More predictions from the oddsmakers. You can bet. If you are right, you get $100 after the elections. If you are wrong, you get nothing after the elections. Here is how the oddsmakers are calling some of the elections on the WSX Washington Exchange web site on 9/29/2007:
"DEMPRES
Democrat Elected President in 2008
W$59.87
GOPPRES
Republican Elected President in 2008
W$64.57
GVARSC06
Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to Win CA Gov. Race
W$86.99
GVBORI06
Bob Riley (R) to Win AL Gov. Race
W$66.82
GVCHCU06
Chet Culver (D) to Win IA Gov. Race
W$54.98
* * *
"HSGEDA06
Geoff Davis (R)* to Win KY 4th District
W$57.44
HSGERA06
George Radanovich (R)* to Win CA 19th District
W$75.03
HSHAMI06
Harry Mitchell (D) to Win AZ 5th District
W$42.56
HSHARO06
Hal Rogers (R)* to Win KY 5th District
W$52.50
HSHESH06
Heath Shuler (D) to Win NC 11th District
W$56.22
***
HSJOSP06
John Spratt (D)* to Win SC 5th District
W$63.41
HSJOWE06
John Michael Weaver (D) to Win KY 2nd District
W$50.00
HSJOYA06
John A. Yarmuth (D) to Win KY 3rd District
W$48.75
HSJUFE06
Judy Feder (D) to Win VA 10th District
W$42.56
HSKELU06
Ken Lucas (D) to Win KY 4th District
W$50.00
HSKEST06
Kenneth Stepp (D) to Win KY 5th District
W$50.00"
It looks like the oddsmakers give Hal Rogers a 52 1/2 per cent chance to get re-elected, but Kenneth Stepp a 50% chance to beat him. I guess the "house" gets to keep the difference.
In the California race, Gov. Schwarzenneger is down to a 90% chance to win--from 95% last time.
Keep watching, folks. You have 40 more days to go.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Kenneth Stepp agrees with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
Kenneth Stepp agrees with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Hal Rogers' recent vote on allowing torture seems to indicate that he considers Theodore Roosevelt's and Woodrow Wilson's opinions quaint and outdated. The following is a recent letter written by leading United States intelligence experts, and sent to the leaders of the United States Senate:
"Text Of Letter Opposing Senate Torture Compromise
"September 28th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"26 September 2006
"United States Senate
Committee on the Judiciary
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
"The Honorable Arlen Specter, Chairman
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Ranking Democratic Member
"Dear Senators:
"We write as experienced intelligence and military officers who have served in the frontlines in waging war against communism and Islamic extremism. We fully support the need for proactive operations to identify and disrupt those individuals and organizations who wish to harm our country or its people. We also recognize that intelligence operations, unlike law enforcement initiatives, enjoy more flexibility and less scrutiny, but at the same time must continue to be guided by applicable US law.
"We are very concerned that the proposals now before the Congress, concerning how to handle detainees suspected of terrorist activities, run the risk of squandering the greatest resource our country enjoys in fighting the dictators and extremists who want to destroy us-our commitment as a nation to the rule of law and the protection of divinely granted human rights.
"Apart from the moral considerations, we believe it is important that the Congress send a clear message that torture is not an effective or useful tactic. As noted recently by the head of Army Intelligence, Lt. Gen. John Kimmons:
“No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the last five years, hard years, tells us that. ”
"Our nation was created in response to the abuses visited on our ancestors by the King of England, who claimed the right to enter their homes, to levy taxes at whim, and to jail those perceived as a threat without allowing them to be confronted by their accusers. Now, 230 years later, we find our own President claiming the right to put people in detention centers without legal recourse and to employ interrogation methods that, by any reasonable legal standard, are categorized as torture.
"We ask that the Senate lead the way in upholding the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and affirmed in the Geneva Conventions regarding the rights of individuals and the obligations of governing authorities towards those in their power. We believe it is important to combat the hatred and vitriol espoused by Islamic extremists, but not at the expense of being viewed as a nation who justifies or excuses torture and incarceration without recourse to a judicial procedure.
"The US has been in the forefront of the human rights campaign throughout the 20th century, led by Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. The end of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust inspired the United States to take the lead in making the case that human rights were universal, not parochial. Until recently the policy of our country was that all people, not just citizens of the United States, were entitled to these protections. It is important that the world understand that we remain committed to these principles. In fighting our enemies we must wage this battle in harmony with the traditional values of our society that were enshrined in the opening clause of the Declaration of Independence, “we hold these truths to be self-evident”.
"Respectfully yours,
"CIA Officers:Milton Bearden, Directorate of Operations
Ray Close, Directorate of Operations
Vincent Cannistraro, Directorate of Operations
Philip Giraldi, Directorate of Operations
**James Marcinkowski, Directorate of Operations
Melissa Mahle, Directorate of Operations
Paul Pillar, Directorate of Intelligence
David MacMichael, Directorate of Intelligence
Melvin Goodman, Directorate of Intelligence
Ray McGovern, Directorate of Intelligence
Mary O. McCarthy, DCI professional staff
"U.S. military and Department of Defense:
W. Patrick Lang, (Colonel, U.S. Army retired, Director DefenseHumint Services, retired)
A. D. Ackels, (Colonel, U.S. Army, retired)
Karen Kwiatkowski, (Lt. Colonel, USAF, retired)
"U.S. Department of State:
Thomas R. Maertens, Deputy Coordinator, Office of CounterTerrorism, U.S. Department of State
Larry C Johnson, Office of Counter Terrorism, U.S. Departmentof State
"Federal Bureau of Investigation
Christopher Whitcomb, Hostage Rescue Team"
**Editor’s Note: James Marcinkowski is the Fighting Dem candidate in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District race.
Kenneth Stepp agrees with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson that the United States should remain at the forefront of the human rights and individual rights movements. Hal Rogers votes that America should debase itself and act more like the Islamo-Fascists that we are fighting against. The choice is clear: a vote for Kenneth Stepp is a vote for freedom and human rights. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, KY-05.
"Text Of Letter Opposing Senate Torture Compromise
"September 28th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"26 September 2006
"United States Senate
Committee on the Judiciary
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
"The Honorable Arlen Specter, Chairman
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Ranking Democratic Member
"Dear Senators:
"We write as experienced intelligence and military officers who have served in the frontlines in waging war against communism and Islamic extremism. We fully support the need for proactive operations to identify and disrupt those individuals and organizations who wish to harm our country or its people. We also recognize that intelligence operations, unlike law enforcement initiatives, enjoy more flexibility and less scrutiny, but at the same time must continue to be guided by applicable US law.
"We are very concerned that the proposals now before the Congress, concerning how to handle detainees suspected of terrorist activities, run the risk of squandering the greatest resource our country enjoys in fighting the dictators and extremists who want to destroy us-our commitment as a nation to the rule of law and the protection of divinely granted human rights.
"Apart from the moral considerations, we believe it is important that the Congress send a clear message that torture is not an effective or useful tactic. As noted recently by the head of Army Intelligence, Lt. Gen. John Kimmons:
“No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the last five years, hard years, tells us that. ”
"Our nation was created in response to the abuses visited on our ancestors by the King of England, who claimed the right to enter their homes, to levy taxes at whim, and to jail those perceived as a threat without allowing them to be confronted by their accusers. Now, 230 years later, we find our own President claiming the right to put people in detention centers without legal recourse and to employ interrogation methods that, by any reasonable legal standard, are categorized as torture.
"We ask that the Senate lead the way in upholding the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and affirmed in the Geneva Conventions regarding the rights of individuals and the obligations of governing authorities towards those in their power. We believe it is important to combat the hatred and vitriol espoused by Islamic extremists, but not at the expense of being viewed as a nation who justifies or excuses torture and incarceration without recourse to a judicial procedure.
"The US has been in the forefront of the human rights campaign throughout the 20th century, led by Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. The end of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust inspired the United States to take the lead in making the case that human rights were universal, not parochial. Until recently the policy of our country was that all people, not just citizens of the United States, were entitled to these protections. It is important that the world understand that we remain committed to these principles. In fighting our enemies we must wage this battle in harmony with the traditional values of our society that were enshrined in the opening clause of the Declaration of Independence, “we hold these truths to be self-evident”.
"Respectfully yours,
"CIA Officers:Milton Bearden, Directorate of Operations
Ray Close, Directorate of Operations
Vincent Cannistraro, Directorate of Operations
Philip Giraldi, Directorate of Operations
**James Marcinkowski, Directorate of Operations
Melissa Mahle, Directorate of Operations
Paul Pillar, Directorate of Intelligence
David MacMichael, Directorate of Intelligence
Melvin Goodman, Directorate of Intelligence
Ray McGovern, Directorate of Intelligence
Mary O. McCarthy, DCI professional staff
"U.S. military and Department of Defense:
W. Patrick Lang, (Colonel, U.S. Army retired, Director DefenseHumint Services, retired)
A. D. Ackels, (Colonel, U.S. Army, retired)
Karen Kwiatkowski, (Lt. Colonel, USAF, retired)
"U.S. Department of State:
Thomas R. Maertens, Deputy Coordinator, Office of CounterTerrorism, U.S. Department of State
Larry C Johnson, Office of Counter Terrorism, U.S. Departmentof State
"Federal Bureau of Investigation
Christopher Whitcomb, Hostage Rescue Team"
**Editor’s Note: James Marcinkowski is the Fighting Dem candidate in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District race.
Kenneth Stepp agrees with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson that the United States should remain at the forefront of the human rights and individual rights movements. Hal Rogers votes that America should debase itself and act more like the Islamo-Fascists that we are fighting against. The choice is clear: a vote for Kenneth Stepp is a vote for freedom and human rights. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, KY-05.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Kenneth Stepp Opposes Bush-Cheney-Hal Rogers on Torture!
Kenneth Stepp opposes the Bush-Cheney-Hal Rogers Republican Administration on torture. I am against it. They feel that the end justifies the means, and that we should have a vague, watered down national policy on torture that walks us away from two hundred thirty years of championing liberty, and walks us away from strict adherence to the Geneva Convention. The following article explains:
"Intelligence Experts Oppose Bush On Torture
"September 28th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"FDNS – On Sept. 6 President Bush gave his famous press conference wherein he became the first American president to defend the use of torture. At the same time at another press conference the head of Army intelligence was, in effect, saying that his Commander-in-Chief was dead wrong.
"On that day Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, the Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, presented the Army’s new Field Manual on interrogations. The manual, which Kimmons said was the result of various investigations since Abu Ghraib, utterly rejects Bush’s views and by extension the Senate compromise which would prohibit torture by military personnel but appears to leave the door open on the CIA side.
"Some suspect the White House timed Bush’s press conference so as to pull media focus away from Kimmons’ presentation.
“No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices,” Kimmons said. “I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the past five years, hard years, tells us that.”
"Kimmons said “any piece of intelligence which is obtained under duress through the use of abusive techniques would be of questionable credibility.”
"Adherence to the Geneva Conventions is directed.
"Kimmons also said “Interrogators may not force a detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts of pose in a sexual manner. They cannot use hoods or place sacks over a detainee’s head or use duct tape over his eyes. They cannot beat or electrically shock or burn him or inflict other forms of physical pain, any form of physical pain.
“They may not use water boarding. They may not use hypothermia or treatment which will lead to heat injury. They will not perform mock executions. They may not deprive detainees of the necessary food, water and medical care. And they may not use dogs in any aspect of interrogations,” Kimmons said.
"The manual authorizes 19 interrogation approaches and prohibits all others, Kimmons said.
"Kimmons also said that based battlefield experiences in recent years three trickery type techniques were added to the approved list. The are good cop bad cop, Mutt and Jeff and false flag where interrogators pose as something other than interrogators.
"The technique of separating prisoners within the context of initial interrogations is also allowed to prevent POWs from coordinating their stories.
"Meanwhile 17 intelligence experts who had been on the frontlines of counter-terrorism efforts have sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary committee opposing the Senate compromise that appears to still permit torture by the CIA (the full text of the letter along with signatures is published in this issue).
"In their letter the former spooks said that present proposals that “, run the risk of squandering the greatest resource our country enjoys in fighting the dictators and extremists who want to destroy us — our commitment as a nation to the rule of law and the protection of divinely granted human rights.”
"Buttressing Kimmons’ statements regarding the uselessness of torture the writers also said using torture makes a mockery of our efforts in the area of human rights and puts American service members at risk.
“Our nation was created in response to the abuses visited on our ancestors by the King of England, who claimed the right to enter their homes, to levy taxes at whim, and to jail those perceived as a threat without allowing them to be confronted by their accusers. Now, 230 years later, we find our own President claiming the right to put people in detention centers without legal recourse and to employ interrogation methods that, by any reasonable legal standard, are categorized as torture,” letter said."
Keep America on the side of liberty and against torture. The end does not justify the means. The end does not make the means noble. I could not imagine George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, nor John Kennedy allowing torture, nor should we now. Torture is torture, whether by the Army or by the CIA, and we should have none of it. Months ago, the National Review said Hal Rogers is a national disgrace. Because of Hal Rogers vote to allow torture by the CIA, I'm sure that the FDNS would agree that Hal Rogers, and all of the Republican rubberstamps are national disgraces, and should be voted out of office. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, KY-05.
"Intelligence Experts Oppose Bush On Torture
"September 28th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"FDNS – On Sept. 6 President Bush gave his famous press conference wherein he became the first American president to defend the use of torture. At the same time at another press conference the head of Army intelligence was, in effect, saying that his Commander-in-Chief was dead wrong.
"On that day Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, the Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, presented the Army’s new Field Manual on interrogations. The manual, which Kimmons said was the result of various investigations since Abu Ghraib, utterly rejects Bush’s views and by extension the Senate compromise which would prohibit torture by military personnel but appears to leave the door open on the CIA side.
"Some suspect the White House timed Bush’s press conference so as to pull media focus away from Kimmons’ presentation.
“No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices,” Kimmons said. “I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the past five years, hard years, tells us that.”
"Kimmons said “any piece of intelligence which is obtained under duress through the use of abusive techniques would be of questionable credibility.”
"Adherence to the Geneva Conventions is directed.
"Kimmons also said “Interrogators may not force a detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts of pose in a sexual manner. They cannot use hoods or place sacks over a detainee’s head or use duct tape over his eyes. They cannot beat or electrically shock or burn him or inflict other forms of physical pain, any form of physical pain.
“They may not use water boarding. They may not use hypothermia or treatment which will lead to heat injury. They will not perform mock executions. They may not deprive detainees of the necessary food, water and medical care. And they may not use dogs in any aspect of interrogations,” Kimmons said.
"The manual authorizes 19 interrogation approaches and prohibits all others, Kimmons said.
"Kimmons also said that based battlefield experiences in recent years three trickery type techniques were added to the approved list. The are good cop bad cop, Mutt and Jeff and false flag where interrogators pose as something other than interrogators.
"The technique of separating prisoners within the context of initial interrogations is also allowed to prevent POWs from coordinating their stories.
"Meanwhile 17 intelligence experts who had been on the frontlines of counter-terrorism efforts have sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary committee opposing the Senate compromise that appears to still permit torture by the CIA (the full text of the letter along with signatures is published in this issue).
"In their letter the former spooks said that present proposals that “, run the risk of squandering the greatest resource our country enjoys in fighting the dictators and extremists who want to destroy us — our commitment as a nation to the rule of law and the protection of divinely granted human rights.”
"Buttressing Kimmons’ statements regarding the uselessness of torture the writers also said using torture makes a mockery of our efforts in the area of human rights and puts American service members at risk.
“Our nation was created in response to the abuses visited on our ancestors by the King of England, who claimed the right to enter their homes, to levy taxes at whim, and to jail those perceived as a threat without allowing them to be confronted by their accusers. Now, 230 years later, we find our own President claiming the right to put people in detention centers without legal recourse and to employ interrogation methods that, by any reasonable legal standard, are categorized as torture,” letter said."
Keep America on the side of liberty and against torture. The end does not justify the means. The end does not make the means noble. I could not imagine George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, nor John Kennedy allowing torture, nor should we now. Torture is torture, whether by the Army or by the CIA, and we should have none of it. Months ago, the National Review said Hal Rogers is a national disgrace. Because of Hal Rogers vote to allow torture by the CIA, I'm sure that the FDNS would agree that Hal Rogers, and all of the Republican rubberstamps are national disgraces, and should be voted out of office. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, KY-05.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
$500 increase in Earned Income Credit.
Kenneth Stepp supports a five hundred dollar increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit. If we are going to have tax cuts, let's do it to benefit the working poor, not just the Republican billionaire cronies. Maybe we can give everyone $500. That way the billionaire can invest his spare $500 in stocks while the working woman spends hers all on food and the electric and gas bill. Tax cuts are a good idea, but let's give them to the working poor, first. Kenneth Stepp.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Members and Candidates for the Kentucky State House of Representatives 9/24/06.
The Kentucky State Democratic State House of Representatives members and candidates at the Second Annual Kentucky Democratic Party Family Day gathering at Kentucky Democratic Headquarters at Frankfort, Kentucky on 9/24/06. All pictures of 9/24/06 on this blog spot taken by Wilma Stepp, the official photographer of the Stepp for Congress campaign.
Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo addresses the Democrats 9/24/06.
Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo talked to the Democrats gathered at the Second Annual Democratic Family Day gathering at Kentucky Democratic Headquarters, Frankfort, Kentucky on 9/24/06.
The crowd enjoying Family Day at Democratic Headquarters, Frankfort, Kentucky 9/24/06.
The crowd enjoying the rock band music followed by the political speeches at the Second Annual Family Day gathering at Democratic Headquarters, Frankfort, Kentucky 9/24/06.
Four residents of the Kentucky Fifth 9 24 06.
At the Kentucky Democratic Party's Family Day gathering, pictured together are four residents of the Kentucky Fifth District for the U.S. House of Representatives, left to right, Carson Stepp, Kenneth Stepp (the Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05), Conrad Stepp, and Democratic former Governor Paul Patton, 9/24/06.Democratic Family Day, Frankfort KY 9/24/06
Conrad Stepp meets with Democratic former Governor Paul Patton at the Democratic Family Day gathering at Democratic Headquarters in Frankfort, Kentucky on September 24, 2006.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
U. S. Military Occupation of Iraq Worsens Terror Threat to U.S.
A recent New York Times newspaper article explained that the American Military Occupation of Iraq worsens the Terror Threat to the United States, as follows:
"Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat
"By MARK MAZZETTI
"Published: September 24, 2006
"A stark assessment has found that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
"The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,'' it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.
"An opening section of the report, "Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement," cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology. * * *
"The report "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," said one American intelligence official.
"More than a dozen United States government officials and outside experts were interviewed for this article, and all spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified intelligence document. The officials included employees of several government agencies, and both supporters and critics of the Bush administration. All of those interviewed had either seen the final version of the document or participated in the creation of earlier drafts. These officials discussed some of the document's general conclusions but not details, which remain highly classified."
Replace the bumbling Republican rubber-stamp Hal Rogers! Send Hal home! Bring the troops home! Had Enough?! Elect Kenneth Stepp, Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05.
"Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat
"By MARK MAZZETTI
"Published: September 24, 2006
"A stark assessment has found that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
"The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,'' it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.
"An opening section of the report, "Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement," cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology. * * *
"The report "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," said one American intelligence official.
"More than a dozen United States government officials and outside experts were interviewed for this article, and all spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified intelligence document. The officials included employees of several government agencies, and both supporters and critics of the Bush administration. All of those interviewed had either seen the final version of the document or participated in the creation of earlier drafts. These officials discussed some of the document's general conclusions but not details, which remain highly classified."
Replace the bumbling Republican rubber-stamp Hal Rogers! Send Hal home! Bring the troops home! Had Enough?! Elect Kenneth Stepp, Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05.
Nearly 7000 Civilians Killed in Iraq in Past Two Months.
How is it going? How does the continued U.S. Military Occupation of Iraq suit you? How is it working out? Hal Rogers voted to "stay the course" with the U.S. Military Occupation of Iraq. Had enough? Yesterday's news article explains that nearly 7000 civilians were killed in Iraq in the past two months. Aside from 2,600 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, the Iraqi civilian death toll keeps mounting as the American military occupation of Iraq continues. The Guardian reports:
"Civilian deaths soar to record high in Iraq
"· UN report warns of grave sectarian crisis in country·
"Doubts on PM's ability to avoid slide to civil war
"Peter Beaumont in Baghdad and agencies
"Friday September 22, 2006
"Guardian
"Nearly 7,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in the past two months, according to a UN report just released - a record high that is far greater than initial estimates had suggested. As American generals in Baghdad warned that the violence could worsen in the run up to Ramadan next Monday, the UN spoke of a "grave sectarian crisis" gripping the country.
"With known Iraqi deaths running at more than 100 a day because of sectarian murders, al-Qaida and nationalist insurgent attacks, and fatalities inflicted by the multinational forces, the UN said its total was likely to be "on the low side" because of the difficulties of collecting accurate figures. In particular, it said that no deaths were reported from the violent region covering Ramadi and Falluja.
"The report from the UN assistance mission in Iraq's human rights office reported evidence of torture, unlawful detentions, the growth of sectarian militias and death squads, and a rise in "honour killings" of women. The increasing incidence of discovery of the bodies of women and teenage girls, shot in the chest rather than in the head, has been attributed to the establishment by both extremist Sunnis and Shias of secretive sharia committees, which locals say carry out killings.
"In a separate development, Manfred Nowak, the UN's special investigator, said torture was "totally out of hand" and might even be worse now than under Saddam Hussein. "You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed," he told reporters at the UN's Geneva headquarters.
"The US military had initially claimed a dramatic drop in the Iraqi death toll for August, but the estimate was revised sharply upwards after it revealed that it had inexplicably left out figures for people killed by bombs, mortars, rockets and other mass attacks.
"The latest fatality figures have been disclosed amid emerging criticism from Iraqi and US officials - quoted anonymously in the New York Times - of the prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's ability to prevent the country sliding into civil war.
"The violence again has risen most sharply in Baghdad, despite a massive joint Iraqi government and US operation to "clear" no-go areas of fighters. The report raises serious new questions about the ability of US and Iraqi forces to bring peace to Baghdad, where the bulk of the violent deaths occur.
"Critically, the report states that the country's government, set up in 2006, is "facing a generalised breakdown of law and order which presents a serious challenge to the institutions of Iraq".
"According to the UN, which releases the figures every two months, violent civilian deaths in July reached an unprecedented high of 3,590 people, an average of more than 100 a day. The August toll was 3,009 people, the report said. In the previous period the UN had reported just under 6,000 deaths - 5,106 from Baghdad.
"It added: "Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe torture, including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones (back, hands and legs), missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails."
"On other issues, the report said that about 300,000 people had been displaced in Iraq since the bombing of a shrine in Samara in February.
"The potential for even more violent instability came as two senior aides to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Militia has been blamed for much of the sectarian killing, were detained early yesterday by US forces in the southern city of Najaf.
"In the capital the violence continued. Insurgents killed six policemen and wounded two others when they attacked a police station in western Baghdad, while a car bomb killed two people and wounded eight in the capital's mainly Shia Hurriya district. Gunmen also killed three policemen after attacking their "patrol in the city.
"Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006"
Vote to end the U.S. Military Occupation of Iraq. Vote to bring the troops home. Vote to bring Hal home. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05.
"Civilian deaths soar to record high in Iraq
"· UN report warns of grave sectarian crisis in country·
"Doubts on PM's ability to avoid slide to civil war
"Peter Beaumont in Baghdad and agencies
"Friday September 22, 2006
"Guardian
"Nearly 7,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in the past two months, according to a UN report just released - a record high that is far greater than initial estimates had suggested. As American generals in Baghdad warned that the violence could worsen in the run up to Ramadan next Monday, the UN spoke of a "grave sectarian crisis" gripping the country.
"With known Iraqi deaths running at more than 100 a day because of sectarian murders, al-Qaida and nationalist insurgent attacks, and fatalities inflicted by the multinational forces, the UN said its total was likely to be "on the low side" because of the difficulties of collecting accurate figures. In particular, it said that no deaths were reported from the violent region covering Ramadi and Falluja.
"The report from the UN assistance mission in Iraq's human rights office reported evidence of torture, unlawful detentions, the growth of sectarian militias and death squads, and a rise in "honour killings" of women. The increasing incidence of discovery of the bodies of women and teenage girls, shot in the chest rather than in the head, has been attributed to the establishment by both extremist Sunnis and Shias of secretive sharia committees, which locals say carry out killings.
"In a separate development, Manfred Nowak, the UN's special investigator, said torture was "totally out of hand" and might even be worse now than under Saddam Hussein. "You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed," he told reporters at the UN's Geneva headquarters.
"The US military had initially claimed a dramatic drop in the Iraqi death toll for August, but the estimate was revised sharply upwards after it revealed that it had inexplicably left out figures for people killed by bombs, mortars, rockets and other mass attacks.
"The latest fatality figures have been disclosed amid emerging criticism from Iraqi and US officials - quoted anonymously in the New York Times - of the prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's ability to prevent the country sliding into civil war.
"The violence again has risen most sharply in Baghdad, despite a massive joint Iraqi government and US operation to "clear" no-go areas of fighters. The report raises serious new questions about the ability of US and Iraqi forces to bring peace to Baghdad, where the bulk of the violent deaths occur.
"Critically, the report states that the country's government, set up in 2006, is "facing a generalised breakdown of law and order which presents a serious challenge to the institutions of Iraq".
"According to the UN, which releases the figures every two months, violent civilian deaths in July reached an unprecedented high of 3,590 people, an average of more than 100 a day. The August toll was 3,009 people, the report said. In the previous period the UN had reported just under 6,000 deaths - 5,106 from Baghdad.
"It added: "Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe torture, including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones (back, hands and legs), missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails."
"On other issues, the report said that about 300,000 people had been displaced in Iraq since the bombing of a shrine in Samara in February.
"The potential for even more violent instability came as two senior aides to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Militia has been blamed for much of the sectarian killing, were detained early yesterday by US forces in the southern city of Najaf.
"In the capital the violence continued. Insurgents killed six policemen and wounded two others when they attacked a police station in western Baghdad, while a car bomb killed two people and wounded eight in the capital's mainly Shia Hurriya district. Gunmen also killed three policemen after attacking their "patrol in the city.
"Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006"
Vote to end the U.S. Military Occupation of Iraq. Vote to bring the troops home. Vote to bring Hal home. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Ever wonder why you were paying three dollars ($3) a gallon for gasoline while all three branches of the Federal Government have majorities of Republicans? Maybe this Article will help explain:
"The oil industry is lubricating Congress
"Republicans get their fill of premium; Democrats sputter along on a little regular.
"By Lindsay Renick Mayer
"Minuteman Media
"September 6, 2006
"POLITICAL ANALYSTS may argue about how oil factored into America’s decision . . . .
* * *
"4.4 Times More to Republicans
The oil and gas industry has contributed 4.4 times more money to Republicans than to Democrats in the 2006 election cycle, giving $5.7 million to GOP candidates and $1.3 million to Democrats as of July, the Center found. CRP considers the oil and gas industry to include multinational and independent oil and gas producers and refiners, natural gas pipeline companies, gasoline service stations and fuel oil dealers.
"The skyrocketing of oil prices seems to be a vulnerability for Congress as a whole. In a June, "USA Today"/Gallup poll, 41 percent of those surveyed said gas prices will be an extremely important issue in determining which congressional candidates they vote for this year. Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they think the Democrats in Congress would do a better job of dealing with high gas prices, compared to 22 percent who favored the Republicans.
* * *
"Votes for Overpricing Gasoline
"The MoveOn ads criticize lawmakers for accepting money from energy companies and voting against Democrat-sponsored bills that would penalize companies with a monopoly for pricing above the market. . . .
* * *
"According to one political advertising consultant, campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry will continue to be popular ammunition against Republicans, especially. His firm has even stockpiled images of oil wells at sunset and people putting gas in their cars as preparation for what may be an oncoming onslaught.
"Lindsay Renick Mayer writes for CapitalEye.org, the newsletter of the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., that tracks the influence of money on elections and public policy. http://www.crp.org/
" http://www.minutemanmedia.org/MAYER%20090606.htm "
You can vote to turn your government over to the big oil monopolists (or oligopolists) by voting for the Republicans like Hal Rogers, or you can vote for Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, who has received no money from big oil PACS nor advocates. Kenneth Stepp is for the little guy, like you. Kenneth Stepp will vote with the Democrats, to keep OPEC and big oil from taking more of your money, and getting $3/gallon for gasoline. No more Republican rubber stamps. Send Hal home. Had enough?! Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, KY-05.
"The oil industry is lubricating Congress
"Republicans get their fill of premium; Democrats sputter along on a little regular.
"By Lindsay Renick Mayer
"Minuteman Media
"September 6, 2006
"POLITICAL ANALYSTS may argue about how oil factored into America’s decision . . . .
* * *
"4.4 Times More to Republicans
The oil and gas industry has contributed 4.4 times more money to Republicans than to Democrats in the 2006 election cycle, giving $5.7 million to GOP candidates and $1.3 million to Democrats as of July, the Center found. CRP considers the oil and gas industry to include multinational and independent oil and gas producers and refiners, natural gas pipeline companies, gasoline service stations and fuel oil dealers.
"The skyrocketing of oil prices seems to be a vulnerability for Congress as a whole. In a June, "USA Today"/Gallup poll, 41 percent of those surveyed said gas prices will be an extremely important issue in determining which congressional candidates they vote for this year. Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they think the Democrats in Congress would do a better job of dealing with high gas prices, compared to 22 percent who favored the Republicans.
* * *
"Votes for Overpricing Gasoline
"The MoveOn ads criticize lawmakers for accepting money from energy companies and voting against Democrat-sponsored bills that would penalize companies with a monopoly for pricing above the market. . . .
* * *
"According to one political advertising consultant, campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry will continue to be popular ammunition against Republicans, especially. His firm has even stockpiled images of oil wells at sunset and people putting gas in their cars as preparation for what may be an oncoming onslaught.
"Lindsay Renick Mayer writes for CapitalEye.org, the newsletter of the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., that tracks the influence of money on elections and public policy. http://www.crp.org/
" http://www.minutemanmedia.org/MAYER%20090606.htm "
You can vote to turn your government over to the big oil monopolists (or oligopolists) by voting for the Republicans like Hal Rogers, or you can vote for Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, who has received no money from big oil PACS nor advocates. Kenneth Stepp is for the little guy, like you. Kenneth Stepp will vote with the Democrats, to keep OPEC and big oil from taking more of your money, and getting $3/gallon for gasoline. No more Republican rubber stamps. Send Hal home. Had enough?! Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, KY-05.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Thursday, Sept. 21, Pulaski County Democratic Party Picnic.
Did you attend the Pulaski County Democratic Party Picnic on Thursday, Sept. 21, beginning at 6:30 p.m.?
Let me know at kenneth_stepp@yahoo.com
The picnic was at Pulaski County Park. Not one County left behind.
There must have been 200 people there. Some of the judicial candiates were there, the Democratic candidate for Pulaski County Sheriff, and the Democratic candidate for Pulaski County Jailer, and many Pulaski County magistrate candidates were there. Speaker Richards was there, and Senator Dan Mongiardo spoke to the rally also. I spoke, and reminded the Democrats and others there of my opposition to the continued U.S. military occupation of Iraq, my opposition to torture, my opposition to increasing the Federal deficit and Federal debt, and my support of improved Federal support of education, and the College for Everyone programs advocated by Democrats John Edwards and Howard Dean. I believe that makes my fourth political speech to the people of Pulaski County, I spoke to the Pulaski County Democratic Women twice, the Pulaski County Democratic Executive Committee once, and now to the Political Rally sponsored by the Democrats of Pulaski County, where Democratic candidates, and those running in nonpartisan races spoke. We were amused to see a large yellow dog running around through the crowd. Maybe there will be a lot of people voting for the Democratic candidates in Pulaski County this year. Had enough?! Kenneth Stepp.
Let me know at kenneth_stepp@yahoo.com
The picnic was at Pulaski County Park. Not one County left behind.
There must have been 200 people there. Some of the judicial candiates were there, the Democratic candidate for Pulaski County Sheriff, and the Democratic candidate for Pulaski County Jailer, and many Pulaski County magistrate candidates were there. Speaker Richards was there, and Senator Dan Mongiardo spoke to the rally also. I spoke, and reminded the Democrats and others there of my opposition to the continued U.S. military occupation of Iraq, my opposition to torture, my opposition to increasing the Federal deficit and Federal debt, and my support of improved Federal support of education, and the College for Everyone programs advocated by Democrats John Edwards and Howard Dean. I believe that makes my fourth political speech to the people of Pulaski County, I spoke to the Pulaski County Democratic Women twice, the Pulaski County Democratic Executive Committee once, and now to the Political Rally sponsored by the Democrats of Pulaski County, where Democratic candidates, and those running in nonpartisan races spoke. We were amused to see a large yellow dog running around through the crowd. Maybe there will be a lot of people voting for the Democratic candidates in Pulaski County this year. Had enough?! Kenneth Stepp.
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Hal Rogers Administration Moving Toward Invading Iran.
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Hal Rogers Administration Moving Toward Invading Iran is what is the summary of the following news article:
"Iran: Replay Of Run-Up To Iraq War
"September 20th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"By Warren P. Strobel and John WalcottMcClatchy Newspapers
"WASHINGTON - In an echo of the intelligence wars that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a high-stakes struggle is brewing within the Bush administration and in Congress over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and involvement in terrorism.
"U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Bush political appointees and hard-liners on Capitol Hill have tried recently to portray Iran’s nuclear program as more advanced than it is and to exaggerate Tehran’s role in Hezbollah’s attack on Israel in mid-July.
"The struggle’s outcome could have profound implications for U.S. policy.
"President Bush has said he prefers diplomacy to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but he hasn’t ruled out using military force.
