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May 31, 2006
Rumsfeld to grads: Your talents needed in war on terrorl
Rumsfeld to grads: Your talents needed in war on terror
"Today, our country faces threats unlike any we have known. Extremists are trying to terrorize and intimidate free people into submitting to their will," Rumsfeld said.
Memo to Secretary Rumsfeld: sir, I don't know how you didn't get the memo, but it appears to be the US that is 'trying to terrorize and indimidate free people into submitting to their will'. - M. R.
U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday. Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday.
Winning the hearts and minds. - M. R.
The American proposal, a major policy shift after decades without official public contact between the two countries, was made conditional on Iran agreeing to stop its uranium enrichment activities.
This is the same position the US has had all along. Everything starts with Iran ceasing nuclear enrichment of reactor fuel rods. In return, the US offers nothing, least of all agreements NOT to invade.
Bear in mind that both the US and Iran have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, under which Iran is allowed to have nuclear reactors for power generation, and the right to make the fuel for their reactors. In demanding that Iran cease such activities, George Bush is in violation of the treaty terms, which means he is also violating the US Constitution's requirement that treaties are the highest law of the land.
In this issue, Bush is legally wrong, and Iran is legally right. But in the end, this is not about Iran's nuclear power stations. Thus is about the Neocons searching for any flimsy excuse to invade Iran, just as they used flimsy (indeed fraudulent) excuses to invade Iraq, and just as they will eventually use flimsy excuses to invade Saudi Arabia. - M. R.
EXCLUSIVE: BOBBY KENNEDY JR. TO QUESTION 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN MAJOR ROLLING STONE FEATURE ARTICLE!
A damning and detailed feature article, written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for Rolling Stone and documenting evidence of the theft of the 2004 Presidential Election is set to hit newstands this Friday.
Latest Information on Veterans Affairs Data Security...
Our nation shares one comforting, crippling fantasy with most of the Islamic states of the world: the delusion of divine favor. We have never blundered and have never acted in the wrong. We must always give our government full and unquestioning support, for the simple reason that we are never, ever, the "bad guys," no matter what we do.
WIKIPEDIA GOES ORWELL...
Wikipedia and bin Laden - A 'Conspiracy Theory' Too Far?...
A WRH reader has his own run-in with Wikipedia.
- M. R.
Personal information on 26.5 million veterans that was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee this month not only included
Social Security numbers and birthdates but in many cases phone numbers and addresses, internal documents show.
"Given the file format used to store the data, the data may not be easily accessible," stated one memo dated May 5 and distributed internally May 8."
Oh? So, the story now is that this VA worker took the data home on his laptop, but that the laptop did not have the software needed to use the data?
Suuuuuuuure.
and for what 26 million confirmed identities are worth, it's a cinch someone will write software needed to use that data. - M. R.
Iraq PM orders state of emergency in Basra
Iraq PM orders state of emergency in Basra
Iraq PM orders state of emergency in Basra Iraq PM orders state of emergency in Basra...
More 'mission accomplished', courtesy of Bush and Blair. - M. R.
Two weeks ago, Amir Taheri published an op-ed in Canada's National Post about an Iranian law that forced Jews to wear a yellow stripe. Apparently this is just the sort of reliable advice that President Bush needs. Yesterday, Taheri had a face-to-face with the President as one of a small group of "experts" on Iraq that visited the White House.
VA official steps down after theft...
Canada's largest union has voted to boycott Israel...
Of course, this would be illegal in the free United States.
- M. R.
RANGEL SALUTES JEWISH-AMERICANS...
Yes, this is the man pushing for the draft.
- M. R.
The internet will overtake national newspapers in the battle for advertising spending in the UK by the end of the year, it was predicted yesterday.
Treasury Guy...
Science & Technology" href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article622421.ece" target="_blank"> The new breed of cyber-terrorist...
This is justification for another attempt at imposing government control on the internet. The US has never taken computer hacking seriously, and the proof is that when a known hacker was identified to the FBI, the FBI refused to investigate. I was told off the record that the FBI has a policy that they will not investigate hackers who target pro-peace websites. This is reminiscent of the message J. Edgar Hoover sent to the Ku Klux Klan that attacks on certain black spokespeople would not be investigated.
Too much money is being made on computer crime. That is why politicians will do nothing about it. It's a protection racket. Give them your money or your computer gets trashed. - M. R.
FOOTBALL fans trooping into the Olympic Stadium in Berlin will be confronted with some of the most powerful ghosts of the Nazi era: broad-shouldered statues sculpted at the behest of Adolf Hitler to celebrate the Aryan master race.
Now leading Jewish activists are calling for the bronze statues to be draped in canvas or removed entirely to shield fans from what they regard as Nazi propaganda.
Attention all mentally defective people hopelessly stuck living in the middle of the last century.
THE NAZIS DON'T EXIST ANY MORE.
Don't we have villains today we should pay attention to? - M. R.
Symantec began providing a repairing patch for its software over the Memorial Day weekend, just days after researchers disclosed the problem. The speedy response -- many software manufacturers take months to do similar repairs -- underscored the seriousness of the threat, which affected the latest corporate versions of Symantec Antivirus.
The speedy response suggests to me that Symantec knew this hole was there all along.
