Free Republic

I guess this means we passed a "global test". What a relief! (HA!)

"...In 2002 Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, was sent to Niger to check intelligence reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium there. He found scant evidence..."

As if the people he asked would have admitted to any wrongdoing? Why is this simple point constantly overlooked by the "journalists"?

So what? The big mistake here is the idea that the Democrats will NECESSARILY benefit from this. How? The approval numbers for congressional Democrats are even lower!

Interesting that the Democrats keep "looking beyond" Bush's current nominees. Not long ago the Democrats said they were "looking beyond" Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor and Bush's other circuit court nominees and now they're "looking beyond" Roberts' nomination to be Chief Justice.

AP "forgot" to mention this:

"every service met or exceeded its retention goals for the month.

". . .military readiness depends on both recruiting and retention, and success in one can help offset shortages in the other. . ." http://tinyurl.com/9sc8b

She was definitely math-challenged, and yet the liberal media types kept quoting her as if she had something worthwhile to say.

Marla Ruzicka - pre-Iraq
Houston Chronicle
July 5, 1995

Twenty-six teen-agers and their chaperones, threatened with prison time and hefty fines, returned to the United States without incident Friday after touring Cuba in defiance of a U.S. travel ban.

"No law should keep us from going to another country,'' said Marla Ruzicka, 18.

"Someday, young people like us will be working on policy, and we need to learn about other cultures. We visited hospitals, schools . . . Cuba is the greatest place.''

The group's weeklong travel through the Caribbean nation was sanctioned by the Freedom to Travel Campaign, a California-based agency that says U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba are unnecessary and outdated. Freedom to Travel has sponsored other Cuba trips as part of its protest....

Renee Saucedo, a chaperone from San Francisco, said she hopes authorities consider that the tourists are all school-aged.

""I hope our government wouldn't prosecute young people just trying to learn about other young people,'' Saucedo said.

---

Santa Rosa Press Democrat
"CUBA HAS MUCH TO TEACH U.S., IF ONLY WE'D LISTEN"
"Teen Life" column by Marla Ruzicka

Young people exploring their world, creating peaceful ties and exchanging with youth from another culture...does that sound illegal?

In the case of myself and 35 young people ages 10 to 24, it was definitely illegal.
I just got back from Cuba on a very special youth delegation organized by the Freedom to Travel Campaign of San Francisco. Before we embarked on our journey, the Treasury Department sent us a letter threatening us with a $300,000 fine and up to 10 years in jail. This is what can happen to someone who decides they want to explore a fascinating and friendly culture.

I traveled to Cuba in November with the organization Pastors for Peace, which takes needed material aid to Cuba annually. On the streets of Havana, Cubans would come up to us with tears in their eyes, thanking us for the life-saving medicine, or bicycles that were brought on the caravan. Yet U.S. customs threatened to arrest leaders from Pastors from Peace this June, and always harasses them when they cross the border. These acts are of pure humanitarian purposes -- they are not the actions that should get you thrown in prison.....
====
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Letter to the editor by Marla Ruzicka
January 10, 1997

As a student and solidarity activist who just returned from Central America, Guatemala is in my heart. Hear my thanks for your Jan. 1 editorial regarding the U.S.'s sickening role in Guatemala.

The 100,000 people who were killed in Guatemala are more than statistics; they were people who loved others, were involved in their communities, and who had hopes and dreams, just as you and I do.

I find it ironic that people fuss about five percent of the federal budget going to welfare, food stamps, energy assistance and housing subsidies for the poor, while a fat chunk goes to the CIA to destabilize countries and crush people's lives. . . .

For Guatemala's sake we must demand that U.S. policy and aid programs truly are in the majorities' interests. We can do this by supporting grass-roots advocacy projects in Guatemala and right here in the belly of the beast.

