Corrupt police and tribal leaders are stealing vast quantities of reconstruction aid that is intended to improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from the Taliban, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. (By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph, January 29. 2007). Full article=>

LC Editor’s Comment: Well, fix it , Mr. President, you are the Decider ---- right?

Russia Committed to Completing Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant on Time

Russia's Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov in his meeting with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here Sunday stressed his country's pledge to complete Bushehr nuclear power plant project on the scheduled date. Press and Information Department of Iran's Foreign Ministry in a report added the two sides also discussed bilateral relations, regional and international developments and nuclear issues at the meeting. (Islamic News Agency, January 29, 2007). Full article=>

LC Editor’s Comment: And what kind of fuel does a nuclear electricity power generation reactor use? Oh, enriched uranium U-235. That means that Iran’s nuclear specialists and their Russian co-workers will need to have an adequate supply of enriched uranium on hand to be able to manufacture the required enriched uranium fuel rods to load into the reactor at Bushehr if that reactor is to go on line at the scheduced time, right? And what will be Iran’s source of enriched uranium for this project? It’s enriching its own uranium for that purpose. And President George Bush is said to be planning to nuke all of Iran’s uranium enrichment laboratories because he says he knows Iran is doing all of that enrichment so just so it can produce nukes to bomb its neighbors in the Middle East. That’s crazy thinking! Doesn’t President Bush read the newspapers? If he did, he’d know that Iran needs that enriched uranium to power the nuclear plant the Russians are building for Iran at Bushehr and its nuclear engineers are enriching uranium for that purpose. Maybe President Bush is just too busy to read about things like that. Or maybe he is more into reading about pet goats. What do you think?

Thousands stage anti-war rally in US

WASHINGTON: Chanting "bring our troops home," tens of thousands of anti-war protesters rallied in front of the US Capitol on Saturday to pressure the government to get out of Iraq. Veterans and military families joined some lawmakers, peace groups and actors including Vietnam war protester Jane Fonda to urge Congress and President George W. Bush to stop funding the war and pull troops from Iraq. (GulfNews.com, January 28, 2007). F ull article=>

US Carrier to Gulf Sends "Strong Signal"

By deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf the United States has sent a "strong signal" that it is staying in the region and working with allies to deal with an Iranian threat, Vice President Dick Cheney said. He repeated the Bush administration's stance that the United States seeks to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program through diplomatic means, but that all options are on the table. (ALARAB ONLINE, January 28, 2008, 04:30:01 PM (GMT)). Full article=>

Bush Is About to Attack Iran

The American public and the US Congress are getting their backs up about the Bush Regime's determination to escalate the war in Iraq. A massive protest demonstration is occurring in Washington DC today, and Congress is expressing its disagreement with Bush's decision to intensify the war in Iraq. This is all to the good. However, it misses the real issue – the Bush Regime's looming attack on Iran. (By Paul Craig Roberts*, AntiWar.com, January 27, 2007). Full article =>

* Paul Craig Roberts is an economist and a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He was a post-graduate at the University of California, Berkeley, and Oxford University where he was a member of Merton College. He is considered to be a Reagan conservative.

US Must Explain Mideast Military Build-up: Russian Foreign Minister

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would demand an explanation from the United States over its military build-up in the Middle East and criticised Washington for "hardline" policies against Iran. Lavrov said he would discuss Moscow's concerns during a meeting of the international quartet group, which meets in Washington next week to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. (AFP, January 27, 2007). Full article=> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070127/wl_mideast_afp/russiausiranmideast

"Surge" or "Involuntary" Military Conscription: The Neo-Conservative Architects of Military Escalation

Was it a coincidence? The Bill to restore the Draft (Universal National Service Act of 2007 (HR.393)) was introduced in the House of Representatives on exactly the same day as President Bush's announcement regarding the "Surge", in which he confirmed, in a nationally televised address, that he was going to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq. (By Michel Chossudovsky, GlobalResearch.ca, January 26, 2007). Full article=>

Cheney: Senate Resolution "Won't Stop Us"

The White House reaction to the Senate resolution opposing President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq came from Vice President Dick Cheney. In a word, he was defiant, saying about the general idea of a resolution, "It won't stop us." (CBS News, January 25, 2007). Full article=>

NY Scanners Spark Union Cries of "Geoslavery"

Every morning Dennis Colson, a surveyor at New York City's Department of Design and Construction, begins his work day by placing his hand on a scanner to log his time and attendance at the office. The use of hand geometry and other biometric data, like facial and iris recognition, is not new -- the University of Georgia pioneered the use of hand geometry when it installed scanners in its student dining hall in 1974. But the planned roll-out of hand geometry scanners in all New York City government agencies has sparked union cries of "geoslavery" and assertions that technology developed for security will be used to track, label and control workforces. (By Michelle Nichols, Reuters, January 25, 2007). Full article=>

