Letter of condolence & support for Tim Johnson

Senator Tim Johnson

My heartfelt sympathy for you and your family in your recent surgery, and prayers for your total recovery in days to come. It is my wish, and undoubtably the wish of all fellow Americans that you have quality time for recovery that is free from any worries about your job, and that fellow constituents carry out your present agenda untill you feel fit as a fiddle.

As a sitting senator your term doesn't expire untill 2008. So get plenty of rest for the job you'll be returning to. Your country needs you, and demands that you return with renewed vigor for the job that you do so well.

There is a precedent in South Dakota for a Senator having his responsabilities assumed by his staff. In November of 1969,Senator Karl Mundt suffered a severe stroke. He remained in office untill 1972 while,the senator’s responsibilities were shouldered by members of his staff.

Senator Mundts wishes were carried out during his absence from office, which I believe would set a precedent, for your recomendtations being pursued in yours. As you read this please know that "We The People" stand with you, as you have allways stood for us, and we'll be seeing you soon.

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Letter to President Nixon

February 17, 1970

Dear Mr. President:

On Behalf of Senator Mundt – who, as you know, is presently ill – and myself, I want to strongly urge that you now give the go-ahead to the EROS program by authorizing the Bureau of the Budget to release to the Office of Geological Survey the $3 million in additional funds allocated by Congress but now frozen by the Bureau. Senator Mundt initiated the Congressional action for these funds and I strongly supported his effort at the time our committee responded favorably to his request.
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Recommendations

Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Washington, DC -- U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) today discussed the release of the Iraq Study Group's report. When asked, he reacted to the Group's recommendations as a jumping off point for continued efforts to resolve the United States' involvement in the Iraq conflict:

I think the Iraq Study Group's report is a very constructive contribution to our debate over Iraq. Their description of the circumstances in Iraq as 'grave' and 'deteriorating' are right on.

It is a grim picture of a conflict that has now lasted longer that World War II. The Commission's recommendation that the United States should encourage neighboring countries to be more involved and to engage in diplomacy with Syria and Iran is a positive step.

We have done a great deal for Iraq. Only the Iraqi people and the Iraqi political leadership can make the decisions necessary to adopt democracy. We have rid them of Saddam Hussein, created a situation where a constitution could be written and elections held, but the 'end game' to the situation in Iraq is less military than it is political.

It's my hope that we can begin, very quickly, to redeploy American troops into safer circumstances, with a greater emphasis on training and a handing off of military responsibilities to the Iraqis.

For audio of Johnson's reaction to the Iraq Study Group's report and recommendations, you can visit his Website at http://johnson.senate.gov/soundwaves.html.

Senator Gordon Smiths Pie in the sky? Make mine apple...

I have recently made a speech about the failings of our federal government, and in it have called for change in the handling of the war in Iraq, so while I am experiencing a profound change of heart towards the liberal left, i would like to address a few more problems

I just want to tell everybody that when I speak from the left of center, that I mean that I will work for "We The People".

So..Starting on Jan. 1

I promise to do my best to:


Create a task force on global warming.

Create a government funded program to employ people who are out of work on alternative energy and conservation projects

To never lie.

Create a commitee to oversee lobbying activity, and make it a no money involved activity. Thats right...lobbying will basicly be handled like a charity. RE: Work toward making this an ownership society of small farms with water rights for organic crops and other such useful projects.

Reform the media. There is afterall a lot of information that could be on regular tv and radio.

Return free enterprise to the people. RE: if you would like to build an automobile that runs on hydrolics from a pollution free heat source without a transmission, differential, catylitic convertor, or air bags, that would be ok, even if it gets 200 mpg. And if you catch fish...You can sell them. Believe me, if we can be responsible for carrying our own health insurence, we can also be responsible for what we eat.

And...Many things that I'll be adding later.You tell me...I am afterall your representative in government.

Smaller federal and larger state government?

