war news o'the day. armageddon-tired edition.

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best headline ever.

http://www.unknownnews.net/

Easter Bunny still fails to exist - "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast still a hoax - And still no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6922989.htm

Fri, Oct. 03 - The head of a CIA team hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq told Congress on Thursday that he had not found any stockpiles of the chemical or biological arms that President Bush cited as the primary reason to invade Iraq in March.

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http://pcdrew.ece.cmu.edu/dnbr/index.html

Before too long I'll have an actual "Do Not Bomb" Registry web page set up. In this registry, you will (probably) be able to register to assert your right to have your home, town, county, parish, principality, province, state, region, nation, country, continent, planet, solar system, well, the list goes on, protected from annoying bombing! That's right, no longer will you have to get up to answer a bomb just as you're sitting down to dinner! Imagine how much more convenient life will be!

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=450117

05 October 2003 - The families of British soldiers killed in Iraq have fiercely criticised Tony Blair's decision to attend a remembrance service for Britain's war dead. One grieving relative - the father of the helicopter pilot Philip Green killed in a crash - said the Prime Minister should stay away from the service... "He shouldn't be there because he's the one that killed them," he said.

...Among the 250 relatives attending will be Mr Green, his wife and two daughters, and the family of Ian Seymour, a commando killed in a helicopter crash on the second day of the war... Lianne Seymour, Commando Seymour's widow, from Poole, Dorset, said... "I would find it hypocritical for him to turn up," she said. "Tributes aren't enough. I think there should be true remorse."

Mr Green admitted he felt highly emotional about Mr Blair's presence at the service. "I think he's a war criminal, it's as simple as that." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/05/ncook05.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/10/05/ixportaltop.html

Tony Blair privately admitted that Saddam Hussein could not attack British or United States troops with chemical or biological weapons two weeks before Britain went to war against Iraq, Robin Cook alleges today.

The claim by the former foreign secretary that the Prime Minister misled Parliament and committed Britain to an illegal war is made in his memoirs, which he sold to The Sunday Times for a reputed £400,000... Those remarks appeared to contradict directly the assertion in the September Iraq dossier that Saddam could make his WMD ready for use in 45 minutes [and so on].

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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=71A0E09A-9895-427F-B8AFA5BFDBCCCC3C

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says it will be "unfortunate" if it is determined pre-war intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was dramatically wrong... "It's not clear that it [intelligence] was off by a little bit or a mile at this stage," he said. "That's yet to be seen. If it is off by a lot, that will be unfortunate."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40013-2003Oct3.html

Saturday, October 4, 2003 - The Bush administration said yesterday that Saddam Hussein sought to buy $10 million worth of missile components from North Korea.

...In May, after inspectors found two trailers that could have been used to produce biological weapons, Bush said: "We found the weapons of mass destruction." Yesterday, however, he was more restrained. [mrs. henry simply can't bear to go through this whole article. it is 8 a.m. and she needs another cuppa. please refer to the original if you are interested in the wit and wisdom of george bush and his disobedient hound david kay.]

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http://www.detnews.com/2003/schools/0310/02/b01-286595.htm

Dearborn High School was wrong to ban a student from wearing a T-shirt that labeled President Bush an "international terrorist," a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan issued a preliminary injunction allowing senior Bretton Barber to wear the black T-shirt. "The courts have never declared that the school yard is an inappropriate place for political debate," Duggan wrote.

...Barber will be honored by the ACLU on Nov. 8. The award will be presented by John Tinker, who sparked the landmark Supreme Court student free-speech case in 1969. John Tinker, now 52 and living in Fayette, Mo., was expelled from school for wearing a black armband to protest the Vietnam War.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/01/politics/01DIPL.html?position=&ei=5062&en=b9ed829816a78e88&ex=1065585600&adxnnl=1&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1065017095-G2IoMFFd10rRs7OTQyL7Ww

Sept. 30 — The United States must drastically increase and overhaul its public relations efforts to salvage its plummeting image among Muslims and Arabs abroad, a panel chosen by the Bush administration has found. "Hostility toward America has reached shocking levels," the panel stated in its report... The report added that "spin" and manipulative public relations "are not the answer,"

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http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20031003/5558603s.htm

Attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq have escalated over the past several months, and insurgents are now launching an average of 17 assaults a day against patrols, convoys and bases, an analysis of coalition security reports shows.

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for example

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/dr/Qiraq-unrest-soldiers.RjuZ_DO4.html

BAGHDAD, Oct 4 (AFP) - US troops and Iraqis traded gunfire Saturday after a fight broke out with a crowd of ex-soldiers seeking promised back pay. Two US soldiers and at least six Iraqis were reported wounded... The clash erupted... at an office compound where soldier's pay is dispersed and lasted about an hour, with the Iraqis throwing rocks and setting two police cars ablaze, officers and witnesses said... Major Scott Patton said the Iraqis fired on the US troops, threw thousands of rocks and torched two Iraqi police cars. "We returned fire at those who fired at us," he said. Hassan Khodair, one of the former soldiers on line, said... "Some of the people got angry. There was a fight. They (US troops) started beating people in the line. Some people started shooting at the Americans and the Americans returned fire."

