caseyjones38's Blog - Just a Good Ol` Boy

All right world ! you WILL do as I say, or face the wrath of "BUSH ALMIGHTY" !!!!!
Bush warns Russia over disputed Georgian provinces

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Aug 16, 10:30 AM (ET)

By DEB RIECHMANN p {margin:12px 0px 0px 0px;}

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush is sending a stern warning to Russia that it cannot lay claim to two disputed regions in Georgia.

Bush says there is no room for debate on this point. He says the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are part of Georgia and lie within internationally recognized borders. Russia's foreign minister has said that Georgia could forget about getting back those provinces.

Russia's president met in the Kremlin this past week with the leaders of those regions. That was seen as a sign that Moscow could absorb the areas.

Bush also says Russia must abide by a cease-fire that Georgia and Russia now have signed. It calls for both forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting broke out Aug. 8.

 HOW MUCH LONGER WILL THE WORLD BE DICTATED TO ?

                             

OH ! MY, MY, MY !  WE CANT HAVE THIS ! ONLY WE CAN DO THIS !

Bush says violence in Georgia is unacceptable

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Aug 10, 11:54 PM (ET)

By BEN FELLER (AP) President Bush, greets gold medal and world record winner Michael Phelps after his swimming event...
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BEIJING (AP) - President Bush on Monday sharply criticized Moscow's harsh military crackdown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying the violence is unacceptable and Russia's response is disproportionate.

The United States is waging an all-out campaign to get Russia to halt its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Bush, in an interview with NBC Sports, said, "I've expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia." He said he did so directly to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who's here for the Olympics, and by phone to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.

On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney told Georgia's pro-American president that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States," Cheney's office reported.

IS THIS THE CHICKEN COMING HOME TO ROOST, OR WHAT ?

 IT TOOK THESE IDIOTS 8 YEARS TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO ?


Bush blames Congress for not acting on gas prices

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Jul 30, 11:59 AM (ET)

By BEN FELLER (AP) President Bush makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 30, 2008,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, on a campaign to open offshore waters to oil drilling, said Wednesday that the Democratic-run Congress was letting down the American people by refusing to allow votes on the matter.

The president again pinned the prospect of oil drilling off the coastline - considered a long-term energy solution - to today's high gas prices for consumers.

"The American people are rightly frustrated by the failure of the Democratic leaders in Congress to enact commonsense solutions," the president said.

Bush acknowledged that development of oil resources in waters off the coastlines, an area known as the Outer Continental Shelf, would take time. But he said that only creates more urgency for Congress to lift its legislative ban on drilling in these protected waters before lawmakers leave Washington for summer break.

(AP) President Bush, accompanied by members of his Cabinet, makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the...
Full ImageBush has already lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that had stood since his father was president. It will have no effect unless Congress acts, too.

"All the Democratic leaders have to do is to allow a vote," Bush said. "They should not leave Washington without doing so."

The president gave essentially the same message on Tuesday to an audience of employees at a welding plant in Ohio. In his latest effort, his presidential prodding came with his Cabinet members standing behind him, in the Rose Garden. He had just met with them on energy and other matters.

Both Congress and the president, plenty aware of American anger about gas prices, are scrambling to show some action.

Congress has been in a stalemate over energy legislation, with daily sniping between parties over how to respond.

(AP) President Bush, center, accompanied by members of the Cabinet, makes a statement in the Rose Garden...
Full ImageHouse and Senate Republicans have demanded a vote on opening new offshore waters - long off limits for environmental reasons.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has ignored calls by Republican leaders for a vote on lifting the drilling bans in Atlantic and Pacific waters, arguing that oil companies already have vast areas available for drilling but have chosen not to do so. The House was expected to take up a measure to counter oil market speculation on Wednesday, but under procedures that prevent Republicans from trying to attach an oil drilling measure.

The Senate has been considering a similar market speculation bill for more than a week, but has become embroiled in a partisan dispute over GOP demands that the legislation be opened to a string of other energy proposals, including expansion of offshore oil development. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered to take up four Republican proposals, including a drilling provision. Republicans rejected the overture, demanding a broader debate and action on energy.

As lawmakers move toward their annual August recess at the end of the week, it has become increasingly unlikely that substantive action on energy will be taken in Congress before fall despite hours of congressional rhetoric and public outcries. Only recently have high gas prices begun to recede.

Bush Sought ‘Way’ To Invade Iraq?O'Neill Tells '60 Minutes' Iraq Was 'Topic A' 8 Months Before 9-11

Jan. 11, 2004

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Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill is the main source for an upcoming book about the Bush White House, "The Price of Loyalty."  (CBS)

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Ex-Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill speaks out for the first time about the Bush Administration. He reveals to 60 Minutes the President's case for war, tax cuts and relations with his staff. | Share/Embed

Paul O'Neill Speaks Out (3:32)
Et Tu, O'Neill? (2:24)
White House Reacts To O'Neill (1:08)

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(CBS) A year ago, Paul O'Neill was fired from his job as George Bush's Treasury Secretary for disagreeing too many times with the president's policy on tax cuts.

Now, O'Neill - who is known for speaking his mind - talks for the first time about his two years inside the Bush administration. His story is the centerpiece of a new book being published this week about the way the Bush White House is run.

