The Bush Administration announced last week that the nation is no longer losing wetlands–as long as you consider golf course water hazards to be wetlands.

Thursday (March 30), Interior Secretary Gale Norton called a press conference to claim our long nightmare of wetlands loss had finally come to an end due to unprecedented gains since 1997 (click hear to read the report she cites). However, she then admitted much of that gain has been in artificially created ponds, such as golf course water hazards and farm impoundments.

No, there was never such crisis, or -more appropriately- it was an artificial crisis caused by Enron’s manipulation of the California energy supply. This is well documented, and has ben known for at least two years now, as Enron’s traders were caught on tape discussing how to drive up electricity prices for California consumers:

The tapes, from Enron’s West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.
Enron Traders Caught On Tape

Illegal immigrants had nothing to do with California’s energy crisis.

When people all over the world are standing in line to come to America legally, how can we, in justice, put the illegals at the head of the line, in front of all those who respected our laws?

If we grant amnesty to 3 million illegal aliens, doesn’t that really mean 15 times that number because of the much-abused section of our law that allows a naturalized American to bring in all family members? Every “regularized” illegal will have at least 15 relatives.

What about the surprising increase in the number of illegal aliens after we were told that the 1986 amnesty of 3 million illegals would cure the problem and be a one-time-only amnesty? After the 2000 census, the U.S. Census Bureau originally said we have 6 million illegal aliens, then revised the number to 9 million, while other researchers estimate 11 million — a population equal to 17 congressional districts. And why does the United States deport only about 1% of the illegal aliens?

Isn’t California’s energy crisis really due to the large increase in its illegal population during a decade when no new power plants were built? California now has about 4 million illegal aliens, so it’s no wonder that existing sources of power are not adequate.
…
Illinois was shocked in August 2001 when Governor George Ryan announced he will not run for a second term. Former Governor Jim Thompson explained the reason why in seven words: “the secretary of state driver’s license business.” Chicago newspapers were explicit in explaining what that meant. Six children of Scott and Janet Willis were incinerated in 1994 when their minivan exploded as it ran over a metal tail-light assembly that fell from a truck driven by Ricardo Guzman.

Guzman was an unqualified truck driver who had paid a bribe to get a license from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office when George Ryan held that office. Because Guzman couldn’t speak English, he didn’t understand the other truckers on the highway who warned him about his dangling tail-light assembly.

In August 2001, a Mexican truck driver, Fernando Guzman Ruiz, spilled his chemical load on a Chicago expressway, sending 17 policemen and firefighters to the hospital and requiring 1,500 residents to be evacuated. After entering the U.S. illegally, he paid bribes to get a birth certificate, Social Security card, and commercial driver’s license.

Despite repeated assurances to the contrary, the recent redeployment of U.S. troops to secure the dangerous streets of Baghdad raises some serious questions about the progress in Iraq. We are regularly told that the Iraqi military and security forces are increasing in numbers and preparedness to deal with the general security of the country as well as the growing sectarian violence. The Associated Press report today raises doubts as to the actual progress being made.

Baghdad, Iraq – American soldiers have again hit the streets of dangerous neighborhoods in western Baghdad that had been handed over to Iraqi forces, trying to keep a lid on sectarian attacks that have raged since the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.

The U.S. military has refocused its mission to confront death squads that have tortured and killed hundreds, a tacit acknowledgment that Iraqi troops have not been able to control violence between Shiites and Sunnis on their own.

Fewer attacks are now directed against Americans, soldiers say. At the same time, the number of Iraqis found slain, apparently in tit-for-tat killings by Shiite and Sunni extremists, has sharply increased in western neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, I interpret this to mean two things…one, Iraq is increasingly closer to full-fledged civil war…and two, Iraqi military and security forces are not standing up to the growing conflict so that American troop presence in the country can soon be reduced. It’s hard to accept the “good news” when the majority of the news seems to paint a much gloomier picture. Polls seem to demonstrate that the American public sees the same thing.

read more observations here:

http://www.thoughttheater.com

Or not: Afghanistan’s drug kingpins above the law (S.F. Chronicle, April 17, 2006)

An excerpt:

Like nearly every other major drug figure in the region, Adam appears to worry little about the law. “Many smugglers don’t even bother hiding their wealth,’ said a British diplomat in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It’s their way of saying ’screw you’ to authority.”

Another bumper drug harvest is expected in Afghanistan, and kingpins who control the $2.7 billion trade appear as untouchable as ever. Afghan poppy-eradication workers for DynCorp International, a Texas company that got a $174 million-a-year contract from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, are chopping down poppy crops. But targeting unarmed and penniless poppy farmers is easy; rounding up those at the pinnacle of the drug trade business is much harder.

