Be INFORMED

Monday, February 05, 2007

Bush's Budget,GOP Senators,Smokers Getting Tickets

    President Bush is sending a budget request to Congress for $2.9 trillion. That includes many more billions for his sham in Iraq and make his tax-cuts permanent. Bush also claims it would balance the budget 3 years after he leaves office.                                                                         

    AP:  Democrats, however, contended that Bush was able to balance the budget only on paper by leaving out significant costs such as the money needed to make sure that the alternative minimum tax, initially targeted at the wealthy, does not ensnare more middle-income taxpayers. He includes a fix for 2008 but not for later years.

   Bush's budget projects that the deficit, which hit an all-time high of $413 billion in 2004, will gradually decline until it becomes a surplus in 2012.

   To accomplish that goal, Bush would allow only modest growth in the government programs outside of defense and homeland security. He is proposing eliminations or sharp reductions in 141 government programs, for a savings over five years of $12 billion, although Congress has rejected many of the same proposals over the past two years.

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Iraq Vote Could Resonate In 2008

Resolution Against Adding Troops Is Set for a Showdown

By Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman

Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 5, 2007

When Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) saw reporters approaching him last week, he took off in a sprint, determined to say as little as possible about a nonbinding resolution opposing President Bush's troop-escalation plan, which is expected to come before the Senate today.

The historic showdown to begin today represents the first bipartisan confrontation between Congress and the White House over the Iraq war since the invasion nearly four years ago. While the resolution will test the mettle of every member of the chamber, none will be challenged more than Sununu and the 19 other Senate Republicans facing reelection in 2008 -- many from states where voters are angry with Bush's war policy and want the troops to begin heading home         The Article

   If these clowns would have did their jobs right in the first place, they would not be worrying about how to vote this time because there would have been no reason to vote. This WaPo article tells me that if not for their Senate re-elections coming up in 2008, the Senators would still be supporting Bush. Obviously, these people do not have a conscience to do what is right.

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New York Times-Published: February 5, 2007

BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 — A growing number of Iraqis blamed the United States on Sunday for creating conditions that led to the worst single suicide bombing in the war, which devastated a Shiite market in Baghdad the day before. They argued that the Americans had been slow in completing the vaunted new American security plan, making Shiite neighborhoods much more vulnerable to such horrific attacks.   The Article

    You smokers might be interested in this  story on getting ticketed for smoking in you vehicle if you have underage children with you.

U.S.NEWS-

By Bernadine Healy M.D.

Posted Sunday, February 4, 2007

Rest easier, robbers. The cops have some new villains to track down. They're called smokers. Recently, police in Bangor, Maine, took on the job of ticketing people spotted puffing on cigarettes in their cars if children under 18 are onboard. Last year, Arkansas and Louisiana enacted similar bans, and many other states, including New Jersey, New York, California, Kansas, and Utah, are considering them. Some propose fines as high as $500-and jail time.

 

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Sunday, February 04, 2007

Fiber-Optic Broadband Is On The Way

    Consumer Reports  takes a look at fiber-optic broadband in it's February issue.

  34,000 subscribers gave Verizon’s fiber-based FiOS service top marks across the board.

   According to the magazine, fiber-optic broadband users were happier with the speed than  cable users.

And they were more satisfied with FiOS’s cost than were users of DSL, which remains the least expensive type of broadband. FiOS also got higher marks for both reliability and technical support than did cable or DSL.

The bad news is that your chances of getting this promising new service today are slim. Verizon’s FiOS currently is being offered to about 6 million homes in roughly one third of the states.   Consumer reports Article

   This service will still be a few years off for most of us so this means that the majority will have to put up with the price gouging from both the phone companies and the cable companies for some time.

 

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