October 31, 2005

News -- October 31, 2005

Endless sunset - "While you were, ah, distracted, Congress was quietly renewing every major provision of the Patriot Act. Most of the provisions of the USA Patriot Act, including access to library records, were supposed to "sunset" this month, five years after the law's passing. Instead, both the House and the Senate have already voted to renew the entire act, with only minor revisions. While they're at it, they'd like to add some decidedly unpatriotic amendments to expand the death penalty."
http://alternet.org/blogs/themix/27501/

Cia Leak: Not above the law - "There is a cancer on the presidency, and it cannot be exorcised by the resignation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/246325_scootered.asp#pollArticle

Bush's imploding presidency - "With the indictment of Lewis Libby and possible indictment of Karl Rove, President Bush faces a fateful choice. Bush can adopt a bunker mentality and try to appease his base of social ultra-conservatives and military hawks who have brought him such grief. Or he can reach out to the broad mainstream, as he pretended to do when he ran as a ''uniter, not a divider" in 2000. Who would have predicted that the Bush machine would implode so spectacularly, on so many fronts simultaneously? It is worth pausing a moment to take stock of it all:"
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/29/bushs_imploding_presidency/

Democrats Demand Rove's Firing - "Democrats demanded yesterday that President Bush fire Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and that the White House fully account for Vice President Cheney's role in the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame, as Republicans acted to limit the political damage from Friday's indictment of Cheney's chief of staff."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/30/AR2005103000348.html

We Have Been Warned - "We have been warned. Prepare for a broader war in the Middle East, as plans are being laid for the next U.S. led regime change-- in Syria. A UN report on the death of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafig Hariri elicited this comment from a senior U.S. policy maker: “Out of tragedy comes an extraordinary strategic opportunity.” This statement reflects the continued neo-conservative, Machiavellian influence on our foreign policy. The “opportunity” refers to the long-held neo-conservative plan for regime change in Syria, similar to what was carried out in Iraq."
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr102605.htm

The Sound Of Silence - "Silence is the sound of surrender. The sound of fear. Creating fear is the quickest way to achieve silence. Who benefits from the silence? Who would want to mute the mouths of Americans? You ask yourself that question; don't run around asking everyone else until you can answer it. It is not a trick question. It is a very simple question and has been answered by generations of the past. Rome, Germany, Russia, France, and China are prime examples of a people that were silent. As the past will prove, it is not an imaginary organization that benefits from a nations silence. Indeed, it is the leaders of that nation’s government which benefits from the silence."
http://www.americauncensored.net/articles/october2005/SoundOfSilence.html

What's Off Virginia? 'There's No Guarantee' - "Lurking off Virginia are tens of thousands of mustard gas shells and hundreds of tons of radioactive waste in at least five ocean dump zones created by the Army decades ago."
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-09106sy0oct30,0,2395608.story

Bird flu poses no immediate threat to Europe, leading virologist claims - "Albert Osterhaus, the chairman of the European scientific working group on influenza, said this week that isolated outbreaks of avian influenza in western Europe did not "substantially increase the risk of a flu pandemic.""
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7523/981-a?ehom

The Fight Against the Flu - "The lethal H5N1 virus was found last week in birds in Europe. So far it has spread between humans in only a few suspected cases, but with no cure in sight, global health officials are nervously watching their borders and preparing for the worst."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9787849/site/newsweek/

Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax? - "Tamiflu was developed and patented in 1996 by a California biotech firm, Gilead Sciences Inc. Gilead is a NASDAQ (GILD) listed stock company which prefers to maintain a low profile in the current rush to Tamiflu. That might be because of who is tied to Gilead. In 1997, before he became US Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld was named Chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences, where he remained until early 2001 when he became Defense Secretary. Rumsfeld had been on the board of Gilead since 1988 according to a January 3 1997 company press release. An as-yet-unconfirmed report is that Rumsfeld while Secretary of Defense also purchased an additional stock in his former company, Gilead Sciences Inc., worth $18 million, making him one of its largest if not the largest stock owners today. The Secretary of Defense, the man who allegedly supported the use of contrived intelligence to justify the war on Iraq, is now poised to reap huge gains for a flu panic his Administration has done everything it can to promote."
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20EN20051030&articleId=1169

China Says It's Free of Human Cases of Bird Flu - "Health officials in Beijing told journalists Friday that three recent outbreaks of avian flu among poultry have been stamped out, and that no human cases have been found in the country."
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-10-28-voa20.cfm

Whose Life Is It Anyway? - "More and more that cigarette, or drink at home, that political candidate you supported, even your eating habits, are coming under the scrutiny of your boss. If he doesn’t approve, it might even cost you your job, which is what happened to two Michigan women, Anita Epolito and Cara Stiffler. Anita and Cara were considered model employees at Weyco, an insurance consulting firm outside of Lansing, Mich., both having worked at the company for years. The women sat side-by-side, sharing workloads – and after work – sharing the occasional cigarette. But at a company benefits meeting two years ago, the company president announced, "As of January 1st, 2005, anyone that has nicotine in their body will be fired,” Anita remembers. “And we sat there in awe. And I spoke out at that time. ‘You can't do that to us’ And then he said, ‘Yes, I can.’ I said, ‘That's not legal.’ And he came back with, ‘Yes, it is.’” And it was legal: in Michigan, there’s no law that prevents a boss from firing people virtually at will. At Weyco, that meant no smoking at work, no smoking at home, no smoking period. Weyco gave employees 15 months to quit, before subjecting them to random nicotine testing. If you fail, you’re out."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/28/60minutes/main990617.shtml

Texas Leads Nation in Household Hunger - "A higher percentage of Texas households were at risk of going hungry over the past three years than in any other state, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Between 2002 and 2004, more than 16 percent of Texas households at some point had trouble providing enough food for all their family members, the USDA report said."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102802161.html

Shed the unhealthy, Wal-Mart memo says - "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. silenced many critics this week by reducing the cost of health insurance so more of its low-income employees can afford coverage. Now an internal memo sent to the company's board of directors has surfaced that outlines in blunt terms how the discount store giant may pay for it while still cutting costs. Under discussion are strategies to woo more younger workers less likely to run up big medical bills, ease out veterans more likely to need more health care and add physical tasks such as cart-gathering to cashier job descriptions to weed out the sedentary."
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/27/Business/Shed_the_unhealthy__W.shtml

US unveils new prison in northern Iraq - "The US military has opened a new prison with capacity for more than 1,700 detainees near the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051030/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusprison

The Village of Long Life - "More than 10 percent of the population of his village is 85 or older - 10 times the American norm. The residents of Yuzuri Hara are not only living longer, but they are also quite healthy. Rarely do they have any reason to see a doctor, and they are hardly affected by diseased like cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's. Many have even managed to keep their skin from showing signs of aging. What makes the residents of Yuzuri Hara even more remarkable is that they are living long, healthy lives - even those who engage in unhealthy activities."
http://www.appliedhealth.com/ABC_News_HA.html

Births to unmarried women hit record - "A record number of babies — nearly 1.5 million — were born to unmarried women in the U.S. last year. And those moms were more likely to be 20-somethings than teenagers, according to new federal data released Friday."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-10-28-unwed-moms_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA




Quote of the Day
"Nevertheless, we have been warned."
~ Peter Day

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