Current news articles of interest

NEWS ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Updated Jan. 15,2005

Hack the vote:notes,links and assorted information

Bush is now thinking of building jails abroad to hold suspects for life

WMD? Oh yea, that...

Buchanan: is failure now an option?
Buchanan: have the neocons killed a presidency?
current fatality list in iraq for this month
Wounds vs injuries,reality vs rhetoric
Pat Buchanan: bin ladens useful idiots

This is the story that cbs was planning to air instead of the one about the national guard letter.

Governor Bush(texas) and his role in grandfatherring industrial polluters

Kerry issued a statement saying: I don't believe that four years of lost jobs, lower wages, higher health care costs, higher tuitions and tax cuts for the few are the best we can do. ... Do we want an economy that benefits the special interests, or do we want an economy that works for middle-class families? The 60-year-old senator planned to spend most of next week on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket as Republicans gather in New York for the convention that will make Bush the party's official nominee. Kerry said when Americans hear about America's character during the Republican convention, they should remember that the New York firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001, were members of organized labor, a movement facing attacks on overtime and other issues. The only reason people have safe workplaces today, he said, is that others before them went out to the picket lines and fought for it.

The number of people living in poverty rose by 1.3 million to 35.9 million people, or 12.5 percent of the population, up from 12.1 percent in 2002.

The rise was more dramatic for children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That was an increase of about 800,000 from 2002, when 16.7 percent of all children were in poverty.

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry pounced on the figures, saying the report "confirms the failure of President Bush's policies for all Americans." Based on the census numbers, real income has fallen by about $1,500 per household over the past three years, and the ranks of the uninsured have risen by more than 5 million, Kerry said. "While George Bush tries to convince America's families that we're turning the corner, slogans and empty rhetoric can't hide the real story," Kerry said in a statement. "Today's census numbers are more evidence of just how much is at stake."

New Yorker magazine..Prisoner abuse/Rumsfeld memo
New Yorker magazine..Abu Ghraib story..read more

Two groups detail abuse of Afghan prisoners
Larger pattern of abuse revealed...read more...

"Federal tax cuts largely benefit higher income people," Lav said. "In the meantime, people face tax increases on sales, cigarettes, gasoline."read more...

President Bush has just approved extensive gas drilling in the main U.S. nesting beach for the most endangered sea turtle in the world, with only about 3,000 to 5,000 adults remaining. The National Park Service just approved the drilling without formally consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as required by the Endangered Species Act. SIGN THE PETITION ONLINE

"Once government regulators and pharmaceutical companies knew that mercury in childhood vaccines might be responsible for an epidemic of autism, did they publicize their data and mount a recall? No. They were more concerned with protecting the national vaccine program--and shielding themselves from liability."read more...

"...America, which purportedly crossed oceans to liberate Iraq and spread democracy, has instead of liberating it, occupied it, destroyed its infrastructure, and sown fear and panic among its citizens...and curbed every follower of freedom," al-Sadr said.

Recent weeks have been Iraq's bloodiest since Saddam Hussein was ousted a year ago. The U.S. military has lost at least 92 troops in combat since March 31 -- more than the total killed in the three-week war that toppled the former Iraqi leader. "The latest resurgence of the Iraqi people has confirmed they are united behind the choice of liberating Iraq and protecting its unity," al-Sadr said..."...read more on IRAQ(updated)

Bush contradicts himself at his own press conference

Kennedy speaks out

The most important principle in any representative democracy is for the people to trust their government. If our leaders violate that trust, then all our words of hope and opportunity and progress and justice ring false in the ears of our people and the wider world, and our goals will never be achieved "...read more

"...there was Bush--apparently having a laugh at his own expense, but actually doing so on the graves of thousands. This was a callous and arrogant display. For Bush, the misinformation--or disinformation--he peddled before the war was no more than material for yucks. As the audience laughed along, he smiled. The false statements (or lies) that had launched a war had become merely another punchline in the nation's capital."...read more

"A previously forgotten report from April 2001 (four months before 9/11) shows that the Bush Administration officially declared it "a mistake" to focus "so much energy on Osama bin Laden." The report directly contradicts the White House's continued assertion that fighting terrorism was its "top priority" before the 9/11 attacks"...read more

IRAQI CIVILIANS-"collateral damage"?..stories the news will never report...read more

"While everyone has been focused on the campaign finance legislation that President Bush reluctantly signed into law, he is working to make sure that the Federal Election Commission - the agency that will be responsible for enforcing the new law - remains ineffective. The president has nominated Michael Toner to be a commissioner of the F.E.C. and may put him on the commission through a recess appointment. This nomination has barely registered on Washington's radar screen, but it should cause an uproar."read more...

