Thanks David. There was a lot of words that were spelled wrong from your regulars on the last post. It was getting hectic. Have a nice weekend, and please, take time to finish your book.

Thanks for your contributions Much! Look forward to seeing your prose elsewhere as well.

Oreilly? Oreilly? Are you still trying to figure out the picture/pitcher curveball I threw at you? Swing and a miss!

ICH has his dictionary out and he's proofreading my posts. I told him I don't if he wants to proofread or not. It's up to him.

Mr. David Corn,

Will do!

Kirk

Strike one, strike two, strike three! You're out of there!

Pitcher, umpire, or catcher?

If you can't spell "foreign," then spelling must be "foriegn" to you. I am not the one who spelled it incorrectly and I didn't need a dictionary to look it up. Are you losing it?

Let's try to have a high level of discourse and information-sharing.
Posted by David Corn at July 28, 2006 11:29 PM

I thought if I spelled "picture" the way it sounded to you, you might understand it. Apparently, you did not get the irony in my question. Should I misspell that for you as well?

Message received and understood.

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. Liberalism has its roots in the Western Enlightenment, but the term now encompasses a diversity of political thought.

Broadly speaking, modern liberalism places the rights of the individual above the needs of the group. It seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on power, especially of government and religion, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a market economy that supports relatively free private enterprise, and a transparent system of government in which the rights of minorities are protected. In modern society, liberals favor a liberal democracy with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law and an equal opportunity to succeed.

------
Intersting. Modern liberalism is tied to the Enlightenment and Spinoza's Ethics.

Modern liberalism usually advocates a limited degree of government interference in the free market, often in the form of anti-discrimination laws, civil service examinations, universal education, and progressive taxation. This philosophy frequently extends to a belief that the government should provide for a degree of general welfare, including the dole for the poor, housing for the homeless, and medical care for the sick. Such publicly-funded initiatives and interferences in the market are rejected by modern advocates of classical liberalism, which emphasizes free private enterprise, individual property rights and freedom of contract; classical liberals hold that economic inequality, as arising naturally from competition in the free market, does not justify the violation of private property rights.

"Liberalism" in international relations is a theory that holds that state preferences, rather than state capabilities, are the primary determinant of state behavior. Unlike realism where the state is seen as a unitary actor, liberalism allows for plurality in state actions. Thus, preferences will vary from state to state, depending on factors such as culture, economic system or government type. Liberalism also holds that interaction between states is not limited to the political/security ("high politics"), but also economic/cultural ("low politics") whether through commercial firms, organizations or individuals. Thus, instead of an anarchic international system, there are plenty of opportunities for cooperation and broader notions of power, such as cultural capital (for example, the influence of a country's films leading to the popularity of its culture and the creation of a market for its exports worldwide). Another assumption is that absolute gains can be made through co-operation and interdependence - thus peace can be achieved.

Liberalism as an international relations theory is not inherently linked to liberalism as a more general domestic political ideology. Increasingly, modern liberals are integrating critical international relations theory into their foreign policy positions.

Modern liberalism is the belief that the government is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit over all that pay taxes to support the Supreme Being. And if the Supreme Being is not receiving enough support, the Supreme Being raises the cost of the opportuity to live beneath the shade of its' spare tire. Most of the cost is shared by those who do not need to be shaded and given to those who believe there is no shade elsewhere.

Further reading on liberalism

Give it up, O'Reilly. Nobody is falling for your rhetoric. Get the pitcher?

If you're not intersted in the topic, that's ok. It's not for everybody.

The Fire Next Time
Khalil | July 28, 2006

Like 1967 and 1982, the summer of 2006 may serve as a watershed in the history of the modern Middle East. As in those previous summers, Israel is now intent on pursuing political goals through military means, eschewing diplomacy for a massive show of force. Unfortunately, Israeli military victories have had the unintended consequence of unleashing more radical movements.

MORE (link)

I apologize for that last comment at #17 David. O'Reilly is shielded by the "spare tire" and therefore, is not able to receive my message.

ICH

I kinda felt bad about my first poem for David, so I used the same inspiration, but came at it from a direction, Thanks to you.

On this blog owned by David Corn
Are his views and my nerves sure get worn
When I disagree
With what he thinks should be
I'm not usually still pissed in the morn

mel gibson was arrested for dui in malibu -
"but...but...i'm mel gibson!" moron.
9/11 was an inside job!

See David? We, me and Much, are capable of toning it down. Can your regulars heed your warning? Could be a long weekend!

O'Reilly, please get over yourself. I am not much and much is not me. You think you are a sleuth but you are only a sloth. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

spy, remeber the good old days when you could drink and drive? I still drive but i gave up the drink. i wonder how toasted mel was. I heard they took him into custody.

22 spy on this

9/11 was an inside job!

Inside the DNC maybe, or their partners in crime, Hezbollah, Hamas and AlQuaeda.

Funny you all poke fun at Mel but is he the first or will he be the last actor/actress to be accused of D.U.I? No, yet he happens to be Conservative, so you think it is funny. Do you also condemn the Liberals who have drinking/drug problems as well. Hypocrites all of you!

A note to Oreily at # 13:

It is important to separate economic from political liberalism. The former doctrine, in its original form, supposes that when large numbers of people behave selfishly, the collective effect will benefit the population as a whole. This is based on a sort of social Darwinian philosophy that supposes that weak economic solutions will die out, leaving the robust ones to survive.

Political liberalism is a democratic model that rationalizes social interactions. It is based on the individual who makes political decisions when he or she votes for public officials or policies. S/he is personally responsible for his or her acts, crimes and omissions. In spite of being subordinated to the will of the majority, the individual is legally equal to the other members of his or her group or his fellow citizens. Minority protection exists, but the majority decides. Institutional mechanisms, such as an independent judicial system, exist to mediate conflicts. And finally, personal relationships are separate from institutional ones. Even in very personal relations such as marriage and paternity (or maternity) institutional obligations and rights are separate from traditional expectations of affection and loyalty.

The origins of social justice and participatory democracy can be found in Rousseau, Marx, Feuerbach and other reformists and activists who thought that liberal democracy is not sufficient. In this model the need for social equality is added to the individual responsibility and the functional interdependence of the liberal model. Social justice includes a normative structure that imposes the need to help and to take care of the people who have special needs. Examples of how social justice can be incorporated into a liberal system include: retirement benefits for the aged, public health care, architectural features for disabled people, and safe houses for abused women.

I'm approachable ICH or as an alternative, just keep taking shots. Why you assume I would choose to respond to shots as a prelude to conversation is curious to me. . . not curious as in interesting, curious as in inexplicable.

911 was an inside job, Stan. The jets didn't explode until they were inside the World Trade Center buildings. You have to understand that Liberals take a minor truth and turn it into a major conspiracy. What else do they have to live for? They are such pessimists, they have to blame all the worlds woes on others, never themselves.

Why would I want to approach you? And just so you can accuse me of a wrongful spelling, O'Really? There you go. A freebie, which is all a Liberal wishes for. Once I am through with you, who do you look upon to feed you? That spare tire has made you lazy and weak.

#31,

No way, I'm outta here!

Much to learn.

Dr. B has suggested practicing blog "antisepsis" -- which is an admirable suggestion. But, I have another suggestion -- if one is going to write limericks, please practice the "anapestic" meter.

