What have we learned so far?
1) Whites WILL vote for a black man so long as he's not running as a black man.
2) Money doesn't buy victory. Far from it, the candidates with the most money
HRC and Mitt Romney) are either out of the race or getting a run for that money.
Conversely, McCain was dead broke earlier in the campaign, Huckabee never had
much money and these are the last two standing on the right side of things.
3) Democrats will play the race card and the gender card (crying on cue) while
Republicans talk issues.
4) There was no "vast right wing conspiracy," Bill and Hillary ARE vicious and
corrupt.
5) Obama is for "hope" and against "fear," otherwise we have no idea what he stands
for.
6) This is going to be a contest between "feelings" and facts, children and
grown-ups, rhetoric and reality. It's between someone who thinks "hope" is a
catchy, market-tested slogan and someone who survived on little more than hope
in the real world.
7) It's between those who believe America is evil and needs to be "fixed" by huge
government confiscation of freedom and those who believe America is basically
good and seeks to improve things by returning freedom.
Rhetoric versus reality, the children versus the adults, the time-tested versus the neophyte. It's going to be an interesting race.
118 comments:
GOP Government = Failure Across the Board:
237 nuke handling deficiencies cited since 2001
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 20:29:30 EST
Since 2001, the Air Force’s Air Combat Command has suffered 237 different “safety deficiencies” known in the nuclear community as Dull Swords while maintaining its nuclear stockpile, according to safety records.
The service defines a Dull Sword as a “safety deficiency not included in the accident or incident categories.”
Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, issued a Freedom of Information Act request for all ACC Bent Spear and Dull Sword incidents from June 1992 — when the ACC took over the nuclear mission from Strategic Air Command — to Sept. 27, 2007, when he made the request.
The response he received went only as far back as June 2001 because the ACC Safety database no longer has any records of Dull Sword incidents from 1992 to 2001, said Maj. Thomas Crosson, an ACC spokesman. Air Force officials could not explain why those incidents got deleted from the database.
Dull Sword is a term used by the Defense Department to describe a nuclear incident like Bent Spear, Broken Arrow and Nucflash. A Nucflash, which is a nuclear weapons accident that could create the risk of war, is the most extreme. A Broken Arrow is an accident that is not expected to cause war. A Bent Spear is typified by a “significant incident” involving nuclear weapons, according to Air Force Policy Directive 91-1.
The list of Dull Sword records provided by the Air Force includes a short description of what failed each time, ranging from failures in the Personal Reliability Program — which is used to determine the airmen who can handle nuclear weapons — to broken towing vehicles used to transport the warheads from the storage units to the bombers, to unexplained problems with the equipment designed to carry the nuclear weapons on the aircraft.
The 509th Bomb Wing which operates the B-2 Spirit bomber at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., alone recorded 111 of the 237 safety deficiencies, by far the most for one wing. Meanwhile, the 5th Bomb Wing, the one responsible for mistakenly loading the six nuclear warheads had 45 incidents and the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale had 50.
The highest number of Dull Swords occurred in 2006 with 63 incidents recorded, compared with 2002 and 2001, when only five and one respectively were listed.
No Bent Spear events — or “significant incidents” involving a nuclear weapon — could be found in the database, even though last August’s accident when a B-52 Stratofortress bomber mistakenly flew six nuclear warheads from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., is called a Bent Spear by service officials.
Today, Air Force leaders will testify before the Senate Armed Service’s Committee and address nuclear security in response to last August’s accident, which has led to plenty of hand wringing throughout the Air Force over how the nuclear program could degrade to such a state where six warheads could be mistakenly loaded.
Minot airmen with the 5th Bomb Wing loaded a dozen AGM-129 cruise missiles to the wings of a B-52 on the morning of Aug. 29 without realizing six of the missiles were loaded with nuclear warheads. The B-52 sat on the runway without special nuclear guard until it took off the next morning and landed at Barksdale when an airman with the 2nd Bomb Wing discovered the mistake nearly 36 hours after it was made.
Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne launched a Blue Ribbon Review soon after the incident was briefed to President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The results of that review headed by Maj. Gen. Polly Peyer, director of resource integration in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Installations, and Mission Support, will be released today and briefed to Congress by Peyer. Officials who have seen the report said it contains recommendations on how to improve the Air Force's nuclear program.
Three other high ranking Air Force officials will join Peyer in front of the committee and take questions. Lt. Gen. Darrell Darnell, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for air, space and information operations, will also testify and answer questions about the new nuclear weapons maintenance policies and procedures released in a 153-page document last month.
Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of operations of Air Combat Command, and the official to head the initial investigation into the Minot mishap will field questions into his investigation and answer questions after Darnell.
And former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Larry Welch, will discuss his independent investigation into the incident upon Gates’ request.
The opening statements, along with at least the first round of questions, will be open to the public. But the rest of the hearing will be closed.
Unfortunately, we live in a TV America where rhetoric beats substance like rock breaks scissors.
Obama has been compared to JKF for his charisma, looks, oratory abilities. I agree, he is the Kennedy of our generation. If elected, he'll be immediately tested by Iran as JFK was tested by Khrushchev and Castro.
With policies even more radical and more damaging to this country than Kennedy's, Obama's approval ratings will continue to drop throughout his presidency -- as did Kennedy's.
Messages of "hope" and "peace" are wonderful, inspiring and uplifting. But we need a leader with sharply defined opinions. A leader who understands that we live in a dangerous world. JFK didn't understand it. Neither does Obama.
Now is the time for strength.
Embracing the Policies of Evil and Failure...
The New York Times's editorial team comments: "The Bush administration's decision to put six detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on trial before military tribunals and to seek the death penalty is both a betrayal of American ideals and simply bad strategy. Instead of being what they could and should be - a model of justice dispensed impartially, surely and dispassionately - the trials will proceed under deeply flawed procedures that violate this country's basic fairness. The intense negative attention they will receive will do enormous damage to what is left of America's standing in world opinion."
Obama's approval ratings will continue to drop throughout his presidency -- as did Kennedy's.
Haha...but not nearly so sharply as Bush's...or his one term fathers'.
Hilarious Stuff...
Poetic justice: Limbaugh tries to tear GOP apart
by Eric Boehlert
Rush Limbaugh, the marauding Frankenstein's monster of the Republican Party, is on the loose again, causing all kinds of political damage with his signature off-balance swings. But as has become his custom recently, the pain from Limbaugh's rampage is being felt by his creators -- his enablers -- inside the GOP.
