My Grandma Passed Away This Evening

Well, I am very sad tonight. Almost two months to the day after my Grandma was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to her liver, she passed on. I could tell you, not only because she is my grandmother, that she fought like the best of them. She never complained, not once about anything. I was able to talk to her many times about the fun times that we had, and all the laughs. I was also lucky to be able to apologize, for those little disagreements we had over the years. After all, she was my second mother that I lived with for eight years of my life. I'll never forget what she did for me, in those years. She really was great to me upon looking back. I am truly thankful that I was able to tell her everything I felt before she passed.
Just today she was supposed to get a filter put into her artery to prevent blood clots from going to her organs. The surgery was postponed and moved until tomorrow. This surgery never happened. In the meantime, my brother and sister were able to come in from Maine to visit her in the hospital for her last day. She wanted the whole "gang" to be there. Well, the whole gang was there this morning. We were also all there tonight, right after she passed.
My Grandma was a great woman, and I know she is in a great place now. She went to heaven to spend Christmas with Him, and, I guess there is no problem with that. God bless you Grandma, I love you, we all do. Some day, we will be right up there along side. Thanks so much for everything you did.
Love Fran
P.S. Thanks for all the memories.
posted by Frodgie at 11:46 PM

 

Bush: Troops on 'mission for peace'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush expressed his "heartfelt condolences" to the families of American troops killed in Tuesday's rocket attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, telling reporters they died in "a vital mission for peace."

The explosion at a dining hall on a U.S. military base in Mosul killed 22 people and wounded 57, including Americans and Iraqis, U.S. military officials said.

Nineteen U.S. military personnel were among the dead, officials said.

"Any time of the year is a time of sorrow and sadness when we lose a loss of life," Bush said after a visit Tuesday with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "This time of year is particularly sorrowful for the families as we head into the Christmas season."

But Bush said U.S. troops in Iraq are engaged in "a very important and vital mission," to help establish a democratic state "in what was a place of tyranny and hatred and destruction."

"I'm confident democracy will prevail in Iraq," he said. "I know a free Iraq will lead to a more peaceful world."

Mosul has been a site of repeated attacks in recent weeks. When the U.S. military launched a major offensive in Falluja in November, there was concern some insurgents had fled to Mosul and would launch attacks from there.

The U.S. military recently conducted an offensive to try to flush out insurgents in Mosul, but the violence has continued.

Tuesday's attack came shortly after British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit to Iraq.

During a news conference on Monday, Bush said "terrorists will attempt to delay" the Iraqi elections set for January 30. He said terrorists would attempt to intimidate the Iraqi people and "to disrupt the democratic process in any way they can."


posted by Frodgie at 7:11 AM

 

Mosul Attack Likely Work of Homicide Bomber

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military was re-examining security measures at bases across Iraq (search) on Thursday, a day after saying an attack that killed 22 people at a camp near Mosul (search ) was likely carried out by a homicide bomber who may have had inside information.

The explosion on Monday at the tightly guarded U.S. base raised questions about how the attacker infiltrated the compound, which is surrounded by blast walls and barbed wire and watched by U.S. troops who search every person going in and check his identity.

However Iraqis do a variety of jobs at the base, including translation, cleaning, cooking, construction and office duties.

A spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad (search) said Thursday security measures are subjected to changes when needed.

"It is a fluid situation where our security measures and plans are constantly being adapted and reworked," said 1st Sgt. Steve Valley.

The apparent sophistication of Tuesday's operation — one of the deadliest single attacks on U.S. troops since the war began — indicated the attacker probably had inside knowledge of the base's layout and the soldiers' schedule. The blast came at lunchtime.

"We always have force protection keeping their eyes out," Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, spokesman for Task Force Olympia (search), the main force that controls northern Iraq, said Thursday. "For somebody that wants to take his life and kill himself, its very difficult to stop those people."

posted by Frodgie at 7:09 AM

 

This to me, is very sad.

MEAN and menacing at just 14, the boy glowers from the old black-and-white photograph - a simmering volcano soon to erupt in the boxing ring.

He was destined to conquer the world with his talented fists as one of the most fearsome heavyweights in history.

This week, 38-year-old Mike Tyson was back at Gleason's Gym, where he used to train as a youngster - but the conquering days are over. This time, there is no fight to prepare for and no prospect of one.

Instead Iron Mike is here to teach kids how to box as part of a community service sentence he was given for his part in a brawl at a Brooklyn hotel. The gym owner persuaded the district attorney that Tyson should put something back into the community instead of going back to jail.

During his visit the former world champion speaks exclusively to the Daily Mirror about what it feels like to be back on his old stamping ground - and pondering his future.

And as he shuffles around the ring, letting nine-year-olds bob and weave, pounding away at the padded mitts he holds up for them, the contrast with the boy in the poster could not be greater.

Quietly, the once-great fighter observes: "You look at old pictures and then you look in the mirror and you don't even know who that person is."

Overweight and on prescription drugs to fight depression and keep him calm, Tyson is still carrying a leg injury from the pounding he took from Britain's Danny Williams, who knocked him out in July.

