Rice: I know what it's like to be Palestinian

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly said in Annapolis this week that her childhood in the segregated South had helped her to understand the suffering on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I know what its like to hear that you can't use a certain road or pass through a checkpoint because you are a Palestinian. I know what it is like to feel discriminated against and powerless," Rice told a closed meeting of Arab and Israeli representatives, according to the Dutch representative at the summit, Franz Timmermans.

"Like Israelis, I understand what it's like to go to sleep not knowing if you will be hurt in an explosion, the feeling of terror walking around your own neighborhood, or walking to your house of prayer," Timmermans quoted Rice as saying, the Washington Post reported.

Rice described her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, during the era of segregation and the killing of four young girls in a bombing at a Baptist church in 1963. She reportedly said the bombing, which killed one of her classmates, helps her understand the fear of terrorism felt by Israelis.

Make me a sammich, Condi!

The head of the federal agency investigating Karl Rove's White House political operation is facing allegations that he improperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a private computer-help company, Geeks on Call.

Scott Bloch runs the Office of Special Counsel, an agency charged with protecting government whistleblowers and enforcing a ban on federal employees engaging in partisan political activity. Mr. Bloch's agency is looking into whether Mr. Rove and other White House officials used government agencies to help re-elect Republicans in 2006.

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year. They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.

Mr. Bloch had his computer's hard disk completely cleansed using a "seven-level" wipe: a thorough scrubbing that conforms to Defense Department data-security standards. The process makes it nearly impossible for forensics experts to restore the data later. He also directed Geeks on Call to erase laptop computers that had been used by his two top political deputies, who had recently left the agency.

Mr. Bloch was a loyal member of the Bush administration, serving in the Justice Department's office of faith-based programs, when the president named him to head the Office of Special Counsel in 2003. Unlike many administration appointees, Mr. Bloch doesn't serve at the pleasure of the president. He has a fixed five-year term and may be removed only for malfeasance. That is supposed to ensure his agency has the independence to pursue any probe.

City Said to Have Paid Bills as Giuliani Affair Began

Late in his tenure as mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani billed tens of thousands of dollars in travel expenses to little-known city agencies as he was beginning an extramarital affair, a political Web site reported yesterday.

The report, on the Politico Web site, cited documents obtained under the New York State Freedom of Information Law. But it was unclear from those documents whether Mr. Giuliani allocated those travel costs, from 1999 through 2001, to obscure city offices in an attempt to conceal expenses associated with the relationship or for some accounting purpose.

The administration of Mr. Giuliani's successor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said in 2002, several months after taking office, that the Giuliani administration had kept the budget for the mayor's office artificially low by paying more than $5 million in salaries through other city agencies. The agencies to which Mr. Giuliani billed the travel expenses were outside the mayor's office.

.....

The documents obtained by Politico, described as American Express bills and travel documents, detailed hotel, gas and other costs for the detectives on trips to Southampton, N.Y. The woman with whom Mr. Giuliani was having an affair, Judith Nathan, who became his third wife, had a condominium in the Long Island beach community.

Who played "the wife" during sex?

Al Hubbard, director of President George W. Bush's National Economic Council, will step down by the end of the year, two administration officials said today.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will gain clout as a result of Hubbard's departure and pursue more pragmatic economic policies, including those dealing with the credit crisis, said Peter Morici, a professor of business at the University of Maryland. Hubbard was too ideologically driven, he said.

Hubbard's decision to resign as Bush's top economic adviser follows the departure of several other senior officials, including Homeland Security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend and Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser.

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert resigned from Congress on Monday, bringing to an end his nearly 21 years representing the Fox Valley in Washington, D.C.

The 69-year-old Kendall County Republican delivered his final speech on the House floor earlier this month, announcing that he would retire before year's end, though he did not offer specifics. This summer, Hastert announced that he would not seek re-election after his 11th term ends in January 2009.

In his letter to Blagojevich, Hastert said that he had been advised to resign by Monday to allow Blagojevich time to call the special primary on Feb. 5, the same day as the scheduled primary. "This will minimize inconvenience to the voters and expense to the counties in the 14th Congressional District," Hastert wrote.

The occasion was an annual tradition, the presidential photo opportunity with Nobel Prize winners. But Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the environment, was given special treatment: a private tête-à-tête with Bush, which lasted more than 30 minutes, provoking intense speculation about just what the two men talked about.

