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VOTE ON TERROR RULES DEFIES BUSH (GOP-led panel gives detainees more protections)
The Houston Chronicle via The NY Times ^ | 9/14/06 | KATE ZERNIKE

Posted on 09/15/2006 5:03:46 AM PDT by demkicker

WASHINGTON - On a frantic day of Republican infighting, the Senate Armed Services Committee defied President Bush on Thursday as four Republicans joined Democrats in approving a plan for the trial and interrogation of terror suspects that the White House has rejected.

The Republican rebellion was led by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee chairman, with backing from Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. The White House had warned that their legislation would leave the United States no option but to shut down a CIA program to interrogate high-level terror suspects.

The vote came despite an all-out effort by the White House to win support for its own approach, which provides far fewer protections for detainees. Bush himself traveled to Capitol Hill with Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday morning, and the administration released a brief letter in which the top lawyers for the military branches said they did not object to the White House proposal to redefine a key provision of the Geneva Conventions.

But former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell sided with the senators, saying in a letter that Bush's plan to redefine the Geneva Conventions would encourage the world to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism" and "put our own troops at risk."

Powell's statement amounted to a rare public breach with the White House he served, but reflected his opposition while in office to the administration's assertions that the war against al-Qaida should not be bound by the Geneva Conventions.... (continued at link)

(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
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To: demkicker
Ping... Some major triangulation going on here!

Totally alienating your base and ending any hope for a future political career is now called "Triangulation" by the Beltway crowd?

101 posted on 09/15/2006 8:25:29 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (The Democrat Party. For those who value slogans over solutions.)
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To: demkicker

McCain has moved to far to the Left. He will not fracture the Republican base as an Indy now. If he runs as an "Perot" after this it will hurt the Dems more then the Repbs


102 posted on 09/15/2006 8:28:14 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (The Democrat Party. For those who value slogans over solutions.)
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To: demkicker

I wrote all 4 and asked them who made them the Commander in Chief. I am not at all concerned about the EU public opinion on how we conduct this war against Islamofascism. When they get hit, the Quislings will be turning once again for us to save their bacon.


103 posted on 09/15/2006 8:29:02 AM PDT by phillyfanatic
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To: demkicker
This has everything to do with pandering to their rabid fan base. These clowns could of talked behind closed doors with the WH. They decided to mug for the cameras. Just more of their gutless inability to stand WITH the President on anything an alienate their Junk Media fan base. As usual they are merely too cowardly to actually STAND for something against the DNC Noise machine and are trying to be on both sides of the issue.

This sort of political panderer behavior renders them unfit to be in any sort of Leadership position. Leaders lead. These clowns would NOT know how to be leaders under any situation.
104 posted on 09/15/2006 8:32:53 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (The Democrat Party. For those who value slogans over solutions.)
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To: demkicker

"The Republican rebellion was led by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee chairman, with backing from Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine."

Well, you folks just go and rebel yourself right out of office. Cause ya ain't doin' a thing...


105 posted on 09/15/2006 9:33:57 AM PDT by Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin
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To: demkicker

The title is wrong. One should not try to describe McCain, Warner, Graham and Collins as GOP.

I would never vote for them for anything, no matter their opponent.


106 posted on 09/15/2006 9:55:23 AM PDT by rock58seg (A minority of Republican RINO's are making a lot of Republicans look like fools.)
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To: MNJohnnie
Totally alienating your base and ending any hope for a future political career is now called "Triangulation" by the Beltway crowd?

I know it sounds strange, but don't forget McCain is a megalomaniac and loves the media attention. He thinks he can really come out ahead on this issue since he's been successful before and has the media fully in his pocket as long as he's causing Bush problems.

McCain loves being the thorn in Bush's side and that alone feeds his demented ego. I don't dismiss for one moment the possibility of McCain running as an independent simply because he is a very bitter man that loves the limelight.

