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DISILLUSIONED supporters of President George W Bush are defecting to Barack Obama, the Democratic senator for Illinois, as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation. Tom Bernstein went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to the president’s reelection campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee. This year he is switching his support to Obama. He is one of many former Bush admirers who find the Democrat newcomer appealing. Matthew Dowd, Bush’s chief campaign strategist in 2004, announced...

Anti-War Democrats Say They Won't Give Up By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Senior Editor May 02, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - While the Israeli people are furious with their prime minister for failing to achieve a conclusive victory in the war with Hizballah, many Americans are furious with President Bush for insisting on victory in the Iraq war. Democratic congressional leaders are trying to end a war that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last month described as "lost." On Wednesday, one day after vetoing a war-funding bill that set a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops, President Bush planned to meet with congressional leaders...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Bush showed little appetite for compromise Wednesday, hours ahead of a session with congressional leaders aimed at crafting a new bill to fund the war in Iraq. Fresh from his Tuesday night veto of spending legislation that set timelines for U.S. troop withdrawals, Bush stuck firmly to his demands on what a follow up bill should look like. The Democrats who control of Capitol Hill, and their Republican counterparts, were due at the White House Wednesday afternoon for discussions with the president, just after a planned attempt in the House — sure to fail — to...

WASHINGTON — In the end, neither side was willing to give an inch — or give up the last word. In the span of about two hours Tuesday, President Bush received, vetoed and publicly denounced legislation ordering troops to begin coming home from Iraq. Democrats, who had staged a dramatic signing ceremony, headed back to the television cameras to chide Bush for rejecting it.

Washington -- President Bush carried through on his often-repeated threat Tuesday to veto a war spending bill requiring a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, but on Capitol Hill key Republicans started moving away from the administration's hard line against compromising with Democrats. Republican lawmakers, who thus far had stayed solidly behind the president, say they could support binding benchmarks on the Baghdad government as the debate about the war goes forward in Congress. Amid the showdown atmosphere, Bush is scheduled to meet with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders at the White House this afternoon to discuss how to proceed with...

Islamists plan violence after Kosovo goes independent April 30, 2007 -- In a Kosovo town of Gnjilane on April 16, top echelons of the ethnic Albanian extremist leadership had a secret meeting where they unveiled a plan code named "Small Serbia" that plans to activate al Qaeda cells across the Balkans once Kosovo Albanians declare independence, writes Marko Lopusina, a reporter for a Belgrade independent weekly Telegraph. According to the information Lopusina obtained, the intelligence about the Kosovo Albanian military plan and the meeting has been acquired by the Spanish and French intelligence agents that have infiltrated al Qaeda cells...

THE HAGUE -- The day after Ramush Haradinaj resigned as Kosovo's prime minister, Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised him as a patriot and a statesman. "I want to publicly salute him for his personal courage," said Biden (D-Del.), who described Haradinaj as a young man who looked like he could lift an ox out of a ditch. The U.S. State Department, French foreign ministry and United Nations also were generous in their praise for the 38-year-old political leader—a nice send-off for a fellow who had just been indicted by the international...

An emergency war funding bill that includes a troop withdrawal date will arrive at the White House on Tuesday. President Bush says he'll veto it because it includes a withdrawal deadline, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "strongly encouraged" the president to sign it. Reid on Monday said the bill "makes our country more secure by charting a new course in Iraq so that we can return our focus to the global challenges that lie ahead." The Nevada Democrat called it a "good and responsible bill" that will "begin the long process of leading us out of a war that...

