Politics

Placing Women in Harm's Way

Rapes Reported by Servicewomen
in Persian Gulf and Elsewhere
There have been 112 reports of sexual misconduct over roughly the past 18 months in the Central Command area of operations, which includes Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, military officials said on Wednesday. The Army has reported 86 incidents, the Navy 12, the Air Force 8 and the Marine Corps 6.

US Preparing for Military Draft in Spring 2005
The current agenda of the US federal government is to reinstate the draft in order to staff up for a protracted war on "terrorism." Pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills S 89 and HR 163) would time the program so the draft could begin at early as Spring 2005 -- conveniently just after the 2004 presidential election!

Bush Touts Drug-Testing and Faith-Based Treatment
WASHINGTON -- President Bush claiming an election-year victory in the government's battle against illegal drug use, pledged more money on Saturday for faith-based treatment programs and schools that randomly test teenagers for drugs. In his weekly radio address, Bush said a report due on Monday would show that the National Drug Control Strategy his administration launched in 2002 had exceeded a goal of reducing drug use among American youth by 10 percent over two years.

U.S. Pays Informant Reward for Saddam's Sons
WASHINGTON -- The informant who helped lead the U.S. military to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's two sons has been paid most of a $30 million reward for the tip-off, the State Department said on Saturday. "The informant who gave us information on the whereabouts of Uday and Qusay Hussein has been paid the bulk of the reward within the last couple of days, and has control over payment of the balance of the reward," said State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore. "The informant and his family have been relocated."

U.S. Oil Execs Rush to Renew Ties With Libya
U.S. oil executives are arriving over the weekend in Libya to discuss a resumption of business. Industry sources and Libyan officials said representatives from several oil companies will begin streaming into the North African state over the next week. They include Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil and Occidental Petroleum. All of these companies were operating in Libya before U.S. sanctions froze their operations in 1986.

Justice Scalia Finds Little Enjoyment on Supreme Court
WASHINGTON -- In the space of a few days, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia groused when his colleagues overturned a Texas death sentence, needled them about a gay rights decision and sarcastically suggested their church-state ruling could steal health benefits from nuns. He found something bad in each of six divided rulings handed down this week, unusually contentious even for a justice known for his volume of passionate dissents.

Bush Insults Everybody

Bush Slaps Face of Believers With Recess Appointment
LANCASTER, Pa. -- President George W. Bush has slapped the face of conservatives and those who believe in God with his recess appointment of former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th District, Constitution Party National Chairman Jim Clymer said today. "Of all the people waiting to be confirmed for federal judgeships, it is stunning that Bill Pryor would be the president's choice for this extraordinary move," said Clymer. Pryor prosecuted former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building and Moore was removed from office in October.

The Marriage Amendment - Another Trojan Horse
There are many movements that are commendable. Who could argue about trying to save marriage? But this marriage amendment is not only a bad idea; it is a scary Trojan horse. Just like our government to create a crisis in the family then use our ignorance against us to pretend to fix it. Most of the policy of the government for the last 50 years has been detrimental to the family, and now they want to be our friend.

Serial Liar Bush Finally Gets Caught
"Many of these politicians have put exclamation marks where we put question marks." -- Former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix.
DETROIT -- That astute remark came in an interview in which Dr. Blix also offered his belief that President Bush's re-election campaign would contort and distort his reports on Saddam Hussein's arsenal of weapons to justify the brutal and unnecessary war in Iraq. Asked if the Bush crowd would attempt to alter the meaning of his findings, Dr. Blix said flat-out, "I'm sure they will."

US Preparing for Military Draft in Spring 2005
The current agenda of the US federal government is to reinstate the draft in order to staff up for a protracted war on "terrorism." Pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills S 89 and HR 163) would time the program so the draft could begin at early as Spring 2005 -- conveniently just after the 2004 presidential election!

USAID, Shell to Spend $20m on Niger Delta Devt
The multi-dimensional search for sustainable development of the Niger Delta would come to a head tomorrow as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) set to seal a collaborative programme worth US$20m for the development of the oil rich but impoverished region. Based on an agreement both parties conceived last November, the multimillion dollar programme is directed towards re-awakening the rich agricultural potentials of the Niger Delta, even as the Anglo Dutch multi-national flags off another session of its stakeholders workshop tagged partnership for sustainable development on the same day.

Related
U.N. Agenda 21
Demographic Dynamics and Sustainability
(a) Developing and disseminating knowledge concerning the links between demographic trends and factors and sustainable development; (b) Formulating integrated national policies for environment and development, taking into account demographic trends and factors; (c) Implementing integrated, environment and development programmes at the local level, taking into account demographic trends and factors.

Massive Polio Immunization
Program to Begin in West Africa
The GPEI is a joint effort of the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.N. Children's Fund, and the private non-profit service organization Rotary International. Organized in the 1980s, the coalition set a goal to eliminate polio by 2005.

Nigeria Boycotts Polio Vaccination Drive
KADUNA, Nigeria -- An Islamic state in Nigeria that is at the heart of a spreading Africa polio outbreak declared Sunday it would not relent on its boycott of a mass vaccination program which it called a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and infertility among Muslims. On the eve of a 10-nation emergency immunization campaign, Islamic leaders have called the immunization drive against the crippling disease a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and infertility among Muslims.

My Fellow Christians: Stay home on election day

Evangelicals Frustrated by Bush
President Bush left several million evangelical voters "on the table" four years ago and again is having trouble energizing Christian conservatives, "prominent leaders" on the religious right say. "It's not just economic conservatives upset by runaway federal spending that he's having trouble with. I think his biggest problem will be social conservatives who are not motivated to work for the ticket and to ensure their "fellow Christians" get to the polling booth," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute. Sadie Fields, a Bush supporter and Christian Coalition activist, says she's heard grumbles that Mr. Bush stood aside while the man he nominated for a federal appeals court appointment, Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, prosecuted that state's popular chief justice, Roy Moore. Mr. Moore was forced from office after defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of Alabama's State Judicial Building.

Editors' note: The only thing worse than Christians identifying themselves as Democrats are Christians identifying themselves as Republicans. Both are equal in undermining the Gospel message of Jesus Christ: For by their support of unjust laws and administrations, they suggest to the heathen that the Commandments of God can be ignored and made of no effect. Such Christians stand on the side of of evil and great wickedness. But because of their 'conservative' pretenses, the GOP Christians are far more deceptive. "From such withdraw thyself." (1 Timothy 6:5)--Jim Rudd

America's Decline Is Our Responsibility
Those of you who have not been chosen to be Ambassadors for Christ please take a few moments and reflect on the history of the United States of America. Consider the attributes that allowed it to grow mighty and prosperous. Think of the desires of those that fought for its independence and sought to preserve its freedom. Be aware that agreement on a Constitution and a Republican form of government came following difficult rumination by brilliant minds whose awareness of the inhibitions of despotism were fresh and vibrant. Utopian though it may have been, see the vision these men had for an educated, free, and self-governing people that could venture into a peaceful and prosperous future.

Grandfather Economic Report series
Each generation hopes their children and grandchildren will achieve more economic potential and more individual freedom than prior generations. As a new grandfather I researched economic conditions and education quality facing the generation of my infant grandchildren and their parents, compared to that faced by my generation when their age. The results are available to you in a series of free mini-reports listed on the home page - with pictures.

The Fall of America
All we need do is think about what is taking place on earth today to realize that, unfortunately, it is now our turn for this "thing" to manifest itself again. What is happening is the total and complete destruction of the most independent, self-reliant, and individually-free society in the recorded history of man on earth. That society has a name: America. That destructive force has a name too: Evil, which comes in all shapes and sizes of horror.

No End to War
An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror opens on a note of hysteria. In the War on Terror, writes Perle, “There is no middle way for Americans: It is victory or holocaust.” “What is new since 9/11 is the chilling realization that the terrorist threat we thought we had contained” now menaces “our survival as a nation.” But how is our survival as a nation menaced when not one American has died in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11? Are we really in imminent peril of a holocaust like that visited upon the Jews of Poland?

Neocons Are a Terminal Disease
None Can Deny Who Are The Betrayers
In a seminal essay, Pat Buchanan - No End to War - the real enemy of America is exposed. Once and for all the plague of the Neoconservative is laid bare for all to see. Specifically, the book - An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror - by David Frum and Richard Perle is examined. Mr. Buchanan expresses hope: “on putting down Perle’s new book the thought recurs: the neoconservative moment may be over. For they are not only losing their hold on power, they are losing their grip on reality”.

The Origins of Nazism
An excerpt from Omnipotent Government: The Rise of Total State and Total War, originally published in 1944 by Yale University as the first full-scale examination of German-style National Socialism as a species of socialism in general. The Mises Institute is very pleased to offer the entire text online by special lease arrangement with the copyright holder, Libertarian Press.

High Court to Mull 'Enemy Combatant' Rule
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether the Constitution forbids the Bush administration from holding U.S. citizens indefinitely and without access to lawyers or courts when they are suspected of being "enemy combatants."

Feds Caught in Anti-Men Scheme

Feds Caught in Anti-Men Scheme
The U.S. Small Business Administration has been ordered to pay more than $500,000 to a former employee who said her boss forced her to quit for refusing to go along with a scheme to discriminate against male workers. Mike Stamler, an SBA spokesman in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday the agency had no comment because its lawyers had yet to see the ruling, and had not decided whether to appeal.

FEC Restricts Use Of 'Soft Money'
The Federal Election Commission voted 4-2 to place restrictions on political advocacy groups with no expressed party affiliation that use "soft money" to influence elections. At the same time, the six-member commission delayed a decision on a campaign-finance law that prohibits money from big businesses and unions from going to tax-exempt groups that are connected to political parties. The commission ruled that groups without party connections can spend only donations from individuals — limited donations referred to as hard money — on campaigns targeting the defeat or election of candidates.

Bank of America to Hire 1,000 in India
BANGALORE -- Bank of America Corp. said on Wednesday it would set up a wholly owned Indian subsidiary for its back-office operations and aimed to employ 1,000 people in the unit by the middle of 2005. The bank, which has already outsourced a number of jobs to emerging markets, said it expected to set up Continuum Solutions Pvt Ltd. in the southern city of Hyderabad in the second quarter of 2004. BoA, which has faced protests over decisions to outsource jobs overseas, is already among the biggest clients of leading Indian software exporters such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies Ltd., India's largest and second-largest exporters, analysts said.

How To Stop Exporting Jobs
It's really quite simple. To stop the outflow of American jobs, all that is required is the repeal of: the minimum wage law; outlaw labor unions; repeal the Americans with Disabilities Act; dismantle OSHA; abolish the EPA; repeal the Endangered Species Act; abandon the Ecosystem Management Policy; repeal all articles of the Clean Water Act that affect non-navigable waters, and, in general, return America to the social status of India, China, and the other nations to which American jobs are flowing.

U.S. National Debt Tops $7 Trillion for First Time
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government's national debt -- the accumulation of past budget shortfalls -- totaled more than $7 trillion for the first time as of Tuesday, according to a Treasury Department report. In its daily financial statement released on Wednesday, the Treasury said the U.S. debt subject to a congressionally set limit totaled $7.015 trillion, up from $6.983 trillion on Friday. The government was closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.

While Bush Was Visiting Florida,
Guess What Was Visiting America
While Bush was visiting Daytona and Tampa, apprehension and despair were visiting America. In spite of some small businesses showing modest growth, the number of people out of work has increased 4.7 percent on Bush's watch; including 19,000 unfortunate folks right in the state where Bush is touting his "growth" record.

China Arrests Dozens of Christians in New Attack
China's Public Security Bureau has launched a new crackdown on unregistered church leaders, arresting 50 or more people following the release of a new video and book, documenting huge growth among Christians outside the officially permitted church. In mid-February, the China Aid Association confirmed that in January police arrested three prominent Protestant leaders from Henan province, including Qiao Chunling, 41, in Luoyang; Deborah Xu Yongling, 58, in Nanyang; and Zeng Guangbo, 35, in Deng County. Guangbo escaped two days after he was arrested, and remains in hiding.

N. Korea 'Tests Weapons On Humans'
LONDON, England -- Human rights campaigners say they have obtained documented evidence that North Korea tests chemical weapons on prisoners. Kim Sang Hun, a South Korean activist, told reporters in London Wednesday that a North Korean defector saw evidence of human experiments and stole papers documenting the tests.

British Government Considering Dismantling BBC
LONDON -- The government is considering a plan to break up the BBC and remove its independent status in the wake of a bitter row with the state-funded broadcaster over the Iraq war, a report said. Government papers detailing possible changes to the BBC's structure proposed breaking it into separate regional entities for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, The Sunday Times said.

M.A.D.
Politicians Maneuvering and Deceitful
President George W. Bush aggressively persisted in demanding that the Congress temporarily suspend the rule of law which precludes the president from declaring war on nations of his own choosing. It is obvious that it was for this reason that the Founders required that only Congress, the elected and once state-appointed senatorial representatives of the people, be allowed to declare war on another sovereign nation. And this difficult-to-obtain permission is framed also within the context of the self defense of our nation’s borders.

The Neocon Philosophy of Intelligence
The deepening quagmire in Iraq and the failure of the Bush administration to produce evidence to back its arguments for invading Iraq have stymied the American neo-conservatives' agenda for preventive war and regime change around the world. But their assault on what they call the "liberal establishment" in US foreign policy has not completely stalled.

Debauchery in San Francisco

Lewd Behavior to Continue as Reprobate Judges
Refuse to Uphold Criminal Law Throughout the Land
WASHINGTON, DC -- Sodomites were racing to be "married" in San Francisco after reprobate judges blocked two separate attempts by law abiding citizens to immediately stop the lewd and lascivious behavior. The reprobates, judge Ronald Quidachay and judge James Warren, outraged citizens by refusing to issue immediate injunctions blocking the city's corrupt and lawless Mayor, Gavin Newsom, and his staff, from issuing "certificates" to sex criminals. Sodomites celebrated Newsom's debauchery, as perverts from across the nation lined up outside city hall for the sixth straight day to receive a "license" to engage in sexual crimes and abomination. "It's great news," said John Davidson of Lambda Legal, a lobby group for sex-offenders. (Information from: ChannelNewsAsia.com

Schwarzenegger Urged to Arrest S.F. Mayor
A Christian legal group wants California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to arrest the mayor of San Francisco for issuing nearly 2,000 marriage licenses to homosexual couples in defiance of state law. The American Family Association Center for Law and Policy called Mayor Gavin Newsom's decision to oversee the nation's first officially sanctioned same-sex weddings Thursday "an arrogant stunt" proving "the radical homosexual movement will trample the rights of all who stand in their way."

Medical Consequences Of What Homosexuals Do
By Paul Cameron, Ph.D. Chairman / Family Research Institute
Throughout history, all civilized societies have condemned homosexuality. Until 1961 homosexual acts were illegal throughout America.

Sodomy Is A Crime
By Jim Rudd / The Covenant News
[Governors, Judges and Mayors] are not only anti-Christian by approving of sodomy, they make the civil government a vile cesspool from which the abominations vomit out across the land. By displaying such a contempt for the administration of Justice, such civil officials are not only the source of the defilement (Lev.18:24-25), they are the criminals (Rom.1:32), and a hostile enemy authorizing the destruction of the society in which we live (Jude 7).

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Two Presidents on the Griddle
Asking both Bush and Clinton to testify as to what they might know concerning the 9/ll tragedy is like a rancher asking two wolves, Did you kill my sheep? One wolf says, Not me. Eating lamb makes me sick. The second wolf says, What's a sheep? For some strange and unfathomable reason the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11th attacks will soon be asking two consummate prevaricators, President Bush and former President Clinton, to testify in public about any warning they might have gotten from U.S. intelligence before the attacks.

Muslim Bombings Kill 3 Soldiers, Wound 6 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Roadside bombs have claimed more American lives, killing three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad and Sunni Muslim areas to the north of the capital. At least six soldiers were injured in the attacks, one critically. In the biggest attack, one soldier from Task Force Iron Horse was killed and four were wounded in a roadside bombing in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. One of the wounded was critically injured and the other three were in guarded condition, the military said.

Saddam's Trial at Least Two Years Away
Iraq's deposed dictator Saddam Hussein is unlikely to stand trial for at least another two years, the Guardian has learned. The Iraqi special tribunal for crimes against humanity is months away from hearing its first case, and when the trials begin in October or November the first defendants to appear will be high-ranking Ba'ath party officials.

Bush Family Values: War, Wealth, Oil
Four generations have created an unsavory web of links that could prove an election-year Achilles' heel for the president. Despite February polls showing President Bush losing his early reelection lead, he's still the favorite. No modern president running unopposed in his party's primaries and caucuses has ever lost in November. But there may be a key to undoing that precedent. The two Bush presidencies are so closely linked, especially over Iraq, that the 43rd can't be understood apart from the 41st. Beyond that, for a full portrait of what the Bushes are about, we must return to the family's emergence on the national scene in the early 20th century.

911: A Saga of Deceit and Lies
Are you sick of hearing about 911? By now most folks can’t remember a time before Homeland Security. The media doesn’t just have an agenda, they have no other news. EVERYTHING is related to that fateful day. Over and over the guilt trips are set and the implication that if you don’t cede your rational capacity to the collective will, you are disloyal. Unquestionably the country has long passed the denial stage and has entered into a constant hallucinatory state.

George and the Guard
The real question is how did the young man with marginal test scores get the plum wartime assignment. So President Bush went mano a mano with Tim Russert on Meet the Press and put to rest the claim that he went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. He was serving in the state of Alabama while working on a congressional campaign of one his father’s buddies in 1972. Bush said he left the Guard eight months early because he was accepted into Harvard Business School’s MBA program and “worked it out with the military.” Rather than only asking how a young George W. got out of the National Guard, we ought to ask how he got in when 350 American men were dying each week in Vietnam and 100,000 were on National Guard waiting lists across the country.

Why Christians Should Not Vote Bush

Why Christians Should Not Vote for George W. Bush
George W. Bush professes to be a Christian, goes to church, makes references to Bible verses, and says, “God bless America,” but so did Bill Clinton, so this alone cannot be sufficient to win our vote. Like Clinton, George Bush’s fruit was evident to all with eyes to see during his campaign against Gore. Many Christians were undoubtedly innocently ignorant of George W. Bush’s liberal tendencies and so easily susceptible to his conservative rhetoric, but far too many were willfully blind to his bad fruit... The guilt for the daily encroachment on God-given rights to life, liberty, and property, under President Bush’s leadership, can be laid squarely at the foot of the professing church. If there was ever any doubt about the liberal sway of George W. Bush before his Presidency, that doubt should be well cleared up by now for all but only the willfully naïve.

Bill O'Reilly: He Still Doesn't Get It
Fox News Host of The O'Reilly Factor
Continues to Promote Sodomite Lifestyle
In the past several days, the media has descended on Massachusetts like a flock of vultures on a wounded prey. The scenes inside and out of the Statehouse are described by many as "surreal." With the thousands of people and hundreds of cameras on Beacon Hill, the legislators say they have never seen or experienced anything like this before. All the hoopla of course is about the latest moral assault on America - "gay" marriage.

Someone send O'Reilly this pamphlet
Medical Consequences Of What Homosexuals Do
By Paul Cameron, Ph.D. Chairman / Family Research Institute
Throughout history, all civilized societies have condemned homosexuality. Until 1961 homosexual acts were illegal throughout America.

U.S. Awaiting U.N. Plan for Iraqi Handover
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. administrator in Iraq said on Sunday the United States was awaiting a U.N. recommendation for the handover of sovereignty, still insisting it take place by June 30 as President Bush wants. In a pair of interviews on U.S. Sunday talk shows, Paul Bremer would not say which of "literally dozens" of proposals he thought would be put forward by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who visited Iraq last week to assess calls for an early vote.

Two More U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq _ Roadside bombs killed two U.S. soldiers in separate attacks Monday in Baghdad and a city northeast of the capital, the U.S. military said. Gunmen also killed an American civilian and wounded three others in a weekend ambush south of here. The latest deaths bring to 540 the number of U.S. service members have died since the United States launched the Iraq war in March. Most have died since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.

U.S. Pastor Killed by Muslims in Machine-Gun Attacked
PROVIDENCE -- A South Kingstown missionary was shot to death in Iraq when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in an attack that also wounded three others, according to a member of his church. John Kelley, 48, was traveling near Baghdad with several other pastors when a white sedan pulled up alongside them and opened fire, said Roland Vukic, of Charlestown, a member of Curtis Corner Church and a close friend of Kelley's. Vukic described Curtis Corner as an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church whose members regularly "preach the Gospel" in their communities and seek to establish new churches around the world.

Funeral Service at Arlington National Cemetery
An honor guard prepares to fold the U.S. flag that draped the casket of 2nd Lt. Luke S. James of Hooker, Okla. during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004. James, 24, was one of three soldiers killed last month in an explosion near Iskandariyah, Iraq.

Soldier Accused of Trying to Aid al-Qaida
FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- A National Guardsman was arrested Thursday and accused of trying to provide information to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the Army said. Defense officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, 26, signed onto extremist Internet chat rooms and tried to get in touch with al-Qaida operatives, offering the organization information on U.S. military capabilities and weaponry.

Bush Administration Shelved MTBE Ban
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration quietly shelved a proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities, helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million to Republicans. The Environmental Protection Agency's decision had its origin in the early days of President Bush's tenure when his administration decided not to move ahead with a Clinton-era regulatory effort to ban the clean-air additive MTBE. The proposed regulation said the environmental harm of the additive leaching into ground water overshadowed its beneficial effects to the air.

'This Won't Go Away'
Alex Polier, the twenty-four year old journalist who could end Senator John Kerry's hopes of becoming the next president of the United States is alleged to have had a two-year affair with the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. Last night the rumours were in danger of becoming a full-blown scandal.

Secret Tapes at Issue in HealthSouth Case
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Federal prosecutors say secret tape recordings are powerful evidence that point to former HealthSouth chief executive Richard M. Scrushy's guilt on securities fraud charges. Scrushy was indicted last year on 85 criminal counts that include securities fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in an accounting scandal at HealthSouth, the nation's largest provider of health care services.

9/11 Panel Seeks Testimony From Bush

9/11 Panel to Seek Testimony From Bush
MADISON, N.J. - The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will soon ask President Bush, former President Clinton and their vice presidents to testify in public about possible warnings they might have received from U.S. intelligence sources before the attacks. Bush said in an NBC interview broadcast this week that he would "perhaps" submit to questions from the commission. White House press secretary Scott McClellan on Thursday would not say if Bush would testify publicly.

White House Releases More Bush Documents
The White House released more documents to support President Bush's service in the Alabama Air National Guard, while several members of the Guard unit said in interviews they don't remember ever seeing Bush at their Montgomery base. But, they told The Associated Press, that doesn't mean he didn't serve.

Bait and Switch: How The Government Cons Us
Late last month the Bush administration announced that the Medicare prescription drug benefit the president signed into law just two months ago would cost not the $400 billion for the first ten years as originally estimated but $534 billion. In short, a majority of members in both houses of Congress voted for a new senior citizen entitlement, the cost of which was grossly underestimated. Given the Bush administration's new estimates of the prescription drug benefit, shouldn't members of Congress demand a revote of the bill inasmuch as the original "terms and conditions" of the $400 billion cost is no longer valid? Could you imagine the national uproar if an automobile dealer or manufacturer pulled this stunt? If you signed a contract for an automobile that had factory and/or dealer installed options, and when the time came to pick up the vehicle, the dealer said, by the way, the price of the car and the options are now 30% higher.

Ridge Defends Bush's Homeland Security Budget
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge defended the Bush administration's budget request for state and local first responders Monday, while acknowledging that an effort to merge several terrorism watch lists into a single database would not be finished until this summer. Ridge, testifying before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said the budget proposal would double grants for first responders in urban areas that face greater risk of a terrorist attack. He added that up to $9 billion in grants awarded in previous years remains unspent, mainly because states have yet to distribute it to cities and counties. "We are going to try to break the logjam," he said.

Is Bush A Conservative?
The great problem affecting Americans these days is a mixture of apathy and anger over the growing realization that nothing they say or do matters. It is a growing sense of hopelessness as government spirals out of control and beyond their reach.

Two Post-Iraq Suicides Not Listed by Army
WASHINGTON -- A soldier who served in Iraq apparently hung himself with a bedsheet at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but the Pentagon did not count that death two days later when it announced "a very small increase" in the suicide rate from Operation Iraqi Freedom. It also did not count an Operation Iraqi Freedom soldier who apparently committed suicide at the same military hospital last July. The Pentagon said it is not counting suicides among troops who killed themselves after they left Iraq. A veterans' advocate questioned that decision.

Hastert Riled Over Adviser's Job Remarks
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Dennis Hastert took a swipe yesterday at one of President Bush's chief economic aides for describing the shipping of American jobs abroad as "just a new way of doing international trade." The unusual attack by Hastert, R-Ill., on an administration official of his own party underscored the sensitivity the issue of jobs has acquired in the early stages of this year's presidential and congressional elections.

The Definition of Insanity

The Definition of Insanity
...is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. We must be certifiable because that's what we did in 2000 and it appears that's what we'll be doing again in 2004. Republicans have controlled both the executive and legislative branches of government for most of Bush's last four years. That's the first time the Grand Old Party's been in charge to that degree for almost 50 years. You'd think that would be a slam-dunk for our side. No such luck. In the last four years we've watched as First Amendment, Second Amendment and Fourth Amendment guarantees have slowly been eroded. We wanted to make sure the carnage of abortion stopped - so we voted for a Republican. The killing continues.

Pundit O'Reilly Now Skeptical About Bush
WASHINGTON -- Conservative television news anchor Bill O'Reilly said on Tuesday he was now skeptical about the Bush administration and apologized to viewers for supporting prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The anchor of his own show on Fox News said he was sorry he gave the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program poised an imminent threat, the main reason cited for going to war. "I was wrong. I am not pleased about it at all and I think all Americans should be concerned about this," O'Reilly said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."

All's Well With Afghanistan Opium Trade
Business is booming! "Two years after the ousting of the Taliban regime, which had cracked down ruthlessly on the cultivation of opium, production of the substance last year hit 3,600 tones, up 6 per cent over the previous year, and surveys of farmers show a further increase is likely this year." This war against terrorists is great for the drug trade. See any pattern when troops are garrisoned? The protection racket just runs their traffic with more efficiency.

U.S. Open to Using Cops on Immigration Law
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told lawmakers Tuesday that he was open to the controversial idea of using state and local police officers to help enforce the nation's immigration law. At a Senate hearing on his department's budget for 2005, several lawmakers raised the issue of additional resources for immigration enforcement, especially in the light of the proposal from President Bush to regularize the status of millions of undocumented workers, and introduce a guest worker program for foreigners who wanted to come and work in the United States. "If there are no new resources in the budget to implement the president's proposal, the implementation ... would create incredible stresses on an already overly stressed ... system," said Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. "It's a recipe for disaster."

