Depleted Uranium

The war's littlest victim - New York Daily News

In early September 2003, Army National Guard Spec. Gerard Darren Matthew was sent home from Iraq, stricken by a sudden illness.

One side of Matthew's face would swell up each morning. He had constant migraine headaches, blurred vision, blackouts and a burning sensation whenever he urinated.

The Army transferred him to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for further tests, but doctors there could not explain what was wrong.

Shortly after his return, his wife, Janice, became pregnant. On June 29, she gave birth to a baby girl, Victoria Claudette.

The baby was missing three fingers and most of her right hand.

Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium in Iraq Born with Deformities Democracy Now! Interview 9/30 (transcript, audio & video)

US forces' use of depleted uranium weapons illegal

British and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction.

DU contaminates land, causes ill-health and cancers among the soldiers using the weapons, the armies they target and civilians, leading to birth defects in children.

DU Resources:
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium
Depleted Uranium In Depth
Depleted Uranium Watch

First Presidential Debate

The first debate between George Bush 2 and John Kerry will be happening tonight live from the University of Miami. I suggest catching it on c-span to avoid the idiot talking heads on the news channels chiming in with their usual crap. If you don't have access to that channel, then PBS is a good second choice. Try not to break your tv with the urge to toss things at it if it turns out to be a wussy debate, thanks to the ridiculous laundry list of stupid rules they both agreed to before doing this. God-forbid we have a free form discussion on live television between two guys who want to run the damn country. They can take shots at each other in all those commercials and at campaign stops, but face to face on live teleivion? Oh no. We apparently can't have that. Obviously there should be common courtesy related ground rules, like, say, not being able to call someone a dumb fuck and make goofy faces at them off camera. Other than that, let them go at it.

Critics assail rule book for presidential debates - Scripps Howard

No props, notes, charts or diagrams. No opening statements. No referencing an audience member during a debate. And no direct candidate-to-candidate questioning.

When President Bush and Sen. John Kerry begin the first of three presidential debates Thursday night, they will follow rules set out in a 30-page document signed by both campaigns that hashes out details ranging from audience members to podium height.

Critics say the rules make the event less of a debate than a 90-minute long spin session that falls woefully short of interaction between the two candidates.

"College debate teams wouldn't consider presidential debates to be real," said Chris Shaw, organizing director of Open Debates, a nonpartisan group that aims to reform the debates. "Real debates have back and forth dialogue."

Debates Already Rigged - American Free Press

The Republican and Democratic parties, fearful of issues promoted by third parties, have rigged the so-called presidential debates, experts told a Washington press conference Sept. 7.

“For the last 16 years, the general election presidential debates have been controlled by a private, tax-exempt corporation—the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)—that has deceptively served the interests of the Republican and Democratic parties at the expense of the American people,” their report said.

“Behind closed doors, negotiators for the national parties jointly draft debate contracts,” it said. They “dictate precisely how the debates will be run—from decreeing who can participate, to selecting who will ask the questions, to ordaining the temperature in the auditorium.”

World on Fire

The best music video I've seen in a long time. Watch it online.
Steal borrow the MP3 here.

The President's Comedy Routine

Yet another great column by Charley Reese.

"Mr. President, the insurgency has spread to the whole country."

"We're making great progress."

"But Mr. President, the attacks against coalition forces have escalated dramatically."

"We're making great progress."

"But Mr. President, all but two percent of the Iraqi people want us to leave."

"We're making great progress."

"And the interim government has no support and in fact can't step outside the Green Zone without being surrounded by American security."

"We're making great progress."

Some are now speculating that the president's solution to the morass in Iraq will be to launch an attack against Iran – after the election, of course. There can be no other reason to sell Israel bunker-buster bombs. The only possible target would be Iran's nuclear reactors. The Iranians would retaliate, and, of course, the United States would join the war in defense of Israel. Widening the war to a country with 60 million people might sound stupid, but with this administration's record of stupid decisions, it's not to be ruled out.

The President's Comedy Routine. Read it. And check out his previous columns there on the side while you're there.

Jackass of the Week: Tony Blair

We were wrong about WMD: Blair - The Austrailian
September 26th 2004

"The fact is, I think what some people want me to do is say sorry for getting rid of Saddam and that I can't say because I don't believe that," Blair added. "I believe the world is a better and safer place without him and his sons running Iraq."

