Hamilton County Republicans .com

Finally - an UpStanding Lady

2006-08-18T20:27:00.000-05:00

Published on Friday, August 18, 2006 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Washington)

Bush Tampers with War Prisoner Rights
by Helen Thomas

Why does the Bush administration insist on tinkering with the long-established laws on military conduct and treaties of this land?

Bush administration officials are drafting amendments to the 1996 War Crimes Act to immunize political appointees, CIA officials and former military personnel from criminal prosecution for humiliating or degrading treatment of prisoners of war.

The War Crimes Act makes it a felony to violate the Geneva Conventions. Those treaties govern military conduct in wartime and were ratified in 1949 in the aftermath of World War II.

The administration's proposed amendments would reduce the number of acts against detainees subject to criminal prosecution.

The administration seems most concerned about Common Article 3 of the Conventions that bars "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."

Officials are concerned that revelations about U.S. use of leashed dogs lunging at detainees during interrogation, forcing male prisoners to wear feminine underwear, and nakedness might fall into the category of "outrages upon personal dignity" and give rise to prosecution in the aftermath of the scandals at Abu Ghraib prisons.

Perhaps they fear future accountability.

Since his administration has been tainted by accusations of torture and reports of CIA-run secret prisons abroad, Bush should be thinking of ways to resurrect America's damaged worldwide reputation for compassion and humanity rather than designing end runs around our legal commitments.

The accords are a two-way street because they also determine how other nations treat American prisoners. This explains why top U.S. military officials get anxious whenever Bush administration civilian officials start tinkering with the rights of prisoners of war.

The administration ignored the Geneva Conventions after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales concluded they were "obsolete" and "quaint" when he was the chief lawyer in the White House. President Bush went along with those descriptions.

That stance has changed after the Supreme Court in June rebuked the administration for failing to abide by the Geneva Conventions. The justices said prisoners captured in the struggle against al-Qaida terrorism were entitled to protections.

And that has led to the proposed changes in the law.

Gonzales recently testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that the phrase "outrages upon personal dignity" is ambiguous and handicaps those fighting terrorism.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was a POW during the Vietnam War, disagreed, telling the Senate hearing that top military lawyers see no problem in complying with Common Article 3 and did not think it would impede their work.

We don't know how much -- if any -- information has been extracted under coercive interrogations from terrorist suspects picked up after 9/11 and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. We may never know.

The draft amendments have not been officially released but are part of the administration's planned response to the Supreme Court's decision that threw out Bush's plan to put detainees on trial before special commissions that had never been authorized by Congress.

The justices ruled that detainees must be tried by a "regularly constituted court affording all judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples."

It's good to see the court challenge the we-can-do-whatever-we-want attitude that imbues this administration.

Commonly referred to as "The First Lady of the Press," former White House Bureau Chief Helen Thomas is a trailblazer, breaking through barriers for women reporters while covering every President since John F. Kennedy. For 57 years, she also served as White House correspondent for United Press International. She recently left this post and joined Hearst Newspapers as a syndicated columnist.

© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Dirty Money - Our Government Permits it !

2006-06-25T19:53:00.000-05:00

Published on Saturday, June 24, 2006 by The Nation
Dirty Money
by William Greider

The New York Times devoted a lot of ink to the Bush Administration's practice of secretly rummaging through international banking transactions in pursuit of terrorists. But, frankly, I had a hard time grasping the scandal.

After all, the Treasury announced it was going to do something like this after 9/ll -- a legitimate, legal method of discovering the networks financing terrorist cells.

So I called an old friend and source for elucidation. Jack Blum is a legendary investigator and lawyer in Washington, who for decades has tenaciously uncovered the global flows of dirty money. Jack confirmed my hunch. He was outraged, but not by the Times revelations.

The scandal here is not government over-reach, he tells me. The scandal is the pitiful reluctance of this administration (and others before it) to get serious about the problem.

Bankers, Blum explained, "have fended off every conceivable rule that would really be effective. Why are we pandering to them if we say we are in such a desperate situation?"

The political influence of bankers tops all other sectors, I learned as a young reporter. Regardless of party or ideology, politicians seek their friendship. So the United States has created a truly bizarre banking code that legalizes--and keeps secret--vast flows of ill-gotten gains. For what purpose? Terrorist financing, yes, but that business is dwarfed by the drug trade profits, insider looting of corporations, offshore tax evasion, securities fraud, plain-vanilla fraud, and other uses.

The American dollar is lingua fria for illegal commerce and Congress protects the sanctity of its privacy, even allows it the criminal proceeds to flow freely through government-chartered and regulated financial institutions. This shady business is not an inconsequential profit center for banks (a bit like pornography for Microsoft).

The monitoring system described by the Times seems unexceptional to Blum. Indeed, his complaint is that it's so narrowly focused that it mostly harvests empty information. "Meanwhile, the biggest purveyor of terrorist money, as everyone knows, are accounts in Saudi Arabia," Blum observes. "Nobody will deal with it because the Saudis own half of America." An exaggeration, but you get his point.

Blum knows the offshore outposts where US corporations and wealthy Americans dodge taxes or US regulatory laws. Congress could shut them tomorrow if it chose. Instead, it keeps elaborating new loopholes that enable the invention of exotic new tax shelters for tainted fortunes. The latest to flourish, he says, are shell corporations-- freely chartered by states.

"The GAO says this device is being used for money laundering by everyone else in the world," Blum says. "Congress ought to start there." He is not holding his breath.

My point is, individual privacy deserves vigorous defense against the government. But who is the victim when the government itself shields the criminals and their bankerly accomplices from exposure?

William Greider, a prominent political journalist and author, has been a reporter for more than 35 years for newspapers, magazines and television. Over the past two decades, he has persistently challenged mainstream thinking on economics.

© 2006 The Nation

Police enjoy " Breaking the Law"

2006-06-21T07:25:00.000-05:00

Police Got Phone Data from Brokers
by Ted Bridis and John Solomon

Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers.
These brokers, many of whom advertise aggressively on the Internet, have gotten into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and even acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents gathered by congressional investigators and provided to The Associated Press.

The law enforcement agencies include offices in the Homeland Security Department and Justice Department — including the FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service — and municipal police departments in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services.

"We are requesting any and all information you have regarding the above cell phone account and the account holder ... including account activity and the account holder's address," Ana Bueno, a police investigator in Redwood City, Calif., wrote in October to PDJ Investigations of Granbury, Texas.

An agent in Denver for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Anna Wells, sent a similar request on March 31 on Homeland Security stationery: "I am looking for all available subscriber information for the following phone number," Wells wrote to a corporate alias used by PDJ.

Congressional investigators estimated the U.S. government spent $30 million last year buying personal data from private brokers. But that number likely understates the breadth of transactions, since brokers said they rarely charge law enforcement agencies any price.

PDJ said it always provided help to police for free. "Agencies from all across the country took advantage of it," said PDJ's lawyer, Larry Slade of Los Angeles.

A lawmaker who has investigated the industry said Monday he was concerned by the practices of data brokers.

"We know law enforcement has used this because it is easily obtained and you can gather a lot of information very quickly," said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., head of the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee. The panel expects to conduct hearings this week.

Whitfield said data companies will relentlessly pursue a target's personal information. "They will impersonate and use everything available that they have to convince the person who has the information to share it with them, and it's shocking how successful they are," Whitfield said. "They can basically obtain any information about anybody on any subject."

The congressman said laws on the subject are vague: "There's a good chance there are some laws being broken, but it's not really clear precisely which laws."

James Bearden, a Texas lawyer who represents four such data brokers, compared the companies' activities to the National Security Agency, which reportedly compiles the phone records of ordinary Americans.

"The government is doing exactly what these people are accused of doing," Bearden said. "These people are being demonized. These are people who are partners with law enforcement on a regular basis."

The police agencies told AP they used the data brokers because it was quicker and easier than subpoenas, and their lawyers believe their actions were lawful. Some agencies, such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, instructed agents to stop the practice after congressional inquiries.

The U.S. Marshal's Service told AP it was examining its policies but compared services offered by data brokers to Web sites providing public telephone numbers nationally.

None of the police agencies interviewed by AP said they researched these data brokers to determine how they secretly gather sensitive information like names associated with unlisted numbers, records of phone calls, e-mail aliases — even tracing a person's location using their cellular phone signal.

"If it's on the Internet and it's been commended to us, we wouldn't do a full-scale investigation," Marshal's Service spokesman David Turner said. "We don't knowingly go into any source that would be illegal. We were not aware, I'm fairly certain, what technique was used by these subscriber services."

At Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spokesman Dean Boyd said agents did not pay for phone records and sought approval from U.S. prosecutors before making requests. Their goal was "to more quickly identify and filter out phone numbers that were unrelated to their investigations," Boyd said.

Targets of the police interest include alleged marijuana smugglers, car thieves, armed thugs and others. The data services also are enormously popular among banks and other lenders, private detectives and suspicious spouses. Customers included:

_A U.S. Labor Department employee who used her government e-mail address and phone number to buy two months of personal cellular phone records of a woman in New Jersey.

_A buyer who received credit card information about the father of murder victim Jon Benet Ramsey.

_A buyer who obtained 20 printed pages of phone calls by pro basketball player Damon Jones of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The athlete was "shocked to learn somebody had obtained this information," said Mark Termini, his lawyer and agent in Cleveland. "When a person or agency is able to obtain by fraudulent means a person's personal information, that is something that should be prohibited by law."

PDJ's lawyer said no one at the company violated laws, but he acknowledged, "I'm not sure that every law enforcement agency in the country would agree with that analysis."

Many of the executives summoned to testify before Congress this week were expected to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and to decline to answer questions.

Slade said no one at PDJ impersonated customers to steal personal information, a practice known within the industry as pretexting.

"This was farmed out to private investigators," Slade said. "They had written agreements with their vendors, making sure the vendors were acquiring the information in legal ways."

Privacy advocates bristled over data brokers gathering records for police without subpoenas.

"This is pernicious, an end run around the Fourth Amendment," said Marc Rotenberg, head of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, a leading privacy group that has sought tougher federal regulation of data brokers. "The government is encouraging unlawful conduct; it's not smart on the law enforcement side to be making use of information obtained improperly."

A federal agent who ordered phone records without subpoenas about a half-dozen times recently said he learned about the service from FBI investigators and was told this was a method to obtain phone subscriber information quicker than with a subpoena.

The agent, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak with reporters, said he and colleagues use data brokers "when he have the need to act fairly quickly" because getting a subpoena can involve lengthy waits.

Waiting for a phone company's response to a subpoena can take several days or up to 45 days, said police supervisor Eric Stasiak of Redwood City, Calif. In some cases, a request to a data broker yields answers in just a few hours, Stasiak said.

