John Edwards agrees with Coward Deanpeace
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

He got his headlines now he wants to make nice. John Edwards says in his own blog that he and Howard Dean have been saying the same things for years. Remember this in two years when Edwards tries to paint himself as a centrist again.

From John Edwards...

We Agree: Working Americans Let Down by the Republican Party

What a flap has arisen over a disagreement about the way something is said! I was in Nashville over the weekend, thanking the good people of Tennessee who supported the Democratic presidential ticket this year, when I was asked whether I thought that it was fair to say that people who were Republican hadn’t done a good day’s work. Of course, I didn’t think so, and I said that. I don’t think our DNC chair, Howard Dean, would put it that way again if asked either. I disagreed with him, and I said so. And, I want to be clear, I would have to say so again if I were asked again. I said a lot of good things about Howard’s outreach program and invigoration of the internet as a communication and fundraising tool, but no one wrote about that. Instead the headlines blared that I disagreed with Howard. And then the flap arose: A chasm! A split! A revolt!

Instead, how about: Nonsense!
We are both talking about the Republicans and their failure to address the needs of working people. We both agree with this basic truth: This Republican president and this Republican majority are not doing what they should be doing for working people in this country. That’s a core belief we need to fight for. And what’s more, we agree that we - all Democrats and all working people - should be complaining, criticizing, and generally speaking out about this critical failure of the Republican party and offering our positive vision for America. And we have.

Howard and I have been saying the same thing about this for years. Hear that? The same thing. For years. Have I ever put it some way that Howard wouldn't agree with? Probably. And he put it in a way, once, just the other day, that I can’t agree with, since I come from a place where hard-working people, who are better served by the agenda and passion of the Democrats, somehow still vote Republican. But Howard and I are committed to a 50-state strategy that will reach out to those voters, in North Carolina, and in Kansas, and in Tennessee, across this country and tell the truth about what is happening in this country to their jobs, to their health care, to their forests and streams, to their vision of what this country is and should be.

This President is not fighting for our jobs. His administration has on numerous occasions said that the out-sourcing of American jobs is good for this country. Well, it may be good for Wall Street, but it is lousy on Main Street. If he thinks that jobs moving overseas is good for us, why would he ever fight for American jobs?

Our labor laws have seen weak enforcement during the time we have had this Republican administration in place. Companies that skirt this country’s labor laws have gotten a slap on the hand, and even that has come too slowly. Efforts to allow workers to choose whether to unionize have not been protected in the way that they should, and the mutually beneficial bargain between labor and management that made this country the greatest economic power in the world has been broken, all while the Republican administration and Republican majority stand idle, with their hands dug deep in their pockets.

Those working people I grew up with that I talked about earlier live where I lived, in our rural communities, which is exactly where this Republican president wants to cut broadband extension, firefighter grants and investment and market access programs that will protect our rural jobs. The manufacturing extension program, which helps small manufacturers everywhere stay profitable - and therefore open, gets little support from this President. How are our towns going to remain vital with policies that ignore them? Where will the sons and daughters in our rural communities have to go to find jobs?

And this President has made choices that, if enacted by the Republican majority in Congress, will deny the opportunity to learn the skills for a new job to an untold number of Americans. Vocational and adult education would be cut by 89%. He wants to drastically cut adult education and retraining programs that allow American workers to better their skills either to get ahead or to get a new job when theirs leaves for overseas.

And if you happen to be a working man or woman in the United States military, this Republican president doesn’t support loan forgiveness for your student loans or top quality health care when you get out of the military.

The safety net is eroding. The ladder has been pulled up. This is not new. For more than two decades, the Republican Party has talked about an agenda that addresses concerns of working people while they have passed an agenda that serves the goals of the wealthiest among us. Howard and I know that these are the wrong choices for America. We won’t always use the same words. But we will always fight the same fight: for the dignity, the respect, and the rights of those who built this country, the working people in America.

Origional Source: Lib Loser Dem Blog and replies...
One America Committee Blog ~ John Edwards ** We Agree: Working Americans Let Down by the Republican Party

Kerry?s grades were no better than Bush?s
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

The Dems have tried to paint themselves as a party of intellectuals and have put extra time into portraying ‘W’ as stupid. John Kerry’s college transcripts show him to be an average student, no better than the President.

Transcript Shows John Kerry's Yale Grades Similar to President Bush's

BOSTON - Sen. John F. Kerry's grade average at Yale University was virtually identical to President Bush's record there, despite repeated portrayals of Kerry as the more intellectual candidate during the 2004 presidential campaign. Kerry had a cumulative average of 76 and got four Ds his freshman year - in geology, two history courses and political science, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

His grades improved with time, and he averaged an 81 his senior year and earned an 89 - his highest grade - in political science as a senior.

"I always told my dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said in a written response to reporters' questions. He said he has previously acknowledged focusing more on learning to fly than studying.

Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade.

In 1999, The New Yorker magazine published a transcript showing Bush had a cumulative grade average of 77 his first three years at Yale, and a similar average under a non-numerical rating system his senior year.

