News -- April 21, 2006

War costs approach $10 billion a month - "Annual war expenditures in Iraq will almost certainly come close to doubling since the U.S. invasion, as the military confronts the rapidly escalating cost of repairing, rebuilding and replacing equipment chewed up by three years of combat."

Death warrants – Saddam 148, Bush 152 - "Saddam Hussein, we now hear, signed the death warrants of 148 Shiite villagers who had risen up against him in Dujail in 1982, for which Saddam Hussein sits in the dock and could face the death penalty. George Bush, in his six-year tenure as Governor of Texas, signed 152 death warrants, a record for any governor of any state in the history of the USA. ... Saddam Hussein was derided because he invaded a sovereign nation – in the event, Kuwait, which was stealing Iraq’s oil by cross-drilling, and which had been warned against this practice. George Bush invaded a sovereign nation – Iraq, based on lies and deception. ... Saddam Hussein was derided for his terrible prisons in which prisoners were tortured. Yet what happened in Abu Ghraib under the legions of George Bush defies logic, such was the shock and awe of the horrific scenes of human suffering and sexual depravity meted out on prisoners by American guards. The US Armed Forces, of which George Bush is Commander-in-Chief, attacked civilian targets with military hardware, something Saddam Hussein never did. ... Yet Saddam Hussein sits in the dock and George Bush sits in the White House. What a telling statement in the injustice of today’s world, what a perfect comment on the hypocrisy of the USA, a country which likes to brag about how egalitarian it is, about how concerned it is for equal human rights yet in practice perverts every course of justice and breaks every law in the book."

Iraqi Women Under Siege - "The Iraqi women who toured the United States last month told us that they were amazed by how misinformed many Americans were about the lives of Iraqi women. Most Americans thought that before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi women were sitting at home oppressed, heavily veiled and secluded, and that thanks to the US invasion, they are now liberated. This is what the Bush administration would like us to believe, but after listening to our Iraqi friends many people now know better."

Osama alive, well, armed with nukes - "Rumors of Osama bin Laden's death are greatly exaggerated and the al-Qaida leader is preparing his next video broadcast to be aired on al-Jazeera, reports an acclaimed Pakistani journalist who has interviewed him."

Georgia Tech student indicted on charge of supporting terrorism - "Though the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta on Thursday unsealed an indictment against Syed Ahmed, 21, details remained sealed. A grand jury indicted him March 23, the same day he was arrested. ... Ahmed is not accused of committing a terrorist act; he is charged only with providing material support, the federal prosecutor said."

Of Little Boys and Fat Men - "Little Boy and Fat Man were the first nuclear weapons used in warfare. Little Boy was dropped from a B-29 bomber, it exploded approximately 1,800 feet over Hiroshima, Japan, on the morning of August 6, 1945, with a force equal to 13,000 tons of TNT. Immediate deaths were reported to be between 70,000 to 130,000. Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, on August 9, 1945, devastating more than two square miles of the city and causing approximately 45,000 immediate deaths. America was the country that first used that weapon. As reported recently in the international press, once again the incumbent President of the same country is planning a massive bombing campaign against yet another country."

Time's Arrow: The Coming Nuclear Epiphany in Persia - "And when this attack comes – either as a stand-alone "knock-out blow" or else as the precusor to a full-scale, regime-changing invasion, like the earlier aggression in Iraq – there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no hearings, no public debate. The already issued orders governing the operation put the decision solely in the hands of the president: he picks up the phone, he says, "Go" – and in twelve hours' time, up to a million Iranians will be dead."

Gas shortages hit the East Coast - "Some gasoline distribution terminals from Virginia to Massachusetts are seeing shortages as the industry phases out a water-polluting additive, the U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday."

Pumps go dry at some gas stations - "Problems at refineries have disrupted some supplies. AAA warned that problems could continue for weeks - and drive prices higher."

Former German Minister Says Building 7 Used To Run 9/11 Attack - "Former Helmut Schmidt cabinet member, 25-year German Parliamentarian and global intelligence expert Andreas Von Bülow says that the 9/11 attack was run by the highest levels of the US intelligence apparatus using WTC Building 7 as a command bunker which was later demolished in order to destroy the crime scene."

Debt Weakens U.S. Hand on China - ""Our negotiating leverage with China on trade issues and Iran is severely limited by the amount of debt they hold.""

After Job Law Fiasco, France Retreats on Other Fronts - "In the nearly two weeks since French officials backed down from a controversial youth labor law under pressure from millions of protesters in the streets nationwide, the government has started retreating from laws -- large and small -- on subjects that include smoking, pollution and flea markets. "The government leaders are so frightened they cannot move," said Claude Evin, a former French health minister who has spent years advocating smoking bans and other health-related initiatives. "They are startled by their own shadow. France is facing a terrible situation with such leaders.""

Gonzales calls for mandatory Web labeling law - "Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday."

FDA says no to medical marijuana - "The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it does not support the use of marijuana for medical purposes."

Diabetes Up, Obesity to Blame - "There's a diabetes epidemic in the U.S. There's also an obesity obesity epidemic. Could it be a coincidence? Not likely."

Emotional Wiring Different in Men and Women - "Men and women are actually from the same planet, but scientists now have the first strong evidence that the emotional wiring of the sexes is fundamentally different."

Scientists cool outlook on global warming - "Using temperature readings from the past 100 years, 1,000 computer simulations and the evidence left in ancient tree rings, Duke University scientists announced yesterday that "the magnitude of future global warming will likely fall well short of current highest predictions.""

Three volcanoes blow their tops - "It seems it's volcano season - with three mountains blowing their tops in Indonesia and South America."




Quote of the Day
"I hate everybody. Ok, goodbye."
~ Melanie Boyer

News (Page 2) -- April 20, 2006

US Prepared to go it alone over Iran - "US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has invoked self-defence as a potential justification for military intervention in Iran. Rice said the US had the authority to act alone or with a coalition if the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme could not be resolved within the context of the United Nations Security Council." -- Self-defence?

A Crisis Almost Without Equal - "The alarm should be bi-partisan. Many Republicans fear their president's image as a bumbler will hurt their party for years. The rest may fret about the almost certain paralysis within the administration, or a reversal of certain favorite policies. A Gallup poll this week revealed that 44% of Republicans want some or all troops brought home from Iraq. Do they really believe that their president will do that any time soon, if ever? In any case, a Fox News poll this week shows his approval rating sinking to 33%, with grassroots Republicans abandoning Bush in droves. Democrats, meanwhile, cross their fingers that Bush doesn’t do something really stupid -- i.e. nuke Iran -- while they try to win control of at least one house in Congress by doing nothing yet somehow earning (they hope) the anti-Bush vote. Meanwhile, a severely weakened president retains, and has shown he is willing to use, all of his commander-in-chief authority, and then some. ... But rather than push impeachment for partisan reasons, the Democrats will actually put it off -- for partisan reasons. An unpopular president helps their drive for votes in November, and everything else is secondary. ... “If ours were a parliamentary democracy, the entire Bush team would be out of office by now, and deservedly so. ... But ours is not a parliamentary system, and while some may feel as if this administration's over, it isn't. So what to do? We can't just take a foreign policy timeout.” Perfectly said."

White House in Collapse - "The White House is crumbling internally. President Bush seems bewildered, no longer in charge. He wanders around the country talking about health savings accounts and other small-bore projects that mean little to most people. Nobody is listening."

Democrats: No Single Message Sums Us Up - "Ahead in polls, Democrats are divided over whether they already have — or even need — a national theme that tells voters exactly where the party stands." -- The American people should have more than two choices to choose from for president.

Pentagon Guantanamo List Angers Nations - "A chorus of complaints against the Bush administration erupted Thursday after the Pentagon released a previously secret list of the names and nationalities of 558 people held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay."

Grand Jury Hears Evidence Against Rove - "Just as the news broke Wednesday about Scott McClellan resigning as White House press secretary and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove shedding some of his policy duties, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald met with the grand jury hearing evidence in the CIA leak case and introduced additional evidence against Rove, attorneys and other US officials close to the investigation said."

