U2 - Beautiful Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don’t get it. At what point in American history did it become ok to influence politics with big money? And I’m not limiting my outrage to just one party here either! Why the hell do we stand for this?

No one single person should have any more say, pull or control of their government than another. We will never have a true democracy until we can fence off big money and lobbies from Washington.

Paul E. Singer is the founding partner of one of the oldest hedge funds around. And while he has become a major donor to Republican and conservative causes in recent years, he has largely managed to stay out of the limelight, even avoiding having his picture appear in newspapers.

But this year Mr. Singer became one of the biggest supporters of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign, making his jet available to Mr. Giuliani, while Mr. Singer and workers at his companies have donated $200,000 to the campaign. And he became the largest individual backer of a California ballot initiative that many Democrats believe could sink their chances of winning the presidency.
[...]

Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, questioned “Paul Singer’s involvement in this dirty trick aimed at stealing the White House.” A group of Democrats filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that Mr. Singer had been acting on behalf of Mr. Giuliani in his efforts to change the California law - which Mr. Singer and the campaign deny.[...]

The vitriol directed at Mr. Singer reflects the intense passions being stirred by efforts to change the California law, which could alter the nation’s electoral map to favor Republicans and Mr. Giuliani, should he emerge as the party’s candidate. While Mr. Singer is now distancing himself from the effort, another Giuliani fund-raiser has since taken up the cause.

Additional info on Mr. Singer:

I have to disagree. Not placing a call in the first place would have been Bush’s least. Picking up a phone and dialing a few numbers (although I’m sure that part was done for him!) would be more in tune with our fearless leader. Need I remind you of dear leader’s National Guard Service? Yes, I admit, there were some weeks/months during his hitch where he appeared to be AWOL. But, there were also some weeks/months when he was really present for duty! Really! Well, that’s what he told us, anyways…

CAMP DAVID, Md. - President Bush, who visited troops in Iraq on Thanksgiving after the U.S. invasion in 2003, called several servicemen and women Thursday to extend best wishes and say it was “the least I can do.”

Three of those receiving holiday greetings are in the Army, two are Marines, three are in the Air Force, two serve in the Coast Guard and two in the Navy. The troops called are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and aboard ship, said White House press secretary Dana Perino.
[...]

The president asked for God’s blessings on the members of the military, Perino said. He said he was thankful to be commander in chief of the finest military ever assembled and told them, “calling you is the least I can do because I admire the military so much.”

Happy Thanksgiving to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There have been 30 U.S. deaths in Iraq this month.

While Bush keeps beating the wardrum for Iran, it’s reported that Saudi Arabia and Libya were the source of about 60 percent of foreign fighters who entered Iraq in the past year to participate in the insurgency. Why not beat the wardrum against the Saudis? Oh……that’s right. The royal family is close family friends.

In what was believed to be the most significant breach of security in central Ramadi in months, a car bomb killed atleast 6 people in an area that has been considered one of the safest in the country.

The Iraq embassy in Damascus is starting to organize free trips home for Iraqis who fled the conflict and now want to return.

Juan Cole reports on an Arabic article that sates Sa’d Uraibi al-Ubaidi, known as “Abu Abd“, the ‘tribal awakening’ leader who, it claims, now controls most of the Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad

Iraqi forces arrested 43 people who had been traveling in a security convoy, including laborers and security personnel. Among the detainees were two Fijians, 10 Iraqis, 21 Sri Lankans, one Indian and nine Nepalese, the U.S. military said yesterday. Officials took a hard line yesterday on alleged abuses by foreign security contractors, saying criminal charges would be filed in the nonfatal shooting of a woman Monday as a guarded convoy carrying laborers passed by.

The U.S. military is going to recommend criminal charges against an Associated Press reporter in Iraq. The Associated Press said it has not been allowed access to the reporter or the evidence against him, therefore they can’t build a defense.

Security developments in Iraq 11/22/07

I’m with Sanchez……..

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq shortly after the fall of Baghdad, said this week he supports Democratic legislation that calls for most troops to come home within a year.

His comments come as welcomed ammunition for the Democratic-controlled Congress in its standoff with the White House on war spending. This month, the House passed a $50 billion bill that would pay for combat operations but sets the goal that combat end by Dec. 15, 2008. The White House threatened to veto the measure, and Senate Republicans blocked it from passing.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said that as many as 200,000 civilian employees and contractors will begin receiving layoff warnings by Christmas unless Congress approves a war spending bill that President Bush will sign.

More at Yahoo News

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I am grateful for my family and friends, my doggies, for the food I eat and the roof over my head, for the many things life has afforded me. And I’m ever aware that it could all change in an instant.

My thoughts and prayers today are of thankfulness, but they will also be, as they are every day, for the children of the world who are poverty striken, hungry, cold, abused, parentless, afraid, sick, or who may be living in a war-torn country. Let today be a better day for them than yesterday was. And let tomorrow be a better day than today. Let there be peace on earth. Let us learn to be tolerant and embrace our differences.

Peace be with you my friends! I hope you are surrounded by family and friends this holiday and have much to be thankful for. Feel free to share what you’re thankful for this year!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy~