The Rev. Al Sharpton, who represented the Bell family, angrily denounced the verdicts on his radio show later and called on his followers to protest the outcome, but without violence.

The alleged link between cosmic ray flux and cloudiness remains to be proved or disproved.

The link between solar cycle length and decadal global temperature changes is obvious throughout all the weather records. It's not strictly a sunspot issue, it just happens that the longer the solar cycle is the less intense is the sunspot activity and presumably the overall heat output ( not necessarily the same as what we artificially term Total Solar Irradiance) during the cycle.

Short fast cycles with many sunspots result in warming. Long slow cycles with fewer sunspots result in cooling.

Are the wonderful mainstream media, who gave us Saddam's mythical Weapons of Mass Destruction, lying to us again? The answer is yes.

As 1.5 million Gazans are crying out to the world to pressure Israel to lift its scandalously callous blockade of the coastal territory, another 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank are struggling to cope with an unprecedented economic crisis that is further impoverishing and exhausting them.

The crisis, the harshest in recent memory, stems from a host of local and global factors, including soaring food and energy prices, sagging currency value, rampant joblessness and draconian Israeli restrictions on the movement of people, goods and services.

Iraq's prime minister set four conditions Friday for stopping a government-led crackdown against anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

Kirkuk has been the object of a bitter struggle over the past five years among Iraq´s competing ethnic and sectarian groups. And now Arab, Kurd, and Turkmen factions seem to be digging in, anticipating that tensions may erupt in an area that is the center of northern Iraq´s oil industry ahead of a promised referendum on the fate of Kirkuk Province, officially still called Tamim, its previous Baath Party-era name.

And even on Capitol Hill Democrat lawmakers are angry that the administration apparently sat on this evidence for some considerable time.

t was the second time in the past year the pipeline had been hit and the latest in a series of attacks on Iraqi oil refineries, blamed on insurgents.

A former senior CIA counterintelligence operative believes the case "will never go to trial, because of all the ugly stuff that would come out" about Israeli activities in the United States.

Indeed, Justice Department attorneys have fought to keep "ugly stuff" from emerging in the trial of two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, charged with accepting classified documents from Pentagon official Larry Franklin.

Global temperature change can be attributed to slight variations in the sun's energy output, not man-made carbon dioxide emissions. That's according to astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon, who was in Salt Lake City today to present his research to a crowd at The Sutherland Institute.

"Policymakers and legislators often fail to consider the law of unintended consequences. The latest example is their attempt to reduce the United States' dependence on imported oil by shifting a big share of the nation's largest crop, corn, to the production of ethanol for fueling automobiles.

President Bush has set a target of replacing 15% of domestic gasoline use with biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) over the next 10 years, which would require almost a fivefold increase in mandatory biofuel use, to about 35 billion gallons. With current technology, almost all of this biofuel would have to come from corn because there is no feasible alternative. However, achieving the 15% goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40% of the world's corn supply. This would do more than create mere market distortions; the irresistible pressure to divert corn from food to fuel would create unprecedented turmoil.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticized the U.S. and British conduct of the war in Afghanistan, insisting that his government must be accorded the lead in policy decisions. In a New York Times interview published on Saturday, Karzai said he wanted U.S. forces to stop arresting suspected Taliban members and their sympathizers, saying that fear of arrest along with past mistreatment were discouraging them from coming forward and laying down their arms.

There are multiple reasons why substantial skepticism is warranted concerning the Bush administration's claims that the structure which Israeli jets destroyed inside Syria last September was a nuclear reactor Syria was developing with the aid of North Korea. Such skepticism, however, is difficult to find in most (though not all) American press accounts, which do little other than repeat Government claims without challenge.

Former US Prosecutor: "This was a much larger espionage operation with sleeper cells in the United States" ......

In conclusion, sub-lethal levels of pesticides, including the Bt biopesticides produced in genetically modified (GM) crops covering some 30 percent of the global area, disorientate the bees, making them behave abnormally, and compromise their immunity to infections.

beltway bandit time...

A vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee had the measure passing narrowly - until it came to Johnson, whose vote against changing the memorial's phrases created a tie, killing the legislation for now.

