Viewpoint / Spare the IDF the pain
By Tzipi Livni
In the midst of tremendous fears of a violent evacuation and physical confrontations between settlers and security forces, more of the anti-pullout effort has been redirected toward messages that will be received with relief and a feeling of, "Thank God, the important thing is that there will be no violence."
The message is deliberate, and is accompanied by signs posted in public places. "Brother, a settler calls to a soldier, look me in the eye and be ashamed." Or, "Your deeds are immoral, you cruel person harming my family and children."
In heart-rending conversations between settlers and soldiers, the message is repeated in different ways. I asked some settlers and they told me their objective: "We want to sear the soldiers' consciousness, so they remember us all their lives, so they feel the pain."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/613478.html
PM vows to keep evacuated communities together
By Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Staff
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday that the government would continue with its primary endeavor to relocate evacuated settlers in new homes, and pledged to keep communities together.
Speaking at a meeting of the ministerial committee on the disengagement, Sharon said that the government would also make every possible effort to minimize the poeriod in which evacuees "are living with uncertainty."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/616750.html
The exports better be secure. I'm sorry but to think the Palestinians will be a legitimate trading partner is still rather skeptical to me.
Palestinians sign export deal for Gaza greenhouse produce
By Arnon Regular
PalTrade, the Palestinian company in charge of running the greenhouses that the Palestinians will inherit from Gaza evacuees, recently signed its first export agreement for the produce slated to be grown there.
The produce will be marketed via the Israeli firm Agrexco, which handles most of Israel's agricultural exports. Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip already export under a special brand name that Agrexco launched for this purpose, and this brand will apparently be used for the new venture as well.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/616294.html
IMI to supply ammunition to U.S. army in $300 million deal
By Ora Koren, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel Military Industries won a tender Tuesday for around $300 million to supply the U.S. army with ammunition. IMI said this is their biggest ammunition deal with the U.S. army to date.
IMI will supply light ammunition for rifles and machine guns, which will be produced in its 'Yitzhak' factory in Upper Nazareth. The deal will double the factory's scope of activity. It currently employs 350 workers, and has a revenue today of over $60 million a year.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/616757.html
Gaza terror group said to have rocket that could hit Ashkelon
By Haaretz Service
The Popular Resistance Committees organization, which has carried out a number of high-profile terror attacks in recent years, has said that it has developed a rocket capable of striking targets 15 kilometers away, which after a planned IDF pullout from the Gaza Strip, would put southern Ashkelon within range of the projectile, Army Radio reported Wednesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/616716.html
Poll: Deep rift has opened between Sharon and Likud
By Yossi Verter
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's detractors and rivals will look at today's newspaper headlines that festively herald the end of the Jewish settlement enterprise in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank with some degree of solace in their hearts and minds - the belief that Sharon, the man who brought about this calamity and shattered their dreams is rapidly approaching his final days in the Prime Minister's Office.
It is not fact; it is only a belief and a hope - and also the concern of many in the political establishment who believe that if Sharon is not reelected Likud chairman, he will not be reelected prime minister.
Facing them, there are those who are convinced that every end is merely a beginning, and that Sharon will again show his skill at turning failure into success, a disadvantage into an advantage, and will return for a third term in office, with or without the Likud.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/616297.html
Michael Moore Today
Come one, come all!
Crawford Update
This upcoming weekend (27th and 28th) is going to be HUGE at Camp Casey! It's the last weekend we will spend in Crawford before heading to D.C., and we want to lots of people here to experience the wonder of Camp Casey.
Saturday we will be having a fabulous Texas-style BBQ at Casey II, to which we have invited the President and First Lady (though I suspect the food will be more authentically Texan than they are). Sunday is a National Day of Prayer for the troops; regardless of your political persuasion or position on the war, this is a day for you and your community to pray for/meditate on the troops' well-being in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3830
Bush Bikes, Boats During Idaho Vacation
By Christopher Smith / Associated Press
DONNELLY, Idaho -- President Bush spent Tuesday at a resort in the Idaho Rockies, mountain biking around a rugged trail circuit before going fishing in a small pontoon boat on a wind-whipped lake.
