janelane wrote:
] ] According to the lower request, the $25 billion would be
] ] placed in a fund under Bush's control. He could
] decide
] ] how the money would be spent, as long as he informed
] ] Congress that his request was "an emergency and essential
] ] to support activities and agencies in Iraq or
] ] Afghanistan."
] ]
] ] "This reserve fund will ensure that our men and women in
] ] uniform continue to have the resources they need when
] ] they need them," Bush wrote in a brief request barely
] ] longer than three pages.
]
] I wonder if the "request" (which is inappropriate nomenclature
] since they are asssured of providing what he asks) included
] provisions for where the hell the money would come from (not
] that most of us can't guess).
]
] --
] janelane

What I wonder is how we're going to look back at this in a decade or two (or three), after the total cost of this war - and the total gains - are available for comparison. $50b has to come from somewhere, and eventually - or sooner than we think - we'll pay.
~dementia

RE: CNN.com - Wolfowitz: Iraq, Afghan costs could top $50B - May 13, 2004

I've followed this story for over a year - it involves US corporations, Nato members and the mafia.

Its pretty nasty. I'm starting to think that the huge majority of US citizens don't care about anything nasty happening as long as it doesn't happen HERE.

Nato Sex Slaves

] Despite statements to the contrary, quiet preparations
] for the return of the draft have been under way for some
] time. The Selective Service System's Annual Performance
] Plan for Fiscal Year 2004 - despite a ton of
] obfuscatory jargon, acronyms, and bureaucrat-speak -
] can't quite manage to bury all of its bombshells.

] Strategic Objective 1.2 of the 2004 plan commits the
] Selective Service System to being fully operational
] within 75 days of "an authorized return to conscription."
] Strategic Objective 1.3 then commits them to "be
] operationally ready to furnish untrained manpower within
] DOD timelines."

...

] The 2004 plan commits the SSS to report to the president
] on March 31st, 2005, that the system is ready for
] activation with 75 days. If they manage the task, then
] the first lottery could happen as early as June 15th,
] 2005.

May I suggest, to those under 25 that know computers and/or languages, to get the hell out of the US by this time next year?

AlterNet: The Coming Draft

] WASHINGTON -- The government is taking the first steps
] toward a targeted military draft of Americans with
] special skills in computers and foreign languages.
]
] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is adamant that he will
] not ask Congress to authorize a draft, and officials at
] the Selective Service System, the independent federal
] agency that would organize any conscription, stress that
] the possibility of a so-called "special skills draft" is
] remote.
]
] Nonetheless, the agency has begun the process of creating
] the procedures and policies to conduct such a targeted
] draft in case military officials ask Congress to
] authorize it and the lawmakers agree to such a request.
]
] "Talking to the manpower folks at the Department of
] Defense and others, what came up was that nobody foresees
] a need for a large conventional draft such as we had in
] Vietnam," said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the
] Selective Service System. "But they thought that if we
] have any kind of a draft, it will probably be a special
] skills draft."

Computers? No, I don't know anything about computers. And I only speak English. Really. I forgot everything I learned in college.

Agency initiates steps for selective draft

] NEW DELHI, India. Secretary of State Colin Powell
] said here Tuesday that outsourcing U.S. companies
] hiring workers abroad to take the place of U.S. employees
] is "a reality of the 21st century," but that India
] should do more to offset the loss of U.S. jobs by opening
] its market to American goods.

TRANSLATION - "Its an election year and I'm just anoteer stooge trying to drum up the black vote for the GOP - just like I did back in 2000. This is a desperate plea to refrain from taking more votes from my boss till after November." -LB

Powell prods India on outsourcing

The administration is now trying to say that they didn't say that Iraq posed an immediate threat to us...

Unfortunately, since they don't have their history re-writers completely in place, they're getting called on it.

Ha.

MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action

Elonka wrote:
] If people are going to blame Bush for everything that goes
] wrong, then I believe that they should also give him credit
] for some of the things that go *right*.

Sure. Just as soon as the Republicans decide to stop blaming Clinton for everything gone wrong under the sun during and after his presidency. There was good AS WELL AS BAD under Clinton; under EVERY president. Its partisan politics my dear - ANY way you slice it.

] And say what you
] will, we haven't had another 9/11 while on his watch.

Yea, well cross your fingers, knock on wood, grab a horse shoe, and pick all the 4 leaf clovers you can find. al Qaeda has shown they are calculated and patient in their attack plans. Another major attack WILL happen again - just as the department of homland security has repeatedly warned us. Only a matter of time.

If it doesn't happen on Bushs watch, its because he got lucky - not because he is some great leader. -LB

RE: Furor over Bush's 9/11 ad

] The information coming in from the Mars rovers is
] exciting for NASA, but it's ending some of the action for
] bookies in Britain.
]
] The bookmaking firm Ladbrokes announced it's stopped
] taking bets on the question of whether there was ever
] life on Mars.
]
] NASA scientists said yesterday that the rover Opportunity
] found strong evidence to suggest at least part of the Red
] Planet once had a wet enough environment to sustain life.
]
] A Ladbrokes spokesman says the latest odds in favor of
] past life on Mars were 16-1. Back in the '70s, when the
] first bets were placed, the odds were 1,000-1.
]
] He says he expects that scientists will find evidence of
] past life on Mars within the coming years.

Bookies Stop Taking Bets on Life on Mars

IconoclasT wrote:
] ]W1ld wrote:
] ] So all those Haitian rebels are on the CIA bankroll?
] ] Right.........
] ] Haitie is such a strategic country for the US to take over,
] ] you know.
] ] Im sure that North Korea is shaking in there boots right now
]
] ] at the coup d'etat that Bush pulled off in Haitie.
]
] GWB probably had Aristide ushered out because his KKK wizard
] wanted him to and also so that Cheney and Halliburton could
] corner the market on Haitian vodoo products.
]
] If we were going to pursue coups around the world, there are
] many more strategic places to do it than Haiti. Honestly, it's
] not that important nor does it have anything valuable to
] anyone who would care to exploit it.

Not to mention the fact that this is the 2'nd time in a decade that Aristide has been forced from power (or did he forget that little detail?) the USA returned him to power LAST time. I guess he is just pissed off we didn't/wouldn't do it again.

There was a coup indeed - it was by his own people tired of corruption, famine and poverty saying enough is enough. -LB

RE: Aristide says U.S. deposed him in 'coup d'etat'

] A federal appeals court has agreed to hear a request from
] the woman formerly known as "Jane Roe" to reconsider the
] 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that
] legalized abortion.
]
] Norma McCorvey, who joined with anti-abortion activists
] nearly 10 years ago, is seeking to have the decision
] overturned, citing what she says is more than 30 years of
] evidence that abortions are psychologically harmful to
] women.
]
] A federal district judge threw out her initial request in
] June, saying it was not made within a reasonable time.
] But the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
] Appeals has agreed to hear McCorvey's arguments March 2.
]
] "It's something that I've wanted ever since Day One, and
] it's happening," McCorvey said from her Dallas home.
]
] Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill, whose
] predecessor Henry Wade who was named in the original
] lawsuit, has not filed a response to McCorvey's appeal.
] That may put the appeals court in the unusual position of
] hearing arguments from only one side.

Court to hear case to reopen Roe V. Wade