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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (62938)	3/16/2006 6:45:02 PM
From: zonkie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

I felt a lot of the democrats should have came out and declared (admitted) they had been duped when it became evident that junior had cherry picked his "evidence" of all the now discredited reasons for attacking Iraq. All of the big items they gave as reason proved to be false but it was too late when the truth came out. Everything from aluminum tubes to hardball to yellowcake in Niger were untrue and if our 44 billion a year intelligence couldn't tell junior they were lies something needs to be changed. I think they did try to tell him but he kept telling them to rewrite their reports until they sounded like they supported him. Republicans like to say that everyone saw the same evidence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Cheney made numerous trips to intelligence agencies insure that the people who were supposed to find reasons to attack Iraq found reasons no matter how flimsy the evidence was. They had their own pipeline set up to bypass anyone who might try to throw a little truth into the game. The final report was designed to get congressmen to vote for war and the truth be damned. Right now all that is keeping America from finding out the truth about junior's "evidence" is Pat Roberts. Arlen Spector says he wants to get to the bottom of the domestic spying scandal and I believed him at first but I am losing faith in him. A lot rests on whether he does the right thing or not. We already know Roberts is going to do everything he can to protect the republicans no matter what laws they have broken. Like junior says "it's just a goddamned piece of paper."

To: TigerPaw who wrote (62938)	3/16/2006 6:48:20 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Kerry has stated his only mistake was believing a word Bush-Cheney said (including the intel they gave the senate), and trusting them at all not to break their promises only to go to war as a last resort. If that's not good enough, what the hell. Kerry is not to blame for that war. Lieberman and Gephardt were the ones in the Rose Garden with Bush, not Kerry.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (62938)	3/16/2006 7:00:39 PM
From: Crimson Ghost	Respond to of 173976

CONGRESS BACKS OFF OF TRAVEL PAYOLA BAN BECAUSE OF ISRAEL LOBBY ORI NIR, FORWARD - With lawmakers fearing a public backlash over the Abramoff scandal, many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle were lining up behind legislation that would outlaw privately funded trips and place severe restrictions on gifts and meals from lobbyists. But then Jewish organizations, in the lead of a loose coalition of nonprofit groups, moved to block the reforms on travel, arguing that one of their most effective lobbying tools has been privately sponsored trips to Israel for lawmakers. Israel is the number one foreign destination of privately funded congressional trips, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Washington's powerful pro-Israel lobby, is the second largest underwriter of such overseas travel. The tide appears to have turned against those pressing for a ban on travel, according to congressional insiders. They say that a solid bipartisan majority now favors watered down legislation that would impose some restrictions on privately funded travel by legislators and require full transparency, but still allow privately funded trips. The severe restrictions on gifts and meals remain. "We've all been successful in making sure that there are no immediate rushes to action" on travel reform, said William Daroff, vice president for public policy at the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella group of North American Jewish federations. "We are very comfortable with the bill that is now being debated on the Senate floor because it brings about a good combination of smart reform that aims to rid the system of many of the abuses while not imposing a ban." In the past five years, Aipac and its affiliated American Israel Education Foundation spent almost $1.1 million dollars on trips -- most of them to Israel -- for members of Congress, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington lobbying and campaign finance watchdog organization. Aipac is second only to the well-funded Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, which has spent close to $ 3.5 million on trips for members of Congress since 2000. During the period surveyed, Israel was the foremost destination for such travel, accounting for 164 out of 1,922 privately funded trips overseas by members of Congress. Almost all trips to Israel are funded by Aipac, with some financed by local Jewish federations and other Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee. The dovish Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation spent more than $200,000 on congressional trips to Middle Eastern countries, including Israel. forward.com