Uranium Medical Research Centre

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Of course the White House fears free elections in Iraq: "Got that? Iraqi sovereignty will be established by appointees appointing appointees to select appointees to select appointees. Add the fact that Bremer was appointed to his post by President Bush and Bush to his by the US Supreme Court, and you have the glorious new democratic tradition of the appointocracy: rule by an appointee's appointee's appointees' appointees' appointees' selectees. "

In Iraq, a Matter of Livelihood and Death (washingtonpost.com): "Residents said that although some Muslims are employed at U.S. bases, most low-wage workers hired by several European contractors in Baghdad are Christian. "

Tauzin Expected to Leave House for Trade Group : "Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) is close to a decision to leave Congress to head the pharmaceutical industry's trade association..., sources in Washington and California said yesterday.

Tauzin...was one of the principal authors of the Medicare prescription drug bill that included several provisions expected to vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits, the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for.

PhRMA made a run at Tauzin in recent days and offered a compensation package that, if Tauzin accepts it, "would be the biggest deal given to anyone at a trade association," a source said. ...

Tauzin would not be the first key public official involved in the Medicare legislation to leave for the private sector. In December, Thomas A. Scully, an author of the bill, resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, to join an Atlanta law firm that represents drugmakers, hospitals and other health-care businesses. "

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Powell casts doubt on Iraq WMDs: "US Secretary of State Colin Powell has conceded that Iraq may not have possessed any stocks of weapons of mass destruction before the war last year. "

People For the American Way | Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears: "How Appellate Judges Nominated By President Bush Are Already Threatening The Rights Of Ordinary Americans"

FT.com / World / Middle East & Africa: "'If I were working for them, I'd say 'Stop it already. No one believes what you're saying any more'.'"

U.S. to Triple Logging in Sierra : "The Forest Service, which oversees 11.5 million acres of national forestland in the Sierra, signaled at the start of the Bush administration that it was unhappy with a stringent and complex set of environmental regulations adopted just before President Clinton left office.

The latest plan officially drops many of those restrictions, permitting not only the removal of far more trees but cutting ones as large as 30 inches in diameter in old-growth stands. It also loosens habitat protections for rare species such as the California spotted owl, Yosemite toad, Pacific fisher and willow flycatcher."

Airport Security Costs Soaring : "The $3.7 million for additional LAX security since Dec. 21 represents a fraction of the $104.7 million the city has spent to tighten security at the airport since the 2001 attacks. The federal government has reimbursed about $15.6 million, or 15%, of these costs."

Michael Moore.com George W. Bush, A.W.O.L

NJ.com: Search Former Gov. Christie Whitman was cut out of the decision-making process when President Bush bluntly rejected her efforts as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency director to reach a compromise that would allow the United States to be part of the Global Warming Treaty.

'Boy Mayor' Kucinich Took Charge in Utility Debt Crisis

Senators Inquire of Justices' Recusal Rules : "Two Senate Democrats asked Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on Thursday what rules the justices follow in deciding whether they should remove themselves from consideration of a case before the Supreme Court. "

New Hampshire: Graveyard of Pollsters (washingtonpost.com): "The dirty little secret in New Hampshire and elsewhere is that too many of the widely reported pre-election polls cut corners or otherwise use methods that are less than gold standard. "

OCCUPATION, INC.: "War profiteers in Iraq pursue quick fixes and high profits by overcharging for shoddy work, while Iraqis protest that they could do the work better and cheaper. Welcome to the reconstruction racket."

Black Box Voting: Ballot - Tampering in the 21st Century

USA: A Bonanza for Errors - DER SPIEGEL - SPIEGEL ONLINE A Bonanza for Errors

Missile Defense System Doubts : "The Pentagon is spending about $9 billion a year on various missile defense programs. Estimates of the final cost of the evolving system range from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars."

