Week Starting
June 4th 2006
HAPPY GAY PRIDE BOSTON !!!
Saturday June 10th
Boston Pride, celebrating our vibrant community annually with a weeklong series of events that promote diversity and visibility throughout New England.
The "morning-after pill," or Plan B, is a legally approved medication. But last week in a unanimous vote of consideration, the Washington State Board of Pharmacy took a step towards giving pharmacists the legal right to refuse to dispense emergency contraceptives, or any other medication, on moral grounds. The battle over Plan B continues. Now Washington state is considering a law that would give pharmacists the power to refuse to dispense the "morning-after pill" on moral grounds.
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Last May the House of Representatives passed legislation to expand stem cell research. But Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist still hasn't scheduled a vote in the Senate, even though the vast majority of Americans - 72% in a recent poll - support stem cell research. This is a rare opportunity for Congress to significantly improve the quality of peoples lives. It's time for Senator Frist to stop playing politics with our health, and hold a vote on stem cell research.
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"New Ads Show That While Americans Support Stem Cell Research, Many Extremist Republicans Oppose it and Stand in the Way of Life-Saving Science."
Some Democrats, breaking ranks from their leadership, today said the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq was a stunt to divert attention from an unpopular and hopeless war. "This is just to cover Bush's [rear] so he doesn't have to answer" for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers, said Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat. "Iraq is still a mess -- get out."
Made in the U.S.A.
Addressing military cadets graduating from West Point, Mr Bush reaffirmed at the weekend that the US "will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation."
Universal National Service Act of 2006 (Introduced in House)
HR 4752 IH
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4752
To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 14, 2006
Mr. RANGEL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.
I wonder if Bush and other Repubs will allow thier children to obey the law if this becomes law? Let me answer you....No !!!!
Republicans took notice of our grassroots trainings as Elizabeth Dole issued a nasty attack against Stonewall on the eve of the convention and Senator Rick Santorum sent several campaign staff to try and infiltrate our membership events.
Not satisfied with dividing the entire country over immigration reform, for extra added insurance, President Bush has decided to bring up the issue of banning marriage for lesbians and gays…again. In his weekly Presidential address, the President reconfirmed his commitment to banning marriage for gays in America. Citing that “marriage is the most enduring and important human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith,” he went on to say that, “an amendment to the Constitution is necessary because activist courts have left our Nation with no other choice.”
Baghdad's central morgue received more than a thousand bodies each month this year, a doctor has revealed. The body count here gives a more accurate picture of the story in Baghdad than any official statistics.
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An Iraqi doctor who was in Haditha during a deadly U.S. raid last year says there are many more stories like that in Haditha that are yet untold.
Religious fanaticism in all its forms leads inevitably to bigotry, hatred, and, too often, violent confrontations.
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"Many people associated with the Religious Right in America would have us believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. They foster this lie because they want to force their narrow-minded religious beliefs down our throats. They would like us to envision that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison are standing with them shoulder to shoulder when they spout their distorted views on abortion, contraception, gay marriage, school prayer, evolution, etc. But to assert that the U.S. is a Christian nation is clearly un-American, if we define "American" as holding dear the precepts and values handed down to us in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers. The framers of the Constitution had no intention of defining our country as Christian. On the contrary, they were deeply concerned about preventing any kind of religious tyranny."
Ideological fundamentalists in the Bush Administration have spent the past six years exacerbating America's problems rather than addressing them in a constructive fashion.
From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German scientific clinical studies, we can no longer ignore the microwave oven sitting in our kitchens. Based on this research, we will conclude this article with the following:
(1) Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].
(2) The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.
(3) Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
(4) The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual [long term, permanent] within the human body.
(5) Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.
(6) The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.
(7) Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.
(8) The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.
(9) Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.
(10) Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.
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Is it possible that millions of people are ignorantly sacrificing their health in exchange for the convenience of microwave ovens? Why did the Soviet Union ban the use of microwave ovens in 1976? Who invented microwave ovens, and why? The answers to these questions may shock you into throwing your microwave oven in the trash. Over 90% of American homes have microwave ovens used for meal preparation. Because microwave ovens are so convenient and energy efficient, as compared to conventional ovens, very few homes or restaurants are without them. In general, people believe that whatever a microwave oven does to foods cooked in it doesn't have any negative effect on either the food or them.
