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Bush/Cheney's World: War on Terror=War of Torture

10.30.04 (12:35 pm) [edit]

In an usually harsh critique of the United States, Amnesty International has issued a comprehensive report http://www.reuters.com/newsAr... that documents how the U.S. has, at best, lowered safeguards and responded inadequately to abuse and, at worse, has authorized and encouraged torture.

IMMATURE CHILD noguru=CheckItQut PLAYING FASCIST GAMES!!! caoilfhionn TRYING TO FOOL YOU TOO!!!

10.30.04 (12:27 pm) [edit]

THE NEO-FASCIST PIG SLIME-BALLS ARE OUT IN FORCE THIS WEEKEND TO TRY TO PERSUADE THE BRAIN-DEAD TO VOTE FOR THEIR SAUDI ROYAL COCK-SUCKER BUSH!

noguru=caoilfhionn=CheckI tQut and other tBLOG IDs ...

DON'T BE FOOLED!!!

WALTER CRONKITE: KARL ROVE BEHIND BIN LADEN TAPE ...

10.30.04 (12:05 pm) [edit]

[b]MATT DRUDGE: Former CBSNEWS anchorman Walter Cronkite believes Bush adviser Karl Rove is possibly behind the new Bin Laden tape.

Cronkite made the startling comments late Friday during an interview on CNN.

Cronkite said he is "inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing."

Interviewer Larry King did not ask Cronkite to elaborate on the provocative election eve accusation.

Developing...[/b]

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that Karl Rove set the date for releasing the bin Laden tape ...

Bush's Hypocrisy, Lies & Broken Promises - More Flip Flops Than Bushisms!!!

10.30.04 (11:56 am) [edit]

I often criticize statements by President Bush, so today let me praise some of his real wisdom:

• [i]Oct. 11, 2000: "If we're an arrogant nation, [foreigners] will resent us. If we're a humble nation but strong, they'll welcome us. ... We've got to be humble[/i]."

It's a good thing Mr. Bush tried to be humble, or the U.S. would have an approval rating even lower than 5 percent in Jordan, and Osama bin Laden's approval rating in Pakistan would be higher than 65 percent.

• [i]Feb. 27, 2001: "I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. ... We should approach our nation's budget as any prudent family would[/i]."

But Mr. Bush, with the help of a weak economy, has transformed the Clinton budget surpluses into huge deficits. Since Mr. Bush took office, the federal debt has increased by $2.1 trillion, or 40 percent.

• [i]Sept. 25, 2000: "It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas[/i]."

Hmm. And many of our exports go abroad. Meanwhile, despite the lackluster economy, oil imports are 1.3 million barrels per day higher than in Mr. Clinton's last year in office.

• [i]June 11, 2001: "My administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change[/i]."

Great! Because America's carbon dioxide emissions, associated with global warming, have risen 1.7 percent since then.

• [i]June 26, 2003: "Notorious human rights abusers, including, among others, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe, have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors[/i]."

It takes a big man to admit mistakes, like his administration's practice of hiding certain Arab prisoners from Red Cross and other inspectors.

• [i]Nov. 5, 2003: "In the debate about the rights of the unborn, we are asked to broaden the circle of our moral concern. ... We're asked by our convictions and tradition and compassion to build a culture of life, and make this a more just and welcoming society[/i]."

Abortions declined in the U.S. in the Clinton years; the abortion rate dropped by 22 percent in the 1990's. But while data are incomplete, abortions appear to have increased sharply since Mr. Bush took office. Glen H. Stassen, a Christian pro-life theologian, estimates that 52,000 more abortions occurred in 2002 than would have been expected based on the previous trend. Professor Stassen attributes the rise in abortions in part to the troubled economy and concerns among pregnant women that they cannot afford to have babies.

• [i]May 25, 2004: "One of the challenges we face is to make sure the health care system responds to the needs of the citizens[/i]."

But five million more Americans don't have health insurance, compared with when Mr. Bush took office.

• [i]Sept. 9, 2003: "We must focus early to make sure every child can read and write and add and subtract[/i]."

But Mr. Bush's budget guidelines translate into inflation-adjusted reductions in 2006 alone of more than $900 million for Head Start and childhood education.

• [i]May 24, 2003: "We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea[/i]."

On Mr. Bush's watch, North Korea is generally believed to have gone from two nuclear weapons to about eight.