"Of course, we talked about global warming - the whole time," Gore, the former vice president, said as he and his wife, Tipper, emerged onto Pennsylvania Avenue, where they were mobbed by reporters and photographers.

No surprise there. Gore, whose documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award, is a staunch critic of the Bush administration's environmental policy. "He's constantly looking for opportunities to make an impact on this issue," said Michael Feldman, an adviser, "so being invited to the political center of the universe is a great thing for him."

"It was a private meeting," he said, "and I'm not going to say anything about it other than that it was very nice, very cordial. He was very gracious in setting up the meeting, and it was a very good and very substantive conversation. That's all."

The National Republican Campaign Committee recently held a contest to find the best pro-Republican YouTube videos. They promised to post the top-five videos submitted onto their site where the public could vote on the best one.

Then the deadline passed and the Republicans ran into a bit of a problem. Only five videos were submitted. The one posted above is one of them.

Will the Republicans honor their word to put the top five videos up for the public to vote on? Would you not love to see this made the official Republican "netroots" video?

Dumbazz's

Doctors administered an electrical shock to Vice President Dick Cheney's heart and restored it to a normal rhythm during a 2 1/2 -hour hospital visit yesterday.

Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, was discovered to have an irregular heartbeat about 7 a.m. when he was seen by doctors at the White House for a lingering cough from a cold. He remained at work throughout the day, joining President Bush in meetings with Mideast leaders.

The irregular heartbeat was determined to be atrial fibrillation, an abnormal rhythm involving the upper chambers of the heart, said spokeswoman Megan Mitchell. He went to the hospital about 5 p.m. and was discharged about 7:30 p.m.

"He'll probably have other episodes," said Eldadah, who is not involved in Cheney's care. "Atrial fibrillation in and of itself is not threatening. The problem is that it has long term consequences. It increases the risk of stroke." He said Cheney probably would be put on the most potent blood thinner.

NBC News has learned that Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the minority whip is in the midst of informing close allies that he plans to resign his senate seat before the end of the year. It's possible a formal announcement of his plans could take place as early as today.

While the exact reason Lott is stepping down before he finishes his term is unknown, the general speculation is that a quick departure immunizes Lott against tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law that takes effect at the end of the year. That law would require Senators to wait two-years before entering the lucrative world of lobbying Congress.

(click picture for larger image from the White House website)

More than 40% of the foreign fighters who entered Iraq to join the insurgency in the past year were citizens of Saudi Arabia, America's key partner in the Middle East, according to detailed information seized from a camp used by them. Documents and computers found by the US army at Sinjar, on the Iraqi-Syrian border, revealed that the other single largest group came from Libya, which is now being rehabilitated as a reliable western ally.

The captured data has been described as an intelligence treasure trove that included biographical details and the hometowns of the more than 700 fighters who entered Iraq since August 2006. Of those 307, or 41%, were Saudis and 137, or 18%, Libyans, senior US military sources told the New York Times.

The documents, found in September, showed that the third-largest source of foreign fighters was Yemen, with 68, followed by Algeria, 64, Morocco, 50, Tunisia, 38, Jordan, 14, Turkey, six, and Egypt, two. These figures seem to corroborate suggestions of a worrying increase in jihadi activity across north Africa, where armed groups from Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco have united under the banner of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Jordan Fox received a $10,000 signing bonus when he joined the Army. The Mt. Lebanon man served his country in Iraq, where as a sniper he survived machine gun battles and a roadside bomb that knocked him unconscious and blinded him in his right eye.

The injury forced the military to send him home. A few weeks later, Fox received a bill from the Department of Defense, saying he owes the military nearly $3,000 from his original enlistment bonus because he couldn't fulfill three months of his commitment.

This is apparently not an isolated bureaucratic foul-up. The military is allegedly demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses - up to $30,000 in some cases. Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.

Most in the U.S. say they are personally happy and feel in control of their lives and finances, according to an extensive Associated Press-Yahoo! News survey on the mood of voters. Beneath the surface, though, personal and political discontent is bubbling.

There is a widespread unease—shared by 77 percent - that the country has meandered off in the wrong direction. Nearly all Democrats and more than six in 10 Republicans think the country has taken the wrong course. And although almost half express interest and hope in the upcoming elections, a third voice frustration—particularly Republicans

Stirred in are warning signs for Republican candidates: Democrats seething after nearly seven years under President Bush are happier and more psyched up about this election than Republicans.

