipe dream. The same inidivduals of which I speak would be the ones to write legislation which would be signed into law. It would also eliminate many of the lobbyists and special interest groups on which the politics in this country thrives. So, nah, this would never, ever work..and besides even if it did happen, there would be loopholes and end arounds and we ordinary folk would continue to be duped by those in “power”.

I do not mean to imply that every politician in this country is unscrupulous. There are those who have served honorably. The problem is, the longer in power, the better the chances you will owe someone or they will owe you. Once that cycle begins, the taxpayer has no way of maintaining an account of every deal made and every payback accepted.

Earmarks are simple to slide past the noses of even those who carefully track this information and when they are uncovered or disclosed, it is too late.

When was the last time anyone heard of this money being returned to the till in Washington? That’s what I thought.

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The Anchoress has tagged me to tell you five things I love about Jesus.

1. Because He first loved me a nobody, who was a somebody to Him. Even the hairs on my head are numbered, and when He was on the Cross, I was on His mind.

2. Because He is God and there is no other. None before Him and none after Him.

3. Because in His earthly Incarnation He was also Man, and as such He experienced the things we experience. He wept at the deaths of friends, He felt sorrow and compassion for the sick and healed them as well as raising the dead. He knows how I feel under any circumstance and He cares and helps me through the bad times and rejoices with me in the good times.

4. Because He loves me enough He left all the glory of Heaven and became a man with not even a place to call His home. He slept outside or at friends’ houses, but owned nothing of His own while in His earthly Incarnation.

5. He is the Perfect Son Who obeys His Father, and because He is the Perfect Lamb of God His shed blood, burial and resurrection have made it possible for all mankind to be redeemed and to live with Him and the Father for all eternity in His home with many mansions.

“Come unto me all those who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

“For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

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A legendary coach in the world of football passed away today. Fox News Reports:

Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected the ingenious schemes that became known as the West Coast offense during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75.

Walsh died at his Woodside home Monday morning following a long battle with leukemia.
“This is just a tremendous loss for all of us, especially to the Bay Area because of what he meant to the 49ers,” said Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, the player most closely linked to Walsh’s tenure with the team. “For me personally, outside of my dad he was probably the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss him.”

The sport has lost a legend. Mr. Walsh will be missed not only by those in San Francisco and at Stanford but by those of us who remember the many thrills his 49ers provided fans everywhere.

Our condolences are extended to his family and to those who knew him best through the sport he loved.

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Tom Snyder who pioneered late-late night television has died of leukemia at the age of 71.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Tom Snyder, who pioneered the late-late network TV talk show with a personal yet abrasive style and his robust, trademark laugh, has died from complications associated with leukemia. He was 71.
Snyder died Sunday in San Francisco, his longtime producer and friend Mike Horowicz told The Associated Press on Monday.

“Tom was a fighter,” Horowicz said. “I know he had tried many different treatments.”

Prickly and ego-driven, Snyder conducted numerous memorable interviews as host of NBC’s “Tomorrow,” which followed Johnny Carson’s “Tonight” show from 1973 to ‘82. A signature was the constant billowing of cigarette smoke around his head.

Snyder’s style, his show’s set and the show itself marked an abrupt change at 1 a.m. from Carson’s program. Snyder might joke with the crew in the sparsely appointed studio, but he was more likely to joust with guests such as the irascible science fiction writer Harlan Ellison.

Story.

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More good news from Afghanistan via The Jawa Report.

A senior Taliban leader, Qari Faiz Mohammad, was killed by Afghan National Security Forces and ISAF security operation July 23 in southern Afghanistan.

“The Taliban leadership has suffered another severe setback,” said Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, ISAF spokesperson. “Each successful operation ensures insurgent disruption that gives way for stability operations to take place.”

The Jawa Report post has links which define in detail the significance of the demise of this “leader.”

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Michael E. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, while Kenneth M. Pollack is the director of research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. Brookings is a center-left leaning think tank.

