~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"DON'T DRINK SOAP! KEEP OUT OF EYE! DILUTE! DILUTE! O.K.!" --Dr. Emanuel H. Bronner, Soapmaker, Master Chemist & Essene Rabbi

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turkey snaps out of it!

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1027/p07s01-woiq.html

October 27 - ANKARA, TURKEY – A plan to send upward of 10,000 Turkish troops to Iraq, a proposal the US heavily lobbied for in recent months, has effectively been shelved due to vehement opposition in Iraq.

[Besides,]... "They don't really need more troops; they need different kinds of troops," says Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the University of Warwick in Britain and the author of an upcoming book on Iraq. "What's hampering the occupation is lack of intelligence."

..."The Turkish troops are the worst possible troops they can send in," Dodge says in a telephone interview. "The Iraqis have a very strong, almost mythological sense of history," he adds, and a sense of victimization by the Turks under the Ottoman Empire is Iraqi folklore. "There is very popular and widespread resistance to Turkish troops, and anyone could have told them that," he says.

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lies lies lies!

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=457993

28 October 2003 - President Bush said the US would "stay the course" in Iraq yesterday... "The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity that's available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become," he said after a meeting at the White House with his senior administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer. "[They] can't stand the thought of a free society. They hate freedom. They love terror. They love to try to create fear and chaos." He added: "It's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerges, and we will stay the course in order to achieve this."

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NO SYNTHETICS! NONE!

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i think therefore i am-- the famous mister ed!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031027-1.html

"It is a -- the people have got to understand, the Iraqi people have got to understand that anytime you've got a group of killers willing to kill innocent Iraqis, that their future must not be determined by these kind of killers. That's what they've got to understand." --your very own head of state

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washington post explains it all!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23470-2003Oct27?language=printer

Experts in public opinion said it would be difficult for Bush to convince Americans that the violence was a byproduct of success.

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a three months' review! EMPHASIS ADDED by mrs. henry!

http://billmon.org/archives/000826.html

"And we are confronting that danger in Iraq, where Saddam hold outs and foreign terrorists are DESPERATELY trying to throw Iraq into CHAOS." George W. Bush, Speech at Bush-Cheney Fundraiser, October 15, 2003

"Saddam holdouts and foreign terrorists are trying DESPERATELY to undermine Iraq's progress and to throw that country into CHAOS." George W. Bush, Speech to New Hampshire National Guard, October 9, 2003

"You've seen how Saddam holdouts and foreign terrorists are DESPERATELY -- DESPERATELY trying to undermine Iraq's progress and to throw the country into CHAOS." George W. Bush, Speech at Ft. Stewart, Ga., September 12, 2003

"And that is why, five months after we liberated Iraq, a collection of killers is DESPERATELY trying to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country into CHAOS." George W. Bush, Address to the Nation, September 7, 2003

"His [Ayatollah al-Hakim's] murder today, along with the murder of many innocent men and women gathered for prayer, demonstrates the cruelty and DESPERATION of the enemies of the Iraqi people." George W. Bush, Press Statement, August 29, 2003

"I think part of what you're seeing and what you've heard the President talk about is that the terrorists are seeing the progress that's being made, and that is making them more DESPERATE." White House spokeswoman Clare Buchan, Press Briefing, August 26, 2003

"The more progress we make in Iraq, the more DESPERATE the terrorists will become." George W. Bush, Speech to the American Legion, August 26, 2003

"Progress makes the remaining terrorists even more DESPERATE and willing to lash out against symbols of order and hope like coalition forces and U.N. personnel." George W. Bush, Radio Address, August 23, 2003

"Every sign of progress in Iraq adds to the DESPERATION of the terrorists and the remnants of Saddam's brutal regime." George W. Bush, Press Remarks, August 19, 2003

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your friend and mine, citizen bob!

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/fisk2.html

10/26/03 By Robert Fisk - You need to take a military escort to reach Baghdad airport these days. Yes, things are getting better in Iraq, according to President Bush -- remember that each hour that goes by -- but the guerrillas are getting so close to the runways that the Americans have chopped down every tree, every palm bush, every scrap of undergrowth on the way.

