News -- December 12, 2006

For Bush, victory is still the only option in Iraq - "While seeking a new course in Iraq, President Bush has not changed his tone about the stakes involved in the war, the importance of victory or his definition of success."

History will not treat us kindly - "Most Americans are hiding. We are like the good Germans of 1933 who knew an authoritarian regime was consolidating its power, but thought we could avoid personal consequences if we kept quiet. We remained silent as enemies of the State were rounded up, and everyones' liberties curtailed. It did not happen all at once. It was a process of conditioning. ... Many people refuse to recognize the corruption and evil of our government, because the thought is simply intolerable. It undermines their fundamental beliefs and trust, and makes most of what occupies their days utterly trivial. The “solution” for these people is to tune-out any potentially upsetting epiphany. They welcome reassuring propaganda that reinforces our noble purposes in the Middle East and elsewhere. They do not care to investigate personally, or even listen to, the evidence of our considerable crimes."

BUSH'S REIGN 'GRAVE, DETERIORATING' - "Good Luck. Even his daddy's buddies and a bipartisan panel can't get him to listen. It's not the message; it's his closed ears. President George W. Bush will never admit Iraq is disintegrating and his policies were doomed from the outset."

The "Iraq Memorial" should go on the White House Lawn - " Eventually, there’ll be a memorial to the men and women who died in Iraq, so where do we put it? ... I have an idea. Let’s tear down the rot-iron gates surrounding the White House. Let’s remove the cement abutments and the cyclone fencing. Let’s put up a 10 ft high crescent of black marble on the White House lawn skirting both sides of the presidential walkway. That way, we can be sure that any future president will be forced to pass by the stone monuments that bear the names of the men and women who lost their lives in Bush’s Folly."

Israel Nuke Comment Sparks Controversy - "In an interview with a German television station broadcast Monday, Olmert appeared to list Israel among the world's nuclear powers, violating the country's long-standing policy of not officially acknowledging that it has atomic weapons. ... "Iran openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map," Olmert said. "Can you say that this is the same level, when you are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?"" -- This was no "slip of the tongue."

Gulf states announce nuclear plan - "Six oil-rich Gulf nations have said they are considering seeking nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Officials from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE also urged a peaceful settlement to the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme. The six Arab states said they were exploring the possibility of creating a shared nuclear programme."

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots - "This week: George W. Bush (1, 2) is still in denial about Iraq, the Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee (4) washes its hands of the Foley matter, and we bid a not-so-fond farewell to all the Unseated Republicans (10). Buh-bye."

Rush Limbaugh Crosses the Line - "The patriot from Louisiana immediately called into question Limbaugh’s blatant disregard for the Constitution by praising Lincoln’s tactics in the so-called Civil War. Limbaugh was quick to point out that the Constitution was not, and probably is not, important, that the preservation of the union was. I find that interesting. A man, who claims to love freedom and independence, would rather have a despotic empire as long as the "union" is still intact. When Limbaugh was asked again about the Constitution, he conveniently avoided the question, and like a politician, replied with his own question, not on the same topic of course. Later in the call Rush began to sing Lincoln’s praises once more. Limbaugh even said that Lincoln did some things that he wished Bush would do. Like suspending the writ of habeas corpus, running people out of the country that are opposed to Bush’s policies and wars, and arresting those civilians. Sounds more like El Rushbo is a Nazi to me. Lincoln arrested people in the middle of the night, held them in prison without charge or cause, and never brought them to trial – all so that he could get his way of "preserving the Union." Anyone who thinks that Lincoln was a great president, and the hero of America needs to read Thomas DiLorenzo’s book, The Real Lincoln, and find out the truth about the "Great Emancipator." Lincoln’s Gestapo tactics were reminiscent of King George III, whose tyranny Americans had desperately sought to avoid."

Iran defends Holocaust conference - ""Its main aim is to create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust," he said."

The U.S. government hates democracy - "As far as I'm concerned, we can't put forward enough reminders of how the U.S. government—and the corporations that own it—do business. Platitudes about peace, freedom, justice, etc., aside, the land of the free is not even remotely interested in spreading democracy. There is an abundance of evidence to back up this assertion. For now, I offer the example of post-World War II Italy. Mussolini was gone but the U.S. elites had no intention of letting Italy slip through the cracks."

Democracy Shamocracy - "Democracy is supposed to be about ordinary people, common folk, having a say-so in the decisions that shape their lives; the idea that there’s an “inalienable right” to certain freedoms; that the only legitimate government is one that answers to “the people.” In democracies, people are not subjects, but citizens."

Gary Webb's Death: American Tragedy - "When Americans ask me what happened to the vaunted U.S. press corps over the past three decades – in the decline from its heyday of the Watergate scandal and the Pentagon Papers to its failure to challenge the Iraq WMD lies or to hold George W. Bush accountable – I often recall for them the story of Gary Webb."

A generation is all they need - "One day we will all happily be implanted with microchips, and our every move will be monitored. The technology exists; the only barrier is society's resistance to the loss of privacy." -- You've been warned.

China Tightening Control of Online Games - "China is tightening controls on its booming online game industry, requiring distributors to closely monitor game contents after some were found that included forbidden religious or political material, a state news agency said Tuesday."

'Inappropriate' anti-smoking ad pulled - "BRITAIN today delayed the airing of an "inappropriate" anti-smoking advertisement because it warned viewers that cigarettes contained the radioactive isotope that killed ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko."

TOP-LEVEL INSIDERS SELLING THEIR STOCK - "America's corporate chiefs are unloading their own stocks at one of the boldest paces in 20 years."

Apocalypto: The Most Powerful Film Of All Time - "Mel Gibson's Apocalypto is the most powerful film of all time, it is packed with strong positive messages and it is the most polished, iconic and awe-inspiring allegorical warning against the unrestrained power and abuse of government that cinema has ever seen."

DNA 'should be taken from babies' - "DNA samples should be taken from babies and stored on a database to help in the fight against crime, a senior police officer said yesterday."

By 2040: an Arctic with no ice? - "Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years, according to leading climatologists. Ships will be able to sail over the top of the world and tourists will be able visit what was, until climate change, one of planet’s most inaccessible landscapes."

Wi-Fi as a Health Hazard - "Sufferers of electromagnetic field sensitivity claim that the growing pervasiveness of wireless networks only exacerbates their condition. Skeptics discount their fears -- and their symptoms -- and the battle is joined."

Scientists take key step toward Alzheimer's test - "Scientists have identified a group of proteins that together indicate a person has Alzheimer's disease in what may be a big step toward an accurate test for the devastating brain ailment."

Synthetic Biology: Creating New Life Forms by Rearranging DNA - "Synthetic biologists claim they intend to create bioengineered organisms that can "produce pharmaceuticals, detect toxic chemicals, break down pollutants, repair defective genes, destroy cancer cells." [The New Atlantis, Spring, 2006] These are laudable objectives. But there is a dark side to the direction they are taking. ... Synthetic biologists extend their work even beyond the concerns of genetically modified (GMO) foods. They want to design new strands of DNA into sequences that result in totally man-made viruses, no part being derived from DNA sequences found in nature."