These two men have been critical of the war as they state in their op-ed in the New York Times.

VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.

Quite a positive quote from two who thought the war was lost.

Kind of what Michael Yon and the milbloggers have been telling us.

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The other day I wrote about some groups such as Moveon.org and Daily Kos organizing a boycott of Fox News Advertisers.

Today, I get the news that it goes deeper than at first thought.

Here’s a little bit of the story to show you some of the organizations in charge of this boycott:

Yesterday, I wrote about MoveOn.org, the Daily Kos and the Campaign for America’s Future joining forces to silence the conservative voices on FNC. I’ve now uncovered more information who’s all involved in this unholy alliance. First, I went to CAF’s About Us page. Here’s what it said:

Over 100 Prominent Americans, citizen activists and policy experts concerned about our country and our planet, joined together to launch and build the Campaign for America’s Future. We are challenging the big money corporate agenda by encouraging Americans to speak up, to discuss and debate a new vision of an economy and a future that works for all of us.

America’s Future insists that the question of falling wages and rising insecurity be placed at the center of our national debate. We challenge those who suggest that nothing can be done and expose the conservative agenda that has made things worse. America’s Future works to revitalize a progressive agenda, and fights to make this economy work for working people once again. We engage citizens, activists and political leaders in a renewed debate about the kind of country, and the kind of world, we want to build for the generations yet to come.

When I read the line about CAF being a group of citizen activists and policy experts, red flags galore went off so I went to their advisors page. Here’s some of the people that serve as advisors to CAF:

Ann Beaudry, PFAW; Mary Frances Berry, US Commission on Civil Rights; Julian Bond, NAACP Board Chair; Hodding Carter; Betty Friedan; Tom Hayden, ex-husband of Jane Fonda, fmr. Gore Campaign manager; Denis Hayes, Earth Day founder; Jim Hightower, Hightower Radio; Patricia Ireland, fmr. Pres. NOW; Jesse L. Jackson, Rainbow Coalition; Gerald W. McEntee, AFSCME; Howard Metzenbaum, US Senator (retired); Robert Reich, Brandeis University, Former Secretary of Labor; Mark Ritchie, Inst for Agriculture and Trade Policy; John J. Sweeney, AFL-CIO; Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO.

Does that sound like a list of “citizen activists”? In my opinion, it sounds more like a group of paid lobbyists and Democratic strategists. That’s why I did more digging. In CAF’s FAQ page, someone asked if they could contribute to their organization. The unsurprising response was “Yes!” They then linked to a secure website to contribute online. After that, they listed this address for people wanting to simply send a check via snail mail:

Campaign for America’s Future
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20006

Please make your check out to “Campaign for America’s Future.”

I didn’t think that citizen activists maintained offices on K Street in Washington, DC. That’s because K Street is known for housing major lobbying firms. That’s why I’ve nicknamed K Street the Lobbyists’ Lair. I’ll stand by that nickname.

Read the rest of the story on Let Freedom Ring Blog. It will open your eyes to the concerted effort to shut down conservative free speech on our nation’s television airwaves.

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I try my best not to be a Bush basher but things like this make it hard. Why on Gods great earth would this report not be released? Does this administration have a conscience?

A surgeon general’s report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration’s policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.

The report described the link between poverty and poor health, urged the U.S. government to help combat widespread diseases as a key aim of its foreign policy, and called on corporations to help improve health conditions in the countries where they operate.

Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Richard H. Carmona, who commissioned the “Call to Action on Global Health” while serving as surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, recently cited its suppression as an example of the Bush administration’s frequent efforts during his tenure to give scientific documents a political twist. At a July 10 House committee hearing, Carmona did not cite Steiger by name or detail the report’s contents and its implications for American public health.

Carmona told lawmakers that, as he fought to release the document, he was “called in and again admonished . . . via a senior official who said, ‘You don’t get it.’ ” He said a senior official told him that “this will be a political document, or it will not be released.”

