President Bush Sign Patriot Act

"President Bush Friday signed legislation extending key provisions of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act until February 3, despite earlier objecting to anything short of a permanent renewal."

"He also signed a $453.3 billion defense spending bill that included a measure banning cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the White House said."

"Bush had initially threatened to veto legislation that contained that provision, but backed off after congressional votes showed overwhelming support for the amendment pushed by Sen.
John McCain, an Arizona Republican who was a former prisoner of war in the Vietnam conflict."

"On the Patriot Act, Bush had strongly pushed for a permanent renewal, but Congress passed a temporary extension to allow more time to consider civil liberties protections."

"The Patriot Act was a response to the September 11 attacks and expanded the authority of the federal government to conduct secret searches, obtain private records, intercept telephone calls, among other activities, to hunt for suspected terrorists."

"The debate over whether some of the provisions infringe too much on civil liberties became more heated after the revelation that Bush authorized the National Security Agency to conduct a domestic eavesdropping operation on Americans with suspected terrorism ties without seeking court approval."

"Among the civil liberties being debated in Congress are rules for "roving" wiretaps of suspects who use multiple telephones and court orders for records for businesses, libraries, bookstores and even personal medical records."

- CNN.com

My Comments: A one month extension. It's sort of a victory for both parties. The Patriot Act wasn't held up in the Senate, which is good for Republicans; yet it was onlu renewed for one month, a victory for Democrats.

The Democrats would never approve a permanent renewal of the Patriot Act, as it is now. Now they have a month to sort out the issues, without letting it expire. We'll just have to wait and see if one month will be long enough to come to an agreement.

I can't believe that the White House was against the "no torture" bill. Come to think of it, I can't believe we NEED a bill to ban torture!

-Adam

My Apologies, I Was Wrong...

Several days ago, I posted a story titled "NO President Should EVER Say This", in which I reported that President Bush, referring to the Constitution, said "it's just a goddamn piece of paper!" I have, after doing some research on the internet, determined this story to be completely false.

The story, which I picked up from the website Capitol Hill Blue , has been criticized online by Democrats and Republicans alike. The story never appeared on the news networks either, which should have been a huge tip-off!

Capitol Hill Blue's website says that each story posted must have two independent, confirmed sources. I cannot confirm or deny, however, that the rest of the stories on the site are true, but I believe that this story is false.

I give my sincere apology to anyone who was offended or misled by the story. While I'm not the original author, I still decided to post the story without finding secondary sources first. I did not intentionally mislead you, and I promise I never will.

Please accept my apologies. In the future, I will try to confirm the story through other sources before posting.

My sincere apologies. Thank you,

-Adam

2006-The Year Ahead

Now, many political sites out there are doing a "2005-Year in Review".

Well, I figure if you want to know what happened in 2005, you should have watched CNN more. What I'm going to do is have a "2006-The Year Ahead".

I'm pretty sure these will be some of the Top News Stories of 2006:

1. The Iraq War will continue...And more troops will die...
2. President Bush's approval rating will drop even more
3. Journalist Bob Novak's source in the Plame story will be revealed
4. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will be found guilty and go to prison
5. Karl Rove will be also be indicted and stand trial
6. The 2006 Elections will show the distrust in the Republican Party
7. The Democrat's will pick up several seats in Congress
8. The 2006 Elections will shed light on the 2008 Election results
9. There will be another Hurricane that will hit the Southwest
10. R. Kelly will release another music-sode of "Trapped In The Closet" (It'll be #83 or something!)

Things that might happen in 2006:

1. Talks of Impeaching President Bush will continue and escalate
2. Congress MAY introduce Impeachment Legislation
3. Donald Rumsfeld may resign
4. Katie Couric may take the CBS Evening News anchor job
5. I may move this site to it's own domain (maybe)

This has been 2006-The Year Ahead. Thanks for visiting The Future!!!

-Adam

Our First National Exposure!

