More information on abuse of the Quran

After the Newsweek story was retracted, many other alligations have surfaced. Some of these are listed below for your own research.

ACLU Story

Daily Times Story

CNN Story

Allegation of rights abuses offends Cheney

Click here for story from CNN.com

"For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously," he said in an interview that was to air Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

But if the violations are happening, why is it bad for a international NGO to point that out. The Joint Chiefs of Staff have admitted 5 times the Koran were abused (but didn't say that the Koran was flushed down the toilet). This is another attempt to try and discredit persons or groups that accuse the US Goverment and Military of being anything other than perfect. If there was abuses committed, we should work to correct them and not just cover them up. The abuse will not undo its self if we just do nothing. We must act and reform is nesscary.

The EU Vote in France

The outcome of the vote on the EU constitution by French voters seems to be a NO vote. (or in French Non) From the exit polls it is about 55% No and 45% Yes.

Click here for story from CNN.com

This will effectively end this round of voting, for the EU constitution to pass, it must have a full yea vote by all member nations. This was one way that the countries of Europe could have a united front against all attacks. Both military and political. With this new constitution it would unify a group of countries together and would be a very big block to go against.

The Newsweek Story

The story that was featured in Newsweek about the Quran has been seen as the untimate evil. But the story WAS RIGHT! The government has made Newsweek retract the story, but the truth is still there. There has been DOZENS of other reports of the Quran being abused. This should not be tolarated, and just because we try and say that the story was wrong, it does not stop the problem at hand.

Yahoo News Story

LA Times Story

(Update: Both links broken)

The Judicial Filibuster revisited!!!

Thank god. A group of 14 senators has helped advert a showdown in the senate about filibusters. The group of 7 repub. and 7 dems has decided to not kill filibusters and in return to only use them in extreme cases. This basically ends the threat of overturning the 217 year old tridition in the senate.

Click here for full story from CNN.com

The United States Bad Image

The US has recently been on a hard line for disaster. It has damaged its international image beond repair. As shown by Mrs. Bush's visit. Mrs. Bush and her guards were sorruned by prostoters and the Serect Service had to take her away quickly in her modercade.

Click here for story from CNN.com

This is just one instance of the growing resentment of the US abroad. The US, after the war in Iraq and the war on terror, the US is now seen as a nation that is dominating everyone who it does not agree with. This, than is overflowing on to the American people. People are taking the actions of the goverment and totally believeing that it is all evil. Even though most of it is with good intentions, some is bad, and some comes accross wrong. The US government it trying to hard and is becoming imperalistic. Just the thing that we fought to free ourselves from, we are bringing to others.

The "USA PATRIOT Act"

The USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym for “United and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act”. That is a really long name for a really bad act. The USA PATRIOT Act, no matter how noble the title sounds, is bad any way that you look at it.

The act has many “Problem Sections”. One that is extremely bad is Section 215. This gives the law enforcement officials the right to go in and look at ANY records of yours. This includes medical, finical, book store, library, and many more. It puts a gag order on the person that gives the information, so as such, they can tell NOONE that the records were searched, on the threat of jail time. The person that was searched is not notified for a reasonable time. This can be made into forever if law enforcement feels that it is reasonable.

Many different groups oppose the USA PATRIOT Act. This is a list of some and links to there websites to go and do your own research on.

Bill of Rights Defense Committee

American Library Association

Coalition of Civil Liberties

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Judicial Filibuster

The judicial filibuster by Senators is a hot topic that is highly debated. But the reality behiend the filibuster is a 217 year Senate rule that helps equal the different sides, no matter their sizes. The filibuster has been rairly used, but when it is used, it is looked at as necessary. The Democrats have used the filibuster only ten times on ALL Bush nominations. Out of 218, only ten were filibustered. The other 208 were passed by the senate. Out of those ten that were filibusted, only five are currently still filibustered. Three were let through and two were resended. And the ones that are still held in a filibuster are held there fairly. They are out of the main stream and the Senators do not want to hurt the people with a bad judge. Also EVERY single nomination has been voted on by the Senate. But b//c they are lifetime appointments, it requried 60 votes to affirm a nomination. But republicans only are 55 in the Senate. The 60 is required and is nesscary b/c the Senate, once passed, can NEVER recind the passage of it. It is for life. THE FILIBUSTER IS NEEDED!!! It should not be changed.

Military Recruiters Lie

Enough Said!

Click Here For Story

Best Bushisms Of All Time!!!

"After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain, we will not have an all-volunteer army. And yet, this week — we will have an all-volunteer army!" —Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 16, 2004

"It's the Afghan national army that went into Najaf and did the work there." —George W. Bush, referring to Iraqi troops during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2004

"Justice ought to be fair." —George W. Bush, speaking at the White House Economic Conference, Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2004

"Let me see where to start here. First, the National Journal named Senator Kennedy the most liberal senator of all." —George W. Bush, referring to Sen. Kerry, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

"I hope you leave here and walk out and say, 'What did he say?'" —George W. Bush, Beaverton, Oregon, Aug. 13, 2004

"I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." —George W. Bush, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004

"We're still being challenged in Iraq and the reason why is a free Iraq will be a major defeat in the cause of freedom." —George W. Bush, Charlotte, N.C., April 5, 2004

Private Social Security

Private Accounts?!?! And the current Social Security System. Around 2018 the current S.S. System will start paying out more than it brings in. By about 2052, the Social Security System will not be able to pay out full 100% benefits to it's recipients, but will be able to sustain about 80% payouts for many years after that. But the current government wants to create private social security has many problems. The first and most obvious is the risk involved. Even though President Bush is saying that you will only be able to put the extra money in "approved" stock and bonds, the truth is the is NO safe stock or bond to invest in and there is always risk of losing money. When a person retires and there stock is down, they will not have as much as they had been planning on having. And when there medical expenses out pace there income, who will pay for the expenses? The American tax payers. Second, the change to private accounts could top a total transition cost of over 2 trillion dollars!!! With huge deficits already, can we afford to have more debt?!?! Third, the poor would also have a hard time with this proposed system. With the many people looking at only social security as there retirement money, and if they lose the private money invested, they would effectively have NO money to retire on. And finally, many groups have many other reasons that the private accounts would provide disastrous. Some of these groups that have expressed opposition to private accounts includes the civil rights group the NAACP and the retirement group the AARP. Both groups are highly respected and only have the best intentions for all the people that they include. No matter your political standing, you cannot support a system that doesnt even use common sence. Just think about it.

(Update: http://www.thereisnocrisis.com/ no longer exists in respect to Social Security reform)

Illegal Immigrants

The new numbers for illegal immigrants is estimated at almost 11 million. The new survey concluded, by the private research group, the Pew Hispanic Center, that the number has swelled by 23% in the past 4 years to 10.3 million ending in '04. With those numbers that equals about 485,000 new illegal immigrants each year. This is a troubling new scene and one proposal is to make legal immigration easer and to let illegal immigrants get legal status easer. But really we need to look at the real meaning of this. If a person, under this proposed change, comes in illegally, than after working for a certain amount of years, without paying taxes, benefiting from many US programs, many times getting low below minimum wage pay, and taking jobs in a hard job market from people who have worked for the jobs legally, can become legal citizens without going through proper immigration laws. This means a person could come over illegally and benefit from the US than can get a citizenship without any problems. What about all the people that come over and spend years legally getting citizenship, what reason would they have to come in legally. Why would they not come over, get better pay and conditions, and totally bypass the legal system that protects the US? No one would come through the legal system and just come in illegally. With the ever growing problems of terrorism, what stops terrorists from coming over illegally with the many other immigrants, working for a while illegally, than getting free citizenship, with out proper screening and processes. This can lead to the increase in the numbers that terrorists could come into our country, using the law against the US. This is an outrage and cannot be tolerated. The borders NEED to be properly controlled and the US needs higher controls on illegal immigrants in the US.