“five worst U.S. Senators.’

Why were they elected by the public? Our fellow citizens can really be depressing sometimes.

“federal income tax has become less progressive”

Are tax system has become less about funding public services, maintaining infrastructure, and enforcement, but rather used as a tool for politicians to reward with their contributors.

Addition:

Neo-Naxi Supremacist Convicted In WMD Case
In Tennessee, a white supremacist with Neo-Nazi ties has been convicted of attempting to acquire Sarin nerve and C-4 explosives in order to blow up government buildings

Verses

The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t sent out any security “bulletins” on white supremacist organizations, whack-job militias, or violent anti-abortion groups. But they have prepared a new brand new security bulletin on how to protect yourself against animal rights groups and ‘eco-terrorists’.

One form of eco-terror attack, according to the bulletin has eco-terrorists “sending continuous faxes in order to drain the ink supply from company fax machines.

Marie, what do you expect from an administration that would tolerate this ( with a “straight face” I might add ):

( From the House Armed Services Committee – Feb. 17, 2005 )

“When the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton ( Mo. ), asked about the number of insurgents in Iraq, the secretary said, ” I am not going to give you a number for it because it it’s not my business to do intelligent work.” ( He presumably meant to say “intelligence.” ) Ultimately, Rumsfeld admitted he had estimates at his fingertips. “I’ve got two in front of me,” he said.

“Could you share those with us?” Skelton inquires.

Not just now, Rumsfeld said. “They’re classified.”

From “Secretary On the Offensive” – Dana Milbank – Washington Post 2/17/2005

His estimates were almost certainly wrong. And they probably still are.

Nine months after this hearing – this idiot is syaing Iraq has no insurgency.
( HeraldNet, 11/30/2005 )

I do not have the figures in front of me – but I think there are roughly 4.4 non-Kurdish Sunni’s in Iraq.

Assume about half are men. (2.2 mln )

Assume one third are too old for combat and one third are too young. This leaves about 700,000.

If just 10% ( just one in ten ) from this group has any combination of nationalistic or religous or pro-Saddam leanings that make them unfriendly to the U.S. presence – then you have at least 70,000 insurgents.

Of the 150,000 or so troops in Iraq – about 25,000 to 50,000 are support troops. So you have just over 100,000 combat vs. ( in all likelihood ) at least 75,000 insurgents.

It is not a good idea to fight an insurgency “one to one.”

This indicates to me that General Shinseki did not “just pull out of the air” the recommendation of 300,000 to 400,000 troops.

If they are there at the onset – this would have worked to “smother” the environment – making it harder for insurgents to organize and operate. Insurgents need stealth and secrecy. An extra 200,000 to 300,000 pair of boots on the ground and eye balls would’ve made it a lot harder for them to organize and operate in stealth and secrecy – particularly at the start.

But as of late November of 2005 – you have a man who still did not even recognize the insurgency.

And the GOP rewards him by saying he is doing a “good job.”

Pat Roberts puts the responsibilities of being a “good GOP Party man” ahead of the responsibilities to the troops ( by seriously poking and probing and challenging all of these Iran assumptions to make sure that both the intelligence and the battle plans are sound and not reckless).

Good soldiers are killed and harmed unnecessarily when battle plans are reckless (i.e., “political” ).

The American military is planning a “second liberation of Baghdad” to be carried out with the Iraqi army when a new government is installed.

Obviously, the Republicans never heard this advice. Neither have (most of) the trolls that visit this site.

I think I was lucky, I threw one tantrum when growing up and, due to me having had 3 brothers grow up before me, my mother knew precisely what to do. She gave me a klap, and told me to shush, it didn’t work but later she told me I was screaming anyway so it made her feel better. Later I learned the best means of getting what I wanted was just to be nice.

Maybe that is what we need more of in government in general, people who grew up learning that nice works one helluva lot better then nasty.

The majority of parents here do a good enough job on their own teaching their kids to whine and strive for mediocrity. We’ve dropped from the #1 most educated country in the world to 7th place. Canada is currently in first place.

Oh wait — let’s see, they are more than a year behind in providing phase two of the intel report leading up to Iraq, and it will be at least January before that is complete (if ever).
I see! This must be the Democrats’ fault – of course! If they weren’t so persnickety about details involving the run up to the war in Iraq, Roberts would be able to focus on not working on the Iran intel. All this important business takes time.
After we bomb Iran, and have begun WWIII, there will be ample time to procrastinate on completing the intel report.

Nah, I thought it sounded just a touch weird, which is why I wanted some confirmation on it.