WorkingForChange-This Modern World: Inside the spin machine: Republican heads explode

Federal Times Online: "Searches and gag orders: Homeland Security�s unprecedented campaign cloaks unclassified info"

Head Scarves Now a Protective Accessory in Iraq (washingtonpost.com): " Before the war, Iraqi Christian women rarely put on scarves....Iraqi women are more afraid today than ever before."

211th to depart - newarkadvocate.com: "The activation is the largest military deployment from Licking County since World War II. It's the first time the maintenance company has been activated in its 55-year history."

U.S. Troops Answered Oil Firm's Pleas $98 million for Plan Colombia, $35 million for tsunami relief.

Meanwhile, three blocks away at the Federal courthouse,Kerry Files Motion to Protect Ohio Vote Evidence:

"In order for a judge to consider such a motion, the plaintiff must be able to prove irreparable harm in the matter at hand, and must also be able to prove a significant chance that the case will succeed on the merits. The stumbling point for the Green Party and Libertarian Party in this matter has been the ability to prove that potential for success, because no recount would deliver an Ohio victory to them. A recount could very well deliver Ohio to Kerry, thus fulfilling the success on the merits requirement."

Yahoo! News - Ohio Official Refuses Interview Over Vote

Lawmakers examine election recounts - newarkadvocate.com: "State lawmakers will look at ways to make it harder and more expensive to get election recounts."

Yahoo! News - Tribal Money Linked to GOP Fundraising: Bob Ney on front page of Washington Post. Will the Liberal Media in Ohio take notice?

A Lawmaker Under Scrutiny
One member of the House leadership already under scrutiny for his ties to Abramoff, House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), used the MCI Center box, and his chief of staff was later hired by Abramoff. A Senate panel investigating Abramoff released e-mails last month showing that Abramoff directed a Texas tribe to contribute $32,000 to Ney in 2002, days after Ney took steps to sponsor legislation sought by the tribe.

t r u t h o u t - Giles Fraser | Empires Prefer a Baby and the Cross to the Adult Jesus: "As the carol reminds us: 'And man at war with man hears not the love song that they bring, O hush the noise ye men of strife and hear the angels sing.'"

THE PRESIDENT'S CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO CONDUCT MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST TERRORISTS AND NATIONS SUPPORTING THEM This is the September 25, 2001 John Yoo memo referenced in this week's Isikoff/Klaidman/Hirsch piece. In case it drives anybody else crazy to read a reference to something "quietly posted on an obscure government Web site," that doesn't include a link.

Really - having written on presidential war power myself long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away - there's nothing particularly outre in Yoo's interpretation of federal constitutional law. (Although - like Alberto Gonzales' death penalty recommendations to then-Gov.Bush - he does fail to refer to authorities that detract from his position. It's more an argumentative brief than a considered memorandum.) What's more telling, and recalls the more famous "torture memo," is the absence of any suggestion that international law might place any limit on the war power.


Happy holidays, everyone. Peace.

Rep. Ney deserves scrutiny - lancastereaglegazette.com Rep. Ney deserves scrutiny

Home / Headlines / The 9/11 Catastrophe - A Dereliction of Duty by Our Commander-in-Chief - Media Monitors Network (MMN)

War Crimes

Builder Sues Forest Service Workers Under RICO Act: "more than a month after Okovita filed his suit, the U.S. Department of Justice, which routinely represents federal employees accused of wrongdoing, has not moved to defend the three Forest Service employees"

BELLACIAO - 37 Reasons to Ignore Election Fraud and the Ken Starr Rodeo - Bellaciao collective

KR Washington Bureau | 12/17/2004 | American consumers suffering as more new drugs debut in U.S., analysis shows: "in 1992, just before Congress directed the FDA to speed up drug approvals, there was an average of one adverse drug reaction for every 16,300 prescriptions filled. In 2003, adverse reactions hit one in 9,000."

Aggressive policy on North Korea backfires for US - World - www.smh.com.au: "A leading Russian expert on the country, Georgy Toloraya, has warned that the underlying objective of Mr Bush's neo-conservative advisers - to bring down Kim Jong-il's regime - would, if successful, lead to a long-running civil war on the Korean peninsula that would be 'worse than Iraq'."

Probe may be trouble for Ney - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com: "Ney will likely survive the controversy because the issue does not resonate in his rural, predominately Republican district."

Values, schmalues.

MSNBC - Ohio offers lessons for 2008: "It happens every election"

Pentagon Ousts Official Under FBI Investigation: "In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Shaw expanded on the accusations made in his previous report, charging that Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith, his former law partner L. Marc Zell and Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress party, were also involved in the conspiracy. "

Democracy Now! | Bernard Kerik: "Political Criticism is Our Enemy's Best Friend"

Newsday.com Published a week ago: "Let this be a warning from someone who's followed the man's ladder-climbing career: He's a personal and professional time bomb the Bushies will learn to regret. Don't say I didn't warn you, guys!"

Fox News has its own view of reality: "The movie 'Polar Express' takes viewers on a fantasy trip to the North Pole. The computer-generated virtual reality that the movie creates is amazing. I saw it Thanksgiving evening.
The next day a friend recorded a 2-minute segment on Fox News Channel about the 'scandal' of the United Nations' oil-for-food program. In its way, it, too, was an amazing fantasy trip into a virtual reality."

TheStar.com - U.S. media still hiding bad news from Americans

Reuters AlertNet - FEATURE-US troops on emotional rollercoaster in Iraq: "Convinced they have killed four to six insurgents in the mortar team, they are joyful. 'It was like Vietnam!' yells one. 'Warriors, dude!'"

Drying Up: The Global Water Privatization Pandemic

Zogby International: "Santa Claus 'a Democrat', Ebenezer Scrooge, Grinch 'Republicans', New Zogby Poll Finds"

Yahoo! News - Administration Misses Drug Import Deadline: "The report, mandated by last year's Medicare prescription drug law, is supposed to examine whether medicines can safely be brought into this country from Canada and elsewhere."

Activists Dominate Content Complaints: "nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 - 99.8 percent - were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group"

'The Power of Nightmares': Hyping Terror For Fun, Profit - And Power: "Ford's Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) and Chief of Staff (Dick Cheney) believed it was intolerable that Americans might no longer be bound by fear. Without fear, how could Americans be manipulated?
Rumsfeld and Cheney began a concerted effort - first secretly and then openly - to undermine Nixon's treaty for peace and to rebuild the state of fear and, thus, reinstate the Cold War."

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "since the politics of privatization depend on convincing the public that there is a Social Security crisis, the privatizers have done their best to invent one"

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is: "In Iraq, the US does eliminate those who dare to count the dead "

Ohio Papers Getting Nowhere on Vote Fraud Allegations: "we have found very little evidence that anything has happened in the election that didn't happen in every other [Ohio] election"

Sept. 11's Smoking Gun: The Many Faces of Saeed Sheikh This research hasn't been updated in nearly two years, but it's worth a read in light of the recent police killings of two more suspects in the Daniel Pearl case, and Musharraf's visit with Bush this week.

Reporters Without Borders notes that journalists have been denied access to Ghafoor's body, while Farooqi was reportedly shot in the face and identified by his ID card. Of four men allegedly involved in the "shootout," Farooqi was the only one killed, according to an Associated Press report.

Chicago Tribune: Dead voters on rolls, other glitches found in 6 key states Meanwhile, four Lucas County elections officers are mysteriously suspended for a "clerical error", and E&P reports the Ohio papers' failure to cover voter fraud like it was a good thing.

