U.S. Troops Accused of Killing Iraq Family

Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official said Friday.

The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting in the March incident, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
[...]

Following Some of Hawking's Advice

Senate committee cuts Bush's foreign aid request
House OKs funding for Mars mission, departments
[...]

Even as the planet boils congress does not grasp importance of protecting environment

WASHINGTON - Congress has taken a major step toward allowing oil and gas drilling in coastal waters that have been off limits for a quarter-century.
[...]

Timeline: The events in Gaza

Gaza hospitals without power

[...]
Israeli warplanes targeted sites in Gaza as a show of force ahead of its incursion into the Gaza Strip to retrieve an Israeli soldier captured at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza on Sunday.

But the loss of electric power means many Palestinians will be unable to access medical care dependent on an energy source.
[...]
The loss of electric power also means loss of water as electricity is needed to pump the water to the Palestinians, a people targeted for extermination by racist Zionists..right now it is about getting rid of Hamas anyway, as the Israeli government no more believes in democracy than does the Amerikkkan government, and if a few dozen or few hundred civilians die, well, that's simply collateral damage.

Raji al-Sorani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, says the targeting of the power station is tantamount to collective punishment for all who live in Gaza.
"It is a violation of the first, second and third articles of the Geneva Conventions. However, targeting the infrastructure isn't a way to free the Israeli soldier, but to topple the Hamas government."

Other rights activists say that power loss will likely lead to the spoiling of foods in refrigerated warehouses and in civilian homes, particularly as temperatures continue to rise in the summer months.
Restoring power is expected to take six months.
[...]

High Court Rejects Detainee Tribunals

5 to 3 Ruling Curbs President's Claim Of Wartime Power
[...]
Nazi Youth John Roberts didn't vote. He already ruled in favor of torture and illegal detention while he was on the lower appeals court panel.

The ruling shifts the spotlight to Congress, whose members face reelection this fall and who have largely avoided the military commission issue since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because of its political uncertainties. The invitation for the president to turn to Congress was extended in a short concurring opinion by one of the justices in the majority, Stephen G. Breyer, who made it clear that the concerns of critics had penetrated deeply at the court.

"Where, as here, no emergency prevents consultation with Congress, judicial insistence upon that consultation does not weaken our Nation's ability to deal with danger. To the contrary, that insistence strengthens the Nation's ability to determine -- through democratic means -- how best to do so," Breyer wrote.

"The Constitution places its faith in those democratic means," Breyer concluded. "Our Court today simply does the same."

Joining Stevens and Breyer in the majority were Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
[...]
Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. did not participate because he served on the three-judge appeals court panel whose ruling upholding the commissions was under review.

Scalia and Thomas read their dissents from the bench, a demonstration of their strong disapproval of the court's decision. Scalia argued that the court should have stayed out of the case because of a law Congress passed late last year circumscribing the appeal rights of military commission defendants.

Thomas said the majority "openly flouts our well-established duty to respect the Executive's judgment in matters of military operations and foreign affairs."
[....]

Thomas must be reading a different constitution than the one the rest of us are reading. No where in the Constitution I'm reading does it say all branches of government must abdicate their functions to the shoe horned in with Diebold and supreme court appointments boy king when he makes up a war of aggression.

Of course, and we all know why Clarence Thomas is on the court. Affirmative action for misogynist, self loathing African Americans who want to punish their people, especially women. And Scalia is demonstrably insane from unchecked narcissism, while Alito is, of course, just another disgusting and inappropriate Bush appointee, picked for the job because he is so partisan and rigid he is willing to sell democracy down the river to keep his corporate masters happy.

And it isn't over. Given the current make up of congress we could see serious detrimental chanmegs to out laws in mere months.

Not Another Bush, PLEASE! The whole pack of 'em are low level sociopaths.

What is needed for Crazy Katherine Harris? Anti-psychotic meds or a good spanking?

[...]
“I’ve had Democrats in the House of Representatives come to me and say ‘You know, we’d really like to take the majority in the U.S. Senate’ — these are Florida Democrats in the U.S. Congress — ‘but you’ll do so much more for us if you’re there. We hope you win,’” Harris told a crowd gathered at the Putnam County Shrine Club.
[...]

A Look at Damage by Northeast Flooding

PENNSYLVANIA: The Susquehanna River crested at just over 34 feet
[...]
NEW JERSEY: Thousands fled when the Delaware River overran its banks. Drinking water was dwindling in Trenton, after the city's water filtration system was shut down because of debris in the river.
[...]
NEW YORK: Nearly 3,000 people remained in shelters, and up to 7,000 people were left without power and drinking water.
[...]
MARYLAND: An evacuation order was lifted for 2,200 residents living downstream from a dam near Rockville. Authorities told boaters to stay out of the upper end of the Chesapeake Bay because of swollen water levels and storm debris.

right wing rally in Bolivia

Delaware River Waters Fall; Cleanup Awaits

Where's that FEMA when you need it?.

Global Drowning

[...]
Meteorologists cautioned that no one should read too much into one storm. But the Atlantic Ocean is unusually warm for this time of year, they said, creating excess moisture in the atmosphere that can swiftly build a powerful rainstorm.
[...]

I've been tracking flood stories around the globe every since the levees broke in New Orleans, using google alerts to receive timely emails to point me reports of surging rivers, swollen creeks, overflowing lakes, flash floods and coastal erosion in varius forms.

"Scientists and climatologists are looking at one another and we're just stunned because no one, even in the 1990s, projected the magnitude of the storms and degree of warming in the Arctic that we are seeing," he said.

Epstein sees a clear pattern: rain has increased in the United States by 7 percent in three decades; heavy rain events of more than 2 inches a day are up 14 percent and storms dumping more than 4 inches a day rose 20 percent.
[...]
Most scientists say greenhouse gases could cause huge climate changes like floods, heat waves, droughts and a rise in sea levels that could swamp low-lying Pacific islands by 2100.

But not everyone blames human pollution for drenching the U.S. Northeast.
[...]
Yes, right wing extremists and Calvinists do not. One of 'em explained to me the other day how the environment is far healthier for humans now than it was 200 years ago.

At current projections, Epstein said, a typical day in Boston could feel like present-day Richmond, Virginia, in 100 years under one model of the atmosphere and oceans produced by the federally funded New England Regional Assessment of 2001.

Epstein, who contributed to that study, said another model that sees Boston resembling Atlanta, Georgia with a 10-degree Fahrenheit (5.6-degree C) rise in temperature over a century could be conservative.
[...]

Chicago Merc eyes growth opportunities in weather derivatives

Record Flooding Blamed for at Least 12 Deaths

Stewards of the earth

Bird rescuers believe dozens of dead and sickly baby terns washed up suddenly on beaches here after something scared them out of their nests on an abandoned barge and into the water, where they couldn't swim.
[....]

Good Riddance and makes me sick it's on our Dime

Jon Stewart with Helen Thomas

GOP Wants to Slaughter Wild Horses

Because Agribusiness wants them dead
[...]

"Congress finds and declares that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West," states a congressional declaration dated Dec. 15, 1971.

Yet, in a surprising and highly protested move, Congress recently passed a bill that allows for the slaughter of the American wild mustang reportedly effective Wednesday, Jan. 5.

Republican Senator Conrad Burns of Montana introduced the one-page Rider #142 into the 3,000-page Federal Appropriations Bill HR 4848.

The rider changes the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971, splitting the once federally protected wild horses and burros into two categories, those over 10 years old and those that have been to a minimum of three unsuccessful adoptions. In accordance with the rider's language, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is authorized to sell these animals to the highest bidder without regard for the buyer's intentions.

The rider was reportedly passed without opportunity for public hearing or debate. President George W. Bush signed it Dec. 8.
[...]

Experts say U.S. losing war on terror

Terminal Satyriasis sufferer and Golf Prostitute Tom Delay falsely claims Plame was not CIA Agent

GOP Political Strategist Convicted of Child Sexual abuse. Party of Family Values in Full Swing.

United States' messy history of using proxy forces in Africa and elsewhere

Bush impeach resolution on ballot

Gay Bashing by Book Burning? Well, we knew they were nazis.

About Fucking Time, though doesn't amount to much

Regulators allege its BP Products North America subsidy artificially forced up prices by buying up huge propane stocks only to withhold them from the market.
[...]

Typical Republican disregard for Laws and Rules

GOP Hypocrisy as Usual

FRANKFORT, KY. When Gov. Ernie Fletcher's day is over, he leaves his Capitol office, climbs into a Lincoln Town Car driven by a state trooper and returns to the Governor's Mansion which is just across the street.

Meanwhile, his administration is encouraging Kentuckians to get out and walk more for their health.

The Republican governor a physician by training makes no apologies for riding back and forth to work.
[...]

Topinka Trying to Lose in Illinois, Has monkey lips campaigning for her

[...]
The Sun-Times has learned President Bush is coming to Chicago July 7 for a fund-raiser for Judy Baar Topinka.

The White House political operation, run by Karl Rove -- who helped convince Topinka to run against Gov. Blagojevich -- is also closely monitoring two of the most-watched House races in the country, in the west and Northwest Suburban 6th and 8th congressional districts.
[...]

Repiglikkkan party Continues assault on Media

It may be that Hastert doesn't feel as Moronically Stridently Nazi as he speaks and is merely looking for a way to divert public attention from his recent shady land deal or the failures of the republican party in general

Your Tax Dollars to GOP Pockets

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's cybersecurity chief is a contract employee earning $577,602 over two years under an agreement with a private university that does extensive business with the federal office he manages.

[...]

Peace march stops at Hastert office on way across Illinois

Republiscum Party always rules in the best interest of the people. NOT!

The Roberst Court, Bought and Paid For

Egypt deploys forces on Gaza border

Poll favors Democrats in fall elections

Persian treasure trove on the line at U. of C.

