A Lipstick President

By MAUREEN DOWD

The president is working up a sweat, keeping that perfectly toned body perfectly toned. I slide past stone-faced men with earpieces and ask the president how it's going.

"Good," she says, grinning. "People ask me if there could really be a woman president and I say, Of course, it's the 21st century."

Geena Davis was shooting a rowing scene at the Potomac Boat House on Monday morning for her new ABC show, "Commander-in-Chief," about the first woman president.

Luckily, the first woman president is tall, a shade taller than W., so she's eyeball to eyeball with generals and ambassadors. And she's a redhead. Redheads, a recent study showed, have a higher tolerance for pain. In the show's premiere, a lot of pain is dished up for Ms. Davis's character, Mackenzie Allen, the vice president of a conservative president who keels over before the first hour is over.

Nobody wants the vice president, a political independent, to be Madame President. Not the president, who tells her before he dies to resign so his ally, the archconservative speaker of the House played by Donald Sutherland, can get the job. Not the president's chief of staff. Not her sulky, sexy conservative teenage daughter. Even her supportive (and faithful) politico husband gets skittish after East Wing staffers begin calling him "the first lady" and arrange his meetings with the White House chef.

Mr. Sutherland's Nathan Templeton condescendingly asks her, "How many Islamic states do you think would follow the edicts of a woman?"

"Well, not only that, Nathan," she replies sarcastically, "but we have that whole 'once a month will she or won't she press the button' thing."

He laughs nastily. "Well, in a couple years," he says, "you're not gonna have to worry about that anymore."

The creator and writer, Rod Lurie, also had an embattled woman vice president in his 2000 movie "The Contender." (He named his TV president and vice president Bridges and Allen; the stars playing those roles in 2000 were Jeff Bridges and Joan Allen.)

He told me he modeled his female president not on Hillary Clinton but on Susan Lyne, the smart, elegant former president of ABC Entertainment who is chief executive at Martha Stewart Inc. He said he wanted someone "of rather unimpeachable integrity, very kind, very calm."

As Geena Davis was bursting into the Oval Office, and the other TV president, Martin Sheen, was dropping in on Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, Hillary was plotting for real.

Her political activism began with her 1969 Wellesley commencement speech, when she slapped back a Republican senator, Edward Brooke, for criticizing the students' Vietnam War protests. She praised "that indispensable task of criticizing."

But now Hillary's voice is often pianissimo on the current hot issue: how to get out of Iraq. Once we made sure Saddam was armed against Iran. Now we may have to arm an Islamic protégé of Iran if we want to pull out.

But Hillary's not playing the vocal peacenik this time - she's the cagey hawk. She knows if she wants to be the first woman president, she can't have love beads in her jewelry box.

She has defended her vote to authorize the president to wage war, even though it was apparent then that the administration was snookering the country. And she has argued for more troops in Iraq, knowing it sounds muscular but there's no support for it from the public - or Rummy.

She figures the liberals will stay with her while she scuttles to the center, even if they get angry when she's not out front on stopping the war or preserving abortion rights. No one knows how she'll vote on John Roberts, so this could be her own Sister Souljah moment - will she break with the hard-line left on Judge Roberts?

What Hillary has going for her is exhaustion. Exhaustion kicks in with any party in power for eight years, let alone one that tricked the country into war. And at some point, voters may be too exhausted to resist Hillary's relentless ambition any longer.

But by hanging back and trimming her positions, by keeping her powder dry until a more politically advantageous time, she may miss the moment when Americans are looking for someone to emerge from her cowering party to articulate their anger about Iraq or their fear about a Supreme Court that will scale back women's rights and civil rights here, as Islamic courts do the same in Iraq.

Hillary may get caught flat-footed. Or she may be right in betting that there's no need to do anything rash now, like leading.

Harness Racing Results for 08-30-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (158)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (43)


****************************

The Meadows

Race # 11

Horse: HOPE’S VICTORY (Out of the Money)

Post Position: # 6

Two Cuyahoga County election workers indicted in presidential recount

CLEVELAND -- Two workers at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections have been charged with taking illegal short cuts in our local recount of last year’s presidential election.

A libertarian candidate and one from the Green party made the original accusations, and today a grand jury agreed.

Ballot supervisors Rosey Greer and Kathleen Dreamer each face six felonies.

The shortcuts wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the election, but were not the way the recount should have been handled.

Harness Racing Picks for 08-30-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (158)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (42)


****************************

The Meadows

Race # 11

Horse: HOPE’S VICTORY

Post Position: # 6

Harness Racing Results for 08-29-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (158)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (42)


****************************

Hazel Park

Race # 6

Horse: KELTIC JONNIE (Out of the Money)

Post Position: # 1


Race # 8

Horse: COON DOG BOB (Won)

Post Position: # 2

****************************

Plainridge Race Course

Race # 10

Horse: HATS OFF TO SAM (Won)

Post Position: # 4

ACLU reveals FBI labeled peace, affirmative action group 'terrorist'

RAW STORY

The American Civil Liberties Union today released an FBI document that designates a Michigan-based peace group and an affirmative action advocacy group as potentially "involved in terrorist activities," RAW STORY has learned.

IRAQIS REJECT DEMOCRACY, FEARING OBESITY MAY BE NEXT

Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds Report Worrisome Weight Gains Since U.S. Invasion

Hopes for a new Iraqi constitution suffered a major setback today as Iraqis rejected American-style democracy, fearing that it could usher in American-style obesity in its wake.

The decision to scuttle democracy as a way of avoiding obesity was announced by the Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz Hakim in a press conference in Baghdad.

“If, by embracing democracy, Iraqis will all become obese like those Americans you see at their Walmart, then we will have none of it,” Mr. Hakim said, vehemently pounding his fist on the table.

While Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds have been divided on most issues relating to Iraq’s new constitution, fear of obesity seems to the one uniting force that has galvanized the nation’s three factious ethnic groups.

Since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, the average Iraqi has reported weight gains of between fifteen and twenty pounds as the nation has struggled to adapt to the sudden influx of McDonald’s, Applebee’s, and Boston Market restaurants that are now a mainstay of every Iraqi thoroughfare.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said that the U.S. would soon send dispatch a representative to Iraq “to assure the Iraqi people that democracy and obesity do not necessarily go hand in hand.”

While Mr. McClellan indicated that such a representative had not yet been chosen, he told reporters, “It probably won’t be Cheney.”

Elsewhere, a man arrested for trespassing in actress Jennifer Aniston’s home told authorities that he had planned to leave Ms. Aniston to go trespassing in actress Angelina Jolie’s home.

Harness Racing Picks for 08-29-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (156)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (41)

****************************

Hazel Park

Race # 6

Horse: KELTIC JONNIE

Post Position: # 1


Race # 8

Horse: COON DOG BOB

Post Position: # 2

****************************

Plainridge Race Course

Race # 10

Horse: HATS OFF TO SAM

Post Position: # 4

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 212

August 28, 2005 · This week we have an unlikely religious discussion about the merits of assassination, as Pat Robertson leaves the 700 Club and joins the 007 club.

British official wrote of increasing homegrown Islamic militancy

British official wrote of increasing homegrown Islamic militancy

LONDON, England (UPI) -- A 2004 letter from a high ranking British foreign office official raised concerns that involvement in Iraq was increasing homegrown Islamic militancy.

U.S. oil surges $4 to record above $70

U.S. oil surges $4 to record above $70

U.S. crude oil futures surged more than $4 in opening trade on Monday, hitting a new record high above $70 a barrel after Hurricane Katrina forced Gulf of Mexico producers to shut in more than a third of their output.

Katrina, which strengthened into a rare, maximum power Category 5 hurricane as it spun through key oil and gas fields toward New Orleans, shut in a total 633,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to company figures on Sunday.

The Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation

By FRANK RICH

ANOTHER week in Iraq, another light at the end of the tunnel. On Monday President Bush saluted the Iraqis for "completing work on a democratic constitution" even as the process was breaking down yet again. But was anyone even listening to his latest premature celebration?

We have long since lost count of all the historic turning points and fast-evaporating victories hyped by this president. The toppling of Saddam's statue, "Mission Accomplished," the transfer of sovereignty and the purple fingers all blur into a hallucinatory loop of delusion. One such red-letter day, some may dimly recall, was the adoption of the previous, interim constitution in March 2004, also proclaimed a "historic milestone" by Mr. Bush. Within a month after that fabulous victory, the insurgency boiled over into the war we have today, taking, among many others, the life of Casey Sheehan.

It's Casey Sheehan's mother, not those haggling in Baghdad's Green Zone, who really changed the landscape in the war this month. Not because of her bumper-sticker politics or the slick left-wing political operatives who have turned her into a circus, but because the original, stubborn fact of her grief brought back the dead the administration had tried for so long to lock out of sight. With a shove from Pat Robertson, her 15 minutes are now up, but even Mr. Robertson's antics revealed buyer's remorse about Iraq; his stated motivation for taking out Hugo Chávez by assassination was to avoid "another $200 billion war" to remove a dictator.

In the wake of Ms. Sheehan's protest, the facts on the ground in America have changed almost everywhere. The president, for one, has been forced to make what for him is the ultimate sacrifice: jettisoning chunks of vacation to defend the war in any bunker he can find in Utah or Idaho. In the first speech of this offensive, he even felt compelled to take the uncharacteristic step of citing the number of American dead in public (though the number was already out of date by at least five casualties by day's end). For the second, the White House recruited its own mom, Tammy Pruett, for the president to showcase as an antidote to Ms. Sheehan. But in a reversion to the president's hide-the-fallen habit, the chosen mother was not one who had lost a child in Iraq.

It isn't just Mr. Bush who is in a tight corner now. Ms. Sheehan's protest was the catalyst for a new national argument about the war that managed to expose both the intellectual bankruptcy of its remaining supporters on the right and the utter bankruptcy of the Democrats who had rubber-stamped this misadventure in the first place.

When the war's die-hard cheerleaders attacked the Middle East policy of a mother from Vacaville, Calif., instead of defending the president's policy in Iraq, it was definitive proof that there is little cogent defense left to be made. When the Democrats offered no alternative to either Mr. Bush's policy or Ms. Sheehan's plea for an immediate withdrawal, it was proof that they have no standing in the debate.

Instead, two conservative Republicans - actually talking about Iraq instead of Ms. Sheehan, unlike the rest of their breed - stepped up to fill this enormous vacuum: Chuck Hagel and Henry Kissinger. Both pointedly invoked Vietnam, the war that forged their political careers. Their timing, like Ms. Sheehan's, was impeccable. Last week Mr. Bush started saying that the best way to honor the dead would be to "finish the task they gave their lives for" - a dangerous rationale that, as David Halberstam points out, was heard as early as 1963 in Vietnam, when American casualties in that fiasco were still inching toward 100.

And what exactly is our task? Mr. Bush's current definition - "as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down" - could not be a better formula for quagmire. Twenty-eight months after the fall of Saddam, only "a small number" of Iraqi troops are capable of fighting without American assistance, according to the Pentagon - a figure that Joseph Biden puts at "fewer than 3,000." At this rate, our 138,000 troops will be replaced by self-sufficient locals in roughly 100 years.

For his part, Mr. Hagel backed up his assertion that we are bogged down in a new Vietnam with an irrefutable litany of failure: "more dead, more wounded, less electricity in Iraq, less oil being pumped in Iraq, more insurgency attacks, more insurgents coming across the border, more corruption in the government." Mr. Kissinger no doubt counts himself a firm supporter of Mr. Bush, but in Washington Post this month, he drew a damning lesson from Vietnam: "Military success is difficult to sustain unless buttressed by domestic support." Anyone who can read a poll knows that support is gone and is not coming back. The president's approval rating dropped to 36 percent in one survey last week.

What's left is the option stated bluntly by Mr. Hagel: "We should start figuring out how we get out of there."

He didn't say how we might do that. John McCain has talked about sending more troops to rectify our disastrous failure to secure the country, but he'll have to round them up himself door to door. As the retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey reported to the Senate, the National Guard is "in the stage of meltdown and in 24 months we'll be coming apart." At the Army, according to The Los Angeles Times, officials are now predicting an even worse shortfall of recruits in 2006 than in 2005. The Leo Burnett advertising agency has been handed $350 million for a recruitment campaign that avoids any mention of Iraq.

Among Washington's Democrats, the only one with a clue seems to be Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin senator who this month proposed setting a "target date" (as opposed to a deadline) for getting out. Mr. Feingold also made the crucial observation that "the president has presented us with a false choice": either "stay the course" or "cut and run." That false choice, in which Mr. Bush pretends that the only alternative to his reckless conduct of the war is Ms. Sheehan's equally apocalyptic retreat, is used to snuff out any legitimate debate. There are in fact plenty of other choices echoing about, from variations on Mr. Feingold's timetable theme to buying off the Sunni insurgents.

But don't expect any of Mr. Feingold's peers to join him or Mr. Hagel in fashioning an exit strategy that might work. If there's a moment that could stand for the Democrats' irrelevance it came on July 14, the day Americans woke up to learn of the suicide bomber in Baghdad who killed as many as 27 people, nearly all of them children gathered around American troops. In Washington that day, the presumptive presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a press conference vowing to protect American children from the fantasy violence of video games.

The Democrats are hoping that if they do nothing, they might inherit the earth as the Bush administration goes down the tubes. Whatever the dubious merits of this Kerryesque course as a political strategy, as a moral strategy it's unpatriotic. The earth may not be worth inheriting if Iraq continues to sabotage America's ability to take on Iran and North Korea, let alone Al Qaeda.

As another politician from the Vietnam era, Gary Hart, observed last week, the Democrats are too cowardly to admit they made a mistake three years ago, when fear of midterm elections drove them to surrender to the administration's rushed and manipulative Iraq-war sales pitch. So now they are compounding the original error as the same hucksters frantically try to repackage the old damaged goods.

IN the new pitch there are no mushroom clouds. Instead we get McCarthyesque rhetoric accusing critics of being soft on the war on terrorism, which the Iraq adventure has itself undermined. Before anyone dare say Vietnam, the president, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld drag in the historian David McCullough and liken 2005 in Iraq to 1776 in America - and, by implication, the original George W. to ours. Before you know it, Ahmad Chalabi will be rehabilitated as Ben Franklin.

The marketing campaign will crescendo in two weeks, on the anniversary of 9/11, when a Defense Department "Freedom Walk" will trek from the site of the Pentagon attack through Arlington National Cemetery to a country music concert on the Mall. There the false linkage of Iraq to 9/11 will be hammered in once more, this time with a beat: Clint Black will sing "I Raq and Roll," a ditty whose lyrics focus on Saddam, not the Islamic radicals who actually attacked America. Lest any propaganda opportunity be missed, Arlington's gravestones are being branded with the Pentagon's slogans for military campaigns, like Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Associated Press reported last week - a historic first. If only the administration had thought of doing the same on the fallen's coffins, it might have allowed photographs.

Even though their own poll numbers are in a race to the bottom with the president's, don't expect the Democrats to make a peep. Republicans, their minds increasingly focused on November 2006, may well blink first. In yet another echo of Vietnam, it's millions of voters beyond the capital who will force the timetable for our inexorable exit from Iraq.

$145,000 owed by every American

The country is ill-prepared to cover $43 trillion in obligations.


The Associated Press

You owe $145,000. And the bill is rising every day.