Limbaugh and the rest of his get-John McCain brain trust -- Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, and campus instigator Ann Coulter -- have been tripping over themselves to get in front of a microphone (preferably a television one) to denounce the Republican Party's presumptive nominee and to suggest that perhaps conservatives should even vote Democratic come November.
Just remember how it turned out for Socrates.
Haha...but not nearly so sharply as Bush's...or his one term fathers'.
I was making an analysis about Obama and Kennedy. I didn't mention anything about Bush.
As long as you continue to obsessed with GWB, you'll continue to lose the debate. Stick to the issues and you'll earn the respect of your opponents -- even when they disagree. But bring up Bush out-of-context and all I'll do is roll my eyes and think, "this is too easy."
Obama is an empty suit. Never mind that he's black, never mind that, when his record is closely examined, he is the most Liberal of the politicians running. He obscures that record by speaking in Miss America platitudes: "I want world peace!"
Americans are perfectly willing to vote for black candidates. It's just that extremely Liberal candidates, of any race, creed, color or gender tend to do poorly in the polls. America isn't racist, but it is Conservative.
McCain is going to have trouble with his base, since he shored up his support among Democrats and Independents first, ignoring, until now, the Conservative base. That is going to be his Achilles heel, his supreme weakness. Unless he can convince Conservatives, who are principled and will withold their votes from apostates, that he really is a Conservative, he will lose to whomever the Democrats ultimately settle on.
Obama may be cleaning Hillary's clock, but don't think that Hillary is going to let a little thing like popular vote get in the way of her nomination. Hillary will stop at NOTHING to get the nomination.
And if she does, despite the popular vote? Well then! Expect the Democratic Party to be shaken to its very core, riven by the artificial divisions of Identity Politics, or, as I often call it, "Looking Through Race Colored Glasses"
Read Montag's World: http://montagsworld.blogspot.com
I'll vote for McCain or Huckabee. I'm incredibly happy with either decision.
I wish Ann Coulter would shut up and get over herself (and the rest of them). Preferably in that order.
I think Colbert said it pretty perfectly. "I'm going to vote Hillary Clinton, because I'd rather elect someone I hate than someone I have policy differences with."
Republicans need to realize that just because a Democrat would vote for someone (McCain and/or Huckabee), doesn't mean that someone is a bad choice.
Obama and Hillary would just love to have our votes. Why are Ann and the rest all so eager to give them away?
What would giving them our vote do? What point would it prove?
This is why I hate politics. Most everyone turns into (even more of) a raging idiot come Election season.
Oh, just so nobody gets confused, that was in reply to the "Poetic justice: Limbaugh tries to tear GOP apart
by Eric Boehlert" post.
Sportsmen come out in favor climate change legislation.
More than 670 hunting and fishing organizations are calling on Congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent by 2050. They write:
We who hunt and fish believe we have a moral responsibility to confront climate change in order to protect our outdoor heritage and our children’s future. Accordingly, we ask you to cosponsor legislation that reduced greenhouse gas pollution 2% annually through a cap and trade program and provides wildlife conservative funding to help wildlife survive climate change.
Cheney says, what? we'll always have tame stuff to kill.
As long as you continue to obsessed with GWB, you'll continue to lose the debate. Stick to the issues and you'll earn the respect of your opponents -- even when they disagree. But bring up Bush out-of-context and all I'll do is roll my eyes and think, "this is too easy."
Wingbat imagining he's won a debate. Of course he didn't bring up the Bushes...far too embarrassing.
It's just that extremely Liberal candidates, of any race, creed, color or gender tend to do poorly in the polls. America isn't racist, but it is Conservative.
Does he mean extreme conservatives do poorly even in the "Conservative party?" Racist and Conservative are synonymous today.
Obama and Hillary would just love to have our votes. Why are Ann and the rest all so eager to give them away?
Duh...because he's liberal on half his stands and unreliable on the other half.
I'll vote for McCain or Huckabee. I'm incredibly happy with either decision.
He's not just happy; he's INCREDIBLY happy. And I am happy for him; INCREDIBLY so.
Farmer John said...
Just remember how it turned out for Socrates.
Pee-dant reminding us he's read Socrates.
...without comprehension.
Bush embracing and ensuring failure...again...
President Bush Eliminates Funding for Reading Is Fundamental’s Historic Book Distribution Program Serving 4.6 Million Children
Statement from Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO, of Reading Is Fundamental
http://www.rif.org/about/press/reinstate_rif.mspx
"President Bush’s proposed budget calling for the elimination of Reading Is Fundamental’s (RIF) Inexpensive Book Distribution program would be devastating to the 4.6 million children and their families who receive free books and reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 20,000 locations throughout the U.S.
“Unless Congress reinstates $25.5 million in funding for this program, RIF would not be able to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation’s youngest and most at-risk children. RIF programs in schools, childcare centers, migrant programs, military bases, and other locations serve children from low-income families, children with disabilities, foster and homeless children, and children without access to libraries. The Inexpensive Book Distribution program is authorized under the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) and is not funded through earmarks. It has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975.
“Since its founding in 1966, RIF’s programs have played an important role in improving literacy in this country. The U.S. Department of Education has shown that the number of books in a child’s home is a significant predictor of academic achievement. In addition, RIF programs also support academic achievement by involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers and other caring adults in encouraging children to read for fun. We urge all Americans to contact their Congressional representatives and ask them to reinstate funding for this important program.”
Yeah, anon, "across the board..." like the fact that we haven't been attacked since 9/11, that we've had fifty months of uninterrupted economic growth, that our allies -- from France to Germany to Canada have all opted to be CLOSER to America,
that Kim Jung Il has not launched a war, that Iraq is under control, that Syria ended it's thirty year brutal occupation of Lebanon, that terrorism against our ally in Israel is down over 90 percent, that Pakistan has gone from a nuclear armed enemy of America to an ally fighting Islamist terror, to a stock market that's over 12,000 despite credit problems, to unemployment that's below five percent, to inflation that's lower than it was during the seventies, eighties and nineties...
Yep, just failure across the board.
You sure pegged Obama, Evan...
Yep, just failure across the board.