Transportation Security Abominations
As if the continuing swirl of corruption surrounding Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney, and a growing number of Bush administration connections and officials weren’t enough, more and more examples of outright executive branch malfeasance are surfacing on a daily basis.

Shays' Rebellion Was Not a Revolt of
Indebted Farmers, It Was a Tax Revolt
Gary North on the usurping Constitution
During the Revolution, the Continental Congress had issued irredeemable paper currency to pay for the war, the infamous Continentals, as in "not worth a Continental." These notes quickly fell to zero value... The political question after independence was attained in 1783 revolved around the redemption price. At what percent of face value would states repay note-holders? Unlike all other states, Massachusetts' legislature passed a law to redeem the notes at face value.

All Eyes on Massachusetts Constitutional Convention
BOSTON -- Christian conservatives have come, armed with petitions. Children of gay couples also have arrived, pleading their case. And media from around the world have converged, to watch it unfold. All descended on the Statehouse on the eve of Massachusetts' constitutional convention that includes on its agenda a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The convention opens [today].

Bush Open to Supporting Sodomites?

Congressman: Bush is Open to States' Bolstering Sodomites
WASHINGTON -- President Bush believes states can use contract law to ensure some of the rights that gay partners are seeking through marriage or civil union, a South Carolina congressman said Sunday. The subject of contracts and gay marriage came up while the lawmaker, Representative Jim DeMint, was traveling with the president and the rest of the South Carolina Republican delegation on Air Force One last week.

Bush Already Supports Sodomite
President Bush Expands Aids Policy Team,
Evertz to Coordinate U.S. Role on Global Fund Board;
O'Neill Moving Into National Policy Office
Log Cabin Republicans -- GOP Sodomite Publication
WASHINGTON -- Following up on his commitment to a two-front war on the AIDS epidemic -- both at home and abroad -- President Bush is expected to appoint his director of national AIDS policy to coordinate U.S. policy on the international Global Fund to fight AIDS and infectious diseases, and Dr. Joe O'Neill to head up the Office of National AIDS Policy. The move would add another openly gay Bush Administration appointee on the administration's AIDS policy team, and adds manpower in the fight against the epidemic at home and abroad. "President Bush continues to lead where others merely offered speeches and rhetoric," said Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. "With Scott Evertz and Joe O'Neill, we have two of the best qualified people in the nation on the President's team. (Jeremiah 5:9)

Timeline Of The Bush Administration On Gay Policy
Log Cabin Republicans -- GOP Sodomite Publication

Medical Consequences Of What Homosexuals Do
By Paul Cameron, Ph.D. Chairman / Family Research Institute
Throughout history, all civilized societies have condemned homosexuality. Until 1961 homosexual acts were illegal throughout America.

White House 'Hopes' OPEC Won't Hurt U.S. Economy
WASHINGTON -- The White House on Tuesday responded to news of a surprise OPEC decision to cut oil output limits by saying it hoped the cartel did not take actions that hurt the U.S. economy. "It is our hope that producers do not take actions that undermine the American economy and American workers, and American consumers for that matter," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. OPEC on Tuesday agreed to the cut in oil output limits from April 1, a delegate said in Algiers, Algeria.

50 Die in Truck Bombing South of Baghdad
ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq -- A truck packed with an estimated 500 pounds of explosives blew up Tuesday morning at a police station south of Baghdad as dozens of would-be recruits lined up to apply for jobs, and a hospital official said at least 50 people were killed and 50 others wounded.

Bush to Release Military Pay Records
WASHINGTON - The White House, facing election-year questions about President Bush's military service, is releasing pay records and other information intended to support his assertion that he fulfilled his duty as a member of the Air National Guard during the Vietnam war.

Righteousness or Republicanism

Righteousness or Republicanism
This country is in a constitutional and moral crisis and the blind loyalty to the Republican Party has a lot to do with the problem. Truth is the Christians who blindly support Republicanism over righteousness have blood all over their hands.

Falwell’s Folly, The bloodthirsty Rev.
Jerry Falwell has done it again. Just like Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi made him "stink among the inhabitants of the land" (Genesis 34:30), so Falwell has made Christians stink. Case in point – Falwell’s recent WorldNetDaily article in which he made an attempt, and a very feeble one, to justify, with Scripture, President Bush’s invasion of Iraq – an invasion which has resulted, and continues to result, in the senseless deaths of American servicemen. And if the article itself wasn’t bad enough, he had the audacity to entitle it: "God is pro-war." As a Christian of the Independent Baptist persuasion (like Falwell), I am almost ashamed to identify myself as such. Although Falwell has been an embarrassment to Independent Baptists for years, his recent article is just too much to stomach.

Dubya Does Texas Two-Step Around Issues
President Bush's nationally televised gig on NBC's "Meet the Press" might have shown he's grown more facile under fire, offering the impression of actually answering questions. But it mostly showed his rhetorical skills and previewed the race to come. The hour-long Oval Office interview with Tim Russert - taped Saturday, aired yesterday. Asked if the war's worth 530 dead, 3,000 wounded, Bush hesitated, said, "Every life is precious" (which sounds like a line at an anti-abortion rally), and added, "And, uh, yes."

