"We're still not safe," said Bush, who was spending the weekend at his family's oceanfront compound in Maine to attend the wedding of his nephew, George P. Bush, the son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He also found time to do some fishing with his twin daughters and father, former President George Bush.That's right, in Maine, doing nothing, all the while, we're not safe.
The Globe quoted Elliott, who was Kerry's commanding officer during the war, as saying he was under "time pressure" when he signed the document and still believes Kerry deserved the Silver Star for his service. The affidavit was released ahead of the publication of a new book that questions whether Kerry should have been given some of his combat medals.I guess by even discussing this I am doing exactly what the Repubicscum want, and that's not discuss the issues, or the fact that Dubya is a DESERTER.
Elliott released another affidavit yesterday backing away from his comments this week to the Globe, saying the reporter, Michael Kranish, misquoted him.
Globe Editor Martin Baron released a statement saying "the Globe stands by the article. The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on the record and absolutely accurate."
Also Saturday, Allawi announced that the Baghdad offices of Arab television station Al-Jazeera would be closed for 30 days. Officials say the broadcaster is guilty of inciting violence among the population.I'm not going to sit here and write Al-J is helping our cause, but when is the U.S. Government going to shutdown Fox News?
Al-Jazeera officials say they're disappointed. "It's a regrettable decision, but Al-Jazeera will endeavour to cover the situation in Iraq as best we can within the constraints," the station's spokesman Jihad Ballout told the Associated Press.
Last month, Iraq's interim government conducted an independent commission "to see what kind of violence they are advocating, inciting hatred and problems and racial tension."
Iraq's Interior Minister said the closure will give the station "a chance to readjust their policy against Iraq."
Fierce gunbattles raged for a second day between guerrillas loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and American and Iraqi forces in the southern city of Najaf, raising fresh fears of more protracted battle with the rebellious cleric.Why we there?
American military commanders in charge of the Najaf operation said that 2 marines had been killed and 12 wounded in the fighting, which began before dawn on Thursday and is playing out in a vast cemetery near the city center. Fighters were firing from among the graves, the commanders said. There were reports that they had been hiding in tombs.
yesterday, A key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry's former commanding officer, backed off one of the key contentions. Lieutenant Commander George Elliott said in an interview that he had made a ''terrible mistake" in signing an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star -- one of the main allegations in the book. The affidavit was given to The Boston Globe by the anti-Kerry group to justify assertions in their ad and book...Now, for the rest of you paid off hicks.
'I still don't think he shot the guy in the back," Elliott said. ''It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I'm the one in trouble here."
But as Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect puts it, the cosmetic change in regime had the effect of "Afghanizing" the media coverage of Iraq.This was the plan all along. I wonder if Al-Sadr is stepping it up to counter this? Hmmm...
He's referring to the way news coverage of Afghanistan dropped off sharply after the initial military defeat of the Taliban. A nation we had gone to war to liberate and had promised to secure and rebuild - a promise largely broken - once again became a small, faraway country of which we knew nothing.
Incredibly, the same thing happened to Iraq after June 28. Iraq stories moved to the inside pages of newspapers, and largely off TV screens. Many people got the impression that things had improved. Even journalists were taken in: a number of newspaper stories asserted that the rate of U.S. losses there fell after the handoff. (Actual figures: 42 American soldiers died in June, and 54 in July.)
The Labor Department report showed only 32,000 new net jobs added to payrolls during the month, down from a revised 78,000 jobs that were added in June. The increase was the smallest since December...Too bad for those looking, but even worse for those whose unemployment benefits Dumbya wouldn't extend.
Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast a 243,000 gain in jobs, and the unemployment rate staying unchanged at 5.6 percent, while economists surveyed by Reuters had a median jobs growth forecast of 228,000, with a range of estimates between 200,000 and 300,000.
Opie and Anthony are heading into space. The radio bad boys, fired from WNEW/ 102.7 FM in August 2002 for a stunt involving sex at St. Patrick's Cathedral, announced yesterday they will host a morning drive-time show on XM Satellite Radio starting Oct. 4.Would you pay $11 a month?
"We learned a lot during our two years away from our fans, and we can't wait to get back on the radio and reconnect with them," Greg "Opie" Hughes said. "This is a huge milestone for us, because XM provides a nationwide audience that local radio simply can't match," Anthony Cumia said. Subscribers need special antennas and receivers to get the signals, which are beamed nationwide.
