December 8, 2005
New Grand Jury in CIA Leak Case Hears From Prosecutor
Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's decision to enlist a new grand jury comes as he continues to investigate possible criminal charges against senior White House adviser Karl Rove. Rove faces possible legal consequences for not telling investigators for months that he had provided information about CIA operative Valerie Plame to Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper in July 2003.

December 6, 2005
Wells Fargo Teaches Ford a Lesson
As many people now know, Ford Motors is in the middle of a public affairs fiasco. Last week, after a meeting with the ultra-right wing American Family Association (AFA), Ford announced that it would abruptly pull all its advertising from gay publications. Ford's total capitulation to the AFA and its homophobic demands was accomplished by former members of the Bush White House. Why is this not surprising?

December 6, 2005
U.S. shifts to ban cruelty to detainees abroad
KIEV (Reuters) - The United States explicitly banned its interrogators around the world from treating detainees inhumanely in a policy shift made public on Wednesday under pressure from Europe and the U.S. Congress.

December 7, 2005
US Loses Terror Trials (4 men, 51 indictments)
"There was not one guilty verdict in 51 counts for four of these men," a lawyer for Mr. Al-Arian, Linda Moreno, told reporters. "They didn't connect all the dots," one woman on the jury said. "A lot of it, I felt it was hearsay."

December 7, 2005
House GOP Delays Decision on DeLay
WASHINGTON (CBS/AP)- House Republicans have decided, at least until the new year, to focus on policy instead of Tom DeLay's political future, CBS News chief political correspondent Gloria Borger reports.

December 6, 2005
Lieberman: War Propagandist for Bush
Even more categorically than the Republican president, the Democratic senator portrayed the US occupation in Iraq as a war between good and evil, declaring that the US military was fighting on the side of 27 million Iraqis against 10,000 terrorists. Why 27 million Iraqis should need 150,000 heavily armed US troops to assist them in such an absurdly one-sided fight, Lieberman did not explain.

December 6, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Rumsfeld Asks Commanders for Clear Rules on Torture
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has ordered military commanders to come up with clear rules for how U.S. troops around the world should respond if they witness mistreatment of detainees by other forces outside the United States, a senior defense official said yesterday.

December 6, 2005
Ford can't please anybody
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Ford Motor Co. faced sharp criticism from gay and lesbian advocacy groups for agreeing to stop advertising in gay-themed publications in the face of a boycott by the conservative American Family Association, according to a report Tuesday.

December 4, 2005
Gold hits 22-year high on fear of inflation
After years of "who cares?" status, gold is very much back on the investment map. Even ordinary investors are talking about the run-up in gold prices to a 22-year high.

December 6, 2005
Pentagon, law schools square off over gays
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court demonstrated deep skepticism Tuesday that universities should be allowed to turn away military recruiters and still accept federal funds.

December 6, 2005
German files landmark suit against CIA over secret detention
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US rights group filed a lawsuit against the CIA on behalf of a German who alleges he was wrongfully abducted in Europe and sent to Afghanistan for anti-terrorism interrogation.

December 6, 2005
U.S. Admits Botched German Detention
BERLIN Dec 6, 2005 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that the United States has admitted making a mistake in the case of a German national who claimed he was wrongfully imprisoned by the CIA.

December 5, 2005
10 POW's Tortured in Secret Prisons
All but one of these 11 high-value al Qaeda prisoners were subjected to the harshest interrogation techniques in the CIA's secret arsenal, the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" authorized for use by about 14 CIA officers.

December 5, 2005
List of POW's held in Secret Prisons
A list of 12 high-value targets (POW's) housed by the CIA:
Abu Zubaydah: Held first in Thailand then Poland
Ibn Al-Shaykh al-Libi: Held in Poland. Previously held in Pakistan/Afghanistan
Abdul Rahim al-Sharqawi: Held in Poland
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri: Held in Poland
Ramzi Binalshibh: Held in Poland
Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman: Held in Poland
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed: Held in Poland
Waleed Mohammed bin Attash: Held in Poland
Hambali: In U.S. custody. Kept isolated from other high-value targets. Hassan Ghul: Held in Poland. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani: Held in Poland
Abu Faraj al-Libbi: Held in Poland

December 5, 2005
Americans Want Different Type of President Next Time
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Three in five Americans want the next U.S. president to be completely different from incumbent George W. Bush, according to a poll by Time magazine.

December 4, 2005
Bush's Speech on Iraq Was Poll Driven
Despite the president's oft-stated aversion to polls, Dr. Feaver was recruited after he and Duke colleagues presented the administration with an analysis of polls about the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004. They concluded that Americans would support a war with mounting casualties on one condition: that they believed it would ultimately succeed.

