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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY

DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER

Week of September 9, 2007

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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS

Updated on a regular basis

The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at Democratic Headquarters,            640 Barret Avenue .

 

Notice to our Readers &  2007 General Election Candidates:

This newsletter will carry in this space any Democratic candidates' notice of events or communications (250 words or less) to our readers that the candidate provides to the editor at rcrider@louisvilledem.com

 

Dear Friends: I'm really excited about a new campaign ad released last Thursday by the Beshear/Mongiardo campaign. I want to share the ad with you, and I encourage you to forward it to your friends. As many of you are aware, I've been very frustrated in recent years with how some politicians have used the subjects of faith and "moral values" as weapons to try to divide the public and score political points. It angers me to hear my friends across the state come back from church having been told that they can’t be a Christian and be a Democrat. In his new ad, Steve Beshear speaks from his heart about faith, and how it drives him to want to ensure health care for all Kentucky children and good jobs for all Kentucky citizens. It is a powerful, positive message, in stark contrast to Ernie Fletcher's ad campaign of fear-mongering -- his attempt to distract Kentucky voters from his record of law-breaking and policy failure. I've been proud to support Steve Beshear for Governor and proud to serve as Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party during his election campaign. After watching this ad, I'm even prouder to know that a man of such great conviction and integrity will be serving as our next Governor. Thank you. Jonathan Miller

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Former Boone GOP chair charged with fraud

Ed Moore, former head of the Boone County Republican Party is accused of falsely claiming to have been a Vietnam Veteran. His trial is set for November 13th. Moore was the Republican nominee for county clerk last year and was forced to drop out 2 weeks prior to election day.

Ed Moore is the husband of Boone County Commissioner Terri Moore. Moore is charged with falsifying his DD-214. Everyone that has been in the Military can tell you what a DD-214 is and I suspect Moore is in deep crap for allegedly altering this very important document to show combat service in Vietnam.

Beware of the Republicans sucking up to Veterans and or the military in general. I don't think anything will piss me off more when a candidate uses the military to further their political agenda, especially if he or she has never served a day in their lives.  SOURCE

 

Republican Culture of Corruption: 2007 So Far

Does it seem like there's a new Republican scandal in the news every single week? Well, that may be because there is: click here

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Labor’s Day—And Yours, By Dick Meister

Dick Meister, a San Francisco-based journalist, explains how Labor Day offers us a chance to remember that many of the benefits we take for granted we owe to the union movement. 

Labor Day. Time once more for politicians and union adherents to speak of the greatness of organized labor. Time once more for the rest of us to ignore the speechmakers, as we mark the end of summer with yet another three-day weekend. 

The general public indifference is understandable. After all, only 12 percent of the country’s working people are in unions these days. But even if you are not a union member—even if you do not approve of unions—consider this while you’re enjoying the long Labor Day holiday: There wouldn’t be any three-day weekends if it wasn’t for those unions. None. 

If unions hadn’t done what they did—and continue to do—it’s highly unlikely that anyone outside the executive ranks would be getting a paid holiday on Labor Day, or on any other day. (Or even, of course, that there would be such a holiday as Labor Day.) 

Nor is it likely that those who are required to work on such holidays would be getting the pay of two to three times their regular rate that unions have made the standard for holiday work in most areas—or get premium pay for any other work, at any other time. 

Holidays meant very little to most working people in the days before unions became effective. They meant only an unwelcome day off and loss of a day’s pay or, at best, a day of work at regular wages. 

Those were the days when unions still were struggling primarily for nothing more than legal recognition. It wasn’t until World War II that unions were able to go beyond the fundamentals and make negotiation of paid holidays a common practice, a concession employers made in lieu of the pay raises federal wage controls prohibited during the war. 

The paid vacations so many working people took this summer also were very rare until unions demanded and won them. So were employer-financed pensions and medical care and other fringe benefits, health and safety standards, job security and other things now commonly granted to most workers, union and nonunion alike. 

Without unions, we should not forget, there would be no paid holidays for most people, no premium or overtime pay, no paid vacations, few fringe benefits and little protection against job-related hazards and arbitrary dismissal. Without unions, as a matter of fact, the standard workday might very well still be 10 to 12 hours, the standard workweek six to seven days, and working people would have few of the rights so many now take for granted. That includes the overriding right of having a genuine voice in determining their pay and working conditions. 

