Be INFORMED

Saturday, December 23, 2006

The Play For The Resources In Iraq

Original Story

The Race for Iraq's Resources
    By Joshua Gallu
    Der Spiegel  December 22, 2006

  The Iraqi government is considering a new oil law that could give private oil companies greater control over its vast reserves. In light of rampant violence and shaky democratic institutions, many fear the law is being pushed through hastily by special interests behind closed doors.

  Oil. The world economy's thick elixir yields politics as murky and combustible as the crude itself. And no wonder. It brings together some awkward bedfellows: It's where multinationals meet villagers, where executives meet environmentalists, where vast wealth meets deep poverty, where East meets West.  More Here

 

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Illegal Still Hiding In Church

    Once again Elvira Arellano is in the news for sending her to Washington to plead her case on why she should not be deported back to Mexico. She could not to Washington herself because she is holed up in a church in Chicago and is afraid that she will be arrested and deported, breaking her family up. She has been hiding in this church since August, claiming sanctuary.

    Arellano said, "Most of the time I work diligently to continue the struggle. I'm organizing people so this kind of thing won't happen and families can be together." she spoke in Spanish so this had to be translated by a pastor.

   This is the second time that she has been ordered deported because she was convicted of using a fake Social Security  number to work in the U.S., for which she got 3 years probation. The first time she was deported (1997) for trying to come into the U.S. with fake documents. 

    Of course, now she is a symbol of what is wrong with the immigration system and she is almost a martyr for the rest of the illegal's who are here. Others, myself included, think she had her son so that she could stay in the U.S.

   Let's see here! She is convicted of a crime. That alone is more than enough to keep her out of this country. She has shown a pattern of criminal activity by fraud. that is enough to keep her out of this country!

Criminal Liability  under 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(6)
arises when a person willfully, knowingly, and
with the intent to deceive the SSA as to his or her
true identity, or the true identity of any other
person, furnishes or causes another to furnish false
information to the SSA that SSA uses to establish
and maintain earnings records. A typical violation
of § 408(a)(6) occurs when an individual makes
false statements on an application for a new SSN
(SSA Form SS-5) for the purpose of obtaining a
second SSN to create a false identity.

The most common false statement occurs
when a defendant, in response to the following
question on the SS-5: "Has applicant or anyone
acting on his/her behalf ever filed for or received
a Social Security number card before?" falsely
answers "no," when, in fact, the defendant knows
his answer is false and it is his intent to deceive
the Commissioner of Social Security as to his true
identity. The defendant can be charged with a
violation of § 408(a)(6) for the false statement on
the SS-5 as well as any subsequent use of the
second SSN.

   If we allow this woman to stay in the U.S. then every other illegal in this country will attempt to pull the same stunt. Send a message to these people that they are not welcome here by sneaking into America! Send the church that she is living in a message that they cannot harbor a fugitive without consequences!

 

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Friday, December 22, 2006

Donald Rumsfeld's Quotes

   Yes he is gone and out of the picture now but I did run across a few quotes from him that I could not pass up.

From BrainyQuote

1) Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
Donald Rumsfeld

2) Don't begin to think you're the President. You're not. The Constitution provides for only one.
Donald Rumsfeld                                                                                        

3) Don't blame the boss. He has enough problems.
Donald Rumsfeld

4) I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that.
Donald Rumsfeld

5) It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.
Donald Rumsfeld

6) Public servants are paid to serve the American people. Do it well.
Donald Rumsfeld       More Quotes

             

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Wannabe Dictator Bush at It Again

   Remember the Op-Ed piece that the CIA wanted the NYTimes to not publish?  Well, The Times finally did publish it on Friday after the CIA blacked out parts that the "Idiot in Chief" and friends did not like.

   Here is a small piece of the article:

What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran
By FLYNT LEVERETT and HILLARY MANN
Published: December 22, 2006

HERE is the redacted version of a draft  Op-Ed article we wrote for The Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded substantial deletions. Agency officials told us that they had concluded on their own that the original draft included no classified material, but that they had to bow to the White House.

Duke Players Have Some Charges Dropped

   From the Tar Heel state comes this bit of news. We all remember the three Duke University lacrosse players who were accused of attacking and raping a stripper at a team party back in March of 2006.

    The prosecutors finally dropped the rape charges on Friday but they are still looking at kidnapping and sexual offense charges.

  From AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer                                     Joseph Cheshire and attorneys for the other players have said for months the woman told several different versions of the alleged assault.

