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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (57454)	4/6/2006 3:15:37 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93284

another great step in providing a path to follow for India and North Korea and Iran! Bush Administration Unveils Nuclear Weapons Complex Blueprint By Ralph Vartabedian The Los Angeles Times Thursday 06 April 2006 The administration's proposal would modernize the nation's complex of laboratories and factories as well as produce new bombs. The Bush administration on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for rebuilding the United States' decrepit nuclear weapons complex, including restoration of a large-scale bomb manufacturing capacity. The plan calls for the most sweeping realignment and modernization of the nation's massive system of laboratories and factories for nuclear bombs since the end of the Cold War. Until now, the nation has depended on carefully maintaining aging bombs produced during the Cold War arms race, some several decades old. The administration, however, wants the capability to turn out 125 new nuclear bombs per year by 2022, as the Pentagon retires older bombs that it claims will no longer be reliable or safe. Under the plan, all of the nation's plutonium would be consolidated into a single facility that could be more effectively and cheaply defended against possible terrorist attacks. The plan would remove the plutonium now kept at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by 2014, though transfers of the material could start sooner. In recent years, concern has sharply grown that Livermore, surrounded by residential neighborhoods, could not repel a terrorist attack. But the administration blueprint is facing sharp criticism, both from those who say it does not move fast enough to consolidate plutonium stores and from those who say restarting bomb production will encourage aspiring nuclear powers across the globe to develop weapons. The plan was outlined to Congress on Wednesday by Thomas D'Agostino, head of nuclear weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, a part of the Energy Department. While the weapons proposal would restore the capacity to make new bombs, D'Agostino said it is part of a larger effort to accelerate the dismantling of aging bombs left from the Cold War. D'Agostino acknowledged in an interview that the Administration is walking a fine line by modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons program while assuring other nations that it is not seeking a new arms race. The credibility of the argument rests on the U.S. intent to sharply reduce its overall inventory of weapons. The administration is also moving quickly ahead with a new nuclear bomb program known as the "reliable replacement warhead," which began last year. Originally described as an effort to update existing weapons and make them inherently more reliable, it has been broadened and now includes the potential for new bomb designs. Weapons labs currently are engaged in a design competition. The U.S. built its last nuclear weapon in 1989 and last tested a weapon underground in 1992. Since the Cold War, the U.S. has depended on massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons to deter attacks. By contrast, it would now increasingly rely on the capability to build future bombs for deterrence, D'Agostino said. The blueprint calls for a modern complex to design a new nuclear bomb and have it ready in less than four years, allowing the nation to respond to changing military requirements. Such proposals in the past, such as for a nuclear bomb to attack underground bunkers, provoked concern that they undermine U.S. policy to stop nuclear proliferation. The impetus for the plan is a growing recognition that efforts to maintain older nuclear bombs and keep up a large nuclear weapons industrial complex are technically and financially unsustainable. Last year, a task force led by San Diego physicist David Overskei recommended that the Energy Department consolidate the system of eight existing weapons complexes into a single site. Overskei said Wednesday that the cost of security alone for the current infrastructure of plants over the next two decades is roughly $25 billion. Security costs have grown, because the Sept. 11 attacks have forced the Energy Department to assume terrorists could mount a larger and better armed strike force. Peter Stockton, a former Energy Department security consultant and now an investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, criticized the plutonium consolidation plan in House testimony, saying it delays the difficult work too far into the future. Stockton added in an interview that the plutonium transfer at Livermore could be accomplished in a few months. Until now, Livermore lab officials have sharply disagreed with the idea of removing plutonium from their site, saying it was essential to their work. On Wednesday, a lab spokesman said the issue is "far less controversial" and the "decision rests in Washington." The Bush plan, described at a hearing of the strategic subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, would consolidate much of the weapons capacity, but not as completely or quickly as outside critics would like. The overall plan would not be fully implemented until 2030. A critical part of restarting U.S. nuclear bomb production involves so-called plutonium pits, hollow spheres surrounded by high explosives. The pits start nuclear fission and trigger the nuclear fusion in a bomb. The plutonium pits were built at the Energy Department's former Rocky Flats site near Denver, until the weapons plant was shut down in 1989 after it violated major environmental regulations.In recent years, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has attempted to start limited production of plutonium pits and hopes to build a certified pit that will enter the so-called "war reserve" next year. Los Alamos would be producing about 30 to 50 pits per year by 2012, but the Energy Department said that is not enough to sustain the U.S. nuclear deterrent. In his testimony, D'Agostino estimated plutonium pits would last only 45 to 60 years, after which they would be too unreliable and might result in an explosion smaller than intended. Critics outside the government sharply dispute that conclusion, saying there is no evidence that pits degrade over time and that the nation can maintain an adequate nuclear deterrent by carefully maintaining its existing weapons. -------