Our current poet has the five lines, A-A-B-B-A down pretty good (the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, as do the third and fourth), but he needs work on meter, the anapestic meter -- each line is comprised of anapestic feet with a "short-short-long" syllable stress pattern, or two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable.

Don't quit your day job.

who cares if mel gibson is a conservative or a liberal? he's a moron either way.
---------------
16 yr old girl executed in iran
-
i guess iran is evil after all and their people are fully deserving of the bunker busters and white phosphorous that they are no doubt going to receive.
----
in fact the seismic jolts caused by each plane's impact with each respective tower was recorded a full 10 seconds before each plane actually hit each tower. that in itself should be very suspicious.

Examples of how social justice can be incorporated into a liberal system include: retirement benefits for the aged, public health care, architectural features for disabled people, and safe houses for abused women.

This is the aspect of liberalism that Reaganites object to on the principle that it deprives them unfairly of their personal property - hard earned income. The Reagan revolution spurred the demise of an important value, the greater good. Is the concept 'greater good' the same idea as social justice?

my mistake - 14 seconds and 17 seconds respectively.

A guy named himself spy on this
All topics the point he did miss
He had something to say
Got mixed up right away
Seems to lives in an ignorant bliss

Osamah Khalil is a doctoral candidate in American and Middle East history at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

This is a good read on the history of the Middle East. Everyone interested in the Israeli/Hezbollah/Hamas/Lebanon war can learn some background that will inform your perspective.

anyway there will be a discussion about 9/11 on regular cspan sat eve @ 8:00p et if anyone is interested. maybe you can at least call in and tell them that they are crazy liberal wackos.

Israel claims to be destroying Hezbollah's "infrastructure of terror," a template Israel adopted in the West Bank and Gaza during the second Intifada. As in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has used this claim to justify the destruction of Lebanon's basic civilian infrastructure and the targeting of the Lebanese military ñ the very organization it claims must replace Hezbollah on the Lebanese-Israeli border. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, even had the audacity to claim Lebanon would "benefit" from Israel's invasion; however, no one in Lebanon or the broader Middle East believes Israel's ludicrous assertions. Indeed, the high civilian death toll, more than 15 times as high as Israeli civilian deaths, undermines any pretense that Israel is merely defending itself or attempting to recover its abducted soldiers.

While the mainstream U.S. media has focused on Hezbollah's base of support among Shi'ites in Lebanon and connections to Iran and Syria, they have ignored the group's widespread appeal across the Middle East for leading the resistance against Israel's occupation of Lebanon. Although Washington and Tel Aviv believe they can severely diminish Hezbollah's military capacity, they again underestimate the appeal of national liberation and resistance movements to the oppressed. This leads to the question: what if Hezbollah has already won?

33
Micki,
Try reading several posts of each blogger, find an inspiration, whip out your prose in a minute, post it, then do it again for all members of the blog, and see if you miss a beat or two occasionally.

You did, however, manage to pleasantly intrigue me. Got me wondering, Hmmmmm, delicious.

Here is one for you.

There is a lady named Micki
With whom I'd sure like a quickie
Her husband would shout
And of this there's no doubt
In the dark keeping him might be tricky

al-Qaeda's demagoguery only gains further credence in the region when posturing American politicians with presidential ambitions claim that the U.S. is in the middle of "World War III." This facile and cynical attempt to re-brand an unpopular war in Iraq and a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan with Israel's invasion of Gaza and Lebanon does little more than reassure a neoconservative political base while undermining what little standing moderates in the Middle East have. Indeed, it is unclear whether the Bush administration has declared a war on radical Islamists or a war on Arab and Islamic moderates. However, what is evident is that by the time the president's term is over it is the latter, not the former, who will be an endangered species, if not extinct. Should this occur, the militarism that has plagued the post-colonial Middle East will be the only acceptable form of political discourse.

In the wrong hans, testosterone can be an ugly thing.

hands

David Frum was one of the leading neoconservative advocates of the invasion of Iraq. The former Bush speechwriter is a true believer, having co-authored a radical neoconservative book with Richard Perle entitled An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror, which -- according to its publisher -- "calls for the United States to overthrow the government of Iran, abandon support of a Palestinian state, blockade North Korea, use strong-arm tactics with Syria and China, disregard much of Europe as allies, and sever ties with Saudi Arabia."

But in a strikingly candid essay on his National Review blog yesterday, Frum all but admits that the U.S. invasion of Iraq has been a failure, and says that the only realistic goal we can hope to achieve is preventing Iraq from becoming a training ground for Al Qaeda -- a goal which was already achieved, of course, prior to our invasion.

MORE (link)

Now Turkey demands right to ‘defend itself’
______________
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul last week summoned the US and Iraqi ambassadors to warn them that Ankara would act in self-defence if effective measures were not taken to end the presence in northern Iraq of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). The PKK was responsible for the killing of 14 Turkish soldiers and policemen the previous weekend. The basically cautious government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is making what may prove to be its last attempt to make the US administration live up to its declaration that it opposes the PKK as it does any other terrorist organisation.

THE support given by the US administration for Israel’s massive assault on Lebanon – and the understanding shown by the rest of the G8 – have compounded Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s difficulty in containing domestic pressure to disregard US and EU warnings against a cross-border operation to root out PKK bases in northern Iraq.
______________

Goose, meet Gander....

-T

I LOVE the limericks! I want one for me!

See the new ad from DCCC here...

his message: "Stay the Course"

Micki

So what do you say then sweet micki
Do you think you're up for a quickie
I'll make it as fun
as a down hill ski run
So you choose the place I'm not picky

49
Orange

There's a person named after a fruit
Not a bean ... not a nut ... not a root
A limerick is wanted
So I'll it undaunted
That is great ... this is fun ... it's a hoot.

sorry bout the typo ORANGE

So I'll "DO" it undaunted

SECOND TRY

There's a person named after a fruit
Not a bean ... not a nut ... not a root
A limerick is wanted
So I'll do it undaunted
That is great ... this is fun ... it's a hoot.

So very...uhm...what's the word I'm looking for...

LAME! yeah...that's the ticket!

GIVE ME A BREAK ... Orange

What? You were looking for something like:

There once was a fellow named Orange
Had a face that looked much like a Smorange
Tried to wipe it off
But he started to cough
Now he looks like a bowl of hot porange.

OK Orange

At first, I had never seen any of your posts. It was a little tough. Now that you have posted several times under Orange, I think I have a read on you.

Here you go

There once was a fellow named Orange
Of all those he new, he was more strange
A lazy young kid
Asked for money he did
On the corner he stood, begged for more change

I'm betting it fits you to a tee. Of course, I'm not betting you, unless you have been out panhandling today and are loaded with shiny new nickels.

"If you could see me right now, I'm damm sure you would understand, there ain't no peace for an angry young man."

What if hezzbolla did not attack first, ever think about that? CNN, FAUX, (MS”end”BC), tell us that 8 Israeli soldiers where just sitting on the border (backed up by the 4TH most powerful army in the WORLD) and two Israeli soldiers were happenstance abducted. And the other six were killed? What happened, could it be that they ran into a “mine” on Lebanese soil? Or they maybe they just wandered off; you know the war on terror can get boring at times. Smells a little fucking fishy to me. All the while the shit is hitting the fan in our own little Arab adventure. Fuck them. How dare those Saddam loving rag heads fuck up our occupation? Better to fight the rag heads there than here, American and Israel tears are really worth more than Lebanese blood. And we need all the wal-marts we can occupy. Once they (the rag heads) start really shopping and going into debt everything will start to “fall” into place. And we are going to need the towel heads to greet us. With our coffee and fuck you.

