October 30, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

Bush "Upbeat" on Iraq? --- for President Bush to say publicly that the United States attacked Iraq because of 9/11 is an insult to the more than 2,809 men and women who have died in combat in Iraq and tens of thousands of other soldiers who were maimed, believing they were fighting a war predicated on finding weapons of mass destruction.
http://tinyurl.com/yalncd

ALERT

Target Iran *** This is a must listen *** Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh. The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change.
http://tinyurl.com/yjlvnh

WAR

Bush's Legacy of Failure: 100th GI Killed This Month for a Lie. Warming will damage economy The *My Pet Goat* guy is the one we are stuck with.
http://tinyurl.com/yatx35

Iraq to seek extension of US presence --- Iraq is to ask the UN Security Council to renew the mandate governing the presence of US-led forces in the country for another year, said Hoshiyar Zebari, its foreign minister.
http://tinyurl.com/trky3

Prime Minister Using US Angst Against Bush --- A close aide to Nouri al-Maliki said the prime minister was intentionally playing on US voter displeasure with the war to strengthen his hand with Washington.
http://tinyurl.com/yaedll

Claim: Saddam 'accepted' US ultimatum before invasion
http://tinyurl.com/yzaft7

Saddam's Defense Lawyer Walks Out (Again???)
http://tinyurl.com/vfjmp

Bush and Blair Searching for a Way Out of Iraq, and Finding None --- The pressures on Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair are now immense. The sheer scale of the bloodshed and chaos their invasion unleashed - coupled with the dissembling that preceded it - has undermined their credibility and destroyed their popularity. The latest US polls show only one in five Americans believes Washington is winning in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/yelxby

Security firms 'abusing Iraqis'--- Private security firms operating in Iraq are committing human rights abuses, a charity has claimed.
http://tinyurl.com/ykarsq

Halliburton Motto - It's Cost Plus, Baby - Since the minute Dick Cheney authorized the no-bid contracts for Halliburton, the granddaddy of war profiteering has been ripping off American tax payers left, right and center
http://tinyurl.com/ydy43q

Nuke secrets stolen: THE secrets of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent are feared stolen, the Sunday Express can reveal. It is claimed they disappeared from a high-security base in the US.
http://tinyurl.com/yeuk78

Scott Ritter: Weapons of Mass Delusion : Ritter gives his analysis of the real reasons for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/yfxpjk

THE WHITE HOUSE

Rockefeller Predicted "Event" To Trigger War Eleven Months Before 9/11 - Russo related how Rockefeller knew precisely what the event would lead to and which countries would be militarily targeted by the elite.
http://tinyurl.com/uc42w

"TERRORIST ATTACK IN NOVEMBER" ACCORDING TO KARL ROVE
Another Freudian slip?
http://tinyurl.com/y4lrrw

A little bird told me that a *Document Shredding Truck was Spotted On The Way To Cheney's House...

"The President Knows More Than He Lets On" --- 100 suspected terrorists from all over the world are still being held in secret American prisons. In an interview with Der Spiegel Online, CIA expert Ron Suskind accuses Washington of "running like a headless chicken in its war against al-Qaeda. He reserves special criticism for the CIA's torture methods, which he argues are unproductive.
http://tinyurl.com/y9z7pk

POLITICS

Getting to the Root of the Problem by Getting Rid of the Republicans
http://tinyurl.com/y2tg2u

Hastert Out Of A Job, Win Or Lose…
http://tinyurl.com/yaur93

SCANDAL

Who are the eighteen members of Congress that signed the Abramoff letter to the Customs Trademark division? - Why did George W. Bush talk to Vladimir Putin about this specific case a few days after the Abramoff letter? Doesn't this prove that Bush is lying about 'not knowing' Jack Abramoff?
http://tinyurl.com/y3zc86

Alleged Assault by GOP Congressman Caught on Tape Videotapes from cameras in the parking garage where Congressman Jim Gibbons is alleged to have tried to sexually assault a cocktail waitress are now in the hands of Las Vegas police. http://tinyurl.com/upe74

LEGAL ITEMS

The way the police treat us verges on the criminal: Guilty until proven innocent now seems to be the watchword of a government that increasingly treats its law-abiding citizens with absolute contempt (ask my husband - this certainly was true for us where we live)
http://tinyurl.com/ybulhx

ELECTION ITEMS

Red State (DVD). Learn What is on the Mind of Rural Red Staters. It Will Freak You Out. The GOP Knows How to Push Their Hot Buttons, That's for Sure. Demagoguery Works. Highly Recommended.
http://tinyurl.com/ycpx73

