It's time to get busy folks.

One last chore left from the last year. I made a promise that in 2007 I would be leaving the blog. That time has come, there is much that I need to do elsewhere. The word limit doesn't allow me to say all that I would wish to everyone individually. But I love you all more than I could ever express decently and most of you wouldn't believe it anyway. You've made me proud and given me hope more than once each and every one. Thanks for all that I take with me.

I'll try to check in once in a while but this year really doesn't hold much promise of that. I'll miss you guys.

"One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human. "

George Santayana

"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."

Buddha

The obverse is also true Mr. Buddha...

Remember, it's the small lies that support the big ones and you must fight them even when they live within you or people that you love.

Let your heart find the problems and your reason the solutions.

If you feel a void, fill it.

Take care of each other.

The forge has cooled and the steel has been hardened. The sword having shaped the smith as much as he it. He lays down his hammer and walks away.

I'm out.

Roy Rogers - Happy Trails

Posted by: Nobody at January 1, 2007 3:01 AM

This jackass isn't me...isn't harassment wonderful?

With fans like these who needs fans?

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Sorry that I've been busy

I'm running some limited tests on a new blog chat...Anyone interested in participating and shaping the direction that I take it can email me or ask on the majority report radio blog and I'll email you if I already have your email.

Peace.

Nobody

News and articles 7-22-06

Tom Hayden: Things Come ’Round in Mideast

I can offer my real-life experience to the present discussion about the existence and power of an “Israel lobby.” It is not as monolithic as some argue, but it is far more than just another interest group in a pluralist political world. In recognizing its diversity, distinctions must be drawn between voters and elites, between Reform and Orthodox tendencies, between the less observant and the more observant. During my ultimate 18 years in office, I received most of my Jewish support from the ranks of the liberal and less observant voters. But I also received support from conservative Jews who saw themselves as excluded by a Jewish (and Democratic) establishment.

However, all these rank-and-file constituencies were attuned to the question of Israel, even in local and state elections, and would never vote for a candidate perceived as anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian. I had to be certified “kosher,” not once but over and over again.


Israel building prison for captives, attests to Israeli plans for large-scale ground incursion

During the (last)Lebanon War, thousands of Lebanese detainees were incarcerated at the al-Hiyam prison located in Lebanese territory. Defense officials explained to Ynet that setting up a detention center on such a scale is proof of the Israeli government's plans for an extensive operation that may last for months.


Israel prepares for ground attack

The significant change of strategy to higher-risk ground fighting is a tacit admission that the campaign of aerial bombing has been less successful than hoped. So far the military has said it is only involved in "pinpoint incursions" across the border, but preparations appear to be under way for a much larger and potentially more costly troop operation for the first time since the conflict began 11 days ago. The military would not say exactly how many reservists were being called up, but reports put the number at up to 3,000.


Olmert: 'Lebanon war to go on until price too great'

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon would continue until it was not "worth the price", an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
Asked in an interview by the Maariv newspaper how long the offensive would last, Olmert said: "Until we reach a point where the marginal usefulness that is building to continue the military operation will not be worth the price."


Isolated Lebanon hospital braces for ground war

United Nations relief agencies warned on Friday that disease could sweep through overwhelmed refugee centres and hospitals in Lebanon unless Israel pledges not to attack supply lines.


UN Human Rights Commissioner warns of war crimes in Lebanon


Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel

Now Israel says it wants to wipe out Hezbollah. It wishes no harm to the people of Lebanon, just so long as they’re not supporters of Hezbollah, or standing anywhere in the neighborhood of a person or a house or a car or a truck or a road or a bus or a field, or a power station or a port that might, in the mind of an Israeli commander or pilot, have something to do with Hezbollah. In any of those eventualities all bets are off. You or your wife or your mother or your baby get fried.


Israel launches barbaric action against the people of Lebanon

Imagine if Lebanon destroyed every bridge in Israel, blew up the international airport, blockaded the ports, severed every arterial road, ordered people to leave their homes and then bombed them to pieces when they did... Do you think any Western leader would utter the words “Lebanon has a right to defend itself”?


A farewell to Beirut

I lived here through 15 years of civil war that took 150,000 lives, and two Israeli invasions and years of Israeli bombardments that cost the lives of a further 20,000 people. I have seen them armless, legless, headless, knifed, bombed and splashed across the walls of houses.

But what are we saying of their fate today as the Israelis — in some of their cruellest attacks on this city and the surrounding countryside — tear them from their homes, bomb them on river bridges, cut them off from food and water and electricity?


When Terror Is Just Fine: Israel's savage behavior in Lebanon

Following the assassination of Reinhard Heidrich by Czech partisans in 1942, Hitler’s government executed all the men in the village of Lidici, sent its women and children to concentration camps, and razed the village to the ground. A few weeks later, the barbarism was repeated on the village of Lezaky.

I cannot think of another historical example which better parallels Israel’s savage behavior in Lebanon. Two of its soldiers are kidnapped, and Israel quickly destroys much of the infrastructure of Lebanon, cuts the country off from the world, and kills, at this writing, two hundred civilians.


Alan Dershowitz tells you why it's okay for Israel to kill Lebanese civilians (including children)


'Children suffering the most'


'Purity of Arms' in Lebanon; The dead are rotting in the rubble of smashed homes:

The destruction of Lebanon is a completely man-made catastrophe orchestrated in Tel Aviv and rubber-stamped in Washington. The death and suffering are now on a scale that rivals the Asian tsunami.


Lebanon Victims Buried in Mass Grave

Soldiers laid 72 coffins in two trenches, a mass grave for victims of the Israeli bombardment. Elsewhere, mounds of rubble sat undisturbed; rescue workers were too fearful of missiles to search for bodies.


They put the 86 corpses into plain wood caskets. Many were just big enough to fit a small child

The continuous drone of Israel's Apache gunships could be heard over a clamouring crowd that had gathered to witness the burial. As an old man nailed coffins shut, friends and family members of the victims wept or stared at the bodies, loosely wrapped in plastic or bloodied blankets, as they were passed out of the truck. The noisy gathering quietened each time a smaller bundle emerged from the makeshift morgue.


CAN YOU HELP US , PLEASE! Do you know what kind of weapon causes this damage?

Both corps were black, both were dismembered , both were "weird". I don't think it matters anymore to try to prove that Israel is using unconventional , forbidden weapons .. that would only prove that it should have used "allowed" weapons. Who cares, people are dying anyway. And whatever weapons are being used , the pollution they're creating will kill the survivors from cancer later.


Israel sows seeds of hatred

Israel claims that Iranian hands are all over the bombs and training of Hezbollah and its arms.

The hypocrisy is not lost on any Arab, because we all know, especially those of us at the receiving end, that U.S. hands are all over Israeli bombs and ammunitions and war machines.


Are you Human? It Depends

"One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." -- Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994 [Source: N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1]


Israeli Apartheid

Imagine, if you will, a modern apartheid state with first, second and eleventh class citizens, all required to carry identification specifying their ethnic origin. First class citizens are obliged to serve in the armed forces, kept on ready reserve status until in their forties, and accorded an impressive array of housing, medical, social security, educational and related benefits denied all others.

Citizens of the eleventh class, really not citizens at all, have no rights citizens of the first class or their government are bound to respect.

Citizens of the eleventh class are routinely arrested, tortured, and held indefinitely without trial. Political activism among them is equated to "terrorism" and the state discourages such activity by means including but not limited to the kidnapping of suspects and relatives of suspects, demolition of their family homes, and extralegal assassination, sometimes at the hands of a death squad, or at others times by lobbing missiles or five hundred pound bombs into sleeping apartment blocks or noonday traffic.