Let's do this not because we don't want to waste our taxes on other countries' affairs, but in memory of those whose dreams were silenced.
====
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Letter to the editor by Marla Ruzicka
July 4, 1997

After just returning home from Cuba on a four-month college exchange program I write this letter with great urgency. I lived with my Cuban abuela (grandma) whom I had to watch lie in pain as she couldn't obtain the medicine she needed for her inflamed leg. I vowed to myself that I would do everything possible to educate others to change this disgusting policy.

The U.S. trade embargo of Cuba is the longest and most extreme embargo in modern history. Cuba has been allowed to trade with subsidiaries of U.S. companies in Third World countries from 1975 until the Cuban Democracy Act was passed in 1992. Over 90 percent of this subsidiary trade was in food and medicines. In 1992, the U.S. government threatened U.S. subsidiaries in Argentina with sanctions, and as a result a huge export in wheat, soy, peas and lentils was blocked. The U.S. also pursued a policy of preventing U.S. subsidiaries from exporting medical supplies also to Cuba.

Some of the products kept from reaching Cuba included pacemakers, respiratory equipment and asparaginase and dornase, used in treating children with leukemia, that are only manufactured in the United States.

As human beings with hearts and souls I urge you to contact Rep. Frank Riggs and tell him to sign onto the Cuban Humanitarian Trade Act (HR 1951). This bill would exempt most trade in food, medicine and medical supplies from the embargo. Tell Riggs that Cubans have suffered long enough.
====
Palm Beach Post
November 16, 2000

Out-state Green Party members sent to observe Wednesday's scheduled recount in Palm Beach County complained that the two-party system treats them like second-class citizens.

Gathering with Democratic and Republican observers to watch the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, they asked where they should sit. The answer: Stand in the back of the room.

"We don't have chairs for you," said canvassing board member Carol Roberts, a Democrat and county commissioner. "I'm sorry."

The Green Party observers, wearing bright green T-shirts, later chafed at the treatment.

"It's just rude," said Marla Ruzicka of San Francisco.

Added June Brashares of Oakland: "We're the third party now - although we have to keep reminding people of that."

The Green Party reps said they have no regrets about supporting Ralph Nader, even though they may have cost Al Gore the election by taking votes that could have gone to him.

"I think people voted for Nader because they wanted to vote for Nader," Ruzicka said.
====
Austin American Statesman
May 15, 2001

Photo: Jakub Mosur/Associated Press; Medea Benjamin, left, and Marla Ruzicka, members of Global Exchange, a human rights group, and other members of the 'Ratebusters' group protest a proposed rate increase at a Public Utilities Commission meeting in San Francisco on Monday. The commission is expected to vote today.
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St Petersburg Times
April 8, 2002

COMPENSATION SOUGHT: Sixty survivors held a rally Sunday at the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, seeking compensation for losses from the U.S. bombing campaign.

About 450 claims have been filed, half involving loss of life, and the rest involving property loss, said Marla Ruzicka of the U.S.- based advocacy group Global Exchange. The group suggests the United States pay $10,000 per family to rebuild homes and compensate for loss of life.

The U.S. Embassy has told the activists to submit claims to the embassy, "but they never let us know the status of the claims," Ruzicka complained.
====
Western Mail (Cardiff, Scotland)
July 22, 2002

Global Exchange field workers in Afghanistan have compiled a list of 812 civilians killed in American air strikes.

The Pentagon's reliance on warlords and other local Afghans whose loyalties are unclear was largely to blame for the blunders, it said. "Smart bombs are only as smart as people on the ground," said Marla Ruzicka, a Global Exchange field worker in Afghanistan.
====

Editorials and "news" stories - who can tell the difference nowadays?

What I've never understood is why the polls are so close, given that Kerry is a total zero. Either these polls are way, way off the mark or too many Americans have changed in ways that I don't even want to think about.

Newsweed

Newsweep

Newswee

"....it was revealed that Zogby ended up being the most accurate of all the [2000] polls."

Nope.

