White House backs Cheney on Russia - "The White House on Friday backed Vice President Dick Cheney's tough speech on Russia and said Russian President Vladimir Putin should move on democratic reforms before hosting a major international summit in July."
Hawks Looking for New and Bigger Enemies? - "As if rallying fading public support for keeping more than 100,000 U.S. troops in a disintegrating Iraq and preparing the ground for a possible military attack on Iran were not enough, some influential hawks are now promoting a more confrontational stance against Russia and China, as well." -- I have seen the enemy, and it is us.
Bush says fight against terror is 'World War III' - "US President George W. Bush said the September 11 revolt of passengers against their hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first blow of "World War III."" -- Humanity will never change.
CIA boss Goss is cooked - "CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman."
Senate: No permanent bases in Iraq - "The Senate amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill to bankroll the war, introduced by U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., puts the chamber on record against permanent U.S. military bases or control of oil in Iraq. The House unanimously approved a similar amendment by Lee, D-Oakland, on a March 16 voice vote."
Government 'secrets' expanding - "Some Bush administration officials and members of Congress are casting a longing eye at the British law. If only the United States had a similar law, their reasoning goes, the reporters who revealed CIA-run prisons in Eastern Europe and the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping of terrorism suspects would be prosecuted instead of receiving Pulitzer Prizes. The U.S. Constitution remains a barrier to those who would restrict the flow of information to the media - and thus to the public. But administration policies are chipping away at its protections. The nation is in danger of having an Official Secrets Act not through passage of a law - although that is a possibility - but through incremental steps. The evidence is mounting:"
Spies Among Us - "Despite a troubled history, police across the nation are keeping tabs on ordinary Americans."
Living on borrowed dimes - "A fax came through to my office the other week, touting a book on just that subject. The publishers blurb promised; 'A chilling picture of a debt bloated America that seems headed down the same self destructive path of the Roman Empire.' Now, if that does not get your attention, nothing will. Here are some figures. Whatever your politics, they should scare you. The US federal debt stands at $8.2 trillion. Yes: trillion with a T. American household debt - meaning ordinary Americans' mortgages and such debts - dwarfs even that. It stands at $11 trillion."
Bush losing support of right - "Dissatisfaction with both Congress and President Bush is widespread and deep among conservatives, according to new polls that show Mr. Bush scoring startling low ratings on immigration in particular."
South Dakota's Abortion Revolt - "The state's restrictive abortion ban has galvanized a major grassroots campaign by citizens determined to overturn the law come election day."
I Got Your War On Christianity Right Here - "For all the whining about the "war on Christians" we hear from the fundie set, can you even imagine this show airing on American television? The Root of All Evil? is a two-part series airing in the U.K. on Channel 4 in which Richard Dawkins, the internationally known biologist and evolutionary theorist (his 1976 book The Selfish Gene was a worldwide best seller) delivers a thoroughly reasoned polemic against religion. Not a comparative study — a full-out attack on faith itself. ... When a head case like Fred Phelps uses his church as a platform to attack gays and pickets the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq (like Robertson and Falwell, Phelps believes every bad thing that happens to Americans shows God's wrath over our tolerance of homosexuality), we often hear the defense that they do not represent "true" Christianity. But how do we determine what is meant by "true" Christianity unless we are ready to examine it with a cold, skeptical eye? And will the answer to that question mean anything unless it is given by people who are ready to infuriate a great many believers? Interesting questions. Unfortunately, I don't expect to see any of them even dealt with, much less answered, on American television."
GOP Bible Bill Upsets Liberals, But Ga. Dems See Political Gains - "In a stark reversal of political fortune, Democratic legislators attempting to seize the pro-religion spotlight in Georgia last month have found themselves unexpectedly converted into backers of a Republican bill to teach the Bible in public schools."
