Howard Dean might actually have what it takes to defeat President Bush in next year's presidential election, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol warns.

No one ever has complained for 35 years that I'm in this country," schwarznegger told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity. "And then all of a sudden a few days before the campaign – before the election – all of a sudden, there's all these allegations. It was rather coincidental, I have to say."

JOURNALISTS face up to five years' jail if they report detailed circumstances surrounding the detention and questioning of terrorism suspects, under new ASIO laws passed in Parliament late last week

Mr. Sea revealed disturbing information about New World Order efforts to destroy and enslave America.. If you notice, they often do things on the 13th of the month. Mr. Clinton does a lot of things on the 13th.

Now here's the really interesting part. Forgetting for a moment Diebold's voting machines, let's look at the other equipment they make. Diebold makes a lot of ATM machines. They make machines that sell tickets for trains and subways. They make store checkout scanners, including self-service scanners. They make machines that allow access to buildings for people with magnetic cards. They make machines that use magnetic cards for payment in closed systems like university dining rooms. All of these are machines that involve data input that results in a transaction, just like a voting machine. But unlike a voting machine, every one of these other kinds of Diebold machines -- EVERY ONE -- creates a paper trail and can be audited. Would Citibank have it any other way? Would Home Depot? Would the CIA? Of course not. These machines affect the livelihood of their owners. If they can't be audited they can't be trusted. If they can't be trusted they won't be used.
Now back to those voting machines. If EVERY OTHER kind of machine you make includes an auditable paper trail, wouldn't it seem logical to include such a capability in the voting machines, too?

"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses (Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), ) said. "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."

The concurrent introduction of free-market capitalism and democracy typically generates powerful opposing forces that can plunge underdeveloped countries into calamitous turmoil, Yale University professor Amy Chua argues in her compelling book, World on Fire: How exporting free-market democracy breeds ethnic hatred and global instability.
Often goaded by nationalist, religious or racist demagogues, the majority's grievances against the rich minority quickly morph into appropriation of property, nationalization of industries, religious fanaticism, mob violence, civil war, ethnic cleansing, genocide and other vengeful acts.
Plenty of evidence: This phenomenon has occurred in Indonesia, Russia, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Burma, Kenya -- indeed, much of Africa, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and South America during the last century, Chua asserts.


The cleric said he was hooded and taken away. During later questioning in which two Americans were present, he said that an Iraqi interrogator repeatedly beat him, hitting him so hard in the face that he later required surgery for a detached retina. He said he was released seven days later with an apology from the U.S. military.


Former Sen. Max Cleland, a Democrat, has been nominated by Bush to serve on the board of the Export-Import Bank. As a result he will have to leave the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The statutes governing the 9-11 panel, bar anyone who holds a federal job like being on the Ex-Im Board.
Past statements attributed to Cleland include:
"As each day goes by we learn that this government knew a whole lot more about these terrorists
before September 11th than it has ever admitted. This is a scam, it's disgusting. America is being cheated...
We shouldn't be making deals. If somebody wants to deal, we issue subpoenas. That's the deal."

how could the authorities have reasonable suspicions Jackson committed a crime when child protective services claims nothing happened? Why did social services take nine months to release their unfounded finding and did so after the police arrested Jackson? There’s more.

Janet Ventura, the complaining boy’s mother, talked highly of Jackson, calling him an “angel,” and praised him for reaching out to her son. Admitting she allowed her child to stay overnight at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, Ventura stated Jackson did not abuse her son.
Media reports indicate that Ms. Ventura won a judgment for over one hundred thousand dollars against J.C.Penneys and Tower Records for an incident stemming from 1999 whereby she was allegedly sexually assaulted and her son, Jackson’s accuser, was beaten by police

A top U.S. diplomat told Russia Wednesday any redeployment of troops to Eastern Europe was intended to tackle new security threats and in no way directed against Moscow.
But Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov expressed concern about any proposals to move bases nearer to Russia. "Any plans to bring NATO's military infrastructure closer to our borders provokes totally understandable anxiety," Interfax news agency quoted Ivanov as saying.
U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith began consultations Wednesday with Romania and Bulgaria about creation of possible NATO bases on their territory.
Diplomats have said Poland, a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq, could see the biggest build-up of U.S. forces on its soil if the United States goes ahead with an eastward move.
Poland joined NATO along with the Czech Republic and Hungary in 1999 -- 10 years after the fall of communism in the region. Seven more countries are to join the alliance.