"I'm kind of hanging loose, as they say," Bush said earlier outside of his lodge at the 9-month-old Tamarack Resort, where he was spending two nights away from his Texas ranch.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3832
Bush Believes Those Who Protest Iraq War Don't Want U.S. to Win 'War on Terror,' Spokesman Says
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK Meeting briefly with reporters Monday aboard Air Force One, Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman subbing for Scott McClellan, said that President Bush believes that those who want the U.S. to begin to change course in Iraq do not want America to win the overall "war on terror."
Duffy spoke on a day when a surprisingly large antiwar protest met the president during his stay in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he addressed a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3816
Congresswoman Calls for Return of Troops
By Jamie Stengle / Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas - U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee visited the anti-war inspired "Camp Casey" near President Bush's ranch on Monday, lending support and words of encouragement to several families whose loved ones died in Iraq.
"It is time to bring our troops home," Lee said at the demonstration started by Cindy Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., on Aug. 6.
Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Army Spc. Casey Sheehan died last year in Iraq, is currently in Los Angeles to be with her mother, who had a stroke. But about 60 other people were spread between two anti-war campsites near the ranch on Monday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3815
No Proof Found of Iran Arms Program
Uranium Traced to Pakistani Equipment
By Dafna Linzer / Washington Post
Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.
"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3819
Rumsfeld: Constitution Won't End Violence
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new constitution will not end all the violence in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday, acknowledging that the continuing turbulence ''has to be a heart-wrenching thing'' for the families of U.S. forces still fighting insurgents there.
''The process has been delayed a bit, but democracy has never been described as speedy, efficient or perfect,'' Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon briefing. Earlier, Iraqi lawmakers delayed a vote on the draft constitution to give negotiators more time to persuade Sunni Arabs to accept it.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3828
Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans
By David Pace / Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Va. - Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.
Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge, whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere. A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.
The vast majority of military gravestones from other eras are inscribed with just the basic, required information: name, rank, military branch, date of death and, if applicable, the war and foreign country in which the person served.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3822
War stress blamed for shootings by vets
Some question whether Army doing enough to help soldiers
(AP) -- One was a skinny 20-year-old discharged from the Army who couldn't shake the piercing rat-a-tat-tat reminders of combat. The other, a decorated Marine family man whose job preparing bodies of U.S. soldiers for burial had caused clammy, restless nights.
Both home from duty in Iraq, they were on opposite ends of the country, but their stories have much in common.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3829
Robertson Calls for Chavez Assassination
By Sue Lindsey / Associated Press
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has suggested that American agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."
An official of a theological watchdog group on Tuesday criticized Robertson's statement as "chilling."
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3820
Talk Show Host Graham Fired By WMAL Over Islam Remarks
By Paul Farhi / Washington Post
Washington radio station WMAL-AM fired talk show host Michael Graham yesterday after he refused to soften his description of Islam as "a terrorist organization" on the air last month.
Graham had been suspended without pay from his daily three-hour show since making his comments July 25. The station had conditioned his return to the midmorning shift on reading a station-approved statement in which Graham would have said that his anti-Muslim statements were "too broad" and that he sometimes uses "hyperbole" in the course of his program. WMAL also asked Graham to speak to the station's advertisers and its employees about the controversy.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3824
The Sun Sentinel
Tropical Storm Katrina takes aim at South Florida's shores
Workers begin lowering levels in the area's 2,000-mile network of drainage canals
Associated Press
MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Katrina formed Wednesday morning in the Bahamas and could reach hurricane strength before hitting the coast of Florida later this week, the National Hurricane Center said.
A 200-mile stretch of Florida's east coast from the Seven Mile Bridge in the Keys north to Vero Beach was under a tropical storm watch, meaning tropical storm conditions were likely by late Thursday. The storm is expected to slowly cross the state and could cause flooding as it dumps a foot of rain or more in spots before heading into the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-katrina,0,4750075.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Report: Tour de France director says it's a 'fact' Lance Armstrong took steroids
Associated Press
Posted August 24 2005, 10:54 AM EDT
PARIS -- The director of the Tour de France claims Lance Armstrong has "fooled" the sports world and that the seven-time champion owes fans an explanation over new allegations he used a performance-boosting drug.
Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc's comments appeared in the French sports daily L'Equipe on Wednesday, a day after the newspaper reported that six urine samples provided by Armstrong during the '99 Tour tested positive for the red blood cell-booster EPO.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-824tourdefrance,0,4366082.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
It would be a sad day if Armstrong was lying
Published August 24, 2005
For the umpteenth time, cyclist Lance Armstrong reiterated yesterday that he isn't a drug cheat. He damn sure better not be. If Armstrong, the world's most famous cancer survivor, has been lying to us for years and he really did use the endurance-boosting drug EPO during his first Tour de France victory in 1999 - which was the explosive allegation yesterday in a four-page story published in the French newspaper L'Equipe - then Armstrong is guilty of a deceit of incomprehensible callousness and staggering proportion.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/ny-sphow244396012aug24,0,7296481.column?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Home sales in Broward drop 28% due to few for-sale listings
By Alexandra Navarro Clifton and Robin Benedick
Staff Writers
Posted August 24 2005
The median price of an existing single-family home in Broward County continued to rise in July when it cost $83,700 more to buy a home than a year ago.
But the blistering pace of escalating prices is leveling off, growing only 28 percent compared with this year's high of 34 percent in May.
While the median price rose to $385,600 in July, sales in Broward County dropped 28 percent from a year ago, according to data released Tuesday by the Florida Association of Realtors. The figures do not include condominiums or townhouses.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-zhomesbrow24aug24,0,7819923.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Witness in Rilya Wilson disappearance refuses to testify against accused killer
By Ihosvani Rodriguez
Miami Bureau
Posted August 24 2005
Robin Lunceford's words were enough to land a murder indictment last year against Geralyn Graham, the former caregiver of missing 4-year-old Rilya Wilson. But on Tuesday, she refused to snitch.
Lunceford, 42, repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to testify during a bond hearing for Graham in a Miami-Dade courtroom on Tuesday. Graham's attorney, Brian Tannebaum, tried to ask Lunceford about the confession she claims she obtained from Graham while the two women were in a courthouse holding cell last year. A Miami-Dade County grand jury used Lunceford's statement to indict Graham, 59, in March on first-degree murder.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-drilya24aug24,0,5838798.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Bush critics, fans in S. Florida blast Pat Robertson's assassination remark
By Sandra Hernandez & James D. Davis
Staff Writers
Posted August 24 2005
Televangelist Pat Robertson's call to assassinate Venezuela's president has formed an unlikely alliance: Local South Florida critics of the president have joined with his supporters who have denounced the remarks as "crazy" and "stupid."
Robertson's comments regarding President Hugo Chávez were made Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's The 700 Club.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cchavezaug24,0,2232172.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Winn-Dixie closing 8 S. Florida stores by Sunday
By Karen-Janine Cohen
Business Writer
Eight Winn-Dixie stores slated to close in South Florida as part of the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan will shut their doors by Sunday. Some have already closed, according to the company, and others are set to close today.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zwinndixie23aug24,0,5046622.story?coll=sfla-business-front
Insurance agents to study government program for providing wind insurance
By Kathy Bushouse
Business Writer
The trade group representing Florida's insurance agents announced Tuesday it will study another avenue for covering hurricane wind damage in the state.
