Tony Bennett & Celine Dion
If I Ruled the World

One of my favorite lines…….If I Ruled the World.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department increasingly has refused to prosecute FBI cases targeting suspected terrorists over the past five years, according to private researchers who reviewed department records.

The government says the findings are inaccurate and “intellectually dishonest.”

The report being released Monday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University raises questions about the quality of the FBI’s investigations.

Prosecutors declined to bring charges in 131 of 150, or 87 percent, of international terrorist case referrals from the FBI between October 2005 and June 2006, according to the report. The study was based on the most recent data available from the Justice Department’s executive office for U.S. attorneys.

Continue reading at MSNBC

International Resonance Of Iraq Verdict
Analysis by BBC’s Paul Reynolds

Three Palestinians have been killed in Gaza on the fifth day of Israel’s offensive in the territory.
Palestinian officials said the deaths came in separate incidents - bringing the toll since Wednesday to nearly 50.
Earlier, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert declined to say when the operation would end, but insisted Israel had no intention of reoccupying the Strip.
Israel says it is targeting militants but Palestinian officials accuse Israel of a “massacre“.
Israeli forces have made regular incursions into Gaza and the West Bank following the capture of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants on 25 June.

*****

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has called the operation a “massacre” and urged the UN Security Council to convene to discuss the issue.
At least 17 people died on Friday, including two women shot during the siege of a mosque in Beit Hanoun.
A PA employee told the BBC it was the worst Israeli incursion they had ever had into the town.
Ibrahim al-Za’anin, 55, said they had been without electricity or water since Tuesday night, and no longer felt safe in their own homes.

A senior UN official given Israeli permission to enter described the atmosphere as one of death, destruction and despair.

full article here

What is ONE?

ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans - ONE by ONE - to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united as ONE to help make poverty history. ONE believes that allocating an additional ONE percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world’s poorest countries. ONE also calls for debt cancellation, trade reform and anti-corruption measures in a comprehensive package to help Africa and the poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.

read more about The ONE Campaign

Here’s their new and very cool 30’sec TV ad about voting:

[googlevideo]6677763831648081177&q[/googlevideo]

GO BEARS (ya better beat the stinkin Finns!)

So he’s the deceiver and liar, but he wants the church to forgive Jones. Why? He’s not a deceiver and a liar. LOL

In a statement read at a service in the Colorado church he founded, the Reverend Ted Haggard calls himself “a deceiver and a liar” and says, “I am guilty of sexual immorality.”
Haggard’s statement says he “did things that were contrary to everything I believe” and that he is “embarrassed and ashamed.”
The statement also asks forgiveness for the man who accused Haggard of paying him for sex and using drugs. Those allegations led to Haggard’s resignation as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and his dismissal yesterday as senior pastor of the Colorado Springs church he founded.

Source here

The Army’s National Guard and Reserve are bracing for possible new and accelerated call-ups — spurred by high demand for U.S. troops in Iraq — that leaders caution could undermine the citizen’soldier force as it struggles to rebuild.

Two Army National Guard combat brigades with about 7,000 troops have been identified recently in classified rotational plans for possible special deployment to Iraq, according to senior Army and Pentagon officials, who asked that the specific units not be named. One brigade could be diverted to Iraq next year from another assignment, and the other could be sent there in 2008, a year ahead of schedule.

More here

How to Lower Morale and Get the World’s Most Powerful Army Stuck in a Quagmire
by Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush

Dick Cheney discusses Iraq with George Stephanopolous
Define victory please……..

By Dan Balz and David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 5, 2006; Page A01

Two days before a bitterly fought midterm election, Democrats have moved into position to recapture the House and have laid siege to the Senate, setting the stage for a dramatic recasting of the power structure in Washington for President Bush’s final two years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis of competitive races across the country.

In the battle for the House, Democrats appear almost certain to pick up more than the 15 seats needed to regain the majority. Republicans virtually concede 10 seats, and a split of the 30 tossup races would add an additional 15 to the Democratic column.

The Senate poses a tougher challenge for Democrats, who need to gain six seats to take control of that chamber. A three’seat gain is almost assured, but they would have to find the other three seats from four states considered to have tossup races — Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Montana.

Full article and links here

I think this is the October surprise…….

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq’s High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang for the 1982 killing of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail. The visibly shaken former leader shouted “God is great!”

Saddam’s half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows for the Dujail killings after an unsuccessful assassination attempt during a Saddam visit to the city 35 miles north of Baghdad.

Read full article at MSNBC

Then they have to balls to brag that they met recruitment goals. These poor kids!!
LEAVE MY CHILD ALONE!!!!!!!!!

Chicago Tribune
Published November 5, 2006

An undercover investigation by ABC News revealed some Army recruiters told students that if they enlisted, their chances of going to Iraq would be small.

In an exchange videotaped by a hidden camera, a student asked a recruiter, “Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?” The reply: “No, we’re bringing people back.”

ABC News said Friday that it and New York affiliate WABC provided 10 students with hidden cameras and sent them to recruiters in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

One recruiter told a student that just quitting the Army was an option if military service didn’t suit the new recruit.

“It’s called a `Failure to Adapt’ discharge,” the recruiter said. “It’ll just be like it never happened.”

Full article at the Chicago Tribune

(crossposted at Vagabond Scholar)

This post could be called “GOP Attack Ads,” but that would be redundant. A handful of good articles on political ads have been making the rounds. The Washington Post’s Michael Grunwald reported on 10/27/06 in “The Year Of Playing Dirtier” (emphasis mine):

The result has been a carnival of ugly, especially on the GOP side, where operatives are trying to counter what polls show is a hostile political environment by casting opponents as fatally flawed characters. The National Republican Campaign Committee is spending more than 90 percent of its advertising budget on negative ads, according to GOP operatives, and the rest of the party seems to be following suit.

Read more »

I thought this was appropriate.
13 U.S. troops killed in 5 days in Iraq
209 Iraqis in 5 days.
Heckuva Job Republicans!