March 16, 2007

Plame: My Cover Was 'Recklessly' Abused - "Valerie Plame, the CIA operative at the heart of a political scandal, told Congress Friday that senior officials at the White House and State Department "carelessly and recklessly" blew her cover to discredit her diplomat-husband."

Huge Problem with KSM Confession - ""I was responsible for planning, training, surveying, and financing for the New (or Second) Wave of attacks against the following skyscrapers after 9/11: ...Plaza Bank, Washington state"The Plaza Bank was not founded until 2006 according to their official Web site:"

KSM: The Ultimate Patsy "Confesses" - "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged "Al-Qaeda mastermind," has confessed to direct involvement in a myriad of terrorist attacks and assassination plots around the world, including 9/11 "from A to Z," but some are likely to be disappointed that after 5 years of torture he stopped short of accepting responsibility for killing Kennedy, creating AIDS and being the real Santa Claus."

Matt Lauer: Can Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's 'tortured' testimony be trusted? - "On Thursday, NBC's Today Show explored whether the confessions of alleged 9/11 "mastermind" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed can be trusted, since he claimed to have been tortured after being detained. "Let's talk about the issue of torture," NBC's Matt Lauer said. "He says in his statement that he didn't make this statement under duress or pressure, but he does also say that he was tortured by the CIA after his capture.""

Pentagon report describes 'civil war' - "The U.S. military for the first time Wednesday said in a new report that some of the violence in Iraq can be described as a civil war."

U.S. Senate rejects Iraq deadline - "A Democratic effort to set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq failed Thursday to pass the U.S. Senate."

Ahmadinejad says Iran will stick to atomic work - "Iran said on Friday no amount of U.N. pressure would deter it from its nuclear program, a day after major powers agreed a plan to impose new sanctions."

I am Sullied-No More - "Yet among all of those tragedies, amid all the suffering and heartache, Westhusing’s story stands out. It shows how one man’s life, and the fervent beliefs that defined it, were crushed by the corruption and deceit that he saw around him. The disillusion that killed Ted Westhusing is part of the invoice that America will be paying long after the United States pulls its last troops out of Iraq."

General seeks another brigade in Iraq - "The top US commander in Iraq has requested another Army brigade, in addition to five already on the way, as part of the controversial "surge" of American troops designed to clamp down on sectarian violence and insurgent groups, senior Pentagon officials said yesterday." -- More cattle to the slaughter.

E-Mails Show Rove's Role in U.S. Attorney Firings - "New unreleased e-mails from top administration officials show that the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was raised by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove in early January 2005, indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than the White House previously acknowledged. The e-mails also show how Alberto Gonzales discussed the idea of firing the attorneys en masse while he was still White House counsel — weeks before he was confirmed as attorney general. The e-mails put Rove at the epicenter of the imbroglio and raise questions about Gonzales' explanations of the matter."

Top investor sees U.S. property crash - "Commodities investment guru Jim Rogers stepped into the U.S. subprime fray on Wednesday, predicting a real estate crash that would trigger defaults and spread contagion to emerging markets. "You can't believe how bad it's going to get before it gets any better," the prominent U.S. fund manager told Reuters by telephone from New York."

VeriChip Passes Significant Milestone: Over 500 Hospitals Have Now Agreed to Adopt VeriMed Patient Identification System - "The new healthcare facilities agreed to use the VeriMed reader as standard protocol to scan patients that arrive in emergency rooms unconscious, delirious or confused. The Company continues to provide readers to hospitals and other healthcare facilities at no charge as part of its efforts to "seed" the infrastructure for the VeriMed patient identification system."

Is Your Webstie Being Blocked in China -- thefallofhumanity.com is.

Millions More for a Failed Anti-Drug Propaganda Campaign? Ridiculous! - "It's no wonder that a $2 billion anti-drug campaign which included suggestions that smoking pot supports al Qaeda and causes pregnancy completely failed. So why are Republicans throwing another $130 million at it?"

Dozens in GOP Turn Against Bush's Prized 'No Child' Act - "More than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate -- including the House's second-ranking Republican -- will introduce legislation today that could severely undercut President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing mandates."

Christian Men...Too Wimpy? - "Three hundred men — all Christian — gathered behind closed doors at a Tennessee mall trying to figure out the difference between being "nice" (which is not good) and being "good" (which is). They struggled in the dimly lit hall — after a Christian rock band handed it off to the comic in charge — to make sense of the message they were hearing from the stage: that church has been "feminized" and that the Jesus talked about in many modern churches is too wimpy and gentle. The men had to decide by day's end (that is, after six hours of listening) whether they were ready to take up the challenge of becoming a "Christian warrior" modeled on the "manlier" version of Christ they were told has been overlooked — the Christ who took a whip to moneychangers, and used the word "dung" when he had to."

Does Your Candidate Love Jesus? - "A recent Gallup poll found that—refreshingly—a solid majority of Americans would have no problem voting for a presidential candidate who was Catholic, black, female, divorced, elderly, Mormon, or gay. The only option on the poll that a majority of Americans couldn’t bring themselves to support? An atheist. ... In fact, the truly radical thing about the Declaration of the Independence wasn’t its religiosity, it was its abrupt departure from the centuries-old belief that kings inherited their power directly from God. It stated that government doesn’t exist on the authority of God; rather, men are born with inherent, inalienable rights. Government exists only on the authority of and at the permission of the governed—men. In this respect, the Declaration made the case for a less faith-based form of governance, not more. In fact, Jefferson’s original draft of the document contained no reference to a deity at all. It was the Congress that added the word “Creator.”"

Poll: Bias 'alive and well' in press - "Sentiment is strong: 83 percent of likely voters think bias is "alive and well." Of that number, 64 percent said the press leans left, while slightly more than a quarter -- 28 percent -- said there was a conservative bias."

Winter has been world's warmest on record - "This has been the world's warmest winter since record-keeping began more than a century ago, the U.S. government agency that tracks weather reported Thursday." -- But a hundred years isn't a long time.

Nature runs riot after Europe's warmest winter - "Wheat harvested a month early, markets bursting with prematurely ripened produce, animals migrating too soon or not at all -- Europe's warmest winter on record has made nature run amok, experts across the continent have reported."

Ocean heat blamed for the mysterious disappearance of glaciers - "The rise in atmospheric temperatures caused by global warming cannot account for the relatively rapid movement of the glaciers into the sea, but scientists suspect that warmer oceans may be playing a role."

Global Warming is a Myth - ""It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth," said Andresen, an expert on thermodynamics. "A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Furthermore, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate". He says the currently used method of determining the global temperature -- and any conclusion drawn from it -- is more political than scientific."

Could crazy technology save the planet? - "Crazy-sounding ideas for saving the planet are getting a serious look from top scientists, a sign of their fears about global warming and the desire for an insurance policy in case things get worse. How crazy? There's the man-made "volcano" that shoots gigatons of sulfur high into the air. The space "sun shade" made of trillions of little reflectors between Earth and sun, slightly lowering the planet's temperature. The forest of ugly artificial "trees" that suck carbon dioxide out of the air. And the "Geritol solution" in which iron dust is dumped into the ocean."

Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design - "Although both men and women look at the image of George Brett when directed to find out information about his sport and position, men tend to focus on private anatomy as well as the face. For the women, the face is the only place they viewed." -- Scroll down to see the picture.

Forty-Nine Percent of U.S. Students Binge Drink - "Forty-nine percent of U.S. college students indulge each month in binge drinking or drug use, abusing them at rates far higher than in the general population, according to a report."

Italy bans mobile phones in classrooms - "Italy has banned schoolchildren from using mobile phones in class in an attempt to stop ringtones disrupting lessons and prevent pupils messing about with video cameras."

Study challenges theories on species - "More species develop in warm, tropical climates or cooler, temperate areas? It turns out the longtime answer — the tropics — may be wrong. True, more different types of animals exist there than in places farther from the equator. New research suggests that is because tropical species do not die out as readily. Cooler regions have a higher turnover rate, with more species developing but also more becoming extinct."

Huge ice deposits cover south pole of Mars - "A spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of water if they were liquid, scientists said Thursday."

Make way for the iPad - "Home automation is ushering in the era of the remote-controlled house. Some affordable options put the 'Jetsons' lifestyle within reach."




Quote of the Day
"Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

March 15, 2007

Transcript: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses 9/11 role - "The scope of the operations Mohammed accepts responsibility for includes plans to assassinate "several" former presidents, such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and to destroy world-famous landmarks such as the Panama Canal, Chicago's Sears Tower and London's Big Ben. Other terrorist acts Mohammed claims responsibility for in the transcript -- released Wednesday -- include Richard Reid's attempted shoe bombing of an airliner over the Atlantic, the Bali, Indonesia, nightclub bombing and the 1993 World Trade Center attack. Mohammed takes responsibility for 29 operations, the transcript shows. Another claim is redacted from the public version. Mohammed also said he is partially responsible for an assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II while he was visiting the Philippines." -- Two things: 1) Was he tortured to "confess"? and 2) Why didn't he "confess" to the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster?

The Future Has Caught Up With Us - "John Derbyshire is the sole remaining adult writing for National Review. In a recent issue he noted that Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, first published in 1932, now reads like contemporary news. Huxley’s fearsome predictions of a 26th century world have all come true six centuries early – in vitro fertilization, genetically modified crops, stem-cell research, promiscuous recreational sex, the demise of marriage and families, and the epidemic use of prescription and illegal drugs to escape from anxiety, frustration and disappointment. Alas, Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial, published in 1925 and George Orwell’s novel, 1984, published in 1949, also have been turned into period pieces by the practices of the Bush Regime. In Kafka’s novel, Josef K. is arrested for reasons never given, tried for an unspecified crime, and executed. The Trial is the model for the Bush Regime’s Military Tribunals, which permit execution on the basis of hearsay, secret evidence unknown to the defendant, or confession extracted by torture. For the past five years, the Bush Regime has held people in secret prisons without warrants, charges, or access to an attorney. Most detainees have been tortured and abused. Bush’s real world victims suffer from more disorientation and hopelessness than Kafka’s character, Josef K. In Orwell’s 1984, people are subjected to relentless spying. A state or alleged state of war is used to maintain total control over everyone. Lies have replaced truth, and the media serves as propagandist for the Ministry of Truth. The meaning of words, such as "freedom" has been perverted. The attitude of 1984’s all-powerful government is "you are with us or against us.""

Iraqi Women--Four years after the Invasion - "It is not only lack of electricity, clean water and petrol that affects the very-day lives of Iraqi civilians. According to recent reports published by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the British-based charity organization Medact, the 2003 invasion and ongoing occupation has led to the deterioration of health conditions, including malnutrition, rise in vaccine-preventable diseases and mortality rates for children under five. ... Female relatives have been literally taken hostage by U.S forces and used as bargaining chips. Aside from the violence related to the arrests, those women who were detained by the troops often suffer as well from the sense of shame associated with such a detention. There has been mounting evidence not just of physical assaults and torture but also of rape. Women who have been detained may even become victims of so-called honor crimes."

Rattling the Cage: Living with Olmert, dying with Bush - "The nation's leader is deeply unpopular and getting more so. The public is unhappy with the way the country is going and wants to get rid of the leader and elect a new one. The problem, though, is that because of the country's electoral system, the leader can't be budged from office, at least not for a while. The public can scream its head off, but the leader just carries on. Not for the first time are Israelis and Americans in the same boat, or rather in two separate boats that are very much the same."

Congress loads up $20 billion in pork - "Congress has loaded up President Bush's request for "emergency" spending on the Iraq war with more than $20 billion in "pork" for members' districts."

Matt Drudge rules their world...and spreads a Big Lie on Iraq - "He rules their world, and yet on the very day that the U.S. Senate is starting a major debate on the future of American troops in Iraq, Matt Drudge is spreading a Big Lie."

Chertoff warns of Web of terrorism - "Radical Islamists are using the Internet to recruit homegrown terrorists in the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate panel yesterday."

Web censorship spreading globally - "Internet censorship is spreading rapidly, being practised by about two dozen countries and applied to a far wider range of online information and applications, according to research by a transatlantic group of academics."

Google to bolster privacy of online searchers - "Google said on Wednesday it would begin routinely purging its data banks of information that identifies search engine users in order to better shield their anonymity."

The modern global slave trade and those who fight it. - "Twenty-seven million slaves exist in our world today. Girls and boys, women and men of all ages are forced to toil in the rug loom sheds of Nepal, sell their bodies in the brothels of Rome, break rocks in the quarries of Pakistan, and fight wars in the jungles of Africa. ... Widespread poverty and social inequality ensure a pool of recruits as deep as the ocean. Parents in desperate straits may sell their children or at least be susceptible to scams that will allow the slave trader to take control over the lives of their sons and daughters. Young women in vulnerable communities are more likely to take a risk on a job offer in a faraway location. The poor are apt to accept a loan that the slave trader can later manipulate to steal their freedom. All of these paths carry unsuspecting recruits into the supply chains of slavery. There are times to read history, and there are times to make history. We live right now at one of those epic moments in the fight for human freedom. We no longer have to wonder how we might respond to our moment of truth. Future generations will look back and judge our choices, and be inspired or disappointed."

Mexico City Debates Abortion Measure - "Mexico City legislators are debating a bill that would legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, a measure that would be the first of its kind in this heavily Roman Catholic nation."

Bush v. the Polar Bears - "Forget public pressure and Congressional action, the one thing that might force the Bush administration to change its tune on global warming is the endangered status of polar bears."

World may get greener, then wilt, due warming - "Global warming is expected to turn the planet a bit greener by spurring plant growth but crops and forests may wilt beyond mid-century if temperatures keep rising, according to a draft U.N. report."

Will a New Study Force Changes in Drug Law? - "Indeed, it would be a fine start if Americans could simply begin the sort of rational, thoughtful debate on drug policy that the British seem to be having. If we could manage such a thing, we might start changing illogical and unscientific laws that now lead to more U.S. arrests for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined."

