Guest guest Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:57:12 -0500 (EST) OpEdNews: Bush Went too far! rob f you have a problem reading this email, please click here to see the web page version http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20051219.html Time to impeach. Time to go to the streets. Time to tell our legislators the whitehouse has gone way too far. See my article below. Rob Kall Subscribe to Oped News http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20051219.html Newest Articles By Rob Kall Did Congress Pass Legislation Allowing Bush To Violate The Law Against Illegal Spying? Will they continue to allow him to keep doing it now that he's confessed? If WE THE PEOPLE don't act on this, and demand an end to it and serious, legal repercussions, the USA is lost. By Manuel Valenzuela The Making Of The Enemy [Part One Of Two] The manufacture, marketing and dissemination of bogeymen enemies, both real and fictional, for a long time endemic in American society, has always worked to perfection, becoming the inertia used to control the population. It becomes the energy needed to maintain America's permanent wartime economy. By Doug Thompson Bush's Obsession With Being A 'wartime President' " I'm the commander in chief, " [bush] told Congressional leaders at a recent White House meeting. " Do it my way. " By Robert Perry The New Madness Of King George Sunday before Christmas, a fidgety George W. Bush interrupted regular programming on U.S. networks to deliver an address to the nation that painted the Iraq War and the War on Terror in the same black-and-white colors he has always favored. By Randolph T. Holhut THE PRESIDENT MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. PERIOD. If the rule of law still means anything in this nation, President Bush must be held accountable for flouting federal surveillance laws. By Andrew Bard Schmookler Bush And Rove: Collaborators In The Theater Of The Moral Lie If evil were to take over America, it would have to do it with a smiling face and postures of righteousness. As a result of Karl Rove's scripts and direction, and George W. Bush's acting, in dramatizing moral falsehood, evil has ascended to power in America disguised as the good. By David Sirota Serving The Establishment Instead Of Questioning It In writing a piece about the long-term future of the economy and lamenting about those who are supposedly clinging to the past, Matt Bai shows that he is the one caught in the past, as if totally brainwashed by the corporate propaganda he is undoubtedly flooded with as a journalist. By Carol Wolman Hope- Always I have hope that we will look out for the seventh generation hence, once again. I have hope that we will love our neighbors, and ourselves, enough to overthrow the satanists and bring them to justice. By Missy Comley Beattie E-Mails From A Former Military Man This former military man and father of a soldier who's served two tours in Iraq speaks the truth in ways that Bush could never comprehend. By Charles Sullivan Big Brother Is Watching This is not the first time that law abiding citizens have been under surveillance by the government. Whenever ordinary citizens organize and demand justice they pose a threat to Washington's corrupt power brokers. By Robert Parry Spying And The Public's Right To Know The New York Times doesn't have a good explanation for why it waited until after the 2004 election to print a devastating report against the White House. By Richard Neville WORN INTELLECTUALS WITH MARIJUANA COUGHS Is fear and phoney patriotism turning Aussies into a bunch of self congratulating flag waving materialist pisspots singing our own praises, oy oy oy, yob yob yob, screaming `death to the wog wog wog'? By Douglas Drenkow Multi-Site Action Alert: Jam The Senate's Phones Monday Protesting Illegal Bush Wiretaps! From Daily Kos throughout the 'net, the Action Alert is going out: Contact your senators and demand that Bush be held accountable for breaking the law and bragging about it. Article includes ref. to find your senators' phone numbers and easy-to-use Action Form! Fight this blatant abuse of power! By Andy Ostroy Democrats Can Win In '06 On An Anti-Corruption Message. Here's Our Top 15 GOP Scandals To Remind Voters If we can't win with this message, what can we win with!? By David Sirota The Most Important Question Of All In Bush's Domestic Spying Scandal The question reporters should be asking is " Why did the President order domestic surveillance operations without obtaining constitutionally-required warrants? " By Larry Scott TSA Looks To VA And DoD For " Mental Defectives " The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wants military and veterans' medical records to look for " mental defectives " -- all in the name of National Security. Who will decide who is a " mental defective? " And, who will have access to this information once it gets into the TSA database? By Andrew Bard Schmookler Bush And Loyalty: A Clue To His Amoral World Bush's excessive valuing of loyalty is less a sign of his appreciating a moral virtue than of his inhabiting a world in which true morality is scarcely relevant. By Doug Thompson Politics, Shame & The Truth I am truly ashamed that, as a one-time political operative, ever had anything to do with putting people like George W. Bush or his cronies in Congress into office. By Richard Wise The Wartime President A semi-serious review of the wars of George W. Bush. By Missy Comley Beattie AmBushing The Citizenry Bush declares he'll do anything, even spy on us, to protect us, so why hasn't he acted on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission? By Steven Leser When One Wades Past The Bush Administration's Spin; One Realizes They Are Drowning In Failure If only governing was the same thing as putting out Public Relations spin, Bush's team would be excelling in their element instead of floundering like a fish out of water or out of touch like a man in a bubble, if you prefer. Best News Links from the Web Please go to www.opednews.com to view these articles. HERBERT: Dangerous Territory Stubbornness is a well-known trait of this president. But increasing numbers of Americans are objecting to the administration's contemptuous attitude toward liberty and the law. On Friday, the Senate blocked reauthorization of the Patriot Act because of its dangerous intrusions on privacy and threats to civil liberties. KRUGMAN: Tankers On The Take Not long ago Peter Ferrara, a senior policy adviser at the Institute for Policy Innovation, seemed on the verge of becoming a conservative icon...Now Mr. Ferrara has become a different sort of icon. BusinessWeek Online reports that both Mr. Ferrara and Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, were paid by the ubiquitous Jack Abramoff to write " op-ed articles favorable to the positions of some of Abramoff's clients. " Did Bush Domestic Spy Program Eavesdrop On American Journalists? I had an interesting discussion this morning with DC political consultant Marc Laitin. We both came to the conclusion that it sounds like Bush's super-secret illegal domestic spying program may be targeting US journalists and that may be why Bush never got it cleared by the court and is worried about it coming forward now. Think about it. Spaceflight From Moscow To New York To Take Less Than An Hour Russian scientists design an aerospace passenger plane, capable of flying at the speed of 30,000 km/h Lindsey Graham On Presidential Spying: 'I Don't Know Of Any Legal Basis " On Face The Nation, Sen. Lindey Graham was not a happy camper over the revelations of these secret surveillance's that President Bush authorized. $42 Billion Budget Cut Will Be Laughably Erased By $100 Billion In Proposed Tax Cuts The plan reduces spending on Medicare by $8 billion and Medicaid by nearly $5 billion and wrings savings out of several other programs like agriculture and student loans. Democrats said the cuts were unfair and meant little for the deficit since Republicans were trying to advance next year nearly $100 billion in tax cuts that would more than erase any savings. " This entire exercise imposes sacrifice from Americans least able to afford it in an attempt to camouflage far larger Republican tax breaks for the wealthy, " said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. Gov. Jeb Bush Calls For Further Review Of Voting Machines Gov. Jeb Bush said the state should review the way it tests electronic voting machines after a local elections official said the devices could be hacked to change race outcomes. Sancho sent state elections officials a letter Friday requesting they do " further investigation " of Diebold Election Systems Accuvote 2000. Sancho said his internal tests showed the optical-scan machine's memory card produces false results when hacked by elections office insiders. Rise In Poll Complaints