Contrary to what his adviser Shelley Finkel claims, he is not planning a comeback fight in March. Maybe there will never be one. "I'm just training," says Tyson, who hasn't worked on his bad knee for more than two months. "I don't know if I still want to box. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I feel I don't more than I want to. I'm just tired."

He did not bother to watch Vitali Klitschko's destruction of Danny Williams in Las Vegas 11 days ago.


posted by Frodgie at 7:06 AM

 

Against the Doubters

Every indication is that President Bush is going to make Social Security reform his first item of business when Congress comes back to work in 2005. He has not presented a detailed plan, but the merest outline is already drawing misguided criticism.

The program, in its current state, is unaffordable. By 2018, the program will start sending out more money than it brings in. The government will have to find a way to make up the difference — and that difference is projected to accumulate, over time, into the tens of trillions of dollars.

Under current law, benefits are tied to the general wage level. Since wages are expected to go up in the future, benefits are, too. So we can't grow our way out of this problem: If growth goes up, so do wages and therefore benefits. The benefits formula has to be changed. Tying it to prices instead of wages makes sense. The value of a Social Security check would keep up with inflation and an individual's contributions to the program. But the value would not go higher still.

That solution, however, creates a new problem. Social Security is a bad deal for young workers, who can expect to get back less than they are putting in. Cutting future benefits makes the deal worse. So the president also wants to let people invest some of their contributions to the program for themselves. The government will thus both cut back on unaffordable promises to workers and let them build up more wealth for themselves.

Opponents of this reform package have advanced a number of unpersuasive objections. First is the claim that there is no Social Security problem in the first place. The program has a "trust fund" that will remain solvent until 2040. But the "trust fund" contains only IOUs from the government. Redeeming them will require tax hikes or benefit cuts. So money still has to be found, starting as soon as we start trying to redeem those IOUs — which is in 15 years, not 35. The main alternative solution, a hefty tax increase, would make Social Security a worse deal for the young while impoverishing everyone.

The second main objection is that creating the personal accounts would involve increasing the federal debt burden. But increasing debt now in order to reduce our costs over the long run makes sense. The capital markets already reflect an understanding that the government has large unfunded obligations to meet in the future. If presented with a credible plan to cut future costs while also increasing short-term debt, the markets may not drive interest rates much higher.

Such opponents as Paul Krugman claim that Wall Street will eat up much of the personal accounts through administrative fees. But the Thrift Savings Program for federal workers has offered a fair amount of investment choice without charging large administrative fees.

Michael Kinsley has made an ingenious argument against reform. He notes that personal accounts, if financed by debt, do not increase the total amount of capital in the economy and thus do not increase national wealth. To the extent his argument is sound, it implies that we should try to finance the accounts by eliminating unproductive government spending. But he is ignoring some of the indirect effects of reform, even if it is financed by debt. Personal accounts may increase incentives to work: The more people work, the more they will see their accounts grow. More realistic promises of future benefits may induce people to save more (as may the experience of watching their personal-account returns compound).


posted by Frodgie at 6:16 AM

 

Rumsfeld reiterates support for Iraq war

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday defended his Pentagon tenure on a day when the carnage at a U.S. base near Mosul, Iraq, brought new questions about how well American troops are protected in Iraq.
"Freedom is at stake in Iraq, and it's achievable," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "The only alternative to success would be to turn back to darkness — to those who kill and terrorize innocent men, women and children. And that must not happen."
A U.S.-led coalition already has brought the first democratically elected government to Afghanistan — once a haven for al Qaeda under the oppressive Taliban regime — and Mr. Rumsfeld declared, "I have never been prouder to be an American."
It was Mr. Rumsfeld's first appearance in the Pentagon press room since Nov. 23 and since a flurry of criticism from the press and some members of Congress over the situation in Iraq. President Bush, who has asked the defense secretary to stay on in his second term, strongly endorsed him earlier this week.
Mr. Rumsfeld yesterday avoided the blunt and sometimes tart replies to reporters for which he has been known, as he and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to explain the administration's Iraq policy as part of the post-September 11 war on terror.
"Coalition forces continue to pursue terrorists across the world," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "Thus far, more than three-quarters of al Qaeda key members and associates have been captured or killed since the war on extremism began. ... Here at the Pentagon, we're continuing to make progress in transforming for the post-Cold War period."
Iraq, he said, is part of a broader strategy to bring freedom to a region that in the past has been "condemned to tyranny and violence," where those "with little hope for a better future" provided terrorist groups "a deep pool from which to draw recruits and to attack free people across the globe."

posted by Frodgie at 6:13 AM

 

Scapegoating Rumsfeld

Last year, Midge Decter, wife of Norman Podhoretz, who has been howling for "World War IV" against the Arabs, published a mash note titled, "Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait."

The University of Houston's James D. Fairbanks began his review thus:

Neoconservative writer Midge Decter sets out to explain just what it is about Donald Rumsfeld that has well-educated, sophisticated women swooning over him.

Those unaware that Rumsfeld mania has been sweeping the country have obviously not attended the same fashionable dinner parties as Decter. Her book begins with a description of one such party where women sat around gushing over the secretary like smitten schoolgirls.

