THE MONTHLY SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN NEWS

October 2005

THIS MONTH’S TOPICS: 

U.S. Educational System

U.S. Domestic Policies And Creeping Totalitarianism

Bush Administration In Crisis

U.S. Foreign Policy Including Iraq And Iran

Britain And Australia

Israel And Palestine

China

Venezuela

Civil Unrest In France

Economy

Internet

Natural Disasters

20% of Seniors Flunk High School Graduation Exam

“The exit exam - which has come under criticism by some educators, legislators and civil rights advocates - is geared to an eighth-grade level in math and to ninth- and 10th-grade levels in English.”

Bush administration found involved in illegal 'covert propaganda'

“The administration of President George W. Bush broke the law as it resorted to illegal "covert propaganda" in trying to sell its key education initiative to the public, US congressional investigators have found…  The finding, made public by the Government Accountability Office on Friday, added to a plethora of big and small ethics scandals besetting the administration and its top Republican allies…  the Education Department had paid newspaper columnist and television commentator Armstrong Williams thousands of dollars to help promote the No Child Left Behind Law.  The 2002 bipartisan measure established new testing requirements for public schools designed to ensure that students achieve an acceptable level of proficiency in reading and mathematics.  Folks, this means that, in the classic, oft-repeated style of the current administration, they wanted to redefine failure as success, and then attribute that success to themselves.  In such cases, though no problem is solved, all that people hear and register in their brains is, “problem solved.  Bush good.”  Take a closer look at the “ Texas Miracle” scam under Governor Bush in the 90s. 

Probe of Armstrong Williams Widens

The Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Education Department engaged in illegal "covert propaganda" by hiring Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act without requiring him to disclose that he was being paid…  Now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia is investigating whether Williams accepted public money without performing his required duties…  "It's bad enough the administration bribed a journalist to promote their policies, but now it looks like taxpayer dollars were handed over for work that was never done," said Lautenberg.

The ‘Texas Miracle’ (from CBS 60 Minutes, 2004)

“It was called the “Texas Miracle,” a phrase you may remember because President Bush wanted everyone to know about it during his 2000 presidential campaign. It was an approach to education that was showing amazing results, particularly in Houston , where dropout rates plunged and test scores soared… it turns out that some of those miraculous claims which Houston made were wrong.  one assistant principal took a close look at his school’s phenomenally low dropout rates – and found that they were just too good to be true.  “I was shocked. I said, ‘How can that be,’” says Robert Kimball… His school claimed that no students – not a single one – had dropped out in 2001-2002… “I had been at the high school for three years, and I had seen many, many students, several hundred a year, go out the door. And I knew that they were quitting. They told me they were quitting.” … 463 kids left Sharpstown High School that year, for a variety of reasons. The school reported zero dropouts… School officials hid that fact by classifying, or coding, them as leaving for acceptable reasons: transferring to another school, or returning to their native country…  The Houston school district reported a citywide dropout rate of 1.5 percent. But educators and experts 60 Minutes checked with put Houston ’s true dropout rate somewhere between 25 and 50 percent.  Those low dropout rates – in Houston and all of Texas - were one of the accomplishments then-Texas Gov. George Bush cited when he campaigned to become the “Education President.” … Houston School Superintendent Rod Paige was given credit for the schools' success, by making principals and administrators accountable for how well their students did… Principals who met the goals got cash bonuses of up to $5,000, and other perks. Those who fell short were transferred, demoted or forced out.”  Basically, principals were paid to lie to make George Bush and Superintendent Paige look good.  ”Once he was elected president, Mr. Bush named Paige as secretary of education. And Houston became the model for the president’s “No Child Left Behind” education reform act.”

Texas Education, Miracle or Mirage?  (from 2000)

“Two weeks before the election, a new study on student test scores in Texas has landed like a stink bomb on George W. Bush's campaign…  On the campaign trail, Bush boasts of a 40-point gain by Hispanic eighth-graders on the Texas math exam. African-American fourth graders, he says, have "better math skills in Texas than in any state in the country." But the new study found the Texas tests often showed two, three or four times more “improvement” than the national exams. The discrepancies “raise serious questions about the validity” of the Texas test scores.

