political nonsense

The Bush administration intensified its campaign against Iran with a new round of sanctions against its military and leading companies.
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It was reported that there are now more than three quarters of a million names on the U.S. government’s terrorist “watch list,” and a government report raised concerns the list may be becoming too large.
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A State Department review of its own security practices in Iraq assailed the department for poor coordination, communication, oversight and accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA and DynCorp, Blackwater was being accused of tax evasion and defrauding the government of millions of dollars by designating many of its employees as independent contactors instead of company personnel, President Bush requested another $46 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan bringing the total request this year to $196 billion, Osama bin Laden released a video urging Sunni Arab insurgents in Iraq to unite to fight against the US, about 10,000 Turkish troops were amassed along Turkey’s border with Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he would shut down the offices of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and will not allow the group to operate in Iraq after Kurdish rebels killed 12 Turkish soldiers on Sunday. The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984.
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Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, waived several environmental laws to resume building the Mexico border fence; meanwhile President Bush announced he will ask Congress to approve a $500 million package to help Mexico fight drug cartels, the largest international anti-drug effort by the United States in nearly a decade.
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It was reported that since the US invaded Iraq in 2003 an estimated 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes, US-led forces reported killing 49 insurgents and no civilians on Sunday during predawn clashes with renegade Shiite militia members, while Iraqi police said at least 13 civilians were dead, including three children and a woman, at least 3,834 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war, and Kurdish rebels crossed the Iraq-Turkey border and killed at least 17 Turkish soldiers Sunday, while the Turkish army retaliated by stepping up its bombardment of the Iraqi side of the border, hitting 11 different areas close to towns and villages, Kurdish officials said.
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Stephen Colbert announced he was running for president. “I don’t want to be president. I want to run for president. There’s a difference,” he said.

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50% of American voters polled said they would never vote for Hillary Clinton, up from 46% in March.

[cause she’s scary]
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It was reported that Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are cousins.

[duh]
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US and Iraqi officials were negotiating Baghdad’s request to expel the private security company Blackwater within six months following last month’s deadly shoot out in Baghdad, a Washington Post correspondent was shot dead in Baghdad, former US military commander in Iraq Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez described the war as a “nightmare with no end in sight,” the Turkish government formally sought authorization from the Turkish parliament to invade Northern Iraq and attack Kurdish rebel groups after amassing 60,000 troops along the country’s border and shelling Kurdish regions across the border, and a former top US general admitted the war in Iraq was about oil. “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” former Commander General John Abizaid said.
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The United States decided it should deliver weapons to Iraq faster after finding out that the Iraqis ordered $100 million in military equipment from China, Iraqi officials accused the US of killing at least 17 Iraqi civilians in multiple helicopter air strikes near Baquba on Friday, an Iraqi judge concluded corruption extended into the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and an American official said that US efforts to combat the problem are inadequate, General Petraeus blamed Tehran for escalating violence in Iraq, current and former US officials accused the State Department of ignoring repeated warnings that private security contractors were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining US efforts to win support from the population, and the Iraqi prime minister’s office reported that the government’s investigation had determined that Blackwater USA private security guards who shot Iraqi civilians three weeks ago in a Baghdad square sprayed gunfire in nearly every direction, committed “deliberate murder” and should be punished accordingly.
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A British think tank concluded that the War on Terror has been a disaster.
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The US House of Representatives passed legislation that allows the prosecution of security personnel contracted by the US government for work in Iraq and other hostile places.
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The Bush administration increased more than fivefold Tuesday the number of Near East and South Asian refugees the U.S. can admit as it seeks to accept 12,000 Iraqi refugees during the next 12 months.
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Bush vetoed the child healthcare bill and 51% of Americans said they would be willing to pay higher taxes so that all children could have health insurance,with those with lower household incomes showing the most support.
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The Department of Homeland Security announced that the completion of a $20 million “virtual fence” pilot project along the Mexican border near Tucson would be delayed because its cameras and radar were unable to distinguish people and vehicles from bushes and cows.

[not a mexican]
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The Senate voted to authorize spending another $150 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the FBI is sending a team of agents to Baghdad to investigate Blackwater, a senior al-Qaeda leader was arrested, Iraq announced it wants the UN Security Council to extend the mandate of the United States-led multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008 and then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement, The US Embassy criticized a Senate resolution that could lead to a division of the country into sectarian or ethnic territories-agreeing with a swath of Iraqi leaders in saying the proposal “would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed,” it was reported that at least 3,802 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, and the US military said it regrets civilian deaths, as it announced a new surge of strikes against Al-Qaeda in Iraq in which six militants were killed and a child was hit in the crossfire.
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The board of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network voted to remove its president after doubts were cast as to whether she was a survivor at all.
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Turkey and Iraq on Friday signed an agreement to crack down on Turkish Kurd rebels based in northern Iraq, the US military reported it killed a senior leader of al-Qaeda, a top US general in Iraq admitted that security contractors in Iraq use some over-the-top tactics and overreact at times, the Senate approved a measure which supports dividing Iraq into federal regions for Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki condemned the Senate vote saying it would lead to “catastrophe,” and it was revealed that Saddam Hussein offered to go into exile before the Iraq War if he could keep a billion dollars.
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Hillary Clinton suggested she might give $5000 to babies.

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A Congressional investigation issued a scathing criticism of the private military firm Blackwater USA around the March 2004 mission that saw four of its guards killed and led to a major escalation of the Iraq war.
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