"There are many of us that believe there's been a cover-up," she told Capitol reporters about the terrorist attacks.

We find, then, that the members of a variety of peoples and races, blond and black, brown and yellow, became Jews in large numbers. According to Zand, the Zionist need to devise for them a shared ethnicity and historical continuity produced a long series of inventions and fictions, along with an invocation of racist theses. Some were concocted in the minds of those who conceived the Zionist movement, while others were offered as the findings of genetic studies conducted in Israel.

Prof. Zand teaches at Tel Aviv University. His book, "When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?" (published by Resling in Hebrew), is intended to promote the idea that Israel should be a "state of all its citizens" - Jews, Arabs and others - in contrast to its declared identity as a "Jewish and democratic" state. Personal stories, a prolonged theoretical discussion and abundant sarcastic quips do not help the book, but its historical chapters are well-written and cite numerous facts and insights that many Israelis will be astonished to read for the first time.

Arab media have reported that IDF jets attacked several targets in southern Lebanon Wednesday, including the cities of Nebatiyeh, Tyre and the western Bekaa Valley. Lebanese anti-aircraft positions fired Israeli aircraft, but all IDF servicemen are believed to have returned safely to Israel.

"We will get in our cars and you'll get in yours", said Flynn. It turned out to be a set up. The Rotiskeneketeh started moving off the road. Suddenly about 10 OPP jumped about 5 of our guys, threw them in the ditch, beat them up and arrested them. They hauled them off to jail. No reasons were given for the arrests or assaults. The OPP is certain not operating on an honorable nation to nation model. It is not even offering the kind of fiduciary protection for indigenous rights as it is supposed to, according to the supreme Court of Canada.

Questions Linger on Scope of Iran's Threat in Iraq...

Massachusetts Police Get Black Uniforms to Instill Sense of 'Fear'...

The more likely explanation for the US invasion of Iraq is the neoconservative Bush Regime's commitment to the defense of Israeli territorial expansion. There is no such thing as a neoconservative who is not allied with Israel. Israel hopes to steal all of the West Bank and southern Lebanon for its territorial expansion. An American colonial regime in Iraq not only buttresses Israel from attack, but also can pressure Syria and Iran from giving support to the Palestinians and Lebanese. The Iraqi war is a war for Israeli territorial expansion. Americans are dying and bleeding to death financially for Israel. Bush's "war on terror" is a hoax that serves to cover US intervention in the Middle East in behalf of "greater Israel."

Student gets $628 ticket for sitting on park ledge...

US official: Iran boosting support for Iraqi insurgents...

The military adventurers in the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups thought that they were the "smartest guys in the room" -- the title of Alex Gibney's prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.

President George W. Bush has transformed an open federal government in Washington into one of "pervasive secrecy," a distinguished authority on communications and First Amendment rights says.

Debt collection statute of limitations listed by state...

With millions of Americans falling behind on debt payments, the larger debt-collecting companies are outsourcing their collection methods to India . There, the trained operators call the American debtor on the phone. They remind them that they will probably be getting tax rebates and that perhaps they could pay "just a little" on their back bill. Even a few dollars would show their really good intentions.

Do not trust this approach because it is a snare and a delusion. In most cases, the debts involved have passed the statute of limitations and not only is it impossible to sue for the unpaid balances but the debt itself has vanished from the credit report system. By sending in even a dollar on the back balance, the debt is automatically renewed again and further harassments, phone calls, registered letters and debt-collection suits can, and will, follow.

The best advice here is not to send in a penny.

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog has reacted with fury at the United States' delay in passing on intelligence, after Washington accused North Korea of helping Syria to build secretly a nuclear reactor.

The GOP in Hawaii is playing dirty. They are attempting to spread the false message that the only Republican candidate in the race is McCain . They are also claiming that Ron Paul is no longer in the race.

In a speech at Imperial College, London, Mahathir called for a tribunal to try US President George W. Bush plus former prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain and John Howard of Australia for their part in the conflict

"Words wreak havoc when they find a name for what had up to then been lived namelessly" - Jean Paul Sartre

With no war to supply or fight, both the military and their business counterparts faced bleak prospects of reduction in forces and shrinking business contracts with the Pentagon.