911 citizens watch group

"Whether we're talking about pre-war intelligence or massive pre-9/11 failure, an insular government culture, and in particular, an administration that denies accountability while obscuring the truth behind claims of "executive privilege" is a grave danger to our national security."read more...

"Our present trade agreements contradict the designs and intent of our founding fathers."read more...

Poets against the war

High ranking military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the US to war in Iraq

Military week magazine

Assessing the bush doctrine,1 year later

"We did our job...we need to come home"an american soldier speaks out on Iraq..read more

John Kerry launches debunker website in response to misleading attack addsclick here

"The drug lobby spent $544 million on lobbying Congress, federal agencies, and the White House between 1997 and 2002. They hired 675 lobbyists,more than one for every one of the 535 members of Congress." ...read more

".. as the Cabinet officials spend thousands of taxpayer dollars on their public relations trip, they "said meeting with unemployed workers was not part of their agenda" and indicated the Administration refuses to back an extension of unemployment benefits"...read more

"From 1976 to 1984, presidential debates were managed by the League of Women Voters in a more or less nonpartisan and equitable fashion. Beginning in 1986 the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic parties took control of the debates. Activists who favor fairer and more open debates are irate."read more about opendebates.org

2/17/04..Speech at Fort Polk has no substance in action
Soldiers the losers in budget cuts while speech shows support.President rejects emergency health care funding request for soldiers,criticized by VFW..read more

Identity Theft victims still facing uphill battle with banks

The President's Real Goal in Iraq..read more

DANGEROUS COW PARTS STILL ENTERING FOOD SUPPLY...read more

FAO/OIE/WHO call for targeted strategy including poultry vaccination to help curb avian flu

""Culling infected flocks remains the recommended response when the disease is detected," he said, adding, "Vaccination, when used together with other control measures, such as market and movement management, and good agricultural practices, offers a suitable means to support the suppression of the further spread of the virus." Experts emphasized the importance of protecting people directly in contact with infected or suspected birds. Experts present at the talks agreed that such targeted vaccination would help prevent animals falling ill and reduce the amount of virus present in the environment, the so-called "viral load". Minimizing viral load will reduce the potential of avian influenza spreading to humans, if accompanied by strict control measures such as surveillance, elimination of infected birds, animal movement control and observation of basic hygiene in animal production."...read more

"There was a fundamental dishonesty in President Bush’s State of the Union address."read more...

IRAQ WAR CASUALTY PAGE

DEJA VU...This sounds like the way BUSH did nothing about numerous warnings about 9/11/03,the way he is not helping the wounded soldiers in IRAQ(see index page for a link),the way he is allowing more pollution to kill americans,despite ample laws to reduce deaths from pollution in our country and a lot of other decisions he is churning out without much apparent considerration of the citizen's needs here...could this be a product of a disfunctional administration?...this time it's mad cow!!
"Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco who discovered the proteins that cause mad cow disease, told The New York Times he warned Veneman recently that it was "just a matter of time" before the disease was found in the United States. He said he told her the United States should immediately start testing every cow that shows signs of illness and eventually every single cow upon slaughter, the Times reported in Thursday's editions. Prusiner told the Times that fast, accurate and inexpensive tests are available, including one that he has patented through his university that he says could add two or three cents a pound to the cost of beef. The scientist said Veneman is getting poor advice from USDA scientists and did not seem to share his sense of urgency when he met with her six weeks ago, after several months of seeking a meeting."read more...

"You can go into any feed store and buy calf starter or calf milk substitute.We're weaning calves on cattle blood proteins,even though we know blood plasma can carry the disease"read more...