• [i]2001: "Not on my watch[/i]."

Scrawled note by Mr. Bush on a report to him about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that had occurred under President Clinton.

That's reassuring to the 100,000 or more people in Darfur who have died in a spasm of murder and rape that Mr. Bush acknowledges as genocide.

• [i]Sept. 30, 2004: "The biggest threat facing this country is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network[/i]."

But the single most important step to reducing the risk that a nuclear weapon will destroy New York is to secure loose nukes abroad, and Mr. Bush has been lackadaisical about that. Only 135 out of 600 metric tons of Russian nuclear materials have been given comprehensive upgrades, and Mr. Bush initially proposed cutting funds for that program.

• [i]Sept. 2, 1999: "Effective reform requires accountability. ... It is a sad story. High hopes, low achievement. Grand plans, unmet goals. My administration will do things differently[/i]."

Oh?

The Road to Abu Ghraib Starts at the Top of the Torturer-n-Chief Bush's Mis-Adminstration

10.30.04 (11:52 am) [edit]

Phillip Carter: "A generation from now historians may look back to April 28, 2004, as the day the US lost the war in Iraq. CBS News broadcast the first ugly photographs of abuses by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. Two days later, The New Yorker published a report on Abu Ghraib by Seymour Hersh documenting the full extent of the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the initial efforts to investigate them. The damage done might have been minimized had Bush pursued a strategy of publicly & sincerely holding accountable those responsible for it. Instead, he has done something close to the opposite... Go past the executive summaries and press releases and a careful reading of the reports reveals a devastating scandal of Abu Ghraib wasn't a failure of implementation, as Rice and others have admitted. It was a direct-and predictable-consequence of a policy, hatched at the highest levels of the administration, by senior WH officials and lawyers, in the weeks and months after 9/11."

Caroline Kennedy Slams Bush: How Dare You Invoke the Name of JFK?!

10.30.04 (11:50 am) [edit]

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, daughter of the late Democratic president John Kennedy, urged Republican President George W. Bush not to invoke her father's name in his campaigning against Democratic rival John Kerry. It's hard for me to listen to President Bush invoking my fathers memory to attack John Kerry. Senator Kerry has demonstrated his courage and commitment to a stronger America throughout his entire career," she said. "President Kennedy inspired and united the country and so will John Kerry. "President Bush is doing just the opposite. All of us who revere the strength and resolve of President Kennedy will be supporting John Kerry on Election Day," Kennedy Schlossberg said in a statement."

John Kerry - 'If your horse is heading over the waterfall, it's time to change horses'

10.30.04 (11:49 am) [edit]

USA Today: "Kerry said he has addressed voter concerns about changing leaders at a perilous moment. He noted that 35 newspapers that endorsed Bush in 2000 switched to supporting him this year. If your horse is heading "over the waterfall," he said, it's "time to change horses." Which is where he asserts Bush is heading. (Bush) has made "bad decisions," Kerry said, and "does not know how to do the diplomacy necessary to make us safer. I know how to do the diplomacy. I can lead well enough to find out what all the options are. George Bush has never explored all the options." What message would he give Americans as they go to the polls? That he can make America safer, fight a more effective war on terror, put the country back to work, be fiscally responsible, and make health care more affordable. In short: 'I can do a better job of meeting the needs of middle-class Americans and lift the country up and unite it. Period. End of story.'"

Ah, Why Do Bush's Relatives Encourage You To Vote For Kerry???

10.30.04 (11:31 am) [edit]

[b]6 second cousins protest policies[/b]

Six blood relatives of President Bush who support John F. Kerry's bid for the presidency have launched a website to publicize their sharp disagreements with Bush's policies.

The site, www.bushrelativesforkerry.com, http://www.bushrelativesforke... consists of personal statements from a group of decidedly liberal second cousins of the president, none of whom knows him personally. All are grandchildren of Mary Bush House, the sister of Prescott Bush, a former US senator from Connecticut and the father and grandfather of the two Bush presidents.

The introduction to the site opens with the slogan, "Because blood is thicker than oil!" and states: "As the election approaches, we feel it is our responsibility to speak out about why we are voting for John Kerry, and to do our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000. We invite you to read our stories, and please, don't vote for our cousin!"

THE FULL STORY: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/...

Economy is Hurting: Bush Isn't Worried Since He & His Corporate Constituency Are Doing Great!

