"I want to thank the people of Eastern Washington for their continued support and their vote. I feel good about tonight's numbers – although tonight is only the first snapshot and our final vote totals won't be known for at least another week. I am confident our margin of victory will only increase as more ballots are counted.
"Since being elected to serve Eastern Washington in Congress, I have worked hard on the issues we all care about including growing the economy, reducing taxes on families and small businesses, helping our farmers, improving access to health care and meeting America's energy needs with innovation, investment, and more domestic oil production.
"I want to congratulate Mark Mays on his victory tonight and look forward to a campaign that is focused on the issues and our different ideas on how to address the challenges facing our region and our country. With this election, the voters of Eastern Washington have a very clear choice.
My campaign will be focused on my record and the work I have done on behalf of Eastern Washington including:
- Serving as a member on the Farm Bill Conference Committee which passed legislation important to Eastern Washington farmers;
- Serving as Ranking Republican on the Water and Power Subcommittee where I am working to promote hydropower as a renewable resource;
- Serving as a member of the Higher Education Opportunity Act Conference Committee which included my proposals to increase our nation's competitiveness, make college more affordable and crack down on diploma mills;
- Sponsoring legislation to ensure Eastern Washington veterans have access to the benefits they've earned;
- Advocating for Fairchild Air Force Base receive the next generation of air refueling tankers;
- Protecting the helicopters based at Fairchild AFB that are used for survival school training and search and rescue missions."
A reminder: Tonight's numbers only reflect the ballots that were received prior to Election Day. Counties will continue to count ballots well into next week and the primary election will be certified on September 9, 2008.
McMorris RogersU.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers is confident Congress will override a veto of the Farm Bill if President George W. Bush stays true to his word and axes the current form of the legislation.
The Senate voted 81-15 to approve the five-year, $307 billion farm bill Thursday, while the House voted 318-106 in favor of the legislation Wednesday. McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington, said the bill's strong support gives it a veto-proof majority.
"If the president should veto the bill, the House and the Senate can override with two-thirds of the vote," she said.
Bush has said the measure is too expensive and gives too much money to wealthy farmers.
McMorris Rodgers said the bill does have its deficiencies - as any large bill would - but it does provide much-needed support for Palouse-area wheat farmers should the commodities market take a downturn.
"At the top of the list is the safety net it provides for Washington wheat growers," McMorris Rodgers said. "It provides them some certainty."
McMorris Rodgers said wheat farmers are benefiting from recent high prices, but average prices for wheat have been between $3.50 and $4 over the past 10 years. Farmers would no longer be able to support themselves if prices returned to those levels, considering rising fuel and fertilizer costs.
"There's no guarantees (these prices are) sustainable, and during times when prices are down it's important they have a safety net," McMorris Rodgers said.
The bill also includes other provisions to help wheat growers and other specialty crop farmers expand their markets, McMorris Rodgers said. That's welcome news to Washington wheat farmers who export roughly 80 percent of their crops.
The bill also has provisions for research money that could make its way to local universities.
"We will do our best to get some of it to Washington State University," she said.
McMorris Rogers was appointed to a Congressional committee in April with the sole purpose of ironing out differences between separate and differing versions of the Farm Bill passed by the House and Senate. That position allowed her to ensure the interests of Washington and the Palouse were represented.
"I was thrilled to be on the congressional committee and work to protect the interested of Washington growers," she said.
U.S. Rep. Bill Sali of Idaho also voted in favor of bill. In a news release, Sali praised the bill for its support of specialty crops that are important to Idaho agriculture, funding for pest and disease programs, and for its support of alternative fuels.
"While far from perfect, this bill happens to be very good for Idaho agriculture," Sali stated. "It is important that we create a sensible farm policy, so that we will never have a day when we speak of America's reliance on foreign food, the way we speak of America's reliance on foreign oil. A safe, abundant and diverse food supply is essential to our state and our country, and this measure will help ensure that Idahoans and all Americans enjoy high quality food and fiber in coming years."
The bountiful crops raised east of the Cascades are the results of hard work by dedicated farm families, outstanding people who’ve persevered through many lean years in a high risk, often low return enterprise. It was only a couple of years ago when a bushel of grain was worth less than a gallon of fuel—for the first time since the Great Depression. It is vital that these dedicated families have some “safety net” protection against wild swings in worldwide demand and production costs if they’re to endure in their essential trade.Cathy really does care, and not just about farmers. This press release was issued yesterday:
As a new farm bill finally nears completion, we’ve been fortunate to have Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers serving on the Conference Committee that has been reconciling differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. Cathy has played a vital role in ensuring Northwest farmers are here for the long haul and that our food supply stays strong.
