I have just spoken to Cindy Sheehan at, 5:05 pm

Her message "Today is the begining of the End of the occupation of Iraq." She is feeling strong, people have been bringing her food and water. The police have been polite. She has decided to stay on the Prairie Chapel Road which is one mile from the Ranch until George Bush meets with her and tells the truth. She invites anyone who can to join her during the month of August for as long as they can. She urges them to bring camping gear. Also, there are two caravans coming in from Louisiana and from Dayton, Ohio now.

Cindy says she knows from her travels that "people are fed up with this war and want to do something to stop it"

[snip]

JUST NOW-6:13
Cindy just called again.

TWO PEOPLE CAME OUT FROM THE RANCH TO TALK TO HER. JOE HAGIN, ASSISTANT TO THE CHIEF OF STAFF STEVEN HABLEN. FROM NATIONAL SECURITY.

They told Cindy, George Bush really believed there were weapons of mass destruction,Sadam was a threat, that the war in Iraq is making America safer. We are fighting in Iraq so they we don't have to fight terrorists here, and George Bush sincerely cares about the loss of the soldiers and their families. Cindy had a twenty five minute discussion , as Cindy refuted these tired arguements, and reminded the men that she had met Bush last June and she had felt disrespected and belittled. She said to them " You are intelligent men, how can you believe what you are saying?"

Cindy will continue to wait for an honest discussion with George Bush.

For my part, I am proud that Cindy is standing up against these dreadful lies and the Bush ideology that has blinded so many from reality and logic. It's as if they keep saying these things it will become true, and as Cindy pointed out to the representatives, since our kids were killed, the Downing Street memo and the 9/11 Commission report have been released which refutes these false claims. Yet here we are on August 6, 2005 and the Presidents men are still trying to convince American Mothers that their kids died for WMD and 9/11 links, it is not only insulting, it is madness. I will keep you posted as I talk to Cindy.

• CNN and MSNBC have picked up the AP wire story.
  
• Reuters
  
• WaPo
  
• ABC News apparently ran a segment on World News Tonight.
  

Today's lesson on How Washington Really Works, But Too Often Doesn't focuses upon an outrage that affects every American - yet is being ignored as if by a vast Federal City conspiracy.

It is an outrage that surfaced July 29, in the form of major news: Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, announced a huge 32 percent boost in second-quarter profits, the third-largest increase in company history. The Big Oil bonanza came at a time when Americans are paying record-high prices at the gas pumps.

Washington's official reaction to that maddening news has been softer than silence. But before you search the skies for black helicopters, conspiracy theorists, do not rule out the possibility that sheer incompetence is also afoot. Blame here must be divided among the See-No-Evil Policymakers of this oil-friendly administration, the Snooze-and-Lose Democratic Minority-d'Perpetuity and Myopic Watchdogs who often function as Washington's de facto agenda-setters.

The news from Exxon Mobil established that the pattern was industry-wide. Royal Dutch Shell, the world's third-largest oil company, reported second-quarter profits up 34 percent. BP's (British Petroleum) were up 29 percent. ConocoPhillips, America's third-largest, reported profits that skyrocketed by 51 percent.

[snip]

What is more bizarre is that all of this news happened while Congress was enacting an energy bill that contains barrels of boondoggles - but which a wide range of experts agrees will do next to nothing to solve America's energy crisis. Not short term. Not long term.

Here's why Washington's only reaction was unrequited nothingness: Absent a Page One prodding from the agenda-setters, the reporters who cover the White House didn't press the press secretary to explain what President Bush thought should be done.

That could have been offset by a savvy, quick, responsible reaction in behalf of the people by the Opposition Party that always considered itself the party of the people. But no - today's Democratic Party leaders have lost their way. Washington Democrats either didn't spot the Exxon-profits news or didn't perceive that people might see it as wrong that they are paying soaring prices at the pump while Exxon Mobil pockets soaring profits. Mainly, the Democratic opposition didn't see a need to spotlight the problem in order to create the compelling coalition that can forge a realistic solution.

Solutions: The only solution that can happen must be based not on politics or grandstanding, but on conservation. And that can only be done by making it clear that a conservation-based approach must be done as a crucial step to our national security in an age of global terrorism.

Jay Hakes, head of the Energy Information Administration under President Bill Clinton, warns: "We need to find a way so that we don't have a perpetual seller's market (setting oil prices). Especially one that transfers profits to an unstable part of the world."

And Fadel Gheit, a widely respected oil-industry analyst with Oppenheimer & Company, cautions: "An energy policy that does not start with conservation is doomed to fail." Asked what he'd like to see a U.S. president do if he could just wave a magic wand and make it happen, the New York-based analyst said: "Energy independence must start with a bipartisan approach in Washington. The president and Congress ... must set a 20-year goal of cutting in half the oil imports that are now at 12 million barrels a day. They must adopt a firm year-by-year schedule and cut 1 million barrels in imports each year - if Washington really is going to make it work."

Two former officials of a pro-Israel lobbying group were charged in an indictment today with illegally conspiring to gather and disclose classified national security information to journalists and a unnamed foreign power that government officials identified as Israel.

The indictment accused Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, formerly senior staff members at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, with improperly disclosing sensitive national security information dating back more than five years. The group dismissed the two men in April.

Beyond the two former AIPAC officials, the indictment included additional charges against the only other person charged in the case, Lawrence Franklin, a former Pentagon analyst and Iran expert. The indictment accused him of using his position as a desk officer to gather information to hand over to a foreign official, believed to be an Israeli embassy officer.

The indictment said that Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman disclosed information on such issues as American policy in Iran, terrorism in central Asia and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers apartment in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American military airmen.

The charges were expected, but were nevertheless unusual. Neither Mr. Rosen or Mr. Weissman held security clearances. They were not government employees and operated in a world in which private lobbyists and public officials, each eager to shape administration policy, often trade sensitive information.

