Mission Accomplished

President Bush has recently said “'best way to honor' the Iraq war dead is to complete mission.”

We went into Iraq to find WMD’s and to protect the United State’s Homeland and there were none. We have Saddam in custody. Mission Accomplished?

I see no more reason for United States troops to be in Iraq.

What is the Mission?

How can an unjustified War have a mission? Following this premise, how can the death of these soldiers be honored?

How do we define a completed Mission in Iraq?


CNN Reports:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/29/bus...o.ap/index.html

United Methodist Church Calls For Withdrawal

It's one thing when former high-ranking members of your own Administration come out against your war. It's another thing when two-thirds of the country calls the invasion and occupation a mistake. It's really something when your own church issues a statement urging you to pull out the troops now.
Last week, the United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society--the social action committee of the church that both President Bush and Vice President Cheney belong to--resoundingly passed a resolution calling for withdrawal with only two 'no' votes and one abstention.
"As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq," the statement read. "Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never have fought.... We grieve for all those whose lives have been lost or destroyed in this needless and avoidable tragedy. Military families have suffered undue hardship from prolonged troop rotations in Iraq and loss of loved ones. It is time to bring them home."
The board also issued a strong statement against torture, urging Congress to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate detention and interrogation practices at Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It is my hope and prayer that our statement against the war in Iraq will be heard loud and clear by our fellow United Methodists, President Bush and Vice President Cheney," said Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the UMC's Board of Church and Society. "Conservative and liberal board members worked together to craft a strong statement calling for the troops to come home and for those responsible for leading us into this disastrous war to be held accountable."
With its bold stands against the Administration, the UMC is fulfilling the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who called for the church to be "not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion" but "a thermostat that transformed the mores of society."
Bush has asserted that he entered Iraq on a direct order from God. Now, he has a direct order from his own church to leave. Is he listening?
We also want to hear from you. Please let us know if you have a sweet victory you think we should cover by e-mailing nationvictories@gmail.com.
Co-written by Sam Graham-Felsen, a freelance journalist, documentary filmmaker and blogger (www.boldprint.net) living in Brooklyn.

Discussion of Alternative Energy is Rising

People across economic spectrums are discussing a shift from an Oil based economy to one of more energy diversification. The Alternative Energy Methods that could become realties within the next decade include Hybrid Cars and Solar/Bio Homes. Such energy efficient technologies are already in limited use and are becoming ever more affordable. In the long run these Technologies will save you money.

Recent Polls show a drop in consumer support of Oil Companies to approximately 20%. This drop in support will result in changes in behavior of energy use and spending by consumers.


U.S. Dept. of Energy:
http://www.eere.energy.gov/

Energy Efficient Homes:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/10/26/solar.cooking.reut/index.html

http://www.icfconsulting.com/Markets/Community_Development/cd-expertise-3.asp

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_homes.hm_faq&layout=print

Fuel Efficient Cars:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/10/12/most_efficient_cars/


My Opinion: In my opinion the ultimate goal for where at least the United States should move in regards in regards to Energy must focus on energy efficiency in addition to saving money for the America Government, the Private Sector, and the Consumer. But most important the implementation of such changes and uses of available technologies should be aimed at creating energy independence for families. More specifically every family should live in a home partially powered by some form of alternative energy (Solar) and own a more gas efficient (“hybrid”) automobile. In light of current government policy neglected to take care of its citizens as seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Oil Companies attempting to rip off the average citizens through artificially inflated gasoline prices it would only be practical for America to move towards these more efficient and individually independent energy sources. It would be a great benefit if those in the Industries of Building Solar Panels and Energy Efficient Homes would make their products more affordable to the consumer. If this occurs these technologies could become the standard.

Back Flash: Bush's Case for War Against Iraq

“The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.

The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary; he is deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves. Iraqi officials accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses.

Iraq is blocking U-2 surveillance flights requested by the United Nations. Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview. Real scientists have been coached by Iraqi officials on what to say. Intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N. inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.

Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why? The only possible explanation, the only possible use he could have for those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or attack.

With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly havoc in that region. And this Congress and the America people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own.

Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known. We will do everything in our power to make sure that that day never comes. (Applause.)

Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option. (Applause.)

The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages -- leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained -- by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning. (Applause.)

And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country -- your enemy is ruling your country. (Applause.) And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation. (Applause.)

