News Notes

After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officials said.
If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war.U.S. war costs have continued to grow because of the additional combat forces sent to Iraq this year and because of efforts to quickly ramp up production of new technology, such as mine-resistant trucks designed to protect troops from roadside bombs. The new trucks can cost three to six times as much as an armored Humvee.

Ok, Better protecting our troops is a good use of money. But this pointless occupation is not! THAT is the crux of the issue. 200 billion would provide a lot of health care. It would replace lots of limbs lost in a pointless occupation. I would build many roads and bridges. Or if you insist, would provide all Americans with a decent tax break. All far better uses that would be of far more benefit to Americans than the pointless occupation.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

Of course the Iraqi government has insisted they leave and of course they haven't. This puts the lie to the idea that the Iraqis control their own country. Think maybe that may be among the things that are pissing them off and making them want to kill their “liberators”.
I would suggest reading up on Blackwater. These are the only people that have taken peoples guns away-or at least attempted to do so(New Orleans). This organization is another bunch of crooks that we are paying about 100 thousand per to rob us and ruin our name and our country. I guess better to have Blackwater fighting over there than to have to fight them over here, huh?

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.
The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.

Yes, I know it is all to keep us “safe”. What an unconscionable person who becomes(or is) president could do with this information is what is truly terrifying. Combine this with the Blackwater story above and maybe you will have a hint as to why I am so suspicious of what they are doing in their phony “war on terror”. Yes there are some bad people who would like to get us. How organized they are is in doubt to me. The fact remains that we face these “terrors” everyday and always have. Since settlers and indians lived on the plains and each feared for their lives to the nuclear threat of missiles pointed toward our cities during the cold war. The threat we face now is no more and probably far less great than any of that. Right here in the U.S. We have thieves and murderers and often they are organized into groups. We have always had these people. We, in the past, have delt with it without ruining the great democracy that we were once all so proud of. What they are doing now is, to put it mildly, shameful. The jhaidists will NOT take over America. Not with weapons anyway. How in the hell are they going to do it!? We have the most powerful military and best trained law enforcement in the world. Yes deaths from evil doing may occur. Again, it happens everyday. We fight them not by taking away Americas liberty. Dammit, that is why they do it in the first place. Anyone that gives into the tactics our government is using now is just aiding them in their goal. Quit being panty wastes and stand up for your liberty and freedom from government intrusion into even the most mundane aspects of your life!

In a complex set of transactions, Dubai is moving to acquire 19.9 percent of the Nasdaq in New York, placing the Arab government in an ownership position of the key U.S. stock exchange.

Welcome to one world government and the one way the Arabs can take over America. It's not the UN it's money and corporations stupid. Get off oil completely. Don't give them our money! We need national unity on this. A national effort combining citizens, private business and government to find alternatives. Other countries have done it. As a result we can too. When will America stand up and start fighting this the RIGHT way!?