If our troops are training the Iraqi forces to perfom as we do, why aren't their any Iraqi women recruits?

If our troops are training the Iraqi forces to perfom as we do, why aren't there any Iraqi women recruits?

When hot air rises, it eventually cools and falls to earth. Bush's Iraq PR campaign is falling flat for the simple reason that he is not saying anything new. At the very least, Americans are still looking for troop withdrawal to be tied to benchmarks. At the most, Americans are looking for a time table. Eother way, stay the course is not an acceptable policy. It's time to change the course.

When hot air rises, it eventually cools and falls to earth. Bush's Iraq PR campaign is falling flat for the simple reason that he is not saying anything new. At the very least, Americans are still looking for troop withdrawal to be tied to benchmarks. At the most, Americans are looking for a time table. Eother way, stay the course is not an acceptable policy. It's time to change the course.

Watch Rove's strategy get nastier and nastier, as he realizes Bush's numbers are not going to go up, that the American public see right through him now.

betcha they will try and find a reason to try that raising terror-level thingy again. Fear worked before, right? Swift boat liars, where are you when they need you?

At least some of the crooks and liars are continuing to allow our steel industry to go down the toity along with our fair trade laws. As usual. Sigh.

http://www.standupforsteel.org/issues/wto_talks.html

I just took the latest Neuropolitics.org survey.

http://neuropolitics.org/processsurvey2006Q1p1.asp

I think the upshot of their analysis was that I think like a girl.

Torture and the Constitution ....

Yes, by any standard the G. Bush supports and has developed a systematic Torture policy. And his administration is executing the policy.

Bush hides behind the Christain Faith.... I'm not aware of any Christain faith that supports and would agree to institute policies that support torture...

Like it or not .... Bush is not acting as a Christain would.... evil is knowingly doing something that violates our basic constitution ... and thankfully the US Constitution aligns with the comon good.

Simply put, Bush policies on torture are NOT CHRISTAIN. PERIOD.

Yes.. those words hurt... me ... you ... our Country and the world at large....

Published on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
If Democrats Only Had Some Courage
by Helen Thomas

Washington -- It's about time that the "me too" Democrats, particularly those in Congress who vote with the Republicans so often, stand up and be counted.

Too many Democrats are tiptoeing around the major issues facing our nation, afraid to venture out of the mainstream. This is a big mistake at a time when the nation is begging for true leadership.

Democrats with the courage to be leaders could have a field day pointing out that millions of Americans lack health insurance and that 37 million have fallen below the poverty line. Soon they will no longer be able to claim that theirs is a caring political party because they won't have evidence that this is true.

Take, for example, the case of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Instead of endorsing universal health care -- a topic that she knows a lot about -- Clinton is busy co-sponsoring with Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, a law to bar desecration of the flag. Has anyone burned a flag lately?

Clinton is a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, which might explain why she's busy pandering to conservatives instead of staking out a leadership role on more important issues.

The Democrats' lack of political courage has left voters with the choice of Republicans who call themselves that -- and Republicans who call themselves Democrats. The result: The GOP gets a free ride.

President Bush has been weakened this year and the allegations of corruption among GOP leadership have hurt the party.

Democrats have a golden opportunity to hammer away at the mistakes made by the Bush administration and to support Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who has made a dramatic and courageous call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within six months.

Murtha's House and Senate colleagues should rush to embrace him. Instead, many of them have scattered to the winds, carefully parsing out distinctions that they claim prove that they're not like Murtha. The Pennsylvania Democrat is a newly minted dove. He was in the Marine Corps for 37 years and had such close ties to the Pentagon brass that some believe he is speaking for many of them in his call to end the war in Iraq.

Murtha argues that we will confront less terrorism if the United States ends its occupation of Iraq. He also frets that the U.S. military will be caught in an Iraqi civil war if it stays behind.

To the alarm of the right-leaning Democrats, Murtha has been joined by House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has endorsed his plan for a pullout from Iraq within six months. But most House Democrats are taking their marching orders from Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., the second-ranking House Democratic leader, who believe in a go-slow strategy.

It was sad to see Emanuel and his cohorts fail to endorse Murtha. Despite the realization that Congress was sold a bill of goods in endorsing the war, the Emanuel-led Democrats fled when Murtha took a strong stand.

They also put a damper on Howard Dean after he said on Monday that "the idea we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong."

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Dean was advocating the United States "should cut and run and retreat."

