The Globe and Mail
Italy captures World Cup
Associated Press
Berlin — The beautiful game turned vicious, even venomous Sunday.
It was all still beautiful to Italy.
And very ugly for France, which lost captain Zinedine Zidane with a red card after his nasty head butt in extra time, and then went down 5-3 in a shootout after a 1-1 draw.
Explanations were nonexistent for Mr. Zidane's action in the 110th minute of his farewell game. He was walking upfield near defender Marco Materazzi when, in his final act for his national team, he bashed his shaven head into Mr. Materazzi's chest.
"I have not seen the replays, but if it's voluntary then there's nothing you can say," France coach Raymond Domenech said. "But it's a shame. It's sad. He (Materazzi) did a lot of acting and for such a big man, a gust of wind made him fall over."
Not quite. Mr. Zidane, who is retiring, might have been provoked, but he definitely knocked over Mr. Materazzi.
"It's regrettable. We regret it, he regrets it," Mr. Domenech said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wwcfinal/BNStory/World_Cup06/home
Brake failure may have led to crash
Associated Press
Moscow — The brakes on a Russian plane may have failed as it landed and careened into garages in a fiery crash that killed at least 122 people in the country's second major commercial airline disaster in two months, Russian news agencies reported Sunday.
Early information gathered by investigators indicated that the braking system on the Airbus A-310 operated by Russian airline S7 had malfunctioned, the news agencies reported, citing unnamed sources.
The plane was carrying at least 201 people on the 2,600-mile flight east from Moscow to the Siberian city of Irkutsk. Fifty-eight people were injured.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wbrakes0709/BNStory/International/home
Canadian soldier remembered as an 'angel of a person'
Canadian Press
Toronto — A Canadian killed in Afghanistan is remembered by family and friends as a outgoing, intelligent soldier who loved his girlfriend and was devoted to his work in the military.
Cpl. Anthony Boneca, 21, a reservist from the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment in Thunder Bay, Ont., died of injuries received in a firefight west of Kandahar City on Saturday, three weeks before he was to return to Canada.
A family member, contacted at his parents' home in Thunder Bay on Sunday, said Mr. Boneca started in the militia and had been in the reserves for about four years, signing up immediately after high school.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wslainsoldier0709/BNStory/Front/home
Accused RCMP assailant described as easygoing
Canadian Press
Spiritwood, Sask. — As RCMP continued a massive manhunt Sunday for a suspect in the shooting of two Saskatchewan Mounties, a friend of the accused described him as easygoing and “super nice.”
“He was a great friend,” Jeanette Franson, 30, told the Canadian Press. “I was a friend of his for quite a while.
“We stopped spending a lot of time together about five years ago, but he was super nice. I never had any problems with him.”
Officers were looking for Curtis Alfred Dagenais, 41, of Spiritwood, in a heavily wooded area thick with brush.
The injured officers were identified as Const. Robin Cameron, 29, originally from Beardy's First Nation in Saskatchewan and Const. Marc Bourdages from Saint-Eustache, Que.
Bourdages is married to a fellow officer at the Spiritwood detachment and has a nine-month-old son. Cameron has an 11-year-old daughter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wmounties0707/BNStory/National/home
Lebanese man suspected of N.Y. terror plot studied in Montreal
Canadian Press
Montreal — Concordia University confirmed Sunday that a Lebanese man suspected in an alleged New York terrorist plot studied there in the late ‘90s.
Assem Hammoud was an international student at Concordia for seven years from 1995. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce in 2002, majoring in finance and minoring in international business, said university spokesperson Chris Mota.
Ms. Mota said Sunday she knew little else about Mr. Hammoud's time at Concordia.
“I have been at the university since 1993 and the name means absolutely nothing to me,” Ms. Mota said. “We had to look him up in the system to confirm that he was here.”
After being accepted by Concordia as an international student, based on his academic record, Mr. Hammoud would still have had to seek permission from the provincial and federal governments to study here, Ms. Mota said.
“They only get a visa after being accepted by the university,” she said.
A prominent member of Montreal's Muslim community associated with Concordia at that time said he has no recollection of Hammoud.
Salam Elmenyawi said he led prayers at the university mosque during the period in question and does not recall Mr. Hammoud or anyone who looked like him.
