Where are the Republicans really taking us?

House warned on rise in debt
GAO chief says current spending path
won't work

Thursday, March 10, 2005
By Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette
National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker warned members of Congress yesterday that government spending is on an unsustainable path and that Social Security's financial problems made up only a fraction of the spending headaches Congress will face in coming years.

During the House Ways and Means Committee's first hearing on Social Security this year, Walker reminded members that while they are struggling to find a way to make up Social Security's $3.7 trillion shortfall, Medicare's is facing a shortfall that will be about eight times larger at $28 trillion.

The government is so deeply in debt, Walker said, that if spending rises at the pace of the growth of the economy and if the president's tax cuts are extended, the money coming into the Treasury in 2040 might only be enough to pay interest on the money the government is borrowing to pay for its programs.

"We are on an imprudent path," said Walker, who heads the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. "The government has no money. The government owes money."
... [ full article ]

Don't be fooled into thinking this situation is accidental. Massive deficit spending coupled with tax cuts for the wealthy is part of a plan to destroy the government of the United States. Bush is part of the cabal of free market maniacs who are out to steal the resources of the whole world.

To understand what Bush/Republican policies are aiming for we can look to the activities of the World Bank and IMF, who's leaders are also member of the cabal of free market maniacs. Time after time the World Bank and IMF have lent money to less developed countries knowing the money was being spent badly. Then when the poorly designed development projects came to nothing and all the money had disappeared, they forced the governments to cut social spending to nothing and sell off the nations assets at fire-sale prices.

If this cabal of free market maniacs isn't stopped, that is where they will take the United States. Tax cuts for the wealthy, massive deficit spending and Privatizing Social Security are just steps in bankrupting the U.S.. If allowed to carry out their plan; once the U.S. government is bankrupted, Republicans will begin demanding not only an end to ALL social programs but also the liquidation of assets to raise money to pay on the national debt. That would mean selling off inter-state hiways and bridges, auctioning of federal buildings and public lands. Our national forests and national parks would go on the auctions block.

And who will be the buyers? For the answer, just look to who's accumulating cash because of big tax cuts.

Just say NO!

Don't be fooled

Ownership Society?

Yeah, that's right! Bush and his pals want to OWN America.

Promises of wealth and easy living, wrapped up in Buzz words. This is just the latest ultra-Right-wing bait'n'switch scheme designed to enrich the insiders while impoverishing and disenfranchising ordinary Americans.
Like Georgie-boy keeps saying, fiefdom is on the march!
Today it's 'Privatizing Social Security'. Tomorrow it'll be 'Tort Reform', so they'll have immunity when they're caught stealing our 'Privatized Social Security'.

---

The Kansas City Star
Posted on Wed, Feb. 02, 2005

Bush Offering Expanded 'Ownership Society'

NANCY BENAC
Associated Press


WASHINGTON - Richard Nixon promised a "new American revolution." Ronald Reagan pushed his "new federalism." Bill Clinton invoked a "new covenant." Now, George Bush is offering Americans a new, expanded "ownership society." ...

...the president is taking the noble idea of an "ownership society" and using it to sugarcoat a scheme that would unwisely saddle ordinary Americans with even greater risks and costs for Social Security, health care, retirement benefits and other programs.

"Hokum, that's a good word for it," says former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "They have a knack for putting labels on their policies that stand for exactly the opposite of what the policies aim to achieve." ...
[ full article ]

Killing the Goose

There is a CRISIS in Social Security
and HIS name is George W. Bush!

Principles and Guts enough to stand up for them

Today The Senate voted, 85 to 13, to confirm Ms. Rice as Secretary of State. Twelve democrats and one independent voted against Rice. I can't figure out what the other Democratic Senators thought they were doing. Any way you slice it Condi Rice is unfit to represent the United State of America. Either she lied about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein or she's not bright enough to tell when she's being lied to.

---

Those who voted NO on confirming Rice:

1.) Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
2.) Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.),
3.) Mark Dayton (D-Minn.),
4.) Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.)
5.) Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
6.) Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii),
7.) Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.),
8.) Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.),
9.) John F. Kerry (D-Mass.),
10.) Jack Reed (D-R.I.)
11.) Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.),
12.) Evan Bayh (D-Ind.)
13.) indepedent Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont.

