Friday, May 06, 2005
A Smattering of This and a Bit of That
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
IEDs in NYC;
Blasts in front of building that houses the British Consulate in New York City shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries
Blasts at UK Consulate in NYC
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two "improvised explosive devices" made from "novelty-type grenades" have exploded in front of the building that houses the British Consulate in New York City, police and officials said.
The early Thursday morning blasts shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries, the New York Police Department said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2514
Joint Local-Federal Terrorism Task Force Joins Investigation
NYC Building Housing U.K. Consulate Damaged in Blast
May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Two replica grenades exploded early today outside an office building housing the British consulate in New York, shattering windows while causing no injuries, authorities said.
Police had no suspects and didn't know the motive for the 3:35 a.m. attack, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference at the site in midtown Manhattan this morning. Police are looking at surveillance-camera video for clues, he said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2515
A White House Adrift
Gas prices, Social Security, Tom DeLay. What else can go wrong for Bush?
By Holly Bailey and Richard Wolffe / Newsweek
May 9 issue - George Voinovich is not your typical Bush loyalist. A self-styled deficit hawk, the former Cleveland mayor and Ohio governor is so frugal that he once fished a penny out of a urinal in the Statehouse. To the White House, his independent spirit should have come as no surprise: he split with his party over the estate tax in 2000 and he opposed the size of Bush's tax cuts three years later. Yet when it came to the prickly question of John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador, the president's team assumed Voinovich would fall into line.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2519
Military at Risk, Congress Warned
By Mark Mazzetti / Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — Strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back any future act of aggression, launch a preemptive strike or intervene to prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a classified analysis sent to Congress on Monday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2476
U.S. Seen As Unaccountable in Iraqi Civilian Deaths
By Alan Elsner / Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 3 - Iraqi civilians who have suffered from U.S. military operations face steep obstacles in obtaining compensation for the deaths of their loved ones or material damage, human rights analysts say.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2477
Families of dead soldiers to sue Blair
By Kate Holton / Reuters
LONDON - The families of soldiers who died in Iraq will launch a bid on Tuesday to take Prime Minister Tony Blair to court over his "deception" in going to war.
Two days before the election, the families will deliver a letter to Downing Street outlining the legal case they will bring against the Prime Minister.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2491
The This and That
Vet becomes crusader for victims of soldier rape
By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The Army vet listens and lets fly. She has zero tolerance for tales of soldier rape. "In the military, they'll tell you, 'Lady, you can't get compensation for having sex,' " said Susan Avila-Smith, the Puget Sound area's outspoken advocate for sexually assaulted veterans.
Her client Donna Jean Patee nods from her wheelchair, her service dog asleep at her feet. "It happened to me," said the former Navy petty officer, who filed a rape claim in 1993. Patee said she was on waterfront watch in San Diego in the 1960s when five sailors gang-raped her.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/219613_crusader11.html
Parents angry over Seattle schools plan that ends open enrollment
By DEBORAH BACH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Just over a month ago, Lynne Stern Feiges got the news she'd been waiting for: Her daughter would be able to attend kindergarten next year at a Queen Anne school Feiges hand-picked.
John Hay Elementary is a trek from Feiges' home in Greenwood, but she thought its focus on advanced learning was a good fit for her daughter. So she notified the private school where her daughter attends preschool and canceled her registration for next year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/222581_schools03.html
Academics, left-wing activists hold protest in Ariel college
By Lilly Galili and Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondents
A group of some 60 Tel-Aviv university academics and left-wing activists Wednesday morning held protest in front of the Judea and Samaria College of Ariel in the West Bank against a government decision to confer university status to the college.
The protestors spoke to students, who expressed their surprise with the demonstration saying they thought Ariel was seen in the Israeli consensus as being part of Israel in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572361.html
Netanyahu: Don't depend on Egypt on Gaza border
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to a Knesset panel's warnings against deploying Egyptian troops on the Philadelphi route on the Gaza-Egypt border, said Wednesday that he "wouldn't depend" on Egypt for security on the volatile frontier strip.
In a rare move, the Knesset subcommittee that supervises covert services decided Tuesday night to warn the ministers in the political-security cabinet against approving a plan to have 750 Egyptian soldiers stationed on the Philadelphi route.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572287.html
Newsview: U.S.-Russia Friendship Tested
By DONNA CASSATA
Associated Press Writer
May 5, 2005, 3:00 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's uneven record on reform and President Bush's campaign to spread democracy are sorely testing the wary friendship that grew between Russia and the United States out of the hostility of the Cold War.
From the U.S. perspective, Putin has been backsliding on democratic reforms and cracking down on businesses, the media and political institutions. Bush's actions in Iraq, in former Soviet satellites and beyond have raised red flags in Moscow -- in some quarters, nostalgia for the days of the hammer and sickle.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-russia-frayed-ties,0,4407494.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
TOPOL-M MOBILE COMPLEX TO ENTER ON COMBAT DUTY IN 2006
VLASIKHA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The first mobile complex Topol-M will enter on combat duty of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) in 2006, the RVSN commander said. According to Nikolai Solovtsov, the silo-based Topol-M missile complexes are now in service in the Russian troops. "The RVSN retains the possibility to have both stationary and mobile Topol-M units in combat service," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39904513.html
RUSSIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL SUGGESTS MONITORING FUTURE OF CHILDREN ADOPTED BY FOREIGNERS
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov suggested that the Russian Government should sign international agreements with those countries whose citizens adopt Russian children, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said Wednesday.
The purpose of the proposed agreements is to control the status of the adopted children and to prevent acts of violence against them.
http://en.rian.ru/society/20050504/39861737.html
VENEZUELA TO CHOOSE BETWEEN RUSSIAN WARPLANES
MOSCOW, May 3. (RIA Novosti) - It seems that Russia's Mikoyan-Gurevich and Sukhoi corporations will compete against each other in Venezuela. The country's Defense Ministry is considering purchasing Su-27 fighter-bombers and Su-25 ground-attack jets even though it has not completed talks on buying MiG-29-SMT air-superiority fighters, a leading business daily, Vedomosti, writes.
A delegation of Venezuela's Defense Ministry saw Sukhoi aircraft at a defense technology exhibition for Latin America that ended in Rio de Janeiro on April 29. Venezuela could buy Su-25s for its navy and Su-27 for its air force. In all, two squadrons, comprising 10 to 12 Su-25s and Su-27s, might be purchased.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050503/39788813.html
IGOR IVANOV: GEORGIA, KYRGYZSTAN AND UKRAINE REVOLUTIONS HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH DEMOCRACY
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - The coups in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine are under study in Russia for learning the lessons taught, Russian Security Council secretary Igor Ivanov said in the interview to the journal Strategiya Rossii (Russia's Strategy).
In his opinion, "a change of power by undemocratic methods" has taken place in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
"When they speak of 'velvet' revolutions, victory of democracy in these countries - all this makes me skeptical", Igor Ivanov stressed, calling all the three "unconstitutional change of power".
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050504/39886033.html
RUSSIAN AIR FORCE COMMANDER PROMISES AIR SECURITY ON MAY 9
ZARYA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov has promised to provide air security on May 9.
"All security measures will be reliable. Today we held exercises involving all means needed for Russia's air security," he said.
The commander denied the information that antiaircraft guns would be placed on some skyscrapers in Moscow. I did not give such orders, Mikhailov noted.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936358.html
ONE IN EVERY TEN SOVIET JEWS FOUGHT AT THE FRONT
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Marianna Belenkaya). On May 9, 1945, the world will mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism.
To quote from one of the most famous Russian songs about the war, "We need victory, victory for all, whatever the cost." No one has ever worked out which of the ethnic groups of the Soviet Union made the biggest contribution to the defeat of Germany. Everyone suffered, and everyone shared the victory. But regrettably, the situation in the country after the war was such that the heroism of many soldiers and officers and many facts about the war went unmentioned. This is why generations that did not experience the war often have a distorted view of it.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39936041.html
Russia will bar this extradition and rightfully so, this man has huge amounts of information the USA will trade for his freedom.
WHAT THE RUSSIAN PAPERS SAY
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)
Gazeta/Vedomosti
America Demands Nuclear Expert's Extradition
Yevgeny Adamov, a former nuclear energy minister of Russia, has been arrested in Switzerland at the request of the United States. American officials are insisting that he be extradited to the U.S. to face charges that he embezzled $9 million from the U.S. Energy Department. Adamov's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev said the arrest took place in a Bern court where his client had come to answer some financial questions. Two dailies, Gazeta and Vedomosti, pick up the theme.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39888564.html
RUSSIAN EX-MINISTER LOATH TO GO TO AMERICAN DOCK
GENEVA, May 4 (RIA Novosti, Ekaterina Andrianova) - Evgeni Adamov, recent Russia's Nuclear Energy Minister, has refused to undergo a simplified extradition procedure, says Folko Galli of Switzerland's Federal Department of Justice.
Mr. Adamov, 65, currently in Swiss detention, was questioned today, and flatly refused to be extradited to the USA on swindling and money laundering suspicions. Now, Switzerland intends to demand from the United States a formal extradition application. The procedure usually takes forty days, and is occasionally prolonged to sixty, Mr. Galli said to Novosti.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050504/39885556.html
I didn't know Russia was as much of a nuclear threat as Iran. Hm?
NO US INSPECTIONS DUE AT RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The US inspections of Russian nuclear facilities have not been and are not coming under consideration, said a high-level Defense Ministry official.
Colonel-General Igor Valynkin is the head of the 12th department of the Defense Ministry in charge of nuclear transportation and storage.
Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, the commander of the Strategic Missile Force (SMF), earlier told reporters that Russia would not let other countries to SMF facilities.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936216.html
BORODIN CLAIMS FORMER MINISTER ARRESTED FOR POLITICAL REASONS
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Pavel Borodin, the state secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus said at a news conference in Moscow today that Yevgeny Adamov, a former Russian minister of nuclear energy, had been arrested for political reasons.
Borodin himself was arrested in New York's Kennedy international airport in January 2001 at the request of Swiss prosecutors who suspected him of laundering $25 million. He was subsequently handed over to Swiss authorities and later released on bail. Eventually he voluntarily testified to Swiss investigators, and the case against him was closed in March 2001.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39917629.html
RUSSIAN OIL EXPORTS TO CHINA FACE PROBLEMS
MOSCOW. (Marina Pustilnik, RIA Novosti commentator.) Russian oil companies' plans to export record levels of oil to China may have to be seriously rethought, as terminals in western Siberia will struggle to cope with the Russian-Chinese contracts.
Indeed, plans to increase the capacity of oil loading terminals are still being only discussed, so it seems the situation is likely to remain up in the air for some time to come.
Under the agreements signed by President Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, on October 14, 2004, China should receive from Russia at least 10 million tons of oil by rail this year.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39917582.html
Opinion & analysis
U.S. IN CASPIAN REGION AND RUSSIA'S POSITION
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Pyotr Goncharov). Iran has offered support for a Russian initiative on the Caspian Sea states alone establishing a joint rapid reaction force in the region.
"These Caspian states should come to terms on the establishment of a rapid reaction force," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
Russia's initiative initially envisaged more than efforts to combat international terrorist attacks against the region and to avert other common threats. It was also designed to prevent countries from outside the region, above all the U.S., from becoming involved in the affairs of the region, which the U.S. has included in the zone of its interests. This fully met Iran's interests. Will Russia and Iran be able toprevent an American presence in the Caspian region?
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050504/39817504.html
THE "OCCUPATION" OF BALTIC COUNTRIES AND THE PRAGMATIC U.S.
MOSCOW (Alexei Makarkin, for RIA Novosti) - U.S. President George Bush wrote in a letter to his Latvian colleague, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, that the end of World War II signified the beginning of the occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Prior to that, Gunther Verheugen, the deputy chairman of the European Commission, had called on Russia to admit that it had illegally occupied the three Baltic republics, if it wanted to maintain neighborly relations with the European Union.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39890538.html
KYOTO PROTOCOL: RUSSIA WILL HAVE TO 'COUNT' ALL ITS TREE ROOTS
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsina). A "Kyoto working group" has been set up by the Forestry Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The working group has been tasked with drafting an action plan to develop the system to monitor sinks, emissions and the absorption of greenhouse gases in the forests. It is also to provide the regulatory-legal framework for these activities. The working group is made up of Forestry Agency employees, scientists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39887785.html
RUSSIA WILL HELP BRAZIL TO RECONSTRUCT A LAUNCH SITE
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) Roscosmos experts will provide assistance to Brazil in reconstruction of a launch site at Alcantara space center, says Roscosmos press release obtained by RIA Novosti on Thursday.
