So, yeah. I know some of you are going to read a few select names on this list and possibly take it as a personal insult. Well don't. If you know me like some of you do, I can sit and engage in a conversation about politics, religion, sex, race , whatever as long as it remains respectful. I do not take anything in an intelligent conversation personal. If I do not agree, then I do my own research. That was a hint by the way. If it pisses you off that much that I post things that you may not agree with, then do not read them. There is alot of useful info out there that should be shared and I will continue to do so. I'm not apologizing for any of it.



Washington, DC –Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes:


1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records. Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again). And Hillary's top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007. Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.


2. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI): Conyers reportedly repeatedly violated the law and House ethics rules, forcing his staff to serve as his personal servants, babysitters, valets and campaign workers while on the government payroll. While the House Ethics Committee investigated these allegations in 2006, and substantiated a number of the accusations against Conyers, the committee blamed the staff and required additional administrative record-keeping and employee training. Judicial Watch obtained documentation in 2007 from a former Conyers staffer that sheds new light on the activities and conduct on the part of the Michigan congressman, which appear to be at a minimum inappropriate and likely unlawful. Judicial Watch called on the Attorney General in 2007 to investigate the matter.


3. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): In one of the most shocking scandals of 2007, Senator Craig was caught by police attempting to solicit sex in a Minneapolis International Airport men's bathroom during the summer. Senator Craig reportedly "sent signals" to a police officer in an adjacent stall that he wanted to engage in sexual activity. When the police officer showed Craig his police identification under the bathroom stall divider and pointed toward the exit, the senator reportedly exclaimed 'No!'" When asked to produce identification, Craig presented police his U.S. Senate business card and said, "What do you think of that?" The power play didn't work. Craig was arrested, charged and entered a guilty plea. Despite enormous pressure from his Republican colleagues to resign from the Senate, Craig refused.


4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum. While the Pentagon ultimately awards military contracts, there is a reason for the review process. The Senate's subcommittee on Military Construction's approval carries weight. Sen. Feinstein, therefore, likely had influence over the decision making process. Senator Feinstein also attempted to undermine ethics reform in 2007, arguing in favor of a perk that allows members of Congress to book multiple airline flights and then cancel them without financial penalty. Judicial Watch's investigation into this matter is ongoing.


5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY): Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor's office "billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons…" ABC News also reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense. All of this news came on the heels of the federal indictment on corruption charges of Giuliani's former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts.


6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record. According to The Associated Press: "[Huckabee's] career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor's office." And what was Governor Huckabee's response to these ethics allegations? Rather than cooperating with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.


7. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby: Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation. Libby was found guilty of four felonies -- two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to the FBI and one count of obstructing justice – all serious crimes. Unfortunately, Libby was largely let off the hook. In an appalling lack of judgment, President Bush issued "Executive Clemency" to Libby and commuted the sentence.


8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A "Dishonorable Mention" last year, Senator Obama moves onto the "ten most wanted" list in 2007. In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin "Tony" Rezko. In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections It was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. One of the companies was a biotech concern that benefited from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company's shares. Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.


9. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act recently passed by Congress. The pet project involved renovating ports in Speaker Pelosi's home base of San Francisco. Pelosi just happens to own apartment buildings near the areas targeted for improvement, and will almost certainly experience a significant boost in property value as a result of Pelosi's earmark. Earlier in the year, Pelosi found herself in hot water for demanding access to a luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her entourage back and forth from San Francisco non-stop, in unprecedented request which was wisely rejected by the Pentagon. And under Pelosi's leadership, the House ethics process remains essentially shut down – which protects members in both parties from accountability.


10. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV): Over the last few years, Reid has been embroiled in a series of scandals that cast serious doubt on his credibility as a self-professed champion of government ethics, and 2007 was no different. According to The Los Angeles Times, over the last four years, Reid has used his influence in Washington to help a developer, Havey Whittemore, clear obstacles for a profitable real estate deal. As the project advanced, the Times reported, "Reid received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Whittemore." Whittemore also hired one of Reid's sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer and then promptly handed the junior Reid the responsibility of negotiating the real estate deal with federal officials. Leif Reid even called his father's office to talk about how to obtain the proper EPA permits, a clear conflict of interest.