More Democrats than Republicans say they are hopeful about the voting, 54 percent to 39 percent, and more of them are interested in it. Republicans are more likely to say the election leaves them frustrated and bored.

The hawkish advocacy group (Freedom Watch) recently rolled out a multi-million dollar ad blitz in support of the troop surge in Iraq. It's now test marketing language that could be used to sell a war with Iran.

Laura Sonnenmark is a focus group regular. "I've been asked to talk about orange juice, cell phone service, furniture," the Fairfax County, Virginia-based children's book author and Democratic Party volunteer says. But when she was called by a focus group organizer for a prospective assignment earlier this month, she was told the questions this time would be about something "political."

On the appointed day, she drove to the offices of Martin Focus Groups in Alexandria, Virginia, knowing she would be paid $150 for two hours of her time. After joining a half dozen other women in a conference room, she found, to her surprise, that she had been called in to help some of the country's most prominent hawks test-market language that could be used to sell a war against Iran to the American public. "The whole basis of the whole thing was, 'we're going to go into Iran and what do we have to do to get you guys to along with it,'" Sonnenmark, 49, tells Mother Jones.

The client paying for the focus group session, according to Sonnemark, was Freedom's Watch, a high-powered, well-connected advocacy group that launched a $15 million ad campaign this summer in support of the surge of American troops in Iraq. Among the group's leadership: former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and Bradley A. Blakeman, a former deputy assistant to President Bush. The focus group session suggests that Freedom's Watch may be looking beyond Iraq and expanding its mission to building support for military action against Iran.

Fran Townsend, President Bush's top White House-based adviser on terrorism and homeland security, has resigned, it was announced Monday.

Her departure continues an exodus of key Bush aides and confidants, with his two-term presidency in the final 15 months. Top aide Karl Rove, along with press secretary Tony Snow and senior presidential adviser Dan Bartlett, left earlier this year.

The "D.C. Madam" served a subpoena Tuesday on Sen. David Vitter, R-La., requiring him to testify about his use of the Washington, D.C., escort service federal prosecutors say was a prostitution ring.

The subpoena calls on the freshman senator to testify at a federal court hearing Nov. 28 looking into the business operations of the $2 million escort service Deborah Jeane Palfrey operated in the nation's capital for 13 years.

Vitter has acknowledged being a client of Palfrey's company, Pamela Martin & Associates, and his telephone number appeared six times in the firm's phone records between 1999 and 2001, when he was a member of the House of Representatives. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

JUDGED BY THE COMPANY YOU KEEP?


The North Carolina Conservative first reported last week that Congressman Patrick McHenry had ties to persons involved in a double murder/suicide in Florida. Sources told us that one of the men killed was Ralph Gonzalez, a gay Republican political consultant, an associate of McHenry who "helped on his campaign." The same source told us that the shooter, Robert Drake who is reportedly connected with a gay escort service and another murder in Virginia, was "tight with McHenry and ran elections for him." McHenry's office has reportedly admitted that the congressman had an unspecified relationship with Drake.

(snip)

As the old saying goes, "you are judged by the company you keep." Patrick McHenry has been keeping some very strange company indeed. Perhaps it is time that he come home before a major scandal develops that could embarrass the 10th District of North Carolina and damage the Republican Party.

Incoming prisoners are to be held in near-isolation for the first two weeks to foster dependence on interrogators and "enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process."

Styrofoam cups must be confiscated if prisoners have written on them, apparently because prisoners have used cups to pass notes to other captives. "If the cup is damaged or destroyed, the detainee will be disciplined for destruction of government property," the rules say.

It contains instructions as only the military can write them, such as how to use pepper spray on unruly prisoners. "Aim at the eyes, nose and mouth when possible. Use a 1/2 to 1 second burst from a distance of 36 to 72 inches away."

The manual spells out in minute detail how captives should be shackled, searched and moved and how the chains should be collected afterward.

The economic costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to total $1.6 trillion - roughly double the amount the White House has requested thus far, according to a new report by Democrats on Congress' Joint Economic Committee.

The $1.6 trillion figure, for the period from 2002 to 2008, translates into a cost of $20,900 for a family of four, the report said. The Bush administration has requested $804 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, the report stated.

For the Iraq war only, total economic costs were estimated at $1.3 trillion for the period from 2002 to 2008. That would cost a family of four $16,500, the report said.

