1-15-04
Lieberman statement on Clark Iraq testimony
"Joe Lieberman issued the following statement in response to the Drudge Report's discovery of congressional testimony from September 2002 in which Wes Clark made the case for war in Iraq. The report provides evidence directly contradicting Clark's repeated claims that he has been 'very consistent' on the war 'from the very beginning.'"

1-15-04
FBI director says attack quite likely "The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said on Wednesday that terrorists would 'quite probably' strike the United States again and that Al Qaeda remained a major threat despite the lowering of the nation's threat status last week."

1-15-04
Patrick Buchanan Real message of Bush amnesty "If George Bush's amnesty for between 8 million and 14 million illegal aliens is enacted, you can kiss the old America goodbye.  Consider what the president is saying with his amnesty. He is telling us that he cannot or will not do his constitutional duty to defend the states from invasion. He is saying he simply cannot or will not protect our borders or enforce our immigration laws. He is saying he will no longer send illegal aliens back.  Not long ago, this would have produced calls for impeachment and cries that, 'If Bush won't enforce our laws, let's elect a president who will.'  By offering amnesty and residency to millions who broke in line, broke our laws and broke into our country, Bush is not only rewarding wholesale criminality, he proposes to legalize it."

 1-15-04
Gibson plans record wide release of The Passion of the Christ "'I knew it would start building and building, but now it's like a tsunami,' said Bob Berney, president of the movie's distributor, New Market Films. 'We've had a flood of calls. People call and say, "I want 10,000 tickets."'"

1-14-04
U.S. military denies accusations of war crimes "The US military is committing war crimes by demolishing homes of suspected insurgents and arresting the relatives of Iraqi fugitives, a top human rights group said today. The military denied the charges by Human Rights Watch, saying it only destroyed homes that were being used to store weapons or as fighting positions and all Iraqis detained were suspected of taking part in attacks on coalition forces."  Human Rights Watch's letter to Rumsfeld  "We are writing you with regard to several incidents in Iraq involving actions by United States forces that appear to violate the 1949 Geneva Conventions. These incidents involve the demolition of homes of Iraqis on at least four recent occasions in situations that did not meet the test of military necessity, but rather appeared to be for the purpose of punishing or compelling the cooperation of the family in question. In two of these incidents, U.S. forces also reportedly detained close relatives of a person that the U.S. was attempting to apprehend. In these cases the individuals detained were themselves not suspected of responsibility for any wrongdoing." (Real News 24/7: Demolition of homes for purposes of intimidation has, of course, long been a favored tactic of the Israeli Defense Forces in their suppression of Palestinian resistance.)

1-14-04
O'Neill says he wanted to spark debate "Paul O'Neill says he wanted to participate in a book that reveals the inner workings of the Bush administration because he believes the current political system badly stifles meaningful debate on public issues and needs to be fixed.
'I hope people will read it because I think it makes a contribution to illuminating, especially for young people, what I consider to be a bipartisan, broken political process,' O'Neill said.¼"

1-14-04
Cuba: Further bans on freedom of expression "Amnesty International today expressed concern at the impact on freedom of expression and information of Cuba's new law restricting internet access. 'The new measures, which limit and impede unofficial internet use, constitute yet another attempt to cut off Cubans' access to alternative views and a space for discussing them," said Amnesty International as a new law came into force on Saturday. 'This step, coming on top of last year's prosecution of 75 activists for peacefully expressing their views, gives the authorities another mechanism for repressing dissent and punishing critics.'"

1-14-04
Israeli charged with smuggling nuclear bomb parts goes free on bail "An Israeli accused of illegally sneaking U.S.-made nuclear weapons detonators into Pakistan will be freed from federal custody on bail but will be confined to a rabbi's home in Maryland." (Real News 24/7: Israeli smugglers have their privileges, don't you know!)

1-13-04
Secrets of Howard Dean revealed "The sister of a murdered Vermonter says that Howard Dean, who now claims to support the death penalty, 'never gave us any support' when her family sought the death penalty for the killer and 'couldn’t get us out of his office quickly enough when we tried to talk to him about it.' Barbara Tuttle’s sister, 53-year-old Teresca King, was abducted from Vermont and brutally murdered on November 27, 2000. King was one of three people killed by a drug-crazed duo. Then-Vermont Governor Dean 'was of no assistance to us at all,' Tuttle says."

1-13-04
Reviving the draft "With roughly half of our Army committed to the Iraq occupation, and additional geopolitical challenges looming on the horizon, the return of conscription is a very real possibility."