Legal experts said law enforcement agencies would be permitted to use illegally obtained information from private parties without violating the Fourth Amendment's protection against unlawful search and seizure, as long as police did not encourage any crimes to be committed.

"If law enforcement is encouraging people in the private sector to commit a crime in getting these records that would be problematic," said Mark Levin, a former top Justice Department official under President Reagan. "If, on the other hand, they are asking data brokers if they have any public information on any given phone numbers that should be fine."

Levin said he nonetheless would have advised federal agents to use the practice only when it was a matter of urgency or national security and otherwise to stick to a legally bulletproof method like subpoenas for everyday cases.

Congress subpoenaed thousands of documents from data brokers describing how they collected telephone records by impersonating customers.

"I was shot down four times," Michele Yontef complained in an e-mail in July 2005 to a colleague. "I keep getting northwestern call center and they just must have had an operator meeting about pretext as every operator is clued in."

Yontef, who relayed another request for phone call records as early as February, was among those ordered to appear at this week's hearing.

Another company years ago even acknowledged breaking the law.

"We must break various rules of law in acquiring all the information we achieve for you," Touch Tone Information Inc. of Denver wrote to a law firm in 1998 that was seeking records of calls made on a calling card.

The FBI's top lawyers told agents as early as 2001 they can gather private information about Americans from data brokers, even information gleaned from mortgage applications and credit reports, which normally would be off-limits to the government under the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act.

FBI lawyers rationalized that even though data brokers may have obtained financial information, agents could still use the information because brokers were not acting as a consumer-reporting agency but rather as a data warehouse.

The FBI said it relies only on well-respected data brokers and expects agents to abide by the law. "The FBI can only collect and retain data available from commercial databases in strict compliance with applicable federal law," spokesman Mike Kortan said Monday.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press

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Republicans can't Face the Truth about Malpactice !

2006-05-04T06:53:00.000-05:00

My name is Heather Lewinski. I am a 17-year-old high school senior from Pittsburgh, PA. I recently saw President Bush on television saying that Congress should pass a law saying that people who are injured by medical mistakes should never receive more than $250,000 for their pain and suffering. Unfortunately, I know this from personal experience a patient's pain and suffering can be way more than $250,000.

When I was 8 years old, a doctor performed a surgery on my face that I later learned was unnecessary. He told my parents that he had completed this surgery successfully on many other patients with my condition and that he would be able to take care of my problem with two easy surgeries with no visible scars.

To our horror, my parents and I later found out that he had never done the surgery before and that no doctor in the whole United States had ever recommended it.

The first time I took the bandages off my face and looked in the mirror I just cried. He tried to do another surgery to fix it, but that only made things worse. The corner of my mouth was all pulled down. I looked like I had a stroke.

Since then, I have been forced to undergo 14 major surgeries on my face to try to correct what he did. I live with horrible scars all over my face. I have had so much pain over the past ten years, I can't even begin to tell you about all of it.

After each surgery my mouth would be wired shut. My face would be swollen; my entire head would be wrapped in bandages. Sometimes the pain was so bad it would feel like my whole face was going to explode. It was like someone had a hammer and kept hitting me and hitting me.

Even though I was a good student, I missed so much school from all of the surgeries that they had to label me as “special ed.” I hated that label!

By far the worst part about everything that has happened to me is the way my face looks and how people treat me. I wish people could see the inside of me and know the kind of person I really am, but all they see is those scars on my face, and they stare and glare at me.

Every time I walk in the halls, into class or in the cafeteria, people are staring and I hate it! The kids in school have constantly teased me and called me names like “Two Face,” the character from the Batman movie. I hated to eat in the cafeteria because I could not close my mouth, and I would drool profusely. Because of the way the corner of my mouth looked, the kids would walk around school and pull down their lip and mock me.

I really like people, but I have only one close friend, my girlfriend Angela who I grew up with. It is so hard for me to meet new people and make friends because they just stare. I quit riding the bus from school a long time ago because it was torture. My mom has to take me to school and pick me up.

I remember one time sitting in the cafeteria a few years ago, and a boy came up to me and asked me if I was doing anything on Friday. I was so excited that I almost fell over, but then he went back to his table with his other friends, and they all started laughing and pointing at me, and I then realized it was just a big joke. I heard him say something like “Why would I go out with an ugly two-face loser?”

The only activity that I really am involved in is training and showing dogs. I have been real lucky and have been able to win several awards competing against adults at these shows. I think one of the reasons that I like dog training so much is that animals can't stare or laugh at you.

I am now a high school senior and I have never had a boy ask me on a date. I will be 18 in a few months, and I have never kissed a boy. My biggest wish is that someday I will find a boy who will look and see me for what is on the inside my heart and in my mind and not my appearance.

I would love to get married and have a family some day, but if I am honest with myself, I do not know if that will ever happen.

For additional information go to: http://action.peopleoverprofits.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=29871

http://action.peopleoverprofits.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=29871

Rumsfeld Likes Whips and Chains ?

2006-04-20T03:10:00.000-05:00

Published on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 by OneWorld.net
Rumsfeld Linked to Guantanamo Torture
by Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK - A leading international human rights group is calling for the Bush administration to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the alleged involvement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials in the torture of a prisoner at Guanatanamo Bay some three years ago.

Documents Link Rumsfeld to Prisoner's Interrogation

Rumsfeld could be criminally liable under federal or military law for the abuse and torture of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtani in late 2002 and early 2003, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said this week as some Democratic lawmakers demanded that Rumsfeld step down as Pentagon chief.

The rights group's demand comes in light of findings by a major Internet publication that indicate Rumsfeld might have been fully aware of the abuses inflicted on al-Qahtani, a prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay on terrorism charges.

Last week, a military report obtained by Salon.com included a statement by Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt that raises serious questions about the conduct of the Pentagon chief and other officials concerning al-Qahtani's interrogation. In the report, Gen. Schmidt says Rumsfeld was "talking weekly" with Gen. Geoffrey Miller, a senior commander at Guantanamo in early 2003, about the al-Qahtani interrogation, and that he was "personally involved in the interrogation of (this) one person."

Schmidt's statement also signals that Rumsfeld maintained a high level of knowledge of and supervision over al-Qahtani's treatment, although he did not specifically order more abusive methods used in the interrogation.

Al-Qahtani, who is suspected of being a "20th hijacker" in connection with the September 11 attacks, was denied entry to the United States in August 2001. He is seen by the military as an "al-Qaeda terrorist," who provided a "treasure trove" of information during his interrogation.

The Pentagon admits that al-Qahtani's interrogation was systematic and well-planned. "(His) interrogation was guided by a very detailed plan, conducted by trained professionals in a controlled environment, and with active supervision and oversight," Jeffery Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, told Salon.com in an e-mail.

"Nothing was done randomly," he said about al-Qahtani's interrogation.

Human Rights Watch says it has obtained an unedited copy of al-Qahtani's interrogation log, which suggests that the techniques used on him during the interrogation were "so abusive that they amounted to torture."

The log reveals that al-Qahtani was subjected to various methods of physical and mental mistreatment from mid-November 2002 to early January 2003. For six weeks, he was deprived of sleep, forced into painful physical positions, and subjected to forced exercises, standing, and sexual humiliation.

Al-Qahtani was forced to accept an intravenous drip for hydration and on several occasions was refused trips to the latrine so that he urinated on himself at least twice, according to the log, which also reveals that the prisoner was forced to undergo an enema.

"A six-week regime of sleep deprivation, forced exercises, stress positions, white noise, and sexual humiliation amounts to acts that were specifically intended to cause severe physical pain and suffering and mental pain," said Joanne Mariner, HRW's director of terrorism and counter terrorism.

"That's the legal definition of torture," she added.

Last year, the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps also made similar observations on the al-Qahtani case. He told the Senate Committee on Armed Services that the interrogation techniques used on al-Qahtani violated the U.S. Army Field Manuel on Intelligence Interrogation.

For its part, the U.S. State Department considers such techniques to be torture and has condemned their use in other countries such as Iran and North Korea in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights.

In a February report, United Nations investigators on torture called on the U.S. government to close down Guantanamo and "refrain from any practice amounting to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

In response, Washington slammed the UN report, noting that the UN experts had declined an invitation to visit Guantanamo because they would not be allowed to interview prisoners.

Independent legal experts say Rumsfeld could be liable under the doctrine of "command responsibility," the legal principle that holds a superior responsible for crimes committed by his subordinates when he knew or should have known that they were being committed but failed to take responsible steps to stop them.

Human Rights Watch's Mariner says a special prosecutor is needed because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was himself "deeply involved" in the policies leading to the abuse of prisoners, a conflict of interest that is likely to prevent a proper investigation

"The question at this point is not whether Rumsfeld should resign," said Joanne Mariner, "it's whether he should be indicted. A special prosecutor should look carefully at what abuses Rumsfeld either knew of or condoned."

The Pentagon admits that in December 2002, Rumsfeld approved 16 interrogation techniques for al-Qahtani and other prisoners, including the use of forced nudity, stress positions, and "using detainees' individual phobia (such as using dogs)."

However, the military has refused to release the full version of Gen. Schmidt's report on abuses, according to Mariner and others who note with dismay that in July last year Gen. Bantz Craddock dismissed claims that the al-Qahtani interrogation violated military laws.

Copyright © 2006 OneWorld.net.

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Ease Drop for Votes - GOP Jamming ?

2006-04-11T22:32:00.000-05:00

Published on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 by the Associated Press
Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House
by Larry Margasak

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did not make them part of their case.

Democrats plan to ask a federal judge Tuesday to order GOP and White House officials to answer questions about the phone jamming in a civil lawsuit alleging voter fraud.

Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

Besides the conviction of Tobin, the Republicans' New England regional director, prosecutors negotiated two plea bargains: one with a New Hampshire Republican Party official and another with the owner of a telemarketing firm involved in the scheme. The owner of the subcontractor firm whose employees made the hang-up calls is under indictment.

The phone records show that most calls to the White House were from Tobin, who became President Bush's presidential campaign chairman for the New England region in 2004. Other calls from New Hampshire senatorial campaign offices to the White House could have been made by a number of people.

A GOP campaign consultant in 2002, Jayne Millerick, made a 17-minute call to the White House on Election Day, but said in an interview she did not recall the subject. Millerick, who later became the New Hampshire GOP chairwoman, said in an interview she did not learn of the jamming until after the election.

A Democratic analysis of phone records introduced at Tobin's criminal trial show he made 115 outgoing calls — mostly to the same number in the White House political affairs office — between Sept. 17 and Nov. 22, 2002. Two dozen of the calls were made from 9:28 a.m. the day before the election through 2:17 a.m. the night after the voting.

There also were other calls between Republican officials during the period that the scheme was hatched and canceled.

Prosecutors did not need the White House calls to convict Tobin and negotiate the two guilty pleas.

Whatever the reason for not using the White House records, prosecutors "tried a very narrow case," said Paul Twomey, who represented the Democratic Party in the criminal and civil cases. The Justice Department did not say why the White House records were not used.

The Democrats said in their civil case motion that they were entitled to know the purpose of the calls to government offices "at the time of the planning and implementation of the phone-jamming conspiracy ... and the timing of the phone calls made by Mr. Tobin on Election Day."

While national Republican officials have said they deplore such operations, the Republican National Committee said it paid for Tobin's defense because he is a longtime supporter and told officials he had committed no crime.

By Nov. 4, 2002, the Monday before the election, an Idaho firm was hired to make the hang-up calls. The Republican state chairman at the time, John Dowd, said in an interview he learned of the scheme that day and tried to stop it.

Dowd, who blamed an aide for devising the scheme without his knowledge, contended that the jamming began on Election Day despite his efforts. A police report confirmed the Manchester Professional Fire Fighters Association reported the hang-up calls began about 7:15 a.m. and continued for about two hours. The association was offering rides to the polls.

Virtually all the calls to the White House went to the same number, which currently rings inside the political affairs office. In 2002, White House political affairs was led by now-RNC chairman Ken Mehlman. The White House declined to say which staffer was assigned that phone number in 2002.

"As policy, we don't discuss ongoing legal proceedings within the courts," White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said.

Robert Kelner, a Washington lawyer representing the Republican National Committee in the civil litigation, said there was no connection between the phone jamming operation and the calls to the White House and party officials.

"On Election Day, as anybody involved in politics knows, there's a tremendous volume of calls between political operatives in the field and political operatives in Washington," Kelner said.

"If all you're pointing out is calls between Republican National Committee regional political officials and the White House political office on Election Day, you're pointing out nothing that hasn't been true on every Election Day," he said.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press

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Gay GOP Chair Mehlman - Don't Ask, I Won't Tell ?

2006-03-23T14:15:00.000-05:00

March 25, 2005

GOP national chair avoids question about his sexuality

by Eric Resnick

Akron--"[You] have asked a question people shouldn't have to answer," said Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman to a reporter asking if he is gay.

Mehlman was interviewed after he spoke to the Summit County Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day dinner March 19 at Quaker Station.

"I'm here to say thank you," Mehlman told the gathering, "because Summit County increased its votes for George W. Bush from 2000 to 2004 more than any other county."

Mehlman managed the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign and, according to the campaign's Ohio co-chair, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, directed Ohio anti-gay activists to mount the campaign to put the Issue 1 marriage ban amendment on the ballot.

Internet bloggers have pointed out that if Mehlman, 38, unmarried and never with female companionship, is gay, he is a hypocrite.

Activist and blogger John Arovosis says Mehlman should be outed if he is gay because "Mehlman has already said publicly that the gay issue is fair game for politics. If it is fair game, then the same rules apply to him."

Arovosis opines that in addition to Mehlman defending George W. Bush’s anti-gay policies, "the Republican National Committee makes no bones about using gaybashing to help Republican candidates."

"The GOP has made it perfectly clear that gays and lesbians and their relationships are a threat to the fabric of American society. As American citizens and voters, we have the right to know if Ken Mehlman’s so-far-undisclosed relationships are posing such a threat or not," wrote Arovosis.

As RNC chair, Mehlman organized a campaign to discredit Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Among the reasons he said Reid is unfit to hold the position is the senator's longstanding positive relationship with the Human Rights Campaign and his 100 percent LGBT voting record. Also included was Reid’s opposition to a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Doesn't think amendment is anti-gay

During his Akron remarks, Mehlman put forth political and policy statements often viewed as anti-gay.

"Republicans are for government that stands on the side of marriage," he said, "and on the side of strong families."

After the dinner, he was asked by a reporter about the GOP's support for the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment, introduced in the House last week by Rep. Dan Lundgren of California.

Mehlman made it clear that he supports the amendment.

"I don't think it's anti-gay," said Mehlman. "I don't think the intent is to be anti-anything."

Mehlman also promoted the "culture of life," which is seen as code for anti-choice, anti-sex and reproductive privacy laws.

"We have to appoint strict constructionists to the bench who know the difference between their job and [that of] legislators," said Mehlman.

"Strict constructionists" generally hold to the literal meaning of the Constitution at the time of its writing. They are not likely to rule favorably on the side of plaintiffs who bring civil rights actions.

Mehlman told the party faithful that the way to achieve a "durable Republican majority" at all levels of government is "to make GOP stand for Grow Our Party."

To do so, Mehlman said, "We must get more African-Americans and Latinos." Both groups have significant elements of social conservatism opposed to LGBT equality on religious grounds.

"If you believe in government that respects your faith and your values, then our party is your party," Mehlman said.

Asked if growing the GOP means embracing LGBT equality and including gays and lesbians, Mehlman avoided the question again, saying, "The Republican Party is based on ideas. Anyone who shares those ideas is welcome."

Mehlman added that his sexual orientation, whatever it is, "changes nothing" as to how the party will operate under his leadership.

Steve Schmidt, a senior official of the Bush campaign, is the only person near Mehlman to answer a question about his sexuality.

"Ken Mehlman is not gay," he flatly told reporter Jake Tapper for a story in this month’s GQ.

Local party chair was outed

The dinner's sponsor, the Summit County Republican Party, is headed by Alex R. Arshinkoff, who was outed by the Cleveland weekly Scene in June, 2003.

The paper reported accounts of Arshinkoff’s presence at Cleveland area gay bars, including the Leather Stallion and the Grid.

Arshinkoff's vanity license plate ARA‑1 has been seen in Akron gay bar parking lots and cruising areas for years.

According to a December 27, 2002 Akron police report, Arshinkoff picked up a 21-year-old male Kent State student who was stranded and needed to get home.

The report says Arshinkoff asked the student if he was gay or bi, then began rubbing his thigh and grabbing his crotch, asking the young man if he wanted to make some money.

An officer saw the student jump out of the car, but let Arshinkoff go and police never investigated further.

A second incident concerned a sexual harassment complaint reported to a deputy clerk of the Summit County Board of Elections by a former Municipal Court employee, also male. No charges were filed.

Arshinkoff, in addition to recruiting and promoting anti-gay candidates, some of them also believed to be closeted gays, authorized a letter to be sent on behalf of the Summit County Republican Party thanking voters who signed petitions to put Issue 1 on the ballot.

"We need voters like you," the letter said.

Jim King, the owner of Angel Falls, a mostly gay coffee shop in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood, said he sent a letter to Arshinkoff, who used to come in the store twice a day, asking if it was true that the party paid for that letter.

"I just wanted to know the truth," said King, "and I never heard from him again.'

Arshnikoff, who is married, has never publicly come out.

Another county GOP chair, Franklin County’s Doug Preisse, came out quietly last year in a September 12 Columbus Dispatch story on the city's openly lesbian councilmember Mary Jo Hudson.

‘He almost said it’

Four members of the Cleveland Log Cabin Republican group attended the dinner to hear Mehlman.

“He almost said it,” said Parker Bosley, in reference to what he wished would have been Mehlman’s full embrace of LGBT Republicans.

“I think it was because he said reach out to everyone,” said Bosley. “But not including gays is not a reason not to join.”

Bosley said conservative gays and lesbians who don’t want to be “the lap dog of Democrats” can contribute to the Republican Party “just like black people.”

Fred Bachhuber said he expected not to hear a GLBT welcome from Mehlman.

“He just can’t do it yet,” said Bachhuber, “but as long as he’s sleeping with men behind the scenes, that’s all I care about.”

Is Politics Choking Heimlich ?

2006-03-22T22:45:00.000-05:00

-

Don't choke on this Phil

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Court Rejects Bush Power Plant Pollution Rule

2006-03-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

Published on Saturday, March 18, 2006 by Reuters
Court Rejects Bush Power Plant Pollution Rule
by Tom Doggett

In a big win for environmentalists, a federal appeals court on Friday struck down a Bush administration rule that would have made it easier for coal-burning power plants to make equipment changes without installing controls to fight the pollution that would result.

The court shot down an Environmental Protection Agency rule that said power plant owners would only have to install modern pollution fighting controls if equipment changes cost more than 20 percent of the replacement cost of the plant.

Environmental groups and several states sued, arguing the rule would gut the new source review enforcement provisions of the Clean Air Act and allow the oldest, dirtiest coal-fired power plants to expand output without cutting polluting emissions.

The court agreed, saying the agency rule was "contrary to the plain language" of the Clean Air Act that says the new source review provisions would kick in if a power plant is modified to cause "any physical change" that increases the amount of air pollutants.

The court said the EPA's rule that has the 20 percent replacement cost trigger would require that Congress's definition of modification in the Clean Air Act include a phrase such as "regardless of size, cost, frequency, effect" or other distinguishing characteristic.

"Only in a Humpty Dumpy world would Congress be required to use superfluous words while an agency could ignore an expansive word that Congress did use. We decline to adopt such a world-view," the court said in its ruling.

Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council that is made up of power-generating companies, said he was disappointed by the court's ruling and that it will create a roadblock for companies to install pollution control equipment.

"To place the decision in context, we believe it is a step backwards for the protection of air quality in the United States. It may be St. Patrick's day, but this decision is far from good luck for the environment or consumers," he said.

However, environmentalists welcomed the decision against the EPA rule that they said had been pushed by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force to help the energy industry.

The court's decision closed "a loophole big enough to drive a coal-hauling truck through," said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of Clean Air Watch. "The court ruled that the Bush administration can't just ignore a law it dislikes."

"This is a victory for public health," said Howard Fox, an attorney at Earthjustice. "It makes no sense to allow huge multi-multimillion dollar projects that drastically increase air pollution without installing up-to-date pollution controls or even notifying nearby residents."

Former EPA Administrator Christie Whitman was against the final rule to relax the new source review provisions. "I must say that I'm glad they weren't able to finish the work until after I was home in New Jersey," she wrote in her book, "It's My Party, Too," after she left the Bush administration.

© 2006 Reuters Ltd

###

Spying Eye - Hide your Keystrokes

2006-03-16T23:56:00.000-05:00

Published on Thursday, March 16, 2006 by the Guardian / UK
Boost for Google in Internet Privacy Case
by Suzanne Goldenberg

Privacy campaigners in the US hailed a victory of sorts for internet search engine Google yesterday after a court case focusing on demands from the Bush administration for access to its data appeared to swing in Google's favour.
The White House had served a subpoena on several web search giants demanding data on billions of search requests and website addresses as part of its defence of an online pornography law.