- M. R.
A military investigator uncovered evidence in February and March that contradicted repeated claims by marines that Iraqi civilians killed in Haditha last November were victims of a roadside bomb, according to a senior military official in Iraq.
The military bemoans the fact that this was an unprovoked attack on the civilians, but where is the condemnation that the entire was unprovoked? Yes, the killing of these civilians for no reason was wrong. But if you think about it, every single person killed, Iraqi and American, has died in an "unprovoked attack". - M. R.
For the first time since its founding in 1949, NATO will fully integrate Israeli Naval forces into a miltary exercise that will take place next month in the Black Sea.
Considering all that is going on in this region, the timing of this inclusion is rather suspicious. - M. R.
How Massacres Become the Norm...
The mainstream media would love for you to think that Haditha is the exception, an isolated incident.
It isn't. - M. R.
"In this regard, I must stress that Israel is duty bound to cease this cheap blackmail against the United Nations," said Alhariri. "All are aware that the source of terrorism in the region is Israel's continuing occupation of Arab lands, and the ejection of Palestinians from their land ... as well as continued aggression against Arabs and the denial of their fundamental rights."
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened.
The holocaust, whatever the truth of it is, is something that happened in the middle of the last century, and the vast majority of people alive today were not even born then, let alone able to do anything about it.
What we can and SHOULD be doing is looking at those atrocities happening today, right before our eyes, that we can and should do something about.
We don't need to live in the past to confront evil. There is ample evil in the world today. - M. R.
The first step towards getting out of Iraq -- and avoiding a perilous showdown with Iran -- begins with energy independence.
The Civil Administration on Wednesday knocked down 13 structures - most of them toilet facilities - donated by Christian groups to Palestinians living in two cave communities in the West Bank.
The Federal Communications Commission is poised to propose new media ownership rules that will allow media companies to own newspapers, television and radio stations in the same city, according to media watchdog groups.
The proposed rule would dissolve a longstanding policy that prohibited corporations from owning a television station and a daily newspaper in the same market. The "cross ownership" rule, promulgated in 1975, was enacted to ensure media diversity.
Iran does not pose an immediate nuclear threat and the world must act cautiously to avoid repeating mistakes made with
Iraq and
North Korea, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said on Tuesday.
We don't want to confirm or deny the Holocaust. We oppose every type of crime against any people. But we want to know whether this crime actually took place or not. If it did, then those who bear the responsibility for it have to be punished, and not the Palestinians. Why isn't research into a deed that occurred 60 years ago permitted? After all, other historical occurrences, some of which lie several thousand years in the past, are open to research, and even the governments support this.
Ahmadinejad makes two very valid points. Why are the Palestinians made to pay the price for the Holocaust, when they provably had nothing to do with the crime? And second, why in this one atrocity out of thousands, is all objective investigation banned and the mere asking of a question punishable by law?
More than anything else, it is the actions taken by the defenders of the orthodoxy against those who ask questions that makes it clear something is being hidden. And in an era where the US Government was caught lying to the public to start the war in Iraq, everything we have ever been taught is suspect. - M. R.
Why would bin Laden wait until immediately after Moussaoui's sentencing to proclaim his innocence? Why do we never hear anything regarding the actual process by which these tapes are authenticated?
FLASHBACK: Mossad links to Bali Slaughter...
The End of Humanity: All of us are living in a torturing and killing World - Pravda.Ru...
Now the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the Constitutional freedoms related to speech do not extend to government employees. Well guess what! The U.S. Supreme Court just strengthened the ability of high ranking government officials to cover up their own crimes!
"When peaceful revolution is impossible, violent revolution is inevitable" -- Kennedy - M. R.
"Our pilotless reconnaissance plane flew over the USS Ronald Reagan in the Persian Gulf unnoticed to the Americans for 25 minutes," the official said, according to Iran's Fars agency.
The Hague Tribunal's final verdict on Slobodan Milosevic's death has concluded that he was not poisoned and there was no foul play involved. Imagine my shock.
Milosovic's "trial" had become a major embarrassment as it became obvious that there was no evidence to support the charges against him. His death was very convenient for those who framed him as part of the justification for the war in Kosovo.
As the trial of Saddam starts to dissolve for the lack of real evidence, will his health "deteriorate"? - M. R.
The arrest and trial of Hamid Hayat, a 22-year-old naturalized American citizen from Pakistan, and his father, Umer, was touted as a great victory in the Justice Department's campaign to root out the Terrorist Threat on Our Soil. The only problem is, the likelihood that either of them ever had anything to do with al-Qaeda, or terrorist threats against the U.S., is nil. In a long article by Mark Arax in the Los Angeles Times, we learn the whole sordid story of how these two uneducated agricultural workers were singled out, and basically framed, by federal prosecutors out for scalps – any scalps – for political reasons.
The BBC tells us that Bush and Blair now admit "mistakes" in Iraq and that "Iraq has cast a shadow over the leaders' careers." But the publicly-funded broadcaster has yet to report that Bush and Blair have committed crimes; in fact, "the supreme international crime" as defined at the Nuremberg trials.
In a victory for the Bush administration, justices said the 20 million public employees do not have free-speech protections for what they say as part of their jobs.
