News -- October 9, 2006

Iraq war justifications laid bare - "The Senate Intelligence Committee has found no evidence of links between the regime of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. In a report issued on Friday, it also found that was little or no evidence to support a raft of claims made by the US intelligence community concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."

Democracy Under Attack in the U.S. - "New law passed by Congress reminiscent of Hitler's Enabling Act. ... The new law essentially gives the executive branch of government the ability to create its own processes and procedures for how it will behave. And it removes any oversight processes from the other two branches of the government."

Should presidents be allowed to serve more than 2 terms? - "But bipartisan legislation to repeal the 22nd Amendment restriction of two terms for U.S. presidents could change that certainty for future presidents. "The time has come to repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, and not because of partisan politics," explained Hoyer. ... "We do not have to rely on rigid constitutional standards to hold our Presidents accountable," said Hoyer. "Sufficient power resides in the Congress and the Judiciary to protect our country from tyranny."" -- Where's that protection today?

America ponders cutting Iraq in three - "AN independent commission set up by Congress with the approval of President George W Bush may recommend carving up Iraq into three highly autonomous regions, according to well informed sources." -- One country should not be allowed to do this to another country.

Great wall to seal off Iraq - "SAUDI Arabia plans to build a 900-kilometre, $700 million high-tech fence to seal off its troubled northern neighbour Iraq. "The feeling in Saudi is that Iraq is way out of control with no possibility of stability," said Nawaf Obaid, director of Saudi Arabia's National Security Assessment Project. "The urgency now is to get that border sealed - physically sealed."

Hidden victims of a brutal conflict: Iraq's women - "Iraqis do not like to talk about it much, but there is an understanding of what is going on these days. If a young woman is abducted and murdered without a ransom demand, she has been kidnapped to be raped. Even those raped and released are not necessarily safe: the response of some families to finding that a woman has been raped has been to kill her. Iraq's women are living with a fear that is increasing in line with the numbers dying violently every month. They die for being a member of the wrong sect and for helping their fellow women. They die for doing jobs that the militants have decreed that they cannot do: for working in hospitals and ministries and universities. They are murdered, too, because they are the softest targets for Iraq's criminal gangs."

Bush's Failed Policy of Kill, Kill, Kill - "But the enduring tragedy of Bush's "mother of all presidential miscalculations" is that his underlying theory for addressing the problem of Islamic militancy hasn't changed. It is still a strategy of "kill, kill, kill" - get revenge for 9/11 even against Muslims who had nothing to do [with] it - and that is likely to continue, if not expand, after the Nov. 7 elections. And, just as the Iraq War debacle was predictable 10 days into the fighting, so too is the end result of Bush's vision of waging "World War III" against Islamic militants amid the one billion Muslims spread around the globe. The deeply troubling prospect is this: If Washington follows the "kill, kill, kill" strategy in what Bush's neoconservative advisers like to call the "clash of civilizations," the United States will lose."

North Korea nuke test draws condemnation - "Bush said the action "deserves an immediate response" by the U.N. Security Council.""

Rummy's North Korea Connection What did Donald Rumsfeld know about ABB's deal to build nuclear reactors there? And why won't he talk about it? - "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rarely keeps his opinions to himself. He tends not to compromise with his enemies. And he clearly disdains the communist regime in North Korea. So it's surprising that there is no clear public record of his views on the controversial 1994 deal in which the U.S. agreed to provide North Korea with two light-water nuclear reactors in exchange for Pyongyang ending its nuclear weapons program. What's even more surprising about Rumsfeld's silence is that he sat on the board of the company that won a $200 million contract to provide the design and key components for the reactors."

Busted! The Family Research Council knew about Foley. - "Yep, you read it right. Seems like members of the Family Research Council, that bastion of "Christian purity" and "family values" knew Mark Foley had a habit of chasing after young boys. And not one of them said a word until after the scandal broke."

Fear the Penis - "Thank God for Mark Foley. It proves that the American people still care about something. It happens to be penises. But still. They care about who talks about them, who plays with them, who covers them up, who uncovers them, who covers up the uncovering of them. Even Jon Stewart put the big penis cover-up ahead of the fact that this government just passed a law that says that George Bush can say, "Hey you, you're an enemy combatant, "and once he says that they can whisk you away. This is literally true."

Military recruiters work hard to leave no child off their lists - "It turns out that President Bush's supposed signature education law also happens to be the most aggressive military recruitment tool enacted since the draft ended in 1973."

Don't Worry, Democrats Won't Impeach Bush, Democrat Says - "Weiner (who also worked for the Clinton White House) says Conyers "has told me directly: 'I'm not going to conduct an impeachment. That would take all of our time. I would not want to bring an impeachment investigation because that would drain time and energy from the work that needs to be done, and it would take away the country's attention from issues that need to be addressed.'""

Thousands Nationwide Protest Bush - "Hundreds of people called the Bush administration's policies a crime and held up yellow police tape in front of the White House on Thursday amid a nationwide day of protest against the president."