Troubles Iraq Vote Monitors Suspected polling violations on voting day last week far exceeded the number in Iraq's first election in January, local and international monitors said yesterday. On the deadline for filing complaints, the number of alleged violations which could swing results in the 275-seat parliament was " well into double figures " , an accredited international election observer, who wished to remain anonymous, said. Lott Disappointed With Bush Response To Disaster Lott told The Sun Herald newspaper that his family is divided over his running again. Another consideration, he said, is that he " so disappointed with the [bush] administration's response to this disaster that I'm almost embarrassed. " [What would it take to really embarrass him??] Plamegate Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald As 2005 Lawyer Of The Year The National Law Journal® today announced the selection of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald as its 2005 " Lawyer of the Year, " for his direction of the ongoing investigation into leaks related to CIA agent Valerie Plame. The editors of the newspaper also named Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift as the runner-up in this year's award program for his role in challenging the constitutionality of the Guantanamo Bay prisoner tribunals, from within the military. Stem Cells Proving Popular Gift It may not be your average Christmas present or gift for a newborn baby, but a British-based company says grandparents looking for a gift with a twist are increasingly investing in stem cells for their grandchildren. Democrats Plan Sharp Rebuke Of Pre-war Intel, Downing St. Memos, Iraq War In Massive New Congressional Report The report, spearheaded by John Conyers (D-MI), titled " The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Coverups in the Iraq War, " is slotted to be made available to the public Tuesday. AG Gonzales: War Powers Authorized Eavesdropping The U.S. Congress' authorization of military force after the September 11, 2001, attacks also gave Bush the right to eavesdrop on people in the United States, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Monday...But he conceded: " One might argue, now wait a minute, there's nothing in the authorization to use force that specifically mentions electronic surveillance. " Osama, Saddam? What's In A Name? With a slip of the tongue, U.S. George W. Bush briefly turned Osama bin Laden into Saddam Hussein on Monday. [idiot-in-Chief can't even read a speech.] NY Times: Teen Webcam Whore Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World SEC Charges 2 With Trading On Stern Deal U.S. regulators said on Monday they charged two individuals with insider trading ahead of news in 2004 that radio shock jock Howard Stern was moving to Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. Bombs In Iraq, But Bush Says " don't Despair " --[my Twins Are OK] Bombs ripped through three Iraqi cities on Monday and two senior officials survived assassination attempts, hours after Bush told Americans not to despair over the U.S. mission in Iraq. FBI Says Murder Rate Up, Crime Declines The nation's murder rate jumped 2 percent during the first six months of this year, with the highest increases in small towns and the Midwest, the FBI said Monday. Crime fell nationwide for other significant offenses, including rape, arson and assault. Bush Says NSA Surveillance Necessary, Legal -- We'll See.... brushing aside bipartisan criticism in Congress, said Monday he approved spying on suspected terrorists without court orders because it was " a necessary part of my job to protect " Americans from attack. [Who is going to protect us from " him? " ] Redistricting Case Is Court's Chance To Stop Partisan Excesses Iraqis shouldn't be too embarrassed if a few tallies look suspicious or some ballots disappear as the votes are counted in their landmark election last week. More than two centuries after we began the experiment, the U.S. is still trying to iron out all the kinks in its own democracy. Case in point: the Supreme Court's decision last week to hear a suit challenging the map Texas Republicans drew for the state's congressional districts. This case could spur a landmark decision. It offers the court an opportunity to rein in some of the partisan excesses that are staining the redistricting process and producing races so one-sided that they often deny Americans the opportunity to cast meaningful votes for the House of Representatives. GOP-Led House Passes Spending Cuts In Medicare, Medicaid, And Student Loans The U.S. House adjourned for the year after approving a $453 billion Department of Defense budget for fiscal 2006 and $39.7 billion in spending cuts over five years to benefit programs such as Medicaid and student loans. The defense budget faces opposition in the Senate, where Democrats plan to raise procedural objections because the legislation includes a provision to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Report Cites Torture In U.S. Prison The United States operated a secret prison in Afghanistan as recently as last year, torturing detainees by chaining them to walls and forcing them to listen to loud music in total darkness for days, a human rights group alleged in a report released today. The prison was near Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in the report based on the testimony of several detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who said they were also held at the Afghan facility. Study Shows The Middle-Class, Not The Superrich Are The Most Generous Working-age Americans who make $50,000 to $100,000 a year are two to six times more generous in the share of their investment assets that they give to charity than those Americans who make more than $10 million, a pioneering study of federal tax data shows. No Room To Spin Bush is backed into a corner as a tsunami of evidence shows he lied to America. License To Spy But the PATRIOT Act doesn't address the NSA. To grapple with that agency, Congress needs a page of history and a lesson in law. For this is not the first time the NSA has been caught casting so wide a net. In 1976, a Senate inquiry into intelligence overreaching led by Sen. Frank Church exposed secret NSA spying on Americans and prompted Congress to impose new rules. But NSA's domestic spying program today violates those rules, repeating the abuses and wasteful overreaching of the Cold War era. To respond to the most recent bout of domestic spying, Congress' first task should be to understand how and why laws were circumvented. Flagging Alito's Allegiances Samuel Alito touted his membership in CAP at the same time Prospect was pushing these destructive messages. This fact should trouble all who cherish the right to equality before the law. Alito needs to be forthcoming about his involvement in CAP, and the Senate must carefully examine this record. Otherwise, Americans won't have the information they need to judge for themselves whether Alito would uphold the rights of all. Freedom Of _Expression In An Era Of State Terror The contemporary political scene is remarkable for the cascading effect of the propaganda of the " war against terror " , which has engulfed so many countries of the Western and Eastern Hemisphere. Not a single continent remains unscathed, not even the European Community, despite high sounding ideals and conditions imposed, to secure human freedom as a precondition for membership. The events of 9/11 , the work of less than 20 terrorists has altered the entire post – war social compact . Across the Atlantic in North America, in the heart of liberal democracies such as England and France, in Germany, in Italy, in West, Central and South Asia, and beyond to Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia, the global television networks controlled by monopoly media companies, corporate newspapers, government leaders, those representing the coercive instruments of state power, the police, paramilitary, the military and bureaucracy, would have the world believe that their societies f! ace imminent attack from " terrorists " , and that the very existence of their societies are threatened by terrorists , projected as Muslim and / or Arab, people hailing from those very regions , where hydrocarbons, petro-dollars, among other resources, are stolen by war , occupation , by political threats, or by installing quisling governments in those regions . " Catapulting The Propaganda " AGAIN! And so, no surprise, in green tie last night, [bush] was feigning sincerity and catapulting again with his umteenth justification of his invasion of Iraq and war on terror. NBC followed it appropriately enough with a National Lampoon movie. Radical Militant Librarians And Other Dire Threats - Wm. Pitt There was an internal FBI email sent in October 2003 that speaks volumes about why our legal system has been arranged the way it has. An unnamed agent was railing via email against the Department of Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. Specifically, the agent was frustrated by OIPR's failure to deliver authorization to use Section 215 of the Patriot Act for a search. " While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR's failure to let us use the tools given to us, " wrote the agent. Bush Administration Mining Fundamentalist Recruits The former Dean of Academic Affairs at the fundamentalist Christian Patrick Henry College is appointed to oversee USAID's democracy and governance programs The Truth About Bush's Warrantless Spying On Saturday, President Bush acknowledged that he had personally authorized a secret warrantless domestic surveillance program more than three dozen times since October 2001. Bush's actions run contrary to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids " unreasonable searches " and sets out specific requirements for warrants, including " probable cause. " They demonstrate a dangerous disregard for the basic liberties that serve as our nation's guiding values. They are also in violation of federal law. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) makes it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to conduct electronic surveillance, except as " authorized by and conducted pursuant to a search warrant or court order. " Moreover, since 1978, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2511(2)(f) has directed that Title III and FISA " shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance...and the interception of domestic wire and oral communications may be conducted. " The Pr! esident's actions were not necessary; if he had legitimate concerns about FISA, " the appropriate response would have been to go to Congress and expand it, not to blatantly violate the law. " In the article, we debunk the administration's attempts to justify Bush's actions. Bush 's 4th Speech In 6 Days Covers No New Ground Amid rising tensions in Congress over the war and antiterrorism measures at home, and amid indications of declining public support, the president chose to deliver his televised address from the Oval Office, the first speech from that venue since he announced in March 2003 that he had ordered the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Bush did not cover significant new ground, but rather used the prime-time television slot and the backdrop of the Oval Office for a summation of the arguments he has advanced in three recent addresses defending and explaining his policies. Heck Of A Job, Viveca? A. Huffington But that's not why I'm obsessing (if I got worked up every time Bush picked a fox to guard a government henhouse, I'd never get anything done!). No, the thing that has my mental wheels in overdrive is the fact that Lenhard is the husband of Viveca Novak -- the Time Magazine journalist whose loose lips may end up saving Karl Rove from joining Scooter Libby on Indictment Row. Republicans Drop Campaign Finance Measure House Republicans abandoned a last-minute attempt to limit individual political donations to independent organizations Sunday, setting up for passage a military measure that had been stalled by the effort. Dancing With Ghosts - Kuninich When will America get off the treadmill of sacrificing native rights to greed, territorial ambitions and fear? 8 Bush Pioneers And Rangers Face Wide Range Of Allegations Tom Noe is not the only top Bush fund-raiser under criminal investigation this year. He shares that distinction with seven others. Federal and state authorities are investigating the Bush Pioneers and Rangers, individuals who raised at least $100,000 or $200,000 for President Bush's re-election, for bribery, money laundering, stock manipulation, and extortion. Democrats have said that as investigations continue, there will be " enough [convictions] for their own prison softball team. " " The Republican culture of corruption, it knows no bounds. It's a deterioration of values. " said Amaya Smith, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. Bush Tries To Save Patriot Act It has been a weekend of unprecedented reactive political activity -- it might even occur to some to call it panic -- by the White House. Congress Pushes Back, Hard, Against Bush Blindsided by news of domestic spying, it is holding up a key bill. Pentagon's Intelligence Authority Widens The Pentagon's newest counterterrorism agency, charged with protecting military facilities and personnel wherever they are, is carrying out intelligence collection, analysis and operations within the United States and abroad, according to a Pentagon fact sheet on the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, provided to The Washington Post. CIFA is a three-year-old agency whose size and budget remain secret. It has grown from an agency that coordinated policy and oversaw the counterintelligence activities of units within the military services and Pentagon agencies to an analytic and operational organization with nine directorates and ever-widening authority. Itsate of Field Activities (DX) " assists in preserving the most critical defense assets, disrupting adversaries and helping control the intelligence domain, " the fact sheet said. Those roles can range from running roving patrols around military bases and facilities to surveillance of potentially threa! tening people or organizations inside the United States. The DX also provides " on-site, real time . . .. support in hostile areas worldwide to protect both U.S. and host nation personnel from a variety of threats, " the fact sheet said. Violence Surges As Cheney Visits Iraq Violence and civil unrest surged across Iraq on Sunday as Vice President Cheney made his first visit here in more than a decade, praising what he called the " remarkable " turnout by voters in nationwide elections Thursday and telling U.S. troops that the country had " turned the corner. " Shrouded in fortified compounds and shuttled between venues by squadrons of helicopters, Cheney came on a day that underscored the deep economic and security challenges the country faces. The government sparked angry protests in several cities by announcing a steep increase in fuel prices, currently the lowest in the Middle East and among the lowest in the world. And insurgents ended the lull in violence during the election period by launching a string of attacks across the country that killed more than 30 people, including 20 truck drivers and crew members on a highway north of Baghdad. Analysis: Bush Drops Rosy Iraq Scenarios No more rosy scenarios. After watching his credibility and approval ratings crumble over the course of 2005, President Bush completed a rhetorical shift Sunday night by abandoning his everything-is-OK pitch to Americans World Peace Forum Moves To Create International Peace Secretariat The key message of the forum was that democracy means giving citizens the right to decide whether their own countries initiate war. RAIMONDO: Who Are The War Criminals? Naming Names Behind every war criminal is a criminal idea American Beef Returns To Japan Grills Released from a two-year-long ban over mad cow fears, American beef headed back to Japanese grills on Monday, with the imported meat set to appear at a popular barbecue chain and a private banquet put on by U.S. producers. Iraq Officials Struggle To Contain Tension There are concerns that relations may worsen as Iraqi forces - composed of mostly Shiites and Kurds - assume responsibility for patrolling Sunni areas as the Americans gradually withdraw from Diyala. Iraqi Lawyer: Ex-Saddam Officials Released An Iraqi lawyer said Monday that about 24 former top officials in Saddam Hussein's government have been released from jail in Iraq, and some have left the country. Spying On Americans: Did Bush Break The Law? T. Grieve Two questions follow. Did the president break the law? And why did he do what he did? The answer to the first question seems self-evident. The answer to the second does not. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 sets out the rules for monitoring electronic communications. Those rules are clear. Except during the first 15 days after a declaration of war by Congress, the executive branch cannot monitor electronic communications that originate in the United States without obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Members of the Bush administration may have thought FISA's warrant requirement foolish or even " quaint " in the days after 9/11. They may have thought -- as they apparently did -- that the warrant requirement represented a constitutionally impermissible limit on the president's power as commander-in-chief. There were ways to address such concerns. The administration could have gone to Congress to ask that FISA's warrant req! uirement be amended. Or the administration could have gone to the courts, asking that the warrant requirement be overturned. It did neither. The administration simply ignored the other branches of government and took it upon itself to do what it wanted to do. U.S., Iraqi Troops To Open Army School Young Iraqi soldiers will soon begin arriving for leadership training in this small northern town, where Iraqi insurgents once operated with impunity and the buildings were stripped bare by looters. With the parliamentary election over, the focus for U.S. troops will be to provide the new government with an army it can call its own. U.S. and Iraqi instructors will launch a formal military leadership school in Hammam al Alil on Monday, an important step in creating the institutions that will allow the Iraqi army to sustain itself. U.S. Ran Afghan Torture Prison, Group Says The United States operated a secret prison in Afghanistan as recently as last year, torturing detainees with sleep deprivation, chaining them to the walls and forcing them to listen to loud music in total darkness for days, a human rights group alleged Monday. Soldiers Not Real Thrilled With Cheney I'm thinking IF we end up seeing this session on TV, it will be withOUT audio. http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHENEY?SITE=... Facing tough questions from battle-weary troops, Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday cited signs of progress in Iraq and signaled that force changes could come in 2006. " From our perspective, we don't see much as far as gains, " said Marine Cpl. Bradley Warren, the first to question Cheney in a round-table discussion with about 30 military members. " We're looking at small-picture stuff, not many gains. I was wondering what it looks like from the big side of the mountain - how Iraq's looking. " Cheney replied that remarkable progress has been made in the last year and a half. Another Marine, Cpl. R.P. Zapella, asked, " Sir, what are the benefits of doing all this work to get Iraq on its feet? " Shouts of " hooah! " from the audience interrupted Cheney a few times, but mostly the service members listened intently. When he deliv! ered the applause line, " We're in this fight to win. These colors don't run, " the only sound was a lone whistle. " Mr. Heterosexual " And Other Pathologies - M. Seesoltz The homosexual community has flooding [sic] the marketplace with products and opportunities exclusively for gays and lesbians. Now a talk show host in Massachusetts is turning the tables. Tom Crouse, pastor of Holland Congregational Church and host of the radio program " Engaging Your World " is launching a " contest " to name the most heterosexual guy in Massachusetts. . . . The contest will feature such manly events as how many Oprah magazines you can tear at once and a sixty second dissertation on the uses of duct tape...But the punch line was Pastor Crouse's justification for the event: " We're just looking for tolerance for heterosexuals. " What The " Left Behind " Series Really Means - J. Bageant " The best thing about the Left Behind books is the way the non-Christians get their guts pulled out by God. " -- 15-year-old fundamentalist fan of the Left Behind series That is the sophisticated language and appeal of America's all-time best selling adult novels celebrating the ethnic cleansing of non-Christians at the hands of Christ. If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of the last book in the Left Behind series, Glorious Appearing, and publish it across the Middle East, Americans would go berserk. Yet tens of millions of Christians eagerly await and celebrate an End Time when everyone who disagrees with them will be murdered in ways that make Islamic beheading look like a bridal shower. Jesus -- who apparently has a much nastier streak than we have been led to believe -- merely speaks and " the bodies of the enemy are ripped wide open down the middle. " In the book Christians have to drive carefully to avoid " hitting splayed and filleted corpses of men and w! omen and horses, " even as the riders' tongues are melting in their mouths and they are being wide-open gutted by God's own hand, the poor damned horses are getting the same treatment. Sort of a divinely inspired version of " Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. " Ancient Civilization Unearthed In Syria An excavation project on the Syrian-Iraqi border has uncovered an ancient settlement wiped out by invaders 5,500 years ago. Temperatures Climb As Warming Talks Stall In the high Arctic, deep in the Atlantic, on Africa's sunbaked plains, climate scientists are seeing change unfold before their eyes. In the global councils of power, however, change in climate policy is coming only slowly. In Geneva on Thursday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that 2005 thus far is the second warmest year on record, extending a trend climatologists attribute at least partly to heat-trapping " greenhouse gases " accumulating in the atmosphere. S.Korea To Start Talks With US On Beef Imports South Korea announced on Monday it would hold talks with the United States on resuming U.S. beef imports, which have been banned for two years on concerns over mad cow disease. Believe It Or Leave It: Strange Stories Of 2005 Alongside tragedies, wars and natural disasters the year just ending brought its share of unusual, outrageous and tragi-comic and just downright silly news items. A selection of the stranger items: - The authorities running a cemetery near Tel Aviv were bemused to find tourists beating a path to the grave of a 19-year-old British soldier who died in fighting 66 years earlier. His name, engraved on the headstone, was Harry Potter. Radiologists Use Lights, Films To Soothe Children Instead of sterile white light, flowing patterns of yellow, red, purple, green and blue dappled the walls. There were no scary instruments or metal objects in sight. The only machine was a CT, or computed tomography, scan in off-white and soft-yellow tones. An animated film played on the wall. " He thought he was at the movies and asked for popcorn, " Jack's mother Cindy said. Six months after it was opened, the new radiology room has resulted in lower doses of radiation in young patients, because fewer re-scans are needed, doctor John Anastos said. " We have very tangible results, " he said. Quotes Of The Year, From Kanye To Jessica " What's that? " — Paris Hilton, when asked if she reads blogs. And more... Bush Faces Growing Storm Over Secret Wire Taps US lawmakers said that Bush, the Evangelist-in-Chief, may have broken the law by approving the secret monitoring of phone calls and emails within the United States after the September 11 attacks. But the administration insisted the wire taps, even without a court warrant, were legal and VP Dick " 5 Vietnam Deferrments Chickenhawk " Cheney criticised those who he said were not committed to " doing everything " to guard against new terrorist attacks on the United States. [Rarely is a wiretap request turned down by the special Surveillance Court, so why skip that Constitutionally-mandated step? Has Bush relegated the executive branch is above the law and not answerable to the checks and balances of the legislative and judicial branchs?] Members of Bush's Republican party and opposition Democrats called, however, for an inquiry into the eavesdropping. Cuba Avoids Friction With US Over Guantanamo American anti-torture activists who marched through southeastern Cuba to protest the detention of terror suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay had to settle last week for a prayer vigil five miles away. Sen. Reid Calls US Congress 'most Corrupt In History' U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called the Republican-led Congress " the most corrupt in history " on Sunday, and distanced himself from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, at the center of an escalating probe. Colombian Rebels Kill Eight, Capture 30 Police Colombian rebels killed eight police officers and captured at least 30 others at a remote jungle station on Saturday in what appears to be one of the biggest blows against the security forces in years, the police said on Sunday. Cheney, Rice, & Bush Hit Airwaves To Defend Illegal Wiretaps On U.S. Citizens U.S. VP Dick Cheney on Sunday said Bush's secret order to allow spying on people in the United States was legal and necessary to prevent terrorism, but lawmakers from both parties called for Congress to investigate. U.S. Sec. of State Condi Rice, speaking on " Fox News Sunday, " said disclosure of the eavesdropping could jeopardize terrorism investigations. (Since not one person has been successfully prosecuted in their " war on terrorism, " it seems their focus and illegal activities have been overkill and unjustified) Rights Group Says US Had Secret Afghanistan Prison