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<A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html">Bad cops</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/debunk.html">Debunked</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html">Dialogue</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/diy.html">Do-it-yourself</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/DrRuhs.html">Dr Herb Ruhs</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/oldnews.html">Old news</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/rwradicals.html">Right-wing calls to violence</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/wow.html">Words of wisdom</A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|</TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="980" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="10" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonttnr"> </TD> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="10" BGcolor=white class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> <TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="635" BGcolor=white class="fonta"> <!-- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx below is duped at 0910-01.html xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --> <A NAME=9></A><!-- =unk --><BR> <!-- greedy bastard --><table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="215" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><img src="http://unknownnews.org/greedybastard-hr.jpg" alt="greedy bastard" border="0" width="200" height="184"></td></tr></table> <A HREF=http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#9><font color=black><BIG><B>A big ol' wet kiss with a reacharound</B></BIG></font></a> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; There seems to be much surprise among politicians and the media's natterers that once the numbers were crunched, the health care reform bill championed by Senator Max Baucus (<font color="#cccccc">D</font>-Montana) <A HREF="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/76743.html">saves many billions of dollars</A> and reduces the budget deficit. Of course, to achieve these savings, most of what one might reasonably call "health care reform" has been stripped out of the legislation.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I've stopped even trying to keep an eye on the ongoing deals and compromises, as the deal has so obviously been sealed. Yup, we're going to see something that President Obama and the dipstick Democrats can call "health care reform", and it's going to be nothing much but a big ol' wet kiss with a reacharound to the insurance industry. <A NAME=10SB420></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Wow, <A HREF="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/08/oklahoma-abortion-online/">they <i>really</i> hate women in Oklahoma</A>. A new state law goes into effect on November 1 that requires the public, on-line posting of a driver's license worth of private information on any woman who has an abortion. Is there any plausible reason for this, beyond the obvious intent of shaming women into bearing unwanted children? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/09/obama-nobel-peace-prize/">The Nobel Peace Prize goes to</A> a guy who's running two wars and hyping propaganda to start a third? It's impossible to take this seriously. Those wacky Norwegians will be the butt of jokes for this, and deservedly so, and the Limbaughs and Hannitys will have a lot of fun. If the President has any sense at all, he'll fly to Oslo for the ceremony but politely decline this undeserved honor. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; It's easy to grow confused or have your brain freeze at all the outrageousness of the financial meltdown and the Bush-Cheney/Obama administrations' criminal response, but if you'd like to get a better grip on what happened and what's still happening, Chris Hayes of <i>The Nation</i> <A HREF="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091019/hayes_video">explains it concisely but coherently</A> in about eight minutes. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Which reminds me of something I've been meaning to say: There aren't many magazine that are worth subscribing to, but <A HREF="https://ssl.thenation.com/sumo/old_campaign"><i>The Nation</i></A> is one of them and <A HREF="http://www.motherjones.com/support+subscribe"><i>Mother Jones</i></A> is the other. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; When candidate and then President Barack Obama promised a break from Washington's tradition of corruption with transparency and vivid rules to limit the influence of lobbyists, <A HREF="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/04-3">Obama was lying</A>. Yeah, alert the media. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Asked whether they'll vote for an un-named Democrat or an un-named Republican in hext year's Congressional election, the answer is <A HREF="http://www.gallup.com/poll/123497/Parties-Nearly-Tied-Congress-2010.aspx">pretty much a dead heat</A>. 46% say they'll vote for the Democrat, 44% say they'll vote for the Republican. <A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think." <DIV align="right">William&nbsp;O.&nbsp;Douglas &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Of course, that's just people answering a survey &#151; the real question to ask is, which party's voters will actually take the trouble to vote when next November comes? So let's think about that for a moment. Conservatives are hearing the wildest un-answered lies about the Marxists and Fascists of the Democratic Party, so they'll be motivated. Liberals have put up with more crap than the toilet at a Greyhound depot, so they'll be disappointed, deflated, and depressed to say the least. Ipso facto pepto bismo, expect significant Republican gains. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The Obama administration seems to be <A HREF="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/10/re-obamas-email-problem">either stonewalling or just as bumblingly incompetent</A> as the Bush-Cheney administration, when it comes to its lackadaisical response to CREW's lawsuit over those missing White House emails. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/10/watch_what_you_tweet.html">Amy Goodman has more details</A> and an appropriate spin on the FBI's raid on a Twitterer's home for tweeting. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Looks like there was no big bombshell surprise from Senator Russ <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-czars7-2009oct07,0,3535667.story">Feingold s hearing into Presidential  czar appointments</A>. Here's the Senator, <A HREF="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/27987.html">explaining his concern</A>: "[If] it's possible that somebody in the White House is actually more involved in making policy than the person who is the cabinet secretary, I think that raises questions in the mind of the public. It certainly raises questions in the mind of a senator, who wants the person who we confirmed to be the principle policymaker."<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I'll swallow that as a theoretical matter, but there are a couple of thousand not-theoretical problems that seem much, much more pressing, so &#151; snap out of it, Russ. <!-- Scalia --><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="267" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><img src="http://unknownnews.org/Scalia.jpg" alt="Antonin Scalia" border="0" width="252" height="342"><BR><BR></td></tr></table> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; This is from US Supreme Court a few days ago, in (yet another) lawsuit involving a Christian cross erected on public land. Justice Antonin Scalia <A HREF="http://www.slate.com/id/2231805/pagenum/all/">seems to deeply <i>not understand</i></A> that the cross is a Christian symbol. He thinks it's some universal symbol of goodness, and says it's "outrageous" to suggest that Muslims and Jews aren't honored by a cross.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Scalia has made it clear in the past that he sees no need for any separation of church and state, so this dialogue isn't as jaw-dropping as it should be, but still, jaws should drop. And it leads to the same question that pops up every time Scalia makes the news: Why is this man sitting on the Supreme Court? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; This is the kind of reporting that makes the <i>New York Times</i> the country s best daily newspaper, bar none. It s an in-depth but eminently readable account of how <A HREF="http://www.cnbc.com/id/33177139">mattress-maker Simmons has been pillaged and plundered</A> by a series of private equity firms that have briefly owned the business and done their best to sink it. This they do because the rules of corporate capitalism are about the drive to short-term profits, usually without the slightest concern about how short-term decisions affect the company in the long-term (meaning, beyond six months from now). <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/">Keith Olbermann's hour-long "special comment"</A> on America's health care catastrophe was, like most of Olbermann's work, good when it could've been great. He's a good writer and a good performer on camera and his heart almost always seems to be in the right place, but as someone who used to work in publishing I can tell you what he doesn't have and desperately needs &#151; <i>an editor</i>. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Glenn Beck is awfully worried about communists in the White House, but he seems blithely unconcerned about the ample <A HREF="http://www.esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/rupert-mudoch-communist-business-ties-100609">asskissing of communist leaders</A> by Fox News owner <A HREF="http://www.nndb.com/people/420/000023351/">Rupert Murdoch</A>. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Absurdly overrated dead TV talker Tim Russert will be honored at the Newseum, with <A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/07/national/a093638D16.DTL&type=politics">an exhibit constructed to resemble his preserved office</A> from NBC News. I'm unfamiliar with the Newseum, but <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newseum">Wikipedia says</A> it's "an interactive museum of news and journalism" in Washington DC, and certainly news and journalism are relics from another time so they deserve a museum. The website says <A HREF="http://www.newseum.org/tickets/about.aspx?item=tickets_splash&style=a">tickets are $19.95</A>, and to that I'll just add a farting sound.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Look, Tim Russert's reporting was nothing more than asking the expected questions and moving on to the next expected question. If that's the kind of journalism that's honored at the Newseum then the place must be run by the same sort of hacks who run most of America's newspapers and "news" shows &#151; hacks like Russert. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Speaking of hacks, Andrew Sullivan's reputation has always seemed supersized in comparison to what he writes, so I'm moderately intrigued by this, in a train wreck way.<A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. this world in arms is not spending money alone. it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. this is not a way of life at all in any true sense. under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." <DIV align="right">Dwight&nbsp;D.&nbsp;Eisenhower &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sullivan was the editor of <i>The New Republic</i> in 1994, when that magazine was near the top in national influence, and when it ran a legendary lie-filled article by Betsy McCaughey, the anti-healthcare liar. I remember reading that article at the time and being struck by its dishonesty, and it s still remembered as helping to sink health care reform way back when.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And now, as McCaughey resurfaces with lies that could sink health care reform again, Sullivan has revisited that low point in his career with comments that amount to admitting that <A HREF="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/10/no-exit">he was forced to run the piece</A>. Question: Who forced the editor of a prominent political magazine to run an article against his will? Answer: Sullivan ain t saying. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2009/10/06/12247/senate_passes_franken_amendment_aimed_at_defense_contractors">Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) proposed an amendment</A> to the Defense Appropriations Bill, which blocks funding for contractors that use terms of employment to prevent women employees from suing over workplace sexual assault. It passed, with ten Republicans &#151; all of them women &#151; breaking party ranks to vote for Franken's amendment. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; From listening to his radio show for several years, I expected Franken to be an easygoing, eager-to-compromise legislator, but <A HREF="http://washingtonindependent.com/60611/al-franken-reads-the-4th-amendment-to-justice-department-official">just a few weeks ago</a> he was reading the Fourth Amendment aloud in the Senate, and now this. So far he's looking like one of our best Senators (though of course that's a mighty low bar). <A NAME=nndb></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; You might not know about <A HREF="http://www.nndb.com/people/450/000179910/">Ray Chapman</A>, who gave his life for baseball. <!-- =hattip --><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; A tip o' the hat to <A HREF="http://www.jrmooneyham.com">JR Mooneyham</A>, Mark&nbsp;T., Sherri&nbsp;B., Cassandra, Joseph&nbsp;D., Joe&nbsp;G., Lon Garm, SirJ, Bill&nbsp;T., Wig, the letter Z, and the love of my life (who prefers to remain anonymous). <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <i>Updated today:</i>&nbsp; Our <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html">bad cops page</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html">daily dialogue</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/debunk.html">it's been debunked</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">mystery links</A>.&nbsp; <i>Next update:</i>&nbsp; Sunday, or sooner if something big and newsy happens. <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#9"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</span></div><HR NOSHADE> <!-- =delete --><A NAME=dialogue></A> <A NAME=d-9></A> <TABLE CELLPADDING="6" CELLSPACING="5" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta" bgcolor="#eeeeee"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta" bgcolor="#eeeeee"><table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="20%" align="left"><tr><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="99%" class="font18"><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/dialogue-bubbles.jpg" border="0" width="100" height="100"></A></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="1%" class="fonta">&nbsp;</td></tr></table><SPAN class="fonta">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>We welcome readers' comments, questions, or criticisms. Just send us an email &#60;<A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com">unknownnews at inbox.com</A>&#62;, and if it adds to the dialogue we'll publish it.</i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="fonty"><i>If that email address ever fails you can also reach us at <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/contact.html">these back-up addresses</A>.</i></span></TD></TR></TABLE><center><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/dailydialogue.html" height="32" width="600" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></TD></TR></TABLE> <A NAME=09JSM732></A><BR> <A HREF=#09JSM732><font color=black><BIG><B>Today's horror</B></BIG></font></a><BR>by<b> J.S. (not the Watergate felon) Magruder</b> at <A HREF="http://whynotresist.blogsome.com/">Why Not Resist?</A><BR><BR> <A NAME=morecomments></A><table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="8" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="65%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="8" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonta"><I><B>Comments on previous entries:</B></I><BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-03-d.html#09AA238"><FONT COLOR=blue> Angry Annie replies to Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein</FONT></A> <DIV align="right">about MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan</div> <BR><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-03-d.html#10HP105"><FONT COLOR=blue> Heidi Papademetriou replies to Wig</FONT></A> <DIV align="right">about religious answers</div> <BR><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-03-d.html#09SB1131"><FONT COLOR=blue> Sherri B. replies to Helen & Harry</FONT></A> <DIV align="right">about that weird school situation</div> <BR><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-03-d.html#096Wig622"><FONT COLOR=blue> Wig replies to Helen & Harry</FONT></A> <DIV align="right">about a soldier's religious conversion</div> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <A HREF="http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/08/oklahoma-abortion-online/">New Oklahoma law will publicly post details of women s abortions online.</A> <BR><BR> Seriously, how is this even legal? I really don't get these people. This isn't "Pro life" this is "Pro controlling women, pro public shaming". What do they have planned next, public stonings? <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09JSM732"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;<BR>|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;<BR>|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><!-- reply --> <A NAME=09JSM732-HH></A><BR> <A HREF=#09JSM732-HH><font color=black><B>Reply from Helen & Harry:</B></font></a> <I><BR><BR>This one needs a LOT of publicity. And how the hell did this thing get through the state legislature without publicity? The lawmakers are the people who should be shamed... </i><BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09JSM732-HH"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><HR NOSHADE> <A NAME=09SB712></A><BR> <A HREF=#09SB712><font color=black><BIG><B>Priorities</B></BIG></font></a><BR> by<b> Sherri B.</b><BR><BR>Because this is so much more urgent. <A HREF="http://www.reuters.com/article/pressReleasesMolt/idUSTRE59604820091007">Senate passes $636 billion defense spending bill</A> <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09SB712"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><!-- reply --> <A NAME=09SB712-HH></A><BR> <A HREF=#09SB712-HH><font color=black><B>Reply from Helen & Harry:</B></font></a> <I><BR><BR>Yeah, priorities. Trim that health care reform down to diddly, but write up another blank check for the killing. </i><BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09SB712-HH"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><HR NOSHADE> <A NAME=09SO743></A><BR> <A HREF=#09SO743><font color=black><BIG><B>Bush and Obama</B></BIG></font></a><BR> by<b> Shannon O.</b><BR><BR> Glenn Greenwald: <A HREF="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/08-8">A historian's account of Democrats and Bush-era war crimes</A> <BR><BR> This is pretty good stuff. It documents the continuation of the Bush Regime's dictatorial policies under Obama -- and the two-faced nature of Obama who publicly denounces what he does behind closed doors. <BR><BR> P.S. I found another copy of <I>The Probability Broach</i> by L. Neil Smith. That's a good story and almost like reading the newspaper now that we see militarized police wearing camo shooting sonic weapons against innocent citizens demonstrating without official permission. I like the description of "Propertarianism" -- that all human rights are based on property rights. Namely that the individual owns her own life, mind, body, and thoughts and these rights are absolute. "Propertarian"! The USA in the book is eerily similar to ours, we just haven't gotten to the point where "Neodollars" replace Dollars -- everything else sounds familiar... <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09SO743"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><!-- reply --> <A NAME=09SO743-HH></A><BR> <A HREF=#09SO743-HH><font color=black><B>Reply from Helen & Harry:</B></font></a> <I><BR><BR>I recently re-read that book and re-liked it a lot. It was instrumental in making me a libertarian many years ago, and while I'm no longer of the dollar-sign cult I still think (a) they've got some solid thinking when they don't take it to ridiculous extremes and (b) the book still rocks. </i><BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09SO743-HH"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><A NAME=10Sisk357></A><BR><A HREF=#10Sisk357><font color=black><B>Reply from Siskiyousis:</B></font></a><BR><BR> If I misremember correctly, our republic was founded upon citizens being property owners; land ownership was the basis for citizenship and not where the citizen was born. I do not recall when that rule was modified from simple residency of 14 or more years. Anyone with more info on this? <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#10Sisk357"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><HR NOSHADE> <A NAME=09Wig645></A><BR> <A HREF=#09Wig645><font color=black><BIG><B>It's really all about oil</B></BIG></font></a><BR> by<b> Wig</b><BR><BR> I forward this only for general consideration in the real story on Afghanistan. And as background I include <A HREF="http://www.thedebate.org/thedebate/afghanistan.asp">the link</A>. "Did the planned oil pipeline through Afghanistan influence America's decision to invade and install a new government there?" <BR><BR>It's really all about oil. The malarky about <nobr>9/11</nobr> and terrorism is subterfuge. <A NAME=10TC1019></A><br><br><center>== &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; == &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ==</center><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="25" class="fonty">&nbsp;</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" bgcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="5" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor=white class="fonty"><SPAN class="fonta"><A HREF="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=107318">Grim omens as US envoy pursues Mideast peace</A></SPAN><BR><BR><I>Excerpt:&nbsp;</I> Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced before meeting Mitchell earlier on Thursday that he would tell the envoy there was no chance of a peace deal for many years. </TD></TR></TABLE></TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="25" class="fonty">&nbsp;</TD></TR></TABLE><BR> Any other country that goes the Israeli thumbing the nose route would immediately be slapped with sanctions. Why not Israel? <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09Wig645"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><!-- reply --> <A NAME=09Wig645-HH></A><BR> <A HREF=#09Wig645-HH><font color=black><B>Reply from Helen & Harry:</B></font></a> <I><BR><BR>Because the headline is a lie: Nobody who represents the United States government "pursues Mideast peace", except the kind of "peace" you get when everyone who stands in your way is dead or subjugated.<BR><BR> Israel is on America's side &#151; their leaders are corporate-capitalist Christian-y warmongers, just like our leaders, and in their eyes the Arabs and Muslims are the enemy. That's the bottom line of America's pro-Israel mideast policy, and of course, it's insane. <BR><BR> On a quick skim of that pipeline page, I see nothing to disagree about. in the perspective of America's rulers, Afghanistan is full of "little people" cluttering up an area that could be put to more profitable use. Those American rulers were pushing Afghans around long before 9/11, and that day gave a great excuse to turn push into shove. </i><BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#09Wig645-HH"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div><A NAME=10TC1020></A><BR><A HREF=#10TC1020><font color=black><B>Reply from The Canadian:</B></font></a><BR><BR> Re <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#10TC1019">Grim omens as US envoy pursues Mideast peace</A><BR><BR> Afghanistan. Of course it's about oil. Control of the Caspian Sea mineral resource is the jewel of that region. But, what does it matter anymore as the US dollar is no longer the world's petro dollar. Its demise over the next 8 years will create a great deal of political, social and economic instability. Americans are not psychologically ready to have their empire relegated to the dustbin. Should be interesting. <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#10TC1020"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</SPAN></div> <HR NOSHADE> <A NAME=Oct7></A><!-- =unk --><BR> <!