The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. America will not accept a serious and mounting threat to our country, and our friends and our allies. The United States will ask the U.N. Security Council to convene on February the 5th to consider the facts of Iraq's ongoing defiance of the world. Secretary of State Powell will present information and intelligence about Iraqi's legal -- Iraq's illegal weapons programs, its attempt to hide those weapons from inspectors, and its links to terrorist groups.

We will consult. But let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him. (Applause.)

Tonight I have a message for the men and women who will keep the peace, members of the American Armed Forces: Many of you are assembling in or near the Middle East, and some crucial hours may lay ahead. In those hours, the success of our cause will depend on you. Your training has prepared you. Your honor will guide you. You believe in America, and America believes in you. (Applause.)

Sending Americans into battle is the most profound decision a President can make. The technologies of war have changed; the risks and suffering of war have not. For the brave Americans who bear the risk, no victory is free from sorrow. This nation fights reluctantly, because we know the cost and we dread the days of mourning that always come.

We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be defended. A future lived at the mercy of terrible threats is no peace at all. If war is forced upon us, we will fight in a just cause and by just means -- sparing, in every way we can, the innocent. And if war is forced upon us, we will fight with the full force and might of the United States military -- and we will prevail. (Applause.)

And as we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies -- and freedom. (Applause.)
Many challenges, abroad and at home, have arrived in a single season. In two years, America has gone from a sense of invulnerability to an awareness of peril; from bitter division in small matters to calm unity in great causes. And we go forward with confidence, because this call of history has come to the right country.

Americans are a resolute people who have risen to every test of our time. Adversity has revealed the character of our country, to the world and to ourselves. America is a strong nation, and honorable in the use of our strength. We exercise power without conquest, and we sacrifice for the liberty of strangers.
Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity. (Applause.)

We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not know -- we do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history.

May He guide us now. And may God continue to bless the United States of America”

-President G.W. Bush, State of the Union 2003


NPR Reports:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4764919

Civil rights leader Rosa Parks dies

Known as the 'mother of the civil rights movement'

(CNN) -- Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience in 1955 inspired the modern civil rights movement, died Monday in Detroit, Michigan. She was 92.
Parks' moment in history began in December 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks that was organized by a 26-year-old Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The boycott led to a court ruling desegregating public transportation in Montgomery, but it wasn't until the 1964 Civil Rights Act that all public accommodations nationwide were desegregated.
Facing regular threats and having lost her department store job because of her activism, Parks moved from Alabama to Detroit in 1957. She later joined the staff of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat.
Conyers, who first met Parks during the early days of the civil rights struggle, recalled Monday that she worked on his original congressional staff when he first was elected to the House of Representatives in 1964.
"I think that she, as the mother of the new civil rights movement, has left an impact not just on the nation, but on the world," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "She was a real apostle of the nonviolence movement."
He remembered her as someone who never raised her voice -- an eloquent voice of the civil rights movement.
"You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene -- just a very special person," he said, adding that "there was only one" Rosa Parks.
Gregory Reed, a longtime friend and attorney, said Parks died between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. of natural causes. He called Parks "a lady of great courage."
Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to help young people pursue educational opportunities, get them registered to vote and work toward racial peace.
"As long as there is unemployment, war, crime and all things that go to the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless -- there is much to be done, and people need to work together," she once said.
Even into her 80s, she was active on the lecture circuit, speaking at civil rights groups and accepting awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
"This medal is encouragement for all of us to continue until all have rights," she said at the June 1999 ceremony for the latter medal.
Parks was the subject of the documentary "Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks," which received a 2002 Oscar nomination for best documentary short.
In April, Parks and rap duo OutKast settled a lawsuit over the use of her name on a CD released in 1998. (Full story)
Bus boycott
She was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Her marriage to Raymond Parks lasted from 1932 until his death in 1977.
Parks' father, James McCauley, was a carpenter, and her mother, Leona Edwards McCauley, a teacher.
Before her arrest in 1955, Parks was active in the voter registration movement and with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where she also worked as a secretary in 1943.
At the time of her arrest, Parks was 42 and on her way home from work as a seamstress.
She took a seat in the front of the black section of a city bus in Montgomery. The bus filled up and the bus driver demanded that she move so a white male passenger could have her seat.
"The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he says, 'Let me have these seats.' And the other three people moved, but I didn't," she once said.
When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her.
As the officer took her away, she recalled that she asked, "Why do you push us around?"
The officer's response: "I don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest."
She added, "I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind."
Four days later, Parks was convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $14.
That same day, a group of blacks founded the Montgomery Improvement Association and named King, the young pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as its leader, and the bus boycott began.
For the next 381 days, blacks -- who according to Time magazine had comprised two-thirds of Montgomery bus riders -- boycotted public transportation to protest Parks' arrest and in turn the city's Jim Crow segregation laws.
Black people walked, rode taxis and used carpools in an effort that severely damaged the transit company's finances.
The mass movement marked one of the largest and most successful challenges of segregation and helped catapult King to the forefront of the civil rights movement.
The boycott ended on November 13, 1956, after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that Montgomery's segregated bus service was unconstitutional.
Parks' act of defiance came one year after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision that led to the end of racial segregation in public schools. (Full story)
U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a Democrat, told CNN Monday he watched the 1955-56 Montgomery drama unfold as a teenager and it inspired him to get active in the civil rights movement.
"It was so unbelievable that this woman -- this one woman -- had the courage to take a seat and refuse to get up and give it up to a white gentleman. By sitting down, she was standing up for all Americans," he said.

