Theodore's World

A known British Mullah Mr. Anjum Chaudri describes the “Killing of Innocent” Non-Muslims civilians in the suicide bombing as “Legitimate”.

Pelosi Targets Grassroots Freedom of Speech
Human Events
House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.
The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and require any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.
The report would include identifying the organization’s expenditures, the issues focused on and the members of Congress and other federal officials who are the subject of the advocacy efforts. A separate report would be required for each policy issue the group is active on.

“Right now, grassroots groups don’t have to report at all if they are communicating with the public,” said Dick Dingman of the Free Speech Coalition, Inc. “This is an effort that would become a major attack on the 1st Amendment.”

Under the bill, communications aimed at an organization’s members, employees, officers or shareholders would be exempt from the reporting requirement. That would effectively exempt most corporations, trade associations and unions from the reporting requirements—but not most conservative grassroots groups, which frequently are less formally organized.
Larger, well-funded organizations are also currently eligible for a “low-dollar lobbyist exemption” that Pelosi’s bill does not give to grassroots organizations. If an organization retains a lobbyist to contact lawmakers directly at a cost of $2,500 per quarter or less, or employs a full-time lobbyist at a cost of $10,000 per quarter or less, the organization does not have to report to the government.
Public Citizen, a liberal “government watchdog,” is taking credit for helping Pelosi craft the legislation and expects the final draft of the bill to closely resemble Pelosi’s Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006, which contains these provisions.
Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, said the changes would help “streamline” how grassroots organizations are regulated by the IRS and other laws. Public Citizen would like Congress to adopt the IRS’s definition of “lobbying,” which includes communication that encourages the general public to contact a member of Congress on pending legislation or public policy.
“The IRS has a definition that requires all organizations, including non-profits, to file as a part of our tax returns,” Holman said. “When it comes to the election code and the lobbying disclosure act, they have no definition of grassroots lobbying. It’s excluded from everything. The IRS has a definition of grassroots lobbying, but their information is not publicly reported. It’s just our tax returns to the IRS.”
Suzanne Coffman, director of communication for Guidestar.org, which makes IRS 990 forms available on the Internet, said any secular, non-profit organization that has more than $25,000 in income per year is required by law to make the last three years worth of tax forms available upon request. “We get them directly from the IRS, and we have more than two million 990s online” said Coffman. “For non-charitable organizations, like private charities or private foundations, we have fewer because the IRS began scanning those only in April 2005. They focused on charitable organizations, which make up the bulk of exempt organizations, because those are the ones that accept tax-deductible contributions. The need for accountability is much higher with them than with other types of organizations which are sort of subsidized by the taxpayer because they federally are tax exempt, but not like a charity is.”
Public Citizen’s public IRS 990 disclosure forms show that it raised more than $3 million in 2005. That year, the group spent $297, 431 on mail and $178,182 on consulting and professional fees.

A coalition of grassroots organizers, including David Keene of the American Conservative Union, Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America and Terrence Scanlon of the Capitol Research Center, have written an open letter calling on Public Citizen to renounce its efforts, which they called “flawed to the point of hypocrisy.”

“This bill would apply to those who have no Washington-based lobbyists, who provide no money or gifts to members of Congress, and who merely seek to speak, associate and petition the government,” it said. “Regulating the speech, publishing, association and petitioning rights of citizens is not targeted at corruption in Washington, as Public Citizen and its supporters would believe. Instead, it is targeted directly at the 1st-Amendment rights of citizens and their voluntary associations.”

The Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act, which made some of these changes, was actually approved by both the House and the Senate in the 109th Congress, but failed to make it through a conference committee.
To help dramatize the bill this time around, Pelosi is planning to assign sponsorship of various amendments to incoming freshman, which they will promote in their maiden House floor speeches.
Current law prevents former members of Congress and senior staff as well as senior executive staff from lobbying for one year. Pelosi’s proposal would extend that to two years and completely ban members and staff from accepting gifts, meals and privately sponsored travel.