August 6, PDBDrinks on George!
The following is a redacted text of the presidential daily briefing from August 6, 2001:
Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladensince 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bringthe fighting to America."
KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug. 5 -- An intense Pakistani military operation directed at suspected al Qaeda hideouts along the Afghan-Pakistan border has led to the seizure of a number of al Qaeda suspects and the discovery of a cache of computer information that contributed to last weekend's decision to increase the terror alert in several U.S. cities, Pakistani officials said Thursday.So we bring back THIS STORY!
The Pakistani operation has employed sophisticated American eavesdropping technology and computerized identification systems, they said. Three wanted al Qaeda operatives have been arrested, and computer files were found with detailed surveillance reports on terrorist targets and information about the whereabouts of other al Qaeda members, according to the officials.
This spring, the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan. A succession of high-level American officials--from outgoing CIA Director George Tenet to Secretary of State Colin Powell to Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca to State Department counterterrorism chief Cofer Black to a top CIA South Asia official--have visited Pakistan in recent months to urge General Pervez Musharraf's government to do more in the war on terrorism. In April, Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, publicly chided the Pakistanis for providing a "sanctuary" for Al Qaeda and Taliban forces crossing the Afghan border. "The problem has not been solved and needs to be solved, the sooner the better," he said.Widely reported.
Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.Close, John. The Bush/Cheney 2000 Team was WORSE to you.
The White House declined.
"It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, comparing the anti-Kerry ad to tactics in his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.
"The president thought he got rid of this unregulated soft money when he signed the bipartisan campaign finance reform into law," McClellan said. A chief sponsor of that bill, which Bush initially opposed, was McCain.Uh huh.
Paving the way for a historic matchup between two African Americans known for their oratorical prowess, Illinois Republicans voted Wednesday to make former presidential candidate Alan Keyes "an offer" to be their nominee against Democrat Barack Obama.You know, they'll probably say, "Hillary did it!" But you were against Hillary doing it, which means you don't hold true to your own convinctions, which we obviously already know.
...Bush has flipped and flopped with the best of them. As a presidential candidate, he declared himself implacably opposed to nation-building. Now we are engaged in building Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, the cost has been not merely a ton of money, as it was in Haiti and other places Bush said he wouldn't go, but nearly a thousand American lives lost and countless more ruined. Mind you, with weapons of mass destruction all but declared a mirage in the desert, the new -- and sole -- justification for the war is not anything approaching self-defense but getting rid of Saddam Hussein and his regime. This is nation-replacement and nation-building, a total rehab project...Nice to see Cohen is writing a story that has been discussed for MONTHS on the blogs. Nevertheless, he's writing it, I guess.
Federal investigators concluded that Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) divulged classified intercepted messages to the media when he was on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, according to sources familiar with the probe.Big story. BIG!
Specifically, Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron confirmed to FBI investigators that Shelby verbally divulged the information to him during a June 19, 2002, interview, minutes after Shelby's committee had been given the information in a classified briefing, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the case...
The Justice Department declined to comment on why it was no longer pursuing the matter criminally. The Senate ethics panel also declined to comment on its investigation.
Yet, attacks on Iraq's tiny Christian minority have been steadily increasing since late spring, culminating in the bombing of five Christian churches in Baghdad and Mosul on Sunday. As a result, according to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Christians are now fleeing the country in record numbers.Couple this with the fact Turks have veto power over the constitution, and I'm sure things are going to go real well any day now. That's right, any day now...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry got a big convention bounce in New Jersey, where he holds a 49 to 36 percent lead over President Bush, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released Thursday.Not that NJ should be a contest, but you never know. I expect Bush to get some points after the RNC, but NJ falls left, of course.
The poll showed that Kerry has made much progress in changing some Garden State voters' minds. The poll, conducted July 30 to Aug. 2, surveyed 996 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
In a June 23 Quinnipiac poll, Kerry had a 46 to 40 percent lead over Bush.
"This is the kind of lead you expect a Democratic candidate to have in Democratic New Jersey," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
A nation's artists and musicians have a particular place in its social and political life. Over the years I've tried to think long and hard about what it means to be American: about the distinctive identity and position we have in the world, and how that position is best carried. I've tried to write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our failures.
These questions are at the heart of this election: who we are, what we stand for, why we fight. Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics. Instead, I have been partisan about a set of ideals: economic justice, civil rights, a humane foreign policy, freedom and a decent life for all of our citizens. This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out...
