September 7, 2006

As long as we hate, there will be people to hate:
George Harrison: Musician, producer and composer, member of The Beatles,
1943-2001

Bush Tribunal Plan Ignores Supreme Court Ruling
Under the measure that President Bush proposed on Wednesday, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and other major terrorism suspects would face trials at Guantanamo Bay in military tribunals that would allow evidence obtained by coercive interrogation and hearsay and deny suspects and their lawyers the right to see classified evidence used against them.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806Z.shtml

Administration Proposes $12 Million Enron Settlement
The Labor Department proposed a $12 million agreement on Thursday with the estate of Kenneth Lay, the deceased founder of Enron Corp., to settle claims involving mismanagement of workers' pension plans.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090706R.shtml

Chris Floyd : Aid and Comfort: The New Bush-bin Laden Alliance :
Bush has never had the slightest intention of catching Osama bin Laden. He needs bin Laden like he needs air or water. Without bin Laden, he is nothing.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14865.htm

12,000 US Dead, 25,000 Badly Wounded In Iraq?
There is excellent reason to believe that the Department of Defense is deliberately not reporting a significant number of the dead in Iraq. We have received copies of manifests from the MATS that show far more bodies shipped into Dover AFP than are reported officially.
http://www.rense.com

Bush Aims to Kill War Crimes Act
Why are they doing it, and how can they be stopped?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14857.htm


Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous : William Proxmire


Bush 'Slush Fund,' Courtesy of Canada:
Turning trade deal into Republican ammo? Softwood deal pours $450 million straight into White House, says U.S. lawyer
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/08/29/SlushFund/

The Torturer's Apprentice By Ray McGovern
Grabbing the headlines today is the fact that Bush has admitted that the CIA has taken high-value captives to prisons abroad for interrogation using “tough” techniques. More telling is the fact that CIA interrogators are not bound by the strictures of the new Army field manual, and that the president is determined to maintain in place detention centers where CIA interrogators can ply their trade at his bequest.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14881.htm

Bush Lies About Torture:
Not that it should surprise anyone anymore, but yesterday's stomach-churning Bush speech defending torture contains this little number:
Bush is exploiting that ignorance to tell the American people an outright lie in order to convince them that we need to torture people. As Bush once said in another context, if this is not evil, then evil has no meaning.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=36597

Military lawyers clash with White House :
The Pentagon ‘s top uniformed lawyers took issue Thursday with a key part of a White House plan to prosecute terrorism detainees, telling Congress that limiting the suspects‘ access to evidence could violate treaty obligations.
http://www.newsone.ca/westfallweeklynews/ViewArticle.aspx?id=4843&source=2

Blair hit by wave of resignations :
Tony Blair has faced a wave of resignations by junior members of his government over his refusal to name a date for resignation as Labour leader.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5319328.stm

Blair jeered by college students :
Tony Blair was booed and faced chants of "out, out, out" by pupils at the school at which he made a statement about his future.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/5324608.stm

Kremlin envoy says Iraq turning into "terrorist corporation"
"It [Iraq] is literally turning into a terrorist corporation," he said. "But what is even more frightening is that the veterans of these events go to different countries and carry with them the virus of terrorism."
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060906/53579200.html

What Dropoff? August Death Total in Baghdad Morgue Triples
It turns out the official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/fromthefrontlines/

Book says CIA tried to provoke Saddam to war
More than a year before the invasion of Iraq the CIA devised a plan, codenamed Anabasis, to use Iraqi exile fighters to seize an air base and declare a revolt against Saddam Hussein in the hope that his response would create a pretext for war, according to a book published tomorrow.
The Downing Street memos exposed this a long time ago – where was the media?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1866298,00.html

REBELS 'CONTROL HALF OF AFGHANISTAN'
"Having effectively assumed responsibility for the country in 2001, the United States-led international community have failed to achieve stability and security in Afghanistan."
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17691724&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=rebels--control-half-of-afghanistan---name_page.html

Book: Bush told reporter Jews are 'all going to hell'
The quip never received wider media attention, even though the Austin American-Statesman reported it in December of 1998.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Book_Bush_told_reporter_Jews_are_0902.html

Is this Bush's secret bunker?
Today, as the Bush administration wages its war on terror, Mount Weather is believed to house a "shadow government" made up of senior Washington officials on temporary assignment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1859632,00.html

Another Scoop from 'Hubris': Plame Was Working on WMD
By revealing her identity, Armitage, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby harmed her career and put vital intelligence at risk, suggests co-author David Corn of The Nation.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003087385

FBI Suspected Rove and Libby Pre-Fitzgerald
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, investigating the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, found that two senior White House officials may have lied to FBI investigators.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090606J.shtml

Olbermann to Bush, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"
Keith Olbermann, on his show Countdown, questions the exportation of fear by President Bush during his 9/5/06 speech. Video provided by crooksandliars.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THYBCEoxlxI

Alerts aid terror goals, study finds Intense media scrutiny and politicians' rhetoric heighten sense of fear, researchers say
Three things can be expected from Bush's speech, according to a new study by three Columbia University researchers: The media will repeat the president's remarks. Public fear of terrorism will increase. And the president's poll numbers will rise.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/06/MNG52L01KC1.DTL

Closed hearings ordered in Libby CIA leak case
A federal judge has ordered a series of closed hearings to determine if Vice President Cheney's former top aide, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, can use certain classified information as a defense during his trial in the CIA/Leak case.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14705954

Wages down for 90% of Pa. workers
The rich really are getting richer in Pennsylvania. And, according to a new report on wages, everybody else is getting poorer.
Republican economics called fascism.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/15439530.htm

Median incomes dropping
And it's good news for most of you: Compared to Michigan and North Carolina you're not doing so badly after all. So stop your sniveling.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_09/009444.php

Fury as academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job'
Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=403757&in_page_id=1770

Why The 9/11 Conspiracies Won't Go Away
Although the 9/11 Truth Movement, as many conspiracy believers refer to their passion, has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, it is flourishing on the Internet.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1531304-1,00.html

Five Years After and We Still Don’t Know
The reason so many people doubt the 9/11 story is not because they have psychological needs for conspiracies, but because the 9/11 story is not believable.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14874.htm

Kucinich visits Lebanon & Israel and finally ‘gets it’- “This is diabololical!”
“Village after village was reduced to piles of rubble. We saw thousands of destroyed homes. We also saw bombed out hospitals, schools, factories, churches, mosques, fire stations, gas stations, cars, bridges, roads, water systems, electric systems, banana plantations, and lemon groves,” Kucinich said.
http://benfrank.net/blog/2006/09/03/kucinich_visits_lebanon_israel_and_finally_gets_it-_this_is_diabololical/

Bush and Lieberman Pollster Made Up Poll Results
The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of George W. Bush, US Senator Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results. Tracy Costin pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Costin, 46, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when she is sentenced November 30.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090706T.shtml

GOP secretly channeled millions to Lieberman
The White House funneled millions of dollars through major Republican Party contributors to Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s primary campaign in a failed effort to ensure the support of the former Democrat for the Bush administration.
http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Lieberman2.htm

Senate rejects limits on cluster bombs
The Senate on Wednesday rejected a move by Democrats to stop the Pentagon from using cluster bombs near civilian targets and to cut off sales unless purchasers abide by the same rules.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060906/ap_on_go_co/cluster_bombs_2

Senate panel scrubs vote on Bolton as U.N. envoy
Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, did not explain why the vote on whether to send Bolton's nomination to the full Senate was removed from the day's agenda and did not say if or when it would be taken up again….Senator Lincoln Chafee has pulled the plug on a push by his fellow Republicans to confirm John Bolton as UN ambassador, saying he had more questions that needed to be answered. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was expected to vote along party lines during a committee meeting Thursday to approve Bolton, but the panel postponed the vote after Chafee, R-Rhode Island, expressed doubt
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060907/pl_nm/bush_bolton_dc

Ohio Attorney Jailed Again Without Charges
A disbarred Ohio attorney who uncovered massive state and federal corruption has been illegally jailed again for allegedly practicing law without a license.
www.arcticbeacon.com

Pollster guilty of fake data conspiracy
A polling company owner admitted participating in a conspiracy to falsify data in order to meet deadlines for clients, which included the campaigns of President Bush, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Mayor John M. Fabrizi.
http://www.connpost.com/news/ci_4298956

Some voting woes were not so minor problems
The biggest problem was the shortage of Democratic ballots in predominantly African-American precincts on the city's Westside and in Northwest Jacksonville, said Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/090606/met_4863356.shtml

Former Ill. governor sentenced to 6 years
Former Gov. George Ryan, who was acclaimed by capital punishment foes for suspending executions in Illinois and emptying out death row, was sentenced to 6 years in prison Wednesday in the corruption scandal that ended his political career.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14703115

Ethnic Cleansing in New Orleans
Those who know their history will recognize the familiar patterns of Plutocracy at work. That is how the government has always treated the poor, just as it has always exploited the working class and sent them to die in wars not of their making. How could any but the ignorant and foolish dare call this democracy?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14885.htm

Nursing Home Owners Sue Over Katrina
Two nursing home owners who were arrested after 34 of their patients died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are suing the government, saying federal, state and local officials failed to keep residents safe and evacuate vulnerable citizens as the storm approached.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6060078,00.html

Study: Summer is Getting Longer
The lines between seasons are blurring and summer is getting longer in North America, a new study indicates.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060831/sc_space/studysummerisgettinglonger

