Democrats See Dream of ག Victory Taking Form ...see link

• Democrats See Dream of ག Victory Taking Form ...see link - Democrat

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http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/delegates.htm (a conservative site, no less!)

President Bush has decided to stay out of the lion's share of decisions made by his administration.

Sources close to the administration said that over the last year, Mr. Bush has chosen to focus on two issues, leaving the rest to be decided by Cabinet members and senior aides. They said the issues are Iraq and the Republican congressional campaign in the 2006 elections.

Lots of important issues that deal with national security are never brought to the president because he doesn't want to deal with them, a source familiar with the White House said. In some cases, this has resulted in chaos.

The White House has acknowledged that Mr. Bush was not informed of the administration’s decision to approve a $6.85 billion takeover by the United Arab Emirates of a British firm that operates at least six major ports in the United States. The decision triggered a public firestorm and strong bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill. This prompted the Dubai-owned company last week to bail on its bid to operate terminals in U.S. ports.

Vice President Dick Cheney also was not informed of the approval of the port takeover by the state-owned Dubai Ports World. The process was administered by the Treasury Department-aligned Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which sparked opposition from most of the Republican leadership in Congress.

My take on this is that the president relied on his CFIUS board, this Committee on Foreign Investment; that they did a superficial scrub on this, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter said on March 7.

They've been trained to be more of a business, or more of an arm of the administration which is designed to expedite or to shape acquisitions so that they can take place rather than to stop acquisitions, said Mr. Hunter, California Republican.

The sources said Mr. Bush's lack of involvement on most issues has led to numerous errors in judgment. They said the DP World episode was handled by the Treasury and Commerce departments. From there, the proposed sale was meant to have been relayed through the National Security Council for a White House decision.

It should have gone to Karl Rove and then gone up the chain, the source said. For some reason, it didn't. I don't think people understood how important this was in terms of both national security and politics.

Mr. Hunter and other members of the House Armed Services Committee were shocked over how little White House staffers knew of the security record of the UAE, cited in testimony to the 9/11 commission as having withheld cooperation regarding al Qaeda in 1999. Last week, Mr. Hunter and Rep. Jim Saxton, New Jersey Republican, brought evidence of how the UAE port of Dubai allowed shipments of nuclear components as well as heavy water and a precursor to nerve gas to countries such as Iran, Libya and Pakistan.

In 2003, Mr. Hunter said, Dubai allowed the shipment of 66 high-speed electrical switches designed to trigger and detonate nuclear weapons. He said Dubai rejected a U.S. request to stop the shipment.

The point is that if you are an outlaw regime, and you want to develop a nuclear weapons program, you have your components transshipped through Dubai, Mr. Hunter said. Dubai is a master at masking both the recipient of illegitimate weapons systems and the party that is sending, developing, selling those illegitimate weapons systems. I don't think those are the folks you want to have running your ports.

Neither Mr. Bush nor any of his aides ordered a change in CFIUS deliberations that would stress the security aspect of any foreign investments or operations in the United States. Mr. Saxton said the 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda had virtually no affect on the process.

The current system was designed, from what we can understand, to encourage foreign investment in our country, Mr. Saxton said. And 9/11 changed a lot of things, and CFIUS didn't change. And I guess it changed in some respects. We added a representative from the Department of Homeland Security, but it was still under the leadership of the Department of the Treasury. And so the mission of CFIUS remains pre-9/11, while the situation in post-9/11 is much different.

We have just lived through a commander-in-chief presidency whose oppressive power and overwhelming hubris would undoubtedly have left our first early presidents in shock, if not armed revolt. They would have seen George Bush's world - in which strength was the byword of power and weakness an anathema - as the scion of European autocracy. These were, after all, men wary of armies and military power, who had sacrificed the very idea of executive strength to a tripartite form of government that would, they hoped, have the advantages of resiliency and responsibility. They understood - and embraced - certain limits that Americans may only be waking up to now.

Of course, given these last years of a government gone dark and ominous, it's not surprising that we generally don't. Facing the imperial, never-apologize, don't-listen-to-a-word-you-say, Caesarian, unitary-executive, commander-in-chief years of disarray, we Americans have - despite some online liveliness - largely suffered a failure of the imagination.

Have we ever had a president who told more countries what they "must" do? - I'd like to hear our next president speaking more like one of us and less like the ruler of the universe, more like the president of these imperiled United States and less like the autocrat of the planet.

    Of course, Americans, especially younger ones, have long been alienated from their government - aka "the bureaucracy" - and a national capital that projects the oppressive look of a Green Zone. That's where an eloquent black president, an improbable crosser of all sorts of boundaries, standing before us next Tuesday to express his -- and our - dreams and fears, offers an immediate ray of hope. In his very words that first day, he can potentially begin airing out the most secretive (and inefficient) government in national memory. He can remind us of our better selves and let the sun shine in.

