For decades, disaffected Americans have been trudging to the polls and voting for the lesser of two evils. That's how they register their preference for a presidential candidate.

Choices based on that dubious strategy seem to work for the short-term (at best). But in the long run, the law of diminishing returns sets in.

Term after presidential term, the lesser of two evils lowers the quality of life for everyone and keeps nudging the decline of the American Republic. The hole to dig out of becomes deeper, and successive presidents - each one the lesser of two evils - are less capable and willing to do the necessary digging.

That's the story of leadership in America.

But prompted by new and more desperate created crises, citizens resort to the "lesser" strategy every four years, believing they must.

Citizens and scientists have raised concerns that the science ministry manipulated its measurement of radiation levels in Fukushima Prefecture to show figures lower than they really were.

The Association for Citizens and Scientists Concerned About Internal Radiation Exposures said on Oct. 5 that its survey this year of airborne dose levels found an average 10-30 percent higher than the ministry's numbers, and in certain areas, the discrepancy was even greater.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Late last week, a bill HR 6566 was introduced on the floor of the US House of Representatives. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it.

The bill is entitled the "Mass Fatality Planning and Religious Considerations Act," and its stated purpose is "[to] amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide guidance and coordination for mass fatality planning..."

Hmmmm. Homeland Security. FEMA. Sounds like a fun party.

The bill was introduced a week ago, but it took the US Government Printing Office until this morning to actually make the text available to the public.

Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters gathered in Istanbul, Thursday evening, opposing military action against Syria. Marchers streamed through the capital's commercial district, opposing Turkey's alliance with the United States and pledging support for the Syrian people.

The demonstration took place after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government used its majority in parliament to grant Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan powers to send soldiers into "foreign countries".

The clear intent is to wage a cross-border offensive to depose the regime of Bashir al-Assad without consulting the national assembly. The motion submitted allows the government to determine "the scope, extent and time" of any possible intervention.

The motion was passed after a stray shell from Syria killed five people in the Turkish border town of Akçakale Wednesday. Two days of mortar fire followed; Turkish fighter jets also carried out strikes on targets including a Syrian military camp, killing an unspecified number of soldiers.

Israel is on a quest to find out the origin of the drone shot down Saturday, with various theories coming to light, including Hezbollah's planning and Iran's manufacturing to carry out surveillance and test Israel's interception capabilities.

Israel's defense has refrained from revealing full details regarding the origin of the unmanned aerial vehicle that was shot down over the Israel's unpopulated Negev desert.

The only information given is that the drone came from the direction of the Mediterranean, around the Gaza Strip, and that it is unlikely that Palestinians organizations are involved.

The aircraft was unarmed and it said to have been sent for surveillance purposes.
Iran-Hezbollah connection

It is unclear who is behind this mission, but Israeli media have speculated that the drone was manufactured by Iran and sent over by Hezbollah.

Israeli MP and former chief spokesman of the military Miri Regev wrote in his Twitter feed that it was an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah," pointing to the Lebanese Shiite group that fought a war with Israel in 2006.

However, defense officials did not confirm this link.

Despite the official US military withdrawal last December, American special forces "recently" returned to Iraq on a counter-terrorism mission, according to an American general in charge of weapons sales there. The mission was reported by the New York Times, in the fifteenth paragraph of a story about deepening sectarian divides.

The irony is that the US is protecting a pro-Iran Shiite regime in Baghdad against a Sunni-based insurgency while at the same time supporting a Sunni-led movement against the Iran-backed dictatorship in Syria. The Sunni rebellions are occurring in the vast Sunni region between northwestern Iraq and southern Syria where borders are porous.

During the Iraq War, many Iraqi insurgents from Anbar and Diyala provinces took sanctuary in Sunni areas of Syria. Now they are turning their weapons on two targets, the al-Malaki government in Baghdad and the Assad regime in Damascus.

The Vatican court trying Pope Benedict's former butler on charges of stealing confidential papers and leaking them to journalists has found him guilty, sentencing him to 18 months in prison.

Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre read the verdict aloud Saturday one hour after the three-judge panel began deliberating Paolo Gabriele's fate.

The Vatican court stated that it gave a reduced sentence because Gabriele had no criminal record and ordered the accused to pay legal expenses.

The ex-butler does not plan to appeal his sentence. He will serve his jail term under house arrest in his Vatican apartment while waiting a possible pardon, his lawyer said on Saturday.

In addition, Vatican spokesman told Reuters that Pope Benedict XVI will "most likely" pardon his former butler for theft, which would exempt Gabriele from serving the jail sentence.

The prosecution in the trial of Pope Benedict's former butler had requested a three-year jail sentence.

While, the defense has asked for the charges to be reduced from "aggravated theft" to "misappropriation" and for the accused to be freed.

Forty-six-year-old Paolo Gabriele is being charged with allegedly stealing papal correspondence and leaking it to a journalist.

This Sunday's elections will pit incumbent President Hugo Chávez Frías against neoliberal pro-US opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. Opinion polls vary widely both ways, proof it will be a head-to-head race.

­This election is not only of vital importance to Venezuela, but to all of Latin America, as Chávez has been a veritable barrier against traditional US interventionism in the region.

Get Chávez!

­That's been the rallying call in the mainstream Western media, demonizing Chávez's refusal to align Venezuela to the Western powers' geopolitical objectives throughout the world, something the US and its allies find very hard to swallow.

That's why they've put all their clout behind young up-start Henrique Capriles Radonski, as if he were a savior of democracy in Venezuela.

But that's not quite the case when you consider that Capriles Radonski was very much involved in the failed US-backed coup in April 2002 to oust Chávez, and even spent a short spate in jail for it.

Chávez, in turn, is presented as "authoritarian and not democratic". And yet, when he lost the 2007 constitutional reform referendum or the 2010 congressional elections, his government fully heeded the electorate's will. No one today doubts that Sunday's elections will be transparent and fair.

So why all the anger and fuss against Chávez?

To those who haven't got the message yet: "It's his foreign policy, Stupid!"

Irrespective of whether his domestic policies are good or bad, his foreign policies have held Venezuela's sovereignty and self-esteem very high indeed, actively supporting all nations being savagely attacked by the US, UK, NATO or Israel.

Such is Venezuela's support of the martyred peoples of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, all flagrantly bombed, invaded and devastated by the Western powers based on outright lies, perverted distortions of the truth, and corporate greed to grab oil resources.

Today, the West targets Syria engineering internal strife and civil war as they already did in Iraq, Libya and other Muslim countries: in Orwellian Newspeak, the "Arab Spring". They also threaten Iran with unilateral military attack and commit murder, sabotage and financial manipulation inside Iranian territory whilst spreading all sorts of global media lies.

According to Turkey's Hurriyet daily, relatives of three of the men who were killed during an Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla are demanding $5 million compensation. The boat was raided on its way to Gaza, to deliver humanitarian aid.

­The families of Furkan Doğan, Cevdet Kılıçlar and Necdet Yıldırım, who were killed in the 2010 attack, have filed a petition against Israel, according to their attorney. Relatives of the dozens of people who were injured during the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) raid, have also joined the petition, calling for justice.

Among the plaintiffs are nurses and journalists who were on board the Mavi Marmara when it was attacked. The total amount of compensation asked by the 33 plaintiffs amounts to over 5 million US dollars.

The Israeli air force shot down a drone after it crossed into southern Israel on Saturday, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from.

The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean in the area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich.

It was kept under surveillance and followed by Israeli air force jets before it was shot down above a forest in an unpopulated area near the border with the occupied West Bank.

Leibovich said it was shot down at about 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), after it travelled east some 35 miles across Israel's southern Negev desert.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak praised the interception as "sharp and effective".

"We view with great severity the attempt to compromise Israeli air space and will consider our response in due course," Barak said in a statement.