Fascism Anyone?

Minister steps aside amid Iraq oil crisis. 31/12/2005. ABC News Online: "Ahmad Chalabi has assumed direct control of the powerful oil ministry "

An Extensive Web of Financial Ties What vast right-wing conspiracy?

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Shock, awe and Hobbes have backfired on America's neocons

The Seattle Times: "Absolutely terrifying" flight after ground-crew mistake: "Alaska saw an increase in ground-damage incidents at Sea-Tac after it replaced 472 unionized workers in May with workers from Menzies Aviation, based near London, the airline said."

And NASA wants to finish the work on the New Horizon probe - powered by 24 pounds of plutonium - using replacement workers.

Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor: "'They could have separated the big question from classified details to operations and had an open debate. Instead, an inner circle of lawyers and advisers worked around the dissenters in the administration and one-upped each other with extreme arguments.'"

Live Vote: Should Bush be impeached? - Politics - MSNBC.com: "179981 responses"

What's wrong with the economy?

The boom that wasn't: "Unfortunately for most Americans, the tax cuts since 2001 have not made today's economy stronger. Over the last five fiscal years, the tax cuts have had a direct cost of $860 billion and (with interest costs) a total effect on the deficit of $929 billion. By creating excessive permanent deficits, they have lowered our future standard of living."

The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff: "The foundation was ostensibly created to help inner-city children through organized sports. There is no evidence money went to city kids, but the foundation did fund some of Abramoff's pet projects: a sniper school for Israelis in the West Bank"

White House Leaked Classified Intelligence to Make its Case for War | AfterDowningStreet.org

A Political Debate On Stress Disorder: "the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan"

MiamiHerald.com | 12/26/2005 | Fear destroys what bin Laden could not

Chalabi�s defeat puts U.S. friends in quandary - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com: "Preliminary results in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad indicate that Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress scored a minuscule 0.36 percent of the votes.
Out of almost 2.5 million voters in Baghdad, only 8,645 voted for Chalabi."

US eyes big Pakistan, India arms sales - Yahoo! News: "The Bush administration is maneuvering to balance possible big new U.S. arms sales to archrivals India and Pakistan in the new year."

Ralph Nader: Talkin' About the "I"-Word

Iraq Report 109th Congress The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War

22 Purported CIA Operatives Accused of Kidnapping Imam - Los Angeles Times: "including the Milan station chief"

Alito Defended Wiretap Protections in 1984 Memo - New York Times The attorney general should be immune from lawsuits over illegal wiretaps

PEER: "Cronyism has run amok in the agency designated to combat cronyism"

Officials Fault Case Bush Cited - Los Angeles Times

LYRICS - The Pause of Mr. Claus

Herald.com | 12/19/2005 | Health problems plague a polluted region: "Why this area of Orange County ranked the worst in the Sunshine State puzzled local health and environmental officials, given that there are no major industrial factories in the area....'I think the explanation may be that there are a number of small facilities in that area that are not large enough to require an air permit but use potentially toxic or hazardous substances -- some kind of manufacturing or repair operations,' said John Kasper, an engineer for the Orange County Environmental Protection Division."

Remember that pending changes to EPA rules would allow many more businesses to be defined as "small" polluters exempt from reporting to the Toxics Release Inventory.

- toledoblade.com -: "political financiers made an investment in the Bush family, an investment that paid off."

- toledoblade.com - Bush Administration policies, grand and obscure, have financially benefited companies or lobbying clients tied to at least 200 of the President's largest campaign fund-raisers, a Blade investigation has found. Dozens more stand to gain from Bush-backed initiatives that recently passed or await congressional approval.

LiP | Interview | Conveying Correctness | print version: "If people accuse me of being PC, I say, 'If, by 'PC,' you mean I seek to be courteous and not offend people intentionally, then of course I'm PC.' The only way to really deal with that kind of charge is to say: 'If you mean by that, I'm concerned about unfairness in American society based on race and gender and other factors, absolutely true. Guilty as charged. If you mean by that, I wring my hands and whine a lot, no, I don't think that's a fair criticism.' So you basically hand it back to them and say, 'You know, I'm not accepting that frame. Let's debate the definition, and in the course of that I'm going to reveal that really what you're saying is that you're tired of hearing about race and gender, and you don't want to have a conversation about what's fair.' Then they usually complain, 'That's not what I'm saying at all!' and then you tease it out and say, 'Well, what are you saying?' And they don't have an answer, because 99% of the people who use the term don't understand how they're using it."

Bush's Fumbles Spur New Talk of Oversight on Hill: "the panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002, at a cost of more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration"

Chicago Tribune | Philip Morris law firms, supporters backed judge: "Lawyers for Philip Morris USA contributed $16,800 to help elect a judge who cast a deciding vote in Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court decision favoring the tobacco giant.

The judge also received $1.2 million in campaign money from a group that filed an amicus brief supporting the cigarette-maker."

Los Angeles Times: 1 in 20 Americans Is Not Literate, a National Survey Suggests: "When adults with higher-education degrees were asked to compare the viewpoints in two newspaper editorials, for example, or interpret a table about blood pressure, less than half could do it successfully. "

Dingell's HOLIDAY Jingle for O'Reilly and House GOP (12-14-05)

The Daytona Beach News-Journal Tests show some Diebold voting machines used in Florida and elsewhere around the nation can be hacked by election office insiders to change results

How safe is tuna? - OrlandoSentinel.com: Nation/World: "When the Food and Drug Administration updated its mercury warning last year, it arbitrarily classified canned light tuna as low in mercury to 'keep market share at a reasonable level,' one agency official told an FDA advisory panel, according to transcripts of the meeting."

Cigarette Maker Pours It On Strong in Promo - Los Angeles Times: "the coasters are part of a grass-roots marketing campaign to associate Camel cigarettes with trendy cocktails — and encourage young people to drink.....'I think if you ask anybody my age, most of those who don't smoke will still smoke a cigarette if they are drinking. I think it's pretty common.'"

Staff Opinions Banned In Voting Rights Cases: "Political appointees overruled staff findings in both cases."

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Columns: Every composer of conservative fund-raising letters, every virtuecrat, professional moralist, Fox News gas bag, cable-TV finger-wagger and AM-radio common scold has discovered something they call 'the war on Christmas."

Reuters AlertNet - Clinton steals show at U.N. climate talks: "In America, there's no telling how many jobs we could create if we just made the decision that in the rebuilding of New Orleans it would become America's first green city"

Plea Deal Near With 2nd Abramoff Associate: "Prosecutors have told Ney they are preparing a possible bribery indictment against him"

RollingStone.com: John Lennon : Lennon Lives Forever : News: "The story of our times since then has been the product of a determination to make sure that nothing like that could happen again."

Has 'War' become a leading brand for United States? / How Bush's imperial policies are being linked to economic woes and CEO angst in America: "the administration's bellicosity has been a major business blunder"

Blanco Releases Katrina Records: "Bush's entire effort on behalf of the federal government has been reflected in his and his people's nonchalant attitude to the people of LA"

On Their Own in New Orleans - Los Angeles Times

Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal: "the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power"

Independent Online Edition > Environment: "The findings, published in the journal Nature, fit computer predictions of what would happen when Greenland glaciers begin to melt because of global warming."