How many Neoconservatives does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: TEN

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed

2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed

3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb

4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb or for eternal darkness

5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for a new light bulb

6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor and standing on a step ladder under the banner "Bulb Accomplished"

7. One administration insider to resign and reveal, in detail, how Bush was literally "in the dark" the whole time

8. Another one to viciously smear #7

9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light bulb-changing policy all along

10. And finally, one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and the country.And after all is said and done, no one will notice that they never actually managed to change the light bulb.

Senator Gordon Smith had too much koolaide

Gordon Smith & the Grand Old Party

I think Senator Smith drank too much of the koolade. He was about to lose his groceries and was trying to jump out of the car. Nobody even knew who was driving and the fuzz wass closing in on them, as they tried to hide what was left of the Country Club beer. Even Karl was trying to run for it as Dubya had crapped his pants and was passed out in the back seat. Who would have known that those little bitty cans of beer could get you so high exept Rummy, who was still sitting at the bar sipping Oly's.

Anyways, Gordy saved his arse, and spilled the beans on the good old boys, and we know that he wasn't driving the car. I don't think it was Cheney either...he was riding shotgun. Nobody knows how many there were in that car, but there were beer cans all over the white house lawn when the doors opened.

Dubya's Own Iraq Study Group

Bush Seeks More Advice On Iraq

President Meets With State Department Officials, Then With Historians And Generals

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2006

Mr. Bush's remarks echoed his previous statements and gave no indication of any change of strategy.

He defined success in Iraq as "a country that governs, defends itself, that is a free society, that serves as an ally in this war on terror."

"And the reason why that's vital," he said, "is because Iraq is a central component of defeating the extremists who want to establish safe haven in the Middle East, extremists who would use their safe haven from which to attack the United States ..."

Later, in the Oval Office, he was to seek advice from a handful of experts, including Stephen Biddle of the Council of Foreign Relations, Eliot Cohen of the School of Advanced International Studies and three retired Army generals: Wayne Downing, Jack Keane and Barry McCaffrey

~And here's the line-up~

Stephen Biddle

This guy makes sense
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Stephen Biddle "argues that 'calls for a war against "evil" . . . are rhetorical license without meaningful strategic content. "Terrorism," by contrast is a tactic, not an opponent. Declaring a "War on Terrorism" is like declaring a "War on Strategic Bombing" or a "War on Alliances"'. The real opponent is the ideology that underpins al Qaeda's terrorist program. Ultimately, 'the center of gravity in this war thus lies in the hearts and minds of politically uncommitted Muslims'



Eliot Cohen
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Eliot A. Cohen is a professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. Cohen is the Director of the Strategic Studies department at SAIS and has specialized in strategic studies, the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Iraq, arms control, and NATO. He is a member of the Project for the New American Century and was called "the most influential neoconservative in academe" by energy economist Ahmad Faruqui

Wayne Downing
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General Wayne Downing most recently served in the White House as National Director and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism. As the President's principal advisor on matters related to combating terrorism, he was responsible for the close coordination among the military, diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, information, and financial operations of our war on terror, and for developing and executing a strategy that integrated all elements of national power.



Jack Keane
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Since his retirement from the Army, General Keane is currently President GSI, LLC, is senior advisor to Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co. and advisor to Chairman and CEO, URS Corporation. He is a director of METLIFE, Inc and General Dynamics Corporation.

General Keane serves as a member of the Department of Defense Policy Board. He is also a military contributor and analyst for ABC News


Barry McCaffrey
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According to an article written by Seymour Hersh published in 2000 The New Yorker, General McCaffrey committed war crimes during the Gulf War by having troops under his command kill retreating Iraqis after a ceasefire had been declared. Hersh's article "quotes senior officers decrying the lack of discipline and proportionality in the McCaffrey-ordered attack." One colonel told Hersh that it "made no sense for a defeated army to invite their own death. ... It came across as shooting fish in a barrel. Everyone was incredulous." [3]

These charges had been made by Army personnel after the war and an Army investigation had cleared McCaffrey of any wrongdoing. Hersh dismissed the findings of the investigation, writing that "few soldiers report crimes, because they don't want to jeopardize their Army careers."