The 'American Inquisition' - "It is time to ask whether the United States, with some of these same touchstones, is entering a period of its own peculiar Inquisition. Of course, there are no burning places for heretics in America now. No Tomás de Torquemada presides over this period of internal anxiety and investigation. But the word, inquisition, is not exclusive to Spain in the Middle Ages. It is a useful term for historians to characterize phases of history that are distinguished by religious intolerance, by Christian holy war and Islamic jihad, by racial profiling and xenophobia, by show trials, and by snooping of secret police."

Giant U.S. embassy rising in Baghdad - "The 104-acre complex - the size of about 80 football fields - will include two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants. The average Baghdad home has electricity only four hours a day, according to Bowen's office." -- Only a fool would still believe the invasion was about "liberating" Iraq.

The Billion-Dollar Baghdad Embassy - "U.S. embassies typically cover ten acres. This one, a 104-acre complex, will be comprised of 21 buildings, its own water wells, an electricity plant and wastewaster-treatment facility that makes the huge compound completely independent of Iraq , whose "interim government" sold the land to the U.S. in October 2004. Terms of the agreement do not appear to be readily accessible."

Kerry 'thinking hard' about 2008 run for president - "Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said on Thursday he was seriously thinking about another White House bid in 2008 and will decide before the year is out." -- I think I'll run for president.

Record Increase in U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reported - "U.S. greenhouse gas emissions during 2004 increased by 1.7 percent from the previous year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which released the figures Monday. This was the largest annual amount ever produced by any country on record, said The Royal Society, the UK national academy of science, warning that urgent action is needed to curb emissions."

Teacher: "I never intended insult" - "The Bellevue Community College math instructor who wrote a racially insensitive math question came forward during an emotional campus meeting Wednesday, apologizing for what he termed an "egregious mistake." ... Ratener said he wanted to come forward before now but that threatening e-mails and phone calls to the college made him and his wife fearful for their family's safety. "Based on an avalanche of angry and hysterical e-mails, I knew I would be in the crosshairs," he said. After the meeting, Ratener called his wife and asked her and their two children to leave home and go someplace more safe. ... Ratener said the question originally had referred to comedian Gallagher, who smashed watermelons as part of his act, and that he changed it to Condoleezza because she was a more recognizable icon and because he likes the name. "Political beliefs or ideology wasn't part of this," Ratener said. "I have the utmost respect for the unbelievable accomplishments of Dr. Rice."" -- This is about the Condoleezza Rice math question and yes, it has been blown way out of proportion.

Malaysia denies capturing baby "Bigfoot" - "The paper quoted local residents as saying they had spoken to men who described shooting the creature with tranquiliser darts. The locals then peeked into the back of the their truck to see a large, hairy creature. But the department's director-general Datuk Musa Nordin denied the report."

News -- April 20, 2006

Chavez: Oil Will Be Destroyed if Attacked - "If the United States attacks, Chavez said, "We won't have any other alternative - blow up our own oil fields - but they aren't going to take that oil.""

Russia will deliver air defense systems to Iran - top general - "The chief of the General Staff said Wednesday that Russia would honor its commitments on supplying military equipment to Iran."

WOMEN AND GAYS DON’T COUNT - "One of George Bush’s reasons to attack Iraq was to make the lives of female Iraqis better. In fact, if you check out the news from May and June of 2003, you will see staged photos of Iraqi women hailing the arrival of U.S. troops. Saddam was gone and now they could be free. Anyone with an IQ in double figures knows this was not the truth. Since the March 2003 illegal invasion, the lives of most Iraqi females have been constantly in a downward spiral. ... During the Ba’athist years, Iraqi women dressed in styles as diverse as those in the west. If a woman wanted to "take the veil," she was allowed. But no woman was ordered to perform such a ritual. ... Today’s Iraq is totally different. I don’t have to repeat some of the horror stories of women now not being able to leave their houses without two male family members, or women being beaten because of their style of dress. There have been many reported incidents. In addition to the regression of women in Iraqi society at the hands of a few fundamentalist U.S.-appointed stooge politicians, many Iraqi women have been humiliated and even raped by U.S. troops. Again, there are many published articles concerning these abhorrent actions. So, Iraqi women are doubly-damned: with the fall of a government that held them in high esteem, they must put up with social mores that are against their own beliefs; and add to that the presence of the military personnel who forced the old government out. ... Now, let’s talk about gay and lesbian Iraqis. They are now undergoing their darkest days in the history of the country."

'YOU COULD KILL WHOEVER YOU WANTED' - ""I have seen innocent people being killed. IEDS go off and you just zap any farmer that is close to you... hit him with the 50 [heavy machine gun] or the M-16 [rifle]. Overall there was just the total disregard - they basically jam into your head: 'This is Hajji! This is Hajji'. You totally take the human being out of it and make them into a video game... If you start looking at them as humans, and stuff like that, then how are you gonna kill them?" Former soldiers claim that this attitude extends up the chain of command, right to the top. In April 2004, the Daily Telegraph reported great unease among senior British army commanders in Iraq at the "heavy-handed and disproportionate" military tactics used by US forces who, they said, viewed Iraqis "as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life... their attitude toward the Iraqis is tragic, it is awful". (Sean Rayment, 'US tactics condemned by British officers,' Daily Telegraph, April 11, 2004)"

Midnight is Long Gone! - "The "midnight hour" has been in line for decades - it is not something that just appeared in the last five years. "Round-ups," arrests and torture, have always been a part of the plan. Who are these people that would call for a nationwide shutdown of all descent? The invested ones-Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Pearle, Rove and dozens more who seek to profit and are to blame: Given their particular interests that will be served by this possibility, how can any sane person continue to believe anything that any of these people continue to say?"

More muscle, with eye on China - "The Pentagon is engaged in an extensive buildup of military forces in Asia as part of a covert strategy to strengthen and position U.S. and allied forces to deter -- or defeat -- China." -- Cooperation does not exist in the geopolitical climate. It's all about "defeating" one another.

Novak: Feds know who outed CIA agent - "Robert Novak said Wednesday that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald knows who outed a CIA agent to the Chicago Sun-Times columnist but hasn't acted on the information because Novak's source committed no crime."

Minutemen to Bush: Build fence or we will - "Simcox said Wednesday that he's sending an ultimatum to the president, through the media, of course - "You can't get through to the president any other way" - to deploy military reserves and the National Guard to the Arizona border by May 25. Or, Simcox said, by the Memorial Day weekend Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers and supporters will break ground to start erecting fencing privately."

More involved in Oklahoma City bombing? - "COSBY: Do you believe what your dad is ready to say about the Oklahoma City bombing could hurt the U.S. government? NICHOLS: I believe it could. COSBY: And how so? NICHOLS: Because he knows what happened that day. He knows what happened in Oklahoma City. COSBY: And how many others do you believe are involved?
NICHOLS: I couldn't put a number on it, you know? It could be five, it could be 10, it could be more, but there has to be others involved. COSBY: And why do you think that? NICHOLS: Because of how he has tried to reach out to other people and say what he knows, and somehow, some way, they keep the public from knowing the truth. And maybe one aspect of it is charging your son with attempted murder."

Muslim students 'being taught to despise unbelievers as filth' - "Besides likening unbelievers to filth, the al-Hilli text includes a chapter on jihad, setting down the conditions under which Muslims are supposed to fight Jews and Christians. The text is one of a number of books that some students say they find “disturbing” and “very worrying”. Their spokesman told The Times: “They are being exposed to very literalist interpretations of the Koran. These are interpretations that would not be recognised by 80 or 90 per cent of Muslims, but they are being taught in this school."

Scientists say they're being gagged by Bush - "Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that Americans are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing."

FCC Launches Payola Probes of 4 Radio Giants - "The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday launched formal investigations into pay-for-play practices at four of the nation's largest radio corporations, the biggest federal inquiry into radio bribery since the congressional payola hearings of 1960."

