Britons wary of Bush more than Kim Jong-il: poll

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States is seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbors and allies, with Britons saying President George W. Bush poses a greater danger than North Korea's Kim Jong-il, a survey found on Friday.

A majority of people quizzed in three out of four countries polled also rejected the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The findings came just days before the U.S. mid-term congressional elections, with a growing number of U.S. voters wanting their troops in Iraq to be brought home.

Britain's Guardian newspaper said it carried out the survey along with Israel's Haaretz, La Presse and Toronto Star in Canada and Mexico's Reforma.

In Britain, which alongside Israel is traditionally a close Washington ally, 69 percent of those questioned said they felt U.S. policy had made the world less safe since 2001.

A majority of Canadians and Mexicans agreed, with 62 percent of those polled in Canada and 57 percent in Mexico saying their neighbor's policy had made the world more dangerous.

As for Israel, just 25 percent of people asked said Bush had made the world safer, while 36 percent felt he had upped the risk of conflict and a further 30 percent said at best he had made no difference.

Israelis alone were in favor of Bush's decision to invade Iraq, with 59 percent for the war and 34 percent against.

The ratio was starkly different in the three other nations.

Some 89 percent of Mexicans felt the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein was unjustified, as did 73 percent of Canadians and 71 percent of Britons, the survey said.

The perceived failings of U.S. foreign policy placed Bush alongside al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a cause of global anxiety, it said.

North Korea's nuclear test last month drew worldwide condemnation, while Western powers are trying to force Iran to scale back atomic work they fear may be used to make bombs. Iran says its aims are purely peaceful.

Asked whether they thought the U.S. leader was a great or moderate danger to peace, 75 percent of British people said yes. Some 87 percent felt the same about bin Laden, while Kim scored 69 percent and Ahmadinejad clocked 62 percent.

Just 23 percent of Israelis said Bush he represented a serious danger, with 61 percent disagreeing.

ICM interviewed 1,010 adults from October 27-30 in Britain. Professional local opinion polling was used in the other three countries, the Guardian said. In Israel, 1,078 people were asked, 1,007 were quizzed in Canada and 1,010 in Mexico.

Bill Maher New Rules: What Democrats Should Do

GOP Congress gives military brass whopping pay raise, while troops on the ground gets next to nothing

Republicans in Congress have passed legislation giving some of the military's generals and admirals a whopping 8% (plus) raise come this January.

The rest of the troops, the ones who are making next to nothing, the ones whose families back in the US just barely get by, the ones who are actually risking their lives for us in Iraq - they're getting only a 2.2% raise, that would be around one-quarter of the raise the big boys are getting.

That's because George Bush and the Republicans don't give a damn about our troops (that's why they've cut veterans' funding as well). They only care about the wealthy and the connected. And if you're not a general, you ain't nothing to the Republicans running Washington (though they do love to have you at a good political rally).

GOP Senate candidate Katherine Harris prays that Jews convert to Christianity

These people are off their rockers. And I've got the audio of Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) saying this.

First, the article:

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, who has made past comments that raised questions about her religious sensitivity, prayed in a telephone prayer service recently that God would "bring the hearts and minds of our Jewish brothers and sisters into alignment."

And here's the audio of Harris wishing that those darned Jews would just become Christians.

Also, note Harris' creepy reference to "kingdom government" (or governance), which from context sounds like she thinks she's elected to be the Christian God's representative in Congress.

Rush’s Apology (A Re-enactment)

Hoekstra Pushed For Publication of Sensitive Nuclear Documents, Blames New York Times, IAEA

From last March's Weekly Standard:

[Rep. Mike] Pence framed his response as a question, quoting Abraham Lincoln: "One of your Republican predecessors said, 'Give the people the facts and the Republic will be saved.' There are 3,000 hours of Saddam tapes and millions of pages of other documents that we captured after the war. When will the American public get to see this information?"

Bush replied that he wanted the documents released. He turned to Hadley and asked for an update. Hadley explained that John Negroponte, Bush's Director of National Intelligence, "owns the documents" and that DNI lawyers were deciding how they might be handled.

Bush extended his arms in exasperation and worried aloud that people who see the documents in 10 years will wonder why they weren't released sooner. "If I knew then what I know now," Bush said in the voice of a war skeptic, "I would have been more supportive of the war."

Bush told Hadley to expedite the release of the Iraq documents. "This stuff ought to be out. Put this stuff out." The president would reiterate this point before the meeting adjourned. And as the briefing ended, he approached Pence, poked a finger in the congressman's chest, and thanked him for raising the issue. When Pence began to restate his view that the documents should be released, Bush put his hand up, as if to say, "I hear you. It will be taken care of."

It was not the first time Bush has made clear his desire to see the Iraq documents released. On November 30, 2005, he gave a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy. Four members of Congress attended: Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee; Sen. John Warner, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee; Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona; and Pence. After his speech, Bush visited with the lawmakers for 10 minutes in a holding room to the side of the stage. Hoekstra asked Bush about the documents and the president said he was pressing to have them released.

Says Pence: "I left both meetings with the unambiguous impression that the president of the United States wants these documents to reach the American people."

....the growing congressional effort, led by Hoekstra, to have the documents released.

