18.Jul.2006 Stem Cell Showdown: The Facts Have Changed, President Bush Has Not Nico
President Bush is blocking stem cell research that “could lead to treatments that save millions of lives + improve the quality-of-life for millions more.”
00.000.2001 Bush said of the research: “I laid out the policy I think is right for America. And I’m not going to change my mind.” Indeed, while the facts have changed, Bush’s mind has not.
Today Bush released a statement explaining why he will veto H.R. 810 — the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act — which the Senate will vote on tomorrow. ThinkProgress debunks Bush’s spin:
FACT: GOV’T STEM CELL LINES UNUSABLE: Bush originally justified his position by claiming there were “more than 60” stem cell lines for researchers to work with;
now we know that “many if not all of the…lines are now contaminated and unusable” because they were developed using mouse cells.
FACT: PROPOSED ETHICS GUIDELINES STRICTER THAN BUSH’S: The White House statement says that H.R. 810 “advances the proposition that the Nation must choose between science and ethics.”
But H.R. 810 actually advances ethical guidelines on stem cell research “tighter than those under the President’s policy, specifically when it comes to requiring the individuals seeking fertility treatment to provide written informed consent when donating their surplus embryos.”
FACT: NO ‘LIFE OR DEATH’ DECISION INVOLVED: Today’s statement claims H.R. 810 “would use Federal taxpayer dollars to support and encourage the destruction of human life for research.”
This is wrong on two counts. One, there is already a federal ban on funding for the destruction of human embryos +H.R. 810 maintains this ban.
Two, the embryos funded by H.R. 810 were “created for the purposes of in vitro fertilization…which are spare or in excess of clinical need + in every single case are slated for medical waste.”
In other words, the “life or death” decision has already been made — “the donors have decided to discard these embryos and they will be discarded.”
18.Jul.2006 Lawmakers play hooky at corporate socials. Amanda
More than a dozen Members of Congress recently “took advantage of a light schedule at the Capitol” and headed to the firing range at the expense of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus.
Hundreds of informal lawmaker clubs have sprung up recently, “affiliated with foundations that can raise unlimited amounts of money from special interests…without having to disclose expenses or donations.”
18.Jul.2006 “He sort of rolled his eyes and laughed.” Faiz Tony Snow describing President Bush’s reaction upon learning that the microphone was on during his conversation with Tony Blair.
18.Jul.2006 The New York Times still hasn’t retracted Nico
its false story about Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). Write the Public Editor Byron Calame at public@nytimes.com.
18.Jul.2006 Government misleading pregnant teens. Nico
“Federally funded pregnancy resource centers often mislead pregnant teens about the medical risks of abortion, telling investigators who posed as pregnant 17-year-olds that abortion leads to breast cancer, infertility + mental illness,” a new report by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) shows. “87 % of the centers reached by investigators provided false or misleading information about abortion.”
18.Jul.2006 Bush Nominates General Who Oversaw Guantanamo Prison To Be Top NATO Commander Amanda
Last week President Bush nominated U.S. Army Gen. Bantz Craddock to be NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, the same position formerly held by Gen. Wesley Clark. Craddock currently oversees the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and was formerly chief military assistant to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
While overseeing Guantanamo, Craddock has fiercly defended the prison’s interrogation practices and has been criticized for failing to take action against the abuses there. Some highlights:
Craddock falsely insisted that a “significant number” of detainees at Guantanamo Bay were members of al-Qaeda. In Mar. 2005, Craddock said that a significant number of Guantanamo detainees “are highly trained, dangerous members of al-Qaida, its related terrorist networks +the former Taliban regime.”
In reality, only around eight % of the detainees fought for al Qaeda and 16 % for the Taliban.
Craddock refused to reprimand Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller for abuse and torture of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtan. Miller, who “commanded the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay +
later helped set up U.S. operations at Abu Ghraib, was accused of failing to properly supervise Qahtani’s interrogation plan and was recommended for reprimand by investigators.”
Craddock refused to follow the investigators’ recommendation, justifying his decision by saying the interrogation “led to breaking al-Qahtani’s resistance and to solid intelligence gains.”
Craddock joked about the detainee hunger strike, saying the prisoners had “choices” in feeding tube color, flavor of lozenges.
00.Feb.2006 Craddock “joked that at least hunger strikers got to choose the color of their feeding tube (yellow was a favorite) +the flavor of the lozenges used to soothe thoats irritated by the feeding tubes.
‘Look, they get choices,’ Craddock said at the time. ‘And that’s part of the problem.’”
18.Jul.2006 Is this World War III, IV, or V? Nico The conservative media can’t decide.
18.Jul.2006 Update : Another ThinkProgress post begins with:
00.000.1996 Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser (all later senior officials in the Bush administration) had a plan for how to destroy Hezbollah: Invade Iraq.
They wrote a report to the newly elected Likud government in Israel calling for “a clean break” with the policies of negotiating with the Palestinians and trading land for peace ...
Now, with the U.S. bogged down in Iraq, with Bush losing control of world events +with the threats to national security growing worse, no one could possibly still believe this plan, could they? Think again.
We have seen Newt Gingrich, William Kristol +the National Review’s chicken hawks all giddy about World War III over the past several days.
And if we go back to the 2000 Presidential campaign, recall Condi Rice was advising the government of Israel not to work with President Clinton as he attempt to have Israel negotiate with the Palestinians in terms trading land for peace. It is all making sense now – especially given that Karl Rove needs something to salvage the GOP majority in Congress in the upcoming 2006 elections.
18.Jul.2006 Bill O'Reilly Death Threat Against Kevin Barrett Priceless!
9/11 Blogger - Blogging 9/11 Related Alternative News
All comments are welcome! but please avoid hate speech and profanity +use references when possible.
Bill O'Reilly Death Threat Against Kevin Barrett By George Washington
Bill O'Leilly, er I mean O'Reilly, said that he would like to see 9/11 activist Kevin Barrett murdered and thrown into Boston Harbor.
Here's Kevin's response:
Rupert Murdoch
Bull-Goose Loonie & Fascist Billionaire Extraordinaire
Fox News
Dear Mr. Murdoch,
It has come to my attention that one of your announcers, Bill O’Reilly, has stated on national television that he would like to see me murdered and thrown into Boston Harbor.
Since I get so many email death threats I can’t keep track of them (among the 10% of my 9/11-related emails that are negative) this is a pretty inflammatory thing to say. If anything were to happen to me, Fox News would find itself facing the mother of all lawsuits +my family might very well end up in control of the Murdoch fortune.
You may wish to consider urging your friends in the White House to offer me Secret Service protection. Please assign me the guy who said “we’re out of here” to Bush when the second plane hit the building at 9:04 – not the higher-up who overruled him and kept Bush reading about pet goats while our nation was allegedly under surprise attack.
See: https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/9-11secretservice.html
The Secret Service agent who said “we’re out of here” before being overruled was honest. That’s the guy I want protecting my life.
Also, you might want to tell O’Reilly that HE'S the one who should worry about ending up in Boston Harbor. 9/11 was an act of high treason and mass murder +media figures complicit in the cover-up will be viewed, a few years hence, the way we now view Dr. Goebbels.
The last time a bunch of empire-builders tried to trample on our rights, we had a little uprising called the American Revolution. It’s time for another one. Let’s kick it off with another Boston Tea Party—a little red-white-and-blue version of V-for-Vendetta—and throw the whole Fox News crew, along with the traitors in this
administration, straight into Boston Harbor.
Sincerely,
Kevin Barrett
Lecturer
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Edgewood College of Madison"
On a personal note, when I first heard that Representative Nass was calling for Kevin to be fired from his University, my first thought is "They picked on the wrong guy". Kevin is smart, wise +courageous.
You can't keep a good man down.
18.Jul.2006 I wish it would just stop!
Crooks and Liars John Amato's Virtual Online Magazine
I wish it would just stop! By John Amato on Blogs
My friend who lives near Haifa, Israel, emailed this to me a little while ago: WE ARE GETTING HIT ALL AROUND US THEY ARE SHOOTING MISSLES ONLY TO HIT CIVILIANS THE SIRENS HAVE BEEN GOING OFF ALL MORNING
Right wing blogger Michael Totten posted a piece about his friend in Lebanon who is upset and leaving because of the violence there. He had to shut off his comments because it got so nasty and people like the Keyboard Kommando Roger Simon, left this:
Your friend … and everyone else… should definitely read this. He might grow up.
Somebody responded appropriately:
Roger Simon returns from a day coasting around SoCal, his skin lightly parboiled from spiriting around in the sun from shop to shop. He boils a latte +flicks on his PC. He visits Totten’s blog and sees the latter’s friend, an uppity Leb author of the Lebanese Political Journal, has voiced despair over being bombed out of his neighborhood by Israel! Simon’s response: "He might grow up." Behold, the analytic genius and profound humanity underpinning Pajamas Media!
A man in the middle of this conflict is being lectured by a guy in his pajamas. Michael then responded with this.
This is a scary time and I hope it stops. All the violence. One thing is certain: the warmongers can’t be trusted to offer up their opinions or ideas since they cheer-leaded us into the disastrous Iraq war and ushered in this state of existence.
Update : More on Michael Totten here.
18.Jul.2006 Crooks and Liars John Amato's Virtual Online Magazine
Kornblut falsely reported that Sen. Clinton criticized Democrats for “wasting time” By John Amato on NY Times
18.Jul.2006 U.S. ASSASSINATION TEAMS IN IRAQ?
Cosmic Iguana - Voice of the Evil Doers Faith-based News for Extra-Terrestrials
U.S. ASSASSINATION TEAMS IN IRAQ? By cosmici
the US has been exercising the Salvador option [*] in Iraq for some time, but seldom have we had reports of them actually having to get their special forces hands dirty themselves. These are typical "rogue warriors" - bearded, non-uniformed. ASIA TIMES: Early in the morning on Sunday, June 18, US military helicopters landed near the home of Sinan Abdul-Ilah al-Mashadani in the al-Jughaifi district of Fallujah.
Within two minutes the doors of his home were blasted open and "a strange looking group of people" stormed inside, according to Said Walid Ahmed, a 40-year-old teacher who lives in the neighborhood.
"This force is not totally unknown to us here in Fallujah," Ahmed, who witnessed the incident from a nearby house told Inter Press Service (IPS). "They are a special force of Americans that assassinates more people than it arrests."
Ahmed described the force from the helicopters as "big men with long hair and beards, some wearing earrings +others with little black caps on the top of their heads at the back".
Sinan Abdul-Ilah al-Mashadani, who was a student at al-Mustansiriya University and the sole supporter of his mother and younger brother and sister, was killed in the raid, apparently by a special operations team supported by the US military, according to witnesses... [*]
The Salvador option is working though - now the US is being asked to stay in Iraq by the Sunnis who havecome to fear the Shi'ite militias the strategy has empowered [*].
18.Jul.2006 I see our government legitimizing every act of genocide. I see our government saying things to the effect of, "We won't bomb you as long as you meet our impossible demands." I see a propaganda assault rising to a fever pitch. I see hopelessness and distrust of government everywhere amongst the masses, but with an accompanying sense of powerlessness. I see us all standing in the wings, watching +when the genocide reaches us, we'll be powerless to stop it.
18.Jul.2006 Response to "Defending the Indefensible"
Great Power is a Blunt Object
Response to "Defending the Indefensible" By Musclemouth
Anything They Say posted some photos of Isreal's asymmetrical response to a few kidnappings. It got me writing a comment of enough length that I decided to post it here:
Here's how I make sense of it. Some call it "asymmetrical warfare" but that just rings a little too, oh, bureaucratic-sounding to me. I mean it's factually accurate, but it doesn't quite capture the situation in a nutshell. The term also implies that Lebanon as a whole committed the kidnappings. Which is a complete lie, as we well know. So the only conclusion I can come to is a really big one, with big implications: there is no such thing as a country. Borders seem really false to me. The only reason I can think of that borders exist is to designate certain populations as legitimate targets for scapegoatism and mass murder. When most world decisions are made by about 1% of the population (most likely much less), it's the other 99% that suffer, 99% of the time. This leads me to the further conclusion that nationalism and patriotism exist only to designate people as stand-ins or whipping boys for the sole purpose of further legitimizing the using of people as chesspieces. These people are inanimate objects in the eyes of all rulers. It's all a nice game for them. The only reason people don't rise up and kill all the rulers is because people are still stuck to the belief that their governments have their best interests in mind. Dissent is a mere thorn in their side; they quash it with charges of "treason" and whatnot. I think the people of Lebanon, as well as the people of the U.S., should rise up, but they won't, because we've all been conditioned to play the game. It sucks. That's all I can say about this right now.
As for the emerging great war in the Middle East, it will only get worse. I wonder whether it will expand beyond that region. I wonder if all hell will soon break loose. I wonder about WWIII +whether it will be a spectacular, all-out, nuclear war; or whether it will be just a slow wearing down process that finally turns the tide against the world population explosion. I wonder if we'll ever see 7 billion people on the Earth.
18.Jul.2006 McCain Miffed at NewsMax Article: ''Temper, Temper!''
A NewsMax.com report about Sen. John McCain’s legendary temper has apparently ruffled the feathers of the probable 2008 presidential candidate.
When NewsMax’s Ronald Kessler, who authored the report, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC show on
07.Jul.2006 to discuss the story, Kessler stated, “Carlson said McCain’s office was very unhappy that he was having me on.”
“I imagine they may have scared off other shows” that might have interviewed Kessler.
17.Jul.2006 EconWatch.com Stiglitz and Rashid: Free Trade Hypocrisy
[Economist's View] America's new trade hypocrisy, by Joseph Stiglitz and Hamidur Rashid, Project Syndicate: As the current "development round" of trade talks moves into its final stages, it is becoming increasingly clear that the goal of promoting development will not be served +that the multilateral trade system will be undermined. Eyes Opened
[Pajamas Media] A delegation of U.S. cotton farmers visiting West Africa said Washington’s multi-billion dollar subsidies to its cotton industry were “worsening hardship in the world’s poorest region …
“Subventions are causing problems to farmers in Mali, we have realized on the ground.
18.Jul.2006 Cheap, Open-design Humanoid Bot - Runs Linux, Too timothy 137+ An anonymous reader points out
Linux Devices' coverage of a new Linux-based humanoid robot: "Four companies in Japan have created a low-cost, user-programmable humanoid robot targeting educational and research applications. ...
The HRP-2m Choromet stands about 14 inches tall +is capable of walking upright on two legs. It can also assume supine or prone positions +stand up from either."
As the reader summarizes, "It runs user-space humanoid motion application software and real-time Linux on a business-card-sized computer with a SuperH processor.
Be sure to check out the video of the little guy without his plastic batman suit."
18.Jul.2006 Data Sharing, Government Style timothy 77+ rowama writes
"The Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department have been collaborating to develop an XML-based model for data sharing. After less than a year since the initial release,
00.Oct.2005 the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) 1.0 Beta is out. It's big, really big. There are no less than 9 namespaces and plans for future expansion.
Contact your local government contractor, with resume in hand +you may be one of the lucky developers to implement NIEM-capable software."
18.Jul.2006 'Ten die' as Israel hits vehicles At least 10 Lebanese civilians die when their vehicles are hit by Israeli missiles, medical sources say.
18.Jul.2006 Bush lunch chat is caught on tape US President George W Bush is caught on microphone using an expletive in frustration over the Middle East.
18.Jul.2006 UK evacuees could top 22,000 The British evacuation from Lebanon could be the biggest since Dunkirk, the Foreign Office minister says.
18.Jul.2006 Q&A: Middle East crisis The Middle East has been plunged again into an escalating crisis. The BBC News website's Tarik Kafala looks at the key issues.
18.Jul.2006 G8 leaders seek trade talks push G8 leaders ask counterparts from developing countries to help them push for a breakthrough on trade talks.
18.Jul.2006 Two dead in north Gaza clashes Two Palestinians die in clashes in north Gaza, as the Palestinian foreign ministry is flattened in an Israeli raid.
18.Jul.2006 Bush and Singh in nuclear talks US President George Bush and Indian PM Manmohan Singh hold talks to discuss the proposed nuclear deal.
