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POPSThe Biggest Threat to the West Lies Within Itself, Not with Islam Simon Jenkins on threats to peace and democracy. This defeatism led the American Congress to allow its president to authorise torture and detention without trial in what Senator Robert Byrd called “the slow unravelling of the people’s liberties”. It enabled a British Home Office to curb free speech and habeas corpus. It arms police, fortifies buildings and impedes the free movement of citizens. It makes every Christian suspicious of every Muslim.
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POPSThe Terror Presidency Excerpts from the much-talked-about book by Jack Goldsmith, recounting his days of advising the White House on the legal boundaries of American executive power. Goldsmith explains how he was made to sign off on the unprecedented orders of presidential authority we know and love today. He famously was present at the dramatic hospital-room showdown on national surveillance between Gonzales, Card and a frail Ashcroft, calling it "the most amazing scene I'd ever witnessed." Goldsmith resigned 10 months in. They believed cooperation and compromise signaled weakness and emboldened the enemies of America and the executive branch. When it came to terrorism, they viewed every encounter outside the innermost core of most trusted advisers as a zero-sum game that if they didn't win they would necessarily lose.
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POPSTaguba Report: What Did Rumsfeld Know? Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba's delayed admission of the Department's squelching of him and his official investigation into Abu Ghraib (refusing to view the uncovered photos and videos of abuse, forcing Taguba to retire after 34 years of service) is shocking and the implications severe. At least we're at the breaking point now. Rumsfeld then gambled on the public not wanting know as much as he wanted to cover it up. Hence his major concern in that meeting with Taguba: not preventing and exposing appalling war crimes on his own watch - but finding a way to persecute the guy whose duty it was to investigate it.
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POPSWhere Were Vocal Conservatives When It Mattered? Rod Dreher is a conservative writer for Beliefnet. Few of us stood up to Bush when he took us to this disastrous war in Iraq. Few, if any, stood up to him over his foolish support for Rumsfeld, long after it became obvious what a disaster Rumsfeld was. Few, if any, stood up to him over his amassing of power in the executive branch. Few, if any, stood up to him on the spending....
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POPS Bush 'happy' for pregnant Mary Cheney White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush stood by his belief about a mother and father but also believes that "every human life is sacred and that every child that comes into this world deserves love and he believes that Mary Cheney's child will in fact have loving parents."
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POPSU.N. Ambassador Bolton to be Let Go Newsmax confirms : "This nomination is dead and we have known it for several days," a source close to the U.S. mission to the U.N. tells NewsMax. "We just don't know what the White House wants to do next," the source added.
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POPS Democrat wins Montana Senate Seat That brings the total to 50 Democrat seats in the Senate, 49 Republicans. It Virginia goes Democrat also, that would bring the ratio to 51-49 and the sweep of Congress would be complete. (Democrat Webb has already declared victory there, and even with a recount, it seems highly unlikely the numbers would change enough to matter.)
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POPSAmerican Conservative Magazine: GOP Must Go There may be little Americans can do to atone for this presidency, which will stain our country’s reputation for a long time. But the process of recovering our good name must begin somewhere, and the logical place is in the voting booth this Nov. 7. If we are fortunate, we can produce a result that is seen—in Washington, in Peoria, and in world capitals from Prague to Kuala Lumpur—as a repudiation of George W. Bush and the war of aggression he launched against Iraq.
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POPSWho's Planning to Vote for Whom Fifty percent of independent voters, a closely watched segment of the electorate in such polarized times, said they intended to vote for the Democratic candidate, versus 23 who said they would vote for a Republican.
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POPSArmy Times: "Time for Rumsfeld to go" Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.