The Anti-ID-Theft Bill That Isn't - "Many companies keep large databases of personal data that is useful to these fraudsters. But because the companies don't shoulder the cost of the fraud, they're not economically motivated to secure those databases very well. In fact, if your personal data is stolen from their databases, they would much rather not even tell you: Why deal with the bad publicity?"

Poll: Parents Confident About 'No Child' - "Setting high expectations for students has become such a priority that Congress passed a law about it. Now schools must make sure all children succeed in math and reading, no matter what their language barrier or level of poverty or support at home. Realistic? Many parents seem to think so. But plenty of teachers do not."

Texas college bars students from posing for Playboy - "Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which bills itself as the world's largest Baptist college, has threatened to discipline female students if they pose for Playboy magazine, which is trying to recruit models from the college." -- All about control over other individuals.

Census: Americans Are Fleeing Big Cities - "Americans are leaving the nation's big cities in search of cheaper homes and open spaces farther out."

Fossil suggests snakes evolved on land - "A new fossil discovery has revealed the most primitive snake known, a crawling creature with two legs, and it provides new evidence that snakes evolved on land rather than in the sea."

Philips device could force TV viewers to watch ads - "An invention from Royal Philips Electronics prevents TV viewers from switching the channel during commercials or fast-forwarding past commercials when watching DVR content. Viewers would be released from the freeze only after paying a fee to the broadcaster. The freeze would be implemented on a program-by-program basis, giving viewers a choice at the start of each one."




Quote of the Day
"You know, I've got one of those wonderful ideas. ... Women should be all dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.''
~ Bernie Ecclestone, Head of Formula One Racing

News (Page 2) -- April 19, 2006

The Worst President in History? - "George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history."

America meets the new superpower - "China is rising fast and is expected to eclipse the United States economically in the future - its gross domestic product is tipped to overtake that of America by 2045. ... The rise of China is posing awkward questions for the US, along with the realisation that its days as the world's economic superpower are numbered. Some analysts see America entering a period of "managed decline" not unlike that which Britain has experienced since the end of the Second World War and the end of empire."

Chavez taking decisive steps to turn off oil taps to the United States of America - "Venezuela's state owned oil company PDVSA has inked a key deal with India, taking the first key step away from the U.S. as its major oil buyer. At the same time, PDVSA has announced that it will no longer reveal oil statistics to the SEC after paying off its debts. The India deal and the refusal to disclose information are not just strategic, but also send a message to the US about Venezuela's future plans with regard to supplying the US with oil."

Venezuela denies USA accusations over Iran nuclear missiles stockpile deal - "Venezuela defends the peaceful use of nuclear energy, such as that of Iran, Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez affirmed Tuesday."

Bush declines to exclude nuclear strike on Iran - "President Bush refused on Tuesday to rule out nuclear strikes against Iran if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's atomic ambitions." -- My dick is bigger than your dick.

Prominent U.S. Physicists Send Letter to President Bush - " Thirteen of the nation’s most prominent physicists have written a letter to President Bush, calling U.S. plans to reportedly use nuclear weapons against Iran “gravely irresponsible” and warning that such action would have “disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and the world.”"

Can You Keep A Secret? Bush Plans To Nuke Nevada - "If every single camera that's available in the media -- cable- wide, network-wide -- is not in Nevada at the nuclear test site on June 2nd to watch 1.4 millions pounds of explosives be blown up so they can do the math and figure out how to make a tactical nuke, a smaller nuclear weapon that will represent that much firepower for Iran -- if we don't show America this mushroom cloud that will explode in Nevada on the 2nd of June, there is no hope for the American people, there is no hope for the media.You asked me last time I was here, Who's fault is it? And I said, "It's our fault; it's the media's fault." We have to tell this story. This president is manifestly insane. Donald Rumsfeld is insane."

Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map - Does He Deny The Holocaust? - " To raze Israel to the ground, to batter down, to destroy, to annihilate, to liquidate, to erase Israel, to wipe it off the map - this is what Iran's President demanded - at least this is what we read about or heard of at the end of October 2005. Spreading the news was very effective. This is a declaration of war they said. Obviously government and media were at one with their indignation. It goes around the world.But let's take a closer look at what Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. It is a merit of the 'New York Times' that they placed the complete speech at our disposal. Here's an excerpt from the publication dated 2005-10-30:"

Sex and money bought Iraq contracts - "A CONTRACTOR in Iraq has pleaded guilty to providing money, sex and designer watches to US officials in exchange for more than $US8 million ($10.8 million) in reconstruction contracts. Philip Bloom faces up to 40 years in prison after admitting paying more than $US2 million in bribes to US officials with the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ruled Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003."

Bush rocked by resignations - "White House press secretary Scott McClellan and senior advisor Karl Rove have announced their resignation from the Bush administration."

Stop Us Before We Kill Again! - "The essence of Bush&Co. strategy, from January 2001 to today, can be boiled down to this: We'll continue doing whatever we want to do until someone stops us. So, if you're wondering whether the U.S. will back off from attacking Iran, or whether corporations will no longer be given the ability to dictate Administration environmental policy, or whether domestic spying on U.S. citizens will cease, or whether Scalia might recuse himself on cases he's already pre-judged -- if you still harbor any or all of those illusions, forget about it. Since Bush&Co. openly carry out the most reprehensible crimes, with nobody being able to prevent them from moving on to even worse atrocities, it's almost as if their unconscious is screaming out for a political intervention, reminiscent of that old plea from a tormented serial-killer: "Stop Me Before I Kill Again!" But consciously, as they sense their time in power may be coming to an inglorious end and as they read their quickly-sinking poll numbers, they can't help themselves from issuing their traditional, in-your-face dare: "Stop me if you can, losers!""

How Big Is Bush's Big Government? - "We, in the United States, live under the rule of the largest civil government, measured in budgetary terms, in history. Federal spending alone in fiscal year 2006 is expected to be over $2.7 trillion, which means the federal government spends $7.4 billion a day or $5.1 million in every minute of the year. This is 815 times the level of federal spending in 1930. Things have been getting worse recently. In the first five years of the Bush regime, federal spending increased 45%."

The Twilight of Capitalism - "Kentucky farmer and writer Wendell Berry once made an astute observation about the profound flaw underlying both communism and capitalism as systems of human organization: both force humans to be subservient to a colossal institution – in the case of communism it is the state and in the case of capitalism it is the “free market”—a market run by anonymous and unaccountable piles of money voraciously seeking to acquire still bigger piles of money, otherwise known as corporations. (1) Economic analyst David Korten took this observation about the nature of capitalism a step further. He described how capitalism is eerily comparable to the disease of cancer in that the economic players in a “free market” economy that is run capitalistically will forget that they are one unit of a larger network of units that comprise a systemic whole, all of which are ultimately dependent upon each other for survival. When this forgetfulness occurs in a cell in the human body, and the body’s various lines of defense against it are overridden, a tumor will develop as the cell seeks endless growth by dividing itself incessantly, eventually destroying major organs and killing the host through its selfish consumption of resources. (2) Korten, however, does not advocate for the replacement of one form of suffocating and unsustainable control with another as is the case with traditional Marxism. He instead shows that the problem is not with markets as a vehicle for the exchange of goods and services to meet human needs but, more specifically, with capitalism as the means of organizing those markets. The market was not originally intended to be organized as the money-worshipping corporate nightmare it has become."

Yahoo accused of helping jail China Internet writer - "Yahoo Inc. may have helped Chinese police to identify an Internet writer who was subsequently jailed for four years for subversion in the third such case, an advocacy group for journalists said on Wednesday."