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http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=112483

U.S. officials said Sunday that they have completed paying a $40 stipend to more than 320,000 former Iraqi soldiers... Saturday was the final day to collect those payments. Of the remaining 120,000 [who did not receive payment], some may have been paid on the last day, others may have died or decided not to seek payment, still others could not prove they had been in the military, said [coalition spokesman Charles Heatley]... "It's absolutely clear to us that there were former, very senior Baathist officers, some who are now in custody, who were stirring up these crowds," Heatley said.

...One man in a ragged black T-shirt screamed out, "Look at me. How will I pay rent? How will I feed my children?" Trying to calm the crowd, the police chief, General Hassan al-Obeidi, told them to form a committee [and so on.]

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make love not war

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/03/iraq.marriages.ap/index.html

October 4 - Two Florida National Guard soldiers who married Iraqi women against their commander's wishes are being investigated for allegedly defying an order, their families said. The men, both Christians who converted to Islam so they could be married under Iraqi law, had expected to return to Florida this month, but a new Army policy that requires troops to remain in Iraq for 12 continuous months may keep them there until April.

In the meantime, Sgt. Sean Blackwell, 27, of Pace, and Cpl. Brett Dagen, 37, of Walnut Hill, want to send their wives to the United States because of threats from anti-American Iraqis... Both women are physicians.

...[Vickie McKee, Blackwell's mother] said the Army is trying to prevent the women from coming to the United States... Blackwell's wife, now working as an interpreter for an American firm in Baghdad, wrote that the Army has prevented him from contacting her since the double wedding on August 17.

...McKee said the soldiers have been barred from using e-mail. For a time they also were prohibited from calling home, she said... Dagen's mother, Laverne Warren... said her son also was not permitted to contact his Iraqi wife.

...Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, spokesman for the Florida National Guard in St. Augustine, said he did not know whether disciplinary action had been taken or is contemplated, but that the soldiers' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Thad Hill, had said he was worried the marriages might distract his troops from their mission and compromise their safety.

In his letter to Miller, Blackwell said the Army Inspector General's office has told him he cannot be punished for getting married, but that he could be disciplined for disobeying an order. Other soldiers, including his company commander, were supportive, but Hill and a sergeant major opposed the marriages, Blackwell wrote. He added that the sergeant major told him "Muslims and Christians just don't jive together."

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http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=3557995

Iraq unveiled its new banknotes on Saturday with pictures of an ancient Babylonian ruler and a 10th century Iraqi mathematician in place of the smiling face of Saddam Hussein. The Babylonian ruler Hammurabi, credited with creating the first written code of laws in human history, graces the new pink 25,000 dinar note, worth about $12. The other side shows a smiling Kurdish farm worker holding a sheaf of wheat. Astronomer and mathematician Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, born in Basra in 965 and known as Alhazen to medieval scholars in the West, is on one side of the 10,000 note, the only other human figure on the new notes.

...The U.S-led administration in Iraq has ordered all images of Saddam to be removed from monuments, murals and school textbooks.

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balls

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/latimes7.html

The United States has reached out to the Islamic Republic [of Iran] for help in the postwar reconstruction of Iraq... Washington hopes Tehran will "step up to the plate big-time" in pledging reconstruction funds, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage told a House Appropriations subcommittee this week.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/04/international/05SPENDI.html?ex=1066389364&ei=1&en=41dc30a849ee6c24

Oct. 4 - The most carefully read document on Capitol Hill at the moment is the detailed list of the Bush administration's plans to rebuild Iraq, which resembles no other spending request in recent memory. In explaining how it proposes to spend $20,300,000,000.00 to restore a civil society to Iraq, the administration has prepared a virtual travelogue of the country's descent into destruction and chaos. Nearly every structure of public life that Americans take for granted - from firefighting to water supply to the post offices - is described as decimated.

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http://www.williamgreider.com/article.php?article_id=21

The new overpowering fact in American politics is $87 billion. During my book-flogging tour, I heard it mentioned repeatedly in conversations coast-to-coast, usually with only a knowing nod. It has become the popular marker for the fiasco in Iraq... George "$87 billion" Bush. What was Karl Rove thinking when he let his guy go on TV and utter that magic number?

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http://www.independent.org/tii/news/031003Eland.html

In the eye-popping $166,000,000,000.00 that the U.S. taxpayer is being expected to pay for a questionable intervention in Iraq is $600,000,000.00 to pay for the administration’s public relations effort to polish its tarnished credibility by attempting to stumble across WMD. But even if they don't find WMD, at least they have an added $600 million to stretch out a likely futile search, thus delaying an embarrassing result past next year's election.

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you're unbelievable

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30907-2003Oct1.html

Some of Washington's top Republican lobbyists are counting on ties to the Bush administration, the congressional leadership and the Iraqi provisional government to turn the embattled country into a major new profit center... One alliance of Republican lobbyists, New Bridge Strategies, whose interest in Iraq has earned considerable attention because of its close ties to the Bush administration, is gearing up to seek distribution rights for major U.S. companies producing everything from grain to auto parts to shampoo.

"Getting the rights to distribute Procter & Gamble products would be a gold mine," said one of the partners at New Bridge who did not want to be named. "One well-stocked 7-Eleven could knock out 30 Iraqi stores; a Wal-Mart could take over the country," he said.

This same group, which includes Joe M. Allbaugh, President Bush's 2000 campaign manager, and Ed Rogers and Lanny Griffith, two top political aides to Bush's father, have also set up a security company, Diligence-Iraq, which has hired former members of the U.S. Special Forces, New Zealand's equivalent of the Green Berets and the Iraqi military to provide protection for companies and for corporate leaders visiting the country. In a matter of months, Diligence-Iraq has begun to turn a profit, said chief executive Michael Miller, who for 14 years was a "covert field operations officer for the CIA, specializing in counterterrorism, counternarcotics and counterinsurgency operations," according to the company.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/international/06PREX.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

Oct. 5 — The White House has ordered a major reorganization of American efforts to quell violence in Iraq and Afghanistan... The new effort includes the creation of an "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run by the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice... Asked about the memorandum on Sunday, Ms. Rice... said it was devised by herself, Vice President Dick Cheney, Mr. Powell and Mr. Rumsfeld... "The president knows his legacy, and maybe his re-election, depends on getting this right," another administration official said.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/05/international1344EDT0495.DTL

The U.S. military has shut down Camp Cropper, an increasingly notorious makeshift prison where hundreds of Iraqis were crowded into tents through Baghdad's scorching summer, a U.S. official reported.

...Journalists were barred from Camp Cropper, but released detainees this summer told of overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, and they alleged physical abuse by guards... The camp population included both Iraqis picked up for allegedly committing common crimes, and so-called "security detainees," mainly Baathists deemed to be a threat to the security of the occupation force.

...U.S. Army Col. Ralph Sabatino, who specializes in detainee issues and is a chief liaison with the interim Iraqi Justice Ministry [said]...

"It wasn't supposed to be a detention center" but a temporary holding facility, he said. "It was designed for 250 people. When it grew to 500 to 700, it got very crowded. It had a very bad reputation, appropriately... Since that time we've coordinated to facilitate their representation of people in custody," he said.

..."There's been no formal process for many of the civilian detainees," he acknowledged.

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October 2 - JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel issued plans Thursday for about 600 more homes in West Bank settlements despite the Mideast "road map" peace plan, which calls for a freeze on new settlement construction.

...The move comes a day after the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan to build the next segment of a controversial security barrier that Israel says will keep terrorists out of the country... Palestinians have called expansion of the barrier a land grab, noting construction around the settlements does not follow the so-called Green Line, the frontier between Israel and the West Bank before the 1967 Mideast war.

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http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=99397

05-10-2003 - A United Nations report which blames Israel for causing starvation in Gaza and the West Bank has prompted a furious diplomatic row with the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon.

The leaked report by Jean Ziegler, a Swiss sociologist and UN special envoy, blames Israel's security policies for "collective punishment" of the Palestinians. Ziegler spent 10 days in the occupied territories in July and was due to present his report to the UN General Assembly in New York on November 18. Furious Israeli officials, however, have denounced the report as "highly political", saying that Ziegler had gone beyond his mandate. With support from American diplomats at the UN, Israel has called for the report to be rejected before it reaches the floor of the Assembly, and asked the UN Human Rights Commission, for whom Ziegler was working as a food rights specialist, to discipline him.

According to newspaper reports in France, Ziegler's report will not now be published until the spring.

...In the 25-page report, a copy of which has been seen by The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Ziegler says 22 per cent of Palestinian children under the age of five suffer severe malnutrition, and most families have only one meal a day. He describes that as "absurd" in a historically fertile land, blaming the "apartheid" security fence, the seizing and destruction of Palestinian farmland, and roadblocks for preventing food from reaching Palestinian communities.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/04/1064988452545.html

Palestinian residents woke up Friday to face the total closure of their territories for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=C1GCOGKDRVK3WCRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3558679

Sat October 4 - HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel launched helicopter missile strikes in Gaza on Sunday after a Palestinian woman suicide bomber killed 19 people... Israel's missile strikes damaged a Palestinian militant's home in Gaza City and struck an electricity generator in the el-Bureij refugee camp, cutting power to much of central Gaza... The suicide attack provoked an international outcry and some Israeli ministers demanded Arafat's removal.

...Islamic Jihad named the bomber as Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat, 29, from the West Bank city of Jenin. It said she was avenging the killing of her brother and cousin, Islamic Jihad members, by Israel.

...Arafat condemned the attack and said it would give Israel a pretext to obstruct international peace efforts... Israel blamed Arafat for the violence.

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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1065252423683

About 30 members of the Israeli ultra-Left Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) movement arrived Saturday night at Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound to act as human shields should Israeli troops enter the compound to 'remove' Arafat.

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ethics terror

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=50582

The University Students' Union has come out swinging. It publicized a call last night for all students to boycott the 200 professors who signed a petition in support of the "rebel pilots," and not to sign up for their courses.

...Igniting the controversy was a letter sent last week to Israel Air Force Chief Gen. Dan Halutz by 27 pilots, including 18 on non-active duty, saying they would refuse to carry out what they called the "unethical" orders to bomb murderous terrorists hiding out amidst Arab civilians.

...Education Minister Limor Livnat has called off a debate that had been scheduled for a school in Ashdod between one of the rebel-pilot signatories and a pilot who disagreed with him. She said that schools need not give an open platform to opinions of the nature expressed by the rebel pilots.

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http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=82042848&p=8zx43554

06/10/2003 - Syrians were fixing shattered windows and doors and cleaning their homes today, a day after Israeli warplanes attacked and heavily damaged a nearby camp that was formerly run by Palestinian militants... Al-Dreij is about 15 miles north-west of the Syrian capital of Damascus. The heavily damaged camp, in the ravine of Ein Saheb, could be seen from Al-Dreij.

...Israel said it targeted an Islamic Jihad training base in retaliation for a deadly suicide bombing in Haifa on Saturday. But Islamic Jihad said it had no bases in Syria, and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said Israel hit a civilian target. He accused Israel of “aggression” and warned that Syria was capable of a “deterring balance to force Israel to review” its action.

...In Al-Dreij, a young man named Omar said... the camp was known to be run by Palestinian militants in the past but for years it has been empty... Residents in the area said that for the past decades the ravine of olive and fig groves has only been used by picnickers and walkers... An official with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said the camp was run by his groups militants for years but they abandoned it seven years ago.

...Syria’s state-run newspapers today gave equal coverage to the attack and the 30th anniversary of the last Syrian-Israeli war in 1973.

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http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=67380340&p=6738x9zx&n=67380949

Syria demanded that the UN Security Council condemn Israel’s airstrike... At an emergency meeting called at Syria’s request, all the council diplomats except US Ambassador John Negroponte spoke out against the airstrike. Most also condemned the deadly suicide bombing in the Israeli port city of Haifa that prompted Israel’s retaliation. Negroponte instead only condemned the Haifa attack, while blaming Syria for harbouring terrorists.

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http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_960628.htm

The [UN Security] Council adjourned without taking a vote. The Council president, US ambassador John Negroponte, says consultations will take place as soon as possible, but no date for the resumption of the meeting had been set.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=1&u=/afp/20031005/ts_afp/mideast_israel_031005103203

Sun Oct 5 - JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel could launch new attacks on Syria if the country continues to shelter "terrorist organisations who are preparing anti-Israeli attacks", Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman said.

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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1514&u=/afp/20031006/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_031006101518&printer=1

Mon Oct 6 - RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Ahmed Qorei was taking up his post as Palestinian prime minister after Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza.

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adventures in capitalism

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3556019

The U.S. Senate on Friday confirmed President Bush's selection of Randall Tobias, a retired chairman and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Co., to head the administration's global battle against AIDS.

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eli lilly in the news, featuring the WTO

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/39/we_522_02c.html

September 23, 2003 - Provisions in a World Trade Organization agreement to allow impoverished nations to import generic drugs, in theory a very positive development, are tangled up in red tape, according to CorpWatch... Activists have cited the Bush administration's solicitude toward the U.S. pharmaceutical agency as the root of the drug problem. While access to anti-retroviral medication in Rwanda cost $35 to the U.S.'s $700 in 1999, the reduced cost ignores the fact that the majority of Africans live on less than $1 a day.

Critics of the WTO accord assert that patents owned by large pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Eli-Lilly allow such companies to enjoy monopolies and charge exorbitant amounts for drugs. Asia Russell, Director of the Philadelphia-based group Global Access Project (Health GAP), opined that the WTO's accord was still more about imbalanced market access that saving lives: "'The current solution is designed to placate U.S. drug companies and guarantee ever-expanding market share, not to increase access to affordable generic medicines for dying people.'"

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an alternative approach

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1065219008593&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

Africa is entering a death spiral of AIDS casualties that is unprecedented in world history... Canada is expected to make low-cost generic drugs available shortly to poor and hard-hit countries by changing its drug patent law, allowing cheaper versions of expensive brand-name products to be exported.

...President George W. Bush pledged $15 billion (U.S.) for AIDS assistance from the United States over five years... Only $1.3 billion has so far been approved by Congress, and a move to increase the figure to $2 billion was defeated.

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blame canada

http://www.canada.com/news/world/story.asp?id=B3DADA44-36C7-4D92-BB92-C39685AE9FFC

Wednesday, October 01 - In a major acceleration of its war against cheaper imported drugs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it will crack down on mail shipments from Canada.

..."It's a scare tactic," said Edward Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, which organizes bus runs over the U.S.-Canada border. "Any person we've helped get drugs has never had a problem. If people want to raise safety issues, how about the fact that people can't afford to buy the drugs their doctors are prescribing?"

...Americans pay the highest drug prices in the developed world, and some cash-strapped jurisdictions, like the city of Springfield, Mass., and the state of Illinois, are organizing buy-Canada drug programs for their government workers and retirees. In Canada, outlets in Manitoba and other provinces are supplying an estimated 10 million Americans with $750 million a year in imported prescription drugs each year.

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and now back to eli lilly and the WTO

http://southend.wayne.edu/days/2003/October/1032003/nation/windfall/windfall.html

The Senate Finance Committee approved a bill on Wednesday that would give a one-time tax holiday to companies that have accumulated as much as $400 billion in foreign profits on which they have yet to pay American taxes... To press their case, companies like Hewlett-Packard have formed a broad coalition that includes the likes of Eli Lilly, Merck, Intel, Sun Microsystems and Dell Computer.

Among the coalition's main lobbyists are Bill Archer, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

...The biggest beneficiaries of the legislation would be technology companies like Hewlett-Packard and Intel as well as pharmaceutical giants like Merck and Eli Lilly... Eli Lilly, whose products include the antidepressant Prozac, says it has $8 billion in untaxed overseas profits.

... The main purpose of the bill is to replace a tax break for American exporters that has been declared an illegal subsidy by the World Trade Organization.

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out of africa

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7436416%5E401,00.html

Following comments from top Vatican official Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that the Pope was in "very bad" health, the Pope's private secretary Georg Gaenswein said yesterday the 83-year-old pontiff could not walk or stand... Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria has become the first possible successor to be publicly promoted... Cardinal Arinze presents himself as a man who has risen from humble origins in a Nigerian village to a senior position in the Vatican... He suggests Christianity can learn from other faiths, and calls for greater tolerance and free discussion within the Catholic church.

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http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2498475/detail.html

CLEVELAND -- Two Cleveland nuns pray day and night, but it may not be enough to keep them from being deported... The women live as cloistered nuns with the order of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. Inside, the nuns pray for the entire world 24 hours a day... Sister Mary Cecilia and Sister Mary Catherinia, of Korea, must now deal with the outside world. The Department of Homeland Security said the sisters are security risks. Both Korean sisters may be deported because the U.S. Immigration Service said they don't qualify for religious worker visas.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/29/business/media/29PLAY.html?ei=5062&en=4e9e9ea33a959174&ex=1065412800&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=

The November issue of Playboy takes on Wal-Mart... The article, "God and Satan in Bentonville," in the November issue of Playboy, on newsstands Monday, addresses the conservative, no-frills culture at Wal-Mart after a tour of Bentonville, Ark., where it is based.

"Wal-Mart has never been able to square its professed Main Street values — the greeters at the store doors, the flag-waving patriotism — with the uncomfortable fact that it's bad news for Main Street wherever it goes," Dan Baum writes in the article.

...One evangelist interviewed said he moved to Bentonville "to fight Satan," and explained: "Satan is a mimicker. God is here, so Satan is here. Wal-Mart started out good, selling things cheap to people who didn't have a lot of money. But that's how Satan works." He added, "The reason the religious right is here in Bentonville is that it's holding off Wal-Mart."

...Playboy's Web site, Playboy.com, is inviting women who work for Wal-Mart to pose nude for a feature called "Women of Wal-Mart."

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the 666 resistance

http://www.citypaper.com/2003-10-01/feature.html

...St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina Marketing is [a] company that markets customer data-collection systems to grocery stores. Catalina installs systems at cash registers that spit out coupons with register receipts. By knowing who a shopper is through his or her use of a loyalty card, the company claims it can deliver a coupon tailored to that customer.

If you don't know Catalina, chances are Catalina knows you. The company works with about 18,000 supermarkets nationwide (its Web site lists Giant, Safeway, Food Lion, and CVS as customers, among others), keeping a database of 100,000 households. Their shopping records stretch back "at least one year" in order to track long-term buying habits, says Trish Brynjolfsson, who is a Catalina vice president of retailer marketing. Brynjolfsson would not say how long Catalina keeps the records beyond one year. The company charts not only what items you buy but also how often you come into the store and how many items you buy when you do. It knows if you like to switch brands.

...Rob Carlson, for one, was not ready to let his shopping history go so easily. "It's only an ignorant or apathetic consumer who is willing to trade a very personal profile of their home life every week for 30 cents off a gallon of milk," Carlson says. He thought about what he could do to raise awareness of how these loyalty-card systems worked. When he posted his thoughts to an Internet mailing list, someone else off-handedly mentioned that there was no reason that the bar-code label on the back of each Giant card couldn't be replaced. Reading this, Carlson had the flash of inspiration to set up Rob's Giant Bonus Card Swap Meet [http://epistolary.org/rob/bonuscard/].

Carlson's site works like this: You enter your Giant card number on a form. It puts this number into a pool of numbers gathered from participants. Drawing from this pool, it displays for each visitor a bar-code replica of someone else's number, allowing the visitor to print it out and tape onto his or her own card. Should you actually take the time to do this and then visit the local Giant to use this card, you are, to Giant, someone else. If enough people do this, the argument goes, Giant's shopper profiles are rendered muddied and ultimately useless.

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mark o' beast

http://www.bendover.com/askbenquestion.asp?faq=3&fldAuto=70&chapter_fldAuto=14

Let me tell you about Los Angeles resident Bob Rivera and his experience with a Southern California supermarket chain. Mr. Rivera slipped on a yogurt spill and shattered his kneecap at a Von's Supermarket. The injury required surgery and ten days of hospitalization, keeping him out of work for an extended period of time.

He filed suit, hoping to financially recover for lost wages, pain and suffering... According to Mr. Rivera: "Von's representatives threatened to reveal records about my alcohol purchases at the store. My wife and I were loyal customers and used our "Von's Frequent Shopper"card every time we went shopping at a number of Von's stores."

...According to Mr. Rivera, Von's knew he regularly bought large quantities of alcohol at their stores, a fact he readily acknowledges: "It's obvious to me that the only way they could piece together my buying habits was by examining my frequent shopper records." Even though alcohol wasn't a factor in the incident, the implications are obvious.

...Suppose an accounting of the alcohol, tobacco, prescriptions or birth control products you purchased were made available to insurance companies or current (or prospective) employers; could you be branded as a promiscuous, depressed, or drug-abusing drunk?

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watch yr step

http://www.newsobserver.com/24hour/nation/story/1018445p-7148816c.html

Urging dismissal of a court challenge to the USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department said Friday that it has never used the law's wide-ranging search and seizure powers... Section 215 of the law expands the FBI's authority to secretly obtain records from various organizations, including libraries, churches, mosques, hospitals and other entities. The American Civil Liberties Union has argued that change violates constitutional rights.

The Justice Department said the groups challenging the law "cannot seriously contend that Section 215 fails to meet" constitutional standards. People's "Fourth Amendment rights do not extend to records or personal belongings that they have provided to third parties," the department said.

...An ACLU spokeswoman called the government's arguments "radical and it's wrong." "If my right to my personal information ends when I give it to a third party, then that right has no meaning at all," Emily Whitfield said.

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by michael moore

http://www.guardian.co.uk/michaelmoore/story/0,13947,1055594,00.html

Let's face it, almost every family has at least one rightwing reactionary of its very own, and there's not much you can do about it. It's a statistical certainty that for every two liberals, there will be one person who longs for the days of Strom Thurmond and legally accepted date rape. I seem to have encountered most of these guys in the past year.

...But, if you listen long and hard enough, you can hear their faint and distant cries for help. It's clear that they suffer from a unique pathology that is slowly driving them insane. They are, at their core, very, very afraid. They are afraid because, ultimately, they are ignorant. They haven't a clue what it's like to be black or hopelessly poor or wishing to kiss someone of their own gender. This basic ignorance leads to their overwhelming and permanent state of fear.

...I firmly believe that many of these conservatives can be shown the error of their ways. They can be encouraged to think differently about the issues we are concerned about. I think there is a way to convert that brother-in-law of yours... Here's my theory: I don't believe these people really are Republicans. They are just using a word they heard because the word was associated with tradition, common sense and saving money.

...These people are, in truth, Republican In Name Only - RINOs. Ask them a series of questions. Do you want a clean environment? Would you live in a neighbourhood with black people? Do you believe in going to war to resolve our differences with others? Most of the time they will not give the standard Republican answers. I have a friend who refers to herself as a Republican... So, I say to her, if Bush has driven the economy into the ground, if the Republicans want to make it easier for people to dump shit into your lake, and if you think you should have the same rights as men - then why on earth do you call yourself a Republican?!

"Because the Democrats will raise my taxes," she responds, without missing a beat. That is the RINO mantra... they think the Democrats are out to steal their hard-earned money.

If we really want to pull off a slam-dunk of permanent change, we need to bring a few million of these RINOs over to our side. They are waiting there, wanting to jump the fence - just as long as they can take their money with them...

1. First and foremost, assure your conservative friends or relatives that you do not want their money. You do not want them to make less money, nor do you want them to lose what money they have.

2. Second, every political argument you make must be about them and for them. They base every decision on "How does this benefit ME?" Instead of fighting this self-centredness, just go with it, embrace it, feed it.

3. Journey into the mind of the conservative. What you will encounter is fear. Fear of crime. Fear of enemies. Fear of change. Fear of people not exactly like them. And, of course, fear of losing any money on anything.

4. Tell them what you like about conservatives. Be honest. You know there are many things about conservatives that we like and believe in ourselves - even though we usually wouldn't be caught dead saying them out loud. Tell your conservative brother-in-law that you, too, are afraid of being a victim of crime and want to prevent criminals from getting away with their actions... Tell him you don't like freeloaders, either, especially that room-mate you had in college... Conservatives are organised, on time, efficient, well groomed and consistent. These are all good qualities and attributes, and we wish we were more that way.

5. Admit that the left has made mistakes. Ouch. This is a tough one. But, if you admit that, on occasion, you have been wrong, it's easier for the other person to consider what they have been wrong about, too... [For example,] Drugs are bad. They fuck you up, slow you down and ruin your daily existence. Even though Nancy Reagan can kiss my ass, you really should just say no. Men and women are different. We are not the same gender. Do I have to show you the drawings? For instance, very few women pull out a gun and shoot someone on the street.

...The most important thing is to NEVER make the "moral" argument about why the Pentagon should get less money or why a sick child deserves to see a doctor. We have tried those arguments and they don't work with conservatives, so save your breath. Begin every point with this one sentence: "I want you to make more MONEY!" Then take a stab at discussing the issues with them:

Paying workers more money makes you money!

...Providing daycare for your employees will make you money!

...Joining a union will make you money!

...Clean air and water save you money!

...Stopping the drug war will save you money!

...Giving lots of money to the public [state] schools makes you money!

...By never voting for a Republican again, you will make a ton of money!

[(©) Michael Moore, 2003. These edited extracts are taken from Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore, published next Tuesday by Allen Lane.]

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illustrating the point

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/story.php?storyID=13656

The first annual CGD/FP Commitment to Development Index (CDI), created by the Center for Global Development and FOREIGN POLICY magazine, ranks some of the world’s richest nations according to how much their policies help or hinder the economic and social development of poor countries.

...In this inaugural edition of the index, the CDI ranks 21 nations: Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and most of Western Europe... In ranking these countries’ commitment to development, the CDI rewards generous aid giving, hospitable immigration policies, sizable contributions to peacekeeping operations, and hefty foreign direct investment in developing countries. The index penalizes financial assistance to corrupt regimes, obstruction of imports from developing countries, and policies that harm shared environmental resources.

...The two countries providing the highest absolute amounts of foreign aid to the developing world—Japan and the United States—bring up the rear in the index. Japan ranks last overall, with low marks in migration and aid. The United States ranks high in trade policy but finishes second to last overall due to particularly poor performances in environmental policy and contributions to peacekeeping.

By contrast, the Netherlands emerges as the top-ranked nation in the index, thanks to its strong performance in aid, trade, investment, and environmental policies. Two other small countries, Denmark and Portugal, follow in second and third place, respectively... Though New Zealand is not noted for its particularly generous aid giving, that country finishes fourth overall thanks to a strong showing in migration and peacekeeping policies.

...Even the best-performing nations in the CDI have a long way to go... The Netherlands, even though it ranks highest, averages merely 5.6 points on the 10-point scale.

...Surely the United States would benefit if Mexico were as stable and prosperous as Canada. Surely West European nations would benefit from an economic resurgence in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Call it trickle-up economics: When the poor become better off, so do the rich.

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and just for the record

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/pr/pr003708.php3

Santa Monica, CA --Internal Enron e-mails confirm that Arnold Schwarzenegger was among a small group of executives who met with [CEO Kenneth] Lay at the posh Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel in May of 2001, in the midst of California's energy crisis... The meeting with Enron occurred ten days after rolling blackouts darkened California for two consecutive days; Schwarzenegger has previously said that he does not remember such a meeting.

...Only eleven of the 45 invitees attended, including Schwarzenegger. The meeting was meant to be an opportunity to gain business community support for Enron's "comprehensive solution" to the energy crisis. In one e-mail, Enron's VP of Public Relations wrote: "We'd like to position this meeting as an insider's conversation of what's going on with the energy situation. This meeting should be for principals only."

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mercy me

http://arizonarepublic.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=7772373&fb=Y&partnerID=940

LOS ANGELES - Twisted Sister used to scare the living daylights out of conservative America. Now they're the soundtrack for a Republican. "We're Not Gonna Take It" has been named the official song for Arnold Schwarzenegger's California gubernatorial campaign. Singer Dee Snider will perform it at a campaign rally this Sunday in Sacramento.

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http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,9503,00.html

MSNBC has enlisted former Twisted Sister frontman and razor-toothed drag queen Dee Snider to become the cable news network's official voiceover guy. The raspy voiced singer (whose onstage shtick was once described as "Bette Midler on acid") has been working for MSNBC since November... "The cool part about Dee is he brings a kind of in-your-face, no b.s. kind of read," says Val Nicholas, v.p. of advertising, promotion and marketing for the network. "He tells you the facts, and you believe them."

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/6918170.htm

U.S. forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There's clear evidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein worked closely with the Sept. 11 terrorists. People in foreign countries generally either backed the U.S.-led war or were evenly split between supporting and opposing it.

Overall, 60 percent of Americans held at least one of those views in polls reported between January and September by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, based at the University of Maryland in College Park, and the polling firm, Knowledge Networks based in Menlo Park, Calif.

...In fact, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. U.S. intelligence has found no clear evidence that Saddam was working closely with al-Qaida or was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Gallup polls found large majorities opposed to the war in most countries. PIPA's seven polls, which included 9,611 respondents, had a margin of error from 2 to 3.5 percent.

...80 percent of those who said they relied on Fox News and 71 percent of those who said they relied on CBS believed at least one of the three misperceptions. The comparable figures were 47 percent for those who said they relied most on newspapers and magazines and 23 percent for those who said they relied on PBS or National Public Radio.

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our hearts were young and gay

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/12003d.asp

10/1/03 - The Christian Action Network (CAN) has once again provided the world with proof of the shocking behavior that families visiting Walt Disney World can encounter during "Gay Days." For the 13th year running, Disney has hosted "Gay Days," the annual week-long summer event during which thousands of homosexuals descend on the Magic Kingdom to flaunt their lifestyle to the city of Orlando and the rest of the nation.

