December 31, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent - we have even added our shame at abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib - and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created. R. Fisk
ALERT
US MILITARY DEATHS HIT 3,000…
http://tinyurl.com/te7wz
DUMB BUSHISM
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." -Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
PONDER THIS
I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
WAR
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The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales: Aesop, Fables
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History of Bushes and Hussein Is Hard to Ignore
http://tinyurl.com/wz2zu
Escalation now is a truly horrific approach to the mess this administration has made of Iraq. This approach is precisely what the American people voted against in the last election, which means that this government has not and will not listen to the voice of the people.
http://tinyurl.com/u37tv
THE WHITE HOUSE
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In the last analysis we must be judged by what we do and not by what we believe. We are as we behave - Geoffrey L. Rudd, The British Vegetarian, September/October 1962
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The President's praise of fair trials and the rule of law - President Bush today hailed the critical importance of fair trials and the rule of law . . . . in Iraq: - That is why it is so reprehensible and inexpressibly tragic that the Bush administration continues to claim -- and aggressively exercise -- the power to imprison and punish people without even a pretense or fraction of the due process that Saddam Hussein enjoyed.
http://tinyurl.com/ycdpuj
CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc
DNI Awards $2 Million in Hush-Hush Moneyhttp://tinyurl.com/y8g2kl
POLITICS
Regarding the late President Ford - Gerald Ford forced to admit the Warren Report fictionalized
http://tinyurl.com/yljg92
Why Ford Pardoned Nixon: To Keep Secret His Role in the Kennedy Assasination - The DNC had gotten copies of the photographs taken of the three tramps in Dealey Plaza, and identified two of them as long time Nixon henchmen E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis. This put the DNC in a position to at least blackmail the President, if not expose him outright.
http://tinyurl.com/d5mm7
SCANDAL
Highway Robbery - Governor Jon Corzine intends to sell New Jersey's toll roads to private investors for $10 billion. Selling or leasing publicly owned toll roads degrades our public and financial security. Toll road takeovers led by Goldman Sachs, where Governor Corzine was the Chairman and CEO before taking elected office, prove the point...Goldman Sachs took the Indiana Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway private in 2005. Goldman invested its own money in both deals. Goldman worked every side of these deals, collecting fees as lobbyists, deal makers and investors.
http://tinyurl.com/uxgly
DOJ Probes Interior Officials' Ties to Oil Program - The Justice Department is investigating whether the director of a multibillion-dollar oil-trading program at the Interior Department has been paid as a consultant for oil companies hoping for contracts.
http://tinyurl.com/y89468
DID YOU KNOW?
-Americans see gloom, doom in 2007
-The government can look at any piece of mail it wants without the need for a warrant.
-Government promises safer lettuce
-Low-cost laptop may transform learning
-Net neutrality wins short-term battle
-Exxon CEO Defends Predecessor’s $400 Million Retirement Package
-Maytag workers say goodbyes
-Biden wants Rice to testify on Iraq policy
-Tax forms mailed with Soc. Sec. numbers
-Localities Operate Intelligence Centers To Pool Terror Data (as they invade your privacy)
- Minor ailments can thwart applicants for individual policies.
ECONOMY
Living in America's Fringe Economy - Millions of Americans live on the margins of the American economy, depending on the likes of payday lenders and pawnshops, who charge excessive interest rates and superhigh fees for their services.
http://tinyurl.com/slr7h
CONGRESS
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"The high minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think."-- Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)
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Conyers accepts 'responsibility' for alleged ethics violations
http://tinyurl.com/wsq4a
GOP Sen. Specter: I'm Not Giving Bush A “Blank Check” For Troop Escalation...
http://tinyurl.com/y7xhbx
GOP Sen. Lugar: If Bush Doesn't Consult Congress On Iraq It Could “Get Ugly”...
http://tinyurl.com/yabmj5
DOMESTIC
Super-union seen within a decade
http://tinyurl.com/ymkn5t
Blog: 'Your mail is officially not safe'
http://tinyurl.com/uwbtu
ENVIRONMENT
China's Coal Boom Making “Toxic Clouds So Big They Can Be Seen From Space”...
http://tinyurl.com/y8anrv
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
'Hands off gay sheep,' scientists are told - Fears that tests to 'cure' gay rams will pave way to breed out homosexuality in man.
http://tinyurl.com/yxwonk
MILITARY
Third time's the harm - After two tours of duty in Afghanistan, Steven Henderson says his latest callup 'not to exceed 545 days' in Iraq is asking too much.
http://tinyurl.com/yjbbh9
SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS
67-Year Old Gives Birth To Twins...World's Oldest New Mother...
http://tinyurl.com/ud7xz
December 30, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
You know what folk, my sense about the impeachment issue of Bush and Cheney is that impeachment is a NO GO. - Why? Because too many in seats of power sense the whimpishness of the Republicans. Frankly, the Republicans do not have the balls for dealing with the responsiblity that goes with their bad decisions backed with their huge lies. All I have heard is a bunch of boohooing and finger pointing to redirect blame away from themselves. Hey Repubs, when you do the big crime, you should be willing to do the big time.
ALERT
Saddam Hussein Executed at US Base in Baghdad - Hussein was hung around 6 a.m. local time (10 p.m. Friday EST) in the American-controlled Green Zone in central Baghdad. Hussein was executed before a small group of observers.
http://tinyurl.com/y4t7ut
We made him, then we destroyed him.- Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability." (Author unknown but well said.)
WAR
****************************************"Herein lies a riddle: How can a people so gifted by God become so seduced by naked power, so greedy for money, so addicted to violence, so slavish before mediocre and treacherous leadership, so paranoid, deluded, lunatic?" : Philip Berrigan - Source: Hell, Healing and Resistance Veterans Speak ****************************************
How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water Supply
http://tinyurl.com/ym2vjp
War Is A Racket : I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended
animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher- ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service: Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
http://tinyurl.com/9vl8d
CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc
*******************************************Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder.... the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish their corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace....They are continually talking about their patriotic duty. It is not their but your patriotic duty that they are concerned about. There is a decided difference. Their patriotic duty never takes them to the firing line or chucks them into the trenches. Eugene V. Debs *******************************************
Social Security Agreement With Mexico Released After 3 1/2 Year Freedom of Information Act Battle - The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.- The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is awaiting President Bush's signature. Once President Bush approves the agreement, which would be done without Congressional vote, either House of Congress would have 60 days to disapprove the agreement by voting to reject it.
http://tinyurl.com/y4bd6y
POLITICS
The Real Reason Republicans Hate Hillary Clinton
http://tinyurl.com/y2w3ku
DID YOU KNOW?