The Destabilization of Lebanon and assassination of Rafik Hariri

After the black flag assassination of Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, Bush blamed Syria, because Syria controlled Lebanon. Without one single shred of evidence, Neo-conservative politicians and a compliant US media accused Syria in the matter of Hariri's death. Whether Syria had done it or not, Bush's Neo-conservatives wanted Damascus to pay a heavy price for Hariri's murder. But according to IRNA (the Iranian state news agency) one of Hariri's consultants, Mustafa al-Naser, stated that the "assassination of Hariri is the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad's job, aimed at creating political tension in Lebanon". An array of Arab Middle East analysts, as well as the Lebanese government, point out that the blast was eerily similar to previous Israeli-orchestrated bombings against former Palestinian leaders.


Reassessing the Hariri assassination in the light of recent events

It is only in the light of the ongoing crimes being committed by Israel in Lebanon that we can come to a full understanding of the real reason for the assassination of Rafik Hariri. Like Hollis Mulwray in the movie Chinatown, Hariri died so that water could be stolen.


Israel set war plan more than a year ago


"At the same time that Hariri was assassinated and Syria was pressured into withdrawing its forces from Lebanon." - Nobody


Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel: Everything You Need To Know

As the tv networks give unlimited airtime to Israel’s apologists, the message rolls out that no nation, least of all Israel, can permit bombardment or armed incursion across its borders without retaliation.

The guiding rule in this tsunami of drivel is that the viewers should be denied the slightest access to any historical context, or indeed to anything that happened prior to June 28, which was when the capture of an Israeli soldier and the killing of two others by Hamas hit the headlines, followed soon thereafter by an attack by a unit of Hezbollah’s fighters.


White House Calls on Jewish Groups to Line Up Behind John Bolton


Bolton’s Ways Foil Goals, U.N. Envoys Say


U.S. losing war on terror, experts say


Bush and Congress hardline support for Israel further isolates U.S.A.


Rice Seeks `Robust' Lebanon Force to Oust Hezbollah

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she wants a ``robust'' international military force to try to oust Hezbollah forces from southern Lebanon, as she prepares to leave on a diplomatic mission to the region next week.


Hezbollah using Viet Cong-style defences: Jane's Defence Weekly


Disaster in the Making

You can observe three important things simultaneously in the Middle East: One, Israel's total disregard for the lives and property of the Arab people; two, the effectiveness of the Israeli propaganda machine; and three, the utterly craven support for Israel by the U.S. government.


The Shame of Being an American

Does it make you a Proud American that "your" president gave Israel the green light to drop bombs on convoys of villagers fleeing from Israeli shelling, on residential neighborhoods in the capital of Beirut and throughout Lebanon, on hospitals, on power plants, on food production and storage, on ports, on civilian airports, on bridges, on roads, on every piece of infrastructure on which civilized life depends? Are you a Proud American? Or are you an Israeli puppet?


Israeli crimes against humanity

Israel is involved in crimes against humanity and the so-called international community unreservedly supports Israel's right to "self defense".

Moreover, in providing a green light to Israel to continue its criminal bombings for another week, the Bush adminstration is directly responsible for these atrocities.
No compassion on the part of western leaders. "War is good for business". The killings are for profit and political gain.


Israel and the War Profiteers

“Israel’s relationship with the United States is unique in a number of ways. And one of those ways is that essentially the United States provides 20% of the Israeli military budget on an annual basis, and then about 70% of that money that is given from the United States, from U.S. taxpayers, to Israel is then spent on weapons from Lockheed Martin and Boeing and Raytheon. Most other countries don’t have that sort of cash relationship, where they go straight to U.S. corporations with U.S. money to buy weapons that are then used in the Occupied Territories and against Lebanon.”


U.S. Rushes Munitions Delivery to Israel


Ex-Pentagon Officials Accused of Fraud, Conspiracy

Two former Pentagon officials, including an acting secretary of the Navy, have been accused of scheming with a banned American contractor to get lucrative rebuilding contracts in Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.


Army: Killing of Unarmed Iraqi by Guardsman Appropriate

Military officials allege that Lynn improperly fired on the man and then conspired with other members of his unit to plant a weapon in a pool of blood near the body to cover up the crime. But evidence presented at an Article 32 hearing in Baghdad this week -- a hearing similar to a civilian grand jury -- convinced McClory that Lynn followed the rules of engagement, or ROE, when he "lawfully" killed Zaben in an area that had been the scene of frequent insurgent attacks. He also concluded that Lynn did not play a role in placing an AK-47 near the man's body.


Arrested Bush Dissenters Eye Courts

Christine Nelson showed up at the Cedar Rapids rally with a Kerry-Edwards button pinned on her T-shirt; Alice McCabe clutched a small, paper sign stating ``No More War.'' What could be more American, they thought, than mixing a little dissent with the bunting and buzz of a get-out-the-vote rally headlined by the president?

Their reward: a pair of handcuffs and a strip search at the county jail.

Now, in federal courthouses from Charleston, W.Va., to Denver, federal officials and state and local authorities are being forced to defend themselves against lawsuits challenging the arrests and security policies.


Bush Popularity Sinks Into "Disastrous" Range, While House Democratic Money Machine Raking It In


Asia calls for Mideast intervention, mulls sending troops


Protests erupt worldwide against Israel's 'genocidal war'

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across the globe Friday to rally against the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, which one regional leader branded a "genocidal war."In Cairo, clashes broke out.


UK-wide protests over Israeli attacks

Protests will be held throughout eleven cities in the UK today increasing pressure on the government to take steps against the Israeli attacks on Lebanon.


Proposed Force in Lebanon Not to Include U.S. Troops


World Politics" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1190595.ece" target=_blank>Blair urged to back Lebanon ceasefire

The Archbishop of Canterbury has led calls for Tony Blair and George Bush to demand an immediate ceasefire by Israel and Hizbollah.


Afghanistan close to anarchy, warns general

The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan yesterday described the situation in the country as "close to anarchy" with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.


Kids Kill In Violent Christian Videogame

Jonathan Hutson says he wasn't opposed to videogame violence per se. "The level of violence in this videogame is not at issue," he said. "Rather, it's the indoctrination in Christian supremacy because the game rehearses and instructs children in the mass killing of New Yorkers for the sake of Christ and that is an abomination." He also said he was appalled that in Eternal Forces, corpses are left on the streets. "It's outrageous that this game has a feature to allow cold corpses of New Yorkers to pile up on the streets. No one gives them a decent burial."


Protesters take over Oaxaca, Mexico

Supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are holding nationwide demonstrations to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount in the disputed July 2 presidential election. Federal and state police clashed with striking miners in April and farm protesters in May, leaving four people dead.


"Edit in progress" - Nobody

News and Articles 7-21-06

CONFIRMATION: ISRAELI SOLDIERS WERE INSIDE LEBANON WHEN CAPTURED

In the afternoon, the scene changed in the streets of southern Lebanon, which was the target of 32 Israeli raids that mainly targeted areas near the area where the two soldiers were captured in Aita al Chaab, close to the border with Israel.


The coup attempt that started a war: Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, its causes and consequences.
On June 8, the Israeli army assassinated the recently appointed Palestinian head of the security forces of the Interior Ministry, Jamal Abu Samhadana, and three others. On June 13, an Israeli plane fired a missile into a busy Gaza City street, killing 11 people, including two children and two medics. On June 20, the Israeli army killed three Palestinian children and injured 15 others in Gaza with a missile attack. On June 21, the Israelis killed a 35-year old pregnant woman, her brother, and injured 11 others, including 6 children. Then came the Israeli capture of two Palestinians.


On the spot: Lebanese dead lie in rubble

Somewhere beneath the tangled mass of smashed concrete, steel rods, dust and the volcano-like crater left by an Israeli bomber lay the remains of Mrs Qudsi, her 30-year-old daughter-in-law and her three children aged from 4 to 11.