Future economic costs would be even greater. The report estimated that both wars would cost $3.5 trillion between 2003 and 2017. Under that scenario, it would cost a family of four $46,400, the report said.

Huckabee Fires Back at Romney on Immigration

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is firing back at fellow contender Mitt Romney over questions about illegal immigration.

Huckabee suggests the former Massachusetts governor wants to keep immigrants working on his lawn.

Romney criticized Huckabee over his plans to offer tuition breaks for children of illegal immigrants while serving as governor in Arkansas. Huckabee, appearing on Fox News Channel, said, "I guess Mitt Romney would rather keep people out of college so they can keep working on his lawn."

Mitt-slaped!

Bush uses sixth veto to reject health-labor bill

President George W. Bush on Tuesday vetoed a measure to fund education, job training and health programs, marking the sixth veto of his presidency and the latest salvo in a fight with congressional Democrats over domestic spending.

Bush signed a separate bill to give the Pentagon about $460 billion for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, even though he was disappointed the military bill had less money than he had sought. Even so, the Pentagon would get about $40 billion more than last year, a 9 percent increase.

The White House said the bill to fund labor and human services was bloated and filled with special projects. The $600 billion measure was about $10 billion more than what Bush requested.

POLL: Liberals More Open To Opinions That 'Reflect Values Other Than Their Own'

A new poll by the Norman Lear Center and Zogby International finds that liberals are more open to opposing viewpoints than conservatives, who tend to rely on Fox and Fox News for their entertainment and news. Some highlights from their findings:

- Conservatives were the most "likely to watch only two channels out of the 24 highest-rated networks: Fox and Fox News."

- "Fox News wins the prize for the most politically divisive TV channel (70% of conservatives watch it daily and only 3% of liberals)."

- "While 22% of conservatives said they "never" enjoy entertainment that reflects values other than their own, just 7% of liberals felt the same way. In other words, Limbaugh's potential audience is larger than that of liberal competitors because more liberals say they will listen to conservatives than vice versa."

- Conservatives think "fictional TV shows and movies are politically biased" and "overwhelmingly (76%) believe that TV shows and movies 'very often' contain political messages, but they are the least likely to learn anything about political issues from them. Just 4% say they learn lessons from movies."

Watching too much Fox News may be bad news for conservatives. An April Pew Research Study survey found that viewers of the conservative Fox News channel had the lowest knowledge of national and international affairs.

A recent AP-Ipsos poll also found that liberals read more books than conservatives do. In the past year, 34 percent of conservatives have not read a book within the past year, compared with just 22 percent of liberals and moderates.

But, but, but LIBERAL MEDIA!!1!

Anti-War Voters Lash Out at Democrats They Helped Put in Office

When the Democratic Party called up recently to ask Myrna Burgess for a campaign contribution, she answered with an emphatic "no."

"Nothing has been done as far as the war is concerned," said Burgess, 72, an Amtrak worker from Levittown, Pennsylvania.

More than a year after anti-war voters like Burgess helped give Democrats control of Congress, there are more troops in Iraq, lawmakers have approved almost $100 billion in new war spending and congressional approval ratings are at record lows.

Democrats now worry that their inability to make good on campaign promises to end or slow the war in Iraq will have consequences. The disaffection has already fueled at least four anti-war primary challenges to party incumbents, raising fears among some lawmakers of an intra-party fight that could drain momentum before next year's elections.

No balls. No money. No votes

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that Democrats won't approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home.

By the end of the week, the House and Senate planned to vote on a $50 billion measure for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would require Bush to initiate troop withdrawals immediately with the goal of ending combat by December 2008.

If Bush vetoes the bill, "then the president won't get his $50 billion," Reid, D-Nev., told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made a similar statement last week in a closed-door caucus meeting.

Bush pushes budget fight with Democrats

President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats.

He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget although the White House complained it contained "some unnecessary spending."

The president's action was announced on Air Force One as Bush flew to New Albany, Ind., on the Ohio River across from Louisville, Ky., for a speech criticizing the Democratic-led Congress on its budget priorities.

In excerpts of his remarks released in advance by the White House, Bush hammered Democrats for what he called a tax-and-spend philosophy:

"The Congress now sitting in Washington holds this philosophy," Bush said. "Their majority was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility, but so far it is acting like a teenager with a new credit card.