Wild Thing’s comment….
They want to shut us up. They think they have the ability to take away the very Rights, the Founding Father’s intended us to have, keep, and hold sacred. The Democrats have the media no matter what, so what they want the world to know will always be pushed, discussed and advertised.

Sen.John Kerry meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Al Itahedeya Palace in Cairo December 14, 2006. REUTERS/Stringer (EGYPT)

White House: Syrian and Other Visits Hurt Progress
Houston Chronicle
WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that trips to Syria by U.S. lawmakers are a public relations victory for a government that is thwarting democratic reform in the Middle East.

The Bush administration has tried to discourage lawmakers from going to Syria, White House press secretary Tony Snow said. “We think it’s inappropriate.”

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Fla., emerged from a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Wednesday, saying Assad was willing to help control the Iraq-Syrian border. Nelson said he viewed Assad’s remarks as “a crack in the door for discussions to continue. I approach this with realism, not optimism.”

Snow said the trip by Nelson, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, and future visits to Syria expected by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., send an unhelpful, mixed message to the Syrians.

“We want to make sure that they understand that just because they have visitors does not mean that the position of the United States government has changed,” Snow said.

Taking issue with the White House, Dodd said in a statement that members of Congress “need to go to hotspots not just garden spots. I can’t think of a more critical part of the world than the Middle East and I can’t think of a more critical player in affecting events in the region for good or for bad than Syria.”

Kerry spokesman David Wade said the senators were engaged in fact finding, not negotiating. “If Ronald Reagan could talk to the `evil empire,’ surely United States senators with a responsibility to American troops can visit Syria,” Wade said, referring to Reagan’s description of the former Soviet Union.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended that the administration engage in direct talks with Syria, but President Bush has reacted coolly to that suggestion.

“The point is that even lending a further specter of legitimacy to that government undermines the cause of democracy in the region,” Snow said about Nelson’s trip.

Nelson’s spokesman Dan McLaughlin called the remarks a “baseless attack” and said the White House was producing the “same old tired, mean-spirited partisan politics” that were unhelpful to the situation in Iraq. McLaughlin defended Nelson’s trip as par for the course for a senator who sits on three oversight committees: Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Intelligence.

“In Syria, he met with a man he’s met with twice before _ not to negotiate, which is the president’s job, but to talk and gather facts and report back to Congress and the State Department,” McLaughlin said. “Senators meet with heads of state all the time.”

The United States has limited diplomatic ties with Syria because of its support of Hezbollah and Hamas, which the United States considers terrorist organizations. Bush expressed reluctance to seek help from Damascus on Iraq until the Syrian government curbs that support and reduces its influence in Lebanon.

“The Syrians should have absolutely no doubt that the position of the United States government is the same as it has been,” Snow said

And another example of this
treason:

Kerry criticizes Bush in Egypt
Senator John Kerry, visiting Egypt Thursday during a tour of the Middle East, accused the Bush administration of neglecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Kerry met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and said they discussed Iraq as well as the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

“I have always believed that the Middle East peace process is the critical issue of the region, and it has not been focused on for the past 6-7 years adequately,” the Massachusetts Democrat told reporters after meeting Mubarak. “I think there has been a huge loss of opportunities.”

Kerry, who narrowly lost to President Bush in the 2004 election, is also planning to visit Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel.

The senator said he agreed with the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group that the U.S. should engage adversaries such as Iran and Syria in trying to curb the conflict in Iraq. The recommendation was contained in the report by the bipartisan commission to the White House last week.

“I think it is important to talk and have a dialogue, but you don’t give up our principles and you don’t make deals that are against your larger interest. Syria needs to understand that and also Iran, but I think it is important to begin a discussion,” Kerry said.

President Bush has expressed reluctance to seek help from Syria or Iran on Iraq because of their support for militant groups as well as Syria’s alleged interference in Lebanon and Iran’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Wild Thing’s comment……
The Logan Act:

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

Now, somebody explain to me why these sons of bitches should not be arrrested for treason when they reenter the US. They are traitors every damned one of them. They know better than this. What happens if a Senator goes there and makes promises he cant keep.What happens when Leaky leahy goes there and divulges secrets.