Hersh describes his interview with Private First Class Charles Sheehan-Miles:

When I asked Sheehan-Miles why he fired, he replied, "At that point, we were shooting everything. Guys in the company told me later that some were civilians. It wasn't like they came at us with a gun. It was that they were there -- 'in the wrong place at the wrong time.'" Although Sheehan-Miles is unsure whether he and his fellow-tankers were ever actually fired upon during the war, he is sure that there was no significant enemy fire. "We took some incoming once, but it was friendly fire," he said. "The folks we fought never had a chance." He came away from Iraq convinced that he and his fellow-soldiers were, as another tanker put it, part of "the biggest firing squad in history."

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On Tuesday, Mr. Bush will meet via video conference with senior military commanders and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, and then host Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi in the Oval Office. On Wednesday, he meets with officials at the Pentagon.


Zalmay Khalilzad
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On December 4, 2006, Bloomberg reported that Khalilzad will soon be leaving his post in Iraq, possibly to replace John Bolton as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

He is a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, PNAC Letter sent to President Bill Clinton. Khalilzad is also a former board member of Friends of Afghanistan, which received extensive U.S. funding.



Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi
___________________________

Thursday April 27 2006 12:41 GMT

Iraq vice-president sister killed

The sister of Iraq's new vice-president has been shot dead in Baghdad, two weeks after his brother was killed.
Tariq al-Hashemi was elected on Saturday as part of an attempt to build a united Iraqi government, drawn from different religious groups.

He is head of the Iraqi Islamic Party and one of the country's most well-known Sunni Muslims.

His sister Meysoun al-Hashemi and her bodyguard were killed in a drive-by shooting in the capital Baghdad.

One of his brothers was killed on 13 April



Tony Blair
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no comment


plus lawmakers from the armed services, intelligence and foreign relations committees.

About Cell Phones and George Orwell

Brothers and sisters: we are so far beyond 1984 that Orwell no longer applies. When I read his book 40 tears ago, it left the impression that there would be no escape from the eye of Big Brother, but we made it to the new millinium, and could actually have a private moment if we paid hiking fees to the government for visiting our wilderness areas. A place where there where there was no 60 cycle per second magnetic hum from the wiring in our homes, business's and streets. A place of exquisite quietness that can't be described but only felt.

That is before the cell phone, which operates on microwaves emmiting from the towers that you see whever you might travel. You can take your trusty cell phone with you into places like the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, and many people do for security, without even considerating the trade off. To be sitting by a mountain lake, and have your only contact with the outside world play a robotic little electronic tune, and disrupt the peace and harmony of the moment is not cool.

Now George Orwell was speaking of the government keeping track of you through your TV set, which did indeed seem like a scary prospect, but the US has taken it out of the living room, and put it on the person of millions of people on this fragile planet.

Cell phone users, beware. The FBI can now listen to everything you say, even when the cell phone is turned off. The FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a "roving bug." Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell phone battery.

"The FBI can access cell phones and modify them remotely without ever having to physically handle them", James Atkinson, a counterintelligence security consultant, told ABC News. "Any recently manufactured cell phone has a built-in tracking device, which can allow eavesdroppers to pinpoint someone's location to within just a few feet," he added.

Lightning Sam Hopkins

I had the privalige of seeing Lightning Sam in 1962 on Grant Street in San Francisco. Went to a night club to see Mose Allison, and this dude with chrome sidewall shades and a towell around his neck came out with a guitar. I thought he was the guy that worked in the rest room. He had a harmonica on his neck, and a drum that he played with his foot. I was an instant fan, and bought a stereo record of some of his work. I even named my dog after him. This dog was half standard poople and half German shepard. The dog catcher stopped by my house one day and complained, that he couldn't catch him because he could jump over any fence. Later they did catch him, but he jumped the pound fence and escaped...true story.

