Outsourcing Torture - "If you want to see the bare essence of the Bush administration, behold its policy of "rendition." The innocuous-sounding word signifies a policy under which American officials send terrorist suspects--detainees never convicted of crimes--to countries where they will be tortured, keeping the U.S. government's hands clean of the monstrous treatment. Can anyone with a sense of justice or humane bone in his body defend such a shameful policy? The knee-jerk Bush defenders will brand as squeamish anyone who shrinks from rough treatment of terrorists. There are many responses to this, but the most relevant here is that the people we are talking about are suspects, not proven criminals."
Gonzales cautions judges on interfering - "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime."
Gingrich urges overriding Supreme Court - "Supreme Court decisions that are "so clearly at variance with the national will" should be overridden by the other branches of government, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says." -- Yes, this conversation is taking place.
Baghdad curfew was in response to 'coup attempt' - "A blanket 36-hour curfew imposed on the Iraqi capital Baghdad from Friday evening was in response to an information leak concerning a possible coup attempt, according to an Iraqi Shiite MP. Iraqi press reports on Sunday quoted Bahaa al-Araji of the United Iraqi Alliance as saying that the alleged coup plot had been masterminded by supporters of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein and of the former ruling Baath party." -- Hmmm.
Why Ahmadinejad and Chavez are right - "It is amazing how the United States deals with its history by either hiding its head in the sand or attempting to rewrite the accounts of its shameful behavior. ... Americans need to know that both President Mahmud Ahmadinejad of Iran and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela spoke the truth in their respective presentations to the United Nations General Assembly recently. By knowing the truth we will be able to see through the politics of fear and the mountains of illusions and outright lies that the Bush administration has used to drive the country into the grip of the neo-fascists who hold the reigns of government."
Bush calls for war "across the world" - "US President George W. Bush called for fighting America's enemies "across the world" as he stepped up his counteroffensive following charges that his policies were breeding a new generation of Islamic terrorists." -- If the world is your enemy, then you fight the world. Nice one, George. How isolated do you want America?
Colin Powell Now Says He Was Fired - "It is being reported right now by MSNBC's LIVE at 8:45AM, this morning Sunday, October 1st. Colin Powell has stated in his new book that he was FIRED by President Bush. The call came from Andy Card the former chief of staff to Powell right after Bush's re-election."
Deviant Conservative Males: an Analysis - "Mr. St. Clair of CounterPunch recently supplied me with a list of sex crimes committed by prominent conservative Republicans. ... I now bring you a mere sample of the list of crimes, all of them heinous, so that you might begin to see a pattern among them. I know I did. ... You can't make this shit up." -- Interesting.
Shirley offers fix for bad parenting - ""What we've got is a failure in society, whether it's in Mount Pleasant with yuppie parents or whether it's on the East Side with poor crackhead parents," Shirley said Friday. "We pick up stray animals and spay them. These mothers need to be spayed if they can't take care of theirs. ... Once they have a child and it's running the streets, to let them continue to have children is totally unacceptable." Deadbeat dads might ought to be sterilized as well, he said." -- I think Shirley is a Republican city councilman for Charleston, S.C.
Campaign 2006: The Republicans' Secret Weapon - "The polls keep suggesting that Republicans could be in for a historic drubbing. And their usual advantage—competence on national security—is constantly being challenged by new revelations about bungling in Iraq. But top Republican officials maintain an eerie, Zen-like calm. They insist that the prospects for their congressional candidates in November's midterms have never been as bad as advertised and are getting better by the day. Those are party operatives and political savants whose job it is to anticipate trouble. But much of the time they seem so placid, you wonder whether they know something. They do. What they know is that just six days after George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, his political machine launched a sophisticated, expensive and largely unnoticed campaign aimed at maintaining G.O.P. majorities in the House and Senate. If that campaign succeeds, it would defy history and political gravity, both of which ordain that midterm elections are bad news for a lame-duck President's party, especially when the lame duck has low approval ratings."
Iraq War Strategy Backed by 19% of Americans - "Conversely, 20 per cent of respondents are opposed to the war but could change their minds if a new approach is developed, while 25 per cent reject the conflict regardless of the strategy." -- 25%? Pathetic. Americans obviously love war.
Middle-class families in worse shape than ever, study finds - "The middle class's financial condition has been a key issue ahead of the November elections, as Democrats warn that this group is fast losing economic ground amid skyrocketing prices and tax cuts that offer them little benefit." -- And you have the Repbulicans to thank for this. Unfortunately, the Democrats are not capable of fixing this problem.
'Idiot' barb gets passenger detained - "A Wisconsin man who wrote "Kip Hawley is an Idiot" on a plastic bag containing toiletries said he was detained at an airport security checkpoint for about 25 minutes before authorities concluded the statement was not a threat. Ryan Bird, 31, said he wrote the comment about Hawley -- head of the Transportation Security Administration -- as a political statement. He said he feels the TSA is imposing unreasonable rules on passengers while ignoring bigger threats."
What makes us human - "Scientists figured out decades ago that chimps are our nearest evolutionary cousins, roughly 98 percent to 99 percent identical to humans at the genetic level. When it comes to DNA, a human is closer to a chimp than a mouse is to a rat. Yet tiny differences, sprinkled throughout the genome, have made all the difference. Agriculture, language, art, music, technology and philosophy -- all the achievements that make us profoundly different from chimpanzees -- are somehow encoded within minute fractions of our genetic code." -- Only humans are obsessed with owning things.
Common cold only a fingertip away - "Many everyday objects touched by dirty hands are harbouring and spreading the common cold virus, say scientists." -- Wash your hands people.
Sorry, no one's reading that resume you sent - "Computers now doing most of the weeding out."
Quote of the Day
"I think that I could turn and live with the animals... Not one of them is demented with the mania of owning things."
~ Walt Whitman
No comments:
Post a Comment