Yeah, and Vesuvius hasn't blown either...tell us something you actually had a causal effect on...we're attacked every day in Iraq in ways that are bleeding us dry in money and world respect. The economy may be on the verge of the greatest crash since the Big One and is already in recession, not to mention all its other structural problems. A stock market that's dropped over 1500 in a short time. Pakistan on the verge of disastrous changes...our allies despising us as a nasty joke across the board. And then there's the endless littany of failed domestic policies...the country hasn't been in this bad a shape for many decades and the voters know it. You're certifiable, robot...certifiable and strictly for laughs.
Huge Zero says you sure pegged Obama, Evan
Gee, I wonder how this loser got his name.
The Center for Public Integrity, a public interest investigative journalism organization, has obtained copies of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of environmental and health data in eight Great Lakes states that was scheduled for publication in July 2007. The report, which pointed to elevated rates of lung, colon and breast cancer; low birth weight, and infant mortality in several of the geographical areas of concern has not yet been made public."
Endless Failure and Omission:
'Where Does the Money Go?: Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis.'"
Inter Press News, writes: "The world's small island nations are calling for the UN Security Council to help protect their lands and resources by using its authority to demand reductions of carbon dioxide emissions, and to penalize those nations that fail to comply."
The true scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times higher than previously believed, according to a leaked UN study seen.
Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Just wait a few months into full swing election season when CNN, Fox, MSNBC and the rest are carrying live coverage of the failures of the Clinton administration's (lack of a) counter-terrorism policy and the leftists start screaming that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad should be having a "secret" trial after all.
Muhahahahaha.
Bush, you magnificent bastard.
Just wait until the networks are carrying live coverage of the Coolidge administrations lack of a terror policy and blah blah what a fucking moron...Alfred E. Newman, you magnificent bastard.
amen
Go fish!
Go fish!
Go fish!
Sorry kids.
The game is Texas Hold 'Em.
:)
The economy may be on the verge of the greatest crash since the Big One and is already in recession, not to mention all its other structural problems. A stock market that's dropped over 1500 in a short time....And then there's the endless littany of failed domestic policies...the country hasn't been in this bad a shape for many decades and the voters know it.
They also elected Democrats to Congress to fix these problems in 2006, but they've got their own priorities... like getting Roger Clemens autograph for their nephews.
7) It's between those who believe America is evil and needs to be "fixed" by huge
government confiscation of freedom and those who believe America is basically
good and seeks to improve things by returning freedom.
No problem with 1 - 6, but it IS the GOP that came up with the patriot act, and it DOES cut into our freedoms.
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Benjamin Franklin
EMBRACING EVIL AND FAILURE:
Bush Turns US Soldiers into Murderers
By Robert Parry
Created Feb 13 2008 - 9:22am
By forcing repeat combat assignments to Iraq and Afghanistan – and by winking at torture and indiscriminate killings – George W. Bush is degrading the reputation of the U.S. military, turning enlisted soldiers and intelligence officers into murderers and sadists.
For instance, on Feb. 10 at Camp Liberty in Iraq, Army Ranger Sgt. Evan Vela was sentenced by a U.S. military court to 10 years in prison for executing an unarmed Iraqi detainee who – along with his son – had stumbled into a U.S. sniper position last year.
After letting the 17-year-old son go, Vela’s squad leader, Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley ordered Vela to use a 9-millimeter pistol to shoot the father, Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, in the head, an order that Vela carried out.
“It was murder, plain and simple,” military prosecutor, Major Charles Kuhfahl, told the court.
the things Sayet names are provably and easily shown to be effects of Bush causes.
Only to the FEW remaining wingbat idiots.
Lefties still cant get 9-11 right, which was the transformative event of American foreign policy in the past 40 years, so I have little hope they can opine intelligently on the post 9-11 world.
This from a moron so deluded he still doesn't know we attaced the WRONG COUNTRY!!!! And that Bush is kissing and holding hands with the real terrorists...you psychos will go down in history with Caligula's groupies...screwed in the ass everyday by your favorite, deranged cult leader...and loving every minute of it. As someone said earlier, this place is strictly for laughs.
They also elected Democrats to Congress to fix these problems in 2006,
Duh, yeah everyone expected dems with a razor thin majority and a moron for Pres would whip that right into shape...and you peabrains want to govern?!!! It' take thirty years to undo the damage you fools have done. And meanwhile you'll be dragging your feet and whining like sick little toddlers.
GW's buddies at work and play...remember when he flew the Bin Ladens out of the country?
Saudi witchcraft execution slated (28)
Saudis refused to stop terrorist in '96 (5)
More Bush Misery:
Iraqi children hit with skin disease
275 in southern province, most suffer disfiguring skin sores, can be fatal.
Part of a nation in Hell.
Chafee endorses Obama...GOP crumbing before our eyes.
A top adviser to John McCain said that he will step down from the Arizona senator's presidential campaign if the presumed GOP nominee faces Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the general election.
"I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama," said McCain adviser Mark McKinnon. "I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign."
"I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama," said McCain adviser Mark McKinnon. "I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign."
I'm confused, so Obama is inoculated against any criticism because he's bi-racial?
Failure across the board...what GOP children fail to grasp is that anyone with huge monetary power needs oversight...simple human nature that adults understand:
"Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers."
More Bush Misery:
Iraqi children hit with skin disease
275 in southern province, most suffer disfiguring skin sores, can be fatal.
Yeah, better they had Saddam's rape rooms and nerve agents dropped on women and children. And of course every ailment that pops up in the 3rd world is due to Bush.
Imbecile.
To be a Republican you need to believe:
1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's Daddy made war on him , a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a 'we can't find Bin Laden' diversion.
3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Viet Nam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq .
5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational drug corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMO's and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which tens of thousands die is solid defense policy.
12. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet .
13. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
14. You support 'Executive Privilege' for every Republican ever born, who will be born or who might be born (in perpetuity.)
15. Support hunters who shoot their friends and blame them for wearing orange vests similar to those worn by the quail.
If you do or don't send this to at least 10 other people, we're likely to be stuck with more Republicans in '08.
Friends don't let friends vote Republican.
Yeah, better they had Saddam's rape rooms and nerve agents dropped on women and children. And of course every ailment that pops up in the 3rd world is due to Bush.
Imbecile.
Look, he signed it with his real name.