The imprisoned al Qaeda spiritual leader known as the “Blind Sheikh”, he is the 68-year-old Omar Abdel-Rahman.

FBI Issues Warning to Police After Terrorist Health Scare
Fox News
The FBI has sent a bulletin to state and local law enforcement warning of possible terrorist reprisals as the health of an incarcerated terror mastermind fails, FOX News has learned.
Although the FBI said there is no credible indication that a plan for retribution is in place, the agency sent the warning as Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman was treated in Missouri for bleeding.
The blind sheik, who was the alleged architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, has called for revenge should he die in U.S. custody.
Bill Rosenau, a terror expert with RAND Corp, says that the death of Rahman is likely to raise his status to that of a martyr and refocus interest on the United States among radical Islamists. He says Rahman has been a lightning rod for years and his incarceration in the United States highlights the difficult problem of keeping terrorists incarcerated on American soil.

“Usama bin Laden has talked frequently about him and repeatedly expressed his interest in seeing him free. He has been a lightning rod for jihadists for a decade,” Rosenau said.

It was the presence of Rahman and other terrorists on U.S. soil, Rosenau says, that sparked the rendition program, in which terror suspects are kept and interrogated in foreign holding facilities.

“This is a good example of why that program was instituted,” he said referring to the specter of coming terror attacks.

Rahman’s death, he said, “may reawaken dormant memories” in the Jihadi movement.

“While Rahman disappeared long before the second attack on the World Trade Center, people forget what a central figure he was in Jihadi circles. He was the seminal figure for terror in the ’80s and ’90s and a real precursor of what was to come,” Rosenau said.

Steven Weber, Director of the Institute of International Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, says he doubts that the death of Rahman is likely to spark a terror attack.

“If Al Qaeda has significant assets in this country there is no reason to use them now. They can attack the U.S. in Iraq and they would conserve those assets they have here for another time. Rahman’s death woud notchange that calculation.”

He also said that while Bin Laden has expresssed interest in his plight, terror organizations have politics too. Rahman’s status seems to have collapsed when Bin Laden was able to accomplish what he failed to do.”

Last week, Abdel-Rahman was given blood transfusions at St. John’s Regional Health Center in Springfield, Mo., after spitting up blood in his prison cell. A tumor was reportedly found on his liver.
The sheik’s condition was “stabilized,” and he was returned to federal prison in Missouri after his treatment.
The FBI sent out the bulletin to law enforcement under an “abundance of caution,” FOX News has learned, because of previous statements attributed to Abdel-Rahman that called for revenge.
Abdel-Rahman’s alleged last will, read at an Al Qaeda news conference eight years ago, called for reprisals should he die in an American jail.

“My Brothers … if [the Americans] kill me, which they will certainly do — hold my funeral and send my corpse to my family, but do not let my blood be shed in vain,” the will read. “Rather, extract the most violent revenge, and remember your brother who spoke the truth and died for the will of God … the Mujahid Sheikh Omar Abdel al Rahman. In the name of God the kind and merciful.”

Abdel-Rahman was convicted of plotting to blow up the United Nations Headquarters, a federal building, two tunnels and a bridge in Manhattan.
In 2004, Abdel-Rahman tried to sabotage his health, consuming M&Ms to exacerbate his diabetes.