-3,000 African children die of malaria EACH DAY.
-Will Rogers: "If we ever pass out as a great nation we ought to put on our tombstone 'America died from a delusion that she had moral leadership.”
-IRS agreed to stop collecting the tax after several cases held the continued collection of the tax to be illegal:
-Possible Explosive Device Found Near Bridge In DC
-Edwards is doing fine - standing room only at Nevada event
-Head-banging snakes predict quakes
-Bush's favorite *toy* is the pistol Saddam was carrying when captured.
911
9-11 Attacks: The Five Dancing Israelis Arrested on 9-11 - It was later confirmed that the five detained Israelis were in fact Mossad agents (21). They were held in custody for 71 days before being quietly released.
http://tinyurl.com/3fwec
INTERNATIONAL
Doctors Without Borders: After a Week of Intense Fighting in Somalia, MSF Extremely Concerned About the Security of Medical Staff and Safety of Patients
http://tinyurl.com/yc3q3n
MILITARY
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"The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about.": Noam Chomsky
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Poll: Only 1 in 3 military service members approve of the way the president is handling the war in Iraq. And only 41% now feel it was the right idea to go to war in Iraq in the first place.
http://tinyurl.com/ymq3jt
EDITORIALS - OPINIONS
The Disrespect for Truth has Brought a New Dark Age - The belief in truth was powerful. Truth would deliver justice and bring an end to status-based privileges and the falsehoods propagated by privilege. The faith in truth was short-lived. Today propaganda is everywhere in the ascendency.
http://tinyurl.com/sfr5p
HEALTH
Cloned Animals Set to Be Sold As Meat in the US
http://tinyurl.com/y7yvj9
December 29, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
Wouldn't it be hypocrisy for the Secretary of Defense to protect the President of the United States from embarrassment for his grievous and deadly mistakes rather than to do what's best for America? Yes it would, and so Robert M. Gates is our BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.
WAR
More troops unhappy with Bush's course in Iraq, poll finds
http://tinyurl.com/y6etnr
Many soldiers say troop surge a bad idea
http://tinyurl.com/ykvwlr
Saddam Hussein will be executed no later than Saturday, said an Iraqi judge authorized to attend his hanging, while the former dictator's lawyers said he had been transferred from U.S. custody. How convenient that the secrets of Reagan/Poppy Bush/Rumsfeld complicity with the crimes he is accused of in the 80s will die with him.
http://tinyurl.com/y8atrp
BACK and FORTH - Judge: Saddam Will Be Executed No Later Than Saturday. Reuters: May Hang Within Hours…Frm. Dictator Is In Iraqi Custody, Defense Lawyer Says...
http://tinyurl.com/y6oung
U.S. Reserves returning to Iraq - Strapped for soldiers, the U.S. Army wants new authority to send National Guard and Reserve soldiers back to Iraq for repeat deployments, even those who have already served the maximum time allowed by the Pentagon.
http://tinyurl.com/y5tjzs
THE WHITE HOUSE
While Bush Wallows in His Incompetence, Five More GIs Die in Iraq: December's Number Steadily Edging Toward Highest Monthly Tally of '06
http://tinyurl.com/ya9cpb
ELECTION ITEMS
Disputed Florida Election to Spill Onto House Floor
http://tinyurl.com/yysevp
ECONOMY
Estimates for Pensions to Tighten - The states of New York, New Hampshire, Tennessee and about a dozen other governments may no longer be able to say their pension funds are fully funded no matter how the markets perform.
http://tinyurl.com/yn3dl7
Medicare Premiums Will Surge for Some - When new income-based premiums for Medicare's Part B program go into effect next month, some seniors will get an unwelcome surprise: Their monthly costs will be going up considerably more than expected because of the government's method of counting their income.
http://tinyurl.com/yfqmt7
Households: Worst Financial Shape Since WWII
http://tinyurl.com/yzfvw3
DID YOU KNOW:
-Bushes take shelter in tornado warning
-Judge nixes request for e-vote code
-AT&T grapling with net neutrality
-Google to invest in Chinese website
-CIA still censoring New York Times
-Fed elections grp.'s $6.2m in fines
-Age of Grand Canyon Withheld to Cater to
-Domestic-Partner Violence Up After Downtrend
CONGRESS
Reyes: U.S. intelligence 'manipulated' Incoming House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes says he'd rather figure out how to stabilize Iraq and bring the troops home than get bogged down investigating what went wrong. (((Call him if you agree we need to investigate what went wrong.)))
http://tinyurl.com/yfsqff
DOMESTIC
Waiting List for AIDS Drugs Causes Dismay in South Carolina - More than 350 poor people infected with HIV are on a waiting list for free life-saving drugs in South Carolina, by far the longest such list in the country.
http://tinyurl.com/yjfyp7
New Orleans officers charged with murder - Seven police officers were indicted Thursday on murder or attempted murder charges in a pair of shootings on a bridge that left two people dead during the chaotic aftermath of Katrina.
http://tinyurl.com/ybzze6
Corporations are Sitting on Piles of Cash: "Imagine the dilemma of having so much cash in your bank account that you didn't know what to do with it."
http://tinyurl.com/yfm6ae
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
This is Not Out of a Science Fiction Comic Book: "The U.S. Air Force is quietly spending millions of dollars investigating ways to use a radical power source -- antimatter, the eerie "mirror" of ordinary matter -- in future weapons."
http://tinyurl.com/62nk9
HEALTH
The vaccine to prevent every strain of flu - British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease.
http://tinyurl.com/yhdpeu
December 28, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.": Howard Zinn, historian and author
WAR
"In exclusive interview, Gerald Ford 'very strongly' opposed Bush's justifications for war; criticized his own former colleagues Cheney and Rumsfeld."
http://tinyurl.com/ybd9hh
Many Soldiers Say Troop Escalation A Bad Idea...
http://tinyurl.com/yn3pks
Saddam may not hang within month: Iraqi officials Saddam Hussein may not hang this coming month, senior officials said on Thursday, casting doubt on how government factions may interpret an appeal court ruling that appeared to say he should die within 30 days.
http://tinyurl.com/y7lcp2
US Government Pressures Banks to Stop Dealing With Iran - Dozens of banks have stopped or scaled back their businesses with Iran and other "rogue states" after informal pressure from the US government aimed at sidestepping the need for international sanctions.
http://tinyurl.com/yarxty
THE WHITE HOUSE
The Voice of the White House - December 27, 2006 It has long been known in intelligence and higher-level political (Republican) circles in Washington, that Israel was fully responsible for training the operators and supplying inside information to the Arabs who blew up the WTC, the Pentagon, and intended to blow up the White House. The leadership believed, correctly as it turned out, that such a violent terrorist outrage would so energize the American public that they would rush to support George Bush’s plan for a permanent U.S. military base in the Middle East, destroy Israel’s most dangerous enemy, Saddam Hussein, and gain for both nations, free and unfettered access to the huge Iraqi oil reserves. The Israeli excuse when their participation in this was uncovered? Why, they fully informed American intelligence of what was happening at every step! This is an example where the excuse was worse than the crime, for if Mossad and the Israeli Embassy had, indeed, kept the American leadership courant with the plot, why didn’t American authorities interdict and stop it? They knew where and when the aircraft were to be hijacked yet did absolutely nothing and no protective steps were even instituted and no heightened alerts were ever issued.
http://tinyurl.com/ydlwo9
The real menace: The public, seeing through the tissue of Bush administration lies told to justify an invasion that never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 or weapons of mass destruction, now has begun a national questioning: Why are we still in Iraq?
http://tinyurl.com/ydpryy
CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc
Why Is HUD Bulldozing Public Housing Apts in New Orleans When It's Cheaper to Fix Them?
http://tinyurl.com/y749zt
Former Bush Interior Secretary Takes Job as Attorney for Shell - Months after she resigned her cabinet post as President Bush's interior secretary, Gale Norton is back as a key legal advisor for Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
http://tinyurl.com/yyb7pn
DID YOU KNOW:
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)
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-Sen. Johnson improves, being taken off sedatives:
-Clinton leads big in new key state polls
-Sen. Clinton tops Obama
-Edwards now in four states holding early primaries
-Credit agencies fail on fixing errors
-Wall St. still 'white man's world'
-US, accounts for over 50% of all arms exports
-Slavery a by-product of the Arms Industry
-Tobacco smoke is Poison. Cigarette smoke contains the radioactive substance that killed Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
-Your cell (mobile) phone can be secretly turned into an eavesdropping bug EVEN WHEN SWITCHED OFF
ELECTION ITEMS
Why John Edwards Changes Everything ((I will take Edwards over Clinton any day.))
http://tinyurl.com/wxyfk
ECONOMY
U.S. manufacturing expected to take hit: The key U.S. manufacturing sector is expected to be hit hard next year, heightening fears a recession is now much more likely than many economists had expected.
http://tinyurl.com/v5g6a
Euro to Overtake US Dollar - The value of euro notes in circulation is this month likely to exceed the value of circulating dollar notes, according to calculations by the Financial Times. Converted at Wednesday's exchange rates, the euro took the lead in October.
http://tinyurl.com/ycnrar
Workers Wrestle With the Future at Ford - Scott Swiercz was mulling the biggest gamble of his life. Ford Motor Co. had offered him and its 75,000 other US hourly workers a choice of buyout packages.
http://tinyurl.com/yhhqw7
Prosperity's Potholes - as a new report by the Brookings Institution shows, poverty is now increasingly a major problem on the brightly lit lanes of our nation's suburbs, not just in the urban areas. For the first time ever, there are now more people living in poverty in America's suburbs than in her cities."
http://tinyurl.com/ydw6c4
DOMESTIC
A Fight to the Finish for Women - Divorce and lost earning time could put living standards in a free-fall late in life.
http://tinyurl.com/ygjqu8
Maternal Profiling: How Employers Discriminate by Marital Status - Only 22 states and Puerto Rico specifically prohibit employers from inquiring about applicants' marital status. That means "maternal profiling" is a real problem for many women.
http://tinyurl.com/yfxrpw
ENVIRONMENT
Ice Shelf Collapse Sends Chill - An ancient ice shelf has cracked off northern Ellesmere Island, creating an enormous 66-square-kilometer ice island and leaving a trail of icy blocks in its wake.
http://tinyurl.com/yczmpm
INTERNATIONAL
China to use foreign reserves to build up strategic resource base, vice premier says - Two problems here. The first is that as China starts to actually spend those dollars, inflation will increase, and secondly, some of those strategic resources China is looking at are claimed by other countries.
http://tinyurl.com/y6gsc5
Chavez targets Venezuela homeless woes : President Hugo Chavez has pledged to do away with homelessness in Venezuela through an aggressive outreach program that is offering street people communal housing, drug treatment and a modest stipend.
http://tinyurl.com/yn8sv9
EDITORIALS - OPINIONS
'Kill the Messenger' Probes the CIA, the Crack Cocaine Trade, and a Journalist 's Untimely Death
http://tinyurl.com/ybux6k
HEALTH
FDA Steps Up Warnings on Popular Pain Relievers Federal health officials on Tuesday cautioned the tens of millions of Americans who take popular over-the-counter pain pills about their potentially serious side effects and released planned label changes intended to warn of the sometimes deadly risks.
http://tinyurl.com/yx3phm
U.S. doctors are being trained in Cuba: Many aspiring doctors are leaving the United States to receive free medical training in Cuba.
http://tinyurl.com/ynbroe
December 27, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
Iran backed dangerously into a corner - Washington and Tel Aviv, aided by London, are taking this region on a collision course. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa once warned that the invasion of Iraq would open the gates to Hell. They opened alright but if there is war with *** Iran they may take a long time to swing shut.
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"The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf -- a philosopher or servant, -- but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world." -- Robert G. Ingersoll - (1833-1899) American political leader, orator
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ALERT
Antarctic Ozone Layer 90 to 99 Percent Gone
http://tinyurl.com/ykhkaw
WAR
Ike Was Right - "It’s not primarily about the oil; it’s much more about the military-industrial complex, the label employed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower 45 years ago when he warned of the dangers of 'a permanent arms industry of vast proportions.'"
http://tinyurl.com/yhnrma
Ex-Hussein political adviser claims Iraq accepted Bush's ultimatum before invasion Hossam Shaltout, a former political adviser to Saddam Hussein's son, said today that before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March of 2003, Saddam expressed his intent to yield to all American demands, but that the Bush administration refused his offers.
http://tinyurl.com/yzaft7
Hussein Execution: Baath Party Threatens to Retaliate - Baath Party threatened Wednesday to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader is executed, warning in an Internet posting it would target US interests anywhere. ((Saddam Writes Farewell Letter: “I Call On You Not To Hate Because Hate Does Not Leave Space For a Person To Be Fair”))
http://tinyurl.com/yjantz
US tries to assure allies that extraordinary renditions are over --- The US is telling its overseas allies that it has stopped "extraordinary renditions" and needs their help to empty Guantánamo's prison cells. But human rights groups dispute this assertion and a question mark hangs over 200 "war on terror" detainees who could be held indefinitely without trial. ((So now Bush is going to play the long forgotten compassionate conservative!!!))
http://tinyurl.com/y9fzwp
Gambling to save face on Iraq - In reality, Bush's "new approach" for Iraq may well have the consequence of enlarging the conflict, possibly bringing Iran, Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia into the inferno. In other words, the neocon inspired Bush-Cheney team will do exactly the reverse of what the Baker-Hamilton Commission has recommended. No wonder former president George H.W. Bush is crying aloud in public.
http://tinyurl.com/yexkmb
THE WHITE HOUSE
Where Are the Christians? - If you've learned anything from Messrs. Bush and Cheney over the past six years, it's that conflating wildly unrelated issues can get people so spooked that it works,"
http://tinyurl.com/yjho7x
CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc
Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America - The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in the May 2005 report entitled “Building a North American Community,” express what appears to be the goal of SPP - namely, to defend only the perimeter border around North America while increasingly erasing our borders with Mexico and Canada by issuing in 2007 electronic Trusted Trader border passes to Canadian and Mexican trucks and other commercial entities and by issuing next year Trusted Traveler bio-metric cards to Mexican and Canadian citizens.
http://tinyurl.com/ylf2hc
Interior, Pentagon Faulted in Audit $1.7 billion that resulted in excessive fees and tens of millions of dollars in waste
http://tinyurl.com/y7cwlr
POLITICS
Gerald Ford's Role in the JFK Assassination Cover-up *** Newly released documents show, however, that Warren Commission member Congressman Gerald Ford pressed the panel to change its description of the wound and place it higher in Kennedy's body.
http://tinyurl.com/ygsv3l
Former President Gerald Ford Dies - Gerald Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93. ((For those of you who do not already know this, Gerald Ford is a special man in American history in that he took part in not one but two cover ups related to the JFK assassination.))
Why Ford Pardoned Nixon: To Keep Secret His Role in the Kennedy Assasination - The DNC had gotten copies of the photographs taken of the three tramps in Dealey Plaza, and identified two of them as long time Nixon henchmen E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis. This put the DNC in a position to at least blackmail the President, if not expose him outright.
http://tinyurl.com/d5mm7
SCANDAL
The Cult of the Upper Crust
http://tinyurl.com/ynh5sq
SEC Gives Holiday Present to Corporate America *** A change in the way grants of stock options are to be explained to investors is a victory for corporations that had opposed the rule when it was issued in July, and a defeat for institutional investors that had backed the SEC’s original rule.
http://tinyurl.com/ymnlej
U.S. pursues financial strategy against regimes it can't otherwise corral: Over the past year, the Bush administration has persuaded bankers across Europe and Asia to choke off some Iranian and North Korean access to the world financial system, using the taint of terrorism and corruption as leverage.
http://tinyurl.com/yagd4o
LEGAL ITEMS
Mass. Court Stops '08 Hopeful Romney's Attempt To Force Vote On Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment...
http://tinyurl.com/y5rm58+
FBI Says Files In Leak Cases Are ‘Missing' --- In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the FBI said it identified 94 leak investigations since 2001, but that the investigative files in 22 of those cases "are missing" and cannot be located. "There is no physical slip of paper on the shelf which indicates that the file has been charged out to a particular FBI employee, so therefore there is no way of knowing where the file may actually be," an official in the bureau's records division, Peggy Bellando, wrote in a December 22 declaration.
http://tinyurl.com/y9oh89
DID YOU KNOW:
-US Sen. Biden says intends to run for president
-Biden vows to fight any Iraq troop boost:
-Biden wants Rice to testify on Iraq policy
-Edwards is officially running 2008.
-Large families 'bad for parents' *** Having a large number of children is bad for parents' health - particularly that of mothers, a study suggests.
ECONOMY
Pay Failing to Keep Pace With Corporate Profit ** US companies are about to wrap their fourth consecutive year of spectacular profit growth, filling corporate coffers with cash and keeping the bull market alive on Wall Street.
http://tinyurl.com/yaorfn
Dollar Declines on Speculation U.S. Consumer Confidence Dropped *** The dollar had its biggest drop this month against the yen on speculation waning consumer confidence in the U.S. will increase the likelihood for a cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve in the first quarter...A government report tomorrow may show sentiment in the world's largest economy declined for a third straight month. The U.S. currency also snapped a three-day winning streak against the euro on prospects the allure of dollar-denominated assets may diminish.
http://tinyurl.com/yl59yv
Homeowners' losses are others' gains --- For most of 2006, Colorado has had the highest foreclosure rate in the country - a grim tally of mortgage defaults behind which lie thousands of stories of personal heartache. But money can be made even from misery, and this year, profits from foreclosures have soared.
http://tinyurl.com/vyc4k
911
Chomsky: It Doesn't Matter Even If There Was A Conspiracy Behind 911 - Add to this his routine dismissal of the role of the Jewish lobby in shaping US Middle East policy and it is easy to understand why he is known as the "Chief Gatekeeper."
http://tinyurl.com/slefm
CONGRESS
Democrats Will Soon Get a Say on Iraq - congressional Democrats plan to move quickly next month to assert more control and undercut any White House effort to increase troop levels.
http://tinyurl.com/yn2o4e
Democrats Seek to Use Oil Cash for Renewables - House Democrats, in the first weeks of the new Congress, plan to establish a dedicated fund to promote renewable energy and conservation, using money from oil companies.
http://tinyurl.com/y4cjs4
RELIGIOUS ITEMS
Where God meets big business — and it's soon coming to a church near you - American Evangelical Christians scare the hell out of secular Britons and, while their reputation may be unfair, it has been long in the making and is reinforced by some truth.
http://tinyurl.com/ycnv2v
ENVIRONMENT
Pipeline spilling oil into Gulf near Galveston - Rupture dumps about 21,000 gallons nearly 30 miles off Texas coast
http://tinyurl.com/yneox6
Warming Law Applies Pressure to Industries - to drastically cut greenhouse gases could boost the state's economy or make it even more expensive to live in California. ((As if it weren't expensive enough!!))
http://tinyurl.com/yhbowf
INTERNATIONAL
Once, Labour wanted Blair to go, now it wants him in jail: Perhaps some of Labour’s hatred for Blair is because many feel that the party has been kidnapped by an outsider. They see the prime minister as a barely disguised Tory who has trampled on Labour’s constitution and traditions
http://tinyurl.com/yd7myo
Report says Iran’s oil exports could decline to zero in less than a decade: Iran is suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and if the trend continues income could virtually disappear by 2015, according to an analysis released Monday by the National Academy of Sciences.
http://tinyurl.com/yakygk
MILITARY
Experts: Iraq vets wrongly diagnosed: 'Personality disorder' assessment allows for quick honorable discharge but tags veterans with a label that is hard to remove.
http://tinyurl.com/yclh5c
Reservist Due for Iraq Is Killed in Standoff With Police - Army Reservist James E. Dean had already served 18 months in Afghanistan when he was notified three weeks ago that he would be deployed to Iraq later this month. The prospect of returning to war sent Dean into a spiral of depression and on Christmas, Dean barricaded himself inside his father's home with several weapons, threatening to kill himself. After a 14-hour standoff with authorities, Dean was killed yesterday by a police officer after he aimed a gun at another officer.
http://tinyurl.com/yjzrdm
MEDIA AND JOURNALISM
Goldman Sachs Says 'Star Tribune' Sale a Troubling Signal for Industry - "Minneapolis valuation a Bearish signal for newspaper industry."
http://tinyurl.com/yfhbh7
HEALTH
Health Care Suffers at LA Jails - Breakdowns in medical care, including treatment errors by physicians and nurses, have contributed to the deaths of at least 14 inmates since 1999.
http://tinyurl.com/ykszdk
Good News/Bad News on Stroke
http://tinyurl.com/y9qv5s
Osteoporosis Drug has Lasting Effects
http://tinyurl.com/ykc8z9
Treat Heartburn, Break a Hip?
http://tinyurl.com/ygcvjl
Is it a Cold or Sinusitis?
http://tinyurl.com/yk46en
December 26, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
Quietly Admitted on Xmas: Americans not told whole truth about OK City Bombing - The FBI failed to fully investigate information suggesting other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, allowing questions to linger more than a decade after the deadly attack, a congressional inquiry concludes.
http://tinyurl.com/yjh47k
ALERT
US Deaths in Iraq Exceed 9/11 Count
http://tinyurl.com/utzup
WAR
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The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few to ride them. Thomas Jefferson
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Biden: I Will Fight Bush If He Decides To Escalate Iraq Troop Levels…
http://tinyurl.com/ybms7v
US soldier who disputed Iraq war legality released early from military prison
http://tinyurl.com/ybx9gv
Court Upholds Death Penalty for Hussein - a decision that could clear the way for Hussein's execution within 30 days
http://tinyurl.com/ujjr5
THE WHITE HOUSE
Bush Filling White House Positions With Lawyers To Brace For Congressional Probes...
http://tinyurl.com/yl42au
Karl Rove Leaving As Soon As January? Will Karl Rove be replaced by the current US Ambassador to Japan? Informed speculation in Washington last week hinted at the possibility.
http://tinyurl.com/yay4rp
POLITICS
Novak: Conservatives to resign if DeLay hired as lobbyist?
http://tinyurl.com/ylaznr
SCANDAL
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"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence, even against its own. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." : Samuel P. Huntington
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YouTube - Covert Actions Against American Citizens Living in America
http://tinyurl.com/yad7hk
LEGAL ITEMS
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"The right to revolt has sources deep in our history." -- William O. Douglas - (1898-1980), U. S. Supreme Court Justice Source: An Almanac of Liberty, 1954
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Judge implicates FBI agents in the Oklahoma City bombing
http://tinyurl.com/y8acod
DID YOU KNOW quickies
-One-Third of Americans Believe the U.S. Government Allowed 9/11 to Happen According to polls, there are a growing number of people who believe their own government may have had a hand in the attacks.
-Beyond Ridiculous -- Coke Plus with Vitamins! Coke is trying to boost its flagging sales by introducing the first mass-market nutrient enhanced' soft drink.
-Most people are not aware that five companies control 95 percent of the media in America. What you see on TV or read in the newspapers are nearly universally being filtered by these five companies.
-The President's Challenge - More than 20,000 Jews still live in Iran.