The Biggest, Most Successful and Most Dangerous Spin of All - "For anti-spin doctors of all faiths and none, Problem Number One (I’ll be addressing three problems in this posting) is that most Gentiles and, it seems, many Jews, either have no idea or a wrong idea about what Zionism actually is. The wrong idea exists because of Zionism’s breathtaking success in convincing pretty much all of the Judeo-Christian world that Judaism, the religion of Jews, and Zionism are somehow one and the same thing. And it’s because of this success that Zionist spin doctors, feeding off the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust (a Gentile not a Moslem crime), are able to play their blackmail card – the false and malicious charge of anti-Semitism – to silence critics of Israel right or wrong and suppress debate. The truth, which Zionism does not want the world to know, is in two related parts. The first is that Zionism and Judaism are not one and the same thing. The second is that knowledge of the difference between Judaism and Zionism is the key to understanding why it is perfectly possible to be passionately anti-Zionist without being in any way, shape or form anti-Semitic."

History shows Jews and Christians killed more Muslims than Muslims killed Jews and Christians - "I must begin by saying I am among those who firmly believe that any planned killing by a nation state or political group is motivated not by religion, but by power politics. Given this qualification, historical facts tell us that Jews and Christians have, tragically, killed many more Muslims than the other way around. Now this assertion may seem to go against the current tide of public opinion, but a little basic research will prove the point."

CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs - "The new Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters recently stepped up data collection and analysis based on bloggers worldwide and is developing new methods to gauge the reliability of the content, said OSC Director Douglas J. Naquin."

US ‘very rich’ list grows at fastest pace in a decade - "The number of very rich people in the US grew last year at the fastest pace in at least a decade as their moves into international stockmarkets, real estate and alternative investments paid off."

New Jobs Will Go To India, Bush Warns - "President George W Bush has warned the country's schoolchildren that if they did not have the skills needed to compete with their counterparts from India and China, new jobs would go to those countries. The President was addressing a magnet school in Rockville, Maryland, on Tuesday, stressing among other things, the criticality of such subjects as Mathematics and Science." -- I wonder how much mathematical ability Bush has? I'm betting very little.

Wal-Mart vows to keep growing despite opposition - "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will not bow to opponents who say the world's largest retailer is too big, and will continue to grow as long as customers keep coming to stores, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said on Wednesday."

100 Years - "Why is it that we do not remember most things about just a hundred years ago? Is it that nothing significant happened in that decade? ... Think about that which is important to you; your ideology, your ideals, your likes, your dislikes. What will matter in a hundred years? Will you matter in a hundred years?And does a hundred years, either forwards or backwards, matter to you today?"

Hiccups a possible sign of cancer: study - "Persistent hiccupping in addition to weight-loss and difficulty swallowing could be a warning sign of cancer of the esophagus, an Irish researcher said on Wednesday."

U.S. Records Drastic Decline in Death Rate - "In what appears to be an amazing success for American medicine, preliminary government figures released Wednesday showed that the annual number of deaths in the U.S. dropped by nearly 50,000 in 2004 - the biggest decline in nearly 70 years. The 2 percent decrease, reported by the National Center for Health Statistics, came as a shock to many, because the U.S. is aging, growing in population and getting fatter. In fact, some experts said they suspect the numbers may not hold up when a final report is released later this year."

Global sex survey shows men get more satisfaction - "Roughly four out of five middle-aged to older Austrians, for instance, rated their sex lives highly, while considerably fewer adults in France and Sweden shared that sentiment. In the United States, about three-quarters of men and two-thirds of women reported they were very satisfied with the physical and emotional aspects of their sex lives. In Japan, by contrast, just 18 percent of the men and 10 percent of the women answered positively about their sex lives. And in Taiwan, only 7 percent of the women said sex was very important in their lives."

Porn Industry Again at the Tech Forefront - "A top producer of hard-core porn will start selling downloadable movies that customers can burn to DVD and watch on their TVs, illustrating how Southern California's multibillion-dollar adult entertainment industry may again set the technological pace for Hollywood."

Lingerie makes hagglers happy-go-lucky - "It seems that the more macho a man is — at least according to his hormones — the more the sight of an attractive woman will affect his judgement."

News -- April 19, 2006

Bush: 'All Options on the Table' With Iran - "President Bush said Tuesday that "all options are on the table" to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons, but said he will continue to focus on the international diplomatic option to persuade Tehran to drop its nuclear ambitions."

Lock Him Away to Stop the Next War - "We cannot wait any longer for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Far more efficient to have Bush certified. There is no need for further debate on his mental state. The US President is bonkers."

Rumsfeld Shouldn't be Fired, He Should be Indicted - "The mainstream media in the U.S. is giving enormous attention to the retired generals who are demanding Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation because of his autocratic style and his bungling in Iraq. But the mainstream media is barely discussing Rumsfeld’s alleged culpability in the abusive treatment of detainees, up to and including torture."

Bush: 'I'm the decider' on Rumsfeld - ""I listen to all voices, but mine is the final decision," he said. "And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror. He's helping us fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld. I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."" -- This little speech says quite a bit about Bush's character.

Lieberman: US could attack Iran's nukes - "The goal of such action, he continued, would be "to delay it, to deter it, hoping that you set the program off course, so that by the time they catch up back to where they were, there's been a change in the government. That's the limited objective that I would see."" -- When does the U.S. get a change in government?

Poll: 48% back military action against Iran if government continues pursuing nuclear technology - "However, a majority (54%) of the poll's respondents indicated that they don't believe President Bush will make the "right decision."" -- So the public has been brainwashed to back military action against Iran. How sad.

APPROVAL RATING FOR GEORGE W BUSH AS OF 4/18/06 - "Sorted by 4/06 Net Approval" -- Ouch.

Would Someone Explain to Rumsfeld the Difference Between a Bowel Movement and Utter Failure? - "Message to Mr. Master of the Universe: We are not talking about a bowel movement here. We are talking about thousands upon thousands of lives lost, thousands more wounded, billions of dollars of our money spent wastefully, and a military that thinks you don't know what the Hell you are doing -- along with the blessed ignorance of Bush and Cheney. No, Donald, this too will NOT pass. It's called incompetence, arrogance, and abysmal, utter failure."

U.S. invasion responsible deaths of over 250,000 civilians in Iraq - "New studies make the Bush administration's "liberation" argument for a 'pre-emptive' war against Iraq seem questionable."

Senator rips ex Exxon CEO's retirement package - "Amid record oil prices and soaring gasoline costs, Exxon Mobil's $400 million retirement package to its former CEO is a "shameful display of greed" that should be reviewed by Congress and investigated by federal regulators, Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan. ... "There can be no more compelling evidence that the price gouging and market manipulation which has produced record oil prices is out of control, and is working to serve the forces of individual greed and corporate gluttony at the painful expense of millions of American consumers," Dorgan said."

No wonder Chavez makes Bush uneasy - "When the hated despots of nations like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan loot their countries' treasuries, transfer their oil wealth to personal Swiss bank accounts and use the rest to finance (in the House of Saud's case) terrorist extremists, American politicians praise them as trusted friends and allies. But when a democratically elected populist president uses Venezuela's oil profits to lift poor people out of poverty, they accuse him of pandering. As the United States and Europe continue their shift toward a "Darwinomic" model where rapacious corporations accrue bigger and bigger profits while workers become poorer and poorer, the socialist economic model espoused by President Hugo Chavez has become wildly popular among Latin Americans tired of watching corrupt rightwing leaders enrich themselves at their expense. Left-of-center governments have recently won power in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Chavez's uncompromising rhetoric matches his politics, but what's really driving the American government and its corporate masters crazy is that he has the cash to back it up."

New RFID travel cards could pose privacy threat - "Future government-issued travel documents may feature embedded computer chips that can be read at a distance of up to 30 feet, a top Homeland Security official said Tuesday, creating what some fear would be a threat to privacy." -- 30 feet?

Recipe for Holy War: Add two nut jobs and stir - "All right. I'm now officially scared. Having just read Seymour Hersh's article about Bush's Iran plan, it appears that we no longer have a case of the good guys versus the bad guys. What we have here is the bad guy versus the bad guy - two madmen playing an international game of chicken, ratcheting up the rhetoric to appeal to their fundamentalist followers."