"Several former U.S. defense officials who maintain close ties to the Pentagon say they’ve been told that plans for air strikes - if Bush deems them necessary - are being updated.
"The leader of a Persian Gulf country who visited Washington recently came away without receiving assurances he sought that the military option was off the table, said a person with direct knowledge of the meetings.
“It seems like Iran is becoming the new Iraq,” said one U.S. counterterrorism official.
"This official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the information involved is classified.
"But one facet of the dispute broke into public view in recent days.
"The International Atomic Energy Agency complained in an unusual letter made public on Thursday that a House intelligence committee report on Iran contains “erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information.”
"A top official of the IAEA, which conducts nuclear inspections in Iran and elsewhere, wrote that the report exaggerated advances Tehran has made in enriching uranium, which can be used to fuel nuclear arms if made pure enough. The official, Vilmos Cserveny, said the report also falsely claimed that IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei had removed an inspector from Iran for being too aggressive.
"Cserveny’s letter was addressed to intelligence committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-MI.Hoekstra spokesman Jamal Ware said that the reference to weapons-grade uranium in the report was in a photo caption, but that the report makes clear elsewhere that Iran has not yet achieved that capability.
"Committee aides say the report was meant to provoke discussion about Iran and wasn’t a call for exaggerated intelligence.
"The dispute was a virtual rerun of the months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, when ElBaradei and his agency questioned claims that Saddam Hussein was aggressively seeking nuclear weapons. Some top U.S. officials sought to discredit ElBaradei, although the IAEA’s assessment proved correct.
"The IAEA’s written protest, dated Tuesday, was echoed privately by U.S. intelligence analysts, who saw the House report as an attempt to discredit the CIA and other agencies on Iran.
"The situations with Iran now and Iraq four years ago, when Bush and his aides were making the case for war, aren’t completely parallel.
"Even officials and foreign countries that were skeptical about Iraq agree that Iran is probably seeking a nuclear weapon. And there is widespread consensus that Tehran is the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
"But there are sharp differences over Iran’s capabilities and actions.
"Some officials at the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department said they’re concerned that the offices of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney may be receiving a stream of questionable information that originates with Iranian exiles, including a discredited arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, who played a role in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.
"Officials at all three agencies said they suspect that the dubious information may include claims that Iran directed Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, to kidnap two Israeli soldiers in July; that Iran’s nuclear program is moving faster than generally believed; and that the Iranian people are eager to join foreign efforts to overthrow their theocratic rulers.
"The officials said there is no reliable intelligence to support any of those assertions and some that contradicts all three.
"The officials said they fear a replay of the administration’s mishandling of what turned out to be bogus information from Iraqi exiles in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, documented earlier this month in a Senate intelligence committee report.
"But they said this time, intelligence analysts and others are more forcefully challenging claims they believe to be false or questionable.
“There’s no question that people are less afraid to speak up after what happened in Iraq,” said one intelligence official. “There’s less of an inclination to let Cheney and Rumsfeld run free.”
"It is, said a second U.S. intelligence official, “a little more difficult to try to put forward a one-sided view.” Analysts “are not willing to be rolled over,” he said.
"On Hezbollah, officials say they have fought to tone down administration public statements and internal briefing papers about Iran’s complicity in the attack on Israel, which sparked a month-long war.
“They’re just basically saying all kinds of wacky stuff,” said the first counter-terrorism official. “Now Iran is (said to be) responsible for everything Hezbollah does.”
"Iran is widely believed to be arming, funding and helping train Hezbollah as its proxy among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims. But a majority of analysts believe Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah maintains quite a bit of independence.
“No one says that Hezbollah is completely independent,” said a U.S. intelligence official. But, “I’m not sure anyone thinks Iran ordered the kidnapping of the Israelis.”
"Adding to the unease, Rumsfeld’s office earlier this year set up a new Iranian directorate, reported to be under the leadership of neoconservatives who played a role in planning the Iraq war.
"Current and former officials said the Pentagon’s Iranian directorate has been headed by Abram Shulsky. Shulsky also was the head of the now-defunct Office of Special Plans, whose role in allegedly manipulating Iraq intelligence is under investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
"Some officials say they fear the office, whose existence was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, is being used to funnel intelligence from Ghorbanifar, the arms dealer, and an Iranian exile group known as the Mujahedeen Khalq.
"A Pentagon spokeswoman didn’t return two phone calls seeking comment about the office.
"Bill Murray, a retired CIA station chief in Paris who met with a Ghorbanifar associate and found his claims about Iran to be bogus, called the office’s establishment “a big bell ringer.”
“That is outright manipulation of information to suggest a predetermined policy,” Murray said."
Help prevent an American military invasion and military occupation of Iran; elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05, and oust that Republican rubber-stamp Hal Rogers. Kenneth Stepp will not vote for any "war powers" authorities, like Hal Rogers does. Kenneth Stepp will not vote for any "stay the course" on military occupations in the Middle East like Hal Rogers does. Unless it merits a declaration of war, Kenneth Stepp will vote "No" concerning U.S. military actions against Iran. Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and Warren G. Harding were right, America should not have any U.S. troops in the Middle East. A vote for Kenneth Stepp is a vote to keep U.S. troops out of Iran, either as an invading army, or as an army of occupation.
"Iran: Replay Of Run-Up To Iraq War
"September 20th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"By Warren P. Strobel and John WalcottMcClatchy Newspapers
"WASHINGTON - In an echo of the intelligence wars that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a high-stakes struggle is brewing within the Bush administration and in Congress over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and involvement in terrorism.
"U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Bush political appointees and hard-liners on Capitol Hill have tried recently to portray Iran’s nuclear program as more advanced than it is and to exaggerate Tehran’s role in Hezbollah’s attack on Israel in mid-July.
"The struggle’s outcome could have profound implications for U.S. policy.
"President Bush has said he prefers diplomacy to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but he hasn’t ruled out using military force.
"Several former U.S. defense officials who maintain close ties to the Pentagon say they’ve been told that plans for air strikes - if Bush deems them necessary - are being updated.
"The leader of a Persian Gulf country who visited Washington recently came away without receiving assurances he sought that the military option was off the table, said a person with direct knowledge of the meetings.
“It seems like Iran is becoming the new Iraq,” said one U.S. counterterrorism official.
"This official and others spoke on condition of anonymity because the information involved is classified.
"But one facet of the dispute broke into public view in recent days.
"The International Atomic Energy Agency complained in an unusual letter made public on Thursday that a House intelligence committee report on Iran contains “erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information.”
"A top official of the IAEA, which conducts nuclear inspections in Iran and elsewhere, wrote that the report exaggerated advances Tehran has made in enriching uranium, which can be used to fuel nuclear arms if made pure enough. The official, Vilmos Cserveny, said the report also falsely claimed that IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei had removed an inspector from Iran for being too aggressive.
"Cserveny’s letter was addressed to intelligence committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-MI.Hoekstra spokesman Jamal Ware said that the reference to weapons-grade uranium in the report was in a photo caption, but that the report makes clear elsewhere that Iran has not yet achieved that capability.
"Committee aides say the report was meant to provoke discussion about Iran and wasn’t a call for exaggerated intelligence.
"The dispute was a virtual rerun of the months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, when ElBaradei and his agency questioned claims that Saddam Hussein was aggressively seeking nuclear weapons. Some top U.S. officials sought to discredit ElBaradei, although the IAEA’s assessment proved correct.
"The IAEA’s written protest, dated Tuesday, was echoed privately by U.S. intelligence analysts, who saw the House report as an attempt to discredit the CIA and other agencies on Iran.
"The situations with Iran now and Iraq four years ago, when Bush and his aides were making the case for war, aren’t completely parallel.
"Even officials and foreign countries that were skeptical about Iraq agree that Iran is probably seeking a nuclear weapon. And there is widespread consensus that Tehran is the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
"But there are sharp differences over Iran’s capabilities and actions.
"Some officials at the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department said they’re concerned that the offices of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney may be receiving a stream of questionable information that originates with Iranian exiles, including a discredited arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, who played a role in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.
"Officials at all three agencies said they suspect that the dubious information may include claims that Iran directed Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, to kidnap two Israeli soldiers in July; that Iran’s nuclear program is moving faster than generally believed; and that the Iranian people are eager to join foreign efforts to overthrow their theocratic rulers.
"The officials said there is no reliable intelligence to support any of those assertions and some that contradicts all three.
"The officials said they fear a replay of the administration’s mishandling of what turned out to be bogus information from Iraqi exiles in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, documented earlier this month in a Senate intelligence committee report.
"But they said this time, intelligence analysts and others are more forcefully challenging claims they believe to be false or questionable.
“There’s no question that people are less afraid to speak up after what happened in Iraq,” said one intelligence official. “There’s less of an inclination to let Cheney and Rumsfeld run free.”
"It is, said a second U.S. intelligence official, “a little more difficult to try to put forward a one-sided view.” Analysts “are not willing to be rolled over,” he said.
"On Hezbollah, officials say they have fought to tone down administration public statements and internal briefing papers about Iran’s complicity in the attack on Israel, which sparked a month-long war.
“They’re just basically saying all kinds of wacky stuff,” said the first counter-terrorism official. “Now Iran is (said to be) responsible for everything Hezbollah does.”
"Iran is widely believed to be arming, funding and helping train Hezbollah as its proxy among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims. But a majority of analysts believe Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah maintains quite a bit of independence.
“No one says that Hezbollah is completely independent,” said a U.S. intelligence official. But, “I’m not sure anyone thinks Iran ordered the kidnapping of the Israelis.”
"Adding to the unease, Rumsfeld’s office earlier this year set up a new Iranian directorate, reported to be under the leadership of neoconservatives who played a role in planning the Iraq war.
"Current and former officials said the Pentagon’s Iranian directorate has been headed by Abram Shulsky. Shulsky also was the head of the now-defunct Office of Special Plans, whose role in allegedly manipulating Iraq intelligence is under investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
"Some officials say they fear the office, whose existence was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, is being used to funnel intelligence from Ghorbanifar, the arms dealer, and an Iranian exile group known as the Mujahedeen Khalq.
"A Pentagon spokeswoman didn’t return two phone calls seeking comment about the office.
"Bill Murray, a retired CIA station chief in Paris who met with a Ghorbanifar associate and found his claims about Iran to be bogus, called the office’s establishment “a big bell ringer.”
“That is outright manipulation of information to suggest a predetermined policy,” Murray said."
Help prevent an American military invasion and military occupation of Iran; elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05, and oust that Republican rubber-stamp Hal Rogers. Kenneth Stepp will not vote for any "war powers" authorities, like Hal Rogers does. Kenneth Stepp will not vote for any "stay the course" on military occupations in the Middle East like Hal Rogers does. Unless it merits a declaration of war, Kenneth Stepp will vote "No" concerning U.S. military actions against Iran. Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and Warren G. Harding were right, America should not have any U.S. troops in the Middle East. A vote for Kenneth Stepp is a vote to keep U.S. troops out of Iran, either as an invading army, or as an army of occupation.
218 Democrats and 217 Republicans Predicted in 2007 U.S. House of Representatives.
Click: http://californianintexas.blogspot.com/ and you will see that blog spot now predicts 218 Democrats and 217 Republicans in the new U.S. House of Representatives to convene in January, 2007. That means a Democratic Speaker of the House, a Democratic House Majority Leader, a Democratic House Majority Whip, all Democratic Committee Chairmen, all Democratic Subcommittee Chairmen, and Democratic majorities on all U.S. House Committees and Subcommittees. Any legislation getting through the U.S. House will be Democratic legislation. No bills will clear the U.S. House of Representatives without some Democratic members' approval. No budget bill will clear the U.S. House of Representatives without some Democratic members' approval, and budget bills are usually decided by votes strictly along party lines. No pork bill will get passed unless the Democratic House and the Republican Senate both agree on it. Maybe we will return to the balanced budget of the Clinton years, and start reducing our eight trillion dollar ($8,000,000,000,000) national debt. The Republicans have had their chance, and they blew it. Now America is moving toward a split government, with the House controlled by Democrats. Better times are ahead for America as we move away from the wasteful and destructive policies of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Hal Rogers Administration. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House KY-05, and help strenghten the emerging Democratic majority.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Hugo Chavez Insults United States!
According to a recent news article, Hugo Chavez of Venezuala insulted the United States before the United Nations:
"Chávez Calls Bush ‘the Devil’ in U.N. Speech
"Print
"Save
"By DAVID STOUT
"Published: September 20, 2006
"President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela bitterly and sarcastically assailed President Bush before the United Nations General Assembly today, portraying Mr. Bush as “the devil” who thinks he is “the owner of the world.”
"Mike Segar/Reuters
"President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
"RelatedVideo From Speech
“Yesterday, the devil came here,” Mr. Chávez said, alluding to Mr. Bush’s appearance before the General Assembly on Tuesday. “Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.”
"Then Mr. Chávez made the sign of the cross, brought his hands together as if in prayer and glanced toward the ceiling.
"The moment may not become as famous as Nikita Khrushchev’s finger-wagging, shoe-thumping outbursts in the General Assembly in the cold-war era, but it still produced chuckles and some applause in the assembly hall.
"In case anyone had missed the point, Mr. Chávez drove it home:
“Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.”
"The Venezuelan leader also had sharp words for the United Nations, which he said is “antidemocratic” and “doesn’t work.”
"Mr. Chávez, a left-wing populist who tried to seize power in a coup six years before winning election in 1998 on a tide of poverty-driven resentment, looked somewhat incongruous in a buttoned-up gray suit as he delivered an address that blended anti-Americanism with snippets of American life and culture.
“I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday’s statement by the president of the United States,” Mr. Chávez went on. “As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.
“An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: ‘The Devil’s Recipe.’ ”
"Mr. Bush spoke on Tuesday about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and how they might be curbed, and about his broader visions for the Middle East — visions that Mr. Chávez saw as insincere, ridiculous or both.
“Wherever he looks, he sees extremists,” said Mr. Chávez, who won office by defeating a businessman educated at Yale, Mr. Bush’s alma mater. “He looks at your color, and he says, ‘Oh, there’s an extremist.’ Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.”
"Indeed, Mr. Morales, another leftist, does raise potential problems for United States interests in Latin America, though perhaps not as thorny as those posed by Mr. Chávez. Unlike Bolivia, Venezuela belongs to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and is a major energy supplier to the United States, and Mr. Chávez has courted Fidel Castro and the leaders of Iran and Syria, all factors that make him a man Washington must watch.
"Mr. Chávez’s remarks were translated from Spanish, and while subtleties can sometimes be lost in translation, his feelings about the United States seemed to come through clearly enough. The United States, he said, is “the gravest threat looking over our planet, placing at risk the very survival of the human species.”
“We appeal to the people of the United States to halt this threat, like a sword hanging over our heads,” Mr. Chávez said.
"It was not clear if Mr. Chávez was exhorting Americans to rise up in revolution, or if his gibe was an indirect reference to previous American-aided upheavals in Central and South America.
"Needless to say, the speech did not go down well with American officials. John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, called the remarks “insulting.”
"Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman in Washington, was a bit more diplomatic, saying, “I don’t think you’ll find it surprising that we disagree with the views that were expressed in President Chavez’s remarks.”
"President Bush often notes that some of America’s one-time enemies, notably Japan and Germany, are now friends. But any rapprochement with the Caracas government would seem to be a long way off, to judge by Mr. Chávez’s closing remarks.
“It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us, and I embrace you all,” he said. “May God bless us all. Good day to you.”
America doesn't have to put up with name-calling and insults from small third-world country politicians. We don't have to buy Venezuela's oil. If they are such buddies with Iran and Cuba, they can sell their oil to them. As Congressman, Kenneth Stepp will introduce and support legislation censuring President Hugo Chavez for namecalling. We will not tolerate our head of state being called "The Devil" and I'll vote to censure any foreign head of state that makes such allegations.
"Chávez Calls Bush ‘the Devil’ in U.N. Speech
"Save
"By DAVID STOUT
"Published: September 20, 2006
"President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela bitterly and sarcastically assailed President Bush before the United Nations General Assembly today, portraying Mr. Bush as “the devil” who thinks he is “the owner of the world.”
"Mike Segar/Reuters
"President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
"RelatedVideo From Speech
“Yesterday, the devil came here,” Mr. Chávez said, alluding to Mr. Bush’s appearance before the General Assembly on Tuesday. “Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.”
"Then Mr. Chávez made the sign of the cross, brought his hands together as if in prayer and glanced toward the ceiling.
"The moment may not become as famous as Nikita Khrushchev’s finger-wagging, shoe-thumping outbursts in the General Assembly in the cold-war era, but it still produced chuckles and some applause in the assembly hall.
"In case anyone had missed the point, Mr. Chávez drove it home:
“Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.”
"The Venezuelan leader also had sharp words for the United Nations, which he said is “antidemocratic” and “doesn’t work.”
"Mr. Chávez, a left-wing populist who tried to seize power in a coup six years before winning election in 1998 on a tide of poverty-driven resentment, looked somewhat incongruous in a buttoned-up gray suit as he delivered an address that blended anti-Americanism with snippets of American life and culture.