Judicial Watch is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Judicial Watch neither supports nor opposes candidates for public office. For more information, visit www.judicialwatch.org.

Mr. Bush, Have You Ever?
By Thomas Ayala

This speech was delivered at a rally to protest the fourth anniversary of the US war on Iraq on the Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of Illinois.
Good afternoon. My name is Thomas Ayala—and this is my friend and fellow veteran Marty Smith. We represent a registered student organization here on campus called Iraq Veterans Against the War.
We demand three things: The immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq; reparations to the Iraqi people for the destruction and corporate pillaging of their country, and full health care benefits for all returning veterans. We are here today to oppose Bush's unjust and illegal wars against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Four years ago this week, President Bush sent US soldiers, sailors and Marines into Iraq to fight a war of choice—a war of choice!—against a country and its people who had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11. Not one hijacker on September 11th was from Iraq, yet Bush lied to the American people and to the world by falsely connecting the Iraqi people with the terrible acts that happened that year. Let me be clear: Bush lied to us!
Now he's doing the same thing to Iran and following the same old pattern: scaring the people of the United States with the threat of a nuclear attack by a rogue nation. It's the same old song and dance, a smoke and mirrors routine in order for Bush to spread his crusade against Muslims even further across the Middle East. Will this man ever stop?
Last November, the American people spoke louder than ever before when they threw out the Republicans and voted to end the war in Iraq. But what does Bush do with that message? I'll tell you what he did.
He did the opposite of what the American people demanded: to bring the troops home.
He did the opposite of what the Baker Hamilton report recommended: he threatened Iran and Syria with military action.
He did the opposite of what military generals advised: he chose a Vietnam-like escalation of violence. Right now, all across this country fathers, mothers, students, employees, regular people from across the country are being activated from the national guard and reserves for involuntary service against the struggling people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
But I'll tell you who is not going: George Bush will not be out there fighting on the front lines. He'll be in the White House having steak and lobster for dinner. Bush is willing to send other people's sons and daughters off to war, but he skipped out on his own National Guard duty, and got deferments to avoid Vietnam.
I'll tell you who else is not going into Iraq: Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney received 5 deferments from the military so he wouldn't have to fight in Vietnam, yet he wants to send more Americans to their deaths in Iraq.
I'll tell you who else isn't going to Iraq: former and current Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, Ivy League graduates who run the war—however poorly—from air conditioned offices while eating catered gourmet sandwiches and drinking mocha lattes.
As of last night, there were 3,201 dead US soldiers from the Iraq war and another 373 in Afghanistan. It is estimated that upwards of 500,000 Iraqis have been killed in the violence. 22,000 US soldiers have been injured. Some lost arms and legs and eyes. And when those injured troops come home, do they receive adequate medical and mental health treatment? No! They receive sub-standard care because Bush doesn't provide adequate funding for VA hospitals.
Eddie Ryan, a US Marine who suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in Iraq and who can no longer care for himself, spent four months in Walter Reed Hospital. While there, he sat in his own feces and got bedsores because of a lack of nurses to treat all the patients. Cockroaches crawled under his bed and mold infested the walls of his room. There is no money to treat the heroes of war, yet Bush continues to pour money into the military industrial complex to develop the latest satellite-guided bombs or, as was announced last week, new nuclear missiles to replace the current fleet. Mr. Bush, sir, where are your priorities?
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gates didn't go to war themselves because war is hell. War is designed by elite Ivy School graduates but carried out by the working class and minorities. War is dirty and sweaty and bloody and nauseating and confusing and traumatic; it's not for pampered politicians.
I have some questions I want Mr. Bush to answer:
Mr. Bush, have you, sir, ever smelled the burning flesh of a child whose home was just demolished by a two thousand pound bomb?
Have you, Mr. Bush, ever seen a man's head split open from the bullet of an M16 or an AK47?
Have you, Mr. Bush, ever seen body parts—arms and legs and eyes and toes and brains, spread across city streets?
Have you, Mr. Bush, ever seen your buddy's flesh ripped from his body by a road side bomb?
Have you, Mr. Bush, ever secured a helicopter crash site, where the bodies of a half dozen men lay inside the wreckage, soon to be sent home in flag-draped coffins to grieving widows?
All this and more, for what? For what, Mr. Bush? Please tell me exactly what it is you've accomplished by starting this war? Death, destruction and misery, those are the only things you've accomplished.
The only way this man is going to stop this war is if we make our voices heard loud and clear: we will not tolerate any more of this racist and unjust war! This war is one of ideology and corporate greed at the expense of American men and women and Afghan and Iraqi people—and US credibility in the eyes of the world.
Too much is at stake! We must act now! End the war! Bring the troops home!
Troops home now! Troops home now! Troops home now!