But a US district judge in San Jose, California, indicated repeatedly on Tuesday that he shared Google's concerns about privacy, and he did not want to create the impression government could keep track of individuals searching the internet.

Although Judge James Ware said he would probably ask the search engine to turn over some of its records, it is highly unlikely the Bush administration will see more than a sliver of Google's vast data trove.

"The judge is clearly quite sensitive to the privacy issues that are raised by this," said Barton Carter, a communications and law tutor at Boston University, adding that it seemed the judge would give the government much less than it wanted.

Judge Ware may rule within days on how much data Google must share. But it was clear yesterday the administration will not be granted a week of search requests, which would have numbered in the billions, and a million web addresses.

Earlier on Tuesday the department of justice said it had scaled back its demand to a random sampling of 5,000 search requests, and 50,000 website addresses contained in the Google archive.

The struggle between Google and the Bush administration, played out at a time of heightened sensitivities after a domestic wiretapping scandal, has been seen as a test case for privacy safeguards in the age of the internet.

"It is the leading search company in the world, and the implications for Google if the government is able to routinely make these requests would have a big impact on business and internet privacy," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

The administration demanded the data as part of an unrelated lawsuit involving online pornography. Justice department lawyers argue the search records demonstrate how easy it is for children to circumvent internet filters.

The administration did not ask for information that would identify individual internet users, or their internet protocol addresses. Some search giants including Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL, complied, handing the administration billions of internet search records.

Google alone has fought the subpoena, arguing the demand violates the privacy of its users, and could expose trade secrets about the operations of its search engine.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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'Having dinner with the right people'

2006-03-15T01:09:00.000-05:00

'Having dinner with the right people'
Arianna Huffington - The Huffington Post

03.14.06 - March 6 -- Lenin's fabled admonition that capitalists are so eager to make a buck they'll sell you the rope with which to hang them is in need of an update: They'll also lease you the ports through which terrorists can sneak the dirty bomb with which to blow them up.

The establishment's full-throated support of the Dubai ports deal is an object lesson in how huge amounts of money can cloud the thinking of people on both sides of the political spectrum.

The latest example of someone whose judgment has been clouded by cash is Jack Kemp. There he was on “Meet the Press” on Sunday defending his public support for the Dubai ports deal. "You're very against public opinion," said Tim Russert. "Very much against Congressional opinion."

Kemp was undaunted, and launched into an impassioned defense of the deal and of the United Arab Emerites, echoing a column he wrote taking to task those who have criticized it.

"It's the right thing to do," he said, calling the UAE a "valued ally" and reiterating the claim that canceling the deal would, as he put it in his column, "weaken our own national security and our chances for peace and liberation throughout the Middle East and Africa" (Shades of Andrea Mitchell, another die-hard member of the establishment, who suggested on “Hardball” that killing the ports deal could lead to rioting in the Muslim world).

What Kemp didn't say is that the UAE has invested millions in Free Market Global, an energy-trading company that he chairs.

You think all those zeroes might have had some influence on his opinion? Maybe not. But I'm pretty sure that a disclosure of his financial connection to those he was so fulsomely praising would have had some influence on the opinions of those watching.

Especially if viewers learned that Gen. Tommy Franks, whom Kemp used as his debating trump card -- quoting both in print and on “Meet the Press” the General extolling the Emirates -- is on the advisory board of Free Market Global, and stands to profit from maintaining good relations with the oil-rich emirs.

I called Kemp to ask him why he hadn't mentioned this intersection of interests, but I haven't heard back, even though I said why I was calling. Or perhaps because I did.

Despite Kemp's reputation as the GOP's go-to guy on poverty and economic disenfranchisement, he remains masterful at the Washington money-power game.

A 2004 Jane Mayer article in the New Yorker on Dick Cheney and Halliburton's Iraq contracts, quotes a businessman with close ties to the Bush administration as saying: "This is how corruption is done these days. It's not about bribes. You just help your friends to get access. Cheney doesn't call the Defense Department and tell them, 'Pick Halliburton.' It's just having dinner with the right people." Earlier, Mayer described how Kemp, while seeking help for a venture in Iraq in 2003, had had Cheney over for dinner, along with two sons of the President of the UAE. This is especially interesting in light of what a powerful -- and politically connected -- entrepreneur told me: that Cheney was the real force behind the administration's rapid approval of the Dubai deal.

Just scratch the surface of Kemp's business dealings and relationships, and all sorts of interesting connections ooze out. For instance, there were Kemp's 2003 efforts to establish a "21st Century Marshall Plan" for Iraq. Among those helping him develop the plan was Samir Vincent, an Iraqi-American businessman who was a player in the oil-for-food scandal, and who last year pleaded guilty to illegally lobbying for Iraq. Prior to becoming involved with Vincent, Kemp had gotten the thumbs up on him from former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, who assured Kemp that Vincent was his tennis partner and "a good guy". Game, set, match. For his part, Carlucci is the chairman emeritus of the Carlyle Group, the Bushies' favorite private equity firm. Carlyle has received at least $100 million in funding from the ruling families of...yep, the UAE.

Consulting deals, investment deals, equity deals... port deals. They are all part of the same money-as- political-lubricant continuum. Policy KY. "It's just having dinner with the right people."

People like Bill Clinton who, we learned last week, had advised the UAE on the ports deal. I can't help but wonder if that advice was in any way colored by the millions (the exact figures are still not in) Dubai has given to Clinton -- in speaking fees and donations to his presidential library. And then, as Lloyd Grove reports, there is Clinton's lucrative relationship with Ron Burkle's private investment firm, Yucaipa, which has partnered with Dubai in bidding on some major investment deals. Money clouds on both sides of the aisle.

That's why transparency is so important on matters like this. Jack Kemp, Bill Clinton, and the establishment's cost-benefit analysis of the Dubai ports deal is clearly different than yours or mine.

Pocketing millions may allow them to overlook the very real risks the deal brings. For the rest of us, we have to ask ourselves: is even the slightest increase in risk to our security worth it?

The answer for those of us not on the receiving end of the UAE's largess remains a resounding "No!"

Copyright (c) 2006 TheHuffingtonPost.com, LLC

URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20476

Republican Hypocrisy Revealed

2006-03-14T05:03:00.000-05:00

You will need to view this one for yourself

STOP REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILIA

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US Edging Near Dictatorship

2006-03-13T21:37:00.000-05:00

Published on Monday, March 13, 2006 by the Guardian / UK

Former Top Judge Says US Risks Edging Near to Dictatorship

· Sandra Day O'Connor warns of rightwing attacks
· Lawyers 'must speak up' to protect judiciary

by Julian Borger

Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary."

She pointed to autocracies in the developing world and former Communist countries as lessons on where interference with the judiciary might lead. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers on Thursday, Ms O'Connor singled out a warning to the judiciary issued last year by Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader in the House of Representatives, over a court ruling in a controversial "right to die" case.

After the decision last March that ordered a brain-dead woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, removed from life support, Mr DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

Mr DeLay later called for the impeachment of judges involved in the Schiavo case, and called for more scrutiny of "an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president".

Such threats, Ms O'Connor said, "pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedom", and she told the lawyers in her audience: "I want you to tune your ears to these attacks ... You have an obligation to speak up.

"Statutes and constitutions do not protect judicial independence - people do," the retired supreme court justice said.

She noted death threats against judges were on the rise and added that the situation was not helped by a senior senator's suggestion that there might be a connection between the violence against judges and the decisions they make.

The senator she was referring to was John Cornyn, a Bush loyalist from Texas, who made his remarks last April, soon after a judge was shot dead in an Atlanta courtroom and the family of a federal judge was murdered in Illinois.

Senator Cornyn said: "I don't know if there is a cause and effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country ... And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence."

Although appointed by a Republican, Ms O'Connor voted with the supreme court's liberals on some divisive issues, including abortion, making her a frequent target for criticism from the right. After announcing that she intended to retire last year at the age of 75, she was replaced in February this year by Samuel Alito, who is generally regarded as being more consistently conservative.

In her speech, Ms O'Connor said that if the courts did not occasionally make politicians mad they would not be doing their jobs, and their effectiveness "is premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts".

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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Give Bush the Boot

2006-03-12T23:29:00.000-05:00

Published on Saturday, March 11, 2006 by the Toronto Star

Bid to Give Bush the Boot

Residents of a tiny Vermont town have joined forces in a growing fight to impeach the U.S. president
But with plunging approval and a slew of scandals, an ouster attempt may be the least of his worries

by Tim Harper

WASHINGTONWhen the townsfolk gathered in the tiny Vermont community of Newfane for their annual meeting, the agenda was daunting.

There was the town budget to be approved, then the school budget, plus they needed to approve spending $50,000 on the town's property reappraisal.

And, oh yeah. Move to impeach the president of the United States.

And so, at the end of a five-hour meeting, the assembled were asked to consider:

"Whereas George W. Bush has:

"1. Misled the nation about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction;

"2. Misled the nation about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda;

"3. Used these falsehoods to lead our nation into war unsupported by international law;

"4. Not told the truth about American policy with respect to the use of torture; and

"5. Directed the government to engage in domestic spying, in direct contravention of U.S. law;

"Therefore, the voters of the town of Newfane ask that our representative to the U.S. House of Representatives file articles of impeachment to remove him from office."

All in favour?: 129. All opposed?: 21. Meeting adjourned.

For a president on the run, cratering at record-low approval ratings, losing battles with Republicans who are beginning to consider him toxic, seemingly having lost his political stride like an aging slugger who can't catch up to the fastball, impeachment is likely the least of his worries.

More worrisome for Bush is the perception he is so insulated during this second term that he has lost touch with the concerns of the nation, that he is still surrounded by the same top aides in notorious "burnout'' positions who came to power with him five years ago, that the "trust me" president has squandered that trust.

But as a barometer of discontent with the second-term Bush presidency in a mid-term election year, the fact that impeachment has moved from angry bumper stickers to dinner party discussion is telling.

Democrats in Congress, probably quite wisely, won't touch the question.

Michigan's John Conyers introduced a resolution last December requesting an impeachment inquiry to deal with Bush's "manipulation" of pre-war intelligence, but only 26 of 201 House Democrats backed him.

But that hasn't stopped others.

ImpeachPAC.org has endorsed and raised funds for three Democrats who vow to push for impeachment if elected in November's mid-terms.

The organization, led by Democrat Bob Fertik is an offshoot of AfterDowningStreet.org, founded by David Swanson, a former reporter and press secretary who tried to mobilize opposition to Bush after the release of internal memos from the Tony Blair government indicated the White House was intent on crafting the conditions for an invasion of Iraq.

