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EDITORIAL ARCHIVES 2007

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The New NIE report on Iran’s Nuclear capabilities

By: David Phillips

December 17, 2007

 

About two weeks ago, a portion of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report, which is compilation of all sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, said that Iran’s pursuit of enrichment of uranium was halted in 2003.

 

The NIE report says (The date on the report Oct. 31, 2007)

 

·         “We judge with high confidence that in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.”

 

·         “We judge with high confidence that the halt lasted at least several years.”

 

·         “We asses with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007.”

 

·         “We continue to asses with moderate to high confidence that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon.”

 

Read full report: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/international/20071203_release.pdf

 

Now you have the basic high points of the report, so why has President Bush been pounding the war drums and why has he doggedly said that Iran is continuing its pursuit of weaponized uranium? And most importantly, when did he learn of the NIE report?

 

The following portion of a press conference Q and A on Dec. 4, 2007 is from a White House press release from the same date:

 

NBC’s David Gregory:” Mr. President, thank you. I'd like to follow on that. When you talked about Iraq, you and others in the administration talked about a mushroom cloud; then there were no WMD in Iraq. When it came to Iran, you said in October, on October 17th, you warned about the prospect of World War III, when months before you made that statement, this intelligence about them suspending their weapons program back in '03 had already come to light to this administration. So can't you be accused of hyping this threat? And don't you worry that that undermines U.S. credibility?”

 

THE PRESIDENT:” David, I don't want to contradict an august reporter such as yourself, but I was made aware of the NIE last week. In August, I think it was Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze. Why would you take time to analyze new information? One, you want to make sure it's not disinformation. You want to make sure the piece of intelligence you have is real. And secondly, they want to make sure they understand the intelligence they gathered: If they think it's real, then what does it mean? And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.”

 

OK, so now you have the timeline of when Bush said he learned of this new Intel, but there is more.

 

Last Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino attempted to defend President Bush's version about when he first learned that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.

 

The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh said that Bush spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about the NIE on Monday, Nov. 26.

 

CNN's Ed Henry asked Perino, "How could he brief Olmert on Monday about a report that he found out about on Wednesday?" Perino responded, "I don't -- I will check...it's possible that he knew that there was information coming."

 

When Bush responded to Gregory at the press conference he seemed to have a pretty good handle on the NIE report and its conclusions.

 

So why has President Bush been pounding the War drums for the last year? Simple, to drive up the price of Oil and to increase the profits for his friend King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, increase profits for American oil corporations and other corporations such as Halliburton.

 

Every time Bush has rattled his saber, the price of oil increased. Now that the NIE report has come out, the price of oil has been declining.

 

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com   

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Rudy Giuliani: America’s Mayor?
By: David Phillips
December 10, 2007

Rudy Giuliani was anointed with the moniker of America’s Mayor and Mr. 911 in the day’s right after the attacks which would become the catalyst for his run to become America’s President. Giuliani could be seen walking around the wreckage, shaking the hands of those clearing the rubble that was once the World Trade Center’s while surrounded by the press.

Giuliani’s face was front page news for several days; he could be seen touring the devastation with President Bush and consulting with the brass from both the New York Police Department and the New York Fire Department.

But could a man with as much garbage and skeletons in his closet become President? God I hope not, because with as much baggage as Bush had before he was elected, Giuliani has ten times as much.

Given the amount of space that I am allotted for this column I will hit some of the high notes, or in Rudy’s case the low notes.

Giuliani’s first wife was his second cousin, whom he was married to for fourteen years which was eventually annulled. Rudy has been married three times and had an affair while married to his first two wives. In fact Rudy’s second wife learned of her divorce while watching her husband in a press conference on TV.

Giuliani hired Monsignor Alan Placa to work in his consulting firm Giuliani Partners, Placa is a friend of Giuliani's who was defrocked by the Catholic Church amid accusations of sexually molesting two former students and an altar boy.

Monsignor Alan Placa, who officiated at Rudy’s second wedding to Donna Hanover, continues to work at Giuliani Partners in New York, to the outrage of some of his accusers and victims' groups, which have begun to protest at Giuliani campaign events.

One of the founding partners at Giuliani Partners is Bernie Kerik. Kerik a former Police officer first worked for Giuliani as his campaign driver, then was promoted to detective, and finally promoted to Police Commissioner.

Giuliani recommended Kerik to President Bush in 2004 to head the Homeland Security Department. Kerik had to decline the offer, because of his guilty pleas to two misdemeanors of corruption, one of which he allowed a mob-tied firm to renovate his apartment for no cost. Kerik paid a fine of $221,000.

More recently, Federal prosecutors have indicted the former police commissioner on charges of bribery, tax fraud and obstruction of justice.

Giuliani Partners has announced that it’s moving its Headquarters to Dubai. If you recall, Halliburton made the same announcement a few months back. I am guessing it is to avoid paying taxes and to shield the taxpayer money that both firms have been given.

Giuliani mentions 911 in every speech, in every debate and in almost every conversation with reporters. Rudy has wrapped himself around 911 and has used it to advance his political aspirations. So it’s only fair to point a few things that are also Rudy’s doings.

While Mayor of New York, in 1994 just months after the first attack on the World Trade Center’s Rudy was tasked with where to place the Emergency Command Center for New York and while the experts recommended the Emergency Command Center be placed in an old subway tunnel in Brooklyn, Rudy insisted that the Emergency Command Center be placed in one of the World Trade Center buildings.

Well we all know how well that decision has worked out. The New Emergency Command Center has now been placed in an old subway tunnel in Brooklyn.

I am out of space and I have barely scratched the surface, but I am sure that if Giuliani wins the primary, I will have the chance to tell you all the rest of the story.

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org
E-Mail Questions or Comments:
oneyoda@aol.com


You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

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HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS

By: David Phillips

December 3, 2007

 

According to the US Treasury dept. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) were created by the Medicare bill signed by President Bush on December 8, 2003 and are designed to help individuals save for future qualified medical and retiree health expenses on a tax-free basis.

 

Some pros and cons for HSAs:

 

Opponents argue that HSAs have the potential to undermine the healthcare system, will do little more than add another tax shelter for the wealthy, and will increase the number of uninsured Americans if they encourage some employers to drop healthcare coverage for workers (J.B. Finkelstein, “New Health Savings Account Perk Pushed,” American Medical News, June 2004). In addition, critics say they will not help the uninsured working poor, who do not have discretionary cash to contribute to HSAs.

 

Another problem with HSA health plans is that insurance doesn't cover anything until the consumer pays a large deductible. Some HSAs pay for basic preventive care, such as annual physicals and mammograms, but others do not. For example, a patient with a suspicious mammogram may have to pay $1,000 out of pocket for a biopsy to find out whether the cause is cancer. Because there is no mandatory funding minimum, there may be a temptation by some users to underfund the account and later be caught short of funds. Expenses may also be incurred before planned funding has taken place though scheduled payroll deductions. (Source Wikipedia)

 

In testimony before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Health in 2006, Commonwealth Fund Assistant Vice President Sara R. Collins, Ph.D., said that all evidence to date shows that health savings accounts and high-deductible health plans worsen, rather than improve, the U.S. health system's problems

 

Proponents of HSAs counter that, in the long run, the plans will reduce an employer’s health costs and are “consumer-directed,” designed to let a participant select the timing and level of health expenditures (R.B. Barker and K.P. O’Brien, “Health Savings Accounts: Many Issues, Fewer Solutions,” Benefits Law Journal, Summer 2004). The growing popularity of HSAs is evidenced by the increased number of employers who are adding this option to their employee benefit plans. A survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that two-fifths of the 1,000 employers surveyed were likely to offer an HSA in 2005, and almost three-quarters indicated that they were likely to do so in 2006 (Finkelstein, 2004). The number of HSAs reached 391,000 in 2005, and some experts expect the number to reach 6.3 million by 2008 (Lee Conrad, “For the Enterprising, Health Savings Funds Are Anything But Bitter Medicine,” US Banker, June 2005).

 

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), there are currently 47 million Americans with no healthcare at all. The CBO report also said that in 2006 87 million Americans went without healthcare during parts of 2006.

 

One more note from the CBO report that should open up the minds of Republicans, the report said that due to the escalating costs of healthcare, by 2012 150 million Americans will no longer be able to afford any healthcare.

 

In 2001 a family of four was paying $5035 for health care, and in 2006 the average family of four was paying $11,500 with the employer paying much of the costs. Instead of Bush trying to move the costs to the individual, he might try and consider to stream line the actual costs of healthcare and give a bigger tax break to the employer for his part of the costs of healthcare.

 

HAS’s will give less healthcare to those that need it and result in more people with no coverage at all.

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

 

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THE BUSH WARS: WHO ARE WE FIGHTING AND WHY

By: David Phillips

November 26, 2007

 

The days immediately following 911 American citizens were united and ready to seek retribution against those who attacks us on that infamous day.

 

Bush stood atop the rubble that was once the World Trade Center Towers and said to a shouted out voice, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon,"

 

And soon after that day, that day when Bush had the entire country behind him and ready for a fight, he made a speech where he said al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden (OBL) were responsible for the attacks and that OBL was in Afghanistan and protected by the Taliban.

 

On September 13, 2001 Bush said,” The most important thing is for us to find Osama Bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.”

 

So Bush painted his target and the nation was behind him. Revenge, retribution, an eye for an eye, it didn’t matter what you called it, we were going to rain down bombs on the Taliban and al-Qaeda and capture or kill Osama Bin Laden.

 

In our haste to war in Afghanistan we (the public) learned that fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi’s, but it was OK because so was Osama Bin Laden. And we bombed the Taliban because they were harboring Bin Laden and would not give him up.

 

So even though the Taliban did not attack us, they were complicit, which was more than enough reason to attack them. The Nation was happy to see a face put on our enemies, we felt like we had the moral high ground, and that we were in the right.

 

Much of the World was behind us, and Bush even put together a coalition force for our invasion of Afghanistan. So, on October 7, 2001 the attack began. This marked the beginning of the Bush Administration's campaign known as the “War on Terrorism.”

 

The War on Terrorism, a very broad generalization that could encompass any foe Bush might want to include, and as time went by, Bush would add many names and groups to his so-called “War on Terrorism.”

 

On March 13, 2002, six months after Bush said that Bin Laden was our number one priority, Bush had this to say, “I don’t know where he is. I have no idea and I really don’t care. It’s not that important, and it’s not a priority.”

 

So, six months after Bush said that capturing Bin Laden was a priority, he said Bin Laden was no longer a priority. A few months later our troops had OBL cornered in the Tora Bora Mountain range between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bush stopped our troops dead in their tracks and recalled the majority of them and repositioned them in Kuwait, awaiting the Invasion of Iraq.

 

The rest as they say is history.

 

We were attacked on 911 by Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. We have attacked al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, the insurgents, the Sunni’s in Iraq, the Shiite in Iraq and thanks to Bush al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was never there before the invasion.

 

Bush calls his fight the War on Terror. His drum is beating louder and louder to attack a third country, Iran, who also had nothing to do with 911.

 

Who are we fighting, anyone Bush wants to include under the euphemism, “The War on Terrorism.”

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

 

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The Death Penalty: Is it Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

By: David Phillips

November 19, 2007

 

Of course the Death Penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. Any death, of any person, before his or her natural time, at the hands of others, in my opinion constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

 

How can it be anything else?

 

The Supreme Court suspended the Death Penalty because they said the punishment was “cruel and unusual" and violated the Eighth Amendment. So, on June 29, 1972, the Supreme Court effectively voided 40 death penalty statutes, thereby commuting the sentences of 629 death row inmates around the country and suspending the death penalty because existing statutes were no longer valid.

 

Then the Supreme Court reversed the moratorium on executions on January 17, 1977, with the execution of Gary Gilmore by firing squad in Utah. That same year, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution, though it would be five more years until Charles Brooks became the first person executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 7, 1982.

 

The Supreme Court this past September decided to take a case testing the constitutionality of Kentucky's lethal-injection protocol, and after a series of stays granted by state courts and the Supreme Court, prosecutors in Texas and elsewhere announced they will stop seeking execution dates. This past October was the first month in three years in which nobody was executed in the United States.

 

The Case in Kentucky, Baze v. Rees, will consider the standard by which to evaluate whether the state's lethal-injection protocol carries an "unnecessary" risk of pain, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

 

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty there have been 1099 executions in the United States (as of September 28, 2007). Texas has executed more people than any other State with 403. As of January 1, 2007 there were 3,350 inmates waiting on Death Row for their sentences to be carried out. (Source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York are the only States to have no executions since the reinstatement of the death penalty.

 

The Economics of Executions vs. Life without Parole

 

In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Source: Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992).

 

In every case study broken down by State, it cost more than $2 million to execute someone vs. the $600,000 to $800,000 it costs for a  life in prison sentence based on 40 years behind bars. (Source: Death Penalty Information Center)

 

Is it Moral to Execute Guilty Criminals?

 

There is nothing moral about killing another person, regardless of the circumstances. But many of our laws are molded by the needs of society and evolve over time. Laws do not always take morality into consideration, which is certainly true with the Death Penalty.

 

From a religious point, one of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou Shalt Not Murder”, which is a capital sin, and an execution in the name of society is still murder. A rose by any other name, etc, etc, etc.

 

This column starts out by asking if the Death Penalty is Cruel and Unusual Punishment, and I think that another question should end this column.

 

How can Death, Not be Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

 

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

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CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

By: David Phillips

November 12, 2007

 

Are you currently satisfied with the way campaigns are financed? Are you OK with the fact that those who raise the most money usually win? Are you happy with the job our elected officials are doing in Washington D.C.?

 

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then read no further, because the rest of this story may not be for you.

 

More than $4 Billion was spent on the 2004 Presidential and Congressional races across the country based on a study of campaign finance figures by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

 

After the 2000 election, congress tried to limit soft money (Corporations) to Presidential and Congressional races and crafted a piece of legislation designed to reform campaign financing.

 

It’s called, “Campaign Reform Act of 2002”, aka, McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act.

 

Well, as I just mentioned, $4 Billion was spent in 2004, it seems that there are a few holes in the legislation. Supporters for Bush and Kerry in the 2004 election used a section of the McCain-Feingold Act to form groups called 527’s, named for a section of the tax code. You’ve probably heard of some of these groups: America Coming Together, Media Fund, MoveOn.org, Progress for America and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

 

McCain-Feingold has also limited the amount that any individual can donate to $2500.00. But individuals can donate twice, once for the primary and again for the general election. Individuals can also donate to as many candidates as they wish.

 

There are other ways that candidates raise money, such as a PAC (Political Action Committee), where the money is indirectly given to you. There are the lobbyists who give billions, they bundle the money from several companies usually from a specific industry, then give it to a politician in return for future favors.

 

For the majority of races, those that have the most money in their campaign war chest usually wins. Candidates pretty much buy their positions, yes we do vote, but our choices are limited to those who make it into the general election, and the guy you were hoping for, lost in the primary because he had less money.

 

What would happen if everyone, I mean everyone who was to run for Congress or the President were each given the same amount of money to campaign on? Let’s just say twenty million for each Presidential candidate, four million for a Senate seat, and two million for a Representatives seat. Then you say to all of them, that’s it, how you spend it is your decision, but once it’s gone that’s it, you get no more.

 

Now, where will this money come from? The money will come from Americans, from money received by the IRS from taxes. Campaigns would receive their Campaign money from this pool, and from no other pools.

 

If we truly want to have honest politicians elected to represent us in Washington, maybe a good place to start is with the money that has been used to buy their seats. For the most part, public funding of elections would eliminate the money race for candidates and costly paybacks to industry contributors.

 

Maybe someday, instead of a bunch of politicians who are Washington’s voice to the people, we will have politicians who are the people’s voice to Washington…

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com 

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ARE YOU BLUE, OR ARE YOU SEEING RED?

By: David Phillips

November, 5 2007

 

Question: Is the United States more Conservative, or more Liberal?

 

Let’s first give a quick definition of a Liberal and a Conservative:

 

"Liberal" someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."JFK Acceptance Speech of the New York Liberal Party Nomination September 14, 1960

 

This is John F. Kennedy’s definition of a Liberal from his speech September 1960, his words seem just as fitting today as they did forty seven years ago.

 

I figure if I am going to use a quote from JFK, it’s only fitting that I use a quote from Ronald Reagan.

 

“Conservative” I proposed a new spirit of partnership between this Congress and this administration and between Washington and our State and local governments. In forging this new partnership for America, we could achieve the oldest hopes of our Republic--prosperity for our nation, peace for the world, and the blessings of individual liberty for our children and, someday, for all of humanity.--Ronald Reagan State of the Union Address January 26, 1982

 

OK, on to the question at hand, is the United States more Conservative, or more 

Liberal.

 

If we use the last few elections as a gage there seems to be a great divide.  In 2000 Gore won the popular vote and Bush, ultimately the Electoral College votes. Gore received approx. half a million more votes, and in a country this big, that my friends is a close vote.

 

Then in 2004 Bush won both the popular vote with more than Three and a half million and enough Electoral College votes.

 

Bush widened the vote margin but does that mean the country is more Conservative because of the vote count? Maybe for those days leading to the election and some days past, but in the 2006 election the Democrats took back the House and Senate, so are we now more liberal?

 

I remember seeing maps of the United States after each of the above elections broken down by county and with each county colored red for Republican and Blue for Democrat, and I got to tell you, there was a heck of lot more red then there was blue.

 

But a closer look at those maps and you could see that the major cities and urban areas on both coasts and several in between were mostly blue. So does that mean that urban areas are more Liberal and the suburbs, farms, and agriculture centers are more Conservative?

 

That is exactly what it means. Most major cities are predominantly liberal, and the opposite is true for the suburbs and agriculture centers.

 

I ‘m about out of space and I still have not completely answered the question at hand, is the United States more Conservative, or more Liberal.

 

The United States seems to be closely split as to who is Blue and who is Red, with the rest being Independents or some other party. I don’t think that we are more Conservative, or more Liberal, I think that we are a true Nation Divided…

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

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Madam President

By: David Phillips

October 29, 2007

 

The first caucus’s and primary’s are just around the corner, and soon people will be stepping up to pick the candidate that they feel best exudes the quality, fortitude and ideals that they want in their President.

 

Currently the top three Democratic candidates are Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, there are a few others who are running, but they have not garnered enough support or money to make them strong contenders.

 

So, for the purpose of this story I am going to tell you who I think will be the nominee for the Democratic Party, and if you have not figured out already from the title of this article, I believe Hillary will be the nominee.

 

Senator Clinton will make a great President, she represents main stream America, she knows that the majority of Americans want an end to the Iraq War, while each of the GOP candidates want it to continue. She knows that the majority of Americans want Universal HealthCare which each of the GOP candidates are against. She knows that the majority of Americans have a strong concern for Global Climate Change, which each of the GOP candidates are not even willing to admit exists.

 

Senator Clinton recognizes that under President Bush’s leadership, he has created the largest debt in the history of our country because of his tax cuts for the rich and his Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that will ultimately cost American tax payers trillions.

 

Senator Clinton has come to learn that her husband former President Bill Clinton and his NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) policy have hurt America with the loss of millions of jobs, and she has said that she would change NAFTA and other so called free trade agreements. Maybe she should look into Equal Trade Agreements.

 

Hillary Clinton wants to bring back what America once stood for:

 

·         America once respected the Geneva Convention

·         America was once the champion for human rights

·         America was once opposed to Torture

·         America was once the model for Justice in the world

·         America never started Wars

·         America never spied on its own citizens illegally

·         America never trampled on its own Constitution

 

Senator Clinton stands for strong moral values; she understands that science can be good for mankind. She sees the potential from Stem Cell research and she would authorize more federal funding. She knows that embryo’s that fertility clinic’s destroy every year would be an excellent source to further such research. Whereas the GOP, the so called party of Family Values, would rather see the approx. 400,000 embryo’s that are currently destroyed each year flushed down the toilet.

 

Clinton understands a women’s right to make decisions regarding their own body, unlike the party of so called family values who think they know better.

 

The party of so called family values are also anti Gay and Lesbian rights, and do not believe that they deserve the same considerations as heterosexuals.  Senator Clinton while not supporting Gay and Lesbian marriages, does support Civil Unions that would afford all the responsibilities and benefits as any other marriage.

 

Senator Clinton has the intelligence, the experience, the backbone and the understanding that America has gotten away from the Moral Values that once made our country the greatest country on Earth.

 

America is in need of a change and Hillary Clinton is right for the Job…

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com 

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AL GORE: NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER

By: David Phillips

October 22, 2007

 

Former Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize along with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) a United Nations sponsored group.

 

According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

 

From the Whitehouse: "The president learned about it this morning," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, who is traveling with Bush in Florida. "Of course he's happy for Vice President Gore and happy for the international panel on climate change scientists who also shared the peace prize."

 

"Obviously, it's an important recognition and we're sure the vice president is thrilled," added Fratto, who said he did not know of plans for Bush to make a congratulatory call to Gore.

 

Bush can take time out of his busy schedule to congratulate the women’s NCAA basketball champions, but he is too busy to congratulate a fellow American for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

Why Former Vice President Al Gore is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

Gore has made the people of the world and more importantly the people of the United States much more aware of the dangers that face our planet than anyone else. Forget about whether you believe in Global Climate Change which is another topic... Gore has made the subject of Global Climate Change a topic that is talked about in every home in the United States.

 

Polls in the United States show that the top three concerns for Americans:

 

·         The Bush follies in Iraq and Afghanistan

·         The Economy

·         Global Climate Change

 

Al Gore’s greatest accomplishment is not that he has slowed Global Climate Changes, but that it is now talked about in households around the world.

 

Currently more than one third of the United States is experiencing a drought and in some places, an extreme drought. The Southeast and the southwest are the two areas in the United States that are the worst.

 

To view a map of the United States and the areas that are experiencing the worst droughts go to:

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/2007/drmon0925.gif

 

In the Atlanta metropolitan area, which has more than four million people, worst-case analyses show that the city’s main source of water, Lake Lanier, could be drained dry in 90 to 121 days (As of Sept. 25, 2007).

 

Officials in the central North Carolina town of Siler City estimate that without rain, they are 80 days from draining the Lower Rocky River Reservoir, which supplies water for the town’s 8,200 people.

 

For the better part of 18 months, cloudless blue skies and high temperatures have shriveled crops and bronzed lawns from North Carolina to Alabama. "People pay attention to hurricanes," David E. Stooksbury, the state climatologist of Georgia said."They pay attention to tornadoes and earthquakes. But a drought will sneak up on you."

