contributions

HELENA, Mont. — Several governors are fuming over a Bush administration suggestion that the active military take a greater role in disaster response, calling it an attempt to usurp state authority over National Guard units.
Governors in Washington, Mississippi, Michigan, Arkansas, West Virginia, Delaware and Alabama are among those who have panned the idea, questioning whether it would even be constitutional.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, among the harshest critics, said the issue (…)

by Rob Kall
The US has been staying in a war for more than a year since senate Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee bottled up information that showed the administration knew that evidence they cited as reasons to go to war was provided by a source who was known to "fabricate" bogus information.
The NY Times reports Bush, Cheney, Powell, and other administration officials repeatedly cited known dissembler’s information as “credible’’ evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda (…)

International Petition to Ban Uranium Weapons
Uranium weapons, often called ’depleted’ uranium (DU) weapons, are manufactured from radioactive waste materials produced during the nuclear fuel chain and the production of nuclear weapons. They cause widespread and long lasting radioactive contamination of the environment. These weapon systems are radiologically and chemically toxic.
Many people - innocent civilians especially children, military veterans, industry workers - have illnesses (…)

GULFPORT, Miss. — A pattern is emerging as the cleanup of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast morphs into its multibillion-dollar reconstruction: Come payday, untold numbers of Hispanic immigrant laborers are being stiffed. Sometimes, the boss simply vanishes. Other workers wait on promises that soon, someone in a complex hierarchy of contractors will provide the funds to pay them.
Nonpayment of wages is a violation of federal labor law, but these workers - thousands of them, channeled into teams (…)

"Those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid the terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America’s enemies and pause to America’s friends" — Former Attorney General John Ashcroft
Did you know that under the terms of the new Patriot Act prosecutors will be able to seek the death penalty in cases where "defendants gave financial support to umbrella organizations without (…)

The first book-length expose of CIA kidnappings and prisons — two of the greatest evils in the Bush government, and the world — by the Italian investigative journalist Guido Olimpio is here, and it’s new and as current as todays news stories about secret jails the CIA runs! The book is a must-read for anyone wanting to know about the CIA’s practice of "rendition": kidnapping people and transporting them to places like Egypt for torture. It’s an extremely controversial practice, a threat to (…)

An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended yesterday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. Skip to next paragraph The Reach of War Go to Complete Coverage
The work was paid for with Iraqi oil proceeds, but the board said it was either carried out at inflated prices or done poorly. The board did not, however, give examples of poor (…)

They Say that the Fish Rots from the Head Down by Andrew Bard Schmookler
http://www.opednews.com
I get up from my seat at the computer to go out to the mailbox. I need a break from my work, writing for my website, involving as it does my delving continuously into the moral darkness that has overtaken America in recent years. I am weary of looking at the corruption and injustice that postures as righteousness among our present rulers.
As I walk outside into the radiant autumn New (…)

FBI Drops Investigation Just As Italians Make A Potential Break In The Case; Kucinich Sends Department Of Justice A Letter Demanding Investigation
WASHINGTON - November 4 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter to the Department of Justice Inspector General (IG), Glenn A. Fine, demanding an IG investigation of the FBI’s handling of the situation.
The letter, sent today, states:
Dear Inspector General Fine:
I am greatly dismayed to learn that without answering any (…)

Leaders from 34 nations have begun arriving in Argentina for the fourth two-day Summit of the Americas.
They are meeting in the coastal resort of Mar del Plata amid much uncertainty about what can be achieved on the summit’s main aim of job creation.
There are deep divisions over free trade, with the US championing it as the best way to relieve poverty.
President George W Bush is among those attending the talks. He is expected to be targeted by left-wing protesters.
Thousands of (…)