OpEdNews - Diary: BUSH DIRECTIVE INCREASES SWAY ON REGULATION

"... the administration STILL HAS WAYS TO EXERT ITS POWER after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats."

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DIANE'S NEWS CLIPS begins here :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> Excerpted from: http://www.truthout.org BUSH DIRECTIVE Increases Sway on Regulation http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007L.shtml

President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy. This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats. --- Hendrik Hertzberg | Webbcast http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007D.shtml Hendrik Hertzberg writes: "Rather than looking for a policy that might be within our means and might mitigate the disaster, Bush is betting all his chips - all our chips - on the only choice that allows him the fantasy that in the end people will say: 'Bush was right.' He is sending twenty thousand because twenty thousand is all he has. Next to nothing in the way of ground forces remains for other contingencies. His presidency and his 'legacy' are in ruins anyway, so he imagines he has nothing to lose." --- Phillip Butler | Don't Let Torture Become the Norm http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007M.shtml Phillip Butler, retired Navy Commander, begins: "Many peace and justice organizations have been promoting and demonstrating lately for awareness of torture and related issues. I'm amazed and profoundly disappointed that this has apparently become necessary in our country. I spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, from 1965 to 1973. During that time, I and more than 90 percent of my fellow POWs were repeatedly tortured for the extortion of information to be used for political propaganda and sometimes just for retribution. We were not recognized by Vietnam as POWs, but as criminals, because the Vietnamese had not signed the 1949 'Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.'" --- Part I: An Atomic Threat Made in America http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007E.shtml Sam Roe of the Chicago Tribune writes a two-part series to chronicle America's failed quest to retrieve uranium. Roe obtained exclusive access to the government archive provided by scientist Armando Travelli, which contained thousands of records never before publicly reviewed. Roe reviewed Congressional testimony, previously classified records, foreign and US research papers, and reports by government agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Roe also interviewed Travelli and others for this report. --- Rupert Cornwell | Leave Iraq or Face Nightmare Scenario http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007K.shtml Rupert Cornwell writes, "The US must draw up plans to deal with an all-out Iraqi civil war that would kill hundreds of thousands, create millions of refugees, and could spill over into a regional catastrophe, disrupting oil supplies and setting up a direct confrontation between Washington and Iran." --- Chris Hedges | Christianists On the March http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007F.shtml Chris Hedges writes: "Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, told his students that when we were his age - he was then close to 80 - that we would all be fighting the 'Christian fascists.' The warning, given 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and television evangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts toward taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global Christian empire." --- Kathy Kelly | Engagement With War http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007S.shtml Kathy Kelly writes: "Earlier this week, I received a joyful phone call from Baghdad. Members of a family I've known since 1996 announced that one of their younger daughters was engaged. Broken Arabic and broken English crossed the lines: 'We love you! We miss you!' A few hours later, the family sent us a text message: 'Now bombs destroy all the glasses in our home - no one hurt.'" --- Feingold Ups the Ante on Iraq Funding http://snipurl.com/18ukd --- Baker Agrees Reluctantly to Testify on Iraq http://snipurl.com/18u71 --- Two Charges Dropped Against Watada http://snipurl.com/18ukh --- Utah Residents Rail Against Divine Strake Test http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007N.shtml Southern Utah residents welcomed the opportunity Thursday to speak their piece about the proposed Divine Strake explosion test. Person after person stepped to the microphone during the first of Governor Jon M. Huntsman's two Divine Strake public hearings - expressing outrage, grief and frustration. Many blame atomic testing in the 1950s at the nearby Nevada Test Site for a grim litany of illnesses and deaths. Residents fear the non-nuclear Divine Strake blast, also taking place at the Nevada Test Site, will send a mushroom cloud of radiation-tainted litter into Utah. --- Chuck Collins | Slapping the Invisible Hand http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007O.shtml Chuck Collins writes: "Research by the Economic Policy Institute validates the theory that raising the minimum wage will have a positive effect for low-wage workers without a negative effect on the economy ... Senate Democrats should keep pushing for a minimum wage bill unencumbered by billions in tax breaks. Let's cleanly raise the minimum wage and get on with the people's business." --- Amy Branham | Honor. Duty. Country. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007B.shtml "Let's talk about the courage it takes to live the rest of your life after you have buried your only son, who died so needlessly in this fool's war," writes Gold Star Mother Amy Branham. "At first you do not believe that the person you spent the majority of your adult life rearing is dead. But you have to pick out the casket. You have to find a funeral home and a cemetery and make funeral arrangements. You have to write an obituary and make terrible phone calls that you know will crush the person on the other end of the line. And then you have to figure out how in the hell to make sense out of something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." --- VIDEO | Anti-War Marches Draw Hundreds of Thousands http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007A.shtml In this video, Truthout's Scott Galindez reports that "hundreds of thousands" marched on Saturday. That estimate is gleaned from estimates by the event organizers - United for Peace and Justice - Truthout reporters on the scene, and crowd photographs by other news agencies. Our best estimate now is that there were between 300,000 and 500,000 marchers. --- Bombs Kill 44 in Iraq on Shiite Holy Day http://snipurl.com/18tie --- Cheap, Safe Drug Kills Most Cancers http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007HA.shtml It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their "immortality." The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and is known to be relatively safe. It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs. --- 146 US Levees May Fail in Flood http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007P.shtml --- Serge Truffaut | Lost Opportunity http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007G.shtml Serge Truffaut hopes the US auto industry's request for government support of hybrid research will be granted - on one novel condition ... --- Economic Policy Changes With New Latin American Leaders http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007H.shtml A new wave of Latin American leaders is changing the face of the region, and its relations with the United States, multilateral institutions, international financial markets, and foreign investors. While this is often seen here in political terms - the rise of "populism" or alleged "anti-Americanism" - much can be explained by looking at the economics of these changes. --- Millions to Go Hungry by 2080 http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007EA.shtml Rising temperatures will leave millions more people hungry by 2080 and cause critical water shortages in China and Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the United States. By the end of the century, climate change will bring water scarcity to between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people as temperatures rise by 2 to 3 Celsius (3.6 to 4.8 Fahrenheit), a leaked draft of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report said. --- US Urges Scientists to Block Out Sun http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007EB.shtml The US wants the world's scientists to develop technology to block sunlight as a last-ditch way to halt global warming. It says research into techniques such as giant mirrors in space or reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere would be "important insurance" against rising emissions. --- Global Warming: The Vicious Circle http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007EC.shtml The effects of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide are being felt on every inhabited continent in the world with very different parts of the climate now visibly responding to human activity. --- Indonesia May Lose 2,000 Islands to Climate Change http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007ED.shtml Indonesia could lose about 2,000 islands by 2030 due to climate change, the country's environment minister said on Monday. --- Paulson May Find Bush Is Biggest Hurdle to Social Security Deal http://snipurl.com/18u7g _________________________________ .ron corvuswire@verizon.net

Najaf - Bush's "Do Good" story about how the Iraqi Army is doing great and killed 200 al Qaeda terrorists is total bulls*it. .ron >>More questions about the 'official Najaf story:' SO WHAT HAPPENED IN NAJAF? > http://snipurl.com/18uic ----- cyberbloggin' Organized religion provides faux "reassurances" and "deals" with the Creator in man's feeble attempt to assuage his fear of death and his self-doubt as to his significance and purpose on this Earth. In my opinion, the Creator is not some dude hanging out somewhere listening to humankind's crap. no, the Creator saw fit to allow terrible things to occur and humans don't understand why a Creator would allow horrific things to happen in the first place. Clearly, mankind does NOT understand the Creator. Clearly, the Creator's "values" are not humankind's "values." I believe there is a Creator, but I'll be damned if I'm going to allow any funkya*s human turd ball to con me into accepting their fantasy or their 'special' ancient textbook as reality. Thomas Jefferson expresses my feelings on the matter: "The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonism's engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained." Religious people routinely confuse and misinterpret their emotional experiences as spiritual experiences. It's not enough for them to accept and enjoy the life and breath the Creator graced upon them...no ....they must drag others into their cardboard shop of horrors....a.k.a. "organized religion." .ron http://www.corvuswire.com/religion.htm ----- The Coming Iran War: Resource Info It is impossible to assess what is truthfully happening between the USA, Iran - and Israel. There is zero media discussion. There are no comparative assessments of international news. How many people know exactly what war preparations are now in place, and what future plans are being made? Following is an (incomplete) collection of international news articles concerning a potential World War III. I have taken most earlier articles relating to Iran from PNAC: Rebuilding America's Defenses - A Biopsy on Imperialism; Part II: "Special Interests" - The Persian Gulf : http://snipurl.com/18tj5 and collated them with more recent articles. Read here: http://snipurl.com/18tj9 ----- Ohio Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann (l.) and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (r.) to investigate election fraud. http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://www.propagandamatrix.com NEW TORTURE ALLEGATIONS SURFACE (Video)

The clip, originally linked via a now defunct account on YouTube, purports to show a former guard from Abu Ghraib talking about torture techniques employed at the American-run prison. The man also recounts the gang rape of a female teenage detainee, in which one guard "pimped" the girl to others for $50 each. As he recalls, "I think at the end of the day he'd made like 500 bucks before she hung herself." US Army Investigating New Torture Allegations Alleged Former Abu Ghraib Guard Discussed Gang Rape in YouTube Video http://IraqSlogger.com Tuesday, January 30, 2007 IraqSlogger has confirmed that the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division has opened an investigation into this video, which was first posted on our site last week. [snip] VIDEO >> http://prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/300107torture.htm _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://english.aljazeera.net NASRALLAH: BUSH MADE LEBANON CHAOS Excerpt: Speaking at Beirut ceremonies marking the climax of the Muslim festival of Ashura, Nasrallah accused the US of ordering Israel to launch last year's attack on Lebanon. "The one who fomented chaos in Lebanon, who destroyed Lebanon, who killed women and children, old and young in Lebanon, is George Bush and (Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice who ordered the Zionists to launch the war on Lebanon," Nasrallah said. .......................snip....................... THOUSANDS GATHER Nasrallah said: "The one who must be punished, who must be tried, is the one who ordered the launching of war on Lebanon." [snip] Full article: http://snipurl.com/18u9r _________________________________ http://jablankfort@earthlink.net Olmert: Israel will not allow..... "PM Ehud Olmert said that Israel will not allow the international community to evade the problem of the Iranian nuclear program and its calls for the eradication of Israel. Speaking at the weekly Council of Ministers, Olmert said, "We will not allow the world to forget once again, in indifference and silence, the existential threat hanging over the Jewish people." (Guysen.Israël.News) 1.28.07 "ISRAEL WILL NOT ALLOW," he says. Imagine the arrogance of the man, which is based, of course, on the Jewish lobby's stranglehold on the US Congress and the White House. So when Israel launches its attack on Iran, he will say, "we couldn't wait and take the chance," but he then will praise Resident Bush for having the US in there backing Israel up when Iran, as would be expected, fights back. JB --- Quite apart from the latest report that a US attack on Iran will take place this Spring, much of it based on Col. Sam Gardiner's article on CounterPunch, http://www.counterpunch.org/gardiner01162007.html the information about US bases in the former East Block is extremely disquieting and shows how easily it was for the former "socialist" countries to become satellites of the US as they were for the Soviet Union, except now with even less sovereignty. [I still believe if there is an attack, it will be initiated by Israel for the same domestic political reasons that has seen the US supporting Israel in the first place despite it being against America's national interests from whatever perspective those interests are viewed, namely the power of the Jewish lobby.] JB Scotland Sunday Herald, Jan. 30, 2007 > http://snipurl.com/18soz --- Business Week: Israel to "buy" US bomb kits for $100M "Cluster bombs are typically used against tanks and explode upon impact with steel. In the conflict in Lebanon, the shells were fired into urban and rural areas where Israel thought Hezbollah guerrillas might be hiding. Many hit the ground or pavement and did not explode. Since the war ended, several people have been killed by exploding bomblets." THIS IS NOT TRUE. Cluster bombs are anti-personnel weapons, designed to provide massive damage to troops spread across the battlefield and would cause next to no damage to tanks, but Weizman is just another pro-Israeli propagandist well-placed in the US media, so he provides Israel's rationalization for their use and doesn't mention that the majority of the bombs, twice as much as the US used in Iraq, were dropped in the final three days of the war after a truce had been arranged to cause the maximum casualties among Lebanese civilians. There is also no mention that international condemnation of Israel's use of cluster bombs in the 1982 Lebanon invasion forced Pres. Reagan to suspend shipments of the weapons. Of course, that was the exception as every other conventional (and apparently some non-conventional) killing machine that the US builds has been available to Israel to be paid for by the US tax-payers. That's why the word "buy" needs to be put in quotes. JB http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MV20IO0.htm --- US Courtrooms: Israeli Occupied Territory as... New York Jewish judge allows Israelis to continue war against Palestinians in US courts. The Arab Bank lawyers should not have asked Judge Gershon to "toss out the suit," but have asked that the judge herself be tossed since it is apparently become impossible for an Arab or Arab-American to get fair treatment from a Jewish judge in the US. Of course, then the lawyers would be accused of "anti-semitism." and their careers, what was left of them, would be in jeopardy JB http://snipurl.com/18sor --- Sarah Olson I received this email from my friend and colleague, Sarah Olson who I interviewed last Thursday on Connecting the Dots, a program that I host for KPOO in San Francisco and which you can hear by going to http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21528 who has been subpoenaed to testify about an interview she did with 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. This is a critical 1st Amendment case as even some members of the mainstream media have begin to recognize. Whatever you can do to support her will be appreciated. JB Listen to, read and support Sarah Olson * http://www.freepresswg.org * http://www.defendthepress.org * http://snipurl.com/18so2 * http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/02/1527206 _________________________________ Submitted by: http://eddiestinson@gmail.com 1.30.07 RAPE VICTIM JAILED AFTER REPORTING ATTACK Jailed rape victim denied contraceptive? TAMPA - It happened while hundreds of thousands celebrated Gasparilla. Someone attacked a 21-year-old woman in broad daylight -- a young student, leaving the parade route alone who says she was dragged behind a store near Howard and Swann, then raped. She got away and called Tampa police, but once officers got involved, her problems only got worse. The young woman's mother told FOX 13 she's "absolutely, positively enraged" because instead of tracking down and arresting the rapist, officers arrested her daughter. Continued here: http://snipurl.com/18tle ----- NEVER AGAIN? Layla Anwar Excerpt: Never again,mass genocide and collective punishment. Never again, concentration camps. Never again collective rape. Never again Ghettos. Never again asphyxiation and experiments on humans. Never again collective torture. Never again deliberate starvation. Never again forced labor. Never again discrimination by name tags ... Never again.... Never again...Let us sing it together now out loud , Never again! Meanwhile.... and in parallel... Read here: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=30171 _________________________________

[NEWSDISSECTOR] NEW: 50,000 US CASUALTIES in Iraq http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2007/01/30/new-50000-us-casualties-in-iraq/ _________________________________

NEW at AstroStar.com -http://www.astrostar.com Healthy Living Section - A New Batch of New Articles How to get healthier and happier, make good choices, and save money. http://www.astrostar.com/1HealthyLiving.htm * Love's Greatest Secret http://www.astrostar.com/LovesSecret.htm * Do You Have a Wounded Moon? http://www.astrostar.com/WoundedMoon.htm * Daily Thoughts for February http://www.astrostar.com/FebruaryThoughts.htm * Amethyst is February's Birthstone http://www.astrostar.com/FebruaryBirthstone.htm * Gifts for Aquarius (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18) http://www.astrostar.com/Gifts-for-Aquarius.htm _________________________________ * http://www.salon.com * http://dailyhowler.com * http://frazettaartgallery.com _________________________________ KEEP YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS SAFE ON THE INTERNET Last weekend Doug in Duluth, MN, called. He wants to protect his e-mail address on the Internet. He's developing a Web site and wants to stay safe from spammers. Boy, that is a great idea! Unfortunately, we're losing the war on spam. In December, more than 90 percent of all e-mail was spam. And putting your e-mail address online is an invitation to spammers. But people need to be able to contact you. So there are things you can do to avoid spam harvesters. I recommend using an e-mail obfuscator. Visitors can click on a link to send you a message. But JavaScript code is used to piece your address together for the e-mail program. E-mail harvesters won't see it. There are several sites on the Web that will generate the code automatically. My recent tip > http://snipurl.com/17ydq lists a few of them. Be sure to listen to me Monday through Friday. Use my map to find me near you http://www.komando.com/listen/index.aspx _________________________________ eHEALTHY NEWS More Despicable Corruption in Published Studies - The authors of a study recommending that pregnant women stay on antidepressants failed to disclose more than 60 financial ties to drug companies. http://snipurl.com/18tbn ----- Codeine No Better Than a Placebo - Codeine is commonly used as a cough medication, but it proved only barely more effective than dummy drugs for patients with chronic lung disease. http://snipurl.com/18tbs ----- Watch Super Size Me For Free - You can now see the award-winning film without spending a cent! http://snipurl.com/18tbt _________________________________ Wednesday VIDEO Double Feature -- yeaaa! The Petercopter? http://media.putfile.com/fg_clip01 00:47 & ----- CLEANUP ON AISLE FIVE | United States | 6:35 | Andy Tyer A city supermarket is transformed into a romantic battlefield as two guys race through produce, pet food, and even laxatives to win a fair maiden's hand (or at least her phone number). Is true love at the end of the chase? And more to the point, will either of the combatants survive this madcap encounter? http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/cleanup First-time filmmaker Andy Tyer won the opportunity to make this movie in the Make Your Mark contest from Sony and AtomFilms. _________________________________ NationalGeographic.com http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ _________________________________ NASA Astronomy picture of the day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html _________________________________ Submitted by: http://eddiestinson@gmail.com

A George Carlin New Rule for 2007: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place. _________________________________ Link to: http://Dianes News Clips http://www.opednews.com/author/author2300.html?entry=diary