The Rapture is Crapture (Part 1) - "You're not the elect, the just or even, we suspect, the saved, who because of your incomparable virtue will be whisked out of harms way by the aforementioned Lord when he comes to wreak genocidal revenge on billions of us unelect, unjust and unsaved. You're the latest in a millennia-long line of money-grubbing power-hungry hypocrites and hucksters who offer the lonely, threatened, frustrated, and as always, those with a limited supply of marbles, a lovely lie. Not only are they saved but those they hate, fear, envy and blame are damned! Not only will they be snatched up to heaven way ahead of schedule, but - A Special Final Days offer! - they DON'T HAVE TO DIE! That's the beauty part of the Rapture, a new American twist on an old, old Euro-scam: no massive heart attack, no terminal cancer, no being crushed by a truck on I-95. You're snatched up to heaven just the way you are."
The Rapture Crapture (Part 2): Make War for Christ's Sake! - "1-2-3-4 -- what are we waiting for? The Rapture Index which uses dozens of categories of disaster to predict the exact date of the Rapture reaches its self-imposed ceiling of 225! All over God's Chosen Nation, the elect (so-called because they win elections), feel lighter in their loafers in anticipation of zipping up to heaven. Rumors fly of multiple fatalities attributed to drivers and pilots being snatched away by the Lord from their 18-wheelers and crop-dusters even as they toil. (Curiously they're all happening south of the Mason-Dixon line). And what would clinch it? What would force the mighty Lamb to return? Simple. Start a glorious blood-and-fireballs WAR! Screams-of-the-damned, billions-dead-as-the-nukes-fly WAR! Christ LOVES war! Didn't He promise way back when to give us the WAR of ALL WARS (Matt. 24.5-31)?"
Churches reap the benefits of belief: $500 million in tax exemptions - "Tax exemptions to Australian churches are costing federal, state and local governments more than $500 million a year, new figures show."
To secure religious freedom, we need to stop shouting and start talking - "A just-released report on "The Future of Religious Freedom in America" exposes one of the nation's best-kept secrets: Civil discourse across deep religious and political differences is alive and well in the United States."
FFRF Takes to the Airwaves! - "The feisty Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wis.-based national association of atheists and agnostics, is launching a new radio show, Freethought Radio, this week. Freethought Radio is believed to be the only weekly radio broadcast devoted to "the secular point of view" in North America."
World Cup: United States team bus to show no flag - "The official team bus to be used by the United States during the World Cup will not bear a flag for security reasons. The 32 official buses were presented Thursday in Frankfurt and the other 31 buses have large national flags of the their teams painted on rear sides." -- Oh yes, the U.S. has a terrific standing in the world. Pathetic.
Net censorship spreads worldwide - "Repressive regimes are taking full advantage of the net's ability to censor and stifle reform and debate, reveals a report."
Principal bars Coral Springs student from singing anti-Bush song at talent show - "A 10-year-old Coral Springs girl won't be allowed to sing a controversial President Bush-bashing ballad at her school talent show after her principal deemed it inappropriate and too political."
Genetics might be why some people get bird flu - "“There have been family clusters. So there has to be certainly a genetic aspect to it,” Robert Webster of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital told a bird flu conference organized by the Lancet medical journal in Singapore."
China Makes Artificial Rain for Beijing - "The reaction that occurred brought as much as four-tenths of an inch of rain, the heaviest rainfall this year, helping to "alleviate drought, add soil moisture and remove dust from the air for better air quality," Xinhua said."
One Big Bang, or were there many? - "The universe is at least 986 billion years older than physicists thought and is probably much older still, according to a radical new theory. The revolutionary study suggests that time did not begin with the big bang 14 billion years ago. This mammoth explosion which created all the matter we see around us, was just the most recent of many."
Rock Fin Grows in Mount St. Helens' Crater - "The fin-shaped mass is about 300 feet tall and growing 4 feet to 5 feet a day, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey."
Bible college student confesses to torching adult bookstore - "Police in Knoxville say a student at a small Tennessee Bible college has told them he set fire to an adult bookstore to serve God, but now realizes it was a sin." -- Dude, you need to get laid or at least masturbate.
Teacher Out Of Job After X-Rated Video Surfaces - "A teacher in western Kentucky has been suspended and will not have her contract renewed after administrators found out she appeared in an adult movie more than a decade ago."
Quote of the Day
"No wild beasts are so hostile to mankind as are most of the Christians in their savagery toward one another."
~ Ammianus Marcellinus
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