According to the document, during the visit of Roscosmos delegation to Brazil, deputy director of the Russian Federal Space Agency Viktor Remishevsky conducted talks with president of the Brazilian Space Agency Sergio Gaudenzi.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937073.html
MIDEASTERN QUARTET TO DISCUSS ISRAEL'S WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA STRIP IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow meetings of the Mideastern quartet will focus on normal conditions of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti.
The quartet involving Russia, the UN, the European Union and the United States will meet in Moscow on May 9.
"The withdrawal of troops and settlements should be final and coordinated with Palestinians. It should lead to the total cessation of the occupation of the above-mentioned territories," Yakovenko noted.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937032.html
LATVIAN FOREIGN MINISTER READY TO SIGN BORDER TREATY IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks is ready to come to Moscow on May 10 to sign a treaty officially demarcating the Russian-Latvian borders if both parties are willing to do so, Latvian Ambassador to Moscow Andris Teikmanis told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
"This question is important for Latvia," Teikmanis said. "Political circles are interested in finalizing the border-settlement process."
The chances of concluding the treaty on May 10 are "50-50," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936931.html
SIEMENS TO BUILD HIGH-SPEED TRAIN FACTORY IN RUSSIA
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - In two years to come the German company Siemens will build in Russia a factory manufacturing high-speed trains, president of the company OAO Russian Railways Gennadi Fadeev has said.
"The modern factory, to be built with also Russian capital, will help arranging the manufacture of units for railway trains according to the European standards", the Russian Railways press service quotes Fadeev as telling the conference there.
As reported earlier, high-speed trains will be made at the Moscow Locomotive Repair Factory.
Fadeev recalled that last April the Russian Railways and Siemens signed the contract on the manufacture of high-speed trains in Russia. "The contract targets the maximal socio-economic effect for our country", Fadeev said.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20050505/39937092.html
Destroy it all
Gush Katif settlers who want to destroy their homes prior to their eviction should be entitled to do so. No government official has the moral or legal right to tell them what to do with their private property, the splendid homes or flourishing greenhouses they have owned for 30 years.
The technocrats engaged in the uprooting of thousands of Jews will immediately be outraged and cry out that the settlers must do with their property what the government decides, since the government is awarding them compensation in the form of alternative accommodation and land for agriculture.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull%26cid=1115259514981
Suspected mole posts bail
The FBI arrested a Defense Department analyst Wednesday on charges that he illegally passed classified information about potential Iranian-backed attacks against US forces in Iraq to employees of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group.
Larry Franklin, 58, turned himself in, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said. He made a brief appearance in a suburban US District Court and was released on $100,000 bond under the condition he surrender his firearms and passport.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115173227516
Russian security forces say they foiled major terrorist attack
Russian security forces said they foiled a major terrorist attack Thursday, discovering a truck-bomb and a cache of poisons days before dozens of dignitaries arrive in Moscow for celebrations marking the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
The find is likely to stoke fears that other terror attacks could be in the works as the world turns its attention to Russia and Monday's ceremonies marking the end of World War II. Russian authorities almost immediately blamed the planned attacks on militants, including some with reputed ties to al-Qaida.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259521825&p=1078113566627
Israel to set up five chemical plants in eastern India
An Israeli defense firm has won a $140 million contract to build five plants to produce explosives in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, The Asian Age newspaper reported Thursday .
Israeli Military Industries beat bids from European and US companies to secure the deal, the third major defense contract that Tel Aviv and New Delhi have signed in recent weeks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259517998&p=1078113566627
Initial results give Fatah edge over Hamas in polls
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah movement led in Palestinian municipal elections on Thursday despite a strong showing by Hamas Islamic militants, preliminary results showed.
But the militant Islamic group disputed the figures and said it was not ready to concede defeat.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572883.html
Poll: Fatah scores election day victory
According to a poll carried out by the Halil Shkaki polling institute, the Fatah party has won the second phase of Palestinian Authority local elections, Army Radio reported.
Polling numbers had Fatah winning half of the 14 municipalities and village councils surveyed in the poll, including a large victory in Rafiah, located in Gaza, as well as other large municipalities in the West Bank.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259522142&p=1078397702269
British lecturers call special meeting to reconsider boycott
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent
The Association of University Teachers (AUT) in the United Kingdom has decided to call a special meeting to reconsider its boycott of two Israeli universities. The AUT decided two weeks ago to boycott Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities for what it saw as supporting the occupation and repressing academic freedom.
The decision to reconsider the boycott comes in the wake of letters of protest from AUT members who requested that the decision be reversed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572999.html
Hundreds rally in TA against IDF killing of 2 Palestinian teens
By Tamar Traubman, Yoav Stern and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service
Hundreds of left-win protesters demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening against the Israel Defense Forces' killing Wednesday of two Palestinian youths in the West Bank.
The two teenagers were shot dead near the village of Beit Likia, west of Ramallah, during a protest against the construction of the separation fence in the area.
Thursday's protest started opposite the Defense Ministry's Kirya compound in Tel Aviv and from there demonstrators walked to Likud Party headquarters on King George Street. Some 200-300 people attended the rally.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572451.html
U.S. blacklists charity as front for Islamic Jihad
By Reuters
WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday froze the assets of a charity it called a front for the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and said it was seeking safe channels for donations to Palestinians in need.
"This afternoon we designated the Elehssan Society, including all of its branches, as a charitable front for the brutal terrorist group the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Enforcement Stuart Levey said.
"Elehssan masquerades as a charity while actually helping to finance PIJ's acts of terror against the Israeli people and other innocents," he told a congressional hearing. Elehssan operates in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572531.html
MI chief: Israel is not facing existential nuclear threat today
By Haaretz Service
Director of Military Intelligence Major General Aharon Ze'evi said Thursday that Israel is not subject to any imminent nuclear threat, and that he believed the Palestinian Authority is gradually reining in militants.
"There is cuurently no existential nuclear threat on Israel, but there are several Muslim states, at the forefront Iran, which are trying to achieve nuclear capability," Ze'evi told Israel Radio.
"We will have to learn to live with such a threat should it appear. This is a substantial and complex menace due to Israel's geography and size," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572812.html
Ireland Joins International Marine Research Program
April 27, 2005
Ireland's Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, today visited the JOIDES Resolution, one of the largest research vessels in the world, to announce Ireland's participation in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
IODP is an international marine research drilling program that advances scientific understanding of the Earth by monitoring, sampling, and monitoring sub-seafloor environments. IODP scientists explore the deep biosphere, environmental change and solid earth cycles.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104099&org=olpa&from=news
Dereliction of Duty Regarding Iraq
In the months that have passed since Iraq's much-hyped democratic elections, one word keeps creeping into my mind as I assess the tragic events unfolding in Mesopotamia today: Vietnam.
The American press and punditry, intimidated and compensated into slavishly reporting on Iraq solely along lines that will not overly alienate them from the powers that be inside the administration of George W Bush, have long ago foregone drawing comparisons between the ongoing conflict in Iraq and the one America lost in Southeast Asia some three decades in the past.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B8AE8165-C87C-41A9-A2C8-D23EA944F6CC.htm
The Cheney Observer
Landmark Legislation
Portable Toilet Bill Goes to Gov. Bush
Porta potties would be regulated by the Department of Health under a bill passed unanimously Monday by the House and sent to Gov. Jeb Bush.
The measure (SB 626), which had earlier passed the Senate, creates administrative penalties and fines for failing to comply with state rules regarding where the waste from portable restrooms can be dumped.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS/505030398/1004
Sudden Discord between Bush and Sharon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report from Washington
December 17, 2004, 11:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon was warned many a time to beware of placing all his major policy eggs in the George W. Bush basket. But from the time he first took office more than three years ago, he never wavered from his bond with the US president. Their friendship was often cited as one of Sharon’s prime assets. And until last week, the Bush administration stood behind the prime minister and heartily endorsed his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in stages ending in September 2005.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=952
Bin Laden Urges Fighters to Strike Oil Facilities
Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:04 PM
DUBAI (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden has urged militants to concentrate their attacks on Iraqi and Gulf oil facilities, saying it was the most powerful weapon against America, said a transcript of a tape played on the Internet.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7127224
SEC wants Baker Hughes oil-for-food info
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked the oil services firm for information on its business in Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program, becoming the latest company to disclose an SEC request in an investigation.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=SEC%20Oil%20for%20Food
Governors ask Bush not to cut Medicaid
By ALAN FRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The nation's governors on Wednesday urged President Bush not to shift additional Medicaid costs to the states in his effort to reduce the federal deficit.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Bush%20Medicaid
A daily look at U.S. Iraq military deaths
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
As of Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004, at least 1,321 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,021 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include three military civilians.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iraq%20US%20Deaths
Saudi activist surprised at U.N. sanctions
By ROBERT BARR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- A prominent Saudi dissident said Wednesday that authorities had not contacted him about a move in the United Nations to impose international sanctions against him.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Britain%20Saudi%20Activist
Weapons-grade uranium returned to Russia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- About 13 pounds of highly enriched uranium was returned to Russia from a research facility in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, the Energy Department announced. The transfer was part of an international program to better secure material that terrorists could use in a nuclear weapon.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Uranium%20Returned
Houston company buying Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4B
Associated Press
DENVER - A Texas-based company is buying Denver's Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4 billion in stock and cash, the latest in a series of deals this year involving natural gas companies with holdings in the energy rich Rockies.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/10440889.htm
Tunnel vision
MADRID-based Ferrovial confirmed yesterday that it is talking to struggling engineering firm Jarvis about buying its stake in TubeLines, the London Underground contractor.
Ferrovial already holds a 33 per cent stake through its British arm, Amey. Jarvis and US engineering giant Bechtel hold the other two thirds. Any deal is expected to fetch about £100 million.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1459022004
end
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
IEDs in NYC;
Blasts in front of building that houses the British Consulate in New York City shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries
Blasts at UK Consulate in NYC
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two "improvised explosive devices" made from "novelty-type grenades" have exploded in front of the building that houses the British Consulate in New York City, police and officials said.
The early Thursday morning blasts shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries, the New York Police Department said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2514
Joint Local-Federal Terrorism Task Force Joins Investigation
NYC Building Housing U.K. Consulate Damaged in Blast
May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Two replica grenades exploded early today outside an office building housing the British consulate in New York, shattering windows while causing no injuries, authorities said.
Police had no suspects and didn't know the motive for the 3:35 a.m. attack, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference at the site in midtown Manhattan this morning. Police are looking at surveillance-camera video for clues, he said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2515
A White House Adrift
Gas prices, Social Security, Tom DeLay. What else can go wrong for Bush?
By Holly Bailey and Richard Wolffe / Newsweek
May 9 issue - George Voinovich is not your typical Bush loyalist. A self-styled deficit hawk, the former Cleveland mayor and Ohio governor is so frugal that he once fished a penny out of a urinal in the Statehouse. To the White House, his independent spirit should have come as no surprise: he split with his party over the estate tax in 2000 and he opposed the size of Bush's tax cuts three years later. Yet when it came to the prickly question of John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador, the president's team assumed Voinovich would fall into line.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2519
Military at Risk, Congress Warned
By Mark Mazzetti / Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — Strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back any future act of aggression, launch a preemptive strike or intervene to prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a classified analysis sent to Congress on Monday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2476
U.S. Seen As Unaccountable in Iraqi Civilian Deaths
By Alan Elsner / Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 3 - Iraqi civilians who have suffered from U.S. military operations face steep obstacles in obtaining compensation for the deaths of their loved ones or material damage, human rights analysts say.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2477
Families of dead soldiers to sue Blair
By Kate Holton / Reuters
LONDON - The families of soldiers who died in Iraq will launch a bid on Tuesday to take Prime Minister Tony Blair to court over his "deception" in going to war.
Two days before the election, the families will deliver a letter to Downing Street outlining the legal case they will bring against the Prime Minister.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2491
The This and That
Vet becomes crusader for victims of soldier rape
By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The Army vet listens and lets fly. She has zero tolerance for tales of soldier rape. "In the military, they'll tell you, 'Lady, you can't get compensation for having sex,' " said Susan Avila-Smith, the Puget Sound area's outspoken advocate for sexually assaulted veterans.
Her client Donna Jean Patee nods from her wheelchair, her service dog asleep at her feet. "It happened to me," said the former Navy petty officer, who filed a rape claim in 1993. Patee said she was on waterfront watch in San Diego in the 1960s when five sailors gang-raped her.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/219613_crusader11.html
Parents angry over Seattle schools plan that ends open enrollment
By DEBORAH BACH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Just over a month ago, Lynne Stern Feiges got the news she'd been waiting for: Her daughter would be able to attend kindergarten next year at a Queen Anne school Feiges hand-picked.
John Hay Elementary is a trek from Feiges' home in Greenwood, but she thought its focus on advanced learning was a good fit for her daughter. So she notified the private school where her daughter attends preschool and canceled her registration for next year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/222581_schools03.html
Academics, left-wing activists hold protest in Ariel college
By Lilly Galili and Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondents
A group of some 60 Tel-Aviv university academics and left-wing activists Wednesday morning held protest in front of the Judea and Samaria College of Ariel in the West Bank against a government decision to confer university status to the college.
The protestors spoke to students, who expressed their surprise with the demonstration saying they thought Ariel was seen in the Israeli consensus as being part of Israel in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572361.html
Netanyahu: Don't depend on Egypt on Gaza border
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to a Knesset panel's warnings against deploying Egyptian troops on the Philadelphi route on the Gaza-Egypt border, said Wednesday that he "wouldn't depend" on Egypt for security on the volatile frontier strip.
In a rare move, the Knesset subcommittee that supervises covert services decided Tuesday night to warn the ministers in the political-security cabinet against approving a plan to have 750 Egyptian soldiers stationed on the Philadelphi route.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572287.html
Newsview: U.S.-Russia Friendship Tested
By DONNA CASSATA
Associated Press Writer
May 5, 2005, 3:00 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's uneven record on reform and President Bush's campaign to spread democracy are sorely testing the wary friendship that grew between Russia and the United States out of the hostility of the Cold War.
From the U.S. perspective, Putin has been backsliding on democratic reforms and cracking down on businesses, the media and political institutions. Bush's actions in Iraq, in former Soviet satellites and beyond have raised red flags in Moscow -- in some quarters, nostalgia for the days of the hammer and sickle.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-russia-frayed-ties,0,4407494.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
TOPOL-M MOBILE COMPLEX TO ENTER ON COMBAT DUTY IN 2006
VLASIKHA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The first mobile complex Topol-M will enter on combat duty of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) in 2006, the RVSN commander said. According to Nikolai Solovtsov, the silo-based Topol-M missile complexes are now in service in the Russian troops. "The RVSN retains the possibility to have both stationary and mobile Topol-M units in combat service," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39904513.html
RUSSIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL SUGGESTS MONITORING FUTURE OF CHILDREN ADOPTED BY FOREIGNERS
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov suggested that the Russian Government should sign international agreements with those countries whose citizens adopt Russian children, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said Wednesday.
The purpose of the proposed agreements is to control the status of the adopted children and to prevent acts of violence against them.
http://en.rian.ru/society/20050504/39861737.html
VENEZUELA TO CHOOSE BETWEEN RUSSIAN WARPLANES
MOSCOW, May 3. (RIA Novosti) - It seems that Russia's Mikoyan-Gurevich and Sukhoi corporations will compete against each other in Venezuela. The country's Defense Ministry is considering purchasing Su-27 fighter-bombers and Su-25 ground-attack jets even though it has not completed talks on buying MiG-29-SMT air-superiority fighters, a leading business daily, Vedomosti, writes.
A delegation of Venezuela's Defense Ministry saw Sukhoi aircraft at a defense technology exhibition for Latin America that ended in Rio de Janeiro on April 29. Venezuela could buy Su-25s for its navy and Su-27 for its air force. In all, two squadrons, comprising 10 to 12 Su-25s and Su-27s, might be purchased.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050503/39788813.html
IGOR IVANOV: GEORGIA, KYRGYZSTAN AND UKRAINE REVOLUTIONS HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH DEMOCRACY
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - The coups in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine are under study in Russia for learning the lessons taught, Russian Security Council secretary Igor Ivanov said in the interview to the journal Strategiya Rossii (Russia's Strategy).
In his opinion, "a change of power by undemocratic methods" has taken place in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
"When they speak of 'velvet' revolutions, victory of democracy in these countries - all this makes me skeptical", Igor Ivanov stressed, calling all the three "unconstitutional change of power".
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050504/39886033.html
RUSSIAN AIR FORCE COMMANDER PROMISES AIR SECURITY ON MAY 9
ZARYA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov has promised to provide air security on May 9.
"All security measures will be reliable. Today we held exercises involving all means needed for Russia's air security," he said.
The commander denied the information that antiaircraft guns would be placed on some skyscrapers in Moscow. I did not give such orders, Mikhailov noted.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936358.html
ONE IN EVERY TEN SOVIET JEWS FOUGHT AT THE FRONT
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Marianna Belenkaya). On May 9, 1945, the world will mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism.
To quote from one of the most famous Russian songs about the war, "We need victory, victory for all, whatever the cost." No one has ever worked out which of the ethnic groups of the Soviet Union made the biggest contribution to the defeat of Germany. Everyone suffered, and everyone shared the victory. But regrettably, the situation in the country after the war was such that the heroism of many soldiers and officers and many facts about the war went unmentioned. This is why generations that did not experience the war often have a distorted view of it.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39936041.html
Russia will bar this extradition and rightfully so, this man has huge amounts of information the USA will trade for his freedom.
WHAT THE RUSSIAN PAPERS SAY
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)
Gazeta/Vedomosti
America Demands Nuclear Expert's Extradition
Yevgeny Adamov, a former nuclear energy minister of Russia, has been arrested in Switzerland at the request of the United States. American officials are insisting that he be extradited to the U.S. to face charges that he embezzled $9 million from the U.S. Energy Department. Adamov's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev said the arrest took place in a Bern court where his client had come to answer some financial questions. Two dailies, Gazeta and Vedomosti, pick up the theme.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39888564.html
RUSSIAN EX-MINISTER LOATH TO GO TO AMERICAN DOCK
GENEVA, May 4 (RIA Novosti, Ekaterina Andrianova) - Evgeni Adamov, recent Russia's Nuclear Energy Minister, has refused to undergo a simplified extradition procedure, says Folko Galli of Switzerland's Federal Department of Justice.
Mr. Adamov, 65, currently in Swiss detention, was questioned today, and flatly refused to be extradited to the USA on swindling and money laundering suspicions. Now, Switzerland intends to demand from the United States a formal extradition application. The procedure usually takes forty days, and is occasionally prolonged to sixty, Mr. Galli said to Novosti.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050504/39885556.html
I didn't know Russia was as much of a nuclear threat as Iran. Hm?
NO US INSPECTIONS DUE AT RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The US inspections of Russian nuclear facilities have not been and are not coming under consideration, said a high-level Defense Ministry official.
Colonel-General Igor Valynkin is the head of the 12th department of the Defense Ministry in charge of nuclear transportation and storage.
Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, the commander of the Strategic Missile Force (SMF), earlier told reporters that Russia would not let other countries to SMF facilities.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936216.html
BORODIN CLAIMS FORMER MINISTER ARRESTED FOR POLITICAL REASONS
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Pavel Borodin, the state secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus said at a news conference in Moscow today that Yevgeny Adamov, a former Russian minister of nuclear energy, had been arrested for political reasons.
Borodin himself was arrested in New York's Kennedy international airport in January 2001 at the request of Swiss prosecutors who suspected him of laundering $25 million. He was subsequently handed over to Swiss authorities and later released on bail. Eventually he voluntarily testified to Swiss investigators, and the case against him was closed in March 2001.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39917629.html
RUSSIAN OIL EXPORTS TO CHINA FACE PROBLEMS
MOSCOW. (Marina Pustilnik, RIA Novosti commentator.) Russian oil companies' plans to export record levels of oil to China may have to be seriously rethought, as terminals in western Siberia will struggle to cope with the Russian-Chinese contracts.
Indeed, plans to increase the capacity of oil loading terminals are still being only discussed, so it seems the situation is likely to remain up in the air for some time to come.
Under the agreements signed by President Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, on October 14, 2004, China should receive from Russia at least 10 million tons of oil by rail this year.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39917582.html
Opinion & analysis
U.S. IN CASPIAN REGION AND RUSSIA'S POSITION
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Pyotr Goncharov). Iran has offered support for a Russian initiative on the Caspian Sea states alone establishing a joint rapid reaction force in the region.
"These Caspian states should come to terms on the establishment of a rapid reaction force," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
Russia's initiative initially envisaged more than efforts to combat international terrorist attacks against the region and to avert other common threats. It was also designed to prevent countries from outside the region, above all the U.S., from becoming involved in the affairs of the region, which the U.S. has included in the zone of its interests. This fully met Iran's interests. Will Russia and Iran be able toprevent an American presence in the Caspian region?
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050504/39817504.html
THE "OCCUPATION" OF BALTIC COUNTRIES AND THE PRAGMATIC U.S.
MOSCOW (Alexei Makarkin, for RIA Novosti) - U.S. President George Bush wrote in a letter to his Latvian colleague, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, that the end of World War II signified the beginning of the occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Prior to that, Gunther Verheugen, the deputy chairman of the European Commission, had called on Russia to admit that it had illegally occupied the three Baltic republics, if it wanted to maintain neighborly relations with the European Union.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39890538.html
KYOTO PROTOCOL: RUSSIA WILL HAVE TO 'COUNT' ALL ITS TREE ROOTS
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsina). A "Kyoto working group" has been set up by the Forestry Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The working group has been tasked with drafting an action plan to develop the system to monitor sinks, emissions and the absorption of greenhouse gases in the forests. It is also to provide the regulatory-legal framework for these activities. The working group is made up of Forestry Agency employees, scientists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39887785.html
RUSSIA WILL HELP BRAZIL TO RECONSTRUCT A LAUNCH SITE
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) Roscosmos experts will provide assistance to Brazil in reconstruction of a launch site at Alcantara space center, says Roscosmos press release obtained by RIA Novosti on Thursday.
According to the document, during the visit of Roscosmos delegation to Brazil, deputy director of the Russian Federal Space Agency Viktor Remishevsky conducted talks with president of the Brazilian Space Agency Sergio Gaudenzi.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937073.html
MIDEASTERN QUARTET TO DISCUSS ISRAEL'S WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA STRIP IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow meetings of the Mideastern quartet will focus on normal conditions of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti.
The quartet involving Russia, the UN, the European Union and the United States will meet in Moscow on May 9.
"The withdrawal of troops and settlements should be final and coordinated with Palestinians. It should lead to the total cessation of the occupation of the above-mentioned territories," Yakovenko noted.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937032.html
LATVIAN FOREIGN MINISTER READY TO SIGN BORDER TREATY IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks is ready to come to Moscow on May 10 to sign a treaty officially demarcating the Russian-Latvian borders if both parties are willing to do so, Latvian Ambassador to Moscow Andris Teikmanis told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
"This question is important for Latvia," Teikmanis said. "Political circles are interested in finalizing the border-settlement process."
The chances of concluding the treaty on May 10 are "50-50," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936931.html
SIEMENS TO BUILD HIGH-SPEED TRAIN FACTORY IN RUSSIA
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - In two years to come the German company Siemens will build in Russia a factory manufacturing high-speed trains, president of the company OAO Russian Railways Gennadi Fadeev has said.
"The modern factory, to be built with also Russian capital, will help arranging the manufacture of units for railway trains according to the European standards", the Russian Railways press service quotes Fadeev as telling the conference there.
As reported earlier, high-speed trains will be made at the Moscow Locomotive Repair Factory.
Fadeev recalled that last April the Russian Railways and Siemens signed the contract on the manufacture of high-speed trains in Russia. "The contract targets the maximal socio-economic effect for our country", Fadeev said.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20050505/39937092.html
Destroy it all
Gush Katif settlers who want to destroy their homes prior to their eviction should be entitled to do so. No government official has the moral or legal right to tell them what to do with their private property, the splendid homes or flourishing greenhouses they have owned for 30 years.
The technocrats engaged in the uprooting of thousands of Jews will immediately be outraged and cry out that the settlers must do with their property what the government decides, since the government is awarding them compensation in the form of alternative accommodation and land for agriculture.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull%26cid=1115259514981
Suspected mole posts bail
The FBI arrested a Defense Department analyst Wednesday on charges that he illegally passed classified information about potential Iranian-backed attacks against US forces in Iraq to employees of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group.
Larry Franklin, 58, turned himself in, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said. He made a brief appearance in a suburban US District Court and was released on $100,000 bond under the condition he surrender his firearms and passport.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115173227516
Russian security forces say they foiled major terrorist attack
Russian security forces said they foiled a major terrorist attack Thursday, discovering a truck-bomb and a cache of poisons days before dozens of dignitaries arrive in Moscow for celebrations marking the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
The find is likely to stoke fears that other terror attacks could be in the works as the world turns its attention to Russia and Monday's ceremonies marking the end of World War II. Russian authorities almost immediately blamed the planned attacks on militants, including some with reputed ties to al-Qaida.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259521825&p=1078113566627
Israel to set up five chemical plants in eastern India
An Israeli defense firm has won a $140 million contract to build five plants to produce explosives in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, The Asian Age newspaper reported Thursday .