Little impersonal, though. Shouldn't he have signed it
With warmest regards,
Imbecile
Little impersonal, though. Shouldn't he have signed it
With warmest regards,
Imbecile
Seriously, try for just a moment to quell your BDS symptoms to a point at which you can understand that blaming Bush for skin rashes in remote parts of Iraq marks you as a shallow intellect if not an actual imbecile.
We understand this contradicts the fictitious narrative of woe that you feel obligated to recite each and every time you utter his name. Wont you be oh so happy when Hillary or Obama takes over and the Age of Aquarius can dawn anew.
Until then, please do try and contribute something other than MoveOn boilerplate to these forums.
It' take thirty years to undo the damage you fools have done.
That must be the reason why McCain says we'll have to stay in Iraq for 100. The friggin' DNC can't even count their own votes in New Mexico, let alone draft a plan for ending the war.
"Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners.
I seem to recall predatory lending being a problem back in 2002 when the Democrats controlled the Senate. Of course, it wasn't important enough at the time to bring to the floor for a vote. Surrending to Osama bin Laden was much, much higher on their list of priorities.
Vote 4 Mr. Empty Promises. Obama promises to work with everyone to fix government, even Republicans. Of course, he won't name any Republicans that are willing to work with him... and won't have any Republicans in his Administration...
...but at least he's telling everyone what they want to hear. There's a word for a person who makes empty promises... politician and another word for someone who believes them... Sucker!
Dearest Imbecile,
I understand that while you find GW's slaughter of a million innocents in Iwreck to be most laudable, it seems utterly insupportable to one of your heightened moral sensibilities to consider that a fine reicho murderer of his magnitude should also be responsible for such a minor and unseemly crime.
With warmest regards,
Smart Guy
The Unintentional Confessor states...obliviously:
I seem to recall predatory lending being a problem back in 2002.
Very enlightenmentating...so throughout all those years of GOP rule, nothing was done about it!!?
Why, that's ass-tounding...even worse than I had imagined.
BUY THE VOTE!!!!
Many of the superdelegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been plied with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a new study shows.
"While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as superdelegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years," the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported today.
About half the 800 superdelegates -- elected officials, party leaders, and others -- have committed to either Clinton or Obama, though they can change their minds until the convention.
Obama's political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.
Clinton's political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to superdelegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000.
...so throughout all those years of GOP rule...
Another DNC myth exposed. THE DNC controlled the Senate from 2001-2003. They were hardly "out of power". They've since developed amnesia...
GOP Confuses Supporting the Troops with USING the Troops:
"The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will treat about 333,000 sick and injured veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2009, according to VA statistics released last week. That number is a 14 percent increase over this year's casualty total. Yet, despite the Bush administration's promises to prioritize the VA even as other domestic departments' funds are cut, its annual budget request for next year places more financial burdens than ever on many returning soldiers."
The unemployment rate in the US as
published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics
1992- 7.5%
Under President William Jefferson Clinton
1993- 6.9%, dropped by .6%
1994- 6.1%, dropped by .7%
1995- 5.6%, dropped by .5%
1996- 5.4%, dropped by .2%
1997- 4.9%, dropped by .5%
1998- 4.5%, dropped by .4%
1999- 4.2%, dropped by .3%
2000- 4.0%, dropped by.2%
This represents a 46.67% decrease in the unemployment rate from the time
President Clinton took office until he left office
.
Under G.W. Bush
2001- 4.7%, rose by .7%
2002-5.8%, rose by 1.1%
2003-6.0%, rose by .2%
2004-5.5%, dropped by .5%
2005-5.1%, dropped by .4%
2006-4.6%, dropped by.5%
2007-4.6%, no increase, no decline
2008-YTD, 4.9%, rose by .3%
This represents a an 18.4% increase in the unemployment rate from the time
President Bush took office to today.
I understand that while you find GW's slaughter of a million innocents in Iwreck to be most laudable, it seems utterly insupportable to one of your heightened moral sensibilities to consider that a fine reicho murderer of his magnitude should also be responsible for such a minor and unseemly crime.
Ah more from the wacked out idiot narrative. Actual casualties have been found to be closer to 150,000 but I suppose one million is sexier as is the other one about the trillion dollar budget surplus during the Clinton years.
Of course lets just ignore the alternative which by Amnesty Internationals statistics, was 1.5 million Iraqis killed by Saddam himself. The MoveOn compassion is amazing in that it seems to lie dormant while wholesale slaughter went on by Saddam's regime. Not a peep when Saddam was nerve gassing his own citizens. Now of course we're supposed to feel ashamed when the johnny come lately moralists of the wacked out Left start quoting galactically improbable casualty statistics.
You use your lies; I'll use my stats from far more respectable sources than yours.
Not a peep when Saddam was nerve gassing his own citizens. Now of course we're supposed to feel ashamed when the johnny come lately moralists of the wacked out Left start quoting galactically improbable casualty statistics.
You mean of course not a peep -- except of approval -- from Reagan and Bush who were supplying him with the ingredients and egging him on in his attacks on Iran...or from Cheney and Rumsfeld when they were doing lucrative business with him. What an abject fool you have to be to remain on the right now with the lowest, smelliest dregs of the fringe.
Fonda used the C word on tv yesterday and the PC police freaks of the sick, repressed right went characteristically insane. She should have just kept repeating it til they lost their silly, little minds.
This represents a an 18.4% increase in the unemployment rate from the time President Bush took office to today.
Funny how an actual increase of less than 1% in the unemployment rate gets magnified to 18.4% in the eyes of one who seeks to alarm rather than understand. The average unemployment rates during each president's terms shows that unemployment was "on average" less during President Bush's term than under President Clinton 5.15 : 5.2
When Hillary Clinton said, way back in New Hampshire, that Vladimir Putin "doesn't have a soul," I figured that would be the sort of thing the Russian wouldn't be pleased about. But when I called the foreign ministry the next day for comment, it was Orthodox Christmas, and I let it slide.
He was asked about the remark at his press conference yesterday, however, and indeed wasn't pleased.
The former KGB lieutenant colonel appeared to lash out at U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton — a leading Democratic candidate for president — when one reporter quoted her as saying that former KGB officers have no soul:
"At a minimum, a head of state should have a head," Putin said.
Obama to families of dead students...