18.Jul.2006 UN calls for Lebanon peace force UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and UK PM Tony Blair call for an international peace force to be sent to Lebanon.
18.Jul.2006 Parents warned over computer use A third of children use blogs but a third of parents do not even know what they are, research suggests.
18.Jul.2006 Charcoal reveals wildfire history UK scientists trace the history of wildfires by studying lumps of ancient charcoal from around the world.
18.Jul.2006 coal reveals wildfire history UK scientists trace the history of wildfires by studying lumps of ancient charcoal from around the world.
18.Jul.2006 Rembrandt's 400th birthday marked The 400th anniversary of the birth of the artist Rembrandt celebrated in the Netherlands.
18.Jul.2006 Clone 'would feel individuality' A cloned human would probably consider themselves to be an individual, a study suggests.
18.Jul.2006 Teenagers 'choose motherhood' Many teenage girls see having a baby as a better option than a low-paid "dead-end" job, research has found.
18.Jul.2006 Senate to debate stem cell bill The US Senate debates a bill to promote stem cell research - raising the prospect of a veto by President Bush.
18.Jul.2006 Scientists to build 'brain box' A new type of computer which mimics complex interactions in the brain is built by UK scientists.
18.Jul.2006 Absence 'falls among UK workers' Absences among UK workers fell last year a survey says, but sparks an angry public sector reaction.
18.Jul.2006 AI Reaches the Golden Years To celebrate the 50th anniversary of artificial intelligence, researchers gather on the East Coast to examine the field's history and future -- calling the first half-century the start of something great. By David Cohn.
18.Jul.2006 Congress: Stem Vote Showdown
Though polls show 70 % of the public joins a boatload of scientists, Nobel laureates and legislators who support a bill expanding federal aid for embryonic stem-cell research, it's likely not enough to override Bush's veto. Expect Nancy Reagan on the scene.
18.Jul.2006 First room launched for space hotel Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas took its first step toward a space complex with a successful launch of a test craft.
18.Jul.2006 VoIP Calls Double In Quality Hemos 29 anthm writes
"From Newsforge and LinuxPR FreeSWITCH, an open source soft-switch and IVR platform, have announced that they can support 16khz audio calls thus doubling the potential voice quality.
They have had sucessful tests with a conference bridge, a pass-through SIP call and an IVR that reads RSS news feeds with the Cepstral Text-To-Speech Engine."
18.Jul.2006 Virus Jumps to RFID Hemos 53 MrShaggy writes
"According to a BBC article, researchers have been able to make the jump between RFID tags and viruses.
They found that the mere act of scanning a mere 127 bytes could cause an attack vector that would corrupt databases. From the article;
'"This is intended as a wake-up call," said Andrew Tanenbaum, one of the researchers in the computer science department at Amsterdam's Free University that did the work revealing the weaknesses on smart tags.
"We ask the RFID industry to design systems that are secure," he said.'"
18.Jul.2006 Safe Landing For Space Shuttle Discovery Hemos 60 dylanduck writes
"Discovery is back safe and sound, despite minor problems with a leaky power unit and a last minute change of approach direction to the runway.
The mission tested some post-Columbia safety changes +also set up the space station for future construction. But in some ways, the tough job starts now - NASA has just 40 days or so to get Atlantis up."
18.Jul.2006 HP Announces Tiny Wireless Memory Chip VorlonFog (posted by Hemos) 96
Hewlett-Packard researchers have developed a memory chip with wireless networking capabilities that is roughly the same size as a grain of rice, the company said Monday.
Prototypes of the Memory Spot chip developed by HP Labs contain 256 kilobits to 4 megabits of memory and can transfer data wirelessly at speeds up to 10Mbps.
There are eight bits in a byte. This amount of storage allows the chips to hold a short video clip, digital pictures or "dozens of pages" of text, HP said, adding that the chips do not require a battery.
Memory Spot chips get their power using a technique called inductive coupling, which allows power to be transferred from one component to another through a shared electromagnetic field.
In the case of Memory Spot, this power is supplied by the device that is used to read and write data on the chip.
Data stored on Memory Spot chips could be accessed using a variety of devices, such as specially equipped cell phones or PDAs,
making them suitable for a range of applications, such as adhesive attachments applied to a paper document or printed photograph, HP said.
18.Jul.2006 Indian Scientists Develop Vaccine for Bird Flu Zonk 109 William Robinson writes
"Indian Scientists have succeeded in developing a vaccine against the bird flu disease that has affected poultry business in many parts of the world.
This was formally announced +ICAR Director-General Mangala Rai described this as a big step forward in tackling the highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called the bird flu.
Indonesia, who has recently reported their 42nd victim of bird flu, will now have one less thing to worry about."
18.Jul.2006 Eiger-Fürzchen und Heli-Knattern sfux Harald Haack ?
War es jemals ruhig in Grindelwald? Der bröckelnde Eiger ist wieder einmal zur Touristenattraktion geworden und nun knattern auch noch Helikopter über Grindelwald.
Touristen fühlen sich wie in einem Katastrophenfilm. Fernsehteams reisen an und bauen ihre Übertragungswagen mit Sat-Antenne auf.
Nachdem ?Bürgermeister? Studer den Medien gegenüber das Naturschauspiel am Eiger als ?Fürzchen? umschrieb, scheint es nur noch ein Thema im Dorf zu geben: Der Berg ?furzt?....
18.Jul.2006 Arnies Höllenfeuer sfux Harald Haack ?
Viel zu spät rief Kaliforniens Gouverneur Arnold Schwarzenegger für die von Buschfeuern und Waldbränden betroffenen Regionen den Notstand aus.
Das Feuer ist inzwischen außer Kontrolle geraten. Die verschiedenen Brände haben sich zu einem riesigen Flammenmeer vereint. Fast 3.000 Feuerwehrleute stehen dem Feuer nahezu hilflos gegenüber.
18.Jul.2006 Steuerzahler-Raub von 14 Milliarden sfux Karl Weiss -
Überall müsse gespart werden, tönt es uns aus Zeitungen, Fernsehen und von Politikern entgegen. Man könne nicht mehr aus dem Vollen schöpfen wie früher.
Dinge wie soziale Preise für öffentliche Verkehrsmittel könne man sich einfach nicht mehr leisten, heißt es.
Wie läßt sich das damit in Übereinstimmung bringen, daß von Geldern der Steuerzahler jährlich 33 Milliarden Euro an die Christlichen Kirchen in Deutschland gehen?
18.Jul.2006 USA: Schwerer Affront gegen Deutschland sfux Karl Weiss -
Die USA haben, so wurde am 16 Juli berichtet, ein deutsches Rechtshilfeersuchen im Fall des von US-Stellen verschleppten und gefolterten deutschen Staatsbürgers Al Masri abgelehnt. Dabei wurde auf das in den USA angestrengte Zivilverfahrens Al Masris gegen den Staat verwiesen. Dies ist einer der schwersten Affronte, die ein Staat im internationalen Rechtsverkehr begehen kann. Es ist eigentlich nur unter Ländern üblich, die miteinander in einen Kriegszustand oder Fast-Kriegszustand oder...
18.Jul.2006 Neocons Resurrect Plans For Regional War In The Middle East Guest
00.000.1996 Richard Perle +
Douglas Feith + David Wurmser
(all later senior officials in the Bush administration)
had a plan for how to destroy Hezbollah:
Invade Iraq. They wrote a report to the newly elected Likud government in Israel calling for “a clean break” with the policies of negotiating with the Palestinians and trading land for peace.
The problem could be solved “if Israel seized the strategic initiative along it northern borders by engaging Hizballah (sic), Syria +Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon .”
The key, they said, was to “ focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions.”
They called for “ reestablishing the principle of preemption .”
They promised that the successes of these wars could be used to launch campaigns against Iran, Saudi Arabia + Egypt, reshaping “the strategic balance in the Middle East profoundly.”
Now, with the U.S. bogged down in Iraq, with Bush losing control of world events +with the threats to national security growing worse, no one could possibly still believe this plan, could they? Think again.
William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, is still pushing this radical vision. He now uses the excuse of Hezbollah terrorist attacks — what he calls “Iran’s Proxy War” — to push the USA deeper into a regional war against Iran and Syria:
We might consider countering this act of Iranian aggression with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait?
Does anyone think a nuclear Iran can be contained?
That the current regime will negotiate in good faith?
It would be easier to act sooner rather than later.
Yes, there would be repercussions — and they would be healthy ones, showing a strong America that has rejected further appeasement.
Perle has already weighed in in a June 25 Washington Post editorial decrying Bush’s “ignominious retreat” on Iran.
He, too, wants war.
Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press this Sunday said we were already in World War III and that the US needed to take direct action against North Korea and Iran.
Less well known pundits have flooded cable news and talk radio this weekend beating the war drums.
Meanwhile, David Wurmser is ensconced in Vice-President Cheney’s office +his neoconservative colleague Elliot Abrams (the convicted Iran-Contra felon who urged war with Iraq in a
00.000.1998 letter to President Bill Clinton) directs Middle East policy on the National Security Council staff.
The neoconservatives are now hoping to use the Israeli-Lebanon conflict as the trigger to launch a U.S. war against Syria, Iran or both.
These profoundly dangerous policies have to be exposed and stopped before they do even more harm to U.S. national security then they already have.
– Joseph Cirincione (For more, see “Origins of Regime Change in Iraq“)
18.Jul.2006 McCain panders to neocons. Faiz
John McCain graces the cover of Playboy this month.
In an interview with the magazine, McCain “admits to being a neocon. ‘In some way I am one, in some ways — in that the U.S. is the greatest force for good in the world.’”
18.Jul.2006 Bush Uncensored: President Uses Expletive During Chat At G8 Summit Think Progress
Yesterday during the closing lunch at the G8 summit, a stray microphone picked up a private conversation between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Bush is seen munching on a buttered roll and using an expletive to express frustration with Hezbollah. Watch it:
SkyNews has a full transcript. Bush was caught on tape on several other occasions:
In another segment in which the president was apparently speaking to an aide who asked about his plan for upcoming remarks, Mr. Bush said,
“ I’m just going to make it up, right here — I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them.” […]
At another moment, Mr. Bush was clearly itching to return to the White House, saying to someone, “
Good job, gotta keep this thing moving — I gotta’ leave at 2:15 — you’ll want me out of town so to free up your security forces.’’ .
“ Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight ,” Mr. Bush said, then, apparently turning to Mr. Hu, adding, “How about you? When are you going home?”
18.Jul.2006 Former Vice President Dan Quayle -Amanda- walked out of a John Mellencamp concert over the weekend because the singer dedicated his song “Walk Tall” to “everyone hurt by policies of the current Bush administration.” The song’s lyrics include: “Bigotry and hatred are enemies to us all/ Grace, mercy and forgiveness/ Will help a man walk tall.”
17.Jul.2006 July 17, 2006 Think Progress
Several suspected Hezbollah rockets hit the northern Israeli city of Haifa today. The sixth day of the brewing conflict in the Middle East witnessed Israeli ground troops briefly entering southern Lebanon to attack Hezbollah bases on the border. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment of international forces to stop the violence. Meanwhile, G8 leaders “crafted a plan to stop the fighting.”
In “ one of the bloodiest incidents in Iraq this year ,” a bomber attacked a market just outside Baghdad today. Officials put the death toll as low as 40 and as high as 70.
Journalist Akbar Ganji, Iran’s “most prominent dissident,” said the war in Iraq has hurt his country’s reform movement by giving its regime an excuse to stifle dissent. “What has happened in Iraq did not support our movement in any significant way,” he said.
Four years after the G-8 nations pledged “$20 billion over 10 years to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear materials , only $3.5 billion has been donated — and far less has been used to secure enriched uranium, the key ingredient of a nuclear weapon.”
A $600 million shortfall at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is hurting local agencies that are “already struggling to meet community needs for affordable housing.” On top of the shortfall, President Bush has eliminated $1.7 billion in public housing funds since he took office.
The Bush administration “plans sweeping changes in Medicare payments to hospitals that could cut payments by 20 to 30 % for many complex treatments and new technologies,” a move that doctors and patients’ groups believe “could be devastating.”
Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, “federal aid is finally starting to flow into the hands of people in Mississippi and Louisiana who lost their houses.” “The money is widely considered the most important single factor in rebuilding the still-ruined landscapes of New Orleans and the other devastated Gulf areas of the two states.”
University of Colorado biologists are installing a global warming alarm system near Boulder. “Like the alarm systems in your car or home, this one is designed to detect intruders. But in this case, the invaders are tundra plants moving up from lower elevations in response to global warming.”
The Arizona Voter Reward Act , a proposal to “award $1 million in every general election to one lucky resident, chosen by lottery, simply for voting” has qualified for the ballot, along with other initiatives such as a minimum wage increase.
And finally: A microphone picked up President Bush’s private conversations with other world leaders at the G8 summit. Bush on Putin’s flight home: “You eight hours? Me too. Russia’s a big country and you’re a big country. … Russia’s big and so is China.” Bush on Blair’s departure: “Yo Blair, what’re you doing? Are you leaving?” “Bush also remarked that some of the speakers at the meeting had the tendency to talk too long.”
18.Jul.2006 Nationwide heat wave. Nico
“Temperatures soared into the upper 90s and higher Sunday from coast to coast, bringing out heat warnings, wilting athletes and driving others into the shade. The choking heat was expected to continue for the next few days +the hot air was moving toward the East Coast, meteorologists said.”
18.Jul.2006 NYT badly botches story on Sen. Clinton. Nico
Atrios has details.
18.Jul.2006 Guns used in a “series of commando-style bank robberies -Amanda- in the Washington area two years ago” were “were smuggled from the battlefields of Iraq by a soldier in the U.S. Army Reserve.” Law enforcement officials are concerned that such weapons could more often be used in U.S. crimes because of the availability and low cost of the guns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
18.Jul.2006 Gingrich: ‘This Is, In Fact, World War III’ And The U.S. ‘Ought To Be Helping’ Nico
This morning on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich argued we have entered WWIII. + that the USA ought to engage the effort by “helping the Lebanese government have the strength to eliminate Hezbollah as a military force.” Watch it:
As Matt Stoller points out, Gingrich was also quoted today suggesting that President Bush should be framing the current violence as World War III for the benefit of the fall elections.
GINGRICH: We’re in the early stages of what I would describe as the third World War and, frankly, our bureaucracy’s not responding fast enough and we don’t have the right attitude.
And this is the 58th year of the war to destroy Israel and, frankly, the Israelis have every right to insist that every single missile leave south Lebanon +the USA ought to be helping the Lebanese government have the strength to eliminate Hezbollah as a military force — not as a political force in the parliament — but as a military force in south Lebanon.
RUSSERT: This is World War III?
GINGRICH: I believe if you take all the countries I just listed that you’ve been covering, put them on a map, look at all the different connectivity, you have to say to yourself: this is, in fact, WWIII.
18.Jul.2006 Reporter Cites ‘Deliberate Effort’ By Administration Hawks To Undermine North Korea Disarmament Amanda
Earlier this year, the Bush administration attempted to blacklist several North Korean businesses accused of using counterfeit currencies.
Those blacklisting efforts, which South Korea’s government asked the U.S. not to press for the good of the nuclear weapons talks, caused the U.S. + South Korea to drift “so far apart on North Korea policy” that there was “speculation the longtime partners are getting close to divorce.”
This morning, BBC reporter Katty Kay argued that the blacklisting was a deliberate effort by administration hawks “to undermine a deal on the table” + there is a split in the administration over whether it wants “to eliminate the North Korean nuclear program or…to change the regime there.” Watch it:
18.Jul.2006 Williams Confronts Kristol: ‘You Just Want War, War, War +You Want Us In More War’ Nico
This morning on Fox News Sunday, William Kristol argued that the Bush administration’s “coddling” of Iran had “invited” the latest outbreak of violence +that the USA should join in the current fighting.
Juan Williams pushed back:
You just want war, war, war +you want us in more war. You wanted us in Iraq. Now you want us in Iran. Now you want us to get into the Middle East. … You’re saying, why doesn’t the USA take this hard, unforgiving line? Well, the hard and unforgiving line has been, we don’t talk to anybody. We don’t talk to Hamas. We don’t talk to Hezbollah. We’re not going to talk to Iran. Where has it gotten us, Bill?