Now THAT's intriguing dialog...

Sheesh...I'm gonnabed...

-T

David, I would be willing to have my group recover your hard drive at no cost to you. I figure if we succeed, you might mention us favorably, if we fail, we'll slink off with our tails between our feet.

uncledad at 57, I agree with you. I am reposting an article from yesterday, it is important. I have received some criticism for "one-sided" bashing on Israel, but it is my opinion that Israel is entirely to blame for the mess in the Middle East. And to Bob, your assertion that Arabs want to push Israel into the sea is nonsense, the fact is, the very opposite is true, Israel has been trying to regain their biblical borders for 75 years, and have caused a great deal of suffering in the process.

Guerrila News Network
Fri, 28 Jul 2006 10:49:07 -0700
PRESS RELEASE
Drafted by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Department of International Relations, University of Sussex

SHIN BET VETOED SECRET ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE AGREEMENT
Israeli and Palestinian Sources Concur: Israel Made War Inevitable
The Omega Institute (OI), which works closely with the Institute for Policy Research for Development (IPRD), has learned from Israeli and Palestinian sources that just prior to the current crisis, senior Hamas leaders were in active dialogue with Israeli religious leaders in a round of bilateral peace negotiations. Israeli negotiators included Rabbi Menachem Froman, former deputy leader and co-founder of the Israeli Settler movement Gush Khatif; Rabbi David Bigman, head of the liberal religious Kibbutz movement Yeshiva at Ma’°le Gilboa; and Yitzhak Frankenthal, founder of the Arik Institute. Ongoing negotiations had resulted in a breakthrough peace understanding, which was to be announced at a press conference in Jerusalem to mark the launching of an extraordinary peace initiative. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert had been briefed extensively about the initiative by Frankenthal. Also due to attend the conference were Khaled Abu Arafa, the Palestinian Cabinet Minister for Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhamed Abu Tir, senior Hamas Member of the Palestinian Parliament, and other senior Palestinian delegates.
The meeting was to announce a joint Israeli-Palestinian call for the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit who had been abducted by Hamas in Gaza, along with proposals for the beginning of the release of all Palestinian prisoners. These measures were to precipitate unprecedented new peace negotiations on a framework peace agreement, drawn on the 1967 borders. The presence of Palestinian Cabinet Officers and senior Israeli religious leaders in contact with the Prime Minster was to underline the seriousness of this peace proposal on both sides.
Just hours before the meeting was due to start, the Israeli Shin Bet internal Security Service arrested Abu Tir and Abu Arafa and warned them not to attend the meeting, under threats of detention. The meeting, which offered a major opportunity to obtain Shalit's release and launch a new framework for peace, was thrown into disarray. The next day, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) invaded Gaza, and the day after both Abu Tir and Abu Arafa were abducted by Israeli forces, along with a third of the Palestinian Cabinet, provoking a predictable escalation of violence.
Israel simultaneously began conducting covert incursions on to Lebanese territory, provoking Hizbollah's capture of two IDF soldiers. Credible sources confirm that the soldiers were not abducted on Israeli territory, but inside Lebanon. Like the scuppered peace negotiations, Western officials have ignored this, and misinformed the media. However, some reports corroborate the sources. Israeli officials, for instance, informed Forbes (12.7.06) that Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel. The revelations show that Palestinian and Lebanese actors were not principally responsible for the escalation of the current conflict, said OI Director Graham Ennis. Contrary to the misinformation disseminated by the Whitehouse and Whitehall, Israel vetoed unprecedented peace proposals that would have initiated a promising new framework for serious negotiations, and went on to provoke Palestinian and Lebanese groups into retaliations, that now threaten to escalate into a dangerous regional conflict.
==============
The right to exist and defend itself? How about making peace with the neighbors? That is in the best interest of all. Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe the Israeli leaders feel that peace is NOT in their best interest.

"Consciousness is a terrible curse. I think. I feel. I suffer."

Read the article at post 19. It is also on point about the history of the conflict, from the same perspetive.

The history of the conflict is there for all to see. The problem today, as the GNN article pointed out, is the fact that peace in the Middle East will not accomplish the goals of the Zionist leaders of Israel. The question was asked, what if Hamas and Hezbollah throw down their weapons and back off? Well, then Israel will simply march forward, establish the borders wherever they see fit, and continue to harass and persecute the Lebanese and Palestians until they all give up and leave. I don't see that as an acceptable resolution.

To stay away from ranting let me suggestion that Christians pray the Our Father and read the Bible.

Our youngest son recommended reading a book by Thomas E. Ricks, "Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq".

Bush does not want stability in the Middle East.

The book can be ordered at Amazon.com.

Our son also included this website. It is an interview with the author.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159420103X/sr=8-2qid=1154117236/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-1220050-269513?ie=UTF8

I hope that the website has all the numbers, letters, etc.

Oren Ben-Dor: Who are the real terrorists in the Middle East?
What exactly is being defended? Is it the citizens of Israel or the nature of the Israeli state?
Published: 26 July 2006

The UK Independent

As its citizens are being killed, Israel is, yet again, inflicting death and destruction on Lebanon. It tries to portray this horror as necessary for its self-defence. Indeed, the casual observer might regard the rocket attacks on Israeli cities such as Haifa and my own home town, Nahariya, as justifying this claim.

While states should defend their citizens, states which fail this duty should be questioned and, if necessary, reconfigured. Israel is a state which, instead of defending its citizens, puts all of them, Jews as well as non-Jews, in danger.

What exactly is being defended by the violence in Gaza and Lebanon? Is it the citizens of Israel or the nature of the Israeli state? I suggest the latter. Israel's statehood is based on an unjust ideology which causes indignity and suffering for those who are classified as non-Jewish by either a religious or ethnic test. To hide this primordial immorality, Israel fosters an image of victimhood. Provoking violence, consciously or unconsciously, against which one must defend oneself is a key feature of the victim-mentality. By perpetuating such a tragic cycle, Israel is a terrorist state like no other...
============

If Bush does not want stability in the Middle East and he desires to be known as the war president, then I fear that he has accepted the damnation of his soul for all eternity.

Or, he really is God's messiah messenger?

Please assist in sorting out what Bush is!!!

Or, he really may be crazy as a loon and not subject to judgment where hell is an option?

#71 RedAlert, Israel learned her lessons well from Nazi Germany and Nazi America.

Since there are so many suings going on by people who say that the fast food places are making them too heavy, I have decided that I will sue my wife for being an excellent cook. She is able to prepare various ethnic meals from scratch, such as Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Italian, Polish, German, American, Greek, and Middle Eastern.

In hock to George Bush

The Brits may also be crazy as a loon!!!