Reference = NYTIMES

Approaching the point-of-no-return

Even the Busheviks hand picked people can't deny global warming, now that it's too late.

Global warming approaching point of no return, warns leading climate expert

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
The Independent
23 January 2005


Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told an international conference attended by 114 governments in Mauritius this month that he personally believes that the world has "already reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere" and called for immediate and "very deep" cuts in the pollution if humanity is to "survive". . . .

A memorandum from Exxon to the White House in early 2001 specifically asked it to get the previous chairman, Dr Robert Watson, the chief scientist of the World Bank, "replaced at the request of the US". The Bush administration then lobbied other countries in favour of Dr Pachauri - whom the former vice-president Al Gore called the "let's drag our feet" candidate, and got him elected to replace Dr Watson, a British-born naturalised American, who had repeatedly called for urgent action. . . .
[ full article ]

Corporate Power vs. The People

The Social Conservative dupes aren't moving fast enough for Big-Money, so they're stepping in. "Moral Values" have always been a red herring. The Big-Money gang has used it effectively in the past to stir things up and mobiles the suckers.

But now, with real American fascism just a few more judicial appointments away, the Wealthy-Elite have grown impatient. They see their chance to make 'Their Property Right' the law of the land and finally sweep away all those pesky civil rights, once and for all.

Lobby backs Bush's picks for judges

By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON - A powerful business lobby is preparing a multimillion-dollar campaign to aid the White House in its quest to win approval for conservative judges, a move that could transform the ideological battles over the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court. ...

The engineer is longtime Bush friend and former Michigan Gov. John Engler, who recently took the helm of the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents such large, blue-chip firms as Boeing and General Motors, as well as 10,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers. ...

He said federal judicial-confirmation debates are important to business, particularly because of judges' roles in civil cases.

"There has been too much of a tendency in the past to cast these judgeship battles as a social debate about abortion or gay rights," Engler said. "In fact, there are very few of those cases in contrast to those dealing with the tort system and the rights of individuals and companies." ...

[ full article ]

Not Republican enough

Obviously, honesty and integrity are not part of Republican moral values. Republican activist in Washington state are angry at Secretary of State Sam Reed because he wouldn't use his position to fix the Governors race. The activist are vowing revenge against Reed.

Monday, January 03, 2005

Republican Reed faces GOP wrath over recount decisions
By David Postman - Seattle Times chief political reporter

. . .

Not Republican enough

Now Reed believes the anger toward him is driven by a feeling he hasn't been Republican enough. For example, some think he should have backed the party's call for county auditors to reopen their tallies in hopes of getting more Rossi votes counted.
"There are people who think I should be using the position of secretary of state simply to weigh the scales on the side of my own party. I just don't accept that, and it would not be proper," he said.

"There are some people who have been dismayed that I wasn't a Katherine Harris who took the position, 'I'm a Republican, and by God that comes first.' "
...

John Giese, a Republican political consultant and close adviser to Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, appeared ready to blame Reed for problems he expects under a Gregoire administration.

"Every time taxes are increased, new regulations passed, new rules written by state agencies without underlying statutory authority and economic opportunity is stifled, this election will be remembered," he wrote. "Passions may be cooler but memory cells won't be dead."

Pete DeLaunay, a Seattle public-relations executive, wrote the group that he had e-mailed Reed to ask him not to certify the election last week.

"Sam responded as sympathetic, but says there's a constitutional issue at play," DeLaunay wrote. "I say let the cards fall where they may." ...
[ full article ]

Any Pooh in a Storm

If it serves the corporate greed-heads purposes, organic food might be bad for you because manure was spread on the field where the food was grown.

The Corporate Attack on Organic Agriculture
by Steve Sprinkel and Mark Kastel


. . . these multinational corporations can’t stand that consumers are voting with their pocketbooks because of their discomfort with conventional farming practices and have turned organic food marketing from a small, eclectic niche into the fastest growing segment of the food industry, with over $12 billion in sales this year. . . .

. . . The Hudson Institute charges that manure use increases the incidence of food-borne diseases. Hudson’s claim completely twists the results of a recent independent University of Minnesota study that found no statistically different risk in the pathogenic contamination of certified organic food verses its conventionally produced counterparts, according to lead author, Dr. Francisco Diez-Gonzalez. . . .
[ full article ]

But, if it serves the greed-heads purposes, a little sewage in your drinking water shouldn't be a big deal.

EPA May Allow the Discharge of Partially Treated Sewage
Guidelines That Are Near Release Would Permit Blended Waste

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page A03

The Environmental Protection Agency is close to issuing new guidelines making it easier for sewage authorities to dump partially treated wastewater during heavy rainfalls, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. . . .
[ full article ]

These greed-heads think all Americans are stupid. They think they can sell us any old load of manure.

Safer? . . .

Bush and his cronies keep saying they're fighting terrorism... and that we're safer. But, whenever FACTS finally do bubble to the surface; those FACTS always show that Bush and his cronies are falling down on the job and that it's the terrorist who are deciding whether or not we're safe.
We'll be lucky if we survive 4 more years of this kind of safer.

Bin Laden trail is cold, Musharraf admits

Pakistani leader admits impasse as US offers deal to Taliban

David Teather in New York and Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Monday December 6, 2004
The Guardian

The hunt for Osama bin Laden has gone cold, reducing Pakistan's security forces to little more than guesswork, President Pervez Musharraf admitted at the weekend.
Speaking to reporters in Washington before flying to Britain yesterday, Mr Musharraf blamed the US for failing to send enough troops to neighbouring Afghanistan.

The admission confirmed the fear that Bin Laden is no closer to capture than when he fled the Tora Bora caves three years ago, probably across the border into Pakistan. . . . .
[ full article ]

What's Good for the Goose - is - Good for the Gander?

So, if senator Coleman thinks Kofi Annan should resign because of alleged "corruption and mismanagement" while Kofi headed the U.N. ; Does senator Coleman also think that George Bush should resign because of the mismanagement of the war on Iraq?

---

U.S. senator wants Annan to resign as U.N. leader
Coleman looking into alleged fraud in oil-for-food program run by U.N.
Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Posted: 8:01 PM EST (0101 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. senator leading the investigation into allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the Iraq oil-for-food program is urging U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign, saying the "massive scope of this debacle demands nothing less." ....

"If we're to get to the bottom of this, if there's to be any credibility, the person that was at the helm during the course of this thing cannot be the guy that Paul Volcker reports to, cannot be the guy that we go asking for help and assistance in getting the people we need to talk to," Coleman told CNN. "He needs to step back, step down for the credibility of the organization itself." ....
[ full article ]

Gee, senator Coleman; that sounds so reasonable... "If we're to get to the bottom of this, if there's to be any credibility, the person that was at the helm during the course of this thing cannot be the guy that we go asking for help and assistance in getting the people we need to talk to,"

Halliburton Surges After Bush Re-Election
Wed Nov 3, 2004 05:51 PM ET

.....
But the company still faces a number of problems over its Iraq contracts.

In the latest move, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' top contracting official last week called for an investigation into the award the of multi-billion dollar contracts to Halliburton, calling it the worst case of contracting abuse she had seen.

Bunnatine Greenhouse, in a television interview, said, "It was misconduct, and part of the misconduct was blatant." At the center of Greenhouse's complaint is a no-bid contract worth $7 billion awarded last year to KBR to rebuild Iraq's oil industry.

U.S. auditors have also accused KBR of being unable to account for over a third of the items it handled in Kuwait under a work order for the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq.

In addition, the U.S. Army is threatening to withhold payment of 15 percent, or about $600 million, of Halliburton's bills because of a dispute over whether KBR properly documented its bills for feeding and housing troops in Iraq and Kuwait. ....
[ full article ]

Property Halliburton managed in Iraq missing
GLOBEANDMAIL.COM - Saturday, November 27, 2004 - Page A26

Washington -- A third or more of the government property Halliburton Co. was paid to manage for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq could not be located by auditors, investigative reports to Congress show.

Auditors could not locate hundreds of CPA items worth millions of dollars in Iraq and Kuwait this summer and fall, the report said.

Vice-President Dick Cheney's former company is the focus of both a criminal investigation into alleged fuel-price gouging and an FBI inquiry into possible favouritism from the administration. AP
[ full article ]

I suppose we could ask:

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota,
Washington Office:
320 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-5641
Fax: 202-224-1152
email contact form

If he plans to ask Bush to step down - or - if he (Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota) is a hypocrite.