That's how much it would cost every American man, woman and child to pay the tab for the long-term promises the U.S. government has made to creditors, retirees, veterans and the poor. And it's not even taking into account credit card bills, mortgages - all the debt we've racked up personally. Savings? The average American puts away barely $1 of every $100 earned.

Our profligate ways at home are mirrored in Washington and in the global marketplace, where as a society we spend $1.9 billion more a day on imported clothes and cars and gadgets than the entire rest of the world spends on its goods and services. A chorus of economists, government officials and elected leaders are warning that nonstop borrowing could bring fiscal disaster - one that could unleash plummeting home values, rocketing interest rates, lost jobs and threats to government services.

Cannonball man flies over border

David Smith has an unusual way of crossing the Mexican border into the US - as a human cannonball.
Mr Smith, a professional cannonball, was launched head first across the border between Tijuana, in Mexico, and the US city of San Diego.

His son, also a human cannonball, says Mr Smith is the first person to be fired across an international border.

Mr Smith waved his passport in the air as he sat on the lip of the cannon, before leaving on the brief journey.

BBC

Harness Racing Results for 08-27-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (156)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (41)


****************************

Balmoral Park

Race # 9

Horse: TIMBERTON (Won)

Post Position: # 4

****************************

Cal-Expo

Race # 1

Horse: SUMMER FRANCO (Won)

Post Position: # 6

****************************

The Red Mile

Race # 3

Horse: GOLD DUST BEACH (Won)

Post Position: # 4

Just when I thought I was laughed out today regarding Right-Wing MoonBats....TA DA

The Grand Old Portal – The Internet’s First Republican Search Engine

New London, WI – August 17th, 2005 – Jonbon Technologies will launch The Grand Old Portal (http://www.GrandOldPortal.com) on August 29th, 2005. The Grand Old Portal is a human-edited search engine of Republican websites on the World Wide Web. This search engine is different from other search engines as it only lists sites that support the Republican Party. Each site that is submitted is reviewed by an editor who then determines if the site will be listed in the search engine.

Webmasters who run websites that support the Republican Party are invited to visit http://www.GrandOldPortal.com and submit their website for inclusion in the search engine. Even though the website will not be launched until the 29th of August, webmasters are still encouraged to submit their websites now for inclusion.

Bush's Obscene Tirades Rattle White House Aides

Aug 25, 2005, 06:19

While President George W. Bush travels around the country in a last-ditch effort to sell his Iraq war, White House aides scramble frantically behind the scenes to hide the dark mood of an increasingly angry leader who unleashes obscenity-filled outbursts at anyone who dares disagree with him.

“I’m not meeting again with that goddamned bitch,” Bush screamed at aides who suggested he meet again with Cindy Sheehan, the war-protesting mother whose son died in Iraq. “She can go to hell as far as I’m concerned!”

Bush flashes the bird, something aides say he does often and has been doing since his days as governor of Texas.
Bush, administration aides confide, frequently explodes into tirades over those who protest the war, calling them “motherfucking traitors.” He reportedly was so upset over Veterans of Foreign Wars members who wore “bullshit protectors” over their ears during his speech to their annual convention that he told aides to “tell those VFW assholes that I’ll never speak to them again is they can’t keep their members under control.”

Bike-Deep in the Big Muddy

By MAUREEN DOWD

W. has jumped the couch.

Not fallen off the couch, as he did when he choked on that pretzel.

Jumped it.

According to UrbanDictionary.com, "jump the couch" has now become slang for "a defining moment when you know someone has gone off the deep end. Inspired by Tom Cruise's recent behavior on 'Oprah.' Also see 'jump the shark.' "

The former stateside National Guardsman who was sometimes M.I.A. jumped the shark by landing on that "Mission Accomplished" carrier. (With Tom Cruise cockiness.)

Then, as president, he jumped the couch by pedaling through the guns of August - the growing carnage and chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He did do a few minutes of work this month, calling a Shiite leader in Baghdad a few days ago to lobby him to reach a consensus with the Sunnis, so Iraq doesn't crack apart. But the Shiites and Kurds ignored the president and skewered the Sunnis.

Iraq, it turns out, is the one branch of American government that the Republicans don't control.

W. had a barbecue for the press on Thursday night. (If only the press had grilled him instead.) He mingled over catfish and potato salad with the reporters, who had to ride past Cindy Sheehan's antiwar encampment to get to the poolside party.

Dan Froomkin wrote on the Washington Post Web site that many of the reporters "fawned over Bush, following him around in packs every time he moved." W. chatted about sports and the twins, still oblivious to the cultural shift that is turning 2005 into 1968.

As the news correspondent Dan Harris noted on ABC on Wednesday, the mood is much different now from what it was when the Dixie Chicks got pilloried for criticizing the president just before the war began.

The No. 1 music video requested on MTV is Green Day's antiwar song, "Wake Me Up When September Ends," about the pain of soldiers and their families. On Sunday, Joan Baez sang peace anthems at Camp Casey, including "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" The N.F.L. did not cancel its sponsorship of the Rolling Stones tour, even though the band has a new song critical of Mr. Bush and the war.

Gary Hart began his Washington Post op-ed piece this week by quoting from an anti-Vietnam War song, "Waist-deep in the Big Muddy, and the big fool said to push on."

The former campaign manager for George McGovern's antiwar campaign in 1972 wrote: "We've stumbled into a hornet's nest. We've weakened ourselves at home and in the world. We are less secure today than before this war began. Who now has the courage to say this?"

Anxiety is growing among politicians on both sides of the aisle. More and more Americans don't want to stay-the-course on stay-the-course.

You'd think that by now, watching the meshugas in Iraq, the Bush crowd would have learned some lessons about twisting facts to suit ideology, and punishing those who try to tell the truth. But they're still behaving like Cinderella's evil stepsisters, who cut their feet to fit them into the glass slipper: butchering reality to make the fairy tale come out their way.

Eric Lichtblau reported in The Times this week that the administration was dumping the highly respected Lawrence Greenfeld, appointed by President Bush in 2001 to head the Bureau of Justice Statistics, because he refused superiors' orders to delete from a press release an account of how black and Hispanic drivers were treated more aggressively by the police after traffic stops. The Justice Department study showed markedly higher rates of searches and use of force for black and Hispanic drivers, compared with white drivers.

Fearing that the survey would give ammunition to members of Congress who object to using racial and ethnic data in terrorism and law enforcement investigations, Mr. Greenfeld's supervisors buried it online with no press release or briefing for Congress.

Mr. Lichtblau wrote that when Mr. Greenfeld sent the planned press release to the office of his supervisor, Tracy Henke, then an acting assistant attorney general, the section on the treatment of black and Hispanic drivers was crossed out with a notation: "Do we need this?" Ms. Henke herself had added a note: "Make the changes."

Like Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, John Bolton and others who helped spin reality to suit political ends, Ms. Henke was rewarded by the president. She has been nominated for a senior post in the Homeland Security Department.

I feel safer already.

Harness Racing Picks for 08-27-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (153)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (41)

****************************

Balmoral Park

Race # 9

Horse: TIMBERTON

Post Position: # 4

****************************

Cal-Expo

Race # 1

Horse: SUMMER FRANCO

Post Position: # 6

****************************

The Red Mile

Race # 3

Horse: GOLD DUST BEACH

Post Position: # 4

Harness Racing Results for 08-26-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (153)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (41)


****************************

Cal-Expo

Race # 10

Horse: GEE GEE GIANT (Won)

Post Position: # 1

****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 2

Horse: EDA FINN (Out of the Money)

Post Position: # 1

****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 7

Horse: MUSCLE SPROUTS (Won)

Post Position: # 4

Harness Picks for 08-26-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (151)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)

****************************
Cal-Expo

Race # 10

Horse: GEE GEE GIANT

Post Position: # 1

****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 2

Horse: EDA FINN

Post Position: # 1

****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 7

Horse: MUSCLE SPROUTS

Post Position: # 4

A CIA Cover Blown, a White House Exposed

LAT

WASHINGTON — Toward the end of a steamy summer week in 2003, reporters were peppering the White House with phone calls and e-mails, looking for someone to defend the administration's claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

About to emerge as a key critic was Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat who asserted that the administration had manipulated intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion.


At the White House, there wasn't much interest in responding to critics like Wilson that Fourth of July weekend. The communications staff faced more pressing concerns — the president's imminent trip to Africa, growing questions about the war and declining ratings in public opinion polls.

Wilson's accusations were based on an investigation he undertook for the CIA. But he was seen inside the White House as a "showboater" whose stature didn't warrant a high-level administration response. "Let him spout off solo on a holiday weekend," one White House official recalled saying. "Few will listen."

In fact, millions were riveted that Sunday as Wilson — on NBC's "Meet the Press" and in the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post — accused the administration of ignoring intelligence that didn't support its rationale for war.

Underestimating the impact of Wilson's allegations was one in a series of misjudgments by White House officials

Islamic Slant in Charter Decried

Iraqi secularists fear that religious hard-liners will gain strength, and rights may erode, from the draft constitution's endorsement of Islam.

LAT


BAGHDAD — As Iraq's transitional National Assembly prepares to approve a new draft constitution as early as today, legal experts and some political leaders warned Wednesday that the charter's explicit endorsement of Islam could give religious hard-liners a tight grasp on a country that was once one of the Middle East's most secular.

In an effort to strike a compromise between the nation's religious and secular communities, Iraq's proposed constitution reserves a central place for Islamic law in the legal system while safeguarding personal freedoms and democracy.

But the text's ambiguous language and apparently conflicting provisions left neither side particularly happy, and if approved, the document probably will be the subject of heated debate in Iraqi courts for years to come.

For instance, the draft constitution makes Islam the "official religion" of Iraq and "a main source" of law rather than "the" source, as many Shiite conservatives sought. But secularists remain concerned about a clause that prohibits any law that "contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam."

Critics fear the provision could be used by religious hard-liners to impose a strict version of Islamic law, such as banning alcohol, restricting women's rights and imposing harsh Koranic punishments such as stoning....

Harness Racing Results for 08-24-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (151)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)

****************************

Freehold Raceway

Race # 4

Horse: K D GIRL (Won)

Post Position: # 4

Harness Racing Picks for 08-24-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (150)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)


****************************
Freehold Raceway

Race # 4

Horse: K D GIRL

Post Position: # 4

My Private Idaho

By MAUREEN DOWD

W. vacationed so hard in Texas he got bushed. He needed a vacation from his vacation.

The most rested president in American history headed West yesterday to get away from his Western getaway - and the mushrooming Crawford Woodstock - and spend a couple of days at the Tamarack Resort in the rural Idaho mountains.

"I'm kind of hangin' loose, as they say," he told reporters.

As The Financial Times noted, Mr. Bush is acting positively French in his love of le loafing, with 339 days at his ranch since he took office - nearly a year out of his five. Most Americans, on the other hand, take fewer vacations than anyone else in the developed world (even the Japanese), averaging only 13 to 16 days off a year.

W. didn't go alone, of course. Just as he took his beloved feather pillow on the road during his 2000 campaign, now he takes his beloved bike. An Air Force One steward tenderly unloaded W.'s $3,000 Trek Fuel mountain bike when they landed in Boise.

Gas is guzzling toward $3 a gallon. U.S. troop casualties in Iraq are at their highest levels since the invasion. As Donald Rumsfeld conceded yesterday, "The lethality, however, is up." Afghanistan's getting more dangerous, too. The defense secretary says he's raising troop levels in both places for coming elections.

So our overextended troops must prepare for more forced rotations, while the president hangs loose.

I mean, I like to exercise, but W. is psychopathic about it. He interviewed one potential Supreme Court nominee, Harvie Wilkinson III, by asking him how much he exercised. Last winter, Mr. Bush was obsessed with his love handles, telling people he was determined to get rid of seven pounds.

Shouldn't the president worry more about body armor than body fat?

Instead of calling in Karl Rove to ask him if he'd leaked, W. probably called him in to order him to the gym.

The rest of us may be fixated on the depressing tableau in Iraq, where the U.S. seems to be delivering a fundamentalist Islamic state into the dirty hands of men like Ahmad Chalabi, who conned the neocons into pushing for war, and his ally Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who started two armed uprisings against U.S. troops. It was his militiamen who ambushed Casey Sheehan's convoy in Sadr City.

America has caved on Iraqi women's rights. In fact, the women's rights activists supported by George and Laura Bush may have to leave Iraq.

But, as a former C.I.A. Middle East specialist, Reuel Marc Gerecht, said on "Meet the Press," U.S. democracy in 1900 didn't let women vote. If Iraqi democracy resembled that, "we'd all be thrilled," he said. "I mean, women's social rights are not critical to the evolution of democracy."

Yesterday, the president hailed the constitution establishing an Islamic republic as "an amazing process," and said it "honors women's rights, the rights of minorities." Could he really think that? Or is he following the Vietnam model - declaring victory so we can leave?

The main point of writing a constitution was to move Sunnis into the mainstream and make them invested in the process, thereby removing the basis of the insurgency. But the Shiites and Kurds have frozen out the Sunnis, enhancing their resentment. So the insurgency is more likely to be inflamed than extinguished.

For political reasons, the president has a history of silence on America's war dead. But he finally mentioned them on Monday because it became politically useful to use them as a rationale for war - now that all the other rationales have gone up in smoke.

"We owe them something," he told veterans in Salt Lake City (even though his administration tried to shortchange the veterans agency by $1.5 billion). "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for."

What twisted logic: with no W.M.D., no link to 9/11 and no democracy, now we have to keep killing people and have our kids killed because so many of our kids have been killed already? Talk about a vicious circle: the killing keeps justifying itself.

Just because the final reason the president came up with for invading Iraq - to create a democracy with freedom of religion and minority rights - has been dashed, why stop relaxing? W. is determined to stay the course on bike trails all over the West.

This president has never had to pull all-nighters or work very hard, because Daddy's friends always gave him a boost when he flamed out. When was the last time Mr. Bush saw the clock strike midnight? At these prices, though, I guess he can't afford to burn the midnight oil.

Two Stories on Robertson and his Business Buddies

The MSM needs to be reminded of Pat Robertson's dealing with Thugs, Dictators, and Abortion Demanding Communist China.

(1)

NORFOLK, Virginia, July 11, 2003

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson accused President Bush of “undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels” by asking Liberian President Charles Taylor, recently indicted for war crimes, to step down.

“How dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down,'" Robertson said Monday on “The 700 Club,” broadcast from his Christian Broadcasting Network.
Robertson, a Bush supporter who has financial interests in Liberia, said he believes the State Department has “mismanaged the situation in nation after nation after nation” in Africa.

Cont


(2)

Pat Robertson and His Business Buddies

Joseph Mathews is Pat Robertson's point man in a Liberian mining venture called Freedom Gold Limited. Mathews doesn't much care for what has appeared in this column about his boss's business dealings in Liberia, so he's trying to put a little distance between the televangelist and that West African nation's strongman, Charles Taylor.

This much is known, however, based primarily on information obtained from Freedom Gold Limited. Pat Robertson did learn about the gold mining investment opportunity from a visiting Liberian delegation. Robertson did subsequently create the for-profit Freedom Gold Limited in the Cayman Islands in December 1998 in which he was listed as the president and the company's sole director. He did conclude a mining agreement signed personally by him, Charles Taylor and key members of Taylor's cabinet on May 18, 1999. And the deal does give the Taylor regime a cut of the action. Speaking of relationships, what about Robertson's? I'll say this for him: There's nothing Eurocentric in his choice of business buddies.