Chicago Targets Big Retailers for Mandated Wage Hikes

A good idea, but likely to end up in the "state's rights" supreme court which will find that only the federal government can force such wage hikes from feudalist corporations

Report: More of Illinois' children living in poverty

Greens submit names for ballot access in Illinois

Students Rushing to Refinance Loans

This system of educating children is an affront to everything America ostensibly stands for.
They've made student loans a FOR PROFIT system, though, of course, these people would sell their grandmothers and ensalve their countrymen for profit.
Simply appalling.

Oil rises above $72 on US summer gasoline concern

Secondhand smoke can kill: US Surgeon General

Something Interesting. Warren Buffet's Campaign Contributions

37th Annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade

Study: Many glaciers will soon disappear

Department of Defense admits to wider surveillance of Don't Ask, Don't Tell groups

[...]
On April 11th PageOneQ reported that the Pentagon had admitted to conducting surveillance of groups protesting the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy for gays and lesbians in the armed forces.

The new FOIA request yielded information about an undercover investigation by the Pentagon on acitivities into student groups protesting the war at State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany), William Paterson University in New Jersey, Southern Connecticut State University and the University of California at Berkeley, reports SLDN.
[...]

Study links pesticides with Parkinson's

Buffett calls for retention of estate tax

[...]
"It's a very equitable tax," Buffett said. "It's in keeping with the idea of equality of opportunity in this country, not giving incredible head starts to certain people who were very selective about the womb from which they emerged."

Buffett, the second richest man in the world, after
Bill Gates, spoke less than three weeks after the U.S. Senate fell three votes short of advancing a bill backed by
President George W. Bush that would permanently repeal estate taxes.

Democratic opponents have argued that a full repeal would cost the U.S. Treasury about $1 trillion over the next decade, and principally benefit the ultra-rich. Permanently repealing estate taxes is a long-sought Republican goal.
[...]

Museum Acquires 55 Van Gogh Letters

Plan Columbia

The Gop Doesn't regulate shady business practices, only reproduction

The Vice President

High Court mulls greenhouse gas regulation

[...]
Spurred by states in a pollution battle with the Bush administration, the court said it would decide whether the
Environmental Protection Agency is required under the federal clean air law to treat carbon dioxide from automobiles as a pollutant harmful to health.
[...]

Feingold Doesn’t Support Lieberman — Hammers Bush/Cheney

Typical. Creepy Corporate Rag and part of problem Washington Post sides against net neutrality and claims it has no bias, only best hopes for internet

Durbin won’t comment on supporting the Democratic winner in CT.

The New GM: A Lot Less U.S. Workers

[...]
The company along with other major automakers in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and France has at the same time been expanding in other parts of the world, including Russia, where many people do not yet own cars and therefore could become an untapped boom consumer market.
[...]
This is an example of republicans and democrats have sold to the American public as globalization, claiming it makes for a healthy American economy.

Flag burning up for debate again

"The House and Senate floor is about substantive work for the nation, and I think campaigns ought to be kept in the streets where they belong," said former House Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas. "Frist seems to be going about 80 percent politics and 20 percent policy, though I would be hard pressed to find what that 20 percent is."

South American Pipeline Meetings Open

Murtha says U.S. poses top threat to world peace

Palestinian Baby stillborn after botched Israeli strike-medics

Gov't Break a Law? Change It

Miami “terror” arrests—a government provocation

[...]
There is every indication that this latest purported terrorist threat—described by some media outlets as “even bigger than September 11”—was manufactured by the FBI, which used an undercover agent posing as a terrorist mastermind to entrap those targeted for arrest.
[...]

Burn Republicans At the Stake Petition!

Pimp Rove, Buying Bush

[...]
Blunt e-mails that connect money and access in Washington show that prominent Republican activist Grover Norquist facilitated some administration contacts for Abramoff's clients while the lobbyist simultaneously solicited those clients for large donations to Norquist's tax-exempt group.
[...]

How Nice of Washington Post to cover this story the alternative press covered months, maybe longer, ago

Bush War Pigs Knew intelligence was fabricated

Warm' species invading Antarctic

U.S. Eyes Venezuela-Iran Commercial Alliance

Million chocolate bars withdrawn over salmonella

Samonella and a slow recall brought to you by the makers of Trident, Motts, Snapple, etc.
Gigantic international food conglomerates are bad for your body and your country. Where ever that is.

Oil prices hover around 70 dollars

Bolivia says to sue ex-Enron execs for fraud

Rapex

Flooding, outages strike

Orders for Durable Goods Fall for a 2nd Consecutive Month

Ludicrous Debate over whether raising minimum wage from $5.15 hurts poor workers

Harriet, 176-Year-Old Giant Tortoise, Dies

[...]
Harriet was long reputed to have been one of three tortoises taken from the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin on his historic 1835 voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

However, historical records, while suggestive, don't prove the claim. And some scientists have cast doubt on the story, with DNA tests confirming Harriet's age but showing she came from an island that Darwin never visited.
[...]

BBC America

Some of the Terrorists Nabbed in Miami

Take This One to Court

SPRINGFIELD (AP) - A southwest Missouri mall defended its dress code after a security guard told a 10-year-old girl her bandanna decorated with peace signs, smiley faces and flowers violated the mall;s code of conduct.
[...]
Lydia had violated No. 10 on the list of 17 offenses: "failing to be fully clothed or wearing apparel which is likely to provide a disturbance or embroil other groups or the general public in open conflict."

It's true. Missouri is so right wing and Christian, any hint humans behave peacefully toward each other can drive the residents to riot.
"The code of conduct is pretty clear, and, you know, I think common sense should prevail," said Les Morris, spokesman for Simon Property Group Inc., which owns the mall.
Under the code, people who don’t comply with the code can be asked to leave. If they don’t leave, they can be arrested for trespassing.

Christine Moses, director of mall marketing, noted the mall is privately owned and behavior on its premises can be regulated.
Similar policies are in place at 285 Simon properties in 39 states and Puerto Rico.

At least one Battlefield Mall retailer, JCPenney, sells bandanas. They come in black, white, blue and red and sell for $4.50.

"There are things we sell that it’s OK to own them, but to use them in the mall setting is inappropriate," Morris said.

Global Warming, Not ‘Natural Cycles,’ Played Major Role in 2005 Hurricane Season

Mel and Herb Simon - mall developers, owners of the Indiana Pacers

Wowser Book Banning in Good Old US of Amerikkka

Nazi GOP Candidate Calls for Labor Camp

Photos of Hastert, The Devil Dog

Hastert: Supporters of Bush Iraq Policy Show The Same Steely Resolve As United 93 Passengers

America's response started high above a corn field in rural Pennsylvania. Brave men and women armed with nothing more than boiling water and dinner forks and broken bottles stood up as Americans always do when our freedom is in peril and they struck back. We know from the messages they left behind that their final thoughts were for their families and their loved ones, but they also spoke of their love of their country.

Our freedom has never been more in peril than it is from the republican party. Democracy is the last thing these class warriors are interested in. I'm so tired of republican making this connection between Iraq and 9/11 when everyone knows there is none.

Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. Perhaps the brave souls on United 93 reflected Ronald Reagan's words, because the generation represented on that plane, like the patriots at Concord bridge were not going to let freedom be extinguished, not on their watch.

Ronald Reagan, who truly looks like Hannah Arendt (Thanks Maureen Dowd) next to Monkey Lips, would projectile Vomit on Hastert if he had to put up with his snorting and lip smacking and huffing and barking for 5 minutes.

We in this Congress must show the same steely resolve as those men and women on United flight 93, the same sense of duty as the first responders who headed up the stairs of the Twin Towers. We must stand firm in our commitment to fight terrorism and the evil it inflicts around the world.


Oh yeah, the "evil" talk. Maybe the dimocraps should point out that the black and white thinking which characterizes the repiglikkkan party is symptomatic of a personality disorder.

With a three million dollar gain for himself and two pals in only three years through thorough abuse of his congressional authority, this rotund Rottweiler is compelled to make this ridiculously obvious, manipulative speech in an attempt to draw connections where none actually exist.

Hastert is an affront and an embarrassment to Illinois and I sincerely hope the voters of his district (will have many poll watchers and election monitors) and send this phony home from Washington. He's completely unfit to govern and he is far too close to the presidency. Not that I'd cry if Bush and Cheney and went bye bye. In fact, I"d cheer.

Ralph Reed Clicks my Gaydar into Hyperdrive

A photograph of a 2002 golf trip to St. Andrews in Scotland shows, from left in the front row, the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, David H. Safavian and Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio.

Trizzle, trazzle, trozzle, trome....... time for this one to come home.

A glance at the voting record of Conrad Burns, Menace from Montana. He opposes everything I hold dear, from civil rights for all to birth control to the right to use the courts to seek redress when a corporation rolls over and hurts you in their ongoing quest for profit that minus all other consideration.

Typical repiglikkkan. Wouldn't want to meet such a vicious thug in a dark alley.

Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)

Voted YES on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)

Voted YES on prioritizing national debt reduction below tax cuts. (Apr 2000)

Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping.