Bush's highest grade at Yale was an 88 in anthropology, history and philosophy. He received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy, and improved his grades after his freshman year, the transcript showed.

Kerry, a Democrat, previously declined to release the transcript, which was included in his Navy records. He gave the Navy permission to release the documents last month, the Globe reported.

Kerry graduated from Yale in 1966, Bush in 1968.

Tampa Bay Online ~ Associated Press ** Transcript Shows John Kerry's Yale Grades Similar to President Bush's

(D) Mass. Ex-House Speaker indicted for obstructing civil rights case
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran was indicted by a grand jury for perjury and obstruction of justice. It stems from Finneran’s testimony in a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups that contend that redistricting in the state undermined minority representation and protected white incumbents.

Former House Speaker Thomas Finneran faces perjury charges. \/

Grand jury indicts Finneran

3 counts of perjury, 1 of obstructing justice

A federal grand jury today brought a criminal indictment against former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran for allegedly lying in a civil case on legislative redistricting.

Finneran is charged with three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment follows a yearlong investigation into the Mattapan Democrat, who dominated state politics for nearly a decade until his departure last year.

The charges from the Boston grand jury involve Finneran's testimony under oath after civil rights groups filed a federal suit alleging that a House redistricting plan protected white incumbents and diluted the clout of minority voters.

The charges could lead to jail time and the loss of Finneran's license to practice law if he's convicted.

The first perjury count alleges that Finneran lied on the stand Nov. 14, 2003 during the civil trial, when he was still speaker, and testified that he had no knowledge of the contents of the redistricting plan until it was made public on Oct. 18, 2001.

The second perjury count alleges that Finneran also lied when he testified that he didn't discuss the redistricting plan as it related to his district in advance with one of his top lieutenants, the House chairman of the Joint Committee on Redistricting, Representative Thomas M. Petrolati.

The third perjury charge accuses Finneran of lying during a March 28, 2003 deposition when questioned by lawyers in the civil case about documents they were seeking. Finneran allgedly said he did not have the documents the lawyers were seeking -- including calendars relating to campaign events -- when did actually have them.

Finneran is also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly attempting to thwart a federal investigation by lying durign the civil trial and in his deposition.

Finneran, who served as speaker for eight years before resigning last fall to become president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, has not been arrested, and instead will be summonsed into US District Court in Boston for arraignment on the charges.

Today's charges followed a yearlong probe by the FBI which was triggered after a three-judge panel threw out the redistricting map and issued an opinion that expressed skepticism about Finneran's truthfulness.

Later this afternoon, Finneran issued the following statement concerning the indictments: "26 years of unblemished public service and unquestioned integrity speaks volumes. So do the calls, cards, and comments from state and federal prosecutors, past and present, judges, attorneys, business leaders and citizens of all stripes regarding the questionable motives and machinations of the US attorney's office. My response to the charges brought against me today is NOT GUILTY. My family and I look forward to my day in court. Until then, I will have no further comment."

Boston Globe ~ Shelley Murphy ** Grand jury indicts Finneran

''Real'' Hillary reappears, attacks Bush, GOP, congress, press
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Hillary Clinton tossed aside her 2008-looking, centrist persona for a Dem party fundraiser. In classic "Hillary" style she told the press to "get a spine" called the U.S. House of Representatives a "dictatorship" and even mocked the president?s faith.

Senator Clinton Assails Bush and G.O.P. at Campaign Fund-Raiser

By Patrick D. Healy

Senator Hillary Clinton castigated President Bush and Washington Republicans today as mad with power and bent on marginalizing Democrats during a speech to 1,000 supporters at her first major re-election fund-raiser, which netted about $250,000.

Mrs. Clinton, who is running for a second term in 2006 and is widely described as a possible Democratic nominee for the presidency in 2008, said that her party is hamstrung because Republicans dissemble and smear without shame and the news media has lost its investigatory zeal for exposing misdeeds.

Left unchallenged, especially if Democrats fail to pick up seats in next year's Congressional elections, she said, Republican leaders could ram through extremist conservative judges, wreck Social Security and make unacceptable concessions to China, Saudi Arabia and other nations that are needed to finance the United States budget deficit.

"There has never been an administration, I don't believe in our history, more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda," Mrs. Clinton told the audience at a "Women for Hillary" gathering in Midtown Manhattan this morning.

"I know it's frustrating for many of you; it's frustrating for me: Why can't the Democrats do more to stop them?" she continued to growing applause and cheers. "I can tell you this: It's very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they're doing. It is very hard to tell people that they are making decisions that will undermine our checks and balances and constitutional system of government who don't care. It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth."

Mrs. Clinton described Republican leaders as messianic in their beliefs, willing to manipulate facts and even "destroy" the Senate to gain political advantage over the Democratic minority. She also labeled the House of Representatives as "a dictatorship of the Republican leadership," where individual members are all but required to vote in lock-step with the majority's agenda.

Referring to Congress' Republican leadership, she said, "Some honestly believe they are motivated by the truth, they are motivated by a higher calling, they are motivated by, I guess, a direct line to the heavens."