-- marijuana --><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="131" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><img src="http://unknownnews.org/marijuana.jpg" alt="Legalize it, damn it." border="0" width="116" height="112"><BR><BR></td></tr></table> <A HREF=http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct7><font color=black><BIG><B>Marc Emery's real crime seems to be political activism</B></BIG></font></a> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Marc Emery is a Canadian marijuana activist and dealer who surrendered himself to Canadian officials a week ago, at the request of the American government. Emery is expected to be extradited to the US imminently, for the alleged but basically un-argued crime of selling pot seeds by mail to Americans.He's made millions of dollars with his businesses, but he's always paid his taxes, and his real crime seems to be political activism. He's deeply involved in British Colombia's Marijuana Party, a political party that urges complete legalization, he's the publisher of <A HREF="http://www.cannabisculture.com/"><i>Cannabis Culture</i></A>, a good pro-pot magazine I've read in the past, and he's long been a major and reliable financial supporter of pro-legalization political groups world-wide.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/2609">Here's an audio file</A> with a good round-up of the facts of the matter (starts at about 14:45), or <A HREF="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/28/marc-emery-surrender.html">here's a rather bland media report</A> if you'd rather read than listen. He's never been to America, but he's about to be brought across the border to face a quick trial and a long imprisonment, for crimes that would likely get him a small fine or a short jail term in his own country. Emery was a primary target of <A HREF="http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/235421_joel05.html">former DEA chief Karen Tandy</A>, whose other major <A NAME=health></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><center><B><i>Health care hell in America</i></B></center><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Democrats have been talking about fixing the health care swindle in this country for decades, while it's driven hundreds of thousands of us bankrupt and killed tens of thousands annually.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And after all that time and all those promises, after giving Democrats the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a mandate for change, <A HREF="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/100409.html">what are they giving us?</A> A new system that keeps the insurance companies happy, doesn't take effect for years, and, near as I can figure, does hardly anything for the victims of the swindle, except that it requires 'em by law to be swindled.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ask yourself, what's the most infuriating thing of the Dems' sell-out on health care reform? Is it the bizarre, unprecedented, and possibly unconstitutional requirement that all Americans must become customers? Or maybe it's the near-certainty that you'll have to make that mandated purchase from a murderous corporation? Is it the <A HREF="http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/07/20/bait-and-switch-how-the-%E2%80%9Cpublic-option%E2%80%9D-was-sold/">"robust" public option</A> that, if it survives at all, won't be open to you or anyone you know? There's so much to choose from &#151; is the worst part knowing that the killer insurance companies will <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/03/AR2009100302483_2.html">continue to cherry-pick young 'n healthies</A>? Or is it that the aspects of reform that sound most like <i>reform</i> won't take effect until 2013 (which means, of course, that they'll never take effect, since they'll be repealed long before then)? Goodness, it's hard to choose the most aggravating aspect, ain't it?<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And it's hard to tell how much crap people are willing to take, but count me as one American who's at about my limit. </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> accomplishment was the incarceration of comedian Tommy Chong for selling bongs. She's gone now, but there's been little substantial change since the Bush-Cheney administration so it's probably futile to expect anything different from Obama's people.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If there's a small glimmer of hope for Emery, that hope will come from Canada &#151; he was taken into custody a week ago Monday, and Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson hasn't yet signed the paperwork to have him extradited. It's probably too much to hope for, but Nicholson's office number is (613) 995-1547, and wouldn't it be sweet if it turned out that Canada is a sovereign nation? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9B53AL82&show_article=1">Leaving Afghanistan is not an option, says the Obama White House</A>. Austin Heiber explains: I guess "not an option" means it is an option because Obama is such a lying sack of sh*t ... except for the fact that withdrawing from Afghanistan is the one thing that could sink Obama's chance of reelection &#151; no matter how retarded it is to keep pouring money down that rat-hole. Leaving is a great option because, f*ck, Afghanistan has no air power so we could always go back and bomb the sh*t out of them. There is no reason whatsoever for US forces to be there. But, hey, lying sacks of sh*t need to save face, so we stay and go bankrupt! <A NAME=07Sisk1227></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Peter Galbraith, the diplomat <A HREF="http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/04/galbraith-was-ordered-to-cover-up-karzai-fraud/">fired for talking about the obvious election fraud</A> in Afghanistan, says that about S! of the vote for Ameripuppet Hamid Karzai was fraudulent. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Theo Lipschitz adds that Obama's signature foreign policy initiative is the Afghanistan war escalation to defeat the Taliban, maintain our puppet regime, and build pipelines so for domestic US political reasons it is necessary that the US shove a fraudulent election down the throats of the people of Afghanistan. The truth has, again, been sacrificed to expediency for the US empire. And, as always, the opposite of the intended consequences will result. For, as it is written, "Payback is a bitch." <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Eight Americans were <A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/04/afghanistan.troops.killed/index.html">killed for diddlysquat</A> in Afghanistan over the weekend. Is that still news? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; And by the by, <A HREF="http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2009/10/faq-afghanistan.html">what is Afghanistan?</A> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Again, the unified Bush-Cheney-Obama ohmygod <A HREF="http://www.juancole.com/2009/10/iran-and-nuclear-latency.html">hysteria about Iran's alleged nuclear program is horsepucky</A>. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Even among the expected and obviously illegal arrests in Pittsburgh during the G20 convention, the feds' targeting of 41-year-old Elliot Madison, apparently for Tweeting, <A HREF="http://rawstory.com/2009/10/g20-protester-arrested-for-twitter/">seems flamboyantly illegal</A>. Then again, does legality matter any more in police work? <A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "Most of the time I regret that I'm growing old because I have so much enjoyed living in such privileged circumstances. Right now, however, I am grateful. I won't have to see, close up and personal, just where this will lead. For those of my younger friends and family who don't have the luxury of age I would simply advise that you get off your couches and demand better. Because if you don't, you will find yourself in a fundamentalist country that cuts off hands for stealing your daily bread. And your daily newspaper will be facilitating that shift." <DIV align="right">Diane at <A HREF="http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2009/10/ratwang-dango.html">Cab Drollery</A> &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The Republican Party's leadership, to exactly no-one's surprise, is <A HREF="http://thehill.com/homenews/house/61469-republican-leaders-to-obama-net-neutrality-regulations-are-harmful#">still against net neutrality</A>, 'cuz <i>of course</i> Comcast and AT&T should be able to decide which websites load quickly and which never load at all. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; In new rules set to take effect on December 1, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is <A HREF="http://mediactive.com/2009/10/05/a-dangerous-federal-intervention-in-social-media/">requiring that bloggers clearly disclose</A> any bribes, kickbacks, and other considerations received in exchange for good reviews.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The FTC offered us $7.50 to say we like the new rule, but we're holding out for ten bucks. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Apple has quit the US Chamber of Commerce, effective immediately, over the CofC's continued opposition to doing anything about global climate change. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The likelihood of being <A HREF="http://www.unbossed.com/index.php?itemid=2771">exposed to a food toxin</A> is heightened by a food safety system with holes that beef processors regularly exploit. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The well-deserved bad press about high-fructose corn syrup has become so pervasive that the industry's bad guys are now <A HREF="http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2009/10/those_high_fruc.html">sponsoring lying ads on TV</A>. This is good news &#151; the truth is becoming noticeable, so the bastards have to lie a little louder. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; An official audit has found that then-<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/05/us-treasury-bank-bailouts">Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was lying his ass off</A> as he organized the first round of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailouts in September of 2008. If there's anyone in America who's surprised to read this, please get in touch with me as I'd like to borrow a few billion but I'll pay you back pronto. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Robert Fisk at <i>The Independent</i> of London offers more rumblings that <A HREF="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html">the world's economic powers are preparing to dump the Ameridollar</A>. There's <A HREF="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/10/the-british-newspaper-the-independent-reports-today-that-secret-meetings-have-been-held-by-finance-minsters-and-central-bank.html">skepticism about this among insiders</A>, but for the life of me I don't know why. Other than the implied military threat, why hasn't the dollar hasn't been dumped, wiped, and internationally flushed already? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/100109dnmetgaymarriage.1d5a0d50d.html">Gay marriage has gotten a judicial boost in Texas</A>, thanks to a state judge's ruling on gay divorce. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Comcast wants to buy into Hulu and <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-hulu5-2009oct05,0,980649.story">maybe make you pay</A> to watch. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; No, <A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-jewish-family">it's not true</A> that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is of Jewish ancestry. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Attorney General Eric Holder is <A HREF="http://www.mainjustice.com/2009/10/06/holder-a-reluctant-finalist-for-mustache-award/">a reluctant finalist for Mustache Award</A>. <A NAME=nndb></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; You might not know about <A HREF= http://www.nndb.com/people/792/000207171/ >Alexander Augusta</a>, the first black officer buried at Arlington National Cemetery. <!