Commandant-in-Chief - "Should we be thanking God for the wisdom and judgment of our wartime president George W. Bush? Or not? ... "Well, hypothermia was a widespread technique. [Some people] were using just ice water to lower the body temperature of the prisoner. They would take his rectal temperature to make sure he didn't die; they would keep him hovering on hypothermia. A lot of other not as common techniques…was (sic) just beating people or burning them. Not within prisons usually. But when the units would go out into people’s homes and do these raids, they would just stay in the house and torture them." All-American stuff, that. Former chief of staff to Colin Powell, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, has stated that top officials, including the president, had to have in effect given permission for the torture to occur. "You don’t have this kind of pervasive attitude out there," Wilkerson said, "unless you’ve condoned it." But that's not to say that Bush’s pro-torture policy hasn’t had more than its share of tough-luck stories. Shucks, no. The Department of Defense recently informed the Red Cross that somewhere between 70 to 90 percent of the detainees were entirely innocent. Whoopsee."
Enormous death toll of Iraq invasion revealed - "Around 655,000 people have died in Iraq as a result of the US-led coalition invasion, according to the largest scientific analysis yet. That is 2.5% of the country's entire population."
Habeas Corpus: The Lynchpin of Freedom - "In the recently enacted Military Commissions Act, Congress acceded to President Bush’s request to remove the power of federal courts to consider petitions for writ of habeas by foreign citizens held by U.S. officials on suspicion of having committed acts of terrorism. While it might be tempting to conclude that the writ of habeas corpus is some minor legal procedural device that the president and the Congress have now canceled, nothing could be further from the truth. The writ of habeas corpus is actually the lynchpin of a free society. Take away this great writ and all other rights – such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, gun ownership, due process, trial by jury, and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishments – become meaningless."
North Korea might now have The Bomb, but it doesn't have much electricity - "As the world grapples with how to rein in the "axis of evil" state which this week conducted a nuclear test, this spectacular satellite photo unveiled yesterday by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld shows in stark detail the haves and have-nots of the Korean peninsula. The regime in the north is so short of electricity that the whole country is switched off at 9 p.m. - apart from the capital of Pyongyang where dictator Kim Jong-il and his cohorts live in relative luxury. But even there, lighting is drastically reduced."
Closeted Homosexual Republicans Target of Blog-Activist - " Homosexual activist Mike Rogers said he will reveal the identities of homosexual Republicans on Capitol Hill each day "for hypocritically opposing gay rights for political reasons when they themselves are gay." But according to Rogers, who runs a web log called BlogActive.com, he's "reporting on hypocrisy," not "outing them.""
GOP focuses on taxes again - "President Bush and Republican Senate and House candidates are talking more about taxes in speeches, debates and TV spots after polls showed it is the Republican Party's best issue in a tough midterm election season."
If You Are Not VERY Afraid, You Haven't Been Paying Attention - "In fact, we may be only weeks away from total disaster."
YouTube blocked video mocking Clinton administration - "The popular video-sharing YouTube site, which is being purchased by Google for $1.65 billion, limited access to a political ad that mocks the Clinton administration's policy on North Korea, but contains no profanity, nudity or other factors generally thought objectionable."
White House, NSA staff said to be buyers from online diploma mill - "A White House staff member and National Security Agency employees were among 6,000 people who bought bogus online college degrees from a diploma mill, a federal judge has been told. ... "We're not going to disclose who bought these degrees until after the trial is under way," U.S. Attorney James A. McDevitt told the newspaper."
South Park Episode Equates 9/11 Truth with Anti-Semitism, Numerology and Cartman - "They prefer to keep things at the superficial seams-- the "fourth" of Americans who believe this stuff are "retards"; the government is "too incompetent" to have executed this plan; only a "retard" would believe that anyone other than "pissed off" Arabs carried out 9/11; 9/11 conspiracy nuts blame Jews/ blaming Jews is racist and wrong/Shut up, already, etc."
Climbers see Tibetans shot 'like rats' - "An Australian mountaineer was among dozens of climbers at a Himalayan base camp who watched in horror as Chinese soldiers shot Tibetan refugees "like rats, dogs [and] rabbits", leaving at least one teenage nun lying dead in the snow."
China admits its guards killed nun - "CHINA confirmed yesterday that its border guards had shot dead a refugee, believed to be a nun, trying to cross the border from Tibet into Nepal, but said the soldiers acted in self defence. Such an official confirmation is rare. The government in the restive region of Tibet may have felt forced to respond after dozens of foreign mountaineers, including two Britons, described watching from their Himalayan base camp as Chinese border guards opened fire on the group of fleeing Tibetans on September 30." -- Self defence?
Daley: By 2016, cameras on 'almost every block' - "Security and terrorism won't be an issue if Chicago wins the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games because, by that time, there'll be a surveillance camera on every corner, Mayor Daley said Wednesday. "By the time 2016 [rolls around], we'll have more cameras than Washington, D.C. ... Our technology is more advanced than any other city in the world -- even compared to London -- dealing with our cameras and the sophistication of cameras and retro-fitting all the cameras downtown in new buildings, doing the CTA cameras," Daley said. "By 2016, I'll make you a bet. We'll have [cameras on] almost every block.""
Jesus at the Movies - "Some prominent proselytizers hope to save America -- and the world -- by doing some "sneaky preaching" through a new movie they're calling "one of the greatest outreach tools of the church in this century.""
We Don't All Have to Be Workaholics - "In such troubled times, shouldn't those of us who can choose our work choose a job that, at worst, doesn't harm anyone and, at best, makes the world a better place?"
Birds and bees may be gay - museum exhibition - "With documentation of gay or lesbian behaviour among giraffes, penguins, parrots, beetles, whales and dozens of other creatures, the Oslo Natural History Museum concludes human homosexuality cannot be viewed as "unnatural". "We may have opinions on a lot of things, but one thing is clear -- homosexuality is found throughout the animal kingdom, it is not against nature," an exhibit statement said. Geir Soeli, the project leader of the exhibition entitled "Against Nature", told Reuters: "Homosexuality has been observed for more than 1,500 animal species, and is well documented for 500 of them." The museum said the exhibition, opening on Thursday despite condemnation from some Christians, was the first in the world on the subject."
Young shoppers want to pay with chip in skin - "Some customers are willing to have microchip implants as a means of paying in stores, a report out today says."
Harvard Study:Strong Link Between Fluoridated Water and Bone Cancer in Boys - "Boys who drink water with levels of fluoride considered safe by federal guidelines are five times more likely to have a rare bone cancer than boys who drink unfluoridated water, according to a study by Harvard University scientists published in a peer-reviewed journal."
U.S. FDA Told to Watch Nanotech Products for Risks - "The growing number of cosmetics, drugs other products made using nanotechnology need more attention from U.S. regulators to make sure they are safe for humans and the planet, consumer and environmental groups told a government hearing Tuesday."
Water for millions at risk as glaciers melt away - "The world's glaciers and ice caps are now in terminal decline because of global warming, scientists have discovered. A survey has revealed that the rate of melting across the world has sharply accelerated in recent years, placing even previously stable glaciers in jeopardy. The loss of glaciers in South America and Asia will threaten the water supplies of millions of people within a few decades, the experts warn."
Study Links Extinction Cycles to Changes in Earth’s Orbit and Tilt - "It so happens, the paleontologists say, that variations in the course Earth travels around the Sun and in the tilt of its axis are associated with episodes of global cooling. Their new research on the fossil record shows that the cyclical pattern of these phenomena corresponds to species turnover in rodents and probably other mammal groups as well."
Distant Planet is Half Fire, Half Ice - "With one side always hot as lava and the other chilled possibly below freezing, Upsilon Andromeda b is a giant gas planet that orbits extremely close to Upsilon Andromeda, a star 40 light-years from our solar system in the constellation Andromeda. "If you were moving across the planet from the night side to the day side, the temperature jump would be equivalent to leaping into a volcano," said study leader Brad Hansen of the University of California, Los Angeles."
Quote of the Day
"Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear."
~ Bertrand Russell
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