Republicans make the Dept of Justice
into a political weapon
No charges of insider trading
against Ex-Senator Bill Frist| |
Excerpt: The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York and Securities and Exchange Commission staff last week sent Frist letters signaling that they had closed their joint, 18-month investigation. The letters essentially cleared him of wrongdoing.
Comment: The only safe assumption here is that one criminal has excused another criminal: Michael Garcia, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who gave Frist this wet kiss, was appointed by GW Bush in 2003, and was not among the U.S. Attorneys fired by Bush-Cheney-Gonzales for refusing to "play ball." |
Dept of Justice scandal
spreads to Kansas City| |
Excerpt: The Kansas City Star is digging deep into the facts surrounding the sudden move of Justice Department voting fraud overseer Brad Scholzman from Washington to Kansas City in March 2006 -- just in time to manage a major voter suppression project targeting minority voters in the rundown to the November elections. ... the Justice Department pursued the case; 10 days ago, a federal judge ruled in the state's favor, saying there was "no evidence" of major voter fraud in the state. Democrats have argued that voter list purges, such as that pursued by Schlozman, are aimed at poor and minority voters, who, surveys show, tend to support Democrats. |
House subpoenas secret
Republican email accounts| |
Excerpt: The panel's Democratic majority also voted to compel the Republican National Committee to provide documents and testimony about the possible use of RNC e-mail accounts by administration officials to skirt compliance with the Presidential Records Act, which requires all official government e-mail records to be preserved. The investigation also will examine the possible improper use of government agency resources for election purposes. |
Network hosting Republican
e-mails also hosted Ohio's
2004 election results| |
Excerpt: There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio's "official" Secretary of State website -- which gave the world the presidential election results -- was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's firing of eight federal prosecutors. |
Justice Dept aide Goodling given immunity to force her testimony| |
Excerpt: A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. ... Democrats said the votes were necessary tools to force into the open the story of why the prosecutors were fired and whether they were singled out to influence corruption cases.
Goodling instructs Justice Dept
officials to delete documents
Excerpt: Yes, that's an instruction to delete documents. And notice the date: February 12, 2007. That's well after Congress began investigating this matter. |
Delays in Renzi case raise
more Gonzales questions| |
Excerpt: As midterm elections approached last November, federal investigators in Arizona faced unexpected obstacles in getting needed Justice Department approvals to advance a corruption investigation of Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, people close to the case said.
The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after the election, raise new questions about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations. The Arizona U.S. attorney then overseeing the case, Paul Charlton, was ... fired in December, one of eight federal prosecutors dismissed in the past year. The dismissals have triggered a wave of criticism and calls from Congress for Mr. Gonzales to resign. |
DoJ lawyer says politics were
only thing that mattered in hiring| |
Excerpt: When Ty Clevenger, a line attorney in the Civil Rights Division, forwarded a friend's resume to deputy division chief Bradley Schlozman, he was expecting questions about his friend's experience as a lawyer. But what Schlozman wanted to know, according to Clevenger, was whether his friend was a Republican. |
Abuse of power has a Russian flavor
by Jonathan Chait, Los Angeles Times| |
Excerpt: One key thing that separates strong democracies (such as the United States) from weak democracies (such as Russia) is that the latter use police power as a tool of the ruling party. Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't mind throwing his enemies in jail or sending out the police to break up protests.
I realize that the United States is not becoming Russia. But isn't this behavior, in a sense, what the Bush administration stands accused of? If true, it's a serious violation. |
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Ohio audit says Diebold vote
database may have been corrupted| |
Excerpt: Problems found in an audit of Diebold tabulation records from an Ohio November 2006 election raise questions about whether the database got corrupted during the tabulation of election results, says a report released today.
The document, from a team of researchers tasked with auditing the November election in troubled Cuyahoga County, have called for a thorough examination of the database to determine if corruption did occur and the extent to which it may have affected the election results. |
Kucinich introduces impeachment
articles against Cheney| |
Excerpt: "Because I believe the vice president's conduct of office has been destructive to the founding purposes of our nation. Today, I have introduced House Resolution 333, Articles of Impeachment Relating to Vice President Richard B. Cheney. I do so in defense of the rights of the American people to have a government that is honest and peaceful." |
Rice refuses to comply with
House subpoena about WMD lies| |
Excerpt: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a U.S. congressional committee and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order. Rice said she would respond by mail to questions from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Bush administration's prewar claims about Saddam Hussein seeking weapons of mass destruction, but signaled she would not appear in person. "There is a constitutional principle. There is a separation of powers."
Comment: I hope that the House fights her on this, for no other reason than to see her testify on national television that she believes in the Constitution and the separation of powers while keeping a straight face. |
Rice, still lying, says U.N. inspectors thought Saddam Hussein had WMDs| |
Excerpt: In his new book, former CIA Director George Tenet alleges that there was "never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraq threat," suggesting the administration had made up its mind to go to war from an early stage.
On CNN's Late Edition, Condoleezza Rice responded, "We all thought that the intelligence case was strong," adding that even "the U.N. weapons inspectors [thought] Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction." She concluded, "So there's no blame here of anyone." |
Democrats agree on
pullout date in spending bill| |
Excerpt: Democratic leaders, hoping to intensify the pressure on the White House to end the war in Iraq, expect to send President Bush a $124 billion spending bill later this week that calls for American troops to come home beginning this year -- although they expect him to veto it.
Comment: It is almost impossible to find an article about the war spending bill that the Democrats passed late last week that isn't rife with Republican lies and spin, and almost completely devoid of facts. Hence, we put together a list of the top 10 things you may not know about the Iraq spending bill ...
War spending bill includes real support
for troops and other Americans
Excerpt: In addition, it would add $2 billion to improve the readiness of troops at home -- about half of it for National Guard and Reserve equipment -- and $1.2 billion to purchase Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, which give more protection from roadside bombs than armored Humvees do.