Musicians Oppose Media Consolidation - "Singers, Songwriters Speak Out Against Media Consolidation in Public FCC Hearing. ... "Big radio is bad radio," Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America, told FCC commissioners in the second of six public meetings nationwide. "You can drive I-40 from Knoxville to Barstow, California, and hear the same 20 songs on every country radio station.""

Mozart's entire musical score now free on Net - "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's year-long 250th birthday party is ending on a high note with the musical scores of his complete works available from Monday for the first time free on the Internet."





Quote of the Day
"Today is better than tomorrow."
~ Popular Baghdad saying

Second Quote of the Day
"I awoke to another depressing day here on Earth."
~ Randy Anderson

News -- December 11, 2006

U.S. Denies Liability in Torture Case - "The Bush administration asserted in federal court yesterday that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and three former military officials cannot be held liable for the alleged torture of nine Afghans and Iraqis in U.S. military detention camps because the detainees have no standing to sue in U.S. courts."

Actually, the "Bad News" From Iraq is "Significantly Underreported" - "Baghdad and its environs are far too dangerous for most reporters to go visit, for example, hospitals or morgues in the country's worst hot spots -- most of the info we get from the media is based on these official data. So if the military is underreporting the 'bad news' the dreaded EM-ES-EM is as well. And then there's the very real likelihood that the "good news" about the status of reconstruction projects in Iraq coming from USAID and other agencies is quite significantly overreported. That suggests that, if anything, the commercial media is painting a better picture of Iraq than the facts on the ground warrant, which is a scary thought. "

Annan criticizes U.S. in farewell speech - "U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his farewell address, criticized the Bush administration, warning that America must not sacrifice its Democratic ideals while waging war against terrorism. ... "Human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity," Annan's text said. When the U.S. "appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused," he said."

Cornered US Military Takes to Desperate Tactics in Iraq - "People living in areas where resistance to U.S.-led occupation is mounting are facing increased levels of collective punishment from the occupation forces, residents say."

Time for Bush to Go! - "Despite wishful thinking about Bush “making a 180” and taking to heart the bipartisan Iraq Study Group’s 79 recommendations, the President is making it abundantly clear that he has no intention to reverse course, negotiate with his Muslim adversaries or pull American combat troops out of Iraq."

Iran offers to help U.S. withdraw from Iraq - "Iran's foreign minister delivered a blunt challenge to the United States on Saturday, saying Tehran is willing to help U.S. troops withdraw from neighboring Iraq but only if Washington makes some tough policy changes."

Israel's Olmert calls for dramatic measures against Iran - "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called for more dramatic measures to be taken against Iran and declined to rule out a military attack against Tehran in an interview with Germany's Spiegel magazine."

The Problem with Israel - "Let’s be honest (for once): The problem in the Middle East is not the Palestinian people, not Hamas, not the Arabs, not Hezbollah or the Iranians or the entire Muslim world. It’s us, the Israelis."

George Will: The problem with Iraq is that they're all savages - "Portraying the Iraqis as a bunch of irrational, bloodthirsty savages -- people fighting over some religious arcana who are "very difficult to help" -- is the latest craze on the right. Last week, the ever-charming Bill O'Reilly said: 'Do I care if the Sunnis and Shiites kill each other in Iraq? No… Let them kill each other. Maybe they'll all kill each other, and then we can have a decent country in Iraq.' This is a particularly disgusting bit of historical revisionism, but it's also quite familiar. It recalls 19th-century Europeans (and Americans) who embraced the idea that colonized peoples were infantile and incapable of self-governance. It shares the same roots as Jim Crow, which was largely justified by the idea that the newly freed slaves were incapable of functioning without the guidance of their former masters. It's social Darwinism, as clear as day. The narrative is intended to shift blame for the catastrophic sequence of events in Iraq from the policy-makers who started it to the Iraqis themselves. It's also simply wrong -- Iraq was a functional, modern and secular society before the Iran-Iraq war, and at least a functional one before the 2003 invasion. The chaos that followed resulted from choices made by the administration, not some deep-seated dysfunction in Iraq's culture."

And Now Come The Realists? - "When Donald Rumsfeld quit, no one in Europe noticed. He had long been a dead man walking. But it was different with the news that John Bolton had resigned as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In the foreign ministries of Europe, champagne corks popped in preholiday glee. With his droopy spaghetti-Western mustache and boorish manner, Bolton had come to epitomize all that America's friends hate about American foreign policy so far this century."

Iran Opens Holocaust Conference - "Iran on Monday opened a Holocaust conference that it said would examine whether the genocide took place, claiming the meeting was an opportunity for discussion in an atmosphere free of Western taboos."

9/11: The Roots of Paranoia - "According to a July poll conducted by Scripps News Service, one-third of Americans think the government either carried out the 9/11 attacks or intentionally allowed them to happen in order to provide a pretext for war in the Middle East. This is at once alarming and unsurprising. Alarming, because if tens of millions of Americans really believe their government was complicit in the murder of 3,000 of their fellow citizens, they seem remarkably sanguine about this fact. By and large, life continues as before, even though tens of millions of people apparently believe they are being governed by mass murderers. Unsurprising, because the government these Americans suspect of complicity in 9/11 has acquired a justified reputation for deception: weapons of mass destruction, secret prisons, illegal wiretapping. What else are they hiding?"

Droves say goodbye to Golden State - "Between 2004 and 2005, the migration flow into California from the other 49 states started flowing the other way. Data from the state Department of Finance shows that, for the first time this decade, more people left California in 2005 for another state than the number who moved in. Mary Heim, a finance department demographer, says this particular kind of outflow will continue for the foreseeable future."

U.S. has most prisoners in world due to tough laws - ""The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. We rank first in the world in locking up our fellow citizens," said Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports alternatives in the war on drugs."

"I want that camera." -- Check out the video.

YouTube Adds a Layer of Filtering to Be a Little Nicer - "When the video-sharing site YouTube.com was sold to Google, many of its users worried that corporate ownership would restrict the content of its videos. But now one of YouTube’s corporate partners is changing the ways that users comment on those videos instead."

Excommunicated cleric installs married men as bishops - "An excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop continued to defy the Vatican when he installed two married priests as bishops on Sunday. ... In a visible break from tradition, the wives of both men helped their husbands on with their vestments before each man was anointed."

Expensive Ignorance - "The Intercollegiate Studies Institute authorized the survey, which was conducted by the University of Connecticut's political-science department. In a random sampling, students from 50 colleges and universities were given a 60-question test with multiple-choice answers. The results were dismal."

UN downgrades man's impact on the climate - "The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there can be little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet, but the organisation has reduced its overall estimate of this effect by 25 per cent."

Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars - "A United Nations report has identified the world's rapidly growing herds of cattle as the greatest threat to the climate, forests and wildlife. And they are blamed for a host of other environmental crimes, from acid rain to the introduction of alien species, from producing deserts to creating dead zones in the oceans, from poisoning rivers and drinking water to destroying coral reefs."

Airport Christmas trees removed - "All 15 Christmas trees inside the terminal at Sea-Tac have been removed in response to a complaint by a rabbi. A local rabbi wanted to install an 8-foot menorah and have a public lighting ceremony. He threatened to sue if the menorah wasn’t put up, and gave a two-day deadline to remove the trees."

'Ray gun' cancer cure nears speed of light - ""Most of our patients won't lose their hair or even feel at all unwell because we are getting the beam to exactly where it needs to be, so healthy organs aren't being affected"."




Quote of the Day
"So much happens that the public doesn’t know about. People really need to wake up and not accept everything at face value."
~ Anonymous

News -- December 8, 2006

Ten Reasons To Impeach The President - "Remember what Bill Clinton was impeached for when reading the following ten reasons why George W Bush should be impeached:"

Bush Expresses Caution on Key Points in Iraq Panel’s Report - "President Bush moved quickly on Thursday to distance himself from the central recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group: pulling back all combat brigades over the next 15 months and direct talks with Iran and Syria."

Cracks appear between Bush and Blair over need for talks with Iran and Syria - "Differences have emerged between Tony Blair and George Bush on strategy in the Middle East, even as the two leaders agreed that a major change of course was necessary in Iraq in the wake of the devastating critique delivered this week by a high-level bipartisan panel in Washington."

Israel frets over Iraq report, dispatches FM to Washington - " Israel's foreign minister has arrived in the United States amid worries that the Jewish state's main ally could shift course after a report urged Washington to redouble Mideast peacemeaking efforts."

Israelis piqued by Gates nuclear "confirmation" - "Some Israelis were less pleased, however, to hear Gates mention with equal frankness what U.S. administrations have long avoided uttering in public -- that the Jewish state has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal. ... Israel neither confirms nor denies having the bomb, as part of a "strategic ambiguity" policy that it says fends off numerically superior enemies while avoiding an arms race. By not declaring itself to be nuclear armed, Israel also skirts a U.S. ban on funding countries that proliferate weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than $2 billion in annual military and other aid from Washington. ... This sanctioned reticence is a major irritant for Arabs and Iran, which see a double-standard in U.S. policy in the region."

Robert Fisk: The Roman Empire is falling - so it turns to Iran and Syria - "This is also the language of the Arab world, always waiting for the collapse of empire, for the destruction of the safe Western world which has provided it with money, weapons, political support. First, the Arabs trusted the British Empire and Winston Churchill, and then they trusted the American Empire and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Truman and Eisenhower administrations and all the other men who would give guns to the Israelis and billions to the Arabs - Nixon, Carter, Clinton, Bush... And now they are told that the Americans are not winning the war; that they are losing. If you were an Arab, what would you do? Be sure, they are not asking this question in Washington."

Democratic Party Denies Democracy “We will not cut off funding for the troops” - "It is generally understood that the recent overthrow of Republican control of congress was a direct result of the war in Iraq. As if taking Impeachment off the table wasn’t enough, now Democratic ‘leaders’ are promising to stay the course in Iraq. Americans are tired of destroying an innocent nation, killing hundreds of thousands and poisoning possibly millions with Depleted Uranium just so Halliburton can continue it’s looting. The problem however, is that the Democratic leadership doesn’t feel the same way about humanity as the rest of us. They think that We the People put them in power so that they could get more corporate donations than the Republicans."

Bush could bypass new torture ban - "When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief."

Follow God or vanish, Ahmadinejad tells West - ""They are angry with our nation. But we tell them 'so be it and die from this anger'. Rest assured that if you do not respond to the divine call, you will die soon and vanish from the face of the earth," he said."

Flirting With Fascism on CNN Headline News - "Host Glenn Beck threatens Muslims with concentration camps. ... All you Muslims who have sat on your frickin' hands the whole time and have not been marching in the streets and have not been saying, 'Hey, you know what? There are good Muslims and bad Muslims. We need to be the first ones in the recruitment office lining up to shoot the bad Muslims in the head.' I'm telling you, with God as my witness... human beings are not strong enough, unfortunately, to restrain themselves from putting up razor wire and putting you on one side of it. When things—when people become hungry, when people see that their way of life is on the edge of being over, they will put razor wire up and just based on the way you look or just based on your religion, they will round you up. Is that wrong? Oh my gosh, it is Nazi, World War II wrong, but society has proved it time and time again: It will happen."

Rumsfeld faces personal suit by detainees - "Former detainees represented by human rights groups accuse him — along with a top general of the Iraq war, a former commander of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a commander of U.S. military intelligence and police forces — with "derelictions of duty and command" and promoting the practice of inflicting "physical and psychological injuries" on civilians held by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Rumsfeld Wants Torture Case Dismissed - "The lawsuit, filed by two civil rights groups, describes the imprisonment of nine foreigners detained in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lawsuit contends the men were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions."

Abu Ghraib Whistleblower Worries - "Like most soldiers serving in Iraq, Joe Darby just wanted to go home when his time was up. But blowing the whistle on his unit members for abusing Iraqi prisoners changed all that, and now the former military police specialist lives in an undisclosed city with his wife, still worried for their safety."

Venezuela's Opposition Concedes: Chavez Is Here to Stay - "How big was the leftist leader's reelection victory? So big his opponents didn't even cry foul."

Eminem Track: Public Enemy 1 -- Have a listen.

Iran plans to reduce use of dollar in trade - "Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, plans to reduce its use of the US dollar in world trade and increase use of the euro, two Tehran-based newspapers reported."

Richard Dawkins: You Ask The Questions Special - "It would be intolerant if I advocated the banning of religion, but of course I never have. I merely give robust expression to views about the cosmos and morality with which you happen to disagree. You interpret that as 'intolerance' because of the weirdly privileged status of religion, which expects to get a free ride and not have to defend itself. If I wrote a book called The Socialist Delusion or The Monetarist Delusion, you would never use a word like intolerance. But The God Delusion sounds automatically intolerant. Why? What's the difference? I have a (you might say fanatical) desire for people to use their own minds and make their own choices, based upon publicly available evidence. Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private 'revelation'. There is a huge difference."

The Bible Unearthed - "It was under King Josiah that the Bible was finally written and something resembling modern Judaism begins to take shape in the 7th and 8th centuries BC. It is a political document that is designed to glorify the Josiah and to connect him falsely with the golden era when the state of Israel briefly rose up as a powerful and advanced civilized centre. The Bible is essentially a work of propaganda, weaving historical fragments and myths of various Canaanite peoples into a powerful justification for Josiah's rule and expansionist policies."