 

In the Southwest the Colorado River receives its water from the snow melts from the Rocky Mountains. The snow melts for the last several years have been smaller and smaller creating less run off into the Colorado River.

 

The Colorado River; rises in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado and flows southwest through Utah into Arizona (where it flows through the Grand Canyon) and then southward through the southern tip of Nevada, then forming the border between California and Arizona and finally into Mexico where it empties into the Gulf of California; the main source of water in the southwestern United States

 

The two manmade lakes, Lake Powell and Lake Mead are drying up and in a few years will be bone dry if the weather patterns remain the same.

 

You may be wondering how global climate change figures into Nobel’s standards for the Peace Prize, it’s pretty simple. As droughts take hold in various parts of the world, food supplies, and water become scarce.

 

Global Climate Change creates Wars

 

Right now in the nation of Sudan on the African continent, hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions more have been displaces in a region called Darfur. This area has been plagued by a drought that has left the land barren and soil red with the blood spilled from a savage war.

 

But it is not just the United States and the African continent that are in danger.

 

South Asia: India, China and Pakistan might well go to war over the shrinking snow melt from the Tibetan Plateau.

 

China and Russia: the loss of agricultural lands could force more of the Chinese population north of the Amur River that runs between China and Russia; which flows into the Sea of Okhotsk.

 

Euphrates River in southwestern Asia; flows into the Persian Gulf;  with water becoming more scarce the area may very well be contested by Syria, Iraq and Turkey  sometime in the near future. 

 

The Aral Sea: a lake to the east of the Caspian Sea lying between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is slowing drying up that at some point will become a source for countries to fight over.

 

Why do right wing conservatives have such hate for Gore?

 

Could it be because he has been right about almost everything the Republicans have been wrong on?

 

·         1992 George H.W. Bush (Papa Bush) ridiculed Gore by calling him the “Ozone Man”. Three years later the scientists who discovered the threat to the ozone layer won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

·         Gore said that if we invade Iraq “the resulting chaos could easily pose a far greater danger to the United States than we presently face from Saddam.”

·         In the 2000 election Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote receiving more than a half a million more votes than Gov. George W, Bush. The Supreme Court later voided everyone’s vote and anointed George W. Bush President.

 

There are many democrats who are currently hoping that former Vice President Al Gore changes his mind and runs for President in the upcoming elections. This too is a source of concern for republicans who would much rather face Clinton or Obama than they would Gore.

 

Anyhow, you now know why Al Gore is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. And one thing is certain and that is, as long as things remain the same, you can count on more death and destruction throughout the world.

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com  

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State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

By: David Phillips

October 15, 2007

 

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program, also known as SCHIP was vetoed by President Bush October 3rd. The SCHIP program which has been in place since 1997, currently funds insurance for approximately 4 million children, and allows states to cover low-income children with no health insurance in families with income that is above Medicaid eligibility levels.

 

The Bill that Bush vetoed, would provide $60 billion over the next five years, $35 billion more than current spending and $30 billion more than the President Bush was willing to spend for health care for children.

 

The Democratic proposed bill to expand SCHIP would add an additional 5.8 million children to the program according to the Congressional Budget Office.  The Bill received bipartisan support from both the Senate and the House. But when the Bill hit President Bush’s desk, he got out his seldom used veto stamp and vetoed the bill that was going to expand the SCHIP program to cover more Children from low income families.

 

It cleared the Senate by enough votes to over-ride a veto 67 to 29, but the vote in the House was 265 to 159, a couple dozen short of the two-thirds needed to override President Bush’s veto.

 

“Because the Congress has chosen to send me a bill that moves our health care system in the wrong direction, I must veto it,” Mr. Bush said in his veto statement, adding that he hoped to work with the lawmakers “to produce a good bill that puts poorer children first.”

 

There are currently an estimated 49 million people in the United States without health care and 9 million of those are children.

 

President Bush said it "would result" in covering children in families with incomes up to $83,000 per year, which is a LIE. The Urban Institute estimated that 70 percent of children who would gain coverage are in families earning half that amount, and the bill contains no requirement for setting income eligibility caps any higher than what is in the current law.

 

Bush also misstated the intent of the SCHIP program by claiming it "was meant to help poor children." That's also not true. Poor children, defined as those in families below the official federal poverty level, were already covered by Medicaid. The stated intent of Congress when it established the program in 1997 was to expand coverage beyond those who were poor to "uninsured low-income" children. And in Washington-speak, there's a significant difference between "poor" and "low-income."

 

The president also says Congress' expansion is a step toward government-run health care for all. President Bush said, "Government-run health care would deprive Americans of the choice and competition that comes from the private market," he said. "It would cause huge increases in government spending."

 

When President Bush says it would deprive Americans of a choice, how is that possible if they have no health coverage to begin with?  Bush makes no sense, but most things that Bush says, seldom make any sense.   

 

Bush also said, “The legislation would raise taxes on working people.” Actually, what SCHIP would do is increase the federal tobacco excise tax on all tobacco products. The federal government puts a tax of 39 cents on a pack cigarettes, with all revenue going into the general treasury fund. The House bill would increase that tax by 45 cents, while the Senate would tack on 61 cents, with the revenue

 

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said while the government does heavily subsidize the health coverage offered through the program, most SCHIP beneficiaries get coverage through private insurers who contract with states.

 

"The truth is, America's largest private insurance lobbying group supports this bill — as do America's doctors, nurses, children's advocates and, most importantly, 72 percent of Americans," Mr. Hoyer said.

 

A few stats from a Rasmussen poll taken October 3-4, 2007

 

Sixty-five percent (65%) of American voters know that President Bush vetoed a bill expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 8% mistakenly thought the President signed the bill while the rest were not sure.

 

Of those who knew of the veto, 57% disapproved and 31% supported the President’s action. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Republicans approve of the President’s decision while 88% of Democrats disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 33% agree with the President and 50% do not.

 

Among all voters, 70% say it is Very Important to insure that all children under 18 have health insurance. This figure includes 83% of Democrats, 71% of unaffiliateds, and 54% of Republicans. Another 18% of all voters say it Somewhat Important to provide health insurance for all children.

 

By a 54% to 35% margin, voters believe it is fair to raise cigarette taxes to cover the cost of expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats believe this approach is fair along with 51% of unaffiliated voters and 49% of Republicans.

 

Health care is emerging as a key issue for the 2008 Election and one on which voters trust Democrats far more than Republicans.

 

President Bush has spent 600 billion on his two Wars, and is currently asking congress to approve another 190 billion, but asking for an additional 35 billion to help insure children is too much to ask for.

 

The Democrats are trying to round up enough votes to overturn Bush’s veto; the Democrats say they are not sure they will get enough support from Republicans to do this. But in my opinion, any Republican that votes against the veto over-ride will find that their vote will be used against them in the 2008 elections.

 

Bush has pulled out his veto stamp four times now, twice to veto federal funding for Stem cell research to find cures for diseases, once to veto a military spending bill for his Wars because they called for a timeline for bringing our troops home, and now to keep children from receiving healthcare.

 

All four of Bush’s vetos have been anti-life, in one way or another, as I said earlier, Bush seldom makes any sense.

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com 

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DISSENT: DOES IT MAKE THE UNITED STATES WEAKER?

By: David Phillips

October 8, 2007

 

If you ask most right wing Republicans if dissent makes the United States weaker, they will assuredly say yes, and they will continue to say that speaking out against the President and his policies on War embolden our enemies.

 

These Republicans will say it is OK to be against the War, just don’t tell anyone.

 

The latest polls show that 69 percent of the nation is now against the War, and 30 percent are still gung ho.

 

I have found that the majority of those who still support the War have never served in the military and most come from the fringes of the right wing. These ChickenHawks have no problem sending their neighbors off to war.

 

The definition of a ChickenHawk:  Is someone who refuse’s or refused to fight in any War they have started or support.

 

Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney fit this description. Neither has served in a War, and Bush who did join the Texas Air National Guard never went to Vietnam, in fact the Jets that he trained in were obsolete and would never see action again. Dick Cheney received five deferments to keep from serving his country in the military.

 

Dissent, Republicans have been using the first amendment against our country and have accused those who would dare to speak an opinion that is contrary to government policy, treasonous.

 

Over the two hundred plus years that our young nation has existed, millions have fought and died to protect our constitutional rights. But in today’s caustic political atmosphere protesting and speaking out is frowned upon, and considered anti-American and Un-Patriotic, more so than ever before.

 

Fred Thompson one of the ten GOP elephants running for President, said in his first interview after he declared his candidacy, "If we look weak and divided in this country, we're going to pay a heavy price for it in the future," he went on. "We're living in the era of the suitcase bomb. And they're not going to go away. They're here now, they're armed and dangerous, and they're trying to get weapons of mass destruction."

 

Rudi Giuliani a couple of months back said “if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001. But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.”

 

Republicans have been playing the fear factor for the last three elections, and they have been doing a very good job of instilling fear across our nation. But in the 2006 election, Americans started to wise up to their fear tactics.

 

But old tricks die hard, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and the other elephants are sticking with the fear factor. Each one supports Bush’s war in Iraq.

 

And each at one time or another has said that dissent makes the United States weaker, and emboldens the enemy.

 

Dissent Emboldens our Enemies. What a bunch of BS.

 

Rep Ron Paul (R-TX), one of the ten GOP elephants, is the only GOP candidate that wants us to withdraw from Iraq, in fact he wants us to withdraw from every corner of the world, but that is another story.

 

Since 911, showing even the slightest difference for Bush and his policies has had many chilling effects. People have been removed from planes for wearing T-Shirts that have Bush’s picture and the word Liar attached.  At political rallies people have been forcibly removed for speaking out. Protest rallies with permits are now caged and out of sight. People are arrested at rallies for no reason only to be released twenty four hours later with no charges and no apologies.

 

Dissent has been turned into an ugly word.

 

Bush, Cheney and Rove fanned the flames of patriotism to garner support for Bush’s folly in Iraq.

 

The Nazi Herman Goering once said, “Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”

 

If you take a good look at the quote, you will see that is exactly what Bush did to bring about his war in Iraq.

 

Because of Bush’s abuse of the Executive Office he has brought about several illegal policies that he has used to help squash dissent all in the name of fighting Terror and the Evil Doers.

 

Massive data bases are being collected on every single American in the United States.

 

The Department of Homeland Security has a data-mining program that attempts to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations. Similar to a Pentagon program killed by Congress in 2003 called Total Information Awareness (TIA), over concerns about civil liberties, the new program could take effect as soon as next year.

 

But researchers testing the system are likely to already have violated privacy laws by reviewing real information, instead of fake data, according to a source familiar with a congressional investigation into the $42.5 million program.

 

Bearing the unwieldy name Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE), the program is on the cutting edge of analytical technology that applies mathematical algorithms to uncover hidden relationships in data.

 

The idea is to troll a vast sea of information, including audio and visual, and extract suspicious people, places and other elements based on their links and behavioral patterns.

 

The privacy violation, described in a Government Accountability Office report that is due out soon, was one of three by separate government data mining programs, according to the GAO. "Undoubtedly there are likely to be more," GAO Comptroller David M. Walker said in a recent congressional hearing.

 

The chairman of the Senate committee that oversees the Justice Department said the database was "ripe for abuse." The American Civil Liberties Union immediately derided the quality of the information that could be used to score someone as a terror threat.

 

Computers that fill the space equal to three football fields.

 

The National Security Agency (NSA) is home to some of the largest banks of computers in the world, they also have one of the largest fields of satellite antenna (Dishes). The NSA data mines as well as pays for information from companies that collect data. One company, named ChoicePoint sold the NSA 20 billion statistical points on 300 million Americans.

 

Dissention is one of the corner stone’s of our constitution, freedom of speech is America.

 

Bush spies on Americans, is the country Bush fears most America?

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

 

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

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Iran: The War Drums are Beating Louder

By: David Phillips

October 1, 2007

 

This past week the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in New York to address the General assembly at the UN on Tuesday. The day before, on Monday, he was invited to speak at Columbia University. The Iranian President was greeted by throngs of protesters.          

 

Columbia President Lee Bollinger had pledged to quiz Ahmadinejad on subjects such as human rights, the Holocaust and Iran's nuclear program. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the past has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, and has denied that the Holocaust never happened. In fact, earlier this year he hosted a Holocaust deniers forum, that included amongst it visitors, David Duke, the former Grand Wizard for the Ku Klux Klan. It was a who’s who of racists and bigots.

 

Columbia President Lee Bollinger said it was a question of free speech and academic freedom.

 

"It's extremely important to know who the leaders are of countries that are your adversaries. To watch them, to see how they think, to see how they reason or do not reason. To see whether they're fanatical, or to see whether they are sly," Bollinger told ABC's "Good Morning America."

 

I guess Bollinger doesn’t follow the news much, because if he did, he would know how Ahmadinejad thinks, he would know how he reasons and more importantly he would know how he does not use reasoning.

 

The visit to the college in my opinion was nothing more than a chance to give one of our enemies a tool to use as propaganda back in Iran and in the Middle East.

 

Also this past Tuesday President Bush addressed the United Nations general assembly, but he barely mentioned Iran, probably as a snub to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was present.

 

Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism (followed by Saudi Arabia, but that’s another story). He supplies the Palestinian terror organization Hamas with weapons and money; he also supplies weapons and money to the terror organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.

 

He supplies weapons such as IED’s (Improvised Explosive Device) to the Shiite’s in Iraq who use then to kill Americans. He supplies IED’s to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan who use them to kill Americans.

 

He my opinion, Ahmadinejad should have been thrown in jail the moment he set foot on American soil.

 

One of the main contentions between Iran and the United States is Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear bomb. Iran says their program is strictly for electricity and they are not trying to build a bomb.

 

But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have said that Iran has built facilities that are meant to enrich Uranium and produce plutonium which is used for nuclear bombs. Europe last year offered to supply the nuclear material needed for producing electricity, which could not be weaponized, but Iran turned them down.

 

By Iran turning down Europe’s offer to produce electricity with nuclear material provided by Germany and monitoring the facilities, is a pretty good indicator that Iran has other plans. 

 

Because of Iran’s refusal to stop their pursuit to enrich Uranium, earlier this year the United Nations imposed further sanctions against Iran. But Russia and China have watered down the sanctions and nothing has really changed with Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.    

 

This past year there has been a lot of saber rattling from both Bush and Ahmadinejad. If you recall earlier this year the Iranians seized fifteen British sailors and marines in the Persian Gulf.

 

Back in January of this year, President Bush gave a speech to the Nation to announce his surge of 21,500 troops into Iraq, in that same speech Bush also said that he is sending in some Patriot Missile Systems and another Aircraft Carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf.

 

The mention of the Patriot Missile Systems was missed, over looked, or simply ignored by the main stream media. Think about it, the Patriot Missile System is designed to shoot down incoming missiles. But the Sunni’s, the Shiite’s and al-Qaeda don’t have any missiles, but Iran does.

 

In that same speech, Bush said he was sending in a second Air Craft Carrier battle group. These two battle groups are joined by British Navy Battle groups.

 

Plan B

 

Alexis Debat, Director of Terrorism and National Security at the Nixon Center said earlier this month that the Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days.

 

The US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” Debat added.

 

Debat was speaking at a meeting organized by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military had concluded: “Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.” It was, he added, a “very legitimate strategic calculus”.

 

Israel, which has warned it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, has made its own preparations for airstrikes and is said to be ready to attack if the Americans back down.

Vice President Dick Cheney has been pushing for a US attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities and by all reports Bush has not been willing to purse this course. But as Bush gets closer to the end of his reign it would seem that he is reconsidering because of Iran’s continued advance to acquire a nuclear weapon, and Bush has said that he will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear bomb.

 

So Bush has painted himself into a corner, first he has made his pledge against Iran making a bomb and second, he feels that his replacement in the Whitehouse may not have the guts to stop them.

 

The clock is ticking on Bush’s presidency, our Air Force and Navy are positioned, the Pentagon is ready to go with in twenty four hours of Bush giving the green light, and it would seem that all systems are a go.

 

 The War Drums are Beating Louder.

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

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SUPPORTING THE TROOPS

By: David Phillips

September 24, 2007

 

Supporting the troops, three words that show patriotism and caring for our soldiers in harm’s way, and at times three words that are divisive.

 

President Bush says these three words all the time, Republicans and Democratic politicians also use these three words while trying to show that they care about the troops and their families.

 

But was does it mean to “Support the Troops?”

 

If you are a citizen does it mean hanging a yellow magnet on the rear of your car? Why do Republicans say they support the War, but when democrats say it, the republicans snicker?

 

Is patriotism partisan or bipartisan? Or is patriotism inherently American?

 

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was once asked by a soldier during one of his speeches why soldiers are being sent to Iraq without any body armor, and Rumsfeld replied: “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

 

Is that supporting the troops, sending them into battle without body armor?

 

Republicans, who controlled both the House and the Senate for the first six years of Bush’s Presidency didn’t seem to mind. Even while extra money was allocated for more body armor, to this day, troops are still being sent to Iraq without body armor. In fact many parents have been buying the armor themselves on web sites such as eBay and sending the armor to their children in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

 

Back in March of this year President Bush had requested another $100 Billion for his Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the democratically controlled House tacked on a few billion for the VA because in Bush’s budget request earlier in the year, Bush had spending cuts scheduled for the VA’s budget for the years 2008 and 2009. The Whitehouse told Congress that if money was diverted to the VA, Bush would veto the bill, and he did.    

 

Also earlier this year if you all recall, the Army Hospital, Walter Reed was in the news because of the living conditions recovering wounded soldiers were forced to live in. The building and rooms were infested with rats, leaky pipes and the conditions were unfit for humans. That certainly was no way to show our Support for the Troops.

 

But how did that come about, Walter Reed Hospital is famous as a well run medical facility.

 

Privatization, President Bush outsourced the support staff to a company called IAP Worldwide Services; IAP cut the support staff from 300 to 50. The U.S. Army awarded a five-year, $120 million contract in January 2006 to IAP Worldwide Services, and for every support staff cut, more money went to their bottom line.

 

President Bush likes to privatize services that were once done by government employees to private companies who care more about their bottom lines then the service they are being paid to provide.

 

Oh, and the CEO of IAP Worldwide Services Al Neffgen, is a former senior Halliburton official. And one other thing about IAP Worldwide Services before I move on, IAP was also one of the companies that were given a contract by FEMA to deliver Ice to Katrina victims, and you know how well that went.

 

Back in April of this year, new Secretary of Defense Bill Gates, extended the tours of duty for the military from 12 months to 15 months for those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Is that supporting the Troops?

 

In exchange for the extension, Gates said the service will be able to give all units a year at home between deployments. But soldiers are not getting the year at home as promised most are getting 10 months at the most.

 

Our troops are spread very thin, and many have said that we have reached the breaking point, is that supporting the troops?

 

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said "The Bush administration has failed to create a plan to fully equip and train our troops, bring them home safely and soon, and provide our veterans with the quality care they deserve," Pelosi went on to say, “Extending the tours of all active-duty Army personnel is an unacceptable price for our troops and their families to pay."

 

Some of the Support our troops have come to rely on by President Bush and the Republican Party include but are not limited to:

 

  • Outsourced medical support.
  • Slashed Funding for the VA
  • Extended tours in Iraq and Afghanistan form 12 to 15 months
  • Outsourced logistical support.
  • Armed forces Stretched to the Breaking Point
  • Troops sent to War with no Body Armor.
  • Troops sent to War with no Armor for Trucks or Humvees.
  • Politicizing the troops at every opportunity.

 

Because of the Walter Reed Scandal, Democrats created the “The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act” a piece of legislation that establishes a hot line for medical patients to report problems with any treatments, and to cut through the red tape for when the wounded move from the Pentagons care to the Veterans Administrations care. At least that is what it was designed to do.

 

There are currently 400,000 wounded personnel waiting for their cases to be heard that will determine the extent of permanent disability and monetary compensation the soldiers will receive. The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act is supposed to assist in ridding the Military’s long waiting list. But President Bush has voiced concern over one of the provisions that require imposing a one-year moratorium, on a program that lets private companies compete with public agencies for military and hospital work contracts, private companies, such as IAP Worldwide Services.

 

When Bush says that he supports the troops, and gives speech after speech with soldiers standing behind him as if they are his personal back drop, and while he is slashing the budget for the V.A., or sending troops into battle without body armor, or awarding contracts to firms who only care about their bottom lines, maybe, just maybe you will think twice, when he says, that he supports the troops.

 

Supporting the Troops, three words that have been so politicized, that the true meaning of the words are lost in the rhetoric of politics.

 

 

 

David is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

 

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<a href=http://yodasworld.org>Yoda’s World</a>

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<a href=http://www.syvjournal.com/>Santa Ynez Valley Journal</a>

 

 

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911 REMEMBERED:  SIX YEARS LATER

By: David Phillips

September 17, 2007

 

This past Tuesday marked the sixth anniversary of the attacks by Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terror organization. The attacks killed 2,976 people in New York, The Pentagon, and in a field near Shanksville, Pa.

 

September 11, 2001 will be a day that is etched into the memories of all Americans. It will also be remembered as the day that all American lives have changed, for better or worse.

 

On September 14, 2001 President Bush while standing atop part of the ruble that once was the World Trade Center Towers said, "As we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens"... a male voice from the crowd that had gathered around the rumble yells out, "President Bush, we can't hear you!" and Bush replied to the voice, “I can hear you...I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you. And the people...And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."

 

This was truly President Bush’s finest hour; his words galvanized a nation and most of the free world. All of American was ready to stand with our President, and all were eager for retribution.  

 

On September 20, 2001 President Bush Address’s a Joint Session of Congress and the American People:

 

President Bush says, “In the normal course of events, Presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the Union.  Tonight, no such report is needed.  It has already been delivered by the American people.”

 

“We have seen the state of our Union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion.  We have seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.  We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own.”

 

“My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our Union -- and it is strong.”  

 

“Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom.  Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.  Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. “

 

Again President Bush looks strong and provides guidance and leadership, while receiving applause from a United Congress. Those that were in attendance and all who watched his address on TV that night, were united, there were no Democrats, there were no Republicans there were only Americans.

 

During this address President Bush goes on to say that it was al-Qaeda and it’s leader Osama Bin Laden who were responsible for the attacks and that they were located in Afghanistan and protected by the Taliban who had taken control of the country.

 

Americans were ready, we knew who attacked us, and we knew where to find them. President Bush gave the Taliban the opportunity to turn Bin Laden over to us to avoid a full scale attack. The Taliban refused to turn over Bin Laden and any of his al-Qaeda group, and so we gathered our forces and when all the pieces were in place we attacked, we went into Afghanistan and we were not going to stop until we had captured or killed Osama Bin Laden and all of his al-Qaeda organization.