Israeli Military Industries beat bids from European and US companies to secure the deal, the third major defense contract that Tel Aviv and New Delhi have signed in recent weeks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259517998&p=1078113566627
Initial results give Fatah edge over Hamas in polls
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah movement led in Palestinian municipal elections on Thursday despite a strong showing by Hamas Islamic militants, preliminary results showed.
But the militant Islamic group disputed the figures and said it was not ready to concede defeat.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572883.html
Poll: Fatah scores election day victory
According to a poll carried out by the Halil Shkaki polling institute, the Fatah party has won the second phase of Palestinian Authority local elections, Army Radio reported.
Polling numbers had Fatah winning half of the 14 municipalities and village councils surveyed in the poll, including a large victory in Rafiah, located in Gaza, as well as other large municipalities in the West Bank.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259522142&p=1078397702269
British lecturers call special meeting to reconsider boycott
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent
The Association of University Teachers (AUT) in the United Kingdom has decided to call a special meeting to reconsider its boycott of two Israeli universities. The AUT decided two weeks ago to boycott Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities for what it saw as supporting the occupation and repressing academic freedom.
The decision to reconsider the boycott comes in the wake of letters of protest from AUT members who requested that the decision be reversed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572999.html
Hundreds rally in TA against IDF killing of 2 Palestinian teens
By Tamar Traubman, Yoav Stern and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service
Hundreds of left-win protesters demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening against the Israel Defense Forces' killing Wednesday of two Palestinian youths in the West Bank.
The two teenagers were shot dead near the village of Beit Likia, west of Ramallah, during a protest against the construction of the separation fence in the area.
Thursday's protest started opposite the Defense Ministry's Kirya compound in Tel Aviv and from there demonstrators walked to Likud Party headquarters on King George Street. Some 200-300 people attended the rally.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572451.html
U.S. blacklists charity as front for Islamic Jihad
By Reuters
WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday froze the assets of a charity it called a front for the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and said it was seeking safe channels for donations to Palestinians in need.
"This afternoon we designated the Elehssan Society, including all of its branches, as a charitable front for the brutal terrorist group the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Enforcement Stuart Levey said.
"Elehssan masquerades as a charity while actually helping to finance PIJ's acts of terror against the Israeli people and other innocents," he told a congressional hearing. Elehssan operates in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572531.html
MI chief: Israel is not facing existential nuclear threat today
By Haaretz Service
Director of Military Intelligence Major General Aharon Ze'evi said Thursday that Israel is not subject to any imminent nuclear threat, and that he believed the Palestinian Authority is gradually reining in militants.
"There is cuurently no existential nuclear threat on Israel, but there are several Muslim states, at the forefront Iran, which are trying to achieve nuclear capability," Ze'evi told Israel Radio.
"We will have to learn to live with such a threat should it appear. This is a substantial and complex menace due to Israel's geography and size," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572812.html
Ireland Joins International Marine Research Program
April 27, 2005
Ireland's Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, today visited the JOIDES Resolution, one of the largest research vessels in the world, to announce Ireland's participation in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
IODP is an international marine research drilling program that advances scientific understanding of the Earth by monitoring, sampling, and monitoring sub-seafloor environments. IODP scientists explore the deep biosphere, environmental change and solid earth cycles.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104099&org=olpa&from=news
Dereliction of Duty Regarding Iraq
In the months that have passed since Iraq's much-hyped democratic elections, one word keeps creeping into my mind as I assess the tragic events unfolding in Mesopotamia today: Vietnam.
The American press and punditry, intimidated and compensated into slavishly reporting on Iraq solely along lines that will not overly alienate them from the powers that be inside the administration of George W Bush, have long ago foregone drawing comparisons between the ongoing conflict in Iraq and the one America lost in Southeast Asia some three decades in the past.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B8AE8165-C87C-41A9-A2C8-D23EA944F6CC.htm
The Cheney Observer
Landmark Legislation
Portable Toilet Bill Goes to Gov. Bush
Porta potties would be regulated by the Department of Health under a bill passed unanimously Monday by the House and sent to Gov. Jeb Bush.
The measure (SB 626), which had earlier passed the Senate, creates administrative penalties and fines for failing to comply with state rules regarding where the waste from portable restrooms can be dumped.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS/505030398/1004
Sudden Discord between Bush and Sharon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report from Washington
December 17, 2004, 11:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon was warned many a time to beware of placing all his major policy eggs in the George W. Bush basket. But from the time he first took office more than three years ago, he never wavered from his bond with the US president. Their friendship was often cited as one of Sharon’s prime assets. And until last week, the Bush administration stood behind the prime minister and heartily endorsed his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in stages ending in September 2005.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=952
Bin Laden Urges Fighters to Strike Oil Facilities
Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:04 PM
DUBAI (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden has urged militants to concentrate their attacks on Iraqi and Gulf oil facilities, saying it was the most powerful weapon against America, said a transcript of a tape played on the Internet.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7127224
SEC wants Baker Hughes oil-for-food info
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked the oil services firm for information on its business in Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program, becoming the latest company to disclose an SEC request in an investigation.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=SEC%20Oil%20for%20Food
Governors ask Bush not to cut Medicaid
By ALAN FRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The nation's governors on Wednesday urged President Bush not to shift additional Medicaid costs to the states in his effort to reduce the federal deficit.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Bush%20Medicaid
A daily look at U.S. Iraq military deaths
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
As of Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004, at least 1,321 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,021 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include three military civilians.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iraq%20US%20Deaths
Saudi activist surprised at U.N. sanctions
By ROBERT BARR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- A prominent Saudi dissident said Wednesday that authorities had not contacted him about a move in the United Nations to impose international sanctions against him.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Britain%20Saudi%20Activist
Weapons-grade uranium returned to Russia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- About 13 pounds of highly enriched uranium was returned to Russia from a research facility in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, the Energy Department announced. The transfer was part of an international program to better secure material that terrorists could use in a nuclear weapon.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Uranium%20Returned
Houston company buying Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4B
Associated Press
DENVER - A Texas-based company is buying Denver's Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4 billion in stock and cash, the latest in a series of deals this year involving natural gas companies with holdings in the energy rich Rockies.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/10440889.htm
Tunnel vision
MADRID-based Ferrovial confirmed yesterday that it is talking to struggling engineering firm Jarvis about buying its stake in TubeLines, the London Underground contractor.
Ferrovial already holds a 33 per cent stake through its British arm, Amey. Jarvis and US engineering giant Bechtel hold the other two thirds. Any deal is expected to fetch about £100 million.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1459022004
end
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Students R-E-S-P-E-C-T-E-D !!!
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
'Tremendous Victory'
After seven day occupation, University of Hawaii activists return office to President David McClain
Navy research center opponents end sit-in
By Jeannette J. Lee / Associated Press
HONOLULU — A group protesting a proposed Navy research center at the University of Hawaii ended a weeklong sit-in Wednesday at the office of the university president.
Dozens of protesters marched out of interim President David McClain's office clapping and chanting. Organizers called the protest a "tremendous victory."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2511
Statement From 'Save UH/Stop UARC Occupation'
Wednesday, May 4, 2005 - First, we would like to thank our community of supporters in Hawai’i and around the world for their aloha, generosity and kokua. We would also like to acknowledge the staff of the university especially the custodial, secretarial, and security officers in Bachman Hall.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2510
Hello everyone, my name is Bart Abbott and I'm going to be taking over responsibility for the BLOG. I'm a political science major who's been doing research on the UARC and classified rese
http://www.livejournal.com/users/stopuarc/2005/05/04/
I've been keeping up with Earth's satellites and basically the picture is the same as a couple of days ago. I'll post more. The heat is picking up in the Northern Hemisphere. I still believe remain optimistic regarding the waining of Global Warming due to consumer price increases at the pump in the USA.
I need to finish up some projects. I'll be emptying some files over the next few weeks and have run across some 'stuff'. The older articles may or may not open but they are worth noting. Noting primarily that the USA is going NOWHERE !! Stagnant under leadership without invention or answers or the will to admit they are 'W'rong. And now we have Improvied Explosive Devices in New York City.
The Cheney Observer
Committee Prepares Questions for Bolton
By LOLITA BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
(04-27) 00:39 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is casting a wide net for information about John R. Bolton, whose nomination as ambassador to the United Nations has been stalled by allegations he abused power and mistreated underlings in government.
Over the next few days committee members plan to set up interviews with as many as 19 people — from former intelligence officers and subordinates who reported problems with Bolton to his former chief assistant, according to a Senate committee aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/04/26/national/w170325D48.DTL
Singapore Petroleum Co 1Q Net S$72.7M Vs S$41.9M -2-
Singapore Petroleum Company Ltd. - Singapore
First quarter ended March 31:
Figures are in Singapore dollars (S$).
Earnings are unaudited, and based on local accounting standards.
2005 2004
Revenue S$ 1,449,049,000 S$ 953,216,000
Pretax Profit 85,512,000 43,867,000
Net Profit 72,713,000 41,858,000
Earnings Per Share
Basic 16.57 cents 9.83 cents
Fully Diluted 14.82 cents 9.72 cents
Dividend Omitted Omitted
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Singapore Petroleum Co. (S99.SG), an affiliate of marine engineering conglomerate Keppel Corp. (K02.SG), Tuesday said its first-quarter net profit ended March 31 surged 74% from the year-ago period, boosted by soaring oil prices.
The company, which refines oil and operates petrol stations, reported its net profit for the quarter rose to S$72.7 million from S$41.9 million a year earlier.
Revenue during the period jumped to S$1.45 billion from S$953.2 million.
Earnings were fueled by high refining margins on the back of rising oil prices due to a "perceived tightness in supply in the short and medium term," SPC said in a statement.
"Concerns over the ability of crude producers to meet expanded demand and a possible disruption to supply caused crude prices to rise to record levels during the first quarter," SPC said.
The company said it achieved an average refining margin of US$3.50 a barrel for the first quarter.
SPC said it expects to continue to perform well for the rest of the year, supported by strong demand for refined petroleum products.
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050426/15/3s5px.html
Occidental Petroleum first quarter profit up sharply on higher oil prices
Canadian Press
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Tuesday that higher oil and gas prices drove up its first quarter profits by 74 per cent.
Quarterly income grew to $846 million US, or $2.11 per share, from $487 million, or $1.24 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, core earnings amounted to $866 million, or $2.16 per share, the company said.
http://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=c3fb2ee1-910e-46f8-9c6d-9c55dbf8c868
PETROLEUM: Oil refining giant Valero to buy rival Premcor for $6.9 billion
Associated Press
Published April 26, 2005
SAN ANTONIO -- Valero Energy Corp. plans to acquire Premcor Inc. for $6.9 billion in cash and stock as part of a deal that would create the largest refiner of crude oil in North America, company officials announced Monday.
Valero will issue $3.5 billion in stock and pay $3.4 billion in cash. Valero also would assume about $1.8 billion in debt in the deal, which will add four refineries and 790,000 barrels per day to its system.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0504260255apr26,1,4523978.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Whiting Petroleum upgraded to "outperform" - update
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 12:28:27 PM ET
RBC Capital Markets
NEW YORK, April 26 (newratings.com) - Analyst Scott Hanold of RBC Capital Markets upgrades Whiting Petroleum Corporation (WLL.NYS) from "sector perform" to "outperform," while reducing his estimates for the company. The target price is set to $48.
http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_795839.html
Vintage Petroleum initiated with "neutral"
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 11:02:42 AM ET
J.P. Morgan Securities
NEW YORK, April 26 (newratings.com) - Analysts at JP Morgan initiate coverage of Vintage Petroleum (VPI.NYS) with a "neutral" rating.
In a research note published this morning, the analysts mention that the company is currently undertaking new ventures, including the shale gas concept located in the Palo Duro basin. Vintage Petroleum's operating performance has been sluggish, as compared to that of its peers, the analysts say. Vintage Petroleum’s near-term reserve growth and organic production are likely to be adversely impacted by the company’s weak margins and high asset intensity, JP Morgan adds.
http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_795616.html
Bush and Cheney rushed to safety in security scare
Associated Press
Published April 28, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush was taken quickly to a secure underground White House bunker and Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked outside the compound Wednesday because of a "radar anomaly"--perhaps a flock of birds or pocket of rain--that was mistaken for a plane flying in restricted airspace.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0504280188apr28,1,1654458.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Bush Cheney Regime: The Illegal US Government
by WHATREALLYHAPPENED.COM
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Is this the beginning of the US "Civil" War II?)
A recent poll discovered that half of Americans know that the government intentionally lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The actual figure is probably a lot higher since there is a large percentage of Americans still willing to let their neighbors' children die than ever admit they were wrong to support the war in the first place.
