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Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, Tenet, and Ashcroft
approved torture in secret White House meetings| |
Excerpt: In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be [tortured] by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.
This is the first time sources have disclosed that a handful of the most senior advisers in the White House explicitly approved the details of the program. According to multiple sources, it was members of the Principals Committee that not only discussed specific plans and specific interrogation methods, but approved them.
At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
According to a former CIA official involved in the process, CIA headquarters would receive cables from operatives in the field asking for authorization for specific techniques. Agents, worried about overstepping their boundaries, would await guidance in particularly complicated cases dealing with high-value detainees, two CIA sources said.
Sources said that at each discussion, all the Principals present approved.
The Principals also approved interrogations that combined different methods, pushing the limits of international law and even the Justice Department's own legal approval in a 2002 memo, sources told ABC News.
Then-Attorney General Ashcroft was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and had repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said. |
More from the United States of Torture
Bush: "I was aware" of torture
Excerpt: President Bush says he knew his top national security advisors discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday.
"Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC New s White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And, yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."
ACLU calls for independent counsel to investigate
Bush-Cheney administration’s approval of torture
Excerpt: The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to demand an independent prosecutor to investigate possible violations by the Bush administration of laws including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws.
"No one in the executive branch of government can be trusted to fairly investigate or prosecute any crimes since the head of every relevant department, along with the president and vice president, either knew or participated in the planning and approval of illegal acts," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress cannot look the other way; it must demand an independent investigation and independent prosecutor."
Comment: Absolutely predictably, the administration's stunning admission has been virtually ignored since it was reported, and the media's "top stories" revolve around Britney Spears' fender-bender and Ivana Trump's remarriage... Stanley T. PERMANENT LINK
Reporter, held without charges for six years, draws pictures
of tortured life at Guantanamo ... and pictures are censored
Excerpt: Since January 7, 2007 (the fifth anniversary of his detention without trial by the US), [Sami al-Haj] has been on a hunger strike. Although he is strapped into a restraint chair twice a day and force-fed against his will and despite the fact that he is "very thin" and "[h]is memory is disintegrating," according to Stafford Smith, Sami continues to seek ways to publicize the plight of his fellow prisoners.
During the most recent visit from his lawyers in February -- with Cori Crider of Reprieve -- he produced a number of morbid, and almost hallucinatory sketches illustrating his take on conditions in Guantánamo, which he described as "Sketches of My Nightmare."
Pentagon ignores Iraq court order to release another long-imprisoned journalist
Excerpt: The US military will continue to hold Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein until it has reviewed an Iraqi order granting him amnesty from terror-related allegations, a US spokesman said Thursday.
An Iraqi judicial committee on Monday dismissed terrorism-related allegations against Hussein and ordered him released after nearly two years in US custody.
US authorities have said a U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to retain custody of a detainee they believe is a security risk even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed.
On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military will make its decisions on Hussein's case "based upon their assessment as to whether he remains a threat."
CIA sent 14 to be tortured in Jordan
Pentagon torture report is "delayed" for "review"
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Sequioa voting machines subpoenaed after discrepancies are uncovered| |
Excerpt: Subpoenas were issued yesterday in six New Jersey counties demanding that election officials turn over all the voting machines where discrepancies were found in the presidential primary tallies for testing by an independent consultant.
"In order to succeed in our case and show Sequoia machines are insecure and can be hacked into, we need to look at these machines," Venetis said. Clerks in these six counties uncovered discrepancies in 60 machines when they double-checked the vote tallies after the Feb. 5 presidential primary.
Sequoia officials have long argued tests could violate their confidentiality agreements and risk their trade secrets.
Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi, who spearheaded the call for testing, said she was disturbed by Sequoia's stance against independent tests.
"Obviously, they feel there is something they must protect," she said.
Comment: What Sequoia is protecting is that they've subverted Democracy at its most fundamental level. Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK
Sequoia voting machine failure in New Jersey worse than previously thought |
Members of Congress have $196M invested in war profiteers| |
Excerpt: Members of Congress have as much as $196 million collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the onset of the Iraq war, according to a study by a nonpartisan research group.
The center's review of lawmakers' 2006 financial disclosure statements suggests that members' holdings could pose a conflict of interest as they decide the fate of Iraq war spending. Several members earning money from these contractors have plum committee or leadership assignments, including Democratic Sen. John Kerry, independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman and House Republican Whip Roy Blunt.
The study found that more Republicans than Democrats hold stock in defense companies, but that the Democrats who are invested had significantly more money at stake. In 2006, for example, Democrats held at least $3.7 million in military-related investments, compared to Republican investments of $577,500. |
Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
‘Secret’ US plan: Stay in Iraq forever, do whatever we want
Excerpt: A confidential draft agreement covering the future of US forces in Iraq, passed to the Guardian, shows that provision is being made for an open-ended military presence in the country.
The draft strategic framework agreement between the US and Iraqi governments, dated March 7 and marked "secret" and "sensitive", is intended to replace the existing UN mandate and authorizes the US to "conduct military operations in Iraq and to detain individuals when necessary for imperative reasons of security" without time limit.
iraq vets: 'Petraeus' spin has no relationship with reality on the ground'
Excerpt: Contrary to General Petraeus's testimony, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) attest that the major destabilizing force in Iraq is the ongoing US occupation. What's more, US troops are being commanded to perform acts that directly violate their moral codes and the rules of war, making a positive outcome exceedingly difficult to achieve.
Six years into occupation of Iraq, Republicans' reasoning remains utter nonsense
Excerpt: "For us to walk away from Iraq I think would have at least that bad an effect, probably worse, because if al Qaeda were to take over big parts of Iraq, among other things, they would acquire control of a significant oil resource. Iraq has almost 100 billion barrel reserves, producing 2.5-3 million barrels of oil a day. If you take a terrorist organization like al Qaeda and give it that kind of revenue, there’s no telling the amount of trouble they could get into."
It’s hard to overstate how ridiculously far-fetched this is.
1,300 Iraqi soldiers and police are fired
Excerpt: The Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra, officials said Sunday.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said 921 police and soldiers were fired in Basra. They included 37 senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general.
Comment: AP's fine coverage doesn't say, but it's probably safe to assume that these fired cops were sent home with their weapons. That's what the US did when it disbanded the Iraqi military after winning the brief war against Iraq in 2003, which of course contributed to years of violence and thousands of dead Americas. And if you think the same US idiots who made that decision aren't still running "the Iraqi government", well, you wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge? Ex-Republican PERMANENT LINK
US fortress/"embassy" in Baghdad to open soon
Excerpt: Increasing rocket attacks on the Green Zone have killed four Americans in recent weeks and have embassy staff wearing body armor.
The new embassy will be the largest US diplomatic mission in the world, with fortified working space for 1,000 people and living quarters for several hundred on a 104-acre site.
Comment: They think they'll be safe in their fortress? It's just a boondoggle for Bush buddies. This smug overconfidence and insult to Iraqis will only lead to more American deaths. Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK
Bush cancels Iraq troop withdrawals
Excerpt: President Bush has announced a freeze to all US troop withdrawals from Iraq after some brigades pull out in July. This week the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told lawmakers troops need to remain to protect what he called the gains of the so-called "surge." On Thursday, Bush said Petraeus would have "all the time he needs."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid criticized Bush’s announcement. "He’s leaving all the tough decisions to the only person that is going to have to make those tough decisions, the next president of the United States."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also criticized President Bush. Pelosi said the White House is entrenching the Iraq occupation beyond Bush’s presidency.
Why claims of ’significant progress’ sound kind of familiar
Colonel killed while running treadmill in Green Zone
Smirking Gates says he no longer "hopes" to reduce US presence in Iraq
Iraqi detainees languish uncharged in crowded jails at "Camp Constitution, Iraq"
Petraeus, Crocker blow another load of Iraq lies past US lawmakers
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Skyrocketing food prices
ignite worldwide crisis| |
Excerpt: With the price of food skyrocketing around the world, desperately poor and overpopulated Bangladesh is considered one of the world's most vulnerable nations.
An adviser to the country's Ministry of Food, A.M.M. Shawkat Ali, warned of a "hidden hunger" in Bangladesh and economists estimate 30 million of the country's 150 million people could go hungry -- a crisis that could become a serious political problem for the military-backed government.