Airport officials are debunking a story posted on the Internet. The story from WorldNetDaily.com claims that Kansas City International Airport built foot-washing basins for Islamic taxi drivers. The article alleges that airport police are afraid of Middle Eastern men who congregate near the wash areas. KCI spokesman Joe McBride said the story isn't true

Rosie Makes up Facts and Smears Volunteer Soldiers Posted by Justin McCarthy on May 1, 2007 - 13:03. The May 1 edition of "The View" marked the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s famous "mission accomplished" announcement with Rosie O’Donnell’s predictable rants against the war and the administration. The co-host mysteriously claimed Afghanistan had nothing to do with September 11 and downplayed the Al Qaeda threat, claiming it is simply a U.S. government scare tactic. Additionally, Rosie, with the aide of guest co-host Ricki Lake, followed Charles Rangel and Andy Rooney to assert that U.S. soldiers are not patriots, but losers...

Blunt talk from Joe Biden, picked up by C-SPAN answering a man's question at Jim Clyburn's fish fry April 27 in Columbia, SC. Biden is asked what he'll do when Bush, as is expected, vetoes the Iraq funding bill. First, he talks about his son, and the equipment soldiers need -- "The idea that we're not building new Humvees with the V-shaped things is just crap. Kids are dying that don't have to die." And: "Second thing is, we're going to shove it down his throat."

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Anti-war legislation on the way to President Bush for his promised veto represents a rare rebuke by Congress of a large and ongoing ground conflict, even eclipsing challenges made during the Vietnam War. While a bill ordering troops home from an ongoing military mission is not unprecedented — legislation aimed at conflicts in Somalia and Haiti are other examples — the Iraq bill is an unusually swift feat by a Congress forcefully challenging a war involving thousands of U.S. troops. "Congress is not shy usually about attempting to create problems for a president when a war becomes...

  Biden: Shove It Down His Throat

Lal Masjid cleric calls for 'jihad' against Musharraf regime By ANI Tuesday April 24, 11:18 AM Islamabad, Apr 24 (ANI): Maulana Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of the controversial Lal Masjid, has reportedly said that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's regime was "un-Islamic", and that it was obligatory for every Muslim to wage jihad against it for rule of law and speedy dispensation of justice. He also said that Musharraf regime had failed to give the desired results. "The government is un-Islamic and the present system and political hierarchy have failed to deliver," the Daily Times quoted Aziz as saying in...

WASHINGTON - A tough U.S. Marine stationed in one of the most hostile areas of Iraq has a message for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid: "We need to stay here and help rebuild." In raw and emotional language from the bloody front lines, Cpl. Tyler Rock, of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, skewered Reid for being far removed from the patriotism and progress in Iraq. "Yeah, and I got a quote for that [expletive] Harry Reid. These families need us here," Rock vented in an e-mail to Pat Dollard, a Hollywood agent-turned-war reporter who posted the comment on his Web...

Ali Allawi's memoir The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace certainly deserves the praise and attention it has been getting (even from writers like Maureen Dowd, so eager to score cheap points against the Bush administration that—even while rebuking others for having insufficient grasp of Iraqi reality—she confused the author with his cousin Iyad Allawi and called him a "puppet" into the bargain). The book is written with a very strong combination of heart and mind by someone with an enviable command of English who both knows and cares a good deal about Iraq. He does not...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A historic veto showdown assured, Democratic leaders agreed Monday on legislation that requires the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later. "No more will Congress turn a blind eye to the Bush administration's incompetence and dishonesty," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a speech in which he accused the president of living in a state of denial about events in Iraq more than four years after the U.S.-led invasion. Bush, confident of enough votes to sustain his veto, was unambiguous in...

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a vocal critic of the Bush administration's war in Iraq, plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday.Kucinich, a Democrat who is again running for president, said Monday that he will hold a news conference in Washington to discuss his bid to oust Cheney. Kucinich spokeswoman Natalie Laber declined further comment. Under the House impeachment process, Kucinich's articles would be reviewed by the House Judiciary Committee, which would decide whether to conduct an impeachment inquiry. The committee would seek authority from the entire House before beginning an inquiry. Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn...

It's a simple question.

Lantos Quote:"Just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led government[s] in this world that here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe. This should be noted by both responsible leaders of Islamic governments, such as Indonesia, and also for jihadists of all color and hue. The United States’ principles are universal, and in this instance, the United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe."