Retired Major General John Batiste retired from the military in protest of trying to end the occupation in Iraq. Here he speaks out against President Bush, putting him on the Blue Herald list of truly great Americans.

WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) - A group of 11 Republican members of Congress have delivered a blunt warning to President George Bush on the handling of the Iraq War.

The delegation — headed by Reps. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Charlie Dent, R-Pa. — spent more than an hour with Bush Tuesday afternoon at the president’s private White House quarters, NBC News reported Wednesday.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also attended the meeting, along with presidential political adviser Karl Rove and White House spokesman Tony Snow.

My district is prepared for defeat (in Iraq), NBC quoted one congressman as saying. We need candor. We need honesty, Mr. President.

The Republican congressmen told Bush war news should no longer come from the president or the White House, but should be delivered by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

There is no longer any credibility, one congressman reportedly said.

Bush reportedly told his fellow Republicans: I don’t want to pass this off to another president. I particularly don’t want to pass this off to a Democratic president.

Watch the video report here

Gates: “The goal in September is not whether the violence has been significantly reduced or stability has been brought, it seems to me, but rather whether it has been reduced to a level that the political reconciliation process is moving forward in some meaningful way.

Am I the only one that thinks this is a really stupid statement?

U.S. officials will base a decision about bringing American troops home from Iraq on whether, by early September, the ongoing troop surge produces enough of a reduction in violence to allow for political progress, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress Wednesday.

“I think we-re going to be looking for the direction of events,” Gates stressed during an appearance before the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee. “The goal in September is not whether the violence has been significantly reduced or stability has been brought, it seems to me, but rather whether it has been reduced to a level that the political reconciliation process is moving forward in some meaningful way.

“I think if we see some very positive progress and it looks like things are headed in the right direction, then that’s the point at which I think we can begin to consider reducing some of these forces,” Gates said.

He promised that he-ll provide an “honest evaluation of whether the strategy is working or not.” And, he said, “The outcome of that evaluation is not foreordained.”

Continue reading at Air Force Times

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected a proposal to let governors command active duty troops responding to disasters, officials said Wednesday, though the Pentagon will grant National Guard leaders more authority to coordinate with other military and homeland security agencies.

Gates told Congress Wednesday he had approved 20 of the 23 changes recommended recently by an independent commission in an effort to improve Guard funding, equipment and coordination in emergencies.

His comments came just days after tornadoes in Kansas highlighted deficiencies with Guard equipment and gaps in planning that were exposed by the Gulf hurricanes more than 18 months ago.

Gates did not reveal which recommendations from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves that he rejected. But two defense officials familiar with the matter told The Associated Press he didn’t agree with the panel’s suggestion that governors be allowed to direct active duty troops responding to emergencies in their states.

More at the Examiner

Yah, I’m so sure they didn’t know about the kickbacks. Riggghhhttt.
At the time, Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state, was a member of Chevron’s board and led its public policy committee, which oversaw areas of potential political concerns for the company.

Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators.

The admission is part of a settlement being negotiated with United States prosecutors and includes fines totaling $25 million to $30 million, according to the investigators, who declined to be identified because the settlement was not yet public.

The penalty, which is still being negotiated, would be the largest so far in the United States in connection with investigations of companies involved in the oil-for-food scandal.

The $64 billion program was set up in 1996 by the Security Council to help ease the effects of United Nations sanctions on Iraqi civilians after the first Gulf war. Until the American invasion in 2003, the program allowed Saddam’s government to export oil to pay for food, medicine and humanitarian goods.

Using an elaborate system of secret surcharges and extra fees, however, the Iraqi regime received at least $1.8 billion in kickbacks from companies in the program, according to an investigation completed in 2005 by Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

A report released in 2004 by an investigator at the Central Intelligence Agency listed five American companies that bought oil through the program: the Coastal Corporation, a subsidiary of El Paso; Chevron; Texaco; BayOil; and Mobil, now part of Exxon Mobil. The companies have denied any wrongdoing and said they were cooperating with the investigations.

As part of the deal under negotiation, Chevron, which now owns Texaco, is not expected to admit to violating the United Nations sanctions. But Chevron is expected to acknowledge that it should have been aware that illegal kickbacks were being paid to Iraq on the oil, the investigators said.

The fine is connected to the payment of about $20 million in surcharges on tens of millions of barrels of Iraqi oil bought by Chevron from 2000 to 2002, investigators said.

