October 10, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

Bush's 'Axis of Evil' Comes Back to Haunt United States - Nearly five years after President Bush introduced the concept of an "axis of evil" comprising Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the administration has reached a crisis point with each nation: North Korea has claimed it conducted its first nuclear test, Everything this administration has done since its inception has done great harm not only to its own citizens, but to the rest of the world as well.
http://tinyurl.com/lazth

Bush committed "one of the great diplomatic blunders of our time
http://tinyurl.com/nfmu5

ALERT #1

North Korean test 'went wrong,' U.S. official says
http://tinyurl.com/fuct9

ALERT # 2

Vicious Attacks on Anti-Bush Demonstrators in Portland - I have been to many protests, witnessed countless acts of police brutality, but none compare to what I saw today. Bean bag guns, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and billy clubs; all of them used to attack peaceful protestors. Friends of mine were trampled by horses, beaten by billy clubs, and pepper sprayed severely. All in an disgusting display of extreme police brutality. My hands are still shaking and my eye still hurts from pepper spray so I will try to write this as best as I can...
http://tinyurl.com/gffwh

ALERT # 3

Wave of Party Switchers Hits Republicans - Citing extremism, more GOPers are joining the Democrats. – I want to quit the Republicans and join the anarchists, but I can't seem to find their office.
http://tinyurl.com/rc6wq

and you get:

Suddenly, Democrats are the Official Morality- and Anti-Terrorism Party http://tinyurl.com/f2e4s

WAR

Baker Commission Proposes the United States of Iraq
http://tinyurl.com/n8apt

An NBC correspondent explains just how bad Iraq really is: "I'm more puzzled by comments that the violence isn't any worse than any American city. Really? In which American city do 60 bullet-riddled bodies turn up on a given day, or headless bodies of ordinary citizens turn up every single day, or the neighborhood school children were blown up, or you would look the other way if gunmen came into restaurants and shot the customers dead?"
http://tinyurl.com/nnfs6

White House Rejects North Korea Talks - The Bush administration rejected anew Tuesday direct talks with North Korea and said it would not be intimidated by a reported threat from Pyongyang that it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. acts to resolve the standoff.North Korea stepped up its threats, saying it could fire a nuclear nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. acts, the Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday from Beijing
http://tinyurl.com/o9eb5

Have you heard . . . - Neighbors report that Israeli soldiers had been beating her husband because he wasn't answering their questions. Foolishly or valiantly, how is one to say, the 35-year-old woman had interfered. She tried to explain that her husband was deaf, screamed at the soldiers that her husband couldn't hear them and attempted to stop them from hitting him. So they shot her. Several times
http://tinyurl.com/ea3y3

POLITICS

Did Carville and McCurry Sell Kerry Out?
http://tinyurl.com/jz4nv

THE WHITE HOUSE
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"It is always the secure who are humble." - G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
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On Borrowed Time (and Money) Lost Wars and a Lost Economy - President Bush and his neocon flaks have simultaneously lost two wars and America's economic future.
http://tinyurl.com/ljwk3

Should presidents be allowed to serve more than 2 terms?: Bills introduced in Congress to repeal 8-year restriction of 22nd Amendment ….(with Reagan maybe, not this nut)!
http://tinyurl.com/mq6fq

Bush’s Signing Statement Dictatorship - President Bush has once again decreed that his personal pen is the highest law of the land.In a statement issued on October 4, 2006, he announced that he would ignore many provisions of the Homeland Security appropriations act he signed earlier in the day.His action vivifies that the rule of law now means little more than the enforcement of the secret thoughts of the commander in chief -James Bovard/Future of Freedom Foundation
http://tinyurl.com/o9eb5

George Bush's War of the Words - "You know a person by the company he or she keeps - so the saying goes. You could also say that you know an administration by the linguistic company it keeps; and though George Bush is usually presented as an inarticulate stumbler of a speech and news-conference giver, it's nothing short of remarkable how many new words and phrases (or redefined old ones) this president and his administration have managed to lodge in our lives and our heads."
http://tinyurl.com/nkall

