If the U.S. operation in Iraq is hanging by a thread. If it has any hope of surviving this Hobbesian moment, we need three conversations to happen fast:

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Nasty, Brutish and Short

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

he U.S. operation in Iraq is hanging by a thread. If it has any hope of surviving this Hobbesian moment, we need three conversations to happen fast: George Bush needs to talk to his father, the Arab leaders need to talk to their sons — and daughters — and we need to talk to the Iraqi Governing Council.

President Bush, please call home. You need some of your father's wisdom right now. The old man, Bush 41, may not have had the vision thing, but he did have the prudence thing. He understood that he could not expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait without a real coalition that included Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other key Arab states, not to mention all the NATO allies and the U.N. America would not have had the legitimacy to operate in that theater for the length of time required without Arab and European cover.

What was true for expelling Saddam from Kuwait was triply true for expelling Saddam from Iraq and is quadruply true for expelling the die-hard Baathists from Falluja and the Shiite radicals from Najaf. The deeper we try to penetrate Iraqi society, especially with tanks and troops, the more legitimacy we need.

When things were going all right in Baghdad with the political process, America could have its way by buying legitimacy with cash or imposing it with muscle. But when you are talking about killing rebellious Iraqi young men and clerics, you can't buy the legitimacy for that and you can't compel it. Iraqi moderates are just too frightened to stand up and defend that on their own. Indeed, they will run away from the U.S. Only a real coalition of the U.N., Arab and Muslim states and Europe — the Bush 41 coalition — might bolster them. It may be too late for that now, but the Bush folks had better try. We have a staggering legitimacy deficit for the task ahead. I am glad El Salvador is with us, but when Iraqis get satellite dishes, they don't tune in TV El Salvador. They tune in TV Al Jazeera.

If it is America alone against the Iraqi street, we lose. If it is the world against the Iraqi street, we have a chance.

And we need two other conversations. I have nothing but respect for the Kurds of Iraq. They have a democratic soul. But in the debate in the Governing Council over Iraq's interim constitution they overreached, and the Bush team made a big mistake in letting them overreach, by giving the Kurds effective veto power over Iraq's final constitution. I believe the Kurds need and are entitled to some form of protection. I would support any U.S. guarantees for them. But too many moderate Shiites, led by Ayatollah Sistani, are feeling that the Iraqi interim constitution tilts so far in favor of minority rights that it unfairly limits majority (read Shiite) rights. If the interim constitution has any hope of surviving this fighting, and being accepted by the moderate Shiite majority, it needs to be recalibrated — through a dialogue among Iraq's factional leaders and with us. Otherwise, a stable transfer of power is impossible (if it isn't already).

Arab leaders also have a vital interest in working with the U.S. to quell the turmoil in Iraq and to re-empower the potentially moderate center. As unpleasant as it may be for them to help the Bush team — and as worrisome as free elections in Iraq might be to unelected leaders of the Arab world — having oil-rich Iraq taken over partly by Baathist radicals happy to work with Al Qaeda and partly by Shiite radicals happy to work with Iran will be even worse. It will empower radicals across the Arab region, and freeze the infant reform process there.

And that's why the Arab leaders need to talk to their sons and daughters. If the Arabs miss yet another decade of reform, because Iraq spins out of control while the world speeds ahead, they will find themselves outside the world system and dealing with plenty of their own Fallujas. Talk to Arab youth today and you will find so many of them utterly despondent at the complete drift in their societies. They are stuck in a sandstorm, where opportunities for young people to realize their potential are fading.

What is going on in Iraq today is not only a war between radical Islam and America, it is, more importantly, a war within Islam — between those who want an Islam with a human and progressive face that can meld with the world and those who want an Islam that is exclusivist and hostile to the world. So, yes, we need all the Arab and Muslim support we can get to see Iraq through to some decent outcome. But the Arab-Muslim world needs a decent outcome in Iraq just as much — if not more. source...

Message:
This past week in Iraq, U.S. Marines came under heavy fire in such cities as Fallujah and Ramadi. Amid gunfire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks, their mission was to search for the terrorists who killed and desecrated the bodies of four American contractors killed last week and quell an uprising of radical Shi'ites, who are being lead by Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, a fanatical cleric and a pawn of Hezbollah.

At least 15 Marines were killed and 20 more were wounded in the battles. And while some of the Marine Corps' finest were taking gunfire and dying, back at home, Sen. Teddy Kennedy wandered from his palatial Senate office on Capitol Hill to the plush and friendly surroundings of the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank, to unleash a verbal carpet bombing on the president of the United States.

Mr. Kennedy, whose own honesty, integrity and judgment have been called into question on numerous occasions throughout his career, charged the Bush administration with "create[ing] the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon." Mr. Kennedy accused the president of breaking "the basic bond of trust with the American people," and said Iraq is "George Bush's Vietnam."

It's an effort on the part of (Democratic presidential candidate) John Kerry's hatchet man to exploit one of the more challenging weeks in Iraq since the end of major hostilities nearly a year ago. Though they find it hard to accept, Democrats like Teddy Kennedy know the president continues to enjoy the trust of the American people on matters of national security.

Their terrorism czar turned Kerry flack, Richard Clarke, had his day in the Beltway sunshine, but they realize Mr. Clarke's testimony and book will barely warrant a footnote in its impact on the president.

Based on last week's economic reports, the Democrats' not-so-secret desires for the economy to turn south and give them an issue to exploit are now a pipedream.

So they have turned up the rhetoric to try to equate Iraq with Vietnam. And the Senate's resident Klan Man, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, was happy and eager to participate. "Surely, I am not the only one who hears echoes of Vietnam in this development. Surely this administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will only suck us deeper, deeper into the maelstrom, into the quicksand of violence that has become the hallmark of that unfortunate, miserable country," said the Senate's oratorical Grand Wizard.

What is truly unfortunate is that (among) those who hear these "echoes" of such pessimistic pooh-bahs are the terrorists who are emboldened by them. It is also heard by young Americans in uniform who toppled a brutal dictator and liberated the people in "that unfortunate, miserable country" from an evil regime.

These young Americans who are away from their families during Easter deserve better from the so-called elder statesmen of the Liberal establishment.

Before those Marines went into Ramadi and Fallujah, they spent months at Camp Pendleton in California. The operations they are conducting now -- working in and around civilian areas -- required far more intensive training than what they had when they first went in March 2003.

Contrary to how the media make it out, this has not been an effort to take down a city of more than 300,000 people -- the Marines are only firing when fired upon. They did not prep it with an artillery barrage beforehand. It is also important to note this has not been just a U.S. Marine Corps operation, but a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation.

The timing of it was such they could collect adequate intelligence on the city and use the videotape shot by Arab reporters, and now held by Iraqi authorities, to capture and bring to justice the perpetrators of that terrible crime.

That heinous crime and the way it was captured on television were no accidents. The murder of those four defense contractors was planned and phoned in to the Arab media beforehand so the pictures broadcast around the world might have the same effect the train bombing in Madrid had on the Spanish elections -- to instill fear and generate calls for retreat. Thus terrorists in Iraq who use bullets and bombs have now added a public relations component to their quiver. And their latest offensive that combined murder and its television broadcast has apparently worked on people like Ted Kennedy and Bob Byrd.

Those who continue carping and complaining about the war, defend themselves by saying they have a First Amendment right to do so, but there is an inherent duty of responsibility in the exercise of free speech. Now that terrorists are mastering the manipulation of the media, war critics must consider the consequences their criticisms may have on their countrymen who are fighting for freedom.

Name:	Malverne Link
To:	Tommy Friedman of the TIMES (Of course)
Re:	Tommy's Wholesale Hogwash

In response to:
We have a staggering legitimacy deficit for the task ahead...

Message:
No we don't. If we did, all the allies in the world wouldn't change a thing. When we are right, Mr. Friedman, we are right whether the crowd stands with us or not.

Adolph Hitler did not lack for allies, and neither did Tojo. Surely you do not think that they were right, and that we should have taken up their cause and stood with them as allies, since they had so many other allies already standing with them!

Name:	Ysaf Naziir
To:	Friedman, Tommy

In response to:
Iraqi moderates are just too frightened to stand up and defend that on their own

Message:
I don't think that plain fear is their problem at all. They are a very tough bunch of people. I do think that the Iraqi moderates of today are inadequately armed, trained, and organized to defeat the radicals, just as they were inadequately armed, trained, and organized to overthrow Saddam Hussein. That is exactly why we are in Iraq, Tommy.

Name:	Bon Vivant
To:	Merci Moi
Re:	If you're Kerry, it's all about you. Nothing else matters.

In response to:
Well, a little ANALYSIS of this article produces more questions, than it answers:

PS: I checked with Nostradamnus, and he said you have no valid account with his operation, and that you're full of it!

Name:	Walley Wahhabi
To:	Milan
Re:	a physics lesson

In response to:
How much longer can the Western Europeans indulge in this bacchanal of entitlement and snobery, while sneering at the very young Americans, whose blood and brave leaders prevent the (jihadi) morlocks from putting a damper on their orgy of self-righteousness?

Come and join the party. I can't guarantee you 70 virgins in this life, but when you understand the hopelessness of your cause, you'll gladly settle for sloppy seconds.