You doubt it? Consider the recollections of Mark Hawkins, who worked in the warehouses along San Francisco’s busy waterfront in the 1930s, before the coming of effective unionization. 

Hawkins remembered men wrestling with crates, bundles, cartons, merchandise in all sizes, shapes and weights, 10 hours a day, often every day of the week, for a mere $60 a month. They worked as many hours on as many days as the boss demanded, at whatever pay he offered, lest they be replaced by others clamoring for jobs in those dark days of the Great Depression. 

Hawkins especially remembered a fellow worker who failed to raise his hand one Saturday when the boss made his usual Saturday afternoon request for “volunteers” to work Sunday. The reluctant warehouseman pleaded that his wife, undergoing a complicated pregnancy, was seriously ill and would need him at home to comfort her. 

“OK,” said the boss—”but don’t you think she’ll feel even worse if you have to tell her you don’t have a job anymore?” 

The man worked that Sunday. When he got home, his wife was dead. 

Very few of today’s employers would even consider acting in such a manner. It would be virtually unthinkable, given the firm standing gained for all workers by the country’s now solidly entrenched unions. That alone is more than enough reason to honor organized labor on the holiday it won for us all.   

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Is there Still Hope ??, Lee Murphy

This was a good week to be a Democrat.

*Alberto (The Torturer) Gonzales resigned from the Nation’s Top Cop Position.
* Pentagon Reports show that the Presidents Surge in Iraq is a dismal mess.
* Idaho Senator Larry Craig was caught soliciting gay sex in an Airport Bathroom.
* All Polls show my friends Steve and Daniel 18-25 points ahead of Dr. Dolittle

Still I find very little to be happy about this week. Yesterday I drove through one of Richmond’s poorer neighborhoods and saw at least three cars with either the “W” sticker or Bush/ Cheney stickers still attached.

Why?

What makes these hard working, struggling Americans, think that Bush EVER had their interests at heart. Was it family values? Was it Christian Culture? Was it Economic Policies? When did our labor society lose its connection to the Peoples Party? What makes someone who barely earns minimum wage find ANYTHING in common with the GOP. These aren’t necessarily “stupid” people. They are the backbone of our nations culture. They get up each day, they do their jobs, they come home and play with their kids. They build our houses, they produce our goods and hopefully at the end of the month there is a little something left over to put aside for the kids tuition. More often than not though there just isn’t enough left even to cover the basic expenses. These are good folks. They want better for their kids than they had. …. Why …Why do they buy into the lies and shallow promises of the “Family Values Crowd” The very crowd that has proven that perversion is a stronger trait than morality.

Where did we lose these folks? How do we get them back?

We are the party that gave America the 40 hour work week. We are the party that gave America’s seniors a social safety net called Social Security. A program that is often scoffed at by the GOP .. but a program that would be on incredibly strong footing if we would stop robbing its coffers. We are the party that built highways through Eastern Kentucky, We are the Party that funds Public Education, We are the party that makes sure our Food and Drugs are inspected, We are the party that ensures our nations work places are safe. We are the party that protects small business from Corporate oppression.

Where did we lose the Kentucky Working Man?

Lets look at the recent Katrina debacle. FEMA privatized the rubbage removal. The contracts were let to large contractors with Donor Connections to the White House. The rates for removal were around $175 per ton. By the time the “Working Man” with the truck actually removed the garbage ...he received on average $10 a ton. And they say Privatizing our nation’s needs are more efficient than allowing the government to carry out the duties.

Lets look at meals served to our soldiers in Iraq. It used to be that meals were prepared by the actual soldiers at rates that were reasonable. Now we contract these out to divisions and subdivisions of Haliburton at New York restaurant rates. Not to mention gas supply prices to our military vehicles, and even maintenance on these fighting tools are overbilled at rates that most logical people would consider embezzlement...

I know the average person doesn’t want to live a life of absolute skepticism, but it seems we can no longer trust our government. So the common guy… the guy that doesn’t live his life consumed by the policies, politics and blogs like some if us do, simply votes for the guy or party that he relates to best… So once again I ask …. When did we lose the average hard working Kentuckian. Why are we not relating to the Joe Worker? It breaks my heart to see a rusted out 1980 Chevy with a “W” sticker.