NY Times: End seen to use of 'paperless' evoting machines - ""By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are likely to see sweeping changes in how they cast their ballots and how those ballots are counted," write Ian Urbina and Christopher Drew, "including an end to the use of most electronic voting machines without a paper trail.""

Many Americans too illiterate to understand prescription medication labels - "More and more people living in America don't have the needed English-language literacy skills to read, interpret and follow directions -- and that can cause big problems when prescription medications are not taken per the doctor's orders. Even people with higher levels of literacy still can't understand some intricacies of medication labels."

Internet gangs hire students for cybercrime - "Organized gangs have adopted "KGB-style" tactics to hire high-flying computer students to commit Internet crime, a report said on Friday. Criminals are targeting universities, computer clubs and online forums to find undergraduates, according to Internet security firm McAfee. Some gangs have sponsored promising students from other disciplines to attend computer courses before planting them in businesses as "sleepers.""

Now Viagra 'helps the body fight cancer' - "VIAGRA and other impotence drugs help switch on the immune system to attack a range of cancers, a study has found."

Boston company will test nasal spray treatment for obesity - ""It seems so simple - blocking the sense of smell and taste," company chief executive Chris Adams wrote in an e-mail. "But it has never been used to treat obesity, and it really does work. Our bodies do not crave what we cannot smell or taste.""

Ebola virus kills 5,000 gorillas, says study - "An outbreak of Ebola virus in northwestern Republic of Congo has killed 5,000 gorillas, helping to push the threatened species even closer to extinction, a study says."

Danger? Nanotube-Infested Waters Created in the Lab - "Carbon nanomaterials can mix in water despite being hydrophobic, raising the possibility of a spreading spill in the future."

Mars water evidence excites NASA - "After decades of scouring images of Mars for signs of water, scientists believe they have found stunning evidence that water may even now be flowing through the Red Planet's frigid surface."

NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows on Mars - "NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years."

Radical New Tire design by Michelin - "Here are photos of the new Michelin tires. These tires are airless and are scheduled to be out on the market very soon."




Quote of the Day
"This is the way an empire falls, with armies of confused killers abroad and legions of killer clowns at home."
~ Phil Rockstroh

News -- December 6, 2006

We Are All Tortures Now! - "This video contains graphic images and audio of torture and should only be viewed by a mature audience." -- Watch.

Gore to Bush on Iraq: It's Not About You - ""I would urge the President to try to separate out the personal issues of being blamed in history for his mistake and instead recognizing that it is not about him. It’s about our country," Gore said in an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer."

Letter from James Abourezk, former US Senator from South Dakota to Jeff Blankfort on the Israel Lobby - " I can tell you from personal experience that, at least in the Congress, the support Israel has in that body is based completely on political fear--fear of defeat by anyone who does not do what Israel wants done. I can also tell you that very few members of Congress--at least when I served there--have any affection for Israel or for its Lobby. What they have is contempt, but it is silenced by fear of being found out exactly how they feel. I've heard too many cloakroom conversations in which members of the Senate will voice their bitter feelings about how they're pushed around by the Lobby to think otherwise. In private one hears the dislike of Israel and the tactics of the Lobby, but not one of them is willing to risk the Lobby's animosity by making their feelings public."

US Seeks Near-Total Isolation for Gitmo - "As the new Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress considers whether to revisit the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), the administration of President George W. Bush is proposing still more restrictions on detainees in U.S. custody. The government has proposed limiting contact between defense lawyers and detainees at Guantanamo Bay because it says detainees' communications, such as news of world events, could incite the prisoners to violence."

Iraq Study Group: Situation 'grave and deteriorating' - "The Iraq Study Group's report given to President Bush on Wednesday says the United States needs to change its strategy to tackle the "grave and deteriorating" situation in Iraq. Failure to halt the crisis could bring severe consequences to Iraq, the broader region and the United States, the bipartisan panel warned in a report handed to Bush at the White House."

Gates Says U.S. Is Not Winning Iraq War - "Robert Gates, the White House choice to be the next defense secretary, conceded Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and warned that if that country is not stabilized in the next year or two it could lead to a "regional conflagration.""
Tony Snow: President Disagrees With Gates, Says We Are 'Winning' in Iraq - "Snow said that, as far as he knows, the president has not backed away from his recent statement that the U.S. is actually "winning" in Iraq. He also suggested that Gates, elsewhere in his testimony, seemed to say that maybe we weren't losing and we weren't winning. And he charged that the press was being too negative about all this: "What I think is demoralizing is a constant effort to try to portray this as a losing mission," he said." -- Try this is a "lost" mission, Tony.

Blair agrees war 'not being won' - "Tony Blair has agreed with the incoming US defence secretary's assessment that the war in Iraq is not being won."

Congress must insist Bush isn't above law - "Should President Bush be impeached? The very idea seems extreme, if not loony. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has explicitly ruled impeachment off the Democratic majority's agenda. But activists and legal scholars are organizing to pressure Democrats to begin impeachment hearings. And the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers, has issued two remarkable studies on abuses of presidential authority, raising the question of impeachable offenses."

Gingrich Lies To Assault Free Speech Again - "Not content with last week's brazen attack on the First Amendment during a speaking engagement in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich has swung another right hook in the direction of freedom of speech, by exploiting non-existent statements and Neo-Con propaganda as a reason for shutting down websites and gagging political dissent in America. ... Gingrich's latest attempt to chill dissent in America relies on fraudulent claims and biased sources to present an argument that terrorists are hiding behind the First Amendment in order to recruit for jihad. It echoes similar rhetoric contained in the White House's own strategy document for "winning the war on terror," which identifies conspiracy theorists as terrorist wellsprings. ... The problem with this superficially reasonable statement is that Gingrich and his Neo-Fascist sympathizers classify any dissent against the Bush administration as "aiding the enemy," "hating America," and thus in effect calling for "the destruction of Western civilization," and won't hesitate to tar everyone with the same brush as we have seen all too may times on Fox News in the past. ... Secondly, the claim that Ahmadinejad "threatens to kill Americans in large numbers if we don't submit to his demands," is to be found nowhere in the Iranian leader's letter. Gingrich has carte blanche invented this supposition out of thin air as an excuse to craft his warped argument that the First Amendment should not be a "suicide pact." ... Freedom to dissent is the lifeblood of any society with a modicum of liberty. Wrapping his argument in a camouflage of fighting the phony war on terror, Gingrich's real targets are those who are wise enough to ignore all the chilling attempts on freedom of speech and exercise their inalienable rights without recourse. Under the terms of reference defined by the Founding Fathers, it is people like Gingrich himself, not ghost terrorists in far-flung caves, that are the real threat to the American way of life, and their creed of tyrants rhetoric should be countered at every turn."