Failed Empire: George Bush's War of the Words- The linguistic heritage of shame that adds up to a startling grab for extra-constitutional power Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch
http://tinyurl.com/g6qrk

LEGAL TOPICS

Translator Fired from FBI for Blowing Whistle on Intelligence Failures to Receive 2006 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award. Congatulations, Sibel Edmonds!
http://tinyurl.com/qo742

Trial set for 2 men accused of memo leak - Two men accused of leaking details of a memo that reportedly included references to President Bush discussing bombing Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera will face trial in April, a judge said Monday.White House officials have denied the report, calling the claims "outlandish and inconceivable." David Keogh, 49, a former Cabinet Office spokesman, and former parliamentary researcher Leo O'Connor, 42, are accused of violating Britain's Official Secrets Act
http://tinyurl.com/okcdq

Ney, still collecting federal salary, to appear in court this week
http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/101106/ney.html

Cunningham and his new pen pal – (As a winer – this one takes the cake!) - Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) is lashing out at the reporter who exposed his corrupt activities more than two years ago. - He adds, “Each time you print it hurts my family and now I have lost them along with everything I have worked for during my 64 years of life. I am human not an animal to keep whipping,” according to excerpts of the letter posted on the Union-Tribune’s website.
THE HILL

German Tells Court CIA Kidnapped Him - A German citizen testified Monday in a Spanish court that he was kidnapped and tortured by U.S. intelligence agents in 2003, then flown by the CIA to Afghanistan where he was imprisoned and abused for five months.Khaled al-Masri, 43, broke down in tears several times during his testimony before National Court Judge Ismael Moreno, who is investigating reports that the CIA used a Spanish airport to secretly transfer suspected terrorists to countries where they were tortured
http://tinyurl.com/ls6dr

ELECTION ISSUES

POLL: GOP Leaders Put Politics Ahead Of Protecting Teenagers…
http://tinyurl.com/qxgps

NYTimes/CBS poll: Bush has 34% approval; 83% think he's "hiding something or mostly lying" about Iraq - If only 17% think he is telling the truth about Iraq, how does he rate a 37% approval rating? Do 17% of Americans approve of being lied to?
http://tinyurl.com/hzul9

George Allen (R-VA) lied about stock options, said they were "worthless," actually worth $1.1 million (Do any of these guys now what the TRUTH is?)
http://tinyurl.com/k3chb

FOLEY AFFAIR MAY BE WATERLOO FOR REYNOLDS, REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS - In case you've been on an ocean voyage -- or simply exhibited better taste than most of us in ignoring this tawdry tale -- we have to start three years ago, when the House leadership became aware Rep. Mark A. Foley, himself a promising Republican congressman from Florida who made his money selling West Palm Beach real estate, was sending inappropriate e-mails and instant messages to House pages in their teens.
http://tinyurl.com/f3q9a

Elections in the USA: Justice and Perversion and the Perversion of Justice - Millions of fundamentalist Christians, who blindly supported the Republican Congress’ deadly War on Terror are in revolt against their Party because of its tolerance toward a single pervert -- overlooking the torture at Abu Ghraib, Israel’s massive bombing of Lebanon and the Bush Administration’s criminal abandonment of the hundreds of thousands of poor (mostly black) citizens in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
http://tinyurl.com/gh7ym

Rigged USA Elections Exposed
http://tinyurl.com/qzusp

SOME CHOICE: SOCIALIST DEMOCRATS OR FASCIST REPUBLICANS -There has been no redemption in having the GOP in charge of the entire federal government.The argument of voting for the lesser of two evils, meaning Republicans, loses its credence when one examines the record.And the record is clear: the GOP has developed a philosophy tantamount to fascism. Consider the following recent developments -Pastor Chuck Baldwin/NewsWithViews
http://tinyurl.com/g762x

Foley was ready to leave House until he was talked into running again - Disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley had two excellent job offers in the private sector this year when Rep. Tom Reynolds, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, talked him into seeking a seventh term.
http://tinyurl.com/hodre