    If we want to have a government we care about, we had better start exercising those imaginative powers fast. After all, if you don't use it, you lose it. Voting isn't faintly enough. Supporting Barack Obama isn't faintly enough. Either we start acting like we, the people, can set a few agendas of our own, write a few speeches of our own, or we might as well forget it.

The more you work, the more they take away.  It will be the middle class people to suffer from this.  The rich will survive.  The low-income and no income people will be the ones to benefit from this.  This just encourages people to not work hard.  The more money you make by working hard.....you will be penalized and that hard earned money of yours will be given to someone who doesn't work.  This will be a huge snow ball that will eventually crush us entirely as more and more people work less and then the middle class and the rich will have even more people to support.  Like I've said before.....it sickens me.

What ever happened to accountability and self-reliance?  What ever happened to hard working Americans who were too proud to receive a hand out.  Now it seems that is all I hear....people screaming about not getting handouts and playing the victim.  Give me give me give me.  Instead of encouraging them to get a good education and work hard.....we are enabling them to remain "victims" while we foot the bill. 

Why should hard working Americans suffer?  Shouldn't they be rewarded for their hard work instead of penalized?  I guess that doesn't matter to Obamanation as he is rich and this won't hurt him....so why should he care.  As long as he is taking care of his low-income homies...I guess it is all good, huh?

I heard something about Obama saying he had a dream of some sorts that lead him to believe he would be a leader or something along those lines?  Or is this just some gossip?

last year when my retirement account was cut in half, and there has not been much work lately for DH or I, so there's no way to offset the loss and no way to put money back into it.

I don't gripe about anyone making money, but...and this is a large but....I believe this was just another piece of campaign propaganda. After all, it came out while he was running for president. What better timing?

Do you think if he wrote the book before running for prez, it would have sold as well?

Did you hear how much he gave to charities? I haven't. If you have a source of that info, please enlighten me.

Sam who posts on this board, but thanks for the laughs. 

I don't usually post on this board that often because it's usually a waste of time, but I was bored last night. 

...and my response.  (Warning:  It's lengthy.)

This is our moment of truth. You and I have to make it absolutely clear that we won't stand for Republican Swift Boat style attacks on Jack Murtha.

Yesterday, an extraordinary congressman, former Marine Drill Sergeant and decorated Vietnam veteran, spoke out on the war in Iraq. He didn't come to that moment lightly. He spoke his mind and spoke his heart out of love for his country and support for our troops. No sooner had the words left his lips than the vicious assault on his character and patriotism began.

Today, in a statement on the Senate floor, in interviews with the national media, and in this message to you, I am seeking out every opportunity to defend a brave American hero that the Republican attack machine has set their sights on.

I urge you to do the same. Whether you agree or disagree with Jack Murtha is irrelevant. These despicable attacks on Jack Murtha's patriotism and courage must be met with an enormous public outcry. Call your local talk radio show, write a letter to the editor, phone your members of Congress - join me in acting now to reject these Swift Boat style attacks on Jack Murtha.

It disgusts me that a bunch of guys who have never put on the uniform of their country have aimed their venom at a marine who served America heroically in Vietnam and has been serving heroically in Congress ever since. No matter what J.D. Hayworth says, there is no sterner stuff than the backbone and courage that defines Jack Murtha's character and conscience.
Dennis Hastert -- the Speaker of the House who never served -- accused Jack Murtha of being a coward. Well let me tell you, Jack Murtha wasn't a coward when he put himself in harm's way for his country in Vietnam and earned two purple hearts -- he was a patriot then, and he is a patriot today. Jack Murtha's courage in combat earned him a Bronze Star, and his voice should be heard, not silenced by those who still today cut and run from the truth.

Instead of letting his cronies run their mouths, the President for once should stop his allies from doing to Jack Murtha what he set them loose to do to John McCain in South Carolina and Max Cleland in Georgia.

The President should finally find the courage to debate the real issue instead of destroying anyone who speaks truth to power as they see it. It's time for Americans to stand up, fight back, and make it clear it's unacceptable to do this to any leader of any party anywhere in our country.

I urge you to join today in a massive public outcry that rejects the attempt to demonize and destroy anyone who dares to disagree with George W. Bush's aimless stay for as long as it takes policy on Iraq.

Please act now. Call and email your elected officials. Flood talk radio with calls rejecting these vicious smear tactics. Send a letter to the editor.

Express your outrage about the tired old Rovian Swift Boat style attacks on Jack Murtha.

Sincerely,
John Kerry

MY REPLY:

Dear Senator Kerry:

I absolutely agree with everything you wrote, and I have been posting my views on political message boards, as well as emailing Duncan Hunter, and I've written a four-page letter to Congressman Murtha himself.

Now I must address YOUR response to the attacks on Congressman Murtha.

I thank you for your defense of him; however, I felt it was very, VERY weak. (By the way, please pass this on to Senators Clinton and Reid so they might get a clue into what makes the majority of Americans tick).

For years now, Democrats, including yourself, have openly expressed their opposition to the Iraq war, but you haven't had one single idea to fix the problem, and when asked WHY you voted for it (before you voted against it), you all give some lame, limp, meaningless excuse.

NOW is the time to aggressively defend Congressman Murtha and his plan for leaving Iraq. Bush HAS NO PLAN. MURTHA DOES. It's really quite a simple concept.

Although I'm beginning to lose patience with you all, let's regroup and start over. Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.

I realize that most of you fell down on the job and didn't really scrutinize the Bush intelligence (this term is found in the dictionary under oxymoron and/or just plain old moron).

You were probably busy and didn't have time to read thousands of pages of documents. That's understandable. What's even more understandable is that as President of the United States, there's a preconceived notion that this person is, in fact, ethical and honorable. We now know that is not the case. We now know that he possibly took America to war on the blood of thousands of 9/11 victims simply to insure a successful Presidency. NOW is the time to admit that you, as well as every intelligent, thinking American and the entire WORLD, were FOOLED by this man because he was so blatant and aggressive in his pursuit of this war, it simply never occurred to any of you that you were dealing with a man who planned on attacking Iraq before he was even (s)elected President. (See
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20...went_to_war.php,)

NOW is the time to expose the true character and motives of this prior alcoholic who never received professional help for his addiction. He comes across as a simple man because he IS a simple man, in every sense of the word. His simplicity extends to the largest deficit in American history, and his tactics remind me of a teenager who recklessly maxes out Daddy's credit card because he has no responsibility for the bill, given that Daddy will pay it.

NOW is the time to embrace Congressman Murtha's plan, since it DOES make sense, reflects an actual THOUGHT PROCESS taking place, and is the thing that most Americans want. This man is not some 5-deferment draft dodger or Air National Guard absentee. He's a decorated Purple Heart recipient, who has devoted his entire life to helping the military and veterans.

NOW is the time to reveal an administration who would place the lives of a CIA agent in jeopardy and with everyone who ever worked with her, simply because her husband exposed the TRUTH.

NOW is the time to reveal the administration's press secretary's Plamerizing of John Murtha. NOW is the time to acknowledge that you truly have connected the dots, and the picture of a lying, unethical administration has emerged. If you do this NOW, most forward-thinking Americans will probably forgive you for now just catching up with everything they've known for months.

NOW is the time to publicly condemn Friday's histrionics of the House of Representatives. I, as a taxpayer, resent having to pay for that crap.

Sadly, you've pretty much already proven that you don't have many original ideas. NOW is the time to attach yourselves to John Murtha's coattails and hang on for dear life.

In case you haven't figured this out yet, you're up against an administration who will stop at NOTHING to transform this country into a theoracy, who will brag about the impending freedom for all Iraqis, while simultaneously slowly removing the freedoms of Americans, as his narrow-minded base pursues control over every single American regarding when we're born, who we love, which God we're allowed to worship, and when and how we die.

NOW is the time to expose the evangelical recruitment taking place in the Air Force in Colorado and the accompanying ridicule and persecution of soldiers who have different religious beliefs.

NOW is the time (albeit it four years LATE) to prove you care about the safety of Americans and aggressively pursue the security of our borders so that al Qaeda members cannot come into America from Mexico and KILL US.

Above all else, NOW IS THE TIME to reveal this President as the one who is truly aiding and abetting the enemy by providing them free, complimentary OTJ training in Iraq where they can hone their craft while killing our American soldiers.

NOW is the time to STOP being quiet and milquetoasty and to aggressively pursue this Administration's lies (I know they're numerous, ongoing, and difficult to keep track of) and reveal them for what they truly are.

MOST OF ALL, NOW is the time to honestly express what Congressman Murtha REALLY said when he outlined his plan to leave Iraq. It was a very thoughtful, sensible plan, and the fact that administration henchmen are maliciously mischaracterizing it should be revealed and aggressively FOUGHT.

If you truly foresee a future for your party, NOW is the time to embrace and advertise something the Administration doesn't have: A PLAN for Iraq. Although you might be able to win some elections by simply being the least worst party, is that really the future you envision for the Democratic party?

The ball is in your court. Don't let this one get away.... again.

Americans are losing patience.