Real World

Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 06:19:10 AM PDT
Yesterday George W. Bush said:
Listen, I understand Republicans and Democrats in Washington have differences over the best course in Iraq. That's healthy. That's normal. And we should debate those differences. But our troops should not be caught in the middle.
Yes, George Bush hates the thought of the troops being caught in the middle of the showdown between the White House and Congress over the supplemental spending bill for Iraq. If only he was as concerned about them being caught in the middle of Iraq's civil war:
-- Over the past six months, American troops have died in Iraq at the highest rate since the war began, an indication that the conflict is becoming increasingly dangerous for U.S. forces even after more than four years of fighting.
From October 2006 through last month, 532 American soldiers were killed, the most during any six-month period of the war. March also marked the first time that the U.S. military suffered four straight months of 80 or more fatalities. April, with 58 service members killed through Monday, is on pace to be one of the deadliest months of the conflict for American forces.
Senior American military officials attribute much of the increase to the Baghdad security crackdown, now in its third month. But the rate of fatalities was increasing even before...
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Reid: Republicans "Owned By The Pharmaceutical Industry"
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said that growing up in a small town around miners taught him to be ready to step outside and throw some hands to settle differences and the former Golden Gloves middleweight boxer has shown in 2007 -- and in his previous stint as minority leader -- that he's always ready to poke a stiff jab in the face of George W. Bush and the Republican party.While he will never be able to make all Democratic voters happy in how he stands on every single issue, Reid is stepping up to the plate big time in the battle of words and positioning with the White House and sending daily messages to the Bush-Cheney regime that their Iraq-war propaganda and questioning the patriotism of others will no longer be tolerated.Reid stayed on message this weekend, making hard-hitting statements about Congressional Republicans and rapidly assailing Vice President Dick Cheney's appearance on CBS's Face The Nation on Sunday.In an exclusive interview with our friends at PoliticsTV, Reid slammed Bush, John McCain and all who continue misleading Americans about how well things are allegedly going in Iraq. Here's an excerpt:
"For the President, Secretary of State, John McCain to say that things are getting better, has to be the proverbial example of the ostrich with its head stuck in the earth. We have a situation in Iraq that's going from bad to worse. The deaths are up, the bombings are up, the American soldiers -- if things keep going the way they have this month, the month of April, the fifth year of the war, will be one of the highest for deaths in the history of the war."So, I'm terribly troubled about what's going on in Iraq, not only for the loss of American lives, which is certainly paramount in my mind, but the loss of Iraqi lives and the destabilizing of that area… Prior to the war starting, there were no terrorists in Iraq -- none -- now it's the breeding ground for terrorists, to be shipped all over the world. This war has been an absolute waste of time, effort and money."
After saying that Democrats will stick to their guns in demanding that the U.S. leave Iraq because "the American people are where we are; President Bush is where no one is," Reid looked ahead to the coming week in the Senate and the looming debate on prescription-drug legislation that he believes will cause yet another fight."We’re going to do something the Republicans hate, and that is allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower price prescription drugs. They hate it because they are owned by the Pharmaceutical industry," said Reid. "The most well-paid lobbyists, who walk around in their Gucci shoes and are driven up to Capitol Hill in their limousines, chauffeur-driven limousines, are preventing us from moving to have Medicare be able to negotiate for lower price drugs.""Why don’t they want that? Because they want the insurance companies and the HMOs to continue ripping off the American people."
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Blair and Merkel lean on Bush to join battle against climate change
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Published: 15 April 2007
President George Bush is coming under unprecedented pressure from Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to agree to tough new international measures to stop global warming accelerating out of control.
The measures are contained in a strongly worded draft communiqué for June's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany - obtained by The Independent on Sunday - which warns that "tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice". It adds that if "resolute and concerted international action" is not "urgently" taken, global warming will become "largely unmanageable".
The United States and Canada are resisting key elements of the draft, but Mrs Merkel is determined not to water it down. She is backed by the Prime Minister, who is ringing Mr Bush weekly to try to persuade him to change his position.
The draft warns that "global warming caused largely by human activities is accelerating" and that it "will seriously damage our common natural environment and severely weaken [the] global economy, with implications for international security".
It says climate change has already progressed so far that the world will "have to face severe impacts" from it, even if immediate action is taken. But it adds that these will become predominantly unmanageable if the rise in temperature is not kept at 2C or below - the maximum increase that most scientists agree can be tolerated.