These payments were made by small oil traders that sold oil to Chevron. But records found by United Nations, American and Italian officials showed that they were financed by Chevron.

Full article at the International Herald Tribune

By ANNE FLAHERTY and LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON - The White House threatened on Wednesday to veto a proposed House bill that would pay for the war only through July - a limit Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned would be disastrous.

The warnings came as Democratic leaders wrestled with how to support the troops but still challenge President Bush on the war. Bush has requested more than $90 billion to sustain the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September.

Democrats were unbowed.

“With this latest veto threat, the president has once again chosen confrontation over cooperation,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In a flash of defiance, House Democratic leaders this week promoted legislation that would provide the military $42.8 billion to keep operations going through July, buy new equipment and train Iraqi and Afghan security forces. Congress would decide shortly before its August recess whether to release an additional $52.8 billion to fund the war through September.

“In essence, the bill asks me to run the Department of Defense like a skiff, and I’m trying to drive the biggest supertanker in the world,” Gates told senators Wednesday. “And we just don’t have the agility to be able to manage a two-month appropriation very well.”

The veto threat came from White House spokesman Tony Snow, traveling aboard Air Force One with Bush to tour tornado damage in Kansas.

“There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill,” Snow said.

House members planned a vote Thursday, just two days after David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the Appropriations Committee, briefed White House chief of staff Josh Bolten on the plan.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

Blowback…..it’s just a matter of time.

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.

From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated mainly from Lebanon in two waves, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and after the 1985 Lebanese civil war.

An investigation by Telemundo and NBC News has uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group founded in Lebanon in 1982 that the United States has labeled an international terrorist organization. The operation funnels large sums of money to militia leaders in the Middle East and finances training camps, propaganda operations and bomb attacks in South America, according to U.S. and South American officials.

More at MSNBC

And this is from the Department ofAgriculture, Trade and CONSUMER PROTECTION. Well, good thing they’re there to protect the consumers from lower gas prices!!!!

MERRILL, Wis. - A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices.

Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.

But the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals violate Wisconsin’s Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.

Bhandari said he received a letter from the state auditor last month saying the state would sue him if he did not raise his prices. The state could penalize him for each discounted gallon he sold, with the fine determined by a judge.

Bhandari, who bought the station a year ago, said he worries customers will think he stopped the discounts because he wants to make more money. About 10 percent of his customers had used the discount cards.

Dale Van Camp said he bought a $50 card to support the local youth hockey program. It would have saved him about $100 per year on gas, he said.

H/T Gerry for this post!

Talk about a coward. Doesn’t have the balls to stand up like a man, or woman, and take responsibility for this. Why not? If you felt compassioned enough to block it, then you should be able to admit it. I called Martinez’s office in Florida and was told they “don’t know” if he’s the Senator with the secret hold. What friggin chickenshits these Republicans are.

Dear Suzette,

A Republican Senator is trying to derail my campaign finance disclosure bill, and I need your help to figure out who it is.

My legislation, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act (S. 223), requires Senate campaigns to submit campaign finance reports electronically. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? House campaigns, political parties, Presidential campaigns, and even 527’s already file their reports online - but that’s not the case in the Senate.

The Senate has exempted themselves from this requirement and is only required to file paper reports. The public’s ability to review these reports in a timely manner is substantially curtailed by these antiquated paper filings. Not only that, it costs taxpayers over $250,000 per year to have these reports scanned and made available online at a much later date.

When Senator Feinstein and I sought to pass this legislation by unanimous consent, an objection was voiced on the floor “on behalf of a Republican senator.” Senators are within their rights to object to a bill coming to the floor of the Senate, but the objecting senator has not been named, and no one has spoken to me about any objection they may have to this legislation.

The use of these so-called “secret holds” has rightly come under attack in recent years, and I need your help to try and determine who may be delaying this common sense reform measure.

If you are represented by a Republican senator, please contact them and ask if they’re holding up my Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. You can get contact info for your senators here. If you live in a state with two Democratic senators, consider forwarding this email to your friends in states that aren’t so lucky.

If you learn of anything that may be useful in helping me identify the “Secret Hold Senator,” email me at russ@progressivepatriotsfund.com.

I have no intention of dropping this issue and I appreciate your help in keeping the pressure on to try and identify this anonymous objector.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund