Lawyer: Bush Left Leak Details to Cheney - "President Bush declassified sensitive intelligence in 2003 and authorized its public disclosure to rebut Iraq war critics, but he did not specifically direct that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, be the one to disseminate the information, an attorney knowledgeable about the case said Saturday. Bush merely instructed Cheney to "get it out" and left the details to him, said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case for the White House. The vice president chose Libby and communicated the president's wishes to his then-top aide, the lawyer said." -- Spoke on condition of anonymity?
White House Tries to Quell Anger Over Leak Claim - "The White House tried today to quell the furor over the leaking of sensitive pre-war intelligence on Iraq, as President Bush's spokesman insisted that the president had the authority to declassify and release information "in the public interest" and had never done so for political reasons."
U.S. Study Paints Somber Portrait of Iraqi Discord - "An internal staff report by the United States Embassy and the military command in Baghdad provides a sobering province-by-province snapshot of Iraq's political, economic and security situation, rating the overall stability of 6 of the 18 provinces "serious" and one "critical." The report is a counterpoint to some recent upbeat public statements by top American politicians and military officials. ... There are alerts about the growing power of Iranian-backed religious Shiite parties, several of which the United States helped put into power, and rival militias in the south. The authors also point to the Arab-Kurdish fault line in the north as a major concern, with the two ethnicities vying for power in Mosul, where violence is rampant, and Kirkuk, whose oil fields are critical for jump-starting economic growth in Iraq."
U.S. Quits Council Race, Possibly Fearing Defeat - "The United States, which has been lambasted for human rights abuses both by members of its armed forces in Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad and by U.S. law enforcement officials in the Guantanamo detention facility in Cuba, has backed out of a hotly contested race for membership in the newly-created U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC). U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack Thursday confirmed Washington's decision not to run for a seat at the upcoming HRC elections scheduled to take place May 9. The widespread speculation at the United Nations is that the U.S. decision may have been prompted by lingering fears it will not be able to muster the 96 votes needed in the 191-member General Assembly."
Report: Palestinian president warns unilateral pullout by Israel could lead to war - "The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, warned in comments published Saturday that if Israel does not negotiate on its plan to withdraw from parts of the West Bank by 2010, the move will lead to another war in a decade."
Effort to impeach Bush backfires on Newfane - "Mr Rove oversaw the launch of a new party television advertisement last week that sought to turn the impeachment issue to Republican advantage. At the start, a hooded man dodges through a bombed building, followed by the sounds of gunshots and a heart beating fast and scared, before a voice intones: "Terrorists declared war on our country. Today, the terrorists still fight this war." Then the advert turns to Democrat claims that Mr Bush broke the law by approving wire taps of terror suspects in America without seeking court warrants. "Censure? Impeachment? Is this the Democrats' plan?" the voiceover asks. Although Mr Bush's current poll ratings are poor, Mr Rove knows that nothing motivates the party faithful more than Democrat attacks on his hard line on security."
NASCAR Furious With NBC Over 'Dateline' Segment - "American stock car racing's governing body called a network television news magazine "outrageous" on Wednesday, saying it tried to provoke anti-Muslim reactions from spectators at last week's race for a story about growing U.S. sentiment against Islam. The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing said the NBC network's "Dateline NBC" confirmed it was sending Muslim-looking men to a race, along with a camera crew to film fans' reactions. The NBC crew was "apparently on site in Martinsville, Virginia, walked around and no one bothered them," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Wednesday. "It is outrageous that a news organization of NBC's stature would stoop to the level of going out to create news instead of reporting news," Poston said." -- Again, check out "Orwell Rolls in His Grave."
Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room - "AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers' phone calls, and shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit against the company." -- Phone calls? Internet traffic? You may have nothing to fear now, but what happens when the "rules" change and it's illegal to anonymously post to blogs, or surf adult material, or even surf alternative (read, unapproved) news sites? They'll know everything about you.
World 'cannot meet oil demand' - "The world is mistakenly focusing on oil reserves when the problem is capacity to produce oil, M de Margerie said in an interview with The Times. Forecasters, such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), have failed to consider the speed at which new resources can be brought into production, he believes."
