The Anteater: News and Views

News Report July 5, 2006

2006-07-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

For The Christians A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they're suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from "state-sponsored religion." Later, it came out that a group called Stop The ACLU published the address and phone number of this family in an effort to "expose ACLU plaintiffs." I am amazed and appalled that such a thing needs to be said, but what happened at Indian River is utterly against Christian belief and practice. The ministers of that area should be disgusted by what has come to pass. Instead, we read some pastors actually helped to lead the Christianist campaign that drove this family from their home. Let us be clear, then. Using the resources of government to pressure neighbors into converting has no place in Christianity. Calling a twelve-year-old "Jewboy" has no place in Christianity. Telling him to take off his yarmulke when he comes to speak at the School Board meeting has no place in Christianity. Death threats have no place in Christianity. Telling the family on local radio that they should convert or leave has no place in Christianity. Claiming that the Ku Klux Klan is ready and waiting has no place in Christianity.

Kerry to Bush: Reopen CIA bin Laden Unit Now Why do I have to go to the United States Senate to get reassurances that somebody in our government still wants to catch the #1 terrorist in the world who directed the killings of 2,986 Americans on September 11, 2001? Why don't we have a Commander in Chief who is focused on keeping us safe and finding Osama bin Laden? As was reported in the last couple of days, the CIA unit dedicated to hunting down Osama bin Laden, was shut down.

Warnings on WMD 'Fabricator' Were Ignored, Ex-CIA Aide Says In late January 2003, as Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared to argue the Bush administration's case against Iraq at the United Nations, veteran CIA officer Tyler Drumheller sat down with a classified draft of Powell's speech to look for errors. He found a whopper: a claim about mobile biological labs built by Iraq for germ warfare.Drumheller instantly recognized the source, an Iraqi defector suspected of being mentally unstable and a liar. The CIA officer took his pen, he recounted in an interview, and crossed out the whole paragraph. A few days later, the lines were back in the speech. Powell stood before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 and said: "We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails."The sentence took Drumheller completely by surprise."We thought we had taken care of the problem," said the man who was the CIA's European operations chief before retiring last year, "but I turn on the television and there it was, again."

Federal contracts up 86% under Bush; Halliburton rises 600% A new report claims that a "shadow government" of federal contractors has exploded in size over the last five years.The document, compiled at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and distributed to RAW STORY, indicates that procurement spending increased by over $175 billion between 2000 and 2005, making federal contracts the fastest growing component of federal discretionary spending. 500 reports, audits and investigations by government and independent bodies, including the Government Accountability Office and the Defense Contract Audit Agency, were used to compile the data. That spending increase -- an astonishing 86 percent -- puts total US federal procurement at $377.5 billion annually.‘Barbaric’ It’s the only word that adequately describes the tragic fate of two missing U.S. soldiers. I grieve deeply for them and their families. It horrifies me to imagine their last hours as I read this report.

CEOs earn 262 times pay of average worker Chief executive officers in the United States earned 262 times the pay of an average worker in 2005, the second-highest level in the 40 years for which there is data, a nonprofit think-tank said on Wednesday. In fact, a CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks, said the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The typical worker's compensation averaged just under $42,000 for the year, while the average CEO brought home almost $11 million, EPI said. In recent years, compensation has been a hot issue with shareholders who have been bombarded with news stories about chief executives who are given multimillion dollar bonus and pay packages even if shares have declined.

Lawmakers' Profits Are Scrutinized House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds.A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid for a four-acre parcel near an Air Force base after securing $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away. And another California GOP congressman obtained funding in last year's highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development that he co-owns. In all three cases, Hastert and Reps. Ken Calvert and Gary Miller say that they were securing funds their home districts wanted badly, and that in no way did the earmarks have any impact on the land values of their investments. But for watchdog groups, the cases have opened a fresh avenue for investigation and a new wrinkle in the ongoing controversy over earmarks -- home-district projects funded through narrowly written legislative language.

Jobs hard to find for Iraq vets Army Spc. Sameer Bartlett of College Park knew there would be not much demand in the job market for an artillery ammunition team chief.So he switched his specialty to human resources before he came home from a year in Iraq.Sameer Bartlett, who just finished a four-year stint in the Army, talks with Jeff Cornwell and Gerald Chambers, both recruiters with Yancey Brothers, during the RecruitMilitary job fair at the Georgia International Convention Center on Tuesday. But since his release from four years of active duty on May 28, Bartlett, 23, has found that even with a new job skill, life after Army can be frustrating for younger veterans. In fact, young veterans suffer nearly double the unemployment of nonveterans their age."I've been flooding the market with applications and résumés, but every job I go for, they want someone with a bachelor's degree or a master's degree or more experience than I have," Bartlett said Tuesday.

'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says shows that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees." This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government." It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."

Shining a ray of light on Thailand’s sex trade My ongoing investigation of the slave trade - 27 million people around the globe are trapped in forced labor at this moment - took me to Southeast Asia this past week. Prior to the trip, I had poured over a considerable amount of research about the trafficking of women and children for the sex trade in the region. Reading about the practice is disturbing enough; seeing it first hand proved to be overwhelming.In Cambodia and Thailand I visited several projects that care for individuals lucky enough to escape - or be rescued - from the bars and brothels that exploit them. I cannot get out of my head the sight of the 50 girls between the ages of 7 and 12 who found safe haven in one rescue center in Cambodia. To think that grown men used these innocent, slight girls for their sexual pleasures numbs the mind. Thanks to the efforts of faith-based activists, these girls are now in a safe environment where they can imagine a better life.

Helping 'witches' who live in exile More than 1,000 women live in exile among six camps in this impoverished region. Isolating widows or older women as witches is a deep-rooted custom in this part of the world. Indeed, accusations of witchcraft may be seen as a way to keep women subservient in African society. But various organizations are trying to help. Some are using education to fight superstitions, while others are offering loans to these women to help them develop skills and earn income.Empowering young women by giving them a voice and positions of authority can help, says Allison Berg, who spotlighted the problem in her award-winning 2005 documentary "Witches in Exile" ( www.witchesinexile.com).

Illegal Hiring Is Rarely Penalized The Bush administration, which is vowing to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal workers, virtually abandoned such employer sanctions before it began pushing to overhaul U.S. immigration laws last year, government statistics show.Between 1999 and 2003, work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently was merged into the Homeland Security Department. The number of employers prosecuted for unlawfully employing immigrants dropped from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003, and fines collected declined from $3.6 million to $212,000, according to federal statistics.In 1999, the United States initiated fines against 417 companies. In 2004, it issued fine notices to three.The government's steady retreat from workplace enforcement in the 20 years since it became illegal to hire undocumented workers is the result of fierce political pressure from business lobbies, immigrant rights groups and members of Congress, according to law enforcement veterans. Punishing employers also was de-emphasized as the government recognized that it lacks the tools to do the job well, and as the Department of Homeland Security shifted resources to combat terrorism.

Darfur Receives Little Help With Their Struggles It's been called an African solution to an African problem in Darfur. A job that would normally fall to the United Nations has, until now, been left to a small African Union force that's outnumbered and outgunned. They're still expected to restore security, but during a "confidence building" patrol led by A.U. Capt. Kora Faye and his men, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan learns that this is not happening. "We are being attacked in the camp by Arab militias and government soldiers," one man tells Faye. "We do not feel safe here."

Dubai Company Still Controlling 22 American Ports It's been more than three months since Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its port operations at 22 U.S. ports. But as of today, all 22 of these terminal facilities remained under the control of Dubai Ports and the government of Dubai. You thought we weren't watching, didn't you?Flag-Burning Amendment One Vote From Passage The U.S. Senate is one vote away from passing a constitutional amendment that would criminalize desecration of the U.S. flag. If successful, it will mark the first time in 214 years that the Bill of Rights has been restricted by a constitutional amendment, and will place the United States among a select group of nations that have banned flag desecration, including Cuba, China, Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Report called for by Congress says humans mostly responsible for global warming With the governors of each province meeting these strict objectives, Iraq's ambition is to have full control of the country by the end of 2008. In practice this will mean a significant foreign troop reduction. We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year's end to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.The eventual removal of coalition troops from Iraqi streets will help the Iraqis, who now see foreign troops as occupiers rather than the liberators they were meant to be. It will remove psychological barriers and the reason that many Iraqis joined the so-called resistance in the first place. The removal of troops will also allow the Iraqi government to engage with some of our neighbors that have to date been at the very least sympathetic to the resistance because of what they call the "coalition occupation." If the sectarian issue continues to cause conflict with Iraq's neighbors, this matter needs to be addressed urgently and openly -- not in the guise of aversion to the presence of foreign troops.

Irani Women Protest in Shadow of Nuclear Face-off A violent crackdown on female demonstrators in Tehran on Monday received little attention in the U.S. media. Women's rights experts living abroad say their work in Iran is complicated and muffled by U.S.-Iran nuclear tensions.

Lack of opposition doesn’t stop candidates from raking in big money Mike at Okiedoke reports on the some of the best-financed campaigns in Oklahoma with campaigns who don’t even have an opponent.

Fox News Analyst: Administration Hid Evidence of WMD To Protect China, Russia and France Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) are hyping a document that describes degraded, pre-1991 munitions that were already acknowledged by the White House’s Iraq Survey Group and dismissed.The Defense Department has already knocked the story down. But on Fox this is big news, proving that Saddam Hussein had WMD, just as the administration claimed. The question is, if this information is so significant, why would the administration keep it under wraps? Alan Colmes asked Fox News Military Analyst Thomas McInerery that question last night. McInerery explained that the administration was complicit in a multinational cover-up intended to protect Russia, China and France.

Poll: Overwhelming Support for Publicly Financed Elections A new national poll finds overwhelming support (74%) for public financing of elections, the result no doubt of soaring campaign costs, lobbyist scandals and the desire for fairer, cleaner elections. The result is bipartisan with eighty percent of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 65% of Republicans support this reform.

Britain to renew nuclear missiles after Brown pledges his support Gordon Brown has given his strong support to plans for renewing Britain's Trident independent nuclear weapons system, dealing a hefty blow to the campaign to halt the project. The Chancellor threw his weight behind Tony Blair's plans to replace the submarine-based system when it is decommissioned in 2024. Replacement, opponents claim, could cost £25bn. Mr Brown will authorise the spending of £1bn a year between now and then.Mr Brown used his Mansion House speech to the City last night to announce his personal commitment to keeping an independent deterrent. "In an insecure world we must and will always have the strength to take all necessary long-term decisions for stability and security," he said.

Women leaders insist on action to protect mothers, children Women leaders, including Jordan's Queen Rania and former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, pledged on Sunday to mobilize for their sisters and children across the world. "We are no longer supplicants, hoping for a moment of the world's attention," Albright told the inaugural session of a three-day conference to stem maternal and child mortality and bolster education for girls. "We are here to serve notice that women and children have been dying needlessly for too long, that every life matters, and that a global network is coming together determined to defend children and save women's lives." The conference aims to launch a "Global Women's Action Network for Children."

Combating Global Warming with Community If rising sea levels, melting glaciers and intensifying tropical storms have you shouting at all those in power who are still ignoring global warming, take heart. “The reason Europeans use half as much energy as we do is not because they have better technology,” says Bill McKibben, renowned environmentalist and author. “It’s because they have better communities.” Join host Jerry Kay, as Mckibben makes the connection between global warming and hyperindividualism, and hear what John Bailey of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance thinks local communities can do to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

There's method in the missile madness North Korea's preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States, despite warnings from the US, South Korea and Japan, is part of a propaganda offensive to regain international attention and increase its bargaining leverage to wrest concessions from Washington and Seoul. The brinkmanship could backfire, though, with Pyongyang becoming a victim of its own game. North Korea appears to be in the final stages of preparations for the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, although Pyongyang could still stop short of an actual launch. Media leaks of increasingly detailed intelligence information and warnings by senior US, South Korean and Japanese government officials since mid-June have indicated far greater concern than previous false warnings of missile and nuclear test preparations.

Safavian Found Guilty in Abramoff Lobbying Case A federal jury finds a former Bush administration official guilty of lying and obstruction. David Safavian was the chief of staff at the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate. He's the first person to stand trial in connection with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

EPA and Pesticide Industry Pressuring Scientists to Allow Continued Use of Toxic Pesticides Government scientists are blowing the whistle on the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to allow the continued use of 20 highly controversial organophosphate pesticides without conducting adequate safety testing. You can help by sending a letter to the EPA.

Coulter guilty of “textbook plagiarism” in her new book Godless, according to John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system.

U.S. Losing Its Middle-Class Neighborhoods Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself.In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released Thursday. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.

U.S. General in Iraq Outlines Troop Cuts The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say. According to a classified briefing at the Pentagon this week by the commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the number of American combat brigades in Iraq is projected to decrease to 5 or 6 from the current level of 14 by December 2007.Under the plan, the first reductions would involve two combat brigades that would rotate out of Iraq in September without being replaced. Military officials do not typically characterize reductions by total troop numbers, but rather by brigades. Combat brigades, which generally have about 3,500 troops, do not make up the bulk of the 127,000-member American force in Iraq, and other kinds of units would not be pulled out as quickly.

N. Korea's test threat launches uproar North Korea may have achieved what it was planning all along when it poised its long-range Taepodong II missile for launch: an uproar in the United States and Japan over the possibility of a test flight into the northern Pacific beyond Japan. The strategy, in the view of analysts here, was to gain the attention needed to try to draw the United States into negotiations on the North's terms - and also deepen the rift between the United States and South Korea, which is intent on pursuing reconciliation with the North.

Keith Slams O'Reilly Haha

US wants telecom surveillance lawsuits in DC court The U.S. Justice Department wants to consolidate at least two dozen lawsuits against the government and Verizon Communications Inc. that involve the National Security Agency's alleged access to telephone customer records.

Karzai Urges New Approach to War on Terror Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community to reassess its approach to the war on terror Thursday, saying the deaths of hundreds of Afghans in fighting with U.S.-led forces was "not acceptable."A clearly frustrated Karzai said the approach being taken by coalition forces to hunt down militants does not focus on the roots of terrorism itself."I strongly believe ... that we must engage strategically in disarming terrorism by stopping their sources of supply of money, training, equipment and motivation," Karzai said during a press conference.

Hamas performs about-turn on Israeli state Hamas has made a major political climbdown by agreeing to sections of a document that recognise Israel's right to exist and a negotiated two-state solution, according to Palestinian leaders.In a bitter struggle for power, Hamas is bowing to an ultimatum from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to endorse the document drawn up by Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails, or face a national referendum on the issue that could see the Islamist group stripped of power if it loses.

The Way Out of Iraq: A Road Map With the governors of each province meeting these strict objectives, Iraq's ambition is to have full control of the country by the end of 2008. In practice this will mean a significant foreign troop reduction. We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year's end to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.The eventual removal of coalition troops from Iraqi streets will help the Iraqis, who now see foreign troops as occupiers rather than the liberators they were meant to be. It will remove psychological barriers and the reason that many Iraqis joined the so-called resistance in the first place. The removal of troops will also allow the Iraqi government to engage with some of our neighbors that have to date been at the very least sympathetic to the resistance because of what they call the "coalition occupation." If the sectarian issue continues to cause conflict with Iraq's neighbors, this matter needs to be addressed urgently and openly -- not in the guise of aversion to the presence of foreign troops.

U.N-Backed Court Documents Darfur Deaths The U.N.-backed court probing war crimes in Darfur has documented thousands of civilian deaths, hundreds of alleged rapes and a "significant number" of massacres that killed hundreds of people at once, the top prosecutor said Wednesday. Many witnesses and victims have reported that three ethnic groups in particular _ the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa _ had been singled out for attack in Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a report to the Security Council.

Cafferty File The Incompetent President.

Hating America When we dare to voice criticism of this administration, we are told we "hate America". To acknowledge America’s foreign policy as being partly to blame for granting power to Saddam Hussein and the Taliban because they opposed other countries deemed enemies at the time is to hate America. When my teenage son wrecks the car, I don’t stop loving him. If my mom were to blow her pension and give it all to the Home Shopping Channel and 700 Club, I don’t stop loving her. I don’t stop loving my country. I don’t walk off and leave my country in her hour of need. Those we allowed to lead us into an unnecessary, pre-emptive war have wrecked the car, even if a few among them tried to grab the wheel. They have left American workers on the rooftops, without pensions, without health care, while we are occupying someone else’s country. They have broken the bank. We are borrowed to the hilt as a nation. How many billions for this foolish war? That would have been enough to get a good start on rebuilding the American rail system and urban transportation, rebuilding Louisiana and Mississippi, and providing access to health care for all Americans. They have abused our soldiers, our less fortunate citizens, our environment and our good name and respect in the rest of the world.

Abbas demands end to rocket attacks, Israel steps up threats Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday demanded that militants immediately halt rocket attacks, as Israel threatened to wage a tougher response to an upsurge in cross-border violence. An statement from his office announced that Abbas "calls on all armed groups to cease firing rockets immediately and to fully respect the truce," agreed by the main militant groups early last year. "Any faction that does not respect the truce will bear the entire responsibility for the destruction and casualties that will result from an Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip," it added.

House Republican says America would be speaking Japanese or German if Murtha was congressman during WWII Rep. Gohmert: Let me close by saying some have not had nice things to say about our colleague Mr. Murtha, and others wanting to pull out of Iraq quickly. I understand the faithful visitation that he does routinely. So i say thank god for his big heart. I say thank god for his compassion. Thank god for his visits to the wounded. Thank god for his ministering to grieving families. But thank god he was not here and prevailed after the bloodbaths at Normandy and in the Pacific or we would be here speaking Japanese or German. Thank you.

UPDATE w/ VIDEO: My Speech on the Paris Hilton Tax Cut ... This tax is the Paris Hilton tax. That's right once this is passed Paris Hilton will be able to jet set around the world buying herself more bling and more little dogs to carry around in her purse and probably never work a day in her life. But while we are helping Paris with her problems, I think we need to think about the poorest among us, those people working two, three minimum wage jobs every single day simply to try to keep themselves alive and that we have turned our backs on now for over a decade.

You Don't Want to Miss This And we the people have now spoken, Pack up your belongings, Sail across the ocean, And face all that you have created, In the name of god’s love, A thin shield for your hatred, You can never repair, All the damage you’ve done, But we’ll rebuild even stronger.

Climate Change Evaporates from G8 Agenda At the last G8 summit, political leaders vowed to "act with resolve and urgency" on climate change. A year on, global warming has been sidelined by concerns on how the world can satisfy its growing appetite for energy. While analysts were not entirely convinced by Prime Minister Tony Blair's bid to highlight climate change -- a fashionable issue in Britain -- during his G8 presidency, they believe Russia has all but dropped the issue. "I don't think this year there's going to be any particular emphasis on climate, I would be very positively surprised if there were," said Benito Mueller, Senior Research Fellow at Britain's Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Hoekstra: Bush Hiding More Unchecked Spy Programs The New York Times published a letter from Republican Representative Pete Hoekstra to President Bush. Hoekstra, who is chairman of of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Bush for hiding surveillance programs from Congressional oversight. On this morning’s Fox News Sunday, Hoekstra said that a whistleblower came to him with several more spying operations that were in danger of being abused without oversight.

Thank you for inviting me to Las Vegas -- now let's end the war in Iraq Speaking with you at YearlyKos was exhilarating because it reminded me of what democracy is all about -- and what America can be all about once more, if we keep fighting for what we believe. After joining you in Las Vegas, I'm more confident than ever that we can take back Congress this November -- but it's going to take all of us pulling together online, and reaching into our offline communities, to get it done.

Former detainee paints harrowing portrait of life at Guantánamo Bay Dostum held the three for nearly a month, along with thirty or forty other survivors. "We had no food [or] water for about two weeks," Ahmed says. "No bath, no shave. We had body lice." Ahmed recalls "bleeding everywhere" from scratching.Things improved slightly when the men were transferred to an American airbase in Kandahar. It was there that Ahmed claims he first suffered abuse at the hands of the American and British militaries."I was on my knees," Ahmed recalls somberly, drifting, "and they were interrogating me at the same time... I think it was a nine millimeter in his hand. And he put it to the temple of my head, and he told me if I moved, they would shoot me." A US soldier was holding the gun, he says, and an MI-5 officer was present. Nobody, he claims, moved to intervene.The presence of a gun at an interrogation, Ahmed says, was not unique. "There were other guns, machine guns, always," he explains.

Gore on Countdown Well, they're in the-the people who still say that global warming isn't real are actually in the same boat with the flat earth society. They get together and party on Saturday nights with the folks that believe the moon landing was in a movie lot in Arizona.

New US church leader says homosexuality no sin Newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said on Monday she believed homosexuality was no sin and homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same gender.Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, was elected on Sunday as the first woman leader of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. She will formally take office later this year.Interviewed on CNN, Jefferts Schori was asked if it was a sin to be homosexual."I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.

Climate experts: Gore's movie gets the science right The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy. The former vice president's movie -- replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets -- mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press.

Polls, Pundits and Pols Democrats are in shambles, they report, as they fear that proposals for setting a timetable for withdrawal put forward by Sen. John Kerry and Rep. John Murtha will prove disastrous for the party in the November elections, due to the alleged unpopularity of this stance. This conclusion, however, flies in the face of surveys by all major polling firms, as E&P has chronicled over the past two years. It's one thing when polls are dismissed, ignored or twisted by political or media spinmeisters. But when journalists in their news stories do it, it is downright misleading. They produced a front-pager on the Republicans' unexpected confidence on this issue, and declared: "Some polls show a majority of Americans continue to think that entering Iraq was a mistake, and pollsters say independent voters are particularly open to the idea of setting some sort of timetable for withdrawal, the very policy Democrats have embraced and Republicans are now fighting." The fact is, not "some" polls, but virtually every major poll shows that American have long declared that going to war against Iraq was a mistake. And far more than "independent voters" are drawn to withdrawal. Every major poll reveals that a majority of Americans advocate withdrawals from Iraq, with large numbers wanting this to be quite speedy, and most wanting a full pullout in a year or so (Kerry's idea) or by the end of next year. This is hardly a "some" position.

Japan PM announces Iraq troop withdrawal Japan has decided to withdraw its troops from Iraq, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced on Tuesday, ending the Japanese military's riskiest and most ambitious overseas mission since World War Two.Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday his forces would take over security from July in the southern province of Muthanna, where the British oversee a multinational contingent that includes Japanese troops.

Wall Street Journal opinion editor says gay marriage could lead to marrying snakes This is a footnote to our gay marriage discussion: A woman in India last week married a snake. I would like to ask the proponents of gay marriage--which violates, after all, traditions going back through all of human history--to now absolutely, positively guarantee that the next movement is not going to be allowing people to marry their pet horse, dog or cat. And you know What? Given the "anything goes" culture we live in, I don't think they can deliver that guarantee.

Bodies of Missing Soldiers Recovered The bodies of two U.S. soldiers reported captured last week have been recovered, and an Iraqi defense ministry official said Tuesday the men were "killed in a barbaric way." The U.S. military said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said U.S. forces - part of a search involving some 8,000 American and Iraqi troops - found the bodies late Monday near Youssifiyah, where they disappeared Friday. The bodies were recovered early Tuesday.Caldwell said the cause of death was "undeterminable at this point," and that the bodies would be taken back to the United States for DNA tests to confirm the identities.

Why Wang Wenyi was shouting Ethan Gutmann author of ‘Losing the New China’ interviewed the two witnesses (photo: Peter/Wenyi/Annie) who have exposed the Sujiatun Death Camp where Falun Gong practitioners’ organs are harvested for profit and their bodies cremated to hide all evidence. Ethan recounts the story behind the story. First let’s take a look at Media Channel dissector Danny Schechter’s comments on this situation and Wenyi Wang’s appeal.

Were African-American soldiers targeted in a vote-challenge campaign? As a general rule, I've not closely followed discussions of what parties tried to challenge ballots and the various other shenenigans that may have occured during the 2000 and 2004 elections. But this one caught my eye and is very disturbing. If the story bears out, is it possible that the absentee votes of thousands of African American soldiers were challenged and thrown out in the last national election?

The long reach of North Korea's missiles North Korea may be a poor country, but it has some of the most developed missile systems in the world. Not even years of near-economic collapse, famine and hunger have hampered the country's missile-development programs, which are meant both as a preemptive defense - to scare off potential attackers - and for export.

A Negotiated Solution to the Iranian Nuclear Crisis is Within Reach The urgency of halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and moving toward their elimination, could hardly be greater. Failure to do so is almost certain to lead to grim consequences, even the end of biology's only experiment with higher intelligence. As threatening as the crisis is, the means exist to defuse it. A near-meltdown seems to be imminent over Iran and its nuclear programmes. Before 1979, when the Shah was in power, Washington strongly supported these programmes. Today the standard claim is that Iran has no need for nuclear power, and therefore must be pursuing a secret weapons programme. "For a major oil producer such as Iran, nuclear energy is a wasteful use of resources," Henry Kissinger wrote in the Washington Post last year.

The Economist Behind the Curtain The recent failure in the Senate to repeal the estate tax stands as a rare victory for sane fiscal policy. The NYT editorialized about the event under the heading "What Passes for Good News." In fact, the Senate vote came alarming close to ending a tax on inheritances of the richest half-a-percent of households, with a majority of Senators (57-but they needed 60 for a repeal) supporting a measure which would have cost the treasury $800 billion over 10 years at a time of ballooning budget deficits and war. Of course, the politics of the repeal were the focus of most analyses-would the White House be adhered to or get rebuffed on an issue dear to them-but the economics of the tax cut are deeply revealing of the fundamental flaw of economic policy today. And that flaw is this: we have, over the past three decades, shifted from we're-in-this-together (WITT) economics to you're-on-your-own (YOYO) economics.

House Democrats urge haste on health care reauthorization With work days dwindling on the legislative calendar of the current 109th Congress, Democrats in the House of Representatives urged Republican-chaired committees to act on the Indian Health Care Improvement Act amendments, House Bill 5312 in the House. ''Any further delay would undoubtedly set back the delivery of adequate health services to our country's first Americans,'' contends a letter initiated by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., signed by 22 lawmakers and sent to the chairmen of the three House committees of jurisdiction over the bill: Resources, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce.'

Japan welcomes narrow vote against whaling ban Japan was jubilant yesterday after the International Whaling Commission voted to oppose the 1986 ban on commercial whaling, a move that conservationists fear could lead to the resumption of large-scale hunting and bring whale populations to the brink of extinction.Though Japan and other pro-whaling countries fell well short of the 75% of votes they needed to overturn the IWC moratorium, a foreign ministry spokesman in Tokyo hailed the passage of a resolution critical of the ban as "a significant step forward".

Arab states urged to stop discriminating against women Human rights groups on Saturday called on Arab governments to lift their restrictions on a UN convention on outlawing discrimination against women Human rights groups on Saturday called on Arab governments to lift their restrictions on a UN convention on outlawing discrimination against women. Around 200 delegates, mostly women, from 13 Arab states and Turkey, gathered in Rabat for a conference on the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted a resolution calling on Arab states to adopt the law in full. They criticized the practice of adopting the convention "with reserves that go against the principle of equality and non-discrimination against women." The signatories complained that the Arab world had the worst record for "maintaining discrimination and the most glaring violations of women's human rights."

Jordan: Rise in Arrests Restricting Free Speech The government of Jordan must not roll back on its commitment to fully respect freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Rather than implement the reforms it promised, the government of Prime Minister Ma’ruf al-Bakhit is giving the intelligence agencies, the police and prosecutors free rein to clamp down on legitimate speech.

Why Santa Cruz CA is Moving to a Moratorium on Genetically Engineered Crops The primary recommendation to the Board was that we establish a "precautionary moratorium" on growing GE crops in Santa Cruz County until certain common-sense measures are put into place to safeguard public and environmental health.

Supreme Court splits over protecting wetlands The federal government does not have the power to reach far upstream to protect every ditch and wetland in a watershed. In a ruling restricting federal authority to protect the environment, the US Supreme Court on Monday said the reach of federal regulators under the Clean Water Act is limited. But the high court's nine justices were unable to reach majority agreement about how and where to draw those limits.

Somali Islamists impose Sharia on former warlord stronghold Somalia's dominant Islamist militia on June 19 imposed Sharia law in the former warlord stronghold of Jowhar, making good on their vows to bring Islamic theocracy to the shattered Horn of Africa nation.

Iraq attacks kill 43 A series of bombs killed at least 43 people in and near Baghdad on Saturday, police said, in one of the bloodiest days in Iraq since a U.S. military air strike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 10 days ago. The violence, a day after a suicide bomber killed 10 people in a Baghdad Shi'ite mosque, came despite a security crackdown in the Iraqi capital and followed a vow by al Qaeda's new leader in Iraq to avenge the death of his predecessor on June 7. The attacks, which included at least four Baghdad car bombs, posed a fresh challenge to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is under pressure to ease a violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis and complicated plans for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

Colombia: Rosy picture belies stark problems When President Bush meets today with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, he will be tempted just to pat Uribe on the back. Like many U.S. officials, who heap praise upon Uribe while ignoring reality in Colombia, Bush will probably turn a blind eye to serious problems affecting not only human rights and the rule of law in that country, but also U.S. interests in fighting drugs and terror.

Snow Declares Resurgence of Taliban ‘Predictable,’ Bush Previously Said It Was ‘No Longer…In Existence’ This afternoon on CNN Late Edition, White House Press Secretary repeatedly claimed that the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan was entirely predictable. The resurgence of the Taliban was not predicted by this administration. It is a consequence of shifting resources to Iraq before the mission in Afghanistan was completed.WWJD? It’s a sad state of affairs when proponents of the war are so offended by opponents of the war that the resort to death threats — even against a 15-year-old girl. Whether you agree with her or not, is it really worthy of death?

Iraq: US may be asked to leave The level of violence in some areas of Iraq is worsening dramatically and US forces may soon be asked to leave by the Iraqi Government.In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation. "The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence." Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted. And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.

Boxer: Soldier's 'family was not told the truth' U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer released documents today that appear to show that the Army completed its investigation in September 2005 into the deaths two years ago of two California National Guard soldiers in Iraq, but waited nearly nine months to inform the family of its conclusion that the two Americans had been killed by Iraqi forces during a joint patrol. "The family was not told the truth," Boxer, D-Calif., told reporters during a conference call. "It's troubling that the Pentagon would withhold this information from the family. It's troubling that Specialist McCaffrey told his family that he had been attacked twice before by Iraqi soldiers. It's troubling that it took the involvement of a Senate office to get the autopsy and a written report about his death."

Nuclear Arms in the Hands of Any Pose A Global Threat Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemns North Korea for threatening to test a new missile that could theoretically deliver a nuclear weapon to the Western Aleutians, the Pentagon is poised to develop its own new generation of nuclear-capable long-range delivery systems. And while President Bush declares a nuclear-armed Iran would pose "a grave threat to the security of the world," the United States is modernizing every weapon type in its vast nuclear arsenal, as Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories pursue America's own arms race.

New Study: Global Warming, Not ‘Natural Cycles,’ Played Major Role in 2005 Hurricane Season The 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season was the most active in recorded history, and caused an unprecedented level of damage. Now, in the second major global warming study released today, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has found: Global warming accounted for around half of the extra hurricane-fueling warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic in 2005, while natural cycles were only a minor factor. … The study contradicts recent claims that natural cycles are responsible for the upturn in Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995. It also adds support to the premise that hurricane seasons will become more active as global temperatures rise.

Iraq Withdrawal Debated by Senate Divisions among Democrats take center stage as the Senate debates two Iraq amendments to the defense bill. One, from Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), calls for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq by a certain date. A competing amendment, also from the Democrats, is an open-ended call for the withdrawal of troops. Republicans stand largely united against the amendments.

Zimbabwe: Govt Backtracks On White Farmers' Payouts The top U.S. diplomat for Africa called Wednesday on the leaders of the Islamic militia that now controls Somalia's capital to turn over three men accused of being al-Qaeda terrorists.U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told journalists the three al-Qaeda suspects believed to be in Somalia "are of the highest, highest priority in term of capturing."

If minimum wage is raised, who benefits? Keisha Walker, for one, is happy that Congress is at least debating whether to raise the minimum wage. For her, boosting it to $7.25 would mean earning an extra $1 an hour - enough to pay for eight months of groceries or perhaps a few nights out. An office assistant for a low-income apartment complex in Atlanta, earning $6.25 an hour, Ms. Walker is one of 139,000 Georgians who would benefit directly from a minimum-wage hike. A technical school dropout and mom in her late 20s, she scratches together a living, relying on her fiancé to pay major bills. "They need to raise it if only to help people pay for [rising] rent," she says, returning by bus from taking her two sons and a nephew to football practice. "It's getting so you can't survive in this country."

A Covenant for a New America Throughout the Bible, God shows a special concern for those in poverty and acts in history to lift them up. As Christians who claim to be the people of God, we are called to share that concern.Our times call for a new moral and political will that merges personal and social responsibility, a commitment to reverse family breakdown, and a more honest assessment of both the individual decisions and social systems that trap people in poverty. Low-income families are too often stuck between liberal and conservative arguments, while neither political party has made the needs of poor families a top priority. Our country needs a new grand alliance between liberals and conservatives that makes overcoming poverty a nonpartisan agenda and a bipartisan cause.

Abramoff Associate Found Guilty As part of the wider Jack Abramoff lobbying probe, former chief procurement officer David Safavian was found guilty of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of lying or concealing information from investigators.

World scientists unite to attack creationism The world's scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being "concealed, denied or confused". The national science academies of 67 countries warned parents and teachers to ensure that they did not undermine the teaching of evolution or allow children to be taught that the world was created in six days.Some schools in the US hold that evolution is merely a theory while the Bible represents the literal truth. There have also been fears that these views are creeping into British schools.

Whaling Industry Belongs in the Past The International Whaling Commission meeting in St. Kitts threw up some strange diplomatic alliances — bitterly dividing countries that would be united on almost any other international issue. On Sunday Japan and its supporters pushed through, by 33 votes to 32, a symbolic resolution calling for a resumption of commercial whaling after a 20-year moratorium. They vowed yesterday to push on to win the 75 per cent majority that would be needed actually to end the moratorium.

US Gun Lobby Slams UN Meeting on Illegal Arms Trade A UN conference on curbing illegal global trade in small arms came under fire from US gun owners who fear losing their weapons, UN organizers said.The two-week conference, which kicks off here next Monday, is meant to review a program agreed by UN member states five years ago to stem the illegal global trade in small arms, which kill an estimated 1,000 people a day.However, members of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the lobby of US gun owners, view the drive as a threat to what they call their constitutional right to bear arms and a first step toward a global treaty to ban gun ownership by civilians.

Monitoring human rights? Get a satellite Satellites can monitor volcanoes, map deforestation, and help sell real estate. But can they document human-rights violations? Yes, activists say. Already, high-altitude images of Zimbabwe's destruction of a settlement has increased pressure on the government to curb its abuses. Now, human-rights groups are focusing on Darfur, Chad, and Burma. In eastern Burma, for example, the government is accused of aggressively attacking an ethnic minority. Burma "is a black hole," says Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma. "Media and aid agencies can go into Darfur in Sudan, but they can't get into eastern Burma; it's totally off limits."

Women at Center of Consumer Eco-Push Women buy most home products and predominate as activists in schools and churches. That makes them central to a new consumer-style push for eco-friendly products and policies.

PanAfrica: Sub-Saharan Lifespan Down By Five Years Life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa has fallen by an average of almost five years since the early 1990s, a World Bank report on disease and mortality in the region has found.The report, launched at the Cape Town Book Fair on Sunday, said one in six African children died before reaching their fifth birthday from both preventable and treatable diseases.World Bank representative Eduard Bos said at the launch that the report also reflected the "ravages of the appalling epidemic of HIV and AIDS", which accounted for 20,4% of all deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fight for a Free Press The National Entertainment Chart demonstrates, again, how enormous the media conglomerates are and how much of our core media are under their control. Although concentration has not increased especially over the past few years, the damage has been done. Democracy is premised on a free press, and freedom of the press is premised on the absence of public or private gatekeepers with monopolistic power. It is why the Supreme Court ruled in 1945 that antitrust was probably more appropriate in the realm of media than in any other area. Looking at this chart, we can see that A.J. Liebling's adage that "freedom of the press is limited to those who own one" is frightfully accurate, with all that it says about the state of our core freedoms and our democracy. The Supreme Court was sixty-one years ahead of its time.

Got Organic? Demand Lifts Vermont Dairies For the first time in decades, dairy farmer Dexter Randall could pay all his bills on time.Wooed by signing bonuses and the prospect of doubling his earnings, the burly 60-year-old switched to organic milk over the past year. He says it is the only way to save his farm and his family's future -- all of it invested in 460 acres in the shadow of Jay Peak mountain. ``With conventional milk, there was no light at the end of the tunnel," Randall said. ``Now, I have true hope."Across the country, an increasing number of farmers are abandoning conventional ways for organic dairy farming: They keep their cows free of antibiotics and hormones, and they let them graze on pure pastures day after day, instead of locked up in a barn.

Researchers Work on Alternative Jet Fuel The spike in oil prices has prompted plenty of drivers to consider biodiesel-powered or hybrid cars for their daily commute, but what about that gas guzzler we use to fly across country? Government and corporate researchers are looking into ways to power commercial jet engines with alternative fuels, although many caution that widespread use could be years or even decades away. Scientists face a myriad obstacles, including the difficulty of producing, transporting and using massive amounts of these fuels under harsh conditions such as extreme cold. And for now at least, experts say many alternative jet fuels are more expensive than traditional ones. "It's just so much easier to develop a fuel for automobile applications than for airplane applications," said Billy Glover, director of environmental performance for Boeing Co.

How Corrupt is the United Nations? "How corrupt is the United Nations?" is the title of Claudia Rosett's new book (coming out soon) and below is one interesting comment. Unfortunately Claudia fails to mention the new genocide in Communist China. The FalunGong cannot wait ten more years before the UN sends the envoy to investigate the China laogai--the organ-harvesting death camps deserve immediate attention as the CCP is killing them like flies. For the latest reports on this topic look here.

Leaked US memo paints grim picture of life in Iraq In a leaked memo from the US embassy in Baghdad, sent to the US State Department earlier this month, embassy employees present a much different assessment than the one put forward by the Bush administration in the past two weeks.The memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post and reported on Sunday, "painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."

Sixteen States Sue U.S. EPA Over Mercury Cap-and Trade Rule Sixteen states filed a new lawsuit today in federal court challenging the final rules published June 9, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which establish a cap-and-trade system for regulating harmful mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants. The EPA announced on May 31 that it would move forward with its cap-and-trade program for mercury emissions despite petitions from the states and environmental groups that outlined how the program will delay emissions reduction for many years, perpetuate hot spots of local mercury deposition and pose a serious threat to the health of children. Scientists estimate up to 600,000 children may be born annually in the United States with neurological problems leading to poor school performance because of mercury exposure while in the womb.

Study: More Latinos Get Elected to Office Latinos have increased their presence at all levels of government over the last decade, with more than two of every five serving in Texas, a Hispanic political group reported.At the start of this year, 5,132 Hispanics were in elected office around the country - a 37 percent increase from 1996, when 3,743 Latinos held elected posts.

Hamas blasts Abbas over two-state solution Hamas has blasted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for suggesting that the Islamic militant group may accept a two-state solution and recognize Israel. A Hamas statement faxed to United Press International's Beirut office Thursday said Abbas' declaration "only reflects his views, not those of Hamas, which is perfectly capable of expressing its stance and does not need a spokesman." Abbas said Wednesday on the sidelines of the conference of Nobel Prize winners in Jordan that Hamas, which leads the Palestinian government, might announce its acceptance of a two-state solution in the coming days. Hamas strongly criticized Abbas for meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during their participation in the conference, in Petra, south Jordan, as guests of honor. "We had expected, in the light of Zionist massacres ordered by Olmert against the Palestinians and in view of the U.S.-Zionist siege imposed on our people, that the president of the Palestinian Authority refrains from meeting this terrorist (Olmert) until the killings stop and the siege on the Palestinian people and its government is lifted," the statement said.

Al-Qaeda Plotted To Crash Planes In Britain - Report The terror network al-Qaeda was planning to hijack aircraft and crash planes into London's Heathrow airport and a high-rise office building in 2003 and 2004, according to media reports in London Thursday. Citing a security report by the US Department of Homeland Security, British media said that landmarks in London were among a number of targets around the world being considered by terrorist operatives. In one plot, the terrorists were allegedly planning to use cameras and their flash attachments to conceal bombs and stun guns as part of an "ingenious" plot.

Arctic Vault to Protect World Seed Collection Work begins on Monday on a vault in the frozen earth of an Arctic mountain, off northern Norway, that will safeguard a vast collection of the world’s seeds. The vault will eventually hold 3m seed samples from every known variety of food crop, ranging from common staples such as wheat and potatoes to exotic specimens whose existence is endangered in the wild.The collection will provide a seed collection of last resort – should a disaster such as an asteroid strike or extreme climate change result in mass crop extinctions, humans will be able to resurrect a species. It will focus initially on food crops, but not to the exclusion of other seeds.

Best Week Ever The Daily Show is the best. I hope Jon Stewart gets his show on a high profile network so more people can see the hypocrisy of this administratio

Gitmo Suicides Covered by Jon Stewart.

Senate defeats Democrats' minimum wage increase The U.S. Senate on Wednesday defeated a proposal pushed by Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage in increments from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour by January 1, 2009.Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, unsuccessfully tried to attach the proposal raising the wage for the first time since 1997 to a defense authorization bill that is expected to be passed by the Senate soon.

15,000 march in Taipei to protest organ harvesting in Communist China Tens of thousands of Taiwanese Falun Gong members marched through Taipei on Sunday to protest China's harvesting of organs from Falun Gong members in labour camps, and to call on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to quit the party. Waving yellow Falun Gong flags and beating drums, Falun Gong members marched through Taipei's main streets, shouting, 'Stop persecuting Falun Gong,' 'Heaven destroy communist China,' and 'Down with the wicked Chinese Communist Party.' A moving truck showed a scene of Chinese doctors harvesting organs, with several doctors standing around a patient tied to an operation table, scalpel in hand. Behind the truck, a column of Falun Gong members - in handcuffs, shackles and dark prison clothes - walked silently led by a rope by a whip-cracking prison warden.

Conversation Deputy Secretary Zoellick Resigns Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who resigned from his post at the State Department Monday to work for Goldman Sachs, recounts his peacekeeping efforts in Darfur and experiences in other international arenas.

Stress Disorder Seen Soaring Among Returning Troops The Department of Veterans Affairs is on a pace to see nearly 20,000 new cases of post-combat stress this year among service members who've served in Iraq or Afghanistan, more than six times the number of cases that officials had expected. The latest report on patient visits to VA medical facilities shows that nearly 5,000 service members were initially diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder during the first three months of this year, on top of nearly 5,000 new diagnoses that the VA had reported for the last three months of 2005. The VA had predicted that it would see 2,900 new cases in fiscal 2006, which runs from Oct. 1, 2005, to Sept. 30, 2006. The VA declined to comment Monday.

Now it's your turn to draw attention to the abuse of science On issues from air quality to global warming, the Bush administration has interfered with the findings of government scientists. To help dramatize this crucial issue, UCS is sponsoring Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest. Amateurs and professionals are both invited to participate and will be awarded prizes in separate categories. Send in your cartoon today!

Glenn Greenwald on Al Franken Glenn joined Al to talk about his new book, "How Would a Patriot Act?" Audio.

Ethical shopping: why it's not easy With organic foods available in every supermarket and the words local, seasonal and farmers' market tripping off our tongues so easily, is Reality Bites necessary? Surely we all know the deal by now. Apparently not. Research by the Countryside Agency reveals that although 45 per cent of consumers are positive about ethical and environmental products, only five per cent proactively purchase them. "Reality Bites isn't about judging people who are active as 'the best' and labelling the rest failures," says Lingayah. "Our interest is to understand what drives behaviour and to remove obstacles where possible."

Iran: Police Assault Women’s Rights Demonstrators Iran must investigate the police beating of hundreds of women’s rights activists during a peaceful demonstration in Tehran on Monday, Human Rights Watch said today. The organization called on the government to release those detained after the police attack on protestors. Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that police and intelligence agents lined Haft Tir Square in downtown Tehran hours before the start of the planned demonstration on June 12. As the demonstrators assembled, the security forces immediately started to beat them with batons, sprayed them with pepper gas, marked the demonstrators with color spray, and took scores into custody.

Whitman Tries to Tack GOP Back to Center Christine Todd Whitman is on a coast-to-coast mission to reclaim the Republican Party for moderates. The former New Jersey governor's political action committee plans to back "fiscally conservative, socially inclusive" Republicans.

World CO2 emissions to rise 75 pct by 2030 -EIA Global emissions of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide will rise 75 percent from 2003 to 2030, with much of the growth coming from coal burning in developing countries, the U.S. government forecast Tuesday. Developing countries are growing more quickly than industrialized economies, whose growth 'tends to be in less energy-intensive sectors,' the report said. While the United States is the world's leading emitter of CO2, its emissions growth rate will soon be surpassed by China and India. Global emissions of CO2 will hit 43.7 billion tonnes in 2030, up from 25 billion tonnes in 2003, the Energy Information Administration said in its annual forecast. By 2025 global CO2 emissions could hit 40.05 billion tonnes annually, up 0.03 percent from the forecast issued last year, said the EIA, the statistics arm of the Department of Energy. Last year's report did not look as far ahead as 2030. Most scientists believe a build-up in greenhouse gases, such as CO2, is raising average temperatures around the world. Catastrophic changes have been predicted, such as heatwaves, stronger storms and melting icecaps that could raise sea levels by almost three feet by 2100.

Kurdistan: Birth of a Nation? Violence and suffering disfigure Iraq on a daily basis. But not everywhere is blighted. The Kurdish region is largely peaceful, and cities are beginning to thrive. So after decades of bloodshed, could its people's goal of self-determination finally be realised? Patrick Cockburn reports on an unexpected consequence of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Money-tracking leak angers Cheney US Vice-President Dick Cheney has condemned as "offensive" US media disclosures of a secret programme that probes global financial transactions. The government has covertly tracked thousands of international money transactions for nearly five years as part of its so-called war on terror.

If Congress Deserves a Raise, Why Don't Workers? Following Congress’s eighth pay raise since 1997 and the defeat today of minimum-wage legislation in the Senate, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization and co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize, urged the U.S. House of Representatives to raise the federal minimum wage. Since Congress last raised the minimum wage in 1997, its real value has eroded more than 20 percent. AFSC is also calling on House members to reject an estate tax “compromise” expected to be brought to the House floor on Thursday. The legislation, introduced by House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA), would exempt estates worth as much as $5 million - $10 million for couples - from taxation indefinitely. Joyce Miller, AFSC assistant general secretary for justice and human rights, said: “After years of favoring the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers, Congress can show it cares about ordinary people by voting to raise the minimum wage and reject a ‘compromise’ that would starve social programs of needed money by gutting the estate tax.”

Whistleblower says Bush officials traded Abramoff favors In an interview with CBS News Wednesday evening, Wayne Smith, a Sioux tribal member whose grandfather was an Indian chief and previously led oversight of Indian gaming for the Bush Adminstration, said he was unprepared for the "raw political opportunism" that he witnessed as a member of the Administration."I had lobbyists flat out tell me that it was 'our time to make some money in Indian gaming -- the Indian arena -- we worked hard to get this president elected and we expected to be rewarded for it' -- to make a killing inside the BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs]," Smith says in the interview.

Important Vote on the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization Hijacked The nation's most successful civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), which has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress for over 40 years and has been reauthorized four times by both Democratic and Republican presidents, was derailed today in the House. A small group of House Republicans, including Lynn Westmoreland, R.Ga., hijacked an important vote to renew key protections in a law

Republican Congress members claim that evidence of Saddam's WMD have been identified Latest Update: Pentagon official further confirms munitions can "not be fired as designed." (Full report here.) Earlier update: Pentagon says Iraq's 'WMDS' are too old to use (Full AFP story here). Earlier update: Santorum was informed live on Fox News that a Defense Department official disavowed his conclusions.

Muslims and the West: Antipathy and mistrust Westerners and Muslims around the world have radically different views of world events, and each group tends to view the other as violent, intolerant, and lacking respect for women, according to a new international survey of more than 14,000 people in 13 nations. In what the Pew Global Attitudes Project called one of the survey's most striking findings, majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, and Turkey - Muslims countries with fairly strong ties to the United States - said, for example, that they did not believe that Arabs carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Offshore Drilling Bill Advances in House Legislation that would end a quarter-century ban on drilling in most of the Outer Continental Shelf advanced in the House on Wednesday. The measure would allow oil and gas development in restricted offshore waters unless a state prohibited it. The House Resources Committee approved the legislation in 29-9 vote, and its sponsors say it has a good chance of being approved by the full House. But the bill's prospects in the Senate are poor as Florida's two senators -- as well as others from coastal states -- have threatened to filibuster any legislation that would end the drilling moratorium in most coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico. Waters within 50 miles of shore would still be protected by the House bill. But oil and gas drilling would be allowed in areas beyond that unless a state's legislature and governor act to preserve the ban.

Stephen Hawking Warns About Global Warming Stephen Hawking expressed concern about global warming Wednesday even as he charmed and provoked a group of Chinese students. Before an audience of 500 at a seminar in Beijing, the celebrity cosmologist said, "I like Chinese culture, Chinese food and above all Chinese women. They are beautiful." The audience of mostly university students and professors and a smattering of journalists laughed and applauded. Asked about the environment, Hawking, who suffers from a degenerative disease, uses a wheelchair and speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer, said he was "very worried about global warming." He said he was afraid that Earth "might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade and raining sulfuric acid."

Wall Street Journal Falsely Claims Ethanol is Responsible for High Gasoline Prices Is clean-burning, domestically-produced ethanol the reason that gas prices are topping $3 per gallon? That’s what Big Oil and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) are saying. From Monday’s WSJ. Actually, ethanol is reducing the price of gasoline.

At Least 25 People Found Executed in Mosul At least 25 people have been executed gangland-style in Iraq's third-largest city this week, with residents gunned down in ones and twos and bodies found scattered throughout Mosul.Elsewhere, five U.S. troops were killed in operations south and west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Thursday, and police stormed a farm and freed 17 victims of a factory kidnapping.Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has a mixed Kurdish and Sunni Arab population and a tradition of bad blood. The Kurds, who are largely Sunni Muslim but not Arab, have formed a prosperous autonomous region nearby after decades of oppression and mass killings under the Sunni Arab minority that ran Iraq until Saddam Hussein was ousted three years ago.

Secret Government or A Free Press? France, Germany and courts in Japan could teach America a thing or two about one essential aspect of democracy: Their governments are more willing to make sure that journalists have the means to act as watchdogs on the people in power. Several European nations guarantee that reporters cannot be forced to expose sources to whom they've guaranteed confidentiality. Just last week, Tokyo's high court upheld a Japanese reporter's refusal to reveal the sources of a 1997 news story about a U.S. health food company. This is just common sense. Those in power keep secrets? sometimes to protect their power, sometimes for financial or political gain, and sometimes for more legitimate reasons, such as national security. The nation's Founders knew this. They created a free press in large part as a check on that sort of power. Reporters and commentators would serve as watchdogs. But that history lesson seems lost on the current administration. In the past two years, federal prosecutors have tried repeatedly to turn those watchdogs into lapdogs, who instead of exposing wrongdoing turn in the people who give them information.

Former Homeland chief Ridge says terror war will last decades Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said the war on terror is likely to last for generations, much like the Cold war."For every (Osama) bin Laden, there's a bin Laden wannabe. And for every al-Qaida, there's a like organization," Ridge said Wednesday during a panel discussion in Pittsburgh that marked the opening of a new RAND Corp. office in the city."I don't know if anyone in the 1950s thought the Cold War would last close to half a century, but it did," Ridge said. "The challenge is global and it may take a generation or two or more to reduce."Ridge was in his second term as Pennsylvania's governor when he was picked by President Bush to be the nation's first Secretary of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Brazil Creates Three New Protected Areas in Amazon Rainforest Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decreed three new protected areas in the Amazon basin Wednesday, placing 1.84 million hectares (4.55 million acres) of rainforest off-limits for development. Silva signed decrees creating the 880,000 hectare (2.2 million acre) Campos Amazonicos National Park and two extractive reserves at a ceremony in Brasilia, the environment ministry said in a statement. Extractive reserves are areas where local communities can exploit the rainforest in a sustainable manner, harvesting its fruits, nuts and rubber without logging. The national park straddles Amazonas and Rondonia states. The Rio Unini and Arapixi reserves are both in Amazonas. Since taking office in 2002 Silva has created 57 protected areas in the Amazon preserving some 19.3 million hectares (47.6 million acres) of rainforest, the environment ministry said

Coulter Derides Call For New Iraq Strategy, Endorses Lieberman Approach Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter appeared on Fox News this afternoon to discuss the war in Iraq. Coulter derided the lawmakers who have called for a redeployment strategy from Iraq, questioning whether “FDR [had] to deal with this during World War II.” She argued that the only type of politician she “admires” is someone like Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) because he “does want to defend America and fight the war on terrorism.” Lieberman has argued “our troops must stay” in Iraq. Watch it.

ACLU and NYCLU Join V-Day Festival for Evening of Performance About Women in Prison The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union today joined V-Day in hosting Any One of Us: Words from Prison, an evening of performance telling the stories of incarcerated women and the role of violence in their lives. "In New York State the Rockefeller Drug Laws subject thousands of women every year to the violence of the prison system - simply because they've committed low-level drug offenses," said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU. "Words from Prison will bring forth the voices of the women who are suffering under this ongoing travesty of justice." The event is part of the ongoing festival Until the Violence Stops: NYC, presented by V-Day, the global movement founded by playwright Eve Ensler, which aims to raise funds and awareness to combat violence against women and girls.

Oil Rigs and Fish Farms = An Unappetizing Idea Known as “Rigs to Reef,” this section would allow energy companies to avoid paying the costs of removing their rigs if the Secretary of Interior allows the rigs to be abandoned or transferred. But consumers don’t want to eat fish that was raised in fish farms on former oil and gas rigs. Waste and chemicals from fish farms harm surrounding habitats, poison ocean wildlife and threaten public health. To top it off, recent reports have highlighted a connection between oil and gas rigs and elevated mercury levels in the local environment and wild-caught fish. Moreover, Hurricanes Rita and Katrina destroyed 100 oil platforms last year. Weather experts are already predicting another active hurricane season, but Congress apparently isn’t listening. If these offshore fish farms are destroyed, the farmed fish escape and mix with wild fish populations. This spreads disease and disrupts the marine ecosystem.

US makes missile defense system operational Amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, the United States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to operational, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Washington Times report that the Pentagon has activated the system, which has been in the developmental stage for years."It's good to be ready," the official said.

The impact of recent salary increases by the Mugabe regime At the end of April, the Mugabe regime announced pay increases for teachers, the army and the police. According to The Herald (the state-controlled daily newspaper), the lowest-paid soldier will now earn a monthly salary of $27.2 million - R800 or USD 130 - (previously Z$10 million), and a teacher will earn a minimum of Z$33 million per month - R970 or USD157. Bear in mind, too, that Zimbabwe’s poverty datum line (PDL) currently stands at Z$35 million, so that lowest-paid soldier is actually earning less than this basic minimum.It is sobering to look at just how far that money goes, in a country where inflation for April is 1042.9%, the highest in the world.

Roll call: Marriage amendment cloture vote Roll call vote on the Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to the Consideration of S. J. Res. 1, a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. A vote of "yea" is a vote to bring the proposed ban to a vote. A vote of "nay" effectively shelved the amendment.A 3/5 majority would be required to bring the amendment to a vote. With just a 49-vote plurality, the cloture motion failed.

Guatemala Pressed to Investigate Surge in Killings A U.S delegation is traveling to Guatemala this summer to raise awareness of the murders of 2,000 women since 2001. Rights advocates draw parallels to the widespread killings of women in Juarez, Mexico.

In new book, Coulter 'cribs' stem cell list from right-to-life group In an attempt to counter a New York Times article, conservative pundit Ann Coulter appears to have inserted a list that was originally compiled by an anti-abortion group almost word-for-word into her new book, RAW STORY has found.The seventh chapter of Godless: The Church of Liberalism is devoted to "the left's war on science," which - according to Coulter - includes lying about "the science that is working" so as "to elevate the science that has produced nothing.""In the August 24, 2004, New York Times, science writer Gina Kolata claimed that no one had succeeded in using adult stem cells 'to treat diseases,'" writes Coulter.To prove the Times science writer wrong, Coulter then provides a "short list" of sixteen "successful treatments achieved by adult stem cell research."But fifteen of Coulter's examples (listed at the end of this story) are nearly identical to items in a longer list of seventeen compiled by the Illinois Right To Life website, that has been available since at least September of 2003.

Taylor Trial: U.K. Removes a Key Obstacle The British government’s decision today to offer detention facilities for Charles Taylor if he is convicted removes the main obstacle to relocating the former Liberian president’s trial to The Hague, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 29, Taylor was surrendered to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which has indicted him on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country’s 11-year civil war. The U.N.-backed war crimes court immediately requested the relocation of Taylor’s trial to The Hague, citing concerns about stability in West Africa if the trial is held at the court’s headquarters in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

Call for action! Urge Bush to keep his promises! Call and urge the President of the United States and Members of Congress to lead a global health workforce initiative in AIDS ravaged countries. The shortage of health care workers and weak health systems in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa is a major barrier to access to AIDS treatment. Even with increased foreign aide reaching these areas, if systemic problems of the health care system are not dealt with the small strides we have made in health care access to AIDS patients will be rendered unsustainable. While the needs of individual countries must be determined locally, experts estimate that sub-Saharan Africa needs at least 1 million new health workers to meet essential health needs.

US bucks pledge, continues to pursue new landmines Ten years after US President Bill Clinton declared the country would "aggressively pursue an international agreement to ban the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines," the US has moved no closer to eliminating the weapons, and is in fact developing new types of mines.

Laura Ingraham Falsely Reports that Amnesty International Posts World Cup News on Their Website Tragic news hit the airwaves yesterday morning as two soldiers fighting in Iraq, Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Thomas L. Tucker, 25, were found dead, tortured and killed by insurgents. Their families and friends are in our thoughts and prayers. But what better place is there to spin the tragedy of their deaths into an attack on a human rights organization than on the O'Reilly Factor? Bill's guest Laura Ingraham condemned the group Amnesty International for not reporting the deaths of the two soldiers. She claimed that the site was posting World Cup news instead and condemned Amnesty International for ignoring the deaths of the soldiers and continuously posting stories about abused enemy combatants and detainees.

US charges three soldiers with death of detainees in Iraq Three members of the 101st Airborne Division are charged in connection with deaths of three detainees in Iraq, U.S. military says, CNN has just reported.Reuters wire: "It said the soldiers faced charges including "murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and obstructing justice." It was not clear whether all three faced the murder charge."Three members of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division have been charged in connection with the deaths of three male detainees," the U.S. military said in a statement.

Ahmadinejad 'has 70% approval rating' The popularity of Iran's controversial leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is surging almost a year after he unexpectedly won closely contested presidential elections, Iranian officials and western diplomats said on Tuesday.Attributing his success to his populist style and fortnightly meet-the-people tours of the country, the sources said, as matters stand, Mr Ahmadinejad was the clear favourite to win a second term in 2009. The perception that the president was standing up to the US over the nuclear issue was also boosting his standing.

O’Reilly’s solution: Run the place like Saddam Now to me, they’re not fighting it hard enough. See, if I’m president, I got probably another 50-60 thousand with orders to shoot on sight anybody violating curfews. Shoot them on sight. That’s me… President O’Reilly… Curfew in Ramadi, seven o’clock at night. You’re on the street? You’re dead. I shoot you right between the eyes. Ok? That’s how I run that country. Just like Saddam ran it. Saddam didn’t have explosions - he didn’t have bombers. Did he? because if you got out of line, you’re dead. Now… is that the kind of country I want to have for Iraq? No… But you have to have that for a few months to stabilize the situation so the Iraqi government can get organized, can get security in place and can get the structure going.

AP: Police Got Phone Data From Brokers Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies have bypassed subpoenas and warrants designed to protect civil liberties and gathered Americans' personal telephone records from private-sector data brokers.These brokers, many of whom advertise aggressively on the Internet, have gotten into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and even acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents gathered by congressional investigators and provided to The Associated Press.The law enforcement agencies include offices in the Homeland Security Department and Justice Department - including the FBI and U.S. Marshal's Service - and municipal police departments in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services.

Burundi: Former Child Soldiers Languish in Custody The Burundian government is detaining rather than rehabilitating former child soldiers associated with the rebel National Liberation Forces, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.

Right Wing Urges Bush to Pardon Scooter Libby Since it was announced that Karl Rove escaped indictment, right-wing commentators have aggressively advocated a presidential pardon for Scooter Libby.

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment.Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review.

Snow: There Is Too Much Focus on Kidnapped U.S. Soldiers On Friday, two U.S. troops were kidnapped at a checkpoint in Iraq. They remain missing. This morning on Fox News Sunday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow criticized the press for spending too much time covering their plight.

Kyrgyzstan: Do Not Return Refugees to Uzbekistan The government of Kyrgyzstan must not return four Uzbek refugees to Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said today. With their Kyrgyz judicial appeals now exhausted, the fate of the four men, who have been in Kyrgyz custody since June 2005, is in the hands of the Kyrgyz government. These men have struggled for a year to avoid being sent back home to face brutal repression. Now the Kyrgyz government must do the right thing and refuse to send them back to Uzbekistan. “These men have struggled for a year to avoid being sent back home to face brutal repression,” said Holly Cartner, Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia director. “Now the Kyrgyz government must do the right thing and refuse to send them back to Uzbekistan.”

Nestle to Buy Jenny Craig for $600 Million In a move that recognizes the modern world's twin obsessions — indulgence and guilt — chocolate maker Nestle said Monday it would purchase weight loss product maker Jenny Craig Inc. for $600 million.The acquisition follows Nestle S.A.'s purchase for around $670 million last month of Uncle Tobys, an Australian maker of nutritional cereals and snacks, and is part of the company's "continuing commitment to nutrition, health and wellness," the Swiss company said in a statement.While best known for its namesake chocolates, Nestle is the world's largest food and drinks company, making baby formulas, nutrition foods such as PowerBar, drinks to aid weight loss and the Lean Cuisine line. The company's purchase of Jenny Craig follows the lead of consumer products company Unilever, which bought both Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Slim Fast in 2000.

Not Just a Number From Peace Takes Courage

Chad Accuses Sudan of Cross-Border Attacks Chad on Tuesday accused Sudan of cross-border attacks and urged the Security Council to meet over its neighbor's alleged "aggression and destabilization."The attacks constitute "irrefutable proof" of Sudan's efforts to threaten Chad "and even the subregion," Chad's U.N. Ambassador Mahamat Ali Adoum said in a letter to the council president.The Chadian government has repeatedly brought the issue of Sudan's destabilization to the African Union and the international community but hasn't received "the appropriate response," Adoum said.

Senate Rejects Troop Pullout Two competing amendments -- one that set a deadline for a pullout and the other that stopped short of establishing a timetable -- are voted down.

Conservation will trump access at the national parks Not many times over the past five years have environmentalists applauded President Bush. But this week they're cheering new administration policies for national parks - which reflect the priorities of the Clinton administration. The National Park Service is returning to its original 1916 mandate "to protect and preserve unimpaired the resources and values of the national park system." This means clean air, wilderness protection, unspoiled vistas, and wildlife conservation.

Filmmaker Puts Movie in Hands of Soldiers A buzz-generating documentary opening today in the Bay Area presents a new way to approach the national conversation about the Iraq war, a debate that often gets derailed over whether the real story is being told there. The filmmaker's solution: Give video cameras to the soldiers on the ground and let them roll tape for a year, nearly uncensored. The result is "The War Tapes," a 94-minute film culled from 1,100 hours of footage, which is revolutionary on several levels. Not only is the film created in the same raw, user-generated manner that is powering the explosion of blogs and video-sharing sites on the Internet, it is bypassing the traditional media gatekeepers who some soldiers -- and, for different reasons, anti-war activists -- think are not telling the war's true stories.

A Great Woman has Died-Evy Dubrow (ILGWU) Evelyn "Evy" Dubrow, 95, an indefatigable lobbyist for garment workers for almost 50 years and the only person on Capitol Hill allowed to share the congressional doorkeepers' chairs outside the House chambers, died June 20 of a heart attack at George Washington University Hospital.

Analysis President Bush Defends Policies Amid growing criticism from several countries over the treatment of prisoners of war, President Bush, following a one-day U.S.-EU summit in Vienna, said he hoped "to end Guantanamo." European policy experts discuss the reasons behind the lagging U.S. popularity in Europe.

Flood toll hits 198 as rescue efforts continue in Indonesia The death toll after floods and landslides in Indonesia's South Sulawesi hit 198 on Thursday as workers trawled through mud and scoured nearby islands for more bodies and survivors. Most deaths occurred on Tuesday across five districts in the province, but search and rescue operations have been recovering bodies since then and struggling to reach some of the most isolated affected areas.

Official: Kidnapped soldier was beheaded At least one and possibly both of the soldiers who were mutilated and killed in Iraq last weekend was beheaded, a U.S. military official said Wednesday.The description by the official, who was in Washington, confirmed fears that were raised by other U.S. and Iraqi officials who have said the mens' bodies showed sign of brutal treatment.The official requested anonymity because the final report on the bodies' conditions has not been formally released.

Veteran Critic of White House Turns on 'Gullible' Press Pack For almost five decades, White House reporter Helen Thomas has been covering America's leaders with a healthy dose of scepticism and an endless string of pointed questions. Along the way she has ruffled presidential feathers and, since becoming a columnist in 2003, she has made clear her views on some of those incumbents - including George W Bush who she has described as the "worst president in all of American history".

Al-Qaeda Leader Calls for Afghan Rebellion Al-Qaeda's second-in-command urged Afghans in a new videotaped message to rise up against U.S troops stationed in their country, a day after American officials warned that clashes with Taliban forces in remote border areas could get worse.U.S. military officials said Thursday morning that four soldiers were killed and a fifth was injured Wednesday in clashes with insurgents in the northeastern part of the country, a region near the border with Pakistan where attacks against foreign troops and Afghan security forces have been on the rise.

East Timor president threatens to resign Xanana Gusmao says he will step down if country's prime minister refused to take responsibility for violent crisis.

Almost one in three people affected by gun crime A survey of people in six countries around the world released today reveals that on average, 30 percent of those surveyed have been the victim of gun crime or knows someone who has been in the last five years. The proportion rises to more than half in Brazil, Guatemala and South Africa. Surveys in Brazil, Guatemala, Canada, South Africa, Britain and India found that, across the globe, many people are living in daily fear of armed violence.

Pakistani TV Station Says Journalist Held Authorities have held a Pakistani TV reporter for three months without charge for filming at an air base once used by the U.S.-led coalition in southern Sindh province, his employer said Wednesday. Mukesh Rupeta, who has been missing since March 6, ``is being interrogated'' by authorities after using a video camera at Jacobabad air base, according to Geo TV, an independent channel. The broadcaster said it had made ``repeated inquiries'' about Rupeta, and authorities have not launched an investigation or charged him.

Slave trader's descendant begs forgiveness in Africa Sir John Hawkins was a buccaneering Elizabethan seaman and adventurer, who helped his cousin Sir Francis Drake beat the Spanish Armada. And he was also one of the pioneers of the slave trade, becoming the first person to buy slaves in west Africa and sell them to Spanish landowners in the Caribbean. Now his descendent, Andrew Hawkins, a youth worker from Cornwall, has delivered an extraordinary personal but public apology for his ancestors' involvement in the trade, kneeling in chains in front of 25,000 Africans in a stadium in Banjul, the capital of the Gambia.Mr Hawkins's apology took place during a trip this month to west Africa organised by the Lifeline Expedition, a charity project aimed at achieving reconciliation over the slave trade.Mr Hawkins, 37, from Liskeard, said yesterday: "I apologised on behalf of my family. I apologised for the adults and children taken. I recognise that it's a small, simple act to say sorry - but it was a handful of people who started the slave trade and the ripples of their actions caused evil throughout the continent of Africa.

Iran rejects US 'pressure' on nuclear issue The US is determined to topple Iran's Islamic government whether or not the crisis over the country's nuclear activities is resolved, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said today.

Abbas-Olmert hold 'symbolic' talks Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held informal talks in Jordan on Thursday, the first such top-level encounter in a year, and pledged to meet again in a bid to revive the moribund peace process. Olmert pledged that he would "put everything on the line" for peace and said that there would be more meetings with Abbas after the symbolic encounter over breakfast hosted by Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Killing scares media away from Waziristan Journalist Hayatullah Khan took a photo of something Pakistan's government said was never there. Within days he disappeared without a trace, dragged off by masked men. Last week, six months after his abduction, his body was found dumped in North Waziristan, handcuffed and shot in the back. The tragic news has startled the nation, sparking protests, and Wednesday the government ordered a judicial probe into his death. It also sent a chilling message about the risks of reporting the conflict in Waziristan, one of the premier fronts in the war on terror.

Jordan urges Nobel laureates to help create Palestinian state Jordan's king urged Nobel laureates on Wednesday to help set up a Palestinian state and cure the world of conflict, ahead of a landmark meeting between Palestinian and Israeli leaders. Peace between Palestinians and Israelis "will only come with a peacefully negotiated final settlement based on international law," King Abdullah II told Nobel prize-winners and celebrities at the World Heritage site of Petra. Speaking against the backdrop of south Jordan's rose-red mountains, Abdullah pleaded for "two states - a sovereign Palestinian [state] alongside a secure Israel."

Jamaica: Political will needed to end violence against women and girls In a new report published today, Amnesty International urges the Jamaican authorities to prioritize the implementation of a 15-point Action Plan developed by women's organizations across the country to fight discrimination and sexual violence against women and adolescent girls. The Action Plan includes recommendations such as the development of a public education programme aimed at preventing rape and sexual crimes, the introduction of a national campaign against discrimination and sexual violence and the establishment of a series of shelters to provide support and refuge for victims of sexual violence. "Only decisive action will put an end to discrimination and sexual violence against women in Jamaica. Most of the recommendations of the Action Plan do not require extensive investment, only determination and political will,” said Kerrie Howard, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Americas Programme.

PanAfrica: Wen Rolls Out 'Win-Win' Strategy in Africa Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has embarked on an eight-day, seven-country Africa tour. His trip comes less than two months after President Hu Jintao visited three African countries and five months before a high-level China-Africa cooperation forum, to be held in China.

Many troops agree with John Murtha Myers said he backs Murtha, an opinion echoed by a number of other troops and their families. Several share his frustration with the conflict. “I’m not sure we’re doing a whole lot of good,” Myers, 46, said of the U.S. presence in Iraq. “Everybody thinks we are. We’re trying to, but we’re not going to change what they want to do, and if they don’t want to change, they’re not gonna.” Said Sgt. 1st Class George Wozniak, 36, of Murtha: “He’s definitely for a strong military and he definitely supports the troops.”

Test Tube Meat Nears Dinner Table What if the next burger you ate was created in a warm, nutrient-enriched soup swirling within a bioreactor?Edible, lab-grown ground chuck that smells and tastes just like the real thing might take a place next to Quorn at supermarkets in just a few years, thanks to some determined meat researchers. Scientists routinely grow small quantities of muscle cells in petri dishes for experiments, but now for the first time a concentrated effort is under way to mass-produce meat in this manner. Henk Haagsman, a professor of meat sciences at Utrecht University, and his Dutch colleagues are working on growing artificial pork meat out of pig stem cells. They hope to grow a form of minced meat suitable for burgers, sausages and pizza toppings within the next few years.

As Rather Departs, Collateral Damage at CBS So Dan Rather, the colorful and urgent reporter who anchored the CBS Evening News longer than anyone else, leaves not with a scoop, but a whisper.In September 2004, Rather presented a story on 60 Minutes Wednesday that promised to make a splash. He suggested the network had obtained documentary proof President Bush received preferential treatment during his stint in the National Guard.But the documents that Rather relied on -- and later defended on the CBS Evening News -- could not be authenticated.

Southern San Andreas fault waiting to explode: report The southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles, which has been still for more than two centuries, is under immense stress and could produce a massive earthquake at any moment, a scientist said on Wednesday. Yuri Fialko, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, said that given average annual movement rates in other areas of the fault, there could be enough pent-up energy in the southern end to trigger a cataclysmic jolt of up to 10 meters (32 ft). "The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle," he wrote in the science journal Nature. A sudden lateral movement of 7 to 10 meters would be among the largest ever recorded.

Minimum Wage Bill Fails in Senate In a 52-46 vote, the Senate rejected a Democrat-proposed bill to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over two years, marking the ninth time since 1997 that legislation to raise the limit has been defeated.

Bush Visits Hungary to Commemorate 1956 Uprising President Bush is marking the 50th anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising against Soviet rule with a visit to the former Soviet satellite. At left, Bush and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany meet in Budapest.

Indonesia: Military Business Threatens Human Rights The Indonesian government’s plans to reform military-owned businesses do not sufficiently address the human rights problems fueled by the current system, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The Indonesian military’s independent financing undermines civilian control, contributing to abuses of power by the armed forces and impeding reform.

Military to Charge 8 With Murder of Iraqi Military prosecutors are planning to announce today that seven marines and a Navy corpsman are being charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in connection with the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian in April, a senior Defense Department official in Washington said. The men have been confined since May, when a preliminary inquiry concluded that there was sufficient evidence to warrant a criminal investigation. The men, who belong to the Third Battalion of the Fifth Marine Regiment, have been held in Camp Pendleton in California.

Caring for human rights: Challenges and opportunities for nurses and midwives Nurses and midwives share with other health professions a commitment to the well being of patients and to a professional practice based on codes of ethics. However, they increasingly face impediments and challenges to fulfilling this role. These challenges range from those in daily practice where the increasing complexity of health care raises significant ethical issues through to nursing in areas of natural disaster and poverty and in regions of conflict and tension, where there are persistent risks of nursing staff and their patients being victimized – as a result of their witnessing abuses or treating individuals regarded by the authorities as opponents or subversives, or being regarded as subversive themselves. They can suffer harm as a result of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time". Nurses also risk being pressured to collaborate or collude in abuses occurring in their presence or with their knowledge. This paper reviews some of the risks of human rights violations faced by nurses and midwives or seen by them during their work.

U.S. denies sending troops to Bolivia President Evo Morales drew a sharp denial from the U.S. Embassy when he claimed in a speech that the United States is sending soldiers disguised as students and tourists to Bolivia. The accusation, which the U.S. Embassy dismissed as unfounded Wednesday, comes as Morales faces attacks by political opponents for his cozy relationship with President Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, including accepting aid from that country's military.

India: Don’t Torture Sikh Activist Extradited by U.S. The Indian government must ensure that its security officials do not torture or mistreat Sikh separatist Kulvir Singh Barapind, who was extradited to India from the United States on June 17, Human Rights Watch said today. The Indian security forces have a long history of mistreating Sikh activists in custody.

Syria: Dismissal of state employees for expressing opinions violates international human rights Seventeen state employees working in various Syrian government ministries have been dismissed without explanation but apparently on account of their links to a petition, the Beirut-Damascus Declaration. The 17 individuals had signed the Declaration of 12 May, which calls for the normalisation of relations between Syria and Lebanon, and also a subsequent statement calling for the release of 10 signatories of the Declaration who were arrested in mid-May.1 The dismissal of the 17 individuals was ordered by Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-'Otri on 14 June. According to the Syrian Labour Law, state employees can be dismissed without reason but may appeal the decision before the Constitutional Court. Amnesty International considers the dismissals to violate Syria's international human rights law obligations, in particular articles 19 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and, regarding the workplace, the Discrimination Convention of the International Labour Organisation.

Judge Seeks More Evidence in Padilla Case A federal judge ordered prosecutors to turn over more evidence to back up allegations that Jose Padilla and two co-defendants conspired to kill, injure or kidnap people overseas as part of a global Islamic terrorist network.U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said Tuesday she agreed with claims made by defense attorneys that the indictment against Padilla and the others is "very light on facts" that would link the defendants to specific acts of terrorism or victims.

At least 150 people killed in land clashes in Ethiopia At least 150 people have been killed in southern Ethiopia in more than a week of clashes between rival clans over land ownership following a jurisdictional re-alignment, officials said on Monday. Aid officials in the region said that the fighting erupted late last month between the Guji and Borena tribesmen in a region between Yabello and Finchewa, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa. The conflict was sparked after the jurisdictional re-alignment saw land formerly belonging to Borenas awarded to Gujis, who claimed ownership of the newly-acquired land, they said.

Lawyer for Saddam killed One of Saddam Hussein’s main lawyers was shot to death Wednesday after he was abducted from his Baghdad home by men wearing police uniforms, the third killing of a member of the former leader’s defense team since the trial started some eight months ago. North of Baghdad, gunmen seized about 85 workers as they left an industrial plant, police and a witness said.

North Korea offers to halt missile launch In a new bout of brinkmanship with Washington, North Korea has suggested it would halt its apparent plans to test-fire a long-range missile if the US agreed to direct talks with the reclusive Communist regime.

Somalia: Senior U.S. Official Calls on Islamic Militia to Turn Over al-Qaeda Suspects The top U.S. diplomat for Africa called Wednesday on the leaders of the Islamic militia that now controls Somalia's capital to turn over three men accused of being al-Qaeda terrorists. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told journalists the three al-Qaeda suspects believed to be in Somalia "are of the highest, highest priority in term of capturing."

Thirteen Iraqis Killed in Alleged US Fire on Poultry Farm Thirteen Iraqis working in poultry farms in a village near the restive city of Baquba were killed during overnight US raids in the area, Iraqi police and a rights organisation said Tuesday. The US military also said it was pressing ahead with murder charges against three of its soldiers for killing three Iraqi detainees, while Japan for its part ordered its 600 troops to leave Iraq.

News Report July 5, 2006

2006-07-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Lack of opposition doesn’t stop candidates from raking in big money Mike at Okiedoke reports on the some of the best-financed campaigns in Oklahoma with campaigns who don’t even have an opponent.

Coulter guilty of “textbook plagiarism” in her new book Godless, according to John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system.

Keith Slams O'Reilly Haha

Cafferty File The Incompetent President.

Best Week Ever The Daily Show is the best. I hope Jon Stewart gets his show on a high profile network so more people can see the hypocrisy of this administratio

Gitmo Suicides Covered by Jon Stewart.

Glenn Greenwald on Al Franken Glenn joined Al to talk about his new book, "How Would a Patriot Act?" Audio.

Right Wing Urges Bush to Pardon Scooter Libby Since it was announced that Karl Rove escaped indictment, right-wing commentators have aggressively advocated a presidential pardon for Scooter Libby.

Not Just a Number From Peace Takes Courage

Senate Rejects Troop Pullout Two competing amendments -- one that set a deadline for a pullout and the other that stopped short of establishing a timetable -- are voted down.

News Report: June 20, 2006

2006-06-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq Debate On Thursday, the House of Representatives will hold a debate on the Iraq war. Media reports say Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “hopes to match the serious, dignified tone of deliberation that preceded the Gulf war, in 1991.”ThinkProgress has obtained a “Confidential Messaging Memo” from Boehner instructing his caucus to conduct a very different kind of deliberation. Here’s a quick summary: 1. Exploit 9/11. The two page memo mentions 9/11 seven times. It describes debating Iraq in the context of 9/11 as “imperative.”2. Attack opponents an hominem. The memo describes those who opposes President Bush’s policies in Iraq as “sheepish,” “weak,” and “prone to waver endlessly.”3. Create a false choice. The memo says the decision is between supporting President Bush’s policies and hoping terrorist threats will “fade away on their own.” You can read the confidential memo for yourself HERE.

Set A Deadline for Iraq We are determined to win the war on terror and recognize that there is no more important objective than defeating the global terrorist networks that threaten us today. We know the United States must strengthen its hand in dealing with Iran's nuclear threat. We refuse to accept the Taliban retaking Afghanistan. We recognize the growing threat of a potential new al Qaeda beachhead in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. For these reasons -- and foremost because it is critical to strengthening our national security -it is long past time to set a deadline for the redeployment of American forces out of Iraq. Our enemies are thrilled we're bogged down in Iraq. The terrorists are thrilled we're stuck in a quagmire. And we're ignoring growing threats around the world that truly threaten our national security. There is a better choice - the only responsible choice for our security: redeploying our troops from Iraq. Our troops have done their job in Iraq. It's time to redeploy them so that we can focus our resources on defeating al Qaeda and its affiliated terrorist groups.

Sudan: Divide and Destroy in Darfur Khartoum's divide and destroy strategy will continue to splinter Darfur along ethnic lines, use proxies like the Janjaweed and dissident rebels to sow intercommunal conflict, and buy off politicians to keep Darfur from developing as a region. This is the same tactic the ruling party is pursuing in post-conflict southern Sudan: maintain a strong center that controls security and most of the oil revenue and leave peripheral areas weak, divided and underdeveloped, unable to mount an effective challenge, whether armed or electoral. The Darfur Peace Agreement suffers from the same systemic flaw as the deal brokered for southern Sudan, the ironically named Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Neither deal is in fact comprehensive, but instead address Sudan's problems region by region, just as the ruling party's divide and destroy strategy requires. Despite all having the same grievances, southerners, westerners and easterners are all left to fight over scraps, while the real power in the center remains largely intact in the hands of the ruling National Congress Party. Left unchecked, ruling party officials will continue to use militias to destabilize parts of the country prone to opposition, and will continue to support rebels in neighboring countries deemed unfriendly, as they do now in Chad, Uganda and Eritrea.

China: Secretive arms exports stoking conflict and repression China is fast emerging as one of the world’s biggest, most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters, according to a new report issued today by Amnesty International. The report shows how Chinese weapons have helped sustain brutal conflicts, criminal violence and other grave human rights violations in countries such as Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar and South Africa. It also reveals the possible involvement of Western companies in the manufacture of some of these weapons. “China describes its approach to arms export licensing as `cautious and responsible`, yet the reality couldn‘t be further from the truth. China is the only major arms exporting power that has not signed up to any multilateral agreements with criteria to prevent arms exports likely to be used for serious human rights violations,” said Helen Hughes, Amnesty International’s arms control researcher.

Experts: US must win 'war of ideas' In a survey of 117 of America's leading foreign-policy experts, both conservative and liberal, The Toronto Star reports that a large majority of those polled (84 percent) believe that the US is not winning the war on terror. And most of the experts surveyed believe that if the US is to win that larger war, it must first win the 'war of ideas' through the use of 'non-military tools' like diplomacy and multilateral organizations.

GOP against spending? That’s a good one! KARL ROVE might not have lied to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about his role in publicly identifying CIA employee Valerie Plame, but he told one heck of a whopper when he stopped in Manchester on Monday. Speaking of what separates Democrats from Republicans, President Bush’s top political adviser said, “They’re for more spending. We’re for less spending.” Republicans for less spending? Less than what? President Bush has overseen the largest expansion of federal spending since Lyndon Johnson — even if you exclude defense and national security spending.

Report reveals global slum crisis Slum-dwellers who make up a third of the world's urban population often live no better - if not worse - than rural people, a United Nations report says. Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Habitat agency, urged governments and donors to take more seriously the problems of at least a billion people. Worst hit is Sub-Saharan Africa where 72% of urban inhabitants live in slums rising to nearly 100% in some states. If no action is taken, the world's slum population could rise to 1.4bn by 2020.

Agency: Cities Not Prepared for Disasters New Orleans is still woefully unprepared for catastrophes 10 months after Hurricane Katrina, and the two cities targeted by the 9/11 attacks don't meet all guidelines for responding to major disasters, a federal security analysis concluded Friday.Ten states were rated in a Homeland Security Department scorecard as having sufficient plans to respond to disasters: Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont.Florida, accustomed to being whipped with hurricane winds, was the only state to meet all of the department's basic requirements for planning for catastrophes. Response plans for Louisiana, still devastated from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, were deemed insufficient to manage huge emergencies.The shortcomings in emergency planning, including antiquated and uncoordinated response guidelines, are cause "for significant national concern," Homeland Security's analysis concluded.

CIA Claims the Right to Decide What is News The National Security Archive today filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), challenging the Agency's recent practice of charging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) fees to journalists pursuing news. The FOIA says that "representatives of the news media" can be charged only copying fees since they help to carry out the mission of the law by disseminating government information; but the CIA last year began claiming authority to assess additional fees if the Agency decides any journalist's request is not newsworthy enough. In adopting this new practice, the CIA reversed its prior 15-year practice of presumptively waiving additional fees for news media representatives, including the National Security Archive.

Bukharbaeva Exposed Uzbek Massacre to World Uzbek journalist Galima Bukharbaeva was one of three journalists who covered a government massacre of protesters last year. Now she wonders if she can ever cover her home country again.

Paper: Rumsfeld expels US media from Guantanamo Bay The United States military has ordered all independent media off the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base following the suicides of three detainees, RAW STORY has learned.Writing for the Miami Herald, journalist Carol Rosenberg stated Wednesday morning that the military had "ordered all independent news media off the base by 10 a.m. Wednesday, and had arranged a flight to Miami to expedite their departure."

Viewpoint: Banning Baghdad falafel Recent news reports from the Iraqi capital indicate that radical Islamists are launching a campaign to prohibit the sale of ... falafel. Yes, you heard right, falafel. While this is the sort of news you might expect to hear from a late night stand-up comedian on television, sadly, this is not a joke, and a number of falafel vendors who failed to heed the warnings have paid with their lives. Several vendors of the popular deep-fried chickpea sandwich were told they had just two weeks to change their profession or face death. And indeed, several vendors where shot and killed simply for selling falafel sandwiches. The logic offered by the religious zealots - if there is any - in imposing this inane diktat on the people is that there were no falafels in the time of the Prophet Mohammed. Indeed there were no falafels in ancient Arabia. However, it might be worth pointing out to these same zealots - preferably with much tact - that in the days of the prophet there were no Kalashnikov automatic rifles with which to shoot those who did not follow orders.

Iraq Women's Report Calls Violence Enemy No. 1 Violence against civilians and widespread infrastructure damage are making it difficult for Iraqi women to agree about the U.S. occupation or concentrate on pushing for a role in the reconstruction process.

Green Fuel's Dirty Secret Ethanol made from corn has been touted as the "green fuel" of the future. Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. producer of ethanol, stands to make a fortune from environmentally conscious car drivers. But is ethanol really as environmentally clean as it is hyped to be?

Multiple Failures to Report Haditha Deaths In the initial incident, a squad of Marines shot and killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including 11 women and children. Most were shot inside four houses. Five Iraqi males were shot after they got out of a taxi cab. An ongoing criminal investigation seeks to determine whether the squad members fired in self defense, as they claim, or if they took part in a massacre.

Behind the Spin, the Oil Giants are More Dangerous Than Ever For a company that claims to have moved "beyond petroleum", BP has managed to spill an awful lot of it on to the tundra in Alaska. Last week, after the news was leaked to journalists, it admitted to investors that it is facing criminal charges for allowing 270,000 gallons of crude oil to seep across one of the world's most sensitive habitats. The incident was so serious that some of its staff could be sent to prison. Had this been Exxon, the epitome of sneering corporate brutality, the news would have surprised no one. But BP's rebranding, like Shell's, has been so effective that you could be forgiven for believing that it had become an environmental pressure group. These companies have used the vast profits from their petroleum business to create the impression that they are abandoning it.

Funds for Iraq run low Time and money are running out on the US-directed reconstruction effort in Iraq. The main conduit for American rebuilding aid - the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) - is scheduled to close at the end of this year. Almost all the cash Congress has allocated for the fund, some $20 billion in all, has been spent, or will be, in coming months.Yet many important efforts remain unfinished, for reasons ranging from insurgent attacks to incompetence and contractor corruption. More than 75 percent of oil and gas restoration projects are incomplete, as are 50 percent of electrical and 40 percent of water and sanitation projects, according to the April report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.The bottom line: Iraqis are facing what US officials call a "reconstruction gap" as they assume responsibility for rebuilding. Meeting already-identified needs might require a further $18 billion to $28 billion, according to one estimate.

Heading off a 'Coal War' with China Today, China and the United States have the Coal War. President Bush could salvage a portion of his legacy by ending it.We are not fighting each other for the resource. Instead, we burn it up in our parallel universes and toast the planet like no one else. The United States currently spews out the most global warming emissions in an endless drive to satisfy the highest level of materialism on earth. Our level of consumption and pollution is so high that Harvard scientist E.O. Wilson calculated it would take four planet Earths for the rest of the world to enjoy our standard of living.Oblivious to pointy-headed professors, China is on its way to passing us with its unprecedented industrialization in that most populous nation. We can already see what is going to happen if China continues to strive for our standard of living: The pollution from coal burning is reaching mountaintops on the American West Coast.A New York Times feature this week said that carbon dioxide pollution from Chinese coal burning, currently just over that of the United States, will be double this country's by 2025.

U.K. Research Team Identifies Gene That Could Help Reprogram Adult Stem Cell To Embryonic State A gene called "nanog" appears to be the most important among several "reprogramming genes" that could transform adult stem cells into an embryonic-like state, according to research published in the June 14 online edition of the journal Nature, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Hall, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/15).U.S.: North Korea Preparing Missile Test North Korea is accelerating preparations for a long-range missile test, a U.S. government official said Friday, declaring that a launch may be imminent.The official said administration officials are very concerned about activities that point toward a test.

USA: Independent investigation must be held into deaths of three Guantánamo detainees Amnesty International today called for a fully independent investigation led by civilians into the deaths of three Guantanamo detainees after apparent suicides. The organisation also called on the US government to give the group of five UN experts immediate and unrestricted access to the Guantánamo detention centre, and in particular allow the experts to talk privately with detainees. The detainees who died have been identified as Saudi nationals Mane'i bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habardi al-'Otaybi and Yassar Talal 'Abdullah Yahia al-Zahrani, who was reportedly 17 when he was taken into custody, and Yemeni national 'Ali 'Abdullah Ahmed.

Clinton measures would boost mental health efforts for vets Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sought to boost community efforts to treat the mental wounds of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Clinton, D-N.Y., is pushing an amendment that would expand community services to military men and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, called PTSD, or traumatic brain injuries, known as TBI.

Sudan: No Justice for Darfur Victims The courts established by the Sudanese government to deal with the widespread crimes in Darfur have failed to provide justice to victims of war crimes committed since early 2003, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Since early 2003, tens of thousands of civilians have been assaulted, raped and killed, hundreds of villages destroyed and approximately 2 million people forcibly displaced by the conflict. Human Rights Watch is aware of only 13 cases that have been brought before the new special court to date. The cases have involved low-ranking individuals accused of relatively minor offences. No senior commanders or superiors have been charged for their part in the atrocities.

Right-Wing Shelves Vote on Minimum Wage Appropriations Committee voted to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by 2009. The increase passed as an amendment to the Labor-HHS spending bill after seven Republicans — Reps. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), John Sweeney (R-NY), Ray LaHood (R-IL), Don Sherwood (R-PA), Mike Simpson (R-ID), James Walsh (R-NY), and Bill Young (R-FL) — broke ranks to pass the increase.The right wing objected to the move on the grounds that the committee “shouldn’t be legislating on an appropriations bill.” (They forget how Sen. Frist (R-TN) and Rep. Hastert (R-IL) did exactly that last year when they slipped liability protections for vaccine makers into a defense spending bill.)

Holocaust records will open to the world The largest Holocaust archive will be opened to millions of people worldwide searching for family information, it was reported Saturday. The Los Angeles Times obtained early, limited access to the Red Cross International Tracing Service archives in Bad Arolsen, Germany. The 50 million documents, kept since 1943, provide more depth into the mass extermination and incarceration of the 17.5 million people funneled through Nazi concentration camps, the newspaper said. Despite pressure to the contrary from German and Italian governments, the archive will be opened this year so former detainees can file claims and families can trace branches brutally chopped off their family tree.

Pentagon Details U.S. Abuse of Detainees Murky procedures, lack of oversight and inadequate resources led to mistakes in the way U.S. troops treated Iraq and Afghanistan detainees. But two Pentagon reports, made public Friday, found no widespread mistreatment or illegal actions by the military. A human rights group called the reports a whitewash that ignored countless documented accounts of detainee abuse.

War on terror called failure Washington is failing to make progress in the global war on terror and the next 9/11-style attack is not a question of if, but when. That is the scathing conclusion of a survey of 100 leading American foreign-policy analysts. In its first "Terrorism Index," released yesterday, the influential journal Foreign Affairs found surprising consensus among the bipartisan experts. Some 86 per cent of them said the world has grown more, not less, dangerous, despite President George W. Bush's claims that the U.S. is winning the war on terror. The main reasons for the decline in security, they said, were the war in Iraq, the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, U.S. policy towards Iran and U.S. energy policy. The survey's participants included an ex-secretary of state and former heads of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, along with prominent members of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment. The majority served in previous administrations or in senior military ranks.

Hip Hop Women Recount Abuse at Their Own Risk A few women who have survived abusive relationships with rap stars are breaking the silence about domestic violence. But a "no snitch" rule is still widely observed in the hip hop music world.

Democrats force out one of their own House Democrats, determined to make an election-year point about ethics, voted 99-58 Thursday night to strip Rep. William Jefferson of his committee assignment while a federal bribery investigation runs its course. […]The three-hour closed door meeting marked the culmination of a drive by Pelosi to take action. “This isn’t about proof in a court of law. This is about an ethical standard,” she told reporters.

Debunking Nuclear Myth of Greenhouse Friendliness The problem with satire is that it has a nasty habit of becoming common sense. Yesterday's absurdity becomes today's accepted wisdom. Take nuclear power, for example. It wasn't so long ago that we all laughed at Homer Simpson's prayers of thanks for nuclear power: "And Lord, we are especially thankful for nuclear power, the cleanest, safest energy source there is. Except for solar, which is just a pipedream." Only a simpleton like Homer would believe that nuclear power is clean and green, we told ourselves - but not any more. If you believe newspapers and watch the news, nuclear power is part of the answer to global warming. Nuclear power is greenhouse-gas emission friendly, we're told. It's not only the spruikers for the nuclear power industry who are saying so. In his book The Revenge of Gaia, noted environmentalist James Lovelock reiterates his support for nuclear power. Certainly, set against the backdrop of global climate disaster, the risks associated with nuclear technology seem to be the lesser of two evils. But nuclear power only looks greenhouse-friendly from a distance. If you take a closer look, it's far from a solution to the climate crisis.

Conservative strategist claims that 'homosexual agenda' is 'designed to do away with the American family' A conservative strategist claimed that the "homosexual agenda" is "designed to do away with the American family" in an appearance on CNN. To watch this segment, tune to 5:12 on the video clip below.Lob Dobbs, a conserative CNN host, also beats on GOP strategist Richard Viguerie, asking what conservatives have done for American families."What have we done for the family that everybody's so concerned about?" asked CNN host Lou Dobbs. "Where are the values? I'm lost." "You've got schools that are now indoctrinating the children with values that are in opposition to the American families' values here in this country," replied Viguerie. "You've got schools that are actually teaching people. The inner city and people don't need anything as much as they need good schools."Dobbs then asked, "What's gay marriage got to do with any of that?""Because the homosexual agenda in my opinion and many conservatives is designed to do away with the American family," Viguerie claimed.

UN finds multiple Darfur massacres The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said his office had documented massacres with hundreds of victims in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region as well as hundreds of rape cases.In a report to the UN Security Council, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the office had documented “thousands of alleged direct killings of civilians by parties to the conflict,” including “a significant number of large-scale massacres, with hundreds of victims in each incident.”

It's time for Congress to allow Native peoples to protect sacred places Native American sacred places are under attack. Now. Not in the distant past. Not when it's too late to do anything about it. Now. Sacred places are being desecrated and damaged today. When something can be done about it. The problem is that Native Americans cannot go through the door of the First Amendment to defend sacred places. The Supreme Court slammed that door and locked it 18 years ago. Congress has the power to make a new key.

Why the Taliban appeal to Pakistani youth Imran Gul would like to see a better future for the tribal youth of his corner of Pakistan, but most days he only sees military helicopters returning from Waziristan, ferrying wounded and dead. Casualties in the conflicts along the Afghan border serve as a reminder that the tribal system, once strong and proud, is now falling apart. History and war have slowly eaten away its edifice, and Mr. Gul worries that what the tribal system can no longer provide young people - peace, income, a sense of purpose, a social network - a new and rising force can: the Taliban. "Due to poverty, young people have no activities," says Gul, program director of the Sustainable Participation Development Program, a nongovernmental organization in Banu, just outside North Waziristan. "They do not want to join the Taliban. But their sympathies are with the Taliban to bring peace to our area."

U.N.: AIDS Fight Depends on Respect for Rights Objections to recognizing the human rights of girls and women and those most at risk of HIV infection are threatening to derail this week’s United Nations meeting on AIDS, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Peace Race A CBS poll finds that 80 percent of Democrats believe the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, and more than 60 percent want US troops home as soon as possible. A Washington Post/ABC poll finds that 70 percent of Independents feel the war was not worth it, and 33 percent of Republicans agree. Even 72 percent of our troops believe US forces should leave Iraq in the next year. So what are so many Democratic politicians so afraid of? And how do we translate this majority into a politics of change for the 2006 elections and beyond? How do we send a message from the grassroots – the people outside of the beltway – that ending this war matters, and that the time to show moxie and conviction is right now?

The Global Warming Debate In the third and last installment of a series of reports on global warming, NewsHour correspondent Paul Solman explains how carbon dioxide -- the main greenhouse gas -- is produced and possible ways to neutralize it.

Hastert Defends Profits by Claiming $207 Million Parkway Provides No Benefits for Nearby Homeowners In 2005, House Speaker Dennis Hastert secured $207 million in federal funds to build the “Prairie Parkway” through his Congressional district. A few months later, Hastert sold land he had purchased in 2002 and 2004 — located just three miles away from the future parkway — earning a profit of about $2 million. (Check out a graphic timeline of the transaction.)

Alleged pedophile, former Homeland Security press aide talked sex, bashed Bush to 'girl' Prosecutors have released 400 pages of documents recording the exchanges between Doyle and "Ashlynne," a fictitious girl invented by police to trap pedophiles.Doyle acknowledged that his actions were illegal, but seemed to indicate that it enhanced the experience. The Homeland Security aide also added that he met President Bush, and said of the President: "nice guy but not a good president ... he is not very bright and it is evident ... bush is a liar ... there were NO weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. total lie to go to war."

Bush Claimed Iraqis Oppose Timetable the Day After Iraq’s VP Personally Asked Him for One Today, the AP reports that Iraq’s Vice President, Tariq al-Hashimi, personally asked President Bush to set a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. forces the day before. Iraq’s President, Jalal Talabani, said he supported the request. Separately, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that Iraqi security forces should be completely in charge of the nation’s security in 18 months.

Wal-Mart could hike pay and keep prices low: study Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N) could significantly increase employee wages and benefits without raising prices, and still earn a healthy -- albeit smaller -- profit, research released on Thursday concluded.The Economic Policy Institute study comes as the world's biggest retailer faces a barrage of criticism from labor unions, politicians and community activists, who say it pays poverty-level wages and drives competitors out of business.Wal-Mart, which has taken steps to improve its health care and other benefits, argues that its low prices boost consumers' buying power and increase their standard of living. The retailer regularly cites a Global Insight study that found Wal-Mart saves U.S. families more than $2,000 per year."The more important question for the future isn't whether Wal-Mart is a force for good or evil in the American economy, but whether the economic benefits provided by Wal-Mart can be preserved even if their labor compensation is dramatically improved," economists Jared Bernstein and Josh Bivens wrote.

Bomb explosions, political instability challenge iMMAP's resolve Iraq. Sudan. The Democratic Republic of Congo. Afghanistan. In 2006 VVAF's Information Management and Mine Action Programs (iMMAP) staff are active in some of the most dangerous places in the world, overcoming setbacks to carry out their critical humanitarian work. As the violence continues, political instability increases, and the risks of working in these environments heighten. Nevertheless, iMMAP continues involvement in dangerous areas. These war-torn countries desperately need the landmine surveys, map products, and information management iMMAP provides, and iMMAP adapts to these adverse situations.

Newly released emails suggest Army Corps lied about Cheney role in Halliburton contract New documents obtained by a conservative watchdog group suggest that the US Army Corp of Engineers may have publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President's office in awarding a 2003 multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract to Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, RAW STORY has learned.RAW STORY has obtained a copy of the emails, which were acquired by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act.The newly released emails show the Army Corps attempting to deflect attention from Cheney's office by distributing talking points that would mask Cheney's purported role. The Corps could not immediately be reached for comment.

Colbert: Ten Commandments Colbert was priceless last night. His guest was Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland and I guess he never heard of The Colbert Report before. He will now. Westmoreland: You mean all of them?--Um... Don't murder. Don't lie. Don't steal Um... I can't name them all.

House Science Committee Votes to Ignore the Manipulation, Distortion and Censorship of Scientists at Federal Agencies The House of Representatives Science Committee today voted down an amendment to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Organic Act, leaving scientists at NOAA without explicit protection from political appointees. The amendment from Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) would have protected scientists from egregious manipulation and interference with their research. "How could anyone vote against protections that ensure basic scientific freedoms?" said Francesca Grifo, Senior Scientist and Director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Scientific Integrity program. "We need responsible checks and balances to ensure that impartial scientific information is available to decision makers and to the public."

Soweto 1976: An Audio History Thirty years ago, the uprising of a group of schoolchildren forever changed South Africa's history. What began as a protest against a government education policy became a watershed moment in the fight against apartheid.

May Democracy Spread from Darfur In order for any documentary film to be effective, it must document a movement or struggle. Even though foreign films can be beneficial to a colonized people as far as making international audiences aware of injustices and oppression, picking up their own cameras and documenting their own experiences of daily life gives the people a stronger voice and is more empowering. The colonial history of Sudan is linked to its current conflicts, and therefore the conflicts may appear as natural and unsolvable. However, cultures and histories are changed over time. The people of the region and the world can benefit from documentaries made within the struggle from the viewpoint of those involved.

FBI releases small part of Vice President's FBI records, withholds 89 percent of files The Federal Bureau of Investigation has refused to turn over 89 percent of Vice President Dick Cheney's FBI records in response to a request for the records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Murtha Slaps Another Pro-War Republican During the phony Iraq-war debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) had the nerve to go after Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA), a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran. After saying some nice things about him, Gohmert said of Murtha, "… thank god he was not here and prevailed after the bloodbaths at Normandy and in the Pacific or we would be here speaking Japanese or German."Murtha took to the floor and challenged him by asking him if he had served in any of those places. See the video HERE.

The battle of Huda Ghalia - who really killed girl's family on Gaza beach? Heartrending pictures of 10-year-old Huda Ghalia running wildly along a Gaza beach crying "father, father, father" and then falling weeping beside his body turned the distraught girl into an instant icon of the Palestinian struggle even before she fully grasped that much of her family was dead.But the images of the young girl who lost her father, step-mother and five of her siblings as picnicking families fled a barrage of Israeli shells a week ago have become their own battleground.Who and what killed the Ghalia family, and badly maimed a score of other people, has been the subject of an increasingly bitter struggle for truth all week amid accusations that a military investigation clearing the army was a cover-up, that Hamas was really responsible and even that the pictures of Huda's grief were all an act.

Iran: Scores Arrested in Anti-Baha’i Campaign In its latest campaign of religious intolerance directed against the Baha’i community, Iranian security officials last month arrested scores of Baha’i youths in Shiraz solely on the basis of their religious faith, Human Rights Watch said today. Baha’i representatives to the U.N. in Geneva told Human Rights Watch that Iranian authorities on May 19 arrested a group of mainly Baha’i youths who were teaching English, math and other non-religious subjects to underprivileged children in Shiraz. The authorities also arrested several other non-Baha’i volunteers at the same time but released them the same day without requiring bail. One Baha’i, under the age of 15, was released without having to post bail.

Help put poverty on the agenda I want to personally invite you to come to Washington, D.C., in two weeks to participate in Pentecost 2006: Building A Covenant for a New America. I'm asking you to come because this is not just another conference. Rather it is the first step in a vital campaign aimed at the critical presidential election year of 2008. What is the plan? Nothing less than to put poverty on the national agenda, and to force candidates from both parties to present the nation with their plans for dramatic poverty reduction both at home and globally. Of course, neither party has such a plan now in June 2006. But by 2008, we believe that will change with your help. This time, I believe we can really make a difference; but only if we are all together.

Nepal Rebel Leader Meets with Government The leader of Nepal's communist rebel group held talks with the country's new prime minister Friday paving the way for what many hope will be the end of a 10-year insurgency that has killed 13,000 people. Reclusive Maoist rebel chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, commonly known by his followers as Prachanda, flew to the capital of the Himalayan nation Friday and met with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, in the first high-level negotiations between rebel forces and the government."The main agenda for the meeting is to discuss early elections for the constituent assembly and solve the political hurdles...," rebel spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told Reuters.

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival Recognizing the extraordinary power of film to inspire and educate, the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, now in its 17th year, promotes dialogue and activism through the screening of distinguished documentary and dramatic films. “Courage, which conventional movies sell you by the rusty bucketful, springs fresh on all sides in this year's Human Rights Watch International Film Festival,” wrote the Nation. “In the condescending phrase of marketing consultants, these pictures would be ‘scenes of ordinary, everyday heroism.’ Unglamorous, sure, but ordinary? Not on your life.” The festival showcases heroic stories of activists and survivors through the eyes of courageous filmmakers, putting a human face on threats to individual freedom and giving voice to those who might otherwise be silenced.

Save Darfur A video from the Darfur Rally. Also, Senator Obama and Al Sharpton.

World Cup Statistics As the World Cup gets underway, no red cards are being handed out for the many women and girls being stalked, raped, sexually abused and harassed, trafficked for sexual exploitation, beaten or killed.

Audio Commentary on East Timor This is a special audio testimony from Charmain Mohamed, Indonesia and East Timor Researcher for Human Rights Watch.Mohamed has just returned from East Timor, where she released the Human Rights Watch report Tortured Beginnings: Police Violence and the Beginnings of Impunity in East Timor. She says the recent outbreak of violence in the country has many causes.

Senate Sends Bush $94.5B for Iraq, Katrina The Senate Thursday sent President Bush a $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, meeting his funding requests for America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and providing new aid to Gulf Coast hurricane victims.The 98-1 vote on the compromise House-Senate legislation gave much-needed funds to support U.S. troops overseas. Most of the money _ $66 billion _ goes to the Pentagon for military operations overseas.Bush praised Congress for providing funds to "fight terrorism, defend our homeland, enforce our borders, and fulfill our moral obligation to help our fellow Americans in need."The bill would bring to almost $320 billion the tally for the campaign in Iraq and $89 billion for the one in Afghanistan.

Vast Hawaii Sea Area Becomes National Monument The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are now the largest stretch of protected ocean on Earth. President Bush bestowed monument status on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, spanning 1,200 nautical miles, on Thursday.

NASA shelves climate satellites NASA is canceling or delaying a number of satellites designed to give scientists critical information on the earth's changing climate and environment. The space agency has shelved a $200 million satellite mission headed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor that was designed to measure soil moisture -- a key factor in helping scientists understand the impact of global warming and predict droughts and floods. The Deep Space Climate Observatory, intended to observe climate factors such as solar radiation, ozone, clouds, and water vapor more comprehensively than existing satellites, also has been canceled.

Latest Ann Coulter Outrage: On 'Fragging' and John Murtha With the brief debate over Iraq in Congress producing such acrimony this week that one congressman suggested opponents of the war support al-Qaeda, it should come as no surprise that columnist and author Ann Coulter would top them all. In an email interview with John Hawkins at the Right Wing News web site, Coulter was asked, among other things, to offer short comments on several individuals. After harmlessly dismissing former Ambassador Joseph Wilson as the "World's most intensely private exhibitionist," she said of Rep. John Murtha, the hawkish ex-Marine and now antiwar congressman: "The reason soldiers invented 'fragging.'" Fragging, which became a well-known expression -- and occasional occurence -- during the Vietnam war, means soldiers attempting to kill their own officers for one reason or another.

Sign the religious leaders' letter to the G8 on HIV/AIDS and debt Last summer thousands of you joined with us in calling on President Bush to provide bold leadership in the fight against extreme poverty during the G8 Summit in Scotland. While the Summit resulted in promises to cancel 100% of the debt owed by impoverished nations and to double aid to Africa by the year 2010, the G8 nations are dragging their feet. As the G8 prepares to meet again in St. Peterburg, Russia, from July 15-17 we ask that you join with our friends at Africa Action in raising a prophetic voice calling for greater funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and malaria and for expanding last year's debt deal to the rest of the African continent. Both commitments advance the third major goal of our soon-to-be-launched "From Poverty to Opportunity: A Covenant for a New America" campaign which supports effective aid, transparency and good governance, basic education, health interventions, just trade policies, and debt cancellation in order to prevent the 30,000 child deaths worldwide each day due to poverty and disease.

Picture of a weakened Iraqi insurgency An Al Qaeda document linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi purports to show that Iraq's insurgents believe they face a "current bleak situation" that may require fomenting a war between the US and Iran to "get out of this crisis." The document, released Thursday, could not be independently authenticated. But senior Iraqi officials were ebullient about its message, as well as the magnitude of intelligence "treasure" that has emerged surrounding Mr. Zarqawi's death.

Can UN Stem Flow of Small Arms? Apparently, no one knows what's happened to the thousands of AK-47s - and millions of rounds of ammunition - transferred from Bosnian wartime stockpiles to Iraq since 2004: Not the Bosnian government, nor NATO officials, nor the Alabama-based military contractor who transported the weapons, nor the Multi-National Command in Iraq, which was the intended recipient. The international authorities who control arms shipments from Bosnia admit that they have no tracking system to ensure the weapons don't fall into the wrong hands, according to Amnesty International. Like Africa in the past decade, Iraq today is awash in lightweight weapons. An estimated 7 million small arms were "lost" from Saddam Hussein's stockpiles at the beginning of the 2003 Iraq war.

A backdoor plan to thwart the electoral college Legislative houses in Colorado and California have recently approved this plan, known as the National Popular Vote proposal, taking it partway to passage. Other states, too, are exploring the idea of a binding compact among states that would oblige each of them to throw its electoral votes behind the national popular-vote winner. At issue is the nation's presidential election system governed by the electoral college. Established by the US Constitution in 1787, the system has occasionally awarded the presidency to candidates who couldn't muster the most votes nationwide, as happened in 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. While an amendment to the Constitution could change or eliminate the electoral college, battleground states and small states would probably oppose any change that would leave them with less influence. Indeed, since the system's inception, numerous efforts to amend it have been defeated. Instead, reformers have turned to the interstate compact, saying it would be constitutional because agreements between states already exist.

Bolton Blasts Annan for Criticizing U.S. Support of Somali Warlords At a press conference yesterday, a reporter asked U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan what he thought about the U.S. “secretly supporting secular warlords” in Somalia. (The same warlords who “reportedly fought against the United States in 1993.”) Here’s his response: I would not have supported warlords. I don’t think I would have recommended to the UN or the Security Council to support warlords. Bolton quickly hit back, wondering if Annan was criticizing “American efforts to round up terrorists.” Yet rather than “round up terrorists,” the clandestine support the administration gave to secular warlords “thwarted counterterrorism efforts inside Somalia and empowered the same Islamic groups it was intended to marginalize."

New Assault Under Way in Afghanistan An offensive in Afghanistan targets fighters loyal to the ousted Taliban regime. A U.S.-led coalition hits two camps in southern Afghanistan hard.

Up to 5,000 Armenian women victims of sex trade, says sociologist Between 3,000 and 5,000 Armenian women were forced into the sex trade in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates last year, the head of the country's association of sociologists said on Wednesday. Guevorg Pogossian said that in many cases women who had failed to find work in the economically disadvantaged southern Caucasian country sought jobs abroad, and found themselves trapped into prostitution, their passports confiscated. Pogossian said that the women had become increasingly younger.

Time running out to curb effects of deep sea pollution, warns UN Damage to the once pristine habitats of the deep oceans by pollution, litter and overfishing is running out of control, the United Nations warned yesterday. In a report that indicates that time is running out to save them, the UN said humankind's exploitation of the the deep seas and oceans was "rapidly passing the point of no return".Last year some 85 million tonnes of wild fish were pulled from the global oceans, 100 million sharks and related species were butchered for their fins, some 250,000 turtles became tangled in fishing gear, and 300,000 seabirds, including 100,000 albatrosses, were killed by illegal longline fishing.

Vietnam: Montagnards Face Religious, Political Persecution Vietnamese authorities have detained, interrogated, and even tortured Montagnard refugees and asylum seekers who have returned to Vietnam from U.N. High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) camps in Cambodia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The government is violating an agreement with UNHCR, which is supposed to monitor returning refugees and ensure they are safe.

Cameroon: Street Children On the Increase in Douala The number of street children in Douala, Cameroon's economic capital has attained an alarming proportion, administrative authorities have said.Speaking on June 12 in Douala while launching weeklong activities to commemorate the 16th edition of the Day of the African Child, slated for June 16, Littoral Governor, Gonoukou Haounaye, announced a number of measures envisaged to help tackle the situation.The Governor disclosed that a census of street children in Douala will soon be carried out. He said the government wants to reintegrate them into the society as fast as possible. He admitted that for now there is no statistics about street children which government can use.Though he did not explain how the census will be carried out, given that street children do not have any fix location, Mr. Houanaye said the census would enable the government and related partners map out an appropriate strategy on how to reintegrate them into the society.

South Africa: Born Free To visit South Africa today, as I did last month, is to encounter a nation that is all too quickly forgetting its awkward past, and failing as well to address contradictions which could abort evolution of a stable multi-ethnic society.Ironically, one of the perceived hazards is the lack of race consciousness among "born-frees"—the generation of youth who have come of age since a democratic South Africa emerged formally in 1994. The Mail and Guardian recently surveyed youth and found them remarkably devoid of racial animosity. But youth were equally deficient in any real understanding of apartheid, its legacy or its latent effect on South African society.Apartheid, in the view of many youth, was nothing more sinister than separate park benches for black and white. Then Nelson Mandela changed all that. Full stop.

Drugs firm blocks cheap blindness cure A major drug company is blocking access to a medicine that is cheaply saving thousands of people from going blind because it wants to launch a more expensive product on the market.

Fox's Ambitious Rights Agenda Falls Short As Mexico’s President Vicente Fox enters the final months of his term, the ambitious human rights agenda that he brought with him to office remains largely unfulfilled, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 150–page report, "Lost in Transition: Bold Ambitions, Limited Results for Human Rights Under Fox,” documents the successes and failures of Fox’s human rights policies. The report offers detailed recommendations for his successor —who will be chosen in the July presidential election —on how to build upon the Fox agenda, while avoiding its significant shortcomings. "Fox began his presidency with a bold vision for human rights," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch. "He'll leave with some real accomplishments under his belt, but with the country’s chronic human rights problems largely unchanged."

Igniting a Lasting Peace-Fire "We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love."-Senator Robert F. Kennedy after the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Democrats force out one of their own House Democrats, determined to make an election-year point about ethics, voted 99-58 Thursday night to strip Rep. William Jefferson of his committee assignment while a federal bribery investigation runs its course. […]The three-hour closed door meeting marked the culmination of a drive by Pelosi to take action. “This isn’t about proof in a court of law. This is about an ethical standard,” she told reporters.

It's time for Congress to allow Native peoples to protect sacred places Native American sacred places are under attack. Now. Not in the distant past. Not when it's too late to do anything about it. Now. Sacred places are being desecrated and damaged today. When something can be done about it. The problem is that Native Americans cannot go through the door of the First Amendment to defend sacred places. The Supreme Court slammed that door and locked it 18 years ago. Congress has the power to make a new key.

Bill aims to make national water standards voluntary Half of the country's water systems are making a potentially hazardous switch, while a bill aims to make national safe drinking water standards voluntary, RAW STORY has learned.The Small Systems Safe Drinking Water Act makes it voluntary for plumbing companies to comply with national standards. The introduction of the act announces that it's intention is to, "to prevent the enforcement of certain national primary drinking water regulations unless sufficient funding is available or variance technology has been identified."If your water is tainted with lead, there isn't much you can do about it. The manufacturer probably won't be liable and probably can't be sued.

Greedy CEOs Can't Help Themselves The Financial Times of London, although its pages are pink coloured, is pretty grey. It puts a premium on detail and accuracy; it doesn't inject spin into its stories; it would rather be right than be first. So how come the Financial Times is the only paper that I know of to have covered one of the hottest stories on the go? This story is about an investigation being carried out by the New York Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into what appears to be widespread corporate fraud. Admittedly, the nature of this fraud is complicated. It involves allegations that a large number of companies have been lying to the SEC and to their shareholders. The specific, alleged lying comes in the form of what could be called post-dated, secret, payments to corporate executives. As is standard practice, the CEOs and other senior executives of these companies, are awarded "options," that is, the chance to buy hunks of company stock at reduced prices.

Immigrants and the Importance of English Traci Hong understands the frustrations and ambitions of immigrants. Hong, an immigration advocate who herself emigrated as a child from South Korea, says proposals to make English the official language are misguided. Hong, the head of the immigration program at the Asian American Justice Center, was 10 years old when her family came to the United States. She spoke no English when her family arrived, and her parents insisted that only Korean be spoken at home. "They had a lot of faith in me, I guess, that when I went to school I would pick up English," Hong says. "And this way I would be completely bilingual. And they were absolutely right."

Religious Right Seeks Unprecedented Constitutional Convention To Ban Gay Marriage Without Congress Earlier this month, efforts to ban gay marriage by amending the Constitution failed badly in Senate. Now the religious right is considering appealing to state legislatures to call a Constitutional Convention under an obscure provision of Article 5 that would allow amendments to the Constitution without congressional approval. States are moving to give their votes to the popular-vote winner, regardless of who won their state. States are moving to give their votes to the popular-vote winner, regardless of who won their state.

Girls can marry at 15, Colo. court finds A 15-year-old girl can enter into a common-law marriage in Colorado, and younger girls and boys possibly can, too, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

Foul! Adidas, Fila Exploiting Workers, Charges World Cup Report Major international footwear companies would be wise to pay as much attention to the plight of their workers as their marketing campaigns during the World Cup, said the international human rights group Oxfam, which ranked each of the world's major sportswear companies for a new report, ''Offside! Labor Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia.'' According to Oxfam, workers making clothes, shoes, and other goods for global sports brands have been dismissed or threatened with violence when they have organized unions to lobby for better pay and conditions. The report said a majority of Asian sportswear workers are women from poor communities, many supporting children and families.

Apple reacts to sweatshop allegation Yesterday, I lamented about the unsettling report charging that Apple’s iPods were being manufactured in sweatshops. If it is true, it would force me to boycott a company that has been a fundamental part of my life for two decades.

Medicare Part D Plans Significantly Raised Drug Prices Since Program Began The Bush Administration and Congressional leaders have recently and repeatedly claimed that private Medicare Part D plans are succeeding in cutting drug prices for America’s seniors. To test this claim, Families USA will release the first in-depth review of what has happened to drug prices charged by private Medicare plans since enrollment began in Part D. The report will be released at the National Press Club on Thursday, June 22nd at 12:00 Noon.

Poland: Official Homophobia Threatens Basic Freedoms Recent threats by Polish officials against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and organizations threaten everyone’s basic freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Prime Minister Kasimierz Marcinkiewicz.

Zarqawi: the demise of Al Qaeda's feared top man in Iraq Al Qaeda frontman Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, whose death was announced on Thursday, was one of the world's most wanted men who for years evaded capture both in Iraq and his homeland Jordan. The fugitive Islamist topped a US most-wanted list in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's downfall in April 2003, and long remained elusive despite a huge reward and relentless military pressure. US military leaders repeatedly described him and Al Qaeda as the biggest obstacle to peace - and their biggest enemy - in Iraq. Zarqawi's ruthlessness in fighting the Americans in Iraq brought him fame that at times has rivaled Osama Bin Laden's as public enemy number one in the United States' war on terror. The 39-year-old militant, who helped introduced gruesome tactics like beheadings and suicide bombings in Iraq, last appeared in an Internet video in April vowing to defeat the United States and "chase" America out of Iraq "defeated and humiliated."

Report Cites 'Failures' of Emergency Response in Reporter's Death Firefighters, ambulance technicians, police officers and the nurses and doctors at a Washington hospital committed "multiple individual failures" in responding to the ultimately fatal beating of a journalist near his home last January, an official inquiry concluded today.In a report that raised serious questions about emergency medical treatment in the nation's capital, the District of Columbia's inspector general said the initial response to the attack upon David E. Rosenbaum, a retired New York Times reporter, suggested "alarming levels of complacency and indifference."

New Bush policy adviser said he'd support jail for doctors who performed abortions On a PBS program aired this weekend and taped in April, new Bush domestic policy adviser Karl Zinsmeister told the host that he would personally support doctors being jailed for performing abortions.

Pentagon confirms Iranian directorate as officials raise new concerns about war Current military and former intelligence officials remain concerned about a US-led strike on Iran, despite the recent appearance of diplomacy on the part of the US State Department and the offer of an incentives package to Iran. Officials point to new developments, such as a recent meeting in Rome between an Iranian arms dealer and controversial neoconservative Michael Ledeen and the March creation of the Iranian directorate inside the Pentagon, as examples of recent events similar to the lead up with war in Iraq.

Ethics Liquidators by Mark Fiore

Millions of People Die Annually from Preventable Environmental Causes Filthy drinking water, mosquitoes and other avoidable menaces kill 13 million people a year, the World Health Organization said Friday. The threat from poorly controlled contact with surroundings is especially lethal to children, Geneva-based WHO said in a 104-page report called "Preventing Disease through Healthy Environments." While 24 percent of the diseases affecting the general population result from exposure to threats in the environment, the figure rises to more than 33 percent for children, it said.

Knives, rifles and a whip. Are Bush's gift-givers trying to say something? A braided leather whip, a sniper rifle, six jars of fertiliser and a copy of the Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook were among the presents foreign leaders have given George Bush. They are clearly trying to tell him something.The inventory of official gifts from 2004, published this week by the state department, reads like the wish list of the sort of paranoid survivalist who holes up in his log cabin to await Armageddon, having long ago severed all ties with the rest of the world.

Ending Uganda's cycle of slavery and revenge I spent the past week in northern Uganda. I am conducting field research and interviews for a book I am writing on human slavery. I hope to be one of many to raise awareness of this tragic epidemic. Criminal activity currently enslaves 27 million people globally, half of which are children under the age of 18, and the trade generates an estimated $13 billion dollars annually. Slavery takes a tragic twist in Uganda. Children are abducted and forced to serve in a rebel group calling itself the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA has snatched up as many as 40,000 children over its 20-year existence.

Bad Day... It’s been a horrible day. We woke up to unbearable heat. Our area averages about 4 hours electricity daily and the rest is generator electricity, which means we can use our ceiling fans, but there’s no way we can use air conditioners. We woke up to an ominous silence- an indicator that the generator isn’t working. E. went next door to check and got a confirmation. It might not work all day. The neighbor responsible for it was going to bring by the ‘generator doctor’ as soon as he was free. The electricity came at 6 pm for only twenty minutes- as if to taunt us. The moment the lights flickered on, we were gathered in the kitchen and we could hear the neighborhood children began to hoot and holler with joy. Before that, we heard the news about the dozens abducted from the Salhiya area in Baghdad. Salhiya is a busy area where many travel agencies have offices. It has been particularly busy since the war because people who want to leave to Jordan and Syria all make their reservations from one office or another in that area.

I Gotta' Plan by Mark Fiore

Thawing Permafrost Could Unleash Tons of Carbon Ancient roots and bones locked in long-frozen soil in Siberia are starting to thaw, and have the potential to unleash billions of tons of carbon and accelerate global warming, scientists said Thursday. This vast carbon reservoir, contained in permafrost soil in northeastern Siberia, contains about 75 times more carbon than the amount released into the atmosphere each year by the burning of fossil fuels, the researchers said in a statement. Siberia isn't the only place on Earth with massive lodes of permafrost -- parts of Alaska, Canada and northern Europe have them too. The Siberian area is possibly the world's largest, covering nearly 400,000 square miles, with an average depth of 82 feet, and probably holds about 500 billion metric tons of carbon.

Stolen for Steel: Tata Takes Tribal Lands in India Barely two days later, an agitated band of tribal villagers did just that. Hundreds of Ho men, women, and children from the Kalinganagar Industrial Estate about 100 miles from Puri arrived at the site of Tata Steel’s proposed 6 million ton a year steel plant. They demanded that work stop until those already evicted by this and other projects in the area were adequately rehabilitated. Police retribution was swift and bloody: 37 injured and 13 dead, including 8 men, 3 women one 13-year old boy – all tribal – and one policeman. Condemned as one of post-independence India’s worst incidents of state excess against indigenous peoples, the events of January 2 also trashed the image of Tata Steel and threatened its plans to help boost India’s projected annual steel consumption of 100 million tons by 2020. Tata Steel spokesperson Sanjay Choudhry downplayed violence as “A stray incident [that] should not derail a good thing.”

Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation president, answers questions Labor Gains Last week, Carl Pope, head of the Sierra Club, and Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers (USW) union, announced the formation of the Blue/Green Alliance, linking the nation's biggest industrial labor union with the nation's largest environmental organization. Their motto: "Good jobs, a clean environment, and a safer world."

Multiple bombings rock Thai peace plan The unprecedented scale of Thursday's attacks - at least 40 simultaneous explosions - in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south marks another dangerous escalation of a conflict that the politicians are struggling to address.

Bangladesh: Investigate Attacks on Media Authorities in Bangladesh must promptly and impartially investigate and prosecute violent attacks against journalists last week by supporters of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Human Rights Watch said today. Nine days after the attacks, the police have made no arrests and a local newspaper remains closed.

Algeria: Press Freedom at Risk Despite Release of Editor Despite the welcome release from prison expected today for newspaper director Mohamed Benchicou, critics of Algeria’s government continue to risk reprisal in the form of a barrage of defamation suits and, on occasion, dubious criminal charges, Human Rights Watch said today.

State Department on Suicide as a 'Good P.R. Move' That a State Department official called the suicide deaths of three prisoners at Guantanamo Bay "a good P.R. move" is bad enough. But here's the kicker: that official, Colleen Graffy, is the deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy. "Taking their own lives was not necessary, but it certainly is a good P.R. move," Graffy said of the deaths. Drawing on knowledge gleaned from work "on improving the United States' image abroad, especially in Islamic countries" (a detail The New York Times pulled from her State Department bio), Graffy elaborated on her remarks on the BBC show "Newshour": “It does sound like this is part of a strategy--in that they don't value their own lives, and they certainly don't value ours; and they use suicide bombings as a tactic."

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force today announced the launch of the largest-ever study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Americans. The study, conducted by the Task Force Policy Institute in collaboration with API organizations in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C., seeks at least 500 participants to complete an online survey. The confidential and anonymous survey is available in four languages: English, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. The survey is available at www.thetaskforce.org/apisurvey.

Debating A Pathological Liar on CNBC There are a bunch of desperate lies in just this one exchange. There is the sky-is-not-blue lie about the minimum wage supposedly hurting job growth (a lie) and hurting low-income workers (a blatant lie). Then, cornered, Stossel tries to change the subject. When he can't, he resorts to another lie, claiming I have written something on his Amazon page (I did proudly call him a pathological liar on the Huffington Post, but not on his Amazon page - you can check here).

Crisis in Sudan Audio Slide Show On the Ground in Darfur An audio slide show depicting refugees at two of Darfur's displacement camps caught in the middle of a three-year conflict between Sudan's government and rebel forces.

Turkey: Anti-Terror Law Used Against Peaceful Activists The trial tomorrow of three Kurdish activists on anti-terrorism charges after they attempted to stage a peaceful protest near the Iraq border calls into question the Turkish leadership’s commitment to human rights reforms, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Democratic Leader Lays Out Party Agenda If they retake control of Congress, Democrats will act quickly to increase the minimum wage, lower prescription drug costs and slash interest rates on student loans, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Saturday. The ideas are part of the Democrats' new domestic agenda, named ``New Direction for America,'' which the party rolled out during the past week. Pelosi, D-Calif., used the party's Saturday radio address to promote the plan. ``A new direction means expanding access to affordable health care for Americans. We will begin by lowering the cost of prescription drugs by putting seniors ahead of pharmaceutical companies and HMOs,'' Pelosi said.

After a decade of fighting, Nepal's Maoist rebels embrace government In a historic move, Nepal's government yesterday agreed to dissolve parliament and form a temporary coalition with Maoist rebels who have been waging an insurgency in the Himalayan kingdom for the past decade. The Maoists will also dissolve a rival "people's government" operating in the areas they control.

“Godless”

2006-06-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

"[The book is titled] Godless, which liberals don't mind. I mean, no one's complained about it. I think that if somebody told me Godless I'd take notice of it. They're obsessed with this one section of one chapter. But the point of the book is that liberalism has become like a religion, all the bad things associated with religions which I don't think you see that much from the God-based religions, by the way. The self righteousness, the intolerance, the refusal to Calvin's differing beliefs... They promote themselves through the schools through the government, the children are baptized in the religion of global warming, of recycling and safe-sex but you can't even have a moment of silence. That is preferring one religion over another and they advance themselves by denying their own religion."
-Ann Coulter

An individual whose views we felt would have little influence over the mainstream American wrote a book that stands on the top of the New York Times best seller's list. Ann Coulter received encouraging applause from Leno guests, who were literally yelping at her for more. Coulter's book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism," is an attack on the ideals of liberalism. However, instead of rejecting the book outright, I feel that we need to take the threat very seriously. Ann Coulter thinks that we cannot accept religion. In reality, we embrace it, for if we do not, we will be just as intolerant as extremists on the far-right who believe that they and nobody else have the answers.

It is not enough for us to ignore Ann Coulter. We now believe that her beliefs will not spread from heart to heart in this nation, but Senator John Kerry believed that if he did not reply to the Swiftboat Veterans accusations that they would go away and would not influence the average American. Senator Kerry's silence resulted in the loss of the 2004 election. Our silence concerning Ann Coulter's book and will ring over Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for freedom, justice and equality. Now is not the time to stand down: it is not the time to be silenced.

However, criticizing Ann Coulter's words will never allow us to achieve our goals: it is time to forge our own agenda in order to empower people behind what we stand for, which is anything but Godless. Though I did write a parody song about Ann Coulter after the story broke, the time for joking and parody is over. We must take seriously not only Ann Coulter's words, but our own calling and obligation to better this world for all of humanity.

Ann Coulter made a good point, that the media is obsessed with her chapter on the 9/11 widows but ignores every other aspect of the book, including the title. However, the media is not liberal: the media often focuses on one story for days at a time, such as with the Howard Dean scream, Cheney's hunting accident, and countless other examples. Focusing on that nasty quote provides the cable news stations with ratings, all while the genocide in Darfur and other important humanitarian issues are being ignored. It is the job of the media to sell talking points and shape the agenda through appealing to a wide audience, not just liberals. The media may not focusing on the title of her book, but many liberal’s sure are.

Individual spirituality cannot be judged or determined by what one says. True faith rests in one’s selfless deeds and actions towards the betterment of humanity. Following God does not only pertain to helping those who are less fortunate than us: it means giving them the dignity and respect that they deserve, that they have never been allowed to possess before. It means making certain that the environment that sustains us is preserved for generations to come. It means not discriminating against someone just because they are of a different race, religion or gender. And it means spreading love and kindness through teachings, not through warfare and the barrel of a gun.

This is not to say that the liberal base does not have its problems: there are people who do not follow these tenants, who scream and hate just as loudly as extremists on the right. We must not allow our anger and resentment to overshadow the importance of our social justice causes. Instead, we must embrace those who have great conviction and faith, and believe strongly in a higher calling.

I believe that there is a God, but not a God that polarizes and separates people, not a God that allows It’s followers to distain human rights and treat ‘the other’ as inferior, not a God that ignores science and preaches fiction over fact or war over peace. We must pull together as humanity to put an end to the suffering, devastation and violence we inflict upon one another, beliefs that are not created through the hand of God but from the sword held in the overpowering hand of inhumanity. Righteousness will never come through war, discrimination, and ignorance, but from our hearts and the compassion we have for one another, as Senator Robert F. Kennedy pointed out in the speech he presented after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.

The word God is presently being abused by politicians: it is presented as a hollow word without meaning or content. These words are Godless and are used to rally support but not to change the world for the better. The words of prophets are being drowned out by words of politicians seeking re-election, and the debate shifts from “we should help the poor, end the war in Iraq, preserve the environment, end racism and discrimination, and help future generations,” to, “we need to put the Ten Commandments in a federal court house, give tax cuts to the rich, teach creationism in schools and ban gay marriage.” Religious people with true faith respect other faiths and help other human beings; preaching through example, not through bullying and self-righteousness.

Comedian Bill Maher pointed out that “If you believe Jesus ever had a good word for war, or torture, or tax cuts for the rich, or raping the earth, or refusing water to dying migrants, than you might as well believe that bunnies lay painted eggs.” Just because somebody is not Christian does not mean that they are Godless, and it does not mean that they cannot respect the true teachings of Jesus or other prophets. People of faith must reach out to those who may not share their faith but share their goals. There is common ground and we must stand side by side to achieve them. Especially in communities of faith, reaching out to people with differing faiths will forge unbreakable bonds as we march through the streets demanding justice, equality, dignity and compassion.

The Rabbi at my temple, Rabbi Allen Maller, for example, recognized that those of faith must unify, and must not create division between each other. This is why he formed a collation with thirty local religious groups, realizing that despite their differences, they were all trying to do good and all posses attributes that will benefit humanity. At his retirement ceremony, the rabbi was honored with huge applause from just about everybody in the congregation for this noble act. Rather than dividing people based on religion as Coulter is trying to do by calling liberals “Godless,” Rabbi Allen Maller attempted to unite people of all faiths, no matter their political stances or religious views, to better humanity through their faith. He did not ask for his own religious beliefs to be perceived as absolute truth, and reached out to other faiths so that he could increase his tolerance and wisdom though alliances. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I am a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew,” recognizing that only if we are united can we beat our swords and weapons into plowshares and sew the seeds of justice in drought-infested lands.

As liberals we must not shy away from creating alliances with people of faith. Though some liberals may have different beliefs than people of faith, many of us share common objectives and dreams. Ann Coulter’s point about liberals being “Godless” should be taken seriously. It is not that liberals are Godless: the opposite is true in the majority of cases. However, the point that someone is painting us as something we are not should not belittle us: it should strengthen out will to use our actions and words to stand up for what is right. The people of America will only take us seriously when we stop this bickering and unite, confronting the trials and hardships plaguing humanity knowing that our actions will serve a higher purpose.

News Report May 23, 2006

2006-05-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

God Save The Internet Three singer/songwriters met at a Los Angeles recovery center for those suffering from internet-related anger issues. How could Congress vote to destroy one of the only good things left in America? This made no sense! How could so few people be enraged? What were people doing to keep network neutrality the law of the land? They realized that they had found kindred spirits in one another and needed to work through their newfound political rage. Their counselor suggested that they could channel their frustration through song, interpretative dance, screaming or simply calling Congress over and over. When they discovered that Michelle was afraid of morons, they decided to just do the singing part. And thus The BroadBand was born.God Save the Internet is their first outing. It will soon be sweeping the nation.

Funds for Iraq run low Time and money are running out on the US-directed reconstruction effort in Iraq. The main conduit for American rebuilding aid - the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) - is scheduled to close at the end of this year. Almost all the cash Congress has allocated for the fund, some $20 billion in all, has been spent, or will be, in coming months.Yet many important efforts remain unfinished, for reasons ranging from insurgent attacks to incompetence and contractor corruption. More than 75 percent of oil and gas restoration projects are incomplete, as are 50 percent of electrical and 40 percent of water and sanitation projects, according to the April report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.The bottom line: Iraqis are facing what US officials call a "reconstruction gap" as they assume responsibility for rebuilding. Meeting already-identified needs might require a further $18 billion to $28 billion, according to one estimate.

Viewpoint: Banning Baghdad falafel Recent news reports from the Iraqi capital indicate that radical Islamists are launching a campaign to prohibit the sale of ... falafel. Yes, you heard right, falafel. While this is the sort of news you might expect to hear from a late night stand-up comedian on television, sadly, this is not a joke, and a number of falafel vendors who failed to heed the warnings have paid with their lives. Several vendors of the popular deep-fried chickpea sandwich were told they had just two weeks to change their profession or face death. And indeed, several vendors where shot and killed simply for selling falafel sandwiches. The logic offered by the religious zealots - if there is any - in imposing this inane diktat on the people is that there were no falafels in the time of the Prophet Mohammed. Indeed there were no falafels in ancient Arabia. However, it might be worth pointing out to these same zealots - preferably with much tact - that in the days of the prophet there were no Kalashnikov automatic rifles with which to shoot those who did not follow orders.

Secretive Arms Exports Stoking Conflict and Repression China is fast emerging as one of the world's biggest, most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters, according to a new report issued today by Amnesty International.The report shows how Chinese weapons have helped sustain brutal conflicts, criminal violence and other grave human rights violations in countries such as Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar and South Africa. It also reveals the possible involvement of Western companies in the manufacture of some of these weapons."China describes its approach to arms export licensing as `cautious and responsible`, yet the reality couldn't be further from the truth. China is the only major arms exporting power that has not signed up to any multilateral agreements with criteria to prevent arms exports likely to be used for serious human rights violations," said Helen Hughes, Amnesty International's arms control researcher.China's arms exports, estimated to be in excess of US$1 billion a year, often involve the exchange of weapons for raw materials to fuel the country's rapid economic growth. But it is a trade shrouded in secrecy; Beijing does not publish any information about arms transfers abroad and hasn't submitted any data to the UN Register on Conventional Arms in the last eight years.Amnesty Internationals report, China: Sustaining conflict and human rights abuses, includes several examples of irresponsible Chinese arms exports.

Larry Scott: Dems outraged over closed door meeting at VA Larry Scott of VAWatchdog wrote this week, noting that democrats are outraged that VA Secretary Nicholson held a closed door meeting with Republican congressmen on the VA data theft issue.

Scientists Urge G8 Not to Ignore Global WarmingWorld leaders must not allow concern for energy security to distract them from taking promised action on global warming, top world scientists said on Wednesday. Climate change solutions agreed at the G8 summit in Scotland a year ago risked being pushed off the agenda at next month's G8 summit in Russia by worries about security of energy supply, they said. "One year on from the UK Gleneagles Summit, where the G8 committed to taking action on climate change, this crucial issue must not be allowed to fall by the wayside," said Martin Rees, president of the UK's Royal Society. Rees is a signatory to the statement from the science academies of the G8 and China, Brazil, India and South Africa. "The G8 must demonstrate that this was a serious pledge by integrating climate concerns with their discussions regarding security of supply," he said.

Save Darfur A video from the Darfur Rally. Also, Senator Obama and Al Sharpton

World Cup Statistics As the World Cup gets underway, no red cards are being handed out for the many women and girls being stalked, raped, sexually abused and harassed, trafficked for sexual exploitation, beaten or killed.

Paper: Rumsfeld expels US media from Guantanamo Bay The United States military has ordered all independent media off the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base following the suicides of three detainees, RAW STORY has learned.Writing for the Miami Herald, journalist Carol Rosenberg stated Wednesday morning that the military had "ordered all independent news media off the base by 10 a.m. Wednesday, and had arranged a flight to Miami to expedite their departure."

The Latest Cover-Up Fast-forward to November 19, 2005, al-Haditha, Anbar Province, Iraq. Shortly after a U.S. Marine was killed by an IED in this western Iraqi town that day, it is alleged that other Marines in his unit entered two homes in that village where they then went on a killing spree resulting in the deaths of 24, unarmed Iraqi civilians, with the youngest victim being just two years old. The Marines initially reported that “only” 15 civilians had died in the incident, but only as a result of the IED that killed the Marine. When that didn’t fly, they amended their report to say that what they actually meant was that the Iraqis had died in a gun battle with Marines directly after the IED explosion. As their noses grew even longer, the lying, CYA group of protect-my-job-at-all-costs crew of senior commissioned Marine Corps officers, were finally forced to admit that there may actually be some serious wrong doing involved here.

Videotapes and liberator's justice in Haditha Just a week ago, the Bush administration was bracing itself for the worst. After six months of covering up the Haditha massacre, the time had come to face another public audit of the conduct of American occupation forces in Iraq. Once again, as in Abu Ghraib, the real culprit was a camera. American eyes are not supposed to see this sort of thing lest it disturb their inner harmony. The folks back home live under the comfortable illusion that their armed forces are busy fighting the 'bad guys,' promoting democracy, setting up school playgrounds and passing out candy to street urchins. Don't expect the average American to dwell - let alone show empathy - for the traumatized Iraqi survivors in Haditha. Just because the majority of Americans are now against the invasion doesn't mean that they're paying attention to the details. In this most sanitized of wars, they rarely get a look at their own dead and wounded. For most, the whole sordid Iraqi affair is no more than background noise. Half of them still can't place Iraq on the map and there is a significant minority that still believes that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

Murtha Fights Back

War on terror called failure Washington is failing to make progress in the global war on terror and the next 9/11-style attack is not a question of if, but when. That is the scathing conclusion of a survey of 100 leading American foreign-policy analysts. In its first "Terrorism Index," released yesterday, the influential journal Foreign Affairs found surprising consensus among the bipartisan experts. Some 86 per cent of them said the world has grown more, not less, dangerous, despite President George W. Bush's claims that the U.S. is winning the war on terror. The main reasons for the decline in security, they said, were the war in Iraq, the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, U.S. policy towards Iran and U.S. energy policy. The survey's participants included an ex-secretary of state and former heads of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, along with prominent members of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment. The majority served in previous administrations or in senior military ranks.

Sudan: Divide and Destroy in Darfur Khartoum's divide and destroy strategy will continue to splinter Darfur along ethnic lines, use proxies like the Janjaweed and dissident rebels to sow intercommunal conflict, and buy off politicians to keep Darfur from developing as a region. This is the same tactic the ruling party is pursuing in post-conflict southern Sudan: maintain a strong center that controls security and most of the oil revenue and leave peripheral areas weak, divided and underdeveloped, unable to mount an effective challenge, whether armed or electoral. The Darfur Peace Agreement suffers from the same systemic flaw as the deal brokered for southern Sudan, the ironically named Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Neither deal is in fact comprehensive, but instead address Sudan's problems region by region, just as the ruling party's divide and destroy strategy requires. Despite all having the same grievances, southerners, westerners and easterners are all left to fight over scraps, while the real power in the center remains largely intact in the hands of the ruling National Congress Party. Left unchecked, ruling party officials will continue to use militias to destabilize parts of the country prone to opposition, and will continue to support rebels in neighboring countries deemed unfriendly, as they do now in Chad, Uganda and Eritrea.

‘Tens of Thousands’ of Somalians Demonstrate Against U.S. Support for Militias Last month, the Washington Post reported the Bush administration was “secretly supporting secular warlords” in Somalia “who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.” Some of these warlords reportedly “fought against the United States in 1993 during street battles that culminated in an attack that downed two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and left 18 Army Rangers dead.”
U.S. support for these militias upset the Somali prime minister, who said, “We would prefer that the U.S. work with the transitional government and not with criminals. … This is a dangerous game. Somalia is not a stable place and we want the U.S. in Somalia. But in a more constructive way.”

Graphic photographs show bodies of civilians killed in Ishaqi, Iraq Photographs taken by Agence France Presse but not distributed by major US media outlets show the bodies of Iraqi civilians killed in March in a home in Ishaqi, Iraq. Those photographs -- may of which are graphic and show the decaying bodies of children, some of them babies -- are displayed below.

Conservative Lawmakers Shaft Mine Safety ::: 31 coal miners have died on job this year, compared with 22 deaths in all of 2005. The House is set to take up the Senate-passed mine safety bill, but conservative lawmakers are resisting inserting three amendments offered by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) that would strengthen workplace safety for miners.

Dissident Darfur rebels say they will sign AU peace deal Dissident Darfur rebels said on Friday that they would sign an African Union (AU)-mediated peace deal for the troubled western Sudanese region and urged holdouts to join them. Despite missing a Wednesday midnight deadline to agree to the pact or face possible sanctions, they said that the AU was preparing an annex to the May 5 accord for them, and hopefully other groups, to ink in the coming days. The rebels who claim to represent splinter factions of the two groups - a wing of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - that have thus far rejected the deal, said that they were only interested in peace. "We are all Darfurians, so we are calling on all the rebel leaders to come and join the peace process to stop the suffering," Abdul Majid Hassan of the JEM-Aburisha faction told reporters at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.

A defiant Chertoff won't budge Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was defiant yesterday despite a blistering onslaught of criticism over his order to slash New York City's counterterrorism cash almost in half.
"I will tell you that when people threaten me or yell at me, that's not going to make me change my mind," Chertoff told the Daily News. The attacks on Chertoff for cutting federal grants to New York City by 40% this year were led by fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill who preside over committees overseeing Chertoff's cabinet agency. He insisted that pressure from GOP leaders and the entire New York delegation won't sway him to restore $80 million cut from the high-threat urban area security grants awarded to the city this year.

Was the 2004 Election Stolen? But what is most anomalous about the irregularities in 2004 was their decidedly partisan bent: Almost without exception they hurt John Kerry and benefited George Bush. After carefully examining the evidence, I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004. Across the country, Republican election officials and party stalwarts employed a wide range of illegal and unethical tactics to fix the election. A review of the available data reveals that in Ohio alone, at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted in 2004(12) -- more than enough to shift the results of an election decided by 118,601 votes.(13) (See Ohio's Missing Votes) In what may be the single most astounding fact from the election, one in every four Ohio citizens who registered to vote in 2004 showed up at the polls only to discover that they were not listed on the rolls, thanks to GOP efforts to stem the unprecedented flood of Democrats eager to cast ballots.(14) And that doesn?t even take into account the troubling evidence of outright fraud, which indicates that upwards of 80,000 votes for Kerry were counted instead for Bush. That alone is a swing of more than 160,000 votes -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.(15)

Feds to NY: Drop Dead Reaction to the news that the federal Department of Homeland Security will reduce anti-terrorist funds to New York City by 40 percent this year has provoked unsurprising outrage by local public officials and press. An editorial in the Daily News (which paraphrases its most famous headline in its news article, Feds To City: Drop Dead) calls for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to be fired, and both it and an editorial in the New York Post ridicule the reasons for the reduction, including the alleged lack of “national monuments and icons” in the city.

‘We Remember’ : A Poem written In Honor of the Victims of Murambatsvina May 2005 we remember2005 May we remember May 2005 we reflect We remember the razing and ravaging of homes We reminisce on how poverty was criminalized We reflect on how the poor were brutalized Displaced, dislocated, dislodged, dismembered Destroyed, devastated, damaged, defaced Dehumanized, demonized, deflowered, demoralized All because of “madisnyongoro”

Patriot Guard Riders- Thank you for standing up and protecting the fallen. Funerals are no place for protests, especially ones where gay-bashers hold up offensive signs.

Who Killed the Elecrtic Car?

Kabul Riot Growing Massive I'm not sure what the US traditional news is reporting within the US on the riot in Afghanistan other than its cause was a traffic accident when a US vehicle lost its brakes. Over here we are getting more news.After the accident, US soldiers opened fire into the crowd killing at least 5 people and injuring 60 others. According to Al Jazeera and other papers the protesters have burst into the building of the Parliament in the capital. The US embassy in Kabul has been evacuated. Gunfire has broken out throughout the city, and two police cars and a checkpoint have been torched. And this is our success story.

Fox News: ‘Al Gore’s Global Warming Movie: Could It Destroy Our Economy?’ This weekend on Fox News, host David Asman asked his guests to discuss the following question: “If people buy into [Al Gore’s] global warming hysteria, will it put him in the White House and our economy on the skids?” Steve Forbes answered yes, and called Gore’s new movie “a real recipe for more socialist regulation."

Gore's Film Smeared by Exxon Loyalist Sterling Burnett, a man who works for an organization which takes huge amounts of money from Exxon Mobile went on "Dayside" today to smear Al Gore. These people are beyond shameless. He compared Gore and his new film, "An Inconvenient Truth" to the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

O'Reilly And Malkin Misinterpret California Bill About Gays In School Curriculum A California Bill requiring inclusion of contributions made by Gay,transgender and transexual people in history textbooks passed a Senate Education Committee hearing . Michelle Malkin and Kirsten Powers were on hand to discuss the law with O'Reilly and all three did their part to confuse viewers by distorting the facts surrounding the law. 5/8/06. Malkin called the Bill radical and dangerous claiming that teachers would not be allowed to say anything negative about any historical figure if they were gay. O'Reilly carried it to his usual extreme asking, " Teachers can't say anything about Jeffrey Dahmer? He's a gay cannibal!" Then he called it " a form of Fascism". Malkin claimed that students and parents were holding protests to keep it from passing into law.

Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down. At ground level, Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.

Egyptian authorities go after bloggers As internationally acclaimed blogger Alaa, of www.manalaa.net, sits in prison waiting to be released, bloggers in Egypt have begun a new campaign to educate Egyptians and the entire world on the situation facing Egyptian bloggers. "Blogs reflect who we are as people and as we get more active it shows in our blogs." Manal, the other half of manalaa.net and Alaa's wife, tells the Middle East Times. "Lots of bloggers find freedom of expression attainable with blogs," she adds.

Governments Have Failed to Stop Overfishing, Study Shows Governments worldwide have failed to prevent overfishing in the oceans, where a proliferation of bottom-trawling threatens to wipe out deep sea species, conservation groups WWF and Traffic said on Friday. The environmentalists said the existing system of regional fisheries regulation, meant to control the depletion of ocean life, had responded slowly to new threats and done little to enforce fishing quotas or rebuild vulnerable stocks. Their report, released ahead of a New York meeting on the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, argued that controls needed to be reinforced to prevent further damage to marine ecosystems and future food supplies.