No sirens in Arabic

No warnings of attacks are being given to non-Jewish communities inside Israel.


The Israel Resolution

I object to terrorism committed by Hezbollah because I am a strong opponent to all violence on all sides. But I also object to the unreasonable accusations that the Government of Lebanon has not done enough, when we realize that Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years and was not able to neutralize Hezbollah.


Dahiyeh sports terrible scars from merciless bombardment

Rubble, smoke and tangled webs of dangling electrical cables now reside in an area that formerly housed over 500,000 Lebanese, the aftermath of Israeli air strikes that have ravaged Beirut's southern suburbs and show no sign of ending.

"We don't have an alternative home, we don't have a home in the mountains where most are escaping to, and we will not be turned into refugees in our own country," said Mahmoud Beydoun, who is staying with his wife and six children in an apartment building near a demolished building.


U.N. Post Hit in Israel-Hezbollah Fighting

A U.N.-run observation post near the border was struck during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants on Friday, while Israel pushed ahead with airstrikes on Lebanon and warned people in the south to flee as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone.


Northern Command chief: Don’t count the casualties

Northern Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam noted Friday that the fighting in the north was highly demanding and casualties were unavoidable. “This is a demanding operation and we are at war. War costs lives. Civilians will be killed too. I suggest not counting the dead. We need to show strength and determination,” Adam said during a briefing Friday held near the site of an IAF helicopter accident Thursday night. Adam also addressed the battle in which Egoz unit fighters were killed.


France accuses US of blocking Mideast truce

French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has accused the United States of blocking a United Nations call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.


Britain and US defy demand for immediate ceasefire

Two countries, the US and Britain, defiantly refused to back the international clamour for an immediate ceasfire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. Their ambivalence about civilian deaths in Lebanon has given Israel a powerful signal that it can continue its attacks with impunity.


Israel calls up 3,000 reserves - military source

Israel on Friday ordered at least 3,000 reserve soldiers to report for duty as signs grew that the army might be preparing for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, a military source said.

Israel has massed troops, tanks and artillery near the border with Lebanon since the crisis with Hizbollah erupted on July 12.

It could still take days before new reserves are mobilised. One possibility is that they would be sent to the occupied West Bank to relieve combat troops, who would then be sent north to Lebanon.

Israel, which has a conscript army, has been steadily calling up reserves since it launched a major offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon after the group abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid.


"Going for the long war I see..." - Nobody


Israeli tanks, troops massing at Lebanese border

An Israeli invasion could bring the Lebanese army into the conflict.


Evangelical leader pushing 'End Times' war with Iran

Hagee has spent the past six months mobilizing popular support for a war with Iran. Based on his end-times prophecy … and false claims that Iran is just months away from a viable nuclear weapon, Hagee maintains that confrontation with Iran is necessary to fulfill God's plan for the future of the world.


Kristol Suggests People of Iran Would Embrace U.S. Attack, Triggering Regime Change

This morning on Fox, Bill Kristol continued to escalate his calls for war against Iran, stating, “We can try diplomacy. I’m not very hopeful about that. We have to be ready to use force.” Kristol claimed the people of Iran would embrace “the right use of targeted military force.” He added that military force could “trigger changes in Iran,” causing them to embrace regime change. Watch it.


Oil refinery planned for Iraqi Kurdistan

Here is another motive for Israel to make a grab for Lebanon right now. A Lebanese company is building the refinery and pipelines to get the oil to the Mediterrainian, pipelines that will NOT go through Israel.


Lurching Toward Regional War in the Middle East

Falk Israeli moves toward all out war in Gaza and Lebanon seem linked to wider dangers of a regional war with severe global consequences. By interpreting these wider dangers it is not meant to minimize the human suffering and regressive political effects of current carnage in these two long tormented war zones. Looking at this bigger picture is crucial for its own sake, but also helps us understand the immediate crises more fully than if as officially presented by Israel, and unfortunately echoed by many governments around the world.

Whatever else, this outbreak of major two-front violence is not about Israel’s right to defend itself against an enemy that is seriously threatening its territorial integrity or political independence, the only grounds for justifiable war. To treat border incidents, involving a few casualties from rockets and the abduction of a single Israeli soldier by a Gazan militia and two by Hezbollah in south Lebanon, as if it were an occasion of war is a gross distortion of well-accepted international law and state practice. To justify legally a claim of self-defense requires a full-scale armed attack across Israeli borders. If every violent border incident or terrorist provocation were to be so regarded as an act of war, the world would be aflame. If India had responded to the recent Mumbai train explosions that killed some 200 Indian civilians as a Pakistani act of war, the result would have been a devastating regional war, quite possibly fought with nuclear weapons. There are many other flashpoints around the world that might justify police methods in reaction to provocations, and in extreme instances, specific military responses across borders. If such occasions were viewed as acts of war, the consistent result would be catastrophe. Recent Hamas/Hezbollah provocations, even if interpreted through a self-serving Israeli lens, were not of a scale or threat that warranted large-scale military actions that are directed at a wide array of targets unrelated to the specific incidents and causing severe damage to civilians and the entire civilian infrastructure of society (water, electricity, roads, bridges).


Opposition Gives Full Support to Cross-border Operation

Opposition parties in the parliament have given their full support to the Turkish Cabinet’s statement that “Turkey is going to make full use of its international rights to prevent terrorist attacks against the country.

”The Republican People's Party (CHP) said the decision may even be called a belated one, while the True Path Party (DYP) said they would fully support the government in a “cross-border operation.”

The Motherland Party (ANAVATAN) said Turkey should risk everything for the unity of the country.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) stated Turkey’s legitimate defense right is fully supported in international law, while the Great Union Party (BBP) announced Turkey should enter northern Iraq and eradicate terrorism by implementing permanent measures.


Row over antiterror fight mars Turkish-US relations

Asked if Washington would back a Turkish cross-border offensive to eliminate the PKK bases in Iraq, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on Tuesday, I don't believe that that's something that we have supported in the past.


Stay out of northern Iraq, US tells Turkey

WASHINGTON has warned Turkey that the US opposes any attempt by Istanbul to pursue separatist Kurdish rebels into northern Iraq.

The statement came a day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his security forces were drawing up such plans.

The US statement, issued by its embassy in Ankara, said Turkey had a right to defend itself against Kurdish rebels but warned against unilateral action across the border.Mr Erdogan said: "There is no point in endlessly discussing the issue. Our security forces are getting on with their task. Whatever steps need to be taken will definitely be taken."


"But Israel gets to go across borders to kill people why can't we?" - Turkey


Negroponte Blocks CIA Analysis of Iraq “Civil War”

I reported in May that despite the deteriorating situation in Iraq, no National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) has been produced on that country since the summer of 2004. The last NIE, a classified document that the CIA describes as “the most authoritative written judgment concerning a national security issue,” was rejected by the Bush Administration (after being leaked to the New York Times) as being too negative, though its grim assessment subsequently proved to be highly accurate.

The situation has gotten even darker since my initial story—a United Nations report cited in Wednesday's New York Times found that an average of more than 100 Iraqi civilians were killed each day in June—and I've learned from two sources that some senior figures at the CIA, along with a number of Iraq analysts, have been pushing to produce a new NIE. They've been stonewalled, however, by John Negroponte, the administration's Director of National Intelligence, who knows that any honest take on the situation would produce an NIE even more pessimistic than the 2004 version. That could create problems on the Hill and, if it is leaked as the last one was, with the public as well.