The Japan Times Online Knives out for Kofi Annan

Lynch Mob's Real Target Is the U.N., Not Annan

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Election 2004

RICHARD HAYES PHILLIPS : LYRIC POETRY WEBSITE Ohio Recount

MiddleEast.org - Mid-East Realities AIPAC offices are raided to collect evidence to be destroyed. Almost-ignored action guarantees no evidence remains to indict pentagon staff for using manufactured "intelligence" to start illegal war.

The first "Burning Times" Award: Governor Mike Johanns of Nebraska How the new secretary of agriculture got his job.

The New York Review of Books: On War

Yahoo! News - IF IT'S 2005, IT MUST BE TIME FOR ANOTHER WAR: "Powell's claims that Iran obtained schematics for an atomic bomb from Pakistan are even older [than the discredited "intelligence" about Iraq], dating to 1996. Moreover, the Iran sourcing--the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI)--makes Ahmed Chalabi look like a Boy Scout. The NCRI, a front organization for the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), is a bizarre, Shiite, pro-Baathist (yes, you read that right) guerilla army infamous for crushing the 1991 Kurdish uprising on Saddam's orders. Better yet, it's designated as a 'known terrorist organization' by Powell's own State Department."

Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says (washingtonpost.com): "Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals 'can result in pregnancy'...; that 'A 43-day-old fetus is a thinking person; HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears; [and] Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.'

"Some course materials cited in Waxman's report present as scientific fact notions about a man's need for 'admiration' and 'sexual fulfillment' compared with a woman's need for 'financial support.' One book in the 'Choosing Best' series tells the story of a knight who married a village maiden instead of the princess because the princess offered so many tips on slaying the local dragon. 'Moral of the story,' notes the popular text: 'Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess.'"

And then there are the statements that are wrong just for the sake of being wrong, without any apparent policy justification, like "twenty-four chromosomes from the mother and twenty-four chromosomes from the father join to create this new individual."

Yahoo! News - Europe's Central Bank Seen Holding Rates: "U.S. military has announced that troops stationed in Europe would receive a 31 percent cost of living increase to help provide some relief"

New DEA Statement Has Pain Doctors More Fearful (washingtonpost.com): "the new DEA position is at odds with a set of guidelines negotiated over several years by DEA officials and a group of leading pain-management experts."

Something's fishy in Ohio

As the oil-for-food program scandal deepens, let's remember the conditions the U.S. had created in Iraq before the program was initiated: "International aid efforts and the U.N. oil-for-food program helped reduce the ruinous impact of sanctions, and the rate of acute malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis gradually dropped from a peak of 11 percent in 1996 to 4 percent in 2002."

CBC News Indepth: Continental Divide?

The New York Times > National > Colleges Can Bar Army Recruiters: "Howard J. Bashman, who helped write a supporting brief on behalf of students who favored the law, said the decision would hurt the military and the public.

'A ruling of this sort will cause the military to end up with a lower quality of lawyer,' Mr. Bashman said. 'These lawyers are involved in targeting decisions and in decisions about how prisoners have to be treated.'"

So, presumably, had Harvard Law School permitted military recruiters on campus at the time, perhaps 1982 alum and Air Force Academy dropout Alberto Gonzales might've gone back into the military, and things might've been MUCH different.....

The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: The Great Indecency Hoax ABC began apologizing before anyone complained. Overhyped news items about sex sell better than advertising, especially in the more-moral-than-thou Red States.

Times Community Newspapers: "Under the current system, incumbents are likely to face a real challenge only from within their own party, according to Shogun, and most likely by someone with an even more extreme political view than their own."

Congressman Ney is at center of influence peddling scandal

U.S. threatens to cut aid over court / Congress wants immunity accords for Americans

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Two more top spies quit troubled CIA "Goss and his minions can do a great deal of damage in short order."

Ummmm, Dallas 21, Chicago 7: "The UN atomic agency is expected to let South Korea off the hook for making small amounts of weapons-grade plutonium"

The Columbus Dispatch - Election More voting questions raised

Yahoo! News - Guardsmen Say They're Facing Iraq Ill-Trained: "Some of us are going to die there, and some of us are going to die unnecessarily because of the lack of training,' he said. 'So I don't care. Let them court-martial me. I want the American public to know what is going on. My men are guilty of one thing: volunteering to serve their country. And we are at the end of our rope."

www.GovExec.com - I Spy Mismanagement (11/24/04)

Clear Channel billboard pictures Bush with the "L" word. You know, the English word that translates "Fuhrer" or "Duce."

From last night's "60 Minutes": Military analyst John "Pike says the military is trying to minimize the casualty count" by failing to include up to 30,000 wounded and ill in its casualty counts. "It’s an effort Pike believes is misguided, because he says that even if Americans understood the full human cost of the war, public support would not weaken.

'I think that all of the public opinion polling that we're seeing suggests that the public is prepared to sustain far higher casualties than politicians give them credit for,' says Pike."

One still holds out a faint hope that by "full human cost," he means the direct cost to US servicemembers, not the conservatively estimated 16,000 Iraqi civilians killed or the 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from wasting due to malnutrition.

Remember Afghanistan? "[T]his year Afghanistan has established a double record -- the highest drug cultivation in the country’s history, and the largest in the world....The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly becoming a reality as corruption in the public sector, the die-hard ambition of local warlords, and the complicity of local investors are becoming a factor in Afghan life.

The soldiers' story: the war the video cameras do not see

Oakland Tribune Online - Local & Regional News: "The UC Berkeley report has not been peer reviewed, but a reputable MIT political scientist succeeded in replicating the analysis Thursday at the request of the Oakland Tribune and The Associated Press. He said an investigation is warranted.....'Seven professors later, nobody's been able to poke a hole in our model,' Mangels said. 'Our results still hold up.'"

Surprising Florida Presidential Election Results: "Pinpointing Precincts with Vote-Counting Errors"

Outsourcing the Pentagon - The Center for Public Integrity

U.S. ELECTION: Democracy in Question

UC DATA Home Page Working Paper: The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections

Boston.com / News / Politics / Presidential candidates / Media accused of ignoring election irregularities

Landscape After Battle

VotersUnite!
Summaries of voting problems nationwide, with links. 327 entries so far.

Attack on Fallujah can't be justified

White House Orders Purge of CIA 'Liberals,' Sources Say Ignorance is strength

Consortiumnews.com "Contrary to assertions in the flawed Post article, the most surprising numbers actually don’t come from small rural counties in [Florida], but rather from large counties, including Orange county (mentioned above), Hillsborough (Tampa), Brevard (Cape Canaveral), Duval (Jacksonville), Polk (next to Orange county), and heavily Democratic Leon (Tallahassee) and Alachua (Gainesville)."

