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December 3, 2003 Wednesday |
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Graphic by OZ |
Toll on U.S. troops in Iraq grows as wounded rolls approach
10,000
BY ROGER ROY The Orlando Sentinel 11-28-03
ORLANDO, Fla. - (KRT) - Nearly 10,000 U.S. troops have been killed, wounded,
injured or become ill enough to require evacuation from Iraq since the war
began, the equivalent of almost one Army division, according to the
Pentagon...
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Iraq
contract award delayed again
Houston Chronicle, TX - Dec 1,
2003
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has again pushed back the
deadline for replacing Halliburton Co.'s work assignment in Iraq with a pair
of competitively bid contracts.... |
US to delay releasing names of GI casualties
Arizona Daily Star, AZ - 12-3-03
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon plans to delay releasing the names
of killed or injured military members for at least a day after notifying
their families under a ... |
While this CEO White House is busy
cutting deals, Osama bin Laden is probably giddy with delight we are
distracted in Iraq.
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Money and Medicine
By
Dan Tyler
A recent headline in
the local daily caught my attention: “Flu Outbreak May Be Shot In The Arm
For Hospital Profits.” The article appeared on the business page and thus
had a pro-business slant, as in, the more people get sick and the sicker
they get the more money for HCA, the world’s largest for-profit hospital
chain and one of Nashville’s biggest employers.
Click here |
www.politicalstrikes.com
"He gave quite a stirring speech to the troops while in
Baghdad and said we will stay until the job is done, and then hopped on a plane
and went back to Texas." —Jay Leno
FYI: Vanity Fair is not on the
web, you must buy the magazine. I'm running out right after I post today's
edition and buying a copy. Last month's issue was quite good.
Graphic by Eric Maietta
Ralph Nader has a new Nader 2004 Exploratory Committee
website with this e-mail address
info@naderexplore04.org . I wrote him this e-mail:
Don't run for President.
You won't win, and we don't need another four years of George Bush.
How about telling your readers to send Ralph Nader an e-mail telling him not
to run?
English
Ask and ye shall receive. Thanks for
writing.
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LaHood: Hussein's capture imminent
Pantagraph Staff 12-2-03
BLOOMINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood held his thumb and
forefinger slightly apart and said, "We're this close" to catching Saddam
Hussein.
Once that's accomplished, Iraqi resistance will fall apart, said the
five-term Republican congressman from Peoria who serves on the House
Intelligence Committee.
A member of The Pantagraph editorial board -- not really expecting an answer
-- asked LaHood for more details, saying, "Do you know something we don't?"
"Yes I do," replied LaHood....
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I found this article on
www.buzzflash.com and they called it
December Surprise? Maybe The Bush Cartel Has Secretly Been
Bunking Saddam with Manuel Noriega. A Nice Christmas Surprise.
"Donations to All Hat No
Cattle is a good thing." -Martha Stewart Casey
click here
Muckraking writer chips away at US icons he once served
Seattle Times, WA - Nov 30, 2003
Roger Morris was on duty one weekend in the spring of 1969, his boss, Henry
Kissinger, away in New York, when he received a package from FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover....
Lisa
Lately I've been reading articles on the web that have given me a distinctively
uneasy feeling. These articles are from diverse viewpoints on diverse websites.
In essence they are saying that George Bush will lose next years presidential
election by several orders of magnitude greater than the last one and yet will
be returned to office by a landslide victory in the Electoral College, a task
facilitated by the majority of Republican governors. This made no apparent sense
to me so I did a google search on the subject.
It turns out, yes; the state governors do have an inordinate and unhealthy
effect on presidential elections. It is they who select the members of the
Electoral College who are then certified by the secretary of state. I believe it
is the later explanation that etched Katherine Harris on the national
consciousness after the '00 contest. Should the Republican governors 'stack' the
Electoral College with members sympathetic to the Bush there is no chance of
removing him from office through the election process.
Should such an event take place, and given the tepid response of the opposition
party there is no reason to believe it won't, I believe it will provoke a
firestorm greater than the aftermath of the attempt of the colonial 'terrorists'
(to use Bush's term) to brew tea in Boston Harbor.