December 5, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Political appointees overruled voting rights lawyers
But The Washington Post's Dan Eggen reported last week that the Justice Department has been suppressing for nearly two years a 73-page memo in which six lawyers and two analysts in the voting rights section, including the group's chief lawyer, unanimously concluded that the Texas redistricting plan of 2003 illegally diluted the votes of blacks and Hispanics in order to ensure a Republican majority in the state's Congressional delegation.

December 5, 2005
Corruption
Ethics Panels in Congress Are Ignoring Ethics Violations
The House ethics committee, the panel responsible for upholding the chamber's ethics code, has been virtually moribund for the past year, handling only routine business despite a wave of federal investigations into close and potentially illegal relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists.

December 5, 2005
Congress's $70 Billion Tax Cut Pits Rich Against Super-Rich
House and Senate lawmakers are divided over how to structure a tax cut of as much as $70 billion. The House will vote this week to extend for two years the 15 percent tax rate on dividends and most capital gains, which primarily benefits millionaires. The Senate last month adopted a measure that protects 14 million people, most earning between $200,000 and $500,000, from paying higher taxes as a result of the alternative minimum tax.

December 5, 2005
An Impeachable Offense- Lying
Iraq VP Disputes Bush on Training of Forces
DUBAI (AP) The training of Iraqi security forces has suffered a big "setback" in the last six months, with the army and other forces being increasingly used to settle scores and make other political gains, Iraqi Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer said Monday. Al-Yawer disputed contentions by U.S. officials, including President Bush, that the training of security forces was gathering speed, resulting in more professional troops.

December 4, 2005
GOP Pushes for More Debt
Last month, the leaders put off an attempt to pass the tax bill because of resistance from lawmakers who were reluctant to vote for the cuts so quickly after approving reduced spending for Medicaid, food stamps and other programs aimed at the poor.

December 1, 2005
Two U.S. Allies Leaving Iraq, More May Go
VIENNA, Austria - Two of America's allies in Iraq are withdrawing forces this month and a half-dozen others are debating possible pullouts or reductions, increasing pressure on Washington as calls mount to bring home U.S. troops.

December 4, 2005
Bush lied: Foreign Fighters
The study said the insurgency, comprised of nationalists, members of Saddam Husseins toppled regime and foreign Islamic fighters, showed no sign of losing steam 32 months after the US-led invasion. While Washington has billed Iraq as the central front in its war on terror, White said foreign jihadists represented only 5-7 percent of the insurgency and did not account for the majority of attacks or fatalities.

December 5, 2005
How much torture is OK?
IT IS A shocking sign of the times that we are having a debate about the appropriateness of torture. Some would say that it's a sign of our democracy's moral decline; others, of the desperate times that have driven us to desperate measures. Either way, those of us who do not want the free world to lose its soul to terrorism must stand up and be counted.

December 5, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake
Ambassador Daniel R. Coats informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public.

December 5, 2005
An Impeachable Offense - Lying
9/11 Panel Gives Bush and Congress "more F's than A's"
Meeting for the last time since being appointed by Congress in 2002, commission members gave the government "more F's than A's" among the 41 grades measuring progress on security recommendations they issued last year.

December 5, 2005
Comptroller General Predicts Fiscal Crisis
Walker said America's unfunded liabilities were $20 trillion at the end of fiscal 2000 and are at $46 trillion today. He blamed a lack of leaders willing to rise above partisan politics.

December 5, 2005
Anti Gay Group Forces Ford to Drop Ads in Gay Media
The antigay American Family Association claimed a cultural victory on Thursday and called off its threatened boycott of Ford Motor Co. On Friday, Ford spokesman Mike Moran confirmed to Advocate.com that the company will stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications but insisted it was strictly a business decision.

December 4, 2005
U.S. slides into cycle of skepticism
Finally, a brackish tide of pessimism has descended upon the country. Roughly two-thirds of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction. Iraq is not the only issue that is driving this sour pessimism, but it is the main issue.

December 4, 2005
U.S. slides into cycle of skepticism
Brands the survey identified as particularly at risk included Marlboro, America Online, McDonald's, American Airlines, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, United Airlines, Budweiser, Chrysler, Mattel, Starbucks and General Motors.
A U.S. Banker magazine article in August relaying the results of an Edelman Trust Barometer survey found that 41 percent of Canadian opinion leaders were less likely to purchase American products because of Bush administration policies, compared with 56 percent in the United Kingdom, 61 percent in France, 49 percent in Germany and 42 percent in Brazil.