Well, the neocon girls may not be over their infatuation, but the Beltway neocon boys surely are. Last week, in what qualifies as the backstab of the year, William Kristol of the Weekly Standard called for Rumsfeld's firing.

Contrasting the "magnificent performance" of our "terrific army" with Rumsfeld's blunders and buck-passing, Kristol wrote: "Rumsfeld is not the defense secretary Bush should want to have for the remainder of his second term. ... [American] soldiers deserve a better defense secretary than the one we have."

If Kristol sought to wound Rumsfeld, his timing was perfect. Rumsfeld had been bleeding for a week after his flat-footed answer to Tennessee National Guardsman Thomas Wilson at an assembly of troops in Kuwait. Wilson demanded to know why he and his fellow soldiers have to scrounge around junkyards for "hillbilly armor" to protect their trucks and humvees.

Rumsfeld's condescending response – "As you know, you have to go to war with the army you have, not with the army you might wish to have" – might have been acceptable, had Iraq not been a war of choice for which we had a year to prepare. It might have been understandable, a year ago, as the unanticipated insurgency erupted across Iraq.

But this administration had Iraq in its gunsights three years ago. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon are thus responsible for any lack of armor that has resulted in the woundings and deaths of U.S. soldiers in unprotected vehicles from the roadside bombs that have become a major killer of American troops.

Nonetheless, when one considers all that Rumsfeld has done for the neocons, the depth of the betrayal astonishes.

Ever since he signed on with their Committee on the Present Danger in the 1980s, Rumsfeld had been a hero to neocons. In 1998, he signed Kristol's open letter to Clinton calling for war on Iraq, four years before 9-11. Named defense secretary, Rumsfeld brought in neocons Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith as his No. 2 and No. 3, and let them fill the building with friends from Neocon Central, the American Enterprise Institute.

Richard Perle was given the chair of the Defense Policy Review Board, which was turned into a neocon nest at the Pentagon. In the hours after 9-11, Rumsfeld made the case to Bush for immediate war on Iraq. When Baghdad fell in three weeks, he was the toast of the cakewalk crowd and the centerfold of Midge and the neocon girls.

Now many are snaking on him. What is going on? Simple.

Rumsfeld is being set up to take the fall for what could become a debacle in Iraq. As the plotters, planners and propagandists of this war, the neocons know that if Iraq goes the way of Vietnam, there will be a search conducted for those who misled us and, yes, lied us into war, and why they did it. Rumsfeld has become the designated scapegoat.

His clumsy response to Wilson is not the real reason Kristol's crowd wants him out. As Kristol told the Post, Rumsfeld's "fundamental error ... is that his theory about the military is at odds with the president's geopolitical strategy. He wants this light, transformed military, but we've got to win a real war, which involves using a lot of troops and building a nation, and that's at the core of the president's strategy for rebuilding the Middle East."

To neocons, this war was never about WMD or any alleged Iraqi ties to 9-11. That was merely to mobilize the masses for war. Their real reason was empire and making the Middle East safe for Israel.

President Bush had best recognize what Kristol is telling him. The neocon agenda means escalation: enlarging the Army, more U.S. troops in Iraq, widening the war to Syria and Iran, and indefinite occupation of the Middle East, as we forcibly alter the mindset of the Islamic world to embrace democracy and Israel.

If that entails endless expenditures of tax dollars of U.S. citizens and the blood of U.S. soldiers, the neocons are more than willing to make the sacrifice. But if Bush himself fails to deliver, rely upon it. He, too, will get the Rumsfeld treatment from this crowd, parasitical and opportunistic as it is, as it seeks another host to ride, perhaps John McCain.


posted by Frodgie at 5:49 PM

 

Conservative students sue over academic freedom

At the University of North Carolina, three incoming freshmen sue over a reading assignment they say offends their Christian beliefs.

In Colorado and Indiana, a national conservative group publicizes student allegations of left-wing bias by professors. Faculty get hate mail and are pictured in mock "wanted" posters; at least one college says a teacher received a death threat.

And at Columbia University in New York, a documentary film alleging that teachers intimidate students who support Israel draws the attention of administrators.

The three episodes differ in important ways, but all touch on an issue of growing prominence on college campuses.

Traditionally, clashes over academic freedom have pitted politicians or administrators against instructors who wanted to express their opinions and teach as they saw fit. But increasingly, it is students who are invoking academic freedom, claiming biased professors are violating their right to a classroom free from indoctrination.

In many ways, the trend echoes past campus conflicts -- but turns them around. Once, it was liberal campus activists who cited the importance of "diversity" in pressing their agendas for curriculum change. Now, conservatives have adopted much of the same language in calling for a greater openness to their viewpoints.

Similarly, academic freedom guidelines have traditionally been cited to protect left-leaning students from punishment for disagreeing with teachers about such issues as American neutrality before World War II and U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Now, those same guidelines are being invoked by conservative students who support the war in Iraq.

To many professors, there's a new and deeply troubling aspect to this latest chapter in the debate over academic freedom: students trying to dictate what they don't want to be taught.