Bangladesh is far from the only country with food problems. There have been riots in the African nations of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. Rising prices have hit poor countries like Haiti and Peru and even developed countries like Italy and the United States. |
Moody's worries as some banks grow wary of foreclosures| |
Excerpt: Banks are so overwhelmed by the US housing crisis they've started to look the other way when homeowners stop paying their mortgages. ...
Lenders who allow owners to stay in their homes are distorting the record foreclosure rate and delaying the worst of the housing decline, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, a unit of New York-based Moody's Corp. These borrowers will eventually push the number of delinquencies even higher and send more homes onto an already glutted market.
"We don't have a sense of the magnitude of what's really going on because the whole process is being delayed," Zandi said in an interview. "Looking at the data, we see the problems, but they are probably measurably greater than we think."
Banks freeze equity
credit lines even for home-
owners with good credit |
US Supreme Court lets judges disregard acquittals and punish defendants found not guilty| |
Excerpt: In recent years, the [Supreme Court] justices
have ... been unwilling to say
that a jury's not-guilty verdict on
some charges means the defendant cannot be punished. Instead, the court has said judges may take into account |
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Lightning round news |
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| | "acquitted conduct" when they decide on a prison term. ...
In 1997, the high court endorsed the acquitted conduct rule in a California case, but the justices did so in a brief, unsigned opinion. They agreed judges can decide on the sentence for a convicted criminal by "relying on the entire range of conduct" presented by prosecutors, not just the charges that resulted in guilty verdicts. In recent years, the rule has allowed judges to give defendants long prison terms even when a jury rejected key parts of the prosecution's case. |
Election 2008
Obama effectively clinched the Democratic nomination, long ago
Excerpt: At present, 315 superdelegates are still up for grabs. Using our Delegate Calculator, it becomes clear that Obama would need to win just 33%, or 104, of the remaining 315 superdelegates to get over the top.
Obama refusal to pay "street money" could hurt him in Philadelphia
Excerpt: The dispute centers on the dispensing of "street money," a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city's Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote.
Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce.
It is all legal -- but Obama's people are telling the local bosses he won't pay.
Another fake controversy: Obama's "elitist" comments on bitterness
Excerpt: It always amuses me when upper-class people with power and privilege start screeching about "elitism." Today all manner of political, media and blogging elites -- people with advanced degrees who’ve never been to a tractor pull in their lives -- are snorting about elitism because Barack Obama said something that anyone with a real redneck background knows to be true -- working-class, small-town whites feel left behind, bitter and frustrated.
... My remarks today are aimed at the critics who are rushing forward to defend the tender sensibilities of small-town, working class whites that Obama allegedly offended. I say that most of those expressing outrage and defending the "values" of small-town Americans are the real elitists.
You're darn right I'm bitter
by Bitter Jon, Bitter Voters for Obama
Excerpt: It requires minimal intelligence to interpret that Obama meant we were Bitter in that we are fed up, turned off, and have had enough of politics as usual. Personally, I've voted in 5 presidential elections; when I look at what has become of this country during the course of those 20 years, I do feel intensely acrid on the inside. Over the last eight years in particular, when our leaders talk about how they are going to fix something I do respond with cynicism.
Clinton video shows how cozy she was with Wal-Mart
Excerpt: A mammoth archive of Wal-Mart video footage that has gone all but unnoticed in the 2008 presidential campaign may shed new light into Clinton’s relationship with the company.
In the video, Clinton is effusive in her praise of the company that she has now all but disowned.
"I’m so proud of this company, and everything it represents," Clinton says in the video clip.
Clinton was pretty much spot on in her "debunked" hospital horror story
Excerpt: Then The Washington Post identified Ms. Bachtel, the hospital where she died claimed that the story was false -- and the news media went to town, accusing Mrs. Clinton of making stuff up. Instead of being a story about health care, it became a story about the candidate’s supposed problems with the truth.
In fact, Mrs. Clinton was accurately repeating the story as it was told to her -- and it turns out that while some of the details were slightly off, the essentials of her story were correct. After all the fuss, the Washington Post eventually conceded that "Bachtel’s medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence" of Mrs. Clinton’s account.
McCain defiant on vote against 1990 civil rights bill
Obama wants 'don't ask, don't tell' repealed
ABC News and McCain campaign criticize Obama for "near gaffe"
on al Qaeda, ignore McCain's repeated misstatements related
McCain attacks Soros-funded group -- even though McCain's group took Soros money, too
Clinton lies that she "grew up in a working-class family"
McCain says he'll cut deficits like Reagan (who tripled the deficit)
Non-partisan Project Vote Smart can't get straight answers from John McCain
McCain seems confused about al Qaeda again, suggests it’s a ’sect of Shi’ites
Media again obsesses over Clinton's laugh
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Big Brother Bush is watching you (and the Democrats approve)
FBI operates massive domestic spy program, often without warrants
Excerpt: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been routinely monitoring the e-mails, instant messages and cell phone calls of suspects across the United States -- and has done so, in many cases, without the approval of a court.
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and given to the Washington Post -- which stuck the story on page three -- show that the FBI's massive dragnet, connected to the backends of telecommunications carriers, "allows authorized FBI agents and analysts, with point-and-click ease, to receive e-mails, instant messages, cellphone calls and other communications that tell them not only what a suspect is saying, but where he is and where he has been, depending on the wording of a court order or a government directive," the Post says.
Another whistleblower discovers circuit that allows access to all
systems on wireless carrier -- phone calls, text messages, emails and more
Excerpt: "Well, they were very squirrelly about it. They didn’t want to answer the questions. I thought that the whole situation was very unusual and suspicious, and that’s what raised my suspicions with regard to what the purpose of this connection was. We -- I tried to escalate it to the organization’s management, and the director of security came down to the data center -- it was at 7:00 or 8:00, 9:00 at night, it was just after hours definitely -- and started wagging his finger in my face, saying that if I -- you know, I had to forget about it, I had to move on, and if I couldn’t, he would get somebody that would."
Democrats "object" to new domestic spying program
Excerpt: The Bush administration said Friday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.
The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been used for decades within US borders for mapping and disaster response.
Critics cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses.
Alabama beach closed after Air Force drones wash ashore
Excerpt: Several unmanned military drones with US Air Force markings washed ashore in Alabama and forced the closure of a portion of at least one beach. ... The drones did not pose a danger to beachgoers, officials said.
Is the FISA fight over?
Excerpt: Despite claims that congressional inaction was responsible for increased threats against Americans, and despite demands that the president would never accept a compromise on surveillance power and telecom immunity, the White House indicated recently that the Bush gang might be willing to chat with Democratic leaders after all. ... House Republicans, who had been shouting that the sky was falling as a result of the PAA’s expiration, have apparently decided to accept the status quo and turn their attention elsewhere.
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Wal-Mart management caught on candid video| |
Excerpt: Wal-Mart's internal meetings are on display in three decades worth of videos made by a Kansas production company scrambling to stay in business after the retailing giant stopped using the firm.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. dropped long-time contractor Flagler Productions in 2006. In response to losing its biggest customer, the small company has opened its archive, for a fee, to researchers who include plaintiffs' lawyers and union critics seeking clips of unguarded moments at the world's largest retailer. |
Olympic shame 2008
IOC president admits Olympics in "crisis"
Excerpt: International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said yesterday the worldwide protests about China's human rights prompted him to declare the Olympic Movement was facing a "crisis". He indicated, for the first time, that the Olympic mandarins were having serious second thoughts about their decision seven years ago to award the Games to Beijing.
Chinese paramilitary corps provide thuggish
security for Olympic torch in England, France, USA
Excerpt: They wear bright blue tracksuits and Beijing Olympic organizers call them "flame attendants." But a military bearing hints at their true pedigree: paramilitary police sent by Beijing to guard the Olympic flame during its journey around the world.
Torchbearers have criticized the security detail for aggressive behavior, and a top London Olympics official simply called them "thugs."
Japan declines offer of Chinese torch-guarding thugs
Excerpt: "We do not know what position the people who escorted the relay are in," [Shinya Izumi, head of the National Public Safety Commission] was quoted as saying. "If they are for the consideration of security, it is our role."
Olympic torch takes secret trip through San Francisco
Excerpt: Thousands of people converged along the announced scenic Embarcadero waterfront route. But after the opening ceremony, the first runner was flanked by blue-clad Chinese security officials and carried the torch into a warehouse. The torch eventually turned up miles away.
Pro-Tibet activists planned Olympic PR for years
Excerpt: Soon after China was awarded the Olympic Games seven years ago, a series of public relations strategy sessions were held. But it wasn't the Chinese government holding the sessions: it was grass-roots Tibet support groups in the United States and abroad.
British Prime Minister Brown will skip Olympic opening ceremony
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Republicans use Justice Department to subvert justice
Poppy Bush's Attorney General calls out political prosecution of Democrat in Pennsylvania
Excerpt: Mary Beth Buchanan, the US Attorney in Pittsburgh, has long been the subject of questions about partisan prosecutions. But in 2006, Buchanan raised more than a few eyebrows when she went after former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht, indicting him on multiple counts of various federal crimes, including theft from an organization that receives federal funds.
What, exactly, did Wecht do? Apparently, his transgressions included the improper use of the coroner’s fax machine for private work. Of course, there was no evidence "of a bribe or kickback" and no evidence that Wecht traded on a conflict of interest.
FBI agents "intimidate" jury foreman in Pennsylvania political prosecution
Excerpt: Using the FBI to contact jurors is far from commonplace (Jerry McDevitt, another of Wecht's attorneys, told me that the agent who'd contacted the jurors was not even the agent who had worked on the Wecht case). [Former Attorney General Richard] Thornburgh told me that it was "unprecedented" in his experience. A former federal prosecutor told the Tribune-Review that it was unusual. And a veteran defense attorney from the Pittsburgh area told the paper that he'd never heard of such a thing. And there's a reason:
Justice Dept makes secret deals with big corporations that break the law
Excerpt: In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking down giant corporations, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, has put off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years.
Instead, many companies, from boutique outfits to immense corporations like American Express, have avoided the cost and stigma of defending themselves against criminal charges with a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, which allows the government to collect fines and appoint an outside monitor to impose internal reforms without going through a trial. In many cases, the name of the monitor and the details of the agreement are kept secret.
Justice Dept continues "war on porn" with indictment of XXX movie mogul
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Court orders publication, blasts "fundamental absurdity"
of EU's secret list of items prohibited in air travel| |
Excerpt: The case arose from an episode in September 2005, when Gottfried Heinrich was stopped at the security control of Vienna-Schwechat Airport because his carry-on baggage contained tennis rackets. |
Randi Rhodes quits Air America, joins Nova-M| |
Excerpt: The Nova M Radio Network is thrilled to announce the addition of The Randi Rhodes Show to its nationally syndicated talent offerings beginning this Monday, April 14, 2008.
Comment: With Rachel Maddow and Thom Hartmann, Air America still has two very good weekday shows, but if you believe in the future of progressive radio in America, this is the best news in a long time. Someone asked me, what's the difference between Air America and Nova-M? They're both progressive radio networks, but the main difference is that Nova-M is a progressive radio network that's actually owned and managed by progressives. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Immigration officials broke the law to cover up racist Halloween photos| |
Excerpt: A House panel is calling for independent investigations of whether senior US immigration enforcement officials violated federal laws after they honored a white agency employee dressed as an escaped black prisoner at an office Halloween party.
Julie L. Myers, head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), last fall acknowledged ordering the destruction of photographs of the worker. In a report released Tuesday, the House Homeland Security Committee concluded that Myers also ordered the relocation of the worker from ICE headquarters in Washington. |
Bush administration wants to move cattle-disease research facility into cattle country | |
Excerpt: Concerns are being raised over a Bush administration effort to move research on foot & mouth animal disease from an isolated island laboratory to the US mainland near herds of livestock. ... Sites in Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina, Texas and Mississippi are being considered for the new lab, which would open in 2014.
Comment: Off hand, I can't see any reason for such a switch except, of course, that it's stupid -- which is probably reason enough for the Bush-Cheney administration. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Rice decries Carter's plan for Hamas talks| |
Excerpt: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized former President Carter on Friday for his reported plans to meet the exiled leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas during a visit to Syria.
Comment: The Secretary of State who refuses to even think about using diplomacy anywhere in the world, criticizes the President who won the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the Middle East the closest it's ever come to getting along. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
UN Human Rights nominee stands by comparison of Israel to Nazis| |
Excerpt: "If this kind of situation had existed for instance in the manner in which China was dealing with Tibet or the Sudanese government was dealing with Darfur, I think there would be no reluctance to make that comparison," [Richard Falk] said.
That reluctance was, he argued, based on the particular historical sensitivity of the Jewish people, and Israel's ability to avoid having their policies held up to international law and morality. |
Houghton-Mifflin high school textbook tilts toward global warming "skeptics"| |
Excerpt: Of 22 sources cited in the 11th edition’s environmental chapter, nine are about global warming. Of the nine, five question climate change science ... |
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This week's commentary
America has been completely punked
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: One of the very painful realities that we will need to confront as we wake up to the consequences of our stupidity, is that we will need to abandon the stories that we have become accustomed to hearing about ourselves. Our enemies are not from abroad, not from somewhere far away, but live in our own communities.
With some exceptions that need to be carefully proven, our enemies are those of us who have become rich while the rest of us have been becoming progressively poorer. |
We are all trapped in The System
by Hazel Burke, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This has got to be one of those "crowd think" situations, otherwise known as Monkey See, Monkey Do, but where the monkeys are juggling lit sticks of dynamite. |
War on porn & attacking Hillary Clinton
by Chris D., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Once somebody gets it in their head that something is offensive to them, they get the urge to purge it from the face of the Earth and to Hell with anyone who doesn't share that sentiment. I get the idea that there are things we should shield are kids from but isn't this, y'know... stupid? |
Atlas shrugs, again
by Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: A few parasites are tolerable, but if the entire system is covered with heart worms, ticks, lice, bedbugs, viruses and oozing wounds, then no-one profits. And at that point, Atlas shrugs, and goes into self-defense mode, saving itself. |
What's really reflected in Cheney's sunglasses
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I know the truth, and me and Syd had us one fine joy ride out to the moon, and the moon is highly overrated. But the ride was cool as hell and there isn’t diddly I can do for those ‘detained’ alien types. I feel bad for them, but our fine government has work for them to do and things will be just fine until alien guys’ home-boys come looking for them. |
Addressing the sub-prime crisis with pure BS
by Chris M., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This is all after the fact BS that sounds politically good but really does little to help. Someone needs to watch The Grapes of Wrath again and pay attention this time. |
Pukeworthy: Democrats blame Bush for Iraq quagmire
by Hazel Burke, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Democrats appear to have voted for continuing the war because they were afraid of being branded pacifist, isolationist, bin Laden-loving Defeatocrats. ... The Democrats are manipulative cynics in this battle, who purposely allowed America to be degraded to advance their own selfish ambitions for power and wealth. We expect that of Republicans and are not surprised. Of the Democrats many expected more ... |
Gen. David H. Petraeus -- stupid or a liar
by Marie K., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: There is competition between those ethnic Americans and Britons and the Iraqis over who controls Iraq and its resources. Sometimes the Americans and the British bomb and attack the Shiites and sometimes the Sunnis, and sometimes the Arabs and sometimes the Kurds. |
Two rocks out of the ground
by M.M., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I realize now that a female candidate will always be too young or too old, too tall or too short, not pretty enough or too pretty. Men continue to visit all of their fear and insecurity onto women's bodies. We continually receive the message that a woman is incomplete without a man. |
We're looking at World War III
by Nan R., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Lacking any ability to defend itself from an American attack, Iran will do the next best thing (from its perspective): It'll launch missiles at Israel. ... Israel, of course, has nuclear weapons, and for all the propaganda about Iran's insane leadership, Israel's leadership is more obviously certifiable, and might well be willing to face the blowback -- literally and metaphorically -- from using nukes. |
What have we become?
