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Saturday, October 14, 2006

More stunning proof that Christians are easily duped into supporting blatant evil

Here's some more red-hot ink for your pen. Keep the heat on our evil leader in chief and cohorts and we'll soon succeed at vanquishing the sword.

More stunning proof that Christians are easily duped into supporting blatant evil


The latest book of stunning revelations titled "Tempting Faith" by former Bush Administration insider David Kuo provides stunning first-hand evidence that the Christian Right was purposely duped into providing pivotal political support and cover for a host of crimes and excesses by Republican leaders and the Whitehouse. This book and the Foley fiasco are serving to awaken Christians to the undeniable fact that they have been deceived into abetting the evil deeds of duplicitous scoundrels, once again.

The events of recent years and the several millennia before them have provided us with stunning and comprehensive proof that religion is the chosen and purposeful tool of great deceivers. Whether we view the actions of the Temple priesthood of ancient Israel that conspired with Greco-Roman invaders, the sad and sordid history of the Vatican and Papacy, Christian crusaders and colonizers, injustices by leaders and followers of Islam, the oppression of Palestinians by the State of Israel, or the more recent activities of the so-called Christian Right and Republican Party, religious followers are regularly and easily misled into supporting obvious evil.

In recent years, I have produced stunning and comprehensive proof of purposeful deception in the canons of all three Faiths of Abraham and struggled to alert people to this and to related upcoming events and situations. Due to "poisoning of the waters" by deluded religious leaders and followers over the centuries, most have greeted my efforts with derision or indifference, thereby failing to pay attention long enough to discern the accuracy of my research and assertions. Starting with the perfectly timed Atlantic hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, a small number of people, some of them in government leadership positions, began to recognize the truth of my conclusions and assertions. The events of the last year-plus, starting with the ramifications from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, have helped to sweep away many of the facades erected by the Bush-Cheney crew and cohorts. Many of their deceptions have been exposed, their greed and arrogance proven, the myth of their competence destroyed, and most recently the depths of their duplicity and hypocrisy have been illuminated by a series of stunning revelations.

Nonetheless, the so-called Christian Right has continued faithfully supporting them, in spite of mountains of evidence that should have dissuaded any clear-thinking soul. The recent non-stop flood of stunning evidence leaves little doubt that the so-called liberals and the left were 100% correct about the Bush-Cheney crew. Despite assertions to the contrary, conservatives and the Christian Right are now exposed as having arrogantly and foolishly supported blatantly evil scoundrels. We now have proof, beyond disproof, that Republican leaders viewed them as little more than marks and dupes to be milked of their faith, money, political support, and the lifeblood of their son's and daughter's on the battlefields of Bush's and Cheney’s deceptive wars.

It is a sad but true statement that deceived and deluded Christians are much more responsible for the evils perpetrated by the Bush administration than any other group. They have arrogantly and foolishly supported those who simply pretended to have the same beliefs, even though their deeds provided stark and irrefutable evidence to the contrary. My recent articles and book expound upon the reasons why religious followers are so easily duped into doing and supporting blatant evil. Now the events of recent weeks have provided stunning evidence that these assertions and conclusions are true. Christians and conservatives must now come to grips with the sickening reality of the great harm they have caused to everyone else because of their blind support of scoundrels who merely pretended to serve the Creator to gain wealth and power.

What then is the purpose of "faith" but to prevent otherwise good people from seeking to understand truth and wisdom?

Read More...Here is Wisdom !!

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Posted by Seven Star Hand to ReBelle Nation at 10/14/2006 10:26:02 AM

A journey through the mind of contemporary conservatism: Clutching our values aboard the death train of empire



Phil Rockstroh, Online Journal Contributing Writer

Day-to-day life within an empire consists of the deceitful leading the disengaged. Although when the artifice shielding a nation’s populace from the ruthlessness of their leaders begins to fall away, hysteria and displaced rage rises in the land. Ergo, in the American empire, we’re witnessing these demented days of congressional boy love and despotic rockets. Day after day, the pace at which insane tidings arrive quickens: it’s as if we’ve become passengers on a high-speed train, commandeered by lunatics, that only stops at insane asylums in order to board more lunatics . . . Naturally, it follows that the train has gone runaway, careening down the buckling tracks, blue sparks spraying from its steel wheels, while any approaching curve becomes a threat to derail the whole hurdling madhouse...

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Why is it that with all the outrage over Bush, from his stealing the elections to the war in Iraq, do we only feably call for his impeachment and not revolt? Weaved withing the bill of rights is the right, if not obligation, to depose any government that serves any other purpose than the will of the people. Why are we so pacified? Why is Bush's head not on display for all to see? --

Posted by The Heretical Jew to ReBelle Nation

Dense Inert Metall Explosive Experiment - Used in Israeli " Summer Rain" on Gaza Palestinians

Hayam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice

According to US Defense this letal weapon is supposed to still be in the testing phase and has not been used on the battlefield.It is believed that the weapon is highly carcinogenic and harmful to the environment. Is it possiblle that the Israelis has used an experimental weapon in the Gaza Strip in recent months.According to those who has testified, the wounded were hit by munitions launched from drones, most of them in the month of July this summer.The weapon is similar to one developed by the U.S. military called DIME, which causes a powerful and lethal blast, but only within a relatively small radius...

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Israeli Terrorism Sweeps as a Pathological Disease Across the Palestinian Territories Meanwhile Minds of Evil Prepare to Re-Invade the Gaza Strip

Hayam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice

...The Israelis continue its bloody crimes on the Gaza Strip. - This early morning they assassinated three members of Hamas' miltary wing. From a drone the Israelis fired a rocket at a car on Beit Lahiya crossroads in the northen parts of the Gaza Strip.At least five other Palestinians were injured in the air strike - and Israeli sniper shot dead a Palestinian women in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip. The car that was targeted was hit directly and totally destroyed. Omar Imad Maqoussi in Biet Lahia,leader of Izzedin Al Qassam Brigades,the military wing of Hamas was killed in the strike, along with two of his colleagues, Essam Thaher 25 and Mohammad al-Taluli, 28 - Ambulance workers extracted the bodies in pieces from the incinerated car and brought them to Kamal Edwan Hospital - five other Palestinians were injured in this Israeli terrorist attack. There are reports of severe burns on the victims - the injured are admitted for treatment in the same hospital...

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The “Green Zone”: An American frigate, float on a sea of Iraqi blood

Roads to Iraq

Before the occupation, the US government held dozens of conferences and meetings with Iraqis who were ready to sell their homeland and their people for a Parliamentary seat or a Ministry. The best-known is the London conference, which was attended by Iraqis who accepted in advance signing a document stating obedience to the US plans and contributed to the implementation and assisting the occupation forces. In addition to mislead the public and distort its patriotic morals to with the occupation demands, puppets who are continuously trying to convince people that the occupation forces are "liberation forces", and claim that our survival, security and safety depends on the existence of the foreign forces. All of them marched behind the Americans, from the "Governmental Council" established by Bremer until today.