“I don't remember him at all,” said Mr. Elmenyawi, of the Muslim Council of Montreal. “I was there at this time, leading prayers, and I don't remember him at all.”
Mr. Elmenyawi added that he's frustrated with U.S. efforts to blame Canada for terrorist activity south of the border.
“The United States has unfairly targeted Canada as a source of terrorism,” Mr. Elmenyawi said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wmuslimeader0709/BNStory/National/home
Britain marks grim July 7 anniversary
Associated
London — Prime Minister Tony Blair, police and survivors bowed their heads for a nationwide two-minute silence Friday commemorating the anniversary of suicide bombings on London's mass-transit system that killed 52 people.
Makeshift shrines and piles of roses and daisies adorned the front of the Kings Cross rail station, one of the sites of the July 7, 2005, co-ordinated attacks on three subway trains and a bus. Mourners started laying the first flowers at 8:50 a.m. in London, the exact time of the first attack.
Tim O'Toole, the London Underground managing director, laid a wreath with a note reading, “We will never forget. We shall continue to serve.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wlondon1year0707/BNStory/International/home
Shattered faith, fresh optimism and split opinion
LONDON — For Julie Nicholson, the bombs put an end to her calling.
As a minister with the Anglican Church, she knew it was her Christian duty to forgive. But forgiveness seemed impossible after Mohammed Sidique Khan blew himself up in the London Underground a year ago today, killing Ms. Nicholson's 24-year-old daughter Jennifer in a bloody scene of carnage.
She tried, but forgiveness simply was not forthcoming. "I have a certain amount of pity for the fact that four young people felt that this was something they had to do, but I certainly don't have any sense of compassion," she told reporters. "Can I forgive them for what they did? No, I cannot."
In March, she resigned her position as Vicar of St. Aidan with St. George Church in Bristol, igniting a heated debate within the Church of England as to whether she is a failure or a hero.
For David Gardner, the bombs gave his life a new purpose.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wxbritain07/BNStory/International/home
Global terror financing watchdog to get Canadian home
STEVEN CHASE
Globe and Mail Update
Toronto — Canada's biggest city will become the permanent home to a global body fighting money laundering and terrorist finance, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Friday.
Setting up shop in Toronto is the 11-year Egmont Group.
It includes 101 of world's financial intelligence units including Ottawa's Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (Fintrac).
“We are taking an international leadership role to combat terrorist financing by devoting substantial new funding to bolster our analytic, investigative and prosecution resources,” Mr. Flaherty said in a statement.
The government says it will give $5-million over the five years to help the secretariat get established.
Friday's announcement is part of a raft of measures the Conservatives are announcing to fight terrorist financing.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wfintrac0707/BNStory/National/home
Harper cautions Bush
Despite PM's stern words on border plan, U.S. President says he has a friend in 'Steve'
PAUL KORING AND GLORIA GALLOWAY
WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Americans of the risks of shutting out their friends yesterday during a carefully orchestrated working visit aimed at mending fences without seeming too chummy with U.S. President George W. Bush.
"If the fight for security ends up meaning that the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won," Mr. Harper said.
On his first official visit to Washington, the Prime Minister bagged a presidential pledge to sort out the vexing issue of whether Canadians (and returning Americans) need passports to drive across the border. He dodged the politically explosive missile-defence issue. He sounded tough on terrorism and then headed back to Ottawa after a brief, gaffeless visit.
The President, celebrating his 60th birthday, was effusive in his praise for the new Canadian leader, who is regarded in Republican circles as a welcome fellow traveller after years of testy relations with Liberal governments.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060707.HARPER07/TPStory/?query=harper+cautions+bush
A get-together of two like-minded friends
Putting his spin on the meeting, Bush suggests his bond with 'Steve' is very different from the testy relations he's had with previous PMs
GLORIA GALLOWAY
From Friday's Globe and Mail
WASHINGTON — At one podium erected in the opulent East Wing of the White House stood U.S. President George W. Bush: folksy, funny and flattering of the man to his right.
At the other stood Stephen Harper, appearing just a tad awkward as he tried to keep his first turn before the Washington press corps on a businesslike footing -- even as Mr. Bush was inviting reporters who shared his birthday yesterday to join him on stage for a photo.