Kristol threw up his hands and didn’t answer. Watch it:
18.Jul.2006 Rice Calls Idea That Iraq War Contributed To Regional Instability ‘Grotesque’ Amanda
Today on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos pointed out that the Bush administration repeatedly promised that war in Iraq would bring peace and stability to the Middle East. But as the recent violence in the Middle East has shown, the region has actually fallen deeper into instability and unrest since the war began. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Stephanopoulos it was “grotesque” to suggest that the Iraq war contributed to that instability. Watch it:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But before the war in Iraq many argued that going into Iraq would stir up a hornet’s nest. The administration strongly disagreed and here’s what Vice President Cheney had to say in August 2002.
CHENEY (VIDEO): I believe the opposite is true. Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits to the region, extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of jihad, moderates throughout the region would take heart +our ability to advance the Israeli/Palestinian peace process would be enhanced.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Extremists now appear to have been emboldened. The moderates appear to be in retreat. There is no peace process. There is war. How do you answer administration critics who say that the administration’s actions have unleashed, have helped unleash the very hostilities you hoped to contain?
RICE: Well, first of all, those hostilities were not very well contained as we found out on September 11th, so the notion that policies that finally confront extremism are actually causing extremism, I find grotesque.
18.Jul.2006 The making of James Dobson. Nico
In the Dobson household, there were “a million rules…regulations and prohibitions for almost every imaginable situation,” and his mother “didn’t hesitate to whack her son with a shoe or belt when she felt it was required. … One day he made the mistake of mouthing off when she was only four feet away and heard a 16-pound girdle whistling through the air. ‘The intended blow caught me across the chest, followed by a multitude of straps and buckles wrapping themselves around my midsection.’”
18.Jul.2006 BostonHerald.com - International News: Massive protest march demands recount in Mexican presidential race, #0-3401
18.Jul.2006 BELLACIAO - Interview With A Dixie Chick. "Let Them Hate Us" - Christoph Dallach And Matthias Matussek - Collective Bellaciao
18.Jul.2006 AlterNet: War on Iraq: Iraq's Reconstruction a Boondoogle by Design
18.Jul.2006 Re: [apfn-1] "I BELIEVE THIS IS WORLD WAR III"---NEWT GINGRIC From: Sean McBride 2. The Problem with Messianic Ethnic Nationalism From: Sean McBride
18.Jul.2006 And this isn't even the half of it....
The Real Agenda - New York Times
18.Jul.2006 What could be behind this story?
The Legal Reader: IBM Accused of Hacking Law Firm's Network
18.Jul.2006 Israel Kills Children in Convoy Bombing; Dozens Dead ... By Juan Hizbullah bombs Akka, Haifa; Wounds, Kills Civilians
The Guardian reports of Israeli's continued war of attrition on Lebanon on Saturday:
' Israel steeply escalated its military campaign against Hizbollah in Lebanon yesterday with a series of air strikes that left more than 35 civilians dead, including a single strike on a convoy of families fleeing the fighting in a village near Tyre in the south of the country that killed more than 20 people, most of them children. '
18.Jul.2006 Hundreds of Palestinian 'suspects' have been kidnapped from their homes and will never stand trial
Look who's been kidnapped! Arik Diamant
It's the wee hours of the morning, still dark outside. A guerilla force comes out of nowhere to kidnap a soldier. After hours of careful movement, the force reaches its target +the ambush is on! In seconds, the soldier finds himself looking down the barrel of a rifle.
A smash in the face with the butt of the gun and the soldier falls to the ground, bleeding. The kidnappers pick him up, quickly tie his hands and blindfold him +disappear into the night.
This might be the end of the kidnapping, but the nightmare has just begun. The soldier's mother collapses, his father prays. His commanding officers promise to do everything they can to get him back, his comrades swear revenge. An entire nation is up-in-arms, writing in pain and worry.
18.Jul.2006 When retribution comes, don't cry for Israel When retribution comes, don't cry for Israel Raffique Shah Sunday, July 16th 2006
HARDLY a voice is raised in protest. Not a tear is shed by those who would otherwise howl "bloody murder" when one Israeli is killed by a Palestinian. Those who wanted to crucify Iran's President Ahmadinejad for his statement that the state of Israel should not be allowed to exist are silent as the Zionist warmongers inflict terror and wanton destruction in the Gaza, on the West Bank +now in sovereign Lebanon. But when retribution comes, as it must, we are sure to hear them scream from every which country about "those sub-human terrorists".
This has never been a just world +I imagine it never will be. One American life has always been worth 1,000 or more of lesser mortals. In days of old, one British life had similar, disproportionate value: if African slaves so much as hurt one "massa", scores of their brethren would pay with their lives, but not before they were tortured in the most horrible manner. Today, what we are witnessing as Israel wields the Zionist hammer on its hapless neighbours is apartheid with full fury, military might that is always right +a world, including Arab and Islamic countries, that will heartlessly turn their eyes in another direction, not to add, in the case of Muslims, their cheeks to be slapped and bludgeoned repeatedly.
18.Jul.2006 Libanon: Hunderte Deutsche flüchten per Schiff und Flugzeug
18.Jul.2006 Tsunami in Indonesien: Zahl der Todesopfer steigt - noch viele Menschen vermisst
18.Jul.2006 Nahost- Krise: Israel verhindert Abschuss von Langstreckenrakete
18.Jul.2006 Nahost- Krise: Israel plant unbewohnte Pufferzone im Libanon
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Vertreter von Entwicklungshilfeorganisationen bemängeln, dass der diesjährige Gipfel ein "Rohrkrepierer" gewesen sei, was das Thema Afrika angehe +hoffen auf eine Renaissance während der deutschen Präsidentschaft. Merkel, sagt U2-Sänger Bono, sei "die richtige Frau dafür".
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Zwar dürfen einige Aktivisten am ersten Tag mit offizieller Genehmigung ein Protestplakat auf dem Tagungsgelände hochhalten, aber auf den Podien verkneifen sie sich Kritik am Gastgeber - offensichtlich aus Dank dafür, dass sie eingeladen wurden.
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Am meisten dürfte es Putin freuen, dass seine Gäste darauf verzichteten, diese Bürgerrechtsverletzungen und Demokratiedefizite öffentlich anzusprechen. Nur intern, bei einem Abendessen, wurde über das unterschiedliche Demokratieverständnis diskutiert. US-Präsident George W. Bush, Putins schärfster Kritiker, der sich immerhin mit einigen Dissidenten traf, hatte bereits vor dem Gipfel einen sanften Ton vorgegeben. Er zeigte Verständnis für Putins Allergie gegen Kritik: Niemand lasse sich gern öffentlich belehren. Auch billigte er ihm das Recht zu, eine "Demokratie russischen Stils" zu verfolgen.
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Auch fand der Gipfel fast ohne Proteste statt - aus Sicht der russischen Regierung ein Erfolg. Die Null-Toleranz-Strategie zeigt Wirkung: Ein Sit-In auf dem Prachtboulevard Newski Prospekt wird nach wenigen Minuten aufgelöst, bis zu 34 Demonstranten werden festgenommen. Der Gegengipfel von Globalisierungskritikern in einem abgelegenen Stadion wird von einem Ring von Sicherheitskräften erfolgreich isoliert. Schon im Vorfeld hatten Aktivisten Besuch von der Polizei erhalten, hunderte waren in Gewahrsam genommen worden
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Auch das Energiethema spielte nie die gewünschte Hauptrolle. Die Raketen und Panzer im Libanon waren einfach stärker.
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Putin hatte das prestigeträchtige Treffen in seine Heimatstadt geholt, um der Welt die neue Energiesupermacht Russland vorzustellen. Er hatte alle Wege in und aus der Stadt systematisch verbaut: Flughafen, Hafen, Züge, alles war für volle drei Gipfeltage lahm gelegt, damit auch ja keine unerwünschten Gäste auftauchten
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Vor lauter Nahostkrise sind die anderen Themen in den Hintergrund getreten.
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427189,00.html
Für die Nahost-Erklärung haben die acht Regierungschefs sich selbst hingesetzt und um einzelne Worte gerungen. Soll man die Hamas und Hisbollah "extremistische Elemente" nennen? Sollen Iran und Syrien als Terrorhelfer namentlich genannt und getadelt werden? Die ungewöhnliche Textarbeit hat das Oktett offensichtlich einander näher gebracht. Selbst der russische Präsident Wladimir Putin, der gern den Quertreiber spielt, lässt sich zähmen. Unter gruppendynamischen Gesichtspunkten ist der Gipfel also gelungen. US-Präsident George W. Bush fühlt sich Merkel inzwischen so nah, dass er ihr im Vorbeigehen einmal sogar scherzhaft den Nacken kraulte - woraufhin sie erschrocken hoch zuckte.
18.Jul.2006 Nahost- Krise: Israel stellt Bedingungen für Waffenruhe
18.Jul.2006 Mikrofonpanne: Bush, Blair und der "Scheiß" der Hisbollah (Politik
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427188,00.html
Bevor Blair die unerwartete Kostprobe des ungeschminkten Gesprächs von zwei der mächtigsten Männer der Welt abrupt beendete, triezte Bush seinen Kollegen noch wegen eines Pullovers, den Blair ihm anscheinend geschenkt hatte: "Danke für den Sweater. Das war furchtbar nett von Dir. Ich bin sicher, den hast Du selber ausgesucht." Blair antwortete: "Oh ja, durchaus." lfs/Reuters
18.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427188,00.html Bush, Blair und der "Scheiß" der Hisbollah
So reden sie also miteinander, wenn die Mikrofone (vermeintlich) aus sind. Beim Mittagessen mit Tony Blair verfluchte Bush den "Scheiß" der Hisbollah, kritisierte Kofi Annan und dankte Blair für einen Pulli - bevor er bemerkte, dass die ganze Welt zuhörte.
18.Jul.2006 Welthandelsrunde: G8 machen Tempo
16.Jul.2006 Novak now says he lied about Plame Novak Recants on Newsday and a Whole Bunch More… By: John Amato
17.Jul.2006 Angry Bear Slightly left of center economic commentary on news, politics +the economy. PlameGate: Novak Repeats the Aldrich Ames Canard By PGL
Christy covered Robert Novak’s latest dissembling on Meet the Press. Given the fact that Russert was running the interview, Novak felt free to lie whenever it served his purposes. The last part of the interview was reported by Christy thusly: Novak says he doesn’t think he outed Valerie – thinks Aldrich Ames did so previously. [CHS: There are so many things wrong with that statement, starting
17.Jul.2006 Senator’s Slip of the Tongue Keeps on Truckin’ Over the Web Senator Ted Stevens, who has significant sway over telecommunications policies, referred to the Internet, not as a big truck, but as a series of tubes
16.Jul.2006 The world's most expensive mobile phone 2006 Russian company JSC Ancort has teamed with celebrity jeweller Peter Aloisson to create a very upmarket version of Swiss Crypto Telecommunication Security’s Crypto Smart telephone which will sell for US$1.3 million and in so doing, become the world’s most expensive mobile ...
17.Jul.2006 The age of customerism and producerism Jeff Jarvis
Forget consumerism. We’re not just consumers anymore, as Doc Searls has taught me well. We are customers with our money in our fists, spending it wisely and joining together to spend it more wisely. And we are producers who can compete with the companies that thought of us as mere consumers.
17.Jul.2006 Hacker Spawns a French Watergate
New evidence in the so-called Clearstream affair suggests a computer intruder cracked a Luxembourg bank to frame French politicians for bribery -- adding a high-tech twist to a scandal that's become a national obsession. Bruce Gain reports from Paris.
17.Jul.2006 Water Powered Mobile Phones
Japan's DoCoMo and Aquafairy have jointly announced that they will develop a water based micro fuel cell for mobile phones. This agreement follows their successful development of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) that has proven effective in a prototype recharger. The fuel cell is the ...
17.Jul.2006 Playing for water
A PlayPump is a children's merry-go-round/roundabout attached to a water pump and water storage tank, that provides clean drinking water to children and families in rural Africa.
PlayPumps aren't new (the non-profit venture was founded 00.000.1994), but considering that more than 300 million people in ...
17.Jul.2006 Dan Diner zur Nahost- Krise: "Deshalb spielt Israel verrückt"
17.Jul.2006 Nahost- Konflikt: Die Hightech- Waffen der Hisbollah
17.Jul.2006 Sicherheit: Großbritannien verbietet vier Terror verherrlichende Gruppen
17.Jul.2006 "Cicero"- Affäre: Richter lehnen Verfahren gegen Journalisten Schirra ab
17.Jul.2006 Wiener Affäre: Finanzminister wegen Yachturlaubs mit Bankier unter Beschuss
17.Jul.2006 Indonesien: Tsunami reißt Dutzende in den Tod
17.Jul.2006 Eiger- Felssturz: Warme Berge bröckeln seltener
17.Jul.2006 Sachsen: Größter Massengentest Deutschlands gestartet
17.Jul.2006 Netzwerker erzählen: Schluss mit dem Einzelkämpfertum
17.Jul.2006 Netzwerker Frank: "Nicht nur nehmen, auch geben"
17.Jul.2006 Netzwerker Clemens: "Wir bilden eine feste Gemeinschaft"
17.Jul.2006 Karriere: "In Krisenzeiten werden Netzwerke wichtiger"
17.Jul.2006 Libanon: Hunderte Deutsche flüchten per Schiff und Flugzeug
17.Jul.2006 Krise in Nahost: Hisbollah- Struktur weiter intakt
17.Jul.2006 Nahostkrise: Zwölf Zivilisten bei Luftangriff getötet
17.Jul.2006 Zehntausend tote Tiere: Windhund- Henker schockiert England
17.Jul.2006 Preissenkung: Netzagentur nimmt alle Stromgiganten ins Visier
17.Jul.2006 Space Shuttle: Die "Discovery" ist gelandet
17.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-427090,00.html
George W. Bush spricht Klartext: Weil er nicht merkte, dass sein Mikrofon am Mittagstisch des G8-Gipfels eingeschaltet war, offenbarte der US-Präsident unfreiwillig, wie die Krise im Nahen Osten seiner Meinung nach wirklich zu lösen ist.
St. Petersburg - "Was sie tun müssen, ist, Syrien dazu zu bringen, dass es die Hisbollah dazu bringt, mit diesem Scheiß aufzuhören - und dann ist die Sache gelöst", sagte Bush beim Mittagessen der G8-Staats- und Regierungschefs in St. Petersburg. Eigentlich waren seine Worte nur für seinen Tischnachbarn, den britischen Premierminister Tony Blair, bestimmt.
17.Jul.2006 Sunniten gegen Schiiten: Spirale der Vergeltung
17.Jul.2006 Mikrofonpanne: Bush verflucht den "Scheiß" der Hisbollah
17.Jul.2006 Nahost: Massenexodus aus Beirut
17.Jul.2006 Diplomatie: Uno und EU erwägen Friedenstruppen für Libanon
17.Jul.2006 Rekord auf Rekord: Experten sehen Ölpreis als Konjunkturkiller
17.Jul.2006 Energie: US- Ölexperte Yergin warnt vor Versorgungsschocks
17.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426835,00.html
Warum die Kelten den Sprung zur Hochkultur dann doch nicht schafften, ist den Archäologen bisher völlig schleierhaft. Sicher ist nur: Schon kurz nach dem Bau der aufwändigen Wehranlagen begann der Abstieg der Heuneburg, die zwischen 500 und 430 vor Christus vollständig aufgegeben wurde.
Ähnlich erging es etwas später den anderen Keltenzentren Hohenasperg und Ipf in Baden-Württemberg, dem hessischen Glauberg und dem Mont Lassois in Südfrankreich. Die Ausgräber hoffen nun, dass weitere Funde helfen, das Verschwinden der Keltenzivilisationen zu verstehen. Ilka Lehnen-Beyel, ddp
17.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426835,00.html
Auch die Burg selbst scheint diese Vermutung zu stützen. Dort grub der Archäologe Jörg Bofinger vom Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg die Reste einer imposanten Toranlage aus, die um 600 vor Christus entstand. Alter und Baustil dieses spektakulären Fundes entsprechen denen einer bereits früher entdeckten Wehranlage, mit der der Fürst der Heuneburg den bis dahin üblichen Schutzwall aus Holz und Erde ersetzt hatte.
Rätselhafter Niedergang
Das Besondere daran: Die Bauweise - eine weißgetünchte verputzte Mauer aus Lehmziegeln auf einem Steinfundament - gab es zu dieser Zeit nirgendwo sonst nördlich der Alpen. Sie stammte eindeutig aus Mittelmeergefilden.
17.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426835,00.html
Doch die Texte entsprechen wohl nicht der Wahrheit: Mittlerweile deuten immer mehr archäologische Funde darauf hin, dass die angeblichen Barbaren eine sehr komplexe Gesellschaftsstruktur besaßen, berichtet das Magazin "Bild der Wissenschaft" in seiner Augustausgabe. Möglicherweise standen die frühen Kelten schon in der Mitte des ersten Jahrtausends vor Christus kurz vor der Entwicklung einer Hochkultur - inklusive Städten, Staatswesen mit Herrscherdynastien und Adelsfamilien sowie einem Reichsgebiet.
17.Jul.2006 Archäologie: Forscher wollen das Kelten- Rätsel lösen
17.Jul.2006 Gaza: Israel bombardiert palästinensisches Außenministerium
17.Jul.2006 Krise in Nahost: Israels Botschafter gibt Iran Mitschuld an Hisbollah- Angriffen
17.Jul.2006 China: Taifun tötet mehr als 160 Menschen
17.Jul.2006 Friedensdiplomatie: Hisbollah soll internationalen Vermittlungsvorschlag erhalten haben
17.Jul.2006 Präsidentschaftswahl in Mexiko: Obrador ruft Anhänger zu zivilem Ungehorsam auf
17.Jul.2006 Friedensdiplomatie: "Jeder Tag zählt"
17.Jul.2006 Naturwunder Sahara: Die Ewigkeit wächst
17.Jul.2006 Israel: Raketen schlagen tief im Landesinneren ein
17.Jul.2006 Israel: Raketeneinschläge tief im Landesinneren
16.Jul.2006 Begehrte Russen: Alle Welt kauft ein Stück von Rosneft
16.Jul.2006 Wirbelstürme: Taifune fordern mehr als 150 Tote
16.Jul.2006 Israelischer Angriff: Kanadier im Libanon getötet
16.Jul.2006 Kriegsangst in Syrien: "Dann bricht die Hölle los"
16.Jul.2006 Bushisms Make Even White House Transcribers "Sic." BuzzFlash Finds Dozens of Gaffes Documented on WhiteHouse.gov
Our foreign policy has sunk to "oink, oink" stories
What is an Honest Media Outlet Worth to You? BuzzFlash.com Needs Your Support Today.
Administration wants AT&T case moved to secret court 7/17
Want an Example of What a Democratic "Wedge Issue" Against Bush Would Look Like? Try Stem Cell Research. Almost Every American Has a Relative or Friend Who Would Potentially Benefit From It. It's a Slam Dunk for the Dems. They Should be Stuffing It Down Bush's Throat. "President Bush may use a veto for the first time on a measure passed by the House that would loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research."
Under Bushevism, America Is Up For Sale: Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off +so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.
High %age of youth vote 00.000.2004 has strategists reaching out to tap them again 7/17
Carl Hiaasen: "On the same day that the U.S. House voted resoundingly to lift the 25-year ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, it also rejected a measure that would have boosted the minimum average gas mileage of American cars...That's all you need to know" 7/17
6 of 30 kidnapped Iraqi sports administrators are freed in Baghdad 7/17
The Enron affair should be over by now. But in its explosive final act - the extradition of the NatWest Three to America - one witness has died +a political storm has arisen over the state of British-US relations since 11.Sep.2001 7/17
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ Permalink
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ At the end of the day, they want to see a country in which most of the citizenry are poor, miserable and unable to rebel, due to advanced "non-lethal" weaponry and an utter lack of privacy.
Meanwhile, the fat cats will hold all the money. All of it.
That is the future. Blame the fundamentalist Christians. The ignorant, arrogant fools .
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ How Christians destroyed the USA Corrupt, spendthrift Republicans achieved power via a cynical and ruthless appeal to the beliefs held by fundamentalist and evangelical Christians. The Republican leadership -- whose only god is money -- has looted the public treasury. Through the simple tactic of saying (with a straight face) "I love Jesus and I'm against abortion," Jesse James took charge of the bank.
And now we are broke: Experts have calculated that the country's long-term "fiscal gap" between all future government spending and all future receipts will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires +as the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions soars. The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and Smetters.
The figure is massive because President George W Bush has made major tax cuts in recent years +because the bill for Medicare, which provides health insurance for the elderly +Medicaid, which does likewise for the poor, will increase greatly due to demographics.
Prof Kotlikoff said: "This figure is more than five times US GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap one's head around $65.9trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying. One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143pc." Of course, the Republican leaders understand this outcome full well. They want the economic destruction of the USA.
16.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-427000,00.html
Okegawa - Das Flugzeug mit einer Spannweite von 31 Metern hielt sich bei einem Demonstrationsflug auf einem Privatflughafen der Firma Honda 59 Sekunden lang in der Luft. In einer Höhe von gut fünf Metern steuerte Pilot Tomohiro Kamiya den Gleiter 391,4 Meter weit. Er habe nicht mit einem so eleganten Start gerechnet, sagte Kamiya, der mit seinen 53 Kilogramm Körpergewicht fast soviel wie das Flugzeug wiegt.
AFP Studenten folgen dem Batterieflieger: Eleganter Start
Das Fluggerät ist eine Entwicklung des Tokyo Institute of Technology und des japanischen Elektronik-Unternehmens Matsushita Electric Industrial.
16.Jul.2006 Friedensdiplomatie: Solana vermittelt, G8 fordern Ruhe in Nahost
16.Jul.2006 Nahost: Im Libanon droht ein Bürgerkrieg
16.Jul.2006 Britische Regierung: Blair klammert sich ans Amt
16.Jul.2006 Demos in Petersburg: Mit Schlagstöcken gegen G8- Gegner
16.Jul.2006 Petersburger Gipfel: G8- Chefs fordern Waffenruhe in Nahost
16.Jul.2006 Japanische Premiere: Batterie- Flugzeug schwebte 59 Sekunden lang
16.Jul.2006 Nach Bombenangriffen: Indien lässt Friedensgespräche platzen
16.Jul.2006 Vergeltungsschlag: Israel bombardiert Südlibanon - 13 tote Zivilisten
16.Jul.2006 Energiesicherheit: Hauptthema wird zur Nebensache
16.Jul.2006 Libanon: Zehntausende flüchten aus der Kampfzone
16.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426983,00.html
"In nördlichen Ländern kommen sieben hundertjährige Frauen auf einen Mann", sagt Franceschi. "Iin Norditalien ist das Verhältnis vier zu eins, im Süden zwei zu eins." In Sardinien sei es schließlich ausgeglichen. Untersuchungen aus Griechenland zeigten denselben Trend. "Eine Mixtur aus Genen und Lebensstil" sei wohl dafür verantwortlich, vermutet Franceschi. Das Altern müsse als umfassender Prozess der Umgestaltung im Körper verstanden werden, von den einzelnen Zellen bis zu ganzen Organen hin.
16.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426983,00.html
Lithgow gab aber zu bedenken: "Die Prozesse, die uns altern lassen, waren ja nicht ursprünglich entworfen worden, um uns zu töten." Verändere man sie, könnte das schlimme Folgen an anderer Stelle haben. So schützten Antioxidantien den Körper zwar einerseits vor Stress, sie könnten aber unter anderen Bedingungen das Altern beschleunigen.
16.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426983,00.html
Es habe eine regelrechte Flut sogenannter Anti-Aging-Therapien in den letzten 10 Jahren gegeben, berichtet der Sozialwissenschaftler Anthony Warnes von der University of Sheffield und beklagt einen "Mangel angemessener Nachprüfung, allgemeiner Überwachung und Regulierung der Anti-Aging-Vermarkter". Sein Urteil: Wenn es nicht um zulassungspflichtige Medikamente geht, sondern eher um Lifestyle-Produkte wie Nahrungsergänzungen oder Diäten, findet keine Kontrolle statt. "Normalbürger können die pseudo-wissenschaftlichen Behauptungen in der Anti-Aging-Werbung nicht überprüfen", sagt Warnes und warnt vor Misstrauen in alle über-optistischen Versprechen.
16.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426983,00.html
Richard Faragher, Biologe von der University of Brighton. "Mitte des Jahrhunderts wird es mehr alte als junge Menschen in der Welt geben - zum ersten Mal überhaupt." Die Zahl der älter als 65-Jährigen wird 2050 jene der unter 15-Jährigen überschreiten. "Das Altern ist die Top-Herausforderung für Gesellschaften. Nur wenn die Forschung erfolgreich ist, werden die Menschen nicht nur lange, sondern auch gesund leben."
16.Jul.2006 Älterwerden: Anti- Aging für die Zukunft
16.Jul.2006 Nahost: Israel stellt Libanon Bedingungen für Waffenstillstand
16.Jul.2006 Streit in der Koalition: Wohin mit dem Überschuss der Bundesagentur?
16.Jul.2006 Börse Bombay: "Wir müssen stark bleiben"
16.Jul.2006 Israel: Massive Drohungen aus Syrien und Iran
16.Jul.2006 Ecuador: "Feuerschlund" spuckt Gas und Asche
16.Jul.2006 Union: Das schleichende Ende der Volkspartei
16.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-426948,00.html
So gebe es im Nordatlantik, zwischen Grönland, Island und Irland, praktisch keine Bodenmessstationen. "Da entsteht aber unser Wetter", betont Lux.
Vollgepackt mit modernsten Instrumenten könne der 6,5 Meter hohe Satellit Daten mit 20 Mal besserer Qualität als bisherige Wetterbeobachter liefern. Große Hoffnungen setzen die Meteorologen in das IASI genannte Infrarot-Spektrometer. Das 236 Kilogramm schwere Gerät soll Daten zu Temperatur, Feuchtigkeit und chemischer Zusammensetzung der Troposphäre liefern. Ein weiterer wichtiger Vorteil von MetOp ist seine für Satelliten-Verhältnisse äußerst niedrige Höhe. Aus knapp 820 Kilometern erspäht er Bilder mit einem Kilometer pro Pixel Auflösung. Zum Vergleich: Die Bilder der in 36.000 Kilometern Höhe fliegenden Meteosat-Satelliten bringen es auf nur vier Kilometer pro Pixel.
Schichtwechsel mit US-Satelliten
16.Jul.2006 Meteorologie: Besseres Wetter durch Satellit
16.Jul.2006 Antwort auf Uno- Resolution: Nordkorea setzt auf Abschreckung
16.Jul.2006 Atomprogramm: Teheran nennt Kompromissvorschläge akzeptabel
16.Jul.2006 Gold Mining Bacteria Zonk 2 Anonymous 49'er writes
"Nature is reporting that bacteria found in Australian gold mines are capable of extruding tiny invisible 'secondary grains' from soil and alluvial systems. From the article: "Potential applications -- from sensing the bacteria as a way to look for gold mines, to using them to help make industrially useful particles of gold -- may be some way off. But Southam is keen to exploit the bacteria's natural trick. 'I want to make a gold nugget one day,' he says. 'Gold nuggets grow in nature, so why shouldn't I be able to make one?'"
16.Jul.2006 Keeping Time with a Mercury Atom Zonk 57 Roland Piquepaille writes
"The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced that a new experimental atomic clock based on a single mercury atom is now at least five times more precise than NIST-F1, the U.S. standard clock. This mercury atomic clock 'would neither gain nor lose a second in about 400 million years' while it would take 'only' 70 million years to NIST-F1, based on a 'fountain' of cesium atoms, to gain or lose a second. But even if this new kind of optical atomic clock is more accurate than cesium microwave clocks, it will take a while before such a design can be accepted as an international standard. A ZDNet summary contains pictures and more details about the world's most precise clock."
16.Jul.2006 The Fine Print On Wiretapping Review Zonk 107 notarus writes
"Congress' new bill to 'force' the wiretapping program to be reviewed by FISA has some very doublespeak provisions. One nice line: 'Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit the constitutional authority of the President to collect intelligence with respect to foreign powers and agents of foreign powers.'"
16.Jul.2006 Is the U.S. winning in Iraq? Nico
“I think I would answer that by telling you I don’t think we’re losing,” Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, told a Capitol Hill briefing. He added, “I think we’re closer to the beginning than we are to the end of all this.”
16.Jul.2006 Boehner Raising More From Lobbyists And Corporate PACs Than DeLay Nico
When he was running for Majority Leader, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) pledged to end the K Street Project for lobbyists and “lead the effort to bring about the kind of reforms the American people are expecting from Congress.”
But a new review of financial holdings shows Boehner has raised corporate and lobbyist contributions at a faster clip than even corrupt, criminally-indicted former Rep. Tom DeLay:
[Boehner] has been holding fund-raisers at lobbyists’ offices, flying to political events on corporate planes and staying at a golf resort with a business group that has a direct stake in issues before Congress.
Boehner…has raised campaign contributions at a rate of about $10,000 a day since February, surpassing the pace set by former Representative Tom DeLay after he became majority leader 00.000.2002, a review of federal filings shows. […]
Mr. Boehner’s biggest donors include the political action committees of lobbying firms, drug and cigarette makers, banks, health insurers, oil companies and military contractors. Seven American Indian tribes with casinos have contributed $32,000.
The contributions aren’t for nothing. Just yesterday, CongressDaily reported that Boehner is finally considering allowing a full House vote to increase the minimum wage. The catch? The bill will also include a set of corporate tax breaks:
Republicans pressing for a vote on raising the minimum wage say House Majority Leader Boehner is working to write a bill that likely would include tax breaks for businesses . Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J. +Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, met Thursday with Boehner to urge him to take up the issue. “He is optimistic they can get something meaningful accomplished” by the end of July, said a LaTourette spokeswoman.
16.Jul.2006 The Center for Reconstruction & Development
William Lash, the Bush aide who killed himself and his son on Thursday night, was chairman of the task force for Iraq "reconstruction." He presided over summits like this one, in which Halliburton and other contractors pursued "market entry strategies" for cashing in on "the biggest rebuilding program since the Marshall Plan." 7/16 Blogged with Flock
16.Jul.2006 Left I on the News A leftwing view of the day's news and the way it's presented in the media
Liberal watch By Eli
Judging from the support from sites like Daily Kos, Sen. Russell Feingold seems to be the current "liberal hope" for the next Presidential election. Here's what this "left" Democrat has to say about what's going on: U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold today defended Israel's right to protect itself amid the escalating conflict along its borders, saying, "I don't think any country is going to let their soldiers be kidnapped, transported, killed ... without a serious response."
Feingold said he would not second-guess "whether that response was exactly as it should be."
Said Feingold: "My hope would be that Israel would use as much restraint as possible ... It's in Israel's interest and the interests of peace. But I do think Israel has not only a right but also a responsibility to respond to the Hezbollah attack."
Feingold posted a statement on his Web site Friday saying, "I stand firmly with the people of Israel and their government as they defend themselves against these outrageous attacks." Any questions?
The Democrats, every bit as much as the Republicans, are the party of imperialism. They may at times advocate different tactics, or even different strategies, but their goals are for all intents and purposes identical.
16.Jul.2006 FOX News watch By Eli
I happened to catch a minute of a FOX News broadcast a little while ago. Quoting from memory, but not at all distorting, here's how the reporter (not commentator or other talking head, reporter) described today's news: "Hezbollah rockets landed today in Tiberias, where Jesus worked many of his miracles." They report +evidently, they've already decided.
While we're on the religion beat, let me add one detail which I left out of my description of Thursday's demonstration. On one side of the street were those of us protesting Israel's assault on Gaza and Lebanon, a crowd consisting almost exclusively of Palestinians and hard-core leftists. On the other side of the street, a crowd of Israel supporters, consisting (as an educated guess) almost exclusively of Jews. And who was wading through these crowds? Three "Scientology Ministers" (with jackets identifying them as such), passing out literature. Could there have been a less receptive crowd? Well, perhaps they were hoping for one of those miracles.
