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| SEPTEMBER 19, 2008 - FRIDAY |
| DECEMBER 18, 2004 - FRIDAY |
- Ludwig von Mises Institute: Save or Else — Social Security is as economically and morally objectionable as any other form of forced redistribution, from public housing to corporate subsidies to warfare, but made worse by the subterfuge that it is an insurance program of some sort.
- LewRockwell.com: State-Run Schools: The New Caesaropapism — ...faith in government reached epidemic levels in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead of wholesale firings of public employees and a rethinking of government and its role in our lives, Americans passively accepted more of the same nonsense that spawned terrorism in the first place, while witnessing an erosion of liberties and legal protections against tyranny.
- Poll shows U.S. views on Muslim-Americans — A recent survey by Cornell University found that found 44 percent of Americans favor at least some restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. [Makes you proud to be an American, huh.]
- Study Links Obesity to U.S. Residency — A new study found that obesity is relatively rare in the foreign-born until they have lived in the United States — the land of drive-thrus, remote controls and double cheeseburgers — for more than 10 years.
- O'Reilly entering a no-Jew zone? — "I think you're takin' it too seriously. You have a predominantly Christian nation. You have a federal holiday based on the philosopher Jesus. And you don't want to hear about it? Come on, if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then."
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| THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM
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- Briton freed from Guantanamo prison tells European rights body of U.S. abuse — ...he was beaten, shackled, kept in a cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of "systematic abuse" in custody. . . . At one point, al-Harith said he refused to take an unidentified injection and was chained up and attacked by five men wearing helmets, body armour and shields. "They jumped on my legs and back and they kicked and punched me," said the 37-year-old website designer and father of three from Manchester, England. "Then I was put in isolation for a month."
- 'U.S. Soldier Killed Iraqi Teenager after Sex' — A US national guardsman who pleaded guilty to killing a 17-year-old Iraqi soldier said he shot the young man after they had consensual sex in a guard tower...
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- Ukraine Leader: U.S. Meddled in Election — The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine. U.S. officials say the activities don't amount to interference in Ukraine's election but are part of the $1 billion the State Department spends each year trying to build democracy worldwide.
- Bush Honors Tenet, Franks, Bremer — "This honor goes to three men who have played pivotal roles in great events and whose efforts have made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty," Mr. Bush said. [What a joke.]
- Medicare payment errors near $20B — "With an improper payment amount of nearly $20 billion and an error rate approaching double digits, there is clearly an unacceptable problem here." [Yes, and the problem is that Medicare is run by the government.]
- Court: 'Reasonable' grounds enough for arrest — The Supreme Court ruled...that police have authority to arrest suspects on charges that later fall apart, so long as officers had a second, valid reason for the detention.
- $100B more needed for Iraq — ...bringing the total cost of operations in Iraq alone to well over $200 billion since the March 2003 invasion. [Ya, but Bush doesn't have to pay for it, so what's the big deal?]
- Bush Prepares for Possible GPS Shutdown — President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology... [Thank goodness!]
- A Push to Restrict Sales of Video Games — ...Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) wants Illinois to make it illegal for anyone younger than 18 to buy violent or sexually explicit games.
- New armed boat will patrol port — [Florida] Racheting up its firepower, the sheriff's office is getting a 30-foot boat with mounted machine guns for homeland-security patrols at the Port of Palm Beach and offshore.
- The rising tab for US war effort — Spending may increase by 25 percent next year, which could push total costs for Iraq and Afghanistan to over $200 billion. [Ya, but Bush and his cronies don't have to pay for it, so what's the big deal?]
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- Becks nativity smashed to pieces — The exhibit, which caused uproar after church leaders called it blasphemous...
- Ala. Judge Wears Ten Commandments on Robe — McKathan told The Associated Press that he believes the Ten Commandments represent the truth "and you can't divorce the law from the truth. ... The Ten Commandments can help a judge know the difference between right and wrong." [He presumes to preach right and wrong to others and yet makes a living as an agent for an institution of theft and murder.]
