THANK YOU HILLARY !

OBAMA '08

Hillary Hits Home Run for OBAMA !

Asks Supporters: Were you in it only for ME ?

DENVER — Hillary Rodham Clinton summoned millions of voters who supported her in the primaries to send Barack Obama to the White House Tuesday night, declaring in a Democratic National Convention speech that the man who defeated her "is my candidate and he must be our president."

In a prime time address, the former first lady added, "we don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare."

The packed convention floor became a sea of white "Hillary" signs as the New York senator strode to the podium, and thousands of Democrats cheered as she took a pre-speech sip of water.

While her prepared remarks included a full-throated endorsement of Obama, she did not indicate whether she would have her name placed in nomination or seek a formal roll call of the states when the nomination is awarded by delegates on Wednesday night.

Calling herself a "proud supporter of Barack Obama, she dismissed Republican John McCain with a few choice words.

"No way. No how. No McCain," she said as the hall erupted in cheers.

"We don't need four more years ... of the last eight years," she added.

B4B NOTE: Hillary was excellent. THANK YOU ! Now it is time to unite for the Reibirth of America !

OBAMA 2008

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Next First Lady To Headline Convention Tonight !

When Michelle Obama takes to the podium this evening at the Pepsi Center in Denver, she'll be delivering a speech that she spent nearly a month constructing with her staff. According to a campaign source, Michelle was "integrally" involved not only in choosing the anecdotes from her own history with the presumptive Democratic nominee, but was deeply engaged at the line-edit level.

"The speech really is her creation," the source told the Huffington Post, adding that Michelle started working on a first draft before the family's Hawaii trip, because "she's not a politician, she's a a mom." Of course, it's not surprising that a campaign source would seek to give Michelle Obama the lion's share of credit for words she's set to deliver. But in this instance, the source repeatedly hit that note -- and said that even after the circle working on the speech widened, staff members quickly came to learn that Michelle "really is a good writer."

In a preview of the speech emailed out to reporters Monday afternoon, the Obama campaign said Michelle will talk about "building a family grounded in faith and values," as well as her upbringing on the South Side of Chicago.

"Her story is a great American story: modest means but big dreams -- and encouragement from loving parents that she and her brother could accomplish whatever they put their minds to if they worked hard," the memo read. "Like Barack, Michelle was also taught to give back to the community and the country that has given her so much. Now, as a working mother of two young girls, Michelle is continuing to give back to the community and country she loves. Like many moms, she's learned to juggle the responsibilities of work and family."

Did Barack Obama have any input on the remarks? The campaign source declined any knowledge of the Senator's involvement, though she's "sure he's seen it, since they're such good partners." But in the end, the source said, "it was her decision."

B4B NOTE: Also scheduled tonight are Michelle's brother and Obama's sister. DON'T MISS HISTORY !

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The Dream Ticket

Obama-Biden

2008

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his vice presidential running mate early Saturday, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.
Obama announced the pick on his Web site with a photo of the two men and an appeal for donations. A text message went out shortly afterward that said, "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee."
Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.
Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.
In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.
Obama's campaign arranged a debut for the newly minted ticket on Saturday outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.
Obama's decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Obama had chosen. The campaign scrambled to send the text message after the leak, sending phones buzzing at the inconvenient time of just after 3 a.m. on the East Coast.
Hundreds of miles to the west, carpenters, electricians, sound stage gurus and others transformed the Pepsi Center in Denver into a made-for-television convention venue.

Tucked away in one corner were thousands of lightweight rolled cardboard tubes, ready-made handles for signs bearing the names of the Democratic ticket _ once the identity of Obama's running mate was known.
While Obama decided against adding Clinton to his ticket, he has gone to great lengths to gain the confidence of her primary voters, agreeing to allow her name to be placed in nomination at the convention and permitting a roll call vote that threatens to expose lingering divisions within the party.
Biden slowly emerged as Obama's choice across a long day and night of political suspense as other contenders gradually fell away.
First Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine let it be known that he had been ruled out. Then came word that Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana had also been passed over.
Several aides to Clinton said the Obama campaign had never requested financial or other records from her.
Other finalists in the veep sweepstakes were Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Texas Rep. Chet Edwards.
Among those on the short list, Biden brought the most experience in defense or foreign policy _ areas in which Obama fares relatively poorly in the polls compared with Republican Sen. John McCain.
While the war in Iraq has been supplanted as the campaign's top issues by the economy in recent months, the recent Russian invasion of Georgia has returned foreign policy to the forefront.
In addition to foreign policy experience, Biden, a native of Scranton, Pa., has working-class roots that could benefit Obama, who lost the blue-collar vote to Clinton during their competition for the presidential nomination.
Biden was elected to the Senate at the age of 29 in 1972, but personal tragedy struck before he could take office. His wife and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when a tractor-trailer broad-sided her station wagon.
Biden took his oath of office for his first term at the hospital bedside of one of his sons.
On Friday, he spent the day at his home in Delaware with friends and family. The normally loquacious lawmaker maintained a low profile as associates said they believed _ but did not know _ he would be tapped. They added they had been asked to stand by in case their help was needed.
No sooner had word spread of his selection than McCain's campaign unleashed its first attack. Spokesman Ben Porritt said in a statement that Biden had "denounced Barack Obama's poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing _ that Barack Obama is not ready to be president."
As evidence, Republicans cited an ABC interview from August 2007, in which Biden said he would stand by an earlier statement that Obama was not ready to serve as president. Hours later, the McCain campaign released a 30-second TV ad featuring Biden's comments from the interview and scheduled the spot for key states.
Biden is seeking a new Senate term in the fall. There was no immediate word on whether he intended to change plans as he reaches for national office.
Michael Silberman, a partner at online communications firm EchoDitto, said the campaign gambled when they made such a high-stakes promise and find themselves in a precarious situation where they could risk a great deal of trust with supporters.
"For Obama supporters, this is like finding out from your neighbor instead of your sister that she's engaged _ not how you want or expect the news to be delivered," Silberman said.
Biden dropped out of the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination after a poor finish in the Iowa caucuses, but not before he talked dismissively of joining someone else's ticket.
"I am not running for vice president," he said in a Fox interview. "I would not accept it if anyone offered it to me. The fact of the matter is I'd rather stay as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee than be vice president."
He had stumbled on his first day in the race, apologizing for having described Obama as "clean." Months later, Obama spoke up on Biden's defense, praising him during a campaign debate for having worked for racial equality.
It was Biden's second try for the White House. The first ended badly in 1988 when he was caught lifting lines from a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.
In the decades since, he become a power in the Senate, presiding over confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominees as well as convening hearings to criticize President Bush's handling of the Iraq War.
Biden voted to authorize the war, but long ago became one of the Senate's surest critics of the conflict. Ironically, perhaps, his son, Beau, attorney general of Delaware, is due to spend a tour of duty in Iraq beginning this fall with his National Guard unit.
Obama worked to keep his choice secret, although he addressed the issue broadly during the day in an interview.
"Obviously, the most important question is: Is this person ready to be president?" Obama told "The Early Show" on CBS. Second, he said, was: "Can this person help me govern? Are they going to be an effective partner in creating the kind of economic opportunity here at home and guiding us through some dangerous waters internationally?"
And, he added: "I want somebody who is going to be able to challenge my thinking and not simply be a yes person when it comes to policymaking.
___
Associated Press writers David Espo in Denver, Angela K. Brown in Waco, Texas, Glen Johnson in Boston, Randall Chase in Greenville, Del., Bob Lewis in Richmond, Va., John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Scott Lindlaw in San Francisco and Jesse Holland in Washington contributed to this report. Pickler reported from Chicago.