Entitled "The Price of Loyalty," the book by a former Wall Street Journal reporter draws on interviews with high-level officials who gave the author their personal accounts of meetings with the president, their notes and documents. [Simon and Schuster, the book's publisher, and CBSNews.com, are both units of Viacom.]

But the main source of the book was Paul O'Neill. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports.

---

Paul O'Neill says he is going public because he thinks the Bush Administration has been too secretive about how decisions have been made.

Will this be seen as a “kiss-and-tell" book?

“I've come to believe that people will say damn near anything, so I'm sure somebody will say all of that and more,” says O’Neill, who was George Bush's top economic policy official.

In the book, O’Neill says that the president did not make decisions in a methodical way: there was no free-flow of ideas or open debate.

At cabinet meetings, he says the president was "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people. There is no discernible connection," forcing top officials to act "on little more than hunches about what the president might think."

This is what O'Neill says happened at his first hour-long, one-on-one meeting with Mr. Bush: “I went in with a long list of things to talk about, and I thought to engage on and as the book says, I was surprised that it turned out me talking, and the president just listening … As I recall, it was mostly a monologue.”

He also says that President Bush was disengaged, at least on domestic issues, and that disturbed him. And he says that wasn't his experience when he worked as a top official under Presidents Nixon and Ford, or the way he ran things when he was chairman of Alcoa.

O'Neill readily agreed to tell his story to the book's author Ron Suskind – and he adds that he's taking no money for his part in the book.

Suskind says he interviewed hundreds of people for the book – including several cabinet members.

O'Neill is the only one who spoke on the record, but Suskind says that someone high up in the administration – Donald Rumsfeld - warned O’Neill not to do this book.

Was it a warning, or a threat?

“I don't think so. I think it was the White House concerned,” says Suskind. “Understandably, because O'Neill has spent extraordinary amounts of time with the president. They said, ‘This could really be the one moment where things are revealed.’"

---

Not only did O'Neill give Suskind his time, he gave him 19,000 internal documents.

“Everything's there: Memoranda to the President, handwritten "thank you" notes, 100-page documents. Stuff that's sensitive,” says Suskind, adding that in some cases, it included transcripts of private, high-level National Security Council meetings. “You don’t get higher than that.”

And what happened at President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations.

“From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11.

“From the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime,” says Suskind. “Day one, these things were laid and sealed.”

As treasury secretary, O'Neill was a permanent member of the National Security Council. He says in the book he was surprised at the meeting that questions such as "Why Saddam?" and "Why now?" were never asked.

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill. “For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap.”

And that came up at this first meeting, says O’Neill, who adds that the discussion of Iraq continued at the next National Security Council meeting two days later.

He got briefing materials under this cover sheet. “There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, ‘Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,’" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001.

---

Based on his interviews with O'Neill and several other officials at the meetings, Suskind writes that the planning envisioned peacekeeping troops, war crimes tribunals, and even divvying up Iraq's oil wealth.

He obtained one Pentagon document, dated March 5, 2001, and entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield contracts," which includes a map of potential areas for exploration.

“It talks about contractors around the world from, you know, 30-40 countries. And which ones have what intentions,” says Suskind. “On oil in Iraq.”

During the campaign, candidate Bush had criticized the Clinton-Gore Administration for being too interventionist: "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road. And I'm going to prevent that."

“The thing that's most surprising, I think, is how emphatically, from the very first, the administration had said ‘X’ during the campaign, but from the first day was often doing ‘Y,’” says Suskind. “Not just saying ‘Y,’ but actively moving toward the opposite of what they had said during the election.”

The president had promised to cut taxes, and he did. Within six months of taking office, he pushed a trillion dollars worth of tax cuts through Congress.
But O'Neill thought it should have been the end. After 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, the budget deficit was growing. So at a meeting with the vice president after the mid-term elections in 2002, Suskind writes that O'Neill argued against a second round of tax cuts.

“Cheney, at this moment, shows his hand,” says Suskind. “He says, ‘You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.’ … O'Neill is speechless.”

”It was not just about not wanting the tax cut. It was about how to use the nation's resources to improve the condition of our society,” says O’Neill. “And I thought the weight of working on Social Security and fundamental tax reform was a lot more important than a tax reduction.”

Did he think it was irresponsible? “Well, it's for sure not what I would have done,” says O’Neill.

The former treasury secretary accuses Vice President Dick Cheney of not being an honest broker, but, with a handful of others, part of "a praetorian guard that encircled the president" to block out contrary views. "This is the way Dick likes it," says O’Neill.

---

Meanwhile, the White House was losing patience with O'Neill. He was becoming known for a series of off-the-cuff remarks his critics called gaffes. One of them sent the dollar into a nosedive and required major damage control.

Twice during stock market meltdowns, O'Neill was not available to the president: He was out of the country - one time on a trip to Africa with the Irish rock star Bono.

“Africa made an enormous splash. It was like a road show,” says Suskind. “He comes back and the president says to him at a meeting, ‘You know, you're getting quite a cult following.’ And it clearly was not a joke. And it was not said in jest.”

Suskind writes that the relationship grew tenser and that the president even took a jab at O'Neill in public, at an economic forum in Texas.

The two men were never close. And O'Neill was not amused when Mr. Bush began calling him "The Big O." He thought the president's habit of giving people nicknames was a form of bullying. Everything came to a head for O'Neill at a November 2002 meeting at the White House of the economic team.

