News -- December 1, 2006

Iraq sets timetable for transfer - "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday his country's security forces will soon take responsibility for defending their country, and he and President Bush, after meeting here, said they have agreed to expand U.S. training of Iraqi forces and to transfer military control faster."

Iraq Panel to Urge Pullout Of Combat Troops by '08 - "The bipartisan Iraq Study Group plans to recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat units from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving behind troops to train, advise and support the Iraqis, setting the first goal for a major drawdown of U.S. forces, sources familiar with the proposal said yesterday." -- 2008? How depressing.

Diplomacy, not deadlines, key to Iraq, panel suggests - "Success in Iraq would rely more on diplomacy not deadlines under recommendations from a bipartisan commission, robbing many war critics of the impetus they wanted to force a speedy, sizable U.S. troop withdrawal from the battlefield."

'Israel knew Iraq had no nuclear weapons' - "But lawmaker Yossi Sarid, a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, said on Tuesday that Israeli intelligence knew beforehand that Iraq had no weapons stockpiles and misled US President George Bush."

U.S. warns of possible Qaeda financial cyber attack - "The U.S. government warned American private financial services on Thursday of an al Qaeda call for a cyber attack against online stock trading and banking Web sites beginning on Friday, a source said. The source, a person familiar with the warning, said the Islamic militant group aimed to penetrate and destroy the databases of the U.S. financial sites. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed an alert had been distributed but said there was no reason to believe the threat was credible." -- Stay scared people!

Day 1,900 With No Osama - "I usually post the latest update to my Osama Clock on Mondays but I just wanted to note that, effective today, it's been 1,900 days since tough-talking George W. Bush said he would smoke Osama bin Laden "out of his hole" and nail him dead or alive."

Wars wearing down military gear at cost of about $2 billion a month - "About $2 billion worth of Army and Marine Corps equipment — from rifles to tanks — is wearing out or being destroyed every month in Iraq and Afghanistan, military leaders and outside experts say." -- Think about how much money that is.

Newt World Order - "This is not some crackpot peddling a nonsense idea that we should simply laugh off, this is the former speaker of the House who is also gearing up for a 2008 Presidential run."

AP: Feds Rate Travelers for Terrorism - "Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals. The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years." -- Land of the free? My ass.

Phoenix Airport to Test X-Ray Screening - "Sky Harbor International Airport here will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons. The technology, called backscatter, has been around for several years but has not been widely used in the U.S. as an anti-terrorism tool because of privacy concerns."

New Rules Make Firms Track E-Mails, IMs - "U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say."

Threats To Internet Freedom All Too Real - "The Internet is the last true unregulated outpost of freedom of speech but moves are afoot to stifle, suffocate and control the world wide web. These threats are not hidden nor are they hard to deduce and yet a significant minority of truth seekers and activists remain naive as to their scope."

Police Decry Web Site on Informants - "Police and prosecutors are worried that a Web site claiming to identify more than 4,000 informants and undercover agents will cripple investigations and hang targets on witnesses."

Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned - "Paperless electronic voting machines used throughout the Washington region and much of the country "cannot be made secure," according to draft recommendations issued this week by a federal agency that advises the U.S. Election Assistance Commission."

Democrats to offer permanent tax cut - "Included in their "Six for '06" platform that they say helped them win majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats promised to: "Make college tuition deductible from taxes, permanently.""

The Sociopaths That Have Taken Over the Op-Ed Pages - "I would be quick to dismiss these statements as the insane blatherings of merely two lunatics who are clearly so embarrassed by their advocacy for the Iraq War, that they have lost all control of their faculties. But such absurd comments have now become a mainstay of today’s op-ed pages."

Prisoners of Envy: Wal*Mart Nihilism Versus the Punk Rock of Blogging - "This is the way an empire falls, with armies of confused killers abroad and legions of killer clowns at home."

Bush pledges fight against AIDS, promotes abstinence - "US President George W. Bush pledged US commitment to the global fight against AIDS and said abstinence was "the only sure way" to avoid the spread of the HIV virus that causes the disease." -- Being that humans are such sexual beings, abstinence is not a viable option for anything. Now, if only George Sr. and Barbara would have practiced abstinence. Oh, what a different world this would be.

GOP wants law to define when fetuses feel pain - "While they still can, House Republicans are looking at scheduling a vote next week on a fetal pain abortion bill in a parting shot at incoming majority Democrats and a last bid for loyalty from the GOP's base of social conservatives."

Study: U.S. workers prefer PPOs, HMOs - "People with employer-sponsored health coverage choose to enroll in traditional plans over consumer directed products, which have been touted as a way to lower health care costs, according to a survey released Friday."

Scientists fear results of collapsed ice shelf - "The Ross Ice Shelf, a raft of ice the size of France, could collapse quickly, triggering a dramatic rise in sea levels, scientists warn."

Mom unlocks baby talk - "An Australian mom claims to have discovered the holy grail of infant development — a universal baby language spoken by all newborns the world over. She believes it's composed of five distinct sounds: Neh, Owh, Heh, Eairh, Eh, meaning, I'm hungry; I'm sleepy; I'm experiencing discomfort (also known as "change my diaper already"); I have lower gas pain and I need to burp."

Chinese actress uses Web to expose the 'rule' of sex-for-roles - "Zhang says she won all her roles through sleeping with the directors, assistant directors or men in charge of casting. She also made films herself - of the casting couch sessions. Then she rocked the film and TV world by releasing 20 graphic sex videos of her and a host of big names. The videos are an insight into how China's casting couch works and millions of Chinese have logged on to the websites, prompting a debate over what is justifiable content on the Web."

Modern romance: Get texted when love is near - "Online dating is so last year. Now, if you're thinking romance, look to your mobile phone. Match-making companies are creating new services that allow people to post their dating profile online and then automatically receive a text message on a GPS-enabled phone when a match is nearby, say, at a coffee shop around the corner."

German sex educators plan spray-on condom - "Krause's team (spraykondom.de) is developing a type of spray can into which the man inserts his penis first. At the push of a button it is then coated in a rubber condom."It works by spraying on latex from nozzles on all sides," he said. "We call it the '360 degree procedure' - once round and from top to bottom. It's a bit like a car wash."" -- Because I can't make this stuff up.




Quote of the Day
"I think any time you murder somebody you're a criminal and I believe a just society, and a society that holds people to account and believes in the rule of law, protects innocent people from murderers - no matter what their political party is."
~ President George W. Bush