Rocket-propelled grenades have killed so many GIs on this stretch of highway that the US army -- like the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the mid-80s -- have erased nature. You travel to Baghdad airport through a wasteland. Heathrow it isn't.

"OK folks, now you can leave your bags here and go inside for your boarding passes," a cheery US army engineer tells the first arrivals for Amman. So we collect slips of paper that show no flight number, no seat number, no destination, not even a take-off time. There's a Burger King across the lot, but it's in a "high-security zone" which mere passengers cannot visit. There's no water for sale. There are so few seats that passengers stand in the heat outside what must be the biggest post office in the world, a vast US military sorting hanger with packets of mail for every one of the 146,000 troops in Iraq, standing 30ft high in racks.

But take a look at the passengers. There's a lady from the aid organisation Care heading off for a holiday in Thailand, and there's the Bishop of Basra in his black and red robes and dangling crucifix, and there's an outgoing television crew and the International Red Cross representative with a little Red Cross plane to catch to Kirkuk. There's also a British construction man up from Hilla who spent the previous night under fire with the local Polish battalion. "Rocket-propelled grenades and heavy rifle fire for two hours," he mutters. Of course, the occupation authorities never revealed that. Because things are getting better in Iraq.

...Among the other passengers, there's a humanitarian worker who's clearly had a nervous breakdown and some rather lordly Iraqi ladies escorted to check-in by an RAF officer with too much hair over his collar and, across the lot, a squad of American Special Forces soldiers enjoying the sun, heavy with black webbing, automatic rifles and pistols. Why do they all wear shades, I ask them? One of them takes off his sun-glasses. "What girl would look at us if they could see our real faces?" I agree. But they're an intelligent bunch of men, heavy with innuendo. Yes, they've got a safe house near Fallujah and combat casualties are sometimes "contained" within road accidents or drownings.

A GUY called Chuck wants to confide in me. "You know the most precious resource about this country, Bob?" he asks. "It's the Iraqi people. There's a lot of protoplasm here." I was contemplating the definition of protoplasm when the first mortar came in, a thundering roar that had the passengers ducking like a theatrical chorus and a big white circle of smoke rising lazily from the other side of the runway. There's a whizzing noise and another clap of sound.

"They're getting better," Chuck tells me. "They must have put that one close to the runway." The other Special Forces lads nod approvingly. Another tremendous explosion, and they all nod together. Another big white ring rippling skywards, as if a giant cigar addict had sat down for a smoke by the runway. "Not bad at all," says Chuck's friend.

...The Airbus belongs, incredibly, to Royal Jordanian, the only international carrier to risk the run to Baghdad once a day. At the steps, there's a squad of Jordanian security men in white socks -- Jordanian and Syrian plain-clothes cops always wear white socks -- and they insist, right there on the runway, in checking over all our gear again. Computers turned on, computers turned off, cameras opened, closed, notebooks out, even a sheaf of readers' letters to be prowled over. The Apache flies back, rockets still in their pods.

Take-off is rather faster than usual. But there's no steady climb to cruising altitude. The Airbus turns sharply to port, G-forces pushing us into our seats, and there outside my window is the tented prison-camp city where the Americans keep more than 4,000 of their Iraqi prisoners without trial. The tents start to spin as the plane twists to starboard and then to port again, and there is the same prison camp outside my window, but this time upside down and turning anti-clockwise. I look around the cabin and notice fingers dug deep into arm-rests. The Airbus engines are howling, biting into the thinner air, and our eyes are searching for that thin trail of smoke that no one wants to see.

Then the pilot levels out. A Royal Jordanian stewardess in a bright white blouse arrives at our seats. Things are getting better in Iraq. "Juice or red wine, which would you like?" she asks me. Reader, which did I choose?

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Instantly uniting One! All-One! Absolute cleanliness is Godliness!

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citizen cher!

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2003_10_26_atrios_archive.html#106727982112994006

C-Span transcript. Peter Slen, C-Span Moderator: Good Morning Miami Beach

caller: Good morning! Thank you for C-span, I watch it every day!