Name:	wondering wanderer
To:	forum
Re:	Sunnis said to be in charge for 100s of years in Iraq

In response to:
But Saddam and Baathists were in charge in 2001. What gives? Are the Baathists a branch of the Sunnis? Are Shiites at odds with Sunnis beliefwise or is it a Hatfields/ McCoy thing?

Message:
Muslims have many confusing groups that kill each other yet this is forbidden in the Quran. Maybe they declare the enemy Muslim an infadel? Then go dig up the disciples of Muhammad's bones tear down Muhammad's house which was a Sunni shrine?

Name:	Patriot
To:	ET

Message:
My intent was not to question whether you care or think about our troops. I believe you very strongly are concerned with our troops. My point is that as in Viet Nam and as in your concerns relating to Bill Clinton's treatment and in response to anything that happens in this country, the press is intent on painting the worst possible picture.

The press has decided to go after George Bush at this time. In order to achieve an overthrow of the Bush Regime, the press has decided to show all the bad about Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, the economy etc.

What this means is the American press is the enemy. Look at the press in the US, we no longer have a press that reports news, we have a press that spins the news. All of a sudden we are in a quagmire, we are in a viet nam etc. The best most sneakiest reporting are the ones who say things like "America can't pull out now" because they leave a feeling of quagmire in which we want out so bad and can't leave.

We don't want to leave now, except maybe for political reasons. We wish to stay and finish what we started. It is the end game called victory. We transfer authority to an interim government, hold elections in January, provide backup security to the new government and actually convince the muslims that dream of a better life for themselves that America didn't invade to destroy but to sincerely help. That of course hopefully leads to a drastic reduction in terrorist recruiting and the beginning of the end of terror.

The point is don't trust the spinners trust the news without the bias and maintain the vision. Let's not forget that this war was approved by a large majority of Americans and elected representatives of both parties. Meanwhile the Americans in this country should demand honest reporting and less analysis from partisan and goal oriented news anchors.

Name:	Watcher in the Woods
To:	forum
Re:	Muslim morse code on AM radio goes unnoticed by FBI

In response to:
Most things go unnoticed by the FBI whose problem is obvious. FBI collectively needs a porthole for a navel. Basically FUBAR and paper pushers. Mighty convienent for Bush Bashers Blaming Nush for FBI not paying attention. CIA workers rumoured to be too broke to pay attention. Easily spotted hanging out listening with a beer or the same drink for 3 hours.

What is that G_d awful twittering static on AM radio in bad weather? Where is Limbaugh on FM radio? Or just Quinn and Rose in Pittsburg?

Name:	Smedley
To:	John Kerry is an Idiot

Message:
Recently, John Kerry has tried to raise the "Misery Index", i.e, the same thing that sunk the Carter administration -- the misery index being a combination of unemployment and inflation.

Meanwhile, John Kerry is taking communion, but not from the Catholic church. Guess he was smart enough to confront the church

Name:

Individual

In response to:
The press has decided to go after George Bush at this time. In order to achieve an overthrow of the Bush Regime, the press has decided to show all the bad about Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, the economy etc.

Clinton leads charge in Medicare cost flap
Democrats press Bush to answer query into whether Congress was given lower estimates before the vote on health care package

WASHINGTON - Some Senate Democrats, led by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, called on President George W. Bush yesterday to explain what he knew about higher cost estimates for the landmark Medicare law, and whether the cost was concealed before Congress voted on it last fall.

The request comes in the wake of charges that the government's top Medicare actuary was threatened with firing last summer if he told that the cost projection for the new Medicare law was $1 billion more than what the administration had been touting.

"Either the president was kept in the dark in the same way the Congress was or he chose to continue using the lower figure even though he knew it was inaccurate," said Clinton, who wrote a letter yesterday to Bush. "He needs to tell us which was the case."

Richard testified last week that he told his former boss, Tom Scully, then the head Medicare administrator, and Doug Badger, a Bush health policy adviser, about the $550-billion-over-10-years estimate. That projection was far above the $400 billion told to Congress. White House officials said they will respond to the letter once they receive it. has said Scully threatened to fire him if he gave Congress his figures.

Republicans say Democrats are hammering the issue for political reasons. "It is an election year and plenty of people are using Medicare to play politics," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Finance Committee.

Meanwhile, investigations have been launched by the Department of Health and Human Services, the General Accounting Office and the House Ethics Committee. Democrats also have asked the Justice Department to investigate, and they also are considering a request for a special counsel.

"The bill that started out as Medicare has now turned into Medigate," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). "This law is the most scandal-plagued piece of legislation I have seen in my decades in Washington."

Republicans said Congress relies on the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates the cost at $400 billion.

Grassley called it "disingenuous" for Democrats to complain that they're concerned about the price tag when their plan cost billions more.

Name:

HILLARY SUPPORTER

Message:
Summit reflects on equality
Conference tackles civil rights and the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton LAW '73 addressed a capacity crowd in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium Saturday afternoon, discussing civil rights and educational equality in the wake of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Decision.

Clinton's speech was the closing address of a three-day conference at the Law School on the topic of "The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education: Reflections on the Last Fifty Years."

In her speech, Clinton questioned the extent to which the equal educational opportunities the Brown decision promised had been implemented.

"Fifty years after Brown declared education open to all on equal terms, it's time to reconsider whether that promise has been fulfilled," Clinton said.

Claiming that the Brown decision had been "eroded" in the decades following the landmark ruling, Clinton said the Supreme Court had effectively abandoned integration by the 1980s.

"By the late 1980s, integration and equality had given way to a third concept: educational adequacy," she said. "[And] even adequacy has not fully permeated our implementation of educational policy."

Clinton's speech offered pointed criticism of the "No Child Left Behind" Act introduced by the administration of President George W. Bush '68. The act could have been effective if more money had been invested in the act, Clinton said.

"If one is honest about the needs of the most impoverished children in America, they are the ones who most need the highly qualified teachers, who most require the small classes," she said. "Progress has a price, and we're kidding ourselves and our children if we believe equality can be bought on the cheap. But it's worth the investment."

While many schools serving impoverished minority communities need greatly increased funding, Clinton said, many schools she had visited with diverse student bodies passed her "Chelsea test" -- she would have been willing to send her daughter to school there.

Clinton said she thinks more needs to be done in America before the Brown decision's potential is fully realized.

"We have miles to go, and elections to hold, before 'separate but equal' gives way to integrated schools," Clinton said. "Whether we get there or not, I think everybody would agree that the repudiation of 'separate but equal' in Brown did not mean an affirmation of 'separate but unequal.'"

Law School Dean Anthony Kronman introduced Clinton in brief remarks that praised the commitment of Clinton and her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton LAW '73, to civil rights.

"Their Presidency marked something quite new in the history of civil rights in this country," Kronman said. "They were not just committed to the cause, but children of the cause."

Kronman also said it would be "really wonderful" if Hillary Clinton could return to the White House as President herself to continue the civil rights' legacy of the Clinton administration.

Audience member Peter Devine '00 LAW '04 said Clinton's address was "great."

"She's a phenomenal speaker, and always has been," Devine said. "I thought it was especially poignant when she discussed her personal experiences traveling and examining different schools."

Clinton's speech followed a number of events and panel discussions on various aspects of the Brown discussion featuring Law School professors, attorneys and U.S. judges, among other participants.

Name:	HILLARY SUPPORTER
Re:	INTERESTINg ARTICLE ON SENATOR CLINTON

Message:
To read this article go into: "http://www.friendsofhillary.com/pdf/more2.pdf"

Message:
You know I read your posts and attempt to understand that as a strict partisan idiot you can't help but always sound like an idiot. But I think you should do us all a favor and try not to speak it is just plain embarrasing to watch you make a fool out of yourself on every single post. I mean try just once to engage your brain prior to typing.

Name:	John Kerry
Re:	Hillary Clinton

In response to:
"She's a phenomenal speaker..."

Name:	Share the Fireants, don't hog them!
To:	forum
Re:	Poppy Fields a-bloomin' in Afganistan

In response to:
Let down by Aggies, ignored by troops Afganis return to old habits of growing more dope than they can use themselves as medicine. These poppy fields would be a good home for millions of FIREANTS. They protect the crop from roving grasshoppers, till the soil, bite the hell out of the Taliban, etc. really useful creatures.

Message:
Aggies have not shown their big hearts by craeting the ideal crow for the soil of Afganistan. If there is a market, they will go for it and grow for it! Right now there is only a market for dope poppies. Point them at a good market with good seeds, burn the popie fields for a few decades and even the hardest headed Afgan will grow the Aggie Cash Crop. We know they have ancient irrigation ducts. Let's guide them away from growing opium poppies even if it's marijuana, California's #2 cash crop.

Name:

Individual

In response to:
Grassley called it "disingenuous" for Democrats to complain that they're concerned about the price tag when their plan cost billions more.

Message:
The only reason the democratic plan cost billions more is because the republicans wouldn't go along with the democrats on letting a government agency negotiate drug prices with the drug companies. Grassley is a lying, sack.

Message:
This from the guy who called Judge Wright a right-wing extremist for saying the very same things that Bill clinton admitted to in his pleas bargain ...

Judge Wright was a former student of Bill's,
A three-judge panel on the court of appeals (two Dems included) unanomously upheld her decision, and
Bill Clinton's own attorney sent a letter to Judge Wright stating he knew nothing of Bill's deceptions.