-----

Huge procurement costs are driving the Pentagon budget ever upward. Once war costs are added in, the total defense budget will be significantly higher than during the typical Cold War year, even after adjusting for inflation.

Veto Crayon

Eighteen people total were arrested in Boston yesterday after holding a peaceful protest during the Boston Veterans Day Parade, sponsored by the American Legion. After being told they could not carry antiwar signs, members of the group Veterans for Peace added gags around their mouths, and clenched tightly to their signs that oppose the Iraq War. The gags were to symbolize the violation of their right to free speech, they said.

"We were exercising our First Amendment rights," one protestor stated. "The First Amendment protects free speech, even when you don't agree with what's being said." When some demonstrators refused to move from the frong of the podium, they were placed in plastic handcuffs and led away, during the Boston Firemen's Band's Marine Hymn.

"Our free speech and civil rights are being abridged here," said a Vietnam veteran who was taken into custody. "We are veterans, too, and we should be allowed to express our opposition to this war."

Police charged all of them - 15 men and 3 women - with Disturbing a Lawful Assembly of People. The Veterans for Peace are notorious for their nonviolence, and the arrests have sparked anger on the day that we were meant to honor our veterans. Notoriously violence-free, their site contains 198 ideas for non-violent action, as well as a full pageful of ways to contact lawmakers and participate in meetings and events peacefully.

U.S. Reversing Troop Surge in Iraq

The first of 30,000 American troops who were part of a surge ordered to Iraq by President Bush in January are being withdrawn, in what observers say will be the first test of the progress Iraqi forces have made in securing their own country.

The 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, operating in volatile Diyala province, is being withdrawn - one of 20 combat brigades currently in Iraq.

Then, between January and July, the force will shrink to 15 brigades. The withdrawal schedule has not yet been made public, for security purposes.

The total number of U.S. troops will likely go from 167,000 now to 140,000-145,000 by July - six months before President Bush leaves office and a new commander-in-chief takes over.

......

More U.S. troops have died in Iraq this year - some 856 - than in any year since the war began. But troop deaths per month have dramatically decreased since summer. Also, Iraqi civilian deaths have declined.

Methinks they were scheduled to come home anyway

GOP staffers sensed Pelosi plot in temporary Fox News blackout

When Fox News programming mysteriously disappeared last week from televisions at the US Capitol, some Republican Congressional aides were quick to suspect foul play, according to a DC newspaper.

"Staffers looking for their daily dose of 'We report, you decide' coverage on Wednesday flipped to the usual channel, only to be surprised to find dead air," report Roll Call's Emily Heil and Anna Palmer. "Conspiracy theories, unsurprisingly, abounded."

Eyeing Democrats as likely culprits, some Republicans on the Hill suggested a far-ranging plot reaching even the highest levels of majority leadership. "I sense Pelosi's behind this," one finger-pointing GOP staffer told Roll Call of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Another Republican aide described the horrors of being compelled to watch other networks' news coverage during the work day.

"I was just forced to watch an MSNBC segment on going green by shopping at farmers markets," the withdrawal-afflicted staffer told the paper. "We need Fox back, stat."

"A Fox engineer explained that there was a technical glitch as the network shifted its feeds from analog to digital," reports Roll Call. "The receivers in the Capitol are being upgraded, too, he said, contributing to the problems. But all, he promises, is right again."

The Horror!

One thing is for certain about the post-presidency of George W. Bush: "Under no circumstances" will first lady Laura Bush spend her retirement years living at the much-ballyhooed Texas ranch that she and the president have been "escaping" to for the past seven years.

The new Bush home, our source assures us, will be far more extravagant and certainly less dusty. In fact, Mrs. Bush yesterday commented three times in one sentence about the infamous Texas dust during a visit to Amarillo and Midland, both in western Texas.

New Jersey Rep. Saxton to Retire

Rep. Jim Saxton, the twelve-term Republican from New Jersey's 3rd District, plans to retire after his current term, an announcement that could come as early as today, according to sources familiar with his decision.

Saxton's retirement opens up a seat he has held since 1984 and creates another vulnerable open seat for House Republicans. President Bush narrowly carried the district with 51 percent in 2004, and Democrats had been making noise about a potential challenge to Saxton in 2008.

Saxton is the 15th House Republican to decide against seeking reelection; just three Democrats have announced this will be their last term.