Conversely, however, I believe the country faces a far greater threat than
retaining Bush, his cronies and policies (if such a thing is possible.) The last
three of four election cycles have seen the Republicans steadily picking and
probing the law to see what they can get away with. Upon sensing no opposition
they have become bolder each time. If they pull this one off it will sound the
death knell of the American Experiment.
Today there is a massive effort to 'get out the vote' to defeat George Bush.
People are being that told that their vote counts and it is necessary to get to
the polls. I know this has been tried before with mixed results. This time,
however, the people are more united against a single man and his policies than
at any other time in our nations history. Should American's go to the polls in
record numbers to defeat Bush only to have their will thwarted by the archaic
Electoral College, these people will not be back. It will do no good for the
Democrats or any opposition party to say 'We'll get them next time', there will
be no next time.
Oracle Jones
Dear Oracle,
Thanks for writing. Bartcop
suggests that every Democrat send in an absentee ballot, but my fear is they
won't count those either.
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" We ' re air force pilots
, not mafia"
Guardian, UK - 12-3-03
Israel's F-16
and Black Hawk refuseniks say why they
could not obey
illegal orders and kill innocent Palestinians
For two months, a rebel group of Israeli Black Hawk
helicopter and F-16 fighter pilots has been denounced as traitors for saying
they will no longer bomb Palestinian cities... |
All I like about Joe Lieberman
anymore is his smile and voice.
"The trip, which took place while the president's family
was gathered in Crawford, Texas, was the result of six weeks of meticulous
planning. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice explained the reason for
the intense secrecy [clip of Rice saying Iraq that it was a dangerous place].
Dangerous? You should see Thanksgiving in Crawford, Texas. You got Jeb Bush
grabbing Percodan out of his daughter's mouth, there's the other brother Neil
who is getting a divorce. Who knows what he picked up from the whores in Hong
Kong? And you got Jenna into the cooking sherry. You know grandma is like 'Would
you all shut the f--- up, I'm trying to have a nice Thanksgiving.'" —Jon
Stewart on the Daily Show
Thanks Andrew B. and Casey.
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www.buckfush.com
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Former Montana governor says bill isn't giveaway to timber industry
WRIC TV, VA -12-3-03
Washington-AP -- Former Montana Governor Mark Racicot (RAHS'-koh) says it's
"flat untrue."
Racicot is denying the forest bill getting President Bush's signature today
is a giveaway to the timber industry....
...But environmentalists say the bill is one big missed opportunity. Earth
Justice says the legislation's "major failure" is that it doesn't force
various agencies to work closely with communities who need help... Spokesman
Marty Hayden says 85 percent of areas at risk aren't within federal land,
and this bill won't help them at all. |
Dubya is sure busy paying back his
campaign contributors.
Today in History December 3
1621 Galileo invents the telescope.
1818 - Illinois (from an American Indian word meaning
‘tribe of superior men’) is the name of the 21st state to enter the United
States of America.
1922 - The first successful Technicolor motion picture,
"The Toll of the Sea", was shown at the Rialto Theatre in New York City.
1955 - Elvis Presley’s first release on RCA Victor
Records was announced. No, it wasn’t "Hound Dog" or "Heartbreak Hotel". The
first two sides were actually purchased from Sam Phillips of Sun Records:
"Mystery Train" and "I Forgot to Remember to Forget". Elvis was described by his
new record company as “The most talked about personality in recorded music in
the last 10 years.”
1967 - The world’s first successful heart transplant was
performed. Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the operation at Cape Town, South
Africa.
1984 - The world’s worst industrial accident occurred
when gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. The deadly gas,
methyl isocyanate, killed over two thousand people, and injured more than
200,000.
www.internetweekly.org
Survivor, Texas-Style
Network TV is
reported to be developing a "Texas version" of "Survivor," the recent popular TV
show.
Contestants
must travel from Amarillo through Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and
back to Amarillo, through San Marcos and Lubbock. Each will be driving a Volvo
with a bumper sticker that reads: "I'm for Gore, I'm gay, and I'm here to take
your guns."
The first
contestant to complete the round trip is the winner.
The above joke can apply to my neck of the woods.
The long shadow of the Moon fell across the continent of
Antarctica on November 23rd, during the second solar eclipse of 2003. (NASA/HO)
Peace.