The Bush Beat: December 2005 Archives: "The word 'clear' popped up so many times in Bush's speech that I thought I was listening to the keynote speaker at a Scientology convention. "

Drugmakers Win Exemption in House Budget-Cutting Bill: "As part of a House budget bill that reduces spending on Medicaid prescription drugs, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. and other businesses secured a provision ensuring that their mental health drugs continue to fetch top price at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the states."

Zeroing Out the Messenger: "'legislator of the year' by the National Hydropower Association"

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press - Los Angeles Times: Making Iraq more like the US in every way.

White House Briefing  News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration: "the question of whether taxpayers should be funding presidential events to which the public is never welcome."

Beacon Journal | 11/28/2005 | Ohio charter schools will go on trial: "And while justices are required to weigh issues of legality, questions have been raised about their own stake in the case.
The majority has benefited from the political fund-raising efforts of Akron businessman David Brennan, who founded the state's biggest charter-school management company.
His firm, White Hat Learning Systems, will receive more than $100 million of the state dollars flowing to charters this year.
Since 1990, Brennan has acted as a key Ohio Republican Party fund-raiser and helped establish and fund political action committees aimed at electing Republicans to the courts.
State Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, a critic of charter schools, last week called on the six Republican justices to withdraw from the case because of Brennan's campaign influence -- nearly $130,000 in contributions since 1992."

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Politics > Randy 'Duke' Cunningham -- Cunningham pleads guilty to conspiring to take bribes, income tax evasion There's plenty good money to be made supplying the army with tools of the trade.

World Opinion Roundup -- Jefferson Morley's Review of Opinions and Commentary on News Around the World - washingtonpost.com Bush's Brother and the Fugitive Russian Tycoon
It sounds like the pitch for a Hollywood comedy.

A Journey That Ended in Anguish - Los Angeles Times: "Westhusing struggled with the idea that monetary values could outweigh moral ones in war. This, [the psychologist] said, was a flaw. 'Despite his intelligence, his ability to grasp the idea that profit is an important goal for people working in the private sector was surprisingly limited,' wrote Lt. Col. Lisa Breitenbach."

'Corruption Scheme': "Corruption Scheme"

Lawmakers Under Scrutiny in Probe of Lobbyist: "Prosecutors have already told one lawmaker, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), and his former chief of staff that they are preparing a possible bribery case against them"

Public TV Outlet Battling Christian Network - Yahoo! News

LA Weekly: News: On: How I Lost the War in Iraq

CounterPunch: "America's Best Political Newsletter": "These people are not terrorists or insurgents; they are not uniformed military or intelligence personnel. They are simply people trying to tell it like it is in an environment plagued by censorship"

School Radio Stations Face Competition Over Licenses - New York Times: "A loophole in commission regulations makes educational stations unusually vulnerable to takeover attempts."

The Village Voice: The Bush Beat: "Dick Cheney is so smug that he thinks he can set the agenda for America's news media. Unfortunately, he's right."

Buy Nothing Day : Adbusters

McKinney: Republicans seek to silence dissent on Iraq war: "The US invasion and occupation has destabilized Iraq and Iraq will only return to stability once this occupation ends"

Abramoff Partner Pleads Guilty

Under U.S. Design, Iraq's New Army Looks a Good Deal Like the Old One We won't get fooled again

EWG Issues || PFCs: Teflon Pollution from perfluoronated chemicals PFOA PFOS: "Former DuPont Top Expert: Company Knew, Covered Up Pollution of Americans' Blood for 18 Years"

How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball' - Los Angeles Times: "U.S. bungling in the Curveball case was worse than official reports have disclosed.

The White House, for example, ignored evidence gathered by United Nations weapons inspectors shortly before the war that disproved Curveball's account. Bush and his aides issued increasingly dire warnings about Iraq's biological weapons before the war even though intelligence from Curveball had not changed in two years.

At the Central Intelligence Agency, officials embraced Curveball's account even though they could not confirm it or interview him until a year after the invasion. They ignored multiple warnings about his reliability before the war, punished in-house critics who provided proof that he had lied and refused to admit error until May 2004, 14 months after the invasion. "

What I Knew Before the Invasion: by Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2001 and 2002

ArmsControlWonk | an arms control weblog: ISIS Against The Gray Lady: "This made it sound like the US had proof Iran was designing a nuclear weapon, which it does not. Look at it this way: Just because Ford puts seat-belts in its automobiles, doesn't mean they know how to build people."

Research Dispels Bush Claims That Tax Cuts Create Jobs - Yahoo! News: "Changes in tax policy suggest no evidence of their impact on job creation or destruction...Since 1950, significant tax increases and decreases have both been followed by job losses and job gains, say the researchers.

Based on statistical analysis of changes in tax polices and rates of job growth in the past 60 years, the report points out that tax reduction does, however, disproportionately lead to economic disparity between the rich and poor....

Last year, one million people fell below the poverty line, a disproportionate number of them children, while the number of billionaires rose to 374, the study says, adding that the number of people living in poverty rose from 11.3 percent in 2000 to 12.7 percent in 2004."

Stock Market News and Investment Information | Reuters.com: "they've targeted the most vulnerable in our communities -- children, the aged, the blind and disabled -- for spending cuts that pave the way for tax cuts for the rich"

RollingStone.com: The Man Who Sold the War : Politics

Bill Christison: Evidence Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars: "The new wars would be the start of a world war initiated by Bush and radical Christianity against what he calls radical Islam, but in truth the wars would be waged against all Islam."

eSchool News online - School radio station fights for survival See: Theocracy

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force: "In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force."

Review of 'Plan B' Pill Is Faulted: "the agency had allowed politics to trump science"

CJR Daily: Archives: "Telegraphing the beginning of a communications effort is a tactic the Bush team has used in the past, especially when it comes to Iraq,' Bash wrote. Or, put another way, I, along with my colleagues in the press, have been used in the past to preview assorted White House public relations plans and talking points.
And I'm told -- and I'm telling you -- that I and my colleagues in the press will be similarly used in the near future. Or, in Bash's own words: 'it is unclear which administration officials will participate in this 'aggressive' response, which senior officials indicate will be unveiled in interviews and other public events.' (Emphasis ours)."

Scotsman.com News - International - Rice insists Palestinian state would make Israel safer place ...not to mention the US.

96 bishops decry 'unjust and immoral' situation in Iraq - UMC.org

Herald.com | 11/13/2005 | Senate measure would undercut court's authority: "For almost eight centuries the ''great writ'' of habeas corpus has been a bedrock principle of English and American law, from the Magna Carta to today's jails and courts. It's the means for a prisoner to contest his imprisonment before a judge.
That's one reason legal experts were stunned when the Senate, after an hour of debate and no hearings, voted Thursday to adopt a measure that, if it becomes law, would overturn the Supreme Court's extension of habeas corpus protection to 500-plus detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba."