So, the world is a safer place because a moron and his idiot sons were hanging on to power in a country with no WMD and no ties to terrorist groups? Yeah ok.There might have been a good argument that Iraq was a safer place for Iraqis with Saddam gone, but that gets shot to hell with every innocent citizen that is killed or tortured and/or raped at the hands of Coalition personnel. That prison scandal we've all heard about is much worse when you consider the reports detailing how many people being held are civilians picked up for silly things like not having the right ID cards to show at the checkpoints (while hawks boast about how they're now "free"). I guess the raping of women and even children in some cases, along with the infamous torture that we've seen photos of is the way some people go about "winning the hearts and minds" of Iraqis.

Lets review. They dedicded to invade a country on the grounds its dipshit leader had WMD that could be launched in 45 minutes. Well over a year later they still can't find anything and are now starting to admit it (as if they didn't already know back in 2001), despite all those ridiculous polls where it seems many Americans think nukes were already found. Then again a lot of people think Saddam and Osama are the same person; even Donald Rumsfeld (!!!) gets them confused. The Aspratame must have gotten to him. Anyway, we're up to something like 15,000 Iraqi civilians killed, over 1000 Coalition troops killed and Lord knows how many injured and maimed for life. Saddam has been locked up since last December and apparently enjoys snacking on American cookies, while Iraqis have to put up with things like daily bombings, death, a police state, depleted uranium everywhere, power outages and companies like Halliburton that make billions off their general misery. After all that, do they think these people are going to say "thank you"? Would you if you were in their shoes? To them it's probably like "meet the new boss, same as the old boss". Maybe worse since the new boss is dropping bombs and killing more people than the old boss ever did. That doesn't include the UN sanctions against the country that reportedly killed nearly 500,000 Iraqi children throughout the 90s after the first gulf war, according to estimates a few years ago. And they wonder why some of these people are pissed off to the point where they become "insurgents" and fight back. I think they're getting tired of being screwed from every direction and desperate people do desperate things.

No matter how the hawks try to spin the removal of Saddam being a good thing "for the world", the facts are things continue to get worse, for everyone. Countries that think they're next on the hitlist are possibly stocking up on real WMDs. After they saw what happened to Iraq, can you really blame them? Honestly. If a group of street thugs smacked around your next door neighbor and made threats over the fence about you being next, wouldn't you prepare for the worst?

Another quote from the same article:

"The intelligence that we had that he had actual deployable weapons has turned out to be wrong," Blair said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.

Fair enough Tony, you tool. Now how about you and Dubya grow some balls and actually start going after the people that apparently gave you that bad intelligence? Oh wait, W is too busy letting them spy on us while they sell him the same stories of grave threats; this time with "Iraq" replaced with "Iran" or "Syria" (depending on what week it is). What's that old saying that George 2 tried to spit out but messed up? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...."

And so it goes. No wonder Dick Cheney was (allegedly) building a bunker before the Iraq invasion started. Did someone know they were about to kick off World War 3 with this illegal war?

Secure Your Computer

It had to happen sooner or later. You can now get your computer messed up through JPEG files. You know, perhaps the most popular image format? Dangerous Exploit Targets JPEG Flaw. Wonderful. Now I'll always wonder if someone is trying to hack my computer every time I look at porn... err... I mean random internet images like pictures of angry kitties. Yeah. Nevertheless, on the to-do list for this site is an entire section about PC security. I'll get to it some time between next week and 2006. Until then, here are some links to free programs and services that I currently use on my system. Maybe it'll help some of you out. If you're a Mac or Linux user then aside from Shields Up, there's probably nothing to see here. Please stand to the side and don't laugh too loudly. Thanks.

ZoneAlarm Pro
ZoneAlarm is a firewall program that lets you choose which programs have permission to access the net, among other things. This program should be required for every PC, especially those on broadband connections. They've got a freeware version, but the pro is well worth the money for the peace of mind and additional features. Windows XP has a built in firewall, but it's basically crap. You're more secure with this running. Personally I have both the built in XP firewall and ZoneAlarm going on my system.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Why pay for an anti-virus program when you can get one that does everything the popular ones do for free? I dumped Norton Anti-Virus for AVG back in February when I downloaded it on a whim and did a scan. To my surprise it caught some suspicious files that Norton (updated weekly) missed. That was enough for me and Norton got deleted. You can also configure AVG to scan incoming and outgoing e-mails, and quite frankly, something that scans files on the computer and e-mail is basically all most people need. As with all anti-virus programs, be sure to have it download the latest definitions at least once a week so you're protected against new crap that comes out constantly.