It also would add: $2.1 billion for military health care, including treating traumatic brain injuries from roadside bombs and $20 million to repair Walter Reed Army Medical Center; $1.8 billion more for veterans' health care; and $1.1 billion more for military housing.
The Democrats' bill, also would send $18.2 billion to places other than Iraq and the military, including $6.9 billion for rebuilding after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; $650 million for health insurance for poor children in 14 states that have funding shortfalls; and $2.25 billion for homeland security, including screening for explosives at airports.
Poll: 59% Of Americans want Congress to push for withdrawal from Iraq
Excerpt: Overall, a solid majority of Americans (59%) continue to say they want their representative to support a bill calling for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by August 2008, while just a third want their representative to vote against such legislation ...
The public remains pessimistic about the current situation in Iraq and is dubious that the recent troop surge will improve things there. For the first time, a majority (51%) of Americans say they believe the U.S. will definitely or probably fail in establishing a stable democratic government in Iraq.
Bush to Democrats: Do not
'test my will' on Iraq
Excerpt: "If the Congress wants to test my will as to whether or not I'll accept the timetable for withdrawal, I won't accept one," he told a news conference at his retreat in Camp David, Maryland, Friday. "So if they want to try again that which I have said was unacceptable, then of course I'll veto it," Bush said.
Comment: Congress funds the wars, and if Congress doesn't pass a bill that the President signs, the war is over. So Congress holds the upper hand here -- if they're willing to put that upper hand to good use. |
Putin cancels Cold-War treaty
over U.S. missile shield| |
Excerpt: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned that US plans to deploy an anti-missile system in eastern Europe sharply increase the danger of mutual destruction. In comments laden with Cold War imagery, the Kremlin leader accused the United States of misrepresenting the true aim of the limited missile shield, which is to be based in NATO members Czech Republic and Poland. On Thursday Putin stunned Western capital when he announced suspension of Moscow's participation in the Soviet-era Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.
Comment: Since the missile shield has repeatedly been proven completely useless, you have to wonder if our insistence on putting it up anyway is an attempt to re-ignite the Cold War. Our Secretary of State is a Soviet expert. The White House would love to remind the American public of the last fake war, the war on Communism, since we allegedly won it. Finally, it would be a way to whip up nationalist, pro-presidential fervor in a response to a threat -- Russia's nuclear arsenal -- that, unlike Saddam, inarguably poses an actual danger to our country. |
Justice Dept asks appeals court to curtail attorney access for Guantanamo prisoners| |
Excerpt: Under the proposal, filed this month in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the government would limit lawyers to three visits with an existing client at Guantánamo; there is now no limit. It would permit only a single visit with a detainee to have him authorize a lawyer to handle his case. And it would permit a team of intelligence officers and military lawyers not involved in a detainee's case to read mail sent to him by his lawyer ...
Comment: Why are fair trials out of the question? Because there isn't enough evidence to prove that these prisoners are guilty.
To find them guilty, America's standard of justice must be lowered further and further, bit by bit -- kind of like dancing the limbo -- until the new standard of justice is lowered so far it's impossible to squeeze under it. |
Hundreds of millions of dollars in Katrina aid from overseas unclaimed, unspent| |
Excerpt: Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.
Comment: There comes a point when the malfeasance is so huge, so thorough, so absolutely criminal that it simply cannot be explained as mere incompetence and indifference. |
Lynch speaks out against
military using her for propaganda| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon initially put out the story that Private Jessica Lynch -- a slight woman who was just 19 at the time -- had been wounded by Iraqi gunfire but kept fighting until her ammunition ran out. In fact, her gun had jammed and she did not fire a shot. ...
Lynch criticized the Pentagon, saying: "I'm still confused why they lied and tried to make me into a legend." Ms Lynch said the real heroes were those who died in the attack and those who rescued her.
Initial reports also suggested that Ms Lynch had been abused after she came round in the hospital. She said the reports were lies: she had been treated well and the Iraqis had tried to return her to US forces.
"The nurses tried to soothe me and return me," she told the hearing, adding that she objected to the way in which the US military had portrayed her.
"American people don't need to be told elaborate tales" about US forces, she said. |
Kevin Tillman testifies about brother's
death: "Fraud, deliberate, calculated lies"| |
Excerpt: "We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," Kevin Tillman told a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing. "Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide," he said, contending that the military's misstatements amounted to "fraud. -- Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth needed to be suppressed." |
Deputy Secretary of State resigns
after admitting call-girl services| |
Excerpt: Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias submitted his resignation Friday after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington escort service, multiple media outlets reported Friday. ...
Within minutes, Tobias's biography was deleted from the USAID Web site, the Washington Post reported on Saturday's front pages.
Comment: Tobias isn't an ordinary 'john'. He's a guy who used his government position to increase the spread of AIDS. As Bush's "AIDS Czar," he was perhaps most famous for his lying announcement that "Statistics show that condoms really have not been very effective."
Tobias withheld AIDS money
from groups who helped sex workers
Excerpt: Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution "loyalty oath."
Aid groups bitterly opposed the policy, charging that it "was so broad -- and applied even to their private funds -- that it would obstruct their outreach to sex workers who are at high risk of transmitting the AIDS virus." But President Bush wouldn't budge. He signed a 2003 National Security Presidential Directive saying prostitution "and related activities" were "inherently harmful and dehumanizing."
Several groups and countries had their funding cut due to the policy. Brazil lost $40 million for "one of its most successful anti-AIDS strategies, persuading sex workers to use condoms or other measures to stop spreading the disease." |
White House officials made at least
20 illegal workplace partisan presentations| |
Excerpt: White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.
White House spokeswoman
lies about illegal meetings
Excerpt: During yesterday's press briefing ... one reporter asked White House spokeswoman Dana Perino whether the briefings were a "White House idea, initially, or was it the agencies," Perino dodged the question and replied that "the Clinton administration had similar briefings." ...
