Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday October 19 2006 - (813)

Thursday October 19 2006 edition
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NBC/WSJ Poll: Public Down On GOP, Bush 2006-10-19 00:31:17 Just 20 days until Election Day, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds approval of the GOP-held Congress is at its lowest mark in 14 years, the Republican Party's favorability rating is at an all-time low and President George W. Bush's approval rating remains mired in the 30s - all ominous signs for a party trying to maintain control of Congress. In fact, according to the poll, Republicans are in worse shape on some key measures than Democrats were in 1994, when they lost their congressional majorities. "There is not a single number in here that would suggest the Democrats will not have their best showing in a decade - and maybe two decades," says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican Bill McInturff. Read The Full Story Commentary: Beginning Of The End Of America 2006-10-19 00:30:04 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Keith Olbermann, anchor of MSNBC's "Countdown" program. In his commentary on Wednesday, Mr. Olbermann took a serious look at the Military Commissions Act recently passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Bush. Mr. Olbermann's views on this issue are as much a warning as a commentary. A warning that the rights guaranteed to American citizens are being eroded away by the Bush Administration. Are these, indeed, "the times that try men's souls", as American patriot Thomas Paine once wrote at the time of the American Revolution? Each of us will have to decide that for ourselves. Mr. Olbermann's commentary follows: We have lived as if in a trance. We have lived as people in fear. And now - our rights and our freedoms in peril - we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid of the wrong thing. Therefore tonight have we truly become the inheritors of our American legacy. For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering: A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from. Read The Full Story Poll: Montana Democrat Leads In U.S. Senate Race 2006-10-19 00:28:46 Democrat Jon Tester widened his lead against Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in a poll released Wednesday. Tester led 46 percent to Burns' 35 percent, with a majority of respondents saying the incumbent's ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff were an issue in the campaign. Only 14 percent of poll respondents said they didn't think the Abramoff scandal was an issue. The poll, conducted by the Montana State University-Billings political science department, sampled 409 registered voters by telephone Oct. 10-12 and Oct. 14-15. It has a margin of error of 5 percentage points. Read The Full Story U.K. Anti-Terror Chiefs: Britain Now No. 1 Target For Al-Qaeda 2006-10-19 00:26:52 Britain has become the main target for a resurgent al-Qaeda, which has successfully regrouped and now presents a greater threat than ever before, according to U.K. counter-terrorist officials. They have revised their views about the strength of the network abroad, and the methods terrorists are able to use in the U.K. Intelligence chiefs with access to the most comprehensive and up to date information have told the Guardian that al-Qaeda has substantially recovered its organization in Pakistan, despite a four-year military campaign to seek out and kill its leaders. In that time, the organization has become much more coherent, with a strong core and a regular supply of volunteers. More worrying, officials say, is evidence of new techniques that would-be terrorists within the U.K. have adopted. The structure of individual al-Qaeda-inspired groups is much more like the old Provisional IRA cells, with self-contained units comprising a lead organizer/planner, a quartermaster in charge of weapons and explosives acquisition and training, and several volunteers. Read The Full Story U.S. Stops Venezuela Planes Deal With Spain 2006-10-19 00:25:38 The U.S. has stopped Spain selling 12 military aircraft to Venezuela by refusing to allow American military technology to be used in the planes. Venezuela planned to buy the aircraft from the Spanish company Eads-Casa but U.S. determination to prevent Hugo Chávez building up his armed forces wrecked the deal, according to the deputy president, José Vicente Rangel. George Bush's administration claims President Chávez, an ally of Fidel Castro, is a destabilizing force in Latin America. The U.S. imposed an arms ban on Venezuela in May. Read The Full Story Response to Secret Service vs. 14 Year Old Girl Comments 2006-10-18 19:08:10   I wasn't the editor who posted the article "Secret Service Hauls Girl, 14, From Class For Calling Bush An Idiot On MySpace", but I'm responding on the flood of mail we've received on the subject.     The title is still correct.  She did call Bush an idiot.  She also had the cartoon which said "Kill Bush".  Unfortunately, we were unable to pull up the  page on myspace.  I would suspect that it was taken down either upon request from the Secret Service, or the girl did it herself.  Either way, we can't get to it to clarify the subject, so all we can do is report it as provided.   