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Were those family-friendly tax cuts too big? On Oct. 4, as the campaign entered the home stretch, President Bush stopped in Des Moines to sign his most recent tax-cut bill and to single out Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, Iowa, he said benefited from his tax plan.

Last year, he said, they saved about $2,800 on their income taxes because of the administration’s tax cuts. They used the money for their family, Bush said, making “home repairs and improvements.”

“It’s a special day for Mike and Sharla,” the president said, “their 13th wedding anniversary. Theirs is a typical story. See, last year they received a child-tax-credit check for $1,600 for their four children. They took the family on a vacation to Minnesota. Next year when you get your check, you may want to come to Texas.”

Unfortunately, Mike, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, might not be making the trip next year. Seems he was arrested this week and charged with sexual exploitation of a child, according to Iowa news reports.

It’s bad enough these “values” charlatans are moral degenerates. They have to try and foist their false morality down the rest of our throats, and I don’t want government to foist ‘moral’ standards on everyone. I expect that people will make mistakes and also expect that people will correct them and move on. Its something called personal responsibility and its something that DOESN’T need government.

When we stray, we know that we have the inner strength to bring ourselves back in line. The belief come from an abiding faith in our fellow citizens and in ourselves. We can make the right choices without government. We know we possess the strength.

‘Moral’ values voters are weak when it comes to taking personal responisblity. They don’t trust their parenting to overcome the influence of television. They don’t trust their moral grounding to keep them from adultery. They don’t trust their resolve or self control to stay away from drugs and liquor. They don’t trust their children to heed their advice about sex. They are weak because they can’t follow their own moral code. They are weak because they can’t follow God’ moral code. Do they really think that imposing another check will solve their problems?

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The Bush administration moved swiftly to quell criticism from troops Thursday by outlining plans to protect all military vehicles used in Iraq. But two companies under contract to the Pentagon said their offers to boost production went unheeded.

President Bush said he understood the troops’ concerns and has told military families that “we’re doing everything we possibly can to protect your loved ones.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said Wednesday, “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have” when confronted by troops about the lack of armor, vowed more would be done.

[..]

On Thursday, Rumsfeld softened his tone. “It doesn’t happen instantaneously, but it has been happening pretty rapidly,” he said.

A day earlier, he had called it “a matter of physics, not a matter of money … It’s a matter of production and the capability of doing it.” But spokesmen for two companies making armor for vehicles said Thursday they had offered to step up the pace of production:

� Former Republican congressman Matt Salmon of Arizona, a spokesman for ArmorWorks in Tempe, Ariz., said his company will finish a $30 million contract with the Pentagon this month to make 1,500 armor kits for Humvees. “We are at 50% capacity, and we could do a lot more,” he said. “They are aware of it.”

� Armor Holdings of Jacksonville told the Army last month it could add armor to as many as 550 trucks a month, up from 450, said Robert Mecredy of its aerospace and defense group. “We’re prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month,” he said.

The incompetence in the White House and the Pentagon continues to amaze me… and keep your eye on the budget they’re going to use for this armour, because they have a history of.. ehm.. well, read this:

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So the Pentagon leadership has finally recognized that they need to armor up their trucks. But they’ve settled on a damn peculiar way of paying for the work. They’re dipping into soldiers’ paychecks to do it.

Let me explain. For this fiscal year, 2005, Rummy & Co. asked for $25.7 million to secure its fleet of trucks. And Congress granted the request, when it passed the Pentagon’s budget in July.

But by November 19th, the Pentagon brass realized they had screwed up, Defense Department documents show. There was no way $25.7 million could pay for armoring the M915 trucks, Medium Tactical Vehicles, and other vehicles hauling supplies through Iraq; to do the job right, more like $580 million would be needed. The chiefs had under budgeted, more than twenty-fold.

The problem was, the Defense Department’s budget for the year was already passed. And it was too early, yet, for a second, “supplemental” funding bill. So, instead, the Pentagon’s eyeshades decided to “reprogram” money, from one military project into another.

Now, the accountants could have taken money from hulking, multi-billion dollar items, like the F-22 fighter or the creaky missile defense program. But no. Instead, the cash � along with about a billion dollars in other funds — was taken from the Army’s payroll. From the accounts to pay soldiers in the field.

With that money gone, there’s now only enough cash left in the register to keep paying soldiers until May or so. If a “supplemental” budget bill � rumored to be $75 billion or more — isn’t passed by then, there will be no paychecks for G.I.s.

beeldverslag

Yahoo has published a set of 80 pictures as a set called Pictures of the Year 2004. Two examples:

A Russian police officer carries a released baby from the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya, September 2, 2004. An armed gang, holding hundreds of people hostage in a Russian school, on Thursday freed four infants and at least two women. REUTERS/Viktor Korotayev

An Iranian asylum seeker known only as Hassan screams in pain after setting himself on fire outside the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur, January 27, 2004. Hassan torched himself on Tuesday after failing to obtain political asylum and was due to be sent back. Hassan survived the self immolation and was sent to the hospital for treatment. MALAYSIA OUT REUTERS

The Millau Viaduct, designed by the English architect Lord Norman Foster, crosses the cloud-covered valley of the river Tarn in Millau, December 9, 2004. The Millau Viaduct is composed of seven slender soaring pillars and becomes the highest bridge in the world at 343 meters, creating a direct route between Paris and the Mediterranean coast. The bridge will be inaugurated by French President Chirac at a ceremony December 14.

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hospital chain is taping over patients’ LiveStrong wristbands because they are yellow � the same color as the “do not resuscitate” bands it puts on patients who do not want to be saved if their heart stops.

No mix-ups have been reported, but BayCare Health Systems officials do not want to take any chances.

The popular LiveStrong rubber bracelets are sold through the Lance Armstrong Foundation as part of the champion bicycle racer’s efforts to raise money for cancer research.

“It could be confusing, particularly in the situation of a code or a cardiac arrest where people have to think very quickly,” said Lisa Johnson, vice president of patient services at Morton Plant Mease Health Care, which is part of the chain. “We wouldn’t want to mistake a Lance Armstrong bracelet and not resuscitate someone we’re supposed to.”

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Former bankrupt New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, tapped by U.S. President George W. Bush to become the second homeland security secretary, has withdrawn his name from consideration, the White House announced Friday.

Kerik, who was declared bankrupt in March 1988, would have been responsible for 22 government agencies, almost 200,000 employees and a budget of $40 billion.

Kerik informed the White House Friday evening of his decision to withdraw his name from consideration “for personal reasons.” Frankly, are there any other kind of reasons?

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement, “The president respects his decision.”

Kerik, 49, became the president’s choice last week to head the huge Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but reports about Kerik’s financial interests with a stun gun manufacturer, Taser International, which sells weapons to the DHS, quickly emerged and the possibility of conflict of interest was raised. Then details of his bankruptcy were published by TheSmokingGun.com�the rest is as they say, history.

According to records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Kerik had earned more than $6.2 million through stock options he was granted by Taser. Kerik remains on Taser’s board of directors, although the company and the White House said he would sever the relationship.

Of course, then there were those nagging questions over the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny he employed.

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A U.S. soldier was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager, the military said Saturday.

Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., also received a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of wages and a dishonorable discharge.

Horne, attached to Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Riley, Kansas, pleaded guilty to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder.

The charges relate to the Aug. 18 killing of a 16-year-old Iraqi male found in a burning truck with severe abdominal wounds sustained during clashes in Baghdad’s Sadr City, an impoverished neighborhood that was the scene of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite rebels loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

A criminal investigator said during an earlier hearing that the soldiers decided to kill him to “put him out of his misery.”

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Iets meer dan de helft (51 procent) van de moslims in Nederland vindt dat er een moslimpartij moet komen. Een op de vijf moslims (20,9 procent) is tegen de oprichting van zo’n partij. Dit blijkt uit representatief onderzoek door het bureau Foquz Etnomarketing onder 488 moslims, in opdracht van het televisieprogramma Nova.

Als de moslims die een Nederlandse moslimpartij zeggen te steunen, ook daadwerkelijk op die partij zouden stemmen, kan de partij maximaal acht zetels behalen.

Bijna 30 procent van alle moslims vindt dat het programma van een moslimpartij op de sharia, de islamitische wetgeving, gebaseerd moet zijn, ruim eenderde (34,2 procent) vindt dat dat juist niet zo moet zijn. Van de respondenten die een moslimpartij wensen, vindt ruim de helft dat de partij de sharia in het programma moet overnemen en een op de vijf vindt van niet.

De moslims in Nederland stemden bij de laatste verkiezingen in januari 2003 vooral op de PvdA (32,4 procent), of stemden niet (31,8 procent). GroenLinks haalde 12,5 procent, CDA 6,8 procent. Als er nu verkiezingen zonder moslimpartij zouden zijn, stijgt de PvdA onder de moslims naar 44,3 procent. 32 Procent weet niet wat ze gaan stemmen of wil het niet zeggen.