Missile Defense Testing May Be Inadequate : "In eight flight tests since 1999, interceptors have scored five hits. But the tests have involved a number of substitute elements, including a surrogate booster and a prototype tracking radar, while the actual parts for the planned system have remained in development. Additionally, all the tests have run on the same course, with the target missile soaring west over the Pacific Ocean from an Air Force base in California and the interceptor launching from the Marshall Islands.
The last flight test, which resulted in failure of the interceptor vehicle to separate from its booster, occurred 13 months ago. Problems with a new booster, being designed specifically for the system by Lockheed Martin Corp., prompted the Pentagon last year to suspend further intercept attempts."

EPI Journal--Winter 2004Between June and November 2003, the economy generated 1.26 million fewer jobs than the 1.5 million jobs that the president’s Council of EconomicAdvisers told us to expect. Employers have responded to the economic downturn by suppressing the growth of, or reducing, wages and benefits. Jobs are being sent overseas, including many white-collar technical and computer-related jobs not previously at risk. In workplaces across the country, jobs are being lost from layoffs or attrition, while the remaining workforce is pressed to maintain or increase production in order to boost productivity. All this restructuring has led to a strong profit resurgence, with income growth in this recovery tilted far more toward profits and away from wages than in any other postwar recovery. The hourly wages of most workers are now rising more slowly than inflation. Moreover, job quality is declining, as the new jobs created pay 13% less than the jobs lost.

SERVE Analysis

Pentagon's Online Voting Program Deemed Too Risky (TechNews.com): "A Pentagon program for Internet voting in this year's presidential election is so insecure that it could undercut the integrity of American democracy and should be stopped immediately, according to computer-security specialists who were asked to review the $22 million pilot plan intended for about 100,000 overseas voters. "
History has shown that when people have the opportunity to tamper with an election they do

Army Reserve Chief Fears Retention Crisis (washingtonpost.com): "a 'major order culture change' is taking place in the reserve so that reservists know, upon joining, that they will be called up to active duty for between nine and 12 months every four to five years."

Well, one war every four to five years is twice as good as we're doing now.

WorkingForChange-The George W Bush State of the Union drinking game

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Why the US is running scared of elections in Iraq: "Washington is trying to argue that if there are to be direct elections, the transfer of power will have to be delayed. Sistani rejects that. His supporters say the oil-for-food ration-card lists which covered the whole Iraqi population can easily be used in place of the poll cards which Washington says would take at least a year to prepare."

washingtonpost.com: Unconfirmed Claims

Yahoo! News - Libya Never Got Nuclear Plans Off Ground-Diplomats: "It would be an exaggeration to call it a program,' one Western diplomat said. "

Yahoo! News - Arms Issue Seen as Hurting U.S. Credibility Abroad: "But a range of foreign policy experts, including supporters of the war, said the long-term consequences of the administration's rhetoric could be severe overseas -- especially because the war was waged without the backing of the United Nations and was opposed by large majorities, even in countries run by leaders that supported the invasion.
'The foreign policy blow-back is pretty serious,' said Kenneth Adelman, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board and a supporter of the war. He said the gaps between the administration's rhetoric and the postwar findings threaten Bush's doctrine of 'preemption,' which envisions attacking a nation because it is an imminent threat."

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Artist slams Israel envoy attack: "We wanted to show that the cycle of violence and bloodshed would only stop when we understand what mechanism in a society of conflict can alter a person and reduce him to a desperate and crazed individual"

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | US opens new front in war on terror by beefing up border controls in Sahara: "A small vanguard force arrived this week in Mauritania to pave the way for a $100m plan to bolster the security forces and border controls of Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger....West Africa is not known as a hotbed of support for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network but Washington is taking no chances in a region with strong Arab and Muslim ties."

Observer | US stars hail Iraq war whistleblower

Only 19 of 80 From Herd of Infected Cow Found

Damage in Appalachia Trickles From Top : " 'We find legitimate ways to fight this destructive type of mining, we present our case to the courts, and in the meantime the Bush administration goes behind our backs and changes these laws.'"