Majority of Iraqi Parliament:
'Yankees, go home'| |
Excerpt: A majority of Iraq's parliament has expressed support for a proposed bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels.
Much like what Democrats have demanded in the U.S. Congress, the Iraq draft would create a timeline for a gradual departure and would require the Iraqi government to secure parliament's approval before further extensions of the U.N. mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of 2007. |
Pentagon gags enlisted ranks'
testimony in Congress| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed, according to Defense Department documents.
Comment: I know of no legal grounds under which the Pentagon has any Constitutional authority to determine who will or won't appear before Congress, or what witnesses can or can't say. But that won't stop them, if Congress won't stop them. |
Iran -- Run-up to the next war:
Saudis, US sponsoring covert action against Iran| |
Excerpt: The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United States are working with other states in the Middle East to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in this month's edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks may occur against Iran's oil sector. |
Bipartisan bill would ban
warrantless wiretapping of US citizens| |
Excerpt: Members of Congress from both parties succeeded on Friday in passing legislation that restricts the wiretapping of US citizens by the National Security Agency without warrants.
"When Congress said the Administration must get court approval for domestic surveillance, we meant it. Today, Congress reaffirmed that basic protection," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who co-sponsored legislation included in the intelligence authorization bill that Congress passed. |
One-time arch-enemies form
united Northern Ireland government| |
Excerpt: Protestant leader Ian Paisley, who spent decades refusing to cooperate with Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, was elected Tuesday to oversee a power-sharing administration alongside his longtime Sinn Fein foes. ... Paisley immediately affirmed an oath pledging to cooperate with Catholics and the government of the neighboring Republic of Ireland -- moves that the evangelical firebrand long denounced as surrender.
Seconds later, Sinn Fein deputy leader and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness accepted the No. 2 post of deputy first minister. McGuinness, 56, affirmed the same oath, which required all ministers to support the Northern Ireland police and British courts -- a position that Sinn Fein refused for decades to accept.
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Republicans play politics with
American justice
Gonzales giggles through testimony, ignores even more new evidence of voter-suppression scheme| |
Excerpt: McClatchy reports new evidence that Karl Rove essentially used Gonzales' Department of Justice as the enforcement arm for his Machiavellian schemes. Just weeks before the November 2006 elections, Karl Rove and his deputies twice urged the Department of Justice (using Gonzo's chief-of-staff Kyle Sampson as a primary contact) to investigate voter fraud in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin -- even though it is DOJ policy not to open such investigations shortly before elections because of the possibility of influencing votes. |
Administration withheld e-mails
about Karl Rove's involvement| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. |
Email shows newly-appointed U.S. Attorney ordered GOP to use illegal "caging lists"| |
Excerpt: Here's how the scheme worked. The Bush campaign mailed out letters, particularly targeting African-American soldiers sent overseas. When the letters sent to the home addresses of the soldiers came back "undeliverable" because the servicemen were in Baghdad or elsewhere, the Republican Party would, challenge the voter's registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballots being counted.
The Republicans successfully challenged at least one million votes of minority voters in the 2004 election. |
Missouri attorney who "resigned" was actually fired for not taking away voting rights| |
Excerpt: The former prosecutor's disclosure means that the administration began moving to replace U.S. attorneys five months earlier than was previously known. It also means that at least nine prosecutors were asked to resign last year, a deviation from repeated suggestions by Gonzales.
The former U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., Todd P. Graves, said yesterday that he was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006, months before eight other federal prosecutors would be fired by the Bush administration. Graves acknowledged that he had clashed with Justice's civil rights division over cases, including a federal lawsuit involving Missouri's voter rolls that Graves said a Washington Justice official signed off on after he refused to do so. That official, Bradley J. Schlozman, was appointed as interim U.S. attorney to succeed Graves, remaining for a year until the Senate this spring confirmed John Wood for the job.
Comment: The main point, besides appearing on page two of the article, is written very confusingly. To summarize: Missouri attorney Tim Graves fails to pursue bogus "voter-fraud" charges against Dems. Graves pretends to resign but has actually been fired. Graves is replaced temporarily by the political hack at the Justice Department who came up with the bogus voter-fraud charges in the first place. His eventual permanent replacement is cousins with one of Missouri's Senators. |
Gonzales appointee tells applicants
for Attorney positions to delete "Republican" from their resumes, then hires them| |
Excerpt: Congressional investigators are beginning to focus on accusations that a top civil rights official at the Justice Department illegally hired lawyers based on their political affiliations, especially for sensitive voting rights jobs. |
Senior DoJ officials pulled
strings to hire prosecutor| |
Excerpt: Monica Goodling did what she could, allegedly, to make sure that certain U.S. attorneys didn't hire left-leaning prosecutors. And meanwhile, senior Justice Department officials apparently made sure friendly prosecutors got hired -- not matter what blemishes they might have had on their record: |
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House Dems pass new war-spending bill, after nearly passing war-ENDING bill| |
Excerpt: The House has approved a measure that would fund the Iraq war in two stages. Money would be provided until July but then held up until President Bush reports progress on reaching several benchmarks. President Bush has vowed to veto the measure, as he did the Democrats’ war funding bill last week.
The resolution was approved after anti-war Democrats failed to pass a measure that would put an end to most U.S. military operations in Iraq within nine months. The vote got more supporters than expected, with one-hundred seventy one in favor and two-hundred fifty-five opposed. Bill author Congressmember Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said: “This is proof that the United States Congress is getting closer to where the American people already are.” |
Ex-CIA official, contractor face fraud charges| |
Excerpt: New charges have been filed alleging that a former top CIA official pushed a proposed $100 million government contract for his best friend in return for lavish vacations, private jet flights and a lucrative job offer.
The indictment, returned Thursday, replaces charges brought in February against Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who resigned from the spy agency a year ago, and Poway-based defense contractor Brent Wilkes. The charges grew from the bribery scandal that landed former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in prison.
The pair now face 30 wide-ranging counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. |
Former U.S. spy says CIA was
behind 1988 Pan Am bombing| |
Excerpt: But there was just one problem: The CIA had lied when it said Edwin Wilson, the Agency's infamous renegade, hadn't been in contact with the agency since 1971. He'd actually been in contact with CIA officials at least 80 times. And the Justice Department knew the CIA had lied and didn't do anything about it. |
CIA out of Congressional control| |
Excerpt: The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said yesterday that the CIA violated the law last year when it failed to inform the panel of "a significant covert action activity."
"Despite agency explanations that the failure was inadvertent, the committee is deeply troubled over the fact that such an oversight could occur, whether intentionally or inadvertent," the panel said in its report on the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill released late yesterday.
An intelligence official said yesterday that he could not discuss the covert action. ... |
Six knucklehead non-terrorists arrested for terrorism in New Jersey| |
Excerpt: The New Jersey case, where the suspects trained by engaging in simulated combat with paintball guns, bears some resemblance to a 2003 Virginia case in which 11 Muslim men from the Washington area were charged with participating in paramilitary training - including playing paintball - to prepare for "holy war" abroad.
Comment: Add the Fort Dix Six to the long list of harmless idiots arrested in high-profile operations that have nothing to do with security and everything to do with selling us the War on Terror. ... MORE ... |
Feds screw cancer-ridden nuclear workers| |
Excerpt: Unable to access secret government files, or even some of his own personnel records, Walter McKenzie could not sufficiently prove that he was exposed to something that may have made him sick. Nor can most of the 104,000 other workers, retirees and family members who have sought help from a federal program intended to atone for decades of hazardous working conditions at scores of nuclear weapons facilities around the country. |
Chevron paid kickbacks to Saddam
while Condi Rice was on the board| |
Excerpt: Chevron Corp. is near an agreement to pay a $25 million -to-$30 million fine over alleged kickbacks in the company's purchases of Iraqi crude oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a published report Tuesday. As part of the settlement, San Ramon's Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, is preparing to state that it should have known its purchases included kickbacks to Hussein's government, the paper reported. Some of the purchases happened while Condoleezza Rice, now the secretary of state, served on Chevron's corporate board and led its public policy committee, the Times reported. |
AT&T whistleblower tells his story| |
Excerpt: Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, sits quietly at the center of a high-profile legal storm hitting the nation's largest telecommunications companies for allegedly helping the government spy on American citizens' phone and internet communications without court approval.
In 2006, Klein stepped forward and handed sensitive AT&T documents to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that was preparing a class-action lawsuit against the telecommunications giant. That case and more than 50 similar suits have been consolidated into five master complaints that are now proceeding in a federal court in San Francisco. This summer, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear AT&T's appeal of a key ruling that rejected the government's national security concerns and allowed the suit to continue. ...
In this rare interview, Klein supplies details of how he first learned about the secret room even before being transferred to the Folsom Street office. He also lashes out at Congress for failing to hold hearings, and says he won't be satisfied until he can visit the AT&T building and see that the room has been dismantled. |
Monday is Wiretap the Internet Day| |
Excerpt: May 14th is the official deadline for cable modem companies, DSL providers, broadband over powerline, satellite internet companies and some universities to finish wiring up their networks with FBI-friendly surveillance gear, to comply with the FCC's expanded interpretation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. |
Pet food contamination reaches humans
Farmed fish ate melamine-laced food| |
Excerpt: Farmed fish have been fed meal spiked with the same chemical that has been linked to the pet food recall, but the contamination was probably too low to harm anyone who ate the fish, federal officials said Tuesday.
Comment: Yeah, make sure the reassurance is right there in the first sentence.
Again and of course, these comforting words are coming from the Bush-Cheney administration, which has told the truth about absolutely nothing since taking office.
Fish food recall may get bigger
Excerpt: Beattie said it was not detected during standard testing that is conducted on all feed prior to shipping because no feed producer in the world had anticipated that the chemical would be deliberately introduced into one of the ingredients used to make pet, fish or animal feed. "No one was looking for this because no one knew what was going on," Beattie said.
They will test for it now, he added.
Comment: And it's been going on for more than a decade. Thanks, China. "Solid brass" from China contains lead. Don't drink from brass faucets or hose nozzles. |
Chinese poison pet food factory was
bulldozed before U.S. investigators arrived| |
Excerpt: Before Mao Lijun's business exported tainted wheat products that may have killed U.S. pets, his factory sickened people and plants around here for years.
Farmers in this poor rural area 400 miles northwest of Shanghai had complained to local government officials since 2004 that Mao's factory was spewing noxious fumes that made their eyes tear up and the poplar trees nearby shed their leaves prematurely. Yet no one stopped Mao's company from churning out bags of food powders and belching smoke -- until one day last month when, in the middle of the night, bulldozers tore down the facility. |
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One in eight Iraqi children dead by age 5| |
Excerpt: The chance that an Iraqi child will live beyond age 5 has plummeted faster than anywhere else in the world since 1990, according to a report released today, which placed the country last in its child-survival rankings. One in eight Iraqi children died of disease or violence before reaching their fifth birthday in 2005, according to the report by Save the Children, which said Iraq ranked last because it had made the least progress toward improving child-survival rates. Iraq's mortality rate has soared by 150 percent since 1990. Even before the latest war, Iraq was plagued by electricity shortages, a lack of clean water and too few hospitals. |
U.S. apologizes for killing Afghan civilians, then kills dozens more that night| |
Excerpt: An air strike by foreign forces killed 20 to 30 villagers, including women and children, in southern Afghanistan overnight [Tuesday night], a governor and a witness told AFP Wednesday.
The new claim of civilians dying in operations against Taliban fighters comes after nearly 60 people were said to have been killed in such incidents late last month, prompting angry demonstrations.
The commander, Colonel John Nicholson, told reporters [on Tuesday] he was "deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people."
Comment: Even alcoholics and wife-beaters usually wait at least 24 hours after a fake apology to repeat the behavior they were apologizing for. Oh, and also, Afghans are saying that the death toll in this week's incident was closer to 60 or 80, and that most of those were women and children. |
Bush tells Saudis, U.S. won't be
leaving Iraq while he's President| |
Pertinent paragraph (buried): The ferment in the region is driven partly by the perception that U.S. troops are on the
way out, no matter what the Bush administration says. To dampen such speculation, Bush is said to have told the Saudis that America will not withdraw from Iraq during his presidency. "That gives us 18 months to plan," said one Saudi source. |
Rice: 'Iraqis need to know that
we are not looking to leave'| |
Excerpt: In an interview last night on the Charlie Rose Show, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointedly said, "Our friends in the [Middle East] need to know and the Iraqis need to know that we are not looking to leave Iraq." "Ever?" Rose asked. Rice responded, "We are not going to leave an Iraq that is not capable of defending itself and with a foundation for future reconciliation." |
Republican Senator's son is
target of corruption investigation| |
Excerpt: According to charges filed Friday against two top executives at the oil company, Stevens' company allegedly received $243,250 for consulting fees that were "in fact for the purpose of obtaining (Stevens') official support on matters pending before the Alaska State Legislature." |
Pentagon poll: 1 in 3
U.S. troops approve of torture| |
Excerpt: In a significant new study of U.S. troops in Iraq, Pentagon medical officials found that “well over” one third of those surveyed believe torture should be permitted. The study found that only 40 percent of Marines and 55 percent of Soldiers would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian and that about 10 percent of the more than 1,300 Soldiers and nearly 450 Marines in the survey admitted they had mistreated civilians or damaged property “when it was not necessary.” In the first internal military study of battlefield ethics in Iraq, Pentagon officials said Friday they also found that only a third of Marines and roughly half of soldiers reported they believed that noncombatants should be treated with dignity. |
Kansas rescue, reconstruction
delayed by Iraq occupation| |
Excerpt: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said the state's response will likely be hampered because much of the equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies is in Iraq. That includes things like tents, trucks and semi-trailers.
Retired General says Iraq
occupation strains National Guard
Excerpt: The National Guard isn't as strong as it should be because of the war in Iraq and American communities will suffer as a result, retired Air Force Gen. Melvyn Montano said Saturday. |
An illustrated guide to Republican scandals.| |
Excerpt: Having a hard time keeping track of all 10,000 GOP scandals? Between fired U.S. attorneys, deleted RNC e-mails, sexually harassed pages, outed CIA agents, and tortured Iraqi prisoners -- not to mention the warrantless wiretapping, plum defense contracts, and golf junkets to Scotland -- you could be forgiven for losing track of which congressman or Bush administration flunky did which shady thing. Renzi -- now, was that the guy with the skeezy land deal? Or the woman Paul Wolfowitz promoted?
We're not saying that Democrats never do anything shady. (Cash-stuffed freezers come to mind.) But as the saying goes, with great power come great opportunities to screw up royally. And if your memory is as hazy as ours, you could probably use a handy refresher. |
Amnesty International increases
support for abortion rights| |
Excerpt: Amnesty International -- a human rights group that had previously remained mostly neutral on abortion -- has released a new policy on sexual and reproductive rights that increases the organization's support for abortion rights. Amnesty recently announced that it will support abortions for victims of sexual violence and for women whose health is endangered by pregnancy. It will also advocate the decriminalization of abortion worldwide. The decision came after two years of discussion with experts and the organization's 2.2 million members. |
Washington Post editorial calls for non-bland candidates' exclusion from debates| |
Excerpt: "Voters trying to sort out their presidential choices aren't helped by debates cluttered with the likes of Mike Gravel (hint: he's a former senator from Alaska) on the Democratic side and Ron Paul (hint: he's a libertarian House member from Texas) among the Republicans. ..."
Comment: Now, there were plenty of candidates on those stages who really were clutter: They don't have a chance to win and their messages are indistinguishable from the people who do have a shot. But it's telling that the Post didn't single out, say, Chris Dodd or Jim Gilmore. It singled out the two most anti-war and anti-establishment figures in the race, two men who clearly are alternatives to the frontrunners. Unlike the clutter candidates, Gravel and Paul said things at the debates that actually generated some buzz afterwards, on talk radio and online if not in the Post or with the Sunday-morning dinosaurs. I don't know if they won any votes, but they did more than anyone else to add ideas to the conversation.
Media condemns Democrats, praises Republicans, for presenting same number of candidates
Excerpt: Many media outlets and commentators seemed annoyed that the so-called "second-tier" [Democratic] candidates are even bothering to run. Oddly, similar complaints about a surplus of GOP contenders in the first Republican debate (5/3/07) were hard to find in the corporate media. |
Civil Servants jailed over leaking memo
that "revealed Bush as a madman"| |
Excerpt: Though the defendants were arrested by police special branch officers soon after the document was handed to police, they were not charged until 18 months later, in November 2005.
Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, hinted that embarrassment was the real issue at stake when she signed a certificate for the court last year. She claimed the disclosure of the document would have a "serious negative impact" on UK-US diplomatic relations. "The ultimate consequence would be a substantial risk of harm to national security." |
Dems vote to allow more Iraqi refugees into U.S.| |
Excerpt: House Democrats plan to introduce a bill this morning that would increase by at least 20,000 the number of Iraqi refugees eligible for resettlement in the United States in 2007 and 2008. Although current regulations allow for 7,000 Iraqi refugees to be processed for U.S. entry by year's end, only seven entered the country in February and 11 in March, compared to about 8,000 entering Sweden, officials said. |
Judge tosses out charges against
anti-Castro terrorist Posada Carriles| |
Excerpt: On the same day that the Department of Justice was singing its own praises for busting an alleged terror ring in New Jersey, mostly unnoticed was the fact that the DOJ may have intentionally tanked the prosecution of an international terrorist in our own midst.
As a result, convicted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a free man today.
Comment: I've been following this saga for a long time, and it's no surprise that Judge Cardone took this action. In fact, given the history of this case, it's almost crystal clear that this was the intended result of the Department of Justice's case against Posada Carriles. Since he was first detained in the U.S., the DOJ has displayed a level of case management skill that is beyond mere incompetence -- in fact, to the untrained outside observer, it's easy to draw the conclusion that the prosecution of this case was intentionally botched. |
Retired U.S. Army generals make TV ads criticizing Bush's handling of Iraq war| |
Excerpt: Financed by VoteVets.org, the $500,000 in ads will feature retired Maj. Gens. John Batiste and Paul Eaton, both of whom have criticized civilian leaders of the U.S. Defense Department in the past. Batiste commanded the 1st U.S. Infantry Division in Iraq, and Eaton oversaw training of the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004.
CBS fires Batiste for "advocacy" ads
Excerpt: When asked what standards Batiste violated, Genelius said he participated in "advocacy," but noted that she had not seen the ad to verify the charge. Batiste's only "advocacy" in the ad might be found in this statement: "Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women." |
Senate votes down importing
cheap drugs from Canada| |
Excerpt: In a triumph for the pharmaceutical industry, the Senate on Monday killed a drive to allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from abroad at a significant savings over domestic prices.
On a 49-40 vote, the Senate required the administration to certify the safety and effectiveness of imported drugs before they can be imported, a requirement that officials have said they cannot meet.
Comment: I was dumbfounded by how many papers ran this under a headline about how the Senate passed a "drug safety" bill. The only thing the Senate is "protecting" the average citizen from is affordable health care, and the only people who are "safer" are a couple dozen obscenely wealthy drug company execs. |
Republican legislators to Bush:
War is hurting the party| |
Excerpt: House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.
Comment: You know, the anti-war movement should have thought of using this argument a long time ago. Bush and Cheney couldn't care less about how much human suffering they cause, or how much they are hurting America. But doing damage to the sacred, eternal, almighty REPUBLICAN PARTY might actually make them stop for a couple seconds and wonder if all the chaos and bloodshed and rampant destruction is maybe not such a good idea. |
Pentagon tells 35,000 soldiers:
Prepare to deploy| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon has notified more than 35,000 Army soldiers to be prepared to deploy to Iraq beginning this fall, a move that would allow commanders to maintain the ongoing buildup of troops through the end of the year if needed. |
"Humanitarian" investor Buffett
opposes divestment from Sudan| |
Excerpt: Shareholders of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Saturday overwhelmingly defeated a proposal to divest a $3.31 billion stake in PetroChina Co. because of its parent's ties to Sudan. Less than 2 percent of votes were cast in favor of the proposal by Berkshire shareholder Judith Porter, which Buffett opposed. |
Sarkozy's election greeted with riots in France| |
Excerpt: Many people are scared by his control of the media and the police, his lies, his skullduggery, and his dictatorial behavior. After he was elected, thousands of people started rioting in Paris and other cities in France. |
Palestinians 'routinely tortured' in Israeli jails| |
Excerpt: Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces are routinely tortured and ill-treated, according to a new report published by Israeli human rights groups yesterday. The ill-treatment, which includes beatings, sensory deprivation, back-bending, back-stretching and other forms of physical abuse, contravenes international law and Israeli law, the report says. |
U.S. official signals that peace efforts are a sham| |
Excerpt: U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams on Thursday told a group of Jewish Republicans that the efforts the United States is now investing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is aimed at lessening the pressure from Arabs and the Europeans, who weren't happy with the United States in its past approach.
Abrams was quoted by sources present at the meeting as saying Arab and European states want to see that there's at least an attempt or energy being exerted by the U.S. to move the peace process forward. Abrams explained that the talks are sometimes not more than "process for the sake of process." ...
Some of the attendees understood Abrams' comments as an assurance that the peace initiative promoted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice doesn't have the full backing of President George W. Bush.
"He was basically telling us that he [the president] will not let it get out of hand," one of them said. |
Seven former U.S. Ambassadors
seek removal of Bush crony| |
Excerpt: A group of former U.S. ambassadors asked
President Bush to remove the U.S. ambassador to Belgium on grounds the recess appointment of Republican donor Sam Fox undermines diplomatic posts worldwide.
The White House was forced to withdraw Fox's nomination in March after Senate Democrats indicated they would block it. A week later, Bush appointed Fox, a Missouri businessman, while Congress was in recess.
"Appointing an ambassador after the nomination has been withdrawn, and before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has even considered the nominee, essentially renders the Senate's confirmation process irrelevant," seven former diplomats wrote in a letter to Bush dated May 8.
Comment: Of course it does. That was the point.
Destroying such Constitutional safeguards is what the Bush-Cheney administration does, part of their ongoing program to make America weaker, less free, and more despised worldwide. |
Common Canadian coin
triggered U.S. espionage alert| |
Excerpt: The odd-looking -- but harmless -- "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP. ...The supposed nano-technology actually was a conventional protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy's red color from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada's 117,000 war dead. |
U.S. reminds Arabs they are hated here| |
Excerpt: Promoters from 64 countries vied this week to lure big-spending Arab tourists to their countries at the Middle East's largest tourism convention. But not a single promoter from the United States turned up.
Instead, the U.S. government sent officials from the Department of Homeland Security to demonstrate its mandatory fingerprinting of Arab and other foreign visitors. |
U.S. immigration agents, despised worldwide,
will take charm lessons from Disney| |
Excerpt: ...And with ten American airports set to take electronic prints from every finger of foreign arrivals -- not just the two index fingers as at present -- there are fears even more travelers will shun the States.
But now officials are responding to the criticism by employing Disney's recipe for tirelessly upbeat and helpful customer service in an attempt to get the free-spending British back, particularly with the pound at nearly two dollars.
Immigration officers will be taught the secrets of Disney theme parks by learning how to welcome visitors, manage large queues and respond to 'negative reaction' from the public without letting their smiles slip. |
White House struggles to fill senior posts| |
Excerpt: In the last 10 days alone Mr Bush has lost four senior officials and more resignations are expected to follow. "I wouldn't describe this as disintegration," said one senior official. "But there are worrying large gaps opening up and it is very hard to recruit high-quality people from outside."
Comment: Goes without saying, of course, that no-one with a quarter-ounce of integrity would take a high-level position in the Bush-Cheney administration. The corruption and contamination has grown so profoundly obvious, though, that the nation's best-dressed criminals are now saying 'No thanks." They wisely don't want the words "Bush-Cheney" on their résumés. |
2006 nuclear spill in Tennessee revealed| |
Excerpt: "Nobody got hurt. There was no danger to the general public," Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre said Tuesday. "(But) they were lucky, and we don't like them to be lucky, we like them to be careful." |
More bizarre behavior from Bush:
Seizes baton, leads orchestra, kisses conductor| |
Excerpt: Just before the music ended, Bush turned to conductor JoAnn Falletta, who stood on a step below him, kissed the top of her head and left without saying a word.
Comment: Wow! Condescending, or what? Shades of the back rub Bush gave Angela Merkel …. |
US temperatures 'could rise 10 degrees' by 2080| |
Excerpt: The team found that in areas where daily high temperatures currently average around 26°C (low- to mid-80s Fahrenheit) during the summer, daytime temperatures will most likely soar to around 32°C (low- to mid-90s Fahrenheit) during typical summers by the 2080s. |
Computers may be able to restore
ripped-up East German spy files| |
Excerpt: The pilot project, backed by 6.3 million euros ($8.6 million) in federal funds, will demonstrate whether it is feasible for the Berlin-based Fraunhofer Institute for Production Machinery and Building Technology to use digital brute force to decipher 16,000 sacks of shredded papers that were left behind by former East Germany's powerful secret police.
Jan Schneider, 36, the Fraunhofer engineer heading the project, said the scraps will be placed on a conveyer belt leading to digital scanners which would obtain images of both sides of the paper. The software will identify the paper color, typefaces, any rubber stamps and the outlines of the tears. Just like a jigsaw solver, as soon as it discovers edges that match, it will link up the images. |
Premature births may be linked to seasonal levels of pesticides and nitrates in surface water| |
Excerpt: The growing premature birth rate in the United States appears to be strongly associated with increased use of pesticides and nitrates...
Comment: Why would the GOP abandon their usual fanaticism about protecting the “pre-born”? Is it because the people spraying the chemicals hurting those “babies” are men? Or because they’re rich? |
Mexican trucks and truckers will have
free ride on U.S. highways by summer| |
Excerpt: Despite widespread resistance from U.S. truckers and numerous safety concerns in Congress, officials are confident a pilot program to allow Mexican trucks into all areas of the United States will be in place by July, a top U.S. trade official said Tuesday. |
No more room on
Congressional war memorial| |
Excerpt: In a grim sign of the times, the "Wall of the Fallen," set up by House Republican leaders in June, is almost full. The mounting death toll from Iraq has forced U.S. House staffers to study how to reconfigure the display in the lobby of the Rayburn Building -- the largest office building for members of Congress -- to squeeze in more names.
According to the Defense Department, 3,736 U.S. service members died in the two wars by the end of April. New names are added to the display every few months, but none have been added since November. The last name listed is Lance Cpl. Luke Holler, 21-year-old Marine reservist from Bulverde, Texas, killed by an explosive device on Nov. 2.
In the current format, there is space for about 130 more names, but 506 Americans have died since mid-November. In April, 104 Americans were killed in the war's sixth-deadliest month. |
American soldiers die
for campaign contributions| |
Excerpt: Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been begging for a defense against rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and guided anti-tank missiles. It turns out there is already one that works REALLY WELL and is manufactured by one of our allies. The Pentagon tested it and found it more than 90% effective. In one test it actually hit 30 out of 30 targets, but hit one on the tail rather than the nose. But the Pentagon has rejected this ready-to-install defense system in favor of one being developed by Raytheon, one that won't be ready for five years. In the meantime, American soldiers and marines will continue to die. Why do you think that is? |
PC World, shamed by bad press,
brings back editor, 'promotes' CEO| |
Excerpt: In a surprise reversal, IDG management removed Colin Crawford as PC World's CEO and reinstated Harry McCracken as Editor in Chief, after a dispute over a canceled Apple story led McCracken to quit. A memo just sent to PC World and Macworld staffers by IDG president Bob Carrigan states that McCracken "has decided to remain with PC World."
Crawford, meanwhile, is being kicked back upstairs, assigned to "driving IDG's online strategy and initiatives" -- a nice, safe, strategic role where he can't do any more harm to the company's editorial reputation. |
Hicks' Marine lawyer overlooked for promotion| |
Excerpt: David Hicks' US military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, has been passed over for promotion and knocked back as a trainee judge in what appears to be payback for his work on behalf of the Guantanamo Bay detainee.
Major Mori, 41, whose zealous defense of Hicks since November 2003 was admired by many Australians and instrumental in Hicks' lenient deal, has an uncertain future with the military and could potentially be assigned to non-legal work.
While it was expected he would be reassigned once his defense of Hicks was complete, it is believed Major Mori has been offered remote postings, including Guam and Chile, with only limited options for remaining on the US mainland. |
Pasadena news site outsources
local gov't coverage to India| |
Excerpt: “I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications,” said [editor and publisher James Macpherson]. “Whether you're at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you're still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview.” |
FBI agent intervenes to get
vote fraud charge against Coulter dropped| |
Excerpt: So why would an FBI profiler who went after the Unabomber take time from his busy day to even think about a municipal election snafu?
Fitzgerald is mum. But when the bureau heard about this from [the newspaper], it immediately launched an internal review of the agent's involvement.
"We're looking into it," bureau spokeswoman Ann Todd said. |
Irish teen wins abortion battle| |
Excerpt: The High Court has now ruled there were no statutory or constitutional grounds for preventing the teenager, known only as Miss D in court, from travelling to Britain for the operation.
Comment: Abortion is available to any woman in Ireland who can afford a ticket out of the country. |
US intelligence wants ability
to censor satellite images| |
Excerpt: Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, who heads the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, spends his days helping the government map the planet and studying imagery. Once the exclusive domain of the government, commercial satellite imagery has attained high-enough resolutions that the government is thinking about ways to restrict its use in times of war or other emergency situations. |
Ahmadinejad leads unprecedented anti-US rally in Dubai| |
Entire item: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led a raucous anti-American rally in the United Arab Emirates a day after a low-key visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney there in an attempt to counter Tehran's influence in the region.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a cheering Dubai crowd Sunday that America was to blame for creating instability and robbing the region of its wealth. ''Every time your name is mentioned, hatred builds up,'' Ahmadinejad said of the United States to a crowd of thousands, mostly Iranian expatriates. ''Go fix yourself. This is Iran's advice to you. Leave the region... The nations of the region can no longer take you forcing yourself on them.''
Comment: Ahmadinejad is a madman, we're told over and over again, and I tend to believe it's true. But in media accounts, he frequently seems simply correct, as here, and he comes across much saner than America's leaders.
Small quibble: The headline is lying, there's nothing "unprecedented" about huge rallies against the presence of the U.S. military in the Middle East. |
Giuliani cancels visit after finding out
his hosts aren't millionaires| |
Excerpt: 'I'm sorry, you aren't worth a million dollars and he is campaigning on the Death Tax right now.' then he said they weren't going to be able to come." |
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Lightning round news
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Executed man gets last meal wish after he dies
TSA Security steals cash from kid's luggage
Senators who weakened drug bill
got millions from industry
Putin likens U.S. to Third Reich
9/11 made millions of dollars for Giuliani
Community service for defendants
in Cartoon Network case
Nude photos of infants not
for the family album any more
Woman goes undercover to
experience life as a man
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Words are necessary, but actions even more so
by Sherri B., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Yes, the drama is here. But you know what? Your ancestors survived (by fair means or foul) and you will too. Get ready... the madness is here. |
I have nothing to add
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: After faulting the Palestinians for using Mickey Mouse to recruit terrorists the Bush administration and FOX news announces the latest new action figure doll, Sgt. Tommy Rieman complete with his own G.I. Joe type action figure and video game in a field of
poppies. |
A case of Sarkosis:
How soon France forgot
by Nadine Sellers, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: With the election of Sarkozy, France will be sold out piecemeal to corporate Bush-buddies. 'Tis the end of France as you've loved it! (or not) |
BROADSPECTRUM MEDIA ANALYSIS --
!SYSTEM ALERT!
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We're talking about a full blown military base vs. a few pizza-delivering immigrants who WANTED to get some guns and HOPED that if they managed to acquire them they would THEN be able to create a devastating effect on A MILITARY BASE. Not exactly a bomb in the center of a shopping mall. |
Rich beyond all limits
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It is our birthright, all of us, to be rich beyond all limits. The pioneering adventure of making this a reality is the only thing that can fill the thirsting of our 21st Century souls. It is our destiny and it is being denied by the pettiness of tiny, evil minds. |
My life without Google
by James Thomas, CenterNetworks
| |
Excerpt: For the last two weeks, I've had google.com blocked at both work and home. The amount of data they're gathering on me is frightening. Not because of Google, but because I'm positive the government will legislate their way into Google's database sooner or later and start labeling people as suspicious. Political paranoia aside, let us look at the fact here; Life on the internet without using Google is hard. |
Bumper sticker mentality
by A Proud Liberal
| |
Excerpt: Support of this war is the opposite of supporting our troops. Supporting this war will only lead to more deaths and maiming of our troops that are senseless. These numbers are miniscule compared to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians that have died and the many more hundreds of thousands that have been crippled, left homeless or left Iraq. |
A look back from 2017
by Paul Campos, Rocky Mountain News
| |
Excerpt: Three of the central questions in this debate are still unresolved, and will no doubt remain so. First, did the Joint Chiefs act within the law when they refused to follow the president's orders, and instead instructed the Pentagon's lawyers to request an emergency hearing before the Supreme Court? |
Sex in the Capital City
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Contrary to popular lore the oldest profession is not prostitution, it's government. |
Different kinds of American "citizens"
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The question of wealth is very interesting in the context of the
corruption in D.C. -- in both parties. There are many things happening, legally and economically, and illegally and uneconomically, including new classes of "citizens" ... |
The ethics of whistleblowing
by Coleen Rowley, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Hundreds, if not thousands of government and military whistleblowers have been fired, lost everything, including their families and even their mental balance. The gross politicization has resulted in larger numbers of whistleblowers than ever. You just aren't hearing about it because they're being mostly squashed. |
Who has gained from the failed US policy?
by The Canadian, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Eventually the US will experience more terror on its soil, but I think Al Qaeda's immediate goal is to remove US influence from the Middle East, thereby allowing Al Qaeda to focus its efforts on destabilizing moderate Arab States and attacking Israel via Palestine, Hez b'Allah and Hamas. Thereafter, assuming their efforts are successful, the US will become Target #1. |
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. |
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. |
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 goes up 12 cents, and bitch that Don Imus said this or that. They take sides like their favorite team got dissed, but when it comes to anything relating to Iraq or the coming war with Iran, it might as well be Mars, because it's a non-issue to these people. |
Arsenic, Bush-Cheney, and hatred
by JR Mooneyham, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Please be careful about feeling hatred too much or too often. It's not good for your health. In general it seems best to try to somehow have fun while working against such awful entities and events. For me, it's sometimes looking at my actions as merry mischief upsetting the king's apple cart. Or looking at things as trying to shield the innocent and helpless from evil or accident, rather than hating the evil itself. |
Who's next to get screwed?
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: First it was the steel industry, then it was textiles, then it was manufacturing, then the auto industry, then the high-tech sector, and now the housing bust. The North American Union is just another manifestation of "Free Trade," politically correct jargon for corporate fascism, with the ultimate goal of putting an end to the United States as a sovereign nation, instead leaving the U.S. an entity whose importance would be little more than that of a glorified trading post in a global economy controlled by multi national corporations. |
A man of extraordinary courage
Major Michael D. Mori, U.S.M.C.
by Robyn Shelly, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The United States can be very proud of Major Michael Mori. He stands for those "American" values that George Bush and his cronies trumpet long and loud, but rarely seem to uphold. He is proof that there are still people of integrity in the United States. |
The Decider's new clothes
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This is the US Justice Department you're questioning. Would they lie to you? |
Just another day in my life
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I find myself constantly shaking my head. One minute you read that 80% of Americans say they think the Government had something to do with 9/11, and you think to your self, good, they're waking up, it's a start ... And then something happens to diminish that little spark of hope, and you two steps back to where you were before. |
When the dark curtain finally closes
by Robert J., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The uncomfortable reality is that we are screwed. There are no good options available to us at this point. The only thing I can think to do is to help minimize the suffering of those that care enough to find a safe place to ride out the storm. I don't believe it will do any good to struggle against this. The snowball has picked up too much speed to be stopped now, even if you could reform our broken government into a compassionate and functional democracy. The economic, geopolitical damage has been done. |
Neither pinkos nor libertarians
by jodi d. and Albert C., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We received these two emails within about fifteen minutes of each other, and we've received dozens like these over the last eight years. Obviously, neither email has anything to do with the other, but it seems to me they belong together like a matched set of bookends ... |
What is the death toll now?
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Future historians will hold George Bush as one of the greatest mass murderers in history. He will be ranked alongside Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Mussolini. Corporate, church, and political leaders who backed him -- and continue to back him now -- should be prosecuted with him at the Hague, as accessories in his crimes against humanity. |
They learn it from us
by J.S. Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Children, like it or not, model their behavior on adult authority figures, and the authority figures haven't exactly been the picture of Christian kindness in respect to the Works of Mercy. |
Face the fear, people
by Sherri B., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We're afraid of what might be coming to us if we act, and we're afraid of what we might do if we're confronted. Will we risk our kids to child services if we get arrested and go to jail? Will we give up our homes? Can we physically fight back against a cop if we're illegally threatened? Will we risk being killed for what we believe? Can we spend months, even years, in a courtroom or "holding cell"? |
Newspeak Project Management System
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This classified document is code named 'Dictatorship for Dummies', and the manual is based on George Orwell's warnings in the book 1984 ... |
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