January 26, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

DEFLATING AL-QAEDA

The Bush administration has suggested that a U. S. withdrawal from Iraq would be a victory for al-Qaeda. However, intelligence on al-Qaeda suggests just the opposite. The U. S. presence in Iraq is the best recruiting tool the terrorist organization could ask for. Like a giant parasite, the Iraq war is draining the United States. We've stretched our military thin, we're sustaining horrific casualties, and we're bleeding our treasury. We are also sacrificing our credibility around the world. This article by Robert Parry is at www.consortiumnews.com:

“Let’s be clear,” Liz Cheney wrote. “If we restrict the ability of our troops to fight and win this war, we help the terrorists. Don’t take my word for it. Read the plans of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Ayman Zawahiri to drive America from Iraq, establish a base for al-Qaeda and spread jihad across the Middle East.”

But U.S. intelligence knows that al-Qaeda’s public statements must be taken with a grain of salt.

By contrast, analysts give more weight to intercepted al-Qaeda communiqués describing the leaders' private views. Those messages reveal that – even as al-Qaeda baits the United States about leaving Iraq – the group actually worries that a sudden U.S. withdrawal could collapse its position.

Intelligence analysts estimate that al-Qaeda's forces account for only five percent or less of the armed opposition fighting U.S. and allied forces – and many of those young jihadists are not considered committed fighters.

As Zawahiri said in one captured letter, a rapid American military withdrawal could cause al-Qaeda’s new foreign jihadists, who have gone to Iraq to battle the Americans, to simply give up the fight and go home.

REPUBLICANS HATE WORKING PEOPLE

Republicans prove time after time that they hate working class people. They consistently obstruct raising the disgracefully low minimum wage, but they pass huge tax cuts for corporations and the very rich. They gut health and safety regulations every chance they get. They sponsor legislation that moves jobs offshore. This article is about the impassioned speech by Senator Edward Kennedy telling it like it is about Republicans. The article by Bob Geiger is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

But Massachusetts' Senior Senator -- who has seen his efforts to increase the minimum wage shot down in the Senate three times in the last two years -- really unloaded on his Republican colleagues for their utter contempt for working people in this country.

"240 billion dollars in tax breaks for corporations. 36 billion dollars in tax breaks for small businesses. Increase in productivity -- 42 percent over the last 10 years," yelled Kennedy emotionally. "But do you think there's any increase in the minimum wage? No. At 12 after five today, on Thursday, I speak for all of our Democrats and say we're prepared to vote now. Now!"

"Do you have such disdain for hard-working Americans that you want to pile all your amendments on this? Why don’t you just hold your amendments until other pieces of legislation? Why this volume of amendments on just the issue to try and raise the minimum wage? What is it about it that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it? Something. Something! What is the price that the workers have to pay to get an increase? What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"