Upon further research, it does seem that the comment wasn't on her profile.  The text "So Bush is an idiot but hey what else is new?" was actually the name of a group she had started.  Without knowing what other materials were in the group, I can't suggest the context which it was posted.      The real i! ssue here is, how much of a threat is a 14 year old girl?  Teenagers are rebellious.  They say stupid things, which should be treated accordingly.  Unless Mr. Bush was planning on making an appearance at that school or somewhere near by, the rantings of the child are insignificant.   Read The Full Story 10 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq On Tuesday 2006-10-18 12:16:11 Ten American soldiers were killed on Tuesday, the military announced today, bringing October's death toll for United States forces to 69. Four of the soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad, and three others died in fighting in Diyala province, a troubled area northeast of the capital where sectarian violence has run high. A Marine was killed by insurgents in Anbar province, the western region where the Sunni insurgency is centered, and two soldiers were killed in Baghdad, one by insurgent gunfire and one by a roadside bomb. Read The Full Story Apple Shipped iPods Containing Computer Virus 2006-10-18 12:15:14 Some of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod digital music players shipped in the past month carry a computer virus, according to a posting on Apple's technical support Web site. Apple said since Sept. 12, less than 1 percent of Video iPods - pocket-sized devices that can play music files and video clips - left its contract manufacturer carrying the virus RavMonE.exe, which affects computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. "So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free," the company said on the site. Read The Full Story Bush Asserts Right To Deny Outer Space To Anyone Hostile To U.S. Interests 2006-10-18 00:34:57 President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests". The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy. "Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power," the policy asserts in its introduction. Read The Full Story GAO: Radiation Monitors For Ports, Border Crossings Unreliable 2006-10-18 00:33:38 The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) plan to spend $1.2 billion deploying next-generation nuclear-detection equipment at U.S. ports and border crossings cannot be justified, given test results that showed the devices are unreliable, congressional investigators warned Tuesday. The department ignored its own tests showing the new monitors could not meet a standard of detecting enriched uranium 95 percent of the time, according to the Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm. When the nuclear material was shielded, detection rates ranged from 17 percent to 53 percent. DHS also understated the project's costs by up to $181 million, GAO officials wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The department's cost-benefit "analysis does not justify its recent decision to spend $1.2 billion to purchase and deploy" the new radiation portal monitors, the GAO reported. Homeland Security "relied on potential future performance to justify the purchase," said the agency. Read The Full Story Iraq Removes 2 Senior Leaders From Special Police 2006-10-18 00:31:09 The Iraqi government removed the country's two most senior police commanders from their posts on Tuesday, in the first broad move against the top leadership of Iraq's unruly special police forces. The two generals had led Iraq's special police commandos and its public order brigade, both widely criticized as being heavily infiltrated by Shiite militias. Their removal comes at a crucial time for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has come under intense American pressure to purge Iraq's security forces of the militias and death squads that operate within their ranks. Iraqi politicians, both Shiite and Sunni, have grown increasingly anxious in recent weeks that eroding public and Congressional support for the war in the United States might prompt a major shift in American policy, particularly if the November midterm elections bring gains for the Democrats. Read The Full Story Federal Judge Revokes Lay Conviction From Enron Scandal 2006-10-18 00:29:54 A federal judge in Houston yesterday wiped away the fraud and conspiracy conviction of Kenneth L. Lay, the Enron Corp. founder who died of heart disease in July, bowing to decades of legal precedent but frustrating government attempts to seize nearly $44 million from his family. The ruling worried employees and investors who lost billions of dollars when the Houston energy-trading company filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2001. It also came more than a week after Congress recessed for the November elections without acting on a last-ditch Justice Department proposal that would have changed the law to allow prosecutors to seize millions of dollars in investments and other assets that Lay controlled. With the judge's order, Lay's conviction on 10 criminal charges will be erased from the record. "The indictment against Kenneth L. Lay is dismissed," U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III wrote in a spare, 13-page order. Read The Full Story	Editorial: A Dangerous New Order 2006-10-19 00:30:45 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in The New York Times for Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006. It deals with the new law on military tribunals approved by the Republican majority in the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The editorial follows: Once President Bush signed the new law on military tribunals, administration officials and Republican leaders in Congress wasted no time giving Americans a taste of the new order created by this unconstitutional act. Within hours, Justice Department lawyers notified the federal courts that they no longer had the authority to hear pending lawsuits filed by attorneys on behalf of inmates of the penal camp at Guantánamo Bay. They cited passages in the bill that suspend the fundamental principle of habeas corpus, making Mr. Bush the first president since the Civil War to take that undemocratic step. Read The Full Story Judge: 9/11 Emergency Workers Lawsuit Can Move Forward 2006-10-19 00:29:20 New York City and its contractors are not immune from lawsuits brought by emergency workers sickened after toiling amid toxic dust at ground zero, a judge ruled, clearing the way for what he said should be the speedy resolution of thousands of claims. In his decision Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said the city, its roughly 150 private contractors, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were only partially immune from lawsuits, with the precise scope and extent of the immunity varying according to date, place and activity. "If even a minority of the plaintiffs suffered serious injuries to their respiratory tracts arising from the acrid air of September 11, their claims deserve to be heard when a recovery could make a difference in their lives," the judge wrote, adding that the defendants are entitled to resolution at the earliest possible point. Read The Full Story Blair: British Troops May Quit Iraq In 10 - 16 Months 2006-10-19 00:27:37 British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday shifted ground on the continuing presence of British troops in Iraq by saying it was government policy to leave the country within 10 to 16 months - so long as the security situation allowed. The prime minister also agreed with the chief of the general staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, that the presence of British forces could become a provocation, but disagreed with Gen. Dannatt by insisting it was still the government's aim to secure a liberal democracy in Iraq. Blair's comments at prime minister's questions [in the House of Commons] appear to be an attempt to pacify the restive mood of the British army, as well as to reflect the developing view in Washington, D.C., that some radical policy change is imminent after the U.S. mid- term elections. Read The Full Story U.S. Government Doubts Threats On NFL Stadiums 2006-10-19 00:26:03 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has notified the NFL and law enforcement agencies of an Internet threat to detonate radiological "dirty" bombs outside seven stadiums hosting games Sunday, but immediately dismissed the threat as non-credible. "We view this with the strongest of skepticism, and we strongly encourage the American public to go about their daily lives and to attend large gatherings, and to go to football games," said DHS spokesman Russ Knocke. The department issued the notice "out of an abundance of caution," and routinely shares 1,200 reports a year with state, local and private sector officials, said Knocke. "In this case there is no credibility," he said. Read The Full Story Internet Facts You Need To Know 2006-10-18 19:49:00 This was sent in today. View Video It is from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  It is a funny display of how the Internet works, by Senator Ted Stevens. Read The Full Story Brainwashed 10 2006-10-18 12:24:51 Brainwashed.com celebrates 10 years with 'Brainwaves,' a three day music festival in Boston. On November 17/18/19, friends and family of Brainwashed will be performing at the Regent Theatre. The current lineup includes Non, Thighpaulsandra, Christoph Heemann, Andreas Martin, Volcano the Bear, DJ Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter (of Nurse With Wound), Irr.App.(Ext.), Jessica Bailiff, Windy & Carl, V/Vm and the Caretaker, Goodiepal, Troum, Aranos, Edward Ka-Spel and the Silverman, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Landing, Howard Stelzer, Charles Atlas, Cock ESP, Nadja (Aidan Baker), Greg Davis, z'ev, a! nd The ! Dresden Dolls. Read The Full Story Commentary: National Yawn As Our Rights Evaporate 2006-10-18 12:15:46 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's "Countdown" program. In addition to a brief commentary, Mr. Olbermann interviews Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, about a new bill President Bush has signed that redefines the right of habeas corpus. The commentary and interview were conducted on the "Countdown" program Tuesday. Mr. Olbermann's commentary and a transcript of the interview with Mr. Turley follows: History does not play well at this White House. Expressionless faces would probably greet references to how John Adams ended his political career by insisting he needed the Alien and Sedition Acts to silence his critics in the newspapers, or how Franklin D. Roosevelt's executive order to seize Japanese-Americans during World War II necessitated a formal presidential apology eight presidents later. But even so, somebody probably should have told President Bush that today was the exact 135th anniversary, to the day, that President Grant suspended habeas corpus in much of South Carolina for the noble and urgent purpose of dispersing the Ku Klux Klan and making sure the freed slaves had all their voting rights, neither of which has yet truly occurred. It is your principal defense against imprisonment without charge and trial without defense thrown away for no good reason, then and now. Our fifth story on "Countdown": President Bush, happy Habeas Corpus Day.  Read The Full Story Big Difference Between European Union, U.S. Privacy Laws 2006-10-18 12:14:19 It started, some say, with Alexandre Dumas, famed French author of "The Three Musketeers." Dumas the elder was an aging French literary star when he embarked on a somewhat scandalous love affair with Adah Isaacs Menken, a 32-year-old Texas actress. Entranced with the still-young technology of photography, the two posed for clearly scandalous photographs. The photographer, smelling a quick profit, set out to sell them, and Dumas sued.  A Paris appeals court quashed this early paparazzi moment. In a ruling that sounds quaint to the modern American ear, the court decided that posing for the photographs did not mean Dumas and Menken had surrendered their rights to privacy and dignity, even if they consented to do just that during a heady romantic moment. These rights trumped any commercial property rights the photographer might have claimed, said the court. "Any sale by a person who had momentarily 'forgotten his dignity' had to remain effectively voidable," Yale law professor James Whitman wrote of the ruling in a paper titled "The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty". "One's privacy, like other aspects of one's honor, was not a market commodity that could simply be definitively sold." Read The Full Story Secret Service Hauls Girl, 14, From Class For Calling Bush An Idiot On MySpace 2006-10-18 00:34:17 A U.S. girl of 14 was dragged out of class by Secret Service agents for calling President Bush an idiot on her MySpace page. Julia Wilson's internet page, called "So Bush is an idiot but hey what else is new?", infuriated security experts, reports the Mirror. She also posted the words "Kill Bush" and ran a cartoon of a knife stabbing the hand of the president. Two federal agents went searching for Julia at her home before finding the teenager at school in Sacramento, California. Read The Full Story Rep. Weldon Ties To Serbian Businessman Part Of Investigation 2006-10-18 00:32:46 Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade were surprised three years ago to be invited to a luncheon in honor of visiting U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon(R-Pennsylvania), hosted by Bogoljub Karic, a wealthy Serbian businessman who had been barred from visiting or trading with the United States because of his close ties to former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Weldon "was visiting solely because of Karic," whom he was trying to get off the U.S. blacklist, a former senior embassy official familiar with the visit concluded. "It seemed odd" at the time, because Karic had no obvious tie to Weldon's district outside Philadelphia, and Weldon should have known the embassy was shunning contacts with him, said the official. What the embassy apparently did not know is that the Karic family that year signed a contract with Weldon's daughter, Karen, and a business partner that called for monthly payments of $20,000 for "management, government and public relations," according to a copy of the March 2003 contract. In all, the family paid Karen Weldon's firm $133,858 that year for efforts she undertook to set up a foundation for it. Read The Full Story Poll: Alarm Bells Sound For GOP In Ohio 2006-10-18 00:30:33 The bellwether state of Ohio appears to have become hostile terrain for Republicans this year, with voters there overwhelmingly saying Democrats are more likely to help create jobs and concluding by a wide margin that Republicans in the state are more prone to political corruption than are Democrats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Home this year to closely watched races for governor, United States Senate and a growing roster of competitive U.S. House seats, Ohio is one of the most contested battlegrounds of 2006, and one in which voters at this point are strongly favoring Democrats on many issues. The Democratic candidates for governor and Senate hold commanding double-digit leads over their Republican opponents in the poll, and respondents said they intended to vote for the Democratic candidate for the House in their district by 50 percent to 32 percent. Read The Full Story
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