Ex-Head of F.D.A. Faces Criminal Inquiry

April 29, 2006

GARDINER HARRIS

WASHINGTON, April 28 — Dr. Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of food and drugs, is under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury over accusations of financial improprieties and false statements to Congress, his lawyer said Friday.

The lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, would not discuss the accusations further. In a court hearing held by telephone on Thursday, she told a federal magistrate that she would instruct Dr. Crawford to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination if ordered to answer questions this week about his actions as head of the Food and Drug Administration, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Dr. Crawford did not reply to messages seeking comment, and Kathleen Quinn, an F.D.A. spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Dr. Crawford resigned in September, fewer than three months after the Senate confirmed him. He said then that it was time for someone else to lead the agency.

The next month, financial disclosure forms released by the Department of Health and Human Services showed that in 2004 either Dr. Crawford or his wife, Catherine, had sold shares in companies regulated by the agency when he was its deputy commissioner and acting commissioner. He has since joined a Washington lobbying firm, Policy Directions Inc.
The criminal investigation was disclosed at a court hearing in a lawsuit over the F.D.A.'s actions on the emergency contraceptive Plan B, a subject of bitter contention during Dr. Crawford's tenure as acting commissioner and commissioner. After the pill's maker, Barr Laboratories, applied three years ago to sell the pill over the counter, the agency repeatedly delayed making a decision on the application.

While many lawmakers, abortion rights advocates and former F.D.A. officials said the delays had resulted from politics, Dr. Crawford and other agency officials said their concerns were scientific and legal.

An advocacy group, the Center for Reproductive Rights, sued the agency in federal court in New York over the delays. Many such suits are quickly dismissed, but a federal judge allowed the case to proceed, giving the center the right to interview top F.D.A. officials, including Dr. Crawford.

Dr. Crawford was scheduled to be questioned under oath on Thursday, but on Wednesday Ms. Van Gelder, who is his personal lawyer, asked for a delay, saying she would instruct him to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights. Dr. Crawford previously declined to answer questions from the Government Accountability Office about Plan B.

Ms. Van Gelder told Magistrate Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Thursday that Dr. Crawford had been represented by Justice Department lawyers in the reproductive rights center's suit.

According to the transcript, she said that Dr. Crawford was under criminal investigation and that the issue of his financial disclosures "is within the grand jury."

Before Dr. Crawford's confirmation, the secretary of health and human services, Michael O. Leavitt, promised that the F.D.A. would act on the Plan B application by September 2005, a promise that led two Democratic senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Patty Murray of Washington, to relent in their efforts to delay the nomination. But after he was confirmed, Dr. Crawford announced an indefinite delay that has remained in effect.

Simon Heller, a lawyer for the reproductive rights center, noted that the F.D.A. had long insisted that its actions regarding Plan B were not unusual.

"It would be remarkable if the Justice Department was conducting a criminal investigation of Plan B and at the same time asserting in a civil case that everything done was normal," Mr. Heller said.

Democrats assail 50-year-old (R) lawmaker for attending fraternity party

WASHINGTON

Republican Congressman John Sweeney's late-night partying at a fraternity is raising eyebrows.A spokesman for New York Democrats asks what a 50-year-old congressman could be doing "cavorting with students 30 years his junior" at one in the morning. Blake Zeff asks if Sweeney was "teaching them how a bill becomes a law."

Sweeney stopped at the Alpha Delta Phi party at Union College in Schenectady over the weekend. The college newspaper ran a photo of the lawmaker posing with students.

A spokeswoman says Sweeney "has been known on occasion to venture outside of his congressional district." Union College is in a district next to his. She says Democrats "need a better strategy" if they hope to unseat Sweeney in November.

Damn, is this not the most corrupt bunch of screwballs ever?????

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Phone_Jamming_Barbour.html
Friday, April 28, 2006 · Last updated 11:13 a.m. PT

AP: Miss. governor helped implicated firm

By LARRY MARGASAKASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- A GOP telemarketing firm implicated in two criminal prosecutions involving election dirty tricks got its startup money from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, financial records show.

Barbour's investment company arranged a quarter-million-dollar loan to GOP Marketplace in 2000 and also gave a promotional plug to the telemarketer several months later, according to Virginia corporation records and other documents.