George Bush, at the request of the Republicans in Congress, authorized the publishing of instructions for how to build a nuclear bomb on a public US government Web site. And when they were warned about it two weeks ago by US scientists, they did nothing. When they were warned about it one week ago by European diplomats, they did nothing. It took the NYT downloading the "how to make a nuke" instructions two days ago, and demanding answers from the White House, to get Bush and his incompetent war planners to take the site down.

LSB: But who is really to blame for all of this? The New York Times, of course!

Yesterday Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, blamed the New York Times and the IAEA for the leak of sensitive Iraqi documents — a “nuclear primer” on how to build an atomic bomb — on a public government website:

Concerns by the New York Times and the IAEA prompted the government to shut down the website. The IAEA, “fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms,” privately protested last week to the American ambassador. The Bush administration shut down the site on Thursday evening, only after the New York Times “asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials.”

Hoekstra, on the other hand, was responsible for making that information public in the first place. Last November, he and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) wrote to Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and asked him to the post the Iraqi documents.

Hoekstra is now claiming that he has “always been clear that the Director of National Intelligence should take whatever steps necessary to withhold sensitive information.” But in a press release on April 18 — approximately a month after the first documents were made public — Hoekstra issued a news release with no such reservations. He instead acknowledged that posting the information carried “risks, but such risks are minimal.”

LSB: And this is the man that thinks he's protecting our interests? The man who warns us that the Democrats won't be able to protect our security? Thank you, Mr. President, but I'll take my chances with Nancy Pelosi!

1999 US Govt war games predicted 400,000 troops needed to invade Iraq, and even then chaos would ensue

No one could have predicted we'd need more than 150,000 troops to win in Iraq, and even then no one could have predicted it would end up a nightmare.Oh no, that's wrong. Bill Clinton's administration predicted that fact, and George Bush's administration ignored it.Back in 1999, chaos was predicted from an Iraq invasion even if we had 400,000 troops over there:

The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.In its "Desert Crossing" games, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence officials assumed the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.

No wonder Iraq is such a disaster. Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney wanted to the Iraq war with fewer troops. A lot fewer. Experts were worried about chaos with 400,000 troops.

Olbermann: Bush owes troops an apology, not Kerry (Part I, Part II)

Here is the transcript.

Is There Even One Heterosexual Republican?

Charlie Crist, America’s tragically forgotten in-the-closet Republican candidate, is reportedly still a big gay homosexual who won’t ‘fess up.

Plus, he cheats on his long-term boyfriend, who is a convicted criminal. And the kid he had a gay homosexual sex affair with is also a convicted criminal — who, obviously, worked for Katherine Harris.

Why are we repeating this? Because the Palm Beach New Times has video of a cute preppie blonde gal giving a Legal Sworn Statement all about how 21-year-old criminal Jason Wetherington had “a sexual relationship” with anti-gay Crist, who is hoping to take over for Jeb Bush as governor of Florida. Wetherington said Crist’s real boyfriend is Bruce Carlton Jordan, currently on probation for Grand Theft. The gal — who has the awesome porn name of Dee Dee Hall — is the girlfriend of the Florida Republicans’ personal pilot (what, you don’t have a personal pilot?) and was just trying to set up Wetherington with some other, younger gay Republicans. But Jason was busy, having gay sex with Charlie Crist.

Crist Denies Trysts II [Broward Palm Beach New Times]

Crist and Jordan - the Hall Statement [New Times]

Not Since Herbert Hoover...

The Nevada cowtown of Elko finally got another president to stop by. The last one was Herbert “Hooverville” Hoover. Today it was George W. Bush.

He was here to help GOP Senator John Ensign, who is in danger of losing his seat to Jack Carter, and Dean Heller, who is running for Jim Gibbons’ seat in the House.

Oh, and Gibbons was there too. He’s running for governor of Nevada. But ever since he beat up some drunk gal in a parking garage, got caught with illegal aliens in his basement and took bribes from a government contractor, he is not exactly welcome.

Bush packs airport for campaign rally [Elko Daily Free Press]

EARLIER: Bush to Campaign in Remote Desert Town with No Known Democrats

It’s All About Joe

This morning Joe Lieberman talked to Imus and told said that he would caucus with Democrats to maintain his seniority, but will vote "very independent". Video

What this amounts to is Joe saying that he will use the Democrats to his advantage, but side with the Republicans.

ThinkFast: November 3, 2006

• The House ethics committee report on the Foley page scandal will not be released before Election Day. The AP notes, “The lack of a report leaves voters to sort through conflicting Republican accounts in deciding whether GOP leaders failed to protect teenagers in their care.”
• A federal government web archive of Saddam-era documents, launched “under pressure from Congressional Republicans…to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam,” was shut down after weapons experts said some of the documents posted “could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms.”
• U.S. Sgt. Santos Cardona, a military dog handler at Abu Ghraib prison who was “convicted in May of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault,” is being sent back to serve in Iraq.
• “Under a new policy, children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants with low incomes will no longer be automatically entitled to health insurance through Medicaid.” Dr. Jay E. Berkelhamer, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the new policy “punishes babies who, according to the Constitution, are citizens because they were born here.”
• More top conservatives try to back away from Bush’s Iraq policy. House leader Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) told CNN yesterday, “What’s happening in Iraq is not a direct reflection on me.”

LSB: Yes, I'm late putting this up. Out of town and offline for the past week, so this is a make-up day.