In a radical departure from earlier statements, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said that requiring Internet service providers to save records of their customers' online activities is necessary in the fight against terrorism, CNET News.com has learned.
This is horse-poo. REAL terrorists (not those CIA and Mossad bozos pretending to be terrorists for the news cameras) know better than to use phones and email to communicate. This is all about spying on YOU, stealing your business secrets for government thugs to make money with, to stifle online discussion of what the government is doing, and of course, to watch out for the violent revolution that the government assumes is likely to arise from their dictatorship. - M. R.
One month before the Bush administration proposed rules authorizing experiments on humans with pesticides and other chemicals, its key operatives met with pesticide industry lobbyists to map out its provisions, according to meeting notes posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The industry requests for exemptions allowing some chemical testing on children and other provisions were incorporated into the human testing rule ultimately adopted this January 26th.
Chemical testing on CHILDREN???? I want to see a provision providing that only the children of the executives and staff of these chemical companies doing the testing will be eligible as subjects in any such kind of testing. - M. R.
The FBI said yesterday it found no trace of Jimmy Hoffa after digging up a suburban Detroit farm, but an agent said she believes the former Teamsters boss had been buried at the site. The agency is still pursuing those responsible for Mr. Hoffa's 1975 disappearance, she said.
Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians
The game designers dream of inspiring kids toward a new "Crusade/Holy War" with any people who disagree with them theologically, to the point of killing them outright.
The irony is, most of our ancestors fled from other places on this planet to get to this country to avoid just such kinds of confrontation. - M. R.
"Quiet sobbing" follows White House screening of "United 93"...
The film's investors were there?
:) - M. R.
Fox has failed at job creation in Mexico...
This is the reason Fox is terrified of truly secure US borders. Truly secure borders will mean that there will have to be much energy from the Mexican government dedicated to truly improving the lot of working Mexican men and women, to avoid political and social catastrophe. - M. R.
U.S. Reportedly Ready to Join Iran Talks...
This is the latest diplomatic ruse to make it appear that the US is serious about actually speaking more directly with Iran. It's anyone's bet as to precisely how soon the statements will be blaring from Washington that 'diplomatic efforts have failed completely'.
Additionally, it would be amazing for Russia and China to be duped into going along with UN sanctions at this point for any reason, with all the energy and credibility these countries have invested in resisting the sanctions route to date. - M. R.
May 30, 2006
Bayou Management LLC, the hedge fund group that failed last year after losing hundreds of millions of investor dollars in a massive fraud, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York on Tuesday, according to court filings.
This will have a ripple effect, and it won't be pretty. - M. R.
The US dollar fell sharply on Tuesday as Hank Paulson, Goldman Sachs’ chief executive, was named as the new US Treasury secretary, replacing the increasingly pressurised John Snow.
The report to Congress offered a relatively dim picture of economic progress, with few gains in improving basic services like electricity, and it provided no promises of U.S. troop reductions anytime soon.
After a long string of double-digit annual price increases, a number of second-home meccas across the country are suddenly suffering from plunging sales volume and burgeoning inventories of unsold homes.
Bayou Management's U.S. hedge funds, which failed after losing millions of dollars in flawed trading strategies, on Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in New York.
Ambulance driver Khaled Abu Saada tells Ynet that during IDF operation in Beit Lahiya army helicopter launched missile at rescue workers as they were evacuating dead, wounded. ‘I do not know for certain whether the missile was meant to kill us or warn us to keep away – but it was definitely aimed in our direction,’ he says
An inability to protect its citizens. The belief that it is above the law. A lack of democracy. Three defining characteristics of the 'failed state'. And that, says Noam Chomsky, is exactly what the US is becoming. In an exclusive extract from his devastating new book, America's leading thinker explains how his country lost its way
Ahmedinejad himself may attend the tournament. This came up in the context of having him arrested for denying the Holocaust.
FLASHBACK: Cheney Target of Criminal Investigation...
Daewoo boss gets 10 years in jail...
The words and phrases blocked by Microsoft include "Taiwan independence," "Dalai Lama," "human rights," "freedom" and "democracy."
A major figure in the Election Day phone-jamming scandal that embarrassed and nearly bankrupted the New Hampshire GOP is out of prison and back in the political game.
Charles McGee, the former executive director of the state Republican Party, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served seven months for his part in the scheme to have a telemarketer tie up Democratic and union phone lines in 2002.
He's back at his old job with a Republican political marketing firm, Spectrum Monthly & Printing Inc., and will be helping out at the firm's "GOP campaign school" for candidates.
Proving that no bad deeds go unrewarded for some folks. - M. R.
Coalition in Iraq continues to dwindle...
The 'coalition of the willing' is about to become the 'coalition of the non existent'. - M. R.
A top U.S. official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticising payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said on Tuesday.
Human rights group says company complied with request by Israel police to hand over information on nuclear whistleblower.
Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news.
We need to keep hitting this one, and we need to make sure that the 20% of Americans who still think TV is trustworthy and the blogs not (you know, the morons) see this.
- M. R.
This video has caused a great deal of controversy. Originally shown on ABC TV, it was first shown as an object lesson as to what happens to Iraqi Insurgents who dare show weapons before US forces. However, as time goes on, doubt has begun to surface as to whether the people shown blown to pieces with the 30mm cannon on the Apache were really insurgents, or just harmless farmers.
