Fabulous Thunderbirds
“I Can’t Stop Rockin”

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Approved i the middle of the night……don’t you love that middle of the night stuff. I wonder what else is in that bill. How much aid are we giving Israel for the next 10 years?

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US House of Representatives has voted to deny all aid to Saudi Arabia, despite repeated assurances by the Bush administration that the desert kingdom is cooperating in its “war on terror.”

The ban is contained in a little-publicized amendment quietly slipped by a bipartisan group of lawmakers into a 34.2-billion-dollar bill that finances US foreign operations in the 2008 fiscal year.

The massive bill, featuring a wide range of humanitarian programs, was approved by lawmakers in the middle of the night on Friday.

Similar measures on aid to Saudi Arabia have been passed before by the House. But the current one goes a step further by closing a legislative loophole that in the past had allowed the administration of President George W. Bush to waive these bans by invoking requirements of its war on terror.

The amendment, championed by New York Democratic representative Anthony Weiner, a strong supporter of Israel, states that “none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available” by the foreign operations bill “shall be obligated or expended to finance any assistance to Saudi Arabia” or “used to execute a waiver.”

While oil-rich Saudi Arabia has never been a large recipient of US aid, the Bush administration channeled a total of more than 2.5 million dollars to the kingdom in fiscal 2005 and 2006 as part of their partnership in the war on terror, congressional officials said.

More at YahooNews

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This just goes along with everything else that’s wrong with this administration and judicial system.

BALTIMORE –Decisions by judges in the Coast Guard’s administrative court system almost always favor the agency over civilian mariners, according to a newspaper’s review of court records and other documents.

One former judge testified that judges were pressured to side with the Coast Guard, The Sun of Baltimore reported Sunday.

The agency’s administrative court system handles charges against tugboat captains, engineers, charter fishermen and others who need licenses or other documents from the Coast Guard to work. The harshest penalty in the system is revocation of those credentials.

Mariners have won just 14 cases out of more than 6,300 charges filed by Coast Guard investigators since 1999, when the agency restructured its judicial system to broaden defendant’s rights, the paper said it found through a computer analysis of court records.

In a sworn statement, Judge Jeffie J. Massey has testified that Chief Judge Joseph N. Ingolia told her to always rule in the Coast Guard’s favor, and she said she came under intense pressure when she did not, the newspaper said.

“I was specifically told (by Ingolia) that I should always rule for the Coast Guard,” Massey said. “He said, ‘The Coast Guard are out there keeping our seas safe and we have to do everything we can to support them. They know when to bring these cases and we’re just supposed to help them.’”

More at Boston.com

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From the ACLU, information about the Day of Action:

For nearly seven years, our core values of freedom and fairness have been eroded, from the suspension of habeas corpus and due process, to shameful acts of torture, CIA kidnappings and secret prison programs.

On June 26, 2007, join us in Washington, D.C. as we call on Congress to restore habeas corpus, fix the Military Commissions Act, and restore all our constitutional rights. We even have free buses leaving from many parts of the country… It’s easy to come!

Rally with us outside the Capitol, then help deliver our urgent message in person to Members of Congress.

Go here to sign up (free buses) or sign the petition

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From an email I received from the DNC, a little background on Fred Thompson, who wants to be the “acting” President.

From: Tom McMahon

Subject: The inside-outsider

Remember the Republican culture of corruption? The revolving door of Republican politicians moving in and out of top political offices and Washington D.C. lobbying firms?

That’s Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

For years, acting wasn’t the Law & Order star’s profession — it was a hobby. In the real world, Thompson has made a fortune in a decades-long career as a Washington lobbyist.

And just this month, as part of his role as the ultimate Washington insider, Thompson offered to host yet another fundraising event for Scooter Libby’s legal defense fund. Thompson has been vocal in his support of Libby, saying that he would “absolutely” pardon him.

As he runs for president, he’ll try his hardest to hide the truth from the American people. And we need to stop him.

Here’s what the USA Today had to say about Lobbyist Thompson:

“Although the folksy’sounding Tennessean recently told USA TODAY that he would run an outsider, just as he did while campaigning as a “country lawyer” in a red pickup during his 1994 U.S. Senate race, his résumé is that of a longtime Washington operative who has crossed ideological lines to represent corporate and foreign clients.”

In his most recent stint in Washington, Thompson worked for a London company lobbying Congress to limit liability claims for asbestos-related illnesses. Over the past three years he’s made $760,000 fighting for the interests of his corporate clients.

Now Fred Thompson wants the American people to believe he’s the next Ronald Reagan — a Washington outsider with Hollywood charisma and conservative appeal. But Thompson just plays the role of straight’shooting outsider on TV. In reality, he’s as inside as you can get.