“I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday’s statement by the president of the United States,” Mr. Chávez went on. “As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.
“An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: ‘The Devil’s Recipe.’ ”
"Mr. Bush spoke on Tuesday about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and how they might be curbed, and about his broader visions for the Middle East — visions that Mr. Chávez saw as insincere, ridiculous or both.
“Wherever he looks, he sees extremists,” said Mr. Chávez, who won office by defeating a businessman educated at Yale, Mr. Bush’s alma mater. “He looks at your color, and he says, ‘Oh, there’s an extremist.’ Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.”
"Indeed, Mr. Morales, another leftist, does raise potential problems for United States interests in Latin America, though perhaps not as thorny as those posed by Mr. Chávez. Unlike Bolivia, Venezuela belongs to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and is a major energy supplier to the United States, and Mr. Chávez has courted Fidel Castro and the leaders of Iran and Syria, all factors that make him a man Washington must watch.
"Mr. Chávez’s remarks were translated from Spanish, and while subtleties can sometimes be lost in translation, his feelings about the United States seemed to come through clearly enough. The United States, he said, is “the gravest threat looking over our planet, placing at risk the very survival of the human species.”
“We appeal to the people of the United States to halt this threat, like a sword hanging over our heads,” Mr. Chávez said.
"It was not clear if Mr. Chávez was exhorting Americans to rise up in revolution, or if his gibe was an indirect reference to previous American-aided upheavals in Central and South America.
"Needless to say, the speech did not go down well with American officials. John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, called the remarks “insulting.”
"Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman in Washington, was a bit more diplomatic, saying, “I don’t think you’ll find it surprising that we disagree with the views that were expressed in President Chavez’s remarks.”
"President Bush often notes that some of America’s one-time enemies, notably Japan and Germany, are now friends. But any rapprochement with the Caracas government would seem to be a long way off, to judge by Mr. Chávez’s closing remarks.
“It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us, and I embrace you all,” he said. “May God bless us all. Good day to you.”
America doesn't have to put up with name-calling and insults from small third-world country politicians. We don't have to buy Venezuela's oil. If they are such buddies with Iran and Cuba, they can sell their oil to them. As Congressman, Kenneth Stepp will introduce and support legislation censuring President Hugo Chavez for namecalling. We will not tolerate our head of state being called "The Devil" and I'll vote to censure any foreign head of state that makes such allegations.
The Republicans are Cooking the Books on the Numbers of Iraqi Deaths.
This recent report from McClatchy Newspapers explains that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Hal Rogers Republican Administration is "cooking the books" on the numbers of Iraqi deaths during the continuing American military occupation of Iraq, as Iraq lurches toward all-out civil war:
"Cooking The Books On Iraqi Deaths
"September 13th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"By Mark Brunswick and Zaineb Obeid
"McClatchy Newspapers
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials, seeking a way to measure the results of a program aimed at decreasing violence in Baghdad, aren’t counting scores of dead killed in car bombings and mortar attacks as victims of the country’s sectarian violence.
"In a distinction previously undisclosed, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said Friday that the United States is including in its tabulations of sectarian violence only deaths of individuals killed in drive-by shootings or by torture and execution.
"That has allowed U.S. officials to boast that the number of deaths from sectarian violence in Baghdad declined by more than 52 percent in August over July.
"But it eliminates from tabulation huge numbers of people whose deaths are certainly part of the ongoing conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Not included, for example, are scores of people who died in a highly coordinated bombing that leveled an entire apartment building in eastern Baghdad, a stronghold of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"Johnson declined to provide an actual number for the U.S. tally of August deaths or for July, when the Baghdad city morgue counted a record 1,855 violent deaths.
"Violent deaths for August, a morgue official told McClatchy Newspapers on Friday, totaled 1,526, a 17.7 percent decline from July and about the same as died violently in June.
"The dispute is an important one. With Baghdad violence reaching record levels in July, U.S. commanders warned that the country was tipping toward civil war. They then ordered 8,000 U.S. troops and 3,000 Iraqis to conduct house-by-house searches of Baghdad’s neighborhoods in an effort to root out insurgent gunmen and militia death squads in Operation Together Forward.
"The program, which began in earnest Aug. 7, included bringing in thousands of American troops from other parts of Iraq in what was seen by many as a last-ditch effort to head off a civil war that many Iraqis say has already begun.
"Within weeks of the kickoff of the Baghdad security plan, the U.S. military’s top spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, boasted that the murder rate in Baghdad had fallen by 46 percent and attributed most of the fall to the new security sweeps.
"On Thursday, Caldwell revised the figures, posting a statement on the website of the Multi-National Force-Iraq that the murder rate had dropped even more - by 52 percent from July.
"That claim was immediately contradicted by the morgue figures, which trickled out in accounts by various news organizations citing unnamed officials.
"Johnson said he couldn’t comment on morgue figures and declined to release the raw numbers on which Caldwell’s claim was based. He said the numbers were classified and that releasing them might help “our enemy” adjust their tactics.
“We attempt to strike the right balance, being as open and transparent as possible without providing information that places our troops or Iraqi civilians at undo risk by the enemy adjusting their tactics for greater impact,” he said, in explaining the decision not to release the figures.
"Johnson said the numbers more accurately reflect the impact of Operation Together Forward’s mission: targeting operations of shadowy sectarian death squads, who often use drive-by shootings, torture and executions as tactics for terror, rather than suicide bombings or rocket or mortar attacks.
"He said the figures quoted by Caldwell reflect a “cautious optimism” that the situation is improving in Iraq.
"But whether the violence is truly improving is far from clear. The morgue numbers made public this week reflect only deaths in Baghdad and figures compiled by the Ministry of Health for August violent deaths throughout Iraq won’t be released until later this month.
"Car bombs daily claim tens of victims, and tit-for-tat exchanges of mortar fire are nightly occurrences. Every morning bodies are discovered, many with their hands and feet bound.
"The distinction in the way those people die is lost on victims’ relatives, some of whom suggest the true numbers are higher.
“If you want the truth, even when we hear or see the scenes of explosions, assassinations, or number of dead on TV, we don’t really care anymore, our feelings are dead,” said Dhiya Ahmed, whose 17-year-old nephew was killed on Aug. 11. The young man was walking with a friend near his house when gunmen approached and shot them both dead.
“The numbers are not quite true,” said Ahmed. “I bet the actual number is much more.”
"The family’s tragedy has been intense. Last year the victim’s father was killed in a similar fashion.
"Even while touting the successes, Caldwell on Thursday warned on the coalition Web site about possible increases in violence from insurgent and terrorist attacks that he said would be used to divert attention from the Baghdad security initiative.
“It should not be a surprise if we witness brief up ticks in violence in the near future,” he wrote.
"Government leaders seem to be bracing for more bodies. A meeting was held recently between officials in the Health Ministry to talk about importing refrigerators for the morgue. The idea was to set them up in an empty building nearby.
"But the discussion quickly broke down over what kind of freezers they would use: ones with sliding doors or a single large freezing room. More talks are scheduled.
"In Baghdad on Friday, three civilians were killed and three others wounded when a bomb targeting the convoy of the Karrada neighborhood police commander exploded. Three police officers also were wounded.
"Police also discovered 14 bodies in a western portion of the city.
"(Drew Brown in Washington contributed to this report.)"
The reasons for a continued American military occupation of Iraq are nonexistent. Saddam has been overthrown, and he is imprisoned. Democratic forces of Iraq want a Shiite government closely aligned with Iran. Iran wants Israel off the map, and wants to develop nuclear weapons. How has Eastern Kentucky benefitted from the 2,600 U.S. military deaths in Iraq? How will Eastern Kentucky benefit from additional U.S. deaths in Iraq, as Iraq moves toward either full-scale civil war, or a close Shiite alliance with Iran? As we maintain our military occupation of Iraq, matters only get worse. U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Iraq by January 8, 2007. A vote for Democrat Kenneth Stepp is a vote to bring the U.S. troops home from Iraq, and to bring Hal Rogers home from Washington, DC. ElectDemocrat Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House KY-05, and bring that rubber stamp Republican Congressman Hal Rogers home to Kentucky.
"Cooking The Books On Iraqi Deaths
"September 13th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"By Mark Brunswick and Zaineb Obeid
"McClatchy Newspapers
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials, seeking a way to measure the results of a program aimed at decreasing violence in Baghdad, aren’t counting scores of dead killed in car bombings and mortar attacks as victims of the country’s sectarian violence.
"In a distinction previously undisclosed, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said Friday that the United States is including in its tabulations of sectarian violence only deaths of individuals killed in drive-by shootings or by torture and execution.
"That has allowed U.S. officials to boast that the number of deaths from sectarian violence in Baghdad declined by more than 52 percent in August over July.
"But it eliminates from tabulation huge numbers of people whose deaths are certainly part of the ongoing conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Not included, for example, are scores of people who died in a highly coordinated bombing that leveled an entire apartment building in eastern Baghdad, a stronghold of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"Johnson declined to provide an actual number for the U.S. tally of August deaths or for July, when the Baghdad city morgue counted a record 1,855 violent deaths.
"Violent deaths for August, a morgue official told McClatchy Newspapers on Friday, totaled 1,526, a 17.7 percent decline from July and about the same as died violently in June.
"The dispute is an important one. With Baghdad violence reaching record levels in July, U.S. commanders warned that the country was tipping toward civil war. They then ordered 8,000 U.S. troops and 3,000 Iraqis to conduct house-by-house searches of Baghdad’s neighborhoods in an effort to root out insurgent gunmen and militia death squads in Operation Together Forward.
"The program, which began in earnest Aug. 7, included bringing in thousands of American troops from other parts of Iraq in what was seen by many as a last-ditch effort to head off a civil war that many Iraqis say has already begun.
"Within weeks of the kickoff of the Baghdad security plan, the U.S. military’s top spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, boasted that the murder rate in Baghdad had fallen by 46 percent and attributed most of the fall to the new security sweeps.
"On Thursday, Caldwell revised the figures, posting a statement on the website of the Multi-National Force-Iraq that the murder rate had dropped even more - by 52 percent from July.
"That claim was immediately contradicted by the morgue figures, which trickled out in accounts by various news organizations citing unnamed officials.
"Johnson said he couldn’t comment on morgue figures and declined to release the raw numbers on which Caldwell’s claim was based. He said the numbers were classified and that releasing them might help “our enemy” adjust their tactics.
“We attempt to strike the right balance, being as open and transparent as possible without providing information that places our troops or Iraqi civilians at undo risk by the enemy adjusting their tactics for greater impact,” he said, in explaining the decision not to release the figures.
"Johnson said the numbers more accurately reflect the impact of Operation Together Forward’s mission: targeting operations of shadowy sectarian death squads, who often use drive-by shootings, torture and executions as tactics for terror, rather than suicide bombings or rocket or mortar attacks.
"He said the figures quoted by Caldwell reflect a “cautious optimism” that the situation is improving in Iraq.
"But whether the violence is truly improving is far from clear. The morgue numbers made public this week reflect only deaths in Baghdad and figures compiled by the Ministry of Health for August violent deaths throughout Iraq won’t be released until later this month.
"Car bombs daily claim tens of victims, and tit-for-tat exchanges of mortar fire are nightly occurrences. Every morning bodies are discovered, many with their hands and feet bound.
"The distinction in the way those people die is lost on victims’ relatives, some of whom suggest the true numbers are higher.
“If you want the truth, even when we hear or see the scenes of explosions, assassinations, or number of dead on TV, we don’t really care anymore, our feelings are dead,” said Dhiya Ahmed, whose 17-year-old nephew was killed on Aug. 11. The young man was walking with a friend near his house when gunmen approached and shot them both dead.
“The numbers are not quite true,” said Ahmed. “I bet the actual number is much more.”
"The family’s tragedy has been intense. Last year the victim’s father was killed in a similar fashion.
"Even while touting the successes, Caldwell on Thursday warned on the coalition Web site about possible increases in violence from insurgent and terrorist attacks that he said would be used to divert attention from the Baghdad security initiative.
“It should not be a surprise if we witness brief up ticks in violence in the near future,” he wrote.
"Government leaders seem to be bracing for more bodies. A meeting was held recently between officials in the Health Ministry to talk about importing refrigerators for the morgue. The idea was to set them up in an empty building nearby.
"But the discussion quickly broke down over what kind of freezers they would use: ones with sliding doors or a single large freezing room. More talks are scheduled.
"In Baghdad on Friday, three civilians were killed and three others wounded when a bomb targeting the convoy of the Karrada neighborhood police commander exploded. Three police officers also were wounded.
"Police also discovered 14 bodies in a western portion of the city.
"(Drew Brown in Washington contributed to this report.)"
The reasons for a continued American military occupation of Iraq are nonexistent. Saddam has been overthrown, and he is imprisoned. Democratic forces of Iraq want a Shiite government closely aligned with Iran. Iran wants Israel off the map, and wants to develop nuclear weapons. How has Eastern Kentucky benefitted from the 2,600 U.S. military deaths in Iraq? How will Eastern Kentucky benefit from additional U.S. deaths in Iraq, as Iraq moves toward either full-scale civil war, or a close Shiite alliance with Iran? As we maintain our military occupation of Iraq, matters only get worse. U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Iraq by January 8, 2007. A vote for Democrat Kenneth Stepp is a vote to bring the U.S. troops home from Iraq, and to bring Hal Rogers home from Washington, DC. ElectDemocrat Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House KY-05, and bring that rubber stamp Republican Congressman Hal Rogers home to Kentucky.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
48% to 44% Ken Lucas over Geoff Davis
Bluegrass Reports gives an update of the KY-4 Lucas/Davis U.S. Congress race:
KY-4 Survey USA Poll: Lucas Recaptures Lead Over Davis By 48% To 44% Margin
Despite four direct mail attack pieces, four taxpayer-paid mailers, a campaign television ad, television ads run on his behalf by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and his own radio ads, the latest Survey USA poll shows wingnut Rep. Geoff Davis (R) now falling behind former Rep. Ken Lucas (D) by a 48% to 44% margin.
You'll recall that last month's poll showed Davis taking a 46% to 44% lead, after previously trailing Lucas by nine points.
Noteworthy is that Lucas leads among women by 17-points and something tells me that is only going to grow as they fully learn about Davis' attempt to help his payday loan contributors screw U.S. military personnel.
Problematic for Davis is his inability to get more than 46% on any of these three polls. It will be a dogfight to the finish, but Davis' 46% ceiling should give him cold sweats."
Vote for Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House, KY=05, and oust Hal Rogers, that Republican rubberstamp!
KY-4 Survey USA Poll: Lucas Recaptures Lead Over Davis By 48% To 44% Margin
Despite four direct mail attack pieces, four taxpayer-paid mailers, a campaign television ad, television ads run on his behalf by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and his own radio ads, the latest Survey USA poll shows wingnut Rep. Geoff Davis (R) now falling behind former Rep. Ken Lucas (D) by a 48% to 44% margin.
You'll recall that last month's poll showed Davis taking a 46% to 44% lead, after previously trailing Lucas by nine points.
Noteworthy is that Lucas leads among women by 17-points and something tells me that is only going to grow as they fully learn about Davis' attempt to help his payday loan contributors screw U.S. military personnel.
Problematic for Davis is his inability to get more than 46% on any of these three polls. It will be a dogfight to the finish, but Davis' 46% ceiling should give him cold sweats."
Vote for Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House, KY=05, and oust Hal Rogers, that Republican rubberstamp!
Monday, September 18, 2006
The Congress Should Not Encourage Illegal Warrantless Wiretaps.
The following news article explained how the Congress seeks to support illegal warrantless wiretaps.
"Senate panel OKs warrantless wiretaps
"By Tom Brune
"Tribune Newspapers:
"Newsday
"Published September 14, 2006
"WASHINGTON -- A Republican-controlled Senate panel on Wednesday approved legislation that would authorize President Bush's controversial warrantless wiretapping program in return for his pledge to submit it for a review by a secret court.In a 10-8 party-line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent the bill backed by the White House to the full Senate.
"With 2 1/2 weeks before Congress recesses for the Nov. 7 elections, the White House has made it a priority to win approval of a highly secretive National Security Agency program to intercept calls and e-mails between the U.S. and overseas in its hunt for terrorists.Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), committee chairman and the bill's sponsor, said his legislation provided the best chance for the Supreme Court to rule on the president's authority to unilaterally order the program. But under the bill, an appeal to the court would be up to the discretion of the administration, the White House and legal experts said Wednesday.Specter's bill would broadly revamp the existing law on domestic electronic surveillance--the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enacted in 1978 in response to government's abusive spying on citizens. FISA created a special secret court to issue warrants for domestic eavesdropping on foreign spies and terrorists.Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and other committee Democrats complained that the bill guts FISA, but Specter defended it by saying he was seeking to put the program under judicial review.In return for broad changes in FISA, Specter said, Vice President Dick Cheney promised that the White House would submit the program to the FISA court.The court would hear only arguments from administration lawyers. Only the administration could appeal and probably would do so only if it lost.Specter's bill also moves 29 cases filed against telecommunications companies involved in the program to the FISA court, providing another possible channel to the high court, a Senate aide said. But those cases could reach the court without Specter's bill.The committee also sent two other bills on the program for Senate debate, one by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) that would narrow congressional oversight of the program, and another sponsored by Specter and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would streamline the warrant process but retain FISA's exclusive oversight of domestic surveillance."