Cheshire said Friday that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated, which he said led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges.    More

Why President Bush Must Be Impeached

   By Joseph A. Palermo   Bio @ Huffington Post                 12.18.2006

Why President Bush Must Be Impeached (59 comments )

    ...A trial in the Senate to determine whether or not to remove Bush from office, even if it fails to win the necessary votes, would be good for the Constitution and hence the nation. It would cleanse the democracy, put the political parties in a more healthy competition over ideas and direction, and rein in a Chief Executive who is destructive and incompetent and has done great damage to our republic. People all over the world will rejoice in seeing Bush impeached, and they might begin to see the American people in a better light if we show them that we have the will to punish our little Bonaparte for the disasters he has wrought.
   Today we find ourselves in a serious Constitutional crisis. The Democrats should be willing to take some political risks to honor, protect, and defend the Constitution. (It is, after all, their oath of office.) If we allow Bush to succeed in permanently altering the balance of powers between the branches, the Constitution will become a dead letter. We must avert this national tragedy regardless of the political exigencies. We, the People, must impeach President George Walker Bush.   The Rest, Here

 

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Thursday, December 21, 2006

A $180 Million Early Retirement

   The rich keep getting richer and people like us keep getting shafted!

   It must be nice to be a CEO of an oil company or a pharmaceutical company these days.

   I'd like to ask Pfizer Inc.'s former chief executive, Henry A. McKinnell  what it feels like to get a $180 million dollar retirement package after investors got angry over his rich retirement benefits, which forced him into early retirement.

It includes an estimated $82.3 million in pension benefits, $77.9 million in deferred compensation, and cash and stock totaling more than $20.7 million.(AP))< for More

The Continuing Iraq Victory

  I could not resist a little humor other than George Bush, for a change.

   This comes from The Onion! I hope that you enjoy it!

America marks three and a half years of winning in Iraq, and nearly 3,000 victory deaths

December 18, 2006 | Issue 42•51

  Statistics released by the Department Of Defense estimated that 2,937 U.S. troops and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the ongoing American military victory in Iraq.  The Rest is HERE!

Selected Parts of Mr. Bush's Press Conference

(These) are my thoughts, not Georges as he has none of his own.

 

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Good morning. This week I went to the Pentagon for the swearing-in of our nation's new Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates. Secretary Gates is going to bring a fresh perspective to the Pentagon, and America is fortunate that he has agreed to serve our country once again. I'm looking forward to working with him.

Secretary Gates is going to be an important voice in the Iraq strategy review that's underway. As you know, I've been consulting closely with our commanders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the strategy in Iraq, and on the broader war on terror. One of my top priorities during this war is to ensure that our men and women wearing the uniform have everything they need to do their job. ( Except for the right body armor)

 

As we work with Congress in the coming year to chart a new course in Iraq and strengthen our military to meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must also work together to achieve important goals for the American people here at home. This work begins with keeping our economy growing. As we approach the end of 2006, the American economy continues to post strong gains. The most recent jobs report shows that our economy created 132,000 more jobs in November alone, and we've now added more than 7 million new jobs since August of 2003.

The unemployment rate has remained low, at 4.5 percent. A recent report on retail sales shows a strong beginning to the holiday shopping season across the country -- and I encourage you all to go shopping more. ( Just like after 9/11 happened) 

Another area where we can work together is the minimum wage. I support the proposed $2.10 increase in the minimum wage over a two-year period. I believe we should do it in a way that does not punish the millions of small businesses that are creating most of the new jobs in our country. So I support pairing it with targeted tax and regulatory relief to help these small businesses stay competitive and to help keep our economy growing. I look forward to working with Republicans and Democrats to help both small business owners and workers when Congress convenes in January.  ( $2.10 over two years? We'll need to raise it $4.00 by then)       Full transcript HERE

Will Congress Intervene In Florida Race?

Democrat Christine Jennings , who lost to Republican Vern Buchanan by 369 votes down in Sarasota County Florida, has filed with the House clerk an official contest of the election results in Florida's 13th Congressional District. she is pretty much leaving it up to Congress to decide what to do about selecting a winner of this race.

    You will recall that some 18,000 ballots did not record a choice in the race and Jennings claim that number is a little higher than usual, as do others.   More HERE

 

    Congress should do the right thing and let the election be run all over again, with even more monitors in place to make sure that those down in Katherine Harris  land do not get a chance to tamper with the electronic voting machines.