Wild Thing’s comment……….
They should stick a pork chop in his mouth when he kicks off. Perhaps Harry Reid will be at his bedside. Then of course we can pretty much guess that Barack HUSSEIN Obama is crying when he heard this news. But wait let’s not forget about Pelosi and others too that keep telling us how the al-quada are not in Iraq.
Oh! if the murderer dies his followers will unleash terror attacks!
His followers don’t need an excuse. The wake up in the morning and start planning how they can kill infidels, chop heads, fly planes into buildings, and kill infidels.
Some of the shiek’s terrorist involvement:
Source of information below
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman‘s involvement with terrorism goes back quite ways, to at least the plot to assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. Rahman was the spiritual leader of a group of young people who had just formed a new cell of the radical group call Jama’at al-Jihad, and they asked him what the fate should be of a ruler who has ignored the law of God. Abdel Rahman’s reply was: “Death.”
The next year, members of this group assassinated Sadat and Rahman was indicted along with them because he was accused of issuing a fatwa ordering Sadat’s murder. Eventually he was acquitted, but even today he makes it quite clear that he does not consider Sadat to have been a Muslim: “Sadat was not a Muslim. He made a mockery of Islam and its principles.”
In September 2000, Al Jazeera television broadcast an interview with bin Laden, his deupty Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Musa, and Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, during which the men “pledged jihad to free Sheikh Abdel-Rahman, among others, from incarceration in the United States,” according to the FBI document……
According to the affidavit, Yousry then asked Stewart if he could talk to Abdel-Rahman “about an issue relating to the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.” Stewart consented, the document notes. Yousry then reported that “some people” had spoken to Sattar about the attack on the Navy destroyer, “and said that they did this operation for Omar Abdel-Rahman so he could be released from prison.” The October 2000 attack in Yemen killed 17 sailors.
Yousry continued, saying that Sattar’s contacts asked him “to do some negotiations with the American government and tell them, ‘If [Rahman is] not released we’ll execute another operation.'”

From the website:

Ours is a world in which insane political correctness stands as a barrier between the average man and his pursuit of happiness, the Heart Attack Grill offers a well-deserved respite of comfort and simplicity. Pondering “Single, Double, or Triple” and “go with a Bud or go with a Heineken” are the toughest mental gymnastics that anyone should have to perform.
Just relax and eat. KEEP IT SIMPLE! Oh yeah, and how about being able to get your burger from a pretty girl with a smile on her face WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH?! The simple pleasures of a bygone era are still alive and well at the Heart Attack Grill.

TEMPE, Ariz. – The Heart Attack Grill – a theme restaurant whose specialties include the Quadruple Bypass Burger and Flatliner Fries, cooked in lard – is making health-care professionals’ blood pressure rise, and not because of the menu.
It is because of the waitresses’ naughty nurse uniforms.
The waitresses wear skimpy, cleavage-baring outfits, high heels and thigh-high stockings – a male fantasy that some nursing organizations say is an insult to the profession.
Several nurses have complained to the Arizona attorney general, and a national nursing group has repeatedly asked grill owner Jon Basso to stop using the outfits.
“Nurses are the most sexually fantasized-about profession,” said Sandy Summers, executive director of the Center for Nursing Advocacy in Baltimore. “We’re asking people, if they’re going to have these fantasies, please don’t make it so public. Move these sexual fantasies to other professions.”
Basso shrugs off Summers’ complaints, and refers to her and her supporters as prudes, cranks and lunatics.

The Triple Bypass Burger
THAT MEANS:
1.5 Pounds of Beef slid between two tasty buns!
PLUS:
Flatliner Fries
PLUS:
Soda or Beer
The Heart Attack Grill is absolutely committed to creating the world’s greatest hamburger and french fries.
That’s why we have NO freezers, NO walk-in coolers, and NO heat lamps. Absolutely everything is freshly cut and cooked to order.That’s why everyone says the Grill’s got …….the “Taste Worth Dying For®.”

Wild Thing’s comment….
LMAO I think this is great. And the lefties hate it which of course makes it even better. HERE is the website for the Heart Attack Grill.
Of course the feminists won’t like it but the heck with them. It is a fun idea and Hooters has been a big hit and I hear the food at Hooters and at this new place are both good. There are good nurses and bad ones just as there are in any professions. Nurses need to have a little more sense of humor.
Well only people like this would hate it, but they don’t get having fun anyway. So sad too bad. hahaha

Muslim pilgrims urged to complain
The Washington Times
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has issued a (call for complaints) of discrimination on the part of airlines by Muslims who travel to Mecca this year:
American Muslims making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca are being encouraged to file civil rights complaints if they feel discriminated against by airlines.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), citing what it called the “airport profiling” of six imams removed from a recent flight, yesterday said Muslims traveling this month to the holy site in Saudi Arabia need to be aware of their rights.