MADSEN: HEZBOLLAH VERSION OF HOW IDF SOLDIERS WERE CAPTURED
Source: Wayne Madsen Report

July 28, 2006 -- Countering the spin. Hezbollah sources have an entirely different story about the incident that triggered the Israeli attack on Lebanon. The counter-story lends credence to the pre-meditated nature of a plan that was hatched in a three-way meeting between Dick Cheney, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Natan Sharansky at an American Enterprise Institute conference in Colorado last month.

Hezbollah reports that on July 12, two Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops were captured by Hezbollah after they entered Lebanese territory. Hezbollah put out feelers that they would entertain a prisoner swap, something that had occurred many times in the past. However, already looking for an incident on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the Israeli government dispatched a Merkava-2 tank into Lebanon to retrieve its two captured troops. The tank hit a land mine, killing four Israeli soldiers. Haaretz confirmed that the tank was destroyed by a mine and not in a Hezbollah attack.

The neo-con spin machine, including George W. Bush, claims that Hezbollah entered Israel in an unprovoked attack and kidnapped the two Israelis.
===========
I'm sorry if this was already posted. A clue, President Bush, who never tells the truth, backs the Israeli version. That's all I need to know.

Who is America to judge Saudi Arabia

#76 RedAlert, usually there are two sides to every story!!!

Might is not right

Who Benefits

The Moral Rot of Intervention

RedAlert--while I agree with you that Israel does not want peace and is the aggressor in this conflict I have this question for you.

Why does it matter WHERE the soldiers were captured?

I understand that tradeoffs were the norm for the past many years, but that does not justify the continuation of kidnapping(on BOTH sides) in the region.

Hizbollah should have known that at some point, Israel would use one of these instances as they just have.

I have no sympathy for the fighters of Hizbollah as they put innocent Lebanese citizens in jeapordy just as the IDF and the radicals in Likud and Kadima do to the Israeli population with their continued policies of collective punishment, which serve only to feed the frenzy and create future enemies for them.

While I support Israel's right to "defend itself" I do not think their current actions are done out of defense and I don't think their tactics will accomplish their goal(the elimination of terrorism against them) so I can not approve of the "collateral damage" as so many others have.

The only innocents in this conflict are the citizens of the nations, the leaders are all guilty.

http://www.bilderberg.org/2006.htm

Personally, I believe that more American soldiers have been killed. If you die away from Iraq and Afghanistan in a German hospital, you are not counted as a war casualty.

American Soldiers

2,896 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his lies.

18,500+ American soldiers have been maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his evil lies.

55,000+ of the 140,000 American soldiers are suffering from PTSD. Stress disorder has increased and the percentage is now around 40%.

Over 350,000+ Iraqis have been killed in Iraq since Bush declared shock and awe bombings on March 19, 2003.

Contamination from depleted uranium may have affected 125,000+ American soldiers and several million Iraqis.

Are you feeling more safe and secure with Bush in the WH and Cheney as his chief hatchet man overseeing Nazi America and her citizens?

Our military men and women are used as cannon fodder for a terrorist Nazi American government.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, AND NEITHER DO WE. George W. Bush, August 5, 2005

Rigged elections doom American democracy. American soldiers are being killed and maimed TO PROMOTE A NAZI AMERICAN STATE.

Henry Kissinger says that military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.

Nazi America is a mirror image of Hitler Bush.

Nazi Americans continually justify sin.

Nazi Americans are accomplices with Bush for his murders and war crimes.

The lies, those endless lies

And, if we are honest, Israel is not alone. How many of us want the Arabs to remain faceless so we can keep believing we are the victims of a new ideology that wants only our evisceration, just as the "Red Indians" once supposedly wanted our scalps? How many many of us believe that our values demand that we fall in behind a new world order in which Arab deaths are not real deaths because "they" are not fully human?

War is a narcotic.

War is a narcotic. War gives certain people a high. Bush is a drug addict who says he has recovered but the Iraq war is an addictive narcotic that gives Bush his daily high. He says that he has recovered but you never recover from an addictive personality. The longer a war lasts the more power goes to the government.

We start hating through language and from language we start to want to kill people. War gives the addictive personality meaning. Bush cannot exist without war. The state begins to define our being. The state must control us in order for us to kill. We cannot look at another person as part of humanity. Friends do not want war. You must, in war, want to kill and a person cannot be a friend to a person whom he is out to kill. People become intoxicated in war toward killing. You lose yourself and your identity as a human person in war.

If you oppose war, you court physical violence to yourself by the nationalists who desire and crave killing and war. You need moral courage to oppose war in America, a land that is overrun by nationalists who want killing and war.

Human beings do not want to kill other human beings. Hitler Bush and Chainey are not human beings because they want to kill human beings. Hitler Bush and Chainey turned away from people who had empathy for us after 9/11. We had an opportunity to build friendships but we became racists.

The Republican Party possesses extremists who are doing great damage to our relations in the world. Once you become violent, you hang onto and remain violent because you cannot behave any other way. Violence comes back to haunt a country. Our violence to other countries will come back to haunt us. We do not have the right to control other people.

I TRULY BELIEVE THAT HITLER BUSH AND CHAINEY ARE PLANNING A TERRORIST ATTACK INSIDE THE USA THROUGH A COVERT OPERATION WITH THE JACKALS (CIA) SO THEY CAN REMAIN IN CONTROL AND IN POWER FOREVER.

Bush family AWOLism

"If this war is so God damn important, why aren't the Bush twins over there in Iraq helping to fight it?"

An administration that won't stop lying

The Republican Party has been reduced to one principle--its own power. It protects the Bush Regime from accountability and covers up its lies and misdeeds. Under the myths and lies that enshroud 9/11, the Democrats have collapsed as an opposition party.

The Bush Regime has destroyed Iraq without being able to defeat the resistance. Its greater casualty, however, is the American people, voiceless with no political representation, defenseless in the face of police state depredations, such as illegal warrantless surveillance, and the possibility of property seizures and indefinite detention without charges.

The Bush Regime's war on terror has defeated truth and the constitutional protections of liberty in the United States. No conceivable number of Muslim terrorists could inflict comparable damage on America.

G8 Leaders Voice Support for IAEA Work
Summit Endorses Agency Initiatives in Key Areas
Staff Report
18 July 2006
G8 Summit 2006

Leaders of the Group of 8 countries backed the IAEA?s work at their annual summit held 15-17 July 2006 in St. Petersburg, Russia. A concluding summary statement endorsed IAEA programmes and initiatives in areas of nuclear safety, security, and safeguards.

Global energy security was a major focus of the summit, with G8 leaders agreeing that dynamic and sustainable development of our civilization depends on reliable access to energy. "It is best assured by strengthened partnership between energy producing and consuming countries, including enhanced dialogue on growing energy interdependence, security of supply and demand

at the IAEA website

No, you can't have my child

Free Market Ideology Has Killed Thousands in Iraq

Israel says "mission accomplished"

UN Observers Leave Israel-Lebanon Border
By Lee KeathThe Associated Press
Friday 28 July 2006
Beirut, Lebanon - The United Nations has decided to remove 50 unarmed observers from posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border and relocate them with lightly armed UN peacekeepers, a spokesman said Friday. Also Friday, Hezbollah announced it had fired a new rocket, called the Khaibar-1, striking near the northern Israeli town of Afula.

Israeli authorities reported that five rockets hit fields outside Afula, causing no casualties. Afula is about 30 miles south of the Israeli-Lebanese border, and is farther south than the Israeli port city of Haifa.