Kudos to Cathy for understanding our needs here in Eastern Washington and for working hard to make sure the new farm bill reflects them. We’re lucky she’s been on the Conference Committee, but we’re even luckier she cares.
Alex McGregor, Colfax
McMorris Rodgers Announces New Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus
(Washington, D.C.) Today, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and other members of the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus held their first briefing. Today’s briefing marks the first official event of the bipartisan caucus since its launch last week.
McMorris Rodgers co-chairs the caucus. She and her husband Brian have a one-year-old son, Cole, who has Down syndrome.
“The news of Cole’s Down syndrome was at first difficult to get our arms around and we were eager to learn all we could,” McMorris Rodgers said. “I’m often asked how being a mother has changed my life and changed my priorities, and I can assure you that it’s all been for the better. I have a new passion and a new energy for everything that I do. We have every intention of doing everything possible to ensure Cole has every opportunity to reach his full potential. I believe the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus will be a vehicle to help bring this information to the forefront so all families of children and adults with Down syndrome can lead happy lives.”
There are more than 350,000 people with Down syndrome in the U.S., but past and current funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is disproportionately low when it comes to finding treatments and increasing understanding of secondary disorders that often afflict people with Down syndrome, like Alzheimer’s disease and atherosclerosis.
Today, the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus held its first briefing on what research is being done at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH updated us on its 10-year research plan which calls for increased research on the medical, cognitive, and behavioral conditions that occur in people with Down syndrome.
US: Saddam paid for lawmakers' Iraq trip
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.
At the time, the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq.
The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. There was no indication the three lawmakers knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam.
"Obviously we didn't know it at the time," McDermott spokesman Michael DeCesare said Wednesday. "The trip was to see the plight of the Iraqi children. That's the only reason we went."
During the trip, the lawmakers expressed skepticism about the Bush administration's claims that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Though such weapons ultimately were never found, the lawmakers drew criticism for their trip at the time.
Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, the second-ranking Senate Republican at the time, said the Democrats "sound somewhat like spokespersons for the Iraqi government."
In exchange for coordinating the trip, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.
DeCesare said McDermott was invited to go to Iraq by a Seattle church group and was unaware of any other funding for the trip.
Resolutions to deny a potentially wide range of public services to illegal immigrants have thrust two northern Virginia counties into the nation's immigration debate. The measures passed in July in Prince William and Loudoun counties join a flurry of recent efforts by local governments nationwide that believe the federal government has not done enough to stop illegal immigration.
[...]
Critics say the resolutions are a racist reaction to profound demographic changes in Prince William and Loudoun, two of the fastest-growing counties in the Washington area. Together, the counties account for 8 percent of Virginia's population, with more than 600,000 residents.
According to census estimates released this month, Prince William's Hispanic population has more than doubled since 2000, to nearly 70,000 last year. Non-Hispanic whites account for a little more than half of the population, down from about two-thirds in 2000. In Loudoun, the share of minorities increased from 20 percent to 32 percent.
Proponents blame illegal immigrants for changing the character of the region, accusing them of packing too many people into single-family homes and failing to learn English.
"It's reached a boiling point - or a boil-over point," said Supervisor John T. Stirrup, who sponsored the Prince William measure.
[...]
The resolution [in Prince William County] includes a provision instructing police to investigate the immigration status of anyone they detain if there is probable cause to believe the person is in the country illegally.
[...]
Hispanic activists are planning a weeklong boycott of all nonimmigrant, non-Hispanic businesses in Prince William County beginning Monday and a one-day general labor strike in October.
Here's a Washington political riddle where you fill in the blanks: As Alberto Gonzales is to the Republicans, Blank Blank is to the Democrats -- a continuing embarrassment thanks to his amateurish performance.
If you answered " Harry Reid," give yourself an A. And join the long list of senators of both parties who are ready for these two springtime exhibitions of ineptitude to end.
President Bush's highly developed tolerance for egregious incompetence in his administration may have met its supreme test in Attorney General Gonzales, who at various times has taken complete responsibility for the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and professed complete ignorance of the reasons for their dismissal. This demonstration of serial obfuscation so impressed the president that he rushed out to declare that Gonzales had "increased my confidence in his ability to do the job."
As if that were not mind-boggling enough, consider the mental gyrations performed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as he rationalized the recent comment from his majority leader, Harry Reid, the leading light of Searchlight, Nev., that the war in Iraq "is lost."