“Given the increase in the number of complaints CAIR has received alleging airport profiling of American Muslims, we believe it is important that all those taking part in this year’s hajj be aware of their legal and civil rights,” said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman.

The group has established a toll-free hot line (800/784-7526) for victims of “flying while Muslim,” as Muslims have begun departing for the weeklong hajj, a once-in-a-lifetime obligation to visit the holy city of Mecca, which this year begins Dec. 29.
CAIR is representing the six imams removed from a US Airways flight last month and has asked for a meeting with the airline to seek an out-of-court settlement.
Pilots and air marshals called the incident a “PC probe” to intimidate passengers and crew from reporting suspicious behavior by Muslim passengers and are fearful the incident will set off a domino effect of lawsuits.
Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, thinks this is a ploy to extort money from the airlines.

“I think CAIR is soliciting complaints, and if they don’t get it, they will make it up,” said Miss Burlingame, who is also a director for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation.

Wild Thing’s comment……
My answer to the complaints is don’t t let the Muslims use the airlines. Yep there ya go, simple as that.
I do not care if they feel insulted or put out by our security process at the airports!!!! May I suggest they walk, hitchhike, ride horseback, camel or goat to the Hajj.
Taking a look at their sacred Hajj. The mandatory pilgrimage that every muzzie must take if it is capable of doing so, with help from the saudi’s, financially speaking.Ok, so they attend this voyage to spin in the kabba velodrome with the likelihood that they’ll be trampled to death if they fall to get close to a rock dressed in drag. That’s nice, really. Then they have to toss 7/9 pebbles at the three pillars of sin, which conveniently have scribbled on them The Great Satan (USA) The little Satan (Israel) & Great Britain. Remember that they have to do this, and also remember that it means you they hate. Now, with that in mind, can we honestly should look at these koranimals as fellow countrymen? People who deserve to be considered as peaceful?
Here I go once more.
We’ve been complacent with what was given to us through our fore fathers bloodshed. There now comes a time that everyone needs to step up & tell everyone they know of just what they do while at their “sacred” hajj.
If Muslims are going to play games with the airlines, we as passengers are not going to take it. This is like the detainees at Git-Mo, first thing they learn to do is scream about their rights and how to abuse the American system of justice – with Human Rights folks hiring lawyers to help them. CAIR is looking for a fight to further divide this nation – throw them out of the country as a subversive orginazation, which they are.

Former CNN News Chief To Launch ‘IraqSlogger’ Site
Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK — For the past four years there has been no shortage of news and views on Iraq and the long-running war there. What’s been missing: a one-stop-shopping clearinghouse for nonpartisan information, including material coming out of Iraq itself from natives of that country, not from foreign correspondents.
Now that need is finally being addressed in the form of IraqSlogger, in Beta at www.iraqslogger.com, but due to be officially launched next week. Its director is the former CNN news division chief, Eason Jordan, who quit that post suddenly in 2005 after 23 years with the company. The name of his new venture, he says, was inspired by a Donald Rumsfeld reference to this war being a “long, hard slog.”
The concept, Jordan tells E&P, “grew out of the feeling that I think many people shared that there was no one place to go. Individual news organizations do terrific work but you can spend the better part of a day going from one site to another and one TV outlet to another,” searching for a full picture.

“Iraq is the story of our time,” he declares. His goal for the site is for it to become nothing less than “the world’s premier Iraq-focused information source” — and with no “political slant.”

Wild Thing’s comment……
Here is a link to Iraq Slogger
OK now a little about this Jordan guy, because this guy is a horrible asshole! …………
November 19, 2004, in which CNN Chief News Executive Eason Jordan is quoted telling a journalists’ conference in Portugal that journalists in Iraq have been arrested and tortured by US forces: US military ‘still failing to protect journalists in Iraq.