A day after senior White House officials said the decision to raise the terror alert level on Sunday had been driven in part by new intelligence beyond the information about specific buildings in the United States, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, told reporters that "there are some ongoing operations under way'' to disrupt terrorist activity.I love how it's old intel, then they are criticized, and then there's new! How convenient!
On Wednesday night, the New York City Police Department partly lifted restrictions on trucks and vans entering Manhattan, saying the decision was made because of confidence in the new security measures within the city.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 - Senior government officials said Tuesday that new intelligence pointing to a current threat of a terrorist attack on financial targets in New York and possibly in Washington - not just information about surveillance on specific buildings over the years - was a major factor in the decision over the weekend to raise the terrorism alert level.They discovered this intelligence right after discovering that people don't believe them anymore.
A vote for change is a vote for a stronger, safer, healthier America. A vote for Bush is a vote for a divided, unstable, paranoid America. It is our duty to this beautiful land to let our voices be heard. That's the reason for the tour. That's why I'm doing it."Keep on Rockin' In the Free World.
Dave Matthews
"This is the fourth presidential election which Pearl Jam has engaged in as a band, and we feel it's the most important one of our life time. We believe in the power of the first amendment, and have always exercised our right to free speech in every aspect of our lives and music. This year there is no more powerful way for all Americans to exercise that right than by voting. Given the extreme political climate of a country at war, we are proud to stand among the many artists involved in this tour and to encourage Americans not only to vote for a president this November 2nd, but to vote for the change they wish to see in the world."
Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam
WASHINGTON -- US Airways confirmed Tuesday that a scheduled flight between Boston and Washington, D.C., was diverted Saturday so some stranded passengers -- including President George W. Bush's twin daughters -- could get on the plane.This is common.
The Bush twins were picked up in Albany, N.Y., along with 22 other passengers. However, the move caused a two-hour delay for those traveling from Boston, reported WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
Since March, Ukraine's defence minister, Yevhen Marchuk, has been searching for missing missiles and other weapons that could have fallen into terrorist hands or been sold to rogue states. JID investigates why this potentially catastrophic situation is only now being brought to light.White House probably not concerned since they cut THIS PROGRAM.
Marchuk raised a domestic storm when he publicly revealed that the Defence Ministry had no unified accounting system. Nor has a comprehensive inventory of military equipment in Ukraine ever been carried out. It is unknown what weapons the Defence Ministry actually possesses or what it inherited from the former Soviet Union.
CAIRO, Egypt on Monday denied remarks by retired U.S. General Tommy Franks that President Hosni Mubarak told him that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.Uh huh. Some say it was "the intelligence." I'm going to go with the "lack thereof" in the White House.
"Such a claim is void of truth," Egyptian presidential spokesman Magad Abdel Fattah told the official Middle East News Agency.
Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday to ban gay marriage, the first such vote since the historic ruling in Massachusetts last year that legalized same-sex weddings there.Unfortunately for the gay bash crowd, this issue ranks real far down on the national 'what matters' list. I welcome it as a prominent issue at the RNC.
Although the ban was widely expected to pass in conservative Missouri, experts said the campaign served as a key barometer for which strategies work as the gay marriage battle spreads to ballot boxes around the nation. At least nine other states, and perhaps as many as 12, will vote on similar amendments this year.
A day after President Bush endorsed the idea of a single official to coordinate the nation's intelligence agencies, Democratic lawmakers and members of the 9/11 commission said yesterday the White House plan doesn't go far enough to strengthen the system.I am struck by how much authority the commission has. The attacks have led every agency to be more vigilant. I'm not sure an official to coordinate all agencies is necessary, and it seems Bush agrees, hence the scaled back authority of a single coordinator. But if he had any guts he would make his case against the 9/11 commission. If he was articulate, he could do it. He's not, so he can't.
Bush agreed with the 9/11 commission's recent recommendation for a national intelligence director but rejected its proposal that the director be given budgetary authority over the intelligence work of 15 government agencies, most of which are in the Pentagon...
In testimony before the House Committee on Government Reform, 9/11 commission members John Lehman, a Republican, and Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, said that without authority over the budgets of the various intelligence agencies, the director would lack the power to get things done.
Lehman said later in an interview on Fox that the commission had called for "a transformation of the entire system. It is not a Chinese menu that our commission has recommended that Congress can cherry-pick. It is an entire system transformation."
