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Secret Justice Dept memos authorized specific, horrific forms of torture| |
Excerpt: [Former Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on "combined effects" over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion's overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be "ashamed" when the world eventually learned of it.
Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the CIA interrogation methods violated that standard.
Democrats demand secret torture memos from Justice Dept.
Excerpt: Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller sent a letter to the acting attorney general saying the administration's credibility is at risk if the documents are not turned over to Congress.
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., promised a congressional inquiry into the two Justice Department legal opinions that reportedly explicitly authorized the use of painful and psychological tactics on terrorism suspects.
Comment: Anyone see the word "subpoena" anywhere in this article? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Burma still in fear and cut off| |
Excerpt: A relentless crackdown on Myanmar's pro-democracy activists showed no sign of easing with the junta announcing yesterday that 78 more people have been detained in spite of global outrage and new sanctions.
The latest arrests, reported by the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, brought to nearly 1,000 the number of people the military regime acknowledges holding in detention centers. In addition, it says 135 Buddhist monks remain in custody.
Chevron's pipeline is the Burmese regime's lifeline
Excerpt: Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma's natural gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma's Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military.
The original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labor. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal. |
Iran -- Run-up to the next war
White House orders new plans for attack on Iran| |
Excerpt: Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh is reporting there has been a significant increase in the tempo of planning for war with Iran inside the Bush administration. Writing in the New Yorker, Hersh reports the White House recently requested the Joint Chiefs of Staff redraw long-standing plans for a possible attack.
Hersh also reports the Bush administration's rationale for bombing Iran has shifted from Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program to Iran's role in Iraq. Hersh writes "What had been presented primarily as a counter-proliferation mission has been reconceived as counterterrorism." |
Iran ready to work with US on Iraq| |
Excerpt: Iran is ready to help the US stabilize Iraq if Washington presents a timetable for a withdrawal of its troops, Tehran's top security official said on Sunday.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, which answers to Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, rejected Washington's accusations that Tehran is providing weapons to Iraqi militias, insisting the trouble with Iraq was that the US administration was pursuing a "dead-end strategy".
Mr Larijani maintained it was time world powers realized Iran's nuclear progress could not be reversed and that they should enter into negotiations with Tehran without preconditions.
Comment: In addition to the life and death matters involved, it's a little embarrassing that Iranian leaders keep making sense, while American leaders sound like murderous maniacs. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
US plan for air strikes on Iran 'backed by British Prime Minister'| |
Excerpt: A plan by the Bush administration to launch surgical strikes on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has won the support of Gordon Brown, according to a US report, although a presidential "execute order" required for such an operation has yet to be issued.
Comment: Will the Brits be as stupid as the Americans -- a second time? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Bush crony Bolton says U.S. should invade Iran because it worked so well in Iraq| |
Excerpt: Fleshing out his hawkish dreams on British television, Bolton suggested that the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was a model for the “policy of regime change” he would like to see done in Iran. |
Petraeus says Iran stokes Iraq violence| |
Excerpt: But, Petraeus added, there was "no question" that Iranian arms were ending up in the hands of the Iraqi militias and there was "no debate" that six Iranians detained by the U.S. military in northern Iraq are Iranian Quds force members, the Iranian unit accused by the United States of training and arming insurgents.
"There's no question, absolutely no question that Iran is providing advanced RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades], RPG 29s," Petraeus said.
Comment: Anything's possible, but Petraeus's track record shows that he's a liar. There's no reason to grant any credibility to anything he says about Iraq or Iran. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Pentagon official: "I hate all Iranians"| |
Excerpt: British MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians."
Although it was an aside, it was not out of keeping with her general demeanor.
"She seemed more keen on saying she didn't like Iranians than that the US had no plans to attack Iran," said one MP. "She did say there were no plans for an attack but the tone did not fit the words."
Another MP said: "I formed the impression that some in America are looking for an excuse to attack Iran. It was very alarming." |
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House asks Pentagon to "report" on withdrawal, while
Chair of House Committee "vows to block funding"| |
Excerpt: In a rare show of bipartisanship on Iraq, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to make the Pentagon produce plans to withdraw U.S. troops -- but did not mandate the withdrawals.
The legislation that passed the House 377-46, gathering votes from nearly as many Republicans as Democrats, would require the Pentagon to submit regular reports on withdrawal planning to Congress' defense committees.