Libby May Have Tried to Mask Cheney's Role: "White House aides privately wonder whether Libby was seeking to protect Cheney from political embarrassment"

Media Tangled in Lobbyist Case: "The case sheds light on how AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential lobbies, devotes considerable energy to working the press."

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Election 2004 Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?

Group Trains Air Force Cadets to Proselytize Religious extremists training to use nuclear weapons.

Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Why the US will lose: "The United States...was oblivious to the simple truth that society is not just a political movement that can be conquered, or a number of individuals who may be apprehended, bribed or even killed. It is all the living people in a given country. Like other live societies, Iraqi society possesses huge capabilities -- a sophisticated legacy, ancient civilisations and an experienced patriotic movement. American strategists, while building their model for Iraq, missed or disregarded the fact that social movements are based on solid realities and lived experience, and cannot just be created on the whim of a political decision or through insidious forms of pressure. The Iraqis' experience of US policies explains the failure of the occupation forces in controlling Iraqi society through ethnic intrigue and repressive measures. "

Zogby International: "Despite the lack of realism, however, West Wing viewers would prefer watching Sunday night?s debate to the real thing by a 67% to 28% margin. In fact, 77% of respondents say that real presidential debates are too predictable, while just 19% consider them a critical factor in their voting decision."

IRS Warning to Pasadena Church Part of Wider Effort - Los Angeles Times: "The agency has looked into other nonprofits for allegedly promoting political candidates."
Just coincidence that none of them were Republican.

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning - Los Angeles Times Separation of church and state

US intel on Iraq-Qaeda ties 'intentionally misleading': document - Yahoo! News

Press Gaggle by National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and Senior Administration Official Will tonight's Mystery Guest sign in please?
I have to give a photo ID to fly Delta, but apparently nobody knows who's on Air Force One.
Is this the first time an unnamed source spoke at a White House briefing?

TomDispatch - Tomgram: Mark Engler on the War Woes of Business: "Making the World Unsafe for Microsoft and Mickey Mouse"

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: A Cheney-Libby Conspiracy, Or Worse? Reading Between the Lines of the Libby Indictment

Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military No Child Left Behind

Senate approves billions in spending cuts - Yahoo! News: "more aptly called the 'Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act"

Democracy Now! | Al Sharpton: "Jim Crow Had Sons...He's a Little More Polished But the Results Are the Same"

Democracy Now! | Joseph Lowery Calls on Condoleezza Rice to Extend Voting Rights Act

Democrats: It's the War -- In These Times

Internet Archive: Details: Despotism

KR Washington Bureau | 10/31/2005 | Cheney's new security adviser linked to bogus information on Iraq

What the 'Shield' Covered Up: "the coverup worked"

FT.com / Middle East & Africa / Iraq - US "had no policy" in place to rebuild Iraq

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund: "Samuel Alito's America"

A patriot crashes the party: Instead, he says, the speech was the same old "fear-based mentality."

"And if we're operating out of fear," Palumbo says, "all we're going to do is shoot into the dark."

Fiction Genre Fits Big Pharma - Los Angeles Times: "According to the proposal, PhRMA would pay Phoenix a six-figure sum for the marketing and production of a written-to-order fictional thriller. The plotline was what Hollywood would term high-concept - a group of shadowy terrorists conspires to murder thousands of Americans by poisoning the medicine they're importing from Canada to beat U.S. drug prices. "

Forex News Update - FX Analytics - Oct. 26 2005: "At the end of the day confidence in how the US is governed is reflected in part in the premium in the yield curve. If it turns out, through this investigation, that the justification for the war in Iraq was deliberately enhanced as in facts twisted, exaggerated or misconstrued, it would be a serious setback for global confidence, investor and otherwise, in the world's single superpower."

- toledoblade.com -: "A federal grand jury has indicted Tom Noe, the former Toledo-area coin dealer at the center of a state investment scandal, of illegally laundering money into President Bush's re-election campaign."

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers To Senate Intelligence Panel (10/27/05): "Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction"

Gary Leupp: Dialectics of the Plame Affair: "Around May 2002 Rumsfeld, Cheney and their underlings created an alternative intelligence body, the secret of Office of Special Plans, staffed with neocon agents including Douglas Feith, William Luti, Abram Shulsky, David Wurmser, and Michael Ledeen, supplementing it with the White House Iraq Group (formed in August 2002), including Libby, Andrew Card, Karl Rove, and Karen Hughes. The ... 'lie factory,' relying on Ahmed Chalabi and other Iraqi informants despised by the CIA as known liars to stovepipe cherry-picked 'intelligence' to the president, American people and the world in justification of a war on Iraq."

Herald.com | 10/23/2005 | Publix wary of tomatoes More background in the story than the particular incident at issue: evidence of the importance of buying organic.

List of Foiled Plots Puzzling to Some: "the White House overstated the gravity of the plots "

Miers' Answer Raises Questions - Los Angeles Times: "Are they trying to set her up?"

FT.com / World / US - Bush backs away from timetable for setting up Palestinian state Surprised?

Democracy Now! | Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"

FT.com / World / US - Cheney cabal hijacked US foreign policy Financial Times now officially part of the radical left.

Rice Declines to Give Senators Timeline for Iraq Withdrawal "Permanent instability or civil war in Iraq could set back American interests in the Middle East for a generation -- increasing anti-Americanism, multiplying the threats from tyrants and terrorists and reducing our credibility."

Gosh, Dick, what could make you say such things? Here, better drink this kool-aid from the RNC...

Niger Uranium Forgery Mystery Solved?- by Justin Raimondo: "Previous versions of the report were redacted and had all the names removed, though it was possible to guess who was involved. This version names Michael Ledeen as the conduit for the report and indicates that former CIA officers Duane Clarridge and Alan Wolf were the principal forgers. All three had business interests with Chalabi"

Operation Mockingbird - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lawmaker's Abramoff Ties Investigated Bob Ney makes the Washington Post front page. Will media in Ohio again ignore it?

Let those dopers be - Los Angeles Times: "our draconian approach to drug use is the most injurious domestic policy since slavery"

Venezuela Attorney General Accuses CIA of Judge�s Murder - Prensa Latina AFP's somewhat longer report on this story is on the top wire headlines on Le Monde. "La Prensa Latina" is one of two sources that have the story in English.

Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq | AfterDowningStreet.org: "50% agreed with the statement:
'If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him.'"

Documents Show Air Force May Have Pushed Christianity - Los Angeles Times "In June, a Pentagon investigation found that Christian professors at the Air Force Academy used their positions to promote Christianity, and documented instances of religious slurs, jokes, and disparaging marks directed at non-Christian cadets. Yet the investigation found no "overt religious discrimination" at the school."

Herald.com | 10/10/2005 | Blind Eye | Research cuts stifle hurricane forecasts

Direction of Country Neo-Con Kool-aid losing its effect. 66% say US on wrong track.

And 59% say we should leave Iraq ASAP(scroll down).

Democracy's Power Fades as Iraq Panacea - Los Angeles Times It's the occupation, stupid.

The Jewish Exponent - Philadelphia, PA: "AIPAC is committed to paying for the legal defense of Rosen and Weissman because of an indemnification clause in employee contracts. AIPAC employees sign an agreement that protects them from legal harm until all appeals are exhausted, according to a source close to the defense of Rosen and Weissman who has firsthand knowledge of the clause.... It has been previously reported that AIPAC's bill for the pair's defense had topped $1 million."

Of course, not having seen the particular indemnity clause, it would be very unusual for an employer to defend an ex-employee from liability for acts that were done outside the scope of their employment. In other words, AIPAC doesn't want to take the risk that Rosen and Weissman might claim that they were doing exactly what their employer hired them to do.

This also leaves the question: if Abbe Lowell's defense of Rosen has already cost that much, how much is he charging Jack Abramoff... and who's paying Abramoff's legal bills?

Think Progress - Right-Wing House Twists Arms, Thwarts Democracy To Pass Oil Industy Windfall Watch the QT video. (Server slow)

Internet Archive: Details: George Bush Don't Like Black People

Reuters Business Channel | Reuters.com Plame investigation generates 22 indictments?

Salon.com News | Saving Ohio Ad Viewing Required.
According to several knowledgeable sources, the Blade's chief political columnist, Fritz Wenzel, was told of Noe's potential campaign violations as early as January 2004. But according to Blade editors, Wenzel never gave the paper the all-important tip in early 2004.

Wenzel says that he heard allegations of Noe's misdeeds only in spring 2004 and that he promptly informed his editors of them.

Wenzel, who worked for years as a GOP political operative in Oregon before the Blade hired him, quit the Blade in May 2005 to take a job as a paid political consultant to Jean Schmidt, the Republican congressional candidate who in August narrowly defeated Democratic challenger (and Iraq war vet) Paul Hackett.

Defense Analyst Guilty in Israeli Espionage Case

Troops receive light sentences for violent crimes against Iraqis: "Of the 1,038 separate charges, fewer than one in 10 involved crimes against Iraqis.... Charges involving Iraqi victims were three times more likely to be dismissed or withdrawn by the Army than cases in which the victims were soldiers or civilian military employees, the examination found."

Buffalo News - Rumors of rescue copters under fire unfounded: "representatives from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Louisiana Air National Guard say they have yet to confirm a single incident of gunfire at helicopters"

- toledoblade.com - On Oct. 22, 2002, Mr. Noe extended a $40,000 loan to the county party he once chaired.

The party’s candidate fund bought $40,000 worth of television air time that next day for Maggie Thurber’s successful run for county commissioner.

Mr. Noe gave a separate $25,000 loan to the county party in October, 2004. It repaid only $2,000 of the combined $65,000 in loans.

At the time of the loans, Mr. Noe’s wife, Bernadette Noe, chaired the county party. Mr. Haynam said that the Noes told the party they always intended for the $65,000 to be contributions, even though Mrs. Noe approved the $2,000 repayment.

Attytood: UPDATED: New Supreme Court nominee's ties to Bush's National Guard scandal

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "The Israelis suggested that the investigators pass on their questions in writing and Israel will give a written reply. "

- toledoblade.com -: "He was such a prolific Republican fund-raiser he was named a 'Pioneer' by the Bush-Cheney re-election committee for raising between $100,000 and $250,000 for the President."
raising = stealing

ABC News: One killed in apparent suicide bomb outside stadium

Miller's Big Secret: "New York Times reporter Judith Miller sat in jail for 12 weeks to protect the confidentiality of a very senior White House aide -- even though the aide repeatedly made it clear he didn't want protecting"

Generals Conclude U.S. Troops Exacerbate Iraq Campaign - Los Angeles Times: "The U.S. generals running the war in Iraq presented a new assessment of the military situation in public comments and sworn testimony this week: The 149,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem."

PEACE NOT WAR: Jukebox

KR Washington Bureau | 09/29/2005 | U.S. paying a premium to cover storm-damaged roofs: "The government is paying contractors an average of $2,480 for less than two hours of work to cover each damaged roof - even though it's also giving them endless supplies of blue sheeting for free."

Saudi Women Have Message for U.S. Envoy - New York Times: "Many in this region say they resent the American assumption that, given the chance, everyone would live like Americans. "

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund: "Brown's Revisionist History"

Officer Criticizes Detainee Abuse Inquiry - New York Times: "Army investigators seemed more concerned about tracking down young soldiers who reported misconduct than in following up the accusations and investigating whether higher-ranking officers knew of the abuses."

Bangkok Post Tuesday 27 September 2005 - Find the Brownie

Bush removal ended Guam investigation - The Boston Globe: "His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was confirmed in May 2003 without any debate. Rapadas had been recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003.
After taking office, Rapadas recused himself from the public corruption case involving Gutierrez. The new US attorney was a cousin of ''one of the main targets,' according to a confidential memo to Justice Department officials."

Untangling a Lobbyist's Stake in a Casino Fleet "It was a gangland-style hit straight out of "Goodfellas."

A man in a BMW was driving down a quiet side street after an evening meeting at his Fort Lauderdale office when a car slowed to a stop in front of him. A second car boxed the BMW in from behind, then a dark Mustang appeared from the opposite direction. The Mustang's driver pulled alongside and pumped three hollow-point bullets into the BMW driver's chest.

The dead man was Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, a volatile 51-year-old self-made millionaire, a Greek immigrant who had started as a dishwasher in Canada and ended up in Florida, where he built an empire of restaurants, hotels and cruise ships used for offshore casino gambling. Boulis's slaying, still unsolved four years later, reverberated all the way to Washington. Months earlier he had sold his fleet of casino ships to a partnership that included Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff."

Herald.com | 09/27/2005 | Arrests made in Boulis slaying: "Both are being charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder."

When Abramoff talks, people listen.

NOLA.com: T-P Orleans Parish Breaking News Weblog#082732: "Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated
Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated "

Missteps Hamper Iraqi Oil Recovery - Los Angeles Times: "In an interview, one senior U.S. official managing part of the restoration effort jokingly described his knowledge level as 'Oil for Dummies.' "

Maybe he knows something about disaster relief?

The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fighters | csmonitor.com

Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration Abramoff, Rove, their mutual secretary, and Tyco's general counsel who's recently been nominated as Deputy Attorney General. Mind boggled yet?

Fiscal Policy: Why 'Stupid' Fits: "The idea seems to be that to help Katrina's poor and suffering victims, other poor and suffering people will have to sacrifice."

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "If a Democratic administration had pursued the fiscal policies and put the nation in the fiscal posture it's now in, the business community would be outraged and on the ramparts"

"the question is, Who is making policy in this country? Is it these six trade groups, or is it the elected representatives of the people?"

Think Progress - Progressives Can Do Better "it’s possible to cut far more unnecessary federal spending ($688 billion), accomplish it in half the time (just five years), and do it while upholding the principles of fiscal responsibility and concern for the common good."

GAO: Abstract: "GAO found numerous problems in DOD's processes for recording and reporting costs for [the global war on terrorism], raising significant concerns about the overall reliability of DOD's reported cost data. As a result, neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details on how appropriated funds are being spent, or have historical data useful in considering future funding needs."

Pentagon has yet to deliver Halliburton documents: "To add insult to injury, the Army in July gave KBR a $4.97 billion one-year contract to provide logistics support for U.S. troops in Iraq, a move that came in the midst of criticism aimed at Halliburton and the government's contracting practices. Additionally, Halliburton had already earned $9.1 billion from logistics work in Iraq.

In the past year, Halliburton stock has more than doubled. It went up from $31.40 to $66.44, according to Morningstar.com."

Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES: "'There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery.'"

U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Former GSA Official Charged with Making False Statements, Obstructing Federal Investigation"

- toledoblade.com -: "Unless we change the system, we're going to get the same results. If we elected all Democrats -- same system, same results"

Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado - Aspen Times Weekly Editorial: "Bleeding-heart liberals who are claiming that Ms. Nature was only acting in self-defense, protecting herself from an administration bent on destroying her, are being rounded up and sent to New Orleans to 'tread water 'til they get their minds right.' President Bush has been uncharacteristically candid in admitting that this war will probably take a terrible human toll. He suggested that the fact that the vast majority of the casualties will be poor and black is the only thing that takes some of the sting out of it."

KRT Wire | 09/16/2005 | Lawyer's firing came after call from Rove

Clinton Gathers World Leaders: "each of the attendees is required to commit to doing something to improve the world."
Intellect: The anti-Bush.

E-mail suggests government seeking to blame groups - The Clarion-Ledger

Why the '74 VW Dasher leaves your Prius in the dust: "Bush would no more force his Big Auto pals to overhaul their terrible fuel technologies than he'd force Karl Rove to give up his beloved raw puppy hearts and eat a salad. "

Heavy contamination of New Orleans sediment hinders testing - Yahoo! News: "The sediments in parts of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes are so contaminated with petroleum products that the EPA hasn't been able to sort out what other potentially hazardous chemicals are spread across the region"

World leaders shake heads as reforms to check nuclear arms spread dumped - Yahoo! News: "the United States had vehemently objected to focusing on disarmament"

Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows - Yahoo! News

HoustonChronicle.com - Golf fundraiser raises money for secretive fund "Since last year's indictments, [Republican fundraisers] Ellis and Colyandro [who were indicted on additional charges yesterday, according to this page A17 WP story] have had their legal bills paid for by a trust that does not disclose the names of donors....The defense fund is administered as a trust by former Bexar County GOP Chairman Roy Barrera Jr."

Los Angeles Times: Only until further notice: "In the French Quarter, a south-facing brick wall atop Antoine's crumbled, exposing timbers and the old building's attic to the elements. Over the weekend, soldiers for the 82nd Airborne tarped the gap"

No doubt they're putting tarps on the roofs of homes in the poorer neighborhoods, too.

Spending on environment yields big returns: report - Yahoo! News: "every dollar spent on clean water and sanitation in the Third World, for instance, could bring $14 in benefits ranging from lower health care costs to higher work productivity and school attendance....
Every dollar invested in fighting land degradation and desertification, like building terraces to stop hillside erosion, could generate at least $3 in benefits...
And every dollar invested in protecting coral reefs could generate $5, ranging from scuba-diving tourism to renewable fish stocks....
The carbon storage or 'sequestration' potential of forests ranges between $360 and $2,200 per hectare."

Boing Boing: Katrina: Kanye remixed, "George Bush Don't Like Black People"

Now They Tell Us

AlterNet: Overkill in New Orleans: "Officially, Blackwater says its forces are in New Orleans to 'join the Hurricane relief effort.'...But what has not been publicly acknowledged is the claim, made to us by two Blackwater mercenaries, that they are actually engaged in general law enforcement activities including 'securing neighborhoods' and 'confronting criminals.'...They told us they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal force.
...Later we overheard him on his cell phone complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per diem."

Meanwhile, New Orleans police officers earn a starting salary of $32,625 per year including uniform allowance; Louisiana State Police earn a starting salary of $3050 per month - each after completion of a year in the Police Academy.

So, I guess they didn't suspend the prevailing wage law for mercenaries.

Did FEMA Chief Brown's Payment of Millions in False Insurance Claims Help Bush Win Fla. Votes in '04? | BaltimoreChronicle.com

Quoting Bible, Cutting Worker Pay: "The suspension applies to more than 100 counties and parishes in the states hit by Katrina - indefinitely, for all contracts, whether or not they are meant to clean up and rebuild devastated areas. The order cancels 'prevailing wages,' which assure that workers on federal jobs receive hourly pay akin to workers doing similar work in those areas. Prevailing wages in the Deep South states are barely above poverty: $9.55 an hour, for example, for a construction laborer in New Orleans. "

Returning war wounded strain veterans' services: The Daytona Beach clinic is "'12 to 13 people short, including nurses. Doctors have to call in their own patients,'....Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported being underfunded by billions. The underfunding occurred because the budget is figured three years ahead, and no one could have anticipated 'two wars and the additional demand placed on the system,' a VA spokesman said."

Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan: "The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons."
Like the ones found in Iraq.

Funding the public health response to terrorism

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: September 04, 2005 - September 10, 2005 Archives: "from the WSJ: 'Ten U.S. Army recruiters are offering volunteer help for Katrina evacuees at Houston's Astrodome. But the recruiters, struggling to keep enlistment up during Iraq war, are also available with options for the jobless. 'Our intent is to approach the evacuees at the right time for them,'' says Army spokesman Douglas Smith.'
"

Evelyn J. Pringle: Douglas Feith's Platinum Parachute War Pays

Air Force Times - News - More News: "Federal emergency officials are directing hurricane-aid supplies to areas where they aren't needed, an Air Force official says, and the result is a backup at Little Rock Air Force Base of shipments of international aid intended for Hurricane Katrina victims in the Gulf Coast region."

POLITICS-US: A Hyperpower With Feet of Mud: "Its technology may be second to none, but, in the hands of hopelessly incompetent, unaccountable and, in some cases, clearly corrupt politicians and their cronies, it can provide neither adequate supplies of electricity to 24 million Iraqis two years after taking control of Baghdad, nor adequate supplies of food, clean water, sanitation, transportation or shelter to hundreds of thousands of its own citizens within just a few days of a major natural disaster."

The Telegraph Online "Many Sept. 11 loans went to those who didn’t need them."

TIME.com: How Reliable Is Brown's Resume? It's not.

Brown's bio on FEMA.gov
Brown was never an "assistant city manager" nor was he ever a "professor."

Attytood: "How do you know that we're finally taking the situation in New Orleans seriously? We're sending in the private mercenaries"

The Black Commentator - Unbearable Crime on the Mississippi - Issue 149 - September 8 2005: "Even people who own land there are going to be in deep trouble trying to hold onto it when the real estate boondoggle gets in the courts. I'm afraid we'll be reading a lot of stupid crap about how they couldn't be found, taxes were owed, etc. as in times past throughout the South....And the developers are probably asking for eminent domain to be declared even as I'm typing."

Yahoo helped Chinese to prosecute journalist: printer friendly version: "Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Cisco and other major Internet service and equipment providers have come under scrutiny for helping China to monitor and censor content available to China's 100 million Internet users."