Vote against illegal warrantless wiretaps by voting to elect Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate, to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05.
The Congress Should Not Promote Torture!
A News Editorial Recently Argued:
"Bush should not promote torture
"Monday, 18th September, 2006
"A United States Senate committee has rebelled against the Bush administration with 15 senators voting to block a bill that would allow military tribunals to accept evidence obtained through torture. "President Bush has been trying to push through the legislation to facilitate the trial of foreign terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay. He wants to bypass Section Three of the Geneva Convention that bans torture, violence and degrading treatment of prisoners. "Bush believes harsh treatment of detainees during interrogation should be defined as ‘coercion’ rather than ‘torture’. He argues that it can provide valuable intelligence in the war on terror. "The senators have proposed a milder bill to cover the trials of the Guantanamo detainees but Bush says it will endanger the American people. "It is not just the senators who are disturbed by Bush’s endorsement of torture. Even ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell has publicly written that “the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism” as a consequence of the proposed legislation. "The senators are right and President Bush is wrong.""Firstly, torture is not an efficient way of extracting information from suspects. With sufficient coercion, prisoners can be made to say anything. The United States defence department has already defined forms of torture such as ‘waterboarding’ as legitimate interrogation techniques. If torture is further legitimised, the USA risks undermining the reliability of its whole intelligence gathering process. "Secondly, there is Colin Powell’s reason. Even if torture could generate reliable intelligence, it is counter-productive because it discredits the United States globally. The negative propaganda will encourage more impressionable young people to join terrorist organisations attacking the United States. "Thirdly, the continued use of torture makes a mockery of the American claim to global moral leadership. How can the American government advise other governments to halt the use of torture when it is itself promoting it?"
The U.S. Senate should stand up to President Bush and order that any evidence obtained through torture is not admissible in a Court proceeding. Vote against torture by voting for Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives KY-05! Replace that Hal Rogers Republican Rubber Stamp with Kenneth Stepp the Democratic Candidate for U.S. House, KY-05.
"Bush should not promote torture
"Monday, 18th September, 2006
"A United States Senate committee has rebelled against the Bush administration with 15 senators voting to block a bill that would allow military tribunals to accept evidence obtained through torture. "President Bush has been trying to push through the legislation to facilitate the trial of foreign terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay. He wants to bypass Section Three of the Geneva Convention that bans torture, violence and degrading treatment of prisoners. "Bush believes harsh treatment of detainees during interrogation should be defined as ‘coercion’ rather than ‘torture’. He argues that it can provide valuable intelligence in the war on terror. "The senators have proposed a milder bill to cover the trials of the Guantanamo detainees but Bush says it will endanger the American people. "It is not just the senators who are disturbed by Bush’s endorsement of torture. Even ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell has publicly written that “the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism” as a consequence of the proposed legislation. "The senators are right and President Bush is wrong.""Firstly, torture is not an efficient way of extracting information from suspects. With sufficient coercion, prisoners can be made to say anything. The United States defence department has already defined forms of torture such as ‘waterboarding’ as legitimate interrogation techniques. If torture is further legitimised, the USA risks undermining the reliability of its whole intelligence gathering process. "Secondly, there is Colin Powell’s reason. Even if torture could generate reliable intelligence, it is counter-productive because it discredits the United States globally. The negative propaganda will encourage more impressionable young people to join terrorist organisations attacking the United States. "Thirdly, the continued use of torture makes a mockery of the American claim to global moral leadership. How can the American government advise other governments to halt the use of torture when it is itself promoting it?"
The U.S. Senate should stand up to President Bush and order that any evidence obtained through torture is not admissible in a Court proceeding. Vote against torture by voting for Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives KY-05! Replace that Hal Rogers Republican Rubber Stamp with Kenneth Stepp the Democratic Candidate for U.S. House, KY-05.
More on the Oddsmakers.
I don't approve of betting on elections, even with play money. That said, I will give you some more percentages from WSX the Washington Stock Exchange on their assessments of the upcoming elections. They give Mary Bono, the Republican Congresswoman from California, and surviving wife of Sonny Bono deceased Republican Congressman and pop singer, a 54% chance of getting re-elected. Ron Klein, the highly successful fundraiser Democratic candidate for Congress in the Florida 22nd District, a 50% chance of getting elected. Tammy Duckworth, the nationally popular Iraq-war veteran Democratic candidate for the U.S. House seat in the IL 6th District, a 50% chance of being elected. Now for that rerun of the first U.S. House election held this year, Bilbray v. Busby: those oddsmakers give the Republican Bilbray a 75% chance to win, but give Busby the Democrat a 46% chance to win. Maybe someone could do some arbitrage to make the totals equal one hundred percent. Figures should add up to 100%, unless the oddsmaking service is claiming a lot of money or credits. Kenneth Stepp, KY-05 the Democratic Candidate.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
WSX ODDSMAKERS LOOK AT SOME ELECTIONS.
I don't approve of betting nor gaming on elections, but I wanted to pass this on to you. On your web pages is WSX which is the Washington Political Exchange, and you can place bets (in play money, I assume) on what you expect to happen with the elections. Payoff is $100 if you predict right and $0 if you are wrong. It is like buying futures in the stock market, or the pork bellies market. Anyway, I will explain the first one, it reads:
"DEMPRES
Democrat Elected President in 2008
W$43.78
W$6.22"
What that means is that you can bet the odds that you think a Democrat will be elected President in 2008. The WSX participators are saying that there is a 43.78% chance that our new President sworn in in 2009 will be a Democrat. The recent market change in that is 6.22%. I'll explain the next one:
"GOPPRES
Republican Elected President in 2008
W$74.08
W$0.97"
What that means is that you can bet the odds that you think a Republican will be elected President in 2008. The WSX participators are saying that there is a 74.08% chance that the elected President sworn in in 2009 will be a Republican. The recent market change is less than one per cent. I know the two figures don't add up to 100%, for what that's worth. I'll continue:
"GVARSC06
Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to Win CA Gov. Race
W$95.03
W$0.25"
The participants think that there is a 95% chance that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be re-elected Governor (Gobernator ?) of California. Some more are included, including some Kentucky ones including my own.
"GVBORI06
Bob Riley (R) to Win AL Gov. Race
W$66.82"
The participants think it is a 66% chance that Bob Riley will win the Alabama Governor's race.
"HSJOSP06
John Spratt (D)* to Win SC 5th District
W$56.22
W$0.00
HSJOWE06
John Michael Weaver (D) to Win KY 2nd District
W$50.00
W$0.00
HSJOYA06
John A. Yarmuth (D) to Win KY 3rd District
W$50.00
W$0.00
HSJUFE06
Judy Feder (D) to Win VA 10th District
W$51.25
W$0.00
HSKELU06
Ken Lucas (D) to Win KY 4th District
W$51.25
W$0.00
HSKEST06
Kenneth Stepp (D) to Win KY 5th District
W$50.00
W$0.00
HSLEBO06
Leonard L. Boswell (D)* to Win IA 3rd District
W$52.50
W$0.00"
"HSGERA06
George Radanovich (R)* to Win CA 19th District
W$51.25
W$1.25
HSHAMI06
Harry Mitchell (D) to Win AZ 5th District
W$48.75
W$1.25
HSHARO06
Hal Rogers (R)* to Win KY 5th District
W$51.25
W$1.25
HSHESH06
Heath Shuler (D) to Win NC 11th District
W$56.22
W$0.00"
In that WSX game at least, the oddsmakers are betting even money that I'll be elected Congressman this year, and even money that Col. Weaver will be elected a Kentucky Congressman this year in his District. They are giving odds of 51.25% that Kenneth Lucas will be Congressman Lucas next January. You can look at that whole web site if you want to. Each race doesn't add up to 100%. The odds makers concerning Hal Rogers are willing to put enough markers to indicate that he has a 51.25% chance of being re-elected. The campaign has another six weeks to run, and the oddsmakers could change the odds even more. I don't think they let you bet with real money. Don't bet your Momma's Cadillac or the family farm on the outcome of the election, but the oddsmakers are interesting to watch. Kenneth Stepp.
"DEMPRES
Democrat Elected President in 2008
W$43.78
W$6.22"
What that means is that you can bet the odds that you think a Democrat will be elected President in 2008. The WSX participators are saying that there is a 43.78% chance that our new President sworn in in 2009 will be a Democrat. The recent market change in that is 6.22%. I'll explain the next one:
"GOPPRES
Republican Elected President in 2008
W$74.08
W$0.97"
What that means is that you can bet the odds that you think a Republican will be elected President in 2008. The WSX participators are saying that there is a 74.08% chance that the elected President sworn in in 2009 will be a Republican. The recent market change is less than one per cent. I know the two figures don't add up to 100%, for what that's worth. I'll continue:
"GVARSC06
Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to Win CA Gov. Race
W$95.03
W$0.25"
The participants think that there is a 95% chance that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be re-elected Governor (Gobernator ?) of California. Some more are included, including some Kentucky ones including my own.
"GVBORI06
Bob Riley (R) to Win AL Gov. Race
W$66.82"
The participants think it is a 66% chance that Bob Riley will win the Alabama Governor's race.
"HSJOSP06
John Spratt (D)* to Win SC 5th District
W$56.22
W$0.00
HSJOWE06
John Michael Weaver (D) to Win KY 2nd District
W$50.00
W$0.00
HSJOYA06
John A. Yarmuth (D) to Win KY 3rd District
W$50.00
W$0.00
HSJUFE06
Judy Feder (D) to Win VA 10th District
W$51.25
W$0.00
HSKELU06
Ken Lucas (D) to Win KY 4th District
W$51.25
W$0.00
HSKEST06
Kenneth Stepp (D) to Win KY 5th District
W$50.00
W$0.00
HSLEBO06
Leonard L. Boswell (D)* to Win IA 3rd District
W$52.50
W$0.00"
"HSGERA06
George Radanovich (R)* to Win CA 19th District
W$51.25
W$1.25
HSHAMI06
Harry Mitchell (D) to Win AZ 5th District
W$48.75
W$1.25
HSHARO06
Hal Rogers (R)* to Win KY 5th District
W$51.25
W$1.25
HSHESH06
Heath Shuler (D) to Win NC 11th District
W$56.22
W$0.00"
In that WSX game at least, the oddsmakers are betting even money that I'll be elected Congressman this year, and even money that Col. Weaver will be elected a Kentucky Congressman this year in his District. They are giving odds of 51.25% that Kenneth Lucas will be Congressman Lucas next January. You can look at that whole web site if you want to. Each race doesn't add up to 100%. The odds makers concerning Hal Rogers are willing to put enough markers to indicate that he has a 51.25% chance of being re-elected. The campaign has another six weeks to run, and the oddsmakers could change the odds even more. I don't think they let you bet with real money. Don't bet your Momma's Cadillac or the family farm on the outcome of the election, but the oddsmakers are interesting to watch. Kenneth Stepp.
PROJECT VOTE SMART and HAL ROGERS
PROJECT VOTE SMART PRESENTED A NATIONAL POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST to all the candidates for U.S. House of Representatives. The following shows the results of that request for response to citizens, like yourself, on the issues:
"REPRESENTATIVE HAROLD 'HAL' ROGERS REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO PROVIDE ANY RESPONSES TO CITIZENS ON ISSUES THROUGH THE 2006 NATIONAL POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST WHEN ASKED TO DO SO BY Key national leaders of both major parties including:John McCain, Republican Senator Geraldine Ferraro, Former Democratic Congresswoman Michael Dukakis, Former Democratic Governor Bill Frenzel, Former Republican Congressman Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President Over 100 news organizations throughout the nation also urged their candidates to supply their issue positions through the National Political Awareness Test.
Urge Representative Harold 'Hal' Rogers to pass the National Political Awareness Test.
Washington DC Web Mail Address:mailto:http://halrogers.house.gov/Contact.aspx Washington DC Web Address:http://halrogers.house.gov/
What is the NPAT? "
It's too bad when an arrogant incumbent with $1.5 million campaign funds in the bank decides your opinion doesn't matter, so he won't answer any questions from Project Vote Smart about his stands on the issues, nor take the National Political Awareness Test. It's too bad that Hal Rogers feels that he already has so many votes, like yours, "in the bag" that he owes no additional responsibility of stating his opinions to the general public, and that he refuses to answer an issue questionnaire like the National Political Awareness Test (NPAT). I would like to talk with each voter, personally; and if time permitted, I would do that. I try to answer each questionnaire from every reputable organization, and submit them back to that reputable organization. Project Vote Smart has a page on me, also, and it publishes how I answered that questionnaire, and also a lot of my blog spots explaining my positions on at least thirty issues. I even filled out and submitted an entire questionnaire explaining my opinions regarding U.S. Foreign Relations with Armenia, a small country in Asia. If you want more information about me, check the archives of this blog spot, check my NPAT answers on Vote Smart, and check the information about me on Vote Smart. I appeared at the primary election candidates' debate earlier this year, and we have a general election candidates' debate in October. I was told that Hal Rogers did not attend any of the last three general election candidates' debates. I'll be there. I want you to know more about me. If Hal Rogers doesn't show up, I'll just debate an empty chair. You deserve more. You deserve better. I hope you get to see both candidates debate at the candidates general election debate for the Kentucky 05 U.S. House of Representatives seat, in October.
"REPRESENTATIVE HAROLD 'HAL' ROGERS REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO PROVIDE ANY RESPONSES TO CITIZENS ON ISSUES THROUGH THE 2006 NATIONAL POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST WHEN ASKED TO DO SO BY Key national leaders of both major parties including:John McCain, Republican Senator Geraldine Ferraro, Former Democratic Congresswoman Michael Dukakis, Former Democratic Governor Bill Frenzel, Former Republican Congressman Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President Over 100 news organizations throughout the nation also urged their candidates to supply their issue positions through the National Political Awareness Test.
Urge Representative Harold 'Hal' Rogers to pass the National Political Awareness Test.
Washington DC Web Mail Address:mailto:http://halrogers.house.gov/Contact.aspx Washington DC Web Address:http://halrogers.house.gov/
What is the NPAT? "
It's too bad when an arrogant incumbent with $1.5 million campaign funds in the bank decides your opinion doesn't matter, so he won't answer any questions from Project Vote Smart about his stands on the issues, nor take the National Political Awareness Test. It's too bad that Hal Rogers feels that he already has so many votes, like yours, "in the bag" that he owes no additional responsibility of stating his opinions to the general public, and that he refuses to answer an issue questionnaire like the National Political Awareness Test (NPAT). I would like to talk with each voter, personally; and if time permitted, I would do that. I try to answer each questionnaire from every reputable organization, and submit them back to that reputable organization. Project Vote Smart has a page on me, also, and it publishes how I answered that questionnaire, and also a lot of my blog spots explaining my positions on at least thirty issues. I even filled out and submitted an entire questionnaire explaining my opinions regarding U.S. Foreign Relations with Armenia, a small country in Asia. If you want more information about me, check the archives of this blog spot, check my NPAT answers on Vote Smart, and check the information about me on Vote Smart. I appeared at the primary election candidates' debate earlier this year, and we have a general election candidates' debate in October. I was told that Hal Rogers did not attend any of the last three general election candidates' debates. I'll be there. I want you to know more about me. If Hal Rogers doesn't show up, I'll just debate an empty chair. You deserve more. You deserve better. I hope you get to see both candidates debate at the candidates general election debate for the Kentucky 05 U.S. House of Representatives seat, in October.
The Republicans are Losing Their Grip.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE LOSING THEIR GRIP
By Herb Rubenstein
Politics is about trends. Political analysts try to predict a trend from a single event or two events to stay ahead of the crowd. Today, we have 21 events, all coming in quick succession, but no political analyst has called it just right. Let’s look at these 21 events that have occurred in the past year:
1. Republican House Majority Leader DeLay – Indicted, Resigned
2. Republican Congressman Duke – Pleads guilty, Resigned
3. Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff – Pleads guilty, Resigned
4. Republican Congressman Nay – Pleads guilty, Resigned
5. President’s Social Security Privatization Initiative dies an embarrassing death
6. President’s Immigration Initiative dies an embarrassing death
7. Supreme Court rules President’s handling of detainees is unconstitutional
8. Federal judge rules President’s wiretap program is unconstitutional
9. President’s proposals for trials for detainees rebuffed by fellow Republicans
10. War in Iraq continues to cost more American and Iraqi lives and more money than Republicans told Americans the war would cost
11. Senate report shows that every major reason given by Republicans to start the war turned out to be false
12. Republican Senator Allen uses racist slur in public and appears likely to lose his reelection bid, which was unthinkable just a month ago
13. National Republicans spend millions to support Lincoln Chaffee who has been a harsh critic of the President in a last ditch effort to maintain the Senate
14. Most polls now predict the Democrats will win 20 seats in the House of Representatives and gain control of the House and possibly the Senate
15. Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in a letter states that “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.” Americans are starting to doubt it as well.