Anti-war protesters hit with pepper spray...
Oil rises above $72 on China demand...
And just imagine where the price of oil will be going if we invade Iran. - M. R.
The dollar's decline accelerated on Tuesday after a gauge of U.S. consumer confidence fell in May, adding to considerable negative sentiment against the U.S. currency.
Witnesses to the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha say the Americans shot men, women and children at close range in retaliation for the death of a Marine lance corporal in a roadside bombing.
Collective punishment is a war crime. - M. R.
If this War on Terrorism is a "good war," wouldn't that be self-evident, with no media manipulation required? Then why is the Bush administration plowing millions into PR campaigns?
According to the Financial Times, that wasn't the first time Iran's tried to open a dialogue, but previous tries have been scuttled by neocon madmen -- men like Krauthammmer:
Bush taps Paulson for Treasury Secretary...
Snow resigns. - M. R.
On Feb. 6, 2006, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales launched a convoluted attack on the Fourth Amendment before the Senate Judiciary Committee. This assault on the meaning of the Fourth Amendment is, in my estimation, the biggest leap forward for totalitarianism in this country.
Washington has warned airlines face fines of up to $6,000 per passenger and the loss of landing rights if the relevant information is not passed on.
Go ahead, DC, take away European airlines' landing rights as we head into the tourist season.
- M. R.
Wow! Not only can we not have substantive contact with the Iranians; we're supposed to prevent the Russians, Chinese, Malaysians, and Pakistanis from having substantive contact with them, too.
Why do we have to ignore the dozens of resolutions the UN General Assembly passes each year to deal with the real crisis in the Middle East?
The top American commander in Iraq has decided to move reserve troops now deployed in Kuwait into the volatile Anbar Province in western Iraq to help quell a rise in insurgent attacks there, two American officials said Monday.
My husband is not a terrorist.
He's not an ex-convict, a felon or on the lam, and if you don't count the occasional Post-it notes or paper clips that come home with him from the office, he's not even a petty thief.
But so far, he's had trouble convincing the government of this.
Unfortunately, incidents like the ones this person describes has really nothing to do with stopping terror: it is about getting people accustomed to governmental intrusion into their lives at every level. - M. R.
Unfortunately, I know the answer to the question. Military jets were pulled from away from New York air space by five simultaneous terrorist hijacking drills (what a coincidence), as far away as Canada and Alaska. Yet there remained as many as 22 planes or objects on air controllers’ screens to totally confuse them. NORAD, in fact, consciously stood down. There was mass confusion. The CIA had spread the word. Meanwhile, the President in Absentia was reading his goat book in a Florida classroom for all the children left behind. It was awhile before he got off his butt and went forward; an hour more to even get back in the air. And then he flew off to hide in a military cave.
The world's non-aligned states are likely to throw their weight behind Iran in its nuclear stand-off with the West, according to a draft statement prepared on Tuesday for a meeting in Malaysia.
The US is looking more and more alone on its beligerence toward Iran. - M. R.
A deal requiring EU airlines to hand over the personal details of all passengers on flights between Europe and the US was thrown out by European Court judges today.
The court decision almost certainly means more queues and long hold-ups for Europeans at American airports once the current system is scrapped.
The dollar had its first two-day drop against the euro and yen in two weeks before an industry report today that is expected to show weaker U.S. consumer confidence.
The U.S. currency has declined 7.5 percent against the euro and 4.8 percent versus the yen this year on speculation signs of slowing growth will deter the Federal Reserve from adding to 16 straight interest-rate increases to 5 percent from 1 percent
There are two investigations being conducted by the navy and the army into the killings, but according to Mr Murtha, nothing was being done until Time magazine published an article late in March that questioned the official explanation for the deaths — that the civilians had been caught in cross-fire between the marines and insurgents.
In response to insurgent activity in western Iraq, the U.S. military is deploying 3,500 reserve troops from Kuwait to the area, The Washington Post reports.
So much for a "drawdown" of troops. - M. R.
May 29, 2006
Wikipedia considers deleting the entry for What Really Happened...
Note that the page is locked against edits, meaning that the errors in that page are not correctable. I have had a constant problem with the page for Michael Rivero where I will attempt to correct the factual errors (such as the exact reason I was banned from Free Republic) , only to have the errors re-inserted. Wikipedia used to be a good resource, but obviously they have become politicized.
- M. R.
U.S. Marines execute an Iraqi to the cheers of fellow marines...
The ethical storm over abortions has been renewed as it emerged that terminations are being carried out for minor, treatable birth defects.
"The resolution accomplishes one goal," Gorton argued. "It divides the citizens of the state of Hawaii--who are of course citizens of the United States--into two distinct groups: Native Hawaiians and all other citizens." According to Gorton--and despite the disavowals of the bill's Senate cosponsors, Hawaii Democrats Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka--"the logical consequence of this resolution would be independence."
Morer about the illegal annexation of Hawaii is
HERE. - M. R.
The U.S. military continues to investigate what happened in Haditha, where a total of 24 civilians died. But one congressman, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said today that he's convinced the incident was mass murder and that it was covered up.