Thomas Ayala is a doctoral student in the English Dept at U I, Urbana-Champaign. He served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps during the first Gulf War in 1991,and volunteered for service in Afghanistan in 2005 with the Texas National Guard. After nearly a year long tour with an infantry unit in the mountains of Afghanistan, Thomas is happy to have returned to teaching and studying. In Champaign, he is president of the local chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. He currently lives in Illinois with his wife Nancy.

I came across this article in the many pages of "The Veteran" which is a publication put out by the organization VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against War). Mr. Ayala is one of many who belong to a newer version of VVAW, the IVAW ( Iraq Veterans Against War) which has been very active in the past few years in demonstrating against the "War On Terror" and also in fighting for those service members who are being punished unjustly for speaking out on an unjust war.

Reminiscing on your love. She speaks to you in her passionate tongue. Remembering your beauty and power.

Enlightenment and praise flow from her lips when, she thinks of you.

Never fearful of daydreams imbued by your presence. Passing through your pleasant landscape as a princess in the queen’s garden.

Ever watchful of your changing winds, she listens with hope and a gleam in her eye, to catch a glimpse of you in a different light.

Illumination, clarification. Intent with finding out the Who, What, When, Where, and Why, She discovers you, in

Secret notes of unheard songs that dance in fairy like rain drops from the sky.

Landing on her skin, connecting with her spirit and raising her consciousness to an unparalleled high. She feels you. Your…

Original touch, original scent, original sound, and original taste. She has acknowledged you and loved you since her first breath in this lifetime and many more before.

Veil less and uninhibited, she absorbs you.

Embrace, envelop, encompass. She is your child.

Who knew I'd be here?
Walking in these footsteps, filling these clothes, speaking these words with this voice.
79 days ago I was picked up from an airport and taken to a hotel with a room that gave me little comfort but enough to qualify as shelter. My only companion is my imagination and my memories. Memories of a place that had the opportunity to prevent the possibility of these past 79 days from recording my ripple.
I'll be the first to admit, it was no vacation, but many had and still have it worse.
I think of them. I lay awake at night and think of all the what if's. What if I had stayed when he asked? What if I had gone to the first unit that requested me? What would be different? Who would have come home that didn’t? Who wouldn’t that should have? Every time I turn on the news the number increases. Two here, three there. It fills me with this feeling of disgust! Disgust for the BOY in command, our GOVERNMENT and MYSELF!
I'm sick of the debates about pulling out or staying the course! I'm tired of listening to people who want to debate over why we went there in the first place! FUCK THIS WAR!

Yeah. That is the perfect title I think. Reset. Reach over to your game console and save yourself any further embarrassment and shame. A last resort option sometimes. You never want to hit the next save point with all that drama on your record. It's too bad that life doesn’t have a Reset button, but could you imagine? I think the world would be a mess. We would all be a mess. You would never really learn from your mistakes because deep down you know that all you have to do is push Reset if things just don’t go your way. It's not like that. We can never allow that.
You see, I’ve been absent for a bit. Those who have known me long enough and actually paid attention know that this is a routine of mine. I take in so much sometimes and don’t give myself the proper outlet of all this pollution that is floating around us. In us. From one to another. A lot goes on in life in a year. Even more so when you think of all the lives that are connected to that one single strand. Every single vibration that bounces off another web of life trembles to the next, and the next, and so on. How many people do you affect with your actions in life? How many actions of another affect you? Some of you call it being selfish. Some of you are a bit agitated with it yet you still accept my calls when it all subsides. For the record, it’s nothing personal. This is just who I am. This is how I rebuild. This is how I contain and control myself. Nothing is going to change.