ExxonSecrets Organizations: "Documenting Exxon-Mobil's funding of climate change skeptics"

Business 2.0 :: Online Article :: Marketing Focus :: Does a Bush Win Mean U.S. Brands Lose?: "'This is undoubtedly the worst thing that could have happened,' Anholt says of the president's reelection. 'Bush has presided over a period of unparalleled decline in the popularity of the United States. Global disapproval of U.S. foreign policy has become so intense that it is spilling over and contaminating the image of U.S. brands and culture.' "

CounterPunch: "America's Best Political Newsletter" Voter Intimidation in Tampa
Dispatches from the Gound

Columns: The man behind all the bad decisions

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales's Texas Execution Memos

David Swanson: Media Black Out on Vote Fraud Allegations

AlterNet: The Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket: "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward"

KR Washington Bureau | 10/18/2004 | As election approaches, U.S. troops experience difficulties voting: "U.S. service members based in Iraq and across the globe can't be confident that their votes will be counted in this year's presidential election"

In Court Clerks' Breach, a Provocative Precedent (washingtonpost.com): "The Vanity Fair sources do not deny the importance of in-chambers confidentiality, a lifetime obligation spelled out in the written code of conduct that all law clerks pledge to uphold when they come to the court. They simply felt bound by a higher duty.

'We feel that something illegitimate was done with the Court's power [in Bush v Gore], and such an extraordinary situation justifies breaking an obligation we'd otherwise honor,' one clerk told the magazine. 'Our secrecy was helping to shield some of those actions.'"

t r u t h o u t - GOP Faces 'Civil War' over Bush's Faith-Based Rule: "And for those who don't get it? That was explained to me in late 2002 by Mark McKinnon, a longtime senior media adviser to Bush, who now runs his own consulting firm and helps the president. He started by challenging me. 'You think he's an idiot, don't you?' I said, no, I didn't. 'No, you do, all of you do, up and down the West Coast, the East Coast, a few blocks in southern Manhattan called Wall Street. Let me clue you in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered 2 to 1 by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don't read The New York Times or Washington Post or The L.A. Times. And you know what they like? They like the way he walks and the way he points, the way he exudes confidence. They have faith in him. And when you attack him for his malaprops, his jumbled syntax, it's good for us. Because you know what those folks don't like? They don't like you!' In this instance, the final 'you,' of course, meant the entire reality-based community."

Hiding Behind the Skirts of the Very People He Betrays, Insulting the Intelligence of America

Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | Why is war-torn Iraq giving $190,000 to Toys R Us?: "Here is a small sample of who has been getting 'reparation' awards from Iraq: Halliburton ($18m), Bechtel ($7m), Mobil ($2.3m), Shell ($1.6m), Nestl� ($2.6m), Pepsi ($3.8m), Philip Morris ($1.3m), Sheraton ($11m), Kentucky Fried Chicken ($321,000) and Toys R Us ($189,449). In the vast majority of cases, these corporations did not claim that Saddam's forces damaged their property in Kuwait - only that they 'lost profits' or, in the case of American Express, experienced a 'decline in business' because of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait."

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations"

toledoblade.com: "They didn't take the box of petty cash or other computers. They bypassed portable radios, a television, and a microwave.
And a pop machine, illuminating an otherwise dark room in what would seem to be a beacon to any ordinary burglar, remained untouched.
Instead, what overnight thieves took from Lucas County Democratic Headquarters were financial data, volunteer rolls, Election Day strategy, and other sensitive information just three weeks before voters head to the polls"

Halliburton's Interests Assisted by White House "[A]n environmental engineer and 30-year EPA veteran in Denver, last week sought whistle-blower protection in an 18-page statement sent to the agency's inspector general and members of Congress. The statement alleges that the study's findings were premature, may endanger public health and were approved by an industry-dominated review panel that included a current Halliburton employee."

BBC NEWS Business BBC lifts the lid on secret BAE slush fund £60m slush fund used by the UK's leading arms maker, BAE Systems, to grease the wheels of the biggest arms deals in British history

New investigation uncovers more racism, voter intimidation and faulty poll machines - [Sunday Herald]

Capitol Hill Blue: Politically-Timed Terror Alerts: The Real Terror Threat: Some believe the most potent weapon in the Bush campaign arsenal isn't an advertising nest egg the size of a Third World nation's gross national product, but the fear card. If the race tightens between now and Nov. 2, they say, another "high" alert might be forthcoming.

News: "The Republicans, naturally, deny the investigations are politically motivated. But even they acknowledge that a chill has spread through Orlando's overwhelmingly Democratic black voting community after a flurry of unannounced visits by armed state police to at least 52 homes whose mostly elderly residents had signed up for an absentee ballot with Mr Thomas's help.
The Republicans have been hard put to explain what exactly the two men have done wrong. The media has aired official allegations ranging from vote fraud to campaign finance irregularities to racketeering, but no charges have been brought, despite exhaustive investigations. A grand jury examining allegations concerning the firefighters' union concluded that no laws had been broken, which has not deterred the FDLE from pursuing the case."

Insiders Worked Both Sides of Gaming Issue (washingtonpost.com): "Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon quietly worked with conservative religious activist Ralph Reed to help the state of Texas shut down an Indian tribe's casino in 2002, then the two quickly persuaded the tribe to pay $4.2 million to try to get Congress to reopen it."
...then exploit the financial crisis they were helping to create for the tribe by securing both the multimillion-dollar fee and $300,000 in federal political contributions, which the tribe paid.

KR Washington Bureau | 09/25/2004 | Iraqi civilian casualties mounting

Bush acceptance speech marked by anticipation:This one from the RNC slipped under the radar: Senator George Voinovich said that we were now "engaged in the fourth world war."
Is he admitting that the US's dozens of proxy wars against socialist and populist nations and movements in the '60s, '70s and '80s were, in fact, a unified World War III? Or what?

Followed by a goon shadow

White House Guide to Understanding the Terror Alert Colors

Close race means more voters registering - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com: "The number of new voters has spiked significantly in Perry County, too, said Janie Dailey, director of the board of elections there. 'We've registered 1,500 new voters since the beginning of the year.'"

As of the 2000 census, the population of Perry County aged 18 and over was 24,494.

Demonstration of 5 voting system hacks using real software Black Box Voting Will a chimp steal the election? (Includes video of chimp)

MSNBC - Political Humor

MSNBC - The Story That Didn't Run: CBS plays for the Bush team.
"In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush's National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same "60 Minutes" broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger."

Peer News: "EPA ISSUES PRE-ELECTION GAG ORDER TO STAFF"

Why Americans Back the War: "To the mounting horror of the world, the United States of America is relentlessly bringing about the systematic destruction of a small, unthreatening nation for no good reason. Why has this not gripped the conscience of this country?
The answer goes beyond Bush to the 60-year history of an accidental readiness to destroy the earth, a legacy with which we Americans have yet to reckon. The punitive terror bombing that marked the end of World War II hardly registered with us. Then we passively accepted our government's mad embrace of thermonuclear weapons. While we demonized our Soviet enemy, we hardly noticed that almost every major escalation of the arms race was initiated by our side "

Pentagon Restricts Overseas Voters

Paul Craig Roberts: Attention Deficit America: "Speaking of Phony Documents..."

Insuring Controversy (washingtonpost.com): "While the costs of running a practice, including insurance premiums, have risen in recent years, physicians incomes do not appear to have dropped." That's the word from Page 3 of this story about how primary care doctors are asking their patients (whose health insurance premiums and co-payments aren't even mentioned in the story) for "donations" on top of their medical bills.

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Scamming the Media, Parlock Style

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Eclipsed in Iraq

Tami Longaberger speaks out about state of company - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com: "'We continue to right-size the business,' she said," after announcing an additional 215 layoffs, a week after 784 workers were laid off.

And you thought "downsizing" was a euphemism.