December 4, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Report Accuses EPA of Slanting Analysis
The Bush administration skewed its analysis of pending legislation on air pollution to favor its bill over two competing proposals, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service.

December 4, 2005
Intelligent Design Supporters are Liars
While intelligent design has hit obstacles among scientists, it has also failed to find a warm embrace at many evangelical Christian colleges. Even at conservative schools, scholars and theologians who were initially excited about intelligent design say they have come to find its arguments unconvincing. They, too, have been greatly swayed by the scientists at their own institutions and elsewhere who have examined intelligent design and found it insufficiently substantiated in comparison to evolution.
Mr. Davis noted that the advocates of intelligent design claim they are not talking about God or religion. "But they are, and everybody knows they are,"

December 4, 2005
Congress, military spar - the cost of war, $357 billion
In total, the US has allocated an estimated $357 billion for military operations since the September 11, 2001. More than $250 billion has gone to the Iraq mission, $82 billion to Afghanistan, and about $24 billion to beefing up security at American military bases around the globe. The new request, a package administration and congressional officials said could total as much as $35 billion would be on top of nearly $50 billion already set aside for next year by lawmakers.

December 2, 2005
Bob Schieffer: "I still give them the benefit of the doubt"
In an interview on the December 1 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, CBS Evening News anchor and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer noted that while the reason given by the Bush administration for invading Iraq "proved to be wrong," he still gives the administration "the benefit of the doubt," adding, "I don't think they deliberately misled people."

December 2, 2005
Oil executives lied to Congress
What investigators seek is evidence of a quid pro quo between Mr. Abramoff and the lobbyists he helped hire, lawyers and others involved in the case said. They are especially interested in evidence that Mr. Abramoff discussed hiring Mr. Rudy, Mr. Volz or other staff members before they left the government or around the time they or their bosses were doing favors for Mr. Abramoff's clients.

December 1, 2005
Lobbyist's Offer Illegal Jobs to Congressional Aides
Of particular interest, according to several people involved in the case, are how Mr. Rudy, who left Mr. DeLay's office in 2001 to join Greenberg Traurig, and Mr. Volz, who left Mr. Ney's office in 2002 for that firm, obtained their positions. Investigators believe Mr. Abramoff may have solicited help from both men and their supervisors on Capitol Hill while helping arrange for high-paying positions, people familiar with case said.

December 4, 2005
Automakers Seek Bailout
Even though General Motors Corp. and its rival Ford Motor now face serious financial straits, both are studiously avoiding public condemnation by spreading their aid requests widely among many types of government policies. Taken together, however, the components of their wish list would cost tens of billions -- far more than Chrysler ever dared to seek.

December 1, 2005
Dana Priest on secret gulags, CIA and war
Priest: "There's been a firestorm of reaction among the media in Europe, not just Eastern Europe, but Western Europe also, because of the EU [European Union] connection. Europe more and more considers itself one place and wants to be sure that countries that are joining the EU [pursue] the same fundamental values that Western Europe does—the court system, human rights and that sort of thing. So it was surprising that they [the Bush administration] would put them [gulags] in democracies."

November 30, 2005
Transcript of President Bush's speech
The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are by far the largest group. These are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who miss the privileged status they had under the regime of Saddam Hussein -- and they reject an Iraq in which they are no longer the dominant group.

December 2, 2005
Greenspan Says Budget Gap May Have 'Severe' Effects on Economy
Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said widening federal budget deficits may have "severe" consequences for the U.S. economy. In his remarks today, Greenspan said "tax increases of sufficient dimension to deal with our looming fiscal problems arguably pose significant risks to economic growth."

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December 1, 2005
Intelligence Committee to Investigate Former GOP Congressman Cunningham
WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee plans to investigate whether former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty this week to bribery and tax evasion, abused his position on the panel to steer contracts to favored companies, the committee's chairman said Wednesday.

December 1, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Bush: 'Terrorist are a minority in Iraqi war'
And Bush acknowledged yesterday what U.S. military and intelligence experts have said for months, that terrorists make up the smallest group opposing coalition forces and that "ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs" represent "by far the largest group."

December 1, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
TIME Reporter: Bush Lied About Iraqi Security Forces
TIME Magazine reporter Michael Ware, who is embedded with the U.S. troops in Iraq who participated in the Tal Afar battle, appeared on Anderson Cooper yesterday. He said Bush's description was completely untrue.