-Britain didn't have a minimum wage until 1999 — but at current exchange rates, Britain's minimum wage rate is now about twice as high as ours.
-Research on the treatment of depression topped the internet medical inquiry list. Depression is reaching epidemic levels, and of course, most "antidepressant" drugs are no help at all.
-US Christmas season sales slower than 2005
-Minnesota has been named the healthiest state, for the fourth consecutive year, in the United Health Foundation's annual report.
-Aspertame is the perfect ant killer. Little deposits where ever you have ants will do the trick. Aspertame is good for fire ants to but it has to rain and wet the amino acid only to be carried back to their mound -(the fire ants will disappear).
-Bush has been banned from birthplace of Jesus Christ
RELIGIOUS ITEMS
Generals Promote Christianity Inside the Pentagon "Where does freedom to practice religion inside Pentagon offices with high-ranking Defense Department officers, congressmen and other ranking federal officials stop?"
http://tinyurl.com/y29z7v
ENVIRONMENT
l
21,000 gallons of oil spill into Gulf- Undersea pipeline ruptures near Galveston, leaving half- mile oil slick 30 yards wide.
http://tinyurl.com/ymkusv
Inhabited Island Disappears Beneath Rising Seas, caused by global warming,
INTERNATIONAL
Castro said to be cancer free
http://tinyurl.com/yjr8wd
MILITARY
Military Considers Recruiting Foreigners
http://tinyurl.com/y4ejeg
December 25, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
George W. Bush: a sadistic, torture-loving sociopath - Who needs to wonder about the biggest idiot we have ever had in the Oval Office- all of his **decisions** have meant death to far too many of our troops. Maybe we need to make it a law that any president sending troops into harms way must drink one oz of that members blood upon said members death. 'Sounds gross, well not a bit more gross than this senseless killing he is in to.
http://tinyurl.com/yxffjz
ALERT
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"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any": Alice Walker
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THE WHITE HOUSE
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“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
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Behind the Scenes, Rove Influence Hasn't Waned - He's not doing much in public, but behind the scenes, White House political guru Karl Rove is as aggressive as ever in making policy arguments within the administration–and his influence is still pervasive, White House insiders tell U.S. News.
http://tinyurl.com/tbbhx
WILL STINKY CUT THE BIG ONE? It's almost painful to watch the disintegration of George W. Bush and what's left of his murderous administration. Those who haven't fled are racing blindly through the halls of power, lurching into one another in a desperate attempt to distance themselves from Bush and to escape reaping what they have sown.
http://tinyurl.com/yh8kpt
CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc
*******************************************"Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds." -- Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918) Pulitzer prize-winning historian (1919), ((great-grandson of John Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, and son of US Secretary of State, Charles Adams - Source: The Education of Henry Adams, ch. 1 (1907) ))
*******************************************
Wolfowitz Owes Us an Explanation - a man who helped conceive, plan and execute the Iraq war, has managed to escape scrutiny for steering his country into one of the greatest strategic catastrophes of his generation."
http://tinyurl.com/tlpst
Records detail missing TSA badges, uniforms - More than 3,700 identification badges and uniform items have been reported lost or stolen from Transportation Security Administration employees since 2003, according to documents obtained by a San Antonio television station. ((Feel Safer?))
http://tinyurl.com/ygad6m
An Executive Branch Assault on the Constitution - The Bush Administration's Department of Defense is examining whether it has the power to break a strike at tire plants that supply the military. The Constitution affords the executive branch no such authority.
http://tinyurl.com/y7ajuy
SCANDAL
Once Again, "Loophole" Allows Government To Violate Propaganda Laws - But in two recent examples, the government has found "loopholes" in the law, allowing it to allow propaganda to inadvertently reach U.S. audiences.
http://tinyurl.com/ykwpk2
Fraud In Katrina Recovery Could Reach $2 Billion...
http://tinyurl.com/yl99sw
ECONOMY
Maytag workers say goodbyes - The final day on the job for 200 Maytag factory workers ended with punch and cookies, tears and hugs - and goodbyes.
http://tinyurl.com/wu7q5
911
The Bush Administration's 9/11 Story is a Conspiracy Theory - The story that the Bush Administration wants the world to believe about 9/11, namely that it was planned and orchestrated entirely by Osama bin Laden from the Bat Cave, is the most ridiculous conspiracy theory on the Internet.
http://tinyurl.com/ya8er8
Alarming 9/11 claim is baseless, panel says - rejecting one of the most disturbing claims about the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, the Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded as untrue a congressman's contention that a team of military analysts identified Mohamed Atta or other hijackers before the attacks, according to a summary of the panel's investigation obtained by The Times.
http://tinyurl.com/vc5os
CONGRESS
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"We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity.": Theodore Roosevelt - (1858-1919) 26th US President
***********************************************
Pelosi says no to C-SPAN request on floor proceedings --- Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi cited the need to preserve the ''dignity and decorum'' of the House as she rejected a request Friday that C-SPAN operate its own cameras in covering the chamber ((What are you afraid Americans might learn about the proceedings that go on there?))
http://tinyurl.com/ynzanp
DOMESTIC
State cuts social services contract - Under the restructured contract, the Bermuda-based company will be largely relegated to data entry, leaving judgments about whether Texans qualify for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare programs to state workers.
http://tinyurl.com/ya45yf
RELIGIOUS ITEMS
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Live truth instead of professing it: Elbert Hubbard
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10 myths -- and 10 truths -- about atheism
http://tinyurl.com/yycxmw
"Get real. Like Jesus Would Ever Own a Gun & Vote Republican." Rectangular Fridge Magnet. Jesus's Christmas of Peace Has Been Hijacked by Psychologically Impaired Cowards Trying to Belatedly Prove Their Manhood by Sending Men and Women to Die for Their Sociopathology.
http://tinyurl.com/y8ukre
ENVIRONMENT
Bald Eagle To Be Removed From Endangered Species List In February...
http://tinyurl.com/yy3m63
MILITARY
Larger military a costly proposal - Increase in standing force could lower standards, add expenses in billions
http://tinyurl.com/y9q6vr
Many choose family over military service More reservists, Guard troops are deciding against any re-enlistment
http://tinyurl.com/y5ny42
EDITORIALS - OPINIONS
******************************************
"Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty." : Anne Louise Germaine de Stael - (1766-1817) French author
******************************************
John Kerry The Case for Flip-Flopping
http://tinyurl.com/y69vot
HEALTH
Water bottles leak chemical - A study of bottled water has found concentrations of potentially harmful antimony increase the longer water is stored in a certain plastic. - Antimony is a white metallic element that in small doses can cause nausea, dizziness and depression. In large doses, it can be fatal.
http://tinyurl.com/yftns4
Fighting Type 2 Diabetes an anti-inflammatory drug that's been around since the 1800s -- lowers triglyceride levels, reduces heart disease risk, and improves blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics. Dr. Steven Shoelson, of Joslin Diabetes Center, says it's a medication that treats the basic problem of type 2 diabetes.
http://tinyurl.com/yhexgk
Blood Test Predicts Heart Failure *** For those if you living with heart failure, we're highlighting an easy blood test that checks levels of the protein proBNP to help your doctor adjust drug doses and help guide your therapy.
http://tinyurl.com/yh6nps
Safer Scans for Pregnant Women - And if you or someone you know is a pregnant woman experiencing abdominal pain, check out "Safer Scans for Pregnant Women," to see which scan at the hospital could increase the chance of developing cancer ... and which scan doctors think is safest.
http://tinyurl.com/svctx
Finding the Best Chemohow the Lung Metagene Predictor helps doctors determine which lung cancer patients will need chemotherapy to survive and which chemo will work best. Duke oncologist Dr. Anil Potti says, "I'm not just a doctor who treats lung cancer.
http://tinyurl.com/y4wnx8
Fish Oil Supplements During Pregnancy -
http://tinyurl.com/y9djdd
Cutting Fat Cuts Breast Cancer Recurrence
http://tinyurl.com/vz8ya
Dieting can Lead to Bone Loss
http://tinyurl.com/y8ytwt
A Benefit of Bad Cholesterol?
http://tinyurl.com/utbty
Stem Cells Fight Cancer That has Spread
http://tinyurl.com/yjyqqr
Mistletoe: Not an Anti-Cancer Drug
http://tinyurl.com/ybsodn
SPECIAL INTEREST ITEMS
"Godfather of Soul" Dies on Christmas Morning
http://tinyurl.com/umh6p
December 24, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
Can you imagine the agonies of hell that Bush will bring about should the draft be returned? I do not even want to try imagining what I would feel if I had to offer up my own child to this debased idea thought up by a sick, little Napoleon running around this world calling himself the US President. Never in all my 66 years could I have imagined such depravity as I have evidenced with this one man holocaust - no wonder he is referred to as the little Hitler....Senator Reid has it right: The President must understand that there can ONLY be a political solution in Iraq, and he MUST END our nation's OPEN-ENDED military commitment to that country.
ALERT
Eli Lilly Said to Play Down Risk of Top Pill -- the drug might cause unmanageable weight gain or diabetes *** Lilly’s own published data, which it told its sales representatives to play down in conversations with doctors, has shown that 30 percent of patients taking Zyprexa gain 22 pounds or more after a year on the drug, and some patients have reported gaining 100 pounds or more. But Lilly was concerned that Zyprexa’s sales would be hurt if the company was more forthright about the fact that the drug might cause unmanageable weight gain or diabetes, according to the documents, which cover the period 1995 to 2004....WPN says: The ingredients in these pills get in the water, and are then redistributed throughout the country, causing hormone changes in the whole population, including reduced sperm count for males {and possibly a lot more side-effects}.
http://tinyurl.com/y4anm8
WAR
Bush Admin, Maliki Government Growing Further apart
http://tinyurl.com/vftbe
THE WHITE HOUSE
Eleanor Clift Bush's Worst Lies of 2006
http://tinyurl.com/yyjtqo
SCANDAL
WHITE HOUSE SILENT ON GOP BIGOTRY…
http://tinyurl.com/yguhdn
ECONOMY
Is there a law that requires Americans to pay direct unapportioned tax? *** Aaron Russo tried to get an answer by making this documentary and it is chilling. So I called around and asked various tax attorneys if they could please cite the law, because I really still thought it was possible there may be one. No one could point me to the law....Tax attorneys everywhere, is there or is there not a law that requires the average American worker, working in the private sector to pay direct unapportioned tax? Should be a simple thing to answer, right? Please provide the exact law and a link to where I can read up on it. This should be easy, right?...Bear in mind that tax attorneys and tax accountants make their living off tax preparations, so they have an economic interest in perpetuating the system. Therefore, their failure/refusal to point to the law that requires the average American worker, working in the private sector to pay direct unapportioned tax, is highly significant.
http://tinyurl.com/y4cwtm
CONGRESS
Congress rebukes Okla. City probe - The FBI failed to fully investigate information suggesting other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, allowing questions to linger more than a decade after the deadly attack, a congressional inquiry concludes.
http://tinyurl.com/yltom3
Election Challenge for Florida District Is Taken to the House
http://tinyurl.com/yxt6fh
RELIGIOUS ITEMS
Population shifts, changing habits put U.S. Roman Catholic churches up for sale of many of these sales are required to pay the skyrocketing costs of the molestation convictions of the clergy. *** For sale: a charming, well-maintained building with high ceilings and classic architecture. Enjoy 38,000 square feet (3,420 square meters) of space, minutes from downtown. Altars, bells and stained glass not included. Asking price: $4 million (€3 million).
http://tinyurl.com/y7cfkd
HEALTH
NOTE: Medi-Cal pays for over 100,000 births by undocumented women - More than 100,000 undocumented women each year bear children in California with expenses paid by Medi-Cal, according to state reports. ((This huge number of undocumented allowed in and care given, while our elderly and young are pushed aside and monies to these needy folks cut and cut and cut.))
