war news o'the day: the back to school edition.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11440-2003Aug18.html

Prisoners released from the military camps at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Bagram air base in Afghanistan have said in a series of interviews with Amnesty International that they... were forcibly injected, denied sleep and forced to stand or kneel for hours in painful positions. These charges are included in a new report from the human rights organization, which is reviewing 23 months of U.S. actions in the war on terror

...The report, "Threat of a Bad Example," concludes that conditions at the bases may be coercive in the context of repeated interrogations and calls for the Bush administration to treat detainees humanely, provide legal counsel and charge them promptly with recognizable criminal offenses -- or release them.

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http://www.shaw.freeuk.com/Witches.htm

They were seized and 'covert' forms of torture, with euphemistic names that belied their real terror, 'swimming' or 'floating' similar to the methods of earlier 'trial by ordeal', 'walking' (until they could not stand), and 'waking' - (sleep deprivation) were used to extract confessions. (The law forbade 'conventional' methods of torture such as thumb screws and the rack thought acceptable in other circumstances.)

...The lesson humanity should learn from the explanation of 'Great Witch Tryals' of Suffolk, Lowestoft and Salem is... that superstition leads to distorted thinking and that distorted thinking leads to distorted behaviour.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3164675.stm

The attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad... might have been carried out not only because the Iraqi resistance objects to all occupiers. There could have been a specific reason as well, tied to a vote in the Security Council last week. On 14 August the Council gave its approval to the recently formed Iraqi Governing Council... The UN might therefore have been seen by the Iraqi resistance as an instrument of the United States and Britain in their occupation of the country.

...The United Nations was seen by many as the solution to the present crisis. This attack may force them to think again.

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from July 21, 2003

http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1492

Increasing numbers of Iraqis and Iraqi political organizations are voicing their deep criticism and rejection of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. The latest political group, the Christian Democratic Party of Iraq, rejected the new interim government and specifically pointed out their rejection of Kurdish leader Masoud Barazani. The Christian group said it would not recognize any government unless directly voted in by the Iraqi people and legitimately represented the aspirations of the people.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11484-2003Aug18.html

BAGHDAD, Aug. 18 -- U.S. authorities have appointed a media commissioner to govern broadcasters and the press, establish training programs for journalists and plan for the establishment of a state-run radio and television network... the official declined to specify the limits on news coverage.

...Occasionally, U.S. soldiers have raided newspaper offices deemed to be in breach of the regulations, and they have closed at least two newspapers and one radio station. But the delicacy of sending heavily armed troops to enforce media rules has prompted the occupation officials to look for other ways to exercise their power to censor [sorry, mrs henry cannot continue to read this shameless article].

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http://www.grecoreport.com/media_whores_&_quislings_update.htm

"One tames a people as one tames lions; by masturbation." The brothers Goncourt (19th c. French historians and art critics)

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/19/1061261154384.html

Journalists who were with a Reuters cameraman shot dead by United States troops while filming outside a Baghdad prison accused the soldiers of behaving in a "crazy" and negligent fashion... The US Army, which has begun an investigation, said its soldiers thought Dana's camera was a weapon. But colleagues who were with Dana when he was killed disagreed with this version of events. "We were all there, for at least half an hour," Stephan Breitner of France 2 television said. "They knew we were journalists. After they shot Mazen, they aimed their guns at us. I don't think it was accident. They are very tense. They are crazy."

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/18/1061059786862.html

Moments before being shot dead by US soldiers, a Reuters cameraman told a colleague that working within close distance to the American military was not a problem "as long as they don't shoot me".

...Dana's death brings to 13 the number of journalists who have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war on March 20.

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/6566215.htm

President Bush, revising his earlier characterization of the fighting in Iraq, said in an interview released Monday that combat operations are still under way in that country... Bush added: "It's a different kind of combat mission, but, nevertheless, it's combat, just ask the kids that are over there killing and being shot at."

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mm-hmmm... from july 3rd of this year.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/02/sprj.nitop.bush/

Challenging militants who attack U.S. forces in Iraq, President Bush said Wednesday they would be dealt with harshly, and declared... "There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on."

...Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt... said the president should stop with the "phony, macho rhetoric."