107 posted on 09/15/2006 10:00:06 AM PDT by demkicker (democrats, terrorists, Powell, McCain, Graham & Collins are intimate bedfellows)
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To: demkicker
The Geneva Convention shouldn't even apply to terrorists anyway as they aren't representative of any particular country and don't even wear uniforms for cryin' out loud!

These people should not even be in Gitmo or any other prison. Summary Execution, justice for out of uniform Spies, Sabatuers and Guerillas captured on the battlefield or behind lines should apply.

We don't need torture. Just tell them talk, or go stand by that wall.

108 posted on 09/15/2006 10:04:19 AM PDT by rock58seg (A minority of Republican RINO's are making a lot of Republicans look like fools.)
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To: MNJohnnie
This sort of political panderer behavior renders them unfit to be in any sort of Leadership position. Leaders lead. These clowns would NOT know how to be leaders under any situation.

After the spanking Bush just gave them in his presser, I cannot wait to see what their next move is. They have to be asking themselves if they REALLY want a public fight with President Bush. It's a no win situation for the four of these disgusting senators so they better get their acts together. The President's bully pulpit is a whole lot bigger than theirs even with the media assassins behind them.

109 posted on 09/15/2006 10:07:05 AM PDT by demkicker (democrats, terrorists, Powell, McCain, Graham & Collins are intimate bedfellows)
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To: demkicker
The Geneva Convention shouldn't even apply to terrorists anyway as they aren't representative of any particular country and don't even wear uniforms for cryin' out loud!

These people should not even be in Gitmo or any other prison. Summary Execution, justice for out of uniform Spies, Sabatuers and Guerillas captured on the battlefield or behind lines should apply.

We don't need torture. Just tell them talk or go stand by that wall.

110 posted on 09/15/2006 10:08:05 AM PDT by rock58seg (A minority of Republican RINO's are making a lot of Republicans look like fools.)
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To: rock58seg

I hate when my computer appears to freeze, when it hasn't.
Sorry for the double post.


111 posted on 09/15/2006 10:10:50 AM PDT by rock58seg (A minority of Republican RINO's are making a lot of Republicans look like fools.)
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To: rock58seg
We don't need torture. Just tell them talk or go stand by that wall.

ROTFL... I wish!

112 posted on 09/15/2006 10:13:53 AM PDT by demkicker (democrats, terrorists, Powell, McCain, Graham & Collins are intimate bedfellows)
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To: demkicker
But former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell sided with the senators, saying in a letter that Bush's plan to redefine the Geneva Conventions would encourage the world to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism"

Oh boy. Cant have countries like Cuba and Syria and Iran and north korea to doubt our moral basis, now can we?

and "put our own troops at risk."

You mean the terrorist enemy has been holding back against our troops all this time due to the Geneva Convention?

Powell's statement amounted to a rare public breach with the White House he served

Riiiiight.

The Powell-Armitage-Wilkerson cabal

Draw your own conclusions from the fact that Armitage’s best friend Colin Powell called Dick Cheney’s supporters (including Scooter Libby, Doug Feith and Paul Wolfowitz) the “Gestapo Office” (quite insulting considering that there is a history of relatives lost in the Holocaust among them).

Factor in that Powell called Doug Feith “a card-carrying member of the Likud Party” and referred to the Likudnicks in the White House controlling policy during his “exit interview with Bush” (see Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq) – thereby showing his support for anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

Don’t forget that Powell is also joined at the hip with Brent Scowcroft – no friend of Israel and an investor in the Saudi-funded Carlyle Group? Consider that Armitage felt it was fine for Libby to undergo undeserved torment during Fitzgerald’s inquisition and that Colin Powell also knew that Armitage was the leaker but kept quiet about his knowledge when interviewed by the Justice two days after Amitage admitted to Powell he was the leaker.

Remember that Powell’s other good friend, and former chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, sees no problem with teaching his college courses at William and Mary and George Washington University using the Walt/Mearsheimer Israel Lobby Paper – and that many have criticized as being anti-Semitic? Wilkerson believes the paper contains “blinding flashes of the obvious.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1692722/posts

Still, Powell emerges from all this as damaged goods - and rightly so.