Before Taylor, Robertson was in cahoots with the late brutal and rapacious dictator of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko, alias the "President of Kleptocracy." Mobutu gave Robertson's privately formed African Development Co. concessions to hunt for diamonds and gold in Zaire in the '90s. That venture, alas, went bust.

Undeterred, Robertson has formed a for-profit Internet portal, Global Business Development Network, that's out to make big bucks in that great bastion of liberty, religious freedom and land of forced abortions, the People's Republic of China.

Cont

Robertson calls for assassination of Venezuela's president

Media Matters

Pat Robertson, host of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.




From the August 22 broadcast of The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Olbermann again named Limbaugh "today's worst person in the world," Bozell "a very close second"

Media Matters

On August 19, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann pronounced nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh "once again, today's worst person in the world" for saying on his August 15 radio show -- and subsequently denying having said -- that "Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real." Olbermann also took issue with the following statement, which Limbaugh made on August 16: "I'm weary, ladies and gentlemen, of even having to express sympathy.

'Oh, she lost her son' -- well, yes. Yes. Yes. But you know, this is [sigh] -- aaah. We all lose things." Olbermann named Media Research Center (MRC) president L. Brent Bozell III "a very close second" after the MRC accused Olbermann, in naming Limbaugh "worst person in the world" on his August 17 program, of distorting Limbaugh's August 15 statement.
It should be noted that while Olbermann observed that Limbaugh's statement comparing Sheehan to Burkett was "mysteriously scrubbed off" of his website, the quote is, in fact, still available. It can be found in Limbaugh's show archives, available to paying members of Limbaugh's Rush 24/7 service.

From the August 19 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:


OLBERMANN: But first, time for Countdown's list of today's nominees to the coveted title of worst person in the world. There's just two tonight.

A very close second, Brent Bozell. Yeah, the wacky guy from that Media Research Center scam accused me of distortion for having said that Rush Limbaugh had said on air, quote, "Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real." The only person distorting, as usual, is Bozell. Limbaugh said it on the air on August 15.

We have the transcript. Nothing in the transcript mitigates what he said. I'll put it online over the weekend.

So, Bozell is close, but the winner is Limbaugh for saying, "I never said this," when, of course, he sure did, especially considering the line comparing Sheehan to Burkett was a featured quote on his website for his paying subscribers, until it was mysteriously scrubbed off.


And having now added about Sheehan's dead son, quote: "I'm weary of even having to express sympathy. We all lose things." Like your career, Rush. You're finished. Credibility spent. Get lost.

Rush Limbaugh, once again, today's worst person in the world.

Harness Racing Results for 08-22-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (150)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)

****************************
Plainridge Race Course

Race # 3

Horse: PARAMOUR (Won)

Post Position: # 7

WEYANT'S WORLD

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots (No. 211)

August 22, 2005 · Cross Crushing Edition
With gas prices reaching record highs conservatives are looking for a new way to fuel their vehicles, and they seem to have settled on pure vitriol. Larry Northern demonstrated his support for the troops, Rush Limbaugh appears to be letting the OxyContin get the better of him, and Ken Mehlman delved into his bag of campaign chestnuts.

Harness Racing Picks for 08-22-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (149)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)

****************************
Plainridge Race Course

Race # 3

Horse: PARAMOUR

Post Position: # 7

Harness Racing Results for 08-21-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (149)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)


****************************
Cal Expo

Race # 8

Horse: B G PRODIGY (Won)

Post Position: # 6


****************************

Flamboro Downs

Race # 2

Horse: ALASTOR HANOVER (Won)

Post Position: # 4

The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them.

Internationally acclaimed journalist Amy Goodman, host of the national daily, radio/TV program Democracy Now!, is on a national tour to mark the launch of her first book The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them.

Join us for this exciting event.

Support independent media.

Tell your friends about the event:

New York, NY:


Wednesday, September 14, 7:00 PM


A debate between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchenson Iraq and U.S. and British foreign policy.


Moderated by Amy Goodman


Mason Hall at the Baruch College Performing Arts Center17 Lexington Ave., enter on 23rd St.New York, NY


Tickets $12 in advance through Ticket Central www.ticketcentral.com

Phone: 212-279-4200

and at the door.


For more details on this debate and Galloway's U.S. tour September 13-24, visit:www.mrgallowaygoestowashington.com

email: Galloway2005@comcast.net

or call 415-607-1924.

O'Reilly revived an interview tactic he has made common -- cutting the guest's mike

Listen to this audio clip

August 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly revived a long-standing practice of shutting off the microphone of a guest, in this case, Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable communications director Jasmyne Cannick. The August 10 incident on Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly marks at least the 11th time that O'Reilly has shut off a guest's microphone on either his television or radio show, usually to retain control over or to end an interview. He last resorted to this on August 6, 2004. Perhaps the most famous incident was O'Reilly's barking to anti-war protestor Jeremy Glick to "shut up" and ordering his microphone cut.

Transcripts of Pervert O'Rielly here

Bill O'Reilly Email : oreilly@foxnews.com

Limbaugh backs off Sheehan comparison with Burkett: "I've never said this"

Listen to this audio clip

On the August 17 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed his August 15 comments about Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, were being misreported. Media Matters for America noted that on his August 15 broadcast, Limbaugh compared Sheehan to Bill Burkett, the retired Texas Air National Guard officer who provided CBS' 60 Minutes with unauthenticated documents regarding President Bush's National Guard record, arguing that "her story is nothing more than forged documents."

Media Matters documented Limbaugh's statement:

LIMBAUGH: I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left.
But on the August 17 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh falsely claimed that his comments were being misreported:

Read Transcripts and listen to Audio of Limbaugh Lying Here


The Rush Limbaugh Show

1-800-282-2882

rush@eibnet.com

fax: 212-563-9166

Is Limbaugh back on Drugs?

Limbaugh lashes out at Media Matters for noting Sheehan smears

Listen to this audio clip

... says critics rely on "little pimple-faced kids that are working at wannabe websites"
Apparently stung by criticism over comments he made about Cindy Sheehan and inundated with what he calls "far more hate mail than I usually get," Rush Limbaugh lashed out at Media Matters for America, describing us on his August 18 show as "little pimple-faced kids that are working at wannabe websites."

On August 16, Media Matters first reported that Limbaugh compared the actions of war critic Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, to Bill Burkett, the retired Texas Air National Guard officer who provided CBS' 60 Minutes with unauthenticated documents regarding President Bush's National Guard record. Asserting that Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents," Limbaugh said, "Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett."

Limbaugh claimed on August 18 that his comments were taken "out of context" and that he simply meant that "[t]he whole event [Sheehan's protest] is staged" and that "all she is is an opportunity like Bill Burkett was an opportunity, to bash Bush."

Read Transcripts and listen to Audio of Limbaugh Lying Here


Rush Limbaugh Email : rush@eibnet.com

Harness Racing Picks for 08-21-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (147)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)

****************************
Cal Expo

Race # 8

Horse: B G PRODIGY

Post Position: # 6


****************************

Flamboro Downs

Race # 2

Horse: ALASTOR HANOVER

Post Position: # 4

Harness Racing Results for 08-20-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (147)

Place (49)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (40)


****************************

Balmoral Park

Race # 11

Horse: TIMBERTON (Place)

Post Position: # 4


****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 1

Horse: SPEED BOMB (Won)

Post Position: # 2

Race # 5

Horse: ROSE RUN HOOLIGAN (Won)

Post Position: # 4

Race # 8

Horse: KOUNTRY CAL (Out of the Money)

Post Position: # 5

Race # 11

Horse: TOUCHTOWN (Out of the Money)

Post Position: # 5


****************************

Ocean Downs

Race # 1

Horse: PACIFIC CENTERFOLD (Won)

Post Position: # 4

Race # 3

Horse: NUCLEAR BREEZE (Won)

Post Position: # 3
****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 6

Horse: MYPANMAR (Won)

Post Position: # 2

Harness Racing Picks for 08-20-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (142)

Place (48)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (38)


****************************

Balmoral Park

Race # 11

Horse: TIMBERTON

Post Position: # 4


****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 1

Horse: SPEED BOMB

Post Position: # 2

Race # 5

Horse: ROSE RUN HOOLIGAN

Post Position: # 4

Race # 8

Horse: KOUNTRY CAL

Post Position: # 5

Race # 11

Horse: TOUCHTOWN

Post Position: # 5


****************************

Ocean Downs

Race # 1

Horse: PACIFIC CENTERFOLD

Post Position: # 4

Race # 3

Horse: NUCLEAR BREEZE

Post Position: # 3
****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 6

Horse: MYPANMAR

Post Position: # 2

Harness Racing Results for 08-19-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (142)

Place (48)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (38)

****************************

Hazel Park

Race # 9

Horse: APACHE SHOOTER (Place)

Post Position: # 4


****************************

The Meadows

Race # 1

Horse: MUSCLE SPROUTS (Won)

Post Position: # 2

****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 11

Horse: WHITELAND LANCE (Out of the Money)

Post Position: # 5

****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 5

Horse: KOLES RETURN (Place)

Post Position: # 4

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With "Intelligent Falling" Theory

KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.


(Above: Rev. Gabriel Burdett (left) explains Intelligent Falling.)


"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

Burdett added: "Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded on great gaps in understanding. The laws predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain that force. Isaac Newton himself said, 'I suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers have searched all of nature in vain.' Of course, he is alluding to a higher power."

Founded in 1987, the ECFR is the world's leading institution of evangelical physics, a branch of physics based on literal interpretation of the Bible.

According to the ECFR paper published simultaneously this week in the International Journal Of Science and the adolescent magazine God's Word For Teens!, there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by secular gravity alone, including such mysteries as how angels fly, how Jesus ascended into Heaven, and how Satan fell when cast out of Paradise.

The ECFR, in conjunction with the Christian Coalition and other Christian conservative action groups, is calling for public-school curriculums to give equal time to the Intelligent Falling theory. They insist they are not asking that the theory of gravity be banned from schools, but only that students be offered both sides of the issue "so they can make an informed decision."

"We just want the best possible education for Kansas' kids," Burdett said.

Proponents of Intelligent Falling assert that the different theories used by secular physicists to explain gravity are not internally consistent. Even critics of Intelligent Falling admit that Einstein's ideas about gravity are mathematically irreconcilable with quantum mechanics. This fact, Intelligent Falling proponents say, proves that gravity is a theory in crisis.

"Let's take a look at the evidence," said ECFR senior fellow Gregory Lunsden."In Matthew 15:14, Jesus says, 'And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.' He says nothing about some gravity making them fall—just that they will fall. Then, in Job 5:7, we read, 'But mankind is born to trouble, as surely as sparks fly upwards.' If gravity is pulling everything down, why do the sparks fly upwards with great surety? This clearly indicates that a conscious intelligence governs all falling."

Critics of Intelligent Falling point out that gravity is a provable law based on empirical observations of natural phenomena. Evangelical physicists, however, insist that there is no conflict between Newton's mathematics and Holy Scripture.

"Closed-minded gravitists cannot find a way to make Einstein's general relativity match up with the subatomic quantum world," said Dr. Ellen Carson, a leading Intelligent Falling expert known for her work with the Kansan Youth Ministry. "They've been trying to do it for the better part of a century now, and despite all their empirical observation and carefully compiled data, they still don't know how."

"Traditional scientists admit that they cannot explain how gravitation is supposed to work," Carson said. "What the gravity-agenda scientists need to realize is that 'gravity waves' and 'gravitons' are just secular words for 'God can do whatever He wants.'"

Some evangelical physicists propose that Intelligent Falling provides an elegant solution to the central problem of modern physics.

"Anti-falling physicists have been theorizing for decades about the 'electromagnetic force,' the 'weak nuclear force,' the 'strong nuclear force,' and so-called 'force of gravity,'" Burdett said. "And they tilt their findings toward trying to unite them into one force. But readers of the Bible have already known for millennia what this one, unified force is: His name is Jesus."

Hagel: Iraq growing more like Vietnam

CNN


Republican Senator says Bush should meet with protesting mom

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Thursday said the United States is "getting more and more bogged down" in Iraq and stood by his comments that the White House is disconnected from reality and losing the war.

The longer U.S. forces remain in Iraq, he said, the more it begins to resemble the Vietnam war.

Hagel mocked Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion in June that the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes," saying the U.S. death toll has risen amid insurgent attacks.

"Maybe the vice president can explain the increase in casualties we're taking," the Nebraskan told CNN.

"If that's winning, then he's got a different definition of winning than I do."

On Thursday, Cheney told a veterans group that "Iraq is a critical front in the war on terror, and victory there is critical to the future security of the U.S."

"Every man and woman who fights and sacrifices in this war is serving a just and noble cause," Cheney told the 73rd National Convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Springfield, Missouri.

Hagel, an Army infantry squad leader during the Vietnam war, sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and supported the October 2002 resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

But he said the United States risks losing more public support for the conflict amid a rising cost in blood and money.

"The casualties we're taking, the billion dollars a week we're putting in there, the kind of commitment we've got -- we're not going to be able to sustain it," he said.

Iraq and Vietnam still have more differences than similarities, he said, but "there is a parallel emerging."

"The longer we stay in Iraq, the more similarities will start to develop, meaning essentially that we are getting more and more bogged down, taking more and more casualties, more and more heated dissension and debate in the United States," Hagel said.

Hagel also did not back away from comments he made in June to U.S. News & World Report that "the White House is completely disconnected from reality" and "the reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

"It gives me no great pleasure to have said that and to say that now," he said Thursday.

He said the U.S. death toll has continued to rise "at a very significant rate -- more dead, more wounded, less electricity in Iraq, less oil being pumped in Iraq, more insurgent attacks, more insurgents coming across the border, more corruption in the government."

A total of 1,861 American troops have died in the war since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, including four who were killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Samarra. (Full story)


Cheney said in June that the insurgency is "in the last throes," and he predicted that the fighting will end before the Bush administration leaves office. (Full story)

In the CNN interview Thursday, Hagel mentioned Cheney's comments about the insurgency and quickly added, "The facts speak for themselves."

Hagel did say he agrees with President Bush that the United States should not set a timetable for troop withdrawal, but he also predicted the United States would begin "withdrawing troops from Iraq next year."

"I don't like time frames because it gives the president no flexibility, and I think you always must have flexibility in these things and a judgment call by the president," he said.

Ultimately, he said, it's up to the Iraqis to control their nation's fate.

"That means they are either going to have to be in a position sometime next year to really step up in governing themselves, defending themselves, supporting themselves, or we can't continue to stay there indefinitely," Hagel said.

The next six months will be "very critical" in Iraq, he said.

"Not just the constitution writing, referendum, the election -- but also within that six months' period we're going to see whether the Iraqis are really going to be capable of defending themselves," he said.

On another Iraq-related issue, Hagel said Bush made the wrong decision by not meeting again with Cindy Sheehan, a mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq who has camped outside the president's Texas ranch. (Full story)

Sheehan "deserves some consideration, and I think that should have been done right from the beginning," Hagel said, noting that Bush did meet with her shortly after her son's death last year.

"I think the wise course of action, the compassionate course of action, the better course of action would have been to immediately invite her in to the ranch. It should have been done when this whole thing started. Listen to her."