Bush's 'Honest Mistake'
Are these great war leaders apologizing for an unnecessary and aggressive war, the kind that once sent German and Japanese dignitaries to the gallows? At this point we must make a fine distinction: the Nuremberg principles were never meant to be applied to the victors. No. Hey, honest mistake! Bush has now agreed to an official investigation to help him find out who was pulling his leg about those alleged weapons. It wasn’t his idea. He only works here. He was just following his advisors. Anyway, we’ve brought democracy to Iraq. Isn’t that the important thing?

Bush Sets Up Iraq WMD Intelligence Panel
WASHINGTON - Under strong political pressure, President Bush created a bipartisan commission on Friday to investigate flaws in the intelligence cited in launching the Iraq war and gave it until well after the November presidential election to report.

Bush Approves $7.2 Billion Budget for HRSA in FY 2004
Health Resources and Services Administration’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget totals $7.21 million, an increase of $190 million over FY 2003 figures. Funds to continue President Bush’s five-year initiative to expand the health center system rose to almost $1.62 billion in FY 2004, an increase of more than $112 million over FY 2003.

US Pledges $200 Million to Liberia for Reconstruction
The U.S. Government will pledge $200 million in reconstruction and development aid to Liberia, a country dismantled by 14 years of bloody civil war during which 250,000 people were killed and a further 1.4 million were displaced, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Andrew Natsios announced February 4.

United Nations Tells Ethiopia to Decriminalize Abortion
NEW YORK -- The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged Ethiopia to decriminalize abortion and to publicly fund contraceptives. The committee met with Ethiopian Government officials January 26 and was informed that abortion is illegal in Ethiopia.

Get US out! of the United Nations
Join with thousands of other Americans working to Get US out! of the United Nations. Take the action steps outlined on this website to carry out a proven strategy to increase your effectiveness and influence. Every individual can make a difference in the battle to preserve freedom.

Schröder Fires Himself
Germany's Chancellor steps down as party leader
What shall it profit a politician if he saves his economy but loses his job? With apologies to St. Mark, that's the dilemma faced right now by Gerhard Schröder. For the past several months, rank-and-file members of the German Chancellor's Social Democratic Party (SPD) have become enraged by the extremely necessary but extremely painful economic and labor reforms Schröder has pushed into law.

Female GIs Reporting Rapes by U.S. Soldiers

Female GIs Reporting Rapes by U.S. Soldiers
Female troops serving in Iraq are reporting an insidious enemy in their own camps: fellow American soldiers who sexually assault them. At least 37 female service members have sought sexual-trauma counseling and other assistance from civilian rape-crisis organizations after returning from war duty in Iraq, Kuwait and other overseas stations, women's assistance and advocacy organizations say. "We have significant concerns about the military's response to sexual assault in the combat zone," said Christine Hansen, executive director of the Connecticut-based Miles Foundation, which says it has assisted 31 women.

U.S. Probes "Spate" of Sex Assaults
Involving U.S. Troops in Iraq
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered a probe into Pentagon measures to prevent sex attacks within the ranks following a spate of reports of male troops abusing their female comrades in Iraq and Kuwait, officials said on Friday.

Trial: Acquittal on Sept. 11 Charges

Trial: Acquittal on Sept. 11 Charges
HAMBURG -- Citing a refusal by the United States to provide known intelligence about the Sept. 11 attacks, a German court acquitted a former roommate of Mohammed Atta who was accused of providing support to three of the suicide pilots who had studied in this German port city. The court cleared Abdelghani Mzoudi, only the second suspect worldwide to be tried for involvement in the attacks, of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and of membership in Al Qaeda.

September 11 Terror Suspect Freed
A court acquitted a Moroccan man yesterday of helping the September 11 hijackers while they lived and studied in Hamburg, citing a lack of evidence that he was involved in the al Qaeda cell's plans to attack the United States. Abdelghani Mzoudi – an old acquaintance of Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, who even signed his will – smiled as he left the Hamburg court a free man after only the second trial of a September 11 suspect.

Judge Okays '$1 Billion' Settlement

Judge OKs Cigna, Doctors '$1 Billion' Settlement
Cigna HealthCare and representatives of more than 700,000 physicians, state and other medical societies said they received final judicial approval of the $1 billion September settlement agreement the two sides reached in a national, class action RICO lawsuit pending in federal court in Miami. The suit identified Cigna, as well as United Healthcare, Aetna, Coventry, Wellpoint, Humana Health Plan, Pacificare Health Systems and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield as co-conspirators who, attorneys said, dishonored contracts and defrauded doctors in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO). Judge Federico Moreno granted preliminary approval of the September settlement agreement in October. Also at that time, the attorneys settled with Aetna. The doctors' lawyers and the Hartford, Conn.-based health care company had first suggested their settlement in May.

Army Delays Hearing for Muslim Chaplain
MIAMI -- The U.S. military on Tuesday again delayed the show-cause hearing for a Muslim Army chaplain accused of mishandling classified information at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, in charge of the prison, set Feb. 18 as the next court date for Capt. James "Youseff" Yee, the West Point graduate who was arrested last summer after serving as spiritual advisor for the al Qaida and Taliban suspects who are being held at Guantanamo.

House Passes Resolution Calling
for America's Withdrawal from U.N.
Week three of Utah's 45-day lawmaking session got off to a sluggish start Monday. While the Senate was ground to an early halt with computer problems, the House managed to debate and approve two measures, with an hour of its floor time eaten up discussing a joint resolution urging the United States' withdrawal from the United Nations. Some lawmakers seized upon the anti-U.N. resolution as another example of empty election-year rhetoric aimed at pandering to the state's conservative voter base.