He gets a call from his No. 2, who admits to leaking the Plame-Wilson info - the focus of a huge furor. But does Powell tell this to his boss, the president of the United States?

No.

Rather, according to Isikoff, Powell directed State Department counsel to give the White House a bare minimum of information - and to leave Armitage out of it. He let the investigation expand, fester and envelop the White House, the vice president's office and elsewhere.

In a time of war, when the president and his team needed to be fully focused on far bigger issues, the administration was distracted by a "non-scandal" that Colin Powell could have stopped at a moment's notice.

Though he has left the administration, Powell's betrayal by not speaking up has had major ramifications.

JUSTICE FOR SCOOTER LIBBY

Et tu, Colin?

113 posted on 09/15/2006 10:33:10 AM PDT by lowbridge (I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming, like his passengers.)
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To: demkicker
H.R. 5825: No surveillance until after an attack and not without FISA’s say-so
114 posted on 09/15/2006 10:34:41 AM PDT by lowbridge (I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming, like his passengers.)
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To: lowbridge

You made som GREAT points and thanks for the links!


115 posted on 09/15/2006 10:42:47 AM PDT by demkicker (democrats, terrorists, Powell, McCain, Graham & Collins are intimate bedfellows)
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To: Steel Wolf

Well said Steel Wolf. If Congress is the legislative branch, it is rightfully their job to pass laws detailing wartime interrogation responsibilities. Especially since people like McCain think the President is incompetent to do so himself.


116 posted on 09/15/2006 10:43:17 AM PDT by Zack Nguyen
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To: demkicker

The impending collapse of the West looms menacingly.


117 posted on 09/15/2006 11:43:26 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: lowbridge
Oh boy. Cant have countries like Cuba and Syria and Iran and north korea to doubt our moral basis, now can we?

They don't doubt our moral basis at all. No one knows you as well as your enemies. ;-)

That said, there are other countries in the world, and some that we absolutely need in order to fight the War on Terror. If public opinion in their countries forces them to limit assistance with us, it hurts our war effort, and our chances of successfully detecting and stopping future attacks.

118 posted on 09/15/2006 12:23:13 PM PDT by Steel Wolf (- Islam will never survive being laughed at. -)
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To: rock58seg
We don't need torture. Just tell them talk or go stand by that wall.

Actually, that's entirely right. They've committed offenses punishable by death, and death they should recieve, unless they're willing to cooperate 110%. We do this in civilian cases all the time. Show us where the bodies are buried, and you'll only do life in prison.

If we weren't shy about administering justice, then joining al-Qa'ida would be a much less attractive proposition. As it is, we appear weak and irresolute when it comes to punishing terrorists, which only emboldens them further.

119 posted on 09/15/2006 12:27:38 PM PDT by Steel Wolf (- Islam will never survive being laughed at. -)
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To: RunningJoke
Here's the thing the democratic party has morphed into the socialist party and the republicans have morphed into great society democrats. Oh where oh where have the republicans gone?

A totally ignorant thing to say. On Judges alone Bush and the GOP have done far more good for the Conservative Movement they all the psuedo Conservative Democrat Virtual Campaigners EVER will. Question for you Joke. Which President presided over a doubling of the size of the Fedeal Goverment, 2 Tax INCREASESES, Ran away from an Islamic Terroist threat and signed a REAL Illegal Alien Amnesty. That is right. Ronald Reagan. Using the Know Nothing 100%er standard, Ronald Reagan "morped into a great society democrats". Here is what Bush and the GOP have done. Far more the Democrat "pretend to be a Betrayed Conservative" activists EVER will do. HERE is a list of what Bush and the GOP have got done.