[snip]

The United States Attorney in Alexandria, Va. Paul J. McNulty, said in a statement: "When it comes to classified information, there is clear line in the law. Today's charges are about crossing that line."

I participated in the invasion, stayed in Iraq for a year afterward, and what I witnessed was the total opposite of what President Bush and his administration stated to the American people.

The invasion was very confusing, and so was the period of time I spent in Iraq afterward. At first it did seem as if some of the Iraqi people were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein. But that was only for a short period of time. Shortly after Saddam's regime fell, the Shiite Muslims in Iraq conducted a pilgrimage to Karbala, a pilgrimage prohibited by Saddam while he was in power. As I witnessed the Shiite pilgrimage, which was a new freedom that we provided to them, they used the pilgrimage to protest our presence in their country. I watched as they beat themselves over the head with sticks until they bled, and screamed at us in anger to leave their country. Some even carried signs that stated, "No Saddam, No America." These were people that Saddam oppressed; they were his enemies. To me, it seemed they hated us more than him.

At that moment I knew it was going to be a very long deployment. I realized that I was not being greeted as a liberator. I became overwhelmed with fear because I felt I never would be viewed that way by the Iraqi people. As a soldier this concerned me. Because if they did not view me as a liberator, then what did they view me as? I felt that they viewed me as foreign occupier of their land. That led me to believe very early on that I was going to have a fight on my hands.

During my year in Iraq I had many altercations with the so-called insurgency. I found the insurgency I saw to be quite different from the insurgency described to the American people by the Bush administration, the media, and other supporters of the war. There is no doubt in my mind there are foreigners from other surrounding countries in Iraq. Anyone in the Middle East who hates America now has the opportunity to kill Americans because there are roughly 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. But the bulk of the insurgency I faced was from the people of Iraq, who were attacking us as a reaction to what they felt was an occupation of their country.

I was engaged actively in urban combat in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad. Many of the people who were attacking me were the poor people of Iraq. They were definitely not members of al-Qaida or leftover Baath Party members, and they were not former members of Saddam's regime. They were just your average Iraqi civilians who wanted us out of their country.

[snip]

So while President Bush speaks of freedom and liberation of the Iraqi people, I find that his statements are not credible after witnessing events such as these. During the violence that day I felt so much fear throughout my entire body. I remember going home that night and praying to God, thanking him that I was still alive. A few months earlier President Bush made the statement "Bring it on" when referring to the attacks on Americans by the insurgency. To me, that felt like a personal invitation to the insurgents to attack me and my friends who desperately wanted to make it home alive.

[snip]

We must always support the troops. If there were a situation in which the United States is attacked again by a legitimate enemy, they are the people who are going to risk their lives to protect us and our freedom. In my opinion, the best way to support them now is to bring them home with the honor and respect they deserve.

In closing, I ask that we never forget why this war started. The Bush administration cried weapons of mass destruction and a link to al-Qaida. We know that this was false, and the Bush administration concedes it as well. As a soldier who fought in that war, I feel misled. I feel that I was sent off to fight for a cause that never existed. When I joined the military, I did so to defend the United States of America, not to be sent off to a part of the world to fight people who never attacked me or my country. Many have died as a result of this. The people who started this war need to start being honest with the American people and take responsibility for their actions. More than anything, they need to stop saying everything is rosy and create a solution to this problem they created.

A soldier on leave from Iraq shot his wife five times and then killed himself in their Larimer County home Wednesday, apparently because their marriage was crumbling, investigators said Friday.

Pfc. Stephen S. Sherwood, 35, used a handgun to shoot his wife, 30-year-old Sara Sherwood, in the head and neck, according to the Larimer County coroner.

Sherwood then used a shotgun to shoot himself in the head.

The incident has officially been termed a murder/suicide. Both victims died within seconds of receiving their wounds.

Neighbors told investigators that Sara Sherwood said she had been in a relationship with another man over the past several weeks. When the couple's 15-month-old daughter was brought to a neighbor's house about 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sara Sherwood "stated that she and her husband were going to discuss this and other marital issues," said Larimer County sheriff's spokeswoman Eloise Campanella.

A neighbor reported to dispatchers that he had heard gunshots from the home, north of Fort Collins, at 3:48 p.m. Deputies arrived shortly thereafter, followed by a SWAT team.

After evacuating the neighborhood and ensuring that there were no more shooters in the area, SWAT team members entered the house and found the couple.

Many soldiers who have experienced combat have some level of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The military is very aware of the results of combat experience on soldiers' emotions and behavior, but does nothing to educate families or soldiers on ways to deal with PTSD. Wives and girlfriends are told the best response to give returning soldiers is to greet them as "heroes," leaving many wives and girlfriends unprepared for the changes in their partners. Explosive anger, erratic sleeping habits, violent outbursts, continual nightmares, and emotional withdrawal are all symptoms of PTSD that wives, girlfriends, partners, and families must deal with alone with no sympathy from the military. The wife of a soldier who returned to Fort Lewis this fall from Iraq recently confided that her husband has violent verbal outbursts towards her, a trend that has only surfaced since his return from the battle lines.

Lynn Jeffries is a single mother from Lubbock, Texas, whose son Nathan was deployed to Iraq in late 2003. A registered nurse who worked for years in an emergency room at a Lubbock hospital, Jeffries says that shortly after her son was deployed, she found herself unable to take care of trauma patients and left the emergency room for work as a hospice nurse. "I just started crying at everything," she says. "I was so angry about this war, but at the same time I felt like I couldn't fight against it without betraying my son. It just ate at me every day, more and more."

Jeffries' depression grew until, she says "at one point I thought of taking my own life in order to get my son home. It's just made me a little crazy. I've never felt so helpless in my life--there are days I could not even leave the house."

Jeffries' son was home on leave when she spoke with this reporter, and she said she was feeling a little better--but having difficulty facing that her son is scheduled for redeployment to Iraq early in 2005. "What will happen the day I have to put him back on the plane to go back? I would do anything to have him go to Canada, but he says his friends need him and he can't leave them."