The focus this Memorial Day will be on those men and women who have died in the current Iraq war, although it is likely that only a small minority of Americans realize that 2,464 U.S. soldiers have died thus far. The 117,000 U.S. soldiers who died in that war to end all wars, World War I, are ancient history. Few can name even one of the 405,000 U.S. soldiers who died in that "good war," World War II, so that Eastern Europe could be turned over to the mass murderer Stalin. The 54,000 U.S. soldiers who died in what is called America’s forgotten war, the Korean War, are certainly long forgotten. The 58,000 U.S. soldiers who died in Vietnam so their names could be inscribed on a wall are remembered by very few.
They died in vain; they died for a lie.
More than $106 million in home loans collapsed in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties in the first quarter of this year alone.
Bush's approval rating dropped to 36% in this poll.
How can it be dropping to 36% when it was
29 only two weeks ago? - M. R.
"I cannot say how deeply ashamed I am of this war. I never supported George W. Bush. I voted against him because I saw his vacant and wild stare and heard his jumbled, chopped, and childish words. I knew he was inept and incompetent to serve, not only as president, but as Commander-in-Chief of our brave armed forces. I know he is a fraud. Our country has been deeply harmed by this war and this man who hears God tell him to 'spread democracy' so violently. All of this is based on a lie."
British director Ken Loach was savouring an overdue triumph at the Cannes film festival with a movie depicting the brutality of 1920s occupied Ireland which he said was equally applicable to today's Iraq.
"The Wind That Shakes The Barley" won the festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, in a glittering closing ceremony late Sunday packed with stars and celebrities.
World powers are prepared to guarantee Iran's right to develop nuclear energy provided Tehran eases international concerns over its nuclear intentions and cooperates fully with the UN atomic watchdog, Russia said.
Speaking at the start of a critical week of high-stakes diplomacy, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany were hammering out a plan for resumption of talks with Tehran.
Soi what will the U. S. do now: completely defy the will of the world community? - M. R.
What are we to make of the growing chorus of fears about the possible collapse of the dollar? Is it a case of crying wolf again?
FLASHBACK: A Memorial to Donald Scott...
I recall when this happened. It turned out that this incident occurred just after the start of the civil forfeiture laws which allowed the police to confiscate and sell the personal property of criminals. The Scott Ranch was targeted for a raid not because of any evidence of wrongdoing, but because of the potential money to be had from the seizure of the property had any drugs been found there.
- M. R.
The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty...
Linked by reader request for Memorial Day. - M. R.
In August 1999, political organizer Ralph Reed's firm sent out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians asking them to call then-Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ala.) and tell him to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws.
Reed's close friend and political ally, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, represented the commonwealth as a partner of Greenberg Traurig. The islands' government paid Abramoff $4.04 million from 1998 to 2002. Greenberg Traurig hired Millennium Marketing to print the mailing.
No matter how he tries, Reed will not be able to distance himself from the stench of his association with Abramoff. Hopefully, others in Congress, be they Democrats or Republicans who have also 'drunk at this well' will experience the same in mid-term elections. - M. R.
A Bill for a Military Draft already making its way through Congress?...
The upkeep of the site is paid for out of the profits of a local yoghurt factory, and Mr Nagano agrees that The Da Vinci Code will probably boost Shingo’s coffers. The village shop is already doing a roaring trade in Christ-branded saké. “Did you enjoy the museum?” asks Mr Nagano. “If you did, I recommend you go to Ishikawa district. They have the tomb of Moses there.”
That must be some damned fine saké! - M. R.
This time of year produces the obligatory public statements from key figures of the political and religious establishment of the United States, talking about our nation's greatness and commitment to individual freedom. The speeches are legitimate in recalling who and what we were in a storied past. The problem, however, is this--the patriotic speeches seem to avoid any honest introspection and analysis about who and what we have now become. The disconnect between myth and reality has become tortuous for anyone with an ounce of intellectual or moral integrity.
Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news.
Imagine my shock.
- M. R.
High-tech tags may track kids in TUSD...
This is not about 'protecting the children': this is about getting kids and their families accustomed to 24/7 surveillance.
If I were a parent in Tucson, I'd be pulling my kid out of that school district and home schooling them immediately. - M. R.
Cheyenne County District Judge Kristine Cecava is facing protests after she sentenced a convicted child rapist to ten years probation.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened.
Even if one stipulates that the holocaust happened exactly as the advertising claims, present-day Germans should still feel no guilt over it, because it all happened in the middle of the last century before most Germans now alive were even born. Today's Germans are no more to blame for the crimes of the Nazi slave camps than present day Americans are to blame for the events of the southern plantations. It all happened before they were born, therefore there was nothing they could do.
There are events happening TODAY that deserve out attention and if we remain inactive, for which we bear the guilt. There are wars that we know are based on lies in which we share the guilt if we do not denounce the liars. There are genocides taking place TODAY that we share the guilt in if we remain silent. - M. R.
For more than five years, George W. Bush has continuously violated the law of the land by ignoring the Constitution, by rewriting laws passed by Congress with his signing statements, and by issuing more than 200 executive orders as new directives for fine-tuning the government to suit his policies. The United States is now facing a regime change — from democracy to autocracy.
Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'...
Remember, there is absolutely no law currently in FCC regulations mandating that the talking heads on television or radio have to tell the American people the truth. - M. R.
The animals slaughtered here at the nation's largest kosher meat packing plant have been the object of nationwide sympathy since an animal rights group released videos from the kill floor in December 2004. But a tour of the mobile homes and cramped apartments just outside town, where AgriProcessors' immigrant workers live, quickly shifts a visitor's attention to a more striking concern: the impoverished humans who do the factory's dirty work.
A sudden upsurge in Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has seen casualties mount daily among combatants and the civilian population.
So this is 'victory' in Afghanistan, 5 years on? - M. R.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand." The United States is now divided on what it believes about September 11, 2001. A CNN poll conducted on March 25, 2006 revealed that 84% of the 52 thousand people polled now believe that the U.S. government has not thoroughly answered 9/11 questions. 84 percent!
Southern Iraq, long touted as a peaceful region that's likely to be among the first areas returned to Iraqi control, is now dominated by Shiite Muslim warlords and militiamen who are laying the groundwork for an Islamic fundamentalist government, say senior British and Iraqi officials in the area.
And this is what the current administration considers a 'victory'? - M. R.
A deadly traffic accident Monday involving U.S. troops sparked the worst rioting in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban regime, with hundreds of protesters looting shops and shouting ``Death to America!'' At least eight people were killed and 107 injured, an official said.
Is the Bush Regime a state sponsor of terrorism?
A powerful case can be made that it is.
Somalia is erupting in violence again. And with little warning, Americans find themselves once more in the middle of battles they only dimly comprehend—and may well be losing.
Parents say their children were developing normally until they had the MMR jab, given when a child is between 12- and 18-months-old. The children now suffer from regressive autism.
Worried about pending legislation to better secure the U.S.-Mexico border, the Fox administration and its representatives are working through a coalition of U.S.-based immigration rights associations, Mexican-American organizations and grass-roots Hispanic groups to lobby U.S. lawmakers and civic leaders for amnesty for the estimated 12 million illegals in the United States,
Vicente Fox is worried? Then let us have the U. S. and Mexican government strike a deal, which would be very simple. The Mexican government will incur and reimburse the costs to the U. S. for every social service provided to any illegal Mexican immigrant, along with the cost for every deportation of these illegal immigrants from the U. S. to Mexico.
I think suddently a more secure border wouldn't worry Fox quite so much. - M. R.
President Bush implicitly compared himself to Harry S. Truman in a commencement address at the United States Military Academy.
If by that you mean you want to drop nuclear, 'scuse me, nookular bombs on another country without a good reason, I agree.
Otherwise, no. You are no Harry Truman. Millard Fillmore, maybe. - M. R.
It's almost unimaginable. An oncologist with two sons - one four and one eight - throws each from a 15th floor hotel balcony in Florida, both still in their pajamas, then throws himself. Tragedies like these scream out - SOMETHING IS WRONG IN AMERICA.
Canadian public service union votes in support of
boycott, divestment and sanctions
against apartheid Israel
Canadian public service union votes in support of boycott, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel...
The plan is designed to curtail the financial freedom of every Iranian official, individual and entity the Bush administration considers connected not only to nuclear-enrichment efforts but to terrorism, government corruption, suppression of religious or democratic freedom and violence in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories. It would restrict the Tehran government's access to foreign currency and global markets, shut its overseas accounts and freeze assets held in Europe and Asia.
Iran is very rich in its oil assets, and for every one bank that won't do business with this country, 5 others will be lining up at its doorstep. The plan just won't work. - M. R.
In Memory of DU Deaths...
The use of Depleted Uranium weapons has condemned hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of thousands of Americans to death. That these deaths will be slow, painful, and take years to complete does not make them any less victims of this war built on lies. - M. R.
Under a program sometimes dubbed petro-diplomacy, Citgo, Venezuela's wholly-owned gas and oil subsidiary, has been providing discounts of up to 60 per cent on heating oil to poor communities in the U.S.
The program is currently operating in Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Most local politicians, desperate for ways to reduce energy costs for their constituents, have welcomed it with open arms.
Iran and Iraq share a Shiite Muslim majority and deep cultural and historic ties, and Tehran's influence over its neighbor is growing. Iran will likely try to use Iraq as a battleground if the United States punishes Tehran economically or militarily, analysts say.
The Law of Unitended Consequences strikes at this Administration yet again. - M. R.
A Few Years, and Then Another Bush?...
Let's hope not, for the sake of the future of this country. - M. R.
But Kos and his merry band of holier-than-thou confabulators now act as a Ministry of Truth for the Democratic Party and progressive movement. In fact, they are pathetic censors and narrow agenda propagandists.
In memory of those who fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001...
Robert Kagan is the co-founder with William Kristol of the Project for the New American Century and he thinks it will be better for America if the Democrats win the 2008 contest for the Presidency. If that surprises you, you haven't been paying attention. As far as the PNAC crew goes, power isn't about being a Republican or a Democrat, it's about owning both parties. And, fortunately for us, Kagan is spectacularly upfront about this.
2 CBS News staff killed, 1 hurt in Iraq blast...
I'll bet CBS won't be quite as eager to echo White House claims of how well the war in Iraq is going.