A spokesman for the governor said Barbour had no idea the company would engage in criminal activity. The lawyer for the now-defunct company's convicted president said Barbour was not consulted about its operations.

"None of the creditors had any role in the management or activities of the company. In fact, the loan was not fully repaid," gubernatorial spokesman Buddy Bynum said. "There has never been any claim that Governor Barbour or any of the other creditors knew of any illegal conduct or did anything improper."

Barbour, who became Mississippi governor in 2003, gushed over the prospects of GOP Marketplace in a company press release in 2000. He predicted it would be profitable and "give Republicans an edge" by using the Internet to buy and sell telemarketing services.
The loan made Barbour and his Washington business partners part owners of the company, the incorporation papers show.

By 2002, federal court records contend, GOP Marketplace president Allen Raymond and the Alexandria, Va.-based company were carrying out political dirty tricks in New Hampshire and New Jersey.

Raymond, who once worked for Barbour at the Republican National Committee, is serving a three-month prison term after pleading guilty to arranging for hundreds of hang-up calls in New Hampshire in 2002. The calls jammed Democratic phone lines that were offering people assistance in getting to polling stations in a close U.S. Senate race.

In a New Jersey indictment, prosecutors said Raymond and his company were implicated in a separate scheme to make harassing calls to voters, but neither was indicted. Rather, the indictment charged the losing candidate who hired Raymond. Ex-candidate James Treffinger pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and mail fraud.

GOP Marketplace's New Jersey operation preceded the New Hampshire phone jamming and used a different tactic, prosecutors said. Raymond arranged for annoying "attack ad" calls during the 2002 Super Bowl. The ads attacked a Treffinger opponent, but appeared to come from a third candidate. Treffinger served spent 13 months in prison.

The Treffinger indictment did not name Raymond, but referred to a political consultant. Lawyers confirmed Raymond was the unnamed consultant mentioned in the indictment.
Barbour's spokesman said Raymond "engaged in illegal conduct and was appropriately prosecuted and convicted" in the New Hampshire matter.

Raymond's lawyer in New Hampshire said Barbour had no role in running the telemarketing company after arranging the financing.

"Allen Raymond was in full control of all of the operations and did not look for guidance from any of his investors," lawyer John Durkin said. "The phone jamming was not reviewed or discussed, and permission was not sought or received, and there was no consultation with investors."
Barbour is the latest prominent Republican to be connected to Raymond and GOP Marketplace.
President Bush's former campaign chairman for New England has been convicted in the New Hampshire case, and The Associated Press reported April 10 that key figures in the phone jamming had regular contact with the White House - and Republican officials - as the scheme unfolded.

Records of the calls were introduced as court exhibits in New Hampshire and analyzed by the Senate Majority Project, a Democratic organization that is trying to help the party wrest control of the Senate from the GOP.

The White House political office, recipient of most of the calls, was run in 2002 by the current Republican national chairman, Ken Mehlman. He denies any calls were related to the jamming, contending the discussions focused only on the close election won by John Sununu, R-N.H.
GOP Marketplace was incorporated in Virginia on May 19, 2000, Virginia records show. An investment company called Helm Partners, with the Washington address of Barbour's lobbying firm, lent GOP Marketplace $246,700.

According to the operating agreement, the loan gave the investors a stake in the company.
The agreement was signed by Barbour's lobbying partner, Edward Rogers, by Raymond and by Tommy Hopper, who worked for Barbour at the RNC and was a state Republican chairman in Tennessee.

In a company news release from Aug. 7, 2000, announcing the agreement, Barbour praised the company's use of the Internet and described his own role.

"I am convinced that GOP Marketplace will not only be a profitable business, but will also give Republicans an edge in the 2000 elections," he said.

"Campaign managers are always battling time constraints, and GOP Marketplace will clearly save campaigns time. As soon as I heard about the idea, I started pulling together the necessary financing."

Leaders visit; front-line troops say, 'Yeah, so?'

By Arwa DamonCNN

BALAD, Iraq (CNN) -- As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made their surprise visits to Baghdad on Wednesday, many of the troops stationed north of Baghdad, in Balad and Dujail, say either they didn't know about it or didn't care.

"I'd ask him for a plane ticket home to see my wife. I have barely seen her in the last two years," said a young sergeant, who did not want to be identified. Like many of the soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division, he is on his second deployment to Iraq.
Some joked that whenever VIP's come to visit they just go to the main bases and meet the "fobbits," the nickname given to troops who do not go outside the barbed wire.

