The Alpha Liberal

It's time to get busy folks.

2007-01-07T21:40:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-08-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

With fans like these who needs fans?

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Sorry that I've been busy

2006-08-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-21T08:00:00.001-07:00

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

2006-07-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

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

New and Articles 7-18-06

2006-07-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

I've been out sick for the last few days and I'm still not feeling quite up to snuff but I'll try and catch up with the news. There's been an awful lot of it lately and I'm not making any promises as to whether or not I can find something that you all haven't heard yet but here goes.

Uncensored News Reports From Across The Middle East

Israeli children sign their missiles ‘with love’

Looking at the Bright Side of World War III

For them, every rocket that flies into Israel and every bridge that is blown up in Lebanon just brings us one step closer to the end of the world, which is a good thing. They made me realize that it was un-Christian of me to be thinking only of the innocent Israelis, Lebanese and Palestinians caught in the middle of the fighting instead of the Rapture that awaits those of us who are saved. Where others see only tragedy, we saved Christians see the fulfillment of prophesy. Instead of seeing the silver lining in every storm cloud, to us the storm clouds are the silver linings.

God to Revoke Holy Land Status - All Agree It's Time to "Pull It"

IRS warns churches to avoid campaigning

The Internal Revenue Service has been warning churches and nonprofit organizations that improper campaigning in the upcoming political season could endanger their tax-exempt status.
In notices to more than 15,000 tax-exempt organizations, numerous church denominations and tax preparers, the agency has detailed its new enforcement program, called the Political Activity Compliance Initiative, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Under the initiative, the IRS plans to expedite investigations into claims of improper campaigning, no longer waiting for an annual tax return to be filed or the tax year to end before launching a probe. A three-member committee will make an initial review of complaints and then vote on whether to pursue the investigation in detail.

"While the vast majority of charities and churches do not engage in politicking, an increasing number did take part in prohibited activities in the 2004 election cycle," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a statement. "The rule against political campaign intervention by charities and churches is long established. We are stepping up our efforts to enforce it."

"They were actually encouraged to do so by the Bush campaign and then were rewarded with large contracts under his faith based initiatives...This couldn't be a warning to left leaning churches could it? - Nobody

Bush Rewards & Persecutes Churches Based On Fealty to His Agenda

Two months ago, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon." The attempt to quiet any religious-based criticism of the war was shrouded in a supposed desire to uphold laws preventing religious and political activities from mixing. But now, two months later, the New York Times reports that this Sunday, the Rev. Herbert H. Lusk II - "a maverick black minister who took to his pulpit in Philadelphia in 2000 and pledged his support for a Bush presidency" - has "offered his church in Philadelphia as the site for a major political rally intended to whip up support for the president's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.

"So let's get this straight - a religious institution is at risk of losing its tax exempt status if its leader advocates ending wars. But if its leader comes out and overtly endorses George W. Bush for president and then uses church facilities to advocate confirming Bush's Supreme Court nominees, there's no tax issue. In fact, as the New York Times notes, the latter gets rewarded with "a $1 million grant through the president's new religion-based initiative."

Pregnancy centers mislead girls, says congressman

Advisers working at some federally funded pregnancy resource centers mislead pregnant teens about the risks of abortion, falsely telling callers it raises the risk of breast cancer, infertility and mental illness, a U.S. congressman said on Monday.

Democratic staff on the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee who called up some faith-based pregnancy resource centers said they received incorrect advice aimed at discouraging abortion.

"Twenty of the 23 centers reached by the investigators (87 percent) provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion," California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said in a statement.

Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked staff to check on pregnancy crisis centers, which were given $24 million in federal funding between 2001 and 2005.

"Pregnancy resource centers are virtually always pro-life organizations whose goal is to persuade teen-agers and women with unplanned pregnancies to choose motherhood or adoption."

"I think that's a clear example of using tax payer money to promote a political ageanda if I've ever seen one...Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of Religion..Sounds to me like there very much is a "prefered" US government approved religion to me." - Nobody

Pro-Life Advocates Now Buying Abortion Centers to Close Them Down

In years past, when pro-life advocates were opposed to having an abortion center in their town, they normally looked to protests, legislation or zoning board requirements to help them place restrictions on abortion centers or make it difficult for them to do business. Now they're trying a more direct tactic -- buying them.

Abortion business have been purchased in states such as Kansas, Florida, Tennessee and Nebraska.

In one of the first cases the Pro-Life Majority Coalition of Chattanooga outbid a Tennessee abortion business for the right to own a local facility that had long been the sole place in town where abortions were done.

The buying of the building forced the abortion center to close and the site now houses the National Memorial for the Unborn, a memorial for all of the babies who died at the abortion center over the years.

Reed Hopes Voters Keep Faith, Forget Abramoff

His foe in Georgia's GOP primary criticizes the PR work he did for his lobbyist friend.

For former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed to succeed in his first bid for public office, he's going to have to pray for the help of voters like Norma Saunders.

Saunders, 83, has heard about Reed's ties to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Washington lobbyist. But, she said, she still plans to vote for Reed in today's Republican primary for Georgia lieutenant governor.

"I have read about Ralph Reed through all of his troubles and triumphs, and I'm going to vote for him," Saunders assured a group of campaign volunteers who knocked on her door Friday. "I think he's articulate and capable."

For years, Reed has been the clean-cut, boyish face of the conservative Christian movement — a behind-the-scenes whiz whom many credit with helping the GOP solidify power in Washington. Now, however, it appears he will need every ounce of that talent to survive his bid for the powerful post of lieutenant governor.

"Ralph Reed...Dominionist...Need I say more?" - Nobody

Gay rights group: Dobson manipulated data

Members of a group supporting parental rights for gays and lesbians accused Focus on the Family founder James Dobson of manipulating research data to say gays and lesbians are not good parents, and began a 65-mile march Monday to confront him at his Colorado Springs headquarters.

A Focus on the Family official denied the allegation.

Soulforce Executive Director Jeff Lutes said Dobson's statements have brought rejection and ridicule on gay and lesbian parents, and the group wants him to stop.

"That misinformation has real tragic results. It makes living for families like ours much more difficult. We are rejected sometimes by loved ones, we are shunned by churches and we are discriminated against in every state in this country," Lutes said at a rally before the march.

"See part of dominionist theology is that it's ok to lie, cheat, steal and even kill if you're doing it to bring about the return of Jesus..." - Nobody

Florida's Fear of History: New Law Undermines Critical Thinking

One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for certainty and control over knowledge.

By that standard, the members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as the folks most terrified of history in the United States when last month they took bold action to become the first state to outlaw historical interpretation in public schools. In other words, Florida has officially replaced the study of history with the imposition of dogma and effectively outlawed critical thinking.

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2006 Congressional Candidates

The AIPAC Trial was delayed again.

Senators initiate resolution supporting Israel, condemning Hezbollah

The Senate is likely to pass a resolution, as early as Tuesday, condemning Hezbollah and expressing support of Israel's actions in Lebanon.

According to the resolution, the Senate "supports Israel's right of self defense and Israel's right to take appropriate action to deter aggression... calls for immediate and unconditional release of Israeli soldiers... condemns the governments of Iran and Syria ... responsible for the acts of aggression carried out by Hezbollah and Hamas against Israel...

"The Senate resolution urges the President to use all "political and diplomatic means" including sanctions to help end the support by Iran and Syria to Hezbollah and Hamas, and calls upon the Lebanese government to fulfill its responsibility to disarm Hezbollah.The resolution also urges the UN to demand compliance with Security Council resolution 1559, and to condemn the "unprovoked acts" of Hezbollah.

Israel Makes Its 'Clean Break'

Many in America oppose the U.S. knee-jerk, unquestioning support for Israel. Many more worry that the Israeli lobby is unusually influential in Washington, while remaining hidden and unaccountable to average Americans. Still others are alarmed that Israel’s constant war mentality has become our new American model, and that Iraq and our own borders have become our own occupied territories, teeming with terror and constituting a never-ending threat to our lives, prosperity and value system.

Israel Takes a Stupid Pill

Apparently not content to let the US do a self-immolation act in the Middle East by itself, Israel decided to set itself on fire by invading Lebanon. Burn baby burn? Like George Bush, Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, never served in a combat unit and launched military operations without thinking the matter through. In fact, Olmert reportedly never even served in the military. I raise this because there is one simple question Israel cannot answer about the current operations-what is their strategic military objective. Olmert has somehow persuaded the Israeli military to ignore strategy, think tactically, and in the process become really stupid. The events in the next several weeks will expose as myth the canard that you can secure a nation by killing terrorists. No you can't.

FLASHBACK: Sharon's war crimes in Lebanon: the record

In 1982 , Sharon and Begin assigned their agent , Abu Nidal , to assassinate Israeli Ambassador to the UK , Shlomo Argov. Argov survived but the false flag terror incident became the pretext for the 1982 invasion of Lebanon which turned out to be a debacle of massive proportions.

Israelis are dying: it must be an escalation

distortion of news priorities has real costs that can be measured in lives -- in the days and weeks to come, hundreds, possibly thousands, of lives in both Israel and Lebanon. As long as Israel is portrayed by our major broadcasters as the one under attack, its deaths alone as significant, then the slide to a regional war -- a war of choice being waged by the Israeli government and army -- is likely to become inevitable."

US military is now blocking web sites reporting on the mideast crisis

Pro-war extremist Blog makes excuses for rape of 14 year old Iraqi

Gonzales: Bush blocked eavesdropping probe

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans' international calls and e-mails when terrorism is suspected.

The department's Office of Professional Responsibility announced earlier this year it could not pursue an investigation into the role of Justice lawyers in crafting the program, under which the National Security Agency intercepts some telephone calls and e-mail without court approval.

At the time, the office said it could not obtain security clearance to examine the classified program.Under sharp questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, Gonzales said that Bush would not grant the access needed to allow the probe to move forward.

Hezbollah website hosted by a US defense subcontractor?

Staffers at Santa Barbara Paper Join Large Protest

The protest was the latest public display of newsroom tension that began when staff accused the daily's owner of meddling in news coverage. Six top editors and two writers have resigned, and a copy editor quit Friday.

New York Times covers up brutal settler attack on Palestinian

Politicians and Media Selling America's Soul for an Israeli Shekel

Most of you are either unwilling or careless to learn about the history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict and how a Jewish state for Europe's victims was forced violently and with terrorism expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home with the deliberate erasing of over 400 Palestinian villages (Read Ben Gurion and Dayan's own writings; or Benny Morris's: Palestinian Refugee Problem). Massacres, rapes, terrorism (first MidEast bomb was by Begin's group, first hijacking of a plane was by Israel) were inflicted on the British, Palestinians, and U.N. envoys. Your myths about Israel as a "democracy" defies the logic that this solely a “Jewish state" where Christians and Muslims are unwanted. Mosques and churches have been burned and destroyed.

Bolton: Civilian deaths don't count

"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts," he added, while defending as "self-defense" Israel's military action, which has had "the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths".

CNN: We're not allowed to comment on dead civilians

"At least, we really know where you stand, o Nation Magazine"

So the criterion and the term of reference is always what is good for Israeli Jews; the rest are a footnote to the narrative. A sideshow, really. So the Nation would really support massive bombings and massacres of Arab civilians IF it is in Israel's interest. This is the crux of the Nation magazine's position.

What's Wrong With This Picture? 7-16-06, NO-IMAGES-OF-DEAD-ISRAELIS.

I do not dispute that rockets were fired - I only question whether, based on the images presented, they caused the deaths attributed to them by Israelis.

Photos of War taken by Lebanese People

All in a day's work for America's ally

When civilians become targets: The Israeli destruction of Lebanon and Gaza

n the last two weeks, Israel has sent a chilling message to the Palestinian and Lebanese people: civilians and infrastructure are legitimate targets in their war of aggression. The Geneva Conventions have been fragrantly violated and humanitarian law has been thrown into the garbage can. The Israeli government would have us believe that the killing of civilians is the "necessary consequence" of holding one Israeli prisoner in Gaza and two Israeli prisoners in Lebanon.

Lebanese PM pleads for cease-fire

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has pleaded for the international community to organise an immediate cease-fire, accusing Israel of massacres and wanting to blast his country "back 50 years".

In a statement, he "implored the international community and Arab countries to work towards installing an immediate cease-fire" to end Israel's week-old offensive against Lebanon.

Israel, he said, was "committing massacres against Lebanese civilians and working to destroy everything that allows Lebanon to stay alive.

"The intensifying aggression in this barbaric way proves that Israel has decided to push Lebanon back 50 years."

Israeli Attacks on Educational Institutions in the Gaza Strip Violate International Law

Article 56 of the Hague Regulations, which reflect customary international law, states that institutions dedicated to education, "even when State property, shall be treated as private property" and that, "All seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions of this character ... is forbidden." Both the Islamic University and the Dar al-Arqam School are institutions dedicated to education. Therefore, the wilful damage done to them was in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

Israel's path to total war

Gideon Levy in the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz has put it cogently: "In Gaza, a soldier is abducted from the army of a state that frequently abducts civilians from their homes and locks them up for years with or without a trial - but only we're allowed to do that. And only we're allowed to bomb civilian population centers."

Israel acts according to a ready script

The parallels between Israel's military assaults on Lebanon and Gaza are striking. It is not so much the unconvincing claim by Israel that both attacks were triggered by the capture of its soldiers as the similarities in the nature and goals of each response. What is presented as righteous Israeli indignation on two fronts is more truthfully war-mongering according to a prepared script.

For every Qassam and Katyusha strike, Israel is raining down a barrage of its latest military hardware, wrecking civilian infrastructure and human lives. This is not only "disproportionate," in the mealy-mouthed words of Western governments, it is collective punishment and - as if it needs repeating - a war crime. But we should expect no more from an army that talks about "bombing Gaza into the Stone Age" and "turning the clock back 20 years in Lebanon."

What Does Israel Want?

In 1948, the Palestinians opted for a very low intensity conflict when the UN imposed on them a deal which wrested from their hand half of their homeland and gave it to a community of newcomers and settlers, most of whom arrived after 1945. The Zionist leaders waited for long time for that opportunity and launched an ethnic cleansing operation that expelled half of the land’s native population, destroyed half of its villages and dragged the Arab world into unnecessary conflict with the West, whose powers were already on the way out with the demise of colonialism. The two designs are interconnected: the wider Israel’s military might expands, the easier it is to complete the unfinished business of the 1948: the total de-Arabization of Palestine.

It is not too late to stop the Israeli designs from creating a new and terrible reality on the ground. But the window of opportunity is very narrow and the world needs to take action before it is too late

"WAR" IN MIDDLE EAST: IT'S NOT WHAT WE'VE BEEN TOLD. . . .

Israel plans Lebanon buffer zone -

Amid renewed cross-border fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces, Israel said Monday that it intends to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to stop rocket attacks from the militant group.

"We intend to complete this operation. We have no intention of allowing anyone to stop us before we complete the creation of a buffer zone," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said.

"Isn't this the exact tactic that they used to take over the gaza strip?" - Nobody

One Giant Gaza Strip

Israel has justified the carnage by pointing to the 2 soldiers who were captured by members of the Lebanese resistance organization, Hezbollah. But Israel’s defense is hopelessly flawed.
What if relatives or friends of the many US detainees who’ve been illegally imprisoned at Guantanamo, decided to use F-16s and laser-guided missiles to attack the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears Tower, New York City’s electrical grid, and vast swathes of the highway system? Would that be equally justifiable? Or, more to the point, what if Hezbollah decided to blow up major parts of Israel’s infrastructure in retaliation for the hundreds of Lebanese prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons without any legal recourse? Would that be okay?

ISRAEL PLANNED CAPTURE OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT LONG BEFORE ALLEGED KIDNAPPING

"The detention of Hamas parliamentarians in the early hours of Thursday morning had been planned several weeks ago and received approval from Mazuz on Wednesday. "

Video: Israel kills Lebanese soldiers

Nine Lebanese soldiers were killed when Israeli war planes attacked a Lebanese Army post.

"I thought this was supposed to be about Hezbollah and not the Lebanese army...Actions speak louder that words..." - Nobody

It's war by any other name

It all started on July 12 when Israel troops were ambushed on Lebanon's side of the border with Israel. Hezbollah, which commands the Lebanese south, immediately seized on their crossing. They arrested two Israeli soldiers, killed eight Israelis and wounded over 20 in attacks inside Israeli territory.

Israel’s Attack on Lebanon

“Disproportionate” is the term often employed to describe Israel’s attack on Lebanon. Illegal and immoral are much more accurate.

US Charging Evacuees to Get Out of Lebanon

The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need.

U.S. sends cruise ship for Lebanon evacuees

Syria offers safe haven to US nationals fleeing Lebanon

A Beautiful Friendship?

The bottom line: "Israel's enemies get weakened or overthrown, Israel gets a free hand with the Palestinians, and the United States does most of the fighting, dying, rebuilding and paying."
A sweet deal for Israel, in other words, but a very bad one for America.

The west must recognise that Israel's agenda is in conflict with its own

No one quibbles with Israel's right to defend itself, but doesn't it understand how irresponsible and immoral it is to deliberately escalate the conflict in this way?

Israel Violates US Law With Attack on Lebanon

Israel is in violation of U.S. arms-control laws for deploying U.S.-made fighter planes, combat helicopters, and missiles to kill civilians and destroy Lebanon's infrastructure in the ongoing six-day devastation of that militarily weak country.

"Section 4 of the [U.S.] Arms Export Control Act requires that military items transferred to foreign governments by the United States be used solely for internal security and legitimate self-defense," says Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.

US gives Israel a blank check to wage war

The Bush administration has given Israel a carte blanche to wage war against Lebanon, bombing and killing as it sees fit. American diplomacy in the crisis precipitated by Israeli aggression first against Gaza and then against its neighbor to the north is concentrated on blocking any move for a ceasefire and concocting a pretext for future military action against Syria and Iran.

Will We Go to War for Israel?

What Israel wants is what they have always wanted: to use American power, American tax dollars, and American lives to advance their own expansionist agenda. Twenty-five thousand Americans are in Lebanon at the present moment, all of them at risk from Israeli bombs – but that didn't factor into Tel Aviv's calculations, any more than Lebanese or Palestinian lives matter one whit to them. The Israelis put Israel first – and so does Washington. If all 25,000 American tourists and others have to perish in the flames of Israeli air strikes, then so be it. No sacrifice is too great – just as long as our Israel-centric foreign policy remains firmly in place.

Russia May Send Navy Ships to Lebanon

Lavrov warned that the fighting between Israel and Lebanese guerrillas could ignite a wider conflict, and said the international community had to use all means possible to end the violence immediately.

US forces won't go to Lebanon

THE US military is unlikely to enter the widening conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a senior State Department official said Saturday.

"We don't expect that would happen," David Welch, US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, told CNN when asked at what point US troops would get involved.'

US warships head for Lebanon, thousands flee bombing

The United States ordered five military ships to head for Lebanon on Tuesday in its first major evacuation of Americans as thousands of foreigners packed their bags to flee Israeli air strikes pounding the country.

Americans frustrated by evacuation pace

Europeans and Lebanese with foreign passports fled Lebanon by the thousands, while Americans expressed frustration at the slow pace of U.S. evacuation efforts Tuesday as a cruise ship chugged toward the country to pick them up.

A Greek cruise ship carrying about 700 French citizens and others — many women and children — out of Lebanon arrived in Cyprus' port of Larnaca, while scores of people waited to board the Hual Transporter, a Swedish chartered ship docked at Beirut's port.

Haakon Svane, an official with the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, said the ship was expected to carry about 1,000 passengers, including Swedes, Finns, Norwegians and a few Americans.

An American man and his wife boarding the Swedish chartered ship expressed anger at how long the process to evacuate U.S. citizens was taking as fighting between the Israelis and Hezbollah guerrillas entered its seventh day.

ISRAEL'S NEW FEAR

Israel never squandered the lives of its soldiers. It couldn't afford to.

Report: Israeli aircraft brought down in Beirut

Israel softens conditions for cease-fire

Australian FM says Israel rejects ceasefire appeal

Israel has rejected an Australian appeal for a short ceasefire in Lebanon to allow a safe evacuation of its nationals, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
Downer said Israel had also refused to guarantee safe passage for foreign nationals trying to escape southern Lebanon, which has been pounded by Israeli bombing raids for days.

Italy slams Israel 'excess'

ITALY'S Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema accused Israel of provoking hatred in the region by going too far with its military response in the Gaza strip and voiced concern over the future of Lebanon.

Mr D'Alema also criticised Washington's "failed politics" in Iraq saying the war had heightened regional risks and anti-Western fundamentalism. Italy's new centre-left government, which has shifted its foreign policy away from Washington since taking power in April elections, has announced plans to withdraw all of its troops from Iraq by the end of the year.

"It's clear that the political risk of Lebanon's collapse would not reinforce Israel's security," he said

Israel opposes putting international forces in South Lebanon

Olmert doesn't think international forces will help the situation in Lebanon, and instead wants Lebanese forces to take control of the area of the border with Israel and wants the Hezbollah militia disarmed, senior officials close to Olmert said.

Israel calls Venezuelan diplomat for consultation

Last July 15th, the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a communiqué entitled "Venezuela condemns the attacks of the State of Israel against the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon" endorsing Chávez remarks on July 14th, when the Venezuelan ruler labeled the Israeli attacks as "insanity with atomic bombs."

"Where will this madness is going to? Behind this madness there is the US empire lust for domination. Their lust for domination knows no bounds and could lead the world to the holocaust. God save us!," Chávez exclaimed.

In its communiqué, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry added: "We have clearly told the (Venezuelan) Chargé d'Affaires that Israel is shocked as the Venezuelan President's words lack balance."

We're Being Set Up for Wider War in the Middle East

The old adage, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" does not apply to Americans, who have shown that they can be endlessly fooled.

Israel – just testing the waters?

There would seem to be two possible explanations:

1. The attack on Lebanon is a prelude to a wider war, possibly with Syria being the next target

2. The attack on Lebanon is a horrendous diversion from the failure of the Gaza bloodbath to achieve its stated objective, the complete destruction of what was left of the Palestinian administration, enabling it to complete its total annexation of the West Bank.

Obviously there is a great deal of overlap between the two and there is no doubt that the 'Greater Israel’ objective, the total incorporation of the Occupied Territories, that includes parts of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon into Israel, is still the major concern of the Zionist state.

Wildly Disproportionate Attack on Lebanon Seems Like Pretext to Confront Iran

Is it really Iran that is pushing for war? Think about it. Why would Iran want to provoke a war with Israel and the U.S. — both heavily armed nuclear powers — when it has no nuclear weapons itself?

The U.S. and Israel, on the other hand, are very keen to attack Iran. In a recent series of articles in New Yorker magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has detailed Washington's plans to attack Iran. Israel has called Iran a "major threat" that "must be stopped" from developing nuclear weapons.

But the U.S. and Israel don't want to look like aggressors. They insist their intentions are purely defensive. Recall that Washington also claimed its invasion of Iraq was purely defensive — to protect itself from Iraq's arsenal of deadly weapons, which, it turned out, didn't exist.