November 30, 2005
Media figures miscast GOP-laden scandals as "nonpartisan"
A number of national media figures have cast the recent spate of political scandals as "nonpartisan," despite the fact that the vast majority of government officials who have been indicted or are under investigation are Republicans.

November 30, 2005
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Takes On Rumsfeld over Torture
When UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that "obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility" other than to voice disapproval.
But Pace had a different view. "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it," the general said.
Rumsfeld interjected: "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it."

But Pace meant what he said. "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," he said, firmly.
(Note: Now you know why the military is so screwed up these days)

December 1, 2005
Olbermann gives O'Reilly bronze, silver, and gold medals for "Worst Person in the World"
Guess what they're selling over at the Fox News online store? The Fox News "Holiday" ornament! And the O'Reilly Factor "Holiday" ornament. Who is trying to change "Merry Christmas" into "Happy Holidays"? Bill O'Reilly, that's who. Today's worst person in the world!

November 30, 2005
Poll: Most doubt Bush has plan for Iraq victory
Among poll respondents, 55 percent said they did not believe Bush has a plan that will achieve victory for the United States in Iraq; 41 percent thought he did. Asked about Bush's handling of the Iraq war, 54 percent said it was poor, while 44 percent thought he was doing a good job.

December 1, 2005
Cunningham, Scanlon Help Keep Republican Scandals in Public Eye
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans hoped that a raft of scandals involving their party's lawmakers and the White House would fade from view before the 2006 elections. Then along came Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham and Michael Scanlon.

December 1, 2005
Roberts Court Rewrites

December 1, 2005
OECD head sees inflation risk from U.S. deficits
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - OECD Secretary-General designate Angel Gurria warned on Wednesday that sustained U.S. budget and trade deficits would eventually lead to inflation in the world's largest economy.

December 1, 2005
Roberts Court Rewrites Abortion Law in New Hampshire
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices seemed in surprising agreement Wednesday on how to fairly resolve a New Hampshire abortion case without making a major change in the law. Roberts proposed to fix the flaw and thereby save the law.

December 1, 2005
So Who is Behind Planting Stories in Iraqi Press?
O'Dwyer's, a leading trade publication in the public relations field, reported in July that BKSH & Associates, one part of the giant communications company, Burson-Marsteller's, had been hired by The Lincoln Group, "one of three firms selected last month by the U.S. Special Operations Command to wage psychological warfare on behalf of the Pentagon in Iraq and other hot spots. BKSH has experience on the Iraqi front earned from work for Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. Col. James Treadwell, director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, said TLG was selected to develop 'cutting-edge types of media,' including radio/TV ads, documentaries, text messages, Internet spots and podcasts for the U.S. military."

December 01, 2005
Controversy grows in Europe over CIA jail network
"There is a profound shock among the public that some [European] governments seem to have been in collusion with the CIA in assisting them to have individuals disappear into black holes," says Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College.

November 30, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Lincoln Group Pushes US Propaganda as News in Iraq
U.S. law forbids the military from carrying out psychological operations or planting propaganda through American media outlets. Yet several officials said that given the globalization of media driven by the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, the Pentagon's efforts were carried out with the knowledge that coverage in the foreign press inevitably "bleeds" into the Western media and influences coverage in U.S. news outlets. "There is no longer any way to separate foreign media from domestic media. Those neat lines don't exist anymore."

In 2002, the Pentagon was forced to shut down its Office of Strategic Influence, which had been created the previous year, after reports surfaced that it intended to plant false news stories in the international media.

November 30, 2005
Cunningham Keeps His Pension
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) will soon relinquish many of his properties and his freedom after pleading guilty to charges of fraud and conspiracy, but he will keep his government pension and could retain the privileges enjoyed by other former members of Congress.

November 29, 2005
Guns, Butter and Retired Boomers: How Do We Pay for It All?
MR. HUBBARD writes: The U.S. economy, with its strong underlying rate of productivity growth is in excellent shape, and it can absorb the tax changes, military and homeland security changes, and disaster relief.
[Note: The above supposition is correct only if we ignore the debt created by the above items - in other words, if we're irresponsible.]

November 28, 2005
Fox, MSNBC devoted scant coverage of Rep. Cunningham's guilty pleas
A Media Matters for America review of the first four hours of the three cable news networks' coverage following Cunningham's pleas and resignation revealed that Fox News was the last to cover the story, mentioned it the fewest times, and devoted the least time to the story. MSNBC also offered limited coverage, reporting on the resignation only twice.