So, the majority of Americans know the government lied to create a war.
A majority of Americans now know there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that claims to the contrary were intentional lies.
A majority of Americans now know the US Government lied when it claimed Iraq's WMDs were a threat to the United States.
A majority of Americans now know the mainstream media lied when it claimed Iraq's WMDs were a threat to the United States.
A majority of Americans now know that the US Government has been torturing innocent Iraqis for information on WMDs the US Government already knew they could not possibly have.
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=2126
Global Eye
Buried Treasure
By Chris Floyd
Published: April 29, 2005
It seemed, at first, like nothing more than a novelty item in the news briefs, the kind of odd, meaningless side-fact thrown off by most major stories: "New Pope, President's Brother Had Link in Swiss Group." But a look beneath the surface of this innocuous connection reveals a vast web of sinister alliances -- and moral corruption on a world-shaking scale.
The network links a bewildering line-up of players -- the Bushes, the Vatican, bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and China's Communist overlords, among others -- in a staggering array of crime and turpitude: prostitution, pedophilia, mass death and war profiteering. Yet this is not some grand "conspiracy theory," a serpent's egg hatched in Bilderberg or Bohemian Grove. It's simply the way the Bush boys do business, trawling the globe for sweetheart deals and gushers of blood money from the war and terror they foment.
At the center of this particular nexus is the unlikely figure of Neil Bush, the feckless, fraudulent brother of the current president. Neilsy, as he's known in the family, is most famous for costing American taxpayers $1 billion to bail out a savings-and-loan he had ruined with secret insider loans to his own business partners. For this massive fraud, he was fined -- by his father's administration -- the princely sum of $50,000, which was actually paid by one of his dad's political bagmen, of course.
You see, the Bushes are robber barons, not capitalists: They never risk any of their own money in the competition of the marketplace. Nor do they ever pay the price when their deals go belly-up. Just ask George W., whose first business was jump-started with secret cash from the bin Ladens, laundered through their U.S. frontman, James Bath -- who was also hired by W.'s dad, then-CIA director George Bush Sr., to set up offshore companies for shifting CIA money and aircraft between Texas and Saudi Arabia, the Texas Observer reported.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/142022/
GOP warns Democrats they'll face probes, too
Friday, April 29, 2005
By Karen MacPherson, Post-Gazette National Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Angry House Republicans yesterday warned their Democratic colleagues to expect a spate of inquiries into possible ethics violations in retaliation for forcing GOP leaders to jettison controversial new rules for ethics investigations.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05119/496476.stm
Novak repeated conservative canard that Democrats "are opposing Judge Pryor of Alabama because of his religion"
CNN host and syndicated columnist Robert Novak repeated the baseless accusation that Democrats "are opposing Judge Pryor of Alabama because of his religion." In fact, senators who have opposed William H. Pryor's nomination to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals -- and even current Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter (R-PA) -- have questioned Pryor over his willingness and ability to put aside his personal views and follow the law. Specter also echoed Democrats' concerns over inconsistent statements Pryor made to the committee regarding his involvement in the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).
http://mediamatters.org/items/200504280008
Guantanamo interrogations faked
Former U.S. Army translator revealed on Friday that U.S. officials at Guantanamo staged interrogations of detainees for visiting politicians and generals with the aim of giving them the impression that valuable intelligence was regularly being gathered.
Speaking to CBS television's 60 Minutes, Sergeant Erik Saar said that "only a few dozen" of the 600 detainees at the camp were "terrorists" and that little information was obtained from them.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8128
Afghan munitions blast kills and wounds over 100
A hidden weapons cache in a northern Afghan village exploded on Monday, killing at least 28 people and wounding over 70, a government spokesman said.
"The whole neighborhood around the ammunition dump has been destroyed," said Lutfullah Mashal, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said adding that a team of investigators is currently probing what caused the blast in Pajga village in Baghlan province, 120 km (80 miles) north of the capital, Kabul.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7424
Arms deal worth $500 million to be inked by Turkey and Israel
5/2/2005 5:00:00 PM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The Turkish Prime Minister Recob Erdogen is to sign an arms deal worth $500 million with Israeli officials under which Tel Aviv would upgrade 30 Turkish F-4 jetfighters at a cost of half a million dollars, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.
The paper also stated that the Turkish government set the condition that the upgrading process should be carried out at Turkish air force bases rather than at Israeli military factories.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8069
Halliburton's War Loot
Corruption in Bush's Iraq
By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
New Zealand.
There is a squalid little wart called Mark Steyn whose blinkered worship for Bush and the Crazy Crusaders is intense. He is the darling of the Murdoch-style, mind-bending, non-information media and of some other formerly respectable US and British publications which have lost their way in the fetid jungle of Bush idolatry. Steyn is the prat who wrote in the UK's Telegraph newspaper a year ago that "I don't think it's possible for anyone who looks at Iraq honestly to see it as anything other than a success story . . . ".
http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley05032005.html
Halliburton lands $24 million Shell drilling plum
from: Offshore Engineer
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
HALLIBURTON'S ENERGY SERVICES GROUP HAS BEEN AWARDED A two-year contract, with the option for an additional year, by Shell Exploration & Production to provide 40% of Shell's integrated drilling services for their Gulf of Mexico activities. The value of the contract is estimated at $24 million for the fixed two-year duration and includes the provision of directional drilling, measurement-whiledrilling (MWD), and logging-while-drilling (LWD).
http://www.oilonline.com/news/headlines/otc/20050503.Hallibur.17864.asp
S. Pars drilling to go ahead without Halliburton
Tuesday, May 03, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, May 3 (IranMania) - A senior oil industry official said that oil well drilling for phases IX and X of the giant South Pars gas field development project will begin within a month following an agreement reached between Pars Oil and Gas Company and Oriental Oil Kish.
Akbar Torkan, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, said Oriental Oil Kish has received the initial payment for the multimillion dollar project.
Iranian engineers have managed to successfully install the first of the two jackets of the offshore platform for phases IX and X. A US company, Halliburton, was awarded phases IX and X of the giant project earlier this year together with Oriental Oil Kish, but quietly pulled out amid mounting pressures from Washington.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=31523&NewsKind=Business%20%26%20Economy
Ex-Iraqi Hostage Reflects on Life Changes
By KATHY HANRAHAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 3, 2005; 2:33 AM
JACKSON, Miss. -- Thomas Hamill, whose dash to freedom from captivity in Iraq prompted a Mississippi lawmaker to dub him a "superhero for country boys," still drives the same 1995 Dodge pickup truck, despite its lack of air conditioning.
"I will keep it until the wheels fall off," Hamill said in an interview with The Associated Press.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050300107.html
Gov. Bush To Decide If Diners Can Take Opened Bottle Of Wine Home
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Governor Jeb Bush will decide whether to allow diners to take an opened bottle of wine from a restaurant home with them.
The House has voted 112-to-4 for the bill which went Wednesday to the governor. The Senate passed it a month ago.
The legislation would give individual restaurants the choice to provide the service to customers who have eaten a full meal and consumed part of a bottle of wine.
If they do, the bottle would be placed in a sealed bag and could be taken home in a car trunk or gloved compartment.
The bag would be approved by the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation and it would be tamper-resistant.
That's according to Representative Bruce Kyle, the Fort Myers Republican who sponsored the measure in the House.
http://www.local6.com/news/4449422/detail.html
Florida Halts Fight to Bar Girl's Abortion
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: May 4, 2005
MIAMI, May 3 - After first resisting a judge's order to allow a 13-year-old in state custody to get an abortion, Gov. Jeb Bush's administration changed course on Tuesday and said it would abandon the legal fight.
The reversal came a week after state lawyers went to Palm Beach County Circuit Court to stop the girl, identified as L.G., from having an abortion. Judge Ronald Alvarez agreed to delay the procedure while he weighed the facts, but ruled on Monday that the girl was competent to make decisions about her pregnancy and free to do so under the State Constitution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/national/04pregnancy.html
Portable Toilet Bill Goes to Gov. Bush
Porta potties would be regulated by the Department of Health under a bill passed unanimously Monday by the House and sent to Gov. Jeb Bush.
The measure (SB 626), which had earlier passed the Senate, creates administrative penalties and fines for failing to comply with state rules regarding where the waste from portable restrooms can be dumped.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS/505030398/1004
Swastika, 'Kill Bush' Found Scrawled On Golden Beach House
Police Increase Patrols
POSTED: 10:14 pm EDT May 2, 2005
GOLDEN BEACH, Fla. -- A swastika was found painted on a house under construction in Golden Beach, and authorities said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Investigators also said that painted on the same home along Central Island Drive were the words "Kill Bush." As a precaution, police have increased their presence in the neighborhood.
It's not clear if the "Kill Bush" scrawl was directed at the President George W. Bush, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, or someone else.
http://www.nbc6.net/news/4441943/detail.html
Florida Law: a guide
By Simon Freeman, Times Online
Since taking office in 1998, the Florida Governor John Ellis 'Jeb' Bush has several times shown his political acumen by introducing legislation that has been popular with voters
May 2005: The Jessica Lunsford Act. Introduced mandatory sentences of at least 25 years for child sex killers, backed with lifetime GPS tracking for convicted offenders.
April 2005: The 'Stand Your Ground Bill'. Gave citizens the right to shoot and kill anyone who threatens them in public without first having to try to escape.Critics, who renamed it the Kill Bill, said it would turn the Sunshine State into the Wild West.
September 2004: 'Terri's Law'. Gave the Governor the authority to reconnect severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo's feeding tube against the wishes of her husband, who was her registered guardian. The ruling was overturned after an appeals process which reached the US Supreme Court and Ms Shiavo died last month
May 2004: Senate Bill 348. A privacy bill which closed a loophole that allowed a newspaper to obtain the social security numbers of state employees through the public records statutes
April 2004: All greyhound tracks in the state of Florida required to open booths providing information on the adoption of racing dogs, in order to stop thousands of greyhounds being put to death unnecessarily once they had passed their prime
June 2003: The Dr Marvin Davies Florida Civil Rights Act. Enabled the Attorney General's office to take civil rights actions against companies it accuses of discrimination, seeking fines of up to $10,000
June 2003: Gov Bush relaxed the terms of the Everglades Forever Act which extended the deadline for reducing phosphorous levels attributed to run-off from sugar farms by 10 years. There was criticism after it emerged that Big Sugar, a producer, had contributed to Bush's election campaign
June 2003: The Animal Fighting Bill. Prohibited the keeping and training of animals for dog and cockfighting
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1596148,00.html
Senate President rips Jeb Bush over Medicaid, growth issues
By S.V. Dáte
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer and Dara Kam, Special to the Post
Thursday, April 28, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — Eight weeks of legislative harmony came to a screeching end Wednesday, with Senate President Tom Lee lashing out at Gov. Jeb Bush over Medicaid, slot-machine gambling and, closest to his heart, growth management.
"We're down to the final week and I would encourage the governor to watch what he says," Lee said following a long day on the Senate floor. "Because the emotions tend to run high in the last week. People get offended very easily, and the decorum and tone that's been set by the speaker and I could easily unravel by a governor who really doesn't have a role in this process right now."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/news/epaper/2005/04/28/a4a_lee_0428.html
Gov. Jeb Bush Asks for 1964 Killing Review
By RON WORD
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 27, 2005; 9:25 PM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday asked state law enforcement authorities to take another look at a 1964 race-riot slaying of a black maid _ a case in which charges against three white men were eventually dropped.
It is the second time he has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review the notorious 41-year-old case.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042701996.html
This is popular with voters?
Governor Bush signs bill allowing meeting of "force with force"
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Florida Governor Jeb Bush has signed a bill intended to make it clear that people have a right to defend themselves on the street.
The measure passed the Florida Legislature overwhelmingly earlier this year. It says people who are under attack don't have to retreat before responding, as long as they're in a place they legally have a right to be. They already had that right in their own homes.
Supporters of the bill had touted it as a way not only to protect the rights of those who are assaulted, but to deter crime.
Opponents warned during debate that it will lead to a "Wild West" atmosphere in Florida, where gun-toting people in public places will have shootouts because they can. They say no one will ever back down.
http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3263781
Jeb Bush, Man of His (Christian) Consituents
"A Muslim group today asked Gov. Jeb Bush to provide leadership in the investigation of a doctor suspected of plotting to blow up dozens of mosques.
Altaf Ali, of the the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also asked for state security at mosques. Mr. Bush's spokeswoman did not return a call."
You can go read the article if you'd like, but save one extra sentence about the doctor's plot to kill as many 'rags' as he could, that's the entirety of it, posted right there.