Then, in 1948, the U.S. Army hit on a plan that would turn around their loss of rank, privilege and business contracts.

Rational Response Squad...

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the Pentagon is planning "potential" military actions against Iran, reports The Washington Post.

Mullen criticized Iran's "'increasingly lethal and malign influence' in Iraq," writes Ann Scott Tyson for the Post.

Addressing concerns about the US military's capability of dealing with yet another conflict at a time when forces are purportedly stretched thin, Mullen said war with Iran "would be 'extremely stressing' but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing specifically to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force," Tyson notes.

Dave Barry on the Economic Stimulus Payment...

Iran on Friday denied there had been any confrontation between its forces and a U.S. ship in the Gulf, Iranian media reported, after a U.S. official said a ship contracted by the U.S Military Sealift Command fired on an Iranian vessel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with President George W. Bush and he was returning home with little to show for his visit.

The director general deplores the fact that this information was not provided to the agency in a timely manner, in accordance with the agency's responsibilities under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to enable it to verify its veracity and establish the facts," ElBaradei said in a statement today.

President Robert Mugabe stepped up his violent crackdown on political opponents today as heavily armed police stormed opposition headquarters and the offices of independent election observers on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.

Rhonda Payne went to an AT&T Wireless store in Calhoun, Ga., recently to pay her phone bill in cash. She'd been hit by ID theft and was forced to close her checking account, so she was worried she wouldn't be able to mail a check on time. But when she arrived at the store, she was in for a surprise.

Paying in person, she was told, costs extra -- $2 extra.

A crisis that threatens to split Bolivia has worsened, with the government freezing the accounts of the eastern province of Santa Cruz just days before the territory holds a referendum on whether to declare autonomy.

The move, announced by Economy Minister Luis Alberto Arce late Thursday, deepens tensions between Santa Cruz's opposition governor and the leftwing administration of President Evo Morales.

He is the man who was, more often than nearly any other, behind the White House decisions to violate the international laws of war. He was the one who told the White House how to get away with committing war crimes. While he may have been a henchman for others who instructed him to make the arguments he did, he repeatedly refused to reverse himself, both while he worked in the Department of Justice and after he left that office and returned to academia.

"Everything I'm hearing from my own sources in Washington is that what you have now is a kind of push back by Vice-President [Dick] Cheney and his office and other hardliners who are opposed to diplomatic dealings with North Korea," he said.

"[They are] hoping that by making public these allegations of nuclear cooperation it will torpedo the diplomatic process."

A new survey of American Jewish opinion, released by the American Jewish Committee, demonstrates several important propositions: (1) right-wing neocons (the Bill Kristol/Commentary/ AIPAC/Marty Peretz faction) who relentlessly claim to speak for Israel and for Jews generally hold views that are shared only by a small minority of American Jews; (2) viewpoints that are routinely demonized as reflective of animus towards Israel or even anti-Semitism are ones that are held by large majorities of American Jews; and (3) most American Jews oppose U.S. military action in the Middle East -- including both in Iraq and against Iran.

Tasing ends in death...

The Gaza Strip has fallen eerily silent as day-to-day life grinds to a halt in the face of an Israeli fuel blockade that has forced the UN to halt its food shipments into the territory. Michael Bailey of Oxfam in Jerusalem tells The Real News Network that some 300,000 Gaza residents have drinking water at home for less than five hours per day, every four days, and the UN can no longer get supplies to the 700,000 refugees living in Gaza.

Fun With The NSA...

Sadr, whose call for calm was read out in a major mosque in Baghdad, said his recent threat of "open war" was directed only at U.S. forces, not the Iraqi government.

Two major US bulk retailers are rationing the sale of large bags of rice to consumers amid a growing global food crisis marked by skyrocketing prices and heavy pressure on demand.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met with President Bush in Washington Thursday in a desperate effort to save the American-backed peace process from the danger of collapse. Abbas is reportedly "gravely concerned " that the prospects of reaching a breakthrough in peace talks with Israel before the expiration of Bush's term in the White House are very slim.