16.Jul.2006 The Huffington Post | Raw Feed
Steve Clemons: Shrewd Israeli Objectives May Be to Curb US Deal-Making Options In Middle East By Steve Clemons on Iraq
Some Questions Regarding Israel's Objectives: Is Israel Trying to Curb America's Deal-Making in Middle East?
When I visited Israel in March, one of the more interesting dinner discussions I had was with former Mossad Director Danny Yatom, now a Labor Party member of the Knesset.
As head of the Mossad, Yatom gave orders to have the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, assassinated by poison. The effort was botched +the failed attempt became globally embarrassing news for Yatom and then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But the fact remains despite this one failed case that Israel has been extremely skillful at knocking off serious enemies in covert, lethal, under-the-radar-screen ways.
Why is Israel pounding most of Lebanon rather than just the South and rather than pinpointing its attack against Hezbollah assets? Why the dramatic bombing of explosive fuel centers? The attacks both in Gaza and in Beirut seem made for Fox News, CNN +the next Schwarzenegger movie.
I think that there is little doubt that a significant part of the explanation can be attributed to the fact that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his more liberal partner in this effort, Amir Peretz -- now Defense Minister -- are not former field command generals and want to demonstrate that they can be responsible stewards of Israel's national security -- and that they won't be timid in using Israel's military capabilities.
But that doesn't explain it all. The Israeli response to the Hezbollah incursion is exactly what Hezbollah wanted. Adversaries rarely give each other the behaviors the other actually desires unless there are other objectives involved.
My view is that three broad threats were evolving for Israel from the American side of the equation. One one front, the U.S. will be attempting to settle some kind of new equilibrium in Iraq with fewer U.S. forces and some face-saving partial withdrawal. To accomplish this and maintain any legitiimacy in the eyes of important nations in the region -- particularly among close U.S. partners among the Gulf Cooperation Council states -- America "might have" tried to do some things that constituted a broad new bargain with the Arab Middle East. The U.S. had even previously flirted, along with the Brits, in trying to get Syria on a Libya like track and out of the international dog house.
There was also pressure building to push Hamas -- or at least the "governing wing" of it -- towards a posture that would move dramatically closer to a recognition of Israel. Abbas was becoming increasingly entrepreneurial in creating opportunities for the constructive players in Hamas to squirm towards eventual negotiatons with Israel that could possibly be packaged in terms of "final status negotiations" on the borders and terms of a new Palestinian state. George W. Bush is the first President to actually call the Palestine territories "Palestine" and may have eventually come around on trying to pump up Abbas's legitimacy as the father of a new and different state. I am doubtful of this scenario -- but some in Israel had serious concerns about this unfolding.
Lastly, despite lots of tit-for-tat tensions and enormous mistrust, Iran and the U.S. were tilting towards a deal to negoatiate about Iran's nuclear pretensions and other goals.
Some in Israel viewed all three of these potential policy courses for the U.S. -- a broad deal with the Arab Middle East, a new push on final status negotiations with the Palestinians +a deal to actually negotiate directly with Iran -- as negative for Israel.
16.Jul.2006 Jane Hamsher: Report From the Lamont/Lieberman Front By Jane Hamsher on Iraq
I'm in Connecticut right now where the ground war between the campaigns of Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman grows ever more contentious. There is a general sense that Lieberman is getting desperate but the money he has to spend is formidable +Lamont will have to compensate by inspiring his followers to action.
16.Jul.2006 Lieberman's college roomate writes a letter to the LA Times, saying he no longer thinks Joe is worthy of support.
. Battle of the Yard Signs: Lieberman is definitely losing. Overheard at an event recently, "If this boils down to a competition over the most lawn signs, it'll be Ned vs. Coldwelll Banker."
Jane Hamsher will be covering the Lamont/Lieberman race daily at firedoglake.com
16.Jul.2006 Ex-prisons chief launches broadside at 'gutless' Blair
UK: Labour's law and order record is disfigured by the widespread imprisonment of children and mentally ill people, says Martin Narey.
16.Jul.2006 The bankers, the big deal and the taint of scandal
The Enron affair should be over now. But in its explosive final act - the extradition of the NatWest Three - a witness has died +a political storm has arisen over British-US relations.
16.Jul.2006 CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS - LiveJournal.com
Stabbed in the Back!
The past and future of a right-wing myth Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006. Originally from June 2006. By Kevin Baker. Sources
First drink, hero, from my horn:
I spiced the draught well for you
To waken your memory clearly
So that the past shall not slip your mind!
—Hagen to Siegfried
Die Götterdämmerung
Every state must have its enemies. Great powers must have especially monstrous foes. Above all, these foes must arise from within, for national pride does not admit that a great nation can be defeated by any outside force. That is why, though its origins are elsewhere, the stab in the back has become the sustaining myth of modern American nationalism. Since the end of World War II it has been the device by which the American right wing has both revitalized itself and repeatedly avoided responsibility for its own worst blunders. Indeed, the right has distilled its tale of betrayal into a formula: Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy. Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous. Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America. Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies.
As the USA staggers past the third anniversary of its misadventure in Iraq, the dagger is already poised, the myth is already being perpetuated. To understand just how this strategy is likely to unfold—and why this time it may well fail—we must return to the birth of a legend.
* * *
The stab in the back first gained currency in Germany, as a means of explaining the nation’s stunning defeat in World War I. It was Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg himself, the leading German hero of the war, who told the National Assembly, “As an English general has very truly said, the German army was ‘stabbed in the back.’”
Like everything else associated with the stab-in-the-back myth, this claim was disingenuous. The “English general” in question was one Maj. Gen. Neill Malcolm, head of the British Military Mission in Berlin after the war, who put forward this suggestion merely to politely summarize how Field Marshal Erich von Ludendorff—the force behind Hindenburg—was characterizing the German army’s alleged lack of support from its civilian government.
“Ludendorff’s eyes lit up +he leapt upon the phrase like a dog on a bone,” wrote Hindenburg biographer John Wheeler-Bennett. “‘Stabbed in the back?’ he repeated. ‘Yes, that’s it exactly. We were stabbed in the back.’”
16.Jul.2006 Crooks and Liars John Amato's Virtual Online Magazine
Why It is Not “Our War” By John Amato on Right Wing Pundits
Bill Kristol writes his typical neocon column and says " It’s Our War ," What’s happening in the Middle East right now is exactly what men like Kristol have dreamed about. Kristol has contributed to the chaos our world is in today and for anyone to take anything he says seriously having to do with issues of foreign policy have not witnessed what has happened in Iraq.
The right response is renewed strength–in supporting the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, in standing with Israel +in pursuing regime change in Syria and Iran. For that matter, we might consider countering this act of Iranian aggression with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait? Does anyone think a nuclear Iran can be contained? That the current regime will negotiate in good faith? It would be easier to act sooner rather than later. Yes, there would be repercussions–and they would be healthy ones, showing a strong America that has rejected further appeasement.
Healthy repercussions? What the hell is he talking about?
Arthur Silber says it better than I can…
16.Jul.2006 Robert Fisk on the Middle East
TERRORISM NEWS: Senseless
16.Jul.2006 Middle East Analysis
BELLACIAO - JPost.com » International » Article Jul. 16, 2006 0:04 Putin: Israel has goals other than troops - J Post - Collective Bellaciao
16.Jul.2006 Hennessy's Misguided Scary Nonsense
Hennessy’s View » Blog Archive » Newsweek questions Israel’s actions technorati tags:Israel, War, Aggression Blogged with Flock
16.Jul.2006 DID THE PALESTINIANS REALLY DIG A TUNNEL UNDER THE NOSES OF THE ISRAELIS? In ISRAEL
As an engineer I've given the notion of digging a tunnel which the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs tells us was some 650 metres long,[1] dug under sand across the Gaza border into Israel some thought. I'm beginning to wonder whether this is actually feasible especially considering that it would have to be built covertly and across the terrain that Israel claims. A 650 metre long covert tunnel being constructed under sand is a considerable undertaking the logistics of which would be enormous. The tunnel, even a crawl tunnel measuring 900mm x 900mm in cross section, would require 100% full shoring if actually constructed in sand and at least 60% if constructed in clay/soil. That means all that shoring material, literally tonnes of it, would have to be loaded down the shaft of the tunnel head and then transported along the tunnel to the tunnel face where one man at the face would have to position it and then excavate out the next section of tunnel with all the problems that that involves in shifting the excavated material back down the tunnel to the head shaft where it would have to be disposed of. Rock would be out of the question because of the noise of hammering through it and the extra logistics of getting hammer equipment to the face.
16.Jul.2006 UNDERNEWS
Undernews is the online report of the Progressive Review, edited by Sam Smith, who has covered Washington under nine presidents and edited alternative journals since 1964. The Review is an online journal and archive of alternative news. It has been on the web since 1995. See main page for full contents
ARAB REGIMES BACK ISRAEL'S ATTACKS By TPR
JAMAL DAJANI, NEW AMERICA MEDIA - Far more surprising than U.S. statements of support for Israel's assault on Gaza and Lebanon are similar proclamations from Arab governments. Just before the Israeli cabinet gave Prime Minister Olmert the green light for more attacks, a spokesperson for the Saudi government called for Israeli restraint, but blamed the current conflict on Hezbollah's seizure of two Israeli soldiers. "There is a difference between legitimate resistance and miscalculated adventures," he stated.
The official for the Saudi Ministry of Information hit hard on Islamic resistance groups in Lebanon and Gaza. Those groups, he said, should "bear the consequences of the crisis they have created." Meanwhile, both King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt warned that Hezbollah is dragging the Arab world into conflict through its misguided gambles and adventures. The majority of Arab regimes has been silent about Israel's new two-front war. . .
In a new strategy shift, the dependence of Palestinians and Lebanese on Arab regimes to confront and contain Israel politically and militarily has ended. Militant groups from Palestine to Iraq -- groups known in the Arab world as the Islamic Resistance and as "terrorists organizations" by Israel and many Western countries -- have been taking matters into their own hands. Arab masses have long realized the powerlessness of their leaders to end the conflict in Iraq or alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians. . . At the same time, as Arab regimes' influence over organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah has waned, Israel has lost a kind of buffer zone. Unlike the PLO in the past, neither Hamas nor Hezbollah is dependent on Arab state support. Syria's influence over Hezbollah takes second place to that of Iran.
16.Jul.2006 Israel Taks A Stupid Pill By Larry Johnson by Larry C Johnson
Apparently not content to let the U.S. do a self-immolation act in the Middle East by itself, Israel decided to set itself on fire by invading Lebanon. Burn baby burn? Like George Bush, Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, never served in a combat unit and launched military operations without thinking the matter through. In fact, Olmert reportedly never even served in the military. I raise this because there is one simple question Israel cannot answer about the current operations--what is their strategic military objective. Olmert has somehow persuaded the Israeli military to ignore strategy, think tactically +in the process become really stupid. The events in the next several weeks will expose as myth the canard that you can secure a nation by killing terrorists. No you can't.
Killing "terrorists" has a place in policy but it is not a strategic military obective. It is a tactical objective and may serve political purposes, but achieves little in terms of securing Israel. Israel is attacking targets in Lebanon like a drunken sailor in a bar fight. Flailing about, causing significant damage, hitting innocent bystanders +generally making a mess of things. This is not the Israeli military that pulled off the brilliant and daring raid at Entebbe.
What about Hamas and Hezbollah?
They are not terrorists. They carry out terrorist attacks, but they are not terrorists. They are something far more dangerous. They are fully functioning political, social, religious +military organizations that use terrorism tactics, but they are far more formidible than terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or the Basque Terrorist Organization. They do have the resources and the personnel to project force, sustain operations +cannot be easily defeated. Unlike the Egyptian and Syrian armies 00.000.1973, Hamas and Hezbollah will not easily fold and cannot be defeated in a seven day war. If that is the assumption among some Israeli military planners it is a crazy fantasy.
While most folks in the USA buy into the Hollywood storyline of poor little Israel fighting for it's survival against big, bad Muslims, the reality unfolding on our TV screens shows something else.
Exodus , starring Paul Newman, is ancient history. Hamas and Hezbollah attacked military targets--kidnapping soldiers on military patrols may be an act of war and a provocation, but it is not terrorism. (
And yes, Hezbollah and Hamas have carried out terrorist attacks in the past against Israeli civilians. I'm not ignoring those acts, I condemn them, but we need to understand what the dynamics are right now.)
Israel is not attacking the individuals who hit their soldiers. Israel is engaged in mass punishment.
16.Jul.2006 Israeli terrorism: some reading suggestions By Eli
Lenin's Tomb has some powerful pictures of those Lebanese "terrorists" who have been killed and maimed by Israeli bombs and missiles, along with some good analysis.
Red State Son listens to talk radio, as I don't +finds that liberals like Ed Schultz and Al Franken are either lining up behind Israel or, at best, just "don't know what to think."
ANSWER's Richard Becker (and here), a frequent visitor to the Middle East, offers his knowledgeable analysis of events.
Amy Goodman interviews Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now!. I learned one very interesting concrete fact from the interview.
Yesterday, watching CNN, I had a chuckle when Kyra Philips intoned, "The roots of this crisis go very far back."
As I awaited a discussion of 1948 (or perhaps even earlier), CNN then proceded to show a timeline which started all the way back on
25.Jun.2006 with the capture of Gilad Shalit! Well, not that this is the "root" of the crisis either, but here's what Chomsky mentioned which I didn't know: Gaza, itself, the latest phase, began on 24.Jun.2006.
It was when Israel abducted two Gaza civilians, a doctor and his brother. We don't know their names. You don’t know the names of victims. They were taken to Israel, presumably +nobody knows their fate.
The next day, something happened, which we do know about, a lot. Militants in Gaza, probably Islamic Jihad, abducted an Israeli soldier across the border. That’s Corporal Gilad Shalit.
And that's well known; first abduction is not.
16.Jul.2006 Israeli attacks kill 30 civilians
Israel launched a significant escalation of its military campaign against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon today, with a series of air strikes which left 30 civilians dead.
16.Jul.2006 Ankush Khardori: Arlen Specter's Sham NSA Surveillance Bill By Ankush Khardori on Eat The Press
After a week in which we saw an across-the-board failing on the part of reporters at the nation's top newspapers to report accurately on Arlen Specter's NSA surveillance bill, the Washington Post has published a strong, must-read editorial that debunks the lies and half-truths in circulation thanks to Arlen Specter, his staff +countless administration officials.
Specter's bill, which was being touted alternatively as a "compromise" or a "concession" on the part of the White House, is in fact no such thing. As the Post writes, "It isn't a compromise, except quite dramatically on the senator's part."
Whereas various news reports stated that the White House would be required to submit the NSA surveillance program for judicial review, the truth is that the administration would be under no legal obligation to do so. The FISA court's involvement under Specter's bill would also mark a dramatic departure from how surveillance operations have been conducted in the past. Instead of requiring the government to seek particularized warrants for each person it seeks to put under surveillance, Specter would allow the government to go to the FISA court for program-by-program approval -- a "concession" that, as Representative Jane Harman has suggested, might actually violate the Fourth Amendment. Furthermore, the Post writes, "the government could get permission for long-term programs involving large numbers of innocent individuals with only a showing that the program is, in general, legal and that it is 'reasonably designed' to capture the communications of 'a person reasonably believed to have communication with' a foreign power or terrorist group."
16.Jul.2006 Clue found in mystery of Civil War sub
Scientists say they may have found an important clue in the mystery of why the Confederate submarine Hunley sank 140 years ago after making history by sinking an enemy warship in battle.
16.Jul.2006 Ex-Bush Aide Fatally Shoots Son, Himself
A former Bush administration official, after arguing violently with his wife Thursday night, shot and killed his 12-year-old son inside their McLean home, then turned a shotgun on himself and committed suicide, Fairfax County police said.
Here is Sploid's take on it.
16.Jul.2006 Middle East crisis dominates G8
Prime Minister Tony Blair says the G8 summit must come up with a plan to de-escalate the Middle East crisis.