Uh, I would like to say i had the occasion the other day to spend the entire day with troops that had come back from iraq & had been wounded and..um...I also visited troops during the vietnam era...but the thing that I was most shocked by...um...as I walked into the hospital the first person i ran into was a boy about 19 or 20 years old who'd lost both of his arms...and when I walked into the hosptial & visited all these boys all day long...uh...everyone had lost either one arm...one limb or two limbs or had lost one limb and there were...

there were a lot of legs that seemed to be missing and a couple of the boys told me it was because that their vehicles ...that the rockets pierce the vehicles so much its like being kind of in a tin can...it doesnt have...there isnt...the walls of the humvees are very soft and theres no protection...but three guys in the same vehicle have lost a leg. ...and another thing that I saw was that...um...if they'd lost one leg that... that shrapnel that had hit the other leg had been so devastating that they were having to pull like the thigh...you know...the muscle and the thigh around the bottom of the calf to try to make the leg workable but in some cases these boys had lost one leg and the other leg was so damaged that they weren't sure what they were gonna be able to do.

C-Span Moderator: Where did you spend tthe day?

caller: Walter-Reed.

C-Span Moderator: And you're down in Miami beach, back in Miami beach?

caller: I'm down here today.

C-Span Moderator: what were you doing at walter -reed? are you a volunteer?

caller: no, I was just asked to come and spend the day. I was working that day in Washington, DC and...

C-Span Moderator: what kind of work do you do?

caller: um, i'm an entertainer.

C-Span Moderator: oh, what kind of entertaining? are you USO?

caller: no, I actually was called by the USO but I'm...I'm...I'm just...I'm an entertainer. And I really dont want to go much past that but...um...

C-Span Moderator: Is this CHER?

caller: yeah.

C-Span Moderator: (worshipful silence) ok. And you spent the day at walter-reed.

caller: Yeah. And I spent the day with, I mean they were great guys...and the the men that took me around were in the...you know...the services,you know, they were fabulous men...uh...Mike and John ...and they these boys had unbelievable courage and they still said for the most part hat they were glad that they they did it, they felt that it was their duty...and there were a few of the national guards that felt it was their duty that once they were over there but they wondered why they were taken out of America to spend that much time as actual service men when they really felt that their job was to be, you know, protecting this country.

but I I have to say that they had the most unbelievable courage and it took everything that I have as a person to...to not...you know... break down while I was talkin to these guys...but I just think that if there was no reason for this war this was the most heinous thing I'd ever seen... and also I wonder why...why are none of Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bremer, the president, why arent they taking pictures with all these guys?

Because I dont understand why these guys are so hidden and why... and why there aren't pictures of them because you know, talking about the dead and the wounded...that's two different things but these wounded are so devastatedly wounded...you know...that I think that... the wounded...its just... it''s unbelievable...its just unbelieivable to me and i'm an independent but I....

. . . I would just like to see them have...you know, if youre going to send these people to war then don't hide them, you know...and have some... have some news coverage where people are sitting and talking to these guys and seeing how they are and seeing their spirit and its just... I just... I think its a crime.

. . . C-Span Moderator: What's your favorite news source outside the US?

Caller: Well theres a source that I really like inside the US that gives you special documentaries called WORLDLINK but I think my favorite source outside the US is BBC because they are our allies but you still get...on the nightly news you get...you know, much more coverage and I think much more honest coverage...I dont know, I guess they're not...well...they're independent so they're not owned by any of the major corporations that are... you know, have vested interest in this war.

C-Span Moderator: thanks for your call this morning.

caller: ok, thank you!

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it's how you play the game!

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/10/26/Columns/No_pause_in_Patriot_A.shtml

When pressed over whether Lakers star Kobe Bryant should continue playing basketball while the issue of his alleged sexual assault is under consideration by the courts, NBA Commissioner David Stern told the Los Angeles Times: "Absolutely. We don't have a Patriot Act in the NBA." It appears the repressive nature of the USA Patriot Act, which is 2 years old today, has penetrated the American consciousness to such an extent that it now stands as shorthand parlance for any type of unfairness.

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Small minds decay! Average minds delay! Great minds teach All-One today!

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integrity call to arms!