The women of Basra have disappeared. Three years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, women's secular freedoms - once the envy of women across the Middle East - have been snatched away because militant Islam is rising across the country. Across Iraq, a bloody and relentless oppression of women has taken hold. Many women had their heads shaved for refusing to wear a scarf or have been stoned in the street for wearing make-up. Others have been kidnapped and murdered for crimes that are being labelled simply as "inappropriate behaviour". The insurrection against the fragile and barely functioning state has left the country prey to extremists whose notion of freedom does not extend to women. In the British-occupied south, where Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army retains a stranglehold, women insist the situation is at its worst. Here they are forced to live behind closed doors only to emerge, concealed behind scarves, hidden behind husbands and fathers. Even wearing a pair of trousers is considered an act of defiance, punishable by death.
House Republicans yesterday revived their efforts to slash funding for public broadcasting, as a key committee approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs. On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health and education funding approved the cut to the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. It would reduce the corporation's budget by 23 percent next year, to $380 million, in a cut that Republicans said was necessary to rein in government spending. The reduction, which would come in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, must be approved by the full Appropriations Committee, and then the full House and Senate, before it could take effect. Democrats and public broadcasting advocates began planning efforts to reverse the cut.
More than 20 nations - from Central Asia to Western Europe - colluded in a CIA-run "spider's web" of secret flights and prisons
for abducted terrorism suspects that breach European and international human rights accords, a report to Europe's top human
rights organization charged Wednesday. "Rather than face any form of justice, suspects become entrapped in the spider's web," the report says. The findings could further damage the United States' image in Europe and the Muslim world, where many people already are angry about the Iraq invasion, alleged torture of U.S.-held detainees and what they perceive as a Bush administration bias toward Israel.
"Perhaps her book should have been called 'Heartless,'" the senator said. "I know a lot of the widows and family members who lost loved ones on 9/11. They never wanted to be a member of a group that is defined by the tragedy of what happened." The New York Democrat and former first lady said she found it "unimaginable that anyone in the public eye could launch a vicious, mean-spirited attack on people whom I've known over the last four and a half years to be concerned deeply about the safety and security of our country."
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New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused commentator Ann Coulter of making a "vicious, mean-spirited attack" on outspoken 9/11 widows whom the television pundit described as "self-obsessed" and enjoying their husbands' deaths.
"The Republican leadership is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution," said Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) of Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2003. "A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law."
"When you say...you [gay Americans] are not a group of people who need special protection. You do well economically. You are an elite. That is precisely the argument that has been made in behalf of the worst kind of discrimination against Jewish people."
- United States Senator Paul Wellstone, July 29, 1994 -
Responding to a religious right spokesman's anti-gay testimony
Defense officials said the loss is unprecedented and raises concerns about the safety of U.S. military forces.
Social Security numbers and other personal information for as many as 2.2 million U.S. military personnel -- including nearly 80 percent of the active-duty force -- were among the data stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs analyst last month, federal officials said yesterday, raising concerns about national security as well as identity theft. The department announced that personal data for as many as 1.1 million active-duty military personnel, 430,000 National Guard members and 645,000 reserve members may have been included on an electronic file stolen May 3 from a department employee's house in Aspen Hill. The data include names, birth dates and Social Security numbers, VA spokesman Matt Burns said.
Manufacturers of cold, cough and allergy medicines that contain the antihistamine carbinoxamine and have not been approved have been given 30 to 90 days to stop making the products. In ordering this, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday the estimated 120 such medicines that contain the antihistamine being sold today pose a safety risk to infants and young children. Since 1983, the FDA has received reports of 21 deaths of children 2 and younger associated with the products, including those that contain carbinoxamine tannate and maleate. It isn’t clear the drug was to blame, however.
Ordinary people could be capable of extraordinary feats of mental agility by turning off part of the brain with magnetic fields, according to Australian scientists.
4,500 delegates participated in the biennial gathering of the Texas GOP this past weekend. As reported in The Dallas Morning News: "The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom." "We pledge to exert our influence ... [to] dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says." The Texas GOP Platform is not merely a document of extremist ideas. The proposals provide the backbone for both Bush administration policies and many legislative initiatives coming from our Republican-controlled Congress. The platform spells out a dominionist agenda , and, as such, is worthy of our attention.
The more canny of the self-apointed "defense of traditional marriage" crowd on the Chrstian right - who eschew apocalyptic prophecies that same sex marriage will certainly bring about the end of the world, the downfall of Western civilization*, ginguvitis, and so on - hedged their bets on the impact of same-sex marriage on Massachusets : they asserted that the concept of marriage would suffer damage and that, as a consequence, people would take to marrying their pets, farm animals, or animate objects such as cars, rocks, trees, or who knows what. The Christian right has used fearmongering over same sex marriage issue as a potent weapon in the "culture wars" - including attacks on the mainline Protestant Christian denominations - and has been loathe to admit the biological basis of same sex attraction, claiming instead that therapy, re-socialization, and various bizzare methods that have little or no connection to scientific research on human sexuality can get out "the gay"
On the west bank of the Tigris on the edge of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone a forest of cranes marks the progress of Iraq's newest monument: a US embassy that will be the largest in the world. Once an army of more than 3,500 construction workers have completed it in June 2007, the vast complex will be the new hub of the American administration in Iraq.......America's largest existing embassy, covering 10 acres and consisting of five buildings, is in Beijing. It will soon be dwarfed by the new Baghdad mission. It takes nearly five minutes to drive along just one side of its 104 acres, which will contain 21 buildings, the first floors of which are clearly visible along with the metal trellising that provides protection from mortars. The surrounding city may still have erratic clean water supplies and intermittent electricity but the new embassy will have a guaranteed supply with its own water treatment facilities and a generator. The only details of what the completed complex will look like can be found in a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. There will be six blocks with 619 one-bedroom flats, a recreation building, a beauty parlour, gym, swimming pool and even its own school. A lavish "American Club" will provide a venue to relax in the evening and a site to host receptions for visiting dignitaries.
"This is the third time that religious extremists have pushed this Amendment to a vote in Congress. While once again the measure failed, the religious right is committed to continuing their campaign to violate the rights of gay and lesbian Americans.
Furthermore, the Federal Marriage Amendment is only one piece of their larger agenda. Their successful efforts to stop stem cell research, force bible classes into our public schools, and attack our children's science education leave no doubt that the religious right is on the warpath."
"Today the Republican-controlled Senate could not even muster a majority to advance the Marriage Discrimination Amendment. It is good news that the Constitution has been protected from the likes of Pat Robertson and James Dobson. Senators who voted against bringing the amendment to a vote should be proud of their stand.
Senator Frist and President Bush never should have wasted our country’s time with such divisive election-year fear mongering. It shows, sadly, how far they will go to satisfy the far-right ideologues whose political demands are so far removed from most Americans’ priorities.
Those who have clamored for discrimination have always been shown to be on the wrong side of history. There’s no doubt that time will show political leaders who are now vilifying gay and lesbian Americans for political gain to be shamefully out of touch with our enduring values."
Chuck Colson, Watergate felon turned prison minister and religious-right activist, said on his June 2 radio commentary that the “younger, more violent, and more dangerous” men who are “flooding our prisons” are there because of “one primary reason: the lack of moral training during the morally formative years. These kids are coming from broken families.” What this means, according to Colson, is that passage of the Marriage Protection Amendment is “essential.”
“It’s appalling that President Bush is allowing the Religious Right to set the national agenda,” Lynn said. “Maybe if the president spent more time on issues the American people say are important and less time kowtowing to the Religious Right his approval ratings wouldn’t be in the tank.”
Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson flew into Washington, D.C., last month with twin goals: attend a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy and issue a new round of orders to top Republican leaders. With November elections fast approaching, Dobson is eager to make sure the Republican leadership does all it can to satisfy social conservatives. What GOP leaders in Congress have done so far – subjecting Supreme Court appointments to a right-wing litmus test, steadily eroding legal abortion, allocating billions in tax money to religious groups, curbing comprehensive sex education in public institutions, intervening in personal end-of-life decisions in the Terri Schiavo case and laboring to make same-sex marriage unconstitutional – is apparently not enough. Dobson has more items on his wish list.
So you thought those $20 doctor's office co-pays and your $250 deductible threw you off budget fast? That was nothing.
Get ready for the world of consumer-directed health care, where you'll pay $1,050 to $5,450 out of pocket before the insurance company pays anything. Think you don't need to worry about it? Think it doesn't apply to you? Think again.
According to HealthDay News, analysts are predicting that annual health care spending will skyrocket to over $4 trillion by 2015.
This means:
Americans will spend $421 billion of their own money on health care, up from $248.8 billion in 2005.
Prescription drug spending is expected to reach $446 billion, up from $188 billion in 2004.
Medicare spending will reach $792 billion, up from $309 billion in 2004.
Medicaid spending will reach $320 billion, up from $293 billion in 2004.
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"This calls into question the funding for so many programs," said Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State www.au.org , which filed the suit. "Anyone who doesn't stop it is putting a giant 'sue me' sign on top of their building." Lynn's group accused Prison Fellowship Ministries of giving preferential treatment to inmates participating in the program. They were given special visitation rights, movie-watching privileges, access to computers and access to classes needed for early parole. U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt called the perks "seemingly minor benefits" that constituted unfair treatment to those not in the religious program. Despite any claims of rehabilitating inmates, the program "impermissibly endorses religion," Pratt wrote.
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"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
— The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
(4) Thomas Jefferson Quotes on Religious Liberty
Thomas Jefferson is considered one of the greatest champions of religious liberty in American history. He often wrote of its importance in legislation, speeches, letters and
personal reflections.
A Wall of Separation
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”
--Letter to the Danbury Baptists, January 1, 1802
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the key guarantor of religious freedom in America. The fundamental right to worship as one chooses – or not to have a religious belief – is at the core of personal freedom.....the battle continues unabated as right-wing politicians, televangelists and activists remain intent on using government to promote and endorse religion, and to tear down the wall between church and state.
“Let’s be honest with ourselves,” said the Rev. Robert Hardies, senior pastor at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington. “There isn’t anyone in Washington who is naïve enough to believe that the introduction of this legislation now in two consecutive election cycles is anything but a politically motivated effort to win votes by demonizing a class of citizens.” The ad hoc group of religious leaders -- called Clergy For Fairness http://www.clergyforfairness.org/ -- announced that its petition in opposition to the federal marriage amendment had amassed over 2,000 signatures. In addition, 22 national religious groups have sent Congress a letter stating that “Congress should soundly reject any attempt to enshrine into the Constitution a particular religious viewpoint on a matter of such fundamental religious importance.”
“This radical scheme threatens the independence of the judiciary, belittles the concerns of certain groups and denies Americans the right to take certain cases into the courts,” Lynn said. “It could not be more misguided. We must never slam the federal courthouse door in the face of Americans seeking to protect their constitutional rights.” Lynn pointed out that several “court-stripping” measures are pending in the House. Most have been lying dormant. Debate over the Pledge Protection Act, he asserted, is designed more to placate the Religious Right than promote viable public policy.
“This vote was election-year politics at its worst,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “I’m glad the amendment was derailed, but it never should have been voted on. This vote was nothing but ammo for attack ads. “Playing politics with the Constitution is disgraceful,” Lynn continued.
Dean Ornish, MD, is known for his investigations that use a very lowfat near-vegan diet and other lifestyle changes to reverse heart disease.
A professor with long ties to the Reformed Church in America has coauthored a book that makes what he considers a Christian argument for gay marriage. In What God Has Joined Together? A Christian Case for Gay Marriage, psychologist David Myers of RCA-affiliated Hope College and coauthor Letha Dawson Scanzoni say research has shown that strong marriages--heterosexual and homosexual benefit society. They say it is everyone's right to marry and fully take part in the church and its ministry.
Michigan's voters approved a ban on gay marriage, but did they mean no more same-sex benefits for government employees? The state's attorney general says that's exactly what the constitutional ban means, and unless the Court of Appeals rules otherwise, state and local governments will no longer be able to provide the benefit (the decision doesn't apply to existing contracts).
Under plans for a legal shake-up being published today, cohabitees who split up may be allowed to claim maintenance or a lump sum as well as a share of property and pensions. Under the proposals from the Government's law advisers, unmarried couples could get similar rights married people and individuals who have made their vows in civil partnership ceremonies. Gay couples who have not gone through a civil partnership union may also get the same rights as unmarried heterosexuals living together.......The number of people cohabiting is set to rise to nearly four million within 25 years and ministers are concerned that these couples lack legal and financial rights. They are proposing to publish a draft bill to deal with these issues next year. But the proposals from the Law Commission, which are at an early stage, are almost certain to be highly controversial. The Church of England is likely to view the proposals as a dilution of marriage. The number of married men and women is set to drop below 50 per cent of the population by 2011.
Global warming poses one of the most serious threats to the global environment ever faced in human history. Yet by focusing entirely on carbon dioxide emissions, major environmental organizations have failed to account for published data showing that other gases are the main culprits behind the global warming we see today. As a result, they are neglecting what might be the most effective strategy for reducing global warming in our lifetimes: advocating a vegetarian diet.
Ruminant animals, such as cattle, sheep, buffalo, and goats, are unique. Because of their special digestive systems, they can convert otherwise unusable plant materials into nutritious food and fiber. This same helpful digestive system, however, produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that can contribute to global climate change. Livestock production systems can also emit other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.
"In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."
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Enough details have emerged from survivors and military personnel to conclude that in the town of Haditha last November, members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment perpetrated a massacre. The killings may have been in retaliation for the death of a Marine lance corporal, but this was not the work of soldiers gone berserk. The targets (children from 3 to 14, an old man in a wheelchair, taxi passengers), the hours-long duration of killings, the number of Marines involved, the careful mop-up--all amount to willful, targeted brutality designed to send a message to Iraqis. As Representative John Murtha has pointed out, the patently false story floated afterward, blaming the killings on roadside bombs, and Marine payoffs to survivors imply a cover-up that may extend far up the chain of command.
A young former US Army sniper wearing a desert camo uniform, an Iraqi kaffiyeh and mirrored sunglasses scans a ruined urban landscape of smashed homes, empty streets and garbage heaps. His sand-colored hat bears a small regulation-style military patch, or tab, that instead of reading "Airborne" or "Ranger" or "Special Forces" says "Shitbag"--common military parlance for bad soldier. This isn't Baghdad or Kabul. It's the Gulf Coast, and the column of young men and women in desert uniforms carrying American flags are with Iraq Veterans Against the War. They are part of a larger peace march that is making its way from Mobile to New Orleans. This is just one of IVAW's ongoing series of actions.
Like jonquils in April, no less than six retired American generals, one after another, have popped up out of the ground with the suggestion that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would do the world a favor if he would quit--or, failing that, if somebody could be found to fire him. They were not too specific about who that somebody might be, but most of us out here in Day-to-Day-Life Land thought we knew who the boys with the brass stars had in mind.
As far as I can tell, Senators Brownback and Inhofe are upset that more than half of Swedish and Norwegian children are born out of wedlock. Senator Brownback attributes this to same-sex marriage, and Senator Inhofe worries that "millions of them are going to end up on welfare." As the U.S. recklessly pursues its unilateralist foreign policy, it's nice to know that some Repbulicans care about those poor bastards trapped in the Swedish welfare state. Unless this means we have to add Sweden to the axis of evil. Freedom meatballs anyone? Senator Santorum is still vexed about the Lawrence v. Texas decision and spent a lot of time quoting Scalia's dissenting opinion which defends state laws against masturbation. Perhaps he's taking cues from a certain Ms. Sandra Rodrigues of Utah who, according to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, sat outside the Senate all week with a sign that read "Stop Same Sex Marriage: It Endorses Masturbation." Even though Santorum faces a tough reelection battle in Pennsylvania, I'm glad he listens to people outside his home state who think that kids have entirely too much time on their hands.
President Bush threw what was left of his influence on Capitol Hill behind the move by social conservatives to amend the Constitution to discriminate against gays and lesbians. But when the votes were counted Wednesday, the president was not even able to muster a majority in the Senate. When the critical test came on the election-year proposal to amend the Constitution to essentially ban same-sex marriage -- along with a number of other basic protections for gay and lesbian families -- only 49 senators voted to move the amendment forward. That was far short of the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture, close off debate and force a vote on the actual amendment. And it was a full 18 votes short of the 67 needed for the Senate to approve a Constitutional amendment.
The Bush Family consistently acted to put Enron and its longtime CEO Ken Lay into a position to rip off investors and taxpayers. Why is the mass media ignoring that fact now that Lay has been convicted in arguably the most egregious example of white-collar fraud in US history?
Macy’s department store found itself mired in a fierce national debate between conservatives and gay activists when it bowed to complaints and removed part of a window display marking Boston Pride Week.
Fourteen European nations colluded with U.S. intelligence in a “spider’s web” of secret flights and detention centers that violated international human rights law, the head of an investigation into alleged CIA clandestine prisons said Wednesday.
The United States is urging Latin American nations to deny Venezuela a seat on the U.N. Security Council when the region chooses a replacement for the rotating seat held by Argentina, whose term expires at the end of the year.
Reluctant to campaign openly against Venezuela, the Bush administration instead has been boosting the rival candidacy of Guatemala, a U.S. ally.
When their husbands were killed on 9/11, four New Jersey widows tried to find out why - and now no-holds-barred conservative pundit Ann Coulter is mercilessly denouncing them as "witches."
( More quotes from her book when speaking of wives who lost husbands in 911, she makes me sick !!! )
"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."
"And by the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy. . ."
"These self-obsessed women seemed genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them."
Last night, Coulter didn't back down from bashing the 9/11 widows. "These women got paid. They ought to take their money and shut up about it," Coulter said on MSNBC's "The Situation with Tucker Carlson."
Syndicated columnist and author Ann Coulter appeared on the Today show on Tuesday, promoting a new book. Host Matt Lauer asked her to explain certain remarks in the book aimed at activist 9/11 widows, including her charge that they were nothing but "self obsessed" and celebrity-seeking "broads" who are "enjoying" their husbands' deaths "so much."
Thousands of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan may be risking permanent brain damage by returning to combat with relatively minor but undiagnosed concussions, often caused by bomb blasts, military researchers say. Doctors say they are only now understanding the scope of the problem. Researchers screening returning soldiers and Marines at four military bases found that about 10% suffered at least a minor brain injury during combat. About 20% of troops in front-line infantry units suffered such injuries. The injuries frequently go undiagnosed because troops have no visible wounds or may not know they suffered a concussion, doctors say. Medics and field doctors often aren't aware of what happened during fighting.
CBS News: U.S. Officials Believe Recent Incidents Point To An Imminent Threat
U.S. officials believe Canadian arrests over the weekend and three recent domestic incidents in the United States are evidence the U.S. will soon be hit again by a terrorist attack. Privately, they say, they'd be surprised if it didn't come by the end of the year, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart in a CBS News exclusive.
The source, who declined to be identified because military prosecutors have yet to press charges, said some of the 24 dead could have been insurgents. Those killed in the western Iraqi town last November 19 included men, women and children.
This three part series explores how the Bush administration's efforts to cut costs associated with the Iraq war come at the expense of veterans with PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became part of the American vocabulary after the Vietnam War as its affects on veterans became widely publicized. Now, a new generation of American veterans are again victims of PTSD. This series explores the impact of politics on the funding, diagnosis and treatment of veterans suffering from PTSD. It examines the propaganda used to justify a reduction in benefits to veterans with PTSD and the effort to redirect blame for the ravages of war to the soldiers themselves.
With trillion dollar estimates for the Iraq war, the Administration looks to cut costs, eyeing treatment for the returning PTSD wounded veterans.
Redefining PTSD and substance abuse as moral/spiritual failings opens the door to cheaper unregulated, unlicensed faith-based "treatments."
Propaganda is used to stigmatize veterans seeking help, reduce benefits to veterans with PTSD and to blame the soldiers for their own illness.
"At least through tomorrow, (published June 6, 2006) the Senate will consider a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Republican leaders, including President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.), a potential 2008 White House candidate, believe Senate action is vital because of recent federal court intervention.......Later in the week, the Senate is expected to consider a permanent repeal of the estate tax, which Bush phased out as part of his first-term tax relief package, but after a one-year hiatus, in 2010, the levy phases back into existence. Most Democrats object to full repeal as a giveaway to the super-rich, but Republicans believe the estate tax, which they call the "death tax," is unfair because it taxes some income twice. Conservatives are considering a compromise that would shield all but the wealthiest estates, and some moderate Democrats are interested in a similar approach."
As one astute political observer noted, gay marriage doesn't pose any threat to heterosexual marriage, but hypocritical married politicians who bed young lasses (or lads) do.
Referendum 65, a measure aimed at repealing Washington's gay-rights law, will not be on the November ballot.
The traditional media may be interested almost exclusively in the sex lives of Democratic politicians, but on the hypocrisy index, it is hard to score higher than Republicans pontificating about saving the institution of marriage while so many of their leaders are serial and long-time adulterers:
Members of the U.S. Congress and their aides took free trips worth nearly $50 million paid for by corporations, trade associations and other private groups between January 2000 and June 2005, according to a study released on Monday. Some of the 23,000 trips featured $500-a-night hotel rooms, $25,000 corporate jet rides and visits to popular spots such as Paris, Hawaii and Colorado ski resorts, said the study, by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service. The study found that many of those who picked up the tabs were at the same time seeking to shape legislation on Capitol Hill or win federal contracts. "In many instances, trip sponsors appeared to be buying access to elected officials or their advisors," the study said.