-- =hattip --><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; A tip o' the hat to <A HREF="http://www.jrmooneyham.com">JR Mooneyham</A>, <A HREF="http://carlosmiller.com/">Photography is Not a Crime</A>, <A HREF="http://www.correntewire.com/">Corrente</A>, <A HREF="http://www.bobcesca.com/">Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog</A>, <A HREF="http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/">Zandar Versus the Stupid</A>, Sherri&nbsp;B., Cassandra, Joseph&nbsp;D., Joe&nbsp;G., Lon Garm, SirJ, Bill&nbsp;T., Wig, the letter Z, and the love of my life (who prefers to remain anonymous). <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <i>Updated today:</i>&nbsp; Our <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html">bad cops page</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html">daily dialogue</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">mystery links</A>.&nbsp; <i>Next update:</i>&nbsp; Friday, or sooner if something big and newsy happens. <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct7"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</span></div><HR NOSHADE> <TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta" bgcolor="#eeeeee"><SPAN class="fontsm"><i>We welcome readers' comments, questions, or criticisms.</i> <br><i>Just send us an email: &#60;<A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com">unknownnews at inbox.com</A>&#62;</i>.</nobr></SPAN><TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/dailydialogue.html" height="32" width="600" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><HR NOSHADE> <A NAME=Oct5></A><!-- =unk --><BR> <!-- flat line --><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="242" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><img src="http://unknownnews.org/flatline.jpg" alt="flat line" border="0" width="227" height="86"></td></tr></table> <A HREF=http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct5><font color=black><BIG><B>It's not a political party, it's a religion</B></BIG></font></a> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; It isn't often that I read a think piece in the mainstream media that actually makes me stop and thinl, but <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gabler2-2009oct02,0,7817347.story">Neal Gabler at the <i>Los Angeles Times</i></A> has nailed it. Republicans aren't a political party, they're a religious movement, and you can no more reach them with rational arguments than you can talk an imam out of Islam or a rabbi out of Judaism. It's really not about Christianity at all, it's about a different, scarier religion &#151; "a belief in one's own rightness so unshakable that it is not subject to political caveats". <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.juancole.com/2009/10/obama-pwns-bush-cheney-on-iran-first.html">Barack Obama pwned Bush-Cheney in one day</A>, and got more concessions from Iran in 7&#189; hours than the former administration got in 8 years of saber-rattling. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; More evidence that <A HREF="http://www.truthout.org/100309E">there's nothing "illegal" about Iran's enrichment facility</A>. Wig adds, Wanna bet this info never sees print in the mainstream media? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; No link here, just eight American ideas that are better than national parks: Telephones. Airplanes. The United Nations. Jazz. Movies. The Bill of Rights. The internet. Getting Ken Burns to shut the f*ck up. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; A lot of smart and prominent people who know a lot more than me about economics think <A HREF="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/10/guest-post-the-real-reason-the-giant-insolvent-banks-arent-being-broken-up.html">we're never going to see a real recovery from the ginormous economic mess</A> so long as insolvent but "too big to fail" banks are allowed to exist. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; And I know you were worried about how Ken Lewis would get along, now that he's done sinking BofA and the world economy, but <A HREF="http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/01/news/newsmakers/lewis.payout.fortune/index.htm">he'll be OK</A>. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Like every other American President since Nixon, President Obama has adopted a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy about <A HREF="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/2009103125440407949.html">Israel's nuclear weapons</A>, which exist but remain curiously less worrisome than Iran's non-existent nukes. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; When booking its talking heads, <A HREF="http://nprcheck.blogspot.com/2009/10/real-deja-vu.html">NPR reliably invites liars like David Kay</A>, who was <A HREF="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113405288">beating the drums for war</A> on Thursday. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; In Tenaha, Texas, the cops have a sweet racket. They pull over black motorists who drive through town, seize whatever looks valuable from their cars, and offer the drivers a choice &#151; either sign a form consenting to the seizure of property and drive away, or dispute the seizure and be booked into jail. The District Attorney, who's apparently in on the scam, is being sured by the ACLU, and <A HREF="http://reason.com/blog/2009/10/02/da-accused-of-stealing-money-f">she wants to use the funds</A> raised through these obviously illegal seizures to pay for her legal defense. <A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "The Cheney thesis that moving Gitmo prisoners to maximum security facilities in the United States, from which no one has ever escaped, would put the country at risk, is a real test of the capacity of the American media to absorb idiocies. It also serves to highlight the spinelessness of many Democrats on Capitol Hill, who quake in the face of such absurdities when they should be laughing." <DIV align="right"><A HREF="http://harpers.org/archive/2009/10/hbc-90005809">Scott Horton</A> &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; By executive order, President Obama has <A HREF="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/texting-and-driving-bans-reach-new-heights-with-obama-order.ars">banned federal workers from texting while driving</A>. Which, make no mistake, sounds like a good thing, but criminy. Aren't there slightly more pressing problems that could be addressed with somewhat more important executive orders that remain unwritten, unsigned? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Judge Emmet Sullivan (Bush41 1991) has ordered the Justice Department to <A HREF="http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/10/judge-orders-cheney-interviews-released.html">release tapes of its chats with then-Vice President Dick Cheney</A> regarding the public exposure of CIA spy Valerie Plame. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <I>Washington Post</i> columnist George Will has written about global climate change again, and again shows that he <A HREF="http://mediamatters.org/research/200910010030">either can't grasp science or he's just lying</A>. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I'm not editing the <I>Washington Post</i> and I'll never have that gig, but I've edited much, much, <i>much</i> smaller publications of the sort where nobody on the staff gets paid. And even at that very low level, when a writer got something wrong we'd run a correction, and if a writer kept getting something wrong we'd switch him or her to some other beat or start dumping his submissions in the circular file. The <i>Post</i> has no circular file? <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; One would hope that the 2008 campaign permanently removed from public consciousness any notion that Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) is a decent human being, but in case anyone's forgotten: Here's McCain saying point blank that <A HREF="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_10/020255.php">National Security Adviser James Jones is a partisan hack</A> who puts Democratic arse-kissing above national security. I strongly doubt Jones is even a Democrat. McCain just makes this crap up as he goes along, yet he's inexplicably respected as an elder statesman. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Seems unlikely, to say the least, but it's alleged that <A HREF="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/10/04/2009-10-04_iran_president_mahmoud_ahmadinejad_is_secretly__jewish.html">Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Jewish</A> by heredity. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) says he wants to investigate what the heck's going on in Honduras, so <A HREF="http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/10/jim_demints_cou/">he's headed there on fact-finding mission</A>. There are some Congresscritters who could make such a trip and I'd give 'em the benefit of the doubt, but DeMint is from the kompletely kooky wing of the Republican Party and he's made it clear that <A HREF="http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8648">he stands with the coup plotters</A>, so it's safe and indeed wise to assume that his intentions are worse than anything you're suspecting. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada) <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/politics/02ensign.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp">pulled strings to make life lucrative</A> for the husband of Ensign's mistress. <A NAME=06SB1214></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; I generally have no interest at all in the Olympics, a super-sized annoyance of corporate-sponsored nationalism and police-state authoritarianism that allegedly has something to do with athletics. But there's an understandable and widespread perception that America lost something desirable when Rio de Janeiro, not Chicago, was announced as host of The Games for 2016, so <A HREF="http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/weekly-standard-newsroom-erupts-into-cheers-at-news-of-olympics.php">the right-wing's celebratory response</A> looks like <A HREF="http://mediamatters.org/research/200910020025">rooting against America</A>, again. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Reassurance from the US Chamber of Commerce: <A HREF="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/10/more-chamber-commerces-climate-denial">Global climate change is good for you</A>. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Glenn Beck has asked the World Intellectual Property Organization to censor <A HREF="http://glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com/">a website</a> that mocks his rhetorical style by asking &#151; just asking &#151; about rumors that Beck once raped and murdered a woman. The satirical site has responded by eloquently, <A HREF="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/memes-strike-back-gerbils-gay-blood-elves-and-glenn-beck.ars">pleading for its freedom to speak</A>. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Rev <A HREF="http://www.nndb.com/people/745/000022679/">Sun Myung Moon</A>'s "much-anticipated" autobiography has <A HREF="http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/02/rev-moon-shares-his-life-in-words/">scored a good notice</A> in Rev Sun Myung Moon's <i>Washington Times</i>. <A NAME=nndb></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; You might not know about <A HREF="http://www.nndb.com/people/461/000206840/">Saul Alinsky</A>, rabble-rouser and community organizer. <!-- =hattip --><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; A tip o' the hat to <A HREF="http://www.jrmooneyham.com">JR Mooneyham</A>, <A HREF="http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/">Cab Drollery</A>, <A HREF="http://badattitudes.com/MT/">Bad Attitudes</A>, <A HREF="http://www.theagitator.com/">The Agitator</A>, <A HREF="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/">Naked Capitalism</A>, <A HREF="http://www.correntewire.com/">Corrente</A>, Sherri&nbsp;B., Cassandra, Joseph&nbsp;D., Joe&nbsp;G., Lon Garm, Scott&nbsp;L., SirJ, Bill&nbsp;T., Wig, the letter Z, and the love of my life (who prefers to remain anonymous). <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <i>Updated today:</i>&nbsp; Our <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html">bad cops page</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html">daily dialogue</A>, and and <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">mystery links</A>.