Israel capable of air strike on Iran

Israel is in the best position militarily in its history to mount air strikes against Iran, after a decade of buying U.S.-produced long-range aircraft, penetrating bombs and aerial refueling tankers.

"paid for by the US taxpayer while people go with out medical care in their own country" - Nobody

Israel Prepares to Invade Syria

As to be expected, the story about a Hezbollah drone hitting an Israeli warship was tweaked this morning to fit the emerging agenda. “Senior Israeli army officers said Saturday that the rocket which hit an Israeli missile boat off the Lebanese coast Friday night was an Iranian-built radar-guided C-802,” reports the Bangkok Post.

How Israel mistook an “aircraft rigged with explosives” for a missile, as the Associated Press reports, is not explained. However, blaming Iran certainly fits the picture, as both Israel and the United States are trying to drag Iran and Syria into Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and thus widen the conflict, as planned.

All quiet on the Syrian front

"The Israelis wouldn't be stupid enough, would they? If they hit Syria, that's World War III," he added.

Syria poised to strike back

Air force on high alert; government issues warning
"Any aggression against Syria will be met with a firm and direct response whose timing and methods are unlimited," Bilal was quoted as saying by Syria's official news agency, SANA.

Iran Warns Israel Of 'Unimaginable Losses' If Syria Hit

"We have no Guards there. It is not true that we have sent missiles. Hezbollah is capable enough. The Zionist regime is under pressure," Asefi said, repeating Iran's denial of any connection to the attack.

Military leaders foresee Iraq exit in 2016

Human Rights Situation in Iraq Grave, UN Report Shows

A new report on the human rights situation in Iraq paints a grave picture of abuses while pointing to the possibility for positive change with the establishment of a Government there.

In its bimonthly human rights report for May – June 2006, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq expressed the hope that there are "unique opportunities with a new Government of national unity announced on 22 May and its firm commitment to address forcefully urgent human rights concerns so as to establish the rule of law in the country.

"At the same time, the report notes a grave situation of human rights in Iraq that the new Government must address.

While welcoming recent positive steps by the Government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists and insurgents, as well as militias and criminal groups.

Kidnapping of individuals and groups, for ransom or political purposes also continued to surge, according to the report, which commends the release of over 3,000 detainees but expressed concern at new evidence of torture in detention centres administered by the Ministry of Interior.

Iraq holy city bombing kills 45

Armed robbers hit Baghdad bank

At least 45 people were killed and 60 others wounded Tuesday morning when a suicide car bomber detonated in a busy Kufa marketplace where day laborers gather, Iraqi police said.

Violence in Iraq spinning out of control

A Sunni driver lures Shiites into a van by promising jobs - then blows it up, killing 53 people. Sunni gunmen spray bullets and grenades at shoppers, not caring that they include women and children. Shiite death squads roam Baghdad streets, singling out and slaughtering Sunnis.

The new unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds was supposed to bring Iraqis together. Instead, sectarian bloodletting is spiraling out of control.

In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in two spectacular examples of Sunni-Shiite violence - 53 in the suicide van bombing Tuesday in Kufa and 50 in the massacre Monday in the market in Mahmoudiya.

Nearly every day, police find corpses in Baghdad streets and vacant lots, victims of death squads that hunt down members of the rival sect. The bodies often show signs of horrific torture, including holes drilled into their eyes or skulls.

U.N.: 14,000 Iraqis killed in 2006

More than 14,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq in the first half of this year, an ominous figure reflecting the fact that "killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread" in the war-torn country, a United Nations report says.

Killings of civilians are on "an upward trend," with more than 5,800 deaths and more than 5,700 injuries reported in May and June alone, it says.The report, a bimonthly document produced by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, covers May and June, and includes chilling casualty figures and ugly anecdotes from the insurgent and sectarian warfare that continues to rage despite the establishment of a national unity government and a security crackdown in Baghdad.

Turkey signals it's prepared to enter Iraq

Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there — a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States.

Medically retired soldier concludes: "We are pawns" in Iraq

At what price would you take a job that included scraping human flesh off ambushed Humvees?

Dodge the Impending US Military Draft - Say NO to Conscription

I Know I Won't Fight . . . But How Do I Prove it?

"just in case..." - Nobody

Americans Want U.S. Out of Mid-East War

Many adults in the United States believe their government should not become involved in the current dispute between Israel and its neighbours, according to a poll by SurveyUSA. 55 per cent of respondents think the U.S. should not attempt to negotiate a ceasefire, and 84 per cent reject a military intervention.

Counter-protest the JUF

American Muslims angry at US stance on Mideast conflict

American Muslims chafe at the US government's hands-off approach to Israeli reprisals and worry about countless relatives and friends trapped by violence in Lebanon.

US officials say Israel "has the right to defend itself," since its incursion into Gaza three weeks ago and air raids on Lebanon, but President George W. Bush's stance offends Americans who are Muslims or of Arab descent.

Early last week, a coalition of 11 major Muslim organizations publicly called on Bush to forcefully condemn the attacks on Gaza and to designate as "war crimes" the destruction of Palestinian civilian infrastructure.

After the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, the appeals for denouncing Israel have multiplied.

"Once again America's image and interests worldwide are being harmed by one-sided support for Israeli actions," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest US Muslim rights group.

"We're urging Muslims in America and other people of conscience to contact their elected officials to tell them that we have to have balanced foreign policy for the Middle East, one that is driven by American interests, not Israeli interests."

"Sorry guys but I'm afraid that the leaders of this country have already been paid." - Nobody

Fury as Karzai plans return of Taliban's religious police

The Afghan government has alarmed human rights groups by approving a plan to reintroduce a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the body which the Taliban used to enforce its extreme religious doctrine.

Taleban 'take south Afghan town'

Taliban Captures Two Southern Afghan Towns

Forces Will Try to Retake Afghan Towns

U.S.-led forces will launch "decisive operations" to reclaim two southern towns captured in recent days by the Taliban, the military said Tuesday. Scores of Taliban militants chased police out of the two towns near the Pakistani border."The Taliban extremists have taken control of the areas of Garmser and Naway-i-Barakzayi, however, coalition forces do have them under observation," military spokesman Col. Tom Collins told reporters in Kabul."Decisive operations will begin soon," he added without saying when.

News and Articles 7-13-06

2006-07-13T02:10:00.000-07:00

"Obviously, Something came up yesterday. My apologies but reality imposes itself on occasion...Now for more of that damnable reality" - Nobody

Christian group to advocate more support for Israel

More than 3,000 pro-Israel evangelical Christians will be in town next week for a "Washington/Israel summit" to push the Bush administration toward stronger support for the Jewish state.

Starting with a banquet July 18 at the Hilton Washington and visits to Capitol Hill the next morning, the inaugural gathering of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) will showcase a deeper cooperation between evangelical Christians and Jews in the face of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's suggestion in October, often reiterated since, that Israel "be wiped off the map."

Organizers say Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, retired Israeli defense chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman -- all of whom are Jewish -- will be at the dinner. Several members of Congress also are scheduled to attend, including Republican Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, both Catholics. Leading evangelicals that have confirmed their invitations include the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Gary Bauer.

Their host will be Texas evangelist the Rev. John C. Hagee, pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and author of "Jerusalem Countdown," a 2006 book about a nuclear-armed Iran. "There's a new Hitler in the Middle East," Mr. Hagee said in an interview. "He's talking about killing Jews. He will have the ability to do so with nuclear weapons.

"A veritable who's who in the Dominionist movement...Welcome to Armegeddon" - Nobody

Israel and The Land

The problem is that Israel will not pull back to its pre-1967 borders so long as many Israelis and most evangelical Christians in America continue to believe that present day Jews have a biblical right to all of Arab territory in Palestine. For this reason a biblical examination of the issue is necessary.

A reminder what started the current crisis in the Mideast...

ISRAEL PLANNED CAPTURE OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT LONG BEFORE ALLEGED KIDNAPPING

"The detention of Hamas parliamentarians in the early hours of Thursday morning had been planned several weeks ago and received approval from Mazuz on Wednesday. "

IT SEEMS ISRAEL PLANNED DELIBERATE PROVOCATION OF HAMAS AND HIZBOLLAH

A report in the Jerusalem Post today proves very revealing. It claims that, ‘Only weeks ago, an entire reserve division was drafted in order to train for an operation such as the one the IDF is planning in response to Wednesday morning's Hizbollah attacks on IDF forces along the northern border.’[1]

The news is revealing because it was only a little over two weeks ago that Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian fighters. One needs to ask how the Israelis knew at, or even before, he was captured that it would be taking action against Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Kidnapping and war

Israel has, in essence, declared war on Lebanon and the Palestinians in Gaza after the kidnapping of a few soldiers. But the real kidnappers in the region are the Israelis themselves, who have kidnapped hundreds of Palestinian "suspects":

Who started?

What could otherwise have been expected? That Israel would unilaterally withdraw, brutally and outrageously ignoring the Palestinians and their needs, and that they would silently bear their bitter fate and would not continue to fight for their liberty, livelihood and dignity? We promised a safe passage to the West Bank and didn't keep the promise. We promised to free prisoners and didn't keep the promise. We supported democratic elections and then boycotted the legally elected leadership, confiscating funds that belong to it, and declaring war on it. We could have withdrawn from Gaza through negotiations and coordination, while strengthening the existing Palestinian leadership, but we refused to do so. And now, we complain about "a lack of leadership?" We did everything we could to undermine their society and leadership, making sure as much as possible that the disengagement would not be a new chapter in our relationship with the neighboring nation, and now we are amazed by the violence and hatred that we sowed with our own hands.

My life in Gaza

Ostensibly, this bombing campaign started because of the soldier's capture. To the outside world it might seem like an easy decision for Palestinians: Let the soldier go, and the siege will end. Yet for Gazans, even in the face of this brutal violence, another decision comes, not with ease, but with resolve. He is one soldier who was captured in a military operation. Today, several hundred Palestinian children and women are locked in Israeli prisons. They deserve their freedom no less than he does. Their families mourn their absence no less than his family does. So while Gazans endure Israel's rainstorm, most want the soldier held -- not harmed -- until the women and children are released.

Gaza: Of Mice and Men

Our readers may remember that at the height of withdrawal hullabaloo we called (in Much Ado about Gaza) for everyone to tone down their expectations: an Israeli pull-out is always followed by a push-in, as in a rape scene. Do not expect to see the last of them: an Englishman leaves without bidding farewell, a Jew says his farewells but does not leave, quoth a Jewish joke. Readers of this list and site received, as always, the correct forecast: indeed the Jews came back.

Aggression Under False Pretenses

The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The "kidnapped" Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.

the beginning of the end for Israel - mad dog styl
e
Before you bedrock Zionists accuse me of anti-semitism, this is not MY prediction but that of Martin van Creveld, professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as quoted in an article by David Hirst and published in the Observer on Sunday September 21, 2003:

'We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother." I consider it all hopeless at this point. We shall have to try to prevent things from coming to that, if at all possible. Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.'

Israeli offensive kills 23 in Gaza

Twenty-three people, including nine members of the same family, have been killed as Israeli tanks and troops pushed into the central Gaza Strip.

Israel has pledged to continue the operation, which has already cost the lives of more than 60 Palestinians, until a soldier abducted by Palestinian fighters is freed and crude rocket attacks over the border are stopped.

Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza

Israelis use “unprecedented type of projectiles” on Palestinians

During the course of the Aqsa Intifada, which started in September 2000, the Israeli occupation army used a variety of internationally prohibited weapons, including shells containing depleted uranium, dart shells, which contain thousands of nail-like darts that penetrate the body, as well as gas agents affecting the nervous system.

The Israeli occupation army has refused to comment on the type of weapons it uses against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel 'is using chemical ammunition'

Retaliation in Lebanon Hits Roads, Bridges

More than 100 aerial attacks in southern Lebanon Wednesday night and early Thursday destroyed a dozen bridges and bombed the road infrastructure and communications network after Hizbullah terrorists killed eight IDF soldiers and abducted two others. One strike hit a vehicle in which two Hizbullah terrorists were traveling.

The world rebuilds it, Israelis destroy it - again and again and again

What's wrong with this picture?

Beit Hanoun's veteran bridge builder shrugged off his latest misfortune: the Israelis destroyed the main span into town three years ago. The European Union rebuilt it. And overnight the Israelis destroyed it again.

Syria Will End Dollar Peg, Moves Reserves to Euros

Syria, under fire from the U.S. for the alleged support of terrorism, plans to end its currency peg to the dollar by year-end to reflect closer trade ties with Europe, central bank Governor Adib Mayaleh said.

US's zero-sum diplomacy toward Iran

On the eve of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Russia, President George W Bush and his top policymakers openly boast about the US's multilateralist diplomacy toward Iran and, yet, their all-or-nothing approach with respect to Iran's nuclear enrichment program represents a zero-sum pseudo-diplomacy bound to fail.

Iran "can't wait us out" in nuclear dispute - Bush

U.S. President George W. Bush warned Iran on Thursday it did not have an unlimited amount of time to settle the dispute over its nuclear programme.

US blames Iran, Syria for Hizbollah capture

"Church lady...this is your cue babe..." - Nobody

Israel: Hezbollah plans to move abducted IDF soldiers to Iran

Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, of Kiryat Motzkin were abducted Wednesday.

Israeli troops enter Lebanon amid kidnap reports

Israel launched air strikes and sent troops and tanks into southern Lebanon Wednesday, after Hezbollah television said its guerrillas had abducted two Israeli soldiers along the border.

"Interesting that Israel had troops built up in just that spot along the border at just this time...As the church lady used to say "how convenient"...and on which side of the border were these guys captured anyways?" - Nobody

PM Olmert calls Hezbollah border attack an 'act of war'

Olmert, who was to hold an emergency cabinet meeting later Wednesday, said the attack was not an act of terror but an attack by a sovereign state on Israel.

Senior Israel Defense Forces officers said Wednesday that "if the abducted soldiers are not returned we'll turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years."

IDF issuing callup orders for reservists

After IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz concluded his security briefings in the Kiryah in Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon, a senior IDF officer said the military was preparing for a large operation against Lebanon. Communities along the northern border had been instructed to prepare accordingly.

Israel hits out at 'act of war'

In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon for the first time in six years. Israeli forces left in 2000 after 22 years of occupation.

Israel threatening to go beyond southern Lebanon - next step of 'A Clean Break' coming soon?:

Israel authorizes 'severe' response to abductions

Israelis Attack Just 10 Miles From Beirut

Israel attacks Beirut's airport

It comes as 27 civilians, including 10 children, were killed in overnight Israeli raids on southern Lebanon.

Israel prepares for widespread military escalation

On the 18th day since the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, the picture has become all the more complex. From limited fighting on a single front (the Gaza Strip), the Israel Defense Forces is now approaching what might evolve into a near outright war on two fronts.

Lebanon seeks Israeli ceasefire

Lebanese ministers have called for a ceasefire with Israel, saying that all means should be used to end "open aggression" against their country.

International calls for restraint are growing, with Russia, France and the EU saying Israel's response to the capture of two soldiers was disproportionate. Meanwhile Israeli jets bombed the main Lebanese army air base in Bekaa Valley. Israel is imposing an air and sea blockade on Lebanon following the two soldiers' capture by Hezbollah.

Israel: $5000 reward for killing gays

A leaflet distributed in several neighborhoods in Jerusalem offered NIS 20,000 to anyone who kills participants in the International Gay Pride Parade scheduled to take place in Jerusalem next month.

Jewish Law And Torture

We all pray for a time when the world will be a peace — but until that time arrives, Jewish law directs the Jewish state and the American nation to do what it takes (no more, but no less, either) to survive and prosper ethically in the crazy world in which we live.

"Erm...WTF does Jewish law have to do with the American nation?" - Nobody

Qatar circulates revised Israel resolution

Acting on behalf of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a revised draft U.N. Security Council resolution Wednesday demanding Israel end its offensive in the Gaza Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.

The draft, amended to overcome concerns from the United States and France, now includes a direct demand for the release of an abducted Israeli soldier and urges the Palestinians to stop firing rockets at Israel.The Security Council has struggled for almost two weeks on how to respond to Israel's offensive in Gaza.

An earlier draft from Qatar was rejected because several members of the council said it was too biased against Israel.

France and Russia criticise offensive

France and Russia have condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon, while the US described the offensive as Tel Aviv’s right to defend itself.

Iraqi parliament speaker: Jews finance acts of violence in Iraq

Iraq's parliament speaker Thursday accused "Jews" of financing acts of violence in Iraq in order to discredit Islamists who control the parliament and government so they can install their "agents" in power.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani hinted that the Americans and Israelis did not want to see officials of Sunni and Shi'ite parties running the country because "this is not their agenda.""They will say that we brought you in a democratic way to the government but you are sectarian people. One of you is killing the other and you don't deserve to become leaders because you are war lords," al-Mashhadani told reporters after a parliament meeting.

"Some people say 'we saw you beheading, kidnappings and killing. In the end we even started kidnapping women who are our honor,"' al-Mashhadani said. "These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew."

Merchants of death in Iraq

Within two minutes the doors of his home were blasted open and "a strange looking group of people" stormed inside, according to Said Walid Ahmed, a 40-year-old teacher who lives in the neighborhood.

"This force is not totally unknown to us here in Fallujah," Ahmed, who witnessed the incident from a nearby house told Inter Press Service (IPS). "They are a special force of Americans that assassinates more people than it arrests.""This force is not totally unknown to us here in Fallujah," Ahmed, who witnessed the incident from a nearby house told Inter Press Service (IPS). "They are a special force of Americans that assassinates more people than it arrests."

Iraqis Call for Timetable, America Cracks Down

Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld paid an unannounced visit to Baghdad today, after telling reporters the Iraqi government is not yet ready to determine the pace of U.S. troop reductions. "We haven't gotten to that point," he said.

So much for Iraqi sovereignty.

US envoy gives Iraq 6 months to curb sectarianism

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq has described sectarian violence as the main threat to stability and, warning of the global risk from an Iraqi civil war, said the government must act to curb it within six months.

More Troops May Be Needed in Baghdad, U.S. General Says

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, said Wednesday that “terrorists and death squads” were responsible for the surge in sectarian killings here in recent weeks, and that there might be a need to move more American forces into the capital to prevent the deadly cycle from worsening.

War Veterans Feeling Stressed, Deserted

Men At One Base Say The Army Is Ignoring PTSD Cases

According to a recent report from the Veterans Administration, more than 50,000 vets from Iraq and Afghanistan are believed to be suffering from mental health problems — nearly half of them from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. It's well documented and, says the Pentagon, well treated both in the field and at home. But CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports that at least in one large military base in Colorado, soldiers are saying members of the Army Command are simply paying lip service, at best, to PTSD — hindering their treatment and upending their careers.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Fort Carson, Colo., is training to go back to Iraq after experiencing some of the fiercest combat last year. The unit lost soldiers at double the rate of other Army posts around the country, including Pfc. Sam Lee, who committed suicide at a Ramadi Army barracks.

In the face of what some are calling an epidemic of PTSD in the military, nearly a dozen soldiers at Fort Carson told CBS News that their cries for mental health either went unanswered or they found themselves subject to unrelenting abuse and ridicule.

Administration Prods Congress to Curb the Rights of Detainees

A day after saying that terror suspects had a right to protections under the Geneva Conventions, the Bush administration said Wednesday that it wanted Congress to pass legislation that would limit the rights granted to detainees.

The earlier statement had been widely interpreted as a retreat, but testimony to Congress by administration lawyers on Wednesday made clear that the picture was more complicated.

The administration has now abandoned its four-year-old claim that members of Al Qaeda are not protected under the Geneva Conventions, acknowledging that a Supreme Court ruling two weeks ago established as a matter of law that they are. Still, administration lawyers urged Congress to pass legislation that would narrowly define the rights granted to detainees under a provision of the Geneva Conventions known as Common Article Three, which guarantees legal rights “recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”

The maneuvering now under way was prompted by that Supreme Court decision, which struck down the tribunals the administration had established for terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Geneva Convention? We Thought You Said Geneva Chocolate

Daniel Dell'Orto, principal deputy general counsel at the Pentagon, said he believes the current treatment of detainees - as well as the existing tribunal process - already complies with Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions."

Remember, these are the detainees who are locked in cages, paraded around naked, sexually humiliated, whose religious beliefs are used to humiliate them, who are water-boarded during interrogations, whom the International Red Cross has said are tortured, and who are force-fed when they try to starve themselves to death. These are the detainees who've, for the most part, never been charged with any crimes, much less been granted fair and speedy trials, and who are being held indefinitely with no explanation or indication to them of what comes next. And this is without mentioning the secret prisons, ghosted prisoners, or rendition.

Battle Looms In Congress Over Military Tribunals

House Republicans signaled a coming clash with the Senate over the future of military tribunals yesterday when Armed Service Committee members indicated they were inclined to give the Bush administration largely what it wants in the conduct of terrorism trials.

The tone at the first House hearing since the Supreme Court tossed out President Bush's tribunals last month was markedly different from Tuesday's Senate hearing, where lawmakers from both parties said they wanted to make significant changes to the White House's plans.

House Republicans warm to Bush's US tribunal plan

The Bush administration, facing a revolt among Senate Republicans over its system for trying foreign terrorism suspects, on Wednesday courted more receptive Republicans on the House side of the U.S. Congress.

Most Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee indicated they would back the administration's push for lawmakers to endorse its system of military commissions for terrorism suspects that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled illegal.

But Democrats on the committee balked, joining some key Republicans and Democrats already resisting the move in the U.S. Senate. They said they would push to revamp President George W. Bush's tribunals for trying detainees to be more like the U.S. military justice system.

"We have an opportunity to do better in terms of worldwide opinion," said Rep. Vic Snyder, an Arkansas Democrat.

Justice Department Lawyer To Congress:˜The President Is Always Right

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday heard testimony from Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel. When questioned by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on whether the President’s interpretation of the Hamdan case was right or wrong, Bradbury replied, “The President is always right.”

Ex-Prosecutor Demands Newspaper's Sources

A former federal prosecutor facing criminal charges over his handling of a high-profile terrorism trial demanded Wednesday that the Detroit Free Press reveal its sources as part of his lawsuit against the government.

A lawyer for Richard Convertino, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit, subpoenaed the information from the paper's owner, Gannett Co., based in McLean, Va.

Convertino was the lead prosecutor in the nation's first post-Sept. 11 terrorism trial. He won convictions of three of the four defendants in 2003, but the verdicts were overturned the following year at the request of the government, which said prosecutors had failed to turn over some documents that could have aided the defense.

The Justice Department was investigating Convertino's handling of the terrorism case and two 1990s drug cases when he resigned last year. In March, he was indicted on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false declarations.

Judge orders Republican off ballot in Senate race

A judge has ruled that a Republican legislator committed petition forgery and ordered him removed from the ballot in a key Senate race.