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Baghdad Burning
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...


Atrocities...

It promises to be a long summer. We're almost at the mid-way point, but it feels like the days are just crawling by. It's a combination of the heat, the flies, the hours upon hours of no electricity and the corpses which keep appearing everywhere.

The day before yesterday was catastrophic. The day began with news of the killings in Jihad Quarter. According to people who live there, black-clad militiamen drove in mid-morning and opened fire on people in the streets and even in houses. They began pulling people off the street and checking their ID cards to see if they had Sunni names or Shia names and then the Sunnis were driven away and killed. Some were executed right there in the area. The media is playing it down and claiming 37 dead but the people in the area say the number is nearer 60.

The horrific thing about the killings is that the area had been cut off for nearly two weeks by Ministry of Interior security forces and Americans. Last week, a car bomb was set off in front of a 'Sunni' mosque people in the area visit. The night before the massacre, a car bomb exploded in front of a Shia husseiniya in the same area. The next day was full of screaming and shooting and death for the people in the area. No one is quite sure why the Americans and the Ministry of Interior didn't respond immediately. They just sat by, on the outskirts of the area, and let the massacre happen.

At nearly 2 pm, we received some terrible news. We lost a good friend in the killings. T. was a 26-year-old civil engineer who worked with a group of friends in a consultancy bureau in Jadriya. The last time I saw him was a week ago. He had stopped by the house to tell us his sister was engaged and he'd brought along with him pictures of latest project he was working on- a half-collapsed school building outside of Baghdad.

He usually left the house at 7 am to avoid the morning traffic jams and the heat. Yesterday, he decided to stay at home because he'd promised his mother he would bring Abu Kamal by the house to fix the generator which had suddenly died on them the night before. His parents say that T. was making his way out of the area on foot when the attack occurred and he got two bullets to the head. His brother could only identify him by the blood-stained t-shirt he was wearing.

People are staying in their homes in the area and no one dares enter it so the wakes for the people who were massacred haven't begun yet. I haven't seen his family yet and I'm not sure I have the courage or the energy to give condolences. I feel like I've given the traditional words of condolences a thousand times these last few months, "Baqiya ib hayatkum… Akhir il ahzan…" or "May this be the last of your sorrows." Except they are empty words because even as we say them, we know that in today's Iraq any sorrow- no matter how great- will not be the last.

There was also an attack yesterday on Ghazaliya though we haven't heard what the casualties are. People are saying it's Sadr's militia, the Mahdi army, behind the killings. The news the world hears about Iraq and the situation in the country itself are wholly different. People are being driven out of their homes and areas by force and killed in the streets, and the Americans, Iranians and the Puppets talk of national conferences and progress.

It's like Baghdad is no longer one city, it's a dozen different smaller cities each infected with its own form of violence. It's gotten so that I dread sleeping because the morning always brings so much bad news. The television shows the images and the radio stations broadcast it. The newspapers show images of corpses and angry words jump out at you from their pages, "civil war… death… killing… bombing… rape…"

Rape. The latest of American atrocities. Though it's not really the latest- it's just the one that's being publicized the most. The poor girl Abeer was neither the first to be raped by American troops, nor will she be the last. The only reason this rape was brought to light and publicized is that her whole immediate family were killed along with her. Rape is a taboo subject in Iraq. Families don't report rapes here, they avenge them. We've been hearing whisperings about rapes in American-controlled prisons and during sieges of towns like Haditha and Samarra for the last three years. The naiveté of Americans who can't believe their 'heroes' are committing such atrocities is ridiculous. Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the country, why not the people?

In the news they're estimating her age to be around 24, but Iraqis from the area say she was only 14. Fourteen. Imagine your 14-year-old sister or your 14-year-old daughter. Imagine her being gang-raped by a group of psychopaths and then the girl was killed and her body burned to cover up the rape. Finally, her parents and her five-year-old sister were also killed. Hail the American heroes... Raise your heads high supporters of the 'liberation' - your troops have made you proud today. I don't believe the troops should be tried in American courts. I believe they should be handed over to the people in the area and only then will justice be properly served. And our ass of a PM, Nouri Al-Maliki, is requesting an 'independent investigation', ensconced safely in his American guarded compound because it wasn't his daughter or sister who was raped, probably tortured and killed. His family is abroad safe from the hands of furious Iraqis and psychotic American troops.

It fills me with rage to hear about it and read about it. The pity I once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It's been eradicated by the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to be honest- I can't bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I can't bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can't bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they left behind. I can't bring myself to care because it's difficult to see beyond the horrors. I look at them and wonder just how many innocents they killed and how many more they'll kill before they go home. How many more young Iraqi girls will they rape?

Why don't the Americans just go home? They've done enough damage and we hear talk of how things will fall apart in Iraq if they 'cut and run', but the fact is that they aren't doing anything right now. How much worse can it get? People are being killed in the streets and in their own homes- what's being done about it? Nothing. It's convenient for them- Iraqis can kill each other and they can sit by and watch the bloodshed- unless they want to join in with murder and rape.

Buses, planes and taxis leaving the country for Syria and Jordan are booked solid until the end of the summer. People are picking up and leaving en masse and most of them are planning to remain outside of the country. Life here has become unbearable because it's no longer a 'life' like people live abroad. It's simply a matter of survival, making it from one day to the next in one piece and coping with the loss of loved ones and friends- friends like T.

It's difficult to believe T. is really gone… I was checking my email today and I saw three unopened emails from him in my inbox. For one wild, heart-stopping moment I thought he was alive. T. was alive and it was all some horrific mistake! I let myself ride the wave of giddy disbelief for a few precious seconds before I came crashing down as my eyes caught the date on the emails- he had sent them the night before he was killed. One email was a collection of jokes, the other was an assortment of cat pictures, and the third was a poem in Arabic about Iraq under American occupation. He had highlighted a few lines describing the beauty of Baghdad in spite of the war… And while I always thought Baghdad was one of the more marvelous cities in the world, I'm finding it very difficult this moment to see any beauty in a city stained with the blood of T. and so many other innocents…

posted by river

Death squad tactic is absolutely characteristic of EVERY US intervention...

Chris Herz
October 14, 2006

font face="georgia" size="3">VHeadline.com's Washington D.C. based commentarist Chris Herz writes: We are in the midst of an appalling situation in Iraq. We are told that it is the product of one error after another. But no, it is really the natural and predictable result of one crime piled upon another.

When we hear news like we are hearing this morning: 60 murder victims found across Baghdad, we cannot forget the absolutely arrogant, open discussion here in Washington of some months back of the US need for a "Salvadorean option" in Iraq to deal with the resistance.

That phrase of course being the code words for the death squads we now find so evident over there.

It would appear that the US were successful in creating death squads within the puppet police and military forces. Perhaps, and I cannot know for sure, they are not equally successful in keeping them under command and control.

We must also remember the accidental capture by the puppet police of two British secret service types dressed in Arab clothing, driving a car loaded with explosives. It then became necessary for the British military to "rescue" these guys from the Iraqi police station in Basra.
We must ask the obvious question: How much of this has been done? And by what US agencies along with the British?

In any event, the occupation authorities, the USA, have the ultimate responsibility for securing the safety of the population, and this responsibility they have themselves sabotaged. Deliberately and maliciously.

This death squad tactic is one which has been absolutely characteristic of EVERY modern US intervention and is certainly familiar enough in Latin America, among other places.

These crooks in charge here, if we are to have a prayer of maintaining civilized standards in the world must answer to capital charges. To murder. To kidnapping, disappearing people, rendering them for torture, for torture done by their own forces, and above all, for the supreme international crime, the one from which comes all these others, of plotting and waging aggressive war.

...and they all know it. From Bush down the chain of command to the rape rooms and torture cells.

The aftermath of this evil aggression cannot be what it was after Vietnam. No US officials faced either domestic or international prosecution for the two million or so Viets they killed. So when they thought that they had another opportunity to slaughter and torture, in Central America they blithely, assured of impunity, went right ahead.

We need have little doubt of independent research done by the School of Public Health in Johns Hopkins University that US operations in Iraq have caused directly or indirectly between 400,000 and 900,000 deaths. We are now known to kill at least 30 non-combatants for every combatant we shoot or bomb.

If this is no war crime, just what is?

Are we to let the perpetrators walk free so they and their like can do all this again in another five or ten years?

These evil men have already rendered the US laws against war crime inoperative.

They need, no for the sake of civilization, we all need to see them in the dock at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

LinkHere

Still no posting from River at Baghdad Burning keep a thought for her


... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...

Israeli warplane destroys house in southern Gaza

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Friday October 13, 2006

Gaza- An Israeli warplane destroyed at predawn on Saturday a Palestinian-owned house in southern Gaza Strip by firing an air-to- ground rocket, causing no injuries, security sources said. The sources said that an Israeli army officer telephoned the owner of the three-store house Hamdi al-Ashshi and ordered him to evacuate his house only 15 minutes before it was targeted.

Israeli Television, Channel 10, reported that the large-scale Israeli army ground and air operation into the Gaza Strip was intended to prevent the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza at Israel, and free a captive Israeli soldier held in Gaza since June 25.

Eyewitnesses said that an F16 warplane flew over the area and suddenly a huge blast was heard in al-Sallam neighbourhood in the town of Rafah near the borders between Gaza Strip and Egypt. No injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that more than 20 Israeli army tanks and armoured vehicles backed by fighter aircraft stormed the eastern part of Jabalia town in northern Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli army forces enntered the area amidst intensive gunfire, adding that Palestinian militants fired several homemade missiles at the Israeli forces. No injuries were reported.

In the town of Abbassan, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, residents said that the Israeli army force that stormed the eastern part of Abbassan had pulled out after a two-day ground operation.

The Israeli army killed seven Palestinians in the area, including a mother, a child, two civilians and three militants, during the ground operation into eastern Abbassan town.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency

LinkHere

Sara Evans' Porn-Addicted Husband Tried To Run For Congress As Republican...See Campaign Website...


Takes a deviate to know and mix with a deviate October 14, 2006 09:42 AM

Documents from the divorce between Dancing With Stars star Sara Evans and her husband Craig Schelske emerged yesterday, alleging Schelske's copious use of porn, rampant adultery and verbal abuse.

See the article here.

It turns out that Schelske also made a run for Congress in 2002 as a Republican.
See the campaign website here.

Justice Department Investigates Another GOP Rep…

McClatchy Newspapers Greg Gordon October 13, 2006 09:27 PM

The Justice Department is investigating whether Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania traded his political influence for lucrative lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, according to sources with direct knowledge of the inquiry.

The FBI, which opened an investigation in recent months, has formally referred the matter to the department's Public Integrity Section for additional scrutiny. At issue are Weldon's efforts between 2002 and 2004 to aid two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers with ties to strongman Slobodan Milosevic, a federal law enforcement official said.

READ FULL STORY

How's This for a Cover-up?

READ MORE: Iraq, 2006, Investigations, Mark Foley, George W. Bush

Now that Congress is busy looking into what the Speaker of the House, and others connected with Mark Foley, knew and when they found out about his Internet cruising, why don't they look into today's revelation, by the International Herald Tribune and the Associated Press, that American servicemen shot a 50 year old British journalist, Terry Lloyd, in the back of the head in March of 2003, the early days of the Iraq war.

Moreover, why don't esteemed members of Congress, and the attorney-general, investigate how it is that the first 15 minutes of video shot by U.S. servicemen from a neighboring tank, which would prove where those shots originated, reportedly have been erased?

What an outrage to learn of the execution-style shooting of Mr. Lloyd, a reporter for an independent British television station, who,unlike his American and British colleagues, was not embedded when he reported from Iraq. One can only wonder what he had stumbled upon, and what he would have reported were he allowed to do so. Further, one can only think of last week's cold-blooded assasination, in Moscow, of renowned investigative journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in her apartment building, contract-style, and rumored to have been working on Russia's policy of torture with regard to Chechen detainees. What was Terry Lloyd working on, and was he silenced?

An inquest into the British journalist's death at the hands of U.S. forces notes that Lloyd was driving with other ITN reporters and cameramen from Kuwait towards Iraq when he "was shot in the back by Iraqi troops who overtook his car, then died after U.S. fire hit a civilian minivan being used as an ambulance and struck him in the head." (AP) Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker, who wrote the inquest report, intends to ask the attorney general to investigate this matter, and bring those responsible to justice, but what happens when "those responsible" turn out to be heads of our own government? One wonders who will render justice when, as is the case with the Putin regime, those at the helm of our government are busy redefining what justice is.

"Terry Lloyd died following a gunshot wound to the head. The evidence this bullet was fired by the Americans is overwhelming...There is no doubt it was an unlawful act of fire," Deputy Coroner Walker says. As reported. Lloyd was shot "in the back of the head as he lay in the back of a makeshift ambulance, " (International Herald Tribune) A spokesperson for the Pentagon response to the alleged contract style killing, by our troops, is simply that: "The Department of Defense has never deliberately targeted noncombatants, including journalists." (AP) Does being shot in the back of the head while resting in an ambulance, no less, suggest a lack of deliberation to you? And, as an ITN cameraman, and colleague of Lloyd's, Daniel Demoustier, the only one to survive the rampant gunfire, says the inquest didn't clarify whether the bullet that killed Lloyd came from an American tank, or helicopter. Why would that matter? How can a bullet from a helicopter, or any vehicle not within closer range, hit somebody in the back of the head, expecially when he's in an ambulance? Moreover, if the forensics were strong enough to suggest that the shooting was an accident, why did the coroner rule that Lloyd was "killed unlawfully?"

Importantly, if the murder of this British journalist was not deliberate, as the Defense Department asserts, then why is it that the opening 15 minutes of footage of the incident taken by U.S. servicemen, and presented in court, were ostensibly deleted? And, if the killing was an accident, why wouldn't U.S. authorities allow American servicemen to testify at the inquest? Moreover, why is it that several submitted statements were ruled inadmissible? (AP) We must also ask why it is, too, that a leading European newspaper writes that "prosecution of U.S. service members seemed unlikely." (International Herald Tribune) Who is responsible for granting immunity to our troops, and can it be the same fellows who recently granted immunity to themselves by redacting the War Crimes Act with the Military Commission Act of 2006? While the widow of the slain journalist, Lynn Lloyd, is willing to give American servicemen the benefit of the doubt, one can't help but marvel at her description of a government that has "allowed their soldiers to behave like trigger-happy cowboys in an area in which there were civilians traveling." (International Herald Tribune) That, folks, would be our government; those "trigger-happy cowboys" have, as commander-in-chief, our president, George W. Bush.

After a week-long inquest into Mr. Lloyd's murder, the Pentagon concludes that "its forces had followed proper rules of engagement." (AP) Indeed, it would seem that the Defense Department is now rewriting those "rules" to bend so far as to allow execution-style shootings. If, as recently reported, members of our armed forces are finding it more difficult to tell who the enemy is in Iraq maybe it's because our government has blurred the line of demarkation between good and evil such that it is brazenly obvious that the enemy is not "terror," but justice.

I'm sure we all want to know a bit more about what Mr. Lloyd was working on before he was silenced by a bullet to the back of his skull, and why it is that our government was, at best, ambiguous about whether the shots came from American servicemen, or Iraqis, a helicopter, or a tank. Given that evidence of intent on the part of our military was disallowed at the formal inquest into the killing, the only plausible explanation is that our government tried to cover-up the murder of a British journalist at the onset of the war in Iraq.

What does it say about our country when the head of the premiere global journalist organization, Aidan White of International Federation of Journalists, observes that "If this was murder, as the court suggests, and the United States is responsible, it certainly is a war crime." And, what does it say about the universal outcry against the execution-style slaying of a prominent Russian journalist, and calls for investigations, when the London-based National Union of Journalists calls the killing of 50 year old British television journalist, Terry Lloyd, by our own forces, "nothing short of a war crime."

Granted, some cover-ups are sexier than others, and some cover-ups have more teeth. Clearly, news of a foreign reporter's murder by members of our own military doesn't grab headlines, or entice the media, and talking heads of the blogosphere at large, to indulge in nonstop, and nauseatingly repetitive coverage as did the lascivious instant messages sent by a middle-aged elected official to a congressional page. But, those of us who stood in silent vigil, earlier this week, whether in New York, or Amsterdam, in remembrance of a slain Russian journalist, those of us who have called for an investigation of who, in the Kremlin, was behind the hit need to stop, look, and think about this: the European press, and human rights groups, are condemning our government in much the same way we condemn Putin, and his assault on free speech, and a free press. History will soon forget Mark Foley and his foibles. Our silence, on the other hand, can only be viewed as acquiescence.

LinkHere

British TV Journalist Was 'Unlawfully Killed' by US Forces in Iraq

Agence France Presse

A coroner has ruled that British television journalist Terry Lloyd was unlawfully killed by US forces in southern Iraq in 2003 and said he would try to ensure that those responsible were prosecuted. Following his verdict on Friday, Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said he would write to the director of Public Prosecutions "to see whether any steps can be taken to bring the perpetrators responsible for this to justice." Lloyd was killed, together with Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman and French cameraman Fred Nerac, near the Shatt al-Basra Bridge outside Basra, Iraq's second city, on March 22, 2003, the coroner said...

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South Korean foreign minister named next U.N. leader


UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The General Assembly adopted a resolution by acclamation Friday appointing South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to succeed Kofi Annan as U.N. secretary-general.

Ban, 62, will become the eighth U.N. secretary-general on January 1, when Annan's second five-year term expires.

LinkHere

UN punishes N. Korea for nuke test

By Bill Varner

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council voted 15 to 0 to adopt a resolution that punishes North Korea for a suspected nuclear-bomb test Oct. 9 and demands that the communist nation not conduct any further tests.

The measure bars the sale or transfer of missiles, warships, tanks, attack helicopters and combat aircraft, as well as missile- and nuclear-related goods to the North Korean government. It calls for UN member nations to conduct ``inspection of cargo'' going to or from North Korea.

Agreement came after the U.S. introduced amendments that addressed objections by China and Russia. China sought greater assurances that the resolution couldn't be used to justify armed seizure of North Korean ships traveling in international waters, while Russia was concerned about the scope of weapons-related items included in the embargo.

The U.S. agreed to a 40-page list of items to be embargoed and to a softening of the language on inspection of vessels. The final text says nations are only ``called upon'' to insect cargo coming from or bound for North Korea ``as necessary.''

Concession to China

In an earlier concession to China, the U.S. dropped a broad reference to a chapter of the UN Charter that would have authorized the use of force to enforce the sanctions. The final text precludes the use of force and limits enforcement to ``interruption'' of economic relations, communications and diplomatic relations.

To further clarify the issue, the resolution states that ``further decisions will be required, should additional measures be necessary.''

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo Oct. 17-22 to talk about the resolution and ``how to go about actually implementing that resolution,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters yesterday in Washington.

The U.S. notified South Korea today that it had detected evidence of radioactivity near the site where North Korea claims it conducted the nuclear test.

``The U.S. informed us of its findings,'' said Chun Ki Seok an official at the public affairs division of the Defense Ministry in Seoul. ``The detection of radioactivity means the North conducted a nuclear test. But we are still unaware of whether the test succeeded.''

Nuclear Test Condemned

The resolution ``condemns'' the test, ``decides'' that its nuclear program must be verifiably eliminated and ``demands'' that North Korea not conduct any more tests and adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The measure also establishes a Security Council committee to identify persons whose financial assets will be frozen because they contributed to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Foreign travel by the designated people would be banned.

Exceptions were made for delivery of humanitarian aid to North Korea.

Adoption of the text comes three months after the Security Council adopted a resolution barring North Korea from acquiring or selling missile technology. That measure was in response to North Korea's July 5 test of seven ballistic missiles.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner in United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: October 14, 2006 13:47 EDT

'no hint of force'.

National GOP Fails To Deliver Funds To DeLay's Replacement...


Associated Press JOE STINEBAKER October 14, 2006 11:06 AM

Voting Republican in this conservative district was never difficult whenTom DeLay's name was on the ballot. With DeLay out of the race and the GOP unable by law to substitute a name on the ballot, voters must write in the Republican candidate, Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. That could prove to be such a chore that Democrats might walk away with a seat that has long been in the GOP's hands.

National Republicans were supposed to invest $3 million to $4 million to help Sekula-Gibbs, according to state Republican chairwoman Tina Benkiser. So far, however, she's received just $134,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee.

READ FULL STORY

Not my boys not a chance in hell, for these war mongers and criminals

'Voluntary' national service plan

SCHOOL leavers will be offered the chance to spend a year of national service in the armed forces as part of a new $1 billion plan which aims to recruit up to 1000 young men and women a year.

Betrayal: Troops being fleeced by partners


Iraq war fans terror: Cosgrove

FORMER defence chief General Peter Cosgrove now admits that AFP boss Mick Keelty was right in saying that the Iraq war has boosted global terror.

GOP Should Lose Seats for Crimes Greater Than Foley's Lust

A friend likes to say, "These are not your daddy's Republicans." They're radicals who should be turned out. But not because Foley lusts after pageboys. Rather, for issues like these: * A current foreign debt greater than that accumulated by all previous 42 presidents combined. * Suppression of reports on global warming. * A war based on lies gathered in part through torture. Google "al-Libi" for more. * And many more...

LinkHere

New CIA Paper Shows Pre-War Intel Flaws - Newsweek National News ...
As NEWSWEEK first reported last July, al-Libi has since recanted those claims. ... The declassified CIA document about al-Libi was recently provided to Sen. ...

Al Qaeda-Iraq Link Recanted (washingtonpost.com)
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan captured in Pakistan on Nov. ... Al-Libi's statement formed the basis for the Bush administration's prewar claim that Osama ...

Al Qaeda-Iraq Link Recanted (washingtonpost.com)
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan captured in Pakistan on Nov. ... Al-Libi's statement formed the basis for the Bush administration's prewar claim that Osama ...

Did They Fool You on Iraq? Are You Ready for Iran?


To understand the lies we're already hearing and the lies we may soon hear about Iran, it's important to understand just what was wrong with attacking Iraq.

LinkHere

Mark Foley and Charlie Crist: Florida's GOP duo's "secrets" known to Jeb and Dubya.

October 13/14/15, 2006 -- Pagegate. The sex scandal involving underage male congressional pages and ex-Rep. Mark Foley is reverberating in Florida's hotly-contested gubernatorial election between GOP Attorney General Charlie Crist and Democratic Rep. Jim Davis. WMR has received information from our Florida sources that Crist and Florida Governor Jeb Bush were well aware of Foley's "problems" in 2001 and possibly much earlier. In another sign that these concerns were passed by Tallahassee to the White House, the Orlando Sentinel reported yesterday that Foley complained in a Sept. 19, 2004 e-mail to Jeb Bush that the president was ignoring Foley during presidential post-hurricane visits to Florida.

Mark Foley and Charlie Crist: Florida's GOP duo's "secrets" known to Jeb and Dubya.

Foley wrote to Jeb Bush, ""I can't quite figure what I have done, but this is a continuing pattern of slights . . . Sorry to trouble you ... and I wouldn't if this wasn't so frequent . . . Have I done something to offend the White House? I am always getting the shaft." It was also revealed yesterday by The New Republic that Foley got the "shaft" more than once from the White House. After expressing a desire to retire from Congress and set up a lobbying firm on K Street, George W. Bush's chief adviser Karl Rove told Foley that if he did not run again for Congress, Rove would ensure that Foley's lobbying business failed.

Rove's pressure on Foley occurred after the White House was aware of Foley's "problems." The revelation about Rove and Foley means that the Bush White House was part of the cover-up of Foley's possibly illegal conduct with the House pages -- and that is beyond the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee. Pagegate, like CIA Leakgate, points to the need for the restoration of the Independent Special Counsel statute. That should be a priority for the Democratic Congress.

Wayne Madsen Report

The Florida GOP cover-up arising from "Pagegate" continues.

Wal-Mart Forced To Pay $78 Million To Workers...


BBC News October 14, 2006 08:55 AM

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has been ordered to pay at least $78m (£42m) in compensation to workers who were forced to work during breaks.

A jury in a Pennsylvania court decided that Wal-Mart broke a state law by refusing to pay staff for the extra work they did.

READ FULL STORY

“A Lie, A Lie, A Lie”...

Associated Press Holly Ramer October 14, 2006 09:18 AM

Sen. John Kerry, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, likened the congressional page scandal to the war in Iraq and the handling of North Korea, saying that Republicans have lied repeatedly.

"A lie, a lie, a lie, a lie. What we have in Washington is a house of lies, and in November, we need to clean house," Kerry, D-Mass., said Friday night during the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual fall fundraising dinner.

READ FULL STORY

FOCUS | US Hits Obstacle in Getting a Vote on North Korea




Bush talks tough on N Korea
US President George W Bush has called for tough sanctions on North Korea, saying their must be "real consequences" for the nuclear test conducted earlier this week.


The United States pressed for a Saturday vote on a Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions on North Korea for its reported nuclear test, but questions from China and Russia on Friday evening cast the timing, and possibly the content, of the document into doubt.

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| Joseph Wilson: An Imperfect Hero



Alexander Osang writes: "Former US diplomat Joseph Wilson was the first senior government official to expose the lies upon which the Bush administration was building its case for war against Iraq. Politics and the media destroyed Wilson's reputation, but history has proved him right in the end. Now he is fighting to restore his good name."

Link Here

Family of ten killed by gunmen

Its called LIBERATION, people of Iraq. As Georgie see it, I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to - you know, that there's a level of violence that they tolerate," By Ammar Karim in Baghdad
October 14, 2006 10:26pm

GUNMEN murdered a Shiite family of 10 just south of Baghdad in part of the bloody campaign of sectarian cleansing that is plaguing rural areas outside the Iraqi capital.

Late yesterday, gunmen attacked a farmhouse in Saifiyah and killed an entire family, including five women and three children, in an attack apparently motivated by sectarian hatred.

The Shiite village is located in a mostly Sunni area, and for the past month gunmen believed to have links to local Sunni tribes have been attacking Shiite villagers, storming isolated farmhouses and killing the occupants.

Bands of Shiite militiamen arrived from Baghdad a week ago and engaged the tribesmen in a gunbattle that eventually prompted the intervention of US forces.

Many Shiite villagers have already fled the area, part of a trend all over the country that has seen more than 100,000 people displaced from their homes in the past three years.

Iraqi police found the corpses of 14 murder victims scattered around the city of Baghdad between dawn yesterday and today, many of them riddled with bullets and showing signs of torture.

Just downstream from the capital, in the village of Suweira, another four bodies were fished out of the Tigris river, all lacking their heads.

The violence was not restricted to the capital, however, and just to the north, in Balad, police reported finding their own grim harvest of corpses, with 26 bodies discovered around the town.

The men had all been kidnapped this morning from a fruit and vegetable market south of the city. They were taken away, tied up, tortured and then shot in the head, said police.

While bombs explode during the day in the beleaguered capital, shadowy death squads prowl the city by night, killing Iraqis from rival religious communities and leaving their tortured bodies to be found in the morning.

The daily toll of corpses has increased during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in what a US military spokesman described as a "tremendous spike" in violence.

Most of the killings have been laid at the feet of Shiite death squads, many with links to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Yesterday the preacher denounced groups carrying out such killings in his name.

In other Baghdad violence, two members of the National Police were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol today.

Two car bombs also exploded in the centre of the city, setting several vehicles alight and sending a thick plume of smoke up over the Tigris, but only wounding one man.

In the capital's southern neighbourhood of Abu Chir, a scene of constant violence, five members of a family were wounded when a mortar round crashed into their house.

Alongside the sectarian killings, mortar duels between rival neighbourhoods have taken their own toll on the city's residents.

In Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, the Iraqi army reported that six gunmen and a female bystander were killed during a clash with US and Iraqi forces southwest of the provincial capital of Baquba.

Two civilians were also killed by gunmen in Baquba itself, and a shopkeeper was shot dead in the central city of Samarra.

Gunmen killed a teacher in the southern city of Diwaniyah in a drive-by shooting, said police, adding that they did not know why the victim was targeted.

Revenge was apparently the motive when a Baathist official with the former regime of Saddam Hussein was dragged from his house this morning by gunmen in the southern city of Amara.

His body was later found near the bus station, police said.

LinkHere

Defense Department Keeps Massive Database on Anti-War Protesters

Internal military documents released Thursday provided new details about the Defense Department's collection of information on demonstrations nationwide last year by students, Quakers and others opposed to the Iraq war.

LinkHere

Robert Parry | Bush and His Dangerous Delusions



Robert Parry writes: "There's always been the frightening question of what would happen if a President of United States went completely bonkers. But there is an equally disturbing issue of what happens if a President loses touch with reality, especially if he is surrounded by enough sycophants and enablers so no one can or will stop him."

LinkHere

Baker Commission Proposes the United States of Iraq


The Baker Commission, a bipartisan group set up by Congress, is now proposing the division of Iraq into separate Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish regions. James Baker, former US Sec of State and Co-chair of the commission, says this is the only alternative to Bush's steadfast rule of "staying the course." The division will transfer power to the regions and a skeletal central government based in Baghdad will head up, among other things, the distribution of oil.

It turns out that this is not the first time the division of Iraq has been on the table. According to the Centre for Research on Globalization, the idea was actually part of the administration’s pre-invasion plan.

But like many administration non-plans, this one seems ill-advised.
According to the British Sunday Times, "Many Middle East experts are horrified by the difficulty of dividing the nation." Juan Cole weighs in on his site:

1. No such loose federal arrangement would survive very long (remember the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States?).

2. The Sunni Arabs, the Da`wa Party and the Sadr Movement are all against such a partition and together they account for at least 123 members of the 275-member parliament.

3. The Sunni Arabs control Iraq's downstream water but have no petroleum resources. If the loose federal plan ends in partition, the situation is set up for a series of wars of the Sunni Arabs versus the Shiites, as well as of the Sunni Arabs and some Turkmen versus the Kurds.

And so on.

LinkHere

The Wretched Years

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t Perspective

Friday 13 October 2006

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

- Maya Angelou

George W. Bush gave a press conference this past Wednesday in an attempt to snatch back the conversation from North Korea's nukes and Mark Foley's instant messages. A reporter from CNN asked him about the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health report that puts the civilian death toll in Iraq at 655,000. "I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to - you know, that there's a level of violence that they tolerate," he responded.

Yes. That's what he said.

This is, to a degree, not terribly surprising. Mr. Bush has a penchant for casually saying the most abominable things imaginable without blinking. Recall, if you will, the days following the attacks of September 11th. A pall of poison smoke still hung low over New York City. Americans were suddenly living in fear of blue skies and airplanes. The as-yet-unsolved anthrax attacks on Congress and the media had us all collecting our mail with oven mitts while holding our breath.

On October 4th, 2001, less than a month after the attacks, Mr. Bush said, "We need to counter the shock wave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates."

Yes. That's what he said.

These two statements serve as bookends for the wretched years we have endured. The worst attack in American history is used to pimp a plan for tax cuts, and the unimaginable slaughter of Iraqi civilians is a platform for praising the survivors of the carnage because the are so darned good at tolerating it.

What will history have to say about these times? History, it has often been said, is written by the victors, but who really wins anything after all this? If the most delectable left-wing fantasies come true - the Democrats take Congress in November, Bush and his cronies are impeached by a fire-breathing Conyers Judiciary Committee - little will be left to win.

People will still be dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. New Orleans will still be destroyed. The environment will still be poisoned. Laws that all but eviscerate the Bill of Rights will still be on the books. The same unimaginably wealthy industrialists will still have the same clout. The news media will still be controlled by people whose interests lie far afield from telling us the truth.

Much of this can be undone or contained, to be sure, except for all the death. The laws can be rolled back. Sensible policies can be applied to the wars we are losing. New Orleans can be rebuilt. The media can be re-regulated. With a proper amount of effort and attention, most of the damage that has been done can be fixed. Except for all the death.

But that is not winning, not really, because the problem is not so much that these things happened and now have to be fixed. The problem is that they were allowed to happen at all. A lot of things have gone astonishingly wrong in America if a passage of time such as this exists in the first place. It has happened, all of it. This is no long nightmare. It is as real as the nose on your face.

It is a disgrace, a scar on our history and our consciousness. Worse, the fact that all this did happen means it can happen again. The power-hungry now have a marvelous blueprint for the unmaking of a republic, and they will likely be surprised at how trifling easy it is to pull off. Americans, it seems, have at least one thing in common with Iraqis. We are great, apparently, at tolerating the intolerable.

Is George W. Bush the cause of all this, or merely a symptom? I used to be fond of telling people that blaming Bush for everything that has gone wrong is like blaming Mickey Mouse when Disney screws up. This is still true, to a large degree. But then again, he said those things. Perhaps he is a little of both.

History is written by the winners. Be it resolved, then, that winning means trying to fix everything that is broken, that it means holding the proper people accountable for their actions. Be it likewise resolved that winning means not forgetting, that it means something good absolutely must come from these wretched years. If that good boils down to two words - "Never Again" - then that is victory enough.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence. His newest book, House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation, will be available this winter from PoliPointPress.

AMERICA, A NATION LOST IN THE WILDERNESS.

June 10, 1963
President Kennedy spoke at American University's Spring Commencement on June 10, 1963. In this speech Kennedey called on the Soviet Union to work with the United States to achieve a nuclear test ban treaty and help reduce the considerable international tensions and the specter of nuclear war at that time.

President Anderson, members of the faculty, Board of Trustees, distinguished guests, my old colleague, Senator Bob Byrd, who has earned his degree through many years of attending night law school, while I am earning mine in the next 30 minutes, ladies and gentlemen:

It is with great pride that I participate in this ceremony of the American University, sponsored by the Methodist Church, founded by Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, and first opened by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. This is a young and growing university, but it has already fulfilled Bishop Hurst's enlightened hope for the study of history and public affairs in a city devoted to the making of history and to the conduct of the public's business. By sponsoring this institution of higher learning for all who wish to learn whatever their color or their creed, the Methodists of this area and the nation deserve the nation's thanks, and I commend all those who are today graduating.

Professor Woodrow Wilson once said that every man sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time, and I am confident that the men and women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution will continue to give from their lives, from their talents, a high measure of public service and public support.

"There are few earthly things more beautiful than a University," wrote John Masefield, in his tribute to the English Universities - - and his words are equally true here. He did not refer to spires and towers, to campus greens and ivied walls. He admired the splendid beauty of the University, he said, because it was " a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see."

I have, therefore, chose this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is to rarely perceived - - yet it is the most important topic on earth : world peace.

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace - - the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living -- the kind that enables man and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children - - not merely peace for Americans by peace for all men and women - - not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all of the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by the wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations unborn.

Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles - - which can only destroy and never create - - is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.

I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war - - and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.

Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament - - and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must re-examine our own attitude - as individuals and as a Nation - - for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward - - by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the Cold War and toward freedom and peace here at home.

First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many of us think it is unreal. But that is dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable - - that mankind is doomed - - that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.

We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade - - therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable - - and we believe they can do it again.

I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of universal peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the values of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.

Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace - - based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions - -on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace - - no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process - - a way of solving problems.

With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor - - it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between nations and neighbors.

So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable - - and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly - - by making it seem more manageable and less remote - - we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.

Second: Let us re-examine our attitude toward the Soviet Union. It is discouraging to think that their leaders may actually believe what their propagandists write. It is discouraging to read a recent authoritative Soviet text on Military Strategy and find, on page after page, wholly baseless and incredible claims - - such as the allegation that " American imperialist circles are preparing to unleash different types of wars…that there is a very real threat of a preventive war being unleashed by American imperialists against the Soviet Union…(and that) the political aims of the American imperialists are to enslave economically and politically the European and other capitalist countries…(and) to achieve world domination.

Truly, as it was written long ago: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." Yet it is sad to read these Soviet statements - - to realize the extent of the gulf between us. But it is also a warning - - a warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodations as impossible and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.

No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements - - in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.

Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war. Almost unique, among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the course of the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory, including nearly two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland - - a loss equivalent to the devastation of this country east of Chicago.

Today, should total war ever break out again - - no matter how - - our two countries would become the primary targets. It is an ironical but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. And even in the Cold War, which brings burdens and dangers to so many countries, including this Nation's closest allies - - our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. For we are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counter-weapons.

In short, both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests of the Soviet Union as well as ours -- and even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.

So, let us not be blind to our differences - - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

Third: Let us re-examine our attitude toward the Cold War, remembering that we are not engaged in a debate, seeking to pile up debating points. We are not here distributing blame or pointing the finger of judgment. We must deal with the world as it is, and not as it might have been had history of the last eighteen years been different.

We must, therefore, preserve in the search for peace in the hope that constructive changes within the Communist bloc might bring within reach solutions which now seem beyond us. We must conduct our affairs in such a way that it becomes in the Communists' interest to agree on a genuine peace. Above all, while defending our vital interest, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy - - or of a collective death-wish for the world.

To secure these ends, America's weapons are non-provocative, carefully controlled, designed to deter and capable of selective use. Our military forces are committed to peace and disciplines in self-restraint. Our diplomats are instructed to avoid unnecessary irritants and purely rhetorical hostility.

For we can seek a relaxation of tensions without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove that we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people - - but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.

Meanwhile, we seek to strengthen the United Nations, to help solve its financial problems, to make it a more effective instrument of peace, to develop it into a genuine world security system - - a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law, of insuring the security of the large and the small, and of creating conditions under which arms can finally be abolished.

At the same time we seek to keep peace inside the non-communist world, where many nations, all of them our friends, are divided over issues which weaken western unity, which invite communist intervention or which threaten to erupt into war. Our efforts in West New Guinea, in the Congo, in the Middle East and in the Indian subcontinent, have been persistent and patient despite criticism from both sides. We have also tried to set an example for others - - by seeking to adjust small but significant differences with our own closest neighbors in Mexico and in Canada.

Speaking of other nations, I wish to make one point clear. We are bound to many nations by alliances. These alliances exist because our concern and theirs substantially overlap. Our commitment to defend Western Europe and West Berlin for example, stands undiminished because of the identity of our vital interests. The United States will make no deal with the Soviet Union at the expense of other nations and other peoples, not merely because they are our partners, but also because their interests and ours converge.

Our interests converge, however not only in defending the frontiers of freedom, but in pursuing the paths of peace. It is our hope - - and the purpose of Allied policies - - to convince the Soviet Union that she, too, should let each nation choose its own future, so long as that choice does not interfere with the choices of others. The communist drive to impose their political and economic system on others is the primary cause of world tension today. For there can be no doubt that if all nations could refrain from interfering in the self-determination of others, then peace would be much more assured.

This will require a new effort to achieve world law - - a new context for world discussions. It will require increased understanding between the Soviets and ourselves. And increased understanding will require increased contact and communications. One step in this direction is the proposed arrangement for a direct line between Moscow and Washington, to avoid on each side the dangerous delays, misunderstandings, and misreadings of the other's actions which might occur at a time of crisis.

We have also been talking in Geneva about other first-step measures of arms control, designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and to reduce the risks of accidental war. Our primary long-range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament - - designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms. The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this Government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three Administrations. And however dim the prospects may be today, we intend to continue this effort - - to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are.

The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight- - yet where a fresh start is badly needed - - is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such a treaty - - so near and yet so far - - would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. IT would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security - - it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards.

I am taking this opportunity, therefore, to announce two important decisions in this regard.

First: Chairman Khrushchev, Prime Minister Macmillan and I have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly begin in Moscow looking toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty. Our hopes must be tempered with the caution of history - - but with our hopes go the hopes of all mankind.

Second: To make clear our good faith and solemn convictions on the matter, I now declare that the United States does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so. We will not be the first to resume. Such a declaration is no substitute for a formal binding treaty - - but I hope it will help us achieve one. Nor would such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament - - but I hope it will help us achieve it.

Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our won society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives - - as many of you who are graduation today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.

But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our duties today, the peace is not secure because freedom is incomplete.

It is the responsibility of the Executive Branch at all levels of government - - local, state and national - - to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is the responsibility of the Legislative Branch at all levels, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.

All this is not unrelated to world peace. "When a man's ways please the Lord," the Scriptures tell us, "he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter human rights - - the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation - - the right to breathe air as nature provided it - - the right of future generations to a healthy existence?

While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both. No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can - - if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers - - offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough - - more than enough - - of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on - - not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.

Link Here
Georgie the Moron, STAY AWAY FROM US, OR WE'LL KILL YOU.

How the mighty have fallen into the pits of hell.