Internet to Revolutionize TV in 5 Years: Gates

The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Saturday. "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum. (By Ben Hirschler, Reuters, January 27, 2007). Full article=>

Tax Takers Send in the Spiders

Websites around the world are getting a new computerized visitor among the Googlebots and Yahoo web spiders: The taxman. A five-nation tax enforcement cartel has been quietly cracking down on suspected internet tax cheats, using a sophisticated web crawling program to monitor transactions on auction sites, and track operators of online shops, poker and porn sites. (By Quinn Norten, Wired News, January 25, 2007) Full article=>

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/security/0,72564-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

Problems with the Latest Miller, Hemenway, Azrael Study on Guns

The New York Times reports yesterday that a new study from Miller, Hemenway, and Azrael claims: "States with the greatest number of guns in the home also have the highest rates of homicide, a new study finds. . . . " Well, I have just spent a short time looking at the study, but there are some of things that are pretty obvious. (By John Lott, John Lott's Web Site, January 24, 2007)). Full article=>

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Bush to Defend His Iraq Plan on Television Tonight

President George W. Bush will try to rally Americans behind his new Iraq plan on Tuesday (8:00 PM CST) in a State of the Union speech that will propose domestic initiatives on energy and health care. It will be the first time Bush will give his annual address before a U.S. Congress controlled by opposition Democrats, and faced with that new reality, he will make a fresh call for bipartisanship. (By Steve Holland, Reuters, January 23, 2007). Full article=>

Los Angeles tackles growing gang violence

Their city once spawned the Crips and the Bloods. Now the authorities of Los Angeles fear the bad old days of gang warfare are returning, and some warn of a "race war" between Latino and African-American street gangs. (By Dan Glaister in Los Angeles,The Guardian {U.K.}, January 23, 2007). Full article=>

What Does it Take to Live to be 100?

According to this fascinating video segment aired recently on Nova, only one in 10,000 of us will live to see 100. But scientists are working on finding ways to increase that number. Researchers found cutting the food intake of just about any organism by up to 30-40 percent extended its life by as much as 60 percent. Calorie restriction reduces insulin levels and triggers the production of sirtuins, which are produced as part of an intricate stress response that kicks an organism into survival mode (which beefs up DNA repair and prevents cells from dying). Another variable that triggered the production of sirtuins and the longer lives of flies, worms and likely mice was increasing their intake of the antioxidant resveratrol. (Marcola.com, January 23, 2007). Video and Dr. Mercola’s Comments=>

Bush Poll Ratings Before Speech Fall to Nixon's Level

President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president while 33 percent approve. The rating matches Bush's career low in a May 2006 poll. Seventy-one percent of Americans said the country is on the wrong track, up from 46 percent in an April 2003 poll, the month after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. A majority of those polled this month don't approve of how Bush is handling the Iraq war, terrorism or the economy. (By Nadine Elsibai, Bloomberg.com, January 22, 2007). Full article=>

US Drafts Resolution Condemning Holocaust Deniers

The United States intends to introduce a U.N. resolution on Tuesday (January 23) condemning deniers of the Holocaust, a document aimed at a conference in Iran last year dominated by delegates who questioned the extermination of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in World War Two. U.S. officials hope the resolution, which so far is backed by 39 nations including Europeans, Russia and China, could be adopted on Friday in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly. The measure urges member states "to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event" and "condemns without reservation any denial of the Holocaust." (By Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, January 22, 2007). Full article=>

LC Editor’s Comment: The Bush White House, which in effect is President George, once again demonstrates its willingness to dance to the tune played by Israel’s government, this time by announcing its intention to introduce a resolution before the world body that condemns the freedom of thought, the freedom of inquiry and the freedom of expression of individuals concerning Jewish claims with regard to the the Holocaust. What irony! ---- The president of a nation thought to be the champion of free speech throughout the world is now behind a move to have the U.N. General Assembly condemn open inquiry and freedom of expression by any person concerning the nature and extent of the Holocaust if the results of that inquiry causes that person to reject the existence of the Holocaust and express his position openly. Could it be that this announcement by the White House has been timed to coincide approximately with the introduction of a Federal hate crimes bill (HR 254) in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 5 and also reflect and Bush administration’s support for this new legislation?

Requiem for the Magic Bullets

The age of antibiotics began in 1941 with the introduction of penicillin, which saved many thousands of lives du