Newfane is one of nine U.S. communities, all in Vermont and California, to pass impeachment resolutions, the largest of which was San Francisco where city supervisors voted 7-3 for impeachment, saying Bush has destroyed civil liberties in his wiretapping program, and failed miserably in his response to Hurricane Katrina.

Lewis Lapham, the outgoing editor of Harper's magazine and one of the country's most outspoken Bush critics, makes the case for impeachment in the March issue of his magazine.

It includes this indictment:

"We have before us in the White House a thief who steals the country's good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use; a liar who seeks to instil in the American people a state of fear; a televangelist who engages the United States in a never-ending crusade against all the world's evil; a wastrel who squanders a vast sum of the nation's wealth on what turns out to be a recruiting drive certain to multiply the host of our enemies.

"In a word, a criminal known to be armed and shown to be dangerous."

Dan DeWalt, the 49-year-old Vermont woodworking teacher, furniture restorer and musician who introduced the Newfane resolution, says he wants to make impeachment a household word.

"We can't take up arms against our government, so we do what we can," he said.

"If we stand by and do nothing, we would be complicit in the immoral and illegal activities of the administration. If you do nothing, you are acting illegally and immorally yourself."

The litany of high crimes and misdemeanours in this grim era for Bush are well known.

It started shortly after his re-election, at a time when he was crowing about his "political capital" and there was talk of a conservative dynasty in the U.S. But when he spent much of that capital on an overhaul of Social Security, he found it couldn't be sold, even within his own party.

Then came the CIA leak investigation, a probe that clearly distracted the White House, ending with the indictment of Lewis "Scooter'' Libby, a top aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney.

It was during this period that it became clear the political radar on Pennsylvania Ave. was down.

His nomination of White House legal counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court foundered against opposition from the right and ultimately had to be withdrawn.

His laggardly response to last year's Hurricane Katrina became a case study of an administration asleep at the switch, bolstered by the recent release of video showing a seemingly disinterested Bush being briefed on the looming catastrophe.

Since December, when it was revealed in The New York Times, Bush has been fighting to justify a wiretapping program that has been denounced as illegal.

There was the tragicomedy shooting of a hunting pal by Cheney, a gun mishap that turned into a week-long crisis for the White House.

That was quickly followed by the Dubai ports controversy. Whether the deal should have been killed may be open to debate, but again the political skills of this White House were tucked away and the ensuing groundswell of opposition to turning port management over to a company from the United Arab Emirates left Bush belatedly sputtering about using his veto to keep the deal alive.

By week's end, he was in full retreat, having been stared down by a Republican congressional delegation which outflanked him on his vaunted strong suit, national security.

"They didn't see it coming," said New York Republican Representative Peter King who led opposition to the deal.

He told reporters in New York Bush administration officials have "got to get their antenna up much more on issues and bring the issues up in Congress. They need to realize we're now entering into a complex state of a post-9/11 world."

Against all this, is a war in Iraq nearing its third anniversary with an AP-Ipsos poll released yesterday indicating 80 per cent of Americans including 70 per cent of Republicans believe Iraq is heading to civil war.

Comic Bill Maher jokes the U.S. is suffering from "f-up fatigue" at the top.

They call it the six-year itch, the second-term cloud that seems to inevitably envelop any president who doesn't need to be elected.

Second-term presidents have dealt with sex scandals (Bill Clinton), out-of-control wars (Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman), arms scandals (Ronald Reagan) and political scandals (Richard Nixon).

But only Nixon has had approval ratings as low as Bush's 38 per cent average on a series of polls released last week.

The mystery in Washington is why Bush will not inject some new blood into his inner circle.

Chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff and political strategist Karl Rove have been with him since day one.

"You can lose your political instincts, you become less sensitive to the political cross-currents,'' says presidential historian Robert Dallek.

"When you are falling on your face, faltering, stumbling around, it becomes all the more important to move the deck chairs around and bring in some fresh perspective and some fresh hope, plus a little renewed confidence for the country."

Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, says Bush has faced some big "screw-ups" that have cost him.

"The question on the street, from people who are not necessarily political, is whether the president is competent," he says. "Presidents get tired and I think Bush is tired."

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Abramoff: Will Janitor Jack Sweep the GOP Out of Power in 2006?

2006-03-12T23:01:00.000-05:00

Published on Saturday, March 11, 2006 by the Huffington Post
by Arianna Huffington

Jack Abramoff is the GOP's worst nightmare: a corrupt insider looking for a reduced sentence. A corrupt bitter insider...

His seething resentment at the way his former friends (or, at least, the former recipients of his largesse) have turned their backs on him oozes off the pages of the April Vanity Fair like pus from an infected wound. "For a guy," he says, "who did all these evil things that have been so widely reported, it's pretty amazing considering I didn't know anyone. You're really no one in this town unless you haven't met me."

Bartender, another round for me and my fellow leper. Abramoff's heartbreak reminds one of the slutty girl from high school who is crushed when the boys who were more than happy to have her in the back seats of their cars on a Saturday night turn around and shun her in the halls on Monday morning. And she's ready to spill the beans.

"Any important Republican," he says, "who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying."

A quick review then of a few of these almost certain liars.

There's Ken Mehlman: "Abramoff," he said, "is someone who we don't know a lot about. We know what we read in the paper." This from a man who, according to Vanity Fair, "exchanged email with Abramoff, did him political favors... had Sabbath dinner at his house, and offered to pick up his tab at Signatures" (Abramoff's restaurant). Man, how desperate to curry favor must you be to treat a guy to a meal at his own place? Did Mehlman try to pay for the Shabbat wine, candles, and yarmulkes, too?

Then there's Newt Gingrich, whose spokesman claimed: "Before [Abramoff's] picture appeared on TV and in the newspapers, Newt wouldn't have know him if he fell across him." Watch your step, Newt, you've just stepped on Abramoff's toes. To hear him tell it, "I have more pictures of [Newt] than I have of my wife." Maybe by this he means the Mrs. is camera shy -- but I doubt it.

And Karl Rove who, a White House spokesman tells Vanity Fair, would describe Abramoff as "a casual acquaintance" -- even though Rove has known Abramoff for decades, hired his administrative assistant, dined multiple times in the lobbyist's restaurant, and was his guest at the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament a few years ago. I have friends I spend less time with. Casual, indeed.

Last but not least, there is the president: "I don't know him," he has flatly stated. But according to Abramoff -- and his photo collection -- they've met a number of times, chatting about family and working out. "What are you benching, buff guy?" Abramoff says Bush once inquired of the man he doesn't know. "[Bush] has one of the best memories of any politician I have ever met," wrote Abramoff in an email. "Perhaps he has forgotten everything. Who knows?"

In the Vanity Fair profile, Abramoff floats the far-fetched idea that he should be sentenced to community service instead of jail. "Let me sweep floors at the reservation," he suggests.

Sure, Jack. Why not just ask the judge to let you put your janitorial skills to use in the White House? That way you can repay your debt to society while the president reacquaints himself with your bulging biceps.

Of course, the janitorial bar has been set pretty high in the Oval Office. "Your desk is so clean, Mr. President," gushed Elizabeth Vargas during their recent interview. "Well," replied the president, "that is what happens when you have desk cleaners everywhere."

Or maybe Abramoff can be given broom duty, tasked with keeping clean the president's beloved Oval Office rug -- y'know, the one he is supposedly "fixated" on; the one that says "'optimistic person.'

"That presidential optimism will be sorely tested if Abramoff's lips continue to loosen as he watches his old chums treat him like Typhoid Mary at a hypochondriacs' convention. The singing would-be janitor could be just the thing that will sweep the GOP out of power in 2006.

Copyright 2006 © HuffingtonPost.com, LLC

GOP mirror's Cuba ?

2006-03-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

FROM CUBA
Open letter to leaders of the U.S., Canada and European Union

By Jorge Olivera.

HAVANA, February 27 (Jorge Olivera) - Given the notable worsening of repression in Cuba against everyone who exercises rights consigned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I've decided to write to you asking, today more than ever, your solidarity and support.

Actions undertaken by the government in the last few months have reached such levels that they could be considered state terrorism.

Gangs encouraged by the political police have carried out beatings and raids, among other forms of attack no less alarming.

The worst of this repressive spiral is the impunity of the events. Real and potential victims find themselves completely abandoned since there is no institution in the country to handle their complaints.

The Communist Party has monopolized for 47 years concepts like homeland, country and state, without leaving any civic space for those who differ with the current ideology.

The terror has reached a dimension that keeps the Cuban family permanently frightened. The defenselessness and the cruelty of the repressors have taken root in the double moral and the silence of the majority who fear going to jail or receiving the stigma of being a counterrevolutionary and immediately being marginalized and suffering the inherent punishment of a system that tramples on one without anyone caring.

I am a witness of the abuse and cruelty. I was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment in April of 2003 for practicing journalism without the supervision of official censors. Sick, they placed me in a barely lit cell infested with insects. I had to drink contaminated water and the food was regularly served in a state of putrefaction.

On December 6, 2004, after 20 months and 18 days of the cruelest treatment, the penal authorities conditionally freed me for reasons of health.

Now they plan to return me to jail. They will not allow me or my family to go into exile. Immigration officials deny us an exit visa, a process that reflects on the country in which we live.

To psychologically destabilize me and increase my colon problems, court officials of the municipality where I live have communicated to me new rules to humiliate and blackmail me.

Since February 21, I have been prohibited to go outside the limits of Havana without court authorization, nor to participate in any celebrations or public events, and they want to put me in a job chosen by the court, which will supervise my conduct along with members of the Communist Party, unions and others from the center where I'll be assigned.

If I fail to do this, they threaten to return me to prison. Their intentions are arbitrary and tortuous, for which reason I call your attention about what might happen to me in the future.

I dearly plead for you to use your good offices in favor of those in Cuba who work for reconciliation and the peaceful transition to democracy and pluralism.

Jorge Olivera is a Cuban independent journalist. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison on March 2003 and released from jail in December 2004 on medical parole.

CubaNet does not require sole rights from its contributors. We authorize the reproduction and distribution of this article as long as the source is credited.

CUBANET NEWS. Prensa independiente de Cuba
http://www.cubanet.org

Note: Does the HCRP, who sue under false pretense of trademark infringment to suppress speech, mirror Cuba ? Is the tool of financial deprevation any different ?

Cincinnati Enquirer Censors News

2006-03-09T15:38:00.000-05:00

A Weblog by The Plain Dealer Politics Staff posted the following:
Thursday, March 09, 2006

A news blackout?

Republican Senate candidate Bill Pierce, a conservative unknown who has gotten some traction in rural Ohio against Sen Mike DeWine, thinks he's become the victim of a news blackout.

