To mt: Really over a million people took place in the protest. s/m

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Check out this Canadian news article on this pitiful event -- this might answer your question about why no other news stations were giving this much air time -- NOT NEWSWORTHY!! Not even 10s of thousands, much less a million!! Where did you get your statistics? Is that what you heard on TRIX news?

What the Mousvi supporters are trying to do in Iran is to show the world that they can bring down the Ahmedinejad and hopefully also the leader of the theocray

There are also in the cleric council contradicting opinions regarding the legitimate outcome of the election and how to proceed in solving this massive protests.

This shows AGAIN the diplomatic excellence of Obama AND Biden when they held back their meddling and interfering, letting the people try it on their own!

If it were up to McCain and Cheney they would have made out of this conflict a 2nd-Iraq siituation, probaly invaded Iran!

as you wish . . . we are entering a new era and there are those of us whose hearts are soaring with joy. Label it anyway it makes you comfortable, we are joyous.

Just because someone is against the anti-war movement does not make them pro-war. Just because a group protests the anti-war protestors does not make them pro-war. BTW, I know of only one person on the conservative board that is a member of Protest Warrior, but I will add that I like what they do. You do not have corner on the protest market. You don't have a corner on the free speech market either. I do believe you all have gained a big corner on the spin market, because you and the liberal press are masterminds of spin. How's that working for ya? Let's see. you lost the congressional/senate majority in 1996 and have yet to gain it back. You lost the Presidential elections in 2000 and 2004. The spin market doesn't look to profitable to me right now.

By Jonathan Weisman and Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; A08

When hundreds of religious activists try to get arrested today to protest cutting programs for the poor, prominent conservatives such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell will not be among them.

That is a great relief to Republican leaders, who have dismissed the burgeoning protests as the work of liberals. But it raises the question: Why in recent years have conservative Christians asserted their influence on efforts to relieve Third World debt, AIDS in Africa, strife in Sudan and international sex trafficking -- but remained on the sidelines while liberal Christians protest domestic spending cuts?

Conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family say it is a matter of priorities, and their priorities are abortion, same-sex marriage and seating judges who will back their position against those practices.

It's not a question of the poor not being important or that meeting their needs is not important, said Paul Hetrick, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, Dobson's influential, Colorado-based Christian organization. But whether or not a baby is killed in the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, that is less important than help for the poor? We would respectfully disagree with that.

Jim Wallis, editor of the liberal Christian journal Sojourners and an organizer of today's protest, was not buying it. Such conservative religious leaders have agreed to support cutting food stamps for poor people if Republicans support them on judicial nominees, he said. They are trading the lives of poor people for their agenda. They're being, and this is the worst insult, unbiblical.

At issue is a House-passed budget-cutting measure that would save $50 billion over five years by trimming food stamp rolls, imposing new fees on Medicaid recipients, squeezing student lenders, cutting child-support enforcement funds and paring agriculture programs. House negotiators are trying to reach accord with senators who passed a more modest $35 billion bill that largely spares programs for the poor.

At the same time, House and Senate negotiators are hashing out their differences on a tax-cutting measure that is likely to include an extension of cuts in the tax rate on dividends and capital gains.

To mainline Protestant groups and some evangelical activists, the twin measures are an affront, especially during the Christmas season. Leaders of five denominations -- the United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church USA and United Church of Christ -- issued a joint statement last week calling on Congress to go back to the drawing board and come up with a budget that brings good news to the poor.

Around 300 religious activists have vowed to kneel in prayer this morning at the Cannon House Office Building and remain there until they are arrested. Wallis said that as they are led off, they will chant a phrase from Isaiah: Woe to you legislators of infamous laws . . . who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan.

To GOP leaders and their supporters in the Christian community, it is not that simple. Acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said yesterday that the activists' position is not intellectually right.

The right tax policy, such as keeping tax rates low on business investment, grows the economy, increases federal revenue -- and increased federal revenue makes it easier for us to pursue policies that we all can agree have social benefit, he said.

Dobson also has praised what he calls pro-family tax cuts. And Janice Crouse, a senior fellow at the Christian group Concerned Women for America, said religious conservatives know that the government is not really capable of love.

You look to the government for justice, and you look to the church and individuals for mercy. I think Hurricane Katrina is a good example of that. FEMA just failed, and the church and the Salvation Army and corporations stepped in and met the need, she said.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, said the government's role should be to encourage charitable giving, perhaps through tax cuts.

There is a [biblical] mandate to take care of the poor. There is no dispute of that fact, he said. But it does not say government should do it. That's a shifting of responsibility.

The Family Research Council is involved in efforts to stop the bloodshed in the Darfur region of Sudan as well as sex trafficking and slavery abroad. But Perkins said those issues are far different from the budget cuts now under protest. The difference there is enforcing laws to keep people from being enslaved, to be sold as sex slaves, he said. We're talking here about massive welfare programs.

The Rev. Richard Cizik, a vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, returned yesterday from the Montreal conference on global climate change, another issue of interest to evangelicals. Frankly, I don't hear a lot of conversation among evangelicals about budget cuts in anti-poverty programs, he said. What I hear our people asking is, why are we spending $231 million on a bridge to nowhere in Alaska and can't find $50 million for African Union forces to stop genocide in Darfur?

As far as your imagined knowledge of where I get my information, I refer you back to your very own post above:

You infer that you know how and where I get my information. If you're so freaking clairvoyant then what are you doing here? The elitism just oozes from you.

You made a fine point in your other post: Those in glass houses best not throw stones.

I don't know if you took the time to actually read the article I posted. Nowhere in my post did I negatively pass judgment on you, as you have me. Everywhere in my post, I discussed how and why I feel the way I do and I stuck to the issues.

What made me suspicious that the White House was behind the Israeli-Lebanon war was simply the sense of deja vu all over again, as if I were viewing the summer rerun of the Iraqi war because it was all carried out Bush style:

2. The feeling that the Israelis could easily win against Hezbollah when in fact Israeli troops also encountered fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas, who took a page from the Iraqi insurgents by using explosive booby traps and ambushes to inflict heavier than expected casualties on the Israelis.

5. Other soldiers found equipment to be either inferior or inappropriate for battlefield conditions.

6. And once again, animals proved they are smarter than humans: One Israeli plan to use llamas to deliver supplies in the rugged terrain of south Lebanon turned into an embarrassment when the animals simply sat down.

The only element that was missing was the mythical claim that they would be greeted as liberators but who knows? Maybe all those roses just couldn't be delivered because the roads in Lebanon had been destroyed.

I totally agree that there are radical Muslims who want to kill us. What I totally disagree with is Bush's belief that everything can be solved with bombs. The United States is quickly becoming the most hated country in the world because of Bush's total lack of diplomacy, and I'm afraid that he is only provoking more terror attacks as a result.

The world doesn't like to be bullied by a country with a president that clearly wants to dominate the world. Ask the Soviet Union. Whoops. Sorry. The Soviet Union doesn't exist any more, do they? At least for the time being. I personally predict that even though Bush claims to know Putin's heart, we're soon going to discover that you can't take the KGB out of the Russian, and maybe, just maybe they're finding pure greedy capitalism isn't all it's hyped up to be. I believe Putin is going to prove to be a very dangerous and painful thorn in America's side, only proving once again that Bush's judgment is very poor.

I'd be glad to debate you further, but if you're going to continue to make it personal, pretending to know who I am, what I feel and where I get my news, then I'm not interested in communicating with you any further and once again refer you to your very own quote to another poster: You infer that you know how and where I get my information. If you're so freaking clairvoyant then what are you doing here? The elitism just oozes from you.

It may seem that those who believe abortion is wrong are in
a minority. It may seem like we have no voice and it's
shameful to even bring it up. Let us show our President and
the world that the voices of those of us who do not believe
abortion is acceptable are not silent and must be heard.

On March 31, red envelopes are being mailed to protest Obama's agenda of unfettered worldwide abortions at taxpayer expense. The envelopes will be empty.

Get a red envelope. You can buy them at Kinkos, or at party
supply stores. Or you can visit the Red Envelope Project for a source that you can order on line for $10.95 per 100.

On the front, address it to

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington , D.C. 20500

On the back, write the following message.

This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception.

The envelopes are to be mailed on March 31, 2009.

Forward this event to every one of your friends who you think would send one, too. Share this ministry with your church. Bundle the envelopes in 5s or 10s and ask that the front be personally handwritten to Obama and ask that your church members take 5, 10, or however many they wish and apply the postage to each one so that no one is burdened unduly with the expense of the postage . To save time, print up labels for the message to be applied to the back of the envelope and place them on the envelopes before handing out. Be sure to supply with the bundle President Obama's mailing address to personally be handwritten.

All details of this worthy grassroots effort can be found at www.redenvelopeproject.org. Just click to see how many have signed up!!