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POPSAnother Republican FL Congressman Resigns Amid Scandal, Felony Charges Republican Rep. Arza and his cousin were recorded using racist slurs against a black school superintendent. Sometime after 8 last Saturday night, state Rep. Ralph Arza, in calm voice that betrayed just a hint of inebriation, left a 20-second message on the cellphone of his colleague. ''Hey, bitch,'' he said. "You're nothing but a bitch. You're a bitch. You're nothing but a bitch. God Bless you, bitch." Sometime later, in a voice just a little less calm, Arza left a second message for Rep. Gus Barreiro. "Hey, bitch. You ain't nothing but a bitch. You ain't nothing but a bitch, brother, my n****er.'' A second caller dialed Barreiro and cursed Barreiro out even more, profanely threatening him with physical harm for filing a complaint. Hear the two phone messages in question ( 1 , 2 ).
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POPSEvangelicals betrayed by Bush administration: Farah Farah is the founder and editorial voice of the very influential conservative Christian website, WorldNetDaily. This is the face of the Republican Party establishment. It's the reason Democrats are likely to sweep into power in a few short weeks. It's an illustration of the double talk we get from the Bush administration. It's confirmation that we who actually believe in that Bible have nowhere to turn politically in this country – at least in terms of voting options. Remember what I told you on the evening of Nov. 7. Don't blame me for the Republican debacle to come. Blame the people who brought it to you – the people in power.
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POPSRepublican O.C. Candidate Is Disowned Over Letters to Latinos The letter evoked memories of the 1988 race for the 71st Assembly District in Orange County, when the local GOP hired uniformed guards to stand in Latino neighborhoods with signs stating, "Non-Citizens Can't Vote." Even when it paid an undisclosed sum to settle a lawsuit, the GOP doggedly denied wrongdoing.
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POPSRepublican Ad Calls Black Women "Ho's" According to the source, the same group was responsible for similar ads in the past that were so derogatory, even the Republican National Committee called them "racist": America's Pac is the brainchild of a Kansas-based Republican consultant, Richard Nadler. He said Sunday that he is no longer affiliated with the group. "Mr. Nadler is the genius. We basically follow his game plan," the group's new chief, Thomas Donelson of Marion, Iowa, said. In 2000, Mr. Nadler came under fire for a school choice-related ad in which parents said their son's violence ridden public school "was a bit more diversity than he could handle." Mr. Bush's campaign denounced the ad as "inappropriate," and the Republican National Committee called it "racist or race-baiting in intent."
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POPSTotal Federal Spending Per Household, 1962-2006 This chart from the Heritage Foundation's 2006 Federal Revenue and Spending report shows the sudden increase in federal spending unleashed as soon as the Republicans took over Washington in 2002. It hasn't slowed yet. (Via the Daily Dish .)
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POPSVoters' Approval of Congress Falls To 16%, Lowest Point in 12 Years More bad news for conservatives. Three new records were set with today's Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. 16 percent! The latest results set other records, also to Republicans' disadvantage: Fully two-thirds of the electorate rates this year's Congress "below average" or "one of the worst" -- the poorest showing on that question since it was first asked in 1990. As for the Republican Party, 32% of voters rate it positively and 49% negatively -- the highest negative ever for either party in the surveys. The Democratic Party, after months in which it also had a net negative rating only slightly better than the Republican Party's, now is viewed positively by 37% and negatively by 35%.
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POPSNew Poll: Democrats Open Up Giant Gap Before Midterm Elections Government corruption, Iraq and terrorism were the three most important issues to poll respondents. They said Democrats would do a better job on all three. The party had a 21-point advantage on handling corruption and a 17-point advantage on Iraq. A longstanding GOP advantage on terrorism vanished; Democrats had a 5-point edge. Yet another set of record-breaking poll results in.
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POPSPoll: Foley Sex Scandal Has Hurt GOP Election Prospects Iraq, meanwhile, is continuing to be a problem for the Republicans. Only 38% of respondents in the TIME poll now support President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, down from 42% three months ago. A similar number believe that the new Iraqi government will succeed in forming a stable democracy, while 59% believe this is unlikely. Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war, while 54% believe he "deliberately misled" Americans in making his case for war — a figure that has increased by 6 points over the past year. President Bush's overall approval rating, according to TIME's poll, now stands at just 36%, down from 38% in August.