In statements after their 40-minute meeting in the Oval Office, the Canadian Prime Minister spoke largely to his constituents back home, delivering the bulk of his message in French while the President and American reporters scrambled to adjust their translation devices.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wxharpertone07/BNStory/Front
South Korea calls off military talks with North
CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press
SEOUL — South Korea said Friday that it has turned down a North Korean proposal to hold military talks this week, citing tension over the North's test-firing of seven missiles. North Korea said its missiles were not an attack on anyone.
Uncertainty surrounded North Korea's next step. South Korea's defence agency was quoted by a news report as saying that an additional long-range Taepodong-2 missile could be at the North's launch site, but it didn't expect a launch to come any time soon.
Japan, meanwhile, turned up the pressure on the impoverished Communist state, announcing that it would not provide food aid to the North and was considering restricting agricultural and fisheries trade between the two sides. North Korea is dependent on international food shipments.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wnkore0707/BNStory/International/home
Ontario court rejects autism treatment in schools
KIRK MAKIN
Globe and Mail Update
Families with autistic children were dealt a severe blow Friday morning when the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned a decision ordering special autism treatment within the school system.
The Court disagreed with virtually every major finding in a 2005 lower-court ruling finding that the province had discriminated against children over the age of six by not providing the same costly ABA/IBI treatment available for children under six.
It stressed that governments are better situated to assess the merits and demerits of health-care policy and how far it should go in extending programs aimed at ameliorating disabling conditions.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wontautism0707/BNStory/National/home
Jobless rate holds at 32-year low
RICHARD BLACKWELL
Globe and Mail Update
Employment levels in Canada dropped slightly in June, but the unemployment rate stayed put at 6.1 per cent, a 32-year low.
The labour market lost 4,600 jobs in the month, a downturn after a huge 96,700 job gain in May, Statistics Canada said in its release Friday. Most analysts had expected the creation of a small number of jobs in June.
When June's numbers are combined with May's surprising gains, one economist said Canada's jobless rate could fall below six per cent.
“I think we'll see unemployment dip into the fives,” said Douglas Porter of BMO Nesbitt Burns.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wjobs0707/BNStory/Business/home
Nova Scotia considering private-health-care options
HALIFAX
Nova Scotia's Health Minister has re-ignited the debate over allowing more privatized health care services in the province.
Chris d'Entremont said “everything is on the table” when it comes to looking at what is and is not allowed under the Canada Health Act.
Mr. d'Entremont said that simply means that the Progressive Conservative government wants to examine all of its options when it comes to the delivery of health care.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wnshealth0707/BNStory/National/home
Discovery docks with ISS
MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery docked with the international space station on Thursday, delivering its newest inhabitant – a German astronaut who will return the orbiting complex's crew to three for the first time in three years.
The shuttle's jets cut off and space station latches automatically hooked onto the shuttle as the two travelled 28,200 kilometres an hour, about 335 kilometres above Earth.
Once the hatch was opened, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter planned to move his seat liner to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the space laboratory, marking his transfer to the space station's crew.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060706.wshuttle0706/BNStory/Science/home
Link suggested between warming, wildfires
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The increase in the number of large western wildfires in recent years may be a result of global warming, researchers say.
An analysis of data going back to 1970 indicates the fires increased “suddenly and dramatically” in the 1980s and the wildfire season grew longer, according to scientists in Arizona and California.
“The increase in large wildfires appears to be another part of a chain of reactions to climate warming,” said Dan Cayan, a co-author of the paper and director of the climate research division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060706.wforestenvi0706/BNStory/Science/home
Pavarotti recovering from cancer surgery
Associated Press
Tenor Luciano Pavarotti underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer and is "recovering well," his manager said Friday.
The 70-year-old singer was preparing to leave New York last week to resume his farewell world concert tour in Britain when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass, Terri Robson said from her London office.
"Fortunately, the mass was able to be completely removed at surgery," she said in a statement. "Mr. Pavarotti is recovering well and his physicians are encouraged by the physical and emotional resilience of their patient."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060707.wpava7/BNStory/Entertainment/home
Private service held for Kenneth Lay in Colorado
Associated Press
Aspen, Colo. — Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling was among scores of people Sunday at a private memorial for company founder Kenneth Lay, who died in this mountain resort town last week as he awaited sentencing for his role in one of the nation's biggest corporate frauds.