Let's just imagine for a moment that there had been a Muslim arrested with enough explosives to level his entire condo complex, as was the case with Mr. Goldstein. Let's say said Muslim had a mission template for exploding as many Christian churches and educational centers as possible, as was again the case (only, of course, the doc's plans were for mosques).
Do you think for one moment that Jeb wouldn't have armed security crawling over every damn church in Florida within seconds if, say, they asked him for it?
I will bet you the entire GNP of Bolivia that he would've returned their goddamned phone call.
Shame on you, Jeb. The only message you're sending to thousands of Florida Muslims is that their lives aren't quite as important to you as other voters'.
http://fox.prodigal.ca/archives/002545.html
Luis Posada, from Panama to Miami. Will the United States "Harbor Terrorism"?
By Arthur Shaw
Apr 17, 2005, 21:57
Luis Posada Carriles, also known as "Bambi," was arrested in November 17, 2000, in Panama, within hours after Cuban President Fidel Castro exposed to the world media and the Panamanian authorities a plot to assassinate him and to slaughter the student body of the University of Panama where Castro was due to speak during his stay in the central American country.
Fidel Castro was in Panama attending the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama's capital.
When he was arrested, Posada carried a fake passport and had 33 pounds of plastic explosives, called C-4, in his possession.
If Posada had been successful in detonating his explosives at the university auditorium where Castro was scheduled to speak, it has been authoritatively estimated that he would have murdered not only Fidel Castro but also at least 1000 students.
This terrorist operation against the University of Panama and Fidel Castro, if it had succeeded, would have exceeded in bestiality Posada's October 6, 1976 mid-flight bombing of the Cuban airliner which murdered 73 persons.
It would have also exceeded or outperformed in bestiality the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, by Timothy Mcveigh, when 168 people were murdered and 500 or so were wounded.
The Panamanian prosecutors rejected the idea of charging Posada and three accomplices with attempted murder of either the students or Castro, choosing rather to charge Posada with illegal possession of explosives, carrying false documents, and endangering public safety.
Posada and the three others were ultimately found guilty of only "endangering public safety."
...Since then, the Miami mafia has destroyed democracy in Florida to help ... politically ... the Bush family. In 2000, the mafia intimidated or obstructed over a million voters, mostly African-American, inclined to support the Democrats, from voting.
In 2004, the mafia, extended their vote-swindling operations from the African-Americans to senior citizens with Democratic proclivities.
Today, Jeb Bush wants Luis Posada either pardoned or granted political asylum to assure, among other things, that the Miami mafia will steal enough votes and otherwise rigged his 2008 election -- or whenever he runs -- for president.
Brother George in the White House is eager to help Jeb get what he wants.
This is the main reason why the cowardly and corrupted US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refuses to institute Section 1226a terrorist certification proceedings against Posada.
This is why Gonzales pretends that the "pardon" of Posada by the bribe-snatching former president of Panama clears Posada of the charge of attempted mass murder ... again.
© Copyrights 2005 by AxisofLogic.com and VHeadline.com
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16910.shtml
Armed Vigilantes: The New Face of the Republican Party
By ADVOCATE STAFF
This is a news story about a Google headline, "Florida National Rifle Association Bill Would Allow People To Kill Others In Public."
This is a news story about how that headline is not, by any means, an exaggeration, and about how the story underlying that headline is brought to you not by some obscure troglodyte on the X-con frontier, but the likely Republican presidential candidate in 2008--and the brother (God help us, the "smart" one) of our current President--Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
So, we begin.
Perhaps no tenet of criminal law is more venerable than the doctrine of self-defense.
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/04/armed-vigilantes-new-face-of.html
Letter: Think peace, and bring troops home from Iraq
In this spiritual time of the year, and after the religious showing in the November election, it would seem appropriate to actively seek peace in the horrible war against Iraq.
While large corporations such as Halliburton and Bechtel rake in billions of our hard-earned tax dollars from everybody's paychecks, U.S. soldiers and the people of Iraq are dying. Where is the death toll noted in our media of the women and children of Iraq? Where is the consideration of what we are doing to our younger generation?
The vice president's company should be there for peace, not for spending our money in the black hole of war. After all, as the head of Halliburton, Dick Cheney became the head of President Bush's committee to find a vice president. And look whom he chose.
So, while looking out at our beautiful snow-covered fields, and while thinking of the true meaning of this season, we should think of peace. If the American people want peace, it will happen. Bring our young people home now.
LEIF E. WINTER
HALLSTEAD, PA.
http://www.pressconnects.com/today/opinion/stories/op122204s137490.shtml
Corruption - part 1: Who Pays the Price?
By Judith Snyderman
17 December 2004
Experts who analyze corruption say there is no way to eliminate the greed that is behind many criminal acts. But, there are effective strategies to fight corruption in countries big and small, and rich and poor.
One strategy is to openly discuss the problem. So our look at corruption begins with an assessment of the global reach of corruption and who pays the price…Paul Miller narrates.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-12-17-voa39.cfm
Methodist pastor embarks on mission to raise opposition to war
17 Dec 2004
Associated Press: Rev. Wayne Lavender, pastor of the New Milford, Conn., United Methodist Church, plans to launch a four-month peace mission on Jan. 1 that he hopes will include visiting Iraq and meeting President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who are both fellow Methodists.
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/id/21710/template/Article.html
FAMU wants shot at flu lab
Vaccine industry would create economic boom, advocates say
By BILL COTTERELL and MELANIE YEAGER
Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat
A quietly devised plan to create a flu vaccine lab and production plant in Tallahassee could ease nationwide shortages, add prestige to Florida A&M University and give the Big Bend an economic shot in the arm.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/10440217.htm
Unrelenting hurricane season top state story in 2004
JEFF PRICE
Associated Press
MIAMI - An unprecedented hurricane season when four major storms battered nearly every corner of Florida, leaving more than 100 dead and an estimated $42 billion in damages, was voted the top state story in 2004 by AP newspaper editors and broadcasters.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/10492658.htm
Drugs threaten Afghans, U.S. says
By Eric Schmitt
NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON - Poppy cultivation and opium production will continue to increase in Afghanistan, expanding the dangerous influence of drug lords at all levels of the government of President Hamid Karzai, a new confidential American military assessment warns.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10491511.htm
The year that was
Here’s some one-stop-shopping: a 2004 recap-winners-losers-heroes-villains-in and out-predictions-for-’05.
Friday, December 24, 2004
It’s that time of year again, time to reflect on the past and predict the future. All over the media, we learn the heroes and villains, the good and the bad of 2004, what’s in and what’s out, and what lies ahead in 2005.
http://www.sovo.com/2004/12-24/view/columns/was.cfm
Investigators wrapping up first phase of Big Dig wall inspections
The Associated Press
BOSTON— Investigators reviewing the construction of wall panels in the Big Dig's Interstate 93 tunnel planned to wrap up the first phase of their inspections early Friday morning by looking at two panels along one section of the tunnel.
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041223/APN/412231074
Bin Laden Tape Urges Stopping Oil to U.S.
DAVID McHUGH
Associated Press
Osama bin Laden claims to have bled the Soviet Union into bankruptcy as an Islamic guerrilla fighter in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Could he do the same to another hated superpower - the United States?
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10449164.htm
Former U.N. oil-for-food chief denies wrongdoing
Lawyer: Sevan 'is confident that he will be fully vindicated'
From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN
Saturday, December 18, 2004 Posted: 4:26 PM EST (2126 GMT)
CNN) -- Dogged by allegations that he pocketed oil money from Saddam Hussein's government, Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations oil-for-food program, insisted this week that he had done nothing wrong.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/18/iraq.sevan/
Iraq oil facilities targeted after bin Laden message
Iraq's key oil infrastructure suffered five attacks in 24 hours after a voice identified as Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ordered followers to sabotage the west's key oil supplies.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1268365.htm
Pounded by waves, grounded ship spews more oil into the sea
By MATT VOLZ
The Associated Press
Wendy Sangiacomo of International Bird Rescue yesterday hydrates a murre, oiled from the Selendang Ayu spill off Unalaska Island.
ANCHORAGE — Rough waves battered the remains of a grounded freighter yesterday, causing more heavy oil to spill into the Bering Sea off the coast of Unalaska Island.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002123509_freighter18m.html
IOC may pick up 47% stake in OIL
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2004 12:28:31 AM]
NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) may buy 47% stake in Oil India Ltd from the government.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/963828.cms
IOC,OIL merger possible, says Aiyar:
[India News]: Jaipur, Dec.18 : Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said here today that there was a distinct and a distant possibility of the government seriously considering a merger between Indian Oil Corporation and Oil India Limited in the near future.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=48735
Bechtel to pay Iraqi worker $90,000 to settle bias case
December 16, 2004, 6:20 PM EST
NEWARK, N.J. -- Bechtel Inc., the giant construction company helping to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, has settled a bias lawsuit by agreeing to pay $90,000 to an Iraqi-American employee fired from its Hackensack facility, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-nj--bechtel-eeocsuit1216dec16,0,3260919.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey
RAY SUAREZ: It was former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil who called Social Security "the third rail of American politics" because it meant certain death to any politician who touched it.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_security/july-dec04/fix_12-16.html
Dollar Weakens on Forecasts Current-Account Deficit Will Widen
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar held near a one-week low against the euro and fell versus the yen on expectations a U.S. government report today will say the current-account deficit widened to a record.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=axq8fFd6PqLw&refer=japan
end
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
'Tremendous Victory'
After seven day occupation, University of Hawaii activists return office to President David McClain
Navy research center opponents end sit-in
By Jeannette J. Lee / Associated Press
HONOLULU — A group protesting a proposed Navy research center at the University of Hawaii ended a weeklong sit-in Wednesday at the office of the university president.
Dozens of protesters marched out of interim President David McClain's office clapping and chanting. Organizers called the protest a "tremendous victory."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2511
Statement From 'Save UH/Stop UARC Occupation'
Wednesday, May 4, 2005 - First, we would like to thank our community of supporters in Hawai’i and around the world for their aloha, generosity and kokua. We would also like to acknowledge the staff of the university especially the custodial, secretarial, and security officers in Bachman Hall.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2510
Hello everyone, my name is Bart Abbott and I'm going to be taking over responsibility for the BLOG. I'm a political science major who's been doing research on the UARC and classified rese
http://www.livejournal.com/users/stopuarc/2005/05/04/
I've been keeping up with Earth's satellites and basically the picture is the same as a couple of days ago. I'll post more. The heat is picking up in the Northern Hemisphere. I still believe remain optimistic regarding the waining of Global Warming due to consumer price increases at the pump in the USA.
I need to finish up some projects. I'll be emptying some files over the next few weeks and have run across some 'stuff'. The older articles may or may not open but they are worth noting. Noting primarily that the USA is going NOWHERE !! Stagnant under leadership without invention or answers or the will to admit they are 'W'rong. And now we have Improvied Explosive Devices in New York City.
The Cheney Observer
Committee Prepares Questions for Bolton
By LOLITA BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
(04-27) 00:39 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is casting a wide net for information about John R. Bolton, whose nomination as ambassador to the United Nations has been stalled by allegations he abused power and mistreated underlings in government.
Over the next few days committee members plan to set up interviews with as many as 19 people — from former intelligence officers and subordinates who reported problems with Bolton to his former chief assistant, according to a Senate committee aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/04/26/national/w170325D48.DTL
Singapore Petroleum Co 1Q Net S$72.7M Vs S$41.9M -2-
Singapore Petroleum Company Ltd. - Singapore
First quarter ended March 31:
Figures are in Singapore dollars (S$).
Earnings are unaudited, and based on local accounting standards.
2005 2004
Revenue S$ 1,449,049,000 S$ 953,216,000
Pretax Profit 85,512,000 43,867,000
Net Profit 72,713,000 41,858,000
Earnings Per Share
Basic 16.57 cents 9.83 cents
Fully Diluted 14.82 cents 9.72 cents
Dividend Omitted Omitted
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Singapore Petroleum Co. (S99.SG), an affiliate of marine engineering conglomerate Keppel Corp. (K02.SG), Tuesday said its first-quarter net profit ended March 31 surged 74% from the year-ago period, boosted by soaring oil prices.
The company, which refines oil and operates petrol stations, reported its net profit for the quarter rose to S$72.7 million from S$41.9 million a year earlier.
Revenue during the period jumped to S$1.45 billion from S$953.2 million.
Earnings were fueled by high refining margins on the back of rising oil prices due to a "perceived tightness in supply in the short and medium term," SPC said in a statement.
"Concerns over the ability of crude producers to meet expanded demand and a possible disruption to supply caused crude prices to rise to record levels during the first quarter," SPC said.
The company said it achieved an average refining margin of US$3.50 a barrel for the first quarter.
SPC said it expects to continue to perform well for the rest of the year, supported by strong demand for refined petroleum products.