Fired Up...Ready To Go !

OBAMA-BIDEN

'08

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It's Obama/Biden

2008 !

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Get Ready !

The Word Is Coming Down The Pike !

Bush Inks Deal To Withdraw

ALL U.S. Troops From Iraq

By End 2011 !

BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 -- U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from the country by the end of 2011, and Iraqi officials said they are "very close" to resolving the remaining issues blocking a final accord that governs the future American military presence here.
Iraqi and U.S. officials said several difficult issues remain, including whether U.S. troops will be subject to Iraqi law if accused of committing crimes. But the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss the agreement publicly, said key elements of a timetable for troop withdrawal once resisted by President Bush had been reached.
"We have a text," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said after a day-long visit Thursday by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki spent nearly three hours here discussing key undecided issues. The accord must be completed and approved by both governments before a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year.
The question of immunity for U.S. troops and Defense Department personnel from Iraqi legal jurisdiction -- demanded by Washington and rejected by Baghdad -- remained unresolved. Troop immunity, one U.S. official said, "is the red line for us." Officials said they were still discussing language that would make the distinction between on- and off-duty activities, with provisions allowing for some measure of Iraqi legal jurisdiction over soldiers accused of committing crimes while off-duty.
But negotiators made progress on a specific timetable outlining the departure of U.S. forces from Iraq, something Maliki is under considerable domestic political pressure to secure. In the past, Rice and other U.S. officials have spoken of an "aspirational time horizon" that would make withdrawals contingent on the continuation of improved security conditions and the capabilities of Iraqi security forces.
Officials on both sides have said they hope to split the difference, setting next year as the goal for Iraqi forces to take the lead in security operations in all 18 provinces, including Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have now also agreed to a conditions-based withdrawal of U.S. combat troops by the end of 2011, a date further in the future than the Iraqis initially wanted. The deal would leave tens of thousands of U.S. troops inside Iraq in supporting roles, such as military trainers, for an unspecified time. According to the U.S. military, there are 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, most of whom are playing a combat role.
Negotiators agreed several weeks ago to reduce the presence of all U.S. forces in Iraqi cities, among the most dangerous places soldiers operate, by the end of next year. That process would entail consolidating U.S. troops now deployed in small neighborhood posts into larger bases outside city centers, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials involved in the talks.
"They have both agreed to 2011," Mohammed al-Haj Hamoud, Iraq's chief negotiator, said in a telephone interview. "If the Iraqi government at that time decides it is necessary to keep the American forces longer, they can do so."
The fragile nature of security gains over the past year was evident in the secrecy surrounding Rice's one-day visit here, which was not announced until her arrival from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. U.S. negotiators hoped that her participation in direct talks with Maliki and visits with the Shiite and Sunni vice presidents would help conclude the immunity and timeline discussions.
"What my presence can do is to identify any final obstacles," Rice said Thursday as she began the Baghdad leg of a trip that has included a NATO meeting in Brussels on the crisis in Georgia and a stop in Warsaw to sign an agreement to station parts of a missile-defense system in Poland.
"It's a chance for me to sit with the prime minister and really get a sense of if there is anything else we need to do from Washington to get to closure" on the Iraq security accord. At a joint news conference before her departure, Rice and Zebari said that significant progress had been made. "We are working together as partners to make sure we cover the concerns of both," she said.
The United States, Zebari said, had shown "a great deal of understanding" and flexibility in response to Iraqi concerns. The issues were "sensitive," he said, and "that's why it takes a long time."
"We think this is a very good agreement," Rice said, adding that "the United States has gone very far" in accommodating Iraqi issues. She then noted that some obstacles remain, saying it would be an "excellent agreement when we finally have agreement."
Shortly after negotiations began in March, Iraq rejected an initial U.S. draft, which Maliki later publicly branded a "dead end." The draft called for immunity for both troops and U.S. civilian contractors, as well as unilateral U.S. control over its military operations and detention of Iraqi citizens. It did not include a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal.
With talks at a stalemate and time growing short, the two sides scaled back hopes of reaching a full status-of-forces agreement of the type that outlines the rights and responsibilities of U.S. forces in more than 80 countries around the world. In early June, after President Bush instructed U.S. negotiators to be more flexible on Iraq's key concerns, compromises were reached on military operations and detainees, and the United States abandoned its immunity demand for contractors.
Last month, Maliki said that the end of 2010 would be a reasonable goal for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops.
Facing challenges from within his own majority Shiite group, as well as from minority Sunnis and Kurds, Maliki pledged that there would be no "secret deals" with the United States. He said the agreement would be put to a vote in Iraq's fractious parliament.
"Time is of the essence," Zebari said at the news conference. "We are redoubling our efforts" to conclude the deal in time for it to be signed by Maliki and Bush before the U.N. mandate expires on Dec. 31, he said.
Without a formal, bilateral agreement, there is no international legal basis for U.S. forces to remain here.
The first Iraqi political test will come Friday, Zebari said in a conversation with reporters after the news conference, when Maliki's executive council will examine the parts of the text that negotiators have agreed to, as well as proposals to deal with immunity and other issues. "Tomorrow is a very important day," Zebari said.
The next step is consideration by a larger council of representatives from the leading political blocs. Then the document will be submitted to parliament, which is in summer recess until Sept. 9.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when all business slows amid fasting, also falls in September.
U.S. negotiators have told Iraqi officials that a change in U.S. policy in Iraq could come when a new president takes office in January. The Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), has said he will continue current policy. His Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), has said he will begin an immediate withdrawal of U.S. combat forces, to be completed within 16 months.

Support Our Troops...BRING THEM HOME !

OBAMA 2008

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Bush Regime, Iraq Agree

To Set Withdrawal Timetable !

B4B NOTE: Interesting. Looks like the Bush Regime is starting to realize that Obama has been correct from day one with his desire to set timetables for Iraq withdrawal. McCain's rhetoric of 'we should stay until we win'(whatever that means) just shows how out of step he is with reality.

BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday that U.S. and Iraqi officials agree that timetables should be set for a U.S. troop withdrawal, but conceded that nailing down a broader pact on future relations is difficult.
Appearing together at a news conference, Rice and Zebari also mutually asserted that a final agreement between Washington and Baghdad on a a broad document spelling out the nature of any future U.S. troop presence and Washington-Baghdad relations is close to fruition, but not yet complete.
"We have agreed that some goals, some aspirational timetables for how that might unfold, are well worth having in such an agreement," Rice told reporters after meeting with Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The two sides had come together on a draft agreement earlier this week and Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad to press officials there to complete the accord.
Zebari, asked about fears expressed by neighboring countries over such a pact, said in Arabic: "This decision (agreement) is a sovereign one and Iran and other neighboring countries have the right to ask for clarifications. ... There are clear articles (that) say that Iraq will not be used as a launching pad for any aggressive acts against neighboring countries and we already did clarify this."
A key part of the U.S.-Iraqi draft agreement envisions the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq's cities by next June 30.
Said Zebari: "This agreement determines the principle provisions, requirements, to regulate the temporary presence and the time horizon, the mission of the U.S. forces."
U.S. military forces went into in Iraq in early 2003 and overthrew President Saddam Hussein and the war is now in its sixth year. There have been more than 4,100 U.S. deaths there and countless losses among Iraqis.

Time For Judgement...Time For OBAMA !

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Cleveland Mourns

Stephanie Tubbs-Jones

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Stephanie Tubbs Jones came to Congress nearly 10 years ago as a little-known Democrat from Cleveland who had to fill the big shoes of a near-legend, Louis Stokes.

But when news of her fatal brain aneurysm spread from Ohio to the nation's capital Wednesday, Tubbs Jones' reputation was well-established: tough, exuberant, passionate, partisan, a woman from modest means who rose to national prominence.
President Bush, whose policies Tubbs Jones criticized, said he was saddened by her death.

"Our nation is grateful for her service," he said, citing her work in "helping small businesses, improving local schools, expanding job opportunities for Ohioans, and ensuring that more of them have access to health care."
Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose presidential candidacy Tubbs Jones had embraced, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, recalled Tubbs Jones as "one of a kind" and "unwavering, indefatigable."

Barack Obama, whom Tubbs Jones had expected to see nominated next week as the first African-American presidential candidate of a major party, called her "an extraordinary American and an outstanding public servant."
"It wasn't enough for her just to break barriers in her own life," Obama said in a statement. "She was also determined to bring opportunity to all those who had been overlooked and left behind -- and in Stephanie, they had a fearless friend and unyielding advocate."

Tubbs Jones died at 6:12 p.m., after suffering a brain hemorrhage caused by a burst aneurysm.

"It is so stunning," said a shaken Dennis Kucinich, Tubbs' Jones congressional colleague from the other side of Cleveland. "She was so much a part of the community. It is hard to imagine."

The 58-year-old Democrat, the first African-American woman in Congress from Ohio, was in her Chrysler about 9 p.m. Tuesday when a Cleveland Heights police officer spotted her driving erratically. When the car stopped, the officer found Tubbs Jones unconscious but breathing. She was rushed to Huron Hospital in East Cleveland, where tearful local leaders arrived throughout Wednesday.

"She dedicated her life in public service to helping others and will continue to do so through organ donations," said a statement issued by her family, Huron Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic.

Gov. Ted Strickland, who served with Tubbs Jones in Congress, said he and his wife, Frances, are "heartbroken." He said Tubbs Jones "was a strong, courageous and compassionate advocate for the poor and vulnerable."
Tubbs Jones was admired by colleagues in both parties for her tenacity. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called her "a tireless force for justice, equality, and opportunity." Minority Leader John Boehner, a Republican from southwest Ohio, said she was "a passionate representative who worked tirelessly to make Cleveland a better place for her constituents."

Paired with an outgoing personality, her fearless approach took her from working-class Cleveland roots to Case Western Reserve University law school and rough-and-tumble Cuyahoga County politics before she arrived on the national scene.

She gained renewed prominence this year by campaigning passionately for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. But just after the 2004 presidential election, she also drew national attention for her claims, made on the floor of the House of Representatives, that electoral fraud and manipulation led to Bush's re-election. It was only the second House election challenge since 1877.