If upheld on an expected appeal, Judge Kenneth Fields' ruling removing Representative Russell Jones of Yuma from the ballot would deal a major blow to G-O-P hopes of winning a veto-proof majority in the Arizona Legislature.

Fields ruled that Jones engaged in forgery to get a place on the September primary ballot when he signed at least nine petitions as the circulator "knowing that he did not obtain the electors' signature in his presence. "

That finding of petition forgery by a candidate triggered a provision in state law requiring that all the candidate's nominating petitions be disqualified.

Former Republican aide sentenced to 1 year in prison

Michael Tristano, a one-time chief of staff to former Republican House leader Lee Daniels of Elmhurst, was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in prison for assigning legislative staffers to do campaign work on state time.

"I failed both ethically and as a leader," Tristano, 58, told U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle.

Tristano pleaded guilty to a fraud charge in March and admitted that his work to steer state resources to Republican candidates cost Illinois up to $200,000.

The sentencing and court documents reviewed by the Tribune provided new evidence that Daniels has long been a target of the investigation, though he has never been charged.

Two polls say Reed dropping

A withering assault by Cagle, via TV and direct mail, said to be prying voters away from ex-Christian Coalition leader.

The idea of a nationally watched race for lieutenant governor is silly enough. But the fact that the contest could turn on an argument over the minimum wage on an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean is downright incredible.

Two polls out today say that support for Ralph Reed is dropping in the Republican race for lieutenant governor, thanks to a ruthless push on the ground and in the air by Casey Cagle.

Insider Advantage numbers will be out this afternoon. Strategic Vision, a Republican public relations firm, this morning put Cagle on top for the first time, but barely: 42 to 41 percent.

On Monday, Cagle began a coordinated TV ad/direct mail assault on Reed, connecting the ex-Christian Coalition leader to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s efforts on behalf of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands.

Texas Tribe Names Abramoff, Reed in Suit

A Texas Indian tribe filed a federal civil suit Wednesday allegingthat ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and their associates engaged in fraud and racketeering to shut down the tribe's casino.

The Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Livingston, Texas, alleged the defendants defrauded the tribe, the people of Texas and the Legislature to benefit another of Abramoff'sclients _ the Louisiana Coushatta tribe _ and "line their pockets with money."

Republicans want court to hear DeLay case

Texas Republicans want a federal appeals court to quickly resolve a dispute over whether former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay should remain on the November ballot, saying they are running out of time for replacing DeLay with another nominee.

Republicans said in filings sent Tuesday to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that there are deadlines in late August for replacing DeLay's name. Attorney Jim Bopp asked for an expedited hearing.

DeLay, who is awaiting trial on state charges of money laundering and conspiracy in a campaign finance case, won the Republican primary in March but resigned from Congress in June and said he has moved to Virginia.

"umm...so why are they filing an appeal in New Orleans over a Texas case? Shouldn't it go back to the same district that the ruling was held in?" - Nobody

Bush to return to Ohio on Aug. 2

The president will be at a GOP fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell in Cleveland.

President Bush is expected to return to Ohio on Aug. 2 to headline a fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state, at a private residence in the Cleveland suburb of Kirtland Hills.

According to a copy of an invitation to the event, tickets are $1,000 a person or $1,500 a couple for the general reception. The price for a photo opportunity with the president is $10,000, according to the invitation.

The White House and the Blackwell campaign declined to comment on the event.

CT Senate Republican Candidate Reels from Gambling Scandal

That Connecticut Senate race just got even more entertaining:

Expect calls for Connecticut Republican United States Senate nominee Alan Schlesinger to abandon his race to begin in the next several days. Questions are being raised about the former state representative’s gambling habits that have Republicans sounding rattled.

Antiwar Republican enters U.S. Senate race

Rep. Diana S. Urban, R-North Stonington, says she's begun collecting 7,500 signatures in a bid to become a petitioning candidate for U.S. Senate in the November election. The three-term representative, who has taught economics and political science at several colleges, said today that should she be certified as an official candidate, she would campaign against the war in Iraq and advocate government policies that favor "low- and moderate-income people" and small businesses.

Pryce May Pay a Price for Her Role as a House Republican Leader

Representative Deborah Pryce, the highest-ranking Republican woman in the history of the U.S. House, has used her prestige as the party's No. 4 leader to enhance her standing back home, winning 60 percent of the vote two years ago in a central Ohio district that President George W. Bush barely carried.

This year, Pryce, 54, who heads the House Republican Conference, is among several leaders who are finding their highly visible party roles and close association with Bush aren't assets with voters, and who may face the toughest re-election races of their careers.

Other leaders in jeopardy in the November elections include Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 Senate leader; Jon Kyl of Arizona, who heads the Senate Republican Policy Committee; and Representative Tom Reynolds of New York, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

A Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll conducted last month showed registered voters favoring Democratic candidates over Republicans by 49 percent to 35 percent; 54 percent of respondents said they wanted to see Democrats control Congress. The party needs to pick up 15 seats to retake the House and six seats to take the Senate.

Republicans predict victory despite polls

A top Republican lawmaker brushed off bad poll numbers on Wednesday and said his party would surprise analysts and Democrats by strengthening its grip on the U.S. House of Representatives in November elections.

"We have a good story to tell," House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois told reporters as he emerged from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, many of whom are worried about their own chances for political survival.

Hastert's prediction of election victory heartened many Republicans, caught others off guard and drew some ridicule.

"Either he is out of touch or has contempt for his audience," said Stu Rothenberg of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report that tracks congressional races.

VoteTrustUSA on Busby/Bilbray Election: 'No Reason to Believe the Official Results are Accurate'

Says Sending Hackable Diebold Voting Machines Home With Pollworkers an 'Egregious Violation of Chain-of-Custody Precautions'

Group says San Diego County ignoring election laws, giving different figures for hand count

According to voting rights activists, the office of San Diego County Registrar of Voters has publicly released three separate quotes for hand counting the ballots in the U.S. House special election in California's 50th Congressional District.

A California voter last week filed paperwork requesting a hand count, after it was reported that Diebold evoting machines used in the county had gone home with poll workers over night, where they were stored in garages and cars. Registrar Mikel Haas has admitted this would violate state laws regarding chain of custody.

New Report Uncovers Stealth Strategy by US Chamber of Commerce to Influence Elections: Examines Documents in Washington State Attorney General Race

A major new report released today by the Center for Justice & Democracy finds that U.S. Chamber of Commerce provides substantial financial and strategic assistance to local front groups to influence state elections, including funding major media buys to smear local candidates.

The report, "The Secret Chamber - The Inner Workings of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Hijacking of an Election," draws from the cache of newly-released papers and deposition testimony uncovered in connection with litigation surrounding the failed 2004 election bid of Deborah Senn for Washington State Attorney General. Senn, a former pro-consumer insurance commissioner, was viciously attacked in an advertising blitz, which contributed to her defeat. It was only later revealed that the ad campaign was funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its Institute for Legal Reform. Litigation arose after the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission concluded that the ads violated state election law and the participation of the Chamber and the ILR was revealed.

According to author Laurie Beacham, "This report shows that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is involved in an organized, aggressive, covert and nasty effort to infiltrate local election campaigns. While the Chamber tries to disassociate itself from the negative campaigning conducted by its local front groups, it remains actively involved in elections, pursuing all the trimmings of a full-out political campaign."

Chances of Voting Rights Act renewal dim

A conservative backlash to the massive street demonstrations over immigration is aggravating Republican leaders' carefully orchestrated plans to renew the landmark Voting Rights Act before the fall elections.

After Latinos came out in greater force than they have in decades to protest a House-passed immigration bill, conservatives persuaded Republican leaders not to force a vote last month to extend for 25 years the law that requires bilingual ballots in precincts with large non-English-speaking populations.

Leaders move forward on VRA vote despite some GOP unease

Republican leaders will hold a vote on the Voting Rights Act this week, even though they face serious hurdles to renewing the landmark civil-rights legislation.

Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said GOP leaders decided to move forward with a vote on the bill after a two-hour meeting yesterday, which was convened to decide whether to cancel the vote for the second time.

“There are still major lingering questions,” House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters yesterday during his regular media briefing.Civil-rights groups have been pushing hard for Congress to renew the landmark bill. The NAACP is holding its annual conference in Washington next week and has made renewal of the bill a major priority this year.

House Democrats had already asked for floor time to lament GOP leaders’ decision to cancel a vote on the legislation for the second time this year. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was organizing floor time for members who experienced discrimination before the landmark 1965 bill was signed into law to tell their tales of racial intolerance.

Santa Cruz residents could vote to impeach Bush

City residents unhappy with the way President George W. Bush is leading the country may have the opportunity to vote for his impeachment in November.

Such a vote, which a group of community activists is seeking to put on the Santa Cruz ballot Nov. 7, would do nothing to actually remove the president from office. Instead, supporters say it would be something more than an opinion poll that would send a message to Washington, D.C.

"He's has broken so many laws, and he doesn't seem to take the laws seriously," said Sherry Conable, a member of Santa Cruz Peace Coalition, one of the local groups organizing the ballot initiative. "He's spied on American people without authorization; he's ignored the Geneva Conventions and the outting of Valerie Plame — all of these things are illegal.

"Conable and others are asking the City Council to put a measure on the November ballot that calls for Congress to begin an immediate investigation into alleged impeachable offenses by the president.

4th Circuit Nominee Boyle: 'Missed' Appearance of Conflict in Four Cases

President Bush's nominee to an appellate judgeship acknowledged missing the appearance of a conflict of interest in four cases in which he is accused of ruling on litigants in whose companies his family held stock.

Mexico vote fraud caught on tape.

Mexico mobilizes to protest controversial vote count

Enron witness found dead in park

Venezuela-Owned Citgo to Stop Selling Gasoline to Hundreds of U.S. Stations

Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum Corp. has decided to stop distributing gasoline to some 1,800 U.S. stations, shedding a lackluster segment of its business while forcing the owners of those stations to find other suppliers.

While it may create some logistical headaches for gasoline retailers in the short term, the move should not have any impact on the nation's overall fuel supply.

Citgo, which is wholly owned by Venezuela's state oil company, currently has to purchase 130,000 barrels a day from third parties in order to meet its service contracts at 13,100 stations across the U.S. This is less profitable than selling gasoline directly from its refineries.

Instead, the Houston-based company has decided to sell to retailers only the 750,000 barrels a day that it produces at three U.S. refineries in Lake Charles, La., Corpus Christi, Texas and Lemont, Ill., according to a statement late Tuesday.

Oil Rises to Record in New York, London on Attacks in Nigeria

Crude oil rose to a record in New York and London after a report that militants attacked pipelines in Nigeria this week, heightening concern Africa's largest oil producer faces further delays restoring lost output.

Two pipelines run by Eni SpA's venture in Nigeria were attacked, forcing the company to shut down three pumping stations, a Lagos-based newspaper, the Guardian reported today. The venture, Nigerian Agip Oil Co., may lose as much as 120,000 barrels a day, the newspaper said, citing a company worker it didn't identify.

Oil tops $76 a barrel on international tension

Oil surged to a record high above $76 a barrel on Thursday on renewed worries over supply from major exporter Nigeria and as conflict between Israel and Lebanon heightened international tensions.

Prices also rose as the Iran nuclear dispute appeared to be heading to the U.N. Security Council, North Korea walked out of talks with South Korea and crude inventories in the United States fell more than expected."Geopolitical tensions have stepped up — we are moving on to a new phase in Iran and Israel," said Mike Wittner of investment bank Calyon. "In the end, geopolitical risk is about a current supply disruption getting worse or a new one happening."

Jobless claims rise on summer slowdown

Report says 332,000 people filed for unemployment benefits last week, more than expected.

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped by 19,000 last week on the back of the traditional summer shutdown at automobile plants, according to government data released on Thursday.Initial claims for state jobless insurance benefits rose to 332,000 in the week ended July 8 from 313,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. Analysts were expecting new claims to rise to 318,000.

Study: American dream slipping away

The American dream is closer to a hallucinatory hope than a reachable reality, according to a new study presented at The Aspen Institute last week.

With the cost of living rising on several fronts, the majority of Americans surveyed in the study "What Do American Voters Really Want in '06?" said they are not living the dream that the European settlers who first founded this country suggested could be realized through hard work, courage and a determination to improve one's life.

U.S. Trade Deficit Widened to $63.8 Billion in May

Fed adds reserves through 14-day system repos

The Federal Reserve on Thursday said it added temporary reserves to the banking system through $8.0 billion in 14-day system repurchase agreements.Fed funds last traded at 5.25 percent, the Fed's target for the benchmark overnight lending rate.

"The more of something there is the less valuable it is right?" - Nobody

BAYER dumps AIDS infected drugs overseas

Bayer dumped AIDS infected drugs for hemophiliacs (mostly children) in Europe, Asia, and Latin America after it was told by the FDA that it could not sell it here.

"A moment please...JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! IS IT ANY FUCKING WONDER WHY PEOPLE DON"T WANT TO BUY AMERICAN!? MURDEROUS SONS OF BITCHES NEED TO BE STRUNG UP BY THEIR SOFT PARTS AND LEFT TO ROT IN THE SUN!" - Nobody

Disney slashing jobs, film output

Walt Disney Co. will substantially reduce its work force and slash its annual output of films from 18 to eight — cutbacks greater than Hollywood had anticipated, it was reported Wednesday.

Kindergarten to Grad School Loans Boost Bond Market

Getting the money for a U.S. education, whether it's kindergarten or graduate school, increasingly depends on the bond market, where everyone from General Electric Co. to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is rushing to meet record demand for student loans.

"And now we know why they were cutting back on the issuance of Pell Grants..." - Nobody

U.S. Terror Targets: Petting Zoo and Flea Market?

It reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a child might have written: Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Amish Country Popcorn factory, the Mule Day Parade, the Sweetwater Flea Market and an unspecified “Beach at End of a Street.”

But the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, in a report released Tuesday, found that the list was not child’s play: all these “unusual or out-of-place” sites “whose criticality is not readily apparent” are inexplicably included in the official federal antiterrorism database.

The National Asset Database, as it is known, is so flawed, said the inspector general, Richard L. Skinner, that as of January, Indiana, with 8,591 potential terrorist targets, had 50 percent more listed sites than New York (5,687) and more than twice as many as California (3,212), ranking the state the most target-rich place in the nation.

The database is used by the Homeland Security Department to help divide the hundreds of millions of dollars in antiterrorism grant each year, including the program announced in May that cut money to New York City and Washington by 40 percent while significantly increasing spending for cities including Louisville, Ky., and Omaha.

ACLU lawsuit: U.S. block entry at border via 'ideological exclusion' policy

In a press release issued today, the American Civil Liberties Union charge the government with enforcing an "ideological exclusion" policy to block entry at the border, RAW STORY has found.

"The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union today released new documents that indicate the government is broadly interpreting and using a controversial Patriot Act power known as the "ideological exclusion" provision to block people from entering the country," the press release reads.

"Feeling safer now?" - Nobody

Transgender man's name change denied

A transgender Rochester man must provide medical evidence to justify his request to change his first name from Sarah to Evan, a local judge has ruled. Allowing Sarah Rockefeller to change his name without evidence "would be fraught with danger of deception and confusion and contrary to the public interest," State Supreme Court Justice William P. Polito, citing a 1976 law journal article, said in his ruling. The ruling has sparked the involvement of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues that the ruling places an unnecessary burden of proof on transgender individuals that isn't required of others.

Tornadoes touch down north of New York City

Tornadoes were reported to have touched down during a severe storm in Westchester County on Wednesday, just north of New York City, and in Connecticut, the National Weather Service said.

The agency issued a tornado warning for southern Westchester County just ahead of the evening rush hour. Other severe weather watches and warnings were also in effect throughout the metropolitan area.

Up to 9 Inches of Rain Flood Ind., Ohio

News and Articles 7-12-06

2006-07-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

Novak: Rove was a source in outing Plame

Now that Karl Rove won't be indicted, now that the president won't fire him, now that it really doesn't matter anymore, more details of the Valerie Plame' leak investigation trickle out.

In his latest syndicated column released Wednesday, columnist Robert Novak revealed his side of the story in the Plame affair, saying Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA' officer, underscoring Rove's role in a leak President Bush' once promised to punish.

Bush judicial nominee struggles to win Senate OK

The Pentagon's top lawyer drew bipartisan fire on Tuesday for coercive techniques used to question terrorism suspects as he struggled to win U.S. Senate confirmation to a seat on a federal appeals court.

William Haynes defended the Defense Department's detention and interrogation policies for enemy combatants that he helped draft after the September 11 attacks.

Yet Democrats and a few Republicans questioned if Haynes went too far, some particularly critical of the recommended use of dogs to exploit phobias of detainees.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada threatened to block President George W. Bush's nomination of Haynes to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, citing a letter from 20 retired military officers who expressed concern about the nominee.

"We'll do whatever is necessary to protect the judiciary," Reid told reporters when asked if Haynes would be filibustered.

Reclaiming The Issues: "Why Is Bush Spying On Democrats?!?"

Every time Democrats and progressives speak out about George W. Bush's spying on Americans without mentioning that he may also be spying on Democrats, they're playing into Karl Rove's "National Security Frame" and actually strengthening Republican electoral chances in November.

To short-circuit this, Democrats need to invoke the ghost of Richard Nixon.

If they don't, even Pete Hoekstra's new revelations that there are even more as-yet-unreported secret spying programs that Bush has been hiding from Congress will be used by Rove to say to average voters, "See? We're really looking out for you!"

The Bush administration doesn't deny it has been spying on Americans - they brag about it. They're listening to our phone calls, reading our emails, and looking at our bank transactions. They're gathering databases about our medical records, what we charge on our credit cards, and where we travel.

Terror and Presidential Power: Bush Takes a Step Back

From the outset, President Bush declared that the battle against Al Qaeda would be a war like no other, fought by new rules against new enemies not entitled to the old protections afforded to either prisoners of war or criminal defendants.

But the White House acknowledgment on Tuesday that a key clause of the Geneva Conventions applies to Qaeda detainees, as a recent Supreme Court ruling affirmed, is only the latest step in the gradual erosion of the administration’s aggressive legal stance.

The administration’s initial position emerged in 2002 only after a fierce internal legal debate, and it has been revised in the face of international opinion, Congressional curbs and Supreme Court rulings. Two central ideas of the war on terror — that the president could fight it exclusively on the basis of his constitutional powers and that terrorist suspects had few, if any, rights — have been modified repeatedly.

Scholars debated the meaning of a Defense Department memo made public on Tuesday that declared that the clause in the Geneva Conventions, Common Article 3, “applies as a matter of law to the conflict with Al Qaeda.”

Administration officials suggested that the memo only restated what was already policy — that detainees must be treated “humanely.” But what was undeniable was that the president’s executive order of Feb. 7, 2002, declared that Article 3 did not apply to Al Qaeda or to Taliban detainees, and that the newly released memo, written by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, said it did.

"Restated what was already policy my hairy ass...Let's review..." - Nobody

Memos Reveal War Crimes Warnings

Could Bush administration officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so

The White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the debate over the issue.

US Lawyers Warn Bush on War Crimes

A group of U.S. law professors opposed to a possible war on Iraq warned U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday that he and senior government officials could be prosecuted for war crimes if military tactics violated international humanitarian law.

"Our primary concern ... is the large number of civilian casualties that may result should U.S. and coalition forces fail to comply with international humanitarian law in using force against Iraq," the group, led by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a letter to Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

News and articles 7-11-06

2006-07-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

Fraud video claim in Mexico poll

Defeated Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he has "irrefutable" video proof of voting fraud by his election rivals.

Mr Obrador aired the video at his campaign headquarters"I am certain the people are not going to permit this abuse," Mr Lopez Obrador said, repeating a demand for a recount. Official results show his rival Felipe Calderon won by 0.57 percentage points.

Mr Lopez Obrador has filed a legal challenge and says he will wait to see the court's ruling before deciding if he will accept the result.

White House Blasts Clinton N.Korea Policy

The White House belittled former President Clinton's policy of direct engagement with North Korea on Monday, saying efforts to shower North Korean leader Kim Jong Il "with flowers and chocolates" failed.

White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that Bill Richardson, who served as United Nations ambassador and Energy Secretary under Clinton, "went with flowers and chocolates, and he went with light-water nuclear reactors ... and a basketball signed by Michael Jordan and many other inducements for the 'dear leader' to try to agree not to develop nuclear weapons, and it failed.

"Snow added, "We've learned from that mistake."Jay Carson, a spokesman for the Clinton Foundation in New York City, responded, "This is a serious issue for global security, and it's unfortunate that the Bush administration's TV spinmaster is manufacturing excuses for North Korea's transgressions instead of looking at the last six years of inaction and the abandonment of diplomacy."

Don't Put The Blame On Clinton

North Korea. Pyongyang's nuclear program was built up during the 1970s and '80s, and the plutonium possibly used to make one or two nuclear weapons was created before Clinton took office. It was Clinton -- taking a firm stand, as opposed to the current confused posture of the United States -- who froze North Korea's plutonium production operation. Were it not for Clinton's leadership, North Korea would have enough plutonium to make at least 50 nuclear bombs today.

Lawmaker Criticized for PAC Fees Paid to Wife

In the past two years, campaign and political action committees controlled by Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) paid ever-larger commissions to his wife's one-person company and spent tens of thousands of dollars on gifts at stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany & Co. and a Ritz-Carlton day spa.

The use of such committees, especially "leadership" PACs, for purposes other than electing politicians to Congress is a common and growing phenomenon, but campaign finance watchdogs say Doolittle has taken it to new heights.

Lieberman, Lamont differ on faith-based initiatives

Lamont, who is challenging Lieberman in an Aug. 8 Democratic primary, has received a lot of attention for criticizing the three-term senator's support of the war in Iraq. But he has also denounced Lieberman's stance on certain issues associated with social conservatives, including his support of a bill that gave a federal court jurisdiction to consider replacing a feeding tube used to sustain Terri Schiavo, the 39-year-old Florida woman who had been in a vegetative state.

While her parents fought to keep her alive, Schiavo's husband said she would rather die. He eventually won his case in court."To me, that was the last place I want my federal government being," Lamont said. "That belongs to your priest, your rabbi, your doctor, your family, whoever. Not Tom Delay, not Joe Lieberman and not George Bush.

"Lamont said he is concerned about what he calls "too much acquiescence to a federal government intruding in our lives." And he said Lieberman has supported such initiatives.

"Hey, Didn't Bush sign a law that allows hospitals to pull the plug on you if can't pay?" - Nobody

War veterans denied GI Bill benefits

Andy Rowe thought he had life after the Army pretty well figured out before he came home from eight months in Afghanistan in November 2003.

But Rowe soon realized that, despite his time in a combat zone, he didn't qualify for those education benefits unless he remained in the Reserves or Guard.

It's the same for tens of thousands of National Guard and Army Reserve troops mobilized since 9/11 — the largest deployment of reservists since World War II.

When military benefits were updated in 1984 through a law called the Montgomery GI Bill, members of Congress and even the military did not envision reservists being called into active duty as frequently as they are today. The law did not extend full college benefits to citizen soldiers and terminated them once they left the Guard or Reserve.

"Looking at how the Reserve forces are being used now, it really upset me," said Rowe, called up from the inactive Reserves to serve in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan reels under bumper harvests

Afghanistan boasts two bumper crops this season, and both could be lethal to the already fledgling authority of its government. Western officials expect the largest-ever opium crop in the face of a toothless US$1 billion eradication campaign. And contrary to earlier pronouncements by military officials, the Taliban are gaining steam in the volatile southern provinces, where fighting has raged at levels not seen since the US-led invasion that toppled the al-Qaeda-allied Islamic fundamentalist movement five years ago.

As the war in Iraq usurps the brunt of US military might, the insurgent and narco threats in Afghanistan have arisen at the flank. After diminished harvests under the Taliban, the country now produces about 90% of the world's opium, making it the number one global heroin producer and trafficker. Recent estimates indicate that the poppy crop in Helmand province, a militant stronghold, will more than double from last year, despite the presence of 3,300 British troops.

Saudis fighting with Iraq insurgents

Saudi authorities acknowledged that Saudi nationals have joined the insurgency against U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq.

Foreign Ministry Director General Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saoud was quoted Tuesday as saying in daily al-Madina that "certain Saudis are present in Iraq after they have been lured to go there and are involved in violent activities."

He said the Saudis infiltrated Iraq through neighboring countries which he did not identify and called on the Iraqi government to extradite them in case they were captured so that they will be interrogated at home.

Turki stressed that "relations between the Saudi and Iraqi peoples are deep rooted and old and that many Saudis are present in Iraq for business while others have family relations there."

Iraq to ask UN to end US immunity after rape case

Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the human rights minister said on Monday, as the military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis.

In an interview a week after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded a review of foreign troops' immunity, Wigdan Michael said work on it was now under way and a request could be ready by next month to go to the U.N. Security Council, under whose mandate U.S.-led forces are in control of Iraq.

"We're very serious about this," she said, blaming a lack of enforcement of U.S. military law in the past for encouraging soldiers to commit crimes against Iraqi civilians, such as the alleged rape and murder of a teenager and killing of her family.

"We formed a committee last week to prepare reports and put it before the cabinet in three weeks. After that, Maliki will present it to the Security Council. We will ask them to lift the immunity," Michael said. "If we don't get that, then we'll ask for an effective role in the investigations that are going on.

"The Iraqi government must have a role."

"Sovereignty?" - Nobody

Civilian Child Casualties

The War in Iraq

*It's important to note that for every body identified in Iraq, it is estimated there are an additional nine casualties. This list is of confirmed casualties of children as a result of violence during the War in Iraq. Please be mindful of the many, many other casualties left unidentified, as well as the overwhelming number of adult casualties. Special thanks to "Iraq Body Count" for their efforts in honoring the memories of these innocent victims of the war in Iraq.

Baghdad to get 11 hours of power by end summer: US general

Electricity supplies in the Iraqi capital should reach 11 hours a day, almost double the current amount, by the end of this summer, a US military official involved in reconstruction said.

"We think we can get Baghdad to about 11 hours of reliable power a day by the end of summer," said Major General William McCoy of the Army Corps of Engineers, involved in Iraq's reconstruction.

According to him, Baghdad currently receives six to eight hours of power a day, though residents of some neighborhoods insist the amount is much less.

Senate to Hear Detainee Issue After Recess

The Senate is unlikely to take up legislation addressing the legal rights of suspected terrorists until after Congress' August recess, Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday.

Frist's plan not to act until this fall pushes the Guantanamo issue squarely into election season, when Republicans will be seeking support from voters by focusing on national security issues.

Republicans are discussing their legislative options among themselves, Democrats and the Bush administration, said Frist, R-Tenn.

Pentagon revises Guantanamo detainee policy

Memo says Geneva Conventions do apply, reflects Supreme Court ruling

The Bush administration said Tuesday that all detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in all other U.S. military custody around the world are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions.White House spokesman Tony Snow said the policy, outlined in a new Defense Department memo, reflects the recent 5-3 Supreme Court decision blocking military tribunals set up by President Bush.

The policy, described in a memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordan England, appears to reverse the administration’s earlier insistence that the detainees are not prisoners of war and thus subject to the Geneva protections.

Snow insisted that all U.S. detainees have been treated humanely. Still, he said, “We want to get it right.”

Rep. Congressman: Impeach Bush For Violating Constitution

Not Partisan Payback

Republican Congressman Ron Paul says President Bush has presided over a doctrine of violating the Constitution at every turn and that he should be impeached - but that likely Democratic efforts to do so will be in the interests of playing politics and not the health of the nation.

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

Administration Rethinks Tactics in War on Terror

White House is forced to respond to criticism that it once brushed aside, such as increased pressure from courts, Congress and crucial European allies.

Aggression Under False Pretenses

As Americans commemorated their annual celebration of independence from colonial occupation, rejoicing in their democratic institutions, we Palestinians were yet again besieged by our occupiers, who destroy our roads and buildings, our power stations and water plants, and who attack our very means of civil administration. Our homes and government offices are shelled, our parliamentarians taken prisoner and threatened with prosecution.

The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The "kidnapped" Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.

Judge Strikes Down Part of Alaska Pot Law

A judge on Monday struck down part of a new Alaska law criminalizingpossession of small amounts of marijuana, saying it conflicts with past decisionsby the Alaska Supreme Court.

Under the ruling, people could legally possess less than an ounce of marijuana in theirhomes.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins said a lower court can't reverse the high court's 1975 decision that said the right to privacy in one's home included the possessionof small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

Man thinks peace-supporting car decals sparked vandalism

He says his car was spray-painted and lights were broken

Salem retiree Jim McCreary was stunned to find the word "traitor" spray-painted in black on both sides of his Toyota Corolla. His rearview mirrors, headlights and taillights were broken, and his tires were flattened. About $300 in damage was done, McCreary said. He thinks it was because of two magnetic peace decals on his car.

One decal looked similar to the magnetic yellow ribbons that say "Support our Troops." McCreary's was blue and said "Support Peace." The other decal resembled a dove and said "Advocate Peace."

"I was shocked and upset," he said Wednesday before going to have the paint professionally removed. "It's supposed to be a free country."McCreary said he discovered the vandalism Sunday while on a weekend outing with friends in the Jefferson Wilderness Area.

KB Home: Negative Trends in Housing Could Continue into 2007

Mega homebuilder KB Home, in its most recent filing with the SEC , provides a good field report as to what is really going on in the housing market right now: declining sales, inventory build-up and higher cancellation rates.

Foreclosures Will Be Different This Time

In California, refinanced loans, second trust deeds and home equity lines of credit are generally considered recourse loans. In these cases, a lender can file suit and go after almost any of the borrower’s assets once they obtain a court judgment. "They can literally go after everything you have,"

Real-estate firm charged with favoring Whites

The Department of Housing and Urban Development alleges that Triple H. Realty of Lakewood, N.J., kept minority residents out of the nicer parts of a housing complex, provided them with poorer maintenance and subjected them to rules not applied to the white residents.

Lobbying-money record broken again

Spending on lobbying totaled more than $1.2 billion for the last six months of 2005, another record, according to a tally on the website politicalmoneyline.com.

For the year, spending topped $2.36 billion, according to the site. For the first time, during the last half of the year, spending to lobby Congress and the executive branch averaged $200 million a month.

The biggest single spenders in the second half of the year were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, General Electric, AT&T (including SBC), the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform and the American Medical Association.

The five firms that reported the highest revenues in the last six months of 2005 were Patton Boggs, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Van Scoyoc Associates, Cassidy & Associates and the Federalist Group.

Request for Mass Latest Twist in Coingate Scandal

A broker charged with bribing a former state workers' compensation official sent the man a card informing him that a Roman Catholic Mass had been arranged in his honor, The Columbus Dispatch reported Tuesday. Federal prosecutors dispute Michael Lewis' claim that he arranged the Mass for Terrence Gasper, the former chief financial officer at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, because he wanted to help a friend.

Prosecutors said that by sending the card on June 23, Lewis may have violated the condition of his bond that he have no contact with potential witnesses in his case, which is scheduled for trial August 28.

Prosecutors have requested a hearing on the matter in U.S. District Court in Akron. A hearing date has not been set.

"The card is a poorly veiled and intentionally ambiguous attempt to intimidate Gasper and, thereby, influence any testimony he may give regarding Lewis at trial," prosecutors wrote in a notice to the court.

Connolly Faults GOP Over Lost Funds

Democrats Spotlight Rejected Amendments

Less than two weeks after the GOP-controlled General Assembly approved a state budget, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) denounced the county's Republican state delegates yesterday over the House's failure to fund day care for about 1,900 low-income Fairfax children.

As Connolly was accusing Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) of "doing the dirty work" for House Republicans in "denying his own community" millions of dollars, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) went to a Charlottesville YMCA day-care center, where he met with working mothers whose children might lose subsidies.

It was the first stop on a statewide tour aimed at making voters aware of the fallout from the House's stripping $22 million in proposed amendments from the budget. Republicans said they considered some of the money to be pork.

"This is a potentially catastrophic loss," Connolly said at yesterday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors, which is dominated, 7 to 3, by Democrats. "At the same time, the General Assembly was cutting this $22 million, they were approving an estate tax cut that will benefit about 800 families in the state of Virginia."

News and articles 7-10-06

2006-07-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

Lieberman campaign files forms to run as petitioning candidate

Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman filed paperwork Mondaythat will allow him to collect signatures to petition his way onto the November ballot if he loses an August primary.

Lieberman's campaign announced the move in an e-mail to reporters

Lieberman also filed papers with the secretary of the state's office Monday to create a new party called Connecticut for Lieberman.

2nd Ney Aide Subpoenaed to Talk in Probe

A second member of embattled Republican Rep. Bob Ney'sstaff has been subpoenaed to testify in the Justice Department's investigationof influence-peddling in Congress.

John Bennett, who works in Ney's eastern Ohio district office, notifiedHouse Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., of the subpoena with a letter readMonday into the Congressional Record.

Bennett was subpoenaed less than two weeks after another employeein Ney's Ohio office, District Director Matthew Parker, was ordered to testify.Ney himself was subpoenaed in November.

White House asks for dismissal of NSA wiretap suit

The Bush administration on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, arguing that defending the four-year-old wiretapping program in open court would risk national security.

In arguments before U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday renewed its call for a court order that would force the government to suspend its program of intercepting without a court order the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens.

But the U.S. Justice Department has asked federal judges in Detroit and New York to throw out the landmark challenges to the eavesdropping program.

"If the court accepts the state-secret argument, we are truly facing a constitutional crisis in this country," Michael Steinberg, legal director for ACLU Michigan, told reporters after the hearing.

Dissident CIA faction 'exposed'

A HIGH-ranking Republican congressman has exposed what he sees as a dissident faction within the CIA that he says "intentionally undermined" the policies of US President George W Bush.

Rumours about the existence of such a group have circulated in the US capital for a long time, but the comments by Representative Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, marks the first time they were confirmed by an official with intimate knowledge of the intelligence community. "

In fact, I have been long concerned that a strong and well-positioned group within the agency intentionally undermined the administration and its policies," Mr Hoekstra wrote in a letter to Mr Bush dated May 18, and made public today.

The CIA has refused to comment on the charge.

The allegations stem from a Central Intelligence Agency leak investigation that centred on former CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose husband, retired ambassador Joseph Wilson, made a 2002 trip to Niger to check on reports that Iraq had secretly tried to purchase uranium ore there.

"More scapegoating of others to cover for thier failures...All totalitarian governments have had their purges and see what it got them..." - Nobody

Detainee Rights Create a Divide on Capitol Hill

The Supreme Court decision striking down the use of military commissions to bring terrorism detainees to trial has set off sharp differences among Republicans in Congress over what kind of rights detainees should be granted and how much deference should be shown the president in deciding the issue.

The debate is expected to consume the rest of the summer in Congress as lawmakers head into an election season expected to be dominated by issues of national security. The issue reflects the difficult legal, diplomatic and political choices the government faces in dealing with terrorism suspects.The divisions do not fall strictly along traditional partisan lines and are as much within the parties as between them, particularly for Republicans. On one side of the debate are Republicans who believe Congress should give the president the authority to set up the kind of military commissions that were struck down by the court. Such commissions would sharply curtail defendants' rights.

On the other side are those who say the trials should be modeled on the military system of courts-martial, an approach that would give detainees more due-process rights than would the commissions. In between, many Republicans and Democrats alike argue for starting with the military judicial system and tweaking it to reflect the differences of trying terrorism suspects.

Report on Guantanamo torture is released by Center for Constitutional Rights

The 51 page "Report on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba" is drawn from primary accounts given by current detainees and their American attorneys at the Guantánamo Bay prison. It catalogues conduct by U.S. officials in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which the Supreme Court recently applied to detainees in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision.

Guantanamo prisoners won't be moved to US: White House

Criticism of the treatment of detainees has led to international calls to close Guantanamo, where three prisoners committed suicide on June 10. The White House says Guantanamo cannot be closed until its prisoners are either repatriated or tried.

Report on Torture at Gitmo

Iraqis, US military see possible pullout: senators

Iraqi leaders and U.S. military commanders there anticipate that American troops could start withdrawing this year, two Democratic U.S. senators who favor such a move said on Saturday after a visit to Iraq.

"The commanders on the ground, and Iraq's political leaders, suggest that it is appropriate to begin a redeployment of American forces as early as some time this year," said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

"I asked the prime minister (Nuri al-Maliki) directly, whether it would be feasible and desirable, and he in so many words said yes, that it is something that they anticipate," Reed said.

Reed and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware spoke to reporters in a telephone conference call after returning from Iraq where they met Maliki, other Iraqi officials and top U.S. military brass in the country -- including top commander Gen. George Casey and ground forces commander Lieutenant General Peter W. Chiarelli.

Reed, a former Army officer who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Casey told them he sees a possible reduction of an unspecified number of troops starting this year.

Iraq says to ask U.N. to end US immunity

Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the government said on Monday, as the U.S. military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis.

Ground commanders' questions about detainee treatment went unanswered

Gulf war vet shoots four

David Bradley, 40, used a handgun with a silencer to avoid alerting his next victim.

He crept up behind each in turn at their home, blasting them in the back of the head at close range.

The ex-soldier then spent the night with the bodies before confessing to cops.

Victim was just 14 when she was raped and killed by US soldiers

The young Iraqi woman who five US soldiers are accused of raping and killing on March 12 was 14 years old, not over 20, as US officials have said.

US court documents described Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi, who was shot dead along with her sister and parents, as an "adult female" and estimated her age as 25. Local officials and relatives had said she was 15 or 16, but her identity card and a copy of her death certificate show she was born on August 19, 1991 in Baghdad.

Her identity card, issued in 1993, features a photograph of her at 18 months, wide-eyed and with a lick of dark hair over her brow. A copy of her death certificate gives the same birth date.

She was found at home by a relative on March 12 and had died from "gunshot wounds to the head, with burns", said the document, signed by doctor Wael Habib and a registrar.

Newsweek's Man in Baghdad: Iraq Is "Doomed," Bush "Manages the News"

Rod Nordland, the chief foreign correspondent for Newsweek magazine and their Baghdad bureau chief from 2003 to 2005, gave an interview to Foreign Policy magazine in which he declared that "It's a lot worse over here [in Iraq] than is reported. The administration does a great job of managing the news." He claimed individual reporters have been "blacklisted" because the military wasn't happy with their stories while they were embedded. He also suggested many in the military don't want to see how awful it is in Iraq because they're wishful thinkers, they don't want to see a "doomed enterprise," and are "victims of their own propaganda."

Juan Cole And Time Magazine On Israel & Gaza

The recent Israeli actions are ensuring that terrorists will unleash a devastating attack on the U.S. on U.S. soil. The actions are violating the Just War principles of proportionality of response and the avoidance of damage to civilians. Israel is becoming like the old drunken friend who is constantly getting into fights with other bar patrons whenever one hangs out with them. Fights that you are always drawn into. Eventually you have to let the friend know that you are fucking tired of defending their friendship with your face.

BOY DIES IN GAZA

A PALESTINIAN boy of 11 died yesterday after being shot in the chest in Israel's military operation in Gaza.

Israeli Savagery in Gaza

People and governments of the world would be wise to heed the words of Pope Paul IV, "If you want peace, work for justice". As long as Israel is committed to ethnic cleansing, Palestinians will continue to fight for their survival.And what sane, honest and moral human being can truly blame them? Bishop Desmond Tutu once said: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

Israel bars Palestinian Americans for first time since 1967

For the first time since 1967, Israel is preventing the entry of Palestinians with foreign citizenship, most of them Americans.

Most of those refused entry are arriving from abroad, but have lived and worked for years in the West Bank.

The Interior Ministry and Civil Administration made no formal announcement about a policy change, leaving returnees to discover the situation when they reach the border crossings.

Olmert to press ahead with Gaza raids

Olmert, speaking to foreign media, said operations in Gaza to press for the soldier's release and an end to cross-border rocket attacks against Israel would continue indefinitely.

Mexico Candidate Heads to Electoral Court

Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador headed to court Sunday evening to present 800 pages of purported evidence of fraud that he hoped would overturn his conservative rival's razor-thin preliminary victory.

Lopez Obrador said his lawyers would give the Federal Electoral Court evidence of fraud, including computerized manipulation of the results, a day after he called for continued hope from supporters at a mammoth rally in Mexico City's historic center.

The legal appeal would seek not to annul the July 2 election, but to force authorities to conduct a manual recount of all 41 million ballots.

``This was a very irregular election and we are asking that they count vote by vote to legitimize the president elect,'' Gerardo Fernandez, a spokesman for Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party, said outside the tribunal Sunday night as he waited for lawyers to arrive.

"The recount is guaranteed by their constitution...but we also know that constitutions and the laws don't seem to mean much to the right wingers on this planet any more." - Nobody

Christian Group Becomes Force in Major Legal Battles

A 29-foot war memorial shaped like a cross should be allowed to remain on public land. A teacher should be able to emphasize references to God in the Declaration of Independence. Protesters should be permitted to approach women near the doors of an abortion clinic.

These courtroom fights and dozens of others pending across the country belong to the portfolio of the ambitious Alliance Defense Fund, a socially conservative legal consortium. It spends $20 million a year seeking to protect what it regards as the place of religion -- and especially Christianity -- in public life.

Considering itself the antithesis of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Scottsdale-based organization has used money and moxie to become the leading player in a movement to tug the nation to the right by challenging decades of legal precedent. By stepping into the nation's most impassioned debates about religion in the public sphere, the group aims to bring law and society into alignment with conservative Christianity.

Dominionismand the Rise of Christian Imperialism

Dominionism in brief

Throughout the 2000 year history of Christianity there has always been a vein of dominionism embedded in the strata of doctrines. This seam has ebbed and flowed for 20 centuries, sometimes submerged, sometimes exposed. Whenever out in the open, it has given rise to horrible abuses done in the name of Christ. In the early 21st century, once again this vein is now showing and active. Keep in mind:

Dominionism is always an aberration of true Christian theology.

A remnant of believers has always opposed it, often suffering a martyr’s fate at the hands of intolerant dominionists.

Dominionism and Dominion Theology

Dominionism and Dominion Theology are not denominations or faith groups. Rather, they are interrelated beliefs which are followed by members of a wide range of Christian denominations.
In his article on dominionism, researcher and author Chip Berlet credits sociologist Sara Diamond with popularizing the term dominionism as "a growing political tendency in the Christian Right." Diamond defined dominionism in 1995 as:

Christians alone are Biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns--and there is no consensus on when that might be.

The Despoiling of America

How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State

The First Prince of the Theocratic States of America

It happened quietly, with barely a mention in the media. Only the Washington Post dutifully reported it.[1] And only Kevin Phillips saw its significance in his new book, American Dynasty.[2] On December 24, 2001, Pat Robertson resigned his position as President of the Christian Coalition.

Behind the scenes religious conservatives were abuzz with excitement. They believed Robertson had stepped down to allow the ascendance of the President of the United States of America to take his rightful place as the head of the true American Holy Christian Church.

Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence

Overview and Roots

The Christian Right has shown impressive resilience and has rebounded dramatically after a series of embarrassing televangelist scandals of the late 1980s, the collapse of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, and the failed presidential bid of Pat Robertson. (But) In the 1990s, Christian Right organizing went to the grassroots and exerted wide influence in American politics across the country.

There is no doubt that Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition gets much of the credit for this successful strategic shift to the local level. But another largely overlooked reason for the persistent success of the Christian Right is a theological shift since the 1960s. The catalyst for the shift is Christian Reconstructionism--arguably the driving ideology of the Christian Right in the 1990s.

The significance of the Reconstructionist movement is not its numbers, but the power of its ideas and their surprisingly rapid acceptance. Many on the Christian Right are unaware that they hold Reconstructionist ideas. Because as a theology it is controversial, even among evangelicals, many who are consciously influenced by it avoid the label. This furtiveness is not, however, as significant as the potency of the ideology itself. Generally, Reconstructionism seeks to replace democracy with a theocratic elite that would govern by imposing their interpretation of "Biblical Law." Reconstructionism would eliminate not onlydemocracy but many of its manifestations, such as labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Women would be generally relegated to hearth and home. Insufficiently Christian men would be denied citizenship, perhaps executed. So severe is this theocracy that it would extend capital punishment beyond such crimes as kidnapping, rape, and murder to include, among other things, blasphemy, heresy, adultery, and homosexuality.

"BURN THE WITCH!...BURN THE WITCH!...(just practicing in case I need to blend in long enough to escape to the hills)" - Nobody

Pot church takes a hit

PIMA — The Church of Cognizance, which has quietly operated here since 1991, has an unusual tenet — its worshippers deify and use marijuana as part of their faith.

Until federal authorities charged them with possessing 172 pounds of their leafy green sacrament earlier this year, church founders Dan and Mary Quaintance say they smoked, ate or drank marijuana daily as a way of becoming more spiritually enlightened.

"I thought that this was already settled by the supreme court...guess not..." - Nobody

Federal Court Rules in Favor of Ayahuasca-using Church

Members of the ayahuasca-using religious group known as the Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), won a major legal victory on Monday (August 12, 2002), when a federal court ruled that the group’s use of ayahuasca was likely protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Ayahuasca (also known as hoasca) is a visionary tea that serves as the sacrament of the UDV religion. In May 1999, US Customs agents seized several bottles of ayahuasca imported from Brazil for use by members of UDV's US Branch headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

According to the US government, ayahuasca is an illegal controlled substance in the same class as LSD, because it contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT) a “hallucinogenic” drug under the US Controlled Substance Act (CSA). In Brazil, ayahuasca is legal and is expressly recognized as the sacrament of several Brazilian-based churches, including the UDV.

After seizing the tea, the US government failed to file criminal charges but refused to return the tea to the UDV. As a result, the UDV filed a lawsuit alleging that the government’s seizure and continued holding of its sacrament was unconstitutional and also violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as international laws and treaties.