A human rights group said on Sunday that the United States operated a secret prison for terrorism suspects as recently as last year in Afghanistan, where detainees where subjected to torture and other mistreatment. The Bush administration has faced international criticism over detainees after a November 2 Washington Post article said the CIA held dozens of terrorism suspects in secret prisons called " black sites " in countries around the world, including eastern Europe. House Opens Way For Oil Drilling In Artic -- AGAIN House lawmakers opened the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as one of their last acts of an all-night session Monday bringing their legislative year to a close. Two New York City Bus Lines Shut Down Commuters who depend on two private bus lines were forced to find their own way home after drivers walked off the job early Monday, a predicament that could soon paralyze the entire city if the transit strike widens. Car Bomb Kills Two Outside Iraqi Hospital A suicide car bomb exploded outside a children's hospital in western Baghdad on Monday, killing at least two people and wounding 11, including seven policemen, officials said. Bangladeshi Politician Killed In Blast Unidentified assailants hurled three bombs at a tea shop in western Bangladesh, killing a ruling party politician and wounding three of his friends, a police official said. Wikipedia 'as Accurate As Britannica' The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, home to nearly four million articles contributed by volunteers, covers scientific topics about as accurately as Encyclopaedia Britannica, according to experts. Rebel Students Vow To Disrupt Nepal Poll Students allied to communist rebels in Nepal plan to disrupt municipal elections scheduled for early next year. Morales Wins Bolivian Presidency Evo Morales, who challenges US anti-drug policies, is to be Bolivia's first Indian president and join Latin America's shift to the left after winning a large majority in Sunday's elections. Afghan Parliament Sworn In Members of the first Afghan parliament for more than 30 years were sworn in amid concern by rights groups about abuses and further threats by the Taliban. North Carolina City Confronts Its Past In Report On White Vigilantes The report also analyzes the lingering effects on black families in Wilmington of the 1898 overthrow of the government by white supremacists. Rights Group Reports Afghanistan Torture Eight men at the American detention camp in Guantánamo Bay have separately given their lawyers " consistent accounts " of being tortured at a secret prison in Afghanistan at various periods from 2002 to 2004, Human Rights Watch, a group based in New York, said Sunday. The Quiet Man Memories of the campaign trail in 1967, with a diffident Eugene McCarthy. A Down Payment On New Orleans It is cheering to see that New Orleans has not been completely forgotten. The White House's request for an additional $1.5 billion for hurricane protection demonstrates that the city's fate has not slipped entirely off the agenda in Washington. As a result, residents hoping to return to their homes in time for Christmas can think about rebuilding with a little more confidence than before. The Long-Term Care Conundrum A graying population and the fiscal woes of Medicaid are forcing the nation to reconsider how best to provide long-term health care for the aged and disabled. States are experimenting with ways to reshape their long-term care programs, the National Governors Association has proposed measures to restrain Medicaid spending for the needy and encourage greater use of private insurance, and Congress is moving to close loopholes that allow some well-off Americans to hide assets so as to qualify for Medicaid. The flurry of activity won't come close to solving the nation's long-term care problems, but it usefully highlights how far the country is from seriously confronting this issue - either through public programs or private insurance. Rice Defends Domestic Eavesdropping Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday defended President Bush's decision to secretly authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without seeking warrants, saying the program was carefully controlled and necessary to close gaps in the nation's counterterrorism efforts. Reaching Over Korea's Divide, A Helping Hand Holds A Bible In from the freezing cold on a recent Sunday morning, sitting on the heated floor of a cozy apartment in northeast Seoul, the North Korean defector seldom looked up at the South Korean missionary who had been trying, for the last year, to convert him to the Christian faith. Through His Webcam, A Boy Joins A Sordid Online World The 13-year-old boy sat in his California home, eyes fixed on a computer screen. He had never run with the popular crowd and long ago had turned to the Internet for the friends he craved. But on this day, Justin Berry's fascination with cyberspace would change his life. Roadside Bomb Attack In Baghdad - Video A roadside bomb went off close to an Iraqi police patrol in eastern Baghdad killing two policemen and wounding two others police said. Israeli Air Strikes Continue In Gaza - Video Israeli air strikes leave roads in chaos and inflict sonic booms on thousands of Palestinians overnight. Benet Allen reports. Palestinians awoke on Sunday to a scene of destruction after Israeli aircraft struck the Gaza Strip repeatedly. Israel's Sharon Recovering After Minor Stroke Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's condition improved on Monday, the day after he suffered a minor stroke that raised questions about how long he could dominate Israeli politics. Bush To Americans: 'Do Not Give In To Despair' Bush in his series of speeches has changed his tone from outright sunny optimism to a more candid assessment of Iraq, admitting that mistakes were made in the run-up to the war and that the road ahead is long. Along those lines, Bush acknowledged the United States got off to a slow start in reconstruction efforts and in training Iraqi security forces, and that the work has been " more difficult than we expected. " [And 2008 will be here before you know it -- with lots of impeachment time to spare!] US House Approves $29 Billion Katrina Aid Plan The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday approved $29 billion in funds for rebuilding hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast states, about $10.4 billion more than requested by the Bush administration. Iraq Group Posts Video Of US Hostage's 'killing' An Iraqi militant group posted on the Internet on Monday a video it said showed the killing of a U.S. security consultant it had abducted earlier this month. DLC Pick Casey Loses Edge/Lead Over Santorum When His Anti-Abortion Position Is Factored IN Bob Casey, Ed Rendell's and Harry Reid's annointed pick to run against Rick Santorum loses a whopping 30+ Percent of his support when they find out lose Casey is anti abortion and wants Roe v. Wade overturned, just like Santorum. It's understandable-- people will vote for the real thing-- a right wing Republican, rather than a democrat who acts like one. Growing Bucks County, PA, Coalition Call For Machines With Paper Record ''This is not a battle over machines,'' Mary Anne Gould, founder of Bucks County Coalition for Voting Integrity, insists. ''It is a battle about democracy. It's about people taking back control. The commissioners have no right to make this decision independently. We should have a say in it.'' EMBARGOED TEXT: Bush's Prime Time Speech On Iraq -- So You Can Opt Out EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY December 18, 2005 ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE NATION As Prepared for Delivery...Provided so you do not have to waste your Sunday evening, and " test " to see that if Bush strays from the script, he can put the issues in his own words... G.O.P. Pushes $41.6 Billion Deficit-Cut Plan - Pay For It By Drilling In Alaska Republican congressional leaders agreed to trim deficits by $41.6 billion and sought to unlock the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling Sunday in a frenzied year-end bid to enact the core of a conservative agenda. TRANSCRIPT: President Bush's Weekly Radio Address Following is a transcription of President Bush's weekly radio address yesterday as recorded by The New York Times. Bush Administration Mounts Broad Defense Of Iraq War -- With Your Tax $$ Amid rising tensions in Congress over the war and antiterrorism measures at home amid indications of declining public support, the president chose to deliver his televised address from the Oval Office, the first speech from that venue since he announced in March 2003 that he had ordered the invasion of Iraq. To judge by the excerpts made public by the White House in advance of the speech, Mr. Bush may well