Story

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That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Republicans increasingly are backing a new approach in the Iraq war that could become the party’s mantra come September. It would mean narrowly limited missions for U.S. troops in Iraq but let President Bush decide when troops should leave.

So far, the idea has not attracted the attention of Democratic leaders. They are under substantial pressure by anti-war groups to consider only legislation that orders troops from Iraq.

But the GOP approach quickly is becoming the attractive alternative for Republican lawmakers who want to challenge Bush on the unpopular war without backtracking from their past assertions that it would be disastrous to set deadlines for troop withdrawals.

“This is a necessary adjustment in the national debate to reintroduce bipartisanship, to stop the ‘gotcha’ politics that are going on that seem to be driven by fringes on both sides and change the terms of the discussion,” said Rep. Phil English, R-Pa.

English is among the more than 40 Republicans in the House and Senate who are sponsoring legislation intended to shift the mission of U.S. troops. Several other GOP lawmakers, facing tight elections next year and a strong anti-war sentiment in their districts, say they are considering this approach.

Story

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No matter the outcome of the talks between President Bush and the new Prime Minister of England, Gordon Brown, this statement from Englands relatively new leader is encouraging.

“And we should acknowledge the debt the world owes to the United States for its leadership in this fight against international terrorism,” he added.

Mr. Brown appears to desire a close relationship both with the President and the United States and if he is a strong leader he will have just that. He gives the impression that he understands there is no better friend than America and the bond between the two countries must be preserved.

“It is firmly in the British national interest that we have a strong relationship with the US, our single most important bilateral relationship.”

Mr Brown said the shared ideals of two centuries of history “have linked the destinies” of the two countries.

While the President enjoyed a tremendous relationship with Tony Blair, I think it is only fair to see what Prime Minister Brown brings to the table. Based on his remarks, and not those of others within his government, I believe he has laid the foundation for Britain and America to remain not two countries with one foreign policy but allies who recognize the threats the world is facing in this century.

As for the debt the world owes the United States, we have always given generously in money, manpower, technology and shed much blood for those in need. I cannot imagine living in an America where its people would do any the less.

Read More

HT: Lucianne

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Remember not too many years ago when Uday Hussein would kill members of national Iraqi teams who didn’t win? He was in charge of the Olympics but I’m sure he was in charge of other things too.

Well, today the Iraqi soccer team defeated the Saudi team to win the Asian Cup for soccer, and instead of killing people there was a sense of national pride.

Iraq erupted in joy and celebratory gunfire on Sunday when the country’s national football squad won the Asian Cup and united its bitterly divided communities in a rare moment of celebration.
Thousands of Iraqis, including members of the security forces, defied a strict government ceasefire order to welcome the team’s 1-0 victory over local rivals Saudi Arabia with an intense barrage of gunfire.

Soldiers, police and civilian gunmen loosed off long volleys of automatic fire skywards and into the waters of the Tigris within seconds of the final whistle in Jakarta, beamed live to cafes and homes across the country.

The Iraqi victory against the three-time Asian Cup champions was a precious moment of shared national joy in a country beset by civil strife.

“Now it is our right to enjoy this victory that our heroic team has brought to us. They have brought us joy that we never experienced in the past, when we suffered greatly,” said Haidar Mustafa, a Baghdad student.

Around him in a downtown coffee shop, dozens of fans leapt and sang with joy after seeing skipper Younis Mahmoud’s powerful header seal a first Asian Cup victory for his mixed team of Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs and Kurds.

From the southern Shiite port city of Basra, to executed Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein’s northern hometown of Tikrit and even to Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, flag-waving crowds celebrated.

What a difference the deaths of those thugs has meant, and for the first time, we are seeing national unity and not just sectarian unity.

Maybe there’s some hope for the Iraqi people after all.