December 23, 2006
THE THINKING SPOT
"If the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.": Noah Webster
ALERT
"A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts.": Euripides
WAR
***************************************
"The bad thing of war is, that it makes more evil people than it can take away." : Immanuel Kant - (1724-1804) German philosopher
***************************************
French claim US command held them back from catching Osama
http://tinyurl.com/yc54rj
Assad will abandon Iran if Israel talks peace with him: Syrian President Bashar Assad has proposed negotiations with Israel. The latter, for the second time in its history, has set preconditions (the first time was about two years)
http://tinyurl.com/y52xhb
The Race for Iraq's Resources - The Iraqi government is considering a new oil law that could give private oil companies greater control over its vast reserves. In light of rampant violence and shaky democratic institutions, many fear the law is being pushed through hastily by special interests behind closed doors.
http://tinyurl.com/ya226f
THE WHITE HOUSE
Poll: Bush not trustworthy, doesn't share values, no longer inspires confidence Only 37 percent believe that the president inspires confidence, compared to 61 percent who say that he does not. In 2005, 46 percent thought the president inspired confidence. Bush fared much better in this category in 2001 following the September 11 terrorist attacks, when 75 percent said that he inspired confidence.
http://tinyurl.com/yx7u9l
Bush, Asleep In The Bunker - Here's the bad news: Bush is in a hole and he will keep on digging.
http://tinyurl.com/ymgtn9
CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc
Taxpayer-funded TV and Radio Martí are spending $377,500 to air select programs on South Florida broadcast stations over the next six months, using loopholes in a law that prohibits the propaganda channels from distribution within the United States.
http://tinyurl.com/ykegvz
"Sorry America, there is no Santa Claus, at least not in the form of Robert Gates. We may have thought the humble, open-minded outsider was going to blow in to sweep away the old. Instead he is shaping up to be flaccid yes man, one who can't even get his timing right."
http://tinyurl.com/yncb4h
SCANDAL
Anthrax Attacks on U.S. Congress Were Inside Job The perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attack on Congress likely was a government scientist employed at the Army's Ft. Detrick, Md., bioterrorism lab having access to a "moonsuit" that made it possible to safely process and manufacture uper-weapons-grade anthrax, a bioterrorism authority says.
http://tinyurl.com/yl77bl
LEGAL ITEMS
Scientist sentenced to two years probation for illegal deal with Pfizer; Pfizer stock down 40%. CEO gets $180,000,000 package What? No criminal charges for Pfizer's CEO? A huge reward instead? Imagine that.
http://tinyurl.com/y8bsh3-
FEMA Not Required to Restore Aid to Evacuees, Court Rules -
http://tinyurl.com/y8gp8a
ELECTION ITEMS
E-Voting Machine Probe Ends, Company Sold - A major voting machine company owned by Venezuelan investors said Friday it plans to sell its US subsidiary, ending a federal investigation into questions of possible ties between the company and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
http://tinyurl.com/y2tlwf
ECONOMY
Real U.S. shortfall: $4.6 trillion in red 'Taxing 100% of all wages, salaries, corporate profits would not eliminate a deficit of this magnitude'
http://tinyurl.com/yn8rqf
Richest 2 Percent Own Half the World's Wealth
http://tinyurl.com/y4wvr5
Gender pay gap stuck in place
http://tinyurl.com/y4374h
The Moneychangers & The TRF (Tax Retirement Fund) And my, did the money changers do a good job in the last 80 years in making most of the nation dependent. In fact they made the populace of the USA so dependent that the populace pays tribute of over 4 trillion dollars a year (Local and Federal taxation) to the moneychangers to keep themselves dependent while the money changers have amassed over 60 trillion of the populace's wealth. That's a lot of productivity value now secured in the government's coffers folks!
http://tinyurl.com/yhallu
CONGRESS
Raising the Floor on Pay - On the verge of controlling Congress, the Democrats are making a much-delayed increase in the minimum wage their signature attempt to lift incomes and quiet widespread economic anxiety.
http://tinyurl.com/yhdkf2
DOMESTIC
This Is No Time to Reopen the Floodgates for Unreported, Illegal Campaign Money; District Court Erred in Wisconsin Right to Life Case
http://tinyurl.com/sac99
RELIGIOUS ITEMS
Archbishop attacks US, Britain on Iraq: THE spiritual head of the Anglican Church launched an outspoken attack on the British and US governments on Saturday, saying their "ignorant" policy in Iraq has put Christians in the region at risk.
http://tinyurl.com/y2fapf
ENVIRONMENT
Southern California Edison Signs Biggest US Wind Contract - Electric utility Southern California Edison and Australian-based Allco Finance Group Ltd. have signed the biggest contract for wind power in US history.
http://tinyurl.com/y6ghvt
U.S. professor discovers mammals can smell underwater
http://tinyurl.com/ymsxls
INTERNATIONAL
World's biggest ecstasy dealer nabbed in Rio An Israeli believed to be the world's biggest dealer of ecstasy was arrested Saturday on a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian police announced.
http://tinyurl.com/yxyh6b
Raul Castro Urges Students to Debate "Fearlessly" Raul Castro has set a surprising new tone for Cuban politics, telling university students in Havana that they should debate "fearlessly" and bring their concerns directly to him. Castro's remarks, published Thursday by the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, are the clearest indication yet of how he might reshape Cuba after the death of his ailing brother, Fidel Castro. Raul Castro told the students that his brother is "irreplaceable."
http://tinyurl.com/y4wxal
MEDIA AND JOURNALISM
Target Iran with Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh - an in-depth discussion between two figures who have been critical of the Bush administration's policy on Iran. Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, and Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist for The New Yorker magazine.
http://tinyurl.com/vg5lr
HEALTH
Brazilian berry destroys cancer cells in lab, UF study shows
http://news.ufl.edu/2006/01/12/berries/
HUMAN RIGHTS
A Woman's Fight to Save the Poor From Black Fever Black fever kills about 60,000 people a year, most of them poor. There is a cure, but the global pharmaceutical industry wasn't interested in producing the drug, at least not until an American woman began her crusade.
http://tinyurl.com/yzh3ys