It's been a month since the heralded Darfur Peace Agreement was signed on May 5, and the violence in western Sudan has not stopped; in some parts of Darfur, in fact, the violence has escalated. People are still being killed and raped and displaced -- every single day.
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(2) Human Rights First has sent a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging him to adopt a more comprehensive approach
to the humanitarian, human rights, security and political emergencies in Darfur.
In a clear ploy to pander to the religious right and save his sinking ship, President Bush today called on the Senate to hold an immediate vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment -- rallying our leaders to attack freedom, and write bigotry into our constitution. If passed, the amendment would deny marriage rights to gay and lesbian Americans. It doesn't stop there. The aggressive amendment would add language to our constitution that could even strip such Americans of the right to civil unions, domestic partnerships and other legal protections.
The CIA has been implicated in some of the worst cases of detainee abuse – and the U.S. government has been evasive about which laws bind the agency. Today you can take a simple step to help bring the CIA in line with our country's values and prevent future cases of abuse. Ask them to make sure our next CIA director prohibits its personnel from torturing detainees in U.S. custody. The Senate will soon be voting on the confirmation of nominee Gen. Michael Hayden. I urge you to join me and Human Rights First in making sure the CIA is run by someone who understands and enforces Sen. John McCain's ban on torture and cruel treatment. Porter Goss, the outgoing CIA director, has gone so far as to say waterboarding - an illegal technique whereby a prisoner is tied to a board and subject to a mock drowning - is a "professional" interrogation tactic. Will Gen. Hayden signal a new era and uphold basic human rights? Our Senators should insist on it!
“The Constitution prohibits the Secretary of Defense from adopting or permitting policies of torture or cruelty against civilians detained in U.S. military custody,” said Lucas Guttentag, lead counsel in the lawsuit and director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “He and the other defendants seem to believe that the Constitution is irrelevant if the victims are foreign nationals tortured outside the United States. That is not the law, and the courts are able to hold government officials accountable for the horrors of Abu Ghraib and the widespread abuse that resulted from the Rumsfeld policies.”
Values -- American overwhelmingly share Progressive moral values concerns
President Bush and congressional conservatives "are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage," the AP reports, "all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives." But a new survey commissioned by the Center for American Progress "demonstrat[es] again that the moral issues people worried about most in their daily lives" are "very different from the ones dominating political debate," according to Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times. Asked to name the most serious moral crisis in America today, the highest proportion (28 percent) cited "kids not raised with the right values." "Next came corruption in government and business, followed by greed and materialism, people too focused on themselves, and too much sex and violence in the media. Only 3% named abortion and homosexuality as the nation's top moral challenge. Even among those who attend religious services most often, just 6% picked abortion and homosexuality." Seventy-one percent of voters surveyed strongly agree that "Americans are becoming too materialistic" (92 percent total agree) including 71 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Independents, and 72 percent of Republicans. Sixty-eight percent of voters strongly agree that the “government should be committed to the common good and put the public’s interest above the privileges of the few” (85 percent total agree). The same percentage of voters (68 percent) strongly agrees that “government should uphold the basic decency and dignity of all and take greater steps to help the poor and disadvantaged in America” (89 percent total agree).
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"Gunmen wearing police uniforms raided bus stations in central Baghdad, abducting at least 50 people, including drivers and passengers preparing to travel outside Iraq." Elsewhere, "masked gunmen stopped two minivans carrying students north of Baghdad, ordered the passengers off, separated Shiites from Sunni Arabs, and killed the 21 Shiites 'in the name of Islam.'"
"In the three years since Americans gained federal protection for their private medical information, the Bush administration has received thousands of complaints alleging violations but has not imposed a single civil fine and has prosecuted just two criminal cases."
“The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans ‘humiliating and degrading treatment,’ … a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.” The State Department "fiercely opposes" the decision "and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider."
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$50 million: Amount outside interests have paid since 2000 to shuttle Members of Congress and their staffs around the world. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) took one of the most expensive trips -- more than $20,000 "for a one-day trip from Washington to Hidalgo, Texas, to accept an award as The BorderFest Border Texan of the Year."
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