Spybot Search & Destroy
Boy is this one a (computer) life saver. I've seen people actually prepare to toss out their computer for a new one because "it's slow" or "it's broken". They're usually Internet Explorer users that have a ridiculous amount of adware and junkware installed onto their system, without knowing it. 9 times out of 10, running this program cleans things right up. This should be run at least once a week, and be sure to check for updates before running the scanner. Also beware of similar programs charging you money to do the same thing (you see ads for them everywhere). Many of them are a complete rip off of this great freebie.

Ad-Aware SE Personal
This program basically does the same thing as Spybot, except sometimes it catches things that Spybot misses (or vice versa). So a lot of people install and run both programs (one after the other) which makes for a pretty good tag team against a lot of the junk on your PC. Works for me.

WinPatrol
This little program sits quietly in the background and next to your clock in the form of a puppy icon. Scotty the Windows Watch Dog will bark and let you know whenever a program tries to add something to your computer startup, attach itself to Internet Explorer as a "helper" object, and much more in the form of a dialog box which you can select yes or no. Simple enough. Highly recommended program. There the freeware version (which works fine) and a Plus version which gives you access to detailed information about programs running on your system. You can get that type of info on Google for free though.

Spyware Blaster
Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted pests. Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox. Download and run this one every couple weeks to get the latest updates. It's freeware.

Shields Up!
This is actually a web site created by Steve Gibson. The Internet's quickest, most popular, reliable and trusted, free Internet security checkup and information service. Go here now and scan your system for security risks. This also comes in handy for testing your firewall program for leaks.

Gibson also makes some great little free tools to test your computer and patch dangerous holes. Here are 3 of his most popular tools:
UnPlug n' Pray / DCOMbobulator / Shoot The Messenger

Firefox
I went into this one in a post a couple days ago. I've had it with Internet Explorer and this browser is just as good, if not better. More importantly, it's a hell of a lot safer from most, if not all, of these constant security risks. Notice the new JPEG problem mentioned at the beginning of this post exploits the way some Microsoft programs..... like Internet Explorer handles graphic files.

Windows Update
Yes, Windows Update. If you're using XP, you should be hitting this site at least once a month to check for the latest updates that fixes problems with Windows (especially if you don't have automatic updates turned on). Most of these problems like Universal Plug and Play and the JPEG flaw (to name a few) do get fixed, but people who don't bother to download the updates are still vulnerable sitting ducks.

While you're there, you should also grab Windows XP Service Pack 2 and cross your fingers that it doesn't mess things up too bad when you install it (back up your system and important files first). That major update, which Microsoft released in August, fixes a lot of security holes in Windows in one swoop, and adds some decent new security functions. If you want full details and screen shots of Service Pack 2 (which is free for all XP users) check out Paul Thurrott's great review. One thing that's nice about SP2 is that it'll kind of force people to keep their systems updated with the new Security Center Dashboard. It'll bug you if your virus updates are out of date, your firewall isn't running, etc. I suppose it's an improvement, especially for people who don't think much (or care) about PC security.

Finally, as mentioned above, back up your important files and/or system on a regular basis. Just about all versions of Windows (and any good operating system) has a built-in program that allows you to backup things you select with a few clicks. There are also some nice shareware programs out there, such as Acronis True Image (which I personally use) that also gets the job done. Larger hard drives are getting cheaper, as are DVD burners and discs (which can hold over 4 gigs of files). Portable media storage like flash drives and memory cards are also coming down in price and have more than enough reusable space to hold important files. If a DVD burner or a second hard drive is out of your budget at the moment, then there is still the trusty CD-R route. Just about every PC built in the last few years has a CD burner. If not, you can buy one for as low as 30 bucks now. Blank brand name CD-Rs that hold up to 700 MB of data can be purchased at Staples or any other decent store for as low as 9 bucks for a pack of 50. Having a good backup plan will save you a lot of grief if a virus slips in and wrecks your system, or your computer just breaks on its own (and you know it will eventually.... they always do).

The free advice and common sense in this post has been brought to you in part by this guy and the letter Q.