- M. R.
Looking back on that time, while the US Government declared political victory in the war, and the "Captains of Industry" grew rich turning looted war material into corporations that could hardly fail in competing with nations whose industrial bases had been bombed into rubble, I recognize that the town I grew up in had been defeated in that war. It had been eviscerated. It had had its very heart cut out of it; a gaping hole that never healed, but could only be forgotten.
AP Television News video showed hundreds of angry young men hurling rocks at what appeared to be three U.S. military trucks and three dun-colored Humvees as they sped from the area after the crash, their windscreens cracked by the stones. A machine gun mounted on one of the Humvees fired into the air over the crowd as the vehicle sped away.
Memo to the Administration: these people don't hate us because we're 'free'. - M. R.
At least 46 people died Monday in a series of bombings and ambushes in Iraq, police and the military said.
Oh yes, things are SOOOOO much better now under American occupation! Every other nation on the US "Must liberate" list can look forward to the exact same thing. - M. R.
Gen. James E. Cartwright, the chief of the United States Strategic Command, said the system would enhance the Pentagon's ability to "pre-empt conventionally" and precisely while limiting the "collateral damage." The program would cost an estimated half a billion dollars over five years, and the Pentagon is seeking $127 million in its current spending request to Congress to begin work.
Do we actually need more weapons like this, or perhaps a consistent foreign policy that doesn't seem quite so psychotic to the rest of the nations on earth? - M. R.
Apologizing to the Iranian government and nation, the National Post, in its Wednesday edition, admitted that the story had been concocted by a Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles ...
Five plus years after George W. Bush and his PNAC-backed thugs stole the presidency and took hostage the Whitehouse; impeachment has finally entered the mainstream. A few weeks ago, President Bush kept grumbling how the main stream media was not reporting the “good things” coming out of Iraq. Desperate times require desperate measures, I guess. The rancid stench of this desperate move to again deflect and deceive, this time on the media, can be smelled from miles away now. Bush’s approval ratings have tanked, American’s are growing increasingly restless and disgruntled about ‘Bush’s war’ and more people are waking up to a perverse and psychotic Bush vision: A “benevolent” supremacy of world interference and control, harnessed by a pre-emptive war doctrine; the first of its kind for the United States of America.
May 28, 2006
"The bottom line is that Coingate should have been reported at least a year earlier and that Blade editors, once they knew the story was intentionally ignored, should have disciplined the responsible reporter and informed its readers," Tanber wrote in an e-mail message to The Associated Press on Sunday. "That's what newspapers are supposed to do."
... but what the blogs DO do.
- M. R.
Impeachment? No. Impalement!...
Can we tar and feather them first?
- M. R.
On June 21, 2002, ABC News reported that five Israelis were arrested on Sept 11, 2001 after being caught filming the burning of the World Trade Center from the roof of the “Urban Moving Systems” building, shouting cries of joy. The police found them driving in the company van. [Bergen Record, 9/12/01] Investigators said that there were maps of the city with certain places highlighted, found in the van. The FBI confirmed that two of the five men were Mossad agents and that all five were on a Mossad assignment. [Forward, 3/15/02] They were held on immigration violations, questioned excessively and then released after 71 days in custody. [ABC News, 6/21/02] The owner of Urban Moving System, fled the United States to Israel on Sept 14, 2001. The FBI later told ABC News that the company “may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation.” [Forward, 3/15/02; New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, 12/13/01; ABC News, 6/21/01]
In 2004, The Syracuse New Times published a profile and interview with Zinsmeister which contained some rather controversial and provocative quotes, as well as some disrespectful and critical quotes about the Commander-in-Chief. But when Zinsmeister re-published the New Times profile on the American Enterprise website, he fundamentally changed the controversial quotations in order to make it appear that he never said them.
The U.S. military is bracing for a major scandal over the alleged slaying of Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha -- charges so serious they could threaten President Bush's effort to rally support at home for an increasingly unpopular war.
Not to mention putting a real road-block in the rush to wars in Iran and Saudi Arabia. - M. R.
I get more than a little pissed off when some yahoo Bush worshipper calls me un-American because I don’t support the Bush administration or the one-party Republican government now in power. I find it bitterly ironic that such folks hear the march of freedom where I hear the strident goose-stepping of a fascism that has already caused untold destruction and threatens to be a great deal more destructive than Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. Who in hell do these numbskulls think they’re kidding?
"Dubya, Dubya, Uber alles..." - M. R.
Cheney's Office Screening Bills For Potential Limits To Presidential Power Before They Reach Bush's Desk...
The officials said Cheney's legal adviser and chief of staff, David Addington , is the Bush a dministration's leading architect of the ``signing statements" the president has appended to more than 750 laws. The statements assert the president's right to ignore the laws because they conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution.
"In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence which is a heartfelt cry to God -- Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?"
Maybe because God does not exist, and religion is simply the depravity of all denominations called His will.
- M. R.
PANIC gripped Doha yesterday after two closely located under-construction towers on the Corniche caught fire one after another and the raging blaze sent thick plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen even from distant places in Qatar.