16.Jul.2006 Labour peer urges Blair to quit Former Labour deputy leader Lord Hattersley calls on Tony Blair to stand down as prime minister in September.
16.Jul.2006 UN votes for N Korean sanctions The UN Security Council votes unanimously to impose sanctions on North Korea following recent missile tests.
16.Jul.2006 Reid 'in migrant threat to firms' Company directors who employ illegal immigrants could be struck off under Home Office reforms, it is reported.
16.Jul.2006 Protesters urge Aristide's return Thousands protest in Haiti's capital for the return of exiled former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
16.Jul.2006 Ten die in South Korean flooding Monsoon floods claim at least 10 lives and force 2,000 people from their homes in an eastern South Korea.
16.Jul.2006 Bush backs Israel at divided G8 The G8 summit in St Petersburg sees divisions over the Mid-East crisis as George Bush defends Israel's actions.
16.Jul.2006 Bosnian Serbs face genocide trial Seven Bosnian Serbs go on trial at The Hague, most facing genocide charges over the Srebrenica massacre.
16.Jul.2006 Israel returns to northern Gaza Israeli forces re-enter the northern Gaza Strip +an air strike reportedly kills three Palestinians.
16.Jul.2006 Relatives anxious over Lebanon Citizens with loved ones in Lebanon tell of their anxiety over the fates of their relatives.
16.Jul.2006 Students unaware of breast risks Most female students worldwide know nothing about the lifestyle habits that can influence breast cancer risk, research shows.
16.Jul.2006 Gel crystallises protein make-up Scientists have developed a technique to crystallise proteins which could help develop new drugs.
16.Jul.2006 Pathetic Media Consolidation — A Threat to Democracy? John C Dvorak Incredible.
16.Jul.2006 Steptoe & Johnson
Lincoln L. Davies is an associate in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he is a member of the energy and natural resources group. Mr. Davies's practice focuses on electric utility law and appellate litigation. Mr. Davies represents electric utilities in matters ...
16.Jul.2006 Transgendered Professor Stirs Debate Over Women in Science Tim
JDP wrote on Dave Farber's IP list: "If anyone should know about the different experiences of men and women in science, it should be someone who's been both. I was especially impressed by the [comment that] 'Ben's work is so...
16.Jul.2006 Syria says tells Hizbollah stop rocketing Israel: When asked whether Syria was telling Hizbollah to stop firing rockets at Israel, the ambassador, Sami Khiyami, told the BBC: "Of course."
16.Jul.2006 Iran Warns Israel Against Attacking Syria: "If Israel commits another act of idiocy and aggresses Syria, this will be the same as an aggression against the entire Islamic world and it will receive a stinging response," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
16.Jul.2006 IDF officer: Israel has no plans to attack Syria : Responding to a report in a pan-Arab daily newspaper that Israel presented Damascus with an ultimatum, an Israel Defense Forces officer said Saturday that targeting Syria is currently not on Israel's agenda.
16.Jul.2006 Israel strikes near Lebanese-Syrian border: Israel fired rockets near the Lebanese-Syrian border on Saturday, heightening fears that it could hit Syria, as well as Lebanon, in a campaign to dislodge Syrian-backed Hizbollah fighters from its northern border.
16.Jul.2006 Israeli soldier killed, 3 missing after Navy vessel hit off Beirut coast : The body of one of the four missing Israel Defense Forces soldiers on a warship that was attacked by Hezbollah off the coast of Lebanon was found Saturday aboard the damaged vessel, military officials said.
16.Jul.2006 EU: Israeli use of force 'disproportionate' : "The imposition of an air and sea blockade on Lebanon cannot be justified."
16.Jul.2006 US plans $A280m jet fuel sale to Israel: The move was announced after Israeli aircraft rocketed runways at Beirut's international airport and blasted the main Beirut-Damascus highway, tightening an air, sea and land blockade of Lebanon.
16.Jul.2006 Chavez: U.S. support for Israel to lead to Holocaust : Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that U.S. backing of Israel is responsible for flaming tensions in the Middle East and putting the world on course toward another "Holocaust."
16.Jul.2006 Ilan Pappe: What Does Israel Want?: The captive soldiers in Gaza and Lebanon have already been deleted from the public agenda here. This is about destroying the Hizballah and Hamas once and for all, not about bringing home the soldiers.
16.Jul.2006 Two Palestinians Killed, Israel Bombs Ministry of Economy, bridge in Gaza : One Palestinian was killed and eight were injured as Israeli air force war planes bombed a house in Gaza city on Saturday morning.
16.Jul.2006 Look who's been kidnapped!: Hundreds of Palestinian 'suspects' have been kidnapped from their homes and will never stand trial
16.Jul.2006 'Israel Has Reached the End of the Road': Although Israel attempts to instill terror in its neighbors and in its occupied population, its gig is up. Israel has lost its ability to terrify, said Ali Abunimeh in a radio interview. It can no longer impose its will by sheer brute force. It worked for sixty plus years, but the genie is out of the bottle now, he maintains. Israel has reached the end of the road.
16.Jul.2006 Iraq: At least 39 killed as U.S. occupation continues : Gunmen wearing police-style camouflage abducted the head of Iraq's national Olympic committee Ahmed al-Hadjiya +about 30 other people including bodyguards and committee staff as they met in Baghdad on Saturday
16.Jul.2006 Iraq: 16 Bodies Found,: According to a police source in al-Hillah, eight bodies were found in Alexandria, 60 kilometres south of Baghdad, four bodies in al- Latifiya, 40 kilometres south of Baghdad +four bodies in Jarf al- Sakhr, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad.
16.Jul.2006 Two U.S. soldiers killed around Baghdad : Two U.S. soldiers were killed in the Baghdad area when roadside bombs struck their Humvees on Saturday in separate attacks, the military said.
16.Jul.2006 Survivors of Baghdad's Jihad massacre seek refuge in tents: Taking little more than a few personal effects, these men, women and children have left their homes to live in courtyard of the large Ibn Taymiyah mosque on the road to the airport.
16.Jul.2006 Closer to the beginning’ in Iraq war : The Army’s top uniformed officer said Friday he did not think the USA was losing the war in Iraq but declined to say the nation was winning.
16.Jul.2006 Video: Putin: Russia doesn't want 'kind of democracy' US has in Iraq : At a joint press conference held in Russia on Saturday with President Bush, President Putin joked that his country didn't want to have the same kind of democracy that the USA has in Iraq. QuickTime video.
16.Jul.2006 Bush Blocks WTO Entry for Russia: There was a quick handshake but little warmth between Bush and Putin during a photo opportunity opening their talks. For the second day, Bush spent part of it mountain biking.
16.Jul.2006 Afghanistan: Fifty-six "rebels" killed: Some 56 suspected "Taliban fighters" and one civilian were killed and at least 20 rebels were arrested in fresh clashes in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday.
16.Jul.2006 UK defends strike on Afghan town : Witnesses say there were many civilian deaths and injuries
16.Jul.2006 Alleged terrorist held for years in US without charges : . “We’re working on the assumption that he’s going to be housed under his current status for the remainder of his natural life,” said Andrew Savage, one of Marri’s lawyers.
16.Jul.2006 Italian spy chief questioned over CIA case: The head of Italy's military intelligence agency was questioned by prosecutors for the first time on Saturday on suspicion of helping the CIA kidnap a terrorism suspect in Milan, judicial sources said
16.Jul.2006 UN votes for N Korean sanctions : The UN Security Council has unanimously voted to impose sanctions on North Korea following recent missile tests.
16.Jul.2006 Mexico’s Leftist Candidate Says He’ll Never Concede Defeat : “For me this election is fraudulent from start to finish,” Mr. López Obrador said
16.Jul.2006 Liberal Assault on Joe Could Hurt Democrats in Other Senate Races : Some Democrats are nervous that if Senator Joseph Lieberman loses his primary to an antiwar challenger, thousands of hawkish Jewish Democrats who see the Connecticut lawmaker as their standard-bearer will either abandon the party or sit out the November election.
16.Jul.2006 Daily Show exposes Stevens' net neutrality expertise: Eighty-two year old Sen. Ted Stevens' complete inability to comprehend the internet would be kind of cute, were it not for the fact that the following soundbites were taken from his 11-minute speech regarding a bill that would have increased network neutrality mandates.
15.Jul.2006 Israel kills 32 civilians, including 15 children, in air strikes : By Laila Bassam
An Israeli missile incinerated a van in south Lebanon, killing 20 people, among them 15 children, in the deadliest single attack of the four-day-old campaign launched by Israel after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers and killed eight. Continue
15.Jul.2006 Fleeing Lebanon villagers caught in Israeli inferno -By Hussein Saad
The child was holding a sandwich when an Israeli missile killed him and 19 other people fleeing their Lebanese border village in a van. Continue
15.Jul.2006 Report: Israel gives Syria ultimatum -By Roee Nahmias
The London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday that “Washington has information according to which Israel gave Damascus 72 hours to stop Hizbullah’s activity along the Lebanon-Israel border and bring about the release the two kidnapped IDF soldiers or it would launch an offensive with disastrous consequences.” Continue
15.Jul.2006 Israeli Air Force Will Likely Make a Pre-emptive Strike Against Syria
Stratfor Intelligence Report
The longer the IDF waits to push into Lebanon +the more brigades it amasses, the more likely the Israelis are planning to drive all the way into areas south of Beirut. A push to the Litani would involve about five brigades; a deeper invasion would involve seven to 12. Continue
15.Jul.2006 What I am watching in Lebanon each day is an outrage -By Robert Fisk in Mdeirej, Central Lebanon
European politicians have talked about Israel's "disproportionate" response to Wednesday's capture of its soldiers. They are wrong. What I am now watching in Lebanon is an outrage. How can there be any excuse for the 73 dead Lebanese blown these past three days? Continue
15.Jul.2006 Defiant Nasrallah Warns: 'We are ready for open war' -By Leila Hatoum and Mohammed Zaatari
"Our homes will not be the only ones to be destroyed, our children will not be the only ones to die ... Those days are over I promise you. You [Israelis] must take responsibility for what your government has done," he said. Continue
15.Jul.2006 The Real Aim THE REAL aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government. By: Uri Avnery
00.000.1982 -As- the 00.07.2006 -present- operation, too, was planned + is being carried out in full coordination with the US. As then, there is no doubt that it is coordinated with a part of the Lebanese elite. Continue
15.Jul.2006 The framing of Hizbullah
Israel's response to its soldiers' capture is part of a hamfisted attempt to redraw the region's map
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb in Beirut
The capture of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, to bargain for prisoner exchange should come as no surprise - least of all to Israel, which must bear its own responsibility for the abductions and is using this conflict to pursue its wider strategic aims. Continue
15.Jul.2006 Uncensored News Reports From Across The Middle East Warning This video contains images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience. Click here to watch. QuickTime Video.
16.Jul.2006 N.K. envoy rejects UNSC resolution, warns of 'strong physical action' : North Korea's envoy to the United Nations warned Saturday his country would be forced to take "strong physical action" should it be pressured on its "self-defensive" missile launches, protesting a resolution passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) condemning his government.
16.Jul.2006 Assad pledges Syrian help for Lebanon: Syria will put its resources at the disposal of Lebanon to help cope with Israeli attacks devastating the country, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Lebanese President Emile Lahoud by phone on Saturday.
Syria ‘ready for anything’: Syria is bracing itself for “any eventuality” as the regime nervously eyes a relentless Israeli operation over the border in Lebanon and faces up to increasingly hostile US rhetoric.
16.Jul.2006 Israeli is preparing the battlefield Stratfor Intelligence Report
We are now in the period preceding major conventional operations. Israel is in the process of sealing the Lebanese coast.
They have disrupted Lebanese telecommunications, although they have not completely collapsed the structure. Israeli aircraft are attacking Hezbollah's infrastructure and road system.
In the meantime, Hezbollah, aware it is going to be hit hard, is in a use-it or-lose-it scenario, firing what projectiles it can into Israel. Continue
15.Jul.2006 Statement from the General Secretary of Hizballah,
His Excellency Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah
Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr
In this first address that I give in these days following Operation True Promise, I would like to say a few words – a word to the Lebanese people, a word to the resistance fighters, a word to the Zionists +a word to the Arab rulers. I will not offer words to the international community because I have never for one day believed that there is any such thing as an international community, just as many in our nation feel. Continue
16.Jul.2006 Hizbollah's response reveals months of planning If Lebanese dislike Hizbollah, they hate Israelis -By Robert Fisk
It will be called the massacre of Marwaheen. All the civilians killed by the Israelis had been ordered to abandon their homes in the border village by the Israelis themselves a few hours earlier. That's when the Israeli jets arrived to bomb them, killing 20 Lebanese, at least nine of them children. The local fire brigade could not put out the fires as they all burned alive in the inferno. Another "terrorist" target had been eliminated. Continue 16.Jul.2006 Under Bushevism, America Is Up For Sale: Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off +so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.
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Bush Motion Fatigue Sets In - The Last Chance Democracy Cafe by Steven C. Day
We could be going bankrupt, says Federal Reserve researcher in shock paper: country may be "exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors" 7/16 Newt Gingrich's mad proposal for Bush to declare World War III 7/16
William Lash, the Bush aide who killed himself and his son on Thursday night, was chairman of the task force for Iraq "reconstruction." He presided over summits like this one, in which Halliburton and other contractors pursued "market entry strategies" for cashing in on "the biggest rebuilding program since the Marshall Plan." 7/16
Army chief stumped when asked if we're winning -- says we're not losing 7/16
Beltway conventional wisdom is that election will be all about protecting U.S. from scary terrorists 7/16
Senior Labor Party pol asks Tony Blair to step down in two months 7/16
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ recent post by Jason Leopold that virtually all the CIA, State Department +White House officials he quotes who were involved in the activities regarding Wilson's attempts to expose the Niger story interestingly stress that they were struck at how personally Cheney took Wilson's positon.
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ reading of the Supreme Court decision on Jones v Clinton .
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ the press reports of that decision state not that the timing of the filing of the suit was the basis of the decision.
Instead, the press reports claimed the Court decided Clinton's argument (that he could not be sued while in office) did not cover personal matters.
In other words, officials are immune only from suit for doing what they were elected or appointed to do, not from doing something of a personal nature.
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ will Cheney be able to declare immunity from Plame's lawsuit?
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ this offering from Attaturk at FDL today
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ Why does Green get all the attention?
If you've seen or read "A Clockwork Orange," you'll understand what I mean when I say that the reporters have chosen to pin all the blame on Dim while leaving Alex's name out of the papers. Permalink
16.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ The Christian rapist In the comments section to a previous post, a reader asked why I used the term "Christian" to describe Private Steven Green, one of the soldiers responsible for the rape of Abir Hamza.
We now know somewhat more about this fellow:
13.Mar.2006 - two months after he was released from the Midland jail, Mr. Green was one of eight soldiers baptized during a Church of Christ service at Fort Benning.
16.Jul.2006 Bücherverbrennung: Neonazi- Eklat im Dorf der Verfassungsschützer
16.Jul.2006 G8 und Armutsbekämpfung: "Man muss die Mächtigen auf ihre Worte festnageln"
16.Jul.2006 Kongo: Reservat für Menschenaffen
16.Jul.2006 Raketentests: Uno- Sicherheitsrat verabschiedet Resolution gegen Nordkorea
15.Jul.2006 Madonna vom Berg gefallen sfux Harald Haack ?
Die Menschen in Grindelwald sprangen aus ihren Betten, reckten zunächst ihre Köpfe, als das Krachen vom Eiger hinunter ins Tal grollte, wo das Bergdorf liegt. Doch dann zogen sie unwillkürlich ihre Köpfe ein. Aufgeregt sprangen einige Japaner auf die Straße am östlichen Rand Grindelwalds, dem ?Teufli-Graben? +erkannten im Licht des abnehmenden Mondes die Staubwolke, die sich wie ein Schleier über die Dächer schob.
15.Jul.2006 G8 To Poor Countries: Let Them Eat Oil Guest
Last year’s G8 summit was going to ”make poverty history,“ and world leaders agreed to cancel the debts of 18 impoverished countries in Africa and Latin America.