On "Fox News Sunday," Schumer offered this clarification of Reid's off-the-cuff comment. "What Harry Reid is saying is that this war is lost -- in other words, a war where we mainly spend our time policing a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis. We are not going to solve that problem. . . . The war is not lost. And Harry Reid believes this -- we Democrats believe it. . . . So the bottom line is if the war continues on this path, if we continue to try to police and settle a civil war that's been going on for hundreds of years in Iraq, we can't win. But on the other hand, if we change the mission and have that mission focus on the more narrow goal of counterterrorism, we sure can win."
Everyone got that? This war is lost. But the war can be won. Not since Bill Clinton famously pondered the meaning of the word "is" has a Democratic leader confused things as much as Harry Reid did with his inept discussion of the alternatives in Iraq.
Nor is this the first time Senate Democrats, who chose Reid as their leader over Chris Dodd of Connecticut, have had to ponder the political fallout from one of Reid's tussles with the language.
Hailed by his staff as "a strong leader who speaks his mind in direct fashion," Reid is assuredly not a man who misses many opportunities to put his foot in his mouth. In 2005, he attacked Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, as "one of the biggest political hacks we have here in Washington."
He called President Bush " a loser," then apologized. He said that Bill Frist, then Senate majority leader, had "no institutional integrity" because Frist planned to leave the Senate to fulfill a term-limits pledge. Then he apologized to Frist.
Most of these earlier gaffes were personal, bespeaking a kind of displaced aggressiveness on the part of the onetime amateur boxer. But Reid's verbal wanderings on the war in Iraq are consequential -- not just for his party and the Senate but for the more important question of what happens to U.S. policy in that violent country and to the men and women whose lives are at stake.
Given the way the Constitution divides warmaking power between the president, as commander in chief, and Congress, as sole source of funds to support the armed services, it is essential that at some point Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi be able to negotiate with the White House to determine the course America will follow until a new president takes office.
To say that Reid has sent conflicting signals about his readiness for such discussions is an understatement. It has been impossible for his own members, let alone the White House, to sort out for more than 24 hours at a time what ground Reid is prepared to defend.
Instead of reinforcing the important proposition -- defined by the Iraq Study Group-- that a military strategy for Iraq is necessary but not sufficient to solve the myriad political problems of that country, Reid has mistakenly argued that the military effort is lost but a diplomatic-political strategy can still succeed.
The Democrats deserve better, and the country needs more, than Harry Reid has offered as Senate majority leader.
Day 1: The American and other Multinational forces have almost completed withdrawing hastily, the decision having been taken by the U.S. administration to “cut and run” as it is said.No matter the legitimacy of our cause to go to war in Iraq, it must now be won. As Ermest Hemingway stated, “Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.”
Day 2: The Anbar province - whole formations of Saddam’s previous organizations emerge from their holes and take control of the streets: Presidential Guards, Mukhabarat, Fedayeen Saddam, General Security, Private Security, Military intelligence, Party Units, etc. etc. ; in addition to Al -Qaida and various assortments of “Isalamists”. The whole of the province falls very quickly even before the last American soldier leaves Baghdad. The takeover takes place without any serious resistance apart from assassinations and murder of all those who are not entirely to the taste of the abovementioned. This takeover takes place over the entire western region right down to Abu Ghraib and Ghazaliya and other suburbs in Baghdad. Some fighting takes place in certain areas of Al-Anbar, but those tribes who were considered insufficiently hostile to the Americans and their friends, are quickly subdued with much bloodshed. In short the regime that is going to take over the country quickly takes shape in this region.
Other Parts of the Sunni Triangle: Similar situation develops in other areas such as Mosul, Tikrit, Sammara etc. in the North but with varying degrees of resistance and bloodshed, however the balance of force is in favor of the “insurgents”.
Diala Province: In the east considerable fighting and sectarian bloodshed, all civil services are disrupted and fighting continues.
South of Iraq: Badr Brigades, the Mahdi Army and various assortments of armed groups take to the streets and considerable fighting takes place near the southern approaches to Baghdad (the triangle of Death Latifya-Usufiya-Mahmodiya etc.) between Shiaa and Sunni groups, without any definite results initially.
Baghdad: All the middle class new neighborhoods start to be taken over by various armed groups with much looting and arson. This will be directly influenced by the speed of the U.S. army withdrawal; in particular the western part of Baghdad starting from Abu Ghraib right down to the up-scale Mansur Area.