Name:

Smedley

In response to:
The only reason the democratic plan cost billions more is because the republicans wouldn't go along with the democrats on letting a government agency negotiate drug prices with the drug companies. Grassley is a lying, sack.

Message:
Sounds like a completely uninformed left-wing extremist paranoid talking

Name:	observer
To:	Smedley

In response to:
Sounds like a completely uninformed left-wing extremist paranoid talking

Message:
Can't you do better than an ad hominem attack? I thought you were a lawyer.

Name:	Editor
To:	HILLARY SUPPORTER

In response to:
To read this article go into: "http://www.friendsofhillary.com/pdf/more2.pdf"

Name:

Crazed Palestinian Gunman

Message:

Home: Archives: World

Crazed Palestinian Gunman Angered By Stereotypes

HEBRON, WEST BANK—In an emotionally charged press conference Monday, crazed Palestinian gunman Faisal al Hamad expressed frustration over the stereotyping of his people.


	Above: Faisal al Hamad, seen here shrieking anti-U.S. slogans, says that "not every crazed Palestinian gunman is exactly alike."

"As a crazed Palestinian gunman, I feel hurt by the negative portrayal of my people in the media," said al Hamad, 31, a Hebron-area terrorist maniac. "None of us should have to live with stereotyping and ignorance."

He then began screaming and firing into a busload of Israeli schoolchildren.

"It hurts that in this supposedly enlightened day and age, people still make assumptions about other people," al Hamad said. "We should not rely on simple generalizations. Each crazed Palestinian gunman is an individual."

Al Hamad said that he himself has often been unfairly stereotyped. "Any time I enter a crowded temple with fully loaded AK-47s in both hands, people just assume I'm going to open fire," he said. "That really hurts."

"Yes, I sometimes do gun people down in the name of the One True God," he noted. "But there is so much more to me."

Several weeks ago, al Hamad was again the victim of stereotyping during a vacation he took with his family to Washington, D.C.

"When we arrived at the airport in Washington, security guards detained us for more than 12 hours, just because I had 140 pounds of plastic explosives strapped to my chest," al Hamad said. "Do you think they would have called the FBI if I weren't a crazed Palestinian who's on their Ten Most Wanted List? I don't think so."

Al Hamad said his vacation was ruined when federal agents seized a crate of chemical weapons he had brought into the U.S. as a gift for a friend in New York.

"I explained to them that the weapons were a birthday present for the blind cleric Sayid al Farouq, a good friend of mine from high school," he said. "But they did not believe me and took me into federal custody for nine weeks. Again, it's a case of people jumping to conclusions on the basis of skin color. And that can be very frustrating."


Above: When this truck blew up in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur last year, Israeli officials suspected PLO involvement. "That really hurt that they would just think that right off the bat," al Hamad said.

According to al Hamad, stereotypes against crazed Palestinian gunmen don't work because they don't take into account the vast variety of proud histories and diverse cultures among them.

"There are so many different kinds of crazed Palestinian gunmen. Each of us has our own unique reasons and motivations for our bus bombings and suicide missions," he said. "No two fundamentalist agendas are alike."

Al Hamad also stressed the importance of understanding and celebrating the cultural differences between crazed Palestinian gunmen and non-crazed, non-Palestinian non-gunmen.

"All the different peoples of the world have something special to offer each other," he said. "Our diversity is our greatest strength. Let's not make a weakness out of that strength."

To emphasize his point, al Hamad fired into a crowd, killing nine.

"I'm proud to be a crazed Palestinian gunman, obviously," he said in between shouts of anti-imperialist slogans. "But I'm an individual first. I'm me. Die, Yankee infidel !"

Name:	Ms. Procto Rumble-Sauvage
To:	Concerned Persyns
Re:	Our Village, The Children, Our Democracy's Future!

In response to:
Thank you for that terrific link.

Message:
Yawn...nothing new there at all. We KNOW Hillary is a dedicated Socialist. We must redouble our struggle to achieve the desired model of tiny, even miniscule classrooms, and these must be properly staffed with reasonable numbers of Teachers, Counselors, and Sexual Facilitators along with appropriate numbers of professional Teacher's Aides and other qualified learningplace support personel if we are to survive as a democracy.

As the wealthiest of the suffering, corporate-dominated industrial societies, there is simply no reason we should not strive to provide and fully staff the urgently needed new, tiny classrooms with the range of adequate professional personel to carry out the difficult task of properly socializing and life-fitting our great fat diverse children.

We should consider Teacher-Educator/Counselor/Sexual Facilitator to pupil-unit ratios of no less than eighteen to twenty-five TECSF per PU, with significantly higher TECSF per PU ratios in Minority and Economically Challenged schools. We must set a firm goal NOW of achieving these minimum standards by no later than 2013!

Name:

Hillary is a sham

Message:
Clinton's speech offered pointed criticism of the "No Child Left Behind" Act introduced by the administration of President George W. Bush '68. The act could have been effective if more money had been invested in the act, Clinton said.

Ahem. It was also introduced by Ted the drunken whale. Does this broad ever have an original idea?

You mean to tell me that the smartese woman int he world keeps getting hoodwinked? I guess she's not that smart and just a frustrated little master.

Name:	Can't all home school!
To:	vouchers advocates everywhere
Re:	talk is cheap - private school is expensive

In response to:
While many schools serving impoverished minority communities need greatly increased funding, Clinton said, many schools she had visited with diverse student bodies passed her "Chelsea test" -- she would have been willing to send her daughter to school there.

Message:
Most of the US's citizens find it necessary for BOTH parents to work and cannot home school. Vouchers are key to saving kids from lousy schools. If all had a $2000 voucher, many would go to a religious school such as Chealsea's Quaker runSchool. Minorities would have access to better schools and ALL schools would rise. Public schools would rise if only from less crowding and a better teacher to child ratio. Most parents could budget the rest of the money since they would believe in the child and put their money where their mouth is. Of course, teacher "advocates like NEA would have a hissy fit for they are not pro-education, they are pro-NEA and deem vouchers a "death sentence" for incompetent teachers in education. "This reform just Kills me." would be their hue and cry with much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Name:

Hillary is Full of it

Message:
If one is to be honest Hillary, you'd talk to your friends in the teacher union who adore you and straighten them out. But you are not really honest at all.

Name:	Concerned Persyns And Others For Change
To:	Ultra Right Wingers

In response to:
While many schools serving impoverished minority communities need greatly increased funding, Clinton said

Message:
The important thing is to get massive new funding into the system and to create as many new Unionized "professional" positions as we can manage to dream up to absorb that new funding. We must also struggle diligently to achieve curriculum streamlining while minimizing so-called "testing" even as we develop innovative interpretive protocols to deal creatively with what some may perceive to be irregular "test scores" when "testing" cannot be avoided.

Name:

Curious

Message:
I wonder if any of them were in Arkansas where she was the queen of education and the performance of the schools there dropped from bad to worse.

Name:	Lest We Forget
To:	forum
Re:	Islamo-fascists Islamo-nazis

In response to:
Nobel Peace Prize winner Yassar Arafat was a proud Nazi backer as was his entire group during WWII. Several pictures have been posted right here on the Hillary Forum of Arafat and his beloved uncle with Nazis. Perhaps it is that ,"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" or more simply, we both hate Christians and Jews, let's rule North Africa together.

Message:
Strangly though, in the Italian colony of Syria there was no Arab-Nazi unity or the Italiano-Fascists had not yet joined the Axis? There was a movie starring Anthony Quinn (A fine actor in anyone's book!) in which Quinn portrayed a teacher-turned-Anti-Mussilinite fighting tanks with old rifles. Some Arabs tied their (own?) legs so that they would not flee when the tanks came to squash them like so many cockroaches. Quinn as Arab-leader was captured and publicly hanged.

Name:

Hillary is a lying sack of crap

In response to:
"If one is honest about the needs of the most impoverished children in America, they are the ones who most need the highly qualified teachers, who most require the small classes," she said. "Progress has a price, and we're kidding ourselves and our children if we believe equality can be bought on the cheap. But it's worth the investment."

Message:
According to data shown by the Nation Center for Education Statistics, the District of Columbia spent the most at $11,009 per student.

The District of Columbia also ranked dead last on SAT scores with a 480 in Verbal and a 473 in Mathematics. (DC also has one of the smallest pupil per teacher ratios with 1 teacher for every 13 students.)

Utah Spent the least at $4,769 per student. Utah ranked tenth in the Nation on SAT scores with 563 in Verbal and 559 in Mathematics.

Look at the ten states in which the most amount of money per student was spent and their SAT ranks:

District of Columbia $11,009 51 New York $10,725 45 Connecticut $10,517 34 Rhode Island $10,216 37 Massachusetts $9,883 31 Vermont $9,798 32 Delaware $9,612 39 New Jersey $9,596 41 Alaska $9,430 30 West Virginia $8,742 26

Compare the ten states in which the least amount of money per student was spent and their SAT ranks:

Utah $4,769 10 Mississippi $5,235 16 Arizona $5,445 28 Tennessee $5,470 11 Arkansas $5,764 15 Idaho $5,789 22 Alabama $5,937 14 Nevada $6,134 1 North Dakota $6,173 35 Oklahoma $6,184 9 On average the ten states that spent the most spent $9,953 per student and ranked 37th on SAT scores. The ten states that spent the least spent $5,690 per student and ranked 16th on SAT scores. Please help me in making sure that the coming education debate includes facts such as the ones listed above. In my view, we should reverse the trend of increased spending on public education in favor of home schooling and private schools. We should move to dismantle the dismal failure known as public education.