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From Friday’s Omega Letter:

I was reading the comments posted by readers of the Huffington Post in response to a column posted by Max Blumenthal about the “Christians United For Israel Tour” Washington summit meeting, hosted by San Antonio pastor John Hagee.

The column was entitled, “Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United For Israel Tour.”

Blumenthal’s column fairly dripped with hate for Christians in particular, but reserving some for Jews who collaborate with them.

“CUFI has added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby. Hagee and his minions have forged close ties with the Bush White House and members of Congress from Sen. Joseph Lieberman to Sen. John McCain.

In its call for a unilateral military attack on Iran and the expansion of Israeli territory, CUFI has found unwavering encouragement from traditional pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and elements of the Israeli government.”

Let’s digest that before moving on, ok. The warmongering Christians are in a conspiracy with other pro-Israel groups and elements of the expansionist Israeli government to destroy Iran.

Now that we know who the players are; warmongering Christians and expansionist Israel, Blumenthal warns that the Christians are not just warmongers, they are duplicitous, as well.

“But CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers – Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. – must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation. Over a dozen CUFI members eagerly revealed to me their excitement at the prospect of Armageddon occurring tomorrow.”

The real motive behind Christians United For Israel, according to Blumenthal, is suspect, because what Christians really want to do is convert Jews to Christianity.

There are two ways to look at that motive. The first is positive.

The Bible says that Jesus is the only way to heaven and my greatest earthly obligation is to do everything I can to keep people from going to hell. I have nothing to gain in this lifetime by seeing someone converted to Christianity. Read the rest of this entry »

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Some things just never go away.

BOISE, Idaho — News of racist threats dogging a college football star and his fiancée may surprise most residents of one of the nation’s whitest states.

But Idaho blacks have seen trouble coming ever since Boise State tailback Ian Johnson, who is black, got down on one knee Jan. 1 to propose to cheerleader Chrissy Popadics, who is white, on national TV after scoring the winning points at the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

The couple will marry today. Johnson has reported receiving more than 30 threatening letters and phone calls from inside and outside Idaho.

“When Ian did that on television, every black person I know said, ‘He’s a fool. That boy just asked for trouble,’ ” said Keith Anderson, a former Boise State football player who has been married to a white woman for 14 years and has two sons.

“I thought, ‘Uh-oh, this is gonna bite him,’ ” said Mamie Oliver, a leader in Idaho’s African-American community since she came to teach social work at Boise State in 1972.

The threats have been widely publicized this week on national sports-talk radio, with some speculating the incident will add to Idaho’s reputation as a racist haven and hurt Boise State’s recruiting efforts.

But what’s happened to the couple has nothing to do with Idaho’s rank as the seventh-whitest state in the nation, Oliver said.

Instead, she said, it’s about human nature.

“There’s some people that have the attitude that people don’t have the right to be in love with who they’re in love with. It became the black young man proposing to the white girl. People have baggage, and it just caused that stuff to come out.”

Oliver now teaches at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa and is pastor at Mountain View Community Fellowship. She said that what’s happened to Johnson and Popadics is more complex than racism alone.

“Social baggage”

“It’s social baggage. We do it with color, class, age, gender, power. All those categories give people excuses to be negative toward other human beings.”

Story

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This Omega Letter report I got yesterday seems to tie in well with the headline I read this morning:
Hezbollah: We Are Ready to Strike Israel Again

First, the first four paragraphs from the AP story today:

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah’s leader said Saturday that the militant Islamic group’s war last summer with Israel has left the U.S. vision of a “new Middle East” in shambles and claimed the guerrilla group was ready to strike Israel again at any time.

During the 34-day war in southern Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a new era of democracy and peace in the region, “a new Middle East.”

But Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, said the U.S. vision aimed at reinforcing Israel.

“There is no new Middle East,” Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told a mass rally in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, one of the towns hardest hit by the war. “It’s gone with the wind.”

Keep your eyes on Israel.

Special Report: Iran’s War Plan Emerging

This past week, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad paid a state visit to Syria to meet with Bashar al Assad, president of Syria, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, and with the senior Hamas leadership headquartered in Damascus.

During their meeting, the Syrian president promised his Iranian counterpart to refrain from opening peace negotiations with Israel in exchange for massive Iranian military aid and Tehran’s support of Syrian interests in Lebanon.

This was reported Saturday by the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, which is published in London.

Following their lengthy meeting in Damascus, President Bashar Assad said, “I am calm today, more than ever.” After their meeting, the Iranian president also met privately with Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas political bureau director Khaled Mashaal.

According to the report, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed to help Syria with nuclear research and chemical weapons and to equip its navy with surface-to-sea missiles of the type that Hezbollah used to attack the Israel Navy Hanit warship in the course of the Second Lebanon War.

It also promised to build in Syria a factory for the manufacture of medium-range missiles and to allot $1 billion to the purchase of advanced tanks and combat planes from Russia. Read the rest of this entry »

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OH NO!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks his mind and that is a big part of his cachet in anything-goes New York. But a sexual harassment lawsuit he settled in 2000 and other racy comments over the years show how his blunt style could prove a liability if he runs for president as an independent.

Before his election as mayor in 2001, Bloomberg was the target of a sexual harassment suit by a female executive who accused him of making repeated raunchy sexual comments while he was chief executive of his financial company, Bloomberg LP.

Bloomberg denied the accusations. Both sides were barred from commenting because of confidentiality agreements. Stu Loeser, the mayor’s spokesman, said Friday he had no comment for this story.

The suit was a minor annoyance for Bloomberg during the mayoral race in 2001 and was not an issue in his 2005 re-election.

But the suit and other potential embarrassments resulting from Bloomberg’s tendency to speak his mind are largely unknown to the rest of the country and are certain to be re-examined if the billionaire media mogul undertakes a third-party, self-financed presidential campaign for 2008.

Story

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Will someone please explain this one to me? Do we now Consider an embryo a child? Aren’t we getting just a little carried away on this one?

With the active encouragement of the Bush administration, U.S. scientists in the past year have developed several methods for creating embryonic stem cells without having to destroy human embryos.

But some who now wish to test their alternatively derived cells have found themselves stymied by an unexpected barrier: President Bush’s stem cell policy.

The 2001 policy says that federal funds may not be used to study embryonic stem cells created after Aug. 9 of that year. It is based on the assumption that the only way to make the cells is by destroying human embryos — a truism in 2001 but not any longer.

As a result, the National Institutes of Health recently refused to consider a grant application for what would have been the first federal study to compare several of the new, less politically contentious stem cell lines.

“This is not the way to make good health policy,” said Robert Lanza, the frustrated vice president for research and scientific development at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester, Mass. Lanza submitted the study proposal with stem cell experts from several major research labs.

Upcoming changes in the NIH’s stem cell funding rules may eventually help resolve that problem. But agency officials and others say the policy tangle is more complicated than that. Although Lanza’s technique and other new approaches do not destroy embryos, they may run afoul of a long-standing congressional ban on studies that “harm” human embryos.

That vague language raises the perplexing question of how one would know whether an embryo had been harmed.

At the center of the debate is a new technique, pioneered by ACT, that obtains stem cells from human embryos while leaving the embryos functionally intact. A single cell, called a blastomere, is removed from an eight-cell human embryo, then coaxed to multiply into a colony of stem cells in a dish.

Fertility doctors have been performing these blastomere biopsies for years to identify embryos that harbor genetic defects. Since a single cell is representative of the entire embryo, doctors transfer to a mother-to-be’s womb only those embryos whose plucked cells pass genetic muster. The loss of a single cell — or even two — at that stage is not known to cause developmental problems in children born by this procedure, doctors say.

Story

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One of the things I admire most about Fred Thompson is that he is a clear and precise speaker/writer.

This article entitled “On Federalism” is yet another example of those attributes.