The strike came two days after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech that Hezbollah would start a new phase in the battle striking beyond the Israeli city of Haifa, which has been hit several times in lethal rocket fire.

The area around Afula has been struck before, but Israeli security officials said Friday's attacks were the southernmost so far.

The UN decision came three days after an Israeli airstrike destroyed one of the posts earlier this week, killing four UN observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said Israel appeared to have struck the site deliberately - an accusation Israel vehemently denies. But a UN Security Council statement Thursday expressed shock and distress at the killing of the observers, but avoided any condemnation.

Bill takes away U.S. citizens' rights

Carey, you are welcome. Where do you live that "raining again" is unprecidented?

No wonder the repugnants want her to be the next repugnant president!!!

Published on Saturday, July 29, 2006 by the Progressive
Condoleezza Rice: Midwife From Hell
by Matthew Rothschild

After being one of the most inept national security advisers in the nation's history, Condoleezza Rice is now earning the same grade as secretary of state.

Her description of the conflagration in Lebanon as the "birthpangs of a new Middle East" was about as callous as it gets, matched only by Bush's remark that the conflict represents "a moment of opportunity."

Nor were families of the Israeli victims (about 50 so far, and most of them soldiers) cheering the new day, either.

Rice's cruel opposition to an immediate cease-fire has left the whole world outside of Israel (and Tony Blair's kennel) aghast.

And U.N. Ambassador John Bolton's sneering about a cease-fire not being "the alpha and omega" only reinforced the arrogance.

More than half a million people in Lebanon have been turned into refugees in just a matter of weeks.

Israelis are bunkered in bomb shelters.

And all Rice can do is issue hollow words of concern and then sabotage any immediate cease-fire?

The expediting of U.S. bombs to Israel at the same time sent an all too obvious message. Did they fly in carriage on the same plane that took Rice to the region? Is she bringing another load with her this time?

As Rice did in the lead up to the Iraq War, so she is doing now: She's drinking her own propaganda.

The Iraq War was going to redraw the map of the Middle East.

Now the Lebanon War is going to do the trick?

The Iraqi people were going to welcome the Americans with open arms.

Now the Lebanese people are going to rise up and somehow defeat Hezbollah when Israel can't even do the job?

Politically na?ve, Rice also appears woefully jejune about human nature.

When people are being attacked by a foreign power, they rarely rally to that foreign power's side.

And when a group in their midst fights back against the invaders, that group doesn't lose support, it gains support.

The United States and Israel have succeeded only in making heroes of Hezbollah thugs.

Rice's green light for Olmert's spilling of red blood has managed only to further enrage the Arab and Muslim world and isolate the United States among its allies (except, of course, for Tony Blair, who is still wagging his tail and licking Bush’≥ face).

It is not in the interests of the United States, and it is not in Israel’≥ interests either, to show the international community utter disdain. And the war crimes of Israel, and Rice's blessing of them, will long be remembered.

Where was Condoleezza Rice when Israel bombed the only power plant in Gaza, bringing about a humanitarian crisis?

Where was Condoleezza Rice, when Israel inflicted collective punishment on the sovereign people of Lebanon?

Where was Condoleezza Rice, when Israel was killing more than 100 Lebanese children?

Condoleezza Rice was in Israel's corner.

For five and a half years, Rice did nothing about the most serious problem in the Middle East, and now she’≥ done worse than nothing.

Rice believes in is the diplomacy of the F-16.

And that style of diplomacy is crashing and burning.

Matthew Rothschild has been with The Progressive since 1983. His McCarthyism Watch web column has chronicled more than 150 incidents of repression since 9/11.

Who Must Really Answer

HuffingtonPost: "Deadly Heat Wave Migrates East..."

As the World Burns

Let's go to the beach

http://www.progressive.org/mccarthy

When will the political left figure out the difference between Israel and the Muslims? Notice I don't say "Muslim extremists." That's because the "extremists" have the moral and financial support of Muslims everywhere, and because the Islam we call "moderate" is more intolerant than the Klan.

The left excoriates Israel constantly for its "brutality," complaining that Israel kills civilians. Yes, Israel kills civilians. So does every country that engages in military action. Like all civilized (i.e. "non-Muslim") nations, and to a greater degree than most, Israel strives to avoid civilian casualties, but they still happen. As a result of Muslim provocation, of course. No one bothers to point that out.

Muslims, on the other hand, target civilians deliberately. The USUAL goal of armed Muslims is to kill civilians. Partly because they're barbarians, and partly because they generally lack the guts to take on soldiers.

Israel attacks a missile battery. The Muslims shell a suburb. Israel destroys an ammunition dump. The Muslims shoot up a playground. This is the way it has always worked. Yet the political left squeals in outrage when a Muslim civilian dies, and they accept dead Jewish civilians as though being a Jew justifies murder.

The left wets itself when anyone dares suggest that Muslim immigrants and resident aliens need special scrutiny, or that they might turn out to be disloyal. But the left isn't around to pick up the pieces when British Muslims or American Muslims who have never been oppressed in their lives blow up a subway train or kill random citizens with a sniper rifle. Actually, they ARE around. To tell us we brought it on ourselves.

Now another mighty Muslim warrior--an American citizen--has reminded us how brave and moral Muslims are, and how loyal Muslim citizens are, by breaking into a Jewish community center and shooting six women, one of them pregnant. Way to go, Muslim Avenger. I'll bet Allah is really impressed. Maybe next time you could break into a maternity ward and shoot Jewish babies. By Muslim standards, that would be a major military victory.

Why stop there? Come on down to Florida. We still have some retired Jews here. Go to a retirement community and shoot a bunch of tiny octogenarians with walkers. Allah is great! He will protect you when they try to hit you with their canes and miss because they have cataracts.
How can Muslims call themselves men when they support cowardly attacks on women and babies? How can they look Americans and Israelis in the eye, when we take such great pains to spare their non-combatants? What a bunch of pansies. No wonder they go through life screeching about how emasculated they feel. They are emasculated. They emasculate themselves every day by indulging their cowardice. We aren't dealing with men. We're dealing with a culture of little boys in men's bodies. And when I say that, I realize I'm being unfair to little boys.

If Muslims don't develop a little dignity and learn to behave like adults, there will come a day when the rest of the world occupies their backward little countries, disarms them, and takes over the business of distributing their oil. I used to think imperialism was wrong, but that was before I understood the Muslim mind. As long as they behave like monkeys, they have no right to run their own countries and maintain armies, and they should be conquered and forced into submission. And because they're such lousy soldiers, the rest of the world is very capable of doing that. That's what happens when you learn to fight by shooting old people and toddlers. When a real army shows up, you last about a week.

Congratulations on another victory for Mohammed, that revered gangster and pedophile. That proud, manly proponent of wife-beating. And take comfort in the fact that provocations like this are going to help a whole bunch of you meet up with your imaginary virgins.

I don't know why the left calls conservatives "chickenhawks" and claims we're afraid of Muslims because we don't all join the military. When you're in a war with Muslims, the military is the safest place to be, because the military is the thing the Muslims are least likely to attack.

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sobeach

RIGHT ON, Amen and Hallelujah.
However, if you think the modern Left Wing traitor, who just so happens to live in America, will give a shit about facts and truth, you are dreaming. You know Liberals hate the truth, as it never helps them in their pursuit of personal, political and/or financial gain. Truth hurts Liberals, it is why they only and always lie.

The Bush Regime's war on terror has defeated truth and the constitutional protections of liberty in the United States. No conceivable number of Muslim terrorists could inflict comparable damage on America.

The Bush Regime's war on terror has defeated truth and the constitutional protections of liberty in the United States.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, AND NEITHER DO WE. George W. Bush, August 5, 2005

Rigged elections doom American democracy. American soldiers are being killed and maimed TO PROMOTE A NAZI AMERICAN STATE.

Henry Kissinger says that military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. Does this mean our soldiers are only cannon fodder to be murdered and maimed?

Nazi America is a mirror image of Hitler Bush.

Nazi Americans continually justify sin.

Nazi Americans are accomplices with Bush for his murders and war crimes.

The Bush Regime's war on terror has defeated truth and the constitutional protections of liberty in the United States. No conceivable number of Muslim terrorists could inflict comparable damage on America.

There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn't a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature: Barbara Kingsolver:

=
"To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace." - Tacitus

=
"So let us regard this as settled: what is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

=
"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." : Samuel P. Huntington

=
A time comes when silence is betrayal." Rev. Martin Luther King

===
Thanks ICH Newsletter!

for Gerald,

I know you are with me when I pray to god, and thank him for putting one of his favorite son's, President George W. Bush, here to protect and save us all.

Let us pray,

Thank you dear God for giving us the most honest, caring and brave, President Bush, to save even cowardly, hateful, name calling traitors like Gerald.

With all the unjust hatred in his heart, I know you are going to burn him in hell forever. I know all this hate is coming from Gerald's master, Satan.

Can you please help Gerald see the light, and give up his sinful, hateful and dishonest ways.

Amen

Gerald,

There is no room in your heart for Love, as it is to filled with Hate.

Repent, God does not give everlasting life to a life filled with HATE.

Gerald, you are overflowing with HATE.

God sent Dumya to start an illegal and unwise invasion on a pack of lies?

God does that often?

ROTFLMAO

Thanks

capt

No security clearances revoked over Plame

WASHINGTON --No one in the Bush administration has been stripped of security clearances over the leak of former CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity to reporters three years ago.

In a letter to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., the CIA said it had no record of anyone in the administration who is no longer privy to the nation's most sensitive secrets because of the Plame leak.

The CIA also revealed it has not yet completed a formal assessment of the damage to national security that may have been caused by Plame's outing in 2003.

The assessment won't be completed until a criminal investigation of the leak has been concluded, Christopher J. Walker, the CIA's director of congressional affairs, said in the July 19 letter to Lautenberg.

For more than a year, Lautenberg and other Democrats have been calling on President Bush to fire presidential adviser Karl Rove and any other aides who discussed Plame's CIA status with reporters -- or, at the least, to revoke their security clearances.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Here is the liar telling more lies:

BUSH THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF SAID HE'D FIRE ANYONE FOR LEAKING, THAT NOBODY WAS INVOLVED.

Asked in June 2004 if he'd stand by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked, Bush replied "yes." [Bush Press Conference: Savannah, GA, 6/10/04]

When the White House was asked specifically whether Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams or Lewis Libby told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Those individuals -- I talked -- I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands." [White House Briefing, 10/10/03]

"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." [Bush Remarks: Chicago, Illinois, 9/30/03]

"The President has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." [White House Briefing, 9/29/03]

*****end of second clip*****

Hard to have it both ways. Either Bush is honorable and keeps his word or he is a liar that will say whatever he wants without any concern for the truth. That would be a pathological liar, eh?

capt

The above posts #110 & 111 gave me a really good laugh!

Some very solid reading from POAC:

Former Republican Congressman and Presidential candidate: Republican House leadership has been so unalterably corrupted by power and money that reasonable Republicans should support Democrats 7-29

Ex-WorldCom CEO conviction affirmed: funeral plans, cremation pending. 7-29

Bush takes time out from doing nothing about middle East Crisis for photo-op with American Idol stars 7-29

GAO says EPA dragging its feet on Clean Air Act 7-29

House approves minimum wage increase/ repeal of inheritance tax 7-29

Bush And Blair Dismiss Growing Worldwide Calls For Cease-Fire. 7-29

Pentagon delays departure of 2,500 US troops from Iraq 7-28

Afghanistan: Local politicians, police chiefs and judges are being assassinated, and schools are being closed or burned to the ground. Mission accomplished 7-28

Congresswoman Woolsey calls for Repeal of President's Iraq War Powers 7-28

I Am A Man Of Love

I love people! For me love is wishing the best for another person or persons. On a daily basis I say the Holy Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for my family and me and for any other person who is in need of the Holy Rosary and a Chaplet of Divine Mercy. I also pray to God to have mercy on me a sinner. An Act of Contrition and a Prayer for Spiritual Communion are also included in my daily prayers.

From time to time I say the prayer that is below.

I said a prayer

I said a prayer for you today and I know God must have heard
I felt the answer in my heart, although He spoke no word!
I did not ask for wealth or fame I knew you would not mind
I asked Him to send treasures of a far more lasting kind!
I asked that He would be near you at the start of each new day to
Grant you health and blessings and friends to share your way!
I asked for happiness for you in all things great and small
But it was for His loving care I prayed the most of all!

And a must from time to time is to read the Bible and especially, Matthew 25:31-46!

#113 capt, Bush is a liar!!! The glory for Bush is man fully and totally dead!!!

In my life God is my co-pilot!!!

Gerald,

In your first breath you spew hate.
In your second breath you profess to love God.
In your third breath you spread more hate.

Your second breath was taking the Lord's name in vain.

I am sure you know God does not want his name used to justify your Hate Speech.

Gerald, you are a blasphemer.

Stop using God's name in vain.

God does not preach Hate.

You are preaching Hate in his name, and that is wrong.

The GOP's Sleaziest Attack Campaign

How low will Republicans go to try and hang onto control of Ohio, the swing state where their machinations secured the presidency for George W. Bush in 2004?

Lower than reasonable Americans, no matter what their partisanship, no matter what their ideology, could imagine.

Gary Lankford, the Ohio Republican Party's recently hired "social conservative coordinator" this week dispatched a mass e-mail to so-called "pro-family friends" that featured his 10-point introduction to U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee for governor.

Strickland, an ordained Methodist minister who has thrown Republicans for a loop by speaking about his faith during the campaign, is running far ahead of scandal-plagued Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the Republican nominee who gained national fame in 2004 when he was broadly accused of manipulating election processes and vote counting to favor Bush in the presidential race.

What's the GOP strategy for getting Blackwell back into the running? Imply that Strickland is gay.

What are Republican staffers pointing to as evidence? Reports that the Democratic congressman and his wife of 20 years reside in different locations when he is in Washington.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

The GOPhers have become their own worst nightmare. They are all driven by hate and homophobia.

capt

I Love Bush

Dear Cornposters:

There are Nazis trolling this website saying that I do not like Bush. From my posts regarding Bush I can appreciate what you are saying. Yet, from time to time I must clarify some of your mistaken views surrounding my posts. Let me say this comment most emphatically, "I love Bush!"

Yes, I love Bush! Love for me means that I want the very best for a person or persons. I want the best for Bush. I also want to say that Bush and his Nazi cabal will not read my posts. Hopefully a few Nazi trolls will take a few moments to read this letter.

If Bush read my post, I would hope that he would take sometime and reflect on my words. While Bush is reflecting on my words, we may also want to reflect on the destiny of his soul. I do not desire to judge him but I can only give you my perceptual opinion of Bush.

If Bush will reflect on his eternal soul, he may come to realize that he must save it. If I did not love Bush, I would care less and less about his eternal soul. What is best for the soul, salvation or damnation? So, Nazi trollers what is best for Bush, salvation or damnation? It is your call! Life (heaven) or death (hell)?

Sincerely,

Gerald

Matthew 5:9

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

24/7

People will ask me from time to time how often do I pray? I say that I pray 24/7. You should see the look on their faces with my answer. When I reflect on prayer, a person can pray 24/7. Here is how it's possible. For each time that I inhale a breath of air, it is God's gift to me. For each time I exhale a breath of air, it is my thank you to God. When a person has these thoughts, our breathing is truly a form of prayer because the glory of God is man fully alive.

Gerald,

God is looking into your heart right now.

When you say things like, "I love people! For me love is wishing the best for another person or persons", are you wishing the best for President Bush? Remember Gerald, if you say yes to that, God can see into your heart and knows if you are lying just to hide your deep hatred. Will you also lie to God, as you hate and lie to others?

This is where U.s. foreign policy in the middle east is decided. You can attend if you are one of the "elite or one of President Bush's base"

Aipac needs to have as many conferences as they can to rally support if and when the Aipac trial happens.

The AIPAC
National Summit
in Houston

October 22-23,
2006
Meet some of the most influential men and women whose decisions will affect the future of America and Israel.

Be part of an elite group of political activists from all over America dedicated to strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance.

Previous Summit speakers have included:
Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, John Kerry, John McCain, Sandy Berger, Paul Wolfowitz and Joe Lieberman.

The Summit is reserved exclusively for those who contribute a minimum of $3,600 annually to AIPAC.
For hotel reservations, please contact the Houston Intercontinental directly at 888-565-6157 or www.intercontinental.com/Houston. Enter the Group Booking Code: R32.

For more information, contact our National Events Department at 202-639-5363 (summit@aipac.org) or Joy Nathan at 713-871-1891 (jnathan@aipac.org).

Conference cancellations must be made in writing, addressed to National Events: Summit at AIPAC and received by October 1, 2006 for a full refund.

Cancellations after October 1, 2006 cannot be refunded.

A bunch of conservatives mad at the governor (Tx) has been sending him campaign contribution checks of 3-cents (some have been two cents, some for just one). Here's how the idiots responded...

Perry camp has a name for 'A Small Supporter'
But the acronym, ASS, for protesters who sent in checks for pennies, likely will be changed

AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry's campaign sheepishly acknowledged Friday that labeling protest contributions as "ASS" donations could have been handled more delicately.

Pushing for a ceasefire from behind a barrage of Katyushas

Hizbullah wants an immediate ceasefire and is ready to swap the two abducted Israeli soldiers "in six hours" after it comes into force, according to officials from Amal, a Shia party allied to Hizbullah.

Hizbullah has entrusted Amal with negotiations for a prisoner deal, realising that it cannot be a direct partner to talks. Nabih Berri, Amal's leader, who is also speaker of the Lebanese parliament, met Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, on Tuesday in a clear sign that Washington sees him as a conduit to Hizbullah.

"Mr Berri says he can get the Israeli soldiers sent back in return for Lebanese prisoners in six hours after a ceasefire," Ali Hamdan, the head of Amal's foreign affairs bureau, told the Guardian yesterday.

"He wouldn't say that if he didn't have assurances from Hizbullah."

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

I would assume that Israel wants their soldiers back? That is suppose to be the reason, right?

capt

How much more compassionate conservatism can this nation and the world endure?

Minimum Wage Gamesmanship
The latest House Republican game was nakedly plain for all to see by mid-afternoon Friday, and yet House GOP leaders played along as if they honestly believed people would not see through it.

The game, of course, is to convince the public that Republicans want to increase the minimum wage, now $5.15 an hour. The reality, of course, is that they do not. The only reason House Majority Leader John A. Boehner is even entertaining a vote this week is because frightened Republican moderates, as veteran reporter Andrew Taylor of the Associated Press reported, demanded that the issue be brought to the floor.

But, in the Republicans’†inexorable quest to match every half-hearted good deed for ordinary Americans with a generous gift to the wealthy, House Republicans decided in a mid-afternoon caucus to try coupling a minimum wage increase to a bundle of tax cuts, including a reduction in the estate tax for multimillionaires.

They think that the public won’¥ ask this basic question: Why can’¥ Congress raise the wage of a service worker making $5.15 an hour without simultaneously granting a big tax break to the wealthiest Americans, people for whom $5.15 is the price of a venti coffee drink at Starbucks.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a Friday conference call with progressive bloggers, said she thinks the public will see the scam for what it is. Ҕhis is designed to be dead on arrival going into the U.S. Senate,Ӡshe said, because efforts to increase the estate tax have already repeatedly failed there.

She noted that some House Republicans have openly bragged about their ability to keep ordinary Americans from getting an increase in the federal minimum wage, even as they have pocketed—≥hamelessly—§35,000 in raises in that time. A worker making $5.15 an hour and working a 40-hour work week would have to be on the job almost 170 weeks just to earn what an average member of Congress received in raises over a nine-year period.

Business lobbyists have gone into overdrive to block a minimum wage increase. Both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business have put big bucks and lobbying muscle into blocking the increase and, failing that, extracting big tax breaks as a concession.

Ironically, all of this is taking place on a day when Oprah Winfrey is airing on her syndicated talk show tales of what it is like to live on the minimum wage. Material from the show is featured on her Web site. Many of Oprah’≥ fans are people the Republican Party hopes to fool with their faux advocacy for working people. But no amount of fancy political footwork will cover the nakedness of this political game with people’≥ lives.

At tom paine

Just hot air? Bush and Blair refuse to call for ceasefire

Tony Blair and George Bush defied the growing anger across the world yesterday by seeking a UN resolution that fell far short of a ceasefire to end the killing of Lebanese civilians.

Speaking after talks at the White House, Mr Bush announced that on Monday the UN Security Council will discuss the creation of a multinational force to patrol a buffer zone on the southern Lebanon border. Mr Bush said the US would be tabling a UN Security Council resolution next week to seek an end to hostilities "as soon as possible" but it failed to meet the demands for a ceasefire in an open letter in The Independent yesterday, signed by 42 leading figures in the arts, business and politics.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Cease-fire? No way! Too many bombs sold to just stockpile them.

capt

The Lord's Prayer

Never forget that we all fall under the umbrella of being interconnected and interdependent as brothers and sisters in God.

I would like to start with the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

As Christians, when we recite the Our Father, we must remember that the prayer is more than just words. The prayer is a powerful prayer.

Let us look at the words beyond rote memory. When we say the Our Father, we are acknowledging God as the Father, Our Father. This acknowledgement means that God is the Father of all His children but it is more than the fact that we are His children. We are united in God as brothers and sisters. We are all brothers and sisters.

We know that God is in heaven and that His name will be revered on earth as in heaven. His kingdom is the earth and heaven. We are also asking God for nourishment. As we ask God for nourishment to sustain us, we are asking God to forgive any transgressions and we are to also forgive people who have transgressed against us. Father John Corapi in his lectures equates the daily bread with the Eucharist that Catholics receive at daily Mass. Catholics have a double concern when they recite the Our Father and for Catholics to want to kill their brothers and sisters is a clear indication of irreverence to God. As I have said in some previous posts, that irreverence to God is eternal perdition. I have asked that all of God's children to never show irreverence to God but I especially appeal to my brothers and sisters to never worship a false god which would show irreverence to the true God.

We are also asking God to not be sinful but to keep us away from sin.

The prayer is not just words but it is a powerful statement that we are accepting God as Our Father and as Christians we are united in God as brothers and sisters.

To recite the Our Father and to hate, kill, and revel in wars we really are not Christians. We are instead dishonoring God and we are separated from Him through our sinful ways. To separate ourselves from God, we are on the road to eternal damnation.

In praying we must ask ourselves the question. How can I give glory to God? We can give glory to God by loving and showing mercy to all our brothers and sisters. We are united with God as a family and a community as His children for all eternity.

This is similiar to Capt's first link at #115.

A weekend visitor tells of season of GOP discontent

By DAVID S. BRODER

MY weekend visitor was one of the founders of the postwar Republican Party in the South, one of those stubborn men who challenged the Democratic rule in his one-party state. He was conservative enough that in the great struggle for the 1952 nomination, his sympathies were with Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio, not Dwight D. Eisenhower.

He has lived long enough to see Republicans elected as senator and governor of his state and to see a Republican from the Sun Belt behemoth of Texas capture the White House. His profession won't let him speak with his name attached, but he is sadly disillusioned.

"My wife was thrilled by the veto" Bush administered last week to the bill expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, because she shares the president's belief that those clumps of cells destroyed in the research process represent human life. "I thought it was stupid," he said. "I know too many people who are like this" — and he shook his hands like a victim of Parkinson's disease — "and their only hope of a cure is in stem cells. Now Bush is forcing that science to move overseas."

He went on: "How the hell long can they refuse to raise the minimum wage?" He was furious, he said, with the Republican leaders of Congress who keep blocking bills to raise the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for years. "I'm a conservative," he said, "but they make me sound like a damned liberal the way they act. They spend like fools, they run up the deficits and they refuse to give a raise to the working people who are struggling. How the hell are you supposed to live on $5.15 an hour these days?"

"If it wasn't for Pelosi," he said, "I'd just as soon the Democrats take over this fall. Get some checks and balances and teach these guys a lesson."
======================
the other half of the article is just as good

July 28, 2006
Lebanon: Are the Yanks Coming?
Let's hope not…†
by Justin Raimondo
Zbigniew Brzezinski, speaking at a forum sponsored by the New America Foundation, had this to say about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon:

"I hate to say this but I will say it. I think what the Israelis are doing today for example in Lebanon is in effect, in effect –†maybe not in intent –†the killing of hostages. The killing of hostages. Because when you kill 300 people, 400 people, who have nothing to do with the provocations Hezbollah staged, but you do it in effect deliberately by being indifferent to the scale of collateral damage, you're killing hostages in the hope of intimidating those that you want to intimidate. And more likely than not you will not intimidate them. You'll simply outrage them and make them into permanent enemies with the number of such enemies increasing."

Harsh words, but true. Intimidation is what the Israeli blitz is all about: it's shock-and-awe in Lebanon, with the IDF playing the role of the Americans and Hassan Nasrallah cast as Saddam Hussein. Except Hezbollah is not rolling over and playing dead, like the ragtag Iraqi army: instead, they are fighting the Israelis to a standstill, and the IDF –†only a week into the war –†is already bogged down.

What to do? Call in the Americans!

Welllll, strip me nekid 'n hide my shoes!
This is shocking.

Report: Sen. McCain's youngest son to join Marines

WASHINGTON - The youngest son of Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam and a vocal proponent of more American troops in Iraq, will soon report for duty in the Marine Corps, Time Magazine reported today.

Jimmy McCain, 18, will spend three months in boot camp in California this autumn and another month in specialized training.

House Conservatives: $2 For Workers, But Only If Paris Gets Millions

ThinkProgress reported this morning that congressional conservatives were planning to allow a vote on the minimum wage today or tomorrow, but only if it was coupled with a poison pill provision that enacted Bush's Associated Health Plans.

New reports indicate that conservatives are ditching one poison pill in favor of another. The AP writes:

Republican leaders are willing to allow the first minimum wage increase in a decade but only if it's coupled with a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, congressional aides said Friday.

The estate tax aka the Paris Hilton Tax benefits only the ultra-wealthy. This year, the exemption level is $2 million ($4 million per couple), which means only 5 out of every 1,000 people who die will pay the tax.

Bill Samuel, a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, said adding the estate tax to the minimum wage "is the mother of all poison pills. It can't possibly pass the Senate."

Sen. Edward Kennedy added, "It's political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give a tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans. Members of Congress raised their own pay no strings attached. Surely, common decency suggests that minimum wage workers deserve the same respect."

More HERE

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I am dumbfounded by the GOP. Why is doing something for the least of us a bad thing? I cannot believe it is just greed, the GOPhers will do anything for the wealthy because they believe they are better than the poor. That is not greed it is arrogance, conceit and disdain toward the needy is born of hate.

IF having huge sums of money made people good then they should be the leaders[sic] - moneys does not make anybody any better than anybody else. To the contrary money is as likely to corrupt as to cleanse.

capt

TurdBlossom at 82, I do not see the capturing of the Israeli soldiers as anything more than pretext for a long planned invasion. North or south of the border makes no difference to the outcome. I guess what bothers me is all the lies. Israel pretty much does what it wants with impunity, so why lie about the circumstance when the goal is ethnic cleansing of Southern Lebanon up to and very probably past the Latani river? What difference does it make when endless murder is the goal? Hell, there's no good reason to even make up any story at all.

Will Ledeen successfully squirm or continue to tell what he calls "noble lies" to get out of this?

Rolling Smear
James Bamford writes a fiction about our Michael Ledeen.By Andrew C. McCarthy & Mark R. Levin
In a screed Rolling Stone is passing off as journalism, James Bamford becomes the latest in a growing crowd of hacks to smear our friend Michael Ledeen.
Up until now, the fiction recklessly spewed by disgruntled intelligence-community retirees and their media enablers Ѡsome of whom have conceded that the claim is based on zero evidence Ѡhas been that Michael had something to do with the forged Italian documents that, according to the Leftճ narrative, were the basis for President Bushճ ҬieӠin the 2003 State of the Union Address that Saddam Hussein had obtained yellowcake uranium (for nuclear-weapons construction) in Africa. Of course, Michael had utterly nothing to do with the forgeries (the source has actually been identified); the forgeries were not the basis for the presidentճ statement; the president did not claim Saddam obtained yellowcake Ѡmerely that intelligence reports indicated that Saddam had sought to obtain it; and the British intelligence reports that actually were the basis for the presidentճ statement were true (the Brits stand by them to this day). But hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

at National Review