THE DISCLOSURE PROJECT ANNOUNCES NEW ENERGY DISCLOSURE INITIATIVE
The Disclosure Project, in cooperation with Space Energy Access Systems Inc., has discovered that over the past 75 years a number of important breakthroughs in energy efficiency, alternate forms of energy generation and propulsion have been deliberately withheld from the public to prop up the oil, gas, coal, public utility and nuclear power industries.
http://www.seaspower.com/EnergyDisclosureDec122003.htm

Army shuns system to combat RPGs
Experts agree it might help save lives, so why isn’t it in the field?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14686871/

America's youth must serve their country, one way or another
The United States military has a very big problem: Too many global conflicts and commitments - and too few soldiers.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0905/p09s02-coop.html

LaRouche to Rumsfeld: FDR Defeated the Nazis, While Bushes Collaborated
LaRouche blasted Rumsfeld, reminding him that it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who defeated Hitler and the Nazis, while many American right-wingers of the 1930s and '40s were promoters of Mussolini, Hjalmar Schacht, and Hermann Goering.
http://www.larouchepac.com/pages/press_releases_files/2006/060903_bushes_nazis.htm

Our Fascism, and Theirs
In the Bizarro World of the neocons, it's always 1939
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9647

Global cancer rates could increase by 50% to 15 million by 2020
The report also reveals that cancer has emerged as a major public health problem in developing countries, matching its effect in industrialized nations.
Someone needs to track sugar intake and see how these two compare.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2003/pr27/en/

World Reacts to CIA Secret Prisons
"They have to admit that what they did was wrong," said Jehangir, who heads a U.N. panel that recently issued a scathing report about the detention of suspects at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "They cannot justify it in the name of terrorism and frightening people."
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=nation_world&id=4537574

Four friends allegedly beat a homeless man to death
Angry over a homeless man's catcall, four friends went on a "feeding frenzy," police said, beating the elderly man to death with a metal chair, a steel rebar, a rock and a wooden stick. Two men accused in Saturday's attack are the sons of Christian clergymen. All four have been charged with second degree murder.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/nation/15454273.htm

Evangelist drowns trying to walk on water
"He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus," an eyewitness told the Glasgow Daily Record….. Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof and the co-authors of his study theorize that a rare combination of optimal water and atmospheric conditions resulted in a unique, localized freezing phenomenon called "springs ice," according to Physorg.com, which specializes in news about science, technology, physics and space.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51760

Child Molestation Case Rocks the Ozarks
That was the beginning of a child sex scandal that has ensnared five leaders from two affiliated churches and cast a spotlight on a remote corner of the Ozarks that has long been home to spiritual communes, sheltered by deep oak woods, steep hills and a culture in which people keep to themselves.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060905/D8JURRJ80.html

Google developing eavesdropping software
The first thing that came out of our mouths when we heard that Google is working on a system that listens to what's on your TV playing in the background, and then serves you relevant adverts, was "that's cool, but dangerous".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/03/google_eavesdropping_software/

White House fighting an uphill battle to get John Bolton confirmed:
Democrats need to wake up and realize they have the votes to defeat the Bolton nomination. They’ve been lulled to sleep by the August recess and psyched out by the Republicans' phony show of confidence in Bolton's confirmation chances
http://snipurl.com/w0z3

All Hands on Deck to Defeat John Bolton's Re-nomination :
Diverse organizations are taking a stand to stop the re-nomination of John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
http://snipurl.com/w0z6

GOP Abandons Immigration Reform to Salvage Election Hopes
As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090506L.shtml

The New York Times In Search of Accurate Vote Totals
"It's hard to believe that nearly six years after the disasters of Florida in 2000, states still haven't mastered the art of counting votes accurately. Yet," write the editors of the New York Times, "there are growing signs that the country is moving into another presidential election cycle in disarray."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090506P.shtml

Word to the wise:
Despite assurances from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that there's not "that much" benzene in beverages, I can't help but be concerned that there's any at all. Benzene, a Class A carcinogenic, is linked to a higher risk of developing leukemia. Please note that benzene is cumulative in the body and at a certain point of concentration it can kill you. If you see benzoate (listed as sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate on the label) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid), know that benzene can form should it be exposed to heat and/or light. The level of benzene in Safeway Select Diet Orange was 79 parts per billion!
Mark Kestin, PhD, MPH, professor of nutrition and exercise science, Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington (Beware of Benzene in Your Beverages)

Got an Ant Problem? Use Aspartame
It may not be a great sweetener, but it seems to work just fine to get rid of any ants in your home.
http://www.mercola.com/2006/sep/5/got_an_ant_problem_use_aspartame.htm

Lactose-intolerant kids should have dairy, says AAP:
http://www.newstarget.com/020330.html

The Avalanche of Pharmaceutical lawsuits
Since 2000, 65,000 lawsuits have been filed against drug companies, more than against any other industry.
http://www.mercola.com/2006/sep/5/the_avalanche_of_pharmaceutical_lawsuits.htm