Bush owes troops an apology, not Kerry - "Sen. John Kerry called him out Monday. He did it two years too late. He had been too cordial — just as Vice President Gore had been too cordial in 2000, just as millions of us have been too cordial ever since."
Hello... Pot? It's me, Kettle. - "I'm not saying that there was an agenda to insult the "poor, black and brown," but I will say that there was probably an agenda to unjustly disparage John Kerry. And I will also put forth that even though the insult to the "poor, black and brown" wasn't intentional, it was committed. An apology is owed... not only to the "poor, black and brown", but also to Mr. Kerry."
U.S. speeds attack plans for North Korea - "The Pentagon has stepped up planning for attacks against North Korea's nuclear program and is bolstering nuclear forces in Asia, said defense officials familiar with the highly secret process. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the accelerated military planning includes detailed programs for striking a North Korean plutonium-reprocessing facility at Yongbyon with special operations commando raids or strikes with Tomahawk cruise missiles or other precision-guided weapons."
This Election, the Medium Really Is the Message - "Contrary to my usual practice of voting for the best candidate, I will be voting Democratic—straight down the line. Not because I think all the Democratic candidates are terrific, not because I think I should stand with my party in these tough times. I’m voting Democratic, because if I do not—if we do not—we will be sending a message to George Bush that everything he stands for, everything he has done and is doing, is just hunky dory with us."
It's 2004 All Over Again.. - "Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has promised there will not be a change of course in Iraq if the Democrats take back Congress. Potential House leader Nancy Pelosi has assured voters that impeachment is not in the cards for Bush, either. Yet the liberal establishment is beaconing antiwar voters to clamor for the Democratic Party next Tuesday. It seems like 2004 all over again."
Republicans Court the Bigot Vote - "In a number of key races, Republicans are running sexually charged ads and counting on the electoral power of racism to turn out voters in droves."
Doubletree video release to 'shock & awe' before election? - "The much anticipated release of the Doubletree Hotel security video that has been speculated it will show a Boeing 757 hitting the Pentagon is due to be released by one week from today the latest:"
Rogue President - "America is a young nation, but an aging democracy. While America has suffered through rogue presidencies in its past— Pierce, Polk, Buchanan, Grant, McKinley, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Nixon and Reagan—it has never suffered quite as horribly; quite as tragically; quite as fatefully or quite as expensively as it is now suffering under the presidency of George W. Bush."
FOX News rearranging weekend line-up to air terror film, scare jaded voters to polls - "FOX News Channel has announced that it will air "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," ... The film, which is actually a year old, will be shown four (4) times this weekend to help Republicans scare their base to the polls. Along with plenty of footage accusing Democrats of not getting it (an O'Reilly favorite) and Dick Morris' sickening new anti-Democrat smear commercial, FOX is pulling out all the stops to support their party."
There's something happening here - "Today, there are echoes of the Vietnam experience in the protracted Iraq war -- including a growing protest movement in the military. Its trappings are starkly different this time. Rather than insubordination and violence, it has formed around a form-letter campaign, presumably conducted within the bounds of military regulations that restrict what soldiers are allowed to say."
Report: Flagstaff soldier killed self in protest - "A Flagstaff soldier who died in Iraq committed suicide after she refused to participate in interrogation techniques being practiced by her U.S. Army intelligence unit, according to a report about an Army investigation aired by a Flagstaff radio station."
98 percent of cluster bomb victims are civilians: report - "Civilians make up 98 percent of the tens of thousands of victims of cluster bombs in the 30 years since their introduction during the Vietnam war, according to an NGO report." -- Makes you proud to be a human, doesn't it?
Two-thirds of teenagers too fat to be soldiers - "The British army is planning to extend its training for young recruits because so many potential soldiers are obese, an official report discloses today. The military has had to relax its criteria over the physique and weight of recruits as a result of the problem."
