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by IAN GREGOR
LOS ANGELES - Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down numerous Nazi war criminals following World War II then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people, died Tuesday. He was 96.
Wiesenthal died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, Austria, according to Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
"I think he’ll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In (…)

by Wayne Besen
Ellen DeGeneres strode up to the stage as this year’s Emmy host with the Herculean task of brightening the nation’s somber mood following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
"New Orleans is my hometown, and I have family in Mississippi," Ellen said, striking the right note at the awards ceremony. "It’s times like this we really, really need laughter."
Ellen could just have easily been talking about her career, which was derailed by the storm of controversy that (…)

. by Five of Diamonds Mon Sep 19th, 2005 at 12:42:39 PDT I witnessed this with my own eyes. Here is my account.
Cindy Sheehan was arrested moments ago in Union Square, Manhattan for allegedly speaking in the square without the proper permit.
A small group of police began to congregate around 2:00 on the south east corner of Union Square. Cindy and her peace entourage were slightly late to the event, contending with public transportation.
Upon her arrival, applause and cheers filled (…)

Bush Katrina Ratings Fall After Speech Survey of 1,000 Adults
September 16-17, 2005
President Bush Response to
Hurricane Katrina Excellent 17% Good 18% Fair 23% Poor 41% RasmussenReports.com Favor Federal Funding for $200 Billion New Orleans Reconstruction? Favor 50% Oppos 27% RasmussenReports.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 18, 2005—Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans now say that President Bush (…)

By The Associated Press
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon raised illegal campaign funds during his just-completed trip to New York, Channel Ten reported Monday.
Sharon returned home Monday afternoon, and Channel 10 quoted his office as saying that the prime minister was not aware of the fund-raising.
Sharon was in New York to attend the annual General Assembly session.
Channel 10 showed footage of the entrance to a swanky Fifth Avenue apartment building in Manhattan, where Sharon met (…)

Rescuers awed by ruin revealed as water recedes By MARJORIE HERNANDEZ Scripps Howard News Service
NEW ORLEANS - The putrid smell of toxic, mud-caked debris baking in the humid Southern heat wafted almost 200 feet above the ground.
Trees that were once green and lush are now brown and in pieces, many bending to the awesome power of a Category 4 hurricane that pounced on this city and its surrounding parishes more than two weeks ago. Murky water as black as tar in some places and dull (…)

So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. (MLK, Jr. Aug. 28, 1963, I Have a Dream speech)
What Bush’s Katrina shows once again is that my son died for nothing. If you listen to Bush - and fewer and fewer are, thank (…)

This article is from the online edition of The Daily Independent.
What has happened to Iraq’s missing $1bn? By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad Published: 19 September 2005
One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq’s defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country’s army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons.
The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country (…)

by Mary MacElveen
People often marvel at the Bolivarian revolution that put President Hugo Chavez Frias into power where he did so based upon the philosophies of Simon Bolivar. They marvel that ordinary people but people of great strength can take their country back from the elite. Then-candidate Gov. Howard Dean’s message was take back your country and those primary voters could have by making him our candidate in this past election.
I want to remind the American people that they too (…)

by Carmen Yarrusso
The preamble to the Code of Ethics for the Society of Professional Journalists eloquently declares: “...journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues...”
Yeah, right!
Mainstream media’s dismal failure to enlighten the public to the dire implications of the Downing Street (…)