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http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6987491%255E1702,00.html

A FORMER US diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war has described US President George W. Bush as a "very weak" man led by the hand into battle by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Brady Kiesling, who was political counsellor at the US embassy in Athens at the time of his resignation in February, said in an open letter published by Greek daily 'To Vima' that Rumsfeld exploited the war to increase his own power... "Easy to convince, (Bush) blindly believed in Rumsfeld's assurances that the occupation of Iraq would pay for itself," Kiesling said.

...Kiesling said he regretted that US intelligence services had not spoken out about untruths concerning Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which he added had humiliated the United States and damaged its closest ally, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.

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donald rumsfeld's horoscope, by marjorie orr

http://www.star4cast.com/index2f.asp?page=horoscope.asp

This Mars is being triggered by all the Sagittarius & Gemini eclipses (Dec 2001, June & Dec 2002, May & Nov 2003)... so his need to be firmly in control will be at its peak over the following six months. Pluto was opposing his Mars across September 11, 2001 which caused him immense aggravation, much more so than for his President George W. Bush.

With Pluto Mars transits, it’s never guaranteed which end of the power spectrum an individual will be on. It’s a two sided coin – dominate or submit. Neptune now comes to trine and undermine Mars... which will bring panicky feelings of failure. Across the same dates Neptune aspects his Jupiter/Saturn midpoint bringing career losses and setbacks... The retrograde square from May 26th to July 2, 2003 will be a significant point to watch, since Pluto can be destructive when lessons are not learned.

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not a satire.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/17/1061059718613.html

The [British] Queen's officials have rejected an extraordinary request from United States diplomats to move the US embassy into Kensington Palace, the former home of the late Princess of Wales.

The move was made because the embassy's present site in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, is considered highly vulnerable to terrorist attack, despite extra security measures put in place since September 11.

...The palace was deemed to be unsuitable for use as the US embassy... It is home to several royal "sitting tenants", including the dukes and duchesses of Kent and Gloucester, Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester, and Prince and Princess Michael.

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http://www.lovecalculator.com/love.php?name1=George+Bush&name2=Tony+Blair

These are the results of the calculations by Dr. Love: George Bush + Tony Blair -- 99 %

Dr. Love thinks that a relationship between George Bush and Tony Blair has a very good chance of being successful, but this doesn't mean that you don't have to work on the relationship. Remember that every relationship needs spending time together, talking with each other etc.

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http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1021534,00.html

One of the [British] prime minister's closest advisers issued a private warning that it would be wrong for Tony Blair to claim Iraq's banned weapons programme showed Saddam Hussein presented an "imminent threat"... The Downing Street chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, raised serious doubts about the nature of September's Downing Street dossier on Iraq's banned weapons. "We will need to make it clear in launching the document that we do not claim that we have evidence that he is an imminent threat," Mr Powell wrote on September 17, a week before the document was finally published.

...Mr Powell's private concerns came in the form of an email which was copied to Alastair Campbell, Downing Street's director of communications, and Sir David Manning, Mr Blair's foreign policy adviser... The email revealed how senior Downing Street officials - and on occasion Mr Blair himself - became intimately involved in the events which led to the death of the government scientist David Kelly.

Within minutes of taking the stand, Mr Powell was asked about his email to John Scarlett, chairman of the joint intelligence committee, in which he said he believed the arms dossier "does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat from Saddam" and added: "In other words, it shows he has the means but it does not demonstrate he has the motive to attack his neighbours, let alone the west."

...Documents disclosed by the inquiry yesterday reveal the close interest Mr Blair and Mr Campbell showed in the dossier as it was being prepared. [and so on.]

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http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-britain-scientist.html?ex=1062319783&ei=1&en=4a2de3a2b6616cff

Government documents released on Wednesday show that top officials tried to stop scientist David Kelly airing doubts on the controversial Iraq dossier on which British Prime Minister Tony Blair based the case for war... An official note, written on July 14, the day before Kelly was due to testify to a parliamentary committee, made clear that Kelly would be told to keep his views to himself.

...An ICM poll for the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday showed 52 percent of the public trust neither the government nor the BBC to tell the truth and that only six percent trust Blair's administration more than the public broadcaster.

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13304619_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-THE-FALL-GUY-name_page.html

DEFENCE Secretary Geoff Hoon will quit to shield Tony Blair from any blame for the death of Dr David Kelly. Mr Hoon has told friends he will "fall on his sword" as part of a Downing Street plot to protect the PM at all costs.

Spin chief Alastair Campbell will hasten his demise tomorrow by denying any part in the outing of Dr Kelly as a BBC mole. He will tell the Hutton inquiry Mr Hoon was behind the strategy which led to his naming. With the probe expected to find he committed suicide after being identified by the MoD, Mr Hoon will have little choice but to offer his resignation. His fate was sealed last week when the inquiry heard how he overruled his permanent secretary to force Dr Kelly in front of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

...Mr Blair is expected before the inquiry next week and will also deny any role in the damage limitation strategy, which triggered the sequence of events that ended with Dr Kelly taking his own life at an Oxfordshire beauty spot.

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http://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1182/article11416.asp

Fox News is currently under investigation in the UK (where it appears on cable systems) for violating British broadcasting's "due impartiality" rule with its ceaseless pro-Bush, pro-war drumbeat. The head of one English journalism organization, Julian Petley, described the basis of the complaint: "Murdoch would like to do with British television news what he has done with newspapers, which is to force people to compete on his own terms.... [I]f we allow into Britain the kind of journalism represented by Fox, that would [amount to] a form of censorship."

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http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/08/17082003100425.asp

Copenhagen, 17 August 2003 (RFE/RL) -- A Danish soldier has been killed in a clash with Iraqi gunmen in Al-Basrah, Danish Army command in Copenhagen confirmed today. The soldier, the first Danish casualty in Iraq, was killed when his patrol was shot at.

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good old shoe, good old shoe

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/MGBVLIRYEJD.html

WASHINGTON U.S. investigators searching in Iraq for clues to the fate of missing Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher, shot down on the opening night of the 1991 Gulf War, have returned to an early hypothesis: that he died at or near the site where his F-18 fighter crashed.

A later theory - that he was captured alive and imprisoned in Baghdad - has been largely dismissed, based on postwar interrogations of Iraqi officials, searches of the prison system and assessments of Iraqi government documents, three defense officials familiar with the search said yesterday... They have found nothing so far to support the theory that Speicher had been held alive in an Iraqi prison.

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remember when? archived from Friday, October 11, 2002

http://us.cnn.com/2002/US/South/10/11/missing.pilot/

The status of missing Gulf War pilot Michael "Scott" Speicher was changed Friday from "missing in action" to "missing-captured," according to a Navy memorandum... Earlier this year, Pentagon officials said that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz wanted Speicher's status to be changed from MIA to missing-captured because the implication, according to one military officer, is that the change "will become another reason to bomb Iraq."

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http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20030819/D7T17SQ80.html

Blaming corporations for fueling former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program, victims of the first Gulf War filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking compensation for illnesses affecting more than 100,000 [u.s.] soldiers.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-08-17-anniston-usat_x.htm

ANNISTON, Ala. — Fear and distrust run deep here in "the pink zone." These are the neighborhoods closest to the Anniston Army Depot, where the Army began burning obsolete but deadly chemical weapons this month. Toxins such as sarin and VX nerve gas — the very weapons of mass destruction that have been so much in the news lately — will be destroyed at the depot over the next seven years.

...People who live within 6 miles of the incinerator have been issued protective plastic hoods, portable air filters, duct tape and plastic and told to prepare a "safe room" in their homes... Anniston is the first American city where citizens have been issued gas masks by the government. For months, people have been urged to learn how to use them... A total of $140,000,000.00 is being spent on Anniston's preparedness. But that brings little comfort in the pink zone.

Randy Hayes, 51, senior pastor of Church on the Rock, says the preparations are "just to appease people, so there's not widespread panic." Many take it as a given that there will be an accident at the incinerator, where the Army will destroy 4.5 million pounds of rockets containing sarin, VX and nerve agents. (These are among chemicals the U.S. government said were being produced by Saddam Hussein and could be used by terrorists.)

...Two days after starting to burn the weapons, the Army said last Monday it was shutting down for a day because of mechanical problems.

...Michael Abrams, an incinerator spokesman, says burning the chemicals is a safe method of disposal. Since 1990, he says, the Army has burned 16,214,000 pounds of chemical agents at two other facilities — Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele, Utah and Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii.... He says there were "only two or three" occurrences of any chemical agent escaping.