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/050426/15/3s5px.html
Occidental Petroleum first quarter profit up sharply on higher oil prices
Canadian Press
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Tuesday that higher oil and gas prices drove up its first quarter profits by 74 per cent.
Quarterly income grew to $846 million US, or $2.11 per share, from $487 million, or $1.24 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, core earnings amounted to $866 million, or $2.16 per share, the company said.
http://www.canada.com/components/printstory/printstory4.aspx?id=c3fb2ee1-910e-46f8-9c6d-9c55dbf8c868
PETROLEUM: Oil refining giant Valero to buy rival Premcor for $6.9 billion
Associated Press
Published April 26, 2005
SAN ANTONIO -- Valero Energy Corp. plans to acquire Premcor Inc. for $6.9 billion in cash and stock as part of a deal that would create the largest refiner of crude oil in North America, company officials announced Monday.
Valero will issue $3.5 billion in stock and pay $3.4 billion in cash. Valero also would assume about $1.8 billion in debt in the deal, which will add four refineries and 790,000 barrels per day to its system.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0504260255apr26,1,4523978.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Whiting Petroleum upgraded to "outperform" - update
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 12:28:27 PM ET
RBC Capital Markets
NEW YORK, April 26 (newratings.com) - Analyst Scott Hanold of RBC Capital Markets upgrades Whiting Petroleum Corporation (WLL.NYS) from "sector perform" to "outperform," while reducing his estimates for the company. The target price is set to $48.
http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_795839.html
Vintage Petroleum initiated with "neutral"
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 11:02:42 AM ET
J.P. Morgan Securities
NEW YORK, April 26 (newratings.com) - Analysts at JP Morgan initiate coverage of Vintage Petroleum (VPI.NYS) with a "neutral" rating.
In a research note published this morning, the analysts mention that the company is currently undertaking new ventures, including the shale gas concept located in the Palo Duro basin. Vintage Petroleum's operating performance has been sluggish, as compared to that of its peers, the analysts say. Vintage Petroleum’s near-term reserve growth and organic production are likely to be adversely impacted by the company’s weak margins and high asset intensity, JP Morgan adds.
http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_795616.html
Bush and Cheney rushed to safety in security scare
Associated Press
Published April 28, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush was taken quickly to a secure underground White House bunker and Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked outside the compound Wednesday because of a "radar anomaly"--perhaps a flock of birds or pocket of rain--that was mistaken for a plane flying in restricted airspace.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0504280188apr28,1,1654458.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Bush Cheney Regime: The Illegal US Government
by WHATREALLYHAPPENED.COM
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Is this the beginning of the US "Civil" War II?)
A recent poll discovered that half of Americans know that the government intentionally lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The actual figure is probably a lot higher since there is a large percentage of Americans still willing to let their neighbors' children die than ever admit they were wrong to support the war in the first place.
So, the majority of Americans know the government lied to create a war.
A majority of Americans now know there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that claims to the contrary were intentional lies.
A majority of Americans now know the US Government lied when it claimed Iraq's WMDs were a threat to the United States.
A majority of Americans now know the mainstream media lied when it claimed Iraq's WMDs were a threat to the United States.
A majority of Americans now know that the US Government has been torturing innocent Iraqis for information on WMDs the US Government already knew they could not possibly have.
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=2126
Global Eye
Buried Treasure
By Chris Floyd
Published: April 29, 2005
It seemed, at first, like nothing more than a novelty item in the news briefs, the kind of odd, meaningless side-fact thrown off by most major stories: "New Pope, President's Brother Had Link in Swiss Group." But a look beneath the surface of this innocuous connection reveals a vast web of sinister alliances -- and moral corruption on a world-shaking scale.
The network links a bewildering line-up of players -- the Bushes, the Vatican, bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and China's Communist overlords, among others -- in a staggering array of crime and turpitude: prostitution, pedophilia, mass death and war profiteering. Yet this is not some grand "conspiracy theory," a serpent's egg hatched in Bilderberg or Bohemian Grove. It's simply the way the Bush boys do business, trawling the globe for sweetheart deals and gushers of blood money from the war and terror they foment.
At the center of this particular nexus is the unlikely figure of Neil Bush, the feckless, fraudulent brother of the current president. Neilsy, as he's known in the family, is most famous for costing American taxpayers $1 billion to bail out a savings-and-loan he had ruined with secret insider loans to his own business partners. For this massive fraud, he was fined -- by his father's administration -- the princely sum of $50,000, which was actually paid by one of his dad's political bagmen, of course.
You see, the Bushes are robber barons, not capitalists: They never risk any of their own money in the competition of the marketplace. Nor do they ever pay the price when their deals go belly-up. Just ask George W., whose first business was jump-started with secret cash from the bin Ladens, laundered through their U.S. frontman, James Bath -- who was also hired by W.'s dad, then-CIA director George Bush Sr., to set up offshore companies for shifting CIA money and aircraft between Texas and Saudi Arabia, the Texas Observer reported.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/142022/
GOP warns Democrats they'll face probes, too
Friday, April 29, 2005
By Karen MacPherson, Post-Gazette National Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Angry House Republicans yesterday warned their Democratic colleagues to expect a spate of inquiries into possible ethics violations in retaliation for forcing GOP leaders to jettison controversial new rules for ethics investigations.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05119/496476.stm
Novak repeated conservative canard that Democrats "are opposing Judge Pryor of Alabama because of his religion"
CNN host and syndicated columnist Robert Novak repeated the baseless accusation that Democrats "are opposing Judge Pryor of Alabama because of his religion." In fact, senators who have opposed William H. Pryor's nomination to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals -- and even current Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter (R-PA) -- have questioned Pryor over his willingness and ability to put aside his personal views and follow the law. Specter also echoed Democrats' concerns over inconsistent statements Pryor made to the committee regarding his involvement in the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).
http://mediamatters.org/items/200504280008
Guantanamo interrogations faked
Former U.S. Army translator revealed on Friday that U.S. officials at Guantanamo staged interrogations of detainees for visiting politicians and generals with the aim of giving them the impression that valuable intelligence was regularly being gathered.
Speaking to CBS television's 60 Minutes, Sergeant Erik Saar said that "only a few dozen" of the 600 detainees at the camp were "terrorists" and that little information was obtained from them.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8128
Afghan munitions blast kills and wounds over 100
A hidden weapons cache in a northern Afghan village exploded on Monday, killing at least 28 people and wounding over 70, a government spokesman said.
"The whole neighborhood around the ammunition dump has been destroyed," said Lutfullah Mashal, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said adding that a team of investigators is currently probing what caused the blast in Pajga village in Baghlan province, 120 km (80 miles) north of the capital, Kabul.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7424
Arms deal worth $500 million to be inked by Turkey and Israel
5/2/2005 5:00:00 PM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The Turkish Prime Minister Recob Erdogen is to sign an arms deal worth $500 million with Israeli officials under which Tel Aviv would upgrade 30 Turkish F-4 jetfighters at a cost of half a million dollars, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.
The paper also stated that the Turkish government set the condition that the upgrading process should be carried out at Turkish air force bases rather than at Israeli military factories.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8069
Halliburton's War Loot
Corruption in Bush's Iraq
By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
New Zealand.
There is a squalid little wart called Mark Steyn whose blinkered worship for Bush and the Crazy Crusaders is intense. He is the darling of the Murdoch-style, mind-bending, non-information media and of some other formerly respectable US and British publications which have lost their way in the fetid jungle of Bush idolatry. Steyn is the prat who wrote in the UK's Telegraph newspaper a year ago that "I don't think it's possible for anyone who looks at Iraq honestly to see it as anything other than a success story . . . ".
http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley05032005.html
Halliburton lands $24 million Shell drilling plum
from: Offshore Engineer
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
HALLIBURTON'S ENERGY SERVICES GROUP HAS BEEN AWARDED A two-year contract, with the option for an additional year, by Shell Exploration & Production to provide 40% of Shell's integrated drilling services for their Gulf of Mexico activities. The value of the contract is estimated at $24 million for the fixed two-year duration and includes the provision of directional drilling, measurement-whiledrilling (MWD), and logging-while-drilling (LWD).
http://www.oilonline.com/news/headlines/otc/20050503.Hallibur.17864.asp
S. Pars drilling to go ahead without Halliburton
Tuesday, May 03, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, May 3 (IranMania) - A senior oil industry official said that oil well drilling for phases IX and X of the giant South Pars gas field development project will begin within a month following an agreement reached between Pars Oil and Gas Company and Oriental Oil Kish.
Akbar Torkan, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, said Oriental Oil Kish has received the initial payment for the multimillion dollar project.
Iranian engineers have managed to successfully install the first of the two jackets of the offshore platform for phases IX and X. A US company, Halliburton, was awarded phases IX and X of the giant project earlier this year together with Oriental Oil Kish, but quietly pulled out amid mounting pressures from Washington.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=31523&NewsKind=Business%20%26%20Economy
Ex-Iraqi Hostage Reflects on Life Changes
By KATHY HANRAHAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 3, 2005; 2:33 AM
JACKSON, Miss. -- Thomas Hamill, whose dash to freedom from captivity in Iraq prompted a Mississippi lawmaker to dub him a "superhero for country boys," still drives the same 1995 Dodge pickup truck, despite its lack of air conditioning.
"I will keep it until the wheels fall off," Hamill said in an interview with The Associated Press.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050300107.html
Gov. Bush To Decide If Diners Can Take Opened Bottle Of Wine Home
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Governor Jeb Bush will decide whether to allow diners to take an opened bottle of wine from a restaurant home with them.
The House has voted 112-to-4 for the bill which went Wednesday to the governor. The Senate passed it a month ago.
The legislation would give individual restaurants the choice to provide the service to customers who have eaten a full meal and consumed part of a bottle of wine.
If they do, the bottle would be placed in a sealed bag and could be taken home in a car trunk or gloved compartment.
The bag would be approved by the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation and it would be tamper-resistant.
That's according to Representative Bruce Kyle, the Fort Myers Republican who sponsored the measure in the House.
http://www.local6.com/news/4449422/detail.html
Florida Halts Fight to Bar Girl's Abortion
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: May 4, 2005
MIAMI, May 3 - After first resisting a judge's order to allow a 13-year-old in state custody to get an abortion, Gov. Jeb Bush's administration changed course on Tuesday and said it would abandon the legal fight.
The reversal came a week after state lawyers went to Palm Beach County Circuit Court to stop the girl, identified as L.G., from having an abortion. Judge Ronald Alvarez agreed to delay the procedure while he weighed the facts, but ruled on Monday that the girl was competent to make decisions about her pregnancy and free to do so under the State Constitution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/national/04pregnancy.html
Portable Toilet Bill Goes to Gov. Bush
Porta potties would be regulated by the Department of Health under a bill passed unanimously Monday by the House and sent to Gov. Jeb Bush.
The measure (SB 626), which had earlier passed the Senate, creates administrative penalties and fines for failing to comply with state rules regarding where the waste from portable restrooms can be dumped.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS/505030398/1004
Swastika, 'Kill Bush' Found Scrawled On Golden Beach House
Police Increase Patrols
POSTED: 10:14 pm EDT May 2, 2005
GOLDEN BEACH, Fla. -- A swastika was found painted on a house under construction in Golden Beach, and authorities said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Investigators also said that painted on the same home along Central Island Drive were the words "Kill Bush." As a precaution, police have increased their presence in the neighborhood.
It's not clear if the "Kill Bush" scrawl was directed at the President George W. Bush, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, or someone else.
http://www.nbc6.net/news/4441943/detail.html
Florida Law: a guide
By Simon Freeman, Times Online
Since taking office in 1998, the Florida Governor John Ellis 'Jeb' Bush has several times shown his political acumen by introducing legislation that has been popular with voters
May 2005: The Jessica Lunsford Act. Introduced mandatory sentences of at least 25 years for child sex killers, backed with lifetime GPS tracking for convicted offenders.
April 2005: The 'Stand Your Ground Bill'. Gave citizens the right to shoot and kill anyone who threatens them in public without first having to try to escape.Critics, who renamed it the Kill Bill, said it would turn the Sunshine State into the Wild West.