10.30.04 (11:24 am) [edit]

[b]ECONOMY – UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS JUMP UP:[/b] According to Labor Department data, "The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week by 20,000, the largest jump in a month. The bigger-than-expected increase pushed total new claims to 350,000 last week and provided fresh evidence http://www.forbes.com/busines... that the labor market is still under pressure even though the economic recovery is about to celebrate its third anniversary." There are "821,000 fewer people on payrolls than when Bush took office in January 2001."

Oh, Halliburton: They're Making A Federal Case About It-- Bad News For Bush/Cheney!

10.30.04 (11:21 am) [edit]

Yesterday, it was reported that the FBI has launched http://www.latimes.com/news/n...,0,7146099.story?coll=la-home-headli nes an investigation into whether the Pentagon improperly awarded a multi-billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton. Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer, "was threatened with demotion http://www.latimes.com/news/n...,0,7146099.story?coll=la-home-headli nes after raising objections" to extending the Halliburton contract. The contract was extended despite her objection, but "the final approval did not carry Greenhouse's signature, as normally required by contracting regulations. Instead, it was signed by her assistant, Lt. Col. Norbert Doyle."

[b]WHAT WAS CHENEY'S ROLE?: [/b]It has been previously reported that – according to an Army Corps of Engineers official – the decision to award the contract "had been 'coordinated' with the office of Vice President Cheney, http://www.washingtonpost.com... Halliburton's former chief executive." Lewis "Scooter" Libby – http://www.americanprogress.o... Cheney's chief of staff – "was briefed in October 2002 about the proposal to issue the November 11 task order [contract] to Halliburton." Pentagon officials also acknowledge http://www.latimes.com/news/n...,1,2397635.story that Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith discussed a March 2003 Halliburton contract in advance with Cheney's office. (Here was their best explanation: Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita "described the use of the word "coordinate" in the e-mail as a "catch-all phrase" that signified "it's time for this contract to be executed.") Vice President Cheney refuses to substantively respond to questions about his involvement in Halliburton contracts.

A Timeline of Failure ...

10.30.04 (11:12 am) [edit]

[b]January 2001 [/b]

20 On the day of George W. Bush’s inauguration, Chief of Staff Andrew Card issues a sixty-day moratorium halting all new health, safety, and environmental regulations issued in the final days of the Clinton administration.

23 On the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Bush reinstates the “global gag rule” barring U.S. funding for abortion counseling abroad.

[b]Follow the Timeline of Failure on:[/b] http://inthesetimes.com/site/...

Breaking News: Eight Marines Die Saturday in Iraq as Falluja Assault Looms

10.30.04 (11:04 am) [edit]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eight U.S. marines were killed Saturday in the bloodiest attack on American forces in Iraq in almost seven months as troops prepared for a major assault to capture the rebel towns of Ramadi and Falluja.

Violence flared across Iraq ahead of the offensive, expected any day, and U.S. planes and artillery pounded Falluja in the country's central Sunni Muslim heartland.

At least seven people were killed by a suspected car bomb outside the Al Arabiya television office in Baghdad, the station reported, and seven Iraqis died in clashes with U.S. troops in an area dubbed the triangle of death southwest of the capital.

The U.S. military said the marines were killed in the restive western province of Anbar, which includes Falluja and Ramadi, but gave no details. Nine marines were also wounded.

Witnesses said earlier they had seen three U.S. vehicles burning on a road east of Falluja, in the same province. It was not clear if that was where the marine casualties occurred.

The deaths bring to 858 the number of U.S. troops killed in combat. The total number of U.S. troop deaths, including accidents and other causes, is now almost 1,120.

U.S. marine commanders said Friday they were preparing for a major assault on Falluja and Ramadi.

The aim is to crush guerrillas and root out Arab militants led by declared al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to enable Iraq's interim government to hold national elections in January.

At least a dozen air strikes hit southeastern Falluja, witnesses said. U.S. marine spokesman Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert said marines on the edge of Falluja had come under mortar fire from insurgents and called in artillery support.

Gilbert called the action the "most consistent and drawn out artillery barrage in recent days," but did not mark the beginning of the long-anticipated U.S. offensive.