I plan to serve beef for my Christmas dinner and we remain confident in our food supply," Ms Veneman said, in an echo of the then British agriculture minister John Selwyn Gummer's ill-fated ploy to have his young daughter eat a hamburger on behalf of British beef in 1990. The infected cow identified yesterday was a Holstein which was tested because it was a "downer", unable to walk, when it arrived at a Washington state slaughterhouse. The meat from the cow was nevertheless sent to a processing plant. Agriculture department investigators were yesterday urgently trying to track it down. Ms Veneman said that only the "muscle cuts" had been sent for processing for human consumption and there was no record of the disease being transmitted through the meat. The brain and spinal column had been sent to a "rendering facility" elsewhere, but she did not specify how it had been used. The news hit an already nervous American public, entering the Christmas holiday under a high state of alert because of the risk of a new terrorist attack. Ms Veneman felt it necessary to stress there was no evidence of terrorism in the BSE incident. However, her assurances that the outbreak would be contained were questioned by public health activist, John Stauber. He called them "extremely disingenuous", and pointed out Ms Veneman was a former lobbyist for the cattle industry. "I suggest this cow is the tip of an invisible iceberg," Mr Stauber, co-author of a book ( Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? ) about the threat of the disease, told CNN last night. "My presumption is mad cow disease is spread throughout North America at some level, but because our testing program is so inadequate we have not identified it." He said the US livestock industry, unlike its European counterparts, continued to practice "animal cannibalism".read more...

"The result of the President's harsh treatment of veterans is that "more than 235,000 veterans are currently waiting 6 months or more for initial medical appointments" with "many veterans waiting 2 years just to be seen by a doctor."read more...

'Under EPA Rule, Airplane Emissions Would Go Up, Up, Up Monday, Dec. 15, is the deadline for public comments on a new air pollution standard for airplanes proposed by the Bush Administration. But rather than reduce emissions, air quality agencies say the proposal "in fact will guarantee that aircraft-related emissions of (nitrogen oxides) will continue to increase significantly for the foreseeable future."'read more...

"WASHINGTON(from msnbc) - The FBI has implemented new ground rules that fundamentally alter the way investigators handle counterterrorism cases, allowing criminal and intelligence agents to work side by side and giving both broad access to the tools of intelligence gathering for the first time in decades.

The result is that the FBI, unhindered by the restrictions of the past, will conduct many more searches and wiretaps that are subject to oversight by a secret intelligence court rather than regular criminal courts, officials said. Civil liberties groups and defense lawyers predict that more innocent people will be the targets of clandestine surveillance."read more...

ATM FRAUD..BEWARE..From Dateline NBC
"They've used telescopic cameras trained on keypads, card skimming devices that steal the information on the card's magnetic strip, and they've even attached phony front panels to bank ATMs. But perhaps the most insidious ATM crime the Secret Service ever investigated involved a gang that actually went out and bought its own machines."...read more

Want some perspective on HALIBURTON and a few things going on in iraq?click here

"In my opinion, it makes no more sense to launch an assault on our civil liberties as the best way to get at terrorists than it did to launch an invasion of Iraq as the best way to get at Osama bin Laden," Gore said"read more...

"Khalil said he initially welcomed American troops as liberators, assuming they would quickly hold democratic elections, invigorate the economy and fund public works projects. "They promised us a lot," he said. "We haven't gotten anything from them." Instead, he argued, U.S. troops have made matters worse by behaving in culturally insensitive ways. "The male soldiers search our women," he said. "When they arrest people, they put their shoes on people's heads," a grave insult in the Arab world. Although such actions were rare and were prohibited by American commanders early in the occupation, residents say such offenses are now a daily occurrence. "We are a very traditional city," Khalil said. "They don't understand our culture and customs — and that angers us.""read more...

"U.S. dissident says bush needs fear for reelection"read more...

Some interesting perspectives on current issues and how they have been dealt with by this administration

"Hundreds of sick and wounded US soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait--sometimes for months--to see doctors."read more...

"Space storms double up on earth"read more...

"Blogger dismissed by microsoft."read more...

"The sun continued to hurl blobs of charged particles at Earth over the weekend, with a fresh eruption from each of two huge sunspots. Space storms could buffet Earth sometime Tuesday."read more...