by Don Nash, Unknown News
After the fighting in Basra + more US lies
by Marie K., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: As for there being Iranian fighters in Iraq, as The Times of London reports US Gen. David Petraeus will say to Congress, Cole says that there have been Iranian pilgrims going to the sacred Shiite shrines, but the pilgrims have been recalled home and the pilgrimages halted. Cole adds that "a handful may have gotten caught up in the fighting," but for Iran to send Iranian troops or agents into Basra to undermine Iraqi government forces "on behalf of the Sadr Movement just strikes me as daft. It flies in the face of everything else we know about the relationship of these groups with Iran." |
Bottom-line thinking sinks North American economies
by Chris D., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We have more money but we get less out of it. Essentials are more expensive to buy. Food, clothing, medicine are all made at the lowest cost for the highest return; cheaply produced but expensive to buy. Services such as healthcare are poorly managed and the coverage of those services tends to suffer as cost becomes the bottom line rather than a patient's health. When it gets down to it the workings of our society make it so that we have little time to ourselves and even less time to enjoy it causing our physical and mental health to deteriorate quicker. We spend a lot of time trying to convince ourselves we have it better. Maybe it's about time we drop the ego and look at our lives objectively. |
No-one wants Monopoly money in real life
by Chris M., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The Fed knows, as does everyone else on Wall Street, that not only is the party nearly over, but there is a chance the building will be condemned as well. They are playing Monopoly without buildings or properties and very little money, trying to con the guy next to them and hoping no-one finds out what is really going on. |
Interacting with the stupid
by JS Magruder, Why Not Resist?| |
Excerpt: After drinking the first cup of bitter-citrus liquid, my throat started itching and I felt nauseated. Similar to the way I get if I accidentally eat a cashew. I immediately mentioned this to the radiology desk person who dismissed me as crazy, and in a lecturing tone informed me that they’d be unable to do the test the doctor ordered if I didn’t finish drinking the contrast. I don’t know about you, but I really resent taking attitude from someone young enough to be my daughter. |
Previous commentary
We are all insurgents at heart
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The truth is that if you want to fight a whole people, the only possible avenue to "Victory" is total, or near total, genocide, such as was pursued in the American Indian Wars. It is a mark of social progress that such openly genocidal campaigns of conquest have become unacceptable to the conscience of the world. Now, aims of conquest must be pursued covertly under the cover of "bringing democracy" or "fighting terrorism." |
Torturing politicians
by Don Nash, Unknown News
Congress has a new deal ... for corporations
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The more we spend on the military and police state the less secure the country is, and the sooner the police state will collapse. I believe China is more free now than America. They are certainly more capitalistic than we are. |
Rockefellers and Bushes, Nixons and Kissingers
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The only real significant player in the drama is the sleeping giant of the mass of ordinary people. As long as they keep taking the soporific of material dependency on concentrations of power the story line is stuck. We are on the verge of the point in the story where the giant wakes. That is the drama. |
Equivalence!
by Don Nash, Unknown News
Grass roots censorship
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Freedom of speech is fundamental. It is like the musculature of a free society. If we don't use it, we lose it. As controversy becomes more frightening, and speaking your mind becomes more of a risk, it becomes more important for ordinary citizens to exercise the right of speaking our minds forthrightly and cogently. So what if arguments ensue? At least the right to argue has been defended. |
Garbage in, garbage out
by JR Mooneyham, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Previous Republican-dominated Congresses usually resisted or defied Republican Presidents on at least some matters of importance. But not the last bunch: instead, they marched in a Nazi-like lockstep on practically every issue with the President. The most difference they ever displayed was saying something in opposition in public -- but then turning around and doing exactly what Bush wanted in legislation. |
Just the facts, ma'am
by Z, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: When you add these incredibly fraudulent rip-offs to the fact that the highest levels of the Bush Regime ordered torture against all international law -- laws which the US itself used to hang Germans and Japanese after WWII -- the conclusion must be that our government is run by a criminal syndicate, like the Mafia except they control the whole country, including the money and secret police. |
Who benefits from US-style 'capitalism'?
by Rob L., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The gap between rich and poor has grown bigger each year, and our unions are a pale shadow of their former selves. Who benefits? Not me. |
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