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UK and Pakistan forge terror pact The meeting marked Mr Blair's third visit to Pakistan The UK and Pakistan have agreed to strengthen their ties to fight terrorism following talks between the countries' two leaders in Lahore. Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Pervez Musharraf agreed that restoring order in Afghanistan was crucial. Mr Blair praised Pakistan's co-operation. The president said his country was doing all it could to help. But he added that defeating the Taleban could not be done by force alone and said a "broader strategy" was needed. 'Marshall Plan' call He urged a "massive inflow" of...

The Gallup poll is out; in two weeks, the Dem's advantage on the generic ballot has narrowed from 13 points to 7 points. Highlights: "Based on history, a 7-point lead among likely voters still suggest Democrats will take enough votes to win a majority of seats in the House," says Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll. What gives some analysts pause, however, is the sophisticated redistricting over the past decade that has made most congressional districts less competitive...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 06, 2006 CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616 Pelosi: Democrats’ New Direction Rewards Work, Not Just Wealth Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today on the tepid jobs report released today that showed only 51,000 jobs, just one-third of those needed to keep pace with population growth, were created in September, while real wages have remained stagnant over the last three years. This week, House Democratic Leaders are delivering major speeches throughout the country to outline Democrats' commitment to restoring the economic security of middle-class families, with speeches today by Congressmen...

At a pivotal time in the abortion debate, Ms. magazine is releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled "We Had Abortions," accompanied by the names of thousands of women nationwide who signed a petition making that declaration. The publication coincides with what the abortion-rights movement considers a watershed moment for its cause. Abortion access in many states is being curtailed, activists are uncertain about the stance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and South Dakotans vote Nov. 7 on a measure that would ban virtually all abortions in their state, even in cases of rape and incest....

How so many political experts believe that BJ Clinton is the smartest man in politics only proves that experts are easily fooled. How he can go onto the only growing News network and made a complete dope of himself is not smart. Unlike DC metrosexuals, if you start shoving your finger in an Oregonian’s face your next move with that broken finger will be to call a Proctologist for a Tony Lama-ectomy. To come off so unpresidential as well as cheap bullying only reminds people of how pathetically self centered person he is. Then to point out and underline his...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 05, 2006 CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616 Democrats Release New Report on Bush National Security Failures Third Way report makes clear dangerous cost of Bush Republican policies, need to change course Washington, D.C.—With President Bush touring the country on a new public relations campaign designed to sell his national security policies to the American people, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, and Senator Thomas Carper today joined General Wesley Clark and Sharon Burke, Director of the Third Way National Security Project to release "the Neo Con," a...

DNC: Dean on Bush's Speech 9/6/2006 4:39:00 PM To: National Desk Contact: Stacie Paxton or Mark Paustenbach, 202-863-8148, both of the Democratic National Committee WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- DNC Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement following President Bush's speech today: "It's about time that President Bush finally addressed Guantanamo Bay and the issue of bringing suspected terrorists to justice. For five years now, Democrats have urged the Bush White House and Republican Congress to establish measures to bring the terrorists to justice but President Bush has stubbornly decided to go-it-alone. Democrats want to aggressively fight the war...

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- U.S. foreign policy is furthering terrorism in the Muslim world, and negotiations are the only way to resolve the impasse over Iran's nuclear ambitions, former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami told CNN while on a two-week visit to the United States. The reformist leader is widely viewed as moderate compared with new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As president, Khatami favored stronger U.S. ties. In an interview Sunday with CNN, Khatami said American policies have "only increased, and will only increase, extremism in our region." (Watch Khatami tie Bush's policies in the Mideast to a rise in terrorism --...

"Only little people pay taxes." Leona Helmsley said, didn't she? Well, that statement represents reality more than people realize. No, it's not just the taxes that are the issue. The overriding issue making so many people angry these days is the LACK of uniform justice in this country (and the world for that matter). Law after law is passed and who follows those laws? The honest people try. The little people have to. I personally know that in almost all workplaces, people are chafing under oppressive management which sets attendance rules, policy, etc. that the employees are expected to follow...