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/08/18/iraq.pneumonia/index.html

The Army surgeon general said Monday that the number of cases of serious pneumonia reported since March 1 among U.S. service members has risen to 18, up from 16 since the last report 10 days ago. Two of the patients have died... The approximately 100 total cases of pneumonia in the Central Command area of operations since March 1 do not exceed expectations, she added.

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not a satire.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1020834,00.html

The US army would appear to be getting desperate with its latest ploy to catch Saddam Hussein: pictures of the elusive dictator as Hollywood sex goddess... Troops of the 4th Infantry brigade in Tikrit are planning to put up pictures around the town of Saddam's face superimposed on the bodies of a busty Veronica Lake, a slinky Zsa Zsa Gabor, a grooving Elvis and British-born rocker Billy Idol.

The aim, apparently, is to so enrage Saddam's followers that they will draw themselves out.

"We're going to do something devious with these," Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell told Reuters, referring to a range of spoof Saddam pictures taken from the internet site www.worth1000.com. "Most of the locals will love 'em and they'll be laughing. But the bad guys are going to be upset, which will just make it easier for us to know who they are."

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details, details

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH19Ak02.html

Over the past nearly two years, approximately 10,000 people, invariably branded as al-Qaeda suspects, have been rounded up all over the world in the name of the "war on terror".

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not a satire.

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2003/august/08_20_2.html

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority of staging counter-insurgency operations in an effort to impress the United States. An Israeli government report asserted that PA Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan has approved several operations that sought to prove that Palestinian security services have been battling Palestinian insurgents. The report, prepared by Israel's intelligence community, said the operations staged the confiscation of weapons and explosives as well as the arrest of suspected insurgents.

...The report, submitted to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the PA is also suspected of staging arrests of suspected suicide bombers and seizing insurgency assets. In at least one case, the PA was said to have relayed information to Israel on a purported suicide bomber who might have been sent by the PA's Military Intelligence.

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the ideal copy

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20030818-122328-1683r.htm

Israeli tourism minister Benyamin Elon has embarked on a "Bible Belt tour" to exploit evangelical Christian enthusiasm for Israel, to lure Christian tourists back to Israel and to derail President Bush's "road map" to Middle East peace... "We either have to oppose the road map or oppose the Bible," says Mike Evans, founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a coalition of 1,700 churches. "Evangelicals have no debate on this issue."

..."Bible-believing Christians believe all that land belongs to Israel," says Ed MacAteer, co-founder of Moral Majority and founder of the Religious Roundtable, an umbrella organization of several evangelical groups... Mr. MacAteer is part of a coalition of Christians and Jews that has raised $70,000.00 to pay for 114 billboards urging Americans to call the White House to tell Mr. Bush not to violate "God's covenant with Israel."

...Thus Mr. Elon is averaging one trip per month to make Israeli views known in states where the Jewish state sees a receptive audience. "The Bible Belt is a very important target for Israel," he says... [Elon] opposes a Palestinian state on the West Bank and suggests Palestinians either relocate to Jordan or live under Israeli sovereignty.

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family values campaign

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030818-122330-9856r.htm

UMM AL-GHANEM, Israel — More than 20,000 Arab families face the agonizing choice of breaking up or leaving Israel after passage of a law banning Palestinian spouses of Israelis from obtaining citizenship or residence permits.

...Some analysts say the law's significance goes beyond national security. Though designed as a bulwark in Israel's war against Palestinian militants, the amendment will also serve to limit the growth of Israel's Arab minority, which makes up just under 20 percent of the population. "Preventing the right of citizenship to Palestinians who marry an Israeli citizen constitutes an infringement of principles of democracy and equal rights," wrote Avraham Tal in the liberal Ha'aretz newspaper. "But these must be balanced against the basic right enjoyed by members of the Jewish majority of the country to preserve the state's character, which is defined as a Jewish state in the country's founding declaration."

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this reminder brought to you by the anti-defamation league

http://www.adl.org/children_holocaust/about_nazi_law.asp

November 14, 1935: First Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law - "A Jew cannot be a Reich citizen. He is not entitled to the right to vote on political matters; he cannot hold public office" [and so on.]

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NOTHING else is like nazism.

http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/routledge/himmler.html

Himmler had introduced the principle of racial selection and special marriage laws... Himmler's notorious procreation order of 28 October 1939 to the entire SS that 'it will be the sublime task of German women and girls of good blood acting not frivolously but from a profound moral seriousness to become mothers to children of soldiers setting off to battle' and his demand that war heroes should be allowed a second marriage expressed the same preoccupation.

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so anyway...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=330457&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

A report released yesterday by the Public Committee Against Torture claims that the use of torture in the interrogation of Palestinian suspects has

increased significantly over the past two years. Hundreds of Palestinians were subject to Shin Bet security service interrogations defined as torture, inhumane or humiliating during each of the first six months of the year, compared to dozens in September 2001, the human rights group said. The abuse of Palestinian suspects has worsened and can justifiably be termed torture under criteria established by international law, according to the report... "Torture in Israel has once again become routine," the report's writers conclude.

...A spokesman for Israel's courts last night rejected the report's findings.

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and now, back to the future.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-03zl.html

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted a national Certificate of Authorization (COA) to the U.S. Air Force to routinely fly the Northrop Grumman-produced RQ-4 Global Hawk aerial reconnaissance system in [u.s.] national airspace. The certificate is the first national COA granted for an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) system.

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http://www.notbored.org/UAV.html

Each Global Hawk costs $15 million to manufacture. This UAV is over 40 feet long... Controlled by a human operator, not an on-board computer, the Global Hawk can stay in the air for as long as 40 hours. In that time, and without stopping once to re-fuel, it can travel 3,000 miles to its target; focus upon a huge area (as many as 3,000 square miles) from as high up as 65,000 feet; use electro-optical, infra-red and radar cameras to take pictures of the ground; use wireless technology to transmit those pictures in "real time"; and then return back to its homebase.

...[The Global Hawk & other UAVs] can be used for a variety of purposes that have nothing to do with war, killing, mass arrests or crowd-dispersal. For example, they can be used to provide entertaining videotaped scenes to movie-makers, news reporters and the tourism industry; to search for and rescue people in perilous locations or circumstances (collapses, spills and fires); and to monitor or deliver mail to important installations in either highly sensitive locations (borders, ports and power-plants) or remote or uninhabitable places (polar zones, deserts and off-shore oil rigs). But, these days, one most often hears about the use of UAVs in "the war on terrorism" and "homeland security."

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127 days to christmas!

http://www.aerospacejewelry.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/scstore/p-J19-X-71-MC.html?L+scstore+imuo2280

Global Hawk Money Clip. This item includes Gift Box packaging. Price: $15

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http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html

"Only someone completely distrustful of all government would be opposed to what we are doing with surveillance cameras." -- NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir, 27 July 1999.

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http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-fcc19.html

ASPEN, Colo.--FCC Chairman Michael Powell says his agency will examine the effects of concentration in media ownership this fall, a nod to critics of the FCC's rollback on restrictions for owning newspapers and TV and radio stations.

...Led by Powell, the Republican-dominated FCC voted 3-2 on June 2 to ease decades-old restrictions on decades-old media ownership rules. The changes, which go into effect on Sept. 4, allow a single company to own TV stations reaching nearly half the nation's viewers and combinations of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same area.

...Powell insists the rule changes will benefit consumers by promoting competition and innovation. Major media companies said changes to the rules were needed because the old regulations hindered their ability to grow and compete.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1021581,00.html

Europe's dispute with America over genetically modified food escalated yesterday after Washington asked the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to force the EU to lift its five-year-old ban on new GM food products... If [washington] wins the WTO case the EU could be forced to authorise the sale and marketing of the 30 biotech products in question and might have to compensate US farmers for their losses. Those are estimated at nearly $300,000,000.00 a year in lost corn exports alone.

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http://globalresearch.ca/articles/SEA308A.html

The timing of the Thursday blackout was amazingly coincidental. It occurred just weeks before Bush plans to shove a sweeping energy plan through Congress... It also occurred just as Bush's sick-joke of an alternative to the Clean Air Act, 'The Clear Skies Initiative' was facing a very uncertain future.