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Barack Obama said Friday that the country must do "whatever it takes*" to eradicate gun violence following a campus shooting in his home state, but he believes in an individual's right to bear arms.
*translation of Mr. Cellophane's words into English - "Gun violence is YOUR problem, don't expect ME to do anything about it!"
Emitting horseshit and spinificatum says:
Funny how an actual increase of less than 1% in the unemployment rate gets magnified to 18.4% in the eyes of one who seeks to alarm rather than understand.
See, Special Ed, he starts out at 4% and is now at 4.9%...hence, ergo and therefore we have 18%.
Now, you've received an education in both econ and math...as well as humility.
Like I said before...
Funny how an actual increase of less than 1% in the unemployment rate gets magnified to 18.4% in the eyes of one who seeks to alarm rather than understand.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid issue an open invitation to Osama bin Laden to kill more Americans...
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Friday that "our country is in more danger of an attack" because of Congress' failure to extend a law that makes it easier for the government to spy on foreign phone calls and e-mails that pass through the United States.
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney met with Republican congressional leaders in the Oval Office to discuss the impasse with the Democratic-led House. Lawmakers left Thursday for a 12-day recess without acting on the law, which expires at midnight Saturday. The president said Congress should act quickly on the measure as soon as lawmakers return.
Bush argues that without the extension, the intelligence community will not have the tools they need to protect the nation from terrorism. Democrats, equally adamant, accuse the president of fear-mongering and say he has the authority he needs to intercept terrorist communications, even if the law expires.
"American citizens must understand, clearly understand that there's still a threat on the homeland. There's still an enemy which would like to do us harm," Bush said. "We've got to give our professionals the tools they need, to be able to figure out what the enemy is up to so we can stop it."
"By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger of an attack," he said.
Democrats must LOVE to see dead Americans... or caskets draped in American flags. They certainly do all they can to ensure them both.
You realize that the "tools" that the professionals need, according to George Bush, is the ability to wiretap American citizens without obtaining a warrant, and amnesty for lawbreaking telecoms, right? I guess if you look hard enough, turn over enough rocks, wade into enough pools of scum, you can eventually find someone who is still moved by the Bush administration's fear-mongering.
It's a mistake to focus on quanta to the exclusion of qualia and visa versa, Narcissus.
Afraid the FBI will stumble across your commie cell planning their next attack?
Bonehead can't learn says:
Like I said before...
Funny how an actual increase of less than 1% in the unemployment rate gets magnified to 18.4% in the eyes of one who seeks to alarm rather than understand.
To round it off for the learning impaired, aka conservative...4% of a million is 40,000 unemployed...5% is 50,000 unemployed...50k is 25% more than 40k...you (should) get the idea now, Ed. Feeling 'umble yet? And, note how it goes up constantly under GOP misrule and up steadily under Clinton.
Hillary and Obama Belly Up to the Federal Trough...
Budget hawk John McCain took a fresh shot at Barack Obama Thursday, calling on him to publicly identify the “pork barrel” projects he sponsored in the Senate.
It was the Arizona senator’s latest attempt to simulate a general election and cut down Obama as he creeps ahead of Hillary Clinton in the tight race for the Democratic nomination. McCain was poised to move a big step closer to sealing the GOP nomination with the endorsement of former rival Mitt Romney Thursday.
McCain’s challenge to Obama was based on a Washington Post article that morning highlighting pork barrel project recipients. The article said Clinton helped lock down more than $340 million in earmarks for her home state of New York in last year’s spending bills, placing her in the top tier of Senate recipients for the type of localized federal spending against which McCain claims to be a crusader. By comparison, the article said Obama recorded $91 million in earmarks.
But McCain merely noted Clinton’s “pork” at a campaign stop in Burlington, Vt., and then blasted Obama for not revealing the target of his earmarks. The Post article said Obama has not released his letters to the Appropriations Committee seeking the earmarks for 2005 and 2006.
“The senator from Illinois, because he is a junior, had only gotten about $92 million, according to that article,” McCain said. “And the senator from Illinois, who says that he wants transparency in government, will not reveal the number of earmarks that he received in 2006 and 2005. Is that transparency in government? I don’t think so. I don’t think so!
“So I call on the senator … to go ahead and tell people how much money in earmarked projects and pork barrel projects that he got for his state and what they were for. And my friends, examine my record on pork barrel projects and you will see a big fat zero.”
SOOOOOOOWWIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Sorry, pretentious one...I meant DOWN steadily under Clinton.
Like I said before...
It's a mistake to focus on quanta to the exclusion of qualia and visa versa, Narcissus.
On average, Bush kept more American's OUT of the unemployment lines than Clinton!
Afraid the FBI will stumble across your commie cell planning their next attack?
Unlike you, I'm not willing to accept a framework in which government officials break the law. Obviously, you feel that Dear Leader exists outside the law. Perhaps you'll feel differently when President Obama is in possession of warrantless wiretapping powers.
Bush, appealing to cowards who hate American freedoms,says:
"By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger of an attack,"
All these yellow little cons who can't wait to give up their freedom out of fear of terrorists...pathetic, quivering slobs.
Imagine Obama running against the feeble, plodding old fart GOP warmonger...
GOP pollster in awe of Obama's 'Kennedyesque' appeal
Senator Barack Obama's concepts are bigger than Obama himself in his run for president, says Frank Luntz, author of Words that Work.
"It's interesting that people compare him to John Kennedy," Luntz continues. "It's Bobby Kennedy that he's channeling."
As Obama's speeches have drawn audiences of thousands, inspired an R&B song, and attracted the direct attention of opponents from both major parties, one group sticks out in the mind of former GOP strategist and pollster Luntz:
The 18-21 demographic.
Luntz enthusiastically predicts: Said voting bloc, newly energized, will drop their overpriced coffee beverages, take out the earbuds from their MP3 players to hear Obama speak, and show up at the polls on Election Day to vote.
Yes, Obama does have a certain Kennedyesque appeal. So does Hillary. I'm thinking Teddy...
I can see why Evan thinks Republicans are adults.
On average, Bush kept more American's OUT of the unemployment lines than Clinton!
You're really stupid, aren't you?
Just using the numbers YOU provided to prove it! LOL!
Has anyone seen Obama's latest campaign video...
It's aimed at bringing in the white trash vote. Da!
Oh, and have I mentioned the progress on the political benchmarks that the Democrats were whining about last September as the Surge was winning the war in Iraq for our team lately?
