Amnesty Criticizes U.S. Interrogations

An Iraqi businessman detained during a raid on his home says U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, forced him to kneel naked and kept him bound hand and foot with a bag over his head for eight days.

I wonder if this violates any international law or The Geneva Convention?

Additions to Webster's

A former dot-commer working a McJob was listening to some headbangers while laying out the last of his dead presidents for longnecks and some less than heart-healthy Frankenfood.

So what are the additions?

headbanger - defined as both a hard rock musician and a fan

dead presidents - paper currency

McJob - low paying and deadend work

frankenfood - genetically engineered food

dot-commer - someone who works for an online outfit

I think they should also add "thingy". In case you aren't familiar with thingy, you can use thingy to define any object whose real name you fail to recall at any give time. It's actually quiet versatile. A very simple example would be....
Use that thingy to open that other thingy.

Know any other words you think should be added?

Frist Backs Putting Gay Marriage Ban in Constitution

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said yesterday he supports a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages in the United States.

Frist said the Supreme Court's decision last week on gay sex threatens to make the home a place where criminality is condoned.

Is he saying that gay sex = criminal behavior?

"I have this fear that this zone of privacy that we all want protected in our own homes is gradually -- or I'm concerned about the potential for it gradually being encroached upon, where criminal activity within the home would in some way be condoned," Frist told ABC's "This Week."

Scary!

Who Lost the WMD?

Meeting last month at a sweltering U.S. base outside Doha, Qatar, with his top Iraq commanders, President Bush skipped quickly past the niceties and went straight to his chief political obsession: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Turning to his Baghdad proconsul, Paul Bremer, Bush asked, "Are you in charge of finding WMD?" Bremer said no, he was not. Bush then put the same question to his military commander, General Tommy Franks. But Franks said it wasn't his job either. A little exasperated, Bush asked, So who is in charge of finding WMD? After aides conferred for a moment, someone volunteered the name of Stephen Cambone, a little-known deputy to Donald Rumsfeld, back in Washington. Pause. "Who?" Bush asked.

I bet you he knows who is responsible for managing all the oil in Iraq.

Found this great post on JohnKusch.Com regarding the supreme court decision on the Texas sodomy law. Check it out...

'Colourful' acronym forces Iraq army name change (via: Roland Soong)

The planned force was originally entitled the New Iraqi Corps, whose initials in Arabic produce a colourful synonym for fornication.
"I am told reliably but unanimously that that acronym is not a nice word in Arabic," a senior official from the Coalition Provisional Authority said.

Hamas Says It Decided to Suspend Attacks on Israelis
Hopefully now Israel will stop assasination Palestinians and the peace process can move forward.

Murderers get away with it...
Israelis cleared in activist Corrie's death

In March, Corrie died while trying to block the demolition of a Palestinian physician's home. The army said it destroyed the homes in the Rafah refugee camp to create a "buffer zone" to prevent smuggling from Egypt.

Supreme Court strikes down Texas sodomy law[Source: CNN]
This is great news for all gay people. Finally they don't have to worry about prosecution for what they do in their own bedrooms. No one should have to.

Jack Balkin has more......

Flash Mob Alert(via CheessBikini )
The next flash mob is scheduled for July 2nd. If you have plans, cancel em!

If you don't know what a flash mob is, shame on you! ;o). Well not really, just check it out.

This is hilarious. I've got to get me one of these. lol.

It's getting annoying....
You know what's really getting annoying, well I'm going to let you know anyway. Right now it's people who on their web site have email: Stupid at yahoo dot com what? why don't you just do the good ole fashioned stupid@yahoo.com. It's not that difficult. See when you press shift and a key with two symbols on it, it prints the one on top. The '@' symbol is shift+2 and the '.' symbol is right there, goddamit!!(that's right. it deserved a double exclamation).

On Democracy Now!
S.C. Man Charged with Threatening the President’s Safety For Holding Protest Sign

Brett Bursey goes on trial today for simply holding a sign that read “No War For Oil” outside a President Bush speech last October. Bursey is being charged with the federal crime of threatening the president’s safety.