 

Or so we thought.

 

In  December 2001 our forces had Osama Bin Laden cornered in the Tora Bora mountain range between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then out of the clear blue sky, President Bush recalls most of our troops, tells them to pack up their bags, because we are going to Iraq.

 

“The most important thing is for us to find Osama Bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” George W. Bush September 13, 2001

 

“I don't know where he is. I have no idea and it's not that important. It's not our priority.” George W. Bush March 13, 2002

 

Why the sudden change in just six months?

 

Iraq, a country that had NOTHING to do with the attacks on 911. A country that was neutered with U.S. forces controlling both the Northern and Southern borders with a No Fly Zone, ever since Bush Sr. kicked Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991.

 

President George W. Bush said that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States because he had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s). Well, we later learned that that was not the case, and about every six months Bush gives a different reason for his folly into Iraq. Bush has tried to link Iraq to the September 11, 2001 attacks here, and at one point 79% of the country in a Gallup poll said that they thought Saddam was responsible for 911.

 

Bush eventually went on record saying that Saddam had nothing to do with the attacks here in the United States. But Bush still tries to link the two together in almost every speech. The CIA and the Pentagon are both on record saying that there were no al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq prior to our invasion.

 

But now al-Qaeda is in Iraq because of Bush’s folly and he’s again is trying to link the al-Qaeda that is now in Iraq because of his war, to the al-Qaeda that attacked us on 911.

 

And because of the so-called War on Terror, we here in the United States have seen many of our civil liberties erode.  Such as:

 

·         We can now legally torture people

·         We can now legally kidnap people

·         We can now legally have secret prisons

·         We can now legally wiretap without warrants

·         We can now legally search homes and businesses without warrants

·         We can now legally data mine E-Mails without warrants

·         We can now legally open and read US Mail without warrants

·         We can now legally track financial records without warrants

·         We can now legally read someone’s health records without warrants

·         We can now legally data mine millions of telephone records without warrants

 

All of these are now legal: some through the Patriot Act, some through the Military Commissions Act, and others by Bush declaring he has the right through Executive Privilege (which he does not).

 

So while September 11, 2001 will be etched into our minds forever, the actions by our government that followed will also have a lasting effect on every American for years to come. For better or worse.

 

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

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Gen. Petraeus to testify before Congress THIS week

By: David Phillips

September 10, 2007

 

 

On the 15th of September, Gen. David Petraeus will go before Congress to give his assessment on the Surge of troops in Iraq that President Bush announced back in January.

 

The reasoning Bush used for the Surge was to give the al-Maliki led government some breathing room from hostility to institute benchmarks demanded by Congress, most of which were laid out in the Iraq Study Group report from last November.

 

Progress on those benchmarks has been slow, real slow, and the August recess of the Iraqi parliament did not help the situation.

 

There are eighteen benchmarks that were to be used as a measure to show what progress the Surge has accomplished.

 

The General Accountability Office (GAO) a non-partisan investigative arm of Congress charged with examining matters relating to the receipt and payment of public funds, gave their report to Congress this week regarding the eighteen benchmarks and concluded that the Iraqi government has failed to meet 15 of the 18 benchmarks established by Congress in conjunction with the authorization of President Bush’s troop surge in January.

 

The report concluded that the Iraqi government has fully met only three of the legislative, security, and economic benchmarks. The GAO concluded that four other benchmarks have been partially met, and the rest had not been met.

 

“Overall, key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds. These results do not diminish the courageous efforts of coalition forces,” the report said.

 

Only one of eight legislative benchmarks was met. The rights of minority political parties are protected. One other benchmark was partially met. Legislation was passed on the creation and implementation of regions. However, this law will not be enacted until 2008.

 

Iraqi security was one of the target goals Congress had asked for, and the report said, “Iraq’s government has established various committees in support of the Baghdad security plan and established almost all of the planned Joint Security Stations in Baghdad. The government has partially met the benchmarks of providing three trained and ready brigades for Baghdad operations and eliminating safe havens for outlawed groups.”

 

Other Iraqi security measures were not met they include:

 

·         Eliminating militia control of local security

·         Eliminating political interventions in military operations

·         Ensured evenhanded enforcement of the laws

·         Increasing the military’s ability to operate independently

 

The Iraqi government has allocated and spent $1.5 billion of the $10 billion they were given for reconstruction (this does not include the $9 Billion that has gone missing), which is the only economic benchmark that has partially been met.

 

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said of the GAO report, “The independent GAO report released today contrasts sharply with President Bush’s stay-the-course Iraq. The GAO report is the latest in a series of assessments to conclude that the Iraqi government has failed to meet nearly every political, economic and security benchmark laid out by President Bush himself in January.”

 

Well now you have a general idea of what the report said, I say general idea because the report is over a hundred pages. But I think you have the major facts.

 

This brings us back to September 15th and the report General David Petraeus will be giving to Congress. Ryan Crocker the U.S. ambassador for Iraq will also be giving his assessments on the same date.

 

But what will be said, and whose words will be coming out of the General and the Ambassadors mouth?

 

You would think that since these two have an extensive expertise on the subject since Petraeus and Crocker are running the show, so to speak, in Iraq. But that is not the case.

 

Last month the Whitehouse announced that the reports to be given by both Petraeus and Crocker will be written by Whitehouse personnel. That’s right, the Whitehouse will be writing the report that will be given to Congress and shown to the Nation.

 

For months now, we have all been hearing the White House responded to questions about Iraq the same way: let’s wait until September and see what Petraeus and Crocker have to say.

 

Hell, they have known for months what will be said because they are writing the reports that Petraeus and Crocker will be spewing, and all the while they have been lying to America and the entire world, like they have been doing since Bush started his folly into Iraq.

 

So when Petraeus and Crocker give their reports they both will be lacking any credibility. Their much-ballyhooed September report will have their names on it, but will have been written by who knows who in the Bush administration, which has lost all standing with the majority of the American people.   

 

This past Labor Day weekend President Bush made an impromptu visit to Iraq while on his way to Australia, where he gave a speech and led the troops to believe that in the near future some troops might be able to come home.

 

Bush told the troops that any cut would depend on the security situation in Iraq. After Bush met with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, Bush said they” tell me if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.”

 

Bush put emphasis on the word "if" and he didn't say how many troops could be withdrawn, or when.

 

But once Bush was back on Air Force One and on his way to Australia, he changed his tune while talking to reporters.

 

Bush said, “If you look at my comments over the past eight months, it’s gone from a security situation in the sense that we’re either going to get out and there will be chaos, or MORE troops,” he said. “Now the situation has changes where I’m able to speculate on the hypothetical.”

 

Lives are being lost every day, and he wants to speculate on the hypothetical. Sounds like more hogwash.

 

Bush said, “My Message to Maliki is: ‘You’ve got a lot of work to do, and whatever decision is made in Washington D.C., is all aimed at helping you achieve what is necessary to get the work done.’”

 

Mr. President, the same goes for you too.

 

The White house wrote the report that Petraeus and Crocker will be giving on September 15th. How on earth, can anyone believe anything that the Bush administration says?

 

Bush said on several occasions that the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will be left up to the next President and this is the only that he has ever said about his Wars that I do believe.

 

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

 

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Unions: Are They Still Necessary?

By: David Phillips

September 3, 2007

 

Over the last 100 years or so, Unions have changed the way workers are treated in almost every industry in the United States. Unions have given us child labor laws, higher wages, health care, sick leave, vacations, and dozens and dozens of other benefits, that the average worker today takes for granted.

 

For decades Republicans have shown their disdain for Unions and middle class working American’s, while supporting the corporations who give them campaign money.

 

 Former President Ronald Reagan, who never met a labor union he did NOT want to break up, was one of the most anti-labor Presidents in our history. Republican presidents never have had much regard for unions, which almost always vote Democrat.

 

Reagan's war on labor began in the summer of 1981, when he fired 13,000 striking air traffic controllers and destroyed their union. As Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson noted, that was "an unambiguous signal that employers need feel little or no obligation to their workers, and employers got that message loud and clear -- illegally firing workers who sought to unionize, replacing permanent employees who could collect benefits with temps who could not, shipping factories and jobs abroad."

 

President Reagan's Republican predecessors treated union leaders much as they treated Democratic members of Congress -- as people to be fought with at times, but also as people to be bargained with at other times. But Reagan engaged in precious little bargaining. He waged almost continuous war against organized labor.

 

And Reagan’s war on Unions and middle class America continues today. President Bush has completely embraced corporations and their campaign contributions. President Bush even tells us that illegal aliens are good for our economy because they do the jobs American citizens will not.

 

Those construction jobs and those tech jobs and all those other jobs that American workers have been doing for decades, are now being done by those illegal aliens who work for sub standard wages, with little or no benefits because the American Union workers who use to do those jobs have been fired, and the Unions disbanded, in favor of those illegal alien workers who will do the jobs that American workers will not do, according to President Bush.

 

Corporations are getting richer with cheap labor because unions have been busted, and middle class Americans, according to President Bush have lost their jobs to illegal aliens because the Americans, who were doing those jobs, are no longer willing to do those jobs.

 

Americans in their thirties are earning less today than their fathers did in the 70’s. The study was produced by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Urban Institute. It looked at income levels of American men in their 30s, which can be a good indicator of lifetime income.

 

Census Bureau figures, and the study's authors found that after adjusting for inflation, men in their 30s in 2004 had a median income of about $35,000 per year, for a 12 percent drop compared with $40,000 per year for men in the same age group in 1974.

This study is a clear indication that the Republican Union Busting the last few decades has had a clear impact on the American middle class.

 

For millions of working people, the American Dream is now a remnant of days gone by, something your parents and grandparents believed in and maybe even experienced. One of the reasons for the loss of the dream has been the decline of union jobs in America.

 

Unions and working people, not Corporate America, fought for the eight-hour work day, unemployment insurance, Social Security, the minimum wage, paid overtime, Medicare, safety and health laws, family leave, and a fairer share of the nation's wealth.

 

Unions give workers the collective power to negotiate with employers to win better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Unions also help working people gain a louder voice in politics and fight for their rights.

 

On average, union workers earn 25% more than non-union workers and are 22% more likely to have employer-paid health benefits, according to the AFL-CIO.

 

Less than 10% of the American work force today is represented by a Union, and corporate American is laughing all the way to the bank. In fact, in the eyes of many employers, this rate is still too high. By comparison, one out of three American workers in the mid-1950’s was represented by a union.

 

Employers know that unions are effective. That's why they illegally fire and harass workers each year for supporting a union. When a company fires one worker for supporting a union, it can have a disturbing effect on the rest the work force, which is the ultimate goal of such harassment.

 

Since labor laws were first enacted in 1935 establishing the right of workers to form unions, businesses in America have waged a non-stop campaign to weaken the laws. Rather than respect the right to join a union, employers hire anti-union lawyers and do whatever it takes to keep employees from organizing. And sadly, the courts and government agencies that are supposed to enforce the laws too often favor the interests of employers over workers.

 

For years now, our elected officials on the right side of the aisle have been whittling away at unions, to increase the profits of corporate America. The republican base while supporting these tactics, have inadvertently lowered their own wages and benefits because their political leaders convinced them that Unions are bad for America.

 

Unions have brought about great change that has benefitted each and every American, and now we have a Republican President who has convinced the same republican base, that bringing in foreign labor to do the jobs that Americans won’t (because the wages have been slashed and no benefits are offered) is a good thing.

 

If a Republican repeats a lie often enough, the Sheeple will follow…

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

You can also read David’s weekly column in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or you can go to their web site: www.Syvjournal.com

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GUN CONTROL

By: David Phillips

August 27, 2007

 

Second Amendment of our Constitution

 

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

 

This is the part of our Constitution that says a citizen of the United States can own a gun, or at least that is what the National Rifle Association (NRA) has always said.

 

The NRA and its powerful lobby organization in Washington have made sure that every Republican politician also believes that every citizen can own a gun.

 

But the NRA and right wing gun nuts, also feel that ANY type of gun should be available to every citizen.

 

A few months back, there was a terrible shooting at Virginia Tech College, were thirty three people were killed. The shooter we are told had some mental disorders, and never should have had access to any guns.

 

Background checks vary from State to State, and in Virginia names of mental patients were never checked. Congress quickly passed Legislation that is supposed to make it easier to check into the mental status of a gun buyer.

 

The NRA recently argued that suspected terrorists should be allowed to buy guns because they have not been proven to be terrorists. They used this same logic for mental patients, saying that until someone is proven to have some mental disorder, he or she has the right to buy and own guns.

 

 So according to the NRA, everyone can own guns, Yee Haw.

 

And the NRA says all guns are fair game. Everything from hand guns, machine hand guns, to military M-16’s, AK-47’s, UZI’s and even long range sniper rifles, can be owned. The only thing that is illegal are automatic weapons, meaning the gun keeps firing as long as the trigger is held down. Semi-automatic is legal, meaning the trigger must be pulled each time a bullet is fired.

 

Moral arguments why the 2nd is not absolute

 

First, it important to note that no right is absolute, even those supposedly granted by God and guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. For example, even though the 1st Amendment guarantees me the right to free speech, the right is limited. I cannot publish a newspaper in which I claim that a certain public figure, for example the president of a major company, is a cocaine user, if that fact is known to me to be completely untrue. It would be called libel, and it is a valid abridgment of my rights. The classic example of an abridgment of freedom of speech is the imminent danger rule: I cannot stand up in a crowded theatre and scream that there is a fire (if there is not), because the ensuing panic may cause injury.

 

The reason abridgment of rights is sometimes valid is that rights can very easily clash. In the example above, my right to free speech clashes with the people in theatre's rights to not be trampled. The same analysis can be applied to the 2nd Amendment. If the right to own a gun interferes with public safety, that right can morally be abridged, in order to protect public safety. And the courts have agreed with this position, as follows.

 

Legal arguments why the 2nd is not absolute

 

Throughout the history of the USA, many Court decisions have limited the right to keep and bear arms. The Miller case in the early 20th century limited the right to own certain classes of weapons. More recently, we have the following from the United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, which indicates that the clause about "a well regulated militia" does not mean that the average citizen is part of that militia: "Since the Second Amendment right 'to keep and bear arms' applies only to the right of the state to maintain a militia, and not to the individual's right to bear arms, there can be no serious claim to any express constitutional right of an individual to possess a firearm." (Stevens v. U.S., United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 1971).

 

A similar ruling from the Seventh Circuit held that "Construing [the language of the Second Amendment] according to its plain meaning, it seems clear that the right to bear arms is inextricably connected to the preservation of a militia . . . We conclude that the right to keep and bear handguns is not guaranteed by the Second Amendment." (Quilici v. Village of Morton Grove, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 1982).

 

As you can see there is a strong case proving that the 2nd Amendment does NOT guarantee every citizen the right to own guns. I personally believe that limited gun ownership should be legal, but I think that there must be limits on the types of guns that citizens can own.

 

FIREARM FACTS-Guns in the United States - Easy Access to Deadly Weapons

 

  • There are approximately 192 million privately owned firearms in the U.S. - 65 million of which are handguns.

 

  • Currently, an estimated 39% of households have a gun, while 24% have a handgun.

 

  • In 1998 alone, licensed firearms dealers sold an estimated 4.4 million guns, 1.7 million of which were handguns. Additionally, it is estimated that 1 to 3 million guns change. hands in the secondary market each year, and many of these sales are not regulated.

 

Gun Deaths and Injury - The United States Leads the World in Firearm Violence

 

  • In 2004, 29,569 people in the United States died from firearm-related deaths – 11,624 (39%) of those were murdered; 16,750 (57%) were suicides; 649 (2.2%) were accidents; and in 235 (.8%) the intent was unknown.  In comparison, 33,651 Americans were killed in the Korean War and 58,193 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.

 

  • For every firearm fatality in the United States in 2005, there were estimated to be more than two non-fatal firearm injuries.

 

  • In 2004, firearms were used to murder 56 people in Australia, 184 people in Canada, 73 people in England and Wales, 5 people in New Zealand, and 37 people in Sweden.

 

  • In comparison, firearms were used to murder 11,344 people in the United States.

 

Source: US Department of the Treasury. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

Source: Center for Electronic Records. National Archives

 

 

Common sense arguments

 

When our Constitution was written people used guns for hunting food, as well as protection. Today people buy their food and no longer hunt for food (at least most do not). Unfortunately there is still a need for protection, but machine guns are offensive weapons, meant for just one thing, and that is to kill.

 

The bottom line is not everyone should be allowed to buy a gun just because they live here and not every gun should be for sale.

 

I wonder if I can own a Tank…

 

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

You can also read David’s Political Opinions in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or their web site:

www.syvjournal.com

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SCHOOL VOUCHERS

By: David Phillips

 

"If parents don't have options besides public schools, there is no accountability.  Accountability without consequences means nothing….The system needs to be shaken up."  President George W.Bush

 

What is a school voucher?

 

A school voucher, also called an education voucher, it is a certificate by which parents are given the ability to pay for the education of their children at a school of their choice, rather than the public school to which they were assigned.

 

So if the public school to which a child happens to be assigned has very low ratings or might be in the inner city and run down, a school voucher would give the child the same chance of a quality education in a private school as the rich kids whose parents can afford the school.

 

The idea is to give the opportunity for a quality education to all who want the chance.

 

·         Parents that are rich enough have a choice of schools for their kids; Parents, who are not rich enough, do not have the same choices.

·         Private schools offer better competition between students as well as between other schools.

·         Private schools have better teachers as well as a more diverse curriculum.

·         Providing private school access to everyone will increase diversity.

·         There are basically two types of private schools, Religious and Non-Religious

 

Sounds like a great idea, a good school for all who wish to attend, so where is the down side, this sounds too good to be true. 

 

Why are people against this?

 

·         Most of the schools in the voucher program are religious; government funding violates the 1st Amendment separation of church and state.

·         Vouchers take funds away from already underfunded public schools.

·         Private schools aren't accountable to any oversight organization; thus, they may not act responsibly.

·         Public schools must accept everyone regardless of disabilities, test scores, religion, or other characteristics; private schools can show favoritism or discrimination in selecting students.

 

Over ninety five percent of all school vouchers go to religious schools. The Establishment clause of the 1st Amendment was put in specifically by the framers to avoid the abuse that inevitably comes with state-sponsored religious education.

 

The school voucher system makes bad schools even worse. By taking away money meant for public schools and diverting the money into school vouchers, the public schools cannot keep up with the cost of teachers, books, computers, after school programs, security, maintenance, etc. So the public schools that need the money the most are losing when we subsidize private schools.

 

Private schools have very little or no government oversight so we don't know how well private schools will perform.  Public schools are subject to government oversight and more rules & regulation. Thus, tighter control is placed on the teaching methods and system of education.

 

The public school system in this country varies depending on where you live. If you live in the Suburbs chances are you will be going to a better school than those that live in inner cities. But regardless of where you live, ALL public schools accept all students, regardless of what challenges they present.

 

Private schools on the other hand can institute ANY criteria they want for choosing or refusing students. Thus, they can discriminate or make eligibility standards much more difficult for poorer students.

 

“No Child Left Behind “is part of the problem

 

In 2001, right after 911, Congress passed “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB), which has turned into a miserable failure. According to the Department of Education over one million students dropped out of High School in 2006.

 

The NCLB act requires schools to teach kids to pass standardized tests, schools and their school districts are required to pass a certain percentage in order to maintain their federal support. Our schools have gone from teaching our kids with a much diversified curriculum, to teaching kids in a very narrow course outline, only to pass a standardized test.

 

The Department of Education estimates that more than 7000 students per day are dropping out of High School this year.

 

There is no school voucher program anywhere in our country that can stop all these kids from dropping out. We need to invest our tax dollars on public schools not private schools. Our public schools need better teachers with higher salaries and all must be held accountable for the jobs they do.

 

Education is the Silver Bullet for many of our countries woes

 

Communities that have solid educational systems reap many benefits for their efforts. Many graduates stay in the community and become very productive citizens. Those with a good education put back into the community, making the community stronger. Those that graduate high school and continue on with their educations, often return back to their towns and cities, and become your future Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, and Businessmen and women.

 

Communities with better educated people see less crime.   Justice Department data shows that seventy five percent of all prison inmates (2.4 million inmates) in the United States, lack a complete high school education.

 

High school graduates make more than a quarter of a million dollars more, over their lifetime, compared to those who do not graduate high school. Source the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

The Cure for many of America’s woes can be found in the public school system. There are many changes that need to take place in the public school system, and change requires money, tax dollars, and change is hard; teachers need to be held accountable for the jobs they perform. Those that fail the kids they teach year after year need to be made to do their jobs properly through refresher courses on teaching.

 

Government funds should be kept with the public school systems that take on these challenges rather than private schools that may discriminate. There is not enough space in private schools to offer every parent the choice of public or private, and not everyone wants to attend a private religious school.

 

In the end it becomes obvious that our tax dollars for education should focus on the public school system, the school voucher system is a boondoggle, and in several states, including Florida, the courts have denied school vouchers because of the Separation of Church and State.

 

In short, vouchers will force taxpayers to support two entire education systems -- public and private. To make things worse, no extra money will be funneled to those schools that desperately need taxpayer support.

 

 David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

You can also read David’s Political Opinions in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or their web site:

www.syvjournal.com

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SHOULD BUSH AND CHENEY BE IMPEACHED?

By: David Phillips

 

Should President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney be impeached?  The short answer is yes. The long answer is also yes, but needs further explaining, which I will provide.

 

But first a little background on the Impeachment process

 

Removing an official from office requires two steps: (1) a formal accusation, or impeachment, by the House of Representatives, and (2) a trial and conviction by the Senate. Impeachment requires a majority vote of the House; conviction is more difficult, requiring a two-thirds vote by the Senate. The vice president presides over the Senate proceedings in the case of all officials except the president, whose trial is presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. This is because the vice president can hardly be considered a disinterested party—if his or her boss is forced out of office he or she is next in line for the top job!

 

High crimes and misdemeanors is a phrase from the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 4: "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

 

"High" in the legal parlance of the 18th century means "against the State". A high crime is one which seeks the overthrow of the country, which gives aid or comfort to its enemies, or which injures the country to the profit of an individual or group (Halliburton). In democracies and similar societies it also includes crimes which attempt to alter the outcome of elections.

 

OK, so now you know what it takes to Impeach Bush and Cheney, but there is one Key element missing from the above description and that element is a Spine, or a Back-Bone from the Democratic Party in Congress.