Nation Center for Education Statistics http://nces.ed.gov SAT scores http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d02/tables/dt136.asp Spending per pupil http://nces.ed.gov/quicktables/Detail.asp?Key=760

Name:	Katy "Scarlett"O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler
To:	forum
Re:	"Kisses and Tears"

In response to:
"Baghdad" Teddy will steel up the resolve of even the most faint-hearted Shi'ite aiming nervously at a Marine! He's soooooo brave. He can eat crackers in my bed anytime! You told Bush and his Invaders off Teddy! Teddy holds swimming records from his hunky youth! I'll jump in and you save me, Teddy!

Message:
At least 15 Marines were killed and 20 more were wounded in the battles. And while some of the Marine Corps' finest were taking gunfire and dying, back at home, Sen. Teddy Kennedy wandered from his palatial Senate office on Capitol Hill to the plush and friendly surroundings of the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington think tank, to unleash a verbal carpet bombing on the president of the United States. Mr. Kennedy, whose own honesty, integrity and judgment have been called into question on numerous occasions throughout his career, charged the Bush administration with "create[ing] the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon." Mr. Kennedy accused the president of breaking "the basic bond of trust with the American people," and said Iraq is "George Bush's Vietnam." It's an effort on the part of (Democratic presidential candidate) John Kerry's hatchet man to exploit one of the more challenging weeks in Iraq since the end of major hostilities nearly a year ago. Though they find it hard to accept, Democrats like Teddy Kennedy know the president continues to enjoy the trust of the American people on matters of national security.

Name:	Delta 88
To:	Ethel Merpersyn
Re:	Derelict Hulk

In response to:
Teddy holds swimming records from his hunky youth! I'll jump in and you save me, Teddy!

Name:	Voive of Reason, call Friedman
To:	Tom Friedman
Re:	You sound like an expensive Jew dish on Badghdad menu

In response to:
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: April 11, 2004 he U.S. operation in Iraq is hanging by a thread. If it has any hope of surviving this Hobbesian moment, we need three conversations to happen fast: George Bush needs to talk to his father, the Arab leaders need to talk to their sons — and daughters — and we need to talk to the Iraqi Governing Council. President Bush, please call home. You need some of your father's wisdom right now. The old man, Bush 41, may not have had the vision thing, but he did have the prudence thing. He understood that he could not expel Saddam Hussein fro ...

Message:
How is it that Saddam's fellow dictator Muslims, beneficiaries to moble rocket launchers, fighter jets, WMD projects. fissionable mateterials, anthrax, and lots of Saddams money and hoodlums hiding in these respective countries, living high-on-the-hog with loot from Iraq, hoe are these thug dictatorships going to side with the United States, AKA"The Great Satan"?

You must have been drinking something when you wrote that article. All the countries you mentioned are "brothers of the blood", someone else's! Even Saudi has given militant extremists groups multiplied millions of dollars in tribute/ good will donations from massive oil price gouging.

If we in the US do not at least drill offshore Alaska perhaps we are the idiots they think we are. Spoiling Barbara Boxer's view with offshore oil rigs is one thing, mussing a bit of bleak frozen Alaska back country tundra is a different matter. Hats OFF TO Alaska Governor _______________who vows "Offshore if not Anwar! This is at a time when Alaska is considering screwing Alaska's people out of oil revenues. Drill more--screw less! Or don't screw at all. It's as if the Alaskans have been getting a tax rebate all along.

Name:	Hillyscam
To:	Hillary is a lying sack of crap

In response to:
You are correct my friend. Here are the reasons government schools that Hillary adores are failing.

c) The emphasis on "self esteem" is producing kids that are illiterate, but feel good about it. The "self esteem plague" has also caused a decline in good ole competition, the dumbing down of lessons and requirements to avoid hurting the feelings of the less intelligent, and leaves children unequipped for a world in which everyone is NOT equal in ability and nobody cares how much you love yourself.

d) The Government's top-down style of management and mandates to the slightest detail has killed creativity and ingenuity in the teachers and staff.

Name:	Barry
To:	forum

In response to:
1968 -- Germany: In Berlin, the attempted assassination of Rudi Dutschke, a well known student anarchist activist, unleashes solidarity demonstrations in his behalf in Paris, Rome, Vienna & London 1986 -- US: 17 arrested on felony riot charges after police tear-gas striking Hormel meatpacking workers in Austin, Minn. 6,000 (in a city of 20,000) demonstrate tomorrow. The Hormel strike, generally regarded as the first major grass roots revolt against corporate downsizing, is eventually suppressed by Hormel in cooperation with both the state & the workers' own national union.

Message:
A supposed meeting in Prague between Mohammed Atta, leader of the 11 September hijackers, and an Iraqi intelligence official was the main basis for this claim, but Czech intelligence later conceded that the Iraqi's contact could not have been Atta. This did not stop the constant stream of assertions that Iraq was involved in 9/11, which was so successful that at one stage opinion polls showed that two-thirds of Americans believed the hand of Saddam Hussein was behind the attacks. Almost as many believed Iraqi hijackers were aboard the crashed airliners; in fact there were none.

2) Iraq and al-Qa'ida were working together Persistent claims by US and British leaders that Saddam and Osama bin Laden were in league with each other were contradicted by a leaked British Defense Intelligence Staff report, which said there were no current links between them. Mr. Bin Laden's "aims are in ideological conflict with present-day Iraq", it added.

Another strand to the claims was that al-Qa'ida members were being sheltered in Iraq, and had set up a poisons training camp. When US troops reached the camp, they found no chemical or biological traces.

3) Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa for a "reconstituted" nuclear weapons programme The head of the CIA has now admitted that documents purporting to show that Iraq tried to import uranium from Niger in west Africa were forged, and that the claim should never have been in President Bush's State of the Union address. Britain sticks by the claim, insisting it has "separate intelligence". The Foreign Office conceded last week that this information is now "under review".

The US persistently alleged that Baghdad tried to buy high-strength aluminum tubes whose only use could be in gas centrifuges, needed to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Equally persistently, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the tubes were being used for artillery rockets. The head of the IAEA, Mohamed El Baradei, told the UN Security Council in January that the tubes were not even suitable for centrifuges.

5) Iraq still had vast stocks of chemical and biological weapons from the first Gulf War

Iraq possessed enough dangerous substances to kill the whole world, it was alleged more than once. It had pilotless aircraft which could be smuggled into the US and used to spray chemical and biological toxins. Experts pointed out that apart from mustard gas, Iraq never had the technology to produce materials with a shelf-life of 12 years, the time between the two wars. All such agents would have deteriorated to the point of uselessness years ago.

6) Iraq retained up to 20 missiles which could carry chemical or biological warheads, with a range which would threaten British forces in Cyprus

Apart from the fact that there has been no sign of these missiles since the invasion, Britain downplayed the risk of there being any such weapons in Iraq once the fighting began. It was also revealed that chemical protection equipment was removed from British bases in Cyprus last year, indicating that the Government did not take its own claims seriously.

7) Saddam Hussein had the wherewithal to develop smallpox This allegation was made by the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his address to the UN Security Council in February. The following month the UN said there was nothing to support it. 8) US and British claims were supported by the inspectors

According to Jack Straw, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix "pointed out" that Iraq had 10,000 litres of anthrax. Tony Blair said Iraq's chemical, biological and "indeed the nuclear weapons programme" had been well documented by the UN. Mr. Blix's reply? "This is not the same as saying there are weapons of mass destruction," he said last September. "If I had solid evidence that Iraq retained weapons of mass destruction or were constructing such weapons, I would take it to the Security Council." In May this year he added: "I am obviously very interested in the question of whether or not there were weapons of mass destruction, and I am beginning to suspect there possibly were not." 9) Previous weapons inspections had failed Tony Blair told this newspaper in March that the UN had "tried unsuccessfully for 12 years to get Saddam to disarm peacefully". But in 1999 a Security Council panel concluded: "Although important elements still have to be resolved, the bulk of Iraq's proscribed weapons programmes has been eliminated." Mr. Blair also claimed UN inspectors "found no trace at all of Saddam's offensive biological weapons programme" until his son-in-law defected. In fact the UN got the regime to admit to its biological weapons programme more than a month before the defection. 10) Iraq was obstructing the inspectors

Britain's February "dodgy dossier" claimed inspectors' escorts were "trained to start long arguments" with other Iraqi officials while evidence was being hidden, and inspectors' journeys were monitored and notified ahead to remove surprise. Dr Blix said in February that the UN had conducted more than 400 inspections, all without notice, covering more than 300 sites. "We note that access to sites has so far been without problems," he said. : "In no case have we seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew that the inspectors were coming."

11) Iraq could deploy its weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes This now-notorious claim was based on a single source, said to be a serving Iraqi military officer. This individual has not been produced since the war, but in any case Tony Blair contradicted the claim in April. He said Iraq had begun to conceal its weapons in May 2002, which meant that they could not have been used within 45 minutes. 12) The "dodgy dossier"

Mr. Blair told the Commons in February, when the dossier was issued: "We issued further intelligence over the weekend about the infrastructure of concealment. It is obviously difficult when we publish intelligence reports." It soon emerged that most of it was cribbed without attribution from three articles on the internet. Last month Alastair Campbell took responsibility for the plagiarism committed by his staff, but stood by the dossier's accuracy, even though it confused two Iraqi intelligence organizations, and said one moved to new headquarters in 1990, two years before it was created. 13) War would be easy

Public fears of war in the US and Britain were assuaged by assurances that oppressed Iraqis would welcome the invading forces; that "demolishing Saddam Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk", in the words of Kenneth Adelman, a senior Pentagon official in two previous Republican administrations. Resistance was patchy, but stiffer than expected, mainly from irregular forces fighting in civilian clothes. "This wasn't the enemy we war-gamed against," one general complained. 14) Umm Qasr

The fall of Iraq's southernmost city and only port was announced several times before Anglo-American forces gained full control - by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, among others, and by Admiral Michael Boyce, chief of Britain's defense staff. "Umm Qasr has been overwhelmed by the US Marines and is now in coalition hands," the Admiral announced, somewhat prematurely. 15) Basra rebellion

Claims that the Shia Muslim population of Basra, Iraq's second city, had risen against their oppressors were repeated for days, long after it became clear to those there that this was little more than wishful thinking. The defeat of a supposed breakout by Iraqi armour was also announced by military spokesman in no position to know the truth.

Private Jessica Lynch's "rescue" from a hospital in Nasiriya by American special forces was presented as the major "feel-good" story of the war. She was said to have fired back at Iraqi troops until her ammunition ran out, and was taken to hospital suffering bullet and stab wounds. It has since emerged that all her injuries were sustained in a vehicle crash, which left her incapable of firing any shot. Local medical staff had tried to return her to the Americans after Iraqi forces pulled out of the hospital, but the doctors had to turn back when US troops opened fire on them. The Special Forces encountered no resistance, but made sure the whole episode was filmed.

As US forces approached Baghdad, there was a rash of reports that they would cross a "red line", within which Republican Guard units were authorized to use chemical weapons. But Lieutenant General James Conway, the leading US marine general in Iraq, conceded afterwards that intelligence reports that chemical weapons had been deployed around Baghdad before the war were wrong.

"It was a surprise to me ... that we have not uncovered weapons ... in some of the forward dispersal sites," he said. "We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there. We were simply wrong. Whether or not we're wrong at the national level, I think still very much remains to be seen."

"I have got absolutely no doubt that those weapons are there ... once we have the co-operation of the scientists and the experts, I have got no doubt that we will find them," Tony Blair said in April. Numerous similar assurances were issued by other leading figures, who said interrogations would provide the WMD discoveries that searches had failed to supply. But almost all Iraq's leading scientists are in custody, and claims that lingering fears of Saddam Hussein are stilling their tongues are beginning to wear thin.

Tony Blair complained in Parliament that "people falsely claim that we want to seize" Iraq's oil revenues, adding that they should be put in a trust fund for the Iraqi people administered through the UN. Britain should seek a Security Council resolution that would affirm "the use of all oil revenues for the benefit of the Iraqi people".

Instead Britain co-sponsored a Security Council resolution that gave the US and UK control over Iraq's oil revenues. There is no UN-administered trust fund.

Far from "all oil revenues" being used for the Iraqi people, the resolution continues to make deductions from Iraq's oil earnings to pay in compensation for the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

After repeated false sightings, both Tony Blair and George Bush proclaimed on 30 May that two trailers found in Iraq were mobile biological laboratories. "We have already found two trailers, both of which we believe were used for the production of biological weapons," said Mr. Blair. Mr. Bush went further: "Those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons - they're wrong. We found them." It is now almost certain that the vehicles were for the production of hydrogen for weather balloons, just as the Iraqis claimed - and that they were exported by Britain.

Name:	Office Pool Survey
To:	9 out of 10 Southerners Declare Prof Kronman to be
Re:	"Crazy -As-Hell" in Newsweek Style poll

In response to:
Yes, I printed out Law School Dean Kronman's remarks in full, typed "IS LAW SCHOOL DEAN KRONMAN CRAZY AS HELL OR INSANE, passed them around the office, and 9 of the 10 people present in the office checked "Crazy" while only one checked "INSANE".

Message:
All 10 were "Stunned and amazed by Kronman's "born yesterday" naivete and "lack of knowledge deficit".

Name:

Terry Boglelle

Message:
Once again, we were defending both ourselves and the safety and survival of civilization itself. September 11 signaled the arrival of an entirely different era. We faced perils we had never thought about, perils we had never seen before. For decades, terrorists had waged war against this country. Now, under the leadership of President Bush, America would wage war against them. It was a struggle between good and it was a struggle between evil.

It was absolutely clear that the number-one threat facing America was from Saddam Hussein. We know that Iraq and Al Qaeda had high-level contacts that went back a decade. We learned that Iraq had trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and deadly gases. The regime had long-standing and continuing ties to terrorist organizations. Iraq and Al Qaeda had discussed safe-haven opportunities in Iraq. Iraqi officials denied accusations of ties with Al Qaeda. These denials simply were not credible. You couldn't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talked about the war on terror.

The fundamental question was, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer was, absolutely. His regime had large, unaccounted-for stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons--including VX, sarin, cyclosarin, and mustard gas, anthrax, botulism, and possibly smallpox. Our conservative estimate was that Iraq then had a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical-weapons agent. That was enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets. We had sources that told us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons--the very weapons the dictator told the world he did not have. And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as forty-five minutes after the orders were given. There could be no doubt that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more.

Iraq possessed ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles--far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other nations. We also discovered through intelligence that Iraq had a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We were concerned that Iraq was exploring ways of using UAVs for missions targeting the United States. * * *

Saddam Hussein was determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb. We knew he'd been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believed he had, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. The British government learned that Saddam Hussein had recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources told us that he had attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear-weapons production. When the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied-finally denied access, a report came out of the [International Atomic Energy Agency] that they were six months away from developing a weapon. I didn't know what more evidence we needed.

Facing clear evidence of peril, we could not wait for the final proof that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. The Iraqi dictator could not be permitted to threaten America and the world with horrible poisons and diseases and gases and atomic weapons. Inspections would not work. We gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. The burden was on those people who thought he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they were.

We waged a war to save civilization itself. We did not seek it, but we fought it, and we prevailed. We fought them and imposed our will on them and we captured or, if necessary, killed them until we had imposed law and order. The Iraqi people were well on their way to freedom. The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American tanks, tearing down the statues of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad were breathtaking. Watching them, one could not help but think of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

It was entirely possible that in Iraq you had the most pro-American population that could be found anywhere in the Arab world. If you were looking for a historical analogy, it was probably closer to post-liberation France. We had the overwhelming support of the Iraqi people. Once we won, we got great support from everywhere.

The people of Iraq knew that every effort was made to spare innocent life, and to help Iraq recover from three decades of totalitarian rule. And plans were in place to provide Iraqis with massive amounts of food, as well as medicine and other essential supplies. The U.S. devoted unprecedented attention to humanitarian relief and the prevention of excessive damage to infrastructure and to unnecessary casualties.

The United States approached its postwar work with a two-part resolve: a commitment to stay and a commitment to leave. The United States had no intention of determining the precise form of Iraq's new government. That choice belonged to the Iraqi people. We have never been a colonial power. We do not leave behind occupying armies. We leave behind constitutions and parliaments. We don't take our force and go around the world and try to take other people's real estate or other people's resources, their oil. We never have and we never will.

The United States was not interested in the oil in that region. We were intent on ensuring that Iraq's oil resources remained under national Iraqi control, with the proceeds made available to support Iraqis in all parts of the country. The oil fields belonged to the people of Iraq, the government of Iraq, all of Iraq. We estimated that the potential income to the Iraqi people as a result of their oil could be somewhere in the $20 [billion] to $30 billion a year [range], and obviously, that would be money that would be used for their well-being. In other words, all of Iraq's oil belonged to all the people of Iraq. * * *

We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. And we found more weapons as time went on. I never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country. But for those who said we hadn't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they were wrong, we found them. We knew where they were.

We changed the regime of Iraq for the good of the Iraqi people. We didn't want to occupy Iraq. War is a terrible thing. We've tried every other means to achieve objectives without a war because we understood what the price of a war can be and what it is. We sought peace. We strove for peace. Nobody, but nobody, was more reluctant to go to war than President Bush.

It is not right to assume that any current problems in Iraq can be attributed to poor planning. The number of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region dropped as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This nation acted to a threat from the dictator of Iraq. There is a lot of revisionist history now going on, but one thing is certain--he is no longer a threat to the free world, and the people of Iraq are free. There's no doubt in my mind when it's all said and done, the facts will show the world the truth. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind.

Name:	Bud Wyler
To:	FORUM

Message:
http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/43119|top|04-12-2004::13:45|reuters.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. commanders in Iraq want rebellious Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr dead or alive but they said on Monday his militia's control of the holy city of Najaf was not a widespread uprising by the Shi'ite majority.

"The mission of the U.S. forces is to kill or capture Moqtada al-Sadr," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq, said in a video conference from Baghdad with reporters at the Pentagon.

Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command that covers Iraq, on the same video conference said Sadr was being isolated by fellow Shi'ites.

"Moqtada al-Sadr is isolating himself," Abizaid said. "This was not by any stretch of the imagination a Shi'ite uprising."