November 29, 2005
O'Donnell, Matthews Lie: 'Everybody likes the president.'
On the November 28 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews said: "Everybody sort of likes the president, except for the real whack-jobs, maybe on the left," adding, "I mean, like him personally." In fact, polling data reveals that a majority of Americans have an unfavorable view of President Bush, and his overall approval ratings hover from the high 30-percent range to the low 40s.

November 29, 2005
NY Times Lie: Democratics are "afraid to be seen in church"
In a November 27 New York Times article, reporter Timothy Egan claimed: "In the Rocky Mountain West, where Democrats made their only real gains in last year's general election, the governors favor abortion rights, but are not afraid to be seen in church."

November 29, 2005
ABC paid little attention to Rep. Cunningham's GOP affiliation
The only party identification ABC offered during the nearly three-minute report was four seconds of on-screen text that included "(R) California" underneath Cunningham's name.

November 29, 2005
Russert gave Warner a free pass on Iraq - and grilled Biden
But rather than challenge Warner's non-answer by pointing to mounting evidence indicating the Bush administration did intentionally withhold or distort intelligence, Russert instead grilled Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) on his vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq.

November 26 / 27, 2005
Saddam Used Chemical Weapons on His Own People. So did Bush
Whether white phosphorus bombs--what American troops call "Willie Pete"--is a chemical weapon or an incendiary weapon, may not seem like a very important distinction to a casual observer. After all, what it does--burn flesh on contact and eat right down to the bone causing severe pain and, depending on what it eats through, death--is as cruel and vicious as any poison gas.

November 16, 2005
4th straight year of deficits for insurer of private pensionsl
WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures the private pensions of 44 million workers yesterday reported its fourth straight annual deficit. The agency's liabilities were $22.8 billion greater than its assets as of Sept. 30, the end of the government's 2005 fiscal year, as big airlines in bankruptcy dumped their pension obligations onto the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

November 29, 2005
Survey USA November Presidential Tracking by State
Summary: Bush is at 50% or above in four states; Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Mississippi. Bush's approval rating in Texas is 44%. National average is 37% (as of November 17).

November 29, 2005
Harvard Law Becomes More Conservative
The dean disputed the notion that they were trying to recruit conservatives. "We pay zero attention to this in the admissions process. Zero. There's just nothing going on like that," she said.

November 30, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
US paying Iraqi press to run favourable stories
As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

November 29, 2005
George Michael to 'marry' partner
The first civil partnership ceremonies for gay couples begin on 21 December. The government has predicted that up to 22,000 gay couples will take civil partnership in the first five years.

November 30, 2005
UK airports 'are stop-offs in torture flights'
He said: "There's no doubt some sort of secret gulag exists which is controlled by the Americans into which people disappear for months at a time. And there's also no doubt that the Americans have for some time been franchising out torture to countries that are rather less scrupulous than ourselves, and indeed the Americans, about the use of torture."

November 30, 2005
More bribery
Contractor spends big on key lawmakers
With help from two committee chairmen, ADCS got more than $90 million in government contracts since its founding in 1995, helping propel Wilkes from an obscure businessman to a millionaire prominent in Republican circles.

November 30, 2005
Bishop Says Edict Allows Some Gay Priests
The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said yesterday that under a new Vatican directive on homosexuality, men with a lasting attraction to members of the same sex can still be ordained as priests, as long as they are not "consumed by" their sexual orientation.

November 27, 2005
Dishonest, Reprehensible, Corrupt
Right after the L.A. Times scoop, Murray Waas filled in another piece of the prewar propaganda puzzle. He reported in the nonpartisan National Journal that 10 days after 9/11, "President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda."

November 29, 2005
Powell Aide: Bush is Responsible for this Mess
"What he seems to be saying to me now is the president failed to discipline the process the way he should have and that the president is ultimately responsible for this whole mess," Wilkerson said.

November 29, 2005
An Impeachable Offensee
US Acknowledges Secret Prisons
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Under German pressure, the United States acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe have raised widespread concern in the region.

November 29, 2005
Vatican Document Bans Active Gays as Priests
ROME -- The Vatican today formally released instructions that block active gay men from the priesthood, a long-anticipated document that has opened a divisive debate over how it will be applied and whether it will have a healing or detrimental effect on the Roman Catholic Church.

November 29, 2005
An Impeachable Offensee
Two Britons Face Charges For Exposing Bush's Planned Attack on Civilian Targets
Two Britons have appeared in a London court to answer charges of leaking a sensitive government memo on reported comments by President Bush about bombing the headquarters of the Arab satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera.

November 28, 2005
MSNBC's O'Donnell claimed Bush is seen as authentic; polls say otherwise
But the most recent polling available on the question of authenticity suggests otherwise. A November 2 ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 58 percent of adults reported that the phrases "He is honest and trustworthy" and "He shares your values" do not apply to Bush. And an Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted November 7-9 found that, while 82 percent of adults said the word "stubborn" applied to Bush, only 42 percent said "honest" did. That same poll found that 57 percent do not regard him as honest.

November 27, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting Iraqi civilians
A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

November 27, 2005
White House Grabs Democrat Withdrawal Plan.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House for the first time has claimed possession of an Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own.

November 28, 2005
Bill Moyer, media bias, and former CPB Chairman Ken Tomlinson
We were biased, all right—in favor of uncovering the news that powerful people wanted to keep hidden: conflicts of interest at the Department of Interior, secret meetings between Vice President Cheney and the oil industry, backdoor shenanigans by lobbyists at the FCC, corruption in Congress, neglect of wounded veterans returning from Iraq, Pentagon cost overruns, the manipulation of intelligence leading to the invasion of Iraq.

November 27, 2005
Russert Watch: "I'm No Bob Woodward"
Russert really believes that the main problem raised by Judy Miller's and Bob Woodward's roles in Plamegate is: how does the press repair the damage done between journalists and anonymous sources?

November 28, 2005
An Impeachable Offenseee
EU says no assurances from U.S. on secret prisons
BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States has told the European Union it needs more time to respond formally to reports that the CIA has run secret prisons for terrorist suspects in Eastern Europe, an EU commissioner said on Monday.

November 15, 2005
Alleged CIA covert operations in Spain probed
MADRID, Spain - The interior minister said Tuesday a judge is investigating alleged CIA use of a Spanish airport as part of a covert program for transporting suspected Islamic terrorists.

November 28, 2005
Countries hosting clandestine jails could lose EU voting rights
BERLIN - The European Union's justice commissioner Monday warned that any bloc nation found to have operated secret CIA prisons could have their EU voting rights suspended.

November 28, 2005
Calif. Congressman Admits Taking Bribes
Among other things, prosecutors said, Cunningham was given $1.025 million to pay down the mortgage on his Rancho Santa Fe mansion, $13,500 to buy a Rolls-Royce and $2,081 for his daughter's graduation party at a Washington hotel.

November 22, 2005
Europeans: 'Many hints' of CIA prison flights
PARIS - The head of a European probe into alleged secret CIA prisons in eastern Europe is investigating 31 suspected flights that landed in Europe and is trying to acquire past satellite images of sites in Romania and Poland, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press Tuesday.

November 27, 2005
GOP Senator urges Bush to explain Iraq war
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee urged President George W. Bush on Sunday to go before the American public to explain his plan for the war in Iraq.

November 28, 2005
'Time' Reporter to Testify in Leak Case
WASHINGTON - A second Time magazine reporter has agreed to cooperate in the CIA leak case and will testify about her discussions with Karl Rove's attorney, a sign that prosecutors are still exploring charges against the White House aide.

November 27, 2005
Iraqi Government and US Forces Are Killing Opposition Leaders
After the Jaafari government was formed in April and SCIRI took control of the interior ministry, reports of extra-judicial killings steadily increased. Behind the daily reports of suicide bombings and attacks on coalition forces is a far more shadowy struggle, one that involves tortured prisoners huddled in dungeons, death-squad victims with their hands tied behind their backs, often mutilated with knives and electric drills, and distraught families searching for relations who have been ‘disappeared'."

November 27, 2005
A war supporter disillusioned in Iraq
When they swept a town, the insurgents would return just days later. Foreign fighters were allowed to slip easily through unsecured borders. Army leadership seemed disorganized and disconnected from the ground. Certain tactics, such as 3 a.m. house raids, created a new generation of terrorists.

That knock came at 6:30 a.m. Aug. 10. "I am here to inform you that your son, Spec. John Kulick, was killed last night in Operation Iraqi Freedom," the officer said.Eighty miles away, in Brigantine, Kulick's mom got the news from an officer at the other end of a telephone line. In shock, she threw the phone across the living room and ran toward the beach, ripping a "Support Our Troops" bracelet from her wrist. She buried it in the sand.

November 27, 2005
Official secrets, lies, and the truth about the assault on Fallujah
In response to the lynching of four American security contractors, US forces were ordered to "clean out" Fallujah, over the protests of the Marine commander on the ground, who argued that months of painstaking efforts to win hearts and minds would be destroyed.

November 26, 2005
Harris Poll Bush's popularity hits 34%
Ever since President Bush's 2004 election victory, the polls have been reporting the more or less steady decline in his popularity, and last week The Harris Poll reported his ratings had fallen to a new low, only 34 percent positive.

November 27, 2005
Iraq War Theories
Former President Jimmy Carter, for example, contends that Bush's lieutenants came to office hoping for an opportunity to establish an American foothold in the Middle East, and saw the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as an opportunity. Others suggest that Bush was looking for a demonstration project to show American strength and resolve in the aftermath of the attacks.

November 26, 2005
Bribery Investigation Hits the White House
The Justice Department investigation is also looking into Abramoff's influence among executive branch officials. Sources said prosecutors are continuing to seek information about Abramoff's dealings with then-Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, including a job offer from the lobbyist at a time when he was seeking department actions on behalf of his tribal clients.

November 27, 2005
The way Out of Iraq
The longer suicide bombers devastate Iraq and U.S. troops die with little signs of progress, the greater will be the cry to withdraw no matter the result. The U.S. needs to tell Iraqis we will be gone before too much longer, although we won't yet say just when. And the administration needs to shore up its own credibility with Americans to maintain their support for this nation's engagement in world affairs.

November 25, 2005
Four GOP Congressmen Investigated On Bribery Charges
rosecutors in the department's public integrity and fraud divisions -- separate units that report to the assistant attorney general for the criminal division -- are looking into Mr. Abramoff's interactions with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Rep. Bob Ney (R., Ohio), Rep. John Doolittle (R., Calif.) and Sen. Conrad Burns (R., Mont.),

November 23, 2005
Blair Faces Full-Scale Parliamentary Inquiry
Leading opposition figures from the Conservative, Liberal-Democratic, Scottish National and Plaid Cymru (Welsh) parties have banded together to back the cross-party motion titled "Conduct of Government policy in relation to the war against Iraq" to demand that the case for an inquiry be debated in the House of Commons. They seem assured of the 200 signatures required to get such a debate.

November 26, 2005
Is Defeat Now An Option?
Pat Buchanan: Months back, as opponents of the war became the majority, I predicted a Gene McCarthy would rise to lead the antiwar movement. No one expected it to be Rep. John Murtha, a combat veteran with 37 years in Marine Corps service. But Murtha's emotional call for withdrawal has proven a catalyst for Congress and the country.

The argument suddenly seems over and the nation appears to have reached a consensus: earliest possible withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, consistent with the avoidance of a strategic disaster.

November 26, 2005
White House adds 2 words to war plan: Exit strategy
In a departure from past statements, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week that the training of Iraqi troops has advanced so far that the current number of U.S. troops probably will not be needed for much longer.

November 26, 2005
Relegated to a back row, Lott plots, provokes
It has been three years since White House officials and some Senate Republicans orchestrated Lott's ouster as Senate majority leader amid an uproar over racially insensitive remarks. Now, Lott is tweaking the Republican elite at every turn and jangling the nerves of official Washington as never before.

November 27, 2005
List shows some of Bush's claims on Iraq haven't held up
The administration has acknowledged that the intelligence used to advance the argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was faulty. But critics say their claims that Bush is providing misleading data is based on other declarations.

November 26, 2005
Representative John Murtha instigates Historical Upheaval
Calling Bush's war "a flawed policy wrapped in an illusion," Murtha said U.S. forces should "redeploy" out of Iraq immediately; otherwise, Iraqis will never feel free, the insurgency will grow, terrorism will spread and the United States will sink further into debt and dishonor, putting the nation's very survival at stake. This riot of understatement has been self-evident to most sentient beings for a long time; that it is now sinking into the occluded consciousness of Potomac power players is a turning point of genuine significance.

November 26, 2005
Bush Unwilling to Rein in the Racists in his Ranks
But the president has never been willing to rein in the racists in his party's ranks. That's because he needs them; their dirty work helps to ensure GOP victories. Sure, the president may not be a bigot, but if you stand on bigots' shoulders, what does that make you?

November 27, 2005
Iraq abuse 'as bad as Saddam era'
The former Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has called for immediate action against human rights abuses. Such abuses are as bad today as they were under Saddam Hussein, Mr Allawi told Britain's Observer newspaper.

November 26, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Troops Who Burned Taliban Face Discipline
The U.S.-led coalition's operational commander, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, said two junior officers who ordered the bodies burned would be reprimanded for showing a lack of cultural and religious understanding, but that the men had been unaware at the time of doing anything wrong.

November 26, 2005
Americans Responding to Shifting Winds of Perception
It turns out that these are not random occurrences in a season of contention, but something more than that. Americans are growing more skeptical of involvement abroad. (Historically that's more of a Republican impulse than a Democratic one, by the way.) And though it's hard to resist the temptation to say that the Iraq war is the reason, it's best to remember that Americans, who were late to join both world wars, have never relished the world stage. We have always found plenty to fight about at home.

November 27, 2005
Dark days at White House
Insiders have soured on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and some are even down on senior aide Karl Rove for leaving spokesman Scott McClellan flapping on the wind over the CIA leak investigation. Bush loyalists think the president needs to recall Karen Hughes from the State Department to help get him back on track, the paper reports.

November 23, 2005
MSNBC's Matthews, CNN.com continue to distort Murtha's position
The suggestion echoed recent news reports that described Murtha as being "usually pro-military," implying that his current position is not, and a "pro-military" Democrat, suggesting that the typical Democrat is not. Mark Preston wrote that Murtha has been "a hawk on military matters, reflecting the strong patriotic nature of this southwestern corner of the state," implying that any position other than support for war is unpatriotic.

November 23, 2005
This Week, Face the Nation, and Late Edition hosts let Rumsfeld peddle Iraq misinformation
During Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's appearances on the November 20 broadcasts of ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, the hosts of these programs failed to challenge false or misleading statements Rumsfeld made on the current state of the Iraq coalition, responsibility for Iraq troop levels, and prewar intelligence.

November 23, 2005
Woodward's definition of "journalism" includes reporting falsehoods
But what Woodward was actually allowing his administration sources to do was something far more problematic: Under the guise of expressing their "point of view," administration officials were given a forum in which to make numerous questionable and even categorically false statements about the Iraq war, without refutation.

November 25, 2005
Satellites may aid 'CIA prisons' probe
Marty said he had requested technical support from the European Union's satellite centre in Spain. He has also called on Eurocontrol, the European air traffic organisation, to provide details on the movements of 31 planes which the CIA are alleged to have used since 2002 to secretly transport terrorist suspects through U.S. airbases in Europe.

November 25, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
CIA flew terror suspects via US bases in Germany
The Handelsblatt report also claimed that the CIA was flying terrorist suspects through U.S. airbases in Germany without informing German authorities. The report, quoting a source described as a "high-ranking" intelligence official, mentioned the Ramstein base, the largest U.S. military base in Europe, and the Rhein-Main airbase near Frankfurt.

November 25, 2005
Cheney viewed as liability
Cheney's early unequivocal charges that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons have been discredited, along with his unqualified predictions about the conflict, including one he made in June that the insurgency was in its "last throes."

November 24, 2005
Oceans, greenhouse gases rising faster
One study found the Earth's ocean levels have risen twice as fast in the past 150 years, signaling the impact of human activity on temperatures worldwide, researchers said in the journal Science. In another report today's carbon dioxide levels rise is about 200 times faster than any rise recorded," study author Thomas Stocker said in an e-mail interview with Reuters.

November 24, 2005
Carbon dioxide levels highest for 650,000 years
PARIS (AFX) - Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal gas that drives global warming, are now 27 pct higher than at any point in the last 650,000 years, according to research into Antarctic ice cores.

November 24, 2005
Arguments escalating on Iraq war
"It's difficult for me to see how the vice president can do this with a serious face," the Massachusetts Democrat said of Cheney's criticism of Murtha. "These have been the ones who have rewarded the manipulators, and those who have been a part of the whole field of failed policy."

November 22, 2005
An Impeachable Offense
Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel
Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

November 18, 2005
CBO: House Bill Hits Poor Hard
In fact, CBO estimated that about 80 percent of the savings from the increases in Medicaid co-payments are expected to come from decreases in the use of services such as doctors' visits and prescribed medications, that ultimately 17 million low-income Medicaid beneficiaries would be subject to higher co-payments, and that more than 100,000 people would lose coverage altogether because they would have trouble paying the premiums.

November 22, 2005
Priests Citing New Problem in Gay Policy
These priests said this would turn the confessional and spiritual counseling sessions, which seminarians previously regarded as private and supportive meetings, into a tool for weeding gay men out of seminaries.

November 23, 2005
Possible Impeachable Offense
Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera
The Times of London reports that the attorney general of Britain has warned British papers that they will be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act if they publish details of a conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush in which Mr. Bush is alleged to have suggested bombing Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite TV channel based in Qatar.

November 23, 2005
Pentagon plans to shrink the U.S. troop presence in Iraq
WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The Pentagon plans to shrink the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, currently 155,000, to about 138,000 after the Dec. 15 Iraqi elections and is considering dropping the number to about 100,000 next summer if conditions allow, defense officials said on Wednesday.