&nbsp; <i>Next update:</i>&nbsp; Wednesday, unless something big and newsy happens. <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct5"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Monday, Oct. 5, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</span></div><HR NOSHADE> <TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta" bgcolor="#eeeeee"><SPAN class="fontsm"><i>We welcome readers' comments, questions, or criticisms.</i> <br><i>Just send us an email: &#60;<A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com">unknownnews at inbox.com</A>&#62;</i>.</nobr></SPAN><TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/dailydialogue.html" height="32" width="600" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><HR NOSHADE> <A NAME=Oct2></A><!-- =unk --><BR> <!-- bank robber --><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="139" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><img src="http://unknownnews.org/delete2010b.jpg" alt="death from above" border="1" width="124" height="80"></td></tr></table> <A HREF=http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct2><font color=black><BIG><B>Death from above in Afghanistan</B></BIG></font></a> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; An un-named Afghan girl has been <A HREF="http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSLU91842">killed by a box of leaflets</A> dropped on her country, and on her, by the Royal Air Force. There's no word on what the deadly leaflets were about, but I'll wager they were Pashto-language warnings about the dangers Western warriors say they came to Afghanistan to fight, eight years ago. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The <A HREF="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1850-obama-fires-diplomat-for-urging-fraud-probe-in-afghan-vote.html">Obama Adminstration has fired a top US diplomat</A> at the UN for the heinous crime of insisting that the manifest and widespread fraud in the recent Afghan elections be vigorously investigated. <A NAME=03Wig713></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; I've never been very adept at understanding ordinary human response, 'cuz in a lot of ways and often to my own dismay I'm not very ordinary. So I can't very well guess whether <A HREF="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/29/iran/index.html">the overwrought anti-Iran propaganda</A> might be effective on a lot of people. For me, though, it's just amplifying my already strong gut feeling that we're being lied to. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090930/sc_nm/us_climate_seas_2">A rise of at least two meters in the world's sea levels</A> is now almost unstoppable, experts told a climate conference at Oxford University on Tuesday. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Kenneth D. Lewis has announced that he'll be <A HREF="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/09/bank_of_americas_ken_lewis_res.html">stepping down as CEO of Bank of America</A>. Will his work destroying the bank and the American economy be investigated? Will someone be punished? Don't hold your breath. <A NAME=health></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><center><B><i>Health care hell in America</i></B></center><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Fairly sympathetic coverage of <A HREF="http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=axKxtVPmO1pE">protests at the offices of Cigna, WellPoint</a>, and other major companies that build their profits on denying health care to Americans. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Rookie Congressman Alan Grayson (D -Florida) has earned some quick respect and <A HREF="http://www.actblue.com/page/bd2010">twenty bucks from me</a> for being <A HREF="http://republicandirtytricks.com/alan-grayson-wont-apologize-for-speaking-the-truth/#more-316">one of the few Democrats to stand up</A> to the Republicanizing of health care reform. He's summed up the Republicans' health care proposal as, "<A HREF="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/09/democratic_congressman_sums_up.html">Don t get sick and if you do get sick die quickly</A> , and then he refused to apologize for his blatant truth-telling. Grayson shows evidence of a spine, and that's so very rare in a Democrat. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Republicans, naturally, are using Grayson's comments to launch their <A HREF="http://washingtonindependent.com/61463/nrcc-pushes-alan-grayson-controversy">fake outrage of the week</A>. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The <A HREF="http://www.borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=7059">National Association of Undertakers</A> backs the GOP health plan. (Satire, of course.) </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The Obama administration has (finally) started <A HREF="http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/10/white_house_vs_fox_news_olympi.html">responding directly to the lies on Fox News</A>. Do it more, please. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://mediactive.com/2009/10/01/non-profit-media-what-you-pay-for-and-who-pays/">Somebody needs to investigate ProPublica</A>, the heavily hyped non-profit investigative journalism website. They do solid though certainly not outstanding work on a regular basis, but &#151; what kind of backroom deals do they have that lets them pay top-ranking editors ten times what I'd consider a flamboyantly luxurious wage? Good guys don't pay half-million dollar salaries. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The alt-weekly <i>Denver Westword</i> is <A HREF="http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/09/call_for_pot_dispensary_review.php">looking for a marijuana critic</A>. Sounds silly at first blush but makes good sense. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; The <I>New York Times</i> is planning to add <A HREF="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/the-times-plans-local-edition-in-chicago-too-and-other-markets/">localized content in at least two cities</A>, San Francisco and Chicago. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; After several days of being distantly aware that someone named Kevin Jennings is the star of a right-wing fake outrage frenzy, I've inexplicably become curious enough to click a link, and as expected <A HREF="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/head-of-office-of-safe-and-drug-free-schools-expresses-regret-for-controversial-incident.html">the scandal is nothing</A>. Jennings, who's now running the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the Department of Education, is a former school teacher who once learned that a high school student was boinking an older man and &#151; brace yourself &#151; Jennings did not dial <nobr>9-1-1</nobr>. With predictable spinelessness, he has apologized for his shortcoming of panic 21 years ago, but of course that's not enough so don't be surprised if he's "forced to resign". <A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "Obama believes the Republican Party is a party when in fact it s a mindset, like Hitler Youth, based on hatred  religious hatred, racial hatred. When you foreigners hear the word  conservative you think of kindly old men hunting foxes. They re not, they re fascists." <DIV align="right"><A HREF="http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6854221.ece">Gore Vidal</A> &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <A NAME=03SB1025></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <i>National Review</i>'s John Derbyshire thinks America would be a better place, seriously, <A HREF="http://www.alan.com/2009/09/30/national-reviews-john-derbyshire-prefers-that-women-dont-vote/">if women weren't allowed to vote</A>. Based on everything in the right-wing ideology, it's fair to say that Derbyshire's opinion isn't uncommon among Republicans and conservatives. What's uncommon is being stupid enough to say it out loud. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was <A HREF="http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/acorn_foresaw_the_foreclosure_crisis_in_2001/Content?oid=1203397">working to prevent the coming financial collapse</A> in 2001. If I haven't mentioned it lately, ACORN is the good guys, and <A HREF="https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=36">if you have a few bucks</A> they could probably use the contribution. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-Minnesota) is worried that Planned Parenthood will soon be running <A HREF="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/bachmann-warns-against-sex-clinics-in-schools-providing-abortions-for-teenage-girls.php">abortion clinics in public middle schools</A>. <A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."<DIV align="right">Frederick&nbsp;Douglass &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; For obvious reasons, the Wisconsin Tourism Federation (WTF) has <A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/6242687/WTF-Wisconsin-Tourism-Federation-changes-name-after-internet-jokes.html">renamed itself</A> the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW). <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; After years of struggling with an increasingly sluggish antique computer, we recently bought a shiny refurbished computer from the good folks at <A HREF="http://www.tcswi.com/">The Computer Store</A> in Madison. Good price, nice guy behind the counter, workable warranty, and the machine has been running for two weeks with no problems. Three cheers.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I am, however, being slowly driven batty by Windows XP, which seems surprisingly inferior to Windows 98 in several regards, especially regarding file searches and folder presentations. If you're knowledgeable about such stuff, or if you can point me to an XP users' group that's not run by Microsoft employees, please drop me a line at <A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com">unknownnews at inbox.com</A>. Grazi. <A NAME=nndb></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; You might not know about <A HREF="http://www.nndb.com/people/585/000207961/">Black Bart</A>, stagecoach bandit and poet. <!-- =hattip --><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; A tip o' the hat to <A HREF="http://www.jrmooneyham.com">JR Mooneyham</A>, <A HREF="http://www.republicoft.com/">The Republic of T.</A>, <A HREF="http://republicandirtytricks.com/">Republican Dirty Tricks</A>, Sherri&nbsp;B., Cassandra, Joseph&nbsp;D., Joe&nbsp;G., Lon Garm, Scott&nbsp;L., SirJ, Bill&nbsp;T., Wig, the letter Z, and the love of my life (who prefers to remain anonymous). <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <i>Updated today:</i>&nbsp; Our <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html">bad cops page</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html">daily dialogue</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/debunk.html">it's been debunked</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">mystery links</A>. <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct2"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</span></div><HR NOSHADE> <TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta" bgcolor="#eeeeee"><SPAN class="fontsm"><i>We welcome readers' comments, questions, or criticisms.</i> <br><i>Just send us an email: &#60;<A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com">unknownnews at inbox.com</A>&#62;</i>.</nobr></SPAN><TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/dailydialogue.html" height="32" width="600" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><HR NOSHADE> <A NAME=Oct1></A><!-- =unk --><BR> <!-- spare change --><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="141" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><img src="http://unknownnews.org/sparechange.jpg" alt="empty pockets" border="1" width="126" height="84"></td></tr></table> <A HREF=http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct1><font color=black><BIG><B>The more things don't change...</B></BIG></font></a> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/09/30/a-truly-shocking-guantanamo-story-judge-confirms-that-an-innocent-man-was-tortured-to-make-false-confessions/">The US government tortured an innocent man to extract false confessions</A> and then threatened him until he obligingly repeated those lies as though they were the truth. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Will it be investigated? Will someone be punished? Don't hold your breath. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; US Attorney Jim Greenlee, appointed during the Bush-Cheney administration and still on the job under Obama, <A HREF="http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090929/NEWS/909290341/1002/news01/U.S.-attorney-targeted-N.-Miss.-store-owners">investigated Mississippi convenience stores for being owned by Middle-Eastern types</A>.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Will it be investigated? Will someone be punished? Don't hold your breath. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Bryan Whitman, a key player in the Bush-Cheney administration's illegal but un-punished domestic propaganda program, <A HREF="http://rawstory.com/2009/09/bryan-whitman-part-1/">remains a chief Defense Department spokesman</A> in the Obama administration. <A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along." <DIV align="right">Clarence&nbsp;Darrow &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <A NAME=screwed></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; As soon as Congress and the Obama administration are done bipartisan-screwing us on health care reform (every time I type it, my fingers want to type more accurately, "health care deform") they'll be screwing us on the next big issue. Probably climate change, but possibly war with Iran or who knows what. And whatever the issue, the debate will start with a huge flood of right-wing lies, putting serious thinking and common sense on the defensive from the git-go.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We've all seen this over and over again, so... how come the allegedly smart fellers in the Obama White House keep playing "bipartisanship" with these people? What prevents the <i>Democrats</i> from defining the terms of the public discourse on some topic &#151; just <i>one</i> topic would be nice &#151; instead of letting batty right-wingers tell tall tales about death panels and killing grandma? Why is it that you and I <i>know</i> the next big issue is going to be folded, spindled, and mutilated, and we <i>know</i> seasoned insiders like Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi will be completely blindsided, again? It's not because Emanuel and Pelosi and most of their Democratic cohorts are stupid &#151; they're not &#151; it's because they're so infatuated with being "bipartisan" that they don't notice that they're getting their asses kicked. They don't particularly care whether they win or lose these battles. They won't do the right thing on anything, unless we flood their offices with letters and faxes and phone calls and march in the street and chain ourselves to their desks.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So yeah, by all means, do the phoning and faxing and emailing and marching and chaining. Again. If you're like me you've been doing all the above for years. Again and again and again, millions of Democratic voters have to protest and petition and write letters and raise ruckus in hopes of nudging <i>Democrats</i> in office into acting different from Republicans.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Say what you will about the right-wing's liars and charlatans, but they don't need all that nudging. Republicans have <i>passion</i> and <i>they want to win</i>, exponentially more than just about anybody who wears a D after his or her name. Democrats won the election, you might recall, but you'd never know it by what they do in Congress and what they're doing in the White House. All they do is reach across the aisle again and again. They're not Democrats, they're BiParticrats, and with only the rarest exceptions they have much more in common with Republicans than with anyone who lives in the real world, like you or me. <!-- Where's the change? --><table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="8" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="315" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/stickers.html"><img src="http://unknownnews.org/CHANGEsticker.jpg" alt="President Obama, where's that 'change' you promised?" border="3" width="300" height="93"></A></td></tr></table> <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The next Democrat who says "bipartisan" like it's not a vulgarity gets my puke on his shoes. Obama-style Democrats wouldn't wipe their butts after pooping unless they could rouse bipartisan support first. Republicans don't give a damn about bipartisanship, while Democrats don't give a damn about anything <i>but</i> bipartisanship.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Bipartisan is a four-syllable way to say you're screwed, and every time some Democrat says "bipartisan" there ought to be subtitles to translate: You're screwed. You're screwed yesterday, you're screwed today, and you're scheduled to be screwed tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Indiana police arrested Sally Harpold <A HREF="http://www.tribstar.com/local/local_story_246225916.html">for buying two separate packages of cold medicine</A> containing pseudoephedrine in one week. Pseudophed. The sheriff, of course, supports this stark raving stupidity, as he assigns a police officer to thumb through the state-mandated list of everyone who's purchased allergy meds and check the dates carefully, and round up the dratted criminals who've purchased an ounce or a fraction of an ounce more than what's allowed. This is police work &#151; keeping track of your sniffles and sinuses.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I have a personal stake in this hysteria about pseudoephedrine, as it's the only drug that really works for my rather severe allergies, and I m always hovering at exactly the maximum allowed under Wisconsin law. Like Sally Harpold, I don't make meth as a sideline, but like Sally I could easily cross into "criminal behavior" when the pollen count rises. But I <i>hope</i> I'd see the outrage even if I didn't see myself in the situation. It ought to infuriate anyone who believes in freedom. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://mashable.com/2009/09/25/bank-sues-google/">Here's the story</A>, and it's a little complicated so pay attention. There might be a quiz.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A bank employee made a mistake, and sent a fat file full of confidential information to the wrong email address. Realizing its employee's error, the bank sent a follow-up email, asking the recipient to please, pretty please, destroy the earlier email. And then the story gets a little wacky.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When the recipient didn't answer quickly enough, Rocky Mountain Bank went to court, and demanded that Google (the email provider) reveal the recipient s identity and unplug his email account. And in a ruling that s absurd six ways from Sunday, U.S. District Court Judge James Ware (Bush41 1990) granted the bank s request and ordered Google to shut down some guy's email account, for ... for what, exactly? For a bank employee's typo?<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; SirJ adds some pertinent background info: The judge who ordered Google to shut down the user's email account has <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ware_(judge)">a checkered past</A>. Namely, he impersonated another James Ware and was reprimanded for it, but not removed from the bar as he should have been. A judge using bad judgment on numerous occasions. Wunnerful. <A NAME=health></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><center><B><i>Health care hell in America</i></B></center><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-HealthcareReform/idUSTRE58T0MY20090930">Americans are willing to pay higher taxes for better health care</A>, says a new Thomson Reuters poll. 78 percent of Democrats are willing to pay higher taxes, along with 64 percent of independents and a rather startling 48 percent of Republicans. </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; In Italy, several <A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8282293.stm">Google executives are being prosecuted</A> because Google Video allowed the posting of a video showing a teenager being bullied without obtaining the permission of the victim and perps. Why, that's preposterous, you're saying to yourself, and you're hearing me say yup. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; SirJ says, Real crime gets overlooked everyday. Prosecutors would rather concentrate on B.S. <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) is my Senator, and one of very few who don t routinely shame Congress by saying, doing, or proposing stupid things. It s been a couple of years since I sent him an angry letter, and he hasn t pissed me off in the slightest in that time, so I m at a bit of a loss to understand why he s <A HREF="http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/feingold-to-hold-hearings-on-obamas-czars.php?ref=fpb">holding hearings to probe the non-issue of President Obama's use of "czars."</A><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My guess is, he s going to give an airing to the Republicans idiocy on this issue, so as to publicly puncture the right-wing rhetoric &#151; perhaps while pointing out (logically and correctly, with an eye toward future abuse of power) that the few czars who haven t faced Senate confirmation should do so. <A NAME=02Cass1135></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Once a year, the American Library Association tallies up which books are brought up for banning the most often in America, and this time around "<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/30/american-library-association-banned-books">three of the top 10 most challenged books in 2008</A> had gay or lesbian characters, including the single most censored volume, <A HREF="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55518633&referer=brief_results"><I>And Tango Makes Three</I></A>. The fact that it tells the true story of two gay penguins at the Central Park zoo in New York does not appear to have placated opponents."<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wig says: None of the facts come to mind. Bigots are so lost in their neuroses they're unable to be reasonable and it's a waste of time to understand their lack of logical thought. <A NAME=think></A> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="60%" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><BR><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thinker.jpg" alt="'The Thinker' statue" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" class="fonta"><I><B>It made me stop&nbsp;and&nbsp;think</B></I></TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="40" class="fonty"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/quesplanation.jpg" alt="Stop and think" border="0" width="40" height="40"></TD></TR></TABLE> <i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "While there is a lower class, I&nbsp;am in it; while there is a criminal element, I&nbsp;am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I&nbsp;am not free." <DIV align="right">Eugene&nbsp;V.&nbsp;Debs &nbsp; </div></i> </td></tr></table></td></tr></table> <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Pope Benedict is <A HREF="http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-42801620090930">releasing a music album</A>. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; SirJ says, Wha&#151;? I thought the church was opposed to abortions. <A NAME=02SJ353></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; My apologies for <A HREF="http://www.kiav.net/?p=2720">putting you through this</A>. I'd just roll my eyes and make it a <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">mystery link</A> except that I'm hoping someone can decode the lyrics for me. I was raised in a typical Christian church where a kooky song and dance like this wouldn't have been out of the ordinary and I can fluently speak most of the Christian lingo, but I can't decode it &#151; the <i>what</i> is the key? <A NAME=nndb></A><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; You might not know about <A HREF="http://www.nndb.com/people/785/000207164/">Emmett Ashford</A>, the first black umpire in the big leagues. <!-- =hattip --><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; A tip o' the hat to <A HREF="http://www.jrmooneyham.com">JR Mooneyham</A>, <A HREF="http://badattitudes.com/MT/">Bad Attitudes</A>, <A HREF="http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com/">Amygdala</A>, <A HREF="http://www.kiav.net/">Ketchup Is A Vegetable</A>, <A HREF="http://www.theagitator.com/">The Agitator</A>, <A HREF="http://blog.badtux.net/">Badtux the Snarky Penguin</A>, <A HREF="http://www.anonymousliberal.com/">The Anonymous Liberal</A>, Sherri&nbsp;B., Cassandra, Joseph&nbsp;D., Joe&nbsp;G., Lon Garm, Scott&nbsp;L., SirJ, Bill&nbsp;T., Wig, the letter Z, and the love of my life (who prefers to remain anonymous). <BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; <i>Updated today:</i>&nbsp; Our <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html">bad cops page</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html">daily dialogue</A>, <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/debunk.html">it's been debunked</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">mystery links</A>. <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><SPAN style="background-color:#eeeeee">&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-01.html#Oct1"><font color=blue>Permalink</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009 &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="#comments"><font color=blue>Comments?</font></A> &nbsp;&nbsp;|&nbsp;</span></div><HR NOSHADE> <TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta" bgcolor="#eeeeee"><SPAN class="fontsm"><i>We welcome readers' comments, questions, or criticisms.</i> <br><i>Just send us an email: &#60;<A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com">unknownnews at inbox.com</A>&#62;</i>.</nobr></SPAN><TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/dailydialogue.html" height="32" width="600" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE><HR NOSHADE> <BR><center><HR NOSHADE width="535">Recommended sites for gathering unknown or underreported news:<BR> &nbsp;<A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://mediamatters.org/">Media&nbsp;Matters</A>&nbsp; &nbsp;<A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.propublica.org/">Pro&nbsp;Publica</A>&nbsp; &nbsp;<A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://thinkprogress.org">ThinkProgress</A>&nbsp; &nbsp;<A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/">Washington&nbsp;Monthly</A>&nbsp; &nbsp;<A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.truthout.org/">TruthOut</A>&nbsp; <HR NOSHADE width="535"></center><BR> <A NAME=thanksmore></A><center><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="300" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonty"> <center><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/support-wide.html" width="600" height="550" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></TD></TR></TABLE></center> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="23%" class="fonta"> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0909-20.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.org/leftarrow.jpg" alt="arrow pointing left" border="0" width="75" height="11"><BR>Older entries</A> </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="54%" class="fonta"> Compiled by Helen&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Harry&nbsp;Highwater<BR>for&nbsp;<A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/">www.unknownnews.org</a></TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="23%" class="fonta"> <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/0910-12.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/rightarrow.jpg" alt="arrow pointing right" border="0" height="10" width="75"><BR>Newer entries</A></TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="2%" class="fonty">&nbsp; </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="96%" class="fonty"> © &nbsp;Helen & Harry Highwater and the individual authors.</center> </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="2%" class="fonty"><!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup"startspan ALT="Site Meter"--><script type="text/javascript"language="JavaScript">var site="sm4unknownnews"</script><script type="text/javascript"language="JavaScript1.2" src="http://sm4.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=sm4unknownnews"></script><noscript><A HREF="http://sm4.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=sm4unknownnews"target=_top><img src="http://sm4.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=sm4unknownnews&refer=&hours=8&minutes=53&rtype=4" border=0 title="Site Meter" height="10" width="10"></A></noscript><!-Copyright (c)2000 Site Meter --><!--WEBBOT bot="HTMLMarkup"Endspan --></TD></TR></TABLE> </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="5" BGcolor=white class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="5" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonttnr">&nbsp;</TD> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="310" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="font14"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="300" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="1%" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="font14">&nbsp;</TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="57%" class="font14"><BR> <!-- Translation--> <form action="http://www.google.com/translate" ><script language="JavaScript"> <!-- document.write ("<input name=u value="+location.href+" type=hidden>") // --></script> <input name="hl" value="en" type="hidden"> <input name="ie" value="UTF8" type="hidden"> <input name="langpair" value="" type="hidden"> <input name="langpair" value="en|ar" title="Arabic" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagArab.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|zh-CN" title="Chinese" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagChina.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|fr" title="French" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagFrance.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|de" title="German" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagGermany.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|it" title="Italian" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagItaly.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"><BR> <input name="langpair" value="en|ja" title="Japanese" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagJapan.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|ko" title="Korean" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagKorea.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|pt" title="Portuguese" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagPortugal.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> <input name="langpair" value="en|es" title="Spanish" src= "http://unknownnews.org/flagSpain.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="16" type="image" width="23"> </form> </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="42%" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="font13"> <A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/RSSfeed.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/RSS-button.gif" alt="Subscribe to our RSS feed" border="0" width="72" height="54"></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> <A NAME=casualties-box></A> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="290" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" bgcolor=black WIDTH="100%" class="fonty"> <iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/casualtieslog.html" width="100%" height="115" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe> </TD></TR></TABLE> <A NAME=today></A><A NAME=wdwb></A><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="8" WIDTH="295" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="300" bgcolor=white class="fonta">Like the URL says, this website is about unknown news.&nbsp; We try to track news that merits more attention, only from mainstream, professional journalists, or (rarely) other sources we trust entirely.<BR><BR><center><BIG><B>What we believe</B></BIG></center><BR> We believe in liberty and justice for all, so of course, we oppose many US government policies. This doesn't mean we're anti-American, redneck scum, pinko commies, militia members, or terrorist-sympathizers. It means we believe in freedom, as more than merely a cliché. <BR><BR> We believe you have the right to live your own life as you choose, and others have the equal right to live <I>their</I> lives as <I>they</I> choose. It's not complicated.<BR><BR>We believe freedom leads to peace, progress, and prosperity, while its opposite -- oppression -- leads to war, terrorism, poverty, and misery. <BR><BR> We believe it's preposterously stupid to hate people because of their appearance, their race or nationality, their religion or lack of religion, how they have sex with other consenting adults, etc. There are far more apropos reasons to hate most people. <BR><BR> We believe in questioning ourselves, our assumptions, each other -- and we especially believe in questioning authority (the more authority, the more questions). We believe obedience is a fine quality in dogs and young children, but not in adults. <BR><BR> Like America's right-wingers, we believe in individual responsibility, hard work to get ahead, and stern punishment for serious crimes. We believe big government should not be blindly trusted.<BR><BR> But unlike most right-wing leaders, we mean it. <BR><BR> Like America's left-wingers, we believe in equal treatment under law, war as a last (not first) resort, and sensible stewardship of natural resources. We believe big business should not be blindly trusted.<BR><BR>But unlike most left-wing leaders, we mean it. <BR><BR> Like libertarians, we believe it's wrong and <I>reprehensible</i> to arrest people for what they think, believe, look like, wear, eat, smoke, drink, inhale, inject, or otherwise do to themselves. <BR><BR> But unlike many libertarians, we're not obsessed with the gold standard, we don't believe incorporation is humanity's highest achievement, and we don't believe everything in life comes down to dollars and cents. We've read and enjoyed Ayn Rand's novels, but we understand that they're works of fiction.<BR><BR> We're skeptical, and we're sick of so-called 'journalists' who aren't skeptical at all. <BR><BR>A reader asks, what are our solutions?<BR><BR>We propose no solutions except common sense, which is never common. We like the principles of democracy, and the ideals broadly described as 'American'. The US Constitution is a fine and workable framework for solutions, when it's actually read and thoughtfully understood by intelligent statesmen and women. So, no manifestos from us. We don't dream that big, and if there's one thing the world <i>doesn't</i> need it's yet another manifesto.<BR><BR>Our suggestion is: think.<BR><BR>A fact-based instead of faith-based approach leads to solutions for most of the recurring issues of our time, from abortion to global climate change, pollution to universal health care, careful but real regulation of industry and economy, hunger, war, terror, human rights for humans not for corporations, science not religious doctrine in public schools, equal protection and prosecution under law, etc. Approach problems without glorifying stupidity, without demonizing intelligence, and answers usually come into focus. <BR><BR> These pages are published by <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.net/bighowdy.html">Harry and Helen Highwater</A>, happily married low-income nom de plumes and rabble-rousers from Madison, Wisconsin (with a few friends scattered around the world helping out). <BR><BR> We try to spotlight news that hasn't gotten enough (or appropriate) attention in American media, along with our opinions and yours. <BR><BR> We bang our keyboards against the wall, because it doesn't hurt as much as banging our heads. <BR><BR><center><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/bighowdy.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/Highwaters-oldtime.jpg" border="3" width="199" height="277"></A></center><BR> <DIV align="right"><i><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/contact.html">Helen &amp; Harry Highwater</A></i> &nbsp; <BR><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;(from <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/about.html">About <I>Unknown News</i></A>)&nbsp;&nbsp;</div> </TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <A NAME=comments></A><TABLE CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="5" WIDTH="295" border=2><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <B><I><font color=darkred>Got comments?</font></I></B><BR><BR> <center><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/dialogue-bubbles.jpg" border="0" width="230" height="230"></A></center><BR><SPAN class="fonta">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>We welcome readers' comments, questions, or criticisms. Just send us an email &#60;<A HREF="mailto:unknownnews@inbox.com">unknownnews at inbox.com</A>&#62;, and if it adds to the dialogue <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/dialogue.html">we'll publish it</A>.