“It's a huge meeting. You got Dick Cheney from the, you know, secure location on the video. The President is there,” says Suskind, who was given a nearly verbatim transcript by someone who attended the meeting.

He says everyone expected Mr. Bush to rubber stamp the plan under discussion: a big new tax cut. But, according to Suskind, the president was perhaps having second thoughts about cutting taxes again, and was uncharacteristically engaged.

“He asks, ‘Haven't we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again,’” says Suskind.

“He says, ‘Didn’t we already, why are we doing it again?’ Now, his advisers, they say, ‘Well Mr. President, the upper class, they're the entrepreneurs. That's the standard response.’ And the president kind of goes, ‘OK.’ That's their response. And then, he comes back to it again. ‘Well, shouldn't we be giving money to the middle, won't people be able to say, ‘You did it once, and then you did it twice, and what was it good for?’"

But according to the transcript, White House political advisor Karl Rove jumped in.

“Karl Rove is saying to the president, a kind of mantra. ‘Stick to principle. Stick to principle.’ He says it over and over again,” says Suskind. “Don’t waver.”

In the end, the president didn't. And nine days after that meeting in which O'Neill made it clear he could not publicly support another tax cut, the vice president called and asked him to resign.

With the deficit now climbing towards $400 billion, O'Neill maintains he was in the right.

But look at the economy today.

“Yes, well, in the last quarter the growth rate was 8.2 percent. It was terrific,” says O’Neill. “I think the tax cut made a difference. But without the tax cut, we would have had 6 percent real growth, and the prospect of dealing with transformation of Social Security and fundamentally fixing the tax system. And to me, those were compelling competitors for, against more tax cuts.”

---

While in the book O'Neill comes off as constantly appalled at Mr. Bush, he was surprised when Stahl told him she found his portrait of the president unflattering.

“Hmmm, you really think so,” asks O’Neill, who says he isn’t joking. “Well, I’ll be darned.”

“You're giving me the impression that you're just going to be stunned if they attack you for this book,” says Stahl to O’Neill. “And they're going to say, I predict, you know, it's sour grapes. He's getting back because he was fired.”
“I will be really disappointed if they react that way because I think they'll be hard put to,” says O’Neill.

Is he prepared for it?

“Well, I don't think I need to be because I can't imagine that I'm going to be attacked for telling the truth,” says O’Neill. “Why would I be attacked for telling the truth?”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked about the book on Friday and said "The president is someone that leads and acts decisively on our biggest priorities and that is exactly what he'll continue to do."

 HOW MUCH MORE B.S. AND DECEPTION CAN WE TAKE ????

  Bush claims executive privilege on CIA leak

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Jul 16, 4:11 PM (ET)

By LAURIE KELLMAN (AP) President Bush gestures in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 15,...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has asserted executive privilege to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a House panel subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

A House committee chairman, meanwhile, held off on a contempt citation of Mukasey - who had requested the privilege claim - but only as a courtesy to lawmakers not present.

Among the documents sought by House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman are FBI interviews of Vice President Dick Cheney.

They also include notes about the 2003 State of the Union address, during which President Bush made the case for invading Iraq in part by saying Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore to make a nuclear weapon. That information turned out to be wrong.

(AP) President Bush gestures during a meeting with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, Wednesday,...
Full ImageWaxman rejected Mukasey's suggestion that Cheney's FBI interview on the CIA leak should be protected by the privilege claim - and therefore not turned over to the panel.

"We'll act in the reasonable and appropriate period of time," Waxman, D-Calif., said. But he made clear that he thinks Mukasey has earned a contempt citation and that he'd schedule a vote on the matter soon.

"This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person," Waxman said. "If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?"

The assertion of the privilege is not about hiding anything but rather protecting the separation of powers as well as the integrity of future Justice Department investigations of the White House, Mukasey wrote to Bush in a letter dated Tuesday. Several of the subpoenaed reports, he wrote, summarize conversations between Bush and advisers - are direct presidential communications protected by the privilege.

"I am greatly concerned about the chilling effect that compliance with the committee's subpoena would have on future White House deliberations and White House cooperation with future Justice Department investigations," Mukasey wrote to Bush. "I believe it is legally permissible for you to assert executive privilege with respect to the subpoenaed documents, and I respectfully request that you do so."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Bush invoked the privilege on Tuesday.

Waxman said he would wait to hold a vote on Mukasey's contempt citation until all members of the panel had a chance to read up on the matter.

The Bush administration had plenty of warning. Waxman warned last week that he would cite Mukasey with contempt unless the attorney general complied with the subpoena. The House Judiciary Committee also has subpoenaed some of the same documents from Mukasey, as well as information on the leak from other current and former administration officials.

Congressional Democrats want to shed light on the precise roles, if any, that Bush, Cheney and their aides may have played in the leak.

State Department official Richard Armitage first revealed Plame's identity as a CIA operative to columnist Robert Novak, who used former presidential counselor Karl Rove as a confirming source for a 2003 article. Around that time Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was criticizing Bush's march to war in Iraq.

Cheney's then-chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, also was involved in the leak and was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI. Last July, Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence, sparing him from serving any prison time.

Libby told the FBI in 2003 that it was possible that Cheney ordered him to reveal Plame's identity to reporters.

