One More Wet Friday!

Red text is the "real" headline, buried in the story.
Blue text is my own commentary.
Violet text is the blog quote of the day.

It is raining here in central Kansas, maybe getting ready to snow (already a few inches on the ground west of here).

First off today, I would like to point everyone towards a wonderful post on the Democratic Partybuilder site, at this link. http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/tracyjoan/CHgp

Here's my comment on that story, I was moved by it, you can tell...

John Edwards is showing everyone he knows where the campaign ends and "the street" starts. While most of our political figures spend their time at cocktail parties and high-dollar fundraisers, Edwards is spending his time learning firsthand about the daily, difficult lives of the people he will represent when he becomes our next President.

It makes me proud, and humbled all in the same emotion..

I saw Elizabeth Edwards on LK last evening, and her courage and spirit gave me goosebumps. These people deserve all the support we can give them, and we can only hope and pray we are fortunate enough to find them both in the White House come January 2009.

God Bless the Edwards family!

ROVE WATCH
this morning from Democrats.com, go to this link and sign the Rove Subpoena petition...

From their website;
Karl Rove is at the center of nearly every Bush Administration scandal:
2000: the Stolen Election in Florida, when he was the Campaign Manager
2002: the massive Iraq War lies campaign when he chaired the powerful White House Iraq Group (WHIG)
2003: the appointment of GOP political hacks to lead reconstruction in Iraq, with disastrous consequences
2003: helping expose covert CIA operative Valerie Plame to punish her husband Joe Wilson for exposing Bush's State of the Union lie about uranium from Niger
2004: the Stolen Election in Ohio, when he was the "Architect"
2005: steering FEMA help after Hurricane Katrina to Mississippi under Republican Governor Haley Barbour while denying FEMA help to Louisiana under Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco
2006: the firing of honest U.S. Attorneys to replace them with "loyal Bushies"
Despite having a top policy-making job in the White House, Karl Rove used Republican email accounts for 95% of his communications, in defiance of the Presidential Records Act. Now most of Rove's emails have been "scrubbed," in defiance of explicit instructions from Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in 2004.
The Senate and House Judiciary Committees have authorized their chairmen to issue subpoenas to compel Karl Rove to testify under oath and turn over his White House and RNC records.
It is time for those chairmen, Senator Pat Leahy and Rep. John Conyers, to subpoena Karl Rove.And if the White House makes good on its promise to reject those subpoenas, it is time for the House to begin impeachment proceedings. http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/106

Here's the message I added to the petition to subpoena Rove.
How long will you people continue to let your constituents be violated by this lawless rogue? Only YOU have the power to make Rove testify, and if he refuses, you have the power to throw him in jail REGARDLESS OF WHAT THESE EXECUTIVE BRANCH ROYALISTS CLAIM. Many GOOD Americans have gone to prison for lesser crimes than what Rove has committed, and many have died during war AND peace to protect us from this kind of power mongering.
DO YOUR JOB! It is an easy solution to a complex problem... force Rove to testify under oath, and don't let him spin his answers like he is in charge of YOU!!!

THE BUSH WARS
An apparent suicide bombing in the tightly guarded parliament building that killed two Sunni Arab legislators and six other people here Thursday struck at the heart of Iraq's struggling democracy and the U.S. security plan that is trying to bolster it."Now even this place isn't safe anymore. What are we supposed to do?" said one survivor, who had been sitting in the cafeteria. He and a colleague were in shock as they picked human remains off their pinstriped blazers. Neither was injured, but both were covered in blood and dust.Others, who blame the squabbling lawmakers for the country's lack of security, directed their anger at the apparent targets. "Let them taste what we eat every day," said one engineer, who asked not to be named. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqblasts13apr13,0,7389833.story?track=ntothtml

Which brings us to the blog quote of the day, again from FDL, but this time by Scarecrow, with a good link to some of Swopa's due diligence;
The message to the US is equally clear: You do not have enough troops to secure Baghdad. You cannot rely on your Iraqi friends to protect even their own government buildings. Despite its fortification, you cannot protect the Green Zone, let alone the city’s open markets or its roads or even the major bridges in and out of the capital. And if you can’t secure those, you can’t even guarantee that you could leave safely. (Swopa has more on that point.) http://firedoglake.com/

President Bush is bringing the costs of his war to the homes of U.S. soldiers.
This war is not going well, despite whatever measures of modest progress we all want to believe we see. We cannot imagine that any U.S. leader wanted to extend service rotations to 15 months in Iraq and Afghanistan for active-duty soldiers. Congressional Democrats were elected to do something about a war in which, like Vietnam, leaders have lost sense of how to reach the end. As U.S. troops face longer combat tours, Democrats must insist on withdrawal timetables to spur Iraqis' performance of their responsibilities. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/311431_toured.html

THE GROWING WOLFOWITZ SCANDAL AT THE WORLD BANK
In a chaotic day of revelations and meetings at a normally staid institution, Mr. Wolfowitz apologized for his role in the raise and transfer of Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, to a few hundred staff members assembled in the bank building atrium, only to be greeted by booing, catcalls and cries for his resignation. (Bankers can be such anarchists!!!)Earlier, the bank’s staff association had declared that it was “impossible for the institution to move forward with any sense of purpose under the present leadership.” The association had helped spearhead an investigation into Ms. Riza’s transfer and raise, details of which came into the open in the last 24 hours. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/world/13wolfowitz.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin


THE ENVIRONMENT
This should also get a good look, Islands are rising out out of the sea!!!
From National Geographic... Residents of Ranongga island in the South Pacific Ocean sit on a massive coral reef that was exposed by the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that struck in the Solomon Islands last week, sparking a deadly tsunami. The quake lifted Ranongga ten feet (three meters) out of the sea, widening beaches by up to 230 feet (70 meters), according to news reports. The uplift has left some of the island's pristine coral reefs fatally exposed. "These are not unusual occurrences for an earthquake of this magnitude," said Rick MacPherson of the Coral Reef Alliance in San Francisco, California. "During the Asian tsunami two years ago, Banda Aceh [in Indonesia], stretching down almost the extent of the peninsula, experienced similar uplift." In some places the beaches in the Solomons now resemble a barren moonscape with once vibrant corals bleaching under the sun. On one beach the quake even revealed a sunken vessel that locals believe is a Japanese patrol boat from World War II. (Related: John F. Kennedy's wartime rescue in the Solomon Islands.) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070410-solomons-photos.html

IMPORTANT POLITICAL NEWS
U.S. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) reported Thursday that he has raised only $500 in campaign contributions during the first three months of the year, fueling speculation that he may not seek a sixth term next year. If Warner retires, Virginia could again become a key battleground in the fight to control the Senate as Republicans would be forced to hold on to a Senate seat they've had since 1979. Democrats control the Senate 51 to 49.
I HOPE THIS VENERABLE OLD REPUBLICAN WAR-HORSE FINALLY GETS SOME FREE TIME TO SPEND WITH HIS GRANDKIDS AND FLY THAT BI-PLANE! WISHING ALL THE BEST TO JOHN WARNER IF HE DOES RETIRE, HE'S OCCASIONALLY (AND NOT RARELY) BEEN A LONELY VOICE OF REASON IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!