"Any minute those towers will collapse just like the World Trade Towers. Any minute. Any minute now ... Any minute. Yep. Should fall any time now. Just like the WTC... Any minute ........ wanna go get a beer?"
- M. R.
American researchers have revealed that 85 per cent of samples taken from autistic children with bowel disorders contain the virus. The strain is the same as the one used in the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine.
People have had it up to here with The Lobby
AIPAC Threatens to Defeat Minnesota Democrat...
This is a group at the center of an espionage investigation. Can anyone tell me why they are even allowed to open their offices right now, let alone hurl threats at members of the US Congress?
- M. R.
Bloggers can shield sources, court rules / In setback for Apple, Internet journalists are protected by law
In a decision that could set the tone for journalism in the digital age, a California appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers, like traditional reporters, have the right to keep their sources confidential.
Well, now Valence Media has launched a counter-attack. The company sued the MPAA on Wednesday for hiring a hacker to obtain information from Valence's computers. The hacker, who is claimed to have been paid $15,000, broke in and collected a large amount of evidence to use against Valence in the original suit.
Attention Hollywood! Instead of becoming that which you purport to oppose, maybe the time has come to start producing movies that show people who engage in crime in a poor light ... starting with the President who lied us into a war to steal someone else's country, a crime so great that young people can be forgiven for viewing content piracy as a trivial issue.
- M. R.
Iran is willing to accept a cap on its uranium enrichment capability to ensure the fuel produced is not used to develop nuclear weapons, its ambassador to the United Nations says.
The Housing Bubble Blog...
Watching out for the coming "pop". - M. R.
Hundreds rally at West Point gates as Bush addresses cadets...
A jury was presented with scores of damaging e-mails yesterday that showed lobbyist Jack Abramoff angling for inside information from then-General Services Administration chief of staff David H. Safavian -- and Safavian doing what he could to accommodate his longtime friend.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley and about two dozen bishops and priests prostrated themselves on the altar of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Thursday to ask forgiveness from God for the damage done by the Roman Catholic Church's clergy sex abuse scandal.
How about we see Cardinal Sean O'Malley and about two dozen bishops and priests prostrated themselves in front of the children and their parents to ask forgiveness for the damage done by the Roman Catholic Church's clergy sex abuse scandal?
- M. R.
"I do think it brings the Met into a bit of disrepute - 78 police officers arriving in the middle of the night to clear placards and chase mice. I really do think that it was huge overkill."
Congress reveals its double standard...
On the one hand, Congress seems to just sit by and do nothing more than express frustration when the executive branch is reaching its tentacles into the private lives of the people from whom it derives its powers.
But if one of their own – no matter what party or what wrongdoing is suspected – is the recipient of a little intrusion from the executive branch WITH A PROPERLY COURT-AUTHORIZED WARRANT, well, then, something must be done. - M. R.
Revealed: how US marines massacred 24
Revealed: how US marines massacred 24
PHOTOGRAPHS taken by American military intelligence have provided crucial evidence that up to 24 Iraqis were massacred by marines in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold on the banks of the Euphrates
Imagine for one moment that you were a family member of one of these murdered women and children. How would you feel, once you knew what had happened? And then, what would you do? - M. R.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday that the West would not be “secure” until Iran changed its behaviour in the international arena.
What 'behavior', Tony? What is Iran actually DOING that is a threat to the west? Building a power station? Making fuel rods? Both activities are perfectly legal under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty that Iran and the US have signed.
Is Tony about to fling out another "Dodgy Dossier"? - M. R.
The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president's desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials
Apparently, the concept of 'balance of power' between executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government has collapsed totally under this Administration. - M. R.
When Lester exercised his constitutional right not to sign a consent to search his house, these officers spent the next two hours torturing him. They beat him with bats and guns, held loaded guns to his head, threatened to shoot him, dunked his head in the toilet, burned him with lighters, attached his testicles to a battery charger, threatened to cut off his fingers, and threatened to "go get" his wife and take his child away from him.
"By the actions he took, the institutions he built, the alliances he forged and the doctrines he set down, President Truman laid the foundations for America's victory in the cold war," Mr. Bush told the class of 2006.
By the actions Bush has taken (launching a war based on a pack of lies and deficit-spending the country into bankruptcy), the institutions he's built (like Gitmo and secret prisions around the world), and the alliances and doctrines he has broken (such as the Geneva Conventions and a warmer relationship with Russia), Bush has laid the foundations for America's collapse. He will do with this country what he used to do with companies: leave them as failed institutions. - M. R.
Justice Dept. Seeks to Block Suits on Spying...
Government places itself above the law. - M. R.
The closed-door meeting at the Justice Department, which Gonzales had requested, according to the sources, comes as the idea of legally mandated data retention has become popular on Capitol Hill and inside the Bush administration. Supporters of the idea say it will help prosecutions of child pornography because in many cases, logs are deleted during the routine course of business.
This has very little to do with child porn, and everything to do with creating an atmosphere of fear for people who express their displeasure with Dear Leader and his minions electronically, either through emails and on blogs. - M. R.
Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, which is known to have thousands of rockets in southern Lebanon, had no comment on the attack. Hezbollah usually claims responsibility for attacks it carries out.
Meaning there is doubt as to who actually fired that first rocket. - M. R.