U.S. News
Les Blough
Axis of Logic
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
When those who are wise find themselves facing an impending defeat in any area of life, they confront their defeat, engage in self-examination, try to understand the reasons and come to terms with their own failure. Insight, courage and honesty are required. Others are not as wise, courageous or honest. The unwise who find themselves in the throes of defeat immediately begin to attribute their failure to others. The latter often begin to blame others, sometimes even cannibalizing their own, devouring them in an orgy of bloodletting in order to locate their failure externally. Enter Congressman John Murtha and the Democrats in Washington. As the war mongers in Washington see their web of terror in Iraq begin to unravel, they feel compelled to launch new attacks - on one another. The vicious tone of this battle can be seen in an 11/19/05 NYT article, "Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout." In this article, Eric Schmitt wrote about the the current internal war in the U.S. House of Representatives over the Congressman John Murtha's demand for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Schmitt's article reveals the desperate attempt by politicians to abrogate their responsibility for their own impending defeat. The spectacle in Congress also happens to be "good theatre", supporting an illusion the corporate media has fed to U.S. citizens for a long time - the illusion that real debate takes place in the two-party system with respect to U.S. domestic and foreign policy. In this case it's about the U.S. war on the people of Iraq. The New York Times article reads:
Editor & Publisher
Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
New York - Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan and her book publisher are upset about Associated Press and Reuters photos that allegedly presented a misleading impression of her book signing last weekend in Texas.
Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, gained wide fame last summer in an antiwar protest near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, and then in a march in Washington, D.C. She returned to Crawford last week for a Thanskgiving protest. Her new book, Not One More Mother's Child, had just been published, and her publisher organized a book signing in a large tent in Crawford on Saturday.
Nat Hentoff
The Village Voice
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
U.S. Senate proves as disdainful of the Constitution as George W. Bush. Be forewarned.
These are weighty and momentous considerations that go far beyond the detainees at Guantánamo. . . .[This amendment] . . . takes away jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is untenable and unthinkable and ought to be rejected.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter , on the floor of the Senate, November 15, objecting to an amendment to the defense authorization bill by Lindsey Graham, Carl Levin, and Jon Kyl that would effectively close our federal courts to any charges of abuse, including torture, of Guantánamo prisoners. The amendment passed 84 to 14.
Mark Clayton, Staff writer
Christian Science Monitor
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
From Maine to Florida, from Virginia to Missouri, as much as half the United States confronts the possibility that harshly cold weather will lead to restrictions of natural-gas supplies. In some places - areas heavily dependent on natural gas to produce electricity - the prospect of "rolling blackouts," or controlled power outages, is much higher than in previous winters.
Any natural-gas cutoffs would primarily affect electric-power plants and factories fueled by gas, not homes, and be most likely in the Northeast.
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
The Washington Post
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
For several years now, corporations and other wealthy interests have made ever-larger campaign contributions, gifts and sponsored trips part of the culture of Capitol Hill. But now, with fresh guilty pleas by a lawmaker and a public relations executive, federal prosecutors -- and perhaps average voters -- may be concluding that the commingling of money and politics has gone too far.
After years in which big-dollar dealings have come to dominate the interaction between lobbyists and lawmakers, both sides are now facing what could be a wave of prosecutions in the courts and an uprising at the ballot box. Extreme examples of the new business-as-usual are no longer tolerated.
Bill Straub
Capitol Hill Blue
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
President Bush is engaged in an increasingly bitter exchange with critics who maintain the White House intentionally misled the public to generate support for the war in Iraq.
Evidently most people seem to believe those claims -- 64 percent of those questioned in the most recent Harris Interactive Poll believe the administration "generally misleads the public on current issues."
The administration has acknowledged that the intelligence used to advance the argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was faulty. But critics say their claims that Bush is providing misleading data is based on other declarations:
Doug Thompson
Capitol Hill Blue
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
Tom DeLay saw a seat in Congress as a way to live large at someone else's expense. From the time he arrived in Washington after the 1984 elections, DeLay started working the system to line his own pockets.
I met Delay at the reception for freshmen members of Congress, recalls retired lobbyist Jackson Russ. He walked up, looked at my name tag, introduced himself and asked how he could get some honorariums.
In 1984, honorariums were a quick way for members of Congress to line their own pockets. Special interest groups would invite the Congressman to a get together with executives of their company or top members of the organization and then pay that Congressman directly for the appearance.
SOTT
November 29, 2005
SOTT
November 29, 2005
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
Charles Glass
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations General Assembly Resolution, 10 December 1948.
Curt Anderson
Associated Press
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:00 EST
Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.
Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.
"This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there," Fernandez said.
Comment: Random shows of force, eh? Well, if the "terrorists" aren't going to terrorise the population, law enforcement agents will just have to do the job!
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