Harness Racing Picks for 08-19-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (141)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)

****************************

Hazel Park

Race # 9

Horse: APACHE SHOOTER

Post Position: # 4


****************************

The Meadows

Race # 1

Horse: MUSCLE SPROUTS

Post Position: # 2

****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 11

Horse: WHITELAND LANCE

Post Position: # 5

****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 5

Horse: KOLES RETURN

Post Position: # 4

Officer Says 2 Others Are Source of His Atta Claims

WP

The former intelligence officer who says that a Defense Department program identified Mohamed Atta and three other hijackers before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said yesterday that many of his allegations are not based on his memory but on the recollections of others.

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who has been on paid administrative leave from the Defense Intelligence Agency since his security clearance was suspended in March 2004, said in a telephone interview that a Navy officer and a civilian official affiliated with the Able Danger program told him after the attacks that Atta and other hijackers had been included on a chart more than a year earlier.

But because he was not intimately familiar with the names and photographs of suspected terrorists, he did not realize that hijackers were listed until it was alleged to him after the attacks, Shaffer said. All of the charts that could support his claims have disappeared, he said.

"I did see the charts and I did handle the charts, but my understanding of them was like a layman," Shaffer said. "We had identified them as terrorists. . . . But even now I do not remember all the names."

The comments add to the uncertainty surrounding assertions by Shaffer and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.)....

Harness Racing Results for 08-18-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (141)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)

****************************
Plainridge Race Course

Race # 3

Horse: KEROGEN (Won)

Post Position: # 4


****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 7

Horse: UP FRONT LEADER (Won)

Post Position: # 6

U.S. Diplomat Is Named in Secrets Case

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 - The second-highest diplomat at the United States Embassy in Baghdad is one of the anonymous government officials cited in an Aug. 4 indictment as having provided classified information to an employee of a pro-Israel lobbying group, people who have been officially briefed on the case said Wednesday.

The diplomat, David M. Satterfield, was identified in the indictment as a United States government official, "USGO-2," the people briefed on the matter said. In early 2002, USGO-2 discussed secret national security matters in two meetings with Steven J. Rosen, who has since been dismissed as a top lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as Aipac, who has been charged in the case.

Harness Racing Picks for 08-18-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (139)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)


****************************
Plainridge Race Course

Race # 3

Horse: KEROGEN

Post Position: # 4


****************************

Scioto Downs

Race # 7

Horse: UP FRONT LEADER

Post Position: # 6

The Official Seal of the United States Republican Party

Harness Racing Results for 08-17-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (139)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)

****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 14

Horse: DOCTOR GUS (Won)

Post Position: # 1

Biking Toward Nowhere

By MAUREEN DOWD

How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with American troops struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq?

Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities might send a frivolous signal at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's way?

"I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.

That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years ago. I was in Kennebunkport then to cover the first President Bush's frenetic attempts to relax while reporters were pressing him about how he could be taking a month to play around when he had started sending American troops to the Persian Gulf only three days before.

On Saturday, the current President Bush was pressed about how he could be taking five weeks to ride bikes and nap and fish and clear brush even though his occupation of Iraq had become a fiasco. "I think it's also important for me to go on with my life," W. said, "to keep a balanced life."

Pressed about how he could ride his bike while refusing to see a grieving mom of a dead soldier who's camped outside his ranch, he added: "So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so."

Ah, the insensitivity of reporters who ask the President Bushes how they can expect to deal with Middle East fighting while they're off fishing.

The first President Bush told us that he kept a telephone in his golf cart and his cigarette boat so he could easily stay on top of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. But at least he seemed worried that he was sending the wrong signal, as his boating and golfing was juxtaposed on the news with footage of the frightened families of troops leaving for the Middle East.

"I just don't like taking questions on serious matters on my vacation," the usually good-natured Bush senior barked at reporters on the golf course. "So I hope you'll understand if I, when I'm recreating, will recreate." His hot-tempered oldest son, who was golfing with his father that day, was even more irritated. "Hey! Hey!" W. snapped at reporters asking questions on the first tee. "Can't you wait until we finish hitting, at least?"

Junior always had his priorities straight.

As W.'s neighbors get in scraps with the antiwar forces coalescing around the ranch; as the Pentagon tries to rustle up updated armor for our soldiers, who are still sitting ducks in the third year of the war; as the Iraqi police we train keep getting blown up by terrorists, who come right back every time U.S. troops beat them up; as Shiites working on the Iraqi constitution conspire with Iran about turning Iraq into an Islamic state that represses women; and as Iraq hurtles toward a possible civil war, W. seems far more oblivious than his father was with his Persian Gulf crisis.

This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get out, or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make the old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on Saturday.

The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books, by finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's advice. Now he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America would get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land," facing a possibly "barren" outcome.

It turns out that the people of Iraq have ethnic and religious identities, not a national identity. Shiites and Kurds want to suppress the Sunnis who once repressed them and break off into their own states, smashing the Bush model kitchen of democracy.

At long last, a senior Bush official admits that administration officials can no longer cling to their own version of reality. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning," the official told The Washington Post.

They had better start absorbing and shedding a lot faster, before many more American kids die to create a pawn of Iran. And they had better tell the Boy in the Bubble, who continues to dwell in delusion, hailing the fights and delays on the Iraqi constitution as "a tribute to democracy."

The president's pedaling as fast as he can, but he's going nowhere.

Chavez Warns Bush to Back Off, or Face 10$ Per Gallon Gasoline

watchingamerica.com

Hugo Chavez, the president of the Republic, has assured people that the American market is not essential to Venezuela, and he declared that if the aggression against his government continued to increase, diplomatic ties between the two countries would be at risk.

He said that President Bush cannot seem to take an accurate measure of the situation, and that either he has bad advisers or there is something wrong with his head.

The chief executive said that if he stopped sending petroleum to United States, the Americans must know that the price of a gallon of gasoline would rise to $10. Nevertheless, he was careful to explain that he doesn’t want to cause harm to the Americans and would even order that they be permitted to enroll in the Misión Milagro.

Iraq families launch inquiry bid

BBC

Relatives of soldiers killed in the Iraq war are appealing against the government's refusal to hold an independent inquiry into its legality.
Lawyers have lodged papers at the High Court seeking a judicial review.

Reg Keys, whose military police officer son Thomas died in 2003, and Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in 2004 are among the applicants.

But the government has dismissed the challenge made under human rights law saying it is "fundamentally flawed".

The group says the UK is obliged to hold an inquiry if involved in the use of lethal force.

The families have also asked judges at the High Court to rule on the remit of any inquiry.

Harness Racing Picks for 08-17-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (138)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)

****************************
Northfield Park

Race # 14

Horse: DOCTOR GUS

Post Position: # 1

Bush Lets Terrorist Go Free. Terrorist is Friends with Bush's Buddy Osama Bin Laden

NYT

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15 - An Islamic cleric being held by immigration officials agreed Monday to be deported, a week after federal investigators accused him of planning to set up a religious school where recruits could be trained to kill Americans.

The cleric, Shabbir Ahmed, 39, will be deported to Islamabad, Pakistan, for overstaying a three-year visa that allowed him to work in the United States as an imam.

At a hearing at an immigration court on Monday, Judge Anthony Murry, who said last week that Mr. Ahmed posed "a flight risk and a danger to the community," ordered him deported.

SNIP

At a hearing last week, an F.B.I. agent, Gary Schaaf, accused Mr. Ahmed of planning to set up an Islamic school in Lodi as a front for training recruits to attack Americans. The authorities also suggested that Mr. Ahmed had indirect ties to Osama bin Laden, and said he would be an intermediary between Al Qaeda and its sympathizers in Lodi.

Two Lodi residents, Hamid Hayat, 22, and his father, Umer Hayat, 47, remain in custody on charges of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about their ties to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Red-Necks and Right-Wingnuts Didn't See This Coming.

Only a Few Months ago Jeb Bush Signed the "Stand Your Ground" Bill. Where Florida residents can now meet force with force -- and shoot to kill to defend themselves -- inside or outside of their homes.

In Today's Miami Herald is this story:


PINK PISTOLS GAY GUN OWNERS MEMBERS OF NATIONWIDE ORGANIZATION PACK HEAT TO FIGHT HATE CRIMES

Keith Jackson disappears into his Wilton Manors bedroom and returns with a taupe suede clutch. He unzips it carefully.

''I love this one, because the bullets just fly out and you don't have to reload,'' he said, ejecting a clip from a nickel-plated .45-caliber semiautomatic Smith & Wesson.

``And if some redneck decides he's going to harass or harm me, he'll be thinking twice about it pretty quickly.''

Raised in rural Pennsylvania, Jackson is an avid hunter who keeps a gun on his boat, in his car, and on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. But he's allowed his membership to the National Rifle Association to lapse since he heard about the Pink Pistols.

In fact, Jackson wants to start a local chapter of the nationwide organization of gay gun owners who believe that packing heat reduces their chances of becoming hate-crime victims.

The Pink Pistols have more than 7,000 members in the United States and British Columbia, many of whom feel alienated from conservative gun rights organizations like the NRA.

The name was coined by a gay journalist in a Salon.com essay five years ago. There are other gun-owner' groups for minority populations whose members believe that the law fails to protect them from bigots:

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms; the Second Amendment Sisters, which caters to women of all backgrounds; and the Tenth Cavalry Gun Club, named after the U.S. Army Civil War regiment of black soldiers.

Oil Embargo Best Response to Nuclear Boycott

I was wondering how long it would take before this kind of talk would start.

Iran-Press-OPEC

The best way to confront the US and EU3 dictatorship is to "impose an embargo on oil sales to those countries, said an English-language paper here Sunday commenting on last Thursday "unfair" resolution of the UN nuclear watchdog against Iran.

The 'Tehran Times' suggested in its editorial that the world oil-rich states should form a united front in order to confront "Western neocolonialist countries."

Criticizing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution against Iran, the paper said that it was ratified "to meet the objectives of the Zionist regime and the United States." It added that the resolution, issued under pressure from the United States and the European Union big three, actually indicated that "the status of international organizations, including the IAEA, has declined seriously in the face of the blackmail of the neocolonialist powers."

SNIP

"Oil is the lifeline of the West, and most of the West's military industries are dependent on it. Therefore, it is the most potent economic weapon for settling scores with neocolonialist countries," the paper stressed.

It further noted that the Iranian nation clearly has the right to stand up to the "dictatorship of the EU3 and the U.S and the best act of resistance would be to impose an embargo on oil sales to those countries."

Stressing that Iran is a country "with great potential to respond to Western meddling," the paper said that Tehran should consult with some OPEC countries and then propose plans to confront the hegemonic actions of the West.

Cont.

Nominee Roberts, in '84, called equal pay for women 'radical'

WASHINGTON - As a Reagan White House attorney in 1984, John G. Roberts criticized three Republican congresswomen for supporting the "radical" idea of "comparable worth" to create pay equality between men and women.

Among the women was Olympia Snowe, now a senator from Maine, and key moderate member of the Senate, who will be voting on Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court.

"I honestly find it troubling that three Republican representatives are so quick to embrace such a radical redistributive concept," he wrote. "Their slogan may as well be 'From each according to his ability, to each according to her gender.' "

The criticism, a parody of a Marxist slogan, came in a Feb. 20, 1984, memo that Roberts wrote to his boss, White House counsel Fred Fielding.

Harness Racing Results for 08-15-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (138)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)


****************************
Northfield Park

Race # 3

Horse: ROAD TO THE SEA (Won)

Post Position: # 5

Harness Racing Picks for 08-15-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (137)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)

****************************

Northfield Park

Race # 3

Horse: ROAD TO THE SEA

Post Position: # 5

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots (No. 210)

August 15, 2005 · We All Live Near A Yellow Smear Machine Edition
All eyes were on Crawford last week, as Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier who died in Iraq, continued her vigil and George W. Bush did his best to ignore her. His chickenhawk buddies in the Right-Wing Smear Machine did his dirty work for him.

Harness Racing Results for 08-14-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (137)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (37)


****************************

Rockingham Raceway

Race # 9

Horse: GENENA’S JESSE (Out of the Money)

Post Position: # 2

Harness Racing Picks for 08-14-05

Record since 04-26-05

Win (137)

Place (46)

Show (8)

Out of the Money (36)


****************************

Rockingham Raceway

Race # 9

Horse: GENENA’S JESSE

Post Position: # 2

Brooklyn Bridge with 9/11 memorial lights, 2002

Night Vision: Photographs of William Gedney and Lynn Saville

Britain keeps distance from talk of strike on Iran

London Times

August 14, 2005

THE foreign secretary Jack Straw sought to distance Britain yesterday from comments by President George W Bush that he would not rule out a military strike against Iran.

It came as diplomats gave warning that British attempts to solve the crisis prompted by Tehran’s resumption of its nuclear programme last week were doomed to failure.

Bush raised the temperature by giving an interview to Israeli television from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Asked if he would consider force, he replied: “All options are on the table.” He added: “The use of force is the last option for any president and you know we’ve used force in the recent past to secure our country.”

The Foreign Office reacted swiftly. “Our position is clear and has been made very, very clear by the foreign secretary,” a spokesman said. “We do not think there are any circumstances where military action would be justified against Iran. It does not form part of British foreign policy.”

So soon after the invasion of Iraq, which has led to so much political turmoil for Tony Blair’s administration, Straw is anxious not to be seen trying to talk up any future forays. But some rightwingers in Washington have criticised Straw’s position, saying that every time the foreign secretary rules out any remote chance of military action the Iranians know there is no need to compromise....

Bush slaps down top general after he calls for troops to be pulled out of Iraq

UK Telegragh

The top American commander in Iraq has been privately rebuked by the Bush administration for openly discussing plans to reduce troop levels there next year, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

President George W Bush personally intervened last week to play down as "speculation" all talk of troop pull-outs because he fears that even discussing options for an "exit strategy" implies weakening resolve.


Gen George Casey, the US ground commander in Iraq, was given his dressing-down after he briefed that troop levels - now 138,000 - could be reduced by 30,000 in the early months of next year as Iraqi security forces take on a greater role.

The unusual sign of US discord came as Iraqi politicians and clerics drafting a new constitution continued their own wrangling over autonomy demands by various factions........

Iraq war e-mails 'remain secret'

BBC

E-mails sent by a key Tony Blair aide about the legality of invading Iraq are to remain secret, it has been claimed.
The Sunday Times says Baroness Morgan, a former director of government relations, posted e-mails after meeting Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.

They were allegedly sent just before Lord Goldsmith ruled the war legal. Days earlier, he said an invasion could prompt international legal action.

The e-mails' recipient is unknown. Number 10 will not release details.

The newspaper says it used the Freedom of Information Act to make the request and will appeal against the refusal to the information commissioner.

It reports that senior government sources believe the emails contain a summary of arguments Downing Street was privately making to Lord Goldsmith.

Baroness Morgan and Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, are reported to have met the attorney general to discuss the war days after he said an invasion could cause legal problems.

China to participate in Iran-India gas project despite U.S. objection

TEHRAN — The Chinese and Indian officials are seriously trying to reach a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on China’s probable participation in Iran-Pakistan-India gas transfer project. The deal has assumed more importance due to U.S. opposition.

According to the Times of India, the MOU would include China as a partner in this project, and very likely, it would be inked by the end of 2005. China’s National Petroleum Company (CNPC) has shown great interest in being one of the partners in this international project.

Message to Bush Supporters: The Disaster in your Rearview Mirror is closer than it appears..

WP


Sunday, August 14, 2005; Page A01

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society where the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.