Bushies 'used' Colin, wife sez - "DeYoung also writes that Powell believes Bush sees the Palestinian/Israeli struggle in "black and white" terms and called Rumsfeld's team "the JINSA crowd," a reference to the neoconservative Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs."

Six Flags over Neo-Nuremberg: Bush, Oprah, the San Diego Chicken and a proto-fascist panopticon of the mind - "Many believe fascism will come to the United States of America resembling contrived spectacles such as the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and American Idol, with the proceedings intercut with teary, yet ultimately triumphant, Oprahesque tales of how redemption can be gained through the renunciation of one’s rights and liberties, as well as, the dutiful turning in of one’s subversive neighbors. Don’t reach for that remote, folks: It’s already here."

Emulate Thy Enemy - "Becky Fischer, the founder of the fundamentalist Christian children's summer program in the new documentary Jesus Camp, finds inspiration in unexpected places. "Where should we [as Christians] be putting our focus? I'll tell you where our [Muslim] enemies are putting it. They're putting it on the kids." Fischer isn't denouncing this strategy; she's marveling at its boldness: "you go into Palestine, and they're taking their kids to camps like we take our kids to Bible camps, and they're putting hand grenades in their hands." Whether or not such Muslim "camps" actually exist, they nonetheless provide incentive for Fischer’s own programs. No grenades, just a more single-minded commitment to God. Fischer's camp, "Kids on Fire," emphasizes raising a young "army" to take back America for Christ. One scene of the film features a group of children, their cheeks smeared with war-paint, performing a manic military dance routine while Fischer raises her arms theatrically and chants "this means war!" over a room of sobbing campers."

U.S. Rules Allow the Sale of Products Others Ban - "Destined for American kitchens, planks of birch and poplar plywood are stacked to the ceiling of a cavernous port warehouse. The wood, which arrived in California via a cargo ship, carries two labels: One proclaims "Made in China," while the other warns that it contains formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical. Because formaldehyde wafts off the glues in this plywood, it is illegal to sell in many countries — even the one where it originated, China. But in the United States this wood is legal, and it is routinely crafted into cabinets and furniture. As the European Union and other nations have tightened their environmental standards, mostly in the last two years, manufacturers — here and around the world — are selling goods to American consumers that fail to meet other nations' stringent laws for toxic chemicals. Wood, toys, electronics, pesticides and cosmetics are among U.S. products that contain substances that are banned or restricted elsewhere, particularly in Europe and Japan, because they may raise the risk of cancer, alter hormones or cause reproductive or neurological damage."

Giant comet may collide with Earth late October - "“I’m not trying to scare anybody, I just want to warn the public,” sums up Fedorovsky."

The Information Factories - "The desktop is dead. Welcome to the Internet cloud, where massive facilities across the globe will store all the data you'll ever use."

The crime: Playing iTunes on devices not named iPod - "Among their crimes was listening to a song purchased from iTunes on a device not made by Apple Computer. The group, StopDRM, largely made up of young computer enthusiasts, was protesting the growing number of subtle restrictions used to limit the use of legally purchased songs and videos. Protection measures, often called digital rights management, or DRM, are supposed to prevent piracy. But critics of the measures say they smack of Big Brother-style controls."

More Americans Find Themselves 'House Poor' - "Nationwide, homeowners spent nearly 21 percent of their incomes on housing costs last year, up from just under 19 percent in 1999."

Home computers targeted by hackers '50 times a day' - "According to Symantec, 86 per cent of all targeted attacks on computers are aimed at home users. There are an estimated 200,000 malicious programs in existence."

After years of teachers piling it on, there's a new movement to ... Abolish homework - "Vigorous scrutiny of the research, they argue, fails to demonstrate tangible benefits of homework, particularly for elementary students. What it does instead, they contend, is rob children of childhood, play havoc with family life and asphyxiate their natural curiosity. Learning becomes a mind-numbing grind rather than an engaging adventure."

Bigger families gain in popularity - "It's barely a blip on the nation's demographic radar -- 11 percent of U.S. births in 2004 were to women who already had three children, up from 10 percent in 1995. But there seems to be a growing openness to having more than two children, in some case more than four. The reasons are diverse -- from religious to, as Mrs. Bennett reasons, "Why not?""

Report: Kids need more time for play - "Here's some soothing medicine for stressed-out parents and overscheduled kids: The American Academy of Pediatrics says what children really need for healthy development is more good, old-fashioned playtime. Many parents load their children's schedules with get-smart videos, enrichment activities and lots of classes in a drive to help them excel. The efforts often begin as early as infancy. Spontaneous, free play -- whether it's chasing butterflies, playing with "true toys" like blocks and dolls, or just romping on the floor with mom and dad -- often is sacrificed in the shuffle, a new academy report says."




Quote of the Day
"Damn all those evil people, devils, who for the last 10 years have built their happiness only on the misery of others - those who have killed so many people, who have taken so much blood, who have destroyed so many countries."
~ Vuk Draskovic