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

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (746782)	8/2/2006 3:42:55 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

This is interesting...Murtha did not name the Plaintiff, just his squad...and the Marine claims the Pentagon intentionally gave Murtha bad info. Murtha is handling this well, claiming he does not blame the individual for being frustrated and angry...just goes to the point of Murtha's original comments. Frankly, I think Murtha wins big on this either way..either the charges are ultimately proven true (sad), or the allegation that Murtha was lied to by the Pentagon is established (sad) or the individual has to explain in civil court why he thinks Murtha acted with malice and the exact nature of what he did that day in Iraq (really sad for all). ________________________ Marine sues congressman for defamation By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated press Writer 49 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A Marine Corps sergeant under investigation in connection with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha is accusing Rep. John P. Murtha (news, bio, voting record) of defaming him in public comments about the case. ADVERTISEMENT Lawyers for Frank D. Wuterich, 26, argue in a suit filed Wednesday in federal court that Murtha falsely accused Wuterich "of cold-blooded murder and war crimes" — although they acknowledged during a news conference that Murtha named Wuterich's squad, but not Wuterich personally, when speaking with reporters. Murtha, D-Pa., issued a statement Wednesday saying he doesn't blame Wuterich for "lashing out." "When I spoke up about Haditha, my intention was to draw attention to the horrendous pressure put on our troops in Iraq and to the cover-up of the incident," said Murtha, a 16-term congressman who was campaigning for re-election Wednesday in his hometown of Johnstown, Pa. The suit maintains that Pentagon officials "who have briefed or leaked information to Mr. Murtha deliberately provided him with inaccurate and false information" and that the congressman subsequently "has made repeated statements .... that are defamatory" to Wuterich and his fellow Marines. The suit accuses Murtha of spreading "false and malicious lies" about Wuterich and his squad that were "intended to serve his own private purpose and interests" and that Murtha's comments "have been reproduced by countless third parties throughout the world." It says many of Murtha's remarks were made outside his "scope of employment as a congressman." Murtha, a former Marine and decorated Vietnam War veteran, has been a leading proponent of withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. The claim for libel and invasion of privacy seeks damages to be determined, but not less than $75,000. Mark Zaid, an attorney for Wuterich said during a news conference that the suit was not about money or politics. "This case ... is about truth, honor and accountability and Congressman Murtha, who we believe has acted out of his scope as a congressman," Zaid said. The suit details Wuterich's account of what happened on Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha, a story he has told through his lawyers previously. Wuterich maintains several civilians were killed when his squad pursued insurgents firing at them from inside a house after a roadside bombing that killed one Marine. He describes a house-to-house hunt that went wrong in the midst of a confusing battlefield, but has denied through his attorneys any vengeful massacre. Wuterich and other Marines from his 3rd battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, are under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service. A parallel investigation is looking at whether officers at higher levels in the chain of command covered up the facts. No one has been charged in the case. A Pentagon official told The Associated Press Wednesday that evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children. The court case was first reported late Tuesday on The Washington Post's Internet site.

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (746782)	8/2/2006 5:20:37 PM
From: JDN	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

My wife has worked 4 DOUBLE SHIFTS in the last WEEK cause there just are NO NURSES available when one calls in sick. jdn

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (746782)	8/3/2006 2:34:09 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

... Inverted yield curve. Six month's straight of declining L.E.I. numbers. The business cycle has NOT been repealed. :-)

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (746782)	8/4/2006 8:41:22 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Published in the St. Louis Fed's July/August Review: "Is the United States Bankrupt?" - Laurence J. Kotlikoff Is the U.S. bankrupt? Or to paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors? Many would scoff at this notion. They’d point out that the country has never defaulted on its debt; that its debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is substantially lower than that of Japan and other developed countries; that its long-term nominal interest rates are historically low; that the dollar is the world’s reserve currency; and that China, Japan, and other countries have an insatiable demand for U.S. Treasuries. Others would argue that the official debt reflects nomenclature, not fiscal fundamentals; that the sum total of official and unofficial liabilities is massive; that federal discretionary spending and medical expenditures are exploding; that the United States has a history of defaulting on its official debt via inflation; that the government has cut taxes well below the bone; that countries holding U.S. bonds can sell them in a nanosecond; that the financial markets have a long and impressive record of mispricing securities; and that financial implosion is just around the corner. This paper explores these views from both partial and general equilibrium perspectives. The second section begins with a simple two-period life-cycle model to explicate the economic meaning of national bankruptcy and to clarify why government debt per se bears no connection to a country’s fiscal condition. The third section turns to economic measures of national insolvency, namely, measures of the fiscal gap and generational imbalance. This partial-equilibrium analysis strongly suggests that the U.S. government is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who, in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds. ------------------------------------------ This article though it contains some nasty mathematic formulas, is a must read considering its source. You can read it at: research.stlouisfed.org