December 13, 2006

THE THINKING SPOT

MUST READ:
Analysts: Dollar collapse would result in 'amero' Two analysts who have reconstructed money supply data after the Fed stopped publishing it argue a coming dollar collapse will set the stage for creating the amero as a North American currency to replace the dollar.
http://tinyurl.com/ybjgfq

Rogers: Sell U.S. dollar, buy real and yuan - It's only a matter of time before the beleaguered U.S. dollar loses its status as the world's reserve currency and medium of exchange, U.S. fund manager and author Jim Rogers told Reuters in an interview...."The dollar is a terribly flawed currency," said Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum hedge fund with billionaire investor George Soros in the 1970s.
http://tinyurl.com/sklf4

ALERT

Senator Tim Johnson reportedly suffers stroke; Senate power seen in the balance
http://tinyurl.com/ydmoee

WAR
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"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable." : U.S. Historian Howard Zinn, 1993
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Saddam to be Secretly Buried: Saddam Hussein and his two top aides, Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, will be executed immediately after an appeal court confirms their sentences.
http://tinyurl.com/ybf2o3

Shit Hits Fan! Saudis to Back Sunni Insurgency in Iraq http://tinyurl.com/ydmvvm

Poll: Iraq Going Badly And Getting Worse:Only 4% say the U.S. should keep fighting as it is doing now.
http://tinyurl.com/yh9xm7

Experts Advise Bush Not to Reduce Troops: President Bush heard a blunt and dismal assessment of his handling of Iraq from a group of military experts yesterday, but the advisers shared the White House's skeptical view of the recommendations made last week by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, sources said.
http://tinyurl.com/y2zfh3

Saudi Arabia has warned it could decide to provide financial support to Iraqi Sunnis if the U.S.pulls its troops out of Iraq. Only Bush could create such a massive debacle. Armageddon? Bring It On!
http://tinyurl.com/yk6emp

Shrugging off Bush policy, U.S. senator meets Syrian president
http://tinyurl.com/y7fqng

US staying the course for Big Oil in Iraq - The Bush-Cheney system by all accounts went to Iraq to grab those fabulous reserves.
http://tinyurl.com/yk46dc

Iraq as a Living Hell (How could we think otherwise) "It is worse than ever. The problem is that our U.S. government and the Iraqi 'Government' tell the world that things are improving here when they are not. All of the rebuilding bull crap is nothing but a scam that is worse than the oil-for-food program [of the post-Gulf War I years]. We have ONE hour of electricity a day now. I have power to turn on some lights and my computer by way of a little generator that I hooked up to my office today. A gallon of gas costs over $4 now, when the salary of an engineer is less than $200 a MONTH."
http://tinyurl.com/wfrlp

Routine and systematic torture is at the heart of America's "war on terror". In the fight against cruelty, barbarism and extremism, America has embraced the very evils it claims to confront.
http://tinyurl.com/tad5v

THE WHITE HOUSE
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"One of the world's greatest problems is the impossibilty of any person searching for the truth on any subject when they believe they already have it." --Dave Wilbur
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The "Iraq Memorial" should go on the White House Lawn - suggested by M. Whitney. (I just want to add such a memorial should be built immediately.)
http://tinyurl.com/y5ungd

CABINETS, COMMISSIONS, etc
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"It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true." --Henry Kissinger
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"Personal Responsibility" but No Regrets for Rice over Iraq Failures
http://tinyurl.com/yjuaq2

POLITICS
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"Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner." -- James Bovard - 1994 Source: Lost Rights. The Destruction of American Liberty (St. Martin's Press: New York, 1994), p. 333
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LEGAL ITEMS
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Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere: Martin Luther King, Jr. : 1929-1968
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Skilling Ordered to Prison Immediately - A federal appellate court denied former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's request to remain free during his appeal Tuesday and ordered him imprisoned immediately.
http://tinyurl.com/yg9p7u

America’s Injustice System Is Criminal
http://tinyurl.com/y9s7et

Union claims raids grabbed legal workers Union officials outraged at massive illegal immigrant sweep; 'Stormtroopers.'
http://tinyurl.com/v74dy

Italian Court Moves Closer To Indicting CIA Agents: Over 30 U.S. and Italian intelligence agents may face charges after the extraordinary rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in Milan
http://tinyurl.com/y977ez

ELECTION ITEMS

Clinton hires faith guru; 2008 sign? Burns Strider is a leading Dem strategist on wooing evangelicals, values voters.
http://tinyurl.com/yj2aqu

Democrat Rodriguez ousts Bonilla from House seat Former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez defeated seven-term Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla in a runoff today, adding another Democrat to Congress and deciding Texas' final congressional seat.((I can guarantee you that unless you guys stop the war and jail the liars who started it, that we will work just as hard to kick you guys out in 2008.))
http://tinyurl.com/wz47r

ECONOMY

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: U.S. Corn Exports to Drop Dramatically Due to Ethanol Growth
http://tinyurl.com/yzqd4q

Green Revolution Sweeping the US Construction Industry
http://tinyurl.com/y9w2cw

911

What a fella said: "Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified.... I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." -- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11.

CONGRESS

Senator says he'll subpoena torture memos
http://tinyurl.com/ygvtsf

Leahy Vows to Guard Privacy Rights - The incoming Democratic chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee promised on Wednesday to combat what he denounced as President George W. Bush's war-time trampling of American rights.
http://tinyurl.com/ygrkqu

Dumb answers of intelligence chief - Silvestre Reyes, the Democrat chosen to head the House of Representatives committee, was asked whether members of al-Qaeda came from the Sunni or the Shia branch of Islam....“Al-Qaeda, they have both,” he answered, adding: “Predominantly probably Shi’ite.” In fact, al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organisation and views Shia Muslims as heretics.
http://tinyurl.com/yg46tx

Democrats Consider Outside Ethics Panel
http://tinyurl.com/yg239p

DOMESTIC
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"If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom." : Robert Frost
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GOVT ALLOWING PEOPLE TO BUY WAY INTO SPECIAL SECURITY LINES….
http://tinyurl.com/ylw8vr

Government Spying Goes Global: Welcome to the national insecurity state, where our virtual identities are continually assessed for the risk we pose to the state and the normal relationship between the individual and the state in democratic societies is turned on its head. Now, the individual answers to the state and woe betide the person who is branded with a high "risk score."
http://tinyurl.com/ymno7b

RELIGIOUS ITEMS

Church Camp Leader Arrested For Child Porn
http://tinyurl.com/ymkntp

SENIOR OFFICERS ACCUSED OF COERCING SOLDIERS TO ADOPT EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY…Watch The Video From “Christian Embassy” Here…
http://tinyurl.com/ycj3e7

Jesus Camp - Disturbing and Thought Provoking Documentary - Jesus camp is a rare document. It is one of the few honest portrayals of the right wing evangelist's movement. The documentary follows Pastor Becky Fisher and her congregation. Ms. Fischer, an evangelical Christian, helps run Kids on Fire, a summer camp in Devils Lake, N.D., that grooms children to be soldiers in “God’s army.” The result is a very disturbing film.
http://tinyurl.com/y68ljy

ENVIRONMENT

Sierra Club: Closing the Book on Public ------- Participation: EPA Library Closure Moves Forward
http://tinyurl.com/ud5w8

Arctic's Summer Sea Ice 'Could Disappear Completely by 2040'
http://tinyurl.com/ycby2t

World's Largest Science Teachers' Organization Awash in Denials
http://tinyurl.com/ygmhgg

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Computers 'could store entire life by 2026'
http://tinyurl.com/yyyc36

Vehicle Mileage Estimates Get Real
http://tinyurl.com/yentsp

INTERNATIONAL

Wolfowitz Clashes With World Bank Staff and Mideast Chief Exits: Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have departed since Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy Defense secretary and an architect of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June 2005. ()The Federal Reserve is at odds with the World Bank now.()
http://tinyurl.com/tn88k

MILITARY
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God and a soldier all people adore In time of war, but not before; And when war re righted, God is neglected and an old soldier slighted: Anonymous
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US Army Going Broke - Just when I think I can close the book on the breathtaking incompetence of this administration, hard facts like this cross my bow and I have to reconsider...Yesterday the WSJ's defense correspondent, Gregg Jaffe, reported that US Army officials have told the White House they are broke. Worse than broke actually. The Army, despite its $168 billion budget, is out of money and being forced to cannibalize operations, here and in the war zone, just to keep the lights on. ((Scroll down to second article))
http://tinyurl.com/4oa5c

Army, Marine Corps to Ask for More Troops
http://tinyurl.com/ygddjq

HEALTH

E. coli outbreak due to lettuce, say feds
http://tinyurl.com/ut6ad

Predicting a Second Stroke - A new study reveals silent brain lesions after a stroke may be a predictor for another stroke. These lesions can be seen on an MRI but are called "silent" because the patient has no symptoms.
http://tinyurl.com/yzd5ro

New Hope for Kidney Failure - Previous therapies have been generally unsuccessful in treating the acute kidney failure, but recent research reveals stem cell applications could protect and improve kidney function in patients.
http://tinyurl.com/y9gzsg

Breakthrough for "Bubble Boy" Disease - For people born with severe combined mmunodeficiency (SCID), exposure to seemingly harmless germs can be deadly. But breakthroughs in stem cell research bring new hope to the search for a cure.
http://tinyurl.com/ymhvb6

Treating Prostate Cancer Improves Survival - The widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has led to many men being diagnosed with early prostate cancer. Whether or not to treat older men with the often slow and painless disease is a subject of debate. Now, new research suggests men who are treated survive significantly longer than men who are not.
http://tinyurl.com/ydxc9l