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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (38542)	4/8/2004 4:37:54 PM
From: Rascal	Respond to of 793916

ap.tbo.com After Rice's Testimony, Bush Leads Ranch Tour for Hunters, Fishermen By Scott Lindlaw Associated Press Writer Published: Apr 8, 2004 CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - Sitting in his white pickup truck, President Bush called national security adviser Condoleezza Rice Thursday to tell her she had done a "great job" testifying before the Sept. 11 commission. Later, Bush roamed his 1,600-acre ranch with about 20 representatives of hunting and fishing groups. The president and his wife, sitting in the living room of their ranch home here, watched all three hours of Rice's testimony, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said. Bush thought that Rice "did a terrific job" and that she articulated "the responsible actions the administration took before Sept. 11 and the aggressive actions the administration took after Sept. 11," Buchan said. The president began the day by speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Iraq and other issues. The Kremlin said Bush initiated the 20-minute call, which came at a time of spiraling violence in Iraq. Russia has no troops in Iraq. The Kremlin said "serious distress was expressed about the absence of progress in regulating regional problems and the escalation of violence." White House officials would reveal no details of the conversation. The official agenda of his tour and meeting with hunting and fishing advocates was a discussion of Bush's "conservation agenda," aides said, but the invitation was also an election-year bid for gun owners' votes. The groups represented included Ducks Unlimited, Quail Unlimited, the Safari Club International, the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Some of Bush's guests for the one-hour visit were leaders of the organizations, while others were journalists from their affiliated magazines who interviewed Bush. The visitors also met with James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Bush is an avid fisherman and occasionally casts into the bass pond just steps from his Crawford, Texas, ranch home. On New Year's Day, he went quail hunting in southern Texas with George H.W. Bush - the most celebrated member of Ducks Unlimited. But one of the current president's own aides has strongly criticized the practices of one of the hunting groups visiting the ranch on Thursday. Matthew Scully, a presidential speechwriter, criticized Safari Club International for mistreating animals in his 2002 book, "Dominion." The club's members pay up to $20,000 to hunt elephants, lions or other animals, either abroad or in American "safari ranches," where the animals are penned in by fences. Scully said the organization turned nature "into an endless theme park and the creatures into so many animatronic figures." Scully did not return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment. A spokesman for Democrat John Kerry used the ranch tour to charge that the president is "systematically dismantling, neutralizing or defunding virtually every meaningful law, regulation and program that protects or restores fish and wildlife." The administration has broken a promise to fully finance conservation programs, Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said. The president has no public appearances until Sunday, when his parents, mother-in-law and daughters were gathering, along with Rice, at the ranch. They planned to attend Easter Sunday services at Fort Hood, as they did last year, officials said. Seven soldiers from the 1st Cavalry at Fort Hood died Sunday in attack in Baghdad. Bush is spending a long break here through Monday, when he is to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Ducks Unlimited: ducks.org White House Council on Environmental Quality: whitehouse.gov (Bush has been at Crawford since Tuesay. While the world unwinds, and staffers lie, and marines die, and innocents die, the pResident has not a care in the world. Who manages his calendar? Todd Nugent?) Rascal @FenceAroundIraq.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (38542)	4/8/2004 8:34:56 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793916

Military News - ISRAEL: Abandoning Negotiation April 8, 2004: The Israeli government is seriously proposing a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, that will only leave Israeli troops patrolling the Egyptian border, and Israeli warships patrolling the coast to keep down weapons smuggling. No negotiation is involved, because Israel has decided that there is no Palestinian group that they can negotiate with that can enforce the terms of any agreement. The three main terrorist organizations in Gaza, Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the PLO's Fatah faction, have apparently agreed to put aside their differences and run Gaza together if the Israelis withdraw. Hamas has been telling Western journalists that Hamas was willing to tolerate Israel if the Israelis withdrew, but the media in the Palestinian territories still preaches the destruction of Israel. So whatever the terrorist leadership is telling Western journalists, the message being broadcast to Palestinians has not changed. The terrorist leaders are scrambling to form tighter ties with Western journalists and diplomats in an effort to obtain some degree of protection from Israeli efforts to kill the terrorist leadership. The Israeli counter-terrorism tactics, and attacks on terrorist leaders, have greatly reduced the number of terrorist attacks on Israelis. Thus while these tactics may earn scorn and hostility outside of the Israel, they are enormously popular inside Israel. More Israelis are giving up on negotiations with Palestinians, feeling that the Palestinians cannot form an effective government, or control the Islamic radicals who want to destroy Israel.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (38542)	4/8/2004 11:05:14 PM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793916

Don't want to sound like a broken record but: Itoldjaso. Sadr made the move because he's losing: I visited Sadr City often between July 2003 and March 2004, walking through markets and along apartment blocks. Posters of Muqtada al-Sadr, once omnipresent, faded or disappeared, replaced by posters of late ayatollahs like Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, killed in an August 29, 2003, car bomb. He's spent the money from Iran, he's murdered some rivals, his thugs intimidate ordinary citizens and behave like Hussein's men, but he has no real support, even in "Sadr city". About a million people live there and the US rolled in a small force with very little trouble. Had Sadr had any real support there would have been a blood bath. So far I haven't seen any real reporting which even tenuously supports the idea that there is a Shiite uprising. This isn't surprising. All surveys of Iraq done since the invasion suggest that while many Iraqis aren't happy with Coaltion presence they are even less happy with the prospect of a return to the old ways. And Sadr is very representative of the old ways of institutionalized murder and robbery. I can't say exactly how things will shake out in Iraq but I'm pretty sure Sadr won't be a major player.