News -- March 6, 2006

Banned Fox News report on Israeli spy-ring and 9/11 - "The fact remains that these things occured. The four consecutive reports were filed by Carl Cameron. AIPAC did demand the reports be removed from their site and are now fighting to have it obliterated entirely from the net. So I decided you should at least be given the opportunity to view it on its own merits, while you still can."

America: From Freedom to Fascism -- Check out the trailer.

Treasury Dept. Moves to Avoid Debt Limit - "Treasury Secretary John Snow notified Congress on Monday that the administration has now taken "all prudent and legal actions," including tapping certain government retirement funds, to keep from hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit. In a letter to Congress, Snow urged lawmakers to pass a new debt ceiling immediately to avoid the nation's first-ever default on its obligations." I know that you share the president's and my commitment to maintaining the full faith and credit of the U.S. government," Snow said in his letter to leaders in the House and Senate." -- Then show some fiscal responsibility.

'14,000 detained without trial in Iraq' - ""It is a dangerous precedent for the world that the US and UK think it completely defensible to hold thousands of people without charge or trial," Amnesty spokesman Neil Durkin said. The detainee situation in Iraq was comparable to Guantánamo Bay, he added, but on a much larger scale, and the detentions appeared to be "arbitrary and indefinite". "It sends a very worrying message to the people of Iraq that the multinational force does not think normal human rights standards apply," he said."

US envoy hints at strike to stop Iran - "The US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, has told British MPs that military action could bring Iran's nuclear programme to a halt if all diplomatic efforts fail."

West spreading fear 'better than Osama' - "Fear is the message from the world's leaders, Fisk says, and they are injecting it into voters as effectively as bin Laden could have wished after the September 11 attacks on the US. "Pollies feed us with fear," Fisk said. "Al-Qaeda is part of the monster they need for this. "They tell us, 'they're coming, they're coming'. "Why do we allow Bush, Howard and Blair to say 9/11 changed the world?"

AP: Thousands of Federal Cases Kept Secret - "Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years. Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005."

Bush declares war on freedom of the press - "Political scientist George Harleigh, who worked in the Nixon administration, says such use of federal law enforcement authority was illegal when Nixon tried it and still so today. "We're talking about a basic violation of the Constitutional guarantee of a free press as well as a violation of the rights of privacy of American citizens," Harleigh says. "I had hoped we would have learned our lessons from the Nixon era. Sadly, it appears we have not.""

World in peril, Chomsky tells overflow crowd - "There are dire consequences to the current direction of the U.S. foreign policy, said Noam Chomsky in a speech Saturday at Binghamton University. Among those consequences, he said, is a nuclear Armageddon."

Hundreds of Iraqi academics and professionals assassinated by death squads - " Intellectuals from all regions of Iraq have been killed. They include specialists in physical education, journalism, Arabic literature, and the sciences. Physicians have also been targeted at a high rate.The victims have been Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, and Turkomans, and they have held a variety of political views. They have been shot down at work, at home, and in their cars or have simply disappeared."

Death squads take root - "There are an increasing number of reports that deaths squads have become a central tool of US strategy in Iraq."

Conservative Jews to Consider Ending a Ban on Same-Sex Unions and Gay Rabbis - "In a closed-door meeting this week in an undisclosed site near Baltimore, a committee of Jewish legal experts who set policy for Conservative Judaism will consider whether to lift their movement's ban on gay rabbis and same-sex unions."

Parental Notice Has Scant Effect in Teen Abortion - "For all the passions they generate, laws that require minors to notify their parents or get permission to have an abortion do not appear to have produced the sharp drop in teenage abortion rates that some advocates hoped for, an analysis by The New York Times shows."

Christian TV empire savors a tax blessing - "A ruling that means Sumner County and the city must refund the theme park-like Trinity Broadcasting Network complex here more than $300,000 in taxes ends an 11-year skirmish and gives the colorful owners much of what they’ve wanted — status as a church."

Children's Book Sparks Anti-Gay Complaints - "Parents complained to librarians in southwest Missouri that the book "And Tango Makes Three" has homosexual undertones. The illustrated tale is based on the true story of two male penguins who adopted an abandoned egg at New York City's Central Park Zoo a few years ago." -- Give me a freaking break.

HOUSING MARKET GLUTS UP - " A sudden glut in unsold new homes is threatening to snuff out the blazing housing market that's been carrying the U.S. economy."

An RFID solution to rush hour headaches? - "A traffic system from IBM has reduced Stockholm, Sweden rush hour congestion by 25 percent in a month, and Big Blue says it wants to bring it to the states."

Mac OS X hacked under 30 minutes - ""Mac OS X is easy pickings for bug finders. That said, it doesn't have the market share to really interest most serious bug finders," added gwerdna."




Quote of the Day
"One nation controlled by the media."
~ Green Day