With insurers cutting their Florida exposure and state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. levying a 6.8 percent assessment on home insurance policies, "it's time that we look for solutions that consider the needs of both insurers and consumers," said Jeff Grady, president of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents, in a written statement.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zinsure24aug24,0,2486031.story?coll=sfla-business-front
Fusion might end need for embryo cells
1st step reported; decade of development forecast
By Jonathan Bor and Dennis O'Brien
Sun Staff
A Harvard scientist who led experiments that transformed skin cells into stem cells said yesterday that the technique could lead to ways to dispense altogether with the use of human embryos - but it could take a decade to accomplish.
When embryonic stem cells were fused with adult skin cells, the stem cells, in effect, taught the more mature cells to act just like them.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/bal-te.stemcell23aug23,0,501614.story?coll=sfla-news-health
Aspirin cuts risk of colon cancer
Study shows illness was reduced, but high dose over long time is necessary and could carry side effects
BY DELTHIA RICKS
STAFF WRITER
Posted August 24 2005
Taking aspirin and possibly other medications in its class can prevent colorectal cancer, but it takes more than a decade and a relatively high dosage, a team of scientists report today.
"Overall our study did show protection against colorectal cancer. But it required 10 years or more before we saw optimal decrease in risk," said Dr. Andrew Chan, lead investigator of an analysis in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/ny-hscanc244395816aug24,0,2520355.story?coll=sfla-news-science
The Cheney Observer
Cause is not clear, but message is
Lucy Morales Harty
Fort Lauderdale
Subscribe today to the Sun-Sentinel
and find out how to get one week extra!
Click here or call 1-877-READ-SUN.
What message is our president sending? While his war rages, he bikes around his ranch, ignoring the mother of a fallen soldier camped nearby.
While he declares that Casey Sheehan's death was for a "noble cause," he has not made clear what that cause is.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail950xaug23,0,3102424.story?coll=sfla-news-letters
Late report disputes Pentagon's estimate
Hundreds of military jobs are on the line
11:57 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 23, 2005
By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI and JOE VARGO / The Press-Enterprise
A new study conducted on behalf of Norco's embattled naval weapons assessment center indicates moving the base could top $140 million, nearly twice what Pentagon budget crunchers originally estimated.
The figure, released in a study made public prior to this week's decisive hearings by the Base Realignment and Closure commission, gives Norco supporters new hope they can keep the 64-year-old base open.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_close24.1352639f.html
Army planning for four more years in Iraq
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq - well over 100,000 - for four more years, the Army's top general said Saturday.
In an Associated Press interview, Gen. Peter Schoomaker said the Army is prepared for the "worst case" in terms of the required level of troops in Iraq. He said the number could be adjusted lower if called for by slowing the force rotation or by shortening tours for soldiers.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ARMY_CHIEF_INTERVIEW?SITE=CARIE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-08-21-02-23-38
Do you support the idea of the USA should leave 100,000 troops in Iraq for four more years?
Yes, removing troops too early will undermine the country's stability
34.38% 99 votes
No, we should start removing our troops and let the Iraqis take over security
63.89% 184 votes
I'm not sure
1.74% 5 votes
288 Total Votes
http://www.pe.com/perl/common/surveys/vote_now.pl
Early birds flying White House trail
BY MARK SILVA
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - To spread a little good will before a tour of Iowa last week, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, endowed tiny Luther College with a $25,000 scholarship.
Iowans have grown accustomed to would-be presidents bearing gifts, common in a state with the traditional duty of vetting presidential candidates. But this one is music to their ears, with the money earmarked for the study of piano, organ or wind instruments at the college in Decorah.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/special_packages/election2004/12453115.htm
THIS IS A BENEFIT FOR DELAY ?????
Cheney to campaign for embattled DeLay
BY TODD J. GILLMAN
The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Battered by months of ethics allegations, Majority Leader Tom DeLay has turned for help to the White House, which is sending Vice President Cheney next month to headline a fund-raiser for him in Houston.
Cheney stumped for about 70 House candidates last year, and another dozen so far this year - mostly newcomers or veterans locked in uphill fights. But with 14 month before DeLay, R-Texas, faces voters in a district whose contours he personally approved, analysts see anxiety over the fate of a lawmaker widely seen as the most powerful majority leader in history.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12456675.htm
AVOIDING THE OBVIOUS NEED FOR ALTERNATIVES. IF THIS PROVES TO BE AS SUCCESSFUL AS BUSH'S VENTURES IN THE PAST I WON'T HOLD MY BREATH.
On familiar ground: Dick Cheney to visit Alberta for Big Oil
August 23, 2005
Derrick O'Keefe
U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney will make a visit to Canada in early September. His itinerary, though, isn’t likely to take him near the nation’s capital in Ottawa, as he plans to stick to the more familiar territory of oil-rich Alberta. Cheney’s trip highlights once again the priorities of the U.S. administration. Dick will be here to size up the vaunted tar sands of Alberta which, despite still difficult and costly extraction, some tout as the world’s largest reserve of hydrocarbons.
On September 8, Cheney will have a high-level “invitation-only” dinner in Calgary with western premiers Ralph Klein and Gordon Campbell, with the evening’s host being none other than the ‘non-partisan’ Fraser Institute, an influential right-wing ‘think-tank.’
http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/commentary/75_comm1.html
TAKE 'EM TO COURT !!
Commissioners to discuss power plant plans, protest prohibitions
By J.B. Smith Tribune-Herald staff writer
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
McLennan County commissioners will handle two hot topics at today's meeting: potential pollution in Riesel and potential protest restrictions around the Bush ranch near Crawford.
At their 9 a.m. meeting, commissioners will hear two environmental evaluations of the billion-dollar, coal-fired power plant that LS Power wants to build in Riesel. They also will consider whether to call a public hearing on proposed regulations to “prohibit stopping, standing and/or parking of vehicles” on 7.5 miles of road near the Bush ranch.
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/08/23/20050823waccommishadvance.html
Halliburton worker admits bribes
KBR is no stranger to controversy
A former employee of Halliburton subsidiary KBR has admitted taking $110,300 (£61,225) in bribes from an Iraqi firm it awarded a US contract.
The $609,000 contract was to renovate warehouse and office space in Iraq.
Glenn Allen Powell - whom KBR has fired - faces up to 20 years in jail and a fine of up to $1.25m (£694,376).
Iraq-related US government contracts have won the firm and its parent, which was once run by US vice president Dick Cheney, more than $9bn.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4177832.stm
HALLIBURTON: LOSES IRAN CONTRACT DUE TO CORRUPTION CHARGES
(AGI) - Tehran, Iran, Aug 23 - US multinational Halliburton lost a 310 million dollar contract for natural gas extraction in the Iranian site of South Pars. According to Tehran authorities, Oriental Oil Kish, a subsidiary of Halliburton operating in the Middle East, won the contract last January thanks to bribes. The activities of the company in South Pars have been suspended and the contract annulled. Halliburton, once led by US Vice President Dick Chaney, is under investigation for the same contract in the US as well, on the basis of a 1996 law that punishes companies, both American and foreign, which invest more than 40 million dollars in Iran. The contract should now be passed on to the National Iranian Drilling Company, the Iranian state-owned energy company. (AGI) -
231946 AGO 05
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200508231946-1176-RT1-CRO-0-NF51&page=0&id=agionline-eng.arab
Hey, George. You forgot to undercut this investigation !!
Subpoena for Chicago Bridge
SEC investigation concerns a Halliburton project in Nigeria.
Stephen Taub, CFO.com
August 23, 2005
Engineering and construction company Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. announced that it has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the SEC's investigation into a Halliburton project in Nigeria.
In a regulatory filing, Chicago Bridge added that it was served as one of several subcontractors to a Halliburton affiliate and that it is cooperating fully.
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/4314909/c_4313935?f=home_todayinfinance
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