“What do you call the situation in Iraq right now?” asked one person familiar with the situation. “The analysts know that it's a civil war, but there's a feeling at the top that will complicate matters.” Negroponte, said another source regarding the potential impact of a pessimistic assessment, “doesn't want the president to have to deal with that.”


"Aw isn't that sweet...He just doesn't want the pressident to have to deal with bad press" - Nobody


Iraq's police overwhelmed by violence

At her home in central Baghdad, Niran al-Sammarai frets over the fate of her husband, kidnapped Saturday with 30 of his colleagues from a conference hall in one of the most heavily patrolled parts of Baghdad.

In Rasafah district, a police captain says he and colleagues are contemplating mass resignations in frustration over mistrust from US forces and orders from Iraqi politicians to release known criminals.

In the once fashionable Mansoor shopping district, metal grates are drawn over half of the businesses. And in Karada, one of Baghdad's safest neighborhoods, many of the businesses are shuttered too. The remaining shopkeepers complain that poor security is driving customers away.

In Baghdad and across much of the center and south of the country, the rhythms of normal life and commerce are rapidly breaking down in a sign that US and Iraqi government plans to build an effective security force are faltering. Reports of police standing aside as civilians get attacked are common, as are claims by survivors that government security forces, infiltrated by sectarian militias, took part in the killings.


Curfew extended as Baghdad violence mounts

Iraqi authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad on Friday in an apparent effort to prevent violence after one of the bloodiest weeks this year.State television announced that a four-hour traffic ban in force every Friday of late to curb car bomb attacks on mosques during weekly prayers would be extended through most of the day.

A gun and grenade attack on a market just outside Baghdad on Monday and a suicide car bombing to the south of the capital killed 120 people this week. U.S. data showed attacks on security forces in Baghdad has averaged 34 a day over several days, compared to an average of 24 in recent months.

Baghdad morgue alone has taken in 1,000 bodies this month.

U.S. commanders are speaking about a looming fight to the finish in the capital between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki's two-month-old unity government and Sunni Arab rebels with links to al Qaeda and ousted president Saddam Hussein.


U.S. general: Insurgents planning 'all-out assault' on Baghdad

Bombings and shootings soared by 40 percent in the Baghdad area in the past week, the U.S. command said Thursday. An American general said extremists were preparing "an all-out assault" on the capital in a decisive battle for the future of Iraq.

Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric issued his strongest call yet for an end to Shiite-Sunni bloodletting, urging all Iraqis to wake up to the "danger threatening the future of the country" and stand "side-by-side against it.

"Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the chief military spokesman, said there had been an average of 34 attacks a day involving U.S. and Iraqi forces in and around the capital since Friday -- up sharply from the daily average of 24 registered between June 14 and July 13.

"The only way we're going to be successful in Baghdad is to get the weapons off the streets," Caldwell said. He said insurgents were streaming into the capital for "an all-out assault against the Baghdad area."

"Clearly the death squad elements, the terrorist elements, know that Baghdad is a must-win for them," he said. "Whoever wins the Baghdad area, whoever is able to bring peace and security to that area, is going to set the conditions to stabilize this country."


2 Iraqi women, child die in U.S. raid

U.S. troops raided a neighborhood northeast of Baghdad early Friday, killing five people — including two women and a child — after gunmen fired from the rooftops of buildings, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. statement said troops were looking for "terrorists" associated with the al-Qaeda in Iraq network during the raid in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Iraqi police said a single man fired warning shots because he believed the soldiers were militiamen.

The Americans said ground troops and a helicopter fired at the buildings after occupants ignored repeated warnings to leave. As troops secured the area, they were fired at from a rooftop.

"The terrorists attempted to reposition themselves between, and on top of, the adjacent buildings," the statement said. "Several men were seen moving around on the rooftops. The ground force twice gave verbal instructions for all occupants to exit the target buildings. These instructions were ignored."


"...and we spoke real loud and slow so they could understand our english...Then we shot them" - Nobody


Soldiers say ordered to kill young men

Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.

The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them.

"The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray," Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name.

That target, an island on a canal in the northern Salahuddin province, was believed to be an al-Qaida training camp. The soldiers said officers in their chain of command gave them the order and explained that special forces had tried before to target the island and had come under fire from insurgents.


"military age is 16-60 +/- a few years each way...This is an act of genocide" - Nobody


Plucked to Safety From Lebanon, American Evacuees Return, Lament the Dead

Haggard and wearing clothes they had slept in, but otherwise healthy and in good spirits, many of the roughly 150 evacuees exulted and applauded when the government-chartered DC-10 touched down at Baltimore/Washington International Airport.

Some wept tears of joy; others, tears of sadness. Some had worried that they and their loved ones would never make it out of Lebanon alive, while others feared for the safety of kin and friends left behind.

“We lived through horror; I’ve seen little kids burned alive,” said Tom Charara, 50, an aerospace engineer from Long Beach, Calif., who with his wife, Rola, and two young children went to visit ailing relatives in Beirut. “A country is being destroyed, people are being killed, and the whole world is watching.”


ACLU wants Katrina probe revealed

The Louisiana branch of the America Civil Liberties Union wants the state attorney general to release the results of his investigation into a police roadblock on the Crescent City Connection after Hurricane Katrina.In a letter to A-G Charles Foti, Louisiana A-C-L-U Executive Director Joe Cook said the delay in wrapping up the investigation "makes no sense."


Open Letter Issued to Attorney General Foti on Long Overdue "Gretna Bridge Incident" Investigation


Musharraf: Taliban gaining power

Pakistan's president calls on Afghanistan to take action

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar remained in control of his Afghan Islamic militia, which was gaining strength in the south of the country, Pakistan's president said Thursday.

General Pervez Musharraf said the growing strength of the Taliban, which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion that followed al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, was having negative effects in Pakistan.

He demanded that Afghanistan's government take immediate steps to stop the infiltration of fighters across the border, warning that the spread of violence could threaten Pakistan.


We have no control over ISI: Pakistan Defence Minister

Amid allegations that ISI and Military Intelligence (MI) kidnapped several people for interrogation, Pakistan's Defence Ministry has said it had no operational control over the two intelligence agencies and was unable to enforce court orders to provide information about those ‘abducted’ or ‘detained’ by them.

In a sworn affidavit filed before the Sindh High Court(SHC) yesterday, Defence Secretary General (retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi said his ministry had no operational control over the ISI and MI and, therefore, it could not enforce the court's direction on both agencies in detention matters.

He was responding to the court's order over the detention of Munir Mengal, the head of Dubai-based TV channel 'Voice of Baloch'. Mengal was reportedly whisked away by intelligence personnel on his arrival in Karachi recently.

The Pakistan Army has also already informed the court that it too had no control over the two intelligence agencies, even though they were headed by top generals of the Army.


"This is like the US saying that it has no control over the CIA or Israel saying that it has no control over Mossad...Hey wait a minute!..." - Nobody


Why I'll vote for Bolton

By George V. Voinovich

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have had the rare opportunity to witness firsthand how the diplomatic process works and, in some cases, how it fails. Recently, despite our nation's best efforts, the world - and particularly the Middle East - has become a more dangerous and volatile place.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, and our nation's initial response in Afghanistan, the global war on terrorism has taken many twists and turns.

First, Iraq became the primary focus of our troops and our public attention. Then, the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea reached critical mass, followed by the quickly changing and deteriorating situation with Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas.Meanwhile, the administration nominated John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations...

"Translation: The world is on fire so lets throw a little gasoline on it...Fire pretty...ooooh...aaaah" - Nobody


Joe Lieberman: Running Against Himself

This week Lieberman seemed to think it was a Really Big Deal that Ned Lamont owned some Halliburton stock, that this was some sign of abject moral depravity as he defaulted to his usual finger-wagging scold mode (seen in YouTube above) as local journalist Mark Davis tossed him a softball:

LIEBERMAN: From the limited disclosure he had under the ‘Senate ethics’ that he has stock in ‘Halliburton,’ and he has stock in, more stock in some of the big oil companies. That’s something for everybody to judge.

