Week Starting
June 18th 2006
Some people say Adolf Hitler was an atheist. They blame atheism for Hitler's philosophy. But the historical record shows that Hitler believed in God and was convinced he was carrying out God's will.
Hitler served as an altar boy in the Catholic Church. Growing up in this environment, he surely learned something of the centuries of discrimination and persecution the Church had supported against Jews in Europe.
Former Jesuit theologian Peter de Rosa describes the groundwork Catholic theology laid for Hitler and the Nazis: "[Catholicism's] disastrous theology had prepared the way for Hitler and his `final solution.' [The Church published] over a hundred anti-Semitic documents. Not one conciliar decree, not one papal encyclical, bull, or pastoral directive suggest that Jesus' command, `love your neighbor as yourself,' applied to Jews."
Not surprisingly, then, Hitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf: ". . . I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work." He made essentially the same claim in a speech before the Reichstag in 1938.
"Never in my life did I ever imagine I would have to disobey my president. But then again, never did I imagine my president would lie to go
to war, condone torture, spy on Americans, or destroy the career of a CIA agent for political gain. I would rather resign in protest, but the
army doesn't agree."
"I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to watch families torn apart, while the President tells us to "stay the course." . . . I refuse to be party to
an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. I wanted to be there for my fellow troops. But the best
way was not to help drop artillery and cause more death and destruction. It is to help oppose this war and end it so that all soldiers
can come home."
~ Ehren Watada is a 27-year-old first lieutenant in the United States Army.
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The battle-weary face of Marine James Blake Miller, widely known as the "Marlboro Man", became famous following the horrendous battle of Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004. It personified, for some, the dedication of those who have been sent to fight in Iraq. Now Blake Miller is discharged, back home in Kentucky. He has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The incident took place in the town of Hamdania and is a separate case from the November 19 killing of 24 civilians in Haditha in which other
Marines are suspected.
Dismantling America’s media monopoly should be a central part of any progressive political platform. Democracy is impossible where information can be controlled by a few powerful corporations that shape the narrative to suit their own self-serving objectives.
Iraqi police have accused the US military of killing 15 farm workers during a raid near Baquba, north of Baghdad.
There is no stopping the diabolical dirty dealings of the New World Order Agenda, Including Vatican Support Of Nazis Offering Solid Evidence Of Its Involvement In A Similar Takeover Of America.
A 90-year-old man from Blythe, California, who survived Hitler, is warning Americans the same thing is happening here that took place in Nazi Germany. An elderly woman from Long Beach, California, is telling Americans she may be killed by corrupt church and state officials, trying to takeover of her large apartment complex. And others all across the country are finally screaming "foul," as gas prices soar, civil liberties disappear and violence and drugs spread across the country like an out-of-control wild fire. It's no secret America is in the midst of a complete totalitarian takeover of their country, a plan devised hundreds of years ago by Luciferian followers passing the evil torch from generation to generation.
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.
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America's War 2508
15 September 2002: A SECRET blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001.
Hospitals are being accused of putting patients' lives at risk by sending confidential and highly technical medical notes abroad for typing. Private companies are "aggressively" targeting cash-strapped NHS trusts promising huge cost-savings if they "outsource" the work to countries such as India, South Africa and the Philippines.
The official story on Iraq has never made sense. The connection that the Bush administration has tried to draw between Iraq and al-Qaida has always seemed contrived and artificial. In fact, it was hard to believe that smart people in the Bush administration would start a major war based on such flimsy evidence. The pieces just didn't fit. Something else had to be going on; something was missing.
The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.
Senate Minority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) calls this Congress the "most corrupt" in history. U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) often uses the term "police state" to describe our national state of affairs. George Bush is making the most expansive claims to unbridled power since America's War for Independence, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who proved Bush/Cheney lied to launch us into war with Iraq, says "fascist forces have seized control of the levers of power."
How to Impeach a President
on impeachment organized by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Melville House, launching nationwide on July 19 in cities and towns
across the country.
Source;
"The Center for Constitutional Rights, "America’s leading institution of constitutional scholarship, has developed a legal case for the impeachment of George W Bush. Now, in collaboration with Melville House Books and progressives across the U.S., they are sponsoring a “National Teach-In” to share their case, what’s at stake, and what impeachment means for every American."
News For Real
Republicans want us to “stay the course.” I assume the mean what their words imply, that we should keep doing what we've been doing in Iraq.
But there's an old saying, “Keep doin' what you been doin' and you're gonna keep getting what you've got.”
So, let's see what is we've been getting so far by staying the current course. And not from my mouth, but from the hand of the administration's very own Ambassador in Iraq. The day George Bush was doing his second “Mission Accomplished” tour, by sneaking into the Green Zone for 5 hours on June 6, Ambassador Khalilzad was penning a secret memo to Washington describing the fruits to date of Bush's “stay the course” policy.
He reports. You decide. (If you want more of what we've got.)
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The House of Representatives will vote on a bill to amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act at the end of June. This bill, H.R. 4075, is sponsored by Rep. Pombo and would weaken many of the key provisions of this important conservation law.
What's At Stake:
The Marine Mammal Protection Act was enacted more than 30 years ago to reverse the decline of dolphins, whales, seals, polar bears and other marine mammals. In 1994, Congress reauthorized the MMPA and added requirements to specifically address the harm caused to marine mammals by commercial fishing operations. The deadline for reaching this "Zero Mortality Rate Goal" - which requires commercial fishing operations to reduce the serious injury and death of marine mammals to insignificant levels - was set for April 2001. More than five years have passed since this deadline, and yet it still has not been met, which has dire consequences for these animals. Every year the goal is not achieved, approximately 1,900 dolphins, whales and other marine mammals are seriously injured or killed.
Instead of redoubling efforts to reach this deadline, H.R. 4075 would remove it altogether. Deadlines are important. Commercial fishing operations still illegally kill 27 different marine mammal populations in significant numbers. If the law were enforced, approximately 1,900 marine mammals would be saved each year - including 533 dolphins and porpoises, 27 whales, and 1,332 seals and sea lions.
H.R. 4075 would also delay ocean conservation by extending deadlines in the MMPA's "Take Reduction Plan" process.
The U.S. Forest Service just announced plans to relax rules that govern "predator control" in federal Wilderness areas and Research Natural Areas of our National Forests. The move would greatly expand the ways that wolves, coyotes, cougars, bears, foxes and other predators can be killed in these areas, and it signals a very disturbing shift in the way our public land is managed.
On June 14, 36 U.S. representatives sent a letter urging the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The best available science shows that the polar bear may go extinct in the next century as global warming melts its sea-ice habitat, and listing the bear will provide important protections to ensure this is not its fate.
Did you know our own federal government is secretly targeting people while changing planes in American airports, walking along streets in Italian cities, and going about their daily lives in other corners of the world? They target people, sometimes on the basis of mistaken identity, kidnap them without ever making an arrest or seeking charges in any court, and ship them off to places like Syria and Uzbekistan, where they are tortured and abused. The Bush administration claims that this practice — called rendition to torture — is perfectly legal, despite the fact that it clearly violates U.S. federal law. You can help stop it.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has offered an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill that will put a stop to this illegal and fundamentally un-American practice. The United States government has condemned numerous countries for torturing and abusing their own citizens. But behind the backs of an unsuspecting American public, our own government continues to kidnap people and ship them to those same "condemned" countries, where they are tortured. The Bush Administration is systematically expanding its power to violate the law under the guise of protecting national security -- and undermining the Constitution and America's values of freedom and fairness in the process. It is time to end this abuse of power. The No Rendition to Torture Amendment is a key step in stopping torture and restoring freedom, fairness, and the rule of law in our country.