What are your? Some kind of atheist? - "I am that kind of atheist who found that where there is God-talk, there are people with power lording that power over others they either pity or disdain. When I hear God-talk, I tend to hear more clearly these others, the unloved ones. And there are always the others. They are the outsiders and the uninvited. ... Still, God-talk remains people talk. So my atheism simply means that God-talk is empty talk, and what is, is, and if what is, is something one might actually name, it is beyond us, and it certainly would not answer to "God". Nothing about what is can be reasonably said. What does "God" mean? Nothing. Who does God name? No one. That is atheism. ... People invent God; God does not invent people. The rest is unspeakable."

Required Outcry - "I am asking these screwballs to stop hurting people in the name of God when they clearly do not have God in their hearts when they commit these acts. I ask that all Christians publicly point to this sort of behavior and condemn it as being an act of cruelty. I ask that local and national leaders vocally declare these acts as morally reprehensible. I ask that pro-life organizations vocally oppose such actions, and even if they consider these passed men and women to be sinners for their lifestyles, to defend the dignity that their lives held and oppose those who would celebrate their deaths. Finally, I am asking those who would critique these screwballs to identify them to be the loons that they are and not to take the opportunity to take a cheap shot at Christians as a whole, as they are obviously acting in a manner opposed to the norms of Christian life."

Atheist leader will speak at UA Monday - "Minister-turned-author and atheist Dan Barker will give a talk titled "Losing Faith in Faith" Monday evening at the University of Arizona. The talk is free and open to the public. ... Barker is expected to tell the story of how he went from a teenage evangelist to an ordained minister and then to a painful and difficult conversion from Christianity to atheism. He will explain why he left the ministry and also why he rejects a belief in God."

It's gospel: Religion has always divided America - "However, he emphasizes, the God invoked by Madison and Monroe – and by Lincoln as the Civil War dragged on, and by FDR on D-Day – was intentionally not a denominational God. It was not the God of Abraham, not the God who had a son whose resurrection Christians celebrate on this Easter Sunday. "The Founders had every opportunity to invoke that God," Mr. Meacham says in an interview. "And they explicitly chose not to." Instead, they chose what Benjamin Franklin called our "public religion," a sort of benign homage to a sort of generic God, one whose outline, and agenda, were deliberately left vague. It's a nonsectarian God, a God not weighted down by dogma. He made us. He watches over us. But he isn't kicking butt and taking names. Unlike the Old Testament God, or the God of the Crusaders, or the God the Wahhabi, he doesn't exhort his followers to lop off the heads of those who worship in the wrong temple."

Keep religion out of politics, Canadians say - "Canadians are becoming increasingly uneasy about mixing religion and politics and they'd be more likely to vote for a party lead by an atheist or a Muslim than an evangelical Christian, suggests a new poll." -- God love those Canadians. Americans could learn something from them.

Like It or Not, You’re Funding Right-Wing Rock -- No comment.

2 charged for Holocaust denial - "German prosecutors say they have charged a German far-right activist, extradited from the United States, and a Belgian man, handed over by the Netherlands, with incitement for allegedly denying the Holocaust."

Study Finds Consolidation Among Health Insurers Is Creating Near-Monopolies in Most of U.S. - "Data from the American Medical Association show that in each of 43 states, a handful of top insurers have gained such a stronghold that their markets are considered "highly concentrated" under U.S. Department of Justice guidelines, often far exceeding the thresholds that trigger antitrust concerns. The study also shows that in 166 of 294 metropolitan areas, or 56 percent, a single insurer controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting."

Bird flu threat not so grave, CDC chief says - "“There is no evidence it will be the next pandemic,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said of avian flu. There is “no evidence it is evolving in a direction that is becoming more transmissible to people.”"

Many Health Care Workers Won't Show Up in Flu Pandemic - "With many Americans worried about their safety should a flu pandemic occur, there's little reassurance from a survey that finds that close to half of U.S. public health-care workers would not show up for work if such a pandemic occurred."

LA Woman Hospitalized With Bubonic Plague - "A woman was hospitalized earlier this month with bubonic plague, the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County in more than two decades, health officials said Tuesday."

Bush Plan To Hide Data on 1.5M Lbs. of Toxic Chemicals in California - "A Bush Administration proposal to roll back Americans' right to know about chemical hazards in their neighborhoods would let California industries handle almost 1.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals a year without telling the public, according to an investigation of federal data by Environmental Working Group (EWG)."

Study shows the public is turning to alternative medicine and away from dangerous prescription drugs - "A study published in April 2005 revealed that more than 70 percent of adults aged 50 or older are now using some form of alternative therapy. This includes medicinal herbs, meditation and chiropractic care. The fact that these people are adopting alternative medicine and using it in their own lives is fascinating in and of itself, but what is really fascinating about this research is the response it has been getting from the conventional medical community."

Judge: Doctors not required to report teen sex - "In a victory for an abortion rights group, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that abortion clinic doctors and other professionals are not required under Kansas law to report underage sex between consenting youths."

China Using Artificial Rain to Clear Dust - "The government was preparing to seed clouds to make rain to clear the air, state TV said, citing the Central Meteorological Bureau. It did not elaborate, and the bureau refused to release more information."

Youths near Vegas Strip beat, rob man - "A man was attacked early Saturday by about 15 youths near an entrance to a parking garage at the rear of a Strip resort, police said. A surveillance videotape of the attack shows the man being sucker punched by one young man, then being swarmed by a crowd of at least six young men, who beat him. One of the attackers tries to kick the man in the face. The victim is able to pull away from the crowd, but he is chased and caught in the middle of a roadway, where the growing group of attackers, as if in a feeding frenzy, continues to punch, kick and stomp on him as he curls in a fetal position on the ground. One of the assailants appears to use a chain or some type of belt to whip the man.

Skin cancer epidemic underway in the US - "One in five Americans will develop skin cancer, and a person's risk of the disease doubles if he or she has had five or more sunburns, according to a report in the April issue of the Mayo Clinic Health Letter."

States Omitting Minorities' Test Scores - "The AP found that states are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting that requirement. And minorities — who historically haven't fared as well as whites in testing — make up the vast majority of students whose scores are excluded."

Net playing bigger role in life decisions - "Nearly half of U.S. users of the Internet went online for help with major life decisions such as finding a college for their child or looking for a new place to live, according to a survey released on Wednesday."

Supercomputer simulates black hole collision - "When two black holes collide, space shivers like Jell-O. With the help of a supercomputer to simulate this event, NASA seeks to prove Albert Einstein's theories and unveil the universe's secrets."




Quote of the Day
"Man is the only animal that has the true religion -- several of them."
~ Mark Twain

News -- April 18, 2006

State Department Memo: '16 Words' Were False - "Eleven days before President Bush's January 28, 2003, State of the Union address in which he said that the US learned from British intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Africa - an explosive claim that helped pave the way to war - the State Department told the CIA that the intelligence the uranium claims were based upon were forgeries, according to a newly declassified State Department memo. The revelation of the warning from the closely guarded State Department memo is the first piece of hard evidence and the strongest to date that the Bush administration manipulated and ignored intelligence information in their zeal to win public support for invading Iraq." -- Make sure you understand what that said. Now, why is the Bush administration still in office?

THE REAL WMD'S IN IRAQ - OURS - ""Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.7 billion years - that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come. This is what I call terrorism," says Dr Ahmad Hardan."

A Small-Time Crime With Hints of Big-Time Connections Lights Up the Net - "Bloggers are fascinated by what they see as eerie parallels between Watergate and a phone-jamming scandal in New Hampshire. It has low-level Republican operatives involved in dirty campaign tricks. It has checks from donors with murky backgrounds. It has telephone calls to the White House. What is unclear is whether it is the work of a few rogue actors, or something larger."

could the G.O.P phone jamming scandal be the next Watergate? - " Surprisingly, no state is in a better position to expose the full extent of GOP corruption than New Hampshire. This is where the bad guys got caught red-handed tampering with an election. Still, how can this be compared to Watergate? The Watergate scandal brought down the president of the United States, but left the then-fledgling right wing movement intact. This investigation will do just the opposite. George Bush will likely weather the storm as a very lame duck, but the ideological underpinnings of the right wing movement are crumbling."