...This past June, CAN president Martin Mawyer attended "Gay Days" with his video camera in order to document what goes on at the Disney event. Mawyer's videotape shows homosexual men engaged in public kissing, fondling, and even simulated sex acts... Last week, CAN launched what it calls "a bold and explosive website"that contains those images of homosexual activity taking place at DisneyWorld. For what purpose? "To expose this event and bring national attention to the offensive-- and even illegal -- behavior among some homosexual participants,"Mawyer says.

...The StopGayDays.com website lists 25 other amusement parks that also host similar pro-homosexual events, along with their dates.

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from that very website. also not a satire.

http://www.stopgaydays.com/news_article.htm

The footage revealed homosexuals engaged in: kissing, hugging and fondling; full nudity, drug use and sex acts; Disney Cast Members engaged in homoerotic performances; And testimony from a family who witnessed an explicit pornographic film being shown on a Disney Cruise-Line Bus.

The 12-minute video was not only shown at the D.C. press conference, but will soon be displayed in every major city in the southeast to local media, pastors, church and civic leaders, and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention.

...“Disney may not mind,” Mr. Mawyer concluded, “but now it's time to see how this glass slipper is going to fit with the American public. And in my opinion, a spoonful of sugar is not going to make this medicine go down.”

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high times in liberated afghanistan

http://www.balochistanpost.com/item.aspx?ID=4390

Combination of lawlessness, poverty and a high profile drug mafia that is bold enough to stamp the name of the manufacturer on its drug packages has resulted in a glut of poppy in the Afghan market. “Markets are flush with raw poppy and in some areas it is already cheaper than fine quality wheat flour,” told a shopkeeper in Mazar-e-Sharif. This year’s bumper crop of Afghan poppy, one of the best in history is likely to produce more than 6500 tons of A-grade refined heroin.

...“There are many reasons for this abundance of poppy,” said Haji Yolbarz Atayee, a member of the Loya Jirga... “After the start of US-led war in Afghanistan, traditional methods of making a living in Afghanistan were crushed almost entirely. Trading of liquish-root and cumin seed, two of the important sources of income for rural population, has been reduced to nil. Hand knotted carpets are dirt-cheap in European markets and there is no fresh demand for Afghan carpets out there. Aid mechanism in some cases makes it convenient to buy foreign food grains instead of paying the same price to the local farmers. Dried raisins and figs from Afghanistan are facing stiff competition from Iran in their traditional markets.”

...This has resulted in a new dilemma for the motley group of drug smugglers who are connected in an unbroken chain from the fields in Afghanistan to the street vendors in the United States: Now they have to decide whether to hoard the extra output for next year’s heroin production or to send the whole output to markets right away.

...Given the extraordinary number of Ph.D’s in the Ukrainian-Russian-Israeli mafia, the odds are that they would try to increase the number of addicts rather than bringing down their prices.

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and high times in liberated iraq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3156048.stm

A boom in supply of hallucinogenic tablets has been coupled with the release of tens of thousands of criminals from prison before the US-led invasion to create a huge problem for the fledgling Iraqi police force. As well as the tablets, drugs like Valium and sleeping pills - in common use in Iraqi jails - are being used. The euphoria and lack of fear provided by the drugs, the police say, is giving desperate criminals the courage to carry out more crimes.

...Omar Zahed, the leader of the Iraq police's anti-drugs squad... said that the tablets were of huge concern to the police force - and that their presence in Iraq was the result of a well-planned international criminal effort. "They only appeared in this country about two years ago," he stated. "We did a study and discovered it was a sabotage operation from outside Iraq. It had to be - because at first the tablets were coming in at a totally uneconomical price, just a few US cents per strip."

...Among the users, some of the street addicts are very young. Teenagers and younger children sniffing paint thinner or correction fluid is a common sight. "The other day I saw a five-year-old child on the street carrying a bag of correction fluid - it was awful," one Baghdad cafe owner said. "But he was just copying the older children."

The cafe owner said that the explosion in drug use was due to the anarchy that had hit some parts of the capital after the fall of Saddam Hussein. "You didn't see gangs of children on the streets before the war," he said. "Some of them come from homes and orphanages, because the whole system has collapsed."

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satire or news? end times or not? you decide!

www.satan-says.com

SCHWAEBISCH HALL, GERMANY - Farmer Hans Goetel naturally thought he had seen the last of his goat Herman, when he shot the animal through the brain for defecating on his wife's feet. Feeling remorse after his impulse killing, Goetel carried the headless beast to the woods and solemnly buried him. That night, the Goetels were awoken by the knocking of horns against wood. The farmer opened his front door to find Herman standing there, his head fully repaired and with a blackboard behind him, bearing complex mathematical calculus.

Goetel insists that Herman then gripped a piece of chalk in his mouth to write, "How about you and me make some money?", in German, on the board. The duo subsequently wasted no time, and tourists now pay top deutsch mark to see Herman scratching out tricky formulae. Says Goetel: "Herman didn't say how he came back from the grave, and I didn't ask. It's an awkward subject for us, so we stick to discussions about trigonometry and the like." SS News attempted to interview Herman, but he stared at us in a slightly chilling manner which spoke of soil, death and vengeance.