September 2004: 'Terri's Law'. Gave the Governor the authority to reconnect severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo's feeding tube against the wishes of her husband, who was her registered guardian. The ruling was overturned after an appeals process which reached the US Supreme Court and Ms Shiavo died last month
May 2004: Senate Bill 348. A privacy bill which closed a loophole that allowed a newspaper to obtain the social security numbers of state employees through the public records statutes
April 2004: All greyhound tracks in the state of Florida required to open booths providing information on the adoption of racing dogs, in order to stop thousands of greyhounds being put to death unnecessarily once they had passed their prime
June 2003: The Dr Marvin Davies Florida Civil Rights Act. Enabled the Attorney General's office to take civil rights actions against companies it accuses of discrimination, seeking fines of up to $10,000
June 2003: Gov Bush relaxed the terms of the Everglades Forever Act which extended the deadline for reducing phosphorous levels attributed to run-off from sugar farms by 10 years. There was criticism after it emerged that Big Sugar, a producer, had contributed to Bush's election campaign
June 2003: The Animal Fighting Bill. Prohibited the keeping and training of animals for dog and cockfighting
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1596148,00.html
Senate President rips Jeb Bush over Medicaid, growth issues
By S.V. Dáte
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer and Dara Kam, Special to the Post
Thursday, April 28, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — Eight weeks of legislative harmony came to a screeching end Wednesday, with Senate President Tom Lee lashing out at Gov. Jeb Bush over Medicaid, slot-machine gambling and, closest to his heart, growth management.
"We're down to the final week and I would encourage the governor to watch what he says," Lee said following a long day on the Senate floor. "Because the emotions tend to run high in the last week. People get offended very easily, and the decorum and tone that's been set by the speaker and I could easily unravel by a governor who really doesn't have a role in this process right now."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/news/epaper/2005/04/28/a4a_lee_0428.html
Gov. Jeb Bush Asks for 1964 Killing Review
By RON WORD
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 27, 2005; 9:25 PM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday asked state law enforcement authorities to take another look at a 1964 race-riot slaying of a black maid _ a case in which charges against three white men were eventually dropped.
It is the second time he has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review the notorious 41-year-old case.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042701996.html
This is popular with voters?
Governor Bush signs bill allowing meeting of "force with force"
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Florida Governor Jeb Bush has signed a bill intended to make it clear that people have a right to defend themselves on the street.
The measure passed the Florida Legislature overwhelmingly earlier this year. It says people who are under attack don't have to retreat before responding, as long as they're in a place they legally have a right to be. They already had that right in their own homes.
Supporters of the bill had touted it as a way not only to protect the rights of those who are assaulted, but to deter crime.
Opponents warned during debate that it will lead to a "Wild West" atmosphere in Florida, where gun-toting people in public places will have shootouts because they can. They say no one will ever back down.
http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3263781
Jeb Bush, Man of His (Christian) Consituents
"A Muslim group today asked Gov. Jeb Bush to provide leadership in the investigation of a doctor suspected of plotting to blow up dozens of mosques.
Altaf Ali, of the the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also asked for state security at mosques. Mr. Bush's spokeswoman did not return a call."
You can go read the article if you'd like, but save one extra sentence about the doctor's plot to kill as many 'rags' as he could, that's the entirety of it, posted right there.
Let's just imagine for a moment that there had been a Muslim arrested with enough explosives to level his entire condo complex, as was the case with Mr. Goldstein. Let's say said Muslim had a mission template for exploding as many Christian churches and educational centers as possible, as was again the case (only, of course, the doc's plans were for mosques).
Do you think for one moment that Jeb wouldn't have armed security crawling over every damn church in Florida within seconds if, say, they asked him for it?
I will bet you the entire GNP of Bolivia that he would've returned their goddamned phone call.
Shame on you, Jeb. The only message you're sending to thousands of Florida Muslims is that their lives aren't quite as important to you as other voters'.
http://fox.prodigal.ca/archives/002545.html
Luis Posada, from Panama to Miami. Will the United States "Harbor Terrorism"?
By Arthur Shaw
Apr 17, 2005, 21:57
Luis Posada Carriles, also known as "Bambi," was arrested in November 17, 2000, in Panama, within hours after Cuban President Fidel Castro exposed to the world media and the Panamanian authorities a plot to assassinate him and to slaughter the student body of the University of Panama where Castro was due to speak during his stay in the central American country.
Fidel Castro was in Panama attending the 10th Ibero-American Summit in Panama's capital.
When he was arrested, Posada carried a fake passport and had 33 pounds of plastic explosives, called C-4, in his possession.
If Posada had been successful in detonating his explosives at the university auditorium where Castro was scheduled to speak, it has been authoritatively estimated that he would have murdered not only Fidel Castro but also at least 1000 students.
This terrorist operation against the University of Panama and Fidel Castro, if it had succeeded, would have exceeded in bestiality Posada's October 6, 1976 mid-flight bombing of the Cuban airliner which murdered 73 persons.
It would have also exceeded or outperformed in bestiality the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, by Timothy Mcveigh, when 168 people were murdered and 500 or so were wounded.
The Panamanian prosecutors rejected the idea of charging Posada and three accomplices with attempted murder of either the students or Castro, choosing rather to charge Posada with illegal possession of explosives, carrying false documents, and endangering public safety.
Posada and the three others were ultimately found guilty of only "endangering public safety."
...Since then, the Miami mafia has destroyed democracy in Florida to help ... politically ... the Bush family. In 2000, the mafia intimidated or obstructed over a million voters, mostly African-American, inclined to support the Democrats, from voting.
In 2004, the mafia, extended their vote-swindling operations from the African-Americans to senior citizens with Democratic proclivities.
Today, Jeb Bush wants Luis Posada either pardoned or granted political asylum to assure, among other things, that the Miami mafia will steal enough votes and otherwise rigged his 2008 election -- or whenever he runs -- for president.
Brother George in the White House is eager to help Jeb get what he wants.
This is the main reason why the cowardly and corrupted US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refuses to institute Section 1226a terrorist certification proceedings against Posada.
This is why Gonzales pretends that the "pardon" of Posada by the bribe-snatching former president of Panama clears Posada of the charge of attempted mass murder ... again.
© Copyrights 2005 by AxisofLogic.com and VHeadline.com
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16910.shtml
Armed Vigilantes: The New Face of the Republican Party
By ADVOCATE STAFF
This is a news story about a Google headline, "Florida National Rifle Association Bill Would Allow People To Kill Others In Public."
This is a news story about how that headline is not, by any means, an exaggeration, and about how the story underlying that headline is brought to you not by some obscure troglodyte on the X-con frontier, but the likely Republican presidential candidate in 2008--and the brother (God help us, the "smart" one) of our current President--Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
So, we begin.
Perhaps no tenet of criminal law is more venerable than the doctrine of self-defense.
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/04/armed-vigilantes-new-face-of.html
Letter: Think peace, and bring troops home from Iraq
In this spiritual time of the year, and after the religious showing in the November election, it would seem appropriate to actively seek peace in the horrible war against Iraq.
While large corporations such as Halliburton and Bechtel rake in billions of our hard-earned tax dollars from everybody's paychecks, U.S. soldiers and the people of Iraq are dying. Where is the death toll noted in our media of the women and children of Iraq? Where is the consideration of what we are doing to our younger generation?
The vice president's company should be there for peace, not for spending our money in the black hole of war. After all, as the head of Halliburton, Dick Cheney became the head of President Bush's committee to find a vice president. And look whom he chose.
So, while looking out at our beautiful snow-covered fields, and while thinking of the true meaning of this season, we should think of peace. If the American people want peace, it will happen. Bring our young people home now.
LEIF E. WINTER
HALLSTEAD, PA.
http://www.pressconnects.com/today/opinion/stories/op122204s137490.shtml
Corruption - part 1: Who Pays the Price?
By Judith Snyderman
17 December 2004
Experts who analyze corruption say there is no way to eliminate the greed that is behind many criminal acts. But, there are effective strategies to fight corruption in countries big and small, and rich and poor.
One strategy is to openly discuss the problem. So our look at corruption begins with an assessment of the global reach of corruption and who pays the price…Paul Miller narrates.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2004-12-17-voa39.cfm
Methodist pastor embarks on mission to raise opposition to war
17 Dec 2004
Associated Press: Rev. Wayne Lavender, pastor of the New Milford, Conn., United Methodist Church, plans to launch a four-month peace mission on Jan. 1 that he hopes will include visiting Iraq and meeting President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who are both fellow Methodists.
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/id/21710/template/Article.html
FAMU wants shot at flu lab
Vaccine industry would create economic boom, advocates say
By BILL COTTERELL and MELANIE YEAGER
Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat
A quietly devised plan to create a flu vaccine lab and production plant in Tallahassee could ease nationwide shortages, add prestige to Florida A&M University and give the Big Bend an economic shot in the arm.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/10440217.htm
Unrelenting hurricane season top state story in 2004
JEFF PRICE
Associated Press
MIAMI - An unprecedented hurricane season when four major storms battered nearly every corner of Florida, leaving more than 100 dead and an estimated $42 billion in damages, was voted the top state story in 2004 by AP newspaper editors and broadcasters.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/10492658.htm
Drugs threaten Afghans, U.S. says
By Eric Schmitt
NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON - Poppy cultivation and opium production will continue to increase in Afghanistan, expanding the dangerous influence of drug lords at all levels of the government of President Hamid Karzai, a new confidential American military assessment warns.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10491511.htm
The year that was
Here’s some one-stop-shopping: a 2004 recap-winners-losers-heroes-villains-in and out-predictions-for-’05.
Friday, December 24, 2004
It’s that time of year again, time to reflect on the past and predict the future. All over the media, we learn the heroes and villains, the good and the bad of 2004, what’s in and what’s out, and what lies ahead in 2005.
http://www.sovo.com/2004/12-24/view/columns/was.cfm
Investigators wrapping up first phase of Big Dig wall inspections
The Associated Press
BOSTON— Investigators reviewing the construction of wall panels in the Big Dig's Interstate 93 tunnel planned to wrap up the first phase of their inspections early Friday morning by looking at two panels along one section of the tunnel.
http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041223/APN/412231074
Bin Laden Tape Urges Stopping Oil to U.S.
DAVID McHUGH
Associated Press
Osama bin Laden claims to have bled the Soviet Union into bankruptcy as an Islamic guerrilla fighter in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Could he do the same to another hated superpower - the United States?
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10449164.htm
Former U.N. oil-for-food chief denies wrongdoing
Lawyer: Sevan 'is confident that he will be fully vindicated'
From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN
Saturday, December 18, 2004 Posted: 4:26 PM EST (2126 GMT)
CNN) -- Dogged by allegations that he pocketed oil money from Saddam Hussein's government, Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations oil-for-food program, insisted this week that he had done nothing wrong.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/18/iraq.sevan/
Iraq oil facilities targeted after bin Laden message
Iraq's key oil infrastructure suffered five attacks in 24 hours after a voice identified as Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ordered followers to sabotage the west's key oil supplies.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1268365.htm
Pounded by waves, grounded ship spews more oil into the sea
By MATT VOLZ
The Associated Press
Wendy Sangiacomo of International Bird Rescue yesterday hydrates a murre, oiled from the Selendang Ayu spill off Unalaska Island.
ANCHORAGE — Rough waves battered the remains of a grounded freighter yesterday, causing more heavy oil to spill into the Bering Sea off the coast of Unalaska Island.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002123509_freighter18m.html
IOC may pick up 47% stake in OIL
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2004 12:28:31 AM]
NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) may buy 47% stake in Oil India Ltd from the government.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/963828.cms
IOC,OIL merger possible, says Aiyar:
[India News]: Jaipur, Dec.18 : Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said here today that there was a distinct and a distant possibility of the government seriously considering a merger between Indian Oil Corporation and Oil India Limited in the near future.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=48735
Bechtel to pay Iraqi worker $90,000 to settle bias case
December 16, 2004, 6:20 PM EST
NEWARK, N.J. -- Bechtel Inc., the giant construction company helping to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, has settled a bias lawsuit by agreeing to pay $90,000 to an Iraqi-American employee fired from its Hackensack facility, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-nj--bechtel-eeocsuit1216dec16,0,3260919.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey
RAY SUAREZ: It was former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil who called Social Security "the third rail of American politics" because it meant certain death to any politician who touched it.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_security/july-dec04/fix_12-16.html
Dollar Weakens on Forecasts Current-Account Deficit Will Widen
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar held near a one-week low against the euro and fell versus the yen on expectations a U.S. government report today will say the current-account deficit widened to a record.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=axq8fFd6PqLw&refer=japan
end
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Up Periscope!! The Polar Bear is looking for food and not it's reflection. I promise you that. Those are the crosshairs of the periscope when the submarine first arrived to investigate the area. I am confident this Los Angeles Class Submarine had no intention to hurt any Polar Bears. Polar Bears are marine mammals. They are protected by The Marine Mammal Protection Act. A very, very important document. A document Gail Norton would like to destroy. PROTECT THE BEARS !!
The date these pictures were actually taken is unknown. This is the USS Honolulu 280 miles from the North Pole. It broke through what looks to be fairly thin ice. The Polar Bears probably thought they were going to catch a whale. Their body weight in this picture and I say again, I don't know the date of this picture, looks pretty good.
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