He says it has been imposed by some of the largest newspapers in southern Ohio, including his hometown Cincinnati Enquirer, which has yet to mention he's won some county GOP endorsements.

''They're ignoring a challenge to Mike DeWine and they are ignoring the challenger who is making inroads,'' Pierce said, adding that only reporters from The Plain Dealer and the Toledo Blade, plus several political bloggers, have taken time to cover his race. He said he is canceling his subscription to the Enquirer.

Pierce said the lack of attention in southern Ohio means the area of the state holding the most Republicans ''has been left in the dark, and that the news blackout continues the assault on fair and balanced reporting."

--Bill Sloat

Copyright 2006 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.

We think it is about time Republicans experience the same treatment the Democrats have received, from the local fishwrap, for decades.

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Rubber Stamp Your Loss of Freedoms'

2006-03-08T19:06:00.000-05:00

Of course, it’s no surprise when Congressional Republicans refuse to hold the Bush White House accountable for its incompetence.

The Senate Intelligence committee has caved to the White House and refused —again — to open an investigation into the NSA warrantless wiretap program.

The American people know failed leadership when they see it, but this White House simply refuses to own up to its mistakes.

We are wondering just what it takes to make Congressional Republicans conduct oversight.

Just what will it take to make the White House ever admit it made a mistake?

The American people, and even Congressional Republicans have rejected the ports deal, but the Administration is ignoring them all.

Katrina was a disaster, but the White House is refusing to take responsibility, and refusing to secure our ports, our chemical plants, and our cities from a major catastrophe.

Democrats believe America can do better than an Administration that misleads the people to hide its incompetence.

Democrats want to give Americans a credible, competent government they can trust. We think they can.

It is the republicans, not Monica, who blew it !

#####

Government Restricting Access to Files

2006-03-08T02:06:00.000-05:00

Government still restricting access to files - Opinion

Cindy Sheehan and Three Others Arrested

2006-03-06T23:42:00.000-05:00

Cindy Sheehan and Three Others Arrested While Attempting to Deliver Petition Signed by 60,000 Demanding an End to Bloodshed in Iraq

Arrests Take Place After US Mission to the UN Refused to Meet with Delegation of Women Visiting from Iraq and Gold Star Families for Peace

NEW YORK - March 6 - Today four women, including peace activist, Cindy Sheehan, were arrested at the United Nations while trying to deliver a petition with more than 60,000 signatures urging the “withdrawal all troops and all foreign fighters from Iraq.”

Arrested were: Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace; Missy Beattie, Gold Star Families for Peace; and Rev. Patricia Ackerman.

A delegation of women from Iraq and Gold Star Families for Peace had just concluded a press conference in front of the UN calling for an end to the US occupation of Iraq. The group then marched to the US Mission to deliver a petition. The US Mission office refused to send a representative to meet with the delegation of women. The women refused to leave without delivering the signatures to someone in the US Mission’s office and were later arrested.

“I am outraged that the US Mission could not send someone down to meet with a delegation of women whose lives and families have been shattered by this destructive and immoral war,” said Ann Wright, former US Army Colonel and US diplomat. Wright was physically assaulted by security officers during the arrests.

To view full text of the petition, go to:

http://www.womensaynotowar.org.

###

Buckwheat Blackwell says No Vote For You

2006-03-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

Election Issues

Did 308,000 cancelled Ohio voter registrations put Bush back in the White House?
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey WassermanFebruary 28, 2006

While life goes on during the Bush2 nightmare, so does the research on what really happened here in 2004 to give George W. Bush a second term. Pundits throughout the state and nation---many of them alleged Democrats---continue to tell those of us who question Bush's second coming that we should "get over it," that the election is old news. But things get curiouser and curiouser.

In our 2005 compendium HOW THE GOP STOLE OHIO'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008 (www.freepress.org), we list more than a hundred different ways the Republican Party denied the democratic process in the Buckeye State. For a book of documents to be published September 11 by the New Press entitled WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO?, we are continuing to dig. It turns out, we missed more than a few of the dirty tricks Karl Rove, Ken Blackwell and their GOP used to get themselves four more years. In an election won with death by a thousand cuts, some that are still hidden go very deep. Over the next few weeks we will list them as they are verified.

One of them has just surfaced to the staggering tune of 175,000 purged voters in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), the traditional stronghold of the Ohio Democratic Party. An additional 10,000 that registered to vote there for the 2004 election were lost due to "clerical error." As we reported more than a year ago, some 133,000 voters were purged from the registration rolls in Hamilton County (Cincinnati) and Lucas County (Toledo) between 2000 and 2004.

The 105,000 from Cincinnati and 28,000 from Toledo exceeded Bush's official alleged margin of victory---just under 119,000 votes out of some 5.6 million the Republican Secretary of State. J. Kenneth Blackwell, deemed worth counting. Exit polls flashed worldwide on CNN at 12:20 am Wednesday morning, November 3, showed John Kerry winning Ohio by 4.2% of the popular vote, probably about 250,000 votes.We believe this is an accurate reflection of what really happened here.

But by morning Bush was being handed the presidency, claiming a 2.5% Buckeye victory, as certified by Blackwell. In conjunction with other exit polling, the lead switch from Kerry to Bush is a virtual statistical impossibility.

Yet John Kerry conceded with more than 250,000 ballots still uncounted, though Bush at the time was allegedly ahead only by 138,000, a margin that later slipped to less than 119,000 in the official vote count.

At the time, very few people knew about those first 133,000 voters that had been eliminated from the registration rolls in Cincinnati and Toledo. County election boards purged the voting registration lists.

Though all Ohio election boards are allegedly bi-partisan, in fact they are all controlled by the Republican Party. Each has four seats, filled by law with two Democrats and two Republicans. But all tie votes are decided by the Secretary of State, in this case Blackwell, the extreme right-wing Republican now running for Governor.

Blackwell served in 2004 not only as the man in charge of the state's vote count, but also a co-chair of the Ohio Bush-Cheney campaign. Many independent observers have deemed this to be a conflict of interest.

On election day, Blackwell met personally with Bush, Karl Rove and Matt Damschroder, chair of the Franklin County (Columbus) Board of Elections, formerly the chair of the county's Republican Party.

The Board of Elections in Toledo was chaired by Bernadette Noe, wife of Tom Noe, northwestern Ohio's "Mr. Republican." A close personal confidante of the Bush family, Noe raised more than $100,000 for the GOP presidential campaign in 2004. He is currently under indictment for three felony violations of federal election law, and 53 counts of fraud, theft and other felonies in the "disappearance" of more than $13 million in state funds. Noe was entrusted with investing those funds by Republican Gov.

Robert Taft, who recently pled guilty to four misdemeanor charges, making him the only convicted criminal ever to serve as governor of Ohio.

The rationale given by Noe and by the Republican-controlled BOE in Lucas and Hamilton Counties was that the voters should be eliminated from the rolls because they had allegedly not voted in the previous two federal elections. There is no law that requires such voters be eliminated. And there is no public verification that has been offered to confirm that these people had not, in fact, voted in those elections.

Nonetheless, tens of thousands of voters turned up in mostly Democratic wards in Cincinnati and Toledo, only to find they had been mysteriously removed from the voter rolls. In many cases, sworn testimony and affidavits given at hearings after the election confirmed that many of these citizens had in fact voted in the previous two federal elections and had not moved from where they were registered. In some cases, their stability at those addresses stretched back for decades.

The problem was partially confirmed by a doubling of provisional ballots cast during the 2004 election, as opposed to the number cast in 2000. Provisional ballots have been traditionally used in Ohio as a stopgap for people whose voting procedures are somehow compromised at the polls, but who are nonetheless valid registrants.

Prior to the 2004 election, Blackwell made a range of unilateral pronouncements that threw the provisional balloting process into chaos. Among other things, he demanded voters casting provisional ballots provide their birth dates, a requirement that was often not mentioned by poll workers. Eyewitnesses testify that many provisional ballots were merely tossed in the trash at Ohio polling stations.

To this day, more than 16,000 provisional ballots (along with more than 90,000 machine-spoiled ballots) cast in Ohio remain uncounted. The Secretary of State refuses to explain why. A third attempt by the Green and Libertarian Parties to obtain a meaningful recount of the Ohio presidential vote has again been denied by the courts, though the parties are appealing.

Soon after the 2004 election, Damschroder announced that Franklin County would eliminate another 170,000 citizens from the voter rolls in Columbus. Furthermore, House Bill 3, recently passed by the GOP-dominated legislature, has imposed a series of restrictions that will make it much harder for citizens to restore themselves to the voter rolls, or to register in the first place.

All this, however, pales before a new revelation just released by the Board of Elections in Cuyahoga County, the heavily Democratic county surrounding Cleveland. Robert J. Bennett, the Republican chair of the Cuyahoga Board of Elections, and the Chair of the Ohio Republican Party, has confirmed that prior to the 2004 election, his BOE eliminated---with no public notice---a staggering 175,414 voters from the Cleveland-area registration rolls. He has not explained why the revelation of this massive registration purge has been kept secret for so long.

Virtually no Ohio or national media has bothered to report on this story. Many of the affected precincts in Cuyahoga County went 90% and more for John Kerry. The county overall went more than 60% for Kerry. The eliminations have been given credence by repeated sworn testimony and affidavits from long-time Cleveland voters that they came to their usual polling stations only to be told that they were not registered. When they could get them, many were forced to cast provisional ballots which were highly likely to be pitched in the trash, or which remain uncounted.

Ohio election history would indicate that the elimination of 175,000 voters in heavily Democratic Cleveland must almost certainly spell doom for any state-wide Democratic campaign. These 175,000 pre-2004 election eliminations must now be added to the 105,000 from Cincinnati and the 28,000 from Toledo. Therefore, to put it simply: at least 308,000 voters, most of them likely Democrats, were eliminated from the registration rolls prior to an election allegedly won by less than 119,000 votes, where more than 106,000 votes still remain uncounted, and where the GOP Secretary of State continues to successfully fight off a meaningful recount.

There are more than 80 other Ohio counties where additional pre-November, 2004 mass eliminations by GOP-controlled boards of elections may have occurred. Further "anomalies" in the Ohio 2004 vote count continue to surface.

In addition, it seems evident that the Democratic Party will now enter Ohio's 2006 gubernatorial and US Senate races, and its 2008 presidential contest, with close to a half-million voters having been eliminated from the registration rolls, the vast majority of them from traditional Democratic strongholds, and with serious legislative barriers having been erected against new voter registration drives.

Stay tuned. --Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, available via www.freepress.org.