Court: Dying can be charged for using marijuana - "The Supreme Court ruled against Raich two years ago, saying that medical marijuana users and their suppliers could be prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws even if they lived in a state such as California where medical pot is legal."

Smoking 2.0 Give Lungs a Break - "The NicStic is a cigarette-size plastic tube with a rechargeable heating coil that vaporizes tobacco instead of burning it. Pop a filter on the end of the tube, and in seconds it is warmed up enough for a nicotine fix without the smoke. Because it has no smoke, it also has none of the tar, arsenic, cadmium and formaldehyde of regular cigarettes; it also passes muster with local anti-smoking laws here."

Bill would require parental notification of sex ed classes - "The bill will help parents decide whether they want to object to what is being taught, remove their children from the classes or take other action, Geller said."

Yellowstone Supervolcano Making Strange Rumblings - "Yet significant activity continues beneath the surface. And the activity has been increasing lately, scientists have discovered."

Where did the music industry go so wrong? - "Wasn't it all so gloriously simple back when people listened to top 40 radio and obediently paid $20 for discs at record store chains?"

Study links sense of humor, survival - "Adults who have a sense of humor outlive those who don't find life funny, and the survival edge is particularly large for people with cancer, says Sven Svebak of the medical school at Norwegian University of Science and Technology."

New leopard species found in Borneo - "The clouded leopard of Borneo — discovered to be an entirely new species — is the latest in a growing list of animals and plants unique to the Southeast Asian country's rainforest and underscores the need to preserve the area, conservationists said Thursday."

Odd rock may have spawned asteroid family - "In a solar system of heavenly bodies, scientists have discovered an ugly duckling -- an oblong-shaped rock in the vicinity of Pluto that may one day light up Earth's sky as a giant comet. The rock, known as 2003 EL61, is one of the strangest objects in the solar system. It is shaped like an American football and completely rotates every four hours. "Out in space there is this crazy thing spinning end to end that is as big as Pluto," said Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology who discovered the object two years ago."




Quote of the Day
"Read all about their schemes and adventuring. It's well worth a fee."
~ Supertramp

March 14, 2007

There's Always Money For War - "Okay, this is going to sound really naïve. It’s the kind of question you’d expect from an earnest, if not slightly annoying, 12-year-old, not from a hard-boiled wonk like yours truly. But why is it that our representatives can easily raise endless amounts of money for war, but can’t adequately fund human needs?"

Senate votes to restart Iraq war debate - "Breaking a parliamentary roadblock, the Senate voted Wednesday to begin its first formal debate on the Iraq war since Democrats took control of Congress in January."

US officer "upset" Iraqi suspects taken alive, court hears - "A US military officer sounded "pretty mad and upset" that a group of soldiers had taken suspected Iraqi insurgents alive during a raid in which they had been told to kill all military-aged males, a court was told Tuesday." -- Now, think about what we don't hear.

Experts close the lid on 'suitcase nukes' - "Nuclear bombs cleverly concealed in suitcases don't exist in real life. Even so, they have long been a popular Hollywood plot point." -- But they kept you scared about it, didn't they?

The last thing we need - "The decision to establish Africom, as the command will be known, reflects the Bush administration's primary reliance on the use of force to pursue its strategic interests. Among the key goals for the new command, for example, is the assurance of oil imports from Africa, which have assumed much greater importance given the hostility to the US presence in the Middle East."

Hillary, Obama woo Jewish vote - "Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are going head to head for the money and backing of Jewish voters, trying to woo them by asserting their support for Israel and concern about Iran."

Global warming story hits critical mass - ""It's surreal to have pre-eminent scientists tell us very seriously that civilization as we know it is over," Blakemore said. "The scale is unprecedented. It touches every aspect of life.""

Scientists have inconvenient news for Gore - "There is a rising chorus of concern, extending even to "moderate" scientists with no political axe to grind, over the former US vice-president's tactics and advocacy. The nub of their concern is a belief that he has over-egged his case. That, in trying to sell to the public the dangers of complacency in combating global warming, he is guilty of a number of convenient untruths or distortions. The main charges are that he has skated over the Earth's history of climate change and that his talk of impending doom ignores that change is a slow-motion process. Even a top adviser to Mr Gore, the environmental scientist James Hansen, admits the former vice-president's work may hold "imperfections" and "technical flaws"."

Drought blamed on lack of faith - "A LEADING Muslim cleric has blamed the devastating drought, climate change and pollution on Australians' lack of faith in Allah." -- Jesus.

Pope stands ground on abortion, gay 'marriage' - "Pope Benedict XVI yesterday set out "nonnegotiable values" as he urged Catholic lawmakers to oppose laws favoring divorce, abortion, homosexual "marriage" and euthanasia." -- Jesus, pt. 2.

Deadly ants bugging monks - "The irony is that the monks of the Hong Hock See Temple (sometimes known as the Ang Hock Si temple) in Perak Road have to live with the ants and their stinging bites because as Buddhist monks they are not allowed to kill any living thing. The ants have bitten the monks and devotees but the monks cannot lift a finger. They can only hope that the ants go away." -- Jesus, pt. 3.

False impressions - "The author of that letter imagined atheism and religion as two bars of metal. He argued that atheism is initially very attractive ("shiny"), but a close examination reveals it to be "ugly" on the inside. Religion, in contrast, is said to be unappealing on the surface, but solid gold underneath. The problems with this "argument" are numerous and rather obvious; however, even conspicuously bad arguments can be helpful when they illustrate common misconceptions."

Living with the Darwin Fish - "First, we need to remember that scientists have hailed "missing links" before, only to be embarrassed when further evidence came out. The Discovery Institute, which supports Intelligent Design, noted that enthusiasm over this latest find is a backhanded admission by paleontologists that the fossil record has not been kind to Darwin's theory. ... Increasing numbers of world-class scientists, as a matter of fact, are in awe of the apparent design and fine-tuning of Creation. "The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture," physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson notes, "the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.""

Linking Ancient and Modern, A Worldwide Web of Worship - ""If you wish to make an offering, the god will accept it -- even if it's on the Internet," said Balaji, standing barefoot in the hot sand of the South Indian temple compound. The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of people around the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and people of other faiths turn regularly to Web sites to pray, meditate and gather in "virtual" houses of worship graphically designed to look like the real thing. Some sites offer rites from baptism to confession to conversion to Judaism."

Congressman says he doesn't believe in God - "Secular groups Monday applauded a public acknowledgment by Rep. Pete Stark that he does not believe in a supreme being, making the Fremont Democrat the first member of Congress — and the highest-ranking elected official in the U.S. — to publicly acknowledge not believing in God."

AP: 1M archived pages removed post-9/11 - "More than 1 million pages of historical government documents — a stack taller than the U.S. Capitol — have been removed from public view since the September 2001 terror attacks, according to records obtained by the Associated Press. Some of the papers are more than a century old."

Your New ID-Theft Worry? Photocopiers - "Modern photocopiers contain disk drives that let them store the information that they copy. You might think about that before copying your tax return, or other sensitive information."

Microsoft to sue 'cybersquatters' - "Microsoft Corp. said it plans to file a new round of lawsuits in the U.S. and Britain this week against people it says are profiting from registering Internet domain names that contain the company's trademarked terms."

'No Money Down' Falls Flat - "No, folks, I'm not making this up. Not only has the industry embraced these "innovations," but it has also begun to combine various features into a single loan and offer it to high-risk borrowers. One cheeky lender went so far as to advertise what it dubbed its "NINJA" loan -- NINJA standing for "No Income, No Job and No Assets.""

U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty - "The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen."

Gloomy Mood Partly Tied to Income Levels, Bloomberg Poll Finds - "How gloomy Americans are about the direction of the country and President George W. Bush's leadership depends on how much money they make."

Open Access Launches Journal Wars - "The $10 billion science publishing industry hasn't heard the last of a bill that would make publicly funded studies available for free."

'No Child' Target Is Called Out of Reach - "No Child Left Behind, the landmark federal education law, sets a lofty standard: that all students tested in reading and math will reach grade level by 2014. Even when the law was enacted five years ago, almost no one believed that standard was realistic. But now, as Congress begins to debate renewing the law, lawmakers and education officials are confronting the reality of the approaching deadline and the difficult political choice between sticking with the vision of universal proficiency or backing away from it."

I Blame the Handheld Calculator - "Really, though, I blame the handheld calculator. If you can't figure out the cube root of 187,092 with a slide rule, you don't deserve to know it. Knowledge is power, and I think we can all agree that power should only be in the hands of those who earn it. Did you know that it's possible to calculate a cosine even if you think "cosine" is a brand of nasal decongestant? We don't allow people to walk around with live grenades in their pants, and we shouldn't allow people who don't understand math questions to get the answers." -- Because we all need more humor in our day.

Arsenic in my Fluoride? CDC admits Yes - "Trace amounts of arsenic are found in fluoride chemicals added to drinking water supplies, reports the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) website."

Don't try suicide ads, marketing firms learn - "The backlash against a spate of advertising with suicide themes has claimed a third commercial. Washington Mutual has stopped running a spot that showed actors playing bankers poised atop a building as if about to jump."

Possible seas discovered on Saturn moon - "Scientists have discovered what appear to be sea-size bodies of liquid, probably methane or ethane, on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, including one about as big as Montana."




Quote of the Day
"Sometimes what's right isn't as important as what's profitable."
~ Government Agent, South Park

March 13, 2007

Democrats back down on approving move against Iran - "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and other leaders agreed to remove the requirement concerning Iran after conservative Democrats as well as other lawmakers worried about its possible impact on Israel, officials said Monday."

Iran says Israel, U.S. threaten Mideast - "Mottaki told the world's top disarmament forum that Israel was the only country in the region that refuses to accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last year acknowledged that his country had nuclear weapons — which Olmert denies doing."

Confessions of a Torturer - "And there, as an army interrogator, he tortured detainees for information he admits they rarely had. Since leaving Iraq he’s taken this story public, doing battle on national television against the war’s architects for giving him the orders he regrets he obeyed."

Propaganda and the Politics of Perception - "War propaganda glorifies military indoctrination as the highest form of patriotism while simultaneously demonizing the enemies of the state."

Poll: 58 percent want Iraq withdrawal by 2008 or sooner - "Nearly six in 10 Americans want to see U.S. troops leave Iraq either immediately or within a year, and more would rather have Congress running U.S. policy in the conflict than President Bush, according to a CNN poll out Tuesday."

A Horse of a Different Color - "It had to happen sooner or later, and Barack Obama's startling rise to near the top of the Democratic presidential pack made it sooner – I'm talking about his speech to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It starts out with a riff about his ride in an IDF helicopter and how this made him "truly see how close everything is and why peace through security is the only way for Israel." But of course the Palestinians are just as close to the Israelis as the Israelis are to them – and the Israelis have far more arms (provided by the U.S.) and are surely not averse to using them. So what is "the only way" for the Palestinians? Yet there can be no "peace through security" for the Palestinians, since there is no security from Israeli air strikes and repeated invasions of Palestinian territory."

Calderon tells Bush Mexico needs more - "President Bush, working to rebuild strained U.S.-Mexico relations, promised Tuesday he would do his best to get a deeply divided U.S. Congress to change American immigration policies that are hated south of the border."

Dan Rather: Journalism has 'lost its guts' - ""I do not exclude myself from this criticism...By and large, so many journalists--there are notable exceptions--have adopted the go-along-to-get-along (attitude)," he said."

Americans get an 'F' in religion - "Sometimes dumb sounds cute: Sixty percent of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments, and 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married." -- I thought Sodom and Gomorrah had something to do with anal sex and an STD. ;-)

Gen. Pace Calls Homosexuality Immoral - "The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly, the Chicago Tribune reported." -- But we sure love to kill them ay-rabs! That's moral! -- Shut up General Pace.

Minister protests same-sex union ban with a halt to all weddings - ""We are called to join the fast that our homosexual brothers and sisters in Christ have had to observe all their lives," said the Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, rector of Grace Episcopal Church."

Guess What Foxman? American's Don't Give a Damn! - "I for one am not at all surprised to read that eighty-percent of Americans still hold Mel Gibson in high regard, and that a mere six percent say they’ll never see a Gibson film again, I’ve been saying it all along, the vast majority of Americans don’t give a damn that Gibson made some anti-Semitic remarks, they don’t care about Jews anymore than anyone else."

Global Warming Replaces 9/11 As Justification To Do Anything - "Invoking September 11 has officially been succeeded by a new mantra and an excuse for the state to unleash a fresh tyranny no matter how offensive and damaging to individual liberty it may be."

Warming Report to Warn of Coming Drought - "The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water, top scientists will say next month at a meeting in Belgium."

Biological Basis For Teenage Mood Swings Found - "A new US study has revealed that teenage mood swings may be explained by biological changes in the adolescent brain."

HPV Vaccine Out of Reach for College Students - "College campuses are breeding grounds for HPV, the virus that can cause genital warts and cervical cancer. A new vaccine offers protection, but many students can't afford it."

Secret of attraction? It's all due to the wiggle - "It is not simply how you look but how you flaunt it that is the secret of attraction, says a study published today."

Quote of the Day
"I just can't stand it."
~ Charlie Brown

March 12, 2007

President Authorized Abu Ghraib Torture, FBI Email Says - "The email, which was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, represents the first hard evidence directly connecting the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and the White House. The author of the email, whose name is blanked out but whose title is described as "On Scene Commander -- Baghdad," contains ten explicit mentions of an "Executive Order" that the author said mandated US military personnel to engage in extraordinary interrogation tactics."

Cheney: Congress undermining U.S. troops - ""Anyone can say they support the troops and we should take them at their word, but the proof will come when it's time to provide the money," Cheney said."

Cheney: A withdrawal from Iraq could damage Israel - "The vice president stated that such a withdrawal would "give extremists the taste of victory" and that they would act to overthrow any moderate forces in the region."

Iraq: the hidden cost of the war - "America won't simply be paying with its dead. The Pentagon is trying to silence economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded will amount to an unbelievable $2.5 trillion."

Be More Than You Can Be - "Heat-resistant. Cold-proof. Tireless. Tomorrow’s soldiers are just like today’s — only better. Inside the Pentagon’s human enhancement project."

FBI abuses may lead to Patriot Act limits - "Angry lawmakers on Friday threatened to amend the USA Patriot Act and limit the FBI's powers in the wake of a disclosure that agents had improperly obtained confidential records of people in the United States."

Don't want national ID? Surrender your passport - "British citizens who refuse to provide personal details for the planned "voluntary" national identification card have been told they will be denied passports and be unable to leave the UK."

Senator calls for answer on creation of universe - "Sen. Raymond Finney proposes to use the legislative process to get an answer to the question of whether the universe was created by a "Supreme Being.""

Pope says much of TV, Internet content destructive - ""Undoubtedly, much of great benefit to civilization is contributed by the various components of the mass media," the Pope said in a speech to the Vatican's communications department. "On the other hand, it is also readily apparent that much of what is transmitted in various forms to the homes of millions of families around the world is destructive," he said."

The Theocratic Agenda Is Heading for a Statehouse Near You - "Well-coordinated "faith-based" initiatives and anti-evolution lobbying in state capitols from New Jersey to Colorado signal a stealth national strategy by Religious Right organizations."

AIDS Vaccine Nearing Reality at Emory - "The world could have a new vaccine designed to kill the AIDS virus in as little as three to four years according to an Atlanta-based group working on the vaccine."

Global Warming is Not a Crisis - "From the Babylon of Gilgamesh to the post-Eden of Noah, every age has viewed climate change cataclysmically, as retribution for human greed and sinfulness."

Brown wants 'new world order' to fight global warming - "Gordon Brown, likely to be the next prime minister, will deliver a speech calling for a "new world order" to combat global warming on Monday."

Scientists threatened for 'climate denial' - "They say the debate on global warming has been "hijacked" by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions."

On Screens Soon, Abused Earth Gets Its Revenge - "“The Happening” will not be the only big-budget studio film to test a new kind of villainy, in which the real victim is the environment, and, whatever the plot variations, the enemy is all of us."

Electricity from the sea - "In a world addicted to fossil fuel, turning waves into watts might seem far-fetched. But as the U.S. and other countries look for alternatives to oil, natural gas and coal and try to curb global warming, ocean power gradually is joining the ranks of wind and solar power as a source of renewable energy. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. caught the wave last month when it became the first California utility to file for permits to study the promise of sea power, a non-polluting but expensive and mostly untested way to take energy from the ocean."

Challenging the Workplace Dictatorship - "George Orwell's "1984" is already here and it's called the American workplace, but finally there's a law in the works that might make jobs livable."

The Health Care Monster Returns - "Even Republicans acknowledge its ravages, but what’s the best way to slay the beast?"

Children's medicine contains banned additives - "Some of the additives can cause reactions such as asthma, rashes, eye irritation or have a mild laxative effect."

You Can't Travel Back in Time, Scientists Say - "While the idea makes for great fiction, some scientists now say traveling to the past is impossible."




Quote of the Day
"You said never to grow old, but you forgot to tell me how."
~ Cowboy Junkies

March 9, 2007

Guantánamo Is Not a Prison - "These were, in fact, descriptions provided by outraged FBI agents assigned to Guantánamo in 2004 in memos or emails to their bosses back on the mainland. They confirmed prisoner claims that "military personnel beat and kicked them while they had hoods on their heads and tight shackles on their legs, left them in freezing temperatures and stifling heat, subjected them to repeated, prolonged rectal exams and paraded them naked around the prison as military police snapped pictures," and so on. Ah, but those were the good old days when Guantánamo was the real "24"..."

Party baffled by its own war plan? - "For all the fanfare surrounding the announcement of the House Democrats' Iraq war plan, few members seem to understand the specifics in the bill or when it would actually bring troops home."

US sends spies into Pakistan to kill bin Laden - "US officials said that the mission is intended to intensify the pressure on the terrorist leader, who turns 50 tomorrow, and perhaps force him into making a mistake. He is widely believed to be hiding in the region bordering Afghanistan."

Libby set to win pardon and escape jail term - "A White House official said last night that there was a "strong expectation" that President George W Bush would pardon Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the disgraced aide."

Hagel: 'Before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment.' - "The conversation beaches itself for a moment on that word -- impeachment -- spoken by a conservative Republican from a safe Senate seat in a reddish state. It's barely even whispered among the serious set in Washington, and it rings like a gong in the middle of the sentence, even though it flowed quite naturally out of the conversation he was having about how everybody had abandoned their responsibility to the country, and now there was a war going bad because of it."

Total Information Awareness is Back - "Congress attempted to kill the ill-conceived DARPA program in 2003. But instead, the program, designed to somehow find terrorists from documenting everyone's credit card bills, car rental receipts and travel records, went underground and has now returned, bigger and stronger and worse than ever."

FBI Criticized for Patriot Act Use - "A blistering Justice Department report accuses the FBI of underreporting its use of the Patriot Act to force businesses to turn over customer information in terrorism cases, according to officials familiar with its findings."

Frequent Errors In FBI's Secret Records Requests - "The inspector general's audit found 22 possible breaches of internal FBI and Justice Department regulations -- some of which were potential violations of law -- in a sampling of 293 "national security letters." The letters were used by the FBI to obtain the personal records of U.S. residents or visitors between 2003 and 2005. The FBI identified 26 potential violations in other cases."

Gates, Buffett Top Billionaires Ranking - "The tally of billionaires around the globe reached a high of 946, their combined wealth growing 35 percent to $3.5 trillion, according to Forbes magazine's 2007 rankings of the world's richest people."

Is Discovery Burying 'Lost Tomb'? - "Departing from normal procedures, the cable network didn't tout its big ratings win. The network also scheduled a last-minute special that harshly criticized its own documentary, and has yanked a planned repeat of "Tomb." ... Although Mr. Leavy said the network stands by the documentary "100 percent," the company took several unusual steps in the wake of the controversy that could be seen as distancing itself from the content."

Crank Calling for Jesus - "A "family values" media watchdog group called the Dove Foundation hopes to clean up Hollywood by making vaguely sinister computerized phone calls to millions of people all around the country. In recent months Dove has muscled its way to the very top of the whocalled.us annoyance call list with nearly 900 complaints from coast to coast. It turns out the non-profit is conducting a nationwide "survey" targeted determinedly at mothers and grandmothers, which it aims to present to those godless heathens running the entertainment industry."

TOWNS PUT DREAMS IN PRISONS - "According to this piece, non-metropolitan America was relying like never before on prison construction for jobs and economic development. Formerly, Times reporter Peter Kilborn noted, rural communities had depended for employment and economic development on agriculture, manufacturing, and/or mining. Now, however, they were counting on mass incarceration to deliver the goods. Reporting that “245 prisons sprouted in 212 of the nation’s 2,290 rural counties” during the 1990s, Kilborn quoted the cheerful city manager of Sayre, Oklahoma, which had just opened a prized new maximum-security lockdown. "There's no more recession-proof form of economic development," this local official told Kilborn, than incarceration because "nothing's going to stop crime.""

Violent Crime in Cities Shows Sharp Surge - "Local police departments blame several factors: the spread of methamphetamine use in some Midwestern and Western cities, gangs, high poverty and a record number of people being released from prison. But the biggest theme, they say, is easy access to guns and a willingness, even an eagerness, to settle disputes with them, particularly among young people."

Sweden May Spy On E-Mails - "Sweden's government presented a contentious plan Thursday to allow a defense intelligence agency to monitor — without a court order — E-mail traffic and phone calls crossing the nation's borders."

Powerful Documentary Trounces Man-Made Warming Hoax - "An astounding documentary that was broadcast in the UK last night completely trounced the man-made explanation for global warming, not with emotionally-laden propaganda or by attacking the messenger as its adherants resort to, but by presenting carefully considered and rational science."

A History of America's Disappearing Middle Class - "Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman explains in simple terms how the American economy went from having the world's most dynamic middle class to being on the verge of a rich-poor state in only 30 years."

Bill with abortion restrictions going to Gov. Barbour - "A bill designed to eventually outlaw and criminalize abortion in Mississippi got final approval from the Legislature on Thursday and Gov. Haley Barbour is expected to sign it into law. The measure would ban nearly all abortions in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. If Roe v. Wade is overturned and the state bill becomes law, anyone performing an illegal abortion in Mississippi would face one to 10 years in prison."

Big mother is watching with new laws in mind - "Some California lawmakers want to change your ways. They've planted a crop of proposals this year — "nanny" bills, as they're called — that would:"

Sony Brings Real Life Matrix A Step Closer - "Sony is preparing to unveil a simulated reality world in which Playstation gamers can create a new life for themselves, complete with their own apartment, friends, movies, shopping and entertainment, bringing the reality of an actual matrix a step closer."

Nike Is Leading the Race ... to the Bottom - "Despite promises to clean up its act, Nike is making a U-turn on its commitments to improve the sweatshop conditions for its workers overseas."

Study finds age divide on gay marriage - "Two political scientists who analyzed two decades worth of Field Polls on the subject found that age was the strongest factor influencing whether someone opposed gay unions, with people born in the 1970s and '80s more than twice as likely to support them as those born before 1940."

Baby does best with dad off work, study finds - "Children are more likely to suffer development problems if their fathers do not take paternity leave or spend enough time with them when they are very young, according to an analysis of thousands of babies born around the turn of the millennium."

Vaccine officials knew about MMR risks - "Government officials were made aware of some problems with a version of the MMR vaccine in other countries but still introduced it in Britain in the late 1980s, newly released documents show."

The ethical dilemmas of robotics - "Scientists are already beginning to think seriously about the new ethical problems posed by current developments in robotics."

China's dog extermination plan condemned - "A U.S. animal rights group Thursday condemned a plan to kill all pet dogs in an anti-rabies campaign in a district of the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing."

Fish are up to their gills in mercury - "So much mercury has accumulated in fish that there should be a worldwide public warning about eating seafood contaminated by the dangerous heavy metal, says a report summarizing the latest scientific evidence on global mercury pollution."

Dealerships Fake/Alter Customer Satisfaction Surveys To Get Marketing Money From Toyota - "The customer's husband suspected that the salesman refused to sell his wife a car because he was afraid of receiving a poor customer service survey from them. It turns out that he may be on to something, if what our tipster says is true. He claims that his roommate used to be a CSR for a Toyota dealership and it was the roommate's job to make sure the customer either did not fill out the survey or filled our paper surveys so the answers could be changed or poor reviews thrown out. The tipster writes:"

The Internet Makes Us Naked - "I wonder if one reason people are so wary of the intersection of sex and the internet is that it exposes us so completely. It's the flip side of what many of us point to as one of the internet's great strengths -- we discover we are not alone in our desires, finding community and connection even as we learn more about ourselves. For individuals, this sexual self-discovery has been largely positive. But for Americans as a whole, this self-knowledge has not been comfortable to accept. We're learning that our behavior does not match what our culture tells us is "right" or "moral." And we're having a hard time accepting that our behavior has changed only to the extent that technology makes it easier to break the rules, and makes rule-breaking more accessible to larger numbers of people."




Quote of the Day
"The Universe doesn’t give a damn about you, pal! Nor does Mother Nature who spends most of her time kicking butt with floods, forest fires, blizzards, tornadoes, and other fun 'weather events'."
~ Alan Caruba

March 8, 2007

House Democrats to unveil Iraq war plan - "In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats are advancing legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of next year."

Nuclear Hypocrisy and Iran - "But the primary rationale for such an attack – to prevent Iran from going nuclear – is deeply problematic. Not only is the United States beefing up its military in general, it is even planning a modernization of its nuclear arsenal. The nuclear hypocrisy of the Bush administration makes any resolution of the conflict with Iran all the more difficult."

Who Gave America the Right? - "Who granted America the right to be international judge, prosecutor, and executioner in the name of self-preservation? Who granted America the right to make the sound of bombs louder than the voice of the law?"

Iraq's Other War: Violence against Women Under US Occupation - "Last week, Houzan Mahmoud* opened her e-mail and found a message from Ansar al-Islam, a notoriously brutal Sunni jihadist group. The message read simply, "we will kill you by the middle of March." Houzan is an outspoken Iraqi feminist. The 34-year-old journalist and women's rights activist believes that hope for Iraq's future depends on building a society based on secular democracy and human rights. For this, she has been condemned to death."

How Does an Era End? - "The insurgents - you can call them al-Qaida or freedom fighters, but you and I would be them if someone tried to do to America what America did to Iraq - believe that the American public can't stomach endless casualties. When the casualties are needless, on all sides, they're right. ... Bush and Cheney are just bullies. When they're opposed they turn tail and run. Remember the "political capital" Bush claimed to have when he tried to privatize social security? Even his little lapdog, the AARP, rolled over and bit him. He quickly retreated. Rumsfeld was forced to retire. The word is that Cheney will be resigning in about three weeks. And now the U.S. will hold talks with Syria and Iran - not our dearest friends - about the Iraqi quagmire. Once I thought they'd never leave. Now I think they're counting the minutes. I can smell the flop sweat all the way up here in Vermont."

Vermont Votes to Impeach Bush/Cheney - "So it has gone this week at town meetings across Vermont, most of which were held Tuesday. Late Tuesday night, there were confirmed reports that 36 towns had backed impeachment resolutions, and the number was expected to rise."

John Edwards To Skip Nevada Debate - "Edwards' campaign said the involvement of Fox News, which is often accused by liberals of having a conservative bias, was part of the decision to pass on the Aug. 14 debate in Reno."

Homeland Security revives supersnoop - "Homeland Security officials are testing a supersnoop computer system that sifts through personal information on U.S. citizens to detect possible terrorist attacks, prompting concerns from lawmakers who have called for investigations."

Canada will stay top U.S. oil supplier for 20 years - "Canada - which in 2005 replaced Saudi Arabia as the single-largest supplier of energy to the U.S. - will continue that position over at least the next two decades, thanks to the multi-billion dollar oilsands developments in Alberta."

Scandal rocks Texas juvenile system - "For at least two years, investigators say, boys at a juvenile prison in the West Texas desert were summoned from their dorms late at night and taken to darkened conference rooms, offices and ball fields for sex with two of the institution's top administrators."

New Net radio rules draw fire on Capitol Hill - "A key Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday slammed new federal rules that would require many Internet radio services to pay higher fees to record companies."

Flat-earth society's warriors - "The late columnist and to-the-bone Texan Molly Ivins couldn't have thought this one up if her absurdity-meter were spring-loaded, revved up and set to overdrive. Sorry she missed it. Rep. Warren Chisum, a self-described creationist who is also a Republican state representative from the Texas Panhandle, Appropriations Committee chairman of the House and the second most powerful member of that august body, must have figured that he had that lefty evolution-touting crowd dead to rights. In a memo Chisum circulated to all 149 Texas state representatives, Darwin's theory of evolution was described as nothing more than a Jewish plot. "Indisputable evidence - long hidden but now available to everyone - demonstrates conclusively that so-called secular evolution science is the Big Bang 15-billion-year alternate 'creation scenario' of the Pharisee Religion," the memo said. Now, here's the clincher. The memo suggests that because of the evolution theory's connection to ancient "Rabbinic writings" it "cannot legally be taught in taxpayer supported schools, according to the Constitution."" -- Jesus.

Americans see media aiding moral decline - "Most Americans think culture is becoming more immoral, and they view the media -- both entertainment and news -- as prime culprits, according to a new survey. ... The survey of 2,000 American adults shows that the nation's culture war is grounded in disagreements over religious issues, such as God's role in life and whether religious belief is essential for a good and moral life, CMI Director Robert H. Knight said."

Men pick military as sentence - ""Probation does not adequately address the severity of what you've done," Lunsford told the defendants.
Instead, the judge offered them three choices: u Serve 48 hours in jail, two years' probation and spend 100 hours doing community service at a farm caring for animals. u Serve no jail time, two years' probation, and 200 hours of community service on a farm. u Enlist in the military. ... The men made their decision. They plan to enlist in the U.S. Navy, said their attorney, Jim Bryant."

Psychosis and Mania - "The makers of drugs used to treat attention disorders have known about the serious health risks associated with the medications for years but instead of warning the public, the industry has consistently focused its efforts on expanding the market and colluding with FDA officials to keep warnings off the labels of ADHD drugs."

Americans: Don't bother to study engineering any more! - "Your government has set exciting new performance goals for itself. The Department of Labor has published it's strategic 5 Year Plan, here. Under Performance Goal 2H, "Address worker shortages through the Foreign Labor Certification Program", we find: "H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of the foreign worker." Isn't that special?"

The applicants who all had burnt pyjamas - "University admissions officers may have been amused and impressed with the bright young spark who began his medical school application with an entertaining yet thoughtful anecdote about setting fire to his pyjamas when he was a boy. But that was before they read 233 other applications telling exactly the same story. They may experienced a similar sense of déjà vu when they read all 370 applications from would-be doctors who opened their personal statements with “a fascination for how the human body works . . .” and the 175 who referred to their “elderly or infirm grandfather”. A creative imagination may not be the first thing universities were looking for from our future GPs, dentists or brain surgeons, but they might reasonably expect applicants to tell the truth."

WATER PRICES RISING WORLDWIDE - "Over the past five years, municipal water rates have increased by an average of 27 percent in the United States, 32 percent in the United Kingdom, 45 percent in Australia, 50 percent in South Africa, and 58 percent in Canada. In Tunisia, the price of irrigation water increased fourfold over a decade."

Airborne soot more harmful than thought, CMU researchers say - "Published last week in the journal Science, their findings show that the microscopic particles, altered by chemical processes in the atmosphere, produce more clouds and are potentially more toxic, and their contributions to unhealthy pollution are larger and spread over a wider area."

Race to the Bottom - "A maverick Australian prospector is planning to scoop untold riches - gold, silver, copper - from the bottom of the ocean. Is it a cleaner way to mine or the beginning of an environmental disaster?"

American women too tired for sex - "It’s official now. The Washington-based National Sleep Foundation says that American women are so stressed out and sleep-deprived that a majority of them have no time for sex or even to make friends."

Refrigerator will toss you can of beer - "When John Cornwell graduated from Duke University last year, he landed a job as software engineer in Atlanta but soon found himself longing for his college lifestyle. So the engineering graduate built himself a reminder of life on campus: a refrigerator that can toss a can of beer to his couch with the click of a remote control."




Quote of the Day
"They created a desolation, and called it peace."
~ Tacitus

March 7, 2007

How Much More Harm Can Bush Do? - "How did the "war on terror" become a war on the Iraqi people? We have heard every answer: intelligence mistakes, incompetence, and evil machinations. Whichever answer we take, the killing and destruction continue. Why? It has recently come to light that the U.S. government has imposed an oil deal on the puppet Iraqi government that turns Iraqi oil over to U.S. and British firms for exploitation. Bush-Cheney have not brought Iraqis democracy, but they have stolen their oil revenues. The profits of the military-industrial complex are soaring, and higher military budgets are being appropriated. The value of Cheney's Halliburton stock options has not merely doubled or tripled but multiplied by a factor of 32."

Iraq refugee: 'I feel disaster' as crisis grows - "Abtan and his family are like hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis who have fled their country amid the deadly violence that has wracked the nation and is creating what the international community calls a growing humanitarian crisis. The United Nations estimates 700,000 Iraqis have fled to Jordan -- more than one-tenth the entire kingdom's population. As many as 1 million more Iraqis are estimated to have sought refuge in Syria, about 120,000 are in Egypt and 40,000 in Lebanon, according to the United Nations."

Impeaching Bush, State by State - "Forget bird flu, impeachment is spreading across the nation, state by state."

Jurors wonder why others weren't also on trial - "A question occupied the jurors in the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby as they sat through 14 days of testimony and deliberated for 10 more days: Why is Libby the only person on trial?"

Pentagon closes Guantánamo Bay hearings to media - "Reporters will be barred from hearings that begin Friday in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for the 14 suspected terrorists who were transferred last year from secret CIA prisons, officials said Tuesday."

A Barack-star no more - "Last week Barack Obama performed an inadvertent public service by taking two of my favorite hobbyhorses for a ride round the electoral ring. One was the corrupting power of money in presidential primaries, and the second was demonstrating that the Israel lobby was every bit as powerful as it has traditionally claimed on its website, even as it denounces anyone else who says so."