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POPSConservative newspaper calls for Hastert's resignation over scandal This morning's Washington Times . House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.
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POPSFoley: "If I were one of these sickos..." (VIDEO) Former representative Mark Foley 1) commenting on Bill Clinton's scandal in 1998 and 2) on a recent episode of America's Most Wanted , warning "sickos" about the very anti-child-predator law he co-sponsored in Congress and now may be prosecuted under . Unbelievable. ( Via .)
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POPSAbramoff: "Better to not put this stuff in writing"...D'oh! A bipartisan report released Thursday from the House Government Reform Committee has uncovered 485 contacts between criminal GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House, 10 of them with Karl Rove. As reporters everywhere sift through the records, Kevin Drum shows us this soon-to-be classic (see the highlighted portions).
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POPSWar Turns Southern Women Away From GOP Voters like Knight could prove to be spoilers. The 66-year-old real estate agent doesn't particularly like Marshall, a hawkish Democrat and former Army Ranger, but she said she'll vote for him because she likes his conservative Republican opponent, former Rep. Mac Collins, even less.
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POPSExploding the Charter School Myth My own 2¢: I've taught and tutored math and science in a variety of public, private, and charter schools. I went to several non-standard schools myself, so I thought positively of charter schools in general...until I had to teach students there. I always felt less productive in these situations for frustrating reasons like this: Free-standing charter schools often bite off more than they can chew. The presumption is that without the bureaucratic restraints of the public school system and the teacher unions, charter schools can provide better education at lower cost. But the problem with failing public schools is that they often lack both resources and skilled, experienced teachers. While there are obvious exceptions, some charter schools embark on a path that simply recreates the failures of the schools they were developed to replace.
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POPSDuke Cunningham's Wife Tells All (The New Republic) In the only interview ever given, Mrs. Cunnigham defends herself (somewhat) and reveals some insights into the sad life and psychology of her husband that allowed him to set a new record for Congressional corruption. Originally published in the August 28, 2006 issue of TNR .
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POPSFor the GOP, a Heartland Plunge - David Broder Also, a Republican governor confirms that anti-incumbent sentiment crosses party lines: "What has this Congress done that anyone should applaud?" he asked scornfully. "Nothing on immigration, nothing on health care, nothing on energy -- and nothing on the war. They deserve a good kick in the pants, and that's what they're going to get."
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POPSFitzpatrick (R-PA): Another GOP Candidate Throws Bush Under the Bus! This is the front page of a direct mailing flyer sent out to Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick's contituents in Philly. It says: "America needs a new plan for success in Iraq." ... Congressman Fitzpatrick says NO to both extremes: "NO TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S 'STAY THE COURSE' STRATEGY.... "AND NO TO PATRICK MURPHY'S 'CUT AND RUN' APPROACH." How many more Republicans will dare to break ranks with Bush/Cheney in the lead up to elections?
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POPSRepublican McCloskey Urges Need for Democrat Majority in Congress Part of a long, personal letter from former Republican Congressman (and presidential candidate) Pete McCloskey to the voters of CA on the need to bring back a semblance of oversight in Washington. There is another strong reason, I believe, for Republicans to work this fall for Democrat challengers against the DeLay-type Republicans like Pombo and Doolittle. That is the clear abdication by the House over the past five years of the Congress’ constitutional power and duty to exercise oversight over abuses of power, cronyism, incompetence and excessive secrecy on the part of the Executive Branch.
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POPSCharlton Heston, Gun-Control Advocate The White House Memo using Heston's name and celebrity that helped push through the 1968 Gun Control Act, "by far the most sweeping gun-control measure ever enacted into law in the United States." Asked about his previous support for gun control in a December 1998 interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, Heston replied, "I've made a number of mistakes in my life, Mike."
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