"Even the most contentious or disaffected of students in the '60s or early '70s never really pressed this kind of issue," said Robert O'Neil, former president of the University of Virginia and now director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

Those behind the trend call it an antidote to the overwhelming liberal dominance of university faculties. But many educators, while agreeing students should never feel bullied, worry that they just want to avoid exposure to ideas that challenge their core beliefs -- an essential part of education.

Some also fear teachers will shy away from sensitive topics, or fend off criticism by "balancing" their syllabuses with opposing viewpoints, even if they represent inferior scholarship.

"Faculty retrench. They are less willing to discuss contemporary problems and I think everyone loses out," said Joe Losco, a professor of political science at Ball State University in Indiana who has supported two colleagues targeted for alleged bias. "It puts a chill in the air."

Conservatives say a chill is in order.

A recent study by Santa Clara University researcher Daniel Klein estimated that among social science and humanities faculty members nationwide, Democrats outnumber Republicans by at least seven to one; in some fields it's as high as 30 to one. And in the last election, the two employers whose workers contributed the most to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign were the University of California system and Harvard University.

Many teachers insist personal politics don't affect teaching. But in a recent survey of students at 50 top schools by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a group that has argued there is too little intellectual diversity on campuses, 49 percent reported at least some professors frequently commented on politics in class even if it was outside the subject matter.

Thirty-one percent said they felt there were some courses in which they needed to agree with a professor's political or social views to get a good grade.

Leading the movement is the group Students for Academic Freedom, with chapters on 135 campuses and close ties to David Horowitz, a one-time liberal campus activist turned conservative agitator. The group posts student complaints on its Web site about alleged episodes of grading bias and unbalanced, anti-American propaganda by professors -- often in classes, such as literature, in which it's off-topic.

Instructors "need to make students aware of the spectrum of scholarly opinion," Horowitz said. "You can't get a good education if you're only getting half the story."

Conservatives claim they are discouraged from expressing their views in class, and are even blackballed from graduate school slots and jobs.

"I feel like (faculty) are so disconnected from students that they do these things and they can just get away with them," said Kris Wampler, who recently publicly identified himself as one of the students who sued the University of North Carolina. Now a junior, he objected when all incoming students were assigned to read a book about the Quran before they got to campus.


posted by Frodgie at 10:40 PM

 

Our Friends the Saudis
What is the world's oil-supplier of last resort up to?

ONE NICE THING about the falling dollar is that it makes oil cheaper for European and other consumers who are complaining that the rise in their own currencies is hurting their competitiveness. When the euro and the dollar were at about parity, and oil was selling for $40 a barrel, it took E40 to buy a barrel of oil. Now, it takes a mere E30 to purchase the dollars needed to buy that same barrel of oil. A reason for a bit of holiday cheer in the otherwise cheerless economies of euroland.

But for the oil producers, who are paid in dollars that buy fewer pounds for use in London's posh shops, and fewer euros to fund vacations in the south of France, a weaker dollar is a disaster. Well, not quite a disaster. Oil producers have been compensated for the dollar's fall with record-high prices, and the OPEC cartel has decided to raise its four-year old target price of $22-$28 per barrel to something like the $32 per barrel that Iran's petroleum minister, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, has commended to his counterparts. True, Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, told the press in the run-up to the OPEC meeting in Cairo earlier this month, "Our price band is still $22-$28." And Kuwait's oil minister, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, is undoubtedly grateful for allowing him and his family a pleasant stay at London's Dorchester hotel while American soldiers drove Saddam Hussein out of his country.

But it is what they do, not what they say or feel, that affects the price of oil. The Kuwaiti minister took the lead in urging his OPEC colleagues to cut output so as to lift the price his American saviors pay for oil. The Saudis quickly obliged, and cut output to keep prices closer to $40 than to the old range they had pledged to maintain.

Here is how the oil markets seem to be shaping up, at least in the view of some major oil companies. The head of one of the world's largest told me that the world is unlikely to see sustained periods of prices above $50 per barrel, or below $30. In appraising the profitability of drilling prospects, he is using $25. That is the middle of the range that Dave O'Reilly, ChevronTexaco's CEO, last week told analysts his company would henceforth use as its planning price. So the major oil companies have decided that the recent growth in demand from America's resurgent economy, China's explosively (perhaps in more ways than one) growing economy, and the economies of other developing countries is no transient phenomenon, and that they can safely raise their former target price of $15-$20 to about $25. That should stimulate exploration and development.
posted by Frodgie at 10:02 AM

 

Woman Pleads Guilty to Threatening Bush

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A woman pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of threatening President Bush (search).

A grand jury indicted Catherine M. Guertin (search), 24, in August and she was arrested the next month. Her guilty plea was entered as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors, according to court documents.

The threats were made in May while Guertin was living in Independence, the indictment says.

The woman allegedly threatened Bush by saying, "I want him gone" and "If I ever have a gun, I will shoot him between the eyes." She also allegedly wrote statements threatening the president.

The maximum penalty for conviction of threatening the president is five years in prison per count, said U.S. Assistant Attorney Kandice Wilcox (search).