America fights to take charge of UN peacekeepers around world - "The United States is lobbying to put an American, possibly a general, in charge of all UN peacekeeping operations in a move that could offer Washington an exit strategy in Iraq. The unprecedented US bid for the top UN peacekeeping post would place an American in command of the 95,000 UN peacekeepers in trouble spots from Lebanon to Sudan. The American lobbying effort is set to prove hugely controversial. If successful, the change would amount to a radical remaking of the organisation, bringing it closer to its origin in the Second World War as a US-led alliance. It is also stirring memories of the disastrous UN peace operation, led by the US, in Somalia in 1993, which ended in chaos and killing on the streets of the capital, Mogadishu."
Big Oil's 10 favorite members of Congress - "Wonder why we don't have a national energy policy or a serious push toward alternatives? Follow the money that oil and gas companies send to Congress." -- Check out the list.
Key Evangelical Quits Amid Gay Sex Claim - "The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, has given up his post while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex."
We're All Prisoners, Now: US Citizens to be Required ''Clearance'' to Leave USA - "Forget no-fly lists. If Uncle Sam gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007, we'll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave-or re-enter-the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSA) has proposed that all airlines, cruise lines-even fishing boats-be required to obtain clearance for each passenger they propose taking into or out of the United States. It doesn't matter if you have a U.S. Passport - a "travel document" that now, absent a court order to the contrary, gives you a virtually unqualified right to enter or leave the United States, any time you want. When the DHS system comes into effect next January, if the agency says "no" to a clearance request, or doesn't answer the request at all, you won't be permitted to enter-or leave-the United States."
Google 'will be able to keep tabs on us all' - "The internet will hold so much digital data in five years that it will be possible to find out what an individual was doing at a specific time and place, an expert said yesterday."
Totalitarian threat looms - ""The pervasive use of surveillance undermines or destroys the inter-related trust relationships that are fundamental to the operation of the state," he said. There might be many laudable ideas behind surveillance, like fighting crime, he said. "But there's an important tipping point where the number of people under surveillance is greater than those who are not." "When the state moves from trying to govern to trying to control, that's one of the trademarks of the surveillance state," he added. Providing further detail of how totalitarian regimes work, Goold described how the database state is starting to operate today."
U.S. NEAR THE BOTTOM IN PRIVACY STUDY - "Privacy International ranked 36 nations around the globe, including all European Union nations and other major democracies, and determined that in categories such as enforcement of privacy laws, the U.S. is on par with countries like China, Russia and Malaysia. Overall, the U.S. was determined to be an "extensive surveillance society,” the second-lowest rating in the study, which is available at Privacy International's Web site. The survey identified Malaysia, China and Russia as the world’s lowest-ranked countries in terms of privacy. It ranked Germany and Canada as those that best protect the privacy of their citizens." -- And you think you're free in this country. Please.
Overfishing May Harm Seafood Population - "Clambakes, crabcakes, swordfish steaks and even humble fish sticks could be little more than a fond memory in a few decades. If current trends of overfishing and pollution continue, the populations of just about all seafood face collapse by 2048, a team of ecologists and economists warns in a report in Friday's issue of the journal Science."
State's shrinking glaciers: Going ... going ... gone? - "Like Kennard and Doyle here on Mount Rainier, scientists on mountains all over Washington, the most glacier-covered state in the Lower 48, are trying to determine how glaciers are changing. What they are finding here and elsewhere is worrisome: Many of them, such as the South Cascade Glacier in the remote North Cascades, are shrinking quickly — and some are on the verge of disappearing."
Unemployment rate lowest in nearly 5-1/2 years - "Most of the new hiring in October was in service industries, where 152,000 new jobs were created, while goods-producing industries shed 60,000 jobs."
Flavored condom ad in bad taste? - "Indian authorities want to stop the daytime airing of a television advertisement promoting flavoured condoms saying it is obscene and in bad taste, a newspaper reported Friday. The advert promotes DKT's "XXX" strawberry, chocolate and banana flavoured condoms with the catchline "What is your flavor of the night?."" -- Way too many hang ups over sex.
Quote of the Day
"Some things are true whether you believe in them or not."
~ Seth, City of Angels
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