Come Clean

Here's a great educational site, based out of the UK. The graphic says it all. If you're interested in learning move, visit their website at comeclean.org.uk.

For some flash fun, you can hunt the world for weapons of mass destruction on their site and learn some things. Many people I've talked to are surprised when they learn who does and who doesn't have nukes.

Get Firefox

After being an Internet Explorer user for many years, I finally gave up on that browser this summer after the almost daily articles detailing new security holes and threats. Exploits that, naturally, hackers and spammers jumped all over. The replacement? A nice little program called Firefox.

I cannot recommend this browser enough and wont bother listing all the benefits. All I'll say is it can do just about everything Explorer does, and much more. Hit the web site at getfirefox.com and read the features for yourself. They just released version 1.0PR and started a campaign called Spread Firefox aimed at getting 1 million downloads in 10 days. They hit the million mark.... in about 72 hours.

Both browsers can co-exist on your system peacefully, which makes it very easy to try Firefox or use both at the same time. With the way Microsoft's browser is so attached to the general operation of the Windows XP system (especially with the Windows Update service), it's not recommended that Explorer be completely uninstalled anyway.

On a side note, Internet Explorer has some new security enhancements..... if you download and install Windows XP Service Pack 2. It's ok, but Firefox is still better in my humble opinion. Especially considering some users have had trouble when installing SP2, along with the emergence of yet another flaw in that update. Ugh. You Mac and Linux users out there (stop laughing at us), Firefox is available for those systems as well. Take back the web.

Freudian Slip?

Our president speaking with authority (mp3 / 45k) about how the world views our work in Iraq.

Where is the anger? Where is the rage?

As reports continually pour out of Iraq describing the horrible political mess we have made in that country and the daily bloody incidents that result in the killing and maiming of both American soldiers and Iraqi partisans and innocent civilians and

As numerous websites show photographs of the first 1000 American soldiers killed in Iraq combat in Iraq;

I am amazed at the lack of anger, the lack of rage, on the part of so-called "decent," "caring" American citizens.

All we seem to be able to do is discuss John Kerry's record in Vietnam. [Read More...]

Also check out War Is A Racket, by Major General Smedley Butler.

The World's Shortest Blog

Here's a cool idea. "The world's shortest blog" is offering up a cash bounty to the first person who can ask George W "just one question" in a public forum. What is that question? Click the link to find out.

http://onesimplequestion.blogspot.com

So is W coming to your town? Maybe you can collect $2000+ (so far) if you ask him the question. You can also donate a couple bucks and contribute to the bounty.

American Idiot

You just have to shake your head at some things.

Three Years After 9/11: More than 40% of Americans Still Think Saddam Did It. Media failure or willful public indifference to the truth? By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK (September 10, 2004) -- The latest Newsweek poll, released this week, revealed that 42% of Americans continue to believe that Saddam Hussein's regime was "directly involved" in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, despite all the evidence to the contrary. That's nearly as many as the 44% who disagree. [Read more...]

That's amazing. I guess it's an improvement though. It was 69% in a Washington Post poll last year. Sigh. Another article about this from the Boston Globe:

As war toll climbs, Bush still deceives

"Despite the facts, America remains roughly split over whether the war was just, which Bush hopes will be just enough in November. All his reasons for invading Iraq are dead. The 1,000th soldier is dead. The downed cables of Iraq sizzle in the street. The Bush presidency hangs on whether he can keep Saddam a live wire, avoiding the fatal shock of truth." [Read more...]

On a related note, head over to the jukebox, steal the new Green Day song, "American Idiot" and crank it. You may also enjoy a nice little acoustic song called "The Pied Piper of Crawford" written and performed by Sheryl Zettner from a cool blog called A Thought Vacuum. Both songs are in MP3 format.

Pearl Harbor, 9/11 and the Coming Outrage

A great article about Pearl Harbor and September 11th has been posted over at antiwar.com. Highly recommended reading.

Pearl Harbor, 9/11 and the Coming Outrage
By Heather Wokusch

As sick as it seems, it wouldn't be the first time a U.S. administration has furthered its own political ambitions through attacks on American citizens.

Take Pearl Harbor. The official story (long ago discredited, yet still touted in Hollywood B-movies) was that Japanese forces caught the U.S. totally off guard when they brutally attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.