 WHAT KIND OF "DUMMIES" DOES THIS OFF-THE-WALL MORON THINK HE IS DEALING WITH ? DOES HE THINK WE HAVE LOST ALL ABILITY TO THINK AND PUT 2+2 TOGETHER. WHAT A KLUTZ !!!!!!!

  IN AGREEMENT ON THE PROBLEM, DIFFER ON THE SOLUTION 

 
McCain, Obama duel on economic fix-it plans

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Jul 7, 3:39 PM (ET)

By CHARLES BABINGTON and LIZ SIDOTI (AP) Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, talks about economy during a...
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DENVER (AP) - Barack Obama and John McCain agree on this much: The economy is staggering under the Bush administration, and Americans are hurting. But who's to blame and how best to fix it?

Well, they part ways on that, as they made clear in dueling economic speeches Monday on the issue that has taken center stage in their presidential contest.

Obama said that McCain offers "exactly what George Bush has done for the last eight years."

"The progress we made during the 1990s was quickly reversed by an administration with a single philosophy that is as old as it is misguided: reward not work, not success, but pure wealth," Obama said. Grounded by plane trouble in St. Louis, he phoned his remarks to a gathering in Charlotte, N.C.

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, talks about economy during a...
Full ImageMcCain has been forced into a more defensive crouch because his party has held the White House while jobs, home values, stock prices and consumer confidence have tumbled.

While calling Obama's plans expensive and unwise on Monday, he tried to distance himself from President Bush where he could.

"This Congress and this administration have failed to meet their responsibilities to manage the government," McCain said in Denver. "Government has grown by 60 percent in the last eight years. That is simply inexcusable."

He promised to veto "every single bill with wasteful spending."

McCain has said the economy is not his strong suit, and on Monday he seemed eager to show a deeper understanding of the topic, even as he dismissed experts.

(AP) Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and his wife Cindy McCain board his...
Full Image"Some economists don't think much of my gas tax holiday," he said of his plan to temporarily suspend the federal levy on motor fuels. "But the American people like it, and so do small business owners."

Obama calls that plan a gimmick that will not lower gasoline prices.

The Democratic senator favors tax cuts for middle-class workers and tax increases for top earners. He calls for substantial government subsidies for health care, college, retirement and alternative energies.

McCain pledges to cut taxes for all and raise them on none. Government should shrink, not grow, he told his audience in Denver.

From a political standpoint, Obama's selling job would seem easier. McCain has linked himself in many ways to the struggling administration, including his call to continue Bush's first-term tax cuts, which he initially opposed.

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, leans against the wall before making a...
Full ImageA recent poll by Democracy Corps, which is run by Democratic strategists, suggests that voters are very much up for grabs on economic issues.

Asked to react to descriptions of the candidates' economic plans, 50 percent said their views more closely resembled McCain's goal of cutting taxes for the middle class and for businesses, simplifying the tax code, maintaining free trade and eliminating government waste.

Forty five percent said their views more closely resembled Obama's goal of cutting taxes for 95 percent of American families, eliminating special tax breaks for big corporations, renegotiating trade treaties, creating jobs by investing in research and education and in new energy sources.

At the same time, 49 percent said their views closely tracked Obama's portrayal of McCain's economic plan as a continuation of "the failed policy of George Bush." Four out of ten said their views were closer to McCain's claims that Obama's plan calls for up to a trillion dollars in new taxes as well as "a massive increase in federal spending, including a federal takeover of health care."

Obama renewed his call Monday for a $50 billion "second stimulus package that provides energy rebate checks for working families, a fund to help families avoid foreclosure, and increased assistance for states that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn."

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, waits aboard his campaign plane after...
Full ImageHe said he would eliminate income taxes for retirees making less than $50,000 a year. People still working, he said, would be automatically enrolled "in a workplace pension plan that stays with you from job to job. And for working families who earn under $75,000, we will start that nest egg for you by matching 50 percent of the first $1,000 you save and depositing it directly into your account."

McCain's plans include doubling the child tax deduction from $3,500 to $7,000 "for every dependent." He also cited his plans to cut the estate tax, although Democrats note that it applies to few Americans.

McCain would provide refundable tax credits of $2,500 for individuals, and $5,000 for families, for all those who buy health insurance. Employer contributions toward health insurance would be treated as income, meaning workers would have to pay income taxes on it, but not payroll taxes.

Obama says that plan would seriously undermine the employer-based system that provides health insurance to about 158 million workers. He would require most employers to provide health care for their workers or pay into a national health care plan.

McCain said Obama's plan would hurt small businesses and hamper job creation.

McCain restated his support of free trade, though acknowledging it "is not a positive for everyone." He promised to retrain workers who lose their jobs to overseas plants.

Obama has said he would revisit major trade pacts such as the North America Free Trade Agreement. He said Monday that he believes in free trade, but the cause is not helped "when we pass trade agreements that hand out favors to special interests and do little to help workers who have to watch their factories close down. There is nothing protectionist about demanding that trade spreads the benefits of globalization as broadly as possible."

In Denver, McCain repeated his call to build at least 45 new nuclear plants, which he said "will create over 700,000 good jobs to construct and operate them."

Obama has said he would consider nuclear energy as part of a broader approach to energy production, which would emphasize renewable fuels.

