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