Saddam verdict date 'rigged' for Bush - "Saddam Hussein's defence team has urged a delay of his possible death sentence and said the ousted Iraqi leader believed today's expected verdict was timed to boost President George Bush before US mid-term elections."
1999 war games foresaw problems in Iraq - "The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue. In its "Desert Crossing" games, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence officials assumed the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs." -- Yet, the Bush administration still invaded.
Army Times: 'Time for Rumsfeld to go' - "An editorial to be published in an independent military publication Monday calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to be replaced. And the Pentagon is countering by saying the new "chorus of criticism" is "old news."" -- It's not only Rumsfeld that needs to go.
Cameras Show Army Recruiters Misleading Students - "An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist."
America the Temporary - "Yes, the USA is a nation built upon myth...and the greatest myth of all is that the land of the free is gonna last forever. I'm sure the Aztecs, the Incas, the Romans, and the Mongols were pretty damn pleased with themselves and figured what they were doing could never end. Yet, like Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias," they are ancient history. ... If you don't believe me, I have one word for you: Maya. If that civilization is viewed from Pre-Mayan to Pre-Columbian, it would span roughly 3500 years before collapsing. America is 230 years old. The Mayans had us beat by more than 30 centuries but are now barely more than a footnote for most humans. No one is certain what happened to cause the demise of the Mayan culture but this description from the One World Journeys website has an jarringly recognizable ring: "History is a continual ebb and flow of civilizations, but the collapse of many great Maya cities occurred within a fairly short amount of time centuries before the Spanish arrived. Archeologists are still trying to answer the mystery of why this happened. Several answers are emerging, with overpopulation and the resulting exhaustion of land resources leading the list. The soil of the rain forest is actually poor in nutrients. Crops can be grown for only two or three years, then must be allowed to go fallow for up to 18 years. This requires ever increasing destruction of the rain forest (and animal habitat) to feed a growing population. Other reasons for the collapse include increased warfare; a prolonged drought; a bloated ruling class requiring more and more support from the worker classes; increased sacrifices extending even to the lower classes; and possible epidemics owing to the dense populations in the urban centers." It calls to mind the words of jazz legend Sonny Rollins: "What I am more concerned about is whether our whole civilization will be around in the next 25 years.""
As Vote Nears, Parties Prepare for Legal Fights - "Election night is not necessarily the finish line anymore."
Court halts release of Cheney visitor logs - "Three appeals judges agree to suspend a ruling that ordered the release of information about the vice president's visitors until after the midterm election."
RNC Accepts Money From Army Porn Movie Distributor - "Despite running an attack ad accusing a Democratic senatorial candidate of accepting money from "porn movie producers," the Republican National Committee itself has accepted several donations over the past few years from the president of a large pornographic movie distribution company."
Why do so few people vote in the U.S.? - "Compare U.S. voting with foreign voting and it's not a pretty sight. Americans are less apt to vote than are people in other old democracies, in new ones, in dangerous places, dirt poor ones, freezing cold ones, stinking hot ones and highly dysfunctional ones."
U.S. Air Force prepares to fight in cyberspace - "The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it was setting up what could become a new four-star command to fight in cyberspace, where officials say the United States has already come under attack from China among others."
How To Bankrupt the War Machine - "Politicians obviously could care less what anyone thinks of their integrity or sense of humanity. But if waging wars becomes unpopular with voters owing to its costliness, then maybe we would have a chance to “pre-empt” them. Imagine if before the next invasion, Pentagon planners had to factor in how many billions would be required to recompensate afterwards the relatives of innocent people massacred as a direct result of the invasion? This is why everyone who is opposed to war, whether they care about the Serbs or not, should lament this terrible ruling. Every once in a while something comes along that threatens to unravel the whole fabric of deceit upon which all calls for war are based. Obviously no amount of monetary compensation can ever replace the loss of a loved one, but if such lawsuits ever took off, it could help to financially paralyze the mechanisms for war before it happened."
Russia Reacts Angrily to U.S. Warnings over Baltic Sea Gas Pipeline - "“Unfortunately, one could get an impression that the U.S. opposition to the Blue Stream project and now to the North European gas pipeline is driven not by its concern about Europe’s energy security, but by some U.S. officials’ belief that good gas pipelines are those which bypass Russia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The statement reflected a growing chill in Russian-U.S. ties, already strained because of differences over Iran and other global crises and U.S. criticism of the Kremlin’s democracy record and strong-arming of ex-Soviet neighbors."
Faith persists in face of reason - "Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m all for food, incense, prayer and people dancing naked. But, among the many things these supplications can induce, luring rain from the sky is not one of them. Neither is quieting a volcano that is ready to explode. Why does faith in such behavior bring expectations, hope or comfort that it will change natural events?"
Christians ask if force is needed to protect their religious values - "A leading church group which represents more than a million Christians has raised the prospect of civil unrest and even "violent revolution" to protect religious freedoms. In a startling warning to the Government, senior church and political figures have backed a report advocating force to protest against policies that are "unbiblical" and "inimical to the Christian faith". ... The report from the Evangelical Alliance says "violent revolution" should be regarded as a viable response if government legislation encroaches further on basic religious rights. The church is urged to come to a consensus that "at some point there is not only the right but the duty to disobey the state". ... But in some circumstances "the use of defensive force may become a necessary and legitimate remedy for Christians", it suggests. "If, as most Christians accept, they should be politically involved in democratic processes, many believe this may, where necessary, take the form of active resistance to the state. This may encompass disobedience to law, civil disobedience, involving selective, non-violent resistance or, ultimately, violent revolution." ... However, the Very Rev Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark, said it would send out a confused message. "The fundamental themes of the gospel are love and reconciliation, not violent revolution," he said."
British Airways bans men sitting next to children they don't know - ""It is utterly absurd. It brands all men as potential sex offenders," she said." -- This is unbelievable. Oh, wait. I know better than that.
Perchlorates: REPORT ON WIDESPREAD ROCKET FUEL POLLUTION IN NATION'S FOOD AND WATER - "Perchlorate has also been widely detected in milk, lettuce, produce and other foods. In an alarming study, the CDC found perchlorate in the urine of every person tested."
Canadian nabbed in live Web sex assault - "The girl, a preschooler, was rescued two hours later in what Toronto police's child exploitation unit said was its first case of observing a live assault."
Six-year-old TV addicts prefer blank screen to a human face - "The results, described by scientists as deeply worrying, appear to show that youngsters are distancing themselves from interaction with real people because of their constant diet of television. Researchers found that they reacted as enthusiastically to the image of a television as alcoholics do to pictures of drink."
3 Calif. schools to fingerprint students - "A plan to fingerprint elementary school students when they buy lunch has some parents worrying that Big Brother has come to the cafeteria."
Some Texas School Districts Are Thinking E-Books - "School officials said the idea is to have most students using electronic textbooks within two years. A pilot program is underway for fifth- and sixth-graders."
Dolphin may have 'remains' of legs - "Japanese researchers said Sunday that a bottlenose dolphin captured last month has an extra set of fins that could be the remains of hind legs, a discovery that may provide further evidence that ocean-dwelling mammals once lived on land. ... Fossil remains show dolphins and whales were four-footed land animals about 50 million years ago and share the same common ancestor as hippos and deer. Scientists believe they later transitioned to an aquatic lifestyle and their hind limbs disappeared."
Quote of the Day
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell."
~ Aldous Huxley
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