This isn’t an election about CASINOs. We must keep our focus on the issues that EVERY Kentuckian faces daily. HEALTH CARE. Not just for the children … EVERY Kentuckian is in DIRE need of affordable coverage. We need focus on Education, both Pre-K and Post Graduate. We need to attract new industry that pays a livable wage to our citizens. And most importantly we need to STOP THE INFLUENCE OF LOBBYIST in Frankfort. Stop letting the wolves write the security rules for the henhouse !!!

Anyway …. It’s good to be a Democrat. Just looking for a little re-assurance that HOPE IS STILL ALIVE

PS... prayers go out to my good friend Daniel Mongiardo and his family on the loss of his grandmother last week. Were glad your back in country....

Lee Murphy, Richmond.

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As Congress prepares to receive a trio of reports on the war in Iraq, the top Senate Republican called for a long-term U.S. military presence in the Middle East.

“I would like to see us with at least some level of bipartisan agreement that we need long-term deployment in the Middle East somewhere,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday, citing the continuing potential for threats from al Qaeda and Iran.

He said that he did not envision troops actively engaged in combat but a “long-term forward deployment” similar to the U.S. presence on the Korean peninsula. He said troops would not necessarily have to be in Iraq but “somewhere in the neighborhood,” as the military and the president would decide.

The Government Accountability Office was to deliver its Iraq assessment to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, with Comptroller General David M. Walker addressing the panel. Walker will speak Wednesday to the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, and will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee Friday.

On Thursday, an independent commission headed by retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones reports to the Armed Services panels in both chambers on the Iraq Security Forces. Previews of that report call for the National Police to be dismantled and rebuilt from scratch.

Next week, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker will testify on the White House’s report on similar benchmarks. They are expected to cite military progress to argue that the U.S. effort and Iraqi political reconciliation need more time.

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What, me worry? Inside the growing movement to oust Sen. Mitch McConnell, By Stephen George

Against the history of great American protests, 800 people howling like a pack of hyenas in a university gathering hall doesn’t stack up to King’s March on Washington or mid-May 1970, when 100,000 strangers pounded on Washington’s doorstep demanding an end to the Vietnam War. But in a content Midwestern city that hasn’t had a crisis of conflict since Gerald Ford was in office, a place that’s also home to an increasingly unpopular Senate Minority Leader tied inextricably to the latest war disaster, it doesn’t have to.

The crush of people collectively publicizing their opposition to the Iraq war at Bellarmine University last Tuesday evening provided the most direct statement this city has made on the issue to date. A scene normally reserved for the most dedicated among them — the flower-sniffing hippie archetype that Republicans (at least in the case of this war) love to flog publicly — the number of avowed, placard-waving Catholics Against the War there alone should have tipped anyone off to the broader significance of the quiet suddenly becoming the loud.

It was the country’s largest single gathering on a night full of them, the culmination of a 10-week, highly coordinated national campaign trying to force Congress to initiate a change in White House war policy. Forty-nine other “Take a Stand” rallies took place that evening, a combined gathering of more than 11,000 people across 15 states. REST OF THE STORY

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Trucks from Mexico Get Green Light to Roll Into U.S.

The Bush Administration is giving the final OK to allow trucks from Mexico to haul cargo directly from Mexico to any point in the United States. As part of the original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trucking firms from Mexico were supposed to get access years ago, but the Clinton Administration limited their access to a small zone at large border crossings where shipments were transferred to U.S. trucks. The restrictions were in place largely because of concerns over an adequate safety inspection program to certify all trucks coming across the border meet U.S. safety standards.

The Teamsters and other groups filed suit to block the new program contending that the pilot program does not provide adequate safety and other oversight mandated by Congress last May, but their request for an emergency injunction was rejected by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the lawsuit to challenge the pilot program will proceed.

As early as this week, trucks from Mexico will have free access to the entire U.S. to haul shipments to and from Mexico, but not point-to-point in the U.S. The Bush Administration hopes to expand the program to accommodate 100 Mexican trucking companies, or roughly 540 large trucks, and that number could grow.
 