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | When the Rabbits Get a Gun Osama bin Laden went to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, home of the holiest sites of Islam. The royal family was not to be found anywhere on bin Laden's list of friends at the time. A shrewd observer of local politics, bin Laden knew that the Saudi government enjoyed having the Palestinians living in squalor, bereft of homeland and hope, because it distracted the fundamentalists within Saudi Arabia from focusing on the inequities within their own country. With the crooking of a single oil-rich finger, the Saudi royals could solve the Palestinian problem. Their refusal to do so fed bin Laden's rage, for in his mind, they were aiding and abetting what he saw as an intolerable Israeli apartheid.

17,000 GIs Not Listed as Casualties: "17,000 GIs Not Listed As Casualties "

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Far graver than Vietnam: "Most senior US military officers now believe the war on Iraq has turned into a disaster on an unprecedented scale "

No justice for Hicks in flawed trial: QC: "One member [of the tribunal] admitted during the hearing he had previously said the inmates at Guantanamo Bay were all terrorists."

U.S. Plans to Divert Iraq Money (washingtonpost.com)

The Daily Telegraph | Journalists 'get terror tip-offs'

Robert Novak Believes in Revealing Confidential Sources, After All:
"'HUNT: Robert Novak, you're saying CBS should reveal its source?
NOVAK: Yes.
HUNT: You do? You think reporters ought to reveal sources?
NOVAK: No, no. Wait a minute.
HUNT: I'm just asking.
NOVAK: I'm just saying in that case.'"

Yahoo! News - U.N. Agency to Study Environment in Iraq: "The British government has given the agency detailed information on locations where it used 1.9 tonnes of depleted uranium in the south of Iraq, but the U.S. government hasn't come forward with the same information despite requests from the United Nations."

Guardian | Colin Powell in four-letter neo-con 'crazies' row: "Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq."

USNews.com: A review of President Bush's National Guard years raises issues about the time he served (9/20/04): Left-wing whackos at US News & World Report? "The White House has said that Bush's service should be calculated using 12-month periods beginning on his induction date in May 1968. Using this time frame, however, Bush still fails the Air Force obligation standard."

CounterPunch: "America's Best Political Newsletter" In This Election Reality is Off the Table

Yahoo! News - Pat Oliphant

Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Be very afraid

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "The Dishonesty Thing"

Foreign Policy In Focus Special Report: A Secure America in a Secure World

WorkingForChange-This Modern World: Return to parallel earth

Boston.com / News / Politics / Presidential candidates / George W. Bush / 'CYA' memo

Invoking 9/11 May Temper Views on Iraq War (washingtonpost.com): "'I think the administration is testing the theory that you can fool all of the people some of time,' said Richard C. Holbrooke, a senior foreign policy adviser."

TIME.com: A Web Of Intrigue -- Sep. 13, 2004: "U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement officials insist that U.S. intercepts of Iranian communications prove that secrets about U.S. code-breaking were gravely breached"

TIME.com: A Web Of Intrigue -- Sep. 13, 2004

TheStar.com - Why would Israel need a spy in Pentagon?

AlterNet: War on Iraq: The Bush Crusade: "Crusade. I remember a momentary feeling of vertigo at the President's use of that word, the outrageous ineptitude of it. The vertigo lifted, and what I felt then was fear, sensing not ineptitude but exactitude. My thoughts went to the elusive Osama bin Laden, how pleased he must have been, Bush already reading from his script."

Conyers Calls for Hearings on Spy Case: "U.S.district attorney in charge of the probe, Paul McNulty, has ordered the FBI not to move forward with arrests that they were prepared to make last Friday "
....Mr. McNulty was only assigned the case by Attorney General Ashcroft last Friday when federal agents came to Aipac’s offices in Washington to request files and hard drives. “Ashcroft wanted to make sure this case was being handled properly,” the source familiar with the probe said. “I would not expect any action on this for at least three weeks.” This source added that a grand jury is now being selected, but it was likely the charges,initially reported as espionage, would be scaled back to the mishandling of classified information.

TimesDispatch.com | Lawyers ask judge for access to papers McNulty is leading the pentagon investigation.

AlterNet: Unmitigated Gall

George Jr Sent Out of Texas by Father as a 'Drunken Liability'

Change at CDC Draws Protest (washingtonpost.com): "the move has drawn protests from virtually every occupational health and safety organization in the country, including some representing labor and others more aligned with corporate management -- groups that usually are at policy loggerheads but that have shared interests in good science."

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "For a long time, anyone suggesting analogies with Vietnam was ridiculed. But Iraq optimists have, by my count, already declared victory three times. First there was 'Mission Accomplished' - followed by an escalating insurgency. Then there was the capture of Saddam - followed by April's bloody uprising. Finally there was the furtive transfer of formal sovereignty to Ayad Allawi, with implausible claims that this showed progress - a fantasy exploded by the guns of August."

Boston.com / News / Nation / 2d probe at the Pentagon examines actions on Iraq Besides Iraq, Feith & co. wanted war with Iran & Syria. Who would have guessed?

Politics News Article | Reuters.com: "Former Aide to N.J. Governor Will Not File Lawsuit" Anyone surprised?

Still We Rise

Light Up The Sky

Republicans successfully isolate delegates from protests: "After touring the city, we returned to our hotel, and I flipped on the TV. With surprise, I watched protesters and marches that had taken place. It seemed as if I were in a different city."

"Iran-Contra II?" by Joshua Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen, and Paul Glastris

KR Washington Bureau | 08/28/2004 | FBI espionage probe goes beyond Israeli allegations, sources say The Feith-based initiative comes under FBI scrutiny.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Editorials: "'I think I understand,' I said. 'The founding fathers were liberal in that they changed the form of government under which they were living.'

'A common misperception,' said my caller. 'The Fathers were actually very, very conservative. They were a land-owning, educated minority. Most of the population were illiterate and owned little.'

Confused, I asked if President Bush is a liberal since he had changed an established tax policy to help the more wealthy and spent billions on a war, or was he a conservative because he owned lots of land and is educated.

'Not exactly,' said my caller."

The Lie Factory: "the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon unit to create the case for invading Iraq"

DC Indymedia: feature/104306 Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon

Map & Graph: Countries by Military: Expenditures: dollar figure (per capita)

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | A cliche gone mad: "Since the concept of PC is mainly rightwing doublespeak anyway, you can make some reliable predictions about those instances where it is held to have gone mad."

Sum of a Glitch: Evidence shows that machines might be the real swing voters this November -- In These Times

Hoodwinked - Why is Florida's voting system so corrupt? By Ann Louise-Bardach

The Village Voice: Features: The 10 Ways Bush Screwed New York by Wayne Barrett, special reporting by Daniel Magliocco

Yahoo! News - Poverty rate climbs in US President Bush along with Treasury Secretary John Snow announced their new campaign: "Poverty Is Good For America!"

"With 35% of Americans living in poverty and 45 million without health insurance, we're turning the corner!" Bush said on a campaign stop attended by wealthy Republicans enjoying their tax cuts by paying $10,000 each to wipe their asses with the US Constitution.

The Great American Shout Out | An Al Franken, Air America Radio Project

WorkingForChange-This Modern World: The undecided voter

Winslow T. Wheeler: Don't Mind If I Do: "Porkbarrel and the War on Terror"

Gary Leupp: "We Want Them to Go Away"

Seriously: Kerry on Comedy Central (washingtonpost.com)

GOP Delegates Met With Anti-Bush Signs

SI.com - Writers - Wahl: Iraqi soccer players upset about Bush campaign ads - Thursday August 19, 2004 5:03PM: "'Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign,' Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. 'He can find another way to advertise himself.'
Ahmed Manajid, who played as a midfielder on Wednesday, had an even stronger response when asked about Bush's TV advertisement. 'How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women?' Manajid told me. 'He has committed so many crimes.'"