First off, I have no idea how most of you got to my site. I'm listed on the search engines (most anyway), but what makes you type in something like "democrat views" is beyond me! Second, I don't mean to gloat, but I have tro in this case. Sorry, I don't do it often!

I found out just moments ago that the post I made about Bob Novak telling the press that the President probably knew his source, was reference to on cbsnews.com on December 15th.

The article ws talking about the same subject talk on the same issue. Go to: CBSNews.com's Public Eye. If you scroll to almost the end of the story, click on the hyperlinked words "joined the call" (the words are in blue, for those of you who aren't computer-savvy), you will be linked to the specific story here on Democrat Views!

Like I said, sorry to gloat, but I'm very excited! I'd like to thank CBS News for (somehow) picking my site. Thank you!

-Adam

NO President Should EVER Say This - PULLED

THIS STORY HAS BEEN PULLED DUE TO A LACK OF CONFIRMED SOURCES.

SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE OR CONFUSION.

-Adam, administrator

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I hope all of you have a good day tomorrow. I hope you have great food, great presents, and great family discussions!

For those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I sincerely hope you have a Happy Holidays, no matter what religion you are.

For those of who who celebrate the Winter Solstice instead of a religious holiday, please have a good one. Wait, that arleady passed, didn't it? Well, I hope you did have a good one!

Remember to celebrate well, however you happen to celebrate this type of year!

I don't plan on posting anything till a day or two after Christmas, but knowing this country, you better check in often, because you never know what may churn up over the holiday season!

Merry Christmas! Hope it's a good one!!!

-Adam

Secretary Of Defense Announces Troop Withdrawal

This is Breaking News: Bush did the RIGHT thing!

Actually, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that President Bush has authorized a "Re-Deployment of Troops", or something like that. Basically, they're taking 7,000 troops OUT of Iraq.

There are currently over 138,000 armed forces personnel in Iraq. The withdrawal will be the first of several planned withdrawals in the coming year. This also means they won't be calling up more troops, two Army brigades that were to be called up, will no longer be needed. According to a count by CNN, this would reduce the number of combat brigades from 17 to 15.

Secretary Rumsfeld said, "The effect of these adjustments will reduce forces in Iraq by the spring of 2006 below the current high of 160,000 during the election period to below the 138,000 baseline that had existed before the most recent elections."

This means that the 20,000 troops The Pentagon sent to Iraq for the election will be coming home.

It's about time. It looks like all the "Democratic whining", or whatever the Republicans like to call it, worked, although they probably won't admit it!

But the calls for troop withdrawal by Democrats and even some Republicans have worked. There is NO doubt that our party's calls for troop withdrawal had some effect on the Bush Administration. Bush's numbers are still real low, and the only reason they raised a few points was because gas prices went down. Undoubtedly, some people use gas prices as their only measure of how a President is doing.

I'd like to see them home, but why don't they send some of the ones who are on their first tour to Afghanistan? Afghanistan isn't exactly a paradise, in fact, it sounds like it's been getting worse over there. The Bush Administration kind of went in there, chased some of the bad guys away, and never talked of it again. I don't want Bush, or God forbid a Republican wins in 2008, to send troops back to Afghanistan. That's why I think a few thousand should go over there.

Or course, Bush won't do that, so bring them home. Don't re-deploy them to Germany, or something stupid like that. Bring them home, let them have at least a year here, maybe two, before you send them to one of our many bases around the world.

But I hope that during the November 2006 Congressional Elections, you and the rest of the American people won't forget that there are STILL 130,000+ troops over there. Don't be overshadowed by the fact that only 7,000 have made it home.

Let's hope this trend continues...

-Adam
oregondemocrat@hotmail.com

GUEST POSTING - Politics Is Over-rated

Disclaimer: This is from a guest poster. The views may or may not reflect my views, or the views of any Political Party...

I dont know much about politics, but i think a lot of it is over-rated.

People need to realize whats best for *us*. And by us, I mean the U.S. Not about the war. Before we think about helping out other countries, we need to make sure WE as a country are stable to stand on our own. Then we can help others in need.