Then, leavening the moment a bit, she referred to reports from the Clinton White House that she would try to channel with a favorite First Lady of the past. "Now, I talk to Eleanor Roosevelt all the time, and she has never said there is any reason to only have one point of view," she said. "But apparently they have a different direct line."

While Mrs. Clinton has sought opportunities in recent months to stake claims to the political center, emphasizing nuances on abortion and immigration that may appeal to some Republicans and conservatives, her speech today was a starkly partisan rallying cry to her troops at a time when at least four New York Republicans are preparing to challenge her in 2006. She did, however, have some kind words for some past Republican presidents - Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush - but only to praise their stabs at bipartisanship and to slight the current President Bush's posture by comparison.

"We can't ever, ever give in to the Republican agenda," she declared. "It isn't good for New York and it isn't good for America."

Abetting the Republicans, she said in some of her sharpest language, is a Washington press corps that has become a pale imitation of the Watergate-era reporters who are being celebrated this month amid the identification of the anonymous Washington Post source, Deep Throat.

"The press is missing in action, with all due respect," she said. "Where are the investigative reporters today? Why aren't they asking the hard questions? It's shocking when you see how easily they fold in the media today. They don't stand their ground. If they're criticized by the White House, they just fall apart.

"I mean, c'mon, toughen up, guys, it's only our Constitution and country at stake," she said. "Let's get some spine."

Suggesting some lines of reporting, she asserted that the Bush administration could not account for $9 billion in Coalition Authority spending in Iraq, and that the Food and Drug Administration had allowed religious and political bias to interfere with science-driven decision-making on reproductive drugs.

Mrs. Clinton said she wanted to "move back toward a progressive agenda that will lift up people." The other side, she argued, was pressing retrograde steps like the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown, a California Supreme Court Justice, for a federal appeals court seat. Many Democrats plan to vote against Judge Brown if her nomination comes to the Senate floor as expected this week, taking issue with an array of her court decisions and past remarks, like her once describing President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal as "the triumph of our own socialist revolution."

"If you read about her, try not to get upset - I had to read about her and it kept me upset for months," Mrs. Clinton said of Judge Brown. "This is a woman who truly sees the world in 19th century terms. You know, during the Clinton administration, we used to talk about building a bridge to the 21st century. This administration wants to build a bridge to the 19th century.

"They want to undo and turn the clock back on the progress of the 20th century, whether it's the right to organize, whether it's the right to be able to have a choice when it comes to the most private and intimate decisions that a woman has to make, whether it is to protect the environment."

A particularly "excruciating test" for the nation's political future, Mrs. Clinton predicted, could come this summer in a showdown over a nominee to the United States Supreme Court, if one or more current members retire.

President Bush "wants to nominate someone, I believe, who will be a confrontational nominee so that he can provide support to his far-right extremist base," Mrs. Clinton said. "And we have to stand as firmly as possible against that."

On a brighter note, she said, Democrats appear to have all but "stopped" President Bush's "scheme" to overhaul Social Security. But she decried his fiscal policies, particularly Republican-backed tax cuts, saying they were ballooning the deficit and ceding "fiscal sovereignty" to countries like China, which are harder to influence when they become "your banker."

(Origional story requires registration)
NY Times ~ Patrick D. Healy ** Senator Clinton Assails Bush and G.O.P. at Campaign Fund-Raiser

GULAG V. GITMO Equivalency Test
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

GULAG V. GITMO
Equivalency Test

In a recent report, Amnesty International referred to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo as "the gulag of our time." The term--a Russian abbreviation for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration--refers to the network of Soviet labor camps established during Stalin's rule that continued, in a different form, for much of the Soviet Union's history. During a press conference on Tuesday, President Bush rejected the charge as "absurd." Amnesty has defended its use of the term. Below, a comparison of the two prison systems, with the aid of Anne Applebaum's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Gulag: A History.

Individuals Detained:

Gulag: Approximately 20 million passed through the Gulag. The population at any one time was generally around two million.

Guantanamo: 750 prisoners have passed through the camp. The current population is about 520.

Number of Camps:

Gulag: 476 separate camp complexes comprising thousands of individual camps. By the end of the 1930s, camps were located in each of the Soviet Union's twelve time zones.

Guantanamo: Five small camps on the U.S. military base in Cuba.

Reasons for Imprisonment:

Gulag: Opposition to the Soviet regime's forced collectivization, including efforts to hide grain in cellars; owning too many cows; need for slave labor to complete massive industrialization and mining projects; political opposition to the Soviet system; being Jewish; being Finnish; being religious; being middle class; being in need of reeducation; having had contact with foreigners; refusing to sleep with the head of Soviet counterintelligence; telling a joke about Stalin.

Guantanamo: Fighting for the fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan; being suspected of links to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Judicial Review:

Gulag: None. "Trials" of those sent to the Gulag often lasted only a few minutes.

Guantanamo: The Bush administration has argued that detainees are unlawful combatants, not prisoners of war. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2004 that prisoners must receive hearings on their legal status. One hundred and fifty have decided to challenge their detention, and dozens of lawyers have been arriving at the base to represent them. Human rights groups and lawyers for detainees have argued that the military hearings are inadequate.

