February 2006

Troop Support For The War Plummets

Posted 2/28/06 at 4:52pm by jamie

Don't you ever get tired of hearing Bush say "we question the mission we
undermine the morale of our troops"? (If you don't know what I mean then you can
read
Bush's words here via
Think Progress).

Well there is a new Zogby poll out that says 72% of the troops want us out of
Iraq this year. Further more the poll also says:

  • Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five
    troops want to heed Bush call to stay “as long as they
    are needed”
  • While 58% say mission is clear, 42% say U.S. role is
    hazy
  • Plurality believes Iraqi insurgents are mostly
    homegrown
  • Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam’s
    role in 9/11, most don’t blame Iraqi public for
    insurgent attacks
  • Majority of troops oppose use of harsh prisoner
    interrogation
  • Plurality of troops pleased with their armor and
    equipment

Seems like more and more people are wanting us out of Iraq. Just Bush and his
followers feel we should stay there.

 

More About Dubai

Posted 2/28/06 at 4:31pm by jamie

What is truly amazing on this entire Dubai ports deal is the fact that some
of the people defending the deal are the same people who have painted the entire
Arab/Muslim world as being terrorists. If we are talking about torture, wire
tapping or racial profiling then it is fine to question all of them. When we are
talking about our vital ports then we should trust them.

For those who don't believe Dubai is port of the more hardline Arab world,
Think
Progress has a little more proof to show that they are:

The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political
storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab
boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Read the entire post
here.

True there is also the fact that Dubai is trying to quiet or media from
talking about this issue. For those unfamiliar with what I am talking about,
well it seems Dubai is trying to get CNN's Lou Dobbs to totally drop the
subject. You can view a video clip of that over at
Crooks and Liars.

As for the people trying to defend the deal by saying "they won't be in
charge of security", I have something else for you to consider. No they won't be
in charge of security or unload/loading ships. What they will be privy too is
weaknesses in our ports (and there are a lot). It just takes one "company man"
to report back to their superiors about a security risk. They could do it just
trying to highlight a problem that needs fixed. Now if the person who hears the
complaint has ties to al Qaeda then we have a problem.

Republican Adoption Ban

Posted 2/28/06 at 5:02am by jamie

This is a great play by a Democrat here in the Buckeye State. Via

19-WXIX:

Ban Republican adoptions, not gay
 adoptions, lawmaker says

COLUMBUS, Ohio State Senator Robert Hagan says he has a better idea than barring gay couples from adopting children.

The Democrat from Youngstown says he'd ban Republican adoptions.

In a tongue-in-cheek memo to his colleagues, Hagan spoofs a bill from House conservatives that would keep gays from becoming adoptive or foster parents in Ohio.

He counters that adopted children raised in Republican households have told him it's just plain boring most of the time. Hagan also writes that the kids are more at risk for developing -- as he puts it -- "an alarming lack  of tolerance."

An aide says there's no comment from Republican Representative Ron Hood of Ashville, the sponsor of the gay-adoption ban.

I must say I love this idea. The pure logic (or lack their off) these
Republicans use for their gay adoption and marriage bans are intolerable. The
logic Sen. Hagan is using is far more convincing than that of the Republicans.

1300 Killed In One Week

Posted 2/28/06 at 3:40am by jamie

There are still a few on the right (mainly in the administration) who would
want to make you think that Iraq has calmed down and is going well again. Well
this sure doesn't have that same song and dance:

Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's
bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the
past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives,
according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times
higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news
media.

Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday --
blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated
by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies were sprawled
with their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue
after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the
Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Article continues

here.

I don't know how Bush defines civil war but with that many dead within a
single country it certainly appears to fall closer into the standard definition.

34% Approval Rating

Posted 2/28/06 at 12:27am by jamie

According to a new CBS poll, Bush has hit an all time low. Cheney is at 18% approval rating and Bush's handling of Iraq is at a mere 30%.