"The Bush Administration is actively opposed to the International Criminal Court. Its insistence on placing all Americans above international law risks undermining the ICC in its earliest and most fragile years. Currently, the State Department is pushing individual countries to conclude bilateral agreements with the U.S., exempting all Americans (and even some non-nationals) from accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. These proposed agreements, in the form requested by the U.S. government, are illegal under the Rome Statute and are not required by U.S. law."read more...

A look back...ABCNEWS.com 3/10/03...Some critics of the Bush administration's foreign policy, especially in Europe, have portrayed PNAC as, in the words of Scotland's Sunday Herald, "a secret blueprint for U.S. global domination."...read more

"You may have read about the recent letter-writing campaign by U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Letters were sent to U.S. newspapers by members of the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment. Those letters touted their successes in restoring order in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, where the unit is stationed.Nothing wrong with that, except that the wording of the letters was found to be identical. At least 11 U.S. newspapers, according to the Gannett News Service, printed the form letter."read more...

Voting challenges-it's a mess...read more...

Dennis Kucinich "news that affects you" page

"...terrorism is flourishing -- not just in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kenya and Indonesia but in Afghanistan, where the Taliban were supposedly defeated, and in Iraq, where, prior to the war, there was no sponsored international terrorism at all."read more...

"...nineteen citizens of Iraq filed suit in Belgium courts in May against Tommy Franks, the commander of the US invasion. They charged that troops under his command stood idly by as hospitals in Baghdad were looted, while other US soldiers fired on ambulances that were carrying wounded civilians. The Bush administration reacted angrily, threatening the Belgium government with "diplomatic consequences" if it allowed the case to go forward. Then when US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld attended a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels in June 2003, he threatened to end US financing for new NATO facilities and to move the headquarters to another country if the Belgium government would not intervene to suspend the court cases. Kowtowing to his demands, the Belgium parliament altered its laws relating to universal jurisdiction. But as we achieve some distance from the war, and perhaps a "regime change" in the United States, investigations and charges will be brought against the US invaders of Iraq in other countries for their human rights abuses and lies about the war, perhaps even in US courts."read more..

"...smog also appears to increase the risk of stroke–either a blocked blood vessel, or a burst one, in the brain."read more...

"... most of Iraq's supply of biological weaponry actually came from the United States: ordered and delivered to the Iraqis over the course of a decade starting in 1985 by the U.S. Army's main biological laboratory in Frederick, Md., as easily as if Saddam Hussein were merely ordering a new mattress from Sears."read more...

"Leaking and lying--these are not actions easy to explain away. Drip, drip, drip--that's the sound often associated with Washington scandals. But now it may also be the sound of the truth catching up to the propagandists and perps of the Bush White House."read more...

Bush,critics tangle over WMD report.read more...

PAX AMERICANA.."No longer will hundreds of thousands of American troops be garrisoned in the safe, family-friendly bases in Western Europe and Asia built during the Cold War, "little Americas" complete with schools, bowling alleys, and fast-food restaurants. Instead, they will be pushed out to spartan bases, far from families, in remote locations like Kirgizstan, Bulgaria, and Djibouti--places most Americans couldn't locate on a map."read more...

"...critics say the media is the latest casualty of the times. They charge the mainstream media produces parrot-like repetitions of federal press releases, bows to government-imposed censorship and reports the war in Afghanistan as cheerleaders..."read more...

"As the illegal Anglo-American occupation of Iraq now unravels, the forgotten disaster in Afghanistan, the first "victory" in the "war on terror", is perhaps an even more shocking testament to power."read more...

What is really behind the music download(RIAA) lawsuits...analysis...read more...

"WASHINGTON — Attorney General John Ashcroft today made it tougher for federal prosecutors to strike plea bargains with criminal defendants, requiring attorneys to seek the most serious charges possible in almost all cases."read more....
Justice Not Prosecuting Ex-Bush Official"read more....