Red Cross Visits:

Gulag: None that I could find.

Guantanamo: Regular visits since January 2002. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reportedly complained to the U.S. government about several aspects of prisoner treatment, including occasional beatings and other interrogation tactics. Per its standard practice, the ICRC does not make its complaints public.

Deaths as a Result of Poor Treatment:

Gulag: At least two to three million. Mass burials were often employed to keep death rates secret (camp commanders sometimes received permission to remove gold fillings before burial). In some particularly brutal periods, camp commanders simply executed thousands of prisoners. But deaths due to overwork were much more common. It is estimated that 25,000 gulag laborers died during the construction of the White Sea Canal in the early '30s. One convoy of "backward elements" destined for the Gulag in 1933 included about 6,000 prisoners; after three months, 4,000 were dead. "The survivors had lived because they ate the flesh of those who had died," according to an account cited by Applebaum.

Guantanamo: No reports of prisoner deaths.

Typical Treatment:

Gulag: For the most part, Gulag prisoners provided labor for the Soviet system. Treatment varied widely, but most prisoners lived in overcrowded barracks, and prisoners occasionally killed one another in an effort to find space to sleep. Deadly dysentery and typhus outbreaks were common. Prisoners often had inadequate clothing to protect themselves from the elements, and most camps lacked running water and heat.

Guantanamo: A recent Time magazine report found that "the best-behaved detainees are held in Camp 4, a medium-security, communal-living environment with as many as 10 beds in a room; prisoners can play soccer or volleyball outside up to nine hours a day, eat meals together and read Agatha Christie mysteries in Arabic. Less cooperative detainees typically live and eat in small, individual cells and get to exercise and shower only twice a week." Human Rights Watch and other watchdog groups have collected firsthand testimony from prisoners alleging abuses, including the use of dogs, extended solitary confinement, sexual humiliation, and "stress positions." An official investigation uncovered only minor abuses, and most detainee accusations have not been verified.

Religious Observance:

Gulag: Prisoners were occasionally able to smuggle bibles into the camps and hold religious observances, including Christmas and Easter, in secret. Being caught conducting services, however, could be grounds for further punishment. Applebaum records a prisoner's description of a priest creeping through a camp, trying to say mass without being detected.

Guantanamo: Prisoners are provided copies of the Koran and daily time for prayer. Arrows on the floor of each cell point to Mecca. Meals are made in accordance with Muslim religious restrictions. Several prisoners, however, reported delays in receiving their copies of the Koran and that guards mistreated the Koran on multiple occasions. For its part, the Pentagon has documented five instances of Koran mishandling though it denies that a Koran was ever flushed down the toilet, as one detainee alleged.

The detention center at Guantanamo is legally dubious and has been a public relations disaster for the United States. The treatment of certain prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan has been far worse. Amnesty's president Irene Kahn says that these practices are "undermining human rights in a dramatic way." Her outrage is valuable and essential. If only she could express it without employing obscene moral parallels.

(Origional story requires registration)
The New Republic ~ David Bosco ** GULAG V. GITMO Equivalency Test

Black activists renew calls to break from Dems
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Funny Stuff

Black activists, with encouraging words from Louis Farrakhan and some encouragement from Jesse Jackson are renewing calls to break with the Democratic party and start a third party. The loss of so large and loyal a segment of the Dem base would be a huge blow to an already declining institution.

Blacks urged to form independent political movement

WASHINGTON - Growing disappointment with the Democratic Party, capped by a so-called Senate compromise last week that paved the way for the confirmation of at least three Right-wing judges, has prompted some activists to consider leaving the Democratic Party and forming an independent political movement.

"Everybody knows that Blacks are the most loyal folk to the Democratic Party. We have been loyal. And what do we get for our loyalty?" asks Mary Frances Berry, former chair of the U. S. Commission of Civil Rights. "African-Americans should form an independent political movement; not a party, but a movement and say, 'This is what our issues are and any candidate who supports these issues we will support. And if you don't support them, we won't support you.'"

Over the past 30 years, Democrats have received more than 80 percent of the Black vote in every presidential election.

"When it comes to Black people, African-American people, Afro-American people - whatever we're calling ourselves this year, Negro, colored - there is no party, except the White party," says Thomas N. Todd a Chicago attorney and longtime civil rights activist.

"When White people decide they want their own best interest involved, whether they are Democrats or Republican, they vote their own interests and Black people have got to start doing the same thing. We've been putting party politics ahead of the self-interest of Black people."

The fact that Todd and Berry, neither of whom has been linked to what are considered fringe political movements, are ready to bolt the Democratic Party could spell serious trouble for Democrats.

Others activists may come to the same conclusion after 14 Democratic Senators signed on to a deal that paved the way for the confirmation of at least three far-Right judges. Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen was subsequently confirmed for the 5th Circuit with a vote of 56 to 43.

Under the agreement, former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, nominated to the 11th Circuit, and California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rodgers Brown, nominated for the D. C. Circuit, will be voted on and are likely to be confirmed.

Democrats said they went along with a compromise in order to avoid the, "nuclear option," the Republicans' threat to abolish the option to filibuster, a maneuver employed by the party out of power to stop a particular measure from reaching a floor vote. Under Senate rules, it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster, known as cloture. Republicans had vowed to change senate rules to end filibusters with a 51-vote majority if Democrats did not agree to allow the vote on at least three of the nominees.

Even Democrats who were not a part of the negotiated deal, but who voted to move ahead with the Owens vote are being strongly criticized by activists.

"People like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the rest are just behaving like mainstream Democrats," says Berry.

Obama, the only African-American senator, broke with his Congressional Black Caucus colleagues to support a floor vote on Owen. He then voted against her nomination.

"It just strikes me that anger at the Democrats, when they mounted this fight, led this fight, held fast for two or three months and then finally just came up short because we couldn't persuade any Republicans to hold off on the nuclear option, just seems to me to be directing anger at the wrong place," Obama says. "I think the Democrats in the Senate did everything that they could to prevent these nominations from coming up. But we only have 45 seats."

Even so, some other Democratic stalwarts in the Senate, Barbara Boxer (Calif.), John Kerry (Mass.) and Edward Kennedy (Mass.) voted against the last-minute compromise, knowing Republicans had enough votes to confirm any nomination once it reached the Senate floor.

"After the Democratic leadership pleaded for years to get strong support against these judges and then to capitulate, and then have Owen approved, it was nothing short of a sell out," says Harvard University law professor Charles Ogletree. "We cannot afford to be puppets or capitulate like we're mannequins. That's one of the consequences of allowing this extraordinary self-destructive conduct by the quote, 'leadership.'"

Todd says an independent movement in the Black community should start from the bottom up rather than by elected officials who are already tied to the two major parties.

"I think that Blacks in the local community ought to start organizing," he says. "An independent movement at the grassroots level, at the bottom and not even expect it to be done from the top down." Ogletree agrees.

"We don't have an opportunity to waste another four years looking for a messiah to come from some other place. The talent is right within our grasp. We need to nudge the self-assured, incredibly accomplished young leaders."

Rainbow/PUSH Coalition founder and President Jesse Jackson Sr., a two-time candidate for president on the Democratic ticket, acknowledges that African-Americans are getting shafted by Democrats.

"They protected the minority in the Senate; not the minorities outside the Senate," Jackson says. "They did not fight to protect minorities from judges who are anti-civil rights, anti-labor, anti-consumer.Our interests are not being protected in this arrangement." However, Jackson stopped short of calling for Blacks to leave the Democratic Party.

But Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam argues that African-Americans are not being respected by either Democrats or Republicans and hinted that he might launch an independent candidacy for president in 2008.

In a panel discussion before the National Conference of Black Mayors last month, Farrakhan said, "If we leverage our strength, we'll make both parties bow and you'll get what you've been looking for all the time that you've been serving the party."

Independent Black political movements have been tried before.

The largest such movement was the formation of the National Black Political Assembly in 1972, which grew out of a movement led in part by playwright and poet Amiri Baraka. It drew 10,000 African-Americans to Gary, Ind.

The group culminated in 1980 with a National Black Political Convention in Philadelphia with the intent to start an independent Black political party. But, the group became divided when a faction wanted to exclude electoral politics from the charter, recalls University of Maryland Political Scientist Ron Walters.

Subsequently, many members went there separate ways, with many ending up helping Jesse Jackson 1984 presidential campaign.

"We really need our own center of gravity and we don't have it," Walters says. "And because the Black Caucus is not building it for us, we're sort of tied at the ankles, the hips and the shoulders with dysfunctional politics."

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean does not want African-Americans to leave the party.

"First of all, Democrats are never going to nominate judges like this. Second of all, hopefully the Democratic Party is going to be willing to fight," Deans says.

Some Blacks see Democrats fighting -against them.

Just before the last election, African-American get-out-the-vote groups, including the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, which includes 84 organizations, were angered when White-led, liberal organizations, called 527s (so named for the section of the Internal Revenue Service that governs their activities), spent approximately $100 million to turn out the Black vote, bypassing traditional Black groups that had been effective in the past.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Mel Watt (D-N.C.) is cautious about any movement that loses sight of the real enemies of Black people.

"I'm in favor of a movement, but part of that movement would be to hold them accountable on these two judges and not only to hold Democrats accountable, but to start to communicate to Republicans that there has been a strong history in the area of civil rights of bi-partisanship and that we don't want to turn the clock back. I'm not sure that I believe that this is the time to spend all of our efforts fighting with each other."

Professor Ogletree predicts there will be political repercussions. He says, "I think this will be an example of when we will not stand back and accept this. There will be a cost to pay."

Chicago Defender ~ Hazel Trice Edney ** Blacks urged to form independent political movement

Democrats Also Got Abramoff Lobbyist Funds
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Democrats Also Got Tribal Donations

Abramoff Issue's Fallout May Extend Beyond the GOP

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and an associate famously collected $82 million in lobbying and public relations fees from six Indian tribes and devoted a lot of their time to trying to persuade Republican lawmakers to act on their clients' behalf.