No disrespect meant. Lightning Sam didn't know me, but if he did I would have been honered to have the same name as his dog. I loved both Lightning Sam Hopkins, and Lightning Sam loved Lightning sam too. Lightning Sam was the only dog I've ever known who would growl "hello" when I came home from work. I can't find a picture of him, but he looked a lot like this guy. When he got old his chops turned white. He was a friend to all who came to my house, kids cats dogs chickens ducks and the birds that ate from his food bowl, unless you wore a uniform or a suit, upon which he would take on the appearance of a junk yard dog. I had to dress up for a straight event one day, and when I walked out door, he didn't say hello, but bristled up, and give out with a barely audible GRrr.

More on Bush land buy in Paraguay

Pres. Bush buys 100,000acre ranch in Paraguay

by Prensa Latina

Thursday Oct 19th, 2006 7:57 PM

Asuncion, Oct 18 (Prensa Latina) The land grab project of US President George W. Bush in Chaco, Paraguay, has generated considerable discomfort both politically and environmentally.
The news circulating the continent about plans to buy 98,840 acres of land in Chaco, Paraguay, near the Triple Frontier (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay) is the talk of the town in these countries.

Although official sources have not confirmed the information that is already public, the land is reportedly located in Paso de Patria, near Bolivian gas reserves and the Guarani indigenous water region, within the Triple Border.

Alto Paraguay Gov. Erasmo Rodriguez Acosta revealed he heard that part of the land purchase consists of an ecological reserve (Fundacion Patria), with which Bush is affiliated.

In its interview with Rodriguez Acosta, neike.com.py reported that he does not have documentation of this affiliation and it could not communicate either with the foundation or with the National Rural Development and Land Institute, in charge of these state lands.

Concern increased last week with the arrival of Bush" daughter, Jenna, and a source from the Physical Planning Department saying that most of the Chaco region belongs to private companies.

The land which is located somewhere near Mariscal Estigarribia is near natural gas reserves, but of more importance, It's near the one of the largest aquafers in N. America.

There is no documented proof available to prove the ownership of the land, and the claims about the military base being used by the US is mostly word of mouth from the Paraguayens.

According to US government:

Airport Unsuitable for Most U.S. Military Aircraft

The June 13, 2005, Clarin article claimed that American “B-52 airplanes” could be used at Mariscal Estigarribia. In reality, the runways are too narrow for them. B-52s typically need a runway width of 150 feet (46 meters) to land and re-engined models will require a runway width of 175 feet (53 meters), according to a June 2004 report (page 28) of the U.S. Defense Science Board Task Force on B-52 Re-Engining. However, the runways at Mariscal Estigarribia are only 131 feet (40 meters) wide.


Both the Us and Paraguay governments claim that neither daddy Bush or W own any land there. But they also claim that the air base in Mariscal Estigarribia is not functional for landing B-52 Aircraft. One of the claims is that the airstrip is only 40 meters wide...not quite enough for a B-52.
True, but only for the small side strip where a plane can park. I scaled the image of the main strip and it looks more like 60 to 80 meters wide. See picture.

~Mr. Smith Goes To Washington~

Oregon Senator Gordon Smith says U.S. policy in Iraq may be criminal

In a major speech on the Senate Floor, Senator Smith called for a rapid pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq.

By Brad Ford...Friday, December 8, 2006

Oregon Senator Gordon Smith has taken a strong stand against the war in Iraq. Smith says he believed the original intelligence information from the White House and believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That turned out to be untrue.

There is a video of Senators Speech...click on the artical above which goes to the Air America site in Portland Oregon...

Thank you Senator Smith for standing up for "We The People". I have seen people from all walks of life standing up to voice their feelings, and your voice in the Senate gives us hope that there will be change, and also that the divide between the political parties that we have experienced through this administration will be history.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~IMPEACHMENT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~