Abortion & Traditional Values

1. Banned Partial Birth Abortion — by far the most significant roll-back of abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade.
2. Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy.
> 3. By Executive Order (EO), reversed Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act.
4. By EO, prohibited federal funds for international family planning groups that provide abortions and related services.
5. Upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals.
6. Made $33 million available for abstinence education programs in 2004.
7. Supports the Defense of Marriage Act — and a Constitutional amendment saying marriage is between one man and one woman.
8. Requires states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents.
9. Requires districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools.
10. Requires schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption (reintroducing discipline into classrooms).
11. Signed the Teacher Protection Act, which protects teachers from lawsuits related to student discipline.
12. Expanded the role of faith-based and community organizations in after-school programs.

Budget, Taxes & Economy

1. Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history.
2. Supports permanent elimination of the death tax.
3. Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession, and deeply shocked as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
4. Is seeking legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority.
5. In process of permanently eliminating IRS marriage penalty.
6. Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people.
7. Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.
8. Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules would have shut down every home business in America.
9. Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.
10. Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains.
11. Signed trade promotion authority.
12. Reduced and is working to ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family farms and ranches.
13. Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States.
14. Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes.
15. Provided $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from home.
16. Created a fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled.
17. Increased the annual contribution limit on Education IRA's from $500 to $2,000 per child.
18. Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit and provide $1 billion over five years to increase the credit to $10,000.
19. Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans. 20. Reduced H1B visas from a high of 195,000 per year to 66,000 per year.

Character & Conduct as President

1. Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the presidency. \
2. Has reintroduced the mention of God and faith into public discourse.
3. Handled himself with enormous courage, dignity, grace, determination, and leadership in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings and anthrax attacks. He almost single-handedly held this country together during those searing days:

* Just three days after the attacks, in his address at the National Cathedral, the President reassured the nation when he said: "War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing."

* On Friday, September 14, 2001, President Bush visited Ground Zero. Standing on a crushed and burned fire engine atop the smoldering pile at Ground Zero, he put his arm around a retired firefighter who had volunteered to help, and began speaking to the crowd. Rescue workers shouted that they could not hear him. Someone handed him a small American flag and bullhorn. The President spontaneously shouted: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." The crowd roared with cheers and chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Then he raised that American flag and rallied a nation:

Education & Employment Training

1. Signed the No Child Left Behind Act, delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations). The very liberal California Teachers union is currently running radio ads against the accountability provisions of this Act.
2. Announced "Jobs for the 21st Century," a comprehensive plan to better prepare workers for jobs in the new millennium by strengthening post-secondary education and job training, and by improving high school education.
3. Is working to provide vouchers to low-income students in persistently failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools. (Blocked in the Senate.)
4. Requires annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight.
5. Requires states to participate in the National Assessment of Education Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for academic performance.
6. Requires school-by-school accountability report cards.
7. Established a $2.4 billion fund to help states implement teacher accountability systems.
8. Increased funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program, which recruits former military personnel to to become teachers.

Environment & Energy

1. Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.
2. Submitted a comprehensive Energy Plan (awaits Congressional action). The plan works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.
3. Established a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation initiatives.
4. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
5. Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary cleanup of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.
6. Part of national forests cleanup: Restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges), and removed the need for an Environmental Impact Statement before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.
7. Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California.
8. Provided matching grants for state programs that help private landowners protect rare species.

Defense & Foreign Policy

1. Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom.
2. Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured.
3. Leader by leader and member by member, al Qaida is being hunted down in dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaida leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The detentions or deaths of senior al Qaida leaders, including Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the War on Terror.
4. Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed.
5. Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network.
6. Initiated a comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, and which accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE capabilities were critical in the 21st Century.
7. Killed the old US/Soviet Union ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses.
8. Has been one of the strongest, if not THE strongest friend Israel has ever hand in the U.S. presidency.
9. Part of the coalition for an Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace," along with Great Britain, Russia and the EU.
10. Pushed through THREE raises for our military. Increased military pay by more than $1 billion a year.
11. Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia.
12. Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia, and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.
13. Prohibited putting U.S. troops under U.N. command.
14. Paid back UN dues only in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of the costs.
15. Earmarked at least 20 percent of the Defense procurement budget for next-generation weaponry.
16. Increased defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion from fiscal 2002 to 2006.
17. Ordered a comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy.
18. Ordered a review of overseas deployments.
19. Ordered renovation of military housing. The military has already upgraded about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000 additional homes this year.
20. Is working to tighten restrictions on military-technology exports. 21. Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed.
21. Pushed thru Congress the 1st Military Death benefit raise in decades. Rasied the grant for survivors of military personal killed in the line of duty from a pitful $10,000 to over $100,000. Globalization & Internationalism

1. Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become another League of Nations (in other words, showed the UN to be completely irrelevant).
2. Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court.
3. Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e., the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty).
* 4. The only President since the founding of the UN to essentially tell that organization it is irrelevant. He said: "The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations, and a threat to peace. Iraq has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance. All the world now faces a test, and the United Nations a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" We all know the outcome and the answer.
5. Told the Congress and the world, "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."

Government Reform

1. Improved government efficiency by putting hundreds of thousands of jobs put up for bid. This weakens public-sector unions and cuts undeserved pay raises.
2. Initiated review of all federal agencies with the goal of eliminating federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of the federal government while increasing private sector jobs.
3. Led the most extensive reorganization the Federal bureaucracy in over 50 years: After 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
* 4. Ordered each agency to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with fewer managers.
5. Converted federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever possible so that the contractor has measurable performance goals.

Health

1. Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free.
2. Double the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.
3. Signed Medicare Reform, which includes: * A 10-year privatization option. * Prescription drug benefits: Prior to this reform, Medicare paid for extended hospital stays for ulcer surgery, for example, at a cost of about $28,000 per patient. Yet Medicare would not pay for the drugs that eliminate the cause of most ulcers, drugs that cost about $500 a year. Now, drug coverage under Medicare will allow seniors to replace more expensive surgeries and hospitalizations with less expensive prescription medicine. * More health care choices: As President Bush stated, "…when seniors have the ability to make choices, health care plans within Medicare will have to compete for their business by offering higher quality service [at lower cost]. For the seniors of America, more choices and more control will mean better health care. These are the kinds of health care options we give to the members of Congress and federal employees. What's good for members of Congress is also good for seniors.
* New Health Savings Accounts: Effective January 1, 2004, Americans can set aside up to $4,500 every year, tax free, to save for medical expenses. Depending on your tax bracket, that means you'll save between 10 to 35 percent on any costs covered by money in your account. Every year, the money not spent would stay in the account and gain interest tax-free, just like an IRA. These accounts will be good for small business owners, and employees. More businesses can focus on covering workers for major medical problems, such as hospitalization for an injury or illness. At the same time, employees and their families will use these accounts to cover doctors visits, or lab tests, or other smaller costs. Some employers will contribute to employee health accounts. This will help more American families get the health care they need at the price they can afford.

