http://www.asiantribune.com/show_article.php?id=2751
Bush responds to political crisis with lies and new war threats - "t was to this same audience that the US president proclaimed nearly two years ago a “forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East.” Then he was predicting that the successful US imposition of “democracy” in Iraq would lead to a “global democratic revolution” that would topple regimes throughout the region. In Thursday’s address, Bush advanced the reverse of this domino theory, warning that unless the US military achieves unconditional victory, the result will be “Zarqawi and bin Laden in control of Iraq,” and the spread of radical Islamist regimes internationally. This latest assertion has no more credibility than the one advanced in 2003. It is indicative, however, of the growing desperation within US ruling circles over the debacle in Iraq and of the administration’s decision to rely on fear as its main means of coercing the American people into submitting to its policies. As if on cue Thursday, the authorities in New York City issued a terror alert for the city’s subways, only hours after Bush’s speech and just in time for the evening television news and scare headlines in the next day’s papers. Almost as soon as the alert was announced, however, intelligence officials acknowledged that the threat was of “doubtful credibility.” Friday saw Pennsylvania Station shut down because of the discovery of a “suspicious” soda bottle. The aim of such alerts, like Bush’s speech itself, is to instill fear, thereby keeping the public off balance and suppressing the growth of political opposition and social unrest."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/bush-o08.shtml
Reporter turns over notes in CIA leak case - "A New York Times reporter has given investigators notes from a conversation she had with a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney weeks earlier than was previously known, suggesting White House involvement started well before the outing of a CIA operative, legal sources said."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051007/pl_nm/bush_leak_dc
Optimism about country's future fading - "Evangelicals, Republican women, Southerners and other critical groups in President Bush’s political coalition are increasingly worried about the direction the nation is headed and disappointed with his performance, an AP-Ipsos poll found." -- It sure took those people long enough to figure that out.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9622843/
Storm brewing in Portland - "“There’s a lot of simmering anger out there and it’s mostly in the broad middle,” he says. In his polls done in Oregon and elsewhere, about 80 percent of voters say they are worse off, or no better off, than they were a year ago. The economic discontent is national and chronic — and chronically ignored. Neither political party gets it. Before Hurricane Katrina, before $3-a-gallon gas, before the latest airline bankruptcies reminded middle-class workers that they are one corporate strategy away from losing not just their paycheck but the pension they’ve earned over decades, the middle class was already overburdened and burning out. It doesn’t understand why globalization is good if it is so obviously concentrating wealth, not spreading it. It’s furious that it works hard and plays by the rules, as Bill Clinton used to say, but loses anyway."
http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=206888&c=96
Is This the Death of America? - "At the end of a cruel and turbulent summer, nobody is more dismayed and demoralized about America than Americans. They have watched with growing disbelief and horror as a convergence of events - dominated by the unending war in Iraq and two hurricanes - have exposed ugly and disturbing things in the undergrowth that shame and embarrass Americans and undermine their belief in the nation and its values."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1008-32.htm
Scientists urge judge to deny parents' claim - "The scientists' brief urges the judge to deny the parents' argument that intelligent design is unscientific, saying that they want to preserve the academic freedom for scientific research into intelligent design."
http://www.yorkdispatch.com/local/ci_3096160
Lethal Virus from 1918 Genetically Reconstructed - "A resuscitation of the Spanish flu is neither necessary nor warranted from a public health point of view. Allegedly, the recent experiments sought to test the efficacy of existing antiviral drugs on the 1918 construct. But there is little need for antiviral drugs against the 1918 strain if the 1918 strain had not been recreated in the first place "It simply does not make any scientific sense to create a new threat just to develop new countermeasures against it." says Jan van Aken, biologist with the Sunshine Project, "Genetic characterization of influenza strains has important biomedical applications. But it is not justifiable to recreate this particularly dangerous eradicated strain that could wreak havoc if released, deliberately or accidentally.""
http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr/pr091003.html
Imagine a World Without Copyright - "Copyright was once a means to guarantee artists a decent income. Aside from the question as to whether it ever actually functioned as such - most artists never made a penny from the copyright system - we have to admit that copyright serves an altogether different purpose in the contemporary world. It now is the tool that conglomerates in the music, publishing, imaging and movie industries use to control their markets. These industries decide whether the materials they have laid their hands on may be used by others - and, if they allow it, under what conditions and for what price. European and American legislation extends them that privilege for a window of no less than 70 years after the passing of the original author. The consequences? The privatization of an ever-increasing share of our cultural expressions, because this is precisely what copyright does. Our democratic right to freedom of cultural and artistic exchange is slowly but surely being taken away from us. ... Cultural monopolists desperately want us to believe that without copyright we would have no artistic creations and therefore no entertainment. That is nonsense. We would have more, and more diverse ones. A world without copyright is easy to imagine. The level playing field of cultural production - a market accessible for everyone - would once again be restored. A world without copyright would offer the guarantee of a good income to many artists, and would protect the public domain of knowledge and creativity. And members of the public would get what they are entitled to: a surprisingly rich and varied menu of artistic alternatives."
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1008-24.htm
London to Get Sexual 'Theme Park' - "Move over, Eros. Developers announced plans Friday to open a multimillion dollar sexual "theme park" near London's Piccadilly Circus, home to the much-photographed statue of the Greek god of love." -- I've thought for quite awhile that a sexually themed casino would do well in Las Vegas. Now, if I could only get some people to back me with money.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051007131209990005&_mpc=news%2e10%2e3&cid=936
Python Bursts After Trying to Eat Gator - "A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said." -- Check out the pictures.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/gator_python;_ylt=A9FJqZ3CREhDYJUAPwDtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Quote of the Day
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it."
~ Henry Ford
