The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.
Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats on Monday that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored.
Former Rep. Bob Barr says a number of Republicans have been trying to persuade him not to run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, but none has given him a convincing reason. The former Republican congressman from Georgia formed an exploratory committee last month and told The Washington Times that he has since been subjected to the behind-the-scenes pressure from Republicans not to run.
The funds that pay pension and health benefits to police officers, teachers and millions of other public employees across the country are facing a shortfall that could soon run into trillions of dollars. But the accounting techniques used by state and local governments to balance their pension books disguise the extent of the crisis facing these retirees and the taxpayers who may ultimately be called on to pay the freight, according to a growing number of leading financial analysts. State governments alone have reported they are already confronting a deficit of at least $750 billion to cover the cost of the retirement benefits they have promised.
While McCain was the strongest in a weak field of Republican candidates, his candidacy clearly is not galvanizing conservatives. There is only one candidate who can do that: Hillary Clinton. To the conservative base of the Republican Party, she is the Democratic demon and the candidate the Republicans' want to face. She is Rush Limbaugh's candidate of choice. She is the candidate who the Right would use to raise money and turn out volunteers. She is the only potential Democratic VP who would build Republican enthusiasm and inspire the grassroots Republican campaign.
She also is the candidate who consistently measures the highest "unfavorable" ratings of anyone who ever has run for the presidency. In an ABC News poll, Clinton polls 54 percent unfavorable; perhaps even worse, 58 percent of voters say she is not honest and trustworthy.
The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the nation's most prominent civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan's major bridges and tunnels. But he still carries baggage from his early days as a fire-breathing agitator: Government records obtained by The Associated Press indicate that Sharpton and his business entities owe nearly $1.5 million in overdue taxes and associated penalties.
There's a guy in virtually every organization who is a pop-off, and David Hackworth fit that description perfectly.
But unlike most pop-offs, this man the most highly decorated soldier in American military history was reliably on target. So much so that his career ended with the threat of a court martial because of his scathing criticism of the Vietnam War, but his legacy as an eccentric but fearless and brilliant officer and motivator of soldiers has lived on.
The U.S. economic downturn has spread personal financial worries far and wide, but women are more worried about paying bills, losing jobs, providing for children and saving for retirement, according to a study released on Thursday.
The study comes as the U.S. economy has been mired in a half-year-long period of stagnation accompanied by a shrinking job market, rising energy prices and a downward spiral in consumer confidence.
A rare international alert seeking a man shown in dozens of raw child porn images quickly led to the arrest of a small-time actor, who painted faces at children's parties and performed as "the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen."
Wayne Nelson Corliss told authorities he had sex with three boys in Thailand six years ago, an experience he described as "euphoria," a prosecutor said Thursday at Corliss' first court appearance.
Over the past several years, the Union of Concerned Scientists has been performing an amazing public service: Surveying scientists, agency by federal agency, to determine how many report inappropriate political interference in their work. And so UCS has canvassed the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Food and Drug Administration--and so on. In each case, the surveys have shown intolerable levels of political meddling, and collectively have documented the existence of hundreds of unhappy researchers across the government. But we were all waiting to hear about the agency that many have long suspected to harbor the worst problems -- the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The nonprofit group received responses from 1,600 EPA scientists, and found an "agency under siege from political pressures": 60 percent of respondents said they'd personally experienced political interference in their work in the past 5 years. Meanwhile, just over half of respondents -- 783, by number -- said they could not freely share their findings with the media.
Bob Herbert: At the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington should be Senator Jim Webb's proposed expansion of education benefits for the men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001. It's awfully hard to make the case that these young people who have sacrificed so much don't deserve a shot at a better future once their wartime service has ended. Senator Webb, a Virginia Democrat, has been the guiding force behind this legislation, which has been dubbed the new G.I. bill. The measure is decidedly bipartisan. Mr. Webb's principal co-sponsors include Republican Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John Warner of Virginia, and Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey
Last time it was two years before the country wisened up, and put the GOP in charge, leading to the Contract With America, economic growth, and debt reduction...
Once again ryker gets his facts wrong. The deficit reduction during the Clinton years was due to the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which passed without a single Republican member of congress voting for it.
www.lafn.org
What were you saying about money? McThusela is toast.
These are all big problems for Obama. But he will have a massive cash advantage when it comes time to fight back, and the Republican National Committee's fundraising edge over the DNC won't be enough to overcome it. Consider this fact: Since the beginning of last year, Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the DNC have raised $460 million total -- about $200 million more than what McCain, Mitt Romney and the RNC raised together in the same time span.
Rich liberals operating outside the traditional fundraising structure are also in private talks to vastly outspend the GOP on issue ads and voter mobilization efforts.
Still, McCain's biggest problem is the toxic political atmosphere for his party.
It's so toxic, some Republicans are pointing to 1976 as a favorable historical comparison. That was the year Gerald Ford ran in the dark shadows of Watergate and lost to Jimmy Carter. Says Dick Wadhams, the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party: "When voters really homed in on the choice between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and what each stood for, Gerald Ford almost won the election despite this horrible environment."
www.politico.com
The Dems will lose a lot of white union members when they run Osama Obama. Me thinks I know what I am talking about.
Sure you do.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, officially endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president Wednesday.
The 1.4-million Teamsters union endorsed Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke exclusively with Teamsters president Jim Hoffa on Wednesday.
"We came to the conclusion that Barack Obama gives us the opportunity to rebuild America and win in November," Hoffa said.
"This endorsement is an important endorsement for him. He's excited about what it means to him in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas ... it's going to be important to all of labor and the American people," he added.
The endorsement decision follows a meeting in Austin, Texas, between Hoffa and Obama, and completes a months-long process that included scientific polling of Teamster members, surveys of local union and joint council leaders and deliberations by the union's democratically elected General Executive Board, according to the union's press release.
When asked about criticisms over Obama's inexperience, Hoffa said the union looks at the Illinois senator "as a person who can lead and surround himself with the very best people."
And as for why the union didn't endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton.
"This is not about the Clintons, this is about Obama and the momentum he has that I think everybody detects out there that we really have a phenomenon of him having the opportunity to win in November and to basically remake America and speaking out on issues that resonate with our members," Hoffa said.
Hoffa said the union, which has a history of supporting both Democratic and Republican candidates, chose not to support Sen. John McCain because he is "lock-step with the Bush administration. ... I think America has had enough of that and that's why we can't support McCain."
www.cnn.com
Nice try Bl2.
Ultimately every Republican in Congress voted against the bill, as did a number of Democrats. Vice President Al Gore broke a tie in the Senate on both the Senate bill and the conference report. The House bill passed 219-213.[1] The House passed the conference report on Thursday, August 5, 1993, by a vote of 218 to 216 (217 Democrats and 1 independent (Sanders (VT-I)) voting in favor; 41 Democrats and 175 Republicans voting against), and the Senate passed the conference report on the last day before their month's vacation, on Friday, August 6, 1993, by a vote of 51 to 50 (50 Democrats plus Vice President Gore voting in favor, 6 Democrats (Lautenberg (D-NJ), Bryan (D-NV), Nunn (D-GA), Johnston (D-LA), Boren (D-OK), and Shelby (D-AL) now (R-AL)) and 44 Republicans voting against). President Clinton signed the bill on August 10, 1993.
[edit] Theory
The bill, at the time, was based on unproved economic theory. Since the Ronald Reagan administration, the American public was more receptive to Reaganomics pursued during the 1980s. The theory behind the bill was that federal budget deficits were more critical to economic health than either the New Deal liberals or Reagan-era conservatives wanted to admit. Both groups dismissed the importance of the federal budget deficit.
The bill, which both raised taxes and cut government spending, has been credited as the major cause behind the deficit reduction and eventual surpluses during the 1990s, by sources such as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. [2] The theory holds that federal budget deficits increase both inflation and interest rates. These two phenomena are widely known to cause economic stagnation.[citation needed] Indeed, when inflation increases, often the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to contain the inflation.
en.wikipedia.org
so put your partisan dislike of her father aside and hope that she and her new husband are happy.
Well said LCL.
Everyone should follow John McCain's example in how to deal with the offspring of political figures.