It was probably a lie. Many historians believe that members of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration actually knew about the impending assault, and just let the carnage roll in order to get the U.S. public primed for war with Japan.

In his 1982 book Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath, Pulitzer-prize winner John Toland reveals that almost everything the Japanese were planning to do "was known to the United States" on the morning of the attack, via intercepted messages never communicated to commanders at Pearl Harbor. He cites the case of U.S. counterintelligence translator Dorothy Edgers, who uncovered critical Japanese messages days before the assault, including "a scheme of signals regarding the movement and exact position of warships and carriers in Pearl Harbor." But Edgers' boss, Alwin Kramer, seemed "more annoyed than electrified" at the discovery and ordered her to "run along home." Unbeknownst to Edgers, Kramer was part of the subterfuge.

We all know what happened next. Japanese bombs rained down on the U.S. naval vessels and aircraft poised like sitting ducks at Pearl Harbor, and the ensuing bloodbath left over 2,400 U.S. service members and civilians dead. The following day, Congress voted overwhelmingly to give FDR all of the resources he wanted to wage war with Japan.

The parallels with 9/11 are stunning. [Read more...]

After reading that article, check out the Historic Deceptions page on this site for some great links about Pearl Harbor and September 11th.

Sunday Bloody Sunday, by The Party Party

Another great musical creation by The Party Party has George W singing U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday". It even uses some samples from his real speeches. Check it out.

If you dig that, you might also like the hilarious "Dick Is A Killer", another computerized voice sample type song about Dick Cheney that spread across the net like crazy a few months ago. Get the MP3s and save them forever.

The offcial web site of the creative genius (or geniuses?) that created these is at thepartyparty.com. Another song about propaganda television, called KGB-TV, uses voice samples of Laurie Dhue and Bill O'Reilly of Faux News.

By the way, the Jukebox section of this very site has some more cool tunes for downloads.

Downsize DC

Want to get a little activism done today? How about going over to the Downsize DC site and sending a petition to the monkeys in Washington protesting how government has grown. All the talk from certain politicians about being "conservative" and working for "smaller government" seems to be just that, talk. An excerpt from the Downsize DC mission statement:

We believe the federal government has grown too large, too intrusive, and too expensive. We believe in constitutional limits, small government, civil liberties, federalism, and low taxes.

We want to end laws and programs that don't work, cause harm, and violate the Constitution. We want to restore the full force of the 9th and 10th amendments, which reserve most social functions to the people and the states.

Our goal is to reduce the federal government to a tiny fraction of its current size, decentralize power, end deficits, federal borrowing, and monetary inflation, and eliminate most federal taxation and the IRS. [Read more....]

Do you agree? Sign up and send a free petition (which only takes a few minutes) or make a small donation to their campaigns. You'll feel better in the morning.

Downsize DC - http://www.downsizedc.org
Big government harms you, hurts your family and injures your neighbors.

RFID Tags - The People Say No

c|net posted another good article concerning RFID tags. "When it comes to radio frequency identification tags for humans, the people have spoken. They hate it."

Read the entire thing over at the c|net site. After you're done, check out the RFID section of this site for more articles, links and video clips. If you value your privacy, this technology is one to look out for. I link c|net member Liza Wakabayashi put it best when she wrote:

Why not? The article mentioned that people are using it to track and identfy their dogs and cats and prisons want to use them to track inmates. If we accept that why not accept them ourselves, in our bodies. After all we are like dogs and cats wholly owned property of the federal government, so they should be able to track and indentify their property right? Also since the entire country is now one big USA-PATRIOT act prison, we are all inmates. I fail to see the objection to haveing the RFID's implated in every citizen. At least it's not an unnattractive barcode tattoo on our foreheads. Come on John Ascroft, its for our safety and protect our freedoms right? Sign me up.

Touch Screen Voting Problems

Critics warn of post-election problems if no paper trail exists

The Venezuelan vote was conducted using electronic voting machines that generate a voter-verified paper trail. Chavez's opposition claimed that the victory, in which 59 percent voted to keep Chavez in power, was rigged. But international election monitors were able to conduct an audit by comparing the paper record to the electronic vote tallies. "Without a paper trail to audit, there would have been no way to reach any closure on this situation," said one American observer on the scene in Caracas, Venezuela's capital. "There would be no paper trail, and you would be left with the assertion that some kind of manipulation happened. You have a safe bet that something like that is going to happen in November" in the United States.

