November 19, 2005

News -- November 19, 2005

What are you going to do now, Mr. Bush? - "The Bush regime's policy in Iraq is an abject failure. Two years after the lies which gave a false pretext for the illegal invasion of Iraq, after 30,000 civilians have been murdered by US armed forces, after a hundred thousand people have lost their lives directly or indirectly because of this invasion, after Iraq's civilian infra-structures were selected as military targets, after the war crimes, the use of chemical weapons, the cases of torture, who can say that the policy was a success?"
http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/16492_bush.html

Americans Are Running Out of Patience With Their 'War President' - "Even more shockingly, Republican elder statesman, Gen Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to Bush’s father, accused Bush Jr. of being "wrapped around the little finger" of Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon. Scowcroft has finally said aloud what no one in official Washington or the media dared to utter. His accusation helps explain much about the Bush Administration’s foreign policies and why they seem so often to damage rather than promote US interests."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis1.html

CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described - "6. Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt." -- Who wouldn't tell them what they wanted to hear after that? Barbarians.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1322866

US: Nearly 50% OK with torture - "Nearly half of Americans believe that the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain information is justified, according to a survey published on Thursday by the Pew Research Centre in Washington." -- And humanity falls further.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1836289,00.html

Al Qaeda – The Database - "Shortly before his untimely death, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told the House of Commons that "Al Qaeda" is not really a terrorist group but a database of international mujaheddin and arms smugglers used by the CIA and Saudis to funnel guerrillas, arms, and money into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. ... "The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the 'TV watcher' to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.""
http://thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=3836

Admit It: The US Has Been Defeated in Iraq - "The war begun by President Bush with such bravado and so little braino, which was designed to convert him from a dismal president to a crisp and awe-inspiring commander-in-chief, has been lost.The nearly 2100 Americans who have died so far to help the president get re-elected, to make him look like a leader, and to provide cover for his criminal executive power grab, have died for nothing.An unorganized bunch of insurgents armed with nothing but raw guts, aging Soviet-era rifles, and home-made explosives, have routed the most powerful military machine the world has ever known.There will be efforts to cover up this astonishing defeat, just as there were efforts made by the Nixon and Ford administrations to hide the fact that the U.S. was defeated in Indochina, too, but the truth is clear.American military might can destroy a country. It can kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. It can sow terror through the use of indiscriminate use of such WMDs as DU explosives, phosphorus bombs, helicopter and fixed-wing gunships and computerized drones and missiles. But it cannot defeat a concerted popular resistance."
http://www.uruknet.com/?p=18001&hd=0&size=1&l=x

'Hey Pot, It's Kettle' - "But the man known only as "little Bush" in China has a problem. He has very little credibility in Asia on issues such as human rights. Torture scandals in Iraq and elsewhere involving the US military, coupled with what is seen as blatant disregard by the Bush administration for the Geneva Conventions , are making it very difficult for Washington to lecture Beijing or backward countries like Myanmar."
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,385669,00.html

Lawmakers Reject Immediate Iraq Withdrawal - "The House voted 403-3 to reject a nonbinding resolution calling for an immediate troop withdrawal." -- The killing must continue!
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/18/D8DVAQ6O3.html

Congress Helps Self to $3,100 Pay Raise - "The Republican-controlled Congress helped itself to a $3,100 pay raise on Friday, then postponed work on bills to curb spending on social programs and cut taxes in favor of a two-week vacation." -- God damn, what a cushy fucking job.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/18/AR2005111802165_pf.html

Checkmate - "The feds may have finally stepped in their lies so deep, they cannot escape without the truth being exposed. As Benson's brilliant legal counsel, Jeffrey Dickstein, points out: As previously discussed, the United States can not prevail as a matter of law unless it can prove Benson "made or caused to be made false or fraudulent statements concerning the tax benefits to be derived from the entity, plan or arrangement" and that "he knew or had reason to know the statements were false or fraudulent." This requires the United States to prove the Sixteenth Amendment was properly ratified, because if it were not properly ratified, Benson's statements would not be false or fraudulent, they would be true, and the United States' action would fail. Checkmate."
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47467

Scientists Work on New Nuclear Weapons - "For the first time in nearly 20 years, U.S. nuclear weapons labs are drawing up plans for new atomic bombs. They would replace the ageing warheads in today's missiles with more robust ones that would be easier to maintain. The work would completely transform the country's nuclear arsenal."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5017369

Vatican Official Refutes Intelligent Design - ""Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science.""
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051118/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_evolution;_ylt=A9FJqYvVuH5DuzIBZAWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ

God's Pat Problem - "It cannot be easy being God these days, what with so many of His self-proclaimed followers launching wars in His name. So the last thing that the Almighty needs is a whackjob calling down the wrath of, er, well, God on communities that fail to follow the instructions in the "Christian Coalition Voter Guide." But that's what God's got in the person of Pat Robertson, the religious broadcaster who frequently uses his 700 Club television program to pray about weather patterns or to encourage the assassination of foreign leaders. Last week, Robertson went the next step and began deciding who can and cannot talk to God."
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=36274

Diebold Attempts to Evade Election Transparency Laws - "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is going to court in North Carolina to prevent Diebold Election Systems, Inc. from evading North Carolina law. In a last-minute filing, e-voting equipment maker Diebold asked a North Carolina court to exempt it from tough new election requirements designed to ensure transparency in the state's elections. Diebold obtained an extraordinarily broad order, allowing it to avoid placing its source code in escrow with the state and identifying programmers who contributed to the code."
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php

FEC: Blogs Are Just As Much "Press" As Everyone Else - "What This Means: Under the Commission's rules, "any person involved in a specific activity 'indistinguishable in all its material aspects'" from Fired Up! can rely upon this ruling unless Congress acts otherwise, and you can imagine what sites might feel better-protected today. Any such site engaged in news, commentary and editorial can continue in such activities without fear of falling into FEC filing requirements turning groups into political committees or incorporated sites into outlaws. This is a tremendous victory for online free speech and will impact on the current debate in Congress. Kudos to Marc Elias and Brian Svoboda of the Perkins Coie law firm who are responsible, as well as the five FEC Commissioners who understood that neither the First Amendment, the statutes nor common sense could tolerate a different result."
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/17/132311/79

"Deferred Success" is new term for failure? - "In 2005, some people wanted the word "brainstorming" replaced by "thought shower" so as not to offend people with brain disorders, and they also wanted "deferred success" to replace "failure" so as not to embarrass those who don't succeed."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051118/od_nm/odd_words_dc;_ylt=A9FJqYvVuH5DuzIBBQes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc




Quote of the Day
"And all the demons are saints, and the saints I'll never trust."
~ Blue Rodeo

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