---

Associated Press writer Liz Sidoti reported from St. Louis. AP writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed from Washington.

Iraq's al-Maliki wants short-term US agreement

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Jul 7, 7:04 AM (ET)

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA (AP) Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Prime Minister, arrives at a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the...
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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iraq has proposed a short-term memorandum of understanding with the United States rather than trying to hammer through a formal agreement on the presence of U.S. forces, the country's prime minister said Monday.

The Iraqi government proposed the memorandum after widespread Iraqi opposition to United States demands emerged during talks on a more formal Status of Forces Agreement. Some type of agreement is needed to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at year's end.

The proposed memorandum includes a formula for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, al-Maliki told several Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates during a meeting Monday.

"The goal is to end the presence" of foreign troops, said al-Maliki.

The prime minister provided no details on the formula. But his national security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the government was proposing a timetable that would be conditioned on the ability of Iraqi forces to provide security.

President Bush opposes a timetable for troop withdrawal.

By transitioning to a less formal memorandum and including a withdrawal formula, al-Maliki may have an easier time getting support from Iraqi lawmakers. They had been concerned about the original negotiation's impact on Iraqi sovereignty.

Al-Maliki has promised in the past to submit a formal agreement with the U.S. to parliament for approval. But the government indicated Monday it may not do so with the memorandum.

"It is up to the Cabinet whether to approve it or sign on it, without going back to the parliament," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told the AP.

Less than three weeks ago, al-Maliki said negotiations with the U.S. over the agreement were deadlocked. But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said after returning from high-level meetings in Washington that the U.S. had made several serious concessions and a deal was "almost finalized."

At the same time, however, Zebari said that if the two sides could not agree, Iraq would either have to seek an extension of the U.N. mandate or pursue the type of memorandum of understanding that al-Maliki announced Monday.

The contentious issues are U.S. authority to carry out military operations in Iraq and arrest the country's citizens, plus legal immunity for private contractors and control of Iraqi air space.

Zebari said the U.S. had agreed to drop immunity for private contractors and give up control of Iraqi air space if the Iraqis guaranteed they could protect the country's skies with their limited air force.

But those concessions, which were never confirmed by the U.S., were apparently not enough to cement a formal agreement, leading Iraq to pursue the memorandum announced Monday.

The Iraqi government's decision to push the U.S. for a less formal agreement comes at a time when the government feels increasingly confident about its authority and improved stability in the country.

Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in four years. The change has been driven by the 2007 buildup of American forces, the Sunni tribal revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and al-Maliki's crackdowns against Shiite militias and Sunni extremists, among other factors.

Despite the gains, frequent attacks continue.

On Monday, a roadside bomb near a dress shop in Baqouba killed one woman and injured 14 other people, police said. Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and the surrounding Diyala province remain one of the country's most violent regions.

IS THIS THE SAME COUNTRY THAT CRIED " TEAR DOWN THIS WALL ! "
Court rejects case on fast track for border fence










Jun 23, 3:21 PM (ET)

By EILEEN SULLIVAN (AP) In a Tuesday, April 1, 2008 file photo, the U.S.-Mexico border fence is seen from the outskirts of...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea by environmental groups to rein in the Bush administration's power to waive laws and regulations to speed construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has used authority given to him by Congress in 2005 to ignore environmental and other laws and regulations to move forward with hundreds of miles of fencing in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

The case rejected by the court involved a two-mile section of fence in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area near Naco, Ariz. The section has since been built.

As of June, 13, 331 miles of fencing have been constructed in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

(AP) In a Tuesday, April 1, 2008 file photo, the new U.S.-Mexico border fence, right, stands near the...
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extremely disappointed in the court's decision," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said. "This waiver will only prolong the department from addressing the real issue: their lack of a comprehensive border security plan."

Thompson chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. He and 13 other House democrats - including six other committee chairs - filed a brief in support of the environmentalists' appeal.

Russ Knock, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department, said, "The American people expect this department to enforce the rule of law at the border. He added that the department is happy with the court's decision.

"As fence construction proceeds," Knocke said, "the department will continue to be a good steward of the environment, and consult with appropriate state, local, and tribal officials."

The concept of a border fence took on new life after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which revived the heated immigration debate. Intelligence officials have said the holes along the southwest border could provide places for terrorists to enter the country.

Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform when it had the chance in 2007.

Thompson said, "Without a comprehensive plan, this fence is just another quick fix."

Earlier this year, Chertoff waived more than 30 laws and regulations in an effort to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest border. Administration officials have said that invoking the legal waivers - which Congress authorized in 1996 and 2005 laws - will cut through bureaucratic red tape and sidestep environmental laws that currently stand in the way of fence construction.

Environmentalists have said the fence puts already endangered species such as two types of wild cats - the ocelot and the jaguarundi - in even more danger. The fence would prevent them from swimming across the Rio Grande to mate.

IT GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ex-spokesman faults Bush for withholding facts

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago

Former presidential spokesman Scott McClellan on Friday said President Bush has lost the public's trust by failing to open up about his administration's mistakes and backtracking on a promise to tell all about the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

"This White House promised or assured the American people that at some point when this was behind us they would talk publicly about it. And they have refused to," McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee. "And that's why I think more than any other reason we are here today and the suspicion still remains."