 

Bush’s Folly into Iraq

 

We know that Cheney was cherry picking Intel, then twisting it to fit the Whitehouse claims of a nuclear program in Iraq. We know that Bush Lied in his 2003 State of the Union speech by saying that Saddam Hussein bought Yellow Cake (Uranium) from Niger, and he knew that the Intel for his Niger claim was false.

 

Lies:  Bush insisted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction but his "evidence" consisted mostly of forged documents, plagiarized student papers, and vague satellite photos. The United Nations was on the ground in Iraq and could find nothing. After extensive searches Bush was finally forced to admit that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.

 

Lies: Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell said that aluminum tubes Iraq attempted to purchase were for use in a uranium centrifuge to create nuclear weapons. These were the only physical evidence he had against Iraq. But it turns out this evidence had been rejected by the Department of Energy and other intelligence agencies long before Bush used them in his speeches

 

Lies: Bush led people to believe that Iraq was involved with 9/11 by repeatedly linking them in his speeches. This was so effective that at one point 70% of Americans actually believed Saddam was behind 9/11. Bush has since admitted that this was not true.

 

Lies: Bush has stated that Congress had access to all the same information that the White House had. Thus he should not be blamed for making the mistake of going to war. But Bush was briefed many times about the falsehood of various stories and this information never reached Congress.

 

Before the start of the War, the Whitehouse said the War in Iraq would only cost the American Tax payer 1.5 Billion dollars, and that the Iraqi Oil would pay for the Reconstruction in Iraq.

 

Dick Cheney, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Richard Armitage and Karl Rove all conspired to leak the name of a Covert CIA agent. All four of these men should be tried for Treason.

 

Bush’s Support for the Troops:

 

  1. He sent the troops to War, with no Body Armor.
  2. He sent the troops to War with no Armor for Trucks or Humvees.
  3. He has outsourced logistical support.
  4. He has outsourced medical support.
  5. He has slashed Funding for the VA while giving speeches with our troops as back-drops.
  6. He has proposed VA cuts for 2009 and 2010 in his latest budget proposal.
  7. He has extended tours in Iraq and Afghanistan form 12 to 18 months.
  8. He has stretched the Armed forces to the Breaking Point.
  9. He has politicized the troops at every opportunity.

 The Katrina Fiasco

 

Here is another example of the ineffectual leadership from Bush and Cheney, and because of their direction, thousands suffered needlessly. And thousands are still displaced because Insurance companies were allowed to only pay 10 cents on the dollar if they paid at all.

 

Here’s a little trivia for you, a company called IAP Worldwide Services was contracted to supply water and Ice to Katrina victims. IAP Worldwide Service is also the company that Bush contracted to privatize the support staff at Walter Reed Hospital. IAP slashed the support staff from its original 300 employees down to 50.

 

American Civil Liberties

 

·         Telephone Wiretaps: Bush and Cheney have been wiretapping American citizens without Warrants.

·         E-Mail: The NSA has been data mining E-Mails from millions of Americans, without a Warrant.

·         Mail: President Bush has said that he has the right to read the mail of American citizens, without Warrants.

·         Financial Records: Bush and Cheney have data mined the financial records of millions of Americans without Warrants.

·         Medical Records: The NSA has built a data base using the medical records of millions of American citizens, without a Warrant.

·         Data Mining: The NSA and the Pentagon have been building a database on every American, all without Warrants.

 

Under the cover of a Bill called “The Military Commissions Act”, Bush has authorized Kidnappings by the CIA, called “Extraordinary Rendition.” Bush has suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus; and Bush has authorized “Secret Prisons”, as well as “Torture”.

 

Under the incompetent leadership of Bush and Cheney we now have the Largest Deficit in the History of our country. These two have also given us the Largest Trade Deficit in the History of our Country.

 

Bush has been in office about six and a half years, and he has been very ineffective in almost all of his decisions, I only wish I had more space to list them. But I have given you several examples where Bush and Cheney have misused their power, or just flat out lied.

 

Should they both be impeached?  Hell yes…

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

You can also read David’s Political Opinions in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or their web site:

www.syvjournal.com

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English Only

By: David Phillips

 

Should English be the Official Language of the United States?

 

A few years ago the European Union (EU) which consists of several countries who for the most part have their own languages, decided that all business that is conducted to benefit the EU as a whole, will do so in English. 

 

The EU has made English the Official language for business. Imagine a group of countries where each has their own language, have banded together to make English the Official language for Business.

 

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt stated, "We have room for but one language in this country, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house."

 

So why is there so much resistance to make English the Official language here in the United States?

 

I know that in my many years in business, as long as the money was green it didn’t matter to me what language someone spoke, all though at times it was difficult to communicate.

 

I also know from my many years that those that wanted to do business with me, would find it easier on themselves  if they understood me, and if they did not, it was usually they who lost out on my business, because I would simply seek out someone who did understand me.

 

So who is the one losing out, the person who speaks English, or the person who does not?

 

It is obvious that those that wish to live here in the United States hurt themselves and their families if they do not speak English. Immigrants that speak English will succeed a lot easier than those that don’t.

 

But there is a push here in the United States to make English the Official language.

 

Recently the Immigration Bill died on the Senate floor, a section of that Bill would have required those that were given Amnesty, to eventually learn to speak English. This was a pie in the sky attempt to placate those that have been pushing for English only here in the United States. 

 

Currently English is our National language, but not our Official language.

 

So what are some of the consequences if English were made our Official language?

 

If English becomes the Official language here in the United States all official forms and documents would only be printed in English.

 

Forms like DMV manuals and tests, voting ballots, hospital forms, court documents, or any other document that’s printed by the Federal Government, or State agencies.

 

The English only rule would also remove all government interpreters in hospitals or in our courts, and any other public service that may require an interpreter.

 

A Republican Presidential candidate for 2008, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) recently said in a debate that English should and must be made the Official language, and he went on to say that when people are no longer told on the phone to Press 1 for English, then  he has done his job.

 

I personally don’t have a problem pressing 1 for English, it’s all the other numbers I am told to press to get to this or that department or person that pisses me off, and then after doing all that I may either be told to press a number to get back to the main menu, or I am told to wait for the next available operator.  

 

I also want those that are driving on our roads to understand our rules and to be able to understand our road signs. And if it takes printing a drivers manual in another language or 100 languages, I’m all for it.

 

If someone has received their citizenship and wish’s to take part in our democratic elections, I would hope that they have learned enough English to understand the voting ballots, but if it is easier for them to read in their native language so what. If I were a politician, I would want my constituents to vote for me in whatever language is easiest for them.

 

As for hospitals, if a foreign language form or an interpreter will move things along smoother and more efficiently, it would seem to make more sense. More sense for the patient that is about to be seen and for the patients that will follow.

 

So if we make English the Official language will everyone who does not speak English take English lessons?  When I call a business will they no longer say Press 1 for English?  I know that if I am a business owner I will still do business in any language; and my phone would still say Press 1 for English.

 

Many U.S. towns and cities along our southern border with Mexico, are now accepting Mexican currency for their services or products. This is also true along our northern border with Canada and Canadian currency.

 

It seems that these businesses have evolved to the point where they say that it doesn’t matter what language or what color you or your money is, we will gladly accept you’re trade.

 

Rep Tancredo says that his job will be done once English has been made the Official Language. It seems to me, that those who are pushing for English to become the Official language would only be hurting themselves and everyone else if this happens.

 

Young children pick up foreign languages much easier than adults.  Men and women in their 30’s, 40’s and on up, will certainly find learning English, or any other language that is not native to them difficult, not impossible, but certainly not as easy as their children.

 

We are becoming a true global world with business and trade and the needs for people to speak more than one language have never been greater. When Roosevelt made his quote in 1906 his words had a spoke to a different era.

 

Mexico is currently building a seaport in order to off load ships that normally are off loaded here in the United States. A Super Highway (using current U.S. and Canadian Highways) is being built that will move these containers throughout the United States and into parts of Canada from the seaport. This is part of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

 

I guess the point I am trying to make here, is that in this Globalization, we will continue see men and women from other countries wanting to come here to make a better life for themselves and their families.

 

Those that speak English will have an advantage over those that do not. But they will continue to come and to prevent them from learning about our laws and customs because we have English as our Official language, is narrow minded, and puts everyone in danger.

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

You can also read David’s Political Opinions in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal or their web site:

www.syvjournal.com

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PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS

By: David Phillips

 

What is a pardon?

 

A pardon is legal forgiveness for a crime, removing guilt and punishment. The president's right to issue pardons in federal cases is spelled out in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which describes the "Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in cases of Impeachment." A president has wide discretion to use the pardon, and it is not subject to congressional approval. The one exception: Pardons may not be used to halt impeachment proceedings. The framers of the Constitution intended the pardon power to be used to preserve "the tranquility of the commonwealth."

 

Unlike commutation, a pardon may be granted at any time before or after trial and conviction. A person who is granted a pardon returns to the legal status he held prior to the crime, may vote, and may hold a passport. Some states, however, prohibit pardoned people from some activities, such as holding local office.

 

Here is an account of pardons and commutations using figures from the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) going back to the year 1945, and starting with Harry S. Truman. The USDOJ also has the figures for how many were denied pardons and commutations and everything is broken down by year. Their web site is http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/actions_administration.htm if you would like to see a more detailed breakdown.  

 

·         Harry S. Truman (93 mos.)  Pardons 1913 Commutations 118

·         Dwight D. Eisenhower (96 mos.) Pardons 1110 Commutations 47

·         John F. Kennedy (34 mos.) Pardons 472 Commutations 100

·         Lyndon B. Johnson (62 mos.) Pardons 960 Commutations 226

·         Richard M. Nixon (67 mos.) Pardons 863 Commutations 60

·         Gerald E. Ford (29 mos.) Pardons 382 Commutations 22

·         Jimmy Carter (48 mos.) Pardons 534 Commutations 29

·         Ronald Reagan (96 mos.) Pardons 393 Commutations 13

·         George H.W. Bush (48 mos.) Pardons 74 Commutations 3

·         William J. Clinton (96 mos.) Pardons 396 Commutation 61

·         George W. Bush ( as of today) Pardons 113  Commutations 4

 

A couple of weeks ago President Bush commuted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s prison sentence. Bush said he agreed with the jury and their verdict, but Bush said he felt that the thirty month prison term was too much, so he removed the prison time, but left in place the four guilty verdicts and a $250,000 fine.

 

The thirty month prison term is the going sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice. Bush said, "I made a judgment, a considered judgment, that I believe was the right decision to make in this case, and I stand by it."

 

You would think that since Bush said the verdict was right, that some prison time was appropriate, but not even ONE day was warranted in President Bush’s mind.

 

There are currently 3000 people in prison for the same crimes; will President Bush commute all their sentences? After all Bush said that the sentence does not fit the crime.

 

The other day President Bush when asked by a reporter if he may pardon Libby in the future, Bush said, "As to the future, I rule nothing in and nothing out."

 

Scooter Libby’s verdict culminated a nearly four-year investigation into how CIA official Valerie Plame's name was leaked to reporters in 2003. The trial revealed that top members of the administration were eager to discredit Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who accused the administration of doctoring prewar intelligence on Iraq.

 

In President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech, Bush said then, “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

 

Director of the CIA George Tenet said that they could not confirm the report, but the Whitehouse inserted these words in the 2003 State of the Union speech anyway against the wishes of Tenet.

 

Ambassador Wilson found no evidence to support the Whitehouse claim and later wrote a story for the NY Times about his findings, after which the Whitehouse leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the newspapers.

 

Eight days after Wilson's account appeared in The New York Times, syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Robert Novak identified Plame as a CIA operative in a column, citing two senior administration officials.

 

The article suggested Plame was responsible for sending her husband to Niger.

 

Libby was convicted of one count of obstruction, two counts of perjury and one count of lying to the FBI about how he learned Plame’s identity and whom he told. Prosecutors said he learned about Plame from Vice President Dick Cheney.

 

Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzpatrick discovered that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the media inadvertently at first to Robert Novak a reporter.  But it was Karl Rove, VP Dick Cheney and I. Lewis Scooter Libby who used her name in order to discredit her husband’s finding about the yellow cake, and it was these three who called seven different reporters including Novak.

 

Bush said in 2004 that anyone working at the Whitehouse who is found to be involved in the leaking the name of a CIA agent would immediately be fired.

 

The investigation discovered that along with Libby, Karl Rove and VP Dick Cheney were directly involved with leaking Valerie Plame’s name to reporters, yet neither was fired.

 

There have been rumblings that if Libby was sent to prison, he was going to name names. Names the Whitehouse did not want to be known, which is why Bush commuted his prison time. And Bush will most likely give Libby a full pardon before he leaves office.

 

As you see Pardons and Commutations are very common, they have been given by both Democrats and Republicans alike. So what is all the fuss about this particular commutation?

 

Well, there appears to be a strong indication that if Libby went to jail he would further implicate senior Whitehouse officials, such as Cheney and Rove.

 

And if you look at the pardons of previous Presidents you will find the names of many unscrupulous people, but you won’t find the names of anyone who could implicate high ranking Whitehouse officials.

 

If this had been any other Pardon or Commutation nothing would have been said by anyone, and it most likely would never have been noticed by the media, but this was a Senior Whitehouse official who in my opinion should have been tried for Treason along with Armitage, Rove and Cheney for leaking the name of a Covert CIA agent.

 

So when Republicans  say look at all the pardons by Clinton, what they don’t say is, none of his pardons were to people who leaked the name or names of Covert CIA agents, or who could implicate Senior Whitehouse officials, and that is why this case is different from any other Presidential pardon or commutation.

 

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and David is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

 E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

You can also read David’s Political Opinions at The Santa Ynez Valley Journal

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RANTS AND RAVES

By: David Phillips

July 16, 2007

 

It seems that over the last couple of weeks we have seen Republican Hypocrisy and trash, raise its head in many parts of the GOP…

 

A quick recap:

 

From Rudy’s camp; they have one guy busted for selling cocaine and another guy, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) who in the past has campaigned on Family Values, paying for prostitutes while also campaigning for Rudy in Louisiana…

 

Rudy Giuliani issued a statement regarding the federal indictment of its South Carolina chairman, Thomas Ravenel. “Our campaign has no information about the accusations pending against Mr. Ravenel. Mr. Ravenel has stepped down from his volunteer responsibilities with the campaign.”

 

From McCain’s camp; his campaign Manager quit last week, and McCain’s Florida Campaign Chairman was busted for buying sex in a men’s bathroom…

 

McCain’s Florida Campaign Co-Chairman has been busted for trying to pick up an undercover male police officer…

 

State Rep. Bob Allen (R), a foe of LGBT rights in Florida, is charged with offering the cop $20 for oral sex in a washroom at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Titusville…

 

Police said that Allen, 48, was seen coming in and out of a restroom three times before approaching the officer…

 

It seems like only yesterday we were talking about a Republican Congressmen and his pedophile ways with Congressional Page’s…

 

And the Not so Honorable Rev. Ted Haggard who while talking to President Bush every week about God, was smoking Crack and sleeping with male prostitutes on his off day…

 

I am to the point that whenever I hear a Republican talking about Family Values and Morals, I automatically think he is a Pedophile Crack Head who buys sex in Men’s bathrooms…It’s really not that farfetched, now is it…

 

Fred Thompson has not been caught with any prostitutes or seen smoking Crack, but we did learn that when he was a lobbyist in the early nineties, one of his clients that he was an advocate for was Plan Parenthood, you may have heard that they support  the “A” word…ABORTION…

 

Fred Thompson, who calls himself a Washington Outsider, is very much the Washington Insider.

 

His first and big lobbying client was a division of Westinghouse, which hired him to seek federal money for an experimental nuclear reactor on the Clinch River in Tennessee. Other clients included Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the leftist Haitian leader; a Tennessee savings-and-loan group advocating some of the looser regulations that contributed to the savings and loan crisis.

 

Fred Thompson who has not announced his candidacy for President yet, has been coming up a strong second in most polls…I think that he may be testing the waters as to how trashed he will be played in the Media…

 

Fred Thompson who says he is Anti-Abortion obviously had no problems working for a Pro-Abortion organization…I don’t know what he’s worried about with his hypocritical background; he should feel right at home with the other GOP candidates…

 

I came across a Useless Stat that might help you if you are ever on Jeopardy and the category is Cost of College. The Cost of College has increased 800% since 1977. Source: US Census Bureau

 

Another stat that I recently read is that the majority of insurgents who are fighting us in Iraq come from Saudi Arabia (See story on Home page)…You can be sure that Bush would never mention this…We learned earlier this year that the Saudi’s were giving money to the Sunni Insurgents in Iraq who use the money to buy weapons that kill American’s and Iraqi’s alike…

 

We are told that Iran has also been supplying weapons to the Shiite’s in Iraq, who use these weapons to kill American’s and Iraqi’s alike.

 

But on the up side we did start to supply the Sunni Insurgents with weapons, that they promise to use only against al-Qaeda…

 

Dubai, Dubai, Dubai…

 

Halliburton is moving its Headquarters to Dubai, to avoid paying taxes from the Billions they have been stealing…

 

Rudy Giuliani is also moving his “Giuliani Partners” Headquarters to Dubai, to avoid paying taxes from the Billions they will be stealing…

 

553 Days until Bush and Cheney retire to Dubai…

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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Universal Health Care: Long Over Due

By: David Phillips

July 9, 2007

 

Universal Health Care, why are so many Republicans against this?

 

Every industrialized nation in the World has Universal Health Care, except the United States. Is it because our Health Care system is the best in the world , and Universal Health Care would make it worse?

 

Health Care in the United States is now a $2.2 trillion industry, encompassing significant portions of federal, state and local budgets, as well as a huge private sector market. The issues of growth, inflation, prices, sources of funding, as well as coverage and quality of services are central to much of today's health policy discussion. From Consumer-Driven Health to Universal coverage, the state (and federal) debate has intensified in 2005-2006. (Source: National Conference of State Legislatures)

 

According to a federal analysis released January, 2007, in 2005 U.S. health care spending increased 6.9 percent to almost $2.0 trillion, or $6,697 per person. The health care portion of gross domestic product (GDP) was 16.0 percent, slightly higher than the 15.9 percent share in 2004. (Source: National Conference of State Legislatures)

 

The United States spends more per person than any other country in the world, yet every other country has Universal Health Care.

 

So how does the Health Care system here in the United States, compare with all the Universal Health Care systems throughout the world?

 

We spend more per person than anyone else, so we must have the best Health Care money can buy, Right?

 

Wrong

 

According to the World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) report from 2000, the United States health care ranks only 37th in the world, yet we spend more then anyone else.

 

The report measured not just overall spending on health, but also how health care was distributed among different groups in each of the 191 nations that are members of the World Health Organization.

 

The countries were judged according to five health-care categories that W.H.O surveys found to be most important to the people in various nations.

 

 

The five measures used are:

 

Ÿ  Overall level of health or life expectancy

Ÿ  Health fairness or life expectancy as measured across various populations within a country

Ÿ  Responsiveness or how well people rated performance of their health care system

Ÿ  Fairness in responsiveness among different groups in the same country

Ÿ  Fairness in financing among different groups, which looked at what proportion of income is devoted to health care

 

Fairness, well that is obviously something that has NEVER been associated with our Health Care System.

 

Life Expectancy, well that is something that people assume we excel in with our Health Care system.

 

The five top nations for Health Care

 

According to the report, the five top nations for Health Care were France, Italy, San Marino, Andorra and Malta.

 

One surprise in the findings, said Dr. David Evans of the W.H.O.'s Global Program on Evidence for Health Policy, was the good rankings for southern European countries such as Italy and Spain.

 

Oman ranked No. 8, a surprise because its health care system was in a shambles in the 1970's, with very high infant mortality, and because it has a relatively small budget for health. Its spending per capita on health is one-ninth of that of the United States, for example.

 

Dr. Christopher J. L. Murray, an international health economist from the Harvard School of Public Health, who is one of two leaders of the project, said Oman demonstrates that great changes in a country's health can be produced in a short period of time.

 

Another surprise was China's ranking of No. 144. A little more than a decade ago, China had a public health care system, but it has collapsed, and now people there pay for virtually all their care out of pocket. It was ranked No. 188 in fairness of financing.

 

The United States outspends the world and ranks near the top in average health measures, but fails to deliver good health care to a large proportion of its population and distributes the cost relatively unfairly, according to the report's measures, leaving it at number 37 in the rankings.

 

There are currently 49 million Americans without any health coverage, and 12 million are children.

 

As you saw with the world rankings, one of our major short comings is that large portions of our population are left out of our health care system.

 

Morals

 

A word that Republicans like to throw around is morals. The Republican Party likes to think that they have the high ground on all related policies that morals would play a roll, such as Abortion and Gay and Lesbian marriage.

 

Never mind the fact that most Republicans are Pro War, and Pro Death penalty.

 

I cannot understand how Universal Health Care is not a Moral to be considered by the Republican Party...

 

There are currently ten, soon to be eleven, Republicans running for President, and each and every one of them are against Universal Health Care.

 

All of the Republican Presidential candidate cannot see that 49 million people, without Healthcare is IMMORAL.

 

And in a stunning contrast, all eight Democratic Presidential candidates have a plan for Universal Health Care.

 

I do not have enough space to go over each and every candidates plan for Universal Health Care, but I will say some plans such a John Edwards calls for a tax increase for those who make more than $200,000 a year, and other plans such as Obama, would have those who can't afford health care coverage getting a subsidy on a sliding scale depending on their income, and virtually all businesses would have to share in the cost of coverage for their workers.

 

None of the plans call for eliminating the way most people get their health coverage, what all eight Democratic Presidential candidates want to do, is make sure that everyone has access to health care, such as the 49 million who currently do not.

 

Premiums have increased 87 percent over the past six years. Family health coverage now costs an average $11,480 annually, with workers paying an average of $2,973 toward those premiums, about $1,354 more than in 2000. (Source: National Conference of State Legislatures)

 

The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that because of the yearly increases on Health insurance that we have experienced, they have projected that by the year 2012, 150 million Americans will no longer be able to afford health insurance.

 

Universal Health Care, it is the Moral thing to do, and it is the Right thing to do… 

 

www.YodasWorld.org

 

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, he is a Democrat Party Activist, and he is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org

E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

 

 

You can also read David’s Political Opinion’s in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal

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CIVIL LIBERTIES IN A POST 911 WORLD

By: David Phillips

July 2, 2007

 

Since 911, Bush has covertly put into action; programs that he says are meant to help identify terrorists or Evil Doers as he likes to call them. But in his eagerness to track down these Evil Doers, he has made a mockery of our Constitution and trampled on dozens of our Civil Liberties.

 

Some of these programs even have names meant to instill a sense of nationalism like the Patriot Act, or the Military Commissions Act. Other programs were never meant to become publicly known, but whistleblowers have leaked many other programs to the Newspapers such as the NY Times.

 

Programs such as the Patriot Act that allow the FBI to search your home or business without a search warrant, and it even allows them to do this when you are not there. And if they do find something, they can then get a search warrant wait for your return then do another search and then arrest you. This has appropriately been named Sneak and Peek.

 

There are dozens of other programs neatly tucked away in the Patriot Act that allows the FBI and other agencies to gather information. The Patriot Act also gives the government some very freighting powers, including the ability to make secret arrests, issue secret subpoenas, create a vast new DNA database and even strip Americans of their citizenship and deport them.

 

We have since learned that only six people in congress said that they had read the entire Patriot Act prior to voting in favor of it.

 

A couple of months ago we found out that the FBI has been abusing the Patriot Act to gather hundreds of thousands of illegal wiretaps on American citizens. FBI Director Robert Muller was called to testify before congress to explain the abuse, Muller did admit that some of his field agents exceeded the authorization that the Patriot Act provides and Muller said that he would make sure that it does not happen again.

 

Another program called the Military Commissions Act allows the CIA to literally kidnap someone anywhere in the world, usher them off to a secret prison and conduct various act of torture, which Vice President Dick Cheney calls “Intense Interrogation.”

 

The Military Commissions Act has also suspended the right of Habeas Corpus for detainees, which is the constitutional right to have your case seen by a court of law, and to determine whether the detention is lawful.

 

Two weeks ago we learned that the FBI is seeking to create a data base consisting of more than six billion records on all Americans. That works out to more than 20 individual records for every man, women and child in the United States. The data mining program will cost the FBI around $12 million dollars.

 

House Science and Technology Committee members Brad Miller (D-NC) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) requested last week that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the proposal.

A story in The Washington Post last Thursday found "that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years."  "Two dozen of the newly-discovered violations involved agents' requests for information that U.S. law did not allow them to have."

Another program called The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program is designed to track financial transactions from more than 200 countries through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a Belgium-based, bank-owned entity, which is run by the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The National Security Agency (NSA) with authorization from Bush, have been wiretapping phones and data mining e-mails of American citizens, hundreds of thousands of them at a time, without a warrant for Bush’s so called War on Terror.

Bush has said that the Powers of the President, give him the authority to wiretap anyone he wants in his fight against the Evil Doers. Last August a Federal Judge in Detroit ruled that the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional. The Bush Whitehouse is appealing this ruling, so in the mean time, the warrantless wiretapping program continues.

A couple of months ago we learned that Bush had given the approval for our Mail to be intercepted, opened, read, confiscated or done with whatever he or they want. Bush said that a Signing Statement gives him the power to intercept all mail.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) said it's "simply not true" that the president has the authority to open someone's mail. The congressman went on to say, that Bush's action is "contrary to the Constitution." Hinchey said the president's use of signing statements to gain more power has "corrupted the legislative process."

Bush has enacted programs that; wiretapped your phones without warrants, data mined your e-mails without warrants, read your mail without warrants, read your financial transactions without warrants, read your health and education records without warrants, arrest and torture people without warrants, and he has suspended Habeas Corpus.

CIA Kidnappings and Torture or extraordinary rendition by the United States, with regard to the transfer of suspected terrorists to countries known to employ harsh interrogation techniques (torture by proxy) that may rise to the level of torture.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently suing Boeing for providing transportation for the rendition of three terror suspects. The Italian courts have indicted 26 CIA agents, including the Rome station chief and head of CIA for kidnappings in Italy. There are dozens of extraordinary rendition on record, many stories have appeared in all the major papers in the country, and all of these kidnappings and torture have been approved by our government.

President Bush has signed more than 800 Signing Statements; these signing statements according to Bush, allow him to enact these programs without the approval of Congress or the Courts.

A signing statement is a written pronouncement issued by the President of the United States upon the signing of a bill into law.

Last year the American Bar Association described President Bush’s use of signing statements to modify the meaning of duly enacted laws as "contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers.

Bush has signed more Signing Statements then all the other presidents added together. Signing Statements are not new, but Bush has used these signing statements in order to skirt constitutional laws. He has misused and abused this privilege; Bush has used this power to Decree Law, and for the first six years as President, and with a Republican controlled congress, his abuse went unchecked.

The Government is building mammoth data bases that will have records on every man, women and child. The Government uses the backdrop of security and tells us that they are gathering all these records on American citizens so they can protect us from the Terrorists or Evil Doers.

We the people have allowed our government to trample on our Constitution and trample on our Civil Liberties, all in the name of little Security.

Benjamin Franklin said: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

Sounds like Franklin knew what he was talking about.

 If you are not outraged by what you just read, then you have not been paying attention.

www.YodasWorld.org

 

David Phillips is a Vietnam Era Veteran, a Democratic Party Activist, and he is also the Publisher and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org E-Mail Questions or Comments: oneyoda@aol.com

You can also read David’s Political Opinion’s in the Santa Ynez Valley Journal

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RANTS AND RAVES

By: D avid Phillips

June 25, 2007

 

The Enemy of My Enemy

 

The Pentagon is trying a new strategy in Iraq by arming Sunni insurgents. The Pentagon said that the Sunni's want to rid themselves of al-Qaeda, just as much as we want to capture or kill al-Qaeda.

 

So, the Pentagon has given permission to its officers on the ground in Iraq, to negotiate arms deals with tribal elders and other local leaders. Arms, ammunition, body armor and other equipment, as well as cash, pickup trucks and fuel, have already been handed over to Sunni’s in return for promises to only use the weapons on al-Qaeda and not on US troops.

 

Since the Sunni's PROMISE not to use the weapons against the U.S. or is allies, it's a win win situation, what could possibly go wrong.

 

A little walk down memory lane with some names of former military operations in Iraq:

 

·         DESERT STORM

·         IRAQI FREEDOM

·         ENDURING FREEDOM

·         TOGETHER FORWARD

·         IRON HAMMER

·         WARHORSE WHIRLWIND

·         BULLDOG MAMMOTH

·         PANTHER SQUEEZE

·         RED DAWN

·         ROCK SLIDE

·         RIFLES FURY

·         CENTAUR RODEO

·         AND THE CURRENT MILITARY OP NAME IS: ARROWHEAD RIPPER which is part of the Surge

 

The names on this list are actual names that were used on various military operations, some you may remember and some you may not.

 

Let’s hope that the Enemy of My Enemy strategy does not come back and bite us in the butt.

 

No Child Left Behind

 

In case you missed it, the national education program No Child Left Behind (NCLB) that Bush first tested in Texas when he was a Governor, and brought to the whole country as President is not doing very well.

 

A few stats from the Department of Education: One Million kids dropped out of High School last year, and this year’s kids are dropping out at a rate of 7000 everyday. One out of every four kids drops out.

 

Justice Department data shows that 75 percent of all prison inmates here in the United States, are High School drop outs.

 

There are plenty of reasons for these dismal figures starting with bad parenting, poor teaching,  a new school program (NCLB) that is only meant to teach a person to pass a test, and school systems that are glad to write off these drop outs so that their stats on passing kids does not get dragged down. There are consequences for schools and school systems if the passing rate for testing is sup par, such as cut backs in federal funds which ultimately only hurts the kids.

 

I think that it’s about time to axe the No Child Left Behind program, because it is leaving millions of kids behind, and start a new program called ‘Bringing Back the Children Left Behind’.

 

The Lighter Side of Politics

 

Last Thursday, an unidentified White House aide said: “President Bush will be asking for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto “Gonzo” Gonzales.”  Gonzo is a loyal friend and associate of Bush going back to when Bush was Governor of Texas.

 

The unidentified aide said that the President was considering former Durham, North Carolina District Attorney Mike Nifong. The aide went on to say that the President has heard his name mentioned a few times, but was unfamiliar with his background.

 

The aide concluded by saying that President Bush was disappointed upon learning why former D.A. Mike Nifong’s name was in the news, and that President Bush is no longer considering Mr. Nifong for the Position of Attorney General.

 

We have since learned that President Bush is considering Florida judge Larry Seidlin, who cried on the bench, while presiding over the Anna Nicole Smith cases a couple of months back. We are told that Bush was very impressed with Judge Seidlin’s compassion.

 

 

575 days until George “Beavis” Bush and Dick “Butthead” Cheney leave Washington.

 

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GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: FACT OR FICTION
By: David Phillips
June 18, 2007

Global Climate Change, or Global Warming is a very hot topic (pun intended) and there seems to be a lot of people who are paying millions to make sure you don’t hear the truth.

According to the report in April by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group made up of 2500 scientist from 120 countries, the future holds many perils.

The IPCC’s final report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming mainly caused by man-induced carbon dioxide pollution.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said, "The poorest of the poor in the world — and this includes poor people in prosperous societies — are going to be the worst hit," Pachauri went on to say, "People who are poor are least able to adapt to climate change."

The report said up to 30 percent of species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees above the average in the 1980s and 1990s.

Areas in drought will become even more dry, adding to the risks of hunger and disease, the report said. The world will face heightened threats of flooding, severe storms and the erosion of coastlines.

Stephen Schneider, a Stanford scientist said, "We can fix this," by investing a small part of the world's economic growth rate. It's trillions of dollars, but it's a very trivial thing."

For the first time, the scientists from the IPCC broke down their predictions into regions, and forecast that climate change will affect billions of people.

North America will experience more severe storms with human and economic loss, and cultural and social disruptions. It can expect more hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires, it said. Coasts will be swamped by rising sea levels. In the short term, crop yields may increase by 5 percent to 20 percent from a longer growing season, but will plummet if temperatures rise by 7.2 degrees.

Africa will be hardest hit. By 2020, up to 250 million people are likely to be exposed to water shortages. In some countries, food production could fall by half, the report said.

Parts of Asia are threatened with massive flooding and avalanches from melting Himalayan glaciers. Europe also will see its Alpine glaciers disappear. Australia's Great Barrier Reef will lose much of its coral to bleaching from even moderate increases in sea temperatures, according to the report.

The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised many of the objections to the phrasing of the IPCC report, seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.

Lobbyists from Oil companies have been shelling out big bucks for scientists who will write reports that rebuke any claims of Global Climate Change.

Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar at American Enterprise Institute (AEI), confirmed that the organization had approached scientists, economists and policy analysts to write articles for an independent review that would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC report."

AEI has received more than $1.6 million from ExxonMobil.

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth noted, there have been no peer-reviewed scientific articles published in recent years that express any doubt that humans are contributing to climate change.

Yet more than 50 percent of news media coverage of the issue includes the oil industry's position on the subject.

"Britain's leading scientists have challenged the US oil company ExxonMobil to stop funding groups that attempt to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change."

The Royal Society, "Britain's premier scientific academy," examined Exxon's public reporting and found the company "last year distributed $2.9 million to 39 groups that the society says misrepresent the science of climate change."

According to the group Exxon had promised it would not provide "any further funding to these organizations."

An Exxon spokesman responded that the company had "stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) this year,"

The United States already is responsible for roughly one-quarter of the world's carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases that scientists blame for global warming.

In a 2004 report from the Energy Information Administration the countries who emit the most Carbon Dioxide emissions in percentages:

The United States 21.9

China 17.4

Russia 6.2

Japan 4.7

India 4.1

Germany 3.2

Canada 2.2

U.K. 2.1

S. Korea 1.8

Italy 1.8

France 1.5

Australia 1.4

Spain 1.3

Brazil 1.3

Others  29.1

Bush has placed many mid-level managers in most of our Government agencies that deal with scientific data that relate to Global Climate Change. Agencies such as the EPA, USGA, NASA, etc., all have people placed by the Bush Administration to read all reports and edit the wording to down play any such data.

Prior to the Bush Administration, all scientific reports were generally peer reviewed before any publication. Bush has done away with all peer reviews and the reports are published after they are edited by Bush personnel.

President Bush and his administration have been slow to agree that Global Warming exists and that greenhouse gases created by man are to blame. More and more evidence has become available and he can no longer deny the facts and remain a nay sayer.

In a speech a few days ago President Bush said that the world needs to do more to stop greenhouse gases and slow Global Warming. His speech was made in anticipation of his G-8 meeting in Germany this week. Global Warming will be one of the main focal point’s at the G-8 summit and this could just be his way of heading off his critics, or maybe he truly has had a change of his views, it’s hard to say. But with his long history of being All Hat and No Cattle, it is hard for anyone to believe what he says, until he backs up his words with actions.

Only time will tell on which side of he issue Bush truly stands.

www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES
By: David Phillips
June 11, 200

According to an ABC News-"Washington Post" poll, only 39 percent of registered voters approve of the way Congress is doing its job. Fifty-three percent disapprove

And a recent poll by Rasmussen Reports finds Americans believe used car salesmen are more trustworthy than members of Congress.

Border Patrol chief David Aguilar told a congressional conference on U.S.-Mexico border issues that the border won't be secured before 2013. That's when the secure border initiative, including manpower, technology and infrastructure, is scheduled to be complete. Until then, Aguilar says the Border Patrol must "manage the expectations of the country."

Aguilar reports 596 assaults against Border Patrol agents this year. And he expects that to increase as the Border Patrol adds agents and 290 miles of fence.

High Gas Prices Getting you Down? Well, you are not alone. Here are a few facts that will make you scratch your head…

The oil industry’s influence on Congress has been fairly partisan -- 80 percent of their contributions since 2001 have gone to Republicans. While the last couple of months Democrats have seen their campaign contributions rise since they have taken control…He who has the power gets the dough…

Since 1990, big oil has spent more than $200 million on Congress. Since June of 1997, the price of a gallon of gas has risen from about $1.26 a gallon to $3.20 per gallon at the beginning of the June. That's an increase of 154 percent, dwarfing the nominal wage growth during that time of only 39...

The Center for Public Integrity, a Lobby Watch organization lists hundreds of companies from dozens of countries that throw money at Congress to influence legislation and voting out comes, I urge everyone to go to their web site and see what your elected officials have been doing…

This past Friday the office of Vice President Dick Cheney announced that Cheney's Pacemaker Needs Fresh Battery…They said that this summer Cheney will have his pacemaker replaced…hoping that the warmer weather of summer will counter act the bitter coldness that runs through his veins…

The death toll for American troops killed in Iraq just surpassed 3500...Bush’s escalation of troops has also escalated the deaths, both for Americans as well as Iraqi’s…

Sex…

Conservatives and Liberals in Congress have a new Sex Bill aimed at reducing unintended pregnancies…

The liberals are backing a measure that they call Prevention First, a common sense platform that seeks to reduce unintended pregnancies with better information and increasing access to contraceptives…

The Conservative initiative, the customary Abstinence, even though a recent government report said that abstinence only policy does not work…The Conservatives as predictable have throw common sense out the window, to appease their base of religious conservatives…

When will they ever learn, I would even bet that conservatives have sex, and with sex comes unintended pregnancies…

The Conservative motto…MAKE WAR NOT SEX…

Well that’s about it for this weeks rants and raves…Only 588 more days until Bush and Cheney take their long walk into the sunset on this screwed up planet that these two have bastardized..

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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BEFORE SEPTEMBER COMES
By: David Phillips
June 11, 2007

Lt. General Douglas Lute, the man picked by President Bush to be the War Czar (fall guy) testified before the Senate during his conformation hearings last week…

The Lt. General is obviously a reluctant candidate for War czar because when Bush first made his announcement for the position, Lt. General Douglas Lute said that he thought it was a bad idea…

Anyhow, with some poking and prodding he has accepted the position (because no one else would) and only needs the approval of the Senate…

During last Thursdays testimony before the Senate, the Lt. General showed concerns for the Iraqi government. Lt. General Lute said, “The question in my mind is not to what extent can we force them (referring to the Iraqi government)…to a particular outcome but rather to what degree do they actually have the capacity themselves to produce the outcome.”

Lt. Gen. Lute went on to say, “pressed to hard, will we, in turn, end up with an outcome that isn’t really worth the paper it’s written on.”

The Lt. General’s words cast uncertainty that the Iraqi government would be able to take control of it’s country on it’s own any time soon…

Come this September, General David Petraeus the man who is in charge in Iraq, and the man who is executing the new strategy, will give the Senate a report on how well the surge (escalation) is working…

We do know that the Surge (escalation) has produced a surge of deaths for both Americans and Iraqi’s…The last few months American deaths have been the highest since the start of the Iraqi War..

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the Army's second in command in Iraq said a couple of weeks ago, "Right now, if you asked me, I would tell you I'll probably need a little bit more time to do a true assessment. If I think I might need a little more time, (when making the September assessment to Congress) I will give an assessment saying, 'But I'd like to have a little more time."

Complicating matters, he said, is that the enemy knows about the September deadline and is likely to increase the violence during the next few months in an effort to push the U.S. out. "They understand that if things aren't going well, a recommendation might be made to reduce our force presence here in Iraq," said Odierno. "So in my mind, of course they are going to do that."

This past Friday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates fired Four Star Gen. Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "It would be a backward looking and very contentious process," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a Pentagon news conference where he announced he would recommend Adm. Mike Mullen to replace Pace.

Adm. Mike Mullen is the chief of naval operations, and Gates praised him for having the "vision strategic insight and integrity to lead America's armed forces."

General Pace was also taking heat from Congress for two other problems, his recent statements that he believes homosexual behavior is immoral, and a letter he wrote to the judge in the Scooter Libby case attesting to Mr. Libby's character…

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for two years, and vice chairman for the previous four, Pace has been involved in all of the key decisions leading to the 2002 invasion of Iraq and the planning for the post-Saddam Hussein era.

"President Bush appreciates Gen. Pace's long and distinguished service to the country and as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who was traveling overseas with Bush. "He is an example for all our men and women in uniform and has been an integral part of the president's national security team."

My personal opinion for Gen. Pace being fired is to keep him from testifying at future hearings, and to put a new spin with a new face in Adm. Mullen…

We are all ready hearing rumblings that September will be to soon to provide an accurate assessment of the (escalation) surge, and if Bush can stall his critics that want to start bring the troops home long enough, it could be the end of January or the beginning of February 2008 before congress reconvenes from their holiday break…

So, before September comes, Bush is getting his ducks (Generals and Admirals) all lined up in a row, in anticipation of this Septembers hearings (that more then likely will never happen) about the progress of the surge (escalation) in Iraq …

 

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES
By: David Phillips
June 4, 2007

Does anyone care, that last Tuesday Bush said that he does not want more cows tested for Mad Cow then we already test?

The USDA owns the testing kits...A small cattle company in Kansas wants to test ALL of his cows, but the USDA said they would not give him or sell him or allow him to test ALL of his Cows...So the guy in Kansas sues the USDA and the Judge says that the USDA must allow him to test his Cows...So the USDA goes to a higher court and appeals the lower courts ruling...So now the guy in Kansas still cannot test his cows...

The LARGER cattle companies test less then 1% of the cows they butcher and don't want ALL cows tested...

The little guy in Kansas says that he wants to guarantee and tells his consumers that ALL of his cows are tested...

The Big cattle company does not want the little cattle company to be able to say that to his consumers...

Does anyone care, that Bush doesn't care if you eat MAD COW BEEF?

May 30 2005 Dead Eye Dick said that the insurgency was in it’s “last throes“ in Iraq and Dead Eye Dick predicted “the level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline.”…

Fast forward two years to May 30, 2007 and we find that 2000 more American’s

have died and more then 12,000 have been wounded along with tens of thousands of dead and wounded Iraqi’s...

The Bush administration has continued to get at least one thing right when making predictions, and that is, their predictions have been 100 percent wrong from the time they started this War to the present…

Is it just me, I cannot be the only person to notice that when our Government or our media are talking about terrorists, they are now saying that the terrorists are al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda linked, suspected al-Qaeda, or al-Qaeda inspired…

Our Government for the last several months have been linking all the major attacks in Iraq to al-Qaeda, if a car bomb blows up at a market place it’s al-Qaeda, if a suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowd of people it’s al-Qaeda, if a helicopter is shot down it’s al-Qaeda and then they down play mentioning insurgent or sectarian killings…

I guess what they say is not as important as what we hear…

Since the fall of Baghdad and Saddam’s statue coming down, only 539 Iraqi’s have been allowed to immigrate to the United States…We have all heard reports from Iraq about how we would allow those that help coalition forces to immigrate to avoid being killed because of their help…The United States has allowed millions to immigrate here during and following every War that we have been in and during and following most Wars that we have not been in…

If only they spoke Mexican…

Well, George W. Bush is off to Germany for the annual G-8 summit meeting where this years hot topics will be a lot like last years hot topics, Sudan and Darfur, Global Warming, World Bank, and aids in Africa…

The G-8 summit draws large crowds of protesters and this years event is said to have over 30,000 protesting and Germany has more then 15,000 police to keep things under control…

Riots have already started 125 police officers have been injured and dozens of protesters were arrested…

Anyhow, Bush will be out of the country for the week and he might get the chance to see how people in other countries feel about him and his policies of unilateralism…Then again it’s more than likely that he will be shielded from all those nasty people who protest and be totally oblivious to his surroundings as usual…

595 days until George and Dick fade off into the sunset…

www.YodasWorld.org

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            Ten Elephants

            The 2008 GOP Presidential Candidates

By: David Phillips

 

A look at the 2008 Republican Presidential candidates who recently held their second debate at the University of South Carolina. And back by popular demand and in no particular order, here are your 2008 Republican nominees for President.

 

  1.  Rudy Giuliani former Mayor of New York City
  2.  John McCain Senator from Arizona
  3.  Mike Huckabee former Governor from Arkansas
  4.  Dr. Ron Paul Representative from Texas
  5.  Tom Tancredo Representative from Colorado
  6.  Duncan Hunter Representative from California
  7.  Sam Brownback Senator from Kansas
  8.  Mitt Romney former Governor from Massachusetts
  9.  Tommy Thompson former Governor from Wisconsin
  10.  Jim Gilmore former Governor from Virginia

 

The Ten GOP candidates are a very dissimilar group of men that cover all the color spectrums between eggshell and white.

 

The top three candidates for the GOP are former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney.

 

Rudy Giuliani is currently the front-runner who is campaigning on his strength and leadership that he had shown while mayor, and his courage and fortitude that he showed after 911.

 

Rudy Giuliani is not your typical conservative; Giuliani is pro-choice, pro gay and lesbian rights, and anti guns. But Rudy is pro War, he supports Bush’s surge in Iraq, and he is pro torture, “if it is needed”, according to what he said during this debate.

 

Giuliani has also been married three times, and has had an affair while married to each woman. Giuliani’s first wife was his second cousin, who he was married to for fourteen years. But Giuliani said that it did not count because the Catholic Church annulled the marriage.

 

Senator John McCain of Arizona is currently in second place in the polls; Senator McCain who was in Iraq a few weeks ago decided to do a little shopping at an Iraqi Bazaar to illustrate how well the surge has been going in Baghdad.

 

Senator McCain took a CNN film crew with him to cover the shopping trip, so that  American citizens back home could see some good news from Iraq. Senator McCain even said that it is perfectly safe for Americans to walk many of the streets of Baghdad without any fear of being shot because the surge is working.

 

The CNN film crew did show the Senator bartering with a local Iraqi merchant over some rugs. The film crew also showed the 100 soldiers who escorted the Senator on his shopping spree, as well as three Black Hawk Helicopters overhead, and sniper teams on the rooftops.

 

The Senator about a week later did come clean and he said that he did embellish about being able to walk the streets of Baghdad, but he did buy a few rugs.

 

Senator McCain does have the background and experience that one would want to see in a President. Senator McCain is a Vietnam War Hero, he’s a four term Senator, he is anti-abortion, pro war, and he supports the surge in Iraq.

 

Mitt Romney the former Governor of Massachusetts is currently third in the polls.

While governor, Romney was a pro choice, pro gay and lesbian rights, and anti guns republican.

 

When Mitt Romney decided to run for President a little over two years ago, he said he did some soul searching and is now anti abortion, anti gay and lesbian marriage and pro guns. And just two weeks ago he joined the NRA and received a Lifetime membership. At least Romney was smart enough to get his membership to the NRA before the debating season began.

 

Mitt Romney is also pro war, he supports President Bush’s surge, and he also said he would approve torture if it were needed.

 

This brings us to what is called the second tier of candidate, which includes Mike Huckabee former Governor of Arkansas, Tommy Thompson former Governor of Wisconsin, and Senator Sam Brownback from Kansas.

 

Mike Huckabee spent two terms as Governor of Arkansas, he is a Baptist Minister, and during the last debate he raised his hand when the question was asked: Who does NOT believe in Evolution.

 

Huckabee is anti-abortion, anti gay and lesbian rights, pro guns, pro war, and supports Bush’s surge in Iraq.

 

Tommy Thompson former Governor of Wisconsin served four terms as governor and was the Secretary of Health and Human Services for President Bush.

 

Governor Thompson wants the eighteen provinces in Iraq to each elect there own government along the lines of our fifty states. He said that he would divide the Oil into thirds, with one third going to the Central Government, one-third going to the eighteen provinces and one third going to each and every person in Iraq. Thompson is an anti-abortion, anti gay and lesbian rights, and pro gun.

 

Senator Sam Brownback from Kansas is in his second term; at the debate he said “We can win over there, if we can come together here”. Meaning if our country, which is split, can come together we can win the War in Iraq. Senator Brownback is also anti abortion, anti gay and lesbian rights, pro gun, and also does Not believe in Evolution.

 

This brings us to the third tier of candidates, and they include Rep. Dr. Ron Paul from Texas, Rep. Tom Tancredo from Colorado, Rep. Duncan Hunter from California, and Jim Gilmore former Governor from Virginia.

 

Dr. Paul was the 1988 Libertarian candidate for President, he is a ten term Congressmen, he is one of only six republicans to vote against giving Bush the power to start Wars. Dr. Paul wants to pull the troops out of Iraq, and bring them home.

 

Tom Tancredo opposes the surge in Iraq, and would pull the troops back, but keep them in the region. Tancredo is currently serving his fifth term in congress, he is anti abortion, anti gay and lesbian rights, pro guns, and he also does Not believe in Evolution.

 

Duncan Hunter at the debate said; that Iraq has 129 battalions, and they all need to stand up so our forces can stand down (The Bush slogan). Congressmen Hunter is currently serving his fourteenth term in Washington. Hunter is also anti abortion, anti gay and lesbian rights, and pro guns.

 

Former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia also supports the War, he said that we may have to attack Iran, and like almost all the other candidates, he to, is anti abortion, anti gay and lesbian rights, and pro guns.

 

Well, there you have it, Ten Elephants all various shades of white, and all vying for the GOP Presidential nomination.

 

The front-runner, Giuliani is the most liberal and looks like a democrat in many ways, and nothing like the conservatives that you would expect to see from the GOP. If the GOP is to be true to it’s party faithful, Giuliani will not be the nominee. But hope is not lost, there are several others that are running, that meet all the prerequisites of a conservative.

 

 

 

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RANTS AND RAVES

By: David Phillips

May 14, 2007

 

Last November President Bush talked about benchmarks that he would use with regard to the Iraqi government, to show that they are willing to take control of their own country.

 

But Bush was all talk, and no benchmarks were put in place, and Bush never spoke of benchmarks again, until the Democrats placed them in the War spending bill that Bush recently vetoed…

 

Bush said that he would veto any War spending bill that called for benchmarks, or a timeline for our withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

 

And Bush was true to his word, he vetoed the War spending bill that would:

 

  1. Continue Bush’s so called support for the troops
  2. Insist that the Iraqi government start to take a bigger roll in security
  3. Set a timeline for bringing our troops home

 

Now Bush says he is willing to consider some benchmarks for the Iraqi government. But only if the new spending bill gives Bush all the billions he is asking for, and again only if there is no timeline for our troops to come home.

 

Why should we believe that Bush would agree on any benchmarks that would be enforced?

 

This past week two items of interest should be noted regarding Bush’s folly into Iraq.

 

  1. The democratically elected government of Iraq wants to take a two-month summer vacation. Something I am sure they learned from watching how Bush leads the United States.
  2. The democratically elected Parliament has gathered 144 signatures from the 275 seats in their government calling for a timeline for Americans to leave their county.

 

It seems the majority of the Iraqi Parliament wants to set a timeline that would end the occupation of their country. Simply put, they want us to leave.

 

Yeah, like that’s going to happen…

 

New poll just out by Newsweek, shows President Bush’s approval rating at an all time low for him, 28 percent.

 

President Richard M. Nixon holds the modern record for the lowest approval record at 23 percent…

 

You can be sure, that President Bush will do what he can to be number one…

 

Wow, that didn’t take long, Bush is working (or as he likes to say, “It’s Hard Work”) at catching up with Nixon’s record low approval rating. The White House on Friday, warned the Democrats that Bush would veto an appropriations bill if the democrats try to boost spending on Education…

 

Well, we can’t have that; more people having access to education, what are the democrats thinking, we have a War to fight…Bush’s policy of “Leaving No Child Behind”, has morphed into Bush’s policy of, “Leaving No Troops Behind in the United States”…

 

Media Mogul Rupert Murdock, the owner of Fox Corporation, dozens of Television stations around the world, Publishing companies, Radio Stations, and who also owns the very right leaning Fox News Channel, is trying to buy the left leaning Newspaper the New York Times.

 

Maybe if the sale goes through, he will turn the New York Times into a Fair and Balanced Newspaper, just like Fox News Channel…

 

Three Republican Presidential candidates, Huckabee, Brownback, and Tancredo, all say that they do NOT believe in Evolution…Maybe it’s just me, but I think that all Presidents should believe in Evolution…

 

I wonder where President Bush stands on this…Yeah, we all ready know, he’s all about the Creationism, because it Creates more votes…

 

This Monday, May 14th, postage stamps go up to .41 cents…

 

616 days until George “The Commander Guy” Bush, and Dick “I shoot Lawyers in the Face” Cheney, hit the road and leave Washington for good…

 

 

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BLACK GOLD, TEXAS TEA, OIL

By: David Phillips

May 14, 2007

 

 

Gasoline prices across the country are rising so fast that most gas stations are now changing their prices daily. The average cost of a gallon of gas in the United States is $3.07, and in parts of California it has already topped $4.00.

 

With the summer driving season still ahead of us, it seems that there is no end in sight to the rising prices.

 

We are told by the so called experts on Wall Street and from our own government, that the driving habits of Americans will have to change before we will see a downward trend in the price of gasoline. 

 

We also are hearing from these same experts that Americans are not changing their driving habits, which they say, indicates that Americans are willing to pay these exorbitant prices.

 

Well, excuse me when I say that what our government and these experts are saying is a bunch of malarkey.

 

First of all a large portion of the American public live in the suburbs, and work in the cities, which lends itself to longer drive times. Most families these days have at least two cars and both parents are working, so now each have to drive to their jobs.

 

So until the jobs move out to the suburbs, or Americans move back to the cities our consumption of gasoline will continue on the pace that it is currently on.

 

So what is behind the rising prices at the Pumps?

 

Well, if you believe the Oil companies such as Exxon, they will tell you that the world is consuming more gasoline, which is creating shortages and driving up demands.

 

Or as your business or economics teacher would say: Supply Vs. Demand.

Sounds straightforward, less supply creates a larger demand, and more supplies equal less demand.

 

Simple right?

 

The Oil corporations are making record profits, in fact last year Exxon made over 59 Billion dollars, and they set the record for the most profits by an American corporation, ever.

 

So now you might be saying that their record profits, are because the demand for gasoline is out pacing the supply, and you would be partially correct.

 

We do have shortages in gasoline here in the United States because we do not have the refinery capacity to produce enough gasoline domestically that Americans use on a daily basis. To fill the shortages, Oil companies have been importing gasoline here to the United States, from refineries in other countries.

 

The Energy Information Agency has said that their data shows that the demand for gasoline here in the United States is 2.3 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

 

So why not build more refineries here in the United States so we can increase the supply, stop the imports of gasoline from other countries and lower the prices?

 

President Bush a few years back gave billions in tax breaks to the Oil companies such as Exxon for the sole purpose of building more refineries right here in the good ole USA. Exxon and the other Oil companies said no thanks to building new refineries, because they know that more supply equals less profits.

 

The United States has not built any new refineries since the 70’s, more than 30 years ago. Some of the reasons for this are: no one wants a refinery in their back yard, environmentalists have placed road blocks with the courts, and the Oil companies know what will happen to their profits.

 

Over the last six years, President Bush and the Republican Party have been pushing to find more sources of Oil closer to home.  There have been calls for more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and more drilling in Alaska in an area called The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

 

The House of Representatives has recently approved of more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but further drilling and exploration in ANWR is still on hold.

 

According to the Department of Interior's 1987 resource evaluation of ANWR's Coastal Plain, there is a 95% chance that a 'super field' with 500 million barrels would be discovered. DOI also estimates that there exists a mean of 3.5 billion barrels

 

While the exact amount of Oil at ANWR is not known, there has been a strong push by the Oil companies and President Bush to find out.

 

April of 2005 Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens urged his colleagues to support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Do it to boost our domestic oil supplies”, he said. “Do it to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

 

What Stevens did not say to his colleagues on the Senate floor that day, was that the Oil from ANWR would be sold to Japan and Russia.

 

The Democratic Party has done all they could to prevent any further exploration and drilling at ANWR. In 2005 the democrats did offer to allow more exploration and drilling at ANWR if President Bush would keep the oil here in the United States to be refined here and sold to American consumers, but President Bush said no.

 

But why sell our domestic oil to other nations, when we have become so dependent on foreign oil?

 

Greed.

 

The Saudi’s and OPEC along with Bush and Cheney want to keep us dependent on foreign oil for as long as possible for profits.

 

In 2001 when Bush took office the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Stock Exchange was approx. $19.00…In July 2006 the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Stock Exchange reached a high of $78.00…Source The New York Stock Exchange…

 

Our friends the Saudi’s have made a fortune under President Bush’s reign.

 

So what can be done to lower the prices at the pumps?

 

There is not much to hope for in the short term, but in the long run there is plenty we can do to get the prices at the pumps lowered.

 

We can demand that domestic oil stay in the United States and replace the foreign oil that is refined at our plants if we are going to increase our domestic drilling. We can push our representatives to build more refineries. We can demand more money for the development of alternative energy sources. We can demand cars that are more fuel-efficient, and cars that can run on alternative fuels. We can demand that our elected officials stop the gauging being conducted by Exxon and the others.

 

The months leading up to the 2006 election we miraculously saw the prices at the pumps come down, not because all of a sudden there was an increase of gasoline, but because they could.

 

There are some little changes that everyone can do to help offset the high prices we face today at the pumps, such as car pooling, maintain tire pressures, clean air filters, and tune-ups. But it will take you, the American citizen to speak out to your politicians, to tell them to build the refineries, then drill for the domestic oil, which would make us no longer dependent on OPEC or other oil producing nations.

 

The policy of Stay the Course, must change.

 

www.YodasWorld.org

 

You can also find this story at the Santa Ynez Valley Journal www.syvjournal.com
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RANTS AND RAVES

By: David Phillips

May 7, 2007

 

The NRA (National Rifle Association) this past week has come out in support of selling guns to terror suspects…

 

Washington has proposed legislation that would prohibit suspected terrorist’s from buying guns (they actually need to make a law for this…amazing)…The Justice Department backs this bill which would allow the Attorney General to block sales of fire arms at his discretion…

 

A couple of weeks back after the Virginia Tech killings by a student with mental problems, there was a push to prohibit the sales of guns to people with mental impairments…Can you guess which side of the argument the NRA was on?

 

That’s right, they also want to allow sales of guns to all mental patients…The NRA has one of the largest lobbying groups in Washington, and contribute millions to our elected officials…I wonder how hard these politicians will push to stop the sales of guns to terrorists and mental patients?

 

Only in America will you find this sort of insanity…

 

Last week, a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee held a hearing on the Bush administration’s practice of extraordinary rendition (CIA kidnappings where people are sent to secret prisons and tortured), and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said:

 

“if in order to protect the rights of one or two people, or five people or ten people, who are mistakenly abducted because their names were the same or because they went to a mosque that they didn’t know this thing was going on in the back room, if 10 of those people suffer those consequences, but in order for us to take 90 other people off the street who are intent and involved in plans that would slaughter tens of thousands of our citizens, I’m afraid that’s the price we pay in a real world.”

 

When members of the audience groaned, Rohrabacher said, “Well, I hope it’s your families, I hope it’s your families that suffer the consequences.”

 

I wonder if Rep. Rohrabacher was to have one of his family members mistakenly picked up by the CIA in the middle of the night and sent to a secret prison to be tortured, if he would feel the same way…

 

Yeah, I’m guessing he would, because he sounds like a real SOB…

 

How’s that chicken you are eating tasting these days?

 

Unless you have been living under a rock, you most likely have heard about the tainted pet food that has resulted in thousands of pets getting sick and dying, and hundreds of brands of pet food, being recalled because they are contaminated with an industrial chemical called melamine.

 

Three government agencies — the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have placed a hold on 20 million chickens, because the chicken farmers used feed that contained the same pet food that was found to be tainted with the industrial chemical melamine…

 

Oh yeah, last week the FDA also said that they found that Hogs were also fed the same tainted pet food…

 

The FDA inspects less than 1% of the food supply for our country, partially because we are now importing billions of dollars in food from China and other countries, and also because the FDA is woefully under staffed.

 

Their budget has been slashed in half over the last six years, and now the FDA has announced plans to eliminate 7 of 13 field labs and merge the workers into 5 larger field labs…

 

50 US Congressmen have asked the FDA to halt their closings until Congress has a chance to review their plans…

 

And remember, the FDA checks less then 1% of the food we eat, they are an organization that reacts to hazards that have caused people to either get sick or die…

 

The FDA web site lists each week the products that they have deemed anywhere from deadly to just dangerous, I urge everyone to check out their web site out at least once a week…www.fda.gov…

 

A couple of factoids:

 

In 2001 the year Bush took office the poverty level in the United States was at a 26 year low…In 2007 the poverty level in the United States is at a 32 year high…Source 2005 census figures

 

In 2001 when Bush took office the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Stock Exchange was approx. $19.00…In July 2006 the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Stock Exchange reached a high of $78.00…Source The New York Stock Exchange…

 

You’ve done a heck of a job Georgie…

 

623 days until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney vacate Washington…

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES

By: David Phillips

April 30, 2007

 

Rudy Rudy Rudy, in case you missed it, Giuliani said this past week that if you vote for a Democrat for President in 2008, you should expect another attack here in the United States by terrorists…

 

I just want to point out that Mayor Rudy Giuliani was in charge of his city when we were attacked on September 11, 2001, and George W. Bush was the President…

 

So why the hell does he think Republicans can do a better job than the Democrats, when Giuliani and Bush both Republicans, allowed New York to be attacked in the first place…

 

I would not normally put the blame in his lap, but Giuliani is the one who is saying he could do a better job…So if he wants to say Democrats can not protect us better than Republicans can, that’s fine, but he must also accept the blame for September 11, 2001, because he was the man in charge as he constantly reminds everyone…

 

Rudy, you cannot have it both ways…

 

When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee he said, "I don't recall" and its variants ("I have no recollection," "I have no memory") 64 times…

 

President George W. Bush said of Gonzales after his testimony, "The attorney general went up and gave a very candid assessment and answered every question he could possibly answer, honestly answer, in a way that increased my confidence in his ability to do the job"...

 

You’re doing a heck of a job, Gonzo…

 

Some of the latest scandals from the Bush Administration that you may have missed:

Ø  World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq war as deputy defense secretary, acknowledged he erred in helping a female friend he is dating to get transferred to a high-paying job at the State Department while remaining on the World Bank payroll. The revelations fueled calls from the bank's staff association for him to resign.

Ø  Matteo Fontana, a Department of Education official who oversaw the student loan industry, was put on leave after disclosure that he owned at least $100,000 worth of stock in a student loan company.

Ø  Lurita Doan, head of the General Services Administration, attended a luncheon at the agency earlier this year with other top GSA political appointees at which Scott Jennings, a top Rove aide, gave a PowerPoint demonstration on how to help Republican candidates in 2008. A congressional committee is investigating whether the remarks violated a federal law that restricts executive-branch employees from using their positions for political purposes.

Ø  Julie MacDonald, who oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service but has no academic background in biology, overrode recommendations of agency scientists about how to protect endangered species and improperly leaked internal information to private groups, the Interior Department's inspector general said.

Bush’s cronyism and incompetence at work…there are literally hundreds of people that have been placed in various positions throughout the Bush administration that have little or no qualifications to do the jobs they have been assigned to do…

 

This week, the War Spending Bill that was just passed by the Senate will make it to Bush’s desk, where he has said that he will be vetoing the bill, because it has conditions and timelines for the Iraqi Government, and for our troop withdrawal…

 

The majority of the people in the United States have the same opinion as the democrats on setting timelines, and want to see our troops start to come home…But the only timelines that Bush has been willing to agree upon, are the timelines that have extended the tours of Duty for our troops, from 12 months to 15 months…

 

And finally, James Doohan AKA “Scotty” from Star Trek, actually made it to outer space. This past Saturday a small portion of his ashes were sent into space by a rocket launched from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed north of Las Cruces, NM…

 

.I think that this is a very cool ending for the man who was constantly saving Captain Kirk’s butt on TV, when Kirk would say: “Beam me up Scotty”…

 

 

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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The Power of Three

By: David Phillips

April 23, 2007

 

You know that old saying; “Things Happened in Threes”, like the deaths of famous people, or tragic events, and then you say to yourself, that is the third time in the last few days that this or that has happened…

 

We even have a term for such thinking its called “numerology”, the study of the supposed influence of numbers on humans and human events…

 

I am going to point out a few such occurrence’s that have caught my eye…

 

First up I will point out how three tragic events all had common denominators of numerical influence… In this case I will point out how the Same Week, in the Same Month, will show how all three are tied to “Things Happened in Threes”…

 

April 19, 1995 the killings at the Oklahoma Bombing

April 20, 1999 the killings at Columbine High School

April 16, 2007 the killings at Virginia Tech

 

Next up, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and the people around him…

 

Michael Battle director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys

Kyle Sampson Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Monica Goodling, the Attorney Generals Liaison to the White House

 

The three highest-ranking officials under Attorney General Gonzales have RESIGNED from the Justice Department…“Things Happened in Threes”,

 

The Power of Three has shined it’s light towards congress, and it is the FBI who is shinning this light…

 

Republican Jim Gibbons (R-NV) former Congressmen and current Governor of Nevada, is under investigation for receiving bribes in exchange of no-bid contracts worth millions to his friends in Reno, NV. A recall campaign is under way by the people of Nevada…

 

Republican John Doolittle (R-CA) is under investigation for receiving bribes from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Congressmen Doolittle stepped down last week from the House Appropriations Committee, until the investigation comes to an end…

 

Republican Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) is under investigation for a land deal that would benefit his friend and business associate who was also a campaign donor. Congressmen Renzi stepped down last week from the House Intelligence Committee, until this matter is cleared up…

 

The Power of Three see what I mean…and there are more commonalities to these three Republicans with the phrase “Things Happen in Threes”…

 

The FBI is also investigating the wives of all three of these men…

 

Dawn Gibbons…wife of Gov. and former Republican Congressmen Jim Gibbons

Julie Doolittle…wife of Republican Congressmen John Doolittle

Roberta Renzi…wife of Republican Congressmen Rick Renzi

 

More Supernatural examples of the saying “Things Happen in Three’s”…Or Numerology…

 

Eerie isn’t it?

 

How about this ditty of people and the power of three

 

Just a few weeks back, all Three cable news networks (MSNBC, CNN, and FOX) covered the same Three stories 24 hours a day for several weeks…No it was not the about the Wars…No it was not about Bush, Cheney or Condi…

 

The three cable News channels were all about:

 

Lisa Nowak… the NASA astronaut who wore a diaper in route to a possible kidnapping and murder plot…

Britney Spears…the now party girl and former singer, barber, and rehab girl who did not know that when she was told she needs to spend 30 days in rehab, that they meant 30 days in a Row…

Anna Nicole Smith…another party girl who wanted to be just like Marylyn Monroe who died at 36…Anna Nicole Smith beat out her idol by Three years…39…

 

Now obviously these things really don’t have much in common…Or do they???

 

 

Chills, I feel chills on the back of my neck…Is this getting spooky?

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES

By: David Phillips

April 16, 2007

 

 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) who is responsible for making sure imports are safe, has suffered massive budget cuts under the Bush administration which has seen 50 percent of it’s staff slashed, while at the same time, the imports that it has been responsible for checking have increased by 50 percent. The lab is outdated and until recently, the commission has been short one commissioner…

 

This year alone the CPSC has announced 99 product recalls, which 63 came from Communist China imports. Adding to the crisis is the overwhelming increase in imported goods. When the CPSC was created in 1973, we had a trade surplus, last year our trade deficit in products topped $386 billion…

 

Some of the imports that the CPSC has recalled include defective ladders, dangerous toys, lunchboxes found with lead in the vinyl, as well as lead in baby highchairs and bibs…

 

The current acting head of the commission appointed by President Bush, is anti consumer and favors manufacturers. He is a former lobbyist and the former head of consumer affairs for the Chamber of Commerce…

 

Bush also appointed the former executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, as the final commissioner of the CPSC…

 

The head of the American Toy Association spoke at some congressional hearings and told them that they need to increase funding to the CPSC, but instead Bush has pushed for more cuts…

 

All these cuts at the CPSC along with the cuts at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who in 2001 had a staff of more than 9000 inspectors, and now has a staff of a little more than 2000 inspectors, has also seen their work load increase to the point that they cannot do their job in the approved manner…

 

What we are seeing is gross negligence from the Bush administration and his total lack of consideration and protection of Consumers…

 

I wonder if Bush has someone tasting his food before he eats it…

 

Well, It looks like GonzoGate is heating up, the Attorney General will be testifying before Congress this week, and this scandal just keeps snowballing.

 

From this scandal other scandals are blooming…

 

We learned this past week, that the White House staff used the Republican National Committee’s web server for e-mails to keep them away from the White House and hidden form democratic subpoenas, which is illegal…

 

The White House staffs including Karl Rove were informed in 2004 that what they were doing is illegal, but do you think breaking a few laws would stop them. Then we learned the White House and Karl Rove deleted millions of e-mails that they said was a mistake…

 

The hits just keep on coming…

 

We have also learned that Monica Goodling, the Attorney Generals Liaison to the White House who at the age of 33 has never prosecuted any case in court, who’s position is the third highest in the Justice Department, who told Congress she would exercise her fifth amendment rights if subpoenaed and who resigned a few days later, is a graduate from Pat Robertson’s Regent College law school, that is rated as a tier four (The Lowest) school by the US Government college ranking system…

 

We have also learned from GonzoGate, that the White House has hired 150 law graduates from Pat Robertson’s Regent College…Can I get a Hallelujah, or maybe an Amen would be better…

 

 

Holocaust Remembrance Day

 

Children in Crisis: Voices from the Holocaust April 15, 2007

 

 

“The first to perish were the children...From these a new dawn might have risen.”

— Yitzhak Katzenelson, Yiddish poet

 

 

The United States Congress established Days of Remembrance as our nation’s annual commemoration of victims of the Holocaust, just as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is our permanent living memorial to those victims.

 

 

This year Holocaust Remembrance Day is Sunday, April 15, 2007. The Museum has designated “Children in Crisis: Voices from the Holocaust” as the focus for the 2007 observance.

 

 

Read More

 

 

 

644 days until George and Dick are evicted…

 

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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SPEAKER PELOSI, SYRIA, AND WHAT YOU'RE NOT HEARING
By: David Phillips
April 8, 2007

The last few days the right wing controlled media has been concentrating on one story, and it has nothing to do with Anna Nicole Smith. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has just returned from a trip to the Middle East that included stops in Israel and Syria.

 

President Bush said, "Going to Syria sends mixed signals, signals in the region and of course mixed signals to President Assad. And by that I mean photo opportunities and or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they are part of the mainstream of the international community, when in fact they are a state sponsor of terror,"

 

White House spokesperson Dana Perino said,” I do think that, as a general rule — and this would go for Speaker of the House Pelosi and this apparent trip that she is going to be taking — that we don’t think it’s a good idea”

 

VP Dick Cheney said, Pelosi showed “Bad Behavior”.

 

And the Right Wing talking heads all followed suit and mysteriously started spouting the same talking points at the same time.

 

Now for what the Bush Administration is not saying:

 

Each and every one of the right wing talking heads and those in the White House omitted several important details, because the facts of the matter just got in the way of their harmonious message.

 

First, there were other Congressmen, Democrats and a Republican who accompanied speaker Pelosi to the Middle East. The delegation included Reps. David Hobson (R-OH), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Nick Rahall (D-WV).

 

Second, the week before Nancy showed “Bad Behavior” by going to Syria, without the blessings of the White House or the State Department, three other Congressmen went to Syria without the blessings of the White House or the State Department.

 

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), and Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA) were also in Israel and Syria just days before Speaker Pelosi’s visit.

 

These three congressmen strongly disagree with Bush and his policy of No Diplomacy with Syria, and they don’t have a problem saying so.

 

Rep. Frank Wolf, (R-VA) said, "I don't care what the administration says on this. You've got to do what you think is in the best interest of your country," Wolf went on to say "I want us to be successful in Iraq. I want us to clamp down on Hezbollah."

 

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), said, "This is an area where we would disagree with the administration, none of us in the Congress work for the president. We have to cast our own votes and ultimately answer to our own constituents.”

 

So the all the noise was directed at Speaker Pelosi because she is a Democrat, she is the Speaker of the House, and she is a woman.  Bush and his spin machine said absolutely nothing of the prior Republican delegation, their comments about the Bush administration, or the other Congressmen who were with Pelosi on her trip.

 

I just thought you should know, what they purposely did not want you to know, about Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her “Bad Behavior” in the Middle East.

 

The misdirection’s being used by the White House spin machine that has everyone talking about Speaker Pelosi, currently has no one talking about the Scandals that have become an everyday event in Washington.

 

Scooter Libby who helped leak the name of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, and who was found guilty of perjury and blocking an investigation. The FBI’s misuse of the Patriot Act and gathering thousands of phone records of innocent American’s. GonzoGate, where the Attorney General of the United States Alberto Gonzales, lied to congress about the firing of eight US Attorneys, and will be testifying under oath before congress April 17, 2007.

 

So the White House did have this past week for their Spin, but this week it will be business as usual…

 

 

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES

By: David Phillips

April 9, 2007

 

I am guessing that many of you have had to make calls concerning technical problems with your Personal Computer, or possibly with a service provider for some other electronic product you own, and noticed that the person at the other end of the phone had an accent, similar to those from India…

 

And to help put you at ease, the person you would speak to, would give you an American sounding name, but you new in the back of your mind that he or she was not an American…

 

I am also guessing that most have heard how American corporations have out sourced their call centers to India and now even Africa…Well, it did not take our Government very long to follow the leads of these corporations

 

When you call the Post Office with questions regarding job openings via there 800 numbers, the call is directed to a call center in Kenya, Africa (That’s right, when you call the United States Post Office about a job, someone in another country answers your questions)…I would not be surprised to learn that other government agencies either have, or soon will, followed suit…

 

Our government is always looking out for the publics best interest, they bring in foreign labor to do the jobs that Americans will not do…And they send jobs to other countries that Americans will never have the chance to do…

 

The saying, “Only in America” just doesn’t seem to have the same ring it use to…

 

The Pentagon has recently changed a rule on how our soldiers who are killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are handled.

 

Up until January of this year, all those that were killed in action, were put in coffins loaded into the bellies of commercial airlines, were they were loaded and unloaded by baggage handlers with forklifts, and not accorded the courtesy and dignity that those killed in the service of our country have always been given.

 

The rules change requires that all those killed in action be flown back to the United States on Military transports, and loaded and unloaded by military Honor Guards in White Gloves, which has ALWAYS been the time honored traditions of the Armed Forces of the United States.

 

John Holley who’s son was killed by an IED in Iraq in 2005, was informed that his son was being shipped back to him on a commercial flight, he objected, called his Congressmen, Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who was the House Armed Services Committee Chairmen at the time, who then spoke to the pentagon.

 

But it took a Law passed by Congress last year, to force the Pentagon to treat all who have died in action, with the Dignity that they and their families deserve.

 

I find it disgusting the way our Government has treated those that have paid the Ultimate price to protect what we all take for granted…And I am still waiting for President Bush to attend just one damn funeral of a soldier, who was sent to fight in a War, started by those who refused to fight in a War…

 

And finally, Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzales’s senior counsel and the liaison between the White House and the Justice Department has resigned from her job.

This brings the total to three who have resigned from the Justice Dept., Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’s former chief of Staff, and Michael Battle, former director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, are the other two.

 

Also adding to problems with the Justice Dept., four top deputies in the U.S. Attorneys office in Minnesota have also resigned in protest to U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose, who was appointed about a year ago, after serving as an assistant to Gonzales.

 

A Lawyer speaking on condition of anonymity said, “The situation in Minnesota will send shock waves through the rank and file.” He went on to say that ”The terrible truth is, U.S. Attorney’s office are demoralized. The morale throughout the country is as low as it has ever been.”

 

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is expected to testify on April 17, 2007 before Congress and under oath, where he will try to better explain the firing of the eight U.S. Attorneys and to why he lied to Congress…

 

651 Days until George and Dick take their act on the road…

 

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act
By: David Phillips
April 2, 2007

This week President Bush paid his first visit to Walter Reed Hospital since the scandal broke. Bush admitted that mistakes were made. He did not say who is made the mistakes, or who is responsible, but he did say mistakes were made…

 

But we now know that Bush and IAP Worldwide Services are responsible for those rat infested living conditions our wounded troops were forced to live in…

 

I bring this up for a couple of reasons; first Bush used the wounded soldiers for Photo Ops, which is wrong in so many ways. Yes, the President should visit the wounded troops at hospitals, but he should leave the press outside, and second, Congress just approved “The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act” (H.R.1538), by a vote of 426-0…

 

“The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act”, establishes a hot line for medical patients to report problems with any treatments, and to cut through the red tape for when they move from the Pentagons care to the Veterans Administrations care…

 

But the Bush administration has voiced concern over one of the provisions that require imposing a one-year moratorium, on a program that lets private companies compete with public agencies, for military and hospital work contracts…

 

This is the same practice that has created the situation at Walter Reed Hospital with the privatization of support staff with IAP Worldwide Services, and Bush objects to the fact that congress wants to put a moratorium on out sourcing…

 

The Bush administration said the program that has been criticized for the substandard conditions at Walter Reed has generated billions in savings…

 

So while Bush is standing at Walter Reed Hospital having his picture taken with true American Heroes and saying mistakes were made...at the very same time he is telling congress that he objects to a moratorium to privatize support services such as the ones that created the rat infested conditions in the first place at Walter Reed Hospital…

 

Some of the other conditions laid out in  “The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act”:

 

  1. Requires the Pentagon to develop a plan to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder and other stress-related problems including substance abuse conditions.
  2. Requires the VA to increase the number of physicians at hospital.
  3. Requires that appropriate members of Congress be notified of the hospitalization of a combat-wounded service member.
  4. Assigns independent health care professionals to serve as counselors and advocates for service members being considered by medical evaluation boards.
  5. Improves training for health care professionals and medical care case managers on the particular conditions of a recovering service member.
  6. Sets up a pilot program in the Army similar to the Marine Wounded Warrior Regiment program, which keeps track of those still requiring medical care on an outpatient basis.

 

As I mentioned “The Wounded Warriors Assistance Act”: was passed by the House unanimously, 426-0, with nine members not voting. The bill must now be approved by the Senate, which I am sure will have the same bipartisan support that it was given in the House.

 

If the Senate approves the Bill as it is currently written, it would then go to President Bush for his signature.

 

Bush has been consistent with his support for the troops:

 

  1. He sent the troops to War, with no Body Armor.
  2. He sent the troops to War with no Armor for Trucks or Humvees.
  3. He has outsourced logistical support.
  4. He has outsourced medical support.
  5. He has slashed Funding for the VA almost every year in office
  6. He has proposed VA cuts for 2009 and 2010 in his latest budget proposal.
  7. He has extended tours in Iraq and Afghanistan form 12 to 18 months.
  8. He has stretched the Armed forces to the Breaking Point.
  9. He has politicized the troops at every opportunity.

 

With support like his, who needs enemies…

 

The next time you hear Bush say he supports the troops, remember, what he is really saying is that he supports the companies who are contracted to support the troops…

 

 

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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WAR DRUMS BEATING LOUDER FOR IRAN
By: David Phillips
March 26, 2007

This past Friday the Iranian Navy seized fifteen British sailors and marines in the Persian Gulf, then on Saturday the United Nations Security Council impose further sanctions against Iran, because of their pursuit to enrich uranium, which Iran refuses to stop.

Iran has known for a couple of months, that further sanctions would be imposed upon them, since the first round of sanctions did little to slow their pursuit to enrich uranium.

But, I have to wonder if Iran may have thought that by seizing the fifteen sailors and marines the United Nations Security Council which Britain is part of, would either postpone or stop any further sanctions.

Iran has said that they have every right to pursue the enrichment of uranium, that they say will be used to generate electricity. But most western governments fear that Iran's uranium enrichment program is not for power generation, but for making nuclear weapons, a claim Iran denies.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Iran on Sunday, by saying that the fifteen sailors and marines that were seized, was a "fundamental" problem for his government.

A "fundamental" problem seems like he is guarding his words a little to closely. I suppose that diplomats on both sides are relaying messages in hopes of a political solution.

FARS News Agency reported that the fifteen sailors and marines have been moved to Tehran, and Iranian foreign ministry officials said that the fifteen sailors and marines have confessed to being in Iranian waters, and that they would be put on trial.

I have to explain a past confrontation to you that pertains to the current "fundamental" problem that Tony Blair's government faces.

In June of 2004 Iran seized eight British sailors in the Persian Gulf, the Iranian government televised the eight sailors were wearing blindfolds, confessing to be in Iranian waters, but before the eight confessed they were made to dig what they believed to be their own graves, and then subjected to mock executions.

After airing the confessions and using psychological torture on them for three days, the Iranians released them.

So now you know how things ended up the first time, but now the War in Iraq is a lot worse, and Iran has been more brazen in how they perceive their roll in the region

Blair said Iran's claim that the sailors and marines had crossed into Iranian waters "is simply not true" and hoped the Iranians "understood how fundamental an issue this is for the British government."


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is in the Middle East, said the sailors and marines should be released right away and "we all fully trust the British" that they were not in Iranian waters.

Evan after Blair's statement, the Iranians still say that the fifteen sailors and marines were in Iranian waters.

Britain and the United States have said the sailors and marines had just completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway when the Iranian navy intercepted them.

Both the British and the Iranians will not release the coordinates of the civilian vessel that was searched or exactly where the Iranians seized the fifteen sailors and marines.  

Gen. Ali Reza Afshar Iran's top military official, said on Saturday the fifteen sailors and marines seized were taken to Tehran for questioning (torture) and that they confessed to what he called an "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters."

The capture and detention of the fifteen British sailors and marines, puts at risk an already strained relationship between Iran and the West.

We all need to hope that the British, who have a great history of diplomacy, can work out a political solution, that does not involve George W. Bush, since we all know how accomplished the Bush administration is, when it comes to diplomacy.


www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES
A White House Mired in Scandals
By: David Phillips
March 19, 2007

The last five weeks have seen one scandal after another with ties directly to the White House, that has George W. Bush wishing to hear more about Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears and Lisa Nowak the diaper astronaut, and less about Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame, the FBI's misuse of the Patriot Act, and US Attorneys …

Fox News Channel is so worried about what to air and talk about that will not offend Bush and Cheney, that they are resorting to filming and airing the Fox News Channel's division president, Roger Ailes and his speech's at dinners for bashing Democrats, to fill time and space with his lame jokes…

I would not be surprised if Fox News Channel asked the Circus Freak of Politics, Ann Coulter, to call more people "Fags" so they can fill more hours of her mindless dribble on their news/entertainment shows…

The White House is back to their old trick, of trying to scare people and make them fearful of their own shadows, so they'll talk about something else and forget about the Scandals…

In case you missed it, late Friday, the FBI issued warnings to all Police Departments that Foreign Extremists here in the United States, have been training to drive school buses…  

The bulletin did NOT say how many foreign extremists, have sought to acquire licenses to drive school buses, or even where in the United States they were doing this…

But, an FBI spokesman came forward and said, "PARENTS AND CHILDREN HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR."…

Did I mention that the FBI and Homeland Security said, "We have no information indicating these individuals are involved in a terrorist plot against the homeland."…

So, the FBI has no information that extremists are doing this, but they just wanted you to know, so you would not be afraid…

I wonder if the FBI was aware of a new story this past weekend in the Washington Post, that was a follow up story about the Department of Justice's, Inspector General report of Illegal use of the Patriot Act by the FBI…The follow up story said, the FBI had obtained Thousands of Phone Records of American Citizens, over a two-year period, that had nothing to do with terrorism…

I guess we won't be hearing President Bush say that he does not illegally wiretap American Citizens anymore, or that he only wiretaps calls by suspected terrorists to the United States…

This past week Valerie Plame finally got to present the facts of her status with the CIA before Congress, and we now know, that she was a Covert CIA agent, and CIA Director General Michael Hayden, confirmed that she was a Covert CIA agent…

We also now know as facts, that Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, ALL have their hands dirty, in exposing a Covert CIA agent as a reprisal, to discredit her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson, and all three should be Charged with Treason…

President Bush said a couple of year's back, that if anyone from the White House is found to be the Leaker of the Agents name, he would fire them…

Like that's ever going to happen…

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has created an on going scandal, because he was incapable of telling the truth, as to why eight US Attorneys were fired…

His first response after being caught lying, was to fire (ask for his resignation) his Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson…Then some e-mails came out from Harriet Miers, Bush's former White House counsel, and they tried to throw her under the bus, but more e-mails showed up a couple days later, that implicated Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales before he was Attorney General…

This current scandal is still in its works, Congress has subpoenaed the fired US Attorneys, and Congress is considering subpoenaing Rove and Gonzales…

Stay tuned; the fallout from this scandal is not over…

673 days until George and Dick, take their act on the Road…


www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES
By: David Phillips
March 12, 2007

The top four Republican candidates for the 2008 Presidential election in descending order are; Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain, Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (who has not announced his candidacy), and former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney…

Rudy, John, and Newt have had a total of eight wives between them, and Mitt who is a Mormon, has just the one wife that he is currently married too…

That's right, the Mormon has one wife and the other three have had a total of eight. I just find that ironic, and the fact that the party of family values has given the least amount of support to the one who has family values…

Republican Irony, don't you just love it?

Newt Gingrich former Speaker of the House, went on a Christian talk radio show a couple of days ago, hosted by James Dobson, who leads The Focus On the Family, a right wing evangelical organization. Newt confessed that while he was leading the charge in 1998 to Impeach President Bill Clinton for having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, he was also having an affair, with one of his congressional aides…

Some more irony, mixed with Hypocrisy from the Republican Party…

Scooter Libby was just found guilty on counts of perjury, lying to the FBI and obstructing an investigation. The Republican Party has been pounding on Bush's door to pardon him…

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who lead the charge for President Bill Clinton's Impeachment from the Senate, went on all the cable news shows the other day, calling for Bush to Pardon Scooter Libby, when asked how Scooters guilty charges of perjury, were different from President Clinton's guilty charges of perjury, his reply was "It just is"…Meaning that Scooter is a Republican and Clinton was a Democrat…

Again more Hypocrisy from the Republican Party… 

Well, I'm sure most of you have heard about the Walter Reed Medical Center scandal, that has rocked the White House, because of the way President Bush was Supporting our Troops by having them live in Rat infested rooms and some forced to sleep in their own Urine…Well Bush has formed a Bipartisan committee to look into the problem…It amazes me how Bush always forms a committee when the shit hits the fan, instead of owning up to what really has caused the problems…

There are now Eight committees formed between the House, the Senate, and the President…More waste of time and tax dollars…

Speaking of president Bush's Support for the troops, the House the other day said that Bush's request for another $100 Billion for his Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will have a few Billion diverted from the Wars to the VA because Bush is cutting there budget for the years of 2008 and 2009…

Oh yeah, Bush said that if the House diverts money to the VA he would Veto the spending Bill…

Hypocrisy from the top, Bush says out of one side of his face, I Support our Troops, and out of the other side of his face he slash's their Healthcare…

Lt. General David H. Petraeus, the new man that Bush has put in charge to oversee the War in Iraq said the other day that a "Military win in Iraq is Unattainable."…

The General threw a Slap to the Face of Bush with this bit of reality…Will Bush spin this to his advantage by going on the road and saying that things in Iraq are going good with his escalation and progress is being made or will he simply ignore what the General said?

I'm guessing that we will see a Road Trip in the near future for Bush…

The Dept. of Justice's Inspector General for the FBI just released a report a couple of days ago, that said the agency has abused the Patriot Act…FBI Director Robert Muller, said that he will put a stop to the abuse of the Patriot Act by his agents, but would most likely not discipline anyone…

I guess we really can't blame Muller for not disciplining anyone, since Bush generally rewards those that screw up with the Medal of Freedom like John Ashcroft, Tommy Franks and L. Paul Bremer…

In case you forgot who these three great thinkers are, Tommy Franks planed the invasion of Iraq; George Tenet said the case for WMDs was a "slam-dunk," and Paul Bremer fired the Iraqi army, all government workers, and all factory workers leaving everyone jobless and most armed….

You're doing a heck of a job Mullee…

I recently had a conversation with a young Republican regarding Bush removing many of our Civil Liberties, and he said that Bush could remove all of our Civil Liberties if it meant keeping America Safe…

As Michael Moore once said: "Dude, Where's My Country."…


www.YodasWorld.org

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Walter Reed and IAP Worldwide Services
By David Phillips
March 5, 2007

In case you have not heard, the Secretary of the Army, Francis J. Harvey has resigned because of the scandal surrounding wounded soldiers being made to live in rat-infested buildings while they are being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

24 hours prior to Sect. Harvey's resignation, he fired Maj. Gen. George Weightman who was the head of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Harvey had resigned. But senior defense officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Gates had asked Harvey to leave.

"I am disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed," Gates said in the Pentagon briefing room. He took no questions from reporters.

An internal memo released by House Democrats from Major General George Weightman's deputy to the Army's medical command dated September 2006, explains how the Army's recent decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed had sparked mass departures of "highly skilled and experienced personnel." And as a result, Weightman's deputy warned that Walter Reed's "... base operations and patient care services are at risk of mission failure."

House Democrats who are investigating the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center described how the Army awarded the five-year, $120 million contract in January 2006. At that time, they claim Walter Reed had over 300 federal employees in support services. By February 2007, a year later, that number had dropped to under 60.

The company that was awarded the $120 million contract is IAP Worldwide Services. The CEO of IAP, Al Neffgen, is a former senior Halliburton official.

IAP World Services was also one of the companies who were given a contract by FEMA to deliver Ice to Katrina victims.

Congressman Henry Waxman says it would be "reprehensible if the deplorable conditions (at Walter Reed) were caused or aggravated by an ideological commitment to privatize government services..."

While it appears that the Democrats were made aware of this scandal and were supposedly investigating, it was a reporter, Dana Priest of the Washington Post who truly made the nation and our leaders take notice and to get off their rear-ends to do something.

President George W. Bush said he is going to form a committee to look into how this happened, which really means that he is going to slow things down until the story is no longer News.

You see we already know how this happened, IAP World Services was awarded a $120 million contract because of there CEO's connection to Halliburton and Vice President Dick Cheney, and, the more employees and services that IAP World Services eliminated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the more money they would make.

When Bush says that he supports the American troops, while he is slashing the budget for the V.A., or sending troops into battle without body armor, or awarding contracts to firms who only care about their bottom lines, maybe you will think twice, when he says, that he supports the troops and some others don't.

Rat infestations, VA budget cuts, and no Body Armor are not what your average American would call supporting the troops…But our President does…

www.yodasworld.org

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RUDY'S SKELETONS COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET
By; David Phillips
February 26, 2007

Like all Presidential candidates in the past, personal and professional histories are examined as if they are under a microscope.

And like most people, skeletons are bound to be hiding in their closets.

President Bush for example had to deal with his Whisky and Cocaine problems, and his missing time (AWOL) while serving in the Texas Air National Guard. Senator John McCain had to deal with his involvement with the "Keating Five" savings and loan scandal. Senator Barack Obama as a State senator in Illinois entered into a real estate deal with a political fundraiser who was later indicted in a kickback scheme. Senator Hillary Clinton, who as first lady was confronted with scandals involving the White House travel office, and the Whitewater real estate investment.

Some of the skeleton's that are rattling around Rudy's closet are former Monsignor Alan Placa a friend of Giuliani's, who was defrocked by the Catholic Church amid accusations of groping a former student Richard Tollner.

Despite the accusations that Placa faced, Giuliani gave his friend a job at Giuliani Partners, a consulting company that Giuliani formed after leaving office as Mayor.

Michael Hess a partner at the firm and the ex-mayors corporation counsel handled Placa's legal matters.

Another skeleton is Bernie Kerik; Giuliani promoted his former campaign driver from detective to a series of jobs, the last being Police Commissioner, and later Kerik became one of the founding partners at Giuliani Partners.

Giuliani recommended Kerik to President Bush in 2004 to head the Homeland Security Department. Kerik had to decline the offer, because of his guilty pleas to two misdemeanors of corruption, one of which he allowed a mob-tied firm to renovate his apartment for no cost. Kerik paid a fine of $221,000.

And there are more skeletons that are busting out of Giuliani's closet, Russell Harding, who in 2000 at the age of 34 was appointed the head of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Harding was given this position despite his lack of a college degree or any expertise because he was the son of a key political ally.

Harding is currently serving five years in prison after pleading guilty for taking nearly a $500,000 in agency money to pay for lavish meals and vacations, and for downloading child pornography. Two of his aides also pleaded guilty in defrauding the agency of money.

Wait, were not done yet, there's still the rattle of bones emanating from Giuliani's closet. Those bones you hear are those of Louis Carbonetti an old friend of Giuliani's who's father Anthony Carbonetti, was Chief of Staff at City Hall, while Giuliani was Mayor, and is now a partner at Giuliani Partners.

Louis Carbonetti who was the Community Assistance Unit commissioner under Giuliani, pleaded guilty in 2004 to perjury in a probe of contracts with a business improvement district he led after leaving City Hall. He was sentenced to five years probation and paid a fine of $17,500.

All of these skeletons paint a very large and precise picture of Rudy Giuliani's hiring practices and his lack of business ethics.

Many of those who Giuliani associated with in business, have either pleaded guilty to various corruption or larceny charges, and are serving time or are tainted as immoral, as in the case of the former Monsignor Alan Placa.

Rudy Giuliani has gone through three divorces because of his adulterous affairs, and lack of moral conscience.

So I would like to ask those who voted for George W. Bush because of his family values and to those who thought that former President Bill Clinton, was immoral because of his White House affairs…

Does Rudy Giuliani possess the Moral character that you want for your next President?

Do you hear the rattle of more bones, I thought you might…Coming soon Part 2

www.YodasWorld.org

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WHEN THEY STAND UP
By: David Phillips
February 19, 2007

President Bush is currently sending in 21,500 more troops to Iraq in hopes of stabilizing Baghdad.

 

This will be the third surge, as Bush likes to call it that he has undertaken in the last several months, the last time being this past summer. During last summers surge, Bush was promised help from Prime Minister al-Maliki who said he would add eight Iraqi Battalions to go with the surge of American troops.

 

Well, only two of the eight Iraqi battalions we are told showed up.

 

Bush’s latest escalation, I mean surge, again calls for cooperation from al-Maliki and Iraqi forces working in concert with our American troops.

 

This time Bush said he has assurances from al-Maliki that he will not interfere with American forces and that al-Maliki will go after both Sunni and Shia militias.

 

Al-Maliki is beholden to Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shia Cleric who controls the Mahdi Army estimated to be approx. 60,000 strong according to the DOD, although they admit they really are not sure of there strength.

 

The DOD and Bush have said the Iraqi security forces are 325,000 strong. Bush has also said on many occasions in the past, although not recently that “When the Iraqis Stand Up, We Will Stand Down.”

 

You may have noticed that Bush is no longer saying “When they Stand Up, We Will Stand Down”, Bush has moved on from that bumper sticker slogan, to his next bumper sticker slogan, ”The Surge to Control Baghdad”.

 

In case you may have forgotten some of his nifty slogans, let me refresh your memory;

 

Ø      They hate us for our Freedom’s

Ø      Freedom is on the March

Ø      Your either with us, or your against Us

Ø      Bring um on

Ø      Stay the Course

 

”When the Iraqi’s Stand Up, We will Stand Down”, obviously that is just another bunch of crap from Bush and his spin machine to appease the American citizens.

 

Some of the things that we were told leading up to the War in Iraq, that we have since learned to be False or out and out Lies are; 

 

Ø      We were told Iraq had WMD’s

Ø      We were told that we would be greeted as liberators

Ø      We were told that we would have our troops home by December 2003

Ø      We were told the War would not cost us more than 1.5 Billion

Ø      We were told that Iraqi Oil would pay for the reconstruction

Ø      The Intel that Bush used to make his case for War was Cherry Picked

Ø      Saddam Hussein and Iraq had no connections with al-Qaida

 

Out of all the things that Bush has told us about his War in Iraq that I find truly believable is, that it will be up to the next President to decide if, and when our troops will come home.

 

The Democrats have now had control of Congress for a little more than a month, and already we are hearing from the right wing spin machine that the Democrats have done nothing to stop the War.

 

The right wing talking heads won’t tell you that no matter what Democrats or even Republicans say, Bush is the Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, and he has the power to send in as many troops as he wants, no matter what others may say.

 

The only power that Congress has is Article one, Section Seven of the Constitution of the United States, which says Congress can cut off funding to the Military.

 

While Congress does have this power, none have the will, or backbone to use it, because any politician that votes to cut the funding will be labeled as someone who does not support the troops.

 

Over the last several years the right wing spin machine has labeled any politician or American citizen who has protested the War: as Unpatriotic, Un-American, Empowering the Enemy or Endangering our Troops.

 

We’re told that it’s OK, and it’s understandable that the people are against the War just keep it to yourself.

 

So when they Stand Up, and we DON’T Stand Down, just remember that it’s OK and Understandable that you disagree with Bush, just keep it to yourself…

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES
David Phillips
February 12, 2007


It's a shame that Anna Nicole Smith Died, but the Media has gone bonkers with all the coverage…

Anna Nicole Smith was Psycho crazy over Marilyn Monroe, years ago she said that, she wanted her life to emulate hers...

Marilyn Monroe loved Champaign and Pills and died at 36...Anna Nicole Smith loved Champaign and Pills and died at 39...

Smith said in a recent interview, that if she could go back and do things different, she would be a waitress and making babies in a small town...

It's a disgrace that the vultures are circling Smiths body before it has a chance to run cold...

I can tell you that NASA and Astronaut Lisa Nowak are happy to be out of the News...

Because of Smith, we no longer have to endure hours and hours of mindless dribble, about a crazy Astronaut who drove to Florida wearing diapers...It seemed that every talking head on TV, just loved to mention the diapers, and you could see a half smile on their face when they said the word Diapers...

The down side for those who watch a lot of News coverage, is that you will now have to endure hours and hours of mindless dribble, about Anna Nicole Smith, until the next non story for the media to cover, comes along…

New York, New York…I heard that Anna Nicole loved New York…

In 1993 the World Trade Center was attacked by al-Qaida, while Bill Clinton was President and Rudy Giuliani was the Mayor of New York…

As Mayor of New York, Giuliani decided to move New York's Emergency Management Command Center, to one of the two, World Trade Center Towers...

Was that a smart move on Giuliani's part to put the Emergency Management Command Center for New York, into a known al-Qaida Target?

Since I have the opportunity to use hindsight, it is easy to state the obvious, but is this a legitimate question to ask a Presidential candidate, as to why he put the Emergency Management Command Center into a known al-Qaida Target???

I heard on CNN the other day that the ONLY was for a follower of Islam to got to Heaven is to die a Martyr…That's right, the Quran says I have 72 virgins waiting for you, but first, you must go and murder a non believer of Islam, and die doing it, if you want your 72 Virgins…

Article one, section seven of the United States Constitution says that Congress has the Power to Cut funding to the Military…So if Congress really wants to end the Iraqi War and bring our troops home they can do it…That is if they have the backbone to do it…

And Finally…In today's News, Vice President Dick "Dead Eye" Cheney, DID NOT, I repeat, DID NOT, shoot another lawyer in the face…

www.YodasWorld.org

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RANTS AND RAVES

By: David Phillips

February 5, 2007

 

The FDA is about to approve Cloned Meats and Milk, they say that after a few years of testing, they find No difference between Farm Raised Beef and Cloned Beef…

 

While they have no long-term exposure test results on Humans who eat and drink cloned foods, they say the risks are the same as with farm raised meats and milks…

 

Since they have no test results to back their claim, buyers beware. Or should that be eaters beware…

 

President Bush is still intent on surging American forces into Baghdad by 21,500 more troops…But what he did not say is that the number will be closer to 41,000 with the support the forces will require to maintain that level…

 

Palestine is still teetering on Civil War between Hamas factions and Fatah factions…Over 100 civilians have been killed, and many more wounded…

 

Hamas who was elected into power last year has vowed to destroy Israel, and has said that it will never live side by side with Israel in Peace…

 

The so-called more moderate Fatah group wants Peace with Israel, and is willing to work towards that end goal, with the two living side by side…

Ford Motor Co. and American Icon, announced losses of $12.7 Billion dollars for 2006… The loss for 2006, surpassed Ford's old record of $7.39 billion set in 1992.

I wonder how many millions the CEO will get as a severance bonus for breaking the old record???

 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of Scientists representing 113 countries have come together on a report that says Global Warming is real, and man made…

 

An Oil lobbying firm has offered $10,000 to Scientists who will write a report that rebuts the facts,

 

The letters were sent by Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar at American Enterprise Institute, who confirmed that the organization had approached scientists, economists and policy analysts to write articles for an independent review that would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC report." AEI has received more than $1.6 million from Exxon-Mobil.

 

Exxon-Mobil just reported profits for the year 2006 came in at just under $40 billion for the past year…Our politicians keep telling us, that these record profits have nothing to do with the price of gas at the pumps…Yeah right!!!!!

 

I wonder how many millions the CEO of Exxon-Mobil will get as a bonus for the record setting profits????

 

The Department of Defense (The Pentagon), had changed the number of wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq, from 47,657 to 31,493 on their web site…

 

They said that the NEW figure would reflect only those that are wounded and then, medevaced by helicopter…

 

All others who are wounded or catch some illness, and are medevaced by some other mode of transportation, other than a helicopter, no longer count as wounded or sick…

 

The DoD, ya gotta love them, making sure that the American people don’t know the truth, making sure we feel good about the War……

 

Also any soldiers who are killed in action, then rise from the dead will…

 

715 days till President George W. Bush is no longer President…

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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Bush Poking and Prodding Iran into War
By: David Phillips
January 29,2007

There is very little doubt in my mind that we will be at War with Iran, before the end of this summer.

In Bush's speech earlier this month about his surge (Escalation) of 21,500 troops to Iraq, he said that he is sending in Patriot Missile Systems, and another Aircraft Carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf.

The various groups, that we are fighting in Iraq: the Insurgents, al-Qaeda and the Militia's, have No Missiles to shoot down, that would require Patriot Missile Systems, but Iran does. They have No Jets, No Helicopters or other aerial devices, that would require more Air Power, but Iran does.

Bush must go after the Iranian Nuclear facilities, which are spread throughout Iran, because he has backed himself into a corner, with all of the lines he has drawn in the sand, regarding Iran's attempt to build a nuclear bomb, and Vowing to never let that happen.  

Less than 24 hours after Bush's speech about his surge (Escalation) of Troops to Iraq, the United States attacked the Iranian Consulate in Irbil, Iraq, detained 6 Iranian civilians, and confiscated all the computers and paper work in the building.

A few hours later our Embassy in Athens, Greece was attacked, Greek authorities say they are not sure who attacked the U.S. Embassy, but they are confident, that there was no link to al-Qaeda, or other foreign terror groups.

The Greek authorities might be right about no links to al-Qaeda, or other foreign terror groups, but they did say that they don't know for sure, who was responsible for the attack on the U.S. Embassy.

For more than a year now, the U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of Iranian agents, and after three or four days they would then release them. The DoD described this policy as "Catch and Release", because they did not want to increase tensions with Iran.

President Bush and the DoD have rethought their policy with regards to Iran and Iranians who are caught in Iraq.

The new policy that was leaked to the press this past Friday by U.S. Counterterrorism officials, and authorized by President Bush this last fall, now authorizes our troops to shoot to kill, or capture any Iranian agents or members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard in Iraq.

Any Iranians captured in Iraq will be treated as enemy combatants, and will now be subjected to, as Dead Eye Dick calls it, "Intense Interrogation", or as everyone else in the world calls it, "Torture."

The White House has authorized a widening of what is called the "Blue Game Matrix", according to counterterrorism officials, and the DoD. The "Blue Game Matrix" is a list of approved operations that can be carried out against the Iranian backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran has always claimed that their nuclear ambitions are peaceful, and they only want to build plants to make electricity. 

Last week the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad barred 38 UN inspectors from entering Iran.

Iran has announced plans to enrich uranium, which is the first step towards the process for making plutonium, which is used to make nuclear bombs.

Israel, who has also said that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, does not have the firepower to attack Iran's nuclear facilities that are spread throughout Iran.

While several members of the United Nations have also said that Iran must not be allowed to make nuclear weapons, and have imposed sanctions on Iran, that are meant to curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions, most agree that the sanctions are weak, and will do little to slow them down.

The United States plans to readdress the United Nations in hopes of toughening the sanctions. But countries such as Russia and China have blocked sanctions in the past against Iran that have any actual muscle.

All of this is leading up to a military confrontation with IRAN.

Bush is poking and prodding, and just needs to provoke them...When Iran respond with a military reaction...Bush will attack...He just needs an excuse that he can show the American people and the world, to justify his actions...

www.YodasWorld.org

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Venezuela's Chavez, Consolidates Power and Embraces Iran
By: David Phillips
January 22, 2007

Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela was sworn into his third term as President January 10th, which will run through 2012. Chavez said, “ All that is privatized, let it be nationalized, and that we are in an existential moment in Venezuela’s life, we are heading towards Socialism and nothing or no one can prevent it.”

 

President Chavez is consolidating his executive powers so he can to legislate by decree as part of his socialist revisions of Venezuela.

 

Venezuela’s legislature is expected to rule this week on the Enabling Laws that would give Chavez 18 months to decree legislation.

 

In 2001 Chavez decreed a 40 laws that paved the way for a sweeping land reform initiative and higher oil taxes for companies.

 

Chavez said he would nationalize all key industries such as Telecommunications, Electrical, Oil, and Banking industries.

 

Venezuela said that it would end all further discussions with oil companies on how it would take majority control of it’s Oil industry.

 

Chavez said that BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Total, and Statoil would be given the option to stay on as minority partners.

 

President Chavez also announced a plan that would reconfigure municipal governments by replacing them with entities called ‘Communal Councils’, which will be molded after The Paris Commune, the Socialist government that briefly ruled Paris in 1871.

 

Hugo Chavez has made a friend and ally of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

 

Last week Iran’s President Ahmadinejad paid a visit to Chavez, as well as two other socialist presidents in South America, Ecuador’s newly elected leftist President Rafael Correa, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, the former guerilla leader who assumed the presidency earlier this month.  

 

Iran’s President Ahmadinejad has alarmed Jewish organizations in Venezuela, because of his aggressive talk against Israel. Heinz Sonntag, a prominent Venezuelan socialist and political commentator, said the visit by Ahmadinejad was an “affront and an eventual threat to our countrymen who are Jewish.”

 

“The invitation of this personality is the finishing touch on Chavez’s announcements this week.” Said Mr. Sonntag.

 

“There is a desire by Chavez to accelerate what he views as a strategic alliance with Iran.” Said Alberto Garrido, author of Chavez’s Wars, a book recently published here that explores Venezuela’s ties to the Middle East. “The Venezuelan left has for decades considered alliances with Muslim countries as one of the ways to create a new civilization through the toppling of American values.”

Venezuela said last month that it would buy four oil tankers from Iran, part of Venezuela’s plan to increase its 21-ship tanker fleet through the acquisition of 42 additional vessels. Chavez continues to support Iran’s work towards Uranium enrichment.

Iran and Venezuela, the world’s fourth- and fifth-largest oil exporters, are also exploring for oil together in Venezuela’s Orinoco region. And they have plans for a joint oil trading company, part of an ambition by Caracas and Tehran to price oil in euros instead of dollars in order to weaken the influence of the United States in the international oil market.

With President Bush ignoring, or at least not showing any desire for diplomacy with Venezuela, Iran's influence in South America will increase, and our influence will decrease with Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and others in the region that look to emulate Castro's Cuba, and embrace Iran's hate for America and Israel…

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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BUSH:  SPEECH ABOUT NEW STRATEGY
The New "Stay The Course"
By: David Phillips
January 15, 2007

The New Way Forward

Bush's escalation of 21,500 more American soldiers does not appear to be what some on the right would call a Winning Strategy, and it does not appear to be what some on the left would call an Exit Strategy. It is merely the same strategy of "Stay The Course" with more American soldiers, and a promise from Iraq's Shia President Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, to bring in 50,000 more Iraqi soldiers to try and squash the sectarian violence (Civil War Sunni against Shia) in Baghdad.

Bush has tried this same strategy on two other occasions, the last as recently as this past summer, also with a promise from President al- Maliki to infuse more Iraqi troops, but the Iraqi troops that were promised never showed up.

President Al-Maliki who is a Shia and is backed in Iraq's fragile parliament by the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army is made up of approx. 60,000 shiites, according to the DoD, but they admit they are not really sure how many are in the Mahdi Army.

President al-Maliki has refused to go after Shiite militias, most notably Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. President al-Maliki said that this time he would pursue both Sunni and Shia militias, and do whatever it takes to bring Baghdad under control and to squash the sectarian violence (Civil War).

So, Bush's new strategy, which he has tried twice before, is to infuse more troops in Baghdad, both American and Iraqi, put a stop to the sectarian violence (Civil War) that is tearing the country apart, while at the same time train more Iraqi's to be soldiers. Oh yeah, and he plans on sending in 4,000 more American soldiers to the Anbar province, were al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters are based and entrenched.  

Bush said that if his new strategy works, he plans on handing over all control of Baghdad to the Iraqi's this November 2007, so Americans can be redeployed to border areas along Iran, and Syria, plus hopefully being able to bring some American troops home.

Bush's new IRAQI Strategy: By sending more troops into Iraq, we can bring them home sooner, because the longer we're there, the faster we can get out.

I know, your saying that this sounds absurd, well it should, because it is absurd…

www.YodasWorld.org

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I'll Have a Clone Burger with Fries to Go
By: David Phillips
January 8, 2007

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), about a week ago announced that the milk and meat from Cloned animals is safe to eat and drink. The FDA said that the milk and the meat are “indistinguishable” from animals that are bred and raised in conventional methods.

 

The approval by the FDA moves the United States one step closer to allowing the sale of Cloned animal meats and milk.

 

In 2001, the FDA put a voluntary suspension on the sale of these items, so they could begin their study of the risks that may be associated with food from Cloned animals.

 

The FDA has made their findings public, and are allowing a 90-day public comments period, after the 90-day period the sales of Cloned animal meats and milk could begin.

 

The preliminary findings by the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine will be published and made available this week, and states that none of their studies show, ”any remarkable nutritionally or toxicologically important differences” in the meat and milk from Cloned animals.

 

The FDA is saying that a glass of milk and a hamburger from a Cloned animal, will taste exactly the same as those from naturally bred animals, and that there are no differences.

 

But there are differences, big differences; a Clone is created in a lab, to be an exact duplicate of an existing conventionally breed animal.

 

With cloning comes ethical concerns that are not found in the conventional process of breeding. The process it self, has a very high risk of birth defects, and the mere fact that it is created in a lab, would make many wonder if this is morally acceptable.

 

Many soon will be faced with a choice, do I want to eat and drink products from Cloned animals, or just avoid them altogether because of ethical reasons, or some other personal reason.

 

Well, the FDA has decided to make that decision for you, they said, that there will be NO way of knowing if the milk or meat are from Cloned animals, or naturally bred animals, because there will be no labels that say this is from a Cloned animal.

That’s right, the FDA says, that you the consumer, will not have the option of knowing whether your meat and milk is from Cloned animals. The FDA said, that they have NO plans, for the requirement of labels.

 

The FDA is saying that, if you, the consumer have an ethical or moral problem with Clones, they don’t care.

 

As a consumer, I personally want to know what kind of food I am putting in my mouth, and where it comes from, or at least I want the option of being able to know.

 

I think that there are millions of people that feel that same as I do, and would also want to know, but the federal government is saying that our morals and ethics are not their concerns, and what you don’t know, won’t hurt them.

 

I urge everyone who cares about what they eat, or have an ethical or moral problem with Cloned milk and meats, to contact their elected officials, and tell them to have the FDA require labels…

 

www.YodasWorld.org

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