Teri Wills Allison of Austin, is a mother of two boys--one of whom is deployed in Iraq. She says that the depressions she began to have after her son left for Iraq got so bad that "though I'd never taken pills before I've needed Xanax just to get through the day since my son's deployment."

Jeffries and Wills Allison are not unique. They are part of a growing number of military families who find themselves dealing with what psychologists are beginning to recognize as Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder. Like the better-known Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Secondary TSD can clearly be debilitating.

Says Wills Allison: "We, the mothers and fathers of the boys in Iraq--we're getting by, but barely. Some of them tell me they need a six-pack before bed to fall asleep. Others can't leave the house for fear they'll come home to have that call from the military waiting on the machine. Some families are just torn apart by this."

Some more than others. In late November, Marine Lance Cpl. Charles Hanson Jr., was killed in a roadside bombing of his convoy in Iraq. One week later, on Nov. 30, his stepdad, 39-year-old Mike Barwick, entertained guests at his Crawfordville, FL, home with stories of the stepson he loved so much. Three days later, just hours before guests were coming for a viewing at the home Barwick shared with Hanson's mother, Dana Hanson, Barwick shot and killed himself. Family members were quoted in the local newspapers as saying it was clear he simply couldn't live with the pain.

Misha ben-David, a drug and trauma counsellor in Austin, says he remembers his family being torn apart when his father went to Vietnam, and is beginning to fear the same thing will happen now that his son is being deployed to Iraq. "The stress on the family is unbearable," he says. "I can already hear my ex-wife starting to freak out, retreating into a 'rah-rah, do you love your son or not?' frame of mind. We've got so much pressure on us from people like the Fox network to see this as a black-and-white issue--either you're for the war and a patriot or you're a no good, liberal, anti-American. Add to that stress that it's your child that might be killed, or wounded, or permanently maimed and you've got a lot of family members going crazy out there."

George Bush said speaking about the dreadful loss of life in Iraq in August: (08/03/05): "We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission." "The families of the fallen can be assured that they died for a noble cause."

In reaction to these two assinine and hurtful statements, members of Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP) are going to George's vacation home in Crawford, Tx this Saturday, August 6th at 11:00 am to confront him on these two statements.

1) We want our loved ones sacrifices to be honored by bringing our nation's sons and daughters home from the travesty that is Iraq IMMEDIATELY, since this war is based on horrendous lies and deceptions. Just because our children are dead, why would we want any more families to suffer the same pain and devastation that we are.

2) We would like for him to explain this "noble cause" to us and ask him why Jenna and Barbara are not in harm's way, if the cause is so noble.

3) If George is not ready to send the twins, then he should bring our troops home immediately. We will demand a speedy withdrawal.

GSFP will be joined by members of Veteran's for Peace (VFP), Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Code Pink, and Crawford Peace House.

We GSFP members will not leave until we get answers from George Bush. We deserve and expect him to welcome us with answers to as why our loved ones are dead.

Every worker for peace, every worker for justice, every person who wants our country back are welcomed to join us on Saturday. Show George Bush that we mean business. Be there to support us family members who have already been through so much. We are fighting for our country, our world, especially the children.

Crawford is about 2 hours from Dallas where the VFP Convention is being held this weekend. There will be car pools from the convention.

HONOR OUR LOVED ONE'S SACRIFICES: BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!!!!

Bring water and hats...we plan on staying until we are arrested or satisfied with the answers. (I am betting on jail).

Please pass this email on to your friends, lists, and media.
For more info: call
Cindy Sheehan
707-365-7750

Men whose masculinity is challenged become more inclined to support war or buy an SUV, a new study finds.

Their attitudes against gays change, too.

Cornell University researcher Robb Willer used a survey to sample undergraduates. Participants were randomly assigned feedback that indicated their responses were either masculine of feminine.

The women had no discernable reaction to either type of feedback in a follow-up survey.

But the guys' reactions were "strongly affected," Willer said today.

"I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq war more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle," said Willer said. "There were no increases [in desire] for other types of cars."

Those who had their masculinity threatened also said they felt more ashamed, guilty, upset and hostile than those whose masculinity was confirmed, he said.

A man who got angry with his wife because she wanted to cuddle after sex when what he really wanted to do was watch sports on television was sentenced to death for killing her with a claw hammer.

Christopher Offord, 30, was sentenced Wednesday by Circuit Judge Dedee Costello, who said the brutality of the crime outweighed any mental problems Offord may have had.

"The defendant struck his wife approximately 70 individual blows after spending a happy interlude with her," the judge said. "Her desire to cuddle after sex does not justify the extremely violent, brutal response of the defendant."

Offord pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 slaying of Dana Noser, 40, at his apartment.

He confessed to a bartender at a sports bar before his arrest. He told investigators that his wife had been nagging him to come back to bed.

Offord did not speak in court but said in a jailhouse interview in June: "I figured I killed her so I deserve to die."

School bus drivers, attendants and other co-workers were charged by federal prosecutors Thursday with taking part in an illegal drug ring involving the powerful painkiller OxyContin.

According to the indictment, Miami-Dade school employees were among 29 people who used more than 100 forged or fraudulent prescriptions to obtain thousands of tablets of OxyContin from South Florida pharmacies.

No teachers were involved, and there was no evidence of drug sales to children, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said.

The school workers were recruited to use their health-insurance cards as part of the scheme, prosecutors said.

Of those charged in the grand jury indictment, five are Miami-Dade school bus drivers, 13 are school bus attendants and one is a former school bus driver now driving a city bus. Two school custodians, a cook and a cashier were also charged, along with a Miami doctor and five other people.

Miami-Dade school officials had no immediate comment on the 84-count indictment, which came days before classes begin Monday.

