October 11,2006

THE THINKING SPOT

There is an awful lot of finger pointing going on right now when it comes to North Korea. The wingnuts are out in full force trying to put all the blame on Clinton (as if that should be shocking). They keep failing to mention exactly how it was that North Korea obtained their nuclear reactors.

ALERT

Evangelist Who Counseled Saddam Says Hastert Promises to Resign
http://tinyurl.com/kvp6d

WAR

US push for air strikes - PENTAGON hawks will try to persuade US President George W. Bush he should order immediate military air strikes to obliterate North Korean nuclear sites. (They can not talk. These people are homicidal maniacs!)
http://tinyurl.com/lh5mu

Rice says U.S. will not invade N. Korea ("Don't be silly. We don't invade countries that actually HAVE nuclear weapons! We're only invading countries that meet a strict criteria; they have oil, DON'T really have weapons of mass destruction, and Israel doesn't like them! That's why we are about to invade Iran.)
http://tinyurl.com/kzpt3

Why Did Bush Drop Ball On Inspectors in N. Korea? -I don't know about you guys, but I'd like some answers as to why the Bush Administration failed to require any inspectors in North Korea before we handed over a big, fat chunk of our money
http://tinyurl.com/zc26p

Study: Bush is Master of Death: Iraqi Death Toll Estimated At 600,000……Iraqi deaths 3X what they were before US invasion.
http://tinyurl.com/mgdjp

And They're Still Blaming Everything on Clinton.... - What Brooks and the rest of the conservative spinmeisters know that the rest of us don't is that Bill Clinton is at the head of a large conspiratorial organization--a top-secret group of highly trained covert operatives--that are responsible for every Bush administration failure.
http://tinyurl.com/myb5o

North Korea Warns of New Tests As Nuclear Standoff Intensifies - North Korea has warned that increased US pressure over its reported nuclear test would be considered an act of war and that it would respond with “physical” measures. In a statement carried by the state news agency on Wednesday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry also said North Korea was “ready for both dialogue and confrontation.” We get analysis from North Korea expert and University of Chicago professor Bruce Cumings -Democracy Now
http://tinyurl.com/ewgdk

FBI Agents Still Lacking Arabic Skills - Five years after Arab terrorists attacked the United States, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none of them work in the sections of the bureau that coordinate investigations of international terrorism, according to new FBI statistics.
http://tinyurl.com/otmlv

The Dear Leader vs. the War President - One thing is clear: money, lots of it, not war, is the most effective way of keeping North Korea on somewhat good behavior. Bribery is always far, far cheaper than war. The military options possibly being discussed by some "strike North Korea"boosters in Washington are all flawed, and potentially very dangerous.
http://tinyurl.com/ln5zs

Solving the Korean Stalemate, One Step at a Time - Jimmy Carter writes, "What must be avoided is to leave a beleaguered nuclear nation convinced that it is permanently excluded from the international community, its existence threatened, its people suffering horrible deprivation and its hard-liners in total control of military and political policy."
http://tinyurl.com/jd9h5

THE WHITE HOUSE

The Loser - "George W. Bush is making some history of his own these days. When all is said and done, he will go into the books as the first American president to lose two wars at the same time."
http://tinyurl.com/o6x4t

The Bush War on Iran, the US Constitution, and the UN Charter - Under Article I, Section 8, the Congress has the exclusive power to declare war. The Georgites and their Privatized Ministry of Propaganda would surely make the case that such an invasion is covered under the War Powers Act or the "fighting terrorism" resolution.
http://tinyurl.com/jcqhl

World War W --- George W. Bush’s presidency is deeply unpopular in America, and it is disastrously unpopular throughout the rest of the world. Faced with the probability that Bush will lose power through the midterm elections, the Republicans have been grasping at straws in pursuit of their neoconservative vision of a muscular and aggressive America on a permanent war footing in hot pursuit of the dreams of full-blooded military glory of PNAC. These Republican neoconservatives have a fifth column of support inside the Democratic Party.
http://tinyurl.com/luf9k

Bush committed "one of the great diplomatic blunders of our time" - On Friday, James Baker III was a guest on Don Imus's MSNBC show. He said, politely, that the Bush administration needs to talk more, especially to its "enemies," and that there's a lack of talk, and diplomacy, in general. It's quite clear that the Bush administration 1) doesn't know how to talk to other countries, and 2) has no appreciation for the importance of dialogue and carrot/stick diplomacy. - First of all James Baker was one of the people who created the Bush administration and put them in power. This was not a blunder".
http://tinyurl.com/nfmu5