As 1.5 million Gazans are crying out to the world to pressure Israel to lift its scandalously callous blockade of the coastal territory, another 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank are struggling to cope with an unprecedented economic crisis that is further impoverishing and exhausting them.

He figured if he was going to be drafted anyway, he would agree to serve in the Israeli-occupied territories, "to see what really happens, and maybe to change things," he says. "But I didn't succeed."

Today, he is one of 39 recently discharged soldiers whose testimonies are part of a grim new report on the situation in the West Bank city of Hebron, where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) oversee a volatile population of 700 to 800 Jewish settlers living amid nearly 170,000 Palestinians. The 118-page report, which tells of systematic mistreatment of local Palestinians by both soldiers and settlers, was released during this week's Passover holiday.

From the moment I set foot in Gaza there was one question everyone kept asking me: "When are they going to open the crossings?"

For almost a year now the two points at which people can get out of Gaza - the Erez and Rafah crossings - have been closed to all Palestinians.

Convicted of espionage in 1986, Pollard did such damage to U.S. national security that top intelligence officials threatened to resign if Bill Clinton acceded to Israeli demands to pardon him. He is serving a life sentence for stealing secrets deemed so valuable that the Soviet Union reportedly agreed to trade them for the release of tens of thousands of Russian Jews for resettlement in Israel.

Magnitude 6.0 - TAIWAN REGION...

FBI wants widespread monitoring of 'illegal' Internet activity...

A possible breakaway path -- described to The Associated Press by Shiite lawmakers and politicians -- would represent the ultimate backlash to the Iraqi government's pressure on al-Sadr to renounce and disband his Shiite militia.

Beyond the sound and fury of its conquest of Iraq and campaign against Iran, the world's dominant power is waging a largely unreported war on another continent - Latin America. Using proxies, Washington aims to restore and reinforce the political control of a privileged group calling itself middle-class, to shift the responsibility for massacres and drug trafficking away from the psychotic regime in Colombia and its mafiosi, and to extinguish hopes raised among Latin America's impoverished majority by the reform governments of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.

apan found banned spinal material in a beef shipment from the U.S., prompting more inspections and threatening to delay an easing of import restrictions imposed after a 2003 case of mad-cow disease.

The top Taliban commander in Pakistan called a cease-fire Thursday and ordered followers to halt attacks, while the government said it was pursuing peace talks with tribal elders in the volatile border region.

"The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel." -Ann Lewis, Senior Advisor for Hillary Clinton, March 17, 2008

Recently, in their much lauded paper, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, Harvard professor, Stephen Walt, and University of Chicago professor, John Mearsheimer, focused attention on the strong Israeli lobby which has a powerful influence over American foreign policies (see BBC article). They detail the influence that this lobby has exerted, forming a series of international policies which can be viewed as in direct opposition to the interests and security of the American people. These acts and policies are more often than not carried out by US government appointees who hold powerful positions and who are dual American-Israeli citizens. Since the policies they support are often exclusively beneficial to Israel, often to the detriment of America, it has been argued that their loyalties are misdirected.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday called former President Jimmy Carter "a bigot" for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria.

Congressional lawmakers from Oklahoma are looking into allegations that members of the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade are not being regularly fed in Iraq.

Oklahoma soldier in Iraq says meals cut...

Are the wonderful mainstream media, who gave us Saddam's mythical Weapons of Mass Destruction, lying to us again? The answer is yes.

A confrontation between Bolivia's government and wealthy regional governors in the east could soon descend into 'violence' and 'killings,' an official of the Organization of American States (OAS) warned Wednesday.

Three detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day, a case that put the NYPD at the center of another dispute involving allegations of excessive firepower.

Skeptical voices were suppressed by the networks, outnumbered by nearly a 7-to-1 ratio by those promoting fear of climate change or being used by the network for the same purpose. CBS had an even worse record: nearly 38 proponents to one skeptic.