It's a record: Oil tops $72 overseas - "Oil prices have soared from $20 at the start of 2002 and are now nearing the inflation-adjusted peaks of over $80 hit in 1980, the year after the Iranian revolution."

OPEC believes oil prices are too high: delegate - "OPEC believes oil prices are too steep, after setting a fresh record high above $70 a barrel, and the rise is not justified by market fundamentals, a senior OPEC delegate said on Tuesday. The delegate said there was no shortage of crude oil supply and that OPEC giant Saudi Arabia and other producers had pledged in the past to keep markets well supplied. ... "Geopolitics are riding the price," the OPEC delegate said, stressing that there was no shortage of crude in the market."

UK scientists attack oil firms' role in huge Arctic project - "British scientists are at loggerheads with US colleagues over a controversial plan to work alongside oil companies to hunt for fossil fuel reserves in the Arctic."

'Roe v. Wade': The divided states of America - "The conclusions: Twenty-two state legislatures are likely to impose significant new restrictions on abortion. ... Sixteen state legislatures are likely to continue current access to abortion. ... Twelve states fall into a middle ground between those two categories."

An untold story of 9/11 - "A mix-up in Boston prevented the luggage from connecting with the plane that hijackers crashed into the north tower of the trade center. Seized by FBI agents at Boston's Logan Airport, investigators said, it contained Arab-language papers revealing the identities of all 19 hijackers involved in the four hijackings, as well as information on their plans, backgrounds and motives." -- Really? And you expect me to believe this? Come on. Please stop insulting my intelligence.

Behind the Military Revolt - "The calls by a growing number of recently retired generals for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have created the most serious public confrontation between the military and an administration since President Harry S. Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1951. In that epic drama, Truman was unquestionably correct -- MacArthur, the commanding general in Korea and a towering World War II hero, publicly challenged Truman's authority and had to be removed. Most Americans rightly revere the principle that was at stake: civilian control over the military. But this situation is quite different."

Neil Young: 'Let's Impeach the President' - "Young is the latest in a string of recording stars to take musical aim at U.S. President George W. Bush and his conduct of the war in the Iraq. Others have included Steve Earle, Willie Nelson and the Rolling Stones."

Bill Maher's Advice to Bush - "Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you're saying: there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote. ... On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. ... So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.'"

Traditional marriage group seeks a few liberal allies - "The Alliance for Marriage (AFM) is assembling broad left-right coalitions, including many black and Hispanic pastors, in several key states to convince senators to support a constitutional amendment against homosexual "marriage," which is set for a June vote in the Senate." -- Remember, religion is to blame for this hatred of fellow human beings.

Gays in Iraq fear for their lives - "That is the fear that haunts Hussein, and other gay men in Iraq. They say that since the US-led invasion, gays are being killed because of their sexual orientation. They blame the increase in violence on the growing influence of religious figures and militia groups in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was ousted. Islam considers homosexuality sinful. A website published in the name of Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, says gays should be put to death. "Those who commit sodomy must be killed in the harshest way," says a section of the website dealing with questions of morality." -- Ah, very similar to most religions in that gays are not worthy of being human.

Kentucky goes P.C. on B.C., A.D. - "The Kentucky State Board of Education has recommended textbooks in the state include the secular dating abbreviations of B.C.E. and C.E. alongside the traditional Christian-based B.C. and A.D."

DEADLIEST SHIRT IN THE WORLD - "THIS deadly 9/11 shirt contains so much asbestos it is feared thousands of the disaster's survivors could be hit with cancer. The garment worn by survivor Yehuda Kaploun, 39, has 93,000 times higher levels of asbestos than normal - 47 TIMES the safety limit."

As Many Dropouts as Degrees - "U.S. high schools and doctoral programs share a problem: How do they keep their students enrolled long enough to get a degree? ... At stake, some educators say, is America's tradition of world dominance in doctoral education, which has fueled research and innovation since the first PhDs were awarded in the United States in the 1880s."

Japan replaces extreme TV shows with duller fare - "Nightly doses of pain, degradation and downright embarrassment that once captivated Japanese TV viewers have been toned down dramatically after widespread concerns about their impact on society."

Scientists begin dig at Bosnian ‘pyramid’ - "History-laden hill contains human-made tunnels, researchers say."

Sex just isn't the same in the Silicon Age - ""What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multisensual experience of virtual sex," said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington. "There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities, the partner saying certain things in that interaction, certain things happening in that interaction." A field dubbed "teledildonics" already allows people at two remote computers to manipulate electronic devices such as a vibrator at the other end for sexual purposes. "People who use it are just blown away," said Steve Rhodes, president of Sinulate Entertainment, which has sold thousands of Internet-connected sex devices over the past three years. "This is not something that just the lunatic fringe does." "The Iraq war...was kind of a boom for our company.""




Quote of the Day
"Mornings feel so damn sad these days."
~ Cowboy Junkies

News -- April 17, 2006

Retired colonel claims U.S. military operations are already 'underway' in Iran - ""I would say -- and this may shock some -- I think the decision has been made and military operations are under way," Col. Gardiner told CNN International anchor Jim Clancy."

Iran pledges $50 million to Palestinians - "Iran will give the Palestinian Authority $50 million and urged other Muslim countries to follow suit, Iran's top diplomat said Sunday. Western countries have cut direct funding to the authority's Hamas-led government."

Iranians volunteer for "martyrdom missions" - "Some 200 Iranians have volunteered in the past few days to carry out "martyrdom missions" against U.S. and British interests if Iran is attacked over its nuclear program, a hardline group said on Sunday."

Entire Bush team needs replacement - "The message was a subtle reminder that it was a sexual act that got Bush's predecessor impeached, and a not-so-subtle reminder that Bush's numerous and far more egregious impeachable acts that have cost America thousands of lost and ruined lives and billions in treasure have so far gone unpunished. That's what a lockstep, one-party majority in both the Senate and House can do for you. The intensely moral Tom DeLay, and those two adulterous frauds, Henry Hyde and Dan Burton, who pushed the House to impeach Clinton have been silent as the Sphinx on Bush's abuse of his office and the Constitution."

Asleep all over America - "Are you awake yet, America? I'm wide awake, and worried. Are you worried with me, wondering what's next? Are you terrified? If you're not scared silly, that frightens me even more. ... The United States of America is not magically immune to totalitarianism, and we're flirting with it. It can happen here, and we're approaching the brink. The only difference between freedom and tyranny is what leaders can get away with. And many Americans, it seems, are willing to let George W Bush get away with anything and everything he wants. You should shudder in fear, as I do, when Americans -- Americans! -- argue that their own rights are un-important, or that their leaders should be above the law."

Zarqawi; the Pentagon’s ongoing war of deception - " In more than 3 years of war, there has never been a positive citing of alleged terror mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi. This has led many to believe that he is merely a creation of Pentagon propagandists working with their agents in the western press. Colonel Derek Harvey strengthened those suspicions last week when he admitted in a Washington Post article that the military intentionally "enlarged Zarqawi’s caricature" to create the impression that the ongoing struggle against occupation was really a fight against terrorism. But, that is not the case. As Harvey notes, "The long term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but former regime types and their friends"." -- Yep, they're using Orwell's 1984 as a "how-to manual" for their operations.

Massive New Embassy in Iraq Flaunts US Power, Critics Say - "The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq's turbulent future. The new U.S. Embassy also seems as cloaked in secrecy as the ministate in Rome. "We can't talk about it. Security reasons," Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy, said when asked for information about the project. ... "The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country," the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group, said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq." -- Check out the picture.