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/002131.html

At the moment, there’s a close-fought race for the governorship in Kentucky and, as often happens when these races come down to the wire, Republicans are at it again. (In South Dakota last year these efforts were directed at Native Americans, but in this case African-Americans are the targeted group.) As recent press reports have noted, state Republicans plan to flood predominantly African-American precincts in western and central Louisville with poll watchers to challenge the eligibility of voters.

On Thursday, Jefferson County GOP Chairman Jack Richardson IV told the Louisville Courier-Journal that the precincts in question weren’t chosen on the basis of racial make-up or voting patterns. But a flyer sent out in July advertising a meeting to recruit poll watchers tells a different story.

...What does the letter say? Under the headline "Gubernatorial Election Integrity Call to Arms" it asks a rhetorical question: "What do a series of close-fought races in Kentucky and Louisiana in recent years have in common, the flyer asks?"

It then answers the question: "All were adversely impacted by the presence and influence of the Democratic National Committee and the A. Phillip Randolph Institute (the black militant division of the AFL-CIO and funded in part by the DNC), and the NAACP and their efforts to marshal the Get Out To Vote efforts targeted toward the black, poor voters in selected communities and selected targeted races of national impact."

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labor noose, i mean news!

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2003-10-23-walmart-arrests_x.htm

In a sweeping crackdown on undocumented workers, federal agents arrested more than 300 people at Wal-Mart stores in 21 states Thursday... Wal-Mart uses more than 100 third-party contractors to perform cleaning services in more than 700 stores... The cleaning crews did not receive health insurance and were paid below the minimum wage, sometimes as little as $2 a day, a federal official said.

The workers arrested Thursday were released if they had no criminal records, but they must appear later before immigration judges.

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FIVE of forbes' TEN richest folks in the u.s.a.!

http://www.forbes.com/richlist2003/rich400land.html

#4, Walton, Helen R. 84 , inherited. Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart. Net Worth:

$20.5 billion. Hometown: Bentonville, AR. Widow of Sam Walton.

#5, Walton, S Robson 59 , inherited. Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart. Net Worth:

$20.5 billion. Hometown: Bentonville, AR. Son of Sam Walton.

#6, Walton, John T. 57 , inherited. Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart. Net Worth:

$20.5 billion. Hometown: Bentonville , AR. Son of Sam Walton

#4, Walton, Jim C. 55 , inherited. Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart. Net Worth: $20.5

billion. Hometown: Bentonville , AR. Son of Sam Walton

#4, Walton, Alice L. 54 , inherited. Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart. Net Worth:

$20.5 billion. Hometown: Fort Worth , TX. Daughter of Sam Walton.

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we're in the money!

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/7091404.htm

In 2004, for the fifth straight year, members of Congress will see a jump in their paychecks, with election-year salaries rising from the current $154,700 to about $158,000.

The Senate, in a 60-34 vote Thursday, declined to exempt senators from a cost-of-living increase going to all civilian federal workers and military personnel. Last month the House, by a similar margin, also turned back an attempt to deny lawmakers an automatic share of the COLA increase.

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There is neither East nor West, nor border, breed nor birth, once the Moral ABC unites all mankind free on God's spaceship Earth!

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freedom is slavery!

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/27/1067233103962.html

10/28 - The Israeli military has ordered thousands of Palestinians living near the steel-and-concrete "security fence" across the West Bank to obtain special permits to live in their own homes... The order, signed by the Israeli Army's commander in the West Bank, Major-General Moshe Kaplinski, said Palestinian land between the fence and the 1967 border, known as the green line, was to be a "closed military zone".

Any Palestinian who lived in the area would be defined by a new category of "long-term resident" and everyone over the age of 12 would be required to obtain a permit to live in their own homes and travel beyond their villages. Under the order, only Israelis and Jews could enter the designated areas without a pass.

...Israel has granted "permanent settlement" status to at least five illegal outposts in the West Bank, according to Agence France-Presse. An adviser to the Defence Minister, Shaul Mofaz, said the decision would allow the settlements to obtain grants for education and projects such as lighting as well as make them eligible for protection by security forces.

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war is peace!

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066979955573

IDF troops... blew up three empty hi-rises in the Gaza Strip Sunday morning... Troops evacuated some 2,000 Palestinians from their homes and then blew [them] up.

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Forced to sleep on the roof of the YMCA, penniless with the pigeons, we could not teach the Moral ABC of All-One- God-Faith, without which none can possibly unite the Human race! For we're All-One or none!

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hospital terror!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-10-25-mideast_x.htm

10/25/2003 9:38 AM - Dozens of Israeli troops wearing black ski masks and armed with assault rifles raided two West Bank hospitals before dawn Saturday, arresting two suspected Palestinian militants, including a critically injured patient, witnesses and the military said. Around 3 a.m., troops pulled up in jeeps and swept into the two hospitals in the city of Nablus, confining doctors and other staff to rooms for more than an hour as they kicked open doors in room-to-room searches, witnesses said.

The operation followed several similar raids in recent weeks... Israeli army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Feingold said... "Hospitals should not be used to harbor terrorists."

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leish-mania!

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1003/24sandfly.html

At least 30 soldiers serving in Iraq have contracted a skin disease spread by sand flies, prompting a ban on blood donations by all members of the military in Iraq for a year after they return home, health officials said Thursday. The parasitic disease, leishmaniasis, occurs in two forms. The soldiers have the milder form, which causes skin sores and is curable if promptly treated. The other form of the disease -- believed to account for some reports of Gulf War syndrome after that conflict in 1990-91 -- often causes fever, weight loss and organ damage. It can be fatal... The new policy may divert more than 12,000 blood donors, Pentagon officials said.

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ignorance is strength!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1071736,00.html

US vice-president Dick Cheney's former employers at the defence contractor Halliburton have called on staff to phone their local newspaper to stem criticism about the firm's activities in Iraq... In a memo entitled Defending Our Company, dated October 17, Halliburton's president, Dave Lesar, said critics were "distorting our efforts" to restore Iraq's oil industry and provide other services to the US military. "Now I'm asking you to help by writing a letter to the editor of your newspaper," he wrote, going on to provide talking points about Halliburton's activities.

...The memo was written before it emerged that Halliburton had charged the US-led occupation authority $1.59 a gallon for imported petrol - several times the cost of Iraqi petrol - costing the US taxpayer about $300m.

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the captain is a very moral man!

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/politics/27CND-TERROR.html?ex=1068302389&ei=1&en=e14a15ddcabaaa08

Oct. 27 — President Bush declined today to commit the White House to turning over highly classified intelligence reports to the independent federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, despite public threats of a subpoena from the bipartisan panel. The president said in a brief meeting with reporters that the documents were "very sensitive."

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and that's an insult to all wolves of wit!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$AMDNELUWLI1MDQFIQMFSFF4AVC

BQ0IV0?xml=/news/2003/10/27/wirq27.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/27/ixnewstop.html

(Filed: 27/10/2003) Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy civilian chief at the Pentagon, promised an "unrelenting" effort to crush Iraqi resistance after his hotel in Baghdad was hit by a barrage of rockets early yesterday.

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not a bombing after all!

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2003102608410000&Take=1

26 Oct 2003 - BAGHDAD -(Dow Jones)- A fire engulfing a pipeline linking Iraq's northern and southern oil installations had suspended production at a refinery northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi oil industry source said Sunday... He said the fire was caused by looters who broke open the pipeline a few kilometers from the 10,000 barrels-a-day refinery, which is located 260 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. They were trying to steal crude oil from the pipeline, which links the refinery to the oil fields of Kirkuk. "The fire erupted when they started the engine of their car - it caught fire because it was parked near the broken pipeline, and the fire spread causing huge damage to the pipeline," he added.

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leavitt to beaver!

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/28/politics/28LEAV.html?ex=1068340077&ei=1&en=8f49bd7759ebaaf2

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and other Democratic senators on Monday withdrew their holds on President Bush's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Michael O. Leavitt of Utah, clearing the way for Mr. Leavitt's confirmation in a vote by the full Senate on Tuesday. Mrs. Clinton yielded after the White House agreed to re-examine the environmental effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

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With 1 trillion trees God's spaceship Earth can survive!

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report thoughtcrime now!

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031026-124606-8419r.htm

Beginning with bulk or commercial mail, the Postal Service will require "enhanced sender identification" for all discount-rate mailings, according to the notice published in the Oct. 21 Federal Register. The purpose of identifying senders is to provide a more efficient tracking system, but more importantly, to "facilitate investigations into the origin of suspicious mail."