Independent journalists operating in Iraq face arrest and even torture at the hands of the US military and the authorities are failing to act on promises to do more to protect them, news organisations have warned.
Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, said there had been only a “limited amount of progress”, despite repeated meetings between news organisations and the US authorities.
“Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces,” Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.
Mr Jordan highlighted the case of al-Arabiya journalist Abdel Kader al-Saadi, who was arrested in Falluja last week by US forces and remains in their custody even though no reason has yet been given for his detention.
“These actions and the fact that no one has been reprimanded would indicate that no one is taking responsibility. We hear good words but not the actions to back them up,” he added.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s meeting with Senator Bill Nelson was the first with a U.S. official since the Iraq Study Group recommended last week that Washington should engage Syria and Iran in efforts to curb the bloodletting in Iraq. (AP

Fla. senator defies Bush, visits Syria
(AP)
In a direct affront to the Bush administration, a Democratic senator spent an hour Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, emerging from the meeting to say Assad was willing to help control the Iraq-Syrian border.
Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, met with Assad after the State Department said that it disapproved of his trip. The United States has limited diplomatic ties with Syria because of its support of Hezbollah and Hamas, which the U.S. deems terrorist organizations, and President Bush has expressed reluctance to seek help from Damascus on Iraq until the Syrians curb that support and reduce their influence in Lebanon.

“Assad clearly indicated the willingness to cooperate with the Americans and or the Iraqi army to be part of a solution” in Iraq, Nelson told reporters in a conference call following the meeting. The U.S. says foreign fighters often enter Iraq across that boundary.

Syrian officials have indicated a willingness before to engage the U.S. in discussions about Iraq, which the Bush administration has treated with skepticism. Nelson said he viewed Assad’s remarks as “a crack in the door for discussions to continue. I approach this with realism not optimism.”
Nelson said he reported the information to embassy officials and will brief his congressional committees on the trip. Also expected to visit Syria is Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa..

“We don’t think that members of Congress ought to be going there,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said, adding that the United States continues to denounce Syria’s meddling in Lebanon and its ties to terrorist groups.
Snow noted the existing diplomatic ties between U.S. and Syria. “I think it’s a real stretch to think the Syrians don’t know where we stand or what we think,” he said.

The diplomatic push from Congress comes on the heels of a recommendation by a bipartisan panel that the U.S. engage Iran and Syria on the war in Iraq. Bush has remained cool to the proposal by the Iraq Study Group, which was led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.
Nelson said he ultimately received logistical support from the State Department in what he called a “fact-finding trip” across the Middle East, being transported by embassy officials from Jordan’s capital city of Amman to Damascus. Prior to heading to Damascus, Nelson met with top Israeli and Palestinian officials; in coming days, he plans to visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iraq.

Nelson said he was not interested visiting Iran “at this time” and did not say why.

However, the senator did say that he raised the issue of a nuclear-armed Iran to Assad, saying “he ought to understand that that’s not only a threat to him, Syria, but to the entire world. . . . He took note,” Nelson said.

The senator said he also expressed to the Syrian leader the problems caused by Hezbollah and Hamas and urged Assad to support the release of captured Israeli soldiers. Nelson said the Syrian president responded by saying Israel had 20 Syrians in captivity, one of whom died recently from leukemia.
The senator shrugged off suggestions he was challenging Bush’s authority by sidestepping administration policy that the U.S. have no contact with Syrian officials.

“I have a constitutional role as a member of Congress,” Nelson said.

Meanwhile, Bush criticized Damascus anew and called on it to free all political prisoners.

In a statement, the president expressed support for the Syrian people, and said they “deserve a government whose legitimacy is grounded in the consent of the people, not brute force.”

The U.S.-backed government in Lebanon led by Prime Minister Fuad Saniora is being challenged by the Hezbollah-led, pro-Syrian opposition. Bush said Syria should disclose the fate of the many missing Lebanese citizens who disappeared following their arrest in Lebanon during decades of Syrian military occupation.

