Florida Republican Congressmen Mark Foley suddenly resigned today in an apparent scandal involving emails and a young underage boy. Republicans are left without a candidate in an election where Foley was expected to be a shoo in for re-election.

Foley’s two-sentence statement gave no reason for his decision to abandon a flourishing career in Congress. But several officials said the resignation had been prompted by the e-mails, and he took his action as fresh details emerged about electronic messages he had sent.

Click here to read the story.

Tonight Dick “No-Bid” Cheney accused Democrats of failing to understand the brilliance of his policies in Iraq, Afganistan, and Iran (not to mention North Korea). Democrats are “soft on terror” and we must remind the voters how we Republicans have saved the world. Never mind, that seven Americans in ten think we have blundered. Click here to read the words of our Vice Flopper. Click here to read an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post by E.J. Dionne Jr. offers his editorial remarks.

As if that was not enough. Yesterday, the New York Times unveiled a National Intelligence Analysis completed by the sixteeen defense intellegence agencies. The study concluded that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has made the U.S. more vulnerable and less safe than at any time before. The study cited the growing anger of the world at America as the main recruiting force behind dozens of terrorist organizations which are rapidly growing stronger. The study reminded America that torture and mistreatment of prisoners is working to strenghten these terrorist organizaions that are multiplying around the world.

So, tonight, John Negropointe National Intelligence Director and a W (worst ever) appointee, says “it ain’t so” We are safer he insists. Negroponte’s words came at a dinner at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson Center after the disclosure of a National Intelligence Estimate this weekend, which gave new fervor to an election-year debate about how the Iraq war has affected national security threats. Click here to read about his spin speech.

The Democrats have decided to agree with the Republicans! Historic moment. The occasion is a recent poll putting Gabrielle Giffords about twelve points ahead of Randy Graf. With only 45 days to the election, the Democrats believe that our money is better spent on other candidates like Jim Pederson, Lena Saradnik and Charlene Pasqueria. While we are not yet celebrating, it does appear that Gabrielle has matters well in hand as she prepares to send Randy to the showers.

Click here to view the story in the Arizona Star.

The American intelligence community has concluded in the latest assessement that the U.S. is less safe as a result of our invasion and occupation of Iraq. The concept of Jihad is spreading around the world. As American makes more and more people angry, they are joining our enemies. Hatred of American is becoming pandemic. This assessment makes it clear that the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afganistan has made the situation much worse than it was before Sept. 11th.

The classified intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.

Click here to read the story in the New York Times.

A story is circulating that Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was told by a high admistration official shortly after 9/11 that unless Pakistan supported the U.S., “Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.”

President Gen. Musharraf is apparently going to make this statement on a segment of 60 Minutes which is scheduled to air on CBS Tevision this coming Sunday. According to Musharraf, the threat was made by Richard Armitrage, then Deputy Secretary of State to Pakistan’s Chief Intelligence Director.

Observers watching the competing stories and interviews by W, Armitrage, Musharraf and others speculate that relations between the United States and Pakistan are deteriorating rapidly.

Click here to read more about this story. Armitrage, has issued a standard denial of ever having made such a statement. But the tone certainly fits with the diplomacy of the Bush Administration Department of State.

In a very sad but related story, more Americans have lost their lives in the Iraq and Afganistan conflicts than were lost on September 11th.  What is worse, with all of that, most Americans feel less safe than they were and W (worst ever) still has not been able to arrest Osama Bin Laden.  Click here to read the story from the Associate Press.

The Arizona Star today printed a story about cancellations by the Republican National party of scores of TV advertisement reservations. It appears that the Republican party is pulling their money off of Randy Graf’s table. Observers are openingly speculating that Republicans now believe that Randy has little chance of over-coming the lead built up by Gabrielle Giffords. Click here to read the story in the Arizona Star.

Meanwhile today’s Arizona Republic has a story suggesting that Randy Graf and J.D. Hayworth are both involved in races that will set the tone for national politics regarding immigration and the border.  Harry Mitchell, the Democratic candidate for Hayworth’s seat, is only four points behind in the polls and he is catching up.

According to the Arizona Republic, Statewide, public opinion so far indicates only modest support for the super-enforcement policy advocated by Hayworth in the district stretching north from Ahwatukee through Scottsdale and by GOP nominee Randy Graf in the district running from Tucson to the Mexican border. These facts suggest that both Graf and Hayworth may lose out as “one note bands.” The Democrats, Mitchell and Giffords are campaining on a more moderate immigration policy and on many other issues that are near and dear to Arizonians. For example, both are campaining hard for Raising the Minimum Wage while Graf and Hayworth are opposed to any increase.

Click here to read the story in the Arizona Republic (remember this is a very Republican biased paper).

The Pinal County Democrats hold their meetings at 7pm on the third Wednesday of each month in Florence. We generally gather for a dutch treat supper at about 5:30 pm at the Mount Athos Greek Resturant at 444 N Pinal Parkway, in Florence. This is great opportunity to meet and greet fellow Democrats in an informal setting. The meeting is held at the offices of the Pinal County Attorney at 31 N Pinal St. Carpooling is generally available from SaddleBrooke. Hope to see you there!

Former Vice President Al Gore made a major address today at New York University. He called for Republicans to recognize that global warming is a reality and urged the United States to begin acting responsibly.

So, what would a responsible approach to the climate crisis look like if we had one in America?

Well, first of all, we should start by immediately freezing CO2 emissions and then beginning sharp reductions. Merely engaging in high-minded debates about theoretical future reductions while continuing to steadily increase emissions represents a self-delusional and reckless approach. In some ways, that approach is worse than doing nothing at all, because it lulls the gullible into thinking that something is actually being done when in fact it is not.

An immediate freeze has the virtue of being clear, simple, and easy to understand. It can attract support across partisan lines as a logical starting point for the more difficult work that lies ahead. I remember a quarter century ago when I was the author of a complex nuclear arms control plan to deal with the then rampant arms race between our country and the former Soviet Union. At the time, I was strongly opposed to the nuclear freeze movement, which I saw as simplistic and naive. But, ¾ of the American people supported it — and as I look back on those years I see more clearly now that the outpouring of public support for that very simple and clear mandate changed the political landscape and made it possible for more detailed and sophisticated proposals to eventually be adopted.

As we noted in yesterday’s post, the Republicans appear ready to flip flop on global warming. The upside of this is that W (worst ever) may now have something to talk about with his Democratically controlled congress (yes we are optimists, but what the heck).

Click here to read his speech.

It appears that the W (worst ever) is preparing to flip flop on global warming. After years of denial, it appears that the Republicans are readying a major change in climate politics. For the past ten years, the Republican posture has been that warming doesn’t exist. Well, the evidence is now overwhelming and like a deer in the headlights, the Republicans see the train a-comming.

W (worst ever) wants to paint his flip flop as like Nixon’s visit to China.  Ironic that he picks the second worst president in history to emmulate!  Anyway, Republican strategists are working on ways to describe their epiphany and now want to cut back on green house emissions and paint themselves as world savers.

Click here to read the story at the Online Independent. For a slightly different intrepretation, click here to read the Daily Kos, a liberal blog.

The Iraqi government announced a plan yesterday to dig huge trenches fifty miles or longer around the city of Baghdad to try to stop cars laden with explosives from entering into the city. The Iraqis feel that this might quell the violence that continue to rock the city daily. This past week has seen savage killings that have lead to the torture-death of more than 200 people.

It is rumored that Halliburton has expressed an interest in digging the trenches.

Meanwhile, U.S. coalition forces were being “redeployed” from the outlying Anbar Province back to Baghdad. This latest redeployment continues a trend in recent weeks to move U.S. forces into the so-called Green Zone in central Baghdad. Click here to read the story on Online Indendent, an Internet News Source.

In a related story at the Washington Post, a classified report discussing the Iraq War and Anbar province in particular, surfaced in the media this week. It concluded U.S. forces had only been able to fight to a military stalemate in Anbar as political and economic conditions there deteriorated. Due to a lack of troops and the serious need to reinforce Baghdad, the report discussed the trade-off that field commanders faced. Anbar, it concluded was now a secondary priority that could not be addressed with current resources.  The report, by Col. Pete Devlin, intelligence officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is “right on target,” said Lt. General Peter Chiarelli, commander of Iraq Coalition troups.  Click here to read the news in the Washington Post.