Week Starting
April 30th 2006
A gay pogrom escalates in Baghdad as a boy who apparently slept with men to feed his impoverished family is pulled from his home and shot.
"Human rights groups have condemned the murder, which is part of a pattern of anti-gay killings in Iraq, rights groups say."
His digits might require amputation, or they might just fall off. Aren't there safer ways to treat rheumatoid arthritis?
Discover why you want to avoid conventional salt like the plague, and the purest salt on earth and its 13 amazing health benefits.
Are vitamin-D-rich mushrooms a good or poor solution if you are low in vitamin D?
Further evidence that you need to get rid of your Teflon pots and pans ASAP.
New method avoids drugs and years of therapy.
More information;
The Lying (and the Buying) of the Right
The Cleveland Free Times takes a long, hard look at the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) operating methods in Ohio. As usual, it ain't pretty. The right-wing, corporate-funded network of state legislators is exposed quite thoroughly.
The usual facts about ALEC are all there: the fact that corporations pay tens of thousands of dollars for access to the organization, that the companies in question "includ[e] household names like Pfizer, Philip Morris Management Corp., Proctor & Gamble Co., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., United Parcel Service and Verizon Communications." The story even got a representative of the National Conference of State Legislatures to say that ALEC's policy is developed "with, and for, the business community," something that no publicly-backed legislative policy organization would think of doing.
Source:
Private Prisons Steer Money to Influence Sentencing Laws
Urban Revitalization, Toxics Security, and Wal-Mart Banking
Revitalizing existing existing urban areas is a key part of achieving energy independence for our country —and two new reports, "Federal Policy Ideas for Community Revitalization" from the Northeast-Northwest Institute and Unleashing the Potential of American Cities"
from the Brookings Institute give local planners new tools for pursuing that goal.
gives the good news that hundreds of facilities have switched to less hazardous processes, but also the bad news that thousands of other facilities remain unchanged and still threaten our communities – and government have yet to act to require less hazardous conditions.
You should know where your member of Congress stands on raising the minimum wage. Contact your U.S. representative’s office today and ask whether he or she will fight to raise the minimum wage. Members of Congress who support an increase in the minimum wage have signed a “discharge petition” that would bring the bill to the House floor. Is your representative among them? Take action today to find out.
As the nation focuses on ways to improve our health care system during National Cover the Uninsured Week, a bill that could gut your health insurance is making its way through the U.S. Senate. The bill, S. 1955, would allow health insurers to bypass state requirements for minimum benefits. That means it could eliminate key benefits in your coverage, including cancer screenings, contraception, emergency services, mental health care and diabetic supplies. Stop S. 1955 from gutting your health insurance. Tell your senators to oppose the bill.
Glenn Beck, a Philadelphia-based radio host, was recently hired by CNN to host a show on CNN Headline News. Beck has a history of making outrageous and hateful statements. For example, he said that illegal immigrants are either "terrorists," outlaws, or people who "can't make a living in their own dirtbag country."
The House and Senate must vote in favor of the Fair Districts Constitutional Amendment before July 31, 2006 and every vote counts! Write your legislators and urge them to support this important reform.
Help make every vote in Massachusetts count by supporting legislation that would require electronic voting machines to produce a paper record
of votes cast.
The absurdly named Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (COPE) would place control of the Internet in the hands of a few powerful corporations, end consumer protections against abuses by cable companies and expand the digital divide by allowing telecom giants to discriminate against rural, minority and low-income neighborhoods. Tell Congress to stop this dangerous bill in its tracks!
You think the Internet will always be the great freewheeling information superhighway you've grown to love? Well, think again. Media giants want to privatize our Internet. Now it's your turn to tell the telecom and business leaders what you think!
H.R. 4975, the lobbying and ethics bill sponsored by the House Republican leadership, is a complete sham. A farce. A joke. Tell your member to vote for real reform. The House should pass a package of amendments offered by Representatives Chris Shays (R-CT) and Martin Meehan (D-MA).
The US Senate is taking up lobby reform legislation again and we need to make certain that tough enforcement is part of that measure. Please help push for lobbying reform by sending a letter to you Senator.
Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) is championing a fair and politically viable way of correcting an injustice that has existed for over 200 years - H.R. 2043, the District of Columbia Fairness in Representation Act (DC FAIR Act) would give the citizens of the District of Columbia voting representation in the House. Contact your Representative today and tell them to co-sponsor Rep. Davis’ bill to give DC a vote in Congress.
It's time for Congress to step up to the plate and fix the broken system. Voters must be able to trust that their votes will be counted and that the election will be fair, open to all qualified citizens, and auditable. We must be able to feel confident that machine manufacturers and election officials answer to no interests except those of the voters.
Tell your friends to call their Representative today and urge them to support a bill for a voter-verified paper ballot (HR550), which has been introduced by Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ). The Holt bill sets a high standard for integrity and security, while acknowledging the need for accessibility. Its passage would go a long way to make our election system more secure and give voters confidence in their vote.
Speaker of the Texas House Tom Craddick is under investigation by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle for taking illegal campaign contributions. Prior to the 2002 election, Craddick accepted $152,000 from Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, which Craddick’s campaign aides then distributed to 14 Republican House candidates crucial to Craddick’s election as Speaker.
Here is a news update that concerns the Catholic church...imagine that...first we have pedophile priests moved around from church to church, and the current pope has immunity from any legal action taken towards the church, even though, from what I undestand, knew all about the priest moving.....now we have the pope that "learned of the news with great sadness" that China ordained a few priests, without their o.k.
Now lets first remind the church that China is known for it's many horrendous atrocities when it comes to human rights.
I wonder why they do not put out press releases about this issue.....along with the president who seems to want to kiss China's ass, which he may have to, since almost everything I own was made in China.
Associated Press ~ Thu May 04, 2006
The Vatican strongly criticized the ordination of bishops by China's state-approved Catholic Church, saying Thursday they represent a "grave violation of religious freedom" and hinder dialogue between the Vatican and Beijing.
A statement from the Vatican spokesman said Pope Benedict XVI was deeply saddened at the news of the ordinations, which took place without Vatican approval. It called on Chinese authorities to prevent any such moves in the future — noting they lead to excommunication.
"The Holy Father learned of the news with great sadness," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in the statement. "It is a great wound to the unity of the Church."
The Senate, like the House, passed an amendment to the supplemental spending bill banning the use of any of its funding for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq. Will the amendment survive a Republican-run conference committee?
But......
George Bush is considering attacking Iran, including using nuclear bombs to do so. Such an attack would be illegal and disastrous. Congress can prevent it, but only if Congres asserts its Constitutional right to decide whether or not the United States goes to war. Congressman Peter DeFazio's H. Con. Res. 391 expresses "the sense of Congress that the President should not initiate military action against Iran with respect to its nuclear program without first obtaining authorization from Congress." This bill is rapidly picking up cosponsors, but needs more. Ask your Congress Member to sign on today. Ask your Senators to take the same step in the Senate.
More information:
There's an ever-growing disconnect between company performance and CEO compensation. According to the AFL-CIO, the average pay for a CEO of an S&P 500 company remained 430 times that of the average worker. Alyce Lomax examines CEO pay and explains why if you're discouraged by executive compensation, there's more you can do than simply selling your stock in disgust.
Here is the one intelligent move the Republican Party has taken since Bush took hold of the White House;
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, under pressure from business leaders, retreated Monday from a plan that would have used a tax increase on oil companies and other businesses to pay for a $100 gasoline rebate for millions of motorists.
Sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to flee their homes, a top Iraqi official said. At least 17 people, including an American soldier, were killed Saturday in fighting.
On September 11, 2001, shortly after terrorists flew airplanes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the 40 passengers and crew members on United Airlines Flight 93 fought a battle in the sky over Pennsylvania. These forty heroes won their struggle against terrorists and thwarted a planned attack on our nation?s capital, saving countless numbers of lives, while sacrificing their own in a field just east of Pittsburgh, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Universal Pictures Donation to Flight 93 National Memorial
It was announced today by the Families of Flight 93 that the Flight 93 National Memorial will receive 10 percent of all box-office revenue collected from the first three days of the North American release of Universal Pictures? United 93, which opens in theaters on Friday, April 28, 2006.
Check out the new movie;
As the nation focuses on ways to improve our health care system during National Cover the Uninsured Week, a bill that could gut your health insurance is making its way through the U.S. Senate. The bill, S. 1955, would allow health insurers to bypass state requirements for minimum benefits. That means it could eliminate key benefits in your coverage, including cancer screenings, contraception, emergency services, mental health care and diabetic supplies. Stop S. 1955 from gutting your health insurance. Tell your senators to oppose the bill.
How can Mary claim this is only a coincidence? And if she does claim it's only a coincidence, does that mean Mary WON'T be using her book launch to help her own lover Heather Poe and her own community by denouncing what the Republican Congress, what her own father, are all doing by pushing this hateful gay-bashing amendment? Inquiring minds want to know. Is Mary finally taking a stand for Heather Poe and her community, or is she once again running for the closet just in time for her father to bash us once again. Mary in on ABC's Prime Time Live tomorrow night - let's see if she grows a pair, or even a conscience, between now and then. And a big PS to the media. Now it's my turn? If that isn't a direct slap at the DearMary.com Web campaign I launched about Mary two years ago, I don't know what it. It's hard to think otherwise, considering Mary just coincidentally chose to release her new book "Now it's my turn" just weeks before the US Senate brings up the amendment to the US Constitution to ban gays from marrying, and likely eliminating most civil rights we have.
The Bush Administration proposal to roll back Americans' right to know about chemical hazards in their neighborhoods would let California industries handle almost 1.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals a year without telling the public, according to an EWG investigation. The Administration's proposal would make it easier for industries to pollute with hazardous chemicals in secret.
An average of $270 million of wasted fertilizer flows down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico each year, creating a "Dead Zone" of more than 5,000 square miles completely devoid of marine life. An EWG analysis of government and industry data shows that reforms of federal farm programs could restore this fishery.
Back in 1990, the FDA trusted the soft drink industry to stop using a combination of ingredients that can form the potent carcinogen benzene. Now it's 2006, and not only has industry not fixed the problem, but EWG has uncovered FDA test results that show that 79 percent of diet soda samples tested from 1995 to 2001 were contaminated with benzene levels above federal safety standards for benzene in tap water. Who is FDA trying to protect? You and me? Or the soft drink industry? Perhaps the FDA thinks you don't care. They know that the soft drink industry does.
Why does the FDA refuse to make results of a recent test for cancer-causing benzene in beverages public? Which type of drinks should you be concerned about, and what can you do to protect yourself?
Whether you've been a Mom for fifty years, you're a new Mom - or even if you someday intend to be a Mom - take this quiz to find out whether you're closest to a Super-Mom, Strict Mom, Affectionate Mom, or a Laid Back Mom… and what each of these mean!
As many as three million women in the U.S. alone may unknowingly be at risk for heart disease because they suffer from the severely under-diagnosed coronary microvascular syndrome. Every woman - especially those who have ever experienced unexplained shortness of breath or chest pain -- please read this article, and pass it on to every woman you know
Quadrant Homes, based near Seattle, Washington, is owned by Weyerhaeuser--the biggest lumber company in the world. Many of the Homes Quadrant builds contain lumber products made by Weyerhaeuserout that RAN has traced back to the forest homeland of Grassy Narrows First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. Help Rainforest Action Network and Grassy Narrows promote strong indigneous rights and durable protections for Canada's Boreal forests.
2,500 square miles of forests, lakes and rivers north of Kenora, Ontario have sustained the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation for thousands of years. Now Weyerhaeuser, the largest lumber company in the world, is driving a wave of destructive logging that threatens to uproot their traditional way of life. On the invitation of the community, Rainforest Action Network launched this site to grow support for Grassy Narrows' struggle for self determination and to help stop the logging that they oppose. Get informed, sign the petition, and spread the word.
A Washington Times editorial asserted that "Iran has shown no serious interest in negotiating" about its alleged nuclear weapons program, despite evidence that, in May 2003, Iran made diplomatic overtures toward the United States.
Notmilkman: From Vivisectionist to Activist
I was once a research scientist, performing surgery on laboratory animals.
When cyproterone acetate reduced the size of the prostate gland without affecting their sexual performance in my experimental lab rats, I was thrilled.
After ligating the renal arteries which supplied blood to the kidneys of a group of male rats, I discovered that reduced blood supply to the kidney created a state of hypertension. I found the profound.
When parachloraphenylalanine (PCPA) induced male rats to mount other male rats, I was knew that I was on the brink of a major finding.
When we injected female rats with a radioactive substance (tritiated estradiol benzoate) and then measured uptake in various tissues with a scintillation spectrometer, I recognized that I was discovering things that no other researcher had previously known.
When I implanted an electrode to the median forebrain bundle of a rat's hypothalamus and taught that animal to press a bar to get food, then to get electrical stimulation to that area of his brain, and when he continuously pressed that bar, electing a mild electric surge over food, I knew that I had found the addiction center of his brain...or, the pleasure center.
When I injected gold thioglucose into the lateral artery of a rat's brain, and created an animal that would never stop eating, I knew that upon autopsy, I would find the brain's central neural eating center. Indeed I had. That was the ventro-medial nucleus.
After removing the ovaries and uteri from a group of female rats, I learned to control their sexual cycles and urges by injecting them with estrogen and then some days thereafter, progesterone. Four hours after the second injection, they would come into estrus. Truly amazing.
After injecting testosterone into the area of a male rat's brain that had previously been identified as that area controlling sexual function, the males did something strange. They built nests. I had induced maternal behavior. After injecting that same hormone into female rats, they mounted males and performed pelvic thrusting, much as a male rat would do. Quite unladylike. Quite fascinating.
"I don't think one can articulate a satisfaction with harming another being whether it's human or nonhuman." - Henry Spira
The Secret Service's records documenting convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's contacts with Bush administration officials may not reveal all such meetings, the White House said Tuesday......Abramoff pleaded guilty in January in Washington to federal charges stemming from an investigation into his ties with members of Congress and the Bush administration. He also pleaded guilty to fraud charges in Miami concerning a multimillion-dollar purchase of SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet in 2000.
How many more Republicans does it take to make an ass out of their Party? One;
Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert preached to the American public about his commitment to lowering gas prices. A few minutes later, after the press conference and a block down the road getting out of the "prop" hydrogen car he drove up in and getting back into his luxury SUV.
More information:
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) held a press conference and released a new web site, www.GOPAuctionHouse.org, to make sure people across the country know the truth how the Republicans in Congress have turned the People's House into the GOP Auction House. Visit the site and you'll find that Republicans have taken hundreds of millions from special interests like Big Oil (Hastert has taken $365,238, by the way). In return you'll find just what the Republican share given to Big Oil at the expense of American families.
Immediate action is needed on a bill before the U.S. Senate that could end basic health insurance coverage you depend on — birth control, cancer screenings, maternity care, and more. Women in every state will lose benefits. It sounds like a bad joke, but it couldn't be more serious. S. 1955 would allow insurance plans to ignore important state laws that protect patients, directly affecting more than 90 million Americans. Chances are you're one of them. Please write your senator today and demand that the federal government protect your health coverage.
Looksie, looksie, more Christians and more violence;
"Many protesters pelted people leaving the party with eggs and fruit, and police escorted other party-goers to safety.....Demonstrators on both nights of the May Day holiday weekend were an unlikely mix of young men from a Russian nationalist group and elderly Orthodox Christians. They shouted anti-gay slogans and smashed windows on two cars, the BBC said."
At least 63 journalists were killed worldwide in 2005, the highest number in a decade, a media watchdog said on Tuesday, but it also noted media had become freer in India and some Central American countries.
Funny, funny #1;
Funny, funny #2;
Big money has teamed with neoconservative politics to usher in an age in which quid pro quo between mainstream media corporations and government largely define what Americans see and hear.
That is the message in one of a series of striking advertisements, created by leading advertising agencies, that are being offered to newspapers world-wide to publish next week to commemorate World Press Freedom Day, 3 May.
On Chris Matthews' Hardball Monday evening, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster confirmed what RAW STORY first reported in February: that outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was working on Iran at the time she was outed. Larisa Alexandrovna broke the story earlier this year, which went unnoticed by the mainstream media.
“All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. Its easy. In this way the people are brought to the bidding of the leaders. It works the same in any country.”
- Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg Trials
President Bush didn't listen to those advisers who told him there were no WMDs, or that we'd need hundreds of thousands of troops to prevent civil war in Iraq. Maybe he'll listen to his wife?
As they debate gas prices and energy policy, our elected officials should immediately end one of the most egregious giveaways benefiting big oil companies: a loophole that allows Big Oil to drill off our coasts without paying any royalties to the government. Act Now!
Back in 1979, fueled by widespread consumer anger at oil companies over high prices and long lines at the pump — Crude oil was $39.50 a barrel! Gas prices soared to $1.50 a gallon! — I led a California initiative campaign called “Tax Big Oil.” It resulted in Proposition 11 on the June 1980 ballot, to tax the excess profits of oil companies and dedicate those funds to public transit. We didn’t win, but we weren’t wrong. We were just ahead of our time. Flash forward to 2006. Once again, consumers are angry over gas prices. And, once again, at least part of the answer is: a windfall profits tax.
Rep. Waxman releases a fact sheet showing that a permanent estate tax repeal would favor the President, Vice President, and 11 cabinet members, saving them as much as $344 million dollars total.
When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers....
Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.
In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."
Congress cannot present a bill to the president until both houses have agreed to its contents. The bill cannot be changed by the president, as he does not have the Constitutional power to create laws.
Here are a few examples;
Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) has alleged Bush signed a version of the Budget Reconciliation Act that never passed the House of Representatives. According to Waxman, Speaker Dennis Hastert called Georgie, telling him that the bill being signed was different than the one that had passed in the US House. Georgie signed it anyways and is in violation of the US Constitution.
Source:
Bush breaks law in withholding Medicare costs ~ Law breakers of the future, beware
".....after the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report saying that the administration broke federal laws when it withheld the cost of Bush's Medicare proposal from Congress." ~ Democrats.org/blog.
"Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.
Bush is implementing the international corporate agenda in the USA, dismantling American democracy, and finalizing the NWO takeover. Bush has given himself almost total power through the Emergency Measures Act and Bioterrorism legislation. He changes, bends, thwarts or breaks still-intact laws to serve the NWO.
"In the Persian Gulf War, about three troops were wounded in action for every fatality. In Iraq, about seven are being wounded for
every one killed." ~ Alan Bavley. "New technology and medical practices save lives in Iraq." Knight Ridder Newspapers.
Deaths, safety violations, cover-ups, and conflicts of interest pervade the world of drug safety testing.
An Australian ban on livestock antibiotics has resulted in a greatly reduced rate of drug-resistant bacteria in humans.
The recycled mercury is being sold to third-world gold mines, and ends up back in your air and water.
Owning a pet can reduce your stress, loneliness and blood pressure, while raising your self-esteem.
There have been 2,613 coalition deaths, 2,400 Americans, two Australians, 104 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 29 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Romanian, two Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of May 1, 2006, according to a CNN count. (Graphical breakdown of casualties). The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country's governments. At least 17,762 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. View casualties in the war in Afghanistan and examine U.S. war casualties dating back to the Revolutionary War.
Chinese plans to use ancient rainforest timbers from Indonesia for Olympic construction offer a unique, discrete opportunity to raise the profile of China's increasing role in rainforest destruction - particulary in Southeast Asia.
More than 160 U.S. humanitarian, faith-based and human rights organizations mobilized demonstrators Sunday to demand international action to stop violence in Darfur, Sudan. Five members of Congress were arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy on Friday. Rallies in at least 30 U.S. and Canadian cities were part of the effort.
More information;
The myopia in Congress is stunning. It is clear that NAFTA and NAFTA-like policies implemented in Central and South America by the IMF and World Bank have wiped out millions of campesino farmers' livelihoods and caused economic crises that have forced millions to migrate to the United States. Yet some Republican leaders in Congress continue to press for expanding NAFTA — while decrying "illegal" immigration.
"Conspiracy of Silence" is a powerful, disturbing documentary revealing a nationwide child abuse and pedophilia ring that leads to the highest levels of government. Featuring intrepid investigator John DeCamp, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and 16-year Nebraska state senator, "Conspiracy of Silence" reveals how rogue elements at all levels of government have been involved in systematic child abuse and pedophilia to feed the base desires of key politicians.
In a special plea for action, Greenpeace journalist Josephine Prasad details the damage and explains how it can be stopped.
All missionaries from industrialised countries currently living in poorer countries, should be withdrawn because their presence is generally counter-productive, according to a new book by a missionary of 60 years' standing.
Animal diseases will pose a growing threat in Africa unless the continent's health and veterinary services are significantly improved, according to a UK government programme.
From Capitol Hill to viewers of the Today Show, Americans found out why "every child needs a teacher" last week.
World crude oil prices--not clean air requirements--are driving up the cost of gas, says environmental activist Frank O'Donnell, arguing that President Bush is protecting big oil companies by scapegoating the environment. "The president and Republican-led Congress could have seen the rising gas prices coming miles away. The time to worry about it was last year when they were writing the monster energy bill ( The Do-Nothing Energy Bill ), loaded with subsidies to energy companies. That's when concrete steps could have been taken to wean America from its oil addiction. Instead, the president is exploiting the public's anxiety over gas prices to advance his own oil-driven energy agenda."
Wyeth Complaint Threatens Drug Options
In October, Wyeth, the maker of Premarin and Prempro, filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent specialized pharmacists from offering bio-identical hormones. Many women choose these individually custom-mixed hormones instead of using Wyeth's hormone drugs, which are made from pregnant mares' urine (PMU).
More information:
There are exciting and profound developments currently underway in the Senate! Unlike the House, the Senate has not, up until now, had any significant legislation aimed at curtailing the war in Iraq. Now however, Democrats in the Senate are offering amendments, designed to bring our troops home, to the Supplemental Appropriations Bill H.R. 4939. This bill is largely geared towards funding the occupation of Iraq. If you agree, tell your Senator that you support these two amendments to the emergency supplemental:
1.) Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is offering an amendment that requires the redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of this year!
The main thrust of the amendment says: “The United States shall redeploy U.S. forces from Iraq by December 31st, 2006, maintaining
only a minimal force sufficient for engaging directly in targeted counter-terrorism activities, training Iraqi security forces, and protecting
U.S. infrastructure and personnel.”
2.) Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) is expected to offer an amendment barring spending on permanent U.S. bases in Iraq.
More information
A new lawsuit argues that AT&T has been helping the NSA’s illegal surveillance for years. Court papers describe the program as a "vast fishing expedition" to monitor Americans’ communications, without the warrants required by the U.S. Constitution.
More information: The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) A non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Center for Constitutional Rights and four Iraqis who were tortured in U.S. custody filed a complaint on November 30 with the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office against high ranking United States civilian and military commanders over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere in Iraq.
Americans Rally to Save Darfur
This Sunday (April 30th 2006), tens of thousands of Americans -- including actor George Clooney, U.S. Olympic gold medal winner Joey Cheek, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) -- will join rallies around the country http://www.savedarfur.org/rally/ urging the Bush administration to step up its efforts to end the genocidal violence in Darfur.
The number of laws “President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/04/is-us-nation-of-laws-or-just-banana.html …since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution. Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ‘whistle-blower’ protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.”
I was told, "We don't watch CNN here, you can only watch Fox."
Everyone knows FOX is the White House network of choice. At least for the time being, before FOX opens its official branch office in the West Wing, reporters don't have to listen to the propaganda while traveling on Air Force One. Now if we could just get it off the armed forces network....
As prices skyrocket and President Bush calls for new measures to break U.S. addiction, LiveScience looks at what's underground.
Check out our Clean Up Washington blog to find out the latest developments in this "reform" bill that newspapers across the country are calling "a joke" and a "snow job" - and then send an immediate message to your Representative to tell them that you are not laughing.
An Environmental Review for Honolulu Irradiator! The proposal to build a nuclear irradiator in Honolulu will be subject to an environmental review, according to an order by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. The irradiator would be used to irradiate fruits and vegetables for exports, and is to be built next to the Honolulu airport, which is in a tsunami evacuation zone and near numerous military bases. A community group, Concerned Citizens of Honolulu, challenged the irradiator, based on safety and environmental concerns.
With two-and-a-half years to go until the start of the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing China, the Chinese government has recently placed a $1 billion rush order for endangered rainforest timbers from Indonesia's Papua province to