That, more than any other single event, got her labeled as a partisan firebrand. Yet Steve LaTourette, the Republican congressman from Concord Township, said he considered Tubbs Jones "my dear, dear friend for more than 20 years, dating back to our days as county prosecutors."
"She was a force of nature and always the most popular and gregarious person in any room," LaTourette said.

Stokes, the 30-year congressman whose retirement created a chance for Tubbs Jones to run, described her as a "beautiful, bubbling, charismatic woman" who "was so highly talented." No matter where she went, he said, "she lit the room up."

Tubbs Jones, whose mother was a factory worker and father was a skycap at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, had planned to fly to Denver this Sunday for the Democratic National Convention. She was to be a super delegate and witness the formal nomination of Obama.

Obama, however, had not been Tubbs Jones' first choice. Before he secured the nomination, Tubbs Jones remained an advocate for Clinton, campaigning with her across the country. Tubbs Jones would not back down from critics, even the many in her district who preferred Obama.
"Her word had value to her," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a leading civil rights figure. "It didn't waver in the wind."

A Cuyahoga County prosecutor and, before that, a municipal and common pleas court judge, Tubbs Jones was a seasoned politician by the time she ran for Congress in 1998. In the Democratic primary to pick a successor to Stokes, Tubbs Jones took on four opponents, including the Rev. Marvin McMickle and then-State Sen. Jeffrey Johnson.

Local pundits expected a splintered race. Instead, a confident Tubbs Jones won a stunning 51 percent of the vote in the 11th Congressional District, which includes the eastern half of Cleveland and several eastern suburbs.
She came to Congress with a school girl's enthusiasm rather than an old pol's attitude. Her taste for red dresses -- the color of her Delta Sigma Theta sorority -- and her 5-foot-9 stature made her stand out. At a black-tie social event early in her first year, she spotted U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the first openly gay woman in Congress and someone whose courage Tubbs Jones admired. The freshman from Ohio made a bee-line across the room to meet her, and the two became friends.

Tubbs Jones' congressional life centered on her membership on the House Ways and Means Committee, which deals with taxes and trade, and on issues such as medical and dental care for low-income children. After the 2006 election, Pelosi picked Tubbs Jones to chair the House Ethics Committee. The committee remains a target for those who say it is too soft on members of Congress, but Tubbs Jones beefed up staffing and started more ethics training programs.

She was active in the Congressional Black Caucus, and said she viewed herself as a voice for minorities across the United States. She pushed for bans on predatory loans, and for more federal money to research uterine fibroids, which are benign tumors that can result in unnecessary hysterectomies. Black women are at higher risk for fibroids.

She was one of the most frequent travelers in Congress, taking free trips to Caribbean resorts to speak at forums on minority business development. She was unapologetic for the travel, however, saying that trips to the Caribbean basin "connect leadership of the Caribbean with African-American members of Congress, just as the Jewish members of Congress are connected with Israel."

Tubbs Jones had an unusual share of tragedy in recent years. During her time in Congress, nine close relatives and in-laws, including her sister, parents and husband of 27 years, Mervyn Jones Sr., died. She coped with the tragedy by spending time on hobbies -- southern cooking and sailing -- and throwing herself into her work.

Tubbs Jones is survived by a son, Mervyn II, and a sister, Barbara Walker. Tubbs Jones' congressional spokeswoman, Nicole Williams, said funeral arrangements will be forthcoming.

Plain Dealer reporters Joe Wagner, Damian Guevara and Mark Naymik contributed to this report.

Stephanie Tubbs-Jones...

Always In Our Hearts

From B4B:

Our Prayers Are With Our Congresswoman

Stephanie Tubbs-Jones

Cleveland Plain Dealer
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, is in critical condition after suffering a burst aneurysm last night, officials said this afternoon.

Officials updated her condition this afternoon after conflicting reports that the congresswoman was dead. Numerous media outlets - including The Plain Dealer on its Web site cleveland.com, CNN and the Associated Press - reported that Tubbs Jones had died.

Tubbs Jones, 58, served as a Cuyahoga County judge and prosecutor before succeeding U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes. She has served five terms in Congress and is expected to easily win her sixth in November.
She was driving in Cleveland Heights Tuesday about 9 p.m. when a police officer pulled her over for driving erratically. The officer found Tubbs Jones unconscious but breathing. She was rushed to Huron Hospital.
The mood of supporters around noon was somber. Cleveland Councilman Roosevelt Coats was seen sobbing outside the hospital. He said Tubbs Jones was unconscious and her friends and relatives were preparing for the worst.

Tubbs Jones has long been one of the region's most recognizable politicians. Often clad in red -- the color of her sorority Delta Sigma Theta -- she is a regular at parades, senior centers and schools. Her annual Labor Day picnic at Luke Easter Park is a must-stop for any serious Democratic candidate running in the city, county or state.

She has been outspoken in her support of black candidates. She backed Raymond Pierce in his unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2001. Four years later, Tubbs Jones played a key role in helping Frank Jackson defeat Jane Campbell. She also stumped for countless black judicial candidates.

Tubbs Jones drew attention this year for her staunch support of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic nomination for president. Tubbs Jones drew some criticism for her support of Clinton and not U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

As a member of the House's influential Ways and Means Committee, she has influence over tax matters, health care and government entitlement programs. She also chairs the House Ethics Committee.

NOTE FROM B4B: For many years, Congresswoman Jones has been an excellent servant for the City of Cleveland, the State of Ohio and our entire Nation.

Please Keep Congresswoman Jones

In Your Prayers

Crisis In Georgia Starting To

Make McCain Look BAD !

Article by Robert Creamer

At first the unfolding conflict between Russia and its neighbor the Republic of Georgia seemed to be just what the McCain candidacy needed: a foreign policy crisis that would allow him to demonstrate a "tough, decisive, experienced" mastery of foreign affairs, and a new rationale for why Americans should choose experience over change in a dangerous world.

But it hasn't taken long for the developments in the Caucuses to become a growing political liability instead.

First, the unfolding conflict provides a fresh example of how McCain's War in Iraq has sapped American power and weakened American security.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned last week that Russia's actions in Georgia might fundamentally alter its relationship with the United States. Of course that is exactly what the Russians have in mind, since they are not at all happy with their current role in the world -- or the way they believe the United States and Western Europe have sought to limit their influence, especially with their neighbors and former client states.

Russia has been smarting for years over its inability to prevent the US-lead NATO action that allowed Kosovo to secede from its long-time ally Serbia. It is none too pleased at the agreement to base a US "anti-missile" defense system in Poland.

First and foremost, the Russian action in Georgia has been intended to support separatist pro-Russian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But it is also intended to demonstrate to other former Soviet Republics that their alliances with the West have very little value if they come into conflict with Russian interests. The Russians know that the Bush Administration's management of U.S. security policy has left the US with very few options to limit resurgent Russian influence.

Of course the crisis in Georgia is just the latest example of how the War in Iraq has massively limited American's ability to respond to this -- or any other -- security crisis.

America already had one major military operation underway in Afghanistan when the Bush administration -- with McCain's full support -- recklessly poured most of our other military assets into the invasion of Iraq. Today most Army and Marine units are either deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, preparing to deploy or recovering from deployment. The fact is that at the present time, we do not have the wherewithal to respond militarily to a crisis even if such a response were necessary or appropriate.

As a result, John McCain's strident statements following Russia's military actions only place into relief the reality that he has continuously supported Bush policies that make us weaker -- in spite of his tough talk.

Secondly, as the situation in Georgia develops it becomes clearer by the day that the Bush-McCain Iraq policy has severely undercut our diplomatic options as well. Apart from generally poisoning the good will of countries around the world, the Bush-McCain invasion of Iraq lowered the bar for the rest of the world when it comes to justifying the invasion of one country by another.

It has made it very difficult for the U.S. to take the moral or political high ground against Russia when just six years ago our country invaded and occupied another nation that had not attacked or immediately threatened us -- and didn't have the weapons of mass destruction that were used to argue that they might "potentially" threaten our security.

Finally, the Georgia conflict has shined a spotlight on McCain's chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann.

Scheunamann was a major organizer of the campaign to get the U.S to invade Iraq. He was a board member of the Project for a New American Century that circulated the now-famous manifesto signed by key Neo Cons that first called for the Iraq invasion. He was a founder of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. More recently he has been a paid lobbyist for a number of foreign governments including Macedonia, Taiwan and, most importantly, the Republic of Georgia.

According to records from the Justice Department's foreign agents registration office, Scheunamann's two-person firm has received $830,000 from Georgia since 2004. Though Scheunamann now claims to have taken a leave of absence from lobbying, his latest contract, with Georgia's National Security Council, was signed as recently as April 17th. According to the Los Angeles Times, McCain spoke by phone with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili that day and then issued a statement denouncing Russian moves to "undermine Georgian's sovereignty."

The paper also cites lobbying forms filed by Scheunamann's firm Orion indicating that McCain sponsored or co-sponsored four Senate resolutions on behalf of Georgia and other Orion clients: Latvia, Macedonia, Romania and Taiwan.

The poor judgment McCain showed by appointing a man who was serving as a paid foreign agent to be his chief foreign policy adviser is simply breathtaking. It is even more so because of the history of the current conflict.

There is more than appearance of conflict of interests. Before Georgia's President Saakashvili sent Georgian troops to reassert control in the semi-autonomous region of Ossetia, even the US State Department says it repeatedly warned him against precipitous action that might provoke a Russian response. He did it anyway. In other words, the government of the United States and Georgia had different agendas, different interests, and different policies with respect to the Ossetia conflict.

Where were Scheunamann's loyalties? Did he represent the position of the government of the United States, or of his old client Saakashvili. Do the actions and statements of McCain represent his independent judgment of what is in the best interests of the United States, or the views of a top adviser who made just short of a million dollars representing a foreign power?

What's more, if Scheunamann and McCain did encourage Saakashvili to send troops to Ossetia, it once again calls into question their simple strategic judgment. Saakashvili's action has been a disaster for the Georgian government that has lead to the rout of the small Georgian army, and increased the likelihood that he will ultimately be replaced by someone more acceptable to Russia. This is exactly the kind of poor strategic judgment that McCain and Scheunamann used to lead America into the War in Iraq. Americans don't want more of that kind of judgment.

Odds are, the more we learn about the involvement of McCain and Scheunamann in the Georgia fiasco, the more that McCain's foreign policy judgment will be called into question. Many Republicans have prayed for a foreign policy crisis that could refocus voter attention on foreign affairs and away from the domestic economic disaster. Sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.

Robert Creamer is a long time political organizer and strategist and author of the recent book: Stand Up Straight. How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com.

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Pastor Rick Warren Basically Admits Lying

McCain WAS NOT In 'Sound Proof Booth'

Can't these Republicans do ANYTHING honestly. It is absolutely pathetic that they have to cheat even at a so-called 'religious forum'. Here's an article by Linda Bergthold that explains this fiasco quite clearly:

By: Linda Bergthold

I must admit that listening to McCain answer Pastor Rick Warren's questions so quickly and glibly last night at the Saddleback Faith Forum made me wonder if he somehow knew them in advance. He was so confident, so concise. But I put the thought aside as unduly paranoid -- that is until a few minutes ago. I was routinely checking my favorite election website fivethirtyeight.com and the webmaster, Nate Silver, referred to a piece in Daily Kos about the whereabouts of John McCain for the first thirty minutes of Senator Obama's interview with Rick Warren. Was he in a cone of silence? Perhaps not.

Daily Kos blogger Furiousxxgeorge wrote at 3:27 pm Pacific time the following blog: Pastor Warren, the host of last night's forum was just on CNN. In an interview with Rick Sanchez the pastor admitted McCain was not even at the Church for the first half hour of the event. This admission comes as a surprise to those of us who watched the event and were told many times that McCain was at the Church and in isolation.

CNN says they talked to McCain's camp and they said no one in his camp was listening. The honor system, are you kidding me?

I think it is pretty clear at this point McCain did indeed know the questions in advance.

If someone can get a video or transcript please post.

Is this a big deal or not? It seems like someone ought to ask both McCain and Warren what really happened. The "truthiness" of this Forum is at stake.

Update: Pastor Warren states that McCain told him he did not "hear" the questions. He was in a motorcade from his hotel to the church, arriving about 30 minutes into the Obama interview hour. McCain did not say whether anyone else on his staff "heard" the questions, however.

RELATED ARTICLE:

NYT's Supports NBC

(Andrea Mitchell Says McCain KNEW Questions)

McCain Should Be ASHAMED !

Time For Truth...

TIME FOR OBAMA

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BLAST TIME !!!

CAUGHT !
John McCain's Touching Religious Moment
LOOKS LIKE A BIG FAT LIE !!!

Now this will be the big test for MSM (main stream media). If this story is not ALL over the news this coming week then America will know without doubt that the media is absolutely complicit in cover-ups for the GOP.

A number of very interesting facts are being revealed following the so-called 'religious forum' given by Pastor Rick Warren last night. At the beginning of the show Warren explained to the audience that both Obama and McCain will be asked the same series of questions, with Obama going first while McCain was in a 'soundproof' room unable to hear the questions. But surprise, although we didn't see the broadcast ourselves, word is spreading rapidly that CNN's Rick Sanchez is reporting that not only was McCain NOT in a back room unable to hear the questions, but he was in a motorcade on his way to the forum (undoubtedly listening to the questions and Obama's answers via satellite radio). When questioned, it is reported that Rick Warren has confessed this to be true !

As if that wasn't enough, during McCain's question/answer segment he was asked what God means to him in his everyday life. McCain went on to give a heart-wrenching story about when he was a POW....well better yet....here's what he said:

"It was Christmas day, we were allowed to stand outside of our cell for a few minutes, and those days we were not allowed to see or communicate with each other although we certainly did. And I was standing outside for my few minutes, outside my cell. He came walking up. He stood there for a minute and with his handle on the dirt in the courtyard he drew a cross and he stood there and a minute later, he rubbed it out and walked away. For a minute there, there as just two Christians worshiping together. I'll never forget that moment"

Aaaahhhhh. Isn't that special. Only one problem. Thanks to this new fangled thing that McCain admits knowing nothing about called 'the internets', fact checkers have found McCain's religious experience to look like A BIG FAT LIE !

From RickRocket (dailykos)

But I searched around a little bit more and here is what I found. A story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags.

Along with other prisoners, he worked in the fields day after day, in rain and sun, during summer and winter. His life appeared to be nothing more than backbreaking labor and slow starvation. The intense suffering reduced him to a state of despair.

On one particular day, the hopelessness of his situation became too much for him. He saw no reason to continue his struggle, no reason to keep on living. His life made no difference in the world. So he gave up.

Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other prisoners.

As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

Solzhenitsyn slowly rose to his feet, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Outwardly, nothing had changed. Inside, he had received hope.

[From Luke Veronis, "The Sign of the Cross"; Communion, issue 8, Pascha 1997.]

So, it is very interesting that Mr. Solzhenitsyn and Mr. McCain had the same Christian guard/prisoner experience. Or maybe it is all just a made up story. Somehow I doubt that Alexander Solzhenitsyn heard John McCain's story and copied it.

UPDATE: This story was actually excerpted from "The Gulag Archipelago" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, which was released in the US in 1973.

UPDATE X2: It seems that McCain is a bit of a Solzhenitsyn fan, as evidenced in his article in the NY Sun here. Thanks to Turing for the link.

UPDATE X3: May other great Kossacks have expanded on my diary. Check out their great diaries.

TomP: Cross in the Dirt, a recap of what we know
Calouste: No "cross in the sand" for McCain in 1973
Throwing Stones: McCain lies, contradicts himself on Cross story

Another fact checker who goes by the name Exmearden found in his research the following:

McCain told the same story on the 2000 campaign trail, except not about himself, as reported by the New York Times

Many years ago a scared American prisoner of war in Vietnam was tied in torture ropes by his tormentors and left alone in an empty room to suffer through the night. Later in the evening a guard he had never spoken to entered the room and silently loosened the ropes to relieve his suffering. Just before morning, that same guard came back and re-tightened the ropes before his less humanitarian comrades returned. He never said a word to the grateful prisoner, but some months later, on a Christmas morning, as the prisoner stood alone in the prison courtyard, the same good Samaritan walked up to him and stood next to him for a few moments. Then with his sandal, the guard drew a cross in the dirt. Both prisoner and guard both stood wordlessly there for a minute or two, venerating the cross, until the guard rubbed it out and walked away.

(end...our italics is stuck)

Well, well, well. So Ol' Mc can't even tell the truth when he's talking about his own religion. And to you right-wing evangelicals I ask, how does it make you feel knowing that your GOP choice is pandering to you to such a degree that he would lie in the name of God ! Now THAT is evil ! ! If John McCain can not tell the truth about his own religious experience, how can we expect him to tell the truth as President ?

RELATED ARTICLE: From Political Insider

BLAST TIME !!! SHARE THIS EVERYWHERE....especially MSM !

If MSM doesn't pick this up....then we know !

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First TRUE Assessment

of Saddleback Debacle

Pastor Warren Kicks-Off GOP Campaign Tactics

Here's an interesting article sent to us by Lisa In Buffalo that pretty much sums up the 'special event' that occurred at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church Forum. It's refreshing to see that people do see through the tactics of the GOP. Here's the article:

McCain: POW ! POW ! POW ! Take That Obama

By Hal Thomas

We now know what John McCain hopes will propel him into the White House. It's his 40 year old POW stories. He used his oft repeated tales from Hanoi to answer several questions at the Saddleback Church Forum last night and the audience ate it up. No matter that Obama gave more compelling, if complex and nuanced, answers to the same questions. American likes drama in digestible segments, and that's what McCain gave them.

My subjective applause meter indicates that the audience was thrilled by McCain and lukewarm at best to Obama. It hardly mattered to them that McCain gave them little to think about, often repeating self-serving anecdotes from his history which he'd used in his stump speeches and television ads.

McCain must have felt the love as he interjected the phrase "my friends" every three or four sentences.

Host and questioner Pastor Rick Warren must have felt it too because while he mildly admonished Obama several times not to use parts of his stump speeches as answers, he never called McCain on doing exactly that.

For those paying attention, the substantive differences between McCain and Obama were stark.

Those who believe in a woman's right to choose and plan to vote for McCain best kiss both sexual intimacy and Roe vs. Wade goodbye. McCain believes that life begins at the moment of conception. Thus, since he's against abortion, this means he'd also be against the morning after pill and any form of birth control that stops pregnancy by preventing a fertilized egg from attaching itself to the uterine wall.

Reading the handwriting on another kind of wall, you don't need to have much imagination to predict what would happen once McCain had a chance to appoint new justices to the Supreme Court. Last night McCain made it clear he'd appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices.

I wasn't sure why Warren asked Obama a question about what he'd do to address the plight of the some 150 million orphans in the world until he asked McCain the same question.

McCain deftly responded with another personal anecdote telling about how his wife bright home an orphan infant from Bangladesh .

POW! Take that those of you who dare to suggest he'd allow racial attacks to be used against Obama.

Warren also asked Obama a related question regarding what he'd do about human sex trafficking. Apparently McCain's orphan tale threw him off stride because, unless I had a mental lapse and missed it, he never asked him the same question.

Too bad. I would have liked to hear McCain talk about the exploitation of women.

Warren posed a good question, asking each candidate to define what was meant by "being rich."

Obama started with a joking reference to the wild success of the pastor's book but then went on to answer the question.

McCain, who clearly doesn't want to be viewed as a member of the super-rich class, told those of us without private jets to shuttle between our multitple mansions, that "some of the richest people I've ever known in my life are the most unhappy" and "I don't want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich."

I'm surprised he didn't urge people to keep buying those $100 Million Mega-Buck lottery tickets, though more truthfully he could have suggested they marry into a fortune like he did.

Obama gave a personal answer to the question about which three wise people he'd listen to if he was president, naming his wife and maternal grandmother, and a number of congressmen from both parties.

When McCain was asked the same question for a moment I thought he was considering saying Jesus Christ. Instead he gave what I thought was his most interesting answer.

He named General David Petreaus, a no-brainer because it allowed him to throw out his I told you so's about The Surge. But he then named Rep. John Lewis, (D-Ga.) as if this would enable him to distance himself from his campaign surrogates who are using his race against Obama.

Pssst, John, somebody is printing the "Keep the White House White" bumper stickers my friend who lives in a rural town near Atlanta has seen on cars.

Using his valuable last wisdom slot, named eBay CEO Meg Whitman who is a close adviser. The only reason I can think of that he did this is that he was stung by the remarks of his campaign co-chair, Phil Gramm, who got lots of negative publicity when he called America a "nation of whiners" whose economic complaints are mostly "mental."

If you can't discern the man behind the multiple masks, then what you see is what you get. A President McCain will get us, to paraphrase and quote Frank Rich (read The Candidate We Still Don’t Know), a courageous and patriotic former POW; a political maverick who "has stood up as rebelliously in Washington as he did to his Vietnamese captors"; who "strenuously opposed the execution of the Iraq war"; who "slammed the president’s response to Katrina"; who "fought the 'agents of intolerance' of the religious right"; who "crusaded against the G.O.P. House leader Tom DeLay, the criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff and their coterie of influence-peddlers".

As Frank Rich put it more diplomatically, every part of this except being a POW, is a lie. (Rich explains why in his OpEd.) And we don't know for certain whether McCain is embellishing his accounting of his POW experience.

Last night doesn't count for much since, although carried online and by both CNN and MSNBC, it was only watched by political junkies.

We'll discover the impact today and through the week because we'll see how the media cuts and pastes excerpts from this non-debate debate between the candidates. Despite the shortcoming of the format, it was the closest thing to a side-by-side comparison of the candidates because they both were asked the same questions.

Let's see how the media spins this and let's watch the polls to see whether the public saw through McCain's canned corny answers.

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ALERT: Bush/McCain Plotting To Secretly

Spy On Americans !

Bloggers, peace groups, animal rights, civil liberty/labor activists

COULD BE TARGETED !

Last night both candidates appeared on Rick Warren's 'religious forum' although curiously one of the candidates barely mentioned religion at all. But one of the most interesting statements came from McCain as he discussed what he would do to make us more 'secure'. From the transcript we see that McCain is in lockstep with the Bush Regime to pass laws that will allow bloggers, protesters of any kind and even peace activists to be targeted and labeled as 'terrorists'! Here is McCain's statement from the transcript:

" BUT THE POINT IS WE HAVE NOW HAD TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES OVER THE LAST 20 OR 30 YEARS IN COMMUNICATIONS THAT ARE REMARKABLE. IT'S A REMARKABLE ABILITY THAT OUR ENEMIES HAVE TO COMMUNICATE SO WE HAVE TO KEEP UP WITH THAT CAPABILITY. I MEAN, THERE IS TOO MANY WAYS AND -- THROUGH CYBERSPACE AND THROUGH OTHER WAYS -- THAT PEOPLE ARE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER. SO WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO STEP UP OUR CAPABILITIES TO MONITOR THOSE. SOMETIMES THERE ARE CALLS FROM OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES, INSIDE THE UNITED STATES,THERE IS ALL KINDS OF COMMUNICATIONS OF EVERY DIFFERENT KIND. SO YOU NEED CONGRESS TO WORK TOGETHER YOU NEED A JUDICIARY THAT WILL REVIEW THESE LAWS THAT WE PASS AND AT THE SAME TIME, IT'S JUST AN EXAMPLE OF OUR FAILURE TO SIT DOWN, REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT, AND WORK THESE THINGS OUT"

Coincidentally, at this exact moment, the Bush Regime is working to pass laws that will basically increase the ability of our government to secretly spy on absolutely any and every American who they feel is a 'threat', a list that includes bloggers and activists of all kinds. Just yesterday the Washington Post reported the masterminded plot of this administration to take away our Constitutional Rights:

(From Washington Post)

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government's rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation's 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.

Taken together, critics in Congress and elsewhere say, the moves are intended to lock in policies for Bush's successor and to enshrine controversial post-Sept. 11 approaches that some say have fed the greatest expansion of executive authority since the Watergate era.

Supporters say the measures simply codify existing counterterrorism practices and policies that are endorsed by lawmakers and independent experts such as the 9/11 Commission. They say the measures preserve civil liberties and are subject to internal oversight.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration agrees that it needs to do everything possible to prevent unwarranted encroachments on civil liberties, adding that it succeeds the overwhelming majority of the time.

Bush homeland security adviser Kenneth L. Wainstein said, "This is a continuum that started back on 9/11 to reform law enforcement and the intelligence community to focus on the terrorism threat."

Under the Justice Department proposal for state and local police, published for public comment July 31, law enforcement agencies would be allowed to target groups as well as individuals, and to launch a criminal intelligence investigation based on the suspicion that a target is engaged in terrorism or providing material support to terrorists. They also could share results with a constellation of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and others in many cases.

Criminal intelligence data starts with sources as basic as public records and the Internet, but also includes law enforcement databases, confidential and undercover sources, and active surveillance.

Jim McMahon, deputy executive director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said the proposed changes "catch up with reality" in that those who investigate crimes such as money laundering, drug trafficking and document fraud are best positioned to detect terrorists. He said the rule maintains the key requirement that police demonstrate a "reasonable suspicion" that a target is involved in a crime before collecting intelligence.

"It moves what the rules were from 1993 to the new world we live in, but it maintains civil liberties," McMahon said.

However, Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the proposed rule may be misunderstood as permitting police to collect intelligence even when no underlying crime is suspected, such as when a person gives money to a charity that independently gives money to a group later designated a terrorist organization.

The rule also would allow criminal intelligence assessments to be shared outside designated channels whenever doing so may avoid danger to life or property -- not only when such danger is "imminent," as is now required, German said.

On the day the police proposal was put forward, the White House announced it had updated Reagan-era operating guidelines for the U.S. intelligence community. The revised Executive Order 12333 established guidelines for overseas spying and called for better sharing of information with local law enforcement. It directed the CIA and other spy agencies to "provide specialized equipment, technical knowledge or assistance of expert personnel" to support state and local authorities.

And last week, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said that the Justice Department will release new guidelines within weeks to streamline and unify FBI investigations of criminal law enforcement matters and national security threats. The changes will clarify what tools agents can employ and whose approval they must obtain.

The recent moves continue a steady expansion of the intelligence role of U.S. law enforcement, breaking down a wall erected after congressional hearings in 1976 to rein in such activity.

The push to transform FBI and local police intelligence operations has triggered wider debate over who will be targeted, what will be done with the information collected and who will oversee such activities.

Many security analysts faulted U.S. authorities after the 2001 terrorist attacks, saying the FBI was not combating terrorist plots before they were carried out and needed to proactively use intelligence. In the years since, civil liberties groups and some members of Congress have criticized the administration for unilaterally expanding surveillance and moving too fast to share sensitive information without safeguards.

Critics say preemptive law enforcement in the absence of a crime can violate the Constitution and due process. They cite the administration's long-running warrantless-surveillance program, which was set up outside the courts, and the FBI's acknowledgment that it abused its intelligence-gathering privileges in hundreds of cases by using inadequately documented administrative orders to obtain telephone, e-mail, financial and other personal records of U.S. citizens without warrants.

Former Justice Department official Jamie S. Gorelick said the new FBI guidelines on their own do not raise alarms. But she cited the recent disclosure that undercover Maryland State Police agents spied on death penalty opponents and antiwar groups in 2005 and 2006 to emphasize that the policies would require close oversight.

"If properly implemented, this should assure the public that people are not being investigated by agencies who are not trained in how to protect constitutional rights," said the former deputy attorney general. "The FBI will need to be vigilant -- both in its policies and its practices -- to live up to that promise."

German, an FBI agent for 16 years, said easing established limits on intelligence-gathering would lead to abuses against peaceful political dissenters. In addition to the Maryland case, he pointed to reports in the past six years that undercover New York police officers infiltrated protest groups before the 2004 Republican National Convention; that California state agents eavesdropped on peace, animal rights and labor activists; and that Denver police spied on Amnesty International and others before being discovered.

"If police officers no longer see themselves as engaged in protecting their communities from criminals and instead as domestic intelligence agents working on behalf of the CIA, they will be encouraged to collect more information," German said. "It turns police officers into spies on behalf of the federal government."

Civil liberties groups also have warned that forthcoming Justice Department rules for the FBI may permit the use of terrorist profiles that could single out religious or ethnic groups such as Muslims or Arabs for investigation.

Mukasey said the changes will give the next president "some of the tools necessary to keep us safe" and will not alter Justice rules that prohibit investigations based on a person's race, religion or speech. He said the new guidelines will make it easier for the FBI to use informants, conduct physical and photographic surveillance, and share data in intelligence cases, on the grounds that doing so should be no harder than in investigations of ordinary crimes.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that updating police intelligence rules is a move "in the right direction. However, the vagueness of the provisions giving broad access to criminal intelligence to undefined agencies . . . is very troubling."

Staff writers Joby Warrick and Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report.

As you know, this Is VERY serious ! The bottom line is....a vote for McCain is a vote to lose our privacy rights. They will be secretly spying on bloggers, civil liberties groups, activists and anyone they want to....including me...for trying to share truth ! (Funny how this Bush proposal is NEVER discussed in Main Stream Media)

SHARE THIS EVERYWHERE! THIS MUST BE STOPPED !

Obama 2008

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