[b]VOLATILE MIX[/b]

Marine commanders say they face a volatile mix of up to 2,000 Iraqi and foreign fighters entrenched in the city. Some are thought to be former army officers loyal to Saddam Hussein, others Islamist militants led by Zarqawi, a Jordanian.

Zarqawi, America's top enemy in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest violence in the country and the beheadings of foreign hostages.

In Baghdad, Al Arabiya said seven people were killed and 16 wounded in the blast outside its office, in an up-market neighborhood. Officials could not immediately confirm the toll.

Television footage showed doctors stitching the bloodied face of one woman as she writhed in agony. Other victims, their clothes bloody and torn, were carried into the crowded hospital amid chaotic scenes.

Najwa Qassem, senior Arabiya correspondent in Baghdad, said the blast had started a fire and damaged the building. She said a suspected car bomb had exploded in the parking lot but could not be sure the television station was the intended target.

The satellite channel is majority Saudi-owned. It has often been attacked on Web sites used by Islamist militant groups for its perceived pro-Western stance in the Arab world.

A few weeks ago, an Internet statement purporting to be from Zarqawi's group had threatened attacks against Al Arabiya.

Seven Iraqis were killed and 14 wounded in clashes between gunmen and U.S. troops southwest of Baghdad, when gunmen attacked U.S. soldiers raiding buildings.

Reuters Television footage showed two civilian cars and a truck riddled with bullets, their seats stained with blood.

Occupants said they had been caught in a crossfire. It was unclear how many of the casualties were gunmen and how many were civilians. Neither the U.S. nor the British military, which deployed in the area this week, had information on the incident.

The interim government and its U.S. backers are battling to restore peace to the country so Iraqis can elect a national assembly in January to draft a new constitution.

But some insurgent groups fighting to drive out U.S.-led forces are opposed to the polls. The election commission has received death threats signed by militants using the old name of Zarqawi's group.

Typewritten letters in the name of the Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Holy War) Assassinations Squad warned members of the commission would be killed, along with their families, if they stayed at their posts, spokesman Farid Ayar said.

Militants have also kidnapped two more foreigners, a Somali truck driver and a Sudanese translator.

Confusion surrounds the fate of Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda, abducted while traveling by bus on holiday, after medical checks found a beheaded body discovered Friday was not his.

At least 25 foreigners from a dozen countries, including two women, are thought to be in the hands of kidnappers trying to drive U.S.-led forces and foreign workers from Iraq. Scores of foreigners have been abducted since April. Many have been freed but more than 35 have been killed, several of them beheaded.

Bush Win Would Mean Dark Times: Treason, Malfeasance, War Crimes, Etc.

10.30.04 (11:02 am) [edit]

The presidential election on Tuesday is one of the most crucial in American history.

There are many reasons -- in foreign policy and on the domestic front -- why President George W. Bush should not be reelected.

Among them is the dominance of the radical right in his advisory councils, who are taking the United States down the wrong road at the start of the 21st century.

The road could lead to more mindless wars abroad and a widening gap between the rich and the poor in this country.

There will be only one way to read the election results if Bush wins: The world will see his victory as an affirmation by the American people of his disastrous preemptive war policy, which led the United States to invade Iraq without provocation.

The U.S. attack on Iraq is a clear violation of international law and has made us helpless to condemn others for similar acts.

If he wins reelection, Bush may see his victory as a signal to follow the neo-conservative dream of a political transformation of the Middle East through military force.

The president also would likely continue his new-style isolationism by giving short shrift to post-World War II treaties, such as those banning biological and chemical weapons. There is nothing to indicate Bush is willing to stop the gross violations of the Geneva Conventions on the humane treatment of prisoners of war.

Dark reports of the shameful treatment and secret transfers of detainees still emanate from Iraq and the U.S. brig at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba.

Despite his vehement denials, Bush may be compelled to call for another military draft if he persists in making war.

He is scraping by now with his all-volunteer military, along with reservists and National Guard members, keeping them on duty longer than planned with a so-called a back-door draft. If he wins a second term, he wouldn't have to worry about running again and would have a free hand to undo his read-my-lips campaign promises.

On the homefront, the rich will be sitting pretty again with big tax cuts while the budget deficit and national debt zoom sky high.

Bush donors from the military-industrial complex are being well rewarded, especially Halliburton, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, which already has reaped no-bid contracts to the tune of billions of dollars.

