Archive for July, 2006

July 2, 2006

Congress ready to set law for Guantanamo tribunals: senators (AFP) »

"This has to be a process where we understand and recognize that we have to have a legitimate procedure — legitimate in the eyes of the court, legitimate in the eyes of the American people, that we can move quickly to try these individuals and do justice," Reed said.

However, Ryan’s Democratic opponent, Nancy Boyda, said the American people deserve to know what the plans are for Iraq and how much more it will cost the United States in lives and dollars.
“The American people want to back their commander in chief, but they need more than slogans, like stay the course,” said Boyda, who lost to Ryun in 2004. “It’s up to them to provide the leadership. After taking Baghdad there was no plan to deal with the insurgency other than stay the course.”
“I don’t think you can call someone unpatriotic because they’re asking for a plan. Stay the course sounds good, but it’s not a plan,” Boyda said. “The American people want some assurance that the cost in lives and the money is going to result in victory.”

See, it’s against the law to hire somebody who is here illegally. And the American people expect us to enforce the law, and we will.
I spend a lot of time worrying about the war on terror. I think about it every single day. It’s my biggest job, frankly, is to protect the American people.
Geneva Conventions were set up to deal with armies of nation-states and, kind of, standard rules of war. So this is new ground. This is different than any president has been through before in terms of how to deal with these kind of people that you’re picking up off a battlefield and trying to protect the American people from.
The truth of the matter is, all of these issues are our problem. And if we became isolationists we would not do our duty to protect the American people and, kind of, lay the foundations for a better world.
And here’s how you win elections. You win elections by believing something. You win elections by having a plan to protect the American people from terrorist attacks. You win elections by having a philosophy that has actually produced results: with economic growth, for example; or, you know, kind of, changing the school systems for the better or providing prescription drug coverage for elders.
And I’m not being critical. I’m just giving you a fact of something I have to deal with in order to make it clear to the American people that the sacrifice of those families is worth it.

“Passing bills isn’t the end-all and be-all of Congress,” said Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “There’s also some value in debating these issues and using Congress to air out issues that are important to the American people.”

“If we find true opportunity to accelerate missile defense,I think the American people would loudly, in unison, say ‘yes,let’s do it.’ So I think we can come up with money for that,”Hunter said.

“This is a partisan effort by Republicans to divide the American people rather than forge consensus to solve our urgent problems,” said Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
“The overwhelming majority of the American people support traditional marriage,” said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave , R-Colo., sponsor of the amendment. “And the people have a right to know whether their elected representatives agree with them.”

Predicting an "outcry" if the president uses his veto, the leader of the Senate Democrats, Harry Reid, said that stem cell research "is not an issue that some small special interest group wants; this is something that the American people want."

An AIPAC spokeswoman said Congress’s overwhelming support for Israel reflects the support of U.S. voters and not any pressure applied by lobbyists. “The American people overwhelming support Israel’s war on terrorism and understand that we must stand by our closest ally in this time of crisis,” said Jennifer Cannata.

“Gus is going to remember that the first order of business is to protect the American people and to support the men and women who defend us in time of war,” Cheney told the audience at a $500-a-ticket fundraising reception. “There’s still hard work ahead in the war on terror.”
“We have only two options in Iraq: victory or defeat. And I want you to know, as members of the United States military, the American people do not support a policy of retreat of defeatism,” Cheney said. “We want to complete the mission, get it done right and return with honor.”

“We make a mistake when we fail to acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people and join a serious debate about how to reconcile faith with our modern, pluralistic democracy,” Obama said.

“We have never been and no serious person is suggesting that we become an English Only nation,” said Mauro Mujica, U.S. English Inc. board chairman, which promotes English as a national language. “But the American people decidedly do not want us to become an English Optional nation.”

Danny Diaz, a Republican National Committee spokesman, said: “It is both ironic and amusing that Democrats believe they are making a final argument to the American people, while being incapable of deciding how much to raise taxes on working families or how quickly to retreat from Iraq.”

“Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively,” he told the delegates in Miami Beach. “And if after all of this time and all of this sacrifice and all of this support there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership — not tied to the mistakes and the policies of the past.”

“There are some in politics who hold that voters are dumb, ill informed and easily misled, that voters can be manipulated by a clever ad or a smart line,” said Rove, who is credited with President Bush’s victories in the 2000 and 2004 elections. “I’ve seen this cynicism over the years from political professionals and journalists. American people are not policy wonks, but they have great instincts and try to do the right thing.”