MARK DAVIS: That would be a crime?

LIEBERMAN: Oh no, this is just public right to know. None of this is about illegality. I think when you get into public office you’ve got an obligation to disclose all your financial holdings.

Now it turns out that Lieberman was playing Mark Davis for a fool, and he himself holds Halliburton stock. It is the third largest holding, in fact, in his "Victory Fund" mutual fund (PDF of Lieberman’s 2005 Personal Finance Disclosure Statement, p. 7, line 7).


Bill Kristol Donates to Lieberman Campaign

According to the Stamford Advocate, 82% of Joe Lieberman's second quarter campaign contributions came from out-of-state. Those out-of-state contributions include $500 from neoconservative luminary Bill Kristol, as well as even larger amounts from pharmaceutical industry and energy industry interests:


Lieberman Finds Favor Among Donors That Usually Support G.O.P.

When it comes to supporting candidates for public office, the Associated General Contractors of America gives 90 percent of its campaign contributions to Republicans.

And then there is Senator Joseph I. Lieberman.


Pro-Israel Groups Rally in Support of Lieberman

Pro-Israel groups, afraid of losing one of their staunchest supporters in Congress, are pouring money into beleaguered Sen. Joe Lieberman's campaign as he tries to fend off a tougher-than-expected primary challenge.

The three-term lawmaker is struggling to dispatch millionaire businessman Ned Lamont in the Aug. 8 primary. Lamont's fierce criticism of Lieberman's backing of the Iraq war and perceived closeness to President Bush have won him followers among hard-core Democrats. The primary is Aug. 8 and Lieberman has said he will run as an independent if he loses.

Pro-Israel political action committees have donated to his campaign and have urged their national membership to give generously now and later, if Lieberman is forced to run as an unaffiliated candidate."


80% of Lieberman's contributions have come from out of state

In-State $3,630,224 (20.4%)

Out-of-State $14,199,065 (79.6%)

No State $50,800 (0.3%)


Former President to campaign for Lieberman

One of the Democratic Party's biggest guns, former President Bill Clinton, is coming to Connecticut to campaign for Senator Joe Lieberman.

Clinton's visit, planned for July 24 in Waterbury, comes as a new Quinnpiac Poll shows Lieberman and his Democratic primary challenger, businessman Ned Lamont, in a statistical dead heat.

Lieberman's campaign has not yet revealed details of the planned visit. The two politicians have known each other since Clinton worked on Lieberman's first campaign for state Senate in 1970.

"Bill Clinton...The best republican ever" - Nobody


Democrats Narrow Fundraising Gap With GOP

National Democratic Party committees closed a fundraising gap with their Republican counterparts in June, raising more money and improving their cash on hand, according to reports filed Thursday.The data is the latest sign that that neither party would hold a financial edge in this year's contest for control of Congress.


"And this is without selling out liberal ideals and bending over backwards for the right wing" - Nobody


Democrats pressing Blackwell to quit post

National Democratic leaders are calling for Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell to step down as secretary of state, saying he can’t be trusted to fairly administer the election this fall...

Rahm Emanuel, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, and Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman, sent a letter to Blackwell yesterday urging him to "take immediate action to protect Ohio voters," including not overseeing this fall’s elections.

Emanuel and Schumer also said that in the wake of myriad election problems in the 2004 general election in Ohio, it is important to ensure that there are enough voting machines in all Ohio precincts this fall and to provide better training for poll workers.

Democrats also want the secretary of state’s office to publish all registration and Election Day policies and directives to discourage the illegal challenging of voters...


RFK Jr. Blows the Whistle on Diebold

The environmental lawyer-turned voting-rights advocate has found Diebold employees who may link the company to election fraud.

On July 13, the Pensacola, Fla.-based law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a "qui tam" lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Diebold and other electronic voting machine (EVM) companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were "unhackable."


Two N.J. Casinos Sued Schlesinger Over Debts

When Alan Schlesinger gave a fake name while playing blackjack at Foxwoods in the early 1990s, he had already been sued over a gambling debt by one Atlantic City casino and was on the way to racking up an even bigger debt that led to a second lawsuit.

Schlesinger, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in the Nov. 7 election, paid a total of more than $28,000 in 1990 and 1994 to settle the two lawsuits, according to New Jersey court records reviewed by The Courant.


HHS Chief's Fund Gave Little to Charity

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his relatives have claimed millions of dollars in tax deductions through a type of charitable foundation they created that until recently paid out very little in actual charity, tax records show.

Instead, much of the foundation's money has been invested or lent to the family's business interests and real estate holdings, or contributed to the Leavitt family genealogical society.

Rick Cohen, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, said that "the Leavitts are using the foundation as a personal piggy bank, and that's not what the public -- or Congress -- ought to tolerate." Cohen reviewed the family foundation's records and tax returns at the request of The Washington Post.


Bush administration sells off public forests to energy companies


FOX Commentator Threatens 9/11 Activist

Bill O'Reilly, the host of "The O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel, has suggested that Kevin Barrett, an outspoken 9/11 truth activist, belongs "in the Charles River floating down".

News and Articles 7-20-06

Ohio Professor Remains Detained in Israel

An Ohio college professor remained in an Israeli jail on Thursday, 12 days after he was arrested on unspecified charges, his family said. Israeli officials confirmed that Ghazi Falah, 53, an Arab Israeli geography professor at the University of Akron, was detained July 8, but declined comment on the specifics of his case. Falah's family in Wadsworth, Ohio, said he was still being detained.

Shahar Shelef, consul for Israel in Philadelphia, said an Israeli judge's gag order prohibited him from commenting on the nature of Falah's arrest. Israeli law allows such orders in cases that affect national security, Shelef said, and people detained for this reason can be denied access to a lawyer for up to 21 days in some cases.

Falah's wife, Jamila, 45, said her husband was arrested after taking photographs on a tourist beach near Nahariya, and was taken to a jail in Haifa. She said he was given a hearing before a magistrate Sunday, but his lawyer, Hussen abu-Hussen, was not allowed to enter the courtroom, to speak with Falah or to learn of the charges against him.


Kofi Annan Calls for Ceasefire

“Renewing his urgent appeal for an end to the civilian carnage in Lebanon and northern Israel and condemning both that country’s use of excessive force as well as Hizbollah’s recklessness, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today proposed elements for a political framework aimed at achieving a lasting solution to the conflict...


Switzerland demands Lebanese ceasefire

Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has called for a ceasefire between Israel and Islamic Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and insists on the application of humanitarian law.

Calmy-Rey said in Bern on Thursday that a negotiated end to the conflict, which began nine days ago after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, was the only viable solution.

She added that while the soldiers should be returned, a prisoner exchange would be a more likely step towards defusing the crisis.

"Some governments have learnt nothing since the invasion of Iraq," she added.


Israel hints at a full-scale invasion


Lebanon crisis reveals an Anti-Jewish Israeli State

Members of the Israeli government including Prime Minister Olmert refer to themselves as Jews, who are champions of the Jewish State of Israel as Mr. Bush refers to himself as a "Christian" champion. However, the current crisis in Lebanon has nothing substantively to do with either Judaism or Christianity.