US firms suspected of bilking Iraq funds - "American contractors swindled hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi funds, but so far there is no way for Iraq's government to recoup the money, according to US investigators and civil attorneys tracking fraud claims against contractors." -- The American way.

NYPD flips on surveillance cameras to fight crime and terror - "The cameras were the first installment of a high-tech surveillance program to place 500 cameras throughout the city at a cost of $9 million. Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance "ring of steel" modeled after security measures in London's financial district."

Gingrich warns Republicans Americans want change - "The Republican Party is in serious danger of losing political ground in November elections if it does not enact reforms that eliminate waste and hold the federal bureaucracy to higher standards, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Sunday. "I think they're in very serious danger of having a very bad election this fall," Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday."

Muslims outraged by new cartoon of Prophet in Hell - "An Italian magazine has infuriated Muslims by publishing a cartoon showing the Prophet Mohammed cut in half and burning in Hell. The drawing appears in Studi Cattolici, a monthly magazine with links to the ultra-conservative Roman Catholic group, Opus Dei. It shows the poets Virgil and Dante on the edge of a circle of flame looking down on Mohammed."

How the Abandonment of Christianity May Be Leading to Disaster - "As writer Mark Steyn glumly put it in The New Criterion, "Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries." What could possibly cause such a cataclysm? Another world war? A nuclear confrontation? The devastation of a plague, similar to that caused by the Black Death in the 14th century? Nothing quite so dramatic, say the experts. Rather, Europe is slowly dying simply by refusing to have enough children to replace the people who die each year."

Criticism warranted when any group forces its beliefs on others - "Tragically, however, religious beliefs almost invariably spawn fundamentalist sects, which are usually the principal source of the conflict and violence frequently associated with religion. Most moderate and liberal believers are, regrettably, unwilling to denounce the extreme dogmatism of the radicals, perhaps partly due to the taboo of criticizing religious beliefs. Why have I focused on Christianity? Hindus, Jainists, Pantheists and Neopagans aren't the groups vehemently pushing for religion in our public school science classes. Similarly, they aren't at the forefront in political opposition to sex education in schools, condom use to prevent AIDS or government funding of embryonic stem cell research. "

Theocons and Theocrats - " Is theocracy in the United States (1) a legitimate fear, as some liberals argue; (2) a joke, given the nation's rising secular population and moral laxity; (3) a worrisome bias of major GOP constituencies and pressure groups; or (4) all of the above? The last, I would argue."

Flag burning, gay marriage and abortion top GOP agenda - "Between now and the November elections, Republicans are penciling in plans to take action on social issues important to religious conservatives, the foundation of the GOP base, as they defend their congressional majority. In a year where an unpopular war in Iraq has helped drive President Bush's approval ratings below 40 percent, core conservatives whose turnout in November is vital to the party want assurances that they are not being taken for granted." -- The people in Congress are not religious. They use religion to obtain votes. Their religious constituents can't even see that they are being used because they are so blinded by religion.

Preparing returns too taxing for some members of Congress - "When it comes to their own tax returns, many members of Congress who specialize in writing tax laws turn to professional preparers rather than complete the paperwork themselves." -- And that speaks volumes.

The Dollar Is a Swindle - ""Answering audience questions after a speech to the Dallas Friday Group, Fisher said the U.S. dollar is a 'faith-based currency' dependent on the credibility of a central bank. "'In addition to a faith-based currency, we are the currency of the world and we must maintain its integrity...'" How can you maintain the integrity of something whose integrity rests on faith? There is the problem right there...out in the open. Faith is a matter of perception, of hope, of desire. The dollar will be worth something as long as people have faith in it. You can have faith in God. You can have faith in Mother Nature or in the cosmos, but how can you have faith in the dollar? Is not the dollar managed by men? Are not men easily corruptible? Are they not born of woman? Do they not eat bread, drink whiskey and wallow in sin from time to time? And, will they not be tempted to liven up the party occasionally, and try to get their pictures in the paper. And, being human, won't they give into it every once in a while? People who have faith then, won't they be chumps?"

U.S. Plan For Flu Pandemic Revealed - "President Bush is expected to approve soon a national pandemic influenza response plan that identifies more than 300 specific tasks for federal agencies, including determining which frontline workers should be the first vaccinated and expanding Internet capacity to handle what would probably be a flood of people working from their home computers."

Obesity Finds Niche in American Marketing - "From the cradle to the grave and most points between, obesity has found its niche in American marketing. Make that a wide berth. Baby seats, doorways and caskets are but a few examples from a long list of life's accouterments that are getting much bigger to accommodate much bigger people. There are also vacation resorts for those embarrassed to be seen in a bathing suit."

Goth Youths Prone to Suicide Attempts and Self-Mutilation - "More than half of 19-year-olds who self-identified as Goth reported self-harming behavior, and nearly half reported a suicide attempt, said Robert Young, a research associate at the University of Glasgow. But whether participation in Goth culture leads to self-destructive behavior or whether adolescents with those tendencies gravitate to Goth is not clear, Young and colleagues said online today in BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal."

Men, you have 30 seconds to impress women - "HALF of all women make their minds up within 30 seconds of meeting a man about whether he is potential boyfriend material, according to a study on speed-dating."




Quote of the Day
"Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people."
~ The Refreshments

News -- April 16, 2006

Peres: 'Ahmadinejad represents Satan' - "Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres responded to veiled threats made by Iran's president against Israel, saying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "will end up in the same way as [Saddam] Hussein."" -- At the expense of American blood and money.

Blair refuses to back Iran strike - "TONY Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday. Amid increasing tension over Tehran's attempts to develop a military nuclear capacity, the Prime Minister has laid bare the limits of his support for President Bush, who is believed to be considering an assault on Iran, Foreign Office sources revealed."

Terror warning over Iran attack - "A possible US attack on Iran could be more damaging to American interests than the current offensive in Iraq has been, two former White House counterterrorism experts have warned."

Nuclear War Crimes - "I am neither a scientist nor a writer of fiction, but the notion that a government would knowingly dust human beings with radioactive heavy metal powder or place them in toxic zones without warning resembles a science fiction nightmare come true. Yet this is just what the Department of Defense (DOD) is doing. Prioritizing weapon strength over long-term health and environmental considerations, the U.S. is using material that has poisoned our own troops, dumped thousands of tons of this toxic waste at home and abroad, and broken international law in the process. Meanwhile, the controversial nature of this material has led the U.S. government to deny its devastating side effects and long-term consequences. The substance is a heavy metal radioactive material called Uranium 238 (U-238), also known as Depleted Uranium or DU."

The Real Death Tax - "These days, the money we're sending to Washington is buying a lot more war and a lot less economic security. In the current White House budget request, Pentagon spending would rocket upward, with a $29 billion increase. If you include military portions of the budgets of Homeland Security, Energy, and other departments, US taxpayers would fork over $563 billion for military spending in the coming fiscal year. But wait! (as they say on infomercials) There's more! That $563 billion doesn't even include the cost of the war in Iraq! President Bush has submitted a supplemental budget request for $74 billion, of which $61 billion will fund that continuing military occupation. The Iraq war has cost $273 billion so far. But to account for the total cost of the war, according to Nobel-prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, we should project the future costs of fighting and withdrawal, added veterans' costs, the cost of lifetime care for brain-injured troops, the added interest on the national debt, and other expenses. Do that, says Stiglitz, and the price tag of the Iraq war will be between $750 billion and $1.3 trillion. That's trillion with a 't', and even that figure, says Stiglitz, is "highly conservative".To pay off an extra $1.3 trillion would require every dollar of federal individual income taxes paid by every working American for a period of one year and seven months! That's impossible, so much of it will be borrowed money."