Drug giant Merck has been caught red-handed in a scheme to deceive the FDA and the public over the integrity of its scientific studies, say top medical authorities. According to reports that were (amazingly!) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and detailed in the Washington Post, Merck waged a "campaign of deception" to disguise its in-house study authors as independent scientists working for universities. This scheme made the studies appear independent and unbiased, allowing them to carry more apparent credibility to FDA officials, doctors and other scientists.

International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming divulged no details in a brief statement about the deal. But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei called the agreement "a milestone" that -- if successful -- should signal the end of his organization's years of attempts to probe Tehran's secretive nuclear program.

The global rice trade was stunned last July when US shipments bound for the European Union were found to contain genetically engineered rice.

Gaza Strip - Israel dismissed on Friday a proposal by Hamas to call a conditional six-month truce in the Gaza Strip, calling it a ruse aimed at allowing the Palestinian Islamist group to recover from recent fighting.

Syria's president said in an interview published Thursday that his country may hold peace talks with Israel, but not until a new U.S. administration takes office.

THE New York Times' news room is bracing for a bloodbath in the next 10 days.

The finances of many states have deteriorated so badly that they appear to be in a recession, regardless of whether that's true for the nation as a whole, a survey of all 50 state fiscal directors concludes.

Below are a number of stories with links picked up in a cursory Google News Search. Child abuse cases involving rabbis and ultra-Orthodox families are percolating, and in some cases boiling over, in the Israeli, Australian, and Canadian press. Use any of the key words and you will likely find even more articles.

Funny, Wolf Blitzer and others don't seem to be talking about ANY of this. They're distracted by the "polygamy ranch" instead.

Mike Chinoy, from the Pacific Council on International Policy, says the claim needs to be taken in its political context, as North Korea's denuclearisation reaches a critical stage.

"Everything I'm hearing from my own sources in Washington is that what you have now is a kind of push back by Vice-President [Dick] Cheney and his office and other hardliners who are opposed to diplomatic dealings with North Korea," he said.

"[They are] hoping that by making public these allegations of nuclear cooperation it will torpedo the diplomatic process.

Iraq War: What you think you know , dumb Americans!...

Treasuries fell, with two-year notes headed for the biggest two-week decline since at least 1982, as traders increased bets the Federal Reserve will stop cutting interest rates. Japanese bonds tumbled as inflation accelerated.

Israel downplays US spy affair...

More than one Iranian "fast boats ... were approaching this vessel at a high rate of speed," in the Persian Gulf, MSNBC's Pentagon correspondent said. US military personnel on board fired eight .50-caliber rounds and three warning shots from M-16s when the boats got within 100 yards of the cargo ship. After the shots were fired, the ships veered off, according to MSNBC.

There were no sirens in towns near the border with Gaza. Those communities are often targeted by Palestinian rockets, and authorities decided residents didn't need the additional stress of more sirens.

I do remember Ron Paul on with John Stossel saying how ethanol was a bad idea. It just uses up coal and drops the food production by 10% when this year's wheat crop is already 50% under what is needed for the year

Create a shortage in food. Then offer Aid. Drive nations who can't say no into massive debt. Own them. Use food as a political tool. And as history shows, hungry people are the most prone conditions for war and riots.

Classic Paper Space Models...

Israeli jets violate Lebanon airspace...

Analysis of protein preserved within a fossil bone has provided molecular evidence to support the theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds.

Similarities between bone structure and the discovery of feather-like remains on dinosaur fossils have previously been cited, but scientists have now found the first molecular link.

The Dept. of State's Director of the Office of Communications and Press, Leslie Amorós, confirmed the Election Night problem, but was unable to explain why it occurred. She told Sircely, during the short phone call, that she'd be happy to try and get an explanation from their technical staff.

She went on to say, however, that whatever caused the anomaly, it didn't effect the outcome of the reported results.

Barbara Blair says this new gel she's been using makes her face look a lot younger than the Retin-A and vitamin C creams she's been using.

What Blair probably doesn't know is that a key ingredient in the cream is the foreskin of a circumcised baby.

Where is their video of the incident? Where is the proof that Talis beat up a wheelchair-bound girl? There is none whatsoever and all the eyewitness testimony confirms that it was Talis who was assaulted.