[Poll - Bush/Gore Error]

Harris Poll 0.0%
CBS News 0.5
IBD/CSM/Tipp 1.0
ICR/Politics Now 1.0
Gallup/CNN/USA Today 1.0
Pew Research 1.0
Zogby/Reuters 1.0

(Source: Nat'l Council on Public Polling http://www.ncpp.org/poll_perform.htm )

"What about Gallup? I don't like their results today!"

Don't worry - it's only a 2-day poll that was conducted over the weekend.

"Coors is trailing. Looks like he'll lose."

Survey USA says it's a 48-48 tie: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Senate.html

Edwards and Kerry talk about their vote in favor of the resolution as "confronting" Saddam Hussein. This defies history and logic. In December of 1998 Clinton and Blair BOMBED Iraq for four days as part of Operation Desert Fox http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/desert_fox/ Has anyone ever heard Russert or anyone else even mention this? It really knocks Edwards' gibberish in the garbage can. Iraq is bombed for four days running, Saddam continues to act like a jerk, but in Edwards' mind Saddam is going to sweat a RESOLUTION passed nearly four years later? Astounding!

"The Labor Department on Friday delivered more disappointing news to Bush, reporting that the U.S. economy added just 96,000 jobs in September, about 50,000 fewer than expected. Because it was the last employment report before Election Day, it means a job loss is now baked in the political cake."

Fewer than expected by whom? "Reporter" Tom Raum doesn't bother to point out that the prediction came from economists. You know, the same economists who haven't been able to predict their way out of a paper bag for centuries. I guess "reporter" Raum just can't count. 13 consecutive months of job growth, but the dummy is still talking about losses being "baked in the political cake"?

I sent an email to info@ap.org recommending that AP cut "reporter" Raum's salary. He's so damned dumb that he'd probably think the pay cut was a raise.

"President Bush will be the first president in 72 years to face the electorate with a net job loss."

Utter nonsense. AP is making the same mistake that so many others make by confusing PAYROLL jobs with ALL jobs. Not even close! I haven't had a payroll job for years, but I'm very definitely employed.

"www.kerryoniraq.com"

Someone on Hannity suggested that Bush mention this during Friday's debate. I think that's a good idea.

John Kerry on Meet the Press, January 11, 2004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3916793/

"Saddam Hussein took us to war once before. In that war, young Americans were killed. He went to war in order to take over the oil fields. It wasn't just an invasion of Kuwait. He was heading for the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. And that would have had a profound effect on the security of the United States. This is a man who has used weapons of mass destruction, unlike other people on this Earth today, not only against other people but against his own people. This is a man who tried to assassinate a former president of the United States, a man who lobbed 36 missiles into Israel in order to destabilize the Middle East, a
man who is so capable of miscalculation that he even brought this war on himself. This is a man who, if he was left uncaptured, would have continued to be able to organize the Ba'athists. He would have continued to terrorize the people, just in their minds, because of 30 years of terror in Iraq."

John Kerry on Meet the Press, January 11, 2004
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3916793/

"Saddam Hussein took us to war once before. In that war, young Americans were killed. He went to war in order to take over the oil fields. It wasn't just an invasion of Kuwait. He was heading for the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. And that would have had a profound effect on the security of the United States. This is a man who has used weapons of mass destruction, unlike other people on this Earth today, not only against other people but against his own people. This is a man who tried to assassinate a former president of the United States, a man who lobbed 36 missiles into Israel in order to destabilize the Middle East, a
man who is so capable of miscalculation that he even brought this war on himself. This is a man who, if he was left uncaptured, would have continued to be able to organize the Ba'athists. He would have continued to terrorize the people, just in their minds, because of 30 years of terror in Iraq."

Hugh Hewitt has a couple of the questions and answers at http://hughhewitt.com Kerry is still blathering about the discredited-a-hundred-times Shinseki story and his "right way" to use force nonsense.