The former White House press secretary suggested that Bush could do much to redeem his credibility on the Plame matter and his reasons for going to war in Iraq if he would embrace "openness and candor and then constantly strive to build trust across the aisle."

"This is a very secretive White House," McClellan said. "There's some things that they would prefer not to be talked about."

The White House was dismissive of the event and McClellan himself. Presidential spokesman Tony Fratto disputed McClellan's assertion that that Plame matter concluded with the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, citing an ongoing lawsuit by Plame and her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, against current and former administration officials.

"The White House has the consistent position that we would refrain from comment while there was ongoing litigation," Fratto said. "Scott must have forgotten the policy he repeatedly stated from the podium."

McClellan cites other examples of Bush's lack of candor, including what he called the "packaging" of intelligence to justify the Iraq war and the president's handling of allegations that many years ago he used cocaine.

In his recently released book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan recounts overhearing Bush on the telephone telling a supporter that "I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not."

McClellan called that kind of response to sensitive questions by Bush and other politicians "essentially evasion."

"That (approach) later transferred over to issues of policy," McClellan said. "It tells something about his character."

Bush's spokesman from 2003-2006, McClellan said that former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card told him that the president and vice president wanted him to publicly say that Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff at the time, was not involved in the leak.

"I was reluctant to do it," McClellan said. "I got on the phone with Scooter Libby and asked him point-blank, 'Were you involved in this in any way?' And he assured me in unequivocal terms that he was not."

In fact, both Libby and former presidential adviser Karl Rove had discussed Plame's identity with reporters. Libby resigned from office the day he was indicted on charges of covering up the leak. Rove remained, eventually leaving office in August 2007. Rove has never been charged in the case.

Plame maintains the White House quietly outed her to reporters as retribution for criticism from her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, of Bush's reasons for going to war in Iraq.

Last July, Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence, sparing him from serving any prison time. "It was special treatment," McClellan said of the commutation.

McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee that he doesn't know if a crime was committed and does not believe that Bush knew about or directed the leak. When asked about Cheney, he replied: "I do not know. There's a lot of suspicion there."

Bush backtracked on his promise of accountability in the Plame matter, McClellan said.

The White House had said in 2003 that anyone who leaked classified information in the case would be dismissed. Bush reiterated that promise in June 2004.

By July 2005, Bush qualified his position, saying he would fire anyone for leaking classified information if that person had "committed a crime." He then commuted Libby's sentence.

McClellan said the White House helped the Justice Department investigate the leak, but he knew of no internal White House probe to ferret out and fire the leaker.

"I certainly think that the president should have stuck by his word on the matter, and I certainly view the commutation as it was special treatment," McClellan said. "It does undermine our system of justice."

Republicans cast his testimony as old news. Ranking Republican Lamar Smith of Texas questioned the impartiality of McClellan's publisher and said that whatever McClellan had been instructed to say about the Plame affair was typical work of the White House press office.

"It should be of no surprise that there was spin in the White House Press Office," said Smith. "What White House has not had a communications operation that advocates for its policies? Any recent administration that did not try to promote its priorities should be cited for dereliction of duty."

WHEN TRUTH ? COMES FROM THE LEAST SUSPECTED SOURCE

Market full of oil, price trend "fake": Ahmadinejad

By Hashem KalentariTue Jun 17, 2:59 AM ET

The market is full of oil and the rising price trend is "fake and imposed," Iran's president said on Tuesday, partly blaming a weak U.S. dollar which he said was being pushed lower on purpose.

"At a time when the growth of consumption is lower than the growth of production and the market is full of oil, prices are rising and this trend is completely fake and imposed," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech.

"It is very clear that visible and invisible hands are controlling prices in a fake way with political and economic aims," he said when opening a meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has repeatedly said the market is well-supplied with crude and blames rising prices on speculation, a weak U.S. currency and geopolitical factors.

"As you know the decrease in the dollar's value and the increase in energy prices are two sides of the same coin which are being introduced as factors behind the recent instability," Ahmadinejad said.

Oil steadied on Tuesday after touching a record near $140 the previous day, with traders caught between a weaker dollar and expectations that top exporter Saudi Arabia will ramp up output to its highest rate in decades.

Iran has often said it sees no need for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to boost output.

"EVER-INCREASING DECREASE"

Ahmadinejad reiterated his view that oil should be sold in a basket of currencies rather than U.S. dollars, an idea which has failed to win over other OPEC members, except Venezuela.

"The ever-increasing decrease in the dollar's value is one of the world's major problems," he said.

"A combination of the world's valid currencies should become a basis for oil transactions or (OPEC) member countries should determine a new currency for oil transactions," he said.

Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program, has for more than two years been increasing its sales of oil for currencies other than the dollar, saying the weak U.S. currency is eroding its purchasing power.

Ahmadinejad, who in the past has called the dollar a "worthless piece of paper," suggested "some big powers" were driving it lower on purpose:

"The planners for some big powers are acting to decrease the dollar's value," he said. "For years they imposed inflation and their own economic problems to other nations by injecting the dollar without any support to the global economy."

Foes since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, Tehran and Washington are also at odds over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities as well as over policy in Iraq. Iran says its atomic work is peaceful.

(Additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian in Tehran; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by William Hardy)

  THE WORLD GETS WISE TO INCOMPETENCE AND TRUST
                   

Bush, Musharraf, Ahmadinejad least trusted leaders

Mon Jun 16, 4:07 PM ET

U.S. President George W. Bush is ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and Iran as one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey released on Monday showed.

The survey, carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org in 20 countries around the world, found that no national leaders inspired wide confidence outside their own countries. But Bush, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranked at the bottom, the polling showed.

Only 23 percent of people outside the United States had "a lot or some" confidence in Bush, compared to 22 percent for Ahmadinejad and 18 percent for Musharraf.

The leaders of other countries fared little better. Only 26 percent had confidence in French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 28 percent in Chinese President Hu Jintao, 30 percent in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and 32 percent in Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has since become prime minister.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had the highest confidence levels, at 35 percent.

"While the worldwide mistrust of George Bush has created a global leadership vacuum, no alternative leader has stepped into the breach," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. "Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin are popular among some nations, but more mistrust them than trust them."

WorldPublicOpinion.org is a project involving research centers around the world and is managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

The group polled 19,751 people in nations that represent 60 percent of the world's population. The survey was conducted between January 10 and May 6, with margins of error of plus or minus 2 to 4 percent

     OH, DON`T YOU JUST KNOW IT !!!!!!!!!

EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE - RIP OFF THE TAXPAYER ?

More unfunny comedy from the US Government

ABC NEWS -

The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion.

The Saudi businessman was also named in a 2002 French parliamentary report as having links to informal money transfer networks called hawala, known to be used by traders and terrorists, including Al Qaeda.

Interestingly, Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy.

A spokesman for the FBI said Pharaon was not wanted in connection with the French report, but confirmed he was still sought by the US Justice Department.

This is sad. We are giving government contracts to a company owned by a wanted US fugitive. Is the entire Bush Administration sleeping again? Where is the outrage from the Law and Order people? I am sure that there is a law that says that you cannot deal with companies that are headed by US fugitives. Oh wait, maybe that is more executive privilege because he knows the President. I forget, that if you know the President, you can claim executive privilege anytime you want.

EVERY DAY , MORE MANIPULATION IS REVEALED !!!!!! Bush misused Iraq intelligence: Senate report

By Randall Mikkelsen1 hour, 7 minutes ago

President George W. Bush and his top policymakers exaggerated Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq's arms programs as they made their case for war, a Senate committee reported on Thursday.

The Senate intelligence committee said in a study that major Bush administration statements that Iraq had a partnership with al Qaeda and provided it with weapons training were unsupported by intelligence, and sometimes contradicted it.

It also said statements on Iraq's weapons before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion were substantiated in most cases by available U.S. intelligence, but that they failed to reflect internal debate over those findings.

The long-delayed Senate study supported previous reports and findings that the administration's main case for war -- that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction -- was inaccurate and deeply flawed.

"The president and his advisors undertook a relentless public campaign in the aftermath of the (September 11, 2001) attacks to use the war against al Qaeda as a justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein," intelligence committee Chairman John Rockefeller said in written commentary on the report.

"Representing to the American people that the two had an operational partnership and posed a single, indistinguishable threat was fundamentally misleading and led the nation to war on false pretenses."

The report also cited at least one statement -- by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that the Iraqi government operated underground weapons of mass destruction facilities -- that was not backed up by intelligence information.

REPUBLICAN DISSENT

The committee voted 10-5 to approve the report, with two Republican lawmakers supporting it. Sen. Christopher Bond and three other Republican panel members denounced the study in an attached dissent as a "partisan exercise."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino cited Republican objections to the report, but said the issue of inaccurate intelligence had been previously aired.

"We had the intelligence that we had, fully vetted, but it was wrong. We certainly regret that and we've taken measures to fix it," Perino said.

U.S. public opinion, supportive of the war at the start, has soured on the war in the last few years, contributing to a dive in Bush's popularity.

The conflict is likely to be a key issue in the November presidential election between Republican John McCain, who supports the war, and Democrat Barack Obama, who opposed the war from the start and says he would aim to pull U.S. troops out within 16 months of taking office in January 2009.

Rockefeller has previously announced his support for Obama.

A second report by the committee faulted the administration's handling of December 2001 Rome meetings between defense officials and Iranian informants, which dealt with the Iranian issue and not Iraq.

It said Department of Defense officials collected potentially useful intelligence information at the meeting that they failed to share with other intelligence agencies.

Rockefeller said the committee's report on the defense department "paints a disturbing picture of Pentagon policy officials" who gathered intelligence on their own and kept others in the dark.

He said the department "demonstrated a fundamental disdain for the intelligence community's role in vetting sensitive sources."

(Additional reporting by Donna Smith and Andy Sullivan)

Political Humor

HOW COME EVERYBODY`S GETTING SMART BUT US ?

Australian PM attacks decision to join war in Iraq

By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 2, 11:50 AM ET

CANBERRA, Australia - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused his predecessor of abusing intelligence information to justify entering the Iraq war, saying Monday that the Australian people were misled.

In remarks to parliament on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, which began Sunday, Rudd said the nation must learn from the errors of former Prime Minister John Howard, who sent 2,000 troops to support U.S. and British forces in the 2003 invasion.

"We must learn from Australia's experience in the lead-up to going to war with Iraq and not repeat the same mistakes in the future," Rudd said.