An Israeli medical team has started tests using the drug Ecstasy as a treatment for conflict-linked post-traumatic disorders, the Maariv daily reported on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT Doctors at the Beer-Yakov psychiatric hospital south of Tel Aviv are testing the response of Israeli post-traumatic disorder patients to MDMA, the active ingredient in the drug.

Hillary recently padded her madness with talk of obliterating Iran in response to a fictional first-strike against Israel. That Iran lacks nukes and is nowhere near possessing them means nothing, nor does the idea that a nuclear-armed Iran would be suicidal enough to hit Israel to begin with. All that matters is for Hillary to appear genocidal, a vital character trait that U.S. presidents must display in order to be taken seriously. Hey, works for me, though I suspect that a President Hillary would warm up by attacking a few smaller, defenseless nations, just to get the blood pumping. Obliteration should never be served cold.

It was one of the dumbest "green" ideas ever proposed: Convert millions of acres of cropland into fields for growing ethanol from corn, then burn fossil fuels to harvest the ethanol, expending more energy to extract the fuel than you get from the fuel itself! Meanwhile, sit back and proclaim you've achieved a monumental green victory (President Bush, anyone?) all while unleashing a dangerous spike in global food prices that's causing a ripple effect of food shortages and rationing around the world.

Lew Rockwell of LewRockwell.com describes himself as "an opponent of the central state, its wars and its socialism." But don't decide that the central state wages it's wars to benefit Israel becuase he won't print your conclusions.

Man Steals Wallet from 18 Year-old ROTC Cadet as he's having a Seizure...

Although most Democrats in Congress favor withdrawing troops from Iraq, many are pushing for a $172 billion war spending package that would fund the occupation beyond the end of the Bush administration.

The head of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency angrily criticized Israel on Friday for bombing an alleged Syrian nuclear facility, and chastised the U.S. for withholding information on the site.

Food Lines in Hawaii...

The whole idea behind Christian Zionism is to align America with the nation of Israel so as to "hurry God up" in his efforts to bring about Armageddon. As Hagee tells it, only after Israel is involved in a final showdown involving a satanic army (in most interpretations, a force of Arabs led by Russians) will Christ reappear. On that happy day, Hagee and his True Believers will be whisked up to Heaven by God, while the rest of us nonbelievers are left behind on Earth to suck eggs and generally suffer various tortures.

Why does the Bush Regime want to rule Iraq? Some speculate that it is a matter of "peak oil." Oil supplies are said to be declining even as demand for oil multiplies from developing countries such as China. According to this argument, the US decided to seize Iraq to insure its own oil supply.

This explanation is problematic. Most US oil comes from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela. The best way for the US to insure its oil supplies would be to protect the dollar's role as world reserve currency. Moreover, $3-5 trillion would have purchased a tremendous amount of oil. Prior to the US invasions, the US oil import bill was running less than $100 billion per year. Even in 2006 total US imports from OPEC countries was $145 billion, and the US trade deficit with OPEC totaled $106 billion. Three trillion dollars could have paid for US oil imports for 30 years; five trillion dollars could pay the US oil bill for a half century had the Bush Regime preserved a sound dollar.

The more likely explanation for the US invasion of Iraq is the neoconservative Bush Regime's commitment to the defense of Israeli territorial expansion. There is no such thing as a neoconservative who is not allied with Israel. Israel hopes to steal all of the West Bank and southern Lebanon for its territorial expansion. An American colonial regime in Iraq not only buttresses Israel from attack, but also can pressure Syria and Iran from giving support to the Palestinians and Lebanese. The Iraqi war is a war for Israeli territorial expansion. Americans are dying and bleeding to death financially for Israel. Bush's "war on terror" is a hoax that serves to cover US intervention in the Middle East in behalf of "greater Israel."

A number of Democratic senators said they were appalled at e-mails showing Katz and other VA officials apparently trying to conceal the number of suicides by veterans. An e-mail message from Katz disclosed this week as part of a lawsuit that went to trial in San Francisco starts with "Shh!" and claims 12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under department treatment.

...