Those charged face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for each count of possession of OxyContin with intent to distribute, as well as additional prison time for fraud charges, prosecutors said.

Diebolds latest electronic voting machine, desired by dozens of counties nationwide, fared worse in the
nations first mass testing than previously disclosed, with almost 20 percent of the touch-screen machines crashing.

Those software failures are likely to send Diebold programmers back to work and perhaps force the firm into weeks of independent laboratory testing.

[snip]

In all, 19 machines had 21 screen freezes or system crashes, producing a blue screen and messages about an illegal operation or a fatal exception error. A Diebold technician had to restart the machine for voting to resume. Ten machines had a total of 11 printer jams. Almost a third of all machines in the mock election had one problem or another.

Diebold officials say they plan to fix the problems and bring the machines back for a new mass test in late August. But they have confided to some California election officials that they arent certain what caused the touch screens to crash.

Douglas Jones, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa and an expert on computerized voting systems, isnt surprised.

Diebolds touch-screen machines run software written by Microsoft, Diebold and at least three other companies who make parts such as printers, memory cards and the touch-sensitive screen itself.

Its essential, Jones insists, that Diebold take its software and hardware fixes back through independent laboratory testing. Otherwise, the patch risks creating a new and unpredicted problem.

Especially with this blue-screen problem, you dont know whether its the printer drivers, you dont know whether its Diebolds own code or whether its Windows, or where the problem is, he said. It brings into question the entire system.

The case of Operation Meth Merchant illustrates another difficulty for law enforcement officials fighting methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that can be made with ordinary grocery store items.

Many states, including Georgia, have recently enacted laws restricting the sale of common cold medicines like Sudafed, and nationwide, the police are telling merchants to be suspicious of sales of charcoal, coffee filters, aluminum foil and Kitty Litter. Walgreens agreed this week to pay $1.3 million for failing to monitor the sale of over-the-counter cold medicine that was bought by a methamphetamine dealer in Texas.

But the case here is also complicated by culture. Prosecutors have had to drop charges against one defendant they misidentified, presuming that the Indian woman inside the store must be the same Indian woman whose name appeared on the registration for a van parked outside, and lawyers have gathered evidence arguing that another defendant is the wrong Patel.

The biggest problem, defense lawyers say, is the language barrier between an immigrant store clerk and the undercover informants who used drug slang or quick asides to convey that they were planning to make methamphetamine.

"They're not really paying attention to what they're being told," said Steve Sadow, one of the lawyers. "Their business is: I ring it up, you leave, I've done my job. Call it language or idiom or culture, I'm not sure you're able to show they know there's anything wrong with what they're doing."

For the Indians, their lives largely limited to store and home, it is as if they have fallen through a looking glass into a world they were content to keep on the other side of the cash register.

"This is the first time I heard this - I don't know how to pronounce - this meta-meta something," said Hajira Ahmed, whose husband is in jail pending charges that he sold cold medicine and antifreeze at their convenience store on a winding road near the Tennessee border.

But David Nahmias, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said the evidence showed that the clerks knew that the informants posing as customers planned to make drugs. Federal law makes it illegal to sell products knowing, or with reason to believe, that they will be used to produce drugs. In these cases, lawyers say, defendants face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

But what lies as the root cause of religious extremism? Lack of faith.

That's right, lack of faith. The zealots in this country, and throughout the world, who must wear their religion on their sleeves, have every aspect of their lives dosed with religion and feel the need to not only believe for themselves, but to take everyone along with them or else, clearly are suffering from a serious lack of faith.

What else can explain the need to constantly shove their religion into everyone else's lives? They have such a fragile system of faith that they must constantly say "look at me, I believe in God, I am pious and you are a sinner, and either you will observe my way or you are going to hell!"

It's called over-compensation, folks, and those that are secure in their faith and belief system (or lack of one) can quietly live their lives according to their values as they see fit. They can worship as they desire, make choices on daily events in a way that they find to be in conformance with their ideas of God and have every right to exist from moment to moment within a framework of faith as they choose.

It is the insecure person who is not satisfied to live their own life and believe in what works for themselves. It is the insecure person who must say it is not enough to pray in church, we must pray in school, and you must, too. It is the insecure person who must have unprovable faith taught alongside scientific fact in a classroom, rather than observing and discussing that faith in a place of worship as one sees fit. It is the insecure person who says it is not enough to refuse to have an abortion for themselves, but who must preclude others from having the right to follow their own beliefs, despite the issue having no impact or causing no harm to anyone else (no, abortion does not cause the invasion of rights of a fetus, because a fetus is not a person and the woman is not a vessel). It is the insecure person who says their faith says the right to die is wrong, so they will not allow the person suffering with ALS to make an individual choice.

Religious extremism and insecurity go hand in hand. They are denials of choice, individual freedoms and personal decision-making. They are at the core, fear; fear that weakness of faith behind the zealotry will break down, expose frailty and leave unknown paths to walk down with no easy answers.

The fundamentalist “Christians” who make up “Operation Save America” are fascists. “Operation Save America” is the face of fascism in America. Americans need to understand fascism. This is how fascists create an atmosphere of fear, suspicion, intolerance, hatred, bigotry, repression, destruction of individual lives, and the destruction of a free society.

President Bush publicly overruled some of his top advisers on Wednesday in a debate about what to call the conflict with Islamic extremists, saying, "Make no mistake about it, we are at war."

In a speech here, Mr. Bush used the phrase "war on terror" no less than five times. Not once did he refer to the "global struggle against violent extremism," the wording consciously adopted by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other officials in recent weeks after internal deliberations about the best way to communicate how the United States views the challenge it is facing.

In recent public appearances, Mr. Rumsfeld and senior military officers have avoided formulations using the word "war," and some of Mr. Bush's top advisers have suggested that the administration wanted to jettison what had been its semiofficial wording of choice, "the global war on terror."

