October 15, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

Lawsuit to Force Bush Administration to Recognize Constitution - "The First Amendment to the US Constitution stipulates that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.' By funding the Northwest Marriage Institute, and other faith-based organizations,the Bush administration is violating the law." …………by Gene C. Gerard
http://tinyurl.com/ydglmn

ALERT

The Bush Administration Motto: "The issues are much too important for the American voters to be left to decide for themselves. --- (The Bush crowd - "masters of the universe" - the ruling elite. Isn't it amazing what failures they are for men who believe that they are omniscient and have utter contempt for democracy?)
http://tinyurl.com/yhn8c3

WAR

Bush said CIA prisoners were being moved from secret prisons to Gitmo. But now a Spanish paper says our hidden jail is holding an Al Qaeda leader.
http://tinyurl.com/ykqrg6

Padilla Update: Bush has been Torturing American Citizens since 2002 - He was not charged with a crime. - For the next 4 years he was isolated, tortured and used as a lab-rat in drug experiments with LSD and other mind-altering hallucinogens. To date, the government has never produced a scintilla of evidence proving that Padilla is guilty of anything
http://tinyurl.com/yfkdzt

James Baker's Iraq --- Americans, wherever they may actually stand, love to present themselves as in the moderate middle of any debate, just as politicians regularly gravitate toward the "center," no matter how far out it may happen to be.Recently, Bush family consigliere James A. Baker III, co-chairing the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission to advise a reluctant President on future Iraq policy, put himself firmly "between" policy poles -Tom Englehardt/The Nation
http://tinyurl.com/yhdetm

THE WHITE HOUSE

NBC's Mitchell: George And Laura Bush Are “Really Angry” At Fmr. Chief Of Staff Andy Card “For Telling The Truth” To Bob Woodward...
http://tinyurl.com/ymxves

'Dismay, disdain' for Bush from father's aides - one of the worst-kept secrets in Bush World is the dismay, in some cases disdain, harbored by many senior aides of the former President toward the administration of his son --- "Forty-three has now repudiated everything 41 stands for, and still he won't say a word," a key member of the elder Bush alumni said. Personally, I think the elder Bush is dying inside."
http://tinyurl.com/y62cfs

Americans are Waking Up to the Reality That Bush's "War on Terrorism" Isn't Aimed at Making Us More Secure. It's Only Aim is to Keep Him in Power.
http://tinyurl.com/yduq2o

Bush Absent On Protecting America's School Children - Bush Gives the NRA Whatever They Want, Cuts Funding for School Security -- And Then Does a Cynical "School Safety" Photo-op Before the Election.
http://tinyurl.com/ygx4te and http://tinyurl.com/ybnrt5

White House upbeat about GOP prospects - Self-assurance of Rove, Bush and others is not shared by many in party
http://tinyurl.com/ympbbq

Displease a Lobbyist, Get Fired --- Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff. - Mehlman, now chair of the RNC, is shown to be so close to Abramoff that Abramoff controlled staffing in the White House itself. The emails are undeniable.
http://tinyurl.com/y8q6j4

POLITICS

Is a Gay Republican Purge Coming?
http://tinyurl.com/yh6mb7

SCANDAL

Newspaper Investigation Exposes Top Senator McConnell's “Thuggish” “Shakedown” Practices...
http://tinyurl.com/yfdqds

MSNBC: Does the buck stop with Hastert, or just his staff?
http://tinyurl.com/yfskck

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/yk9gpp

ELECTION ISSUES

Clinton Equivocates on Torture --- Despite her apparent opposition to torture, Hillary Clinton said in a Daily News editorial board meeting yesterday that the practice is acceptable in some circumstances.
http://tinyurl.com/yggjeu

Gay marriage might only work once at the polls: seems to be running out of steam as Religious Right election gimmick
http://tinyurl.com/yl7gro

Bill Clinton: Voters “Know Something Is wrong”...
http://tinyurl.com/ymwsjq

GOP Senate Candidate Scrambles To Distance Himself From Bush...
http://tinyurl.com/yh5fk6

Bob Casey On A “Campaign To Send Rick Santorum Into Political Obscurity”...
http://tinyurl.com/yfd3s4

Rep. Weldon's Dem. Opponent Putting Him “On The Run”...
http://tinyurl.com/yzylg7

George Allen Plummets In Polls: Race Now A “Virtual Tie”...
http://tinyurl.com/y2wg58

A New "Night of Long Knives?" --- Larry C. Johnson says: "It looks like Republican homosexuals who work on the Hill are being set up as the ultimate scapegoat for the electoral disaster awaiting the Republicans in November.
http://tinyurl.com/yf32sf

Labor Goes Door to Door to Rally Suburban Voters - After being outhustled by Republicans in voter turnout drives in recent years, the AFL-CIO plans to spend $40 million nationwide on voter education and turnout, emphasizing swing states. In addition, just as conservatives used referendums on same-sex marriage to mobilize voters in 2004, labor has helped put measures to raise the state minimum wage on the ballot in Ohio and three other states, an effort that union officials hope will draw low-income voters.
http://tinyurl.com/yng978

Dems Shouldn't be Sitting on Their Lead
http://tinyurl.com/yc78gk

Candidate's Lone Issue is that She Had Sex With Packers Football Team. . . and the Republican Party is Behind Her! http://tinyurl.com/ymyshr

How Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress - Election 2006: The Fix is Already In
http://tinyurl.com/y28qp2

If Clinton Had Hired GOP Spin Doctors To Handle The Lewinsky Scandal -- Verse-Case Scenario
http://tinyurl.com/yzvof7

ECONOMY

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: 109th Congress' Track Record on the Budget Making Deficits Worse
http://tinyurl.com/kede2

BIGGEST BANK HEIST IN HISTORY HEADED YOUR WAY --- #1. Interest expense on our debt for fiscal 2006 totaled 405 billion, -- #2. interest expense for 2006 composed a whopping 70% of our total on-budget deficit for the fiscal year. --- #3. total U.S. debt at 8.506 trillion dollars --- #4. The very next reported day - the first day of the new fiscal year (October 2, 2006) - U.S. debt increased by over 42 billion dollars --- !!!We're being set up by the banks call in all their 'loans' and seize all our property.!!!
http://tinyurl.com/ej9ml

Are Seniors, Disabled in Medicare Donut Hole Getting Raw Deal? asks Consumer's Union:
http://tinyurl.com/yclrv4

Electric prices due for rate shock
http://tinyurl.com/yknsny

Most can't bank on big tax cut - Some Texans are getting modest tax cuts, but others are angry because their property taxes actually have increased, despite what the governor and many legislators led them to believe at the conclusion of last spring's school finance session.
http://tinyurl.com/y9m4n5

Bush's War on Unions - On October 3, the working world became a great deal more difficult for nurses, and it may get worse very soon for some eight million more workers. They are losing the right to be represented by labor unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and safer working conditions. Workers' rights were severely curtailed by the very group of people charged with protecting America's workforce from assault, the National Labor Relations Board
http://tinyurl.com/yelgdv

911

Scientific Poll: 84% Say 9/11 Is A Cover Up
http://tinyurl.com/y8m3l9

Last Man In Jail From 9/11 Sweeps Still Uncharged - Ali Partovi sits in a jail cell at an immigration detention center in Arizona. He is not charged with a crime, not suspected of a crime, not considered a danger to society.
http://tinyurl.com/yn7kcy

CONGRESS

FBI Probing Whether Specter Aide Helped Spouse Win Defense Contract - The FBI is investigating whether a member of Senator Arlen Specter's staff broke the law by helping her husband, a lobbyist, secure almost $50 million in Pentagon spending for his clients
http://tinyurl.com/ybb2kj

DOMESTIC

Controversial US company wins US$ 700m South Sudan contract - The controversial US company Louis Berger Group has been awarded a US$ 700 million contract for revamping infrastructure in the autonomous region of South Sudan, paid as development aid by the US government.The US contractor has been much criticised for "disastrous" infrastructure projects in other US protectorates; Iraq and Afghanistan
http://tinyurl.com/y9tedu

Huge New Jersey Water Quality Gap - and faces a multi-billion dollar gap in its water quality infrastructure - no answer in sight.
http://tinyurl.com/yc3k4o

RELIGIOUS SIDE

Plan B and Plan B - "Fundamentalist Christians are mounting an effort to end the use of all contraceptives.... Interestingly, this retrograde movement comes at a moment when US population tops 300 million and ecologists warn that we are headed for disaster as Earth's life support systems crack under the weight of our numbers."
http://tinyurl.com/yn8wgg

ENVIRONMENT

Copper Plant Illegally Burned Hazardous Waste, EPA Says A bankrupt copper giant facing billions of dollars in pollution claims across the nation pretended for years to recycle metals while illegally burning hazardous waste in a notorious El Paso smelter, according to a newly released Environmental Protection Agency document.
http://tinyurl.com/yk272x

Ecological Upheaval on the Edge of the Ice - Today the Bering Sea yields half of all seafood harvested in the United States. The annual catch is valued at $1.7 billion. But the nation's richest ocean ecosystem is in the midst of a major upheaval, and scientists suspect global warming is at least partly to blame.
http://tinyurl.com/ylrzr2

Our Rivers Are Starting to Run Dry - a new report on rainfall and evaporation under global warming may be the most important science report of the year.
http://tinyurl.com/ynympo

INTERNATIONAL

OPED with One Eye on the Polls - The fall in the oil price earlier this week to below $58 a barrel from the peak of $78 in mid-July focused the minds of the members of Opec, accounting for two-fifths of the global output. They decided to act to counter the downward trend.But, to the annoyance of most Opec members, Saudi Arabia has not shown its hand on the subject -Dilip Hiro/Common Dreams
http://tinyurl.com/yzo777

The General was far too gentle - The only problem about Sir Richard Dannatt's comments on Iraq is that they did not go far enough. He rightly said that "our presence exacerbates the security problem".But it is seldom realised that the US and Britain have largely provoked the civil war now that is raging across central Iraq -Patrick Cockburn/Independent UK
http://tinyurl.com/ylrb9r

MILITARY

Marine Corps Issues Gag Order in Detainee Abuse Case - The US Marine Corps has threatened to punish two members of the military legal team representing a terrorism suspect being held at Guantanamo Bay if they continue to speak publicly about reported prisoner abuse, a civilian lawyer from the defense team said Saturday.
http://tinyurl.com/ydnvdf

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM

FOX News Hides Unfavorable Poll Results About Bush And Iraq -- Uh, VERY Unfavorable Poll Results!
http://tinyurl.com/ylf8jw

Fox News Does It Again - Corker (D-TN)!! Screenshot TVNL Comment: This is the third time in one week that FOX News labled a Republican as a Democrat. Are we to believe that this is not calculated?
http://tinyurl.com/ymylxj

Fox News Kicks Off Sunday: Loses Condoleezza To “Technical Difficulties”...
http://tinyurl.com/ye2bhj

The Byline Gender Gap - Ann Friedman writes: "I've come to believe that a target percentage for women's bylines should be set in the editorial policies of each publication, at least in the short term. I can honestly say that if it were not AlterNet's policy to publish multiple women writers every single day, it would never happen."
http://tinyurl.com/ym958j

David S. Broder: “Much Of The Political Future Rests In The Hands Of Women”...
http://tinyurl.com/ygcv3y

HEALTH

Rush for New Male Birth Control - A trial of a new male contraceptive is being expanded after American men rushed to sign up.
http://tinyurl.com/yeqvvp

Essential oils could replace chemical additives in preserving meat products:
http://tinyurl.com/ybrv9h

FDA approves heart health claim for canola oil:
http://tinyurl.com/yegfuk

Plant sterols lower cholesterol, even in patients already taking high-dose statin drugs:
http://tinyurl.com/ye966s

Decaffeinated coffee still contains caffeine, researchers report:
http://tinyurl.com/yj4myh

Huge New Jersey Water Quality Gap - and faces a multi-billion dollar gap in its water quality infrastructure - no answer in sight.
http://tinyurl.com/yc3k4o

HUMAN RIGHTS

Prominent doctors used elderly patients for medical experimentation:
http://tinyurl.com/y9lx2v

Psychiatric patients stage fence-climbing "prison break" from mental health treatment center:
http://tinyurl.com/yzfpt8

Essential oils could replace chemical additives in preserving meat products:
http://tinyurl.com/ybrv9h

FDA approves heart health claim for canola oil:
http://tinyurl.com/yegfuk

Plant sterols lower cholesterol, even in patients already taking high-dose statin drugs:
http://tinyurl.com/ye966s

Decaffeinated coffee still contains caffeine, researchers report:
http://tinyurl.com/yj4myh

Huge New Jersey Water Quality Gap - and faces a multi-billion dollar gap in its water quality infrastructure - no answer in sight.
http://tinyurl.com/yc3k4o

SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS

Escape to Paraguay? Rumors of Bush Land Deal --- The Governor of Alto Paraguay, says George Bush Sr. owns land in the Chaco region of Paraguay. Rumor has it that Bush owns nearly 173,000.
http://tinyurl.com/y9erwd

Spy exposed U.S. intelligence secrets to Cuba - A senior Cuba analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency gave Havana detailed information on U.S. eavesdropping programs aimed at the Castro government, allowing Cuba to mount effective counterintelligence and deception operations for year - she was caught in 2001. She's now serving a 25-year prison term
http://tinyurl.com/ygvsf5