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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elpolvo who wrote (50492)	7/8/2004 12:01:53 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

And Democrats never withhold the absolute truth......... Financial Times: Iraq Tried To Get Uranium From Niger Captain Ed <font size=4> In a further repudiation of the "Bush Lied!" meme, the Financial Times in London reports that Lord Butler's investigation into prewar British intelligence confirms that Iraq did attempt to get uranium from Niger in defiance of cease-fire agreements and UN resolutions: <font color=blue> A UK government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq is expected to conclude that Britain's spies were correct to say that Saddam Hussein's regime sought to buy uranium from Niger. ... The UK government has remained adamant that negotiations over sales did take place and that the fake documents were not part of the intelligence material it had gathered to underpin its claim. The Financial Times revealed last week that a key part of the UK's intelligence on the uranium came from a European intelligence service that undertook a three-year surveillance of an alleged clandestine uranium-smuggling operation of which Iraq was a part. Intelligence officials have now confirmed that the results of this operation formed an important part of the conclusions of British intelligence. The same information was passed to the US but US officials did not incorporate it in their assessment. <font color=black> Let's recap what we've found since the fall of Saddam Hussein. We've discovered WMD that the UN demanded to be destroyed, including more than a dozen shells with sarin and more with mustard gas that dated back before Gulf War I, part of the stockpile for which Saddam never accounted. The CPA has found mass graves with at least 300,000 bodies in them, and even the National Geographic now estimates that as many as 7 million Shi'ites have disappeared over the twelve years the UN sat on its hands and allowed Saddam to defy the sixteen resolutions demanding his verifiable disarmament. Intelligence files discovered by independent sources such as the Los Angeles Times shows that Saddam thwarted the arms embargo that supposedly "contained" him with the active help of UNSC member Syria. ABC reported that Saddam's IIS supplied Abu al-Zarqawi, an al-Qaeda operative, with shelter and weapons. Now we find out that the Brits correctly reported Saddam's efforts to get his hands on uranium, in defiance to the neat little storyline constructed by the Left that Bush's reliance on that information equates to a lie used to mislead the US into war. And to what purpose would Iraq put that uranium had it successfully concluded that transaction? Does anyone suppose that Saddam simply wanted to make his palaces glow in the dark -- or perhaps make Tel Aviv or DC do so instead? I'll wait, along with Instapundit and QandO, for the onslaught of media coverage and apologies from the left-wing pundits that have accused the President of everything from fascist falsehoods to selling America out to foreigners. I just won't hold my breath.

To: elpolvo who wrote (50492)	7/8/2004 12:03:49 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

War and Tax Cuts _____________________ by Holly Sklar and Chuck Collins Published on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 by CommonDreams.org More Americans have died in Iraq than in all U.S. military operations since Vietnam combined. Some states have reported their first National Guard combat deaths since World War II. The Bush administration expects tens of thousands of troops to be in Iraq well past next year. Reserve and Guard members on extended duty in Iraq and Afghanistan have lost savings, homes and businesses. Now the Army is recalling thousands of honorably discharged soldiers who served less than eight years on active duty. Meanwhile, millionaires are getting tax breaks. Tax cuts for the richest 1 percent of Americans are costing about as much this year as the combined budgets for Veterans Affairs, Energy, Environmental Protection and Homeland Security. The Bush administration's "Planning Guidance for the FY 2006 Budget" projects cutbacks in all those areas plus education, housing, health care and nearly every domestic responsibility. Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt would be appalled at President Bush's unprecedented wartime tax policies -- lining the pockets of millionaires while soldiers are in the line of fire. They understood the importance of shared sacrifice. President Bush does not. In July 1862, President Lincoln established the first graduated income tax and taxes on inheritances and corporate dividends to finance the union in the Civil War. President Bush used the USS Abraham Lincoln, draped with a "Mission Accomplished" banner, to prematurely declare major combat operations ended in Iraq. President Bush has been much more accomplished in his mission of major tax cuts for millionaires. President Roosevelt raised taxes during World War II, including taxes on war profiteering. "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster," he said. While war profiteering has fueled anger in Iraq and America, the Bush tax cuts have helped mint more millionaires at home. The number of people in the United States with at least $1 million in financial or liquid assets (not counting home equity) jumped 14 percent last year, according to the “2004 World Wealth Report” by Merrill Lynch and the Capgemini Group. “The Bush tax cuts, which included a reduction in the top tax rate, as well as reductions in taxes on estates, capital gains and dividends,” the Wall Street Journal reported, “helped bolster the fortunes of the fortunate.” In 2004, households with incomes above $1 million will receive tax cuts averaging $123,600. That will cause their after-tax income to jump by more than 6 percent, says the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Tax cuts for the wealthy are stimulating budget cutbacks, deficits and an increasingly flat tax burden. In 2004, the richest 1 percent -- with an average income of nearly $1 million -- will pay 32.8 percent of their income in all federal, state and local taxes combined. The other 99 percent -- with an average income of $47,500 -- will pay just a little less, at 29.4 percent, Citizens for Tax Justice reports. Already enacted tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent will cost more than $1 trillion in 2001-2010. That translates into more than $300 million in lost revenues every day for ten years. Some shared sacrifice. The administration’s revised “Patterns of Global Terrorism” shows the number of significant terrorist attacks reached a 20-year high in 2003. U.S. troops are overtaxed abroad. Police and fire stations, schools and emergency rooms are understaffed at home. The nation is sinking deeper into a quagmire of debt. Yet, the administration and its congressional allies are pushing even more tax cuts for high-income Americans. More tax cuts at a time when higher education has become more out of reach financially for low-income Americans -- unless they join the military. The Bush tax cuts are widening the gap between the children of millionaires and the children of soldiers, few of them from wealthy families. The soldiers' children will have even less opportunity for higher education and career ladders outside the military than their parents did. More and more Americans realize the Iraq war is based on false premises. Unless Bush's similarly misguided tax policies are reversed, we will pay for his mistakes for generations to come. __________________________ Holly Sklar is co-author of "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us". Chuck Collins is co-author with Bill Gates Sr. of "Wealth and Our Commonwealth.” Holly Sklar can be reached at hsklar@aol.com. Chuck Collins can be reached at ccollins@faireconomy.org. Copyright (c) 2004 Holly Sklar and Chuck Collins commondreams.org