Voted NO on repealing tax subsidy for companies which move US jobs offshore. (Mar 2005)

Voted YES on limiting death penalty appeals. (Apr 1996)
Voted YES on limiting product liability punitive damage awards. (Mar 1996)

Voted YES on increasing penalties for drug offenses. (Nov 1999)

Voted NO on $52M for "21st century community learning centers". (Oct 2005)
Voted NO on $5B for grants to local educational agencies. (Oct 2005)
Voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education. (Mar 2005)
Voted NO on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors. (May 2001)
Voted NO on funding student testing instead of private tutors. (May 2001)
Voted NO on spending $448B of tax cut on education & debt reduction. (Apr 2001)
Voted YES on Educational Savings Accounts. (Mar 2000)

Voted YES on $75M for abstinence education. (Jul 1996)
Voted YES on requiring schools to allow voluntary prayer. (Jul 1994)

Voted NO on disallowing an oil leasing program in Alaska's AMWR. (Nov 2005)
Voted NO on $3.1B for emergency oil assistance for hurricane-hit areas. (Oct 2005)
Voted NO on reducing oil usage by 40% by 2025 (instead of 5%). (Jun 2005)
Voted NO on banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Mar 2005)
Voted YES on Bush Administration Energy Policy. (Jul 2003)

Voted YES on defunding renewable and solar energy. (Jun 1999)
Voted YES on approving a nuclear waste repository. (Apr 1997)
Voted YES on do not require ethanol in gasoline.
Rated 100% by the Christian Coalition: a pro-family voting record. (Dec 2003)

Voted NO on banning "soft money" contributions and restricting issue ads. (Mar 2002)
Voted YES on require photo ID (not just signature) for voter registration. (Feb 2002)
Voted NO on banning campaign donations from unions & corporations. (Apr 2001)
Voted YES on funding for National Endowment for the Arts. (Aug 1999)
Voted NO on favoring 1997 McCain-Feingold overhaul of campaign finance. (Oct 1997)

Voted YES on loosening license & background checks at gun shows. (May 1999)

Voted NO on increasing Medicaid rebate for producing generics. (Nov 2005)
Voted NO on negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drug. (Mar 2005)
Voted YES on $40 billion per year for limited Medicare prescription drug benefit. (Jun 2003)

Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. (Dec 2005)
Voted NO on restricting business with entities linked to terrorism. (Jul 2005)
Voted NO on restoring $565M for states' and ports' first responders. (Mar 2005)

Voted NO on investigating contract awards in Iraq & Afghanistan. (Nov 2005)

If Conrad Burns Wants Japan to Import Amerikkkan Beef...

He ought to write legislation to stop Amerikkkan rancher's habit of feeding prion infected cows to other cows, a disgusting practice that causes the spread of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a disease that causes fatal brain damage.

But he won't do that because he is in the pocket of big business, including big agribusiness.

I sometimes wonder if half the senate doesn't already have brain damage, including Burns. Look how he thinks he can push the Japanese around, demand they expose their population to this disease.. He certainly doesn't give a damn how many Americans consume the deadly prions. But I guess that isn't so much brain damage as it is greed and sociopathy.

WASHINGTON - The United States should impose economic sanctions on Japan if it fails to put aside its fears of mad cow disease and open its borders to U.S. beef by the end of the summer, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday.

The committee approved the nonbinding language on a voice vote to be part of a fiscal 2007 agricultural funding bill. The Senate could debate the bill as early as next week, the same time Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits the White House.

"I hope he takes heed of this," said Montana Republican Conrad Burns, sponsor of the "sense of the Senate" language.

Burns said a U.S.-Japan agreement Wednesday on steps to restart trade was just "another stalling tactic" to stretch out Japan's ban on U.S. beef, imposed as a precaution against mad cow disease.
[...]

Peabody wants to open two new Illinois coal mines

MARISSA, Ill. The world's largest publicly traded coal producer wants to open two new southern Illinois mines, taking advantage of surging demand for Illinois coal.
Peabody Energy has asked the Illinois Office of Mines and Minerals for permission to operate two surface mines in northeast Randolph County, about an hour's drive from St. Louis.

Peabody says development would take several years and is contingent on getting the permits, as well as Peabody's ability to secure long-term contracts with customers.
[...]

Rachel Corrie to be Performed in New York in October

Latest Dead Palestinians at Israeli Hands

The dead were identified as a boy and girl, ages 5 and 7, and a 16-year-old.

Bolivia begins taking over oil companies’ assets

Soldier's death linked to smallpox vaccine

Bomb at market kills 5 in Philippines

Journalist shot dead in Somalia

A SCANDANAVIAN journalist was shot and killed today in the Somali capital while attending a demonstration organized by Islamic courts that seized Mogadishu this month, witnesses said.

Only 2 pct of coral reefs properly protected-study

World energy consumption could be cut by half if clean technology applied: IEA

Affirmative Action in Mich. Under Scrutiny Because all Things are Equal in Bush's Amerikkka

[...]
The ballot proposal would end the use of race and gender preferences in government hiring and university admissions. But the lawsuit claims supporters tricked voters into signing petitions needed to qualify for the ballot by claiming the measure would support affirmative action.

Plaintiffs in the suit include Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Operation King's Dream, an affiliate of the pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary.
[...]

Repiglikkkans are deeply concerned about following the will of the people, once they obfuscate facts about issues, perform dirty tricks and spread copious amounts of disinformation through right wing media and church networks, as you can observe regarding the people's will to get out of Iraq and the republican absolute refusal to do so.

In Mexico, a leftist roars

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico -- As he hugged his way through a crowd in the capital of Mexico's most impoverished state, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftist who would be president, was greeted less as a politician than as a savior.
[...]

He Even Looks Like a Manipulative, conscienceless, Criminal Patriarch

Why are the Republicans allowing this unelected scum bag to set policy for the nation?

More Grover Norquist

Drown Democracy In A Bathtub

I Need to Give Grover Something for Helping

[...]
Relying on an e-mail by Abramoff, the Senate report said "Norquist kept" $25,000 from each of two transfers from the Choctaw to Reed. The report provided evidence about four transfers for about $1.2 million in all.

Norquist is part of a large cast of characters in the scandal.

Another is Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who told Senate investigators he made no effort to help an Abramoff client, despite extensive evidence to the contrary. Ney was not even familiar with the Tigua tribe of El Paso, Texas, the congressman told the committee.
[...]

Abramoff, Norquist, Scaife and company: one big happy family

Grover Norquist served as buffer between Abramoff's gambling money and Christian Coalition gambling opponent Ralph Reed

House sends estate tax bill to Senate

he House voted 269-156 on Thursday to cut taxes on inherited estates and relieve thousands of heirs from paying the tax collector. Beginning in 2010, estates worth up to $5 million for an individual and $10 million for couples would escape taxation.

The White House said that while the bill falls short of complete repeal, it "provides significant relief from the death tax."

The bill restores estate taxes in 2010, the one year that they had been repealed under Bush's first tax cut. The bill cuts the estate tax in years after.

Congressional tax experts estimated that if the changes become law, only 5,100 estates would face taxation when the changes are fully in effect in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2011. The Internal Revenue Service levied taxes on more than 30,000 estates in 2004, the most recent figure available.

The $5 million and $10 million exemptions would increase automatically each year to keep pace with inflation.
[...]
Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the tax reductions amount to roughly $283 billion from 2006 to 2016.

House Republicans sent the bill to the Senate with a strong message that they would not accept any Democratic overtures to negotiate the tax higher.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said that if the bill becomes law, it makes abolishing the estate tax easier by reducing the eventual cost of repeal.

"When you come back to finish it off, it's just not that big a deal," he said.
[...]

Israeli amping up Iraq violence

Seven Arrested In Plot To Attack Sears Tower And Other Buildings

[...]
The seven suspects are reportedly Americans with no known links to foreign terrorist organizations, The Associated Press reported.
[...]
They were Amerikkkans with no ties to terrorist organizations, other than to the FBI agents posing as al-Qaida.
Of course this didn't stop Michele Malkin, the Jack Russell terrier of right wing yapping, from calling the event "Miami Jihad." With that and other media distortions, the level of alertness, understanding and attention paid to reality by not too bright Fox News Viewers, you can bet there are a bunch of Bill O'Reilly fans convinced Osama is living in Miami.) He may be, but in the governor's mansion)

EPA: Special fuels not to blame for costs

Meet an ancient member of birds' family tree

"A world lost for more than 100 million years was being revealed to us," as layers of mud were peeled back like the pages of a book, said Hai-lu You of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

What they found is being called the missing link on the evolution of birds, a creature that lived in northwest China and is the earliest example of modern birds that populate the planet today.
[...]

I've Been Reading about Organic Agribusiness

Abuse of Organic Dairy Standards

Organic Cattle Should Be Pasture Fed- Not Raised in Intensive Feedlots

Two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods), a supplier to Wal-Mart and many health food stores; and Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant, Wild Oats and others, are purchasing the majority of their milk from feedlot dairies where the cows have little or no access to pasture. Together, these corporations control up to 65% of the organic dairy market. A routine practice on these giant dairy feedlots, many with thousands of cows, is to continuously import calves from conventional farms, where animals have been weaned on blood, fed slaughterhouse waste and genetically engineered grains, and injected or dosed with antibiotics. Certifiers endorsing these factory farm organic products include QAI and the Colorado state department of agriculture.

Here's How Organic Consumers Can Help Put a Stop to This

The USDA has posted revisions to the National Organic Program and is seeking public comment until June 12, 2006. A portion of the revisions relate to the issue of dairy produced on factory farms being labeled as "organic." The National Organic Standards Board, which is made up of representatives of the organics industry, has proposed that organic dairy cows be required to spend at least 120 days each year on grass and that at least 30 percent of the cows' feed must come from pasture during the grazing season.

For many organic dairy farmers, having grazing standards that can be enforced are essential to protect the industry from the large corporate players in the West with large herds that offer their cows only token access to grass. The organic dairy farmers warn that by leveraging economy of scale, these large dairies can lowball prices, thus putting the livelihood of the smaller family dairies along with the more modest-sized companies and cooperatives that market their milk at risk.

Please send a message to the National Organic Program of the USDA to stop the labeling of factory farm milk as "organic." To do so, please click on the following link:

http://tinyurl.com/mqvup

The Utter Meaninglessness of Christian Faith

[...]
``We acknowledge that the actions" taken in 2004 ``caused hurt and misunderstanding among many members of the Jewish community and within our Presbyterian communion," the assembly said in its resolution yesterday. ``We are grieved by the pain that this has caused, accept responsibility for the flaws in our process, and ask for a new season of mutual understanding and dialogue."
[...]

In other words, it is okay with the Presbyterians if Israel continues to occupy Palestine and murder Palestinians.
Does pressuring the Jewish community to to stop committing genocide really hurt it? Apparently.

If You Care About Women Take the Time to Watch This

"All Right. You've Covered Your Ass"

Ron Suskind, George W. Bush and the Aug. 6, 2001, PDB

Ron Suskind's "The One Percent Doctrine" is out this week, and the Washington Post's Barton Gellman says it's full of "jaw-dropping stories" about the Bush administration's war on terror.

Or lack thereof.

We've known for years now that George W. Bush received a presidential daily briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, in which he was warned: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." We've known for almost as long that Bush went fishing afterward.

What we didn't know is what happened in between the briefing and the fishing, and now Suskind is here to tell us. Bush listened to the briefing, Suskind says, then told the CIA briefer: "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

Revelers Ring in Summer at Stonehenge

Bush's Visit to Vienna, near where his role model Adolph got his start, Is Marked by Protests

"That's absurd!" Mr. Bush said when asked at a news conference about the belief by many Europeans that the United States is a bigger threat to world peace than Iran.
[...]

It is absurd.
But it is also true.
We are an aggressor nation, THE aggressor nation, ignoring international law and asserting our right to preemptive strikes and occupations, demanding others govern as we see fit, arming nations around the world and stripping wealth from our own nation in order to maintain the biggest, most deadly, ridiculous military ever imagined on earth, engaging in overthrow and assassination.
And all this is presently headed by a swaggering front man with the IQ of a gnat and the dirty old men who tell him what to do - Cheney and Rummy.

BP, DuPont in biofuel tie-up

Two of the most unethical companies, and there are many, on the planet now moving toward market control of alternative fuel source.

Faux Moderate John McCain Knows What Matters

Stop dancing with dinosaurs

[...]
Buildings account for 48 percent of total U.S. energy consumption, well ahead of transportation (27 percent) and industry (25 percent). The mayors' resolution calls for immediate steps to cut back fossil fuel demand for new buildings by 50 percent, massive energy-saving renovation of existing buildings and a 10 percent cutback in buildings' total fossil-fuel use each five years to 2030.

Among methods to be used: more-efficient heating, cooling and ventilating of buildings; green and recycled building materials; and buying renewable (solar, wind, geothermal and biomass) energy.
[...]

Practical solutions, easy to apply. And easy for municipalities, counties and state building codes to regulate and enforce. If confederates weren't in charge in Washington, we could even have federal regulations. With steep fines for violators.

It needs to happen. But dip shit, delusionl repiglikkkans will kick and scream every step of the way, until the air is too thick with methane for them to throw a good fit. No oxygen, no fits.

Returning Troops Cheer Murtha

Israeli Terrorism targets and kills Palestinian civilians

And the world lets them get away with this murder day after day.
[...]
Local medical sources and witnesses said 27-year-old Fatima al-Barbarawi was killed and 14 others were injured.
One of her relatives, Zakaria al-Barbarawi, 45, later died of wounds suffered in the attack.
The medical sources said that five children aged 1 to 4 were among the wounded and that of the 13 injured civilians four were in serious condition.
[...]

America deaf to Palestinian screams

Israeli Terrorist Airstrike Kills Teen, 2 Children

JERUSALEM (AP) - An Israeli missile aimed at militants killed three young Palestinians in a refugee camp Tuesday, clouding prospects for a possible meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders later this week when they attend the same breakfast in Jordan.

Israeli aircraft fired the missile at a car carrying militants in the crowded Jebaliya camp in northern Gaza Strip, but instead killed a 5-year-old boy and two girls aged 7 and 16, hospital officials said.
[...]

Bolivia's Morales: U.S. Infiltrating with Soldiers in Disguise

I believe Morales.

His claims are consistent with US behavior over decades, and right in line with current policy in Washington.
Washington does not intend to let anyone self govern, unless they are following a Neo-CON, right wing, globalization, privatization model of business. Morales is not. He's been busy nationalizing gas and oil. And providing for the poor, as has Chavez. This is the kind of behavior that sets Amerikkka's ownership class into a frenzy of hate, and goes against the grain of the current dominant party.

Just look at this week in Congress, during which millionaire congressmen refused to raise the minimum wage above $5.15 an hour.

Also, the current administration is rather famous for lying. A denial from them has zero credibility.

I couldn't find coverage of this story wit less biased language. Al the English language sources bash Morales with language choices. Our Orwellian World with our pus boil of a media in it.

AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn't yours

The Racist Agenda of the GOP.

AP) WASHINGTON House Republican leaders on Wednesday postponed a vote on renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act after GOP lawmakers complained it unfairly singles out nine Southern states for federal oversight.
[...]
Yes, it needs to include OHIO for extra scrutiny, supervision and even UN monitoring of elections.
The GOP has rigged 2 presidential election by keeping black people from voting - in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Looks like they're making it official nationally.

U.S. Republicans make new push to get rid of estate tax

WASHINGTON In a new attempt to permanently reduce the estate tax on inherited wealth, House Republican leaders have moved to win over crucial Democrats with a tax sweetener for timber companies.
[...]

$5.15 an hour. A national Disgrace

GOP-run Senate kills proposal to raise minimum wage

Botanist sends plant seeds into space

Gorbachev Calls Cheney a "Durak" (fool, idiot)

Former Bush Antiterror Officials Find Industry Pays Better

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder

Oil prices could spike, Saudi warns

Study finds high school graduation rates lower than officials say

Opera 9 goes Universal

Does Crazy Vote Fixer Katherine Harris Think Hillary Is Her Opponent?

Psychiatric drugs fare favorably when companies pay for studies

Baghdad blasts mock US claims of Iraqi progress

Under Bush, small government pres, Halliburton and Friends: 86 % Raise

Rummy's Privatization Plan

[...]
Rumsfeld agreed but complained. "I find it strange," he said to the investigators, on the grounds that as a government official "the laws apply to me" anyway.

It was a bumpy start to an odd interview, as Rumsfeld cited poor memory, loose office procedures, and a general distraction with "the wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan to explain why he was unsure how his department came to nearly squander $30 billion leasing several hundred new tanker aircraft that its own experts had decided were not needed.
[...]

Repiglikkkan Senate Greenlights War Contract Corruption

MORE than 6000 men and women have deserted from the US army since the invasion of Iraq

Plans to Prosecute for Ohio 04

"Frontline" documentary makes case that Cheney used 9/11 to go to war

airs tonight.

Snow misleadingly claimed that Bush "never has" linked Saddam, 9-11

Does the P in GOP stand for Pervert?

EDINBURG — A young girl featured in a controversial television ad during the 2000 presidential campaign testified this week that the man who developed the commercial molested her for years and forced her to watch pornography and use sex toys.

[...]

Condoleezza Rice warns North Korea that long-range missile testing would be provocative

Dad burn, gosh darn, looks like we uz(<-special word employed by the "we was" crowd, aka Wuzzels and Walmart shoppers, when they become vaguely suspicious of their own grammar) too busy chasing fictional WMD in Iraq at the request of Big Oil, Big War contractors and the Project for a New American Century, to pay much attention the North Koreans while they developed a real military threat.

Thank god we have the department of homeland security to install cameras on our city streets, pass out duct tape and coordinate FEMA, and the NSA to listen to our phone calls and read our email without court supervison in the event the North Koreans do decide to strike us with missiles.

American GI's Indictment Sought in Italy

The American Nightmare

With ARMs Headed Up And Prices Headed Down, Homeowners Risk Foreclosure

Slow Drowning of Coastal Areas Continues

Phallus representing Shiva worshipped in Vietnam Indian temple

Unlike the Jews, Christians and Muslims, who worship the idea that has the same image, at least they're honest about it.

How Grocery Stores Are Feeding Fears

[...]
Longer-term, the impact of data collection could be far more disturbing. Using cards to track purchase histories, stores are beginning to segment customers into groups based on how much and how often they purchase. Such information will help stores target desirable -- read: profitable -- customers and cater to their needs.

LESS INCOME, HIGHER PRICES? This is high priority in the grocery business. After all, the top 30% of customers account for 75% or more of sales, while the bottom 30% account for just 3%, according independent grocer Gary Hawkins, who also serves president of Syracuse (N.Y.) consulting firm DataWorks Marketing. Ultimately, the information could be used to tailor prices to individual shoppers -- much the way airlines charge vastly different prices for two seats on the same flight. While that makes economic sense, under a worst-case scenario, the system could discriminate against lower-income shoppers who may simply have less money to spend.
[...]

FBI says, “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”

US rejected Iranian overtures in 2003

Officials in US President George W. Bush's administration turned down a 2003 Iranian offer to begin talks with the US, recognize Israel, and end support of Palestinian terror organizations, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

The proposal, which arrived via fax along with a letter of authentication by a Swiss ambassador, was ignored. Reports have circulated in the past that Iran had extended its hand to the US, but the document itself was only recently obtained by the Post - reportedly from Iranian sources - and confirmed as genuine by both American and Iranian officials.
[...]

El Salvador death squads targeting criminals-Church

Guantanamo detainees unaware of defense lawyers

Bank falsified data in sale to Lone Star

Last year only four countries accounted for nearly all executions worldwide: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Oil could hit $100 a barrel after Iran sanctions - Schroeder

'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Details Increasing Danger and Hardship

Those good things the GOP says are happening in Iraq
[...]
This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."

It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."
[...]

Bolivia to Spend $6.8B to Fight Poverty

[...]
The funding will come chiefly from Bolivia's recently nationalized natural gas wealth, with international lenders and foreign investment also important sources.

The development plan, announced Friday, would significantly boost the state's role in the economy, creating jobs and delivering more basic public services such as subsidized meals for school children and greater access to potable water.

Bolivia will be "dismantling the neoliberal policies that have impregnated Bolivia in recent decades in order to build a social and communal state to live well," Carlos Villegas, the planning and development minister, told a crowd of dignitaries at the presidential palace that included foreign diplomats and representatives of the country's indigenous poor.
[...]

Somali Islamists warn of new fighting over 'Ethiopian incursions'

Somali Islamic courts chief Sheikh Sharrif Sheikh Ahmed addresses residents 15 June 2006 at Jowhar, 90 kilometres north of Mogadishu, where his fighters routed the US-backed warlords alliance.

China’s PM tours Africa to foster ties

Wen Jiabao, Chinese prime minister, launched a seven- nation tour of Africa at the weekend.

He will showcase China’s growing involvement on the continent as it seeks raw materials for its booming economy and new markets for its products.

Africa supplies nearly a third of China’s oil needs, with a surge in the country’s energy imports from the continent contributing to a near tripling of trade between it and the continent in 2005.
[...]

Nokia, Siemens to merge phone equipment units

Father Demands International Probe

[...]
"The United States should have sent the autopsy report with the body, which didn't happen," Mohammed Abdullah al-Aslami, the father, told reporters Sunday.

"This reinforces the doubts that my son Salah committed suicide. My son died under torture," he added, urging that Guantanamo be closed.

[...]

Hong Kong's jobless rate falls to 4.9 pct.

Bush administration virtually abandoned prosecuting employers who hired illegal aliens

But now, with s many unwise and extremely unpopular policies catching up with the GOP, repiglikkkan operatives must play on those fine Amerikkkan qualities of hate filled ethnocentrism and intolerance, so when they fix the midterm elections with Diebold and ES&S, it won't be so obvious, and blithe news commentators like Tim Russert and Wolf Blitzer can get on air and say the country was polarized, but it was close, the republikkkans just can't stop winning because Kkkarl Rove is brilliant!

I'm just glad one democrat is not afraid to call Rove a lard ass, which is what the manipulative, ruthless fuck =up really is. Anyone can win if they refuse to observe any rules.

College loans to get more expensive

US: Dole settles E. coli lawsuits

Five lawsuits filed in response to an E. coli outbreak traced to Dole Fresh Vegetable bagged salads in Minnesota last fall have been settled.

Bill Marler, an attorney for the nine plaintiffs involved, said the settlements with parent company Dole Food Company Inc. were reached in the past month. Among the plaintiffs was a 12-year-old girl who suffered kidney failure after eating the salad and was featured in a "Dateline" report televised in April on E. coli and bagged salads. Both parties declined to disclose the details of the settlements.

"We're very pleased to get the cases resolved," said Marler, an attorney with Seattle's Marler Clark law firm which has represented clients against Odwalla and Jack-in-the-Box in other foodborne illness cases. Marler praised Dole and its insurance company for "stepping up and ultimately doing the right thing."

"In many instances, companies don't do that," he said, adding that some companies will fight cases like this for years in court. "I think Dole correctly got this thing behind them.... It's the way corporations should act." Eric Schwartz, president of Dole Fresh Vegetables, said the settlement doesn't mean the company is admitting guilt.
[...]

Stephen Heller, Whistleblower

[...]
Stephen Heller is a whistleblower; he is alleged to have
seen and then exposed legal documents proving that
Diebold Election Systems, Inc., the country's leading
manufacturer of electronic voting machines and voting
machine software, was using illegal, uncertified software
in their California voting machines, thereby defrauding
the state of California, the taxpayers of California, and
disenfranchising the voters of California. On February
21, 2006, Stephen was charged in Los Angeles Superior
Court with 3 felonies: felony access to computer data,
commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. He
pleaded not guilty. This is an outrageous abuse of the
law and of power.
[...]

Olmert Beckons Europe Jews to Move, continue stealing Arab land

Bujak, typical man of god

[...]
But when the woman told Bujak she was planning to go to the authorities,
"He absolutely freaked out," she said. Bujak spent more than two hours
at her home trying to convince her not tell police about the spankings,
then told other parishioners not to have any contact with her, according
to the woman.

"He was spinning it like (she) has gone mental, now she's trying to
defame the church," she said.
[...]
The mother said she understands that many are astonished by her
willingness to go along with the alleged beatings. But she said she
trusted Bujak, partly because he was a man of faith, and partly because
he told her he was a former police officer who had dealt with molested
girls before and that her daughter did not show signs of having been
abused. She said that when she began to talk about contacting police,
Bujak insisted he had never said he had been a police officer and told
her that he had only worked for about six months in a 911 call center.
[...]

Hastert "In the Mix" of Congressional Bribery Investigation

Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.
{...]

GOP: The Family Values party

A spiritual brother of pastor Darryl Bujack

GOP Campaign Manager Guilty of Corruption of Minors
[...]
A man convicted of "corruption of minors" after being accused of having sex with two teenage girls is working as the campaign manager for a Republican candidate for Congress in Arizona, according to documents obtained by ABC News.

Steve Aiken, a former Quakertown, Pa. police officer and self-proclaimed reverend, was convicted of two counts of corruption of a minor stemming from his 1995 sexual relationships with two teenage girls. He served almost two-and-a-half months at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
[...]

Of Course Christian Child Abuser Pastor Will Plead Innocent.

Abusive, Calvinist narcissists like Bujack think it is their right, granted by god, to use violence, coercion and criminal lack of judgment whenever they see fit.

What kind of monster would beat a child who for alleging sexual abuse, without bothering to determine if the accusation is true? This Bujack idiot and this child's unfit mother. Both ought to do a little jail time for their treatment of the little girl.

General Mills planning a fish-oil product?

Delta to file request to terminate pilots' pensions

ATLANTA-- Delta Air Lines Inc. will file a request with a bankruptcy court judge Monday to terminate its pilots' pension plan, the company's chief executive said in a letter to a lawmaker Friday.

CEO Gerald Grinstein said in the letter to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson that the nation's third-largest carrier will ask that the pilots' pension be terminated effective Sept. 2.
[...]

Congress packed with old white men

Bush Claimed Iraqis Oppose Timetable the Day After Iraq’s VP Personally Asked Him for One

Hitler' Phantom Limb, John Bolton Blasts Annan for Criticizing U.S. Support of Somali Warlords

BIOFUELS POISED TO DISPLACE OIL

Japan to withdraw troops from Iraq: report

Animation

"We were terrible to animals...we'd put firecracekrs in the mouths of frogs and throw them and make them blow up"
Bush's childhod friedn Terry Throckmorton
The New York Times, May 21, 2000

WORLD GRAIN STOCKS FALL TO 57 DAYS OF CONSUMPTION:Grain Prices Starting to Rise

Water tables are now falling and wells are going dry in countries that contain half the world’s people, including the big three grain producers—China, India, and the United States. In China, water shortages have helped lower the wheat harvest from its peak of 123 million tons in 1997 to below 100 million tons in recent years. Water shortages are also making it more difficult for farmers in India to expand their grain harvest. In parts of the United States, such as the Texas panhandle and in western Oklahoma and Kansas, depletion of the Ogallala aquifer has forced farmers to return to lower-yield dryland farming.
[...]
Perhaps the most dangerous threat to future food security is the rise in temperature. Among crop ecologists there is now a consensus that for each temperature rise of 1 degree Celsius above the historical average during the growing season, we can expect a 10 percent decline in grain yields. When describing weather-reduced harvests, crop analysts often refer to the crop prospect when weather returns to normal. They fail to realize that with the earth’s climate now in flux, there is no longer a norm to return to.
[...]

Senate Committee Approves Bill Banning Desecration Of The American Flag

My constitution gives me the right to burn this flag whenever I feel like it. I feel like it all the time lately.

This flag is a symbol of corruption, deceit, greed, torture, preemptive war and an emerging police state. Burn baby burn.

BP plans $37 billion energy investment in US

How wonderful for BP to have cooperation from a more than friendly government, partnership really, who will encourage them to go about their business completely untroubled by regulation and not at all accountable for environmental damage or social injustice in which oil companies specialize.

How nice for this energy conglomerates who owns every step of process from ground to pump, so pays 14 to 21 bucks a barrel, maybe, to get their oil out of the ground, to be able to trade it at plus 70 a barrel with the eager beaver help of Washington.

Don't worry. American taxpayers will pay to build refineries for private business soon too, one way or another. The oil companies have been pushing for that and showed their muscle to demand more public resources during the post Katrina gas gauging. It was so blatant the royal scam in Washington held mock hearings in which compulsive liar Arlen Specter decided that oil company heads were so honest, devoted to the public good and exemplary angels in their dealings, they didn't need to be sworn in to answer questions.
Democracy Inaction. Repiglikkkan governance.

These enormous resources need to be utilized to develop and mass produce alternate energy sources. Instead, it is now s profitable to extract oil that was too expensive to extract before, because the price has been artificially driven so high, that all the corporate investment will further the petro cycle of environmental, social and economic destruction.

In the meantime, petro chemical pollution will continue to melt polar caps, and the permafrost, releasing more environmentally destructive methane gas into the already compromised atmosphere, because sociopaths like Dick Cheney think they can make more money drilling in the polar regions once that ice is gone! Yep, delusional.

And the freedom and liberty and innovation of a thriving middle class can die from the economic pressure of soaring energy casts, for profit for a few, and an economy that favors corporations over people every step of the way.

When Oil profit belongs to the public

CARACAS, June 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 6 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean will receive free eye treatment thanks to Venezuela's Mision Milagro (Miracle Mission), President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday.
[...]
It is one of the social projects launched alongside Mision Habitat, Mision Ribas, Mision Milagro and others to boost standards of living, education and health.

In March, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said dozens of Guatemalans were among the first to benefit from the program, to be followed by 100 Central Americans in the month to receive eye operations including cataract treatment.

This is why Pat Robertson and BushCo want Chavez deposed or dead. They disapprove of this kind of expenditure.

Profit from oil should be used to add wealth to stuffed pockets of major stockholders- the ownership society of which George Monkey Lips Bush speaks so lovingly - and toss a few coins to small investors and mutual fund holders, so they shut the fuck up about the emerging corporatist police state in amerikkka, and praise capitalism and free markets, hallelujah, with no recognition that this market place is far from free and has no competition whatsoever.

You can see why protestant evangelicalism, with its emphasis on wealth and authoritarianism, is so useful to the right wing extremists who constitute the empowered bulk of the ownership society.
No Calvinist would ever suggest profit be spent to improve life for the poor, as the poor are unfit in god's eyes and lacking his mighty phallic shower of grace, or they wouldn't be poor, let alone have trouble seeing

Venezuela, Colombia to Build Pipeline

Just how far have we come since June 16 1976?

Not far.

The Internet is being taken away from you by the republikkkan congress

Enshrined Pedophilia

Girls Can Marry at 15, Colo. Court Finds

DENVER (AP) - A 15-year-old girl can enter into a common-law marriage in Colorado, and younger girls and boys possibly can, too, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

While the three-judge panel stopped short of setting a specific minimum age for such marriages, it said they could be legal for girls at 12 and boys at 14 under English common law, which Colorado recognizes.

When I was 6 Harve Presnell was singing songs to the glory of Colorado in technicolor. Now Colorado 6 year olds need to start planning their wedded lives, no doubt to men Presnell's age.
Colorado will probably fill to breaking with middle aged Mormon males and other pedophile men looking to score flocks of virgin, commonlaw wives.
What about age of consent?
This is sick shit.

More raw pork chops for Illinis Rottweiler Dennis Hastert

WASHINGTON -- Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert and two partners turned a profit of more than $3 million on property they accumulated and sold in just over three years near the route of a proposed controversial freeway on the western fringe of suburban Chicago, according to land records and financial disclosure reports released Wednesday.

Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean rejected the notion that the land, located 5 1/2 miles from the proposed Prairie Parkway route, rose in value because of the highway project. The speaker long has been an aggressive proponent of the highway and helped secure more than $200 million in federal funding through an earmark in federal transportation legislation.
[...]

Bolivian President Pays Tribute to Guevara

Ford to invest up to $9.2 bln in Mexico: report

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co., which is slashing jobs and closing plants in the United States as it seeks to return its North American operations to profitability, is preparing to invest up to $9.2 billion in Mexico to leverage its low operating costs there, a Michigan newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Oakland Press, a Detroit-area newspaper, said the investment was detailed in a confidential, 28-page document turned over to it by a Ford employee.

The document, part of which had been prepared for a presentation in early April to officials from the Mexican government, said Ford, the No. 2 U.S. automaker, could invest a total of $9.2 billion in Mexico over a six-year period from 2006 to 2012, according to the newspaper.
[...]

Judge Rules That U.S. Has Broad Powers to Detain Noncitizens Indefinitely

We are no longer a country of laws..

A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that the government has wide latitude under immigration law to detain noncitizens on the basis of religion, race or national origin, and to hold them indefinitely without explanation.

Excerpt: Downscaling the Dreams of Youth

Bad Salmon

EATTLE — The Bush administration — having made it hard for federal scientists to talk publicly about global warming — appears to have decided that loose lips are also bad when they talk about salmon.

The Washington office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the agency responsible for protecting endangered salmon — has instructed its representatives and scientists in the West to route media questions about salmon back to headquarters. Only three people in the entire agency, all of them political appointees, are now authorized to speak of salmon, according to a NOAA employee who has been silenced on the fish.

Pentagon reports that death toll of U.S. servicemen and women serving in Iraq has reached 2,500

Wealthy Americans buying up beachfront property in Mexico

19 publicly-funded universities to become private

SUDAN: ICC finds evidence of Darfur massacres, prepares prosecution

NAIROBI, 15 June (IRIN) - The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that his office had gathered significant evidence of "large-scale" atrocities committed in Darfur.
[...]

Spreading hunger message to the rich is a tough battle

Security Breaches Decertified Diebold Machines in Busby/Bilbray

Foreshadowing for November.
Even though a majority of the country do not support the insane republikkkans and their undemocratic, kill crazy policies, and will not vote for them, the GOP will use electronic, or other, vote fraud to maintain control of congress and finish destroying the country.

Survey Ranks 'Organic-ness' at Dairies

As usual, the consumer must wear a hazmat suit to wade through the various styles and piles of deceptive advertising and other corporate dirty tricks.
Organic doesn't necessarily mean organic, just costly.

US in Guatemala Anti-drug Force

Those Latin populist movements must be making our Amerikkkan and Guatemalan fascists nervous. They seem to be getting their death squads into place. Or has the united states military started taking on domestic policing jobs?

AMA: Health insurance should be required

And I thought the thing that was driving up costs to ridiculous levels was the FOR PROFIT health care system, especially since it has become conglomeratized and traded on the stock exchange.

Google: Busy Busy Busy

Google launches a new Shakespeare site and a new news in Arabic site, buys a headquarters for $319M and is expected to buy another online office App, while Japan works on a google killer.

Public broadcasting loses funding

The House Appropriations Committee in Washington has voted to cut the budget for public broadcasting by 17.4 percent.

The committee has allocated $400 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2007, but voted to cease CPB funding in 2009, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Public broadcasting has come under fire for allegedly being too liberal.
[...]

Coca-Cola shoots Ad for Pakistan

He disclosed that the Kinley ad would revolve around a pregnant mother asking for water and her elder son telling her that she should drink only Kinley's as it was pure and would be best for the unborn baby.
[...]

Local Moguls Express Interest in Buying L.A. Times

[...]
Billionaire investor Ron Burkle, former Olympics organizer and Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and philanthropist Eli Broad have indicated in recent interviews or in comments to others that they would like to buy The Times or see it in local hands.
[...]
Locally controlled media. How quaint.

United Airlines to cut at least 1,000 salaried jobs

[...]
"Said simply, some long-haul routes that worked at $50 a barrel don't fly at $65 a barrel," he said. "We'll continue to redeploy assets to other opportunities, such as the recently announced Washington-Kuwait route, which we'll initiate in the fall."
[...]

Ah, a little privatization scheme for military transport? That's' just speculation on my part, though reasonable speculation. Nothing despicable Rumsfeld does would surprise me.

Venezuela buys more Russian arms

Obama leads Illinois lawmakers in income

No wonder he's defending "our system" to angry constituents. He benefits a great deal from crony capitalism and media consolidation.

If this guy is the future of the democratic party, it has no future.

Iowa's Oaks at Risk of Disappearing

Some more of earth's air sacs besieged. Without trees, no humans. The interdependence is that deep.

Gene may mean adult cells can be reprogrammed

A gene named after the mythical Celtic land of the ever young could help explain how to reprogram adult cells into embryonic stem cells to treat diseases, researchers said on Wednesday.
[...]
"The effect of Nanog is remarkable. All the hybrid cells became fully converted to embryonic stem cells," said Jose Silva of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, who reported the findings in the journal Nature.

Stem cells are master cells in the body. Scientists believe they could act as a type of human repair system to provide new therapies for illnesses ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's.
[...]
Gee, I wonder if such advanced therapies will be made available to any of Amerikkka's 46 million (conservative estimate) uninsured? I bet not, even though you can bet a large amount of public money has been used to fund the research. But that's fascism for ya.
Hitler would be so proud of our boys in Washington, camps and all. .

NAFTA Super Highway: How to Screw Unions

Estate Tax Pyramid Scheme by Robert B. Reich

Before your good senator pulls the plug on the estate tax—and keep an eye on him or her this week and next—consider this: the earnings of nearly everyone used to rise with rising productivity. That’s no longer true. Today’s workers are 24 percent more productive than they were five years ago but their median real earnings have barely budged.

What’s happened to all this extra value? A big chunk has gone to people earning over $1 million a year—mostly CEOs, investment bankers and hedge fund managers. This past year, 25 hedge fund managers each took home at least $130 million. Henry Paulson, our about-to-be Treasury Secretary, pocketed over $30 million. Average CEO pay back in 1966 was 60 times that of the typical American worker. Now it’s 400 times. Exxon’s former chairman just got a thoughtful retirement package of close to $400 million.
[...]

US 'biggest global peace threat'

More Privatized, Computerized Election Fraud

Republicans Rush to Swear-in Bilbray Before Results are Counted or Winner is Certified!
Officials Confirm: Tainted Election Results Still Features Thousands of Uncounted Ballots, Unofficial Numbers, No Winner has Been Certified!
Now Why Would The Republicans Do That?
[...]

2006 governor Election Guide

Forbes- Analysis: Telling FBI the Truth Saved Rove

The decision not to charge Karl Rove shows there often are no consequences for misleading the public.
[...]

Iraq contractors make billions on the front line

Private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq -- much of it from U.S. taxpayers.

Gaza Physician, British Journalist Refute Reported Israeli Military Investigation that Clears IDF, Blames Hamas for Deadly Beach Attack

China is Arming World's Worst Regimes to Fuel Economic Boom, Says Amnesty

Our Cultural Parent in Sickness and Destruction

Green tea may help explain "Asian paradox"

Religious Right Hate Monger Loves the New New Orleans

he president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary said Hurricane Katrina has cleansed the city of its past hostility toward Christian evangelism.

The Rev. Chuck Kelly spoke Sunday night at the pastors conference preceding this week's annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, N.C.

Kelly said New Orleans used to be "a seat of Satan" where evangelists felt oppressed by "the spiritual darkness of that place."
[...]

Amerikkka Prison for Profit

The real Jurassic Park

In n a remote corner of Venezuela, Sarah Shuckburgh discovers a land of unique wildlife, superstitious tribes - and thunderous waterfalls.
[...]

Chavez May Take Over Mine Ventures

Crude Facts About Oil

David Horowitz

Horowitz, on Larry King to defend blood drinking, vote felon Ann Coulter issued the same old, tired, fascist snakes and toads that one should not criticize the president during a time of war.

This idea is so ridiculous I laugh out loud ever time I hear it, but Amerikkka swallows it happily right along with their corn syrup, trans fat, artificial sweetener, diet sub way sandwiches, prions and pesticides.

Just once, won't someone ask a neocon WHY we can't criticize the president during a time of war, or any other time? I'd love to hear their reasoning. As if they have reasoning.

Horowitz, who seemed to be hopped up on something, also put forth, unchallenged, the proposition that not supporting the war is somehow abusive of the troops.


As though multiple tours of duty, inadequate armor, not enough man power, curtailing of benefits etc. is a vast pulsing expression of troop love. PuhLeazze.

US Nurtured Instability in Somalia Raises U.S. Terrorist Concerns

Somalia has been without a real government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohammed Said Barre. Since then, the nation has been divided by inter-clan fighting. A weak transitional government in the city of Baidoa has been unable to move into the capital, Mogadishu, which was seized last week by an Islamic militia.
[...]