Organized labor will still be behind the eight ball under a new Bush administration. Workers will be pressured to accept "comp time" in place of overtime pay, and the lowered safety standards imposed by Bush's Labor Department will lead to more industrial accidents.

Don't expect Bush to lift a finger to stem the tide of outsourcing of the nation's biggest companies to China, India and other points East, where they can find cheaper labor.

The president is expected to keep trying to weaken public education with voucher programs to aid private schools, many of them religious. He is certain to follow through on his pet project to privatize part of the Social Security system with voluntary private investment accounts, driving a big hole in the program's trust fund. We should all hope that Congress won't go along with such a dangerous idea.

Social Security was the 1936 Depression-era program to support the elderly, the disabled and deprived dependent children.

Senior citizens, meantime, are staying away in droves from Bush's highly touted prescription drug program, which the administration publicly underpriced by $1 billion. Furthermore, the resident's compassionate conservative legislation banned importation of cheaper drugs from Canada. That is not expected to change in a new Bush term.

Bush also wants to cater to corporate interests by capping damages in medical malpractice suits at $250,000.

If reelected, Bush -- who has injected religion into public affairs more than any president has in modern times -- is expected to continue his messianic mission in the White House. He will blur even more the separation of church and state.

For women and minorities who support abortion rights and affirmative action, there is the scary prospect that the candidate who wins Tuesday may be able to appoint three, perhaps even four Supreme Court justices.

Bush undoubtedly will see his reelection as a mandate to push the country further to the right. And if he elected, he will be answerable to no one.

The CIA 9/11 Report Not to be Released Before Election. What Is Bush Afraid Of???

10.20.04 (11:09 pm) [edit]

[b]The 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket

Robert Scheer writes[/b]: "It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago. 'It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed,' an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that 'the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward.' "

THE FULL STORY: http://www.latimes.com/news/o...,1,6762967.column?coll=la-util-op-ed

Repugs Acting Guilty Already - Have Tens of Thousands of Lawyers on Standby at Polls ...

10.20.04 (10:48 pm) [edit]

Ya know in the movies when the accused gets that sulky look and just says "I wanna lawyer?" and how you just KNOW it's 'cause they're guilty as hell? Well, that's how the Repugs are already acting, with Nov. 2 still two weeks away. Although the Dems have recruited at least 10,000 lawyers to try to avert a repeat of the anti-Dem poll fraud that was so rampant in 2000, the Repugs have gone overboard. They have hired a veritable army of lawyers, deploying them to 30,000 voting sites. Considering the fact that the cases of Repug voter disenfranchisement have been very far and few between, this mobilization by Repugs sure as heck isn't likely to be to defend them from disenfranchisement!

THE FULL STORY: http://www.ipsnews.net/intern...

Sinclair's Phony Compromise is NOT GOOD ENOUGH: Boycott of Show's Advertisers Planned

10.20.04 (10:45 pm) [edit]

Common Dreams: "Representatives of StolenAirTime.com today said that despite the slight improvement of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group' position on forcing its 62 stations to air "tolen Honor " a faux documentary attacking Kerry in the days before the election, it is still urging Sinclair's advertisers to pull their ads from the network. Sinclair is still forcing 40 of its stations, many of them in swing states, to air parts of "Stolen Honor" one week before the election. Sinclair is making a multimillion dollar "donation" to the Bush/Cheney campaign, a violation of campaign finance law." A boycott is now being organized of advertisers who may include: Ford, Taco Bell, Walmart, Circuit City, Pfizer Inc., GEICO, General Mills, Wachovia Banks, Dunkin Donuts and Best Buy. STAY TUNED! A List of the guilty will be provided after the show airs. Campaign finance violation suits against Sinclair may also be filed.

THE FULL STORY: http://www.commondreams.org/n...

Pat Robertson: Bush Told Me There Would Be No Casualties in Iraq

10.20.04 (10:43 pm) [edit]

[b]Robertson warned Bush of Iraq toll — President's response: 'We're not going to have any'[/b]

From CNN: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."

Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."

"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world,' " Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now."

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

THE FULL STORY: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/...

Bush Relatives Use Website to Show Support for Kerry

10.20.04 (10:40 pm) [edit]

Academy Award Winning Actress Helen Hunt Urges Women to Vote for Kerry! Kill the Bitch!

10.20.04 (8:50 pm) [edit]

Associated Press says http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/... : "Actress Helen Hunt, Oscar winner for "As Good As It Gets," is telling women voters it could be better - with Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the White House. Hunt makes her appeal in an ad that's part of Planned Parenthood's $1 million television ad campaign in eight competitive states. In 2000, 22 million single women didn't vote. This year, you and women like you hold the power to change the course of our country," Hunt says. "We know. We're Planned Parenthood. We've helped women make many choices. Now we're asking you to make one more." "Vote John Kerry for president," Hunt says."

[b]KILL THE BITCH! I THINK SHE'S UGLY ANYWAY! KILL THE BITCH![/b]

Senator Calls Bush "Brain-Dead", But That's What Big Corporations Want!!!

10.20.04 (7:47 pm) [edit]

Sen. Joe Biden rallied supporters for John Kerry's presidential campaign Tuesday with a blistering attack on Bush administration policies that he said hurt retirees and working-class Americans.

Biden criticized the administration's prescription drug policies and their impact on consumers. "He is brain dead," Biden said of the president. His comment was greeted with loud applause at the UAW Local 435 union hall in Cranston Heights but quickly drew the ire of Delaware Republicans.

"Sen. Biden should be ashamed of his below-the-belt rhetoric and personal attacks on the president," said David Crossan, executive director of the state's Republican Party. "Challenging policies is one thing, but calling someone 'brain dead' crosses the line."

Many of the union members and retirees who attended the rally didn't think Biden's comments were out of line.

They said in the past they often crossed party lines to support the late U.S. Sen. Bill Roth, a conservative Republican who spent more than three decades in the Senate, and continue to vote for U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, a moderate Republican. However, they would have a hard time supporting Bush, they said, because of his administration's policies.

"The senator wasn't talking the political talk, he was pretty straightforward. That's what we wanted and that's what we got, straight talk," said Bill Wasik, Local 435's vice president. "Basically, the senator said that the Bush administration isn't listening to the working men and women, and that's true."

Local 435 recording secretary Nancy Smith said that while Biden's speech was "very emotional" she did not think his comments were off base.

"He spoke from his heart about what's at stake for all labor and all working-class people in America," she said. "He talked about issues that definitely affect us. These are serious issues for us, and he talked about what could happen if we don't make a change."

Biden touched on a wide range of issues during a speech in which he walked among audience members, stopping to shake hands with people whose names he wove into anecdotes.

Wasik and other members of the audience said they are concerned about the war in Iraq. They worry because it seems the White House has no clear strategy for getting U.S. troops out of there.

"It's a quagmire," Wasik said. "We support our troops, of course, but we know now that the war in Iraq didn't turn out to be what they said it was going to be about. I think that the war should be in Afghanistan. That's where the terrorists are, not in Iraq."

Biden discussed the war during his speech and later told reporters the United States and its allies must send large numbers of soldiers to Iraq to guarantee free elections

in 2005, just as they did in Afghanistan this year. The Bush administration may not have the political will nor the international credibility to ensure that happens, he said.

Biden's attack on the Bush administration's policies focused attention on White House support for the prescription drug bill and tax policies that favor U.S. industries that move their operations overseas.

If Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is elected president, Biden said to loud applause, the tax breaks will go to companies that remain in America instead of those that go overseas.

The prescription drug bill, he said, "is a sham" and illegal because it forbids Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.

Biden took exception to Bush's recent statements that lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada - which are made by the same companies that make and sell them in the United States - may not be safe.

"He said that and yet he then told a Canadian company to manufacture our flu vaccine," Biden said.

In a separate interview, Biden said he won't call for a suspension of the U.S. military's controversial anthrax vaccination program.

Recent stories in The News Journal have called attention to the plight of soldiers who received anthrax vaccines containing a booster called squalene. The booster is blamed for adverse reactions in troops who received the shots at Dover Air Force Base.

Biden reiterated a statement he issued last week with Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Castle in which they said no evidence has yet surfaced that current batches of the vaccine contain squalene. He believes the military must continue vaccinating troops against the threat of anthrax attacks as long as the shots are safe. - http://www.delawareonline.com...

Fuck Slimeball U.S. Veterans Whining About Losing Health Care! They're Lucky to Die for Bush!

