Poll: Most Say Politics Motivated U.S. Attorney Firings - "Two thirds of Americans, including a narrow majority of Republicans, see political motivations behind last year's firings of eight chief federal prosecutors. But the nation is deeply divided along partisan lines about whether Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales should lose his job over the scandal." -- Face it, America is deeply divided on every issue.
Torture, Secrecy, and the Bush Administration - "Secrecy has reemerged just as torture has made its comeback, being justified on the public stage, by government officials for the first time since the famous gathering at the Inns of Court in 1629 at which the judges declared “upon their and their nation's honor” that torture was not permitted by the common law. The two fit together, hand in glove: torture and secrecy. Torture and secrecy. Where one is used, the other is indispensable. Torture is no longer a tool of statecraft. Today it is a tool of criminals, though sometimes of criminals purporting to conduct the affairs of state. Having resorted to these “dark arts,” to quote Dick Cheney, the torturers now have the dilemma faced so frequently by criminals. They seek to cover it up. And so the path flows from torture to secrecy, the twin dark stars of the tyrannical state."
Bush asks Congress to alter 1978 eavesdropping law - "The Bush administration asked Congress on Friday to expand the number of people it can subject to electronic surveillance in the United States." -- The number of dissenters must be increasing.
"Sorry We Shot Your Kid, But Here's $500" - "The most revealing new information on Iraq -- guaranteed to make readers sad or angry, or both -- is found not in any press dispatch but in a collection of several hundred PDFs posted on the Web this week." -- Oh, this should piss you off.
Pew Survey Finds Most Knowledgeable Americans Watch 'Daily Show' and 'Colbert'-- and Visit Newspaper Sites - "Other details are equally eye-opening. Pew judged the levels of knowledgeability (correct answers) among those surveyed and found that those who scored the highest were regular watchers of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They tied with regular readers of major newspapers in the top spot -- with 54% of them getting 2 out of 3 questions correct. Watchers of the Lehrer News Hour on PBS followed just behind. Virtually bringing up the rear were regular watchers of Fox News. Only 1 in 3 could answer 2 out of 3 questions correctly. Fox topped only network morning show viewers."
Knowledge Unchanged by News Outlets - "Americans' knowledge of national and international affairs has changed little in two decades despite the emergence of 24-hour cable news and the Internet as major news sources." -- Only 69% know Dick Cheney is Vice President. Depressing.
The Ongoing Trials of Mordechai Vanunu - "On April 30, 2007, the verdict in Vanunu's freedom of speech case will be rendered. Although the case is being tried in the lowest tier in the Israeli court system and the maximum sentence that could be imposed if he is found guilty is six months, Vanunu's Attorney, Avigdor Feldman has said that this historic case is one of the most significant he has ever defended "because it involves important issues about the Israeli government producing weapons of mass destruction and Vanunu's right to let the people know about that." What this reporter finds most significant, is that Israel is a nuclear power that America supports politically and economically while our media remains mute about a democracy that denies the inalienable right of free speech and thought."
NY Times op-ed: 'Why the Imus-Coulter disparity?' - "However, Wright wonders, "Do African-Americans get more protection than Muslim Americans?" "In a speech last year before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Coulter used the word 'raghead,'" Wright continues. "This is a dual-use slur, applied to both Arabs and Muslims, but she was talking about an Iranian, so presumably she was focusing on the religious dimension (consistent with her post-9/11 advice that we 'invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.') The word raghead -- whose only function is to denigrate -- seems as legitimately offensive to Muslims as Imus' utterance was to blacks. The difference is that Coulter didn't apologize.""
American radio icon Don Imus disgraced, fired after threat to reveal 9/11 secrets - "In a clear sign of its intent to reign in dissident American media personalities, and their growing influence in American culture, US War Leaders this past week launched an unprecedented attack upon one of their most politically 'connected', and legendary, radio hosts named Don Imus after his threats to release information relating to the September 11, 2001 attacks upon that country."
The Establishment Rethinks Globalization - "The church of global free trade, which rules American politics with infallible pretensions, may have finally met its Martin Luther. An unlikely dissenter has come forward with a revised understanding of globalization that argues for thorough reformation. This man knows the global trading system from the inside because he is a respected veteran of multinational business. His ideas contain an explosive message: that what established authorities teach Americans about global trade is simply wrong--disastrously wrong for the United States."
Congressional junkets picking up steam - "Congress is keeping Andrews Air Force base plenty busy this year ferrying lawmakers all over the globe at taxpayers’ expense. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi took his wife, nine Democrats and two Republicans - Reps. Dan Lungren of California and Mike Rogers of Alabama - on a whirlwind tour of the Caribbean last week. After stops in Honduras and Mexico, they stopped in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the delegation stayed at the five-star Caneel Bay resort. In a separate trip to the Caribbean last week, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York squired his wife and four Democratic members to Grenada and Trinidad. All told, the military flew at least 13 congressional delegations to various destinations during the Easter recess -- at an estimated rate of $10,000 or more per flying hour. The congressional delegation trips, known as CODELs, are paid for by taxpayers. They are supposed to be directly related to members’ official duties, and House guidelines also stipulate that delegations include members of both parties to qualify for military planes -- a requirement that Speaker Nancy Pelosi waived for Engel’s group and two other delegations."