Vietnam Issue Cuts Both Ways (washingtonpost.com) said one GOP strategist, who declined to be identified because of concerns about retribution from Bush's advisers.

Yahoo! News - Ted Rall

Forbes.com: "The VA patients received appropriate care more often than managed-care patients and did better on two of the three outcomes. 'A nationally funded health-care system can provide excellent quality of care.'"

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Suppress the Vote?: "The long and ugly tradition of suppressing the black vote is alive and thriving in the Sunshine State."

U.S. Newswire - Statement from Ten Senior Military Officials in Response to Vice President Cheney's Latest Round of Personal Attacks

Bikers asked to get close to Bush: "Pishney said he doesn't know what specific role the dozen or so motorcycle riders will play in Monday's event, although they've been instructed to show up in 'biker-oriented' apparel."

ulteriorvotive

Army Turns to Private Guards : "Two five-year contracts worth as much as $1 billion went to two small Alaska Native firms with little previous security experience. The firms, which operate under special contracting laws enabling them to avoid competitive bidding, subcontracted part of the work to two of the country's largest security firms: Wackenhut Services Inc. and Vance Federal Security Services."

clevescene.com | Crime Family Values | 2004-08-11

White House Has Some Terror Experts Worried

TheStar.com - Kerry fails Iraq test: "Practical politics undoubtedly prompted Kerry's reply. He is loath to admit he cast a foolish vote in 2002. He does not want to alienate voters who were similarly duped, and who are not keen to be reminded of it. And he must not be seen as 'soft' on Saddam. "

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "When Friday's dismal job report was released, traders in the Chicago pit began chanting, 'Kerry, Kerry.' "

Salt Lake Tribune - Opinion: "For Fox News, MSNBC and, most disappointing of all, CNN - the Network of Record - to be spending so much time hashing, rehashing and, most of all, speculating on the gory details of this single case is an excellent example of what's wrong with the mass media today."

Yahoo! News - U.S. Barred From Weakening Dolphin Rules
: "'The record is replete with evidence that the secretary was influenced by policy concerns unrelated to the best available scientific evidence,' Henderson wrote in a strongly worded 51-page opinion. 'This court has never, in its 24 years, reviewed a record of agency action that contained such a compelling portrait of political meddling.' "

Diplomacy Sidelined as US Targets Iran: "The US charge sheet against Iran is lengthening almost by the day, presaging destabilizing confrontations this autumn and maybe a pre-election October surprise. "

Capitol Police Chief Sees No Specific Threat to Hill (washingtonpost.com)

Yahoo! News - Pat Oliphant

Telegraph | News | Iraqi judge orders arrest of American aide to Chalabi Regarding the current charges against Salen Chalabi, Francis Brooke says, "He wouldn't hurt a fly." And many US news services carry that quote. They don't tell us Brooke is on the lam just like his boss.

Yahoo! News - Unmasking of Qaeda Mole a U.S. Security Blunder-Experts: "The revelation that a mole within al Qaeda was exposed after Washington launched its 'orange alert' this month has shocked security experts, who say the outing of the source may have set back the war on terror. "

Chalabi Nephew Under Investigation in Killing LA Times breaks the Chalabi story on 8/3.

Yahoo! News - Iraq invasion a "tremendous gift" to bin Laden: CIA analyst: "It validated so many of the arguments he's made over the past decade,' 'Anonymous' said, particularly the claim by the Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader that the West seeks to occupy the Islamic holy places.
'We have the first one, the most important in the Arabian peninsula, we occupy that in their eyes,' he said in a reference to Saudi Arabia. 'We now occupy Iraq, the second holiest place, and the Israelis have Jerusalem, the third.
'The idea that we would smash any government that posed a threat to Israel -- that's validated by our actions,' he continued. 'And his claim that we lust after control of Arab oil; Iraq has the second greatest reserves in the Arab world.
'So it's been an astounding victory for Osama bin Laden"

CNN.com Chalabi and his friends

CJR July/August 2004: The List by Douglas McCollam Ahmad Chalabi’s defectors told stories to a lot of
reporters who now wish they’d kept their distance
How Chalabi Played the Press

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Stay calm everyone, there's Prozac in the drinking water: "It should make us happy, but environmentalists are deeply alarmed: Prozac, the anti-depression drug, is being taken in such large quantities that it can now be found in Britain's drinking water. "

JohnKerryIsADoucheBagButImVotingForHimAnyway.com

Yahoo! News - Halliburton Accused of Accounting Fraud: "Halliburton Co. and several top executives intentionally engaged in 'serial accounting fraud' from 1998 to 2001, including when it was led by Vice President Dick Cheney"

Mike Whitney: The Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla: "Their message is quite clear; THEY WILL NOT DEFEND EVEN THE MOST BASIC TENANTS OF THE CONSTITUTION, but will defer to the executive as the sole arbiter of justice."

Confusion Mounts Over Threat (washingtonpost.com): "Americans should prepare for more confusion, uncertainty and cynicism"

heraldtribune.com: Southwest Florida's Information Leader: "He said that making such statements without providing specific details to back them up 'only serves to erode public confidence' in the credibility of government."

Bush, Family and Top Aides Received $127,600 Gifts Last Year from Saudi Crown Prince

They Knew...: Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned before the war that its Iraq claims were weak -- In These Times

Yahoo! News - Boondocks

Ashcroft Tells Libraries to Destroy Citizen-Friendly Publications - BuzzFlash News Alert: "[T]he Department of Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the Department has deemed not 'appropriate for external use.' The Department of Justice has called for these five these public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.



The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA)."

Will Ferrell - A message from White House West Will Ferrell for President!

Yahoo! News - Pre-9/11 Acts Led To Alerts: "Most of the al Qaeda surveillance of five financial institutions that led to a new terrorism alert Sunday was conducted before the Sept. 11, 2001,"

Daily Yomiuri On-Line: "As the Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) presidential election nears, what was considered the likeliest scenario--the uncontested reelection of incumbent Katsuya Okada--is being questioned by some Minshuto legislators.

...What triggered skepticism about giving Okada an uncontested ride were the remarks he made last week in the United States regarding his desire to revise Japan's war-renouncing Constitution. "

Housing Costs, Layoffs Boost Need for Food Banks : "According to the Agriculture Department, 11% of U.S. families - 34.9 million people - are 'food insecure,' meaning they lack the means to ensure themselves of healthy meals and are vulnerable to at least a mild form of chronic malnutrition. A U.S. Conference of Mayors survey of 25 cities found that demand at food banks rose 17% in 2003....While very few Americans, even the poorest, risk starvation, Hofer said many wind up with long-term health problems as they cut financial corners."

BUSH NOTEBOOK - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com: "The public was not allowed to bring umbrellas, which were collected by security personnel outside of the park. [While both campaigns announced before the rallies that umbrellas would not be permitted, attendees who brought umbrellas to Kerry's rally were allowed to bring them in.] ... Area media, including the Times Recorder, WHIZ, Daily Jeffersonian in Cambridge and the Columbus news stations, had to sit outside in the rain with their equipment. However, a tent was set up for the national media to stay dry."

Iraq Funds Are Focus of 27 Criminal Inquiries

Faithful, undecided preparing for area Kerry, Bush rallies - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com: "[T]his swing voter could be swung one way or the other Saturday, depending on what she hears at Bush's rally in Cambridge and Kerry's rally in Zanesville.

'I want to hear what they both have to say,' she said, noting that she will be particularly interested in each candidate's plan for peace in Iraq."

My Plea to John Kerry: Stand Up for the Progressive Agenda that the Majority of America Already Agrees With: "A few weeks ago I was flipping around on the dial and I came across a NASCAR Race on FOX and there was NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. FOX asked him, what did you do the night before while you were getting prepared for the big race? He said, 'Well, I took my crew to go see Fahrenheit 9/11.' And then he said, and 'I think all of America should see this movie.' "

Democracy Now! | Medea Benjamin Dragged Off DNC Floor in Handcuffs For Unfurling "End the Occupation of Iraq" Banner

Ray McGovern: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedaled Root Causes: "It's the policy, stupid!"

Touchscreen Vote Records Lost in Florida

CJAD 800 : News: "The group said the U.S. military was using humanitarian aid 'for political and military motives"

bmj.com Lenzer 329 (7459): 189: "Daniel Troy, chief counsel to the US Food and Drug Administration, is under fire for inviting drug companies to inform him of lawsuits against them so the FDA could help in their defence. 'We can't afford to get involved in every case - we have to pick our shots,' he said, advising them therefore to 'make it sound like a Hollywood pitch.' "

Rock Royalty to Join Voices Against Bush With Fall Concerts There is a range of feeling about Kerry," the source said, "but a uniform belief that Bush must go.

The real election: Voting for the next Supreme Court justices: Holding one's nose is not nearly enough for a vote for Kerry. But I may have to get a hazmat suit and vote for him anyhow, and this is why. The issue is framed all the more clearly by the House's vote last week purporting to exempt DOMA from federal Constitutional review. A Bush-majority Court could well uphold such a provision, effectively abrogating the Constitution altogether.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Public Found to Reject Detainee Torture and Coercion University of Maryland survey finds Americans far more compassionate than this spring's media-sponsored survey.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Honorable Commission, Toothless Report: "Among the obvious truths that were documented but unarticulated were the facts that the Bush administration did little on terrorism before 9/11, and that by invading Iraq the administration has left us less safe as a nation."

Election Law Website at The Ohio State University

Public Less Fearful Of Terrorist Attack (washingtonpost.com) If your neighbors and friends pooh-pooh Tom Ridge, they're a danger to you.

Coshocton reflects on native soldier who died in Iraq - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com: Always remember: a cycle can be broken at any point on its path.

This family has established a memorial scholarship fund, "to help students who find themselves in the same position as Paul was in 1998 [when he joined the Army] -- wanting to go to college but without the means to do so."

Omaha.com: "Lumping minor crimes under the terrorism label could wrongly heighten public anxiety and provide a questionable rationale for more anti-terror resources"

Victory Slipping Away for Black Farmers (washingtonpost.com): "The Department of Agriculture has denied payments to almost 90 percent of black farmers who sought compensation for discrimination under a landmark court settlement the agency reached with African American growers five years ago...The Justice Department spent 56,000 hours of attorney and paralegal time challenging 129 claims, and billed USDA $12 million."

WorkingForChange-This Modern World: The Sensible Liberal

The Memory Hole > Classified Letters Regarding FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds

Interior Dept. Inquiry Faults Procurement (TechNews.com) Army's Abu Ghraib interrogators and Navy's Guantanamo interrogators were hired via IT contracts with the Department of the Interior.

Former CIA Director Used Pentagon Ties to Introduce Iraqi Defector

Ron Jacobs: Kucinich Surrenders: "the fact that the Kerry people fought even the inclusion of a statement that called the Iraq war wrong from its inception proves once again how little difference there really is in the campaigns of the two men running for president of the United States "

KRT Wire | 07/15/2004 | Civil rights panel says disenfranchisement of voters was deliberate

baltimoresun.com - DiBiagio voices frustration over pace of top cases: "Maryland U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio has told his staff he wants three 'front page' indictments for public corruption or white-collar crimes by November and is frustrated with the pace of cases against elected officials, according to...two July e-mails and a staff meeting agenda, all written by DiBiagio."

U.S. Won't Turn Over Data for Iraq Audits (washingtonpost.com): "The Bush administration is withholding information from U.N.-sanctioned auditors examining more than $1 billion in contracts awarded to Halliburton Co. and other companies in Iraq without competitive bidding, the head of the international auditing board said Thursday. "

State Reports - Prisoners of the CensusMaps of 10 states by county and/or Congressional district, showing how the prisoner census shifts voting power from diverse urban precincts towards rural areas with a strong stake in the prison-industrial complex.

Yahoo! News - Fair Use Bill Gains Ground

Blackwell, Householder at odds over firings - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com Contracts released this week by Householder show the House Republican Campaign Committee -- funded largely by donations from GOP House member campaigns -- owes fired consultants Brett Buerck and Sisk $100,000 and $50,000, respectively, in severance pay.

Buerck and Sisk were fired by the caucus in early June, after they became centerpieces for federal and state investigations into alleged heavy-handed fundraising and campaign irregularities.

Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War

The Washington Dispatch: "In the midst of our bloodiest war, the fratricide of the Civil War, Mr. Lincoln managed to get reelected. The "Greatest Generation" made it through WWII without having to alter the traditional, scheduled, legal election process. Throughout the Cold War we teetered on the brink of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union - yet we somehow maintained the regular, constitutionally mandated requirements of our republic. Nineteen hijackers, however, have turned the entire federal government inside-out (i.e. the creation of the Department of Homeland Security - the largest reorganization of the government since the Defense Department was created in 1948); suspended some of our civil liberties (i.e. the USA PATRIOT Act); and opened the door to the Trotskyite "creative destruction" embraced by the neocon chickenhawks who started whispering into President Bush's ear by midday on Sept. 11th."

Use this link: web.mit.edu/simsong/www/iraqreport2-textunder.pdf
to access a searchable version of the Senate's report on intelligence. It's a 14 megabyte file. Then search for "Feith" and read through the first item found to get this:
"The August 20th meeting is clear evidence of the Administration politicizing an
analytical process that should be protected from the meddlesome reach of policy officials."
And here I thought it was the CIA's fault. It's that durned liberal media!

Is Fabulous President George W. Bush a Fabulous Homosexual? Baptists Are Saving Homosexuals asks what conservative Christians demand to know

Telegraph | News | Fury over Pentagon cell that briefed White House on Iraq's 'imaginary' al-Qaeda links: "Mr Feith's cell undermined the credibility of CIA judgments on Iraq's alleged al-Qa'eda links within the highest levels of the Bush administration.
The cell appears to have been set up by Mr Feith as an adjunct to the Office of Special Plans, a Pentagon intelligence-gathering operation established in the wake of 9/11 with the authority of Paul Wolfowitz. Its focus quickly became the al-Qa'eda-Saddam link.
On occasion, without informing the then head of the CIA, George Tenet, the group gave counter-briefings in the White House."

Bay Area group in flap over anti-war billboard / Clear Channel kills nonprofit's ad for N.Y.'s Times Square: "I'm constantly shocked by how there is such an effort to really prevent people from contemplating the difficult issues of our time,'' Waters said. 'The message of the sign was trying to get people to think about this. And clearly, it's not what the powers-that-be want people to do."

HoustonChronicle.com - Reviewers of DeLay's ethics got his money: "Four of the five Republicans investigating an ethics complaint against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have received campaign contributions from DeLay's political action committee"

MSNBC - Exclusive: Election Day Worries: "Ridge's department last week asked the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to analyze what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the election"

Kerry to Reach Out to 'People on the Right': "Kerry seemed unconcerned about antagonizing his liberal supporters"

Yahoo! News - Question of Pressure Splits Panel Democrats on the committee, while acknowledging that they had unanimously approved the report, said they disagreed with the conclusion that there had been no political pressure.

TNR Online | July Surprise? (print): "according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that 'it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any High Value Target] were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July'--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston. "

Asia Times - Asia's most trusted news source: "social psychologist Erich Fromm had written on 'socially patterned defects' that enabled large groups of people to adjust themselves comfortably to a system that, humanly speaking, is 'fundamentally at odds with our basic existential and human needs'. Burston observed that this resulted in 'deficiencies, or traits, or attitudes which don't generate internal conflict when, in fact, they should"

MSNBC - As rationales for war erode, issue of blame looms large: "The larger question is whether voters will blame the White House for these two massive mistakes."

Bush's War-Era Records Damaged (washingtonpost.com): "The payroll summaries destroyed were for the first quarter of 1969 and the third quarter of 1972." But none of the 13 intervening quarters?

WILLKOMMEN BEI REPORT MAINZ
Irak: US-Soldaten sollen inhaftierte Kinder misshandelt haben
Over 100 children at Abu Ghraib. German TV and "Der Spiegel" broke this story last Sunday, and it still hasn't made the English-language press. Video and transcript.

IPA News Release: 9-11 FBI Whistleblower: "Ashcroft Denying 9-11 FBI Whistleblower Day in Court"

Survey: Public Wants Press to Fully Describe Sources in Science Stories

Yahoo! News - Rights Groups Accuse Pentagon of Subverting Court Ruling on Guantanamo Detainees

The Smoking Gun: Archive Ken Lay informs George Bush about Enron's plans to pipe gas across Afghanistan.

Bush Again Turns Down Invitation to Address NAACP Convention (washingtonpost.com): "The president's decision means he will be the first sitting president since Warren G. Harding not to address the NAACP. A White House spokeswoman said Bush had a scheduling conflict, but would not specify the conflict with the six-day convention."

Foreign Policy: Imperial Amnesia

Yahoo! News - Times: Bush Military Service Files Were Destroyed

U.S. Cuts Number of Delegates to World AIDS Meeting (washingtonpost.com): "The decision to cut attendance [by three-fourths] was reached long after many government scientists had made plans to attend the conference, which is held every two years....

Almost nobody was willing to speak on the record because of fears of retaliation....The NIH released details of the cutbacks only in response to a Freedom of Information Act request....

HHS officials [also] tried to cancel a $250,000 CDC grant to the conference for scholarships for Third World AIDS researchers, said a person familiar with agency. When told the money could not be reclaimed, Thompson's office stipulated it go only to scientists in the countries getting aid under the [U.S.] program....

A CDC official [said,] 'This is clearly the result of the booing of Secretary Thompson in Barcelona, which he took quite personally.'"

The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town Dr. Malakoff is no longer a member of the team that treats the Vice-President

WorkingForChange-This Modern World: The Liberal Media Compares the Candidates

Amanpour Says Saddam TV Was Distorted ...

The Spoof - Hells Angels to Take Over War on Terrorism Bikers for Bush

AlterNet: Election 2004: A Serious Threat to Democracy

Probe takes twist - newarkadvocate.com

Fund-raising memo: Steer 'wimps' toward county GOP parties - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

Iraq Deal on Airline Is Probed

AP Wire | 06/22/2004 | Ohio Democrats call on agriculture official to resign over food bank comment: Eric Bost, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary for the Food & Nutrition Service, "described people who eat at food banks as 'taking the easy way out.'"

Inmate populations skew representation

HoustonChronicle.com - 'A Pretext For War' by James Bamford: "the basic blueprint for the administration's Middle East policy had been drawn up in the mid-1990s by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser, three neoconservatives who would be named to influential positions in the Bush administration.
Described as a kind of 'American privy council' to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the three proposed what they called a 'Clean Break' plan, which involved getting the United States to pull out of the peace negotiations in order to let 'Israel take care of the Palestinians as it saw fit.' Under the 'Clean Break' plan, Israel would launch pre-emptive attacks against its major Arab enemies and replace Saddam Hussein with a puppet leader friendly to Israel.
Bamford records that Netanyahu wisely rejected the plan but that the Perle group found a more receptive audience for their recommendations inside the Bush administration. The fact that several of the key players most aggressively pushing the Iraqi war had originally outlined it for the benefit of another country raises 'the most troubling conflict of interest questions,' he writes."

Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado - News: "How does this sound - Vice President Hunter Thompson"

baltimoresun.com - Powell gave U.N. 'ambiguous' data on Iraqi weapons, NSA chief says

KR Washington Bureau | 06/21/2004 | Intelligence experts cast doubt on ties between Iraq, al-Qaida: "officials said they were unsure why Lehman portrayed the documents as possible new intelligence on Iraq's links to al-Qaida"

Newsday.com - National News The CIA concluded "a long time ago" that an al-Qaida associate who met with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers in Malaysia was not an officer in Saddam Hussein's army

United Press International: Outside View: Have you any idea why they're lying to you?

One million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election
It's not too hard to get your vote lost -- if some politicians want it to be lost

Index: "REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION SCHEDULE"

bmj.com Lenzer 328 (7454): 1458: "Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness "

Wired News: Pentagon Seeks U.S. Spy Powers: "The bill would allow Pentagon intelligence agents to work undercover and question American citizens and legal residents without having to reveal that they are government agents."

Observer | Cheney in firing line over Nigerian bribery claims

BBC NEWS | Middle East | War draws condemnation: "Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US-led military action was completely unjustified"

So Torture Is Legal? (washingtonpost.com)

Iraq on the Record Handy link to see who said what when about Saddam and al Quaeda.

Patriot Act Provision Invoked, Memo Says (washingtonpost.com): "The FBI asked the Justice Department last fall to seek permission from a secret federal court to use the most controversial provision of the USA Patriot Act, four weeks after Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said that part of the law had never been used, according to government documents disclosed this week."

Infoshop News - New York Times calls for Bush regime apology: "There are two unpleasant alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not telling the truth, or he has a capacity for politically motivated self-deception that is terrifying in the post-9/11 world."

A Contractor Calls In the Big Guns (washingtonpost.com): "In the section of his report that is supposed to disclose gifts of more than $285, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) pointed readers to attached correspondence concerning his wedding gifts. Blunt married Abigail Perlman, a lobbyist for Altria Corp., the parent company of Philip Morris, in October.

On Sept. 15, Blunt wrote to Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), chairman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, and noted his impending marriage. 'I anticipate receiving wedding gifts in connection with this event and I would like to request a waiver of the limitations of the gift rule to allow me to accept gifts in connection with my wedding,' he wrote."

The waiver, and a subsequent request to waive reporting of the gifts, was granted.

FT.com / US elections: "We are all career public servants,' explained William Harrop, former ambassador to Israel and several African countries who helped organize the initiative. 'Most of us are not comfortable about going partisan in a domestic arena. But we feel strongly that this must be stopped and the administration must be changed."