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 DAILY GRILL      

"Do you realize that the United States is the only major industrialized nation that cut greenhouse gases last year?"
-- President Bush, 8/27/07

VERSUS

"Kristen A. Hellmer, the spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, acknowledged afterward that the White House was unable to substantiate the claim." -- Washington Post, 9/3/07

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"General Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 percent reduction in religious and ethnic killings in the capital between December last year and this month." -- The Australian, 8/31/07

VERSUS

"[A]verage daily attacks against civilians have remained unchanged from February to July 2007." -- Government Accountability Office report, 9/4/07

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"If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said three out of four, if you ask me now, I think it is one out of four."
-- Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), 8/28/07, on the "odds" of President Bush's escalation succeeding

VERSUS

"The surge is working. ... It's a huge success!" -- Shays, 9/4/07

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Quotes of the Day      

(Bill Stone, again … DUH!)

Bill Stone, a member of the U of L board of trustees and a Fletcher supporter, said the governor has sought out people for the board who were able and also willing to support the school financially.

That, he said, is more important than meeting any sort of political quota.

But Kellar said Fletcher is clearly breaking the law ….

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Recent Senate Votes 

 Congress is in recess

 

Recent House Votes 

 Congress is in recess

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HUMOR    

 

 

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        ADMINISTRATION -- NEW BOOK REVEALS BUSH'S HOPE TO 'STAY LONGER' IN IRAQ: Robert Draper, a former senior editor for the Texas Monthly, has authored a new book on the Bush presidency, entitled "Dead Certain." In addition to six interviews with the President, Draper also interviewed outgoing White House adviser Karl Rove, Vice President Dick Cheney, Laura Bush, and many senior White House and administration officials. Bush tells Draper that his Iraq strategy is to "get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence," and, he said later, "stay longer." Some other highlights from the book: Rove told Bush he should not tap Cheney for Vice President; Bush hopes to make a lot of cash delivering speeches after his presidency is over; Bush "can't remember" one of the biggest mistakes in post-war Iraq; the White House staff, including Dan Bartlett and Rove, were "constantly at war" with one another; and Bush cries a lot.

KATRINA -- TWO YEARS LATER, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STILL GROSSLY MISMANAGING NEW ORLEANS RECONSTRUCTION: Newsweek reports this week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still "bungling" projects related to the reconstruction of New Orleans. "Local officials complain bitterly that FEMA is still a bureaucratic mess," seen, for example, in how a FEMA employee must sign off on the details of any project costing more than $55,000 in federal funds. "They'll come in and say something costs $4 million that costs $40 million," said Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA). "When FEMA does sign off on a project, it doesn't distribute the money directly. It 'obligates' it to the state." Furthermore, FEMA permits the city to rebuild city sewers "only as they were, not to upgrade them into a more modern system that officials want," with such rules further hindering progress in reconstruction. The failings of FEMA are indicative of wider neglect and mismanagement of post-Katrina New Orleans. A report from the Southern Education Foundation highlights how the Bush administration has grossly shortchanged the region. For example, the estimated cost of hurricane-related destruction in K-12 and higher education in Mississippi and Louisiana is $6.2 billion, but "the federal government has provided only $1.2 billion." Furthermore, just two percent of the federal government's reconstruction funding went toward education recovery. Instead of education, "rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos."

CONTEMPT FOR OVERSIGHT: In an interview with The Progress Report soon after the Protect America Act was pushed through Congress, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), one of 183 representatives to vote against the bill, described the administration's contempt for the oversight provided by the FISA court. "We made the three major changes that [McConnell] wanted," said Sestak. "The issue here is they just don't want to come to the FISA court. That's enough to tell me we need them to." In recent interviews and an upcoming book, former Bush administration official Jack Goldsmith confirms Sestak's description of the administration's fundamental contempt for oversight. "After 9/11, they and other top officials in the administration dealt with FISA the way they dealt with other laws they didn't like," writes Goldsmith in his upcoming book. "They blew through them in secret based on flimsy legal opinions that they guarded closely so no one could question the legal basis for the operations." "We're one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious [FISA] court," Goldsmith recalls current vice presidential chief of staff David Addington, whom he described as "the chief legal architect of the Terrorist Surveillance Program," saying in February 2004. Goldsmith is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this month at a yet to be determined date.