Economic Gains Widen Pay Gap

Wages are rising more than twice as fast for highly paid workers in the Washington area as they are for low-paid workers, an analysis of federal data by The Washington Post shows.That means the spoils of the region's economic expansion are going disproportionately to workers who are already well-paid, widening a gap between rich and poor in a place where it is already wider than in most of the country.

"Edit in progress" - Nobody

News and articles 7-9-06

2006-07-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

Nowhere to Hide - Israelis kill 6yr old girl and her family in Gaza

The Israeli military, initially denying that any shells had been fired, later admitted a missile had missed its target in an open field and landed on a street in the Shajaya district on the outskirts of the city, near the Karni border crossing.

ISRAEL PLANNED CAPTURE OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT LONG BEFORE ALLEGED KIDNAPPING

Golani commander: IDF soldier likely killed in Gaza by friendly fire

At first it was believed that Bassel had been shot by a Palestinian sniper. Now, however, it appears highly likely that a Golani force in the adjacent house misidentified Bassel's force as Palestinian and opened fire on it.

Israel rejects Palestinian call for truce

The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire Saturday in its violent two-week standoff with Israel, but Israel rejected the offer because it did not call for releasing a soldier held by Hamas militants.

Israeli army turns on Olmert

AFTER a week of fierce fighting against Palestinian militants in Gaza, the Israeli government was last night facing growing unease within its own military over the refusal to negotiate with Hamas for the release of kidnapped soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Crisis in US Media Coverage of Gaza

One element fueling the current crisis in Gaza is the ongoing failure of US corporate media coverage of Israel/Palestine. US policy, public opinion and mainstream media coverage of Israel/Palestine are all dangerously biased towards Israel. Media coverage both reflects and influences policy and public opinion. Media coverage of events in Gaza again illustrates how the US mainstream media privileges the Israeli narrative, and frequently ignores both Palestinian experiences and international law, providing the US public and policymakers with only part of the story.

Are Israeli lives worth more than Palestinian?

Arab Media Watch expresses its concern at the amount of coverage given to Israel's killing yesterday of almost two dozen Palestinians, including civilians, compared with the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier on 25 June, as well as the continued portrayal of the current crisis as being triggered by the kidnapping.

The Voice of the White House for July 7th 2006

The oft-heard argument that “Israel was the homeland” for the Jewish people may well have been true, 2000 years ago, but the current inhabitants of Israel are not Jewish by heritage but by enforced conversion of nomad tribes in Russia in 800AD. 95% of the Israeli Jews are from this background, not the original Semitics who forced out of Judea by the Romans.

War crimes

The 1949 Geneva Conventions state, in article 54 of their additional protocol: “Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited”. It is also “prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”. That means that the Israeli army’s latest offensive in the occupied territories amounts to war crimes; it includes the blockade of the civilian population and their collective punishment, the bombing of Gaza’s $150m power station, depriving 750,000 Palestinians of electricity in the intense summer heat, and the kidnapping on the West Bank of 64 members of the political wing of Hamas, including eight cabinet ministers and 22 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. On 5 July the Israeli government said it would expand its military operation in Gaza.

State Department Lawyers Warned in 2002 That Denying Terror Suspects' Geneva Conventions Rights Could Upset U.S. Courts, Make Officials Vulnerable to War Crimes Charges

A group of State Department lawyers warned in 2002 that the Bush administration was inviting an enormous backlash, both from U.S. Courts and foreign allies, by denying terror suspects rights commonly given under U.S. law or the Geneva Conventions, report Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Contributing Editor Stuart Taylor, Jr. in the July 17 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, July 10). "Even those terrorists captured in Afghanistan ... are entitled to the fundamental humane treatment standards of ... the Geneva Conventions," William Howard Taft IV, the State Department legal counselor wrote in a January 23, 2002 memo obtained by Newsweek. In particular, Taft argued, the United States has always followed one provision of the Geneva Conventions-known as Common Article 3- which "provides the minimal standards" of treatment that even "terrorists captured in Afghanistan" deserve.

Nation Breaking

A soldier discovers that training the Iraqi army is not President Bush’s priority.

Gallup: Almost Two-Thirds Want Iraq Withdrawal

A new Gallup poll finds that roughly 2 in 3 Americans urge a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, with 31% wanting this to start immediately.

Gallup's director, Frank Newport, sums up the results today: "Taken together, it is perhaps fair to say that a significant majority of Americans would like the United States to either withdraw troops from Iraq or make specific plans to do so, although there is no majority demand that troops be withdrawn immediately.

"The poll was unusual in that rather than give respondents a list of options, it allowed them to respond in their own words. Gallup then grouped the varied responses and labelled them with a common theme.

Results showed that almost 1 in 3 want to "pull the troops out and come home," as soon as possible. About the same number seem to wish for a gradual pullout. The remaining one-third back the present course or want to "finish what we started."

The plot to defeat our liberty

For any form of tyranny to succeed, there have to be people who roll up their sleeves and get the job done. Repression doesn't just happen. It has to be organized, arranged, justified and marketed to a willing populace. In other words, it takes a team.

"The Republicans Have a Plan - And it is Called FEAR"

Plan to attack New York tunnels: Yet another dubious “terror plot”

Bush, Rumsfeld and the Supremes

George W. Bush, with Cheney and Rumsfeld holding his train (or is that a leash?) continues to strut. He incessantly refers to himself as Commander in Chief of the American people.
He is not, of course. We hear morning, noon, and night about the “war' in Iraq, in Afghanistan, on terrorism, even still the “war' on drugs. But the only real war the government of the United States is fighting today is a war on our republic, a war on the Constitution.

Landmark al Qaeda trial collapses

The trial of 19 alleged al Qaeda members had been designed to showcase how serious Yemen was in the fight against terror. But the Islamic militants, accused of plotting to assassinate Westerners and blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, were all acquitted for lack of proof, the presiding judge ruled Saturday.

Illinois court awards victims of Israeli terror attack Iranian artifacts

An Illinois court of justice a while ago issued a verdict based on which the bereaved family members of a terrorist attack in Israel can receive as remuneration the Iranian historic artifacts kept at Oriental Studies Institute of Chicago University.

"WTF?" - Nobody

Full Recount Would Show that López Obrador Won Mexico’s Presidency by More than One Million Votes

The Tip of the Iceberg of the Crimes Committed by Mexican Electoral Authorities Is the Fraudulent Vote Count of 2006

Commercial Media organizations are reporting that Felipe Calderòn won Sunday’s presidential election by 0.58 percent of the vote and will govern Mexico for the next six years, beginning on December 1.

It would not be the first time that the Commercial Media has been wrong.

Many of those reports have claimed that Wednesday’s first official count of precinct results in Mexico – 130,000 pieces of paper that claim to represent the vote tallies – was a “recount.”

It would not be the first time that lazy “pack journalism” got a major international story wrong.The truth: No recount occurred on Wednesday, or before, or since. What occurred – we repeat – was only the first official count of precinct tallies.

A Narco News investigation has found that in the small sample of precincts – less than one percent – where a recount was allowed, the shift in numbers away from Calderón was so drastic that, if recounts of all the ballots followed the same trend, the official results would invert and Andrés Manuel López Obrador would become the clear winner of the presidency by more than one million votes:

Mexico: Calderon's brother-in-law wrote the vote-counting software, and it's already been hacked!

Mexico: Vote Counting Software Hacked

In Mexico, we've got it all. All the plays in the playbook. The rush to declare a victor before the votes are counted, the partisan software company--and voting software that's proven to be hackable.

Mexico: All the errors went FOR the conservative, AGAINST Obrador

Obrador supporters take to Mexico streets

Thousands of defiant supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took to the streets Saturday in a bid to overturn his narrow election defeat, launching protests that threatened to widen Mexico's regional and class divisions.

Lopez Obrador called for protests across Mexico, saying last Sunday's elections were more fraudulent than those held during 71 years of one-party rule. European Union election observers have said they had found no major irregularities.

Most of Lopez Obrador's supporters come from poor southern states while conservative Felipe Calderon's strength is in Mexico's industrialized north.

Election officials say Calderon beat Lopez Obrador by less than 244,000 votes out of a total of 41 million ballots — or a margin of about 0.6 percent.

"We are never going to recognize this man (Calderon)," said Apolinario Fernandez, 37, a teacher from Lopez Obrador's home state of Tabasco in the southeast. "If he wants, let him govern in the north for the rich, but not in the south."

Surprising Jump in Tax Revenues Curbs U.S. Deficit

An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year, even though spending has climbed sharply because of the war in Iraq and the cost of hurricane relief.

On Tuesday, White House officials are expected to announce that the tax receipts will be about $250 billion above last year's levels and that the deficit will be about $100 billion less than what they projected six months ago. The rising tide in tax payments has been building for months, but the increased scale is surprising even seasoned budget analysts and making it easier for both the administration and Congress to finesse the big run-up in spending over the past year.

Tax revenues are climbing twice as fast as the administration predicted in February, so fast that the budget deficit could actually decline this year.

The main reason is a big spike in corporate tax receipts, which have nearly tripled since 2003, as well as what appears to be a big rise in individual taxes on stock market profits and executive bonuses.

The surge could also evaporate as quickly as it appeared. Over the past decade, tax revenues have become much more volatile, alternately soaring and plunging in the wake of swings in the stock market and repeatedly defying government projections."

And federal debt has ballooned to $8.3 trillion, up from $5.6 trillion when Mr. Bush took office

"Well now...lets take a look behind the curtain and see how the trick was done...First you encourage the corporations to be taxed now at a lower rate rather than later at their normal rate...Got to time it just right for the election..." - Nobody

The $104 Billion Refund

The most absurd corporate tax giveaway of 2005.By Michelle LederPosted Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 12:33 PM ET Feeling flush because you're getting a nice tax refund this year? You're not alone. Some of America's largest corporations—a virtual who's who of the Fortune 100—have been reporting their own hefty tax windfalls, thanks to an absurd provision of a law designed to create jobs.

IBM, for example, is banking a $2.8 billion refund—well, better to call it a "tax savings"—because instead of paying the normal corporate tax rate of 35 percent on $9.5 billion in profits it earned overseas, the company paid only 5.25 percent. That's the magic of the American Jobs Creation Act, a piece of legislation that passed with comfortable margins in both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush just two weeks before the 2004 elections.

The AJCA, which was pushed through during the last fit of panic about outsourcing, was ostensibly designed to encourage companies to add jobs here. It gave a small tax deduction to American manufacturers, and it offered a one-time tax holiday in 2005 when corporations could repatriate their foreign income at a massively reduced tax rate. This repatriation, the theory went, would encourage R & D and capital investment in the United States, leading to new positions down the road. But, like President Bush's creatively named Clear Skies initiative and Healthy Forest Restoration Act, the American Jobs Creation Act has not lived up to its title.

Some helpful charts

"Now was this a "job creation act" or was it an election maneuver?" - Nobody

US jobs growth weaker than expected

The US produced fewer jobs than expected last month, adding to evidence that the economy is losing momentum.

The outcome was shy of the consensus expectation for job creation at 175,000. Over the past three months job creation has averaged just 108,000, down from 176,000 over the previous three months and below the level necessary to prevent unemployment from rising over the longer term.

"Yeah...that's what I thought...But in all fairness maybe the republicans have more important issues to deal with..." - Nobody

Ally Told Bush That Failing to Inform Congress of Spying Projects Might Be Illegal

In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.

The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.

But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department's tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.

Recently, after the harsh criticism from Mr. Hoekstra, intelligence officials have appeared at two closed committee briefings to answer questions from the chairman and other members. The briefings appear to have eased but not erased the concerns of Mr. Hoekstra and other lawmakers about whether the administration is sharing information on all of its intelligence operations.

Link to letter here

"There's more!?" - Nobody

Republican Priorities Stalled in Congress

Unpopular President, Deep Divisions in GOP Add Up to a Congress Having Trouble Doing Its Job

Could a Republican-controlled Congress pass a bill to protect the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance from court challenges? No problem, especially if proposed during the patriotic season leading up to the Fourth of July, Republican leaders thought. No way, it turned out.

The bill, the first item on the GOP's election-year "American Values Agenda," couldn't get past a House committee. Even worse for the Republicans: They couldn't blame the flameout on Democrats. One of the GOP's very own, Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina, voted no. Seven other Judiciary Committee Republicans skipped the panel's meeting entirely.

So it goes this year for House Republicans, their majority in jeopardy for the first time in more than a decade. An unpopular president, deep divisions in their ranks and Democrats determined to regain control add up to a Congress that's having trouble doing its most basic job: passing legislation.

Republican leaders tried to shrug off the setbacks, while Democrats have pounced on the lack of progress.

Powerful GOP Activist Sees His Influence Slip Over Abramoff Dealings

For more than a decade, Grover G. Norquist has been at the nexus of conservative activism in Washington, becoming a Bush administration insider whose weekly strategy sessions at his Americans for Tax Reform have drawn ever-larger crowds of lawmakers, lobbyists and even White House political adviser Karl Rove.

Over the past six years, Norquist has been a key cheerleader and strategist for successive White House tax cuts, extracting ironclad oaths from congressional Republicans not to even think about tax increases. And even before President Bush's election, he positioned himself as a gatekeeper for supplicants seeking access to Bush's inner circle.

But in the aftermath of reports that Norquist served as a cash conduit for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the irascible, combative activist is struggling to maintain his stature as some GOP lawmakers distance themselves and as enemies in the conservative movement seek to diminish his position.

Washington Babylon

In June 2004—in the middle of the Caucus Room, a crowded Washington restaurant—Cunningham accepted a fat envelope from Wade. "What's in it?" asked David Heil, Cunningham's chief of staff. Money to repair the Duke-Stir, $6,500 in cash, Cunningham told him. Several months later the aide, who had long been concerned about his boss's misdeeds—so much so that he personally checked Cunningham's real-estate records in California—begged Cunningham to resign. "This is stupid! It's insane!" the aide supposedly said. "I would bet my own house this whole thing will come out." Cunningham listened to this lecture, silent and shamefaced, but he didn't resign. Instead, his chief of staff did.

Every time [Brent] Wilkes was asked by Tom Casey, a California defense contractor who would eventually work with him, how he got to be so friendly with Lowery and other congressmen, the answer was always the same, Casey tells me: "Honduras." Specifically, Casey adds, Wilkes described sexual encounters between congressmen and women from Honduran villages. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports similar recollections, attributing them to three of Wilkes's former friends.

Ohio Governor Faces Public Reprimand

Gov. Bob Taft faces a public reprimand for ethics violations under an agreement his attorney has reached with the state office that monitors lawyers' behavior.

Taft, a Republican who has been an attorney since 1976, pleaded no contest last August to failing to report golf outings and other gifts while in office and was fined $4,000.

Taft would receive a public reprimand for his convictions on those misdemeanor ethics violations under an agreement forged by the governor's private attorney and the Ohio Supreme Court's disciplinary counsel.

Jonathan Coughlan, the disciplinary counsel, filed a complaint in April saying Taft's actions violated Ohio's code of professional conduct for lawyers.

GOP senator helped hip-hop producer dodge coke sentence

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a musician in his own right, helped secure the release of Atlanta R&B producer Dallas Austin from a United Arab Emirates jail after a drug conviction, the senator's office confirmed Saturday.

A Grammy winner who has produced hits for Madonna, Pink and TLC, Austin was arrested May 19 and convicted of drug possession for bringing 1.26 grams of cocaine into the UAE city of Dubai.

On Tuesday a court sentenced him to four years in jail and said Austin, 34, should be deported after serving the term. Hours later, Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum pardoned and released Austin.

Beyond saying Hatch has "good relations with the ambassador and other good people in Dubai," his office gave The Associated Press no specifics about Hatch's dealings with the Dubai government.

"WTF is it with Dubai and some members of the republican party?" - Nobody

Court Rules Against Sanitizing Films

Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and several companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios, an appeals judge ruled.

Editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence is an ''illegitimate business'' that hurts Hollywood studios and directors who own the movie rights, said U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch in a decision released Thursday in Denver.

''Their (studios and directors) objective ... is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies,'' the judge wrote. ''There is a public interest in providing such protection.''

Matsch ordered the companies named in the suit, including CleanFlicks, Play It Clean Video and CleanFilms, to stop ''producing, manufacturing, creating'' and renting edited movies. The businesses also must turn over their inventory to the movie studios within five days of the ruling.

CleanFlicks produces and distributes sanitized copies of Hollywood films on DVD by burning edited versions of movies onto blank discs. The scrubbed films are sold over the Internet and to video stores.

Clean scenes

A video watchdog in Utah edits out all the nasty stuff for his Mormon customers.

Mormons in Utah hoping to rent a Hollywood film without sex, violence or profanity have found their savior. His name is Ray Lines, and he doesn't merely preach against the heathens of hell. Lines is a man of action. The one-time sportscaster operates two CleanFlicks video stores in the greater Salt Lake City area, and spends much of his time editing the videos to remove bare breasts, sex scenes, gun battles and unfortunate dialogue like "fuck" and "goddamn it.

"The large local membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides an ideal customer base for Lines and his Carry Nation crusade against video filth. Since his stores opened a few months ago, he has attracted a steady stream of well-scrubbed film fans who don't mind paying up to $17 to rent a Mormon-friendly version of "Titanic" or "Saving Private Ryan."

Candidates explain why they switched

Ending lifelong allegiances to the Republican Party in Kansas was no simple matter.“I didn’t sleep well that night,” said Kent Goyen of Pratt, who’s running for the 114th District seat.

But each of the party jumpers had a common tonic — visits with Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, either in person or by telephone.

Steve Lukert, Sabetha
Age: 58
Occupation: Farmer, retired government teacher
Running for: 62nd District House seat

Switched parties because: Two reasons. He ran for the state Senate two years ago in the GOP primary and lost, but said he was disillusioned by the tactics used to defeat him. “I was put off by the meanness of the campaign within the Republican Party and the intentional misrepresentations,” Lukert said.

"As heartening as this is do we really need more DINOs in the party?" - Nobody

News and Articles 7-8-06

2006-07-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

Tensions Grow Over Mexico Vote as Opposition Plans Rally Saturday

Mexico hung in limbo on Friday, as tensions rose between those seeking a recount in the presidential race and those seeking to accept Felipe Calderón as the winner and move on.

After a tally showed that the two top candidates were separated by 243,000 votes, the election has exposed deep divides in society, along class and regional lines. The voting has put the strength of the young democracy to its toughest test.

A day after election officials said Mr. Calderón, an advocate of free trade, had won the narrowest of victories, the country seemed more on edge than on a high. Supporters of Mr. Calderón's leftist rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, girded for fights in court and on the streets, beginning with a rally scheduled for Saturday. Mr. Calderón's supporters and allies called on Mr. López Obrador to concede defeat for the good of the country.

The uncertainty caused consternation among citizens of all political persuasions

Filmmaker Sues Rumsfeld Over Iraq Detention

A Los Angeles filmmaker today sued Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other high-ranking military officials, alleging they violated his civil rights, international law and the Geneva Convention by imprisoning him for 55 days in Iraq last year.

Kar, a U.S. citizen and Navy veteran, went to Iraq 14 months ago to make a documentary film about Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who issued the world's first human rights charter.

While in confinement, the suit states, Kar was at various times hooded, restrained "in painful flexi-cuffs," and "repeatedly threatened, taunted and insulted" by U.S. soldiers.At one point, according to the suit, a soldier at Abu Ghraib slammed Kar's head into a concrete wall.

What happened to him in Iraq was "a life altering experience," Kar said. He emphasized, "I am not a left wing liberal. I agree with many of George Bush's policies."But he added, "I don't think the Constitution has to be gutted to achieve our objectives" in the war on terrorism. "I felt it was my duty as an American to take a stand for the constitutional rights guaranteed to all Americans."

Justices Tacitly Backed Use of Guantánamo, Bush Says

In his most detailed comments to date on the Supreme Court's rejection of his decision to put detainees on trial before military commissions, President Bush said Friday that the court had tacitly approved his use of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"It didn't say we couldn't have done — couldn't have made that decision, see?" Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Chicago. "They were silent on whether or not Guantánamo — whether or not we should have used Guantánamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantánamo, the decision I made.

"Mr. Bush's remarks put a favorable spin on a ruling that has been widely interpreted as a rebuke of the administration's policies in the war on terror. The court, ruled broadly last week in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that military commissions were unauthorized by statute and violated international law.

The question of whether Mr. Bush had properly used Guantánamo Bay to house detainees was not at issue in the case."

George W. Bush Is Dead To Me

Nation cringes as the worst president ever continues long, painful slog to the end

Everyone I know has had enough. Everyone I know is just about done. There is this threshold of happy deadened disgust, this point where the body simply resigns itself to the pain, a point where the disease, the poison has seeped so deeply into the bones that you just have to laugh and shrug it all off and go for a drink. Or 10.

Lay's death could set Skilling free

Lawyers likely to argue that entire case has effectively been voided

Kenneth Lay's sudden death could prove to be an unexpected legal bequest to Jeffrey Skilling, his co-defendant in the landmark Enron Corp. fraud case.

Mr. Skilling's legal team will almost certainly invoke Mr. Lay's demise to try to reverse his own fraud and conspiracy conviction or demand a retrial, legal experts said yesterday.

That's because Mr. Lay's death Wednesday of an apparent heart attack effectively voids the entire case against the Enron founder, including the guilty verdict. Mr. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive officer who is appealing his own conviction, could now argue that much of the evidence against him stems from a case that no longer exists, argued lawyer Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor and white collar crime specialist.

"This is the first time this has happened in such a high profile case," Mr. Frenkel said. "Everybody is scrambling to see what the law says on this."

FBI plans new Net-tapping push

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.

FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from universities and some technology companies that claim the Federal Communications Commission's broadband surveillance directives exceed what Congress has authorized.

CIA attacked by agent who led Bin Laden hunt

The man who led America's hunt for Osama bin Laden says the CIA was wrong to disband the only unit devoted entirely to the Islamist leader's pursuit - just at a time when al-Qaida is reasserting its influence over the global jihad.Shutting down the Bin Laden unit squandered 10 years of expertise in the war on terror, said Michael Scheuer, who founded the unit in 1995 and arguably knows more about Bin Laden than any other western intelligence official. He believes the unit was dismantled because of bureaucratic jealousies within the CIA, and that the closure delivers a further setback to a pursuit that has been squeezed for resources for the past two years.

Profiting from the Occupation

Despite the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding, and the international attention it receives, names familiar on high streets across Europe and the US are actively supporting Israel's Occupation of Palestine through their business practices--threatening to prolong the misery of the Palestinian people for many years to come.

New Slovak govt confirms Iraq troop withdrawal

Slovakia’s new government on Wednesday confirmed it would pull its troops out of Iraq but pledged to undertake a smooth transition to protect stabilization efforts there.

Thousands of troops say they won’t fight

Less than two years later, Magaoay became one of thousands of military deserters who have chosen a lifetime of exile or possible court-martial rather than fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“It wasn’t something I did on the spur of the moment,” said Magaoay, a native of Maui, Hawaii. “It took me a long time to realize what was going on. The war is illegal.”