16. National leaders in Italy, Germany, England who have supported Bush have either lost elections in 2006 or been forced to announce their resignation in large part due to their support of President Bush.
17. The International Atomic Energy Agency slams the Bush Administration for intentionally misrepresenting the nuclear weapons capabilities of Iran and the U.N. refuses to support President Bush’s call for sanctions against Iran.
18. Bush’s main Democratic supporter, Joe Lieberman, loses his bid for the Democratic nomination in Connecticut
19. A Vice-Presidential Aide is indicted and other Administration officials are charged with serious crimes
20. The Inspector General of the Department of the Interior publicly rails against the unethical practices of the Bush Administration.
21, The Republican controlled Congress has created the worst budget deficits in U.S. history.
"What do these 21 events mean? What trend do we now see? There is only one trend that comes out of looking at these 20 events. That trend is clear now and is proceeding ever more quickly every week. The trend is that Republicans are losing their grip on power, losing their grip on being a moral force in this country, are losing their grip over other national governments like England, Germany and Italy, are losing their grip on the situation in Iraq, are losing their grip on the situation in Iran, are losing their grip on the lobbying stranglehold they have held in Washington for six years, are losing their grip on the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, are losing their grip on immigration, social security, and other major policy initiatives, are losing their grip on their arguments for starting the war with Iraq, losing their grip on their “fiscal conservative” façade they parade in front of the public as they run up record budget deficits, and are losing their grip on the concept of “limited government” by consistently overstepping the law with eavesdropping and detaining people without giving them any due process.
* * *
"All this tells you something. Something is happening in politics. What is happening is what we oldies saw with the unraveling of the Nixon Administration. Republicans are losing their grip on power, on what is constitutional, on what is lawful, on what voters will believe, on sensible public policy positions, on foreign policy, on war strategy, on so much, that it is all beginning to dawn on Americans. This November will be a test to determine just how much of their grip the Republicans have lost."
By Herb Rubenstein
Politics is about trends. Political analysts try to predict a trend from a single event or two events to stay ahead of the crowd. Today, we have 21 events, all coming in quick succession, but no political analyst has called it just right. Let’s look at these 21 events that have occurred in the past year:
1. Republican House Majority Leader DeLay – Indicted, Resigned
2. Republican Congressman Duke – Pleads guilty, Resigned
3. Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff – Pleads guilty, Resigned
4. Republican Congressman Nay – Pleads guilty, Resigned
5. President’s Social Security Privatization Initiative dies an embarrassing death
6. President’s Immigration Initiative dies an embarrassing death
7. Supreme Court rules President’s handling of detainees is unconstitutional
8. Federal judge rules President’s wiretap program is unconstitutional
9. President’s proposals for trials for detainees rebuffed by fellow Republicans
10. War in Iraq continues to cost more American and Iraqi lives and more money than Republicans told Americans the war would cost
11. Senate report shows that every major reason given by Republicans to start the war turned out to be false
12. Republican Senator Allen uses racist slur in public and appears likely to lose his reelection bid, which was unthinkable just a month ago
13. National Republicans spend millions to support Lincoln Chaffee who has been a harsh critic of the President in a last ditch effort to maintain the Senate
14. Most polls now predict the Democrats will win 20 seats in the House of Representatives and gain control of the House and possibly the Senate
15. Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in a letter states that “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.” Americans are starting to doubt it as well.
16. National leaders in Italy, Germany, England who have supported Bush have either lost elections in 2006 or been forced to announce their resignation in large part due to their support of President Bush.
17. The International Atomic Energy Agency slams the Bush Administration for intentionally misrepresenting the nuclear weapons capabilities of Iran and the U.N. refuses to support President Bush’s call for sanctions against Iran.
18. Bush’s main Democratic supporter, Joe Lieberman, loses his bid for the Democratic nomination in Connecticut
19. A Vice-Presidential Aide is indicted and other Administration officials are charged with serious crimes
20. The Inspector General of the Department of the Interior publicly rails against the unethical practices of the Bush Administration.
21, The Republican controlled Congress has created the worst budget deficits in U.S. history.
"What do these 21 events mean? What trend do we now see? There is only one trend that comes out of looking at these 20 events. That trend is clear now and is proceeding ever more quickly every week. The trend is that Republicans are losing their grip on power, losing their grip on being a moral force in this country, are losing their grip over other national governments like England, Germany and Italy, are losing their grip on the situation in Iraq, are losing their grip on the situation in Iran, are losing their grip on the lobbying stranglehold they have held in Washington for six years, are losing their grip on the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, are losing their grip on immigration, social security, and other major policy initiatives, are losing their grip on their arguments for starting the war with Iraq, losing their grip on their “fiscal conservative” façade they parade in front of the public as they run up record budget deficits, and are losing their grip on the concept of “limited government” by consistently overstepping the law with eavesdropping and detaining people without giving them any due process.
* * *
"All this tells you something. Something is happening in politics. What is happening is what we oldies saw with the unraveling of the Nixon Administration. Republicans are losing their grip on power, on what is constitutional, on what is lawful, on what voters will believe, on sensible public policy positions, on foreign policy, on war strategy, on so much, that it is all beginning to dawn on Americans. This November will be a test to determine just how much of their grip the Republicans have lost."
Friday, September 15, 2006
Republican Leaders Back Wiretaps Without Warrants.
This recently published national news article shows what further erosion of your Constitutional rights are planned by the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Hal Rogers Administration:
"Republican leaders back wiretaps without warrants
"By Jonathan Weisman
"The Washington Post
"WASHINGTON — Congress' Republican leadership Wednesday threw its weight behind two of President Bush's most controversial national-security programs — warrantless wiretapping and military tribunals.
But the party leaders are having trouble getting all their members on board, including the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And by backing the president's legislative demands, the leadership risks being labeled by Democrats as a rubber stamp for an unpopular president.
"With prodding from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-8 along party lines to approve a bill negotiated with the White House to allow — but not require — Bush to submit the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program to a secret court for constitutional review.
"That bill, which could come before the Senate next week, is considered by many to be a ratification of the administration's current surveillance program, which officials have said is restricted to the monitoring of overseas phone calls and e-mails of some Americans when one party is suspected of links to terrorism. The program has been attacked by Democrats and civil-liberties advocates as an excessive encroachment on Americans' privacy.
"The committee took the important step of acknowledging the president's constitutional authority to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, an ardent Bush ally.
"At the same time, the House Armed Services Committee voted 52-8 to ratify the White House's version of legislation creating military tribunals for trying terrorism suspects. The measure would give Bush the authority he seeks to withhold classified evidence from defendants, admit testimony that defendants might maintain was coerced and protect U.S. intelligence agents from legal action over their interrogation methods. House Republican leaders plan to bring the tribunal bill to a vote next week.
"Committee action and the scheduling of floor time represented tangible progress for the administration and turned what had been essentially a heated policy debate into a legislative showdown. But if GOP leaders intended to use the bills to distinguish Republicans from Democrats on the conduct of the fight against terrorism, they had their share of problems.
"Frist and other GOP leaders remain at odds with many rank-and-file members over the military tribunal bill. The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to meet behind closed doors today in an effort to write its version of the measure, necessitated by a Supreme Court ruling in June that found the administration's earlier rules for trying terror suspects violated U.S. and international law.
"Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are holding firm against the White House and Frist in their support of an alternative tribunal bill that would limit the use of classified evidence and coerced testimony in terrorism prosecutions, while maintaining broader protections for detainees against cruel and inhumane treatment. The three senators said they would press ahead with their bill, despite the political sensitivity of the controversy in an election year.
"Every senator and congressman should understand this is not about November 2006. This is not about your re-election," Graham said. "This is about those who take risks to defend America."
"National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, in an unusual conference call with reporters Wednesday night to express opposition to the dissident Senate bill, said the CIA had told him that, if that bill passes, the agency would not be able to continue its "high-value terrorist detention program."
"The existence of that program was confirmed last week by Bush.
McCain expressed bewilderment at an administration stand that he said would tamper with interpretations of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. That stand is firmly opposed by top military lawyers.
"The overwhelming majority of retired military people are weighing in on this issue and saying, 'Don't amend Common Article 3 [of the Geneva Conventions] because then you are allowing other nations' " to conclude that they, too, can change the conventions, McCain said.
"In the House, the Judiciary Committee was forced to scrap a planned drafting of a warrantless surveillance bill, in part because nearly half a dozen Republican conservatives were in open rebellion against GOP leaders' efforts to weaken controls on the eavesdropping program.
"There are enough Republicans with concerns," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who was pushing bipartisan legislation that would all but scuttle the warrantless surveillance program. "Once you basically give the president this authority, it's very difficult to pull it back. That's very short-sighted just to point out the differences between Republicans and Democrats."
Fight the rubberstamp Republicans. Don't scrap the Geneva Convention. Don't scrap the United States Constitution. It's time to send the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld rubberstamp Hal Rogers packing. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, the Democratic candidate, in November, KY-05.
"Republican leaders back wiretaps without warrants
"By Jonathan Weisman
"The Washington Post
"WASHINGTON — Congress' Republican leadership Wednesday threw its weight behind two of President Bush's most controversial national-security programs — warrantless wiretapping and military tribunals.
But the party leaders are having trouble getting all their members on board, including the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And by backing the president's legislative demands, the leadership risks being labeled by Democrats as a rubber stamp for an unpopular president.
"With prodding from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-8 along party lines to approve a bill negotiated with the White House to allow — but not require — Bush to submit the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program to a secret court for constitutional review.
"That bill, which could come before the Senate next week, is considered by many to be a ratification of the administration's current surveillance program, which officials have said is restricted to the monitoring of overseas phone calls and e-mails of some Americans when one party is suspected of links to terrorism. The program has been attacked by Democrats and civil-liberties advocates as an excessive encroachment on Americans' privacy.
"The committee took the important step of acknowledging the president's constitutional authority to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, an ardent Bush ally.
"At the same time, the House Armed Services Committee voted 52-8 to ratify the White House's version of legislation creating military tribunals for trying terrorism suspects. The measure would give Bush the authority he seeks to withhold classified evidence from defendants, admit testimony that defendants might maintain was coerced and protect U.S. intelligence agents from legal action over their interrogation methods. House Republican leaders plan to bring the tribunal bill to a vote next week.
"Committee action and the scheduling of floor time represented tangible progress for the administration and turned what had been essentially a heated policy debate into a legislative showdown. But if GOP leaders intended to use the bills to distinguish Republicans from Democrats on the conduct of the fight against terrorism, they had their share of problems.
"Frist and other GOP leaders remain at odds with many rank-and-file members over the military tribunal bill. The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to meet behind closed doors today in an effort to write its version of the measure, necessitated by a Supreme Court ruling in June that found the administration's earlier rules for trying terror suspects violated U.S. and international law.
"Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are holding firm against the White House and Frist in their support of an alternative tribunal bill that would limit the use of classified evidence and coerced testimony in terrorism prosecutions, while maintaining broader protections for detainees against cruel and inhumane treatment. The three senators said they would press ahead with their bill, despite the political sensitivity of the controversy in an election year.
"Every senator and congressman should understand this is not about November 2006. This is not about your re-election," Graham said. "This is about those who take risks to defend America."
"National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, in an unusual conference call with reporters Wednesday night to express opposition to the dissident Senate bill, said the CIA had told him that, if that bill passes, the agency would not be able to continue its "high-value terrorist detention program."
"The existence of that program was confirmed last week by Bush.
McCain expressed bewilderment at an administration stand that he said would tamper with interpretations of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. That stand is firmly opposed by top military lawyers.
"The overwhelming majority of retired military people are weighing in on this issue and saying, 'Don't amend Common Article 3 [of the Geneva Conventions] because then you are allowing other nations' " to conclude that they, too, can change the conventions, McCain said.
"In the House, the Judiciary Committee was forced to scrap a planned drafting of a warrantless surveillance bill, in part because nearly half a dozen Republican conservatives were in open rebellion against GOP leaders' efforts to weaken controls on the eavesdropping program.
"There are enough Republicans with concerns," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who was pushing bipartisan legislation that would all but scuttle the warrantless surveillance program. "Once you basically give the president this authority, it's very difficult to pull it back. That's very short-sighted just to point out the differences between Republicans and Democrats."
Fight the rubberstamp Republicans. Don't scrap the Geneva Convention. Don't scrap the United States Constitution. It's time to send the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld rubberstamp Hal Rogers packing. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, the Democratic candidate, in November, KY-05.
President Bush Approval Rating: 42% In Kentucky.
President Bush's approval rating is 42% in Kentucky, reports Bluegrassreports.
"Survey USA: Bush Approval 42%, Disapproval 56% In Kentucky
The latest 50-state Survey USA poll is out on President Bush's (R) job approval rating in each state.
"While Bush stands at 38% approval and 60% disapproval, nationally (up a tick from 37%/60% last month), he remains pretty steady here in Kentucky with 42% approving the job he's doing versus 56% of Kentuckians disapproving. Last month Bush stood at 41%/57% in KY."
You can't send President Bush packing, but you can send packing his rubberstamp Congressman Hal Rogers. Sent the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld rubberstamp Hal Rogers packing. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05 in November, the Democratic candidate.
"Survey USA: Bush Approval 42%, Disapproval 56% In Kentucky
The latest 50-state Survey USA poll is out on President Bush's (R) job approval rating in each state.
"While Bush stands at 38% approval and 60% disapproval, nationally (up a tick from 37%/60% last month), he remains pretty steady here in Kentucky with 42% approving the job he's doing versus 56% of Kentuckians disapproving. Last month Bush stood at 41%/57% in KY."
You can't send President Bush packing, but you can send packing his rubberstamp Congressman Hal Rogers. Sent the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld rubberstamp Hal Rogers packing. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House of Representatives, KY-05 in November, the Democratic candidate.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
The Coveted Daniel Solzman Endorsement.
Once again, this time for the general election, Kenneth Stepp, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for the Fifth District of Kentucky, received the coveted Daniel Solzman endorsement, which can be seen on the May 18, 2006 blog of his http://www.kydem.blogspot.com blog spot. Thank you Daniel. Also, I got two political campaign contribution checks in the mail today. Thank you, guys.
That KyDem endorsement of the Kentucky Federal candidates reads as follows:
"2006 Kentucky Candidates
"Here are the official Democratic nominees for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and I've endorsed all of them.
"2006 Midterms
"KY1Tom Barlow (Ex-Congressman, Businessman & Frequent Candidate)
"KY2Mike Weaver (State Representative from E-town, Veteran)
"KY3John Yarmuth (former LEO publisher)
"KY4Ken Lucas (Former Congressman, Businessman, Veteran)
"KY5Kenneth Stepp (Attorney, Veteran)
"KY6Ben Chandler (incumbent)"
That KyDem endorsement of the Kentucky Federal candidates reads as follows:
"2006 Kentucky Candidates
"Here are the official Democratic nominees for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and I've endorsed all of them.
"2006 Midterms
"KY1Tom Barlow (Ex-Congressman, Businessman & Frequent Candidate)
"KY2Mike Weaver (State Representative from E-town, Veteran)
"KY3John Yarmuth (former LEO publisher)
"KY4Ken Lucas (Former Congressman, Businessman, Veteran)
"KY5Kenneth Stepp (Attorney, Veteran)
"KY6Ben Chandler (incumbent)"
Another Incumbent Republican Congressman About to Fall!
This just in from the Bluegrassreports.com blog spot:
"Poll: In IN-9, Hill Leading Sodrel 46-40
Political Wire is reporting that "a new Research 2000 poll shows Baron Hill (D) leading incumbent Rep. Mike Sodrel (R), 46% to 40% with 14% undecided."
Good news for Democrats. How great will it be to watch two former Reps. -- Hill and Ken Lucas -- get sworn-in once again?"
"Poll: In IN-9, Hill Leading Sodrel 46-40
Political Wire is reporting that "a new Research 2000 poll shows Baron Hill (D) leading incumbent Rep. Mike Sodrel (R), 46% to 40% with 14% undecided."
Good news for Democrats. How great will it be to watch two former Reps. -- Hill and Ken Lucas -- get sworn-in once again?"
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The Military Draft.
The following article about the Washington Beltway plot to bring back the draft (that's right, the draft that they used to send people to Viet Nam) that appeared in The New American Magazine:
Next Stop: Conscription
by William Norman Grigg
September 12, 2006
Printer friendly page
"In early August, about 300 Alaska-based soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade, shortly after returning from Iraq, were ordered to return to Iraq immediately. Because of a bureaucratic bungle, the unit was not informed while in Iraq that its tour of duty had been extended. As a result, the soldiers and their families, relieved and grateful for their safe return, were torn apart once again without adequate time to prepare.
"Shortly thereafter the Bush administration announced that at least 2,500 discharged Marines would be involuntarily reactivated for combat duty through the Marine Corps’ Individual Ready Reserves (IRR) program. Both of these developments illustrate just how over-extended the military has become as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how desperate it has become in seeking personnel to fill current needs — let alone those that will come if, as expected, military action is taken against Lebanon, Syria, Iran, or North Korea.