In an interview last week about the new wording, Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, said that the conflict was "more than just a military war on terror" and that the United States needed to counter "the gloomy vision" of the extremists and "offer a positive alternative."

But administration officials became concerned when some news reports linked the change in language to signals of a shift in policy. At the same time, Mr. Bush, by some accounts, told aides that he was not happy with the new phrasing, a change of tone from the wording he had consistently used since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

It is not clear whether the new language embraced by other administration officials was adopted without Mr. Bush's approval or whether he reversed himself after the change was made. Either way, he planted himself on Wednesday firmly on the side of framing the conflict primarily in military terms and appeared intent on emphasizing that there had been no change in American policy.

"We're at war with an enemy that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001," Mr. Bush said in his address here, to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of state legislators. "We're at war against an enemy that, since that day, has continued to kill."

The new documents disclosed by the archive that reflect Roberts' skeptical views regarding a "fundamental" right to privacy include a lengthy article on judicial restraint that he apparently drafted for publication in a journal of the American Bar Association under the name of then-Attorney General William French Smith, his boss.

The article approvingly quoted from a dissenting opinion by Justice Hugo Black in a 1965 court decision, in which the majority held that a Connecticut law forbidding the use of contraceptives was unconstitutional. Black's opinion, as cited in the draft, complained that the court had used "a loose, flexible, uncontrolled standard for holding laws unconstitutional." The draft article said that "the broad range of rights which are now alleged to be 'fundamental' by litigants, with only the most tenuous connection the to Constitution, bears ample witness to the dangers of this doctrine."

The draft released from Roberts's files at the archive does not have his name on it, but a memo to Roberts from Bruce Fein, who then worked in the Justice Department, offers suggested changes on "your draft." Fein said in an interview yesterday that "my judgment is yes, that John wrote it."

A second memo, sent by Roberts to the attorney general on Dec. 11, 1981, summarized a lecture six years earlier by then- Solicitor General Erwin N. Griswold at Washington and Lee University, which touched on the same theme. Griswold's lecture, Roberts said, "devotes a section to the so-called 'right to privacy,' arguing as we have that such an amorphous right is not to be found in the Constitution. He specifically criticizes Roe v. Wade."

The words "so-called" do not appear in Griswold's lecture. But Roberts drafted a letter to Griswold, signed by Smith, saying he was cheered that Griswold made "many of the same points" that the administration had about these matters.

I was driving from one event to another the other day, and I got a call from an Iranian woman who is now a citizen of the United States, and who has been in the US for 30 years, is married to an American, has a 5 year old son, and a brother who has been in prison for 9 months for wanting to serve America.

My new Iranian/American friend, I will call her Susie, since her family is in danger of reprisal, told me that her brother signed up for the National Guard to give something back to the country that he has adopted as his own. He was lied to by his recruiter, who said he could have his student loans paid off and become an American citizen within a year. He also has severe learning disabilities and his recruiter falsified his test scores and his application. Susie's brother was told that the mistakes would be "corrected" before the application was turned in. Like my KIA son, Casey, Susie's brother naïvely trusted his recruiter.

One day, Susie's brother, who was at that time in training as a chemical specialist, was sitting in class, when FBI agents came in and hauled him off to prison. He was told it was because he went to Iran twice after 9/11 (his country of birth and his family's country), and because he falsified his application to get in the National Guard. Susie's brother thought going into the National Guard was going to be a good and admirable thing, and he was deceived and betrayed. He didn't get his student loans paid off, he didn't get citizenship, but he did get thrown in jail without proper legal representation. Susie called her state's senators to see if they could help her and her brother and she was told to quit making trouble, or her entire family would be investigated.

Then yesterday when I was traveling from event to event again, I got another phone call from a hysterical mom, Summer, whose son had been killed in Iraq in April of this year. Her medic son was found face down on his bunk with some morphine bottles around him. Summer was told that he died of a drug overdose and the report stated that her daughter-in-law and her son's battle buddies all said that he abused drugs in Iraq. Summer was devastated. She knew her boy. She knew her son didn't take drugs. She finally got a hold of the reports that contradicted what she was told by the military. All of the people interviewed said her son DID NOT abuse drugs. She received the toxicology report 2 months after her son died and he DID NOT have any drugs in his system. How did Summer's son die and why is the Army trying to cover it up? Wasn't it bad enough that this government took Summer's son and killed him in an unjust, immoral, and illegal war? They had to lie to her, too?

The Bush family has often been referred to as the WASP version of the Corleones, but the Soprano clan makes for a much better comparison. At its best, "The Sopranos" is an acid mockery of the phony gravitas of the three "Godfather" movies. Where Michael Corleone is heroically evil, an international player who consorts with statesmen and the Vatican before succumbing to his tragic flaw, Tony Soprano is a sewer rat engaged in the grubby business of preying on human weakness and fear -– when his fall comes, it will be tragic only to himself. Until then, however, he’s going to make as much money as he can for himself and his buddies, and leave the rest of the world holding the bill.

I'm not just using hyperbole here. I do think that when honest historians assess the Bush administration, they will find it more useful to treat George II and his Republican cronies as a criminal organization rather than a political party. The best tool for analyzing Bush's policies is not historiography, but the procedures used by federal agents as they pursue a RICO investigation into a mobbed-up business.

Take the money and run. As long as Republicans are in power, that phrase should replace "E Pluribus Unum" on the national seal. It's the natural outcome of a quarter-century of rhetoric about how government is the problem, not the solution; how government doesn't work; how deregulation is the only way to build the economy. If government is nothing but a taxpayer-funded scam, then why not use it to enrich yourself and your buddies? If the very idea of public service as an idealistic calling has been turned into a mealymouthed joke, then where's the shame in abusing power and running the country into the ground? As long as you can convince just over 50 percent of the suckers to vote your way, you can throw yourself a party and leave the world holding the bill.

This is what they are. This is what they do. Didn't they tell you?