“The Syrian regime should immediately free all political prisoners, including Aref Dalila, Michel Kilo, Anwar al-Bunni, Mahmoud Issa, and Kamal Labwani,” Bush said. “I am deeply troubled by reports that some ailing political prisoners are denied health care while others are held in cells with violent criminals.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
I’m sick to death of this treasonous crap. Bill Nelson’s Washington number is #202-224-5274. I’ve let him know what I think about it. I know it’s not much, but I’m fed up. Besides being a traitor, Nelson is mindbendingly dumb!
Nelson does not love America, he and anyone else that does this kind of thing screams teason with every breath they take in doing something like this. Nelons is a POS traitor. I wish when he would not have been allowed to step on American soil again with his return trip to the USA.

Iraq’s Former Prime Minister Calls for Martial Law
Iraq
Former Iraqi Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi has called for martial law to be declared in Iraq to help stem the flow of violence. Ayad Allawi is the first major Iraqi leader to suggest such draconian measures.

Allawi, in an interview with NBC News said “I think martial law is required” and added “I pray to God that we don’t lose, because the other alternative is going to be the prevalence of extremism and terrorism.”

Just hours after his initial comments, 70 people were killed and an estimated 220 injured by car bombs at Tayaran Square, just several hundred yards away from the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad.

(AP) WASHINGTON
Sen. John Kerry, whose botched joke about U.S. troops in Iraq dealt a blow to his presidential ambitions, will travel to Iraq this weekend to meet with soldiers, political leaders and military officials.

“I’ve talked to plenty of guys who’ve come back from Iraq, who are there now, who understand exactly what happened,” Kerry said of his joke in a telephone interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. “They laugh at it.”

The Iraq stop will be part of a nine-day Mideast trip that includes stops in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
A week before the midterm elections, Kerry told a group of California students that individuals who don’t study hard and do their homework would likely “get stuck in Iraq.” He said he meant to say “get us stuck in Iraq,” but the botched joke intended to criticize President Bush forced the senator to apologize and then lay low for the remaining days of the campaign.

The Massachusetts senator, who was widely criticized for the quip, said he’d be happy to apologize to any soldiers he encounters in Iraq who don’t understand what happened.
Kerry will spend the latter part of his trip with a potential presidential rival and fellow member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, considered the Republican front-runner in the 2008 race, also plans a trip to Iraq.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Another “tour of duty” for Ketchup Boy almost as long as the first one. Who, but a terrorist, would want to see this traitor??!!
He did not study hard and get good grades. Now he gets stuck in Iraq. How fitting.
Lets start a lottery on ‘How many War Medals’ will john kerry file for when he returns from Iraq!
I guess two:
1. Being forced to eat GI food.
2. Wind burn
Don’t our soldiers have enough to endure without this asshole coming there? And during the Christmas season, they should give bonus pay to whoever has to be in his detail.

“I’ve talked to plenty of guys who’ve come back from Iraq, who are there now, who understand exactly what happened,” Kerry said of his joke in a telephone interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. “They laugh at it.”

I feel bad for the troops that have to do the photo ops with him! Maybe he wants to give them advice on how to get medals with no flesh wounds? I’d love for some guy to ask him if the the three Purple Heart rule is still in effect. Then kick Kerry in the glutes! Or better yet, wouldn’t it be GREAT if our military commanders don’t make our soldiers, Marines, etc. show up to greet this creep. If they do have to I hope he is met with a HUGE sign that says…
“Welcome to Cambodia…”
And what the heck are they going to Syria etc. for???
And Dodd? augh! Dodd is a Castro and Chavez apologist…and we know that carry sent a “welcome me to the White House” letter, back in 2004, to Iran!
From our awesome troops knowing about the Cindy Sheehans, the anti-war protests with signs saying “kill your officers”, the media slandering and attacking every breath, every shot ouor troops make, every move they make. Attacks from the democrats and Murtha, Kerry, Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy and others in particular. Dear God make it stop. Haven’t the poor troops been through enough?