A lone sheriff's deputy and uniformed private security guards were on hand, with some using umbrellas on a cloudy, rainy day to shield participants from media photographers at the Aspen Chapel.
The parking lots were full for the chapel, which holds 300 people, with some mourners arriving nearly two hours early.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wlay0709/BNStory/Business/home
Cool, humid weather dampens forest fire activity from Man. to B.C.
Globe and Mail Update
Canadian Press — Cooler, more humid weather has dampened forest fire activity across the west, allowing firefighters to lift evacuation orders in British Columbia and save a historic old church in Saskatchewan.
However, hot weather is expected to return next week and officials aren't letting their guard down.
“Winds are expected to pick up and temperatures are expected to rise,” said Art Jones of Saskatchewan Environment.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wforestfire0709/BNStory/Front/home
Discovery space shuttle cleared for return home
Associated Press
Houston — Space shuttle Discovery's astronauts got some happy news Sunday: It's safe to fly home.
Mission Control informed the crew of six that the ship's thermal shielding is “100 per cent cleared for entry” in another week.
“Boy, that is great news, that's fantastic,” shuttle commander Steve Lindsey said. “And to get all that done by the day of flight day six ... is just amazing.”
“Everyone here around the room, as you can imagine, is most happy,” Mission Control replied.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wsafeshuttle0709/BNStory/Front/home
Shiites hunt down Sunnis in escalation of sectarian violence
Associated Press
Baghdad, Iraq — Masked Shiite gunmen rampaged through a tense neighbourhood of west Baghdad on Sunday, dragging Sunnis from their cars, picking them out on the street and killing at least 41 in a dramatic escalation of sectarian violence.
Hours later, two car bombs exploded near a Shiite mosque in the city's north, killing 17 people and wounding 38 in what appeared to be a reprisal attack, police said.
Black-clad Shiite militiamen manned checkpoints on roads into most major Shiite neighbourhoods to guard against revenge attacks, as scattered clashes occurred across the Iraqi capital.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060709.wshiite0709/BNStory/International/home
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
'Fabrications' of mentally unstable Iraqi taxi driver were reinserted in Bush Admin speeches despite repeated warnings
Warnings on WMD 'Fabricator' Were Ignored, Ex-CIA Aide Says
By Joby Warrick / Washington Post
In late January 2003, as Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared to argue the Bush administration's case against Iraq at the United Nations, veteran CIA officer Tyler Drumheller sat down with a classified draft of Powell's speech to look for errors. He found a whopper: a claim about mobile biological labs built by Iraq for germ warfare.
Drumheller instantly recognized the source, an Iraqi defector suspected of being mentally unstable and a liar. The CIA officer took his pen, he recounted in an interview, and crossed out the whole paragraph.
A few days later, the lines were back in the speech. Powell stood before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 and said: "We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails."
The sentence took Drumheller completely by surprise.
"We thought we had taken care of the problem," said the man who was the CIA's European operations chief before retiring last year, "but I turn on the television and there it was, again."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7353
Big Three Cars Emit 230 Mln Tons of Greenhouse Gas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cars built by the Big Three automakers gave off 230 million metric tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the United States in a year, more than the biggest U.S. electric utility, environmental researchers said on Wednesday.
General Motors (GM.N), Ford (F.N) and DaimlerChrysler (DCXGn.DE) cars and light trucks emitted nearly three-fourths of all carbon dioxide from vehicles on U.S. roads in 2004, the year for which statistics were available, according to the watchdog group Environmental Defense.
Nine other car manufacturers with vehicles on the U.S. market accounted for an additional 84 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, bringing the total for all cars and light trucks in operation in 2004 to 314 million metric tons, the report found.
General Motors vehicles gave off 99 million metric tons or 31 percent of the total; Ford vehicles emitted 80 million metric tons or 25 percent and DaimlerChrysler vehicles emitted 51 million metric tons or 16 percent, according to the report.Electric Power (AEP.N), had emissions of 41 million metric tons.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7366
Ally Told Bush Project Secrecy Might Be Illegal
By Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane / New York Times
WASHINGTON, July 8 — In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.
