January 30, 2007

Edging Impeachment Back Onto the Table - "The news from former vice presidential chief of staff "Scooter" Libby's trial on charges of obstructing a federal investigation -- particularly the revelation that Vice President Dick Cheney wrote a memo that effectively confirms his intimate involvement in strategizing about how to counter the inquiry into the Bush administration's politically-motivated outing of CIA operative Valarie Plame -- should slowly but surely edge the prospect of impeachment back onto the table from which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi removed it."

The Unraveling of Dick Cheney - "But as his astonishing interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer laid bare last week, Cheney is increasingly out of touch with reality. He seems to think that by asserting things that are simply untrue, he can make others believe they are so."

Congress weighing strength of its war powers - "The alternatives range from capping the number of troops permitted in Iraq to cutting off money for troop deployments beyond a certain date or setting an end date for the war."

Specter: Bush not sole 'decision-maker' - "A Senate Republican on Tuesday directly challenged President Bush's declaration that "I am the decision-maker" on issues of war."

US must abandon Iraqi cities or face nightmare scenario, say experts - "The US must draw up plans to deal with an all-out Iraqi civil war that would kill hundreds of thousands, create millions of refugees, and could spill over into a regional catastrophe, disrupting oil supplies and setting up a direct confrontation between Washington and Iran. This is the central recommendation of a study by the Brookings Institution here, based on the assumption that President Bush's last-ditch troop increase fails to stabilise the country - but also on the reality that Washington cannot simply walk away from the growing disaster unleashed by the 2003 invasion."

Torture works on 24, but not for real - "You don’t protect the innocent by ‘breaking’ defenceless prisoners."

Was 9/11 really that bad? - "IMAGINE THAT on 9/11, six hours after the assault on the twin towers and the Pentagon, terrorists had carried out a second wave of attacks on the United States, taking an additional 3,000 lives. Imagine that six hours after that, there had been yet another wave. Now imagine that the attacks had continued, every six hours, for another four years, until nearly 20 million Americans were dead. This is roughly what the Soviet Union suffered during World War II, and contemplating these numbers may help put in perspective what the United States has so far experienced during the war against terrorism. It also raises several questions. Has the American reaction to the attacks in fact been a massive overreaction? Is the widespread belief that 9/11 plunged us into one of the deadliest struggles of our time simply wrong? If we did overreact, why did we do so? Does history provide any insight?"

Dutch man face terror trial in U.S. - "An Iraqi-born Dutch citizen pleaded not guilty yesterday in federal court in Washington to charges of conspiring with insurgents to attack U.S. military personnel in Iraq -- the first U.S. criminal prosecution arising from terrorist activities in Iraq."

Lt. Ehren Watada - "Watada's case is critical for two main reasons. If he is convicted for his speech charges, it sends a message to other war resisters that they will be penalized for their speech more harshly than even their decision not to deploy to Iraq. In addition, this sends a chilling message to journalists who wish to cover their story – that as a journalist you may be used as an arm of the prosecution to testify against your sources."

IDF builds fake Muslim city to prepare for war - "The IDF unveiled an Urban Warfare Training Center (UTC) on Monday in a mock city that simulates an Arab town, four months after the second Lebanon war ended. The unit's commanders firmly stated that the city was planned eight years ago and that construction began a year ago. They added that the current pace of the training was two battalions each week."

Airport Security Has Gaping Hole - "While passengers, pilots and flight attendants undergo careful screening, a CBS News hidden camera found that it is easy for employees at one of the busiest U.S. airports to get into a secure area: a flash of a badge, no X-rays, no physical screening — no questions asked."

US plans to 'fight the net' revealed - "A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks. Bloggers beware."

FBI turns to broad new wiretap method - "Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords."

RFID: A TINY CHIP IS A BIG THREAT TO CIVIL LIBERTIES - "What if the government could identify each and every product made on Planet Earth? What if the government could identify the specific products you own and use contain identification to tell if you had attended a political protest? If you don’t like the idea of the government collecting a huge database of phone numbers, you won’t like plans by the government and large corporations, such as Proctor and Gamble and Wal-mart, to label every item manufactured on earth with uniquely numbered Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags."

All the World's a Tag - "The basic idea is that a slew of emerging technologies -- RFID tags, wireless networking, portable devices hooked up to satellites, wearable computing -- will make objects in the real world act like the internet currently does. They'll be labeled, tagged, searchable and traceable, laden with tiny radio stations transmitting information to us, and storing information about us."

Proposal requires sex offenders to list e-mail, IM - "Thousands of Web sites with message boards or chat rooms would be encouraged to check their lists of registered users against a federal list of sex offenders, according to forthcoming legislation in the U.S. Congress."

Democrats unveil massive spending bill - "Democrats have unveiled a massive spending bill combining the budgets of 13 Cabinet agencies with increases in aid for lower-income college students, while cutting President Bush's funding requests for foreign aid and closing military bases."

CIA Helped Bush Senior In Oil Venture - "Newly released internal CIA documents assert that former president George Herbert Walker Bush's oil company emerged from a 1950's collaboration with a covert CIA officer."

Billionaire boom - "Robert Kiyosaki's "Retire Young, Retire Rich" is now must reading for aspirant billionaires. It took John D. Rockefeller 16 years to become a billionaire. Bill Gates did it in 10. Mike Dell in five. And Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page became multibillionaires in their late 20s. The collective worth of the world's 700-odd billionaires is now bumping $3 trillion. Their numbers grow by more than 100 new big ones a year."

Wal-Mart's New Marketing Strategy Hides Dirty Practices - "Wal-Mart is making over its image to cater to a more affluent crowd. But behind its increasingly upscale image are the same lowbrow business tactics."

Apple Computers: Fun for You, Toxic for the Environment - "Jobs and the PR wizards at Apple have done a fantastic job of positioning the company as the technological haven for the hip, the progressive and the revolutionary. But when it comes to the environment, Apple is out of touch."

Caring for America's health - "Americans who fall ill are cut no slack. A society which expects everyone to pay their way, expects it of them as well. As a jolly man selling life insurance pointed out to me the other day, most personal bankruptcies in the US are the result of illness. The story of American healthcare is one of huge expenditure for little obvious benefit."

Climate change means hunger and thirst for billions: report - "The report estimates that between 1.1 billion and 3.2 billion people will be suffering from water scarcity problems by 2080 and between 200 million and 600 million more people will be going hungry."

Global warming: rise of 4.5 C if pollution doubles, says draft report - "Among other things, the document declares it "very likely" that heatwaves and pounding rain will become more frequent, snow cover is projected to contract -- and typhoons and hurricanes will become less frequent but more powerful."

US urges scientists to block out sun - "THE US wants the world's scientists to develop technology to block sunlight as a last-ditch way to halt global warming."

10 years to save the planet - "A NEW worldwide movement backed by celebrities, musicians, politicians and business leaders is aiming to reverse the effects of global warming over the next decade."

This proposed smoking ban has some fuming - "When the City Council of this San Francisco suburb voted to consider what could be the most stringent tobacco regulation in America, anti-smoking activists cheered. Banning smoking everywhere but single-family detached homes and their yards would be a big step forward, even in health-conscious California. Then the blogosphere erupted."

Smoking Is Healthier Than Fascism - "Smoking Ban Is About Government Control; Believe it or not, the state really doesn't care about your health."

Drugmaker to test fat-fighting marijuana drug - "Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said Tuesday it plans to start human trials of an experimental treatment for obesity derived from cannabis."

Scientists: Flores island "Hobbit" is new species - "The tiny woman dubbed the Hobbit who lived 18,000 years ago on a remote Indonesian island deserves to be deemed a new human species and not a deformed modern human as skeptics assert, researchers said on Monday."

Forget your brats and beer: Tailgating is banned at the Super Bowl - "There's no grilling allowed. Forget about bringing a cooler full of beer. If you don't have tickets for the game, you won't be able to get near Dolphin Stadium. A lot of local fans aren't happy about it."




Quote of the Day
"There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself."
~ Senator Daniel K. Inouye - Iran Contra Hearings