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It's time for Congress to take a stand to protect our kids and the public health against tobacco products. I urge you to demonstrate support by cosponsoring H.R. 1376, offered by Representatives Davis and Waxman. Last year, Representatives Tom Davis (R-Va) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced bipartisan legislation supported by the public health community that would give the U.S Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products.
Congress has had over a year to act on this legislation but they have failed to do so. While Congress fails to move the legislation forward, thousands of children are becoming addicted to tobacco products and the tobacco industry is coming up with new marketing strategies, such as candy- and alcohol-flavored cigarettes, to lure more children to take up smoking. Each day 2,000 children and teens become regular smokers. Almost 440,000 Americans die prematurely from smoking related diseases such as cancer, heart disease and lung disease like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
More information;
Information is the life blood of democracy. If we lose trust in the news, how can citizens possibly make informed decisions at the polls?
Some TV stations air “news segments” that look like everyday journalism but that are actually produced by the federal government or large corporations and are designed to promote a political position or product. The Federal Communications Commission must enforce rules stating that TV stations “must clearly disclose” when they air news segments produced by the government or other entities.
June 21, 2006 -- Just a few hours ago, a small band of extremists in the House of Representatives hijacked H.R. 9, the bill to renew and restore the Voting Rights Act. The House was expected to vote on the bill today.
More information;
Visit www.RenewtheVRA.org for more information about H.R. 9 and to learn why Congress must renew the Voting Rights Act.
US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that 1/3 of 6-19 yr olds are fluoride overdosed & display dental fluorosis; white spotted, yellow or brown and sometimes pitted or crumbly teeth, while tooth decay increased in primary teeth of 2-5 yr-olds.When the questionable category of fluorosis is included,as it was in 1945, the report is more dire:
40% of 6-11-year-olds have fluorosis
49% of 12-15 year-olds have fluorosis
42% of 16-19-year-olds have fluorosis
Despite having no authorization from Congress, the Bush administration has launched extensive working-group activity to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada. The membership of the working groups has not been published, nor has their work product been disclosed, despite two years of massive effort within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The groups, working under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in the Department of Commerce, are to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.
American weapons recently provided by the U.S. and Israel to Palestinian police – a cache including over 3,000 U.S.-made M-16 assault rifles and over one million rounds of ammunition – may end up in the hands of Hamas terrorists, a senior Palestinian officer told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview.
A Mexican customs office is being built in the U.S. heartland as part of a newly designed "inland port" facility that links with a Mexican seaport, an official in Kansas City confirms.
Author Jerome Corsi filed a Freedom of Information Act request yesterday asking for full disclosure of the activities of an office implementing a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that apparently could lead to a North American union, despite having no authorization from Congress.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the White House has established working groups, under the North American Free Trade Agreement office in the Department of Commerce, to implement the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP, signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.
Less than five years after 15 Saudis hijacked airliners to hit American targets, citizens of the desert kingdom are being offered scholarships to study aviation in the U.S.
I just had to post this for its laughable, masoganistic and idiotic view point blaming woman for all our society ills;
(excerpt)
"The problem," said David Kupelian, managing editor of WND and Whistleblower, "is that misguided feminists, intent on advancing a radically different worldview than the one on which this nation was founded, have succeeded in fomenting a revolution. And that revolution amounts to a powerful and pervasive campaign against masculinity, maleness, boys, men and patriarchy."
I was just going to have the usual link and a quote from the next post, like I usually do, but there is just so much information, I couldn't find just one quote to use........so I just placed the whole news story;
06/19/2006
By Adel Safty, Special to Gulf News
The American fascist ideologist Lawrence Dennis argued in the 1930s that fascism was a world view that could be imposed by a movement, which did not have to really understand the fascist idea.
In trying to comprehend the foundations of the Bush ideology, scholars and analysts linked the Bush ideology to fascist thinkers; ideologues of the Bush regime propounded fascist ideas, without necessarily claiming to be fascists.
Faith, however, transcends ideas. Bush's religious faith stands above and informs his sense of unshakable convictions. Bush told Bob Woodward: "Going into this period, I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will."