Check out the section of this site dedicated to electronic voting. Watch the segment the Daily Show did a while back which I was able to capture (Windows Media). Did you know Diebold makes a lot of commercial ATM machines? Notice how those can keep accurate track of our money, are virtually unhackable and spit out receipts left and right, but their voting machines can't. Interesting.

Spies at the Pentagon

As a follow-up to this post, here are some recent articles about the espionage being uncovered at the Pentagon. Apparently this has been going on since 2001. Longer if you go back to the stuff that happened during the Clinton administration, the Bush 1.0 administration and going all the way back to the 60s.

The Mother of All Scandals
Bush Administration Briefed About Spy Probe Early
FBI Probed of Pentagon Extends to Iran Stance
Neocons Preparing the Sequel to Plan of Attack
Traitorous Conservatives
Serving Two Flags

Friends in High Places
Israeli spy nest in the U.S. - Ashcroft says: "Don't Arrest Them!"

It's interesting to me that a) this story isn't making bigger headlines in the mainstream media, b) George W spoke to to AIPAC on May 18th while apparently fully aware of the FBI investigation according to USA Today (George should know better, considering his father apparently admitted back in 1991 that he had been blackmailed by AIPAC) and c) the fact that Mr. Department of Justice John Ashcroft basically said leave them alone is baffling. WTF? On top of that, you have AIPAC saying either that "it's no big deal" because the US and Israel are "friends", or that it's another conspiracy set out to demonize the Jewish people of the world and, of course, they wont stand for it. Ahh the old race card.

First of all, it is a big deal. Especially if people are in the God-damn Pentagon influencing what countries are on the list to invade and American lives (and safety) are at stake. People don't like when you invade their countries based on lies. Neither do other countries who are friends with countries on the invasion list and happen really have nukes. "Support the troops" the warhawks and their supporters say repeatedly to the point it's drilled into your head. Yeah, lets support them going into a country and dying in the thousands, because a foriegn nation that is supposed to be our friend has strong influence over our politicians to the point they can basically say "jump" and our elected monkeys say "how high?"

Second, when you're caught read handed (again) by the FBI no less, trying to say the investigation itself is "anti-Semitic" is not only sad, but kind of amusing because of how much that tactic is used. It's really amusing when you consider how many Jewish people don't like what these few extremists have done in their name. When you think about it, it's really not much different than how real Conservatives feel the Republican party has been hijacked or compromised by extremists here at home. Hell, Pat Buchanan, who many would consider an "ultra Republican Conservative", seems to be pissed off about it to the point that he wrote a couple books and started a magazine. He appeared on Meet The Press today, by the way.

If the A in AIPAC stood for "Arab", they would have been rounded up, shipped off to Guantanamo and had their offices closed before the story made national headlines in all the mainstream media outlets the next morning.

Freelance journalist Laura Rozen is on top of this story. In fact, I believe she discovered the name of the spy before it was published elsewhere. Her War and Peace blog is a great source of news and links on the subject and highly recommended, if you're actually interested.

Censored!

That get your attention? :) Head over to TruthOut and read the 10 Big Stories Ignored By National Media.

1. Wealth inequality in 21st Century threatens economy and democracy
2. Ashcroft vs. the human rights law that holds corporations accountable
3. Bush Administration manipulates science and censors scientists
4. High Uranium levels found in troops and civilians
5. The wholesale giveaway of our natural resources
6. The sale of electoral politics
7. Conservative organization drives judicial appointments
8. Secrets of Cheney's energy task force come to light
9. Widow brings RICO case against U.S. government for 9/11
10. New nuke Plants: Taxpayers support, industry profits

The list was compiled by Project Censored, which has their own web site with even more censored stories at projectcensored.org. Check out the 2003-2004 list of 25 censored stories. You might also be interested in the 2002-2003 list.

Some Amazing People

Sheryl Oring has a project called "I wish to say...". She was posted at a public square in NYC this week with an antique typewriter, an old style 48-star US flag and a business suit straight out of the 50s.

Anyone was allowed to sit at her little desk and write a message for the president, which she types out for them on a postcard. When finished, she gives it to send off to the Whitehouse. She even provides the postage! I think it's a great idea. "Productive Art" I guess some would call it. By the way, she made ABC News' "Person of the Week" today. Read the good article there and watch the video if you have an ABC News account or whatever.