...According to David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Clear Skies will allow power plant carbon emissions (the top greenhouse gas) to increase by up to 16 percent between 2000 and 2010... The Bush energy plan, also up for consideration in Congress, is nearly as bad, aiming just a little lower, at the pocket instead of the lungs. Here's how the New York Times put it in their August 15 edition:

"The focus of the energy bill has been on a controversial plan from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to rewrite power grid rules and require U.S. utilities to join super-regional grid groups...The industry needs about $50,000,000,000.00 to $100,000,000,000.00 in new investment, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry funded group in Palo Alto, California."

...This week's power failure occurred in the area where the power industry had been most deregulated... Yet Bush will without doubt start pushing immediately for deregulation as part of his famous 'energy plan.' By the way, isn't this the same 'energy plan' that featured a list of still-secret names?

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http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,127219,00.html

Though Cheney led the task force that devised the [energy] plan, putting in countless hours of detail work while the President focused on other issues, the product no longer carries his name or title. Until last week, internal copies of the task force's 176-page report had a royal blue cover bearing the Vice Presidential seal. But when the report was officially released, the Presidential seal was in its place.

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brief review

http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_energy/energy_cheney_statement.htm

Feb. 12, 2003 | Remarks by Rep. Henry A. Waxman

...The task force was formed in January 2001 to make recommendations about the nation’s energy future. During the course of the task force’s deliberations, the press reported that major campaign contributors had special access to the task force while environmental organizations, consumer groups, and the public were shut out.

...We asked GAO to obtain some basic information on the energy task force’s operations, such as who was present at each meeting of the task force, who were the professional staff, who did the Vice President and task force staff meet with, and what costs were incurred as part of the process.

...But the White House made clear that it wasn’t willing to bargain or to compromise. Even when GAO voluntarily scaled back its request – dropping its request for minutes and notes – the Vice President’s office was intransigent... The White House position was that GAO had no right even to ask for documents.

Faced with an Administration that had no interest in reaching an accommodation, GAO was left with a stark choice: GAO could drop the matter, effectively conceding the White House’s position that it was immune from oversight, or it could invoke its statutory authority to sue the Executive Branch. Reluctantly, on February 22, 2002, GAO filed its first-ever suit against the Executive Branch to obtain access to information.

...GAO’s effort failed at the trial level... Before deciding whether to pursue an appeal, the Comptroller General consulted with congressional leaders. He found no support among Republican leaders for an appeal. And he decided not to appeal.

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and in local news

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/7291741p-8216890c.html

Fresno residents and community leaders, outraged by an e-mail message in which City Council Member Jerry Duncan wished he had a "dirty bomb" to kill every liberal in Fresno, called Thursday for his resignation, recall or reprimand. A crowd that gathered in City Hall also chastised City Council Member Brian Calhoun and his chief assistant, Ann Kloose, who wrote in an e-mail that police should "Cap" members of the Human Relations Commission.

...Kloose wrote to Calhoun: "If these HRC folks bring down a crowd and get unruly, I'm calling [police] to send over some officers to 'Cap' these guys ;-)"

At the same meeting, Duncan e-mailed two of his staff members and Kloose: "If I had one dirty bomb and I could eliminate all the liberals in Fresno at once."

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http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=19787

The battleground for Portland protests shifts this week from downtown to the University of Portland, where President Bush is scheduled to hold a $2,000-per-person campaign fund-raiser Thursday. Local protesters say they will try to shut down the lunch... Police officers from Portland and other cities met on campus Monday morning with the Secret Service to make plans for dealing with the expected crowd of protesters for the event... One police source said there are tentative plans to erect a fence around the area Wednesday night.

...No public events are on [Bush's] schedule in Portland, but after the lunch he'll fly to Central Oregon to highlight his plan to increase forest thinning and then to Seattle for more fund raising.

...University neighbors told the Tribune they had not been formally notified that Bush would be coming as of Monday morning... Longtime resident Evelyn Manetre... said that the only person who contacted her about the visit was an anti-Bush activist who visited her on Sunday. "He was a very polite young man. He gave me a flier and a poster that said 'Just Say No to Bush' that he said I could put in my window," said Manetre, who was not planning to post the sign.

...Portland police spent $180,000 in overtime to cover the president's last visit, an Aug. 22, 2002, downtown fund-raising lunch for Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. That visit attracted 1,300 protesters and prompted the use of pepper spray and rubber bullets by police. About 400 officers... were involved... This year, protesters plan to videotape the demonstration to document any cases of police misconduct.