Some House Democrats went much further than that vote, however and warned they would hold try to hold up President George W. Bush's latest war funding request until he agrees to a goal of ending combat operations in Iraq by the time he leaves office in early 2009.
The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Wisconsin Democratic Rep. David Obey, said his panel would not even consider the funding request -- which Pentagon chief Robert Gates says will be about $189 billion (92.6 billion pounds) -- until early next year.
Comment: The bill passed in the House is obviously meaningless. We just got a "report" from the Pentagon less than a month ago about the surge, and it was nothing but lies and spin. The bill also doesn't require that Bush take any action on the alleged "withdrawal plan" the Pentagon shows to Congress. If this new legislation included anything that would have an actual effect on ending the war, it would absolutely not have gotten 377 votes.
The noises that Obey (it's pronounced OH-bee), our fellow cheesehead Wisconsinite, is making about actually blocking the war funding, sound much more promising, but it's a little hard to believe at this point that the Democrats would do anything so sensible and non-spineless. Fingers crossed, though. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Senate approves spending another $150-million on Middle-East slaughters| |
Excerpt: Thwarted in efforts to bring troops home from Iraq, Senate Democrats helped pass a defense policy bill authorizing another $150 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Monday's 92-3 vote comes as the House planned to approve separate legislation Tuesday that requires President Bush to give Congress a plan for eventual troop withdrawals.
Comment: "Thwarted in efforts to bring troops home from Iraq"? Yeah, right. A few Democrats have said what needs to be said, but as a whole Democrats in the Senate have made no effort at all to stop the killing, and instead have given the death machine a blank check. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Comment: The one silver lining in this is that the Senate only approved the money, and didn’t appropriate it yet. I’m not 100% sure I understand the difference, but apparently they have to do both before the money is actually used to kill more Iraqis. And the House, at least, is saying this week that they’re not going to appropriate the money without a withdrawal timetable. Which I really REALLY would like to believe, however unlikely it seems in light of their history on this issue … Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Dead soldier had warned family she might be murdered for uncovering fraud| |
Excerpt: Newspapers in Massachusetts have been doggedly digging into the case of a Quincy woman who died in Afghanistan under mysterious circumstances last week.
The military first reported that Ciara Durkin, 30, who served in the National Guard, had died “in action,” then revealed that she was killed in a “non-combat” incident that was being investigated.
A new twist emerged today in a Boston Globe article: Her family says she had told them to push for an investigation if anything ever happened to her. She was in a finance unit and may have found some improprieties, according to a story in the Patriot-Ledger, which also disclosed that her family had notified the military about her concerns about her safety three weeks ago. |
Bush vetoes health care for kids| |
Excerpt: President Bush cast a quiet veto Wednesday against a politically attractive expansion of children's health insurance, triggering a struggle with the Democratic-controlled Congress certain to reverberate into the 2008 elections.
"Congress will fight hard to override President Bush's heartless veto," vowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Eight states sue Bush administration for making kids' health care worse
Excerpt: "This same Administration previously signed off on our decision to cover the 10,000 kids they are now seeking to kick out of SCHIP, and the lawsuit we filed today demonstrates that we will simply not let that happen," [New Jersey Governor Jon] Corzine said. |
Nat'l Guard vets are intentionally denied education benefit| |
Excerpt: "It's pretty much a slap in the face," [1st Lt. Jon ] Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership, once again failing the soldiers."
Here's what happened: Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days. Had they been written for 730 days -- one day more -- the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.
Comment: The common cliché is that the Bush administration is incompetent, but this ain't incompetence. It's just plain hating the troops, as a matter of policy. Troops get screwed every which way but loose by this administration, and the screwing is well-planned and flawlessly executed, and never, ever an accident. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Blackwater -- America's most famous mercenaries
House passes bill that would bring Blackwater under rule of law| |
Excerpt: The House passed a bill Thursday that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. courts. It was the first major legislation of its kind to pass since a deadly shootout last month involving Blackwater employees.
Comment: But Congress has a little smooch for Blackwater's rear end: The legislation is specifically written to not be retroactive, so Blackwater and its mercenaries will get away with whatever murders, shootings, and other crimes they've committed in the past, present, and future, until the date the legislation takes effect. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Evidence suggests Blackwater "opened fire unprovoked from the ground and the sky"| |
Excerpt: Since the fatal Sept. 16 Blackwater USA shooting in Baghdad's Nasoor Square, officials from the private security company have insisted that their guards were responding to fire from "armed enemies." Yet an extensive evidence file put together by the Iraqi National Police and obtained by Newsweek -- including documents, maps, sworn witness statements and police video footage -- appears to contradict the contractors' version of events.
A confidential incident report, which has been provided by Iraqi National Police investigators to American military and civilian officials, concludes that the Blackwater vehicles "opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason." |
Government's report on Blackwater Massacre was written by Blackwater contractor| |
Excerpt: The State Department's initial report of last month's incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources.
A source involved in diplomatic security at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner, drafted the two-page "spot report" on the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the embassy's Tactical Operations Center.
Comment: Sweet jeebers, the corruption is brazen, ain't it? We need an industrial hose to clean out the State Department and military high command, and it'll take tons of industrial-strength cleaner to scrub the scent of Bush-Cheney off America's international reputation. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
State Department ignored complaints about Blackwater| |
Excerpt: The State Department, which is facing growing criticism of its policy on private security contractors, overlooked repeated warnings from U.S. diplomats in the field that guards were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining U.S. efforts to win support from the population, according to current and former U.S. officials.
Ever since the contractors were granted immunity from Iraqi courts in June 2004 by the U.S.-led occupation authority, diplomats have cautioned that the decision to do so was "a bomb that could go off at any time," said one former U.S. official.
But State Department leadership, unable to field U.S. troops or in-house personnel to guard its team, has clung to an approach that shielded the contractors from criminal liability, in the hope of ensuring continued protection to operate in the violent countryside.
Comment: At this point, your bullsh*t detector should be going off. Do you really believe, as this reporter wants you to, that the State Dept was "unable to field U.S. troops or in-house personnel to guard its team" in Iraq? Oh, bite me. US troops are available to act as bodyguards, but they're trained to operate under some common-sense constraint and rules of engagement, and that -- legal rules of engagement -- is what the State Department wanted to sidestep. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
U.S. helped cover up Blackwater killings| |
Excerpt: State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to play down incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee.
When a drunken Blackwater contractor killed a bodyguard of Iraq's vice president last Christmas Eve, the State Department helped spirit the contractor out of the country within 36 hours, according to the report, released Monday by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. |
Blackwater fired first in 84 percent of 'escalation of force' incidents since 2005| |
Excerpt: According to the Blackwater incident reports received by the Committee, Blackwater personnel have participated in 195 incidents in Iraq from January 1,2005, through September 12, 2007 , that involved firearms discharges by Blackwater personnel. This is an average of 1.4 incidents per week. In 32 of those incidents, Blackwater personnel were returning fire after an attack, while on 163 occasions (84% of the shooting incidents), Blackwater personnel were the first to fire.
Comment: That's just the 'reported' incidents. Presumably the myriad un-reported incidents would be worse. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Joyriding Blackwater pilot caused 2004 plane wreck that killed three US soldiers| |
Excerpt: "I swear to God, they wouldn't pay me if they knew how much fun this was," the doomed plane's cockpit voice recorder captured the pilot saying shortly before the November 27, 2004, crash. |
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Medicare recipients "victimized" by insurance scams| |
Excerpt: Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the system's huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance options encouraged by the Bush administration, a review of scores of federal audits has found.
The problems, described in 91 audit reports reviewed by The New York Times, include the improper termination of coverage for people with HIV and AIDS, huge backlogs of claims and complaints, and a failure to answer telephone calls from consumers, doctors and drugstores. |
FCC won't probe giant phone companies for giving phone records to NSA without warrants| |
Excerpt: The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission declined to investigate reports that phone companies turned over customer records to the National Security Agency, citing national security concerns, according to documents released on Friday.
Comment: So Bush and AT&T, etc., get another free pass on illegal spying on citizens. JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
U.S. confiscates the AP's Iraq bombing footage| |
Excerpt: American authorities confiscated an AP Television News videotape that contained scenes of the wounded being evacuated. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl told AP that Iraqi law make it illegal to photograph or videotape the aftermath of bombings or other attacks.
Comment: We've seen repeatedly that military investigations are charades, so it's reasonable to assume there's worry within the highest ranks about what's on that videotape. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Rare march in Baghdad against new U.S. wall| |
Excerpt: More than a thousand Iraqis marched in west Baghdad on Saturday in a rare public demonstration to protest against a wall they say the U.S. military is planning to erect around their neighborhood.
Carrying an Iraqi national flag and banners condemning the wall the marchers in the predominantly Shi'ite district of al-Washash chanted "No, no to the wall. No, no to America." |
US expands base in occupied Afghanistan| |
Excerpt: Originally envisioned as a temporary home for invading U.S. forces, the sprawling American base at Bagram, a former Soviet outpost in the shadow of the towering Hindu Kush mountains, is growing in size by nearly a third. |
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Officials complain about draconian "immigration raids" on homes| |
Excerpt: Lawrence W. Mulvey, the Nassau County police commissioner ... said that many United States citizens and legal residents were rousted from bed and were required to produce papers during an operation so ill-conceived that all but 6 out of 96 administrative warrants issued by the immigration enforcement agency in the search for gang members had wrong or outdated addresses. |
There are more than three stooges
(and one of them will be America's next President)
Giuliani campaign was allegedly behind failed election-stealing initiative in California| |
Excerpt: Democratic Party activists said Monday that they have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging connections between backers of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and a GOP-supported ballot measure that could have changed California's winner-take-all electoral college system to benefit Republican candidates.
James Harrison, an attorney for Californians for Fair Election Reform, the Democratic group, said the organization asked the commission to refer the matter to the Department of Justice to investigate possible criminal violations of federal election law. |
Giuliani eats at famous racist's restaurant| |
Excerpt: Monday night Rudy Giuliani visited a famous Philadelphia cheesesteak restaurant that serves as much controversy as it does calories.
Geno's Steaks has been a famous Philly hot-spot for years. It was thrown into the headlines last year when the owner posted a sign at the counter that reads, "This is America. When Ordering Please Speak English." |
Obama stops wearing American flag pin| |
Excerpt: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, D-Ill., said he will no longer wear an American flag lapel pin because it has become a substitute for "true patriotism" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Comment: Six years after 9/11 made America into a nation of whimpering cowards, a blandly robotic candidate in a suit stops pinning a damn flag to his lapel, and it's newsworthy, startling, and it probably passes for guts in some people's minds. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Bill would further reduce meat inspections| |
Excerpt: As one of the largest meat recalls in history unfolds, Congress is considering legislation that would reduce required federal inspections for meat that is produced by small companies and then shipped to another state.
USDA sat on E. coli finding for eighteen days
Excerpt: Informed on September 7 that Topps hamburger patties had tested positive for the E. coli bacteria, the FSIS initiated its own tests.
Officials say that first round of tests indicated the presence of E. coli in some of the beef, but was inconclusive.
A second, more sophisticated test was ordered. Officials say it was September 25 before they had the results in hand that allowed them to initiate the recall. |
Judge voids election because of e-voting snafus| |
Excerpt: Good news from California's Alameda County -- a judge has voided election results after the county botched its response to a contested race conducted on Diebold electronic voting machines. The judge ordered that the disputed Measure R -- an initiative addressing the operation of medical marijuana dispensaries -- go back on next year's ballot. |
Judge rules Bush can't block presidential records| |
Excerpt: U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the presidential order eliminated the discretion of the National Archives to control the release historical records. She said the executive order allowed former presidents to delay the release of those records "presumably indefinitely."
The ruling was made in a lawsuit filed by the American Historical Association and other organizations, which argued that Bush's Executive Order 13,233 was an "impermissible exercise of the executive power." |
Republicans use Justice Department to subvert justice
Democrat Siegelman was prosecuted while Justice Dept
ignored Republicans who took cash from the same source| |
Excerpt: A businessman told federal prosecutors in 2002 that he had given illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, then-Attorney General Bill Pryor and then-Gov. Don Siegelman, according to a report published Thursday on Time magazine's Web site.
However, the report says prosecutors only pursued Lanny Young's accusations against Siegelman, a Democrat, and not Sessions or Pryor, both Republicans. |
Senator who illegally pressured US Attorney won't run for re-election| |
Excerpt: Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, one of the most influential voices in Congress on budget and energy issues, announced Thursday that he is retiring at the end of his sixth term because of a degenerative brain disease. |
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Mental illness among Republican Senators may be widespread| |
Excerpt: Ominously for US citizens, experts cannot find any significant difference between how Domenici acts now and how he did in previous years -- or, for that matter, any difference between Domenici's behavior now, and how the majority of Republican Senators have acted for at least the past seven years. Look at this quote from Domenici's colleagues from the same report cited above:
"Those of us who work with him have not seen much deterioration." |
82 women dead in first year of anti-abortion law in Nicaragua| |
Excerpt: "This new law intentionally denies women access to health services essential to saving their lives, and is thus inconsistent with Nicaragua's obligations under international human rights law," says Human Rights Watch. |
Old-timers remember how captured Nazis were interrogated| |
Excerpt: "We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture," said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Blunt criticism of modern enemy interrogations was a common refrain at the ceremonies held beside the Potomac River near Alexandria. Across the river, President Bush defended his administration's methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects during an Oval Office appearance.
Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the [present-day] controversial techniques. And when the time came for them to accept honors from the Army's Freedom Team Salute, one veteran refused, citing his opposition to the war in Iraq and procedures that have been used at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"I feel like the military is using us to say, 'We did spooky stuff then, so it's okay to do it now,' " said Arno Mayer, 81, a professor of European history at Princeton University.
When Peter Weiss, 82, went up to receive his award, he commandeered the microphone and gave his piece.
"I am deeply honored to be here, but I want to make it clear that my presence here is not in support of the current war," said Weiss, chairman of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy and a human rights and trademark lawyer in New York City. |
Lawsuit suggests that Oral Roberts University is an arm of the Republican Party| |
Excerpt: Three former Oral Roberts University professors sued the school and four administrators in Tulsa County District Court on Tuesday, alleging wrongful termination and wrongful causing of one professor's resignation.
The professors said they lost their jobs because they turned over to administrators a report that alleged the Richard Roberts family extensively spent university money for personal uses. Roberts is ORU's president.
Roberts' wife is accused of fooling around with underage boys
Excerpt: [The lawsuit includes allegations that a] longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
Mrs. Roberts -- who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site -- frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."
Comment: When I read the ORU lawsuit the first thing that stands out is that the first Defendant is "ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY, an Oklahoma Corporation".
OK, get that? A *business*. A tax-exempt business, free of all local, state and federal taxes, including property taxes.
Keep that in mind as you read the complaint (PDF), the
details of which make the news articles seem like
cover-ups. ... MORE ... Z PERMANENT LINK |
Desmond Tutu kept off campus for criticizing Israel| |
Excerpt: St. Thomas leaders chose not to bring Tutu to campus after hearing concerns about "hurtful" comments he's made about Israel that might offend local Jews, a university official confirmed Wednesday.
Officials also acknowledged a professor was stripped of her leadership post at St. Thomas' Justice and Peace Studies Program for the way she challenged the administration's decision.
St. Thomas has invited controversial speakers before. Two years ago, conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter came to the campus to speak about her book, "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right," an appearance that required extra security. |
DC authorities shut down California government websites| |
Excerpt: "Unfortunately there was no prior notification, they just made the change and sent us an e-mail to one of our administrators who wouldn't be a normal contact," Hanacek says. "Once that person saw the e-mail and started looking we determined how serious this could be and we opened our emergency operations center. Unfortunately that was about 3 in the afternoon and folks back East were already going home, so it took us some time to get hold of the right people in the General Services Administration to get this address reinstated."
Comment: Bigger picture, it's worth remembering that with a push of a button in Washington DC, all your on-line freedom of speech can be instantly silenced. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Lightning round news | |
Congressional Dems fail to block Republican measure that requires them to eat poo
Yet another study shows Bush's
war on terror is fueling terrorism
New York City pays hundreds
of teachers not to teach
What DID happen to the
Glocks given to Iraq's police?
Brits prosecute teenager for possession of book
Court won't declare chimp a person
Bush says he 'never really thought about' war
After 14 years in prison, DNA evidence
frees another innocent man in Texas
Bush opposes calling genocide "genocide",
since it might harm trade relations
Eight more wrongly imprisoned men
quietly released from Guantanamo
Editor scolded but keeps his
job after 'F**k Bush' column
CIA still 'disappearing' unlucky foreigners
State court says candidates
can't be punished for lying
Last week's Republican pervert, despite
"suicide watch", is found hung in his cell
Edwards hammers "corporate Democrat" Clinton
20th Century Fox is sued over "anti-
Semitic" song parody on Family Guy
San Francisco Mayor speaks common
sense on ending drug prohibition
Schlessinger's diary dishes dirt
on five decades of political elite
Texas court told condemned man:
Sorry, we're closed for the day
Second court martial illegal, Watada argues
U-Cal Berkeley puts lectures on YouTube
Beltway Sniper calls victim's daughter
to apologize for killing her father
'Howl' again too hot to hear
Former President Carter gets
testy at guided tour of Darfur
Supreme Court lets Alabama
ban on sex toys stand
U.S. helped cover up Israeli
attack on USS Liberty in 1967
Israel admits bombing Syria a month ago| |
Comment: And the world yawns, because Israel (rather like America) can get away with any atrocity. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Former Bush White House lawyer
says, yup, sure, eavesdropping
program was illegal and we knew it
U.S. labs mishandling deadly germs
Regulatory agency knew of Utah mine's
problems years before disaster
Hugging banned by another school principal
who ought to be working in a pizza shop
Again, and again and again: "Abstinence only"
education does not slow the spread of AIDS
Iraqi death count drops as lies take effect
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At least
832,962
people have
been killed in Afghanistan & Iraq
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This week's commentary
Gangsters in politicians' clothing
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: There is no meaningful way in which the US can be considered a nation of laws. We are, to a first approximation, a nation of gangsters armed to the teeth and out to loot the rest of the world at the tip of a nuclear bayonet. |
The joys of torture!
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Our Lady of the Military Industrial Complex says, "Torture is war-profitable, so just lie about it and get on with the business at hand!" |
Urgent memo from the
Reality Liberation Front
by Hazel Burke, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Now we are at the point where vast fortunes wait to be won and lost. One day, those who wager correctly will make huge sums in no time at all -- or be allowed to stay in business -- while those who buy into the government propaganda stand to lose everything in mere hours. |
Cause and effect, pause and reflect
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This is the effect a warmongering madman has on the world. |
We are not them
by Chris D., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Two men murder each other. Which one was the criminal? You only get to pick one. Vicious little circle, isn't it? |
Propaganda kills
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The Bush Reich War of Terror is winding up for a blitzkrieg on Iran. I know it, you know it, and most of the world's barely above literate know it. The Bush Reich propaganda machine is working double overtime to prepare, or should that read dummy down, the American people for Middle East Conflagration Part Deux. Here we go again. If they're successful in pulling a little 'shock-and-awe' wool over our eyes, that will probably engage the civilized world in a War of Finality. Armageddon, so to speak. Russia and China aren't going to stay idle on the sidelines for this one, kids. No how, no way. |
Viewing the world and life
as a vast shade of gray
by Chris M., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: In America "WAR" per se is an abstract concept. Except for the Civil War there has never been any bloodshed on American soil. The people here do not know what it is like to have guns and tanks and bombs going off... soldiers shooting anything that moves... seeing those next door blown to bits... their children, relatives and friends tortured, maimed or killed... their houses and cities blown to bits... |
Our methods aren't working, and they haven't worked for years
by Nick, Action Mill| |
Excerpt: When you get arrested for something meaningless, like jumping a fence, no one reading an article about you gets outraged. If you want to get arrested, get arrested for doing something people might believe you should be allowed to do. When you get arrested for jumping a fence, you're protesting fences.
And we can do better than that -- protesters doing sit-ins in Congressional offices have gone a different route, and they're getting arrested for asking to be heard by someone who's supposed to listen to them. |
What do you call an American
who votes Republican and
isn't a millionaire? A "sucker."
by Mark Ames,
The Exile [Moscow, Russia]| |
Excerpt: Thanks to the Red State monkeys, America now has suffered its worst military defeat and foreign policy disaster ever (naturally they're rallying around their favorite draft-dodging junkie, Rush Limbaugh, in response to fucking their war up); has seen its currency collapse to the point where the world financial community is starting to dump it for Euros; and now, America is up for a fire sale, because to foreigners, we look just like Mexico. |
Republicans laugh at
the misery of others
by Paul Krugman, New York Times| |
Excerpt: Of course, minimizing and mocking the suffering of others is a natural strategy for political figures who advocate lower taxes on the rich and less help for the poor and unlucky. But I believe that the lack of empathy shown by Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Kristol, and, yes, Mr. Bush is genuine, not feigned.
Mark Crispin Miller, the author of "The Bush Dyslexicon," once made a striking observation: all of the famous Bush malapropisms -- "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family," and so on -- have involved occasions when Mr. Bush was trying to sound caring and compassionate.
By contrast, Mr. Bush is articulate and even grammatical when he talks about punishing people; that's when he's speaking from the heart. The only animation Mr. Bush showed during the flooding of New Orleans was when he declared "zero tolerance of people breaking the law," even those breaking into abandoned stores in search of the food and water they weren't getting from his administration. |
Last week's commentary
The neo-Blues Brothers ride again
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: "We're getting the band back together again, man. We're on a mission, a mission from God."
'Joliet' Jake Cheney and Elwood Rumsfeld in their up-armored 'BluesMobile' are getting together the 'Chicken-Hawk War and Blues Review' for another victory tour. |
God forbid you might actually
want to do something about it
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: If you blink you miss the reports on the war and world news reports. They carefully sandwich them in with How to get thin, How to buy the right shoes, Where the best restaurants are...
Why? Because they want you to keep consuming, keep going to work, and not think about the real goings on in the world. |
Elephants in the room
by JR Mooneyham, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We've allowed true evil-doers to set up an enormous maze of pitfalls and traps for any good-hearted or well-intentioned person to traverse, while constructing a super-wide express lane for villains to easily slide right into our highest seats of power, and easily deflect all attempts to pry them out again.
So what's a real people's hero to do in such a situation? |
It is too late
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: You see the rot setting in everywhere -- rising prices, the housing bust, a wildly fluctuating stock market, foreign governments getting rid of dollars for other more stable currencies such as the Euro, stagnant wages, no health benefits, increasing numbers of homeless, America's cities and states dangerously close to bankruptcy ... |
Don't you just hate "them"?
by Sherri B., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Can you do it in time? Can you drop your hatred for other cultures and religions in time to band together against the enemy? If you can't -- well, it's been a good ride. |
The blind leading
the amazingly stupid
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We are trapped in the demented psychosis of G. Bush. His dementia is our living nightmare and there's not much 'we the people' can do about our current hell. Congress refuses to act, and where could the American people turn for a "redress of grievances?" Congress is closed to regular Americans, and listens only to the special interest monied corporate elite. |
What if it's all on purpose?
by FOMAD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: There is total chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran is dealing with the IAEA, sweating out a possibility of nuclear extermination, Syria just got lit up by Israel, the Palestinians are in about the worst shape ever, Russia and China are new best buds, torture, renditions, mini-nukes, global economy crash, depleted uranium, GIs going haywire due to the stress, mercenaries without a law, everyone in the world hates America, global warming seems to be accelerating the glacier melts at an alarming rate, not to mention the ice-free passages in the northern regions, but is it possible that we are indeed being out-thought? That all this is on purpose? |
When greed turns
to fear and loathing
by Ding Pahc, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: After 6.75 years in office most of the members of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve are "loyal Bushy" appointees. A lot of the original crew members resigned without much in the way of explanation. When Greenspan receives his "Hero of the Peoples' Republic" medal and a pat on the back, "Heckuva job, Greenie!", you will want to look into the overall personnel situation at the Federal Reserve. |
Why do Americans
refuse to get angry?
by Jafo, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: They are slaughtering a lot of innocent people the world over. People disappear at random into the secret prison system to be tortured and kept indefinitely. Our leaders steal, they pillage, they rape, they torture, they starve people. They refuse to help people that are being slaughtered by others because it is our ally slaughtering them, or because they don't have any more natural resources for big corporations to steal. We watch them take away what our forefathers laid out for us as our natural rights as human beings and they tell us it's for our own good. When people are being beaten and tasered for having the nerve to speak out, speak up, or speak against, American citizens actually cheer! |
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