Homeland Security, Border Enforcement & Immigration

1. *See Government Reform above. Under President Bush's leadership, America has made an unprecedented commitment to homeland security.
2. Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first 10 ABM silos in Alaska so that America will have a defense against North Korean nukes. Has ordered national and theater ballistic missile defenses to be deployed by 2004.
3. Announced a 9.7% increase in government-wide homeland security funding in his FY 2005 budget, nearly tripling the FY 2001 levels (excluding the Department of Defense and Project BioShield).
4. Before DHS was created, there were inspectors from three different agencies of the Federal Government and Border Patrol officers protecting our borders. Through DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) now consolidates all border activities into a single agency to create "one face at the border." This not only better secures the borders of the United States, but it also eliminates many of the inefficiencies that occurred under the old system. With over 18,000 CBP inspectors and 11,000 Border Patrol agents, CBP has 29,000 uniformed officers on our borders.
5. The Border Patrol is continuing installation of monitoring devices along the borders to detect illegal activity.
6. Launched Operation Tarmac to investigate businesses and workers in the secure areas of domestic airports and ensure immigration law compliance. Since 9/11, DHS has audited 3,640 businesses, examined 259,037 employee records, arrested 1,030 unauthorized workers, and participated in the criminal indictment of 774 individuals.
7. Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has conducted more than 124,000 port security patrols, 13,000 air patrols, boarded more than 92,000 vessels, interdicted over 14,000 individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally, and created and maintained more than 90 Maritime Security Zones.
8. Announced the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), an internet-based system that is improving America's ability to track and monitor foreign students and exchange visitors. Over 870,000 students are registered in SEVIS. Of 285 completed field investigations, 71 aliens were arrested.
9. This week, the US-VISIT program began to digitally collect biometric identifiers to record the entry and exit of aliens who travel into the U.S on a visa. Together with the standard information, this new program will confirm compliance with visa and immigration policies.
10. Eliminated INS bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability. 11. Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization.
12. Signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal aliens.
13. Established a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications.
14. Information regarding nearly 100% of all containerized cargo is carefully screened by DHS before it arrives in the United States. Higher risk shipments are physically inspected for terrorist weapons and contraband prior to being released from the port of entry. Advanced technologies are being deployed to identify warning signs of chemical, biological, or radiological attacks. Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of first responders across America have been trained to recognize and respond to the effects of a WMD attack.

Judiciary & Tort Reform

1. Is urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits.
2. Killed the liberal ABA's unconstitutional role in vetting federal judges. The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not the ABA.
3. Is nominating strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.
4. Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims.

Politics


1. His leadership resulted in Republican gains in the House and Senate, solidifying Republican control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.

2. Signed an EO enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision regarding union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes.


3.Has prosecuted 527 corrupt Union bosses in an effort to reform the rampant corruption in the Labor Unions.

Second Amendment


1. Ordered Attorney General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, and is NOT a Leftist-imagined "collective" right.
2. Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit.
3. Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers. 4. *See Globalization & Internationalism.

Traditional Values, Compassion & Volunteerism

1. Endorses and promotes "The Responsibility Era." President Bush often speaks of the necessity of personal responsibility and civic volunteerism. He said, "In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else — to one in which every single American understands that he or she is responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself."
2. Started the USA Freedom Corps, the most comprehensive clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever offered. For the first time in history, Americans can enter geographic information about where they want to get involved, such as state or zip code, as well as areas of interest ranging from education to the environment, and they can access volunteer opportunities offered by more than 50,000 organizations across the country and around the world.
3. Established the The White House Office and the Centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiative — located in seven Federal agencies. The faith-based initiative supports the essential work of these important organizations. The goal is to make sure that grassroots leaders can compete on an equal footing for federal dollars, receive greater private support, and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. Work focuses on at-risk youth, ex-offenders, the homeless and hungry, substance abusers, those with HIV/AIDS, and welfare-to-work families.
4. The White House released a guidebook fully describing the Administration's belief that faith-based groups have a Constitutionally-protected right to maintain their religious identity through hiring — even when Federal funds are involved.
5. Issued an EO implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based facilities when possible.
6. Increased funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices to assist them.
7. Revised the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent subsidies to disabled people, permitting them to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance down payments on homes. HUD has started pilot programs in 11 states.
8. Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men, women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa.
9. Heeding the words of our own Declaration of Independence, the president laid out the non-negotiable demands of human dignity for all people everywhere. On January 29, 2002, he said, "No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." As stated by the President, they are a virtual manifesto of conservative principles:

* Equal Justice
* Freedom of Speech
* Limited Government Power
* Private Property Rights
* Religious Tolerance
* Respect for Women
* Rule of Law List authored by Freeper Southack

120 posted on 09/15/2006 2:10:30 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Democrat Party: Campaign Laws? We don't heed no stinkin' laws!)
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