U.S. forces have been trying to douse a rebellion in several towns and cities by followers of Sadr, a firebrand Shi'ite cleric whose grassroots supporters are also seen as aiding rival insurgents from the Sunni minority against the U.S. occupation. Sanchez acknowledged Sadr's followers have "some presence" in Kerbala and still control Najaf, where thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims are marking the death of one of their holiest figures. He said U.S. forces were on the outskirts of the city, ready to attack, but they had refrained so far out of respect for Shi'ite beliefs.

"We are respecting the fact that there is a religious celebration ongoing," he said. "We have maneuvered forces down into the vicinity of Najaf to ensure that we're all prepared to conduct offensive operations to eliminate the final elements of Moqtada al-Sadr influence down there," Sanchez said.

After some of the bloodiest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the general said so#####rn Iraq was now stable and that U.S. forces had taken clear control of al Kut, reestablished control of Nassiriya and stabilized Hilla. In addition to dealing with a Shi'ite rebellion in the south, U.S. forces have faced Sunni attackers in the Falluja area, which erupted with the killing and mutilation of four American contractors. A tenuous cease-fire has been called in Falluja, but insurgents continue to attack U.S. forces, Sanchez said.

"We are not negotiating at this point until we achieve some confidence building and a period of stability. Then we would consider going into significant negotiations to end this battle," he said. "But at this point we have had continued attacks by the insurgents."

Abizaid said the Marines have been "very precise" in conducting military operations and have tried to protect civilians, and he criticized the Arab media -- specifically Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya -- for portraying the situation as U.S. forces targeting civilians.

A recent wave of hostage taking has added a new problem for coalition forces and countries to address.

Two American soldiers and seven contractors with U.S. firm Kellogg, Brown & Root are missing, Sanchez said, but added that it was not known whether they had been taken hostage.

Abizaid said he has asked the Pentagon for two brigades of "strong mobile combat arms capability" but refused to provide more details.

There are usually about 5,000 troops in a brigade, but it was unclear whether the troops would be in addition to the roughly 130,000 on the ground in Iraq or as replacements for some of them. A decision on that request was expected "soon," a defense official said.

Name:	Murray
To:	Swett
Re:	end the ban enacted ten years ago

In response to:
I will NOT Vote for him again. I will NOT contribute to his reelection. I will WORK and CONTRIBUTE for whomever runs in the primary and ELECTION when he runs again. ANOTHER TRAITOR the people of NH same as Swett.

Name:	Jared
To:	Forum
Re:	Go Kerry

Message:
At his ranch today. That must be vacation, huh. Do you really want to know the truth about why Bush gets out of Washington DC as much as possible? Security. When he is in Wash, SS is working hard, dude. It is much easier to protect the president at his ranch, or at Camp David

: FACT: THAT STORY WAS MADE UP BY THE MEDIA. I VIDIDLY REMEMBER THE EARLY COVERAGE AND BRIEFINGS AT CENTCOM WHERE THEY REPEATEDLY STATED THEY DID NOT KNOW HOW SHE GOT HER INJURIES NOR WHETHER OR NOT SHE FAUGHT BACK. THE WASHINGTON comPOST THEN RAN WITH A STORY ABOUT HOW SHE RETURNED FIRE, PERFORMED HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT AND OTHER BS.

Either way, the "story" above which is implied to have come from the US Govt, did in fact not. It came from a Washington comPost reporter who quoted "anonymous sources" (which means the reporter made it up). Given the track record of US Journalists (NY Times, LA Times and others who have gotten CAUGHT making up stories), I would be inclined to beleive the US Military Officer who I REPEATEDLY SAW state they had no idea whether or not she faught back and what caused her injuries vice the reporter who hadhat type of injuries she had.

EITHER WAY, THE WHOLE STORY WAS MADE UP BY THE WASHINGTON comPOST AND NOW THEY'RE USING THE DISCREDITED STORY TO DISCREDIT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.

Name:

The

Name:	The American People
To:	observer (with only a left eye)

In response to:
Can't you do better than an ad hominem attack? I thought you were a lawyer.

Message:
Oh please. Individual's game in nothing but spewing BS, posting unsupported nonsense, and ad hominem attacks. Hey observing idiot, Individual started the ad hominem attacks with this turd "Sound like a paranoid talking".

Name:	Well DUH!
Re:	Can't say that!

Message:
Doesn't anybody notice that the low SAT scores occur where there are more black people?

Even after all those years of Democrats running the cities and the education establishment, they haven't been able to fix it.

Why are the negroes so damned stupid?
Why can't someone just come out and say it?

Look at the figures for Washington DC, and Utah.
No blacks in Utah. No whites in DC. The SAT scores tell a tale. The spending in DC vastly exceeds that of Utah.

Go figure.

The Hillary.org Forum will be featured on NBC's Dateline Program Friday, April 16, 2004, at 8:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time. Please tune in. Check your local listings for the time of the program in your time zone.

Democratic presidential nominee in waiting Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) frequently speaks of courage, brotherhood and responsibility when he mentions his brief service in Vietnam. He took Super-8 home movies there in which he staged heroics in full-battle dress, so that later he might use them for campaign ads. Kerry has made so much of his Vietnam medals which he once pretended to throw away that critics have begun to wonder why he has been so cagey about the dubious circumstances surrounding the Purple Hearts that got him out of Vietnam after only four months of combat service. Under the rules, a serviceman had to be awarded three Purple Hearts to apply to go home. Not one or two, but three. And, say critics, there's the rub.

Kerry, who piloted Patrol Crafts Fast (PCFs) as a young Lt.(jg) in the Vietnam War, has always made much of those Purple Hearts. An award often pinned on the pillow of a combat warrior so badly wounded that he cannot sit up to receive it, the Purple Heart recognizes the sacrifices of combat when a soldier or officer has sustained a wound "from an outside force or agent" and received treatment from a medical officer. The records for such treatment "must have been made a matter of official record," according to the military definition of the award.

According to Kerry's own description in Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty, the Dec. 2, 1968, mission behind what he has claimed to be his first Purple Heart was "a half-assed action that hardly qualified as combat." Indeed. Kerry was stationed with Coastal Division 14 at Cam Ranh Bay. At that time he piloted a small foam-filled boat, known as a Boston Whaler, with two enlisted men in the darkness of early morning. The intent, apparently, was to patrol an area that was known for contraband trafficking, but it was an undocumented mission. Upon approaching the objective point, the crew noticed a sampan crossing the river. As it pulled to shore, Kerry and his little team opened fire, destroying the boat and whatever its cargo might have been.

In the confusion, Kerry claims to have received a "stinging piece of heat" in the arm, the result of a tiny piece of shrapnel. He was not incapacitated and continued with regular swiftboat-patrol duty. William Shachte, who oversaw this ad hoc mission, was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying Kerry's injury, from whatever source, "was not a serious wound at all."

But Kerry met with his immediate superior officer, Lt.Cmdr. Grant Hibbard, the next morning and requested a Purple Heart for his wound. Hibbard recalls that Kerry had a "minor scratch" on his arm and was holding in his hand what appeared to be a fragment of a U.S. M-79 grenade, the shrapnel that had caused the wound. "They didn't receive enemy fire," Hibbard tells Insight. Since this was an essential requirement for the award, the commander rejected Kerry's request. Hibbard does not remember that Kerry received medical attention of any kind and confirms that no one else on the mission suffered any injuries.

Shortly thereafter, Kerry was transferred to Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi. Apparently, Kerry petitioned to have his Purple Heart request reconsidered. Hibbard remembers getting correspondence from Kerry's new division, asking for his approval. In the hurried process of moving to a new command himself, Hibbard thinks he might have signed off on the award. If so, "it was to my chagrin," Hibbard remembers. Kerry's second commander, Lt.Cmdr. G.M. Elliott, says he has no recollection of such an event ever occurring.

There are no written records of Kerry's magical first Purple Heart on file at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, the nation's primary repository for such documentation. A Purple Heart normally is not requested but is awarded de facto for a wound inflicted by the enemy - a wound serious enough to require medical attention. The Naval Historical Center keeps all documents connected to such awards to U.S. Navy and Marine personnel. These typewritten "casualty cards" list the date, location and prognosis of the wound for which the Purple Heart is given, and they are produced by the medical facility that provides treatment for the combat wound at the hands of the enemy. There are two such cards for Kerry - for his slight wounds on Feb. 20 and March 13, 1969, but none for his December 1968 claim.

After receiving a Purple Heart for the March 13 scratch and bruise, Kerry sought an early pass out of combat duty, invoking the informal Navy "instruction" known as 1300.39. According to the Boston Globe, 1300.39 meant an officer could request a reassignment from his superior officer after receiving three Purple Hearts. The instruction states that, rather than being automatic, the reassignment would "be determined after consideration of his physical classification for duty and on an individual basis." Of the 138 servicemen and officers in Kerry's unit who received Purple Hearts during the time he was there, records indicate only two received more than two. These were Lt.(jg) Jim Galvin and a boatswain's mate named Stevens. When Insight reached Galvin he said all three of his Purple Hearts were the result of shrapnel or glass shards. Such minor injuries were common on PCF boats with their glass windows and thin steel hulls, and, like Kerry's, Galvin's injuries were not serious enough to take him out of combat for more than a few days.

