contributions

By Doug Thompson
I stopped for gas on my way home last night, inserting my credit card into the reader at the gas pump at the Exxon station on North Main Street in Floyd, Virginia. It cost just under $40 to fill the 19-gallon gas tank on my Jeep Wrangler.
With the tank filled, I retrieved the receipt and climbed back into the Jeep but before I could start the engine a bank of high speed computers operated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at 3801 Fairfax Drive in (…)

Michael Wright — Norman, Oklahoma, USA — mpwright9@aol.com In this post I list five important lies, related to the 9/11 attack, which have been told by officials. Then I give links to other posts which document the fact that these are lies:
One of the five lies was by George Tenet. It is on video, and was told during a March 2005 speech at the University of Oklahoma, where his mentor David Boren is president. In response to a question from me he disputed a TIME magazine article (…)

By Sheila Samples
- And who will tell the people - that free speech is a ruse; - The corporations run the country - and then they make the news. - Is it media or mind control - heroic victories or crime? - Who will tell the people... - that we are living in these times. - Song by Willie Nelson
In his essay on "Character" Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "A chief event in life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us." I’ve had such days, many of them through encounters (…)

George’s Curious Appointments .
Examples Abound
1) Viveca Novak of Time Magazine , no relation to Bob , proffers allegedly exculpatory testimony that pundits speculate will aid Karl Rove in his so far successful life long attempt to avoid the dreaded indictment. Viv’s hubby is nominated by President Bush for a term on the Federal Election Commission.
2) Catherine Martin’s husband Kevin Martin , replaced Colin Powell’s son , Michael, as Chmn. of the FCC. Ms. Martin was (…)

To President Bush,
Every single day, I pray that we make it through the next three years with you ruling this country. I have serious doubts that this republic will survive. There are so many indications that it will indeed fall. But, I pray anyway.
But tonight, my prayers are with Specialist Douglas Barber who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom although, I do not see signs of a free Iraq. Why are my prayers with him? It is because he took his own life while suffering from PTSD after (…)

Organizers of a planned protest during President Bush’s State of the Union address next week reached an agreement yesterday with law enforcement officials and will now be allowed to use the area around the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool for their demonstration.
The demonstrators had initially been offered the Reflecting Pool area on the west side of the Capitol as a protest site but then were told that the site had been reclassified as part of the security perimeter for the day of Bush’s (…)

By MARK JOHNSON
The disparity between rich and poor is growing in America as the federal minimum wage has remained flat for years, union membership has declined and industries have faced global competition, according to a study released Thursday.
The report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, both liberal-leaning think tanks, found the incomes of the poorest 20 percent of families nationally grew by an average of $2,660, or 19 percent, over (…)

The internet has played an important role in the life decisions of 60 million Americans, research shows.
Whether it be career advice, helping people through an illness or finding a new house, 45% of Americans turn to the web for help, a survey by US-based Pew Internet think-tank has found.
It set out to find out whether the web and e-mail strengthen social ties.
The answer seems to be yes, especially in times of crisis when people use it to mobilise their social networks.
New (…)

by Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Jan 24 (IPS) - Reforms to Bolivia’s current "neoliberal" free-market policies and the fight against corruption and red tape announced by incoming President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, were put in the hands of a cabinet made up largely of indigenous people, trade unionists and women.
Bolivia’s first-ever indigenous president, sporting the same red, grey, white and blue sweater that became famous on his tour to Europe as president-elect, swore in his new cabinet (…)

The Bush administration will never allow the Iranian government to open an oil exchange (bourse) that trades petroleum in euros. If that were to happen, hundreds of billions of dollars would come flooding back to the United States crushing the greenback and destroying the economy. This is why Bush and Co. is planning to lead the nation to war against Iran. It is straightforward defense of the current global system and the continuing dominance of the reserve currency, the dollar.
The claim (…)