U.S. Congressman calls for war critics to be hung| |
Excerpt: "Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged."
Comment: The right-wing has taken their argument to its logical conclusion: a blatant call to begin the round-up and execution of anyone who speaks against the Bush-Cheney administration. |
26 CIA agents tried in Italy
for kidnapping, torture| |
Excerpt: An Italian judge has ordered 26 Americans, most of them believed to be CIA agents, to stand trial for the kidnapping and torture of a Muslim cleric. In the first criminal court case arising from the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, the judge also indicted five Italians, including the former head of Italy's military intelligence. The trial threatens embarrassing revelations over the CIA program in which terror suspects were seized in one country and taken to another.
None of the Americans is expected to return to stand trial in Italy, where defendants can be tried in absentia. |
Switzerland threatens prosecution of CIA ops| |
Excerpt: Switzerland on Wednesday followed Italy and Germany in raising the threat of criminal prosecution of CIA operatives involved in anti-terrorism operations in Europe. ...
''In the view of the Federal Council, the use of Swiss airspace for an abduction cannot be tolerated,'' the statement said. ''There is evidence that basic norms of international law were violated.'' |
| | Iran: The next
screwed-up slaughter
White House forced to admit:
No proof Iran gov't sent weapons| |
Excerpt: In Baghdad last Sunday, senior U.S. military officials, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, displayed seized weapons they said were made in Iran. They alleged that Iran's top leadership had authorized supplying the killer bombs. The allegations quickly raised questions, however, as the briefers offered no direct evidence linking the roadside bombs to upper Tehran leadership. And, within a day of the Baghdad briefing, the top officer in the U.S. military, Gen. Peter Pace, said he wasn't sure the Iranian government was involved. White House spokesman Tony Snow said the U.S. leadership was sure of the Tehran government's involvement. But then, in a news conference on Wednesday, President Bush said he didn't know whether the weapons were "ordered from the top echelons of government."
Comment: So all the White House has in terms of "evidence" against Iran is some weapons that they claim are Iranian and that they claim were taken from forces attacking Americans. (The people presenting this evidence to the press wished to be anonymous, presumably because they don't want to end up like Colin Powell.) But even if you believe this so-called evidence that Iranian weapons are being used against Americans in Iraq, there is absolutely no proof that the Iranian government is responsible. In fact, the White House was forced to reverse their claim early in the week that they were absolutely sure that Iran's leadership was behind those weapons, mostly because the Head of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace said that they had absolutely no evidence to back up that claim. |
New York Times breaks its own rules
against publishing White House lies
to help sell war with Iran| |
Excerpt: In the wake of its disastrous pre-war reporting on Iraq, the New York Times implemented new rules governing its use of unnamed sources. Its lead story on February 10, promoting Bush administration charges against Iran, violated those rules.
Comment: Michael R. Gordon, the author of the article in question, shouldn't be allowed to write for a grade school paper after he and Judith Miller unquestioningly published White House lies in the run-up to the Iraq war. The very fact that he is the reporter now pushing "anonymous" claims against Iran is the best indication to date that those claims are completely fictional. |
U.S. ready for Iran air strikes by spring| |
Excerpt: US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington. The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring....Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, are urging Mr Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is the vice-president, Dick Cheney. The state department and the Pentagon are opposed, as are Democratic congressmen and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. |
Cheney aide: 2007 is the
year we might attack Iran| |
Excerpt: John Hannah, Vice President Cheney's national security adviser, said during a recent meeting that the administration considers 2007 "the year of Iran" and indicated that a U.S. attack was a real possibility...Those with knowledge of the build-up to war in Iraq will recognize John Hannah's name. During Bush's first term, he personally wrote the first draft of the infamous speech that Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered to the United Nations. |
Ex-official: White House is
looking for excuse to attack Iran| |
Excerpt: At least one former White House official contends that some Bush advisers secretly want an excuse to attack Iran. "They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something [America] would be forced to retaliate for," says Hillary Mann, the administration's former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs. |
CNN propagates false Iran claim
that even White House rejects| |
Excerpt: CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr said this morning: "The bottom line, Heidi, is the US certainly does have intelligence tying these Iranian weapons shipments to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah ali Khamenei. It's not something that the Bush White House wants to talk about in public too much because they really do not want to ratchet up tensions with Iran, the facts aside."
Starr claims the White House doesn't want to talk about this "too much." Actually, the White House explicitly denies it. |
Associated Press is just making stuff up| |
Comment: You have to read this article to believe it. It's just paragraph after paragraph of pure propaganda -- bucket after bucket of un-sourced, un-evidenced assertions |
Ex-aide says Rice misled Congress on Iran| |
Excerpt: Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council when it was headed by Rice, said a proposal vetted by Tehran's most senior leaders was sent to the United States in May 2003 and was akin to the 1972 U.S. opening to China.
Speaking at a conference on Capitol Hill, Leverett said he was confident it was seen by Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell but "the administration rejected the overture." Rice's spokesman denied she misled Congress and reiterated that she did not see the proposal.
2003 memo says Iranians backed talks
Excerpt: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was questioned about the document on Capitol Hill last week. She said she did not recall seeing it when she was national security adviser. "I just don't remember ever seeing any such thing," she said.
Powell tried to push Iran talks in 2003 and was rebuffed, former official says
Excerpt: Former Bush National Security Council official Flynt Leverett, speaking on Wednesday at a forum held by the New America Foundation, told a crowd in a Senate office building that in 2003 then-Secretary of State Colin Powell received a "grand bargain" offer from Iran and was rebuffed by the White House. |
Pelosi says Bush needs
Congressional approval to attack Iran| |
Excerpt: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Bush lacks the authority to invade Iran without specific approval from Congress, a fresh challenge to the commander in chief on the eve of a symbolic vote critical of his troop buildup in Iraq.
Pelosi, D-Calif., noted that Bush consistently said he supports a diplomatic resolution to differences with Iran "and I take him at his word." |
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New Democrats' plan to stop surge: Don't
send tired, untrained, unequipped troops| |
Excerpt: Rep. John Murtha, a war critic who chairs the House of Representatives panel that oversees military spending, said he planned to restrict war funding in a way that would effectively stop the 21,500 U.S. troop buildup...by placing four conditions on combat funds through September 30. The Pentagon would have to certify that troops being sent to Iraq are "fully combat ready" with training and equipment; troops must have at least one year at home between combat deployments; combat assignments could not be extended beyond one year, and a "stop-loss" program forcing soldiers to extend their enlistment periods would be prohibited.
Comment: This strategy seems brilliant. Any Republican who wants to support Bush's troop surge is going to have to explicitly vote to send untrained, poorly equipped Americans into combat. It also defeats the GOP argument that the Dems are trying to cut off war funding because they don't support the troops. Of course, we couldn't find a decent explanation of this new Democratic proposal in the American press. The AP relegated it to one line in an article about all the different opinions expressed by many, many members of Congress. I believe the phrase "partisan bickering" came up. |
Bill introduced in Senate would restore
rule of law, Constitution, America| |
Excerpt: Senate Democrats Tuesday unveiled proposed legislation to restore some legal rights to suspected terrorists. Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., filed a bill that would restore the right of detainees to challenge their detention, bar evidence gained through torture and allow detainees to invoke the Geneva Convention.
Comment: This is more than a bill "giving" rights to prisoners at Guantanamo. It is nothing less than an attempt to restore our Constitution to its former position as the Supreme Law of the Land, and to reaffirm America's status as a country ruled by laws rather than kings. It would reverse one of the most shameful chapters of our nation's legal history, namely, Congress's decision late last year, on the eve of the 2006 elections, that the White House could imprison anyone, without reason, forever. |
Proposal would monitor all e-mails, IMs, etc.| |
Excerpt: Under the guise of reducing child pornography, the SAFETY (Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act) Act is currently the gravest threat to digital privacy rights on the Internet. Given the increasing tendency of people, especially young people, to use the Internet as a primary means of communications, this measure would effect nearly all Americans in ways we are only beginning to understand. Also, given the fact that the Act requires all Internet Service Providers to record the web surfing activity of all Internet users, this amounts to the warrantless wiretapping of the entire Internet. |
Gov't top environmental lawyer receives mansion for letting Conoco break EPA rules| |
Excerpt: The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to explain how the Justice Department's former top environmental prosecutor could sign consent decrees with the third-largest U.S. oil company after buying a $980,000 vacation home with its top lobbyist. The Justice Department says ethics officials signed off on [then-Assistant Attorney General Sue Ellen] Wooldridge's purchase of the beach getaway with [former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven] Griles, now an oil and gas lobbyist, and ConocoPhillips Vice President Donald R. Duncan. Nine months later, the Justice Department sent two proposed consent decrees signed by Wooldridge to a federal judge in Houston. One would let the company delay the required installation of some of the $525 million in pollution controls at nine refineries; the other dealt with a Superfund toxic waste cleanup. |
Ex-number-three at CIA
charged in bribery scandal| |
Excerpt: The CIA's former No. 3 official was indicted Tuesday on suspicion of accepting lavish vacations, helicopter rides and private jet flights from a defense contractor who was also charged. A federal grand jury returned 11 counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, executive director of the CIA until he resigned in May, and his close friend, San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes. The charges stem from the same investigation that sent former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison last year. |
White House advisers searching for
ways to 'bypass Congress altogether'| |
Excerpt: White House advisers are casting about for ways to jump-start his final two years, including issuing executive orders to get things done without having to ask for support from the Democratic-controlled Congress. |
Russia may exit 1987 arms treaty| |
Excerpt: A top Russian general said Thursday that Moscow may unilaterally opt out of a Soviet-era arms reduction treaty with the United States, Russian news agencies reported.
Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky ... said the decision would depend on the United States' actions with its proposed missile defense system, parts of which Washington is seeking to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Giants meet to counter US power
Excerpt: India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world's population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.
Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic "multi-polar world". |
Washington Post's Pincus fingers Ari Fleisher as leaker of CIA agent's identity| |
Excerpt: Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus testified in court this morning that then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, not I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was the first person to tell him that a prominent critic of the Iraq war was married to undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Testifying as the first defense witness at Libby's perjury trial, Pincus for the first time publicly disclosed the confidential source inside the White House who told him in 2003 that the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV worked at the CIA on matters relating to weapons of mass destruction.
Fleischer testified last month as a prosecution witness that he mentioned Plame only to two reporters -- John Dickerson, then of Time Magazine, and David Gregory of NBC News -- during a trip that President Bush took to Africa.
All the Libby trial evidence
points at the White House
Excerpt: President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.
Bush won’t say whether he authorized leak, or if he’ll pardon Libby
Question: Sir, we've now learned through sworn testimony that at least three members of your administration other than Scooter Libby leaked Valerie Plame's identity to the media. None of these three is known to be under investigation. Without commenting on the Libby trial, then, can you tell us whether you authorized any of these three to do that or --
Bush: I'm not going to talk…
Question: … whether they were authorized without your permission?
Bush: Yes, thanks. I'm not going to talk about any of it.
Question: They're not under investigation, though, sir.
Bush: Peter, I'm not going to talk about any of it.
Question: How about pardon, sir? Many people were asking whether you might pardon somebody…
Bush: I'm not going to talk about it, Peter.
Libby, Cheney not called to testify
Excerpt: Attorneys said for months that Libby and his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, would testify for the defense. But Libby's attorneys reversed course Tuesday and said neither man would testify.
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Wall Street wins, Americans lose
Chrysler to eliminate nearly 13,000 jobs| |
Excerpt: Chrysler's announced layoffs of 13,000 workers Wednesday brings the total number of lost U.S. auto industry jobs since 2005 to 285,000.
The cuts represent about 14 percent of all U.S. job cuts announced over the past 25 months, said outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in a report released Wednesday.
More jobs would be lost if Chrysler is spun off by DaimlerChrysler, as some analysts speculate, because Chrysler would be operating "detached from its more successful German parent," Challenger said.
Hershey, going to Mexico,
cuts 1500 jobs in Pennsylvania
Excerpt: Hershey spokesman Kirk Saville declined to discuss any details about the job cuts or the plant Hershey plans to build in Monterrey, Mexico. "We will communicate with our employees and our union representatives," he said.
Eastman Kodak announces
next round of layoffs
Excerpt: Eastman Kodak Co. is cutting 3,000 more jobs this year as the picture-taking pioneer wraps up its wrenching transformation into a digital-imaging company focused on consumer photography and commercial printing.
By year-end, its work force will slip below 30,000, less than half what it was just three years ago.
Fed chief optimistic, as
Dow Jones sets record
Excerpt: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a mostly upbeat assessment of the economy Wednesday, citing improvements in inflation and housing in comments suggesting the Fed will leave interest rates alone for a while.
Wall Street liked the message and propelled stocks sharply higher. The Dow Jones industrials gained 87.01 points to close at a new high of 12,741.86. |
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Five ousted U.S. attorneys
received positive job evaluations| |
Excerpt: Although the Bush administration has said that six U.S. attorneys were fired recently in part because of "performance related" issues, at least five of them had received positive job evaluations before they were ordered to step down. |
Judge: Padilla's jailers must
testify about his treatment| |
Excerpt: U.S. military prison doctors and staff must testify in court about the treatment of suspected al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla while he was held by presidential order as an "enemy combatant," a judge ruled on Friday. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ordered a Pentagon lawyer and seven military and civilian prison employees to appear for questioning at a hearing on Thursday to determine if Padilla is mentally competent to stand trial on terrorism charges....His lawyers say Padilla was tortured, drugged and psychologically damaged during the 3-1/2 years he was interrogated and held in "extreme isolation" at a military brig in South Carolina prior to being charged in the civilian court. Two doctors who examined Padilla for the defense concluded he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder that prevents him from assisting in his legal defense. |
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Trashing the planet
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Scientists: January the hottest ever| |
Excerpt: It may be cold comfort during a frigid February, but last month was by far the hottest January ever. The broken record was fueled by a waning El Nino and a gradually warming world, according to U.S. scientists who reported the data Thursday. Records on the planet's temperature have been kept since 1880. |
Wind shifts devastate ocean life| |
Excerpt: The delicate interplay between the oceans and atmosphere is changing with catastrophic consequences. Entire marine ecosystems have been wiped out, devastating populations of sea birds and larger marine mammals. These "dead zones" occur where there are disturbances to the nutrient-rich ocean currents, which are driven by coastal winds. |
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Senate committee:
Airport security can unionize| |
Excerpt: A Senate committee yesterday approved a measure that would give collective-bargaining rights to about 43,000 airport screeners at the Transportation Security Administration. The committee's action followed House approval of similar legislation last month. After the House vote, the Bush administration vowed to oppose the legislation...As part of the response to the 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress created the TSA to take charge of passenger and baggage screening at the nation's airports. It also provided the head of the TSA with leeway to ban unions.
Comment: Near as I can figure, prohibiting workers from being unionized was the only tangible accomplishment of forming the Department of Homeland Security. |
North Korea deal reached
immediately after John Bolton retires| |
Excerpt: Under the deal, North Korea will close its main nuclear reactor, allow international inspections and begin accounting for other nuclear programs within 60 days. In return, it will receive 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, a down payment on a promised 1 million tons in oil or aid of a similar value if it ultimately disarms. The agreement is considered a breakthrough because North Korea has sidestepped previous attempts to have it disband its nuclear program. John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the agreement rewards North Korea for bad behavior.
Comment: The world is an immeasurably more dangerous place because the people running the country the past six years are morally opposed to any form of diplomacy. We almost had a deal with North Korea at the end of the Clinton administration, and one of the first things the Bushies did was arrogantly end all negotiations with them. If John Bolton had not replaced genuine diplomacy with belligerent hollering, we would have reached this agreement BEFORE North Korea built the half-dozen nuclear bombs that they now have.
How neocon crazies badgered
North Korea into nuclear drama
Excerpt: ... But then Bush the Younger became President and almost immediately repudiated Clinton's efforts to implement the Agreed Framework, telling South Korea's president and North Korean emissaries he had no intentions of normalizing relations with North Korea. |
CIA contractor gets 8 years for
killing Afghan under interrogation| |
Scroll down: A former CIA contractor has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison over the beating death of an Afghan prisoner. The contractor, David Passaro, was convicted for abusing Abu Wali with his fists and a flashlight. Wali -- a young farmer -- died the next day. He had voluntarily turned himself into a US military base after hearing he was suspected of involvement in rocket attacks. During the trial Passaro's defense team made unsuccessful attempts to subpoena senior US officials in an effort to prove the beatings were implicitly authorized at the highest level. |
Vermont legislature first to call for withdrawal| |
Excerpt: The Vermont House and Senate passed non-binding resolutions Tuesday urging President George W. Bush and the United States Congress to "commence immediately the orderly withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq." |
Iowa opposes troop surge| |
Excerpt: The Iowa Senate passed a resolution Thursday opposing President Bush's plan to increase the number of troops in Iraq, an action taken as the U.S. Congress considers a similar measure.
Comment: That's Iowa, as in "We have an early Democratic primary and we hate the war, so you better start pandering to us and bring the troops home already, you morons." |
Pentagon demands refund from disabled soldiers| |
Excerpt: Soldiers who were paralyzed, suffered brain damage and lost limbs owe the government enlistment bonus money. They must pay the money back because they didn't fulfill their tour of duty. |
U.S. Army, Marines welcome criminals| |
Excerpt: According to data compiled by the Defense Department, the number of Army and Marine recruits needing waivers for felonies and serious misdemeanors, including minor drug offenses, has grown since 2003. The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than it did in 2003. Some recruits may get more than one waiver. |
Iraqi refugees find no haven in U.S.| |
Excerpt: Little Saigon in Orange County, Calif., and Little Havana in Miami, each built by refugees, are now thriving communities with growing political and economic clout. But they also serve as painful reminders of America's failures in its overseas ventures. For this reason, don't expect a Little Baghdad to appear on US soil any time soon -- even as huge numbers of Iraqi refugees continue to flee their ravaged land. |
Drug, oil companies enabled
Saddam Hussein to amass $1.8-billion| |
Excerpt: The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into allegations that a number of major UK-based firms paid bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. The firms being targeted include the drug giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly. The international oil traders and UK bridge-builders Mabey and Johnson are also to be investigated.
Australians investigate firms
accused of aiding Hussein
Excerpt: AWB executives linked to the Iraqi kickbacks scandal, including four facing possible criminal charges, pocketed more than $6.5 million in salary and payouts before they left the struggling wheat exporter.
El Paso Corp. settles
oil-for-food scam case
Excerpt: Under a settlement with the Department of Justice, El Paso will forfeit $5.48 million, the amount of illegal surcharges it said its oil purchases provided to the former government of Saddam Hussein. It will also pay a $2.25 million civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission without admitting or denying guilt. |
Leaked letter reveals conservative strategy for Iraq debate: Don't talk about Iraq| |
Excerpt: "The debate should not be about the surge or its details. This debate should not even be about the Iraq war to date, mistakes that have been made, or whether we can, or cannot, win militarily." Shadegg and Hoekstra warn, if conservatives are forced to debate "the surge or the current situation in Iraq, we lose." |
U.S., Israel will shun new Palestine gov't| |
Excerpt: The US and Israel will not work with a new Palestinian unity government unless it recognizes Israel, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said. He spoke as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared for three-way talks with Mr Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr Olmert said he and US President Bush had agreed on their position on Friday.
Comment: Of course, what’s never mentioned in the American press is that Israel similarly refuses to recognize the right of Palestinians to form their own sovereign state. |
Jewish donors withhold big bucks from
Brandeis for hosting Jimmy Carter| |
Excerpt: Major donors to Brandeis University have informed the school they will no longer give it money in retaliation for its decision last month to host former President Jimmy Carter, a strong critic of Israel.
Comment: It's been months since Carter's book came out, and still some pro-Israel whiners are offended that he described Israel's policies with an utterly appropriate word, 'apartheid'. The complaints were silly from day one, but the longer the whining continues the sillier the whiners make themselves look.
Israeli Arab couple petitions
High Court after residency denied
Excerpt: A petition was issued earlier this week to the High Court of Justice by an Arab-Israeli couple seeking a temporary injunction which would allow them to live in the predominately Jewish town of Rakefet.
The couple, residents of Sakhnin, have stated that local authorities in Rakefet and officials at the Israel Lands Authority kept them from moving into the town, by stating that according to a "suitability test," they were "not fit to live in the town."
Comment: Definitely NOT apartheid: An Israeli-Arab couple is "unsuitable" to live in Jewish town.
Arab law student denied
entry to Sharon Mall
Excerpt: Four law students at the Netanya College were refused entry at the city's Sharon Mall on Tuesday because the security guards identified them as being non-Jewish.
Comment: But it's NOT apartheid. |
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Blogger debunks media lies about Venezuela| |
Comment: U.S. media accounts, swallowing the Bush-Cheney line as eagerly as they swallowed it in Iraq and now Iran, would have you believe Venezuela is invariably wedged between peril and panic, and Hugo Chavez is Joe Stalin with a Spanish accent. Borev.net punctures this pessimistic press perspective, and does so quickly, readably, without a lot of jargon and without deifying Chavez. The unidentified blogger even smuggles a sense of humor into his/her accounts, a pleasant and appreciated bonus. Recommended. |
U.S., U.K. worst of
developed countries for kids| |
Excerpt: A new report from the U.N. Children's Fund says the United States and Britain are the worst countries in the industrialized world in which to be a child. UNICEF says an examination of 40 factors, such as poverty, deprivation, happiness, relationships, and risky or bad behavior puts the United States and Britain at the bottom of a list of 21 economically developed nations. |
Judge recommends end to government obstruction of medical marijuana research| |
Excerpt: Concluding that there is an inadequate supply of marijuana for medical research, an administrative law judge has recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that it grant a Massachusetts professor's application to grow the drug in bulk.
The judge's ruling is non-binding. But officials at the American Civil Liberties Union hope that the recommendation to grant the application of Professor Lyle Craker will eventually lead to more research into the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. |
Bill would allow copying of biotech drugs| |
Excerpt: Copies of biotech drugs would cost an estimated 10 percent to 25 percent less than branded versions, said the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, which supports the biologics bill. ...
Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said the bill would "lead to healthy competition and long-term savings for patients and payers. No policy in this bill will undercut safety and effectiveness in the interest of saving money." |
Tens of thousands protest expanded
U.S. military presence in Italy| |
Excerpt: Tens of thousands of people have marched in the north-eastern Italian city of Vicenza against a planned extension of the US army base there. Organizers say the majority of local people are opposed to US plans. They say Prime Minister Romano Prodi has ignored strong local objections. |
Holocaust denier gets prison in Germany| |
Excerpt: A far-right activist was convicted of incitement and sentenced to the maximum five years in prison Thursday for anti-Semitic activities, including contributing to a Web site dedicated to Holocaust denial.
Comment: This is just plain stupid. Deprive a nut of freedom of speech, and he becomes a martyr, a hero to all the other nuts. |
Harvard's "girls can't do science"
president replaced by woman| |
Excerpt: Harvard University yesterday named historian Drew Gilpin Faust as its first female president, ending a lengthy and secretive search to find a successor to Lawrence Summers and his tumultuous five-year tenure...Faust's selection is noteworthy given the uproar over Summers' comments that genetic differences between the sexes might help explain the dearth of women in top science jobs. |
MPAA uses pirated software| |
Excerpt: Now this isn't anything new, it seems like every week I'll stumble across someone who doesn't think that my work deserves any recognition or that my effort deserves any thanks. But this time I had a good chuckle; it's not every day that an organization whose main reason for being is "to advocate for strong protection of the creative works produced and distributed by the industry, fights copyright theft around the world, and provides leadership in meeting new and emerging industry challenges" gets caught out infringing someone else's copyright and sticks it on the internet for all and sundry to see! |
Judge to NYPD: Stop videotaping
protests, you first-amendment-
hating, jackbooted thugs| |
Excerpt: US District Judge Charles S. Haight ruled Thursday that the New York Police Department (NYPD) must stop its practice of videotaping lawful public gatherings and preserving the videotapes and adhere to the so-called "Modified Handschu Guidelines" developed by prior court rulings, which govern police surveillance. Arthur Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, characterized the decision as "[restoring] the proper limits" of videotaped surveillance.
Comment: Okay, I added the "first-amendment-hating, jackbooted, thugs" part. That did not actually appear in the text of the ruling. But you get the idea. |
Accepted death toll in Iraq
is an obvious, enormous lie| |
Excerpt: The government in Iraq claimed last month that since the 2003 invasion between 40,000 and 50,000 violent deaths have occurred. Few have pointed out the absurdity of this statement.
There are three ways we know it is a gross underestimate. First, if it were true, including suicides, South Africa, Colombia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia have experienced higher violent death rates than Iraq over the past four years. If true, many North and South American cities and Sub-Saharan Africa have had a similar murder rate to that claimed in Iraq. For those of us who have been in Iraq, the suggestion that New Orleans is more violent seems simply ridiculous.
Secondly, there have to be at least 120,000 and probably 140,000 deaths per year from natural causes in a country with the population of Iraq. The numerous stories we hear about overflowing morgues, the need for new cemeteries and new body collection brigades are not consistent with a 10 per cent rise in death rate above the baseline.
And finally, there was a study, peer-reviewed and published in The Lancet, Europe's most prestigious medical journal, which put the death toll at 650,000 as of last July. The study, which I co-authored, was done by the standard cluster approach used by the UN to estimate mortality in dozens of countries each year. While the findings are imprecise, the lower range of possibilities suggested that the Iraq government was at least downplaying the number of dead by a factor of 10.
Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq |
FEMA gives $3 million in
rebuilding funds ... to Jefferson Davis| |
Excerpt: While countless blacks remain displaced after the 2005 storm season battered the Gulf Coast, $4 million will be spent to preserve just one home of a long-deceased slave owner and slavery defender. Three-quarters of that cost will be footed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, faulted for its continuing failure to meet the needs of Hurricane survivors. |
State Farm to Mississippi: Drop dead| |
Excerpt: A spokesman for State Farm Insurance Cos. said the decision was due in part to the wave of litigation the company has encountered since the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. Mississippi is the latest state along the hurricane-vulnerable Gulf Coast to at least temporarily lose an insurer.
Comment: The insurance industry ought to be nationalized in one fabulous fell swoop. Nothing but a huge collection of overstuffed vultures feeding on the fears and misery of |
Reporters won't be jailed
after source comes forward| |
Excerpt: Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters will avoid jail time after a criminal defense lawyer agreed to plead guilty to leaking them secret grand jury documents from the BALCO steroids investigation. Attorney Troy Ellerman admitted in court papers filed Wednesday that he allowed reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada to view transcripts of the grand jury testimony of baseball stars Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and sprinter Tim Montgomery, according to court documents. |
Minimum wage raise is good for business| |
Excerpt: Minimum wage raises aren't put under mattresses -- or offshore tax havens. They are recycled back into the economy. "Overall most low-wage workers pump every dollar of their paychecks directly into the local economy by spending their money in their neighborhood stores, local pharmacies and corner markets," notes Dan Gardner, commissioner of Labor and Industries for Oregon, which has the nation's second-highest minimum wage at $7.80. |
Man wins lawsuits against telemarketers| |
Excerpt: "For each violation, there is a $500 penalty." Who gets that money? The call recipient. André-Tascha read on and found he didn't have to hire a high-priced attorney to pursue the penalty fees -- he could file the case himself. |
Florida Police Chief wants spy drone| |
Excerpt: Police Chief William Berger vows to deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle despite contentions from the Federal Aviation Administration and a national pilots' association that his department must first get federal approval before doing so.
Berger said the $30,000, 8-pound aircraft -- which he likens to a model plane and would use to aid police on the ground -- does not fall under FAA regulations. And he said he is prepared to seek assistance from Brevard County's congressional representatives, if necessary. |
Peer-to-peer effect on legal music sales
"not statistically distinguishable from zero"| |
Excerpt: Entitled "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis," the study matched an extensive sample of music downloads to American music sales data in order to search for causality between illicit downloading and album sales. Analyzing data from the final four months of 2002, the researchers estimated that P2P affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe. |
Election 2008
McCain says Roe v. Wade
should be overturned| |
Excerpt: Republican presidential candidate John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned. |
Obama kicks Australian
Prime Minister's butt| |
Excerpt: "I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops on the ground now and my understanding is that Mr Howard has deployed 1400," Mr Obama, who next year could become the first African American to be elected US president, said.
"So, if he's ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them up to Iraq.
"Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric." |
Comedian Franken runs for Senate| |
Excerpt: Al Franken's announcement came on the final day of his show on the liberal radio network Air America. His decision instantly makes him a serious contender and brings national attention to the race. He said he supports universal health care, greater efforts to find alternative energy sources and stronger congressional oversight of the executive branch. |
Obama apologizes for briefly
telling the truth, that soldiers
killed in Iraq were lives "wasted"
McCain will address
anti-evolution convention
Poll shows Giuliani's "weirdness factor"
Fox News blames Obama for terrorism
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SWAT team kills teen in his bed| |
Excerpt: "They heard a noise and Ashley got up and was holding her baby when they came in the room," Garza said. "The officer trained his gun on her and she said 'don't shoot my baby.' Danny woke up and was getting out of bed when the officer turned and shot him and then trained the gun back on Ashley."
SWATsters get counseling
after killing teen
Excerpt: "Back when I started in law enforcement 30 years ago we didn't have anything like this. We didn't abandon our people but we'd suggest they go to their clergyman or someone similar to talk to about what they were feeling. We didn't just tell them to 'suck it up.' And while that was effective, the incident team is trained to address these kinds of issues. It is a definite improvement."
Golly. That's great that they're looking out for the emotional well-being of the officers who shot and killed the kid.
But what, I wonder, are they doing for the kid's family?
Hint:
Daniel Castillo Sr. said no one with the district attorney's office or police department has talked to him since the shooting. |
Iraq invasion plan was 'delusional'| |
Excerpt: The commanders predicted that after the fighting was over there would be a two- to three-month "stabilization" phase, followed by an 18- to 24-month "recovery" stage.
They projected that the US forces would be almost completely "re-deployed" out of Iraq at the end of the "transition" phase -- within 45 months of invasion. |
Teacher convicted in pop-up porn case| |
Excerpt: "What is extraordinary is the prosecution admitted there was no search made for spyware -- an incredible blunder akin to not checking for fingerprints at a crime scene," Alex Eckelberry, president of a Florida software company, wrote recently in the local newspaper. "When a pop-up occurs on a computer, it will get shown as a visited Web site, and no 'physical click' is necessary."
David Smith, the prosecutor, would not say what he plans to recommend when substitute teacher Julie Amero is sentenced March 2. John Newsone, a defense attorney in Norwich familiar with the case, said Amero might be spared prison or face perhaps a year to 18 months. |
Sex toys still banned in Alabama| |
Excerpt: A federal appeals court has ruled the state's ban on sex toys is constitutional. But the adult playthings won't be disappearing immediately. The state attorney general's office has agreed not enforce the law pending further appeals. The appeals court held the state legislature could ban sex toy sales in the interest of preserving public morality. |
States fund anti-abortion advice| |
Excerpt: At least eight states -- including Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania -- use public funds to subsidize crisis pregnancy centers, Christian homes for unwed mothers and other programs explicitly designed to steer women away from abortion. As a condition of the grants, counselors are often barred from referring women to any clinic that provides abortions; in some cases, they may not discuss contraception. |
Tennessee bill would require
"death certificates" for abortions| |
Excerpt: Rep. Stacey Campfield said his bill would provide a way to track how many abortions are performed in Tennessee. The measure would also likely create public records on which women are having abortions. |
Republican Ex-Congressman charged with indecent exposure| |
Excerpt: A former Pennsylvania congressman was accused Wednesday of exposing himself to two women at a beach resort. Joseph M. McDade, 75, was issued a summons on a charge of exposure of sexual organs, a misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. |
Neo-Nazi rally was organized
by FBI informant| |
Excerpt: FBI agent Kevin Farrington and a federal prosecutor were clearly uncomfortable with the disclosure of the informant's name in open court.
Questioned about Gletty's role in the march, Farrington testified that "he participated in it. He did not organize it. . . . [That's] pretty good firsthand information, sir."
The city parade permit, however, lists Gletty as the "on scene event manager."
Comment: If perjury is still a crime, and federal agents are subject to the rule of law, we'll see the prosecution of FBI agent Kevin Farrington. Don't hold your breath. |
Fox News debuts alleged comedy show| |
Excerpt: Laughter, of an awfully canned variety, greets all the gags. Nothing happening on screen justifies these outbursts.
Comment: It's worth noting that The ½ Hour News Hour was developed by Joel Surnow, creator of Fox's anti-civil-rights action hour, 24. |
1954 8th grade civics test --
Could you pass?| |
Excerpt: "A writ of habeas corpus is ________... A bill of attainder is _______... An ex post facto law is ________ ... |
California pastor stole the whole church| |
Excerpt: "We didn't know anything until we got a call from the bank that he had bought a BMW," said David Prater, who led the church board during Radic's tenure. "He drove that car right down Main Street." |
FBI Investigates Nevada Governor| |
Excerpt: Gov Jim Gibbons, a Republican who was sworn in last month after five terms in Congress, has denied any wrongdoing, and no charges have been filed. |
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Lightning round news
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Researchers surprised to find no link
between marijuana, lung cancer
Celebrities easily skirt
prescription laws, of course
How does the hacker economy work?
Bionic eye that restores sight to the blind
Prankster posts 'no parking'
on New York street
Man's body found in front
of TV year after death
Que sera, sera, Ray Evans
Have you clicked our Mystery links?
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"Money trumps peace, sometimes. In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests throughout the world. And part of the issue in convincing people to put sanctions on a specific country is to convince them that it's in the world's interest that they forgo their own financial interest."
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Hate 'the elite' -- but first, know who they are
by Underground Panther in the Sky, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The system we call 'society' has been and still is designed deliberately for the benefit of wealthy elitist f*ckers, to systematically use others -- to torment, to keep ignorant, to deprive, to engineer, to terrorize, and to control people and sap them of everything. |
Support the troops?
by Kevin Good, Unknown News
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Excerpt: The way I see it 'Support our troops' takes two forms.
The first is to remove the troops from the ill-conceived 'not greeted as liberators' un-anticipated civil war the U.S. created.
The second is to send more and more troops down the same road again and again, putting their lives and limbs on the line, looking for the next IED.
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Art Bell hung up on me
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Let me remind Art Bell that there would be no America if the Founding Fathers of our Country had taken Art's advice and left the Country because they disagreed with the other tyrant of the day, King George. |
Sharing dreams brings
oneness with the world
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: I am no longer a body of solid mass. I have been turned into a mist of translucent powder particles, but at the same time I feel elongated, like my hands and body are growing, stretching. I rise like a giant into the highest part of what seems like sky going right up to the stars slowly rising. |
Where's the "due diligence"?
by Daniel F., Opening Inner Space
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Excerpt: Neither Congress, nor Senate, nor media, nor editorial writers nor voters performed Due Diligence and as a result we have lost more than 3,000 service men and women and face certain defeat in Iraq. Yet now these same institutions that have the responsibility to thoroughly examine proposed military actions before they are allowed to just happen have again refused to do Due Diligence with respect to the deployment of more than 20,000 sailors and marines to the Persian Gulf. |
How quickly we forget!
by Jim Kirwan, Kirwan Studios
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Excerpt: Whose interests do these crimes against the world really "serve"? Millions are displaced as refugees, wandering between countries with no status and only the clothes on their backs, while "back home" the death tolls approach millions of dead or desecrated by "American Interests." Have we really become this vile, this narrow and this pig-headed, in just six years? We wave a flag that has become heavy with the blood of innocent people while nationally we speak of heroes, and sacrifice and being "number one"! We're "Number One" alright, but not in any of the things that count. If this keeps up the short and arrogant life of the United States will be expunged from the history of the world as the most heinous of nation states since Ghengis Khan destroyed the East in the 1200's. |
Killers in the classroom
by June Scorza Terpstra, InformationClearingHouse
| |
Excerpt: The American military and mercenary soldiers who "sacrificed" their lives did not do so for the teacher's freedom to teach the truth about the so-called war on terror, or any of US history for that matter. They sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity for money, some education and the thrills of the violence for which they are socially bred. Sacrificing for the "bling and booty" in Iraq or Afghanistan, The Philippines, Grenada, Central America, Mexico, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any of the other numerous wars and invasions spanning US history as an entity and beginning with their foundational practice of killing the Indians and stealing their land. |
The media escalates its lies about Iran
by David Swanson, AlterNet
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Excerpt: The mainstream media's most recent justification that the Bush White House is telling the truth about Iran and the need to start another war is, incredibly, that the administration used lies to start the last one. That's right, according to the latest dispatch from the Associated Press, "No one who has seen the files has suggested the evidence is thin. But senior officials -- gun shy after the drubbing the administration took for the faulty intelligence leading to the 2003 Iraq invasion -- were underwhelmed by the packaging."
See? It's just the "packaging." They've got solid proof, and they're even being extra careful in presenting it to us, because we were so hard on them last time. In fact, you can tell just how careful these senior officials are being from the fact that in all the articles in all the newspapers, so many of them (or is it all one guy?) are never identified by name. |
Selling our cows to buy milk
by Peter Schiff, 321 Gold
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Excerpt:
On Tuesday of this week we learned that in 2006 Americans racked up a record $763.6 Billion trade deficit, and that two Australian mining firms, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, were each contemplating $40 billion bids for U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa. Not only did Wall Street and the media fail to grasp the negative significance of each story, but they also failed to see the strong connection between the two.
By running huge trade deficits, Americans are literally selling cows to buy milk. Alcoa is just the latest heifer headed for the auction block. In other words, because we do not trade enough domestically manufactured consumer goods for those we import, we are making up the difference with our assets instead. To the extent that foreigners are tiring of buying more Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, they are casting their eyes on industrial assets. Last year's trade deficit alone provided foreigners with enough dollars to buy twenty Alcoa's.
Many Americas do not see the downside of such a transfer. In fact, they might even see it as a benefit, as shares of Alcoa would likely rise sharply. However, in exchange for losing one of the world's preeminent mining companies to Australia, Americans would only be compensated by the return of their paper dollars. Future profits that would have been earned by Americans will now be earned by Australians instead.
Comment: Alcoa is in the Dow Industrial Index, one
of the crown jewels. The trend continues -- selling assets
to foreigners holding petrodollars and Chinabucks we exported.
I just bought a USB cable for my new HP printer. Even the
cables are made overseas, this one -- top of the line, with
gold plated connectors -- was made in Malaysia.
Reminds
me of Other People's Money and the story about New England
Wire and Cable. But we don't convert our factories to build
air bags or USB connectors. We either smelt them, because
they are obsolete (China has lots of totally modern factories,
it isn't all peasants doing things by hand...), or we ship the
machines overseas. |
Tell the troops the truth
by Tom D'Antoni, The Huffington Post
| |
Excerpt: You have been sent to fight and die so that several American corporations can make untold fortunes from your sacrifices. You were lied to from the beginning. There was no threat to the United States. You are not defending "freedom." You are dying so that others may get richer.
That's why your friends have died, your wives, husbands, children, grandchildren, even Cindy Sheehan's son. Not for freedom, or to prevent another 911, but for the greed of the friends of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. In other words, in vain.
As tough as that is to swallow, it's the truth. |
After House vote on non-binding resolution:
Democrats won’t cut Iraq war funding
by Patrick Martin, World Socialist Website
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Excerpt: The real position of the congressional Democrats is expressed in their flat rejection of any cutoff of funding for the war (to say nothing of filing articles of impeachment against Bush for launching an illegal war on the basis of lies). Speaker Pelosi was adamant that no such measure would be proposed, claiming that to do so would harm the troops now deployed in Iraq.
In a question-and-answer piece published in the New York Times Friday, Pelosi declared her impotence in the face of Bush’s determination to continue and escalate the war. Asked whether the non-binding resolution would have any effect, she replied, “I don’t know that the president can completely ignore us.” Asked if the House debate had moved Bush, she said, “To be honest, I don’t know if the president is moveable in terms of the course of action he wants to take militarily.”
Most significant was her response to the next question, about demands for “an urgent end to the Iraq war and asking Congress to cut the funding immediately. Is that a bad idea?”
“Why would it be a bad idea not to support our troops?” she said-rephrasing a funding cutoff as an attack on the soldiers. “They are in harm’s way,” she continued. “We have to protect them.”
It is a demonstration of the entirely artificial and false character of “official” US politics that sending hundreds if not thousands more soldiers to their deaths is hailed as “support,” while removing them from the battlefield and returning them safely to their families is denounced as “undermining the troops.”
Comment: Rhetorical games. Really, "protecting" the troops means bring them home, to safety. Not leaving them sweating their asses off in another sweltering Iraq summer while dodging bullets, IEDs and incurable skin rashes...
Pelosi is a lying sack of sh*t. She doesn't believe the words she is saying, that is totally |
Loss of privacy threatens civilization
by Bob Barr, Common Dreams
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Excerpt: In 1949, three years before his election to the presidency and while serving as president of Columbia University, Eisenhower dryly remarked that if security were the ultimate goal of Americans, then "prison ... [where] they'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads," should be their abode of choice. While not as memorable as Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" speech in 1775 that helped spark a revolution in freedom that echoed through the ages, Eisenhower, too, clearly understood that complete security -- if it ever might be secured -- could only be attained at the cost of freedom itself.
America, for its first two and a quarter centuries, inherently understood that a measure of the price paid for freedom is a certain lack of security -- a degree of risk, as it were. While in prior times of peril our nation back slid in its understanding of this principle of liberty, and allowed government to seize power to the extent fundamental freedom was threatened -- the Alien and Sedition Acts early in the 19th century, the suspension of habeas corpus in the Civil War era, the "Red Scare" and the "Palmer Raids" in the time of World War I, the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II -- in each instance, corrective action was taken. |
Worst President ever
by Al Neuharth, USA Today
| |
Excerpt: A year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying "this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst."
"She's wrong," I wrote. Then I rated these five presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Hoover and Richard Nixon. "It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list," I added.
I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top. |
Obama is the best BS artist since Bill Clinton
by Matt Taibbi, AlterNet
| |
Excerpt: Here's the thing about Obama, the reason they call him a "natural" and a "rare talent." When Hillary Clinton spouts a cliché, it's four words long, she's reading it off a teleprompter, and it hits the ear like the fat part of a wooden oar. Even when Hillary announced she was running for president, she sounded like she was ordering coffee. Obama on the other hand can close his eyes and the clichés just pour out of his mouth in huge polysyllabic paragraphs, like Rachmaninoff improvisations. In this sense he's exactly like Bill Clinton, who had the same gift. He is exactly what is meant by the term bullshit artist.
My usual instinct when presented with this type of Zelig-esque, Eddie Haskell, non-stick personality is to violently reject it. But over the course of the last few weeks I've found myself increasingly amused by the Obama phenomenon. For one thing, he clearly pisses off Hillary to no end. Same with Biden and all of those other windbag jerk-off assholes in that revolting "national security Democrats" clan in the Senate. There is something subtly racist (in Biden's case, not so subtle) in the way these more entrenched Democrats are riding Obama's lack of credentials and acting like the '08 nomination is their birthright, like he hasn't
"waited his turn" or something, paid his dues. As if any of these clowns would wait ten seconds to declare for the White House if they had the same odds that Obama has now. |
Will war be triggered by Bush administration's sheer incompetence?
by Andrew Stephen, New Statesman
| |
Excerpt: The administration is also setting up Iran as a convenient scapegoat. Taking swinging military action against Iranian elements inside Iraq therefore becomes much more politically acceptable to the American public if it is convinced that it is Iranians -- rather than those vague, shadowy Iraqi "insurgents" -- who are actually killing American boys in ever greater numbers in Iraq. If this theory is correct, the administration is thus providing itself with a handy excuse to go on the military offensive inside Iraq, and at the same time providing a reason for why its escalation fails. |
Worries not usually spoken aloud
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: That American "government" would resort to this sort of thing is hardly a fantasy. All kinds of "sub-lethal" weaponry have been described recently in the mass media and on the net. Threats to use them against the political opposition are hardly veiled (witness the propaganda campaign about the "heat ray" weapon and its application to "civil disturbances").
The anthrax attacks have sunk below the horizon of news consciousness, but circumstantial evidence (the only kind we will have until we have our own Truth Commission, if ever) points to official involvement. |
Forgotten principles
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: You who support the abomination taking place in the Middle East, and who support the usurper who has defiled the temple of our Government, will reap what you have sowed. The murderous and corrupt policies of the Bush cabal will backfire, your stocks will plummet, and your own children will be sent into the caldron of war. You will lose much of what you hold dear, and quite rightly so, and you will be haunted for the rest of your days. |
The new age of miracles
by Kevin Good, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Say our country has $5 to spend this year but the administration wants to spend $10. The administration proposes a budget of $20. Congress has weeks and weeks of sweaty heated debate and drastically cuts the proposed budget to $15. Congress goes home boasting of budget cuts. The administration spends $12 and boasts of reducing spending by being $3 under budget. They both add $8 to the country's debt. |
There's a message at the heart
of Flags of Our Fathers
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: This movie clearly illustrates the dishonesty and contempt with which the political structure in Washington and its wealthy backers hold the common man, using him to do their dirty work for them. |
The American torture handbook
by J.S. Magruder, whynotresist.blogsome.com| |
Excerpt: A few pages later, in an offhand way, without any charged language, it is suggested that priests and nuns not be overlooked as potential terrorists. Knowing how that bit of training advice was applied in El Salvador, it is difficult to read these manuals as anything other than documents of intent. The evil is laid out quite plainly interspersed with the mundane and banal. |
Remembering Molly Ivins
by Theodora, Ography| |
Excerpt: Always one of my favorite reads, Molly Ivins' columns were not only entertaining but made sense. Ivins put into words what I think most of us know in the back of our consciousness somewhere. And she was unabashed in her social critique, a quality that I much admire. |
Say "f**k" proudly
by Lambert's Blog
| |
Excerpt: Our Betters built an obscene world. Obscenity is not only a proper, but a necessary response to that world. Obscenity denies these evildoers the deference they claim is their due; the deference they still demand from us, and from their Beltway courtiers, sycophants, and enablers. |
New "biodefense" laboratory may
reflect a Bush germ warfare effort
by Sherwood Ross, The Smirking Chimp| |
Excerpt: Although no foreign power has threatened a bioterror attack against America, since 9/11 the Bush administration has allocated a stunning $43-billion to "defend" against one. Critics are now saying, however, Bush's newest "biodefense" initiative is both offensive and illegal. |
Victory is not an option in Iraq
by Former NSA Director William Odom, Washington Post
| |
Excerpt: The first and most critical step is to recognize that fighting on now simply prolongs our losses and blocks the way to a new strategy. Getting out of Iraq is the pre-condition for creating new strategic options. Withdrawal will take away the conditions that allow our enemies in the region to enjoy our pain. It will awaken those European states reluctant to collaborate with us in Iraq and the region. |
What 'Israel's right to exist' means to Palestinians
by John V. Whitbeck,
The Christian Science Monitor| |
Excerpt: To demand that Palestinians recognize "Israel's right to exist" is to demand that a people who have been treated as subhumans unworthy of basic human rights publicly proclaim that they are subhumans. It would imply Palestinians' acceptance that they deserve what has been done and continues to be done to them. Even 19th-century U.S. governments did not require the surviving native Americans to publicly proclaim the "rightness" of their ethnic cleansing by European colonists as a condition precedent to even discussing what sort of land reservation they might receive. Nor did native Americans have to live under economic blockade and threat of starvation until they shed whatever pride they had left and conceded the point. |
Advice to investors: Get out of America
by James J. Cramer, New York Magazine| |
Excerpt: Bush's policies are now loathed to the point that I have to recommend the unthinkable: You've got to diversify into other countries, perhaps as much as 20 percent, and you must do it now, before the damage this president's doing to our stocks accelerates. You won't be alone. We've seen unprecedented net flows of capital out of our country in the past few years. International purchases of U.S. stocks and long-term assets fell this past November to $68.4 billion, from $85.3 billion in October. And U.S. investors bought a record $21.2 billion of foreign stocks that month. Preservation of capital and simple prudence demand that you put some money offshore yourself. |
Expert says "buh-bye" to
Microsoft, switches to Mac
by Scott Finnie, Computerworld| |
Excerpt: After living with the Mac for three months and comparing it to my Vista experiences, the choice is crystal clear. I've struggled to sort out my gut feeling about Windows Vista (see "The Trouble with Vista"), but the value and advantage of the Mac and OS X are difficult to miss. While I continue to work with Windows XP and Vista on a number of other machines, I am now recommending the Macintosh for business and home users.
Microsoft's marketing materials for a past version of Windows used the phrase, "It just works." But the only computer that tagline honestly describes is the Macintosh. Don't translate that in your mind as, "Yeah, so what, the Mac is easy to use." Any new computing environment takes some getting used to. The easy-to-use aspect is nice, but not all that significant. When Mac users say, "It just works," what they mean is that you spend more time on your work, and a lot less time working on your computer.
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The politics of the man behind 24
by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
| |
Excerpt: Jack Bauer remains coolly rational after committing barbarous acts, including the decapitation of a state's witness with a hacksaw. Joe Navarro, one of the FBI's top experts in questioning techniques, attended the meeting; he told me, "Only a psychopath can torture and be unaffected. You don't want people like that in your organization. They are untrustworthy, and tend to have grotesque other problems."
Rights group: TV torture
influencing real life
Retired U.S. Army Col. Stu Herrington, who learned interrogation techniques in Vietnam and is an expert asked by the Army to consult on conditions at Guantanamo Bay, said that if Bauer worked for him, he'd be headed for a court-martial.
"I am distressed by the fact that the good guys are depicted as successfully employing what I consider are illegal, immoral and stupid tactics, and they're succeeding," Herrington said. "When the good guys are doing something evil and win, that bothers me."
Comment: I wouldn't want to be accused of hyperbole or anything, but the producers of 24 are frickin' traitors to every principle America supposedly stands for. |
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