There goes freedom of speech

Back in October he was originally charged by the state with trespassing at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. But the state dropped the trespassing charges perhaps because they knew the courts would rule in Bursey’s favor.

.....

After the state dropped the trespassing charges the local US Attorney, Strom Thurmond Jr., filed the much more severe charges of threatening the safety of the president.

Statutory Warning: Holding a anti-war sign anyplace in the vicity of "President" Bush might be injurious to his health.

Also found this on the same topic.

Lewis Pitts, a longtime Bursey friend and a member of his legal team, said the case is indicative of what has happened in other locations the president has visited.

"The heart of this case is about the pattern and practice of the Secret Service and the administration of cleansing an area where the president appears and speaks to create a false reality as if there is virtually total and complete support for the administration's policies," said Pitts, a civil rights lawyer for 30 years.

This guy gets paid to burn other people's hair?

Does Sharon really want peace?
Israel arrests dozens in Hebron, including relatives of suicide bombers

Israel arrested more than 130 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday, targeting Hamas as the Palestinian government awaited word on whether the Islamic militant group would agree to a cease-fire.

Why now? It's only going to trigger retaliation.

Qatari Man Designated An Enemy Combatant

A Qatari man described by federal prosecutors as an al Qaeda "sleeper operative" was designated an enemy combatant by President Bush yesterday, as the government dropped criminal charges against him and turned him over to the U.S. military.

The article continues....

Marri's lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said in an interview he plans to challenge the enemy combatant designation. He said the designation unfairly deprives Marri of legal rights, including access to counsel, and amounts to "end-running the legal system." Lustberg said he believes the administration acted because "we were raising powerful legal challenges" to the government's allegations of false statements.

"If the government had proof he was involved in terrorism, they would have charged him with that, but they didn't," Lustberg said. He said he had heard nothing from the government or his client to indicate that Marri acted as a U.S. facilitator for al Qaeda operatives or was a "sleeper" operative.

He joins Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi who were also earlier declared "Enemy Combatant" by Bush. No jury, No judge, nothing. Bush just wakes up one day and if he can't convict someone legally declares them "enemy combatants".

The difference between Marri and Padilla and Hamdi is that the latter are US citizens. What happened to due process?

One Month Anniversary
A whole month of blogging....Yup! its been a month since I started blogging and knowing the high mortality rate of blogs these days, I think it deserves at least a mention.

Justice Denied at the Source(via TalkLeft)
An excerpt

As for Inspector General Glenn Fine's report, the essence of his extensive evidence against the attorney general is that Ashcroft and some of the members of his senior staff deliberately established a policy that, as New York Times legal affairs reporter Adam Liptak noted—paraphrasing the report—replaced "ordinary rules" with "no rules or perverse ones."

Liptak continued, "The report says that the usual presumptions of the legal system were turned upside down in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001. As a result, people detained on immigration charges were considered guilty until proved innocent and were often held for months [without bail] after they were ordered [by judges] released [or deported]." (Emphasis added.)

People Vs. Big Media(FCC): Round 2
On June 2nd the FCC approved new media ownership rules that would allow the nation's networks to own stations reaching about 45 percent of the nation, rather than the 35 percent allowed under current (used to be current, not anymore) caps. [link]. That was round 1 that the FCC won. {link}

The Washington Post reports...

It was a case of the politicians versus the media barons Thursday, as a powerful group of senators laid down the first challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's vote to ease media ownership rules.

The Senate Commerce Committee yesterday approved legislation that would change the FCC's recent ruling, which -- among other things -- allows companies to own a newspaper and television station in the same city. Media conglomerates approved of the vote, which eliminates or relaxes a number of restrictions on media ownership for newspapers and radio and TV stations, but consumer groups and other public advocates cried foul. They say the lax rules will allow media empires to become larger and more powerful, and bring an end to diversified content in entertainment, news and opinion.

This is great news.

Democracy Now reports.......

The quick Senate action was a clear a rebuke to FCC Chair Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State General Colin Powell. Michael Powell pushed hard to relax the media ownership rules, and refused to make any serious attempt to involve the public on the issue. But he thoroughly consulted industry lobbyists. The non-partisan Center for Public Integrity found that FCC officials met with top broadcasters behind closed doors more than 70 times to discuss the rule changes.

The public was not to be silenced. Activists organized hearings and press conferences all over the country. Members of the National Rifle Association sent in three hundred thousand postcards. The Washington Post reported the FCC received more than 9,000 email comments through its website, and of those, only 11 were in favor of the changes. The activist group Moveon.org collected 170,000 signatures on a petition. Common Cause launched a $250,000 ad campaign, and placed ads in the Washington Post and The New York Times. And Senators began to speak out.

But this does not mean that the FCC ruling has been reversed. Not yet. This legislation has to passed by the Senate and the House before the FCC ruling is reversed. The there's some bad news....

The NYTimes reports....

A key House lawmaker is pledging to derail legislation that would reverse the Federal Communication Commission's decision to relax limits on how media companies can merge and grow.

Let me quess, this lawmaker is a Republican. The article continues....

While passed by a bipartisan majority on the committee, the bill faces an uncertain future in the full Senate and a big obstacle in the House, where Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, supports the changed media rules.

"We have no intentions of taking up that bill,'' Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said. ``This has become a political soap opera, and given the chance Chairman Tauzin intends to cancel its run.''

The article continues....

Another amendment involving radio passed 12-11 and would expand the FCC's new, stricter radio ownership rules so they apply to stations a company already owns. If enacted, the change could force companies like Clear Channel, the country's largest radio chain with 1,200 stations, to sell stations in markets where they exceed ownership limits.

Of course they have to sell, they are breaking the law by owning more than the current FCC rules allow.

Report by the E.P.A. Leaves Out Data on Climate Change

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to publish a draft report next week on the state of the environment, but after editing by the White House, a long section describing risks from rising global temperatures has been whittled to a few noncommittal paragraphs.

Why is the white house editing a document written by scientists? Why do they want to distort information about global warming? The article continues....

The editing eliminated references to many studies concluding that warming is at least partly caused by rising concentrations of smokestack and tail-pipe emissions and could threaten health and ecosystems.

Among the deletions were conclusions about the likely human contribution to warming from a 2001 report on climate by the National Research Council that the White House had commissioned and that President Bush had endorsed in speeches that year. White House officials also deleted a reference to a 1999 study showing that global temperatures had risen sharply in the previous decade compared with the last 1,000 years. In its place, administration officials added a reference to a new study, partly financed by the American Petroleum Institute, questioning that conclusion.

Why would a study, that is financed by American Petroleum Institute, blame petroleum use for global warming. And why add that to the EPA report?
Clearly, the White house does not care about the environment. Bush wants to drill the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil.

Bush's War on Endangered Species

On May 28, Gale Norton announced that the Interior Department was suspending any new designations of critical habitat for endangered and threatened species.

the article continues...

Then in May of 2002 the Bush administration, at the behest of the home construction industry and big agriculture, moved to rescind critical habitat designations and protections for 19 species of salmon and steelhead in California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The move covered fish in more than 150 different watersheds, clearing the way for timber sales, construction and water diversions.

We've got to take great care of our fragile environment. Our dependency on petroleum has to end. Doen't matter if it's local or from the middle east, we've got to cut down on our petroleum usage. But that's just one of our problems.

After the resignation of Christie Whitman the following candidates are front runners for the post....
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (Republican-Idaho), Tom Skinner(EPA Midwest regional administrator), Linda Fisher (Whitman's deputy) and Josephine Cooper.
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's record when it comes to environmental issues isn't very good. sfgate.com reports...

As senator from 1993 to 1998, Kempthorne registered only one "pro-environment" vote among 73 votes tracked by the League of Conservation Voters. That was to kill a NASA rocket motor project that environmentalists opposed because it threatened to take money away from the EPA.

Another report on Issues200.org about Kempthorne and the environment.

Josephine Cooper is the president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and a former executive at the American Forest and Paper Association. A whole bunch of environment un-friendly jobs.

That's it for now, more once Bush makes a decision, after Christie Whitman leaves office on June 27.

On BBC:
What are the 78 differences between women and men?

My Favorites....

Women could never invent weapons that kill, only ones that make you feel really bad and guilty until you surrender
Dan, UK

Men can watch an entire film without having to ask who is that, what does he do?
Alistair, UK

This one guy at work really needs to read this one. He has full length discussions in the restroom.

Women pee together. Men do not acknowledge, let alone speak, to each other when peeing.
Angus, London

On NYTimes:
Old Enough to Make a Lanyard, and to Do It Nude
This sounds like every teenage boys dream come true.

"I don't want to play strip volleyball!" complained Jane Jeffries, 13, her sunburned shoulders sagging. "I want to play regular volleyball."

Halie Nelson, 14, agreed, "Yeah, I'd rather get all the clothes off, and keep all the clothes off."

Dude, what is going on in Florida. First the elections and now this.

Great Reading: (via: A Small Victory.)(She didn't like it though)

What Is Happening in America?

On Washington Post:
Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet.
The surprise remarks by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a hearing on copyright abuses represent a dramatic escalation in the frustrating battle by industry executives and lawmakers in Washington against illegal music downloads.

Was this man drunk when he made these comments? Wait let me check... Nope! Just stupid.
As far as I'm concerned, more power to the illegal downloaders. The record companies charge way too much for CDs when it costs them cents to mass produce. It's not even the artists that get any of the profits.

Another Conflict of interests issue?
On Democracy Now! Bush Taps ‘Embedded Lobbyist’ to Head RNC

Bush has hired Ed Gillespie to server as the head of the RNC (Republican National Committee). Ed Gilespie is lobbyist for firms like Enron, Microsoft, Verizon, Viacom, Tyson Foods, DirecTV, Daimler-Chrysler.
Gillespie told the New York Times that he would retain his stake in his lobbying firm but would do no work and collect no salary as long as he is a party official.

The times reports....

In the long term, Mr. Gillespie's lobbying business will hardly suffer from his run as party chairman, but he says he did not take the job to make more money.

Yup! His firm won't suffer for sure. Every group that needs a lobbying firm will probably be rushing to Quinn, Gillespie & Associates from now on. Nothing like having your man on the inside.
The GOP is also now all set to get huge donations from Gillespie's clients.

Read press release on Citizen.org

I was reading the June 23rd, 2003 issue of the TIME magazine when I came across the article "Secret Armies Of The Night" by Michael Duffy, Mark Thompson and Michael Weisskopf. The very first paragraphs reads...

Nearly everyone at he US Central Command agreed that the sprawling Faw oil-refining and shipping facility on Iraq's southeastern coast was a must-sieze first night target in the war on Baghdad - amost as important as killing Saddam Hussein. ....

And they still argue that oil wasn't the reason why this war was fought. It continues...

Capture it early, went the thinking, and the next Iraqi goverment at least had a chance of geting back on it's feet.

Yeah right!

Ignore it, and Saddam might blow up the facility, flooding the nearly Persian Gulf with crude, compromising Iraq's economy and shutting down critical water desalination plants all along the Arabian Peninsula

The sentence should've read... Ignore it, and Saddam might blow up the facility which would delay stealing of Iraq's oil, compromising the US economy. Towards the end there's a bit about Rumsfeld...

The Pentagon took Rumsfeld's theory for a test drive in Afganistan, where a relatively small force of several hundred special forces, relying nearly as much as on pinpoint firepower, routed the Taliban and took over the country in two months.

Yup! and that's how all the big wigs in the Taliban got away and haven't been found yet. In fact there's a report that they are re-grouping.

There goes another peace process.
Pakistan denies war preparations
Seems like India and Pakistan have a problem for every solution, just like Palestine and Israel.

For those who aren't familiar with the history of tensions between India and Pakistan, BBC has a nice little timeline

Uummm! Notice how the British left a mess behind everywhere they went? Actually, that's probably true for any imperial force. Once you are done dealing with a country fighting for it's indepence, you just want to get out asap. Long term consequences don't matter. And the US seems to be heading right in that direction....

In the 21 years that I lived in India, I've never been invited to one of these. :(

Two donkeys - the bride Ganga and the groom Varuna - tied the knot at a temple on the city outskirts to loud cheers of about 100 guests, who attended the ceremony.

We've probably had one too many donkey weddings in the North East this year, you know, all this rain we've been getting. I think we should have a moratorium on donkey weddings, at least for a month.

News Update:
Names of 9/11 Detainees Can Remain Secret, Court Rules

Excerpt...

But in a sharply worded dissent, Judge David S. Tatel faulted his two colleagues, David B. Sentelle and Karen Lecraft Henderson, for showing "uncritical deference to the government's vague, poorly explained arguments for withholding broad categories of information about the detainees.''

This after the Justice Department criticized the treatment of the detainees.

The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General described "significant problems" in the Bush administration's actions toward the 762 foreigners detained on immigration violations after the attacks.

Will we ever know whether the constitutional right of these people were violated? 500 of these detainees were deported. Were these deportations illegal?

On DemocracyNow!:
Former Green Party Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader Gives his First Major Address on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Watch it, listen to it, the speech was pretty good.

Bill O'Reilly doesn't like free speech.

Today's example comes from Web sites that picked up a false report from The San Francisco Chronicle....

It was the Chronicle that errored not internet bloggers. And I'm sure the internet blogger just like the chronicle will run corrections.

So all over the country, we have people posting the most vile stuff imaginable, hiding behind high tech capabilities. Sometimes the violators are punished, but most are not. We have now have teenagers ruining the reputations of their peers in schools on the Internet. Ideologues accusing public officials of the worst things imaginable. And creeps gossiping about celebrities in the crudest of ways.

In all the above cases, if the allegations/accusation/gossip are true and not just defamation then they are all examples of free speech, no?

Dave Barry was right.
I just spent an hour playing this stupid game.

On The Australian: (via Dave Barry)

‘Extinct’ bum breathing turtle back
You definitely don't want to smell his breath.

In the News:
Officers Describe Kuwait Grenade Attack

Akbar, 32, of the 101st Airborne Division's 326th Engineer Battalion, is accused of killing two officers and injuring 14 others in the March 23 attack. Testimony began Monday and was to continue Tuesday.

Sgt. 1st Class Patricia Ann Lewis testified that there have been cases of muslims in the army complaining about being treated unfairly, but that does not justify killing 2 people and hurting 14 others (with intent to kill). There are plently of other ways to voice your concerns/complaints/etc. But then again this is the army we're talking about here. They don't like free speech. Just follow your orders.

On the internet I've come across many blogs that blame this man's voilent reaction to the fact that he is muslim. But this is unfair. How can you blame the actions of on man on an entire faith? Haven't we seen emotionally weak men react to alleged unfair treatment in a similar way?

So I ran a little more than 8 miles this morning. Not too long but it's still was my long run for the week. Actually it's my longest run all year. Anyways, I didn't run too hard and wasn't too exhausted but when I got home I got tempted into taking an ice bath. Yes, that's right, I actually like taking ice baths.

For those who don't know what an ice bath is, basically after a hard workout many runners (and other atheletes, I'm sure) sit in ice cold water. It works for horses, it must work for humans, right?

Trust me, they really work. It takes a lot of the muscle soreness away. And once your legs have thawed out you'll be ready to go out and run again. I've heard that it also helps prevent injury. What happens is, hard workouts cause inflamation in your joints and micro tears in your muscles which bleed slightly. Sitting in ice for a while helps stop that bleeding and reduces inflammation. Once that happens your body can start healing itself.
It also helps flush out the lactic acid that accumulates in your mucles after a hard workout.

When I first started running with Central Park Track Club, one of the first workouts I did was around the reservoir. I didn't know too many people (actually no one) in the club and wasn't sure what group to run with or even what my pace should be. Anyways, Sid Howard was the one who helped me out and showed me the ropes that first workout. Afterwards we just hanging around talking about how the workout had just kicked our butt when Sid mentioned that he was about to go home and take an ice bath. I was certain I hadn't heard him right. He explained the whole process to me and I think Kevan Houston was also there. I didn't think that it would be humanly possible to sit in ice water for a whole 15 minutes. I thought, this has got to be some prank they play on newbies like myself.

That was 2 years ago. A lot has changed since those days. I've learnt that this ice bath thingy wasn't some prank and that they really work. Many elite atheletes usually take one after races or hard workouts. But at the same time many elites don't and seem to do just fine. There is probably also a psycological aspect to it. Whatever it is, You'll feel great after you've taken one.

Try em. You'll need all your courage but just for the first 5 minutes. After that your legs'n all get numb and you won't feel a thing.

Disclaimer: Take ice baths at your own risk. Don't come suing me incase you fall asleep in the tub and have to loose your twig'n berries along with a few toes.

On CNN: Gregory Peck dead at 87
He is one of my favorite old time actors. Loved him in The Omen, which I think is probably the best movie ever made.
He, of couse, acted in many other very famous movies like The Guns of Navarone, Roman Holiday and To Kill a Mockingbird.

On BBC: Down Everest on his knees

It's about this guy, Conan Harrod, who made it down Everest after breaking his leg 820 feet from the summit. The ordeal took him two days and was only possible with the help of two other climbers, Peter Madew and Walid Abuhaidar, and members of a Royal Navy expedition. After the accident, in which he broke his leg, his co-climber (an unnamed American) and a sherpa, abandoned him on the ridge. He also claims that the American was the one who caused the accident in the first place.

If that's true, it's pretty awefull. It's common backpacking/outdoors/mountaineering knowledge that when someone in your group gets hurt or sick, everyone in the group has to concentrate on getting that person down to safety. Regardless of your goals or summit ambitions.

It seems this guy wanted to set a high altitude golf record. What? And was spotted by the members of the Royal Navy team the day after the accident, teeing off on the North Col. I guys is really nuts. I'm sure Conan Howard would like to swing a golf club at this guy.

Actually, this isn't very uncommon. There have been several reports where expeditions will not assist other groups in distress because that means sacrificing their own summit ambitions. It's a high stakes game of summit bagging. Check out this article in the September/October 2001 isssue of Outdoors magazine.

The cost of war. AP Tallies 3,240 Civilian Deaths in Iraq

No WMDs. No Al-Queda Link. Terror alerts keep going up and down (Except in NYC where we've always been at orange or pink or was it purple, I forget).
The government and the right (which is probably the same thing) now say that, so what if there weren't any WMDs in the first place, at least we freed the people of Iraq. Ask the family member of the 3240 civilians killed how they are enjoying this freedom.

Found this on BBC.
It's little movie clip about how people, men and women, in China will go to great lengths (no pun intended) to get taller. It's about this surgery that involves breaking of the femur and there is, of course, a long recovery process. The surgeon claims you could gain upto 2cms a month. It seems if you are taller, your chance of getting a job are better. What? Tall people are better worker? Some women admit that they want to get taller just to be more attractive but it also does help while searching for employment.
This reminds me of home. In India, people go to great lengths to stay fair. Yes it's true as unbelievable as it sounds. They stay out of the sun. People even use skin bleech to get fairer skin. While here in America, a tan is in vogue.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

Got this off of muted noise blog.

What type of music are you?
This is what I got. Hope it's not entirely true.

You're nothing, really. But you're nice.


What type of music are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

On BBC:
UN team tours Iraq nuclear site
But it's not that straight forward. There are many restrictions imposed on the UN team by the occupying US forces.
Excerpt from above article....

The visit was agreed after weeks of pleading by the IAEA, which has kept the radiological materials at the site safely under UN seal for 12 years.
However, members of the UN group - all non-Americans, with expertise ranging from nuclear physics to arms-control analysis - are not authorised to look at issues of health and safety arising from, for example, the misuse of the barrels.

I guess they aren't really concerned about the health of the local people as much as about the fact the these nuclear materials can be used to make dirty bombs.

The IAEA team is being accompanied at all times by a US weapons body which has already conducted its own checks of the site.
It is being transported in a bus driven by a US soldier, and has not been allowed to use neutral UN vehicles.

On Sunday, a Reuters cameraman filming the Tuwaitha visit had his videotape confiscated by US soldiers, who said no media coverage was permitted.

What exactly are they trying to hide?

What's going on? Haloscan seems to be down. No more comments? Not like too many people were leaving comments to begin with. :(

On Democracy Now!:
Listen to Amy Goodman interview the very brave parents of Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall.
Rachel Corrie was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer and Tom Hurndall was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier.
They are just 2 of the many peace activists that have been hurt or killed by the Israeli military.

New York Mini 10K:
Lornah Kiplagat won the New York Mini this morning. Here's the NYRRC article about this race.
And of course I was there to take pictures along with Chele, Paul, Nayla and Bailey. In the clips you'll hear all five of us cheering for the CPTC runners. Our team came in 2nd behind Westchester TC and ahead of Warren street. Well done guys!
Alayne Adams 37:14
Catherine Stone 38:21
Amy Sheeran 39:34
Andrea Haver 39:51
Lauren Eckhart 39:54

Check out the clips....I'll post more pictures later this week.

Gulf War Syndrome? Some people blame it on the Anthax vaccine that the army has been using since Gulf War 1. This vaccine hasn't been FDA approved and those who refuse to take it, get court-martialed.
Many soldiers who agreed to take it have developed autoimmune disorders, memory loss and have even died. Direct order is a documentary about their ordeals and how these experiments continue. It's currently playing at the Seattle Film Festival.

Here's the review (scroll down a bit) and trailer.

Wow! what a day? Been too busy at work to blog. Can you imagine these guys actually expect me to do work here? ;)

On Democracy Now!
Seattle Police Attack Protesters and Seattle-Post Intelligencer Photographer with Rubber Bullets

The group was protesting a Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit Seminar (LEIU) seminar. The LEIU is a private agency and does not answer to any government official or office. Many considered it a virtual secret police.
The seminar was titled "Criminal Intelligence and the War on Terrorism". Attending this year were police intelligence agents from around the country and Tom Ridge. It is closed to the public.


Here's an excerpt from the PublicEye.Org article on the LEIU....

The LEIU gets away with hiding its activities from public scrutiny because it claims to be a private organization -despite the fact that it is composed of law enforcement agencies that use tax dollars to pay dues and fees. The LEIU is shielded from federal and state laws governing the conduct of intelligence gathering and dissemination, and escapes the probing eye of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The same story on CNN fails to mention the use of rubber bullets by the Seattle Police.

NewMax.Com has put together a deck of playing cards called Deck of Weasels. These cards, like the ones the Pentagon created for Iraqi leaders, depicts (and I quote) "the 54 worst leaders and celebrities who opposed America and were key members of "The United Nations of Weasels." "

I guess according to them anyone who opposes anything that the US wants to do is a weasel. These guys are so blind to the facts. Like Sen Robert Byrd said in Time Magazine "Eventually, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall".

The Top Weasels are Jacques Chirac, Martin Sheen, Sen. Robert Byrd and Dan Rather amongst others.
BTW, they are giving these cards out for free.

The American corporate media is all set to go from bad to worse.
FCC approved new media ownership rules that would allow the nation's networks to own stations reaching about 45 percent of the nation, rather than the 35 percent allowed under current (used to be current, not anymore) caps.

The public opposition to this ruling was widespread, bringing together groups like the NRA and Jesse Jackson. Who would've thought that they would agree on anything? The common fear, that media consolidation would dilute their views.

Stock tip: Invest in Vaicom (CBS, UPN), News Corp (FOX), Walt Disney (ABC), GE (NBC), AOL Time Warner (CNN/Money, WB)
These guys will definitely profit from these new rules.