African leaders pledge farming 'Green Revolution'

African leaders recommended on Tuesday scrapping taxes on fertilizers as one of 12 key measures to foster a "Green Revolution" in farming and reduce hunger in the poorest continent.

One third of sub-Saharan Africans face recurrent famine and under-nutrition and experts say this is due partly to a worsening problem of soil depletion, which occurs when farmland loses more nutrients than are being replaced.

"Population pressure now compels farmers to grow crop after crop thereby mining the soil of nutrients," Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told heads of state and farming ministers from across Africa at a summit to address the crisis.

"Although more than 70 percent of Africa's active population is directly engaged in farming, our farmers have not enough to show for their toil," he said.

The modernization of farming techniques and increased fertilizer use spurred Green Revolutions in Asia and Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s that increased crop yields dramatically and eradicated hunger in most regions.

But in Africa, where many farmers cannot afford fertilizer, yields per person have fallen over the last 40 years and experts warn that if soil depletion continues unabated, they will decline by up to 30 percent over the next 15 years.
[...]

Your congressman just got a raise

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500.

The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate.
[...]
This year, Vice President Cheney, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Chief Justice John Roberts receive $212,100. Associate justices receive $203,000. House and Senate party leaders get $183,500.

President Bush's salary of $400,000 is unaffected by the legislation.

Humans urged to search space for new home

Doctors want tougher salt rules

Yes, Bush Policy has made suicde bombers a risk in the US

Chavez calls on business to “repatriate” assets

S.F. Appeals Court Upholds Rights for Separated Same-Sex Parents

We Deserve Some Answers

Blatant opposition to birth control by right-wing extremists has sparked a new wave of activism among American women, including the recent launch of the website Birth Control Watch (www.birthcontrolwatch.org). It promises to monitor actions, policies and statements that threaten access to birth control in America.
[...]

I so approve. Now every state and dogs also

Rhode Island requires that cats be fixed

They Aren't Talking About the economy YOU live in.

The United States economy, for example, is spiraling ever closer to implosion and the wealth it creates includes fewer and fewer people every day.

From the instability of the dollar to the volatility of the stock market and the insane notion that an economy of such size should be run through the stock market, with no other considerations made than profit, to unemployment, outsourcing and the changing nature of work - McDonalds is a manufacturing job according to our elite political rulers - and the Mariana islands are America according to the same scum- to benefit loss, including pension loss, to health care access to the standard of living declining every year since 81 or so, when the right wing agenda came on line in a big Gipper way, but that isn't what they are meeting about.

They are meeting about the economies of the (mostly) men who engineered the decline of the American middle class in the United States and seek more globalization, privatization and corporate consolidation, not to mention war and other murder, because BILLIONS are not enough.

Yeah, those economies are doing well.

May they have 10 times that many next year and 10 times that many the year after that

WARSAW (AFP) - Thousands braved abuse from egg-throwing skinheads to stage an international rally in Warsaw for the rights of gays who complain of deep hostility in this overwhelmingly Catholic country.

World Cup- Germany, Ecuador nab opening wins

Another Israeli, Rogue Terrorsit State, Attack on civilains, children included

Huda Gali mourns the killing of five of her family members including, her father, two sisters and her one-year-old brother, after Israeli shelling on a crowded Gaza beach, during their funeral in the northern Gaza Strip on June 10, 2006. Hamas ended an 18-month ceasefire today, firing 11 rockets at Israel. A statement by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said the attacks were in response to the killing of 10 Palestinians, including three young children, by Israeli artillery fire yesterday. (UPI Photo/Ismael Mohamad)

U.S. Mad cow cases result from rare strain

Rare because of the ongoing massive coverup by government and industry so as not to dampen ground beef sales. After all, a few people with pudding for brains are nothing compared to a decline in agribusiness or fast food stock price.
[...]
Government officials are trying to play down differences between the two U.S. cases and the mad cow epidemic that has led to the slaughter of thousands of cattle in Britain since the 1980s.
[...]

Responsible Shopper: Global Research and Action to Stop Corporate Abuse

LINK: corporate players in the organic marketplace

Aging Gays Fuel Specialized Housing Market

Gathering Highlights Power of the Blog

[...]
As became clear from the rather large and diverse crowd here, the blogosphere has become for the left what talk radio has been for the right: a way of organizing and communicating to supporters. Blogging is nowhere near the force among Republicans as it is among Democrats, and talk radio is a much more effective tool for Republicans.
[...]
More evidence republikkkans can't read, and need to be TOLD what to do by some loud mouthed, hog jowled drug addict like Limbaugh or Transexual, exhibitionist, bipolar blood drinker like Coulter whose books are purchased strictly for the naughty pictures closeted republican lads think are hidden in them in code... It's all those authority issues they have, or I should say authoritarian leanings, that make them so creepy, illiterate and impossible to live with

Washington War Pigs Coming out with New plan to Build Permanent military bases - already under construction for some time - in Iraq

[...]
The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to
President George W. Bush for signing into law.
[...]

BUSBY/BILBRAY ELECTION IN DOUBT: The Diebold Machine Sleepovers at Poll Workers Houses..."

Given what we know about Diebold voting machines (both optical-scan and touch-screen), several folks have written to ask: "Are you sure they actually allowed poll workers to take these machines home with them" prior to the Busby/Bilbray U.S. House special election in CA-50th?

Yes. I'm sure. And yes, I confirmed it with someone in the media office at the San Diego County Registrar of Voting before I wrote my initial story on all of this. She asked me to keep her name off record, and so I'm doing so. Feel free to call and ask them yourself however: (858) 565-5800.

While you're talking to them (politely), ask how they intend to prove that the results of the Busby/Bilbray special election are accurate now that the chain of custody for the electronic voting machines -- which have been shown to be exceedingly prone to easy, passwordless tampering -- has been corrupted by sending them home for days and weeks at a time with voluneer poll workers. Also ask them how many absentee and provisional ballots there are in the race. Feel free to report your answers in comments here. If you can get any.
[...]

DeLay Bids the House a Torrid Goodbye

[...]
"I did a good job," said Mr. DeLay, the linchpin of the House Republican majority for the last decade and the mastermind of a formidable political operation that melded legislating, fund-raising, conservatism and business advocacy as never before. "I helped build the largest political coalition in the last 50 years. The K Street project and the K Street strategy I am very proud of."

To the Republicans he kept in power in defiance of the odds and a torrent of criticism, Mr. DeLay was a brilliant tactician, one they rewarded with standing ovations on Thursday as he took the floor one last time to deliver an ode to the bare-knuckles partisanship that has been his trademark.

"He's been a real leader," said Representative John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, the man who replaced Mr. DeLay as majority leader.
[...]

Vito Corleone was a brilliant tactician.
"Either your brains or your signature will be on the paper."
Of course, Vito cared more about the poor, the disenfranchised and the elderly, like widow Palumbo, then Delay does.

I'm appalled when I hear the word brilliant appalled to law breaking, abusive, get it while you can, soon to be convicted felons like Rove and Delay, and their illegal, unethical tactics.

Squandering the public trust is not brilliant. It's criminal and pathetic.

If they achieved their goals within the law, then maybe. But Tom Delay is a crooked bastard who doesn't understand the meaning of the word democracy, and he acted to undermine America in order to pad his pockets and secure power for his decidedly undeserving party.

He is so short sighted I'm inclined to call him stupid. He's certainly not brilliant. Getting what you want by breaking laws and acting unethically is not brilliance. And his lack of remorse is appalling, though typical for a sociopath.

Nicaraguans Protest Transport Hike

Hundreds of Nicaraguans peacefully protested the illegal rise in public transportation costs, energy cuts and the attempts to privatize services of potable water in Managua on Tuesday.
[...]

Israeli Terrorists Murder More Palestinians

Three Palestinians were killed and at least five wounded by Israel Defense Forces gunfire on the border of Gaza on Wednesday night.

Two of the dead were apparently civilians, and the third was a policemen, a member of the Palestinian Authority's National Security Service. Based on accounts by IDF and Palestinian sources, it seems that the civilians were killed while trying to enter Israel, while the policemen was hit at his post by an IDF shell.
[...]

Niger MPs reject Africa protocol on women's rights

NIAMEY, June 5 (Reuters) - Niger's parliament has voted down Africa's Maputo Protocol on women's rights in a setback for the accord aiming to guarantee women equality in all spheres of life and end the practice of female circumcision.
The protocol, adopted by African heads of state in 2003 at a summit in Mozambique, came into force last November after being ratified by the threshold 15 nations.
The government of Niger, one of the world's poorest nations, approved the protocol back in January, but lawmakers voted against it at the weekend by 42 votes to 31, with four abstentions, official media said on Monday.

"The rejection of the motion is a serious setback for Niger, but this is a proper application of democratic principles," government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar told state daily newspaper The Sahel.

Niger, 95 percent Muslim, is one of the most conservative societies in Africa.
Female circumcision -- often referred to as female genital mutilation -- is common, as are polygamy, child marriage and other customs discouraged or banned by the Maputo Protocol.
[...]

This IS US foreign Policy Around the Globe - FOR DECADES - backfiring as usual

WASHINGTON, June 7 (UPI) -- U.S. officials are criticizing a covert CIA plan to finance Somali warlords, saying the plan backfired and set back counterterrorism efforts in Somalia.

The officials say the campaign ended up empowering the Islamic groups it was meant to work against, The New York Times reported.

Citing U.S. government officials "with direct knowledge of the debate," the newspaper said the criticism came before an apparent victory this week by Islamist militias in Somalia dealt a setback to U.S. policy in the region and broke the warlords' hold on Mogadishu, the capital.

The officials said the CIA effort directed hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past year to secular warlords inside Somalia. One of the plan's objectives was to capture or kill suspected members of al-Qaida believed to be hiding in Somalia.
[...]