 

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Response To An Illegal Immigrant

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

“This country needs us. We are the strong arms that do all the tough jobs.”
— Donna Maria Mostache
An illegal immigrant, who marched alongside hundreds of thousands of others in Los Angeles as part of a nationwide show of economic clout designed to prove immigrants' value to their adopted homeland and pressure Congress for reforms.   <  From TIME

 

   The fact of the matter is that the American's would have no problem doing all of these tough jobs if the employers who hire the illegal's would stop trying to pay the American workers Mexican wages!

    You can bet your ass that if these companies had to pay the illegal's what they should be paying them, the illegal's would not be here in such force! It isn't that the Americans will not do the work. Americans will not do it for DIRT wages!

It Is NOT A Surge!

    It seems as if the Democrats are falling into line with Bushco and that they will go along with Bush's effort to send in more troops to Iraq!

    I guess that the Democrats forgot that the reason they are in power now was to get our men and women out of Iraq! It was also an order to stop Bush from doing all of his stupid shit!  Of course, people such as my self will remember these things in 2008 if the Dems are going to actually allow that shithead in the White house to send more troops in! Bushco knows all of this, of course and it is what they are counting on in 2008.

   I guess that we'll have to slap the Democrats back into reality again!

   For more, Go HERE

 

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A few George Bush Quotes

   I did this with Mr. Gingrich so I thought some quotes from our esteemed(?) leader would be a good thing to do.

 

1) Bring them on.
George W. Bush

2) Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
George W. Bush    That is pretty much what he said about his own nation also!

3) Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.
George W. Bush

4) For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible - and no one can now doubt the word of America.
George W. Bush

5) Globalization has altered the dynamics in the White House, as well as between the White House and the Treasury.
George W. Bush

6) I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure.
George W. Bush

7)To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.
George W. Bush

    More From BrainyQuote

 

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Ahmadinejad Opponents Win elections

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer  December 21,2006

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opponents won local council elections in Iran, final results showed Thursday, in an embarrassing blow to the hard-line leader that could force him to change his staunch anti-Western stance and focus more on domestic issues.

Last week's elections for local councils in towns and cities across Iran were widely seen as a referendum on Ahmadinejad's 18 months in office.

Since taking power, Ahmadinejad has escalated Iran's confrontation with the United States and the West, drawing the threat of U.N. sanctions for pushing ahead with uranium enrichment in Iran's nuclear program. He has also provoked international outrage for his comments against Israel and casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust.

   More  HERE

 

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Jeb Bush Says No More Politics For Him

   I'll just bet that the tears are flowing over Jeb Bush's (R-Fl) announcement that he will not be lurking around in politics anymore!

   It is one good thing that George Bush has done right in fucking up so many things simultaneously that he has made very sure that we will not see another Bushco Crime Family member in the White house any time soon! YES!!

   Jeb Bush spoke to Spanish-language reporters in Miami  and you can read the rest HERE.

 

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Joseph L. Bruno, Another One Under Investigation

    This man is the New York Senate Majority leader and he is one of the few men who has a tight grip on the state government in New York.

   On Tuesday, Mr. Bruno  said that he was being investigated by the F.B.I. who is looking into some of his business dealings.

   Mr. Bruno said that he has known of the investigation since last spring, which apparently surprised a few Republicans. A few said that they did not know of the investigation when they re-elected Bruno as the majority leader this past November.

   Of course, Bruno says that he has done nothing wrong.

 

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A Soldiers Death on a Stunning Day in Iraq

By Anna Mulrine @ USNews

Posted 12/19/06
    Pentagon correspondent Anna Mulrine was traveling with soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division one recent afternoon north of Baghdad, in the hotly contested city of Baqubah, when a routine humanitarian mission turned deadly as their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb.                                                      

The critical moments before and after the explosion mirror the daily experience of soldiers throughout Iraq, who today are being killed in roadside bombs at a higher rate than at any other time during the war.

Read More HERE

Bush Finally Admits That We Are Not Winning In Iraq

    Mr. Bush has finally said (made it official) what the rest of the world already knew and that is that we aren't winning in Iraq. But! He still is making plans to increase our troop levels over there even though most of our leading Generals say that it will do more harm than good.

    Bush was interviewed by The Washington Post on Tuesday and he is now using the newest catch-all phrase "We're not winning, we're not losing."

   HMMM. I wonder if this idiot knows that it can only really be one or the other? We haven't put down the insurgents or trained the Iraqi military so that they can take over our work. I'm going to go out on a limb here and call that  losing.