- Eve covering a fig leaf? — Some see the Virgin Mary on a leaf Amos LeFebre found two years ago in his yard... [It's a miracle!]
- Gunman Kills Self Inside L.A. Cathedral
— A church employee opened fire inside the Crystal Cathedral as congregants prepared for a Christmas pageant, then barricaded himself in a bathroom for hours before shooting himself to death...
- Okla. Voters Show Anger About Nativity Removal — [Mustang, OK] The Rev. Jim Harris, who heads the Mustang Ministerial Alliance, said "the freedom of religion that we hold as a dear right has been violated, and we want to see that changed." [Freedom of religion doesn't include the freedom to force others to finance the advancement of ideas, religious or not.]
- American Torture, Religion and the Crusade of General William G. Boykin — ...the Christian fundamentalism of Bush and Boykin, and others at the top of the American military command, is clearly a contributing factor. Their childish division of the world into God's people and Satan's people has enabled them to support the most devilish behavior imaginable, all in the name of righteousness.
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| DECEMBER 10, 2004 - FRIDAY |
- Antiwar.com: Rebellion in the Ranks — "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Translation: Screw you, soldier — and that goes for the rest of you, too.
- Rumsfeld vs. the American Soldier — Rumsfeld's answer was, first, unforgivably glib, reminiscent of his shrugged line about the looting in the days after Saddam's fall ("Stuff happens"), but more shocking because here he was addressing American soldiers who are still fighting and dying, 20 months after Baghdad's fall, as a result of Rumsfeld's decisions.
- Disgruntled Troops Complain to Rumsfeld — Disgrunted U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about the lack of armor for their vehicles and long deployments, drawing a blunt retort from the Pentagon chief. "You go to war with the Army you have," he said... "We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said... Rumsfeld replied that troops should make the best of the conditions they face... Additional link: Rumsfeld Gets Earful From Troops
- Ludwig von Mises Institute: Distractions in the Social Security Debate — The present tax rate is 15.3 percent which covers both Social Security and Medicare. The Social Security part of the tax is 12.4 percent of gross wages, presently up to $87,900 a year. The Medicare tax is 2.9 percent of all earnings. . . . Social Security is much more than a retirement system. It is a political welfare system...
- Ron Paul: Ron Paul Denounces National ID Card — Congressman Ron Paul today denounced the national ID card provisions contained in the intelligence bill being voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives, while urging his colleagues to reject the bill and its new layers of needless bureaucracy.
- Recommended: TheNausea.com — [Contains gruesome war imagery which may be innappropriate for children.]
- Antiwar.com: Pro-War Christians Should Come Clean — Given that the war in Iraq was conceived in deception, lacked a mandate from the Congress, has created chaos in Iraq, and made America less safe, will our friends admit that they were wrong, or will they continue to serve as shills on behalf of the state? [Statist shills and goose-stepping flag wavers are plentiful among the ranks of church-goers.]
- Strike the Root: Christian Compassion That Kills — "Compassionate conservatism" is merely a code phrase for a socialist police state, the grip of which will only grow tighter in the next four years. Bush groupies sure talk a good game about their Christian reverence for life. However, as long as they are unwilling to cast off their prohibitionist orthodoxies, admit their error and stop backing policies that cause innocent people to suffer needlessly and even to die, they have no claim of moral superiority.
- Ludwig von Mises Institute: Can Just Get Along — what do these various proposals to regulate trade all have in common? They are all attempts to prevent people from cooperating with each other. . . . Trade is a positive-sum game. Because happiness is ultimately subjective, it makes no sense to ask which party benefits (and which loses) from a voluntary exchange; both parties benefit.
- Recommended: Transcript: Bush Talks to O'Reilly — O'REILLY: ...according to a poll taken by the Coalition Provisional Authority last spring, only 5% of the Iraqi people see the United States as liberators. Are you surprised they don't appreciate the American sacrifice more? . . . BUSH: You've got to stand tough with these terrorists. You cannot allow the terrorists to dictate whether or not a society can be free or not. [These guys are delusional.]