...What has privacy advocates concerned is a report by a presidential commission that recommends the post office develop technology to identify all individual senders, which is directly referenced in the Federal Register notice. The proposed regulations are open for public comment through Nov. 20 to the Postal Service. "The President's Commission on the United States Postal Service recently recommended the use of sender identification for every piece of mail," the Federal Register stated. "Requiring sender-identification for discount-rate mail is an initial step on the road to intelligent mail."

Also cited in the notice are two congressional committee recommendations urging the Postal Service to explore the concept of sender identification, including the "feasibility of using unique, traceable identifiers applied by the creator of the mailpiece." ..."Smart stamps" or personalized stamps with an embedded digital code would identify the sender, destination and class.

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why wait! inform today!

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/10/22/ups_eyed_as_source_for_names/

10/22/2003 - United Parcel Service, apparently breaking an earlier pledge, appears to have turned over to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue the names and addresses of Bay State customers to whom it has delivered cigarettes from out-of-state vendors. The Revenue Department, which obtained the information by using an administrative summons, is sending letters to the customers demanding they remit unpaid cigarette excise taxes plus interest and penalties. The agency also threatened civil fines and imprisonment if the taxes are not paid within 30 days... [Revenue] Department spokesman Timothy Connolly indicated either [cigarette warehouse] Dirtcheapcigs or UPS had provided the information.

...John Rogers, a St. Louis attorney representing Dirtcheapcigs, said he believes UPS was the source. He said Dirtcheapcigs is currently being sued by California and Maryland and in both cases the discovery process has turned up UPS spreadsheets listing Dirtcheapcigs deliveries.

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gore wins!

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00211.htm

Something very strange happened in Volusia County on election night November 2000, the night that first Gore won Florida, then Bush, and then as everybody can so well remember there was a tie. Something strange indeed. But what exactly?

...According to recently discovered internal Diebold Election Systems memos, Global Election Systems' (which was later purchased by Diebold) own technical staff were also stumped by the events in Volusia County.

In Chapter 11 of her new book "Black Box Voting In the 21st Century" released early today in .PDF format at http://blackboxvoting.com and here at Scoop [http://scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup] Ms Harris observes: "If you strip away the partisan rancor over the 2000 election, you are left with the undeniable fact that a presidential candidate conceded the election to his opponent based on [results from] a second card that mysteriously appears, subtracts 16,022 votes, then just as mysteriously disappears."

...What we know from the memos can be summarised as follows:

- Two memory cards were uploaded from Volusia Couny's precinct 216, the second one was loaded sometime close to 2am in the morning. It automatically replaced the first card's results and reduced Gore's total by 16,022 votes and added several thousand votes to Bush plus a variety of minor candidates;

- Both memory cards loaded into the system clean and without errors, indicating (contrary to the official line) that they were not faulty;

- After the error was noticed the original card was reloaded and the mistake was rectified;

- The error was introduced in such a way that the total number of votes remained unchanged (again something that could not happen by chance.);

- According to the technical boffins, the chance of the memory card being corrupted and still passing the checksum error test are less than 60,000 to 1;

- The technical managers at Diebold Election Systems considered it a reasonable possibility that the second card was part of deliberate conspiracy to rig the election results.

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airport fart terror!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_yorkshire/3213403.stm

Dave Rogerson's life-size mechanical terrier set off a security detector at Norfolk Airport in Virginia. Armed security staff were alerted when the toy's wind-breaking mechanism registered as a high explosive on sensitive monitoring equipment. Mr Rogerson, 31, from Thorner, Leeds, was questioned by FBI agents and looked on in amazement as they took a series of swabs from the mechanical toy's rear end.

The toy animal was eventually returned to him, but he was not allowed to take his planned flight and had to take an alternative route to North Carolina. Mr Rogerson said: "There's no humour at American check-ins and for about 20 minutes I was quite scared. They told me it is the highest reading they had for explosives and they took it very seriously. They were very jumpy and convinced there was something explosive in the dog."