The system of the world totally blows. In the US, we have too many drugs. In Africa, they don't have enough. There's has to be SOME WAY a lot of the world's problems can be fixed. We can SOLVE THOSE, without establishing who is a DEMOCRAT and who is a REBUPLICAN.

Why should that matter? we're all Americans, and we are all humans. We ALL live on this planet TOGETHER. So why cant we, ALL of us, find way to improve where we live? If we dont, who will?

There's not a person in the world who wouldn't agree wth me. EVERYONE wants this in life because thats the way we make it! We keep thinking, hoping the other will change, or 'surrender', because thats the only way. Well its not. We have to meet half-way.

Everyone has to give little, not just wait to take. There will never be anything to take if you don't give!

-Molly, guest poster #1

Thanks, Molly!

Spy Court Judge Quits Over NSA Spying Story

U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of the 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, has resigned in protest over President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program.

Robertson sent a letter to Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts Monday, but in the letter, he did not give an explanation for his resignation. Two sources of the story said Robertson expressed concern with the authorization, and thought that it violated the workings of the Surveillance Court.

To read the full story, go here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10538136

My Comments: This even more-so points to the fact that what President Bush did probably wasn't legal. Like I said in the earlier post, the government should be able to weed out those specific people, without spying on everybody.

The secret FISA court was considered the only body who could authorize surveillance and spying. No, Bush has over-ridden another part of government who had authority over him. Add that to a growing list.

We'll see where this leads.

NOTE: After clicking on the above link, you can scroll down a bit, and on the right of the page, there's a "Live Vote" asking whether Bush should be impeached. I'm not touching that subject right now, because I consider myself better than the likes of Kenneth Starr, but it should be noted that 85% of the people think that he should be impeached.

Just something to think about...

-Adam
Source: MSNBC.com

President Orders NSA To Spy On Americans After 9/11 - New York Times Reports

I found this on CNN. My comments will appear below the story.

"A story in The New York Times on Friday claimed that Bush secretly signed an order authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans who were communicating with individuals overseas to determine if they had terrorist ties.

"After 9/11, I told the American people I would do everything in my power to protect the country, within the law, and that's exactly how I conduct my presidency," Bush said in an interview with PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," which was scheduled to air Friday evening.

"Sources with knowledge of the program have since told CNN that Bush did sign the secret order in 2002. The sources refused to be identified because the program is classified.

"Pressed on the topic in the PBS interview, Bush said he understood people want him to confirm or deny the report, but he couldn't discuss specifics because "it would compromise our ability to protect the people," according to a transcript of the program.

"The NSA eavesdrops on billions of communications worldwide. While the NSA is barred from domestic spying, it can get warrants issued with the permission of a special court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court.

"The court is set up specifically to issue warrants allowing wiretapping on domestic soil.

"In the New York Times report, the paper said the NSA has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants during the past three years as part of its war on terror.

"Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor, said in a statement that the newspaper postponed publication of the article for a year at the White House's request as editors pondered the national security issues surrounding the release of the information.

"I think the point that Americans really want to know is twofold. One, are we doing everything we can to protect the people? And two, are we protecting the civil liberties as we do so?" Bush said during the PBS interview. "And my answer to both is yes, we are."

My Comments: Go figure. I can understand them doing this, to a point.

Tell me, though, what does my dad's emails from Oregon to my uncle who's way outside London gonna tell us about national security? I'm assuming that most terrorists would live in bigger cities. Seriously, they could choose better who they need to watch.

The U.S. has a terror suspect list. They could, oh maybe, focus on these people. They could also check out those who recently were denied entry to the U.S. THis might be easier AND more lucriative than checking EVERYONE who communicates with those outside the U.S., especially since, I assume, they didn't find anything.

The President says he won't confirm or deny the story, due to national security.

UPDATE to Novak story: The President said he doesn't have "any idea" as to why Bob Novak said he would know who the source is. I guess we'll see who's right when the source finally comes out!

-Adam
oregondemocrat@hotmail.com
Source: CNN.com