Unlike Kerry, Galvin elected to stay with his men. Indeed, though a professional Navy officer, he never had heard of instruction 1300.39. It was not until early April of 1969, when Galvin noticed that Kerry was preparing to leave the officers' barracks at An Thoi that he learned about "three Purple Hearts and you're out." According to Galvin, it was Kerry who told him, "There's a rule that gets you out of here and I'm getting out. You ought to do the same." Galvin remembers, "He seemed to take care of everything pretty quickly," because that was the last time Galvin saw Kerry in Vietnam.

The three-times wounded Galvin stayed with his men, transferred to Cam Ranh Bay to get them a respite from the dicey Mekong Delta, and eventually left the swiftboats for destroyer school.

Insight: contacted many men who served in Coastal Division at the same time Kerry did to ask if any of them had heard of anyone leaving the combat zone by invoking three minor wounds. Of the 12 who replied, none had heard of anyone doing so but John Kerry."

Less than a month after having claimed three wounds for which he lost no more than a total of two days of duty, Kerry reported as an aide to a navy yard admiral in Brooklyn, New York, leaving his crew in Vietnam. Two years later, preparing for a congressional race in a left-wing Massachusetts district - where the seat eventually was won by the even more radical Rev. Robert Drinan - Kerry was working with Maoists and other radicals in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, saying of those he left behind who were being killed and wounded for real that they were committing crimes "on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels."

Indeed, Kerry said, he knew men who in Vietnam "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside." Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, about these and other alleged war crimes, he called on the United States to pay "extensive reparations."

Name:	Moniker
To:	You

Message:
Click this link, it's freaking hilarious. waffle

Name:

Democrats in Free Fall

Message:
(2004-04-11) -- A presidential briefing, dated August 6, 2001, and released by the White House yesterday, shows that in 1998 George W. Bush did nothing to respond to the threat of terror attacks from Usama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

In fact, when correlated with last week's testimony before the 9/11 Commission by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, it seems clear that the Bush administration had virtually no plan to act on top-secret intelligence gathered during the Clinton administration until after George W. Bush took office in 2001.

"The August 6 PDB (President's Daily Brief) clearly shows that the White House knew of potential al Qaeda threats within the United States in 1998," said an unnamed source from an unnamed, non-partisan Washington think tank, "and yet Texas Governor George W. Bush didn't do anything about these threats until after he became president."

A former senior official from in the Clinton administration, who requested anonymity, said that former President Bill Clinton was "aghast at the lethargic response of Governor Bush to the clear and present danger al Qaeda posed to our homeland in the 1990s."

Name:

In response to:
The Hillary.org Forum will be featured on NBC's Dateline Program Friday, April 16, 2004, at 8:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time.

Name:

Not that simple

In response to:
Why are the negroes so damned stupid? Why can't someone just come out and say it?

Message:
Blacks are not stupid. They have been hoodwinked into dependency by do gooder liberals and are now virtual slaves to government programs that "help" them. This is a fact that the lying scumbag Hillary will never admit at risk of losing a favored constituency.

She is a low level lifelong government hack who's main purpose is to retain power.

If she had a thread of honestly in her she would admit this, but she doesn't and she won't.

Name:	bordertex
To:	forum
Re:	the bush conspiracy to wash his bloody hands

Message:

in the court of public opinion it has become apparent and evident that the bush/cheney/rumsfeld/rice republican administration failed the country Congress and the american people by refusing to warn the country after the bush/cheney administration recieved the "august 5, 2001 memorandum" from the american CIA/FBI who was apparently doing a good job of

and now we have mr.bush using his photo opportunity next to egyptian president Hosni Mubarack trying to tell our country that the "fbi was conducting investigations"

WHEN IN A DAILY BREIFING TO THE U.S. "president" it was told by the american intelligence that a threat was upon our country by the Bin Laden terror cell?

I feel as an american citizen that when the bush/cheney administration had an opportunity to

the bush/cheney administration instead allowed the terror to happen otherwise what was wrong with warning America the minuto! the american government received the "august 6, 2001 memo from the american intelligence? but bush thought he would do New York the favor after!

THE FBI/CIA MEMO TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IMPLIED TO THE WHOLE COUNTRY A DANGER WAS UPON OUR COUNTRY AND WAS MADE AVAILABLE TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

I have trouble understanding what more threat mr.bush needed to hear when it was evident that the threat had already been made and anybody trying to tell this country that because the "threat was not specific" at what time in history has any country been advised by a potential terror act of where it would take place? and just what kind of fools does mr.bush take this country for?

For your information mr. appointed "president" whom the popular vote did not elect, the information on the "august 6, 2001 memo from the CIA/FBI" should have sufficed any intelligent adminstration to have known that above all idiot things of the world the responsibility to not keep americans in the dark laid on the shoulders of the bush/whitehouse but again like in Iraq

bush failed the american people and as a result today many needless military deaths have added tothe already Iraqi coffins bush has caused in Iraq all in the name and fight for oil and for Halliburton to dig its fangs in the billions from our taxpayers taken to Iraq by this corrupt and inept bush/cheney administration

OH YEAH BUSH NOW WANTS TO TRY TO TELL US THAT IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO PREVENT FUTURE terrorism

mr. bush, many american taxpayers from the state of New York would have appreciated having their loved ones lost in the twin tower terror home this easter and day of holy resurrection, but as usual the devil came in disguise and fornicated america with Iraq and with the american billions taken to Iraq so that Halliburton and other bush connected oil corporations could benefit with the destruction of the infrastructure in Iraq

BECAUSE IN ORDER FOR HALLIBURTON AND OTHER BUSH CONNECTED OIL COMPANIES TO BENEFIT FROM THE MILITARY SLAUGHTER IN IRAQ, it was necessary to slaughter civility in Iraq and so there s you have he rest of this horrid story where on "august 6, 2001" APPOINTED 'president' BUSH, FAILED TO WARN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF IMEPNDING DANGER AND IMMINENT THREAT! HERE WAS THE REAL IMMINENT THREAT MR. BUSH, WHERE YOU FAILED TO WARN AMERICANS IN EVERY STATE OF THIS COUNTRY TO HAVE PREVENTED! 9-11

BUT THEN IT WAS MORE CONVENIENT TO LET THE DISASTER HAPPEN WASN'T IT BUSH? after all by then the bush/cheney polls were on the ground due to the conditions of the country bush had brought about with his senseless tax breaks to the rich and like this not only would bush and cheney bleed the terror of 9-11 yanking society from its feet and shoving all of us into a corner of fear but rudy guliani, would also resurrect from the dead after being the most corrupt mayor in office while all the New York police brutality took place you remember s, when that cop shoved that plunger up that poor man's body?

and "in the name of gulianni" the cop did this terrible things to a colored man and this was not the only police brutality in New York under the guliani regime no, but then through 9-11 and the bleeding of the terror, rudy guliani resurrects from the dead and rises to the level of having that english tick, queen elizabeth name him a a "knight" a night of terror maybe while under his watch the twin towers burned and a night of terror in the bush whitehouse for allowing 9-11 to take place

OH NOW ms. rice wants to confuse us by trying to makeit seem that there was some "sturctural problema" with the title of THE AUGUST 6, 2001 MEMO vut in reality the only structural problem is the fact that the terror news did not get filtered down to the people so that at least! the country would have been warned but bush liked surpises and apparently has enjoyed bathing in the blood of 9-11 and now Iraq where we know that in reality, the american government has killed many civilian Iraqi's to carry out their demonic occupation aint that the truth corrupt bush administration that you are all trying to wash your bloody hands like pontious pilate by pointing the finger the other way?

Americans will not be fooled by the bush administration who has already failed americans by refusing to warn us prior to 9-11 and Americans should be watchful of a most corrupt administration who could contaminate Israel with its corruption more than what Israel is already also contaminated with the same ambitions as the United States to force Iraqis and Palestinians to civil unrest so that these two evils can rule the world with the constant whip of fear when it did not have to be this way

IT DID NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY BECAUSE WE DID NOT HAVE TO GO OPEN UP THAT BLOOD RIVER UP IN IRAQ

NOR DID WE HAVE TO HAVE GIVEN ISRAEL THE AMERICAN BOMBS TO DROP ON THE DEFENSELVESS PEOPLE OF PALESTINE

no we did not have to do it but we did it and now bush wants to run to the middle east while the blood from Iraq is still dripping from his fangs and his hands?

mr. bush, the day of judgment be upon you for thy war crimes on the civilians in Iraq and the government of Iraq and Palestine and may the sword of justice slash in half the two greatest evils in the world contributing to world terrorism with their vicious acts! of greed to control the world you cannot control the world oil mr. bush and you were the "commander in chief" who took american troops to Iraq and sat them there like sitting ducks to fight bush's oil war, burn in hell bush,for the blood you have spilt in Iraq and take Ariel Sharon with you on the way to hades

because if Israel really wanted peace to be achieved in the middle east where the jews have forced jewish settlements on palestinian territory without the consent of the Palestinian people

Ariel Sharon would not only withdraw its forced jewish settlements from GAZA but from the WEST BANK ALSO because it just does not seem to be fair to try to tell the world that GAZA is to be returned to its land owners while on the other side of GAZA the WEST BANK will be left to suffer the constant humiliation of the Israeli occupation of a region who like the GAZA deserves and demands to be returned to its landowners so that peace may be achieved but if this were to happen on what reasons would Israel continue bleeding our country with the bombs to drop in palestine on the civilians?

because when Israeli american funded bombs have been dropped on the Palestinian people civilians have suffered the consequences and it is time to take into consideration the number of Palestinian children who have not been allowed to live a normal life with the jewish curfews from that hog ariel sharon who should be in front of the war tribune for his war crimes or what does Ariel Sharon hide from us that he committed in Lebanon?