Media, media everywhere, and no time left to think?

The average American is a ravenous media junkie, consuming up to nine hours a day of television, web time or cellphone minutes.. Some experts question whether as consumers are swamped by information, they lose the ability to decipher fact from rumor, or find it hard to think through what they hear.”

Where to Attack Next?

A brief video of Australians interviewing random Americans on the street.  Speaks for itself. 

From the book The Underground History of American Education

Ninety-six and a half percent of the American population is mediocre to illiterate where deciphering print is concerned. This is no commentary on their intelligence, but without ability to take in primary information from print and to interpret it they are at the mercy of commentators who tell them what things mean. A working definition of immaturity might include an excessive need for other people to interpret information for us.

AGAINST SCHOOL

Inglis breaks down the purpose - the actual purpose - of modem schooling into six basic functions…

The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority. This, of course, precludes critical judgment completely.

The integrating function. This might well be called "the conformity function," because its intention is to make children as alike as possible.

The diagnostic and directive function. School is meant to determine each student's proper social role.

The differentiating function. Once their social role has been "diagnosed," children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further.

The selective function. This refers not to human choice at all but to Darwin 's theory of natural selection as applied to what he called "the favored races." In short, the idea is to help things along by consciously attempting to improve the breeding stock. Schools are meant to tag the unfit…

The propaedeutic function. The societal system implied by these rules will require an elite group of caretakers. To that end, a small fraction of the kids will quietly be taught how to manage this continuing project, how to watch over and control a population deliberately dumbed down and declawed in order that government might proceed unchallenged and corporations might never want for obedient labor.

Who is Reading Books

One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

The Politics of the Closed Mind

I met a man today who did not know the difference between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden; he did not even know the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan . But he did know about the War on Terrorism--well, sort of.  "We had to do something when they knocked those buildings down in New York ," Joe insisted, his mouth twisted with anger.  I calmly explained to this World War II veteran and former mechanical engineer that it was not Iraqis who flew those airplanes into the World Trade Center towers but al Qaeda, which was based not in Iraq but in Afghanistan , two very different countries.  Joe replied with a look of confusion, and then said, "When they say all those foreign names, I just turn my mind off."  "Turn your mind off?"  "Yeah, turn off my mind" he repeats defiantly.

Learning to Be Stupid in the Culture of Cash

The question my experiences in the classroom raise is why have these young people been educated to such abysmal depths of ignorance.  "I don't read," says a junior without the slightest self-consciousness.  The novel she has trouble reading is Isabel Allende's "Of Love and Shadows," set in the post-coup terror of Pinochet's junta's Nazi-style regime in Chile , 1973-1989. No one in the class, including the English majors, can write a focussed essay of analysis, so I have to teach that. No one in the class knows where Chile is, so I make photocopies of general information from world guide surveys. No one knows what socialism or fascism is, so I spend time writing up digestible definitions. No one knows what Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is, and I supply it because it's impossible to understand the theme of the novel without a basic knowledge of that work--which used to be required reading a few generations ago. And no one in the class has ever heard of 11 September 1973, the CIA-sponsored coup which terminated Chile 's mature democracy. There is complete shock when I supply US de-classified documents proving US collusion with the generals' coup and the assassination of elected president, Salvador Allende.  Geography, history, philosophy, and political science--all missing from their preparation…  Let me put it succinctly: I don't think serious education is possible in America . Anything you touch in the annals of knowledge is a foe of this system of commerce and profit, run amok.

Acquiescence and Conformity

In 1967, a middle school history teacher found himself being asked the following kinds of questions by his students in regards to the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime during World War II. --How could the German populace claim ignorance of the slaughter of the Jewish people?  --How could the townspeople, railroad conductors, teachers, doctors, etc., claim they knew nothing about concentration camps and human carnage? --How can people who were neighbors and maybe even friends of the Jewish citizens say they weren't there when it happened?  His answer was to try a social experiment with his students… 

Drug Up Your Teen Today! - This just in: Prozac is a better treatment than talking to your kid. Isn't life fabulous?

U.S. Alters Test Policy On Psychiatric Drugs - FDA Won't Require 6-Month Studies

…the policy would cause drug companies to scale back on developing new drugs because of the potential increase in expense and risk.  The drug business is staggering in size and profitability and virtually owns major arms of the US gov’t.  It is Donald Rumsfeld’s pillaging ground of choice between gov’t posts.  And they absolutely love these dangerous, mind-numbing psychiatric drugs, which they’ve successfully promoted to tens of millions because, hey, everyone wants to “feel better,” right?  Ever consider what is making so many people miserable? 

Colleges Expand Mental Health Services

Yet Another Prozac Scandal

Pentagon seeks power to gather secret intelligence in US

The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is seeking authority to secretly collect information about US citizens and emigres, a department official told The Washington Post. DIA General Counsel George Peirce said the agency was seeking to expand its powers to help recruit sources of intelligence information, the paper reported.  "This is not about spying on Americans," Peirce was quoted as saying in an interview with the Post.

Bush Call to Expand Military Powers at Home Seen as Unnecessary, Political

President Bush recently suggested that the military be given broader powers to deal with domestic crises like Hurricane Katrina or a potential bird flu epidemic, but emergency response and security groups in the U.S. say the military already has the power it needs to provide both relief and protection to citizens, and question whether the president's real motives aren't political.  He is always, always seeking more power  Earlier this week, Bush asked Congress to review the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the armed forces from engaging in police-type work within U.S. borders…  "I cannot imagine U.S. troops surrounding a town where avian flu has broken out with fixed bayonets to prevent people from getting out of the town--that's just nuts," says retired army Lieutenant General, Robert G. Gard…  a weakening or removal of Possee Comitatus would not mean an increase in security as much as a change in command away from the states and to the president, Gard says.   

Republican Congressman Slams Bush On Militarized Police State Preparation - Ron Paul says indictment story is far more damaging than media is portraying, avian flu martial law provisions aimed at gun confiscation Congressman Ron Paul has accused the Bush administration of attempting to set in motion a militarized police state in America by enacting gun confiscation martial law provisions in the event of an avian flu pandemic. Paul also slammed as delusional and dangerous plans to invade Iran , Syria , North Korea and China …  "I think there's a lot more excitement coming and it's not going to be good for the Republicans…  The things that I hear have to do with Karl Rove and Abramoff and that's much much worse than anybody would believe and it involves DeLay as well."  Paul responded to President Bush's announcement last week that he would order the use of military assets to police America in the event of an avian flu outbreak.  "To me it's so strange that the President can make these proposals and it's even plausible. When he talks about martial law dealing with some epidemic that might come later on and having forced quarantines, doing away with Posse Comitatus in order to deal with natural disasters, and hardly anybody says anything. People must be scared to death."  Paul, himself a medical doctor, agreed that the bird flu threat was empty fearmongering…  Paul opined that the martial law provisions now being promoted by the Bush administration were a direct response to people's unwillingness to relinquish their firearms, as was seen in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  The long-standing, well documented New World Order conspiracy theory proposes that an essential step is for Americans to be relieved of their guns  Paul opined that the government was on a delusional power trip that threatened the country.  "These guys are ready to start a war with Iran , Syria , North Korea or China . They can't possibly do that, it's so insane, we don't have the money, we don't have the troops, we probably don't even have the ammunition.  But, if they are truly delusional they just might do something that's totally irrational."  Mr. Paul forgot about Venezuela, Cuba, and perhaps Bolivia . 

Judges liken terror laws to Nazi Germany

A powerful coalition of judges, senior lawyers and politicians has warned that the Government is undermining freedoms citizens have taken for granted for centuries and that Britain risks drifting towards a police state. One of the country's most eminent judges has said that undermining the independence of the courts has frightening parallels with Nazi Germany .  Senior legal figures are worried that "inalienable rights" could swiftly disappear unless Tony Blair ceases attacking the judiciary and freedoms enshrined in the Human Rights Act… 

Harper's Magazine: We Now Live in a Fascist State

The Sorrows of Empire is a book in which author Chalmers Johnson writes:

"Four sorrows ... are certain to be visited on the United States . Their cumulative effect guarantees that the U.S. will cease to resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787.

First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a spreading reliance on nuclear weapons among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut.

Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal 'executive branch' of government into a military junta.

Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.

Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens."  The Bush administration is well into Stage 4 now. 

THE HYPE DIMENSION

This is a long article, but a recommended read.  OFFICES OF STRATEGIC DECEPTION - the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently accused the Bush administration of systematic misrepresentation. They concluded that Bush had prior knowledge of the absence of any evidence regarding Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons programmes before taking the decision to go to war…  The Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld went out of his way to bypass the enormous intelligence agency briefings and to go to his own personalized office where he could sift through and present the intelligence that supported the war on Iraq and to jettison any embarrassing data that could lead them away from a unilateral military expansion…  PSYOPS/"INFORMATION DOMINANCE" - A rather infamous military unit with a less than all-American, apple pie history has been assigned to implement the policies of the OSP: the Army's Psychological Operations Command (PSYOPS)…  PSYOPS is the tool of an oligarchy and an empire that is highly secretive and conspiratorial by nature.

Former CIA Analyst: Government May Be Manufacturing Fake Terrorism

… Mr McGovern stated that the war "has nothing to do with democracy or freedom or defending "our way of life", it is to do with enriching the pockets of those who support this administration…  it does seem that those who have his (Bush's) ear are hell bent on giving away or providing wider responsibilities to our military. Witness what they are talking about now with giving the military primary responsibility for catastrophes, for hurricanes and so forth." … He amazingly went on to suggest that if another attack took place we should not accept what the government tells us because it could be them carrying out the terror.  "We have to be careful, if somebody does this kind of provocation, big violent explosions of some kind, we have to not take the word of the masters there in Washington that this was some terrorist event because it could well be a provocation allowing them, or seemingly to allow them to get what they want."  McGovern said he would not put it past the Government to "play fast and loose" with terror alerts and warnings and even events themselves in order to rally people behind the flag.  Last week we revealed how a major terror alert in New York was outed as a fake, and magically boosted Mayor Bloomberg's ratings.

Bush's Veil Over History

SECRECY has been perhaps the most consistent trait of the George W. Bush presidency…  But perhaps the most egregious example occurred on Nov. 1, 2001, when President Bush signed Executive Order 13233, under which a former president's private papers can be released only with the approval of both that former president (or his heirs) and the current one…  Mr. Bush can prevent the public from knowing not only what he did in office, but what Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan did in the name of democracy…  Mr. Bush can prevent the public from knowing not only what he did in office, but what Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan did in the name of democracy…  George W. Bush and his father can see to it that their administrations pass into history without examination. Their rationales for waging wars in the Middle East will go unchallenged. There will be no chance to weigh the arguments that led the administration to condone torture by our armed forces. The problems of federal agencies entrusted with public welfare during times of national disaster - 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina - will be unaddressed. Details on no-bid contracts awarded to politically connected corporations like Halliburton will escape scrutiny, as will the president's role in Environmental Protection Agency's policies on water and air polluters.

Harper's Magazine: We Now Live in a Fascist State

Knowing the source of this piece makes it all the more disturbing. It is not every day that the editor of a respected national magazine publishes an essay claiming that America is not on the road to becoming, but ALREADY IS, a fascist state…

·  Parliamentary democracy is by definition rotten because it doesn't represent the voice of the people, which is that of the sublime leader.

·  Doctrine outpoints reason, and science is always suspect.

·  Critical thought is the province of degenerate intellectuals, who betray the culture and subvert traditional values.

·  The national identity is provided by the nation's enemies.

·  Argument is tantamount to treason.

·  Perpetually at war, the state must govern with the instruments of fear.

·  Citizens do not act; they play the supporting role of "the people" in the grand opera that is the state. [...]

FBI Claims 84 Videos Show NO Flight 77 Impact

Photos taken after the Pentagon crash do not support the Government conspiracy theory that Flight 77, a Boeing 757 airliner, demolished a major portion of the masonry structure…  Even though America's Coverup Agencies, the FBI and the Pentagon, have fought tooth and nail to prevent disclosure of what really happened at the Pentagon on 9/11 photos, witnesses have already filled in the blanks. Get up to speed by reading the RENSE article, Sneak Preview - 911 Pentagon Tapes.

ISRAELIS were 9-11 short sale stock buyers, betting on WTC terror strikes, story killed...

To get away with crimes, pretend to be a crime fighter

Most people think I am exaggerating when I tell them that the 9-11 "truth movement" is dominated by wolves in sheep's clothing…  Those of us who expose corruption actually face two problems:  ·  Convincing people that our government is corrupt beyond anything they dreamed possible   ·  Convincing people that most of the "truth seekers" are trying to cover up the corruption, or they are rival criminals trying to take over while Bush appears vulnerable. The 9-11 attack is not a game.  This article exposes the details of the tricks:  Deception is the preferred weapon, Warn the victim ahead of time, Offer to help solve the crime, Give false evidence, Find naive people to pay for the cover-up, Bury the truth with nonsense, Give conspiracy theories a bad image, Find useful idiots to promote nonsense, etc.  

G8 summit police lied, says report

The trial of 28 police officers accused of beating up anti-globalisation protesters during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 is due to start in Italy . The BBC News website has seen a copy of the prosecutor's report…  Italian police framed peaceful protesters as violent by planting Molotov cocktails, “discovering” them, and going on a beating rampage. 

The Great Green Scare – FBI turns its sights on environmental groups

“With nothing much better to do and an unlimited budget to burn, the FBI is turning its mighty inquisitorial arsenal on environmental groups across the country…  Now that…Communism has faded…, the corporate world's PR mavens have had to concoct a new spine-tingling metaphor to evoke the threat environmentalism poses to their bottom line: eco-terrorism…  Of course, the feds haven't had much luck finding Bin Laden. And our mean-spirited Clouseaus didn't stop any of his kamikazes, even though their own agents shouted out repeated internal alarums. And when the whistleblowing agents went public, the FBI brass cracked down on them, gagged some and gave others, such as the courageous Sibel Edmunds, the boot. Several of the feds' biggest terrorism arrests have blown up in their faces...  Even the feds can't cite a single death resulting from an alleged act of eco-terrorism. But that doesn't matter. After the horrors of New Orleans , it should be clear to all that it's the protection of property, not people, that really gets the feds going.  As I like to point out, the 3000 sudden, violent, bloody deaths on 9/11 are a small matter to drunk drivers of America , who bring sudden, violent bloody death to that many Americans every two months.  But, those are just lives and a few cars, not involving the kind of property damage, as on 9/11, that would trigger the engagement of the FBI.  Since 9/11, there are still only 3000 American dead from terrorism, but 80,000 dead from drunk driving, and an additional 8000 Americans have been killed in the Mideast , having been sent to kill over 100,000 Muslims there.  The so-called “eco-terrorists” haven’t yet killed anyone, but they do damage the property of the wealthy, and based on the actions of the FBI, that is a much more serious crime.  ”So this FBI witchhunt is already well underway and will soon be coming to a community group near you. The lives of part-time activists, mothers, nurses, students, will be turned upside down. They will be harassed, bullied and encouraged to inform on their colleagues. Organizations will be infiltrated and wrecked from the inside. False stories will be planted in the press. Environmental funders will be scared off. Foundations will be audited, hauled before hostile congressional committees and threatened with revocation of their tax status. It's a creepy new twist in an old narrative.”

FBI, Michigan Police Tag Peace, Affirmative Actions Groups as 'Terrorists'

“An FBI document, released on August 29 by the ACLU, shows extensive monitoring of a whole bunch of organizations, ranging from the Aryan World Church and the Christian Identity movement to animal rights groups, an anti-war collective, and a leading pro-affirmative action coalition…”

University of Arizona Professor Reported to FBI for "Hating" America

A series of ads have been running in student newspapers across the country charging that universities are dominated by liberal or left-wing professors. The ads are paid for by well-funded groups like Students for Academic Freedom and the Independent Women's Forum. Some of the ads encourage students to report any so-called anti-American faculty or statements made by professors. And that is apparently what happened to David Gibbs, an Associate professor of History and Sociology at the University of Arizona . After his Spring course "What is Politics?", a student wrote the following on an anonymous evaluation form:  "I believe that the university should check into David Gibbs. He is an anti-American communist who hates America and is trying to brainwash young people into thinking America sucks. He needs to go and live in a Third World country to appreciate what he has here. Have him investigated by the FBI. FBI has been contacted." I remember that in school they taught us to fear communism, equating that system of economics with the totalitarian system of politics.  We students were horrified by the stories of kids “informing” on their own parents. Remember the young kid in 1984 who looked at Winston Smith and declared, “You’re a thought criminal!”  Now, the same mentality is being instilled in young people by those who wish to crush open opposition to the politics of war and violence – and it is an orchestrated effort.  Did you know that the US military in Iraq distributes free cigarette packs that, on the side, say, “Inform on your neighbors.”  Most don’t yet recognize that  the US has swung all the way around and is now embracing the very horrors of totalitarianism that it once taught its children to fear?  This story is exactly like so many that took place in the early days of Hitler’s regime. 

Wal-Mart Turns in Student's Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him

How Rotten Are These Guys?

The separation of the Bush political machine from organized crime is often like the thin layer of rock between a seemingly ordinary surface and volcanic activity rumbling below. Sometimes, the lava spews forth and the illusion of normalcy is shattered…  So far, the mainstream news media has focused mostly on the white-collar abuses of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay… or on deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove… Both offenses represent potential felonies, but they pale beside new allegations linking business associates of star GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff – an ally of both DeLay and Rove – to the gangland-style murder of casino owner Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2001.  These criminal cases also are reminders of George H.W. Bush’s long record of unsavory associations, including with a Nicaraguan contra network permeated by cocaine traffickers, Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s multi-million-dollar money-laundering operations, and anti-communist Cuban extremists tied to acts of international terrorism. [For details on these cases, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.] 

Protest is criminalised and the huffers and puffers say nothing

“The police abuse terror and harassment laws to penalise dissent while we insist civil liberties are our gift to the world…  All politicians who seek to justify repressive legislation claim that they are responding to an unprecedented threat to public order. And all politicians who cite such a threat draft measures in response which can just as easily be used against democratic protest.”

Mother of slain US soldier arrested in Iraq war protest

Woman Sees Husband Off to War, Gets Fired

"We gave her sufficient time to get back to work," Clark Galloway, vice president of operations for Benefit Management, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Wednesday. 

SEALs Launching Public Recruiting Effort

Deadly bacteria detected in US capital during anti-war march

Did Bush administration attack peace movement with military grade biological bacteria?

What do we make of the Saturday, October 1 Washington Post headline “Poison Found in Air During Anti-War Protest”?  Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That’s what is not explained.” Pane pointed that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.” The Post noted that Pane found “. . . it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the mall was packed with people.” Puzzling? Indeed. Biohazard sensors detected tularemia bacteria at the mall on Saturday, September 24…  Unfortunately, tularemia has been long used as a military biological weapon. We should consider the presence of tularemia a shot across the bow to the peace movement from an administration willing to cheat, steal, torture, lie and kill to further its political agenda. Karl Rove, the president’s brain, brags of his worship of Machiavelli and will do anything to keep his Texas prince in power.  This history of tularemia suggests it is a long-standing weapon used by fascists, militarists and authoritarians.  Japanese germ warfare research units operating in Manchuria between 1932-45 admit to possessing the tularemia bacteria.

Peace march coincidences

The Nexus of Politics and Terror

I referred to the latest terror threat - the reported bomb plot against the New York City subway system - in terms of its timing. President Bush's speech about the war on terror had come earlier the same day, as had the breaking news of the possible indictment of Karl Rove in the CIA leak investigation. I suggested that in the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration, followed by a "terror event" - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning.

Media, Democrats Complicit in Rush to War

While President Bush and his War Cabinet bear full moral responsibility for Iraq, they could not have taken us to war without the complicity of the "adversary press" and "loyal opposition." … indispensable enablers of war are the New Democrats and potential presidential nominees, Sens. Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, Biden, and Bayh. Fearful that Bush and Rove would use their refusal to authorize war in October 2002 to impeach Democrats' patriotism, they voted to give him a blank check for war. Six months later, Bush cashed it…  the Senate surrendered the war powers the Founding Fathers reserved for Congress to the president and abdicated its constitutional duty. [...]

E-voting hobbled by security concerns

All but one of Maryland 's 24 counties use Diebold machines, first tested in the 2002 gubernatorial election, without voter-verifiable audit trails. After some Diebold source code leaked to the Internet, a group of computer scientists, including Maryland resident Avi Rubin, analyzed the software and concluded in a 2003 report that it falls "far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts."

Landowners must yield to ballpark

Don't blame us

The US gun and fast food industries are among those celebrating a wave of legislation aimed at protecting businesses from 'frivolous' lawsuits...  Legislation like this and the recent changes to bankruptcy laws continues the US toward a more and more repressive society weighted heavily in favor of corporate interests.  Another piece of legislation aimed at curbing class action lawsuits against big business overcame Democratic opposition in February. The measure transfers most class action suits, which allow plaintiffs to combine claims into a single suit, from state to federal courts…  In another nod to big business, a proposal was, incidentally, rejected by the Senate this week that sought to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour, a level that it has stood at since 1997 - accounting for inflation, it is now the lowest it has been since 1956.

Another Military Blogger Silenced

Months ago, in response to a post I wrote about the military blogger Colby Buzzell, Kate of Broken Windows told me to pay attention to Daniel Goetz, a soldier writing a blog called All the King's Horses. Regrettably, I never followed her advice. And now, as Lizzy, Fred, and Navyswan tell us, it is too late.  It is too late because Daniel has been silenced, against his will. And not only has he been silenced - he has been forced to publicly declare himself "a supporter of the administration and of her policies."

US wants to push ocean boundaries to limit terror threat

The United States wants to search foreign ships far outside its territorial waters to stop a possible terrorist attack on the country coming from the sea, a U.S. coastguard leader said on Wednesday…  In August Washington said it planned to put sensors on oil rigs and weather buoys to spot security threats at sea and said it might use satellites to track suspect vessels…  Nations would have to agree a new legal framework to allow countries to inspect or board ships outside their own territorial waters.  Totalitarianism seeks control of absolutely everything. 

The Mindless American: A Tragedy In The Making

As a result of nine-eleven's jarring impact upon our nation, journalists have discovered a near paranoid rise in retaliation against individuals attempting to expose governmental malfeasance. Increasingly government officials have begun punishing individuals for nothing more than reasoned attempts to inform the American public concerning: How the military has systematically abused (tortured) foreign detainees; How the government intentionally withheld evidence suggesting that an attack upon the United States by Al Qaeda had been eminent; How the military has begun to wage war upon soldiers who, in good conscience, have come to believe that it is wrong for them to kill in a war that, according to international law, is illegal, one that, the reasons for going to war, were fabricated by the President of the United States; How the United States has a sixty-year history (1945-2005) of assassinating foreign leaders who have chosen not to support the government's foreign policy goals, initiating the overthrow of duly-elected foreign democracies, while simultaneously supporting brutal authoritarian dictatorships all in order to fill the coffers of America's military-industrial complex, an egregious imperialistic force with but one goal: To take command of the world economy.  As a result, many of these individuals have been incarcerated, accused of being a traitor, of having sided with the enemy, told that their career will be destroyed, and threatened with extended imprisonment…

Casualties of the Bush administration

Read this important article for over a score of cases of demoted, fired, or resigned professionals who dared not to go along with the Bush administrations insane assertions, shockingly bad judgment, or unethical behavior. 

US to crack down harder on illegal immigrants

U.S. Ranks 44th in Worldwide Press Freedom Index

Nation's openness sinking after Sept. 11, northern Europe tops the list.  The annual worldwide press freedom index from Reporters Without Borders shows the United States , which is supposedly spreading freedom and liberty throughout the world, is in a fast decline regarding the freedom of its own press.  The report ranked the United States in 44th place, an atomic drop from a favorable position of 22nd held last year, and from a handsome 17th place in 2002…  European nations Denmark , Finland , Ireland , Iceland , the Netherlands , Norway and Switzerland tied for first. North Korea was ranked last out of 167 countries surveyed.

RFID Chips To Travel in U.S. Passports

Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings

As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling.  The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the General Accounting Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.

Proposal would use military in disasters

Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the military's defense command for the United States , on Tuesday said he's proposing that the Department of Defense be given complete authority for response to rare, catastrophic disasters like Hurricane Katrina.  The long campaign to promote the military as domestic saviors is working.  Do an internet search on “Posse Comitatus Act.”  You’ll find that it’s a law designed to prevent use of the military as or by police forces.  It is designed to protect the US population from the military. 

Rumors of rescue copters under fire unfounded

Among the rumors that spread as quickly as floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina, reports that gunmen were taking potshots at rescue helicopters stood out for their senselessness…  more than a month later, representatives from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Louisiana Air National Guard say they have yet to confirm a single incident of gunfire at helicopters.  Likewise, members of several rescue crews who were told to halt operations say there is no evidence they were under fire.  Yet this was used as an excuse for suspending rescue operations.  The storm created so much confusion that government officials cannot even agree on whether they ever issued an order to halt flights or other rescue efforts.

Anger simmers in New Orleans' dead Ninth Ward

"They're focused over there," she said, gesturing toward the relative bustle of the city's French Quarter and Uptown district, where restaurants have opened and residents have returned. "They should be here, where we need help." … Many residents have not been allowed back to retrieve what they can from their homes…  "There's almost a concerted effort to keep African Americans from returning to the city."

Republicans in Congress Propose Budget Cuts to Fund Storm Relief

Jettisoning earlier reservations, congressional Republican leaders say they intend to cut spending to pay for hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast, setting up a major confrontation over what programs to pick and how deep the reductions…  "As usual, the prime targets are the poor and others who rely on federal programs for their health, education, disability, agriculture, and veterans' benefits," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee.

Iraq war delayed Katrina relief effort, inquiry finds

“Relief efforts to combat Hurricane Katrina suffered near catastrophic failures due to endemic corruption, divisions within the military and troop shortages caused by the Iraq war, an official American inquiry into the disaster has revealed…”

New Orleans Police Beating Caught on Tape

Lawyer: Taped Beating Subject Wasn't Drunk

Bush picks loyalist for Supreme Court

“George W. Bush nominated White House counsel and longtime loyalist Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, a move that may shape legal battles on divisive issues like abortion for decades… Miers, 60, has never served as a judge, but has been a close aide to Bush ever since he was governor of Texas.”  Newsweek (July 9, 2000) reported that the Bush campaign "launched a secretive research operation designed to scour all records relating to his Vietnam-era service" while preparing for Bush's 1998 re-election campaign. They paid Dallas lawyer Harriet Miers $19,000 to review the records.

Bush pick revealed as fawner

The Texas state library has released more than 2000 documents detailing correspondence between Ms Miers and Mr Bush when he was governor of Texas .  The notes reveal the deep friendship between the two and praise verging on the fawning from Ms Miers, who has never been far from Mr Bush's side since becoming his personal lawyer in the mid-90s.  "You are the best governor ever - deserving great respect!", Ms Miers wrote to Mr Bush on his 51st birthday in 1997, in a tone typical of the notes she sent him… 

Bush: Miers' Religion Key Part of Her Life

Embarrassing setback for Bush's nominee - Problems mount over supreme court candidate