Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Veterans feel abandoned over cuts in medical benefits
By Joseph L. Galloway / Knight Ridder
It was, I suppose, as inevitable as bluebonnets in a Texas spring: On the eve of Memorial Day a class-action lawsuit was filed against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of more than 1,000 residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in our nation’s capital.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2822
Modern memorials stand for the warriors, not the war
By Gregg Zoroya / USA Today
Grass-roots memorials to the war dead in Iraq and Afghanistan are spreading across America, and the driving force behind them is often the same: to commemorate the individuals, rather than the wars.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2821
Protesters greet air show with black coffins, leaflets
Anti-war protesters focus their message at an annual Memorial Day air show.
By Megan Rolland / Missourian
Black coffins lined one entrance to the Salute to Veterans Air Show on Saturday as thousands of spectators entered the show’s tarmac at the Columbia Regional Airport.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2820
Signs don't tell the whole story
By Julia Spitz / Metro West Daily News
Spc. Seth Garceau 22 Iowa. He's the third pole on your right, just past the newly renamed Exxcel gas station in Ashland, one of the 1,802 signs along routes 16 and 126 in Ashland, Bellingham, Holliston, Hopkinton, Medway, Milford and Sherborn.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2819
Anti-war sailor lifts foes of Iraq policy
Sentence for defying deployment orders less than expected
By Joe Garofoli / San Francisco Chronicle
Pablo Paredes' name will be invoked by antiwar veterans and activists at Memorial Day events in the Bay Area and elsewhere this weekend, but not because he was sentenced to three months of hard labor and busted down to the Navy's lowest rank for refusing to board a ship bound for the Persian Gulf.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2811
After 19 years in military, homeless in Philadelphia
By Natalie Pompilio and Sam J Lin / Philadelphia Inquirer
Luis Mejias admits he did something wrong. Last year, while stationed in Baghdad with the National Guard, he failed a random drug test. The Guard has a zero-tolerance drug policy, and Mejias was immediately discharged.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2823
The secret Downing Street memo
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY
DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell
IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY
Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.
John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html
The LA Times
Legislature Targets Toxic Risks in Products
By Jordan Rau, Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO — Moving more assertively than lawmakers in other states, the California Legislature is stepping into a growing global debate over how to regulate potentially dangerous chemicals used in perfume, nail polish, plastic baby bottles, rubber ducks and thousands of other products.
Under measures facing votes this week, the state would collect samples from volunteers in California and study data from manufacturers to better identify which chemicals may pose health risks.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chemicals30may30,0,3438980.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Rebels Confront Baghdad Operation
By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — Insurgents defied a much-touted military crackdown in the capital Sunday, targeting police checkpoints, the Oil Ministry and convoys of U.S. and Iraqi troops.
In at least five suicide bombings within six hours and an attack on a checkpoint, insurgents killed 20 members of the fledgling security forces. By the end of the day, militants had killed at least eight other Iraqis, pushing the death toll beyond 720 in the monthlong escalation of violence.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq30may30,0,4233691.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Towns in Big Storms' Path Still Winded
The state limps into a new hurricane season with thousands of families still displaced by last year's quadruple whammy.
By John-Thor Dahlburg, Times Staff Writer
FROSTPROOF, Fla. — A blue tarp still covers the tattered roof of the wood-frame home that was lashed by not one but three hurricanes last year. When 62-year-old Bobby Curtis, who has had two open-heart surgeries, feels up to it, he whittles away at the downed tree in the backyard, leaning on his cane as he wields a chain saw.
"We've got to get shingles," says his wife, Nell, 66, "we've got to get a roof and we've got to cut up the tree."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-frostproof30may30,0,3957852.story?coll=la-home-nation
No Purists in D.C.
The Wolfowitz Agenda follows the strategy of McNamara. This is interesting. First you make war and force impoverishment to develop. Then add agenda of privatization to '? Stimulate ?' movement out of war. Then with increased impoverishment comes disease which kills them in a way a war has no legitimacy. DOES ANYONE see the PROFITS for pharmaceuticals in this strategy while lending foreign countries into insoluble debt? Yeah, you betcha. American profits at the expense of global wars and global lives.
Countries around the world need to build their own pharmaceutical plants while supplying jobs to their people. The countries that can should start their own research and development projects to address local needs that American Pharaceutical Companies have no interest in because there is no profit in it for them.
The world needs to realize they are not in good hands if they are depending on the USA to be their savior.
True Believers at the World Bank
Rigid ideology is a threat, not an asset.
By Barbara Garson, Barbara Garson is the author of "Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks Her Cash Through the Global Economy" (Penguin, 2002).
A few decades after the end of the war that he managed, former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara told us that the Vietnam War had been a mistake and he apologized.
Great. But when, I'd like to know, is he going to apologize for the World Bank?
...Before the McNamara years, the poorest people didn't get much richer. But during the Washington Consensus years, they got poorer and poorer.
I saw how that could be possible when I became a shareholder in the French water company Suez, which took over the water system of Johannesburg, South Africa.
To get ready for privatization, South African communities followed the World Bank/IMF suggestion that water rates be raised so consumers would get used to paying the full cost. The water of many people was cut off when they couldn't pay their bills. In some places they started taking water from rivers. The result was a cholera epidemic.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-garson30may30,0,1654882.story
U.S. Detains Iraqi Islamic Party Leader
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops detained the head of Iraq's largest Sunni Muslim political party during a house raid early Monday in western Baghdad, a top party official and police said. Mohsen Abdul Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was detained by American soldiers along with his three sons and four guards, said party-secretary-general Ayad al-Samarei. U.S. military officials could not immediately confirm the detentions.
Al-Samarei said American soldiers raided Hamid's home at around 6 a.m. and confiscated various items, including a computer.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11may30,0,6674656.story
The Death of Pluralism
If Muslims Called Allah 'God,' Would the U.S. Be More Respectful?
MICHAEL McGOUGH
In November 2001, two months after the destruction of the World Trade Center, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a letter to the editor suggesting that the news media might stop using the word "Allah" to refer to the deity worshiped by Muslims.
"I would like to point out that the Arabic word 'Allah,' which is often erroneously perceived by many as some kind of a 'Muslim God,' is merely a translation of the word 'God,' " wrote Nash Khatri, noting that "even Christian (i.e., non-Muslim) Arabs refer to God as 'Allah,' when speaking in Arabic." The suggestion went nowhere, and in another letter two years later even Khatri acknowledged that "Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc., all define God differently in terms of what God expects from them here and what he will have for them in the afterlife."
Still, Khatri wasn't alone in his idea that post-Sept. 11 prejudices against Muslim Americans might be mitigated by recognizing that "Allah" and "God" are one and the same. No less a Christian than George W. Bush said at the time: "I believe we worship the same God."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcgough30may30,0,7017266.story
The Sydney Morning Herald
Australia wants to send lawyers to Jakarta
By MIKE CORDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia's government on Friday offered to send two senior lawyers to help the appeal of an Australian woman convicted of drug smuggling on Indonesia's Bali island and sentenced to 20 years.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apaa_story.asp?category=1106&slug=Australia%20Indonesia%20Drugs
Corby supporters plan national day of protest
May 30, 2005 - 7:57PM
Supporters of Schapelle Corby have called for a national day of protest against her 20-year jail sentence.
The protests would be held on July 10 to coincide with Corby's 28th birthday.
Gold Coast-based organiser Rachelle Hamilton said she believed thousands of Corby supporters would vent their anger towards Australian and Indonesian authorities at marches to be held across the country.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Corby-supporters-plan-national-day-of-protest/2005/05/30/1117305556785.html
Corby's long hours of devotion and prayer
By Matthew Moore, Neil McMahon and Lindsay Murdoch in Denpasar Cynthia Banham and agencies
May 30, 2005
A time for prayer … Corby.
