November 15, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

"A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts.": Euripides

“The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology.” : Michael Parenti political scientist, author

ALERT

President Given Undue Power to Silence Critics: The current version of the Military Commissions redefines an "unlawful enemy combatant" (UEC) so broadly that it could include anyone who organizes a march against the war in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/ny2h4

WAR

"Iraq Is Not Winnable": What happens next in the Middle East? --- SPIEGEL spoke to Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, to find out. A widely respected foreign policy expert, Haass warns that the Middle East could become dangerous for years to come.
http://tinyurl.com/ynhnjl

U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006
http://tinyurl.com/qrgsh

"We Will not Be Able to Survive Much Longer": An interview with Iraq's health minister
http://tinyurl.com/y9egr5

No Exit Strategy --- Ret. Gen. John Keane of the “Military Senior Adviser Panel” takes a different tack. He recommends that 40,000 additional U.S. troops be sent to secure Baghdad. And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., too, continues to press for sending more troops to Iraq as the only way to “salvage” the situation. By Ray McGovern
http://tinyurl.com/yb5797

Bush Initiates Iraq Policy Review Separate From Baker Group's
http://tinyurl.com/ydhqey

Bush will not hesitate to use force in Iran: Israeli ambassador (((Thank you for reminding us who is in charge.)))
http://tinyurl.com/ybpoay

Spin and Consequences; "'aggressive interrogation techniques' ... we now know, is Bush administration code for acts that the rest of the world regards as abuse and even torture."
http://tinyurl.com/w6dab

Death Squads Exposed: The reality of U.S. occupation Of Iraq --- This shocking film investigates the links between the death squads and high-ranking Shia politicians. It reveals how the Shia militia that these politicians control have systematically infiltrated and taken over police units and even entire government ministeries. It investigates how these units are closely linked to the death squads, indeed they often are the death squads. And the killers act with impunity -- there's little investigation into their activities.
http://tinyurl.com/yfhqlo

THE WHITE HOUSE

White House Puts WRONG Vietnamese Flag On Website...
http://tinyurl.com/yburcn

Bush Sent Torture Memo to the CIA
http://tinyurl.com/y4gfjh

Another Smoking Gun Indicating Bush Guilt; Another Smoking Gun Indicating Media Conspiracy - Nobody can tell me that there is not a single managing editor who is a real journalist that would not view the discovery of these memos as a front page or lead in story yet this news has yet to enter the middle pages of our papers or the little crawler on our screens.
http://tinyurl.com/ybx6pt

Bush’s approval reaches a new low - of 31% - like Father like son - papa dropped to 29% - only Nixon was lower - 23%.
http://tinyurl.com/yfcoyj

War Crimes Suit Filed in Germany Against Rumsfeld, Other Top U.S. Officials Over Prisoner Torture
http://tinyurl.com/yc25pr

CABINETS

IRS working to trim a bit of Form 1040's red tape
http://tinyurl.com/yhdols

POLITICS

Murtha's Bid for House Post May Weaken Democrats' Ethics Image --Government-watchdog groups say Murtha, 74, has used his position as the senior Democrat on the defense appropriations subcommittee to direct federal dollars to political donors. They also recall that he was investigated, though never prosecuted, in the Abscam bribery scandal that led to the convictions of seven lawmakers in the 1980s
http://tinyurl.com/yzogwd

Bush Administration opposes Democratic plan to lower Medicare drug prices through volume purchasing discounts:
http://tinyurl.com/ycznsm

The High Dollar: President Clinton's Unaffordable Tax Cut --- "Everyone knows about George W. Bush's unaffordable tax cuts, the big tax breaks that gave millions to millionaires and billions to billionaires, but few people are aware of the even more unaffordable tax cut from the Clinton administration."
http://tinyurl.com/yhe6nb

SCANDAL

Halliburton Whistleblower Demoted
http://tinyurl.com/y9f4oj

GOP State Rep. In Jail After Domestic Assault Arrest...
http://tinyurl.com/y3b5qq

Bush Reappoints Broadcasting Chief Who Used Public Funds To Promote Conservative Programming...
http://tinyurl.com/y5r7u2

$2 Million Was Reportedly Given to Middle Eastern Terrorists to Free FOX News Reporters. Terrorists Now Say They Used Money to Buy Weapons to Kill Israelis. If True, FOX Can be Charged Under Recent Legislation with Aiding a Terrorist Organization.
http://tinyurl.com/y8gkha

LEGAL ITEMS

Plame Attorney to Use Paula Jones Precedent to Force Cheney to Testify --- A lawyer plans to use a legal precedent that allowed President Bill Clinton to be sued while in office to force Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove to testify in a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband.
http://tinyurl.com/ygyk6s

Last Enron Exec. Sentenced: 5.5 Years In Prison, $1.25 Million Fine...
http://tinyurl.com/twf3p

Abramoff Is to Begin Sentence Today - a sentence of five years and 10 months at a minimum-security prison camp in Cumberland, Maryland, for defrauding banks of $23 million in his purchase of a Florida casino cruise line six years ago.
http://tinyurl.com/t397o

"Vice President Dick Cheney asked a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit brought against him by a former CIA operative who says the White House leaked her identity to the press.
http://tinyurl.com/ya9yd6

ELECTION ITEMS

Denver Election Clerk Resigns in Wake of Election Day E-Voting Meltdow - In what ought to be the first of a wave of resignations by Elections Officials across the country who have utterly failed the very voters they are supposed to be serving, one of three commissioners of the Denver Board of Elections has resigned in the wake of the city's e-voting meltdown on a past Tuesday.
http://tinyurl.com/yfsmkz

The Signature 2006 Race: Sherrod Brown over Mike DeWine in Ohio Senate Race --- In a socially conservative state staggered by the loss of manufacturing jobs, Ohioans came out strongly for populist economics.
http://tinyurl.com/y53hzs

Obama Now Posing Threat to Hillary in 2008 -- Giuliani Leads McCain on GOP Side
http://tinyurl.com/yglm66

ECONOMY

Housing slide may deepen --- New forecast sees bottom in 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/y7a24g

Higher Interest Rates, Declining Home Prices Put American Families At Financial Risk
http://tinyurl.com/yaqc3k

CONGRESS

Another Democrat Declared Winner Of A House Race After Recount In Connecticut...
http://tinyurl.com/ycbkgc

REP. MURTHA: WE'VE GOT THE VOTES...
http://tinyurl.com/uskwq

Abizaid Faces Democrats Eager for Troop Cuts
http://tinyurl.com/wkwos

New Senate Republican Leaders are "Dumb" and "Dumber"
http://tinyurl.com/slmq7

Bush's Power to Shape Judiciary 'over' because of Election Loss
http://tinyurl.com/yj6zfd

Ten Reasons Congress Must Investigate Bush Administration Crimes
http://tinyurl.com/stvxg

Calling Nancy Pelosi: The People's Case for Impeaching Bush
http://tinyurl.com/ybmhwl

Lott clinches GOP whip post --- Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.) will rejoin the GOP leadership as whip next year, his comeback assured Wednesday after a razor-thin, stealthy defeat of Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), who had been openly campaigning for far longer and claimed a majority of the conference days ago....The Senate’s new top two Republicans, Lott and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), have more than two decades’ leadership experience between them.
THE HILL

DOMESTIC

Nevada town enacts English-only law, bans immigrant benefits - Elected officials in this southern Nevada town have adopted an ordinance declaring English the official language, restricting the display of foreign flags and denying town benefits to undocumented immigrants.
http://tinyurl.com/ycz8r6

Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Nonorganic Food as Organic; Group Asks USDA to Fully Investigate Organic Product Misrepresentation
http://tinyurl.com/yf78gp

Al Qaeda Leader: Materials Smuggled Across Border --- Terrorists trying to blend in with Mexican culture --- A News Channel 5 Investigation investigation reveals what the feds don't want you to know. Suspected terrorists are hiding inside the U.S. and they got here by sneaking across the Mexican border.
http://tinyurl.com/ylpbrj

RELIGIOUS ITEMS

Evangelical Group's Motto: Breed to Succeed
http://tinyurl.com/yga922

Student tapes teacher proselytizing in class - Accept Jesus or 'you belong in hell,' he said
http://tinyurl.com/yjdd4m

ENVIRONMENT

Tsunami Moves towards Japan, Russia- Japan's meteorological agency says a tsunami of at least two metres high could hit Hokkaido and Honshu islands after 1210 GMT.
http://tinyurl.com/yj63du

Texas Needs Our Help to Ward Off a Coal Catastrophe - TXU is pushing for speedy approval of what would be the largest coal plant construction plan in U.S. history, without any regard for the implications to public health or the climate.
http://tinyurl.com/u4ulj

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Nuclear Spent Fuel Pools Vulnerable according to a study published on the Council for Foreign Relations’ website,
http://tinyurl.com/ynbavs

INTERNATIONAL

Bush, Putin give go-ahead for WTO deal - Russia, the world's only major economy outside the WTO, has been trying to join the trade body since 1994 and the United States is the last major WTO member to give its assent.
http://tinyurl.com/yz8zde

Blair's Post-Election Panic Attack --- Blair has been badly stung by his American partner's rejection at the polls, which makes his own fanatical devotion to Bush and the bloodsoaked folly in Iraq look even more absurd.
http://tinyurl.com/y75x7k

Rich Countries 'Blocking Cheap Drugs for Developing World'
http://tinyurl.com/ydtg67

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM

The Last Laugh on Rush Limbaugh: The Pill-Poppin' Hedonist May Have Tipped the Senate to the Dems. Just Ask the New Democratic Senator from Missouri.
http://tinyurl.com/ycpzhv

Probe of non-news news sought KGO, CBS 5-TV say they improperly used corporate tapes - Frustrated by local TV news outlets that run "commercials disguised as news," an FCC commissioner wants to investigate stations that don't tell viewers they may be watching corporate propaganda instead of independently reported information.
http://tinyurl.com/y6plro

FOX NEWS INTERNAL MEMO: “Be On The Lookout For Any Statements From The Iraqi Insurgents…Thrilled At The Prospect Of A Dem Controlled Congress”….
http://tinyurl.com/yyxstd

FOX News hits a new low
http://tinyurl.com/ylrl2x

Judith Miller: Times reporter who pushed Iraq War is actually worried about blogger standards!!! Is she for real????
http://tinyurl.com/yzn4rv

The Corporation : This is an extraordinary film about the creation of the American corporation, its legal organizational model, its global economic dominance and its psychopathic tendencies, and its incredible ambition to influence every aspect of culture in its unrelenting pursuit of profit.
http://tinyurl.com/ydxaa6

EDITORIALS - OPINIONS

THE HIGHJACKING OF A NATION - Let’s illustrate this with the most important recent case, the catastrophe endured by our people; the September Eleven terrorist attacks. Let’s observe how certain foreign interests, combined with their U.S. agents and benefactors, overrode the interests and security of the entire nation; how thousands of victims and their loved ones were kicked aside to serve the interests of a few; foreign influence and its agents.
http://tinyurl.com/ydlodw

Why the FBI Is Coming After Me: In late April last year, while I was out at the hair salon, my husband phoned to tell me that two Department of Homeland Security agents had arrived at my home in Santa Barbara, Calif., to serve me with a subpoena.
http://tinyurl.com/yln8g3

HEALTH

Diabetes hits poor the hardest, report reveals:
http://tinyurl.com/yg3ecq

Antioxidants do not interfere with cancer radiation treatments, research finds:
http://tinyurl.com/ybf88t

Eating red meat nearly doubles risk of breast cancer:
http://tinyurl.com/yewvqx

ADA reverses position, warns its members that fluoride is too dangerous to be consumed by infants:
http://tinyurl.com/ye3ptw

Global diabetes epidemic threatens to destroy indigenous populations:
http://tinyurl.com/ycbe4u

America accused of bullying developing countries with monopoly pharmaceutical prices, profiteering schemes:
http://tinyurl.com/ydm6ff

Merck's Vioxx replacement drug found to cause cardiovascular complications:
http://tinyurl.com/yzw8ol

Mediterranean diet expected to gain popularity among U.S. consumers:
http://tinyurl.com/ycqxje

Magnetic particles filter arsenic out of drinking water:
http://tinyurl.com/y9j84v

Stem Cells: New Hope on the Horizon --- They're always a hot topic of discussion in medicine and politics. Stem cells hold the promise of helping the body repair itself.
http://tinyurl.com/yepm28

Work out Your Arms to Help Your Legs! Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) may want to work out their arms for pain relief.
http://tinyurl.com/yls33g

SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS

Agenda for the Meeting of the Homosexual Conspiracy, November 15, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/yyvllt