- LewRockwell.com: State-Run Schools: The New Caesaropapism — ...faith in government reached epidemic levels in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead of wholesale firings of public employees and a rethinking of government and its role in our lives, Americans passively accepted more of the same nonsense that spawned terrorism in the first place, while witnessing an erosion of liberties and legal protections against tyranny.
- Smoking makes you stupid: study — "Smokers performed significantly worse in five different cognitive tests than did both former smokers and those who had never smoked..." [Smoking and government schools have much in common.]
- 1 million U.S. troops have gone to war — Nearly a million U.S. troops have been deployed for war in Iraq or Afghanistan since those conflicts began, according to Pentagon data. [Of that million, how many are family members of anyone in the Bush administration?]
- US Army plagued by desertion and plunging morale — The irritation among the rank and file became all too clear this week when a soldier stood up in a televised session with Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, to ask why the world’s richest army was having to hunt for scrap metal to protect its vehicles.
- Bush manipulated NKorea intelligence like he did in Iraq: US expert — "Relying on sketchy data, the Bush administration presented a worst-case scenario as an incontrovertible truth and distorted its intelligence on North Korea (much as it did in Iraq), seriously exaggerating the danger that Pyongyang is secretly making uranium-based nuclear weapons..."
- Blair rejects call for count of Iraqi deaths — "It just is not worth trying to characterise by numbers," Brigadier General Vince Brooks, the deputy director of operations at US central command, said just days before the fall of Baghdad. "And, frankly, if we are going to be honourable about our warfare, we are not out there trying to count up bodies. This is not the appropriate way for us to go." [Afterall, we're trying to be honourable about our warfare.]
- Amputation rate for US troops twice that of past wars — US troops injured in Iraq have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, and as many as 20% have suffered head and neck injuries that may require a lifetime of care...
- Fat Americans overwhelm imaging machines — The American Obesity Association estimates that 127 million people in the United States are overweight, 60 million are obese, and 9 million are severely obese. [Makes you proud to be an American, huh.]
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| THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM
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- US Marine claims unit killed Iraqi civilians — ...more than 30 innocent Iraqi civilians in just two days...
- AWOL Soldier Says He Didn't Want To Be War Criminal — "We were shooting up people as they got out of their cars trying to put their hands up..."
- US Marine admits his unit killed innocent Iraqi civilians — ...Iraqi civilians were killed by between 200 and 500 rounds pumped into four separate cars which each failed to respond to a single warning shot and respond to hand signals, at a Baghdad checkpoint.
- Israeli soldiers 'shoot boy for fun' — A group of Israeli soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip have reportedly admitted killing a 15-year-old Palestinian in Khan Yunus for sport. [Your tax dollars at work.]
- Anger mounts as Iraq suffers power and fuel crunch — For the past several weeks, Iraq has been in the grip of a tightening energy crisis, an irony lost on no one in a country that sits on top of the world's second largest oil reserves.
- For Displaced Falloujans, a New Battle Underway — "These people were forced to leave comfortable homes and now find themselves living in tents at the start of winter," said Sheik Hussein Zobai, imam of the Baghdad University mosque. "We thought the only prison in Iraq was Abu Ghraib, but because of what the Americans have done, the whole country has become a prison." [Iraq is free!]
- Mishandled Money Plagued US-Ruled Iraq — U.S. management of the Iraqi economy was plagued by irregularities, corruption, failures, and the mishandling of billions of dollars, according to analysts and multiple recent audits.
- U.S. Turns Fallujah into a Huge Concentration Camp — "So far the plan is for most of the city's 250,000 residents to return in stages and first only a few thousand will be let in. They'll be fingerprinted, given a retina scan and then an ID card, which will only allow them to travel around their homes or to nearby aid centers which are now being built. The Marines will be authorized to use deadly force against those breaking the rules. [Iraq is free!]
