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Almost half of Americans want impeachment| |
Excerpt: Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday.
The survey by the American Research Group found that 45 percent support the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposed, and a 54-40 split in favor when it comes to Cheney.
Pelosi: "The President isn't worth impeaching"
Excerpt: [Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:] "I made a decision a few years ago, or at least one year ago, that impeachment was something that we could not be successful with and that would |
| | take up the time we needed to do some positive things to establish a record of our priorities and their short-comings, and the President is ... ya know what I say? The President isn't worth it ... he's not worth impeaching. We've got important work to do ... If he were at the beginning of his term, people may think of it differently, but he's at the end of his terms. The first two years of his term, if we came in as the majority, there might be time to do it all ... "
Question: "Respectfully, that's not the question. Respectfully, the question is whether or not the Constitution is worth it."
Speaker Pelosi: "Well, yeah, the Constitution is worth it if you can succeed."
Comment: Someone needs to politely inform Ms Pelosi and other alleged leaders that we rely on the Constitution, so we don't have to resort to tar and feathers. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Libby avoids jail time --
and avoids testifying before Congress| |
Excerpt: President Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case.
Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.
Comment: People are acting like a commutation is "not as bad" as if Bush had out-and-out pardoned him. Actually, it's much, much worse. As long as Libby is still appealing his sentence, he can still plead the fifth before Congress. If he had been out-and-out pardoned, he would not be able to refuse to answer Congress' questions on the grounds that he would incriminate himself. And as long as Libby is still appealing his conviction, Bush and Cheney can still stonewall about their involvement in outing a CIA agent, using the excuse that they are not going to comment on an ongoing criminal case. That makes the commutation itself an obstruction of justice. And I'm sure Alberto Gonzales is going to get right on that. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Fitzgerald had a statement
ready for instant release
Excerpt: "We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as "excessive." The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country. In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals. That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.
"Although the President's decision eliminates Mr. Libby's sentence of imprisonment, Mr. Libby remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process."
And Joe Wilson has something to say
Excerpt: "There's very little that surprises me from this administration any more," said [Ambassador Joseph Wilson, husband of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame]. "I think it's corrupt from top to bottom."
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Cindy Sheehan comes out of "retirement" to lead march from Crawford to Washington | |
Comment: Scroll down past the AP article for Cindy Sheehan's statement. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Excerpt: " It is about time us "peasants" (in the eyes of the Fascist Ruling Elite) march on DC with our "pitchforks" of righteous anger and our "torches" of truth to demand the ouster of BushCo. I have a dream of the detention centers that George has built and filled being instead filled with Orange Clad neocons and neoconnettes.
"If Congress won't dig BushCo's political grave, it is the People's job to do so. Thomas Jefferson said that we need a Revolution every 20 years or so, to keep our Republic honest. Over 225 years have passed since our last Revolution (if you don't count the War Between the States) and we are long overdue for one. Turn off your TVs, kiss your pets goodbye, bring the kids and flock to the federal seat of corruption, or join us on our walk there, for a People's Accountability Movement to be in the face of the Criminal BushCo and the Complicit Congress for the last week of session before they go on their undeserved vacations (why do they get vacations when the Iraqi parliamentarians don't?)" |
Sheehan to Pelosi:
Impeach Bush or I'm running for Pelosi's job| |
Excerpt: Cindy Sheehan said she will run against [Nancy Pelosi] in 2008 as an independent if Pelosi does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush. That's when Sheehan and her supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., after a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting next week from the group's war protest site near Bush's Crawford ranch. |
Russia threatens new missiles
will be aimed at U.S. bases| |
Excerpt: Russia warned today that it would position its rockets close to the Polish border and point missiles at US bases in Europe if Washington rebuffed its latest offer of cooperation on missile defense.
Comment: This reminds me of something you might see in a movie like Threads or The Day After or the recent Children of Men. You'd hear a news report playing in the background as the chaos unfurls, and of course you know the rest. Kathy Fisher PERMANENT LINK |
Iraq lawmaker quits after committee
approves handing oil to foreign companies| |
Excerpt: A member of Iraq's parliamentary energy committee quit on Saturday in protest over a draft oil law, which Washington hopes will help ease violence between Iraq's warring Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs.
Usama al-Nujeyfi told a small news conference that the proposal would cede too much control to global companies and "ruin the country's future". He vowed to work to defeat the draft in parliament.
The draft was passed by the cabinet of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday and must be debated and agreed by parliament before it can become law.
Washington sees it as a key benchmark of progress in reconciliation and hopes the law will help to stem sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi'ites.
Comment: Reuters is usually very good at |
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| COMMENTARY
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Whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the right of the people
to alter or to abolish it
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: They have consistently lied, at every opportunity, to cover up their crimes and suppressed the ability of the press to call them to account. They have turned over the power of government to private corporations to illegitimately control the lives and freedoms of the people. They have flagrantly violated the provision of separation of church and state. They have cancelled or ignored such time honored principals of law as habeas corpus.
They have caused our nation to become one of the most hated powers in history by conducting heinous wars, practicing torture and disappearances, conducting assassinations of foreign leaders, overthrowing popular governments, conducting brutal economic warfare and using nuclear blackmail to pursue the aims of a small group of transnational wealthy investors and corporations. The above list is in no way comprehensive. |
Some of my best friends are skinny
by Cassandra, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I'm not immune to the national weight obsession, I just try to not let it affect how I live. It doesn't always work, but I ain't going to pilates class and I will have my chocolate. |
Airlines, jails and the 4th of July
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: All the accommodations including food, lavatory services and concern for my personal safety were the same at both the airline and jail. Both told me when and where I would be released and allowed me to make a phone call. |
Emote!
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It is what's happening to you that is making you feel what you feel, and if you don't act like you feel the way you do, short of violence, if we all pretend to feel some acceptable neutral way ... we just might wind up in the situation we've wound up in. |
Throw the bums out
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Dreams are what reality is made of. Dream the world you want to live in. |
How to tell if Bush is lying
by Michelle, Crazy Twins| |
Excerpt: My husband thinks it's cute the way I always seem to be surprised by all the fairy tales, falsehoods and fabrications that emit from the White House; that I must somehow hold out hope that our elected (or not elected as the case may be) officials have some deep seated humanity that would cause them trouble sleeping at night should they lie to their constituents.
Odd, I always considered myself to be rather cynical and jaded about politicians. |
Sicko spurs audiences into action
by Josh Tyler, Cinema Blend
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Excerpt: Sicko started; the stereotypical Texas guy sat down behind me and never stopped talking. He talked through the entire movie ... and I listened. The first ten to twenty minutes of the film he spent badmouthing [Michael] Moore to his wife and snorting in disgust whenever MM went into one of his trademark monologues. But as the movie wore on his protestations became quieter, less enthusiastic. Somewhere along the way, maybe at the half way point, right before my ears, Sicko changed this man's mind. By the forty-five minute mark, he, along with the rest of the audience were breaking into spontaneous applause. He stopped pooh-poohing the movie and started shouting out "hell yeah!" at the screen. It was as if the whole world had been flipped upside down. This is Texas, where people support the president and voting democratic is something only done by the terrorists. Michael Moore should be public enemy number one.
By the time the movie was over, public enemy number one had become George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy all rolled together. When the credits rolled the audience filed out and into the bathrooms. At the urinals, my redneck friend couldn't stop talking about the film, and I kept listening. He struck up a conversation with a random black man in his 40s standing next to him, and soon everyone was peeing and talking about just how fucked everything is. ... |
Senator Coleman, you used to be a pot head -- now you're talking like a narc
by Norman Kent, AlterNet
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Excerpt: Years ago, in a lifetime far away, you did not oppose the legalization of marijuana. Years ago, in our dorm rooms at Hofstra University, you, me, Billy, your future brother-in-law, Ivan, Jonathan, Peter, Janet, Nancy and a wealth of other students smoked dope.
Sure, we had to tape the doors shut, burn incense and open the windows, but we got high, and yet we grew up okay, without the help of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's advice. |
Cop lobby flexes its muscle
by Steven Greenhut, LewRockwell.com
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Excerpt: In a free society, the law should tilt in favor of oversight, in favor of the public's right to know. In all the discussions at the hearing, the voice missing from the debate, Romero pointed out, was the public's. "The people were absent." |
Nobody marched to impeach Bill Clinton
by Linda Milazzo, Smirking Chimp
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Excerpt: In 1998, thousands upon thousands of Americans DIDN'T call, write, fax and visit their elected leaders every day imploring them to impeach Bill Clinton. Millions of citizens DIDN'T believe that the rest of the world wanted Bill Clinton impeached. Groups of citizen activists DIDN'T band together to camp out at their Representatives' homes and District Offices for days, sometimes weeks, holding "Impeach Bill Clinton" signs and wearing "Impeach Bill Clinton" T-shirts. Thousands of cars DIDN'T bear "Impeach Bill Clinton" bumper stickers. |
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| | producing spin-free news, but does anyone honestly believe that the reason the U.S. is pressuring Iraq to pass an law that would give away their oil to Western companies is because that would stop the Shi'ites and Sunnis from killing each other? Right, we are deeply concerned about all those Iraqis killing each other on top of our oil fields. The windfall to Exxon is just a huge coincidence.
Also, please note that the last paragraph in the excerpt gives away a key euphemism in the debate over leaving Iraq: when U.S. politicians talk about the Iraqi government meeting "benchmarks", they actually mean passing an oil law that hands over Iraq oil to U.S. energy companies. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Occupiers must not get Iraqi oil,
say Iraq's Shi'ite leaders
Excerpt: [Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's] supporters said they would not support any law that would allow firms "whose governments are occupying Iraq" -- a reference to the United States, Britain and their coalition allies -- to sign Iraqi oil deals.
"We reject this unclear law that contains a number of points which prevent us from accepting it," said Sheikh Salah al-Obaidi, a Sadr office spokesman in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.
"This law has no grounding in Iraqi reality," he added. |
Aussie defense minister admits Iraq war is about oil| |
Excerpt: [Australian] Defense Minister Brendan Nelson says securing the world's oil supply is one of the Federal Government's considerations as it decides how long to keep troops in Iraq. Dr. Nelson confirmed the Government viewed Australia's involvement in Iraq as partially driven by the need to secure oil supplies, although he said the main reason was to ensure that the humanitarian crisis did not worsen. |
Mercenaries outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq| |
Excerpt: More than 180,000 civilians -- American and foreign -- are working in Iraq under US contracts, State and Defense Department figures show. Including the recent troop increase, 160,000 American soldiers and several thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq.
The number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported, shows how heavily the Bush Administration has relied on private companies to carry out the occupation of Iraq -- a mission criticized as being inadequately manned. |
KBR employees say coworkers drugged and raped them in Iraq| |
Excerpt: KBR Inc. and its former corporate parent Halliburton Co. have been sued by four women claiming they suffered sexual harassment and, in two cases rape, by co-workers while working for KBR in Iraq, the Houston Chronicle reported on its Website Friday. The women have filed separate lawsuits in federal courts in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma saying they faced repeated sexual harassment despite complaining about it to their supervisors, the Chronicle reported.
Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann said in a statement that the company was improperly named in the lawsuit and expects to be dismissed from the action. "To confirm, Halliburton and its subsidiaries have no employees or work in Iraq."
Comment: The ridiculous, Orwellian claim that Halliburton didn't even have any employees working in Iraq is just one symptom of the legal rabbit-hole that these women find themselves in. It appears that American contractors (read: mercenaries) working in Iraq are not subject to local Iraqi law, American law, or the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So good luck with that, ladies. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Blackwater manager blamed for Fallujah massacre| |
Excerpt: Blackwater, based in North Carolina, sent two squads through Fallujah without maps, according to memos obtained by The News & Observer. Both of the six-man teams, named Bravo 2 and November 1, were sent out two men short, leaving them more vulnerable to ambush. |
N.Y. Times editorial: Leave Iraq now | |
Excerpt: As long chronicled by [trade publication] Editor & Publisher, very few newspapers in the U.S. have endorsed a withdrawal from Iraq or even a timetable for that, despite the overwhelming shift in public opinion on that question. Momentum has started to shift in that direction, however, with a handful of papers -- from the Los Angeles Times to, just this week, The Olympian in Washington -- backing a pullout.
Now the Times has added its considerable weight to this cause. The paper has long been very critical of the conduct of the war and skeptical of the "surge" but has never backed a withdrawal. Or as the editorial puts it on Sunday: "Like many Americans, we have put off that conclusion, waiting for a sign that President Bush was seriously trying to dig the United States out of the disaster he created by invading Iraq without sufficient cause, in the face of global opposition, and without a plan to stabilize the country afterward."
The paper would like a withdrawal within six months but admits this is "unrealistic." In any case, it wants a firm deadline now.
Comment: Our congratulations to the New York Times on the surgical extraction of its editorial head from its editorial rectum. Several years late is better than never. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Court says you can't sue over secret spying program unless
you can somehow prove you were secretly spied upon| |
Excerpt: A divided three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled today that the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of journalists, lawyers and academics, be sent back to a district court judge to be dismissed. In August 2006, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled the NSA program, which monitored telephone and Internet communications without court-ordered warrants, was illegal. |
"Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified US worker"| |
Excerpt: To Norm Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Davis, such efforts to use loopholes in immigration laws that were supposed to give Americans and legal residents first crack at high-tech and other jobs is "absolutely outrageous."
The real goal is to hire "cheap labor," charges Dr. Matloff. High-tech executives had backed a provision in the comprehensive immigration bill that failed in the Senate last Thursday to boost the number of H-1B or other temporary visas for highly educated foreign workers. Now, the focus will shift to "stand-alone" bills already before Congress that would accomplish the same goal, notes a spokesman for the Software & Information Industry Association. |
Republican Doolittle linked to 2 bribery scandals| |
Excerpt: Rep. John Doolittle's associations with some notorious scoundrels have him uniquely tied to both congressional bribery scandals that have sent other Republican lawmakers to jail.
Then there's $37 million in federal funds Doolittle secured for a defense contractor accused of bribing now imprisoned ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Brent Wilkes, a benefactor of both Cunningham and Doolittle, is awaiting trial in San Diego on charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. |
House balks at Bush order for new powers| |
Excerpt: President Bush this month is giving an obscure White House office new powers over regulations affecting health, worker safety and the environment. Calling it a power grab, Democrats running Congress are intent on stopping him.
The House voted last week to prohibit the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from spending federal money on Executive Order 13422, signed by Bush last January and due to take effect July 24. |
Internal memos show Republicans using illegal
"vote caging" to suppress minority vote in 2004| |
Excerpt: Internal city memos show the issue of Republican "vote caging" efforts in Jacksonville's African-American neighborhoods was discussed in the weeks before the 2004 election, contradicting recent claims by former Duval County Republican leader Mike Hightower -- the Bush-Cheney campaign's local chairman at the time.
"Caging" is a longtime voter suppression practice by which political parties collect undeliverable or unreturned mail and use it to develop "challenge lists" on Election Day. |
Iran -- Run-up to the next war:
Pentagon spokesman says Iran is helping Hezbollah attack U.S. troops| |
Excerpt: Iranian operatives helped plan a January raid in Karbala in which five American soldiers were killed, an American military spokesman in Iraq said today.
Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, the military spokesman, also said that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used operatives from the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah as a "proxy" to train and arm Shiite militants in Iraq.
Comment: Wasn't it less than a month ago that the Pentagon had to retract a lie about Iran funding the Taliban in Afghanistan? Shouldn't our brave fighting men get a break over the July 4 holiday week from their patriotic, valiant struggle to make up ridiculous stories about Iran? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
"Pentagon spokesman" making those claims just got to Iraq from White House
Excerpt: Glenn Greenwald points out that Gordon's only source for this piece is a "military spokesman" Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner. What Glenn doesn't not tell is the background of Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner. Bergner left the White House and became spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq only three weeks ago. You can bet with a very good chance that his statement, which Michael Gordon dutiful stenographs, has its origins in the White House.
Editor & Publisher calls out unreliable Times report and reporter
Excerpt: As if he hadn't done enough damage already, helping to promote the American invasion of Iraq with deeply flawed articles in the New York Times, Michael R. Gordon is now writing scare stories that offer ammunition for the growing chorus of neo-cons calling for a U.S. strike against Iran -- his most recent effort appearing just this morning.
What's most lamentable is that editors at the New York Times, who should have learned their lessons four years ago, are once again serving as enablers. |
Rice lies about 'increasingly dangerous' Iran| |
Excerpt: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Iran as "increasingly dangerous" and refused to rule out US military action if Tehran refuses to suspend its nuclear program. |
Lieberman pleads for war on Iran| |
Excerpt: Sen. Joe Lieberman repeated his call Monday for the United States to consider a military strike against Iran, saying Tehran is waging a "proxy war" by stoking anti-coalition violence in Iraq.
Citing new reports from U.S. military officials about how Iran is fostering terrorism in Iraq, Lieberman, I-Conn., said America must confront the threat posed by Tehran.
Comment: In a sane society, Joe Lieberman would be hauled away in a net. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Supreme Court will hear Guantanamo challenge| |
Excerpt: The American Civil Liberties Union applauded a U.S. Supreme Court decision to review an appeal by Guantanamo detainees.
The inmates at the detention facility for suspects in the war on terror at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "are seeking the right to challenge the legality of their detention in federal court. The court had previously declined to hear the appeal in April, but reversed course in an order issued (Friday) on the final day of the Supreme Court term," the ACLU said.
Comment: This is not necessarily good news, as thanks to George Bush and compliant Democrats in Congress, the majority on the Supreme Court is now comprised of treasonous freedom-hating monsters. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
White House lies about Cheney's declassification authority| |
Excerpt: The White House press office and some Bush Administration critics are insisting that the 2003 executive order on classification policy endowed the Vice President with a unique status and classification powers identical to those of the President himself. But that's not what the executive order says. |
19 billion dollars later, Iraqi forces fall short| |
Excerpt: The United States has sunk more than 19 billion dollars into training Iraqi forces, but new army and police units still cannot enforce security, a congressional report warned Wednesday.
Four years after the US invasion, 346,500 Iraqi military and police have been trained, but readiness is not evenly spread and there is strong evidence some newly trained troops are committing sectarian violence, the report said. |
U.N. agrees: U.S. killing more Afghan civilians than Taliban| |
Entire report: Independent tallies have confirmed the claim of an Afghan human rights group that the U.S.-led NATO force has killed more civilians than the Taliban in the first half of this year. UN figures show at least three hundred fourteen civilians died in NATO bombings this year. Two-hundred seventy-nine were killed by the Taliban. The NATO figure does not include anywhere from forty-five to eighty-civilians reportedly killed in a NATO bombing in Helman province last week. The Los Angeles Times reports Afghan police recently barred journalists from the scene of a suicide attack on a US military convoy. The police officers explained: "Don't go close. The Americans might shoot you."
Fighting rages across Afghanistan, scores killed
Excerpt: Scores of rebels and a dozen local police and soldiers were killed in an upsurge of fighting in Afghanistan in the past two days that also left several civilians dead, officials said Saturday.
The deputy provincial police chief of the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar said about 25 civilians were killed in air strikes that hit a home in a remote area late Thursday and then a funeral on Friday.
Comment: The media pays it far less attention, but the U.S. left Afghanistan in ruins much the same as it's reduced Iraq to ruins. Marty E. PERMANENT LINK |
TALON database complied with law, Inspector General says| |
Excerpt: The Department of Defense TALON database of threat information that compiled information on U.S. persons involved in domestic protests was implemented in compliance with U.S. law, a review by the DoD Inspector General concluded. However, some of the raw information was improperly retained in violation of a DoD directive ... |
U.S. claims to improve Guantanamo conditions| |
Excerpt: The U.S. military is seeking to improve conditions for many Guantanamo Bay detainees by offering more recreation and activities, including a weekly movie night for the best-behaved, the commander of the detention center said Tuesday.
A year after three suicides and a riot prompted a security overhaul, the military hopes to provide "increased mental stimulation" with expanded recreation areas, Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Comment: Even assuming for the sake of argument that this ain't bullsh*t, which it probably is, it misses the point by a mile. It doesn't matter if they make Guantanamo the most comfortable concentration camp ever, or if they close Guantanamo and more the prisoners elsewhere and treat them like Saudi royalty.
What matters is: They're prisoners who've never had a trial. What matters is: Only tyrants imprison people without trials. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
White House manual calls for harassment of "potential critics" of President Bush| |
Excerpt: The Presidential Advance Manual calls for Bush volunteers to distribute tickets in a manner to deter protesters and to stop demonstrators from entering. It also calls for "rally squads" to drown out demonstrators and get between them and news cameras. The manual was obtained through a deposition in a West Virginia case. |
American military kills same al Qaida leader twice| |
Excerpt: Gen. Kevin Bergner began his Monday news conference with a list of top insurgents either killed or captured in recent operations. He said they had been eliminated "in the past few weeks" and were "recent results."
"In the north, Iraqi army and coalition forces continue successful operations in Mosul," he told reporters. "Kamal Jalil Uthman, also known as Said Hamza, was the al Qaeda in Iraq military emir of Mosul. He planned, coordinated and facilitated suicide bombings, and he facilitated the movement of more than a hundred foreign fighters through safe houses in the area." All told, Bergner devoted 68 words to Uthman's demise.
Uthman was indeed a big kill, and the military featured his death last year in a report titled "Tearing Down al Qaeda."
Comment: This is the same military spokesman who claimed this week that Iran was responsible for funding violence against Americans. He's the former answerman for a page at the White House website titled Kevin J. Bergner hosts "Ask the White House", and he only just got to Iraq a few weeks ago. Way to hit the ground lying, Kevin. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Pope endorses old-fashioned anti-Semitic form of mass| |
Excerpt: Jewish leaders and community groups criticized Pope Benedict XVI strongly yesterday after the head of the Roman Catholic Church formally removed restrictions on celebrating an old form of the Latin mass which includes prayers calling for the Jews to 'be delivered from their darkness' and converted to Catholicism. |
Reservist, called for 5th tour of war, sues Army instead| |
Excerpt: [Erik Botta] has been ordered to report to Fort Jackson, S.C., on July 15 for his fifth deployment. And that has compelled Botta, a first-generation American who counts himself a quiet patriot, to do something he never thought he'd do: sue the Army.
''I'm proud of my service,'' he said. ``I never wanted it to end like this.'' |
Report finds 'gaping hole' at Homeland Security| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the top leadership posts at the Department of Homeland Security, creating a "gaping hole" in the nation's preparedness for a terrorist attack or other threat, according to a congressional report to be released today.
Comment: We all know who the "gaping hole" is. You're doing a hell of a job, Cherkoff! SirJ PERMANENT LINK |
Trashing (or saving?) the planet
UN environment chief: US ethanol increases world hunger| |
Excerpt: The head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) said on Wednesday Cuban leader Fidel Castro and others are justified in raising concern about the potential for ethanol production to threaten food supplies for the poor. But UNEP director Achim Steiner said the jury is still out on whether risks outweigh the benefits when using food crops to produce ethanol as an alternative fuel. |
Two ex-officials say Schwarzenegger interfered with clean air efforts| |
Excerpt: A former executive officer of the California Air Resources Board told state lawmakers Friday that the governor's office has unleashed a "cascade of interference" to dissuade the air board from aggressively implementing plans to fight global warming. The air board has been in turmoil since last week, when Schwarzenegger fired board Chairman Robert Sawyer. Sawyer says he lost his position after ignoring an administration staff member's phone call and then trying to enact more than the three pollution-saving measures that the governor's office had approved. |
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Plague of bioweapons accidents afflicts the U.S.| |
Excerpt: Deadly germs may be more likely to be spread due to a biodefense lab accident than a biological attack by terrorists. ... The public has had near-misses with those diseases and others over the past five years ... Even worse, they may be only the tip of an iceberg. ...
There are now 20,000 people at 400 sites around the US working with putative bioweapons germs ... "Instead of a 'culture of responsibility', the federal government has instilled a culture of denial" he says. "Labs hide problems, and think that accident reporting is for masochists"
CDC suspends Texas A&M bioweapons research
Excerpt: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has suspended Texas A&M University's federal research on some infectious diseases after two cases in which the school failed to report researchers' exposure to bioweapons agents. |
Major British workers' union joins move to boycott Israel| |
Excerpt: The Transport and General Workers Union is the second British union to call for a boycott on Israel this year -- last month the British public services union UNISON also urged its members to refrain from purchasing Israeli products, basing the call on Israel's "criminal behavior in the territories," and Israel's responsibility for the Second Lebanon War. |
New law in Missouri adds more restrictions on abortion and sex education| |
Excerpt: Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation Friday placing more abortion clinics under government oversight by classifying them as ambulatory surgical centers. Planned Parenthood claimed the law could force it to spend up to $2 million to remodel one of its clinics and halt medical abortions at another site. |
BlueCross secret memo re Sicko:
"You would have to be dead to be unaffected by Moore's movie..."| |
Excerpt: In the meantime, I hope you don't mind me sharing your thoughts and impressions in your well-written memo. And if the rest of your executive team hasn't seen "Sicko," it opens in an additional 100 cities tonight for a total of over 700 screens across North America. Attendance went up a whopping 56% on the 4th of July, higher than any other film in the theaters right now. But don't be scared, and certainly don't be ashamed to be a capitalist. Greed is good! Especially good for you. There's nothing like having the pre-existing condition of being rich, should you ever get sick and need help. |
There are more than three stooges
(and one of them will be the Republicans' candidate for President)
Fred Thompson fed inside information on Watergate investigation to Nixon| |
Excerpt: The day before Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson made the inquiry that launched him into the national spotlight -- asking an aide to President Nixon whether there was a White House taping system -- he telephoned Nixon's lawyer.
Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public.
"Fred Thompson is as dumb as hell."
Excerpt: That's not me speaking. That's Richard Nixon's zombie corpse haunting us with words of wisdom from the grave. |
Giuliani unaware that America gradually withdrew from Vietnam| |
Excerpt: "Have you ever heard of that in a history of war? Have you ever heard of an army being required to give a printed schedule of its release to the enemy? It makes no sense, does it? Whether you're for the war or against it, you would never have an army retreat on a six-month, one-year, 18-month schedule explaining, We'll reduce the forces by 20,000, then by 30,000, then by 50,000. Gee, you can then figure out when the forces are depleted enough so you can really do damage to them."
Giuliani needs to brush up on his history. A publicly-announced gradual reduction of forces is exactly what the United States did in the Vietnam War. |
Mitt Romney will decide which women can have an abortion and why| |
Excerpt: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he'd support abortion in cases where a mother's life is in danger. ...
It's a tricky subject for Romney, who at one time supported abortion rights but has since taken an anti-abortion stance. A spokesman for the candidate says Romney also makes exceptions for incidents of rape and incest. |
Anti-abortion candidate Thompson denies he lobbied for pro-abortion group| |
Excerpt: [Fred Thompson's spokesman] said it was "not unusual for one lawyer on one side of an issue to be asked to give advice to colleagues for clients who engage in conduct or activities with which they personally disagree."
Any work that Thompson did to challenge the abortion rule could complicate his appeals to conservatives in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. He reportedly plans to join the race this month. |
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