And if you, good citizen, are wondering where you fit into this picture, just cast your mind back to the last episode of the second season of "The Sopranos." One of the closing shots shows us David Scatino in an empty parking lot, tying some gear to the top of his car as he prepares to leave his ruined life behind him. He wanted to play poker with the big boys, so you can say he brought his troubles on himself. A majority of Americans voted for Bush in at least one of the last two elections, so you can say we brought this on ourselves. In Scatino's case, human weakness created a business opportunity for Tony Soprano. America's weakness created a business opportunity for the Republicans. With the national press at a historic low ebb, the Democratic Party flat on its back and the airwaves humming with wingnut propaganda, the pickings couldn't be any richer.

They saw their chance and they took it. That's what they are. That's what they do.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive for Expedia.com, surveyed working adults in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands as well as the United States. When it comes to vacation deprivation, however, Americans lead the world.

First of all, the survey found that U.S. workers receive fewer vacation days (12 on average) than workers in any of the other countries surveyed, and Americans are more likely to work over 40 hours a week (35 percent). The United States tied with Canada for giving back to employers the most vacation days per person (3 days on average).

The value of vacation days that Americans are expected to leave unused in 2005 is estimated at nearly $54 billion.

Overall, almost a third (31 percent) of working Americans reported that they don’t always take all of the vacation days they have coming, but it’s not because they don’t like taking time off. Nearly half (48 percent) of American workers say that they return from vacation feeling “rested, rejuvenated and reconnected in their personal life.”

President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of -- nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.

The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening to clear brush, visit with family and friends, and tend to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.

The August getaway is Bush's 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and Tuesday was the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford -- roughly 20 percent of his presidency to date, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter known for keeping better records of the president's travel than the White House itself. Weekends and holidays at Camp David or at his parents' compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, bump up the proportion of Bush's time away from Washington even further.

Bush's long vacations are more than a curiosity: They play into diametrically opposite arguments about this leadership style. To critics and late-night comics, they symbolize a lackadaisical approach to the world's most important day job, an impression bolstered by Bush's periodic two-hour midday exercise sessions and his disinclination to work nights or weekends. The more vociferous among Bush's foes have noted that he spent a month at the ranch shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when critics assert he should have been more attentive to warning signs.

To Bush and his advisers, that criticism fundamentally misunderstands his Texas sojourns. Those who think he does not remain in command, aides say, do not understand the modern presidency or Bush's own work habits. At the ranch, White House officials say, Bush continues to receive daily national security briefings, sign documents, hold teleconferences with aides and military commanders, and even meet with foreign leaders. And from the president's point of view, the long Texas stints are the best way to clear his mind and reconnect with everyday America.

Does George Bush really believe that actual evidence doesn't matter if it happens to conflict with his own instinct? Apparently he really does. Here's what he had to say last year about steroid use:

"The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous....So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now."

Now here he is on Baltimore Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who was suspended today after testing positive for steroids:

"Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said, referring to Palmeiro's denials under oath to a congressional committee on March 17. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

It's like listening to a small child. He doesn't want to believe it, so it isn't true. This is the man currently running our country.

Once upon a time, a dangerous radical gained control of the US Republican Party.

Reagan increased the budget for support of the radical Muslim Mujahidin conducting terrorism against the Afghanistan government to half a billion dollars a year.

One fifth of the money, which the CIA mostly turned over to Pakistani military intelligence to distribute, went to Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, a violent extremist who as a youth used to throw acid on the faces of unveiled girls in Afghanistan.

Not content with creating a vast terrorist network to harass the Soviets, Reagan then pressured the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to match US contributions. He had earlier imposed on Fahd to give money to the Contras in Nicaragua, some of which was used to create rightwing death squads. (Reagan liked to sidestep Congress in creating private terrorist organizations for his foreign policy purposes, which he branded "freedom fighters," giving terrorists the idea that it was all right to inflict vast damage on civilians in order to achieve their goals).

Fahd was a timid man and resisted Reagan's instructions briefly, but finally gave in to enormous US pressure.

Fahd not only put Saudi government money into the Afghan Mujahideen networks, which trained them in bomb making and guerrilla tactics, but he also instructed the Minister of Intelligence, Turki al-Faisal, to try to raise money from private sources.

Turki al-Faisal checked around and discovered that a young member of the fabulously wealthy Bin Laden construction dynasty, Usama, was committed to Islamic causes. Turki thus gave Usama the task of raising money from Gulf millionaires for the Afghan struggle. This whole effort was undertaken, remember, on Reagan Administration instructions.

Bin Laden not only raised millions for the effort, but helped encourage Arab volunteers to go fight for Reagan against the Soviets and the Afghan communists. The Arab volunteers included people like Ayman al-Zawahiri, a young physician who had been jailed for having been involved in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat. Bin Laden kept a database of these volunteers. In Arabic the word for base is al-Qaeda.

In the US, the Christian Right adopted the Mujahideen as their favorite project. They even sent around a "biblical checklist" for grading US congressman as to how close they were to the "Christian" political line. If a congressman didn't support the radical Muslim Muj, he or she was downgraded by the evangelicals and fundamentalists.

As Paul Hackett would say, "ROCK ON!"

Raise your glass to fighting in every district, in every state, every day. When the assholes in D.C. (cc) write off a district a district, my answer is FUCK THEM. Because Democrats want to fight and we'll do it ourselves. There are no roadblocks -- let's get some shit done. People are going crazy celebrating tonight, the 2006 backlash will be huge.

(From Tim:) We are sitting in the bar right now, literally blogging this together. The mood is jubilant as we look forward to 2006. When Howard Dean was elected as DNC Chair, he made a promise to fight in every precinct, in every district, and in every state. For the past several weeks the future of the party, the grassroots, came together and fought a fight that the pundit political class said wasn't worth fighting. Consider this the opening salvo of the 2006 election cycle. I sat five feet away from Paul Hackett tonight as he talked to Jean Schmidt--he congratulated her and told him to say hello to the president for him ("the S.O.B")--This is take no prisoners now. The Republican Party is on notice. For that matter, the Democratic Party establishment is on notice; get with the program or we will leave you behind. We have a country to take back.