cover no significant new ground, but rather will use the prime-time television slot and the backdrop of the Oval Office for a summation of the arguments he has advanced in three recent addresses US Troop Pullout From Iraq To Take Years: Powell Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said it would take some years for the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq although the pullout could start in 2006. " So one way or the other, I think a draw down will begin in 2006, but essentially just to walk away, to say that we're taking all of our troops out as fast as we can would be a tragic mistake.It's going to be years, " Powell said in an interview with the BBC World TV Channel on Sunday. Blair & London Attack: Spies Warned Of Tube Attack SPYMASTERS warned Tony Blair before the July 7 suicide bombings that Al-Qaeda was planning a " high priority " attack specifically aimed at the London Tube. A leaked four-page report by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which oversees all spying, is the first definitive evidence that the intelligence services expected terrorists to strike at the Underground. The disclosure will fuel critics' suspicions that Blair decided to rule out a public inquiry into the bombings last week because it could expose intelligence failings at the highest level. Domestic Spying Issue Inflames Debate Over Patriot Act Renewal President Bush escalated his attack yesterday on Senate Democrats and four Republicans for blocking efforts to renew the USA Patriot Act, but key lawmakers insisted they will not budge until stronger privacy protections are added to the domestic surveillance law...The stalemate marks an increase in tensions between the administration and Congress over Bush's anti-terrorism and surveillance policies and the conduct of the war in Iraq. Although Democrats have led the criticisms, a number of Republican lawmakers have joined in, pressing for a troop withdrawal timetable, a curb on interrogation techniques for detainees and, now, stricter limits on the administration's powers to spy on residents of the United States. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon In Hospital After Mild Stroke Envoy Faults Militias' Interference In Iraq Vote Kurdish and Shiite factional militias and other armed men blocked voters from polling sites in scattered locations during Iraq's national elections, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Friday. While the intimidation likely was not serious enough to influence the outcome of Thursday's vote, one U.S. diplomat said, the overt militia role was part of a dangerous trend in Iraqi politics. Iraqi Parties Complain Of Vote Irregularities As the United States portrayed Thursday's Iraqi elections as a resounding success, political parties here Saturday complained of violations ranging from dead men voting to murder in the streets. The Iraqi electoral commission said it had received more than 200 complaints in advance of a Sunday deadline for filing grievances. Florida Gov. Bush Expresses Concern About State Election Systems In Light Of Leon County Hack Test Counters Previous Positions by both the Acting Secretary of State and Voting Machine Company Diebold Over the weekend, at least two reports out of mainstream Florida papers -- one in the Miami Herald and one in the Tallahassee Democrat -- report that Gov. Jeb Bush himself is now questioning the reliability of Florida's electronic voting system in light of the recent hack test in Leon County, home of the state's capitol Tallahassee. That security test, carried out last week, successfully flipped the results of a simple mock election test held on Diebold, Inc. voting equipment. The hack, which changed the results of an election from 2-6 to 7-1, left no trace of evidence behind. After reports of the test were released, Florida's Sec. of State's office had initially criticized the messenger, Leon County's Director of Elections, Ion Sancho, suggesting that the matter was not the state's concern, but rather was an issue between Diebold and the county. That, despite the fact! that it was the state of Florida who had certified the particular Diebold made machinery for use in the Sunshine State. Diebold, predictably, also attempted to blame Sancho for the test results. Bush now seems to disagree, along with Sancho who comments on the attacks as well... Iraq Vets Making A Run For Congress - Dems See Hopes In GOP Strongholds In little more than a year, Tammy Duckworth has gone from a casualty in Iraq to a congressional candidate at home, her campaign a symbol of the partisan battle being waged at the highest reaches of the U.S. House. By seeking the west suburban 6th Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Wood Dale, Duckworth joins a host of military veterans running as Democrats for House seats in GOP-leaning districts, seizing upon war as a chief campaign issue. Duckworth, who lost her legs when a rocket-propelled grenade blew up in the helicopter she was piloting, calls the Iraq war " a mistake. " " Nobody in Congress right now has the perspective that those of us who've served in Iraq have, " Duckworth said Friday Casey Lead Slides As Anti-choice Views Get Known In PA There are many people, including some big bloggers, telling women and men who believe strongly about women's reproductive rights to just shut the fuck up and get behind the Party. These people say that Bob Casey, Jr.'s anti-choice views are why he can beat Republican Rick Santorum. Such is the cold calculus of dealing away people's rights to try win elections. But is this electoral math accurate? Is the assumption true that Pennsylvania would go for a Democratic candidate who's against reproductive rights? Pennsylvania voted for the pro-choice Democratic presidential nominee the last four elections. DEAN: Shocking The Conscience Of America: Bush And Cheney Call For The Right To Torture And Are Decisively And Correctly If the events I am about to describe were taking place in a movie, or novel, I would lose my ability to suspend disbelief: Who could conceive of an American President and Vice President demanding that Congress give them authority to torture anyone, under any circumstances? Yet that is exactly what happened. Until Congress -- finally -- showed some institutional pride and told Bush and Cheney that it would not tolerate torture. Tomgram: " Gone Fishing, " How The President Got A Life Part I: An editorial in the New York Times caught the moment this way in its opening sentence: " A simple truth of human existence is that it is vastly easier to amplify fear than it is to assuage it. " Now, there was a post-9/11 truth -- except that the editorial was headlined " The Statistical Shark " and its next sentence wasn't about planes smashing into buildings or the way the Bush administration had since wielded the fear card, but another hot-button issue entirely. It went: " Consider the shark attacks that have occurred in Florida, Virginia and North Carolina this summer. " Tomgram: The Forgotten Anthrax Attacks Of 2001 Part II: In the first, Shark-bit World, I took the New York Times back to the week before September 11, 2001, time-machine style, and found a forgotten world in which the Bush administration, with its poll numbers dropping and congressional Republicans fretting, was drifting, politically challenged, and besieged -- a moment not unlike our own. I concluded: " Four long years to make it back to September 10th, 2001 in an American world now filled to the brim with horrors, a United States which is no longer a `country,' but a `homeland' and a Homeland Security State. " Tom] Violating The Constitution Retired USAF lieutenant colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who spent two years at NSA headquartes, discusses the fact that President Bush signed an executive order that allegedly allowed the collection and operational intelligence use of international telephone or electronic mail conversations, even if one or more participants were Americans. She says many questions must be asked and answered, including the most important one: " Is it right? " Bigger Brother: PRESIDENT BUSH WAS CAVALIER PRESIDENT BUSH WAS CAVALIER on Friday night when he told Jim Lehrer on PBS that a report about the National Security Agency eavesdropping on U.S. citizens was " not the main story of the day. " He is entitled to his own news judgment, but it reveals a lot about his willingness to disregard constitutional safeguards and civil liberties...The news came on the same day that Congress voted not to extend controversial aspects of the soon-to-expire Patriot Act, and on the heels of disturbing reports that the Pentagon's shadowy Counterintelligence Field Activity office has been keeping tabs on domestic antiwar groups, including monitoring Quaker meetings, under the guise of protecting military installations. Katrina Killed Across Class Lines - Poor & Middle Class Study Reveals The analysis contradicts what swiftly became conventional wisdom in the days after the storm hit — that it was the city's poorest African American residents who bore the brunt of the hurricane. Slightly more than half of the bodies were found in the city's poorer neighborhoods, with the remainder scattered throughout middle-class and even some richer districts. At Inland Base, Scientologists Trained Top Gun Scientology has long recruited Hollywood luminaries. But the close friendship of these two men for nearly 20 years and their mutual devotion to Hubbard help explain Cruise's transformation from just another celebrity adherent into the public face of the church. America's Anti-torture Tradition - Robt. F. Kennedy, Jr. IT IS NICE THAT the Bush administration has finally been pressured into backing a ban on cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners. But what remains shocking about this embarrassing and distasteful national debate is that we had to have it at all. This administration's newfound enthusiasm for torture has not only damaged our international reputation, it has shattered one of our proudest American traditions. Every schoolchild knows that Gen. George Washington made extraordinary efforts to protect America's civilian population from the ravages of war. Fewer Americans know that Revolutionary War leaders, including Washington and the Continental Congress, considered the decent treatment of enemy combatants to be one of the principal strategic preoccupations of the American Revolution. Rumsfeld Spies On Quakers And Grannies According to an MSNBC story on December 13, Rumsfeld's Pentagon is tracking some of the most innocuous and lawful protests. For instance, the Pentagon has a file on an anti-war group that was gathering at the Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Florida, to plan a counter-recruiting effort at local high schools. That group of Quakers constitutes a " threat, " according to a 400-page Pentagon document that MSNBC got hold of. It was " one of more than 1,500 `suspicious incidents' across the country over a recent 10-month period " that caught the attention of the Pentagon snoops, MSNBC said. Of these, " nearly four dozen " were anti-war meetings or protests. '78 Law Sought To Close Spy Loophole In 1978, Congress thought it had closed a loophole in the law when it passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The loophole concerned secret spying authorized by the president on grounds of national security. On Friday, many in Washington were surprised to learn that despite the 1978 law, President Bush and his advisors had claimed the power to authorize secret spying within the United States. Presidential Pipeline: Bush's Top Fund-raisers See Spoils Of Victory. #1 In Series President Bush's corporate champions see the spoils of his administration in coal. And timber. And credit-card payments, Afghan electric lines, Japanese bank transfers and fake crab. America's business leaders supplied more than $75 million to return Mr. Bush to the White House last year -- and he has paid dividends... NSA Began Spying Before Bush Signed Authority For Larger Program Warrents rarely rejected; Condi unable to cite statue; NY Times hid story for one whole year (Knew before Nov. elections) Vegas' Adult Industry Forms " Sin City Chamber Of Commerce " … Saying they get the cold shoulder from the main chamber of commerce, merchants from the more risque sector form their own. Nicholas Kristof/Bill O'Reilly Feud Heats Up " Perhaps I'm particularly sensitive to religious hypocrites because I've spent a chunk of time abroad watching Muslim versions of Mr. O'Reilly - demagogic table-thumpers who exploit public religiosity as a cynical ploy to gain attention and money, " Kristof explained. " And I always tell moderate Muslims that they need to stand up to blustery blowhards - so today, I'm taking my own advice. " Then he went on to call O'Reilly " a self-rightheous bully in the style of Father Coughlin or Joe McCarthy, " suggesting that perhaps he was a leftwing plant meant to make conservatives look bad. In New Orleans, No Easy Work For Willing Latinos In aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, countless Latinos have flocked to fill labor shortage in New Orleans only to be paid less than promised, or not at all. Pushing The Limits Of Wartime Powers In his four-year campaign against al Qaeda, President Bush has turned the U.S. national security apparatus inward to secretly collect information on American citizens on a scale unmatched since the intelligence reforms of the 1970s. The president's emphatic defense yesterday of warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens and residents marked the third time in as many months that the White House has been obliged to defend a departure from previous restraints on domestic surveillance. In each case, the Bush administration concealed the program's dimensions or existence from the public and from most members of Congress. [iMPEACH BUSH] The Business Of Voting Diebold, the controversial electronic voting machine manufacturer, is coming off a tumultuous week. Its chief executive, Walden O'Dell, resigned. It was hit with a pair of class-action lawsuits charging insider trading and misrepresentation, and a county in Florida concluded that Diebold's voting machines could be hacked. The company should use Mr. O'Dell's departure to reassess its flawed approach to its business. The counting of votes is a public trust. Diebold, whose machines count many votes, has never acted as if it understood this. This Call May Be Monitored ... Let's be clear about this: illegal government spying on Americans is a violation of individual liberties, whether conditions are troubled or not. Nobody with a real regard for the rule of law and the Constitution would have difficulty seeing that. The law governing the National Security Agency was written after the Vietnam War because the government had made lists of people it considered national security threats and spied on them. All the same empty points about effective intelligence gathering were offered then, just as they are now, and the Congress, the courts and the American people rejected them. More Bush Cronyism Instituted, This Time At The Federal Election Commission What's a Few Broken, Ignored Federal Election Laws Between Friends? (Especially When It May Even Help On That Little Matter of White House Treason?) Report: Ariel Sharon Suffers Minor Stroke Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was taken to a Jerusalem hospital Sunday night after feeling ill while working in his office, said officials with the hospital and in Sharon's office. A television report said he suffered a minor stroke. Republicans Sidetrack Torture Bill With Unrelated Amendment Legislation banning torture of detainees in U.S. custody was sidetracked on Saturday when House of Representatives Republicans insisted on adding an unrelated amendment on campaign financing. Frist's Charity Gave Fat Fees To Political Buddies World of Hope gave $3 million it raised to charitable AIDS causes, such as Africare and evangelical Christian groups with ties to Republicans _ Franklin Graham's Samaritan Purse and the Rev. Luis Cortes' Esperanza USA, for example. The rest of the money went to overhead. That included $456,125 in consulting fees to two firms run by Frist's longtime political fundraiser, Linus Catignani. One is jointly run by Linda Bond, the wife of Sen. Christopher " Kit " Bond, R-Mo. The charity also hired the law firm of Vogel's wife, Jill Holtzman Vogel, and Frist's Tennessee accountant, Deborah Kolarich. Kolarich's name recently surfaced in an e-mail involving Frist's controversial sale of stock in his family founded health care company. That transaction is now under federal investigation. New Orleans' Historic Streetcars Return The clackety-clack is officially back. New Orleans on Sunday resumed its streetcar service, which had been out of commission since Hurricane Katrina wiped out the utility poles and metal tracks used to propel the city's trademark mode of transportation. Sharon Taken To Jerusalem Hospital Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was taken to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital after nightfall Sunday after feeling unwell while working in his office. German TV Says Hostage In Iraq Is Freed A German archaeologist kidnapped in Iraq last month with her driver has been freed, a German television station said Sunday, quoting the woman's brother. Muslims Appreciate U.S. Aid, Not Policies Imminent Attack Might Affect Torture Rules Sen. John McCain, who pushed the White House to support a ban on torture, suggested Sunday that harsh treatment of a terrorism suspect who knew of an imminent attack would not violate international standards. Stampede Kills 42 India Flood Survivors Thousands of flood victims waiting in line for relief vouchers Sunday stampeded into a government-run distribution center in southern India, killing at least 42 people and injuring 37, police said. Polls: Morales Leading Bolivian Election Bob Barr: The President Violated The Law BARR: Well, the fact of the matter is that the Constitution is the Constitution, and I took an oath to abide by it. My good friend, my former colleague, Dana Rohrabacher, did and the president did. And I don't really care very much whether or not it can be justified based on some hypothetical. The fact of the matter is that, if you have any government official who deliberately orders that federal law be violated despite the best of motives, that certainly ought to be of concern to us. The fact of the matter is the law prohibits -specifically prohibits- what apparently was done in this case, and for a member of Congress to say, oh, that doesn't matter, I'm proud that the president violated the law is absolutely astounding... US Holding Children (as Young As 8) In Prison Camps As POW's Today, I started reading former President Jimmy Carter's new book, " Our Endangered Values " . In it, he revealed something that is absolutely horrifying--the US is holding children as young as 8 years of age who have been captured in Afghanistan and Iraq in prison camps--namely, the one in Guantanamo, Cuba. Worse yet, Donald Rumsfeld knew about it. Read a short excerpt: `Tis The Season For Perseverant Posturing I could have sworn we'd lived through this particular episode in the continuing drama of " putting Democrats on the record as traitors and cowards " a few weeks ago. Something about Murtha, something about lifting and distorting his words, something about cutting and running and Jean Schmidt getting booed. Open Letter To Libertarians & Conservatives -- Spying Scandal But that entirely misses the crux of public concern with granting any agency such broad authority. Rule of Law, Due Process, and Oversight do not exist to protect the guilty. They exist to protect the public at large from abuses of power perpetrated against them by the powerful and to protect the innocent from mistaken arrest or intentional persecution. TOM HAYDEN: The Coming Exit Strategy The peace movement is struggling with success, as measured by public surveys favoring withdrawal alongside confusion about what's next. The Democrats seem paralyzed by their anti-war past while hiding behind John Murtha. Meanwhile, events on the ground and assessments by US military commanders seem to be pushing the US down the path of an exit strategy, perhaps sooner rather than later. It is nothing if not complicated. But the basic dynamics are these: The Decline Of The American Empire Defeated in Iraq, Bankrupt at Home, Despised Around the Globe (And That's Just the Good News) Rice Defends Bush Decision On Eavesdropping In US Rice said Bush used his constitutional power and legal authority so that " people could not communicate inside the United States about terrorist activity with people outside the United States, leaving us vulnerable to terrorist attack. " [i don't believe the Constitution gives those powers to the President to act independently and in secret circumventing the Courts and Congress. Unless Bush has written an executive order to make executive orders higher than the Constitution (which would be unconstitutional), he has broken the law.] Time Persons Of 2005: Bill And Melinda Gates, Bono The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda, were named Time magazine's " Persons of the Year " along with Irish rocker Bono for being " Good Samaritans " who made a difference in different ways. WTO OKs Deal To End Farm Trade Subsidies World Trade Organization negotiators approved an agreement Sunday requiring wealthy nations to end farm export subsidies by 2013, a support system that poor nations say puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Reid Seeks Probe Of Bush Domestic Spying Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid called Sunday for congressional hearings and investigations into President Bush's authorization of domestic spying as part of the war on terror. " This Congress has done very little oversight, " Reid, D-Nev., said on " Fox News Sunday. " " There should be an investigation and hearings. " Reid acknowledged that he was briefed by the administration about the surveillance program " a couple of months ago. " But he said the program apparently has been going on for four years and " there's no way the president can pass the buck. " Bush Defends Secret Spying In The U.S. Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress, President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the United States as " critical to saving American lives. " Christian Religious Protestor Group Fights Wal-Mart On 'Happy Holidays' A group of religious protesters demonstrated outside a Wal-Mart superstore Saturday, hoping to turn away customers by calling attention to the retailer's decision to use " Happy Holidays " rather than " Merry Christmas " in its seasonal advertising. [Get a life!!.] IRAQ: Attacks Kill 19 As Cheney Visits A string of attacks killed 19 people, including two relatives of a senior Kurdish official, and Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit Sunday in which he suggested that Iraq's recent elections were a major step toward withdrawing U.S. troops. Planted PR Stories Not News To Military U.S. officials in Iraq knew that a contractor was paying local papers. Discretion was the key. The President's Men Mafia and white-collar defendants want legal opinions that they know are wrong but are defenses if they are prosecuted. The criminal defendants claim they thought they were doing what's right because their lawyers said so. This disproves any claim that they had a criminal intent, where intent is an essential nature of the crime. It is a rock-solid defense that more often than not persuades the jury that even though what the defendant did was wrong, he should be found innocent because he relied on his lawyers. That's how President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld work. Those Crazy Mullahs This Iranian offer of March 23 – which met most of the Heritage Foundation's present demands – has yet to even be acknowledged by the Europeans. And since being made public on Aug. 1, its substance has not yet been reported by the likes of Reuters, the Associated Press, and United Press International. RAIMONDO: Scooter Libby, Neocon Martyr Help the morally handicapped this holiday season – give to the 'Lewis Libby Defense Trust' 2 Top Americans In Baghdad Urge Unity The top two American officials in Iraq called Friday for the country's main political groups to come together quickly to form a broad-based government once Thursday's election results are known, saying hopes of quelling the Sunni Arab insurgency should not be squandered. Delegates Make Headway At WTO Talks Trade negotiators have made a breakthrough on a last-minute deal, likely averting a collapse of the six-day meeting that could have crippled the World Trade Organisation's credibility. Iran Calls For Tolerance The Iranian president's denial of the Holocaust is a matter for academic discussion and the West should be more tolerant of his views, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday. Cheney Makes Surprise Visit To Iraq Dick Cheney has become the highest ranking US official to visit Iraq in the past two years when he surprised politicians and military forces with an unannounced day-long tour of the country. [Yes, at Hillary Clinton's urging " Five-deferments in Vietnam " Chickenhawk Cheney " finally enters a war zone.} Colombia Unravels Plot Against Chavez Former Venezuelan soldiers plotted against the government of Hugo Chavez at a Colombian military building, according to the Colombian president. EU Threat To Axe Palestinian Aid The European Union has joined the United States in threats to withhold aid if Hamas participates in a Palestinian government. Every Day Bush, Cheney And Rumsfeld Are In Office, Our Lives And The Lives Of Our Loved Ones Are Increasingly At Risk We could go on with more facts evidencing how the Busheviks betray the national security of America, but this is just a short news analysis -- and not a place to write a multi-volume book. Just remember that the first major terrorist attack on American soil was due to Bush's negligence -- and the second will be do to his incompetence. Every day Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are in office, our lives and the lives of our loved ones are increasingly at risk. http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20051219.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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