"Meanwhile, “centrist” Republicans and Democrats alike are promoting a “Universal Service” program in which all 18-year-olds of both sexes would be required to give a year or two of federally approved “service” as a condition of college admission. This would likely include a military reserve commitment and the option of active-duty service in the military.
"In their new campaign manifesto The Plan, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council, call for “a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us by establishing, for the first time, an ethic of universal citizen service.... All Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service.... Universal citizen service will bring Americans of every background together to make America safer and more united in common purpose.” One function of that proposal would be to expand the military by at least 100,000 men — a target that belies Emanuel and Reed’s assurance that they don’t endorse a return to conscription.
"A bill containing essentially the same proposal has been submitted by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), one of the most left-leaning House members; the concept has been endorsed by Republican presidential aspirant Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.). Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine, also endorsed the concept of universal service in an August 24 interview on FOX & Friends First, saying that it would be intended “to put us on a war footing mentality. We’re not there.”
No, we are not there, and we are not going to get there, either. Vote to oust that Republican Washington-beltway rubber stamp Congressman Hal Rogers, who rubberstamps 95% of what the Republican leadership recommends. Kenneth Stepp, as Congressman will introduce legislation to kill the draft registration. We can't draft people without a draft registration, and Kenneth Stepp will vote to end draft registration. Kenneth Stepp will vote against the draft, and vote against any plan of national conscription--universal or selective. Americans are meant to be free, and should not tolerate a Republican rubberstamp Hal Rogers who always votes with the Bush-Chaney-Rumsfeld administration in getting and keeping the U.S. in a never-ending war with no purpose, no goal, and no end in sight. Vote now for a return to normalcy. Vote in November for Kenneth Stepp for U.S. House of Representatives, Kentucky Fifth District.
Next Stop: Conscription
by William Norman Grigg
September 12, 2006
Printer friendly page
"In early August, about 300 Alaska-based soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade, shortly after returning from Iraq, were ordered to return to Iraq immediately. Because of a bureaucratic bungle, the unit was not informed while in Iraq that its tour of duty had been extended. As a result, the soldiers and their families, relieved and grateful for their safe return, were torn apart once again without adequate time to prepare.
"Shortly thereafter the Bush administration announced that at least 2,500 discharged Marines would be involuntarily reactivated for combat duty through the Marine Corps’ Individual Ready Reserves (IRR) program. Both of these developments illustrate just how over-extended the military has become as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how desperate it has become in seeking personnel to fill current needs — let alone those that will come if, as expected, military action is taken against Lebanon, Syria, Iran, or North Korea.
"Meanwhile, “centrist” Republicans and Democrats alike are promoting a “Universal Service” program in which all 18-year-olds of both sexes would be required to give a year or two of federally approved “service” as a condition of college admission. This would likely include a military reserve commitment and the option of active-duty service in the military.
"In their new campaign manifesto The Plan, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council, call for “a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us by establishing, for the first time, an ethic of universal citizen service.... All Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service.... Universal citizen service will bring Americans of every background together to make America safer and more united in common purpose.” One function of that proposal would be to expand the military by at least 100,000 men — a target that belies Emanuel and Reed’s assurance that they don’t endorse a return to conscription.
"A bill containing essentially the same proposal has been submitted by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), one of the most left-leaning House members; the concept has been endorsed by Republican presidential aspirant Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.). Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine, also endorsed the concept of universal service in an August 24 interview on FOX & Friends First, saying that it would be intended “to put us on a war footing mentality. We’re not there.”
No, we are not there, and we are not going to get there, either. Vote to oust that Republican Washington-beltway rubber stamp Congressman Hal Rogers, who rubberstamps 95% of what the Republican leadership recommends. Kenneth Stepp, as Congressman will introduce legislation to kill the draft registration. We can't draft people without a draft registration, and Kenneth Stepp will vote to end draft registration. Kenneth Stepp will vote against the draft, and vote against any plan of national conscription--universal or selective. Americans are meant to be free, and should not tolerate a Republican rubberstamp Hal Rogers who always votes with the Bush-Chaney-Rumsfeld administration in getting and keeping the U.S. in a never-ending war with no purpose, no goal, and no end in sight. Vote now for a return to normalcy. Vote in November for Kenneth Stepp for U.S. House of Representatives, Kentucky Fifth District.
A Blow to the Imperial Presidency
The following article about the Bush-Cheney-Hal Rogers illegal warrantless wiretaps appeared in the September 12 issue of The New American:
A Blow to the Imperial Presidency
by William Norman Grigg
September 12, 2006
Printer friendly page
"On August 8, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit ruled that the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program is utterly unconstitutional, and ordered the Bush administration to desist immediately. According to Judge Taylor, "The public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution."
“We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution,” wrote Judge Taylor. “There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all ‘inherent power’ must derive from that Constitution.” In this case, the Bush administration has arrogantly insisted that the “Commander-in-Chief” power of the president permits him to set aside both the constitutional requirement for search warrants and the provisions of a law passed in 1978 permitting a special court to issue national security warrants retroactively for certain kinds of surveillance.
"The Bush administration, unwilling to let the matter rest, immediately appealed the ruling to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. “We’re going to do everything we can do in the courts to allow this program to continue,” insisted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales."
Vote to overturn the illegal warrantless wiretaps of Bush-Cheney-Hal Rogers. Vote to oust that rubberstamp Bush Republican Congressman Hal Rogers. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, Kentucky Fifth District, and that is a vote to end illegal warrantless wiretapping of U. S. citizens like yourself, by the Federal government.
A Blow to the Imperial Presidency
by William Norman Grigg
September 12, 2006
Printer friendly page
"On August 8, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit ruled that the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program is utterly unconstitutional, and ordered the Bush administration to desist immediately. According to Judge Taylor, "The public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution."
“We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution,” wrote Judge Taylor. “There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all ‘inherent power’ must derive from that Constitution.” In this case, the Bush administration has arrogantly insisted that the “Commander-in-Chief” power of the president permits him to set aside both the constitutional requirement for search warrants and the provisions of a law passed in 1978 permitting a special court to issue national security warrants retroactively for certain kinds of surveillance.
"The Bush administration, unwilling to let the matter rest, immediately appealed the ruling to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. “We’re going to do everything we can do in the courts to allow this program to continue,” insisted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales."
Vote to overturn the illegal warrantless wiretaps of Bush-Cheney-Hal Rogers. Vote to oust that rubberstamp Bush Republican Congressman Hal Rogers. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, Kentucky Fifth District, and that is a vote to end illegal warrantless wiretapping of U. S. citizens like yourself, by the Federal government.
Monday, September 11, 2006
218 Republicans, 217 Democrats Predicted in U.S. House
If you click: http://californianintexas.blogspot.com/ you will see that California in Texas Blog Spot predicts that, when all the dust has settled from the elections in November that the American People will have elected a U.S. House of Representatives with 218 Republicans and 217 Democrats. That Blogger says that you the people want to stay the course; that you want to keep American troops being sent home in boxes from Iraq, and that you, the American people want to keep having warrantless wiretaps of your telephones, so government snoops can listen in on all of your telephone conversations without getting a judge's approval. Is that what you want? You can stop all that. You can elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, and oust that Republican Rubberstamp Hal Rogers. According to that pundit, if you elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House, KY-05, you will have a U.S. House of Representatives with 218 Democrats and 217 Republicans. That means all Democratic Committee Chairmen, a Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, a Democratic House Majority leader, and Democratic chairmen of all House Subcommittees. Some say the House of Representatives does not have the power to stop a war. The Constitution says the Congress controls the purse strings. If no money was appropriated to fight a war, then the troops would have to come home. If no money was appropriated to ship the troops to Iraq, then they wouldn't get there. Congress can shut down agencies that engage in warrantless wiretaps, also. As a U.S. District Judge recently said, the President does not have any inherent powers, he only has those powers delegated him by the U.S. Constitution (that is what President Richard Nixon used to call "strict construction" of the U.S. Constitution, and Richard Nixon said that he supported "strict construction" of the U.S. Constitution, and Kenneth Stepp supports "strict construction" of the U.S. Constitution also). So which do you want 218 Republicans and 217 Democrats? Or 218 Democrats and 217 Republicans? Support Kenneth Stepp for U.S. House. Elect Kenneth Stepp to the U.S. House KY-05, and you will have 218 Democrats and 217 Republicans in the U.S. House and we will begin the Twenty First Century Democratic Era in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Action Pages
Something new is added. If you want to give an opinion to your U.S. Senator, Congressman, and/or daily newspaper about the War in Iraq, or about Torture, punch Action Pages in the right-hand column of this blog spot. It might be down lower on the page. We hope to make this more interactive. We hope to add more subjects soon. Kenneth Stepp.
Mayor Ross Anderson's Speech replying to President Bush's speech.
Salt Lake City, Utah, Mayor Ross Anderson recently gave a speech in response to the address President Bush made to the American Legion.
"Text Of Mayor Ross Anderson’s Speech September 6th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"A patriot is a person who loves his or her country. Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation–and for our world?
"And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation’s leaders tell us the truth?
"Let’s hear it: “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
"Let no one deny we are patriots. We love our country, we hold dear the values upon which our nation was founded, and we are distressed at what our President, his Administration, and our Congress are doing to, and in the name of, our great nation.
Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.
A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating President.
That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience–a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid–afraid we are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.
In response to those who believe we should blindly support this disastrous President, his Administration, and the complacent, complicit Congress, listen to the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a great President and a Republican, who said: The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
We are here today as truth-tellers.
And we are here to demand: “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
We are here today to insist that those who were elected to be our leaders must tell us the truth.
We are here today to insist that our news media live up to its sacred responsibility to ascertain and report the truth–rather than acting like nothing more than a bulletin board for the lies and propaganda of a manipulative, dishonest federal government.
We have been getting just about everything but the truth on matters of life and death…on matters upon which our nation’s reputation hinges…on matters that directly relate to our nation’s fundamental values…and on matters relating to the survival of our planet.
In the process, our nation has engaged in an unnecessary war, based upon false justifications. More than a hundred thousand people have been killed–and many more have been seriously maimed, brain-damaged, or rendered mentally ill.
Our nation’s reputation throughout much of the world has been destroyed. We have many more enemies bent on our destruction than before our invasion of Iraq.
And the hatred toward us has grown to the point that it will take many years, perhaps generations, to overcome the loathing created by our invasion and occupation of a Muslim country.
What incredible ineptitude and callousness for our President to talk about a Crusade while lying to us to make a case for the invasion and occupation of a Muslim country!
Our children and later generations will pay the price of the lies, the violence, the cruelty, the incompetence, and the inhumanity of the Bush Administration and the lackey Congress that has so cowardly abrogated its responsibility and authority under our checks-and-balances system of government.
We are here to say, “We will not stand for it any more. No more lies. No more pre-emptive, illegal war, based on false information. No more God-is-on-our- side religious nonsense to justify this immoral, illegal war. No more inhumanity.”
Let’s raise our voices, and demand, “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
Let’s consider some of the most monstrous lies–lies that have led us, like a nation of sheep, to this tragic war.
Following September 11, 2001, the world knew that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were responsible for the horrific attacks on our country. Our long-time allies were sympathetic and supportive. But our President transformed that support into international disdain for the United States, choosing to illegally invade and occupy Iraq, rather than focus on and capture the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
Why invade and occupy Iraq? Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice represented to us, without qualification, that there were strong ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
In September, 2002, President Bush made the incredible claim that “You can’t distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam.”
President Bush represented to Congress, without any factual basis whatsoever, that Iraq planned, authorized, committed, or aided the 9/11 attacks.
Our President and Vice-President, along with an unquestioning news media, repeatedly led our nation to believe that there was a working relationship between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, a relationship that threatened the US.
Even last week, when I met with Thomas Bock, National Commander of the American Legion, I asked him why we are engaged in the war in Iraq. He said, “Why, of course, because of the 9/11 attacks on our country.” I asked, “What did Iraq have to do with those attacks?” He looked puzzled, then said, “Well, the connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq.”
I was shocked. Here is a man who has criticized us for opposing the war in Iraq–and he is completely wrong about the underlying facts used to justify this war.
Not only has there never been any evidence of any involvement by Saddam Hussein or Iraq with the attacks on 9/11, but there has never been any evidence of any operational connection whatsoever between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
Colin Powell finally conceded there is no “concrete evidence about the connection.” “The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track Al Qaeda” disclosed that “his team had found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.” And the top investigator for our European allies has said, ‘If there were such links, we would have found them. But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.’”
President Bush himself finally admitted nine days ago during a press conference that there was no connection between the attacks on 9/11 and Iraq. It’s terrific that the President has now admitted what others have known for so long–but where is the accountability for the tragic war we were led into on the basis of his earlier misrepresentations?
Besides the fictions of Saddam Hussein somehow being linked to the 9/11 attacks and his supposed connection with Al Qaeda, what was the principal justification for forgoing additional weapons inspections, failing to work with our allies toward a solution, refraining from seeking additional resolutions from the United Nations, and hurrying to war - a so-called “pre-emptive” war–in which we would attack and occupy a Muslim nation that posed no security risk to the United States, and cause the deaths of many thousands of innocent men, women, and children–and the deaths and lifetime injuries to many thousands of our own servicemen and servicewomen?
The principal claim was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction–biological and chemical weapons–and was seeking to build up a nuclear weapons capability. As we now know, there was nothing–no evidence whatsoever–to support those claims. President Bush represented to us–and to people around the world–that one of the reasons we needed to make war in Iraq - and to do it right away–was because Saddam Hussein was seeking to build nuclear weapons. His assertions about Saddam Hussein trying to purchase nuclear materials from an African nation and about Iraq seeking to obtain aluminum tubes for the enrichment of uranium were challenged at the time by our own intelligence agency and scientists, yet he didn’t tell us that!
Ten days before the invasion of Iraq, it was proven that the documents upon which President Bush’s claim about Saddam Hussein trying to obtain uranium was based were forgeries. However, President Bush did not disclose that to the American people. By that failure, he betrayed each of us, he betrayed our country, and he betrayed the cause of world peace.
Neither did the vast majority of the news media disclose the forgeries–until it was far too late. It took our local newspapers here in Salt Lake City four months–until after President Bush declared that major combat in Iraq was over–to report the discovery that the documents were forgeries–and, therefore, that there was no basis for the false claims about Saddam Hussein trying to build up a nuclear capability. By its failure to promptly disclose the forgeries, the news media betrayed us as well. Had the American people known we were being lied to–had President Bush informed us that the documents were forged and that he had no other basis for his claim–had our nation’s media done its job, rather than slavishly repeating to us the lies being fed to it by the Bush Administration–our nation may well not have allowed the commencement of this outrageous, illegal, unjustified war.
To President Bush, to his Administration, to our go-along Congress, and to our news media, we are here today, demanding, “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
Then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were “only really suited for nuclear weapons programs,” warning “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” Undisclosed by President Bush or Condoleezza Rice was the fact that top nuclear scientists had informed the Administration that the tubes were “too narrow, too heavy, too long” to be useful in developing nuclear weapons and could be used for other purposes. Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed. So much for the phony claims of Saddam Hussein building nuclear weapons–the primary claims justifying the rush to war. What were we told about chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction? These claims were as baseless and fraudulent as the claims about nuclear weapons.
President Bush told us in his January 2003 State of the Union address that Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. Then, in May of 2003, he made the outlandish statement that, “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told us, “We know where the [WMDs] are.” Vice President Cheney and then-Secretary of State Powell also joined in the chorus of lies and misinformation about weapons of mass destruction.
Of course, no stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons were found. Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay noted that Iraq did not have an ongoing chemical weapons program after 1991–a conclusion remarkably similar to statements made by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11 attacks–and before they sacrificed the truth in the service of promoting the Bush Administration’s case for war against Iraq.
On February 24, 2001, less than 7 months before 9/11, Colin Powell said that Saddam Hussein “has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors,” said Colin Powell.
And in July 2001, two months before 9/11, Condoleezza Rice said: “We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”
It is astounding how they changed their claims after the President decided to make a case for the invasion and occupation of Iraq! To think that we could be lied to by so many members of the Bush Administration with such impunity is frightening–chilling. Yet these imperious, arrogant, dishonest people think we should just fall in line with them and continue to take them at their word.
The truth has been established. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks on the United States. There is no evidence of any operational ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda. And there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What a tragedy, leading to greater tragedy. We are fed lie after lie, our media reinforces those lies, and we are a nation led to a tragic, illegal, unprovoked war.
We are here because of our values. We love our country. We cherish the freedoms and liberties of our country. We don’t call those who speak out against our nation’s leaders unpatriotic or un-American or appeasers of fascists.