Eventually the FBI experts decided the toy was harmless and returned it to him. He has now named the toy dog Norfolk after the airport.

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like newspeak? like this!

http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/calvins/goodspeak.py?url=http://www.foxnews.com/

it's the fox news page translated into the brave new world by a bunch of citizens of oceania.

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illinois says yes to drugs!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/27/health/main580135.shtml?cmp=EM8706

For weeks, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been saying that Illinois, its employees and retired employees could save a lot of money buying medicine from Canada. Now, a report commissioned by the governor and scheduled to be released Monday found that importing drugs from Canada for state workers and retirees would save Illinois nearly 17 percent of its annual expense for prescription drugs, the governor's office said.

Blagojevich plans to ask the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to waive a restriction on importing drugs, said his spokeswoman, Abby Ottenhoff. Federal law bars bringing foreign prescription drugs into the country.

The report is the latest step by Blagojevich to pressure federal authorities into allowing Illinois to bring in significantly discounted drugs from Canada to save the state millions of dollars each year.

...Separately, the Washington Post reports that a bipartisan group of U.S. senators is pushing for legislation that would legalize the importation of foreign drugs, partly because the senators don't believe Congress will approve a Medicare prescription drug benefit. "We're in a situation now where seniors are really desperate to have affordable prescription drugs," Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, told the newspaper. If Congress does not legalize drug importation, she said, "it is missing an opportunity to allow the American people to have access to lower cost prescription drugs."

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saying soorry [note canadian accent] is NOT enough!

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2003/october/10_26_4.html

Congress will examine legislation that will tighten sanctions on Iran and Libya. Under the bill sponsored by House subcommittee chairman on the Middle East and Central Asia, many of the exemptions and waivers on the ban of energy investment in Iran and Libya would be eliminated. The bill by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen seeks to penalize companies that invest $20,000,000.00 or more in Iran and Libya under the 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act Enhancement and Compliance Act, also known as ILSA.

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the view from london!

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1071214,00.html

At the height of the Vietnam War, civilians were butchered by an army unit and the carnage was covered up. But this was not My Lai. This bloody massacre has only come to light in the past week - and not one of America's elite corps of reporters can claim the credit.

It was a huge scoop. Yet the newspaper that uncovered the atrocity was not the venerable New York Times or the Washington Post, still resting on its Watergate laurels. Nor was it the New Yorker, famed for its in-depth journalism. It was The Blade, a daily newspaper with a circulation of just 150,000 that serves the Ohio city of Toledo, by Lake Erie.

For four days last week, The Blade ran its tale of the massacre of innocent Vietnamese civilians by a US Army unit called Tiger Force... 'The reaction has been overwhelming. The attitude of the government for the past 36 years has been to keep this quiet,' said Ron Royhab, a Blade executive editor.

...Tiger Force operated out of control in the Vietnamese highlands for seven months in 1967. Moving across the region, the platoon of 45 paratroops slaughtered unarmed farmers and their wives and children. They tortured and mutilated victims. A litany of horror has emerged - a baby decapitated for the necklace he wore, a teenage boy for his tennis shoes. A former Tiger Force sergeant, William Doyle, told reporters of a scalp he took off a young nurse to decorate his rifle. The Blade investigation concluded that hundreds probably died. 'We weren't keeping count,' Ken Kerney, a former soldier who is now a California firefighter, told the paper. 'I knew it was wrong, but it was an acceptable practice.' Another, Rion Causey, then a 19-year-old medic and now a nuclear physicist, talked of how villagers were routinely shot: 'If they ran we shot them, and if they didn't run we shot them anyway.'

The killing spree was either ignored or encouraged by army top brass, but when an inquiry did take place it lasted for four years. No one was charged. Details were not released to the public, and are still classified. Bill Carpenter, a former special infantryman with Tiger Force, believes the self-styled death squad's former commander, Lt James Hawkins, should be held accountable. He 'thoroughly enjoyed killing' and, now retired to Florida, still defiantly defends his platoon's wartime activities. 'I don't regret nothing,' Hawkins has said.

...The Blade also found amazing stories from within Tiger Force itself. One soldier, Gerald Bruner, turned on his own men and ordered them to stop shooting civilians or he would open fire. For this, he was berated by a commanding officer and told to see a psychiatrist. Bruner was almost alone in resisting the killings.