    The only winning that is going on belongs to Halliburton and the rest of the Bushco Crime Family members, with government contracts to rape, rob, and pillage the American taxpayer!

 

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Just For The Hell Of It!!

   Here are a few quotes from Newt Gingrich since he has taken to criticizing Bush and others. Which, I do believe that he should have done along time ago.

   Quotes come from Brainyquote.com:

1) I love the environment, but I'm cheap on the environment.
Newt Gingrich

2) I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around a campfire but are lousy in politics.
Newt Gingrich

3) I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too abstract; I think too much.
Newt Gingrich

4) If the Soviet empire still existed, I'd be terrified. The fact is, we can afford a fairly ignorant presidency now.
Newt Gingrich

5)  If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as "candle making industry threatened".
Newt Gingrich

6) The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.
Newt Gingrich

7) It's going to be a bummer if Mars turns out to be like us.
Newt Gingrich

    More HERE

Newt Gingrich Passes Blame...

   Former House and possible presidential contender? Speaker Newt Gingrich decided to open his mouth and take a few shots at President Bush comparing him to Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. He  said that Bush was a weak president and that the conservatives should begin looking at 2008 and building a base. He also said not to expect to much from the White house over the next two years.

   He also blamed White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for Bush's screw ups, including the loses in last Novembers elections. All of this comes from a source close to Mr. Gingrich and you can read more here at InsightMag.

 

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Meet Donald Vance

    Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who worked in Iraq as a security contractor. He came to the conclusion that the company that he was working for was doing things that it should not have been doing so Mr. Vance became a whistle.

   Find out what happened to him, HERE.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

   Today we will be looking at the Chamber of Commerce, boys and girls, because you need to know what makes this agency tick!

   I will tell you right off the bat that this is another place that is run by a Bushco Crime Family member!

    That would be our esteemed Tom Donahue who just happens to be a corrupt lobbyist. He has taken the chamber and turned it into a tool for right-wing causes and the corporate crooks.

    As of late, he has push to weaken the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was passed after the Enron scandal to ensure corporate accountability and to protect investors.

    Mr. Donahue has a little stock scandal of his own to contend with at the present time and it is not the first time he has had dealings with questionable companies.

   The current deal is that  Donahue is on the board of directors of Sunrise Senior Living which runs assisted living facilities for senior citizens.  you can read all of the gory details here from AlterNet

Naval Buildup in the Gulf for Iran?

      A senior Defense Department official said on Tuesday that the D.D. is thinking of a buildup of U.S. Navy forces in the Gulf as a show of force against Iran.

   The idea is to send a second aircraft carrier to the area in the midst of rising tensions with Iran, blamed for encouraging sectarian violence in neighboring Iraq as well as for allegedly pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

    The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is already in the area. It left the U.S. for the area back in September escorted by 4 other ships and submarines with a total of 6,500 sailors.

    I did a post on this very same issue back in October dealing with our buildup that has in fact been going on much longer than announced on Tuesday.

    Although I have lost the original story, I do have the link to my information source at Global Research. Check it out!

 

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Monday, December 18, 2006

Three Cheers For New Jersey!

    The state will invest $7 million into federally restricted stem cell research next year and another $3 million into adult stem cell research

   Gov. Jon S. Corzine called the funding, "a serious and vital investment in this live-saving research."

    Way to go Governor Corzine!

Harry Reid Slipped in His Own Projects

   Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is beginning to look alot like " the dead of night" Republicans that made it a habit of throwing in home state projects into major bills passed by Congress.

    Mr. Reid slipped in 2 add-ons for his home state of Nevada last week in the last major bill that Congress passed before  saying bye-bye.

   Number 1 was a transfer of federal land in Nevada to state and private control and number 2 was a $4 million grant for a hospice. Neither had been approved by any congressional committee.

    Read More From Bloomberg HERE

Congressional Earmarks 2005!

   Mr. Bush congratulated the 109th Congress for ridding three of the bigger cabinet departments of almost all of their earmarks.

109th Congress: 15,877 earmarks added into spending bills.

    That is up from 6,073 in 2000.

    Here are some more stats on the 109th Congress!

 

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FCC's McDowell Not Voting On AT&T/Bellsouth Merger

Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell  said he will not be participating in the vote on the AT&T/Bellsouth merger because of ethics considerations.

    Mr. McDowell, a Republican, will probably now be sent into timeout by the Bushco Crime Family because of this action.