Welcome to WorkingForChange The War on Weather

Project Censored

Oil-for-Food Panel Rebukes Annan, Cites Corruption: "It also accused U.S. officials of approving 'the single largest episode of oil smuggling' out of Iraq, by Jordan, in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The United States and Jordan declined Volcker's requests for interviews and documents, the report said, saying his panel had no authority to investigate oil smuggling outside the oil-for-food program."

Letting Predatory Lending Back Out of Its Cage: Federal, State Officials Warn That Federal Bill Would Weaken Protections in States: "Ney-Kanjorski Bill Would Roll Back State Protections for Consumers, Spur New Abuses"

AlterNet: The Bigotry of Low Expectations: "As Katrina wiped out New Orleans' communications infrastructure, panicky rumors of violence in evacuation centers quickly filled the airwaves. The only problem--few of the reports were true. "

West 'Registers' No. 1 Album Debut The Dixie Chicks effect.
Also the top album download on iTunes yesterday and today.

Navy Pilots Who Rescued Victims Are Reprimanded - New York Times: "In protest, some members of the unit have stopped wearing a search and rescue patch on their sleeves that reads, 'So Others May Live.'"

Hurricane KATRINANWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
4 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA HEADED FOR THE
NORTHERN GULF COAST...
PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED THIS EVENING....
COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED. SIGNIFICANT STORM SURGE FLOODING WILL OCCUR ELSEWHERE ALONG THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST.

Totally unexpected.

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Breaking News Weblog: "Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, 'We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.'

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, 'You're doing a heck of a job.'

That's unbelievable."

That's our Bush.

CBC News: Race issue haunts President Bush in his response to Katrina

White House Enacts a Plan to Ease Political Damage - New York Times: "In a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove's tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats. "
"White House political operation had fallen short in part because the president and his aides were scattered outside Washington on vacation, leaving no one obviously in charge"
Where's Al Haig when you need him?

Hurricane Katrina and the War in Iraq: "WGNO-TV, the ABC affiliate in New Orleans, reported on August 1 that 'Dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators are now abroad,' warning that 'in the event of a major natural disaster, that could be a problem.' They interviewed Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard, who observed that 'The National Guard needs that equipment back home.'"

calendarlive.com: A warning sent but left unheeded On Sept. 2 Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."

Mercy Corps > Countries > Hurricane Katrina: A highly regarded secular charity focusing on both short- and long-term needs of hurricane survivors, their plan is:
"# Helping kids get back to school and deal with the trauma. ...
# Getting people to work and small businesses up and running. ...
# Finding and supporting those who fall through the cracks. ...we will target this often-marginalized group of people."

Reports that looting started before the hurricane

ABC News: Evacuation Disrupted by Gunshot Report: "we have a report that one shot was fired at a Chinook helicopter,' Schneider said, adding that the Chinook is 'an extremely large aircraft.'
Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, said she had no such report.
'We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on,' she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft."

Notice how Operation Blessing is prominently featured among organizations seeking donations for hurricane relief? How, in otherwise alphabetical lists of a dozen or more charities, Operation Blessing appears second after the American Red Cross?

What's unstated in these appeals is that Operation Blessing was founded by Pat Robertson, who continues to serve on its Board of Directors and to take credit for its charitable works. One might not realize that from Operation Blessing's website, either, which identifies its founder only as "M.G. Robertson."

Tax filings fail to disclose what percentage of the charity's revenues is spent on assassins.

FairEconomy.org - Labor Day report: CEO: worker pay ratio shoots up to 431 : 1: "The ratio of average CEO pay (now $11.8 million) to worker pay (now $27,460) spiked up from 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004. If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the US would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour. [At top defense contractors] average CEO pay increased 200% from 2001 to 2004, versus 7% for all CEOs....

[T]he report singled out for praise two bosses worthy of membership in an ''Executive Pay Hall of Fame.'' Brad Anderson, CEO of consumer electronics retailer Best Buy in 2003 decided to forgo $7.5 million in stock options and instead gave them to ''outstanding non-executive employees,'' the report said. At supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, it added, CEO John Mackey's pay is limited to no more than 14 times the average workers' pay."

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Election 2004: "the media has ignored the fact that Noe is also former Chair of the Lucas County Board of Elections, a major Bush-Cheney donor, and a key player in the theft of Ohio's 2004 electoral votes. He is reportedly under federal investigation for laundering money into the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign."

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund: "Here's the Story of a Hurricane"

Lexington Herald-Leader | 08/29/2005 | Fletcher grants amnesty to 9 charged in probe Gov. Ernie Fletcher tonight pardoned nine current and former officials who have been indicted along with anyone who “might … be charged.”
No trials, no convictions. Just pardon 'em all and let God sort it out!

3.082605BC2_toon.jpg (JPEG Image, 504x315 pixels)

ZNet |Iraq | How Easily We Have Come To Take The Bombs And The Deaths In Iraq For Granted: "But hold on a moment, I say to myself again. The 7 July bombings would be a comparatively quiet day in Baghdad....

And it dawns on me, sitting on my balcony over the Mediterranean at the end of this week, that we take far too much for granted. We like to have little disconnects in our lives. Maybe this is the fault of daily journalism - where we encapsulate the world every 24 hours, then sleep on it and start a new history the next day in which we fail totally to realise that the narrative did not begin before last night's deadline but weeks, months, years ago."

Halliburton Contract Critic Loses Her Job While so many others got medals...

Measuring the Economy May Not Be as Simple as 1, 2, 3: "Don't believe the numbers."

AP Wire | 08/27/2005 | SEC lawyer critiques Petro's handling of investment warnings: "'Why wouldn't they care when constituents' money is at stake?'"

Independent Online Edition > Middle East : app3: "She was the Iraqi activist who became a symbol of the possibility of a brighter future for Iraq...'But look what has happened: we have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years.'"

US Pentagon to hold Caspian Sea energy security confab in Germany - Irna: "Participants and observers are expected from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhastan, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, NATO, the US Departments of State, Defense and Energy, academia, private industry and consulting. "

But no war opponents, even host country Germany.

village voice > news > Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway, with Natalie Wittlin: "The Republican right wing is raising the Atta issue at a time when Bush is sinking in the polls, people are fed up with Iraq, and there are continuing questions about the administration's handling of 9-11 and the war on terror. One way to take some of the heat off is to shift the blame to Bill Clinton."

1010 WINS - ALL NEWS. ALL THE TIME.: Rangel Questions Dick Cheney's Health "A White House spokesman did not immediately comment."

Daily Egyptian Sp03 : American refugee Have you any idea why they're lying to you?

Local News - The Advocate - www.newarkadvocate.com: "Military recruiters can still talk to students at school, even if their parents filled out the opt-out form. According to Cameron Carr, recruiters are at his school, Licking Valley High School, every day.

Opting-out, as an increasing number of parents at Licking Valley have, creates a problem when students apply for colleges, said Dave Hile, principal at Licking Valley High School....'If (parents) tell us that we can't have that information for recruiters, then we cannot give out that information to colleges.' The reverse is true as well, also according to the No Child Left Behind Act. 'If one of our kids asks us to send their transcript to a university, as soon as we do that, recruiters must be treated in the same manner and we must give them access to that information,' Hile said."

- toledoblade.com -: "a kickback scheme that was institutionalized by this administration to reward their campaign contributors"

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: August 21, 2005 - August 27, 2005 Archives Recess-appointed U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton is doing exactly what his critics expected of him. He is sticking it to the world. . .hard and nasty.

Senatorial Courtesy, 8/26/2005 - The Texas Observer

A CIA Cover Blown, a White House Exposed "a series of misjudgments by White House officials"

Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion - New York Times: "The Bush administration is replacing the director of a small but critical branch of the Justice Department, months after he complained that senior political officials at the department were seeking to play down newly compiled data on the aggressive police treatment of black and Hispanic drivers."

Troop graves bear operation names - The Boston Globe: "It seems like it might be connected to politics."

Craving the cookie - OrlandoSentinel.com: Health & Medicine: "Kraft scientists continued to take part in meetings with Philip Morris researchers, leading to a 1998 memo that suggested applying their combined expertise in brain science and flavor perception to develop products.

The 'possible business implications' of such work included ways to shape people's perception of hunger and fullness, known as satiety. The memo stated that applications could include 'food/drinks whose aroma/flavor are engineered to influence satiety, drinkability, perceived freshness, mood, behavior, purchase intent, etc.'"

Inside Bay Area - Local News: "So why is a ranking Democratic operative who was convinced Republicans ``stole'' the 2000 election working for Diebold and O'Dell, a battlestate fund-raiser for Bush-Cheney 2004?"

Toxic waste sparks violent protest at China factory - Yahoo! News:Trigger for the demonstration omitted from the more widely circulated AP story.

"'Some children died of lead pollution and the demonstration might have been initiated by the parents.'...Residents said children were falling ill from high levels of lead that had poisoned water and vegetables in several villages in the area."

Three Texas surgeons were playing golf together and discussing surgeries they had performed. One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Texas. A concert pianist lost 7 fingers in an accident. I reattached them, and 8 months later he perfomed a private concert for the Queen of England." One of the others said, "That's nothing. A young man lost both arms and legs in an accident. I reattached them, and 2 years later he won a gold medal in field events at the olympics."

The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs. Several years ago, a cowboy, who was high on cocaine and alcohol, rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the horse's ass and a cowboy hat. Now, he's president of the United States."

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion: "The 'findings' about Democrat wrongdoing are not surprising considering that the three public faces of the nonpartisan group are very partisan Republican operatives -- including one who claims to be a sounding board for senior White House adviser Karl Rove. "

The Onion | Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Exception to the rule: "Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem indicate that its unilaterally imposed disengagement was never meant to start a peace process but rather to end one....'By giving up Gaza, the Israelis are winning 15 years advance in materialising their project,' Jarbawi explains. 'The formula for Sharon now is not land for peace, but land for time,' he added."

U.S. Diplomat Is Named in Secrets Case - New York Times: "The second-highest diplomat at the United States Embassy in Baghdad is one of the anonymous government officials cited in an Aug. 4 indictment as having provided classified information to an employee of a pro-Israel lobbying group"

Library Missing Roberts File A file folder containing papers from Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.'s work on affirmative action more than 20 years ago disappeared from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library after its review by two lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department in July

Religious Right Discovers Investment Activism

whatever already!

FindLaw's Writ - Klarevas: Will the Precedent Set by the Indictment in a Pentagon Leak Case Spell Trouble for Those Who Leaked Valerie Plame's Identity to the Press?

Rove's indictment: Perjury or Espionage?

Standing on the Shoulders of Perjury Law - Los Angeles Times: "Fitzgerald's 20-month-long investigation initially focused on whether administration officials had broken a federal law that made it a felony to knowingly disclose the identity of covert agents. But more recently, the inquiry is believed to have shifted to the question of whether officials -- including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove -- who discussed Plame with journalists may have misled Fitzgerald and his investigators."

Talk show hosts accuse Ney of intimidation: "A trio of West Virginia radio talk show hosts claim St. Clairsville GOP Rep. Bob Ney tried to intimidate them after they read newspaper stories on the air that raised ethical questions about Ney's relationship with a controversial Washington lobbyist. "

'Wash Post' Hit For Sponsorship Of 'Freedom' March: "'It is dismaying, to say the least, that I can be fired for participating in a peace march while my employer feels free to co-sponsor an event that so blatantly beats the drum of war,' [science reporter Rick] Weiss stated."

No comment from the political reporters or war correspondents, apparently.

U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq: "What we expected to achieve was never realistic "

But we did it anyway.

- toledoblade.com -: "Mrs. Noe was one of several coin-fund wives who benefited financially from their husbands' jobs."

THE NEWSROOM: Cheney + Pakistan = Iran: VP Helped Cover-Up Pakistani Nuclear Proliferation So US Could Sell Country Fighter Jets

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - International Issues: "Scandal-plagued Halliburton -- the oil services company once headed by Vice President Cheney -- sold an Iranian oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, say Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies' business dealings"

U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Culture of Corruption Grows: Sixth Bush Fundraiser..." UNDER INVESTIGATION: MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR A BASKETBALL TEAM

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "U.S. House Republicans, Beset by Scandal, Want Higher Donations"

:: Jack in the House :: How Jack Abramoff bought Congress ::

KR Washington Bureau | 08/11/2005 | Audit: Fraud drained $1 billion from Iraq's defense efforts: "a pattern of deception and sloppiness that squandered more than half the Defense Ministry's annual budget.....with about 20 American civilian advisers working alongside Iraqi defense chiefs..... [Defense minister] al-Dulaimi said, 'I blame those who posted them (the officials under investigation). And, by the way, the CPA posted them.'"

Iraqis thirst for water and power | csmonitor.com: "This summer, the third since the fall of Baghdad, has been the worst yet when it comes to basic services. Interruptions to electricity and water supplies - caused by both decay and sabotage - are driving up the frustrations of millions of Iraqis. "

LaTourette attributes flip-flop on CAFTA to tariff no one pays: "He's either been duped or is not being honest"

- toledoblade.com -: "Tom Noe used his American Express credit card from Thomas Noe, Inc.--the same entity he's accused of using as a vehicle to steal millions of dollars from Ohio's rare-coin funds--to contribute $10,000 to California's governor."

Criminal No. 1:05CR225: USA V.a Lawrence Anthony Franklin, Steven J. Rose, Keith Weissman

ZNet |Foreign Policy | Bigger Than AIPAC

Sirotablog: The D.C. Democratic Establishment's disconnect on Iraq: "in a memo sent to all Democratic House Members about what Democrats should learn from the Hackett race, the DCCC makes not one mention of the Iraq War and its effect on the election. Not one. It is as if the party is going out of its way to deny the importance of Democrats taking a strong position against the war"

CounterPunch: America's Best Political Newsletter: "In the 21st century job growth in the US economy has consistently reflected that of a Third World country--low productivity domestic services jobs. This goes on month after month and no one catches on--least of all the economists and the policymakers"

DIRELAND: THE REAL AIPAC SPY RING STORY--IT WAS ALL ABOUT IRAN

Country Joe McDonald, My First Protest Song And here, for comparison, is my latest protest song: Support the Troops

American Prospect Online - ViewWeb: "The new disclosure that Miller and Libby met on July 8, 2003, raises questions regarding claims by President Bush that he and everyone in his administration have done everything possible to assist Fitzgerald's grand-jury probe."