- Bungling raids by US troops fuel Iraqi anger — “Get down, get down,” the raiders screamed, the flashlights on their assault rifles dazzling a group of Iraqi men wrenched from their sleep by the soldiers’ violent entry. The Americans swarmed through the compound, corralling the women and children into one room and the men — by then cuffed and blindfolded — into another as the search for munitions and documents began. . . . "Er . . . we’re in the wrong house," Sergeant Hendrix announced quietly as the troops began questioning the blindfolded Iraqis. "Our target is 100 metres south."
- Disease risk stops Falluja return — ...the estimated 250,000 people that fled the assault cannot return until the risk posed by stray animals and sewage is eliminated. . . . "Many streets are flooded with sewage water..." ...the city's water treatment plant has to itself be drained before an assessment can be made of how badly it has been damaged. [Disease from what, I wonder?]
- Whitewashing torture? — A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq — even though there was nothing wrong with him.
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- Antiwar.com: A Catastrophe Calculator — ...Pentagon boss Donald Rumsfeld promised four more years of death and destruction in Iraq. Assuming the war continues to cost the U.S. taxpayers $6 billion per month...
- Recommended: Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters — "It was more of a rush. They put us in a warehouse for a while. They treated us like cattle," Arellano said about how the military treated him on his return to the United States.
- Home Cooking — ...the minions of George W. Bush announced, in open court, that he has the power to seize anyone on earth -- even "little old ladies in Switzerland" -- and imprison them forever if he so chooses, The New York Times reports. The minions said that anyone Bush declared "an enemy combatant" -- even if they never took up arms against America, even if they didn't know their actions were related to terrorism in any way -- could be abducted from any nation, friend or foe, or in the Homeland itself, and held indefinitely, "at the president's discretion," stripped of all rights under the U.S. Constitution or the Geneva Conventions.
- Government: Evidence gained by torture allowed — U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of foreigners as enemy combatants are allowed to use evidence gained by torture in deciding whether to keep them imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the government conceded in court...
- Ex-CIA officer alleges agency retaliated after he didn't falsify report — A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused.
- Ron Paul: US Hypocrisy on Ukraine — President Bush said last week that, "Any election [in Ukraine], if there is one, ought to be free from any foreign influence." . . . Unfortunately, it seems that several U.S. government agencies saw things differently and sent U.S. taxpayer dollars into Ukraine in attempt to influence the outcome.
- What corporate America can't build: A sentence — "i need help," said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. "i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you". [Where do you suppose he learned to speak and write like that, I wonder?]
- Resident captures intruder — [Macomb, IL] "I think he was shocked because I was holding the intruder at gunpoint." . . . "I do not have a gun permit so they had to take my rifles," Gamage said. "The sheriff told me if I get my permit, he would see what he could do to help me get them back. [That's mighty big of the sheriff.]
- Ohio LP fights eminent domain abuse in Columbus — ...where a property developer plans to ask city officials to declare the neighborhood "blighted" so he can destroy hundreds of homes and build a shopping center on a nearby industrial site.
- US pledges $20m to Palestinians — The US government has pledged $20m in direct aid to help the Palestinians out of a financial crisis.
- Foreign dissidents facing U.S. hurdles to publishing — ...recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval. The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States.
- Congress May Raise Taxes to Fund Bush's Social Security Plan — Republicans might need to raise payroll taxes to finance President Bush's proposal to allow Americans to divert a portion of their retirement savings into private accounts... [Thank goodness for the party of smaller government!]
- Bank papers detail millions in Pinochet payments — ...$3 million from the U.S. government in 1976... [About $9m in 2004 dollars.]
- Funding for U.S. Military Operations in Iraq Could Surge — ...the rate of spending in Iraq, already at more than $1 billion a week, could grow to $1.5 billion or more.
- Illegal Strip Searches at Reagan National? — TSA Employee: "They actually had the passenger remove the clothing that covered the sensitive area and perform a duck walk to see if something would fall out."