Gallup: calls for troop withdrawal “increase significantly as educational level increases"

Newport writes: "Suggestions that the United States engage in some type of gradual withdrawal increase significantly as educational level increases."

"Well now we know why they've eviscerated the public school system eh?" - Nobody

California Man Revealed as al Qaeda Leader

Adam Gadahn, who disappeared from California seven years ago, appeared unmasked on an al Qaeda tape made public on the internet today.

Adam Gadahn's real name is Adam Pearlman. Adam is the grandson of the late Carl K. Pearlman; a prominent Jewish urologist in Orange County. Carl was also a member of the board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League, which was caught spying on Americans for Israel in 1993, much as AIPAC has been caught up in the more recent spy scandal.

Zarqawi's so-called “successor” in jail for past 7yrs

Holland Tunnel LEAK?

Indeed, it seems, as in the case of the deadly Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan leak, that these “disclosures” occur whenever the Bushling’s approval rating significantly drops in the public opinion polls.

Sources say no serious plot for NYC, just hate chatter

One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials confirm, that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals with no financing or training in an open forum already monitored extensively by the United States Government.

News and Articles 7-7-06

2006-07-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racial hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.

"We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, http://www.splcenter.org/ . "That's a problem."

The report said that neo-Nazi groups like the National Alliance, whose founder, William Pierce, wrote "The Turner Diaries," the novel that was the inspiration and blueprint for Timothy J. McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, sought to enroll followers in the Army to get training for a race war.

The groups are being abetted, the report said, by pressure on recruiters, particularly for the Army, to meet quotas that are more difficult to reach because of the growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq.

Guantánamo inmate tells of worsening conditions

An Australian terror suspect being held at Guantánamo Bay today told relatives that conditions at the prison camp had worsened.

David Hicks said he had not been told about a landmark US court ruling that cancelled his proposed military trial, his lawyer, David McLeod, said.

Mr McLeod, who sat in on the two-hour call, said 31-year-old Mr Hicks sounded "very, very depressed". It was only the fourth conversation he has been allowed to have with his family since arriving at Guantánamo in early 2002. Mr Hicks was captured in Afghanistan, where he was allegedly training with the Taliban.

He told his family that the guards at the prison had become "very tough" since three inmates committed suicide last month, and said he thought other inmates were being punished for the deaths. Mr McLeod said Mr Hicks was not suicidal, but he could understand why the three dtainees had killed themselves.

Cheney behind turn toward dictatorship

The United States is currently caught up in a new campaign for a military dictatorship rule by a military chief with absolute power. The White House, inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney, has argued that in time of great danger, the President has unlimited powers. If he cites national security, he can do whatever he wants -- ignore Congress, disobey laws, disregard the courts, override the Constitution's Bill of Rights, -- without being subject to any review.
Separation of powers no longer exists under this view. The President need not consult Congress or the courts, only the vice president, the attorney general and God.

Profiting from the Occupation

Despite the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding, and the international attention it receives, names familiar on high streets across Europe and the US are actively supporting Israel's Occupation of Palestine through their business practices--threatening to prolong the misery of the Palestinian people for many years to come.

US Officer Drops out of Iraq War

The US Army presented charges against lieutenant Ehren Watada, who denied to take part in the Iraq war, in another case that could be considered high treason by the Pentagon.

Watada refused to report to his unit and said that the aggression sponsored by President George W. Bush against the Arab country is a moral mistake and violates US law.

The officer stressed that his duty as a military man is to defend the National Constitution, so he will defy illegal orders from the White House on that conflict, in which nearly 1,540 US soldiers have lost their lives.

Hegemonic Tyrant Courts Doom

Gentle reader, consider what it means when our government believes other countries have no right to their own interests unless they coincide with U.S. interests. It means that we are the tyrant country. We cannot be the tyrant country without being perceived as the tyrant country. Consequently, the rest of the world unites against us.

Japan Begins Withdrawing Troops From Iraq

The first batch of Japanese troops began pulling out of Iraq Friday, with about 30 arriving in Kuwait on their way home, news reports said Friday. A C-130 transport aircraft of Japan's air force carrying about 30 troops arrived at a Kuwaiti airport Friday afternoon, Kyodo News agency reported from Kuwait. Public broadcaster NHK had a similar report.

Judge orders Berlusconi, Mills to stand trial in fraud case

A judge on Friday ordered Italy's former PrimeMinister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial over alleged fraud at his family's broadcaster Mediaset.

Preliminary hearings began in October after a four year investigationby Milan magistrates into claims of embezzlement, false accounting,tax fraud and money laundering in television rights deals between 1994 and 1999.

Berlusconi has denied any wrongdoing.

The judge also ordered that 13 other people, including British lawyerDavid Mills, the husband of a British government minister, should alsobe tried over the alleged fraud at Mediaset, judicial and legal sourcessaid.

Venezuela gets nod for UN seat

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) will be backing Venezuela in its bid for a non-permanent United Nations Security Council seat in October, when it becomes vacant with the expiry of Argentina's two-year term.

Senate colleagues to help Lieberman

Embattled Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman is getting a little help from his Senate friends as he tries to fend off an anti-Iraq war challenger in an intraparty fight. Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, Barbara Boxer of California and Ken Salazar of Colorado plan to campaign in Connecticut for Lieberman between now and the Aug. 8 primary. Their goal is to reassure the party faithful of the three-term senator's loyalty to Democratic causes, including women's issues, labor and the environment.

"And deregulation of the media, anti consumer protection, pro corporatism, anti gay marriage, anti affirmative action, pro religion in the schools, pro war in Iraq...etc...GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY PARTY JOE!" - Nobody

Joementum Really Doesn’t Get It

In my recent Hartford Courant op-ed about Sen. Joe Lieberman, I pointed out that the guy has gone Washington to the point where his own campaign manager acknowledges that Lieberman has stopped being interested in communicating with Connecticut voters. Now, a new AP story confirms that, reporting that Lieberman will be relying on a steady stream of Washington politicians down the stretch of his primary run.

NH phone jammer to argue BushAdministration approved scheme

The fourth man indicted in a New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme -- in which Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in a 2002 Senate race -- will argue at trial that the Bush Administration and the national Republican Party gave their approval to the plan, according to a motion filed by his attorney Thursday.

Santorum, Trailing in Re-Election Bid, Seeks to `Shake Up' Race

The first television ad of Senator Rick Santorum's re-election campaign casts the Pennsylvania Republican as a staunch opponent of ``liberals like Ted Kennedy'' who favor helping undocumented immigrants attain legal status.

The ad doesn't mention that leaders of Santorum's party, including President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain, also favor that immigration approach. Nor does it mention that Santorum was one of only four Republicans to vote with Massachusetts Senator Kennedy and his fellow Democrats to raise the minimum wage.

Trailing by as many as 18 percentage points in polls, Santorum, the Senate's No. 3 Republican, is in try-anything mode. In addition to his immigration and minimum-wage stances, he has broken with Bush over treatment of terrorist suspects, while citing old, non-functioning chemical weapons shells buried in Iraq as justifying the U.S. invasion of that country -- a claim not even the administration has made.

Santorum's strategy is simple, said Terry Madonna, a political scientist at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster who runs the school's Keystone Poll: ``He's got to shake up the environment, or he's going to lose.''

Soldier subdued on Florida flight

A U.S. soldier recently returned from Iraq tried to force his way into the cockpit of a Tampa-bound Delta Air Lines jet and was subdued by other passengers, a Tampa International Airport spokeswoman said on Friday.

The 24-year-old man was undergoing mental evaluation at a Tampa hospital, and the FBI was investigating whether charges should be filed, airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan said.The man, Neftali Alexander Laimendez, was flying with his brother to see their mother in Tampa and seek medical attention, Geoghagan said.

As the flight from New York's LaGuardia Airport approached Tampa on Thursday night, he ignored flight attendants' instructions to sit down and fasten his seat belt, and ran up the aisle of the plane and into the first class cabin, Geoghagan said.

"As he is running, he is ramming the cockpit door, falling on the aisle, getting up and repeatedly doing this," she said. "Three or four of the passengers restrained him and held him on the floor."

"Maybe he was trying to figure out how the 'hijackers' on 911 got in, if they could, if he'd been sent to war on a lie...or maybe trying to prove that it wasn't a lie...either way the answers aren't pretty" - Nobody

Representative Of Largest 9/11 Families Group Says Government Complicit In Attack

The representative of the largest group of 9/11 families says that the official version of events is a fallacy and that the NORAD stand down and evidence of incendiary devices used to bring down the towers amount to government complicity in the attacks - a conclusion shared by half of the 9/11 families he represents.

News and Articles 7-6-06

2006-07-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

A copy of Joseph Wilson's July 6, 2003 New York Times Op-Ed with Handwritten Notes by Vice President Cheney

Mineta testimony on Cheney stand down/shoot down censored

If Mineta’s testimony is to be taken into account, and there is no apparent reason why it should not be, questions about the timing of events the morning of 9/11 come into focus. Most obvious is, if the standing order given by the Vice President prior to the aircraft hitting the Pentagon was not a shoot down order, then what was it? Perhaps it was the danger of this question, and the danger that Cheney would have had to commit perjury to uphold the timeline reported in the mainstream press, that caused the Vice President to testify to the Commission along with the President in closed session, with no transcript, no witnesses, and no public accountability.

Judge's ruling keeps DeLay on ballot

A federal judge ruled today that Republicans cannot replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the ballot for the 22nd Congressional District race.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, a Republican appointee, ruled that DeLay must appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as the GOP nominee for the congressional seat that DeLay abandoned last month. Sparks ruling was confirmed by Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Amber Moon.

If the Republicans lose on appeal, DeLay will have to decide whether to campaign for an office from which he already has resigned.When he announced his resignation, DeLay said he believed he could win re-election but thought he would be a drag on other Republican candidates for office because Democrats would use him as a lightening rod to raise money and attack the GOP in general. So he resigned and dropped his re-election bid.

Hollywood, Florida conservative files suit to stop mass surveillance by government

The Hollywood woman (Theresa Fortnash) has filed a lawsuit in Miami seeking to stop the government from gathering records on virtually every telephone call made within the United States. She wants a federal judge to block AT&T from handing phone logs to the federal government, even though President Bush says the program is critical to national security.

"I know people are going to say I'm hurting our country, and that's why I thought a long, long time before doing this,'' said Fortnash, a computer database designer and mother of a 10-year-old daughter. "But I love my country, and this program goes against everything our country is about and everything my party has been about."

Payroll Giant Gives Scammer Personal Data of Hundreds of Thousands of Investors

The latest corporate data breach is from a company you may never have heard of, even though one in six American workers gets paid by the firm.

Automatic Data Processing, one of the world's largest payroll service companies, confirmed to ABC News that it was swindled by a data thief looking for information on hundreds of thousands of American investors.

According to a company spokeswoman, ADP provided a scammer with personal information of investors who had purchased stock through brokerages that use ADP's investor communications services. Initial reporting indicates that these firms include a number of brand-name brokers, including Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley.

A Fidelity spokesman says the data breach compromised 125,000 of the 72 million active accounts at the brokerage.

Tax dollars to fund study on restricting public data

The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million to do research aimed at rolling back the amount of sensitive data available to the press and public through freedom-of-information requests.

Lay death may wipe out conviction, forfeiture

The sudden death yesterday of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay could make him an innocent man and shield his estate from tens of millions of dollars in forfeiture claims filed by federal prosecutors, legal experts said yesterday.

Under a precedent established by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in 2004, Lay's conviction may be vacated because he did not get a chance to have the appeals court review the jury's guilty finding.

Mexico Presidential Election Ballots Found in Dump

As the apparent victor in Mexico's presidential election switched back and forth Thursday morning, ballots were found in two garbage dumps, RAW STORY has learned. The news was accompanied by various wire reports showing that left wing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador had rejected findings that his opponent Felipe Calderón was the winner.

Calderon wins disputed Mexico vote

Leftist candidate says he'll challenge results in court

A final count gave conservative Felipe Calderon a razor-thin victory Thursday in Mexico's presidential election after four days of uncertainty.

Leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed that there were irregularities in the vote count and vowed to fight the results in court. He called for a demonstration by his supporters Saturday in Mexico City, where he was the popular mayor before seeking the presidency.

Oil companies reluctant to invest in Iraq

In Iraq's peaceful north, a trio of foreign oil companies have begun classic wildcat exploration, hoping a gusher of black gold will bring them untold wealth.

But the companies are little-known outside the industry — something that's unlikely to change until security improves. And the deals they have cut with the Kurdish regional administration bypassing the central government leaves them in a murky legal situation.

More than three years after the U.S.-led invasion, no big oil company has stepped forward to spend the huge sums necessary to tap Iraq's giant oil reserves and get crude flowing and revenues pouring into Iraq's government to help pay for food, jobs and even medical care.

"It will take a lot more to bring in the big guys," said Sharif Ghalib, a senior analyst with Energy Intelligence Research in New York.

Budget woes hit Army posts nationwide

A diversion of dollars to help fight the war in Iraq has helped create a $530 million shortfall for Army posts at home and abroad, leaving some unable to pay utility bills or even cut the grass.

In San Antonio, Fort Sam Houston hasn't been able to pay its $1.4 million monthly utility bill since March, prompting workers in many of the post's administrative buildings to get automated disconnection notices.

Fort Bragg in North Carolina can't afford to buy pens, paper or other office supplies until the new fiscal year starts in October.And in Kentucky, Fort Knox had to close one of its eight dining halls for a month and lay off 133 contract workers.

Navy Will Shift Military Might to Shallower Waters

Swift boats own a small but tortured part of Navy history. The shallow-water craft crewed by armed sailors patrolled the rivers of Vietnam, one of the most dangerous missions in the Navy.

Next year, the Navy will deploy a squadron of 220 sailors to patrol Iraq's Euphrates River on 39-foot versions of the boats. Starting with a dozen vessels which can carry 16 sailors each, their goal will be to stop shipments of weapons, bombs and fighters from Syria to Baghdad.

The deployment represents a departure from the Navy's emphasis on ships that dominate the "blue water" of the ocean and reflects a move to commit more resources to fighting insurgencies. After the Navy spent decades preparing for big wars by building aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, its new Naval Expeditionary Combat Command is building small boats that specialize in fighting where the big ships cannot go — harbors, coastlines and rivers, or what sailors call the "green" and "brown" water.

After the U.S. effort in Vietnam ended in failure, naval warfare scholars questioned whether the Navy activities were effective, or if they were worth the risk to sailors. But in a reassessment, naval historians now contend that the river force was effective at stopping the Viet Cong guerrillas and pacifying the Mekong Delta.

Destroying an Iraqi City to Save It

The city of Ramadi, epicenter of the Iraqi insurgency, has already been reduced to such ruins that constantly under-fire American forces are planning to bulldoze three blocks in the center of the city and create a mini Green Zone in an attempt to gain the upper hand on the insurgents.

Arrogance aims to create a 'greater Israel' in Middle East

Speaker of Iraq's National Assembly Mahmoud al-Mashadani in a meeting with the representative of the Jurisprudence in Khorasan, Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabassi, here Thursday said that the major goal of the arrogance in occupying Iraq is to create a 'great Israel' in the region.

In a meeting, held at the meeting hall of Imam Reza's (AS) holy shrine, he said that this is while some politicians mistakenly led to believe that the US and other despotic powers attacked Iraq and occupied it to topple Saddam Hussein and lay their hands on its oil reserves.

"Saddam was appointed in Iraq by the US itself to help it materialize its arrogant goals. Now the US intends to assign another substitute in Iraq who will continue working towards its goals and will promote American culture in the region.

He called on Iran's government to include participation in Iraq's reconstruction, including that of Sunni mosques, on its agenda to thwart the growing threats and plots of the US in this country.

Draft Resolution Demands Israel Quit Gaza

Researchers Say U.S. Policy Influenced by Israel

Bush Nominates Anti-Regulatory Zealot To Head Public Safety Office

President Bush is expected to nominate Susan Dudley as the next head of an obscure but “super-powerful office that oversees many business regulations.” The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs holds sway over federal regulatory agencies like the EPA and helps set regulatory policy for a wide range of issues, from workplace safety to water quality.

The most recent head, John Graham, has “demonstrated consistent hostility to protections for public health, safety and the environment over his career.” And according to Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch, Dudley “makes John Graham look like Ralph Nader.”

As the director of regulatory studies at the industry-backed Mercatus Center she has worked to oppose vital public health regulation as a “hidden tax” that hinders profits. Some of her targets:

Not surprisingly, Exxon Mobil has donated $80,000 to Dudley’s think tank.

News and Articles 7-5-06

2006-07-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

Mexico leftist has slim early lead in vote recount

Results on display at the Federal Electoral Institute showed Lopez Obrador had 37.05 percent of the vote with results in from 36.6 percent of polling stations. Ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon was second with 34.38 percent.

In Mexico, 2.5 Million Missing Votes Reappear: López Obrador Reduces Calderón’s Official Margin to 0.6 percent

IFE’s Claim that 98.5 Percent of Votes Had Been Counted Was False: Authorities Now Oppose Recount

Today, in Mexico, begins a “recount” of votes cast in Sunday’s presidential election… in which the umpires are refusing to recount the votes.

Election authorities of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE, in its Spanish initials) closed ranks on Tuesday with the National Action Party (PAN) of President Vicente Fox and candidate Felipe Calderón to oppose the actual recounting the votes. This, on the heels of Tuesday’s “discovery” of 2.5 million votes hidden by IFE since Sunday’s election, added to a growing body of evidence – and corresponding public distrust in the institutions – that a gargantuan electoral fraud has been perpetrated.

The partial “recount” began at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, in Mexico’s 300 election districts – each with an average of 400 polling places and 140,000 votes to tabulate – and sparks are already flying over the struggle to conduct an authentic count in the sunlight of public scrutiny. Attorneys and party bosses of the PAN – whose triumphalism has turned to visible panic in recent hours – have orders from headquarters to universally oppose the reopening of any ballot boxes and subsequent public accounting of the actual number of votes cast for each candidate. On the other side, representatives of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) of candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador and many outraged citizens armed with video cameras have besieged the 300 recount locales demanding an actual ballot-by-ballot recount.

Police cordon a Nezahuacoyotl garbage dump where ballots and ballot-boxes from three precincts won by López Obrador were discovered on Tuesday.

Iraqi PM demands rape probe, slams US immunity

Iraq's prime minister called on Wednesday for an independent inquiry into the alleged rape and murder of a teenager and killing of her family by U.S. soldiers, and for a review of foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi law.

Five months before the expiry of the U.S.-led occupation force's United Nations mandate, Nuri al-Maliki said he was not calling for the early departure of the troops, who he said would remain for as long as Iraqi forces required assistance.

"Yes we will demand an independent Iraqi inquiry, or a joint investigation with Multinational Forces," Nuri al-Maliki told reporters during a visit to Kuwait, in his first public comments since the case came to light five days ago.

"We do not accept the violation of Iraqi people's honour as happened in this case. We believe that the immunity granted to international forces has emboldened them to commit such crimes and ... there must be a review of this immunity," he said.

U.S. Immunity in Iraq Will Go Beyond June 30

The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and political power is transferred to an interim Iraqi government, U.S. officials said.

Equipo Nizkor - Bremer Knew

The heinous scandal of Abu Ghraib is not the only violation of human rights and international law in Iraq

U.S. to Draft Iraq Constitution: Violation of Hague Regulations ...

International law is unequivocal - Paul Bremer's economic reforms are illegal

Beyond Torture: U.S. Violations of Occupation Law in Iraq

This report by the Center for Economic and Social Rights documents ten categories of U.S. violations:

International Law Aspects of the Iraq War and Occupation

This section examines the legality of the 2003 US-UK war on Iraq. Shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, UN Secretary General stated that the use of force without Council endorsement would "not be in conformity with the Charter" and many legal experts now describe the US-UK attack as an act of aggression, violating international law. Experts also point to illegalities in the US conduct of the war and violations of the Geneva Conventions by the US-UK of their responsibilities as an occupying power. The section also looks at wartime violations on the Iraqi side.

The hijacking of a nation

Democracy and self determination are a farce in occupied Iraq

The claims by the United States that it is bringing democracy to Iraq simply do not measure up to the facts. Paul Bremer, the US viceroy in Iraq, has imposed a free market economy, ordered mass privatisation of Iraqi State assets and signed contracts with American corporate interests, all before the Iraqi people could have their say in an election. As such privatisation and foreign ownership is outlawed under the Constitution and the laws of Iraq, this is a breach of the Hague Regulations of 1907 that state that an occupying Power must respect "unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country".

US panel orders Abu Ghraib documents from Pentagon

A U.S. congressional panel has ordered Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to turn over documents on the probe into abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison after the Pentagon failed to respond to an earlier request.The House Government Reform Committee issued a subpoena to Rumsfeld last week and said the Pentagon must produce a raft of documents, including all drafts of the report on the Abu Ghraib investigation, by the end of business on July 14.The subpoena follows Rumsfeld's failure to respond to a March 7 letter from the congressional panel requesting the same documents.A Pentagon spokesman said on Wednesday he knew nothing of the subpoena.

Criminal Charges Filed Against George H.W. Bush (Sr.) in Iceland

The group accuses former President Bush for participation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and crimes against internationally protected persons. It demands that former President Bush be detained by the Icelandic authorities and investigation on these charges.

Occupation: The Inconvenient Truth About Iraq

It is time to tell an inconvenient truth about Iraq: it is an occupation, not a war. In wars, armies fight to dominate land. The US won the war three years ago when Bush said, “Mission Accomplished”. Then the occupation started, and our troops were not trained or equipped for an occupation under predictably hostile circumstances. Finally getting the courage to tell the truth that the US is an occupying force drastically changes the picture in Iraq. You cannot “win” an occupation. “Cut and run” does not apply to an occupation. Occupiers have to leave; the only question is when and how.

Lieberman: 'I am no President Bush'

Even though U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman is ready to run as a third party candidate if he loses the Democratic primary, he said it was his opponent who is harming the party.

"My loyalty to the Democratic Party goes back a lot further than his," Lieberman said Wednesday during a meeting with the editorial board of The News-Times. "Ned Lamont is less about his party than himself and his point of view."

Lieberman said his first priority was to win the Democratic nomination. But he feels he has to be realistic.

"My challenger is backed by a group of very zealous people and they are using me to get at President Bush," Lieberman said. "I know President Bush. I wouldn’t say he’s a friend of mine. and trust me, I am no President Bush."

Republicans say Lieberman voting record at odds with Gore agenda ...

Lieberman criticized for support of military spending

Joseph Lieberman on Drugs

Joseph Lieberman on Crime

Lieberman's Record

Lieberman Distorts His Record

"Joe...You're a DINO...get the hell out of my party." - Nobody

Italian spy master arrested over CIA kidnap

Police arrested a director of Italy's military intelligence agency on Wednesday on suspicion of helping the CIA in the alleged kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Milan, judicial sources said.