Another e-mail said an average of 18 war veterans kill themselves each day - and five of them are under VA care when they commit suicide.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday called former President Jimmy Carter "a bigot" for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria.

The images - said to have been obtained by Israel

After reading Fred Kagan's piece, 'Paying for the War' in the latest edition of the neocons comic, one wonders if the only people that the neocons are trying to convince that the war in Iraq is going swimmingly for the US are themselves.

On top of record-breaking rice prices and corn through the roof on ethanol demand, wheat is now rusting in the fields across Africa.

Officials fear near total crop losses, and the fungus, known as Ug99, is spreading.

Man hit with Taser by Oxford police dies...

We, the undersigned, believe that is immoral to enshrine History in law.

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments calling for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.

Muqtada al-Sadr is considering setting aside his political ambitions and restarting a full-scale fight against U.S.-led forces -- a worrisome shift that may reflect Iranian influence on the young cleric and could open the way for a shadow state protected by his powerful Mahdi Army.

A US official, requesting anonymity, told AFP: "There are still photographs of the facility as part of the video, but it's a video presentation, like, a PowerPoint presentation. It's not a video of the facility."

A Pineville Police DARE officer and Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office corrections officer were arrested after the DARE officer reportedly made a drug deal with a police informant while on duty Wednesday afternoon at Lessie Moore Elementary School in Pineville, officials said today.

A brief but shocking compilation from the documentary:
"OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism"
http://www.outfoxed.org/

As Rupert Murdoch's 'war on journalism' hits new lows, droves of disgruntled employees are confessing their many misdeeds, brought upon by the Soviet-Union-esque environment they faced at FOX News. Watch how FOX executives dictate their bias by forcing reporters to follow memos that predetermine what they can say and how they should say it.

Rupert Murdoch has decided that the best approach to journalism is to parade opinions dressed-up as News. The reason is simple: No one can disprove an opinion, and therefore, credibility is easier to maintain. Should they ever be caught lying, the legal process affords them protection under the First Amendment. We also have Congress to thank for the bright idea of passing a rider Bill (hidden) to deregulate the News Media.

That's right; Corporate News entities can tell lies and distort the news as they please, and it's all perfectly legal.

To the best of my knowledge, no country can have or maintain democracy without an honest Press or, at least, one that can be held accountable. But where is ours?

Not convinced? "Florida Appeals Court ruled that there is absolutely nothing illegal in a major media organization lying, concealing or distorting information": http://www.netfeed.com/~jhill/RupertM...

This video clip is a brief compilation from Robert Greenwald's documentary:
"OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism":
http://www.outfoxed.org/

The other variety was Roundup Ready® cotton. It contains another bacterial gene that enables the plant to survive an otherwise toxic dose of Monsanto's Roundup® herbicide. Since the patent on Roundup's main active ingredient, glyphosate, was due to expire in 2000, the company was planning to sell Roundup Ready seeds that were bundled with their Roundup herbicide, effectively extending their brand's dominance in the herbicide market.

In the summer of 1997, Kirk spoke with a Monsanto scientist who was doing some tests on Roundup Ready cotton. Using a "Western blot" analysis, the scientist was able to identify different proteins by their molecular weight. He told Kirk that the GM cotton not only contained the intended protein produced by the Roundup Ready gene, but also extra proteins that were not normally produced in the plant. These unknown proteins had been created during the gene insertion process.

Prosecutors last week urged U.S. District Judge William Hodges in Ocala, Florida, to sentence Snipes to the maximum penalty to demonstrate to taxpayers that refusal to pay income taxes carries severe penalties.

"The law is very clear: People must pay their taxes," Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said. "There is no secret formula that eliminates a person's tax obligations."

"This will be a ridiculous and pathetic charade," Imad Moustafa told CNN, saying Syria has never had any nuclear project. "This is exactly the same story as Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction," he said. "There is a proven record of this administration to fabricate lies."

Palestinian leaders and Christian peace activists as well as representatives of human rights organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories on Thursday made an impassioned appeal to "all men and women of conscience all over the world" to help stop Israeli army plans to close down and take over several orphanages and boarding schools sheltering thousands of orphans and impoverished students. Many of the orphans' parents had been killed by the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish terrorists, also known as "settlers."