Rumsfeld facing war crimes case in Germany

Tue 30 November, 2004 05:33

BERLIN (Reuters) - Lawyers acting for a U.S. advocacy group will today file war crimes charges in Germany against senior U.S. administration officials for their alleged role in torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
[ full article ]

From Deutsche Welle: Rumsfeld Sued for Alleged War Crimes

From al Jazeera: Group to charge US with war crimes

With a lapdog Congress, perhaps international pressure is the only avenue of redress for our grievances.

More evidence of the new fascist state

The Republicans are coming out in the open with their real agenda; The destruction of American Democracy.

Analysis
Hastert's new House order

By Charles Babington
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — In scuttling major intelligence legislation that he, the president and most lawmakers supported, House Speaker Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will vote on bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.

Hastert's position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution. Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year's intelligence package. Hastert, R-Ill., now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if "the majority of the majority" supports them. . . .
[ full article ]

Don't just take my word for it. Read the signs of Fascism and give it some thought.

Fascism Anyone?
Laurence W. Britt
from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 23, Number 2.
http://secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm

...the fascist or protofascist model...
...fourteen common threads...

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
7. Obsession with national security.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
9. Power of corporations protected.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
14. Fraudulent elections.

Unfit to govern

The Istook amendment wasn't a mistake. It's the new Republican way... The new proto-fascist congress, where Representatives and Senators are just window-dressing for the 'Leadership'. Amendments inserted into bills in the middle of the night (by person or persons unknown). In both houses, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, the 'rank and file' won't be allow to participate... because it's not democracy anymore. The snooping into Americans finances (Istook) amendment may be removed from law, but a stealth anti-choice amendment won't... It too was slipped into the spending bill without proper legislative process and consensus.

House to Return to Quell Tax Controversy
Killing Expansion of Hill Access to IRS Returns Dec. 6 Frees Spending Bill
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 24, 2004; Page A07

House Republican leaders were forced yesterday to summon lawmakers back into session next month to quell an uproar over a belatedly discovered provision in a huge spending bill that would have given Appropriations Committee chairmen access to Americans' tax returns. . . . .

Doubts remained yesterday over exactly how the controversial tax-return provision -- which allows Appropriations Committee chairmen or their "agents" access to Internal Revenue Service facilities or "any tax returns or return information contained therein" -- got into the omnibus spending bill late last week. House Republicans blamed committee staff aides and the IRS.

Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the IRS, denied any role. Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who had referred to the proposal as the "Istook amendment" Saturday, issued a statement expressing regret for "any confusion my earlier remarks may have created."
[ full article ]

November 22, 2004
Congress Passes "Back-Door" Abortion
Gag Rule
An anti-abortion provision with potentially widespread impact will remain intact as part of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill for 2005, in spite of efforts by pro-choice Senators to block the measure. President Bush is expected to sign the omnibus spending bill.

On Friday, nine female Senators, including Olympia Snowe (R-ME), sent a letter to chair of the Appropriations Committee Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), requesting that the language of the clause be changed and protesting the fact that the Federal Refusal Clause had not been discussed in committee, nor had it been put to a vote on the Senate floor. According to the women Senators, the clause, sponsored by Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), would “allow a broad range of health-care companies refuse to comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations pertaining to abortion services. Should this provision become law, federal, state, or local governments may no longer require any institutional or individual health-care provider to provide, pay for, or refer abortion services. This will mean that medical providers in hospitals and clinics across the country will likely be victims of demonstrations and intimidation as this provisions allows that they be forbidden from providing abortion care to women who need it, and also to deny women referrals to another provider. . . .
[ full article ]

Borrow and Spend

I hope all you clowns that voted Republican are real happy with an Eight Trillion Dollar debt!

Nov 17, 11:14 PM EST
Senate OKs $800B Debt Limit Hike
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer

...The mostly party line, 52-44 vote was expected to be followed by House passage Thursday. Enactment would raise the government's borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion - $2.23 trillion higher than when Bush became president in 2001, and more than eight times the debt President Reagan faced when he took office in 1981. ...