"They have to get out to see the people that are doing the jobs they are making them do. If they didn't they would not be very good leaders," said Maj. Michael Humphreys, one of the few soldiers here willing to tell journalists some of his opinions on senior leadership.

At the time he was asked, he didn't know Rumsfeld and Rice were visiting. He was too preoccupied with his mission -- trying to set up a local paper for the Tribal Council in Dujail.
Rumsfeld and Rice were visiting to show support for Iraq's movement toward a new government. And for many of the troops with the 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment and 4th Infantry Division stationed in Balad and Dujail, they might just as well not have visited at all.

As we discussed the visit, a tip came through -- a suspected leader of a cell dedicated to making "IED's," or improvised explosive devices -- military-speak for homemade bombs -- would be at a certain location at 1400 hours.

The chase was on.

Bumping along the dusty back roads to avoid insurgents, a VIP visit was the furthest thing from these troops' minds. For them, the priority is the mission. On this day they were following a lead, chasing a vehicle trying to escape as they approached the target house, and trying to find bits of intelligence from residents unwilling to talk.

A top priority is getting themselves and their fellow soldiers home alive, and we are told that priority does not change -- no matter who visits.

Why is Fuel so high?

Rebuilding of Iraqi Oil Pipeline as Disaster Waiting to Happen

By JAMES GLANZPublished: April 25, 2006

When Robert Sanders was sent by the Army to inspect the construction work an American company was doing on the banks of the Tigris River, 130 miles north of Baghdad, he expected to see workers drilling holes beneath the riverbed to restore a crucial set of large oil pipelines, which had been bombed during the invasion of Iraq.

What he found instead that day in July 2004 looked like some gargantuan heart-bypass operation gone nightmarishly bad. A crew had bulldozed a 300-foot-long trench along a giant drill bit in their desperate attempt to yank it loose from the riverbed. A supervisor later told him that the project's crews knew that drilling the holes was not possible, but that they had been instructed by the company in charge of the project to continue anyway.A few weeks later, after the project had burned up all of the $75.7 million allocated to it, the work came to a halt.
The project, called the Fatah pipeline crossing, had been a critical element of a $2.4 billion no-bid reconstruction contract that a Halliburton subsidiary had won from the Army in 2003. The spot where about 15 pipelines crossed the Tigris had been the main link between Iraq's rich northern oil fields and the export terminals and refineries that could generate much-needed gasoline, heating fuel and revenue for Iraqis.

For all those reasons, the project's demise would seriously damage the American-led effort to restore Iraq's oil system and enable the country to pay for its own reconstruction. Exactly what portion of Iraq's lost oil revenue can be attributed to one failed project, no matter how critical, is impossible to calculate. But the pipeline at Al Fatah has a wider significance as a metaphor for the entire $45 billion rebuilding effort in Iraq. Although the failures of that effort are routinely attributed to insurgent attacks, an examination of this project shows that troubled decision-making and execution have played equally important roles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/world/middleeast/25pi...

We hereby nominate Jeff Gannon
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27730-2005Feb15.html

for the position of White House Press Secretary . He's already familiar with the Briefing Room and given his frequent overnight stays at White House, even more acquainted with other parts of the West wing and, perhaps, the East wing as well. He also seems to have the kind of relationship with Mr. Rove that would allow for a bit of man on man disciplinary action if Karl ever got off message. Best yet, he's use to hanging around with a bunch of whores, so he'd be just as comfortable at a staff meeting or fundraiser as he'd be at press gaggle--they're all his kind of people.

Mick beats George to suite

By THOMAS WHITAKERShowbiz Reporter

PRESIDENT George Bush can’t get no satisfaction — after Mick Jagger grabbed his hotel room.

The Rolling Stone splashed out £3,600 a night for the suite days before the US leader tried to book it.

Now Mick, 62, who has been a fierce critic of the Bush-led war in Iraq, is refusing to give it up.

The veteran rocker hired the luxury Royal Suite at the five-star Imperial Hotel in Vienna, Austria, for June when the Stones are due to play a gig in the city.
President Bush ... will have to find other luxury suiteNo room ... President Bush
Bush’s aides then tried to book it to tie in with a summit meeting.

