News (Page 2) -- April 12, 2006

Nuclear Iran is threat to whole world: Israel - " A nuclear-powered Iran "represents a threat to the whole world and not only Israel," added Halutz. The Jewish state has come to view the regime in Tehran as its number one enemy, alarmed in particular by a call last year from hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be wiped off the map."

Rove says Iran leader not rational - "Reaching a diplomatic solution over Iran's nuclear ambitions will be difficult because Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "not a rational human being," a senior White House adviser said on Wednesday." -- Oh, and Rove is an expert in diagnosing such things.

Hackers Leave Muslim Threats On Battleship's Web Site - "The culprits claiming to be from Iran, somehow managed to deface the site's home page with a message warning of consequences if Muslims beliefs are not respected." -- Come on. You expect me to fall for that crap?

Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says - "Iran, which is defying United Nations Security Council demands to cease its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days if it goes ahead with plans to install thousands of centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.S. State Department official said." -- Come on. You expect me to fall for that crap?

The war on Iran - "The ominous signs are "on the table" for all to see. The Pentagon has its Long War, the rebranded "war on terror" that Vice President Dick Cheney swears will last for decades, a replay of the war between Eastasia and Oceania in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four."

Bush, the End Times and you - "Since President Bush took office, however, one reason to keep church and state separate has taken on heightened importance. To wit: People who believe the End Times are upon us should never be given the means to bring them about."

The Ugly ‘D’ Word - "There are a lot of nations in this world where people are kooky, but only America has the military outreach to project our kookiness onto the world. That is why more than any nation state, America desperately needs a military draft. Numb-skullism, when pertaining to family matters or animal rights or liver abuse, is small potatoes when compared to kickin’ the world’s butt. A military draft of our Rambos would immediately tie their words to their actions, behavior would no longer be removed from consequences, and life would no longer be cost-free. So tell me, just how important is it for you to liberate those Iraqi women? How about enough to blow two years of your life in the mindless U.S. military? Possibly lose a chunk of your body for a lifetime?"

US to deploy RPG-busting 'force field' - "The US is to field test an innovative Israeli set-up designed to act as a "force field" around armoured vehicles, protecting them from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and anti-tank missiles, according to a Fox News report."

Government Spending Hits Record in March - "In its monthly accounting of the government's books, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday that federal spending totaled $250 billion last month, up 13.7 percent from March 2005. Government receipts also were up, rising 10.6 percent from a year ago, to $164.6 billion. That left a deficit for the month of $85.5 billion, a record imbalance for March." -- The people in charge have no concept of fiscal responsibility. They're rich. They've never had to deal with it in their personal lives, and their ignorance is running this country into financial ruin.

Ron Paul: Cough Up - "April 15th, our national tax day, comes this year just as Congress prepares to pass the 2007 federal budget. If you think paying taxes was painful this year, I've got some bad news: the new budget is a grotesque illustration of everything wrong with the federal government. At $2.7 trillion, it's the largest budget in U.S. history by a long shot. Like it or not, the pressure to raise your taxes will be enormous in coming years no matter who controls Congress. The amount of money government spends, borrows, and prints simply cannot be sustained."

NSA Can 'Vacuum' Emails Across Internet - " According to the EFF, the NSA uses powerful computers to "data-mine" the contents of Internet and telephone communications for suspicious names, numbers and words in an attempt to identify suspected terrorists."

New technology allows advertisers to listen in on conversations - "A dark horse in the race is Integrated Media Measurement Inc., a start-up led by some prominent technology entrepreneurs that is using specially adapted cellphones to measure what consumers listen to and see. The company has developed software that helps the phones take samples of nearby sounds, which are identified by comparing them against a database."

Bill to restrict grass-roots activism? - "A bill that some activist organizations say would inhibit the right of ordinary Americans to petition their representatives in Congress is making its way through the legislative process in Washington, D.C."

More Americans Frustrated With Politics - "These voters are not alone. More and more, Americans are frustrated with politics as usual in Washington, where incompetence, arrogance, corruption and mindless partisanship seem the norm rather than the exception - a pox on both the Republican and Democratic parties. Analysts say the public may be getting angry enough to give the U.S. political system a jolt, one way or another. ... Or perhaps voter unrest will fuel a credible third-party presidential campaign." -- I say it is time to leave the Republicans and Democrats behind.

Climate of Fear - "Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence. ... The answer has much to do with misunderstanding the science of climate, plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism. Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes. After all, who puts money into science--whether for AIDS, or space, or climate--where there is nothing really alarming? Indeed, the success of climate alarmism can be counted in the increased federal spending on climate research from a few hundred million dollars pre-1990 to $1.7 billion today. It can also be seen in heightened spending on solar, wind, hydrogen, ethanol and clean coal technologies, as well as on other energy-investment decisions. But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis."

Exhibition of Chinese corpses arouses curiosity, concern - "An exhibition of corpses from China opened in London to teach people more about their bodies, organisers said, but concerns were raised about the identity of the dead. ... "Bodies ... The Exhibition", at Earls Court in west London, offers a rare glimpse of the insides of real human bodies, organisers said."

Wal-Mart Sues 'Wal-ocaust' T-Shirt Seller - "Wal-Mart has filed a federal lawsuit over a warped version of its logo appearing on T-shirts and on a Web site with the word "Wal-ocaust" in blue over an Iron Eagle clutching a yellow smiley face."