A Watch List Is Born - "Prior to the airline hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration's "no-fly list" contained 11 names."
UK: No more 'war on terror' - "The British government has stopped using the phrase "war on terror" to refer to the struggle against political and religious violence, according to a Cabinet minister's prepared remarks for a Monday speech."
Wal-Mart dethrones Exxon on Fortune 500 - "Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has reclaimed its position as the largest corporation in the U.S. among the Fortune 500, pushing Exxon Mobil down to number two."
The Religious Right Has Had Its Day? Fat Chance - "If the Religious Right is dead, someone forgot to tell that to many leading political figures. The unusually early start to the 2008 campaign season has been marked by a number of aspiring Republican presidential hopefuls contorting themselves to please Religious Right honchos."
The Apostles of Deception - "It appears to me that the majority of the American people are followers who willingly bow down to that which they perceive as authority. The people want to be lead. They have a deep seated desire to be directed, to be told not only what to do, but how to live. Millions of them are waiting for a messiah to appear who will lead them to the Promised Land—a messiah that requires nothing from them before the judgment day. They only have to profess their faith and to follow—to do as they are told by the religious hierarchy, and wait. Of course, followers require leaders, and that makes them vulnerable to charlatans and frauds. The trouble with leaders and followers is that leaders often mislead and followers obediently trail them to the very gates of hell. During the course of the journey, superstition and ignorance gradually replace rationality and knowledge. Truth gets lost in the shuffle or is cast into the flames of desire. Thus we find ourselves standing at the brink of an old and familiar abyss, the onslaught of a new age of darkness and fear. Lies supplant truth, darkness replaces light. War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength. The lessons of history remain unlearned and endlessly repeat themselves in rhythmic cycles of human comedy and tragedy."
Fundamentalist secularists and the religion of atheism - "“But naturalism (atheism) by definition does not premise such belief. Any view of the world that does not premise the existence of something supernatural is a philosophy, or a theory, or at worst an ideology. If it is either of the two first, at its best it proportions what it accepts to the evidence for accepting it, knows what would refute it, and stands ready to revise itself in the light of new evidence. This is the essence of science. It comes as no surprise that no wars have been fought, pogroms carried out, or burnings conducted at the stake, over rival theories in biology or astrophysics. “And one can grant that the word ‘fundamental’ does after all apply to this: in the phrase ‘fundamentally sensible’.”"
Crucifixion makes God seem like a psychopath, says cleric - "One of the country's most controversial clerics was at the centre of a new controversy yesterday after saying that traditional teaching about the Crucifixion was "repulsive" and made God seem like a "psychopath"."
Lawyers: Bush OK to eject protesters - "Lawyers in Denver are arguing that President Bush has the right to remove from an audience people who disagree with him."
How a PR Firm Helped Establish America's Cigarette Century - "How the tobacco industry-hired Hill & Knowlton to develop many of the propaganda techniques against science used today to attack climate change and evolution."
The Feminine Mistake - "Naively, I assumed that once women were offered more accurate information, they would be eager to get it. After all, women aren't stupid; it's true that they've been deserting the labor force in record numbers, but surely the problem was just that unfortunate information gap. Wouldn't they want to protect their own interests by educating themselves about the dangers that lie ahead -- and to plan accordingly? The first warning that I had misjudged the situation popped up on my computer screen as a Google alert, months before my book was published. I was thrilled to see that bloggers were already talking about The Feminine Mistake -- until I saw what they were saying."
Proposed NYC Public School Causes Stir - "This city has dozens of small public schools that focus on themes - sports careers, the arts and social justice. Few generate controversy. Then, someone decided to start a Middle Eastern-themed school."
Third of Israeli youth fears second Holocaust - "On the eve of 2007's Holocaust Memorial Day, a poll showed that 37 percent of Israel's youth feel another Holocaust is possible."
I.R.S. Audits Middle Class More Often, More Quickly - "Middle-class Americans, listen up: the I.R.S. is much more likely to audit you this year. Those caught cheating can expect to pay about $4,100 more on average in income taxes. ... Audits of these middle-class taxpayers rose to nearly 436,000 last year, up from about 147,000 returns in 2000. For these 61 million individuals and married couples, who make up nearly half of all taxpayers, the odds of being audited rose from 1 in 377 to 1 in 140."
WHO HIRED THE PENTAGON & WHAT DO THEY WANT DONE? - "On September 10, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that the Pentagon had lost, by the estimate he chose to use for his speech, $2.3 trillion dollars. Many of you good readers know about this and are asking where the money went? That's a good question, but what really intrigues me is: Where did it come from?"
$1bn 'don't have sex' campaign a flop as research shows teenagers ignore lessons - "It's been a central plank of George Bush's social policy: to stop teenagers having sex. More than $1bn of federal money has been spent on promoting abstinence since 1998 - posters printed, television adverts broadcast and entire education programmes devised for hundreds of thousands of girls and boys. The trouble is, new research suggests that it hasn't worked. At all." -- And that's because humans are naturally supposed to start having sex as teenagers. Otherwise, they would not have been "designed" to have those urges during their teenage years. This is not brain surgery here.
Distant Planets Could Have Plants of "Alien" Colors - "Scientists may be able to determine the color of extraterrestrial plant life while studying distant planets, according to a pair of new studies."
Quote of the Day
"When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income."
~ Plato
No comments:
Post a Comment