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the panel, offered a similar assessment. "If you don't control the budget in Washington, you're just a figurehead. Another figurehead is not what the nation needs."
The Commissioners are not the people's elected representatives, after all. Nor were they ever intended to become a group of unaccountable policy ombudsmen following the publication of their report.I'm not saying I agree, or disagree, but rather than focus on John Kerry, who last time I checked has nothing to do with the commission, the WSJ should be focused on THEIR president, who apparently doesn't have the sack to do what they think necessary.
But some of them seem to be embracing that role nonetheless, egged on by the politically calculated flattery of John Kerry, who has demanded that their recommendations be adopted "with great haste" and in full. It's as if Chairman Tom Kean and some of his more vocal colleagues have already forgotten what ought to have been an important lesson of their work: that intelligence is serious business, too serious to be "reformed" in a rush.
Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, found it curious that the administration withheld the dated nature of the information at the time of the original announcement and disclosed it only after President Bush made a Rose Garden appearance Monday to discuss reforms of the intelligence community recommended by the Sept. 11 commission.Here's a plan, tell us now why you raised the threat alert 5 previous times assuming the threat has passed, hence the lowering of the threat.
When Bush held his news conference, reporters knew only that the administration had recently uncovered this information. Bush "would have faced more difficult questions" if reporters had known how much of the information had been obtained three years after the surveillance, Greenberger said.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said Tuesday that rising consumption and decreasing domestic production have led to high gasoline prices but also blamed his Democratic opponents and their opposition to the Bush administration's energy policies.Is he human?
The Bush-Cheney campaign accuses Senate Democrats of blocking a Bush energy plan that would increase petroleum drilling and energy conservation and provide new tax breaks and other incentives to spur exploration and production.
"John Kerry and John Edwards voted no," Cheney said. "It's another area where I think there is a significant difference."
Cheney advocated increasing domestic oil production in wildlife areas in Alaska and other regions that are off-limits to development.
WASHINGTON - Nearly three-fourths of the 40 million acres of public land currently leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States outside Alaska isn’t producing any oil or gas, federal records show, even as the Bush administration pushes to open more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development.Truly amazing. Btw, guess who was CEO of Tom Brown? C'mon, ONE GUESS?!?!? If you guessed current Bush Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, well, you're CORRECT!
An Associated Press computer analysis of Bureau of Land Management records found that 80 percent of federal lands leased for oil and gas production in Wyoming are producing no oil or gas. Neither are 83 percent of the leased acres in Montana, 77 percent in Utah, 71 percent in Colorado, 36 percent in New Mexico and 99 percent in Nevada...
For oil companies, vast holdings of federal oil and gas leases, even if undeveloped, show up in their financial records as assets that help attract investors.
“Absolutely,” said Mark Burford, director of investor relations for Tom Brown Inc., a Denver-based independent oil company. Tom Brown has more than 850,000 acres of federal land under lease, but just 22 percent is listed as producing, according to BLM records.
“In our investor presentations, we talk about the very large inventory of drilling locations on our acres that are prospective, and a lot of that would still be undeveloped,” Burford said. “But based on our knowledge of the producing areas and the formations, that acreage is very prospective and very likely to work out as far as becoming producing.”
Tom Brown is one of a half dozen large oil companies that in recent years have exceeded the federal limit on the number of leased acres they can control in any one state. BLM officials acknowledged that they have granted repeated extensions for the companies to comply with the law, instead of exercising their legal right to cancel leases of companies in violation of the law.
Illinois Republicans on Tuesday narrowed the field of prospective U.S. Senate opponents for Democrat Barack Obama to two, and virtually assured that the next senator from the Midwestern state will be black.Now I'm sure the outrage against Keyes will be similar to the outrage against Senator Rodham-Clinton when she ran in New York, considering Keyes lives in Maryland.
Either two-time Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes, a Maryland radio talk show host, or former deputy drug czar Andrea Barthwell will get the nod on Wednesday from the state Republican party's central committee to face off against Obama in November, party officials announced.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 3 - For months Afghan and American officials have complained that even while Pakistan cooperates in the fight against Al Qaeda, militant Islamic groups there are training fighters and sending them into Afghanistan to attack American and Afghan forces.Unaware isn't denial.
Pakistani officials have rejected the allegations, saying they are unaware of any such training camps. Now the Afghan government has produced a young Pakistani, captured fighting with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan three months ago, whose story would seem to back its complaints about Pakistan.
bohnur2001: guess who i just saw in soho!Republicans and Democrats alike, happy to have 'em, I'm sure.