But Mick put his foot down and insisted he was keeping the booking.

A source close to the millionaire singer said last night: “White House officials had wanted to reserve the suite and all the other rooms on the first floor.

“Bush’s people seemed to be under the impression that they would just hand over the suites but there was no way Mick was going to do that.”

The classically-designed suite is said to be among the top 100 hotel rooms in the world. It boasts a 7ft 4in bed, chandeliers and oil paintings.

Former presidents Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy and George Bush Snr all stayed there while they were in office.


US secret service agents vetted the accommodation — and confirmed that Bush would no longer be staying there.

An American Embassy official refused to say where he was now staying for “security reasons”.

Mick takes a swipe at Bush, 59, on the latest Stones album A Bigger Bang, savaging his Iraq War policy.

California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment

April 24, 2006

California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment
By David Swanson

Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. And this one includes Cheney as well.
California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles (where the LA Times has now called for Cheney's resignation) has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. The amendments reference Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature.

The resolution, in the words of Koretz's press release, "bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial."

Koretz submitted amendments gutting AJR No. 39, a resolution unrelated to impeachment, to the Assembly Rules Committee. The Rules Committee may take up the bill this week for referral, allowing him to formally introduce the amended resolution.

AJR 39 is a bill introduced in January by Koretz calling for a moratorium on depleted uranium:http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ajr_39_bill_20060104_introduced.html

"At both the state and national levels," Koretz said, "we will be paying for the Bush Administration's illegal actions and terrible lack of judgment and competence for decades—not only in the billions of dollars wasted on the war and welfare for the rich, but in the worldwide loss of respect for America and Americans. Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed from office before they undertake even deadlier misdeeds, such as the use of nuclear weapons. There are no bounds to their willingness to ignore the Constitution and world opinion—we can't afford to wait for the next disaster and hope that we can survive it."

For more inormation and to thank this American hero, contact Paul Michael Neuman in Koretz's District Office: (310) 285-5490
paul.neuman@asm.ca.gov
http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a42/contact.htm

Here is a kit to help with promoting this resolution and with passing others in your towns and cities and states. Also on this page is information on activities in other states and localities:http://www.impeachpac.org/resolutions

Get organized in California to pass this bill!

http://pdamerica.org/statecaucus.php?s=ca

Illinois Legislators Were First to Introduce Bill for Bush Impeachment
Three members of the Illinois General Assembly have introduced a bill that urges the General Assembly to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States, George W. Bush, for willfully violating his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and if found guilty urges his removal from office and disqualification to hold any other office in the United States.

The Jefferson Manual of rules for the U.S. House of Representatives makes clear that impeachment proceedings can be initiated by a state legislature submitting charges. The state of Illinois is on its way toward forcing on the House what not a single one of its members has yet had the courage to propose: Articles of Impeachment.

The text of the Illinois bill and information on its status are available here:http://tinyurl.com/nhs3r

The bill takes up the issues of illegal spying, torture, detentions without charge or trial, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, and the leaking of classified information.
Please thank these sponsors of the bill:
Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough, phone (217) 782-8120 or (708) 615-1747; fax (708) 615-1745
Rep Sara Feigenholtz , phone (217) 782-8062 or (773) 296-4141; fax (217) 557-7203 or (773) 296-0993
Rep. Eddie Washington phone (217) 558-1012 or (847) 623-0060, fax (847) 623-6078
Here is a kit to help with promoting this resolution and with passing others in your towns and cities. Also on this page is information on activities in other states and localities:http://www.impeachpac.org/resolutions
Get organized in Illinois to pass this bill!http://pdamerica.org/statecaucus.php?s=il

Ken Mehlman is not a happy camper these days. With polls showing the GOP in dire straits, Mehlman was placed in the uncomfortable position last week of having to defend George W. Bush's approval ratings. And when even Fox News has Bush at a lowly 33%, you know there's trouble brewing.

Don't worry though - Ken's a pro. Here's how he responded to the news of Bush's Nixonesque numbers:

"Those polls were actually good news because the President's popularity has bottomed out. It has stabilized..."

Yes, those 33% approval ratings sure are good news! It's odd though - I could swear I've heard this "bottomed out" thing before...


December 2005:
"It was rough there," said a key Bush adviser. "But I felt the mood change a week ago, and now people seem more confident. I think we've bottomed out."