SCANDAL

Hastert says that evangelist duped him
http://tinyurl.com/gtaau

Hastert Duped Into Letting Stranger Inside
http://tinyurl.com/mmp9h

Hastert Meets With Critic Over Scandal
http://tinyurl.com/z8stc

The Latest on the Man Hastert Let Troll for Pages: "I would turn on my instant messenger, and he would be online at all hours of the day or night. The talk would quickly turn sexual," he said. He says Foley requested that he send photos of himself performing sexual acts. If Hastert Didn't Know What Was Going On, He's Too Incompetent to be Running Congress. He Should be Removed Either Way, Because Either Way He is Not a Trustworthy Guardian of Our Nation's Youth.
http://tinyurl.com/hzf2b

Pages Who Exposed Foley: “It Was In The Best Interests Of Kids”...
http://tinyurl.com/gnkkg

POLITICS

Records Suggest Abramoff-Pombo Lobbying Contacts - "Over the past six years, our 'my way or the highway' president blew up a crucial nonproliferation agreement," writes Robert Scheer on US diplomacy with North Korea, "and then took every opportunity to personally insult the country’s reportedly unstable dictator because it played well politically at home."
http://tinyurl.com/rxy8r

GOP elites loathe evangelicals
http://tinyurl.com/qkfjf

LEGAL ISSUES

FBI investigating actions of Specter staff member -The FBI is investigating whether a member of Sen. Arlen Specter's staff broke the law by helping her husband, a lobbyist, secure almost $50 million in Pentagon spending for his clients, the senator acknowledged Tuesday
http://tinyurl.com/fyldd

Diocese in Iowa files for bankruptcy - After paying out more than $10.5 million to resolve dozens of sex abuse claims and now facing a new set of lawsuits, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
http://tinyurl.com/ftu6f

American Traitor? - For the first time in more than 50 years, federal prosecutors are preparing to charge an American citizen with treason.
http://tinyurl.com/n94n4

Jury Awards $11 Million Over Defamatory Internet Posts - Scheff says she wanted to make a point to those who unfairly criticize others on the Internet. "I'm sure (Bock) doesn't have $1 million, let alone $11 million, but the message is strong and clear," Scheff says. "People are using the Internet to destroy people they don't like, and you can't do that."
http://tinyurl.com/otxuc

Military Commissions Act shames the Constitution and weakens America - The Military Commission Act is breathtaking in its denial of fundamental rights under the Constitution and international law. The law re-establishes virtually intact President Bush's military tribunals, which were rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional."
http://tinyurl.com/errm5

McAfee CEO, chairman retires after probe (If computer security executives are willing to play "Enron" with their own companies, then we can no longer dismiss out of hand the theory that they also create and release many of the very viruses which force consumers to buy their products.)
http://tinyurl.com/flfsg

ELECTION ISSUES

Review Finds Mistakes On 5,100 Absentee Ballots -A weekend review revealed 5,100 ballots that have misprints of one form or another, ewsChannel5 reported.
http://tinyurl.com/h8jjw

Will it be a 51-49 Democratic Senate? (Not if Diebold has anything to do with it.)
http://tinyurl.com/pnckf

FOX News Exposes Princeton / Diebold Vote-Reversal Story (ask yourself -- would you get cash w/o a receipt? Why a vote then....)
http://tinyurl.com/e7262

Christianity is the best image - Remember the Jack Abramoff emails which demonstrated how top-level Republican insiders really feel about their evangelical base? Remember when Abramoff referred to co-conspirator Ralph Reed as "crazy, like other folks in the Christian Coalition"? (You'd think that these revelations would've clued in the Jesus voters.)
http://tinyurl.com/fzzft

Candidate's book details sex romps
http://tinyurl.com/k6ung

FLASHBACK: Buy-Bull Bangers: Regular, or Extra-Crispy? - Relinked now that the religious voters have started to realize that the anti-gay politicians they voted for are actually gay themselves, and merely pandered to the Christians to get elected.
http://tinyurl.com/7wola

'Values' Decline As Issue In Ohio: Epidemic GOP Corruption in the Buckeye State and Economic Woes Boost Democrats 10/11
http://tinyurl.com/rk385

Suspect voter registration cards are found - St. Louis Election Board officials say they've discovered at least 1,492 "potentially fraudulent" voter registration cards - including three from dead people and one from a 16-year-old - among the thousands pouring in before today's voter registration deadline for the Nov. 7 election.
http://tinyurl.com/ros97

ECONOMY

Goodyear Announces Layoffs - Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will lay off 330 hourly employees and reduce wire production at its Asheboro plant because of ongoing labor disputes with unionized workers at other facilities.
http://tinyurl.com/fur9e

September foreclosures up 19 percent - from August to September, pushing California to the top of the list for the most new foreclosure filings in September.
http://tinyurl.com/zx7y5

911

WRH: How Did Human Remains End Up Miles From Flight 93's Crash Site? - "I know of two people - I will not mention names - that heard a missile," Stuhl said. "They both live very close, within a couple of hundred yards. . .This one fellow's served in Vietnam and he says he's heard them, and he heard one that day." The mayor adds that based on what he knows about that morning, military F-16 fighter jets were "very, very close."
http://tinyurl.com/ps5jz

CONGRESS

GOP's Corker Has Sen. Frist's Problem: His Blind Trust Wasn't Really Blind...
http://tinyurl.com/mbmw8

Paulson Leads Drive to Ease Regulations of Sarbanes-Oxley Law - Paulson, just three months on the job, has already offered a thinly veiled criticism of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate- governance law, endorsed a group aiming to curb investor lawsuits and make corporate prosecutions harder, and picked a former colleague from his days as chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to oversee domestic finance -Robert Schmidt/Bloomberg
http://tinyurl.com/pklbz

FBI agent pulled Sen Specter's files - after USA Today story on earmarks for clients of lobbyists related to Senator's aides
http://tinyurl.com/kbs3y

DOMESTIC

More Employers Monitoring Computer Activity—and Firing Violators -This paper discusses the results of the 2005 Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey and reveals the best practices for compliant email and internet use in the workplace.
http://tinyurl.com/jmrha

Prosecutor did 'full monty' in gov't office
http://tinyurl.com/h8kzx

Los Alamos Missing Plutonium for 150 Nuclear Bombs - The beleaguered Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is unable to account for 765 kilograms of plutonium -- enough to make 150 nuclear weapons -- according to a letter from nuclear watchdog groups to LANL Director G. Peter Nanos.
http://tinyurl.com/92ehw

Buffett Warns Execs to Avoid Temptation
http://tinyurl.com/ek9g4

ENVIRONMENT

If you have ever wondered why the electric car has been so well contained, see the story on DVD which is reviewed at:
http://tinyurl.com/fcke2

INTERNATIONAL

North Korea Warns of New Tests As Nuclear Standoff Intensifies - North Korea has warned that increased US pressure over its reported nuclear test would be considered an act of war and that it would respond with “physical” measures. In a statement carried by the state news agency on Wednesday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry also said North Korea was “ready for both dialogue and confrontation.” We get analysis from North Korea expert and University of Chicago professor Bruce Cumings
http://tinyurl.com/ewgdk

MILITARY

US Military "Turns Blind Eye to Killings" - the US military is deliberately turning a blind eye to sectarian killings committed by government security forces in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/hcnvc

Veterans for Peace not welcome at Veterans Day parade - Maine's biggest Veterans Day parade won't feature the group Maine Veterans for Peace if organizers get their way.
http://tinyurl.com/my3ra

Data Suggests Vast Costs Loom in Disability Claims -The number of veterans granted disability compensation, more than 100,000 to date, suggests that taxpayers have only begun to pay the long-term financial cost of the two conflicts. About 567,000 of the 1.5 million American troops who have served so far have been discharged. “The trend is ominous,” said Paul Sullivan, director of programs for Veterans for America, an advocacy group, and a former V.A. analyst.
http://tinyurl.com/elt4r

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM

AP Story On Reid Is “Absolute Crap”...
http://tinyurl.com/kudhf

Christopher Bollyn Fired From American Free Press - It should be noted that Bollyn was fired some 6 weeks after being attacked and TASERed by undercover police at his home.
http://tinyurl.com/m6qnz

NOTE: Robert Greenwald’s latest film, "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers," has just been released. "Iraq for Sale” is a tale of unspeakable greed and fraud, misery and betrayal, and brazen waste of public tax dollars for private enrichment. The film reveals in compelling detail the depth of control corporate war profiteers exert over our elected representatives and the danger these alliances have created for soldiers and innocent civilians.(on DVD for only $12.95.)

EDITORIALS - OPINIONS

Pedophiles: America's Security Blanket
http://tinyurl.com/hkxm4

SPECIAL INTEREST

EMBARGOED for release at 1700 GMT New strategy found to protect world's rarest dog from disease
http://tinyurl.com/rvxcp

Rocket launcher ‘found at dentist’s house’ - A RETIRED Grange dentist is accused of being part of a bomb plot after a record number of explosives were seized in a Lancashire town.
http://tinyurl.com/qn6sc

Michael Jackson Surfaces On The Riviera...In Heels...
http://tinyurl.com/gnqs2