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It's not yet too late to rescue America.
Please call Nancy Pelosi and tell her to impeach Bush & Cheney: (202) 225-4965.
The week's top headlines:
U.S. and E.U. agree to track air passengers'
racial-ethnic origin, political opinions, religious and philosophical beliefs,
trade union membership, health,
traveling partners, and sexual orientation| |
Excerpt: The deal, signed yesterday by the United States and approved Monday in Europe, provoked alarm from privacy and civil-liberties groups on both sides of the Atlantic. "What Americans should be concerned about is it is now here in black and white: The government will maintain a database of all travelers -- including travelers of U.S. citizenship, including people who are believed to be no risk or threat . . . the government will maintain that and data-mine it," said Jim Dempsey, policy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based advocacy group.
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| | Peter Hustinx, the E.U.'s privacy supervisor, expressed "grave concern" over the plan, which he said is "without legal precedent." He wrote to E.U. officials on June 27, "I have serious doubts whether the outcome of these negotiations will be fully compatible with European fundamental rights."
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff praised the pact as an "essential screening tool for detecting potentially dangerous transatlantic travelers." If available at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Chertoff said, such information would have, "within a matter of moments, helped to identify many of the 19 hijackers by linking their methods of payment, phone numbers and seat assignments." |
White House did nothing about
Saudi bank that supports Al Qaeda| |
Excerpt: Confidential reports by the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. agencies, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, detail for the first time how much the U.S. learned about the use of Al Rajhi Bank by alleged extremists, and how U.S. officials agonized over what to do about it.
The U.S. intelligence reports, heretofore secret, describe how Al Rajhi Bank has maintained accounts and accepted donations for Saudi charities that the U.S. and other nations have formally designated as fronts for al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
The Bush administration repeatedly debated proposals for taking strong action itself against Al Rajhi Bank, in particular, according to former U.S. officials and previously undisclosed government documents. Ultimately, the U.S. always chose instead to lobby Saudi officialdom quietly about its concerns.
Comment: Savor this piece of journalism while you can. The Wall Street Journal broke this story, and Rupert Murdoch isn't spending all that money in order to do things like expose corrupt Republicans or actually, you know, tell the truth. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Iraqi government "dangerously close to collapsing"| |
Excerpt: Iraq is in the throes of its worst political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the new democratic system, based on national consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups, appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say several politicians and analysts.
This has brought paralysis to governmental institutions and has left parliament unable to make headway on 18 benchmarks Washington is using to measure progress in Iraq, including legislation on oil revenue sharing and reforming security forces.
At the moment, Iraqi politicians are simply trying to keep the government from disintegrating. |
Republicans use Justice Department to subvert justice
FBI Director: Gonzales lied to Congress about Ashcroft hospital incident| |
Excerpt: FBI Director Robert Mueller contradicted the sworn testimony of his boss, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, on Thursday by telling Congress that a prominent warrantless surveillance program was the subject of a dramatic legal debate within the Bush administration.
Mueller's testimony appears to mark the first public confirmation from a Bush administration official that the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program was at issue in an unusual nighttime visit by Gonzales to the hospital bedside of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was under sedation and recovering from surgery.
Mueller's remarks to the House Judiciary Committee about the contentious meeting differed from testimony earlier in the week from Gonzales, who told a Senate panel that a legal disagreement aired at the hospital did not concern the National Security Agency program. |
Senate subpoenas Rove about attorney firings| |
Excerpt: A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday slapped a subpoena on President George W. Bush's top political advisor Karl Rove, ratcheting up a legal showdown with the White House over fired prosecutors. The Senate Judiciary Committee also issued a subpoena against Scott Jennings, deputy White House political director, requiring testimony and documents to a probe into the affair. |
Contempt of Congress crawl begins for Bolten
and Miers (actual action expected in August)| |
Excerpt: The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush's former legal counselor, Harriet Miers. The 22-17 vote which would sanction for pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors advanced the citation to the full House. A senior Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the House itself likely would take up the citations after Congress' August recess. The official declined to speak on the record because no date had been set for the House vote. |
Senators call for Special Prosecutor for Gonzales| |
Excerpt: Three [actually, four] Senate Democrats called on the Justice Department's Solicitor General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether or not Attorney General Alberto Gonzales committed perjury in Congressional testimony on the Bush administration's domestic spying program.
Schumer said that a special prosecutor was needed and called on Solicitor General Paul Clement to appoint someone outside the Justice Department to investigate to Gonzales.
Schumer laid out the case that the senator had perjured himself, pointing to differences between a number of statements made by Gonzales regarding a series of March 2004 meetings over President George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. |
Gonzales won't say who ordered visit to Ashcroft's hospital bedside VIDEO | |
Comment: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales almost comically weasels away from a straight answer to even the most innocuous question. No checks or balances of this fellow, no cooperation, and no integrity. How much sleaze will it take, before Democrats stop playing patsy and impeach Attorney General John Gotti? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Documents contradict Gonzales' testimony
Excerpt: Documents indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The documents underscore questions about Gonzales' credibility as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.
A Gonzales spokesman maintained Wednesday that the attorney general stands by his testimony. |
Report suggests laws broken in Attorney firings| |
Excerpt: The report says that Congress's seven-month investigation into the firings raises "serious concerns" that senior White House and Justice Department aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year may have obstructed justice and violated federal statutes that protect civil service employees, prohibit political retaliation against government officials and cover presidential records. |
Gonzales says it's "not so clear" that waterboarding violates the Geneva Conventions| |
Excerpt: New vistas in humanitarian law from Alberto Gonzales: Waterboarding, the process in which a detainee is forced to believe he is drowning, may not be "beyond the bounds of human decency."
Gonzales contradicts prior statements, confirms existence of other spying programs
Excerpt: "The disagreement that occurred was about other intelligence activities and the reason for the visit to the hospital was about other intelligence activities. It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people." |
Justice Dept quietly quashed investigation of "far worse"
corporate corruption than Enron or Arthur Andersen| |
Excerpt: Months after preparing the draft [indictment], [federal prosecutor David Maguire] was removed as the lead prosecutor on the case and reassigned.
His replacement, a prosecutor who hadn't been involved in the case until then, soon announced that the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, General Reinsurance, would not be indicted. By April of this year, the entire investigation, which the Justice Department once hailed as one of the largest insurance-fraud cases in Virginia history, had fizzled. |
Another Alberto Gonzales lie before Congress| |
Excerpt: I was one of four library colleagues who challenged an NSL [National Security Letter] in the courts around the time of its reauthorization. We were under a gag order because of the nondisclosure provision of the NSL section of the PATRIOT Act. This happened even though a judge with high-level security clearance had declared that there was no risk in identifying us as recipients of an NSL.
We were therefore not allowed to testify to Congress about our experience with the letters -- which seek information, without court review, on people like library users.
It is more than irksome to now discover that the attorney general was giving Congress false information -- at the same time that we recipients of NSLs were not allowed to express our concerns. My colleagues and I were lucky to have our gag order lifted eventually, with the help of lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, after the federal District Court found constitutional problems with that section of the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, we were prohibited from speaking to the public -- or even to our U.S. senators and representatives -- until after the Patriot Act was reauthorized. |
Justice Dept. lawyers join chorus criticizing Gonzales| |
Excerpt: "The attorney general's loss of credibility not only harms him personally, it diminishes the Justice Department and undermines the president's ability to move some of his most sensitive legal issues through the Hill because the trust factor doesn't exist with his attorney general," said Representative Adam H. Putnam of Florida, a Gonzales critic who is chairman of the House Republican Conference.
"It is more than a distraction," Mr. Putnam said, "and the consequences to the president are far greater than any one person." |
After pissing on Constitution and barfing on Bill of Rights,
Gonzales vows to repair Justice Department's image| |
Excerpt: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says he's staying at the Justice Department to try to repair its broken image, telling Congress in a statement released Monday he's troubled that politics may have played a part in hiring career federal prosecutors. |
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Emails detail Republicans' race-based vote suppression in five states in 2004| |
Excerpt: Previously undisclosed documents detail how Republican operatives, with the knowledge of several White House officials, engaged in an illegal, racially-motivated effort to suppress tens of thousands of votes during the 2004 presidential campaign in a state where George W. Bush was trailing his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry. |
Injured and ignored Iraq war veterans sue Department of Veterans' Affairs| |
Excerpt: Frustrated by delays in health care, injured Iraq war veterans accused V.A. Secretary Jim Nicholson in a lawsuit of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health treatment.
The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Comment: There's no evidence that V.A. management is struggling to meet growing demands, just mountains of evidence that they're doing all they can to avoid providing services to American vets. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Tillman was fed up with war ...
and shot from 10 yards away| |
Excerpt: Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The doctors -- whose names were blacked out -- said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.
Comment: The 'dots' are almost too incredible to be connected, so I won't connect them. I'll only point out what's already known:
NFL star Pat Tillman was by far the most famous soldier in America's war on terror. He had confided to friends that he felt the war was "so f*cking illegal," and he had urged the members of his platoon to vote against George W Bush in the 2004 election. There were whispers that he was about to make a public statement against the war.
And then, after he was shot three times in the forehead at close range, military officials immediately covered up the truth and announced heroic but false details about his death. And a few weeks ago the White House claimed executive privilege to withhold documents about his death. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Iraqi Prime Minister
wants Petraeus removed| |
Excerpt: Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush. Although the call was rejected, aides to both men admit that Mr Maliki and Gen David Petraeus engage in frequent stand-up shouting matches, differing particularly over the U.S. general's moves to arm Sunni tribesmen to fight al-Qaeda. |
SBA cancelled post-Katrina
rebuilding loans to "clear backlog"| |
Excerpt: A U.S. Small Business Administration watchdog says the agency canceled nearly 12,000 loans to residents affected by the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes over two weeks last September.
The SBA inspector general's office says the cancellations were an effort to help clear a backlog of approved, but undisbursed, loans.
Of those, the inspector found that 8,000 loans were canceled without notice. In some cases, the report says that a data system quirk caused agency records to indicate erroneously that the would-be borrowers asked for the cancellations. |
U.S. mega-embassy in Iraq built
by kidnapped, abused workers| |
Excerpt: A pair of whistleblowers alleged Thursday that the contractor selected to build the U.S. embassy in Iraq "kidnapped" foreign nationals to work on the $592 million construction project, luring low-wage laborers into a war zone under false promises that they would be working at hotels in Dubai.
"Conditions were deplorable, beyond what even a working man should tolerate," said Owens, who served as a general foreman for eight months -- from November 2005 through June 2006. "Foreign workers were packed in trailers tight. There was insufficient equipment and basic needs -- stuff like shoes and gloves."
The [State Department's] IG found that no workers had been mistreated, living quarters were above average and medical facilities were clean and well organized. Democrats on the committee noted that the IG did not interview either Owens or Mayberry and that First Kuwaiti was allowed to select the employees that were interviewed. |
Charity tried as terrorists
for helping Palestinians| |
Excerpt: Prosecutors say that money, donated to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel, freed up funds which Hamas could then divert from its own charitable activities to suicide bombings. ...
"The Bush administration is arguing that providing medical and nutritional assistance to sick and starving Palestinian children amounts to supporting terrorism," said Khalil Meek, president of the Muslim Legal Fund of America, at a news conference Tuesday.
Meek said the case was "based upon secret evidence supplied by a foreign government stretching the rules of evidence in our court system to the point of absurdity."
Comment: We found out just this week that the White House decided to do absolutely nothing about a Saudi bank that was actually funding Al Qaeda. But they put a charity on trial for sending humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinians, because it saves Hamas some money. As if George Bush's crusade against the Muslim world hasn't saved Hamas billions of dollars in recruitment costs. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
CNN's YouTube debate doesn't ask
the most popular question: Impeachment| |
Excerpt: CNN is congratulating itself profusely for its YouTube debate, and they showed a lot of excellent questions. But they refused to show the #1 video as voted on by visitors to CommunityCounts. The hands-down winning question was on impeachment. |
House supposedly votes to
ban permanent bases in Iraq| |
Excerpt: While the Bush Administration has indicated it would not seek permanent bases in Iraq, Administration officials have recently remarked that the President envisioned a continued military presence in Iraq similar to our presence in Korea, where U.S. forces have been stationed for more than 50 years. Speaker Pelosi explained that "today's vote can again make clear to the President, to the Administration, to the American people, to the people in the Middle East, to the people in Iraq -- that the American people are opposed to a permanent military presence in Iraq."
Comment: What this article curiously fails to mention is that the U.S. already has more than a dozen "enduring" U.S. military bases in Iraq, and that the difference between "enduring" and "permanent" seems little more than semantics. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Bush vows to ignore panel's recommendations to improve V.A.| |
Excerpt: A presidential commission examining the care given to wounded U.S. service members yesterday recommended "fundamental changes" aimed at simplifying the military's convoluted healthcare bureaucracy and overhauling the veterans disability system for the first time in more than half a century.
White House press secretary Tony Snow initially told reporters yesterday morning that Bush would not take immediate action. But late yesterday afternoon, after Dole and Shalala's comments and criticism from a veteran's group, Bush announced he would move quickly.
Comment: Yes, I'm sure he's going to move extremely quickly. He's not interested in actually taking the time and effort -- and least of all the money -- to make sure veterans are taken care of. But telling your speechwriters to come up with some empty nonsense about how much you support the troops takes almost no time at all. And vetoing any reforms that get through Congress takes even less time than that. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Scientists hack voting machines
to show security weaknesses| |
Excerpt: Computer scientists from California universities have hacked into three electronic voting systems used in California and elsewhere in the nation and found several ways in which vote totals could potentially be altered, according to reports released yesterday by the state. |
Democratic candidates shy away from Democratic Leadership Council| |
Comment: Umm, I tried to pull a quote from this story, but I could hardly find a sentence in here that isn't an outright lie. Of course, the Democratic Leadership Council does not represent "moderates." Its goal has always been to make Democrats as much like right-wing Republicans as possible, and the fact that the Democratic candidates are skipping the DLC's little shindig is the best news about the health of the Democratic Party we've had in a long time. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Sheehan arrested at Conyers' office, announces candidacy for Congress| |
Excerpt: Calling for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, Cindy Sheehan and 45 fellow Iraq war protesters were arrested on Monday after they refused to leave a U.S. lawmaker's office and adjoining hallway, authorities said.
Before police escorted her away, Sheehan, who emerged as a leading peace activist after her son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, announced what she had earlier suggested -- that she would be a candidate for Congress next year.
Comment: At the risk of repeating ourselves, this candidacy seems much less like a lost |
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| COMMENTARY
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A short glimpse at America's future
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: If job outsourcing, and privatization of water, power, roads and public property continues under the current "free market" D.C. regime, then one day washing clothes will be uneconomical for the average American -- who will at that time likely have a living standard equivalent to that of a person in a Palestinian refugee camp ... but with cable TV. |
Read my lips: No new war excuses
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Congress tells the Bush administration, 'We are mad as hell, and we may take it a little more.' |
The deeper truth about impeachment
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The real threat involved in impeachment is the implied threat to expel a bipartisan, parasitic establishment that is growing fat cannibalizing the country. This criminal establishment is afraid to let the ball get rolling lest it end up crushing them as well as Bush and Cheney. |
What disheartens me the most
is that Democrats don't seem
to be doing anything about these
assaults on our Constitution
by Sharon Rose in Tennessee, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I have to wonder: Do the Dems really worry that they "don't have enough votes in the Senate" to do what needs to be done, as they claim? Or... Are they too cowardly to stand up to these guys? |
Tipping sacred cows
by The Alchemist, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Soldiers take pay to kill innocents. That is reality. They do not make us free, they make others dead. |
Response to a soldier's mother
by Ann in the U.K., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: What's keeping you loyal to these thugs? What, among the many negative claims to have been made about them, have they done that doesn't matter? What among these claims will be acceptable to you, and cause you least remorse, when the -- inevitable -- impeachment trials begin, and the truth about their awful activities (which have led to the unnecessary deaths of so many) is finally, emphatically, revealed ... |
What's their job, exactly?
by Chris D., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Why is it standard practice for the FBI, when acting on a tip that someone might be a terrorist, to attempt to incite people to acts of violence, property damage, and other acts of terrorism? |
Drunk while orbiting the Earth
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: ... If you are on the tip of a missile being propelled into the atmosphere by a vehicle running full out at 15 million horsepower, or alternately you are re-entering the Earth's atmosphere at a temperature of 2300°F, if something goes wrong you are toast, drunk or sober. |
Only Clark Kent -- not Superman
-- can save the day
by JR Mooneyham
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Excerpt: Clark Kent versus Superman: mundane, every-day world-saving versus the spectacular once-in-a-lifetime rescue. It turns out we need the mundane much more than the spectacular. Just as in the parable of the tortoise and the hare, sometimes the mundane is precisely what's needed for success. Especially where bio-terrorism and natural disasters are concerned.
For instance, universal healthcare is a top anti-terror, anti-natural disaster measure, which most industrialized nations (except for America) already possess. But healthcare is the 'Clark Kent' to the American war machine's 'Superman' in public discourse. Everybody finds the man of steel infinitely more interesting and exciting than his mild-mannered alter ego.
Unfortunately, in the cases of most likely real world crises, only Clark Kent will do. |
My life as a useless eater
by Underground Panther in the Sky, Democratic Underground
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Excerpt: The right wing believes GOD ordains who is in what social strata. It's like a caste system nobody talks about. And the right-wingers, no matter how poor they are themselves, they ALWAYS call themselves the elite. And to me they are the weakest of us. The real elites the wealthy create the lies that keep society stratified into haves and have nots. And Joe red state is a coat tail rider he believes the lies and says to himself he is one of the elite too. Even when it is obvious he is poor like me. So desperate he is to believe he is worth more than a mere human being.
Among the sort of people who would declare me lazy irresponsible and crazy, I wonder did they live as I did? Maybe, maybe not. All of us are different and life effects us all differently. None of us asked to be born we just came. I didn't choose my family of fuck-ups. Nobody chooses what kind of start they get in life If we could we would all want rich families that treat children well. But sadly not all families treat children well or are stable or wealthy enough to support kids. |
Doomed to repeat history
by Michelle, Crazy Twins
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Excerpt: My brother joined the Army in 1970 along with many of the older brothers and boyfriends in our neighborhood. Many of us teenagers protested the war at the University of Houston campus and Milby Park because we felt that the government lied us into war. We saw firsthand how many of them died and were wounded; we saw our mothers worry if they were the next family to get a visit from the Army guys whose job it was to deliver the worst news a mom can get.
We protested even though the same moms and dads supported the war as did everyone's teachers, coaches and other adults. We were called dirty hippies, told to leave our country of birth, called treasonous and commie pinko trash.
Pretty much what I still get called today when we protest yet another senseless war. |
Consider what is accomplished
by the simple power
of the word impeachment
by Jimmy Breslin, Newsday
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Excerpt: It opens with the appointing of an investigator to report to the House on evidence that calls for impeachment. He could bring witnesses forward. That would be all you'd need. Here in the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon came John Dean. His history shows how far down the honesty and honor of this country has gone. Dean was the White House counsel. Richard Nixon, at his worst, never told him not to appear or to remain silent in front of the Congress. Dean went on and did his best to fill prisons. After that came Alexander Butterfield, a nobody. All he had to say was that the White House had a taping system that caught all the conversations in the White House. Any of them not on tape were erased by a participant. |
No child left alive
by David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle| |
Excerpt: Democratic lawmakers in Washington say they're drafting a health care reform bill that would expand coverage for low-income kids. President Bush says he'll veto any such legislation, warning that it would lead the nation "down the path to government-run health care for every American."
Like that would be a bad thing.
What's particularly galling about Bush's position is that it's coming from a man who just underwent a colonoscopy performed at the taxpayer-funded, state-of-the-art medical facility at Camp David by an elite team of doctors from the taxpayer-funded National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. |
Fabulously corrupt Gonzales must go
by Eugene Robinson, Washington Post| |
Excerpt: Over time, one becomes almost numb to this administration's relentless lies and can-you-top-this transgressions. A kind of "outrage fatigue" sets in, accompanied by the knowledge that whatever it is that they've done this time, it could have been worse.
So when George W. Bush rewrote history the other day by saying that "al-Qaeda terrorists killed Americans on 9/11 [and] they're fighting us in Iraq," the tendency is to duly note that the president is not telling the truth -- there is no evidence whatsoever that al-Qaeda in Iraq, which didn't exist on Sept. 11, 2001, takes orders from Osama bin Laden -- and then move on. Hey, at least it's just talk. At least he didn't invade Iran or Pakistan. Yet. |
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Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
In Baghdad, the search for ice becomes a deadly struggle| |
Excerpt: In a capital that was once the seat of the Islamic Caliphate and a center of Arab worldliness, ice is now a currency of last resort for the poor, subject to sectarian horrors and gangland rules. ...
At one plant, all four delivery drivers quit last year after warnings that sectarian gangs would kill them if they continued to drive across the invisible but all-too-real lines dividing Baghdad's Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods.
Customers in one suburb cautioned them that takfiris -- fanatical Sunni extremists -- had decreed their frozen product un-Islamic.
"In Ghazaliya it is forbidden to sell ice because the takfiris said the Prophet Muhammad had no ice in his time," said Khatan Kareem, an ice factory manager, shaking his head at the absurdity.
Comment: According to Republican Congressmen & Senators visiting Iraq on regular basis, life in Iraq is improving by leaps and bounds. News reports such as this are misrepresentations? Wig PERMANENT LINK |
Iraqi official blames U.S. depleted uranium for surge in cancer| |
Excerpt: Iraq's environment minister blamed Monday the use of depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces during the 2003 Operation Shock and Awe for the current surge in cancer cases across the country.
As a result of "at least 350 sites in Iraq being contaminated during bombing" with depleted uranium (DU) weapons, Nermin Othman said, the nation is facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7,000 to 8,000 new ones registered each year. |
U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports| |
Excerpt: As the Bush administration struggles to convince lawmakers that its Iraq war strategy is working, it has stopped reporting to Congress a key quality-of-life indicator in Baghdad: how long the power stays on.
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only "an hour or two a day" of electricity. That's down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year.
Comment: You know, before America attacked without reason, Iraq had Twentieth Century cities. And now, year after year, people can't even count on electricity for a few hours a day.
Even disregarding all the other outrages, how many years would you wait for reliable electricity before you'd start to get furious? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Celebrations in Iraq as team wins first Asian Cup soccer title| |
Excerpt: Defying orders from authorities, Iraqi soccer fans have been firing celebratory gunshots and pouring into the streets after Iraq's national team clinched its first Asian Cup soccer championship today. Mosques have been broadcasting calls for the shooting to stop. Even as the jubilation continues, at least four people have been reported killed in the gunfire.
Still, Iraqis are welcoming the victory as a chance to show the world they can come together, while some are also expressing frustration that their politicians haven't done the same. |
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Parents of soldier who killed himself sue V.A. for negligence| |
Excerpt: The family of an Iraq war veteran filed suit Thursday accusing Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson of negligence in the suicide of their son.
The lawsuit says the V.A. is to blame for the death of 23-year-old Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey, a Marine who killed himself in June 2004 after he was denied mental health care following a tour of duty in Iraq.
His parents took him to the Northampton V.A. Medical Center, and he was involuntarily committed for help. He was released a few days later after V.A. personnel said they couldn't make an assessment of his post-traumatic stress disorder until he was alcohol-free, said the complaint.
A few days later, his family took Lucey back to the center, but the lawsuit says the staff turned him away. Kevin Lucey found his son dead, hanging from a beam in the cellar, two weeks later. |
Bush-Cheney want U.S. to sell Saudis $20-billion in arms| |
Excerpt: The United States is developing a proposed $20 billion, 10-year arms sales package for Saudi Arabia, a senior administration official confirmed on Saturday.
The proposed sale, first reported in the New York Times, is intended to upgrade the Saudi military's ability to counter possible Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf region, the official said.
Previously ... Saudi government provided aid to 9/11 hijackers, sources say
Excerpt: The 27 classified pages of a congressional report about Sept. 11 depict a Saudi government that not only provided significant money and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups through suspect charities and other fronts, according to sources familiar with the document. |
Iraq commander says U.S. plans to stay at least two more years| |
Excerpt: The U.S. government anticipates a significant role for its forces in Iraq until 2009, despite growing congressional pressure to set an early withdrawal date, it was reported today. Details of a classified campaign plan drawn up by [Ambassador Ryan] Crocker and General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, emerged in the New York Times.
The plan, covering a two-year period, assumes continued American involvement to train soldiers, act as partners with Iraqi forces and fight terrorist groups in Iraq, American officials told the Times.
Comment: So that whole thing where Petraeus reports back in November about how the surge is going and what we're going to do next is ... what? A stunt for TV sweeps month? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
GAO: 9/11 workers still lack medical care| |
Excerpt: Federal efforts to coordinate health care programs for sick ground zero workers have been hampered by shaky cost estimates and unsteady spending to keep the programs running, a new report has found.
The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, on Tuesday released the results of its fifth study of 9/11 health programs, concluding that five years after the attacks the government still doesn't have a consistent set of programs. |
Cameraman held five years without charges at Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: A 38-year-old cameraman for the Arabic news network al Jazeera, Hajj has been imprisoned as an "enemy combatant" at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for five years, but never charged with any crime. He was arrested by Pakistani police in December 2001 while on his way to a news assignment in Afghanistan, but he's denied having any links to terrorism.
The independent, Qatar-based network earned the wrath of top U.S. officials after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for airing statements by Osama bin Laden. Hajj has been interrogated approximately 130 times, according to his attorneys, and nearly every question has been about whether the network or its journalists are connected to al Qaida or other terrorist groups. |
California Supreme Court says city can't steal cars| |
Excerpt: In a 4-3 opinion yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled illegal the city of Stockton's program to seize automobiles from motorists not convicted of any crime. Under the city's ordinance, police could impound the vehicle of anyone accused of using it "to solicit an act of prostitution, or to acquire or attempt to acquire any controlled substance." The city could then hold the car for up to a year without hearing, trial or any finding of guilt. |
Strike by U.S. in Pakistan is an option, officials say| |
Excerpt: Top Pentagon and State Department officials said yesterday that U.S. Special Forces would enter Pakistan if they had specific intelligence about an impending terrorist strike against the United States, despite warnings from the Pakistani government that it would not accept U.S. troops operating independently inside its borders. |
U.S. must pay $101.7 million to men framed by FBI| |
Excerpt: A federal judge Thursday ordered the government to pay more than $101 million in the case of four men who spent decades in prison for a 1965 murder they didn't commit after the FBI withheld evidence of their innocence.
The FBI encouraged perjury, helped frame the four men and withheld for more than three decades information that could have cleared them, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said in issuing her ruling Thursday. |
Grand jury clears doctor of Katrina mercy killings| |
Excerpt: A grand jury refused on Tuesday to indict a doctor accused of murdering four seriously ill hospital patients with drug injections during the desperate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, closing the books on the only mercy-killing case to emerge from the storm.
Dr. Anna Pou acknowledged administering medication to the patients but insisted she did so only to relieve pain. |
U.S. Ambassador says (with a straight face) that Iran interferes too much in Iraqi matters| |
Excerpt: U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker chided his Iranian counterpart, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, at a rare and heated meeting Tuesday, saying Iran has increasingly meddled in Iraq since their first encounter this year.
Comment: International meddling is only for the U.S.? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
FBI wants thousands of new U.S. informants| |
Excerpt: The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort to boost its intelligence capabilities.
According to a recent unclassified report to Congress, the FBI expects its informants to provide secrets about possible terrorists and foreign spies, although some may also be expected to aid with criminal investigations, in the tradition of law enforcement confidential informants. The FBI did not respond to requests for comment on this story. |
Reminder:
AT&T says Justice Dept won't let it respond to allegations that it's spying on customers| |
Excerpt: "The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that AT&T may neither confirm nor deny AT&T's participation in the alleged NSA program because doing so would cause "exceptionally grave harm to national security" and would violate both civil and criminal statutes. Under these circumstances, AT&T is not able to respond to such allegations." |
Pardon for Argentina's "Dirty War" declared unconstitutional| |
Excerpt: The Argentine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional last Friday a presidential pardon granted to Santiago Omar Riveros in 1989 for his participation in Argentina's "dirty war." The decision opens the door to void a series of presidential pardons granted to Argentina's dictators and top military officials, paving the way for dozens to return to prison and hundreds to face new criminal trials.
From 1976-1983, Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship. The Junta, the commission of military officials that ruled the country, engaged in one of the most repressive campaigns of the 20th century, in which as many as 30,000 people were "disappeared" by the government in a clandestine campaign known as the "Dirty War." |
MoveOn and big-time bloggers go after Fox News advertisers| |
Excerpt: At least 5,000 people nationwide have signed up to compile logs on who is running commercials on Fox, Gilliam said. The groups want to first concentrate on businesses running local ads, as opposed to national commercials.
"It's a lot more effective for Sam's Diner to get calls from 10 people in his town than going to the consumer complaint department of some pharmaceutical company," Gilliam said. |
Bush says he can take all your money if you "support" someone who poses a "risk"| |
Excerpt: However, the text of the order, if interpreted broadly, could cast a far bigger net to include not just those who commit violent acts or pose the risk of doing so in Iraq, but also third parties -- such as U.S. citizens in this country -- who knowingly or unknowingly aid or encourage such people.
Under the order, the Treasury secretary -- in consultation with the secretaries of defense and state -- creates the list of those whose assets are to be frozen. However, the targeting of not just those who support perpetrators of violence but also those who support individuals who "pose a significant risk" of committing violence goes far beyond normal legal language related to intent and could be applied in a highly arbitrary manner, said Bruce Fein, a senior Justice Department official in the Reagan administration and a frequent Bush administration critic.
Comment: These terms are so vague that the President is really asserting his authority to ruin any citizen financially without warning, without cause or due process or recourse. The cynical part of me says that maybe that's always been true, but you sure haven't seen many presidents come out and brag about it. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
White House runs conference call on executive privilege for right-wing bloggers| |
Excerpt: "The White House hosted a blogger conference call to discuss the issues surrounding the Bush administration's use of executive privilege in the probe of the firings of eight federal prosecutors," wrote Ed Morrissey, who produces the blog Captains Quarters. "The White House arranged the call based on a recommendation by this blog, in order to familiarize the blogosphere with the legal and political arguments on which the administration will rely to prevail in the upcoming fight regarding the contempt citations Congress seems likely to approve."
Comment: Bastards, fools, and traitors on all ends of the phone line for that chat. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Upside-down flag leads to flag-defiling charge, fight, arrests| |
Excerpt: A couple who said they were protesting the state of the country by flying the U.S. flag upside down with signs pinned to it found themselves in jail following a scuffle with a deputy Wednesday morning.
Mark and Deborah Kuhn were arrested on two counts of assault on a government employee, resisting arrest and a rarely used charge, desecrating an American flag, all misdemeanors. The Kuhns were released from custody Wednesday afternoon. |
There are more than three stooges (and one of them will be America's next President)
Judges threaten democracy, says Giuliani| |
Excerpt: Giuliani, answering a question at a news conference about his support for abortion rights, veered into a broad criticism of the federal judiciary. He repeated his pledge to appoint strict constructionists to the federal bench.
"What 'strict constructionist' means is that a judge will interpret the Constitution in accordance with what someone else meant when they wrote those words and not try to legislate," the former New York mayor said. "If you are not a strict constructionist, I believe you imperil the American democracy because you take the role of a legislator."
Comment: The article doesn't question Giuliani's common right-wing canard, of course. That would be journalism. Right-wingers throw the epithet "activist judge" at anyone upholding a law that the right doesn't happen to like. But the REAL "activist judges" making rulings that have nothing to do with law are, almost without exception, right-wing crazies appointed by right-wing crazies like Giuliani. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Romney campaign worker tells all on MySpace| |
Excerpt: An aide to former Gov. Mitt Romney who was linked to the campaign's alleged use of phony badges has created personal Internet pages where he boasts that he's a top secret "special ops" employee who toils in the "underbelly of politics."
Will Ritter, who helps plan Romney's presidential campaign events, included the bizarre, Jason-Bournesque job description on Internet networking pages that also contain boisterous pictures of him hoisting a champagne bottle in a hot tub and other party shots. |
Giuliani hates medical marijuana, but he loves OxyContin| |
Excerpt: Giuliani has less than no credibility on this issue because he worked for a company that is in direct competition with medical marijuana. It's really that simple. His claims that medical marijuana is part of a broader legalization conspiracy are also ironic considering that Giuliani played a key role in keeping OxyContin legal after it was linked with widespread abuse. Giuliani personally met with former DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson and persuaded him to leave Purdue alone. Meanwhile, abuse of pharmaceutical drugs, particularly OxyContin, has become the fastest growing drug problem among America's youth. |
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Milwaukee election records indicate apparent forgery,
ballot box stuffing in 2004 Presidential election| |
Excerpt: Since the investigation took two years to begin, it's appropriate that there is a major discrepancy in the paperwork of the very first ward examined. ...
First, the signatures on the cover pages of the inspectors' reports look to me to be obvious forgeries. Both the names are bogus (e.g. Joe Doe, Jane Smith) and, in my opinion, are clearly written in the same hand. The hand which "signed" the inspectors' reports does not match any of the signatures I redacted from the poll book list. Creating false canvass reports is a felony under [Wisconsin law]. |
Bills still arriving for Canadian mother who gave birth in U.S.| |
Excerpt: But neither of those bills compares to the one that arrived in the mail last fall for $336,000. That staggering amount reflects one week of hospital care provided to Ms. Rideout, in addition to six weeks of care for her daughter. |
With Iraq on fire, Bush-Cheney puts rest of the world on hold| |
Excerpt: Two months ago, President Bush enthusiastically accepted an invitation to visit Singapore in September. But he abruptly changed plans, and his summit with Southeast Asian leaders is off. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is skipping an Asian meeting, too, and tossed out plans to visit Africa this week. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' mission to Latin America? Postponed.
The reason is Iraq.
As the White House struggles to show progress in the 52-month-old war, other important global issues increasingly are getting pushed to the side, according to U.S. officials, diplomats and analysts. |
National Intel Director: Bush administration manipulated
Iraq intel 'because they didn't like the answers'| |
Excerpt: current Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell appears to side with "those who believe that the administration manipulated intelligence on Iraq for political purposes before the 2003 invasion." ...
McConnell was honored to be asked [to be DNI], but he had serious reservations. He had been unimpressed with many aspects of the Bush administration and its conduct of the war on terror, particularly what he felt was a politicized use of intelligence in the lead-up to the Iraq war. ... |
Feds ignored international offers of assistance after Katrina| |
Excerpt: Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director said today, "A review of the State Department documents reveals distressing ineptitude. Countries were trying to donate desperately needed goods and services, but as a result of bureaucratic bungling and indifference, those most in need of these generous offers of aid never received it." |
Alaska's congressional delegation goes three-for-three in corruption| |
Excerpt: Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday she and her husband will sell back an undeveloped lot of riverfront property, a day after a complaint to the Senate ethics committee alleged that the purchase was a sweetheart deal.
Separately, another Alaska Republican in Congress, Rep. Don Young, is under criminal investigation in a corruption investigation that traces back to the state and involves the Anchorage-based oil field services company VECO Corp.
The third member of Alaska's congressional delegation, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, has acknowledged he has been told by authorities to preserve records of a house remodeling project involving VECO. |
Judge rules against Pennsylvania town's ordinance on illegal immigrants| |
Excerpt: In a ruling with national implications, a federal judge Thursday struck down a controversial year-old ordinance in Hazleton designed to crack down on illegal immigrants in the Northeastern Pennsylvania city. |
"Experts" congratulate TSA for finding cheese in luggage| |
Excerpt: The TSA's intelligence circular that leaked this week demonstrates that the agency the flying public loves to hate has matured beyond confiscating nail clippers, tweezers and lighters, they said Wednesday.
The experts agreed that this judgment holds true even if the four incidents that triggered the warning turn out to have innocent explanations.
The agency said screeners had found in checked and carry-on luggage various combinations of ``wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances,'' including block cheese. |
Texas man to receive death penalty for driving| |
Excerpt: Friends, family and fervent activists against the death penalty marched down Congress Avenue on Saturday and gathered in front of the Governor's Mansion to demand that the state not execute Kenneth Foster Jr.
On Aug. 30, Foster is scheduled to be executed for the 1996 murder of Michael LaHood Jr. Keith Hampton, Foster's criminal lawyer, says his client was more than 80 feet away when LaHood was fatally shot by Mauriceo Brown.
Two other passengers in Foster's car that night have both stated that Foster was unaware that Brown was going to kill LaHood, let alone that Brown even left the car with a gun in his hand. |
Minimum wage increases to a luxurious $5.85/hour| |
Excerpt: Meanwhile the first minimum wage increase in a decade goes into effect today. The new minimum wage is $5.85 an hour up from $5.15. According to the Economic Policy Institute the change will affect about 13 million workers or 10 percent of the nation's work force. When adjusted for inflation the minimum wage is still lower than anytime in the last 50 years. |
Merely cloaking data may be incriminating?| |
Excerpt: "The purposeful hiding of data by the subject of an investigation is in itself important evidence and there are many scenarios where intentional data cloaking provides incriminating evidence, even if the perpetrator is successful in cloaking the data itself."
Comment: If legal experts were to seize upon this for anyone at all, it should apply to everyone: right?
And if it applied to everyone ... then maybe the biggest pile of incriminating stuff in the world today would be the Mount Secrecy erected by the Bush Administration to hide virtually everything they've done since coming into office. JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
DEA heroes raid LA medical marijuana clinics| |
Excerpt: Federal agents raided 10 marijuana clinics Wednesday, the same day city leaders introduced a measure calling for an end to the crackdown on the dispensaries allowed under state law.
The bust netted five arrests, large quantities of marijuana and cash, and was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's second-largest since California voters approved medical marijuana sales in 1996. The drug remains illegal under federal law.
DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen said the timing of the bust and the city's action was "purely coincidental." |
Trashing (or saving?) the planet
Surgeon General's report on global warming suppressed by Bush officials| |
Excerpt: A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials. |
Water tables falling and rivers running dry| |
Excerpt: In the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas -- three leading grain-producing states -- the underground water table has dropped by more than 30 meters (100 feet). As a result, wells have gone dry on thousands of farms in the southern Great Plains. Although this mining of underground water is taking a toll on U.S. grain production, irrigated land accounts for only one fifth of the U.S. grain harvest, compared with close to three fifths of the harvest in India and four fifths in China. |
Bush administration uses "Endangered Species" list for target practice| |
Excerpt: Two different government entities are investigating decisions by Bush administration officials related to species recovery. In one, the U.S. Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee, who recently resigned under fire. At the same time, Congress is investigating evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in California and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some of which were listed as "threatened" species.
Both episodes illustrate what critics say is the Bush administration's resistance to the law. |
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"Christian" nitwits block first aid for beating victim| |
Excerpt: [Richard Bentzel, a 63-year-old city resident,] said he was part of the group of people who rendered first aid and tried to comfort [Richard Hupper] until help arrived. He said the scene became tense when a group of "fanatical born agains" came along, pushed the initial group aside and placed their hands on the victim's head.
"They were shouting, 'Jesus help this man. Take him out of his pain in the name of Jesus.' I started yelling 'You get the hell out of here. You go up by that tree and pray. I'm sure the Holy Spirit will hear you,'" Bentzel said.
"He didn't need Jesus. He needed a doctor." |
Bush administration moves against U.S. branches of Iran-based charity| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hizbullah, which the United States has blamed for bloodshed in Lebanon. The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Michigan, which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation. |
Residents fight to save birthplace of hip-hop from gentrification| |
Excerpt: This month, the building was deemed eligible for listing on state and national historic registers by the state Historic Preservation Office because of its cultural significance, according to Cathy Jimenez, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. [Rep. Jose] Serrano said a building with such cultural significance � and potential landmark status � would draw unfavorable attention to an owner trying to convert the 100 units to market rate. |
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Lightning round news
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Judge says eBay can continue using copyright-infringed software
Walter Mondale is (a) still alive and (b) annoyed at Dick Cheney
The true -- and still shocking -- history of the CIA
Gangs spreading in U.S. military
Google gambles against the mobile telcos
Michael Moore says he's been subpoenaed by Bush administration
Druggists sue to not have to dispense drugs they don't like
Russia's Gorbachev says U.S. is sowing world disorder
Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney sues the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Congress moves to rewrite patent laws
Florida inmate convicted for masturbating in jail cell
Additional charges filed against impeachment banner unfurlers
Republicans hard at work to prevent health insurance for poor kids
Army's 'Debt of Service' leaves veterans perplexed
Loose Change moviemaker arrested for allegedly deserting Army
Markets plunge: Hundreds of billions redistributed to the less wealthy
Teen boinkery, on the decline during Clinton years, now rises
along with increased spending for abstinence education
Arab princesses kicked off British Airways plane to jeers
and whistles after refusing to sit next to male strangers
Only 12% of legally blind children can read Braille
in U.S., down from almost 50% in the 1960s
In case there is any confusion: You cannot use the Democratic Underground
website to support Cindy Sheehan's third-party candidacy
British government has bizarre response to flooding: They respond
Warning over workplace psychopaths
Convicted of possessing Vicodin by prescription
Mortgage default notices skyrocket
YouTube prepares video fingerprinting system to shut down copyrighted uploads
Big subsidies for big phone companies
Billionaire's helicopter hunt draws heat
U.N. Agency rules for Simpsons Movie
Are voter registration drives being put out of business?
Mirror reporters held over fake bomb attempt
Bush administration wants to suppress information about toxic pollution
Could al-Qaeda possibly have found a better publicist than President Bush?
Guantanamo trial of David Hicks was 'a charade', says Aussie legal group
Pentagon to junk millions in combat gear
Bush to America: Boo! Are you scared? I said, Boo!
Passport snafu ruins thousands of Americans' vacations
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