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last week's news!

http://www2.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=24356&lang=en

10/21/03 - Iraq's hit-and-run resistance struck U.S. forces in this tense city west of Baghdad for a second day Monday... Two civilians were killed in Monday's clash, including one whose family said he was shot by the Americans after they detained and handcuffed him... The bodies of the two civilians killed in the Monday attack, an Iraqi and a Syrian truck driver, were taken to Fallujah General Hospital. The Associated Press saw that one of them, Iraqi Nazem Baji, had a gunshot wound in the back of his head and his hands were tied in front of him with plastic bands similar to those used by the U.S. military when they arrest suspects.

"They (Americans) raided the house, shot him first in the leg, tied his hands and then shot him in the head," said the victim's brother, Dira'a Baji... The U.S. military press office in Baghdad said it had no information on the allegation and referred AP to the 82nd Airborne press office. An e-mail request for comment was forwarded but no reply was received.

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1st: Unless constructive-selfish, I work hard perfecting first me, absolute nothing can help perfect me! 2nd: If I'm only for me, I'm nobody! 3rd: If not now, when!

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the other horse's mouth!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/25/national1257EDT0540.DTL

Given the chance to talk to the defense secretary, one solider from the 101st Airborne Division asked what was on the minds of many: When will the worldwide fight against terrorism be over? "I mean, should I get my 3-year-old ready for air assault school?" the soldier asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during an Iraq tour last month.

"I wish I could give you a date, but I can't," Rumsfeld said. That would be like estimating when a town will no longer need firefighters or police, he told the soldier.

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busy busy busy!

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/7100374.htm

Oct. 25, 2003 - Military prosecutors claim they are so overworked they need to delay proceedings against a Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling secrets at the Guant?namo Bay prison for terrorist suspects, the chaplain's lawyer said Friday. Military speedy trial rules require hearings for Capt. James Yee by Dec. 10, defense lawyer Eugene Fidell said. No hearings have been scheduled, and military prosecutors want that deadline delayed by another 45 days, Fidell said. ''Among other things, they say they don't have the resources to pursue the case,'' said Fidell, a civilian expert in military law.

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sporting the troops!

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-11/106724106865760.xml

October 27-- The Bush administration is quietly piling up victories in a legal battle to block payments to 17 U.S. combat veterans who were captured and tortured in the first Gulf War and won a suit against Iraq for nearly a billion dollars.

The former POWs -- whipped, beaten, burned, electrically shocked and starved by their Iraqi captors in 1991 -- say they are baffled by the administration's refusal to let them collect any of the assets of Iraq now under U.S. control, and by the Justice Department's efforts to overturn a federal court decision upholding their claims to compensation.

...In court filings, the government asserts sweeping presidential power to block the claims because of the "weighty foreign policy interests at stake." It does not dispute details of the POWs' suffering.

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nawlins times-picayune: home town proud!

http://www.legacy.com/nola/LegacySubPage2.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=1445197

Word has been received that Gertrude M. Jones, 81, passed away on August 25, 2003, under the loving care of the nursing aides of Heritage Manor of Mandeville, Louisiana. She was a native of Lebanon, KY. She was a retired Vice President of Georgia International Life Insurance Company of Atlanta, GA... Memorial gifts may be made to any organization that seeks the removal of President George Bush from office.

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ENJOY ONLY 2 COSMETICS, ENOUGH SLEEP & DR. BRONNER'S "MAGIC SOAP" to clean body- mind- soul- spirit instantly uniting One! All-One! Absolute cleanliness is Godliness! For facial packs, scalp and soothing body rub, add dash on bath towel in sink of hot water. Wring out. Lay over face and scalp. Massage with fingertips. Repeat 3 or 4 times 'til arms, legs & all are rubbed, always towards the heart. Rinse towel in plain hot water and massage again. Breathe deeply! Health is Wealth. Within 9 min. you feel fresh, mint-clean, saving 90% of your hot water & soap, ready to help teach the whole Human race the Moral ABC of All-One-God- Faith! For we're All-One or none! ALL-ONE! ALL-ONE! ALL-ONE!