This year, with skyrocketing world oil prices, energy will top the agenda of the summit.
But rather than working to build on last year’s promises, G8 leaders are undermining those efforts by pushing increased oil investment in developing countries, despite research showing oil production actually increases a country’s debt burden. (See American Progress’ comparison of debt savings to cost of oil here.)
And what about debt-burdened countries that don’t have domestic oil supplies? Spiking oil prices hit their economies the hardest — an estimated ten times as much as the USA.
For many well-performing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the increased cost of oil 00.000.2006 will exceed the budgetary resources freed by debt relief:
– Tanzania will save $140 million through canceled payments to the World Bank and IMF, but it will have to pay more than double that amount on the increased cost of importing oil .
– Sierra Leone will spend almost twice as much this year to cover the hike in its oil bill as it will on health and education services for the entire country.
Passing this burden off to people who make less than two dollars a day is neither a viable nor moral way to handle the energy crisis that the world’s poorest countries face.
The G8 countries shouldn’t be spreading their oil addition to others.
A better solution is making investments today in an affordable and clean energy future for these countries, a future that preserves their environment + natural resources and ensures a capacity to absorb the shocks of fluctuating global energy markets. – Rebecca Schultz
15.Jul.2006 Putin Jabs Bush: ‘We Certainly Would Not Want…The Same Kind of Democracy As They Have in Iraq’ Think Progress
During a press conference today at the G8 summit in Russia, President Bush told President Vladimir Putin that Americans want Russia to develop a free press and free religion “like Iraq.” To laughter and applause, Putin responded: “We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.” CNN’s Ed Henry called it a “tough jab.” Watch it:
The exchange underscores how the war in Iraq has damaged the standing of the USA, to the point where even modest encouragement for democratic reform is met with ridicule.
BUSH: I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq, where there’s a free press and free religion. And I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia will do the same thing. I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy.
PUTIN: We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.
BUSH: Just wait.
15.Jul.2006 Israeli aircraft strike Beirut. Admin
“Witnesses said Israeli aircraft attacked Lebanon’s capital Beirut Saturday for the first time in a four-day offensive, striking a lighthouse and the city’s seaport,” the AP reports.
15.Jul.2006 Expert Cited By Embryonic Stem Cell Opponents Grossly Distorts Research Judd
Next week, the Senate will consider a bill lifting restrictions on embryonic stem cell research imposed by President Bush in August 2001. Bush limited federally-funded research to embryonic stem cell lines already in existence, a move “widely decried by researchers and patient groups as a roadblock to the development of treatments for a range of diseases.”
15.Jul.2006 Danger - The Israel Lobby at work in the US By Postman
Peace Palestine has the full text of a speech by Jeffrey Blankfort which takes on the arguments of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy in the London Review of Books by Professors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Steven Walt, of Harvard, with fascinating detail about AIPAC Jeff Blankfort - The Influence of Israel and its American Lobby over US Middle East Policy Presentation
15.Jul.2006 New York Times Owner Blames Only Muslims For Israel's Violent Wars By ElaineMeinelSupkis
The owners of the NYT openly blames the barely armed Palestinians and the very weak Lebanese for the hyper aggressive war being waged by out of control Israel. And Israel gets more aid and war materials from America even as the USA pretends it has no control over events in the Middle East. As Americans try to flee Israeli bombs, the State Department tells them they are on their own, so what. TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
15.Jul.2006 Paul Craig Roberts: Attention Deficit Americans Are Being Misled to War -by Paul Craig Roberts
A terrible thing is happening +not enough Americans are aware to be able to do anything about it. Zionists in Israel and in the Bush administration are leading America into war with Iran, Syria, Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. The consequences for America, Israel and the Middle East will be disastrous, but as long as Washington is in thrall to Zionist paranoia, nothing can be done about it. Bush made this clear on July 14 when he rejected the plea from Lebanon’s prime minister to pressure Israel to stop its attack on Lebanon.
The war began when Bush’s neoconservative government invaded Afghanistan and Iraq under the pretense of "fighting terrorism." Neither front has gone well for America. The Israelis, seeing the growing domestic opposition to Bush’s wars of choice, concluded that they are in danger of losing America’s military intervention in behalf of their Middle East interests. Israel decided to force the issue.
Israel did this by bombing and invading Gaza, from which they had just withdrawn as part of a "Palestinian settlement." Israel’s pretext was the capture of one Israeli soldier in Gaza in retribution for Israel’s genocidal policies toward Palestine. Few Americans know that Israel has forced Palestinians into ghettos and walled them off from their farm lands, schools +medical treatment.
By slaughtering scores of civilians and destroying the infrastructure of the fragile land in response to the capture of one Israeli soldier, Israel has made it clear that its policy is fire and sword.
15.Jul.2006 What happens when 'shock and awe' no longer works?
Much of the discussion here and elsewhere about Israel's attacks in Lebanon has been over whether Israel has the right to do what it is doing.
The bigger question, I believe, is whether what Israel is doing will actually work. Will it achieve its objectives? Will it free the captives and strike a hard blow to Hezbollah?
And what happens if you bomb the living crap out of someone and they don't bend? What happens when you trigger a 'shock and awe' campaign but the other side isn't sufficiently shocked or awed?
In the last few days, here has been some very sober analysis on that dilemma, which the USA currently faces in Iraq.
First, David Ignatius in Friday's Washington Post:
Israeli and American doctrine is premised on the idea that military force will deter adversaries. But as more force has been used in recent years, the deterrent value has inevitably gone down. That's the inner spring of this crisis: The Iranians (and their clients in Hezbollah and Hamas) watch the American military mired in Iraq and see weakness. They are emboldened rather than intimidated. The same is true for the Israelis in Gaza. Rather than reinforcing the image of strength, the use of force (short of outright, pulverizing invasion and occupation) has encouraged contempt.
15.Jul.2006 BBC: where human life doesn't count if you are on the "wrong" side By The Cat's Dream
REUTERS Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:16pm ET: BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel killed at least 32 civilians on Saturday, including 15 children, in air strikes meant to punish Lebanon for letting Hizbollah guerrillas menace the Jewish state's northern border. (...) bringing the death toll in four days of Israeli attacks to 99. All but three of the dead have been civilians. BUT ON THE SAME FACT TWO DIFFERENT
15.Jul.2006 Israel Prepares to Invade Syria By Administrator on Uncategorized
As to be expected, the story about a Hezbollah drone hitting an Israeli warship was tweaked this morning to fit the emerging agenda. “Senior Israeli army officers said Saturday that the rocket which hit an Israeli missile boat off the Lebanese coast Friday night was an Iranian-built radar-guided C-802,” reports the Bangkok Post.
How Israel mistook an “aircraft rigged with explosives” for a missile, as the Associated Press reports, is not explained. However, blaming Iran certainly fits the picture, as both Israel and the USA are trying to drag Iran and Syria into Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and thus widen the conflict, as planned.
In a Market Watch article provocatively entitled “Bush points finger at Hezbollah, Syria,” we learn that our ruler, attending a globalist confab in St. Petersburg, Russia, has blamed Syria for Israel’s invasion.
15.Jul.2006 NYPD Member on MySpace By somebigguy Check it out here: https://www.myspace.com/nypd219
A few excerpts:
I'm a former NYC police officer, now retired in my 30's thanks to 9/11.
I honestly believe GOVERNMENT complacency had a hand in ALLOWING 9/11 to happen.
Someone also allowed LARRY SILVERSTEIN make a profit of 4 BILLION dollars by demolishing his own buildings.
I am not a conspiracy theorist.
The conspiracy can be found in the story that the media +our government are trying to sell to us.
I was there that morning on 9/11, I heard it all +I saw it all, nuff said.
George W Bush thinks he is a king +should be THROWN out of office.
This is not the America I grew up in under this selfish billionaire.
I just found out I might be dying from Pulmonary Fibrosis, as a result of breathing the air at Ground Zero for over a month.
15.Jul.2006 Ignorance is Strength? In 911 truth
Campos dressed his smear attack up in an article supposedly about Joe Lieberman, but the propaganda techniques were clearly aimed at discrediting the September 11th truth seekers.
To back up Campos' arguments, he provided nothing at all, except for name calling.
15.Jul.2006 Israel Shows World How To Deal With Terrorists By Good Lieutenant
No talk. No compromise. No appeasement.
Threaten them +back it up with lethal force. Lots of it . Keep the pressure on. Do not back down because of whiny, impotent socialists in Europe.
Watch and learn, peaceniks and antiwarbots. You can't take the "starving alligator" approach with Islamists, where you keep feeding the alligator little pieces of meat while it eats everyone else - eventually, you are going to be on the menu when the tidbits run out.
Talk like this is encouraging - Israel has been taking Islamist terrorists rockets, suicide bombs, invasions, kidnappings, etc. for years: Iran and Syria both "are playing with fire and will bear the consequences" for any assistance they give Hezbollah in holding the two soldiers as hostages. Go, my fine Jewish allies. Go forth +show these animals what it means to push around Western civilization. Hussein found out. Zarqawi and oodles of dead terrorists in Iraq found out. The Taliban found out. Khadafi found out. Hezbollah is learning. Iran is watching +despite the Nazi-like rhetoric, will be inneffectual in an actual tactical strike against Israel. The IDF is too well armed, trained and resolved to take any guff from Iran's Hitler Jr.
And another thing gets me. The Neville Chamberlains of the world demand "proportional response?" What exactly is that? Israel kidnapping militants, hodling them hostage while they blindly fire rockets into civilian population centers deep in Lebanon- targeting innocents?
Here's to Israel and her continued success at wiping these Islamist pigs off the planet once and for all.
15.Jul.2006 CNN's King, Kagan echoed Republican falsehoods on Wilson's trip to Niger In War in Iraq
On the July 14 edition of CNN's Live Today, host Daryn Kagan and chief national correspondent John King repeated two falsehoods frequently advanced by conservatives to attack former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who - along with his wife, former CIA-operative Valerie Plame -- filed a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove +former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby the previous day. First, King falsely claimed that Wilson "did say in one television interview +... intimated in some others, that the vice president had sent him to Niger" to investigate reports that Iraq had sought to purchase yellowcake uranium from that country. Later, both King and Kagan claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee found that Plame "sent" Wilson on the trip to Niger. As Media Matters for America has items/200510250008noted /items/200606160007 numerous /items/200604140005 times, Wilson did not claim Cheney sent him to Niger +the Senate Intelligence Committee report did not officially conclude that Plame was responsible for sending Wilson on the trip.
Falsehood #1: Wilson claimed Cheney sent him to Niger
15.Jul.2006 Flight 77 Revisited (58 Passingers and 6 crew) American Airlines Flight 77, from Washington to Los Angeles, crashed into the Pentagon with 64 people aboard. CNN.com Specials
It had 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots aboard, the airline said.
technorati tags:Flight_77, 9/11, passengers Blogged with Flock
15.Jul.2006 David Horowitz: Kill More Arabs By Administrator on Uncategorized
David Horowitz, former Marxist gone to neocon seed, salivating over a possible war in the Middle East, writes: “Americans need to take a hard look at what is going on in the Middle East, because it provides the clearest picture possible of the war we are in. The war reveals the impossibility of a Palestinian state and the necessity of a civilized occupying force in a region that is populated by a people who have been terminally brainwashed into an ideology of hate, which makes their self-government a crime waiting to happen.”
Civilized—you know, like bombing families with twelve children while they sleep.
In other words, the Israelis should run roughshod over the Arabs forever because, as David tells us, all of them, down to the last man, woman +child are “bad guys,” as they like to say in Washington.
15.Jul.2006 Scoop: Leopold: Why Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Filed
15.Jul.2006 Oppose the Israeli assault on Gaza and Lebanon! By Eli
For those of you who couldn't make the demonstration today in San Francisco, here's your chance to participate virtually:
And a still if you have trouble seeing the video above:
And while we're on the subject of demonstrations, Politics in the Zeros has videos, stills, mp3 files +details of a recent anti-Minutemen demonstration in Los Angeles at which demonstrators were viciously beaten by the LAPD (beaten badly enough to require hospital visits). Not only were they beaten, several of the anti-racist demonstrators were arrested; one was actually charged with lynching! ANSWER-LA is now suing the LAPD as well as demanding the charges be dropped; after you familiarize yourself with the details at Politics in the Zeros , stand up for your own rights to demonstrate by sending a letter on behalf of the demonstrators.
15.Jul.2006 Media coverage on the assault on Lebanon By Eli
Continuing my theme from yesterday, Eric Boehlert at Huffington Post (yes, believe it or not, there finally is one post there on the subject) quantifies CNN's coverage of the deaths that occured yesterday. He found twelve references to the lone Israeli civilian casualty to a single mention of the 52 Lebanese civilian casualties.
For my part, let me note this. Typified by this AP story, press coverage that I have seen universally mentions the "50 Katyusha rockets" (sometimes listed as 75 or 100) that Hizballah has fired at Israel, but not one has quantified the number of Israeli strikes. Of course they mention the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, but any idea that those strikes have been manyfold greater in number, not to mention probably an order of magnitude or two greater in tonnage, is completely absent.
73 Lebanese, "almost all civilians" according to AP, have now been killed. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice describes this in this way: "I think they understand the need to exercise restraint." Evidentally not showing restraint to Condi would involve the use of nuclear weapons; anything else is "exercising restraint," violations of international law and common decency notwithstanding.
15.Jul.2006 BBC Quiz on Israel and killing civilians By The Cat's Dream
Dear BBC’s Ladies and Gentlemen, How many Israeli civilians have been killed in Israel AND how many Palestinian and Lebanese civilians have been killed in Gaza and in Lebanon by the Israeli Government since June 9th when Israel shelled a beach in Beit Lahiya killing 8 Palestinian civilians and injuring 32? Why doesn’t the BBC answer this simple question in its journalistic work? Possible
15.Jul.2006 Ahmadinejad: “Fierce Response” if Israel Attacks Syria By Administrator on Uncategorized
Earlier this afternoon, as a call in to Jack Blood’s GCN radio program, I asked Claire Brown of INN World Report how long she thought it would be before Israel attacked Syria. Brown said two days. I believe it may take a bit longer, although at this point it is speculation over what may be considered a fait accompli in advance—Israel will attack Syria.
Two weeks ago, IAF jets performed a bit of sonic boom terrorism on Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, as he kicked back at his palace in the city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. “The IDF said the flyover, carried out by four planes flying in a low-altitude pattern, was a part of an overall IDF operation aimed at pressuring the Syrian leadership to expel Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal from Damascus,” reported the neocon Jerusalem Post at the time.
Maybe, but it is more likely the Israelis wanted to send a message to al-Assad that they can get him, no matter where he is. Bashar al-Assad may be cringing in a bunker soon, in three days or two weeks.
15.Jul.2006 Corporate Media Faithfully Spins Lebanese Mass Murder By Administrator on Uncategorized
If you watch CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc., ad nauseam +you are a retard when it comes to real history (in this sense, most Americans are retards), you will believe the disgusting lie that poor little “democratic” Israel is simply responding to Arab terrorism when it kills 60 or more civilians in Lebanon, targets civilian infrastructure, bombs roads and bridges, thus trapping frightened residents in towns where they can expect to share the fate of the Palestinians, who are under siege for the sin of demanding Israel stop treating them as “drugged cockroaches” and “beasts on two legs,” as Israeli leaders have called them. If you watch the corporate media and have allowed your higher mental facilities to be swamped by incessant pro-Israel propaganda, chances are you believe poor little Israel has “entered” Lebanon as a last ditch effort to stop Arab terrorism.
In fact, Israel has messed with Lebanon for decades. “Without the elixir of history, it is impossible to fully digest the story of Israel’s ongoing interest in Lebanon and the reasons why Israeli governments have repeatedly both interfered with this country’s internal politics and provoked ‘incidents’ at its border since the 1940’s,” writes Edward R. Miller. “The intimate details of Israel’s manipulations in Lebanon are detailed in the diary of Moshe Sharett, who shared the Prime Ministership of Israel with Ben Gurion only to be forced out of the cabinet because Sharett would not tolerate what he considered Ben-Gurion’s immoral and clandestine methods.” As the late Livia Rokach, daughter of Israel Rokach, Minister of the Interior in the government of Moshe Sharett, notes in Israel’s Sacred Terrorism: A Study Based on Moshe Sharett’s Personal Diary and Other Documents, “Sharett’s diary provides the entire documentation of how
00.000.1954 Ben Gurion developed the diabolic plans to ‘Christianize’ Lebanon, i.e., to invent and create from scratch the inter-Lebanese conflict +of how a detailed blueprint for the partition and subordination of that country was elaborated by Israel more than fifteen years before the Palestinian presence became a political factor.”
As far back as 1918, Zionist leaders meeting in Europe with a committee of the British Palestinian Mandate discussed stealing Lebanese territory up to the Litani River, emphasizing the “vital importance of controlling all water resources up to their sources.” From the early 1950s onward, Israel threatened to invade Lebanon and take control of the Litani, denying the Lebanese use of the river +
00.000.1982 -when Israel invaded Lebanon (Operation Peace for Galilee, or maybe Operation Steal Water)- the entire length of the river came under Israeli control.
00.000.1982 -In the wake of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon- Tom Segev of Ha’aretz toured the killing ground. John Rose writes:
[Segev] saw “refugees wandering amidst swarms of flies, dressed in rags, their faces expressing terror and their eyes bewilderment … the women wailing and the children sobbing”. Here and there people were walking “as in a nightmare”. “A terrible smell filled the air”—of decomposing bodies, he learned … “This is what the cities of Germany looked like at the end of the Second World War.” He saw “mounds of ruins”, tens of thousands of people at the shore where they remained for days, women driven away by soldiers when they attempted to flee….
15.Jul.2006 Meanwhile, more than 20 years removed, the corporate media spin of Israeli mass murder in Lebanon, undoubtedly supported by the Israeli people, continues unabated. Early this morning, I switched on the brainwashing tube, only to catch Andrea Mitchell calling in to Don Imus’ MSNBC show. As to be expected, Mitchell whitewashed Israel’s murder campaign +Imus, chewing gum with a cowboy hat pulled low over his brow, muttered: “We’d do the same.”
In fact, Don, we are doing the same, only worse in Iraq. 100,000 and more Iraqis have paid the ultimate price for our delusions engineered by a gaggle of pro-Likudite neocons.
My question is: how the hell does the average American sleep at night?
15.Jul.2006 Spying on Terrorists or Democrats? By PGL Jonathan Landay writes:
By having the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court conduct the review instead of a regular federal court, the Bush administration would ensure the secrecy of details of the highly classified program. The administration has argued that making details of the program public would compromise national security. However, such details could include politically explosive disclosures that the government has kept tabs on people it shouldn't have been monitoring.
Josh Marshall was alerted to this passage by a TPM reader and notes:
It sounds like Landay's pointing to the possibility that the White House has been using the program to monitor political opponents. (I'm not sure how else to interpret that line.) And you get the sense he's doing more than speculating.
I’m guilty of the same speculation but why would the White House be so afraid of a FISA Court review? Of course, some rightwingers would view spying on Democrats as being equivalent to spying on terrorists.
15.Jul.2006 UK navy ships heading for Lebanon
Ministers order two naval vessels to sail for the Middle East, ready to evacuate UK citizens trapped in Beirut.
15.Jul.2006 Call to offer heroin through NHS A senior police officer calls for heroin to be made available on the NHS to tackle a growth in the use of crack cocaine.
15.Jul.2006 Russia loses WTO bid as G8 begins Agreement on Russia's entry to the world trade body fails in talks with the US, as the G8 summit begins.
15.Jul.2006 Israel expands strikes on Lebanon Israel broadens its bombardment of Lebanon, attacking a large number of targets across the country.
15.Jul.2006 Shuttle Heads Back to Earth Discovery backs away from the International Space Station to begin its journey home. It's scheduled to land Monday at Kennedy Space Center.
15.Jul.2006 Murdoch taking MySpace down the tubes Blog: Most of us bore witness this week to a rickety, nonsensical politician explaining to Congress how the InterWeb is a series of...
15.Jul.2006 'Bad' Protein Linked to Numerous Health Problems Zonk 47 nbahi15 writes
"A report in the July 13th edition of the online Journal of Clinical Investigation has linked the aP2 protein to asthma and several other diseases. It also suggests a connection between the metabolic and immune systems and these diseases." From a related Forbes article: "To study the effects of aP2, the researchers created genetically engineered mice that could not produce the protein. 'They're metabolic supermice,' Hotamisligil said. 'We cannot make them obese, diabetic or atherosclerotic. They don't develop fatty liver disease +they don't develop asthma.' In mice with an animal model of asthma, the researchers found that aP2 regulated the infiltration of inflammatory molecules into the lungs."
15.Jul.2006 Defining "News" For the Mainstream Media
White House senior adviser Karl Rove indirectly confirmed the CIA affiliation of an administration critic's wife for Robert D. Novak the week before the columnist named her and revealed her position, a lawyer involved in the case said last night. The fact Rove indirectly confirmed Plame's name was ...
15.Jul.2006 Surprising Jump in Tax Revenues Is Curbing Deficit
On Tuesday, White House officials are expected to announce that the tax receipts will be about $250 billion above last year's levels and that the deficit will be about $100 billion less than what they projected six months ago. The rising tide in tax payments has been building for months, but the ...
15.Jul.2006 Nahost: Arabische Liga hält Friedensprozess für gescheitert
15.Jul.2006 Afghanistan: Geistliche wollen neue Religionspolizei
15.Jul.2006 Gipfel- Bankett: Merkel kam ohne Begleitung
15.Jul.2006 G- 8- Gipfel: Russische Polizei löst Proteste auf
15.Jul.2006 Nahost- Konflikt: Libanon fordert Waffenruhe
15.Jul.2006 Grenztumulte im Libanon: "Raus, nur raus"
15.Jul.2006 Militärschläge: Israelische Helikopter greifen Zentral- Beirut an
15.Jul.2006 Bitten der Bush- Regierung: Deutschland soll im Nahost- Konflikt vermitteln
15.Jul.2006 Flucht aus dem Libanon: Hunderte Europäer reisen aus
15.Jul.2006 IBM accused of hacking
A boutique Washington, D.C.-based law firm is accusing IBM of hacking into its e-mail system and is seeking recourse. The firm, Butera & Andrews, filed suit against IBM ...
15.Jul.2006 Google Trends on nanotechnology
A new service from Google, named Google Trends, graphs the number and source of searches on whatever term you wish. The results for nanotechnology: Top ten countries 1. India 2. Iran 3. Singapore 4. Malaysia 5. South Korea 6. Thailand 7. USA 8. Australia 9. Canada 10. Taiwan Top ten ...
15.Jul.2006 Israel kills Lebanese civilians At least 13 Lebanese civilians, including children, die when a convoy is hit by an Israeli air strike.
15.Jul.2006 Rembrandt's 400th birthday marked The 400th anniversary of the birth of the artist Rembrandt is being marked in the Netherlands.
15.Jul.2006 Smoking accounts for health gap Smoking is to blame for half of social inequalities in male mortality rates, researchers estimate.
15.Jul.2006 Row over private healthcare role The government denies Unison claims that the government plans the privatisation of primary care services.
15.Jul.2006 Crazy-Long Hacker Sentence Upheld An appeals court upholds a nine-year prison term for a Michigan man who hacked the Lowe's chain of home improvement stores through their unsecured Wi-Fi network.
15.Jul.2006 Catching Photons Coming from the Moon Zonk 87 Roland Piquepaille writes
"In 'Shooting the moon,' the San Diego Union-Tribune describes how and why physicists from UCSD are using lasers to send light pulses in direction of an array of reflectors installed on our moon 00.000.1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. One of the goals of these experiments is to check the validity of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Another one is to measure the distance between the Earth and moon with a precision of one millimeter by catching photons after their round trip to the moon. But it is amazing to realize how difficult it is to capture photons after such a trip. I also have up a summary, which contains additional details and pictures, if you just want to learn how difficult it is to capture photons back from the moon."
15.Jul.2006 https://www.mediamonitors.net/leonard35.html
"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." - Samuel P. Huntington
15.Jul.2006 https://resistir.info/links/links.html
https://lacorrientealterna.telecinco.es/circulaporlared/tramaprestige.swf Aqui se mostram os verdadeiros criminosos responsáveis pelo afundamento do petroleiro "Prestige", que provocou um dos maiores desastres ecológico já verificados na península ibérica.
15.Jul.2006 https://resistir.info/links/links.html
https://aguapublica.no.sapo.pt/inicio.htm Os monopólios e o capital financeiro gostariam de privatizar até o ar que se respira. No caso da água, a Associação Água Pública luta contra as privatizações selvagens e pela manutenção nas empresas públicas dos serviços de captação, transporte e distribuição de água.
15.Jul.2006 https://resistir.info/
"...sob certas condições, os capitalistas privados inevitavelmente controlam, directa ou indirectamente, as principais fontes de informação (imprensa, rádio, educação). É então extremamente difícil, e na maior parte dos casos na verdade quase impossível, para o cidadão individual chegar a conclusões objectivas".
Albert Einstein, no seu ensaio de 1949 Porquê o socialismo .
12.Oct.1999 Henry Kissinger: "O desafio básico é que a chamada globalização é realmente um outro nome para o papel dominante dos Estados Unidos". Palestra no Trinity College, Dublim.
15.Jul.2006 https://resistir.info/
O mestre de Bush:
"Com voz ou sem ela, o povo pode sempre ser levado a submeter-se à vontade dos dirigentes. É fácil. Tudo o que se tem de fazer é dizer-lhe que está a ser atacado, e denunciar os pacifistas por falta de patriotismo e por exporem o país ao perigo".
Reichsmarschal Hermann Goering, comandante da Força Aérea Nazi (Luftwaffe), nos Julgamentos de Nuremberg.
00.000.1996 -depois de cinco anos de sanções e de persistentes bombardeamentos contra o Iraque, o repórter da CBS Lesley Stahl fez a seguinte pergunta à embaixadora dos EUA nas Nações Unidas, Madeline Albright:
— Ouvimos dizer que meio milhão de crianças morreu (em consequência da política americana contra o Iraque). Valeu a pena pagar esse preço?
Resposta de Madeline Albright:
— Nós pensamos que valeu a pena.
Ver um crime com calma é cometê-lo. José Martí https://resistir.info/
12.Jun.2006 Pentágono lança suas vistas sobre sítios web de relacionamento social , por Paul Marks
18.Jun.2006 Porque vem aí um dilúvio económico global , por Gabriel Kolko
15.Jul.2006 https://resistir.info/
O ROUBO NAS ELEIÇÕES MEXICANAS
Nas eleições de 2 de Julho a direita mexicana seguiu as lições de Bush, que venceu as suas eleições a custa de fraudes, manipulaçoes de listas eleitorais, algoritmos informáticos concebidos ad hoc e juízes coniventes nos tribunais. Além disso, aproveitou a sua própria experiência histórica, como a das eleições fraudadas de 1988.
A última contagem (15h10 do dia 6) dava uma vantagem de 0,57% para o candidato reaccionário: Calderón dispunha de 35,88% dos votos e Lopez Obrador 35,31%. Não se sabe se este cômputo inclui os 3 milhões de votos que misteriosamente haviam sido postos de parte pelo Instituto Federal Eleitoral (IFE, já chamado Instituto da Fraude Eleitoral). Até a organização norte-americana Global Exchange considerou que o IFE chegou "debilitado e sem credibilidade" às eleições de 2 de Julho.
A batalha agora prossegue fora das urnas. Não será fácil fazer respeitar a vontade popular.
04.Jul.2006 Uma reflexão teórica sobre as relações entre natureza e capitalismo , por João Valente Aguiar
03.Jul.2006 De borbulha em borbulha: A irresistível ascensão do ouro , por Jorge Beinstein,
15.Jul.2006 https://resistir.info/
NARCOTRÁFICO, OUTRO CRIME DE PINOCHET
As lacunas no curriculum vitae do Pinochet vão-se completando, sempre com novos crimes. Esta semana descobriu-se mais um: o de narcotráfico. Quem o diz é um mais próximos comparsas do ditador chileno, Manuel Contreras, o ex-chefe da sinistra polícia política (DINA). Ele afirma sem rodeios que Pinochet organizou uma rede de fabricação e venda de drogas junto com o menor dos seus cinco filhos, Marco Antonio, e o empresário Edgardo Bathich. Os estupefacientes eram exportados para a Europa e os Estados Unidos. Foi assim que aquele general golpista, instalado no Chile pelo governo americano, amassou a sua fortuna no estrangeiro. Ela foi depositada em centenas de contas no Banco Riggs, em Washington, e outros mais. A notícia está em https://www.jornada.unam.mx/
15.Jul.2006 https://www.cannonfire.blogspot.com/ Strange new weapons?
The current conflict in Gaza and Lebanon has given rise to a flurry of reports involving a strange new toxic weapon used by the Israeli Defense Forces. Israeli authorities officially deny these reports, which they have labeled an "incitement." Of course, that's what people said after the first reports came out that American soldiers had used "Whiskey Pete" indiscriminately in Fallujah.
Here's how Al Jazeera describes it: Dr. Al Saqqa told Voice of Palestine Radio that the Israeli army is using new types of unconventional weapons against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the recent attacks. He said, "They are targeting the Palestinian body with unconventional weapons and with that comes a phenomena we have not seen before in any Israeli bombardment we have lived through for many years."
He continued, "The hospital is central and sees almost all cases of injuries and deaths as a result of Israeli bomb attacks against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. These Israeli bombings are entering the body and fragmenting, causing internal combustion leading to up to fourth degree internal burns, exposing the bone +affecting the tissue and skin."
The doctor added, "These tissues die, they do not survive, which obliges us to perform arm or leg amputations +there are fragments which penetrate the body and do not show up on X-rays. When entering the body they spark like a combustion firearm, but not chemically.
They seem radioactive." Here is another report from the Baqa'a refugee camp.
And we have this from a German news source: MOH [ the Palestinian Ministry of Health ] called on the international community + human rights groups to send a medical team in order to examine the injured + ascertain the presence of toxic material left by Israeli shells.
If these reports are just an "incitement," as the Israelis claim, then why are the Palestinians pleading for outsiders to confirm?
This is hardly the first time we have heard reports of Israel making pioneering use of toxic weaponry. 00.000.2004, they stood accused of using nerve agents on protestors.
Why does the rest of the world refuse to investigate these claims? Permalink
15.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-426851,00.html
So wird auch die laufende Diskussion von einem Gedanken dominiert:
Israels Reaktion auf die Entführung seiner Soldaten, auf den Beschuss mit Hamas-Kassam-Raketen aus dem Gaza-Streifen und mit Hisbollah-Katjuschas aus dem Südlibanon
15.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-426851,00.html
Denn die Rollen in dem Nahost-Drama sind so festgelegt wie in einem Krimi: Der Täter hört immer auf denselben Namen
15.Jul.2006 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-426851,00.html
Die erste Front war Gaza,
15.Jul.2006 Abgedockt: "Habt eine weiche Landung"
15.Jul.2006 G8- Gipfel: Zu Gast beim Fremden
15.Jul.2006 Sizilien: Mafia- T- Shirts sind Verkaufsschlager
15.Jul.2006 Preisrekorde: Spekulanten- Steuer soll Öl billiger machen
15.Jul.2006 Kalifornien: Waldbrände geraten außer Kontrolle
15.Jul.2006 Libanon: Israels Luftwaffe beschießt Kleinbus - 20 Tote
15.Jul.2006 Russlands Rohstoff- Joker: Milliardenpoker um das Gasfeld in der Arktis
15.Jul.2006 WTO- Mitgliedschaft Russlands: Washington und Moskau können sich nicht einigen
15.Jul.2006 "Discovery": Leck am Shuttle beunruhigt Nasa
15.Jul.2006 Astronomie: Rezept für einen Kometen
15.Jul.2006 Nahost- Krise: Auftritt der Diplomaten
15.Jul.2006 Neue Erkenntnisse: War Jack the Ripper ein Friseur?
15.Jul.2006 Nahost: Seekrieg vor Beirut