Dean changed his tune on Thursday and proposed a "strategic redeployment" of the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq over two years. It's possible to imagine the twist marks on his arms, left there by timid Democrats.

On the domestic side, the Democrats should put on a well-lighted marquee the fact that the Republican-controlled Congress plans to save $50 billion over five years by cutting food stamps, student loans and by slapping new fees on Medicaid recipients and reducing child support enforcement. So much for compassionate conservativism.

At the same time, the House on Thursday passed tax cuts totaling $95 billion, sending a clear message that the budget deficits will continue to grow.

The Democrats should learn from the Cowardly Lion's story in the "The Wizard of Oz." The King of Beasts wanted courage and lamented:

"Life is sad, believe me Missy,

"When you're born to be a sissy

"Without the vim and verve."

There's still time for a courage transplant before the next elections.

Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: helent@hearstdc.com.

© 2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

RNC focusing on Moveon.org.

The RNC's effort to focus on another group will have little if an impact. The RNC's rigid stance in stay with their current situtaion is quickly spliting the shaky allainaces it has cobbled together.

Especially, the faith based organizations. The common groud and values that the faith-based groups have w/ the left that are aligned w/ Jesus' teachings will force an allliance w/ the RNC on the certain narrow issues like right to life. The remaining issues like health care, etc that Jesus preached will be accomodated my allainces on the left.

The RNC has sold its values for gain.

THE END

Hillary is a smart lady and Bill can't be beaten on politics. Do you long for the smart Government we had under Clinton 1. We would have that plus Hillary's talents of staying down to earth and favoring families instead of favoring wealthy buddies. I can safely say the only hope for our Nations recovery within a reasonable time is two strong people like the Clintons and V.President John Kerry. That man is a brillant Rhode Scholar too. What I like about these three is that they will listen to common folks like us.
Let us all come together and put them in place?

The war the American people were lied into and signed on for is over and our Armed Forces won it. Iraq, though it never was in the first place, is certainly no longer a strategic threat to the United States. In taking on this task the military exhibited bravery, honor, a commitment to the mission and to one another on the field of battle. When we finally get them all home the first thing we are going to do is march them up the canyon of heroes in lower Manhattan so as many of their fellow Americans as possible can thank them for their sacrifice.

The war going on now, however, is a continuation of the delusional folly of Dick Chenney and the neo-cons who still believe that it is possible for the United States to have a permanent, controlling presence in Iraq. Whether through direct intervention or through indirect means such as setting up a government that will be disposed to doing our bidding as it relates to strategic issues in the region and of course oil, the current administration still believes that the true,
corrupt, designs they had for Iraq have will succeed. They remain impervious to the ever deteriorating reality on the ground in Iraq. It is immoral for this administration to sacrifice blood and treasure in hopes of salvaging their Iraqi gambit. The false choices they now present to the American people- -"Stay the course" or "Cut and run" are so embarrassingly simplistic, so insulting to the families who have lost so much during the course of this war that no right thinking American should even indulge these two, self defeating, idiotic notions.

We are not implanting a democracy in Iraq. Truth be told, the Iraqis have exhibited little interest in rising above tribal and sectarian interests during the previous election and much the same will follow no matter how many elections we indulge on the Iraqi people. You cannot democratically reform a country in which the people would rather torture and kill one another. The Iraqis are simply jockeying for comparative advantage until the final reckoning- Civil War- ensues. A war that is, in fact, already under way. As for the capability of the Iraqi Army, the incompetence and internal sectarian strife are plain for all to see.

The great fears propagated by the administration- That Abu Musab al Zarqawi and his terror network will prevail in Iraq or that our credibility will diminish around the world if we begin to debate how we should best extricate our military from Iraq are utterly ludicrous reasons for America to continue an open ended involvement. Zarqawi, deadly tactician though he is, will be a minor player(If he survives) in post-occupation Iraq. As for our credibility- George Bush and Dick Chenney have done more to shred America's credibility than any administration in history. We will begin to rebuild our credibility when the world begins to see us address the Iraqi dilemma as it exists and not as the administration pretends it to be. We will not be able to leave Iraq any time soon but we need to begin thinking about how we will redeploy our Armed forces in a way that lessens their direct evolvement in Iraq yet still contribute to regional stability- - to the extent that is possible. Leadership from outside the administration(Both Democratic and Republican) needs to be steadfast in holding the administrations feet to the fire until, at long last, they realize that even though their terribly misguided plans for Iraq have collapsed, We still have a great opportunity to extricate ourselves, honorably, from Iraq .

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