Highwaymans Hangout

Hillary: Bush Won't Talk to Bad People

Talk all you want, there are no negotiating with terrorists...

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/1/19/212640.shtml?s=ic

The Bush administration refuses to talk to Iran and Syria because they "won't talk to bad people," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, just back from a trip to Iraq, told Fox's Greta Van Susteren.

The U.S. should talk to them, she advised, "because we need to know more about them." 

Recalling that Newt Gingrich had told her that the president's plan has only a 1 in 5 chance of succeeding, Clinton said that this is "not a particularly promising estimate." Speaking of the president's plan for a troop surge of 21,500, she said: "I opposed it based on what I knew about the situation before I went [to Iraq], and I'm even more strongly against it now because I think the chances of success are limited at best."

She bemoaned the resident's failure to increase the numbers of troops at the onset of the war. "We never had enough troops in Iraq - we've all been saying that for many years now," said Clinton, D-N.Y. "Here's what I think we have to do now. I want to cap the number of troops that we have at the number that was in country on Jan. 1. I want to start a phased redeployment of our troops, which I've been for for more than a year and a half.

N.H. Tax Evader Prepares for Raid

Good timing on this story, tis the tax season....

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070119/D8MOKJTG0.html

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A former militia man convicted of tax evasion prepared for a government siege Friday at his fortress-like home, but U.S. marshals gave no indication they were planning to confront him.

Ed Brown said he was ready for a swarm of federal agents to descend on his property to execute an arrest warrant issued after he failed to appear for the end of his trial. He and his wife contend that they did not have to pay income taxes, and his supporters say a conflict could be violent.

"If Mexico came up on my land and tried to take my land, would I not fight?" Brown said. "The United States is the same exact thing as Mexico in this state."

Brown, 63, and his wife, Elaine, 65, were convicted Thursday of plotting to conceal their income and avoid paying federal income tax. They argued the tax is illegitimate and they are not required to pay it.

U.S. marshals said negotiations with Brown continue and they have no plans to attack Brown's Plainfield home or act quickly on the arrest warrant. He has been holed up in his home with armed supporters for much of the trial.

"He wants attention. We're determined to keep this very low-profile," U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said.

Brown said he has a stock of food and supplies and that his home can run on wind and solar generators.

"It's all set up for me to stay here forever," Brown said by phone.

Elaine Brown, a dentist who earned most of the couple's income, was staying at her son's home in Worcester, Mass., pending the couple's sentencing in April. She said she had no plans to return to Plainfield, where she fears there will be a violent confrontation.

The Browns' case has found support on the Internet from militia members to libertarians and anti-tax groups.

Rick Stanley, a Denver-based Web radio host and a militia leader, urged listeners to join Brown at his home.

"We are continuing to ask patriots to surround Ed Brown's property and life with a ring of armed Americans with firearms and video cameras to protect a fellow American," he said. "This is the flash point. This is the time of raised pitchforks."

Clinton takes a swing at Edwards

This looks to me that Clinton had responded to Edwards speech and nothing more then telling Edwards to shut up...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01152007/news/nationalnews/hill_jabs_at_john_nationalnews_john_mazor_and_geoff_earle.htm

January 15, 2007 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton last night ripped into 2008 White House contender John Edwards - her first direct assault on any of her potential Democratic presidential rivals.

Clinton's surprising broadside came just hours after Edwards, in Harlem, delivered a sharp condemnation - clearly aimed at Clinton, although he didn't mention her by name - against those who fail to "speak out" against the war in Iraq.

"Silence is betrayal, and I believe it is a betrayal not to speak out against the escalation of the war in Iraq," Edwards told a crowd at Manhattan's Riverside Church, where Martin Luther King had declared his opposition to the Vietnam War

Deficit Falls to Lowest Level

Excelent...

People are working and paying the bills...

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/12/D8MJU5901.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal deficit has improved significantly in the first three months of the new budget year, helped by a continued surge in tax revenues.

In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Friday that the deficit from October through December totaled $80.4 billion, the smallest imbalance for the first three months of a budget year since The budget year ends Sept. 30.

Tax collections are running 8.2 percent higher than a year ago while government spending is up by just 0.7 percent from a year ago. Last year's spending totals were boosted by significant payments to help the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The Treasury said for December, the government actually ran a surplus of $44.5 billion, the largest surplus ever recorded in December and a gain that reflected a big jump in quarterly corporate tax payments.

The $80.4 billion deficit for the first three months of the current budget year was down 32.6 percent from the imbalance for the same period a year ago of $119.4 billion.

For the year, analysts are still forecasting that the deficit will worsen from last year's total of $248.2 billion, which had been the lowest in four years.

The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that the deficit for the 2007 budget year will rise to $286 billion, an increase of 15.2 percent from last year, but that figure could be lowered when the CBO releases its revised estimate later this month.