Guertin's attorney requested that she be moved to a location "that can address her mental and physical requirements," court documents said.




posted by Frodgie at 9:37 AM

 

U.S. Military Base in Mosul Attacked

MOSUL, Iraq — An explosion struck a dining facility at a U.S. military base near the northern city of Mosul (search), FOX News confirmed Tuesday.

Senior Pentagon officials told FOX News' Bret Baier 10 people were killed and at least 50 people were wounded. Sources said a combination of U.S. forces, Iraqi forces and U.S. contractors were at the military facility. The cause of the blast, which happened at 12 noon local time, was under investigation.

However, Sgt. Joseph Sanchez, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's Task Force Olympia (search) that is based in the predominantly Sunni Muslim city, said it was unclear how many casualties the blast caused.

"Details are still coming in and at this time we don't have a final casualty count or confirmed cause of the explosion," Sanchez said in a statement.

Mosul was the scene of the deadliest single incident for U.S. troops since the attack on Iraq last year.

On Nov. 15, 2003, two Black Hawk helicopters collided in mid-air over the city, killing 17 soldiers and injuring five. The crash occurred as the two choppers maneuvered to avoid ground fire from insurgents.

Elsewhere in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (search) made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday, urging Iraqis to support national elections and describing violence here as a "battle between democracy and terror."

Blair held talks with Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi (search) and Iraqi election officials, who he called heroes for carrying out their work despite attacks by insurgents. Three members of Iraq's election commission were dragged from the car and killed this week in Baghdad.

"I said to them that I thought they were the heroes of the new Iraq that's being created, because here are people who are risking their lives every day to make sure that the people of Iraq get a chance to decide their own destiny," Blair said during a joint news conference with Allawi.

Blair, who has paid a political price for going to war in Iraq, defended the role of Britain's 8,000 troops by referring to terrorism.


posted by Frodgie at 9:31 AM

 

Bush pushes second-term agenda

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Monday he will submit a federal budget that will half the deficit in five years and maintain strict spending discipline.

"We will provide every tool and resource for our military, we will protect the homeland," Bush said. He said he would "maintain strict discipline in spending tax dollars."

In the 17th news conference of his presidency, Bush was pushing his second-term agenda.

Bush said he will submit a federal budget that will cut the deficit in half in five years and maintain strict spending discipline. His fiscal 2006 budget is due to Congress in February.

"We will submit a budget that fits the times. It will provide every tool and resource to the military, will protect the homeland, and meet other priorities of the government," he said.

With a growing number of lawmakers, including Republicans, voicing no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Bush defended his Pentagon chief.

"Beneath that rough and gruff no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being who cares deeply about the military and the grief that war causes," Bush said, batting away criticism that Rumsfeld had not personally signed condolence letters to the families of troops who have died. (Full story)

Rumsfeld agreed to Bush's request this month to stay in the Cabinet during the president's second term and has won repeated votes of confidence from the White House since.

Critics have raised questions about

posted by Frodgie at 9:20 AM

 

Poll: Rumsfeld losing public's support...Polls had Bush losing the Election too.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fifty-two percent of respondents to a new poll think Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign amid recent criticism in Congress over his handling of the war in Iraq.

Thirty-six percent of respondents to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said Rumsfeld should not step down, and the remainder had no opinion. The margin of error for the question was 4.5 percentage points among the 1,002 Americans surveyed by telephone between Friday and Sunday.

The defense secretary was recently chided for telling U.S. soldiers headed for Iraq that "you go to war with the Army you have ... not the Army you might want or wish you had."(Full story)

In addition, Rumsfeld's wartime performance has been criticized by many Democratic and some Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Trent Lott of Mississippi and John McCain of Arizona. (Full story)

Despite the criticism, President Bush strongly came out in support of his Pentagon chief during a news conference Monday. (Full story)

The secretary's approval rating has fallen from 71 percent in April 2003 at the height of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to 41 percent in the new survey.

As for Bush, 49 percent of respondents said they approved of the job the president is doing. That number is down from his November approval rating of 55 percent. Bush is the first incumbent president to have an approval rating below 50 percent one month after winning re-election. The question had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.


posted by Frodgie at 9:14 AM

 

Did Bush Order Interrogation Techniques?........And?

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union "suggest that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq."

However, the Los Angeles Times notes the records released by the ACLU "did not include a copy of the Bush order, or make clear exactly when it was signed. Pentagon officials would not comment on whether there was any new order."

The New York Times says the newly disclosed documents "are the latest to show that" abuses -- including "detainees' being beaten and choked and having lit cigarettes placed in their ears" -- were known to "a wide circle of government officials."
from ACLU.........
NEW YORK -- A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.

"These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."

The documents were obtained after the ACLU and other public interest organizations filed a lawsuit against the government for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The two-page e-mail that references an Executive Order states that the President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The ACLU is urging the White House to confirm or deny the existence of such an order and immediately to release the order if it exists. The FBI e-mail, which was sent in May 2004 from "On Scene Commander--Baghdad" to a handful of senior FBI officials, notes that the FBI has prohibited its agents from employing the techniques that the President is said to have authorized.