U.S. alienates Muslim citizens at its peril - "When the 110th Congress is sworn in next month, Rep.-elect Keith Ellison intends to recite his oath of office with one hand on the Quran. That's right - Ellison's a Muslim, the first ever elected to the House of Representatives. Sadly, that makes him a controversial guy. In Ellison's home state of Minnesota and across the country, the religious right is up in arms over his decision not to use a Christian Bible during the induction ceremony. The American Family Association has even lobbied Congress to prohibit the use of the Quran, the Torah and other non-Christian books for swearing in new representatives."

God. Who knows? - "But there is one voice that is squeezed out, partly because it can equivocate, partly because it tires of the tit-for-tat that the debate is so often reduced to. That is the agnostic. It is a position that interests me because I used to be a priest in the Church of England. Then, to cut a long story short, I left - and I left a confirmed atheist. After a while, I found unbelief as dissatisfying as full-blown Christianity. It seems to entail a kind of puritanism, as if certain areas of human experience must be put off-limits, for fear that they smack of religion. So I became an agnostic. Now, many atheists and believers alike think agnosticism weak. Atheists would bundle us in with them; liberal believers likewise. But this does us a disservice. In fact, I have become really quite evangelical about the need for a passionate, committed agnosticism. Why? How else to deal with something that lies at the heart of the human condition: uncertainty."

Atheists are the new outcast minority - "History reveals that, in whatever society we are talking about, minorities are frequently the scapegoats for whatever are the prevailing ills of the day. Depending upon the society, the minority blame-game may be related to skin color, religious affiliation, ethnicity, sexual preferences, etc. Take your pick: Chinese, Irish, Germans, Hungarians, Asians, Catholics, Jews or Africans. All of them at one time or another were regarded as second-class citizens. African-Americans continued to bear the brunt of the minority label until segregation gasped its last breaths in the 1960s. Another minority, homosexuals, were for years regarded as the scum of the Earth, as witnessed by the brutal ways in which they were routinely harassed. Today, many homosexuals have come "out of the closet" even though they have not yet been allowed to enter the rest of the house to enjoy their so-called guaranteed civil liberties. The most recent bogeyman is the atheist. You know who he is -- the secularist who wants a wall of separation between church and state, the elitist scientist who believes in evolution and not creationism, and the pagan who not only promotes pornography and abortion but also has created a social climate reprehensible to all Christian values. And if you're a born-again atheist all those labels may apply to you. Christians in this country believe that unless God is at the center of national life we will be forever exposed to crime, poverty, warfare and disease. Although science cannot prove the existence or absence of God, it has been able to provide some interesting statistics that make one think twice about the existence and importance of God in a society. Countries regarded as secular or whose populations have by choice abandoned religion have been compared with those who are considered religious. Studies have demonstrated that when one measures life expectancy, literacy, income and education, nations whose populations are religious do poorly as compared to the more nonreligious ones. In addition, studies of non-African countries reveal that nations with the highest rate of homicide are religious." -- Now that is interesting.

Richest 2% hold half the world’s assets - "Personal wealth is distributed so unevenly across the world that the richest two per cent of adults own more than 50 per cent of the world’s assets while the poorest half hold only 1 per cent of wealth. ... To belong to the top 1 per cent of the world’s wealthiest adults you would need more than $500,000, something that 37m adults have achieved. So much of the world’s wealth is concentrated in few hands that if all the world’s wealth was distributed evenly, each person would have $20,500 of assets to use."

Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week - "Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January. The horror." -- They are so out of touch with the average American.

What Is A Communitarian? - "Communitarians believe that all neighborhoods should be governed like Chinese collectives. They teach that mandatory volunteerism in the community is a moral obligation of all citizens, and that intervening and reporting on your neighbors is required to maintain their individual freedom. It may sound like two conflicting ideologies, but it's not. Communitarianism balances all political conflicts into one master, ideological solution."

Mary Cheney and Partner Are About to Be Moms - "Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter, is pregnant. She and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are "ecstatic" about the baby, due in late spring, said a source close to the couple."

Study disputes cell phone-cancer link - "A huge study from Denmark offers the latest reassurance that cell phones don't trigger cancer. Scientists tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including 52,000 who had gabbed on the gadgets for 10 years or more, and some who started using them 21 years ago."

Alps experiencing warmest period in 1,300 years, climatologist says - "Boehm said the current warm period in the alpine region began in the noting that a similar warming occurred in the 10th and 12th centuries. However, the temperatures during those phases were "slightly under the temperatures we've experienced over the past 20 years.""

Study: Moms at risk for mental problems - "New moms face increased risks for a variety of mental problems, not just postpartum depression, according to one of the largest studies of psychiatric illness after childbirth."

South Carolina mother has son arrested for playing with Christmas present - "A fed-up mother had her 12-year-old son arrested for allegedly rummaging through his great-grandmother's things and playing with his Christmas present early."

Man Accused Of Faking Retardation -- For 20 Years - "For nearly 20 years -- ever since Pete Costello was 8 -- his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf. In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn't read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car. But now prosecutors said it was all a huge fraud, and they have video of Costello contesting a traffic ticket to prove it."

NASA Schedules Briefing to Announce Significant Find on Mars - "NASA hosts a news briefing at 1 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec. 6, to present new science results from the Mars Global Surveyor."

Does water STILL flow on Mars? - "Dramatic new photographs of Mars have revealed the possible existence of water on its surface."

NASA telescope sees black hole gulping remote star - "A giant black hole displaying horrifying table manners has been caught in the act of guzzling a star in a galaxy 4 billion light-years away, scientists using an orbiting NASA telescope said on Tuesday. For the past two years, scientists have monitored the dramatic events as the star, residing in a galaxy in the Bootes constellation, was ripped apart by the black hole."

The Sound of Silence - "The emerging science of infrasound may help track – or even predict – earthquakes and other disasters."




Quote of the Day
"And the wars go on with brainwashed pride for the love of God and our human rights."
~ Guns n' Roses

News -- December 5, 2006

'US won't order preemptive Iran strike' - "The chances of an American strike are deemed "low," according to assessments by the security establishment. Israel also believes that international diplomatic efforts to stop Iran will fail, security sources said."

Blair Unveils Plan for Nuclear Missiles - " "In these circumstances, it would be unwise and dangerous for Britain alone of any of the nuclear powers to give up its independent nuclear deterrent," he said." -- But yet other countries should be prevented from acquiring their own 'independent nuclear deterrent'?

Iraq Study Group Offers No Real Plan for Withdrawal - "If we were to follow the recommendations of James Baker's Iraq Study Group, we'd be embedded in Iraq for at least another three to five years."

IRAQ IS BROKE -- MAYBE WE WILL BE, TOO - "About 25 percent of the Americans who voted in last month's congressional elections believed Iraq was the most important issue of the day -- at least that is what polls told us. A few more than 10 percent of poll respondents cited the state of the economy as what was most important to them. My guess is that those figures will be reversed in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections. Unless American leadership is even crazier than it has been these last few years, we will be out or well on our way out of the grotesquely expensive disaster in the desert. But many Americans who consider themselves middle-class may be on hard or harder times two years from now. We are living in a house of cards."

Jews and Arabs can never live together, says Israel's vice PM - "In his first interview since taking office – exclusively with The Sunday Telegraph – Mr Lieberman said that the best means of achieving peace in the Middle East would be for Jews and Arabs to live apart, including those Arabs who now live inside Israel."

Say Hello to the Goodbye Weapon - "The crowd is getting ugly. Soldiers roll up in a Hummer. Suddenly, the whole right half of your body is screaming in agony. You feel like you've been dipped in molten lava. You almost faint from shock and pain, but instead you stumble backwards -- and then start running. To your surprise, everyone else is running too. In a few seconds, the street is completely empty. You've just been hit with a new nonlethal weapon that has been certified for use in Iraq -- even though critics argue there may be unforeseen effects. ... The beam produces what experimenters call the "Goodbye effect," or "prompt and highly motivated escape behavior." In human tests, most subjects reached their pain threshold within 3 seconds, and none of the subjects could endure more than 5 seconds." -- Because that's what humans love to do: make weapons.

The Checks and Balances Myth - "How important to civilised government is a written constitution? ... The Federal Constitution of the United States offered one of the earliest models for democratic government in history, but has proven itself powerless to provide a corruption-free government, and is incapable of protecting itself from being violated by a handful of evil and corrupt individuals. ... So what is it about the Swiss model that provides this paragon of good government? Here's a clue: can you name the Swiss head of state? ... I believe the single most important feature of the Swiss model which allows for these most excellent qualities is that the Swiss themselves are empowered to make political decisions. Important changes to government policy must be put to the people before they can be enacted, and every year every Swiss citizen is invited to vote on numerous government proposals, even if they live abroad. No significant changes can be made without the people's consent. No one knows who the Swiss head of state is because he's almost an irrelevance; it's the Swiss people themselves who are in charge, not some elitist puppet representative of renegade corporations." -- Hmmm.

Government blacks out whole response to ethics watchdog's FOIA request - "posting on the blog of the group CREW shares pdf documents containing almost all substantive material redacted from the response to the organization's FOIA request. CREW was following up on earlier disputed FOIA requests seeking the logs of visitors to the White House. CREW writes that "We believe that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been in a dispute with the White House about those records. NARA doesn't quite buy the White House argument -- and we want to know what they've said to the White House." The blog post shares the outcome of the FOIA request, in which extensive e-mail communication between NARA and White House officials are visible. However, the entirety of the substantive e-mail communication has been redacted. "Most of what we got from NARA was pages filled with those black boxes," said CREW. "You have to wonder what they are trying so hard to hide.""

BRAINWASHING REVISITED - "Why are a few public uses of the word “nigger” worth $10 million? This is a word that blacks use daily when addressing each other in ordinary conversation. But, if you are white, you felt a twinge just now – didn’t you? – when you read the word on your screen. Seeing the word triggered something in your head. ... Again, I offer my periodic request that you read a couple of books by the man who coined the term “brainwashing,” journalist Ed Hunter. I believe that if enough Americans were to read those books, the “Kramer” problem would evaporate. They are Brainwashing and Brainwashing in Red China. Don’t let the titles fool you. Because Ed Hunter was a journalist and a good writer, both books are very easy to read and exciting. They will prove that what is happening to us has happened before; it is exactly what the Communists did in Red China."

Was "Kramer" Richards' Racist Rant Staged? - "There seems little doubt that Richards will be held up by the hate speech crowd as an example of how all controversial speech, be it as distasteful or not, has to be seriously regulated and punished by an action of the state."

Katherine Harris contributor indicted for sending white powder, threats to liberals, while our famously free press yawns - "So, a winger sends threats and white powder to liberals, the LA Times buries the story in local news, and nobody else picks up on it. That darn liberal media:"

Wal-Mart Girds for Showdown With New Congress on Unions, Trade - "Wal-Mart Stores Inc., long an ally of Republicans, has spent the last two years ramping up political donations to Democrats. The company will soon find out whether that bet will pay off." -- Aren't political "donations" really just a form of bribery?

Democrats inspect faith-based initiative - "Two leading Democrats on the House International Relations Committee said they want to investigate President Bush's faith-based initiative to determine whether taxpayer funds are being used to reward Bush's Christian conservative supporters and whether the faith-based groups are using the funds to help gain converts. In addition, Democrats on the panel said they could be in a strong position to try to overturn a measure that requires one-third of AIDS prevention money overseas to be spent on "abstinence-until-marriage" programs."

In the Diaspora: In-your-face atheism - "Those volumes do not settle for celebrating atheism while leaving poor, misguided theists alone. The new books are the literary equivalent of an intervention for a drug-addicted friend, a frontal assault on the very possibility that any intelligent human being could actually believe in God."

Atheism Is Not a Religion - "You hear it regularly from talking heads like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter (whose latest 'book', Godless, is subtitled The Church of Liberalism), and you're only going to hear it more now that the War on Christmas season is upon us: atheism is a religion just as sure as Christianity is, and all these heathens want to do is foist their religion on the good, god-fearing folk of America. There's always an undercurrent of defensiveness and desperation in this claim, as if one's own faith is invalidated by the existence of a genuinely different approach to life and the universe. In making their convoluted arguments, people who conflate atheism with religion actually weaken the foundations upon which their own belief is built. Atheism simply cannot be a religion unless that term carries essentially no meaning. Here's a handy list of qualities shared by almost all religions that atheism lacks: ... So, atheism shares none of the characteristics common to all belief systems commonly known as religions. Even widely-despised and derided belief systems like Satanism, Wicca, paganism and Presbyterianism are religions by these standards. Atheism is not. Arguing that it is means that faith in god, ritual, community, tradition, spirituality and theology are irrelevant. Religion then becomes an incredibly paltry thing. It is not a source of solace and spiritual wonder; it is not a vehicle for bringing symmetry to the chaos of life and meaning to the void - it's just the act of taking a position on the existence of god. That's it. How pathetic. ... There's no question that certain religious groups would like to impose their narrow view of the world on everyone. These people need to be opposed at every turn. But this does not mean that religion as a whole should be denigrated or dismissed as irrelevant. ... So much of the atheism versus religion debate takes place at the intractable fringes where there are so rarely either hearts or minds to be won. If we can surge past this white noise, however, we may come to a place where differences can be honestly respected and ideas can be exchanged in good faith (if you will)."

Firebrand pushes Atheism - "Over the next 70 minutes, Samuel painstakingly interviews several world authorities on science and organized religion to form a reasonably balanced account of the ills wrought upon civilization by belief in a single, omnipotent god."

Universal, MySpace set for landmark battle - "The legal battle brewing between Universal Music and MySpace could shape the broader commercial relationship between traditional media companies and a new generation of internet start-ups that rely on them for content."

Media climate - ""Senator Inhofe believes that poorly conceived policy decisions will result from the media's nonstop hyping of 'extreme scenarios' and dire climate predictions," said committee Communications Director Marc Morano. "This hearing will serve to advance the interests of sound science and encourage rational policy decisions.""

Dirty birds - "If you eat undercooked or mishandled chicken, our new tests indicate, you have a good chance of feeling miserable. CR’s analysis of fresh, whole broilers bought nationwide revealed that 83 percent harbored campylobacter or salmonella, the leading bacterial causes of foodborne disease. That’s a stunning increase from 2003, when we reported finding that 49 percent tested positive for one or both pathogens. Leading chicken producers have stabilized the incidence of salmonella, but spiral-shaped campylobacter has wriggled onto more chickens than ever. And although the U.S. Department of Agriculture tests chickens for salmonella against a federal standard, it has not set a standard for campylobacter. Our results show there should be. More than ever, it’s up to consumers to make sure they protect themselves by cooking chicken to at least 165° F and guarding against ­cross-contamination."

Video game violence 'harmful to brain' - "The effects include increased activity in the brain region that governs emotional arousal, and decreased activity in the part of the brain associated with control, focus and concentration."

NASA Says It Will Set Up Polar Moon Camp - "NASA announced Monday it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon's poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts return to the moon."

NASA Plans Lunar Outpost - "NASA unveiled plans yesterday to set up a small and ultimately self-sustaining settlement of astronauts at the south pole of the moon sometime around 2020 -- the first step in an ambitious plan to resume manned exploration of the solar system. The long-awaited proposal envisions initial stays of a week by four-person crews, followed by gradually longer visits until power and other supplies are in place to make a permanent presence possible by 2024."

Russia Studies Exotic Lunar Elevator - "Russia's Space Research Institute has been studying the idea of a space-elevator cluster to economically deliver payloads from the Earth to the Moon and back."




Quote of the Day
"An educated man is one who has finally discovered that there are some questions to which nobody has the answer."
~ Unknown

News -- December 4, 2006

Annan: Iraq 'worse than civil war' - ""Given the level of violence, the level of killing and bitterness and the way that forces are arranged against each other, a few years ago, when we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war; this is much worse," Annan told the BBC."

Huge war spending bill to test Democrats - "The Bush administration is working on its largest-ever appeal for more Iraq war funds - a record $100 billion, at least, and that figure reflects cuts from wish lists originally circulating around the Pentagon. ... Despite widespread discontent over the Iraq war and President Bush's handling of it, Democrats are expected to grant the vast majority of the request."

Controversial U.N. ambassador to step down - "Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday."

Rumsfeld Memo on Iraq Proposed ‘Major’ Change - "Two days before he resigned as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld submitted a classified memo to the White House that acknowledged that the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq was not working and called for a major course correction. ... Nor did Mr. Rumsfeld seem confident that the administration would readily develop an effective alternative. To limit the political fallout from shifting course, he suggested the administration consider a campaign to lower public expectations. ... The memo provides no indication that Mr. Rumsfeld intended to leave his Pentagon post."

For Defense Nominee, Echoes of Old Questions - "With bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for quickly putting the war under new command, Gates's controversial history is by all accounts highly unlikely to derail his confirmation after a single hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday. Moreover, Gates and others say he learned from the searing, 10-day hearings that scrutinized his record 15 years ago and has since adopted a less officious style. At the same time, the concerns expressed about Gates then have echoes in the contemporary debate over the alleged tailoring of intelligence analysis to serve political ends, an issue at the heart of criticism of the war in Iraq."

Bob Gates & Locking You Up Forever - "As the next Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates will be in charge of a new star-chamber legal system that can lock up indefinitely “unlawful enemy combatants” and “any person” accused of aiding them. Yet, despite these extraordinary new powers, his confirmation is being treated more like a coronation than a time for tough questions."

Poison plotters claim their second victim - "The two were critics of the Kremlin and both appeared on a death list drawn up by a group of former KGB agents reportedly behind a number of murders abroad of enemies of President Putin."

Graham: Putin a '1-Man Dictatorship' - ""He's a problem, not a solution, to most of the world's problems. He could help us with Iran if he chose to. He is becoming basically a one-man dictatorship in Russia. And we need to be tough with him.""

Bill Gates For - You'd Better Sit Down For This - President - "It took us a moment to get used to the idea, but then we wondered why we hadn't thought of it before. The Microsoft man has done computers; he's done capitalism; he's doing as much as anyone to get on top of HIV / Aids and Malaria; so why not the White House? And at least a few American bloggers seem to think the same way."

Chavez storms to re-election victory - "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stormed to a re-election victory in Sunday's vote, handing him an ample mandate to broaden his promised socialist revolution and challenge Washington's influence in Latin America."

Congress open to passing bill on immigration - "Congress will approve an immigration bill that will grant citizenship rights to most of the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S. after Democrats take control next month, predict both sides on Capitol Hill."

Muslims Seek Prayer Room at Airport - "Airport officials said Friday they will consider setting aside a private area for prayer and meditation at the request of imams concerned about the removal of six Muslim clerics from a US Airways flight last week."

On Tape: An 'Enemy' Interrogation - "In new court filings, Padilla's lawyers also assert for the first time that Padilla's interrogations were taped, thereby providing a potentially extensive video record of how the government treated a man once considered a dangerous Qaeda operative."

Newsweek: Gov't. motion to silence Padilla defense - "U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was infamously accused by John Ashcroft of wanting to set off a "dirty bomb" for Al Queda. After being held incommunicado in solitary confinement for three years, and tortured, the government dropped the bomb charge and now wants to put him away on vague charges of supporting terrorism. But, as Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball report, the government wants to silence Padilla's attorneys, not allowing them to bring up Padilla's treatment by the government, and not allowing public testimony of any kind, in the name of "national security" (of course)."

Olbermann: We Fight for Liberty by Having More Liberty and Not Less - "And finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment about free speech, failed speakers, and the delusion of grandeur."

The Move To Label All Civil Disobedience "Terrorism" - "An endemic crackdown on peaceful protest and dissent has continued with President Bush signing the 'Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act,'. Under the guise of protecting researchers, scientists and their staff who conduct experiments and tests on animals, the latest terror bill seeks to class as "terrorists" those who seek to protest against such activities. The bill expands criminal prohibitions against the use of force, violence, and threats involving animal enterprises and increases penalties for violations of these prohibitions. The operative term being "threats", because what an activist may see as protesting may be construed under the law to be threatening. ... Without getting into a debate about animal testing itself, the real issue of concern here is the term "terrorism". The push to merge crime and terrorism laws can be no clearer than in this case. ... The more crimes that become "terrorism", the more people you can label as terrorists and treat in the same way. Every time a piece of legislation like this becomes law, the more the Bill of rights is eroded and free speech is restricted."