Military Ombudsman Agrees to Mediate
Lawsuit by Veterans in Mustard Gas Tests
CALGARY -- Canada's military ombudsman has agreed to help mediate a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of veterans used as human guinea pigs in chemical warfare tests during the Second World War. It's shameful the matter has gone unresolved for more than 50 years, he added. The statement of claim names the Department of National Defence, the National Research Council of Canada, the Attorney General and Veterans Affairs Canada. The civil action covers all soldiers used as test subjects at Canadian Forces Base Suffield in southern Alberta or in an Ottawa research lab. The lawsuit says that could be as many as 3,400 people, although Ottawa has put the number at 2,500.

Judge Roy Moore may challenge Bush

Chief Justice may challenge Bush
By John Fund / Wall Street Journal
Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor (a Republican Party nominee for a federal judgeship), felt he had no choice but to oppose Judge Moore when he decided to disregard a federal court order. But now a group of ministers who back Mr. Moore want President Bush to withdraw Mr. Pryor's nomination to a federal appeals court. Mr. Moore himself told me at the Eagle Forum convention that "Bill Pryor made a decision on who he would side with and I'm disappointed it's not with the people."

Bush Blames the CIA
Badly wounded by the total collapse of its prewar contentions that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, the administration of President George W. Bush has embarked on a strategy of diversion and delay. "This is damage control," said one Congressional aide, who added the president's reelection chances might well hinge on whether he is able to pull off the strategy. "Bush wants to get this out of the headlines and into a commission that won't say anything until he's reelected."

White House Promises Independent Probe of Iraq Intel
WASHINGTON -- The White House insisted on Tuesday that a probe into intelligence used to justify the Iraq war would be independent despite complaints from Democrats that the commission will be handpicked by President Bush.

Panel OKs Barring College to Illegal Aliens
RICHMOND — A legislative committee yesterday endorsed a bill to prohibit Virginia's state-supported colleges and universities from enrolling illegal immigrants. Delegate John S. "Jack" Reid, Henrico County Republican, said it isn't right for an illegal immigrant to take a seat in college from someone who is in the country legally. A Supreme Court ruling requires [state(s) taxpayers to pay for illegal aliens to attend] public elementary and secondary schools but makes no mention of colleges, Mr. Reid said.

D.C. Ricin Scare Leaves Senate Unscathed
WASHINGTON - A jittery Senate faced its second attack with a deadly toxin in 28 months on Tuesday, this time in the form of ricin powder sent to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Another letter containing ricin and bound for the White House had been intercepted in November, a law enforcement official disclosed.

Russia Planning Nuclear Force Maneuvers Next Month

Russia Planning Maneuvers of its Nuclear Forces Next Month
MOSCOW -- Russia's nuclear forces reportedly are preparing their largest maneuvers in two decades, an exercise involving the test-firing of missiles and flights by dozens of bombers in a massive simulation of an all-out nuclear war. The business newspaper Kommersant said the exercise was set for mid-February and would closely resemble a 1982 Soviet exercise dubbed the "seven-hour nuclear war" that put the West on edge. Kommersant said the maneuvers would involve Tu-160 strategic bombers test-firing cruise missiles over the northern Atlantic. Analysts describe such an exercise as an imitation of a nuclear attack on the United States.

Pakistan Scientist Admits Selling Nuclear Secrets
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The father of Pakistan's atomic bomb has confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but authorities have yet to decide if the national hero will go on trial, officials said Monday. Top scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was sacked as adviser to the prime minister Saturday and is the main suspect in a two-month investigation into allegations that individuals passed on Pakistan's nuclear weapons secrets to third countries.

Bush Unveils $2.4 Trillion Budget
WASHINGTON -- President Bush sent Congress a $2.4 trillion election-year budget on Monday featuring big increases for defense and homeland security but also a record $521 billion deficit. To battle the soaring deficits, Bush proposed squeezing scores of government programs and sought outright spending cuts in seven of 16 Cabinet-level agencies. The president's plan for the 2005 budget year, which begins next Oct. 1, proposes spending $2.4 trillion for all government activities, up 3.5 percent from the current year. Revenues will total $2.04 trillion, a sizable 13.2 percent increase that the administration forecasts will occur from growing tax receipts powered by a stronger economy.

Sharon Wants Most Gaza Settlements Gone
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday he wants to remove nearly all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip without waiting for a peace deal, outlining his go-it-alone plan and prompting threats from far-right allies to bring down his government. The prime minister's about-face was met by widespread skepticism, both from Palestinian leaders and Israeli politicians. Critics noted that Sharon's government has failed at a presumably easier task, the dismantling of dozens of small settlement outposts, as required by a U.S.-backed peace plan.

Feds Will Investigate Janet Jackson Flash
NEW YORK -- Janet Jackson's boobylicious performance with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl halftime show has sparked a federal investigation and set new standards for raunch in an entertainment industry that seems to be setting new highs - or lows - every day. Gone are the days when a powerful performance is all that's needed to deliver a watercooler moment. Nowadays, a barely there outfit, same-sex smooching or foul language - and now, a flash of nudity - are what's required to get America talking.

Witness Recounts Call from Martha Stewart
NEW YORK -- A "hurried and harsh" Martha Stewart called ImClone Systems Inc. the day of her suspicious stock trade and demanded to know what was happening at the biotech company, a former executive assistant testified on Monday.

SC Axes Judge for Ignorance
BAGUIO CITY—The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered a one-year suspension on a Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge in this city, who was found guilty of six of the seven counts of administrative charges filed against him by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines chapter in the Cordillera Administrative Region (IBP-CAR)1999.