They are co-editors, with Steve Rosenfeld, of WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO?, coming in September from The New Press.
Important research for this piece has been conducted by Dr. Richard Hayes Philips, Dr. Norm Robbins and Dr. Victoria Lovegren.

Republican's say Buckwheat Blackwell's Campaign Immoral

2006-03-04T17:42:00.000-05:00

One thing is for sure, and the Dem's all agree, there needs to be a drastic change in the Ohio Governorship.

No one expected the republicans to start speaking the truth, but, there may be a hint of that as the primary contestants start grabbing for straws.

Hamilton County residents have always known Buckwheat Blackwell to be one who only looks out for himself. After all, he was a democrat until it no logger served his purpose and he flip-flopped to the republican party under the theory there were one to many pigs at the troth ?

Blackwell has been accused, in the past, of suppressing the minority vote with arguments that the weight of the paper of their registration was wrong. Now republicans are calling his leadership, demagoguery.

In a TV spot that quotes various news articles, Blackwell is described as launching false, vicious, personal attracts which are just scummy, nasty, sinister smear tactics.

Seems like the republican primary candidates are both capable of slinging mud. Perhaps both are one to many at the pig's troth ?

See the TV spot here:

Buckwheat Blackwell

Republican Congressman Sentenced to Prison

2006-03-04T15:50:00.000-05:00

Cunningham Sentenced To 8 Years, 4 Months

Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham has been sentenced to 8 years, 4 months in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes in return for unduly influencing the awarding of Defense Department contracts.

Judge Larry Burns ordered Cunningham to pay almost $2 million restitution in back taxes.

Burns also told Cunningham he will be sent to prison next Friday. He recommended Cunningham go to Taft prison near Bakersfield.

Before the sentencing Cunningham told Burns, "No man has ever been more sorry. I accept responsibility."

He also said that he hoped to see his 91-year-old mother one last time before going to jail. However, Cunningham was immediately taken into custody and will be evaluated by Bureau of Prison doctors before he is sent to a facility for confinement next Friday.

Burns recommended he be sent to Taft prison near Bakersfield, Calif.

Defense attorneys urged the judge to sentence Cunningham to six years in prison.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/kgtv/20060303/lo_kgtv/3306180

Bush is Dead Wrong

2006-03-04T14:46:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 28, 2006
6:24 PM
CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Doug Gordon (202) 225-5871(o); (202) 494-5141(c)

Kucinich: Bush is Dead Wrong-US Caught In A Civil War Of His Own Making In Iraq
In ABC News World News Tonight Interview Bush Continues To View Iraq Through Rose Color Glasses; Presidential Rhetoric Does Not Meet Reality

WASHINGTON - February 28 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) issued the following statement today on President Bush's interview with ABC News' World News Tonight:
"The President now says he does not believe there is going to be a civil war in Iraq. Put that right up there with his Administration's other greatest hits such as 'mission accomplished', 'we would be greeted as liberators', 'bring it on' or 'Iraqi oil will pay for reconstruction.'

"Can he be so far out of touch that he actually does not know that the United States is already trapped in a civil war in Iraq? And it is President Bush who helped to create it!

"The invasion and occupation of Iraq has been an illegal, foreign policy disaster for the US and for the people of Iraq. The ABC interview is another in a long campaign of disinformation and misinformation about the war. It is time for the truth. The truth is the United States cannot stay in Iraq any longer."

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Bush is tried for "Crimes against Civilian Populations".

2006-03-04T14:39:00.000-05:00

Published on Thursday, March 2, 2006 by the Morris County Daily Record (New Jersey)
Bush Goes on 'Trial' in Morris
Parsippany students confront issues of terrorism and war.

by Rob Jennings

PARSIPPANY - President Bush is being tried for "crimes against civilian populations" and "inhumane treatment of prisoners" at Parsippany High School, with students arguing both sides before a five-teacher "international court of justice." The panel's verdict could come as soon as Friday.
Teacher Joseph Kyle said the "hearing"-- he preferred that term to trial -- opened on Monday in a senior advanced placement government class. The school's principal said he signed off in advance on the subject matter.

"I knew it was a sensitive topic. Morris County is a conservative county. Parsippany is a conservative district," Kyle, 37, a teacher at the high school since 1998, said on Wednesday evening.

Alumnus disturbed

Former county Sheriff John Fox of Parsippany denounced the weeklong hearing -- where students debated whether Bush is a war criminal and questioned classmates playing administration officials and the Army general who oversaw Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -- as "terrible"and "disturbing."

"Those are young, impressionable minds those people have control over. We don't need those liberal academics doing what they're doing. I find that offensive," said Fox, a Republican who graduated from Parsippany High School.

Kyle declined to discuss his opinion of Bush, the war in Iraq or the U.S. response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said he isn't trying to show up the president.

"President Bush is often tried in absentia all around the world," Kyle said.

"All we hear in the papers is, war crimes this, war crimes that -- without even hearing a defense. It would be irresponsible for a teacher to pretend that isn't happening," Kyle said.

Defense begins

At the high school, prosecutors rested on Wednesday following testimony from nine "witnesses," Kyle said.

The prosecution list included Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen allegedly tortured by U.S. forces; international human rights attorney Michael Ratner; Larry Wilkerson, chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell; retired CIA foreign policy analyst Ray McGovern; and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were called by the defense before the seventh-period class concluded, Kyle said.

The defense will resume its case today with eight additional witnesses and, possibly, a verdict -- decided by two English teachers, one history teacher, a guidance counselor and someone from the school's media department, Kyle said.

Morris County Freeholder Jack Schrier, a Republican, said he was "truly outraged" by the war crimes hearing.

"It's not un-American. We do have freedom of thought and freedom of speech. But we're a nation at war. Not only this teacher, but so many others in the nation, have lost sight of that," Schrier said.

Principal supportive

High school Principal Anthony Sciaino defended Kyle.

"I think that the way he's doing it, in that it's more of a debate, makes it ideal and connects perfectly with the AP government curriculum," Sciaino said.

Kyle is no stranger to controversial topics. Starting on Tuesday, his sophomore class will put former President Andrew Jackson on trial for alleged abuses against Native Americans.

Kyle insisted that he doesn't have a partisan agenda. While teaching at Montclair High School, he conducted an impeachment trial of President Clinton while he was in office.

"There's nothing bad with exploring evidence on both sides," Kyle said.

Kyle said he received several letters from parents who were "all complimentary" of the war crimes hearing.

One thing that Kyle said he would like to keep private is the verdict.

"That decision is going to be sealed," he said, explaining that students will be told the outcome but asked not to tell others.

Copyright ©2006 dailyrecord.com

###

Torture at Guantanamo Confirmed

2006-03-03T23:38:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 3, 2006
10:51 AM
CONTACT: Center for Constitutional Rights
Mahdis Keshavarz, Riptide Communications 212.260.5000

Shocking in Government Documents Revealed Today
Attorneys Respond to Interrogation Log and Call for Judicial and International Scrutiny of Interrogations at Guantánamo
Center for Constitutional Rights and former Chief Judge John J. Gibbons Denounce Torture of Mohammed Al Qahtani

NEW YORK - March 3 - Today a government interrogation log from the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station was posted on the Internet, confirming that U.S. personnel inflicted torture and inhumane treatment on Guantánamo detainee Mohammed Al Qahtani. The 84-page log details interrogations during a six week period from November 2002 to January 2003, including how intelligence agents stressed Mr. Al Qahtani to physical and psychological limits.

Lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel from Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione are representing Mohammed Al Qahtani in his federal habeas petition, and today emphasized that the new log shows the urgent need for enhanced judicial and international scrutiny of such inhumane interrogation methods.

John J. Gibbons, a former Chief Judge of the Third Circuit who argued the landmark case Rasul v. Bush before the Supreme Court explained the significance of the new documents, "This revelation confirms the reason why the Administration has been fighting so vigorously for over four years to prevent our federal courts from examining what is happening in the United States' detention centers and why the Administration negotiated with Senator Graham to pass jurisdiction-stripping legislation recently. The Administration continues to act absolutely lawlessly, doing everything in their power to prevent the courts from turning over this rock and discovering the truth."

After months of torture and severe interrogation, the government asserts that Mr. Al-Qahtani made statements indicating involvement in an extremely broad range of terrorist activities. This reliance on statements extracted through torture has drawn extensive criticism from experts and attorneys.

"The government has recklessly accused Mohammed of many different crimes with no real evidence, just dubious interrogation statements." said Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, a CCR attorney who recently visited her client. (Department of Defense rules permitting attorney access to Mr. Al-Qahtani prohibit his attorneys from commenting on the classified sections of the interrogation log.) "Now the government's own log proves the statements were extracted through torture - undermining the entire case against Mohammed. The new disclosures reveal that our client was systematically tortured until he would say anything to stop the torment. This should remind Americans that torture is immoral and ineffective in its attempt to produce accurate information."

Previously released government documents have also indicated that Mr. Al-Qahtani was threatened with dogs, placed in extreme and debilitating isolation for three months prior to the period the interrogation log covers, and subjected to unlawful "aggressive" interrogation tactics in a manner that raised concerns even among FBI observers and military commanders in Washington. These tactics were authorized by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the "First Special Interrogation Plan," as discussed in the Schmidt Investigation. (This documentation is available at www.ccr-ny.org.)

"The evidence shows the government's despicable torture of detainees has produced worthless information. Since the majority of detainees are not even affiliated with Al Qaeda, it is no wonder that they have few relevant facts to provide. After four years of illegal detentions and abuse, the government has failed to prove a legal, moral or security rationale for these actions. The new revelations confirm this failure, and it is time for comprehensive scrutiny and accountability of the Guantánamo detentions," said CCR Legal Director Bill Goodman.

Statements extracted through torture are not generally considered reliable. In one example during a torture and interrogation session in Egypt in 2001, current Guantánamo detainee Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi provided false information about nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The U.S. Government repeated the claims, but no WMDs were found in Iraq and the claim was further discredited by reports from the DIA in 2002 and the CIA in 2003.

CCR is representing Mr. Al-Qahtani in a federal court challenge to his detention and the use of statements extracted through torture to justify his continued imprisonment without a fair hearing.