How We Will Lose Our Freedom of Speech - "If people were asked about actor Michael Richards' epithet-laced outburst at a Los Angeles nightclub, there would be a lot of focus on the verbal assault but very little on an assault on freedom of speech. In truth, however, if there's anything at all relating to this story that rises above gossip-column fodder, it’s that it’s also fuel for demagogues who seek control over discourse in America. Representing the two targets of Mr. Richards’ bile, Frank McBride and Kyle Doss, “civil rights” attorney Gloria Allred appeared on Hannity and Colmes Thanksgiving eve. The stone-faced Allred opened with a very telling assertion, boldly proclaiming, “This is not free speech, this is hate speech!”"

Ghosts in the Machine: Encounters with the NSA - "Quite some time ago, I am not sure exactly when, the thought police (National Security Agency) clandestinely moved into my computer. It did so without my permission and in violation of the law, not to mention the Constitution. ... While it troubles me that the NSA is lurking in my computer, it does not deter me from exercising my constitutional rights of free speech and, more specifically, speaking truth to power. I am not paranoid or afraid. I have not armed myself. I go on doing what has to be done. I stand behind my words and have every intention of continuing for as long as I draw breath. Truth still matters and someone has to protect it."

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool - "The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations."

Olbermann's Hot News - "Olbermann, who denies any partisan leanings and whose background doesn't suggest any, insists his job is to report on what's really going on--even if the public is loath to believe it. ... Not surprisingly, Olbermann has his critics. National Review recently lambasted him for his "angry and increasingly bizarre attacks on the Bush administration," claiming that he offers nothing in the way of hard news. But the author didn't cite a single fact that Olbermann had wrong. Meanwhile, as the Review acknowledged, O'Reilly's numbers are trending downward as Olbermann's are shooting up. While his views may seem radical for mainstream television news, they turn out to be a pretty safe bet for him and his network. Which may prove that the American public does have a taste for serious, even high-minded, news--particularly when peppered with a sharp sense of humor. It's another unexpected Olbermann news flash: Dissent sells."

Born Right the First Time? - "The purpose of most religion is to make us "better" than we currently are. The Biblical premise is that all human beings are fatally flawed, not good enough and in need of vast improvements and control of their "human nature." Without this ongoing overcoming of the evil self, growing towards a better kind of person and change, one runs the risk of being so not good enough that they will spend eternity, for their inability to change over a rather short lifetime, in a punishing hell. Scripture goes out of its way to remind us all that our fundamental human qualities are deceit, wickedness, jealousy, anger, lust and greed. I find that personally to be one of the most unhelpful and controlling lies ever foisted upon human beings by religion. Of course that is how we can act, but that is not who we are by any real means when given the freedom to be authentic and feel safe in being so. ... Have you ever considered the fact that you and I may have been born right the first time? What if the most simple and spiritual goal a human being has is to become your own genuine, authentic and self? What if our purpose in life is neither to jump through the hoops set out by others, who think they know, nor to struggle and strive to improve yourself dramatically over what you are? People don't change much over a life time no matter what their religious affiliations, and while it's an improvement to stop killing one's self with sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine along with other assorted body killing habits, it's ok to just be yourself."

The Christian Right Goes Back to Bible Boot Camp - "After a study revealed that less than 10% of evangelicals were bible literate, James Dobson's Focus on the Family is desperately taking a two-day multi-media Bible boot camp on the road, selling "truth" for $179 a seat."

Close-Up of WTC-7 Collapse Footage Shows Unmistakable Demolition Charges - "Looking at the upper right-hand corner of the building we see a rapid series of small explosions travelling upward just as the building itself begins to fall. The size, placement and timing of these "puffs" is very consistent with squibs from cutting charges of the type used in professional controlled demolitions, and in fact nothing but small explosive charges could create such an appearance." -- Hmmm.

Unseen Photos of Bohemian Grove Found - "These photos were literally found on disc in a stack around the office. They contain dozens of photos from the Bohemian Club, most of which are circa 1926-27. Amongst photos of (largely unidentified) notable individuals attending the meetings are photos of plays performed and various angles of the nefarious owl god Moloch."

Supreme Court looks at race and schools - "Parents in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle are challenging school assignment plans that factor in a student's race in an effort to have individual school populations approximate the racial makeup of the entire system. Federal appeals courts have upheld both programs."

Look who owns U.S. debt now - "For most of U.S. history, the national debt was something that America owed itself. What was borrowed by the government was lent by its people. The liabilities of one were the assets of the other. But that has changed as the federal government has increasingly looked abroad to finance its prodigious borrowing. Foreigners now hold a record 52% of the government's $4 trillion in outside debt, up from a quarter in 1995. ... The growing reliance on foreigners, in many cases foreign central banks, reflects a nation digging itself further into debt and denial. Perhaps the best comparison is the many credit card offers that come in the mail each month. In the short run, by making borrowing so easy, they can prop up living standards. In the long run, the bills come due. The foreign money is no different:"

IRS taxation of online game virtual assets inevitable - "If you are a hard-core player of virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, Second Life, EverQuest or There, IRS form 1099 may someday soon take on a new meaning for you."

Police admit planting evidence - "A Huntington Beach police officer's exoneration for planting a loaded gun in a suspect's car has led to the revelation that police routinely plant evidence in unsuspecting civilians' vehicles for training exercises."

Pediatricians blast inappropriate ads - "Inappropriate advertising contributes to many kids' ills, from obesity to anorexia, to drinking booze and having sex too soon, and Congress should crack down on it, the American Academy of Pediatrics says."

NASA Looks to the Future With Eye on the Past - "The bigger picture, however, is significantly more grand. As Griffin and others (including renowned British cosmologist Stephen Hawking) describe it, it is all about whether humans will incorporate the solar system "into mankind's sphere of influence."" -- And that's just what the Universe needs.

Old forest sucks up greenhouse gas, study says - "If common to the soils of other old-growth forests, the finding could add combating global warming to the reasons for preserving them from logging, some scientists say."

Toxic trade-off - "This is a story about a trade-off: Products that make our everyday lives convenient, comfortable and safe contain potentially harmful chemicals that can remain in the body for decades."

Top 10: The best, worst... and craziest uses of RFID - "They've put a chip where?"

Deadliest states for drunken driving - "The “Fatal Fifteen” are states (and Washington, D.C.) in which 41 percent or more of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related."

Moderate Pot Use Positively Effects Treatment Outcomes For Cocaine Dependent Patients, Study Says - "Cocaine dependent patients are more likely to complete drug treatment if they use cannabis intermittently, according to clinical trial data to be published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse."

Azureus' HD Vids Trump YouTube - "The file sharing company Azureus on Monday launched a new distribution platform for downloading high-quality video, which the company hopes will become the next YouTube -- but for high definition, DVD-quality video on the internet."

X-Rated 'Pornament' Christmas Decorations Raise Eyebrows - "Six controversial ornaments, which can be purchased for $9 at Spencer's stores in Jacksonville and other parts of Florida, include an X-rated snowman and reindeer."




Quote of the Day
"In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy."
~ Ivan Illich

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