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (57454)	4/6/2006 3:21:49 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 93284

Ehrlich fears voter fraud By Jon Ward April 6, 2006 ANNAPOLIS -- The Ehrlich administration yesterday said it anticipates widespread voter fraud this year, as Democrats take advantage of election-related legislation passed this session. "I fully expect the governor's political opponents will take advantage of the opportunities for fraud. I expect them to try to engage in organized, large-scale voter fraud," said Paul E. Schurick, director of communications for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. "I think it will be everywhere, statewide," Mr. Schurick said. State Democratic Party Executive Director Derek Walker called the accusations a "scare tactic" and said Mr. Ehrlich is "petrified that the more people that vote, the less chance that [he] wins." Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., Prince George's County Democrat, said: "I've never been privy to any kind of election fraud as long as I've been in politics. No one I know condones it." But Senate Minority Leader J. Lowell Stoltzfus, Eastern Shore Republican, said fraud this fall is "very probable." House Minority Whip Anthony J. O'Donnell said he could "not see any other reason" for a slew of new voting legislation, except to enable fraud. "It's going to be very easy to cheat," said Mr. O'Donnell, Calvert County Republican. The Democrat-controlled legislature has passed a bill that will allow voters to cast ballots at 38 precincts during the week before the September primary and November general elections. Republicans say 21 of the precincts trend heavily Democratic and will boost Democratic candidates, especially Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat running for governor. Another measure makes it easier to vote by absentee ballot and allows voters to use provisional ballots outside their county of residence. Republicans say it would allow rogue voters to go to many precincts outside their county because there is no statewide voter database. A third new law would authorize electronic voting machines throughout the state without requiring a "paper trail." Critics of the voting machines, which are made by Diebold Inc. of Canton, Ohio, say they are easily hacked and manipulated or sabotaged. "I have to say, the Democrats are just engaged in an abuse of power," said Linda Schade, executive director of True Vote Maryland, a nonpartisan group devoted to integrity in elections. "That is going to contribute to a sense of mayhem in the fall elections." Voting security specialists say early voting, combined with electronic voting machines, can pose a huge security risk. Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of Johns Hopkins University's Information Security Institute, said it is a "terrible idea" to leave the Diebold machines in voting precincts for seven consecutive nights. But Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator for the State Board of Elections, said it is "not really accurate" that the Diebold machines can be manipulated easily and that the early voting precincts will have "a level of security that voters can feel confident in." Democratic senators have said it is impossible to arrange for optical-scan voting machines this fall. But Mrs. Schade said Election Systems and Software, a company based in Omaha, Neb., said they could provide the machines this fall for $21.8 million.

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (57454)	4/6/2006 5:03:39 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

CNN corrects CIA leak allegation Published: Thursday April 6, 2006 CNN errantly reported that according to grand jury testimony, President Bush had directly authorized Vice President Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby to leak the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. CNN corrected the claim to more accurately reflect the content of the testimony, noting that it was Vice President Dick Cheney who Libby testified had told him the President had ok'ed the leak of classified information relating to pre-war intelligence. This means the President did not directly, by Libby's account, authorize him to leak classified information. Nowhere in Libby's testimony does he claim that the Vice President or the President authorized him specifically to leak the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame. However, according to Libby's testimony, Cheney did authorize leak of classified information claiming that Bush himself had given the go-ahead. Libby, has been indicted for conspiracy and lying to federal investigators regarding the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. The report was made and corrected live on air.