Howard Jones-
“Things Can Only Get Better“

Rudy and friends out on the town.

The president of the United States is president of the United States. He’s going to be president of the United States from now until the time a new president takes over. Until then, he’s the only one conducting foreign policy of this country. We can have our political debate in this country. … But nobody should be creating the specter that we’re sending emissaries out around the world before someone is actually sworn in as president of the United States.

I think it would be good for the country if Mrs. Clinton, Senator Clinton would correct that statement now.

-Part time crossdresser and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani

“Don’t interfere with the ability of the country to function in a proper way” and “respect Bush’s responsibility” - JUST WHO IN THE HELL IS RUDY KIDDING?! Oh…

Giuliani blasts Clinton

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Sunday blasted Hillary Rodham Clinton for talking about what she would do on the diplomatic front between her possible election and inauguration.

Clinton has told crowds she would send “distinguished Americans of both political parties to travel around the world on my behalf with a very simple message to the governments and the people alike: The era of cowboy diplomacy is over.”

Giuliani, pointing to a story in Sunday’s Des Moines Register about her statements, said such comments hurt the United States and undermine the balance of President Bush’s term, which ends Jan. 20, 2009.

“I think that it’s important that we conduct this debate in a way that we don’t interfere with the ability of the country to function in a proper way, between the now and (the election),” Giuliani said at the start of a town hall’style meeting in Peterborough.

Campaigning with his wife, Judith, the former New York mayor said Clinton should retract the statements and respect Bush’s responsibility.

PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press

Yahoo! News

Couldn’t end the post without a little bit of Rudy hypocrisy:

Maureen’s story is sad, but I can’t condone the use of illegal immigrant labor to stay competitive. No, I do not want our food supplies coming from a country with questionable farming techniques and safety. But if farmers cannot offer competitive wages to bring in enough legitimate workers, then what really can be done about it?

Free trade sure is a bitch…

Many workers have found themselves on the receiving end of a pink slip due to their company relocating to another country for cheaper labor. It happened to me. I worked for Magnavox (Philips Consumer Electronics) in Greeneville, TN., at one time. They packed up and moved to Mexico. LOTS of people back here in the good ol’ US of A left holding pink slips over that one.

And our elected government stood idly by, hands in their pockets, and watched.

As they’ve done for thousands of other hard-working Americans. As they’ll do again today. As they’ll continue doing tomorrow.

But there is one upswing to free trade. It helps America’s wealthy become just a little more wealthy.

Immigration raids hurting farmers

Growers say crackdown is causing workers to flee; now they want reform

A climate of fear is spreading among undocumented immigrant workers, causing turmoil in industries dependent on their labor.

Maureen Torrey, an 11th-generation farmer in the rural town of Elba, N.Y., has been losing sleep. Just as rows of cabbage and winter squash stand ready for harvest on her 11,000 acre farm, she can’t find enough workers to bring in the crops. She needs about 350 workers and is 70 short of that number. “I wake up at 3:30 in the morning and my mind doesn’t shut off,” she says.

The problem, she says, is fear. Torrey Farms, a 14-crop vegetable farm located an hour east of Buffalo, has been raided twice since last October, when she says immigration officials kicked in the doors of workers’ housing and apprehended 34. In August, officials arrested seven workers and 14 more fled the area. Amid continued talk of a federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants, she’s afraid still more of her workforce will flee to less hostile terrain. With a population of about 9,000, the town of Elba, “Onion Capital of the World” to locals, may not have the manpower to replace them.

Moira Herbst, BusinessWeek

MSNBC.com

Where’s the outcry, indeed! I’ll tell you. Those who rely solely on the MSM for their news, (which I daresay are still in the majority), are spoon fed a view of the war that is less horrible, less hideous, less everything… except less needed. On the contrary, the MSM are only too glad to pen the Bush administration’s twisted point of view on just how important and needed this damn war is. Basically, it’s a watered-down, sugar coated version with just a hint of cinnamon, for good measure.

That’s only part of the problem, of course. The sad truth is, we Americans really are fat and lazy! We’ve been told that by peoples of other nations for quite some time now. It appears they were right.

Osama hinted that bringing down those buildings on 9/11 would only be the beginning of our destruction. You can call him lots of things, but ‘dumb’ is not one of them.

Thousands Rally Against Iraq War In S.F.

SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown on Saturday, chanting and carrying signs that read: “Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and GIs Die” or “Drop Tuition Not Bombs.”

The streets were filled with thousands as labor union members, anti-war activists, clergy and others rallied near City Hall before marching to Dolores Park.

As part of the demonstration, protesters fell on Market Street as part of a “die in” to commemorate the thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens who have died since the conflict began in March 2003.

The protest was the largest in a series of war protests taking place in New York, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, organizers said.

KTVU / Associated Press

KTVU.com

The top administrative officer in the House has been subpoenaed for e-mails related to the ongoing criminal investigation of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), according to a notification read on the House floor Thursday.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued the subpoena to Daniel P. Beard, the chief administrative officer of the House, whose office oversees electronic communications for members of Congress and their staff.

“The subpoena was issued in connection with the Justice Department investigation of Congressman Doolittle and seeks material from e-mail backup tapes maintained by the CAO,” according to a notification of the subpoena.

This is the latest development in an ongoing Justice Department investigation of the California Republican. Doolittle and six members of his staff were subpoenaed by the same grand jury last month.

The Justice Department has been investigating the lawmaker and his wife in its ongoing public corruption investigation stemming from a probe of jailed former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

More at Politico

SUNDAY TALK

MTP: Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT); NYDN’s Tom DeFrank (”Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford”) and NYT’s William Safire (Ex-Nixon speechwriter)
FTN: Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI); Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Politico’s Roger Simon
This Week: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) & Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) on wildfires; roundtable of Paul Krugman, Chrystia Freeland and George Will; Molly Bingham on her film “Meeting Resistance” (about Iraqi insurgency)
FNS: Laura Bush; LA Gov. elect Bobby Jindal (R)
Late Edition: Turkish amb. Nabi Sensoy; IAEA Dir. General Mohamed ElBaradei; Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA); Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS); Mike Huckabee (R-AR)

TV ALERTS

* Newsmakers (C-SPAN, 10am, Sunday):
* 60 Minutes (CBS, Sun): Nicolas Sarkozy profile; dying honeybees & the consequences; Afghan President Hamid Karzai demands US curtail use of air strikes in his country
* Today Show: Newt Gingrich (”A Contract with the Earth”) 10/29
* GMA: Bill O’Reilly 10/29; ex-AG Janet Reno 10/30;
* Regis & Kelly: Bill O’Reilly 10/29
* Ellen DeGeneres: Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) 10/29
* The Daily Show: WaPo’s Michael Gerson 10/29; Valerie Plame Wilson 10/30; William F. Buckley Jr. 10/31; Jerry Seinfeld 11/1
* The Colbert Report: Richard Berman 10/29; Craig Venter 10/30; Lawrence Wilkerson 10/31; Walter Kirn 11/1
* Charlie Rose: Paul Nurse, Jeffrey Sachs, Ann Veneman, Tonya Villafana, and Peter Hotez on global health 10/29;
* Dem presidential debate in Philadelphia on MSNBC, msnbc.com, & Telemundo on 10/30. Brian Williams moderates.

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