Another e-mail, dated December 2003, describes an incident in which Defense Department interrogators at Guantαnamo Bay impersonated FBI agents while using "torture techniques" against a detainee. The e-mail concludes "If this detainee is ever released or his story made public in any way, DOD interrogators will not be held accountable because these torture techniques were done [sic] the 'FBI' interrogators. The FBI will [sic] left holding the bag before the public."

The document also says that no "intelligence of a threat neutralization nature" was garnered by the "FBI" interrogation, and that the FBI's Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF) believes that the Defense Department's actions have destroyed any chance of prosecuting the detainee. The e-mail's author writes that he or she is documenting the incident "in order to protect the FBI."

"The methods that the Defense Department has adopted are illegal, immoral, and counterproductive," said ACLU staff attorney Jameel Jaffer. "It is astounding that these methods appear to have been adopted as a matter of policy by the highest levels of government."

The June 2004 "Urgent Report" addressed to the FBI Director is heavily redacted. The legible portions of the document appear to describe an account given to the FBI's Sacramento Field Office by an FBI agent who had "observed numerous physical abuse incidents of Iraqi civilian detainees," including "strangulation, beatings, [and] placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees ear openings." The document states that "[redacted] was providing this account to the FBI based on his knowledge that [redacted] were engaged in a cover-up of these abuses."

The release of these documents follows a federal court order that directed government agencies to comply with a year-old request under the Freedom of Information Act filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.


posted by Frodgie at 8:53 AM

 

Bush May Take Tougher Line With Putin

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The president who said he looked into Vladimir Putin's soul three years ago and liked what he saw may take a dimmer view of the Russian president now. How to deal with the increasingly authoritarian leader is giving the Bush administration a second-term headache.

President Bush will meet with Putin in Slovakia in February, when he travels to Europe for fence-mending talks with allies who oppose the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Formal announcement of the meeting was expected Tuesday.

"Both Washington and Moscow are having some second thoughts at the moment," said Rose Gottemoeller, a specialist on defense and nuclear issues in Russia and the other former Soviet states at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They are trying to judge what the next four years can bring."

Bush faces two vital decisions, several Russia analysts said: whether to take a harder line against erosion of democratic and economic freedom in Russia; and how much to rely on personal diplomacy to resolve differences and deal with mutual problems such as the potential spread of nuclear weapons.

Gottemoeller, for one, predicts the Bush administration will see little advantage in continuing the largely polite and muted response to Putin that characterized the last couple of years.

"We already see signs that they will be much more outspoken in problems they see with Putin, the cutting back of democratic reforms, the scaling back of press freedoms," and moves to consolidate Russia's oil business and punish a former media baron who crossed Putin, Gottemoeller said.


posted by Frodgie at 7:42 AM

 

Al-Qaeda tells fighters to strike Saudi oil targets: website

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda told its fighters to attack oil sites and foreign targets in Saudi Arabia, according to a website statement, as the de facto leader of the oil-rich kingdom vowed to eradicate terrorism which he said was tarnishing the image of Islam.

"We call on all the mujahedeen to target the sources of oil which do not serve the Islamic nation but serve the enemies of the nation," said a statement attributed to the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi wing of the terror network.

Last week Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) issued a call to his fighters to strike oil targets in Iraq (news - web sites) and the Gulf, according to an audiotape broadcast on an Islamist website said to be from the top terror mastermind.

The desert kingdom, the leading member of OPEC (news - web sites), sits on a quarter of the world's proven oil reserves and is the number one crude exporter.

The Al-Qaeda statement dated Saturday also urged militants to "strike all foreign targets and the hideouts of the tyrants to rid the peninsula of the infidels and their supporters.

"In the next few days there will be new (operations) in the jihad (holy war) against the tyrants and the enemies of Islam," it warned.

Since May last year, Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of deadly attacks in the ultra-conservative kingdom which have been blamed on supporters of the Saudi-born bin Laden.

In the latest attack claimed by Al-Qaeda's Saudi branch, gunmen stormed the US consulate in the commercial capital of Jeddah on December 6, killing five non-American staff and losing four of their number.

Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz reiterated his government's determination to eradicate terrorism in the kingdom which he said was tarnishing the image of Islam, the local press reported Sunday.
posted by Frodgie at 8:42 AM

 

Calls Get Louder For Rumsfeld's Resignation

WASHINGTON — Only two weeks after President Bush asked Donald Rumsfeld (search) to stay on for his second term, the drumbeat has grown louder for the secretary of defense to resign.

Calls for Rumsfeld's head increased after a national guardsman asked him during a trip to Kuwait why some soldiers in Iraq were still traveling in unarmored vehicles and sometimes had to scrounge for scrap metal and glass to protect their trucks and Humvees (search).

Rumsfeld's controversial response was: "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have."

The defense secretary explained that shortages of armor were "a matter of physics, not a matter of money," suggesting that production lines were operating at capacity.

Both Rumsfeld and Bush have said more vehicle armor would be shipped to Iraq; the Army has promised more than $4 billion to beef up equipment in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Seventy-eight percent of Humvees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait have protective armor. But only 10 percent of medium-weight transport trucks, and only 15 percent of heavy trucks, do.

Six Ohio-based reservists have been court-martialed for commandeering Army vehicles abandoned in Kuwait by other units to carry out their own unit's mission into Iraq.

Rumsfeld's response to the questioning in Kuwait has brought on a surge of criticism, with calls for his head coming from both sides of the aisle.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., on Friday cited the allegations of Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib (search) prison and the vehicle armor issue as two reasons Rumsfeld should exit the Pentagon.

"I trust that our bipartisan voices will now be heard by President Bush and the Republican leadership, and Mr. Rumsfeld will make the right decision to leave his post. This is too critical a time in American history for further colossal mistakes to be made that put the future of our country at risk," Cummings said in a statement.

But the White House defended Rumsfeld once again on Friday.

"Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a great job leading our efforts at DoD to win the War on Terror and help bring about free and peaceful Iraq," said spokesman Scott McClellan.

Sen. John McCain (search), R-Ariz., was the first to criticize Rumsfeld, although he stopped just short of calling for the secretary's resignation, saying Bush should "have the team that he wants around him."

Citing the Pentagon's failure to send more troops to Iraq, the former Vietnam prisoner of war said 80,000 more soldiers and 20,000 to 30,000 more Marines were needed to secure Iraq, especially as the country gears up for the Jan. 30 elections.

"I have strenuously argued for larger troop numbers in Iraq, including the right kind of troops — linguists, special forces, civil affairs, etc.," McCain told The Associated Press in an interview. "There are very strong differences of opinion between myself and Secretary Rumsfeld on that issue."

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said this week that Rumsfeld should leave office sometime in 2005.

"I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld," Lott reportedly told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, adding that more U.S. troops were needed and a more solid plan must be put together for leaving Iraq after the elections. "I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers ... I'm not calling for his resignation, but I think we do need a change at some point."

Sen. Mark Dayton (search), D-Minn., sent a letter on Wednesday to Bush, urging the president to immediately request an investigation into why the proper armor and equipment were not ordered and distributed to U.S. troops stationed overseas. Dayton told FOX News on Friday that no matter where the buck stops, someone must be held accountable.

Dayton, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted in his letter that as recently as Nov. 10, during a briefing before the panel, lawmakers "repeatedly asked the presenting military officers and Pentagon officials whether everything possible was being done to retrofit unarmored vehicles already in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to produce new armored vehicles for those theaters."

"Again and again," Dayton wrote, "we were assured that everything possible was underway, and that Congress had provided all of the funding necessary to fill those terrible deficiencies as rapidly as possible."

Rep. Martin Meehan (search), D-Mass., told FOX News that he was "very disappointed" at Rumsfeld's response to the armored-vehicle issue.

The House Armed Services Committee, which Meehan sits on, has repeatedly asked the Pentagon if it has all the money it needs to protect U.S. troops overseas, and the agency has repeatedly been too slow to respond, he said.

"Frankly, I think the buck stops with the secretary of defense," Meehan said.

Sen. John Corzine (search ), D-N.J., actually has called on Rumsfeld to resign.

"I believe this isn't the issue only of Humvees," Corzine told "FOX News Sunday." "The miscalculation and interpretation of the intelligence before the war — there was a failure to secure all the weapons dumps ... there's been a problem with our administration of the prisons. No one has been held accountable. There's no exit plan."

"I think, at some point, someone needs to be held accountable for all the series of mistakes and miscalculations we've had," he added.

Weekly Standard editor and FOX News contributor William Kristol (search) said Rumsfeld had been so focused on transforming the military into a lighter, quicker force, that issues such as troops levels in Iraq had not received enough attention.

"Look, Rumsfeld is an impressive guy ... but I think a lot of us think that after Jan. 30, after the Iraq elections, the president would be better served by a new secretary of defense," Kristol said on Friday, adding that it's no secret Bush has been "frustrated" with Rumsfeld.

But not everyone thinks Rumsfeld should quit.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (search), R-S.C., told FOX News that the defense secretary had provided invaluable leadership amid a tumultuous situation in Iraq.

"War is a messy thing," Graham said. "The insurgents are ruthless people. We're trying to adapt. We have made mistakes.

"We need to adjust. I don't wish to play politics with this. Let's give the people what they need. Let's press on and learn from our past mistakes."

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the kind of progress being made in Afghanistan and Iraq isn't easy and Rumsfeld is to be thanked for the successes achieved.

"And while Secretary Rumsfeld has my full support, more importantly he has the president's," McConnell said.

posted by Frodgie at 8:34 AM

 

Kerry's neoconservative

Those who argued that the election of John Kerry would at least ring down the curtain on the hubristic warmongering of our neoconservatives should read the latest rendering from a man Kerry considered for secretary of state.

Writing in the Washington Post, Richard Holbrooke threatens Russia that if our man, Viktor Yushchenko, does not win the new election in Ukraine on Dec. 26, there will be hell to pay.