Doug Sosnik, who served as President Clinton's Director of Political Affairs and later as Counselor to the President, told Think Progress, "We never went to agencies and briefed political appointees." Sosnik and several other former Clinton administration officials told Think Progress that Clinton officials never conducted similar briefings. |
Pharma giant Abbott threatens
to keep all drugs out of Thailand if
nation allows affordable AIDS medicine| |
Excerpt: Early this year, Thailand said that it couldn't afford the price Abbott charges for [the AIDS drug] Kaletra, and disclosed plans to issue what's known as a "compulsory license" for the drug. International trade law permits governments to bypass pharmaceutical patent protections under certain limited circumstances. Abbott responded to the threat by announcing it won't register any newly developed drugs in Thailand. That move will deprive Thailand of new drugs just coming to market. AIDS activists have condemned that action as "blackmail" and a threat to access, given Thailand's hot climate and underdeveloped healthcare infrastructure. |
Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
U.S. to wall off 10 Baghdad
neighborhoods despite Iraqi outrage| |
Excerpt: The U.S. military is walling off at least 10 of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods and using biometric technology to track some of their residents, creating what officers call "gated communities" in an attempt to carve out oases of safety in this war-ravaged city. The plan drew widespread condemnation in Iraq this past week. On Sunday night, Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki told news services that he would work to halt construction of a wall around the Sunni district of Adhamiyah, which residents said would aggravate sectarian tensions by segregating them from Shiite neighbors. |
U.S. pretends to stop building walls
... but just keeps building them anyway| |
Excerpt: The American ambassador said today the U.S. would "respect the wishes" of the Iraqi government after the prime minister ordered a halt to construction of a three-mile wall separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad. However, confusion persisted about whether the plan would continue in some form. "We will continue to construct the security barriers in the Azamiyah neighborhood. This is a technical issue," Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said. "Setting up barriers is one thing and building barriers is another. These are moveable barriers than can be removed." |
Thousands of Iraqis take
to streets to protest wall| |
Excerpt: Residents of a Sunni enclave of Baghdad demonstrated and shouted slogans yesterday against a newly built wall sealing off their neighborhood from the rest of the city. About 2,000 people marched through al-Adhamiyah in east Baghdad carrying banners saying that their district was being turned into "a big prison". |
Baghdad students send sympathy
to Virginia Tech survivors| |
Excerpt: Students in Baghdad, where universities have been hard-hit by violence, said they were saddened by last week's massacre at Virginia Tech and hung up a banner to express their solidarity with "our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge."
It reads, "We, the students of Technology University, denounce the attack at Virginia Tech. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims who faced a situation as bad as Iraq 's universities do. The sanctity of campuses must be protected around the world." |
U.S. officials exclude car bombs in touting drop in Iraq violence| |
Excerpt: U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.
Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. |
Seven out of eight "successes"
in occupied Iraq are U.S. lies| |
Excerpt: In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle. |
Iraq gov't will no longer
give out civilian death toll| |
Excerpt: The UN has renewed criticism of the Iraqi government for refusing to disclose figures on civilian casualties amidst what it calls "a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis." The UN mission in Iraq says Iraqi officials have turned down repeated requests for numbers on the civilian toll so far this year. No reasons were given. The UN did release figures showing at least three thousand people have been arrested since the launch of the security crackdown on Baghdad two months ago. Overall some thirty-seven thousand people are detained in US and Iraqi prisons. Meanwhile fifty-four percent of Iraqis are living on less than one dollar a day. |
Taliban militants take over
Afghan provincial district| |
Excerpt: Taliban militants have seized control of a district in eastern Afghanistan after an hours-long clash that killed five people, including the local mayor and his police chief, a senior official said Friday. |
Active-duty Army officer criticizes leaders' lies about Iraq| |
Excerpt: "For reasons that are not yet clear, America's general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of Iraq's government and security forces, and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq," Lt. Col. Paul Yingling wrote in an article published Friday in the Armed Forces Journal. |
Experts: Iraq will be worse
for U.S. than Vietnam was| |
Excerpt: "It makes Vietnam look like a cakewalk," said retired Air Force Gen. Charles F. Wald, a veteran of the Vietnam War. The domino theory that nations across Southeast Asia would go communist was not fulfilled, he noted, but with Iraq, "worst-case scenarios are the most likely thing to happen."
Iraq is worse than Vietnam "in so many ways," agreed Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., a retired Army officer and author of one of the most respected studies of the U.S. military's failure in Vietnam. "We knew what we were getting into in Vietnam. We didn't here."
Also, President Richard M. Nixon used diplomacy with China and the Soviet Union to exploit the split between them and so minimize the fallout of Vietnam. By contrast, Krepinevich said, the Bush administration has "magnified" the problems of Iraq by neglecting public diplomacy in the Muslim world and by not developing an energy policy to reduce the significance of Middle Eastern oil. |
Terror attacks up up and away| |
Excerpt: A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006 to more than 14,000, almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
Comment: Nobody should believe anything the Bush-Cheney administration announces -- they're genetically incapable of telling the truth about anything. The actual increase in terrorism, spawned by moronic, counterproductive Bush-Cheney policies, is presumably several times higher than the liars will ever admit. |
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Associated Press won't call it terrorism,
when the target is an abortion clinic| |
Excerpt: A package left at a women's clinic that performs abortions contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death, investigators said today.
"It was in fact an explosive device," said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department. "It was configured in such a way to cause serious bodily injury or death."
Comment: Why is it that the media and the government never calls the "pro-life" groups who plant bombs at women's clinics what they are: terrorists?
Newspaper won't call it terrorism,
unless Muslims are involved
Excerpt: ... Recovered from Cunningham's Collinsville home were stolen commercial fireworks, improvised hand grenades, fuse assemblies and a half-dozen guns. At Hughes' Crossville home, agents found 100 improvised hand grenades, 70 improvised hand grenades fired from the 37 mm rocket launch, a submachine gun and two silencers. |
Moyers spotlights media incompetence, complicity in lies in build-up to Iraq war| |
Excerpt: Bill Moyers' PBS special on the media's complicity in pushing America to war was so powerfully upsetting ...
To call the media's complicity in the Iraq War a conspiracy is an insult to conspiracies, because it wasn't hidden -- as Moyers shows, it was all out there for everyone to see. The problem was, Beltway reporters didn't want to see it. As New York Times White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller admitted, in the lead up to war most self-respecting Washington journalists who wanted to stay on the White House Christmas card list refused to ask tough questions because "no one wanted to get into an argument with the president."
Comment: In Bill Moyers' report on mainstream media's complicity in lying America into a senseless war in Iraq, I don't think there was a single fact we didn't already know -- but there were dozens of facts never before mentioned on TV. The dots were very well-connected, and it was amazing to see Dan Rather, Tim Russert, and other media ninnies willingly participate in their own shaming.
If you missed it, the entire documentary is available on-line, free. |
Tenet: "Slam Dunk" referred to how easy
it would be to trick Americans into war| |
Excerpt: In his 2004 book, Plan of Attack, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward claimed that Mr Tenet had assured the President that the evidence that Saddam had WMD was a "slam dunk" -- a sure thing, in basketball parlance. Mr Tenet now plainly believes the leak to Mr Woodward was another set-up to pin responsibility on the CIA. In his version, he uttered the two words with which he will forever be associated in reference to a strategy of improving public presentation of the evidence, not to the strength of the evidence itself. [Emphasis added]
Comment: It's hard to know which of these amoral con artists to believe at any given moment, but Tenet's claim rings true to me on a purely linguistic level. You wouldn't use "slam dunk" to describe whether or not facts exist to support a given conclusion. You use "slam dunk" to describe whether or not you're going to be successful when you attempt to do something. It doesn't make sense to say it's a "slam dunk" that something is true. Rather, it's a "slam dunk" that you're going to be able to CONVINCE people that it's true. |
Workplace cancers cause 200,000 deaths a year| |
Excerpt: At least 200,000 people die every year from cancers related to their workplaces, mainly from inhaling asbestos fibers and second-hand tobacco smoke, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The U.N. agency said every 10th lung cancer death is related to occupational hazards, and about 125 million people worldwide are exposed to asbestos at work, leading to at least 90,000 deaths each year. |
UN health agency: Climate change
deaths at 300,000 by 2030| |
Excerpt: "Deaths and injuries from climate change are set to more than double in the next 25 years, according to estimates" by the World Health Organization. Deaths "linked to even a very narrow number of causes most closely connected to shifting weather patterns will reach more than 300,000 a year by 2030." |
Show of hands: Which Presidential candidates believe in Constitutional
checks and balances? VIDEO | |
Excerpt: "Is anyone on this stage willing to enter into Congressman Kucinich's effort to impeach Vice President Cheney?" |
Kid kidnapped, tortured by Texas DSHS| |
Excerpt: The Gleasons would not be allowed to see or even speak to their daughter for the next five months, and Aliah would spend a total of nine months in a state psychiatric hospital and residential treatment facilities. While in the hospital, she was placed in restraints more than 26 times and medicated -- against her will and without her parents' consent -- with at least 12 different psychiatric drugs, many of them simultaneously. |
Immigration officials sued
for arresting 7-year-old| |
Excerpt: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of a 7-year-old San Rafael boy who was taken from his bed as part of an early-morning Immigration and Custom Enforcement sweep last month. Kebin Reyes, an American citizen born in Greenbrae, has nightmares from the incident, the boy's father said Thursday. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, specifically cites the Fourth and Fifth Amendments -- the right to be secure in one's home against unreasonable search and seizure, and that no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process. ACLU attorneys allege the federal government did not have a search warrant for the boy's home. |
Host seeks to unplug
'full-disclosure' website Cryptome| |
Excerpt: This notice of termination is surprising for Verio has been consistently supportive of freedom of information against those who wish to suppress it. Since 1999 Cryptome has received a number of e-mailed notices from Verio's legal department in response to complaints from a variety of parties, ranging from British intelligence to alleged copyright holders to persons angry that their vices have been exposed (see below). In every case Verio has heretofore accepted Cryptome's explanation for publishing material, and in some cases removal of the material, and service has continued.
In this latest instance there was no notice received from Verio describing the violation of acceptable use to justify termination of service prior to receipt of the certified letter, thus no opportunity to understand or respond to the basis for termination.
It may be wondered if Verio was threatened by an un-disclosable means, say by an National Security Letter or by a confidential legal document or by a novel attack not yet aired. |
Scientists say lethal injection
causes slow, painful death| |
Excerpt: Dosage is critical to the efficacy of lethal injection according to a new study, which found that if any of the doses are off the recipient not only feels pain, but he or she also must suffer a slow death by the asphyxiation following total paralysis. As a result, death by lethal injection is not necessarily quick or painless, according to the study published in PLoS Medicine. "This idea that this is a painless procedure is completely wrong," [lead researcher Teresa] Zimmers says. "It's just invisible because the person is paralyzed." |
Gitmo prisoner charged for acts
allegedly committed as a child| |
Excerpt: A US military tribunal is scheduled to convene next month to try -- on murder charges -- a Canadian man who has been held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for almost five years, since he was captured at the age of 15. That Khadr had been allegedly recruited by Al Qaeda at such a young age raises the questions of whether he ought to be classified as a child soldier rather than an enemy combatant. ABC News interviewed Jo Becker, the Children's Rights advocate for Human Rights Watch, who sees a double standard in Khadr's treatment. ...
The U.S. has been very inconsistent in how it deals with this issue," says Becker. "For example, the U.S. has provided millions of dollars for rehabilitation programs for children in Africa and other countries," she says. "But if there's a situation where a child soldier may be engaging with U.S. troops, then all of the sudden the U.S. approach is different, and it starts taking a punitive rather than a rehabilitative approach." |
82 inmates cleared but
still held at Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: More than a fifth of the approximately 385 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared for release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult to line up places to send them, according to Bush administration officials and defense lawyers. |
Wolfowitz tried to cover
his tracks over lover's job| |
Excerpt: Documents released by the bank's ethics committee show that Mr Wolfowitz, controversially appointed to the World Bank from the Pentagon, where he was a leading architect of the Iraq war, tried to limit access to employee salary information after the bank launched an inquiry into the affair.
World Bank oversight board,
former execs, EU all call
for Wolfowitz to step down
Excerpt: Former Deputy secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz is facing increasing calls to step down as head of the World Bank. The European Parliament has approved a measure calling on Wolfowitz to resign. Wolfowitz has been at the center of controversy after it was exposed he ordered a major pay increase and promotion for his longtime companion, Shaha Riza. The World Bank's independent oversight agency and a group of forty-two former World Bank executives have also urged Wolfowitz to step down. |
White House appointee for
investigating White House has
history of ethics problems| |
Excerpt: The investigation will touch on three major administration scandals, according to the report. "The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House," the Times explained.
But as editor for The Nation David Corn noted, OSC head Scott Bloch, a presidential appointee, has been marred with scandal himself. The Washington Post reported in February that the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general has been investigating Bloch for alleged intimidation of career appointees. In May 2005, the Post reported on Bloch's refusal to enforce a discrimination ban within his office. And in April 2005, Bloch's office was accused of political bias. |
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) under FBI investigation for Abramoff ties| |
Excerpt: The newest figure to face serious FBI scrutiny is Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., who said bureau agents have asked for details of a 2003 golf trip to Scotland that he took with Abramoff -- a trip that the House ethics committee recently found violated House rules. |
DeLay associate tied to Abramoff probe| |
Excerpt: Prosecutors could decide within weeks whether to bring charges against former DeLay staff chief Edwin Buckham, according to sources close to the investigation who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. The decision should give a clear signal on whether DeLay remains in legal jeopardy, the sources said. |
Top Abramoff investigator
resigns -- has ties to Abramoff| |
Excerpt: A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the department's expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.
Making the situation more awkward for the embattled Justice Department, Robert E. Coughlin II was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the department's probe of Abramoff. |
Republican congressional aide
to plead guilty; linked to Abramoff| |
Excerpt: Mark Zachares, an aide to Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, is charged with accepting a lavish trip to Scotland and $30,000 worth of event tickets in exchange for favors when he worked as staff director of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Coast Guard and Maritime subcommittee. |
Senator Martinez repeatedly violated
campaign finance law in 2004 campaign| |
Excerpt: Sen. Mel Martinez repeatedly violated federal election law during his 2004 campaign, including accepting donations that exceeded legal limits, a new audit shows.
The Florida Republican's campaign also failed to report enough information about its donors almost half of the time, according to a survey that was part of a broad Federal Election Commission investigation released Wednesday. |
More poison pet food pulled| |
Excerpt: Chenango Valley Pet Foods has begun voluntarily recalling pet foods manufactured with a certain shipment of rice protein concentrate, the company said Thursday. |
White House treats
national security as trivial| |
Excerpt: Among the lapses cited by the security officers, who spoke to the committee anonymously, are multiple instances of breaches being reported to the security office that were ignored and never investigated. Several of those instances allegedly involved the mishandling of SCI (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information), which is the highest level of classified information.
In one instance, a White House official reportedly left SCI material behind in a hotel room during a foreign trip with the president. The CIA did recover the highly classified material, but the security office did not investigate the incident or discipline the individual, according a security officer's account in the letter. |
Republican Rep Rohrabacher:
Torturing an innocent person now
and then is a fair price to pay| |
Excerpt: Throughout the hearing, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) aggressively defended the U.S. rendition program and attacked the witnesses, three members of the European parliament, who testified that rendition actually hinders prosecutions of terrorists.
Rohrabacher told the witnesses that Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann would still be alive if they were in charge. He said the witnesses were free to doubt the motives of U.S. rendition since "I know there's a lot of people who hate America." |
LAPD's random searches of poor
people unconstitutional, says court
Use our Los Angeles Times login xoxounknown@ yahoo.com and password unknownnews | |
Excerpt: A federal judge has ruled that some Los Angeles police tactics in patrolling downtown are unconstitutional, raising questions about the city's successful campaign to dramatically reduce the number of crimes and homeless people.
U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson found that officers question -- and at times search -- parolees and probationers without evidence that they might have committed a crime, which the judge said was unconstitutional. He ordered the LAPD to change its practices.
City officials strongly disputed the judge's decision and said that police were acting within the law. If the city appeals the ruling, a higher court ultimately would have to decide the legal issues in the case. |
Wal-Mart recruits military
and government intelligence officers| |
Excerpt: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been recruiting former military and government intelligence officers for a branch of its global security office aimed at identifying threats to the world's largest retailer, including from "suspect individuals and groups". |
Pentagon proposes shutting down database
of dissenters -- while still spying on them| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon's new intelligence chief is seeking to end a system for tracking suspicious activity around U.S. military bases which critics say has been used to spy on peaceful antiwar activists. James Clapper, U.S. undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said in an April 18 memo to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the so-called TALON program should end, in part due to its poor public reputation. Clapper said reports of suspicious activity could be handled through other systems. "We will not have a reporting void," the memo said.
Comment: In other words, this is a PR stunt. They are still going to spy on peaceful dissidents. How would you "end" a database, anyway? It's computer data, which means it's virtually impossible to "destroy" every "copy" of it. Plus, the agency that uses the data operates in secret, so there's no way anyone is ever going to know if that data is still being used or not. On the other hand, maybe it's just gotten too exhausting to monitor everyone who opposes the president now that that number includes about 80% of the American people. |
Harvard study latest to debunk right-
wing's phony abortion-breast cancer link| |
Excerpt: A Harvard study released Monday supports earlier findings by a panel of experts that having an abortion doesn't increase a woman's risk of getting breast cancer.
However, this latest analysis isn't likely to change abortion opponents' minds. Three states -- Texas, Minnesota and Mississippi -- require doctors to warn women seeking abortions of the purported link to breast cancer "when medically accurate," letting doctors make that determination based on current scientific evidence. |
U.S. proposal could block
gun buyers tied to terror| |
Excerpt: The Justice Department proposed legislation on Thursday that would give the attorney general discretion to bar terrorism suspects from buying firearms, seeking to close a gap in federal gun laws.
The measure, which was introduced by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, would give the attorney general authority to deny a firearm purchase if the buyer was found "to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism."
Comment: Won't this be tied into the same awful error-ridden (or politically biased) database used to restrict flyers -- where basically just not being a fan of Republicans could restrict your freedom? |
Democrat Durbin kept quiet, knowing
Bush-Cheney was lying about Iraq| |
Excerpt: "I was angry about it. [But] frankly, I couldn't do much about it because, in the intelligence committee, we are sworn to secrecy. We can't walk outside the door and say the statement made yesterday by the White House is in direct contradiction to classified information that is being given to this Congress."
Mr. Durbin's comments come after years of inquiries and debate about prewar intelligence, and as congressional leaders clash over Democrats' calls to pull out of Iraq.
Comment: Growing up, I will never forget the advice my father gave me on how to decide whether something I was about to do was 'good' or 'bad':
'If you cannot do it openly (that is, in public), or at least tell people about it, then with very few exceptions it's probably bad,' he said. Nowhere is this advice more applicable than in public service and government.
Our government should have NO SECRETS. Period. ... MORE ... |
Dollar declines to all-time low
against euro as economy slows| |
Excerpt: The dollar dropped to an all-time low against the euro after the U.S. government reported the economy grew at its slowest pace in four years. |
White House mocks
Vermont impeachment resolution| |
Excerpt: "Oh, I didn't even know there was a resolution in the state of Vermont. Is that a monthly occurrence? (Laughter.) I don't know. The President and the Vice President have served honorably, and I don't think there's any merit to those impeachment claims." |
China's internet filters are strong, subtle| |
Excerpt: China's filters can block just specific references to Tibetan independence without blocking all references to Tibet. Likewise, the government is effective at limiting discussions about Falun Gong, the Dalai Lama, Tiananmen Square and other topics deemed sensitive, the study from the OpenNet Initiative finds.
Numerous government agencies and thousands of public and private employees are involved at all levels, from the main pipelines, or backbones, hauling data over long distances to the cybercafes where many citizens access the internet. That breadth, the study finds, allows the filtering tools to adapt to emerging forms of communications, such as web journals, or blogs.
"China has been more successful than any other country in the world to manage to filter the internet despite the fast changes in technology," said John Palfrey, one of the study's principal investigators and executive director of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Comment: Info like this is important because nations like the US could/might be doing the same (or worse). |
Are genetically-modified crops killing bees?| |
Excerpt: A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous. |
RIAA secretly tries to get ISP subscriber info| |
Excerpt: In an attempt to change the rules of the game, the RIAA secretly went to a federal district court in Denver with an ex parte application. The goal was to get the judge to rule that the federal Cable Communications Policy Act does not apply to the RIAA's attempts to get subscriber information from cable companies. Just to clarify, ex parte means that the application was secret, no one else -- neither the ISP nor the subscribers -- were given notice that this was going on. |
Stupidest drug story of the week| |
Excerpt: This week, Reuters moved a story based on a government press release about marijuana potency issued by the Office of National Drug Control Policy -- the office of "drug czar" John P. Walters. The press release and the Reuters story state that marijuana potency has reached its highest level since the government started monitoring it in the late 1970s. The average levels of THC in marijuana now stand at 8.5 percent. (THC is the primary active ingredient in marijuana.) This compares to a little less than the 4 percent measured in 1983.
Headlined "U.S. Marijuana Even Stronger Than Before: Report" on Reuters' Web site, the piece quotes nobody outside of government as it channels drug warrior hysteria. |
Mexico City legalizes abortion| |
Excerpt: Mexico City lawmakers voted to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, a landmark decision likely to heighten church-state tensions in the Roman Catholic nation and lead to a bitter court battle.
Abortion-rights advocates said they hoped the vote would be the start of a new trend across Mexico and other parts of Latin America, where only Cuba and Guyana permit women to have abortions on demand in the first trimester. Most other Latin American countries allow it only in cases of rape or when the woman's life is at risk. Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile ban it completely. |
New York Times considers returning to journalism| |
Excerpt: Is the clubby relationship between the capitol's press corps and its politicians on its way out?
The New York Times, so often the news organization from which all others take their cues, has decided to end its participation in the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner. |
Rosie O'Donnell leaves The View| |
Comment: A TV talking head leaving her well-paid gig is not at all "unknown news," not the news we do here. But what the heck, let's say it out loud: Rosie just plain rocks. |
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Lightning round news
|
200th DNA conviction reversal in US
Bush proposes eliminating standards for chocolate
Spinal Tap will perform
at 'Live Earth' concert
Censorware provider says 80 percent
of blogs contain "offensive" content
Essay gets kid booted from school
Small houses challenge our notions of
need as well as minimum-size standards
Ohio judge frees man after Bible quiz
She can't bring same-sex date to prom
Worm poop start-up sued by Scotts
Unisex toilets to tackle bullies
British soldiers' body parts
sent home in wrong coffins
|
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Top 10 things you don't know
about the Iraq spending bill
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The top 10 things you may not know about the Iraq spending bill, as reported through the haze of the mainstream media's insistence that the Democrats are stubborn idiots, who can't override a veto, and who are simultaneously hurting the troops and risking serious damage to their public image by trying to end a pointless unpopular war... |
Those who ignore history ...