America puts iraq up for sale..read more..
"As the 9/11 trauma fades, Americans are beginning to remember that the 2000 election installed Bush as a minority president. And as Bill Clinton put it in a recent speech in Iowa: "That election was not a mandate for radical change, but that is what we got. We went from surplus to deficit, from a reduction in poverty to an increase in poverty..." After 9/11, he said, "instead of uniting the world, we alienated it. And instead of uniting America, we divided it by trying to push it too far to the right." After appearing untouchable for so long, a former White House official notes: "Bush is vulnerable.""read more....

Current figures for national debt...its over $6.7 trillion!

Project Censored top 10 censored stories
"The reminder that the media often reports the 'news" as fed to it by those in power, and skips past the real news – the reasons for the behaviors and policies – is good reason for the continued existence of Project Censored, a program in its 27th year that collects under-reported stories from around the country and compiles a list of the top 10 "censored stories" as well as 15 runner-ups. About 200 students and faculty from Sonoma State University compiled and reviewed the stories for Project Censored. The project describes its mission "to stimulate responsible journalists to provide more mass media coverage of those under-covered issues and to encourage the general public to demand mass media coverage of those issues or to seek information from other sources."read more...

NO WAY OUT OF IRAQ?

"Presidential candidate George W. Bush declared in a debate in October 2000: "I'm going to be judicious as to how to use the military. It needs to be in our vital interest, the mission needs to be clear, and the exit strategy obvious." His opponent, Al Gore, immediately piped up: "Well, I don't disagree with that ... ." In practice, these promises evaporate faster than a puddle in summertime Iraq."read more...

Casualty figures in iraq

"WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 — President Bush said Wednesday that there was no evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, disputing an impression that critics say the administration tried to foster to justify the war against Iraq."read more..

AARP action alerts page

"It is unacceptable for the government to be looking over everybody's shoulder when they go on the internet, and snoop into the library, medical and banking records of ordinary people. Section 215(patriot act) also potentially allows the government to access, without probable cause, information on our members which we regard as strictly confidential. Even more disturbingly, we would be prohibited from telling anyone about this if it happened. That is simply un-American"read more...

Veterans benefits threatened.."Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Senate Democratic Whip Harry Reid of Nevada, in their letter to Bush, noted that a number of veterans groups, in a joint statement this week, said the plan amounts to "a declaration of war against veterans."read more...

9/12/03...Just in from usa today...updates on music download wars..click here

This is from the web site... "BRING THEM HOME NOW! is a campaign of military families, veterans, active duty personnel, reservists and others opposed to the ongoing war in Iraq and galvanized to action by George W. Bush's inane and reckless challenge to armed Iraqis resisting occupation to "Bring 'em on." Our mission is to mobilize military families, veterans, and GIs themselves to demand: an end to the occupation of Iraq and other misguided military adventures; and an immediate return of all US troops to their home duty stations. The truth is coming out. The American public was deceived by the Bush administration about the motivation for and intent of the invasion of Iraq. It is equally apparent that the administration is stubbornly and incompetently adhering to a destructive course. Many Americans do not want our troops there. Many military families do not want our troops there. Many troops themselves do not want to be there. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis do not want US troops there. Our troops are embroiled in a regional quagmire largely of our own government's making. These military actions are not perceived as liberations, but as occupations, and our troops are now subject to daily attacks. Meanwhile, without a clear mission, they are living in conditions of relentless austerity and hardship. At home, their families are forced to endure extended separations and ongoing uncertainty"read more...

Editors article:9/5/03...Air quality continues to deteriorate on westside of fort worth,texas.

Health effects of grilling meats and other foods

Do you download music online?You might want to read about this:RIAA hitlist

Just in.from MSNBC..AFTER A NATIONWIDE SURVEY of 4,000 adults conducted in March and April , the FTC concluded that 27 million adults had been victimized by some form of ID theft in the past five years. Victims spend between 30 and 60 hours cleaning up the problem after they've been hit, the report said"read more...

"Health workers at NYC rubble after 9/11 disaster not told about air quality hazards."read more...

Read another eye opening article about the situation in NYC here..."All in all, the people running Washington, while eager to invoke 9/11 on behalf of whatever they feel like doing, have treated the city that bore the brunt of the actual attack very shabbily.... "

Try tech tv web site for latest information on viruses/worms/firewalls and links.

Counter