It is the first Italian official has been linked to the 2003 abduction of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Nasr says he was flown to Egypt and tortured.

An Italian court has issued arrest warrants for 22 suspected U.S. agents over the abduction, but no Italians had been sought until now.

The judicial sources, who asked not to be named ahead of an official announcement, said that police arrested Marco Mancini, director of a division of the Sismi military intelligence agency.

Italians Seeking Arrest of 3 CIA Agents

Prosecutors said Wednesday they had arrested two Italian intelligence officers and were seeking four more Americans as part of an investigation into the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.

Exposing the CIA's Italian Kidnapping Plot

In May of this year, a member of Italy's paramilitary police force was indicted for having helped the CIA carry out the kidnapping. "Ludwig," as he was called by other members of the CIA's abduction team, stopped Abu Omar as he was walking along a Milan street and asked to see his identification papers. As Omar showed his papers, two men leapt out, gassed him and bundled him off. Ludwig's boss and operational partner was Marco Mancini, Gen. Nicolo Pollari's right-hand man. In turn, Gen. Pollari, the Italian Intelligence Agency's director, is the man who delivered the yellowcake dossier to Condoleezza Rice and Steve Hadley in the White House.

According to Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's anti-bin Laden unit and author of "Imperial Hubris," the Abu Omar rendition was prepared at the highest levels of the U.S. and Italian governments. National security advisors on both side of the Atlantic were involved, on the U.S. side, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and on the Italian side, Ambassador Giovanni Castellaneta, who at that time was Berlusconi's national security adviser. "It is unthinkable," Scheuer says, "that such an operation could have been carried out without informing first the appropriate Italian authorities, in particular Nicolo Pollari, head of Sismi, and without obtaining prior permission by the Italian National Security Agency."

Calipari's widow says his slaying 'cannot be allowed to become yet another of Italy's mysteries'

Mrs. Calipari is referring to countless unsolved political crimes—from the murder of Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 to the massacre of 80 people and wounding of 200 in the Bologna train station bombing in 1980—that point to collusion between the Italian secret services, trained and funded by the CIA, and Anglo-American-dominated NATO intelligence, which sought to reverse the electoral progress of Italy toward a coalition government of national unity that would welcome the powerful and then respected Italian Communist Party as a partner.

In spite of the Italian Communist Party's official separation from Moscow and recognition of Italy's participation in NATO, the idea of a multi-party sovereignty for Italy was anathema to the George H.W. Bush's CIA (the senior Bush was head of the CIA in 1976 for one year), to then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and to then Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Alexander Haig.

he terrorist crimes of the Italian "years of lead," carried out by neo-fascist or Mafia elements, were subsequently blamed on the left to discredit it in the eyes of the electorate and were part of the infamous "strategy of tension," born and bred within the intelligence institutions of the Anglo-American allied command of post-war occupied Europe to stem, subvert, and thwart the advance of socialist and democratic forces in Europe (to look up this intelligence saga, research Stay-Behind and Gladio, the names of secret subversive operations for Europe under the eventual umbrella of NATO).

The decade of false-flag terrorism in Italy in the 1970s, clearly documented through various trials and parliamentary investigations, is attributed by most Italians to planned interference by foreign powers (mainly American) in tandem with opportunistic pro-American, home-grown national elements and various parties' that sold out to create a state of civil war and terror whereby the population would consent to a loss of civil rights and welcome the "shadow government" of powerful corporate, right-wing forces, friendly to American interests. Call it a rebirth of fascism.

The Mysterious Death Of An Enron Exec

It may be the biggest outstanding mystery in the Enron story: the death of Cliff Baxter, a former top Enron executive. He'd just agreed to testify to Congress in the Enron case. A congressional source tells CBS News that Baxter wasn't a target in the probe, he was to provide evidence against others. But on the morning of January 25th he was found in his car - shot dead.

Bush Lies About Ken Lay

A jury in Houston has just spoken and found former Enron CEO Ken Lay guilty on all six counts. Bush family sugar daddy Lay, who gave his close friend George W. Bush over $500,000 for his various campaigns, now faces a long stint in prison and perhaps the Grandma Millie treatment.

Ken Lay Not Keeping Quiet

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay launched an impassioned plea for former employees of the bankrupt energy company to defy a "wave of terror" by federal prosecutors and help him battle criminal charges. "It will only take a few brave individuals who are willing to stand up and say it's time for the truth to come out," Lay told the Houston Forum a month before he faces trial on fraud and conspiracy counts.

Enron founder Ken Lay dead at 64

West develops taste for primates

Meat from wild primates killed in Africa is landing on dinner plates in North America and western Europe. Offered for sale in clandestine markets from Los Angeles to Paris, primates make up nearly a third of the illegal international trade in bushmeat, according to a survey of markets in seven cities.Rumours of the existence of such markets have floated around for years, says wildlife biologist Justin Brashares of the University of California, Berkeley. Confirmation came from a chance encounter with a taxi driver from Ghana two years ago. When asked if he missed eating bushmeat, the driver said, "I don't, really." He then offered to show Brashares a market in a warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, where bushmeat is sold.

"It's part of what is clearly a luxury trade," says Brashares. "They could go and buy a filet mignon in London for what they're paying for baboon."

"Theres a point where you simply have too much money and too little humanity...Now I myself have some carnivorous tendencies and in all honesty I would probably eat people if my survival came to it and other primates before that but I'm pretty damned sure that survival doesn't require these people to do this...Aren't the monied elite wonderful? " - Nobody

Le Monde diplomatique: "9/11 - an Inside Job?"

"I repeat for emphasis...Fuck you Kos." - Nobody

An Amazing Coincidence

Obviously, the producers of the "Hannity & Colmes Propaganda Hour" had not anticipated such a damning bit of irrefutable evidence to escape over "their" airwaves to their glassy-eyed, drool-chinned audience.

Here's the Real Kicker... The very next morning, less than twelve hours after his 9/11 testimony had been unexpectedly "exposed" to the FOX faithful, Norman Minetta resigned as Secretary of Transportation.

9/11: The Myth and the Reality

Israeli Spying - Part 1 of 4

"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." -- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11.

A Warning To Those Who Dare Criticize Israel In The US

Behold Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, would-be graduation commencement speaker at Emory University in the United States. She has made a big mistake. She dared to criticise Israel. She suggested--horror of horrors--that "the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the occupation". Now whoah there a moment, Mary! "Occupation"? Isn't that a little bit anti-Israeli?

It's Time to End the "Last Taboo" and Hold Israel Accountable for It's Actions

"The extermination of the Native Americans can be admitted, the morality of Hiroshima attacked, the national flag (of the US) publicly committed to flames. But the systematic continuity of Israel's 52-year oppression and maltreatment of the Palestinians is virtually unmentionable, a narrative that has no permission to appear."

Widespread illegal experiment on Arabs conducted at Israeli hospital

Ravid said in response that this was "an administrative and technical screw-up" not "a moral failing." Calling the matter "an unfortunate coincidence," Ravid told Haaretz that "there had been no malice or intent to deceive." He added that the affair is "a tempest in a teacup" and insisted that "there were no forged research or forged records here."

News and Articles 7-4-06

2006-07-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

"Where liberty is, there is my country. " - Benjamin Franklin

Musician sues over flag law

An Ottumwa rock musician whose protest against the city led to charges of flag desecration has challenged the 106-year-old law in federal court.Scott Wayne Roe, 40, has a hearing Thursday in Wapello County court on the flag-desecration charge. He faces 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.But Roe argues in a federal lawsuit that Iowa's flag-protection law is an "overly broad restriction of speech" and violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

"The Constitution is the foundation of this nation and not the flag..." - Nobody

The Reality Beneath the Flag-Waving

Many Americans are so unsophisticated that they refuse to believe anything bad about their country. They regard acceptance of unpalatable truths as disloyalty. This failure of American character is why Bush has been able to get away with transgressions that scream out for his impeachment and trial as a war criminal.

America has become a land of evil. The rest of the world hates and despises us. And we are going to pay a terrible price for it. Bush's belief that our superpower status makes us immune to the opinion of others goes beyond hubris into insanity.

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

The Presidential Oath of Office

The oath to be taken by the president on first entering office is specified in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Bush: Constitution 'just a goddamn piece of paper'

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the ['Patriot''] act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.

Independence Day

He was a trained medical professional, and in a war zone known as Gaza of all places. He had seen this scenario a thousand times before, and a thousand times too many as far as he was concerned. This child would not be going home, at least not her earthly home, given the fact that she had just been shot in the stomach at close range by a soldier wielding a machine gun, the bullets from which produced exit wounds on her tiny body that were as large as golf balls.

Guantanamo lawyers balk at more filings in detainee cases

Attorneys representing hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees urged a federal appeals court Monday to reject a Bush administration request for more legal filings in light of last week's Supreme Court ruling in the case of Osama bin Laden's driver.

The detainees' lawyers said a three-judge panel already has had three rounds of legal filings and does not need more briefing to decide the fate of lawsuits that challenge the legality of the prisoners' detentions.

Solicitor General Paul Clement asked the panel for the opportunity to explain how the administration views the high court's decision immediately after justices ruled last Thursday in the case of bin Laden's driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

The attorneys for the detainees said the Hamdan decision "speaks with perfect clarity" and said that granting the administration's request for more filing time "would cause further unwarranted delay ... seriously prejudicing the Guantanamo detainees," most of whom "languish in their fifth year of imprisonment without being charged with any wrongdoing.

"Last week, the Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, rebuked President Bush, ruling that his plan to hold criminal trials before military tribunals for some of the Guantanamo detainees violates U.S. and international law.

California orders release of security intelligence

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered the release of intelligence reports prepared for the state Office of Homeland Security, a move administration officials say will quell complaints that California engaged in widespread monitoring of political protests.

Surveillance of financial transactions goes too far

The Bush administration admitted that it was conducting warrantless surveillance of the financial transactions of Americans and others only after newspapers exposed the program. According to some Republicans, the solution is to imprison journalists who blow the whistle on government wrongdoing.

"They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. " - Benjamin Franklin

Right-Wing Blog Asks Readers to "Hunt Down" Info About NYT Editors' Children

The short story is that what passes for the conservative braintrust these days -- a collection of repulsive little scabs no smarter than their own shoes -- has seized upon an article in the New York Times' Travel section describing the small town of St. Michaels, Maryland, home to the vacation homes of numerous famous and wealthy Americans, notable among them Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. There's a picture there of Rumsfeld's driveway. This, the right-wing bloggers assert, is an intentional "exposure" of Cheney and Rumsfeld to terrorists, done with malice by the New York Times. No, I'm not kidding.

Shreveport Paper Considers Dropping Coulter

Department of Defense Funds $450K Blog Research Project

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research will fund a three-year research project shepherded by Versatile Information Systems Inc. that will seek out “relevant and credible” information pertaining to terrorist activity on blogs.

Fox News begins push for Federal "Office of Censorship"

Net Neutrality: America's Last Defense against Fascism

"Allowing the Bells and cable companies to act like gatekeepers WITH CONTROL OVER ACCESS to the Internet would make the Internet like cable - A PRODUCER-DRIVEN MARKET WITH BARRIERS TO ENTRY for website creators and preferential treatment for specific sites based not on merit or number of hits, but on their relationship with the corporate gatekeepers.”

"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. " - Thomas Jefferson

Army Updates Counterinsurgency Doctrine

Three years into the war in Iraq, the U.S. Army has nearly completed a thorough revision and update of its official doctrine on counterinsurgency (pdf).

"It has been 20 years since the U.S. Army published a manual devoted to counterinsurgency operations, and 25 since the Marine Corps published its last such manual. With our Soldiers and Marines fighting insurgents in both Afghanistan and Iraq, it is thus essential that we give them a manual that provides principles and guidelines for counterinsurgency operations (COIN).

"The new doctrine begins with a thoughtful presentation of the nature of insurgency and counterinsurgency, their evolution and their characteristic strategies, and proceeds to consider the design of counterinsurgency operations.

"Traditionally, armies have had to unlearn much of their doctrine and (re)learn the principles of COIN while waging COIN campaigns.

"Counterinsurgency "presents a complex and often unfamiliar set of missions and considerations for a military commander.

"Among the "paradoxes of counterinsurgency" are the fact that "the more you protect your force, the less secure you are"; "the more force used, the less effective it is"; and "sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction."

"...And sometimes the best way to win a war is to not fight one..." - Nobody

Fallen Soldier Gets a Bronze Star but No Pagan Star

At the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in the small town of Fernley, Nev., there is a wall of brass plaques for local heroes. But one space is blank. There is no memorial for Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart.

That's because Stewart was a Wiccan, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to allow a symbol of the Wicca religion -- a five-pointed star within a circle, called a pentacle -- to be inscribed on U.S. military memorials or grave markers.

The department has approved the symbols of 38 other faiths; about half of are versions of the Christian cross. It also allows the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, the nine-pointed star of Bahai and something that looks like an atomic symbol for atheists.

Stewart, 34, is believed to be the first Wiccan killed in combat. He was serving in the Nevada National Guard when the helicopter in which he was riding was shot down in Afghanistan last September. He previously had served in the Army in Korea and Operation Desert Storm. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God." - Thomas Jefferson

It's a Bible Belt story, but don't worry - it has a happy ending

Don't worry, foreigners who read this, in the United States we ship all of our really stupid people to Oklahoma, so this story isn't at all representative of what you'd discover in Iowa or Alabama or Pennsylvania.

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. " - Thomas Jefferson

Anti-War Protesters Begin July 4 Fast In Front Of White House

Approximately 150 anti-war demonstrators sat if front of the White House lawn on Monday having their last meal before a planned hunger strike to stop the war in Iraq. Some of the protesters said that they would continue their fast until American troops return from Iraq.

Code-Pink, a women's anti-war group, called on its volunteers to begin at midnight Tuesday. Some of the demonstrators said that the fast would continue beyond Independence Day.

Cindy Sheehan, an activist whose son was killed in Iraq, said that she planned to go without food, drinking only water in the summer. She also stated that she would spend the summer in front of President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Sheehan told Reuters, "This war is a crime. We represent millions of Americans who withdraw their support from this government."

Their wish? Freedom -- from the president

Forget about watching the fireworks. Some Americans are determined to be firecrackers themselves.

Walter Ducharme, 76, of Cambridge, is celebrating Independence Day by practicing his right of expression, delivering a silent but explosive message to President Bush at his home.

"Impeach Bush" is emblazoned in white letters across Ducharme's black T-shirt. The buzz-haired man stands out like an exclamation mark amid the crowd clambering around the fence on the north lawn of the White House snapping souvenir pictures.

"It's one of my goals in life to see him in jail," said Ducharme, an antiwar activist who plans to join a large rally today in which thousands of people are expected to fast for at least 24 hours.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. " - Thomas Jefferson

Rumsfeld subpoenaed over Abu Ghraib

A Congressional committee subpoenaed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday at the request of U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays.

Shays, R-4, sought the subpoena after the Pentagon refused to answer questions regarding allegations that an Army whistleblower faced retaliation for discussing abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.

"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government. " - Thomas Jefferson

Ex-soldier arrested in Iraq rape, killing

A veteran of the fighting in Iraq is facing federal criminal charges in connection with the killing of an Iraqi woman and members of her family.

Steven Green, who has been discharged from the Army, was arrested in recent days in North Carolina, two federal law enforcement officials said Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the case against Green have not been made public.

The U.S. military is investigating up to five soldiers in the March rape and killing of a woman in Mahmoudiya and three of her relatives.

It is unclear why Green has been discharged.

US-led offensive in southern Afghanistan kills hundreds

Despite US claims that the operation is only targeting Taliban fighters, it is clear that ordinary villagers face bombings and hostile attacks. The Pentagon routinely describes all victims of military operations as Taliban, even if they turn out to be women and children.

"There was never a good war, or a bad peace." - Benjamin Franklin

'Significant' troop numbers home from Iraq within 18 months: Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that "significant numbers" of British troops could be withdrawn from Iraq within 18 months.

British forces would remain in the war-shattered country for as long as the Iraqi government wished them too, Blair reiterated before the senior MPs who make up parliament's Commons Liaison Committee.

"I suspect over the next 18 months there will obviously be opportunities to draw down significant numbers of British troops because the capacity of the Iraqi troops will build up," he added Tuesday.

Britain was the major coalition partner in the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and has 7,200 troops stationed in the south of the country around the second city of Basra.

U.S. elite forces face shortfall

Selective Service System: ALIENS AND DUAL NATIONALS

U.S. non-citizens and dual nationals are required by law to register with the Selective Service System.* Most are also liable for induction into the U.S. Armed Forces if there is a draft.

Bush vows stay course in Iraq

President George W. Bush, trying to tap into Independence Day patriotism to revive domestic support for an unpopular war, vowed on Tuesday that U.S. troops would not leave Iraq until their mission was complete.

In a Fourth of July speech here, Bush took a veiled swipe at Democrats who have pressed for a timetable for withdrawal more than three years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"Setting an artificial timetable would be a terrible mistake," Bush told more than 3,000 military personnel in a speech interrupted repeatedly by cheers at the home of the storied 82nd Airborne Division and U.S. Army Special Operations Command.He reiterated his pledge to base any U.S. troop withdrawals on "the measured advice of our military commanders."

"So don't set an "artifical timetable" then numbnuts...set a real one." - Nobody

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

FBI says, ‘No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11'

The Muckraker Report spoke with Rex Tomb, chief of investigative publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on the Bin Laden's Most Wanted Web page, Tomb said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.”

FBI evidence of Mossad involvement in September 11 attacks on the U.S.

According to ABC's 20/20, when police stopped the cheering Israelis, one of them told the officers: "We are Israelis. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are your problem”.

One of the five Israelis had a German passport in addition to his Israeli passport. Another had an international flight booked to Thailand on September 13, two days after the attacks. The FBI also found out that one of them was a former paratrooper, assigned to an elite Israeli defense forces unit.

Two more Israelis were caught in a truck on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, near the site of the crash of American Airlines flight 93. Police became very suspicious when they found maps of the city with certain locations highlighted, box cutters (like the ones used by the hijackers), along with other incriminating evidence. Police also said that bomb sniffing dogs reacted as if they smelled explosives when they were brought to the Israelis’ truck.

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest. " - Benjamin Franklin

Report: Abramoff Had FBI Data

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff improperly obtained a top-secret FBI document and tried to use the information to aid his clients in the Pacific Island territories, according to a report released Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general.

The lobbyist feared information in the document could be damaging to his clients' interests, the inspector general said, and he used his knowledge of its contents to warn them and to devise a counterattack.

Visiting US official evades queries on Mossad-backed terror network

Committee chairman David Drier pointedly ignored repeated questions from reporters about the recently uncovered Mossad-linked terrorist group while speaking to the press after talks with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Israel drafting special laws for "non Jews"

The law is aimed at solving a problem faced by 300,000 Israelis who cannot marry because one of the partners is not Jewish, or his or her Jewishness cannot be determined.

ISRAEL PLANNED CAPTURE OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT LONG BEFORE ALLEGED KIDNAPPING

Israel warns of "long war" over soldier

Corporate Media Ignores War Against Palestinians

In a brazen attempt to sugar coat Israel’s flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention, specifically Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is intended to protect civilians, the corporate media continues to spin the situation in the Gaza Strip.

"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto." - Thomas Jefferson

Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm

Even though Donald R. Matthews put his sprawling new residence in the heart of rice country, he is no farmer. He is a 67-year-old asphalt contractor who wanted to build a dream house for his wife of 40 years.

Yet under a federal agriculture program approved by Congress, his 18-acre suburban lot receives about $1,300 in annual "direct payments," because years ago the land was used to grow rice.

Sen. Clinton: Lieberman on own if he loses Dem primary

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a longtime supporter of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, said Tuesday she will not back the Connecticut Democrat's bid for re-election if he loses their party's primary.

"I've known Joe Lieberman for more than thirty years. I have been pleased to support him in his campaign for re-election, and hope that he is our party's nominee," the former first lady said in a statement issued by aides.

"But I want to be clear that I will support the nominee chosen by Connecticut Democrats in their primary," the New York Democrat added. "I believe in the Democratic Party, and I believe we must honor the decisions made by Democratic primary voters."

"Hey Hillary...This couldn't mean that you're starting to get the idea that those people advising you might in fact not represent the majority of america?...Naw you're just covering your own tail because you know that if Lieberman can be taken out then so can you." - Nobody

Lieberman Tries to Reassert Commitment to Democrats

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman tried to reassert his commitment to the Democratic Party today, after announcing on Monday that he would run independently for reelection if he loses the state Democratic primary next month.

"I have one goal, and it is to be the Democratic nominee and win this primary," Mr. Lieberman said after an Independence Day parade in this eastern Connecticut town, where he marched with a few dozen people, drawing both cheers of support and shouts of opposition.

"Get a real job Joe...Your "principles" are counter to the best interests of this country and her people and on this 4th of July I'm more than a little sick of your bullshit." - Nobody

News and Articles 7-3-06

2006-07-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

Did Bush commit war crimes?

But the real blockbuster in the Hamdan decision is the court's holding that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention applies to the conflict with Al Qaeda — a holding that makes high-ranking Bush administration officials potentially subject to prosecution under the federal War Crimes Act.

High Court Has Found Bush Guilty of War Crimes

Largely missed in all the coverage of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case was the establishment by the court majority that all Bush administration claims to the contrary, the Geneva Convention rules regarding captured prisoners apply to the captives taken not only in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in the so-called War on Terror.

Geneva Conventions are "Quaint" and "Obsolete"

Second-ranking Republican focuses on Geneva Accords' application to Bush's war on terror

Two Republican senators said Sunday that Congress must rein in the Supreme Court ruling that international law applies to the Bush administration's conduct in the war on terror.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the second-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, said the 5-3 court decision "means that American servicemen potentially could be accused of war crimes.

"I think Congress is going to want to deal with that," McConnell said on NBC's Meet the Press. He called the ruling "very disturbing."

The Geneva Convention's Article 3 is "far beyond our domestic law when it comes to terrorism, and Congress can rein it in, and I think we should," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., assigned as a Reserve Judge to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. Graham spoke on Fox News Sunday.

"Ya except that we're signatories to the Geneva Convention which means that we accepted it as the "law of the land" the moment we signed it and although congress can legalize something that may occur in the future they can not pass a law that in itself is unconstitutional, and any law they pass making Bush's actions legal does not make them legal retroactively. This violates the "Ex Post Facto" provision of the constitution.

Article 1 section 9 "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." and Article 1 section 10 "No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. "...For instance if congress decides to legalize murder the day after Bush commits it he still goes to jail...See how that works?" - Nobody

The presidential oath of office

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Bush: Constitution 'just a goddamn piece of paper'

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the ['Patriot'] act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

Bush's Sick Vision of 'Democracy'

he president believes our government should work like this: President Breaks Law, Court says President broke law, Congress vows to pass law to make President's actions illegal, President attaches signing statement indicating he will not follow law.