Foley scandal a boon for Hastert’s opponent - Democrat John Laesch raked in $40,000 from online contributions. “Over the weekend, there were 20 to 30 people in the office that I’d never seen before,” Laesch told The Hill. “People were coming in with a $100 check and asking for a yard sign.”
THE HILL

GOP Rep. Kolbe was apparently close to the same Page with whom Foley had the lurid instant message chat. Coincidence?
http://tinyurl.com/efc5h

Men And Women Of Faith: Google "Abramoff, Marianas, Rove, Republicans, Forced Abortion"
http://tinyurl.com/lvco7

CNN poll: Most say Hastert should resign - A majority of Americans say that Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) should resign as Speaker of the House, according to a nationwide poll commissioned by CNN and made public Monday. - Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said Hastert should resign while 31 percent said he should remain as Speaker.
THE HILL

GOP House Speaker Denny Hastert speaks today about Foley child sex predator scandal... and he lies. But even better, he's caught by a Republican member of Congress.
http://tinyurl.com/zt8zm

Hastert Backs Out of Pa. Fundraiser - House Speaker Dennis Hastert and another Republican leader criticized for his role in the congressional page scandal will not be appearing at fundraisers on behalf of a Pennsylvania congressman who has admitted to an extramarital affair.
http://tinyurl.com/q4k67

Despite differences, Sen. McCain backs Graf - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has endorsed Randy Graf, a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and a former member of the Arizona House of Representatives, in his bid to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Jim Kolbe (R). Graf is facing an uphill battle against his Democratic rival, Gabrielle Giffords.
THE HILL

McCain Criticizes Clinton North Korea Policy
http://tinyurl.com/oj33e

ECONOMY
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“These are the men who, without virtue, labour, or hazard, are growing rich, as their country is impoverished; they rejoice, when obstinacy or ambition adds another year to slaughter and devastation; and laugh, from their desks, at bravery and science, while they are adding figure to figure, and cipher to cipher, hoping for a new contract from a new armament, and computing the profits of a siege or tempest.” Samuel Johnson
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Google On Its Way To World Domination...
http://tinyurl.com/mucn8

Falling Gas Prices--Micromanaged? - If the superelite wants Republicans in control, it is probably because they can be counted on to take this country into globalist socialism far more smoothly than the Democrats, who always get tied up in disruptive shenannigans (witness the Clinton era--although the Mark Foley debacle proves that Republicans are hardly free of this sort of thing). Here is one very interesting theory about what might be happening -Steven Yates/Peter Stojan
http://tinyurl.com/hcfro

Falling Gas Prices--Micromanaged? - If the superelite wants Republicans in control, it is probably because they can be counted on to take this country into globalist socialism far more smoothly than the Democrats, who always get tied up in disruptive shenannigans (witness the Clinton era--although the Mark Foley debacle proves that Republicans are hardly free of this sort of thing). Here is one very interesting theory about what might be happening -Steven Yates/Peter Stojan
http://tinyurl.com/hcfro

Free Enterprise Fund goes after Tester – (as if the horrendous spending and excessive tax cuts are not going to require new taxes to correct?????) - The ad, titled "Paint Job," depicts state senator Tester as eager to increase taxes on "everything from pick-up trucks to soda pop." While Tester has criticized Burns for supporting the Bush administration's steep tax cuts, last week he proposed his own tax relief package for homeowners and first-time homebuyers
THE HILL

911

Flight 93 'was shot down' claims book - However, the absence of any significant debris — including tail of the plane and wings — bewildered witnesses, relatives and, more importantly, some crash experts. They found it hard to believe that an airliner up to 155ft long, with two engines each weighing more than six tons, could have penetrated the ground so completely as to utterly disappear. Had it, in reality, been blown to pieces in mid-air? Certainly it is unclear how a single piece of fuselage the size of a dining room table could have been recovered from a marina in Indian Lake, a couple of miles away from the crash site — unless it fell from the sky during an aerial break-up.
http://tinyurl.com/ezsrs

CONGRESS

Hypocritical DeWine AWOL from Intelligence Committee - Indeed, DeWine's attendance ranks as among the worst of anyone on the Intelligence Committee, with only one other member missing more meetings.
http://tinyurl.com/nhemj

Federal Legislation Labels Activism As "Terrorism" - AETA labels the tactics of Martin Luther King and Gandhi as "terrorism." I
http://tinyurl.com/ew5xc

Kucinich to Hold Congressional Briefing on October Surprise “Is the Administration Ramping Up For A War Against Iran?”
http://tinyurl.com/kmy8c

They lied about Iraq’s WMDs; they’re lying about Iran’s - In the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, 30 September, the US Senate approved a bill authorizing sanctions that target foreign countries continuing (completely legal) nuclear cooperation with Iran. Lawmakers did add a caveat to the bill, warning that nothing in this bill should be “construed as authorizing the use of force against Iran.” -Luciana Bohne/Online Journal
http://tinyurl.com/o9eb5

DOMESTIC

Bush brings faith to foreign aid - President Bush has almost doubled the percentage of US foreign-aid dollars going to faith-based groups such as Food for the Hungry, according to a Globe survey of government data.And in seeking to help such groups obtain more contracts, Bush has systematically eliminated or weakened rules designed to enforce the separation of church and state -Boston Globe
http://tinyurl.com/lf2oy

Inequality Without Growth, Pain Without Gain - "It is an indisputable fact that there has been a massive increase in inequality in the United States over the last quarter century," writes Dean Baker. "However, the apologists for the policies that have brought about this massive upward redistribution of income claim that the benefits to the country in the form of more rapid economic growth offset any harm done by the growth in inequality. They have no case."
http://tinyurl.com/f2zsx

INTERNATIONAL

Sex Crimes and the Vatican
http://tinyurl.com/rs4pb

How Pakistani scientist sold bomb secrets to North Korea - North Korea's 23 million people have been in the grip of a paranoid Communist dictatorship since 1946.Instead of economic development, like South Korea, the leadership, under the country's revered founder Kim Il Sung, and his son Kim Jong Il, opted for repression and isolation.They decided long ago to develop nuclear weapons as an insurance policy against the hostile states on their doorstep -Anne Penketh/Independent UK
http://tinyurl.com/nu622

N Korea 'may be preparing second test': SOUTH Korean authorities suspect that the communist state might be preparing a second nuclear test after unusual activities were detected in a rugged area in North Korea today, a news report said.
http://tinyurl.com/nf2l2

The Cold Test: What the Administration knew about Pakistan and the North Korean nuclear program.
http://tinyurl.com/px4mc

MILITARY

Army Introducing New Slogan
http://tinyurl.com/fmsbj

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM

Fox News Makes Another "Mistake" - I just got tipped from our friends at Crooks and Liars that Fox News has once again identified a Republican as a Democrat and vice-versa.
http://tinyurl.com/q2n66

Wars and propaganda machines - Before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the neocon propaganda machine in the media, led by Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News (News Corp), assisted by a host of others, initiated an all-out propaganda campaign to persuade the American people that Saddam Hussein was really the villain behind the 9/11 attacks. They Succeeded well beyond belief.
http://tinyurl.com/mb7qt

Putin silent as fiercest critic is murdered : A crowd of protesters gathered in central Moscow on Sunday to express their anger at the assassination of the crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who at the weekend became the 13th Russian journalist to be killed in a contract-style killing since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.
http://tinyurl.com/qrhru

EDITORIALS - OPINIONS

Of Faux Democracy, Petty Tyrants, & Painful Realities Of Faux Democracy, Petty Tyrants, & Painful Realities - "The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves." (attributed to Dresden James)
http://tinyurl.com/lasnd

HUMAN RIGHTS

Human Rights Watch: UN: New Report Says Violence Against Women is a Human Rights Violation
http://tinyurl.com/jkq5p

SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS

Streisand has outburst at NYC concert
http://tinyurl.com/eog27