   Mr. McDowell at his press conference Monday,"To earn the public's trust and in the integrity and impartiality of their government, in light of these factors, I find that I have no choice but to abide by the terms of my ethics agreement, heed the independent advice of the Office of Government Ethics and my ethics counsel, and ultimately to follow my own personal sense of ethics. Accordingly, I disqualify myself from this matter."   CNET News

   A Republican in government who did the right thing!

Operation Iraqi Freedom U.S. Casualty Status

    Total deaths stand at 2,936 as of 10 a.m. Monday, December 18th.

    The Department of Defense did not list the monthly deaths for the past three months due to the fact that the Pentagon has classified those numbers.  The chart is HERE!

    I am wondering why the Pentagon classified the numbers for the past three months? All of America already knows that they have been the most violent for our troops in Iraq.

    I smell something here and it ain't pretty!

 

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Robert Gates is Now Secretary of Defense

    Robert M. Gates  was sworn in today as the secretary of defense, replacing Don Rumsfeld at the post.

    In his acceptance speech, he thanked Rumsfeld for distinguished service and wished the Rumsfeld family the best.

   He also towed the usual Bush line  that we cannot fail in the middle east (Iraq) because failure would come back to haunt Americas for decades.

      The text from his swearing in ceremony is HERE.

 

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Sunday, December 17, 2006

"We The People"

      One of the writers over at DailyKos had a very nice article concerning this administration and its failure to remember that the government is " We the people."

   I am posting a few of the paragraphs here and the link to the rest. Read it.

   What Happened To Will Of The People?

by Maccabee
Sun Dec 17, 2006

We. Do. Not. Want. This. Damned. War.

This entire country is overwhelmingly against this war and the Bush Administration acts like we have no say so in it. He’s keeping America’s kids over there dying in this mix of quicksand and blood and faux patriotism. Why don’t we count? Why is this entire Congress of millionaires and elitists not listening to us? Why doesn’t our Emperor know that we could care less about his legacy? We don’t give a rat’s ass about what history books will say about him because we already know how posterity will cast him and there is nothing he can do to change that. We are goddamned tired of seeing Americans falling behind, losing our rights and our healthcare while he and his advisors spend our tax dollars in Iraq and give each other medals.

I hope the incoming Democrats know this.

READ MORE HERE

Harry Reid To Support Troop Increase?

    On Sunday,Harry Reid (D-Nev.)  said that he would support a troop increase in Iraq if it was only for the short-term and part of a withdrawal plan.

    "If it's for a surge, that is, for two or three months and it's part of a program to get us out of there as indicated by this time next year, then, sure, I'll go along with it," he said  on ABC's "This Week" program.

     Hell will freeze over and our troops will leave Iraq all at the same time next year, Harry. I think that Mr. Reid is hanging out with to many of those Kool-aid drinkers around Washington and has or is losing his marbles!                                                            Michael d

    Sen. Edward Kennedy ( D-Mass.)  had other ideas when he heard what Reid had said. "I respect Harry Reid on it, but that's not where I am," he said. "The generals who have testified before the Armed Services Committee think that we would add to being a crutch for the Iraqi civilian government in not making the right judgments and decisions. I think that is a persuasive case and is one that I support." Kennedy said on Fox News Sunday.

 

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FCC Head: Cities Block Cable Competition

By JOHN DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON - Cable television rates keep going up while prices for other communications services are going down, says the nation's chief communications regulator, and he blames local governments for blocking competition.

On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to make it easier for competitors to obtain cable franchises.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, in speeches over the past few weeks, has said local franchise authorities at times "obstruct and in some cases completely derail" new attempts to bring video competition to an area.

               MORE HERE

Congress Inaction Will Cut Funding

   As you know, the Dump and Run congress adjourned a week ago before finishing its job. We all wanted them to go anyway but they left a mess for the adult congress that takes over in a few weeks. They didn't finish alot of spending bills that keep the government running and the reverberations will be many.

    The GOP left just enough money to run the government going thru mid-February  which isn't even half way through fiscal year 2007.

  Read more from The Washington Post HERE.

    It is worth noting that due to this dilemma, the Democrats will have to be cutting funding for some good and not so good programs. I think that is what the GOP Do Nothing Congress had in mind when they left.

   We will be reminding voters of such things as this when the 2008 elections come around. We did pay them to do a job which they did not do well and which they did not finish!!          Michael d.

 

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