He’s trying to get to the White House on slick lines and good acting.

As Fred Thompson tries to go from Washington’s K Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, the stakes of his candidacy couldn’t be higher. In an interview just last week, for example, he claimed that the Roe v. Wade decision “was fabricated out of whole cloth,” and that it was the worst court ruling in the past 40 years.

We need to make sure that in 2008, Fred Thompson goes back to doing his acting on Law & Order — not in the White House.

Make a contribution today:

http://www.democrats.org/StopTheAct

While the Democratic presidential candidates hit the campaign trail, we’ll be hitting the Republicans. It’s our job to tell the American people the facts about opponents like Fred Thompson and to hold them accountable.

We can’t finish that job without you. I hope you’ll join us.

Sincerely,

Tom McMahon
DNC Executive Director

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WAaaah!

Hey, when you lie down with dogs…

Romney objects to campaign attacks

(BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer)

AP Photo: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

SALT LAKE CITY - Mitt Romney said Saturday that criticism of his Mormon religion by rival GOP presidential campaigns is happening too frequently.

“Clearly, any derogatory comments about anyone’s faith - those comments are troubling. The fact they keep on coming up is even more troubling,” Romney said during a fundraising trip in the home state of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Mormon church is one of the fastest-growing religions and claims about 12.5 million members worldwide. But many evangelical Christians in crucial primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina consider the faith a cult.

Romney’s remarks follow an apology from GOP rival John McCain’s campaign for comments about the Mormon church allegedly made this year by a volunteer.

Also recently, Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, issued a similar apology for a campaign worker’s e-mail to Iowa Republican leaders that was an apparent attempt to draw unfavorable scrutiny of Romney’s religion. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani apologized after the New York Sun noted that a campaign aide had forwarded to a blogger a story about unofficial Mormon lore. Legend has it that a Mormon would save the Constitution, the story said. The campaign aide passed the story along with a note: “Thought you’d find this interesting.”

Romney said in a large presidential race there always will be some volunteers or workers who cannot be controlled. But he said the difference between derogatory comments that originated from the McCain campaign and others is that the Arizona senator has not personally apologized to him.

“In the case of Senator Brownback and Mayor Giuliani … they called immediately. They each spoke with me personally. I don’t have any issue with that at all,” Romney said.

He said McCain “can do whatever he feels is the right thing. There’s no need for me to suggest how people respond to things that go on in the campaign.”

This earth’shattering article courtesy of Yahoo! News

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Hear, hear!

Why do (draft-dodging) Republicans hate our (patriotic and heroic) veterans?

Texas Democrat chastises Bush on vets’ health care

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, who represents President Bush’s home district, gave the Democrats’ radio address Saturday.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Texas congressman who represents President Bush’s home district said Saturday that the administration and Republicans put a higher priority on tax cuts than on veterans’ health care.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, said the House has sent Bush a $64.7 billion spending bill to fund Veterans Affairs. That includes a $6 billion increase for veterans’ health care, $3.8 billion more than Bush had requested, Edwards said.

“For weeks, the White House budget office threatened to veto this bill, because it was above their request,” Edwards said in the Democrats’ weekly radio address. “Fortunately, the president finally backed down on his threat to this historic veterans’ bill, but only after it was clear that Congress would override a veto.”

The Veterans Affairs spending bill passed the House 409-2 last week.

Article at CNN.com

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A British hero. R.I.P. Corporal John Rigby. My deepest sympathies to your family and especially to your twin brother.

They were twins and, by coincidence, corporals in the same battalion. On Friday they should have been celebrating their 24th birthday. But it was not to be; Will Rigby sat at the bedside of his brother, John, in an Iraq field hospital and watched him die.

Corporal John Rigby had been fatally wounded by a roadside bomb near Basra Palace in southern Iraq that morning, and was named by the Ministry of Defence yesterday as the 153rd British serviceman whose life had been claimed by the conflict.

Will, described by friends as his brother’s lifetime companion and soulmate, will accompany the body back to the family home in Rye, East Sussex, where their parents, sisters and John’s girlfriend, to whom he was expected to propose, are grieving at their loss.

Corporal Rigby was on patrol with the eight men of his section, providing top cover from the hatch of his armoured vehicle, when the bomb exploded. He was the third member of the 4th Battalion The Rifles to die in Iraq in little more than a month.

Two weeks before his death he had learnt that he was to be promoted to sergeant, having achieved the highest score on the promotion board for any corporal in the regiment.

Encouraged by friends, he had been expected to propose to Jessica Varney, his girlfriend, on her 21st birthday next May.

Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Sanders, Corporal Rigby’s commanding officer, said that he and the battalion were “utterly heartbroken” at the death of an outstanding young soldier.

