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Have you called Nancy Pelosi and told her to
impeach Bush and Cheney? Please, call her again. (202) 225-4965.
The "Petraeus report" is a collection of lies
Media helps White House sell Iraq lies| |
Excerpt: Many in the media have been complicit in the administration's PR offensive: ignoring that a crucial criterion for the success of the administration's strategy -- political progress in Iraq -- has in the assessment of people inside and outside the administration not occurred; repeating administration claims of military
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| | progress in Iraq -- has in the assessment of people inside and outside the administration not occurred; repeating administration claims of military progress while ignoring evidence to the contrary; repeating distortions of comments by Democrats to claim that they acknowledge the surge is working; characterizing proponents of a withdrawal timeline as calling for a "precipitous" withdrawal; and uncritically repeating the widely dismissed claim by Bush and administration supporters that the terrorists will follow us home if the U.S. withdraws from Iraq. |
Petraeus' immediate superior
wants U.S. to leave Iraq| |
Excerpt: Adm. William J. Fallon, [Petraeus'] superior, argued for accepting more risks in
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From last week:
Petraeus "report" is nothing
but a pro-war infomercial
Comment: I know we're beating a dead horse here, but it feels necessary in the face of all the extreme, ridiculous spin coming from the mainstream press.
DAVID PETRAEUS IS REPORTING ON EXACTLY NOTHING. His "report" is complete fiction, authored by the White House, presented by a right-wing hack with a history of lying about Iraq. To even consider basing American foreign policy on this one-sided PR campaign is ludicrous. Helen & Harry Highwater PERMANENT LINK | |
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| | Iraq, officials said, in order to have enough forces available to confront other potential threats in the region. [Note: that's apparently the closest the Washington Post can get to writing the words "leaving Iraq."]
Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, sent a rear admiral to Baghdad this summer to gather information. Soon afterward, officials said, Fallon began developing plans to redefine the U.S. mission and radically draw down troops. |
Yes, as reported earlier, Bush's "Petraeus Report" is a great big collection of lies| |
Excerpt: Ilan Goldenberg writes that one explanation for the contrary reports is because the military is not counting deaths from car bombs. The National Security Network notes that Petraeus has made a number of statements about the results of escalation that have been contradicted by Iraqi government data, independent media reports, and other U.S. agencies. |
Bush hypes the hell out of exaggerated al Qaeda threat in Iraq| |
Excerpt: Attempting to drum up public support for the war in Iraq in July, President Bush referred to al Qaeda 95 times in a single speech, claiming the war in Iraq has become the central front in the fight against al Qaida ...
Echoing Bush, Gen. David Petraeus also argued that al Qaeda is "public enemy number one" in Iraq. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said AQI was the "principle threat" to the Iraqi people.
But in a new report, the Congressional Research Service notes that attacks from al Qaeda are only a small percentage of the violence in Iraq, criticizing the Bush administration's statistics and noting that this false reporting on AQI has increased since Bush's "surge" began. |
Pentagon claim that violence has decreased in Iraq is un-true, experts say| |
Excerpt: The U.S. military's claim that violence has decreased sharply in Iraq in recent months has come under scrutiny from many experts within and outside the government, who contend that some of the underlying statistics are questionable and selectively ignore negative trends. |
Retired military officers tell Congress to get U.S. military out of Iraq| |
Excerpt: An independent panel led by retired Marine Gen. James Jones recommended that the Iraqis assume more control of their nation's security and that U.S. forces, seen as an occupying and permanent force, should step back. Its report, presented to Congress on Thursday, contended that "significant reductions, consolidations and realignments would appear to be possible and prudent." |
Petraeus "confirmed" (lied) to media in 2003
that mobile bio-weapons labs had been found in Iraq| |
Excerpt: Petraeus said he spoke with experts May 13 [2003], and they have a "reasonable degree of certainty that this is in fact a mobile biological agent production trailer."
Of course those biological weapons labs Petraeus claims to have found were not biological weapons labs at all, and it appears that he probably knew that was the case before he went to the media to announce the "find". |
Bush advisers favor current war strategy| |
Comment: Sweet jeebers, did they actually have to pay a reporter to type a story under that headline? Bush's advisers favor current war strategy -- duh. The President's advisors tell him what to think, and absolutely no other opinions reach his ears or if an un-approved opinion does reach his ears it's rebuffed before reaching his brain. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Democrats give up ahead of time, won't ask for troop withdrawal deadline| |
Excerpt: Key Democrats in Congress, frustrated by repeated failures to get troops home from Iraq, are backing away from fixed withdrawal timelines, hoping to win Republican backing for anti-war measures.
The move appears to be a sign the party has concluded that President George W. Bush's once-shaky Republican support in the US Senate has solidified, days before the White House unveils a critical report on the war.
Democratic Senator Carl Levin said he was considering legislation which would mandate withdrawals of most combat troops to begin within four months, but not, like previous bills, include a firm date for them to be completed.
Comment: I was in serious danger of breaking my computer monitor from hitting my head against it so hard when I read this. This is the least popular president EVER! EVERYONE hates the war!! THEY ELECTED YOU TO END IT!!! Jesus Holy Christ. Forget Cheney and Bush ... it's time to start impeaching Carl Levin, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Iran --Run-up to the next war:
Campaign to sell Iran war kicks into overdrive| |
Excerpt: Talk about a U.S. attack on Iran appears to be growing louder in Washington. There are reports that Vice President Dick Cheney's office has issued instructions to conservative think tanks to start a drumbeat for attacking Iran.
On Monday the American Enterprise Institute is hosting two events related to Iran. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is giving a speech on how the war on terrorism should be viewed as a "a world war that pits civilization against terrorists and their state sponsors who wish to impose a new dark age." Later in the day former CIA director Jim Woolsey and others will meet to discuss a new book by longtime Iran hawk Michael Leeden titled "The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots" Quest for Destruction." The Heritage Foundation recently hosted an interagency Bush administration war game attempting to anticipate Iranian responses to a U.S. bombing campaign.
Meanwhile the Sunday Times of London has reported the Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive air strikes against twelve hundred targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians' military capability in three days. The main source of the article was an official at another conservative Washington think tank -- the Nixon Center. |
Cheney orders marketing push for attack on Iran| |
Excerpt: "They [the source's institution] have "instructions" (yes, that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they don't think they'll ever get majority support for this -- they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book is "plenty." ...
... a neocon think-tanker who corroborated the story of the propaganda campaign ... had this to say about it: "I am a Republican. I am a conservative. But I'm not a raging lunatic. This is lunatic." |
New book details Cheney lawyer's efforts to expand executive power| |
Excerpt: Vice President Cheney's top lawyer pushed relentlessly to expand the powers of the executive branch and repeatedly derailed efforts to obtain congressional approval for aggressive anti-terrorism policies for fear that even a Republican majority might say no, according to a new book written by a former senior Justice Department official. |
U.S. court fines Iran $2.65 billion for terrorism| |
Excerpt: Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, a federal judge declared Friday in a ruling that left survivors and families shedding tears of joy.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth described his ruling as the largest-ever such judgment by an American court against another country. "These individuals, whose hearts and souls were forever broken, waited patiently for nearly a quarter century for justice to be done," he said.
Iran has been blamed for supporting the militant group Hezbollah, which carried out the suicide bombing in Beirut. It was the worst terrorist act against U.S. targets until the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. ...
Iran has denied responsibility for the attack. The nation did not respond to the 6-year-old lawsuit and was represented only by an empty table. ...
Comment: It's curious that this two-page article mentions none of the evidence that led to the verdict. Perhaps that information will be brought to light in some follow-up article? I notice that the judge, Royce Lamberth, is a Reagan appointee who spent six years on the super-secret and unconstitutional Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Iran: US court's ruling is baseless
Excerpt: The American judge's ruling is baseless. Americans have taken repeated measures contrary to legal principles. ... This ruling against Iran is politically motivated and the result of pressures," the official IRNA news agency quoted government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham as saying. |
Rerun from last week, but important::
White House has detailed plans to wipe Iran off the map| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians' military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.
Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that U.S. military planners were not preparing for "pinprick strikes" against Iran's nuclear facilities. "They're about taking out the entire Iranian military," he said. |
Iranian President has 'mathematical proof' U.S. won't attack| |
Excerpt: [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad told academics in a speech that elements inside Iran were pressing for compromise in the nuclear standoff with the West over fears the United States could launch a military strike.
"In some discussions I told them 'I am an engineer and I am examining the issue. They do not dare wage war against us and I base this on a double proof'," he said in the speech on Sunday, reported by the reformist Etemad Melli and Kargozaran newspapers.
"I tell them: 'I am an engineer and I am a master in calculation and tabulation.
"I draw up tables. For hours, I write out different hypotheses. I reject, I reason. I reason with planning and I make a conclusion. They cannot make problems for Iran.'" |
Iran warns of 'problems' if US attacks| |
Excerpt: "The US will face three problems if it attacks Iran. Firstly it does not know the volume of our response," said General Rahim Yahya Safavi, the new special military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Also it cannot evaluate the vulnerability of its 200,000 troops in the region since we have accurately identified all of their camps," added Safavi."
"Secondly, it does not know what will happen to Israel and thirdly, the United States does not know what will happen to the oil flow ..." |
Iranians allow U.S. scholar to leave country| |
Excerpt: Haleh Esfandiari, 67, who was released on bail Aug. 21 after four months in prison, was contacted by Iranian authorities Sunday and told to pick up her passport, her lawyer told reporters Monday. She flew out of Tehran and arrived in Austria, where her sister lives, to rejoin her husband, Shaul Bakhash, a historian at George Mason University in Virginia. |
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Steal-the-election initiative OK'd for circulation in California| |
Excerpt: The initiative is a ticking time bomb for Democratic presidential hopes next year, which are pinned on winning all of the state's 55 electoral votes. The measure would award a single electoral vote to the presidential winner in each of the state's 53 congressional districts and two to the statewide victor.
The approval Wednesday by the secretary of state's and attorney general's offices means supporters can begin gathering signatures to qualify the initiative for the June ballot.
"Swift Boat" liars are behind California ballot initiative
that would ensure Republican Presidential victory
Excerpt: Lawyers behind a California ballot proposal that could benefit the 2008 Republican presidential nominee have ties to a Texas homebuilder who financed attacks on Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential campaign.
Charles H. Bell and Thomas Hiltachk's law firm banked nearly $65,000 in fees from a California-based political committee funded almost solely by Bob J. Perry that targeted Democrats in 2006. Perry, a major Republican donor, contributed nearly $4.5 million to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that made unsubstantiated but damaging attacks on Kerry three years ago. |
Judge strikes down part of PATRIOT Act| |
Excerpt: A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA PATRIOT Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court's approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act "offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers."
The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law, complaining that it allowed the FBI to demand records without the kind of court order required for other government searches. |
Top 10 big stories the US news media missed in the past year| |
Excerpt: This year's Project Censored presents a chilling portrait of a newly empowered executive branch signing away civil liberties for the sake of an endless and amorphous war on terror. And for the most part, the major news media weren't paying attention.
"This year it seemed like civil rights just rose to the top," said Peter Phillips, the director of Project Censored, the annual media survey conducted by Sonoma State University researchers and students who spend the year patrolling obscure publications, national and international Web sites, and mainstream news outlets to compile the 25 most significant stories that were inadequately reported or essentially ignored. |
White House had daily audits of emails, which suggests missing emails were destroyed| |
Excerpt: The revelation that there were daily audits suggests that e-mails were destroyed, said Anne Weismann, general counsel of the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued the Bush administration in May over the missing emails.
"It's hard to imagine it could have been a technical problem," [CREW's Anne Weismann] said in an interview. It is "incomprehensible that email could go missing and it not be caught."
National Security Archive sues White House over missing emails
Excerpt: The National Security Archive today filed a lawsuit charging that the White House "abandoned an automatic archiving system for its e-mail in 2002 and did not replace it," resulting in the loss of approximately five million e-mails between March 2003 and Oct. 2005. |
Why did Iraqi army dissolve? Bush can't recall.| |
Excerpt: One of the most heavily criticized actions in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was the decision, barely two months later, to disband the Iraqi army, alienating former soldiers and driving many into the ranks of anti-American militant groups.
But excerpts of a new biography of President Bush show the president saying that he initially wanted to maintain the Iraqi army and, more surprisingly, that he cannot recall why his administration decided to disband it.
Bremer reveals letters establishing that Bush knew in advance of Army dissolution
Excerpt: Mr Bremer, who has been blamed for many of the failures of the post-war occupation, apparently was unwilling to take it any more. He released two letters to the Times to prove his assertion that the White House and the Pentagon knew in advance of his plan to dismantle the military and that they approved.
Comment: I'll let these two intellectual giants, Bush and Bremer, argue about which one's dumber and who knew what when, but two things are clear: When Bush says something, anything, he's lying. And anyone with a pulse knew at the time that disbanding the Army and sending Iraqi soldiers home with their weapons was phenomenally, unfathomably stupid. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Lawsuit demands US reveal civilian deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan| |
Excerpt: A US civil rights group filed a lawsuit Tuesday demanding the American military release documents about civilians killed by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, accusing the government of trying to hide the human cost of war.
The American Civil Liberties Union's legal move came after a request for documents related to civilian deaths under the country's Freedom of Information laws was rebuffed by the US Navy, the Air Force and Marines. The US Army complied with the ACLU's year-old request.
The group has already released thousands of documents obtained from the army showing compensation claims from families whose loved ones were killed by stray bullets or in traffic accidents in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
White House scrubs site in attempt to make office 'exempt' from FOIA| |
Excerpt: Sometime over the weekend, White House computer technicians removed from government Web sites any references to the Office of Administration or its previous compliance with Freedom of Information Act requests.
Where visitors once just found information about how to file public records requests or view annual reports on the Office of Administration's FOIA compliance, the White House has appended the following admonition:
"The Office of Administration, whose sole function is to advise and assist the President, and which has no substantial independent authority, is not subject to FOIA and related authorities. However, these pages have been maintained due to the Presidential Records Act." |
Democrats call for moratorium on satellite spying
on Americans, expressing privacy and legal concerns| |
Excerpt: Late Thursday, top Democrats on the committee sent a letter to Homeland Security saying, "We are so concerned that, as the department's authorizing committee, we are calling for a moratorium on the program."
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Thompson, along with subcommittee chairs Reps. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Chris Carney, D-Pa., also wrote, "Today's testimony made clear that there is effectively no legal framework governing the domestic use of satellite imagery for the various purposes envisioned by the department. & The use of geospatial information from military intelligence satellites may turn out to be a valuable tool in protecting the homeland."
Comment: Are you impressed? I'm not. These are just words, "calling for a moratorium on the program," but Congress has the ability to either cut funding for the program or simply outlaw it, and you and I and the Homeland Security Dept know that's not going to happen. Ipso facto pepto bismo, this adds up to nothing. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
"20th hijacker" recants confession, says it was tortured out of him at Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: Now, in an eyewitness account of al-Qahtani at Guantanamo, his recently appointed American lawyer tells TIME that al-Qahtani has repudiated all of his previous statements -- claiming they were extracted under brutal torture. And that repudiation is sure to fuel the growing number of challenges in American courts from the detainees at Guantanamo whom al-Qahtani fingered. |
Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
Documents reveals patterns in U.S. killing Iraqi civilians| |
Excerpt: Newly released documents regarding crimes committed by United States soldiers against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan detail a pattern of troops failing to understand and follow the rules that govern interrogations and deadly actions.
The documents, released today by the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a lawsuit, total nearly 10,000 pages of courts-martial summaries, transcripts and military investigative reports about 22 cases. They show repeated examples of troops believing they were within the law when they killed local citizens.
Comment: U.S. troops have been placed in a wildly volatile foreign occupation that's obviously maniacal to any of them who stop and think about it. They're not adequately schooled in what's legal and what's not, then often told with informal nudge/wink commands to ignore the rules anyway. And it all adds up to an open invitation to war crimes. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Iraq puppet government near collapse, says secret Congressional report| |
Excerpt: The report by CRS (Congressional Research Service), Congress' research and analysis arm, was completed Aug. 15 for the House and Senate.
"My assessment is that because of the number and breadth of parties boycotting the cabinet, the Iraqi government is in essential collapse," Kenneth Katzman, the author of the report, said. "That argues against any real prospects for political reconciliation." |
River of Baghdad Burning escapes Iraq| |
Excerpt: We were all refugees -- rich or poor. And refugees all look the same -- there's a unique expression you'll find on their faces -- relief, mixed with sorrow, tinged with apprehension. The faces almost all look the same.
The first minutes after passing the border were overwhelming. Overwhelming relief and overwhelming sadness ... How is it that only a stretch of several kilometers and maybe twenty minutes, so firmly segregates life from death?
How is it that a border no one can see or touch stands between car bombs, militias, death squads and ... peace, safety? It's difficult to believe -- even now. I sit here and write this and wonder why I can't hear the explosions. |
Iraqi anti-graft official quits over death threats and politics| |
Excerpt: "I cannot just sit in my place and see corruption eating the Iraqi state, so I asked for retirement," said Judge Radhi, who is currently traveling in the United States. He added later that he had recently received anonymous threats on his life if he did not stop his work.
Comment: Looks like a lot of sweeping under the rug is taking place. Wig PERMANENT LINK |
Still few foreign fighters among Iraqi resistance| |
Excerpt: Most members of al Qaeda in Iraq, say commanders on the ground, are local Iraqi outcasts.
"I can count them [foreign fighters] as a total I have engaged, dead or alive, in the 10 months I've been here on one hand," says Col. David Sutherland, the U.S. commander of coalition forces in the hotly contested area of Diyala province, an insurgent stronghold region some 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. |
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VA data blockade may imperil cancer monitoring| |
Excerpt: Stonewalling by the Veterans Administration is putting U.S. cancer surveillance and research in jeopardy, according to many of the researchers involved in those fields.
After decades of sharing data freely and allowing researchers to get in touch with its patients, the agency has been blocking such activity for the past several years, according to Dennis Deapen, Dr.PH., of the Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program and the University of Southern California.
Comment: Although the new secrecy could simply be due to Bush-Cheney's default reflex to withhold from everyone all the information they can, it could also be to protect the US government from soldiers and their families discovering a link between their cancers and the weapons systems they're using, such as depleted uranium shells, or other toxins involved in their duties. It could also be to cover up secret testing of various new weapons tech on soldiers and veterans, such as the US has done in the past; i.e., some veterans 'officially' documented as dying of cancer could be dying from secret experiments instead. JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
There are more than three stooges
(and one of them will be America's next President)
Clinton active in Christian death cult favored by dictators | |
Excerpt: Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection ...
The Fellowship's long-term goal is "a leadership led by God-leaders of all levels of society who direct projects as they are led by the spirit." According to the Fellowship's archives, the spirit has in the past led its members in Congress to increase U.S. support for the Duvalier regime in Haiti and the Park dictatorship in South Korea. The Fellowship's God-led men have also included General Suharto of Indonesia; Honduran general and death squad organizer Gustavo Alvarez Martinez; a Deutsche Bank official disgraced by financial ties to Hitler; and dictator Siad Barre of Somalia, plus a list of other generals and dictators ...
"If I asked Hillary, 'What does the Lord want you to do?' she would say, 'I think I'm called by the Lord to be in public service at whatever level he wants me.'
Comment: Where have I heard this before? Could it be ... Bush? Tim M. PERMANENT LINK |
Fred Thompson: Dissent makes US 'weak,' carries 'heavy price'| |
Excerpt: In his first interview since declaring his presidential candidacy, Fred Thompson repeatedly warned against the perils of a "weak and divided" nation, raised the specter of unspecified terrorists with suitcase bombs, and expressed a willingness to employ nuclear weapons against Iran. |
Meet Fred Thompson, global warming denier and sun worshipper| |
Excerpt: "Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto." |
New Republican frontrunner Thompson says Al Qaeda smoking ban pushed Iraqis to U.S.| |
Excerpt: White House hopeful Fred Thompson puzzled Iowans yesterday by insisting an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side.
"They said, 'You gotta quit smoking,'" Thompson explained to a questioner asking about progress in Iraq during a town hall-style meeting.
Thompson said the smoking ban and terror tactics Al Qaeda used to oppress women and intimidate local leaders pushed tribes in western Anbar Province to support U.S. troops.
But Thompson's tale of a smokers' revolt baffled some in the audience of about 150 who came to decide whether the former Tennessee senator is ready for prime time.
"I don't know what that was about," said Jim Moran, 72, who had driven from nearby McCook Lake, S.D. |
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U.S. says North Korea agrees to disable nuke programs| |
Excerpt: North Korea agreed Sunday to account for and disable its atomic programs by the end of the year, offering its first timeline for a process long sought by nuclear negotiators, the chief U.S. envoy said. |
Leahy wants next Atty Gen nominee to clear up Gonzales' lies| |
Excerpt: Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said Sunday that finding out whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied or otherwise misled Congress will help senators pick a worthy successor.
Comment: Meanwhile, Gonzales skips town un-indicted, because Chihuahua Leahy is another "all bark, no bite" Democrat. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Judge scolds U.S. Justice Department over warrantless wiretapping records| |
Excerpt: [U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr.] agreed with the Justice Department that many records should not be turned over, either because they were classified or because they were drafts of documents not covered by public records laws.
In other instances, Kennedy said the Justice Department must release a list of its documents and explain why each cannot be released. Kennedy had particularly strong words for the FBI, whose response he called "wholly inadequate."
Comment: Well, I'm certainly not impressed, but I don't think there's a valid reason for much of anything to be kept secret from we the people. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
ACLU demands shutdown of unlawful passenger-tracking system| |
Excerpt: In formal comments filed today with the Department of Homeland Security, the American Civil Liberties Union demanded that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shut down its illegal Automated Targeting System (ATS) program. The program, which violates a congressional mandate barring DHS from assigning risk levels to ordinary Americans, uses secret criteria and computer algorithms to calculate the security risks of ordinary Americans.
"Congress has banned this type of program with good reason: It rates the potential for terrorism of every traveler and violates every American's right to privacy," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program. "The judgments about Americans calculated by ATS will be stored for years, and we have no idea how they may be used in the future. The benefit to the government is extremely questionable, but the consequences for Americans are simply dangerous." |
9/11: One of the most dangerous atmospheric conditions ever to occur in America| |
Excerpt: Up to 70 percent of first responders are ill as a result of 9/11 contamination. If a similar rate of illness holds true for those who lived and worked near the Twin Towers, the number of seriously ill New Yorkers could climb to 300,000 in the near future.
About 70,000 New Yorkers so far have listed themselves with the World Trade Center Health Registry, a database that tracks the health impact of the 9/11 attacks. The registry has been criticized for excluding large numbers of those potentially sickened outside a designated one-square-mile area. Despite the insistent denials of city and federal officials, tens of thousands of New Yorkers were unnecessarily exposed to a chemical brew without even the most rudimentary precautions. |
U.N. war crimes expert notes, U.S. War on Terror is constantly being used
by other countries as justification for torture and human rights violations| |
Excerpt: "Torture, arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention in violation of right to counsel, incommunicado detention, any country that wants to equip itself either through legislation or just through its practices with these kind of tools uses the example of the United States," Louise Arbour tells Democracy Now! "If I try to call to account any government, privately or publicly, for their human rights records, the first response is: first go and talk to the Americans about their human rights violations." |
Zogby poll shows Americans want impeachment and don't buy official story of 9/11| |
Excerpt: As America nears the sixth anniversary of the world-churning events of September 11, 2001, a new Zogby International poll finds a majority of Americans still await a Congressional investigation of President Bush' and Vice President Cheney's actions before, during and after the 9/11 attacks. Over 30% also believe Bush and/or Cheney should be immediately impeached by the House of Representatives.
The 911truth.org-sponsored poll also found that over two-thirds of Americans say the 9/11 Commission should have investigated the still unexplained collapse of the 47-story World Trade Center Building 7 at 5:20 p.m. on September 11, 2001. |
British Food Standards Agency warns parents of link between food additives and hyperactive behavior| |
Excerpt: Research for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and published in The Lancet has established the "deleterious effects" of taking a mixture of artificial extras that are added to drinks, sweets and processed foods. It has led the FSA to issue the advice to parents who believe their children to be hyperactive that they should cut out foods containing the E numbers analyzed in the study.
Comment: Perhaps more striking than the (perfectly plausible and long-suspected) link between additives and their effect is the notion of a functional watchdog agency looking after citizens' health. What a good idea. Could we have one in America? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Critics call U.S. consumer agency toothless| |
Excerpt: The agency charged with protecting the American public from dangerous consumer products is toothless and understaffed, according to its critics.
These critics say that it would take a complete overhaul of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission's mission and a huge increase in its $63 million budget to give it the clout needed to scrutinize the trillions of dollars in goods that are made in or imported into the United States each year.
Comment: Yeah, "Critics call" the agency toothless. And it's understaffed "according to its critics." Get real, will ya? These aren't allegations, these are frickin' facts. Remember when the media used to report facts? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
At Consumer Product Safety Commission, a single employee
is responsible for checking all U.S. toys for defects| |
Excerpt: That explains why the agency denied the request of two senators, who recently asked the CPSC to spot check toys for lead paint -- a seemingly reasonable request from senior leaders concerned about the rash of toxic lead painted toys coming out of China, where most of the world's toys are made. |
Mortgaging America's future
Foreclosures reach record levels| |
Excerpt: Homeowners, struggling to deal with sharp increases in their adjustable mortgage payments, got hit with a record number of foreclosure notices in the spring. Economists warned the situation will get worse in coming months as an estimated 2 million adjustable rate mortgages taken out with low introductory interest rates reset to much higher rates.
The crisis is most severe in subprime mortgages but it is now spreading to other types of mortgages, according to a quarterly report released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. |
Non-whites with good credit given riskier loans, says study| |
Excerpt: Minorities were far more likely than whites to be given high-cost subprime mortgages last year, according to a study to be released today by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an advocacy group.
"This is a problem with risky loans, not risky people," said Lindsay Gebhart, development associate at ACORN in San Francisco. "A vast majority of these loans were given to people who do not have bad credit. Especially minorities were given loans far worse than what they qualified for." |
Bush "plan" would help about 4% of borrowers -- those with best credit| |
Excerpt: President Bush announced a plan to help Americans struggling to make payments on adjustable-rate mortgages avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. Among other things, Bush said he would seek to offer them Federal Housing Administration insurance on their homes so that they can be refinanced.
The White House estimated that about 80,000 Americans would be helped by the Bush initiative, far below the estimated 2 million people with such adjustable-rate mortgages that will "reset" to higher interest rates this year and in 2008. He said only those with good credit histories would be eligible.
Comment: Was screwing the little guy and helping the rich part of Bush's oath of office? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Credit card companies woo struggling mortgage-holders| |
Excerpt: As subprime borrowers began to default on their mortgages in rapidly growing numbers this year, credit card issuers increased their efforts to sign up such customers with tarnished financial histories, according to a market research firm. |
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Is China quietly dumping U.S. Treasuries?| |
Excerpt: A sharp drop in foreign holdings of US Treasury bonds over the last five weeks has raised concerns that China is quietly withdrawing its funds from the United States, leaving the dollar increasingly vulnerable. |
"Jena Six" for Dummies| |
Excerpt: In Jena, Louisiana, a judge is scheduled to hear arguments today on motions to toss out the conviction of Mychal Bell. Last year Bell and five other African American high school students were arrested for beating a white student after nooses were hung from a tree in the schoolyard where the black students dared to sit. The six African American students were originally charged with attempted murder. Bell was convicted before an all-white jury of aggravated second-degree battery and faces up to 22 years and six months in jail. Bell is the only student to have been convicted so far. The other five are awaiting trial. Civil rights groups have called for all of the charges to be dropped. |
Suicide rate among U.S. girls soars| |
Excerpt: The suicide rate among preteen and young teen girls spiked 76 percent, a disturbing sign that federal health officials say they can't fully explain.
For all young people between ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004 -- the biggest single-year bump in 15 years -- in what one official called "a dramatic and huge increase." |
Germany wants to arrest 13 criminal CIA agents| |
Excerpt: Germany's Justice Ministry is sounding out U.S. authorities over whether they would be willing to cooperate with legal proceedings against suspected CIA agents sought in the alleged kidnapping of a German citizen, an official said Thursday. |
Aussie cops tell tourists to delete photos of Wall of Silence| |
Excerpt: Requiring tourists to delete happy snaps of Sydney's APEC security fence may be "over the top" but it is necessary, NSW Transport Minister John Watkins said. He was responding today to news reports that three German tourists were asked by police to delete digital photographs of the newly built fence, which stretches five kilometers through Sydney's CBD. |
Report: U.S. workers are most productive| |
Excerpt: The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.
Comment: The average US worker makes more money for his boss than the worker of any other country -- but only gets half what he produces back as income. Maybe worse than that, the workers in other countries often enjoy extra benefits and protections US workers and their families lack (such as health insurance, strong privacy rights, and more).
Basically, it appears American workers put out more for less than anyone else.
No wonder India is now outsourcing to America! JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
The mysterious productivity lead of the US economy| |
Excerpt: ... a country can become more productive merely by shutting down some of its less productive operations. In that sense, increasing productivity can be nothing more than an indication of deindustrialization. I don't think that is the case here, but the ongoing illumination of less productive businesses has been a factor. According to conventional theory, deindustrialization could mean rising wages for the same reason that productivity increases. By eliminating the low salaries, the average of the remaining salaries would be higher -- except that the resulting increase in unemployment allows business to drive wages down. |
News from America's very bestest ally, Israel
Israeli jets violate Syrian airspace, drop 'munitions',
and the headline is: Syria fires on Israeli war planes| |
Excerpt: A Syrian cabinet minister warned that the nation's leadership was considering its response to the Israeli "aggression" while in Israel the military declined any comment.
"Enemy Israeli planes penetrated Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean Sea heading towards the northeast, breaking the sound barrier," a Syrian army spokesman told the official SANA news agency.
"Our air defenses repulsed them and forced them to leave... after the Israeli planes dropped munitions, without causing human or material loss," he said, without giving further information on what exactly was dropped. |
Human Rights Watch cites Israel's 2006 war crimes against Lebanon| |
Excerpt: A human rights group has accused Israel of carrying out indiscriminate air strikes that killed hundreds of civilians during the 2006 Lebanon war.
Human Rights Watch said Israel showed "reckless indifference" to the fate of civilians and queried its argument that Hezbollah used them as human shields. |
Barack says Israel might just need a major ground assault against Gaza Strip| |
Excerpt: "When you take a real look at the challenge of the Qassam, it is very possible that we are approaching the need for a wide ground operation in Gaza, in order to halt the rocket fire and the strengthening [of militant organizations]," said Barak, during a meeting with senior defense establishment and defense industry officials.
Comment: Of course, this has little to do with Quassams, and a lot to do with Barak's and Olmert's vying to be Israel's next Prime Minister. Showing their toughness off the backs of women and children is their path of choice! E13 PERMANENT LINK |
Israel considers unplugging Gaza| |
Excerpt: Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the defense establishment Tuesday to examine the implications of temporarily cutting the Gaza Strip off from electricity, in response to the ongoing Qassam rocket fire at southern Israel. |
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Free speech victory for political bloggers: exempt from FEC rules| |
Excerpt: Question: When is a blogger not just a blogger? Answer: When that blogger helps candidates win an election.
That's the premise of two recent complaints to the Federal Election Commission about political bloggers, some of whom are charged with being little more than toadies for various political campaigns. Both complaints request that the FEC apply federal election rules to such bloggers so that campaigns can't simply evade spending limits by funding Internet-only attack groups. But the FEC remained unimpressed by the complaints, and yesterday ruled that in both cases bloggers had the right to do what they were doing without Commission regulation. |
"Shocking" writer in Mississippi has been jailed for four months| |
Excerpt: [Yuri] Wainwright's arrest came days after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech, where a disturbed student killed 32 people and himself.
Investigators found a number of firearms in the Purvis home where Wainwright lived with his grandmother, and confiscated computer equipment for analysis by technicians in Jackson. ...
Wainwright said that in the days after the Virginia Tech shootings, he posted three MySpace bulletins -not publicly available -referencing the fatal 1970 shootings of four students at Ohio's Kent State University by National Guardsmen and quoting Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the teens who killed 12 students at Columbine High School in 1999. ...
Today, Wainwright's MySpace page is dotted with comments of support from friends, many expressing outrage over Wainwright's continued incarceration.
Friends also describe the Oak Grove native as an intelligent writer who liked to shock, but wasn't capable of violence. |
Arch-conservative gay prostitute who posed as a reporter, instantly got White House
press pass, and was barely questioned by media blasts "liberal media" in new book| |
Excerpt: Two years after he became a famous, or infamous, White House correspondent, Jeff Gannon is back with a book excoriating his former colleagues, and recounting his days of reporting "behind enemy lines" at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. |
California community says companies are not people; bans campaign donations| |
Excerpt: Measure T was successful because our all-volunteer campaign came together to pass a law that bans non-local corporations from participating in Humboldt elections. The referendum, which passed with 55 percent of the vote, also asserts that corporations cannot claim the First Amendment right to free speech.
By enacting Measure T, Humboldt County has committed an act of "municipal civil disobedience," intentionally challenging "settled law." But voters also recognize that Measure T is an act of common sense. We polled our community and found that 78 percent believe corruption is more likely if corporations participate in politics. |
Doctors worldwide blast AMA for its silence on Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: The U.S. medical establishment appears to have turned a blind eye to the abuse of military medicine at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, doctors from around the world said in a letter published Friday in a prestigious British medical journal.
Health care workers in the U.S. military seem to have put their loyalty to the state above their duty to care for patients -- and American regulatory bodies have done nothing to remedy the situation, said the letter that appeared in The Lancet.
It was signed by some 260 people from 16 countries, nearly all of whom are doctors.
The letter compared the ongoing role of U.S. doctors working at Guantanamo, who have been accused of ignoring torture, to the South African doctors involved in the case of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who died while being detained by security police. |
Intelligence officials believe video is authentic as 'bin Laden' criticizes Democrats| |
Excerpt: Osama bin Laden criticizes Democrats for failing to stop the Iraq conflict in a video, obtained Friday by the U.S. government, NBC News and other news organizations, marking the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Comment: Osama bin Laden is very reliable, popping up with a new script whenever the Bush administration needs him. This "bin Laden" looks younger and healthier than he did in the last video, and he criticizes Democrats and calls for lower taxes, and for scare value, speaks out against capitalism, and suggests Americans convert to Islam. The video will no doubt yield a discernable bump in the polls for Bush-Cheney. Sigh. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Bin Laden says U.S. vulnerable in new video
Excerpt: Bin Laden appears tired and sallow, although his beard is much shorter and darker than in his last appearance, when it was streaked with gray.
Comment: Unless Bin Laden got a kidney transplant he's long gone. A newly released video does not equal a newly made video. It seems more likely that the darker beard indicates an older video with remarks about current events edited into it.
Bin Laden and al Qaida were not welcome in Iraq when Hussein was in power, before the war initiated by the US. The chaos since then has created room for al-Qaida to move in politically, if not physically. Cassandra PERMANENT LINK |
Justice Dept comes out against net neutrality| |
Excerpt: The [Justice Dept] told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user.
Several phone and cable companies, such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., have previously said they want the option to charge some users more money for loading certain content or Web sites faster than others.
Comment: Net neutrality, if you're new to the concept, means all web traffic is treated equally -- you get Unknown News or Joe Blow's Website at the same speed you get cnn.com or aol.com. Take net neutrality away, and do-it-yourself websites will be as hard to find on your computer as self-published books at Barnes & Noble or homemade radio on the AM/FM bands. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Copyright Alliance says "fair use" is not a consumer right| |
Excerpt: In response to a complaint to the FCC filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) to change copyright warnings before movies and sporting events, Executive Director Patrick Ross of the Copyright Alliance tells us in an editorial that "fair use is not a consumer right." The Copyright Alliance is backed by such heavy-hitters as the MPAA, RIAA, Disney, Business Software Alliance, and perhaps most interestingly, Microsoft, who is also backing the CCIA's complaint. |
Judge sued over ban on word 'rape'| |
Excerpt: Tory Bowen has taken to federal court her fight to overturn a judge's order that she not use the word "rape" during the trial of the man she accuses of sexually assaulting her.
Her lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, names Lancaster County Judge Jeffre Cheuvront as defendant.
Cheuvront entered the order forbidding Bowen and other witnesses from using the terms "rape," "victim," "assailant," "sexual assault kit" and "sexual assault nurse examiner" during the trial.
Comment: Government sets its own rules, and I'd be surprised if you're allowed to sue a judge under ordinary circumstances, but this case is so far outside the bounds of human or judicial decency, criminy, we're rooting for Tory here. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
4 in 10 Americans can't depend on their health insurance| |
Excerpt: # 29 percent of people who had health insurance were "underinsured," with coverage so meager they often postponed medical care because of costs.
49 percent overall, and 43 percent of people with insurance, said they were "somewhat" to "completely" unprepared to cope with a costly medical emergency over the coming year.
20 percent of people in our separate subscriber survey said they were so disappointed with their HMO or PPO that they wanted to switch plans (see "Rating the Health Plans").
16 percent had no health plan at all, including many working respondents whose jobs didn't offer insurance, or who couldn't afford the premiums or deductibles of the available plan. |
GAO report says DHS falls far short on security, management benchmarks| |
Excerpt: The Homeland Security Department has failed to perform more than half the expectations that the Government Accountability Office has established for it in 14 major mission and management areas.
Out of 171 total expectations, DHS did not achieve 83 of them, GAO said in a report released today, just days before the sixth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. DHS produced results for 78 of the expectations; 10 were not evaluated |
Air Force sends B-52 loaded with nuclear weapons to Louisiana| |
Excerpt: Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That's like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.
Comment: Barksdale is a staging station for flights to the Middle East. Minot is not. The question, then, is whether nuclear weapons are being flown to the Middle East. And the guy asking the question in this article is not a nutcase. He's Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent, now a well-regarded whistleblower. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Police break up anti-war meeting in Washington, arrest organizers| |
Excerpt: Mounted police charged in to break up an outdoor press conference and demonstration against the Iraq war in Washington on Thursday, arresting three people, organizers and an AFP reporter said.
"The police suppressed the press conference. In the middle of the speeches, they grabbed the podium" erected in a park in front of the White House for the small gathering, Brian Becker, national organizer of the ANSWER anti-war coalition, told AFP. ...
Three people -- Tina Richards, the mother of a marine who did two tours of duty in Iraq; Adam Kokesh, a leader of the Iraq Veterans Against the War group; and lawyer Ian Thompson, who is an organizer for ANSWER in Los Angeles -- were arrested, Becker said. |
Top aides subpoenaed in Doolittle-Abramoff probe | |
Excerpt: A grand jury has subpoenaed two top aides of a Republican lawmaker to testify in a federal probe of ties among the congressman, his wife and jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The subpoenas from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia were issued to Rep. John Doolittle's chief of staff, Ron Rogers, and deputy staff chief, Dan Blankenburg. They were announced on the House of Representatives floor as Congress returned from its August recess Tuesday after the aides informed House leaders about the subpoenas, as required under House rules. |
Nuns "impelled by conscience" call for impeachment| |
Excerpt: "The National Coalition of American Nuns is impelled by conscience to call you to act promptly to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for ... high crimes and misdemeanors," the group wrote in a letter written on behalf of its board members.
The letter says that impeachment is warranted for their "deceiving the public under the false pretense that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction" and "destroying" the reputation of the United States and the good will of other nations. |
Almost 98 per cent of errors in US newspapers go uncorrected| |
Excerpt: Almost half of the articles published by daily newspapers in the US contain one or more factual errors, and less than two per cent end up being corrected.
The findings are from a forthcoming research paper by Scott R Maier, an associate professor at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. The findings challenge how well journalism's "corrections box" sets the record straight or serves as a safety valve for the venting of frustrations by wronged news sources. |
Chinese military hacked into Pentagon| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defense secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack.
Current and former officials have told the Financial Times an internal investigation has revealed that the incursion came from the People's Liberation Army.
No we didn't, says China
Excerpt: China today dismissed accusations that its military had hacked into Pentagon computers, calling the claim "cold war" thinking. |
Bush doubles nuclear warhead upgrade program| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration has decided to more than double the number of nuclear warheads undergoing an expensive upgrade for potential future deployment on the Navy's 14 ballistic missile submarines, according to answers provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration in response to questions from the Federation of American Scientists. |
Bush and Chinese leader call for non-specific “action” on global warming| |
Excerpt: President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, leaders of two of the world's worst polluting nations, called Thursday for greater international cooperation in tackling climate change without stifling economic growth.
Comment: Did they then give each other noogies? Has anyone shown more leadership in the wrong direction on global climate change than GW Bush? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
DHS says it's ending criticized data-mining program -- but it smells like a lie| |
Excerpt: DHS spokesman Russ Knocke told The Associated Press on Wednesday the project was being dropped.
"ADVISE [the Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement program] is not expected to be restarted," [DHS spokesman Russ] Knocke said. DHS' Science and Technology directorate "determined that new commercial products now offer similar functionality while costing significantly less to maintain than ADVISE."
Comment: Sounds familiar -- I think we've covered this same 'news' with different nouns several times in the past few months. As someone accustomed to being lied to by the Bush administration, I'm not at all convinced.
Saying the program "is not expected to be restarted" means what AP says, that it's being dropped. Near as I can figure, the news here is exactly what the DHS spokespook says: The data-mining will continue, but more effective and less costly commercial products will now be used. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Missouri state lawmaker switches from R to D| |
Excerpt: Right after he switched political parties on Wednesday, state Sen. Christopher Koster announced some changes in his political views.
In particular, Koster -- now D-Harrisonville -- said he is revising his public stance on abortion, one of Missouri's most explosive topics.
"From this point on, I'm going to support the structure of Roe," Koster said, referring to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing most abortions. "And I'm going to work for policies that will reduce the unintended pregnancies in this state."
Comment: Assuming he's sincere, bravo. And having lived in Missouri for several years, where Republicans dominate the landscape, God 'n' guns are a given, and science is viewed with skepticism, I laughed out loud at Koster's spot-on accurate summation of the Republican stance against stem-cell research: "Go to Boston for your Nobel Prize; come to Missouri for your leg irons." Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
U.S. deports parents of dead soldiers| |
Excerpt: Although exact figures are difficult to come by, many parents with sons and daughters who died in Iraq have been deported.
Official statistics show that more than 68,000 foreign-born military individuals are serving the U.S. How many of these individuals have relatives who do not have a legal right to be in the United States is not known. Figures from the National Center for Immigration Law show that one in 10 U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq have been immigrants. |
What if doctors saw patients on the same day they call?| |
Excerpt: Why do we have to wait days, weeks, or even months for a doctor's appointment? Such delays have become so routine that they seem normal. But if some of the most popular restaurants can take same-day reservations, why should run-of-the-mill doctors routinely make patients wait and wait and wait?
In fact, they shouldn't. The challenge of reducing waiting times is a classic queuing problem in operations research. Professionals in all sorts of service industries, from restaurants and hotels to banks and department stores, have faced it in one form or another. Most of them handle the juggling of clients far better than physicians, despite the lower stakes. Mounting evidence shows that doctors can see patients quickly, too-even in perennially backlogged practices-and that when they do, they benefit themselves and the people they treat. |
Former Republican mucky-muck heads for prison| |
Excerpt: As a federal prosecutor, Sam Currin spent six years prosecuting drug dealers, pornographers and other criminals. Now, he will spend nearly the same amount of time in prison himself.
Currin, 58, whose career included stints as a judge and as chairman of the state's Republican Party, became the latest North Carolina leader to be sent to jail when he was sentenced this week in federal court to 70 months behind bars on money laundering and obstruction charges. |
Melting ice cap triggering earthquakes| |
Excerpt: The Greenland ice cap is melting so quickly that it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometers in size break off.
Scientists monitoring events this summer say the acceleration could be catastrophic in terms of sea-level rise and make predictions this February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change far too low. |
Judith Miller joins conservative 'think tank'| |
Excerpt: Judith Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent that pushed all the Bush administration spin about the (so-far non-existent) existence of WMD in Iraq, has finally come home. She's taken a job with the friends of "greater economic choice and individual responsibility" at the Manhattan Institute.
Comment: I thought the New York Times WAS a conservative think tank. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Gray whales are wasting away| |
Excerpt: Researchers off Mexico's Pacific coast have observed what might be a case of global warming's effects in the far north: gray whales returning to calving grounds malnourished.
Where layers of fat should have covered whales' spines last winter, researchers saw vertebrae sticking out. They spotted other signs of malnutrition -- depressions around the blowholes and head, and protruding shoulder blades -- that may indicate declining health. |
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Lightning round news
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Republican Congresscritters Connie Mack, Mary Bono plan to marry
(which ought to mean, assuming they live together, one of them has to quit Congress)
Appeals court says requirement to attend AA unconstitutional
Girl, 4, asked to remove 'hoodie'
Media activist Alex Jones arrested by NYPD
Brian De Palma wins Best Director award at Venice for anti-war flick
Report blasts TSA air cargo security
Bin Laden lookalike cracks Bush's APEC security
Is speaking Arabic suspicious?
Two more New York cops have died of 9/11-related lung cancer
Forty years of voyages for Star Trek
On Australia for APEC meeting, Bush thanks Austrians for hosting OPEC summit
Eight hours in jail before posting bail for Rove-mooner
Knife in car equals felony charge for teen
The notion of 'virgin birth' was born, thanks to a mistranslation
Anti-gay activists work to overturn partnerships, anti-discrimination laws in Oregon
Phony poverty study fools lazy journalists
Right-wing agitator says book manuscript was stolen in vast middle-of-the-road conspiracy
Criminal Democratic donor misses bail hearing
Even 40 years later CIA briefings to stay secret
Human animal embryos a step closer
Direct brain-to-game interface worries scientists
More Israelis giving up their nationality to become Germans
Judge slept through trial, but that's not enough to overturn conviction
Mrs Ashcroft stuck out her tongue
Bush restricting travel rights of over 100,000 U.S. citizens
Gore breaks silence on media coverage of 2000 election
Ballsy kid has something to say to John McCain
For decades, British intelligence spied on George Orwell
Afghanistan's Taliban has their weapons made in China
Scientists sue NASA, CalTech over new ID checks
Woman fights deportation after her husband's heroic death
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