10.20.04 (4:37 pm) [edit]

[b]MILITARY – VETS LOSING HEALTH CARE:[/b] In the debate last Wednesday, President Bush claimed veterans were getting "very good health care under my administration." http://www.debates.org/pages/... But a study by Harvard University and Public Citizen shows 1.7 million American veterans were uninsured in 2003, http://www.citizen.org/pressr... an increase of 235,159 since 2000. "More than one in three veterans under age 25 lacked health coverage, as did one in seven veterans age 25 to 44 and one in ten veterans age 45 to 65." Many had major health problems and less than one-quarter said they were in excellent health. "Since President Bush took office the number of uninsured vets has skyrocketed," said David Himmelman, an author of the study. "Our president has put troops in harm's way overseas and abandons them and their families once they get home."

Me & Bush Are Gonna' Kill Fucking Bitches Who Seek Abortions 'Cause They Might Die Anyway!!!

10.20.04 (12:29 pm) [edit]

ME & BUSH WANNA' KILL THE FUCKIN' BITCHES WHO SEEK ABORTIONS 'CAUSE:

. Their father raped them.
. They might die if they don't get an abortion.
. The child might be borne brain-dead.
. They were raped by a criminal thug.
. They are mentally incapacitated themselves.

ME & BUSH ARE GONNA' KILL THE FUCKIN' BITCHES.

BY THE WAY, ME & BUSH ARE CHRISTIANS.

SUCKING DEMOCRACY DRY: Yum, Yum, Yum! I'm Excited!!!

10.20.04 (12:14 pm) [edit]

[b]The End of Democracy: Losing America's birthright, the George Bush way[/b]

Once upon a time, not too long ago, the president of the United States declared that the war on terrorism was the most important issue in this year's presidential campaign.

Then every time his opponent brought up this most important of issues, George W. Bush cried foul, accusing John Kerry of hindering the war on terrorism. (America might be a democracy, but that doesn't mean the Democrat has a right to campaign.)

The president's campaign enlisted the taxpayers' servants as agents of his re-election, with Secret Service officers submitting attendees at Bush rallies to ideological X-rays, and election officials systematically suppressing the franchise of groups most likely to vote Democratic. Meanwhile the president, who earned some 500,000 votes less than his opponent, busied himself ramming through a radical legislative program as if he had won by a landslide—his congressional deputies all but barring deliberative input from the opposition party in order to do it and gaming the legislative apportionment system in ways, as the counsel to one Texas representative bragged in an e-mail to colleagues, that "should assure that Republicans keep the House no matte[r] the national mood."

[b]The full story http://www.smirkingchimp.com/... [/b]

Pat Robertson: Bush told me there would be no casualties in Iraq

10.20.04 (11:44 am) [edit]

[b]Robertson warned Bush of Iraq toll — President's response: 'We're not going to have any'[/b]

From CNN: http://www.cnn.com/aol/story/...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."

Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."

"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world,' " Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now."

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

[b]The full story http://www.smirkingchimp.com/... [/b]

TV stations told to pull plug on anti-Kerry film ...

10.20.04 (11:41 am) [edit]

[b]Media group accused of pro-Bush bias; shareholders threaten to sue [/b]

A media company that had planned to broadcast much of a film that attacks Sen. John Kerry on its 62 TV stations significantly changed its plans Tuesday amid protests from some of its shareholders and Kerry's supporters.

The company -- Sinclair Broadcast Group of Hunt Valley, Md. -- didn't immediately satisfy its most vocal critics. But the change seems to make it less likely that the program will be mostly devoted to the anti-Kerry film.

Sinclair's management had told managers of its stations three weeks ago to plan to broadcast a program devoted almost entirely to the controversial film Stolen Honor, Wounds that Never Heal. The film accuses Sen. John Kerry of betraying his fellow Vietnam War veterans, particularly prisoners of war, by protesting that war after he returned home in 1969.

On Tuesday, the Sinclair plan was partly responsible for threats of legal action from some shareholders. They're upset about a sharp drop in the company's stock, which they say was partially due to the controversy over Stolen Honor. Sinclair's stock closed Tuesday at $6.26. It has fallen more than 50% this year.

But late Tuesday afternoon, Sinclair announced that this Friday most of its stations will air "a special one-hour news program entitled A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media." It said the program "will focus in part on the use of documentaries and other media to influence voting." Sinclair said portions of Stolen Honor would be shown, but only as part of "the broader discussion" about the media.

[b]The full story http://www.smirkingchimp.com/... [/b]