The swing nature of Saxton's seat places in it a highly vulnerable category along with open GOP seats in Illinois's 11th District, Arizona's 1st, Minnesota's 3rd, New Mexico's 1st and Ohio's 15th and 16th.

2008

Pelosi's New Plan: No War Funding Bill If Bush Vetoes Iraq Withdrawal

Pelosi Announces Iraq Withdrawal Vote Friday

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will vote as early as Friday on legislation that would spend $50 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but require that President Bush start bringing troops home.

The money is about a quarter of the $196 billion requested by Bush. It would finance about four months of combat in Iraq, Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.

"This is not a blank check for the president," she said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

"This is providing funding for the troops limited to a particular purpose, for a short time frame," she added.

Wussies

Senate overrides veto on water bill

President George W. Bush suffered his first veto override Thursday as the Senate approved a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects.

The vote was 79 to 14. The outcome was a foregone conclusion, but it still marked a milestone for a president who spent his first six years with a much friendlier Congress controlled by the Republican Party. Now he confronts a more hostile, Democratic-controlled Congress, and the vote showed that even many Republicans would defy him on spending matters important to their political careers.

The bill will finance hundreds of Army Corps of Engineers projects, like dams, sewage plants and beach restoration, that are important to local districts and their representatives. It also includes money for the Gulf Coast, which is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, and for Florida Everglades restoration efforts.

On Tuesday, the House voted 361 to 54 to override the veto. Both votes easily exceeded the two-thirds majority needed in each chamber to negate a presidential veto. The last such veto override happened when Congress gave President Bill Clinton the second of his two overrides in November 1998.

Veterans make up 1 in 4 homeless in US

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

Some advocates say such an early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

Rep. Robert Wexler sent his constituents this beautiful and admirable Email today:

As a person who supports holding this Administration accountable for their deceptive actions, you may be interested to know about the recent votes in the House regarding H.Res. 333, "Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors."

I share your belief that Vice President Cheney must answer for his deceptive actions in office, particularly with regard to the preparations for the Iraq war and the revelation of the identity of covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson as part of political retribution against her husband. That is why I voted against the motion to table debate on H.Res. 333. Along with only 85 other Democrats, I opposed tabling the measure and supported beginning immediate debate and a vote on the Cheney impeachment resolution. The vote on tabling the Kucinich resolution was rejected, and the House subsequently voted to refer the matter to the Judiciary Committee.

Vice President Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration have demonstrated a consistent pattern of abusing the law and misleading Congress and the American people. We see the consequences of these actions abroad in Iraq and at home through the violations of our civil liberties. The American people are served well with a legitimate and thorough impeachment inquiry. I will urge the Judiciary Committee to schedule impeachment hearings immediately and not let this issue languish as it has over the last six months. Only through hearings can we bring begin to correct the abuses of Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration; and, if it is determined in these hearings that Vice President Cheney has committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors, he should be impeached and removed from office. It is time for Congress to expose the multitude of misdeeds of the Administration, and I am hopeful that the Judiciary Committee will expeditiously begin an investigation of this matter.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns. I sincerely appreciate your input and hope that you will feel free to contact me anytime I may be of assistance to you. In addition, I hope you find my website (http://wexler.house.gov) a valuable resource in keeping up with events in Washington and in South Florida.

With warm regards,

Congressman Robert Wexler

US debt tops $9 trillion for first time-Treasury

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday publicly held U.S. debt breached $9 trillion this week for the first time ever, just five weeks after Congress had raised the statutory borrowing limit.

At the end of September, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a measure to increase the debt limit ceiling to $9.815 trillion from $8.965 trillion, allowing the government to keep issuing debt.

The increase in the debt limit is the fifth since Bush took office in January 2001. The U.S. debt stood at about $5.6 trillion at the start of his presidency.

In approving the debt limit increase, Congressional lawmakers said the $850 billion increase should be large enough to allow the government to continue borrowing into 2009, well beyond next year's presidential and congressional elections.

Conservative?

The House voted today to send a resolution considering the impeachment of Vice President Cheney to the Judiciary Committee, a move that embarrassed Democratic leaders who were forced into the parliamentary tactic to avoid a floor debate on impeachment.

Led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the long-shot anti-war candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, scores of Democrats were joined by scores of Republicans in initially supporting a Kucinich resolution that would have prompted a full debate on impeaching Cheney.