- Staggering National Debt Worries Economists — The 2004 fiscal year ended on Sept. 30 with a $413 billion deficit - the largest in the nation's history and almost $40 billion higher than it ran in 2003. Over the next 10 years, the accumulated shortfall is projected to reach $2.3 trillion... The still growing national debt already has hit $7.5 trillion. Congress last month was forced to raise the debt limit, a move that enables the federal government to borrow $8.18 trillion to meet its obligations. [Thank goodness for the party of smaller government!]
- U.S. to Specify Documents Needed for Driver's Licenses — ...the new law requires the federal Department of Homeland Security to issue regulations on what documentation a state must require before it can grant a license.
- Space station crew forced to cut calories — ...an independent team is looking into how the food inventory ended up being tracked so poorly... [Perhaps the fact that the ISS is run by government has something to do with it.]
- Congress OKs private-spaceflight bill — Under the terms of the legislation, the FAA would regulate the industry over the next eight years primarily to protect the uninvolved public and the public interest. [I feel safer already! This legislation won't make anyone safer but it will drive up the cost of space flights and stifle competition and innovation.]
- Analysis: Congress Restricts Private Space — The added safety restrictions -- resulting from negotiations between the conservatives and liberals in Congress -- assign far more regulatory power to the government than many of the bill's advocates would have wished.
- Scissors get girl in legal trouble — A 10-year-old fourth-grade girl at Holme Elementary School in the Far Northeast was pulled out of class, handcuffed, and taken to the local police station in the back of a police wagon earlier this week after a pair of 8-inch scissors were found in her book bag... [Thank goodness!]
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- Pontifical University to Take on the Devil — A Vatican university said...it will hold a special "theoretical and practical" course for Roman Catholic priests on Satanism and exorcism in response to what the Church says is a worrying interest in the occult, particularly among the young. [Superstitious idiocy is common among not only the young but among the old as well.]
- American Torture, Religion and the Crusade of General William G. Boykin — ...the Christian fundamentalism of Bush and Boykin, and others at the top of the American military command, is clearly a contributing factor. Their childish division of the world into God's people and Satan's people has enabled them to support the most devilish behavior imaginable, all in the name of righteousness.
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| DECEMBER 7, 2004 - TUESDAY |
- Strike the Root: The State: A Reductio ad Absurdum — A state is an agency that maintains a monopoly on the use of legal force in a given geographical area. The idea that such an institution can, on balance, protect individual rights, is fallacious.
- LewRockwell.com: Is the Bush Administration Certifiable? — In Iraq our soldiers are not fighting terrorists. They are fighting an insurgency that Bush created by invading Iraq.
- Recommended: The policeman found my penknife. 'You're going down, mate,' he said — [UK] "We are conducting random stop and search under current anti-terrorist legislation," began the constable...
- Recommended: After the X Prize — Manned space travel's best hope is the private sector, not NASA. In the open market, entrepreneurs and space hobbyists will do in a decade what NASA couldn't do in 46 years: provide safe, reliable trips to the heavens for the cost of a Caribbean cruise.
- Ridge Resigns Homeland Post — ...Ridge praised the department as "an extraordinary organization that each day contributes to keeping America safe and free." He also said he was privileged to work with the department's 180,000 employees "who go to work every day dedicated to making our country better and more secure." [I feel safer already!]
- What happened to Iraq’s oil money? — Former U.S. official says billions...were ‘squandered’. [Sounds like business as usual to me.]
- Bush Defends Iraq Invasion, U.S. Action on Threats — "We just had a poll in our country, when people decided that the foreign policy of the Bush administration ought to stay in place for four more years," Bush said.
- Halliburton lost government property in Iraq — A third or more of the government property Halliburton Co. was paid to manage for the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq could not be located by auditors...
- Former Bush campaign official indicted — A federal grand jury indictment...charges Tobin with attempting to "disrupt communications" by clogging the Democrats' phones on Election Day through repeated hang-up calls.
- Hearing wrestles with boundaries of war on terror — A federal judge peppered government lawyers...with pointed questions about the Bush administration's decision nearly three years ago to hold hundreds of foreigners indefinitely at a military prison in Cuba as part of its war on terrorism. ...President Bush has determined that the 550 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives pose a danger to the United States and will remain in custody as long as Bush says so.
- Bacterium infecting troops from Iraq, Afghanistan — The report listed 102 cases of patients at military medical facilities who developed serious A. baumannii infections, later spreading to the bloodstream.
- 40 Percent in U.S. Use Prescription Drugs — More than 40 percent of Americans take at least one prescription drug and one-in-six takes at least three... [Makes you proud to be an American, huh.]
- Rocket fuel chemical found in lettuce, organic milk — The federal government has found traces of a rocket fuel chemical in milk from across the country, including Virginia, and in most of the lettuce tested in several states. [I stopped drinking bovine lactose about 14 years ago. You can get all the calcium you need from green vegetables. Eat spinach instead of lettuce. It's far better for you.]
- Property taxes rising nationwide — The city's rising property taxes are squeezing retirees Diane and Donald Brockman, who have lived in the same house for over 40 years. Now, the retirees estimate it takes them two full months of their fixed income to pay their property taxes. "We don't go out to eat, we don't go to theaters, we don't travel a lot," says Mrs. Brockman, who worked as a operating-room nurse for 40 years. "You have to give up your pleasures that you have worked all your life to do," she says, suggesting that it might be appropriate for the community to give some kind of tax credit to them for all the years they have faithfully paid their taxes. [Instead of calling for smaller government and less taxes they simply want the tax burden shifted to others.]
- U.S. military says evidence gained by torture acceptable — Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government concedes. [By doing this the US government has placed Americans in danger who might be captured in other counties. Of course, other countries might commit torture anyway but now the US no moral imperative to criticize.]
- Eight Soldiers Plan to Sue Over Army’s Stop-Loss Policy — ...an Army policy that has barred thousands of soldiers from leaving Iraq this year even though the terms of enlistment they signed up for have run out.
- U.S. Consulate Attacked in Saudi Arabia — Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily guarded U.S. consulate in Jiddah...then forced their way into the building and held civilians at gunpoint, prompting a gunbattle.
- Activists Dominate Content Complaints — The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002... ...nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 — 99.8% — were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group. [Wow, that's a lot of people wanting government to control what they watch. Or, perhaps they simply want to control what others watch, which seems more likely.]
- Americans weigh down cruise ship — Dozens of seats on the world's most luxurious cruise liner have collapsed under the weight of obese American passengers.
- Genital Mutilation 'On the Increase in Europe' — Between 100 million and 140 million women have undergone genital mutilation worldwide, and two million girls are at risk each year, according to the World Health Organisation, which says the practice can lead to infection, the spread of Aids and crippling physical, psychological and sexual problems. [How did this practice begin, I wonder?]
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| THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOM
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- 'They hate our policies, not our freedom' — 'Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies [the report says]. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.'
- Fallujah Napalmed — A 1980 UN convention banned the use of napalm against civilians - after pictures of a naked girl victim fleeing in Vietnam shocked the world. America, which didn't ratify the treaty, is the only country in the world still using the weapon.
- 6,635 bodies in Baghdad mortuary: counting cost of crime and chaos — Shot, stabbed, blown up,burnt: the bodies of Iraqis killed in Baghdad lie piled in overcrowded refrigerators at the city’s central mortuary, their ever-increasing number overwhelming both staff and storage space... [Iraq is free!]
- U.S. Generals in Iraq Were Told of Abuse Early, Inquiry Finds — A confidential report to Army generals in Iraq in December 2003 warned that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees, a finding delivered more than a month before Army investigators received the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison...
- Iraq health care 'in deep crisis' — Iraq's health system is in a far worse condition than before the war...
- War has destroyed Iraq's health system: report — War in Iraq has caused a public health disaster that has left the country's medical system in tatters and increased the risk of disease and death...
- Falluja 'a horror' after U.S.-led offensive — Mahmoud Zubari and his family fled their home in Falluja after it was bombed and his 13-year-old son was killed.