I mean if Israel has been allowed to defecate when ever it chose on the Palestinian People,it has been because the U.S. has allowed it and ten middle east peace agreements mr. bush,WILL NOT ERASE THE QUESTIONS REMAINING THAT YOU FAILED TO WARN THE STATE OF NEW YORK ON the evening of August 6, 2001 after receiving credible information from reliable sources, in our american government agencies that a threat to the U.S. was imminent

GEORGE BUSH HAS COMITTED WORSE THAN TREASON ON OUR COUNTRY WHEN HE KNOWNLY AND INTENTIONALLY FAILED TO WARN THE STATE OF NEW YORK AFTER IN WRITTEN MEMORANDA, THE BUSH/CHENEY WHITEHOUSE RECIEVED WRITTEN INFOMRATION THAT 'hijackeings" could take place and that "aircraft" could be employed so I hope mr.bush is licking his 9-11 blood tainted vulturous fangs after allowing 9-11 to take place and for allowing such magnitutde of terror to distract the country from the already political fallout the bush adminstration was suffering prior to 9-11 for its inept and incomeptent and destructive demonic ways of running our country under his appointed pathetic presidency

I SAY REMOVE BUSH FROM OFFICE SO THAT NEVER AGAIN DO OUR AMERICAN TROOPS HAVE TO BE THE MARTYRS FOR THE BUSH WHITEHOUSE

HEY BUSH, THE TROOPS DID NOT HAVE TO DIE IN YOUR OIL WAR BUT THOU HAS CAUSED THIS DEATH UPON OUR TROOPS NEEDLESSLY WHERE DIALOG AND DIPLOMACY COULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF THINGS BUT REMEMBER AMERICA WE HAVE A WACKO IN THE WHITEHOUSE AND ITS TIME TO TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK WITH A NEW PRESIDENT WHO IS ANYBODY BUT THAT REPUBLICAN CORRUPT IDIOTA IN THE BUSH WHITHEOUSE

Name:	Former Republican
To:	bordertex

Message:
You convinced me. I'm going to do like Individual does and support Kerry by NOT voting for him.

Name:	OLYMPIC GODS
To:	BORDERTEX
Re:	( IN A VOICE LIKE THUNDER )

In response to:
HEY BUSH, THE TROOPS DID NOT HAVE TO DIE IN YOUR OIL WAR BUT THOU HAS CAUSED THIS DEATH UPON OUR TROOPS NEEDLESSLY WHERE DIALOG AND DIPLOMACY COULD HAVE HEKMATYAR HAS TAKEN GOOD CARE OF THINGS BUT REMEMBER AMERICA WE HAVE A WACKO TRYING TO GET INTO THE WHITEHOUSE AND ITS TIME TO TAKE OUR COUNTRY FORWARD WITH A PRESIDENT WHO IS A THOUSAND WAYS BETTER THAN THAT FLIP FLOP CORRUPT IDIOTA WANNABE KERRYKOHN!!!!!!

Name:	Chip & Skip, America's Boys Next Door
To:	Bordertex

In response to:
GEORGE BUSH HAS COMITTED WORSE THAN TREASON ON OUR COUNTRY WHEN HE KNOWNLY AND INTENTIONALLY FAILED TO WARN THE STATE OF NEW YORK AFTER IN WRITTEN MEMORANDA, THE BUSH/CHENEY WHITEHOUSE RECIEVED WRITTEN INFOMRATION THAT 'hijackeings"

Name:	partofVRWC
To:	the people that Respond to BorderNut

Message:
This women is worse than Hillary on Testosterone, why bother replying to her Rants, I don't even read them. She's so far out there the Kerry campaign would disown her. Yes that jalapeno does wonders on her donkeys 'Micheal' dance

On the eve of last year’s invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces, I wrote an article entitled “I have bad feelings about Iraq.” At the time there was no doubt that we would defeat Saddam Hussein's army.

Confidence in a quick victory was so high that when the bombing campaign began, the stock market soared off of its pre-war lows. Wall Street’s gamble was rewarded with a conflict that was relatively quick and painless.

Because Iraq had been operating under heavy sanctions for over a decade, its military was in no shape to stand against the most powerful nation on earth. Despite this uneven match up, I still had to say, “I have a nagging feeling that something dreadful will result from this war.”

I was most concerned about the demonic spirits that would likely come against us. In March of last year I wrote, “Iraq is one of the most demonically infested nations on earth, and I think it is safe to say that those fallen angels will not want to surrender their rulership without a fight.”

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12).

Most Christians probably don’t realize how strongly connected Iraq is to the devil and his host of fallen angels. The legacy of evil stretches all the way back the Babylonians. The Bible frequently cites Babylon as the standard of spiritual wickedness.

In some regions of that nation, one can find temples dedicated to Satan. Normally, the Islamic faith would call for the destruction of any religion that is non-Islamic. To have something dedicated to the Prince of Darkness is a testimony to his power in Iraq.

One year into the conflict, there is no need to speculate about the troubles that spiritual forces can cause. With each passing day the situation in that nation seems to grow all the more complex. The nightly news reports from Iraq are full of accounts of suicide bombings, unrest in various Iraqi cities, kidnappings, assassinations, and all manner of political turmoil.

I’m sure the devil’s goal is to wear down America’s resolve. He would love to have Uncle Sam back away from playing the role of global cop. If it weren't for the U.S., several Middle East nations would be on the verge of having nuclear capability and China would probably have invaded Taiwan by now.

We have a noble reason for being in Iraq. Unfortunately, the enemy does not respect good intentions. The ultimate factor that will determine whether we are successful in bringing peace to Iraq will depend on how much we’ve determined to seek God’s guidance in this situation.

One of the first subjects I learned about in my initial study of Bible prophecy was the mark of the beast. The Antichrist will someday compel the world’s population to receive an implant that will allow them to be part of a global financial system.

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Rev. 13:16-18).

There is no technology barrier preventing the mark from being implemented. We have had all the essential components for a few years now. The only two holdouts are the political will to compel people to accept this type of system, and the economic incentive to use the mark.

Islamic terrorism is rapidly causing governments to be more interested in a global ID network. If we had a way to track all transactions, terrorists would have no place to hide. The recent bombings in Madrid, Spain have convinced many world leaders that compulsory ID cards are greatly needed. The British are talking about moving up the date for requiring its citizens to register for an ID card that will store their unique "biometric" details found in iris images or fingerprints.

The economic factor is driven purely by the average company's desire to lower operating costs. Most companies are oblivious to the fact that the technology being used today to improve efficiency will eventually prove to be useful to the Antichrist.

Wal-mart, America’s largest retailer, has a plan to force all of its suppliers to move to a radio tag system. Because each item will have its own number, these tags will allow for the real-time tracking of all products in a store or warehouse.

Until the last few years it was not financially feasible to have a system that could handle large numbers of monetary transactions. In the early '80s, a business computer like that might have cost a firm $60,000. Today, that same company can purchase a computer with ten times the features for less than $1,000.

I’ve always thought that the global marking system would begin when the cost of the technology dropped to the point that it would be affordable not only for Fortune 500 firms, but for mom and pop operations as well. It looks like that day has arrived.
-- Todd

Name:

Civil Bagdasarian

Message:

Rapture Ready

Rapture Ready Home

Nearing Midnight

Rapture Ready Bulletin Board

Left Behind

Left Behind Letters

	Print a text version of this article
	Biometric ID card bill on its way 'in a month'

	Submitted By:Jack
	Click for Source Article
	David Blunkett last night said that he was pushing on with plan for an ID card, with a draft bill to hit Parliament within months. The ID cards will contain biometrics and may be in the wallets of UK citizens by 2007 at the earliest. Blunkett told Radio Five Live that the introduction is necessary to give the government better control over immigration and prevent terrorists using multiple identities. Blunkett, however, acknowledged that getting compulsory ID cards into law wouldn't be an easy process. "It would be very surprising if there were not misgivings," he said. A number of high-profile Cabinet colleagues have expressed objections to the scheme, including Home Secretary Jack Straw and Trade and Industry Minister Patricia Hewitt. He also admitted there were practical issues to be overcome before the cards were made compulsory. Among them, that Parliament could only vote on the issue of making the cards compulsory when 80 per cent of UK citizens carried them anyway and that estimates of how much the introduction would cost the taxpayer differ wildly – from around £1bn to around £3bn. Tony Blair said last week that the recent political climate had pushed ID cards to the top of the government's priorities. "I think that the whole issue of identity cards that a few years ago were not on anyone's agenda are very much on the political agenda here, probably more quickly even than we anticipated, and that is because we are living in a new world and with a new threat that we have to take account of," he said. While biometrics are high on the UK government's love list, the rest of the Europe is taking a step back from the idea. The civil liberties wing of the European Parliament has delayed proposals for biometric passports until the tail end of this year, after elections to the parliament have taken place. "The European Parliamen

Name:	Abduhl El Azeera
Re:	View # 3

Name:	News Howned
To:	Iranian sponsored Islamonazis