This is an issue that reaches beyong partisan politics. This is an issue of life. I don't care whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, whether you voted for or against Obama. This is an issue of life. It is no longer about choice. It is an issue of global wholesale slaughter of innocent life. It is within my pay grade to protest, and I hope yours, too.

Of course, I am getting it from an international media source. Anyone seen this on TV?

While researching war protests from yesterday, I came across this interesting article.

I tried to view this video through numerous direct and indirect links. I am able to get video, but no audio. It appears that Amy Goodman, investigative reporter, age 51, and her crew were arrested while trying to report of the RNC convention protests. Without sound, it looks like she was not in the middle of anything particularly dramatic. All I could see was street and building, no spectators. It looked like she tried to talk to the officers and they spontaneously started manhandling her, detaining, cuffing and ultimately arrested her. I am curious about the conversation that was going on but have been unable to find audio and video together.

Is there anyone else who has viewed this video WITH the audio. If so could you possibly post the link you used. I am asking because my computer does not seem to be having any problem with other audio on video clips. For anyone who is not deeply offended by news reporting of the war protest, I have included another link to an LA Times article about the arrest below.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Barack Obama partied with Hollywood celebrities Tuesday night and with the help of Oscar-winning singer and actress Barbra Streisand raised an eye-popping $9 million for his presidential campaign and the Democratic Party.

The night was split into two glitzy events, a reception and dinner costing $28,500 each at the Greystone Mansion, followed by entertainment by Streisand at the nearby Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. About 250 people were expected at the dinner and about 800 at the entertainment, which cost $2,500 a ticket.

It was a day of contrasts for Obama. Earlier in the day, the Democratic presidential candidate spoke about the public's deepening economic anxieties and portrayed Republican challenger John McCain as out of touch with the needs of hardworking people.

McCain groused about Obama mixing it up with celebrities. He told a rally in Vienna, Ohio on Tuesday that Obama "talks about siding with the people, siding with the people just before he flies off to Hollywood for a fundraiser with Barbra Streisand and his celebrity friends. Let me tell you my friends, there's no place I'd rather be than here with the working men and women of Ohio."

A night earlier, McCain was with deep-pocketed donors in Florida and raised $5 million, a fact noted by Obama's campaign.

"I don't know who showed up down in Florida where he raised $5 million but my guess is that it wasn't a lot of nurses, firefighters and police officers," Obama's senior strategist, David Axelrod, told reporters. "The whole corporate lobbying community is rallying to his side. We're going to have to struggle to keep pace. You can't challenge that group and not expect them to have a lot of money."

While the final total was not determined, Obama's campaign did not dispute estimates that the twin events would bring in $9 million for Obama and the Democratic Party. That would be his second-biggest, fundraising day. Obama received $10 million from online donors the day after McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, delivered her speech at the Republican convention.

On another big fundraising night in California, Obama raised $7 million in August in San Francisco.
Obama is financing his presidential race with private contributions after abandoning a pledge to take public financing capped at $84 million. His campaign announced Sunday it had collected $66 million in August, a fundraising record for any presidential candidate in a monthlong period.

By comparison, McCain raised $47 million in August, a personal best for his campaign as well. After claiming the GOP nomination, McCain accepted the $84 million in taxpayer funds allotted by the public financing system for the race.

All this controversy over the number in attendance af last week's tea parties, and who was there! I would think over a quarter-million participants would rank right up there as far as demonstration statistics go.

There was another demonstration in 1995 which planned to attact a million demonstators. Wikipedia has this:

......... Finally, within the first twenty-four hours following the March a conflict between March organizers and Park Service officials erupted over crowd size estimates. Initially, the National Park Service issued an estimate of about 400,000 attendees; a number significantly lower than March organizers had hoped for. After a heated exchange between leaders of the March and Park Services the estimate was raised to 850,000* but still fell short of the organizers� estimate of over 1 million. The controversy over the number of men who actually participated in the March has yet to be firmly resolved. *[guess they were getting the 2 for 1 special?]

Even back then, folks were hollering 'recount,' I don't recall seeing any female or white faces in that crowd, either. I think that was pretty sexist and racist. The point is, you hang with like-minded individuals. Nobody put out the 'whites only' sign at the tea parties. It was equal opportunity, and if you were a hard-working black business owner you might have been there.

He's talking about people that got schnuckered so they can keep their homes. Maybe they would reduce the principle, but that would also keep people in their homes and make the other homes in that neighborhood keep their value.

Do you understand the concept that if the homes around you go into foreclosure then that brings your home value down?