Some other interesting numbers:

  • 70% oppose the port deal.
  •  62% think things are going badly in Iraq
  • 43% approve Bush's handling of terrorism. Down 9 points since last month
  • 53% have an unfavorable view of Bush as compared to 29% who view him as favorable
  • 43% think the President has the authority to authorize wiretaps to fight terrorism without a warrant
  • 64% are very or somewhat concerned about losing civil liberties because of Bush's anti-terrorism measures
  • 28% approval for Congress.

The CBS page also has a link to another interesting poll on Katrina. The numbers in that poll don't paint a pretty picture for the administration either.

Looking at these numbers, Congress could easily get their approval up. How is that? Start holding this administration accountable and do more of their oversight. Their rubberstamp attitude is killing them.

Magazine Claim: Cheney To Resign After Elections

Posted 2/27/06 at 11:02pm by jamie

Insight
Magazine has this new piece of information up.

Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to retire within a year. Senior
GOP sources envision the retirement of Mr. Cheney in 2007, months after the
congressional elections. The sources said Mr. Cheney would be persuaded to
step down as he becomes an increasing political liability to President Bush.
The sources reported a growing rift between the president and vice president
as well as their staffs.

View complete article
here.


Raw Story has more on this. If it is true then we would most likely see
vice-President Condi next year.

A Clock Work Orange Comes To Life

Posted 2/27/06 at 9:32pm by jamie

WASHINGTON - Military interrogators posing as FBI agents at the U.S.
detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wrapped terrorism suspects in an
Israeli flag and forced them to watch homosexual pornography under strobe
lights during interrogation sessions that lasted as long as 18 hours,
according to one of a batch of FBI memos released Thursday.

FBI agents working at the prison complained about the military
interrogators' techniques in e-mails to their superiors from 2002 to 2004,
54 e-mails released by the American Civil Liberties Union showed. The agents
tried to get the military interrogators to follow a less coercive approach
and warned that the harsh methods could hinder future criminal prosecutions
of terrorists because information gained illegally is inadmissible in court.

Article continues

here.

With news like that it is no wonder why they hate us.

More Bad Economy News Coming Out

Posted 2/27/06 at 8:51pm by jamie

Seems like that great housing bubble is even closer to its inevitable pop:

Sales of new U.S. homes fell 5 percent in January to their slowest pace
in a year while the number of homes on the market hit a record high,
according to a government report on Monday that signaled further cooling in
the housing market.

Sales of new single-family homes declined to a 1.233 million unit annual
pace from an upwardly revised 1.298 million unit rate in December, the
Commerce Department said.

January's sales pace was slower than expected. Economists had forecast
new homes sales would ease to a 1.260 million unit rate from the originally
reported 1.269 million unit pace in December.

Article continues
here.

What makes this really bad news is the fact that construction season is
closing in on us. There will be less new homes for the workers to build if there
are less people out trying to purchase them.

Halliburton Gets $250 Million Disputed Costs Paid

Posted 2/27/06 at 3:29pm by jamie

I guess the best client a business could have is the United States
government:

The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all
of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and
repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had
identified more than $250 million in charges as potentially excessive or
unjustified.

The Army said in response to questions on Friday that questionable
business practices by the subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, had in some
cases driven up the company's costs. But in the haste and peril of war, it
had largely done as well as could be expected, the Army said, and aside from
a few penalties, the government was compelled to reimburse the company for
its costs.

Under the type of contract awarded to the company, "the contractor is not
required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement," said Rhonda
James, a spokeswoman for the southwestern division of the United States Army
Corps of Engineers, based in Dallas, where the contract is administered.

The contract has been the subject of intense scrutiny after disclosures
in 2003 that it had been awarded without competitive bidding. That produced
criticism from Congressional Democrats and others that the company had
benefited from its connection with Dick Cheney, who was Halliburton's chief
executive before becoming vice president.

Article continues

here.

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