American economy - full but underutilized employment, lowered pay for common people, tax heaven for rich, the paradise for inherited wealth - "American economy is in a strange state. The unemployment level is at the lowest – almost full employment is there. Then why are Americans so unhappy with the economy? The problem is with under employment for the common people. It is a paradise and tax heaven for the rich and those sitting and doing nothing but enjoying the inherited wealth. People who sed to make above $100,000 in large corporations are now employed with jobs making less than $40,000. They are surviving with home equity loans, credit card debts. In a free economy no one can blame others for their problems. The hope for every one is that one of these days like before things will become better."
Poll: Immigration Worries Growing in U.S. - "Rising anxiety has pushed immigration close to the economy in the public's view of the most important problems facing this country, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. ... Immigration's rise in the latest survey about the nation's top problems suggests the public is keeping close watch on the immigration debate in Congress and reaction around the country." -- Keeping close watch? There's not much choice when immigration is the current topic d'jour. And the word "close" is relative, anyway. More than likely they are just parroting what they've heard on the television.
'Jesus planned Judas betrayal' - "Discovered in 1970, the papyrus was kept in a safety deposit box for several years and began to deteriorate before conservators restored it. More than 1,000 pieces had to be reassembled." -- Hmmm.
Gospel of Judas does not deserve name ‘gospel,’ Jesuit scholar says - "The Gospel of Judas was unimportant to most Christians when it was written hundreds of years ago and it is unimportant today, said a Jesuit scholar."
Pedophiles in Our Midst - "The fact that a Bush administration Department of Homeland Security official was arrested yesterday for attempting to solicit sex from a 14-year-old girl over the internet is a shock for some people. But it shouldn't be."
The Boy, His List, the Pedophile and Bush - "Nothing shocks me anymore about the abject incompetence of the Bush administration, but yesterday was some day. Tom Delay resigned in disgrace. We found out that Bush's Justice Department ignored 1,500 pedophiles and an eye witness who could identify them and their acts, likely enough to land them in jail, maybe even uncover more including the network that hides these criminals. An active pedophile who is the deputy press secretary of Homeland Security was arrested for seducing a young 14 year old girl, who was really an undercover agent. The criminal negligence of the Bush administration in ignoring and not aggressively finding and prosecuting pedophiles goes beyond anything I could have before imagined."
The world's biggest prison system - "The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons (CSAAP) issues its final report in about eight weeks time, but the testimony of violence, abuse and over-crowding it has already heard has shocked few familiar with the largest documented prison system in the world. More than 2.1 million people are in jail in the US at any one time; that is about one in 140 Americans, or as many people as live in Namibia, or nearly five Luxembourgs - and it is a number that continues to rise."
Kyoto is pointless, say 60 leading scientists - ""'Climate change is real' is a meaningless phrase used repeatedly by activists to convince the public that a climate catastrophe is looming and humanity is the cause. Neither of these fears is justified. "Global climate changes all the time due to natural causes and the human impact still remains impossible to distinguish from this natural 'noise'.""
Ice Age giant is unearthed - "Experts believe it is a giant ground sloth, ancient plant-eaters the size of elephants that disappeared long before the Everglades even formed 4,000 to 6,000 years ago."
Wal-Mart seeking its own bank - "Wal-Mart, ever looking for ways to expand its already huge empire, is asking the government for permission to move into an entirely different industry: running its own in-house bank."
Chiropractor claims to travel through time - "A chiropractor who claims he can treat anyone by reaching back in time to when an injury occurred has attracted the attention of state regulators."
Video games get very, very naughty - "In "Naughty America: The Game," set to launch early this summer, players will assume the forms of alluring but cartoonish people who meet, flirt and have sex with other player characters. ... This new crop of adults-only games would combine the player-player interaction of the online games and the graphic sexuality of the single-player games."
Quote of the Day
"Nobody makes it. Nobody shows it. Nobody sees it. It's like it doesn't even exist."
~ Andy Mast, Hardcore
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