U.S. owes Iraq $208 million, auditor says
Gouging, shoddy work by Halliburton blamed

An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended Friday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton Co. subsidiary.

The work was paid for with Iraqi oil proceeds, but the board says it was either carried out at inflated prices or done poorly. The board did not give examples of poor work.

Some of the work involved postwar fuel imports carried out by KBR that previous audits have criticized as grossly overpriced. But this is the first time that an international auditing group has suggested that the United States repay some of that money to Iraq.

The U.N. group, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board of the Development Fund for Iraq, compiled reports from an array of Pentagon, U.S. government and private auditors to carry out its analysis.

A spokeswoman for Halliburton, Cathy Mann, said the questions raised in the military audits, carried out in the Pentagon's Defense Contract Auditing Agency, had largely focused on issues of paperwork and documentation and alleged nothing about the quality of the work done by KBR. The monitoring board relied heavily on the Pentagon audits in drawing its conclusions.

Mann said, in an e-mail response to questions, that it would be completely wrong to say or imply that any of these costs that were incurred at the client's direction for its benefit are 'overcharges.'

The monitoring board, created by the United Nations specifically to oversee the Development Fund -- which includes Iraqi oil revenues and some money seized from Saddam Hussein's government -- said that because the audits were continuing, it was too early to say how much of the $208 million should ultimately be paid back.

The KBR contracts that have drawn fresh scrutiny also cover services other than fuel deliveries, like building and repairing oil pipelines and installing emergency power generators in Iraq. The documents released Friday by the monitoring board do not detail problems with specific tasks in those broad categories but instead summarize a series of newly disclosed audits that call into question $208,491,382 of the company's work in Iraq.

The monitoring board's authority extends only to making recommendations on any reimbursement. It would be up to the U.S. government to decide whether to make the payments, and who should make them.

Vice President Dick Cheney's former role as chief executive of Halliburton has led to repeated charges, uniformly dismissed by Cheney and the company, that it received preferential treatment in receiving Iraq-related contracts.

The Bush administration repeatedly gave Halliburton special treatment and allowed the company to gouge both U.S. taxpayers and the Iraqi people, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, said in a statement on the new audits.

In Iraq on Friday, insurgent attacks -- including one in which the attackers disguised themselves as women -- left at least 16 Iraqis dead.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, the leading insurgency group, said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site that two Moroccan Embassy employees had been condemned to death, the Associated Press reported. There was no indication Friday that they had been killed.

The U.S. military said Friday that two more soldiers had died the previous day, one in a noncombat incident and one when his convoy struck an explosive.

In the day's deadliest assault, insurgents dressed in women's clothing attacked a police checkpoint in Buhruz, 35 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least six Iraqi police and injuring at least 10 others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The gunmen were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, and pulled up in five cars, an Interior Ministry official said. The policemen managed to kill at least two of the gunmen, he added

The Senate is about to vote on a crucial bill, the revised H.R. 4437, that could give amnesty to 12-30 million illegal aliens and open the door for their relatives and a new flood of illegals to enter, which could mean 100-200 million new people coming into the country in 20 years according to expert analysis, virtually all poor, diminishing wages, increasing the crime rate, and bankrupting tax coffers. Now is the time to call any of the key Senators who could be persuaded into a NO vote, otherwise, there is a chance the House-Senate joint committee will approve for a likely vote in the House:

Lindsay Graham (SC): (202) 224-5972
Chuck Hagel (NE): (202) 224-4224
Richard Lugar (IN): (202) 224-4814
Mel Martinez (FL): (202) 224-3041
John McCain (AZ): (202) 224-2235
Richard Shelby (AL): (202) 224-5744
Olympia Snowe (ME): 202) 224-5344
Arlen Specter (PA): (202) 224-4254
Ted Stevens (AK): (202) 224-3004
George Voinovich (OH): (202) 224-3353
John Warner (VA): (202) 224-2023
Robert Bennett (UT): (202) 224-5444
Sam Brownback (KS): (202) 224-6521
Lincoln Chafee (RI): (202) 224-2921
Norm Coleman (MN): (202) 224-5641
Susan Collins (ME) (202) 224-2523
Larry Craig (ID): (202) 224-2752
Mike DeWine (OH): (202) 224-2315

To mt: Really over a million people took place in the protest. s/m

U.S. owes Iraq $208 million, auditor says Gouging, shoddy work by Halliburton blamed

U.S. owes Iraq $208 million, auditor says
Gouging, shoddy work by Halliburton blamed