The Framers drew their design for our Constitution from a basic understanding of human nature. From the wisdom of the ages and from fresh experience, they understood the better angels of our nature, and the less admirable qualities of human beings entrusted with power.

The Framers believed in free markets, rights of property and the rule of law, and they set these principles firmly in the Constitution. Above all, the Framers enshrined in our founding documents, and left to our care, the principle that rights come from our Creator and not from our government.

We developed institutions that allowed these principles to take root and flourish: a government of limited powers derived from, and assigned to, first the people, then the states, and finally the national government. A government strong enough to protect us and do its job competently, but modest and humane enough to let the people govern themselves. Centralized government is not the solution to all of our problems and – with too much power – such centralization has a way of compounding our problems. This was among the great insights of 1787, and it is just as vital in 2007.

What a powerful statement from beginning to end and well worth taking the time to read.

HT: Instapundit

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It’s time to show Moveon.org and DailyKos they are not the only players in politics.

I’ll be contacting advertisers and encouraging them to stay with Fox News.

This is censorship pure and simple. They are taking us down the road of Hugo Chavez, trying to shut down the media they don’t like.

As the guy in the movie said, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

Who’s with me?

NEW YORK (AP) – Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network.
MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America’s Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.

The groups have successfully pressured Democratic presidential candidates not to appear at any debate sponsored by Fox, and are also trying to get Home Depot Inc. to stop advertising there.

At least 5,000 people nationwide have signed up to compile logs on who is running commercials on Fox, Gilliam said. The groups want to first concentrate on businesses running local ads, as opposed to national commercials.

“It’s a lot more effective for Sam’s Diner to get calls from 10 people in his town than going to the consumer complaint department of some pharmaceutical company,” Gilliam said.

Some of videos produced by Gilliam’s company compile statements made by Fox anchors and guests that the activists consider misleading, such as those that question global warming.

Story.

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Who said these words? Answer at the bottom of the post.

Captain Ed was in on a blogger’s conference call with the White House yesterday, and gives a review of the questions and answers pertaining to the claim of executive privilege.

Most importantly, compelling compliance with a congressional subpoena in this context would be difficult. The civil contempt mechanism normally available to Congress, see 28 U.S.C. § 1365, specifically exempts subpoenas to the executive branch. The criminal contempt mechanism, see 2 U.S.C. § 192, which punishes as a misdemeanor a refusal to testify or produce documents to Congress, requires a referral to the Justice Department, which is not likely to pursue compliance in the likely event that the President asserts executive privilege in response to the request for certain documents or testimony. Thus, the only legal way to enforce this subpoena would be to hold a witness in contempt using its “inherent contempt authority,” but this would require a contempt trial on the floor of the Senate. …
Executive privilege is used by the President and the executive branch to shield presidential communications, advice, and national security information from disclosure in judicial proceedings, congressional investigations and other arenas. While the proper scope of executive privilege is the subject of much debate, at a minimum, it covers presidential communications, and may also protect the decision-making, or deliberative process, of the executive branch in general.

Courts have recognized a “presumptive privilege” for presidential communications that is grounded in “a President’s generalized interest in confidentiality” and is viewed as important to preserving the candor of presidential advisors and protecting the freedom of the president and his advisors to “explore alternatives in the process of shaping policies and making decisions and to do so in a way many would be unwilling to express except privately.” U. S. v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 708, 711 (1974); In re Sealed Case, 121 F.3d 729, 743 (D.C. Cir. 1997). This privilege is “inextricably rooted in the separation of powers under the Constitution” and “flow[s] from the nature of enumerated powers” of the President. Id., 418 U.S. at 705; 121 F.3d at 743.

This would appear to bolster the arguments made in this blogger conference call today. This analysis was written eight years ago, however, by Pat Leahy.

You can verify this information at the Senate Judiciary site as quoted by Sen. Leahy on Sept. 23, 1999.

Hat Tip: <):) to Captain Ed Morrissey.

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