Continue reading at Timesonline.com

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By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced Saddam Hussein’s cousin known as “Chemical Ali” and two other former regime officials to death by hanging for their roles in a 1980s scorched-earth campaign that led to the deaths of 180,000 Kurds.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam’s cousin and the former head of the Baath Party’s Northern Bureau Command, trembled and stood silently as the judge read the verdict.

The judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, said al-Majid was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for ordering army and security services to use chemical weapons in a large’scale offensive that killed or maimed thousands.

As he was led out of the court, al-Majid said, “Thanks be to God.”

The decisions, if upheld on appeal, would bring to a close the second trial against former regime officials since Saddam was ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Saddam, who also had been a defendant in the so-called Anfal trial, was hanged Dec. 30 for ordering the killings of more than 140 Shiite Muslims from the Iraqi city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against him.

Kurds welcomed the trial as their chance to taste vengeance, although the case did not deal with the most notorious gassing - the March 1988 attack on the northern city of Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds.

“Finally, the past hard days are gone. I am ready to start over without this burden on my chest,” said Lokman Abdul-Qader, a 40-year-old resident of Halabja who lost six relatives in the chemical attack and says he has suffered from acute asthma attacks since he inhaled the nerve and mustard gas that was used.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

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Sunday Talk
* MTP: Patrick Buchanan (R) & Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) debate immigration; roundtable of WaPo’s David Broder, CNBC’s & WSJ’s John Harwood, PBS’s Gwen Ifill and Politico’s Roger Simon discuss Decision2008
* FTN: roundtable of ex NYC Mayor Ed Koch (D), GOP consultant Ed Rollins, actor Sam Waterson (Unity’08), and Politico’s John Harris.
* This Week: Sen. Ted Kenned (D-MA) & Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on immigration; roundtable of Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria, ABC News consultant & ex-Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke (R), ABC’s Jake Tapper and George Will; David Hyde Pierce talks about Alzheimer’s disease
* Fox News Sunday: Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS); Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Cal Ripken Jr.
* Late Edition: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) & Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) talk about Iraq war escalation; Vietnamense Pres Nguyen Minh Triet; Egyptian Amb to US Nabil Fahmy; Israeli Amb to US Sallai Meridor; ex US Special Envoy Dennis Ross (author “Statecraft”); Ralph Nader; roundtable of Bill Schneider, Elaine Quijano, and Joe Johns

TV Alerts
* Political Capital with Al Hunt (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekend): Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on 6/22
* Chris Matthews Show 6/23-6/24: David Ignatius, Elisabeth Bumiller, Richard Stengel, Kathleen Parker discuss “Has Hillary Clinton successfully played to the antiwar Democrats at the same time she has preserved her national security toughness for a general election? What coalition is Michael Bloomberg dreaming of?” Quotes here.
* Newsmakers (C-SPAN, 10am): State Dept. Iraq Coordinator David Satterfield on 6/24
* Road to the WH: John Edwards at MCCXXIII on 6/24; John McCain at Merchant Marine Academy on 6/24; Barack Obama in IA on 6/24;
* 60 Minutes: Joe Darby on turning in Abu Ghraib photos on 6/24; sperm donors and their kids on 6/24; Hitler’s secret archive on 6/24
* Kudlow & Co (CNBC): Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) on 6/25
* The Daily Show: Steve Vogel on 6/25; Bruce Willis on 6/26; Michael Moore on 6/27; Claire Danes on 6/28;
* The Colbert Report: Tom Hayden on 6/25; Jerry Miller on 6/26; Spencer Wells on 6/26; Daniel Gilbert on 6/27; Zbigniew Brzezinski on 6/28
* Leno: John & Elizabeth Edwards on 6/25; Michael Moore on 6/26;
* Letterman: Keith Olbermann on 6/27

Source: Newsie8200

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By JEANNINE AVERSA
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON // Grandma stuffing money under the mattress isn’t the only one living outside the banking system.

As many as 28 million people in the United States are forgoing traditional financial institutions because of mistrust, cultural and language barriers or a belief that by the time all the bills are paid there will be nothing left for an account.

That can be expensive and risky. People can run up big fees to cash checks, pay bills and meet their other financial needs. Walking around with large amounts of cash can make them a target for thieves.

The bankless are estimated to earn hundreds of billions of dollars a year in income. Seeing a business opportunity, banks are trying to draw in these potential customers. So, too, are check-cashing businesses and retailers, including Wal-Mart.

Many people, however, still resist, preferring to remain in the financial shadows.

They tend to be minority — Hispanic or blacks especially — as well as low income and young.

According to the Federal Reserve, about one in 12 families — 8.7 percent — does not have a bank account.

More at the Baltimore Sun

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