1-13-04
The ultimate inversion: Don't live in Wilmette, Illinois "Don’t even think about ever living in Wilmette, Illinois if you believe you have a God given inalienable right to defend your family. Hale DeMar is a Chicago area homeowner who has been charged with violating an insane local ordinance banning possession of handguns.¼That Wilmette Police Chief, George Carpenter, said, 'We much prefer, for the safety of the home, that a resident who finds himself in this situation immediately lock the door of the room he's in and dial 911.'  I’m surprised he didn’t suggest huddling in a corner with a blanket over your head."

1-13-04
The illegal-alien crime wave "Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who they are and know that their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet should a cop arrest an illegal gangbanger for felonious reentry, it is he who will be treated as a criminal, for violating the LAPD’s rule against enforcing immigration law."
Crime victims of illegal aliens  "It is particularly shocking that even in post-911 America, the government still refuses to protect the people in the most basic ways from the world's terrorists and criminals who enter at will to do as they please. The borders remain a sieve while the human carnage from crime perpetrated from illegal aliens continues to mount. In another stunner of INS malfeasance, the agency often cannot even manage to deport dangerous criminal aliens when they reach the ends of their prison terms."

1-12-04
California congressman seeks dirty words ban from TV  "Rep. Doug Ose of Sacramento has seven dirty words very much on his mind, courtesy of such free speakers as U2 singer Bono and Nicole Richie, the rich kid co-star of 'The Simple Life.' Fed up with recent repeated instances of broadcast TV networks allowing language that many people would deem offensive to be aired live, the Republican House member has introduced a bill that spells out the seven awful words that would be banned from the public air waves in all their forms and all their meanings -- 'including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms,' as the bill says."

1-11-04
Former Bush aide: US plotted Iraq invasion long before 9-11  "George Bush’s former treasury secretary Paul O’Neill has revealed that the President took office in January 2001 fully intending to invade Iraq and desperate to find an excuse for pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein." Related story

1-11-04
Iraqi WMDs: Myths...and more myths  "The administration of United States President George W Bush 'systematically misrepresented' the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD), three non-proliferation experts from a prominent think tank charged on Thursday."

1-11-04
Why people fear guns  "People fear guns. Yet, while guns make it easier for bad things to happen, they also make it easier for people to protect themselves. With the avalanche of horrific news stories about guns over the years, it's no wonder people find it hard to believe that, according to surveys (one I conducted for 2002 for my book, The Bias Against Guns, and three earlier academic surveys by different researchers published in such journals as the Journal of Criminal Justice) there are about two million defensive gun uses (search) each year; guns are used defensively four times more frequently than they are to commit crimes. "

1-11-04
What they don't want you to know "In 'The Banality of Evil,' Edward S. Herman wrote, 'Doing terrible things in an organized and systematic way rests on "normalization"... There is usually a division of labor in doing and rationalizing the unthinkable, with the direct brutalizing and killing done by one set of individuals... others working on improving technology (a better crematory gas, a longer burning and more adhesive Napalm, bomb fragments that penetrate flesh in hard-to-trace patterns). It is the function of the experts, and the mainstream media, to normalize the unthinkable for the general public.'"

1-11-04
How to lose your job in talk radio: Clear Channel gags an anti-war conservative "It seems to me that when there is reason to go to war, it should be self-evident. The Secretary of State should not need to convince a skeptical world with satellite photos of a couple of Toyota pickups and a dumpster. And faced with a legitimate casus belli, it should not be hard to muster an actual constitutional declaration of war."

1-10-04
George Bush's big-government conservatism "In his first three years as president, George Bush has cut taxes three times and yet orchestrated a sharp rise in public spending—not just, or indeed mainly, on foreign wars and 'homeland security,' but also on domestic matters. For instance, spending on education has jumped by three-fifths since 2000, and spending on transport has risen by nearly half. Lower taxes, higher spending: the outcome is that the federal government, despite a steep fall in the interest it pays on its debt, has swung sharply into deficit—$450 billion this fiscal year, by most accounts."

1-10-04
The Pharisee's role in gold and the dollar crash "Since Day 9-11, the US dollar has fallen over 40% as compared to the Euro, the European currency “basket.” About half of that drop occurred since May 2, 2003, when hostilities in Iraq were reported to have ended. This means that had you or I been in the know we could have earned about 10 years of savings account interest in only six months, without buying a thing.¼"

1-10-04
Pro-abortion lawmakers banned from communion "State and federal lawmakers who support abortion rights can no longer receive Holy Communion in the Diocese of La Crosse, Bishop Raymond Burke ordered in a decree made public Thursday." (Real News 24/7: However promising this may seem to the uninformed, the fact remains that it is, rather, emblematic of what's wrong with what's being passed off as Catholicism these days. Imagine, there are 192 dioceses in the United States, but it's news when one of them announces it will make things tough on the human snakes who facilitate the murder of the unborn! And this, small reaction (note that La Crosse is an exception to the rule) comes only after 30 years and approximately 45 million legal abortions. One is permitted to question how pro-life and how Catholic the post-Vatican church really is. Oh, and we don't see any prohibitions on lawmakers supporting "gay" rights!) 

1-10-04
Court OKs son's shielding from 'gay' lifestyle  "A state appeals court ruled a homosexual father cannot flaunt his lifestyle around his son. As part of a divorce hearing, a Tennessee lower-court judge had barred Joe Hogue, a producer in the Christian music industry, from 'taking the child around or otherwise exposing the child to his gay lover(s) and/or his gay lifestyle,' the Nashville Tennessean reported."  (Real News 24/7: Good work, Judge Clement, except that you overturned the contempt-of-court charge. The most bizarre part of the article is a sodomite producing Christian music¼er, make that "Christian" music.)

1-9-04
Ohio Governor signs into law hidden gun bill "Gov. Bob Taft waited less than 24 hours to affix his signature to a controversial bill to allow Ohioans to carry hidden handguns on themselves and in their cars. He signed the bill without fanfare, making Ohio the 46th state to pass concealed-carry legislation. The law will take effect by mid-April." Rotten apples and sour grapes Predictable responses from the anti-gun news media.

1-9-04
It's time to stop crying wolf  "A door-to-door salesman comes to your house selling elephant inhibitors guaranteed to keep you safe from elephants. You ask, 'How do I know it works?' He responds, 'You don't see any elephants, do you?' A senior administration official was asked if all of these groundings and searches of foreign airliners had turned up any terrorists. He replied: 'I don't think we know yet, and we may never know.'"

1-9-04
Wesley Clark calls 9-11 assertions "lies" "Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said 'the two greatest lies' of the last three years were that the Sept. 11 attacks could not have been prevented and that a future attack is inevitable. 'If I'm president of the United States, I'm going to take care of the American people,' Clark told the Concord Monitor for a story published Friday. 'We are not going to have one of these incidents.'" (Real News 24/7: How does he propose to accomplish this¼a military dictatorship? Given his ties to armed operations in Waco and Kosovo, this is perfectly legitimate question to ask.)

1-9-04
Draft creep (stealth conscription) "Say hello to 'draft creep.' Remember 'bracket creep,' AKA the 'sneaky tax increase,' whereby inflation and income growth forces people into progressively higher tax brackets? Bracket creep is a way for the government to raise taxes without seeming to be raising taxes. There is no congressional debate, and no new law is passed for the President to sign. Taxes just go up. Similarly, draft creep is a way for the government to initiate the draft without seeming to initiate the draft."

1-9-04
Stop President Bush’s proposed overhaul of immigration laws! "On January 7, President Bush proposed a drastic overhaul of our immigration laws that (in the words of the New York Times) 'effectively amounts to an amnesty program for illegal immigrants with jobs in the United States....' The Bush amnesty would allow illegal aliens to apply for renewable three-year work permits, which would allow them to travel freely in and out of our country." Bush's plan for illegal aliens pleases few "President Bush's immigration proposal got a mostly cool response from those who grapple with the issue, with conservatives saying it goes too far, pro-immigrant groups saying it doesn't go far enough and some Hispanic groups calling it a hollow electioneering ploy. Many Republicans balked at the bureaucratic headaches ahead, and at the idea of rewarding illegal aliens.¼"

1-9-04
Pat Buchanan: Dean: A prophet ahead of his time? "Like his father, Bush is running up huge deficits and increasing the domain of federal bureaucrats. He, too, is a champion of foreign aid and intervention to build a New World Order. He, too, is a global democratist who cites Wilson and FDR. He, too, is a 'big government conservative' like his dad. Since taking his oath, he has not killed one federal program, agency or department, or vetoed a single bill."

1-8-04
Germany: "CIA misinformed about Ansar" "Sources at the German intelligence bureau claim that CIA misinformed them about the alleged planned terror action in Hamburg December 30. Ansar al-Islam was accused of being behind the attempt."

1-8-04
Israeli Army chief warns Syria could face air strikes "Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon’s warning in comments broadcast on Army Radio came as Israel indicated it was testing whether Syrian President Bashar Assad was truly interested in resuming peace talks. On Oct. 5, Israel struck what it said was a militant training camp deep in Syrian territory after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 23 people in a restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa. Syria said Israel hit a civilian site."

1-8-04
Blair promises to quit if Kelly report shows he lied to MPs Tony Blair's role in the naming of Dr David Kelly was thrust back into the spotlight yesterday when he said he would resign if the Hutton Inquiry showed he had lied to Parliament. The Prime Minister stood by his denial of responsibility for the leaking of the weapons scientist's name shortly before he committed suicide."
 

1-8-04
"Harmful if swallowed" notice on fishing lure among winners in this year's Wacky Warning Label contest   "'Wacky warning labels are a sign of our lawsuit-plagued times,' said Robert B. Dorigo Jones, M-LAW president. 'It used to be that if someone spilled coffee in their lap, they simply called themselves clumsy. Today, too many people are calling themselves an attorney. This "sue first, ask questions later" mentality has not only produced wacky warning labels, it has increased the cost of products and services families use daily. That's the real problem.'" (Real News 24/7: There are some truly wacky labels to be sure, but we can think of at least a couple of places where "Harmful if swallowed" warnings would be really useful: accompanying reports from the Establishment news media and also the press releases of government spin doctors!)
 

1-7-04
President served with personal 9-11 RICO complaint "On Friday, [January 2nd,] Philip J. Berg, attorney for 9-11 widow Ellen Mariani in her Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit seeking to hold President Bush and various government officials accountable for the September 11 attacks, served Bush and top officials in his Administration with a personal summons, the original complaint and the first amended complaint via a federal process server, as required by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Among those served besides the President, were Vice-President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet, National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, 9-11 Congressional Victim Compensation Fund Special Master Kenneth Feinberg, former Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein, Zacarias Moussaoui, and former President George H. W. Bush." (Real News 24/7: Please note that this story received no [as in ZERO] coverage from the big controlled national media!)

1-7-04
Jewish academic calls for the end of Israel as a Zionist state "Tony Judt is a scholar who was until recently best known for his writings on European history. But then, in a 2,900-word essay in the October 23 edition of The New York Review of Books, Judt dropped the intellectual equivalent of a nuclear bomb on Zionism, calling for the dismantling of Israel as a Jewish state.

1-7-04
Charles "behind Princess car crash death plot" "Prince Charles has been named as the "senior member of the Royal family" whom Diana, Princess of Wales, believed was plotting to kill her in a car crash. The naming, which has been described as 'the mother of revelations,' is bound to send shockwaves through Buckingham Palace. Diana made the allegation in a letter written ten months before she died in a Paris car crash in 1997."

1-7-04
Kelly "suicide" report delayed "Lord Hutton has delayed publication of his long-awaited report on the events leading to the death of David Kelly because he has yet to apportion final blame on the central figures in the drama, the Guardian learned last night." Like Dr Kelly, my father took the blame "Whatever the Hutton report says, when it comes out later this month, my abiding image of the inquiry will not be of angry MPs or worried BBC journalists, but of Dr David Kelly, on the morning before he took his own life, a picture conjured up by his wife, Janice."

1-7-04
Tax protester trial begins "Anti-tax protesters from across the country braved a chilly reception inside and outside the federal courthouse Monday when Bedford (Texas) businessman Richard Simkanin went on trial for the second time on charges of violating U.S. tax laws."

1-6-04
Coroner opens, adjourns Princess Diana inquest—Conspiracy theories to be examined? "Britain's first formal inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed opened Tuesday, a case in which some see a sinister conspiracy but one of Diana's bodyguards dismisses as a 'mundane road traffic accident.' Royal coroner Michael Burgess, signaling a broad probe, said he had asked London's Metropolitan Police to investigate whether conspiracy theories should be part of the inquest. Burgess then adjourned the case, saying it likely would reopen early next year." (Real News 24/7: What is the real motive of the delay? To search for evidence and testimonies showing that a conspiracy was afoot or an effort to cover up the same to protect a conspiracy?)

1-6-04
Scott Ritter: The search for Iraqi WMD has become a public joke "On 20 March 2003, Bush ordered American military forces, accompanied by the armed forces of Great Britain, to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. In hiding since the fall of Baghdad, Saddam was finally run to ground in December. On his capture, he is reported to have said that WMD was an issue created by George Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq. This is a claim that has increasing validity."

1-6-04
Why a UN peacekeeping force in Palestine is urgent "Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967, whenever a vote would come before the United Nations to replace the Israeli Defense Force with an international battalion of UN Peacekeepers, America and Israel blocked the move. Though Israel clearly wants total subjugation of the Palestinian people, I believe Americans would support Palestine as a democratic state if they came to understand the true dynamics of the region. But to have open and fair elections, the presence of UN Peacekeepers to replace the IDF is vitally needed. This can be accomplished if America supports it." (Real News 24/7: Why that's a bad idea and a better solution. However attractive it may be to have a neutral third party step in to bring order and justice to a situation that is lacking in both categories, calling for United Nations intervention is hardly the answer. As stated on this site many times before, the ultimate goal of the UN is to bring about world government. When one recalls Acton's famous axiom about power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely, imagine the dangers of all the power on earth concentrated in a few hands. No one on earth could withstand such a dictatorship and brutal oppression such as the Palestinians suffer, would be the rule of the day whenever, wherever and upon whomever the global government decided to strike with its iron fist. The solution to the Palestinian question requires the US to threaten to cut off some or all of the billions in "loans" and other aid it supplies Israel, unless the Jewish state finds less draconian ways of retaliating, ways that don't include attacks against non-combatants, including protestors [Arab and Israeli, alike] and foreign journalists and activists. Unfortunately, this does seem likely to happen any time soon, especially considering the fact that the US armed forces have been using methods taught them by the Israelis, such as the destruction of homes of those related to "terrorists," torching crops of those who don't cooperate, shooting unarmed protestors, etc.)

1-6-04
Deadly vaccines, recurring Gulf War illnesses, and many unlearned lessons from history "It is not well publicized or widely known that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) exercises oversight of infectious disease agencies including the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with important investigations including the Pentagon’s investigation in into Gulf War Illnesses. This is arguably done for “national security” concerns. Their official pronouncements, however, often include conflicting and controversial military and public health determinations."

1-6-04
Pennsylvania town targets pro-life sidewalk counselors "Sidewalk counselors in Allentown, Pennsylvania are being threatened with prosecution for offering women alternatives to abortion outside a recently-relocated abortion facility. City officials in Allentown claim the pro-life activists need a permit to stand on a public sidewalk outside the Allentown Women's Center abortion business -- a clear violation of the counselors’ first amendment rights to free speech."

1-6-04
Dismantling the Da Vinci Code "While his extensive use of fictional formulas may be the secret to [author Dan] Brown’s stardom, his anti-Christian message can’t have hurt him in publishing circles: [his novel] The Da Vinci Code debuted atop the New York Times best-seller list. By manipulating his audience through the conventions of romance-writing, Brown invites readers to identify with his smart, glamorous characters who’ve seen through the impostures of the clerics who hide the 'truth' about Jesus and his wife. Blasphemy is delivered in a soft voice with a knowing chuckle: '[E]very faith in the world is based on fabrication.'" (Real News 24/7: The myth that Christ and St. Mary Magdalene were man and wife, a lie perpetrated by the New Agers/neo-pagans/occultists, is now being enthusiastically pushed by the big anti-Christian news and entertainment media. This blasphemy has been making the rounds for over twenty years now, at least since the fraudulent authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail opined that Jesus faked His death on the Cross and ran off to Gaul with Magdalene where they were to be the forebears of a royal blood line. Surprising, then, to see the "anti-lie" website guy [his description], Michael Rivero of What Really Happened, fall for this big lie. His "proof" of this covert marriage? That Jesus is called "rabbi" in the Gospels and that to be a rabbi required a man to be married. The trouble is that Christ never was a rabbi in any official sense, but His disciples used the term informally since rabbi means "master" or "teacher." The fact that He wasn't a rabbi, formally speaking, is shown in Scripture, such as where the chief priest challenge Him to tell them "by what authority" He teaches (St. Mark 11: 26), something that would have been common knowledge had He been a rabbi. So this central argument favored by Mr. Rivero and many others who hold to this irreverent, heretical and sacrilegious "revisionist" view  of Christ is absurd on the face of it.)

1-5-04
Wesley Clark restates pro-abortion position "Over the weekend, pro-abortion former general Wesley Clark restated his support for abortion. Clark also indicated he isn't worried how his position in favor of abortion would play in certain areas of the country, including the Deep South, a region where most residents share the pro-life perspective." Real News 24/7's series of articles on Clark
Democrats take jabs at Dean in debate before Iowa caucuses "In a feisty first debate of the election year, Howard Dean drew fire from fellow Democrats on Sunday over trade, terrorism, taxes and more, then calmly dismissed his rivals as 'co-opted by the agenda of George Bush.'"For information (including, where applicable, official campaign websites and other supporting sites, lists of endorsements, sites opposition sites, and parody sites) on all the declared candidates for president—Democratic, "third parties," and, believe it or not, Republicans not named Bush—see the Presidency 2004 website.

1-5-04
Israel could face world boycott over Sharon's wall "Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid warned the cabinet on Sunday that the upcoming discussion by the International Court of Justice at The Hague on the construction of the separation fence between Israel and the West Bank could be the first step in Israel being treated like a modern-day apartheid-era South Africa. He warned that Israel could be liable to international boycotts similar to those placed on South Africa during its apartheid regime." Discussion: Israel's security wall

1-5-04
Scientists seek place for God while embracing reason  "A recent cover story in Newsweek cited a National Institutes of Health report that found people who regularly attend church live 25 percent longer than those who don't. More than 70 of the nation's 125 medical schools now offer courses in spirituality, up from three a decade ago."

1-5-04
Censorship across the divide: "Epithet" that !   My husband received the following letter from a waggish friend: 'I just wanted to wish you and yours a happy holiday. I'll leave it at "holiday" to avoid running afoul of the ACLU....On second thought, I withdraw "holiday." It derives from "holy day," which clearly presents problems. And "season's greetings," a well-known dodge, suggests other difficulties. With global warming, what is a season?...'"

1-5-04
Phyllis Schafly reviews Mona Lisa Smile "Proclaimed by CBS-TV as 'the best picture of the year by far,' Mona Lisa Smile is a sanctimonious feminist homily preaching salvation through modern art and making one's own career choices just so long as career does not mean marriage and motherhood. But the sermon boomeranged on reality, and the movie proves again that those who follow that commandment travel a dead-end road."

1-4-04
UK: Alert over "second 9-11 threat" "British air travelers were last night warned they face 'many years' of delays after details emerged of the latest al-Qaeda plan to launch a devastating attack on Washington using two airliners from London and Mexico City. Experts revealed that terrorists planned to use the plane grounded at London Heathrow twice last week, along with another leaving Mexico, to mount a coordinated attack on the scale of September 11." (Real News 24/7: Many years of delays over one alleged threat? It sounds as though the goal is to prepare the populace to get accustomed to having less freedom. Wait¼this is over a shoe bomb threat?!)

1-4-04
Dr. Laura in hot water with "Holocaust" industry "A Holocaust Studies institute is urging radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger to retract her on-air comments comparing some U.S. day-care centers to child-rearing practices in Nazi Germany."

1-4-04
Orwell's "1984" anxiety creeps into the ideals of the free world  "Twenty years after 1984, a year author George Orwell prophesied as dark and without freedom, the United States of America has some of the earmarks of Orwell's vision. From his science fiction book, written in 1949, came the chilling admonition, 'Big Brother is watching you.' One clear parallel between Orwell's fictional Oceania -- the central nation in Orwell's book -- and the U.S. government can be found in a comparison of today's war against terrorism and the continuous wars waged by Oceania."

1-4-04
Why Richmonders are right to oppose Lincoln statue "In the December 29, 2003, issue of The Weekly Standard, senior editor Andrew Ferguson discusses the controversy surrounding the new Lincoln statue that was erected in Richmond, Virginia, last April. Ferguson makes a weak attempt to appear objective by mentioning a few of the reasons why there were objections to the statue; but upon close reading of his piece it is evident that he fails miserably in explaining to his readers why the Lincoln statue was so controversial." Related article

1-3-04
Manifesto demands Bush change regimes in other 'rogue' countries US President George W Bush was sent a public manifesto Tuesday by Washington's hawks, demanding regime change in Syria and Iran and a Cuba-style military blockade of North Korea backed by planning for a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear sites. The manifesto, presented as a 'manual for victory' in the war on terror, also calls for Saudi Arabia and France to be treated not as allies but as rivals and possibly enemies."

1-3-04
Abortion doctor gets 34 years for sex abuse "After deliberating for two weeks, an Arizona jury yesterday sentenced one of the nation's most prominent abortion doctors to more than 34 years behind bars for sexually abusing his patients over a 20-year period." (Real News 24/7: Of course, he gets nothing for all of the legally-sanctioned  murders he's committed. Odds are in the end he'll get off with a reduced sentence and/or "community service," because his lawyers will be able to convince some sympathetic judge that, while, yes, the abuse is horrible [but a result of human frailty, Your Honor], remember all of the women he's "helped" deal with "problem pregnancies" through the years.)

1-3-04
Big media applaud ban on ephedra "Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson says Americans making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight should do so without products containing ephedra. The major media should adopt a resolution not to serve as lapdogs for Thompson’s agency by helping the trial lawyers destroy the dietary supplement industry. The ban on ephedra is the first step in this campaign. The coverage of this controversy demonstrates that the media bias in favor of big government is back. The only difference this time is that it is Republican big government. It’s no wonder that some conservatives are despondent over the President’s failure to rein in the federal bureaucracy."

1-3-04
UN Trojan horses: Stealing our sovereignty civilly "A review of the UN website will reveal innumerable documents purporting to solve the world’s problems, all presented in a way that brooks no contradiction. The papers are laid out beautifully, the language is reasonable, the arguments rational, the conclusions logical and everything appears to be faultless. Everything except the underlying premise: the world is peopled by incompetent ninnies who are hopelessly uneducable and must be guided by the superior beings gracing the halls of the UN. The masses cannot be trusted to find their individual ways to the answer nature’s call without destroying the environment, to say nothing of their inability to raise children, educate themselves, self govern, find suitable employment and generally take care of themselves."

1-3-04
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: A decade of increasing taxpayer funding "It’s not only the legislative branch which supports the Holocaust Memorial Museum, however. On Sept. 3 the Anti-Defamation League—which a few years ago was ordered to cease spying on American citizens—proudly announced that it had been awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to support a joint ADL/Holocaust Memorial Museum training program for law enforcement professionals."
 

1-2-04
Cuban leader sees invasion risk as "real" "Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, dismissing U.S. charges that Cuba is developing weapons of mass destruction as the words of a 'liar,' says Bush administration policies have made the risk of U.S. invasion 'a real, present danger for us.'" (Real News 24/7: We don't expect anything to come of this, but would welcome a genuine liberation of the Communist-enslaved island. Of course, this would need to be accomplished by Cuban-Americans whose property was stolen and relatives imprisoned/tortured/killed by the Red tyrant Fidel Castro. They would be reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. But the time for this should have been over a decade ago, when it was announced that the Communists no longer ruled Russia. Prior to that, the U.S. had an agreement with the Soviets that we would never invade, but once the Soviet Union formally ceased to be a political entity, we should have, without fanfare and without hesitation, turned loose the exiles to topple Castro's dictatorship. An aside to the puppet "President" Alarcon: Oh, and like you're some paragon of honesty?! Incredibly, there are still Castro defenders, such as What Really Happened website's Michael Rivero, who on the 31st of last month wrote: "The US-backed Batista fell from power in 1959 and still the CIA and Mafia hold a grudge!"  For the benefit of Mr. Rivero, who describes his site as "anti-lie," we submit the following passage, as but one of countless examples, from the non-partisan Human Rights Watch's voluminous report, Cuba's repressive machinery: Human Rights forty years after the revolution:

Sambra Ferrándiz remembered challenging the police searching his house on January 13, 1993, to present him with a warrant. Rather than produce one, they arrested him and took him to an isolation cell at Versalles, where he was detained for three months. The cell reminded him of a tomb. It was two meters by two meters [that is, about six feet by six feet] and completely closed except for a very narrow, deep space, "like a canal," that allowed some air in. A hole in the floor served as his toilet. An incandescent 100 watt bulb remained lit twenty-four hours a day, heating the stuffy cell like an oven. When night fell, swarms of mosquitos emerged, which to Sambra Ferrándiz seemed like a nightmare and kept him awake through the night. He remembered one of the state security investigators, a Captain Seriocha, telling him that "the mosquitos are our principal allies." Sambra Ferrándiz spent fifteen days in incommunicado detention before seeing his family. He said that they wept when they first saw him because he was so swollen from mosquito bites. (See under VI. Treatment of political prisoners, subsection "Abusive pretrial detentions")

To oppose the Castro regime has nothing to do with CIA or Mafia grudges, but in helping the Cubans attain the same rights we take for granted. Do you really think, Mr. Rivero, that you would be able to maintain a website like yours, only critical of Castro, in Cuba? Not only would your operation be shut down, but Comrade Fidel would show you the "amenities" of a hellhole in the Havana Hilton. So, please, if you want your site to be truly "anti-lie," don't allow yourself to be used as a shill for the regime of a brutal, godless monster.) 