IRAQ -- BUSH'S 'SUPPORT THE TROOPS' CLAIM PROVES LITTLE MORE THAN RHETORIC: Though President Bush has frequently pledged to protect and support the U.S. armed forces -- campaigning on a constant call to "support the troops" -- a USA Today investigation found that the White House and military had consistently cut or underfunded programs, forcing Congress to take "extraordinary measures" to secure armor for the troops. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon were slow to respond to calls from the battlefields for the lifesaving or Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP) prompting Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) to step up his demands, along with several other members of Congress. "My sorrow is that it took an inordinate number of deaths of soldiers...to make the Pentagon realize we needed to get away from Humvees," said Rep. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who worked to secure the production of Army Security Vehicles. These failures are "a manifestation of this larger issue: doing just enough to try to win this...without mobilizing the nation for war," said retired Marine Lt.Gen. Paul Van Riper, a Vietnam and Desert Storm veteran.

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NEED COMPUTER ASSISTANCE?? 

Democrat Activist Mike Bailey is now providing “Professional Computer Support.”  He can be contacted at 502-558-4026, or mikebailey2000@usa.net. 

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Think Fast       

The nation's Medicaid directors yesterday told the Bush administration that its new restrictions on the federally funded State Children's Health Insurance Program will limit the number of children covered. In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, the National Association of State Medicaid Directors "said the new standards reduce flexibility, making it difficult for states to expand coverage."

"A half-hour before his Saturday news conference announcing his plans to resign, Sen. Larry Craig left a voice mail -- at a number he apparently didn't intend to dial -- stating his intent to possibly rethink the decision.' Listen to the audio here.

The Americans Against Escalation in Iraq have released a new ad calling out President Bush's suggestion that he will reduce troop levels. "Do they really mean it this time?" Watch the ad here.

By a vote of 69-24, the Senate approved Jim Nussle to replace Rob Portman as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) voted against Nussle's confirmation because he feared Republicans could portray a yes vote "as a sign of support for the president's failed fiscal policy." 

"His speech will be noticeably slower and he'll be zipping around in a motorized wheel chair, but Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) will do something on Wednesday that did not seem possible last December -- he'll give an address on the Senate floor."

The controversial docudrama Path to 9/11 has hit a snag in its plans for a nationwide DVD release. The $40-million, five-hour ABC miniseries "is for now on the path to nowhere." Cyrus Nowrasteh, the conservative activist who produced the series, is blaming the Hillary Clinton campaign for the stalled release.

Al Gore (No. 1) tops President Bush (No. 2) -- at least in the second annual "Harvard 100" ranking, recognizing the university's most influential living alumni. "Interestingly enough, newly resigned Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales finished last on the list at No. 100." 

President Bush's arrival in Sydney was marked by protests. "An established anti-war group called the Stop Bush Coalition called a small 'unwelcoming ceremony' in Sydney to kick off a series of protests culminating in a march by up to 20,000 people on Saturday." Authorities have locked down the city in the biggest security operation in Australian history.

"President Bush's success rating in the Democratic-controlled House has fallen this year to a half-century low, and he prevailed on only 14 percent of the 76 roll call votes on which he took a clear position. The previous low for any president was in 1995, when Bill Clinton won just 26 percent of the time during the first year after Republicans took control of the House."

An exchange of letters from 2003, released yesterday by former Iraq envoy Paul Bremer, reveals that President Bush was told in advance of a plan to "dissolve Saddam's military and intelligence structures." The letters contradict claims by Bush "that American policy had been 'to keep the army intact' but that it 'didn't happen.'"

"A warm summer has produced a record melt of the polar ice cap, leaving the Northwest Passage clear enough for a sailboat to pass and prompting nations of the far north to assert claims over the Arctic Ocean seabed." "This melt is unprecedented, and it's speeding up," said Trudy Wohlleben, senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service.

North Korea's foreign ministry said yesterday that the Bush administration had decided to remove the country from its list of states sponsoring terrorism. But Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said today, "No, they haven't been taken off the terrorism list."

A Capitol Hill aide politely declined to make his boss available for an interview for the "Better Know a District" segment on the Colbert Report. Roll Call reports, "The Colbert producer made a valiant effort to persuade [the aide] to change his mind. 'We're gonna get all 355 of you,' the producer countered. 'Um,' the aide said. 'I think you're going to be about 80 short.'"

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INTERESTING         

Thanks For The Great Take A Stand Night!

Dear Friends,

On Tuesday, August 28th, almost 1400 Kentuckians gathered in Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Bowling Green , Frankfort, Georgetown, London, Madisonville & even smaller towns to oppose the reckless mismanagement of the Iraq War. We added our voice to the thousands of Americans in 50 town hall meetings and 680 vigils across the country on Tuesday, calling for a responsible end to the reckless Iraq war. As a result of your efforts this summer, Kentucky boldly and brightly cut a new path for the rest of the country to follow and emulate.

Of all the Take A Stand! events across the U.S., Louisville's Take A Stand town hall-style rally packed in the most people with a final count at 776 (of which, 258 marched to McConnell's home to outnumber and out-chant paid staffers and their new neo-con biker buddies almost 7:1). In Lexington, local organizers created a 28-hour vigil and two rallies that attracted roughly 450 people combined. In Covington, over 100 Northern Kentuckians held a day-long vigil and a very powerful 90-minute veteran-led ceremony to honor Kentucky's fallen in Iraq.

Throughout the 52 hours that we took a stand, in Louisville we started raising money for the needs of our troops in Iraq, in Covington we were honored by a very powerful ceremony led by many local veterans & in Lexington we were moved by the sight of homeless veterans helping us make signs for our second rally in 24 hours.

We, in Kentucky, lead our fellow Iraq Summer teams and their volunteer efforts in 15 states across the country. We promise to continue to raise the bar in our pursuit of a responsible end to this reckless war. We will persist until Senator McConnell not only acknowledges the majority of his constituents' desire for a responsible end to the war in Iraq, but also until he changes his vote to responsibly end the war & take a stand with the majority of Kentuckians.

If you took any photos or video of Take A Stand! and/or the MoveOn Vigil Procession to Senator McConnell's house, please quickly send them to Aniello at: kentuckyfd@iraqsummer.org <mailto:kentuckyfd@iraqsummer.org>  . The national media and blogosphere are very hungry for those views. A key to our success is having as much footage of our combined activities as possible in our on-going campaign, to show the nation our outrage & to shake Senator McConnell out of his war-supporting stupor. With your help, we can do it. We highly encourage more budding activist photography and videography in the coming weeks as we crank our efforts up yet another notch. There's nothing more disturbing than seeing even more sightings of Senator McConnell skirting away from his constituents. Maybe you'll be the lucky one to get a question on video (& on message) with the elusive Senator.

In the next few months our efforts will expand to all parts of Kentucky. We will focus our attention on empowering the voices of even more veterans & active duty families. We will coordinate and mobilize rapid response events based on legislation in Congress. We will continue to strengthen the voice of the bipartisan majority of Kentuckians who do not support the reckless mismanagement of the Iraq war. We will further prove to Senator McConnell that he is grossly out of touch with his constituency.

Thank you SO much for your hard work, your tenacity & your sharing of resources with the Iraq Summer Kentucky team! We could not empower as many people in Kentucky if it were not for you and your unfailing dedication to support us & our troops by calling for an end to this reckless war.

Just to prove that there is no rest for the weary until... Check out this HillbillyReport from Berea on Wednesday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DocUzTuDHRc

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Snow Job in the Desert, by Paul Krugman 

In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing the United Nations Security Council, claimed to have proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not, in fact, present any actual evidence, just pictures of buildings with big arrows pointing at them saying things like "Chemical Munitions Bunker." But many people in the political and media establishments swooned: they admired Mr. Powell, and because he said it, they believed it.

Mr. Powell's masters got the war they wanted, and it soon became apparent that none of his assertions had been true.

Until recently I assumed that the failure to find W.M.D., followed by years of false claims of progress in Iraq, would make a repeat of the snow job that sold the war impossible. But I was wrong. The administration, this time relying on Gen. David Petraeus to play the Colin Powell role, has had remarkable success creating the perception that the "surge" is succeeding, even though there's not a shred of verifiable evidence to suggest that it is.

