Our Torturer-in-Chief - "If in doubt, take any of the "alternative" methods that Bush wants to use on U.S. detainees and imagine someone using those methods on your son or daughter. If the bad guys captured your son and tossed him, naked, into a cell kept at a temperature just slightly higher than an average refrigerator, then repeatedly doused him with ice water to induce hypothermia, would that be OK? What if they shackled him to a wall for days so he couldn't sit or lie down without hanging his whole body weight on his arms? What if they threatened to rape and kill his wife, or pretended they were burying him alive? What if they did all these things by turns? Would you have any problem deciding that these methods are cruel? Behind the antiseptic talk of "alternatives," "dietary modification" and "stress positions" lie methods designed to break human bodies and human minds. Legally and morally, many of the alternative interrogation methods championed by our president are torture, plain and simple. And there is no doubt at all that they're cruel, inhuman and degrading. ... After all, Common Article 3 is not exactly a recent innovation in international law. It's been around, with the very same language, since 1949, and the U.S. has never seen any problem with it before. We signed and ratified the Geneva Convention in 1949; in fact, American diplomats helped draft the language. And the War Crimes Act was passed overwhelmingly by a Republican-controlled Congress in 1996. There's nothing unexpected or vague about any of this. We know the article prohibits torture and the "torture lite" favored by the White House."
Backroom Deals in the Corridors of Power. Torturers Now Shielded from Prosecution - "On FOX & Friends First hosts Steve Doocy, Alisyn Camerota and Brian Kilmeade reported that the Bush administration and four recalcitrant Republican Sentators - John McCain, John Warner, Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham - have reached an agreement on the wording of a Senate bill that seeks to "clarify" the Geneva Convention's Article 3. After an all-day confab yesterday at the White House, a compromise was worked out that whitewashes what has been done to other human beings in our name and protects government-paid torturers from prosecution. Torquemada - the Spanish "hammer" against heresy - is cackling in the bowels of hell!"
Bushfraud Diversion - "Yesterday’s story leaked by U.S. Media that Bush threatened to bomb Pakistan after 9-11 is a diversion from the real story. The real story is that Musharraf, Pakistani President, knows that Bin Laden is dead and knows where he is buried. And knows that the bogeyman has gone to his maker aka kidney failure, Jan. 2002. It can now be reported that Bushfraud threatened to bomb Pakistan just one week ago when Musharraf threatened to tell the world that Bin Laden has been dead for three years."
France Looks Into bin Laden Death Report - "The French defense ministry on Saturday called for an internal investigation of the leak of an intelligence document that raises the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan a month ago but said the report of the death remained unverified."
As Crazy as It Sounds - "As crazy as it sounds, President George Bush might be planning to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. ... The scariest part of this scenario is that Bush and his war hawks seem to believe that the Iranian people will blame their own government for the American attack, overthrow it and install a new government that will be eager to jump into bed with the U.S and Israel. That's really nuts."
The Global Community is Threatened with Endless Conflicts and Wars - "In a world scarred by violent conflicts and ideological confrontations, made worse by religious misinterpretations and cultural extremism and bigotry, the global community is threatened with endless conflicts and wars. The United Nations, set up to prevent wars and to achieve peaceful solutions to world conflicts has been denigrated by the very nations which founded it. Now peace is getting even further from becoming a reality. We are still primitive beacuse we believe in killing people to solve our problems."
'Egypt will pursue nuclear energy' - "President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday called for Egypt to pursue nuclear energy, as the US ambassador said Washington would be willing to help its Mideast ally develop a peaceful program."
One in Three in Poll Still Think Saddam Was Involved in 9/11 - "Who could guess, for example, amid pundit claims that most Americans favor harsh treatment of detainees abroad to help the war on terror, that 56% in the poll say that torture is always wrong and only 35% say it might "sometimes" be acceptable? By 63% to 32% they favor following international agreements on torture and not our own rules. And 49% want public criminal charges for terrorists as opposed to 46% favoring secret military proceedings. One of the more amazing results, though much in line with other surveys, is that almost one in three still say that Saddam Hussein "was personally involved" in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S."
Will The Next Election Be Hacked? - "Fresh disasters at the polls -- and new evidence from an industry insider -- prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted."
Senator concerned about who will cut his grass - "Frist's main concern in the debate about the illegal immigration workers is who will cut his grass and maintain the landscape on his 5 billion dollar estate nestled in the country side of Tennessee (Pictured above). Senator Frist has noted that his entire landscaping crew is Hispanic in origin and that they are instrumental in maintaining the lawns on his estate."
Poll: Only 7 percent want Olmert as PM - "However, if one would like to believe the public opinion polls published in the newspapers ahead of Rosh Hashana, Olmert has good reasons to be concerned: The public, it appears, does not see him as the most suitable person anymore."
Villains of the Vatican - "Popes have only officially been infallible since 1870. The tradition, however, stretches back much further, and is part of Catholicism's eternal efforts to depict its leader as a holy man with a hotline to heaven; someone who is head and shoulders - in matters of faith and morals - above the rest of us, as we fall prey to secular whims, sexual urges and the blandishments of the devil. So each new incumbent is, in theory, as good as hand-picked by God. Which, unfortunately, means that even God himself is not infallible. For some of the men he has anointed have, like Benedict XVI, a habit of saying or doing the wrong thing, especially when it comes to their relationships with other faiths."
An Evolving Faith - "One might get the impression from such debate that if Darwin was right about biology, then God doesn't exist. Yet a broad and formidable intellectual tradition militates against such a conclusion. Some see evolution and religion as complementary in that they involve different types of knowledge and aspects of existence; the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould argued for this position, which he called "nonoverlapping magisteria." Others make arguments that evolution and religion are not just compatible but interrelated; one such view, stated by Anglican theologian and biochemist Arthur Peacocke, is that God operates "in, with and under" the evolutionary process."
Rewriting our religious history - "Why are many religious conservatives obsessed with invoking the Founding Fathers? That is, why is there such a brisk book trade in re-examining the founders’ lives? For the religious conservatives, the fight is about proving that America was set up as a Christian nation. And their efforts to rewrite American history are paying off, since a recent Pew Forum survey found that 67 percent of Americans believe this falsehood."
Believers say atheism no longer a 'dirty word' - "Horrified by escalating religious violence and alarmed by the Bush administration's "faith-based initiatives," which make government money available to religious organizations, atheists are coming out of the closet -- and organizing."
Violent Crime Rate Goes Up for First Time in 15 Years Following Massive GOP Cuts for Law Enforcement - "In addition to the jump in violent crime overall, the rates also increased last year for murder, robbery, and aggravated assault. The rates for every category dropped steadily under President Clinton and his massive funding boosts for law enforcement."
Proposed Ordinance asks Each Household to Have a Firearm - "The proposed ordinance is modeled after a similar plan that went into place in 1982 in Kennesaw, Ga. In that instance there was a dramatic decrease in criminal activity. Although crime isn't a huge problem for residents of Greenleaf, the growth in neighboring counties leads them to believe they too are in for some changes."
CDC Backs HIV Test for All Between 13-64 - "All Americans between the ages of 13 and 64 should be routinely tested for HIV to help catch infections earlier and stop the spread of the deadly virus, federal health recommendations announced Thursday say."
More TVs Than People in Average Home - " That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said." -- My family is bringing the average down.
High school's dances grind to a halt - ""It's feigning a sex act," Connolly said. But some students and parents don't see it that way. They say that like the jitterbug and disco before it, grinding is just a sign of the times."
Quote of the Day
"Democracies have certain things in common. They have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition."
~ President George W. Bush
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