Iraq Letter As members of university faculties in law, international relations, diplomacy, and public policy, we write to register our objection to the systematic violation of human rights practiced or permitted by authorities of the United States within occupied Iraq during recent months: we request Congressional action to ensure accountability for such violations and to safeguard against such egregious abuses in the future. Current circumstances require that all transcend partisan politics or considerations. Action by Congress is necessary to promote a rule of law produced and enforced through a democratic process and to protect the physical and psychological integrity of all people consistent with the traditions of our nation.

Wired 12.06: VIEW: "The Bush administration has systematically manipulated scientific inquiry into climate change, forest management, lead and mercury contamination, and a host of other issues."

Subtle Messages at Clinton Lovefest (washingtonpost.com): "How many Bush administration officials it takes to change a light bulb? Seven.
One to deny that a light bulb needs to be replaced.
One to attack and question the patriotism of anyone who has questions about the light bulb.
One to blame the previous administration for the need of a new light bulb.
One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs.
One to get together with Vice President Cheney and figure out how to pay Halliburton one million dollars for a light bulb.
One to arrange a photo-op session showing Bush changing the light bulb while dressed in a flight suit and wrapped in an American flag.
And finally, one to explain to Bush the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country. "

Welcome to DMCC web site - Diplomats & Military Commanders for Change Official web site An unprecedented bipartisan coalition of 27 career chiefs of mission and retired four-star military leaders will launch a nationwide campaign to press for the need for change in U.S. foreign and defense policy because they are deeply concerned by the damage the Bush Administration has caused to our national and international interests.

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: "No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history"

GOP Refusing to Allow Testimony on Halliburton Spending

The New York Times>The Public Editor :
"By reading every bylined A-section news story published in December 2003, Williams determined that 40 percent of the articles invoked at least one anonymous source, that the average day's paper brought 36 such sources into the reader's home and that more than half of these people were identified, at least in part, as 'officials.'
...The Times promulgated a revised policy on the use of anonymous sources in February...As it happens, the most important part of the new policy involves something that cannot be checked independently....[In April, the numbers] show a slightly greater rate of anonymous quotation than his December study."

Yahoo! News - Malpractice Debate Takes Ugly Turn
: "It all adds to 'an alarming trend in a kind of vigilante-style behavior for what appears to be an extremist group of doctors ... looking to punish innocent patients and their attorneys who help them exercise their constitutional rights.' "

Yahoo! News - Study: Sea Protection Costs Less Than Fish Subsidies: "Nearly 75 per cent of fisheries are categorized as overfished or fished to the limit. Some, like the once teeming cod fishery off the east coast of Canada, have completely collapsed and may never recover. WWF said marine habitat loss now equals or exceeds that of rain forests, with 60 per cent of coral reefs expected to be lost by 2030 if present rates of decline continue."

CounterPunch: America's Best Political Newsletter: "Never mind the moral obtuseness of opposing an armchair-psychopath like Bush with arguments in favor of a man who did his own killing, there's a weird market niche out there to be reached."

U.S. PIRG Consumers Pay at the Pump for Outdated Gas Mileage Policies: The Bush Administration Fails to Reduce America's Oil Dependence

Bush's USDA: Frozen Fries Are 'Fresh' Veggies

DeLay to Be Subject of Ethics Complaint (washingtonpost.com): "A DeLay ally, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), said Republicans 'are going to have to respond in kind' by filing ethics charges against key Democrats. From now on, he said in an interview, it's a matter of 'you kill my dog, I'll kill your cat.' Doolittle said he plans to file ethics charges against a prominent Democrat but would not name the target. "

The Daytona Beach News-JournalAnother Reagan legacy: all the '82 air traffic controllers are reaching retirement age, so we get a whole new round of ATCs with abbreviated training.

Committee on Government Reform Minority Office: "Many questions have been raised about the Iraq contracting process, including questions on the seemingly inflated prices charged by Halliburton"

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Weekend feature: American homeland security: "Deport? Me? 'Why?' I asked, incredulously.

'You came here as a journalist, and you don't have a journalist's visa.' I had never heard of it. He swiftly produced the visa waiver (I-94W) I had signed on the plane, and pointed to what it said in tiny print: in addition to not being a drug smuggler, a Nazi or any other sort of criminal, I had inadvertently declared that I was not entering the US as a representative of foreign media."

Yahoo! News - Fla. Voting Machines Have Recount Flaw

Group Seeks Change In Security Policy (washingtonpost.com): "Angered by President Bush's conduct of foreign policy and dismayed about America's diminished reputation abroad, more than two dozen former top diplomats and military leaders will release a statement this week calling for a change in U.S. national security policy. "

A few big farms in Ohio producing majority of sales - newarkadvocate.com: "Of [nearly 78,000] farms spread throughout Ohio, the largest 1,200 are producing 41 percent of the state's agricultural sales, according to the federal Census of Agriculture released last week....
Licking County agricultural extension agent Howard Siegrist said 12 to 15 farms generate about half the farming income in the county. And Ohio Fresh Eggs, the largest farm operation in the state, generates about 40 percent by itself, he said.
The county had about 1,482 farms in 2002...."

If the voting machine company is small enough, a leftist government can afford one too:"[The Venezuelan] government purchased a 28 percent stake in Bizta, through a venture capital fund, in June 2003 -- just a few months before the company bid for the elections contract....
The Herald also reported that a top official in Venezuela's science ministry, Omar Montilla, joined Bizta's board of directors in December to represent the government's three million shares. Two months later, the National Electoral Council awarded Bizta and partners Smartmatic and CANTV the $91 million."

OrlandoSentinel.com: State News: "The state has agreed to spend at least $125,000 on private attorneys to fight for a law that restricts the release of voter records, even though Attorney General Charlie Crist has said the statute is probably not worth defending....[O]fficials concede the costs could go higher."

According to the GAO, reports by the DoD, CIA and VA vastly underestimated the number of veterans exposed to chemical warfare agents during Gulf War I:
"It is likely that if models were more fully developed and more credible data for source term and meteorological conditions were included in them,...the hazard area would be much larger and most likely would cover most of the areas where U.S. troops and Coalition forces were deployed."
Link to .pdf of report

Yahoo! News - US to Correct Terror Report, Says Attacks Increased: "The State Department said on Thursday its report that the number of international 'terrorist' attacks fell last year was wrong and in fact had risen sharply. "

AlterNet: IVINS: The Day the Constitution Died

San Antonio Current: "Xenophobia and religion color GOP convention "

Commission to hear complaint on funds raised for local GOP - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

nbc4columbus.com - News - Blackwell Subpoenas Householder Over Contracts

The Globe and Mail: "Truth be known, however, the Iron Curtain's collapse was hardly Ronald Reagan's doing."

washingtonpost.com: Fewer Republicans Trust the News, Survey Finds They're just following orders, since Cheney told them only to believe Fox news. So there's no surprise CNN loses credibility points, but Fox gains none.

Ronald Reagan: Still the Teflon President?: " the overwhelming praise for a president who plunged the nation into its worst deficit ever, ignored and cut public money for the poor, while also ignoring the AIDS crisis, is a bit tough to take"

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida: "Coincidentally, the state's elections supervisor, Ed Kast, announced Monday he was resigning that position to pursue other opportunities in the private sector."

Mail Pouch paintings: History or advertisments? - zanesvilletimesrecorder.com: "U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-St. Clairsville, said...[h]is advice to barn owners is civil disobedience. 'I would say don't do anything,' he said. 'Defy the state.' "