WEINISH: lemme guess.
bohnur20001: (apart from kim)
WEINISH: Hammer's idol?
WEINISH: hammer's ass partner?
bohnur20001: nope
bohnur20001: your idol!
WEINISH: ok..
WEINISH: lemme think
WEINISH: claude?
WEINISH: :-)
bohnur2001: laura bush and bush daughters!
WEINISH: OUCH!
WEINISH: did you vomit?
bohnur2001: everyone was cheering!
WEINISH: pffff
WEINISH: no chance, guy
bohnur2001: well regardless, they were
WEINISH: guy, NO CHANCE
bohnur2001: guy, who was there
bohnur2001: you or me
WEINISH: apparently they travel with an AUDIENCE
WEINISH: because in SOHO not EVERYONE WAS CHEERING
WEINISH: maybe you were so caught up in your own applause that it just felt that way
bohnur2001: i was mainly eyeing the daughters
bohnur2001: who aren't bad!
WEINISH: no, theyre not bad...but they're definitely whores
WEINISH: which, ain't bad
bohnur2001: they are whores
bohnur2001: i was talking to cindi, who went to high school in the same town
WEINISH: they were cheering for them to take their clothes off
WEINISH: cindi?
WEINISH: oh oh
bohnur2001: apparently they are also crazy party girls
WEINISH: obviously
WEINISH: you read that times thing, right?
bohnur2001: which isn't bad!
WEINISH: i know a guy that slammed the blonde
bohnur2001: niiiiiice
WEINISH: dude, no one ever doubted the ability of a bush family member to party. that's one thing i know they can do.
WEINISH: and THAT'S THE PROBLEM.
bohnur2001: i thought the problem was that now he doesn't drink or party anymore...i thought THAT WAS THE PROBLEM
WEINISH: no, the PROBLEM REALLY IS: he's an uneducated, liar, who has no idea what he's doing at an unprecedented time in our nation's history, who also panders to religious people and doesn't realize there's a separation between church and state. oh, and he's created more people that hate us. that's really the problem.
bohnur2001: i got 99 problems but the bush daughters ain't one....hit me.
Sources familiar with the deal indicate it could be worth about $50 million, vaulting Chappelle, 30, into the rarefied realm of television's top earners. The new contract is believed to mark not only a steep increase for Chappelle as star, writer, co-executive producer and co-creator of "Chappelle's Show," but more significantly, reward him with a hefty chunk of the series' robust DVD sales.That's what you call "KEEPIN' IT REAL GOES RIGHT!"
Thirty-five evangelical Christian leaders have signed a letter urging President Bush to provide massive humanitarian aid and consider sending U.S. troops to stop what they called the "genocide" taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan.Oh, so they care about these people, but I'll bet they're the first group who doesn't want to see images of dead Iraqis on TV.
The Aug. 1 letter marks a shift in focus for the evangelical movement, which previously was interested primarily in halting violence against Christians in southern Sudan. The victims in Darfur, a western province, are mostly Muslim.
"We view this as an opportunity to reach out to Muslims in the name of Jesus," the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, said yesterday. "Christian people are appalled by this kind of genocide, and we don't want it taking place in our generation."
Call out the tow trucks: A 60-foot black-and-white billboard showing Chloe Sevigny pleasuring Vincent Gallo was unveiled Saturday on Hollywood's Sunset Blvd.Values.
The steamy and controversial ad, plugging a notorious scene in the upcoming "X-Rated Adults Only" flick "The Brown Bunny," which opens next month, went up near the famed Chateau Marmont Hotel. Wonder what they'll charge for a room with a view.
However, local leaders - many of whom view the billboard as pornographic - are threatening to protest the promo and are promising to bring it down.
Gallo is now in New York and says he will attend the Republican National Convention later this month.
"I'm here trying to help out in any way that I can. I have made it clear that I am open in any way to promote and protect the Republican administration," he said.
JAKARTA (Reuters) - OPEC has no extra oil to immediately supply the world market to cool record-high prices, the head of the group said Tuesday.I saw reports today the price of gas was at it lowest point in months! Yet the LIBERAL media didn't point out that it's about to go right back up.
"The oil price is very high, it's crazy. There is no additional supply," said OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's oil minister.
U.S. oil hit a high of $44.24 a barrel Tuesday, the highest since crude futures were launched on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1983. London's Brent crude jumped 48 cents to hit a high of $40.45 a barrel.
"Minister Naimi has said Saudi Arabia can increase production, but they cannot do it immediately," said Purnomo, referring to Ali al-Naimi, oil minister for the world's biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia.
KABUL (Reuters) - Between 40 and 50 suspected Taliban militants have been killed in heavy fighting with Afghan forces backed by U.S. attack helicopters and "tank buster" aircraft near the Pakistan border, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.Look at that, they're going hardcore on Afghanistan/Pakistan all of a sudden, now that they've transfered sovereignty.
The casualty figure, based on estimates by pilots flying in support of Afghan soldiers in the fighting on Monday, came in a statement from the U.S.-led force of 18,000 troops hunting al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan. It gave no concrete details for the figure.
If confirmed, it would be one of the heaviest losses in recent months from a single battle for the insurgents fighting foreign and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
Federal lawmakers demanded yesterday that anti-terror funding be made proportional to the risks faced by various states.Glad we're on the same page.
"We are at war, we need to get our priorities straight," U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, D-Hoboken, said, noting that Wyoming gets four times the federal money given to New Jersey on a per capita basis.
Most of the al Qaeda surveillance of five financial institutions that led to a new terrorism alert Sunday was conducted before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and authorities are not sure whether the casing of the buildings has continued, numerous intelligence and law enforcement officials said yesterday.This creates more questions than it answers.
More than half a dozen government officials interviewed yesterday, who declined to be identified because classified information is involved, said that most, if not all, of the information about the buildings seized by authorities in a raid in Pakistan last week was about three years old, and possibly older.
The St. Petersburg Times is reporting the airline is considering charging a fee to send calls to reservations agents in the United States instead of India. The company, which outsourced call centers to cut costs, floated the idea in an online survey this month...Would you pay for that option? I remember when Americans were "Keeping America Green" by not buying Japanese auto imports, and therefore paying more for less.
The nation's third largest airline saves about $25 million a year by redirecting some of its service calls from the U.S. to India.
The Vatican has denounced feminism, saying it was trying to blur differences between men and women and threatening the institution of the family based on a mother and a father.
The drive for equality, the Vatican said, makes "homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality."
The concerns, raised in a 37-page document written by one of Pope John Paul II's closest aides and released Saturday, broke no new ground, maintaining the church's ban on women priests, for example.
Halliburton, the biggest U.S. contractor in Iraq, overcharged the government for gasoline imports in Iraq and fell behind on tasks such as producing water for troops, according to two reports released Wednesday.While I think Halliburton has done a pretty poor job, and has most likely overcharged the U.S taxpayer (anathema to Republicans some time ago), I remember hearing the armed forces needed to pay more for gas in Kuwait because it was impossible to get gas in the north because of relations with Turkey. The costs of bringing it to the troops in another part of the country would have cost the same as purchasing from Kuwait. True, or not, that's what I heard, and at the time it seemed like it made sense. However, if the US was able to get Turkey on board it would've cost less.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the auditing agency of Congress previously known as the General Accounting Office, said Halliburton had overcharged the government by more than $165 million. The agency said the company had charged three times what the Defense Department spends to send gasoline into Iraq, not including fees and overhead...
The accounting agency said that Halliburton had charged the government an average of $2.68 per gallon of gasoline between May 5, 2003, and March 31, 2004. Since the Defense Department took over gasoline imports in April, the average cost per gallon has been $1.57.
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott today told an enthusiastic Neshoba County Fair crowd that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is “a French-speaking socialist from Boston, Massaschusetts, who is more liberal than Ted Kennedy.”By the way, apparently, knowing another language aside from WHITE-HOMOPHOBE-RACIST is a bad thing.
It was a line that Lott said he’d been working on for a while, and it produced loud applause from hundreds of Mississippians gathered at Founders’ Square, the centerpiece of the historic fair.
State prison officials have sent a warning to a large number of New Jersey urban police forces, saying their officers could become targets of attacks by violent street gangs.It all makes sense now. I'm sick of politicians putting COPS in harm's way.
Department of Corrections investigators say the Bloods street gang is taking an "aggressive posture toward law enforcement" and has called for an "uprising" in New Jersey's largest cities and in the jails, according to internal documents distributed by prison officials to authorities around the state.
