November 5, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

A New York Times editorial said: "On Tuesday, when this page runs the list of people it has endorsed for election, we will include not Republican Congressional candidates for the first time in our memory. The Republican majority that has run the House - and for the most part, the Senate = during President Bush's tenure has done a terrible job on the basics."
http://tinyurl.com/y7kwmu

BY THY WAY……..

Why Do So Few People Vote in the US?
http://tinyurl.com/we5vu

ALERT

Google 'will be able to keep tabs on us all': The internet will hold so much digital data in five years that it will be possible to find out what an individual was doing at a specific time and place, an expert said yesterday. (Link not accessible.)

WAR and ALL

FINALLY!!!Bush Cites Oil As Reason to Stay in Iraq -- During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush and his aides sternly dismissed suggestions that the war was all about oil. Now, 3 1/2 years later, as he barnstorms across the country campaigning for Republican candidates in Tuesday's elections, Bush has been citing oil as a reason to stay in Iraq.
http://tinyurl.com/yymy8f

Secret nuclear weapons documents found in New Mexico drug raid -- security breach called potentially "devastating"
http://tinyurl.com/yhnr48

Government closes 2 Sunni TV stations - After Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang, Iraqi security forces closed two Sunni Muslim television stations Sunday for violating curfew and a law that bans airing material that could undermine the country's stability, the Interior Ministry said. (Good old Democracy!)
http://tinyurl.com/u2eq8

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death --- A US-backed Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced toppled leader Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.The Iraqi High Tribunal also handed down death sentences to former revolutionary chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander and Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti.Former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison
http://tinyurl.com/y4h5j2

World Reacts To Saddam Verdict - underscoring the fault lines that split the international community and widened the divide between Muslims and Christians, Islamic leaders warned that the verdict could inflame those who revile the United States — undermining U.S. policy in the volatile Middle East and inspiring terrorists to strike.
http://tinyurl.com/yyu826


Fighting erupts in Baghdad after verdict - Fighting has broken out in Baghdad between Sunnis and the Iraqi army after Saddam Hussein, the former president, was sentenced to death.
http://tinyurl.com/y25chb

The Case for Engagement By Scott Ritter --- I recently returned from a trip to Iran, where over the course of a week I made the journey from the northern suburbs of Tehran to the gates of the Natanz enrichment facility, and in doing so had my eyes opened. The Iran that I witnessed was far removed from the one caricatured in the US media. I left with the frustrating realization that, as had been the case with Iraq, America was stumbling toward a conflict, blinded by the prejudice and fear born of our collective ignorance.
http://tinyurl.com/uz5rw

U.S. speeds attack plans for North Korea -- The Pentagon has stepped up planning for attacks against North Korea's nuclear program and is bolstering nuclear forces in Asia, said defense officials familiar with the highly secret process.
http://tinyurl.com/uwp9g

THE WHITE HOUSE

Saddam Verdict Date "Rigged" for Bush --- Saddam Hussein's defense team has urged a delay of his possible death sentence and said the ousted Iraqi leader believed today's expected verdict was timed to boost President George Bush before US mid-term elections.
http://tinyurl.com/y3dfuz

Cheney: I Would “Probably Not” Testify Before Congress Even If Subpoenaed...
http://tinyurl.com/y2nzu6

What To Say When They Tell You "He's Kept Us Safe"
http://tinyurl.com/y75g5e

POLITICS

Al Gore: "We are facing a massive assault on our liberties"
http://tinyurl.com/tksbo

End of the Neo-Cons --- Whether or not the Republicans lose control of one or both houses of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, the neo-conservative vision that has guided American foreign policy since 2001 has run its course. The neo-cons' grand design lies in ruins, having accomplished nothing other than to shrink America's stature in the world.
http://tinyurl.com/ylgueu

Conservative Richard Perle: I Didn't Want Iraq Criticism Published Before Elections...
http://tinyurl.com/wlfmm

GOP Rep: Bush Admin. “Screwed Up” In Posting Iraq Docs Online...
http://tinyurl.com/sob6b

SCANDAL

Andrew Sullivan: Investigation “Is Proving That Hastert, Reynolds And Rove Knew Full-Well About Mark Foley For Years”...
http://tinyurl.com/y88vp7

Maryland (R) Gov. Ehrlich returns half million dollars in illegally laundered funds
http://tinyurl.com/y4jf9x

Foreign Lobbies Took the Guise Of Nonprofits - Early last year, two little-known nonprofit groups paid for Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) and his 12-year-old daughter to travel to South Korea and Malaysia. Their last stop was the Berjaya Beach & Spa Resort on the Malaysian island of Langkawi, where they bunked at an oceanfront chalet staffed with a personal butler, got massages and rode water scooters on Burau Bay. - Doolittle's junket, which cost $29,400, was among the most expensive privately sponsored trips by members of Congress in recent years.
http://tinyurl.com/v8t66

LEGAL ITEMS

Automated GOP calls may break N.H. law - The National Republican Congressional Committee acknowledges that its automated phone program on behalf of a local congressman may violate New Hampshire law, but said that it would continue, despite opposition from local party leaders.
http://tinyurl.com/y4xhtt

O'Connor worries about courts' autonomy - Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said she fears judges are under growing political attack nationwide.
http://tinyurl.com/y34cxs

ELECTION ITEMS

Ohio's “Elephant Graveyard:” New Polls Show One-Third Voting Straight Dem...
http://tinyurl.com/y7uxph

More on what we're hearing about GOP dirty phone tricks in the New York 19th Congressional District. - Three TPM readers have reported a phone scam with a double whammy. The call purports to be for John Hall, the Democratic challenger, but makes negative assertions about Hall.
http://tinyurl.com/ucna5

Ledeen rats out Lieberman?
http://tinyurl.com/y8loxq

GOP Losing Its Base: Poll Says Republicans “Less Enthusiastic” About Voting Than Democrats...
http://tinyurl.com/y6tc8o

RELIGIOUS ITEMS

Haggard confesses to 'lifelong' sexual problem - Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard confessed on Sunday to a "lifelong" sexual problem, and said he was "a deceiver and a liar," in a letter read to his New Life Church.
http://tinyurl.com/vkfth

Mo. Catholics Back Stem Cell Research - A group of prominent Catholics is challenging church leaders' opposition to stem cell research and to the proposed Constitutional amendment that would protect such research in Missouri.
http://tinyurl.com/uvkm9

INTERNATIONAL

UK: Insolvencies jump 55%: The number of people becoming insolvent has jumped by 55% over the past year, official figures revealed today, in the latest evidence of Britain's mounting personal debt problems.
http://tinyurl.com/vebox

MILITARY

AWOL soldier's travails give pause to others who fled to Canada - But after hearing that a fellow former soldier who surrendered to the military and was ordered to return to his unit instead of being discharged, Glass may not return at all.
http://tinyurl.com/yyflkm

U.S. stops plan to return convicted soldier to Iraq - U.S. military commanders reversed plans to send a soldier convicted of offenses at the Abu Ghraib prison back to Iraq after news media disclosed the deployment, the U.S. Army said on Friday.
http://tinyurl.com/wn9sk

HEALTH

REPORT ON WIDESPREAD ROCKET FUEL POLLUTION IN NATION'S FOOD AND WATER - Scientists warn that the chemical, known as perchlorate, could cause thyroid deficiency in more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age.
http://tinyurl.com/k7da6

HUMAN RIGHTS

Germans tell of secret Nazi program - While millions of Jews and others deemed "undesirable," were slaughtered, these children were carefully selected for their Aryan qualities and brought into the world in comfortable surroundings, well away from the Allied bombing raids.
http://tinyurl.com/y8zp7l