Banksy - News

Los Angeles Times: The myths of Hiroshima
Hiroshima Film Cover-up Exposed

U.S. Military Presence in Paraguay Stirs Speculation - Yahoo! News Paraguay reverses itself on exempting US troops from local and international law; speculation that the troop buildup is intended to establish control over a major aquifer in anticipation of a global water shortage.

Writers Group Won't Give Judith Miller 'Conscience in Media' Award After All: "The First Amendment is designed to prevent government interference with a free press. Miller, by shielding a government official or officials who attempted to use the press to retaliate against a whistleblower, and scare off other would-be whistleblowers, has allied herself with government interference with, and censorship of, whistleblowers. When your source IS the government, and the government is attempting to use you to target a whistleblower, the notion of shielding a source must be reconsidered. To apply standard practices regarding sources to hiding wrongdoing at the highest levels of government perverts the intent of the First Amendment."

Top military QC condemns Guantanamo trials. 02/08/2005. ABC News Online: "There has been condemnation from one of Australia's top military lawyers of the process set up by the United States to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including South Australian David Hicks.
Yesterday, the ABC obtained emails from two prosecutors with the US military commissions, saying the procedures are rigged and describing the cases being pursued as marginal."

- toledoblade.com -: "Currently being investigated for possibly laundering campaign donations to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and under civil and criminal investigation for his role with a failed rare-coin investment with state money, Mr. Noe's friendship has become a liability for many people."

- toledoblade.com -: "Special counsel sought in Noe case"

What Went Wrong in Ohio? (Harpers.org)

The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Election 2004: "New charges filed against Ohio Governor Bob Taft's former top aide have blazed a new trail between 'Coingate' and the GOP theft of the 2004 presidential election."

E.P.A. Holds Back Report on Car Fuel Efficiency - New York Times: "loopholes in American fuel economy regulations have allowed automakers to produce cars and trucks that are significantly less fuel-efficient, on average, than they were in the late 1980's"

- toledoblade.com -: "Tom Noe used state money to try to pump up an online gambling company in which he and other prominent Republicans were investors, records show."

State: Is a loud concert a state service?: "The Texas-based company says its lease with the Florida State Fair Authority means Clear Channel, a private company, and the Fair Authority, a state agency, have the same rights.
Because of that link to the state, Clear Channel says it should have immunity from local noise laws.
And more. Clear Channel also says it should not be required to pay county property taxes."

t r u t h o u t - Roberts Listed in Federalist Society Leadership Directory: "The questions about Roberts's involvement with the society may come down to the meaning of the word 'membership.'"

Shots to the Heart of Iraq: "Innocent civilians, including people who are considered vital to building democracy, are increasingly being killed by U.S. troops."

- toledoblade.com -: "That particular passage, I think, was not well written"

Independent Online Edition > Middle East : app4 Iraq: This is now an unwinnable conflict

Justices won't sit out case against Taft: "Authorities are trying to determine whether Noe illegally disguised donations to President Bush."

- toledoblade.com -: "The documents also show Mr. Noe authorized millions of dollars in loans from the state's Capital Coin funds - including $285,000 to himself - while using state money to foot the bill for legal work to fight public records requests to release coin-fund documents."

nbc4i.com - News - Consultant: BWC Investments Showed 'Inadequate Oversight'

nbc4i.com - News - AG: Noe Took Nearly $4 Million Improperly

Memo Gets Attention in Probe of CIA Leak - Yahoo! News: "the memo focused on Wilson's trip and the State Department intelligence bureau's disagreement with the White House's claim about Iraq trying to get nuclear material. He said the fact that the CIA officer and Wilson were husband and wife was largely an incidental reference."

Report Shows Karl Rove May Have Lied to Federal Agents, a Federal Crime, During Oct 2003 Testimony Into CIA Agent Leak: "During questioning by the FBI about his role in the Plame affair, Rove told federal agents that he only started sharing information about Plame with reporters and White House officials for the first time after conservative columnist Robert Novak identified her covert CIA status in his column on July 14, 2003."

New York's Premier Alternative Newspaper. Arts, Music, Food, Movies and Opinion: "The crime is that hundreds, if not thousands, of journalists and politicians in this country have over the years cheerily honored this vile, scum-sucking pig of a human being by calling him names like 'genius' and 'boy wonder' and 'wizard'--as though the business of Rove's life was somehow cute, quirky and lovably mischievous."

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Two-thirds believe London bombings are linked to Iraq war: "Two-thirds of Britons believe there is a link between Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq and the London bombings"

The New Yorker: Fact: "Did we have eleven hundred Americans die--the number of U.S. combat deaths as of last September--so they could have a rigged election?"

Study cites seeds of terror in Iraq - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Middle East - News: "New investigations by the Saudi Arabian government and an Israeli think tank -- both of which painstakingly analyzed the backgrounds and motivations of hundreds of foreigners entering Iraq to fight the United States -- have found that the vast majority of these foreign fighters are not former terrorists and became radicalized by the war itself."

CASUALTY OF WAR: THE U.S. ECONOMY: "It's not worth the price of what we're paying."

nbc4i.com - News - Taft Asks Supreme Court To Block Depositions

nbc4i.com - News - Probe Targets Republican's Donation To Election Official

In Plame Leaks, Long Shadows: "It is now clear: There has been an element of pretense to the White House strategy of dealing with the Plame case since the earliest days of the saga."

You don't say.

ColdType - Writing Worth Reading From Around The World "… THIS WAR WILL NOT END IN ANY OF OUR LIFETIMES … "
Norman Solomon talks to Adrian Zupp . . .
JOHN PILGER … LONDON BOMBS BELONG TO BLAIR AND BUSH
TOM ENGELHARDT… MAKING THE WORLD UNSAFE FOR DEMOCRACY

TPMCafe || Politics, Ideas & Lots Of Caffeine: "The Big Lie About Valerie Plame"

Paul Craig Roberts: The No-Think Nation Not only has our government demonstrated an inability to think before rushing to war, it cannot think about the economy either.

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | CIA Leak Quotes

Bush Adviser Helped Law Firm Land Job Lobbying for CNOOC: "Members of the intelligence board, known as PFIAB, are granted the highest security clearance and develop top-secret advisories and reports for the president, most of which are not even available to members of Congress....The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on the national security implications of the CNOOC bid."

The Impeachment Question

TheStar.com - Pliant American press behaving like Pravda in coverage of the U.S. president: "The Senate committee promised last summer to probe what role the White House may have played in concocting the faulty intelligence -- but only after the presidential election.
Once the president was re-elected last fall, the Senate committee chairman, Republican Pat Roberts, simply cancelled the promised investigation of the White House's role, insisting it would be 'a monumental waste of time to replow this ground any further.'
Replow it further? How about plowing it once?"