November 2005:
"The president I think has bottomed out. I think last week was the bottom," said Ken Duberstein, who worked in the team that Ronald Reagan brought in to help recover from the Iran-Contra scandal.


October 2004:
"I do believe that Bush bottomed out a week or 10 days ago and that we're beginning to see upswings now," Rogich said.


June 2004:
Bush aides contended over the weekend that the president has bottomed out politically. They told White House allies in Washington that the new government (in Iraq) would mark a turning point by showing progress and would strengthen Bush for his meetings with European leaders later this week by putting Iraq's postwar future on a multinational track.
There's an old aphorism which states that "you can't polish a turd."





Here for your viewing pleasure are statements that various Republicans made about the Clinton administration back in 2000, when Candidate Bush was blaming President Clinton for oil at around $30 a barrel and gas prices going over a whopping $1.50 per gallon.


Rep. Terry Everett: "The Clinton Administration has failed in its duty to develop a policy to deal with our national energy supply and is therefore directly accountable for the higher prices Americans are now paying at the gas pumps."


Dennis Hastert: "House Speaker Dennis Hastert accused the Clinton administration Friday of misleading members of Congress about the causes of skyrocketing gas prices in the Midwest."
Rep. Wally Herger: "Congressman Wally Herger recently denounced the Clinton-Gore Administration's complacency during the current gas price crisis. 'Northern Californians are being held hostage at the gas pump,' Herger said. 'The Clinton-Gore Administration has demonstrated a complete and total lack of leadership in preventing this problem. It is a clear failure of domestic and foreign policy.'"


Larry Kudlow: "The Clinton-Gore administration's hapless and incoherent management of foreign policy is nowhere as evident as in their bungling on OPEC's oil-price hike. ... While crude oil prices could drop to $25 per barrel, they will stay well above the average $20 real price of oil registered over the past ten years. And way above the $10 worldwide average marginal cost of producing new oil. Meanwhile gas prices at the pump are likely to be upwards of $2 per gallon well into the summer."


Glenn Spencer: "In recent weeks, gas prices have surged to their highest level in a decade. Prices for home heating oil and natural gas are expected to rise by about 30 percent this winter. ... With the Clinton-Gore administration's policies largely to blame for the pain being felt by consumers, Vice President Gore's camp has pulled out all the stops to shift blame away from his own administration."


Various Repubs: "Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), and Mark Green (R-Green Bay) today blasted Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and the Clinton-Gore Administration for their failure to implement a comprehensive energy policy to deal with staggering gas prices Wisconsin consumers continue to face at the pumps."


Where are the loud, outraged voices of these people now? They've gone very quiet for some reason. And what's George W. Bush's solution to the problem? Sorry folks - you're on your own.

Beaver Overthinking Dam

Beaver Overthinking Dam

April 24, 2006

HUNTSVILLE, ONTARIO—Local beaver Dennis Messner is spending an inordinate amount of time and effort in the planning and construction phases of building his dam, according to neighbors close to the project.

In the past four months, Messner, 4, has visited hundreds of other dams and drawn up detailed and extensive blueprints. He has researched topics ranging from advanced dome acoustics to the near-extinction of the North American beaver in the early 20th century, and plans to incorporate much of his research into his design.Dennis Messner




















Dennis Messner


"There are two primary schools of thought on dam building: the instinctive school and the adaptive school," Messner said, studying the river's current. "I'm more of an integration-minded postmodernist. I don't believe that form should follow function, like most of my colleagues do. On the other hand, a dam is a celebration of beaver culture, and that is what it should reflect."
"It's a lot to think about," Messner continued.

Despite time constraints dictated by the changing seasons, Messner has spent nearly 400 beaver-hours stripping logs of their bark and foliage, and more than two weeks scouting locations up and down the Muskoka River. "I just want everything to be perfect," he said.
Longtime friend and fellow Beaver Lodge No. 913 brother Tim McManus, who is nearing completion of his own dam, took a more pragmatic approach to construction. "Work-work-work. Gnaw-gnaw-gnaw. Build-build-build. Must hurry," he said.

Messner has already overthought and razed two dams this season alone. He dismissed the proportions of the first as "aesthetically dysfunctional," and the second was built out of cottonwood, which he called "a mistake." But, according to Messner, the latter experience got him thinking about different woods in ways he had never considered.

"What woods are the sturdiest, or the most visually pleasing?" Messner said. "What does a birch dam say? Everyone seems to love sugar maple, but it's such an overfamiliar scrub tree. Would I be making a stronger statement with willow? I don't want this to be one of those generic McDams."


"What do I have to say—as a beaver and as an artist?" he added.
After much thought, Messner decided to reconstruct the anterior section of the dam with poplar wood on Tuesday, after he finished "highly necessary" preparatory work chewing the branches into uniform-sized interlocking sticks. Yet such tasks struck fellow lodge members as excessive.
"Get to work, get to work, build the dam, build the dam," Cyril Kyree said as he dragged a number of logs into the shallow lick of river where the rest of the lodge has built their nests. "Chew-chew-chew. Need a mate. Build the dam."An incomplete dam aborted over "symmetry issues."

An incomplete dam aborted over "symmetry issues."
Messner rejected the criticism. "Not everyone in this area cares or is even aware of how dam building alters an ecosystem," Messner said. "But I am, and, yes, I do wonder what kind of impact my dam will have on the environment. How can I make this the most positive experience possible, while still minimizing adverse impact on the wetlands? What kind of beaver would I be if I didn't take erosion science into consideration?" To that end, Messner has reached out to the local otter, fish, and waterfowl communities, and has incorporated their input into his design.
Despite some frustration with his efforts, Messner professed faith in the process.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm just treading water," he said. "Then I remember that a beaver near Baysville built a dam that was nearly 12 feet high. There's even one that's almost 200 feet long in Manitoba. I want to build something that I can be proud of."

This marks the third consecutive spring in which Messner has sought to build the perfect dam. Many in the area believe that Messner will fail and resort to burrowing a hole in the muddy ground where he will spend the rest of the season, as he has done the past three years.

I am me and Rummy's he, Iraq is free and we are all together

See the world run when Dick shoots his gun,

see how I lieI'm Lying...

Sitting on my own brain, waiting for the end of daysCorporation profits,

Bloody oil moneyI'm above the law and I'll decide what's right or wrong

I am the egg head, I'm the Commander,

I'm the DeciderKoo-Koo-Kachoo

Baghdad city policeman sitting pretty little targets in a rowSee how they die when the shrapnel flies see mothers cry

I'm Lying...I'm Ly-ing...I'm Lying...I'm Ly-ing

Yellow cake uranium, imaginary WMD'sDeclassifying facts, exposing secret agentsTax cuts for the wealthy leaving all the poor behind

CHORUS

Sitting in the White house garden talking to the LordMy thoughts would be busy busy hatching If I only had a brain
CHORUS

Celebrities focus on 19th Congressional District race

By SUSAN ELAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: April 22, 2006)

Candidates' Web sites • Judy Aydelott, who grew up on the historic Hill-Agor farm in Mahopac and now lives in Katonah: www.judy4congress.com. • John Hall, a co-founder of the band Orleans from Dover Plains: www.johnhallforcongress.com. • Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, www.suekellyforcongress.com. • James Martorano, a Yorktown councilman and Legal Aid lawyer in the Bronx: www.jim2006.com. • Darren Rigger, a political consultant from Peekskill. www.riggerforcongress.com. • Ben Shuldiner, a Brooklyn high school principal from Cortlandt: www.ben2006.com. • Gary Suraci from Wappingers Falls, principal of the Ulster County BOCES Career and Tech Center: www.gary2006.com.

Some big names in entertainment and politics are shining a spotlight on the crowded field running for the Lower Hudson Valley's 19th Congressional District.

Musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash have signed on to raise money for singer-songwriter John Hall, one of six Democratic challengers to six-term Republican incumbent Sue Kelly of Katonah.

A founding member of the band Orleans, Hall and his wife wrote hits that include "Still the One" and "Dance with Me."

In their fundraising message, Raitt, Browne and Nash said they backed the political aspirations of their "longtime friend, fellow No Nukes/MUSE artist" and were in tune with his platform that promotes peace and diplomacy, economic justice, government and corporate accountability, health care for all, environmental protection and alternative energy.

The trio say, Hall, a former Ulster County legislator and school board president, needs a cash infusion to make a strong showing in the expected Democratic primary in September. However, Hall's connections to music business celebrities have failed to yield big contributions.

Kelly's campaign war chest bulges with more than $1 million. Her closest Democratic fundraising challenger, malpractice lawyer Judy Aydelott, a former Republican from Katonah and the only other woman in the race, has raised $465,852.

The district covers Putnam and northern Westchester, and portions of Rockland, Dutchess and Orange counties.

Hall, who is from Dover Plains, had raised $145,125 as of March 31, though he plans to add another $10,000 to the filing.

The uphill fundraising slog hasn't stopped political strategist Joe Trippi, who ran former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, from signing on with Hall. This week, Hall sent out a message via the Internet saying he expected to raise enough to win on Nov. 7.

"Our amended (Federal Election Commission) filing shows that we outpaced four out of the five other Democratic candidates in the last two quarters, and will show a total of $155,125 raised at the end of March," he wrote. "Tens of thousands of additional dollars have come in since the beginning of the second quarter on April 1, and we have exciting events in the works which will raise money and momentum for the campaign."

Hall said he also expected Trippi, known for raising money for the Dean campaign over the Internet, "to add another dimension to our strong local grassroots campaign."

The other Democratic contenders are Darren Rigger of Peekskill, James Martorano of Yorktown, Ben Shuldiner of Cortlandt and Gary Suraci of Wappingers Falls.

Rigger has brought big-name support to his bid for the seat. At a campaign fundraiser last month, he received a $2,000 check from his former boss, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, dean of the New York congressional delegation and a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee board.

Kelly, who says she has not started campaigning yet, reeled in some heavyweight political support of her own this month when Sen. John McCain of Arizona attended a fundraiser with her in the district. Kelly, a vocal supporter of George W. Bush during New York's Republican primary in 2000, voted against McCain's signature Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002.

---

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a BombshellUtilizing a little known rule of the US House to bring Impeachment charges

by Steven Leser

http://www.opednews.com

The Illinois General Assembly is about to rock the nation. Members of state legislatures are normally not considered as having the ability to decide issues with a massive impact to the nation as a whole. Representative Karen A. Yarbrough of Illinois' 7th District is about to shatter that perception forever. Representative Yarbrough stumbled on a little known and never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was born.

Detailing five specific charges against President Bush including one that is specified to be a felony, the complete text of HJR0125 is copied below at the end of this article. One of the interesting points is that one of the items, the one specified as a felony, that the NSA was directed by the President to spy on American citizens without warrant, is not in dispute. That fact should prove an interesting dilemma for a Republican controlled US House that clearly is not only loathe to initiate impeachment proceedings, but does not even want to thoroughly investigate any of the five items brought up by the Illinois Assembly as high crimes and/or misdemeanors. Should HJR0125 be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the US House will be forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment as a privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House business.

The Illinois General Assembly joins a growing chorus of voices calling for censure or impeachment of President Bush including Democratic state committees in Vermont, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Carolina as well as the residents themselves of seven towns in Vermont, seventy Vermont state legislators and Congressman John Conyers. The call for impeachment is starting to grow well beyond what could be considered a fringe movement. An ABC News/Washington Post Poll Conducted April 6-9 showed that 33% of Americans currently support Impeaching President Bush, coincidentally, only a similar amount supported impeaching Nixon at the start of the Watergate investigation. If and when Illinois HJR0125 hits the capitol and the individual charges are publicly investigated, that number is likely to grow rapidly. Combined with the very real likelihood that Rove is about to be indicted in the LeakGate investigation, and Bush is in real trouble beyond his plummeting poll numbers. His cronies in the Republican dominated congress will probably save him from the embarassment of an impeachment conviction, for now, but his Presidency will be all but finished.



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1 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of3 the United States House of Representatives allows federal4 impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of5 a state legislature; and
6 WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering7 the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 19788 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically9 authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without10 warrant; and
11 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized12 violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions,13 a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States14 Constitution; and
15 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American16 citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war17 without charge or trial; and
18 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration19 has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a20 war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the21 deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the22 United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and23 billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and
24 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified25 national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an26 unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential27 harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to28 investigate the matter; and
29 WHEREAS, The Republican-controlled Congress has declined

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1 to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore, be it
2 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE3 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE4 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the5 State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S.6 House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President7 of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office8 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United9 States; and be it further
10 RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the11 charges contained herein, should be removed from office and12 disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

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