The Problem with Iraq

Recently the People of Iraq voting on a new Constitution.

There was and is an enormously apparent problem with this Vote. The Constitution was amended just hours before the vote. Therefore in my opinion this Constitution has no validity based on a very simple principle. The People of Iraq did not have time to review the actual document before they voted on it.

The entire makeup and character of the Iraq Government shall stem from this Constitution. Void of trust in this document by the citizens of Iraq will create vast mistrust in the Government itself.

The Iraq Constitution:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/24_08_05_constit.pdf

MSN Report:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9659209/

Update on White House CIA Leak Investigation

“Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be seriously weighing a perjury charge for Rove's failure to tell grand jurors that he talked to TIME correspondent Matthew Cooper about Plame, according to a person close to Rove.

Rove corrected himself in a later grand jury session. If charged with perjury, he will maintain he simply didn't recall the conversation with Cooper and told Fitzgerald as soon as he did.

In her 3,500-word account of her grand jury appearance, Miller says Fitzgerald also asked questions about Vice President Dick Cheney, including if Libby ever indicated to her whether

"Cheney had approved of his interviews with me or was aware of them. The answer is no."
Judith Miller's dealings with Libby; she had spent 85 days in jail before receiving written and oral permission from Libby to testify before the grand jury. (TIME 10/17/05).”

It appears that Special Persecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is focusing on Dick Cheney and the involvement of his Office involvement this situation.

I pose one question, will President Bush stand by his word and properly deal with anyone within his administration involve in this act? Thus far, he has failed to do so.

Rumors of Cheney's Resignation:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051018/18whwatch.htm?track=rss

Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701888.html

TIME:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/17/cia.leak.tm/index.html

CNN Reports:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/18/leakprobe.ap/index.html

World Leaders Condemn Bush & Blair

“ROME, Italy (AP) -- The leaders of Zimbabwe and Venezuela on Monday denounced President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as "unholy men," and blamed the United States and other developed countries for world hunger, pollution and war. Zimbabwe leader compares Bush, Blair to Hitler, Mussolini”

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez turned their speeches at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization into tirades, with the African leader describing Blair and Bush as "two unholy men of our millennium."

Chavez accused what he called "the North American empire" of threatening "all life on the planet," while Mugabe compared Bush and Blair, for their alliance in the war in Iraq, to Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini, who were World War II allies.

U.S. representatives at the U.N. organization's gathering in Rome said Mugabe and Chavez made "a mockery" of the occasion with their scathing remarks.

The gathering, a day after the United Nations marked World Food Day, commemorated the organization's 60th anniversary.

The verbal attacks by Chavez and Mugabe drew cheers and applause from many of the delegates. The organization has 188 members.

"These leaders chose to politicize an event that was meant to be about feeding the hungry people of the world," Tony Hall, the U.S. ambassador to U.N. food agencies, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"Mugabe, especially, should not have been invited," Hall said. "He would be the last person, I think, an organization should invite to talk about hunger."