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Bush's claim that any withdrawal of US forces from Iraq would bring terrorism to America is as absurd as the Vietnam-era 'Domino Theory', that if America allowed South Vietnam to fall to the communists, all of Southeast Asia would follow. |
Thinking inside the box
by Robert j., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I have recently converted a 48 foot insulated shipping container into a self-contained (just need water) dwelling. I am now looking for a suitable location to set it. I would prefer to put it on an existing, or being readied piece of private property. ... I am looking to lease, rent, buy or ________(?) from a sane, non-militant family, small group or individual living away from the things of man. I am more than willing to help out. |
What is, is (regardless of what we're told)
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We've heard dozens of similar sorts of "myths" (lies) from the Bush Regime about the "War on Terror", the Iraq War, and virtually every other major policy initiative of the last six years. Not only do the Bushies attempt to distill every complex problem down to a simple-minded slogan ("We're fighting them over there so that we don't have to fight them over here"), but whenever facts or the law get in the way, the Bush Regime redefines the meaning of the language or changes the symbols. |
Trading places
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It would be nice to have just a little equality -- nothing major, nothing way out and extreme -- if only for a short time! Maybe it would make us care a bit more. Might wake a few more people up. |
Can I take a Mulligan on the 21st Century?
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Democrats are a little slow when it comes to learning contemporary INFOBABBLE! The amendment to the bill should be called a 'Victory timetable'. How could Bush veto victory? |
Street gangs and governments
by Robert j., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The military and the police are morphing into one fun-loving organization, sporting the same kinds of uniforms, carrying themselves the same way, with the same tactical mindset, even the same equipment.
If the education system had actually taught history in school, we would notice the obvious signs that inevitably lead to you and I getting our asses kicked. |
Parenting beyond belief
by Kat, My Single Mom Life
| |
Excerpt: Several parenting magazines are declining to review the book [Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids without Religion] for fear of offending religious subscribers, and a few retailers are declining to stock the book, claiming there is no market for it. It is essential that we demonstrate otherwise, so please put all promotional oars in the water as soon as possible.
Comment: Looks like a dang good book... |
From an angry soldier
by anonymous, Craigslist
| |
Excerpt: The government doesn't even have the decency to help out the soldiers whose lives they ruined. If you really believe the military and the government had no idea the veterans' hospitals were so fucked up, you are a god-damned retard. They don't care about us. We're disposable. We're numbers on a page and they'd rather forget we exist so they don't have to be reminded about the families and lives they ruined while they're sipping their cocktails at another fund raiser dinner. If they were really concerned about supporting the troops, they'd bring them home so their families wouldn't have to cry at a graveside and explain to their children why mommy or daddy isn't coming home. Because you can't explain it. We're not fighting for our country, we're not fighting for the good of Iraq's people, we're fighting for Bush's personal agenda. Patriotism, my ass. You know what? My dad served in Vietnam and NOTHING HAS CHANGED. |
Bush has gone AWOL
by Lt Gen William E. Odom, U.S. Army, retired
| |
Excerpt: In principle, I do not favor Congressional involvement in the execution of U.S. foreign and military policy. I have seen its perverse effects in many cases. The conflict in Iraq is different. Over the past couple of years, the President has let it proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued.
Thus, he lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money, and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies. The Congress is the only mechanism we have to fill this vacuum in command judgment.
To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems to have gone AWOL, that is 'absent without leave.' He neither acts nor talks as though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games. |
This explains everything
by Scott Adams, Dilbert
| |
Excerpt: I've often noted that all of the world's problems are caused by people who apparently enjoy making other people miserable. I know it sounds like one of those cynical observations I often make for humorous purposes, but I mean it literally. There's no other explanation for why people put so much effort into making others miserable.
Now there's evidence to back my theory. According to recent research, people with high testosterone (let's call them assholes) literally get pleasure from making other people look unhappy. |
What's the word for an administration this awful?
by David Ignatius, Washington Post| |
Excerpt: Something's got to give. That's the sense around Washington this week as the news from Baghdad worsens and the president defiantly continues an Iraq policy that many military leaders question. Unfortunately, what's giving way right now is the national interest. Bush is hunkered down with his troop surge strategy, and the military is expected to pay the price. A grim example of that human cost was Monday's deaths of nine U.S. soldiers from car bombs that hit one of the vulnerable forward operating bases that are a key part of the surge strategy.
Retired Marine Gen. John Sheehan summed up the military's skepticism in explaining why he turned down White House feelers to become "war czar" for Iraq and Afghanistan: "The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going."
Comment: The headline is mine, and I think the only answer is treason. Nobody could be this incompetent, do this much damage to America, on accident. |
What might the president do with his new power to declare martial law?
by James Bovard, The American Conservative
| |
Excerpt: How many pipe bombs might it take to end American democracy? Far fewer than it would have taken a year ago.
The Defense Authorization Act of 2006, passed on Sept. 30, empowers President George W. Bush to impose martial law in the event of a terrorist "incident," if he or other federal officials perceive a shortfall of "public order," or even in response to antiwar protests that get unruly as a result of government provocations. |
A single act of violent crime
is not news. Ever. Period.
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: I can see giving the Virginia Tech story about 60 seconds, because it was the deadliest something-something in American history. And I'll give you another two minutes to mention that our nations' policies on gun control and mental health lead to a more dysfunctional and violent society. Anything more than that is exploitation, pure and simple. |
INFOBABBLE! works in mysterious ways
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The phrase in question was 16-words long: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." (and if anybody says they ain't I got friends who can wreck your career) |
Stocks show surprising strength -- but why?
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Stocks are climbing as the dollar is falling, partly because prices are relative to value, partly because people may be seeing stocks as having more long-term value than Ameribucks, and partly because foreign earnings of mega-cap corporados are increasingly valuable. |
How would it make you feel?
by JS Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It is fascinating to read comments where the first cry is always "It's the law! They broke the law!" Then, almost invariably, the subsequent cry is for some sort of violent, vigilante justice such as castration, or some equally appalling reaction to the crime. Should anyone (and it happens) leave a comment that burying people up to their necks in excrement in the public common is perhaps not the best way to reform offenders, the comment will be met with a chorus of posts crying; "Think about how you would feel if it were your ___________ (fill in the blank)." |
Condolences and questions
by The Canadian, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: You know, part of me wishes that if the average American can feel so much empathy for the murdered students, why can't they feel the same thing for the countless murdered Iraqi civilians? Even if it is just for the 10s of 1000s of dead Iraqi children who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wonder what societal monsters this war is creating for their future today? Do you remember that young man who went on a shooting rampage in the US mall not too long ago? Did you know he was a child survivor of the massacre of Srebrenica?
... tick tick tick tick goes the clock in their brain, then... the alarm just goes off. |
These things do not happen without
complicity and within a vacuum
by Robert j., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: When my father was 15 years old he could walk into K-Mart and buy a shotgun and as much ammo as he could carry, walk right out of the door with it. The difference between then and now is not the quantity of guns available or the ease of purchasing them. It is the mentality of the humans in possession of the guns, knifes, bats, pipes, and whatever else you can kill with, that has changed.
We do not want to talk about that, though. If we opened up that can of worms we would all have to take a good long look at ourselves, and the choices we have made as a society. |
Why is it easier for many to find
things to die for than to live for?
by JR Mooneyham, Walk Like a Kryptonian
| |
Excerpt: Suicide, murder, terrorism, war, and violence of many other sorts, both physical and mental, done to oneself and/or to others. It's remarkably easy for the average human being today to find something they consider to be 'worth dying for'. Usually, perhaps normally, such justifications for death are related to one's family, and sometimes friends and lovers. But governments often ask (or demand) that we (or typically men, anyway) see more distant or abstract ideas as sufficient to die for, such as nationalism/patriotism, etc. The most extreme of cult or religious leaders sometimes desire something similar from both sexes.
If you look around, you find almost everyone is constantly trying to persuade you that their particular agenda or idol or idea is worth dying for -- even if it only means a drawn out death, reached via one pinprick at a time. For as your free time is the most valuable asset of anyone alive, and most of us must give up great gobs of that time to earn money, then every time we pay money for something we're trading a bit of our life for it -- and so dying a little. |
The revolution will not be televised
by pittershawn palmer, a state of consciousness
| |
Excerpt: So we go on, swimming in disillusion, imagining that we have control of the outcome, never realizing that to stop the birth would mean our death and the death of that to come. The moments of ease are the moments in history that only briefly prepare us for the next wave of pain, wave of intellectual and physical madness. We are so entrenched in the smallness of our moment that we cannot see the big picture. So we fight against it, rage against the inevitable. Rage against change because it is too frightening to not be able to see what is around the bend, good or bad ... we want to know. And, that not knowing thrusts us into inconsequential actions, beliefs and ideas that in the end will become our past shame and ignorance. |
129 civilian Iraqis perished on Monday but
no-one cared 'cause 31 Americans died
by Poor Black, Stuffed| |
Excerpt: The media knows that most people are shallow f*cks and will lap up whatever they telecast. I bet a lot of you will have turned up at work and said to a colleague, 'Oh my god, have you heard about the horrible shootings at that University in the states?' and so the conversation will continue on how tragic and sad this is. It is tragic and sad, don't get me wrong. Think about it this way though, have you walked into work every day this week to tell your colleague, 'sh*t, did you hear about those 3,000 African children that die each day from malaria?', maybe you have, but more than likely you haven't. Why haven't you? You probably aren't even aware of the fact. Why don't you know? The media don't tell you. |
The inexplicable enrichment of Bush cronies
by Evelyn Pringle, CounterCurrents
| |
Excerpt: The only people who are benefiting from Bush's war on terror are members of the Military Industrial Complex. Since 9/11, the pay for the CEOs of the top 34 defense contractors in the US has doubled, according to the August 2006 report, "Executive Excess 2006," by the Institute for Policy Studies, and the United for a Fair Economy.
The bill is rising so fast because the level of war profiteering is unprecedented. The Excess Report lists George David, CEO of United Technologies, as the top earner, making more than $200 million since 9/11, despite investigations into the poor quality of the firm's Black Hawk helicopters.
Halliburton CEO David Lesar made $26.6 million in 2005, and nearly $50 million since 9/11, an amount that even beats the $24 million that Dick Cheney received in exchange for the guarantee that Halliburton would be the number one military contractor during the Bush administration. |
This is how I protest the war
by Henry Rollins, VIDEO
| |
Excerpt: Your children will inherit the war you did not stop. And when they become soldiers, and they go into combat, and they come home with some awful story, they're going to say, "Why are we doing this?"
And the only honest answer is, "Because I didn't stop this on my watch. ..."
Your parents gave you this war. Don't give it to your kids." |
This is our future, like it or not
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Thanks to your silence, your willingness to sit back and do nothing, this is our future. Not even the slightest bit of dissent or public display of dissatisfaction, or any form of protest about anything will be tolerated. |
18 megabyte gap in e-mail tape backup
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: White House officials are scrambling to explain
the disappearance of email documents related to the controversy surrounding the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. An undeleted Justice Department e-mail message shows that the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales proposed replacement candidates for U.S. attorneys nearly a year before they were fired. You got alotta esplainen to do, Alberto. |
The Katrinians
by Cassandra, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The people from Louisiana and Mississippi are refugees of both a natural and a political disaster, and like most refugees before them, they're not welcome by the communities where they've washed up. |
No good deed left unpunished
by J.S. Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We love to casually assign the word "hero" to those that kill, yet we punish a man for doing a truly heroic deed that should have been celebrated rather than resulting in his termination from State employment. What a world we live in. Blech. |
War? What war?
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Although millions of Americans seemed to have been thoroughly brainwashed and desensitized, they manage to drive like lunatics, get mad because gas |
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