November 21, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

Who Will be the Last Man or Woman to Die for a Lie in Iraq? --- How ironic that the paraphasing of John Kerry's dramatic plea to end the Vietnam War is so applicable to the debacle in Iraq.

A BIG HOPE FOR A BIG NEED

Comprehensive Strategy for Seeking National Single-Payer Health Care System
http://tinyurl.com/y3x6ge

WAR

'War on terror' could last 30 years or more 'War - Can't you just hear the sweet sounds of rejoicing from arms dealers all over the planet at that news!
http://tinyurl.com/y9cb25

Is the Price of the Iraq War Really Worth It?
http://tinyurl.com/yykjwv

Bloodshed piles pressure on Iraqi PM, Bush. It is still unbelievable the amount of killing and destruction that the Boy in the Bubble unleashed. In D.C. now, as the death toll reaches the hundreds of thousands, the slow, cautious politicians try to figure out how to keep from being blamed for the final pull out and further descent into chaos.
http://tinyurl.com/yepzvf

New Poll Shows, Sunnis and Shiites Both Want the U.S. Out of Iraq. Doesn't That Make Us an Occupier, Not a Liberator? Does Bush Know the Difference? Not!!!!.
Link unavailable

White House dismisses CIA report on Iran's nuclear weapons program: The White House dismissed a classified CIA draft assessment that found no conclusive evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program, The New Yorker magazine reported.
http://tinyurl.com/y6ulb3

CACI: Torture in Iraq, Intimidation at Home - "Dogged by serious allegations of human rights abuses in Iraq, a leading profiteer from the Iraq war engages in intimidation campaigns against journalists in America who seek to expose its practices."
http://tinyurl.com/ylwaua

War dogs rebranded as `pussycats of peace': Mercenaries Boom times could be ending for second-largest military contingent in Iraq
http://tinyurl.com/yxvyw7

THE WHITE HOUSE

BUSH SR (VOICE QUIVERING): “THIS SON IS NOT GOING TO BACK AWAY”.... Former president Bush battles Arab critics of his son - "We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he's doing all over the world," a woman audience member bluntly told Bush after his keynote speech. - Bush appeared stunned as the audience of young business leaders whooped and whistled in approval.
http://tinyurl.com/yl9q4b

And Motorcycle Cops In Bush's Motorcade Crash In Hawaii...One In Critical Condition...
http://tinyurl.com/y2nkz8

White House Aide Beaten And Robbed In Honolulu...
Link unavailable

First Daughter Barbara Bush Robbed In Argentina...
http://tinyurl.com/ymndfu

President handed bitter pill of ex-insiders' dissent: Bush finds himself with fewer and fewer friends. Some of the strongest supporters of the war have grown disenchanted, former insiders are registering public dissent and Republicans on Capitol Hill blame him for losing Congress.
http://tinyurl.com/y93vk8

CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc

Was The Cure for Cancer and AIDS repressed by AMA and FDA? - Apply that thought to the war in Iraq. What if we could have taken over the entire country, arrested the terrorists, and restructured the government without any casualties? That possibility was invented in 1989 and was killed by the FDA and the AMA.
Developing - link unavailable

GOP Dumps Unfinished Spending Bills on Democrats - Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills
http://tinyurl.com/yybg38

Documents Show More Pentagon Spying on Peace Activists - Ben Wizner, a lawyer for the ACLU in New York, said the new documents suggested that the military’s efforts to glean intelligence on protesters went beyond what was previously known. If intelligence officials "are going to be doing investigations or monitoring in a place where people gather to worship or to study, they should have a pretty clear indication that a crime has occurred," Mr. Wizner added.
http://tinyurl.com/yy6xze

POLITICS

The anti-Deaniacs are fresh out of friends. Carville's attempt to seize the DNC and hand it over to corporate shills is over, and so is the power of DC's consultant class
http://tinyurl.com/y5ucwo

SCANDAL

News Corp. accused of hush money offer - The O.J. Simpson book saga took another twist Tuesday when his former sister-in-law, Denise Brown, accused the media company behind the project of trying to buy her family's silence for "millions of dollars." Check out Yahoo news - link unavailable

Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy?: In 1968, Robert Kennedy seemed likely to follow his brother, John, into the White House. Then, on June 6, he was assassinated - apparently by a lone gunman. But Shane O'Sullivan says he has evidence implicating three CIA agents in the murder
http://tinyurl.com/sllzg

LEGAL ITEMS

Web sites not liable for posts by others - Web sites that publish inflammatory information written by other parties cannot be sued for libel, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.
Check out Yahoo news - link unavailable

A GOP fundraiser who embezzled from a state investment in rare coins was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison in a scandal that helped bring down Ohio's ruling Republican Party on Election Day.
Check out Yahoo news - link unavailable

Partial-Birth's Trojan Horse - This month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Gonzales cases, which concern the constitutionality of the Federal Partial-Birth Abortion Act. There are three central questions about this case to consider as we await the Court's decision next year: 1) Should the Court rule the legislation unconstitutional? 2) Will the Court rule it unconstitutional? and 3) Does it matter?
http://tinyurl.com/yxblsb

Best Buy's 'Geek Squad' Accused of Pirating Software - The suit accuses Best Buy and its subsidiaries of copyright infringement, circumvention of copyright infringement systems and misappropriation of trade secrets.
http://tinyurl.com/nuff9

BREAKING: DIEBOLD WHISTLEBLOWER STRIKES PLEA DEAL ON FELONY CHARGES Stephen Heller, the Los Angeles whistleblower who turned over documents from Diebold's attorney, Jones-Day, in 2004 showing the Voting Machine Company had illegally installed uncertified hardware and software in California — and was preparing to lie about it — has pled guilty, according to a statement tonight from the LA County District Attorney's office.
http://tinyurl.com/yywu7y

Former Attorney General Janet Reno and seven other former Justice Department officials filed court papers Monday arguing that the Bush administration is setting a dangerous precedent by trying a suspected terrorist outside the court system.
http://tinyurl.com/vqjry

Justice Department Quashes Wiretapping Inquiries - a growing number of Americans who are acting, in lieu of Congress, as the only check and balance on the Bush administration's domestic spying program.
http://tinyurl.com/y7ho8f

ELECTION ITEMS

The GOP's dirty deeds of 2006 - Salon's guide to robo-calls, push polls, vigilantes and other murky dealings from this year's elections.
http://tinyurl.com/y22lfv

Jennings Contests Election Results - Citing statistical and eyewitness evidence of significant machine malfunctions sufficient to call into doubt the result of the election for Florida Congressional District 13, the Christine Jennings campaign today officially contested the election in Circuit Court.
http://tinyurl.com/yd9dme

Would a Tommy Thompson presidency mandate microchipping Americans?:
http://tinyurl.com/y92q9p

ECONOMY

White House warns of economic slowdown
http://tinyurl.com/vxk8d

Dollar Breakdown to Ignite Gold Market: With China and other countries freely talking of plans to diversify their foreign exchange reserves, which have been predominantly comprised of U.S. dollars, the FX hordes now have a fundamental excuse to push for a breakdown.
http://tinyurl.com/y2ruft

Hard US lessons, harder landings: The US is beginning to unwind the largest housing bubble in modern history. There will be upswings and local exceptions and wide regional and price variations. This changes nothing. Hundreds of billions of dollars in household accepredict effects of a 40% crash in house prices: ss to cash and debt from refinancing, equity extraction, home equity lines of credit and house flipping will dry up.
http://tinyurl.com/y7qd3m

BANKS in the UK have been ordered by financial regulators to assess how they would cope in the event of house prices crashing by 40 per cent.
http://tinyurl.com/txzts

Foreclosures hit new high in October: 115,568 properties nationwide entered some stage of foreclosure during October, the most reported in any month so far this year and an increase of 42 percent from October 2005.
http://tinyurl.com/vopl3

Local foreclosure numbers continue roller-coaster ride: For the state, the 11,413 properties in foreclosure ranked Florida sixth in the nation
http://tinyurl.com/yyda96

Housing Bubble Smack-down - Give me 5 minutes and I’ll convince you that you should sell your house immediately and invest your life-savings in gold or a Swiss bank-account.
http://tinyurl.com/yn4o7d

New Jersey repossessions rise 44%: In the Northeast, according to the National Association of Realtors, home prices in the second quarter of 2006 were down 16.3 percent from last year. In New Jersey specifically, second-quarter prices were down 11.6 percent.
http://tinyurl.com/wkvh4

Class Struggle -- "Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve compensation packages for chief executives and others that are out of logic's range." writes Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia. "... the average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year, and has not been raised in nearly a decade."
http://tinyurl.com/uqpj4

Consumers Union: 'It's Always Christmas Time' for Credit Card Companies But Consumers Can Get Trapped by Abusive Fees and Practices
http://tinyurl.com/y6u77l

Complaints.com - Best Buy - This is a very cool site! You don;t even have to read the complaints, just type in the name of a reseller and see what the total number of complaints is (over 1000 for Best Buy) and you know who NOT to take your Christmas shopping dollars to.
http://tinyurl.com/y7my8y

911

FBI Ordered to Disclose Details of 9/11 bin Laden Family Evacuation - Judge Richard W. Roberts of the US District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the FBI to submit "proper disclosures" to the court and Judicial Watch by December 15, 2006, concerning the US government's evacuation of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family from the United States immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
http://tinyurl.com/yx5o9y

CONGRESS

Democrats seek accommodation with Bush administration to continue Iraq occupation - The statements of Democrats in recent days highlight the central fact that there is no section of the political establishment opposed to the war, even though this is the position of the majority of the American people.
http://tinyurl.com/y2lqca

Lieberman Hires Former McCain Staffer...
http://tinyurl.com/yljtx2

Democratic Congress Should Launch Truman-Like Investigation of Iraq Reconstruction Fraud
http://tinyurl.com/y6ak9q

Congressman Frank Offers Business a "Grand Bargain" --- Representative Barney Frank has proposed in a series of meetings with business groups a "grand bargain" with corporate America: Democrats would agree to reduce regulations and support free trade deals in exchange for businesses agreeing to greater wage increases and job benefits for workers. Frank, the Newton Democrat who is in line to chair the House Financial Services Committee, has struck a conciliatory posture with Financial-industry leaders in recent years. But since the morning after Election Day, he has moved quickly to lay out an ambitious plan to try to end the political stalemate between Republicans and Democrats on broad economic issues.
http://tinyurl.com/yyq2hp

Following serious FDA failures, Congress may reward the agency with even more money, regulatory power:
http://tinyurl.com/y29g57

DOMESTIC

Students Dropping Out of High School Reaches Epidemic Levels - In several of the largest school systems across the country — from Baltimore to Cleveland to Atlanta and Oakland, Calif. — half of the students are dropping out.
http://tinyurl.com/tpj6p

Out-Of-Wedlock Births Hit All-Time High...4/10 Babies...
http://tinyurl.com/t2pvh

Houston Janitor Strike Ends With Agreement - After a month-long strike featuring local, national and international demonstrations, Houston janitors reached an agreement yesterday with five major cleaning contractors that will double their income and provide them with health insurance by 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/y4pz8g

GM defends its position on who killed the electric car:
http://tinyurl.com/tgx8j

Cancer-like disease killing off citrus, hurting industry - “This is absolutely the most serious threat the citrus industry has ever had,’’ said Mike Carrere, executive vice president of Lykes Brothers in Tampa, the state’s second-largest citrus grower. “Canker debilitates a tree. Greening actually kills it.’’
No link allowed

RELIGIOUS ITEMS

When Polish student Michael Gromek, 19, went to America on a student exchange, he found himself trapped in a host family of Christian fundamentalists. What followed was a six-month hell of dawn church visits and sex education talks as his new family tried to banish the devil from his soul.
http://tinyurl.com/uarx5

BU Republicans offer white scholarship
http://tinyurl.com/wbczv

Christian Conservatives Boycott Wal-Mart For Promoting “The Radical Homosexual Agenda”...
http://tinyurl.com/y8xmre

ENVIRONMENT

World Has Under Decade to Act on Climate Crisis - The world has less than a decade to take decisive action in the battle to beat global warming or risk irreversible change that will tip the planet toward catastrophe, a leading US climate scientist said. And the United States, the world's biggest polluter and major climate laggard, has a vital role to play in leading that fight.
http://tinyurl.com/y2zkyu

Europeans overwhelmingly support restrictions to halt global warming:
http://tinyurl.com/w4htm

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Imported Models Deemed Safest Vehicles - Imported models took all 13 spots on the U.S. insurance industry's list of safest vehicles this year, due mainly to a new requirement that all cars and sport utilities on the list have systems to keep them stable in an emergency.
http://tinyurl.com/t7bdc

INTERNATIONAL

China admits selling prisoner organs
http://tinyurl.com/y29y3o

MEDIA AND JOURNALISM

Dead in the Water : How Israel attacked and nearly sank the USS Liberty belonging to its closest ally, the USA. Thirty-four American servicemen were killed in the two-hour assault by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats.
http://tinyurl.com/ovt5p

EDITORIALS - OPINIONS

America is a failed state: An interview with Prof. Noam Chomsky.
http://tinyurl.com/shz54

HEALTH

Flame-grilled foods linked with higher risk of breast cancer:
http://tinyurl.com/y47af3

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Tied to Stress and Childhood Trauma
http://tinyurl.com/yb4969

Neurotoxic chemicals causing "silent pandemic" of preventable disabilities in children:
http://tinyurl.com/y6ss36

Fish consumption linked to lower rates of colon cancer:
http://tinyurl.com/y2tz4z

Scientists discover how bird flu can mutate into form deadly to humans:
http://tinyurl.com/y86kdo

Off-label use of blood clotting prescription drug may be killing U.S. soldiers, military doctors say:
http://tinyurl.com/y7aehn

SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS

Charges dropped in office nudity case
http://tinyurl.com/y8f98v