contributions

Stinging comments come as America dismisses UN report on Guantánamo
de Richard Norton-Taylor and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
A high court judge yesterday delivered a stinging attack on America, saying its idea of what constituted torture was out of step with that of "most civilised nations".
The criticism, directed at the Bush administration’s approach to human rights, was made by Mr Justice Collins during a hearing over the refusal by ministers to request the release of three (…)

By Matthew Cardinale
(APN) ATLANTA-25 US Representatives-including two members of the Georgia delegation-have now signed on as co-sponsors of H. Res 635, demanding a probe which could recommend Bush’s impeachment, including the initial sponsor, US Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
If the Democratic Party is able to retake the US House of Representatives, Rep. Conyers would become Chairman Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee, whereas he is currently (…)

By Bill Van Auken
Pictures of Iraqi prisoners-naked, wounded, covered with blood, women’s underwear draped over their heads, bound in painful and degrading “stress positions”-were broadcast on Australian television Wednesday, further exposing the horrors inflicted at the US military’s prison camp at Abu Ghraib and similar facilities across the globe.
The photographs, which also included images of battered and bloodied corpses, were apparently taken about the same time as those that (…)

by Suzanne Phillips
How a cleverly devised banking system robs the average person of the right to a decent life while providing enormous wealth for its corporate owners and stockholders
On May 23, 1933, Congressman, Louis T. McFadden, brought formal charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank system, The Comptroller of the Currency and the Secretary of United States Treasury for numerous criminal acts, including but not limited to, conspiracy, fraud, unlawful (…)

The Dead Parrot Sketch - ( the 2006 version )
Dick Cheney’s Ranch
Karl Rove walks in.
Karl Rove: Hey, Dick. I want to ask you a question.
(Cheney does not respond.)
KR: Hello........Dick?
Dick Cheney: What do you mean by "Dick"?
KR: That’s your name, isn’t it?! I wish to ask you a question!
DC: I’m eating dinner.
KR: Never mind that, Dick. I wish to ask a question...about...you shooting a man in the face today.
DC: Oh yes, the, uh, the shooting (…)

HANGING BY A THREAD
By Peter Fredson
February 17, 2006
Yesterday I wrote a blog about the possibility of administration printing presses “counterfeiting” money. What happens when a nation keeps printing paper money without a backing in gold, silver or platinum reserves?
I pointed out that Germany once printed postage stamps which sold for thousands or hundreds of thousands of Deutschmarks, and that people to buy bread would take a wheelbarrow full of paper money to the store.
I (…)

By Les Blough, Editor Feb 13, 2006, 22:55
C’mon Dick just set it out - give me some believable ideas here. Don’t worry, we don’t have to ... you know ... tell the truth about this. Hey! OK, OKaay - I won’t use that word again. I’m sorry, I’m sorrrry, I know that word makes you edgy.
But we have to come up with a story that sounds like ... you know ... the T word. Okay? Good. But we’ve gotta fill out this accident report and then face the press.
What? Your image? Ah c’mon Dick ... heh, (…)

By ROBERT IMRIE, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 53 minutes ago
KEWAUNEE, Wis. - Peace activist Jill Bussiere wants the United States to bring its troops home from Iraq immediately, so she went door-to-door in this community in the hopes of getting others to join her cause.
Bussiere helped organize a petition drive that resulted in a referendum on Iraq being put on the ballot during Kewaunee’s upcoming spring election. It asks whether the city’s leaders should urge the U.S. to begin (…)

Countries dump dollar in dealings for oil
dumping the dollar - Syria, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela
THE OIL-CURRENCY-WAR THEORY
SYRIA:
Syria has switched all of its government foreign exchange dealings from dollars to euros as part of a political stand-off with the US. Is it really “a political stand-off”?
Or is it simply lack of confidence in the monetary unit of a nation which had so quickly squandered its surplus and turned it into an unfathomable deficit, refuses to educate its young (…)

By DEVLIN BARRETT and TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writers Fri Feb 17, 4:49 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is defending approval of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over operations at six major American ports, even as one senator sought a new ban on companies owned by governments overseas in some U.S. shipping operations Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., told The Associated Press he will introduce legislation to prohibit companies owned (…)