- US torture at Guantanamo 'increasingly repressive' — The Red Cross has accused President George Bush's administration of overseeing the intentional physical and psychological torture of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. It also accused doctors and medics of liaising with interrogators in what was a "flagrant violation of medical ethics". ...a spokesman for the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that the Red Cross officials had "made their view known". "It's their point of view [but it is not shared by the administration]," he said.
- Ten-minute warning — Suhail Shabana sits quietly on her sofa as an Israeli policeman gives the Palestinian woman 10 minutes to vacate the premises in Beit Hanina, east Jerusalem. Shabana's family was given notice a day earlier that the house would be destroyed in 24 hours. [Your tax dollars at work!]
- 200 pledge willingness to carry out suicide attacks against Americans, Israelis — "Sooner or later we will bury all blasphemous occupiers of Islamic lands..." [They must really hate our freedom.]
- Government lawyer: Detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ — ...government lawyers asserted...the U.S. military can hold foreigners indefinitely as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba, even if they aided terrorists unintentionally and never fought the United States.
- Behaving like the Soviet secret police won't make America safer — ...many tortures perfected by the Cheka (Soviet secret police) -- notably beating, freezing, sensory disorientation, and sleep deprivation -- are now routinely being used by U.S. interrogators.
- Chickens Come Home to Roost — They see Iraqi children whose limbs have been blown off by American bombs. "I feel hatred. I hurt," said Ismail Ibrahim, one of 200 displaced Fallujans living in a Baghdad school since the latest fighting drove them out. "This is my city and it has been destroyed." Ibrahim warned, "The people of Fallujah are people of revenge. If they don’t get their revenge now, they will next year or even after 50 years." "The Americans just don’t get it," according to Ibrahim. "They think that they can use their muscles to subdue the resistance. On the contrary, it will increase."
- New Photos Showing Apparent Prisoner Abuse Could Be Tool to Tarnish U.S. Image, General Says — "The two scandals confirm the image about the Americans known in the Middle East: that the Americans are not a charity or a humanitarian organization that is leading an experiment of democracy," said Sateh Noureddine, managing editor of the Lebanese leftist newspaper As-Safir. "Rather, (the U.S. government) is leading a retaliatory operation following the Sept. 11 attacks."
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| FREEDOM FOR ME BUT NOT FOR THEE
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- U.N. corruption: Don't mend it; end it — A recent audit found $16.8 million in outright fraud and waste, including nearly $4 million in cash that was stolen from UN offices in Mogadishu, Somalia; a project director of the Relief and Works Agency who personally pocketed $100,000; and hundreds of employees who receive monthly rent subsidies of $3,800.
- 25-Year 'War on Drugs' Fails on the Streets — "After 25 years and $25 billion fighting drugs in Latin America, we are no closer to winning the war, the drug war – which is ultimately about reducing drug abuse..." [Shocking!]
- New rules on visa application photos nothing to smile about — When it comes to some U.S. government photos, smiling is frowned upon. [If you have to get the government's permission to travel, what's there to smile about anyway?]
- US building army base near Iran border — The US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan are working on a military base near the country’s western border with Iran.
- Bush Hands Million-Dollar Public Land to Mining Company for $875 — Last month the Bush administration handed a multinational mining company 155 acres of federally owned, prime mountaintop real estate near a Colorado ski resort. The price? Just $5 an acre (a total of $875), in an area where 1/10 of an acre fetches as much as $100,000.
- EPA Looking at Using Tests on People — The new policy, which the EPA is still developing, would allow Bush administration political appointees to referee any ethical disputes. [Thank goodness!]
- Bullies at the Airport — Problems within TSA are legion. In the rush to hire a new workforce, 28,000 screeners were put to work without background checks. Some of them were convicted felons. Many were very young, uneducated, with little job experience. At Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York, police arrested dozens of TSA employees who were simply stealing valuables from the luggage they were assigned to inspect. Of course, TSA has banned locks on checked luggage, leaving passengers with checked bags totally at the mercy of screeners working behind closed doors.