Aipac Will Press for Hard Line on Iran Regime - "The Democratic-controlled Congress is moving to outflank both the Bush administration and the United Nations with the toughest set of sanctions against Iran that have ever been proposed."

Bush says Chavez's economic model leads to poverty - ""I strongly believe that government-run industry is inefficient and will lead to more poverty," Bush replied to a question on Chavez's economic model, which includes nationalizations and muscular state intervention."

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence - "The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday."

Students, principal hold press conferences in vagina controversy - "The three female high school students suspended for using the word vagina during an open mic night session at their school and the principal who meted out the punishment for what he said was insubordination, not censorship, held dueling press conferences late this afternoon." -- Vagina, vagina, vagina! Idiot.

Dawn of the GM babies? - "Scientists will be able to carry out genetic experiments on human embryos for the first time under controversial Government plans."

One in four older women abused by partner - "A survey of women over the age of 65 in Washington and Idaho found about one-quarter have been the victim of physical, sexual or psychological violence."

Harsh Words Die Hard on the Web - "Though it is difficult to prove a direct link, the woman thinks she is a victim of a new form of reputation-maligning: online postings with offensive content and personal attacks that can be stored forever and are easily accessible through a Google search."

U.S. Lags Behind Other Nations in College Graduates - "U.S. colleges must increase the rate at which they graduate students by more than a third each year or fall 16 million behind the number needed to compete economically with other countries in 2025, the Lumina Foundation for Education said."

Makers of Sodas Try a New Pitch: They’re Healthy - "That may strike some as an oxymoron. But for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, it’s a marketing opportunity."

Diamond star thrills astronomers - "Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered. The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus."

Circumcision may lift HIV risk for women - "Circumcision may reduce men's chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent — but early results suggest the procedure may put women at increased risk of infection, according to preliminary data presented Tuesday."

Sexless and Proud - "Asexuals Say They're Misunderstood in a Sex-Obsessed World."

A View to a Kill - "Brace yourself: Every hunt you've ever seen on a nature show has been a scam."

Lottery: Winning tickets sold in Georgia, New Jersey - "At least two people can claim a share of a record $370 million lottery jackpot, and there could be more winners."




Quote of the Day
"I guess I think of lotteries as a tax on the mathematically challenged."
~ Roger Jones

March 6, 2007

Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial - "Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted Tuesday of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity."

Juror Explains Libby Verdict: They Felt He Was 'Fall Guy' - "Denis Collins said, "We asked ourselves, what is HE doing here? Where is Rove and all these other guys....He was the fall guy." He said they believed that Vice President Cheney did "ask him to talk to reporters." He said, "some jurors said at one point, 'We wish we weren't judging Libby...this sucks.""

How Barack Obama learned to love Israel - "If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama's about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power. Palestinian-Americans are in the same position as civil libertarians who watched with dismay as Obama voted to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, or immigrant rights advocates who were horrified as he voted in favor of a Republican bill to authorize the construction of a 700-mile fence on the border with Mexico."

Edwards: Jesus Would Be 'Appalled' - "Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says Jesus would be appalled at how the United States has ignored the plight of the suffering, and that he believes children should have private time to pray at school. Edwards, in an interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset with the selfishness of Americans and the country's willingness to go to war "when it's not necessary.""

Bush Record Of Illegalities Suggests Possible Role In 9/11 WTC, Pentagon Strikes - "After all, his record reveals him to be a serial liar, warmonger, tyrant, torturer, and usurper of his peoples’ civil liberties. Just off the top, here are some illegal GWB actions that betray what he is really about."

Americans Don't Trust Bush on Threat Intelligence - "Many adults in the United States express no confidence in their federal government on the topic of intelligence, according to a poll by TNS released by the Washington Post and ABC News. 63 per cent of respondents say they cannot trust the Bush administration to honestly and accurately report on possible threats from other countries."

Heaven help us: George reportedly is thinking again - "For decades the U.S. has had a nasty habit of cutting quick deals for questionable profit, and later asking with feigned innocence why its beloved friend bit it in the end. We don't seem to learn. So here we are, about to cut a likely bin Laden-redux deal, assuming one hasn't been cut already. History doesn't impassively repeat itself just because of our simple ignorance."

NATO Looms Large in Military Planning - "NATO's rising power and the increased role the military will play in shaping the foreign policy of countries around the world will figure prominently in Russia's new military doctrine, the Security Council said Monday."

Israel, Iran top 'negative list' - "A majority of people believe that Israel and Iran have a mainly negative influence in the world, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests. It shows that the two countries are closely followed by the United States and North Korea. ... Canada, Japan and the EU are viewed most positively in the survey."

59 things that would have stayed secret - "What they didn't want you to know: A list of intriguing facts disinterred by the Freedom of Information Act."

The Housing Bubble Starts to Burst - "Okay, enough of the gloating; while the collapse of the housing bubble was both predictable and inevitable, it is not pretty. Tens of millions of people will be hurt as they see much of the equity in their homes - money that most had counted on to support their retirement - disappear. Millions more will be forced out of their homes as they find that they are unable to meet the payments on adjustable rate mortgages that reset at higher rates. People who had worked hard and saved in order to become homeowners will see their dream disappear."

Green Acres Is the Place for Many - "In what's been called the "Green Acres" effect, Americans are fleeing the cities for the country in record numbers. Eighteen of the 25 largest metropolises saw more people leave than move in, according to a Census Bureau report released in 2006."

Has Generation Y overdosed on self-esteem? - "For some, the study validates their suspicions of educational and parenting techniques that put undue emphasis on the positive: tot-level self-esteem boosterism, luxury-as-necessity entitlement, and what one calls "instant fame-ification.""

School district: Sixth graders had sex in class - "Middle school students having sex in a busy classroom while a teacher is present? Warren Township Associate Superintendent Jeff Swensson confirmed it's true. It's been kept under wraps since November."

Stress increases cortisol, reduces brain size in children - "Children should not be stressed as a new study shows that stress a child experienced may cause shrinkage of a key part of the brain, affecting his or her memory and emotion"

Where's My Personalized Medicine? - "Despite its ability to predict dangerous and even deadly drug reactions, a high price tag and lack of familiarity with the technology have prevented doctors from embracing the world's first DNA chip test to deliver personalized medicine."

NASA can't pay for killer asteroid hunt - "NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn't enough money to pay for the task so it won't get done."

Who Wants to Save the Aye-Aye? - "One of my zoology professors used to refer to it as "The Bambi Syndrome"—us hairless bipeds tend to gravitate towards cuddly megafauna like the panda; we're ready to empty our pockets to pull them from the precipice of certain doom. But can you get people rallying for an obscure species of clam? Does anyone really get pumped about saving the tuna? What about the almost grotesque-looking aye-aye, which, according to Slate got hit so bad with the ugly stick that conservationists are going to pieces trying to figure out how to persuade people that its unique genetic heritage is worth giving a damn?" -- Check out the pic.




Quote of the Day
"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons."
~ Feodor Dostoevski, Russian novelist, 1821-1881