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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (287910)	5/13/2006 5:31:48 PM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573439

I always thought Germany was pissed at us for tearing down their wall... :)

To: combjelly who wrote (287910)	5/13/2006 7:13:22 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573439

Hey, Washington Post and Newsmax on same page: Poll: Strong Support for NSA Phone Surveillance Despite a day of media hyperventilation over the National Security Agency's program to collect information on domestic phone calls, a new poll finds the American people back the operation by overwhelming numbers. In a survey taken yesterday after USA Today blew the cover on the program, 63 percent of those surveyed said they supported the records gathering operation, with 44 percent saying they "strongly" endorsed it. Just 35 percent said they were opposed to the collection of phone records by the government, with a mere 24 percent saying they "strongly" objected to it. 65 percent of those surveyed told ABC/Post pollsters that it was more important to investigate potential terrorist threats "even if it intrudes on privacy." newsmax.com 'cept Newsmax hasn't had the scandals the Washclintons Post has had!

To: combjelly who wrote (287910)	5/13/2006 7:19:14 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573439

Poll: Most Americans Support NSA's Efforts By Richard Morin Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 12, 2006; 7:00 AM A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it. Washington Post/ABC News Poll Poll Data NSA Program Further Blurs Line on Privacy Phone companies know every number we dial. Grocery stores watch what we buy, search engines track what we look for on the Internet, banks count each penny we deposit or withdraw. Secrecy Privilege Invoked in Fighting Ex-Detainee's Lawsuit For at least the fifth time in the past year, the Justice Department yesterday invoked the once rarely cited state secrets privilege to argue that a lawsuit alleging government wrongdoing should be dismissed without an airing, this time in the case of a German citizen seeking an apology and... slightly larger majority--66 percent--said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found. Underlying those views is the belief that the need to investigate terrorism outweighs privacy concerns. According to the poll, 65 percent of those interviewed said it was more important to investigate potential terrorist threats "even if it intrudes on privacy." Three in 10--31 percent--said it was more important for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats. Half--51 percent--approved of the way President Bush was handling privacy matters. The survey results reflect initial public reaction to the NSA program. Those views that could change or deepen as more details about the effort become known over the next few days. USA Today disclosed in its Thursday editions the existence of the massive domestic intelligence-gathering program. The effort began soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, the agency began collecting call records on tens of millions of personal and business telephone calls made in the United States. Agency personnel reportedly analyze those records to identify suspicious calling patterns but do not listen in on or record individual telephone conversations. Word of the program sparked immediate criticism on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans criticized the effort as a threat to privacy and called for congressional inquiries to learn more about the operation. In the survey, big majorities of Republicans and political independents said they found the program to be acceptable while Democrats were split. President Bush made an unscheduled appearance yesterday before White House reporters to defend his administration's efforts to investigate terrorism and criticize public disclosure of secret intelligence operations. But he did not directly acknowledge the existence of the NSA records-gathering program or answer reporters' questions about it. By a 56 percent to 42 percent margin, Americans said it was appropriate for the news media to have disclosed the existence of this secret government program. A total of 502 randomly selected adults were interviewed Thursday night for this survey. Margin of sampling error is five percentage points for the overall results. The practical difficulties of doing a survey in a single night represents another potential source of error. washingtonpost.com

To: combjelly who wrote (287910)	5/13/2006 9:10:51 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573439

(Wall Street Journal) "The Federal government ran a monthly budget surplus of $118.85 billion in April as tax receipts came in stronger than the same period last year." In fact... (AP) "A flood of income tax payments pushed up government receipts to the second-highest level in history in April, giving the country a sizable surplus for the month. In its monthly accounting of the government's books, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that revenue for the month totaled $315.1 billion as Americans filed their tax returns by the April deadline. The gusher of tax revenue pushed total receipts up by 13.4% from April 2005." Now, a question. How can this happen? How can this happen when we had tax cuts? How can it possibly happen when we have had tax cuts, ladies and gentlemen? Well, it happens because of the way we've always told you it happens: Tax cuts produce more revenue because they create more jobs equaling more taxpayers, and more taxpayers contribute more tax revenue while the aggregate tax payment per person comes down. It works every time it is tried, if the top rate that you are reducing is not too low. You reach a point where you are not going to raise revenue if your tax rate is zero. There is a formula for this. It obviously works, especially with capital gains coming down to 15%. So this leads me to another question. What do liberals hate more than our president? Now, I'll give you a hint: it is one word. I'll give you another hint: it begins with "R." No, it is not Rush. It is not me. It has seven letters. Liberals hate more than our president, one word. It begins with "R", and has seven letters. Don't bother figuring it out. I'll tell you. What liberals hate more than our president and me is R-E-A-L-I-T-Y. The tax cuts worked, and according to today's media, the Wall Street Journal and others, they worked better than advertised. Yet, only 15 Democrats in the house broke ranks with Pelosi and supported the extension of these tax cuts! Only three in the Senate! Only three Democrats broke ranks and supported the extension. Despite the evidence, the liberal rally cries the tax warfare cry. "Tax cuts favor the rich." It turns out tax cuts favor the economy. Tax cuts favor the employment figures. Tax cuts work! Reality sets in. What is the left going to do but try to continually rewrite history. You know how they are doing it? ABC sent one of their Good Morning America reporterettes out there to some mall. Her name is Kate Snow. They sent her out there waving a $20 bill, claiming $70 billion tax cut would only represent a $20 tax cut to the kind of people that run around in the malls, and then they went out and found a Democrat who just conveniently was able to mouth Democrat talking points! "Yes, well, these tax cuts only favor the rich." I swear, folks, tax cuts favor the country and they favor the economy. Let me give you a hint. If you are going to get a tax cut, you have to be paying taxes, and the more in taxes you pay, the bigger your tax cuts are going to be. It's a hard fought mathematical calculation to make, but if you're not paying many taxes to begin with, you are not going to get a huge tax cut and we know -- you can go to my website, the statistics are always there. You can take a look at who is paying the lion's share of taxes in this country. It is impossible to not have those people get a tax cut if you are going to have a tax cut! END TRANSCRIPT