- At a Loss for Words — "...some translators who are presently employed by the FBI or who are employed by contractors may in fact fail the English test, but still be provided a passing grade surreptitiously because of personal contacts among the translator staff. This employee also noted that supervisors charged with ensuring that materials are translated accurately are often deficient in their own translating abilities."
- Blue Jays to Buy SkyDome for $21 Million — The Toronto Blue Jays agreed to buy SkyDome, the team's ballpark, for about $21.24 million.The 50,000-seat stadium, which opened in 1989, cost about $375 million to construct and was mostly funded by taxpayers.
- Security officials to spy on chat rooms — The CIA is quietly funding federal research into surveillance of Internet chat rooms as part of an effort to identify possible terrorists... [I feel safer already!]
- US eyes collection of college-student data — The federal government is considering the creation of a national database to collect information and track the progress of every college student in the country...
- How The NSA Listens To Your Phone Calls — The NSA costs at least $3.5bn a year to run. It employs at least 20,000 officers (not counting the 100,000 servicemen and civilians around the world over whom it has control). Its shredders process 40 tons of paper a day.
- Pentagon Propaganda Shop Lives On — The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) when it became known that the office planned to plant false news stories in the media. But now officials say that much of its mission, including using misinformation in the Iraq war and the war on terrorism, has been taken over by other offices within the government...
- Cities at High Risk of Attack Get $854M — Fifty cities will share a fresh infusion of more than $850 million under a Homeland Security program for places at high risk of terror attacks...
- $835,000 to settle suit over protester's injury — [California] An anti-war protester who sued San Francisco after a police officer broke her arm with a baton strike during a demonstration would get one of the city's largest-ever payouts in a police case...
- Trooper may be fired after citing dead man — A Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper may be fired in connection with a Blount County case in which a dead man was cited for traffic violations.
- A Whole New Kind Of "K" Ration — The drug – known in the clubs has "Special K" – has been reducing party-goers to gurgling blobs for more than a decade. This year, the Army has been running final, phase III Food and Drug Administration trials on a quarter-dose nasal inhaler of "K," to see if it can substitute for morphine.
- Tenet calls for Internet security — "...the Wild West must give way to governance and control." [Control by whom, I wonder?]
- Man's unusual traffic fine payment doesn't amuse court officials — Grant Petersen tried to pay an 82 dollar fine...in pennies. But court officials...weren't amused by his bucket of coins. They asked Petersen to come back with a more acceptable payment.
- Supreme Court to hear cable Internet case — The Supreme Court said...it will consider whether Internet providers should be allowed to sell their high-speed service over the cable television system. [Government attempting to solve a problem created by government.]
- DeLay's Push Helps Deliver NASA Funds — ...$16.2 billion budget request as part of the omnibus $388 billion spending bill...
- Sheriff's Deputy Videotaped Urinating In Elevator — [Florida] Although Brown was fired, he is still being paid while he continues to appeal his termination.
- U.S. students lagging in math skills — The United States scored below 20 of the 29 industrialized countries tested. [Thanks goodness for government schools!]
- FHP to use 18 'stealth' cars to track down aggressive drivers — The Florida Highway Patrol has unveiled its newest weapon in cracking down on aggressive driving: 18 unmarked "stealth" cars ready to pursue speeders... [Government sycophants ready to collect revenue.]
- Workers Threatened Over Prison Abuse — U.S. special forces accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq threatened Defense Intelligence Agency personnel who saw the mistreatment...
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- Recommended: Michael Savage — "I think these people need to be forcibly converted to Christianity..." [Forcibly converted how, I wonder?]
- VHS teen: Victims were 'sinners' — ...the Valparaiso High School student accused of slashing five of his classmates told officers God directed him to do it because they were "sinners."
- Holy mackerel! — The Virgin on a grilled cheese sandwich? That's nothing, says Fred Whan of Kingston, Ont., who sees Jesus' image on a fish stick he cooked a year ago. [It's a miracle!]
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