The Mahdi Army and other Shiaa militias and tribal armed groups appear in the streets of Sadr City, Kadimiya and other neighborhoods with clear Shiaa majorities. In other mixed areas street fighting, looting ravaging and murder of families in their houses takes place on a large scale under various pretexes..Those who are weak and unarmed suffer most.
The little of electricity, water supply, sewerage and other municipal services, that there is comes to a complete halt. All shops, markets etc are closed and start to be looted.
Day 3:
The well defined main provincial areas, from the sectarian point of view, have quickly come under control of the various sectarian forces, Sunni ones in the Sunni areas and Shiaa in the Shiaa regions, and the most dangerous and destructive civil war in the history of Iraq has formally started, a war that will continue for many years and bring the country to a state worse than what followed the Mongol Invasion of Hollako in the 13th century. Ethnic and sectarian cleansing is going on within these areas with large scale movements of refugees from the various regions in all directions.
Days 4,5,6 etc.; and subsequent weeks, months and years.
It has become clear to everybody that the U.S. and other western powers are not going to come back, therefore the arena is free for all, so to speak. The Kurds withdraw into their mountainous region, and then decide to make a dash on Kirkuk. Fierce fighting erupts in and around Kirkuk, but the Kurds, being better organized and determined; initially succeed in controlling the town. Turkey cannot allow that so the Turkish army pours in from the North and the war starts between the Kurds and the Turks. The Turkish army advances quickly on Kirkuk through Mosul and after very bloody battles wrests control from the Kurds in the city. The Kurds retreat to the Mountains and start a classic guerilla war against the Turks. Turkey in effect occupies most of Northern Iraq.
Meanwhile vicious sectarian battles between Shiaa and Sunnis rage in and around Baghdad with tremendous bloodshed and huge numbers of civilians caught up in the fighting. Due to shut down of water supply the population of Baghdad starts to become desperate, and is under serious threat of thirst, so they leave their houses and flock to rivers, all that in the middle of raging battles in the streets. Organized gangs go around peoples’ homes checking identities and murdering whole families just because they happen to be Shiaa, Christian or Kurd (this is already actually happening, by the way, in a low key way in some areas).
Initially, the Sunni forces score some successes against the less organized and less experienced Shiaa forces in the Baghdad zone and south of it, despite the fierceness and carelessness about death of the latter. Hard pressed and threatened with extinction and having been abandoned by the West, the Shiaa’s have no other alternative but to turn towards the Iranians for protection. Iranian Revolutionary Guards start to pour in tens of thousands across the border to join the fighting. Soon the Iranians will be in virtual control of the entire south of Iraq and many parts of eastern Iraq. Likewise, the Kurds have no option but to turn to the Iranians in the face of the Turkish onslaught. On the other hand the previous trickle of arab terrorists and religious fanatics across the western and southern borders from Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia turns into a veritable torrent with tens and hundreds of southands pouring across to join their Sunni brothers. Turks, Iranians, Arabs, Sunni Iraqis, Shiaa Iraqis and Kurds all join in an infernal orgy of fighting destruction and death the like of which has seldom been seen.
All activities connected with oil exports from Iraq come to a complete standstill resulting in a world crisis and the rocketing of oil prices to above $ 100 a barrel at the least. Some oil fields burn and black smoke starts to spread all over the country reaching neighboring countries. The oil supplies in the entire region are jeopardized as fanaticism sweeps the region.
Al Qaeda and its affiliates and sympathizers throughout the world are jubilant, elated and drunk with the euphoria of a resounding victory against the U.S., Crusaders, Zionists, the Kafirs, the Shiaa and all other apstates. They transfer their entire cadres to the Sunni controlled areas of Iraq and establish themselves not as fugitives and underground movement but as an established force on the ground. Ripples are spread throughout the world and cells are preparing themselves to bring the battle to the very heartland of the Crusader Kafirs in The U.S. and Europe.
The U.S.A and her allies are completely discredited, and no one will ever think of putting any trust in them anywhere in the world in the future. In particular all factions involved in the fighting in Iraq will be vehemently anti-American and anti-western, especially erstwhile allies and friends who feel particularly betrayed and treacherously abandoned.
The U.S. and allied nations look on this general conflagration and explosion in the M.E. region with helpless dismay. It would take not 130 000 troops, nor one division or two or three to control such situation. All the resources of U.S., despite their tremendousness, will not suffice. It is then, that the American and Western people realize with shock and belated remorse, that if some considered the War on Iraq to be a mistake; the precipitate withdrawal and retreat is an infinitely worse error.