He criticized Howard's government for going to war without accurate information or a full assessment of the consequences.

"Of most concern to this government was the manner in which the decision to go to war was made: the abuse of intelligence information, a failure to disclose to the Australian people the qualified nature of that intelligence," Rudd said.

Before the invasion, Howard argued that Saddam Hussein had to be toppled to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. The weapons were not discovered and no definite links were established between Saddam and al-Qaida or other terror networks.

Rudd said Howard wrongly believed that Australia's close alliance with the United States left him with no choice but to join the campaign in Iraq.

"This government does not believe that our alliance with the United States mandates automatic compliance with every element of the United States' foreign policy," Rudd told Parliament.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said she had not reviewed Rudd's comments, but said the U.S. invasion was based on intelligence that the entire world had.

"We acted based on a threat that was presented to us," Perino said at the White House. "Since then, we have learned that there was not WMD (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq."

She said the U.S. has since taken steps to strengthen the accuracy of intelligence.

Howard could not be immediately reached for comment after Rudd's address. However, in an interview published Monday in The Sydney Morning Herald, Howard said he was "baffled" by the decision to withdraw troops, adding he would have shifted them into a training roles.

The former prime minister has long denied deliberately misleading the Australian public over the threat posed by Iraq.

A government-commissioned inquiry in 2004 into Australian spy agencies' pre-Iraq war intelligence cleared Howard's government of overstating the case for joining the U.S.-led invasion.

But in his 185-page report, retired diplomat and spy master Philip Flood lamented "the thinness of the intelligence on which analysts were expected to make difficult calls" about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Details about the intelligence and how it was provided were not available.

Rudd campaigned for November's general election vowing to withdraw combat troops by mid-2008.

On Sunday troops lowered the Australian flag that had flown over Camp Terendak in the southern Iraqi city of Talil, marking an end to the service of the 550 soldiers there.

Twenty-seven Australian troops have been wounded in Iraq. None were killed in com

AND WE NOW ARE LEARNING MORE !!!!!!

Source: PERRspectives

McClellan: WH wanted him to stay silent

Mike Allen2 hours, 10 minutes ago

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, speaking out for the first time since publication of his searing memoir, told NBC's "Today" show on Thursday that he erroneously believed what President Bush was saying about the war but now is answering to a higher loyalty: “a loyalty to the truth.”

“The White House would prefer that I not talk openly about my experiences,” he said in a lengthy, at times combative interview with anchor Meredith Vieira. “These words didn’t come to me easy. … I’m disappointed that things didn’t turn out the way we all hoped they would.”

He added: “I have a higher loyalty than my loyalty necessary to my past work. That's a loyalty to the truth."

A White House official replied: "No one at the White House ever told McClellan not to talk about his experiences."

McClellan said he "believed" what Bush was saying about the war — and the president did, too. “I trusted the president's foreign policy team and I believed the president when he talked about the grave and gathering danger from Iraq,” McClellan said. “I believe he believed it was a grave danger, too. He convinced himself of that. When the administration was talking about Iraq, it was talked about as a problem that needed to be addressed. After Sept. 11, it was talked about as a grave danger. You get caught up in the White House bubble, you get caught up in the affection for the man you're serving and defer.”

Asked if he’ll ever talk to the president again, McClellan said: “I don’t know. I certainly don’t expect it any time soon. I know this is a tough book for some people to accept.”

McClellan’s book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” has provoked a furious counterattack from his former colleagues, who call it “sad,” “puzzling” and “pathetic.”

McClellan accused Vice President Cheney of failing his boss. “In a number of ways, he has not served the president well,” McClellan said. “Part of it is the secrecy and compartmentalization … in the White House.”

And McClellan said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, when she was White House national security adviser, gave in too often to Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

“I felt that too often she was too accommodating … of the other strong personalities on the foreign policy team … and too deferential to those individuals,” he said.

Former presidential counselor Dan Bartlett, following McClellan on “Today,” said McClellan had used “very inflammatory words” like “propaganda,” with “not a lot of evidence.”

“He never communicated to us that he had these personal misgivings,” Bartlett said. “There’s not a lot of specific evidence about the most explosive charges.”

Bartlett said the book is “fundamentally wrong” and says he would not personally have participated in a propaganda effort.

McClellan said that even at the time, he thought that the country was “rushing into” the Iraq war. But McClellan said he was he was caught up in “the post-9/11 mentality” and so accepted what the president was saying.

"I was in doubt, like a lot of Americans," McClellan said. "I felt like we were rushing into this. But because of my position and my affection for the president and my belief and trust in he and his advisers, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Looking back on it, reflecting on it now, I don't think I should have. ... The expectations later came back to haunt us, because they were out of whack.”

McClellan said his mission had been to write “openly and honestly about what I lived and learned.”

“The larger message has been lost in the mix of the original reaction to it,” he said. “I believe it’s important to look back and reflect on my experience and talk to people about what I learned and what we can learn from it.”

McClellan says the book’s “larger message” is the problems with the “permanent campaign culture.” He said that’s the opposite of what he expected when he came to Washington after serving then-Gov. Bush in Texas.

“I had all this great hope that we were going to come to Washington and change it,” McClellan recalled. “He talked about being a uniter, not a divider. … And then we got to Washington and I think we got caught up in playing the Washington game the