We have good, wholesome family values. In our families, we teach honesty, we teach kindness and compassion toward others, we teach that violence, if ever justified, must be an absolutely last resort. In our families, we teach that our nation’s constitutional values are to be upheld, and that they are worth standing up and fighting for. Our family values promote respect and equal rights toward everyone, regardless of race, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation. In our families, we teach the value of hard work and competence–and we are left to wonder about a President who, after receiving an intelligence memo about the threat posed by Al Qaeda, decides to continue his month-long vacation–just before the 9/11 attacks on our country.
As we demand the truth from others, let us also face the truth. Our government all too often has not cared about the human rights of people in other nations–and it doesn’t really care about democracy, unless it leads to the election of those who will do our bidding. Consider the irony regarding the claims that Saddam had chemical weapons and, because of that, we needed to rush to war in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons–first against Iranians, then against his own people, the Kurds - our country provided him with biological and chemical agents and equipment to make the weapons. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush refused even to support economic sanctions against Hussein for his use of weapons of mass destruction. What did our nation do in response to Hussein’s use of chemical weapons, killing tens of thousand of people, when he actually had them?
We befriended, coddled, and rewarded him–with government-guaranteed loans totaling $5 billion since 1983, freeing up currency for Hussein to modernize his military assets.
Perhaps those in the US government who aided and abetted Saddam Hussein to further US business interests, while he was gassing the Kurds, should be sharing his courtroom dock as he is being tried now for crimes against humanity. No more lies, no more hiding of the truth, no more wars that more than triple the value of stock in Dick Cheney’s prior employer, Halliburton–and which, as of last September, has increased the value of the Halliburton CEO’s stock by $78 million.
We are patriots. We’re deeply concerned. And we demand change, now. No more lies from Condoleezza Rice about whether she and President Bush were advised before 9/11 of the possibility of planes being flown into buildings by terrorists.
No more gross incompetence in the office of the Secretary of Defense.
No more torture of human beings.
No more disregard of the basic human rights enshrined in the Geneva Convention.
No more kidnapping of people and sending them off to secret prisons in nations where we can expect they will be tortured.
No more unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans.
No more proposed amendments to the United States Constitution that would, for the first time, limit fundamental rights and liberties for entire classes of people simply on the basis of sexual orientation.
No more federal land giveaways to developers.
No more increases in mercury emissions from old, dirty, dangerous coalburning power plants.
No more backroom deals that deprive protection for millions of acres of wild lands.
No more attacks on immigrants who work so hard to build better lives.
No more inaction by Congress on fixing our hypocritical and inconsistent immigration laws and policies.
No more reliance on fiction rather than the science of global warming.
No more manipulation of our media with false propaganda.
No more disastrous cuts in funding for those most in need.
No more federal cuts in community policing and local law enforcement grant programs for our cities.
No more inaction on stopping the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
No more of the Patriot Act.
No more killing.
No more pre-emptive wars.
No more contempt for our long-time allies around the world.
No more dependence on foreign oil.
No more failure to impose increased fuel efficiency standards for automobiles.
No more energy policies developed in secret meetings between Dick Cheney and his energy company cronies.
No more excuses for failing to aggressively cut global warming pollutant emissions.
No more tragically incompetent federal responses to natural disasters.
No more tax cuts for the wealthiest, while the middle class and those who are economically-disadvantaged continue to struggle more and more each year.
No more reckless spending and massive tax cuts, resulting in historic deficits and historic accumulated national debt.
No more purchasing of elections by the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country.
No more phony, ineffective, inhumane so-called war on drugs.
No more failure to pass an increase in the minimum wage.
No more silence by the American people.
This is a new day. We will not be silent. We will continue to raise our voices. We will bring others with us. We will grow and grow, regardless of political party–unified in our insistence upon the truth, upon peace-making, upon more humane treatment of our brothers and sisters around the world.
We will be ever cognizant of our moral responsibility to speak up in the face of wrongdoing, and to work as we can for a better, safer, more just community, nation, and world.
So we won’t let down. We won’t be quiet. We will continue to resist the lies, the deception, the outrages of the Bush Administration. We will insist that peace be pursued, and that, as a nation, we help those in need. We must break the cycle of hatred, of intolerance, of exploitation. We must pursue peace as vigorously as the Bush Administration has pursued war. It’s up to all of us to do our part.
Thank you everyone for lending your voices to this call for compassion, for peace, for greater humanity. Let us keep in mind the injunction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”—–Ross C. Anderson, a Democrat, is Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah. This speech was delivered on the occasion of President George W. Bush’s presentation before the American Legion convention last week.
Vote against President Bush's rubber-stamp Congressman Hal Rogers; elect Kenneth Stepp, a Democrat, to the U.S. House of Representatives for the Kentucky Fifth District this November.
"Text Of Mayor Ross Anderson’s Speech September 6th, 2006 -- Randy Risener
"A patriot is a person who loves his or her country. Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation–and for our world?
"And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our nation’s leaders tell us the truth?
"Let’s hear it: “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
"Let no one deny we are patriots. We love our country, we hold dear the values upon which our nation was founded, and we are distressed at what our President, his Administration, and our Congress are doing to, and in the name of, our great nation.
Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.
A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating President.
That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is a member of a frightening culture of obedience–a culture where falling in line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if it is not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid–afraid we are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane regime that does not respect the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.
In response to those who believe we should blindly support this disastrous President, his Administration, and the complacent, complicit Congress, listen to the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a great President and a Republican, who said: The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
We are here today as truth-tellers.
And we are here to demand: “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
We are here today to insist that those who were elected to be our leaders must tell us the truth.
We are here today to insist that our news media live up to its sacred responsibility to ascertain and report the truth–rather than acting like nothing more than a bulletin board for the lies and propaganda of a manipulative, dishonest federal government.
We have been getting just about everything but the truth on matters of life and death…on matters upon which our nation’s reputation hinges…on matters that directly relate to our nation’s fundamental values…and on matters relating to the survival of our planet.
In the process, our nation has engaged in an unnecessary war, based upon false justifications. More than a hundred thousand people have been killed–and many more have been seriously maimed, brain-damaged, or rendered mentally ill.
Our nation’s reputation throughout much of the world has been destroyed. We have many more enemies bent on our destruction than before our invasion of Iraq.
And the hatred toward us has grown to the point that it will take many years, perhaps generations, to overcome the loathing created by our invasion and occupation of a Muslim country.
What incredible ineptitude and callousness for our President to talk about a Crusade while lying to us to make a case for the invasion and occupation of a Muslim country!
Our children and later generations will pay the price of the lies, the violence, the cruelty, the incompetence, and the inhumanity of the Bush Administration and the lackey Congress that has so cowardly abrogated its responsibility and authority under our checks-and-balances system of government.
We are here to say, “We will not stand for it any more. No more lies. No more pre-emptive, illegal war, based on false information. No more God-is-on-our- side religious nonsense to justify this immoral, illegal war. No more inhumanity.”
Let’s raise our voices, and demand, “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
Let’s consider some of the most monstrous lies–lies that have led us, like a nation of sheep, to this tragic war.
Following September 11, 2001, the world knew that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were responsible for the horrific attacks on our country. Our long-time allies were sympathetic and supportive. But our President transformed that support into international disdain for the United States, choosing to illegally invade and occupy Iraq, rather than focus on and capture the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
Why invade and occupy Iraq? Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice represented to us, without qualification, that there were strong ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
In September, 2002, President Bush made the incredible claim that “You can’t distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam.”
President Bush represented to Congress, without any factual basis whatsoever, that Iraq planned, authorized, committed, or aided the 9/11 attacks.
Our President and Vice-President, along with an unquestioning news media, repeatedly led our nation to believe that there was a working relationship between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, a relationship that threatened the US.
Even last week, when I met with Thomas Bock, National Commander of the American Legion, I asked him why we are engaged in the war in Iraq. He said, “Why, of course, because of the 9/11 attacks on our country.” I asked, “What did Iraq have to do with those attacks?” He looked puzzled, then said, “Well, the connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq.”
I was shocked. Here is a man who has criticized us for opposing the war in Iraq–and he is completely wrong about the underlying facts used to justify this war.
Not only has there never been any evidence of any involvement by Saddam Hussein or Iraq with the attacks on 9/11, but there has never been any evidence of any operational connection whatsoever between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
Colin Powell finally conceded there is no “concrete evidence about the connection.” “The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track Al Qaeda” disclosed that “his team had found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein.” And the top investigator for our European allies has said, ‘If there were such links, we would have found them. But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.’”
President Bush himself finally admitted nine days ago during a press conference that there was no connection between the attacks on 9/11 and Iraq. It’s terrific that the President has now admitted what others have known for so long–but where is the accountability for the tragic war we were led into on the basis of his earlier misrepresentations?
Besides the fictions of Saddam Hussein somehow being linked to the 9/11 attacks and his supposed connection with Al Qaeda, what was the principal justification for forgoing additional weapons inspections, failing to work with our allies toward a solution, refraining from seeking additional resolutions from the United Nations, and hurrying to war - a so-called “pre-emptive” war–in which we would attack and occupy a Muslim nation that posed no security risk to the United States, and cause the deaths of many thousands of innocent men, women, and children–and the deaths and lifetime injuries to many thousands of our own servicemen and servicewomen?
The principal claim was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction–biological and chemical weapons–and was seeking to build up a nuclear weapons capability. As we now know, there was nothing–no evidence whatsoever–to support those claims. President Bush represented to us–and to people around the world–that one of the reasons we needed to make war in Iraq - and to do it right away–was because Saddam Hussein was seeking to build nuclear weapons. His assertions about Saddam Hussein trying to purchase nuclear materials from an African nation and about Iraq seeking to obtain aluminum tubes for the enrichment of uranium were challenged at the time by our own intelligence agency and scientists, yet he didn’t tell us that!
Ten days before the invasion of Iraq, it was proven that the documents upon which President Bush’s claim about Saddam Hussein trying to obtain uranium was based were forgeries. However, President Bush did not disclose that to the American people. By that failure, he betrayed each of us, he betrayed our country, and he betrayed the cause of world peace.
Neither did the vast majority of the news media disclose the forgeries–until it was far too late. It took our local newspapers here in Salt Lake City four months–until after President Bush declared that major combat in Iraq was over–to report the discovery that the documents were forgeries–and, therefore, that there was no basis for the false claims about Saddam Hussein trying to build up a nuclear capability. By its failure to promptly disclose the forgeries, the news media betrayed us as well. Had the American people known we were being lied to–had President Bush informed us that the documents were forged and that he had no other basis for his claim–had our nation’s media done its job, rather than slavishly repeating to us the lies being fed to it by the Bush Administration–our nation may well not have allowed the commencement of this outrageous, illegal, unjustified war.
To President Bush, to his Administration, to our go-along Congress, and to our news media, we are here today, demanding, “Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!”
Then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were “only really suited for nuclear weapons programs,” warning “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” Undisclosed by President Bush or Condoleezza Rice was the fact that top nuclear scientists had informed the Administration that the tubes were “too narrow, too heavy, too long” to be useful in developing nuclear weapons and could be used for other purposes. Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed. So much for the phony claims of Saddam Hussein building nuclear weapons–the primary claims justifying the rush to war. What were we told about chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction? These claims were as baseless and fraudulent as the claims about nuclear weapons.
President Bush told us in his January 2003 State of the Union address that Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. Then, in May of 2003, he made the outlandish statement that, “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told us, “We know where the [WMDs] are.” Vice President Cheney and then-Secretary of State Powell also joined in the chorus of lies and misinformation about weapons of mass destruction.
Of course, no stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons were found. Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay noted that Iraq did not have an ongoing chemical weapons program after 1991–a conclusion remarkably similar to statements made by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11 attacks–and before they sacrificed the truth in the service of promoting the Bush Administration’s case for war against Iraq.
On February 24, 2001, less than 7 months before 9/11, Colin Powell said that Saddam Hussein “has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors,” said Colin Powell.
And in July 2001, two months before 9/11, Condoleezza Rice said: “We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”
It is astounding how they changed their claims after the President decided to make a case for the invasion and occupation of Iraq! To think that we could be lied to by so many members of the Bush Administration with such impunity is frightening–chilling. Yet these imperious, arrogant, dishonest people think we should just fall in line with them and continue to take them at their word.
The truth has been established. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks on the United States. There is no evidence of any operational ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda. And there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What a tragedy, leading to greater tragedy. We are fed lie after lie, our media reinforces those lies, and we are a nation led to a tragic, illegal, unprovoked war.
We are here because of our values. We love our country. We cherish the freedoms and liberties of our country. We don’t call those who speak out against our nation’s leaders unpatriotic or un-American or appeasers of fascists.
We have good, wholesome family values. In our families, we teach honesty, we teach kindness and compassion toward others, we teach that violence, if ever justified, must be an absolutely last resort. In our families, we teach that our nation’s constitutional values are to be upheld, and that they are worth standing up and fighting for. Our family values promote respect and equal rights toward everyone, regardless of race, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation. In our families, we teach the value of hard work and competence–and we are left to wonder about a President who, after receiving an intelligence memo about the threat posed by Al Qaeda, decides to continue his month-long vacation–just before the 9/11 attacks on our country.
As we demand the truth from others, let us also face the truth. Our government all too often has not cared about the human rights of people in other nations–and it doesn’t really care about democracy, unless it leads to the election of those who will do our bidding. Consider the irony regarding the claims that Saddam had chemical weapons and, because of that, we needed to rush to war in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons–first against Iranians, then against his own people, the Kurds - our country provided him with biological and chemical agents and equipment to make the weapons. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush refused even to support economic sanctions against Hussein for his use of weapons of mass destruction. What did our nation do in response to Hussein’s use of chemical weapons, killing tens of thousand of people, when he actually had them?
We befriended, coddled, and rewarded him–with government-guaranteed loans totaling $5 billion since 1983, freeing up currency for Hussein to modernize his military assets.
Perhaps those in the US government who aided and abetted Saddam Hussein to further US business interests, while he was gassing the Kurds, should be sharing his courtroom dock as he is being tried now for crimes against humanity. No more lies, no more hiding of the truth, no more wars that more than triple the value of stock in Dick Cheney’s prior employer, Halliburton–and which, as of last September, has increased the value of the Halliburton CEO’s stock by $78 million.
We are patriots. We’re deeply concerned. And we demand change, now. No more lies from Condoleezza Rice about whether she and President Bush were advised before 9/11 of the possibility of planes being flown into buildings by terrorists.
No more gross incompetence in the office of the Secretary of Defense.
No more torture of human beings.
No more disregard of the basic human rights enshrined in the Geneva Convention.
No more kidnapping of people and sending them off to secret prisons in nations where we can expect they will be tortured.
No more unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans.
No more proposed amendments to the United States Constitution that would, for the first time, limit fundamental rights and liberties for entire classes of people simply on the basis of sexual orientation.
No more federal land giveaways to developers.
No more increases in mercury emissions from old, dirty, dangerous coalburning power plants.
No more backroom deals that deprive protection for millions of acres of wild lands.
No more attacks on immigrants who work so hard to build better lives.
No more inaction by Congress on fixing our hypocritical and inconsistent immigration laws and policies.
No more reliance on fiction rather than the science of global warming.
No more manipulation of our media with false propaganda.
No more disastrous cuts in funding for those most in need.
No more federal cuts in community policing and local law enforcement grant programs for our cities.
No more inaction on stopping the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
No more of the Patriot Act.
No more killing.
No more pre-emptive wars.
No more contempt for our long-time allies around the world.
No more dependence on foreign oil.
No more failure to impose increased fuel efficiency standards for automobiles.
No more energy policies developed in secret meetings between Dick Cheney and his energy company cronies.
No more excuses for failing to aggressively cut global warming pollutant emissions.
No more tragically incompetent federal responses to natural disasters.
No more tax cuts for the wealthiest, while the middle class and those who are economically-disadvantaged continue to struggle more and more each year.
No more reckless spending and massive tax cuts, resulting in historic deficits and historic accumulated national debt.
No more purchasing of elections by the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country.
No more phony, ineffective, inhumane so-called war on drugs.
No more failure to pass an increase in the minimum wage.
No more silence by the American people.
This is a new day. We will not be silent. We will continue to raise our voices. We will bring others with us. We will grow and grow, regardless of political party–unified in our insistence upon the truth, upon peace-making, upon more humane treatment of our brothers and sisters around the world.
We will be ever cognizant of our moral responsibility to speak up in the face of wrongdoing, and to work as we can for a better, safer, more just community, nation, and world.
So we won’t let down. We won’t be quiet. We will continue to resist the lies, the deception, the outrages of the Bush Administration. We will insist that peace be pursued, and that, as a nation, we help those in need. We must break the cycle of hatred, of intolerance, of exploitation. We must pursue peace as vigorously as the Bush Administration has pursued war. It’s up to all of us to do our part.
Thank you everyone for lending your voices to this call for compassion, for peace, for greater humanity. Let us keep in mind the injunction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”—–Ross C. Anderson, a Democrat, is Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah. This speech was delivered on the occasion of President George W. Bush’s presentation before the American Legion convention last week.
Vote against President Bush's rubber-stamp Congressman Hal Rogers; elect Kenneth Stepp, a Democrat, to the U.S. House of Representatives for the Kentucky Fifth District this November.
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