A defiant Mugabe defended the land reforms blamed for ruining the country's agriculture-based economy and contributing to widespread famine there.

Agreement avoids restrictions

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's political elite that include travel restrictions. But an agreement between Italy and the U.N. agency allows all delegations to go to the organization's headquarters, FAO spokesman Nick Parsons said.

Despite the restrictions, Mugabe has been allowed to do some travel in the countries that imposed the sanctions, including U.N. General Assembly sessions in New York.

The seizure of white-owned commercial farms in the past five years and prolonged drought have crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy. About 4 million Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food aid in what was once a regional breadbasket, according to U.N. estimates.

Recent constitutional changes in Zimbabwe will prevent white owners of confiscated farms from recovering their land and could be used to strip critics of their passports and the right to travel.

Mugabe defended the land reforms as "redressing the past gross imbalances in land ownership which were institutionalized by British colonialism."

"Countries such as the U.S. and Britain have taken it upon themselves to decide for us in the developing world, even to interfere in our domestic affairs and to bring about what they call regime change," he said.

Chavez praised Mugabe's land reform, saying the African leader had been "demonized" and that similar reforms were being enacted in his own country.

The Venezuelan leader used his speech to rail against woes that he blamed on rich countries -- including climate change, agricultural trade barriers and debt interest payments by developing nations. He called for wealthy nations to cancel debt, or give poor countries a grace period of at least a year on the interest payments.

Brazilian president focuses on hunger

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appealed to rich countries to put hunger on their political agendas. He also suggested poor countries should stamp out the corruption that often diverts aid.

"The poor countries must give an example of honesty, of ethics, so that we truly deserve the solidarity from millions and millions of people who would like to contribute but sometimes are not sure their money will go where it should go," the Brazilian leader said.

The U.N. agency said it had signed a deal with Brazil to run food programs for schoolchildren in developing countries around the world.

CNN Reports:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/10/17/un.mugabe.ap/index.html

My Opinion: It is no coincidence this is the first time the President of U.S. has experienced so many broad but parallel accusations against hi; not only by International Leaders but by his own citizens.

The Democratic Party Articulates its Message

Democrats Present Energy Plan

“WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is not doing enough to push for energy conservation as fuel costs skyrocket since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Sen. Maria Cantwell said Saturday in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

"Conservation must be more than a convenient slogan," Cantwell said.

"Recently, the administration has rejected conservation attempts like more accurate fuel mileage for cars and bipartisan proposals for reducing our dependence on foreign oil by a million barrels a day."

Cantwell, who will be seeking her second term as senator from the state of Washington next year, said Democrats want new laws to protect consumers from price-gouging and encourage investment in lightweight materials and alternative fuels.

Rising fuel prices are costing people their jobs, pensions and their businesses, she said. Farmers are having a hard time breaking even, and school districts are being forced to choose between hiring new teachers and covering higher energy bills, she added.

"These are the terrible consequences of our overdependence on fossil fuel," Cantwell said. "The natural disasters of Katrina and Rita have showed us firsthand how truly vulnerable we are."

She said ninety-percent of Americans believe price gouging is occurring at the pumps in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Cantwell said 28 states currently have laws on the books to prevent price-gouging, and we should pass something at the federal level as well.

"Senate Democrats believe we should pass new legislation to stop price manipulation," she said.

"Unfortunately, there are those in the nation's Capitol who do not believe consumers need further protection, she added, in an obvious reference to the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress.”

Senator Harry Reid, Minority Leader said “It seems as though every time I flip on the television some pundit is talking about how Democrats have no agenda. Well just because a myth is repeated a few thousand times doesn't make it true. The other day I heard one say "Democrats have no energy agenda." Actually it's Republicans whose only energy agenda seems to be giving tax breaks to their friends at oil companies (as reported on daily Kos).


Discuss the Democratic Plan:
http://www.giveemhellharry.com/

Democratic Radio Address:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/08/dems.radio.reut/index.html

Republicans Continue to Neglect Victims of Katrina

The President and Congress are making another of countless mistake in responding to the Hurricane Katrina Aftermath. The President has proposed cuts in Social Programs to pay for New Orleans Reconstruction. Programs that so many of these people depend on. This approach has no sense, and no logic. I speak specially of not Welfare Hand-Out programs but earned benefits for citizens like the Prescription Drug Benefit for Seniors, Medicaid, and Medicare. Bureaucracy such as increased paper work is also making it difficult for victims to apply for and be granted assistance. In addition, Insurance Companies are making it difficult for residents to be compensating because of technicalities.

There is also discussion by prominent republicans to not rebuild communities like the 9th Ward of New Orleans where the mostly African Americans own homes. There however is no discussion on not rebuilding the white communities. Please remember these people owned their homes just like in the richer communities of New Orleans. This land is not Government Owned Projects, it is a historic community whose residents desire to rebuild. This decision is in the hands of the residents of this community, no one else.

I know the right Budget items to cut are not Social Programs which have already been cut every year under G.W. Bush, but these following programs that cost more than all Social Programs combined should be cut if not completed eliminated: The War in Iraq, the Energy Bill and its Corporate incentives & subsidies, and the Transportation Bill along with its Pork Barrel Amendments, and Tax Cuts for the Wealthy. Cuts in these areas are simply the right & practical thing to do. All of these areas have waste, inefficiencies, and are luxuries.

President G.W. Bush and the Republican controlled Congress are Dead Wrong in their approaches to funding the response to Hurricane Katrina. And I ask this question, why wasn’t the money for such a disasters already set aside?


Corruption at FEMA/CNN Reports:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/06/katrina.congress.ap/index.html

Senate Sets limits on Detainee Treatment

"Senate ignores veto threat in limiting detainee treatment
Measure added to Pentagon spending bill

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Setting up a possible veto showdown with the White House, the Senate voted overwhelmingly for an amendment to a Pentagon spending bill that sets standards for the treatment of prisoners in U.S. military custody.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, would require American troops to follow interrogation standards set in the Army Field Manual and bar "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" of prisoners in U.S. custody.

On Wednesday night, senators voted 90-9 to include the provision to the $440 billion Defense Department spending bill now wending its way through Congress.

Earlier, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush would likely veto the defense spending bill if McCain's language were included, calling the amendment "unnecessary and duplicative."

"If it's presented, then there would be a recommendation of a veto, I believe," McClellan said.

McClellan said existing law already prohibits the mistreatment of prisoners in American custody, and the amendment "would limit the president's ability as commander-in-chief to effectively carry out the war on terrorism."

If Bush does veto the bill, it would be his first veto during nearly five years in office.

Arguing for his amendment, McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, said "our troops are not served by ambiguity."

"We demanded intelligence without ever clearly telling our troops what was permitted and what was forbidden. And then, when things went wrong, we blamed them and we punished them. We have to do better than that," he said.

McCain said an officer in the 82nd Airborne Division, Capt. Ian Fishback, urged his office to push for clear guidelines for the treatment of prisoners after unsuccessfully attempting to get answers from his superiors for 17 months.

McCain, a former GOP presidential contender, said he was willing to consider "technical changes" in the amendment -- "as long as those changes are technical, truly." He warned that his proposal could be removed when senators and House members try to reconcile their versions of the defense bill, and urged supporters to keep up the pressure on lawmakers.

"The image of the United States was very badly harmed by the pictures of prisoner abuse. We have to send a message to the world that we will not ever allow such kind of treatment to be repeated," he said.

In a letter to McCain, published last week in The Washington Post, Fishback stated that he and troops under his command witnessed "death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment" of prisoners in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Allegations that Americans have tortured prisoners have dogged the Bush administration since April 2004, when graphic photographs of Army reservists mistreating prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad became public. Nine low-ranking soldiers were convicted or pleaded guilty in the Abu Ghraib scandal and their commander was demoted, but Pentagon investigators cleared higher-ranking officers of any wrongdoing.

McCain said Wednesday that intelligence is needed to fight terrorism, but "the intelligence we collect must be reliable and acquired humanely, under clear standards understood by all our fighting men and women." Torturing prisoners not only yields unreliable answers, but also endangers captured U.S. troops and allows "the cruel actions of a few to darken the reputation of our country in the eyes of millions," he said.

"The enemy we fight has no respect for human life or human rights. They don't deserve our sympathy," he said. "But this isn't about who they are. This is about who we are. These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies."

He bristled at remarks by his Republican colleague, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, questioning Fishback's account. Sessions also called it "sort of odd" that Fishback refused to disclose the names of sergeants in his unit who reported similar conduct.