###

White House Delays Release of Study Showing Toxic Rocket Fuel in Most Americans

2006-03-03T23:33:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMARCH 3, 200612:48 PM
CONTACT: Environmental Working Group Bill Walker or Renee Sharp, (510) 444-0973EWG Public Affairs, (202) 667-6982

White House Delays Release of Study Showing Toxic Rocket Fuel in Most Americans

WASHINGTON - March 3 - Following a published report that the Bush Administration is holding up a study that shows most Americans carry a toxic rocket fuel chemical in their bodies at levels close to federal safety limits, Environmental Working Group (EWG) is calling for the immediate release of the study so EPA and state agencies can take steps to protect the public.
Risk Policy Report, an independent newsletter, reported Feb. 28 that the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy is pressuring the Centers for Disease Control to delay the release of a study that tested for perchlorate in human blood samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). An EPA source told the newsletter that CDC has found levels of perchlorate that "leave no margin of safety" for the public, compared to EPA's current risk limit.
Perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in solid rocket fuel, has contaminated drinking water and soil in at least 35 states, with most of the known contamination coming from military bases and defense contractors. Tests by EWG, academic scientists in Texas and Arizona, state officials in California and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have found perchlorate in milk, produce and many other foods and animal feed crops from coast to coast. Perchlorate is a thyroid toxin, and animal tests show that even small amounts can disrupt normal growth and development in fetuses, infants and children.
The NHANES study is a followup to a CDC study last year that found perchlorate in the urine of every one of 61 Atlanta residents tested, even though concentrations of perchlorate in the cityÕs drinking water are very low. Last year, scientists at Texas Tech University also found perchlorate in every sample of human milk from 36 mothers.
In a letter to Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, EWG Senior Vice President Richard Wiles said the results of the study of Atlanta residents "indicate that food is likely a major source of perchlorate exposure, and that perchlorate exposure is likely to be widespread in the general population."
Although the EPA has no timetable for developing a national drinking water standard for perchlorate, both Massachusetts and California are moving forward with their own safety standards. The proposed standards — 1 part per billion in Massachusetts and 6 ppb in California — are far below EPA's recently adopted risk limit of 24.5 ppb, which is a level used as a guidance for cleaning up perchlorate- contaminated sites. When the EPA announced the risk limit, it acknowledged the need for "national guidance on relative source contribution" — exactly the information the NHANES data could provide.
"In the absence of national safety standards, the CDC should not be sitting on data so clearly needed to protect the public from a chemical that appears to be widespread in drinking water and food," wrote Wiles. "The NHANES perchlorate data should be released immediately."
###

GOP Growing Increasingly Angry

2006-03-03T23:22:00.000-05:00

Published on Friday, March 3, 2006 by Knight Ridder
GOP Growing Increasingly Angry, Frightened by Bush's Missteps
by Steven Thomma and James Kuhnhenn

WASHINGTON - President Bush, once the seemingly invincible vanguard of a new Republican majority, could be endangering his party's hold on power as the GOP heads into this year's midterm congressional elections.
A series of political missteps has raised questions about the Bush administration's candor, competence and credibility and left the White House off-balance, off-message and unable to command either the nation's policy agenda or its politics the way the president did during his first term.
This week, newly released video of Bush listening passively to warnings about the dire threat posed by Hurricane Katrina and a report that intelligence analysts warned for more than two years that the insurgency in Iraq could swell into a civil war provided fresh fodder for charges that the president ignores unwelcome alarms.
His attacks on those who questioned his administration's approval of a seaports deal with the United Arab Emirates and his ill-fated nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court have angered some conservatives and Republican members of Congress.
And even some Bush supporters remain anxious about the economy, the federal deficit, the war in Iraq and the extent of the administration's warrantless wiretapping.
"The White House has been taking it on the chin lately, and the reverberations are being felt throughout the GOP," Republican blogger Bobby Eberle wrote this week. "From the Harriet Miers nomination to the Dubai Ports and more, the folks in charge of message strategy appear to be asleep at the wheel."
Said Republican pollster Ed Goeas: "If this environment holds, you have to assume it's going to tip for the Democrats."
That's not to say that second-term blues are unique to Bush, the environment will hold or that Republicans will lose control of the House of Representatives or the Senate in November. Polls show that Republicans still have the edge on the crucial question of which party is more trusted to defend the country against terrorists, for example.
But eight months before the election, Democrats are growing bolder, and many Republicans are getting nervous about the president's stewardship and his ability to regain the upper hand.
Bush's approval ratings remain stuck between 38 percent and 46 percent in four new polls released Thursday. The only one that found nearly as great a drop as a CBS poll earlier this week was a survey by Fox News. The Fox poll put Bush's approval rating at 39 percent, down from 44 percent in early February; the CBS poll put it at 34 percent, down from 42 percent in January.
Growing doubts about the administration's case for and conduct of the war in Iraq have kept the president from reversing his slide, and now his administration's missteps are making it even harder for him to regain his footing.
When conservatives challenged the ports deal, for example, Bush threatened to veto any legislation blocking it, then all but accused his critics of racism for opposing an Arab company.
"I've been helpful out here on the campaign trail, backing the president on eavesdropping, defending them on Iraq and Social Security, and then you have this thrown on your lap without any consideration," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. "Then the threat of a veto, that really took my breath away."
"I didn't think his choice of words there was really good," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. "And I thought his veto threat was untimely and inappropriate."
"It certainly is the perfect storm of aggravating or provoking congressional egos and the president getting his back up and saying the least diplomatic thing he could have said," said Michael Franc, a former Republican aide in Congress who's now a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research center in Washington.
Moreover, Bush's remarks reminded conservatives of the fact that the White House accused them of sexism when they challenged the Miers nomination. They didn't like that, either.
The president still has Republican support. The Battleground Poll found that 86 percent of Republicans approve of the way he's doing his job. It found that he's still supported by voters in the South, Central Plains and Mountain West, by men, married voters with children, conservatives and white conservative Christians. (The poll was conducted by Goeas and Democrat Celinda Lake.)
Yet Republican enthusiasm has waned, a potentially troubling trend that could hamper GOP turnout this fall.
Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg found that the ranks of Republicans who say they strongly approve of Bush's job performance had dropped by 15 percentage points. Similarly, strong approval from conservatives dropped by 14 points, and approval from white married men dropped by 14 points.
"Our analysis," Greenberg said, "shows a sharp slippage among white rural voters and blue-collar men as well as the best educated and upscale married men, even before the last controversies around port security and the Iraq `civil war.'"
---
The CBS News poll this week that showed President Bush's approval rating dropping sharply to 34 percent was widely criticized and quickly contradicted by two other polls.
The Democracy Corps, a Democratic group, released a poll on Thursday showing Bush's approval rating at 42 percent. The Battleground Poll, a bipartisan survey sponsored by George Washington University, released a poll Thursday showing it at 46 percent.
However, a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, also released on Thursday, put Bush's approval rating at 39 percent, and a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released the same day put it at 38 percent.
Why did the results vary so widely?
Critics said that CBS' pollsters talked to too many Democrats, skewing the results against Bush. Their first sample had 40 percent Democrats and 27 percent Republicans. Then they applied a mathematical formula, called "weighting," to make it more representative. Then it was 37 percent Democrats, 28 percent Republicans. Critics said that was still off.
Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster, said that even if it were weighted again to give equal weight to Democratic, Republican and independent voices, it would have shown a Bush approval rating of 37 percent - well within the margins of error of the Fox and CNN\USA Today\Gallup polls.
The bottom line: Polls sometimes are wrong. To feel more confident about public opinion, it's better to look at more than one of them.
For more on the Battleground Poll, go to http://www.gwnewscenter.org/
For more on the Democracy Corps poll, go to http://www.democracycorps.org/
For more on the Fox News poll, go to http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/poll(underscore)030206.pdf
For more on the CBS News poll, go to
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/poll(underscore)bush(underscore)022706.pdf
For more on the CNN\USA Today\Gallup poll, go to http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/images/03/02/rel7a.pdf
---
(The Battleground poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Feb. 12-15 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The Democracy Corps poll of 1,135 likely voters was conducted Feb. 23-27 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
The Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of 900 registered voters was conducted Feb. 28-March 1 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,020 adults was conducted Feb. 28-March 1 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The CBS News poll of a nationwide random sample of 1,018 adults was conducted Feb. 22-26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.)
© 2006 Knight Ridder Newspapers
###

Hamilton County, Ohio Judges Lack Integrity ?

2005-11-10T00:10:00.000-05:00

Ohio Republican Party suggests

judges

"Stockdale" and "Allen" lack Integrity ?

Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Lisa Allen stealing opponents platform ?

When Judge Lisa Allen can't "Shoot the Messenger" she steals the message. Opponent, Jonathan Dameron, has been campaigning on the platform that Lisa Allen is chronically late. Dameron claims Allen, the wife,( or former wife, no one knows) of the courthouse adulterer, Michael Allen, is habitually late for court while police, victims, attorneys and defendants are all waiting for her to show up "Late again"

It is a well know joke at the courthouse and guaranteed to bring a laugh when anyone asks: "Was Allen on Time today ?"

Well, the Cincinnati Bar association, on Allen stated: "....... some expressed concerns about her punctuality."

Allen, whom the convicted "Taft" appointed once, could not shake the trail of tardiness, so she told the Cincinnati Post that it was that adulterers fault. Well, guess what, she was "Late for Court" the same day the Post article ran. Additionally, she had the "FOP" draft propaganda stating that the reason they endorsed her was because she was considerate of Police officers time in court.

She couldn't fight reality, so Allen just incorporated Dameron's platform into her literature piece. The mailer misleads the voter and asks for votes stating: "police belong on the street, not in a waiting room" and additionally stating "importance should be placed on getting our police back on the street."

The literature piece was paid for by the Ohio Republican Party who is also being accused of misrepresentation in the "Stockdale" - "Rucker" comparable literature mailer. Stockdale, through concealed omission, suggests that he is the only candidate endorsed by the Cincinnati Bar Association.

It is believed that the judicial candidates have attempted to circumvent the cannon code by having the state party pay for the piece. Stockdale's and Allen's recent campaign financial disclosures suggest that a donation was made from their campaigns to the Hamilton County Republican party and then used to pay for the literature pieces the state party paid for. Having the state party make the misrepresentations creates the false belief that candidates will have plausible denial regarding strict cannon code governing judicial races.

Rumor has it, complaints will be filed with the Elections Commission.

You be the Judge !

Stockdale lacks "Integrity" by deceptive concealment of "Ruckers" Cincinnati Bar Association Endorsement

"The committee endorses both Fannon Rucker...and...David C. Stockdale"
Cincinnati Bar Association

Rucker the Leader

Stockdale the MisLeader

1.) Would you want someone judging you that is willing to withhold the "Facts" ?

You be the Judge !

Allen lacks "Integrity" by deceptive endorsement that contradicts admitted "Facts"

"....... some expressed concerns about her punctuality."
Cincinnati Bar Association

Dameron the Leader
Allen the MisLeader

1.) If she thinks it's wrong than why is she habitually late ?

2.) What are officers doing while waiting for Allen to show up on time ?

3.) Would you want someone judging you whom is willing to distort the "Facts" ?

On the Flip:

( If your partner could scheme and lie ! )

( Would you seek some , on the side ? )

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