Beyond Macaca: The Photograph That Haunts George Allenby MAX BLUMENTHAL Barnstorming around Virginia in the re-election campaign that Republican Senator George Allen hopes will provide the impetus for his 2008 run for the presidency, he has suddenly been forced on the defensive. Time and again, he has felt compelled to explain that his mocking of S.R. Sidarth, a young Indian-American staff member for his Democratic opponent, as "macaca," or monkey, was an unintentional gaffe. "It was a mistake. I made a mistake," he told a reporter from a local NBC affiliate at a campaign stop on Thursday. Hours later, he...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 30, 2006 CONTACT: Brendan Daly 202-226-7616 Pelosi Statement on Rumsfeld Remarks Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in response to Secretary Rumsfeld’s remarks he made yesterday to the American Legion convention in Salt Lake City: "Secretary Rumsfeld's efforts to smear critics of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy are a pathetic attempt to shift the public's attention from his repeated failure to manage the conduct of the war competently. If Mr. Rumsfeld is so concerned with comparisons to World War II, he should explain why our troops have now been...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 29, 2006 CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616 Pelosi: Census Report Shows Bush Economics Has Failed the Middle Class and Working Families Washington, D.C.–House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement in response to today’s Census Bureau report: “This new Census report provides ample evidence that President Bush’s economic policies of enormous tax cuts for the wealthy and massive budget deficits have failed the American people. The so-called economic recovery has been so anemic that it is unprecedented. Yet just last week, the President said: ‘Things are good for American workers.’ This report clearly shows otherwise....

"Democracy is under attack": Gore Sun Aug 27, 3:50 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - Former US Vice-President Al Gore warned an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that "democracy is under attack". The former presidential candidate said television networks in the world's biggest and most powerful democracies must do more to foster debate, which he said was crucial for democracy to flourish. "In my country and others around the world democracy is under attack," the 58-year-old said. Gore, who was also in Edinburgh partly to promote his film and book about climate change, both titled "An Inconvenient Truth", continued:...

Former US President Carter 'Disappointed' With Blair By VOA News 27 August 2006 Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he is "extremely disappointed" with Tony Blair for what he says is the British prime minister's failure to constrain President Bush's policies toward Iraq. Mr. Carter, an outspoken critic of the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq invasion, was quoted Sunday in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper. He said he thought that Mr. Blair could have had a moderating influence on Washington, "and he has not." Mr. Blair has been President Bush's closest international ally on Iraq, and Britain has the second largest contingent of...

Dean: Bush Still Has No Plan for Iraq 8/21/2006 4:06:00 PM To: National Desk Contact: Stacie Paxton or Damien LaVera, 202-863-8148, both of the Democratic National Committee Press Office WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Democratic National Committee today released the following document "Dean Says Bush Still Has No Plan for Iraq": Today, President Bush again failed to recognize the changing reality on the ground in Iraq, reiterating instead his ongoing commitment to a failed strategy in the region. The president distorted the Democratic position on the war and national security, using the politics of fear to distract from...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 21, 2006 CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616 Pelosi Statement on President Bush’s Comments on Iraq Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on President Bush’s comments on Iraq at a news conference this morning at the White House: "President Bush should have given more thought to the consequences of a failed state in Iraq before he launched his ill-advised invasion almost three and a half years ago. He did not have a plan for preventing chaos in Iraq when the war started. The mounting death toll in Baghdad and elsewhere...

[Quix note: The green bold emphases are in the original. But I'm too tired to code them here or even to pour it through Word to do it. Sorry. I did use some spacing, paragraphing for emphasis on the fly] = = = = = = Lengthy Mel Gibson Codes Presage DUI Incident The May 2004 issue of Bible Code Digest (BCD) featured an article http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/232 [May 2004 original article] describing a 146-letter-long code about Mel Gibson. This astonishing code portrayed him as being guilty of something and of being "rotten." Interwoven codes further described him as hurrying and insulting...

Bush's Anti-Terrorism Record (CBS/AP) SCHENECTADY, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2008, on Monday criticized the Bush administration for failing to do enough to protect the country from terrorists. Clinton's comments came after authorities in the United Kingdom last week said they thwarted a terror plot involving airplanes bound from Britain to the United States. Conspirators allegedly planned to blow up as many as 10 planes flying from Britain to the United States using liquid explosives, which the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's security equipment cannot detect in carry-on luggage. "We've done...

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has flunked her first foreign policy crisis in the Middle East . She went to the turbulent region last month in the early days of the war that began when Hezbollah forces in Lebanon crossed into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Rice had orders from President Bush to oppose any immediate ceasefire, which was hardly the proper policy by the United States if it wanted to end the suffering among Israelis and Lebanese. Rice apparently was dispatched to the Middle East to pass on to Israel the message that it has...

President George W. Bush isn't doing enough at home and abroad to protect citizens from terrorist attacks because funding is falling short and U.S. troops are over-extended, Arkansas Democratic Senator Mark Pryor said. "My fellow Democrats and I believe our government must do more to protect Americans at home and around the world," Pryor, 43, said in the weekly Democratic radio address Saturday. "Five years after 9/11, our country is not as safe as it needs to be, or should be. Americans deserve real security, not just leaders who talk tough but fail to deliver." Pryor's comments came two days...