Democratic leaders long ago rejected any consideration of impeaching Cheney and President Bush as an irresponsible move supported only by the far left, so they tried today to table Kucinich's impeachment resolution. After initially having more than enough votes to kill the resolution - the "yea" tally to table impeachment topped out at 291 - Republicans decided they had a chance to politically shame Democrats into a full debate on the sensitive issue. Republicans gleefully said they wanted the debate to show the public how many Democrats would actually support impeaching Cheney, which they consider a move supported only by a fringe element of anti-war activists.

More than 120 members, predominantly Republicans, then switched their votes in favor of holding a one-hour debate on the issue, with a final vote of 251-162 supporting a debate on impeachment. Rather than allow a debate fraught with political risk, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) moved to send the Kucinich resolution to the Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), has publicly speculated about impeaching the president or vice president but has declined taking any action since taking the gavel in January.

A divided Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved Michael Mukasey as U.S. attorney general despite concerns about the retired judge's refusal to denounce simulated drowning as unlawful torture.

On an 11-8 vote, with two Democrats joining all nine Republicans, the committee sent President George W. Bush's nomination of Mukasey to the full Democratic-led Senate for anticipated confirmation as chief U.S. law enforcement officer. The vote is likely to take place next week.

Bush's selection of Mukasey to replace former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales initially drew broad and bipartisan support. But Mukasey ran into trouble at his confirmation hearing when he declined to say if he considered the so-called waterboarding interrogation technique illegal torture.

Scores of H.S. Students Face Expulsion Following Antiwar Sit-In

Over 30 anti-war protestors at Morton West High School in Berwyn face expulsion for a demonstration at the school on Thursday.

Over 70 students participated in a sit-in against the Iraq War on All Saint's Day, Thursday, November 1st. It began third hour when dozens of student gathered quietly in the lunchroom at Morton West High School and refused to leave. Administrators and police became involved immediately and locked down the school for a half hour after class ended. Students report that they were promised that there would be no consequences besides cutting classes if they took their protest outside so as not to disturb the school day. The students agreed and were led to a corner outside the cafeteria where they sang songs and held signs while classes resumed. "At first they tried to make us like leave the school, " said Jerry Petrack, who was with the protest from the beginning. Petracek referred to the massive walk-out for immigrant rights in 2006 that guided their decisions that morning. "They were like, 'march the streets' or whatever and we were like 'no we don't wanna leave the school because last time there was a protest outside the school and kids got arrested,' and we remembered that."

Deans, counselors and even the Superintendent tried to change the minds of a few, mainly those students with higher GPA scores to abandon the protest. The school called the homes of many of the protestors. Those whose parents arrived before the end of school and took their students home, or left before the protest ended at the final bell, received 3-5 days suspension. All others, an estimated 37 received 10 days suspension and expulsion papers. Parents report that Nowakowski stated those who are seventeen will also face police charges.

Parents who are frantically trying to spare their child's expulsion flooded the school yesterday to file appeals on the matter. So far, Superintendent Nowakowski has held firm on the punishments. They are expected to find out the results of the appeals on Tuesday. Parents and students report and the school's videotape shown to some of the parents confirms that the students were non-violent in their action and there was no damage to property.

Bush: No attorney general if not Mukasey

President Bush sought to save Michael Mukasey's troubled nomination for attorney general Thursday, defending the retired judge's refusal to say whether he considers waterboarding torture and warning of a leaderless Justice Department if Democrats do not confirm him.

"If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee for attorney general," Bush said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"That would guarantee that America would have no attorney general during this time of war," the president said.

The comment raised questions about whether Bush would nominate anyone else to succeed Alberto Gonzales as the nation's top law enforcer. Bush could bypass Congress by filling the job with someone serving in an acting capacity over the last 14 months of his administration.

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Army Has Record Low Level of Recruits

The Army began its recruiting year Oct. 1 with fewer signed up for basic training than in any year since it became an all-volunteer service in 1973, a top general said Wednesday.

Gen. William S. Wallace, whose duties as commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command include management of recruiting, told reporters at the Pentagon that the historic dip will make it harder to achieve the full-year recruiting goal — after just barely reaching it in the year ended Sept. 30.

Making it even tougher is the decline in what the Army calls its delayed entry pool, which is the group of enlistees who have signed contracts to join the Army but want to wait before shipping off to basic training. Normally the Army tries to start its recruiting year with a delayed entry pool equal to about 25 percent of its full-year goal, which in this case would equate to 20,000 recruits.