Lebanon Israel Facts the Media Isn't Telling You


Why Syria and Hezbollah tried to keep Israel out of Lebanon


IDF: Mossad “has significantly infiltrated Hizbullah”


President Bush Uncut: Why Israel Gets Away with Murder

Bush's off-the-cuff remark to Tony Blair in St. Petersburg deliberately ignored the deep history of Hizbullah, which is deemed a terrorist organization by the state of Israel and the US State Department. And lest you forgot, it was Israel who first marched forces into Lebanon in the 1990s, not the other way around. Hizbullah came about as a result of Israeli's invasion. Since then, Hizbullah has tightened their relationship with Palestine, which likely has struck fear in the Israeli government. The latest chapter of this saga came about when two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hizbullah inside Israel last week. But of course only Israel has the right to defend themselves. Israel has imprisoned thousands of Hamas and Hizbullah members.


Breaking News> Sport" href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=189629482&p=189630188&n=189630242" target=_blank>Third of Lebanon casualties are children, says UN

Nearly one third of all casualties in the Lebanon-Israel conflict have been children, according to the United Nations’ emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland.

Kidnapped by Israel

Few readers of a British newspaper would have noticed the story. In the Observer of 25 June, it merited a mere paragraph hidden in the “World in brief” section, revealing that the previous day a team of Israeli commandos had entered the Gaza Strip to “detain” two Palestinians Israel claims are members of Hamas.

Whereas the Israeli “arrest raid” had passed with barely a murmur, the Palestinian attack a day later received very different coverage. The BBC’s correspondent in Gaza, Alan Johnstone, started the ball rolling later the same day in broadcasts in which he referred to the Palestinian attack as “a major escalation in cross-border tensions”.


U.S. at Odds With Allies on Mideast Conflict

European allies are particularly alarmed about the disproportionately high civilian death toll in Lebanon. They are also concerned that the U.S. position will increase tensions between the Islamic world and the West by fueling militants, playing into the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden and adding to the problems of the U.S.-led coalition force in Iraq.


UN warns of war crimes in Lebanon

Killing of civilians in Lebanon is likely to subject Israeli soldiers to war crime trials in international courts, UN human rights high commissioner says.


Gaza leaflets: Any house hiding weapons to be blown up

IDF distributed pamphlets throughout Strip, warning civilians that if they are hiding weapons, ammunition in houses, their lives are endangered and must leave their homes. "From now on, things will be managed differently," said source in Southern Command to ynet.

Translation: weapons or no weapons, we will destroy any bit of infrastructure left standing in Gaza to absolute rubble.


Judge Refuses to Dismiss Spying Lawsuit

A federal judge Thursday refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's domestic spying program, rejecting government claims that allowing the case to go forward could expose state secrets and jeopardize the war on terror.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the warrantless eavesdropping has been so widely reported that there appears to be no danger of spilling secrets.

Dozens of lawsuits alleging that telecommunications companies and the government are illegally intercepting Americans' communications without warrants have been filed. This is the first time a judge has ruled on the government's claim of a "state secrets privilege."

"It might appear that none of the subject matter in this litigation could be considered a secret given that the alleged surveillance programs have been so widely reported in the media," Walker said.


Surveillance Bill Meets Resistance in Senate

A Senate surveillance bill personally negotiated by President Bush and Vice President Cheney ran into immediate trouble this week, as Democrats and other critics attacked the proposal while key GOP leaders in the House endorsed a different bill on the same topic.

The Senate legislation, drafted during negotiations between the White House and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), would allow the administration to submit the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program to a secret intelligence court for review of its legality.

Other GOP proposals -- including bills proposed by Wilson and Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) -- are also opposed by Democrats and civil-liberties groups because they formally authorize the NSA program. But the scope of the Wilson bill, for example, is more limited than Specter's, and requires the executive branch to brief all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said she opposes all of the GOP proposals dealing with the NSA issue, calling them "solutions in search of a problem."


PAC Tied to DeLay Is Fined, Shutting Down

The fundraising organization that helped vault former Rep. Tom DeLay to Republican leadership ranks in the House and distributed election money to numerous Republicans has been fined for campaign finance violations and is shutting down.

Under an agreement with the Federal Election Commission, Americans for a Republican Majority's political action committee agreed to pay a $115,000 fine and close. The agreement, reached July 7, was made public late Wednesday.

The agreement resulted from an audit by the FEC of the committee's records for Jan. 1, 2001 to Dec. 31, 2002. The audit found DeLay's committee had not properly reported contributions, disbursements and cash on hand.

It also found the committee failed to properly report outstanding debts and obligations and did not follow federal rules for paying for shared federal and nonfederal activities.


Abortion protesters hold memorial for fetus at park

A memorial service for an aborted fetus concluded today without the planned burial in Smith Park.

The 11 a.m. service was part of an eight-day protest led by the anti-abortion group, Operation Save America, in an effort to shut down Jackson Women's Health Organization, the state's last remaining abortion clinic.

Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, said the fetus, which is being preserved in a formaldehyde-like solution, will be buried in Alabama in a few months.

Pavone said he received the fetus from an anonymous pathologist who asked him to give it a proper burial. Pavone said the fetus was aborted at about 18 weeks. It has been used in demonstrations in New York and Columbus, Ohio, he said, and will be in several more before being buried.


Feeding homeless outlawed: ACLU calls measure unenforceable

If someone looks like he could use a meal, be warned: Giving him a sandwich in a Las Vegas park could land you in jail.The Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that bans providing food or meals to the indigent for free or a nominal fee in parks.

The measure is an attempt to stop so-called "mobile soup kitchens" from operating in parks, where residents say they attract the homeless and render the city facilities unusable by families.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada called the ordinance blatantly unconstitutional, unenforceable and the latest attempt by the city to hide and harass the homeless instead of constructively addressing their plight.

"So the only people who get to eat are those who have enough money? Those who get (government) assistance can't eat at your picnic?" asked ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein. "I've heard of some rather strange and extreme measures from other cities. I've never heard of something like this. It's mind-boggling."


Sen. Reid: Iraq devolves into 'civil war'

Democratic leader will try to revive Senate debate on Iraq

Declaring that he believes the situation in Iraq has devolved into a civil war, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday he plans to try to bring the war back up for debate on the Senate floor.

The Nevada Democrat said he has been "somewhat gingerly approaching this.... No longer. There is a civil war going on in Iraq. In the last two months, more than 6,000 Iraqis have been killed. That's averaging more than 100 a day being killed in Iraq and we need to make sure there is a debate on this.

"Republicans questioned why Reid wants to go over old ground and were ready to highlight the divisions among Democrats once again....Eric Ueland, Chief of Staff to Majority Leader Bill Frist....threatened that Republicans would offer a proposal from Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, which calls for U.S. troops to come home by July of 2007....


Strapped for money, Army extends cutbacks

The Army, bearing most of the cost for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Thursday its money crunch has gotten so bad it is clamping down on spending for travel, civilian hiring and other expenses not essential to the war mission.

A statement outlining the cutbacks did not say how much money the Army expects to save, but senior officials have said the cost of replacing worn equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is rising at a quickening pace.

Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, said last week that in 2004 it cost $4 billion to repair or replace war equipment, but now it has reached $12 billion to $13 billion. "And in my view, we will continue to see this escalate," he said, adding that the Army is using up equipment at four times the rate for which it was designed.

Schoomaker traced the problem's origin to entering the Iraq war in 2003 with a $56 billion shortfall in equipment. The Army managed the situation by rotating in fresh units while keeping the same equipment in Iraq. Over time, he said, the equipment has worn out without sufficient investment in replacements.


Earth faces 'catastrophic loss of species'

Life on earth is facing a major crisis with thousands of species threatened with imminent extinction - a global emergency demanding urgent action. This is the view of 19 of the world's most eminent biodiversity specialists, who have called on governments to establish a political framework to save the planet.

The planet is losing species faster than at any time since 65 million years ago, when the earth was hit by an enormous asteroid that wiped out thousands of animals and plants, including the dinosaurs. Scientists estimate that the current rate at which species are becoming extinct is between 100 and 1,000 times greater than the normal "background" extinction rate - and say this is all due to human activity.