Perhaps the nation would be better served if all members of government simply played ring around the rosy or a good hearty game of tag, because this pantomime of a fully functioning system of checks and balances is an insult to those of us who actually believe in democracy.

THE HIDDEN POWER

Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never heard of Addington. But current and former Administration officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the Administration’s legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share—namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it.

At Guantanamo, Dying Is Not Permitted

The prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, won a major victory this week when the Supreme Court struck down the Bush administration's planned military tribunals. But for many prisoners at the detention facility, the protests haven't stopped. Hunger strikes persist, in what Guantanamo commander Rear Adm. Harry Harris, Jr. has called "asymmetric warfare" — a means to attract attention to their increasingly controversial detention. As a result, the camp's administrators have sought to keep prisoners alive at all cost — because a prisoner's death (as the U.S. found out three weeks ago, when three Gitmo inmates committed suicide) can be a major embarrassment for the U.S. and add fuel to widespread demands for the facility to be shut down.

The founding fathers save America's soul

The president is not an old-style monarch, empowered in wartime to make up rules as he goes along to defend his subjects. He is not the law. He must obey the law, as all citizens must. And in a series of actions and decisions after 9/11, President George W Bush in effect broke the law, violated his oath of office and pushed the limits of his power beyond the permissible.

Democrats Urge Broader Review of Bush War Powers

Senior Democrats called on Sunday for a broader review of whether President George W. Bush had overstepped his war powers after the Supreme Court struck down his administration's Guantanamo military tribunals.

Seeking to capitalize on the sharpest judicial rebuke yet of Bush's tactics in the war on terrorism, Democratic critics said the ruling opens the door for a closer look at complaints he had improperly bypassed Congress in other areas as well.

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the military commissions created by Bush to try foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo were unlawful and violated the Geneva Conventions.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York accused the White House of acting as if Bush's power is "infinite and unchecked by anybody" and sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez seeking a review of "all their other arrogations of power.

"Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, rejected that view, saying the ramifications were limited to the need for Congress to craft a new system for trying Guantanamo inmates. Their legal limbo has drawn international condemnation .

Marine Recruiter Attacks Demonstrators

The following is a statement that is being circulated regarding an incident at the military recruiting station on Orange Street in New Haven on Wednesday, June 28. A baseball bat-wielding Marine recruiter engaged in an unprovoked assault on two demonstrators outside the recruiting center and then seized the cellphone belonging to another demonstrator who had witnessed and photographed the assault. There are plans for a rally and press conference outside the recruiting center for July 5 at 5PM.

The National Lawyers Guild was contacted immediately after the incident by organizers who were looking for legal assistance because, among other things, the New Haven police were trying to discourage the victims from making a complaint against the recruiter — apparently at least one officer expressed the opinion that having an anti-war demonstration outside a military recruiting center was a “provocation.”

The question that this incident must raise is this: if a US Marine recruiter, while safely ensconced behind a desk in an air-conditioned office in New Haven, working in a position that plainly keeps him in the public eye, feels free to use a baseball bat to beat a protester . . . then how much restraint do we imagine that his compatriots use against Iraqis?

Slain Iraqi girl feared soldiers

Fifteen-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza was afraid, her mother confided to a neighbor.

The pretty girl had attracted the unwelcome attention of U.S. soldiers working at a checkpoint that she had to pass through almost daily in their village in the south-central city of Al-Mahmudiyah, her mother told the neighbor.

Abeer told her mother again and again in her last days that the soldiers had made advances toward her, a neighbor, Omar Janabi, said over the weekend, recounting a conversation he said he had with the girl's mother, Fakhriyah, on March 10.

Fakhriyah feared the Americans might come for her daughter at night, at their home. She asked her neighbor if Abeer might sleep at his house, with the women there.

Janabi said he agreed.Then, ``I tried to reassure her, remove some of her fear,'' Janabi said. ``I told her, the Americans would not do such a thing.''

"In order for most people to learn to kill other humans they need to learn to see them as something other than human. Soldiers are trained to do this and it's a matter of survival for them. They don't have time to think twice before they pull that trigger. This dehumanization in turn opens the door to any number of atrocities. In our thousands of years of history one thing we should know for certain is the horrors of war and what monsters may become of good men. That's why war is supposed to be the last resort and our soldiers not used like some demented 9 yr olds little green army men. " - Nobody

Iraqi Troops Are Turning on Their American Counterparts

More than 1000 Iraqis dead in June

AT least 1009 Iraqis, including civilians, soldiers and policemen, were killed in rebel attacks in June, government officials said today.

Methods questioned in investigation leading up to Sears Tower arrests

Homegrown Terrorism or Made-for-TV Event?

FBI says, ‘No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11'

The Muckraker Report spoke with Rex Tomb, chief of investigative publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on the Bin Laden's Most Wanted Web page, Tomb said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.”

LAST STAND

A retired four-star general, who ran a major command, said, “The system is starting to sense the end of the road, and they don’t want to be condemned by history. They want to be able to say, ‘We stood up.’ ”

Pentagon sees Iran bombing as unsuccessful: report

Top Pentagon officers have told the Bush administration that bombing Iranian nuclear facilities would probably fail to destroy that country's nuclear program, the New Yorker magazine reported on Sunday.

The senior commanders also warned that any attack launched if diplomacy fails to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions could have "serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States," the article said, citing unidentified U.S. military officials."A crucial issue in the military's dissent, the officers said, is the fact that American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine activities or hidden facilities; the war planners are not sure what to hit," according to the report.

LAST STAND

Inside the Pentagon, senior commanders have increasingly challenged the President’s plans, according to active-duty and retired officers and officials. The generals and admirals have told the Administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear program. They have also warned that an attack could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States.

“An event like this doesn’t get papered over very quickly,” the former official added. “The bad feelings over the nuclear option are still felt. The civilian hierarchy feels extraordinarily betrayed by the brass, and the brass feel they were tricked into it”—the nuclear planning—“by being asked to provide all options in the planning papers.”

With 'Another Hitler' At The Helm This Independence Day, Look Back At The First One For Clues As To Who Really Controls Bush

However, even though Chick is staying out of sight, he shouldn't be forgotten and neither should some of his top stories be forgotten, stories like Hitler's loyalty to the Vatican and Jesuit Fr. Alberto Rivero's first hand recollections of the evilness inside the Society of Jesus.

Israeli bombing could cost US

Israel's bombing of Gaza's main power plant could end up costing its closest ally, the US government, because it partly insured the project for up to $48 million, officials involved in the project said on Saturday.

Olmert orders army to ‘use all force – spare no one’

Israel defeated at UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday accepted a resolution according to which human rights violations committed by Israel in the territories will be discussed on a permanent basis in all of the Council’s meetings.

Amnesty International accuses Israel of war crimes

Amnesty International on Friday accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza and the Palestinian militias of violation of fundamental principles of international law by kidnapping Corporal Gilad Shalit and killing settler Eliyahu Asheri, urging the international community to act.

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism

But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction -- indeed, in some sense was the destruction -- of a hierarchical society. In a world in which everyone worked short hours, had enough to eat, lived in a house with a bathroom and a refrigerator, and possessed a motor-car or even an aeroplane, the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared. If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction. It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.

'94 ballot 'loophole' focus of DeLay case

Citing his move to Virginia, GOP wants to field a new candidate

The same "loophole" that played out in that 1994 race is at the heart of the federal court battle between Democrats and Republicans about whether the GOP can replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the November ballot for the 22nd Congressional District.

Republicans have told U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks that the state law that allows political parties to replace ineligible candidates — such as not living in their district — applies to DeLay's move from Sugar Land to Virginia.

Democrats claim DeLay's move is a facade and his eligibility as a congressional candidate is determined by the U.S. Constitution, not state law.

Sparks is expected to rule this week.

The replacement of party nominees for legislative and district offices is not unusual. The Texas Secretary of State's Office reports that it occurs somewhere in the state almost every election cycle.

But this apparently is the first time either party in Texas has tried to replace a nominee for federal office.

News and Articles 7-1-06

2006-07-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Web Traffic to Washington Times, Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh.com Is Down; Is Era of Right-Wing Site Popularity Over?

An odd thing seems to have happened to the mighty right-wing talking head juggernaut. They are still talking, but fewer people seem to be listening -- at least on the Internet.

Alexa.com -- http://alexa.com/ -- which is owned and operated by Amazon.com, tracks on-line usage for all Web sites, large and small. At Alexa.com, you can check a site's activity up to the minute, or follow its trail back for many years.

A U.S. Politics Today, we thought it might be interesting to see how the right-wing media machine was doing. Not well, it turns out.

During the past three months, for instance, http://rushlimbaugh.com/ traffic has declined 18 percent. He still huffs and puffs away on the radio, but advertisers might want to double check the size of his audience. If the bottom has dropped out on him online, it likely has had a similar trend line with his radio show.

Even Fox News, that gold standard of right-wing media, is down 13 percent. Here are the numbers:http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&ur...

(More: Ann Coulter's site down 10%, Bill O'Reilly's down 40% in three months, Townhall.com down 24%,Washing Times web site down 27%, and poor old Matt Drudge's site down 21%.)

Getting Busted for Wearing a Peace T-Shirt

I'm sure I could go back to officers Adkins' and Ousleys' fiefdom with a shirt that said, "Nuke all the hajis," or "Show us your tits," or any number of truly obscene things and no one would care. Just so it's not "that shirt" again.

State Tracked Protesters in the Name of Security

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office in charge of protecting California against terrorism has tracked demonstrations staged by political and antiwar groups, a practice that senior law enforcement officials say is an abuse of civil liberties.

Bush's Assault on Freedom: What's to Stop Him?

Americans are going to have to decide which is the greater threat: terrorists, or the Republican Party's determination to shred American civil liberties and the separation of powers in the name of executive power and the "war on terror."

Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say

The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.

``The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11,'' plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. ``This undermines that assertion.

''The lawsuit is related to an alleged NSA program to record and store data on calls placed by subscribers. More than 30 suits have been filed over claims that the carriers, the three biggest U.S. telephone companies, violated the privacy rights of their customers by cooperating with the NSA in an effort to track alleged terrorists.

Lawmaker Wants UW Lecturer Fired Over 9/11 Views

University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are reviewing the background of a UW-Madison lecturer after a state lawmaker demanded he be fired for his beliefs about Sept. 11, 2001.

Kevin Barrett has a doctorate and lectures on Islamic culture and religion. He is also co-founder of a group that believes some in our government arranged the Sept. 11 attacks.

In some circles, especially academic ones, the debate over what really happened on Sept. 11 continues. The issue now is whether such radical beliefs belong in the college classroom.

Most Americans believe that on Sept. 11 the United States was attacked by 19 Arab hijackers commanded by al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. But some conspiracy-based groups, like Barrett's Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance For 9/11 Truth, think that's "a lie."

"Besides taking umbrage over "most americans believe" a small warning. Be careful what you say Citizen. Big brother is watching you." - Nobody

Gitmo win likely cost Navy lawyer his career

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift -- the Navy lawyer who beat the president of the United States in a pivotal Supreme Court battle over trying alleged terrorists -- figures he'll probably have to find a new job.

Of course, it's always risky to compare your boss to King George III.

Swift made the analogy to the court, saying President Bush had overstepped his authority when he bypassed Congress and set up illegal military tribunals to try Guantanamo detainees such as Swift's alleged al-Qaida client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

Despite his spectacular success, with the assistance of attorneys from the Seattle firm Perkins Coie, Swift thinks his military career is coming to an end. The 44-year-old Judge Advocate General officer, who was recently named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the country by The National Law Journal, was passed over for promotion last year as the high-profile case was making headlines around the world.

Found: witnesses who could free a Guantánamo detainee

The United States government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free. The Guardian found them in three days.

Two years ago the American military invited Mr Mujahid, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the US, to prove his innocence before a special military tribunal. As was his right, Mr Mujahid called four witnesses from Afghanistan.

But months later the tribunal president returned with bad news: the witnesses could not be found. Mr Mujahid's hopes sank and he was returned to the wire-mesh cell where he remains today.

The Guardian's search for Mr Mujahid's witnesses proved successful within three days. One was working for President Hamid Karzai, another was teaching at a leading American college and the third was living in Kabul. The fourth was dead.

Each witness said he had never been approached by the Americans to testify in Mr Mujahid's hearing.

"How are they ever going to convict anyone if they can't cheat just a little?- Nobody

ISRAEL PLANNED CAPTURE OF PALESTINIAN GOVERNMENT LONG BEFORE ALLEGED KIDNAPPING

The detention of Hamas parliamentarians in the early hours of Thursday morning had been planned several weeks ago and received approval from Mazuz on Wednesday.

Rampage in Gaza

"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."

- Ariel Sharon, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

News and Articles 6-30-06

2006-06-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

Insanity Defense: Power, Paranoia and Presidential Tyranny

That the United States, once touted as the "world's greatest democracy," is now ruled by a presidential dictatorship is a fact beyond any serious dispute. Indeed, except for a bare majority on the Supreme Court -- which will disappear with the retirement or demise of the aging Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the Court's stinging rejection of Bush's kangaroo military tribunals -- the nation's political establishment seems to have accepted this revolutionary system with remarkable docility, even as its lineaments are further exposed week by week. The Bush Administration no longer bothers to hide the novel theory of government that undergirds its coup, but declares it openly, in court, in Congress, everywhere.

Is Bush Signing Away the Constitution?

Last March, the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring Justice Department officials to give them reports by certain dates on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using the USA PATRIOT Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.

But when President George W. Bush signed the measure into law, he added a "signing statement." The statement said the president can order Justice Department officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations.

With Gitmo trials blocked, what does U.S. do now?

The decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the detainees must be treated according to international standards sent officials scrambling to evaluate options for the approximately 470 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, some of whom have been held for more than four years without trials.

Senators move to reverse effects of Supreme Court decision against Guantanamo commissions

Two points to consider here. The first is that the Senate cannot pass an unconstitutional law. Second, any laws passed today are irrelevant for all that has happened before. Congress cannot pass a law declaring Bush's prior actions legal. This violates the "Ex Post Facto" provisions of the Constitution.

If Bush acted illegally, he acted illegally. The Senate cannot authorize Bush's actions retroactively.

As for the Senate, the fact that they are moving to make his actions legal, rather than to hold him to account for his crimes, proves that none of these people should be voted for come November. Keep a list.

Bush will push new laws on detainees

THE Bush administration is expected to propose new legislation to try to establish lawful military trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees, including David Hicks, after the US Supreme Court declared the existing military tribunals illegal.

Some Republicans in Congress, where the party holds a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, have indicated they would support new legislation.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the ruling was a procedural issue, and did not affect the President's ability to fight the war on terror. He said the judgment referred to the need for the Bush administration to win congressional approval for the military tribunals.

US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he would push legislation allowing the use of military tribunals to "to keep America safe".

Guantanamo Lawyers Say Letters Seized

Defense lawyers said Friday that authorities at theGuantanamo Bay prison confiscated letters to detainees and other legal papers as part of an investigation into three apparent suicides three weeks agoat the facility.

U.S. military officials declined to discuss whether papers were seized or the reasons for doing so.

Attorneys said at least one detainee claimed it was because prison officials suspected the lawyers might have had advance knowledge of suicide attempts, or even encouraged them as a form of protest _ an allegation the lawyers deny.

Lawmakers: NSA database incomplete

Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees confirm that the National Security Agency has compiled a massive database of domestic phone call records. But some lawmakers also say that cooperation by the nation's telecommunication companies was not as extensive as first reported by USA TODAY on May 11.

Several lawmakers, briefed in secret by intelligence officials about the program after the story was published, described a call records database that is enormous but incomplete. Most asked that they not be identified by name, and many offered only limited responses to questions, citing national security concerns.

• Nineteen lawmakers who had been briefed on the program verified that the NSA has built a database that includes records of Americans' domestic phone calls. The program collected records of the numbers dialed and the length of calls, sources have said, but did not involve listening to the calls or recording their content.

• Five members of the intelligence committees said they were told by senior intelligence officials that AT&T participated in the NSA domestic calls program.

"Wtf do you mean by "Incomplete"!?" - Nobody

Feds Taking Longer to Answer FOIA Requests

Citizens, groups and corporations are putting in fewer requests for information from the federal government, but it's taking longer to get an answer and they get turned down more often, a study reported Friday.

In a study of 13 Cabinet departments and nine agencies, the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government found that the number of unprocessed requests rose from 104,225 at the end of fiscal 2004 to 148,603 at the end of fiscal 2005 on Sept. 30, 2005.

Meantime, the number of requests that were processed between 2004 and 2005 dropped from 522,817 to 477,937. As a result, unprocessed requests rose from 20 percent of the total processed to 31 percent.

Full or partial releases of the information requested declined from 67 percent of all requests in 2004 to 63 percent in 2005.

Comparing the 2005 data with 2000, the last year before the Bush administration took office, the coalition study found that the number of government employees working on FOIA requests in the 22 agencies studied declined by 23 percent, from 4,288 to 3,315.

Bush surprise at Sudan briefing

US President George Bush expressed amazement when he heard that the south Sudan peace deal was not working 18 months after it was signed.

"That is not the information I'm getting," he told the BBC's Khartoum reporter Alfred Taban, who was in Washington to receive an award.

House intelligence chief berates Negroponte on WMD

The chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee accused U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte's office on Thursday of downplaying the significance of chemical weapons finds in Iraq.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican, said in a letter to Negroponte that intelligence officials at a June 21 press briefing organized by his office misled journalists about the significance of 500 munitions containing mustard and sarin nerve agents discovered since May 2004.

Intelligence officials at the briefing told journalists the weapons predated the 1991 Gulf War, were too degraded to be used as originally intended and posed no threat to U.S. forces deployed in the region during the run-up to the 2003 invasion

."I am very disappointed by the inaccurate, incomplete, and occasionally misleading comments made by the briefers," Hoekstra said in the letter, a copy of which was released by his office."Because this call was organized by your office, I assume that you authorized and were familiar with its content. I would appreciate an explanation and correction of these inaccurate and misleading assertions," he told the national intelligence director.

"LOST" SOLDIERS: THOSE WHO REPEAT HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO FAKE IT...

Honiok was dressed to look like an insurgent; then killed by lethal injection, given gunshot wounds, and left dead at the scene, so that he appeared to have been killed while attacking the station. His corpse was subsequently presented as proof of the attack to the police and press.

U.S. troops accused of killing Iraq family

Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official said Friday.

The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting in the March incident.

General: We're in for long war

Americans can expect to see large-scale troop reductions in both Iraq and Afghanistan over the next few years as the U.S. military shifts to a new phase of the “long war’’ against radical Islamic terrorists, a top official of the U.S. Central Command said in Cincinnati Friday.

“I’m not suggesting that the numbers should go from 200,000 to zero, but I am saying that, within a few years, the numbers will be a fraction of what they are today,’’ said Army Brig. Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt, the deputy director of strategy and plans at Central Command in Iraq.

Kimmitt, who spoke at a private breakfast sponsored by the Jewish Federation at the Bankers Club downtown, said the top priority for the U.S. Central is winning what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dubbed the “long war.’’

“The goal is not winning Iraq, although that’s right up there; and it is not winning Afghanistan, although that is right up there too,’’ Kimmitt said. “The goal is winning the larger battle.’’

"Read that last couple of sentences again slowly and out loud..." - Nobody

Nucleoholic, Hypocritical, and Dangerous

The United States is a recovering nucleo-holic. It used 60 years ago and has miraculously stayed "sober" ever since. But lately it has been drifting dangerously close to using again. When it does, it will not matter whether it is a strong vodka or a mild cider, a Hiroshima-type bomb or a low-yield nuclear bunker buster. The instant the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, 60 years of nonuse go down the drain and we have to start from scratch with abstinence. And it will be that much harder to stay sober the second time around.

Israel warns: free soldier or PM dies

ISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.

Israel Threatens to Hit Damascus

Al-Jazeera television said Public Security Minister Avi Dichter claimed they knew the locations of HAMAS and Islamic Jihad leaders in Syria and will not hesitate to kill them.

Racism, Not Defence, At the Heart Of Israeli Politics

Of course, Olmert's comment, and the deep-seated racism at the heart of Israeli politics that it seems to expose, can be rationalised with the claim that it is not unreasonable that an Israeli Prime Minister would be more concerned about the lives of Israeli citizens than those of the Palestinian 'enemy'. After all, this is "war", is it not? Well, yes and no. Yes, if your definition of "war" is:

* to dispossess an entire people from large parts of their land

* shepherd them into refugee camps

* exile others and refuse them a right to return

* manipulate international opinion via the mainstream press and demonise the dispossessed people as terrorists when they resist your brutal measures against them

* deprive them of any real means to resist yet when they do manage to strike back, portray them as being a greater source of evil than you

* isolate them from any international aid and begin a process of slowly making their lives into a living hell

* periodically murder them, including many children to an average of 600 per year and then lie about it and ensure that their suffering is played down in the international mainstream press.

Freak hailstorms hit Germany for second day

A storm that drenched parts of south-western Germany and brought hailstones as big as tennis balls killed a man and injured more than 100 people, police said on Thursday.

Less than 24 hours later, a similar hailstorm hit the same area of the Black Forest, knocking a man off a roof as he was repairing damage from the Wednesday evening storm, police said. He was in critical condition. The downpour again flooded building basements.

But police said the hailstones had not been as big as those that injured people, hammered cars and smashed windows the previous day.In the Black Forest town of Villingen-Schwenningen, population 82 000, a teacher, Rolf-Juergen Look, stared sadly at his car, which had dozens of dents from the first hailstorm.

Officials From Flooded Northeast: 'The Worst' Is Yet to Come

Officials from rain-soaked states in the Northeast said Wednesday the worst is yet to come, as rivers and streams continue to rise dangerously high, and weather experts call for yet more rain in the forecast.

Arctic sea levels dropping steadily

Scharroo and his colleagues are eager to understand why the Arctic sea level in dropping as “everything indicates the sea level should rise.”

"At first this seems to be strange but consider the weight of that ice being removed from the underlaying land. Also consider this snippet from the above article "The flow of water out of the Arctic could have an impact on the earth’s orbit, as more water settles closer to the equator."...In short...We're in deep shit folks." - Nobody

Pro-lifers against Buffett-Gates alliance

Warren Buffett's new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaire Bill Gates won widespread praise this week, but anti-abortion activists did not join in, instead assailing the two donors for their longtime support of Planned Parenthood and international birth-control programs.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Buffett has pledged the bulk of his $44-billion fortune, devotes the vast majority of its funding to combating disease and poverty in developing countries. Less than 1 percent has gone to Planned Parenthood over the years.

"The merger of Gates and Buffett may spell doom for the families of the developing world," said the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, a Roman Catholic priest who is president of Human Life International.

Referring to Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi death camp doctor, Euteneuer said Buffett "will be known as the Dr. Mengele of philanthropy unless he repents."

"And the winner of this weeks flat world bug fucking nuts award is...Rev. Thomas Euteneuer" - Nobody