repubs nix abramoff inquiry

of course. we know what they're afraid of.

link

boy emperor alludes to "global war"

a telling allusion. but congress didn't declare a global war. the country didn't sign up for a global war. we don't have the manpower or the money to fight a global war. the boy emperor seems determined to steer the ship of state straight onto the rocks.

link White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Joshua Bolten, President Bush announced today amid growing calls for a White House shakeup and Republican concern about Bush's tumbling poll ratings.

Mr. Bush announced the changes in a nationally broadcast appearance in the Oval Office.

"I have relied on Andy's wise counsel, his calm in crisis, his absolute integrity and his tireless commitment to public service," Mr. Bush said. "The next three years will demand much of those who serve our country. We have a global war to fight and win."
...

scalia gives "the finger" to reporter

scalia once again shows the caliber of his intellect... time for this right-wing prick to resign. he's an embarrassment to the court.

Scalia has hand gesture for critics

BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by making a hand gesture some consider obscene.

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."
...

poll: bin laden capture would be useless

that's right. so why did Bush waste billions of dollars and thousands of lives to invade afghanistan?? it was stupid.

Bin Laden Capture Would Do Little, Say Americans
March 26, 2006

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Few adults in the United States believe the eventual detention of the leader of al-Qaeda would not be particularly beneficial, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. Only 37 per cent of respondents think the U.S. would be safer if Osama bin Laden is captured or killed.

Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. In July 2004, the federal commission that investigated the events of 9/11 concluded that "none of the measures adopted by the U.S. government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al-Qaeda plot" and pointed out government failures of "imagination, policy, capabilities, and management."
...

Polling Data

Do you think the U.S. would be safer if Osama bin Laden is captured or killed?

Yes 37%
No 47%

Do you think Osama bin Laden is alive?

Yes 80%
No 7%

Source: Rasmussen Reports
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 American adults, conducted on Mar. 17 and Mar. 18, 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

scalia trash talks detainee rights

he hasn't even heard the case yet, but he's already mouthing off. and the strongest argument he can come up with is ``Give me a break.'' how in the world did this fool get on the supreme court?! he deserves a break, all right - like permanently, as in retirement.

Supreme Court: Detainees' Rights—Scalia Speaks His Mind

April 3, 2006 issue - The Supreme Court this week will hear arguments in a big case: whether to allow the Bush administration to try Guantánamo detainees in special military tribunals with limited rights for the accused. But Justice Antonin Scalia has already spoken his mind about some of the issues in the matter. During an unpublicized March 8 talk at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, Scalia dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions, adding he was "astounded" at the "hypocritical" reaction in Europe to Gitmo. "War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," he says on a tape of the talk reviewed by NEWSWEEK. "Give me a break."

Challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don't have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: "If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I'm not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it's crazy." Scalia was apparently referring to his son Matthew, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq. Scalia did say, though, that he was concerned "there may be no end to this war."

The comments provoked "quite an uproar," said Samantha Besson, a member of the Freiburg law faculty who had invited Scalia to give his talk, which was mostly about his "originalist" interpretation of the Constitution. This isn't the first time Scalia has commented on matters before the court: two years ago he recused himself from a Pledge of Allegiance case after making public comments about the matter. "This is clearly grounds for recusal," said Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a human-rights group that has filed a brief in behalf of the Gitmo detainees. "I can't recall an instance where I've heard a judge speak so openly about a case that's in front of him—without hearing the arguments." Other experts said it was a closer call. Scalia didn't refer directly to this week's case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, though issues at stake hinge in part on whether the detainees deserve legal protections that make the military tribunals unfair. "As these things mount, a legitimate question could be asked about whether he is compromising the credibility of the court," said Stephen Gillers, a legal-ethics expert.
...

child poisoned by reebok bracelet

Reebok recalls bracelets over lead poisoning
Thu Mar 23, 11:14 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Reebok International is recalling about 300,000 promotional bracelets after a child reportedly died of lead poisoning after swallowing one, U.S. authorities said on Thursday.

The eight-inch-long metal bracelets, with a heart-shaped charm with the name "Reebok" engraved on one side, were distributed as gifts with the purchase of various styles of children's footwear.

Reebok International was acquired by German sporting goods maker Adidas (ADSG.DE) earlier this year.

us war spending skyrockets

the war machine is insatiable, and with the chimp in charge, there's no restraint.

U.S. War Spending to Rise 44% to $9.8 Bn a Month, Report Says
Published on Friday, March 17, 2006 by Bloomberg.com
by Jeff Bliss

U.S. military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan will average 44 percent more in the current fiscal year than in fiscal 2005, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said.

Spending will rise to $9.8 billion a month from the $6.8 billion a month the Pentagon said it spent last year, the research service said. The group's March 10 report cites "substantial'' expenses to replace or repair damaged weapons, aircraft, vehicles, radios and spare parts.

It also figures in costs for health care, fuel, national intelligence and the training of Iraqi and Afghan security forces -- "now a substantial expense,'' it said.

The research service said it considers "all war and occupation costs,'' while the Pentagon counts just the cost of personnel, maintenance and operations.

The House approved emergency funding that includes the military spending last night by a vote of 348-71. The measure authorizes $72 billion for war costs and almost $20 billion for hurricane relief. The Senate is expected to pass it next month.

Congress already has approved $50 billion in supplemental war funding for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, after spending $100 billion last year. To date, Congress has approved about $337 billion for the wars since Sept. 11, 2001.

2007 Funding

The administration has said it also will seek $50 billion in war funding for fiscal 2007 to serve as a bridge fund until needs are assessed. That will be on top of the $439.3 billion defense budget the president submitted.

The request the House approved last night includes $67.6 billion for war operations, much of it in costs for personnel and repair and replacement of equipment; about $4.9 billion to train and equip Afghan and Iraqi security forces; and about $2 billion for defenses against roadside bombs, which have been a leading cause of death for U.S. servicemen in Iraq.
...

corp's stiff govt on fines

note the sharp increase in unpaid fines under the chimp administration.

Corporations Stiffing Government on Fines
By MARTHA MENDOZA and CHRISTOPHER SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 6 minutes ago

When a gasoline spill and fiery explosion killed three young people in Washington state, officials announced a record penalty against a gas pipeline company: $3 million to send the message that such tragedies "must never happen again."

When nuclear labs around the country were found exposing workers to radiation and breaking other safety rules, assessments totaling $2.5 million were quickly ordered.

When coal firms' violations were blamed for deaths, injuries and risks to miners from Alabama to West Virginia, they were slapped with more than $1.3 million in penalties.

What happened next with these no-nonsense enforcement efforts? Not much. The pipeline tab was eventually reduced by 92 percent, the labs' assessments were waived as soon as they were issued, and the mine penalties largely went unpaid.

The amount of unpaid federal fines has risen sharply in the last decade. Individuals and corporations regularly avoid large, highly publicized penalties for wrongdoing — sometimes through negotiations, sometimes because companies go bankrupt, sometimes due to officials' failure to keep close track of who owes what under a decentralized collection system.

These are conclusions of an Associated Press examination of federal financial penalty enforcement across the nation, which also found:

_The government is currently owed more than $35 billion in fines and other payments from criminals and in civil cases, according to Justice Department figures. This is almost five times the amount uncollected 10 years ago — and enough to cover the annual budget of the Department of
Homeland Security. A decade ago, Congress mandated that fines be imposed regardless of defendants' ability to pay, which has added tremendously to outstanding debt.

_In 2004, federal authorities ordered $7.8 billion in 98,985 fines, penalties and restitution demands in criminal and civil cases, but collected less than half of that.

_White-collar crime cases account for the largest amount of uncollected debt. In a study,
Government Accountability Office investigators found that just 7 percent of restitution in such cases is paid.
...

terror risks of nuke fuel

another myth from the nuclear industry, exploded.


Terror risks of nuclear fuel

By Mark Clayton, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Thu Mar 16, 3:00 AM ET

The Bush administration's plan to deploy a high-tech fuel to power a new generation of nuclear reactors worldwide has a potentially explosive problem:

It is too easy for terrorists to grab and turn it into a nuclear bomb.

That's the criticism expressed by nuclear scientists and in several little-known federal studies about the technology underlying the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, unveiled last month. Administration officials tout GNEP for technological breakthroughs that dramatically reduce the nuclear waste from civilian reactors and, at the same time, greatly reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation.

Using GNEP's new fuel technology, called UREX-Plus, the United States could safely end its three-decade moratorium on reprocessing spent nuclear fuel intended to keep plutonium from spreading, officials say. "The goal of GNEP is recovery of the energy in a way that doesn't promote weapons," Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman told a US Senate committee last month.

Knowledgeable critics have said from the outset that the new reactor fuel envisioned in GNEP is not so very hard to turn into bombs. But what has not been widely known is that their views are echoed by the US Department of Energy's own studies. According to a 2004 study conducted for an Energy Department blue-ribbon commission, for instance, the UREX-plus technology was only slightly more "proliferation resistant" - difficult to turn into bombs - than the PUREX process used by other nations. The US has often criticized PUREX for its vulnerability.

"The bottom line is that UREX-plus is not much more proliferation resistant - by their own estimates," says Henry Sokolski, former deputy for nonproliferation policy at the Defense Department in the first Bush administration.
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senate votes to raise debt limit

guess what, all that "shock and awe" stuff isn't free. every single one of us --- not just every taxpayer, but every man, woman, and child --- has in effect gone into debt to the tune of $30,000... and for what? and how can that chimp still be braying about tax cuts and fighting more preemptive wars?


Senate Votes to Raise Debt Limit
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
44 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Congress agreed to let the government borrow another $781 billion Thursday, allowing lawmakers and President Bush to pay for the war in Iraq and combat terrorism without raising taxes or cutting popular domestic programs.

The Senate, on a 52-48 vote, sent to President Bush a bill raising the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $9 trillion and preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes. When the government reaches the new ceiling, expected sometime next year, the debt will represent $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
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bush, in a word: incompetent

let's see how long it takes for "liar" to become #1.

Bush battered by US pessimism, leadership doubts
...

A majority of Americans, 56 percent, believe Bush is "out of touch," the poll found. When asked for a one-word description of Bush, the most frequent response was "incompetent," followed by "good," "idiot" and "liar." In February 2005, the most frequent reply was "honest."
...

A recent CBS poll found 66 percent of the public believed the country was headed down the wrong track, while a Harris Interactive poll put the number at 60 percent.
...

Independent pollster Dick Bennett of American Research Group said Bush's failure to acknowledge public anxieties added to his troubles.

"The biggest problem the White House faces is reconnecting with people. People simply aren't buying it anymore," Bennett said. "People can see for themselves that things actually are not fine."
...

mad cow: don't look, don't find

uh oh, we found another case of mad cow disease! i guess we're being too thorough!

U.S. plans to reduce mad cow testing
Wed, March 15, 2006
By AP

WASHINGTON -- Despite the confirmation of a third case of mad cow disease in the U.S., the American government intends to scale back testing for the brain-wasting disorder blamed for the deaths of more than 150 people in Europe.

The U.S. Agriculture Department boosted its surveillance after finding the first case of mad cow disease in the U.S. in 2003.

About 1,000 tests are run daily, up from about 55 daily in 2003.

The testing program detected an infected cow in Alabama last week and further analysis confirmed Monday the animal had mad cow disease.

Still, a reduction in testing has been in the works for months. The department's chief veterinarian, John Clifford, mentioned it when he announced the new case of mad cow disease.
...

Higher testing levels were intended to be temporary when they were announced two years ago.

Yet consumer groups argue more animals should be tested, not fewer.

Officials haven't finalized new levels but the department's budget proposal calls for 40,000 tests annually, or about 110 daily.

"This would be a tenth of a percent of all animals slaughtered," Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union, said yesterday. "This starts to be so small that in our opinion, it approaches a policy of don't look, don't find."

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin said the confidence of U.S. consumers and foreign customers is at risk if testing is reduced.

largest ak pipeline leak

Oil spill estimate increased for pipeline leak in Alaska
North Slope mishap among worst in system's three-decade history
Sam Howe Verhovek, Los Angeles Times
Saturday, March 11, 2006

Seattle -- Officials raised their estimate of the amount of oil leaked from a corroded pipeline at the northern tip of Alaska to at least 265,000 gallons Friday, making it the largest spill on record in the oil-rich North Slope field -- and one of the worst in the 29-year history of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system.

The report by Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation added grist to the debate over President Bush's push to drill for oil in the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; industry advocates say the drilling can be done with minimal ecological impact, but environmentalists contend it would threaten the fragile ecosystem.
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RIP tom fox

a true Christian martyr

RIP

immigration bill would restore h1b visas

so McNealy warns of a "great sucking" of innovation out of the country... but just how much credibility does his warning have, when McNealy and Sun have been "blowing" jobs out of the USA as fast as they could --- both during the tech boom and after; both before 9/11 and after; and regardless of whether the h1b quotas were high or low? McNealy and his ilk have been exporting the jobs out of the USA as fast as they can, and now they're crying crocodile tears that they can't simultaneously import more cheap labor to fill the few remaining jobs here. meanwhile, bemoaning the supposed lack of qualified applicants among US citizens. what a crock.

Immigration bill would add visas for tech workers
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, March 10, 2006

Buried in the Senate's giant immigration bill -- hardly noticed amid a fierce debate over a guest-worker program for unskilled laborers -- are provisions that would open the country's doors to highly skilled immigrants for science, math, technology and engineering jobs.

The provisions were sought by Silicon Valley tech companies and enjoy significant bipartisan support amid concern that the United States might lose its lead in technology. They would broaden avenues to legal immigration for foreign tech workers and would put those with advanced degrees on an automatic path to permanent residence should they want it.

The measures include nearly doubling the number of H-1B skilled-worker temporary visas to 115,000 -- with an option of raising the cap 20 percent more each year. H-1B visas were highly controversial in the Bay Area when their numbers reached a peak of 195,000 in 2003.
...

The provisions for highly skilled workers enjoy support in both parties in the Senate and in the Bush administration after a raft of high-profile studies have warned that the United States is not producing enough math and science students and is in danger of losing its global edge in innovation to India and China.

Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy echoed many in the tech industry at a conference in Washington on Wednesday when he warned that if skilled immigration is not expanded, "There will be a great sucking sound of innovation out of the U.S.''

Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr suggested at a technology summit last fall that the United States "should staple a green card to every kid, every foreign national that graduates with a degree in engineering and science, so that they stay here. Imagine innovation in America without Andy Grove, without Jerry Yang, without Sergey Brin -- Hungarian, Chinese, Russian. These immigrants have contributed enormously to innovation and our well-being."

But House Republicans are cool toward any increase in legal immigration, including skilled workers, and are at sharp odds with the White House. They passed a bill in December to crack down on border enforcement, calling for construction of a 700-mile fence on the border with Mexico.

House Republicans omitted skilled immigration from their "Innovation and Competitiveness Act," released with much pomp last week, prompting House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to blast the proposal as doing nothing "to ensure that the best and brightest from around the world are able to contribute to innovation in the United States."

Nor has Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, shown much enthusiasm for more skilled workers, preferring her own plan for a guest-worker program limited to agriculture. Feinstein questioned the tech proposals in an interview last week.

Her stance has angered California's high-tech business community. Industry officials said CEOs from California and across the country have pleaded with Feinstein to no avail. They complain that she is ignoring the technology industry, which they contend is vital to the state's economy, but is willing to provide amnesty to 900,000 Mexican farmworkers, most of whom work in California.

Opponents of broadening immigration for skilled workers said doing so would defeat efforts to get more Americans interested in science, math, engineering and other technological fields.

"It sends the message to students in those fields now, why bother if you're going to have a hard time getting a job in the U.S. because we're importing workers in those fields who are working for less than it would take to hire an American worker," said Caroline Espinosa, spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, a group opposed to expanding immigration.
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carter: israeli colonization an obstacle to peace

Colonization of Palestine Precludes Peace
Jimmy Carter
March 09, 2006

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter led The Carter Center/National Democratic Institute observation of the Palestinian elections in January.

For more than a quarter century, Israeli policy has been in conflict with that of the United States and the international community. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land, regardless of whether Palestinians had no formalized government, one headed by Yasir Arafat or Mahmoud Abbas, or with Abbas as president and Hamas controlling the parliament and cabinet.
...

warmer climate 'profoundly altering' arctic food chain

Warmer climate alters Arctic food chain
Researchers assess long-term impact
Robert Lee Hotz, Los Angeles Times
Friday, March 10, 2006

Whales, walruses, seabirds and fish are struggling to survive the changing climate of the Bering Sea, their northern feeding grounds perhaps permanently disrupted by higher temperatures and melting ice, scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science.

By pulling together a broad range of observations and surveys, an international research team concluded that they are witnessing the transformation of an entire ecosystem in a region home to almost half of all U.S. commercial fish production.

All in all, the researchers said, the Arctic climate of the northern Bering Sea is in full retreat, yielding to the sub-Arctic system of the south.

The changes are "profound" and perhaps irreversible, even if cold weather eventually returns, the researchers said.
...

... the local sea ice now melts three weeks earlier than in 1997, records of recent years show. Last year, Arctic ice retreated further than in 25 years of satellite monitoring.

"Here we put all the pieces of the puzzle together," Grebmeier said.

The researchers found that by 2002, Pacific gray whales were fleeing northward to feed in cooler currents, while pink salmon by the millions swarmed into warmer waters the whales had abandoned. Bottom-dwelling species, unable to adapt, were decimated.

As sea ice diminished, breeding grounds for seals were disrupted and populations plummeted. Polar bears started to drown. Walruses, accustomed to diving in the shallows to feed along the sea bottom, found themselves adrift on broken ice floes in waters 6,500 feet deep. The animals starved.

israel to draw west bank borders by 2010

again, i ask: since when are nations allowed to "draw their own borders"??? there's something drastically wrong with this picture.

Israel to Draw West Bank Borders by 2010
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 9, 5:04 PM ET

JERUSALEM - Israel will draw its final borders by 2010, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published Thursday, for the first time setting a deadline for what is expected to be a unilateral large-scale West Bank pullback. (sic)

fema critic's t-shirt triggers ticket

meanwhile, Dick Cheney gets off scot free after shooting a man in the face... Bush violates the wiretapping laws with impunity... but at least, America is safe from the dire threat of subversive t-shirts.

FEMA critic's shirt gets him tangled up in ticket
By Laura Parker, USA TODAY
Fri Mar 3, 7:57 AM ET

Ridiculing the Federal Emergency Management Agency is high art in the Gulf Coast areas where Hurricane Katrina hit last year.

Many parade floats in New Orleans' Mardi Gras were decorated in themes that skewered the relief agency.

George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman's Association, has been selling anti-FEMA T-shirts since last fall, a reflection of his frustration with the federal government's response to the storm that left him homeless and unemployed.

But on Feb. 1, when he handed a shirt to a fellow Katrina victim as he was picking up canned goods at a charity's relief tent, Barisich found himself in trouble with the government.

He was cited by a group of
Homeland Security officials for selling a T-shirt on federal property - in this case, near a FEMA center in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Chalmette, La.

Barisich, 49, says he didn't sell the shirt, which said: "Flooded by Katrina! Forgotten by FEMA! What's Next, Mr. Bush?" He says he gave it away.

The government is sticking to its guns. "If we ignored this violation, you could have potentially 20 to 30 people standing out in front of the (FEMA) center, obstructing things," says Dean Boyd, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman. "We've got a duty and a job under the law."
...

four vt towns vote to impeach bush

good for them!

link

another suspicious election

link

``...
With about 69 percent of precincts reporting, Cuellar had 16,705 votes, or 49 percent, compared with Rodriguez, who had 15,408 votes, or 45 percent.

It was unclear when the race would be decided. The tabulation of early votes in a key county was delayed because of voting-machine software problems, election officials said.
...''

israel: no one is safe

an arrogant criminal government makes a disgraceful criminal boast. have they forgotten that "what goes around, comes around"?

Israel: 'No One Is Immune' From Strikes
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer
21 minutes ago

JERUSALEM - Israel's defense minister advised the incoming Palestinian prime minister Tuesday to fear for his life if Hamas militants start attacking Israel again.
...

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's warning to Hamas, recently elected to rule the
Palestinian Authority, was the first to identify Hamas' prime minister-designate, Ismail Haniyeh, as a potential target for an Israeli pinpoint (sic) attack.

"No one is immune," Mofaz told Army Radio, a day after an Israeli airstrike on an ice cream truck killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three bystanders in Gaza City. Two of those killed were aged 8 and 14.
...

tide turns against war

Iraq War Not Worth Fighting for 63% in U.S.

72% of Troops Say End War in 2006

the latter poll result is especially significant. the troops are getting restless. the warmongers can no longer use "support the troops" as a sneaky emotional argument for "supporting the war".