"Captain Fishback is a noble, brave young American," McCain said. "He does not deserve to be disparaged on the floor of this Senate by any senator, and the senator from Alabama owes him an abject and deep apology."

Sessions said the McCain amendment was unnecessary, since those responsible for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib "are being held to account." He said he did not believe he questioned Fishback's integrity, and he said senators who questioned whether abuses were sanctioned by top officers or the Pentagon should consider an apology.

"To suggest to the world that we have as systemic pattern of abuse in the military is not true," he said."

America's Economic Adjustment

It is clear to me that at least the Democrats or those that hold more liberal ideologies would not to anything to jeopardize business and would have a pragmatic approach to the U.S. economy. These “liberals” seek a balance of opportunity that favors the worker over the rights of large businesses, corporations, and wealthy owners. However these leaders do not seek or intend to place the owners at a disadvantage. The Republicans however do seek to aggressively place themselves on the receiving end of the benefits. These aggressive measures such as the recent changes to the Tax Code, bankruptcy laws, and courts allowing corporations to renege on employee agreements such as earned pensions. These measures literally enable greedy businesses to suck the blood out of the United States' economy.

The monetary bowl within the United Sates is finite, especially today as our Economy has not seen a major expansion in over 6 Years. As one industry artificially inflates its prices to the consumer, money is siphoned from other industries. This act of ‘price ripping off’ mixed with the political & white collar crime/corruption led by the current Republican controlled Government renders Natural Economic Factors useless in being able to keep our Economy in balance. No wonder FED Chair Allan Green Span has retired. In other words as one Industry increases its Profit Margins by Artificially Raising its Prices, meaning their actually cost to Produce this Product has not increased; the price paid has been excessively set above its actual cost o production. Specific Industries engaging in these acts are: the Oil Industry, Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Energy, and Military & Securities Companies. This act leads to profits being taking from another Industry either through direct business loss or indirectly thru increased cost of production (Ex: the Automobile Industry, Airlines). In essence causing a devastating negative economic prosperity busting domino down effect. In addition as Consumers pay more for these products, but when their income is not increasing this correlates to businesses outside of these criminal ‘rip off industries’ loosing costumers and money.

Money is money my friends. A message to the Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, and Stock Holders I ask you a very sincere question. Why do you continue to support certain leaders & measures within our government which are employing Government Policy, Institutions, Laws and abusing their positions of Power to influence our Free Market to benefit themselves and their colleagues? I strongly believe this insertion of political influence is having a detrimental affect on your livelihood, and since you are the employers my livelihood. Political Influence upon a Free Market kills fair competition, and thus true Capitalism. I urge you to oppose and speak out against such practices before the business you own will soon be rendered worthless.

Now, speaking of worthless, there is a sleeping dragon resting at the foundation of the American Economy. Debt, Loans, and the National deficit. When this Dragon wakes not even the elites like the Bush Family will have any recourse.

The U.S. Economy must be put in balance now, today. The Government Budget Balanced, Corruption eliminated, White Collar and Political Criminals put in prison. If such efforts are not pursued then I predict We the great United States of America are in store for a abrupt Economic Adjustment forced by Economic Principles of Supply & Demand, a Finite Monetary Bowl and this sleeping dragon of Countries calling in & requesting payment on their debts & loans. How can the United States claim to be the World’s Greatest Super Power when not only its citizens but the very Government is in debt?

Who will benefit then from this Readjustment? Not America but Countries like China & France that have applied practical approaches to economics, protected their trade industries, and especially their workers.

We must also discuss the current trend within the U.S. to protect the Corporation & its Rights versus that of the Worker. I give you this visualization and I pray the following idea is not to fuzzy for Black & White Conservative Thinkers to grasp. What is the basic unit forming the foundation of American Society? Isn't it the Family Unit, and it is the worker that seeks to provide for this unit. It therefore is only logical, practical, and economical that Society, Business Standards, and Government Policy should always put the Right of the Individual Worker ahead of the Corporation. To assure for their prosperity, and financial stability. It is this worker and this Family Unit that shall return the uncorrupted benefits back to its community & their nation.

Katherine Harris Is Next Politician to Go

It has been held that Representative Katherine Harris (FL-R) is a corrupt politician mainly because of her actions as FL Secretary of State in the Presidential elections of 2000. Still today Democrats in Florida are furious because of her role in this situation. There are now substantial allegations that Harris has a financial relationship with Fmr. House Majority Leader Tom Delay who recently has been indicted on Charges of Conspiracy.

“Article published Sep 30, 2005
DeLay has given Harris significant fund-raising help
Herald Tribune
By Jeremy Wallace

When House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted this week, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris lost a key political ally.

Harris spoke at a 2002 fund-raiser put together by the Texas political group that’s central in the investigation into whether DeLay helped solicit illegal campaign donations. As keynote speaker, the Longboat Key Republican was there to talk about her role in the 2000 presidential elections.

Since then, another political action committee DeLay created has given Harris at least $15,000 in campaign money and DeLay has helped her raise thousands more by appearing at her fund-raisers.

DeLay came to Sarasota a few months after the Texas fund-raiser to help Harris raise money. During the Sarasota fund-raiser, DeLay called Democrats “morally bankrupt” and described Harris as a “national treasure.” Harris gave DeLay a Florida “cracker” whip, which he snapped for the crowd.

On Wednesday a grand jury in Travis County, Texas, indicted DeLay, the top Republican in the U.S. House, and two of his associates on charges of conspiring to violate state election laws in Texas. The other two men indicted, John Colyandro and James W. Ellis, have also helped Harris raise money for her campaigns.

DeLay denies doing anything wrong and has called Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle a “partisan fanatic.” Earle is a Democrat.Wednesday’s indictments are the result of a three-year investigation of the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, known as TRMPAC. DeLay was an adviser for that group and helped make Harris the main attraction at the group’s Jan. 16, 2002, fund-raiser.

TRMPAC solicited political contributions from corporations! during that fund-raiser, which Earle says is a violation of Texas law. A flier promoting Harris’ speech specifically welcomed corporate donations.The same day she spoke for TRMPAC, Harris’ 2002 congressional campaign accepted $1,000 from Colyandro, TRMPAC’s executive director. Federal Election Commission records show she was the only member of Congress who received a donation from Colyandro.

Texas Republicans organized TRMPAC in late 2001 to help them win the majority of seats in the state Legislature. The group won the majority, and the opportunity to redraw congressional districts.Harris, who was not named in the indictment, didn’t return calls seeking comment about whether Texas investigators have questioned her about TRMPAC or DeLay.

Harris campaign spokesman Adam Goodman said Harris has been a big draw at Republican fund-raisers across the nation. She was simply a guest speaker in 2002. There is nothing unusual about her helping out the group and he! r ties to DeLay aren’t unusual, he said.

Ellis, the executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee that DeLay created, was also indicted Wednesday. That PAC gave Harris $20,000 for her campaigns.

DeLay helped dozens of congressional candidates raise money over the last four years. ARMPAC donated $900,000 to 112 Republican candidates for Congress in 2004, including the $10,000 Harris received. Harris also received $10,000 from ARMPAC in 2002.

National Democrats are calling on the 13 Florida Republicans who received money from ARMPAC to return it.

“I think one’s ethics are always an issue in a political campaign,” said Dan McLaughlin, a campaign spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat.

Harris is running for Nelson’s Senate seat in the 2006 election.U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw Jr., R-Fort Lauderdale, is the only Republican congressman from Florida to receive more money from ARMPAC than Harris. Shaw has taken more! than $30,000 from the political action committee.

McLaughlin said voters should be allowed to question Harris about her role in raising money for TRMPAC, just as they should be allowed to question other donations.

Earlier this summer, Harris offered to refund more than $50,000 in donations associated with MZM Inc., a defense contractor headquartered in Washington, D.C.The offer came just days after reports surfaced that MZM employees might have been pressured into making the contributions. Less than a week later, FBI agents raided that company’s offices and the home of U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif., who has also campaigned for Harris.

In 1997, Riscorp, a Sarasota firm, was at the center of a federal investigation into illegal contributions given to Harris during her 1994 state Senate campaign. Harris, who collected nearly $30,000 from Riscorp, denied any direct knowledge of the illegal contributions at the time”

Harriet Miers Nominated to the Supreme Court

Another Empty Suit?