Thus Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution - the author of "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq" - and his colleague Michael O'Hanlon, another longtime war booster, returned from a Pentagon-guided tour of Iraq and declared that the surge was working. They received enormous media coverage; most of that coverage accepted their ludicrous self-description as critics of the war who have been convinced by new evidence.

A third participant in the same tour, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reported that unlike his traveling companions, he saw little change in the Iraq situation and "did not see success for the strategy that President Bush announced in January." But neither his dissent nor a courageous rebuttal of Mr. O'Hanlon and Mr. Pollack by seven soldiers actually serving in Iraq, published in The New York Times, received much media attention.

Meanwhile, many news organizations have come out with misleading reports suggesting a sharp drop in U.S. casualties. The reality is that this year, as in previous years, there have been month-to-month fluctuations that tell us little: for example, July 2006 was a low-casualty month, with only 43 U.S. military fatalities, but it was also a month in which the Iraqi situation continued to deteriorate. And so far, every month of 2007 has seen more U.S. military fatalities than the same month in 2006.

What about civilian casualties? The Pentagon says they're down, but it has neither released its numbers nor explained how they're calculated. According to a draft report from the Government Accountability Office, which was leaked to the press because officials were afraid the office would be pressured into changing the report's conclusions, U.S. government agencies "differ" on whether sectarian violence has been reduced. And independent attempts by news agencies to estimate civilian deaths from news reports, hospital records and other sources have not found any significant decline.

Now, there are parts of Baghdad where civilian deaths probably have fallen - but that's not necessarily good news. "Some military officers," reports Leila Fadel of McClatchy, "believe that it may be an indication that ethnic cleansing has been completed in many neighborhoods and that there aren't as many people to kill."

Above all, we should remember that the whole point of the surge was to create space for political progress in Iraq. And neither that leaked G.A.O. report nor the recent National Intelligence Estimate found any political progress worth mentioning. There has been no hint of sectarian reconciliation, and the Iraqi government, according to yet another leaked U.S. government report, is completely riddled with corruption.

But, say the usual suspects, General Petraeus is a fine, upstanding officer who wouldn't participate in a campaign of deception - apparently forgetting that they said the same thing about Mr. Powell.

First of all, General Petraeus is now identified with the surge; if it fails, he fails. He has every incentive to find a way to keep it going, in the hope that somehow he can pull off something he can call success.

And General Petraeus's history also suggests that he is much more of a political, and indeed partisan, animal than his press would have you believe. In particular, six weeks before the 2004 presidential election, General Petraeus published an op-ed article in The Washington Post in which he claimed - wrongly, of course - that there had been "tangible progress" in Iraq, and that "momentum has gathered in recent months."

Is it normal for serving military officers to publish articles just before an election that clearly help an incumbent's campaign? I don't think so.

So here we go again. It appears that many influential people in this country have learned nothing from the last five years. And those who cannot learn from history are, indeed, doomed to repeat it.

Paul Krugman is Professor of Economics at Princeton University and a regular New York Times columnist. His most recent book is The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century .

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Religion Briefs Coalition of nuns calls for impeaching Bush and Cheney

A progressive group of U.S. nuns has called on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney because of their roles in the war in Iraq.

“The National Coalition of American Nuns is impelled by conscience to call you to act promptly to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for ... high crimes and misdemeanors,” the group wrote in a letter written on behalf of its board members.

The letter says that impeachment is warranted for their “deceiving the public under the false pretense that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction” and “destroying” the reputation of the United States and the good will of other nations.

“The time for impeachment is now — before the example of George W. Bush’s regime is set in stone,” they wrote. “Future generations will thank you for preserving the freedom of our nation and its relation to the entire human community.”

The coalition was founded in 1969 for individual nuns dedicated to issues of social justice and human rights.

The letter was approved during a mid-August meeting of the board, held in Chicago. During that same meeting, the board unanimously adopted statements opposing all war and affirming peacemaking efforts. “Rather than continuing support of a just-war theory, a more compassionate church would oppose all war and teach peacemaking skills for all levels of government and interpersonal conflict resolution,” the statement reads.

The board also adopted statements pledging to work to “moderate the impact we make on planet Earth,” and supporting nuclear disarmament and relief efforts for the poor in Africa.  SOURCE

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