Depleted uranium to remain in Hawaii...

UK banks could be forced to return billions of pounds of overdraft fees to consumers after a high court judge said the fees could be challenged by the Office of Fair Trading.

" A U.S. official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss classified matters, said that among the intelligence the United States has was an image of what appeared to be people of Korean descent at the facility."

"Appeared to be people of Korean descent"?

As a friend of the site wondered in a email a little while ago: "I'm not sure how one would recognize NKs in photos...'Hard Rock Café Pyongyang' T-shirts?"

"They said that if I confessed to everything they wanted, they would release my wife, and that she was in the isolation cell because of me."

U.S. occupation forces have killed more than 800 people, most of them innocent civilians, in their three-week long military campaign to subdue the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, the leader of Sadr movement in Baghdad said.

Sheikh Salaman al-fariji said the troops have also injured more than 1,800 people and caused large-scale destruction of private property and the city's rickety infrastructure.

The UN has suspended food aid deliveries in the besieged Gaza Strip due to fuel shortages.

The European Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs have agreed to make publishing bomb-making instructions on the Internet a crime. The French authorities are discussing making the publication on the Internet of any alleged pro-anorexia information a crime.

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.

Carl Chew, a 6th grade science teacher at Nathan Eckstein Middle School in the Seattle School District, last week defied federal, state, and district regulations that require teachers to administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning to students.

"I have let my administration know that I will no longer give the WASL to my students. I have done this because of the personal moral and ethical conviction that the WASL is harmful to students, teachers, schools, and families," wrote Chew in an email to national supporters.

Hardening position towards Iran, the US Secretary of State Gates says Iran may be to blame for the killing of US servicemen in Iraq.

The case of an 84-year-old New Jersey man charged with passing secrets to an Israeli agent a quarter-century ago has created speculation that more Americans may have been serving Israeli intelligence than previously thought.

A Pennsauken cop e-mailed 1,017 digital photos and 11 movies of prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit acts - with titles including "lilrape" and "ria licking lise" - using a Police Department computer.

His reasoning? The 17-year police veteran didn't want his own two children to see the child porn on his home computer, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Weiner in Camden.

In rejecting the government's argument that revealing any information about the plaintiffs' status on the TSDB would reveal "secret" information, Judge Schenkier wrote that "courts may not uncritically accept the government's assertion of the state secrets privilege." After reviewing arguments on both sides, Judge Schenkier noted that the government "on certain occasions has disclosed to persons information that would tend to confirm or deny their TSDB status." Judge Schenkier's reference was to several letters written to members of Congress who inquired about the repeated stops of their constituents.

It was in November of 2006 that Beit Hanoun was the scene of an Israeli led massacre against the people of Palestine. The streets of this small village in the northern Gaza Strip literally turned into rivers of blood.

International observers, including Desmond Tutu were barred from conducting a fact finding mission afterwards. 'What happens in Gaza is Israel's business and not yours!' That was the official attitude of the Israeli government then, and remains the same now.

The following took place yesterday, when the very same criminals returned to the scene of the crime...

After the revelation this week of a new Israeli spy case, is it not conceivable that a country that would spy on its 'best friend' would take part in a murder of someone involved in helping Palestinian children?

The Adolf Hitler doll which comes with a change of clothes - and a spare head with a kind face...

Defense lawyers asserted that their clients had been goaded into making radical remarks and vows of allegiance by the informants. Testimony in the trials revealed that an F.B.I. search of the group's headquarters in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami yielded no weapons or evidence of preparation for a large-scale attack.

Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city" with immigrants making up half its workforce, says a new study.

A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 per cent do not speak English fluently, the Migration Policy Institute found.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants awaiting deportation rioted at a county-run detention center and had to be subdued with tear gas, authorities said Wednesday.

"We are concerned about it, and what we encourage them to do is to continue to fight against the terrorists and to not disrupt any security or military operations that are ongoing in order to help prevent a safe haven for terrorists there," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "We have been concerned about these types of approaches because we don't think that they work."