Harriet Miers in my opinion is another “Mike Brown” (Former Director of FEMA). Another analogy would be an empty robe, and or a Right Wing Radical Empty Suit. America will not accept this brand of Misguided Fundamentalism within our Supreme Court and neither will we allow for Bush to continue appointing persons to any position because they are his friend, personal employee, and loyal groupie.

As Director of the Texas Lottery Miers was said to have done a poor job. Why Now has she been selected serve on the Supreme Court? I am convinced that with Bush’s pattern of “empty suit” appointments that when red lights go up about any potential nominee that frankly these warning signs have merit. The President does not even possess the clarity of mind to appoint a true Conservative that could be acceptable to Democrats, but he has chosen to appoint a Right Wing Radical Empty Suit from Texas in Harriet Miers.

The nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court must be rescinding immediately. As seen with the incompetents of Mike Brown of FEMA empty suits in positions of such prominence only lead to the putting side of traditional American liberties and an unnecessary loss of American lives. As seen in her work in Texas, Miers is Christian Fundamentalist Activist. President Bush could not have made a more aggressive appointment to directly attempt to overthrow Row vs. Wade. If we give an inch they will take a mile.This is a fight that advocates for the Right to Privacy, and the Right to not have Government intruding upon your personal decisions cannot forfeit.

Miers’ Qualifications:

Pros: Chair, Texas Lottery
President, Texas Bar Association
White House Counsel

Cons: Empty Suit (lacks intellectual & ethical substance, a brown nosing yes person)
Miers Has Never been a Judge
Miers’ Political Ideology is Radical of the Right
Miers will ignore Traditional American values to push a partisan agenda

Experience:
1970—Graduated from Southern Methodist University Law School1970-1972—Clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Joe Estes1972-2001—Joined Texas law firm, Locke, Purnell1985—Elected president of the Dallas Bar Association1986-1989—Member of the State Bar board of directors1989-1991—Elected and served one term on the Dallas City Council1992—Elected president of the Texas State Bar1993-1994—Worked as counsel for Bush's gubernatorial campaign1995-2000—Appointed chairwoman of Texas Lottery Commission by Gov. George Bush1996—Became president of Locke, Purnell, and the first woman to lead a major Texas law firm1998—Presided over the merger of Locke, Purnell with another big Texas firm, Liddell, Sapp, Zivley, Hill & LaBoon, and became co-managing partner of the resulting megafirm, Locke Liddell & Sapp2000—Represented Bush and Cheney in a lawsuit stemming from their dual residency in Texas while running in the Presidential primary2001—Selected as staff secretary for President Bush2003—Promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy2004—Selected as White House Counsel

Specific Relations with President Bush:

• Miers is Bush’s personal lawyer and long-time friend Harriet Miers. Miers's personal friendship and allegiance to Bush has been cited for years in connection with her promotions, including to her highest post of White House Counsel.
  
• When Miers was Bush's appointee to head the Texas State Lottery Commission, the lottery was accused by a former director of awarding multi-million dollar no-bid contracts to a technology firm represented by former Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes. Barnes has since said he helped Bush escape active duty in Vietnam, and the lottery director alleged that Barnes demanded, (and under Miers received) the lucrative public contracts to keep quiet about Bush's military service.6
  
• As Governor, Bush signed a law blocking Texas consumers from collecting a $6 billion dollar judgment against car dealers for predatory lending and keeping secret kickbacks. The law firm Miers headed represented the auto dealers.7
  
• Miers was hired as legal counsel on both Bush's gubernatorial campaigns. Among other things, her research was used to persuade a local judge to excuse then Governor Bush from jury duty, a civic task that would have forced him to disclose his 1976 arrest for drunken driving in Maine. He was then able to keep his arrest secret until late in the 2000 presidential campaign.8
  

The White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051003.html

CNN Reports:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/10/03/scotus.preview/index.html


My Opinion: The term “Empty Suit” was used in WWII to describe Military Officers, whom held the authority to command troops but failed at their duty and failed at doing their jobs costing American lives. Does this sound like President Bush and his many appointees to you? From her Resume Miers seems more qualified as an Administrator or Corporate Lawyer rather than a Supreme Court Justice. I apologize in advance if I am seeming sexist, but who the Hell is this woman Bush has appointed? Talk about cronyism. I was in Washington to oppose the Iraq War and to join the Impeachment Movement, and I would be willing to go again to oppose Judge Miers. This is how strongly I know her appointment is Dead Wrong for America!