</i><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="fonty"><i>If that email address ever fails you can also reach us at <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/contact.html">these back-up addresses</A>.</i></span></TD></TR></TABLE> <A NAME=thanks></A><BR><table cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" width="295" border=3><tr><td align="left" valign="top" width="100%" bgcolor=white class="fonta"><table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="140" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thankyou.jpg" border="0" width="130" height="72"></td></tr></table> Sherri&nbsp;B., Mr.&nbsp;Chuckles, <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Nursing-Mothers-Problem-Solver/dp/0684857847">Claire&nbsp;Martin</A>, <A HREF="http://www.jrmooneyham.com">JR&nbsp;Mooneyham</A>, SirJ, Siskiyousis, Wig, <A HREF="#thanksmore"><FONT COLOR=blue>everyone else who's helped</FONT></A>, everyone we've forgotten to mention, and the love of my life (who's asked to remain anonymous).</td></tr></table> <A NAME=help></a><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" bgcolor=white WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><center><B>You can help</b></center><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If the news frustrates or angers you, please, <A HREF="http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml"><b>contact your elected officials.</b></A> Seriously. Perhaps it sounds hokey and futile, but someone on the other end will actually take your call or read your letter and pay attention to what you say &#151; and if you say it well you can make a difference.<BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A helpful hint:&nbsp; Sending a letter on paper or making a phone call takes more time and might cost a little more than sending an email, which is why <A HREF="http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa020199.htm"><b>a well-written letter</b></A> or a well-rehearsed phone call is <i>more effective</i> than an email.<BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As for our work on the website, we try <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="72" align="right"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="right" width="100%"><BR><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/begging.jpg" border="0" width="62" height="110"></td></tr></table> not to whine too much or too loudly, but we are poor and this site eats a lot of time and especially <I>money</I>. 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ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor=white class="fonty"> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="50" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"> <A HREF="https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=36"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thumbtack.jpg" border="0" width="40" height="40"></A> </td></tr></table><BR> <A HREF="https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=36">Help ACORN fight<BR>the Right-wing's&nbsp;lies</A><BR><BR></TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="3%" class="fonty"> </TD><TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="49%" class="fonty"> <A HREF="http://article31.org/"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/article31.gif" border="1" width="148" height="70"></A> </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="4%" class="fonty"> </TD><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="37%" class="fonty"><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=1><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="middle" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor=white class="fonty"> <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="50" align="left"><tr><td class="fonty" vAlign="top" align="left" width="100%"> <A HREF="http://www.actblue.com/page/blueamerica08"><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/thumbtack.jpg" border="0" width="40" height="40"></A> </td></tr></table> <BR><A HREF="http://www.actblue.com/page/blueamerica08">Act<BR>Blue</A><BR><BR> </TD></TR></TABLE> </TD><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="7%" class="fonty"> </TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="5" WIDTH="295" border=2><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonty"> <TABLE CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="5" WIDTH="100%" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonty"> "A mind-blowing mix of<BR>fact and fantasy, hard science<BR>and well-grounded speculation, with concrete how-to info to top it all off -- resulting in some of the best and strangest stuff on Earth..."<BR><BR> <A HREF="http://www.jrmooneyham.com">www.jrmooneyham.com</A> </TD></TR></TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE></center></TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <A NAME=height></A> <A NAME=cops></A><A NAME=cops-box></A><!-- =cops= --><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/policelog.html" width="295" height="495" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="375" bgcolor=blue class="fontbox"><TABLE CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="8" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" class="fontsm"><I>Scroll down or click for more&nbsp;</I><BR><A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/cops.html"><B>unknownnews.org/cops.html</B></A>&nbsp;</TD></TR></TABLE></td></tr></table><BR> <A NAME=debunk></A><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" class="fonta"><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/debunk-frame.html" width="295" height="495" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="375" bgcolor=black class="fontbox"><TABLE CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="8" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" class="fontsm"><I>Scroll down or click for more&nbsp;</I><BR><A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/debunk.html"><B>unknownnews.org/debunk.html</B></A>&nbsp;</TD></TR></TABLE></td></tr></table><BR> <A NAME=oldnews></A><A NAME=unymhm></A><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" bgcolor="#eeeeee" WIDTH="100%" class="fonty"><TABLE CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonty"><center><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/oldnews-frame.html" width="295" height="495" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0"></iframe></center><TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="295" bgcolor=darkred class="fontbox"><TABLE CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="8" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR><TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" class="fontsm"><I>Scroll down or click for more&nbsp;</I><BR><A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/oldnews.html"><B>unknownnews.org/oldnews.html</B></A>&nbsp;</TD></TR></TABLE></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></td></tr></table><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="5" CELLSPACING="5" WIDTH="295" border=0><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor=white class="fonta"> <center><A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html"><b><i>Our mystery&nbsp;links</i></b></A><BR>(mostly just for fun)</center><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Links in <FONT COLOR=red><B>red</B></FONT> are not safe for work, and<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;links in <FONT COLOR=magenta><B>pink</B></FONT> include audio and/or video.<center><iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/myslinks.html" width="295" height="225" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></center><DIV align="right"><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/mysterylinks.html">... more mystery links</A>&nbsp;</div></TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <A NAME=introduction></a><TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="8" WIDTH="295" border=1><TR><TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="300" bgcolor=white class="fonta"> <B><I>If you're new to Unknown News,</I></B>&nbsp; here are some answers to <A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/faq.html">frequently asked 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We try to avoid coding practices that intentionally frustrate or annoy readers. <BR><BR><DIV align="right"><i><A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/contact.html">Helen &amp; Harry Highwater</A></i> &nbsp; </TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="300" border=2><TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor=white class="fonty"> <iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/blogroll.html" width="295" height="1375" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0"></iframe> <DIV align="right"><BR> <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #dddddd">&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/kissback.html"><FONT COLOR=blue><B>unknownnews.org/kissback.html</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;&nbsp;</SPAN></div><BR> </TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="300" border=2><TR> <TD ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor=white class="fonty"> <iframe src="http://www.unknownnews.org/recentthanks.html" width="295" height="1375" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="auto" frameborder="0"></iframe> <DIV align="right"><BR> <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #dddddd">&nbsp;&nbsp;<A HREF="http://www.unknownnews.org/credits.html"><FONT COLOR=blue><B>unknownnews.org/credits.html</B></FONT></A>&nbsp;&nbsp;</SPAN></div><BR> </TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <TABLE CELLPADDING="8" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%" border=8><TR> <TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="100%" bgcolor="white" class="fonta"> <center><img src="http://www.unknownnews.net/bill-of-rights.jpg" alt="U.S. Bill of Rights" border="0" width="270" height="151"><A NAME=preamble></A></center><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <!-- 300x168 --> Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.<BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several states as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution. viz: Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress and Ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.<BR><A NAME=FirstAmendment></A><BR> <b>The First Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. <BR><A NAME=SecondAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Second Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. <BR><A NAME=ThirdAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Third Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. <BR><A NAME=FourthAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Fourth Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. <BR><A NAME=FifthAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Fifth Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. <BR><A NAME=SixthAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Sixth Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. <BR><A NAME=SeventhAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Seventh Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. <BR><A NAME=EighthAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Eighth Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. <BR><A NAME=NinthAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Ninth Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. <BR><A NAME=TenthAmendment></A><BR> <b>The Tenth Amendment</b><BR><BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. </TD></TR></TABLE><BR> <center><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-2996608746973398"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; google_ad_format = "300x250_as"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_ad_channel = ""; google_color_border = "8B0000"; google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; google_color_link = "000000"; google_color_text = "000000"; google_color_url = "0000FF"; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script></center><BR> </TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="5" BGcolor="#eeeeee" class="fonttnr"> </TD> </TR></TABLE> </body> </html>