The call for action comes from some of the most distinguished scientists in the field, such as Georgina Mace of the UK Institute of Zoology; Peter Raven, the head of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis, and Robert Watson, chief scientist at the World Bank. "For the sake of the planet, the biodiversity science community had to create a way to get organised, to co-ordinate its work across disciplines and together, with one clear voice, advise governments on steps to halt the potentially catastrophic loss of species already occurring," Dr Watson said.

In a joint declaration, published today in Nature, the scientists say that the earth is on the verge of a biodiversity catastrophe and that only a global political initiative stands a chance of stemming the loss. They say: "There is growing recognition that the diversity of life on earth, including the variety of genes, species and ecosystems, is an irreplaceable natural heritage crucial to human well-being and sustainable development.


Bush NAACP Address Receives Lukewarm Applause

President Bush, addressing the annual NAACP convention for the first time despite being repeatedly invited, said today that slavery is a stain on America that has not yet been "wiped clean." He promised to work with African-American leaders in practical ways to address the problems faced by American blacks.

Bush's remarks were met with largely lukewarm applause from the crowd and at one point near the end of his speech, a heckler threatened to disrupt the address. The president pressed ahead undaunted, though, and told a concerned NAACP Chairman and Chief Executive Bruce Gordon, "Don't worry about it.

"Bush kicked off his speech by acknowledging his long-running absence from the group's annual meeting. After being introduced by Gordon, Bush said: "Bruce is a polite man. I thought he was going to say: It's about time you showed up.

"Bush has declined invitations to address the annual convention for five years. This year, with the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act set to be renewed by the Senate as early as today, he accepted.

News and Articles 7-19-06

Conservative Anger Grows Over Bush's Foreign Policy

At a moment when his conservative coalition is already under strain over domestic policy, President Bush is facing a new and swiftly building backlash on the right over his handling of foreign affairs.

Conservative intellectuals and commentators who once lauded Bush for what they saw as a willingness to aggressively confront threats and advance U.S. interests said in interviews that they perceive timidity and confusion about long-standing problems including Iran and North Korea, as well as urgent new ones such as the latest crisis between Israel and Hezbollah.

"It is Topic A of every single conversation," said Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank that has had strong influence in staffing the administration and shaping its ideas. "I don't have a friend in the administration, on Capitol Hill or any part of the conservative foreign policy establishment who is not beside themselves with fury at the administration."


Turkish Commandos on Iraqi Border

Turkey, who warned Iraq and the United States just a day ago that it was “losing patience” over the presence of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Kandil Mountain, is now preparing for a cross-border operation.

Commando squads were deployed to the Iraqi border and massive inland operations are now being prepared.


US military vows to reclaim Helmand towns from Taliban

An International Organisation for Migration official said about 4,000 Afghans had fled the fighting between Taliban and coalition forces in southern Helmand province over recent days.


Israeli Tanks Move Into Gaza Refugee Camp

Israeli tanks moved into the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza early Wednesday under cover of machine gun fire from troops, the latest incursion in its three-week military push in the seaside territory.


ISRAELIS TARGET CHRISTIAN PART OF BEIRUT


U.S. official: Israel needs time to 'defang' Hezbollah

Secretary of State Rice won't travel to Mideast before next week

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will not go on a peace mission to the Mideast before next week, giving Israel time to "defang" Hezbollah, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

Rice, who's set to travel to New York to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday, has said the U.S. would support a cease-fire in the seven-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah "when conditions are conducive to do so.

"More than 300 Lebanese have been killed and more than 1,000 injured after a week of Israeli airstrikes, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Wednesday. Israel's military said 29 Israelis have died in the conflict, including 15 civilians.

Senior administration officials said more time is needed to shape the diplomacy and to create conditions on the ground for a permanent change of the situation -- not merely a cease-fire. Israel needs time to "defang Hezbollah," said one of the officials, who asked not to be named in light of the ongoing diplomacy.


"The occupation has begun" - Nobody


Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon


Jailed troops to be released due to wars


Nothing but anti-Arab racism can fully explain the behaviour of the Israelis

As we witness the bombardment by Israel of Lebanon and Gaza - a grotesque over-reaction - and, as the death toll of Arab civilians mounts, you have to ask how the Israelis can do what they do. My only answer now is to conclude that it is racism. No political or territorial struggles can convincingly explain or excuse the maddened onslaught by the Israeli state.


IT IS RAINING BLOOD IN LEBANON


"The Insane Brutality of the State of Israel"

Words fail; ordinary terms are inadequate to describe the horrors Israel daily perpetrates, and has perpetrated for years, against the Palestinians. The tragedy of Gaza has been described a hundred times over, as have the tragedies of 1948, of Qibya, of Sabra and Shatila, of Jenin -- 60 years of atrocity perpetrated in the name of Judaism. But the horror generally falls on deaf ears in most of Israel, in the U.S. political arena, in the mainstream U.S. media. Those who are horrified -- and there are many -- cannot penetrate the shield of impassivity that protects the political and media elite in Israel, even more so in the U.S., and increasingly now in Canada and Europe, from seeing, from caring.


The Untermensch Syndrome: Israel's Moral Decay

The labeling as anti-Semitic of anyone critical of the state of Israel's policies in the continued destruction of Palestinian identity, and now Lebanese society and infrastructure, and the increasing domination into American foreign policy no longer has the sting of threat or intimidation it once mastered. For too long this masquerade has been used to silence those opposing anything Israel, shouted at anyone disseminating truth and seeking justice. Like the boy who cried wolf, this charade has lost its power or hypnotic control, and today only serves to breed more anger and resentment against the apologists and smear mongers protecting the cancerous tentacles of Zionism and the crimes against humanity it spawns.


Latest targets of air blitz: milk and medicine

Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure.

The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors - including the country's largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant - have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come.


UAE accuses Israel of bombing aid convoy
he United Arab Emirates on Tuesday accused Israel of bombarding one of its humanitarian aid convoys in Lebanon carrying medical equipment, medicines and other supplies.

The Emirati Red Crescent said that the bombing close to the Syrian border was “contrary to international conventions ... and to international humanitarian law as it puts the life of civilians in danger,” according to the WAM agency.

The convoy had suffered material damage, it said.

"For those of you that don't know...The Red Crescent is the same as the Red Cross" - Nobody


As the world looks elsewhere, death toll rises in Gaza

“I wish that I was the one who was killed and not him,” said Ahmed, 17, standing on his roof, where his brother, Muhammad, 22, was struck in the chest by a sniper’s bullet early on Monday morning. Ahmed’s words were interrupted by new explosions. “My brother didn’t run with militant groups. He used to fix washing machines. He was a smart thinker and a believer,” he said.


Hamas & Hizbullah must renounce violence, but Israel need not

The Middle East is boiling over yet again. Israel is resorting to the one strategy it has perfected since the day it was created, murdering civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.


Middle East: Reaping what Bush sowed

The Middle East is burning. From Baghdad to Beirut, car bombs, suicide attacks, air strikes and a grim tally of civilian deaths are the new currency of daily life.


Dobbs: Not so smart when it comes to the Middle East

While the United States provides about $2.5 billion in military and economic aid to Israel each year, U.S. aid to Lebanon amounts to no more than $40 million. This despite the fact that the per capita GDP of Israel is among the highest in the world at $24,600, nearly four times as high as Lebanon's GDP per capita of $6,200.

Lebanon's lack of wealth is matched by the Palestinians -- three out of every four Palestinians live below the poverty line. Yet the vast majority of our giving in the region flows to Israel. This kind of geopolitical inconsistency and shortsightedness has contributed to the Arab-Israeli conflict that the Western world seems content to allow to perpetuate endlessly.