The surge, by quelling violence and providing security, was supposed to produce "breathing space" in which reconciliation could take place. Now it has, not because President Bush says so, but based on those same benchmarks that Democrats once claimed were measures of failure in Iraq.
Last week, the Iraqi parliament passed three laws that amounted to a political surge to achieve reconciliation. Taken together, the laws are likely to bring minority Sunnis fully into the political process they had earlier boycotted and to produce a new class of political leaders.
Just as important is what the laws reflect in Iraq today. "The whole motivating factor" behind the legislation was "reconciliation, not retribution," says American ambassador Ryan Crocker, who has never sugarcoated the impediments to progress in Iraq. This is "remarkably different" from six months ago, he said.
Of course, you won't hear anything about Iraqi progress in the New York Times or Huffington Post... and just how those so-called "news providers" will ever explain America's victory to the people at home after already announcing America's defeat in an unwinnable war last summer will be interesting to watch. I guess they're counting on winning the election in November and then surrending to the terrorists in the Spring of '09. Well, it wouldn't be the first time they did that. Remember how they cut off funds for the South Vietnamese in '75 and let two million Indochinese get slaughtered? That story never appeared in the Times, either.
ASHAMED...
Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Web site Tracking U.S. Economic Indicators; 'The U.S. economy is faltering. Family debt is on the rise, benefits are disappearing, the deficit is skyrocketing, and the mortgage crisis has worsened. Conservatives have attempted to deflect attention from the crisis, by blaming the media’s negative coverage and insisting the United States is not headed toward a recession, despite what economists are predicting.' 2/16
You're realy stupid, aren't you?
Just using the numbers YOU provided to prove it! LOL!
Wow...now he's actually bragging that he used my numbers to prove he's stupid...you're a true pinhead, buddy. Haha...what a freak show.
Meanwhile, the sick little freak in the Whitehouse holds their hand...they seek out failure:
The British government appeared to have "rolled over" in response to pressure from Saudi Arabia to drop an investigation into alleged bribery in an arms deal with BAE Systems PLC, a High Court judge said Thursday.
Lord Justice Alan Moses made the comments while hearing a challenge brought by two lobby groups to the legality of a Serious Fraud Office decision to stop the investigation in December 2006.
"Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday," David Leigh and Rob Evans report for The Guardian. "Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced 'another 7/7' and the loss of 'British lives on British streets' if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence."
"Improvement in Iraq Totally
Bogus and Short Term":
In contrast to the spurious turning-points of the past, the most recent political changes in Iraq, which had led to the fall in American and Iraqi casualties, are quite real. But they differ significantly from the way in which they are portrayed in the outside world, and have less to do with al-Qa'ida and the US than the continuing struggle for power between Sunni and Shia in Iraq.
Charles Barkley appeared on The Situation Room to promote Barack Obama’s candidacy. As you may remember, Barkley was a very vocal Republican not that many years ago. Well, no more. Barkley’s disgust with the Republican Party was so palpable that Wolf Blitzer could only flounder to try to make it a little less vitriolic.
BARKLEY: Hey, I live in Arizona. I have got great respect for Senator McCain. Great respect. But I don’t like the way the Republicans are taking this country. Every time I hear the word “conservative,” it makes me sick to my stomach, because they’re really just fake Christians, as I call them. That’s all they are. But I just — I’m going to vote Democratic no matter what. [..]
.
BLITZER: So you’re going to get a lot of feedback on this one, Charles.
BARKLEY: They can’t do anything to me. I don’t work for them.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign who voted for Democratic Party rules that stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates, now is arguing against the very penalty he helped pass.
In a conference call Saturday, the longtime Democratic Party member contended the DNC should reconsider its tough sanctions on the two states, which held early contests in violation of party rules. He said millions of voters in Michigan and Florida would be otherwise disenfranchised - before acknowledging moments later that he had favored the sanctions.
Ickes explained that his different position essentially is due to the different hats he wears as both a DNC member and a Clinton adviser in charge of delegate counting. Clinton won the primary vote in Michigan and Florida, and now she wants those votes to count.
"There's been no change," Ickes said. "I was not acting as an agent of Mrs. Clinton. We had promulgated rules and those rules said the timing provision ... provides for certain sanctions, automatic sanctions as a matter of fact, if a state such as Michigan or Florida violates those timing provisions."
"With respect to the stripping, I voted as a member of the Democratic National Committee. Those were our rules and I felt I had an obligation to enforce them," he said.
NO integrity GOPig supports no integ GOPig who he says he would never support and who will destroy the party...sickwacks...
The disgraced Tom DeLay is now stumping for McCain in Arizona. DeLay once said that he “might have to sit this one out” if McCain won the nomination.
Flashback . . .
During a private luncheon with Republican chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill, DeLay — who has criticized McCain for years — stepped up his attacks in the wake of the senator’s reemergence as a top presidential contender. DeLay said McCain has no principles and indicated he would not endorse the senator if he won the GOP primary.
He added that a McCain triumph for the GOP nomination would destroy the Republican Party.
Senator Obama’s televised victory oration celebrating his Chesapeake primary trifecta on Tuesday night was a mechanical rehash. No matter. When the networks cut from the 17,000-plus Obama fans cheering at a Wisconsin arena to John McCain’s victory tableau before a few hundred spectators in the Old Town district of Alexandria, Va., it was a rerun of what happened to Hillary Clinton the night she lost Iowa. Senator McCain, backed by a collection of sallow-faced old Beltway pols, played the past to Mr. Obama’s here and now. Mr. McCain looked like a loser even though he, unlike Senator Clinton, had actually won.
But he has it even worse than Mrs. Clinton. What distinguished his posse from Mr. Obama’s throng was not just its age but its demographic monotony: all white and nearly all male. Such has been the inescapable Republican brand throughout this campaign, ever since David Letterman memorably pegged its lineup of presidential contenders last spring as “guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club.”
New McCain Rips Old McCain’s Argument That Bush Tax Cuts Benefit The ‘Wealthy’ 2/18
We're done for...let's hope it doesn't take us 25 years to get back in power.
Gingrich Warns of GOP Catastrophe
Newsmax Staff
In a rousing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for a conservative “declaration of independence” from the Republican Party.
He also warned that Republicans face a “catastrophic” election this year unless the GOP changes course.
Gingrich pointed out that on Super Tuesday, 14.6 million voters took part in the Democratic races, compared to 8.3 million Republicans.
“There were 14.6 million Democrats who thought the presidential nomination was worth voting for, and there were 8.3 million Republicans on Super Tuesday,” Gingrich said.
“That is a warning of a catastrophic election. I was in Idaho this last week, and Barack Obama on last Saturday had 16,000 people in Boise. The idea [of] the most liberal Democratic Senator getting 16,000 people in Boise was inconceivable.
Anybody think the DNC is corrupt? Here's proof...
February 16, 2008 -- Barack Obama's primary-night results were strikingly underrecorded in several districts around the city - in some cases leaving him with zero votes when, in fact, he had pulled in hundreds, the Board of Elections said yesterday.
Unofficial primary results gave Obama no votes in nearly 80 districts, including Harlem's 94th and other historically black areas - but many of those initial tallies proved to be wildly off the mark, the board said.
In some districts getting a recount, the senator from Illinois is even closer to defeating Hillary Clinton.
Initial results in the 94th, for example, showed a 141-0 sweep for Hillary Clinton, but the recount changed the tally to 261-136.
As yet, none of the results have been certified, but a ballot-by-ballot canvassing of all voting machines has begun, a board spokesperson said. Many of the mistakes were chalked up to human error -- and some Clinton tallies were wrong as well. In several congressional districts she was shown as having received zero votes when in fact she got hundreds, Boe said.
Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron called the understated figures "outrageous."
"I think this is an all-out effort to stop a campaign that is about to make history and render America's first black president," he said. "We need some kind of independent or federal agency to investigate this."icate that she may not even come out the winner - Obama currently has 116 votes to her 118.
Ho hum..another GOPerv...
Bush Judicial Appointee Caught in DUI, Fishnet Stockings
More Bush Admin miscreants, this time a Bush nominee to the bench. Robert Somma remembered his purse, cocktail dress and fishnet stockings, but he forgot about a designated driver. He was a Bush appointee, but has now resigned.
Commentary By: Steven Reynolds
Pensito Review is all over this one, so I’m just going to refer you over there. This guy is a bankruptcy judge over on the first circuit in Boston. Yes, it was a male judge, Robert Somma, who was arrested on the DUI charge, wearing a black cocktail dress and fishnet stockings. Evidently he had stopped off at a local gay bar (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and had one or two too many.
Thats what he gets for leaving a bar filled with Democrats!
Hillary Clinton has unveiled a new campaign video to rally DemoKKKratic Party supporters behind her.
"They all look alike, and they sound alike too!"
Checking in on the morgue...nothing but Sayet's one remaining little lowlife hanging around... smell of failure in the air
Yes, you HAVE failed!
Top Clinton campaign officials Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson are holding another conference call with reporters now. Wolfson is pointing to a "pattern" of alleged plagiarism by Barack Obama, suggesting that reporters look at a blog entry by ABC's Jake Tapper which suggests another example of Obama lifting material from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. In that blog entry, Tapper points to a statement from Obama quoted in USA Today in 2007: "I am not asking anyone to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations." Tapper then quotes Patrick, speaking to the 2006 Massachusetts Democratic convention, saying, "I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."
"We are seeing a pattern here," Wolfson told reporters a short time ago. "And here is another example of where the words match exactly."
He copied him! She copied him! Waaaaaaaah!
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama honored Presidents' Day with a schoolyard whinefest about who lifted someone else's campaign rhetoric without proper credit.
Al Gore exposed as just another Chicken Little Democrat.
WHAT??? Hillary lied AGAIN????
The Nation -- Hillary Clinton flatly denied that her campaign was attacking Barack Obama for using the words of another politician, telling reporters on Tuesday that her campaign had not made the charge. The Chicago Tribune reported her remarks from an interview with KITV in Honolulu on Tuesday:
"Look, it's not us making this charge. It's the media. You know, the media is finally examining my opponent which I think is important because we're trying to pick a president, someone for the toughest job in the world [...] So, I think the media is going to be putting forth whatever facts and information it has for voters to assess on their own."
Obama Campaign spokseman Bill Burton shot back on Tuesday evening. "Senator Clinton knows full well that her campaign held a conference call with reporters to fan these flames and the fact that she suggested her campaign had nothing to do with it is exactly the kind of evasive tactic voters are rejecting," he said in a statement.
Clinton's claim is demonstrably false. Her campaign has aggressively and openly pushed the plagiarism attack, including a national conference call by senior campaign aides on Monday. Her aides also circulated a YouTube clip comparing footage of Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick.
Al Gore exposed as just another Chicken Little Democrat.
Yes, because one should always get one's information about science from someone who isn't a scientist. Here are some other bits of brilliance from Christopher Monckton:
"there is only one way to stop AIDS. That is to screen the entire population regularly and to quarantine all carriers of the disease for life. Every member of the population should be blood-tested every month ... all those found to be infected with the virus, even if only as carriers, should be isolated compulsorily, immediately, and permanently."
And you people wonder why no one takes you seriously.
...because that would ACTUALLY work? It just goes to show who is SERIOUS about SOLVING problems, and who is NOT. LOL!
...but then like Evan says, Democrats are wrong on EVERYTHING!
Progress in Iraq means life is getting progressively more difficult for Democrats and their two presidential front-runners, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Having strongly opposed the surge, Obama and Clinton have been forced by events to concede that security progress has been made. But until now they have insisted that the surge is a failure because we’re not seeing political progress. That claim is now being shattered.
Soon Obama and Clinton will have no argument left to justify their position on Iraq. It will become increasingly clear that they are committed to leaving Iraq simply because they are committed to leaving Iraq, regardless of the awful consequences that would follow. It is an amazing thing to witness: two leading presidential candidates who are committed to engineering an American retreat, which would lead to an American defeat, despite the progress we are making on every conceivable front.
At the end of the day, this position will hurt Democrats badly, because their position will hurt America badly.
Well, how are things in the dead zone today? Sad as usual...almost impossible to find a conservative worth debating nowdays...only dregs, lunatics, homophobes, religious wackos, skinheads, bigots and general fools left...strictly for sport...looks like even the blogger is embarrassed to show his morbid, robot face. Then there's McCane or shall we say McWalker? Pathetic end to a crude, greedy and reactionary bowel movement.
Hahahahaha...listen to this...Bush now first president ever to go below 20% in approval ratings...you knew this was a record setting dipshit...astounding...they said it couldn't be done. That A-dult rule is really the deal.
Checking in on the morgue...nothing but Sayet's one remaining little lowlife hanging around... smell of failure in the air
Sorry, I was out voting for Obama in an open primary. Couldn't help myself. I've been waiting to vote against Hillary for 8 years.
(And you wondered how Democrats are getting so many more people that Republicans to the primary polls....)
Sorry, I was out voting for Obama in an open primary. Couldn't help myself. I've been waiting to vote against Hillary for 8 years.
(And you wondered how Democrats are getting so many more people that Republicans to the primary polls....)
You do realize that most states don't have open primaries, right? No, of course you don't.
Both Wisconsin and Hawaii have open primaries.
The mask covering the DNC's abuse of Democracy falls off...
February 19, 2008 -- Mayor Bloomberg charged yesterday that "fraud" was behind the unofficial results in the New York Democratic presidential primary that produced zero votes for Barack Obama in some districts.
"If you want to call it significant undercounting, I guess that's a euphemism for fraud," said the mayor.
Unofficial tallies on election night gave Obama no votes in 78 out of more than 6,000 election districts.
Thanks for voting for the only Democratic candidate that can beat McCain.
Even better, I live in Missouri, not Wisconsin or any other state, but since I claimed I was a Democrat I was allowed to vote in other states as many times as I felt like it.
Especially when I cried foul when they asked for identification.
Especially when I cried foul when they asked for identification.
why would they ask a fucking two year old for id?
Why would a left-wing moron troll a right-wing blog?
This is a blog? I thought it was a morgue...or RNC headquarters...hahahar...same thing.
Here's a number to conjure with: 19% !!! Never been done before.
another republican degenerate...if you laid them end to end......I don't even want to think about it
Feds: Renzi made $700,000-plus in deal that led to indictment
Story Highlights
NEW: Rep. Rick Renzi received $733,000 from land deal, indictment says
NEW: Renzi's attorneys say their client has done nothing wrong and will fight charges
Indictment says Arizona Republican pushed land swap benefiting former partner
The 35-count indictment names Renzi, two other businessmen as defendants
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted on charges he promised to support legislation in exchange for a land deal that netted the Arizona Republican more than $700,000, the Justice Department said Friday.
In a 35-count indictment unsealed early Friday, Renzi, 49, is charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, extortion and insurance fraud.
Also named in the indictment is Renzi's former business partner and real estate investor, James W. Sandlin, 56, of Sherman, Texas, and Andrew Beardall, 36, of Rockville, Maryland.
Renzi's attorneys, Reid Weingarten and Kelly Kramer, denied their client had done anything wrong.
"We will fight these charges until he is vindicated and his family's name is restored," the attorneys said in a statement.
The attorneys said their client had buried his father, Eugene Renzi, at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday.
"We are disappointed that the Department of Justice would not allow a decent amount of time to pass to allow a son to mourn the passing of his father," the statement said.
At a news conference in Phoenix, Arizona, prosecutors said Renzi conspired with Sandlin to conduct a land swap in exchange for the congressman's push to get a House committee's approval for the deal.
Federal prosecutors said Renzi received $733,000 in the deal but did not disclose the income to Congress in his 2005 financial disclosure statement.
U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa said that Renzi "used his official authority as a United States representative" to ensure that the 2005 federal land exchange included land owned by Sandlin.
Another goal of the conspiracy was to conceal that Renzi received a portion of the proceeds from the deal, according to the indictment.
Renzi was having financial difficulty in 2005 and "needed a substantial infusion of funds to keep his insurance business solvent and maintain his personal lifestyle," the indictment said.
The 26-page indictment outlines a series of transactions involving Renzi and Sandlin, who were co-owners of Fountain Realty and Development, until Renzi ran for a seat in Congress and sold his share of the company to Sandlin.
Sandlin bought out Renzi's interest for $200,000 and a note for $800,000, according to a statement from the Justice Department. In 2005, when Sandlin still owed him $700,000 on the note, "Renzi insisted that two separate entities doing business in Arizona purchase Sandlin's property in exchange for his support on land exchange legislation," authorities said.
Renzi and Beardall are charged with insurance fraud, accused of embezzling more than $400,000 in insurance premiums from the trust account of the Patriot Insurance Agency, a business owned by the Renzi family in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, to fund his congressional campaign in 2001 and 2002. They're also accused of making false statements to influence state regulatory investigations, a statement said.
"There were concealment efforts, misrepresentations and fraudulent statements made," Humetewa said.
If convicted, Renzi could face up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and extortion and 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering and concealing money laundering as well as lesser sentences for convictions on the other counts, prosecutors said.
Renzi and the other defendants will be served summonses to appear in U.S. Magistrate Court in Tucson, Arizona, for an arraignment March 6, Humetewa said.
Renzi has been under an ethical cloud since the FBI raided a family business last year. The FBI said it was investigating whether the congressman had used his office for personal gain.
He stepped down from the House Intelligence Committee in April after the raid.
Renzi, a three-term member of the House, announced in August that he would not seek re-election. He represents Arizona's 1st Congressional District.
CNN's Terry Frieden and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.
why would they ask a fucking two year old for id?
The same reason they asked my dog for one. To make sure he was registered to vote as a Democrat.
Yeesh, what a cesspool.
After seeing Sayet's Heritage Foundation video on YouTube I thought it would be interesting to see what sort of discussion would be occurring on his blog. What a mistake.
Where Sayet has mastered being able to express himself concisely and succinctly, the very first post (and many afterward) is utterly incapable of distilling an article from another source into a coherent thought of their own. Their idea of free speech has nothing to do with the exchange of ideas so much as shouting down any disagreement with tedious volumes of borrowed materials and gibberish, hmm much like a paper written by 3rd graders.
Which simply reinforces everything, every single point, Sayet made in his Regurgitating The Apple speech.
Yes, it is rather difficult to have an intelligent discussion with poop flinging leftist deconstructionist trolls... thanks for the observation.
"Observers say Castro will either be
replaced by his brother Raul, or by
his idiot son, Fidel W. Castro."
-- Letterman
Is that the illegitimate love child of Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton?
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