Photo: Jason South
Two days after the trauma of her sentencing, Schapelle Corby found comfort and even smiles in her faith and friends.
Corby spent all of yesterday morning attending church services in jail, sitting beside a man, a fellow prisoner, who witnesses say has become a good friend since her arrest last October. It is understood Corby and the man, identified as Sinyo, first met when they were both detained last year at Polda police headquarters, where he was held on a minor drugs charge.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Corbys-long-hours-of-devotion-and-prayer/2005/05/29/1117305502568.html
Backlash could hurt Corby's case: govt
May 30, 2005 - 11:49AM
A backlash against Indonesia for Schapelle Corby's 20-year jail sentence could do more harm than good, the federal government has said.
Some Corby supporters want tourists to boycott Bali, while others have asked for their donations to help tsunami victims in the Indonesian province of Aceh to be returned.
Corby's former boyfriend Shannon McLure reportedly called for the government to cut foreign aid to Indonesia.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Backlash-could-hurt-Corbys-case-govt/2005/05/30/1117305539349.html
Japan approves nuclear reactor
May 30, 2005 - 6:34PM
The Japanese Supreme Court upheld government approval of an experimental fast-breeder nuclear reactor, paving the way for the reopening of a plant that was shut down a decade ago by an accident and cover-up.
The ruling reversed a 2003 decision by a high court that had nullified the government's 1983 approval to build the Monju reactor in Tsuruga, 320 kilometres west of Tokyo, said Takao Arakawa, a court spokesman.
The decision was a major boost for the plutonium-fired plant, the centrepiece in the government's campaign to expand resource-poor Japan's reliance on nuclear energy.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Japan-approves-nuclear-reactor/2005/05/30/1117305555098.html
Taskforce to explore biofuels
May 30, 2005 - 5:54PM
Ethanol and other biofuels are to be given another chance by the federal government after it commissioned a taskforce to examine the oil alternatives.
Prime Minister John Howard said the taskforce would look at scientific evidence on the impacts of ethanol and other biofuels on human health, the environment and the operation of cars.
It signals the government may be gearing up to legislate on the inclusion of ethanol in petrol as a way of safeguarding the long-term fuel supply and also prop up grain and sugar-cane farmers.
In Australia, ethanol is largely produced from grain. It can also be made from sugar cane.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Taskforce-to-explore-biofuels/2005/05/30/1117305554752.html
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
Crazy Horse monument fundraising begins
By JOE KAFKA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
CUSTER, S.D. -- Nearly six decades have passed since work began on the Crazy Horse Memorial, a granite mountain being carved into a colossal sculpture of the Sioux warrior, arm outstretched toward his ancestral homeland, astride a stallion more than two football fields long.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Crazy%20Horse
Indonesians bury 20 dead after bombings
By CHRIS BRUMMITT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TENTENA, Indonesia -- Tearful mourners on Sunday began burying the victims of twin bombings that killed at least 20 people in a crowded marketplace in a Christian-dominated town - the deadliest terror attacks in Indonesia since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed hundreds.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Indonesia%20Market%20Bombing
Australia wants to send lawyers to Jakarta
By MIKE CORDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia's government on Friday offered to send two senior lawyers to help the appeal of an Australian woman convicted of drug smuggling on Indonesia's Bali island and sentenced to 20 years.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apaa_story.asp?category=1106&slug=Australia%20Indonesia%20Drugs
What's in a name? Money for parks
Agencies look to business for funding
By KERY MURAKAMI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Chances are, Green Lake Park won't end up becoming Green Lake Pepsi Park.
But after being hit with $14.5 million in budget cuts over the last three years, Seattle's Parks and Recreation Department is dipping into the potentially controversial idea of courting advertisers to raise more money.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/226358_parks30.asp
Pause to remember deaths of Iraqis, too
By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
Do dead Iraqi civilians get a Memorial Day, too?
I am talking about people such as 19-year-old Farah al-Janabi. She lived with her family in an apartment near Baghdad. Farah took her last breaths right after U.S. soldiers came knocking at the door.
I am talking about Muhammad al-Qubaisi. Muhammad, just 12, and his siblings liked to go to the roof during the hot Iraq summers. He was bringing bedding of his brothers to the roof when members of the 82nd Airborne saw what they thought to be a weapon and fired a lethal shot.
I'm talking about 14-year-old Zaid al-Rubai, who was riding in a car driven by his brother. They were on their way to pick up food when U.S. forces loosed gunfire on them.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/226309_robert30.html
Idaho Powerball ticket wins $220.3 million
By CHUCK OXLEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOISE, Idaho -- Someone who bought a Powerball lottery ticket here over the weekend has won a $220.3 million jackpot, the 10th-largest jackpot ever awarded by the multistate lottery, officials said yesterday.
But if they want to spend any of it over the holiday weekend, they're going to have to borrow it from their buddies.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/226326_powerball30.html
Salmon rescue plan takes big jump forward
Seattle, King County, local governments finish document
By ROBERT McCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Saving salmon in Seattle is a big idea, a noble idea -- and a largely untested idea.
But plans to carry out that concept took a big step forward this week when representatives of Seattle, King County and other local governments in the Cedar River-Lake Washington basin put the final touches on their salmon-rescue blueprint.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/226219_salmon28.html
Salmon: Facing the dam question
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Federal efforts to protect Columbia River salmon runs must return to basics.
The fish, their ecosystem and the communities that live off the salmon must be protected. The Northwest economy must remain strong. Cooperative efforts, rather than divide-and-conquer tactics, provide the most hopeful avenues. Preserving endangered species is good sense, and it's the law.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/226162_salmoned.asp
State Ecology workers vote to stay with union
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OLYMPIA -- The Washington Federation of State Employees has turned aside efforts at the Department of Ecology to decertify the largest state employee union.
The politically powerful union won a showdown vote, 459-406. Votes representing about 76 percent of the eligible workers were counted by the Public Employee Relations Commission on Thursday.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/226244_ecology28.html
United Nations: Divulge Bolton dossier
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
With the Senate in recess, there's time for a quick resolution of the roadblock to a final vote on United Nations ambassador nominee John Bolton.
The White House ought to share with the Senate relevant information on Bolton's record as a State Department official. That would clear the way for an up-or-down vote on his nomination after the Senate reconvenes June 7, following a Memorial Day recess.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/226166_boltoned.asp
Women In Combat: The brass ceiling
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
The U.S. House last week passed a military spending bill only after rejecting an amendment that was so goofy even Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld didn't like it.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/226167_combated.asp
State turned a vital corner on path to clean energy
By K.C. GOLDEN
GUEST COLUMNIST
Washington's transition to a clean energy economy shifted into high gear this year with an impressive package of forward-looking legislation coming out of Olympia. Bipartisan majorities delivered clean cars, high-performance buildings, efficient equipment and solar energy incentives.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/226176_focusgolden.html
Global warming? A small few non-believers say no
JOHANN HARI
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
Rev up your SUV. Jump in a plane to New York for a morning meeting about how global warming is a "scam" and head back in the afternoon. When you return to your empty, centrally heated house, turn on that gas fire -- and toss a copy of the Kyoto treaty on the flames. This is the message from David Bellamy, still routinely dubbed one of Britain's "leading environmentalists." Global warming? Chill, baby, chill.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/226175_climate29.html
Hawaii seeks answers in missing child case
By JAYMES SONG
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HONOLULU -- Before he was 4 months old, Peter Kema Jr. already had his arms, a leg and three ribs broken. Doctors concluded the fractures were signs of child abuse. The child, who has become known throughout Hawaii as Peter Boy, was taken into state custody just three months after he was born in 1991. Three years later, a Family Court judge ordered him returned to his parents. Yet, the last time anyone saw him was 1997, when Peter Boy was 6, and the question remains: Where is he?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Peter%20Boy
Clinton visits Banda Aceh on relief mission
By MICHAEL CASEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- Former President Clinton on Monday visited the Indonesian city hit hardest by the Dec. 26 tsunami, trying to jump-start efforts to rebuild the stricken region. Clinton, who was recently named U.N. special envoy for tsunami recovery, was in Banda Aceh as part of a four-day tour to ensure that aid is being distributed fairly and efficiently, and to keep the world's attention on tsunami recovery.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20Clinton
Austria avalanche searchers find U.S. body
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
INNSBRUCK, Austria -- The body of an American snowboarder who disappeared in an avalanche in January was found on Sunday, the Austria Press Agency reported.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Austria%20Avalanche
Glance at France's referendum on charter
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A glance at the EU referendum vote in France on Sunday:
THE REFERENDUM: France's 41.7 million registered voters were asked: "Do you approve the proposed law authorizing the ratification of the treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe?" They rejected it, about 55 percent to 45 percent.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=France%20EU%20Referendum%20Glance
Annan seeks wider African role in Darfur
By MOHAMED OSMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Saturday called for widening the responsibilities of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, as he visited a refugee camp and a tense, rebel-held area in the restive region of Sudan.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apafrica_story.asp?category=1105&slug=Sudan%20Annan
Canada offers $9.5M in aid to Palestinians
By BETH DUFF-BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TORONTO -- Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Friday that Canada would back up its commitment to Middle East peace with $9.5 million in new aid to help the Palestinians build homes and justice in their new state.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apcanada_story.asp?category=1101&slug=Canada%20Palestinians
The New Zealand Herald
Human rights worries will not derail trade talks, says Clark
Chinese President Hu Jintao (right) and Helen Clark, seen in 2003 at the AG Research Centre in Hamilton. Picture / Greg Bowker
30.05.05 1.00pm
By Ian Llewellyn
BEIJING - New Zealand will continue to raise concerns about human rights issues in China, but will not allow it to derail a potential trade deal with the north Asian giant, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.
The Prime Minister has arrived in Beijing ahead of talks with Chinese political leaders late tonight.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10128235
State of emergency at Matata to be lifted today
30.05.05 12.00pm
The state of emergency at flood-devastated Matata will be lifted later today.
Almost two weeks after the floods hit, State Highway 2 from Matata to Tauranga will be opened at 3pm, Wakatane District Council said.
Mayor Colin Holmes said police would continue to monitor Matata closely.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10128229
Prostitute disappears with slug embedded in brain
30.05.05 12.00pm
The disappearance of an Auckland prostitute with an air rifle slug embedded in her brain is worrying police who want to get her to hospital.
The prostitute, 20, was shot in the head in a drive-by attack last month but was back on the streets in the south Auckland town of Papatoetoe within a few days.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=1012823
Amazon Forest road to bring riches or ruin
30.05.05 3.50pm
By Peter Blackburn
SANTAREM, Brazil - Brazilian soybean farmers expect a rutted, muddy road through the Amazon will turn into a highway of gold thanks to plans to pave it over the next three years.
However, environmentalists fear the project will hasten the region's deforestation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10128255
Anti-poverty coalition in forced labour row
30.05.05 1.00pm
By Helen McCormack
The Make Poverty History coalition suffered a major blow yesterday after it was revealed that white wristbands they have sold were made in Chinese factories accused of using forced labour.
The fashionable white wristbands, worn by celebrities and politicians including Tony Blair, were made for a coalition of charities as the symbol of their worldwide 2005 campaign to end extreme poverty.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10128212
Nuclear-leak clues ‘ignored for months'
30.05.05
By Francis Elliott
LONDON - Tens of thousands of litres of highly radioactive liquid leaked unnoticed for up to nine months from a ruptured pipe in the controversial Thorp reprocessing plant at Sellafield.
The leak, which was detected last month, was Britain’s worst nuclear accident for 13 years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10128077
continued...
