Harman's AIPAC activities have sunk her chances to be HPSCI chair.

November 17/18/19, 2006 -- Capitol Hill sources report that Jane Harman, the ranking Democratic member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), whose chairmanship is opposed by Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, attempted to interfere in the Justice Department's investigation of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for espionage.

Harman's AIPAC activities have sunk her chances to be HPSCI chair.

Harman reportedly agreed to work with Republican chairman Peter Hoekstra to avoid an investigation of the cooked up pre-war intelligence on Iraq in return for the Bush administration going easy on the investigation of AIPAC officials Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, both later indicted for receiving highly classified documents from Israeli Pentagon spy Larry Franklin.

The word is that Harman's involvement with AIPAC has torpedoed her chances of becoming HPSCI chair with California's two Democratic Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both weighing in with Pelosi against Harman becoming chairman.

Could Rush Holt emerge as a compromise candidate to head the

HPSCI?

November 16, 2006 -- A dark horse has emerged as a potential compromise candidate to head the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). The committee's next leader has become a sticking point since House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi has signaled she does not want ranking member Jane Harman in the position and doubts have been raised about the suitability of next senior Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), impeached as a federal judge for ethics violations, and the relative inexperience of next senior Rep. Sylvestre Reyes (D-TX). Some intelligence insiders report that they would like to see HPSCI member Rush Holt of New Jersey, the current ranking member of the Intelligence Policy subcommittee, take over as chair of the HPSCI. Holt has strong national security credentials, having served as the chief of the Nuclear and Scientific Division of the Office of Strategic Forces at the U.S. Department of State during the years just prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain. There is also Holt's West Virginia connection to incoming Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chair, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller. Holt's father, Rush Holt, Sr., served as a U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1935 to 1941.

WayneMadsenReport

Houston Police Trample Protesting Janitors With Horses...

My DD November 18, 2006 04:38 PM

Here's a testimonial from one of the organizers of the protest. Brutality against workers should not be tolerated in our country.

We sat down in the intersection and the horses came immediately. It was really violent. They arrested us, and when we got to jail, we were pretty beat up. Not all of us got the medical attention we needed. The worst was a protester named Julia, who is severely diabetic. We kept telling the guards about her condition but they only gave her a piece of candy. During roll call, she started to complain about light-headedness. Finally she just collapsed unconscious on the floor. It was like she just dropped dead. The guard saw it but just kept going through the roll. Susan ran over there and took her pulse while the other inmates were yelling for help, saying we need to call somebody. The medical team strolled over, taking their own sweet time. She was unconscious for like 4 or 5 minutes.

They really tried to break us down. The first night they put the temperature so high that a woman--one of the other inmates--had a seizure. The second night they made it freezing and took away many of our blankets. We didn't have access to the cots so we had to sleep on a concrete floor. When we would finally fall asleep the guards would come and yell `Are you Anna Denise Solís? Are you so and so?' One of the protesters had a fractured wrist from the horses. She had a cast on and when she would fall asleep the guard would kick the cast to wake her up.

She was in a lot of pain.
Read the entire post here.

CNN, MSNBC Gaining On Fox In Post-Election Ratings...

Eat The Press Rachel Sklar November 18, 2006 02:01 PM

On election night, the Democrats swept Congress, and CNN swept to a surprise victory over Fox News in the all-important 25-54 demo, beating out the perennial frontrunner to win the total day and coming within a hairsbreadth of meeting their total primetime numbers. The next day, CNN won it all -- the demo, total viewers, almost every hour from 10 am to 3 am. Compared to Fox's usual ratings supremacy, it was a rout.

In the week and a half since the election, the numbers have settled somewhat, and Fox is back to number one. But there is no denying the trend: CNN, and now third-place MSNBC, are steadily gaining in share, and Fox is, well, not. It's still the leader, but even before the election it was showing signs of slippage: Its October 2006 numbers reflected a 2% drop in total day and a 9% drop in primetime. CNN was up 15% in total day and lost only 1% in primetime -- while underdog MSNBC enjoyed a double-digit jump on both fronts with a 34% leap in day and a 15% hike in primetime, the only network of the three to post gains.

READ FULL STORY

Atty. Gen. Gonzales Attacks Critics As Bush Admin Tries To Push Warrantless Wiretapping Through Lame-Duck Congress...

Associated Press Chase Squires November 18, 2006 04:38 PM

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales contended Saturday that some critics of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program were defining freedom in a way that poses a "grave threat" to U.S. security.
Gonzales was the second administration official in two days to attack a federal judge's ruling last August that the program was unconstitutional. Vice PresidentDick Cheney on Friday called the ruling "an indefensible act of judicial overreaching."

READ FULL STORY

HANOI: BUSH EMERGES FOM HOTEL FOR ONE 15 MINUTE EVENT...

The New York Times DAVID E. SANGER and HELENE COOPER November 18, 2006 02:54 PM

President Bush likes speed golf and speed tourism -- this is the man who did the treasures of Red Square in less than 20 minutes -- but here in the lake-studded capital of a nation desperately eager to connect with America, he set a new record.

Mr. Bush emerged from his hotel for only one nonofficial event, a 15-minute visit to the Joint P.O.W./M.I.A. Accounting Command, which searches for the remains of the 1,800 Americans still listed as missing in the Vietnam War.

READ FULL STORY

Rove: Dems Don't Like Him, GOP Resents Him...

The New York Times JIM RUTENBERG and ADAM NAGOURNEY November 18, 2006 05:38 PM

Karl Rove, the top White House political strategist, is coming off the worst election defeat of his career to face a daunting task: saving the president's agenda with a Congress not only controlled by Democrats, but also filled with Republican members resentful of the way he and the White House conducted the losing campaign.

White House officials say President Bush has every intention of keeping Mr. Rove on through the rest of his term. And Mr. Rove's associates say he intends to stay, with the goal of at least salvaging Mr. Bush's legacy and, in the process, his own.

READ FULL STORY

“The living will envy the dead”.

Concerned more for the dead than for the living

The British intercede when they see their war dead threatened but when innocent Palestinians are killed in their sleep by monstrous unprovoked Israeli violence, they set about quibbling about the balance of blame between the two sides.

Israelis mourn Gaza deaths:

The readers of Haaretz daily newspaper in the past days were in for a surprise after three Israeli citizens published obituaries in the back pages of the newspaper which expressed their grief for the death of civilians in Beit Hanoun last week.

Dozens of kidnapped passengers killed - Iraqi TV

As Many as 60 More Killed / Kidnapped: :

As many as 60 or more passengers of six hijacked microbuses were killed by militants Thursday in occupied Baghdad, eyewitnesses told the official TV channel al-Iraqiya, in the latest horrific incident of sectarian violence in conflict-torn Iraq

Iraq gov't in crisis after staff abducted, tortured :

Kidnappers tortured many of the dozens of hostages seized in a daylight raid on a government building and killed some of them, a minister said as he warned that he felt Iraq no longer had an effective government.

Baghdad Shi'ite militant says fighting for all Iraqis:

"Sunnis are as much my brothers as Shi'ites. My only enemies are the occupiers," he said during the encounter in Sadr City, the sprawling Baghdad slum where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been hunting him as, effectively, Public Enemy No. 1 for months.

Between extraordinary rendition to foreign jails and disappearance into the CIA's "black sites", what happened to the rest?

Missing presumed tortured

By Stephen GreyMore than 7,000 prisoners have been captured in America's war on terror. Just 700 ended up in Guantanamo Bay. Between extraordinary rendition to foreign jails and disappearance into the CIA's "black sites", what happened to the rest?

Continue

Live every day as if it were your last. It's good advice. Modified for politicians: Treat every term in office as if it were your last.

An idea whose time had come

By Ted Rall Special prosecutors ought to track down everyone, up to and including Bush, who lied about WMDs in Iraq, chose not to pursue Osama in Pakistan after 9/11, deliberately withheld help that could have saved lives during the Hurricane Katrina, and signed off on warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. Law and order starts at the top.

Continue

In Afghanistan, European troops avoid combat

In Afghanistan, European troops avoid combat:

Troops from most major European nations are kept far from the fighting in Afghanistan, crippling NATO's effort to defeat the Taliban and secure the embattled south, according to NATO officers and independent analysts.

Al-Qaida 'planted information to encourage US invasion'

"Spy" claims: Al-Qaida 'planted information to encourage US invasion':

A senior al-Qaida operative deliberately planted information to encourage the US to invade Iraq, a double agent who infiltrated the network and spied for western intelligence agencies claimed last night.

Employee of U.S. contractor accused of firing at Iraqis

Contractor’s Boss in Iraq Shot at Civilians: :

Two former employees of an American private military contracting company have claimed in a Virginia court that they witnessed their supervisor deliberately shoot at Iraqi vehicles and civilians this summer, and that the company fired them for reporting the incidents.

Iraqi interpreters working with the British Army in Basra are being systematically hunted down and killed.

Interpreters used by British Army 'hunted down' by Iraqi death squads

At least 21 have been kidnapped and shot in head over the past three weeks, their bodies dumped in different parts of the city

UCLA Student Gets Tazered

Video

"Here's your Patriot Act, here's your ... abuse of power,"

Watch

Welcome To Georgies War

Devoted Sister Loses 2 Brothers to War

Senate Democrats Plan Overhaul of Military Tribunals Bill

Gearing up for a major clash with the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress, several key Senate Democrats are planning to overhaul the newly minted legislation governing military tribunals of detainees. Even before it was signed into the law last month, Democrats were criticizing the military commission bill as unconstitutional and a magnet for endless legal challenges.

LinkHere

Gonzales Says Its Civic Responsibility to Spy on US Citizens

Gonzales Says Its Civic Responsibility to Spy on US Citizens

Gonzales contended Sat that some critics of the Bush admin's warrantless surveillance prog were defining freedom in a way that presents a "grave threat" to US security. Gonzales was the second administration official in two days to attack a federal judge's ruling that the prog was unconstitutional. Cheney on Fri called the decision "an indefensible act of judicial overreaching." Consider the source>

57,000 Troops Receive Deployment Notice to Iraq

Pentagon says 'maintenance' level?

No Exit: Will Daddy's Boys Extend the War?

Tom Engelhardt writes: "Now, the dreamers, the greatest gamblers in our history, are departing official Washington and the 'realists' have hit the corridors of power that they always thought they owned. It wouldn't hurt if they opened their eyes. Even imperial defenders should face reality. Someday, it's something we'll all have to do."

LinkHere

The Pentagon will ask Congress for $115 million to build a court complex at its Guantanamo Bay military base

Pentagon to seek $115m for Gitmo court

By Kristin Roberts

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The Pentagon will ask Congress for $115 million to build a court complex at its Guantanamo Bay military base to try suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members for war crimes, a Defense Department spokesman said on Friday.

Under the plan, the Pentagon will propose a complex that includes a courthouse with two large courtrooms and a high-security area as well as housing for legal personnel, dining areas, a media center and other infrastructure, according to department spokesman Chito Peppler.

The Pentagon will likely submit its funding request next week, according to a defense official. The Defense Department wants the funds approved this year, according to that official, so trials can start by July 1. >>>cont

Army Unit to Serve Third Tour in Iraq

Army unit ordered to serve third tour in Iraq

Nov 18, 6:16 AM (ET)By ROBERT BURNS

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which helped lead the charge to Baghdad at the outset of the war, will return next year and become the first Army division to serve three tours in Iraq.

More than 3 1/2 years into the war, the Army and Marine Corps are straining to keep a steady flow of combat and support forces to Iraq while giving the troops sufficient time between deployments for rest and retraining.

Both services are far short of their goal of providing two years between deployments; the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry, for example, will have spent barely more than 12 months at home when it returns next year. The same is true for the division's 1st Brigade, which officials have said is scheduled to deploy again in January. >>>cont

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a member of the Iraq Study Group, calls for her car as she leaves the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006, after taking part in another day of meetings and a teleconference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Still Waiting for Bipartisanship

The New York Times editors write: "The voters sent a clear message last week that they do not want the far right of the Republican Party calling the shots in Washington. But President Bush has ignored the message, resubmitting a group of archconservative, underqualified judicial nominees that Senate Democrats have already said are unacceptable."

LinkHere

Has Fox News Gone Too Far?

Keith Olbermann says: "One of the most ingenious aspects of the false charge of an intentional liberal bias in the news media is the unstated inference that if there is a liberal bias there by necessity cannot be an intentional conservative bias."

LinkHere

Democrats "Divided," or Democratic?

DEADSHIT WANKERS, YOU LOSE THE PEOPLE VOTED,

Most of us do have a brain, to think for ourselves,

we are not your sheeple.

It's only 10 days after the Democratic Party's convincing victory on election night, and the corporate media is already trying to find division in the party. Publications across America yesterday focused on Steny Hoyer winning the majority leader race, and called it a loss for Nancy Pelosi.

LinkHere

Poll of the day

Do you think it harms the Democrats that Nancy Pelosi backed John Murtha for majority leader?

Yes
10%

No
90%

Total Votes: 21194

Take the Poll

New LBJ Tapes On Vietnam: Calls NY Times “Bunch Of Commies,” Says War Was “Just As Much Political As Military”...

Associated Press TOM RAUM November 18, 2006 09:19 AM

Vice President Dick Cheney assured a conservative lawyers' group on Friday that the Republican loss of Congress would not dissuade President Bush from nominating more judges who believe in interpreting rather than making law.

"Throughout our time in office, the president has selected judges who understand their role in the constitutional system," Cheney told the Federalist Society.

READ FULL STORY

JUDICIAL SHOWDOWN: Cheney Says Full Speed Ahead Appointing Conservative Judges…

Keep assuring Wanker, your in the minority now, face it your stuck with it, the people voted.

Associated Press Tom Raum November 18, 2006 09:55 AM

Vice President Dick Cheney assured a conservative lawyers' group on Friday that the Republican loss of Congress would not dissuade President Bush from nominating more judges who believe in interpreting rather than making law.

"Throughout our time in office, the president has selected judges who understand their role in the constitutional system," Cheney told the Federalist Society.

READ FULL STORY

IT MAKES YOU WANT “TO PUKE”...

Washington Post William Booth and Lisa de Moraes November 18, 2006 09:55 AM

An angry wave of criticism swept through the publishing and broadcast worlds Friday over the coming Fox television interview tied to the promotion of a book by O.J. Simpson, in which he describes how he would have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman -- if he'd done it.

The two-part, two-hour TV interview is scheduled to be aired on the Fox network Nov. 27 and 29 and was conducted by hard-charging and controversial publisher Judith Regan. The show will run before the Nov. 30 release date of Simpson's pseudo-confessional tome, "If I Did It," a book published by ReganBooks, a division of HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

READ FULL STORY

Lawyers to seize funds from OJ book deal

November 17, 2006

LAWYERS for the father of the man killed along with OJ Simpson's ex-wife said today they were taking action to seize any money Simpson was paid for a new book in which he pictures himself at the scene of the murders.

The lawyers for Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman, say any compensation the former American football star earns for his book "If I Did It" is subject to collection under the civil judgment won by the Goldman family in its wrongful death suit against Simpson in 1997.

Simpson has always maintained his innocence and was acquitted of criminal charges in the case.
"You can say we're taking efforts to execute under judgment for any funds due to him from the publisher," said Peter Csato, one of several Los Angeles-based lawyers representing Ron Goldman's estate and his father. >>>cont

Reuters

Dutch officers in 'torture cover-up'

I begin to wonder really, which countries of the coalition have indeed tried to liberate the people of Iraq from the injustices of Sadam, they have gone from one lot of injustices to even worse injustices committed by Bush and his coalition.

November 18, 2006

THE HAGUE: Dutch soldiers have been accused of torturing dozens of Iraqi prisoners, and their officers are said to have covered up the practice.

Dutch military intelligence agents employed "robust questioning tactics" - including dousing prisoners with water as part of sleep deprivation techniques - De Volkskrant newspaper reported yesterday, citing a Defence Ministry spokesman who said: "Things happened that are in violation of instructions."

The interrogations took place at the US-led coalition's provisional authority buildings in the town of Samawah, 370km southeast of Baghdad.

Detainees were also blindfolded before being exposed unprotected to intense light, potentially damaging their eyes, the newspaper said. They were exposed to extremely unpleasant sounds and refused permission to speak to lawyers. >>>cont

AFP

Guest Workers Seek Global Horizons: U.S. Company Exploits Migrant Labor

Kari LydersenNovember 3rd, 2006Global Horizons is one of the biggest companies in the business of importing temporary foreign workers to do jobs in the U.S. ranging from agriculture to nursing. Their workers sometimes endure worse conditions, and enjoy less rights than undocumented workers.

LinkHere

Pentagon Finds Worker Abuse and Trafficking in Iraq, but Penalizes No One

A U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad:

Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest Embassy

by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatchOctober 17th, 2006 John Owen didn’t realize how different his job would be from his last 27 years in construction until he signed on with First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting in November 2005. Working as general foreman, he would be overseeing an army of workers building the largest, most expensive and heavily fortified US embassy in the world. Scheduled to open in 2007, the sprawling complex near the Tigris River will equal Vatican City in size.Then seven months into the job, he quit. Not one of the five different US embassy sites he had worked on around the world compared to the mess he describes. Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia all had their share of dictators, violence and economic disruption, but the companies building the embassies were always fair and professional, he says. The Kuwait-based company building the $592-million Baghdad project is the exception. Brutal and inhumane, he says “I’ve never seen a project more fucked up. Every US labor law was broken.” In the resignation letter last June, Owen told First Kuwaiti and US State Department officials that his managers beat their construction workers, demonstrated little regard for worker safety, and routinely breached security. Pentagon Finds Worker Abuse and Trafficking in Iraq, but Penalizes No One On April 4, 2006, the Pentagon issued a new contracting directive following a secret investigation that officially confirms what many South Asian laborers have been complaining about ever since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Some contractors, many working as subcontractors to Halliburton /KBR in Iraq, were found to be using deceptive, bait-and-switch hiring practices and charging recruiting fees that indebted low-paid migrant workers for many months or even years to their employers. Contractors were also accused of providing substandard, crowded sleeping quarters, serving poor food, and circumventing Iraqi immigration procedures. While the Pentagon declines to specifically name those contractors found to be doing business in this way, it also acknowledged in an April 19 memorandum that it was a widespread practice among contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan to take away workers passports. Holding onto employee passports -- a direct violation of US labor trafficking laws -- helped stop workers from leaving war-torn Iraq or taking better jobs with other contractors. Contractors engaging in the practice, states the memo, must immediately "cease and deist." "All passports will be returned to employees by 1 May 06. This requirement will be flowed down to each of your subcontractors performing work in this theater." The Pentagon has yet to announce of any penalty for those found to be in violation of US labor trafficking laws or contract requirements. And it was all happening smack in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone -- right under the nose of the State Department that had quietly awarded the controversial embassy contract in July 2005 >>>>cont

Grand Theft Pentagon

In case you have forgotten the Price Tag Military Needs $127 Billion

A.K. Gupta writes: "It just goes to show how pathetic the media are that anyone believed even for a moment that Bush and the Republicans were interested in bipartisanship. Bush's push to keep John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN indicates how determined the White House is to continue the pursuit of its ideological agenda. While the mainstream media has picked up on this, few if any have noticed how the Bush administration is trying to trap the incoming Democratic majority with its absurd funding request for the war on terror."

LinkHere

Bush's India-US Nuclear Deal Seen as "Horrible Mistake"

You ship civilian fuel and technology and they ship mangoes remember.

Bill allows shipment of civilian fuel, technology from US to India.

Democratic senator Byron Dorgan called the agreement "a horrible mistake" that "provides a green light" for India to produce more nuclear weapons. "I believe one day we will look back at this with great regret," he said. During debate Thursday, supporters beat back changes they said would have killed the proposal by making it unacceptable to India. Critics said the changes were necessary to guard against nuclear proliferation.
LinkHere

Prison for Anti-Nuke Clowns, US WMDs Protected

Does anyone remember this story or is it forgotten

Three men protesting the presence of weapons of mass destruction in North Dakota were sentenced to federal prison terms of over three years and ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution by a federal judge in Bismarck. The three dressed as clowns and went to the Echo-9 launch site of the intercontinental Minuteman III nuclear missile in rural North Dakota in June 2006. They broke the lock off the fence and put up peace banners and posters. One said: "Swords into plowshares - Spears into pruning hooks." They poured some of their own blood on the site, hammered on the nuclear launching facility and waited to be arrested.

The Minuteman III missile has over 20 times the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and can reach a target within 6000 miles in 35 minutes. The men called their action the "Weapons of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares."

Weapon of Mass Destruction Here PlowsharesE-9 Minuteman Missile SiloNorth Dakota

What does it say about our society that personal sacrifices to go to war, to kill people in war, are praised, while personal sacrifices for peace are condemned? What does it say that intentional destruction of cities and communities and families and individuals are considered totally legal, while actions trying to dismantle weapons of mass destruction send people to prison? Until those interested in peace are willing to make the same sacrifices as those interested in war, peace will not prevail. These three men have proven they are willing to pay the price for peace. Their courage and sacrifice challenge us all.

While these men serve their time in prison, one hundred fifty weapons of mass destruction sit peacefully free and protected in the fields of North Dakota. The law protects these weapons and finds those who try to protect the world from their holocaust criminals. If the weapons are ever used, the people of North Dakota will not need the news to tell them. The thunderous, fiery launch of these weapons will signal the failure of justice and the end of life as we know it. writes Bill Quigley.

LinkHere

35 Million Americans No Longer Living in Hunger But in 'Low Food Security' Situations

VIDEO - CNN: 35 Million Americans No Longer Living in Hunger But in 'Low Food Security' Situations (Thanks to Bush Admin's Orwellian USDA Reclassification)

Robo-Calls May Have Swung FL-13

The machines where rigged, that's why the Democrat is not in office now.

Sarasota Florida's Election Supervisor Kathy Dent Cozies Up With ES&S' Shady Vice-President

MadCow Morning News' Exposé on How Things Went South Down in Florida's 13th Congressional District…

Florida's 13th congressional district was home to the one of the closest races in the midterms, and a recount is now on-going. However, a major voting error and omnipresent Republican robo-calls, a particularly insidious kind called "false flag" robo-calls, unfairly threw the initial count to the Republican; and many argue the Democrat should already be in office.

LinkHere

Military Needs $127 Billion to Fund Iraq, Afghanistan Wars

The Bush administration is preparing its largest spending request yet for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a proposal that could make the conflict the most expensive since World War II.

LinkHere

The New Media Offensive for the Iraq War

Norman Soloman writes: "The American media establishment has launched a major offensive against the option of withdrawing US troops from Iraq. In the latest media assault, right-wing outfits like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page are secondary. The heaviest firepower is now coming from the most valuable square inches of media real estate in the USA - the front page of the New York Times."

LinkHere

House Passes "Terrorism" Act Against Animal Activists

Monday afternoon, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that reclassifies unlawful animal-rights tactics as terrorism under certain conditions, even if they are non-violent.

LinkHere

Sign the Protest, if this blows you away.

Judith Regan, shame on you. If you really felt this way, why didnt you say that all your proceeds would go to a domestic violence charity.

Hmmmmm so the truth is, it was greed and publicity, sick sick you are sick!

shame - boycott anything judith regan including harpers ect.

and check out www.Dontpayoj.com:

judith - you are now as bad as OJ - enjoy your enternity in hell together.

http://www.what-a-world.com/

Posted by stephen to ReBelle Nation at 11/17/2006 10:05:52 PM

Boycott OJ Simpson: Boycott Border Bookstores and Fox

How can we say this simply, If Borders Bookstore, Walmart and others stock the OJ Simpson (If I Did It) book - boycott the store. Do not buy anything from these stores until the book is removed from the shelves. Let these bookstores know how you feel. In an interview, Walmart said they feel the book will be a good seller, and thus they will stock the book. Walmart - so greedy and without any remorse for the victims.

The public has the right to weigh in on such matters and your boycott will send a message to slime like OJ Simpson, if he thinks he can profit from this horrific crime.

Let the manager of your bookstore know that if the book is on the shelf, you will take your business elsewhere. So they sell a few OJ Simpson (If I didn it) books, but overall they lose sales. That is the best way to send a strong message.

And boycott FOX and their advertisers. Boycott any work by Judith Regan as well.

Of course What a World respects free speech, but that does not mean that anyone can earn money from a crime. Ronald Goldman and Nicole Simpson deserve better than this. This is sick - and once again, OJ Simpson is showing himself as a greedy slimy character - a disgrace to NFL football and the Heisman Trophy. Boycott OJ Simpson - and show we the public do care!!

www.Dontpayoj.com: Goldman's Fight Back

Score one for the Goldman's - very smart to use the internet to get their view point across. And as you know - What a World stands with the Goldman's and Nicole' family - and you should also.
Please visit: http://www.Dontpayoj.com and sign their petition and send email's to the various folks they list. Let them know we think OJ Simpson's book and Fox's and Judith Regan's .

And that you are boycotting them. Let them know What-A-World sent you.

Let them know What-A-World sent you.

God Bless you Ronald Goldman and Nicole Simpson - some people down here still care!

LinkHere

Chavez warns Venezuelan TV not to support coup

Fri 17 Nov 2006 6:52 PM ET
By Patricia Rondon

EL ESPINAL, Venezuela, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday warned private media he would shut them down if they promote a bid to topple him he says is planned after his expected Dec. 3 re-election.

Chavez, who has gradually increased his control over most Venezuelan institutions, has accused the opposition of planning to oust him if he wins another big majority as most polls expect he will.

He has said he expects the opposition to claim fraud, and to try to mobilize street protesters and the army.

"We have to shut any television channel that broadcasts messages inciting terrorism, hate or war and calls on people not to recognize the authorities. We have to shut it," Chavez said during a speech on Venezuela's Caribbean island of Margarita.

"Anyone who goes to a television channel and calls on the army to overthrow the government will be arrested as soon as he leaves the station," he added.

Chavez's challenger, Manuel Rosales, governor of the western oil state of Zulia, denies all charges he is hatching a coup.

The president has offered no evidence of the opposition-coordinated coup he says is planned, except to cite veteran journalist Rafael Poleo who in a TV interview this month urged a post-vote ouster of Chavez.

Political analysts view a critical media as one of the prime safeguards against Venezuela sliding into a Cuban-style one party state, which Washington regards as a risk.

The country's private television stations mostly are hostile to Chavez. They urged street demonstrations against him during the coup four years ago that briefly dislodged him.

But the anti-U.S. leader said he would thwart any attempt by the media to foment another putsch.

"We are not going to allow them to drench Venezuela in blood again," Chavez said, referring to the more than 60 deaths during a 2002 coup. >>>cont

LinkHere

President Bush: Driving Iraq Towards A Wall Of Death

READ MORE: Iraq, George W. Bush

"We'll succeed unless we quit," has to be one of the president's most ridiculous and dangerous statements about Iraq since, "Those weapons of mass destruction have to be around here somewhere." No wait. It was one of the most dangerous things he's said since, "It'll be just a comma." That's not it. Since, "Bring 'em on," maybe? Ah hell. There are so many stupid, dangerous and ridiculous things he's muttered with a smirk about this war, you could probably document them on enough paper to build a giant paper bridge from Washington to Baghdad allowing our soldiers to walk home.

This latest nugget of I'm-not-stay-the-course-but-stay-the-course-anyway ignorance was regurgitated by the president in Hanoi, Vietnam of all places which served only to underscore the tragedy of it all. And what's worse is he's signaled an intention to escalate the hostilities with increased troop levels in Iraq -- a plan that appears to be endorsed by the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group. It goes without saying the entire schmear is not only a slap in the face to all the soldiers who are dutifully departing on their fourth and fifth tours of duty, but also a kick to the throat of everyone who spoke out against the war on November 7.

The very simple question we should be asking President Bush and the last remaining stay the course sycophants is a crucial one about Iraq, but presented in the context of Vietnam... Knowing what you know now about the death toll in Vietnam and the eventual outcome of the war, wouldn't the United States have been better off by pulling out in 1964 or earlier? How many lives would've been saved?

The answer to that question -- and subsequently the question about redeployment and withdrawal from Iraq -- rests in the following graph.

As you can see, in the first four years of Vietnam, there were fewer deaths per year than in Iraq. What's also clear is that in the fifth year of Vietnam (the equivalent of 2007) the death toll rose significantly. The same with the sixth year and the seventh year and so on. But the most significant aspect of this graph are the deaths that occurred AFTER the fourth year of the war.

These post-fourth-year numbers suggest that President Bush, with his escalation and stay the course talk, is driving the Iraq War directly into a wall of death. I mean, the graph literally illustrates the shape of a wall. Of course the total casualty figures in Iraq are astronomical already but if we look at the raw numbers of American military deaths and factor in the almost universally agreed-upon prediction that victory in Iraq is a lost cause, then correlate it all with the historical precedent of a similar war with a similarly lost cause, the die is cast.

Clearly what began as hubris served on a giant stick of crap is now disintegrating beyond incompetence to outright carelessness -- a reckless disregard for historical reality careening towards outright presidential insanity. Not just figurative presidential insanity. Full blown cuckoo's nest Mr. Martini-betting-a-dime batshit crazy.

Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have a political, moral and historical obligation to isolate and handcuff the president on this war. If they don't, they're simply enabling him. History proves that political reputations aren't worth the cost in lives, so the slogan, "We won't succeed unless we leave/redeploy," ought to be shouted back at the president in unison because history is warning us about that wall... and it's looming large on the horizon.

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Bush to Congress: Drop Dead

I am increasingly coming to the hardly revelatory conclusion that George Bush is set on a strategy of rendering the November election results irrelevant by treating them as having no bearing on his policies. For a moment there, I thought the results were a wake-up call for the White House to change direction.

But today in Hanoi Bush told the press that, as far as Iraq is concerned, "The elections mean the American people want to know if we have a plan for success." How is that again? Like most Americans, I saw the election as a signal to switch course in Iraq by getting out, not in continuing to pursue a disaster that can never be cured. This follows Bush's renomination of six hard-rock conservatives for judicial posts and his forwarding of the name of the right-wing idealogue John Bolton for appointment as the US envoy to the UN. Bush is saying in so many words that he is unrepentent, and, as a lame-duck president, he has nothing to lose. He has placed all of his markers on his conservative base -- despite the fact that it is down to 31% of the voters according to the latest polls -- and will stick to that position no matter what happens in Congress and or in the country over the next 24 months.

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Sandra Day O'Connor: Entire Supreme Court Was Sent Rat Poison Cookies In '05....

NY Times LINDA GREENHOUSE November 17, 2006 12:16 PM

A discussion of recent threats to judges' safety, at a bar association conference in suburban Dallas last week, became startlingly specific when Sandra Day O'Connor, the retired Supreme Court justice, recounted that each justice had received in the mail "a wonderful package of home-baked cookies" that contained "enough poison to kill the entire membership of the court."

Justice O'Connor's remarks were reported on Thursday in The Star-Telegram in Fort Worth.

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Fmr Bush Official: “”The Democrats Are The Sideshow... Bush Self-Destructing Is The Big Story In Town"...

NY Daily News THOMAS M. DeFRANK, KENNETH R. BAZINET November 17, 2006 02:12 PM

"It's hard to talk about culture of corruption and how we're going to be the most ethical Congress ever if you don't take everything into account," said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Westchester/Bronx).

For all the focus on the Democrats, a former Bush official who predicts a coming bloodbath between the White House and disgruntled conservative Republicans brushed off the Pelosi-Hoyer tussle as much ado about process.

"The Democrats are the sideshow," he said. "Bush self-destructing is the big story in town."

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New Senate Minority Leader Tries To Threaten Dems Over Judicial Nominees...

THUG, Haven't you realized yet, your in the minority now?

Associated Press LAURIE KELLMAN November 17, 2006 07:43 PM

The Senate's next Republican leader issued a veiled threat to block action on legislation if Democrats refuse to allow confirmation votes on President Bush's troubled judicial nominations.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) of Kentucky, who will become minority leader Jan. 4, told the conservative Federalist Society Friday not to feel bad about the Senate election results because Republicans will hold 49 seats in a body that requires 60 votes to end a filibuster and bring legislation or presidential nominees to a final vote.

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Approval Of Bush's Policy In Iraq Plummets To Lowest Level Ever...

Associated Press Will Lester November 17, 2006 06:50 PM

Americans' approval of President Bush's handling of Iraq has dropped to the lowest level ever, increasing the pressure on the commander in chief to find a way out after nearly four years of war.
The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found just 31 percent approval for Bush's handling of Iraq, days after voters registered their displeasure at the polls by defeating Republicans and handing control of Congress to the Democrats. The previous low in AP-Ipsos polling was 33 percent in both June and August.

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Speaker-Elect Pelosi: Bringing The War To An End Is My Highest Priority As Speaker…

READ MORE: Iraq

This morning, I visited our brave men and women at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center. It is a place of prayers, of honor, of respect, and reflection. And I left there more committed than ever to bringing the war to an end.

I told my colleagues yesterday that the biggest ethical issue facing our country for the past three and a half years is the war in Iraq.

This unnecessary pre-emptive war has come at great cost. Nearly 2,900 of our brave troops have lost their lives and more than 21,000 more have suffered lasting wounds. Since the war began, Congress has appropriated more than $350 billion, and the United States has suffered devastating damage to our reputation in the eyes of the world.

Yesterday, I was truly honored to have been selected by acclamation of the Democratic Caucus as Speaker-designate. Many of you worked incredibly hard in the past year to see House Democrats take control of Congress and honored us with your vote. When the House reconvenes on January 4, 2007, Democrats will take power and I will take the gavel knowing the responsibility we have to you and to the country.

The new Democratic Congress will live up to the highest ethical standard, beginning with the first 100 legislative hours when we start to change the way business is done in Washington. We are prepared to lead and ready to govern. We will honor the trust of the American people; we will not disappoint.

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Tony Blair: Iraq Is "Pretty Much A Disaster”...

The Times Of London Philip Webster November 17, 2006 07:43 PM

Tony Blair went close last night to admitting that the invasion of Iraq had been disastrous. Challenged in an interview on Al-Jazeera's new English-language channel that the Western intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster", he gave a brief agreement before swiftly moving on.

He said: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It is not difficult because of some accident in planning, it is difficult because there is a deliberate strategy, al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other, to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

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Rove May Leave Within Weeks

I wouldn't hold my breath

The rumors that chief White House political architect Karl Rove will leave sometime next year are being bolstered with new insider reports that his partisan style is a hurdle to President Bush's new push for bipartisanship. A key Bush advisor tells the US News Political Bulletin, "Karl represents the old style and he's got to go if the Democrats are going to believe Bush's talk of getting along." The advisor said a departure might come in "weeks, not months." A Rove ally, however, noted that he has a record of out-witting his critics.

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AP Gets Shocking New Report on Gitmo

SAN JUAN The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were "enemy combatants," according to a new report.

The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, aided by more than two dozen law students, found that hearings that determined whether a prisoner should remain in custody gave the accused little opportunity to contest allegations against him.

"These were not hearings. These were shams," said Mark Denbeaux, an attorney and Seton Hall University law professor who along with his son, Joshua, is the author of the report. They provided an advance copy of the report to The Associated Press late Thursday and planned to release it Friday on the Internet.

Their report, based on an analysis of records of military hearings of 393 detainees, comes as the U.S. government seeks to severely restrict detainee access to civilian courts, arguing that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals should be their main legal recourse.

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Dem judiciary leader seeks torture documents

GUANTANAMO BAY Pentagon wants to build mini-city for terror trials

The Pentagon wants to build a compound costing up to $125 million for upcoming war crimes trials at Guantánamo. The proposal has yet to be presented to Congress, which must OK funding.

MIAMI HERALD STAFF

* Document Pentagon’s proposal

The Pentagon plans to build a military commissions compound at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, costing up to $125 million, a major undertaking meant to accommodate up to 1,200 people for the first U.S. war crimes trials since World War II, The Miami Herald learned Thursday.

...On paper, the idea resembles a mini-city, with housing, dining, meeting and courtroom space for those involved in the trials -- plus, Whitman said, a high-security space for top-secret and other classified materials. The compound would cost from $75 million to $125 million and include a courthouse with two courtrooms, conference space, a closed-circuit video transmission center and a 100-car motor pool.

Asked why it would require housing for 800 to 1,200 personnel and a dining facility for up to 800 people, Whitman said the idea is to hold multiple trials -- and house ``any number of people -- legal and administrative personnel, media, . . . security . . . attorneys.''...

CONGRESS OK NEEDED

Whitman said the Pentagon would likely seek authorization and funding from the current, lame-duck Congress, which is still controlled by the Republicans.

No specific contractor is favored for the project, he said, adding the plan was crafted 'being very respectful of taxpayers' dollars.''

...To anybody it would beg questions: . . . `What are we doing here? Why are we doing it this way? What is the requirement? Why is it going to cost that much?' These are routine oversight questions and we will do this,'' Sutey said.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court shut down the administration's first effort to stage the commissions, declaring the formula unconstitutional. Now, armed with a new Military Commissions Act approved by Congress, administration officials are rewriting rules for the trials. They could resume in early 2007 with suspectedterrorists being charged, according to the chief prosecutor, Air Force Col. Morris Davis.

Earlier efforts to stage the trials focused on alleged al Qaeda conspirators, among them Yemeni captive Salim Ahmed Hamdan, whose defense attorney, a Navy officer, challenged the formula in the civilian courts....
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Has President Bush gone mad. What is this country trying to prove?

In theory this sounds like a good idea for security purposes. But why would we spend 75 to 125 million build a facility to house suspected international criminals, additional security personnel, and media when that money could be better utilized on programs to help citizens here at home. The trials should be conducted in the US. Those individuals which pose the greatest threat can be present in the court room via video conference so that they do not have to be moved from their secured surrondings. We need more creative thinkers in government to keep our budget down not bureacrats that just want to throw our money out of the window.

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DO THE MATH....125,000,000 FOR 1200 CRIMINALS FOR A BUILDING TO PROSECUTE?????? This does not even include court costs, trial lawyer fees, transportation, etc. Definitely PORK BARREL politics at its finest.
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http://www.legitgov.org/
The Pentagon wants to build a compound costing up to $125 million for upcoming military trials at Guantánamo. 17 Nov 2006 The Pentagon plans to build a military commissions compound at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, costing up to $125 million, a major undertaking meant to accommodate up to 1,200 people for the first U.S. war crimes trials since World War II, The Miami Herald learned Thursday. When will the treason trials begin for Bush, Cheney Halliburton and Rumsfeld?

Head of Military Commissions Quits 15 Nov 2006 As the Bush administration gears up for another try at prosecuting suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, it’ll have to proceed without the retired Army major general who’s run the effort since 2004.

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Venezuela Third-Quarter GDP Grows 10.2% on Oil Income

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's economy grew more than 10 percent for a sixth straight quarter in the July-through- September period as the government used record oil revenue to swell state payrolls and build roads, bridges and housing for the poor.Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a country's production of goods and services, expanded 10.2 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier after growing 10.2 percent in the second quarter and 10.1 percent in the first, the central bank said. Oil exports soared 15 percent in the quarter to $15.9 billion, the bank said.Venezuela has become the fastest-growing economy in Latin America as President Hugo Chavez, who seeks re-election, boosted government spending 56 percent in the first eight months of the year, fueling a surge in consumer spending.

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Fighting breaks out after Iraq hijacking

British ground forces and U.S. military helicopters fought with gunmen Friday in southern Iraq where four American security contractors and their Austrian co-worker were abducted in a convoy hijacking.

The Austrian was found dead and one of the Americans was found gravely wounded, an Iraqi police officer said. The three Americans who were among the five Crescent Security Group employees taken hostage remained missing in the largely Sunni area.

In Vienna, Astrid Harz, a spokeswoman for the Austrian foreign ministry, confirmed that a 25-year-old Austrian man had been kidnapped when the Crescent Security Group convoy was hijacked in southern Iraq on Thursday. She could not confirm that he had been killed.

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Restaging the End of Another War

Les Blough, Axis of Logic Editor

...The U.S. military has been roundly defeated in Iraq. U.S. forces are being pounded by a well-organized resistance army who are defending their country. The corporate media has played the clever game of dripping small numbers of U.S. soldiers killed from week to week over the last 3 ½ years. The media did their best for the government. They were able to slow the cumulative effect of those numbers on the U.S. psyche, but could not do so indefinitely. In recent days they have changed tactics, blaming the failure on their latest inventions: the so-called "sectarian war" and foreign-puppet government installed by the U.S (...) The only success story in the US-Iraq night-terras belongs to Israel. Their perceived enemy and people they hate have been destroyed; Zionist paranoia temporarily relieved...

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Iraq: Rape without a morning-after pill

Ben Tanosborn, Online Journal Contributing Writer

For at least two years I’ve been of one mind: there is no such thing as a middle ground in how the US may approach its exit from Iraq. And that, in a nutshell, is my answer to James A. Baker III and his bipartisan, or "we’re all in this together," Iraq Study Group. Mr. Baker’s adherence to the doctrine of the best path being the middle of the road probably started when he switched alliance, turning from Democrat to Republican, trying to get Bush Senior elected to the Senate back in 1970 -- unsuccessfully, one might add. For all his political acumen and impressive résumé, Baker is more a forceful intimidator (a la Dick Cheney) than a diplomat, or a capable facilitator in crisis management...

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Killing Hope in Beit Hanoun

And So the killing Continues, I will Avenge, I will Avenge

"God is greater than Israel and America," was the echoing cry of tens of thousands of Palestinians, who descended into the graveyard in grief stricken Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. They congregated in yet another familiar scene to bury their loved ones, killed by Israel’s brutal war against the Palestinians. This time, the loss was too great to bear, even by the standards of the people of Gaza: eighteen ambulances lined up, carrying the mutilated bodies of eighteen members of the same extended family, the majority of whom were women and children; all civilians. "I will avenge; I will avenge," screamed a relative of one of those who died in the Israeli artillery attack on Beit Hanoun, on November 8...

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Ministry merges warehouses to thwart attacks

Khayoun Saleh,

The Ministry of Trade has decided to cancel several major food warehouses in the country, citing security as a major reason. A food rationing system introduce by former leader Saddam Hussein to offset the impact of U.N. trade sanctions is still in place. But despite the removal of the sanctions, Iraqis now get less food from the government than under Saddam Hussein...

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The Army 'approved abuse of prisoners'

Michael Evans, Times

THE Army’s high command was accused last night of officially sanctioning the hooding and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention. The claims were made by a witness in the court martial of seven soldiers charged in relation to the abuse and ill-treatment of nine Iraqis in Basra in 2003. Major Antony Royce, called as a witness by the judge in the case, told the court that he was instructed by those higher up the chain of command in Basra to use "conditioning techniques", including putting prisoners in stress positions and hooding them, to prepare detainees for tactical questioning. He said that the advice had come from a senior army legal adviser. Such techniques are against both the Geneva Convention and the Army’s own rules of engagement...

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Latest disastrous plan: More GIs to Iraq

ANDREW GREELEY, Chicago Sun-Times

Many of the wise people in this country who supported the Iraq war at the beginning now contend that the answer to the problem is to send more troops to Iraq. Sen. John McCain says that 20,000 more should be enough. Some of the military "experts" on television are hinting that 100,000 more will do the job. Rumors are being leaked from the Iraq Study Group established to shape "new strategy" that they will recommend more troops, too. The New York Times editorial page recommends more troops temporarily in Baghdad. One begins to wonder who won the election and whether McCain plans to seek the presidency two years hence with the blood of more American men and women, to say nothing of Iraqi women and children, on his hands (...) The war is lost. It was lost before it began. The majority of the American electorate knows that...

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