Will Ken Blackwell find the ways to steal Ohio 2006 as he did in 2004?
http://tinyurl.com/ym8m5m

Don't Become Complacent. Don't Become Cocky. Democrats with Big Edge in Campaign's Last Week." Now, Don't Think It's In the Bag. Make It Happen.
http://tinyurl.com/yednk9

Calls increase for GOP Senator George Allen to explain his multiple arrest warrants
http://tinyurl.com/yfs49n

Why are Republican conservatives calling for an end to One Party GOP Rule?: William Frey, a founder of "Republicans for Humility," explains why he and other conservative Republicans are upset with the direction of the Bush administration and the GOP-controlled Congress:
http://tinyurl.com/yh7nq6

The War in Iraq IS the ECONOMY; Stupid!
http://tinyurl.com/y2m6c5

11 Charged in GOP Vote Fraud --- The Orange County district attorney's office has charged 11 people with fraudulent voter registration stemming from a Republican registration drive this year that resulted in dozens of Democrats unwittingly being signed up as Republicans.
http://tinyurl.com/yh288c

RNC Chief Ken Mehlman accepted political contributions from gay porn king?
http://tinyurl.com/yawlfy

Racism Enters the Races --- "The ads may not be overt, but across the country campaigns are trying to tap into a vein of fear and bigotry," according to the Los Angeles Times.
http://tinyurl.com/ykjvpg

Paper: Dems fear 'tsunami' could leave them 'high and dry'
http://tinyurl.com/t5v5a

The Polls Predict a Huge Republican Defeat. The People Aren't So Sure
http://tinyurl.com/yffcy4

Poll: Stumping not boosting Bush popularity
http://tinyurl.com/yjk4hj

Democrats are favored to take control of state capitols
http://tinyurl.com/sduzn

Rep. Hunter to run for president - Tony Snow to stump for Sen. Talent - McCain’s PAC to retain Terry Nelson - Poll signals hope for GOP on DeLay seat - AFL-CIO deploys 100,000 volunteers in turnout effort - DCCC expands Red to Blue list expanded their “Red to Blue” list by 17 candidates www.thehill.com

NEWSPAPERS ACROSS COUNTRY SUPPORT DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES…
http://tinyurl.com/u4rc7

Diebold quietly repaired voting machines - State Board of Elections Chairman Gilles W. Burger said Diebold's failure to fully inform board members of the repairs at the time raises questions about whether the company violated its state contracts.
http://tinyurl.com/y5aox8

43% of Likely Voters Get Political Info Online - increasing numbers of people looking for political news are going online, with more than a third now saying they check the Internet for such information.
http://tinyurl.com/yb6y2r

Jefferson County Voters Continue To Raise Concerns About Voting Machines - Early voting runs through Friday, November 3rd. KFDM continues to get complaints from Jefferson County voters who say the electronic voting machines are not registering their votes correctly.
http://tinyurl.com/v89wx

Send your elected officials our free PDF guide to hacking the vote - So, you asked for it, and here it is: How to Steal an Election by Hacking the Vote, in a portable, easily readable/printable PDF format.
http://tinyurl.com/y7hm6r

This Week in South Dakota --- the campaign is the referendum to overturn the abortion ban approved by the state's legislature and signed into law by its governor, Mike Rounds, last March."
http://tinyurl.com/ye6dth

Can This Machine Be Trusted? --- The US's new voting systems are only as good as the people who program and use them. Which is why next week could be interesting.
http://tinyurl.com/yjgg5n

Florida E-Voting Machines Already Flipping Votes --- Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen - the final voting step.
http://tinyurl.com/ygsapx

McCaskill Will Bring Needed Change - Kansas City Star -In the Missouri US Senate race, Claire McCaskill is far more interested than her opponent in bringing fundamental change to Washington. Such change is essential
http://tinyurl.com/yb39qu

ECONOMY

Top accountant says U.S. faces financial ruin: "This is about the future of our country, our kids and grandkids," the comptroller general of the United States warns a packed hall at Austin's historic Driskill Hotel. "We the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed."
http://tinyurl.com/yl7xor

The Dollar's Full-System Meltdown ---Everyone in Washington already knew that doomsday was approaching. That’s the way the system was designed from the very beginning. It’s all part of the madcap scheme to “starve the beast” and transfer the nation’s wealth to a handful of western plutocrats.
http://tinyurl.com/yleafj

Futures down on economic woes --- U.S. stock futures declined on Monday, as concerns about the health of the economy were reignited over the weekend by Wal-Mart Stores' below-forecast October sales numbers.
http://tinyurl.com/yhkv38

Spending up, income 'grows briskly' --- Consumers kept a firm grip on their wallets in September, boosting spending just 0.1%, the smallest increase in 10 months, and a year-on-year inflation index remained close to an 11-year high in a sign of persistent inflation risk
http://tinyurl.com/yd7yn3

Oops... Gas Profits Did it Again --- Let's face it - 10.5 Billion doesn't happen over night. Exxon knew that they were raking in profits. They know what oil costs them, and they know what they charge for it.
http://tinyurl.com/yyznpc

DOMESTIC

Google faces 'defamation' challenge
http://tinyurl.com/yeah9t

St. Louis Ranked As Most Dangerous City In US...
http://tinyurl.com/y7ovuj

RELIGIOUS ITEMS

The number of conservative Christians with a favorable view of the GOP has plummeted from 74 percent to 54 percent between 2004 and this year, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Evangelicals comprise more than one-third of GOP voters. Praise the Lord!
http://tinyurl.com/yg62cb

ENVIRONMENT

Brown to back more emissions trading - And, in an effort to push climate change up the international agenda, the chancellor will appoint Al Gore, former US vice-president and an environmental campaigner, as an adviser on green issues.
http://tinyurl.com/tybpe

INTERNATIONAL

Swedes think US 'greatest threat to peace' - Nearly one in three Swedes, 29 percent, think that the US is the biggest threat to peace on earth, the poll, commissioned by Axess Television, reveals.
http://tinyurl.com/tuhlf

MILITARY

Military "Lost" Hundreds of Thousands of Weapons
http://tinyurl.com/yfvplj

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM

CNN's Wolf Blitzer: I Was “Surprised” At Lynne Cheney's "Sniping At My Patriotism'...
http://tinyurl.com/ybfogd

Big Metros Show Severe Declines in Latest Circ Report While blog readership continues to set new records.
http://tinyurl.com/y6e6ky

EDITORIALS - OPINIONS

The War. The War. The War.--- Cheney is right: I don't have the stomach for this--not because I inherently lack the capacity for wartime intestinal fortitude but because this particular war's inanity hits me right in the gut.
http://tinyurl.com/ylhvrf

How I Was Wrong About Thomas Friedman - his outsized economic privileges become especially relevant when we consider that he's inclined to be glib and even flip as he advocates policies that give very low priority to reducing economic inequality."
http://tinyurl.com/ynfq4b

HEALTH

Calorie-Restricted Diets Now Proven To Drastically Slow Aging Process...
http://tinyurl.com/yjpk2d

"Not enough evidence" to support winter flu shots for seasonal flu, declare researchers:
http://tinyurl.com/yl3ccv

KFC joins Wendy's in switching to trans-fat-free cooking oil:
http://tinyurl.com/yfqa3p

Environmental Working Group: Thyroid Threat: CDC Study Shows Proposed Rocket Fuel Standards Inadequate to Protect Baby
http://tinyurl.com/ycqrdy

Breastfeeding improves mental health of infants:
http://tinyurl.com/ygbhu5

Superfruits to form basis of gut-healthy, prebiotic drinks:
http://tinyurl.com/ybcdnk

Shocking Away Shoulder Pain - From the University of Cincinnati, a new type of electrical stimulation for shocking away shoulder pain in stroke patients
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

Using an EMG in addition to the typical MRI to help diagnose the problem behind back pain. A word to the wise, however, a friend of mine said there's no mention of how uncomfortable an EMG can be!
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

A new surgery using a patient's own small intestine to make a "neobladder" From Oregon Health & Science Center,
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

What Scares Doctors? Doctors Speak Out!
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

What Scares Doctors? How to Survive Your Doctor's Care
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

What Scares Doctors? Choose the Right Hospital
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

Curry for Arthritis
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

Are Men Becoming Less Manly?
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

Statins Slow Lung Damage in Smokers
http://tinyurl.com/yacjfn

SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS

Mirror test infers elephants self-awareness - Test results suggest that pachyderms can recognize themselves in a mirror.
http://tinyurl.com/yzodny

The Truth Behind Women "Opting Out" --- Much of the talk about women "opting out" to care for their families is a myth, two studies report.
http://tinyurl.com/yzka9m