HOW DO WE TAKE THREE MORE YEARS OF BUSH? - "You could not make this up: We are saying that we may be forced to nuke Iran to prevent them from getting nukes. A Pentagon official put it another way in last week's New Yorker magazine: "The bottom line is that Iran cannot become a nuclear-weapons state. The problem is that the Iranians realize that only by becoming a nuclear state can they defend themselves against the United States." ... It is difficult and profoundly depressing to contemplate what Bush and Rumsfeld will come up with in the almost three years they have left in office. This president came to power as superpower, when the United States dominated the world economically, morally and militarily. That will not be true when he leaves. We have been diminished in almost every way by this administration's ignorance and incompetence -- and now we are going to do more of it by shouting ourselves hoarse in response to fanatic loudmouths in Iran rather than letting them destroy themselves with their own people."

Happy Little Birds in Happy Little Iraq - "Last night (4/13) as I was watching "Special Report with Brit Hume", I was a bit startled by how Hume attempted to portray Iraq as tranquil and serene, even claiming that most provinces are secure and calm (so calm that 65,000 people have had to flee their homes). Yet, what startled me even more was what was happening in the background of the desperately upbeat Iraq story. ... Did Fox add a soundtrack to make Iraq appear more serene than it is, or is this Iraqi province straight out of Hitchcock's "The Birds"? As they say at Fox, "We report - you decide!"" -- They have the video.

The Failure Of The U.S. "Free Press" - "But with being such a powerful source for national news comes with a huge responsibility, and "television news" has failed us miserably.As a nation, it is time to look closely at the the use of television and radio in being a news source. It`s time to ask ourselves if "commercial television news shows" have not evolved into a medium that cannot possibly live up to that huge responsibility without being a tool of "special interests." It`s time to look at television and radio news as potentially being the source of more harm to our nation than good. We must ask the question; can (corporate) television and radio possibly provide neutral and un-biased news as it is being used as a tool to shape the way our country thinks and acts? ... Can television station owners, and their journalistic employees, possibly be living up to their constitutional responsibility, or be doing their jobs correctly, when each of these news sources reports the same story, at the same time, even in the same order, day after day? It is disgusting to think that they can`t do any better than that. ... Television news. It has failed us all. The entire national media has failed us all. TV news shows have become a make-up room full of plastic-pretty women, and stiff, well groomed men, whose real job today is to read, look good, and to sell products. TV news and radio news now appear to exist solely for the special interests of commercialism. It survives on "ratings," numbers that are based on how the news people look, how they dress, and how well they can read from a teleprompter. ... Don`t blame the Republicans for the war in Iraq. Don't blame the Democrats for the war in Iraq. Blame the so-called news anchors, who are failing miserably at their jobs. It's their job to find the facts, not ours. They use the news to sell, not inform. And when news has to sell, it sells us out. ... Turn on your computer, and go online for your news, and help restore Jefferson's, Adams', and Franklin's dreams of a nation with a free press...a press to oversee and report the actions of our government and our corporations. They want money, but we need the truth, or we shall fall."

News whiteout - "The Bush administration has frustrated reporters by ignoring questions and sticking to its message. That strategy might no longer be working."

Russia pledges to aid Hamas - "Russia said yesterday it had promised emergency aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, breaking with the European Union and the United States, which have stopped funding to try to force Hamas to recognize Israel."

Charlie Sheen Courageously Challenges 9/11 Orthodoxy On National TV - "Over the past month Charlie Sheen's comments on 9/11 have sent shockwaves throughout the media and caused a firestorm of both support and establishment hit pieces. Sheen made history Friday night when he became the first high profile figure to bring serious questions about 9/11 to the forum of the late night talk show."

The Bible's All Wrong, Again The surprising Gospel of Judas proves you just can't be too sure about all that God stuff - "Is it not just tremendous heaps of casually blasphemous fun to learn, once again and for the thousandth time, that the Bible -- that happy mish-mashed messed-up hodgepodgey cocktail of myths and folklore and revisionist propaganda and who's-your-daddy reproaches intermixed with lovely stories of redemption and hope and oh yes sin and hellfire and death -- is so full of colorful holes it might as well be a bedsheet from Baghdad Target?" ... If the Bible is the gold brick in the American spiritual sidewalk, then you simply have to ask: What is the relevance in the fact that Christ might not have been betrayed at all? That he may have orchestrated his own arrest? What does this say about his divine wisdom? About Bible stories as a whole? More importantly, how does the new and improved Judas story pinch the ass of our collective mythology? Does it or does it not kick out one of the shaky support beams of the modern Church? Shouldn't it? The answer, of course, is it depends on just how deep your personal stick is stuck in the divine mud. Because now more than ever, hard-core religious and political types think it's all clear and righteous and straight, that life's moral codes and cultural guidelines have all been correctly (and homophobically, and misogynistically) spelled out in grainy divine ink, in ancient ironclad stories that would deign to tell us how to think and feel and live. ... The truth is, the Church was formed to serve people just like this, those who are unable to grasp nuances and unable to think beyond a certain scope, those who are unwilling or unable follow what is perhaps the singlemost powerful and significant of all Christ's (and Buddha's, and the Tao's, etc.) teachings: that is, to seek God within. Not in a priest. Not in a building. Not in an organized institution. Within you."

Senator: 7 colleagues headed to slammer - "U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says he expects six members of the House of Representatives and at least one fellow senator to go to jail on corruption charges related to the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff."

“Bush - Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951” - Federal Documents - "After the seizures in late 1942 of five U.S. enterprises he managed on behalf of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen, Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, failed to divest himself of more than a dozen "enemy national" relationships that continued until as late as 1951, newly-discovered U.S. government documents reveal. Furthermore, the records show that Bush and his colleagues routinely attempted to conceal their activities from government investigators." -- What, no background check was done on the president?

Suicide-clinic entrepreneur:Depressed? 'We never say no' - "The founder of Dignitas – a Zurich, Switzerland, clinic that assists those with illnesses end their lives – says he wants to open a chain of "suicide clinics" in other countries to give everyone, including the mentally ill, the "the choice of a choice."

US government wants PayPal records - "The US government has ordered online auctioneer eBay's payment service PayPal to turn over records that could expose foreign accounts where tax cheats have hidden money, PayPal said last night."

Ex-Exxon CEO's Massive Pension Draws Fire - ""They are in very, very rich times, so on one hand they say, 'we can afford it,' but on the other hand they are taking an awful lot of heat because they've made too much at the expense of consumers. I'm surprised they are not being asked to justify that."" -- Me, too.

Light at end of the tunnel over near death experiences - "Today, new evidence is published that backs the idea that the near-death experience is a biological experience, rather than anything to do with a larger, spiritual dimension, a glimpse of heaven, or the existence of the soul."

Computer Virus Demands Ransom for Encrypted Files - "Virus hunters have discovered a new Trojan that encrypts files on an infected computer and then demands $300 in ransom for a decryption password."

Fat cells link to heart disease - "Fat cells around coronary arteries may play a key role in heart disease, research suggests."

Arizona on alert for mumps - "Health officials across Arizona have been told to be alert for an outbreak of the mumps after a traveler on an airline flight originating in Tucson was diagnosed with the viral infection."

CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character - "How others treat the CEO says nothing, they say. But how others treat the waiter is like a magical window into the soul." -- Oh, how I agree with the Waiter Rule. And it does not just apply to CEOs.

New York Leads Politeness Trend? Get Outta Here! - "But somehow a city whose residents have long been scorned for their churlish behavior is now being praised for adopting rules and laws that govern personal conduct, making New York an unlikely model for legislating courtesy and decorum. ... With its precipitous drops in crime, New York has increasingly been able to turn its attention to policing offensive behavior, from the mere faux pas to outright misconduct that puts others at risk. And that has put it on the front line of a national crackdown on incivility. ... "Most people just seem to ignore common sense and common courtesy so it does have to be legislated," she said. "To have this happen in New York is going to inspire a lot of other people. I cannot applaud it enough. My hands are tired from clapping."" -- The fact this is happening speaks volumes about humanity.

Australian cheerleaders told to cover up midriffs - "Australian cheerleaders have been banned from baring midriffs by officials of the sport who fear displays of skin may encourage eating disorders."




Quote of the Day
"No, it's not like terrorism. It is terrorism."
~ Eric Cartman, South Park