"Any attempt by the [Ukrainian] government to declare his opponent, Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich, the winner would result in overwhelming demonstrations, national paralysis and, possibly, civil war," Holbrooke warns. The wonderful thing about the new Ukraine, Holbrooke adds, is how Russian President "Putin has been isolated and humiliated."


2004 has been Putin's annus horribilis, the year in which he "lost" Georgia and Ukraine to anti-Russian popular revolutions, the year of Yukos and the school massacre of Beslan, a year in which, while remaining popular at home, he lost credibility throughout the rest of the world.

[Putin's] personal behavior has been puzzling, petulant and self-demeaning. He must now either look for a way to back down quickly and learn to live with Yushchenko or – if he tries to stir up separatism in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine or punish Ukraine economically – risk destroying his relations with the West.

But Holbrooke has an even grander vision. While a decade may pass before Kiev enters the European Union, the Ukraine, he writes, linked to Russia for 1,000 years, must be brought into NATO now.

"Russia will of course object ... [But] from the U.S. point of view, it makes sense. NATO virtually defines our core zone of security in half the world, and danger lurks to the south and east."

While Holbrooke expects Germany to balk at offering NATO war guarantees to Ukraine, he urges the president to "speed" it up.

"President Bush ... has gotten little for his four-year affair with Putin, and ... we cannot let Ukraine's security be determined in Moscow." Visions of empire dancing in his head, Holbrooke closes. We must convert "the once unthinkable into the inexorable."


posted by Frodgie at 8:24 AM

 

Bush Named Time's Person of the Year

NEW YORK — After winning re-election and "reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style," President George Bush (search) for the second time was chosen as Time magazine's Person of the Year.

The magazine's editors tapped Bush "for sharpening the debate until the choices bled, for reframing reality to match his design, for gambling his fortunes — and ours — on his faith in the power of leadership."

Time's 2004 Person of the Year package, on newsstands Monday, includes an Oval Office interview with Bush, an interview with his father, former President George H. W. Bush, and a profile of Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove (search).

In an interview with the magazine, Bush attributed his victory over Democratic candidate John Kerry (search) to his foreign policy and the wars he began in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The election was about the use of American influence," Bush said.

After a grueling campaign, Bush remains a polarizing figure in America and around the world, and that's part of the reason the magazine selected him, said Managing Editor Jim Kelly.

"Many, many Americans deeply wish he had not won," Kelly said in a telephone interview. "And yet he did."

In the Time article, Bush said he relishes that some people dislike him.

"I think the natural instinct for most people in the political world is that they want people to like them," Bush said. "On the other hand, I think sometimes I take kind of a delight in who the critics are."

Bush joins six other presidents who have twice been named the magazine's Person of the Year: Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower (first as a general), Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Franklin Roosevelt holds the record with three nods from the editors.

Kelly said Bush has changed dramatically since he was named Person of the Year in 2000 after the Supreme Court awarded him the presidency.

"He is not the same man," Kelly said. "He's a much more resolute man. He is personally as charming as ever but I think the kind of face he's shown to the American public is one of much, much greater determination."

The magazine gives the title to the person who had the greatest impact, good or bad, over the year.

Asked on ABC's "This Week" how Bush reacted when he learned of Time's decision, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said the president was "not worried about what pundits might be saying."

Card praised Bush as a "great liberator" for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq and lauded Bush's tax cuts, education and Medicare reform packages and plans to remake Social Security.

"So I think he's got the right ingredients to be recognized as the Person of the Year," Card said.

Kelly said other candidates included Michael Moore and Mel Gibson, "because in different ways their movies tapped in to deep cultural streams," and political strategist Rove, who is widely credited with engineering Bush's win. Kelly said choosing Rove alone would have taken away from the credit he said Bush deserves.

This is the first time an individual has been named since 2001, when then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was celebrated for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.


posted by Frodgie at 9:14 PM

 

Pope condemns Christmas materialism

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul has warned against rampant materialism which he says suffocates the spirit of Christmas.

Speaking to thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square on Sunday, the 84-year-old Pope urged Christians to keep the symbols of Christmas, the nativity crib and the tree, at the centre of their celebrations.

"The message of the Christmas tree is that life is always green if you give, not many material things, but of yourself through friendship and sincere affection, through help and forgiveness, by spending time together and listening to each other," he said.

"The feast of Christmas, perhaps the most dear of the popular traditions, is rich in symbols related to many cultures. Among them all, the most important is certainly the crib," the Pope said, overlooking the life-size nativity scene that stands in St. Peter's Square each year.

The Vatican is waging an increasingly high-profile campaign to remind Roman Catholic Italy not to compromise the spirit of Christmas through excess or dumb it down out of fear of offending a growing Muslim population.

Vatican officials in recent weeks have criticised the Madame Tussaud's nativity scene which shows David Beckham and his wife Victoria as Joseph and Mary, and an Italian school that swapped its traditional nativity play for Red Riding Hood.

A poll released by a marketing magazine on Sunday revealed more than 50 Italian priests had demanded a ban on what they called trash television until after the New Year to show respect for the holiday's Christian roots.

posted by Frodgie at 5:52 PM