But Abramoff didn't work just with Republicans. He oversaw a team of two dozen lobbyists at the law firm Greenberg Traurig that included many Democrats. Moreover, the campaign contributions that Abramoff directed from the tribes went to Democratic as well as Republican legislators.

Among the biggest beneficiaries were Capitol Hill's most powerful Democrats, including Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) and Harry M. Reid (Nev.), the top two Senate Democrats at the time, Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), then-leader of the House Democrats, and the two lawmakers in charge of raising funds for their Democratic colleagues in both chambers, according to a Washington Post study. Reid succeeded Daschle as Democratic leader after Daschle lost his Senate seat last November.

Democrats are hoping to gain political advantage from federal and Senate investigations of Abramoff's activities and from the embattled lobbyist's former ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). Yet, many Democratic lawmakers also benefited from Abramoff's political operation, a fact that could hinder the Democrats' efforts to turn the lobbyist's troubles into a winning partisan issue.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see the Abramoff controversy impact both parties," said Tony Raymond, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine.com, which gathers lobbying and campaign finance information.

Democratic lawmakers who responded to inquiries for this article said that any money they received from the tribes had nothing to do with Abramoff. They were quick to say they did not know the man.

Federal investigators are examining the millions of dollars in lobbying and public relations fees that Abramoff received from the tribes. They are also looking into his dealings with members of Congress and their staffs, lawyers involved in the inquiry said.

Most lobbying firms here are bipartisan, to give their clients access to key lawmakers of both major parties. Abramoff's group was no exception. Although he was recognized as a Republican lobbyist who was close to DeLay and other party leaders, Abramoff was careful to add at least two Democratic lobbyists to his group during his five years at Greenberg Traurig. By the end, seven of his lobbyists were Democrats.

"Lobbying shops typically direct contributions to both parties because they want contacts on both sides of the aisle," said David M. Hart, a professor of public policy at George Mason University. "Lawmakers in the minority can also have a lot of clout."

According to documents and tribal officials familiar with the Abramoff team's methods, the lobbyists devised lengthy lists of lawmakers to whom the tribes should donate and then delivered the lists to the tribes. The tribes, in turn, wrote checks to the recommended campaign committees and in the amounts the lobbyists prescribed. The money went to incumbents or selected candidates in open seats.

Because of the makeup of his team and the composition of Congress, the Abramoff lobbyists channeled most of their clients' giving to GOP legislators, according to a review of public records. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee that frequently deals with Indian matters, received the largest amount from the tribes as well as from the Greenberg Traurig lobbyists who helped direct those donations: $141,590 from 1999 to 2004, the study showed.

But Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) ran second, with $128,000 in the same period. From 1999 to 2001, Kennedy chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which solicited campaign donations for House candidates.

The Indians' largess flowed to higher-ranking Democrats as well. Senate Democratic leaders Reid and Daschle each received more than $40,000 from the tribes and from lobbyists on Abramoff's team during the period. Gephardt got $32,500.

Of the 18 largest recipients of tribe contributions directed by Abramoff's group, six, or one-third, were Democrats. These included Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), who chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2001 to 2002, and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), a leader in Indian affairs legislation.

Over that period, while Abramoff and his lobbyists directed nearly $4 million in funds from the tribes to lawmakers, they also gave from their own pockets. Two-thirds of the total went to Republicans and one-third was handed out to Democrats, according to The Post's calculations.

The six wealthiest tribes that had hired Abramoff's group were the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and the Tigua Indian Reservation.

Greenberg Traurig declined to comment. An Abramoff spokesman said: "Each tribe has its own protocol for approving political contributions made by the tribe. Mr. Abramoff and his team provided recommendations on where a tribe should spend its political dollars, but ultimately the tribal council made the final decision on what political contributions to make."

Democratic lawmakers sought to distance themselves from Abramoff.

A spokesman for Kennedy said the congressman's donations from the tribes "have nothing to do with Abramoff." Kennedy traces the money's genesis to his family's long-standing commitment to Indian causes, to the fact that he co-founded the Congressional Native American Caucus in 1997, and to his personal relationship with Mississippi Choctaw Chief Philip Martin, whom Kennedy met in 1999 on a fundraising trip for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "They just became close friends," said Kennedy spokesman Sean Richardson.

James Patrick Manley, Reid's spokesman, also asserted that Reid's connection to tribes was remote from Abramoff. He said that Reid does not know Abramoff. But Abramoff did hire as one of his lobbyists Edward P. Ayoob, a veteran Reid legislative aide. Manley acknowledged that Ayoob helped raise campaign money for his former boss. Lawyers close to the Abramoff operation said that Ayoob held a fundraising reception for Reid at Greenberg Traurig's offices here.

"There's nothing sinister here," Manley said. Reid is a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee with strong relations with Indian tribes, he explained.

Daschle was familiar with another of Abramoff's Democratic lobbyists, Michael Smith. According to Steve Hildebrand, who was Daschle's campaign manager last year, Smith "helped with a lot of Democratic campaigns." In addition, Daschle was a favorite of Indian tribes and received donations from 64, including five Abramoff clients. "We took about $150,000 in this last election cycle from Indian tribes around the country," Hildebrand said. "Tom is viewed as a champion of Indian issues. We have nine tribes in South Dakota, and they worked hard for him."

Murray also was said to have never laid eyes on Abramoff. "Our office has not had any contact with Jack Abramoff," said the senator's spokeswoman, Alex Glass. "She's been active in Indian health care and in supporting their sovereign governments; that is why they decided to contribute to her. They see her as an advocate."

During the time Murray chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Abramoff's major tribes were significant contributors. Election reports show that the grand total from the tribes to that committee in 2001-2002 reached $175,500.

In March 2001, Dorgan held a fundraising event during a hockey game in a skybox leased by an Abramoff company at MCI Center. But the senator said he believed that the box was controlled by Greenberg Traurig. The event was organized by Smith, the Democratic fundraiser, he added.

"I was unaware that Abramoff was involved," Dorgan said.

Staff writer Susan Schmidt contributed to this report.

Washington Post ~ Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Derek Willis ** Democrats Also Got Tribal Donations

Deanpeace stands by ?honest living? insult of millions of Reps, and no Dems have refuted or even distanced themselves from it
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

In the first 24 hours since they were made public, no Dems have refuted or even distanced themselves from Howard Dean’s insult of millions of Republican voters. Howard Dean is proving that he intends to hold onto power in the DNC by generating libelous headlines instead of inspiring donors and voters.

Dean Defending Comments About Republicans

WASHINGTON - National Democratic Chairman Howard Dean was defending another of his comments Friday after telling liberal activists a lot of Republicans "have never made an honest living in their lives."

Republicans called his Thursday comment "mudslinging." Some fellow Democrats expressed reservations over his choice of words, too, before Dean amplified his comments.

"The point I was making is clear: Republican policies have declared war on hardworking Americans," Dean said Friday. "I will continue to criticize Republican leaders and their policies, and the Democratic Party will continue to offer constructive alternatives."

The Democratic chairman made the initial comments about Republicans doing "an honest day's work" Thursday during a speech to a Washington conference sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future.

While discussing the hardship of working all day and then standing in line for eight hours to vote, Dean had said, "Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."

Republican spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said Dean's comment shows his priority "is to generate mudslinging headlines."

Dean has made comments that stirred controversy before. A recent example occurred in May, when Dean said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence."

The House ethics committee is investigating whether DeLay violated congressional rules by taking foreign trips paid for by lobbyists. The Texas Republican has not been charged with a crime, but Dean said later he would not apologize.

Democratic Party efforts to recruit anti-abortion candidates and take a more moderate position on abortion drew fire Friday from Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women.

She told activists at the Campaign for America's Future meeting that leading Democrats are trying too hard to redefine the party's stance on key issues.

Leading Democrats, including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who heads Democratic efforts to win seats in the Senate, and party chairman Dean have been overly eager to recruit supporters — and candidates — who don't support abortion choice, she said.

In Pennsylvania, anti-abortion candidate Bob Casey Jr. is the front-runner among Democrats to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record).

Phil Singer, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, rejected Gandy's criticism. "We're focused on getting the best candidates to run in the 2006 races without any kind of litmus test," Singer said. "If Democrats lose seats this cycle, we'll see a fundamentally different America."

Gandy said she was concerned about Democrats trying to build support "if it means throwing women's rights overboard like so much ballast, ... if it means abandoning the core principles of the Democratic Party."

Efforts by Democrats and others to blend religion and politics also drew Gandy's criticism.

"So many political leaders are trying to be Republican lite and they're being encouraged by the Democratic Party," she said. "Please, somebody tell them we don't need two Republican parties."

Yahoo News ~ Associated Press - Will Lester ** Dean Defending Comments About Republicans

Robert KKK Byrd?s WV Senate race lead evaporates
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

The 2006 mid-term could be the one that sees Robert Byrd, the former KKK leader who is the only person to use the 'n-word' on the floor of the Senate, lose his seat after nearly 50 years in office. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican representative who has not even declared her candidacy is essentially tied with the West Virginia lawmaker, according to a new poll. Illinois freshman Senator Barack Obama has recently helped Byrd raise money and Dems are expected to strongly contest the race.

Byrd, Capito race too close to call

By Therese Smith Cox

A new poll shows Sen. Robert Byrd and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito would run neck and neck in a possible campaign for the Senate seat now held by Byrd.

An RMS Strategies Poll released today reports that 46 percent of 401 registered voters in West Virginia would vote for Byrd if the election were held now.

A total of 43 percent picked Capito, R-W.Va., though she has not announced her intention to run.

And 11 percent said they were undecided -- a percentage that could sway the vote either way.

Byrd, a powerful Democrat in his seventh term, dismissed the telephone poll conducted between May 11 and 18 as one of many attempts to predict the outcome of a race a full year and a half in the future.

"They'll all be different," Byrd said. "But no poll can change my job of fighting for West Virginians. People have more important things to worry about right now than that election -- Social Security and health care and taking care of their children.

"My job is to use my experience, seniority and know-how to fight for the people of West Virginia each and every day."

Byrd has not formally announced he will seek an eighth term, but his campaign has been aggressively raising money. In the first three months of this year, freshman Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., helped Byrd raise $1.16 million.

The possible race will be closely monitored as a Capito win could affect the Senate's current political balance of 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one Independent.

Capito also said she is focused on her current job in the House of Representatives and her effort to pass an energy bill, create jobs and provide affordable health care.

Still, she said she was flattered that many West Virginians have encouraged her to run for the Senate.

"I intend to keep my options open for 2006 and make a decision in the coming months," Capito said.

Political analyst Robert Rupp of West Virginia Wesleyan College said the poll could indicate such a race would be very tight.

"It is basically a tie," Rupp said. "This shows it's surprisingly close. This means by just putting her name out, she has done very well with this snapshot."

Because Byrd has never been strongly challenged during his nearly half-century in office, the potential campaign would cover "all new territory for West Virginia," Rupp said.

"This poll shows it might be a harder race than what some proponents suggest," he said.

RMS Strategies interviewers used random-digit dialing generated by computer to select respondents, who represented all 55 counties.

Those interviewed included a representative portion of registered voters based on age, gender, race, family income and political party affiliation. Both listed and unlisted telephone households had equal chances of being selected.

Researchers are 95 percent certain that results won't be more than plus or minus 4.9 percent off the actual mark.

In the poll, Byrd received a 62 percent very favorable or somewhat favorable opinion from voters in the state, compared to 33 percent who gave him an unfavorable rating.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they hold a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Capito while 19 percent gave her an unfavorable rating.

Charleston Daily Mail ~ Therese Smith Cox ** Byrd, Capito race too close to call

WMD That Never Existed Are ''Missing''
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News

U.N.: Weapons Equipment Missing in Iraq

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday.

U.N. inspectors have been blocked from returning to Iraq since the U.S.-led war in 2003 so they have been using satellite photos to see what happened to the sites that were subject to U.N. monitoring because their equipment had both civilian and military uses.

In the report to the U.N. Security Council, acting chief weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said he's reached no conclusions about who removed the items or where they went. He said it could have been moved elsewhere in Iraq, sold as scrap, melted down or purchased.

He said the missing material can be used for legitimate purposes. "However, they can also be utilized for prohibited purposes if in a good state of repair."

He said imagery analysts have identified 109 sites that have been emptied of equipment to varying degrees, up from 90 reported in March.

The report also provided much more detail about the percentage of items no longer at the places where U.N. inspectors monitored them.

From the imagery analysis, Perricos said analysts at the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission which he heads have concluded that biological sites were less damaged than chemical and missile sites.

The commission, known as UNMOVIC, previously reported the discovery of some equipment and material from the sites in scrapyards in Jordan and the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

Perricos said analysts found, for example, that 53 of the 98 vessels that could be used for a wide range of chemical reactions had disappeared. "Due to its characteristics, this equipment can be used for the production of both commercial chemicals and chemical warfare agents," he said.

The report said 3,380 valves, 107 pumps, and more than 7.8 miles of pipes were known to have been located at the 39 chemical sites.

A third of the chemical items removed came from the Qaa Qaa industrial complex south of Baghdad which the report said "was among the sites possessing the highest number of dual-use production equipment," whose fate is now unknown." Significant quantities of missing material were also located at the Fallujah II and Fallujah III facilities north of the city, which was besieged last year.

Before the first Gulf War in 1991, those facilities played a major part in the production of precursors for Iraq's chemical warfare program.

The percentages of missing biological equipment from 12 sites were much smaller -- no higher than 10 percent.

The report said 37 of 405 fermenters ranging in size from 2 gallons to 1,250 gallons had been removed. Those could be used to produce pharmaceuticals and vaccines as well as biological warfare agents such as anthrax.

The largest percentages of missing items were at the 58 missile facilities, which include some of the key production sites for both solid and liquid propellant missiles, the report said.

For example, 289 of the 340 pieces of equipment to produce missiles -- about 85 percent -- had been removed, it said.

At the Kadhimiyah and Al Samoud factory sites in suburban Baghdad, where the report said airframes and engines for liquid propellant missiles were manufactured and final assembly was carried out, "all equipment and missile components have been removed."

UNMOVIC is the outgrowth of a U.N. inspections process created after the 1991 Gulf War in which invading Iraqi forces were ousted from Kuwait. Its staff are considered the only multinational weapons experts specifically trained in biological weapons and missile disarmament.

The report noted that the commissioners who advise UNMOVIC again raised questions about its future. Iraq has called for its Security Council mandate to be terminated because UNMOVIC is funded from past Iraqi oil sales and it wants to be treated like other countries, but the council has not taken up the issue.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said Thursday the commission's expertise "should not be lost for the international community."

LA Times ~ Associated Press - Edith M. Lederer ** U.N.: Weapons Equipment Missing in Iraq