Understand this: yesterday, thousands of Bush-supporting, longtime Republicans went into the booth and voted for a Democrat who attacked the President. A pro-choice moderate against the head of the local pro-life outfit.

These are people who haven't voted Democratic since 1980.

We're realists and we gave the money knowing he was a long shot. At no point did I think he would get this close. I thought 55-45 would send a message that we would fight anywhere, anytime. Those extra three points makes a big difference. In most of the counties he lost 51-49

This sends a completely different message.

This says we can support candidates, get them noticed, and get them competative. Hackett had NO chance before the Net went to support him. What has to be realized is that Schmidt will only have the seat for 14 months, Hackett is in a great position to run again. It often takes two or three runs to win a Congressional seat.

First of all, the NRCC had to come in and save Schmidt after her campaign manager was caught flatfooted by the extra money Hackett suddenly had.

Second, the attacks on Hackett's military service was a major, major mistake. In polling last year, Zogby showed that the Swift Boat attacks had no real effect on Kerry.

But the attack on a serving reservist blew up in their faces. There is NO other way, except for lingering resentment about Coingate, to account for the massive swing in such a solidly red district. A 12 point swing, which is massive. As people have been saying, in any other district in the state, he'd be going to Congress.

And to compound it, the people critizing him were Navy staff officers. Jesus, Marines, even, ex-Marines, have no love for the Navy. That pissed off a LOT of people. The region south of Columbus has been hard hit by Marine casualities in Iraq. Six dead scout-snipers Monday, 14 riflemen killed and wounded a month or so ago. Slandering a man who served in Iraq was a dumb strategy, especially in a region heavy with veterans. But to have sailors question a Marine's honesty and courage in battle? Jesus, that was dumb. People have been hurt in bars for less.

There was almost a Pavlovian reaction when he attacked Dear Leader. The GOP went nuts. They didn't use any common sense or discuss other issues. They made it about him, not their crappy, lying candidate.

So he ran with it and we helped him.

There are some lessons here, but we can discuss them later.

What people should take away from this is that this was a Pyhrric victory for the GOP. A formerly safe seat was turned into a squeaker.

We did some good work here. A win would have been nice, and the trolls and the clueless will whine about this, but that wasn't the point of this exercise.

Think of this as a commando mission. We messed with the opposition in their heartland, made some points and will take what we learned here to do it better next time.

We went into a deep red district and almost took it. Think of a deep blue district where they could do the same. It's a bad day when you have to fight for what is a safe seat.

May it [the Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

President Bush said Monday he believes schools should discuss "intelligent design" alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.

During a round-table interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers, Bush declined to go into detail on his personal views of the origin of life. But he said students should learn about both theories, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

The theory of intelligent design says life on earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation.

In yet another surreal twist in Ohio’s “coin-gate” scandal, the wife of Bush’s chief Ohio fundraiser, Tom Noe—who is currently embroiled in campaign finance and money laundering probes—surprised poll workers and observers alike by disrupting the ballot count during the 2004 general election, RAW STORY has discovered.

Bernadette Noe, who served dual roles as chairman for the Lucas County Republican Party and the Lucas County Board of Elections, sent twelve “partisans” into a warehouse on Election Day, according a memo authored by Ohio’s Director of Campaign Finance Richard Weghorst who was present at the time.

The Board was “directly responsible for the inefficient and unorganized election process” in the county, the report said. Weghorst found they had failed to lock and secure ballots and voting machines; manipulated the three percent hand recount; and failed to properly remove Ralph Nader from county ballots.

But perhaps the most striking event directly linked to Ms. Noe was what Weghorst described as “a note-worthy incident relating to security” on the evening of the election.

Weghorst, who was present at a local warehouse where ballots were being tabulated, says in his report that “two groups of partisan volunteers totaling approximately twelve people" arrived, whose "purpose for being there was not immediately known nor requested."

When the volunteers refused to leave the premises, Weghorst called the police, who then escorted the group away from the warehouse. It later emerged they had come at Ms. Noe's request.

A Diebold employee, Robert Diekmann, was also present at the warehouse that night.

[snip]

Reminiscent of an account reported on by RAW STORY regarding ballot tampering in Clermont County, Ohio, Ms. Noe was involved in an incident through which Republican volunteers were brought in to “assist” processing returned voter confirmation postcards. On her authority and that of several other board members, partisan volunteers were allowed to copy the returned cards.

They were subsequently caught by a Lucas County Democratic official peeling the return stickers off the voter confirmation cards, and were told to leave. Weghorst’s inquiry found no evidence they had been supervised.

President Bush sidestepped the Senate and installed embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, ending a five-month impasse with Democrats who accused Bolton of abusing subordinates and twisting intelligence to fit his conservative ideology.

As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts. Rove has told investigators he believes he learned of her directly or indirectly from reporters, according to his lawyer.

...the administration is getting nowhere on its grand policy agenda. But it never took policy, as opposed to politics, very seriously anyway. The agenda it has always taken with utmost seriousness - consolidating one-party rule, and rewarding its friends - is moving forward quite nicely.

[snip]

Let's start with the energy bill. Even the bill's supporters barely pretend that it will do anything to reduce America's dependence on imported oil. It's simply an exercise in corporate welfare, full of subsidies and targeted tax breaks.

Then there's the pork-stuffed highway bill. I guess we'll have to stop making fun of Japanese public works spending: now America, too, is building bridges to islands that have almost no inhabitants, but lie in the districts of influential legislators.

Finally, Cafta contains "free trade" in its title, but that's misleading. The administration rammed the bill through the House by, among other things, promising to limit imports of clothing from China; over all, the effect may well be to reduce, not increase, international trade. But pharmaceutical companies got measures that protect and extend their monopoly rights in Central America.