... "This can be called a birth tax, a birth tax that is dumped on the back of every American child unwillingly," said Kerry, who voted against the borrowing increase. ...
[ full article ]

Making it up as they go.

Isn't this sweet!
The Republicans -[the Moral Values people]- are changing the rules to shield Tom DeLay -[Political Thug extraordinaire]-.

House GOP May Change Leadership Rules
By Charles Babington Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 16, 2004;

House Republicans were contemplating changing their rules in order to allow members indicted by state prosecutors to remain in a leadership post, a move designed to benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, GOP leaders said today. ...

Combine this with Republicans -[the Moral Values people]- plans to change Senate rules on filibusters to ram through Judicial nominees and Their complete disrespect for Democracy is crystal clear.

It's BAD...REALLY BAD!

This 'so called' shake up in the C.I.A. is a disaster in the making. They're bringing in political hacks to fill important positions... the same kind of political hacks that Bremer took to Iraq with him [and look how well that's turned out]. These MoFo's are applying a political litmus test to civil servants and squeezing out competent people who don't meet their criteria of loyalty to this pResident and his party.
CIA departures concern Congress

CIA Chief Seeks to Reassure Employees
E-Mail Sent After 2 Officials Resign

By Dana Priest and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 16, 2004; Page A01

...Goss has said he believes the CIA's clandestine service is dysfunctional and needs changes. His critics say the director, a former CIA case officer and Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, is purging the agency of career officers whom he incorrectly perceives as critical of Bush administration policies.

In addition, Goss has over the last month put in charge several former Hill staff members who are not well regarded by senior officials because they lack managerial and operational experience, and are believed to have treated career officers disrespectfully.

This is not the first time a new director's personnel changes have put the agency in turmoil, but the criticism of the Goss team's actions is the first to raise questions of partisanship. ....

This seems to be happening in other parts of the government too. Apparently these Republicans are planning to leave a very insidious legacy of political operatives within the civil service.

It's bad enough that they're politicizing the civil service... but, what do you call people who'd make that politicizing a priority above wiping out al Qaida.

Do you feel a DRAFT?

During the campaign, Bush insisted he had no plans to restart the draft. Was that just another LIE? Did God tell Georgie-boy to lie?

Saturday, October 30, 2004
Potomac Watch: Administration's own actions fuel rumors of draft
By ERIC ROSENBERG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indignantly scoffs and scolds about the relentless rumors that the Bush administration is planning to reinstate the military draft.

"This plot is so secret that it doesn't exist," Rumsfeld wrote this week in the desert News of Salt Lake City. "To my knowledge, in the time I have served as secretary of defense, the idea of reinstating the draft has never been debated, endorsed, discussed, theorized, pondered or even whispered by anyone in the Bush administration."

In a radio interview earlier this month, Rumsfeld denounced the rumors as "a mischievous political effort that's being made to frighten young men and women."

This may come as a shock to the Pentagon chief, but most of the rumors have arisen from actions within the Bush administration, which has studied how to expand draft registration to include women, target some civilian work specialties for special attention by the draft and extend the required draft registration age from 25 years old to 34 years. .... [ full article ]

Here's what's been done to gear up for the draft.

The Selective Service System, the Bush Administration, and the Pentagon have been quietly moving to fill draft board vacancies nationwide in order to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. In preparation several million dollars have been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget. The SSS Administration must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. The Pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide. An unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of Congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld’s prediction of a “long, hard slog” in Iraq and Afghanistan (and a permanent state of war on “terrorism”) proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft. ... (more)
SOURCE: Project Censored

Torture-Guy for Attorney General?

What a Horrible Idea!

What can they be thinking over at
the Christian Science Monitor?

A more moderate voice as AG
By Peter Grier Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – One of the most important things to remember about Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales is obvious: He's not John Ashcroft.
A moderate conservative with a mild demeanor, White House counsel Gonzales - unlike Ashcroft - isn't a polarizing figure in Washington. He'll draw some tough questions from Senate Democrats, but he's likely to be easily confirmed. ....

Gonzales wrote a draft memo on the treatment of prisoners that called some of the Geneva Convention provisions on prisoner treatment "quaint." His office also played a role in the formulation of a 2002 Justice Department memo that concluded torture of suspected terrorists might be legal under some circumstances. ... [ The Christian Science Monitor ]