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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (725048)	2/11/2006 3:13:14 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 769670

Cheney's national security leaks are endangering US national security.

To: TideGlider who wrote (725048)	2/12/2006 7:21:01 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Gingrich Cheers Frustrated Conservatives By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer Sat Feb 11, 9:56 PM ET news.yahoo.com Newt Gingrich, who led the Republican Party to power a dozen years ago, told cheering conservatives Saturday it is time to overhaul a balky, slow-moving government locked in the last century. Citing multiple government failures after Hurricane Katrina, the former House speaker said the government meltdown at all levels illustrated how badly government needs to be updated in all of its operations. "The system failed, the city of New Orleans failed, the state of Louisiana failed and the government of the United States failed," Gingrich said. "When you see an American body on an American street sitting there for three days on television because the government can't collect the dead, something has failed. "Where are the proposals for dramatic, bold, large change that everytime something fails in New Orleans during the reconstruction, we don't defend it ... we fix it?" Gingrich's appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference was scripted like a presidential campaign stop, with young supporters in red T-shirts passing out buttons and pamphlets. "We clearly need the Republican Party to reacquire a movement that designs a 21st century Contract with America," Gingrich said, recalling the set of proposals at the heart of his successful 1994 strategy to win congressional races. Gingrich, who has been on a promotional book tour, said he isn't currently running for president, though he hasn't ruled it out. "Ideas precede reform," Gingrich said. "If you can't think it, you can't say it and you can't do it." The former lawmaker from Georgia was accorded "rock star" treatment by those in the crowded hotel ballroom. He was interrupted frequently by standing ovations, hailed with cries of "Newt, Newt, Newt and besieged by young fans eager for a photo with Gingrich. Conservatives at this conference expressed mounting frustration with the expansion of government and increased spending in the last five years, even with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress. While the conservatives credit President Bush's leadership in the war against terror and for naming conservatives to the Supreme Court, they're starting now to consider the next wave of conservative leaders, said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union. In a straw vote for presidential favorites in 2008, Virginia Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) received 22 percent of the vote of conference participants. Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) garnered 20 percent, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani 12 percent and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 10 percent, according to results from Fabrizio, McLaughlin and Associates. Gingrich was at 5 percent. Gingrich indirectly criticized McCain by attacking the campaign finance law McCain sponsored along with Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., calling it "an assault on the First Amendment." The law places limits on how much money can be raised by candidates and campaigns, and limits on how that money can be used. ___ On the Net: Conservative Political Action Conference: cpac.org Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

To: TideGlider who wrote (725048)	2/12/2006 7:23:26 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Conservatives divided on some Bush policies By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent Thu Feb 9, 3:20 PM ET news.yahoo.com Barely more than a year after celebrating a big U.S. election win, frustrated conservative activists gathered on Thursday in sometimes open revolt over Bush administration policies on immigration, spending and domestic eavesdropping. The first day of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference featured sharp disputes on immigration policy and criticism of the expanding federal budget, growing entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security and threats to individual privacy rights. The mood of frustration was noticeably different from last year's gathering, when White House political adviser Karl Rove touted Republican gains and the re-election of President George W. Bush in 2004 as a triumph of conservative ideas. "George Bush is a conservative and most conservatives like him and support him," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, a prominent lobbying group. "But most conservatives, at one level or another, are troubled by much of what they see going on in our government." The past 15 months have been tough on conservatives because of Bush's sliding poll ratings, growing doubts about the Iraq war and a rash of scandals that brought down former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay and a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. While they admire Bush's tax cuts and his appointments to the federal bench, Keene said conservatives "are frustrated and they want to get things fixed." Many of the panels and speakers at the three-day conference featured hot-button topics that have fueled conservative anger at Bush, with none hotter than the deep Republican split on immigration policy. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a potential 2008 presidential contender who has made immigration his priority, brought some activists to their feet with a condemnation of Bush's spending and immigration policies. "The American people don't know what Republicans stand for anymore," Tancredo said. He called for repeal of the new Medicare prescription drug plan for seniors and the No Child Left Behind education act, laws passed by the Republican-controlled Congress that he said have driven up spending and removed local controls on education. The Republican split over immigration, a major headache for party strategists, has exposed the gulf between conservative activists like Tancredo who oppose guest worker and amnesty programs and Republican business interests that rely on immigrant labor. Bush, mindful of the growing clout of Hispanic voters nationwide, has proposed letting foreign workers and some illegal immigrants in the United States take jobs as temporary workers. On immigration, Tancredo said, "it is the president who is out of step with his party, not Tom Tancredo." Attendees at the conference wandered among more than 120 display booths featuring causes, issues, political action committees and right-wing memorabilia, along with a row of conservative talk radio and blogger booths. The conference features an appearance by former Rep. Bob Barr, a leading conservative critic of threats to civil liberties in the war on terrorism, and panels on tax reform, reining in spending and entitlement growth. "I think there is more tension here than usual," said Muriel Coleman, the owner of a Christmas shop and part-time political consultant in Madison, Wisconsin. "But that's why we're talking about it -- I think it's really helpful to get this all out in the open." Conservative commentator George Will opened the conference with criticism of the Bush administration's failure to plan for a post-war Iraq, and he said the administration's legal foundation for domestic spying was "a stretch that conservatives should not docilely accept." Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

To: TideGlider who wrote (725048)	2/12/2006 7:25:31 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

US federal gov't disregarded Katrina threat: Post 2 hours, 31 minutes ago news.yahoo.com A congressional report will show the U.S. government from President Bush down disregarded the threat of Hurricane Katrina and failed to take live-saving countermeasures, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The report includes 90 findings of failures at all levels of government but proposes few specific changes, the Post said, citing a summary of the report and an interview with a senior investigator. It lays primary fault with the passive reaction and misjudgments of top Bush aides, especially Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Post said. It portrays Chertoff as detached from events and says he switched on the government's emergency response systems "late, ineffectively or not at all" and delayed the flow of federal troops and supplies by as much as three days. The U.S. military, Federal Emergency Management Agency director and FEMA field commanders set up rival chains of command, the Post said. Bush could have but did not speed the response because he alone had the power to cut through bureaucratic resistance, the Post said. The response to the disaster showed the government failed to learn from the September 11, 2001 hijacking attacks, the report concludes. "Blinding lack of situational awareness and disjointed decision making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina's horror," the Post quoted the report as saying. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast on August 29, causing the deaths of more than 1,200 people and flooding much of the city of New Orleans. A Homeland Security Department spokesman told the Post the government had prepared for Katrina's landfall but Brown's "willful insubordination" hampered the response. Brown was forced out of the agency shortly after the disaster. He told Congress on Friday he had warned the White House of flooding in New Orleans shortly after the hurricane struck, contradicting White House statements that they were not aware of the flooding until the following day. The White House is preparing its own review, a spokesman told the Post. The 600-page report, to be released publicly on Wednesday, was produced by a committee of eleven House Republicans. Democrats have boycotted the review and called for an independent commission. Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.