1-2-04
Your tax dollars at work! NEA funds musical based on the life of "gay" killer "A musical based on the life of San Diego serial killer Andrew Cunanan—whose far-flung victims include fashion designer Gianni Versace—will be developed this year at the La Jolla Playhouse through a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Playhouse announced last week."

1-2-04
"Passion" follows the Scripture "The Talmud was compiled in about the year 500, drawing on rabbinic material that had been transmitted orally for centuries. From the 16th century on, the text was censored and passages about Jesus and his execution were erased to evade Christian wrath. But the full text was preserved in older manuscripts, and today the censored parts may be found in minuscule type, as an appendix at the back of some Talmud editions. A relevant example comes from the Talmudic division known as Sanhedrin, which deals with procedures of the Jewish high court: 'On the eve of Passover they hung Jesus of Nazareth. And the herald went out before him for 40 days [saying, "Jesus] goes forth to be stoned, because he has practiced magic, enticed and led astray Israel. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and declare concerning him." And they found nothing in his favor.'"

1-2-04
The aspartame/NutraSweet fiasco "From 1985 to 1995, researchers did about 400 aspartame studies. They were divided almost evenly between those that gave assurances and those that raised questions about the sweetener. Most instructively, Searle [originators of NutraSweet] paid for 100% of those finding no problem. All studies paid for by non-industry sources raised questions." Aspartame disease "The FDA and Centers for Disease Control continue to receive a stream of complaints from the population about aspartame. It is the only chemical warfare weapon available in mass quantities on the grocery shelf and promoted in the media. It has also been indicated that women with an intolerance for phenylalanine, one of the components of aspartame, may give birth to infants with as much as a 15% drop in intelligence level if they habitually consume products containing this dangerous substance." More links on dangers of aspartame How the FDA and EU have helped promote aspartame, while suppressing, even outlawing, another sugar alternative that is not only safe, but even beneficial to health! Still more info

1-1-04
9-11 conspiracy theories abound, and inquiry takes note "One theory has it that the Bush administration was warned about the Sept. 11 attacks but did nothing to stop them. Another says a missile fired by the U.S. military, not a hijacked jetliner, struck the Pentagon. Yet another: The Israelis orchestrated the attacks to force the United States into a war against the Arabs." 

  1-1-04
"Smart" guns: Dumb idea! "At first blush it seems like a great idea. A gun that can determine if the person holding it is an authorized user. A smart gun that will fire only if it recognizes the shooter's thumbprint. Pretty neat. Homeowners would want it because it eliminates the danger of their kids or anyone else using it. The cops surely would want it, as it eliminates the danger of a bad guy getting ahold of their weapon and turning the tables. Then there's the problem of teenage suicides--most prevalent where there is easy access to guns, such as the homes of law officers. What's not to like?"

1-1-04
Radical U.N. tax plans threaten America "Many politicians seem to think that the answer to every alleged problem is higher taxes. Howard Dean, for instance, has said he would repeal the Bush tax cuts -- even though this would boost the average family’s tax burden by nearly $2,000. This initiative sounds radical, and it is. But some proposals out there are even worse. The United Nations, for instance, wants to create an International Tax Organization (ITO) that would have the power to interfere with national tax policies." (Real News 24/7: That's all we need, an international version of the IRS!)
 
1-1-04
Austrians split on "shop a Nazi" campaign "A bizzare ‘shop-thy-neighbor’ campaign has been launched in Austria in the run-up to Christmas in a bid to get Austrians to turn in elderly neighbors they suspect of being Nazi war criminals. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), which has its headquarters in Los Angeles, has spent thousands of pounds on the double page adverts in Austrian papers in what it claims is a last-ditch attempt to track down Nazi criminals who have gone unpunished." (Real News 24/7: So, now they're finally admitting it: The fearless Nazi hunters are running out of prey! Be assured, however, that the Holocaust lobby, which has turned the so-called Shoah into a lucrative business will, if not exposed for purveying dubious history, find a way to drag this on for generations.

1-1-04
Churchill statue "looked too much like Mussolini" "The statue of Winston Churchill now standing in Parliament Square, London, initially bore a little too much resemblance to Benito Mussolini for the liking of government officials." 

Postings January 16–31