Kudos to the brave ladies of Code Pink who crashed (and of course were then tossed out of) the Republican Convention at Madison Square Garden. More than once! According to an interview on Democracy Now, they also caused some trouble at the Democratic Convention in Boston. My kind of girls. Give them all a hard time. Call them all out on their policies that benefit the ultra rich, corporations, campaign contributors and war profiteers, while screwing over everyone else.

Finally, congrats to the organizers of the protest in the picture to the left. Talk about getting a point across without the usual tactics of bullhorns and chanting. It was a very creative way to symbolize all the jobs that have been lost in this country the last 3 years.

Three-Mile Long 'Unemployment Line' Give Bush The Pink Slip
Quicktime Video of the line from Truthout.org

50% of NYC Says U.S. Govt Knew

Half of New Yorkers Believe U.S. Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9/11 Attacks and "Consciously Failed" To Act; 66% Call For New Probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York's Attorney General, New Zogby International Poll Reveals

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040830120349841

Interesting. Especially since it's a Zogby poll, and not a "conspiracy theory" type of survey done on a web site or something. Truthout.org also has a good article about this. After reading that, head on over and read the Historic Deceptions page on the site.

Bush, Kerry and Israel

It's pretty much a given that the wars will continue if Bush is re-elected, but sadly, I think the wars will also continue if Kerry get elected. He's already talked about "being tough" on countries like Iran and Syria, and that he would have gone to Iraq if given the same information Bush got. In fact, he voted in support of the war.

On top of that, he said if he's elected he'll continue to be loyal to Israel, which is one of the major reasons most of the world seems to be pissed off at Bush and the US in general. Those pesky double standards and all. Add in the latest espionage charges that Israel supporters within the Pentagon had a hand in pushing the lies about Iraq WMDs (and are now trying to get the US to get Iran) and you've got a massive scandal here that most Americans don't seem to know about, or care about.

Israel to US: Now for Iran
"I think the safest thing for Israel is to let the Americans do it" - Ira Sharkansky, Political Science Professor

Oh really? Last I checked, the Israeli government had an army, gets billions of dollars of US taxpayer money every year, and have about 400 nukes tucked away. I guess they're too busy building that wall, destroying homes, building illegal settlements and expanding it's borders, so they turn to their "friends" in the US government. Friends that apparently they also like to spy on and manipulate. Go figure. Nonetheless, our leaders then ship our sons, daughters and friends out to do the dirty work. They're even considering reinstating the draft. By the way, this is not limited to Bush Jr and Republicans. It goes back to Clinton and many others in the US Congress (both parties), as well as the media. Is there some sort of blackmail going on here? Seriously. If it was an Arab or any other group caught spying, chances are they would have been rounded up and had their offices closed down before the story hit the papers. Israel gets caught spying (again) and no one seems to give a shit. Deny deny deny, downplay it or just don't report it. Americans don't need to know about such things.

The Israeli Spy Ring (whatreallyhappened.com)
Israeli Spies Exposed (alternet.org)

I feel for the innocent Israeli people. Many of whom are in the same boat as many Americans and don't like what their government and/or Jewish extremists have done in their name. Some are even refusing to join the army and are paying the price for it with jail time. Like many Americans out protesting this week in NYC and anyone else, quite frankly, that has a brain, they know all these policies of endless wars, double standards and the oppression/killing of innocent people in mass to get a few extremists, are not making them, as a whole, any safer. If anything, it's creating more "enemies" willing to fight back. I think some of this is being done on purpose to be honest, but more on that later.

Yesterday, there was another suicide bombing involving two buses in Beer Sheva Israel. The US media said it's the first incident of terrorism as things have been "calm" for the last 6 months. However, Israel killed 436 Palestinians in past 'quiet' six months. "None referred to Israel's military assault on Rafah in May 2004, when Israeli forces killed 44 Palestinians, including 18 children, and destroyed 400 homes, and Beit Hanoun from June to August."

Notice how the mainstream media in America either doesn't report on these incidents that are just as bad, or they bury the stories in the back of the newspapers. And they wonder why much of the world scoffs at America when our politicians talk about the horrible things Saddam and (insert enemy of the week here) do to their people, while ignoring (and some would say even supporting) the similar things that the Israeli government constantly perpetrates on the Palestinians.