Quick! Somebody slap some magnets on Bush's Head

George Bush Sr. asked retired general to replace Rumsfeld

Former President George H.W. Bush waged a secret campaign over several months early this year to remove Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
[...]
Haditha is a symptom of the fallacy of Bush's military solution. The alleged massacre occurred after the administration's dismissal of repeated warnings about the awful pressures on an army of occupation against an insurgency. Conflating a population that broadly supports an insurgency with a terrorist enemy and indoctrinating the troops with a sense of revenge for Sept. 11 easily leads to an erasure of the distinction between military and civilian targets. Once again, a commander in chief has failed to learn the lessons of Algeria and Vietnam.

Bush's abrogation of the Geneva Conventions has set an example that in this unique global war on terror, in order to combat those who do not follow the rules of war, we must also abandon those rules. This week a conflict has broken out in the Pentagon over Rumsfeld's proposed revision of the Army Field Manual for interrogation of prisoners, which would excise Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions that forbids "humiliating and degrading treatment." And, this week, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., proposed a bill that would make the administration provide "a full accounting on any clandestine prison or detention facility currently or formerly operated by the United States Government, regardless of location, where detainees in the global war on terrorism are or were being held," the number of detainees, and a "description of the interrogation procedures used or formerly used on detainees at such prison or facility and a determination, in coordination with other appropriate officials, on whether such procedures are or were in compliance with United States obligations under the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture." The administration vigorously opposes the bill.
[...]

U.S. blocking Venezuelan from U.N. council

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 7 (UPI) -- The United States is attempting to block Venezuela from taking a seat on the U.N. Security Council, The Washington Times reported Wednesday.

Washington is trying to convince Latin American nations to choose Guatemala over Venezuela when Argentina vacates its seat on the council at the end of the year.

Several countries such as Argentina and Brazil, however, support Venezuela's bid to take a temporary seat at the U.N. body.
[...]

Statement of September 11th Advocates Response to “Godless”

Olbermann slams Coulter: Shameless

Keith Olbermann makes MSNBC the only cable news worth watching, but you have to get in and out quickly to avoid getting slimed by the likes of Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews and professionally infantile Tucker Carlson.

Yeah. Public Airwaves. So why must we pay so much to access them?

AP) Vowing to clear the public airwaves of prurient and vulgar material, Congress has overwhelmingly approved legislation to increase by tenfold the fines that broadcasters could face for indecent programming.
[...]

Fascist piece of Shit John Bolton Threatening to destroy UN, which is exactly what he was appointed to do

The American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, threatened "consequences" yesterday if Secretary-General Annan declines to publicly repudiate criticism of America's foreign policy made in a speech Tuesday by the second in command at Turtle Bay, Mark Malloch Brown.

Mr. Annan declined to defuse the tension between the United Nation's leadership and America by saying he stands behind his deputy's remarks.

[...]

John "stop the recount" Bolton, one of the biggest scum in Washington, supported by fat, misogynist, drug addict Rush Limbaugh and other right wing extremists in effort to destroy the UN while their crew is destroying the United States. Busy busy Busy.

ACE Inhibitors Linked to Birth Defects

Some blood pressure drugs previously thought to be safe when taken early in pregnancy now appear to substantially raise the risk of major birth defects, doctors say.
[...]
The research raises troubling questions about the lack of safety data for many drugs prescribed to pregnant women.
[...]

Floods leave Ipswich in turmoil. The Environment talks back

James Inhofe (R-OK) Proud and Loud Bigot in the US Senate

Yes, but how about incest Jim? I bet you have some of that. Your gene pool, as expressed in you, seems to be mighty tiny, even puddle sized. Perhaps your mom and dad were brother and sister?

Block the Vote, Ohio Remix

Bush rating slips into 'uncharted waters'

President Bush, whose approval rating in California has dropped four percentage points in just the past month, is edging ever closer to the all-time low performance rating for a president among the state's voters, a new Field Poll has found.

The Republican president, with his support now hemorrhaging even among California Republicans, has the approval of only 28 percent of registered voters, a low eclipsed only by the 24 percent approval rating President Richard Nixon got in California just days before he resigned from office in 1974 at the height of the Watergate scandal, the poll found.
[...]

The Button

Storage Components

Bill Healy held the future in his pocket. The senior vice president of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc. whipped out a tiny hard drive about the size of a Wheat Thin. The drive's label claimed a capacity of 1,000 gigabytes - more than 100 times greater than today's models that can hold 8,000 photos or 2,000 songs.
[...]

Voting system draws lawsuit - Diebold, other electronic machines susceptible to fraud

This is almost funny

CHICAGO - To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it intermittent explosive disorder and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans.
[...]
16 million? A very light estimate IMO.
But of course this article is not actually "news" so much as it is advertisement for pharmaceuticals.
After all, a drug will fix anything. Such problems are not about world view or lifestyle or lack of self regulation that stems from crummy values.
[...]
Coccaro said the disorder involves inadequate production or functioning of serotonin, a mood-regulating and behavior-inhibiting brain chemical. Treatment with antidepressants, including those that target serotonin receptors in the brain, is often helpful, along with behavior therapy akin to anger management, Coccaro said.

Most sufferers in the study had other emotional disorders or drug or alcohol problems and had gotten treatment for them, but only 28 percent had ever received treatment for anger.
[...]

Justices to look at race-based school policy

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether public elementary and high schools can use race in determining where students go to school.
[...]

SUVs More Likely to Back Over Children

Well, of course.
They've backed over an entire country. The proliferation of these gas guzzlers is part of the crushing delusion that Amerikkka can hog-gulp more imported gasoline than any other 300 million people in the world, and at bargain prices.

SUVs are part of the reason giant parasites like Exxon-Mobil, interested only in profit, are making environmental and energy "policy" in Washington.

SUVs are part of the reason we're in Iraq perpetrating a war of aggression. They drove us there.

SUVs increase traffic jams and fuel consumption. Any responsible energy policy includes conservation. The United States of Amerikkka has no responsible energy policy. The United States - or, at this point accuracy demands I call it The Confederate States of Amerikkka - has had no energy policy, let alone conservation policy, since Jimmy Carter was president.

Here is a brief excerpt from a lengthy transcript of a Carter address well worth reading.

Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on April 18, 1977.

Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.

It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.

We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.

We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.

Two days from now, I will present my energy proposals to the Congress. Its members will be my partners and they have already given me a great deal of valuable advice. Many of these proposals will be unpopular. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices.

The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation.

Certainly the Bush coup d'etat and disastrous presidency count as a national catastrophe, tragedy and travesty, and the fact that national leadership has ignored energy policy for 26 years ought to alarm everyone living here, but does not, has, in fact, been largely ignored by people who think any need to manage energy or conserve oil is UnAmerikkkan while somehow the need for judicious use of oil got magically resolved by all those mergers the Alzheimers President presided over when he was front man for the corporatists in Washington, because there is a problem in Amerikkka with thinking in wholes.

Wholes. Systems. Seeing the consequences. Yin and Yang and the circle they make. Complexity. Process.

I daily ponder the source of this thought disorder. I have no simple answer. But I suspect such crazy thinking is formed by a confluence of countless contributing factors, such as religious brainwashing, sense of class entitlement, lack of critical thinking skills, over exposure to televised media, generations of parental inattention, etc..

It's like the right wing minister down the street who breeds his dog, hawks the puppies on the roadside, claims, straight faced, this does not contribute to dog overpopulation or dog deaths by millions in shelters, and that he bears no responsibility for what happens to puppies once they leave his care.

He's apparently unable to recognize parts of the whole, how things work, systemic operations. Nor is he able to accept responsibility for his actions, since he lives his religion as a fetish in which everything he does is just and justified by his professing of belief.

He and his home schooled wife have home schooled their 8 children because they do not trust "guv'ment" schools, as they call them, yet they support capital punishment and wars of aggression by government, get their news from FOX - the state sponsored news station, protest abortion rights and claim abortion is illegal becuase courts aren't the guv'ment, bad mouth homosexuals and want that federal marriage amendment passed, etc. You know, the Bush Base.

You might expect better from a man of the cloth. I, however, do not, as cloth such as his is woven from ignorance, fear and rageful intolerance, and the dye of the thinking in which he's chosen to soak himself to a bright red-state glow is deeply flawed, profoundly weird and rigidly, know-it-all linear, even though we live a spiral existence with lots of chaos and endless unknowns and beauty.

Of course such acolytes views are also hysterically inflated with magical thinking and sanity destroying notions of cause and effect - Just believe in Jesus and go to heaven - or in this idiot's case, believe in John Calvin and go to heaven.
(No thanks, not if you're there.)

The dog breeding minister has several SUVs, in fact.
Throughout the election cycle they were plastered with red, white and blue Bush bumper stickers, but those have been scraped off now that Bush is, according to this messenger of godly truth, "Arabizing" America, the white, heterosexual, Christian nation.

And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Lev. 19:33)

I expect the latest psychological terrorist attacks against gay Amerikkkans by BushCo to bring a return of right wing bumper stickers, as in the disordered thinking of such brainwashed Amerikkkans, the national priorities, as stated by Bill Kitten Killer Frist and underscored by the Chimp-n-Chief - are passage of a federal anti gay marriage amendment and an anti flag burning amendment.

Hillary, the potential democratic nominee (because this is what repiglikkkans want; easy for master of cognitive dissonance, and not at all moderate, John McCain to beat) agrees that a flag burning amendment is of the highest priority.

All this while New Orleans rots in its own waste, a metaphoric expression of another oil over-consumption issue, and armed murderers in military issue terrorize innocent Iraqis with Alberto Gonzales & Rummy okayed torture and random homicide, the child killers.

These bits of ugliness and brutality, senseless disregard for life and crass manipulation are all the same issue and the issue is oil consumption in a world running out of oil, in a world heating up from too much oil use and a world so dependent on oil we use it for everything from fertilizer to driving to making drugs and also cancer causing, landfill stuffing plastics.

And, of course, oil companies are holding the biggest, most deadly, most WMD rich military ever paid for by exploitation of tax payers hostage, ordering wars and demanding the melting of the polar caps because they think there are trillions of barrels buried under the ice.

Oh yeah, it's all one big interlocking mess, one tightly woven tapestry of destruction upholstering the roomy seats of your Chevy Suburban.