The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.
But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department's tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.
Recently, after the harsh criticism from Mr. Hoekstra, intelligence officials have appeared at two closed committee briefings to answer questions from the chairman and other members. The briefings appear to have eased but not erased the concerns of Mr. Hoekstra and other lawmakers about whether the administration is sharing information on all of its intelligence operations
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7481
NSA Used City Police to Track Peace Activists
By Douglas Birch
The Baltimore Sun
Friday 13 January 2006
Activists monitored on way to Fort Meade war protest, agency memos show.
The National Security Agency used law enforcement agencies, including the Baltimore Police Department, to track members of a city anti-war group as they prepared for protests outside the sprawling Fort Meade facility, internal NSA documents show.
The target of the clandestine surveillance was the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a group loosely affiliated with the local chapter of the American Friends Service Committee, whose members include many veteran city peace activists with a history of nonviolent civil disobedience.
Under various names, the activists have staged protests at the NSA campus off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway every year since 1996.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, members of the group say, their protests have come under increasing scrutiny by federal and local law enforcement officials working on behalf of the NSA.
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/16949
Activists Arrested at NSA in Federal Court
WHO: The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore was formed for individuals willing to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to protest an invasion of Iraq. It is part of a national network organized by long-time peace groups such as the American Friends Service Committee.
On Sept. 24, 2003, the Pledge sent a letter to Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the National Security Agency, requesting a meeting. The letter raised three major concerns:
1] the agency’s involvement in Justice Department plans to monitor and gather data about US citizens;
2] its role in the war against Iraq; and
http://www.space4peace.org/reports/nsa_arrests_04.htm
Activists speaking truth to power at National Security Agency have case dismissed
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2006-01-26 23:24. Nonviolent Resistance
By Max Obuszewski
On July 2, 2005 Ellen Barfield and I were arrested and charged with “disturbance on protected property,‿ after seeking a meeting with William B. Black, Jr. the interim director of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland. Members of the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore wanted to discuss these matters: The role the NSA played in eavesdropping on members of the United Nations Security Council during the 2003 debate on Iraq; John Bolton’s request for transcripts of intercepted conversations of many prominent politicians; the Agency’s role in monitoring the Pledge of Resistance; and its refusal to release documents on the Pledge, as part of a FOIA request, without being paid a fee of $1,915.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/7183
Fifty One Arrests at Pentagon
Highlight Nonviolent Resistance Actions on Third Anniversary of War
by Gordon Clark, Coordinator
Iraq Pledge of Resistance
March 21, 2006
As part of the protests occurring around the country during the third anniversary of the Iraq war, local groups working with the Iraq Pledge of Resistance’s National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance escalated opposition to the war and ongoing occupation by mounting nonviolent resistance actions in a number of cities yesterday, highlighted by a major action at the Pentagon.
The resistance actions around the third anniversary got rolling the previous week, when a number of individuals working with the Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence joined with activists in Washington DC to disrupt a meeting of the House Appropriates Committee as it took up the $67 supplemental funding bill for the Iraq war. The committee meeting was interrupted twice by activists who spoke out from the audience, calling for an end to the war. Some were simply removed from the hearing room and escorted out of the building, but two were ultimately arrested by Capitol Police, with an arraignment scheduled for March 28.
http://www.iraqpledge.org/
Friday, July 7th, 2006
An Update from Michael Moore (and an invitation to his film festival)
Friends,
Just a quick note to let you know how things are going.
Back in February, I asked if people would send me letters describing their experiences with our health care system. I received over 19,000 of them. It was truly overwhelming as we literally took a month and read them all. To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving and revolting. That's all I will say right now.
We've spent the better part of this year shooting our next movie, "Sicko." As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them "Sicko" is "a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on earth."
But like my other movies, what we start with (General Motors, guns, 9/11) is not always what we end with. Along the way, we discover new roads to go down, roads that often surprise us and lead us to new ideas -- and challenge us to reconsider the ones we began with. That, I can say with certainty, is happening now as we shoot "Sicko." I don't think the country needs a movie that tells you that HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that. I'd like to show you some things you don't know. So stay tuned for where this movie has led me. I think you might enjoy it.
At this point, we've shot about 75% of "Sicko" and will soon begin putting it together. It will be released in theaters sometime in 2007.
And if you don't hear much from me in the meantime, it's only 'cause I'm busy working. I realize that my silence doesn't stop the opposition with their weird obsession for me! It seems like not a week passes without my good name being worked into some nutty news story or commentary. (I have to say, though, I did enjoy Tom Delay blaming me and Ms. Streisand for why he had to resign from Congress!)
I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. If you're near the state of Michigan later this month, I'll be putting on the second annual Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. I've personally selected 60 or so movies that I love, many of which did not get the notice or distribution they deserved. Others are brand new independent movies and documentaries that I hope will find a large audience when they are released.
The film festival will take place in this beautiful town in northern Michigan, from July 31st to August 6th. Appearing in person with their films will be David O. Russell ("Three Kings"), Lawrence Bender ("An Inconvenient Truth"), Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda"), Larry Charles ("Borat"), plus Jeff Garlin, Jake Kasdan, and other filmmakers. We're also going to show every feature film made by the greatest American director of all time, Stanley Kubrick. Joining us in person will be his executive producer, Jan Harlan, and actors Malcolm McDowell ("A Clockwork Orange") and Matthew Modine ("Full Metal Jacket"). We'll also be presenting a special salute to films made in Iran (a sort of "Let's get to know them first this time!" effort).
If you'd like to see the entire list of films, click here. Tickets go on sale today (July 7) at noon. To purchase your tickets (all seats $7), click here or call 231-929-1506. Last year we had 50,000 admissions, and we expect most films to sell out early this year.
Well, that's it for now. Bush has quietly closed down the special section of the CIA that was devoted solely to capturing Mr. bin Laden, so we can all rest easy now. I wonder who his next scary evildoer will be? A fearful nation awaits its marching orders, sir!
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
P.S. Don't forget to visit my website which I update every day with all the news the Bush stenographers (a/k/a "Mainstream Media") fail to put on page one.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=196
GO TO THE FILM FESTIVAL !!!!
http://www.traversecityfilmfest.org/
Shiite gunmen kill 41 in western Baghdad
By Kim Gamel / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Masked Shiite gunmen stopped cars in western Baghdad Sunday and grabbed people off the streets, singling out the Sunni Arabs and killing at least 41 people, police said.
The rampage in the Jihad neighborhood was in apparent retaliation for the Saturday night car bombing of a Shiite mosque that killed two and wounded nine. Sunni leaders expressed outrage over the Sunday attacks, referring to them as a "massacre."
Armed men belonging to the Mahdi army, the Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sealed off roads leading to the neighboring area of Shula, fearing reprisals, police said, although al-Sadr aides denied their militiamen were behind the attacks. Clashes also were reported in the area and in eastern Baghdad.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7485
July 9th, 2006 1:35 pm
Republican priorities stalled in Congress
By Laurie Kellman / Associated Press
Could a Republican-controlled Congress pass a bill to protect the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance from court challenges? No problem, especially if proposed during the patriotic season leading up to the Fourth of July, Republican leaders thought. No way, it turned out.
The bill, the first item on the GOP's election-year "American Values Agenda," couldn't get past a House committee. Even worse for the Republicans: They couldn't blame the flameout on Democrats. One of the GOP's very own, Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina, voted no. Seven other Judiciary Committee Republicans skipped the panel's meeting entirely.
So it goes this year for House Republicans, their majority in jeopardy for the first time in more than a decade. An unpopular president, deep divisions in their ranks and Democrats determined to regain control add up to a Congress that's having trouble doing its most basic job: passing legislation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=128
Iraqi police rife with abuse, corruption: Ministry of Interior documents
(AFP) -- Iraq's police force is riddled with corruption and its officers have been involved in abductions, murders and prisoner rape, according to claims.
The confidential Iraqi Ministry of Interior documents, which detail more than 400 police corruption investigations, were authenticated by current and former police officials, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday, citing Iraqi government documents.