These bills don't have anything to do with governing, if governing means trying to achieve actual policy goals like energy independence or expanded trade. They're just machine politics at work, favors granted in return for favors received.

In fact, you can argue that the administration does a bad job at governing in part because its highest priority is always to reward its friends.

Gov. George E. Pataki's aides said last night that he would veto a bill to make the so-called morning-after pill available without a prescription, prompting outrage among abortion-rights advocates.

Kevin C. Quinn, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement that the governor's main objection was that the bill did not include provisions that would prevent minors from having access to the drug.

Mr. Quinn said the governor would be willing to reconsider the measure if the Legislature drafted and passed a new bill that addressed his concerns about the drug's availability to minors, as well as "other flaws."

Mr. Pataki's decision comes as he lays the groundwork for a presidential run in 2008 and underscores the forces he must negotiate as he steps onto the national stage.

Mr. Pataki's position as a longtime supporter of abortion rights has enabled him to survive in heavily Democratic New York for three terms. Had he signed the bill, he would have angered national conservatives, who are adamantly opposed to the emergency contraception and whose support he will need.

The governor revealed his position after he was asked about plans by Naral Pro-Choice New York, to start a nationwide television advertising blitz intended to pressure him into backing the bill.

The group's planned blitz stems from Mr. Pataki's initial refusal to say whether he would support the bill, which would make the morning-after pill, which prevents pregnancy after sex, available to women and girls without a prescription. When told of the advertising campaign last night, the Pataki administration reacted with surprise and later said the governor would veto the measure.

That spurred fierce criticism from abortion-rights advocates, who noted the difficulty in getting the Republicans, who control the Senate, to pass the measure the first time.

"It was a Herculean task to get it through the Senate and get the support of right-to-life senators who saw this as good common ground prevention," said Kelli Conlin, executive director of Naral Pro-Choice New York. Noting that Mr. Pataki had not raised any concerns about minors' having access to the drug before, she accused him of trying to placate conservatives in his possible presidential bid.

Further, Ms. Conlin noted that under Mr. Pataki, the state has covered the costs of abortions and abortion-inducing drugs for low-income minors. "This is about pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party rather than doing what's right for the women of New York," she said.

Mr. Quinn, the governor's spokesman, denied that politics had played into the decision.

Tucked within Missouri Senate Bill 280, now awaiting Governor Matt Blunt's signature, is a single sentence that's sure to have repercussions at poolside chaises and in steamy backseats across the state: "The written informed consent of a minor's parent or legal guardian... must be obtained prior to providing body waxing on or near the genitalia."
If Blunt signs the bill -- which he's fully expected to do -- budding bikini-wearers interested in ripping the pubic hair from their nether-regions will have to convince Mom or Dad to sign off.

"That's so a child under the age of eighteen can’t go in and do a complete Brazilian wax without parental consent,” explains Darla Fox, executive director of the Missouri State Board of Cosmetology, which proposed the law.

“Twelve- and thirteen-year-old little girls think they’re eighteen and nineteen in this day and age,” Fox continues. “Sometimes they can become very rebellious, and if they think this is something that their folks can come unglued about, that’s what they’re going to do.”

The hair-removal method, “the barest form of erotic shaving,” gained prominence in the mid-’90s as skimpy thongs made their way into wardrobes. Rather than simply trim the hair escaping from the cloth triangle, women (and men) started paying to have it waxed off. The added bonus is increased sensitivity. And, in a culture where some teens don’t consider oral sex to be sex at all, a good waxing can double the pleasure.

“We use a wax substance specifically made for [Brazilian waxing],” says Chris Duello, marketing director for The Face & The Body, a Clayton day spa that offers the procedure for $60. “It tends to be very sticky. The wax is applied carefully where you want to remove the hair, and then a piece of cloth, usually a muslin, is applied to that, and it’s smoothed in the direction of the hair growth.”

With one stern rip and a few days of healing, the pubic area and butt crack are as fresh as the morning dew and remain so for a couple of months.

From Pago Pago in American Samoa to Yap in Micronesia, 4,000 miles to the west, Army recruiters are scouring the Pacific, looking for high school graduates to enlist at a time when the Iraq war is turning off many candidates in the States.

The Army has found fertile ground in the poverty pockets of the Pacific. The per capita income is $8,000 in American Samoa, $12,500 in the Northern Marianas and $21,000 in Guam, all United States territories. In the Marshalls and Micronesia, former trust territories, per capita incomes are about $2,000.

The Army minimum signing bonus is $5,000. Starting pay for a private first class is $17,472. Education benefits can be as much as $70,000.

"You can't beat recruiting here in the Marianas, in Micronesia," said First Sgt. Olympio Magofna, who grew up on Saipan and oversees Pacific recruiting for the Army from his base in Guam. "In the states, they are really hurting," he said. "But over here, I can afford go play golf every other day."

Here, where "America starts its day," the Army recruiting station in Guam has 4 of the Army's top 12 "producers." While small in real terms, enlistments from Guam, Saipan, and American Samoa are the nation's highest per capita. Saipan, with a population of about 60,000 American citizens and green card holders, has 245 soldiers in Iraq.

[American Samoa, population of 67,000, has lost six soldiers in Iraq, most recently Staff Sgt. Frank F. Tiai of Pago Pago on July 17. Guam has lost three. Saipan has lost one.]

"I see yellow ribbons everywhere," Staff Sgt. Levi Suiaunoa said by telephone from the Army recruiting station in Pago Pago, capital of the territory. " 'Come home safely' signs almost litter the streets."

Despite the casualties, poverty and patriotism fuel enlistments.

"I buried at least one myself, but it hasn't stopped the number of recruits going in," said the Rev. J. Quinn Weitzel, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago. "They still feel like they want to do something special for the United States."