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bak to scool

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/topstory2/2053955

SAN ANTONIO - For thousands of schoolchildren heading back to school today in the Houston area and around the state, the first lesson of the year is learning how to recite the Texas Pledge. A new law requires students to recite the pledge to the Texas flag and observe a moment of silence.

...A state pledge has existed since the Texas Legislature adopted it in 1839, during the years the state was an independent republic. But some teachers expressed surprise when they were told about the new law at the rally for Northside educators Tuesday. Hundreds of teachers, pledge cards in hand, recited the pledge inside the high school auditorium: "Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible."

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basic values campaign

http://www.privacy.org/archives/001114.html

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed guidelines for Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) that are extremely privacy-invasive... Under the guidelines, federally-funded entities that provide support for the poor will have to: Collect extensive amounts of personally-identifiable information from everyone who receives care. Support centers will have to collect: full legal names, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, ethnicity and race, gender, veteran status, and the person's residence prior to program entry.

The HMIS questionnaire delves deeply into the personal lives of the homeless, tracking where they have been, what services they have used, their income, benefits, disabilities, health status, pregnancy status, HIV status, behavioral health status, education, employment, and whether they have

experienced domestic violence.

[Support centers will have to] collect information on individuals who seek care during a brief episode of their lives. For instance, individuals who sought shelter during the recent blackouts in the Northeast would be tracked by the system.

[Support centers will have to] store this information for at least seven years [and] report it regularly to central servers (in the state or region).

...HUD's guidelines are meticulous in specifying requirements that could facilitate a future nationwide system of homeless registration and tracking.

... Police access to the HMIS database is nearly unlimited. HUD's proposed guidelines allow systems users to disclose information from the database for national security purposes without any showing of an emergency, a court order, or even a risk of attack. Secret Service access is similarly broad. Under the guidelines, agents from national security or the Secret Service could simply ask for an entire HMIS database and receive it lawfully... HUD is not requiring police to obtain a warrant or court order before releasing HMIS data.

...HMIS places victims of domestic violence at heightened risk. Those who are fleeing violent partners should not have their information collected or transmitted to any central computer to better protect their location and safety. HMIS could have the effect of allowing abusive partners to locate victims through access to the database (by law enforcement officers or HMIS users).

HMIS, if implemented, could gravely harm individuals living with HIV or AIDS... Accidental or deliberate exposure of information in the system could subject populations to stigma or discrimination. Additionally, these systems create a honey pot of data for divorce attorneys and others who will seek to use the information in custody and family law proceedings.

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cool hand luke: still cool!

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/19/opinion/19NEWM.html?ex=1061870400&en=5ba8b495078f942d&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

By PAUL NEWMAN

The Fox News Network is suing Al Franken, the political satirist, for using the phrase "fair and balanced" in the title of his new book. In claiming trademark violation, Fox sets a noble example for standing firm against whatever.

Unreliable sources report that the Fox suit has inspired Paul Newman, the actor, to file a similar suit in federal court against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, commonly called HUD. Mr. Newman claims piracy of personality and copycat infringement. In the 1963 film "HUD," for which Mr. Newman was nominated for an Academy Award, the ad campaign was based on the slogan, "Paul Newman is HUD."

Mr. Newman claims that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, called HUD, is a fair and balanced institution and that some of its decency and respectability has unfairly rubbed off on his movie character, diluting the rotten, self-important, free-trade, corrupt conservative image that Mr. Newman worked so hard to project in the film. His suit claims that this "innocence by association" has hurt his feelings plus residuals.

A coalition of the willing — i.e., the Bratwurst Asphalt Company and the Ypsilanti Hot Dog and Bean Shop — has been pushed forward and is prepared to label its products "fair and balanced," knowing that Fox News will sue and that its newscasters will be so tied up with subpoenas they will only be able to broadcast from the courtroom, where they will be seen tearing their hair and whining, looking anything but fair and balanced, which would certainly be jolly good sport all around.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3159813.stm

The inventive language created by doctors the world over to insult their patients - or each other - is in danger of becoming extinct... Far fewer doctors now annotate notes with acronyms designed to spell out the unsayable truth about their patients... The increasing rate of litigation means that there is a far higher chance that doctors will be asked in court to explain the exact meaning of NFN (Normal for Norfolk), FLK (Funny looking kid) or GROLIES (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt).