News -- October 17, 2005

A Contingency Plan - "Karl Rove has a plan, as always. Even before testifying last week for the fourth time before a grand jury probing the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, Bush senior adviser Rove and others at the White House had concluded that if indicted he would immediately resign or possibly go on unpaid leave, several legal and Administration sources familiar with the thinking told TIME. Resignation is the much more likely scenario, they say. The same would apply to I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the Vice President's chief of staff, who also faces a possible indictment. A former White House official says Rove's break with Bush would have to be clean--no "giving advice from the sidelines"--for the sake of the Administration."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1118356,00.html

It's Bush-Cheney, Not Rove-Libby - "That stonewall may start to crumble in a Washington courtroom this week or next. In a sense it already has. Now, as always, what matters most in this case is not whether Mr. Rove and Lewis Libby engaged in a petty conspiracy to seek revenge on a whistle-blower, Joseph Wilson, by unmasking his wife, Valerie, a covert C.I.A. officer. What makes Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation compelling, whatever its outcome, is its illumination of a conspiracy that was not at all petty: the one that took us on false premises into a reckless and wasteful war in Iraq. That conspiracy was instigated by Mr. Rove's boss, George W. Bush, and Mr. Libby's boss, Dick Cheney."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101605Z.shtml

Bush to Blair: First Iraq, then Saudi Arabia - "George Bush told the Prime Minister two months before the invasion of Iraq that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea may also be dealt with over weapons of mass destruction, a top secret Downing Street memo shows. The US President told Tony Blair, in a secret telephone conversation in January 2003 that he "wanted to go beyond Iraq"."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article319993.ece

An Angry America - "Pollsters say American anger is at an all-time high. You don’t need a poll to figure that out. Just wander down to the local coffee shop for breakfast and listen to the anger spilling out over the war in Iraq, skyrocketing energy prices and a government out of control."
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7539.shtml

Judgment Call - "Did Christian conservatives receive assurances that Miers would oppose Roe v. Wade?"
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110007415

What Awaits Samira? - "The prospect for Iraq? She sees several possibilities, all of them bad. Perhaps a break-up of the state. Maybe a civil war. Certainly an ever growing bloody insurgency. No chance at all for a new, prosperous, democratic, multicultural society. Iraq looks now like a broken toy, taken apart by a willful, mindless child."
http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html

Venezuela seeks nuclear technology - "The Venezuelan government has made overtures to various countries about obtaining nuclear technology, according to U.S. officials, who worry that President Hugo Chavez might be taking the first steps in a long road to develop nuclear weaponry." -- Countries have learned from Iraq and North Korea that they must have nuclear weapons in order to prevent the U.S. from invading them.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051016-112537-4689r.htm

US "private military contractors" already in-country to "deal with" Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias... - "Intelligence agencies are revealing that US private military contractors, active in Colombia "under various contract umbrellas, including counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency" are building up to yet another attempted coup d'etat against Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez."
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=46388

Torture in the Name of Jesus - "Many Americans stand with President Bush on virtually everything simply because he is a self-declared Christian, a once wayward man miraculously turned prayerful. ... On Oct. 5, the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted 90-9 in favor of Sen. John McCain's anti-torture amendment to a defense appropriations bill. But Bush has threatened to use the first veto of his presidency to kill the entire bill (which pays soldiers' salaries and funds the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) because he opposes the provision to ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" by the military, in accordance with the U.S. Army Field Manual. ... But Bush swats away such practical concerns. Evidently, God has told him that torturing other human beings is fine as long as you are born-again, which is all that seems to matter to some evangelical Christians. Hey, the Crusaders and witch-burners and slave holders did it, right?"
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1016-28.htm

Rice Fails to Win Russian Support on Iran - "Rice wanted Russian cooperation as the United States and its European allies try either to draw Iran back to diplomatic talks or invoke the threat of punishment from the powerful U.N. Security Council. Despite lengthy meetings with Russian officials, including a long session alone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, it was clear Russia had not changed its opposition to using the Security Council. The Iranian nuclear question can be handled through the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which is already monitoring nuclear activities in Iran, Lavrov told reporters afterward."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5345694,00.html

Judges liken terror laws to Nazi Germany - "A powerful coalition of judges, senior lawyers and politicians has warned that the Government is undermining freedoms citizens have taken for granted for centuries and that Britain risks drifting towards a police state."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article320005.ece

Ohio Police Arrest Woman For $1 In Unpaid Taxes - ""Whether it's $1 they owe us or $1,000, it's not fair to the rest of the public to not pursue that person," he said. "There is some expense involved, but it goes back to the principle. We have laws. The laws have to be complied with. At what cost do you stop enforcing the law?""
http://www.local6.com/money/5093711/detail.html

Cell phone tracking aids law enforcement - "Cell phones today are nearly as ubiquitous as a wristwatch — just about everyone has one. And while they have certainly made it easier for people to keep in touch, they also have helped police and prosecutors catch criminals."
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050925/NEWS02/509250359/1018

The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery? - "Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells."
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/octubre/juev13/42carceles.html

First day of school for aspiring Vatican exorcists - " It was the first day of school, so some students were understandably nervous. But then again, they were not taking just any course, but one run by a Vatican university to teach aspiring demonologists and exorcists."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051014/od_nm/pope_exorcism_dc;_ylt=A9FJqau4H1NDquAA8wrtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA




Quote of the Day
"Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time."
~ Steven Wright