Bruce Barttlet, a republican who worked for Bush senior, told Ron Ruskin that people close to Bush commented on how Bush talks about this: "Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do ? Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis." (NYT Magazine, October 17, 2004).
In the temporal realm, influential mortals have provided the intellectual foundations for the ideological assertiveness of the Bush regime. They all share a common worldview.
In the summer 2004 issue of Daedalus, constitutional law professor, Sanford Levinson, writes that Carl Schmitt, the leading Nazi German philosopher, is the real source of inspiration of the Bush regime.
Professor Alan Wolfe of Boston College described Schmitt as the intellectual guru of the Bush administration. Schmitt's major philosophical contribution to politics is contained in a 1932 influential book entitled The Concept of the Political.
Schmitt argued that in major human endeavours the ultimate distinctions are framed as duality.
But politics is a different realm; its ultimate distinction is between friend and foe. And this comes before the State and before any notion of justice or morality.
Critics describe Schmitt's views as "consciously embracing evil". A protégé of Schmitt, Leo Strauss, has also been described as having a powerful influence over the thinking of the Bush regime. Jeffrey Steinberg described Strauss as the "Fascist godfather of the neo-cons".
Machiavellian approach
Strauss, who admired Nazi philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt believed that morality and ethics had no place in politics and advocated a decidedly Machiavellian approach to politics and foreign policy.
Strauss's influence on the neo-cons has been documented in S. B. Drury's book Leo Strauss and the American Right in which the author argued that Strauss believed that a stable political order required an external threat and that if an external threat did not exist, one should be manufactured.
Strauss has directly influenced some of the leading ideologues of the Bush administration: Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the Iraq war, and Abram Shulsky, the director of the Special Plans Operation Pentagon office set up by Douglas Feith to produce its own evidence to bolster the case for war. Both Wolfowitz and Shulsky studied under Strauss at the University of Chicago in the 1970s.
A senior adviser to Bush explicitly espoused the fascist notion of the superman as subject of history transcending the limited rationality of the masses, dispensing with justifications for his actions and creating and imposing his own reality.
This adviser told Ron Susking that traditional notions of proof and discernable reality are no longer adequate today because: "We're an empire now and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality judiciously, as you will we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors.'' (NYT Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004).
In addition to God and the fascist philosophers, two other sources have been directly linked to Bush himself.
The first is Karl Rove, Bush's principal political adviser-described by some as the ultimate Machiavellian operative.
James Moore, co-author, with Wayne Slater, of the 2003 book Bush's Brain, the subject of a documentary in 2004, wrote: "Rove is probably the most powerful un-elected person in American history."
Bush acknowledged an intellectual debt to Natan Sharansky, the fanatical rightwing Israeli Likud minister who criticised Sharon for being too soft on the Palestinians.
Bush reportedly consulted with Sharansky and received inspiration from him for the inaugural speech of his second term, setting out what the Washington Times described triumphantly as "a new, expansionist and far more aggressive global mission." (January 21, 2005.)
Professor Adel Safty is Unesco Chair of Leadership and President of the School of Government and Leadership, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul. He is author-editor of 14 books including From Camp David to the Gulf, and Leadership and Democracy, IPSL Press. New York, 2004.
A visibly angry George Bush rounded on the two remaining members of Washington's "axis of evil" today, as he dismissed "absurd" suggestions that the US presents the greatest threat to world stability.
Here's an interesting political position: Keep U.S. troops in Iraq and signal to the Iraqi government that its O.K. to pardon insurgents who kill Americans. Florida Senator Bill Nelson proposed a simple amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. It sought: "To express the sense of Congress that the Government of Iraq should not grant amnesty to persons known to have attacked, killed, or wounded members of the Armed Forces of the United States." Seventy-nine senators -- all the Democrats who participated in the vote, as well as most of the Republicans -- backed the Nelson amendment. But 19 senators opposed it. All are Republican supporters of the war, who have voted to keep U.S. troops in Iraq. Yet they voted against a measure putting the Congress on record in opposition to granting amnesty to Iraqis who kill U.S. soldiers.
The 19 senators who have given new meaning to the term "pro-war" are:
Wayne Allard of Colorado
Kit Bond of Missouri
Jim Bunning of Kentucky
Conrad Burns of Montana
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
Thad Cochran of Mississippi
John Cornyn of Texas
Jim DeMint of South Carolina
Mike Enzi of Wyoming
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma
Jon Kyl of Arizona
Trent Lott of Mississippi
John McCain of Arizona
Jeff Sessions of Alabama
Ted Stevens of Alaska
Craig Thomas of Wyoming
John Warner of Virginia
Blanco cited "overwhelming" support for the bill in the state Legislature. "The central provision of the bill supports and reflects my personal beliefs," she said in a statement, adding she had hoped for legislation with exceptions for rape and incest.
If the Religious Right were to succeed in establishing an American theocracy, or anything even close, the devil would be in the details. A preview is now being played out between the Catholic League on the theocratic Right and the Voice of the Faithful representing a full spectrum of mainstream centrist, liberal and conservative Catholics.
Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase "War in Iraq" they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames.
There is no longer a war against Iraq.
It ended in May of 2003, when George W. Bush stood below a "Mission Accomplished" sign aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and correctly declared that we had "victoriously" defeated the Iraqi army and overthrown their government.
Our military machine is tremendously good at fighting wars - blowing up infrastructure, killing opposing armies, and toppling governments. We did that successfully in Iraq, in a matter of a few weeks. We destroyed their army, wiped out their air defenses, devastated their Republican Guard, seized their capitol, arrested their leaders, and took control of their government. We won the war. It's over.
What we have now is an occupation of Iraq.
06/20/2006 at 2:48 PM ET
Today's conviction of former White House aide David Safavian, on charges that he lied and obstructed justice in the investigation of his dealings with disgraced former super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is a breath of fresh air. (See today's headlines, below.) While a number of players in the wide-ranging corruption probe, including Abramoff himself, pled guilty to charges, today's conviction follows the first trial coming out of the Abramoff scandal.
During a September 27, 2004 campaign event in Ohio, Bush to the cheers of "four more years" proclaimed:
"And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence. And the people of Afghanistan are now free. In other words when you say something as President you better make it clear so everybody understands what you're saying, and you better mean what you say. And I meant what I said."
As it turns out, not so much. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on Sunday, who recently referred to the 2,500 American war dead in Iraq as "just a number," set the record straight. Fast-forwarding from his boss' election-year crowing, Snow admitted:
"I think what the Taliban is doing - and it's predictable - is that they are trying to test in the south, where the U.S. forces are handing over to NATO...But A, it's predictable, and B, in the encounters, as you know, the Taliban fighters have overwhelmingly been losing. Now, I think it is predictable...you can expect there to be pushback by the Taliban."
Of course, this is not George W. Bush's first bout of premature emancipation. On May 1, 2003, Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in front of a massive banner declaring "Mission Accomplished" and announced, "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." But by June 2004, the President was forced to acknowledge reality, admitting, "this mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight."
When Bush made those arrogant boasts of lightning victory, his popularity was stratospheric. Perhaps that arrogance is just another explanation for why his poll ratings came - and went.
This Friday, June 23rd, is the U.S. opening of “The Road to Guantanamo.” It is a film that documents our experiences while detained in Afghanistan and held for more than two years without charge or trial at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Over the past several months, opposition to Guantanamo has been growing around the world and in the United States. We hope that our first hand account of the violence we experienced will help build momentum for the detention facility at Guantanamo to be closed for good.
Amnesty International is proud to announce its support of “The Road to Guantanamo,” the new award winning film by British director Michael Winterbottom. “The Road to Guantanamo” is the terrifying first-hand account of three British citizens who were held for more than two years without charges in the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Known as the “Tipton Three,” in reference to their home town near Birmingham, the three were eventually returned to Britain and released — still having had no formal charges ever made against them at any time during their ordeal.
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President Bush and adherents to his viewpoint have defended the idea that the government has a right to wiretap, but their assertions do not stand up to scrutiny. President Bush has inaugurated the largest surveillance state in human history, ordering the NSA to wiretap millions of Americans’ telephone calls and e-mails abroad (according to the New York Times) and collecting the telephone records of as many as 200 million Americans (according to USA Today). Moreover, the FBI acknowledged searching the personal effects of more than 3,500 Americans without a court search warrant (according to the Associated Press) using a procedure called a “National Security Letter” under the Patriot Act. And many news sources have hinted that these revelations are merely the “tip of the iceberg” of the size of the actual surveillance conducted against Americans by the same Bush administration that had until December 2005 claimed at least seven times publicly that it sought a court warrant before conducting any search.
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About one-quarter of U.S. bottled water comes from a municipal water source. The industry maintains that no illness outbreaks have ever been
linked to U.S. bottled water. However, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) conducted a study of 103 brands of bottled water (over 1,000 bottles were tested in all) and found that one-third contained synthetic organic chemicals and bacteria. One sample even contained arsenic levels above state health limits. The NRDC maintains that city tap water is required to undergo more rigorous testing and has higher purity standards
than bottled water.
Veterans for America (VFA) recently posted several disturbing news articles about veterans committing suicide and other serious mental health problems among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clearly, VA and the military are failing to respond to this growing crisis. A phone call or faxed letter from you today sent to your U.S. Senator can help soldiers and veterans now, before the situation gets worse.
The long legal history in this country of religious leaders performing marriage ceremonies has enmeshed religion and marriage. The language of marriage as “sacred” invokes religious images. Most marriage ceremonies are performed by clergy.
The arguments behind the amendment are essentially religious even though its proponents try to couch them in terms of inaccurate history, poor science, rejected psychological theories and statistics unsupported by the social sciences.
Based on misguided understandings of the Bible, tradition and God, proponents argue that same-sex marriages don’t suit a traditional model of one man and one woman. The fact that even among the patriarchs and kings in the Bible polygamy was common must be explained away to make the argument. In an ultimate irony, the Mormon Church has been a major funder of amendments claiming that traditional marriage is between one man and only one woman.
But there are many religious people who believe that the Bible, tradition and God require them to confirm same-sex commitments. Their doctrines of marriage demand that they recognize loving commitment wherever it is found. They believe that government has no business telling God and two consenting adults whom they can and cannot love.
Unitarian Universalists, the United Church of Christ, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and others have spoken from their faith to testify that affirming same-sex marriage is a response of true belief.
An amendment to forbid the practice of these religions to perform same-sex marriages, therefore, is government establishment of one religious position while forbidding the religious practice of others. It’s religious discrimination.
The marriage amendment is anti-American, then, not only because it would be the first amendment to write discrimination of a group of people into the Constitution.
It’s also against religious freedom because it forbids the religious practice of clergy, denominations and faith communities that believe they are divinely called to affirm the love of two adults who happen to be of the same gender.
Robert N. Minor is professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He lives in Kansas City.
The court's four liberal members said the conservatives would have opened up sensitive wetlands to polluters.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leveled a warning Monday that "it would be a very serious matter and indeed a provocative act" if North Korea tested a long-range ballistic missile. Rice's remarks came after Bush administration officials said North Korea has apparently finished loading fuel into a ballistic missile, the latest signs that the reclusive communist state will soon test a weapon that could reach the United States.
Some 38 million people in America are considered "food insecure" -- they have trouble finding the money to keep food on the table. NPR profiles families who have faced hunger in three different settings: rural, suburban and urban America.
"I can't exactly explain why, but for me this story sums up everything that's wrong with our little nation-building exercise in Iraq. I mean, drunk or sober, how much intelligence does it take to know not to stick your hand in a cage with a fucking tiger??? Too much for the U.S. Army, apparently. And of course, when the tiger does what tigers do, what does our other military genius do? He shoots it in the head."
— Billmon of the Whiskey Bar http://billmon.org, on an incident involving two U.S. soldiers in a Baghdad zoo.
This could be the last election where military service in Vietnam has any political currency. But just for the record, it's worth noting who really served among the heavyweights in each of the major political parties. There are some surprises here. Be sure to check out the bottom where the people who spend their time jabbering about military service (the TV pundits) have their military credentials exposed.
Democrats
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-'47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V Purple Hearts.
* John Edwards: did not serve.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star, Vietnam.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-1953.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII, receiving the Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Bomber pilot, many missions. Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Avoided service. with student deferments. Entered draft but received 311.
* Jimmy Carter: Annapolis grad. Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and Air Medal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Said to have served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.
* Wesley Clark: U.S. Army, 1966-2000, West Point, Vietnam, Purple Heart, Silver Star. Retired 4-star general.
* John Dingell: WWII vet
* John Conyers: Army 1950-57, Korea
Republicans
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* House Whiip Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Had "other priorities." Several deferments, the last for wife's pregnancy.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Donald Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as aviator and flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: six-year Nat'l Guard commitment (in four). Issues of desertion and unfitness.
* Ronald Reagan: made war propaganda movies but claimed to have served
* Gerald Ford: Navy, WWII
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Bob Dole: Army officer WWII.
* Chuck Hagel: two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, Vietnam.
* Duke Cunningham: nominated for Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Silver Stars, Air Medals, Purple Hearts.
* Jeff Sessions: Army Reserves, 1973-1986
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* G.H.W. Bush: Pilot in WWII. Shot down by the Japanese.
* Tom Ridge: Bronze Star for Valor in Vietnam.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve
Pundits & Preachers
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a 'pilonidal cyst.')
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.
Two months after the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched a global appeal for 17.4 million Swiss Francs (USD 13.4 million/EUR 11 million) to combat the spread of avian flu and reduce the risk of a human influenza pandemic, the coverage of the appeal remains worryingly low at only 3.2 per cent. This means the International Federation is limited in its support to member Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies for preparedness measures and response. “Avian flu and a possible human pandemic are a real threat. Though the media headlines have disappeared the risk has not,” says Dr. Pierre Duplessis, the International Federation’s Special Envoy for Avian Flu. “We need to put preventive measures in place now as this will help communities worldwide to be better prepared should a crisis occur. An investment of 17 million Swiss francs is a good investment to save lives”, he adds.
The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked sensitive, that it says show 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 US 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 US government.
As of Sunday, June 18, 2006, at least 2,503 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,972 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The AP count is three higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The environment movement suffered one of its greatest reverses late last night when pro-whaling countries, led by Japan, gained control of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and immediately began undermining the 20-year-old international whaling moratorium. In a stunning diplomatic coup, Japan and its allies, including Norway and Iceland, won a voting majority in the IWC for the first time, as a result of a remorseless 10-year Japanese campaign to secure the votes of small African and Caribbean countries in exchange for multimillion-dollar foreign aid packages.
The discovery of a new strain of mad cow disease that may strike spontaneously rather than through contaminated feed could mean that it will be impossible to completely stamp out the brain-destroying illness in cattle.
Pioneer Hi-Bred's website boasts that their genetically modified (GM) Liberty Link corn survives doses of Liberty herbicide, which would normally kill corn. The reason, they say, is that the herbicide becomes "inactive in the corn plant." They fail to reveal, however, that after you eat the GM corn, some inactive herbicide may become reactivated inside your gut and cause a toxic reaction. In addition, a gene that was inserted into the corn might transfer into the DNA of your gut bacteria, producing long-term effects. These are just a couple of the many potential side-effects of GM crops that critics say put the public at risk.