Pentagon Papers Author Daniel Ellsberg Says Government May Have Carried Out 9/11

Daniel Ellsberg, speaking on air to GCN radio host Jack Blood, stated his concerns that criminal elements of the US government were psychologically capable to have carried out 9/11. He warned that within days after a US military strike on Iran that Bush's handlers would probably stage some type of terror attack in the West to legitimize the new war.

Ellsberg went on to state that another major Reichstag-like state-sponsored attack would be followed by a martial law scenario which might include detention camps for American dissenters.


Cover-Up Exposed?

Amid all the other news yesterday, the attorney general's startling revelation that President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation into the administration's controversial secret domestic spying programs hasn't gotten the attention it deserves.


Blair Quashes Public Release of Bush Terror Plot Evidence!

The public must be prevented from learning the contents of a conversation between Tony Blair and President George Bush about the conduct of the war in Iraq - crucial evidence in a forthcoming official secrets trial - an Old Bailey judge ruled yesterday.


New records on UCSC protests show deeper spying conspiracy

New details emerged Tuesday about the government intelligence-gathering at UC Santa Cruz that prompted anti-war protesters there to be designated as a "credible threat" in a secret Defense Department database.


9-11: Twin Towers Story


Katrina audit shows fraud, abuse

The Homeland Security Department wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars last year on iPods, dog booties, beer-making equipment and designer jackets, congressional investigators have concluded.

More than 100 laptop computers and a dozen boats also bought by Homeland Security employees are missing, the investigators found.


Study Documents ‘Ghetto Tax’ Being Paid by the Urban Poor

Drivers from low-income neighborhoods of New York, Hartford and Baltimore, insuring identical cars and with the same driving records as those from middle-class neighborhoods, paid $400 more on average for a year’s insurance.

The poor are also the main customers for appliances and furniture at “rent to own” stores, where payments are stretched out at very high interest rates; in Wisconsin, a $200 television can end up costing $700.

Those were just two examples among several cited in a report Tuesday showing that poor urban residents frequently pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year in extra costs for everyday necessities. The study said some of the disparities were due to real differences in the cost of doing business in poor areas, some to predatory financial practices and some to consumer ignorance.

The study, from the Brookings Institution, said finding ways to eliminate these added costs, often called a “ghetto tax,” could be an important new front in the fight against poverty.

At a meeting connected with the report’s release, officials from three states — New York, Pennsylvania and Washington — said they were already doing just that through a variety of programs to draw banks to poor neighborhoods, help finance the construction of supermarkets and encourage innovative insurance schemes.


Local Anti-Terror Programs Scaled Back

Cuts in Federal Funding Force Changes to Security Projects

Local officials will spend $4 million to relocate Metro's control center outside the District but will scale back other anti-terrorism projects -- from a regional communications system to the purchase of extra hospital beds -- because of a sharp decline in federal funds, according to an announcement Wednesday.

After weeks of discussions, officials released a breakdown of how they plan to spend a $46 million Homeland Security grant for the capital region. The grant amount, announced several weeks ago, was 40 percent less than the Washington area received last year, prompting outrage in an area targeted in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Among the biggest losers from the funding cutback is a high-tech regional communications system that would allow officials to exchange data -- such as maps of emergency sites -- over a secure network. Local authorities had hoped to invest $25 million in the system this year; instead it will get $5.5 million.

Also reduced was funding for hospitals to buy extra beds and equipment to cope with a crisis. Last year that program disbursed $4 million locally; this year it will have $700,000.

Some anti-terror programs got little or no money. For example, an $8 million plan to upgrade bomb squads throughout the region was scrapped. And no funds were provided to Prince George's County for a radio communications system that would allow communications with first-responders from surrounding counties and the District, which the county's homeland-security director called his "No. 1 priority."


Gallup: 4 in 10 Republicans Find McCain 'Unacceptable'

A new Gallup poll asking Americans theirs views of 25 leading candidates for president in 2008 found that one of the Republican frontrunners, Sen. John McCain, is judged "unacceptable" by 41% of those in his own party.

A bare majority, 55%, find him "acceptable." In contrast, 73% of Republicans give their okay to rival Rudy Giuliani. Condoleezza Rice got the thumb's up from 68%.

Most of the opposition to McCain comes from conservatives, possibly explaining his moves in that direction lately.

Interestingly, the Republicans with the highest "unacceptable" ratings are Vice President Cheney (61%) and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush


Machine Vote-Flipping Claimed in McKinney Primary

You’ve got electronic voting machines. Many people called in and shared their concern. They pushed the button for Cynthia McKinney and Hank Johnson came up. It wasn’t one time, it wasn’t two times, it was many, many times,” Karen Fitzpatrick, who has been monitoring elections for US Rep. McKinney’s re-election campaign, told Atlanta Progressive News in an exclusive interview.

Let me repeat: The McKinney Campaign says they have documented complaints of voters here in Georgia whose votes FLIPPED BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES on Diebold machines.

“It started early this morning. There were well over 25 to 30 calls that came in . Many of them went to the poll manager . In some cases, the poll managers said there’s nothing we can do. In some cases the voter left frustrated as if their vote had been compromised, as if it had been stolen,” Fitzpatrick said.


Calif. Congressman Saw Profit From Bank

Rep. Jerry Lewis profited handsomely on an investment in a fledgling bank headed by a close friend who invited him to get in on the company's initial stock offering.

The California Republican was given the opportunity to buy into Security Bank of California in early 2005, shortly after becoming chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Lewis' initial $22,000 investment now is worth nearly $60,000.

Besides his friendship with bank Chairman James Robinson, Lewis has other connections to the bank. Several of its board members have contributed to his campaigns and are linked to businesses that shared in the bonanza of federal dollars Lewis steered back home.

Lewis' finances are under scrutiny as part of a broad federal investigation into connections between Washington lobbyists, their clients and the awarding of government contracts. No charges have been filed, and Lewis has denied any wrongdoing.


House OKs bill guarding Pledge from courts

The House, citing the nation's religious origins, voted Wednesday to protect the Pledge of Allegiance from federal judges who might try to stop schoolchildren and others from reciting it because of the phrase "under God."

The legislation, a priority of social conservatives, passed 260-167. It now goes to the Senate where its future is uncertain.

"We should not and cannot rewrite history to ignore our spiritual heritage," said Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. "It surrounds us. It cries out for our country to honor God.

"Opponents said the legislation, which would bar federal courts from ruling on the constitutional validity of the pledge, would undercut judicial independence and would deny access to federal courts to religious minorities seeking to defend their rights.


Bush faces backlash for stem cell veto

Experts condemn 'setback' for research into life-threatening ailments

THE international medical community condemned President Bush’s veto yesterday of a Bill that would have allowed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. It claimed that millions of patients worldwide would suffer as a result.

Doctors and scientists expressed dismay that Mr Bush chose the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, passed by 63 votes to 37 in the US Senate on Tuesday, as the first Bill that he has vetoed since taking office.

Lord Rees of Ludlow, the president of the Royal Society in London, said that Mr Bush’s veto was “slowing down the global effort to develop therapies for a range of diseases and illnesses . . . that could eventually help millions of patients in the US and the rest of the world”.

Mr Bush supports adult stem cell research. But even some doctors opposed to embryonic stem cell research on moral grounds expressed anger at recent comments by Karl Rove, the President’s chief adviser, that researchers have found “far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells”. Markus Grompe, director of an Oregon stem cell centre, said there was “no factual basis to compare the promise” of the two stem cell sources.


"Have I ever mentioned that I despise flat world bug fucking crazies?" - Nobody