KING MIDAS IN REVERSE


In an ancient Greek myth, Kind Midas had a golden touch. Everything he handled turned to gold. King George Bush has a similar gift, however it is slightly different from that of the monarch of the Greek myth: everything Bush touches turns to shit. Even the most uninformed nitwit realizes the mess going on in Iraq. Bush’s prediction of U.S. soldiers being welcomed as liberators was far off the mark and Iraq is in shambles. A current statement now in vogue in Iraq about the embargo years is, "Those were the golden years." How about other Bush ventures? They don’t seem to gain as much publicity as the Iraq issue. Let’s look at Afghanistan...


continua / continued

Interview with Leila Khaled Imperialism’s two failures: Iraq and Lebanon


Workers World

...Just after the war, Nasrallah declared that they are going to compensate the people, so that they can live in dignity. I think it’s a culture, for all human beings to live with dignity. And he stresses that—now we have won the war, although the country was destroyed, but we kept our dignity, we are free people. He speaks to the people, to their minds and their hearts at the same time. There are political parties in the area, especially in Lebanon, who said why can’t we live in peace with Israel? Now this war showed that it’s very difficult to coexist with them, and this is very dangerous, because we, as Palestinians, from the very beginning called for a one-state solution, that Arabs, Jews, Muslims, Christians can live all together peacefully on the same land and on a democratic basis. This is our vision to the end of this conflict, but we have seen that still the Israeli society is not ready for that. Iran has a religious ideology, which I feel is dangerous. But when it comes to resisting the imperialist projects in the area, you don’t speak about ideology, you speak about resistance. Resistance is the concept, whether the origin of it is religious or not. That’s why they targeted Hezbollah, because it’s a resisting group...

continua / continued

US News: Bush Is Said to Have No Plan if GOP Loses (Repugs complaining)

Well you certainly need more than 40% of the population going out to vote on those diebold machines. if the Dems want to win.
Bush Is Said to Have No Plan if GOP Loses
By Kenneth T. Walsh

Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7–a concern aggravated by the president's news conference this week.

"They aren't even planning for if they lose," says a GOP insider who informally counsels the West Wing. If Democrats win control of the House, as many analysts expect, Republicans predict that Bush's final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.

"The Bush White House has had no relationship with Congress," said a Bush ally. "Beyond the Democrats, wait till they see how the Republicans–the ones that survive–treat them if they lose next month." GOP insiders are upset by Bush's seeming inability to come up with new ideas or fresh approaches. There is even a heightened sensitivity to the way Bush talks about advisers who served his father

At the president's news conference on Wednesday, allies of his father complained that the president seemed dismissive of former Secretary of State James Baker, who remains close to his dad and is cochairman of a bipartisan panel studying the war in Iraq

Well, this is what happens when you choose a dimwit to be your party's leader. Suck it, Repugs

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Reid got $1 million for land he hadn't owned for 3 years

Headline is a bit misleading, but so are Reids actions...

By John Solomon
ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:54 a.m. October 11, 2006

The complex dealings allowed Reid to transfer ownership, legal liability and some tax consequences to Brown's company without public knowledge, but still collect a seven-figure payoff nearly three years later.

Reid hung up the phone when questioned about the deal during an AP interview last week.

The senator's aides said no money changed hands in 2001 and that Reid instead got an ownership stake in Brown's company equal to the value of his land. Reid continued to pay taxes on the land and didn't disclose the deal because he considered it a “technical transfer,” they said.
They also said they have no documents proving Reid's stake in the company because it was an informal understanding between friends.

The 1998 purchase “was a normal business transaction at market prices,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. “There were several legal steps associated with the investment during those years that did not alter Senator Reid's actual ownership interest in the land.”

Senate ethics rules require lawmakers to disclose on their annual ethics report all transactions involving investment properties – regardless of profit or loss – and to report any ownership stake in companies.

Kent Cooper, who oversaw government disclosure reports for federal candidates for two decades in the Federal Election Commission, said Reid's failure to report the 2001 sale and his ties to Brown's company violated Senate rules.

“This is very, very clear,” Cooper said. “Whether you make a profit or a loss you've got to put that transaction down so the public, voters, can see exactly what kind of money is moving to or from a member of Congress.”

“It is especially disconcerting when you have a member of the leadership, of either party, not putting in the effort to make sure this is a complete and accurate report,” said Cooper. “That says something to other members. It says something to the Ethics Committee.”

Other parts of the deal – such as the informal handling of property taxes – raise questions about possible gifts or income reportable to Congress and the IRS, ethics experts said.

Stanley Brand, former Democratic chief counsel of the House, said Reid should have disclosed the 2001 sale and that his omission fits a larger culture in Congress where lawmakers aren't following or enforcing their own rules.

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Dahianna Heard Months From Citizenship Before Husband's Death

Good enought to die in Georgies dirty illegal war, but not good enough to raise his child in his fathers homeland. Welcome to America Land of opportunity, just don't die in Georgie illegal war, or your screwed .

POSTED: 11:40 am EDT October 12, 2006
UPDATED: 2:47 pm EDT October 12, 2006

CASSELBERRY, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman said the love of her life was killed in Iraq, and his death might be her one-way ticket out of this country.

Dahianna Heard lives in Casselberry in Seminole County, but she is Venezuelan by birth, WESH 2 News reported.

She was only three months away from being a legal citizen by marriage. She could be forced to move back to her homeland, but with her son born in this country, she said she wants to stay.

Jeffrey Heard was a contractor in Iraq providing communications equipment to the military. He was killed in March in the combat zone. Dahianna Heard has a memorial to him in their Casselberry home.

But so far, none of that has mattered to immigration officials who said since he died before their second wedding anniversary, she and their 1-year-old son, Brian, have to go back to her home country.

"I don't want to go to Venezuala. It's not a good situation right now with President (Hugo) Chavez," she said. "My family is here. My life is here. Everything is here. I see my husband here. I have baby here. My family is here."

Her lawyer hopes the technicality will be overlooked. Jeff Heard had petitioned for his wife's citizenship, but that petition died with him. Her petition is seen as deficient because she wasn't married to him a full two years.

She said she wants to stay in the country her husband helped defend.

Her lawyer hopes to get a waiver on humanitarian grounds.

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Olbermann video: Republicans dupe the faithful

RAW STORY
Published: Friday October 13, 2006

Keith Olbermann, in the second of a three-part series on MSNBC's Countdown, recently discussed how the Republicans have "duped" the faithful for their votes.

Using David Kuo's recent book Tempting Faith as the basis for his commentary, Olbermann in particular focuses on a telling remark attributed to presidential advisor Karl Rove: "Just get me a f*ing faith-based thing."

Kuo is a "self-described conservative Christian" and former special assistant to President Bush.

The first part of the series can be seen here.

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Video: How 'liberal' became a dirty word in politics

RAW STORYPublished: Friday October 13, 2006

In this video, MSNBC's Allison Stewart discusses with presidential historian Richard Shenkman how 'liberal' has become, through reinforcement by political ads and talking points, a 'dirty word' in modern politics.

"Throughout history," says Shenkman, "conservatives used to typically demonize the people. Now they no longer want to demonize people... instead, they demonize liberals."

On liberals' tendency to distance themselves from being identified as such, Shenkman remarks, "[They] have this problem with it, where they'll say 'I'm not a liberal, I'm a progressive,' or 'I'm a centrist,' or 'I'm a moderate'; they're really liberal, but they want to get rid of that label, so they'll say they don't believe in that label."

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