xymphora in full
"Even by the nutty standards of the Bush Administration, the hypocrisy and sheer muddle-headedness of recent days stands out:

Bush recently gave his big speech on democracy, with the implication that the reason for the American illegal presence in Iraq was to instal American concepts of democracy and freedom there and throughout the Middle East. Since that speech, the Americans have done everything possible to ensure that elections not take place in Iraq. Bush has now cautioned Taiwan against holding a referendum on whether the Taiwanese people want to demand that China withdraw the hundreds of missiles aimed at Taiwan and renounce the use of force against it. There is not even a hint of realization from the Bush Administration that there might be some form of contradiction here, or that Bush's Taiwan policies might put the lie to his position that America is the provider of democracy.

Countries that opposed the war in Iraq will not be allowed to bid on reconstruction contracts in Iraq. Of course, the United States has no right under international law to dictate the details of the reconstruction of Iraq, and is also party to international trade agreements which make this prohibition a breach of these agreements. The Agreement on Government Procurement, to which the United States, Canada, France and Germany are parties, prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin in government procurement contracts (the Americans are probably trying to fit under the national security exemption in Article XXIII, which seems to be a stretch). The non-binding but influential and American-supported OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (see also here) also support 'National Treatment', which is the commitment by a country to treat enterprises operating on its territory, but controlled by the nationals of another country, no less favorably than domestic enterprises in similar situations. It is in the interests of American business to encourage non-discrimination in tendering, and against American interests to set a precedent of discrimination on the basis of national origin. The announcement of this odd and unnecessarily edict concerning Iraqi procurement, a gratuitous slap at long-standing American allies in Europe (not to mention Canada), was made by Wolfowitz, and it probably represents part of the Zionist plan to drive a permanent wedge between Europe and the United States. It was unnecessary as it is not likely that most corporations could begin reconstruction work in Iraq given the state of security there, and in any event it will not prevent European participation in subcontacts and supply contracts. Any effect it does have will just raise the cost of reconstruction to American taxpayers. It was a pure insult to America's closest allies. The extra insanity of it is that Bush has just sent James Baker to negotiate with these same European countries over forgiveness of the sovereign loans owed by Iraq. It was going to be difficult for Baker to convince the Europeans to take a haircut on these loans, especially as we do not see the United States agreeing to allow other poor countries off the hook, and everyone knows that the sole reason for the reduction of the loans is simply to allow American corporations to steal more money from Iraq. Baker's job will now be impossible. Americans can also probably kiss goodbye any more financial contributions from any of these countries, putting more of the onus on American taxpayers. There is nothing in Wolfowitz's crazy plan that benefits the United States.

Americans attacked an Afghan house from the air, killing nine children. They apologized. What did they then do? They killed six more children and two adults in a combined air and ground assault on a house. Killing children in air attacks that can't possibly discriminate between enemies and children is the best way to create hatred in the Afghan people.

Israeli commandos and intelligence units are training American Special Forces units in what amounts to the Israeli specialty of targeted assassinations against those Iraqis who are identified as resistance leaders. The Israeli assassinations have been a disastrous failure in Israel, and will prove to be no less disastrous in Iraq. Assassinated leaders are immediately replaced, and the resistance grows with each death. The crazy part is the fact that the Americans are admitting that they are taking assistance from the Israelis on this. Do they not have any idea how this will be received in Iraq? It is like waiving a red flag in front of a bull. This is the influence of Christian Zionist General Jerry Boykin, who considers the Arabs to be some form of vermin, and no doubt likes the fact his men are being trained by the experts in Arab killing. Along with forced Iraqi recognition of Israel, and the gleeful way American and Israeli officials are discussing opening an oil pipeline from Iraq to Haifa, the Israeli targeted assassinations are the best kind of Iraqi resistance recruitment, not to mention al-Qaeda anti-American terrorist recruitment, that I can imagine.

One of the things that we tend to forget about the Bush Administration - something that is lost amongst all the various forms of venality - is that these people are incredibly stupid."