They include reports of Iraqi police participating in insurgent bombings and releasing terror suspects for bribes, as well as selling stolen and forged Iraqi passports and beating prisoners to death.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7483
July 7th, 2006 12:31 am
Iraq takes center stage in Lieberman debate
By Jason Szep / Reuters
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, took a hammering over his support for the Iraq war on Thursday in a debate with an antiwar rival whose fight for the Senate is seen as a battle for the heart of the Democratic Party.
Lieberman, who announced on Monday he would run for reelection as an independent if he loses his party's August primary, appeared on the defensive for much of the debate against Democratic rival Ned Lamont, a self-financed neophyte.
"Senator Lieberman, if you won't challenge President Bush and his failed agenda, I will," said Lamont, who has been embraced by antiwar Democrats and leftist bloggers for criticizing Lieberman's willingness to support President George W. Bush on the war and other issues.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=127
July 9th, 2006 1:43 pm
Soldiers charged in Iraq rape-murder
By Alastair Macdonald / Reuters
Five U.S. soldiers were charged in a rape and multiple murder case that has outraged Iraqis, as documents obtained by Reuters on Sunday showed the rape victim was a minor aged just 14, and not over 20 as U.S. officials say.
Days after former private Steven Green was charged as a civilian in a U.S. court with rape and four murders, four serving soldiers were charged with the same offences, the U.S. military said in statement that did not name the troops.
Another soldier, apparently a sixth member of Green's former unit in the 502nd Infantry Regiment, was charged on Saturday with dereliction of duty for not reporting the crime in March.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7484
July 6th, 2006 10:09 am
Battling in Conn. over Democrats' souls
Senate primary reveals divide on Iraq stance
By Rick Klein / Boston Globe
HARTFORD -- Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and his challenger in next month's primary , Ned Lamont, are both Democrats, but they don't agree on much when it comes to the Iraq war.
As they prepare for their first televised debate tonight, however, both men see their race for Lieberman's office as a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party -- specifically, whether Democrats want to become a staunch anti war party when they have high hopes of winning back Congress.
The race has revealed tensions simmering within the party since Congress, including many Democrats, gave President Bush the authorization to invade Iraq. Lieberman announced Monday that he'll seek a fourth term as an independent in November if Lamont -- a millionaire businessman who has gained ground with an anti war message -- defeats him in the Aug. 8 primary.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=126
July 9th, 2006 2:35 pm
The Gitmo Fallout
The fight over the Hamdan ruling heats up -- as fears about its reach escalate.
By Michael Isikoff and Stuart Taylor Jr. / Newsweek
July 17, 2006 issue - David Bowker vividly remembers the first time he heard the phrase. A lawyer in the State Department, Bowker was part of a Bush administration "working group" assembled in the panicked aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Its task: figuring out what rights captured foreign fighters and terror suspects were entitled to while in U.S. custody. White House hard-liners, led by Vice President Dick Cheney and his uncompromising lawyer, David Addington, made it clear that there was only one acceptable answer. One day, Bowker recalls, a colleague explained the goal: to "find the legal equivalent of outer space"—a "lawless" universe. As Bowker understood it, the idea was to create a system where detainees would have no legal rights and U.S courts would have no power to intervene.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7487
Friday, July 7th, 2006
GRANNIES WRAP UP PEACE TREK IN WASHINGTON
By Joan Wile, Director, Grandmothers Against the War and Proud Granny Peace Brigader
The Granny Peace Brigaders completed the final leg of their trek from New York City to Washington in sweltering, blazing sun in the nation's capitol. But the extreme heat was not enough to curb our actions on July 3 and July 4. Fortified with gallons of water, sun hats and sun screen, we elders walked and walked and stood for hours in the 90-plus humid heat without a single case of heat exhaustion or heat stroke occurring.
Our Washington sojourn began on July 3 in Dupont Circle, where we were met by Cindy Sheehan, Daniel Ellsberg, Dick Gregory, Medea Benjamin, and others, all of whom escorted us grandmas on foot to the main event -- a rally at the beautiful Gandhi Statue. Vinie Burrows, our famed Broadway actress/playwright granny, gave a powerful speech at both locations, which was widely quoted in press and media all over the world. Other eloquent speeches were made by Ms. Sheehan, Mr. Ellsberg, and Mr. Gregory, and a marvelous orator from San Franisco, Rev. Yearwood, who mesmerized the audience.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=680
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